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This article is about an episode. You may be looking for Graduation Ceremony, an event.

Are you telling me that we might graduate right smack in the middle of a ghost-filled Expression Triangle? [...] No, we are not going to cancel. Graduation is the most important event of our lives, the last ceremony of our youth. It is our rite of freaking passage! Hell will freeze over before I let anyone cancel graduation.

Graduation is the twenty-third and final episode of the fourth season of The Vampire Diaries and the eighty-ninth episode of the series overall.

Summary[]

WHO WILL TAKE THE CURE? — On Graduation Day, Mystic Falls is overrun with ghosts intent on settling old scores and fulfilling their supernatural destinies. Damon's life is in danger after a ghostly encounter, while Matt and Rebekah join forces to battle a ghost determined to find The Cure. As everyone gathers for the graduation ceremony and the ghosts converge, help comes from an unlikely hero. Caroline receives a touching and unexpected graduation present, and Bonnie's plan leads to the closing of the veil. Elena makes a decision about the Salvatore brothers and faces an epic confrontation with Katherine. Finally, Stefan discovers a terrifying clue to the mystery surrounding Silas.

Plot[]

Kol gathers the spirits of dead the witches and hybrids killed for Silas' sacrifice. In a speech from the graduation stage, Kol promises to unleash 'hell on Earth' for the 'so-called hero-protectors of Mystic Falls', in revenge for their deaths as well as their awakening of Silas due to their own selfish desires.

Lexi and Stefan are having a party with Bon Jovi playing in the background when Damon walks in and is slammed into the wall by Lexi, who threatens him not to ruin her time back in the world of the living. Despite Lexi and Stefan's desire to enjoy their time together, Damon tries to warn them that something bad has happened because Jeremy, Alaric and Lexi are still among the living. Meanwhile, Bonnie is talking to Caroline on the phone, telling her that she hadn't been able to put the veil back up. While Caroline vents her fury at having to graduate in the middle of a ghost invasion of Mystic Falls, Bonnie looks at her dead body (having died in the previous episode, attempting to bring Jeremy back to life) before promising to put the veil back up with the help of the full moon. Grams then tells her to go and graduate while she insures her body is never found. She also warns Bonnie that she needs to make her goodbyes before she puts to veil up.

Meanwhile, Elena, Jeremy and Alaric are in the graveyard, having a meal, something which both Alaric and Jeremy have no longer had since they died. Elena jokes about a grease shortage on the Other Side, with Alaric revealing that he had missed his meals more than anything, other than his bourbon as he takes out a bottle. Elena steals the bottle, promoting protest from Alaric but approval from Jeremy, who tries to take the bottle himself, but is refused by Elena (as she always did because he was underage). Jeremy reminds her that he's dead and can no longer go to juvenile prison, although Alaric points out that it would give him a place to live. As Elena is about to break down again, because of the fact that she will lose them again by sundown and for all the horrible things that she did while her humanity was off, she gets a phone call from the Grill. Believing it to be Matt, she answers to find Connor Jordan, the vampire hunter she killed, on the other end. At the same time, Rebekah and Matt (who is standing on an explosive device) are being held captive by Alexander, one of the first of the Five hunters and Rebekah's fiancé in the 12th century. Alexander is amazed by the evolution of weaponry by man since the 12th century as he goes through the weapons from Connor's trailer. Rebekah wants to know what Alexander wants and he reveals that the only thing he wants is to accomplish his destiny as well as that of his brotherhood. At the Salvatore Boarding House, Damon opens the door to find Vaughn, the hunter he and Rebekah left to die of starvation on the desert island. Vaughn shoots him and tells him that he has a message from the witch Qetsiyah.

Connor gives Elena the hunters' demands: Silas and the cure. When Elena refuses, Connor threatens to kill everyone on the Mystic Grill to get her to comply. Listening to the conversation, Alaric heads for the Mystic Grill. Meanwhile, Damon removes the bullets while Vaughn reveals that, after his death on the island, Qetsiyah found him on the Other Side and reminded him of his destiny: cure Silas, and then kill him. At that moment, Vaughn is killed by Stefan. After hanging the phone from Elena, Connor is confronted by Alaric who reveals himself as Elena's guardian. Connor, not knowing Alaric is also a ghost and possessing the powers of an Original vampire, reveals that he is carrying C4. Alaric refuses to let him blow up 'his bar' and, as Connor hits the detonation button, he vamp-speeds him into the storage area, causing a massive explosion but killing no one other than the two of them. In the meantime, Alexander is still playing with Rebekah's nerves as he proposes that she rescues Matt from the explosion of the six cars the device is connected to, knowing that she will survive but wondering if Matt would. Matt tells her to ignore him, instead asking her what she intends to do with her summer and her future, whether she plans to travel or go to college, which he isn't planning on doing due to his financial situation. Rebekah then spontaneously decides to take Matt on a world tour for the summer, suggesting that they start in Italy, taunting Alexander with the church where they were going to be married. Matt, to provide some comic relief and impressed by the thought of seeing the world, agrees. Rebekah then taunts Alexander further by saying that they can do it because they're alive, not in such misery on the Other Side. Furious, Alexander throws a dagger at Matt to kill him and detonate the bomb. Rebekah intercepts the dagger, but knocks Matt off balance before catching him and preventing the bomb from going off.

At school, Bonnie is walking down the corridor in her cap and gown when she is intercepted by Katherine, who tells her she wants her end of the deal for giving Bonnie the tombstone: the same immortality as Silas. However, Bonnie cannot do the spell as only Qetsiyah knows how and she has not shown herself since the veil came down. However, Katherine, not taking no for an answer, threatens to kill Elena (who she believes has everything that she ever wanted) if she doesn't get her immortality. Bonnie threatens to crush Katherine's skull with her magic but before she can, she is distracted by the arrival of several students, allowing Katherine to disappear with her vampiric super-speed.

Back at the Salvatore House, Damon has changed after Vaughn's attack and Elena arrives in his room, telling him that they need to talk. Damon agrees but presents her first with her graduation present: the cure. Elena refuses it, despite wanting to take it, because it's the only one and the hunters have threatened to kill everyone in Mystic Falls until they get it. Damon insists that he wants her to take it, but she refuses. This answers the question of whether or not Elena is still sired to him. Jeremy comes in and Damon asks him to help him convince Elena, but Jeremy agrees to respect her choice. Meanwhile, Lexi and Stefan are wondering what is going to happen to Vaughn who can not be killed but was nevertheless killed by Stefan. Lexi also reminds Stefan that he could take part in the cure debate, but he doesn't feel he needs to tell Elena that it's her choice as she already knew. He was more interested in, now that she has her choice back with the sire bond gone, who of the Salvatore brothers she would choose. When Lexi asks him what he would do if she chose him, he replies that he would return without hesitation to the love of his life, but that her rejection could be just the thing he needs to rebuild his life, away from Mystic Falls. At that moment, Vaughn comes back to life.

At the same time, Elena and Damon are still arguing over the cure. Damon says that they don't need to cure Silas because he's now a calcified statue, before grunting in pain. When a suspicious Elena asks him to take his shirt off, he refuses so she just pulls it off to reveal that his wound hadn't healed and is infected. When a shocked Elena asks why it hasn't healed, he replies that the bullet was laced with werewolf venom. A panicked Elena suggests the only possible solution: Klaus' blood. Damon, however, points out that Klaus would rather see him die, added to the fact that he would never get there in time from New Orleans. Jeremy then suggests the cure which Elena agrees to do, but Damon is fiercely opposed to it. He then leaves the room, along with the cure, tossing it to Vaughn as he passes the living room. He then tells Stefan that he plans on digging up Silas. Vaughn and Damon leave as Elena arrives in the living room. Damon leads Vaughn to the quarry where he reveals that he had thrown Silas' body into the deep water, making it unreachable.

Back in the parking lot, Alexander is still holding Matt and Rebekah. As he goes into the trailer, Matt makes a joke about what a nice lad he is. Rebekah tells him not to make her laugh or she would drop him. Matt tries to convince her to leave, saying that he is wearing the Gilbert ring and will come back to life, but Rebekah questions whether it could save him from an explosion. At that moment, Rebekah kisses Matt. When they separate, Matt realizes that she had used his distraction to replace him on the device, which can't kill her. As Matt runs away, Alexander comes out of the trailer, asking what she had done. Rebekah says that she had finally chosen one of the good ones before running off at vamp-speed, causing an immense explosion. Back at the Boarding House, Elena is worried that the hunters will give the cure to Silas and that Damon will therefore die, but Stefan reveals that Damon was leading Vaughn into a trap as he hadn't yet had time to bury Silas' body. Despite this, Elena is still worried, but Stefan promises that, if he has to, he will go to New Orleans and beg Klaus to save his brother's life. Jeremy then comes along with a cap and gown, telling Elena that she was going to her graduation because it's what their parents would have wanted. Elena refuses because her brother can't be there, but he assures her that Lexi will keep him company. Elena relents and takes her cap and gown. At the graduation site, Caroline is calling Klaus and telling his voicemail that she will be calling him once every ten minutes until he arrives in Mystic Falls to save Damon. She joins Bonnie and they are joined by Matt, then Elena and Stefan. Despite the seriousness of the situation, Caroline is moved that they are all there to graduate. Bonnie, who knows that this is one of the last moments she will have with her friends, is crying and manages to get in a covert goodbye to her friends when she mentions their future college plans. Elena reveals that she won't be going to college as she missed the deadline during her psychotic phase. However, Caroline reveals that their vampire abilities can make them do anything and go anywhere they want. As the joy of the moment overwhelms them all, Caroline proposes a group hug. Stefan starts to refuse, but is forced into it by Matt and Elena.

Mayor Rudy Hopkins opens the graduation ceremony before presenting the graduates, making an special mention for his daughter, Bonnie. As he hugs her in congratulations, she thanks him for everything, saying a quiet goodbye to him too. As she watches her friends graduate from the crowd, Bonnie runs into Kol who reveals that the entire place is crowded with the spirits of the supernatural creatures who were killed in the sacrifices to create her Expression Triangle and that when Kol gives the order, they will kill everyone. He then tells her that he wants her to drop the veil completely so that he and his friends could live. Bonnie leads him to the school boiler room. She is surprised that Kol wants the veil dropped as he has been the one who had done so much to make sure that it never happened. Kol agrees that he was against hell on earth until he was in hell. At that moment, he notices Bonnie's body on the floor and she explains that she died the previous night and that she also wants to stay on Earth. Excited, Kol suggests they drop the veil straight away, but as he moves toward her, he meets a wall of air. Bonnie says that her spell will hold him until dark and then the town will finally be rid of him for good. When Kol asks her about what she said, she said it was true, but that we don't always get what we want.

Back in the quarry, Vaughn notices that Damon is suffering from the werewolf venom and shoots him again. Realizing that Damon must have been lying to him about Silas, he asks where they really put the immortal. Damon refuses, taking another bullet in the chest. Vaughn threatens to shoot him again, which would kill him but Damon still refuses to talk. Before Vaughn can shoot, Alaric arrives and kills Vaughn before throwing his body into the quarry. He was also able to retrieve the cure before Vaughn went down. Back at school, Stefan is talking to Alaric on the phone while Caroline tries Klaus again. Alaric wants to known whether he should force feed Damon the cure or let him die, as Klaus can no longer get there in time. Before Stefan can answer, the witches of Aja's coven arrive and use their magic to cause aneurysms to the vampires. However, before the witches can kill them, Klaus throws a cap at Aja, decapitating her and breaking the spell. He then threatens the rest of the coven, saying that he has endless caps and all day to kill them all again and again.

Back at the Salvatore House, Damon is confronted by Elena, who asks him if he's feeling all right. When he says yes, she hits him. Alaric, Lexi and Stefan are in the living room listening to every word. Elena then returns to ask where Jeremy has gone. Alaric said he had gone to see Bonnie, but that he would return before the veil came back up. Elena asks to see Stefan alone while Lexi and Alaric wonder whether or not they are sentenced to spend eternity on the Other Side or whether they can move on when they've served their time. Alaric believes that they can, but that their old lives will always hold them back despite their desire to move on. Elena thanks Stefan for having been at her side, even during her worst period and she gives him the cure because she believes that he alone, even more than her, was the worst vampire in the world. She says that he deserves to be happy as a human. Back at the graduation site, Klaus meets Caroline who asks him how he got to Mystic Falls so quickly. He replies that he was already on his way, having received her graduation notice... and her implicit demand for money. When Caroline says that she would settle for a mini fridge, Klaus says that he had been planning to offer her a first class ticket to join him in New Orleans, but that he knew what her answer would be. He then gives her her gift: Tyler's freedom from his vengeance, allowing him to return to Mystic Falls. As a shocked Caroline takes in the news, Klaus tells her that Tyler is her first love and that he wants to be her last, no matter how long it took. He then kisses her on the cheek before suggesting that they leave before the twelve hybrids he killed arrive to pick a fight.

Back at the Boarding House, Damon is in the living room when Elena joins him. He says that he had intended to apologize, but that he wouldn't because he wasn't sorry. Elena is angry because he would rather die than be human. Damon says that he would because he didn't want to spend a few more years with Elena before spending his last in old age while she remained herself and that he would never change from his selfish self or deny any of the many reasons that he was not right for her. Elena agrees with what he says, but also says that she is not sorry that she met him or that it was him who made her feel so alive in death and that, despite all his bad choices, she wasn't sorry that she was in love with him. A surprised Damon then walks over to her and kisses her and they kiss each other in the very room where they had met for the first time. In the next room, Stefan is listening in while Lexi places a comforting hand on his shoulder.

As Stefan is loading Silas' body into the trunk of his car, Damon comes out. After agreeing that the quarry will be deep enough to hold Silas' body, Damon offers to keep him company during the ride, but Stefan turns him down, saying that Lexi is going with him. As Damon heads back inside, Stefan tells him that he isn't happy with Elena's choice, but that he isn't unhappy for her and Damon either. Damon thanks his brother and goes back inside. In the underground cave, Jeremy meets Bonnie, saying that he wanted to be with her when the veil went back up and that he couldn't say goodbye to Elena. Bonnie begins the ritual. At the Boarding House, Alaric is looking out the window and sees that the moon is full and that the ritual will soon begin. As Damon pours them a few drinks, Alaric smiles and says that he had finally gotten the girl. He then tells Damon that he'd better not screw it up. Damon looks down and says that with Alaric looking over him, he wouldn't. When he looks back, Alaric is gone. On the road, Lexi and Stefan are debating where he will go. Sensing that Stefan isn't really into it, Lexi reminds him that he can now move on with his life. Stefan is still sad because he believes that Elena was the one. Lexi agrees, but claims that there can be multiple ones. As Stefan turns to her to suggest another location to live, he sees that Lexi is gone. At the school, Elena enters the boiler room, looking for Bonnie and Jeremy only to find an imprisoned Kol who once again tries to have his revenge, but the veil closes before he can kill her. However, at that moment, Katherine comes out and attacks Elena. At the ritual site, Bonnie tells Jeremy that the veil is almost up. Jeremy is angry because he wanted to say a thousand things to Bonnie, but he doesn't know how. She tells him that he doesn't have to and she kisses him. At the same time, the ritual completes. Instead of disappearing, Jeremy cries in pain and Bonnie realizes that the spell had killed her and her battle against Nature was successful even in her death and that Jeremy is alive. However, as he runs to hug Bonnie, he is unable to feel her and she tells him that she is dead. However, as a medium, he can still see her and she also has the witches to keep her company. She only asks him that he tell Caroline and Elena that she was spending the summer with her mother so that their happiness wouldn't be ruined by her death and that they were finally happy. Bonnie then leaves to where Grams is waiting for her. Grams extends her hand and takes Bonnie away from Jeremy who is shocked and heartbroken. At the Lockwood Mansion, Rebekah goes to see if Matt is all right and to release him from the commitment he made under duress to go on the road with her for the summer. Matt admits that he doesn't believe a relationship between them could work, but that he was still saying yes to her proposal, on the condition that whatever happened on the road, stayed on the road. 

Back at school, Katherine and Elena fight. Although Katherine has the advantage of age, Elena has the benefit of having been trained to fight vampires and holds her own. While they fight, Katherine reveals that her hatred of Elena is because she had stolen all the happiness that she was supposed to have. Elena retorts that she had stolen her happiness when she killed her brother. They fight more, but Elena is overpowered and Katherine uses a wooden handle as a stake to kill her doppelgänger. As Elena is about to die, a flashback occurs to when she gave Stefan the cure. Instead of taking it, he gives it back to her because he had always wanted it for her and that he wanted her to keep it, so that the choice to take it or not would always be hers. As Katherine drives her hand into Elena's chest to rip out her heart, Elena takes out the cure and shoves it into Katherine's mouth. Before she can react, Elena slams her jaw shut, crushing the capsule and forcing the cure on Katherine. As she begins to realize what is happening, the cure takes effect and knocks Katherine unconscious. As they lie side by side, Elena looks at her doppelgänger exhaustively and says, "Have a nice human life."

At the quarry, Stefan unloads Silas' body to find that Silas has gone, replaced by stones. He turns when a familiar voice calls out. Silas appears in the form of Elena. He explains to Stefan that the spell that stopped him broke when Bonnie died, one of nature's loopholes in magic. He goes on to explain more: when he became immortal, nature needed to find a balance by creating a shadow version of himself who could die: a doppelgänger. Stefan asks him if he is another one of the Petrova doppelgängers. Silas answers that he isn't and drops his illusion, revealing the same face as Stefan's. To shocked to move as he watches his doppelgänger, Stefan is unable to react when Silas stakes him in the chest, before locking him in the Salvatore safe and throwing him into the quarry. The episode ends as Stefan drowns, the safe filling with water.

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

Special Guest Star[]

Recurring Cast[]

Co-Starring[]

Trivia[]

Continuity[]

Locations[]

Behind the Scenes[]

Cultural References[]

  • Graduation is the action of receiving or conferring an academic degree or the ceremony that is sometimes associated, where students become graduates.The graduation itself is also called commencement, convocation or invocation.
  • Graduation is also the name of the 21st episode of the third season of TV series Clueless.
  • The scene where Silas locks and throws Stefan into the quarry is reminiscent of the last scene of the episode Tomorrow, the season finale of the third season of the show Angel. In that scene Angel is waylaid by a vengeful Connor and Justine, who seal him in a metal coffin and throw it off a boat to sink down to the ocean floor.
  • The invasion/attack against the town, the appearance of ghosts, and the "undead army" are inspired by the events in the books: The Fury, Dark Reunion and The Hunters: Destiny Rising, respectively.
  • In The Fury, Elena and Katherine have their first and last fight. Both are killed by exposure to sunlight. Months later, in Dark Reunion, Elena comes back to life as human/Guardian after defeating Klaus with the help of the ghosts.
  • In Dark Reunion, Elena's spirit manages to communicate with Bonnie through dreams. In the TV series, Bonnie dies, but can communicate with Jeremy, as he is a medium.
  • In The Return Series, L. J. Smith had planned that Elena stays with Damon at the end. However, this was ruled out by the publishers, so Damon ultimately died in the Dark Dimension and Elena ends up staying with Stefan.
  • Connor mentioned families of students as grandparents Jones, Auntie Sue, and Uncle Mark.
    • In the books, there is a character named Sue Carson, but she is a student and friend of Elena, Bonnie, Meredith and Caroline.

Quotes[]

Rebekah: "What do you want from us?"
Alexander: "To fulfill my destiny."
Connor: "We want Silas, and we want the cure."
Elena: "They're willing to kill every person in Mystic Falls until they get it."
Galen Vaughn: "Where's Silas?" (Yelling and pointing a gun to someone's head)
Kol: (Yells in rage)
Damon: How is it even when you're dead you're still the bane of my existence?

Kol: "Welcome back. It was our deaths that allowed this day to come to pass. The slaughter of innocents by the so-called hero protectors of Mystic Falls. Twelve witches, twelve hybrids, massacres performed in the name of resurrecting the immortal Silas. They risked unleashing hell on earth for their own selfish gain. And today, that's exactly what they're going to get."
Connor: "Hello Elena."
Rebekah: "What do you want from us?"
Alexander: "To fulfill my destiny."
Connor: "We want Silas and we want the cure."
Elena: "They are willing to kill every person in Mystic Falls until they get it."
Damon: "I don't care about anyone else."
Vaughn: "Where's Silas?!"
Vaughn: "There's a thousand years' worth of hunters. Qetsiyah will just send more."
Damon: "How is it even when you're dead you're the bane of my existence?"

Bonnie: "I hit kind of a snag."
Caroline: "A snag? A snag is a bad yearbook picture. You hit a tsunami. Where are you?"
Bonnie: "Trying to fix it, but I'm running into some trouble. I need to wait until the full moon tonight until I have enough power to put the veil back up."
Caroline: "Are you telling me that we might graduate right smack in the middle of a ghost-filled Expression Triangle?"
Bonnie: "Maybe we should just cancel."
Caroline: "No, we are not going to cancel. Graduation is the most important event of our lives, the last ceremony of our youth. It is our rite of freaking passage! Hell will freeze over before I let anyone cancel graduation."
Bonnie: "Can you not make jokes about hell freezing over? We're not that far off from that already."
Caroline: "Just promise me that today is a friend day."
Bonnie: "Okay, I promise. I love you."
Caroline: "I love you, too."

Katherine: "I don't think red is really your color, Bon-Bon."
Bonnie: "And here I was hoping the ghost of anyone would have killed you already."
Katherine: "Funny you should mention death, because I'm here to collect that immortality you promised me."
Bonnie: "How do you think you're still gonna get it? I told you Qetsiyah is the only witch who knows the immortality spell. She was a no-show. You're out of luck."
Katherine: "See, here is the thing, Bonnie. I can't disagree with you, because I have been feeling out of luck lately. But you know who has been getting all of my luck? My beloved doppelgänger Elena. My shadow-self is living a better life than I am. So, if I don't get that immortality, I may just have to get rid of her altogether."
Bonnie: "Did you just threaten my best friend? I can crush your skull without even flinching."
Katherine: "Go ahead. Make your move."

Damon: (to Lexi) "So if you and Ric and little Gilbert are all flesh-like and real-seeming, that means something went horribly wrong when Bonnie tried to put that veil up; and here you two are having Dance Party USA."
Stefan: "You're right. How selfish of me to be indulging in these precious moments with my formerly-dead best friend. I should be sacrificing my own happiness for the good of others, right? I should be upstairs grooming my hero hair."
Damon: "Are you drunk?"
Stefan: "I don't know, Mom. Am I?"
Lexi: (laughs) "Okay."
Damon: "Well, I guess that's one way to celebrate our supernatural apocalypse. Now, care to hazard any guesses on what the hell went wrong?"

Kol: "Welcome back. It was our deaths that allowed this day to come to pass. Massacres performed in the name of resurrecting the immortal Silas. Twelve hybrids, twelve witches, the slaughter of innocents by the so-called hero protectors of Mystic Falls. They risked unleashing hell on earth for their own selfish gains. And today, that's exactly what they're going to get."

Damon: "I wanted to apologize..."
Elena: "Good."
Damon: "Let me finish. I said I wanted to. And then I realized, I'm not sorry."
Elena: "You would rather die than be human, and you expect me to be okay with that?"
Damon: " I didn't say you were supposed to be okay with it, I just said I'm not sorry. But you know what I really am? Selfish, because I make bad choices that hurt you. Yes, I would rather have died than be human. I'd rather die right now than spend a handful of years with you, only to lose you when I'm too old and sick and miserable and you're still you. I'd rather die right now than spend my last final years remembering how good I had it and how happy I was, because that's who I am, Elena, and I'm not gonna change. And there's no apology in the world that encompasses all the reasons that I'm wrong for you."
Elena: "Fine, then I'm not sorry either. I'm not sorry that I met you. I'm not sorry that knowing you has made me question everything, that in death you're the one that made me feel most alive. You've been a terrible person, you've made all the wrong choices, and of all the choices that I've made this will prove to be the worst one. But I am not sorry that I'm in love with you. I love you, Damon. I love y–"

Multimedia[]

Soundtrack[]

Last.fm_play.png "You Give Love A Bad Name" – Bon Jovi
Last.fm_play.png "Dance In The Graveyards" – Delta Rae
Last.fm_play.png "Gone" – Olivia Broadfield

Last.fm_play.png "Belong" – Cary Brothers
Last.fm_play.png "When I Was Younger" – Liz Lawrence
Last.fm_play.png "In The Stream" – S. Carey

Pictures[]

References[]

See also[]

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