Self-Preservation

It’s official. Season 2 trumps season 1 of The Vampire Diaries. Katerina was the episode that finally conjoined these two (Or more. It’s hard to keep track) story-lines. I assume to make a cohesive mess of Mystic Falls. No one is safe. Dun, Dun, Dun! Again, it was one of those slam-bam-thank-you-Damon episodes where you didn’t know which way to turn. Katherine’s back story, the several remarks on the ever impending wrath of Klaus, and Bonnie & Jeremy (Ugh! More on that later) were enough to keep me on the edge of my seat once again. Do I have to say how much I love this show? Cause I do. But enough! You want the super juicy recap and play-by-play. For those of you who’ve watched last nights episode, onwards and downwards! For those two people who haven’t, SPOILER ALERT!

Bulgaria 1490: Katerina Petrova gives birth to a baby girl. Disgraced at her blatant immorality (Unwed mother), Katerina’s father takes the baby away. Katerina begs her mother to let her hold her new-born child, but alas. There is no hope. Katerina cries into her mothers arms as she realizes what has happened.

Mystic Falls 2010: Elena Gilbert arrives at the Salvatore Mansion, only to be greeted by Damon Salvatore – who has seriously major feelings for her. He tries to hide it, but we know. We all know. Remember last week? Yeah (Giggle) . . . where was I? Okay. Elena came to the mansion at the request of doting former boyfriend and vampire, Stefan. Why did he request her presence? So she can hear how alpha vamp Klaus wants to kill her, to remove the sun and the moon curse. According to Rose, Klaus is the oldest vampire of all time and he basically can kill you from across the room. All I have to say, is that when we finally see Klaus, they better bring it. I want blood, decapitated heads, etc. I want to see how bad-ass he can be.

Elena then took it upon herself to give Katherine a little visit in the tomb. She wanted answers and she was not leaving until she got them. Elena brought Caroline with her, probably just to lift that big heavy door, but also to keep Stefan occupied (So he doesn’t go looking for Elena). Slowly, footsteps are heard and Katherine appears. With a scratchy throat, she calls out to the doppelgänger, “Hello, Elena.”

With the use of her bargaining tool – a few shots of blood – Elena gets Katherine to spill the secrets she’s been hiding since the beginning of the season. After she was exiled from Bulgaria for giving birth out-of-wedlock, Katerina arrived in England where she meet Klaus. Both were immediately taken with one another, until Katerina found out what he was . . . a vampire . . . and what he wanted. Klaus needed her blood (Petrova blood) to break the sun and the moon curse. The doppelgänger was created to undo the spell. With the help of Trevor (I missed you), she flees her fate. Running through the woods, she goes to a cottage where he had arranged shelter for her.

Rose is waiting for her and plans to give Katerina to Klaus after nightfall. Willing to do anything to escape Klaus and keep herself alive, Katerina stabs herself with a knife – forcing Rose to feed her some blood. Always one step ahead, Katerina hangs herself with the vampire blood in her system, while Rose is distracted by Trevor’s love confession about Katerina. A vampire was born as Katerina fed on the woman who owned the cottage – thinking she would be free, since Klaus needed a human doppelgänger. She thought, wrong. Klaus is a sadistic vamp who will do anything for revenge, even if it means following Katherine around for over 500 years.

More like Klaus than she realizes, Katherine has to look out for #1, herself.  She suggests Elena do the same. Eventually Elena figures out the game – Katherine’s game. In order to make a deal with Klaus for her freedom, Katherine will hand over everything needed to break the curse. The moon stone, a doppelgänger (Elena), a vampire (Caroline), a werewolf (Tyler), and a witch (Bonnie).

Caroline’s distraction tactics didn’t quite work on Stefan, since he knew full well what she was doing. Though, she didn’t budge on her promise to Elena. Instead, Stefan found Elena all on his own. Seeing that she was talking to Katherine, Stefan insisted Elena ignore everything that was said. Katherine is a “Manipulative, psychotic bitch” (His words, not mine. Brilliant, nonetheless) and she can’t be trusted. Leaving the best, or rather worst part of her story until Stefan arrived, Katherine told them what would happen if Klaus didn’t get his way: everyone Elena loved would die, just like Katerina’s family. Stefan vowed to keep Elena safe, even if he had to die trying. Only, that wasn’t what she wanted to hear. Having her boyfriend die or her friends and family? Which is better? There lies the problem.

Another problem is that Katherine has the moon stone. Stefan assumes that she wants to bargain the stone for her freedom, but he’s wrong. She doesn’t want freedom. Katherine knows that when Klaus comes to town, she is the only one who is going to be safe. No vampire will go into the tomb, they would never get out. Later, as Stefan walked Elena to her door – and I chanted for them to get back together – she breaks down. Elena blames herself the impending doom to her friends and family. Stefan tries to comfort her, and with those acting skills, I am officially Team Damon.

Meanwhile, Rose tries to help Damon get in contact with Klaus by speaking to low man on the totem pole, Slater. At a vamp friendly coffee shop (Tinted windows) Slater is reluctant to use his Craigslist skills to try to get a hold of Klaus. He figures that after Elijah’s death, they’re going to be not-so-happy with the situation. He should have been more worried about Elijah coming back from the dead and breaking the vamp friendly windows in the shop with a few quarters (Awesome scene). Besides getting a few nasty sun burns on his face, Slater also revealed why the alpha’s want the moon stone: So the werewolves don’t lift the curse first. If one breaks it, the other will be doomed to their fate forever. Elijah heard most of the conversation (I guess he has a ring), and got out of there before Damon could make a move.

After saving Rose from Elijah’s little experiment, the two make it back to the mansion. Rose had a little advice for Damon, regarding his ever abundant feelings for Elena: caring will only make you dead. Her feelings for Trevor got him where he was today, and the best thing they could do was to shut off their feelings. Damon agreed, only if Rose agreed too. She put down her drink and millions of Damon fans cheered happily for the bad boy, as he was about to get some. Both use their super fast vamp skills to run to each other, they kiss, and we fade to black. What? Always with the Fade to Black! Arg! Not even a little something to hold us over? Okay. Damon shirtless. That might do the job.

On the other side of town, Jeremy and Bonnie made a date to play pool at the Grill (!). Though, they weren’t alone. The new kid in town (Luka) just happened to be there with his dad, Dr. Jonas Martin. Luka was not so subtle when it came to his feelings for Bonnie, and neither was Bonnie. During the chance meeting with the father-son team, Jonas asks Bonnie if her family was from Salem (Subtle). He knew some Bennett’s there and was wondering if they were related (Subtle). Bonnie’s witch sense was at full attention as she touched Luka on her way to meet with Jeremy. Later, Luka apologized to Bonnie for his dad’s apparent behavior and confessed to being a warlock. I like Man-Witch better. Can we use that? Finally, Bonnie had someone she can relate too. They continued to talk, while Jeremy continued to play pool and stare at Bonnie making a new friend. I think the words “this can not be good” were flashing in his mind right about then. Can’t the kid get a break?  Did this new Man-Witch relationship have to begin when Bonnie and Jeremy were beginning their new relationship? Huh? I was rooting so hard for the two, to finally make it to the next level, but now Luka has put them 10 steps behind. Dang it all!

Final scene: As Rose and Damon are in their post love-making stage, Rose gets a call from Slater. He’s okay, except that Elijah is compelling him. Yes, the alpha’s can compel other vampires (What?). Alpha’s are special. Slater told Rose – and Damon, who could hear everything they were saying (Clever boy) – that the curse could be broken if Damon could get the moon stone and a witch. A witch would be able to break the curse. Cue suspicious Damon. Slater hung up the phone rather quickly, then Elijah gave him a “good job,” and compelled the vampire once again. This time, it was an order to stake himself in the heart. Another good-looking vamp gone to waste. But hold on a second, that’s not all. There’s a twist (This show is full of them). Jonas – warlock and new Mystic falls resident –  was at Elijah’s side as Slater went bye, bye. I guess it’s just another cliff-hanger to another great episode. Sigh.

The Vampire Diaries

Now, it seemed as if Jonas was not their voluntarily. Does Elijah have something over him? Why ask Damon for a witch, when Elijah has one of his own? Is Luka in on it? Will Jeremy ever be with Bonnie? Will Damon and Rose be the new hot couple in town? Will Stefan and Elena ever get back together? Will Alaric come back? So many questions, so little time. That’s where you come in, my dear readers. Tell me what you thought of this weeks episode in the comments!

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