Back From the Dead: The Most Shocking Resurrections From the 2011-2012 TV Season

Characters come back from the dead all the time on The Vampire Diaries. (In fact, a special ring — the Gilbert ring — exists in the TVD-verse just for resurrection purposes.) In the Season 3 finale, Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev) drowns and then Stefan (Paul Wesley) mourns her lifeless body. Surely the female protagonist — the center of the show’s love triangle — can’t really be dead, can she? Later Dr. Fell (Torrey DeVitto) explains that she gave Elena vampire blood earlier in the episode, and it all begins to sink in. The final shot? A transitioning-to-vampire Elena opens her undead eyes.