The finale for the fourth season of “The Vampire Diaries’” is fast approaching and the suspense continues to build. The audience learned in the previous episodes that a cure for vampirism exists, but there is only one dose, and while Stefan wants Elena to take it, Rebekah desires it for herself. Episode 15, “Stand By Me”, begins where the last episode left off: Katherine is back and she kills Jeremy to awaken Silas before escaping with the cure.
Stefan and Elena bring Jeremy’s body back to the Gilbert house where Caroline waits because Elena believes Jeremy’s ring will once again resurrect him. While she denies that her brother is dead, everyone else knows the truth. Jeremy was one of The Five hunters, meaning he was supernatural, so the ring will not bring him back.
Meanwhile, Damon stays on the island to search for Bonnie who has disappeared along with Shane. Bonnie wakes up with Shane in the woods, and he tells her that Jeremy is dead, causing her break down and lose control of her powers. With her powers out of control, he tries
to calm her down by insisting there is a way to bring him back, but Silas will need her help.
Back at the Gilbert house, Caroline and Stefan talk about Elena’s denial while Elena continues to slowly lose her mind with grief but denies it. Damon runs into Rebekah, who agrees to help find Bonnie and while searching for her, one of the mysterious Five we met in the last episode attacks them. Damon captures and tortures the hunter to get answers about how Katherine found out about the cure. Apparently, Tyler’s werewolf friend told her about it. Katherine wants to use the cure to bargain for her freedom with Klaus.
In an act of desperation to help Elena, Stefan calls on Dr. Fell, who stops by the house to convince Elena that her brother is really gone. Elena freaks out and attacks the doctor, but Stefan intervenes as Matt walks in the room and sees Jeremy’s body. After Elena calms down, Matt and Elena talk about how he dealt with his sister’s death and that it is okay to have hope. At the same time, Stefan and Dr. Fell discuss how the death of loved ones never gets any easier.
The end of the episode leaves audiences on the edge of their seats, anticipating the arrival of the next episode. Bonnie plans to resurrect Jeremy, but at the cost of much, much more. At the end, we see Elena completely melt down when she finally realizes that Jeremy is actually gone and not coming back. With Damon’s help, though, she learns that she won’t have to feel the pain for very long.
This episode is as emotional for the audience as it is for the characters going through these events. I was in denial right along with Elena thinking, “They can’t kill Jeremy off!” This show does not play around, and no character is safe, which is both frightening and interesting because sometimes character deaths are essential to the story. The rating for this episode would be three out of five stars. It was emotional, but a bit slow, with the whole hour centered on Jeremy’s death. The last few minutes were very intriguing though. I’m very curious to see where this next episode takes us and if Bonnie gets to fulfill her crazy plan.
