Charlot: Katherine

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How fitting that this info-packed episode took us to what was basically a vampire cyber cafe, complete with double tinted windows to keep the sunlight out. Rose's (Lauren Cohan) friend Slater (Trevor Peterson), who has oodles of knowledge thanks to his 18 degrees, three masters and four PhDs and countless years as a vampire, gave Damon (Ian Somerhalder) and Rose the 411 on Klaus and the Curse of the Sun and the Moon. We also got quite the info dump as Katherine (Nina Dobrev) shared her Lifetime-gets-horrific life story with Elena (Dobrev). Entombed Katherine kind of looked like a zombie extra who got rejected from “The Walking Dead” because she didn't look decayed enough. But her hoarse voice and limping stride were still plenty creepy. Even a slightly slower Katherine kept her wits about her, not to mention her perfect eye makeup, as she dished to Elena. Here's what we learned:

1. Katerina Petrova, who shall be known as Katherine from here on out, had a daughter.And now we also know that Elena and Katherine are related through that blood line. In 1490, Katherine gave birth to a girl, who was taken from her by her own father and given away. Dobrev really sold the crushing emotions of having one's child ripped away from them. Pretty impressive for such a young actress. But then again, she had practice playing a teenage mom on “Degrassi: The Next Generation.”

2. In 1492, Katherine was banished from her native Bulgaria.Having a child out of wedlock was a big no-no, so when Katherine was disowned, she fled to England and adopted a British accent. I hope Dobrev got paid overtime for all the extra accent work she did in this episode, not to mention having to play three characters essentially. It was in England that Katherine caught the eye of a nobleman named Klaus, but then she realized what Klaus wanted to do with her and ran away. Lovesick Trevor (Trent Ford) -- the guy who got beheaded last week –- helped her escape to Rose's cottage.

3. The Curse of the Sun and the Moon was bound with Petrova blood. And the Petrova doppelganger was created to undo the spell. Thus, Klaus needed Katherine to drain her blood as a sacrifice to break the spell.

4. Katherine basically turned herself into a vampire to save her own ass. After Rose discovered that Katherine had stolen the moonstone from Klaus, she told Katherine she was going to turn her over to Klaus rather than risk her and Trevor's lives. She fed Katherine her blood to heal her wounds. Then when Rose left the room, Katherine hanged herself and became a vampire. “Better you die than I,” she replied when Rose accused her of using herself and Trevor to escape Klaus. Looks like that charming personality got its start before Katherine became a vamp.

5. Katherine came back to Mystic Falls to gather the ingredients to break the spell. She hoped that by giving Elena to Klaus –- only a human doppelganger will do –- he would stop trying to get revenge on her for running away. Klaus even killed her entire family back in 1492, so that baby really is the only blood line left. And Caroline (Candice Accola), Tyler (Michael Trevino) and Bonnie (Katerina Graham) were part of Katherine's plan. You also need a vampire and werewolf for the spell and a witch to perform it. “Better you die than I,” she told Elena. That should really be on her headstone. If she ever dies.

6. It really is just a two-way race now to see who will get to the spell first.Slater told Damon and Rose the only way he knew to find Klaus was through a Craigslist personal ad. Seriously? But that would eventually lead to a dead end. Meanwhile, undead Elijah (Daniel Gillies) was eavesdropping outside the cyber cafe. He gathered a handful of coins and flung them at the cafe's windows, shattering all the glass. As all the vampires inside withered in pain under the sun, I couldn't help thinking that this felt like the vampire version of a terrorist attack. And between this and the powerful beheading by swatting last week, I'm starting to think Elijah is Klaus. Elijah compelled Slater to tell Rose they needed the moonstone to destroy the curse and that a witch would know what to do with it. Then he made Slater stab himself. Bummer. I really liked the guy and his oddly nerdy thirst for knowledge and “what is the point of being a vampire?” attitude. He also looked like he could have been Misha Collins' (“Supernatural”) younger brother.

7. Katherine doesn't want out of the tomb. Even though she's got the moonstone, she's not planning to exchange it for her freedom. When Klaus comes to town to kill them all, “I'll be the safest psychotic bitch in town,” she told Stefan (Paul Wesley).

8. Bonnie's got two suitors and one of them may be up to no good. After quite a dry spell –- no pun intended –- Bonnie's now caught the eye of Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen) and new guy Luka (Bryton James), whose dad asked Bonnie if she's related to any Bennetts in Salem. It seemed like Bonnie felt something less than great when she touched Luka's shoulder. Then Luka won Bonnie over by revealing that he's a warlock. But Bonnie may not want to trust him because Luka's dad and Elijah are working together. Looks like Bonnie's being set up to get caught up in the middle of all this spell breaking messiness.

Oh, yes, and Damon had sex with Rose. It was too short to really make an impression, although I do think the characters play off each other well. When Rose told Damon, “You can trust me,” I scoffed. The boy has some pretty big trust issues thanks to a certain dark-haired vampire. I scoffed even more so when Rose told him he needs to turn off his emotions to stay safe and then jumped him. Desire and lust are some of the most powerful emotions.

I actually loved the sweet little exchanges between Stefan and Caroline more. Their blossoming friendship has been a highlight this season. When Stefan told her she reminded him of his best friend Lexi –- RIP –- I smiled. Here's hoping Caroline's fate is not the same as Lexi's.

Readers, what did you think of Katherine's backstory? Was she selfish or smart? Or is it just sad? Do you think Luka is bad news? Did Rose manage to get your mind off Damon and Elena? And what do you think of my "Elijah is Klaus" theory?

-- Vlada Gelman (follow my TV musings on Twitter at @stayingin)

Photo: Damon (Ian Somerhalder) goes to a vampire cyber cafe. Credit: Quantrell D. Colbert / The CW.

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Tonight's very eventful episode was brought to us by Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain. If you're a fan of Joss Whedon and his shows, then you may have heard of Craft and Fain before. They worked on “Angel” and “Dollhouse,” as well as “The Shield,” “Lie to Me” and “Vampire Diaries” co-creator Kevin Williamson's short-lived WB series, “Glory Days.” So in short, they're good. And boy did they deliver on that tonight. Because “Plan B” was so jam-packed with action and goodness -- I'll be sending the bill for my blood pressure medicine to the show –- I want to present my nine favorite things about tonight's episode and one thing I'm not so crazy about.

1. The opening teaser, which was so perfectly intercut between Elena (Nina Dobrev) and Stefan (Paul Wesley) and Katherine (Dobrev) and Mason (Taylor Kinney) both fooling around in bed. The juxtaposition and attention to detail really showed off the differences between the two relationships. Warm, soft light and rosy colors for Elena and Stefan. Dark, cold-like blue for Mason and Katherine. Elena and Stefan exchanged I love you's, as did Mason and Katherine, but somehow, hearing Katherine tell Mason, “We'll live happily ever after. I promise,” didn't fill me with comfort. Who hasn't she told that she loves them? And a very nice twist on the old standby of the creepy, stalker-like vampire watching the girl sleep as Elena watched Stefan sleep.

2. Jeremy's (Steven R. McQueen) “search for life's purpose,”as described by Damon (Ian Somerhalder). Finally accepting his place in the town's supernatural shenanigans, and even fighting for it, Jeremy went to Damon to share what he knew about Tyler (Michael Trevino) and the moonstone. His information actually proved invaluable to Damon and Stefan in their quest to take down Mason. And when Elena didn't like that Jeremy was getting so involved, his stood up to her and told her he was in it now because of her and she couldn't keep him out of it. Things got a little too heavy for Jeremy while Damon was interrogating/torturing Mason with yet another killer plant. (What is it with this show and torture by plant?) “Kill or be killed,” Damon said, grabbing him by the neck. “Suck it up or leave.” I think it's safe to say Jeremy's here to stay. “I don't know how, but she's going to pay,” he said with resolve after Katherine threatened Elena and their family.

3. Everyone working together.The show just hums like a finely tuned, well-oiled machine when all the characters come together for yet another Mystic Falls event and chaos erupts, forcing everyone to work together. “Judgey,” as Damon has nicknamed Bonnie (Katerina Graham), was able to temporarily overcome her hatred of vampires to help out Stefan and Damon. Not only did she link Mason to Katherine, she also incapacitated Mason and found out where the moonstone was. That “thank you” from Damon was well-earned! Then Bonnie, Caroline (Candice Accola) and Elena –- girl power! –- worked together to get Stefan out of the vervain-filled well. All that hard work even managed to get Bonnie and Caroline past their silent treatment. One of my favorite aspects of the show has always been the strong female friendships, so it was great to see that in play with Bonnie and Elena and Bonnie and Caroline talking again.

4. Tyler, ever the class act. Matt was back, and he was showing some signs of damage from his breakup with Caroline. He asked Elena if she was seeing someone since she wasn't playing party planner. We also saw him discussing Caroline with Tyler, who called her an “insecure, neurotic twit.” But “she's got heart,” he added. Nice save, Tyler.

5. Damon rips out Mason's heart. After getting all the information he could of out Mason -- Katherine loves him and wants the moonstone to break the curse so Mason won't have to turn anymore –- Damon pulled out the foolish muscle that had led to Mason's downfall. Damon wasn't blind to the parallels between them. They were both foolishly in love with Katherine, but clearly, Katherine was not after the moonstone because of her love for Mason. She quickly moved on to Matt –- oh, poor Matty, but at least he's being brought into the fold –- compelling him to go after Tyler until he killed him. Interesting that she seems to need the moonstone and a werewolf. And if she lifts the werewolf curse, could she also lift the vampire curse?

6. Jenna (Sara Canning) gets a storyline, only to stab herself!Poor, clueless Jenna. At least she knows Stefan is sleeping over, even if she doesn't seem to mind too much that her niece is spending the night with her boyfriend right under her roof. Turns out Katherine has gotten Jenna off the vervain –- why haven't they moved or done some spell to keep Katherine out of the house? –- and she's been compelling her to spy on Elena and Stefan. She also compelled her to stab herself, but Jenna got lucky and survived. And I was surprised to find that I was relieved. Elena and Jeremy need someone normal in their lives, and having Jenna around gives Alaric (Matt Davis) reason to be conveniently around when Katherine calls to give Elena the smack-down about always being one step ahead of her.

7. & 8. Caroline and her mom bond, but not for long.Accola continued to prove that making her character a vampire was one of the best things the show has done this season. We finally got to see more of the dynamic between Caroline and her mother in a perfectly heartbreaking scene. Sheriff Forbes (Marguerite MacIntyre) finally came to terms with her daughter's new vampire state and even recognized how confident and strong it had made her. She promised to keep her daughter's secret, but Caroline recognized that she would not be able to trust Damon and the rest of the gang. She compelled her to forget what she knew, spinning a bittersweet, touching tale about how Sheriff Forbes was sick for the past three days and her selfish daughter took care of her before ignoring her again. The scene was so perfect, it almost made me forget that I'm not so happy Sheriff Forbes is back to square one now that she's been mind-wiped.

9. Stefan and Elena breakup.This isn't a favorite scene because I was rooting against them. I've actually grown to like them quite a bit and admire their mostly healthy relationship. Their breakup was yet another mature decision to sacrifice their love for the safety of their loved ones. I could do without the blood sharing, though. But now that they're broken up, is that going to lead Stefan to seek blood elsewhere? Will that lead to trouble and falling off the wagon? Caroline did describe Stefan as a “bloodaholic” in this episode.

10. Damon kicking Mason in the face with his knee. He kind of deserved it.

Readers, are you going to miss Mason? Are you glad Jenna survived? What do you think of Jeremy becoming a “scoobie”? Do you think Caroline was right to erase her mom's memory?

-- Vlada Gelman (follow my TV musings on Twitter at @stayingin)

Photos: Caroline (Candice Accola) and Bonnie (Katerine Graham) work together. Credit: Quantrell Colbert / The CW.

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Charlot

Saturday, November 13, 2010

'The Vampire Diaries' recap: Katherine tells a tale

Friday, October 22, 2010

"The vampire diaries" Let's recap: mess with Katherine. Seriously.