The phenomenon of the Beloved Side Character is one that I’ve always had a great time with. While the main characters anchor a TV show, the side characters who surround them add color, context, and conflict to the story. Frequently, side characters end up being the fan favorites, elevating them to a main character by sheer force of will. And oftentimes, that pure love they’re shown is a shield between character development and fading into the background, collecting dust aside from when they’re useful to the plot.
One of the mid-2000s’ most iconic side characters who became main characters is Bonnie Bennett from “The Vampire Diaries” (played by Kat Graham). She’s the über-powerful Black witch and best friend of the main character, Elena Gilbert. Almost two decades after the show’s end, we still talk about her. Bonnie was a literal force of nature, and whether you’re someone doing your first watch on TikTok right now or an OG rewatching for the millionth time, Bonnie is one of those characters who sticks with you, especially if you’re a Black woman.
Bonnie begins the series as the skeptical best friend of the love-blind Elena, and, despite her own journey to discover her witchy gifts, Bonnie is often at the whim and will of the three main characters. As a classic in 2008, Elena, Stefan Salvatore, and Damon Salvatore’s love triangle anchored the show, and its sometimes convoluted plot always comes back to their individual and collective emotions and motivations. Bonnie, despite constantly trying to maintain distance from the vampires about town in season one, is drawn into their drama and quickly becomes a fixture.
It’s hard to pinpoint when Bonnie became a main character, both in the eyes of the public and the eyes of the producers (The Vampire Diaries universe was always swirling with rumors of tension between creators and the fans over how they treated the character). I just know that one moment you wouldn’t see her for several episodes and then, suddenly, Graham was bumped up to a series regular, and Bonnie was constantly in the mix. Moving forward, we see Bonnie play an ever-present and crucial role in our tangled three and the rest of the ensemble.
Bonnie is often used as the solution to, or the fixer of, their problems throughout the eight-season series. She’s casting or breaking spells that can make or break their ill-fated plans; she’s consulting her grimoire to dispense crucial wisdom she barely understands herself. She also serves as a moral compass in the morally gray world of the supernatural, as well as a sympathetic ear for human companions. She really embodies what witches tend to represent in this universe: nature’s balance. Whether she’s consulting the human members of the community or the supernatural contingent, she is forever maintaining their humanity.
Humanity is something that “The Vampire Diaries” centers itself around, whether characters are rediscovering it or trying desperately to hold onto it. Bonnie really is one of the show’s true moral compasses, though some would say it’s Matt Donovan, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, poor white kid who’s the beloved high school quarterback. However, while Matt is allowed to enter and exit the plot as he wishes, due to his useless humanness, Bonnie is forever putting others first, whether she likes it or not. Like many Black women, she’s seen by her counterparts as a superwoman beyond human limits. Bonnie is always seen as larger than life, above it all, even when she’s mentally and emotionally crumbling before her friends. We rarely see her take a step back or find time for herself through eight seasons, and when she does, it’s met with complaints and gripes from those around her who are all wondering, “Where is Bonnie? We need her to fix this!”
As many Black women are, Bonnie is also the perpetual noble sacrifice. One thing Bonnie Bennett, as a character, will do is sacrifice her peace, dignity, and even her life (on multiple occasions) for the sake of other, more selfish people. The examples are endless: setting aside her own discomfort about being physically assaulted by Damon in season one to assist Elena in one of her first hairbrained schemes; when her grandmother dies after overexerting herself for one of the Salvatore brothers vendettas; when her mother is unceremoniously turned into a vampire to save Elena; when she herself is expected to sacrifice herself in order to save another one of the main cast. She is always the martyr, sometimes of her own accord and sometimes because the plot puts her back against the wall.
It was clear from a very early time to both critics and fans alike that the writers truly saw Bonnie as a means to an end, her character’s woes be damned. Do they need someone raised from the dead? Let’s get Bonnie in there. Do they need a spell that will save the season? Have them call Bonnie. There’s an all-powerful immortal being who can’t be killed? No worries; we made it so that Bonnie’s bloodline is the only one that could possibly be of any help. Oftentimes, the trials and tribulations that resulted were swiftly settled or swept under the rug, labeled “plot hole.” When a character’s entire arc is one of sacrifice and service time and time and time again, you begin to wonder why that is.
For Black women especially, Bonnie can be a hard watch. While I see white fans, both new and old, praising Bonnie for always saving everyone, no matter the consequences, for always being the voice of reason, and always putting others before herself, I cannot help but see so many real-life Black women who have been forced to do the same. The writers configure her into almost every stereotype of a Black woman possible while still making her palatable for a white audience. Our first real introduction to her, she’s the overly difficult Black woman who’s “making things harder than they need to be” in season one. Sometimes she fits into the classic Mammy trope, often for Elena and Caroline, where she’s like a comfort blanket to them, despite their disregarding every sound piece of advice she tries to give them until the circumstances are dire enough.
On the other hand, she is frequently the tough-hearted, no-nonsense voice of reason for everyone from Damon to Matt to Alaric Saltzman, their slightly creepy English teacher-turned-friend. She’s even been the disposable Black girlfriend for Elena’s frankly annoying younger brother, Jeremy. Bonnie Bennett, while being a truly spectacular character thanks to Graham’s portrayal, is a painful reminder of the few boxes that modern television thinks Black women can fit into. We’re powerful and smart and cunning and loving, but only on certain terms and only at our own expense.
This brings us to the “modern” day interpretation and love for Bonnie. Almost twenty years after the premiere of “The Vampire Diaries,” people are still calling for “justice for Bonnie Bennett” and acknowledging that the girl suffered more than Jesus for the sake of her stupid white friends, just like we were lamenting in 2011.
While Bonnie remains standing still in time, the audiences that love her don’t. Upon my first watch as a young college student, I looked up to Bonnie. Many I see watching now are awed by the grace she has while enduring the never-ending stupidity of her friends and the selflessness with which she helps and protects them. Further into my life—post fully formed frontal cortex—Bonnie enraged me. I found myself yelling at the TV when rewatching. How could she just let them trample over her like this when she’s right? Why is she saying yes to this stupid plan, which she told them wouldn’t work? Why on earth is she doing this spell she knows will kill her for the sake of people who never see her as anything more than a means to an end?
As I found myself, Bonnie has challenged me, and many other Black women. Like any form of media, whether it’s a beloved, well-worn book or a TV show or movie you’ve rewatched one million times, Bonnie is a character I experience differently every time I witness her journey. Some of it is still extremely painful to see. The one time she really gets to experience a true love interest who gets her, he’s carelessly ripped away for the sake of the plot in the poorly done final season of “The Vampire Diaries.” Watching Bonnie die for the first time, sacrificing herself in order for Jeremy to come back to life and for Elena to be happy, is another. In the end, Bonnie Bennett is just another Black girl who’s also been the catalyst for others’ growth at her own expense. It’s a painful dose of reality that a relatively silly show like “The Vampire Diaries” doesn’t often bring.
Bonnie Bennett’s staying power is a hilarious and sad twist of fate. It’s often been reported that showrunners wanted to kill Bonnie after season one, but the love she received from fans stopped them; then the same happened after her first real death at the end of season four. Bonnie was often used as a plot device and driver for the writers, without care. The rumors of Kat Graham’s own struggle and mistreatment on set are infamous and speak to the larger treatment of Bonnie as well. Many beloved side characters face such fates; they may last through a show that loves to kill its darlings, but at what cost? For Bonnie, it ends up costing her almost everything. But, in the end, Bonnie, like many of us, perseveres and survives against all odds. I just wish she—and we—didn’t have to fight so hard.
