Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
Elena Gilbert returns to Mystic Falls High School after her parents’ deaths and becomes close to Stefan Salvatore, a new student who is secretly a vampire trying to live without human blood. His older brother Damon arrives with a more dangerous history and an interest in Katherine Pierce, the vampire both brothers loved in 1864. Elena discovers that she looks exactly like Katherine, while her friend Bonnie Bennett begins to recognize the witchcraft in her family. Vicki Donovan’s transformation ends when Stefan stakes her after she attacks Elena and Jeremy.
Damon’s attempt to free Katherine from the tomb beneath Fell’s Church brings the brothers into conflict with Bonnie and her grandmother, Sheila. The spell opens the tomb but Katherine is not inside; Sheila dies after helping contain its magic, and the trapped vampires escape into town. Anna befriends Jeremy while searching for the Gilbert family journal, and Elena learns that her birth mother Isobel is connected to Alaric Saltzman. John Gilbert returns looking for an invention that can expose and incapacitate Mystic Falls’ supernatural residents. Stefan’s struggle with blood hunger also strains his relationship with Elena.
At Founder’s Day, John uses the device during the fireworks, incapacitating vampires and affecting Tyler and Mayor Lockwood as well. The escaped tomb vampires are gathered into a burning building; Bonnie stops the flames, allowing Damon to get free, while John stakes Anna. Jeremy drinks Anna’s blood and overdoses on pills, hoping to become a vampire. After Damon kisses the woman he believes is Elena, the finale reveals that Katherine has been impersonating her. Katherine cuts off John’s fingers to remove his ring and stabs him, while the real Elena is still outside the house and does not know what has happened.