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In a shocking twist Elena chooses Elijah in the finale.

“How many times do I have to tell you, Elena? Stop trusting vampires!”

As we learned when Caroline was turned in season two, when you become a vampire the most prominent parts of your personality become magnified. Caroline became more neurotic as a result of her transition. And though most people would say his distaste for vampires was multiplied, I think Alaric became more of a protector too. I mean, sure, he’s driven by his hate for vampires (does that extend to all supernatural creatures? Like are werewolves and hybrids included in his hate?), but the flip side of that has got to be a desire to see innocent people live. There were times tonight when the viewers could see Alaric’s frustrations with Elena because she willingly threw herself into another dangerous situation.

He spent so many hours teaching her to protect herself against vampires, training her to be a vampire slaying teenager, telling her not to trust them. And yet she continues to accept their words at face value as if they’re not evil creatures driven by bloodlust.

Everything Alaric told her in tonight’s episode was true. She needs to stop being so trusting. She needs to stop letting her emotions get the best of her all of the time. Because she won’t survive much longer if she does.

And no, Elena isn’t stupid. She doesn’t just go along believing everything people say. But she does tend to ignore the fact that people are inherently evil by nature. She trusted Alaric tonight, knowing he was Evilaric who hates vampires, that he’d let Caroline go as long as she came to the school. She trusted him because she knew Human Alaric and she was unable to separate him from Evilaric. She trusted - to an extent - Esther when she first met her and bound the Originals circle. She trusted Elijah, too.

It doesn’t matter that she’s wary of these people - it matters that even though she’s wary she still puts her trust in them to an extent. She wants to see the good in all people. But no one is good all the time. And it’s possible that no one is evil all the time either. It’s possible for those who commit evil acts to come back from them - to change, to start over. Damon Salvatore is a walking, talking, leather-jacket wearing example of that.

And I think that’s one of the most important lessons from this show. It’s that people might do evil things - but if you only look at those instances and refuse to see the rest, then you’re going to miss quite a bit. You’re going to be sorely misinformed. You’re not going to see who they really are. This show is about family and it’s about forgiveness. This show teaches us that we cannot judge ourselves or anyone else by past transgressions. Because we are all capable of change and we are all capable of love, and as long as we have our family, we can learn to make the right choices here and now.

So call me crazy, but I still have hope that Evilaric can be helped. There were a few points tonight - and yes, I’m probably blinded  by love for Matt Davis and the character so I’m going to read a hell of a lot into different things from tonight’s episode, but whatever - there were times tonight where it seemed that Evilaric wasn’t as gone as we thought. Yes, he’s evil. Yes, he wants to kill all the vampires. Yes to all these things. But after sitting through three seasons of this show I don’t take anything at face value anymore. There’s always an underlying reason or force driving people and their actions.

Damon is driven by love. He was driven by his love for Katherine in the first season and he didn’t care what he did or who he hurt, as long as it meant he could get to her. And we’ve seen that same passion and love and loyalty these past two seasons as it’s developed for Elena. His love for her drives his actions now. He wants to be a better man so he’s worthy of her love.

Stefan is driven by guilt and his own fear of the monster within. He knows what he’s capable of, and so he does everything in his power to limit and deprive himself of things like human blood because he knows what will happen if he doesn’t. He’s carried the guilt of forcing his brother to become a vampire for a century and a half. He carries the guilt of knowing all of the innocent people he killed. And that drives him to be a better man.

And Klaus - poor, poor Klaus - he’s driven by loneliness. All he wants is a family, a family who loves him and wants to stay with him and have fun with him  - not one who deserts him or wants him dead. So he decided to create his own family - the hybrids. But unlike the Salvatores, he’s yet to find that family and so he’s been unable to redeem himself.

Everyone is driven by something. And I think Alaric can be saved. I know that it would never happen quickly and it would certainly not be easy, but I don’t think that all of a sudden we’ve got one character who is absolutely pure evil and has no weaknesses. There is something there that can be used to save him. We just don’t know what it is yet.

On ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ Willow went apocalyptically evil at the end of season six after Warren’s stray bullet killed Tara. She flayed him alive and hurt her friends, but that still wasn’t enough to ease her pain. The only thing that could get through to her was the love and friendship of her lifelong best friend, Xander. And I see no reason why Alaric - who’s turned out to be this show’s best villain since he’s a character we got to know and grew to love long before he became a villain - should be any different.

If I had to put my money on it - I’d say it’s the feeling of being needed. The feeling that someone wants and needs him. I also think it’s his own guilt for allowing himself to get to know Damon and Stefan and Caroline - get to know these vampires and to like these vampires. He was a vampire hunter and he allowed himself to see these people and get to know these people and he saw that there’s good in them too. That’s why I think - and hope - that the writers don’t just let him bite the dust. There’s a story there. And in the right hands, it could be a great story.

And knowing that Alaric’s life is tied to Elena’s life - I think that’s important. He made it seem like the only reason he cared whether or not Elena lived or died was because he didn’t want to die too. And while that’s certainly the most important reason right now,  I think there was more to it. When he yelled at her to stop slicing herself open, it looked to me (here I go reading too much into everything again) like there were real feelings behind those words. Before he was turned Human Alaric genuinely cared for Elena. And somewhere inside Evilaric, Human Alaric lives and dwells. Somewhere in there are those feelings and that love for both her and Jeremy. I just hope we get to see it. Because conflicted vampires are my favorite vampires.

But there was a lot of crap that happened in tonight’s episode.

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Because let’s face it. That’s what most of us focus on half the time anyway.

I’ve been seeing a lot of people talking on Tumblr about how we’ve lost Alaric forever and that his bromance with Damon is over. But you know what, and maybe I’m really just living in denial, but I refuse to believe this. I refuse to believe that Alaric dies in this season or the next.

Yes, he is a vampire now (thanks, Bonnie!). He’s a vampire with a lot of anger and hatred for other vampires. But from what I understand, he’s an Original, created by Esther. It’s a magical change. This isn’t a normal vampire transition. And there’s only one stake left, right?

I think to kill him off now, after going through all of this for the character, would be one of the worst mistakes the show has ever made. And I’m not talking about like when they killed off Jenna. That hurt. That hurt a lot. But the show could still go on without Jenna. Killing off Alaric will not really help the show or the characters. 

I have no idea how the writers plan to play this, but if they keep him “alive” as a vampire, there’s a lot to be done for that character. Yes, he’s charged with the task of killing all the Originals. But guess what, if that happens the show fucking ends. And we know that won’t be happening anytime soon. He would die once he’s killed all the Originals (Julie Plec said as much in an interview). The only course of option would be for someone to kill him. But again, I don’t think that’s going to happen. Not anytime soon.

We know that he’s not the Alaric we knew. We know this is Evilaric as a vampire. But I don’t think the real Alaric is truly gone. I think he’s trapped inside his own head somewhere. And you know what? It’s possible for vampires to have feelings, to come back from being blood-thirsty and evil killing machines. That’s one of the central points of this show. So there is a story to be told. A redemption story. It will take time, but I have all the time in the world when it comes to Alaric Saltzman.

In my opinion, what I’d love to see happen eventually is a moment like the moment between Xander and Willow at the end of season six when Evil Veiny WIllow decided she wanted to destroy the world. Remember how there was only one person in the world who could break through all that hate and anger and destroying the world tendencies? And Xander was that person? And he did it with the story about Crayon-Breaky-Willow? I would probably melt inside if there was a moment in which Elena or Damon could bring Alaric back from the depths of his agony and anger. It would be a great story arc.

I don’t know. I just think there’s more story to be told regarding Alaric. If the writers truly kill him off next season (Julie said his fate at the end of this season is ambiguous) I’ll probably hole up in my bed for a couple of days listening to really sad pathetic music and then start penning angry emails to Julie Plec asking her how she could have betrayed me this way. But right now I am not going to jump to any conclusions. This show always throws curve balls at the end. And we just got one. I’m hoping the show doesn’t follow with the obvious plan - which would have to be that they kill him. This show zigs when I think it’s going to zag, and I’m hoping that’s the case again this time.