Catching Up With The CW’s Vampire Diaries

CW's The Vampire Diaries

THIS ENTIRE POST IS A GIGANTIC SPOILER FOR SEASON ONE OF THE VAMPIRE DIARIES!

Ahem. Now that that’s out of the way…

For those of you who are just tuning in, you should be watching this show. For those of you who are on pins and needles just waiting for Thursday, let’s catch up, shall we?

Welcome to Mystic Falls

Mystic Falls, VA

This quaint little town in Virginia has a history with vampires, two in particular, and it is when the infamous Salvatore brothers (who were present at the town’s establishment back in the day) return to their ancestral home that the series begins – and wastes no time laying down where the drama will be as the season unfolds.

Elena Gilbert

Meet Elena Gilbert, played by Nina Dobrev. Her parents were killed in a car accident last spring, and now it’s time to start another year of school. Her brother Jeremy is distant and broody (in the way that teenage boys are, but bonus, the poor kid lost his parents too), and her aunt Jenna (her mother’s younger sister who is juggling college too) is trying her best to raise two teenagers after her sister’s sudden death. Elena has taken it upon herself to steer young Jeremy in the right direction, but she’s about to get her train derailed. Again.

Stefan Salvatore

Meet Stefan Salvatore, played by Paul Wesley. He’s the nice Salvatore brother. He’s the new kid in school (yep, these vamps are daywalkers – they have nice fat rings with the family crest on them to thank for that), quiet and serious. But when he spies Elena, he seems to be…disturbed. Well, that’s because his long lost love, Katherine, and this girl Elena bear a STRIKING resemblance. His interest is piqued and its just about this time that his brother Damon shows up. Stefan is the vampire who abstains – he drinks only animal blood, not the humans. This makes him weaker than his brother, and is a constant source of dissent between the two.

Damon Salvatore

I’ll tell you right now, I’m trying not to let it affect my quick-and-dirty catch-up (well, too much, anyway), but I love Damon Salvatore, played by Ian Somerhalder. Damon is my favorite Salvatore brother. He’s the dark and snarky one, with all the best lines. And Damon…Damon too once loved the mysterious Katherine, and it seems that she is the one who drove them apart. Whatever he may have been like before, now Damon takes what he wants and makes no apologies. But he too is intrigued by our lovely Elena.

Damon & Stefan, 1860s

Now, the important things are as follows: Katherine Pierce turned the brothers in 1864 , at the climax of the Civil War. They were both (we are led to believe) under the impression that they were Katherine’s only love, and while it appears Damon found out about her infidelity, he was too in love with her to care. We get lots of flashbacks to those bygone days, and Nina Dobrev really shows us her acting chops as she proves that while Katherine and Elena may be dopplegangers , they are not the same girl. In 1864, Katherine and several other vampires in Mystic Falls were rounded up and tossed into a church and burned alive – an event written down in the history books as a heinous crime against civilians by invading Yankee soldiers. Both brothers, escaped, and believed that Katherine was killed in that fire, but one of the major plot arcs of the season involves the discovery that none of them died, that they were trapped underneath the church and may yet live.

Damon’s discovery that Katherine is not amongst the desiccated bodies (which become less desiccated and begin terrorizing Mystic Falls) below what remains of the old Fell’s Church is one of the pivotal moments for his character. Though it is Stefan that keeps the photo of Katherine hidden in his personal belongings – one of the issues that crops up to eat away at the love Elena proclaims she feels for Stefan – it is Damon who is most affected by the thought that she escaped…and did not come for him. Stefan appears to only want her dead, and insists to his brother that she was evil, and that his feelings for her are totally misplaced, that they were being controlled. Turns out that Damon knew that Katherine was using her vampy powers to ensnare Stefan into complicity with her Evil Deeds, but that she didn’t have to use those powers on Damon – Damon loved her so much that he went along with whatever she asked. Damon intended to find her alive under the church, and the fact that she apparently escaped and has not contacted Damon for over a century has him feeling more than a little betrayed.

Katherine & Stefan, 1860s

Annnnd this is about the time he considers (and skirts around) turning a new leaf. He’s been playing nice with the local sheriff and several members of the Founding Families of Mystic Falls/Fell’s Church (the Gilberts, the Forbeses, the Lockwoods and the Fells are amongst the recognizable names), and discovering what they know about vampires to ensure his survival (they don’t know the Salvatore rings allow them to walk in the daylight) and discovers that there’s something fishy going on – and that this secret society knows vampires are back in Mystic Falls. He joins up with history teacher Alaric Saltzman, and together they discover a shared past – turns out Alaric was married to Elena’s birthmother (yep! Elena’s adopted! It was that much of a shock to the watchers, so I thought I might throw you a curveball in case you’re new so you got to have that ‘whoa, what?’ feeling the rest of us did), and Damon was the one who turned said birthmother into a vampire (is there ANYONE without a vampy past in this show? Um…not yet.) – and become a team of vampire-slaying heroes, rounding up the risen “tomb vamps” from old Fell’s Church and ensuring the safety of Mystic Falls. One might even consider it a “bromance”. They snark, they hate each other’s guts, but at the end of the day, after a punch in the face, they’re solid.

Well. Just as Damon is deciding whether or not he wants to give up being the Big Bad, Stefan finds himself struggling with his nature. He has been tempted by the dark side, pulled into memories by the power he once commanded as a killer. In his efforts to protect himself, his brother, and Elena, his lady love, Stefan is faced with the true nature that runs just under the surface – that he is a killer and that no amount of ignoring that fact will ever make it go away.

So. Stefan connects with his vampire nature, and Damon connects with his human one…and with Stefan’s girlfriend. At best, Damon and Elena have enjoyed a snarky back-and-forth volley all season, and she vacillates between being unsure of his motives, being outright frightened of him (complete with bravado that he finds amusing and appealing), and defending his brief flashes of humanity to his brother – his brother who believes he is beyond redemption. The relationship between the brothers is deliciously complicated, but I’m supposed to be skimming the important parts here, not waxing poetic on sibling relationships.

One might say it all comes to a head when Stefan gives in to his vampirism and kidnaps a young girl, feeding on her and leaving Elena in the surprisingly capable hands of his brother. The infamous dance scene in episode 1×19, “Miss Mystic Falls”, was fraught with tension, and gave us all either something to hope for or something to fear as it begins to become crystal clear that Damon’s flirtations are more than just passing amusements.

Things start to snowball after that – Stefan confronts his nature and attempts to die for his sins, Elena meets her birthmother face to face (and is not impressed), the remaining tomb vamps plan a siege of Mystic Falls on Founder’s Day (the town’s historic celebration), and the secret society that killed the vampires of Fell’s Church over a century ago are planning to take out what’s left of them in modern Mystic Falls.

And then we come to the finale…where we finally meet the infamous Katherine Piece in modern day. She slips into Elena’s clothes, kills Elena’s uncle (her adopted father’s brother…who turns out to be her real father…what is this, Empire Strikes Back?) and…is the unexpected recipient of Damon’s confession of his confused feelings for Elena.

Now, while the Stefan/Elena/Damon/Katherine shenanigans weren’t the ONLY thing going on this season, this post would be far too long if I addressed them all. SO. Here are some other people you should know:

Bonnie Bennett

Bonnie Bennett, witchy best friend of Elena Gilbert. Her grandmother is a known drunk and occult professor who is Bonnie’s shepherd as she discovers her emerging witchy powers. Turns out it was Bonnie’s ancestor, Emily, Katherine Pierce’s handmaiden, who used her magic to construct the infamous daywalker rings for the Salvatore brothers and Katherine’s own daywalker pendant. Damon made a promise to Emily to protect her line in exchange for trying to save Katherine. Bonnie is suspicious of both brothers, but more antagonistic towards Damon, who loses no sleep over trying to murder Bonnie to get back at Emily for her long-ago betrayal.

Caroline Forbes

Caroline Forbes, daughter of Sheriff Forbes, is the third arm of the Elena-Bonnie-Caroline triptych. She seems to be an air-headed drama queen, but makes many attempts to be taken seriously. She is hypnotized and used by Damon early in the season to get close to Elena and the sheriff, and while she doesn’t remember details of the weeks she was under Damon’s thrall, she does remember that she doesn’t like him much. She ends the season in a coma after a horrific car accident also involving Tyler Lockwood and Matt Donovan. (I won’t lie, she’s a personal favorite – she may never be able to say the right things, and okay, sometimes her heart *isn’t* in the right place, but she’s a fantastic character with a lot of room for development and her fair share of personal issues to work through.)

Tyler Lockwood

Tyler Lockwood is the son of the mayor and a kid with anger issues. He might be a werewolf. I’m just sayin’ there were some hits. Including, after a particular angry outburst with Jeremy Gilbert, a rather conspicuous camera focus on a full moon. Obviously this town has more to worry about than just vampires.

Matt Donovan

Matt Donovan, Elena’s ex-boyfriend, Caroline’s current boyfriend, and good ol’ all-American boy. Like Jenna Sommers, he is an oblivious follower to all this supernatural drama, but as his girlfriend used to date a vampire and his best friend might be a werewolf, clearly he won’t be able to stay in the dark for long.

Jeremy Gilbert

Jeremy Gilbert, brother to Elena and the *actual* child of Grayson Gilbert and Melissa Sommers-Gilbert. His storylines involved Matt’s sister (a depressed drug-addict who met an untimely new-vampire death at the end of a stake after attacking Elena), and the secretive yet endearing Ana, daughter of Pearl, one of Katherine Pierce’s friends back in 1864. With Ana’s death in the finale, Jeremy downs several bottles of pills and a vial of vampire blood and curls up in a little ball, clearly desirous of The End, even as his uncle is being murdered downstairs.

Jenna Sommers

Jenna Sommers, erstwhile caretaker of the Gilbert teens, is head over heels for Alaric Saltzman, and has no idea about Alaric’s vigilantism or the fact that his dead wife is a vampire who was also Elena’s birthmother. She’s a smart cookie though, so I doubt these things will stay secret for long. Plus, she caught Damon and Katherine smooching on the porch, and was the one who technically invited Katherine in, clearly thinking she was Elena and allowing Katherine to end the season with such panache. Don’t quite know whether or not that will come up, but she has a low opinion of cheaters, so I’d bet Elena is in for a tongue-lashing when Jenna confronts her about “her” make-out sesh with the wrong Salvatore brother on their front porch. If Elena didn’t already find out about that little detail, I imagine she’ll catch up quick after that.

Alaric Saltzman

Alaric Saltzman fooled us for a bit there – he too wears one of those college fraternity-sized rings that protect vampires from daylight, and we wondered if he might’ve been one of them. Turns out, while it keeps vamps from frying in the sun, it also keeps humans from…dying of mortal wounds. (I’m trying not to make a comment about how this makes him and Damon superheroes, and believe me, <em>it’s not easy</em>.) Alaric discovered this after being inflicted with one such wound, and decided that for all the nasty feelings he was feeling for his wife after discovering she had gone and sought out Damon to go vamp, that her desire to protect him did actually come in handy. We’re hoping his affection for Jenna isn’t just a ploy for information – they’re cute together.

Isobel Saltzman

Isobel Saltzman, Elena’s birthmother, is full of sass and revelations (including outing Damon’s love for Elena…in front of Elena…to Damon’s surprise…and Stefan’s too), and apparently she knows Katherine Pierce quite well. She is the one who tells Damon that Katherine has known he was alive and where he was ever since she escaped…and hasn’t wanted to come find him. She seems every bit the cold-blooded killer vamp that Stefan is afraid he will become and that Damon has proven himself capable of, but then she does something sweet, like hypnotizing Alaric and making him think that they parted ways on purpose so he doesn’t keep pining after her…because she thinks he deserves better.

So where does that leave us? Well, that leaves us with this fantastic teaser for season 2.

Other clips to check out just in case you’re not convinced (or need a characterization refresher):

• Damon & Stefan try out each other’s good guy/bad guy roles
• Damon’s confession to not!Elena in the finale
• Damon & a drugged out Vicki Donovan trash Stefan’s room for kicks…and dance in ep6 “Lost Girls”
• Early flashback clip of Damon, Stefan, & Katherine…before Elena realizes how similar they look
• Damon exposes his trust issues & hints at why he antagonizes Stefan