RECAP: The Vampire Diaries 2×09 ‘Katerina’

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So, I realize I didn’t do a recap for 2×08 ‘Rose’ and for that you have my apologies. So, what happened in ‘Rose‘, anyway? Well, in a nutshell:

Elena was kidnapped. Again. (Seriously, Stefan needs to put a bell around the girl’s neck, or mark every day ending in Y on his calendar that she goes missing) and the Salvatore boys zoomed off in their car to go rescue her from two hot British undead types called — wait for it — Rose (Guest Star Lauren Cohan) and Trevor (Trent Ford).

Trevor, incidentally, reminded me a great deal of a vampiric Ethan Hawke. It’s that scruffy, unwashed bohemian look, what can I say?

We also saw Bonnie and Jeremy’s budding relationship progressing with him aiding our resident Witch in locating and then sending word to Elena about her impending rescue from the Undead Brat Pack and Caroline and Tyler bonded over their respective supernatural angst. Cue some beheading (bye bye Trevor, we had such a short time together) and impaling (nice work, Damon!) and the boys managed to spare Elena the attentions of Elijah (Guest Star Daniel Gillies), an Original vampire (capitalization entirely intentional).

There was also some illumination given regarding the Petrova Doppelganger scenario — Elena is the Doppelganger and part of a sacrifice to break the curse of the Sun and Moon. We left ‘Rose’ with Elijah waking up and pulling the rather large piece of wood from his chest and filling us with apprehension for our heroes.

Right! We’re all caught up. I think we can move on to this week’s Vampire Diaries episode titled ‘Katerina’.

We open on a flashback.

It’s Bulgaria, 1490 and Katherine is still human. She’s given birth to a baby girl and wants her chance to hold the infant before its taken away but her father refuses her the chance, telling her she has disgraced the family name. The teaser fades on a sobbing Katherine being comforted by her mother.

Cue our beautifully succinct title sequence.

The next thing we see is modern day Mystic Falls. There’s a knock on a familiar door and as its pulled open we see Elena; face somber being greeted by a strangely reserved Damon. She’s been summoned by Stefan for something important and doesn’t appear to be flipping cartwheels despite the embrace we saw her give Stefan last episode.

Looks like there’s still trouble in the Stefan and Elena camp, kids.

Rose, who came to seek the brothers at the close of her self titled last episode, appears from the shadows as the answer to Elena’s query about why she’s been asked over. She’s not exactly comforted by the presence of the old vampire.

But hey, if I was kidnapped, held in a musty mansion and slapped around by another woman, I wouldn’t be comforted, either if she rocked up at my sort-of-but-not-right-now boyfriend’s house he shared with his sometimes-duplicitous-brother.

Vampiric back-handers sting, alright?

Rose tells Elena, Stefan and Damon what she knows about the Originals and in particular, Klaus who, we’re told, is from the first generation of vampires which makes him nigh untouchable — yeesh, and we thought Elijah was hard to stake!

Rose and Damon bicker which, let’s face it, is cute to watch, over how much of what she’s saying is truth and how much is legend or as Stefan terms it ‘bedtime stories’. Elena breaks things down for us, though and pretty much sums it up –

“So, you’re saying that the oldest vampire in the history of time is coming after me?”

Cue Miss Gilbert’s exit as she floats down Denial River, if you asked Damon. Which, nobody did. Not that it’s ever stopped him in the past.

“Shut up, Damon,” is Stefan’s parting comment.

Sometimes I love it when one of the characters says exactly what you’re thinking right at that moment. It’s one of the many reasons I love this show as much as I do.

Changing things up, we shift from Doom mode to all things Cute and Fluffy as Bonnie drops her books on the way to school and Jeremy (that smooth operator) swoops in to help her with them. Yep, oldest trick in the book if you ask me.

The old wait-for-your-crush-to-drop-her-books-then-ask-her-to-play-pool-under-the-guise-of-hanging-out routine.

Still, you have to hand it to Jer, after all the heart-break he’s endured so far he keeps getting back on that dating horse. Bonnie is hesitant but agrees to meet him at the Grill after school and everything seems to be going Cupid’s way until our Obstacle appears.

Yes, that’s officially what I’m calling Guest Star Bryton McClure who plays Luka, appearing as a transfer student and clearly making the eyes at Bonnie. I’d be more upset, I believe, but that he’s a Guest Star and if we take a page out of the Mason rulebook — he probably won’t be sticking around any longer than it takes to cause trouble in Jeremy and Bonnie romance land.

Back to Doom mode.

Elena is tromping through the woods (why does everyone always know where they’re going in these woods? Are there sign posts carved into the trunks that point the way toward ‘Vampire Tomb‘ and ‘Werewolf Cellar‘?) with a pouting Caroline, suitcase in hand to talk to her ancestor, Katherine.

“I’m a terrible liar and I’m even worse at duplicitousness! You know this!”

Aw, Caroline. Stop making me adore you. My cup is overflowing with the Candice Accola/Caroline love. In a sea of horrible events, she’s the floaties keeping us from drowning.

Elena wants her friend to keep Stefan busy as he wouldn’t approve of her plan. Which, let’s face it, has its weaknesses. Caroline reluctantly agrees to help her after having the ‘friend’ card pulled on her and opens the door of the tomb so Katherine and Elena can talk face to face with the protection of the entombment spell preventing Katherine from crossing the threshold.

Now we see Nina Dobrev truly earning her keep as she plays her characters off one another flawlessly. It’s marvellous to watch her flipping between Katherine’s dryer, wryer tone and Elena’s uncertain yet hopeful one. Elena has brought Katherine her family history, she wants to know about Klaus and — clever girl — bribes the elder Petrova into re-hashing her story with blood.

England, 1492 is where Katherine first crossed Klaus’ path, after she was thrown out of Bulgaria by her family who disowned her for her indiscretions (tying in our flash back in the teaser). She was sent to England where she caught the eye of a nobleman, our Mister K.

Katherine attempted to escape Klaus as we rejoin her in the past; desperately dashing through the woods as she’s tracked by a trio of vampires led by a long-haired (do I spy some muttonchops?) Elijah, along with Trevor (who has a head so he’s doing better at this point in his life). Trevor finds Katherine and sends her to a cottage and his friend, Rose.

Cut back to Mystic Falls present day and Rose(bud) and Damon are off on a nice road-trip to Richmond to find a very low-on-the-vampiric-totem-pole guy named Slater that Rose used to contact Elijah. Meanwhile, shockingly enough at Mystic Falls High (I was beginning to think nobody actually attended class anymore and Alaric was out of a job) Caroline catches up with Stefan on his way to check up on Elena and manages — with a clever twist — to distract him with the news that she’d revealed what she was to Tyler.

Back at the Petrova Tomb party, Elena is told that the curse Klaus wishes to break was created with Petrova blood, ergo… “The Doppelganger was created as a way to break the curse.” Oh, those pesky Witches and their tricky spells.

Flashback to England and Katherine finds Rose’s cottage but Rose, just as she does centuries later to Elena, throws Katherine in a room and promises to return her to Klaus. Damon and Rose meet up with Slater, the vampire of academic prowess who reminds me of Christian (no relation) Slater in Interview With the Vampire.

Getting dizzy from the flashbacks, yet? We’re off again to Rose’s Cottage where Katherine attempts to kill herself with a knife but is force fed blood to heal by Rose, who is attempting to spare Trevor his life when Klaus discovers his betrayal in aiding Katherine to escape his clutches. Out of options and terrified of being returned to Klaus — Katherine hangs herself.

No longer of any use to him as the curse requires the Doppelganger be human, Katherine’s tale appears to be done — she has been on the run from Klaus ever since that night, fearful of his vengeance — but for one last morsel. She had used Rose and Trevor, rather than been used herself, for aid and to be turned into a vampire — thereby signing the duo’s death sentence.

Taking a brief reprieve from the woes of the Petrova bloodline, we catch up with Stefan and Caroline at the Grill, the latter still trying to distract him for Elena. Stefan is savvy to her ploy, but we do get the chance to witness the pair bonding further with Stefan revealing that Caroline reminds him a great deal of his long time friend, Lexi, who was staked in the first season by Damon.

Stefan asks her to tell him where Elena has gone but to her credit, Caroline sticks to her guns and refuses. A little hurt, Stefan leaves to seek out his off-again girlfriend himself. Meanwhile, the Obstacle surfaces again with his father in tow as Bonnie arrives to meet Jeremy for a game of flirtation disguised as pool.

Jonas Martin asks our resident Witch some pretty direct questions about her Salem connections and Bonnie, clearly disturbed by the interest, leaves the pair unsettled when Jeremy arrives.

Meanwhile, Elena pieces together the ingredients required to break the curse and comes to comprehend what Katherine’s scheme had been upon arriving in Mystic Falls. She had intended to sacrifice Elena in hopes Klaus would cease hunting her. The mystical recipe, we discover, requires the Doppelganger, a Werewolf, a Witch to perform the spell and a Vampire — all of which Katherine had managed to kill, turn or in Tyler Lockwood’s case — curse in her time in Mystic Falls.

Slater fills Damon and Rose in on the Curse — namely that whichever side breaks it, leaves the other stuck forever with it — so if Klaus does, the Werewolves would forever be forced to transform at the full moon. Our undead trio are being observed by the very man they’re discussing, however, and in a very wicked display of power involving a handful of coins, Elijah shatters the protective glass of the cafe they’re in and almost fries both Rose and Slater.

Back to lighter matters and Luka apologies to Bonnie for his father’s interrogatory behaviour and in the process, reveals them both to be Warlocks, the male equivalent to Witches. Judging from her reaction, Bonnie is more than a little pleased to meet another magically inclined friend — much to Jeremy’s dismay as he realises that he’s been pushed out of the romantic equation for the night and departs.

Stefan finally tracks Elena down and is interrupted in his attempt to comfort her by Katherine, who confirms Elena’s worst fears by re-telling how Klaus single-handedly slaughtered her entire family out of vengeance. It’s on their faces as she tells them Elena is doomed that we see they’re wondering if she’s telling the truth and there really is nothing to be done.

Damon and Rose find solace in one another’s arms, as we see Elena, stricken and grieved, finally break down to Stefan that everything that has occurred to her friends has been her own doing, while securely entombed, Katherine is comforted by the drawing of her parents, safely stowed away for centuries in her family’s history.

We leave the episode with Slater, poor fellow, being compelled by the ever-powerful Elijah into staking himself; while in the background Jonas Martin asks if the death of the vampire had been necessary — confirming our suspicions that he is the Warlock who has been called upon to break the curse for Klaus.

There’s a two episode break before we pick up with new episodes again on the 2nd of December, kids, but we do have the extended trailer for 2×10 ‘The Sacrifice’ to leave you with to salivate over!