The Vampire Diaries - Episode 2.09 - Katerina – Review

I know it’s been a few days since the episode aired, so maybe you won’t be really interested in a review, but still, I decided to give it a try. Plus, there are three weeks until the next episode, so I really don’t have anything better to do :)
In my opinion this was a really good episode. Maybe not as astonishing as the previous two, but still really good. I though this season had an amazing start, but around episode 4 it became kind of boring and I almost lost my faith in it. But the last three episodes were just extraordinary good.

So the episode opens with a flashback. Katherine is in Bulgaria in 1490, surrounded by her family while she is giving birth to a fatherless daughter. Everyone is mad at our beloved Kathy, because in their opinion she had no right getting pregnant. Katherine, or Katerina, was desperately begging them to let her hold her daughter at least once, but they refused. Nina Dobrev was actually really good in that particular scene, she got to portray a mother’s pain and I never thought she would have the chance to do that on this show. And I just have to mention that everyone on that scene was speaking Bulgarian and they did it really good. I am Bulgarian myself so I know. And Nina Dobrev was actually born in Bulgaria, but she left when she was 2 years old. In her interviews she is always speaking Bulgarian with a strong accent, but in this scene she managed to pull it off perfectly and I just felt I need to congratulate her for that! Good job, Nina!

Back to the episode. Elena decides it is time for her to know more about the curse and the moonstone and her role in everything, so she goes to visit Katherine. Our little sociopath isn’t really feeling well since she is all alone in the dark tomb, so she decides to talk with Elena over a few glasses of blood. During the course of the episode we see many flashbacks that finally help us understand Katherine. After Katerina gave birth, her family sent her away in England. There she met some vampires and they found her pretty interesting. It turns out that Katerina, just like Elena, is a doppelganger, and not the original Petrova girl, whose blood sealed the curse. The curse is simple – vampires are weakened by the sun and werewolves can turn only during full moon. The Originals – a bunch of really old vampires – want to break it and in order to do so, they need to sacrifice a doppelganger of the original Petrova girl. As I get it, there is one doppelganger on every few hundred years. Katerina was a doppelganger, so the mysterious vampire Claus (which we’ve never seen) wants to drain all of her blood. But in order to break the curse, Claus needs a human doppelganger. Katerina drinks some vampire’s blood and then kills herself… so she could live. So she could be free. I felt sorry for her. It turns out that she didn’t really want the vampire life, but that just was the only life she could get. But Claus wasn’t really happy about the fact that his opportunity to break the curse was gone. When Katerina returned to Bulgaria she found her family killed.
After Katherine shares her story Elena asks what exactly is needed for the curse to be broken. It seems that the doppelganger and the moonstone won’t be enough. So Katherine tells her that you also need a vampire, a witch and a werewolf. And Katherine was planning to use Caroline, Bonnie and Tyler. When Elena hears that plan she just falls apart, because she feels as if all of her friends are in danger because of her. A few scenes later she talks about that with Stefan and the moment was touching.

So for me Katherine’s backstory was clearly the highlight of the episode and I won’t talk much about the other storylines, but there are a few stuff that deserve to be mentioned. Damon had sex with the vampire Rose. I imagine most of the fans would hate that storyline, but I really enjoyed it. Damon is sad and broken and he just wants some satisfaction, even for a moment. Rose is in pretty much the same position. None of them believes they are a good match, but both of them just need someone. I would love to see that storyline playing out for longer than two or three episodes. Plus, Lauren Cohan is a great actress, I loved her on Supernatural and I would be glad to see her sticking around for the rest of the season. Another important thing – Bonnie and Jeremy went on a date together. I like the idea of a romance between those two characters. Their date however was cut short by the appearance of a new boy in town. As it appears he is a warlock, so he and Bonnie are kind of connecting and that leaves Jeremy out. And if anyone needs some more twists – the new boy’s father is also a warlock and he is helping Elijah – that creepy strong vampire who survived last week’s staking. Stefan and Caroline also had a couple of great scenes, but that is nothing new, since I love their friendship from the beginning of the season. Stefan tells her that she reminds him of Lexi, which was sweet.

At the end of the episode we hear a nice song while we see Katherine alone in the tomb. She is looking at her family’s pictures and she getting really emotional. It was a nice moment, because for the first time we got to see the softer side of her. From the previous episodes it looked like Katherine is beyond redemption, but the situation is different now. I am really looking forward to seeing what the writers will do with her character.

So what did you think?