Pilot

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Marcos Siega

**Pilot** is the first episode of the first season of *The Vampire Diaries* and the first episode of the series overall.

## Summary

**DESIRE, HEARTBREAK, ENVY, REDEMPTION, FEAR, AND RAGE, BEGINS NOW** — Four months after the car accident that killed their parents, Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev) Alexandria Gilbert (Nina Dobrev), and their younger brother, Jeremy Gilbert (Steven R. McQueen), are still trying to move on with their lives. As the school year begins, Alex is intrigued by a handsome and mysterious new student named Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley), who came from another school, and the two are immediately drawn to one another, with Alex not realizing that Stefan is actually a century old vampire. When Stefan's older brother, Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder), arrives in Mystic Falls, an old rivalry between the two is awakened that could be the ruin of Alex and the town. Sara Canning, Katerina Graham, Candice Accola, Zach Roerig, Kayla Ewell and Michael Trevino also star.

## Cast

### Main Cast

* Nina Dobrev as Alexandria Gilbert
* Nina Dobrev as Elena Gilbert
* Paul Wesley as Stefan Salvatore
* Ian Somerhalder as Damon Salvatore
* Steven R. McQueen as Jeremy Gilbert
* Sara Canning as Jenna Sommers
* Katerina Graham as Bonnie Bennett
* Candice Accola as Caroline Forbes
* Zach Roerig as Matt Donovan
* Kayla Ewell as Vicki Donovan
* Michael Trevino as Tyler Lockwood

### Co-Starring

* Steve Belford as Darren Malloy
* Cindy Busby as Brooke Fenton
* Benjamin Ayres as William Tanner
* Marci T. House as Mrs. Clarke
* Wesley R. MacInnes as Peeing Guy #1
* Curtis Lum as Peeing Guy #2

## Trivia

* This is the pilot/first episode of *The Vampire Diaries*.
* Antagonist: Damon Salvatore.
	+ This episode marks the first time a main character is an antagonist.
* Alex and Damon share no scenes in this episode.
* Darren Malloy and Brooke Fenton are the first characters to be seen in the series and first characters to be killed on the show. Their names appear on the television behind Alex in a news broadcast.
* Brooke Fenton appears to be carried off, suggesting her attacker had limited flight.
	+ This is a supernatural ability that vampires no longer have, though they do have the strength and ability to jump extremely high.
* This is the first episode to feature all main characters.
* The main characters are introduced in the following order Damon, Stefan, Alex, Jenna, Elena, Jeremy, Bonnie, Caroline, Matt, Vicki, and Tyler.
* According to Alex's phone when she's reading Bonnie's text, the date displayed on the phone says September 7, 2009, which is a Monday. Thus the first episode takes place over a three day period, September 6–8, 2009.
* The front door of Alex and Elena's house has a window in it only in this episode because filming of the series moved from Vancouver, Canada (where the pilot was filmed) to Atlanta, Georgia (for the rest of the series thus far).
* 935 is the house number of the Gilbert House.
* Nina Dobrev portrayed Katherine in this episode, but only in a photograph; she doesn't actually appear as Katherine for the first time in flashbacks until *Lost Girls*.
* Alex's conversation with Stefan in the cemetery reveals that they have both English and French class as well as History class with Mr. Tanner.
	+ The "history" comment is also foreshadowing; both to the fact that Stefan had a relationship with someone who looked like Alex previously, and the fact that Stefan and Alex technically met once before their run-in in the boy's bathroom at the high school, when Stefan rescued Alex and Elena from the car wreck that killed their parents.
* We see Stefan stop himself from feeding off Alex when he smells the blood from her leg injury. He vamp-speeds away when she isn't looking at him.
* This is the first episode of the first chapter of Season One, **The Vicki Chapter**.
* In this episode, it is revealed that the car accident that killed Alex's parents occurred four months prior.
* In this episode, Damon uses a crow to spy on Alex. However, we don't ever see this event happen again and was only used in the first episode.