The Vampire Diaries S06E14: "Stay"





Two things about television:

1. When you've seen every episode of a TV show, and that show has been running for many seasons—let's say six—you have likely spent more time with its characters than you have spent with many of your friends. You have spent more time mentally living in those characters' homes and workplaces than you spent anyplace else that isn't your actual home or your actual workplace. TV shows aren't simply diversions; they're a second life.

2. As we grow up we develop the ability to compartmentalize, mask true emotion, build walls. We experience real tragedy and drama but shut it off or out, or at least keep calm and carry on like those played-out posters say, because we're taught that there's a certain heroism in holding it together. But there's no such need for those kinds of walls when you're immersed in entertainment. You're not trying to impress anyone or set a good example or be strong for the sake of being strong. It's a TV show: You can just sit there and let those sincere emotions cascade over you. You can feel it all.

Thus, when a TV character departs a show, or when a TV character dies, there is absolutely nothing foolish about feeling devastated for real. These are people we've spent time with for many hours spread over many years; we've seen them grow and live and love in ways that maybe we personally haven't done, and as scary as it can be to admit, the characters on your favorite show can have as much of an impact on your life as the people you hang out with for real. That's probably why we turn to entertainment in the first place—to exercise our unguarded emotions, and to exorcise our misplaced fears.

I am not embarrassed to tell you that "Stay" made me cry pretty hard. Personal reasons, yes, but it was also just a very sad episode of television in general! We lost Jeremy as a main character on The Vampire Diaries, but more devastatingly, Caroline lost her mother. The magic of this episode was both powerful and subtle; it didn't club us over the head with histrionics or melodrama, it simply showcased the confusion and regret and uncontrollable bursts of emotion that accompany someone making that great leap. This was a tough episode, but also a series high. Plus Elena got stoned.

Let's talk about this thing if we are even able to!

We began with a flashback: What began as an ordinary day of preventing teens from partying too hard became the day that would ruin Sheriff Forbes' life forever, as Elena's story arc kicked off. Since "Stay" was an episode mostly about Sheriff Forbes, it made sense that we got to see a little more of what she was like before a gaggle of Italian vampires and their immortal enemies and love interests ruined her life forever.

Except, this being The Vampire Diaries, even Sheriff Forbes' last episode was going to be Elena-centric. So Sheriff Forbes decided that today was the day to really get into the accident case file. She may have been the world's worst sheriff, but it was never too late to start solving crimes.

Meanwhile Elena and Damon called a meeting with Jeremy's principal in a dark cafeteria where they asked politely if he could just let Jeremy graduate even though Jeremy failed tons of classes and missed entire semesters and also it was, like, February. The principal countered with some airtight logic.

So obviously Elena and Damon resorted to Plan B: compulsion. (Why was that not Plan A?) This was still a cute scene, though, because Damon even openly discussed all the supernatural monster drama that Jeremy had been involved with and the principal assumed he was kidding. Also, you know, it's cute whenever Damon does nice things for Jeremy. Their relationship used to be pretty rocky, in my opinion.

Meanwhile at Mystic Grill, Alaric was letting Jeremy get crunked because he is not the best parent or guardian. But he is a good friend.

Damon was able to procure Jeremy a cap and gown for symbolism's sake, I presume, and hey look, it came with a secret surprise!

At first I was sort of annoyed at how long Jeremy's hair was in this episode but then I remembered that it was like this when we first met him and that made me happy. Between that and the joint, all we needed were shitty werewolf sketches and a bad attitude! (Just kidding, present-day Jeremy is so much better than surly teen Jeremy.)

Out in the countryside, this was going down:

Oh just Caroline gettin' into Stefan's jeans! To answer his phone, though, get your mind out of the gutter. But the premise here was that she was outfitting her lake house with all of her mom's stuff so that her mom could have a chill dying experience and Stefan was helping out however he could. This mostly translated to Stefan being the hunk factor in tons of loaded situations. A lot of you might be like, "Having a parent on her deathbed is a weird time for horniness," but Caroline and Stefan seemed pretty okay with it.

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