Elena Gilbert
Elena Gilbert | |
| |
Portrayed by | Nina Dobrev |
Sex | Female |
Age | Born: 1992 |
In May 2009, Elena Gilbert is dating Matt Donovan. However, she doesn't feel for him as intensely as he does for her, and she struggles to find a way to tell him without hurting him. The advice she receives from her mother is that it'll be doing Matt a favor by letting him go. While waiting for her parents to pick her up from a party, Elena meets Damon Salvatore. He tells her that she wants a love that consumes her. However, he then compels her to forget. This encounter is revealed at the end of Season 3.
While driving home, the car goes over Wickory Bridge. Although she doesn't find out until later, Elena is saved by Stefan Salvatore when her father tells the vampire to save Elena first. Both Elena's father and mother die. Three months later, Elena is starting her junior year of high school. She's broken up with Matt, although she's still friends with him. She has a slightly younger brother, Jeremy Gilbert, and their young aunt, Jenna Sommers, is their guardian. She's best friends with Bonnie Bennett and Caroline Forbes.
Elena is still working on moving on from the death of her parents. On her first day of school, she meets Stefan and immediately feels a connection to him. She also gives Jeremy some hell about doing drugs. Stefan and Elena run into each other in the cemetery when she goes there to write in her diary and visit her parents' graves and they formally introduce themselves. At a party, they talk about their personal losses and passion (or lack thereof) in relationships. Elena follows Jeremy into the woods and they find Vicki Donovan's body after she's been attacked by something, though she's still alive.
Later on, Elena invites Stefan inside and they talk all night. Soon after, she goes to the Salvatore mansion but instead finds Damon, who she thinks she's meeting for the first time. He mentions Katherine Pierce, Stefan's old girlfriend. When Stefan arrives, he basically kicks Elena out. That night, she tells him that their lives are too complicated for them to be involved with one another. Elena reassures Jenna that she's doing a good job as their guardian. She then ends up going to Stefan's and they watch the comet together, and their first kiss follows.
Bonnie shows some concern about Stefan and Elena counters it by saying how much happier she is than she has been in a long time. She then invites Stefan to have dinner with her and Bonnie. Although Elena goes to cheerleading practice, her heart clearly isn't in it, and she seems a bit worried when Caroline is dropped off by Damon. At dinner, Elena brings up the topic of Salem witches and how Bonnie's family has lineage from there. Damon and Caroline show up and although Stefan is against it, Elena invites Damon in. She talks to him a bit about Katherine and tells her that she's sorry about what happened because both Stefan and Damon lost her.
Damon tells Elena she should quit cheerleading, which she does the next day. She sees Stefan get a cut on his hand and is clearly surprised when it's suddenly wounded. Bonnie then tells Elena that when she touched Stefan's hand, she felt death. Damon tries to kiss Elena and she slaps him and tells him off. Bonnie relays information she heard from Caroline about the relationship between Stefan and Damon and why they're not on good terms. Elena is doubtful as to the truth of it but also appears to agree that she doesn't know much about Stefan.
At the party, Damon apologizes to Elena and she says that she can't get in between whatever issues the brothers have. She talks to Stefan and gets annoyed when she can't get him to open up at all. Elena goes to the bathroom and finds Caroline there. She notices the bite marks and bruises on Caroline's body and immediately goes to yell at Damon to leave her friend alone. She then mentions it to Stefan. He says he's going to take care of it but Elena doesn't know what that means.
When Stefan suddenly seems to be avoiding her, Elena gets even more irritated. While with him, an old man seems to recognize Stefan and he just shrugs it off. The next day, Elena asks Stefan some questions, trying to get to know him better. She then comes across the same old man as before and he says that he saw Stefan back in 1953. She goes to the news station and looks up archived stories. Elena finds a video that shows Stefan back in 1953. She begins putting all of the pieces together and rushes over to the mansion to confront him.
Elena makes him say what he is--a vampire. She instantly becomes terrified and drives home. He gets into her room and begs her not to tell anyone about what she knows, and says he would never hurt her. Elena pleads with him to leave and he does so. The next day, she listens to everything Stefan has to say. When they get back to her place, they're told about Vicki and Stefan realizes that she's in transition, and he relays that information to Elena. Stefan goes to look for Vicki and while he's gone, Damon comes over. Elena acts tough but is clearly scared, which Damon picks up on before leaving.
Elena tells Stefan that she'll keep his secret but that she can't be with him. After heading inside, she breaks down, crying. Soon after, Elena tells Vicki that since she's a vampire, she can no longer be with Jeremy. Vicki doesn't take kindly to this and attacks Elena before running off. Elena then tries to tell Jeremy the same thing, though he doesn't seem receptive, either. At the school dance, Elena interrupts Vicki when she attacks Jeremy. Vicki then bites Elena, but is subsequently staked by Stefan. Damon is called in to get rid of the body and Elena slaps him, saying this is all his fault for turning Vicki into a vampire.
After going home, Elena sees how broken up Jeremy is. She decides that she doesn't want him to have this pain on top of the pain from their parents dying. She asks Stefan to erase Jeremy's memory but he doesn't think he can do it properly. That's when Damon shows up and offers to do it, and Elena takes him up on it. She expresses her own interest to Stefan about having her own memory erased, but ultimately doesn't want to because of her feelings for him. After dealing with Sheriff Liz Forbes about Vicki's disappearance, Elena tells Stefan to stay away from her because of all the danger his existence brings.
Bonnie then reveals to Elena that she really is a witch, which fascinates Elena. Later on, she goes to talk to Stefan but instead runs into Lexi, which throws her off. He explains later and mentions it being his birthday. Although she first declines the offer to go to the Mystic Grill, Elena ends up going there anyway. She's surprised to see Stefan actually having fun. Elena then gets advice from Lexi about vampire-human relationships.
After witnessing Damon killing Lexi, Elena begs Stefan not to kill him because of what it might mean for himself. After Bonnie mentions everything about the necklace and dreams she's been having, Elena relays the information to Stefan and he seems familiar with the whole thing. Elena, Bonnie, and Caroline hold a seance and Emily Bennett ends up taking control of Bonnie's body, which Elena realizes and calls Stefan to tell him. After Emily does a spell and leaves Bonnie's body, Damon attacks her and Stefan stops her. The whole ordeal convinces Elena that she can, in fact, be with Stefan, but suddenly he has the opposite viewpoint. Elena then tells Bonnie the truth about everything.
Although Stefan plans on leaving town, he tells Elena about a new vampire being around and how he and Damon are trying to find them. At a career night event at school, Stefan tells Elena about job interests he's had in the past. He goes to deal with Logan Fell kidnapping Caroline and then comes back, which prompts Elena to drive him home. She mentions having wanted to be a writer but that she doesn't anymore due to it being something she shared with her mom. Elena then confesses her love for Stefan, and they go inside and have sex. Afterward, Stefan goes to get some water and Elena looks around his room. It's then that she finds a picture of Katherine and is clearly shocked and hurt.
She takes off the vervain necklace and leaves without telling Stefan. Elena ends up hitting someone in the road and crashing her car. The person gets up, revealing that they're a vampire, and comes toward her. However, they're scared off by Damon, who gets Elena out of the car. Before collapsing into his arms, she says, "I look like her." When she wakes up, she's in a car with Damon and has no idea what's going on. Elena makes him pull over and tell her where they are. She's pissed that he's taken her out of state and asks if she's safe with him. She also refuses to talk to Stefan when he calls.
Elena ends up bonding a bit with Damon and shows more of her fun side. She also asks a bit more about Katherine and finds out that vampires can't procreate, so he doubts Elena is actually related to Katherine despite their same appearance. When Damon is attacked by another vampire, who was once Lexi's boyfriend, Elena begs him to stop. Back in Mystic Falls, Elena learns from Stefan about the night of the car crash, as well as that she's adopted.
Soon, she gets a call from the same vampire she hit with her car--Noah--and he says that he's watching her. Jenna tells Elena about the circumstances of her adoption. Her birth mother's name is Isobel. Elena's adoptive father was a doctor and Isobel showed up there and gave birth. After Isobel took off, Greyson and Miranda forged a birth certificate and kept Elena. Not long after, she's attacked by Noah, but Stefan interrupts and he runs off. He, Elena, and Damon all go to the school dance. She's lured away when Noah calls her and threatens Jeremy's life.
Elena holds her own but it's not enough. Luckily the brothers show up and take care of Noah after he mentions getting the tomb open. Later, Stefan tells Elena that he lied and told Damon that he would help get Katherine out of the tomb. Elena agrees that they can't actually let Damon get what he wants. Although she doesn't really like lying to Damon, she thinks it's for the best. Elena and Stefan end up finding the grimoire in the grave of Stefan and Damon's father. Damon also shows up, however, and forces Elena to drink his blood. He threatens to turn her unless Stefan hands over the grimoire. After they get back to her house, Elena is taken by Anna.
When she wakes up, Elena finds herself in a motel room with an asleep Ben McKittrick. She tries to escape but Anna is on the other side of the door and throws her in the bathroom. After a while and another attempted escape, Stefan shows up and saves them. At Grams' house, Elena convinces Bonnie and Grams to open the tomb, then tells Damon about it. Once the seal is undone, Elena willingly goes inside with Damon as collateral.
Once inside, she's attacked by Anna, who gives Pearl some of Elena's blood. Stefan rushes inside and he and Elena go find Damon, who's beyond upset that he can't find Katherine. Once out, Elena hugs Damon, realizing how hurt he must be. She goes with Bonnie and Grams and after a while, they find that Grams' won't wake up. Elena immediately rushes to call 911 and then tries to comfort Bonnie. Jenna shows Elena an old picture of Isobel and mentions that that was also Alaric Saltzman's dead wife's name was Isobel. Elena goes to talk to Trudie, a friend of Isobel's from when they were teenagers. She learns that Trudie somehow knows about vampires.
While mocking Alaric, Damon makes it obvious that he fed on Isobel. Elena is in the crowd listening and is overcome by emotion, rushing outside. Stefan follows her and then they both head inside. Elena confronts Damon and tells him that her biological mom's name was Isobel. Outside again, a man tells Elena to stop looking for Isobel, and then steps in front of a car. Elena grabs the guy's phone and heads home. She calls a number in the phone and when a woman answers, Elena says, "Isobel?" The woman then hangs up.
Wanting a normal day, Elena and Stefan go on a double date with Caroline and Matt. While at the Grill, she runs into Frederick and gets called Katherine, which she relays to Stefan. The next day, she's told about Stefan and Damon being attacked by a couple of tomb vampires. Later, after realizing that Stefan has been taken by them, Elena and Damon go to Alaric for help. Elena insists that she goes along, although Damon isn't happy about it.
Once rescued, Elena forces Stefan to drink her blood in order to heal him, and then watches as he seems to lose control a bit as he kills Frederick. When Elena gets a call about Vicki's body being found, she immediately goes to Matt and comforts him. Alaric shows her Jeremy's paper on vampires, which makes her wonder if he knows about the supernatural. Damon soon tells her that Stefan has a dark side just like every other vampire and that drinking her blood has made it harder for him to suppress it. Elena also tells Jeremy about her being adopted. At a party, Stefan is drinking and acts out of character towards a guy, which Elena takes notice of. Later, she tells Stefan that she's not afraid of him.
Soon after that, she notices right away that Stefan is acting much more laid back than usual. Elena has to prepare for the Miss Mystic Falls pageant, wanting to go through with it since she signed up for it when her mom was still alive. She also tries to talk to Bonnie about the distance between them. Damon tells Elena about Stefan continuing to drink human blood. The couple has a fight and then Elena can't find him for the mandatory dance. Damon takes his place. After, the two of them, along with Bonnie, find Stefan in the woods with blood all over his mouth. Elena goes to him later and refuses to be intimidated by him--and then she injects him with vervain. Damon locks him in the basement cell.
Elena tries to get Stefan to drink animal blood but he refuses, talking about how he no longer wants to live. She leaves the cell door open and when she comes back, she finds him gone, but his daylight ring still there. Elena goes to find him and convinces him to live.
Elena meets Isobel and Isobel tells her that she wants the Gilbert device. The encounter emotionally strains Elena and Bonnie comforts her later after blowing her off. Jeremy reveals he knows about vampires and everything else because he read Elena's diary, which upsets her. Then Isobel kidnaps Jeremy as motivation for Elena to give her the Gilbert device. She gets Bonnie to agree to remove the magic from the device and then hands it over as Isobel mentions Damon being in love with Elena. This prompts Elena to call him out on intentionally flirting with her later. She's also told by Stefan that John Gilbert might actually be her father, which she hopes isn't true.
She finds out that it is, however, when the Gilbert device is activated and Damon has to be saved. Afterward, she reassures Stefan that he's the one she loves. Elena goes home after being unable to find some of her things, and walks in the kitchen to find John bleeding on the ground. She calls 911 and then heads upstairs to Jeremy. After making sure he's okay, she heads to the hospital to see Caroline. Damon tries to talk to Elena about their kiss but she has no idea what he's talking about. They go to her house as Damon and Stefan realizes that Katherine is back.
Elena is surprised that Damon thinks she would kiss him, which visibly upsets him. Later on, she tries to get him to be honest about his feelings, but Damon throws it back at her. Elena says that she cares about him but that Stefan will be the one she always loves. Damon then snaps Jeremy's neck, which devastates Elena, but then she's relieved when she notices that he has an eternity ring on. She then tells Stefan that she hates Damon. Soon after, Elena helps out with setting up the school carnival, not wanting to even think about Damon or vampires in general. She's forced to that night, however, when it's revealed that Caroline is now a vampire.
Elena is adamant about helping her instead of killing her like Damon wants. Also, despite everything, Elena stops Bonnie from killing Damon. She goes with both him and Alaric to look at Isobel's research and they find out about the existence of werewolves. Elena manipulates Damon into giving her information, and she's clearly upset when he compares her to Katherine. During a barbecue at her house, Elena fails to get a hold of Stefan for hours and decides to go to the mansion. Caroline drives her, repeatedly talking about how a relationship with a vampire and a human can't work. Elena gets fed up after the car gets a flat tire and walks the rest of the way.
There, Elena actually meets Katherine, but only for a moment. At the Grill, Stefan and Elena have a fight but it's revealed later to be fake and only meant as a show for Caroline, who they've figured out is working for Katherine. They keep on the charade during a town event but then Elena and Caroline have to save Damon and Stefan from Liz Forbes. Although angry, Elena is empathetic toward Caroline when she finds out that Katherine threatened Matt. She also goes along with Stefan's idea of drinking a little human blood each day, and allows him to drink from her.
When Stefan finds out the location of the moonstone, Elena follows him. After Caroline helps rescue Stefan from the well, Elena goes into it and gets the moonstone herself. Katherine compels Jenna to stab herself after Damon kills Mason Lockwood, and Elena breaks up with Stefan to keep everyone else safe. Later, she becomes suspicious that everyone is at the masquerade party and goes there. A spell has been performed that links Elena to Katherine, so when Katherine is injured, so is Elena. The issue is resolved and Katherine is shut inside the tomb. Despite this, Elena isn't ready to get back together with Stefan, and is subsequently kidnapped.
When she comes to, she learns that she's been taken by a couple of vampires who want to hand her over to Elijah because she's the doppelganger. She's saved by Damon and Stefan, and Damon later confesses that he loves her, but he compels her to forget. Elena goes to see Katherine to find out more about her past and about Klaus, an original vampire. After finding out about the moonstone curse, she goes to Rose and uses her to try to draw Klaus out, willing to sacrifice herself so that no one else has to die. Damon interrupts her plan--as does Elijah--and when she gets home, she discovers that Stefan is trapped in the tomb with Katherine.
Elena is confined to the house by a spell so that she doesn't put herself in danger. Elijah confronts her and tells her that he doesn't want Klaus to succeed in breaking the curse, and that he wants Elena to remain safe. He agrees to not hurt anyone she loves. Elena helps out with Rose when she gets bitten by a werewolf. She also tries to get Damon to be honest about his feelings, especially when Rose dies, not realizing that she's pushing him too far.
When John shows back up, Elena doesn't trust him. Soon after, she and Stefan head out of town to stay at her parents' lake house for a bit of a break. There they find hidden weapons and journals due to the Gilberts being a founding family. They're attacked by a werewolf but manage to kill him, and Elena immediately forgives Tyler for his part in it. She and Stefan then have an argument about how Elena is willing to sacrifice herself to save everyone else. They stay at the lake house and Elena finds a journal that mentions Stefan. He then tells her about his past involving being a ripper. Elena is surprised to find that he thinks he was worse than Damon.
She ends up daggering Elijah when he shows up to make sure he can't hurt anyone. She then tells the brothers that they need to start listening to her. Elena gives Bonnie her blessing to date Jeremy. The group gets help from Katherine, though Elena isn't happy about it at all. Soon, Isobel shows up, surprising Jenna more than anyone since she thought Isobel was dead. Elena tries to apologize for lying and explain things, but Jenna isn't willing to listen. Elena also wants nothing to do with Isobel, even when she and John try to appeal to her. At an event, Katherine knocks Elena out and hands her over to Isobel.
Elena and Isobel end up at a cemetery where Isobel expresses regret over the choices she's made. After taking a call, Isobel removes her daylight necklace, and Elena watches in horror as her birth mother goes up in flames. After that, she tells John that she's willing to try not to hate him.
In order to make it so that only vampires Elena invites in can come inside the Salvatore mansion, the deed is put into her name. She gets a message in school about Klaus being at the upcoming dance, which she relays to the others. Elena and Bonnie are attacked by Klaus but get away. Elena goes to get Stefan and when they find Bonnie again, she's sacrificing herself to hurt Klaus. Elena breaks down when she realizes that her best friend is dead, and she lashes out at Damon for letting Bonnie go through with it. However, she's then relieved to find out that it was all a trick and that Bonnie is still alive. She apologizes to Damon for slapping him, and then secretly undaggers Elijah.
Elena goes off with Elijah to discuss things and he tells her the truth about Klaus and the curse. Elena suddenly has to go home when she finds out that Jenna has discovered the truth about the supernatural. She apologizes to her aunt about lying to her for so long, then goes back to make a deal with Elijah. Elena tries to appeal to Damon but it doesn't work and he feeds her his blood, which shocks and devastates her. Stefan takes her on a hike and answers her questions about being a vampire. When they arrive at their destination, Elena reluctantly confesses that she has never wanted to be a vampire.
When they get back, she willingly goes off with Klaus, but then is extremely upset when she learns that Jenna has been turned into a vampire so that she can be used in the ritual. Elena manages to remain calm as she tries to help Jenna through the transition. She's forced to watch as Stefan is incapacitated and then as Klaus stakes Jenna. When it's Elena's turn to die, she tells Klaus to "Go to hell." When she wakes up, she's still human due to a spell Bonnie performed in which John sacrificed himself. Elena and the others hold their own private funeral for Jenna.
When Damon asks for forgiveness, Elena tells him it'll take time. However, that goes out the window when she finds out that he's dying from a werewolf bite. She stays with him and comforts him, telling him that she likes him just the way she is. Elena then kisses him, which is when Katherine walks in with the cure. When Elena asks where Stefan is, Katherine tells them, then walks out.
Elena's most notable traits are her compassion and immense capacity for forgiveness. Even if she's been shown otherwise, she likes to believe in the good in people. Although she can be naive and also selfish at times, Elena is very selfless the majority of the time. She appreciates but doesn't like the fact that people are so willing to put themselves in danger to protect her, even though she's fully willing to do the same for those she cares about.