The Vampire Diaries: Stand By Me Recap/Review

'Stand By Me' is the saddest episode of 'The Vampire Diaries' that I've ever seen. You have to agree that in the total of it's four seasons, no episode has been as heartbreaking as this one. On the island, Elena finds Jeremy's body but sees the ring on his finger so she believes this will bring him back to life. Although, Stefan tells Damon that Jeremy was a supernatural being as he was one of the five so the ring won't bring him back to life. I remember thinking that you can tell this episode is gonna be sad from this point onwards.



Caroline is trying to clean house for the Gilberts when Stefan brings Elena and Jeremy home. However, Elena seems to be completely fine, she is not once doubting the ring. On the island, Damon is searching for Bonnie who is now missing but he finds Rebekah instead. She doesn't know yet about the cure so Damon has to fill her in on Katherine stealing it and Jeremy dying. Also on the island, Bonnie wakes up and finds Shane waiting for her. UGH! Why is Shane still here!? He tells her all about Jeremy so Bonnie loses it. At the Gilbert house, Caroline and Stefan talk about how Elena is in denial but she overhears and denies that she's in denial (if that makes sense).

Stefan discusses a cover story with Caroline after she decides that they need to arrange a funeral or something. They decide to call in Meredith to help with the situation because they smell Jeremy's body decomposing. In a forest on that damn island, Damon and Rebekah search for Bonnie while trying to stay away from Silas. It's cool to have some Damon and Rebekah scenes because I think those two are great together. Their fun is cut short though when Vaughn tries to shoot them with arrows (wrong show, dude), Rebekah gets hit in the spine but Damon is able to capture Vaughn. Elsewhere, Bonnie becomes hysterical about Jeremy's death but Shane calms her down when he promises that she'll see Jeremy again. In Elena's room, she finds her diary which she then brings with her into Jeremy's room. Meredith shows up after this to check on Jeremy. She's pretty sure that he's dead and Elena doesn't want to hear this so she freaks out. Matt comes in while Elena is shouting at Meredith and sees his best friend dead. Matt's reaction was perfect and just so sad.

Elena has tea with Matt downstairs because he has figured out that she's totally out of control. On the island, Damon and Rebekah torture Vaughn so he reveals that he worked with Katherine. She is just so sneaky! Also, Haley gave Katherine a lot of information to do with Silas and the cure. Lastly, Vaughn says that Katherine might be in New Orleans. Damon then leaves Vaughn to Rebekah because he has to take Bonnie home. Speaking of, Shane tells Bonnie that there needs to be another massacre of twelve in order to bring Jeremy back. She doesn't want to do it at first but Jeremy appears to her and when she can't help him, she then decides to take part in Shane's crazy plan. Meanwhile, Stefan calls Damon to tell him to get back to Mystic Falls because the sire bond is the only thing that can help Elena. He doesn't want to leave without Bonnie, that's okay though because she suddenly shows up and tells Damon that she knows how to save Jeremy.

Matt takes Elena to the stoner pit at school so they can reminisce about Vicki and Jeremy, this is an attempt to get Elena to be okay with the death. Although, Stefan calls to say that Bonnie and Damon are on their way and that Bonnie might know how to save Jeremy. Down the well, Vaughn tells Rebekah that Silas would be able to look like anyone if he wanted because he was wearing a mask before. Rebekah gets real scared so she just leaves Vaughn down there. In Mystic Falls, Bonnie returns home and Shane's plan is revealed. To get Jeremy back, they need to do another massacre then Bonnie has to do a spell which drops the veil on an after world where supernatural creatures go. Apparently this is where Silas is supposed to go if someone ever kills him and where all the dead supernatural creatures are right now so of course Silas wants to destroy it with a spell. However, how can they trust this? Also, do they want all the supernatural creatures from that after world to come back into the real world? While everyone's fighting about that, the phone rings and Elena answers. It's April calling for Jeremy, this and the big fight brings Elena to the conclusion that her brother is actually dead.

Elena goes upstairs to see her brother's body and then she really loses it. She overheard what Caroline and Stefan said about a cover story so she gets ready to burn the house down. Not just because of her brother but also because the house is filled with too much pain. Stefan, Damon and Caroline see how frantic Elena is so Stefan gets Damon to use the sire bond on her. He makes her turn her emotions off. Nina Dobrev's performance in this scene was amazing and truly heartbreaking.

Matt drives Bonnie home while Elena has her breakdown and when Bonnie gets out of the truck, Shane appears and is being very creepy. At this point I'm thinking that something isn't right. Meanwhile, Rebekah is still on that island when she comes across Shane's body! This means that Silas is in Mystic Falls pretending to be Shane! I knew something was up! After Matt leaves Bonnie home, he sits in his truck and cries about his buddy's death. This was another great scene. Afterwards, the now emotionless Elena, goes through with her original cover story of burning down the house with Jeremy's body instead. Stefan tries to reason with her by saying that she might want to come back to the house but she says that she won't. The brothers and Elena walk away from the house as it burns down. Inside, we see Jeremy burning along with his sketches and Elena's diary. This episode was so devastatingly brilliant. I would also say that it's probably the best episode in season 4, if not the best episode in the entire series so far (I don't really wanna say that in case I'm forgetting a few episodes). So much has happened in this season and there have been some incredible episodes so I can't wait to see what's next but we have to wait until after the break. See you then...

Overall episode score:-
'Stand By Me' = A+