Chapter 5 Elena becomes vampire

Klaus acts on his intentions to leave town with Elena, but finds resistance from a surprising new enemy, Alaric the new Original vampire hunter. Bonnie calls on Abby to help her with a difficult spell that will stop Alaric's heart, the same desiccation spell Abby used on Mikael. Abby warns Bonnie that this will make her subject to temptation she might not be able to resist. Alaric forces Elena to come to the school after he captures and tortures Caroline and tries to persuade her to kill Caroline, as Elena had previously expressed her interest in killing vampires.

When Elena tries unsuccessfully to save Caroline and is held captive by Alaric, the Salvatore brothers and Klaus rush to save her. Klaus reveals that it is his bloodline to which the Salvatore brothers and Caroline are linked. As Caroline is escaping, Klaus grabs her and makes sure that Caroline gets home safely. A stunned Caroline agrees to let Klaus, Damon and Stefan save Elena, thanks Klaus, and leaves. Klaus goes to save Elena, taking on Alaric, but Alaric quickly turns the tables and is ready to stake him, but just as Alaric is ready to kill Klaus, Elena correctly assumes that she is Alaric's lifeline and that if she dies, so does he. Klaus escapes with Elena, intending to bleed her dry before he leaves town because he wants to kill Alaric. Tyler, Stefan, and Damon use the desiccation spell on Klaus, "killing" him without killing Tyler. Damon and Stefan have a surprisingly candid conversation about the future: if Elena chooses one brother, the other leaves town. Alaric outs both the Sheriff and the Mayor in front of the Council for failing to protect the town from vampires as both their children are vampires. Jeremy takes Elena to the hospital where Meredith takes care of her. Elena dreams of simpler times when her parents, Grayson and Miranda, and Aunt Jenna were still alive and her biggest concern was her relationship with Matt. Stefan and Damon leave Mystic Falls together on a mission, but soon split up when Elena needs one of them. Elijah returns and asks for Klaus' body in return for luring Alaric away. Alaric convinces Jeremy and Matt to help him kill Klaus so Elena can live a happy life, but Jeremy tricks Alaric. Caroline and Tyler are forced to make a life-changing decision and flee from Mystic Falls at the urging of their parents. Stefan kisses Elena before going to deal with Alaric. Alaric surprises Damon at the storage locker where Klaus' body is stored. Alaric kills Klaus (who was revealed to have made Damon's, Stefan's, Caroline's, Abby's and Tyler's bloodline). Matt was taking Elena out of town and she decides to go back to say good-bye to Stefan, saying that he came into her life at the right moment, but maybe if she had met Damon first, it would have been different. Caroline says good-bye to Tyler as Rebekah and Elijah mourn Klaus. Bonnie made a secret deal to reincarnate Klaus in the body of Tyler so that her friends would not die, however no one else knows this, as they all believe that Klaus was lying about being the head of their bloodline. Elena and Matt get into a car crash (while this is happening Elena is having flashbacks to when she and her parents were dying in the car). It is then shown in a flash back that Damon and Elena met the night of the car crash involving Elena and her parents, where he tells her that she wants "a love that consumes you, you want passion, an adventure, and even a little danger." But after meeting her, Damon compelled her saying that "No one can know I'm in town yet." When Stefan comes to save her and Matt, she signals him to save Matt instead of her. Elena then drowns, which made Alaric go down with her. He then says goodbye to Jeremy in ghost form. At the end of the episode Dr. Fell reveals to Damon that Elena was not suffering from a concussion, but a bleeding in the brain and that she did what she had to do to save her, by giving her vampire blood. The episode ends with Elena waking up as a vampire