Klaus

Vampire Diaries Episode Review

In which we meet Klaus. For real this time. No. The Vampire Diaries totally means it. Klaus.

What Happened

Elijah wakes up in a very bad mood. Elena gets him outside and away before Stefan and Damon hear, asking him to help her figure out a way to defeat Klaus.

Jenna calls, wanting to know what's going on. Stefan warns her away from Alaric, but when she says she's meeting him at the Grill, Stefan goes to find her. Turns out "Alaric" has already gotten to the Gilbert house and he merrily tells Jenna all about vampires and drops several hints about werewolves while he's at it. Jenna finally tells Alaric to get out and when he doesn't, Stefan enforces the order. Getting a look at Stefan in Vamp Mode, Jenna realizes that everything she just heard was true.

Damon picks up Andi and goes in search of Katherine, correctly guessing that Klaus has her compelled at Alaric's apartment. He slips her some vervain so that she can resist future orders and suggests that she'd do well to be a little more grateful. Katherine refrains from telling him where to shove his suggestions.

Elijah tells Elena that he is Klaus' half-brother. All the Originals were family, but Klaus was not their father's son - he was the product of their mother's affair with a werewolf. The Sun-and-Moon curse is a fake - a lie - nothing but a way for Klaus to get everyone looking for the things he needed to break the curse that suppresses his werewolf nature.

Stefan and Damon have been in each others face all day over letting Elena bargain with Elijah and have just come to blows when she returns home. Elijah knows a way to spare the doppelganger's life during the ritual. Stefan agrees to work with Elijah, but Damon refuses. He stalks upstairs to his room and has an ugly encounter with Andi. He finally orders her to leave - before he kills her.

Klaus returns to Alaric's apartment to welcome his witches, Maddox and Greta (Jonas Martin's daughter). They use their magic to extract Klaus' spirit from Alaric and return it to Klaus' body.

The Good

• Elena taking charge.
• Jenna finally finds out! Yes!
• The Sun and the Moon curse is a fake! (I knew there were no Aztecs in Virginia.) That counts as a big twist. And a welcome one because now things make sense.
• Parallels between Elijah and Klaus and Damon and Stefan. No drama like family drama.

The Bad

• Flashback hair. Poor Elijah.

The Cliche

• "Make sure Damon doesn't do anything stupid." Yeah. That's gonna be what they write on Stefan's tombstone.
• Making Elijah more sympathetic now that Big Bad Klaus has shown up.
• But of course Elijah fell for Katherine and her "love is what makes life worth living" spiel. Though it was fascinating to see her pre-Vampire personality.

What Did I Think?

So when Alaric wakes up and he hasn't invited Klaus or Katherine into his home, does that mean they have to leave? Or did Klaus-in-Alaric's-body inviting Katherine and (um) himself into the apartment count as an invitation?

Anyways. We got another of The Vampire Diaries patented info dumps. Unlike previous episodes that relied on long monologues, this episode worked the flashbacks to good effect to show us what Klaus is like at the same time we were hearing about him from Elijah.

And after complaining about Stefan... well, they don't quite do what I want (because that's what's important here, of course) but Stefan does step up and become more of presence. He helps Jenna and supports Elena in a real way - rather than how Damon does it which is to go around behind her back. (How is cutting a deal with Katherine any different than Elijah?) Standing up to Damon in regards to Andi and Elena was also satisfying. I particularly liked seeing Stefan essentially throwing Damon's words back at him, saying he'd "let" Damon be in love with Elena because it meant Damon would protect her.

I have my theories about Andi, but I'm not going to make any predictions for the simple reason that I kind of suck at that. Suffice it to say that she's shaping up to be a far more interesting character than I thought she would. Ultimately, however, it's the kind of story that's going to depend on the ending.