“It’s Mystic Falls; nothing bad ever happens here.” – Elena Gilbert, sophomore year

Well, at least we now know why bad shit started happening in Mystic Falls. Elena uttered the words that are the TV equivalent of chanting in Latin and opening up a Hellmouth. Doesn’t she know that you never say stuff like that? That’s like saying “I’ll be right back” in a horror movie. YOU’RE NOT COMING BACK, DUDE.

But all kidding aside, I really enjoyed this episode. Which I know is basically like me saying, “Yeah, breathing is cool. I enjoy it,” because I love every episode of this show. But when you’ve got one of the best writing staffs on television, what do you expect?

‘The Vampire Diaries’ is one of the most consistent shows on TV in the sense that week after week you know it’s going to be amazing. You might not have any idea what is going to happen – and believe me, that’s a good thing – but you know when you sit down to watch an episode that you’re going to be entertained, you’re going to be knocked on your ass and you’re going to find yourself threatening the lives of Julie Plec’s unborn children if she so much as thinks about hurting another beloved character. It’s just what happens. And we viewers love it.

There was a lot of speculation about what would happen in tonight’s season finale, aptly titled ‘The Departed.’ And while I truthfully was a little upset that there was no Mark Wahlberg cameo, I think this show still went out with a bang. Again.

There has been talk for weeks about who Elena would ultimately choose, about which brother she would decide was more important to have in her life. Would she choose the sweet, romantic, beautiful stable relationship she has with Stefan? Or would she choose the passionate, dangerous and uncertain road with Damon? Let me tell you, I might have to redo my Pacey Witter theorem, because this show’s handling of the love triangle is brilliant – it blows every other triangle out of the water.

For weeks Elena has said that she didn’t know who to choose, that she couldn’t stand having to say goodbye to one brother when she’s lost so many people already. But for all her talk, we were assured that Elena would choose by the end of the episode. We were assured that the writers weren’t going to try to pull a fast one on us by having her choose herself. And I guess you can’t really say we were lied to; Elena did choose a brother – it just seemed a little half-hearted to me.

She chose to return to Stefan, and by extension to Caroline and Tyler, after finding out that Evilaric had staked Klaus. Homegirl actually decided that it was better to let Damon possibly face death all alone in order to return to Mystic Falls where her life expectancy was considerably lower. This, bear in mind, is the same girl who wouldn’t leave Damon’s side in last season’s finale when he was dying from a werewolf bite.

But while Elena chose Stefan, (after telling Damon that she never un-fell out of love with Stefan and that she cared about him which was  why she had to let him go – by the way, does that sound familiar to anyone else?) did she really choose him? Based on the fact that Elena is now in transition (I’ll get to that in a minute), it seems to me we have a whole new chapter to this love triangle. In fact, I might even go as far as to say this is an entirely new beginning to an entirely new love triangle.

But before I delve into that hot mess, and before I forget, let’s discuss the fact that Elena is now a vampire.

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In a shocking twist Elena chooses Elijah in the finale.

“It wasn’t about you.” – Damon

Contrary to popular belief, the world does not revolve around Elena Gilbert. I know that she acts that way sometimes, and it’s probably only because most of the time everything actually is about her – she is the show’s protagonist, after all – but she’s not what makes the world go around.

And though it usually appears this way, she’s not what makes the Salvatore brothers’ worlds go around, either. She’s just a girl. A girl who’s been thrown to the wolves, vampires and generally all things from the nightmares of children. But she’s so often the cause of, and answer to, the problems plaguing Mystic Falls that we forget, and she forgets, that she’s just one person in a world full of them.

Damon so often prioritizes Elena and her safety because of his intense love for her that we forget the dude once had a life that didn’t even include her. We’ve seen him go to hell and back for this one teenage girl and we forget that sometimes he’s got other things going on in his life. Like Rose.

Last season’s episode ‘Rose’ is fondly remember by Delena shippers because it’s the episode Damon confesses his love to Elena in the most selfless -  but also somehow selfish – way possible. He brings back to her the vervain necklace she thought she’d lost, but before he hands it over he tells her, “I love you, Elena. And it’s because I love you that I can’t be selfish with you. And why you can’t know this. I don’t deserve you, but my brother does.” And with that declaration he compels her to forget his broken confession.

But in order to understand that moment we have to back up a little bit further.

I never cared for Rose, nor do I pretend to care for her now even if she’s a Delena shipper. But Damon had a connection with the female vampire and he shared a moment with her at the end of her life. He took away her pain and suffering because he could and because he wanted to. This was one of the handful of times Damon’s chosen to spare someone misery, one of the few times he’s shown that he truly can feel things for people who aren’t Elena and Stefan. Sure, he saves the lives of the people of Mystic Falls every time he thwarts some apocalypse or whatever, but showing emotion is something he’s never been good at – or wanted to be good at – and that moment with Rose is not one to be overlooked.

And it’s why I think that in an episode where Elena basically attacked Damon with her lips in a motel hallway, it’s important to mention that Elena does not define Damon. Does she make him a better person? Yes, Rose was right about that. But sometimes there are going to be things that happen that Damon doesn’t share with Elena, and unless she’s willing to make that leap and be in a relationship with him, she doesn’t need – or even really have the right – to know.

I’ll admit that the noises that came out of my mouth when Elena finally sucked it up and gave into her feelings for the sexy older Salvatore were not human. I was cheering that kiss on with the rest of you – well, probably not the Stefan/Elena shippers. But I also understood that there’s still a lot of ground to be covered – a lot of meeting in the middle, if you will – before these two can be a happy couple. And that’s why I didn’t really flip out when they had a fight about their feelings towards episode’s end.

While I wanted to grab Elena’s head and shove it into the nearest wall when she told Damon she didn’t know if she had feelings for him (because, girl, clearly you do – you don’t just soberly attack people with your lips and then have a steamy makeout session against a motel wall if you don’t have feelings for them), I understand her reservations.

Elena was right when she told Damon that he sabotages things and lashes out at people whenever there’s a bump in the road. We’ve see it happen. We’ve seen him snap Jeremy’s neck when Katherine and Elena both denied him in the same evening. We saw the way he acted at the ball when Elena went behind his back and made the deal with Esther and Finn to bind the Originals. He went after Kol, breaking his neck and then jumping. off. the. freaking. balcony. It didn’t matter that we all cheered the return of Damon the Badass. He still lashed out. For a man who claims to not have emotions, he sure does lose control of them easily.

But what Damon said in that scene also held a lot of truth. He’s the one to make bold declarations of love. He’s the one to make decisions regarding their relationship. Elena never takes charge of her own life regarding Damon. She waits for him to do something and then reacts to whatever he’s done – usually finding herself on the disapproving side. Tonight when he told her, “This time I’m not gonna make is so easy for you. This time you’ll have to figure it out for yourself,” I cheered. I cheered Damon showing a little backbone, because it’s about time he called her out on how she’s always playing games with his head and just assuming he’ll always be there for her because he’s in love with her. Homegirl has got to figure this one out on her own, she has got to make a decision. And from the looks of it, she’s got to do it fairly soon.

There were some other very lovely moments between Damon and Elena in this episode, though. I particularly liked the part of the episode where they were lying in the bed (and not just because of Ian Somerhalder’s sculpted abdominal region) and Elena asked him why he never let people see the good in him. And his response is something that also fits in to what I was saying above. Damon said, “Because when people see good, they expect good. And I don’t want to have to live up to anyone’s expectations.”

I took this to mean two things. One, Damon is tired of dealing with the disapproving looks Elena throws his way when he does something she finds despicable. He’s tired of feeling like he’s not good enough for her. But two, I think he also meant that he’s done trying to change for her because he is who he is. He’s not going to change for her and she’s going to have to accept him for the man he is.

This was a huge episode for Damon and Elena’s relationship, but we’ve still got miles to go and there are only three episodes left this season. Julie Plec has said that there will be a resolution this season to the triangle (as much of a resolution that there can be), so I’m really looking forward to this final stretch of episodes.

Anyway, now that we got that out of the way, we can move on to discussing the rest of the episode (other things happened in this episode, WHAT?)

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When Damon walks out of the motel room after Elena, did he have to leave his shirt gaping open like he just walked off the cover of a steamy vampire/pirate romance novel? I mean, come on, Smolderhalder, was that really necessary?