'The Vampire Diaries': Let's talk about THAT twist!

Spoiler alert: If you haven’t watched the May 8 episode of The Vampire Diaries, stop reading now! I mean it. Don’t you DARE ruin this for yourself!

Last night, my whole world came crashing to the ground … sort of. In the final moments of the Vampire Diaries penultimate episode, the unthinkable happened: The Traveler currently inhabiting Tyler’s body ripped out Stefan’s heart, a.k.a. Stefan is now on the other side and in danger of total extinction, a.k.a. Stefan Salvatore is dead and about two minutes away from being permanently dead dead.

In the moment, my reaction was fairly simple: “No, no, no. But wait, no.” That deep thought was then followed by a second of pure unadulterated fear that this show might actually kill Stefan, a reaction I blame 100 percent on The Good Wife for making me believe anything is possible. But that was quickly followed by a deep breath, and suddenly I was back to the place where I thought this was a great twist, but obviously not something that they could have stick.

After all that, I was somehow able to sleep last night, and I woke up with a new (but similar) perspective on the entire twist. It clearly aided the story in that A) Stefan’s death put a stop to the Travelers’ magic and B) Bonnie had all but given up on trying to save herself/The Other Side, and Stefan is the perfect motivation. After all, Bonnie doing just about anything to save Stefan goes way back, all the way to the time Grams died to help get Stefan out of the tomb in season 1. So, I at least understand where this twist fits into the greater puzzle of things. And yet, I still feel like I’m walking on the edge of a cliff, and at any moment, I’m going to fall off.

See, right now, I’m staying calm by convincing myself that they can’t kill Stefan. He’s the hero of the story. No matter what you think about him ending up with Elena or not, you can’t deny that. And even looking past his relationship with Elena, Julie Plec has always said that the real love story here is one between the Salvatore brothers, and this is one thing that I don’t think Damon could ever come back from, with or without Elena.

Furthermore, for me personally, Stefan is the heart of this show. Of anyone, I want him to get a happy ending. And spoiler: This is NOT a happy ending.

The more I write about it the more concerned I grow that they could possibly kill him and take this show in a new direction, but then I pull myself back in: It’s simply not possible. I wouldn’t even call what I’m going through stages of grief, but maybe just stages of confusion and emotional reckoning? I’m horrified going into next week, but I’m also confident that Stefan’s hero hair will pull through. Right?!

How did you all react? Are you feeling alright, emotionally? And what do you want to see in the finale?