Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT And Where Did That Get You?
By Cindy McLennan | Season 2 | Episode 19 | Aired on 04.21.2011
Elena proves herself trustworthy to Elijah by... being trustworthy to him. In addition to unkilling him, she gives him the dagger that can kill him, and in return, she learns the dagger isn't fatal to Klaus anyhow (but more on the why of that, later). Elena meets with Elijah on his terms. She returns to him after leaving. Blah blee bloo. And by episode's end, she invites him into her Mossy Manse safe-house, shocking both Salvatore boys and pissing off one. Can you guess who? You get three tries and the first two don't count. As an aside, is it just me, or is Elijah maybe falling for Elena a little? They certainly have interesting chemistry.
During Elena's time with Elijah, we're treated to a series of flashbacks to 1492, when Columbus sailed the ocean blue. We see Elijah fall in love with Katerina and Klaus use her. We also learn that Klaus and Elijah are brothers. When Elijah reveals this tidbit to Elena, he cracks that he's not exactly hip to current slang, but he believes the word she's looking for is "OMG." Um, Show. No. Please don't try so hard. This is like the time you had Damon actually say, "Dot dot dot." It is too much. Also, while we didn't know for certain that Klaus and Elijah were brothers before now, it's hardly shocking. There is this group of Original Vampires. Is it that stunning that they're somehow related? Not in the slightest. Now, you give us plenty of twists and surprises. I'm not knocking you for being predictable. I like that they're brothers. I'm knocking you for tooting your own WE'RE SO CLEVER horn, over a perfectly ordinary revelation. You know I love you, but when Elijah told Elena that Klaus is his brother, it was not "OMG" I said so much as "No shit, Sherlock."
More surprising and noteworthy are these facts: Klaus is only Elijah's half-brother, because their mama had a thing going on with a werewolf. In a shout-out to the Underworld movies (which I hadn't seen, but which I was just recently discussing with my cousin), Klaus is a hybrid vampire/werewolf. I've seen vampwolf and werepire and all manner of portmanteaux offered up as labels for his breed, but my favorite is blood wolf, so when I'm not flat-out calling him a hybrid, that's the way it's going to be around here, unless and until I change my mind on a whim. Okay? Okay.
In another MYTHOLOGY MOMENT, which isn't surprising, but works well, we learn that witches in this universe serve nature. Since a blood wolf who was half Original Vampire would be invulnerable (werewolves in this 'verse aren't vulnerable to silver, while the Originals are only vulnerable to that one particular silver dagger dipped in the ash of that one particular white oak) witches cursed Klaus to suppress his lycanthropy, because to nature, invulnerability sucks as much as a vacuum. Now, here I have a little sympathy for Klaus. I mean, he is what he is, yo. It's not his fault that his Original Vampire Mama (OVM) mated with a werewolf. And if I understand Elijah correctly, he, his brother and the whole damned family were humans at one point. So here's this guy, or possibly even a boy, who has the werewolf gene through no fault of his own. Then he somehow turns into an Original vampire. And? This is where I get stuck. Okay, if there were no vampires before the Elijah-Klaus family (EKF) and the EKF members were all human, how the heck did they turn into vampires? Are witches to blame for this, too, or is there something out there even older and possibly badder than Originals? Well, regardless, it is all the EKF's fault that werewolves and vampires are at odds until this day, because when Original Vampire Daddy (OVD) found out about OVM's affair and that Satan Klaus is quite literally a bastard, he killed Daddy Long Dog and set off the epic battle of the supernatural species. And boy, I miss Tyler, which is neither here, nor there. I just do. I expect we'll see him before the end of the season. I'm not spoiled, so that's just wishful thinking, not intel.
In the most important (and my personal favorite) MYTHOLOGY MOMENT of the episode, or possibly the season, we learn there is no frigging curse of the Sun and the Moon. Thank you, because I was really straining to accept an Aztec connection to this story that has largely played out in Virginia, England and Bulgaria -- you know what I'm saying? Had they used North American Native Americans from the outset, it would have made more sense, but I digress. The curse doesn't exist and that's good enough for me. It seems that for centuries, Klaus has been faking up legends about moonstones and the Petrova doppelganger and planting them all over the world, because while the Curse of the Sun and the Moon doesn't exist, the moonstone and the Petrova doppelganger are key to Klaus releasing his inner werewolf. He figures if werewolves and vampires all over the world are all seeking to break some curse they think will free them from their restrictions, someone is bound to happen upon the moonstone and La Petrova, and it'll be all over but the sacrificing and incanting.
Now at first, Elijah was willing to help Klaus in his quest to be his true, gruesome twosome monstery self, but then Katherine, or Katerina as she was then known, did what she does best -- got herself involved with a pair of gorgeous brothers. Because of his devotion to Katherine, Elijah set out to find a way to break the curse without killing La Petrova. And he found one, too. But when he brought the good news to Klaus, Klaus saw no reason to spare Katherine, even though it seems he was spearing her, if you know what I mean. Nope, Klaus was looking forward to sacrificing Katy, because he had bigger plans. Then Katherine fled (and got herself vamped). Naturally, Klaus suspected Elijah tipped her off about the sacrifice. In flashback, Elijah denies this and gives Klaus his word that he will find Katherine. Klaus threatens to kill Elijah if he fails. And his big plans? Well, it seems Klaus wants to start his own hybrid race. So, while Elijah loves/loved his brother, he will not be party to his hybrid procreational plot, especially since his brother threatened to kill him and all. The good news is, it looks Elijah might be partial, or at least amenable, to saving Petrova doppelgangers.
There's one thing I don't get, though. If Elijah is so set on not letting Klaus become a fully empowered hybrid, why was he (Elijah) seeking Elena? If it was just to protect her, wouldn't it have made sense to... I don't know... tell her that from the outset? His quest for Elena made sense when we thought that Elijah too wanted to be free of the Sun and Moon curse, but since that doesn't exist, what's his angle now? The easiest way to thwart Klaus would be to kill or vamp Elena, and yet Elijah has been pretty busy not killing her for weeks on end. The only way to kill Klaus is for a juiced up witch (hi Bonnie) to do it. Oh a little nitpick here: Elijah tells Elena that the only way to kill Klaus would be during a full moon, while he is in transition. It is then that a witch with enough power can kill Klaus (the "safely" is heavily implied). Klaus's lycanthropy is currently, magically dormant, so does this mean the curse has to be lifted before he is killed, so that he can transition and be vulnerable to killing?
Back in 1492, Elijah didn't want to kill Klaus. He just wanted to free him without seeing Katherine sacrificed. These days, he does want to kill Klaus. In the genre, blood magic is generally the most powerful magic there is. Does Elijah intend to use Elena as a sacrifice in the Klaus Killing ritual? Does he intend to let Klaus sacrifice Elena in order to resurrect his werewolfiness, and THEN have Bonnie kill Klaus? Wait. In 1492, he claims to have found a way to break the Klaus curse without the doppelganger sacrifice. Could Elijah be really good, here? Could he be trying to break the Klaus curse without an Elena-shaped sacrifice, but only so he can then commission a juiced-up witch to kill Klaus without killing herself? That's what Elena believes, but there's got to be a twist, right? Ack. I so b