The Vampire Diaries: Did the cure rules just change?

The cure for immortality came back into play during Friday’s episode of The Vampire Diaries. But the rules surrounding how it works have suddenly changed. So what could this mean of the end of The Vampire Diaries?

When the cure for immortality was introduced in season 4 of The Vampire Diaries, the big twist was that there was only one dose. That’s because it was made specially to cure Silas. After Elena forced the cure down Katherine’s throat, that was it.

In season 5, Silas wanted to take the cure from Katherine, but that would mean draining her of all of her blood. It was later revealed when Amara took the cure that if the person who it was taken from was older than a human should be, they would age rapidly and die without the cure in their system.

Flash forward to season 6 and Elena taking the cure. Because she was 19, Damon could take the cure from her, and Elena would just live out her normal human life like nothing happened. But if someone drains the cure from Damon, the fact that he’s over 160 years old would catch up to him. This is also the plan Damon is sticking to for when Elena wakes up seeing as Kai magically preserved her body in the sleeping curse.

Suddenly, the rules changed in season 8 during Friday’s episode, six episodes before The Vampire Diaries ends. At first, when Caroline is describing the plan to use the cure on Cade, the rules are the same. Damon is worried that if they give the cure to Cade and it doesn’t work, it will be gone forever.

It also explains Damon’s anger at Bonnie for wanting to give the cure to Enzo. Per the established rules, if Enzo took the cure, the only way for Damon to use it would be to drain his friend. Living a human life with Elena would now involve Damon killing his friend.

But when Bonnie takes the cure from Elena, she only grabs one syringe full. Yes, she was in a hurry, however it did not seem like she was prepared to drain Elena of her blood. Yet when she stabs Stefan with the syringe, Bonnie seems pretty certain that the cure would work. And from the promo for next week’s episode, it appears to have worked.

According to the original rules of the cure, without draining Elena of her blood, Stefan may be human, but he’s about to rapidly age. It seems doubtful that will happen. Instead Stefan Salvatore is now mortal. So, if just a single syringe filled with the cure now works, what is to stop every vampire on The Vampire Diaries from taking the cure? Well, everyone other than Caroline, who loves being a vampire.

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Still, this one rule change could impact the ending of the series, because until Friday, a way for everyone to potentially become human seemed impossible. It also now makes all the fighting over the cure in seasons 4 and 5 seem pointless. Turns out they could have just given it to one person and then used a syringe to give a dose to everyone else.