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interpersonallyWe'd like to see a little more depth for the history section. Take a look at your application and try to approach it from the standpoint of explaining to a non-TVD watcher/reader what the series is all about. We also don't feel that the samples you provided really give us a feel for the character's voice as detailed in the rest of your application.
History:
Stefan Salvatore was born in the year 1847 in Mystic Falls, Virginia. He has one older brother, Damon Salvatore. While Stefan stays at home, Damon goes off to fight in the Civil War. The first thing of note that happens in Stefan’s life is the arrival of Katherine Pierce. Katherine arrives with an older woman, Miss Pearl, and her daughter, Anna. Unbeknownst to the town, Katherine, Miss Pearl and Anna are vampires. Katherine claims to be an orphan from Atlanta. The Salvatores take her in. Stefan is transfixed. He feels an undeniable attraction and they strike up a relationship. At the same time, Katherine is wooing his brother, Damon.
Dating back who knows how far, the town of Mystic Falls has had a town council. It is the council’s job to keep vampires at bay and if needed, to dispatch of them.
Both Damon and Stefan learn Katherine is a vampire separately but their love is undeterred. The brothers’ father, Giuseppe, tells them that the town council plans to eradicate the vampire threat. They’re aware vampires have descended into Mystic Falls and they need to take care of it. He even questions Damon’s loyalty but Stefan defends brother. Damon makes Stefan promise his brother will not reveal Katherine is a vampire. They both care about her and it is in their best interest.
In trying to confide in his father, Stefan foolishly believes that Giuseppe will accept his love with Katherine. Because of this, he openly sympathizes with vampires and questions whether the town needs to act against them. In assuming Stefan means Katherine, Giuseppe tells his son that he will take his secrets to the grave.
Later, during intercourse, when Katherine drinks from Stefan, she tastes vervain. Vervain in this vampire incarnation is a vampire’s garlic/kryptonite/what have you. Because, Stefan’s blood is spiked, she’s weakened. Guiseppe and other townspeople burst into the bedroom and take Katherine to a church to burn with the rest of the vampires they’ve rounded up.
Damon blames Stefan for Katherine being captured and a part of Stefan blames himself. A part of Stefan always will. While she’s being transported, Stefan distracts Jonathon Gilbert while Damon frees Katherine. Damon’s shot and killed. Stefan picks up a gun but he is shot as well. He wakes up later with Emily, Katherine’s handmaiden sitting beside him. He now has a ring on his finger which Katherine told her handmaiden to give to him. This ring means he can walk in the sunlight. Emily then explains that Katherine had been compelling him to drink vampire blood and that he is currently transitioning into becoming a vampire. In this vampire incarnation, to become a vampire, a human must die with vampire blood in their system. To complete the transition, they need to feed or else they perish forever.
A witch at the time, Emily (and Katherine’s caretaker) helps entomb the vampires that are rounded up under the church.
This isn’t revealed until the second season, but, Katherine is not entombed. A sidenote: there are two prominent families in Mystic Falls, the Gilberts and the Lockwoods. Katherine bribes a Lockwood ancestor and flees. The brothers have no knowledge of this.
Stefan, having not transitioned yet, confronts his father and the man confesses that he shot his own sons. Guiseppe attacks and Stefan accidentally stakes him. Bringing his bloody hands to his mouth, his father is disgusted and Stefan finishes his transition by taking a big chunk out of, well, his father.
Later on, down by the riverside he pushes Damon to transition and encourages him to drink from a young villagewoman. After Damon transitions, he promises his brother an eternity of misery. He doesn’t want to be a vampire and Katherine is dead. So, Stefan will be tormented. On the other end of the spectrum, Stefan enjoys his newfound power.
After this, his pre-canon history blurs. Overtime, Stefan’s thirst for blood and destructive behavior subsides. It is mentioned that he was enrolled Harvard in the 70’s. He meets his best friend (of his life, likely) Lexi, a fellow vampire. There is mention of a Bono concert they once went to where Katherine was apparently in attendance. What is important is that he continues to mellow out and eventually begins to live on animal blood.
Every few years he returns to Mystic Falls to visit. Until the series begins, the last time he is in Mystic Falls is 1954. Throughout his second life, his brother makes sure to drop by where he is at the time and wreak havoc on his life. He does this every fifteen or so years.
Three months before the series starts, Stefan witnesses a car accident involving a family: two parents and a daughter. The car is run off a bridge in Mystic Falls. The father refuses aid until Stefan helps his daughter. When he returns to the wreck the parents are long gone. The girl he saves, Elena Gilbert, is the spitting image of Katherine, his ex. From then on, he hangs around and essentially stalks her. He learns that she is nothing like Katherine. Where Katherine was manipulative, psychotic, and entitled, Elena is sweet, good-natured and now thanks to a car accident, sullen and this intrigues him more. He enrolls in her high school to get to know her better.
We learn later Elena is a doppelganger to Katherine. We don’t learn how this is possible, yet. But, we learn her birthmother is now a vampire. It’s a very tragic, strange story. Suffice it to say, she’s a Katherine look-a-like who owns a hair straightener.
Elena and Stefan’s attraction is mutual but he doesn’t approach her directly right away. He runs into her literally outside the men’s room at school. After school, he stalks her in the cemetery where her parents are buried. Okay, he “visits family.” But, yeah, he’s stalking. Elena, after seeing a crow, runs through really fake fog and trips, with Stefan at her feet. Stefan returns Elena’s journal, which she had left at the graveyard, to her that night and she invites him to the Mystic Grill, a local hangout for teens, parents, and crazies alike. There, he meets her friends (Matt, Caroline, Bonnie…). Matt in particular is her ex. Before the car accident they’d been together since grade school on and off. After, Elena had told Matt she needed space.
There, Stefan’s informed of a party at the Falls, another hangout, this one at the edge of the forest somewhere. There’s no waterfall to speak of, but for some reason, it is called the Falls. Back at the Salvatore Boarding House, Zach, a descendent of the Salvatore line (a nephew of some sort who looks older then both Salvatore brothers) and there to stop uninvited vampires from coming in, informs Stefan of mysterious deaths happening. He warns Stefan this would happen and even accuses his family but Stefan assures Zach he has it under control. In class the next day Stefan shows his inner sarcastic historian and contradicts his teacher about casualties in “The Battle of Willow Creek,” a battle Damon had fought in years back.
Stefan attends the party at the Falls to find Elena. Caroline gets her slutty, two dimensional, talons into him but he rejects her point blank. He finally finds Elena and they attempt to bond. Elena’s brother Jeremy wandering into the woods interrupts them and then Jeremy finds the body of his love interest, Matt’s sister Vicki in the woods. At the boarding house, Stefan comes face to face with his brother Damon [who bit Vicki]. Damon taunts Stefan, attempts to rile him up. It escalates into a fight and Stefan flies Damon out the window. Damon succeeds in getting Stefan to show his vampire visage. On the ground, Damon lays the vampire brother smackdown and then warns Stefan not to mess with him again. Stefan visits Elena that night and asks if she’s okay. She tells him to ask her tomorrow before inviting him inside.
At school the next day (because the pace of the show within the first five episodes is glacially slow,) Stefan overhears Matt say to Elena that Vicki told him a vampire attacked her. Weird chain but Stefan isbrooding sitting on a table at school and overhears the conversation. Stefan goes to the hospital and compels her. He tries to slip out unnoticed but Matt sees him. Luckily, Stefan gets away. While he’s out, Elena stops by the manse and Damon lays on the charm before letting it slip about Katherine, Stefan’s ex. He conveniently leaves out choice details involving Elena’s uncanny resemblance and the real circumstances. He simply says it was tragic and that she died in a fire.
Stefan walks in on Elena and Damon. He asks her to leave. Because at this point, he’s not so romantic as much as pissed at Damon and loses all his manners with his brother in the room. Damon accuses him of repeating history i.e. Katherine/Elena. Zach asks if Elena is worth it considering the danger Damon now poses. At the candlelight celebration for a passing metaphorical comet, Stefan and Elena step away from everyone to have a heart-to unbeating-vampire-heart. She’s bothered by his past with Katherine and Stefan’s not mentioning that he had a brother. Matt confronts Stefan and warns him that even though Matt’s not with Elena anymore, he’s looking out for her. Vicki disappears – again, and Matt forms a search party for her. Hearing Vicki’s screams, Stefan tracks her down to the roof of a nearby building where Damon is messing with her. Damon compels her to believe Stefan attacked her for fun. Then he compels her again to make her think it was an “animal attack”…again and cites the fact that Stefan? Used to be way more fun. Matt thanks Stefan for finding Vicki. They seem to be all right now. Elena arrives at the mansion later that night and she and Stefan discuss what they would’ve written in their diaries. Elena realizes she needs to take a leap. Stefan realizes how epic they are and then they share their first kiss.
Stefan briefly joins the football team. I’m only mentioning it because it happens but it’s not crucial to the story. While Stefan and Elena try to be “school people” Damon compels Caroline into – what is essentially rape and coercion. Stefan tries to get through to his brother because he knows there is some humanity left. After shaking Stefan’s hand, Bonnie gets a “weird feeling” and warns Elena to stay away. Elena then arranges for a dinner for her, Bonnie and Stefan so her best friend can get to know her boyfriend. It works. Damon and Caroline crash the party, however. Before the latest football game even starts, Damon, in order to prove his lack of humanity, kills the coach. The game is postponed.
Stefan writes in his diary that Damon must be stopped. Stefan learns Zach has secretly been growing vervain in the basement. He learns every Salvatore at that house has. Elena invites Stefan to the Founder’s Ball. At the manse, Stefan tries to poison Damon with scotch but Damon doesn’t fall for it. That is Stefan’s plan all along. He wants Damon’s guard down. At the party, Caroline pulls Stefan onto the dance floor while Damon fills Elena’s head with more information about Katherine. Elena sees old signatures from Mystic Falls ancestors and catches sight of Damon and Stefan’s signatures. Damon claims the original Salvatore brothers signed it.
On the dance floor at the Founder’s Ball, Stefan keeps mum about his past which frustrates Elena especially when Damon has been so forthcoming. Inside the bathroom, Elena finds bite marks all over Caroline’s body. She makes up with Stefan only to be appalled at how nonchalant he acts towards it. Apparently, “I’m taking care of it” isn’t good enough when your friend is in an abusive relationship with your pseudo-boyfriend’s brother. Some people! Stefan does end up taking care of it, however. Knowing Damon has been feeding on her, Stefan spiked Caroline’s drink with vervain and captures Damon, locking him up in the Salvatore’s basement.
After watching over Damon, Stefan returns to school and attempts to have a normal life. He convinces Elena to meet him at the Mystic Grill but he’s late on account of Zach is nearly beheaded by Damon. At the Mystic Grill, an old man recognizes Stefan from way back in 1954. To make up the fact that he was late, Stefan opens himself up to Elena by cooking her dinner, revealing truths about his ex Katherine and himself. She finds it very romantic. Points for Stefan. Elena starts to have doubts as to what Stefan is. In th slowest reveal in history, she does research, there are flashbacks and she voice-overs as she realizes Stefan and Damon have to be vampires.
It all adds up!
While on the lam, Damon attacks Vicki again. Stefan returns home to discover Zach dead (Damon had killed him) and leaves in order to stake his brother once and for all. But, Elena is on his doorstep wanting to know what he is.
Elena gives him one day to explain everything to her. If, at the end of the day, she doesn’t want to be with him, Stefan understands. At the manse, Vicki is badly wounded so Damon feeds her some of his blood to get her to be more fun. He realizes after, all she needs is a little death. By breaking her neck with vampire blood in her system, Damon turns Vicki, Elena’s friend, brother’s sort-of girlfriend, and Matt’s sister into a vampire.
Another sidenote: There’s a subplot about Jenna, Elena’s guardian and her ex, a news reporter named Logan. It’s revealed that he is on the Town Council, the latest generation’s, and he’s only getting close to Jenna to retrieve an artifact of John Gilberts. It’s a compass that locates vampires. He, the sheriff, the mayor and the mayor’s wife make up the town council.
While Vicki does escape, because she’s bored and misses Jeremy, she’s tracked down in the woods. Logan attacks the Salvatore brothers with wooden bullets but Vicki saves their lives and fully transitions by killing him. Stefan shows up at Elena’s with a bloody shirt and news about Vicki. Elena tells Stefan she gave him one day and that she can’t see herself with him.
Stefan tries to look after Vicki post-transition but knows a successful one will take a lot of time because of her volatile nature and past drug use. She’s too impulsive and she gets bored easily. When night falls, Vicki escapes and visits the school dance. She calls Jeremy and asks him to run away with her and he complies. At a party that night, Stefan has to stake Vicki when she attacks Elena leaving Jeremy devastated. Elena pleads with Damon to erase Jeremy’s memory and to replace it with, Vicki left but she’s much better off and Jeremy is essentially over her.
Stefan’s best friend Lexi arrives to celebrate his birthday. He explains to her that he really does love Elena. Speaking of the devil, Elena does arrive and meets Lexi – in a towel – and gets the wrong idea. At a party at the grill (hosted by a compelled Caroline) Elena seems a little more receptive to Stefan after a nudge from Lexi. Damon feeds on a couple and compels them to think Lexi was the one who fed from them. Damon’s endgame finally becomes clear when Stefan and Elena spy him staking Lexi. He becomes a part of the town council.
Later on, Stefan attacks Damon but spares his life because Damon spared his brother’s once. Stefan is still distraught as Lexi was his best friend. His cool attitude towards his brother mellows when they “bond” and while playing football, Damon reveals he is in Mystic Falls to bring Katherine back. He wants to open the tomb.
Sidenote part trios: Bonnie spends the first half of the season discovering she’s a witch and what her powers entail. An amulet retrieved by Damon and then stolen by Caroline ends up in Bonnie’s hands. After Caroline, Bonnie, and Elena perform a séance Bonnie’s possessed by her ancestor, Emily…Katherine’s handmaiden.
Damon attacks Bonnie/Emily but Stefan feeds her his blood to save her. Bonnie is grateful but no friendlier to the bloodsuckers. Stefan decides to leave town.
Stefan overhears the sheriff coming to Damon for help about another woman drained of blood. Stefan finds Elena at school and tells her he’s postponing his departure on account of – more vampires. Damon compels Caroline to help use the vampire-finding compass. It leads him to a warehouse where he is shot by Logan – who is now a vampire, too. Logan inquires into how Damon can walk in the sunlight and Damon wants to know who sired Logan. Leaving Damon unconscious, Logan pays a visit to parent/teacher night. At school, Stefan explains further that because he never ages, he needs to continuously move on. This is just his latest excuse to keep them apart. Logan shows up, threatens Stefan, and the sheriff. Caroline accepts a ride from Logan. He smashes her head against the window because she has all the luck in the world. Stefan and Damon catch up to Logan’s car and attack. Logan admits he knows about the tomb under the church and how to get into it for Damon to get to Katherine and Damon lets him go.
At the manse, Stefan admits to Elena that he’s leaving for her, for her safety. As he gets out of the car, Elena follows and finally admits she loves him. I am taking him from before Elena gets out of the car.
first person sample:
[ private to Damon ]
You – you get that she doesn’t love you, right? The only thing different then the last time the three of us did this is that I was more involved. But, forgive me for being focused on getting out of here. And no, I’m not complaining. Something’s not right here, including being brought here in the first place. Don’t you see that? Can’t you just put on Katherine blinders for a second and see that there’s a lot that’s just…not right here. We should be focusing on how to get back. We don’t belong here. [ Not that Stefan believes he belongs anywhere, but he’s not going to voice that thought. ] And if you make one more crack about the bunny population going down…
[ he sighs ]
I get that you love her. But, she doesn’t love you. Or me. She never has. So, stop acting like the world revolves around her because that’s what she wants. Don’t you have questions? Aren’t you angry?
‘Cause I am.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m going to go see how far this forest extends. [ Have fun being whipped. ]
third person sample:
Sunlight streamed into the window. Stefan stretched out, his hand hitting the headboard. His legs followed, skimming along the top sheet. Today was the day he would leave. He didn’t want to move or open his eyes. If he did, he would be admitting that he would have to leave Elena for her own good. Their conversation the night before replayed in his head. What had happened after? He couldn’t remember.
Finally, he allowed himself to open his eyes.
Blinking, he took in his surroundings. He finally felt the earth under him. Looking back, he saw that the headboard he had bumped was a log. He sat up quickly, darting his head around again. After Elena drove away, had he been kidnapped? The only way that would have happened was vervain. He would’ve been jumped and injected. Could Logan have been behind this?
Or, Logan and Damon?
Frustration over why he was here boiled inside him as he got to his feet. As he studied his surroundings, he made a mental list, a list of reasons why Damon could have double-crossed him and dumped him in the middle of nowhere. Could he have struck up a deal with Fell? Damon told him it was done, that Logan was no longer a threat. They hadn’t found out why Logan had been turned or by whom.
Maybe this was their doing. Some - nameless vampire.
Whoever had taken him, he knew one thing for sure. Elena was safe. Unless, this had happened before Elena had driven away. He checked his pockets for his cell phone. Nothing. And he still had his ring on, so whoever took him wasn’t trying to kill him, just…get him out of the way.
He was getting hungry, however, and he couldn’t help but mentally thank whoever had taken him and dropped him in the middle of a forest. Probably somewhere in Virginia. Or, maybe even Maryland or Pennsylvania. Hell, if they’re a vampire or a witch was behind this, he could be anywhere in the world. And Elena was still unaccounted for.
He closed his eyes, trying to hone in on the sound of a nearby highway or people. Anything. He heard nothing. Just a small rabbit a few yards away. Bugs Bunny was dispatched quickly, better him then the next lost camper, and Stefan was back to the clearing he had been left in, in seconds.
Sitting on the log, he tried to think of his next step. He missed the object by his foot the first time when he had been laying down, but not the second. It was a communication device of some sort.
Was this some sort of game?
History:
Stefan Salvatore was born in the year 1847 in Mystic Falls, Virginia. He has one older brother, Damon Salvatore. While Stefan stays at home, Damon goes off to fight in the Civil War. The first thing of note that happens in Stefan’s life is the arrival of Katherine Pierce. Katherine arrives with an older woman, Miss Pearl, and her daughter, Anna. Unbeknownst to the town, Katherine, Miss Pearl and Anna are vampires. Katherine claims to be an orphan from Atlanta. The Salvatores take her in. Stefan is transfixed. He feels an undeniable attraction and they strike up a relationship. At the same time, Katherine is wooing his brother, Damon.
Dating back who knows how far, the town of Mystic Falls has had a town council. It is the council’s job to keep vampires at bay and if needed, to dispatch of them.
Both Damon and Stefan learn Katherine is a vampire separately but their love is undeterred. The brothers’ father, Giuseppe, tells them that the town council plans to eradicate the vampire threat. They’re aware vampires have descended into Mystic Falls and they need to take care of it. He even questions Damon’s loyalty but Stefan defends brother. Damon makes Stefan promise his brother will not reveal Katherine is a vampire. They both care about her and it is in their best interest.
In trying to confide in his father, Stefan foolishly believes that Giuseppe will accept his love with Katherine. Because of this, he openly sympathizes with vampires and questions whether the town needs to act against them. In assuming Stefan means Katherine, Giuseppe tells his son that he will take his secrets to the grave.
Later, during intercourse, when Katherine drinks from Stefan, she tastes vervain. Vervain in this vampire incarnation is a vampire’s garlic/kryptonite/what have you. Because, Stefan’s blood is spiked, she’s weakened. Guiseppe and other townspeople burst into the bedroom and take Katherine to a church to burn with the rest of the vampires they’ve rounded up.
Damon blames Stefan for Katherine being captured and a part of Stefan blames himself. A part of Stefan always will. While she’s being transported, Stefan distracts Jonathon Gilbert while Damon frees Katherine. Damon’s shot and killed. Stefan picks up a gun but he is shot as well. He wakes up later with Emily, Katherine’s handmaiden sitting beside him. He now has a ring on his finger which Katherine told her handmaiden to give to him. This ring means he can walk in the sunlight. Emily then explains that Katherine had been compelling him to drink vampire blood and that he is currently transitioning into becoming a vampire. In this vampire incarnation, to become a vampire, a human must die with vampire blood in their system. To complete the transition, they need to feed or else they perish forever.
A witch at the time, Emily (and Katherine’s caretaker) helps entomb the vampires that are rounded up under the church.
This isn’t revealed until the second season, but, Katherine is not entombed. A sidenote: there are two prominent families in Mystic Falls, the Gilberts and the Lockwoods. Katherine bribes a Lockwood ancestor and flees. The brothers have no knowledge of this.
Stefan, having not transitioned yet, confronts his father and the man confesses that he shot his own sons. Guiseppe attacks and Stefan accidentally stakes him. Bringing his bloody hands to his mouth, his father is disgusted and Stefan finishes his transition by taking a big chunk out of, well, his father.
Later on, down by the riverside he pushes Damon to transition and encourages him to drink from a young villagewoman. After Damon transitions, he promises his brother an eternity of misery. He doesn’t want to be a vampire and Katherine is dead. So, Stefan will be tormented. On the other end of the spectrum, Stefan enjoys his newfound power.
After this, his pre-canon history blurs. Overtime, Stefan’s thirst for blood and destructive behavior subsides. It is mentioned that he was enrolled Harvard in the 70’s. He meets his best friend (of his life, likely) Lexi, a fellow vampire. There is mention of a Bono concert they once went to where Katherine was apparently in attendance. What is important is that he continues to mellow out and eventually begins to live on animal blood.
Every few years he returns to Mystic Falls to visit. Until the series begins, the last time he is in Mystic Falls is 1954. Throughout his second life, his brother makes sure to drop by where he is at the time and wreak havoc on his life. He does this every fifteen or so years.
Three months before the series starts, Stefan witnesses a car accident involving a family: two parents and a daughter. The car is run off a bridge in Mystic Falls. The father refuses aid until Stefan helps his daughter. When he returns to the wreck the parents are long gone. The girl he saves, Elena Gilbert, is the spitting image of Katherine, his ex. From then on, he hangs around and essentially stalks her. He learns that she is nothing like Katherine. Where Katherine was manipulative, psychotic, and entitled, Elena is sweet, good-natured and now thanks to a car accident, sullen and this intrigues him more. He enrolls in her high school to get to know her better.
We learn later Elena is a doppelganger to Katherine. We don’t learn how this is possible, yet. But, we learn her birthmother is now a vampire. It’s a very tragic, strange story. Suffice it to say, she’s a Katherine look-a-like who owns a hair straightener.
Elena and Stefan’s attraction is mutual but he doesn’t approach her directly right away. He runs into her literally outside the men’s room at school. After school, he stalks her in the cemetery where her parents are buried. Okay, he “visits family.” But, yeah, he’s stalking. Elena, after seeing a crow, runs through really fake fog and trips, with Stefan at her feet. Stefan returns Elena’s journal, which she had left at the graveyard, to her that night and she invites him to the Mystic Grill, a local hangout for teens, parents, and crazies alike. There, he meets her friends (Matt, Caroline, Bonnie…). Matt in particular is her ex. Before the car accident they’d been together since grade school on and off. After, Elena had told Matt she needed space.
There, Stefan’s informed of a party at the Falls, another hangout, this one at the edge of the forest somewhere. There’s no waterfall to speak of, but for some reason, it is called the Falls. Back at the Salvatore Boarding House, Zach, a descendent of the Salvatore line (a nephew of some sort who looks older then both Salvatore brothers) and there to stop uninvited vampires from coming in, informs Stefan of mysterious deaths happening. He warns Stefan this would happen and even accuses his family but Stefan assures Zach he has it under control. In class the next day Stefan shows his inner sarcastic historian and contradicts his teacher about casualties in “The Battle of Willow Creek,” a battle Damon had fought in years back.
Stefan attends the party at the Falls to find Elena. Caroline gets her slutty, two dimensional, talons into him but he rejects her point blank. He finally finds Elena and they attempt to bond. Elena’s brother Jeremy wandering into the woods interrupts them and then Jeremy finds the body of his love interest, Matt’s sister Vicki in the woods. At the boarding house, Stefan comes face to face with his brother Damon [who bit Vicki]. Damon taunts Stefan, attempts to rile him up. It escalates into a fight and Stefan flies Damon out the window. Damon succeeds in getting Stefan to show his vampire visage. On the ground, Damon lays the vampire brother smackdown and then warns Stefan not to mess with him again. Stefan visits Elena that night and asks if she’s okay. She tells him to ask her tomorrow before inviting him inside.
At school the next day (because the pace of the show within the first five episodes is glacially slow,) Stefan overhears Matt say to Elena that Vicki told him a vampire attacked her. Weird chain but Stefan is
Stefan walks in on Elena and Damon. He asks her to leave. Because at this point, he’s not so romantic as much as pissed at Damon and loses all his manners with his brother in the room. Damon accuses him of repeating history i.e. Katherine/Elena. Zach asks if Elena is worth it considering the danger Damon now poses. At the candlelight celebration for a passing metaphorical comet, Stefan and Elena step away from everyone to have a heart-to unbeating-vampire-heart. She’s bothered by his past with Katherine and Stefan’s not mentioning that he had a brother. Matt confronts Stefan and warns him that even though Matt’s not with Elena anymore, he’s looking out for her. Vicki disappears – again, and Matt forms a search party for her. Hearing Vicki’s screams, Stefan tracks her down to the roof of a nearby building where Damon is messing with her. Damon compels her to believe Stefan attacked her for fun. Then he compels her again to make her think it was an “animal attack”…again and cites the fact that Stefan? Used to be way more fun. Matt thanks Stefan for finding Vicki. They seem to be all right now. Elena arrives at the mansion later that night and she and Stefan discuss what they would’ve written in their diaries. Elena realizes she needs to take a leap. Stefan realizes how epic they are and then they share their first kiss.
Stefan briefly joins the football team. I’m only mentioning it because it happens but it’s not crucial to the story. While Stefan and Elena try to be “school people” Damon compels Caroline into – what is essentially rape and coercion. Stefan tries to get through to his brother because he knows there is some humanity left. After shaking Stefan’s hand, Bonnie gets a “weird feeling” and warns Elena to stay away. Elena then arranges for a dinner for her, Bonnie and Stefan so her best friend can get to know her boyfriend. It works. Damon and Caroline crash the party, however. Before the latest football game even starts, Damon, in order to prove his lack of humanity, kills the coach. The game is postponed.
Stefan writes in his diary that Damon must be stopped. Stefan learns Zach has secretly been growing vervain in the basement. He learns every Salvatore at that house has. Elena invites Stefan to the Founder’s Ball. At the manse, Stefan tries to poison Damon with scotch but Damon doesn’t fall for it. That is Stefan’s plan all along. He wants Damon’s guard down. At the party, Caroline pulls Stefan onto the dance floor while Damon fills Elena’s head with more information about Katherine. Elena sees old signatures from Mystic Falls ancestors and catches sight of Damon and Stefan’s signatures. Damon claims the original Salvatore brothers signed it.
On the dance floor at the Founder’s Ball, Stefan keeps mum about his past which frustrates Elena especially when Damon has been so forthcoming. Inside the bathroom, Elena finds bite marks all over Caroline’s body. She makes up with Stefan only to be appalled at how nonchalant he acts towards it. Apparently, “I’m taking care of it” isn’t good enough when your friend is in an abusive relationship with your pseudo-boyfriend’s brother. Some people! Stefan does end up taking care of it, however. Knowing Damon has been feeding on her, Stefan spiked Caroline’s drink with vervain and captures Damon, locking him up in the Salvatore’s basement.
After watching over Damon, Stefan returns to school and attempts to have a normal life. He convinces Elena to meet him at the Mystic Grill but he’s late on account of Zach is nearly beheaded by Damon. At the Mystic Grill, an old man recognizes Stefan from way back in 1954. To make up the fact that he was late, Stefan opens himself up to Elena by cooking her dinner, revealing truths about his ex Katherine and himself. She finds it very romantic. Points for Stefan. Elena starts to have doubts as to what Stefan is. In th slowest reveal in history, she does research, there are flashbacks and she voice-overs as she realizes Stefan and Damon have to be vampires.
It all adds up!
While on the lam, Damon attacks Vicki again. Stefan returns home to discover Zach dead (Damon had killed him) and leaves in order to stake his brother once and for all. But, Elena is on his doorstep wanting to know what he is.
Elena gives him one day to explain everything to her. If, at the end of the day, she doesn’t want to be with him, Stefan understands. At the manse, Vicki is badly wounded so Damon feeds her some of his blood to get her to be more fun. He realizes after, all she needs is a little death. By breaking her neck with vampire blood in her system, Damon turns Vicki, Elena’s friend, brother’s sort-of girlfriend, and Matt’s sister into a vampire.
Another sidenote: There’s a subplot about Jenna, Elena’s guardian and her ex, a news reporter named Logan. It’s revealed that he is on the Town Council, the latest generation’s, and he’s only getting close to Jenna to retrieve an artifact of John Gilberts. It’s a compass that locates vampires. He, the sheriff, the mayor and the mayor’s wife make up the town council.
While Vicki does escape, because she’s bored and misses Jeremy, she’s tracked down in the woods. Logan attacks the Salvatore brothers with wooden bullets but Vicki saves their lives and fully transitions by killing him. Stefan shows up at Elena’s with a bloody shirt and news about Vicki. Elena tells Stefan she gave him one day and that she can’t see herself with him.
Stefan tries to look after Vicki post-transition but knows a successful one will take a lot of time because of her volatile nature and past drug use. She’s too impulsive and she gets bored easily. When night falls, Vicki escapes and visits the school dance. She calls Jeremy and asks him to run away with her and he complies. At a party that night, Stefan has to stake Vicki when she attacks Elena leaving Jeremy devastated. Elena pleads with Damon to erase Jeremy’s memory and to replace it with, Vicki left but she’s much better off and Jeremy is essentially over her.
Stefan’s best friend Lexi arrives to celebrate his birthday. He explains to her that he really does love Elena. Speaking of the devil, Elena does arrive and meets Lexi – in a towel – and gets the wrong idea. At a party at the grill (hosted by a compelled Caroline) Elena seems a little more receptive to Stefan after a nudge from Lexi. Damon feeds on a couple and compels them to think Lexi was the one who fed from them. Damon’s endgame finally becomes clear when Stefan and Elena spy him staking Lexi. He becomes a part of the town council.
Later on, Stefan attacks Damon but spares his life because Damon spared his brother’s once. Stefan is still distraught as Lexi was his best friend. His cool attitude towards his brother mellows when they “bond” and while playing football, Damon reveals he is in Mystic Falls to bring Katherine back. He wants to open the tomb.
Sidenote part trios: Bonnie spends the first half of the season discovering she’s a witch and what her powers entail. An amulet retrieved by Damon and then stolen by Caroline ends up in Bonnie’s hands. After Caroline, Bonnie, and Elena perform a séance Bonnie’s possessed by her ancestor, Emily…Katherine’s handmaiden.
Damon attacks Bonnie/Emily but Stefan feeds her his blood to save her. Bonnie is grateful but no friendlier to the bloodsuckers. Stefan decides to leave town.
Stefan overhears the sheriff coming to Damon for help about another woman drained of blood. Stefan finds Elena at school and tells her he’s postponing his departure on account of – more vampires. Damon compels Caroline to help use the vampire-finding compass. It leads him to a warehouse where he is shot by Logan – who is now a vampire, too. Logan inquires into how Damon can walk in the sunlight and Damon wants to know who sired Logan. Leaving Damon unconscious, Logan pays a visit to parent/teacher night. At school, Stefan explains further that because he never ages, he needs to continuously move on. This is just his latest excuse to keep them apart. Logan shows up, threatens Stefan, and the sheriff. Caroline accepts a ride from Logan. He smashes her head against the window because she has all the luck in the world. Stefan and Damon catch up to Logan’s car and attack. Logan admits he knows about the tomb under the church and how to get into it for Damon to get to Katherine and Damon lets him go.
At the manse, Stefan admits to Elena that he’s leaving for her, for her safety. As he gets out of the car, Elena follows and finally admits she loves him. I am taking him from before Elena gets out of the car.
first person sample:
[ private to Damon ]
You – you get that she doesn’t love you, right? The only thing different then the last time the three of us did this is that I was more involved. But, forgive me for being focused on getting out of here. And no, I’m not complaining. Something’s not right here, including being brought here in the first place. Don’t you see that? Can’t you just put on Katherine blinders for a second and see that there’s a lot that’s just…not right here. We should be focusing on how to get back. We don’t belong here. [ Not that Stefan believes he belongs anywhere, but he’s not going to voice that thought. ] And if you make one more crack about the bunny population going down…
[ he sighs ]
I get that you love her. But, she doesn’t love you. Or me. She never has. So, stop acting like the world revolves around her because that’s what she wants. Don’t you have questions? Aren’t you angry?
‘Cause I am.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m going to go see how far this forest extends. [ Have fun being whipped. ]
third person sample:
Sunlight streamed into the window. Stefan stretched out, his hand hitting the headboard. His legs followed, skimming along the top sheet. Today was the day he would leave. He didn’t want to move or open his eyes. If he did, he would be admitting that he would have to leave Elena for her own good. Their conversation the night before replayed in his head. What had happened after? He couldn’t remember.
Finally, he allowed himself to open his eyes.
Blinking, he took in his surroundings. He finally felt the earth under him. Looking back, he saw that the headboard he had bumped was a log. He sat up quickly, darting his head around again. After Elena drove away, had he been kidnapped? The only way that would have happened was vervain. He would’ve been jumped and injected. Could Logan have been behind this?
Or, Logan and Damon?
Frustration over why he was here boiled inside him as he got to his feet. As he studied his surroundings, he made a mental list, a list of reasons why Damon could have double-crossed him and dumped him in the middle of nowhere. Could he have struck up a deal with Fell? Damon told him it was done, that Logan was no longer a threat. They hadn’t found out why Logan had been turned or by whom.
Maybe this was their doing. Some - nameless vampire.
Whoever had taken him, he knew one thing for sure. Elena was safe. Unless, this had happened before Elena had driven away. He checked his pockets for his cell phone. Nothing. And he still had his ring on, so whoever took him wasn’t trying to kill him, just…get him out of the way.
He was getting hungry, however, and he couldn’t help but mentally thank whoever had taken him and dropped him in the middle of a forest. Probably somewhere in Virginia. Or, maybe even Maryland or Pennsylvania. Hell, if they’re a vampire or a witch was behind this, he could be anywhere in the world. And Elena was still unaccounted for.
He closed his eyes, trying to hone in on the sound of a nearby highway or people. Anything. He heard nothing. Just a small rabbit a few yards away. Bugs Bunny was dispatched quickly, better him then the next lost camper, and Stefan was back to the clearing he had been left in, in seconds.
Sitting on the log, he tried to think of his next step. He missed the object by his foot the first time when he had been laying down, but not the second. It was a communication device of some sort.
Was this some sort of game?
