What happens to Damon at the end of Vampire Diaries? Does he die?

The emotional finale of The Vampire Diaries showcases themes of sacrifice, love, and the journey toward finding peace. While Stefan’s sacrifice is deeply mourned, the characters ultimately find a way to move forward and cherish the memories of their fallen friend.

Damon Salvatore does meet his end in The Vampire Diaries, but not before living a fulfilling life and finding true love with Elena. The show’s final moments suggest that Damon eventually finds peace and passes away, given Elena’s reunion with her deceased loved ones in the afterlife.

While the series doesn’t explicitly show Damon’s death, the poignant scene of Elena finding peace with her departed loved ones on the house porch implies that Damon also found his eternal rest after a life filled with both joy and hardships.

1. What happened to Damon after The Vampire Diaries ended?

The Vampire Diaries series finale erupted into a showdown between Katherine Pierce, who, following Cade’s death, became the ruler of Hell. Damon decided to sacrifice himself to ensure Katherine died, but at the last minute, Stefan injected Damon with the cure for vampirism and took his place.

After Bonnie broke Kai’s sleeping spell, Damon and Elena reunited. As the episode “I Was Feeling Epic” drew close, Elena poured her heart into her journal, revealing that she had fully embraced her passion for medicine and returned to Mystic Falls. Most importantly, she shared that she and Damon had found true happiness and spent many wonderful years together.

In the beloved series The Originals, the character of Damon is absent. Still, in an intriguing turn of events in season 4, viewers glimpse a sign revealing “Elena Salvatore, M.D.” This confirms what loyal fans already know: Elena not only becomes a physician, but she also ties the knot with Damon.

On Legacies, in season 1, episode 10, titled “There’s a World Where Your Dreams Come True,” Damon is referenced multiple times. A mystical Jinni grants Lizzie Saltzman several wishes, sending her into alternate universes.

In one, The Salvatore School is dilapidated and struggling with limited resources and students. Josie Saltzman confides in her sister, “I mean, Damon Salvatore has been very generous, but he has his children to care for with Elena.” In another reality in the same episode, Josie mentions Stefan, Damon’s brother, when discussing their family dynamic.

So, to sum everything up, Elena became a doctor, and Damon and Elena eventually married and lived a happy life. Following their deaths, they both found peace in the afterlife. Elena reunited with her parents, Aunt Jenna and Uncle John. And Damon saw Stefan again.

Julie Plec disclosed what she thinks Damon and Elena were up to during the missing years.

Following the series finale of The Vampire Diaries, Julie Plec discussed the show’s ending with Variety. And she revealed her version of what transpired between Damon and Elena after they married and before they died.

“I have a lot of different versions of what they had together over the decades,” Plec shared. “Probably, for me, it’s influenced by the enthusiasm of the fandom to want them to have gone to [their loft in] Tribeca and raised their children before they came home to Mystic Falls. Somehow, that’s been embedded in my head, and maybe that’s what they had.”

So, in Plec’s mind, Damon and Elena had kids following the series finale of The Vampire Diaries.

2. About The Vampire Diaries

The Vampire Diaries is an American supernatural teen drama television series developed by Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec, based on the book series of the same name written by L. J. Smith.

The series premiered on The CW on September 10, 2009, and concluded on March 10, 2017, having aired 171 episodes over eight seasons. It stars Ian Somerholder, Paul Wesley and Nina Dobrev in lead roles. 

The series is set in the fictional town of Mystic Falls, Virginia, a town charged with supernatural history. It follows the life of Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev), a teenage girl who has just lost both parents in a car accident, as she falls in love with a 162-year-old vampire named Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley). Their relationship becomes increasingly complicated as Stefan’s mysterious older brother Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder) returns to Mystic Falls.