10 Betrayals Damon Never Recovered From (Ranked By Story Impact)
With The Vampire Diaries cast pleasantly surprising the fandom by reuniting at a cast dinner in Georgia and several of them, including Ian Somerhalder, turning up at the UK Comic Con, it’s pretty clear that the TVDU fan base still aren’t ready to let go of their favorite characters. Somerhalder’s Damon was, undoubtedly, one of the most loved characters on TVD, and fans especially sympathized with him because he was very prone to betrayal by those around him (including his loved ones).
Everyone, from his brother to his lovers, broke Damon’s faith more than once, which often led to him having major trust issues and lashing out at others. However, while these betrayals may have had large consequences for the other characters, they did lead to some interesting character developments and arcs (which greatly impacted the story overall).
11/11 Elena And Rebekah Snapped His Neck
In a rare display of camaraderie, Rebekah and humanity-free Elena decided to work together in an attempt to find the cure. This partnership was the most chaotic one, as it led Elena down a very dark path, which involved hurting her loved ones (including Damon).
Although she was aware that Damon would come back to life a couple of hours later, it likely hurt the older Salvatore brother that she left him on the roof alone and proceeded to steal his car. Still, it probably something he didn’t hold against her since she would have likely come to regret it once her humanity switch was turned back on.
10/11 Bree Betrayed Damon By Calling Lexi’s Mate
It was established that Damon’s staking of Lexi was one of the greatest betrayals on The Vampire Diaries. However, Damon himself was back-stabbed by his old friend Bree, who was upset by his behavior, and called Lexi’s longtime mate to avenge the death of her friend.
This hit Damon hard at the time, as he felt that this meant Bree didn’t care about their friendship if she was choosing to be loyal to a stranger than him. It also put him and Elena in danger, albeit temporarily. This betrayal was one that taught Damon that his transgressions would come with a price, but did not impact the story much otherwise.
9/11 Alaric Staked Damon
Apart from being involved in one of the most iconic character entrances ever, Alaric was also one of Damon’s few friends. The two shared a close bond, but after Damon wronged him one too many times, the latter decided to finish Damon off once and for all.
He staked Damon on the pretext of friendship, which was cold-blooded murder. Being Cade’s lackey saved Damon from a permanent death, but it made him even angrier and more brutal than he was earlier. After being resurrected, he came back to Christmas seeing red (in a bad way) and ended up killing Stefan and wreaking havoc with Sybil.
8/11 Sage Double-Crossed Him With The White Oak
Sage and Damon went way back, and Damon seemed to trust her implicitly because of their age-old connection. Unfortunately for him, Sage’s loyalties lay with Finn, and when she felt that the Originals were threatened, she double-crossed Damon by burning the remains of Wickery Bridge so that there was no wood left for a stake.
This made the fight between the Originals and the Mystic Falls gang a lot more precarious, as there were fewer weapons to kill them for good. It also lulled Finn, Klaus, Rebekah and the rest of them into a false sense of security as they thought the weapon was finished, but Damon still had the signboard which was also fashioned from White Oak.
7/11 Stefan Killed Enzo
Despite their brotherly bond, TVD fans witnessed Stefan and Damon do the worst things to each other. Even though Stefan had not meant to, his heated fight with Enzo turned awry when Enzo ended up dead. Enzo held a special place in Damon’s heart, and Stefan tried to hide his murder as much as he could from his brother.
This led to a lot of troublemaking by Enzo’s spirit, as well as bad vibes between the Salvatores. To take revenge, he destroyed the cloaking spell on them, which left Stefan and Elena open to attack by the Travelers. They could capture them because of this betrayal, and thus take over Mystic Falls eventually through the doppelgänger blood and their spells (which was a terrible outcome).
6/11 Enzo Imprisoned Him With Tyler
Even though Damon fought for Enzo, the fellow Augustine vampire stabbed him in the back by locking him up with Tyler on a full moon night. Enzo was a known double agent on The Vampire Diaries. These events were extremely chaotic, because Bonnie got involved while trying to help Damon, and led to her getting seriously injured.
Damon was, yet again, left hurt by a loved one’s treachery, and one that could have killed him and Bonnie, both. It also proved that Bonnie was the reason why the show went forward at all, and she was always the one saving people. Damon’s care for her was also made apparent as he rushed to get her help. It furthered many relationships in the show.
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4/11 Stefan Left Him To Desiccate
In what was well-deserved deception, Stefan captured his out-of-control brother, vervained him, and left him to dry out in a cell. Damon had gone too far with his murder and mayhem, and this was the only way to control him. By doing this, Stefan angered an already furious Damon, and there were awful consequences to this.
He still managed to control Caroline through some blood bond, and, in his desire for revenge, turned Vicki into a vampire. This led to her death at Stefan’s hands, compelling Jeremy about vampires, and much loss to the Donovan family.
3/11 Bonnie Did Not Deactivate The Gilbert Device
At the beginning of the show, Bonnie hated Damon, which was evident when she hoodwinked him into thinking that she had deactivated the Gilbert Device. This was top-tier duplicity, because it would have led to a certain death for the elder Salvatore had it not been for Stefan.
He ended up in a basement with other vampires, and was almost burnt and killed along with them before a last-minute rescue. Bonnie really held all the cards with her actions, along with Damon’s life. While this deception probably didn’t hurt him since he wasn’t really close to Bonnie, it did fuel his paranoia that no one could be trusted.
2/11 Lily’s Abandonment And Revenge
Being abandoned by Lily left a gaping hole in Damon’s heart, and he couldn’t recover from the huge lie that she told in order to start her new life with her new family of Heretics. She left him and Stefan at the mercy of an abusive father, and didn’t bother rescuing them.
His anger at Lily’s behavior made him act out and attack the Heretics, which ignited an all-out war between them. The Salvatores and gang got thrown out of their homes, countless Mystic Falls residents died, and the course of the show was altered a fair bit.
1/11 Katherine Pretended To Be In The Tomb
A betrayal which hit Damon the hardest was the one by Katherine. This one had many layers, and it began when Katherine secretly courted both Damon and Stefan at the same time. She then pretended to be locked in the tomb, while she was, in reality, out and about, living her life.
Damon’s heart broke when he first realized he had to share Katherine, and then he spent hundreds of years looking for ways to “free” her. Her conniving actions led to the entire plot of season 2 unfolding, when the tomb vampires came out, and Damon had to make his peace with Katherine’s reality.
