The series begins by introducing the fictional town of Mystic Falls, Va., where teenager Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev) and her younger brother Jeremy (Steven McQueen) are attending high school and coping with the loss of their parents. Bonnie (Katerina Graham) and Caroline (Candice Accola) are introduced as Elena’s best friends. As her friends nudge her to become active in school again, Elena’s eye is soon caught by new student Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley) and the two begin to date. Elena quickly learns that Stefan and his brother Damon (Ian Somerhalder) are vampires. Stefan begins to show Elena the other significant parts of her hometown.
Season two, directly in the first episode, allows a new character to enter the plot. Also played by Nina Dobrev, Katherine Pierce is no other than Elena’s vampire doppelganger. A doppelganger is simply a paranormal double of a living person. Katherine returns to Mystic Falls because she is on the hunt for a magical moonstone. After the arrival of Katherine, the original vampire family also returns home. The Originals, as so they’re called, also bring on complications as member Niklaus (Joseph Morgan) searches for a way to break his curse. Klaus is a vampire-werewolf hybrid. Werewolves also enter the plot in season two and viewers learn that a bite from a werewolf can kill a vampire. At the end of the episode, Stefan gives himself over to Klaus in exchange for the cure to heal Damon from a werewolf bite.
In the third season of the Vampire Diaries, the plot focuses on the origins of Klaus and The Original family. Stefan is still under the command of Klaus and Damon and Elena quickly become worried. Klaus tries to create more hybrids but fails because he learns that Elena, a doppelganger, can’t be alive for that to happen. Stefan tries to distract Klaus and urges Damon to convince Elena that he will never return home. In the last episode, Stefan returns to Mystic Falls after Elena becomes involved in a serious car accident and dies.
In this season, Elena wakes to find herself in transition. She is both hungry and excited as Stefan has returned for her and teaches her how to properly live as a vampire. Meanwhile, Bonnie and Jeremy try to find a way to heal Elena and make her mortal again. A new identity including a group of vampire hunters enters this season. Damon and Stefan become torn as they argue what’s best for the new Elena. Stefan wants to keep her from human blood at all costs. But Elena’s blood cravings leave her to no choice. Damon allows Elena to feed on him in desperate time of need and Elena goes off to experience real human blood. Stefan tells Caroline that he believes Elena has feelings for Damon. Caroline and Stefan soon realize what Damon has done and figure out that Elena is now sired to Damon because she drank his blood. At the end of the season, Elena denies all meaning to the sire bond and declares that she wants to be with Damon. In the final episode, a new twist develops for the current season. Ancient vampire Silas returns to Mystic Falls as Stefan’s doppelganger. Silas locks Stefan’s body in a vault and enters the town as Stefan.
