16 Times The Vampire Diaries Shocked Our Socks Off

This is long before we knew about Stefan's shady past as the Ripper, so when he has to get real with Matt's sister and put her out of her murderous misery, it was a little shocking. Back then, we didn't know Stefan had it in him.

Blame it on Katherine . . . again. But Uncle/Daddy John gets caught in her crosshairs and winds up paying the price. Although this storyline isn't all that unusual in its telling, that close-up of Katherine separating his fingers from his hand, ring and all, is worth a mention.

Remember when we couldn't decide if Damon was a good guy or not? Yeah . . . it was around this time when he snaps Jeremy's neck in cold blood. It's a serious OMG moment because we were all rooting for him to be a good guy. Jeremy comes back thanks to his ring, but Elena isn't so fast to forgive him.

This is yet another means-to-an-end moment, but we didn't know it at the time. As one of our favorite characters is being strangled, we screamed at our TVs as Caroline struggled under that pillow. The joke's on Katherine, though, because this was the best thing that ever happened to Caroline's character. She's turned out to be the most badass — yet perky — vampire.

This was way back in the beginning of TVD, before we realized how many characters would die, be resurrected, and then die again. Nowadays on this show, we don't ever say goodbye to a character for real, but when Aunt Jenna dies, we all felt the finality of it and Elena and Jeremy's terrible grief. They just aren't tough enough to deal in those early episodes. Who would have thought (back then) that the writers would be so cruel? We know better now, right?

Nobody could blame Alaric for being a psychopath. He's had a really rough time, with the dying and coming back to life, over and over. Apparently, that really does a number on your psyche and can cause you to become the Mystic Falls murderer. If we knew then what we know now, we might not have been so surprised, but Evil Alaric was a total gamechanger.

Yup . . . all you Delena 'shippers out there got the ultimate satisfaction after learning that Damon was "the one" all along. TVD had us all convinced that Stefan and Elena were soul mates, but after we found out that Damon had met her on the road that night, before Stefan, we knew they were the real deal.

When Elena and Matt go off Wickery Bridge, we all knew somebody was going to jump in and save her. Because: Elena. But when Stefan dives in to rescue her and saves Matt instead, we couldn't believe it. No, seriously. When does Elena not get saved, or bother to save herself? Never. This is the start of her life as a vampire, so in hindsight, it makes sense that Stefan would leave her to die. But in the moment, we were downright shocked.

That first time is just a fake-out, thank goodness (take that, Klaus!). But that second death actually takes (well, for a while), and we'll admit there were some legit tears shed. Of course Bonnie dies saving somebody else, because how else could the world's most selfless witch meet her demise, besides saving her best friend's brother and true love, Jeremy?

In her grief over Jeremy's (second, but not final) death, Elena loses her marbles and can't handle the pain. In a crazy sequence of events, she burns her house to the ground and flips her humanity switch. This is a big deal, because Elena is notoriously self-righteous and preachy, so it's a MAJOR turn of events to see her get down and dirty.

It wasn't enough for Katerina Petrova to show up and wreak havoc on everything and everybody as Elena's evil (and oversexed) twin. No, we had to uncover Elena's OTHER, original doppelgänger, Tatia, and then another, more love-struck twin, Amara. Nina Dobrev was definitely earning her paycheck during the seasons where she was doing double, and sometimes triple, duty. We had to construct a yarn wall to keep track of all the look-alike craziness.

Stefan gets in on the shadow-self game, too. Silas is Stefan's original and murderous self, and Tom is the bland, harmless version of our second-favorite Salvatore. TVD should have assigned name tags to all these characters.

While we all kind of saw this coming, it was one of the more fun moments. Watching the eternal Katherine deteriorate into a plain ol' human lady was entertaining, to say the least. We would have never thought that a mere sinus infection could bring a boss like Katherine to her knees, but being human isn't for sissies.

Even though die-hard TVD fans knew Nina Dobrev was leaving the show, it didn't soften the blow of Elena's final goodbye one bit. Those deathbed scenes are brutal enough, but our hearts broke into a million pieces watching her and Damon say their goodbyes with a dreamy slow dance and countless longing stares. We cried all the tears, despite her "death" being somewhat impermanent.

This is definitely nuts, but the crazy part was muted by the superfun nostalgia we got revisiting those '90s memories. Bonnie wearing grungy flannels, Damon using an actual atlas for directions, and the handy-dandy book-size video camera made this whole storyline one of the strangest, but also one of the most fun.

Wait . . . what?! Yep, in true TVD fashion, they convinced us the impossible can happen. Caroline's pregnancy is one of the most far-fetched twists yet, but it's turning out to be the most adorable. If we loved Caroline as the type-A, micromanaging vampire, we ADORE her as the meticulous, obsessive mother-to-be.