Graduation

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

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The Vampire Diaries

Season 4, Episode 23 (89)

Air date

May 16, 2013

Written by

Julie Plec & Caroline Dries

Directed by

Chris Grismer

Episode Guide
(Transcript)
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Graduation is the twenty-third and final episode of the fourth season of Template: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

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Cast

Main Cast

Nina Dobrev as Elena Gilbert/Katherine Pierce/Silas
Paul Wesley as Stefan Salvatore/Silas
Ian Somerhalder as Damon Salvatore
Steven R. McQueen as Jeremy Gilbert
Kat Graham as Bonnie Bennett
Zach Roerig as Matt Donovan
Candice Accola as Caroline Forbes
Michael Trevino as Tyler Lockwood (credit only)
Joseph Morgan as Niklaus Mikaelson

Recurring Cast

Special Guest Star

Jasmine Guy as Sheila Bennett

Co-Starring

Vincent Farrell as Stefan Double
Micah Joe Parker as Adrian

Trivia

Qetsiyah sent several of the Brotherhood of the Five hunters (Alexander, Connor and Vaughn) to kill Silas so that he would be trapped with her on the Other Side for eternity. However, the hunters were thwarted by Alaric and Rebekah before they could accomplish their plans.
Antagonists: Kol Mikaelson, Silas, Katherine Pierce, Connor Jordan, Alexander and Galen Vaughn.
- This episode had a total of six antagonists in a single episode, the largest group to date.
- Adrian and Aja could also be considered minor antagonists.
This is the final episode of Season Four.
This is the final episode of the fourth chapter of Season Four, The Humanity Chapter.
Elena, Caroline, Bonnie, and Stefan's graduation ceremony occurred in this episode.
Elena tells Stefan that she's happy as a vampire now that she and the others will be fine. She tells him that he should take The Cure before she eventually takes possession of it, placing the cure in her jacket pocket.
This episode aired on Joseph Morgan's 32nd birthday.
This episode and 500 Years of Solitude have the largest guest cast to date (11 total).
This is the first season finale to not end with a member of the Gilbert Family; instead, this finale ended with Stefan drowning.
- Season One ended with Elena entering her house and hearing noises from the kitchen where Katherine was attacking John.
- Season Two ended with Jeremy seeing the ghosts of his dead ex-girlfriends after he was resurrected by Bonnie.
- Season Three ended with Elena awakening in transition to become a vampire after drowning.
Joseph Morgan (Klaus), Claire Holt (Rebekah), Daniel Gillies (Elijah), Nathaniel Buzolic (Kol) and Phoebe Tonkin (Hayley) left the cast of Template:The Vampire Diaries after this episode, as they are set to join the show's spinoff, The Originals. However, some of them have returned as guests for Crossovers.
This is the first time the gang encounters Klaus since Because the Night.
Kol amasses an army of the dead to help him eliminate the Mystic Falls Gang, which was composed of two groups who have previously had history with the gang.
- First was a coven consisting of Aja and eleven of her fellow witches who were inadvertently sacrificed by Caroline to save Bonnie's life in Because the Night. This mass sacrifice occurred on the third point of the Expression Triangle.
- Second was the hybrid pack consisting of Adrian and the eleven other hybrids who were killed by Klaus in O Come, All Ye Faithful. This mass sacrifice occurred on the second point of the Expression Triangle.
Alaric meets Connor and Lexi for the first time in this episode.
- Lexi also meets Jeremy off-screen, as Jeremy assured Elena that Lexi would keep him company while she's at graduation.
Matt and Rebekah decide to go on an adventure around the world for the summer.
Bonnie brings Jeremy back to life, sacrificing her own opportunity to resurrect herself before she puts the veil between the living world and the Other Side back up for good.
- This is the second time in the series that Jeremy has been resurrected after being killed, the first time being As I Lay Dying. This makes him the character who has been truly killed and magically resurrected (excluding being brought back by the Gilbert ring) the most amount of times.
Elena finally chooses Damon and confesses her love for him, whereas in the Season Three finale, she did so for Stefan.
Klaus' graduation gift to Caroline is Tyler's freedom.
Katherine nearly kills Elena out of jealousy of Elena's life, and Elena only escapes death by force-feeding Katherine the cure, turning her back into a human.
Silas was revealed to be freed from the spell Bonnie cast to desiccate him after her death. When Stefan tried to bury Silas, he also revealed that Stefan is Silas' doppelgänger, and that the doppelgängers were created as nature's loophole to the immortality spell. Silas then locked Stefan in a safe and dumped it at the bottom of the quarry.
There are four kisses in this episode:
- Klaus and Caroline
- Matt and Rebekah.
- Elena and Damon after Elena chose him.
- Jeremy and Bonnie after saying their goodbyes.
Matthew Davis makes his 50th episode appearance as Alaric Saltzman. The other actors who have appeared in fifty episodes (or more) are: Nina Dobrev, Paul Wesley, Ian Somerhalder, Candice Accola, Steven R. McQueen, Kat Graham, Zach Roerig and Michael Trevino.
This is the first season finale to not feature the Gilbert House, as the house was burned down by Elena in Stand By Me.
Galen confirmed in this episode that he died on the Island from starvation.
This is the only episode with a full moon in Season Four.
This is the second season finale where Damon almost died from Werewolf Venom poisoning and needed to be healed by Klaus. The first time this happened was in As I Lay Dying.
In Original Sin, it was revealed that Qetsiyah brought herself back to life from the Other Side while Bonnie had the veil down, though this was not shown in this episode.
This is the last episode where Katherine is a vampire until she possesses Elena's body in 500 Years of Solitude.

Continuity

Niklaus was last seen in The Originals.
Aja was last seen in Because the Night. She was killed by Caroline to stop her from killing Bonnie.
Tyler was mentioned. He was last seen in Pictures of You.
Adrian was last seen in O Come, All Ye Faithful. He was killed by Niklaus.
This is the fourth season finale to feature Elena, Damon, Stefan, Bonnie, Jeremy, Caroline and Alaric.
This is the third season finale to feature Katherine, Matt and Niklaus.
- This is the third season finale to not feature Vicki.
This is the second season finale to feature Rebekah.
- This is the second season finale to not feature Tyler, Elijah, Jenna, John and Anna.
This is the first season finale to feature Alexander, Lexi, Silas, Connor, Kol, Vaughn, Aja, Rudy, Sheila and Adrian.
- This is the first season finale to not feature Elizabeth and Carol (now deceased).
This is the first episode in which Nina Dobrev plays three roles (Elena, Katherine and Silas).
- Nina would later play three roles again in three episodes of Season Five as Elena, Katherine and Amara in episodes Original Sin, Handle with Care and Death and the Maiden.

Locations

Mystic Falls, Virginia

Behind the Scenes

Filming of Season Four ended on the 25th of April, 2013.^[1]
This episode had about 2.24 million viewers in the USA, which was 0.04 million less than the previous episode.
Hashtag during the airing is #GRRRduation

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, Katherine uses her powers to control the town's dogs, and attack the inhabitants, especially Elena's family. Alaric, Meredith, Bonnie, Matt, and Caroline do everything possible to defend people from the attack.
  - Result: Katherine von Swartzschild and Elena Gilbert die from exposure to sunlight.
- In Dark Reunion, the ghosts appear along with Elena's spirit. Ghosts attack Klaus in order to avoid more bloodshed in Fell's Church.
  - Result: Klaus, the Old One, is temporarily destroyed and Elena comes back to life.
- In The Hunters: Destiny Rising, Klaus is revived by Ethan Crane and the Vitale Society. The Old One used the blood of a number of vampires that he had changed to cast a resurrection spell, bringing back Katherine von Swartzschild and vicious vampires.
  - Result: Klaus, Cristian Sulez, Katherine von Swartzschild, Ethan Crane, Vitale Society, Undead Army fight against Elena Gilbert, Stefan Salvatore, Damon Salvatore, Bonnie McCullough, Zander, Meredith Sulez, Alaric K. Saltzman, Matt Honeycutt, and the Original Pack (Shay, Tristan, Marcus, Jonah, Camden, Spencer, Enrique, Jared, Daniel, Chad). At the end of the book, Klaus, Cristian, Ethan, Chad, the Army, and members of Vitale Society die.
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–"