Yesterday, I tweeted to Julie Plec and Kevin Williamson that I hope they're giving Nina Dobrev a Christmas vacation on a private island. If only I could turn back time. I mean... how embarrassing! Who says stuff like that to TV writers? Had I any pride, any sense of decorum, I never would have done that. I should have said: an all expenses-paid Christmas vacation, amirite?
How many plots in "Katerina" feature Ms. Dobrev? Let's see: she plays the human Katerina Petrova, giving birth while crying and pleading in fricking Bulgarian. She plays Katerina trying to pass as a Brit, before finally killing herself to initiate her transition into a vampire. She plays modern-day Katerina/Katherine, mouldering away in ye olde tomb. And? She plays our girl, Elena Gilbert (opposite her Katherine), who is already a deliciously and fully conceived character. As much as I ooh and ah over this show's eye-candy of the male variety, it's Elena's story that grabs me week after week. With all apologies to Lucia, Cleolinda Jones and probably a thousand other women I've met online in the past decade or so, I am a heroine addict, and Ms. Dobrev gives her all -- and three other people's all, too -- to her roles, every week.
"Katerina" is all about Katherine's backstory, including how she gave birth to an illegitimate daughter back in 1490 and how she turned to vampirism to disqualify herself from serving as the Petrova doppelganger, and escaping the much-teased but still mysterious original Original vampire: Satan Klaus. We get much of this, because after learning more from Rose and the beautiful Brothers Salvatore about old Satan Klaus, who wants our girl for a sun beam curse-breaking sacrifice, Elena marches down to ye olde tomb for a family reunion -- with the ancestor who spawned her line 520 years prior. We learn all sorts of mythology I'll hit in the full weecap, and totally forget that Katherine and Elena aren't played by two equally accomplished, talented and beautiful twin sisters (or possibly triplets).
Elsewhere, Caroline and Stefan continue to bond. Bonnie and Jeremy continue to bond, at least until a new Baby Manwitch, Luka, frigs things up. (Oh and his Daddy Manwitch is working for the not-dead, undead Elijah, who of course works for Satan Klaus.) And Rose and Damon start to bond, with Damon's shirt off. (C'mon, you know I wouldn't leave that out.)
I'm throwing up my A+ grade early this week, and suggest you do the same. Grade the episode at the top of the page now, and grade it when you come back to read the weecap too, which I'll put up, ASAP. Until then, please join us on the boards where we're hiding Damon's shirt in a sealed tomb.
Read other famous vampires' diaries, then join our vloggers in debating whether Diaries beats True Blood, below.
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