Katerina

Vampire Diaries Episode Review

In which I'm not going to pick on Rose anymore. Because that would be mean. Vampire Diaries serves up Katherine's back-story and more warnings about Klaus.

What Happened

Rose tells Elena, Stefan and Damon that Klaus is Very Scary and will likely be coming after Elena sometime between now and the season finale. Not satisfied with that, Elena takes it into her head to go ask Katherine about the whole thing. Elena gets Caroline to open the door to the tomb then sends her off to distract Stefan for the day.

Katherine tells Elena that after being banished from her family in Bulgaria for having a daughter out of wedlock, Katherine was found in England by Klaus, supposedly the first vampire ever. Klaus planned to kill Katherine to break the sun-and-moon curse, so she stole the moonstone from him and ran. Trevor - who was in love with Katherine - sent her to Rose for safety, but Rose decided to hand Katherine back to Klaus.

Having given Katherine some of her blood to heal her, Rose was surprised when Katherine killed herself to become a vampire rather than wait to be handed over to the Scary Bad Man. When Trevor collapsed into a puddle of fail and Rose tried to stake her, Katherine ditched them both and ran off into the night. (I'm am so on Katherine's side at this point, it isn't even funny.)

Damon gets Rose to take him to a vampire coffee shop to meet Slater, who - you know - knows stuff. Slater does mention that if the vampires break the curse, the werewolves are stuck forever bound to the moon and if the werewolves break the curse then the vampires have to forever avoid the sun. Hearing Damon ask how to destroy the moonstone and remove everyone's chance to ending the curse, an eavesdropping Elijah crashes the party and snatches Slater. (Without revealing himself - everyone is still operating under the impression that Elijah's dead.)

Anyways, Damon gets Rose out of there. Slater calls later and tells Rose that if Damon can get the moonstone and a witch, he can render the stone useless and solve his doppelganger problem that way. Then he hangs up and Elijah tells Slater that he's served his purpose and compels him to stake himself.

Katherine finishes things up by telling Elena and Stefan (who ditched Caroline) how Klaus slaughtered her entire family to punish her for running. Then Katherine taunts that when the Originals get to Mystic Falls, she'll be safe from them in the vampire-proof tomb while they are killing everyone Elena knows and loves.

The Good

• Katherine vs. Elena. Well done scenes, particularly the bits between the info dump. Nina Dobrev really worked it.
• Katherine hanging herself. Damn.
• The visual of Elijah taking out the window was pretty impressive.
• "I'll be the safest psychotic bitch in town." Love. Her.

The Bad

• Why is Stefan telling Elena not to worry and that Klaus is just a story? Werewolves were just a story too until one tried to eat you.
• Flashback hair! Why did Trevor have road-kill glued to his scalp? Was it some sort of visual metaphor for his character?
• Trevor is confirmed as being as idiotic as I suspected. Why is he so upset that Katherine is now a vampire? I thought he loved her; shouldn't he be happy that they'll be together forever? I'm glad he's dead.
• Why do they make such a big deal about Slater knowing who Damon is? Is that supposed to reinforce the "this is your geek" vibe?
• If the Petrova doppelgangers will only appear in the Petrova line, then what does killing all the Petrovas get Klaus? Unless Katerina was an only child (unlikely at that time in history) then leaving her siblings alive would seem to increase the odds of them eventually producing another possible sacrifice, yes? Did they honestly think there would be only one shot at this? Unless the rule is that the new doppelganger will only appear in direct descent of the old one? But where did we hear that? How would that work? Who is Katherine a doppelganger of? Why is it called the "Petrova" line if it's descending through the mother?

The Cliche

• Having to cooperate with the villain to get some information: Elena and Katherine.
• Sidekicks in love. I think it's safe to say the Bonnie's romances ending badly has happened so often that now it's a cliche.
• Oh, hey look at that: the sinister guy (Luka's dad) is in cahoots with the other sinister guy (Elijah).
• Katherine crying over her parents' pictures. Because even psychotic vampires love their mommies?

What Did I Think?

Sigh.

I'm not even going to do the math on how a Bulgarian got to the New World and fell into the hands of an Aztec shaman. I'm just not.

Anyways. We spent last week talking about Damon, so lets spend this week talking about Stefan.

Stefan needs a quest.

Stefan is really falling into a dangerous place where he's being very reactive instead of proactive. One of the reasons other characters seem more dynamic is that they have a drive, a goal they are fighting towards. Stefan's initial goal was to meet Elena and presumably get her to love him, which he took care of last season. (Good for him.) His current drive is simply to protect her from all the Big Bads, but all he's really doing is scowling in the background and telling Elena not to worry - at precisely the time when she should be worrying.

(Wouldn't it have been cute if both Stefan and Elena had the idea to sneak off and talk to Katherine?)

The audience knows that Elijah is still out there and that Klaus is the season's Big Bad, so when Stefan says it'll all be okay, he comes off as a bit dim. (Doesn't he know he's living in a TV show?) Based on recent experience - uh, werewolves? - why is anyone on this show going "It's just a story"? Now, we like that Stefan's not Stalker!Boy taking over Elena's life, but if she wants to feel safe, he needs to be taking concrete steps to make her safe. Not hanging around, hoping nothing will grab her this week.

Stefan is smart and tough. He needs a chance to show that off.