I know I sound like a broken record, but I’m amazed at how good The Vampire Diaries is at shocking me. It’s happened many times, but at the end of “The Last Day,” when Klaus turned Aunt Jenna into a vampire to use her for the Sacrifice, I may have been as shocked as I’ve ever been watching this show.
We knew Klaus was a bad guy who enjoyed making people suffer for daring to go against him, but turning Elena’s innocent aunt into a monster was not something that I even considered. It also raises a big question: What happens to Aunt Jenna now?
There are two very obvious choices. First, The Vampire Diaries can keep her around. Second, the Sacrifice could happen and Aunt Jenna’s life as a vampire can be very short-lived. Let’s look at which possibility would be better.
Keep Her
Caroline proved that turning a major character into a vampire instantly makes them better, so while I’ve been hard on how boring and useless Aunt Jenna is, this could turn it all around. While the show has explored teenagers being turned, seeing an older woman, and a guardian, make the change, opens a whole new world of possibilities.
It also gives Alaric a chance to rewrite his history. The last woman he loved, Isobel, also turned into a vampire, but she left him as soon as she did. If Jenna sticks around, Alaric would get to try and see what it would’ve been like to be with Isobel after her transformation.
Kill Her
As bad as it would be for the world, I really want Klaus to succeed with the Sacrifice so he can become a true werevamp, so if Vamp Jenna needs to die to make that happen, I’m OK with letting her go.
Also, the one argument I’ve always held for keeping Jenna was that Elena and Jeremy need a legal guardian while they’re still in high school. Now that John is back and trying to mend fences with Elena, Jenna has become unnecessary. If she dies, The Vampire Diaries could keep John around (and, hopefully, promote David Anders to series regular for season 3).
Finally, while the show is called The Vampire Diaries, I don’t think everyone needs to be a vampire. We already have Damon, Stefan, Carline and Katherine. We also have Bonnie the witch and Tyler the werewolf. If Jenna sticks around as a vampire, it means 70 percent of the main cast will be supernatural creatures, with Jeremy, Alaric and Matt as the only true humans (remember, we learned that, as a Petrova doppelganger, Elena is also part supernatural).
So should Aunt Jenna live or die? I think the potential plotlines for having a vampire aunt taking care of two kids is too rich, so I’m rooting for Aunt Jenna to survive for at least the rest of the season. However, I’m not holding my breath.
(Image courtesy of the CW)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.
