document_title: To Kill a Mockingbird (film)

question_text: who played boo radley in to kill a mockingbird

text: To Kill a Mockingbird (film)

text: Plot[edit]

text: The film's young protagonists, Jean Louise "Scout" Finch (Mary Badham) and her brother Jeremy Atticus "Jem" Finch (Phillip Alford), live in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the early 1930s. The story covers three years, during which Scout and Jem undergo changes in their lives. They are innocent children, spending their days happily playing games with each other and spying on Arthur "Boo" Radley (Robert Duvall) who has not left his home for many years and about whom many rumors circulate. Their widowed father, Atticus (Gregory Peck), is a town lawyer and has strong beliefs that all people are to be treated fairly, to turn the other cheek, and to stand for what you believe. He also allows his children to call him by his first name. Early in the film, the children see their father accept hickory nuts, and other produce, from Mr. Cunningham (Crahan Denton) for legal work because the client has no money.[3] Through their father's work as a lawyer, Scout and Jem begin to learn of the racism and evil in their town, aggravated by poverty; they mature quickly as they are exposed to it.

text: The local judge (Paul Fix) appoints Atticus to defend a black man, Tom Robinson (Brock Peters), against an accusation of rape of a white girl, Mayella Ewell (Collin Wilcox). Atticus accepts the case. Jem and Scout experience schoolyard taunts for their father's decision. Later, as Atticus is sitting in front of the local jail to safeguard Robinson, a lynch mob arrives, which includes Mr. Cunningham. Scout, Jem and their friend, Dill (John Megna), interrupt the confrontation. Scout, unaware of the mob's purpose, recognizes Cunningham as the man who paid her father in hickory nuts and tells him to say hello to his son, who is her schoolmate. Cunningham becomes embarrassed and the mob disperses.

text: At the trial, it is undisputed that Tom came to Mayella's home at her request to help with the chopping up of a chifforobe, and that Mayella showed signs of having been beaten around that time. Among Atticus' chief arguments is that Tom has a crippled left arm, yet the supposed rapist would have had to make extensive use of his left hand in assaulting Mayella before raping her. Atticus then points out that Mayella's father, Bob Ewell (James Anderson), is left handed, implying that he – rather than Tom – was the one who beat Mayella. Atticus also states that the girl had not been examined by a doctor to check for signs of rape after the supposed assault. In his closing argument Atticus asks the all-white male jury to cast aside their prejudices and instead focus on Tom's obvious innocence. In taking the stand in his own defense, Tom denies he attacked Mayella, but states she kissed him. He testifies he voluntarily assisted Mayella because "I felt sorry for her because…". Although Tom does not finish his sentence, the prosecutor (William Windom) hammers home the point that he was a black man feeling sorry for a white woman. In a town where whites are viewed as superior to blacks, Tom's sympathy for Mayella dooms his case, and he is found guilty.

text: As Atticus leaves the courtroom, the black spectators in the balcony rise to their feet as a sign of respect and appreciation. Reverend Sykes says to Scout, "Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father's passing." When Atticus arrives home, Sheriff Heck Tate (Frank Overton) tells him that Tom has been killed by a deputy during his transfer to prison. According to this deputy, Tom was trying to escape, "running like a crazy man" before he was shot. Atticus and Jem go to the Robinson family home to inform them of Tom's death. Bob Ewell, Mayella's father, appears and spits in Atticus' face while Jem waits in the car. Atticus wipes his face and leaves.

text: Autumn arrives, and Scout and Jem attend a nighttime Halloween pageant at their school. Scout wears a large hard-shelled ham costume, portraying one of Maycomb county's products. At some point during the pageant, Scout's dress and shoes are misplaced. She is forced to walk home without shoes, wearing her ham costume. While cutting through the woods, Scout and Jem are attacked by an unidentified man who has been following them. Scout's costume, like an awkward suit of armor, protects her from the attack but restricts her movement and severely restricts her vision. Jem is knocked unconscious and Scout escapes unharmed in a brief but violent struggle. Their attacker is thwarted and overcome by another unidentified man. Scout escapes her costume in time to see the second man carrying Jem to their home. Scout follows the stranger inside and runs into the arms of a concerned Atticus. Doc Reynolds comes over and treats the broken arm of an unconscious Jem.

text: When Sheriff Tate asks Scout what happened, she sees a man standing quietly in the corner behind the door of Jem's room. Atticus formally introduces Scout to Arthur Radley, whom she has known as Boo, the man who came to the aid of Jem and Scout in the woods. It is revealed that Boo had overpowered Bob Ewell before carrying Jem home. The sheriff reports that Ewell was discovered dead at the scene of the attack with a knife in his ribs. Atticus assumes that Jem killed Ewell in self-defense. Sheriff Tate, however, believes that Boo killed Ewell in defense of the children, and he tells Atticus that to drag the shy and reserved Boo into the spotlight for his heroism would be "a sin". To protect Boo, Sheriff Tate suggests that Ewell "fell on his knife". Scout draws a startlingly precocious analogy, to likening unwelcome public attention to Boo to the killing of a mockingbird.

text: Cast[edit]

text: In the order of the film's opening credits:

text:
Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch
John Megna as Charles Baker "Dill" Harris
Frank Overton as Sheriff Heck Tate
Rosemary Murphy as Miss Maudie Atkinson
Ruth White as Mrs Dubose
Brock Peters as Tom Robinson
Estelle Evans as Calpurnia
Paul Fix as Judge John Taylor
Collin Wilcox as Mayella Violet Ewell
James Anderson as Robert E. Lee "Bob" Ewell
Alice Ghostley as Aunt Stephanie Crawford
Robert Duvall as Arthur "Boo" Radley
William Windom as Horace Gilmer, District Attorney
Crahan Denton as Walter Cunningham
Richard Hale as Nathan Radley
Mary Badham as Scout
Phillip Alford as Jem

text: Uncredited roles (in order of appearance)

text:
Kim Stanley.........Unseen narrator—the voice of adult Scout—"Maycomb was a tired old town – even in 1932 when I first knew it – that summer I was six years old."
Paulene Myers.........Mrs. Dubose's servant, sitting close to her on the Dubose porch (she has no speaking lines).
Jamie Forster.........Mr. Townsend, sitting on a bench, with three men, near the courthouse: "If you're lookin' for your daddy, he's inside the courthouse."
Steve Condit.........Mr. Cunningham's son Walter, at dinner with the Finch family: "Yes, sir. I don't know when I had roast. We been havin' squirrels and rabbits lately."
David Crawford.........David, Tom Robinson's son, sitting on the steps to the Robinsons' shack: "Good evening."
Kim Hamilton.........Helen, Tom Robinson's wife, inside the Robinsons' shack: "Good evening, Mr. Finch."
Dan White.........Mob leader approaching as Atticus Finch sits in front of the jailhouse: "He in there, Mr. Finch?"
Kelly Thordsen.........Heavyset member of the mob who grabs and picks up Jem: "Well, I'll send you home."
William "Bill" Walker.........Reverend Sykes, at the courthouse for Tom Robinson's trial: "Miss Jean Louise? Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father's passin'."
Charles Fredericks.........Court clerk at Tom Robinson's trial: "Place your hand on the bible, please. Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth...?"
Guy Wilkerson.........Jury foreman at Tom Robinson's trial: We find the defendant guilty as charged."
Jay Sullivan.........Court reporter at Tom Robinson's trial: "Yes."
Jester Hairston.........Tom Robinson's father in front of the Robinsons' shack: "Hello Mr. Finch. I'm Spence, Tom's father."
Hugh Sanders.........Doctor who examines Jem: "He's got a bad break, so far as I can tell. Somebody tried to wring his arm off."

text: Music[edit]

text:
To Kill a Mockingbird

Soundtrack album by Elmer Bernstein

Released
Early April 1963[4]

Recorded
August 1–2, 1996, City Halls, Glasgow

Label
Varèse Sarabande

text: Elmer Bernstein's score for To Kill a Mockingbird is regarded as one of the greatest film scores[5] and has been recorded three times. It was first released in April 1963 on Ava; then Bernstein re-recorded it in the 1970s for his Film Music Collection series; and finally, he recorded the complete score (below) in 1996 with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra for the Varese Sarabande Film Classics series.

text:
"Main Title" – 3:21
"Remember Mama" – 1:08
"Atticus Accepts The Case – Roll in the Tire" – 2:06
"Creepy Caper – Peek-A-Boo" – 4:10
"Ewell's Hatred" – 3:33
"Jem's Discovery" – 3:47
"Tree Treasure" – 4:23
"Lynch Mob" – 3:04
"Guilty Verdict" – 3:10
"Ewell Regret It" – 2:11
"Footsteps in the Dark" – 2:07
"Assault in the Shadows" – 2:28
"Boo Who" – 3:00
"End Title" – 3:25

text: Critical response[edit]

text: The film received widespread critical acclaim. As of March 2017, it maintains a 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 56 reviews.[6] According to Bosley Crowther:[7]

text: "Horton Foote's script and the direction of Mr. Mulligan may not penetrate that deeply, but they do allow Mr. Peck and little Miss Badham and Master Alford to portray delightful characters. Their charming enactments of a father and his children in that close relationship, which can occur at only one brief period, are worth all the footage of the film. Rosemary Murphy as a neighbor, Brock Peters as the Negro on trial, and Frank Overton as a troubled sheriff are good as locality characters, too. James Anderson and Collin Wilcox as Southern bigots are almost caricatures. But those are minor shortcomings in a rewarding film."

text: Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times criticized the film for focusing less on the blacks, denouncing the cliché of the honest, white man standing for a helpless black:[8]

text: "It expresses the liberal pieties of a more innocent time, the early 1960s, and it goes very easy on the realities of small-town Alabama in the 1930s. One of the most dramatic scenes shows a lynch mob facing Atticus, who is all by himself on the jailhouse steps the night before Tom Robinson's trial. The mob is armed and prepared to break in and hang Robinson, but Scout bursts onto the scene, recognizes a poor farmer who has been befriended by her father, and shames him (and all the other men) into leaving. Her speech is a calculated strategic exercise, masked as the innocent words of a child; one shot of her eyes shows she realizes exactly what she's doing. Could a child turn away a lynch mob at that time, in that place? Isn't it nice to think so."

text: Gregory Peck's performance became synonymous with the role and character of Atticus Finch. Producer Alan J. Pakula remembered hearing from Peck when he was first approached with the role: "He called back immediately. No maybes. […] I must say the man and the character he played were not unalike".[9] Peck later said in an interview that he was drawn to the role because the book reminded him of growing up in La Jolla, California.[10] "Hardly a day passes that I don't think how lucky I was to be cast in that film", Peck said in a 1997 interview. "I recently sat at a dinner next to a woman who saw it when she was 14 years old, and she said it changed her life. I hear things like that all the time".[11]

text: Gregory Peck[edit]

text: The 1962 softcover edition of the novel opens with the following: The Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama, reminds me of the California town I grew up in. The characters of the novel are like people I knew as a boy. I think perhaps the great appeal of the novel is that it reminds readers everywhere of a person or a town they have known. It is to me a universal story – moving, passionate and told with great humor and tenderness. Gregory Peck.

text: Harper Lee, in liner notes written for the film's DVD re-release by Universal, wrote: "When I learned that Gregory Peck would play Atticus Finch in the film production of To Kill a Mockingbird, I was of course delighted: here was a fine actor who had made great films – what more could a writer ask for? ...The years told me his secret. When he played Atticus Finch, he had played himself, and time has told all of us something more: when he played himself, he touched the world". [12] Upon Peck's death in 2003, Brock Peters, who played Tom Robinson in the film version, quoted Harper Lee at Peck's eulogy, saying, "Atticus Finch gave him an opportunity to play himself". Peters concluded his eulogy stating, "To my friend Gregory Peck, to my friend Atticus Finch, vaya con Dios".[13] Peters remembered the role of Tom Robinson when he recalled, "It certainly is one of my proudest achievements in life, one of the happiest participations in film or theater I have experienced".[14] Peters remained friends not only with Peck but with Mary Badham throughout his life.

text: Peck himself admitted that many people have reminded him of this film more than any other film he has ever done.[15]

text: Awards and honors[edit]

text: In 1995 To Kill a Mockingbird was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[16] It is also Robert Duvall's big-screen debut, as the misunderstood recluse Boo Radley. Duvall was cast on the recommendation of screenwriter Horton Foote, who met him at Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City where Duvall starred in a 1957 production of Foote's play, The Midnight Caller.[17]

text: The American Film Institute named Atticus Finch the greatest movie hero of the 20th century.[18] Additionally, the AFI ranked the movie second on their 100 Years... 100 Cheers list, behind It's a Wonderful Life.[19] The film was ranked number 34 on AFI's list of the 100 greatest movies of all time, but moved up to number 25 on the 10th Anniversary list.[20] In June 2008, the AFI revealed its "Ten top Ten"—the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. To Kill a Mockingbird was acknowledged as the best film in the courtroom drama genre.[21]

text: In 2007 Hamilton was honored by the Harlem community for her part in the movie. She was the last surviving African-American adult who had a speaking part in the movie. When told of the award, she said, "I think it is terrific. I'm very pleased and very surprised".[22]

text:
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – #34
AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains:

Atticus Finch – #1 Hero

AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:

"Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father's passing." – Nominated[23]
"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it. – Nominated[23]

AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores – #17
AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers – #2
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies: 10th Anniversary Edition– #25
AFI's 10 Top 10 – #1 Courtroom Drama

text: Academy Awards[edit]

text: The film won three Academy Awards out of the eight for which it was nominated.[24]

text:
Academy Award for Best Actor — Gregory Peck (The award was presented to Peck by Sophia Loren)
Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay – Horton Foote
Academy Award for Best Art Direction – Set Decoration, Black-and-White — (Henry Bumstead, Alexander Golitzen, and Oliver Emert)

text: Other nominations were for

text:
Best Picture (Producer, Alan J. Pakula)
Best Director (Robert Mulligan)
Best Cinematography, Black-and-White (Russell Harlan),
Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Mary Badham)
Best Music, Score — Substantially Original (Elmer Bernstein)

text: Its main competition was Lawrence of Arabia, which won the Oscar for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Score. Peter O'Toole had been nominated for Best Actor for his performance as T. E. Lawrence, but Peck won for Mockingbird. The Longest Day claimed the award for Best Cinematography, while Patty Duke was awarded Best Supporting Actress for her work in The Miracle Worker.

text: Golden Globe Awards[edit]

text:
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama — Gregory Peck
Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score — Motion Picture — Elmer Bernstein
Golden Globe Award for Best Film Promoting International Understanding — To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Cannes Film Festival[edit]

text: The film was selected for the 1963 Cannes Film Festival in feature film category, winning the Gary Cooper Award.[25][26]

text: Restoration[edit]

text: The film was restored and released on Blu-ray and DVD in 2012 as part of the 100th anniversary of Universal Pictures.[27]


document_title: History of the Rugby World Cup

question_text: who won the first ever rugby world cup

question_tokens: who won the first ever rugby world cup

root

text: History of the Rugby World Cup

text: International competition prior to the World Cup[edit]

text: Apart from regular test matches and touring sides, tournaments that resembled a world cup format – albeit not of its scale, but in terms of international nations competing, are competitions such as the Summer Olympics and the Home Nations Championship/Five Nations Championship.

tag: p

text: Rugby union was played at the Summer Olympics on four occasions, 1900, 1908, 1920 and 1924 Although these competitions did not involve full national sides, and usually only had three or four participating nations at any individual event. The International Championship/Five Nations has been played since 1883. It is one of the oldest international rugby tournaments, involving only European nations.

text: Early attempts[edit]

text: There are several stories that depict suggestions of staging a rugby union world cup before the 1980s. One of the earliest known pioneers was Harold Tolhurst, an Australian player who would later become a referee. It has been said that Tolhurst brought up the idea of such a tournament as early as the late 1950s.[2] It has been said that in 1968, the International Rugby Board made it known that it did not want its unions to be a part of such a competition that resembled a world cup.[2]

text: Similar ideas arose during the last years of the pre-WC era. Bill McLaughlin, who was the president of the Australian Rugby Union in 1979, suggested the idea of staging a World Cup in 1988, as the event would coincide with Australia's bicentenary celebrations.[2]

text: Early 1980s[edit]

text: In 1982, Neil Durden-Smith suggested that the world cup should be held in the United Kingdom in the mid-1980s.[2] The IRB discussed the proposal in March 1983, but the concept did not go ahead. Another meeting was held in June 1983, where Australia put forth a proposal that would see them host the first event – if it should happen.[2] New Zealand joined the campaign, putting forth their own proposal in March of the next year.[2] The IRB went on to conduct a feasibility study – Australia and New Zealand joined forces to bid for the hosting of an inaugural World Cup.[2]

text: A subsequent IRFB meeting was held in Paris in March 1985. It is known that originally, all four home nations were opposed to the idea, and the most vocal supporters were Australia, New Zealand and France. It is believed that South Africa's decision to vote in favour of the event was the turning point in the voting. South Africa voted in favour of the tournament going ahead, though they knew they would not be competing due to the sports boycott at the time.[3] South Africa's vote saw England, followed by Wales, change to be in favour as well.

text: The first tournament[edit]

text: The 1987 Rugby World Cup was hosted by both Australia and New Zealand. 32 matches were played from over a period of 22 May to 20 June. The tournament featured one African nation, three American nations, one Asian nation, seven European nations and four Oceanic nations. One notable omission was the Springboks who were not competing due to the international sports boycott.

text: Seven places were automatically filled by the IRFB members, with invitations being sent out to fill remaining places. In total there were 16 nations in the competition. France played Australia in one of the semi-finals with New Zealand playing Wales in the other. New Zealand became the first ever Rugby World Cup Champions, defeating France 29 points to 9 at Eden Park in Auckland.

text: The 1991 Rugby World Cup was hosted by Great Britain, Ireland and France, with the tournament final to be played at the home of English rugby, Twickenham. For the first time, a qualifying tournament replaced the previously used invitation format. The qualifying tournament involved 32 teams. England qualified for the final by defeating Scotland at Murrayfield, with Australia joining them by defeating New Zealand the day after. Australia won the final, defeating England 12–6, and became the first nation to win the cup away from home.

text: The 1995 Rugby World Cup was hosted by South Africa, and was the first time that all matches would be played in just a single country. It was the first time that South Africa participated in the tournament following the end of their international sports boycott due to the apartheid regime. South Africa won the tournament, defeating New Zealand 15–12 in the final. Joel Stransky kicked a drop-goal in extra time to grab the victory for South Africa. The All Blacks were mysteriously struck down with food poisoning just days before the final with many All Blacks still affected on the day of the final. Nelson Mandela, wearing a Springbok jersey and matching cap, famously presented the Webb Ellis Cup to South African captain Francois Pienaar. The tournament also saw the emergence of rugby's first global superstar, All Blacks winger Jonah Lomu. He and Marc Ellis finished the tournament as the top try scorers.

text: The 1999 Rugby World Cup was hosted by Wales with matches played in England, France, Scotland and Ireland. There were further changes to the rules of automatic qualification for this tournament, where only the top three places from 1995, along with the host nation, automatically qualified. Sixty-five rugby nations participated in qualifying competitions for the 1999 tournament, and the participating nations increased from 16 to 20. France's shock 43–31 semifinal win over the All Blacks is regarded as one of the biggest upsets and also one of the best games in the history of the World Cup. Australia defeated France in the final 35–12. They therefore became the first nation to win the World Cup twice.

text: 2000 – present[edit]

text: The 2003 World Cup was hosted by Australia. It was originally to be co-hosted with New Zealand, but disagreements over scheduling and signage at venues led to Australia going it alone. England won the tournament, defeating Australia in the final 20 points to 17. With 21 seconds left before sudden death England's Jonny Wilkinson landed a drop goal to win the match. England became the first northern hemisphere nation to win a Rugby World Cup. Upon returning home, the English side was greeted by an estimated 750,000 people at a street parade celebrating their victory.[4]

text: The 2007 World Cup was held in France, with matches also played in Wales and Scotland. The tournament was won by South Africa, who defeated England 15–6 in the final to become World Champions for the second time. Blowouts in scores in pool matches against minnow nations changed into a finals series dominated by defence. This tournament was notable for Argentina becoming the first team from outside the Six Nations and Tri-Nations to reach the semifinals. They ended up coming third in the tournament, which was the first time the top 3 slots weren't dominated by either New Zealand, Australia, England, South Africa, France or Wales. This tournament was the first time that both Australia and New Zealand did not progress past the Quarter Finals.

text: The 2011 tournament was hosted by New Zealand: it saw a repeat of the 1987 World Cup finale standings, as Australia took on Wales in the Bronze final and won 21-18, while New Zealand, by defeating France 8-7 in the final, became the first nation to win on home soil twice. This tournament was notable for the fact that France lost twice in the pool stages, to NZ and Tonga, and yet somehow managed to progress all the way to the Final to face off with NZ one more time. This represented the first time any team had played each other twice in a world cup and was also the first time the winner and runner-up of the same pool progressed through to the Finals.

text: The 2015 tournament was hosted by England. The tournament was won by New Zealand, who defeated Australia 34-17 to become the first nation to successfully defend their World Champion title and the first nation to win the tournament three times. This was the first time New Zealand had successfully won the cup away from home. This tournament is notable for the Pool of Death that occurred which saw Australia, England and Wales fight to get a place in the Quarter Finals. England became the first Host nation, and top tier rugby nation, to not make it out of the Pools. This also became the first Rugby World Cup to have all Northern Hemisphere competition knocked out in the Quarter Finals, with Argentina, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand progressing through to the Semi-Finals. This world cup will also be remembered for the biggest upset ever when Japan beat South Africa 34 - 23 in the pool stages and came very close to making their first Quarter Finals.

text: The 2019 tournament will be hosted in Japan, with the Yokohoma Stadium holding the final.

text: On November 15, 2017 France was announced as host of the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

text: Overview[edit]

text:
Year
Host
Final venue
Teams
Participants
in Qualifying
Matches
played
Winner
Runner-up

1987
Australia & New Zealand
Eden Park
16
Invitation
32
 New Zealand
 France

1991
Britain
France
Ireland
Twickenham
16
32
32
 Australia
 England

1995
South Africa
Ellis Park
16
52
32
 South Africa
 New Zealand

1999
Wales
Millennium Stadium
20
65
41
 Australia
 France

2003
Australia
Telstra Stadium
20
80
48
 England
 Australia

2007
France
Stade de France
20
91
48
 South Africa
 England

2011
New Zealand
Eden Park
20
93
48
 New Zealand
 France

2015
England
Twickenham
20
96
48
 New Zealand
 Australia

2019
Japan
Yokohoma Stadium
20

48
[to be determined]
[to be determined]

2023
France
[to be determined]
[to be determined]
[to be determined]
[to be determined]
[to be determined]
[to be determined]

tag: table

text: Overall team performance records[edit]

text: The following table shows the overall performance records of the teams from the Six Nations and The Rugby Championship, plus the teams that made the knock-out stages (the quarter-finals) in at least one of the World Cups played so far. If they played in the tournament, the entries in the table show the stage at which they were knocked out, or whether they won the tournament. The second part of the table shows the number of times a team has reached that stage of the competition. For a more comprehensive table of the performance records of all the teams over the history of the World Cup, see National team appearances in the Rugby World Cup. Only Romania Japan and Italy have played in all 8 world cups without getting past the group stages. For the all-time table of national teams that have featured in the Rugby World Cup by a number of criteria including matches, wins, losses, draws, total points for, total points against, etc., see Rugby World Cup Overall Record.

text:
Team
1987
1991
1995
1999
2003
2007
2011
2015
Quarter-
finals
Semi-
finals
Finals

 New Zealand
W
SF
F
SF
SF
QF
W
W
8
7
4

 Australia
SF
W
QF
W
F
QF
SF
F
8
6
4

 South Africa(1)
DNP
DNP
W
SF
QF
W
QF
SF
6
4
2

 England
QF
F
SF
QF
W
F
QF
Group
7
4
3

 France
F
QF
SF
F
SF
SF
F
QF
8
6
3

 Scotland
QF
SF
QF
QF
QF
QF
Group
QF
7
1
0

 Ireland
QF
QF
QF
QF Play-Off
QF
Group
QF
QF
6
0
0

 Wales
SF
Group
Group
QF
QF
Group
SF
QF
5
2
0

 Argentina
Group
Group
Group
QF
Group
SF
QF
SF
4
2
0

 Samoa(2)
DNP
QF
QF
QF Play-Off
Group
Group
Group
Group
2
0
0

 Fiji(3)
QF
Group
DNQ
QF Play-Off
Group
QF
Group
Group
2
0
0

 Canada
Group
QF
Group
Group
Group
Group
Group
Group
1
0
0

 Italy
Group
Group
Group
Group
Group
Group
Group
Group
0
0
0

text: Defending champions[edit]

text: Only New Zealand, in 2015, has successfully defended their title in the World Cup. The stage at which the defending champions were knocked out has been: 1991 – SF – New Zealand knocked out by Australia; 1995 – QF – Australia knocked out by England; 1999 – SF – South Africa knocked out by Australia; 2003 – F – Australia knocked out by England; 2007 – F – England knocked out by South Africa; 2011 - QF - South Africa knocked out by Australia. Australia's loss in the quarter-finals in 1995, and South Africa's loss in the quarter-finals in 2011 are the worst performances by the defending champions.

text: Knockout statistics[edit]

text: For the teams that made the knock-out stages (quarter-finals) of the World Cup, the following table shows which team knocked them out of the competition, unless they won. England have knocked out both Australia and France three times each, while New Zealand have knocked out Scotland three times.

text:
Team
1987 lost to
1991 lost to
1995 lost to
1999 lost to
2003 lost to
2007 lost to
2011 lost to
2015 lost to

 New Zealand
W
 Australia
 South Africa
 France
 Australia
 France
W
W

 Australia
 France
W
 England
W
 England
 England
 New Zealand
 New Zealand

 England
 Wales
 Australia
 New Zealand
 South Africa
W
 South Africa
 France
N/A

 South Africa(1)
DNP
DNP
W
 Australia
 New Zealand
W
 Australia
 New Zealand

 France
 New Zealand
 England
 South Africa
 Australia
 England
 England
 New Zealand
 New Zealand

 Scotland
 New Zealand
 England
 New Zealand
 New Zealand
 Australia
 Argentina
N/A
 Australia

 Ireland
 Australia
 Australia
 France
 Argentina(4)
 France
N/A
 Wales
 Argentina

 Wales
 New Zealand
N/A
N/A
 Australia
 England
N/A
 France
 South Africa

 Samoa(2)
DNP
 Scotland
 South Africa
 Scotland(4)
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A

 Argentina
N/A
N/A
N/A
 France
N/A
 South Africa
 New Zealand
 Australia

 Fiji(3)
 France
N/A
DNQ
 England(4)
N/A
 South Africa
N/A
N/A

 Canada
N/A
 New Zealand
N/A
N/A
N/A
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document_title: Coronary artery bypass surgery

question_text: who performed the first successful heart bypass operation in 1964

text: Coronary artery bypass surgery

text: Terminology[edit]

text: There are many variations in terminology, in which one or more of "artery", "bypass" or "graft" is left out. The most frequently used acronym for this type of surgery is CABG (pronounced 'cabbage'),[1] pluralized as CABGs (pronounced 'cabbages'). Initially the term aortocoronary bypass (ACB) was more popularly used to describe this procedure.[2] CAGS (coronary artery graft surgery, pronounced phonetically) should not be confused with coronary angiography (CAG).

text: Number of arteries bypassed[edit]

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text: This section needs to be updated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (October 2016)

text: The terms single bypass, double bypass, triple bypass, quadruple bypass and quintuple bypass refer to the number of coronary arteries bypassed in the procedure. In other words, a double bypass means two coronary arteries are bypassed (e.g., the left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery and right coronary artery (RCA)); a triple bypass means three vessels are bypassed (e.g., LAD, RCA and left circumflex artery (LCX)); a quadruple bypass means four vessels are bypassed (e.g., LAD, RCA, LCX and first diagonal artery of the LAD) while quintuple means five. Left main coronary artery obstruction requires two bypasses, one to the LAD and one to the LCX.

text: A coronary artery may be unsuitable for bypass grafting if it is small (< 1 mm or < 1.5 mm), heavily calcified, or located within the heart muscle rather than on the surface. A single obstruction of the left main coronary artery is associated with a higher risk for a cardiac death and usually receives a double bypass.[citation needed]

text: The surgeon reviews the coronary angiogram prior to surgery and identifies the number of obstructions, the percent obstruction of each, and the suitability of the arteries beyond the obstruction(s) as targets. The presumed number of bypass grafts needed as well as the location for graft attachment is determined in a preliminary fashion prior to surgery, but the final decision as to number and location is made during surgery by direct examination of the heart.

text: Medical uses[edit]

text:
The 2004 ACC/AHA CABG guidelines state CABG is the preferred treatment for:[3]
Disease of the left main coronary artery (LMCA).
Disease of all three coronary arteries (LAD, LCX and RCA).
Diffuse disease not amenable to treatment with a PCI.
The 2005 ACC/AHA guidelines further state that CABG is the preferred treatment with other high-risk patients such as those with severe ventricular dysfunction (i.e. low ejection fraction), or diabetes mellitus.[3]

tag: ul

text: Benefits[edit]

text:
Bypass surgery can provide relief of angina when the location of partial obstructions precludes improving blood flow with stents.
There is no survival benefit with bypass surgery vs. medical therapy in stable angina patients.
Bypass surgery does not prevent future myocardial infarctions.[4]

text: Age per se is not a factor in determining risk vs benefit of CABG.[5]

text: Results compared to stent placement[edit]

text: CABG or stent placement is indicated when medical management - anti-anginal medications, statins, antihypertensives, smoking cessation, and /or tight blood sugar control in diabetics - do not satisfactorily relieve ischemic symptoms.

text:
Both PCI and CABG are more effective than medical management at relieving symptoms,[6] (e.g. angina, dyspnea, fatigue).
CABG is superior to PCI for some patients with multivessel CAD[7][8]
The Surgery or Stent (SoS) trial was a randomized controlled trial that compared CABG to PCI with bare-metal stents. The SoS trial demonstrated CABG is superior to PCI in multivessel coronary disease.[7]
The SYNTAX trial was a randomized controlled trial of 1800 patients with multivessel coronary disease, comparing CABG versus PCI using drug-eluting stents (DES). The study found that rates of major adverse cardiac or cerebrovascular events at 12 months were significantly higher in the DES group (17.8% versus 12.4% for CABG; P=0.002).[8] This was primarily driven by higher need for repeat revascularization procedures in the PCI group with no difference in repeat infarctions or survival. Higher rates of strokes were seen in the CABG group.
The FREEDOM (Future Revascularization Evaluation in Patients With Diabetes Mellitus—Optimal Management of Multivessel Disease) trial will compare CABG and DES in patients with diabetes. The registries of the nonrandomized patients screened for these trials may provide as much robust data regarding revascularization outcomes as the randomized analysis.[9]
A study comparing the outcomes of all patients in New York state treated with CABG or percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) demonstrated CABG was superior to PCI with DES in multivessel (more than one diseased artery) coronary artery disease (CAD). Patients treated with CABG had lower rates of death and of death or myocardial infarction than treatment with a coronary stent. Patients undergoing CABG also had lower rates of repeat revascularization.[10] The New York State registry included all patients undergoing revascularization for coronary artery disease, but was not a randomized trial, and so may have reflected other factors besides the method of coronary revascularization.
A meta-analysis with over 6000 patients showed that coronary artery bypass was associated with lower risk for major adverse cardiac events compared to drug-eluting stenting. However, patients had a higher risk of stroke events.[11]

text: Outcomes[edit]

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text: Prognosis following CABG depends on a variety of factors, and successful grafts typically last 8–15 years.[citation needed] In general, CABG improves the chances of survival of patients who are at high risk (generally triple or higher bypass), though statistically after about five years the difference in survival rate between those who have had surgery and those treated by drug therapy diminishes. Age at the time of CABG is critical to the prognosis, younger patients with no complicating diseases doing better, while older patients can usually be expected to suffer further blockage of the coronary arteries.[12]

text: Grafts can become diseased and may partially or completely occlude—that is, lose their patency—in the months to years after bypass surgery is performed. A graft is considered patent if there is normal flow through the graft; flow begins to diminish with around a 70 percent stenosis in the graft.

text: Graft patency is dependent on a number of factors, including the type of graft used (internal thoracic artery, radial artery, or great saphenous vein), the size of the coronary artery that the graft is anastomosed with, and, of course, the skill of the surgeon(s) performing the procedure. Arterial grafts (e.g. LITA, radial) are far more sensitive to rough handling than the saphenous veins and may go into spasm if handled improperly.

text: Generally the best patency rates are achieved with the in-situ left internal thoracic artery (the proximal end is left connected to the subclavian artery) with the distal end being anastomosed with the coronary artery (typically the left anterior descending artery or a diagonal branch artery). Lesser patency rates can be expected with radial artery grafts and "free" internal thoracic artery grafts (where the proximal end of the thoracic artery is excised from its origin from the subclavian artery and re-anastomosed with the ascending aorta). Saphenous vein grafts may undergo vein graft failure and have worse patency rates, but are more available, as the patients can have multiple segments of the saphenous vein used to bypass different arteries.

text: Veins that are used either have their valves removed or are turned around so that the valves in them do not occlude blood flow in the graft. External support may be placed on the vein prior to grafting into the coronary circulation of the patient. LITA grafts are longer-lasting than vein grafts, both because the artery is more robust than a vein and because, being already connected to the arterial tree, the LITA need only be grafted at one end. The LITA is usually grafted to the left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) because of its superior long-term patency when compared to saphenous vein grafts.[13][14]

text: Complications[edit]

text: This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: CABG associated[edit]

text:
Postperfusion syndrome (pumphead), a transient neurocognitive impairment associated with cardiopulmonary bypass. Some research shows the incidence is initially decreased by off-pump coronary artery bypass, but with no difference beyond three months after surgery. A neurocognitive decline over time has been demonstrated in people with coronary artery disease regardless of treatment (OPCAB, conventional CABG or medical management). However, a 2009 research study suggests that longer term (over 5 years) cognitive decline is not caused by CABG but is rather a consequence of vascular disease.[15] Loss of mental function is a complication of bypass surgery in elderly people, and might influence procedure cost benefit considerations.[16] Several factors may contribute to immediate cognitive decline.  The heart-lung blood circulation system and the surgery itself release a variety of debris, including bits of blood cells, tubing, and plaques.  For example, when surgeons clamp and connect the aorta to tubing, resulting emboli block blood flow and cause mini strokes.  Other heart surgery factors related to mental damage may be events of hypoxia, high or low body temperature, abnormal blood pressure, irregular heart rhythms, and fever after surgery.[17]
Nonunion of the sternum; internal thoracic artery harvesting increases the sternum devascularization risk.[18]
Myocardial infarction due to embolism, hypoperfusion, or graft failure.
Late graft stenosis, particularly of saphenous vein grafts due to atherosclerosis causing recurrent angina or myocardial infarction.[19]
Acute renal failure due to embolism or hypoperfusion.[20][21]
Stroke, secondary to embolism or hypoperfusion.[22]
Vasoplegic syndrome, secondary to cardiopulmonary bypass and hypothermia
Graft failure: grafts last 8–15 years, and then need to be replaced.
Pneumothorax: An air collection around the lung that compresses the lung[21]
Hemothorax:  Blood in the space around the lungs
Pericardial tamponade: Blood collection around the heart that compresses the heart and causes poor body and brain perfusion.  Chest tubes are placed around the heart and lung to prevent this.  If the chest tubes become clogged in the early post operative period when bleeding is ongoing this can lead to pericardial tamponade, pneumothorax or hemothorax.
Pleural effusion:  Fluid in the space around the lungs.  This can lead to hypoxia which can slow recovery.
Pericarditis
Lower extremity edema, extravasation, inflammation, and eccymoses from vein harvest; entrapment of up to 9 pounds (4.1 kg) of fluid in the extremity is common. This is managed with a thigh length compression stocking, elevation of the limb, and early and frequent slow walking; as well as avoidance of standing in place, sitting, and bending the leg at the knee more than a few degrees.

text: Open heart surgery associated[edit]

text:
Post-operative atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter.[23]
Anemia - secondary to blood loss, plus the anemia of inflammation, inflammation being inevitable with opening the chest plus harvesting of leg vein(s) for grafting. A fall in the hemoglobin from normal preoperative levels (e.g. 15) to postoperative levels of 6 to 10 are inevitable. There is no benefit from transfusions until the hemoglobin falls below 7.5.[24] Institutions should establish protocols to ensure transfusions are not given unless the hemoglobin falls below 7.5 without some additional compelling reason(s).[25]
Delayed healing or refracture of sternum - the sternum is bifurcated logitudinally (a median sternotomy) and retracted to access the heart. Failure to follow "sternal precautions" following surgery could result in delayed healing or refracture of the sternum which was sutured at the closure of the chest wound:
Hold a pillow against the chest whenever getting out of or into a chair or bed; or coughing, sneezing, blowing nose, or laughing, in order to oppose the intrathoracic outward force created by these activities on the healing sternum.
Avoid using the pectoral muscles, such as by pushing on the chair arms to assist one's self out of a chair, or by using the arms to assist in sitting down. Proper standing technique is to rock three times in the chair and then stand to provide momentum for moving the center of gravity from the sitting to the standing position. Proper sitting technique is to slowly lower the bottom toward the chair seat using gluteus and quadriceps muscles ("legs only") without grabbing the chair arms. Second, patients should avoid lifting objects utilizing the pectoral muscles: carrying light objects with arms extended  down at sides, and lifting light objects with the elbows pressed to the chest and using the biceps, are acceptable. Also, avoid using the arms overhead.
Avoid sitting in the car front seat (no driving) for at least four weeks: the explosion of the deployment of an airbag could refracture the sternal union.

text: General surgery associated[edit]

text:
Infection at incision sites
Sepsis
Deep vein thrombosis
Anesthetic complications such as malignant hyperthermia
Keloid scarring
Chronic pain at incision sites
Chronic stress related illnesses

text: Procedure[edit]

text: This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text:
The patient is brought to the operating room and moved onto the operating table.
An anaesthetist or anesthesiologist places intravenous and arterial lines and injects an analgesic, usually fentanyl, intravenously, followed within minutes by an induction agent (usually propofol or etomidate) to render the patient unconscious.
An endotracheal tube is inserted and secured by the anaesthetist and mechanical ventilation is started. General anaesthesia is  maintained with an inhaled volatile anesthetic agent such as isoflurane.
The chest is opened via a median sternotomy and the heart is examined by the surgeon.
The bypass grafts are harvested – frequent vessels are the internal thoracic arteries, radial arteries and saphenous veins. When harvesting is done, the patient is given heparin to inhibit blood clotting.
In the case of "off-pump" surgery, the surgeon places devices to stabilize the heart.
In the case of "on-pump" surgery, the surgeon sutures cannulae into the heart and instructs the perfusionist to start cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). Once CPB is established, there are two technical approaches: either the surgeon places the aortic cross-clamp across the aorta and instructs the perfusionist to deliver cardioplegia with a cooled potassium mixture to stop the heart and slow its metabolism or performing bypasses on beating state (on-pump beating).
One end of each vein graft is sewn on to the coronary arteries beyond the obstruction and the other end is attached to the aorta or one of its branches. For the internal thoracic artery, the artery is severed and the proximal intact artery is sewn to the LAD beyond the obstruction. Aside the latter classical approach, there are emerging techniques for construction of composite grafts as to avoiding connecting grafts on the ascending aorta (Un-Aortic) in view of decreasing neurologic complications.
The heart is restarted; or in "off-pump" surgery, the stabilizing devices are removed. In cases where the aorta is partially occluded by a C-shaped clamp, the heart is restarted and suturing of the grafts to the aorta is done in this partially occluded section of the aorta while the heart is beating.
Protamine is given to reverse the effects of heparin.
Chest tubes are placed in the mediastinal and pleural space to drain blood from around the heart and lungs.
The sternum is wired together and the incisions are sutured closed.
The patient is moved to an intensive care unit (ICU) or cardiac universal bed (CUB) to recover. Nurses in the ICU monitor blood pressure, urine output, respiratory status, and chest tubes for excessive or no drainage.  Excessive drainage suggests continued bleeding which may require re-operation to manage; no drainage suggests an obstructed tube, which can result in cardiac tamponade and/or pneumothorax which can be lethal.
After awakening and stabilizing in the ICU for 18 to 24 hours, the person is transferred to the cardiac surgery ward. If the patient is in a CUB, equipment and nursing is "stepped down" appropriate to the patient's progress without having to move the patient. Vital sign monitoring, remote rhythm monitoring, early ambulation with assistance, breathing exercises, pain control, blood sugar monitoring with intravenous insulin administration by protocol, and anti-platelet agents are all standard of care.
The patient without complications is discharged in four or five days.

tag: ol

text: Minimally invasive technique[edit]

text: Alternate methods of minimally invasive coronary artery bypass surgery have been developed.  Off-pump coronary artery bypass (OPCAB) is a technique of performing bypass surgery without the use of cardiopulmonary bypass (the heart-lung machine).[26] Avoidance of aortic manipulation may be achieved through the "anaortic" or no-touch OPCAB technique, which has been shown to reduce stroke and mortality compared to on-pump CABG.[27]  Further refinements to OPCAB have resulted in minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass surgery (MIDCAB), a technique of performing bypass surgery through a 5 to 10 cm incision.[28]

text: Hybrid Coronary Revascualrisation, where the LIMA-to-LAD anastomosis is combined with percutaneous stents in other atherosclerotic sites, has been shown to have significant advantages compared to conventional CABG, including a decrease in the incidence of blood transfusion, and a reduced intubation time. A 2018 meta-analysis has however demonstrated a greater financial cost when compared to conventional CABG.[29]

text: Choice of source of grafts[edit]

text: The choice of vessel(s) is highly dependent upon the particular surgeon and institution. Typically, the left internal thoracic artery (LITA) (previously referred to as left internal mammary artery or LIMA) is grafted to the left anterior descending artery and a combination of other arteries and veins is used for other coronary arteries.[30] The great saphenous vein from the leg is used approximately in 80% of all grafts for CABG.[31] The right internal thoracic (mammary) artery (RITA or RIMA) and the radial artery from the forearm are frequently used as well; in the U.S., these vessels are usually harvested either endoscopically, using a technique known as endoscopic vessel harvesting (EVH), or with the open-bridging technique, employing two or three small incisions. The right gastroepiploic artery from the stomach is infrequently used given the difficult mobilization from the abdomen.

text: Follow up[edit]

text:
Acute - patients without complications are typically seen 3–4 weeks post operatively, at which time driving may be resumed and formal cardiac rehabilitation begun to increase aerobic endurance and muscular strength.
Chronic -
a cardiac stress test at five years is recommended, even in the absence of cardiac symptoms.[32][33]
an intensive medical regimen including statins, aspirin, and aerobic exercise is essential to delaying the progression of plaque formation in both  the native and grafted vessels.

text:
Illustration depicting coronary artery bypass surgery (double bypass)

Illustration of Single bypass

Illustration of Double bypass

Illustration of Triple bypass

Illustration of Quadruple bypass

text: Number performed[edit]

text: CABG is one of the most common procedures performed during U.S. hospital stays; it accounted for 1.4% of all operating room procedures performed in 2011.[34] Between 2001 and 2011, however, its volume decreased by 46%, from 395,000 operating procedures performed in 2001 to 213,700 procedures in 2011.[35]

text: Between 2000 and 2012, the number of CABG procedures carried out decreased across the majority of OECD countries. However, there remained substantial variation in the rate of procedures, with the U.S. carrying out four times as many CABG operations per 100,000 people as Spain.[36] These differences do not appear to be closely related to the incidence of heart disease, but may be due to variation in financial resources, capacity, treatment protocols and reporting methods.[37]

text: History[edit]

text:
The first coronary artery bypass surgery was performed in the United States on May 2, 1960, at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine-Bronx Municipal Hospital Center by a team led by Robert H. Goetz and the thoracic surgeon, Michael Rohman with the assistance of Jordan Haller and Ronald Dee.[38][39] In this technique the vessels are held together with circumferential ligatures over an inserted metal ring. The internal mammary artery was used as the donor vessel and was anastomosed to the right coronary artery. The actual anastomosis with the Rosenbach ring took fifteen seconds and did not require cardiopulmonary bypass. The disadvantage of using the internal mammary artery was that, at autopsy nine months later, the anastomosis was open, but an atheromatous plaque had occluded the origin of the internal mammary that was used for the bypass.[citation needed][verification needed]
Soviet cardiac surgeon, Vasilii Kolesov, performed the first successful internal mammary artery–coronary artery anastomosis in 1964.[40][41] However, Goetz has been cited by others, including Kolesov,[42] as the first successful human coronary artery bypass.[43][44][45][46][47][48] Goetz's case has frequently been overlooked. Confusion has persisted for over 40 years and seems to be due to the absence of a full report and to misunderstanding about the type of anastomosis that was created. The anastomosis was intima-to-intima, with the vessels held together with circumferential ligatures over a specially designed metal ring. Kolesov did the first successful coronary bypass using a standard suture technique in 1964, and over the next five years he performed 33 sutured and mechanically stapled anastomoses in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), USSR.[49][50]
René Favaloro, an Argentine surgeon, achieved a physiologic approach in the surgical management of coronary artery disease—the bypass grafting procedure—at the Cleveland Clinic in May 1967.[41][51] His new technique used a saphenous vein autograft to replace a stenotic segment of the right coronary artery. Later, he successfully used the saphenous vein as a bypassing channel, which has become the typical bypass graft technique we know today; in the U.S., this vessel is typically harvested endoscopically, using a technique known as endoscopic vessel harvesting (EVH).
Soon Dudley Johnson extended the bypass to include left coronary arterial systems.[41]
In 1968, doctors Charles Bailey, Teruo Hirose and George Green used the internal mammary artery instead of the saphenous vein for the grafting.[41]

text: Cost[edit]

text: According to the CDC, the average cost of hospitalization (only) associated with a coronary bypass operation in the United States in 2013 was $38,707, for an aggregate hospitalization cost of $6.4 billion.[52]  The International Federation of Healthcare Plans[53] has estimated the average cost of hospitalization and physician fees for a coronary bypass operation in various countries as shown in the Table below.[54]

text:
Country
Cost

United States
$75,345

Australia
$42,130

New Zealand
$40,368

Switzerland
$36,509

Argentina
$16,492

Spain
$16,247

Netherlands
$15,742

India
$1,583[55]


document_title: Damon Salvatore

question_text: when does elena choose damon in season 4

text: Damon Salvatore

text: Character development[edit]

text: Casting[edit]

text: Ian Somerhalder was cast as Damon Salvatore at the end of March 2009, six months before the premiere of the series.[1] The initial casting call for the character required an actor in his early- to mid-twenties to play a "darkly handsome, strong, charming, and smug vampire who can go from casual and playful to pure evil in less than a heartbeat."[2] Somerhalder had not read the books until filming began.[3]

text: Television series[edit]

text: Background[edit]

text: Damon Salvatore is a vampire, turned by Katherine Pierce 145 years prior to the series' debut. He is the son of late Giuseppe Salvatore, ripper Lily Salvatore and older brother of Stefan Salvatore. He is portrayed as a charming, handsome and snarky person who loves tricking humans, and takes pleasure in feeding on them and killing them during the early episodes of the first season, unlike his brother, Stefan. Damon and Stefan bite humans to keep them alive since they're vampires.

text: Season 1[edit]

text: In the first season, Damon appears as the frightening older brother to Stefan Salvatore, and plays as the main antagonist for the first initial episodes with a hidden agenda.[4] Slowly, Damon begins to be kinder to the other characters, showing brief moments of compassion such as erasing Jeremy's memory of vampires and removing his "suffering"[4] so Jeremy gets his life back on track.[5] Damon apologizes for turning Vicki Donovan into a vampire and admits it was wrong.[6] Later at the Gilbert house, Elena returns home. Damon admits that he came to the town wanting to destroy it but actually found himself wanting to protect it after everything that happened at the Founder's Day celebrations and says he's not a hero and doesn't do good, saying it's not in him - those traits are reserved for Stefan, Elena and Bonnie. The two begin to kiss passionately before getting interrupted - it is later revealed that it wasn't Elena he kissed, but Katherine Pierce.[6] Later in the season, it also implies that he actually feels human emotions, such as pain and love, which helps the viewer sympathize toward his character in some situations. But mostly, he likes to take care of himself and do the dirty work, in his own sadistic ways.

text: Season 2[edit]

text: In season two, Katherine tells Damon that she never loved him and that it was always Stefan. Elena says something similar later, leaving Damon heartbroken. As an expression of his anger, pain, and hopelessness, he snaps Jeremy Gilbert's neck, not realizing he is wearing a ring which reverses damage done by supernatural creatures or forces. Jeremy survives because of the ring, but Damon's action incurs Elena's wrath and pain. When Bonnie also discovers it was his blood that enabled Caroline Forbes to become a vampire, the two declare their hatred for him, leaving angrier than ever.[7] After saving Elena with Stefan in episode 8 of season 2, Damon shows up in Elena's room with the vervain necklace that was ripped from her neck earlier in the episode. Before he gives it back, he tells Elena that he is in love with her, and because he is in love with her, he cannot be selfish with her. He also states that he doesn't deserve her, but that his brother does. He kisses her forehead and says he wishes she could remember this, but she can't. As the camera shows a close up of Damon's eye as he is compelling Elena to forget, a tear slips. Elena blinks and her vervain necklace is back around her neck, Damon is gone and her window is open with the curtains blowing. She had no recollection as to how the necklace was returned to her. In one episode, Damon joins Rose to find out why the originals are after Elena; after some time and clever banter, the two have sex, stating that they could rid themselves of emotion. However, when Rose, Damon's old friend who turned Katerina, suffers from a werewolf bite, he gives her the memory of her life prior to becoming a vampire, and helps her remember how good it felt to be able to walk and feel the sunlight, without it burning her. During this meaningful moment, Damon mercifully kills her, leaving him to mourn the death of his one of very few friends. Elena and Damon then begin to mend fences, and Elena gives him an affectionate hug to help comfort him after Rose's death. Damon begins showing another side of himself in small acts that help build what once was an impossible friendship between Elena and himself, after she clearly stated that he has lost her forever. After he spares Caroline's mother, Elena says how that was the person she was once friends with. And it's hard for Damon to accept that he has to change to have her in his life, which he explains to Andy Star, his compelled girlfriend a few more episodes in. Damon is bitten by Tyler the werewolf at the end of the season. Elena takes care of him, and right before he is cured by the blood of Klaus, the original hybrid, she gives him a "goodbye" kiss, because she was sure he was going to die. She even forgives him, telling him that she cares for him through grief-stricken tears.

text: Season 3[edit]

text: In the third season, Damon helps Elena in bringing his brother, Stefan, back to Mystic Falls after Stefan becomes Klaus' henchman. The arrangement transpired after a bargain for his blood that would cure Damon of the werewolf bite he had received from Tyler. At first, he is reluctant to involve Elena in the rescue attempts, employing Alaric Saltzman, Elena's guardian, instead as Klaus does not know that Elena is alive after the sacrifice which frees Klaus' hybrid side. However, Elena involves herself, desperate to find Stefan. Damon, though hesitant at first, is unable to refuse her because of his love for her. He also points out to her that she once turned back from finding Stefan since she knew Damon would be in danger, clearly showing that she also has feelings for him. He tells her that "when (he) drag(s) (his) brother from the edge to deliver him back to (her), (he) wants her to remember the things (she) felt while he was gone." When Stefan finally returns to Mystic Falls, his attitude is different from that of the first and second seasons. This causes a rift between Elena and Stefan whereas the relationship between Damon and Elena becomes closer and more intimate. A still loyal Elena, however, refuses to admit her feelings for Damon. In 'Dangerous Liaisons', Elena, frustrated with her feelings for him, tells Damon that his love for her may be a problem, and that this could be causing all their troubles. This incenses Damon, causing him to revert to the uncaring and reckless Damon seen in the previous seasons. The rocky relationship between the two continues until the sexual tension hits the fan and in a moment of heated passion, Elena – for the first time in the three seasons – kisses Damon of her own accord. This kiss finally causes Elena to admit that she loves both brothers and realize that she must ultimately make her choice as her own ancestress, Katherine Pierce, who turned the brothers, once did. In assessment of her feelings for Damon, she states this: "Damon just sort of snuck up on me. He got under my skin and no matter what I do, I can't shake him." In the season finale, a trip designed to get her to safety forces Elena to make her choice: to go to Damon and possibly see him one last time; or to go to Stefan and her friends and see them one last time. She chooses the latter when she calls Damon to tell him her decision. Damon, who is trying to stop Alaric, accepts what she says and she tells him that maybe if she had met Damon before she had met Stefan, her choice may have been different. This statement causes Damon to remember the first night he did meet Elena which was, in fact, the night her parents died - before she had met Stefan. Not wanting anyone to know he was in town and after giving her some advice about life and love, Damon compels her to forget. He remembers this as he fights Alaric and seems accepting of his death when Alaric, whose life line is tied to Elena's, suddenly collapses in his arms. Damon is grief-stricken, knowing that this means that Elena has also died and yells, "No! You are not dead!" A heartbroken Damon then goes to the hospital demanding to see Elena when the doctor, Meredith Fell, tells him that she gave Elena vampire blood. The last shot of the season finale episode shows Elena in transition.

text: Season 4[edit]

text: Damon starts season 4 at Elena's bedside after finding out about her dying with vampire blood in her system, causing her to start the transition to Vampire. Damon decides to firstly try to kill Rebekah with a White Oak Stake, yet she overpowers him. Rebekah is shot at through the Window and Damon escapes.

text: Later in part of a plan with the Sheriff and Meredith Fell, Damon uses Matt as bait to draw out the deputies and Pastor Young. After dispatching the deputies, Damon decides to take out some aggression on Matt and is about to snap his neck when stopped by the new vampire Elena. After Elena and Stefan go hunting on animals the next morning and Elena has her first feed on a deer she pukes the blood out. Meanwhile, it seems a new vampire hunter is in town. Elena goes to Damon for help, he pulls her with him to the bathroom and makes her drink his blood because he says "You need warm blood from the vein, so maybe this'll do the trick." He says it's personal and Elena wonders why but no answer was given. She drinks his blood but pukes hours later. When Stefan finds out Damon has feed Elena his blood he's very angry and hits Damon who just got in a fight with the vampire hunter.

text: Damon has decided to leave town, but through the early episodes of Season 4 seems to be looking for reasons to stay. Meredith Fell seems to be one who convinces him in 'The Rager' to stay to help Elena with her transition to Vampire. Indeed, a renewed conflict over ideology and what sort of Vampire Elena will become drives Damon and Stefan apart.

text: The Five, shows Damon tasking Stefan with learning more about the Vampire Hunter, Connor while Damon decides to accompany both Bonnie and Elena to College. This trip is ostensibly about teaching Elena the 'hunt': how to catch, feed and erase. After some initial problems, Elena has a Frat Party gets success and seems to enjoy herself causing friction with Bonnie. She leaves the party and later states that she doesn't want to be like Damon. In the next episode, she begins to believe that Stefan is lying to her and takes things into her own hands to kill the vampire hunter who is holding her brother, Matt, and April captive. She does, and begins to suffer from hallucinations at the end of the episode. After asking Stefan why he wants to cure Elena, Damon tells him that he loves Elena as a vampire or human.

text: In the episode 'We All Go a Little Mad Sometimes', Damon helps Elena in dealing with her hallucinations and saves her from committing suicide. He also helps uncover the mystery about the hunter's curse with the help of Bonnie and Professor Shane. At the end of the episode, he reveals the truth about the cure to Elena and explains how Stefan has been lying to her only to find this possible cure for vampirism. However, Elena breaks up with Stefan at the end of the episode after confessing her gradually growing feelings for Damon.

text: In the following episode "My Brother's Keeper", Elena tells Damon he is the reason she and Stefan broke up and at the end of the episode Damon and Elena finally have sex. After that it turns out Elena is sired with Damon, first they think it is the reason why Elena loves Damon, but in episode "We'll Always Have Bourbon Street" they found out that it only affects how you act, not how you feel. The sire-bond can only be broken when Damon leaves Elena and tells her to stop caring about him according to a witch in New Orleans named Nandi. In the following episode Damon goes with Elena to her family's lake house to help with Jeremy's Hunter instincts. In the episode Elena tries to act like a couple with Damon, but he refuses to even kiss her out of his guilt about the sire bond and worry that he's taking advantage of her. In the end of the episode Damon invokes the sire bond telling Elena to return to Mystic Falls while he trains Jeremy "O Come, All Ye Faithful". Elena kisses him goodbye.

text: In 'After School Special', Damon is at the Lake House training Jeremy, along with Matt Donovan. Klaus shows up and threatens Damon, wanting him to get Jeremy's mark completed earlier rather than later. Damon is shown to be reluctant, not wanting to hurt innocents for Elena's sake, but Klaus follows through with his plans regardless. Later in the episode Elena calls Damon and confesses she's in love with him and it's the 'most real thing she's ever felt in her entire life', in a moment of weakness Damon tells her to come see him. Afterward Damon is confronted with a bar of newly turned vampires for Jeremy to kill concedes that it's the quickest way, however balks when Klaus takes control and compels the newly turned vamps to kill Matt Donovan. In Catch Me If You Can Damon tells the boys to run since Jeremy isn't ready to take on all these vampires. Later when Elena arrives her and Damon argue over the killing of innocents and tells her to take Matt home while he and Jeremy take care of Klaus's newly turned vampires. However Kol shows up and has killed all the vampires, determined to stop them from finding the cure & waking Silas, and threatens Jeremy's life. Kol compels Damon to stake himself and later to kill Jeremy and to forget what Kol compelled him to do. Upon arriving back in Mystic Falls Damon begins to seek out Jeremy due to the compulsion, however when he sees him in the grill he realizes what Kol compelled him to do and tells Jeremy to run. Damon chases Jeremy throughout Mystic Falls and advises Jeremy that he is compelled and he needs to kill him. Jeremy shoots Damon in the head and when Damon awakens later starts cursing the youngest Gilbert, calling him stupid for not killing him. At the end of the episode Damon catches up with Jeremy Elena follows and urges Damon to fight it because "You love me and I love you", but he tells her that he can't, falls to his knees and urges Jeremy to kill him. Stefan shows up just in time to break Damon's neck and lock him up until they can take care of Kol. Damon spends the next episode locked up and bled dry by a jealous and snarky Stefan and engages in a conversation with Klaus about Caroline, Rebekah and Elena.

text: When the group goes to the mysterious island to find the Cure, Damon continues to be suspicious of Professor Shane. When Jeremy goes missing and Bonnie and Shane stay behind to try a locator spell, Damon stays to keep an eye on Shane. He later begins torturing Shane for information, but Shane starts analyzing Damon and telling him Elena will go back to Stefan once she's cured. Elena interrupts the torture session and Damon storms out and Elena follows. She tells Damon that she's sure her feelings for him are real and asks him to become human with her, however Damon tells her he has no desire to be human and that human/vampire relationships are doomed and stalks off. Afterward he is captured by Vaughn, another member of the Five, who tortures Damon and leads him around with a noose around his neck. Damon goes with Vaughn to the cavern close to where Silas is buried and eventually overpowers him, but not before Vaughn injures Rebekah. Elena and Stefan come across the injured Damon and Rebekah, Stefan stays while Elena rushes to find Jeremy. Damon urges Stefan to go get the cure for Elena, uncaring that there is only enough for one, because he wants it for the girl he loves. After Stefan leave Rebekah comments that Damon did something selfless and remarks that he will always love Elena. An exhausted Damon admits that he can't control everything and is tired.

text: After Katherine kills Jeremy in 'Down the Rabbit Hole' Damon stays behind determined to find the missing Bonnie, telling Stefan he can't come home without her. Eventually he finds Bonnie, hugging her in relief, but when the two arrive back in Mystic Falls in informs Stefan Bonnie has lost her mind. Elena, who had been in denial about Jeremy's death, comes into reality and demands Damon bring Jeremy's body downstairs. When Elena starts breaking down Stefan urges Damon to help her, indicating he should invoke the sire bond to take away her pain, however instead Damon tells Elena to shut off her emotions. In the next episode Damon begins trying to track Katherine in order to find the cure while Rebekah attempts to tag along. He finds an old friend from his past, Will, dying from a werewolf bite and kills him out of mercy. He arrives back home just in time to stop Elena from killing Caroline and takes her with to New York. While in NY Damon begins investigating Katherine's whereabouts and tries to keep that he's looking for the cure from Elena. Elena finds out and attempts to play him all the while Damon tells her and Rebekah about his time here in the 1970s. He admits that he had his emotions off and Lexi had come to help him on Stefan's behalf, however he tricks her into believing he fell in love with her only to leave her trapped on the roof during the day as revenge. He reveals that the reason he killed Lexi in season one was out of the guilt she stirred in him. Elena kisses Damon and attempts to steal Katherine's address out of his pocket, however Damon was aware she was trying to play him the entire time, and attempts to convince her to turn her emotions back on. Rebekah shows up and snaps his neck. He then calls Stefan and the brothers attempt to track down Elena. The decide to give up on the cure after Elena kills a waitress and threatens to kill people.

text: In 'Pictures of You' Damon, along with Stefan, decide they're going to try making Elena turn her emotions back on. The Salvatore brothers decide to take Elena to the prom, where Damon asks Elena why she told him she was in love with him and it's the most real thing she ever felt. Elena tells Damon that she only said it because of the sire bond and she feels nothing for him. However, later when Bonnie nearly kills Elena, she cries out for Damon to help her and he locks her up in the Salvatore basement. Damon then manipulates Elena's dreams in an attempt to remind how much she loves her friends in family, however when it doesn't work the Salvatore brothers (per Stefan's advice) try torturing Elena to get her to feel emotion. Elena however calls their bluff and attempts to kill herself, knowing Damon would never really hurt her and let her die. Damon realizes that Elena is smart and that torture will not work. After Katherine frees Elena Damon comes up with a plan, killing Matt in front of her (while he wore the Gilbert ring) and it works to get Elena's emotions back on. When Elena focuses her hate on Katherine Damon tells Elena where Katherine is, but tells her she shouldn't try and kill her. Damon admits he hates Katherine, however he knows once Elena kills her all her other emotions (grief & guilt) will all come flooding back in. Elena stakes Damon in the stomach when he attempts to stop her.

text: In the season finale 'Graduation', he tries to give the cure to Elena, but Elena refuses, which tells him that there is no more sire bond. He gets shot by Vaughn with a bullet laced with werewolf venom, and almost dies, but Klaus comes back to Mystic Falls and saves him. At the end of the episode, Elena proclaims her love for him stating that of all the decisions she has made choosing him will prove to be the worse one.

text: Season 5[edit]

text:
Not aware of Stefan's absence and Bonnie's death, Damon and Elena are having the time of their lives before Elena leaves for Whitmore college. College brings a lot of ups and downs to the on screen romance. Katherine begs Damon to protect her as she feels someone is after her, Damon by the help of Jeremy's vampire hunter instincts that Silas is possessing as Stefan. Silas gives Damon a crash course on why he looks like Stefan and tells where was he the whole summer, shocked to know about this he starts to search Stefan with the help of Stefan. Silas mind-controlled Elena to kill Damon but Elena resists it by thinking about her worries for Stefan. Both Elena and Damon, with the help of Sheriff Forbes, finds the safe where Stefan was drowning the whole summer, but only to find a dead body.
Due to both Elena and Katherine having same nightmare of Stefan all three, Damon, Elena and Katherine search for Stefan. Damon finally finds Stefan inside a hut where he is tied up in the chair and Qetsiyah makes a link of Stefan with Silas which fries Stefan's brain. Qetsiyah reveals to Damon that his relationship with Elena is doomed. Damon and Elena take Stefan where both of them finds out that he has memory loss and can't remember anything. Damon, to make Stefan remember about his past life, gives him his journals and spends quality time with him. Jeremy tells Damon that Bonnie is dead and Damon finally tells Elena about Bonnie. At Bonnie's funeral, Damon consoles Elena. Damon wants to help Silas so that Silas can do a spell to swap his life with Bonnie as Silas wants to die. Silas had seen Qetsiyah going to the party therefore both Damon and Silas goes to the ball party at Whitmore College. Silas needs Damon to kill Stefan, so that he can get back his power. Stefan, after waking up, tricked Damon and snapped his neck. At Salvatore's mansion they bring a desiccated Silas, to trade Silas's life with Bonnie he must become mortal(witch). The only way is by the cure so Elena and Damon calls Katherine who has the cure in her blood and after she arrives her blood is drained by Silas, but still Katherine lived. Amara is then awakened and revealed to be the mystic anchor. She then cures herself of her immortality by feeding off Silas.

text: Season 6[edit]

text: At the beginning of season 6, Damon is still trapped in the 1994 snapshot with Bonnie, forced to relive the same day over and over again. As the season progresses, the duo meet Kai Parker who's provides them with clues on how to get back home. In a truly selfless act, Bonnie manages to send Damon back while she remains in 1994 with Kai. Back home, things aren't as Damon expected them to be. Elena has compelled her memories of their time together and moved on. After a few initial set backs, Damon sets his mind to wooing her back.

text: As the season progresses, Elena falls for Damon all over again as they search for a way to free Bonnie and she becomes a large part of his support as his good friend Liz Forbes becomes more and more ill with cancer. Kai, who escaped the Prison World without Bonnie and merged with Luke, has absorbed some of Luke's qualities and is now moved by guilt to help free Bonnie. With his help, he, along with Damon, Elena, and Jeremy, are able to visit the Prison World and remind Bonnie that there is still magic residing in Qetsiyah's headstone in Nova Scotia.

text: After the death of Liz, Caroline is unable to bear the pain of losing her mother and chooses to turn off her humanity just as Bonnie returns. Bonnie brought back with her a strange video she'd caught while leaving a second Prison World she'd been moved to set in October 31, 1903. She shows the video to Damon and he recognizes his own mother, Lillian Salvatore, standing in the background. Troubled with the news that his mother is still alive after believing she'd been dead since 1858, Damon's informed by Kai that his mother was placed in a Prison World due to being a Ripper and the heinous number of deaths she'd caused. Unfortunately, Stefan is forced by Caroline to turn off his humanity and Kai, Bonnie, Damon, and Elena have to travel to Lily's 1903 Prison World to retrieve her and use her as a means to get Stefan back.

text: Damon is disturbed to learn when he gets to Lily that she has been trapped with other vampires and they allowed her to drink their portions of blood to stay alive. She is reluctant to leave without them, but Damon threatens to leave her behind if she doesn't go. Bonnie, Damon, and Elena leave with Lily, leaving Kai behind. When they return, Bonnie gives Damon a gift she'd gotten for him during her trip to Nova Scotia in the 1994 Prison World: the cure to vampirism. He struggles with whether or not to give it to Elena and provide her with the life she'd been robbed of.

text: After using Lily to get Stefan's humanity back and he is used to bring Caroline back, Lily is adamant about returning to her Prison World to retrieve what she considers to be her family. Damon confronts Bonnie, who had taken the Ascendant, and tells her that Lily is threatening to destroy the cure if he doesn't return with the means to get her "family" back. However, when he decides to let Bonnie destroy the Ascendant, he comes home to find that Lily had actually given the cure to Elena instead. He confesses that he was selfish and afraid of losing her but agrees that she should take it and that he'll take it with her.

text: Elena takes the cure and, unexpectedly, her memories return and she remembers when she'd traveled to Nova Scotia with Damon in search of the cure the first time, he'd told her that he used to miss being human, but, now, he couldn't imagine anything more miserable. She tells him he needs to think about it before making that decision and enlists Stefan to try to make sure Damon is certain of his choice to become human. Damon almost decides he'd rather stay a vampire until he witnesses an interaction between an older couple. Before Jo and Ric's wedding, he tells Elena he'd made his choice to live one lifetime with her. During the wedding, Kai shows up and stabs Jo before causing an explosion. The second to last episode ends with Elena lying unconscious on the ground.

text: In the last episode of the 6th season titled "I'm Thinking Of You All The While" Damon rushes Elena to the hospital after vampire blood fails to heal and awaken her. At the hospital the doctors tell him that she is medically healthy and they see no reason why she's not awake. Kai stumbles into the hospital injured. After consuming Lily's blood and killing himself, Kai's ability to siphon magic allowed him to become another Heretic (vampire with witch-like power), but he was soon bitten by a transforming Tyler, who had re-triggered his werewolf curse. Kai tells Damon and he's linked Elena's life to Bonnie's and as long as Bonnie lives, Elena will remain asleep but perfectly healthy. He also tells him that the spell is permanent and any attempt to find a loophole in the spell will result in the death of both Bonnie and Elena. Damon returns to the wedding to find Bonnie badly injured on the floor and Kai's reminder that letting Bonnie die will allow Elena to regain consciousness. Damon tells Bonnie he's sorry and leaves the room. Kai is irritated that his plan to torture Damon with an impossible choice had failed and, while he's distracted, Damon decapitates him from behind. Damon saves Bonnie's life and they go to the Salvatore boarding house to say their goodbyes to Elena, deciding that they will allow Bonnie to live her life and, when she dies, Elena will wake. Damon allows himself to enter Elena's subconscious to say his goodbye, dancing with her and telling her that he'll never be ready to live the next 60 years of his life without her. Stefan and Damon move the coffin holding Elena to a crypt and have Bonnie seal the door magically to keep away those seeking the Cure.

text: The season ends with the impression that quite a bit of time has passed. Mystic Falls is desolate and run down after the return of the other Heretics, Lily's "family". The last scene shows Damon looking torn standing on the clock tower he once sat on with Elena.

text: Relationships[edit]

text: At the start of season 1, Damon was a self-proclaimed loner,[8] often keeps to himself. Despite his initially antagonistic relationships with humans such as Alaric Saltzman and Sheriff Elizabeth Forbes, Caroline's mother. Damon gradually involved himself into the lives of many people in Mystic Falls by developing friendships with several humans. After spending time with Elena Gilbert, Damon becomes more empathetic and falls deeply, madly and passionately in love with her. He always puts her safety first before anyone else, even his.[9][10]

text: Damon's most prominent love, aside from Elena, was Rose. He met her while searching for Klaus and hooked up with her shortly after. Unfortunately Damon ticked off Jules, a werewolf, and she showed up on a full moon for revenge.

text: Stefan Salvatore[edit]

text: Damon has had a challenging relationship with his younger brother Stefan Salvatore for over a century. Before they became vampires, they both loved the vampire Katherine Pierce. Damon shows that he has nurtured a long-standing desire to reunite with Katherine throughout the first season. In the first season, we learn that it was Stefan who convinced Damon to feed and complete his transformation after Katherine turned both brothers into vampires.[11] Despite the feud between the Salvatore brothers, both Damon and Stefan always have each other's backs. Damon is always there for Stefan when it really matters, e.g., saving him from being tortured, helping him through withdrawal, and working with him to kill common enemies.[12] And Stefan will still give up his own life for Damon's survival. They both actually love each other but won't admit it, however:[13]

text: Elena Gilbert[edit]

text: After learning of Katherine's deceit, Damon starts to fall for, Elena. In general, Damon is fiercely protective of Elena and always puts her safety ahead of all else. Damon comes to Elena's rescue at the Miss Mystic Falls pageant when Elena is left stranded without a partner, and the two dance. In the episode "Rose", Damon confesses his love for her only to compel her to forget about it because he doesn't believe he is worthy of her. Throughout the third season his relationship with Elena grows; she learns to fully trust him, and they begin to rely on each other as a team. They share two passionate kisses, but Elena remains in denial about her feelings for him. After a long struggle, Elena still chooses Stefan much to Damon's dismay. In the following season, however, Elena realizes that her feelings for Damon cannot be denied any longer.  She and Stefan break up, and in the following episode Damon and Elena finally get together and have sex. Damon and Elena then both individually discover that Elena is sired to Damon, making Elena's feelings unfortunately known; however, Elena insists that her love for Damon is the most real thing that she's ever felt in her entire life. Damon remains doubtful, so in "O Come, All Ye Faithful" he sets her "free". In an interview before the season finale, Julie Plec stated that "This year, she's had a very traumatic roller coaster of life experience and it's changed her irrevocably—and at the center of it all was the diehard belief that she loved Damon, that she loved him more than she'd ever loved anyone." [14] In "Graduation", after the sire bond is broken and there remains no doubt about Elena's feelings, she reveals that she is in love with Damon.

text: Damon and Elena spend the next few months together, having the summer of their lives. When Elena has to leave for college, Damon stays behind in Mystic Falls and they have a functional long distance relationship. However, in the episode "Original Sin", Tessa, who is revealed to be Qetsiyah, tells Damon that the doppelgangers are fated to fall in love and that he is only a bump in the road that makes their story interesting. Damon refuses to believe in this and assures Elena that he will fight for her and their future together as she is his life.  It is later revealed that there is nothing fated about Stefan and Elena, but that they were merely drawn together by a spell.  After a tumultuous, back and forth relationship, Damon and Elena get back together at the end of the season, and they choose to sacrifice themselves together to save Stefan and Alaric and their other friends on the Other Side.  When Elena makes it back but Damon is trapped on the collapsing Other Side, Elena is devastated.  Damon says his last goodbye to Elena, telling her that she is by far the best thing that has ever happened to him, and that being loved by her is "the epitome of a fulfilled life", as Elena sobs inconsolably.  In season 6, Elena is unable to move on from Damon's death months later. She pretends to be happy, but she is secretly taking witch herbs to hallucinate Damon. When the herbs make her dangerous to humans, Elena decides to have Alaric compel away her memories of Damon, because she will never be able to move on otherwise.  When Damon returns, he attempts to help her remember their love story, but the compulsion will not break. Not remembering any of the good things about Damon, Elena still decides to give him another chance.  She slowly falls in love with him again, ultimately declaring that no matter whether she has memories of him or not, she always finds her way back to him. When Bonnie returns from the prison world, she gifts Damon with the cure for vampirism, knowing that he wanted to give it to Elena.  However, Damon is afraid that this will mean losing Elena. They discuss what a human life together would be like.  Elena initially rejects the cure, but Damon decides to take it with her so that they can have a human life together, including children.  Damon always wanted Elena to have the human life she always dreamed of. Elena takes the cure, which breaks the compulsion, and her memories of Damon return to her.  She recalls a memory from season 4, where Damon declares that there would be nothing more miserable than becoming human again.  Elena is afraid that Damon would regret taking the cure, so she challenges him to think it through carefully.  Stefan attempts to convince Damon that becoming human would be a bad decision, but Damon ultimately realizes that one lifetime with Elena is infinitely better than an immortal one without her, and confidently believes her to be his soulmate.  Damon and Elena excitedly anticipate the beginning of their human future together, until Kai puts Elena under a sleeping spell, tied to Bonnie's life.

text: Damon spends the next two seasons devoted to Elena, waiting for her to wake up.  He repeatedly states that he is miserable without her, and will spend the next 60 or so years unhappily until Bonnie dies. However, Damon is committed to staying true to Elena, and doing right by her. Elena is shown to be Damon's moral compass, and his guiding force throughout the two seasons.  When Damon is in the Phoenix Stone's version of hell, a vision of Stefan asks Damon "What would Elena do?" and this prompts Damon to forgive his mother, freeing him from hell.  The phoenix stone's influence remains, and Damon accidentally lights Elena's coffin on fire (or so he thinks).  Believing that he has unwittingly killed the love of his life, Damon becomes suicidal. When confronted with the hunter Rayna, Damon commands her to kill him because he is already in hell in a world without Elena. Enzo then reveals to Damon that Elena is still alive, renewing Damon's hope.  When Damon realizes that he is a potential danger to his friends and family because he does not believe he is good without Elena, he decides to desiccate himself next to her.  He write to Alaric that before Elena, he didn't know what it was like to be happy, fulfilled or complete, and that he doesn't want to continue living without that feeling. After Stefan wakes Damon from his desiccation, Damon continues to be devoted to his future with Elena. At the end of season 7, he is lured into a trap by a siren, hearing Elena's voice calling out to him.  When the siren takes control of Damon's mind in season 8, Damon spends a significant amount of time sleeping, seeking refuge in dreams of his memories of Elena.  When Sybil erases Elena from Damon's consciousness only to insert herself into their memories, Damon fights back, instinctively drawn back to Elena.  His love for her prevails, and he breaks the siren's mind control, regaining his memories of Elena. Julie Plec stated that "I think the only hope that he's holding on to is the idea of the two of them living in Tribeca in their brownstone and raising kids and having a life together as humans when this is all said and done." [15] After Stefan gives Damon the cure to vampirism, turning him into a human, and Bonnie unbreaks the spell on Elena, Damon and Elena finally reunite.  They begin their life together, getting married while Elena goes to medical school and becomes a doctor.  Eventually they return to Mystic Falls to grow old together, where they died together of old age.  We last see them walking hand in hand in the afterlife before reuniting with their respective families.

text: Alaric Zaltzman[edit]

text: Alaric is a vampire hunter looking to avenge his wife by killing the vampire that killed her. It is soon revealed that the vampire that Alaric is hunting is actually Damon. Before killing Alaric, he confesses that he didn't kill Isobel but turned her. Alaric is brought back to life by the Gilbert ring. The two remain enemies but work together on occasion. Eventually, the two become best friends and drinking buddies. Even after Alaric is turned into a vampire who kills other vampires, Damon does his best to ensure that they don't have to kill him. But with Elena's death, Alaric dies as well while Damon holds him. In the episode, "Memorial", it's clear that Damon still misses his friend as he talks to Alaric at his grave. Unknown to him, Alaric listens to the whole thing and even responds with "I miss you too, buddy". Damon's best friend.

text: Bonnie Bennett[edit]

text: Bonnie first saw Damon in Friday Night Bites when he dropped Caroline off at cheerleading practice. They first interacted in Haunted, when Damon learned that Bonnie had come into possession of the Bennett Talisman. He needed this to open the tomb which Katherine was locked in (for 145 years or so he believed). At first, Bonnie didn't want to have anything to do with Damon, saving his life only for Elena's sake and soon blaming him for Caroline's transition into a vampire. However, as time went on, Bonnie was put into situations where she had to work with Damon to achieve what they both wanted (albeit reluctantly at first). Their teamwork has often proved to be beneficial for the both of them. Their relationship has even come to a point where Damon is visibly worried for Bonnie's well-being and was devastated when he found out about her death. The improvement of their relationship is seen in Damon's efforts to help bring Bonnie back from the dead. However, their unique friendship hit a speed bump when Damon reverted to his old ways. Finally, they stood side by side with each other as The Other Side collapsed, holding each other's hand and at peace with what is to come for the both of them. They later discover that they are trapped in a 1994 Prison World. During that time, they start to bond and form a close alliance to take down Kai. Before sending Damon back home, she mentions that he's not exactly the last person she would wanna be stuck with. When Damon returns home, he does everything he can to find a way to bring Bonnie back, including a long road trip to Oregon to seek the Gemini Coven, and also compelling Alaric to steal the Ascendant from Jo. They finally reunite at the Salvatore Boarding House with a hug after Sheriff Forbes's funeral. It's shown that Damon and Bonnie genuinely care about each other and have made sacrifices for each other.