Did you miss ‘The Vampire Diaries’ finale last night?  If so, shame on you!  It was absolutely phenomenal.  Don’t worry; I’ll share what you missed, though I highly suggest you try to watch it for yourself when you can as I can’t cover every minute detail here.

Where did we leave off last week?  Ah, of course.  Damon’s been bitten by a werewolf and he’s going to die unless a cure can be found.  Jenna, Jules and John are all dead, thanks to Klaus’ selfish-streak. And Caroline’s mother, the sheriff, knows her daughter’s a vampire.

So let’s start the recap, shall we?  Elena wakes up and as she readies herself for the day she’s confronted by Damon who’s literally begging for forgiveness.  She tells him she’s not ready yet and he tells her to take all the time in the world, but really he doesn’t have much time left at all.
Stefan breaks his promise to Damon and tells Elena that his brother’s dying.  Horrified, she decides to set out to talk to him and reassure him while Stefan looks for a cure.  He reaches out to Bonnie who channels a witch named Emily.  Emily refuses to help, but while she was under her influence, Bonnie heard her say a name: Klaus.  Ah, so Klaus is the key behind Damon’s recovery.  But how?  His dual nature is what makes his blood the cure.

Meanwhile we see Klaus waking up from a night of what looks like “Werewolf-Vampire Hybrids Gone Wild” with his brother Elijah at his side.  When his brother reminds him to show him where the other family members are, Klaus responds that it’ll happen in due time.

They return back to Klaus’ apartment where Katherine is still compelled to stay.  Who do they find there but Stefan!  His plan is to approach Klaus and ask for help with saving his brother’s life.  Of course he must know that nothing comes without a price with Klaus, but how far is he willing to go?  Well…pretty far.  Before bargaining with Stefan, Klaus stakes Elijah – talk about a dysfunctional family!  Now Klaus is ready to bargain.  He wants Stefan to turn back into the blood-thirsty vampire he once was in the early 1900s, a “ripper” as he calls him.  Stefan tries to resist, but he knows that his brother’s life hangs in the balance.  At the demands of Klaus, Stefan consumes copious amounts of blood.  In return for his obedience, he gives Katherine a bottle of his own blood to feed to Damon – and she vampire-blurs away with it.

In the meantime, Damon’s doing horribly.  He’s hallucinating and on top of it he tried to kill himself so he was locked in a cell downstairs in the Salvatore home by Stefan.  Alaric comes to check on him and tries to get him a bag of blood, but the sheriff sneaks in with her gun drawn.  She locks him in another part of the basement and confronts Damon but when she opens the cell door he slams her against the basement wall and blurs away.

Dying, Damon wanders through the town square in a hallucinatory state.  After standing up to Bonnie, Jeremy goes out in search of his sister and Damon.  He finds him and brings him to the Grill.  However, the sheriff gets a call about a sighting and is already on the way.  She arrives, pulls her gun on Damon but he blurs away as she shoots.  Normally this wouldn’t be an issue but Jeremy was standing behind Damon and gets shot in the chest.

So now the intolerant sheriff has just killed the only family Elena has left.  Bonnie and Caroline cry over him while Alaric and the sheriff look on.  At Bonnie’s urging they take Jeremy back to the sacred place where she summoned Emily and calls on her for help.  Emily warns there will be consequences but Bonnie persists – why?  Because she loves him, or so she tells Emily.  Just like that, Jeremy is returned to life.  Later we find out what the consequences are:  he sees dead people…his two dead girlfriends to be exact.

Damon’s still wandering around but Elena finds him.  He thinks she’s actually Katherine and replays an event from the past while biting her neck.  Ouch!  She takes him back to his home so she can take better care of him.

While he lies there in bed, he tells her that he wishes she could’ve known him back in 1864.  She lies next to him in bed and tells him that she likes him the way he is now – and then they kiss.  Katherine walks in, administers the cure and tells Elena, “It’s OK to love them both… I did.” Later we find Elijah’s body being wheeled into a storage unit with the rest of their family.  Klaus finds a nice, young girl for Stefan to feed off of and he doesn’t resist the urge.  He tells Stefan they’re leaving town tonight.

Caroline finally confronts her mother and lets her know that she’s still her little girl even though she’s a vampire – very touching scene.

So, were you satisfied with the finale?  Was it all you thought it would be or did it leave you wanting more?