Damon and Elena

The relationship between Damon and Elena throughout the course of the show has been a complicated one that, through trial and error, has grown to be a relationship of mutual respect and even love. Elena met Damon for the first time soon after meeting his brother, Stefan and seemed to be interested in Damon, telling him that it was 'nice to meet you'.

Season 1 

In the second episode of the series, Elena goes over to the Salvatore mansion looking for Stefan. Using his crow form, that has since been axed by the producers, Damon flies in before her, when she turns around she comes face to face with him. Damon is immediately struck by how much Elena looks like Katherine Pierce and casually flirts with her before Stefan interrupts. Damon kisses her hand and tells her that it ws great to meet her. Later, he has a chance to meet her again when he and Caroline Forbes (whom he was dating at the time) come over and crash a dinner party that Elena was throwing at her house.

While putting away dishes in the kitchen together, Damon and Elena start talking about Katherine Pierce and Elena correctly guesses that both Stefan and Damon dated her. Damon tells her a little about Katherine's history and remarks that Elena and Katherine both look alike and that she died in a tragic fire. Elena apologizes for his loss and tells Damon that he lost her, too. After the death of their coach, Mr. Tanner, Stefan writes in his journal that he thought there was hope, that Damon still had some shred of humanity left in him, but all that he was was a monster who must be stopped. As the voice over continues, you see Damon stroking Elena's cheek while she sleeps.

In "Family Ties", Elena and Damon briefly talk about the "original" Salvatore brothers, Stefan and Damon. Damon tells her that that because they betrayed their town, they were shot when the Battle of Willow Creek happened. He explained that someone they loved was trapped in the church they were planning on burning. Elena asks who was in the church and Damon tells her that it was a woman, and says, "doesn't it always come down to the love of a woman?"

Later, Elena angrily confronts Damon when she sees bite marks on her best friend, Caroline Forbes's neck and tells Damon that he is sick and to stay away from her or else she'd go straight to Caroline's mother, the sheriff. Damon is finally stopped when he ingests vervain and is locked up in the celler by Stefan.

Later, in "Haunted", after Damon had turned and killed Vicki Donovan, Elena angrily confronts Damon. Damon calmly tells her that none of it mattered. Elena responds by saying, "How can it not matter? It matters and you know it." Elena had sustained a few cuts and scrapes in a fight with Vicki and Damon tells her that she has to leave because her wounds are bleeding and he was tempted by her blood.

Elena goes home, devastated by the night's events and after speaking with her brother, Jeremy and seeing how upset he is by what happened, she begs Stefan to comepl him and erase his memories of what happened. Stefan, though was unable to do it since he drank animal blood, his powers wouldn't be as strong. Damon suddenly appears and tells her that he will do it. Elena thanks him.

In he eleventh episode, "Bloodlines," Elena gets angry and leaves the Salvatore mansion after finding a photo of Katherine in Stefan's bedroom, and his explanation that his room was full of things he felt were important to hang on to. She gets in her car and begins to drive home, but gets in a car wreck when she almost hits a vampire (who was later revealed to be working for Anna).

Damon finds her just before the vampire gets to her. He scares him off and helps Elena get out. After she passes out, Damon decides to take her to Georgia where he tells her to just leave her regular drama behind her and have some fun. He threatens to compel her but that was probably more so she would agree to go with him willingly.

They stop at 'Bree's Bar' which is run by an old friend of Damon's who was a witch. Bree tells Elena that she met Damon when she was in college and that he was one of the best and one of the worst things that happened to her. She then, sarcastically, toasts Damon. She asks Elena how he roped her in. Elena, soon decides to let loose and begins partying with Damon, Bree and several other bar patrons. She gets drunk and when Stefan calls her, worried, she gives him an attitude and hangs up shortly after.

Later on, when Lexi's boyfriend, Lee, attempts to kill Damon for killing her, Elena begs him to spare Damon. Later, Damon remarks that Elena is not the worst company in the world and she responds by telling him that she saved his life and not to forget it. Later, when Stefan was kidnapped by several tomb vampires, Elena and Damon race to find him. They get him out in the nick of time but when Stefan is forced to drink Elena's blood to heal himself, this sets him off badly enough that he starts drinking it again and hiding it from Damon and Elena.

At the Miss Mystic Falls dance, Damon steps in as Elena's escort when Stefan is missing. They dance together and soon after, they find Stefan about to kill one of the contestants of the dance. She survives despite a bite to her neck. This leaves Elena and Damon with no choice but to vervain Stefan to keep him from hurting others while he is in this fragile of a state.

Later, while Stefan is still locked up, Damon tells Elena the real story of him, Stefan and Katherine. He tells Elena that Katherine was captured by the town officials because Stefan told his father that vampires could be trusted and his father guessed the secret. Damon goes on to tell Elena that he didn't want to become a vampire if it meant that Katherine was no longer with them, and Stefan forced him to drink a girl's blood, knowing that he would not be able to resist it.

When Elena's biological mother, Isobel returns to town as a vampire wanting the Gilbert device, Damon threatens her and tells her that going after Elena was a bad move and that if Katherine wanted something, she could tell her to come get it herself. Later, Elena meets Isobel to give her the device where Isobel tells her that as long as she has a Salvatore on each arm, she was doomed. She tells her that Katherine was smart to get out. Elena tells her that she took a risk with Damon, she asked how she knew that Damon was going to give her the device.

Isobel told her that it was because Damon was in love with her while Damon looks on. In the season 1 finale, it is Founders Day in Mystic Falls, Jeremy still is not speaking to Elena for compelling him, Damon threatens him until Stefan intervenes on his behalf. Later, it is revealed that the tomb vampires are planning an attack on the crowd when the fireworks display goes up. It is also revealed that the secret Founders Council is also planning an attack using the Gilbert invention and using Grayson Gilbert's old medical building to burn the vampires in.

Damon is left in the basement to die when the device effects him. Bonnie momentarily clears the basement, allowing Stefan to race down there and rescue him. Later on, when Damon takes home, he tells her that he's not a good person but yet other people obviously believe different for them to save him repeatedly. Elena responds by saying that maybe he does have good in him. Damon disagrees and tells her that that's reserved for Bonnie, his brother and her.

He slowly leans in and kisses her. She does not pull back or otherwise attempt to stop his advances. They only stop when Jenna opens the door and tells Elena she should come inside.

Season 2 

When John Gilbert was stabbed, Elena met Jenna at the hospital where Damon was with Sheriff Forbes. Damon approaches Elena and tells her that they have to talk about their kiss, even though it probably wasn't a good time. Elena asks him what he was talking about, he tells her that they kissed. She reacts with annoyance and tells him that she didn't have time to talk about that. Damon is confused before figuring out that it had been Katherine that he had kissed and not Elena.

Later, when Katherine makes an appearance again and this time almost fools Stefan, Stefan asks what Katherine had meant when she said she had fooled one of them. Damon hesitantly tells Stefan that Katherine had pretended to be Elena and that they had kissed. When Stefan reacts with anger, Elena responds that she would never kiss him. Later at the memorial for Mayor Lockwood, Elena attempts to talk with Damon about their supposed kiss, and Damon asks her why it was such a shock that he would kiss her. She responds that that wasn't a surprise, she was surprised that he thought she would kiss him back. He responds that he was hurt and walks away.

Later, when Katherine successfully manages to seduce Damon, he stops and asks her to tell him the truth about her love for him and that if she answered right, he would forget the past one hundred and forty five years he's spent searching for her. She tells him that she knows his question and it's answer. She tells him that she has never loved him, that it's always been Stefan. This leaves him devastated and deeply hurt.

Later that night, he goes to Elena's house and attempts to kiss her. She pushes back and she asks him why he's being like this. He tells her that there is something between them and that she's lying to herself, himself and Stefan by denying it. She tells him that she cares about him but that it would always be Stefan that she loved more. Upset by being rejected twice by two women who look exactly alike, he snaps and when Jeremy walks in the room, he tells that Jeremy that becoming a vampire is the easiest thing in the world and that its just like a switch. He then snaps Jeremy's neck, killing him. As Elena sobs over his body, she finds his protection ring that will bring him back. She looks up as Damon leaves the room. She tells Stefan that she thinks that Damon wants people to hate him, that it's eaiser that way. She says that she got his wish, that she hated him, as the camera pans to a shot of Damon drinking his whisky and then throwing the bottle into the fire.

When Elena decides to accompany Damon and Alaric to Duke University to look through some of Isobel's research on werewolves, Damon tells her that he knew all along that Jeremy was wearing his ring and so therefore wasn't in danger of actually dying. Elena is skeptical and accuses him of lying. Later, at Duke, Vanessa Munroe, Isobel's student, thinks that Elena is Katherine and attempts to shoot her in the back with an arrow. Damon jumps in front of her and saves her from it.

Later, he gives her a book about Katherine's family and tells her that she was looking in the wrong place. He tells her that Katherine was originally from Bulgaria and that her real name is Katerina Petrova. Later, when Damon drops her off at her home, she asks him if he was being truthful when he told her that he knew Jeremy was wearing the ring. Damon tells her that he did not know that and that he thanked God he was wearing it or otherwise he wouldn't be able to live with himself. Elena thanks him for being honest but tells him that he had lost her forever.

Later when Katherine wanted Stefan and Elena to break up and her warnings went unanswered, and when Damon called her to gloat about the fact that he had killed her boy toy Mason Lockwood, she retaliated by compelling Jenna to stab herself in the stomach. Later, Elena went to the Salvatore mansion to break up with Stefan over what happened with Katherine.

As she was leaving, Damon caught her and told her that Katherine did what she did because he riled her up and that he wasn't thinking. She responded that it didn't matter, that Katherine had won. She leaves the house devastated by the turn of events.

During the Masquerade party, Elena finds out about a secret plan to kill Katherine by ambushing her at the party. Elena sneaks out of the house to go help them. When she arrives, she soon finds out about a mysterious enchantment that makes whatever happens to Katherine happen to her: So when Damon and Stefan attack her and stab her in the arm, the same thing happens to Elena.

In "Rose", Elena is kidnapped by Trevor and taken to where Elijah is. Elijah is the brother of Klaus he wanted Elena for the sacrificial ritual he was planning on doing to complete his transformation from werewolf to hybrid. Stefan and Damon team up to save her and successfully do so when they find the mansion she was being held in. Stefan rescues Elena while Damon focuses on killing Elijah. Elijah's accomplice, Rose escapes and runs before Damon can trap her.

Later that night after Elena had gotten home, Damon returns her necklace which had been ripped from her neck by Elijah. Before giving her the necklace, however, he tells her that he has to say something first. He goes on to say that he loves her and that because he loves her, he can't be selfish with her. He tells her that he doesn't deserve her, but that Stefan did and that he wished she could remember this, but she couldn't. As a single tear slides down his face, he compels her to forget everything he said. He leaves her with the necklace.

Later in "The Sacrifice", when Elena goes to find out more information about Klaus, Damon comes after her and tells her that if she doesn't move, he'll break her arm. When Elijah shows up at the house and kills the two guards, Damon successfully gets her out of the situation and returns her home. However, upon arriving, Jeremy tells them that Stefan is in trouble and that he is in the tomb. When they go there, Damon forcefully restrains Elena from going any further. After she leaves, Stefan asks Damon if he can keep Elena at her home and keep her from coming to see him.

Elena is infuriated when Damon tries to keep her from seeing Stefan and later is overjoyed when Stefan shows back up at her home after being freed from the tomb. In "The Descent," Damon tells Elena that his friend Rose is dying from a werewolf bite and could she keep an eye on her while he went out. She agreed and was soon attacked by Rose who mistook her for Katherine in her hallucinating mind. Later, Damon stakes her to ease her suffering and to put an end to it.

When he sees Elena, she tells him that she's sorry and that she's his friend. He responds by saying that he feels and that it sucks and that he felt guilty because the werewolf bite was intended for him, not her. Elena hugs him before leaving, he does not hug her back. Later, in response to his devastation over her death, he goes and kills his first victim in several months--a young woman named Jessica.

In "Daddy Issues," Damon wants to kill Tyler Lockwood because of the fact that was a werewolf. Elena stops him, telling him that there were too many people who were already dead and to be the better man. He turns down a friend of Jenna's named Andie Starr and tells her that his glass was already full in response to her asking him if she could buy him a drink. Elena scolds him, telling him that he doesn't need to be rude. However, Damon responds by telling her that it was in the best interests of women everywhere.

When Caroline is kidnapped by werewolves, Elena attempts to follow Damon out but is stopped by John. Damon rescues Caroline along with Stefan and, later, when Elena goes to the lakehouse with Stefan, he follows, knowing that Elijah will attempt to kill Elena there. When Elijah does appear, Elena makes him swear that he will not harm her friends or family if she follows his rules, he agrees when Elena stabs herself. She collapses in his arms before Damon daggers him from behind.

During the decades dance in "The Last Dance", Damon reveals to Stefan and Elena that Klaus is possessing the body of Alaric and that Bonnie plans to take him on, try to kill him if she can. Stefan and Elena both know that if she uses that much power, she could die herself so they race to the cafeteria where Bonnie and Klaus are fighting. When Bonnie falls, Elena and Stefan both assume that she is dead, backed up by Damon telling Stefan to take Elena home and that he'll take care of the body.

Unknown to both Stefan and Elena, Damon had made a plan to fool Klaus. Bonnie was in on it and had faked her death fool Klaus. She was alive and well and Damon had taken her to the witches house to wait for her revival. When Stefan questions Damon's judgement in lying to Elena, Damon tells him that at the end of the day he'd be the one to keep her alive. When Elena later visits him in his bedroom, he tells her that if ever came to a decision between her life and Bonnie's, he would gladly let her die and that he would always choose her over anyone.

In "The Last Day", Damon learns that Elijah is back and is offering Elena a possible solution for surviving the sacrifical ritual: A potion that will keep her alive through the process and will bring her back. Damon is skeptical of the solution and voices his opinion over the matter. Elena tells him that she wants to do it and is confident that it will work. Damon, angry that no one is listening to him, says that everyone can go to hell.

He walks out and when Elena goes looking for him, he tells her that he can't lose her and she tells him he won't. She tries to walk away before Damon appears in front of her, telling her that there was another solution: He feeds her his blood, therebye making her a vampire should she die within the next twenty-four hours. Elena is devastated at having that choice taken away from her and Elijah tells Damon that Elena would never forgive him for what he did and that 'forever for a vampire is a very long time'.

Stefan takes Elena on a trek up a mountain and she tells him that she never wanted to become a vampire and that she was supposed to have a lifetime of making these kinds of choices. Stefan tells her that Damon did it because he loves her, Elena tells him that that Damon doesn't really know what love is if he did that to her. When Stefan and Elena return, Klaus is waiting to take her to the Sacrifice.

Damon works with John, Bonnie, Stefan and Elijah to save Elena. The plan is that Elijah and Stefan will go and that Bonnie must stay absolutely hidden until the right moment where she can attack Klaus. Damon is upset when he learns that Stefan is going to offer himself as a replacement for Jenna, who had been grabbed by Klaus. Damon would have offered himself, too but Damon had been bitten by a werewolf and was slowly dying. Katherine told him that his blood was impure and that Klaus wouldn't take him.

When the group manages to save Elena, she does wake up, but not as a vampire due to the fact that John and Bonnie did a spell where John's life force was shifted over to Elena, thus restoring her to life. Damon carries her into the witches house and tells her that if she wakes up as a vampire, he would "stake her himself". To his immense relief, Elena wakes up human. During John and Jenna's funeral, Damon attends and tells Stefan about his werewolf bite. Stefan vows to find a cure for him and that they kept Elena alive when there was no way and that he would do this for him. Damon responds by saying if Stefan wanted to do something for him, he would keep this from Elena because she didn't need another grave to mourn.

During the Season 2 finale, "As I Lay Dying," Damon goes to her house and begs her to forgive him for feeding her his blood. Elena responds by saying that she needed time. He tells her to take all the time he needs. Later, Stefan reveals to Elena that Damon is dying and that he's going to Klaus for a cure, that he owed it to him. Elena attempts to go see Damon but is stopped by the Sheriff who now knows that Damon is a vampire, and in her mind, dangerous. Elena soon soon finds him at a showing for "Gone With the Wind and Damon hallucinates, thinking that Elena is Katherine. He bites her, drinking her blood before finally realizing that it's Elena. He collapses in her arms and she takes him home.

In his home, she lies with him in bed and he tells her, once again, that he loves her. She begins to cry and she tells him that she knows. He tells her that she should have met him when he was still human, that she would have liked him. She responds by telling him that she liked him as he was right then, just the way he was. She then leans foreword and kisses him, he thanks her. Katherine then appears and tells Damon that she had the cure--Klaus's blood and that Stefan had had to leave town with Klaus as payment and that he sacrificed everything to save Damon including Elena. Before she leaves, Katherine tells Elena that 'its okay to love them both."

Season 3 

In the season 3 premiere, "The Birthday," it is revealed that Stefan has been missing all summer. Damon and Elena have been trying to find him and bring him back home but have been unsuccessful. Damon has rekindled his romance with Andie Starr and she has helped him investigate leads while Elena has leaned on Sheriff Forbes for any information and help. It is the day of Elena's birthday and when she comes to the mansion to talk to Damon about a new lead, he greets her naked from his bath with Andie. She covers her eyes and throws him a towel. Damon is skeptical when she tells him about her new lead but promises to have Andie check it out for him.

Later, Elena is surprised when Damon gives her back her vervain necklace that had been lost during the Sacrifice. He said that Alaric had found it in his loft. He puts it on her and the escorts her to her birthday party that Caroline was hosting. There, she is uncomfortable when she sees Jeremy smoking with Matt. She goes outside and grabs Damon's drink from him. Later, she sees a secret stash of information on Klaus and Stefan that Damon had kept from her. She angrily confronts him about it and he tells her that Stefan is gone and that wouldn't be coming back--at least not in her lifetime.

Later in "The Hybrid", Elena gets a tip that some werewolves are hiding out in the Smokey Mountains and enlists Alaric to help her get there. Alaric agrees to not tell Damon and to accompany her on the trip but Damon finds her and pushes her into the water, later Alaric tells her that he had called Damon to let him know where they would be. As they walk upwards, Stefan spies on their progress and doesn't tell Klaus anything about it. When they encounter a newly turned Ray Sutton, Elena urges them to leave, she later revealed that she was worried about Damon getting hurt. When Damon encounters another werewolf, Stefan saves his life by killing it, he asks Damon to keep a closer eye on Elena and to make sure she stays home.

Later Elena and Damon talk in her bedroom, and Damon tells her that Stefan can be saved but that before he helped her bring him back from the brink, he wanted her to remember the things she felt before he was gone. He then says goodnight to her and leaves.

In "The End Of the Affair", Damon informs Elena that Stefan and Klaus were in Chicago. They drive together to Chicago where Elena and Damon find an old apartment that Stefan stayed in during the 1920's. Damon leaves Elena alone for a few hours while he goes to scope out the town. While reading Stefan's journal, Elena hears Stefan and Klaus coming and hides in a false closet that houses several old wine bottles as well as a wall containing names that Stefan wrote down of his victims.

There, Stefan and Elena see each other for the first time in months. Later, Elena actually gets to speak with him when Damon distracts Klaus. Stefan tells her that he doesn't want anything to do with her, that that part of his life was over with and that he just wanted her to go. Heartbroken, Elena leaves Chicago with Damon silently.

When and Elena start acting overly friendly towards one another, Alaric advises Damon to slow it down with her, that he was concerned. Damon tells him to mind his own business and Alaric retorts that it is his business. While Damon and Elena are making chili for a founding family event, Elena's necklace burns her in response to Klaus's witch casting an enchantment on it, to find its location.

That night at the founding event Damon breaks Alaric's neck after Alaric attemps to stop Damon from killing Caroline's father, for threatening to out Damon to the council. He drinks from him until Caroline comes in and beats him over it. Elena rushes in after Caroline and angrily asks what is wrong with him. Damon responds that he is not Stefan and she should stop turning him into him. At the end of the episode, Damon decides to take a break from Mystic Falls and he leaves with Katherine.

In "The Reckoning", Elena and her friends are pranking the high school as part of senior prank night when Klaus unexpectedly shows up and discovers that Elena is still alive. He makes her watch as Stefan kills two of her student friends and then watches as Klaus forces Stefan to shut off his humanity due to compulsion. Damon, overcome with guilt at leaving her, promises her that he would never leave her again. Immediately after, Stefan shows up and announces that Klaus had to leave town and that he was employing Stefan to be her protector until he returned, after finding out that Elena's blood was the key to creating Hybrids.

In "Ordinary People", Elena is initially angry with Damon when he lets Stefan out of the Lockwood celler, but soon forgives him and tells him that, in the end, it won't be her that will save Stefan from himself, it would be Damon because Stefan loves him and that nothing was more important than the bond of family. Damon remarks that she should tell that to Stefan. During "Homecoming", Elena initially feels guilty about daggering Rebekah over fears she would betray them, Damon reassures her and tells her that when they go up against Klaus, he wants her to be out of the line of fire. She agrees and the plan is set.

Elena is shocked and disturbed when Damon informs her that the plan had failed, that Klaus was alive and that Stefan had helped Klaus. She is confused but comforts and calms down Damon and tells him that they would survive, that they always survive. Damon tells her that they would never get Stefan back, she tells him that they would have to let him go.

In "The New Deal", Klaus tells Damon and Elena that he wants them to get Stefan to stop hurting his hybrids and that there would be payback in the form of violence. Damon and Elena go to the witches house to talk to Stefan, where Stefan tells Elena that he couldn't care what happened to Jeremy (who was in danger from Klaus). She tells him to go to hell and runs outside to Damon, who tells her that he will take care of Stefan and that she should go take care of her brother.

When she asks Damon to compel Jeremy, he agrees and tells him that he will go out of Mystic Falls and never think twice about it and that he'll have a better life. Upset at her decision to erase her brother's memory, Elena questions her decision to Damon who tells her that Jeremy is so lucky to have her as a sister. Damon then reveals that Stefan technically didn't betray them, that he betrayed them because he did it to save Damon who would have been killed had the plan succeeded.

He tells her in frustration that he thought for one second that he didn't have to feel guilty about loving Elena and wanting her. He begins to walk away before saying that if he was going to feel guilty about something, he would feel guilty about this: He kisses her. She doesn't pull away and doesn't say anything as he walks away from her.

She tells Damon later that they couldn't kiss again, that it wasn't right. He gently tells her that it's right, just not right then. She calls Damon to pick her up after Stefan almost drives her off Wickery Bridge.

In "Our Town", she tells Stefan that she and Damon kissed and that she didn't feel guilty about it. He later punches Damon in the face over the revelation and tells Elena that she can do better than both of them.