Caroline Forbes

"So am I your last stop on the Stefan Salvatore apology tour?"

- Caroline Forbes

Caroline Forbes is a major character from The Vampire Diaries.

Backstory
Caroline Forbes is a close friend of Elena Gilbert and Bonnie Bennett. Caroline is the daughter of the Sheriff of Mystic Falls, Liz Forbes, with whom she has a troubled relationship. Her father, Bill Forbes, left her and her mother after coming out as gay.

Season 1
In the beginning of the series, she is shown as shallow, self-absorbed and envious of Elena. However, Caroline's character becomes multi-layered over the seasons and she matures. During season 1, she starts a relationship with Matt Donovan.

Season 2
In season two, Caroline is injured and is fed Damon's blood so that she can heal; however, after Katherine Pierce kills her and she later feeds on human blood from a blood bag at the hospital, she gets turned into a vampire. Stefan Salvatore helps Caroline take control of her blood lust, and they start to build a friendship. After turning, Caroline also becomes closer to Elena. She discovers that she is not able to control her blood lust when she is around Matt, and thus tricks him into breaking up with her in order to protect him. When Tyler Lockwood starts his werewolf transformations, Caroline helps him deal and he starts to develop romantic feelings for her. However, Caroline is still in love with Matt and they get back together as soon as Tyler leaves town. Matt later finds out that Caroline is a vampire; feeling alienated and betrayed, he tells her mother. At first they don't accept her, but when they realize that Caroline has retained her humanity, they soften. However, Matt still breaks up with her, due to his aversion of the supernatural since the vampire death of his sister, Vicki.

Season 3
When Tyler returns to Mystic Falls, he and Caroline become closer and in the season three premiere, they sleep together. However, Carol Lockwood finds out Caroline is a vampire and contacts her father, Bill Forbes. He thinks Caroline is a monster and tries to "fix" her through torture, but she is saved by her mother and Tyler. Bill and Caroline eventually make amends, and she is devastated when he is killed during season three. Caroline and Tyler become a couple, but they break up due to Tyler's affection for his sire to Klaus. She has a brush with death when she suffers from a werewolf bite, only to have Klaus save her. Klaus later develops an unrequited romantic interest in Caroline, and invites her to his family's ball. At the ball, they dance and talk together and she soon discovers a soft side to Klaus. When she returns home that night, she finds a hand-drawn picture of her and a horse, from Klaus.

Season 4
In the meantime, Tyler has traveled to the Appalachian mountains in hope to break his sire-bond and get to continue a relationship with Caroline. Although she is unsure about any feelings she might have for Klaus, it is certain that she misses Tyler immensely. When he returns home, Caroline is thrilled and they spend the night together. They go to the 20's decade dance together, and dance the whole night. In the season finale, Liz Forbes and Mrs. Lockwood both tell Tyler and Caroline that they need to leave town in result of Alaric telling the council that they are supernatural. They are not excited to be leaving their friends behind, but they both are anxious to start a life with each other. When Klaus is staked and killed, Caroline is devastated knowing that Tyler is now going to die because he is part of Klaus' bloodline. However, after she says her goodbye to Tyler, it is revealed that he is in fact being "possessed" by Klaus, after Bonnie put Klaus' spirit in Tyler's body. When she is kidnapped by the council, Klaus saves her, though he eventually forces Bonnie to put him back in his own body.

Throughout the course of season 4, Caroline appears to develop somewhat of an attraction to Klaus, once expressing that she wished she could forget 'all the horrible things that he's done'. However, after he murders Tyler's mother, she finds herself despising him again. When Klaus is trapped in the Gilbert household, Tyler taunts him endlessly, only to realize that once he's free Klaus will come after him: both as a result of his taunting and his secret mission to unsire all his hybrids. As a result, Tyler is forced to leave town, leaving Caroline heartbroken.

In Tyler's absence, Caroline begrudgingly teams up with Stefan and Klaus in order to track down Silas. While they are attempting to find the third point of the Expression triangle, where they figure that Silas is controlling Bonnie in order to drop the veil between the living and the dead, Caroline confronts Klaus about the comment he made to Stefan in Professor Shane's office about how "not to underestimate darkness... [because] even the purest hearts are drawn to it." He replies that he was referring to Damon and Elena, but finds it interesting that it's "struck a chord" with her. Caroline spitefully replies that what he said isn't true because "there is no allure to darkness," and Klaus quickly turns and asks her, "So you've never felt the attraction that comes when someone who's capable of doing terrible things, for some reason, cares only about you?" Caroline quietly replies, "I did once when I thought he was worth it; but it turns out some people can't be fixed. People who do terrible things are just terrible people." Klaus is visibly hurt by her answer where she's obviously referring to him, just as he'd been referring to his feelings for her, but he doesn't reply to what she's done and instead points out that they are in one of the two locations they'd guessed to be the third point in the Expression triangle and that they have to go to the other point.

Once Stefan, Klaus and Caroline reach the part of the woods where the 12 witches are linked and Bonnie is channelling their power and reacting badly to it, the leader of the coven states, upon learning from Stefan that Silas has brainwashed Bonnie to kill the coven, that since Bonnie is in league with Silas she is beyond help and must kill her. The witch cripples Stefan with the spell causing pain in his head when he tries to intervene, and soon Klaus holds Stefan back saying to both Stefan and Caroline that there's no way to save Bonnie without killing the 12 witches (who are linked together) and he won't save Bonnie because then Silas gets "exactly what he wants." Caroline, however, runs into the circle just as the leader is about to stab Bonnie and instead forces the witch to stab herself with her own knife as Klaus yells from outside the circle. Caroline then watches in horror as the other 11 witches around the circle drop to the ground like dominos, one right after the other, and Bonnie's solid white eyes open and she murmurs that "the Triangle is complete." The next shot of Caroline is the next morning and she sits and watches as Klaus finishes burying the last of the dead witches' bodies. Klaus with annoyance and anger says that Silas now can unleash "hell on Earth" because of Caroline's actions, but Caroline says that he was just going to let Bonnie die, to which Klaus replies that "1 is still less than 12," and Caroline says she couldn't let Bonnie die because she's her best friend. Klaus wryly says, "Tell yourself whatever you need to to sleep at night," and Caroline suddenly becomes very upset, gasping as she realizes aloud, "[She] killed twelve people." Klaus looks and sounds for a moment as if he's going to comfort her, but instead throws her earlier words back at her, saying, "Why don't you go find someone less terrible you can relate to?" Caroline looks at him sadly and tearfully leaves, and Klaus looks as if he regrets what he said, but he doesn't call or go after her. Soon after she leaves, Silas in Professor Shane's form appears and threatens Klaus and stabs him in the back with the White Oak Stake, breaking off the tip of it in Klaus's back and leaving him in the woods.

In 4x18 "American Gothic," Silas appears to Klaus as Caroline and taunts him and threatens him so that when Caroline arrives at his house (after receiving his "50 bajillion messages") Klaus still believes it's Silas taunting him and he cowers and yells for Silas to give him more time and to stop hounding him. When Caroline replies that she's busy with "three different prom committees ... and [he] keeps phone stalking [her]," he realizes that it's really Caroline and not Silas. He explains his situation to her and says, "Suffice it to say, I'm hurt; so you can understand why I called you." Caroline scoffs at his sentiment, saying that he's ridiculous to think that she'd help him after killing Tyler's mother and driving him out of town, and Caroline's unwillingness to help prompts Klaus to spitefully reply that if she doesn't help him and he dies, she, Tyler and all her friends that are descended from his bloodline will die too, and Caroline reluctantly agrees to help him try and get the piece of White Oak Stake out.

After trying to get the piece of stake out for an unknown amount of time (with Caroline taunting him as she has pliers deep in his back trying to fish out the piece and commenting that she "swears there's nothing in here"), Caroline decides to take advantage of Klaus needing her help by telling him that "he deserves to suffer for everything he's done" and she refuses to help him anymore unless he allows Tyler to return to Mystic Falls and swears not to harm him. The next time we see Klaus and Caroline, Klaus is gripping onto a couch, growling how he can feel the splinters moving closer to his heart, and Caroline casually flipping through her phone telling him that first he has to give her his word and then she'll help him. Angry and in pain, Klaus lashes out at her, asking her how she knows that he won't just break his word once she's helped him and that he's saved her life twice. Caroline replies that if he wants to be "friends" then he has to show her that she can trust him and while he saved her life twice because he put her in danger twice (apparently referring to both times she's suffered from a Hybrid bite, once from Tyler in 3x11 and from Klaus in 4x13, both of which he saved her by giving her his blood); she also tells him that he can't expect her friendship when he's "done nothing to earn it." Klaus angrily yells at her that he won't allow himself to be manipulated by her or anyone else and Caroline screams right back at him, "What is wrong with you?! I'm reaching out to you despite everything that you've done, and you still can't get out of your own way!" She growls in frustration, and adds pointedly "God! I feel sorry for you!" and turns to leave him, but Klaus flashes around to her, blocking her path and yells in her face, "Don't turn your back on me!" and she immediately screams, "I should've turned my back on you ages ago!" Klaus's face changes as Caroline trembles with anger and he realizes that the pain in his back is suddenly gone, and Caroline is stunned. Klaus, in a very vulnerable and visibly distressed moment, surmises out loud that the pain must have all been in his head, that Silas "got inside his head" and made him believe he was injured. Caroline listens to him silently then Klaus suddenly clasps her hands in his, and tells her emotionally, "You took my mind off of it. You brought me back, Caroline." Caroline, looking overwhelmed at both this revelation that Silas is capable of mind control and Klaus's emotional and heartfelt confession, steps away and says fearfully, "If Silas can make you, of all people, believe that you're dying, what can he do to the rest of us?"

The last moment in the episode with Klaus and Caroline shows her about to leave after staying to help clean up and "using all his bleach," and Klaus stops her and thanks her for helping him. Caroline seems caught off guard by his genuine gratitude for a moment but then quickly tells him if he needs anything else not to call her because she "has a prom to plan," and she turns to leave. Before she's gone, he calls after her, "Friends then?" Caroline pauses and thinks before turning back to him and replying, "Are you going to let Tyler come back into town?" Klaus gives her an exasperated look and sighs, and Caroline sadly turns to leave but Klaus stops her again by saying, "You might have noticed, I'm not exactly scouring the Earth for him, am I?" Caroline considers what he said and gives him a small smile and turns to leave, and Klaus smiles as she walks off.

In 4x19 "Pictures of You," Caroline storms into Klaus's house to complain to him about how Elena compelled the tailor and stole her prom dress and Klaus chuckles, making Caroline even angrier, gritting her teeth and telling him, "It is NOT funny." Klaus obligingly stops laughing at her and Caroline tells him that she doesn't want "just another dress" and begs him to go into his family's collections and loan her a dress to wear to prom. Klaus seemingly agrees as Caroline shows up at prom and she tells Stefan, who knows that Elena stole her other dress, that she got her dress from Klaus and to not ask about it. Stefan comments that she "has Klaus wrapped around her finger," which Caroline shrugs off and says that if she did, Tyler would be there. Caroline goes the Lockwood mansion, now owned by Matt, and finds Tyler there, saying that he couldn't miss prom and that Klaus doesn't know he's there and can't get in since it belongs to Matt. Caroline and Tyler embrace and they share a few moments together before he leaves. Although it is not clear whether Caroline knows or overheard, but Klaus appears on the porch once Tyler exits the mansion and asks Tyler if sneaking back into town "was worth it," and he says "in the shared interest of giving Caroline the night of her dreams," that he's giving Tyler five seconds to get away before he attacks him, and within three seconds, Tyler is gone again.

In 4x21 "She's Come Undone," Klaus seemingly appears to Caroline, even though she thought he was gone for good. He says he didn't mean to leave without saying goodbye, which Caroline pointedly tells him that he doesn't owe her an explanation and that he's moving on and he should just go. He tells her, "I never had any intention of moving on. Truth is, I've tried to stop thinking about you and I can't." Caroline brushes past him as he begs to her to come to New Orleans with him, but she just chuckles as if he's joking, and when he asks, "What are you afraid of?" she spins and replies, "You! I'm afraid of you!" Klaus turns serious as he approaches her, saying, "Wouldn't it be more accurate to say you're afraid of yourself? Your darkest desires? Elena was right wasn't she? Deep down, you long to have your perfect feathers ruffled." Caroline becomes suspicious, asking him how he knew what Elena said in the Salvatore's cell, and soon he has her pinned up against a tree and she realizes that it's not Klaus, but Silas appearing as Klaus. Silas threatens her, telling her to tell Bonnie to come out of hiding or else he'll continue to hurt her friends and he stabs Caroline before leaving her passed out in the woods. When Caroline awakens, Silas appears to her again as Matt and Klaus to taunt her and intimidate her and she races home to be with her mom.

Once home, she calls her mom's cellphone to make sure that it is her and not Silas and it does confirming to Caroline it's in fact Liz. However, when Bonnie arrives, she's able to see that it is really Silas and leaves with Silas in order to protect Caroline and Liz, who has been unconscious in the living room the entire time. Caroline tearfully tries to revive her mom, eventually stabbing a syringe into her own neck to draw out her blood and inject it directly into Liz's heart to try and save her. Just when things are looking grim, Liz is revived to a thankful and tearful Caroline.

In 4x22 "The Walking Dead," the veil has been dropped and Caroline tries to get an apology from Elena, who's just turned her humanity back on, but with no luck. During the power outage at the Grill, Matt and Rebekah discover Caroline in the back in a trance, compelled by Silas to cut her wrists continually as they heal back and Silas is appearing as Caroline in the caves to Bonnie. Rebekah and Matt try everything they can to stop her, until finally Rebekah finally yanks Caroline from her seat and slaps her hard across the face. Caroline stares for a moment, then spits at Rebekah, "Bitch!" and Matt and Rebekah breath a sigh of relieve, knowing that Rebekah's slap has torn Caroline from Silas's compulsion.

In 4x23 "Graduation," Caroline calls Klaus in an attempt to bring him back to Mystic Falls to give Damon, who was shot with a wooden bullet soaked in werewolf venom, his blood saying, "Now is not the time for you to decide that you're over me! I'm going to call you every ten minutes until you get your ass here to save Damon's life!" After they walk and get their diplomas, Elena, Stefan and Caroline meet behind the bleachers as Caroline keeps trying to reach Klaus on his cell while Stefan talks to Alaric, who is with Damon, and is begging Stefan to give him the "ok-go" to give Damon the cure since Caroline is unable to reach Klaus. Caroline hangs up her phone and shakes her head at Stefan to tell him that Klaus isn't coming, but then the witches that Caroline killed appear and torture them with the spell causing head pain. Suddenly Klaus appears and decapitates the coven leader's head with a graduation cap, effectively stopping the spell and scaring off the rest of the ghost witches and Caroline turns to Klaus and smiles and he smiles back. Caroline's last shown with Klaus on the graduation stage at night and after some playful, friendly banter, Klaus tells her that he "was already on his way back" because he received the graduation invite Caroline sent him and tells her, "I had considered offering you a first class ticket to join me in New Orleans," as a graduation present, but continues to say, "But I knew what your answer would be, so I opted for something I knew you would accept: Tyler is now free to return to Mystic Falls." Caroline is completely shocked and Klaus elaborates, saying, "He [Tyler]'s your first love; I intend to be your last, however long it takes." He quickly leans in and kisses Caroline's cheek, congratulating her for graduating when he pulls back, and Caroline is visibly moved. She leaves with Klaus, arm in arm, "before twelve angry [ghost] hybrids decide to pick a fight."