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[TVD META] TOP 5 TVD EPISODES.
Since I am predictable and all I really do is rewatch The Vampire Diaries when I can’t figure out what else to watch, Trace wanted me to go all meta on my top 5 TVD episodes, so here it is. This contains spoilers for seasons 1-2 because I am predictable. (I have included literally no episodes outside of these two seasons because I never feel compelled to watch them. Oop.)
I based this off of:
This is also hella long, sorry not sorry. Be glad I spared your plurk lists!
META: TOP 5 TVD EPISODES
5. 1x20 BLOOD BROTHERS
Technically, I really, really enjoy 1x17: Let the Right One In, 1x18: Under Control and 1x19: Miss Mystic Falls (although… not so much) because it’s the three episodes that, imo, launched the Stefan Salvatore Has A Blood Problem and He Personally Struggles With This arc that the show does and doesn’t do justice to.
But 1x20! This episode is the accumulation of Stefan being tortured and weakened by the tomb vampires and being fed Elena’s blood (1x17); his inability to really function on it and acts similarly to someone who is high off of a drug they’ve taken (1x18, 1x19); and he highly struggles with the fact that he’s incredibly self-aware enough to understand that who he is when he drinks from the vein is not a person he wants to be (1x19). 1x20 is the accumulation of that last point: Stefan gives up.
Stefan literally sits in the Salvatore Boarding House basement/cellar and refuses to drink, refuses to talk, and refuses to simply let himself accept that he made a mistake and he can fix it. He literally goes to the quarry at night without his Daylight Ring, ready to kill himself when the sun comes up.
That’s pretty fucking heavy.
This episode is really great upon rewatching because it goes into Stefan’s psyche, guilt, and even amplified compassion and how he holds himself so strictly to being the perfect person. (I also believe he suffers from depression, too.) Stefan is a perfectionist, and him being a vampire and not being able to control his bloodlust is a perfectionist’s nightmare.
When you look at it, in 1x06: Lost Girls and 1x13: Children of the Damned, you get a brief look into the Salvatore household in 1846. Stefan is clearly the peacemaker; he is the person who tries to get his father to be calm around Damon and see that his son has value, and Stefan is Damon’s only anchor and person in his house. Stefan acts a lot like Damon’s protector even though Stefan is the younger brother.
Stefan even goes back to their father to give him closure and ends up killing him. Stefan’s need to look out for everyone is what ultimately gets him in trouble, and I think this episode cemented it: he does not look after himself. Despite going back to school and college countless of times, Stefan never learned one important thing: self-care.
Stefan is also put on a pedestal. Look at how everyone views him as the pure one, the good one—Stefan cannot make mistakes, because if he makes mistakes, he disappoints and destroys that perfect view people have of him. Stefan Salvatore cannot be flawed.
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I think 1x20 is the perfect example of how Stefan handles not being able to control a situation—poorly. He sees it as a negative reflection on himself. He has to be able to drink animal blood. He has to be safe for Elena to be around. He has to be sober and focused to be able to rein in Damon.
Stefan is pretty perfect in the lead up to 1x17: he’s well-adjusted, he’s a good guy, and he seemingly has his shit under control.
What I also really, really enjoyed about this episode was the juxtaposition between Damon and Elena’s reactions.
For Damon, this isn’t new. He’s dealt with this before. Stefan eventually gets over his self-pity and moves on to the next day. I also don’t believe Damon is capable of being emotionally there for Stefan because Stefan has spent his entire mortal and immortal life being his protector and hasn’t required Damon to step into that role. (I know in the later seasons it’s revealed that Damon does protect Stefan from Giuseppe’s abuse, but Damon does not re-step back into this role at all, and I think it has to do with Damon’s belief he cannot save anyone.)
For Elena, this is super new. This is Stefan at his worst. This is a Stefan who is so downtrodden and defeated. She’s used to the self-possessed man who is poised, knowledgeable, and emotionally stable. But unlike Damon, Elena doesn’t turn her back on Stefan and let him wait it out.
If you think about it, this is a fantastic example of Elena’s ability to be there for people (and one of the rare instances she is, imo). Her brother has a drug problem at this point in time. She is constantly trying to be there for him, to be his support and to replace the drugs in that way. She knows how to deal with the emotional highs and lowers a drug user experiences. This is Elena at her best.
Damon, truthfully, does not know how to cope with these emotional highs and lows because he has never had to look after Stefan in such a state. 150 years and he has not picked up a single skill—he simply waits him out. Because, for Damon, Stefan is the brother who is so self-possessed and capable that he believes Stefan can get himself out of it.
She constantly puts herself in danger—and I’d say that this is the ONLY time we ever see Stefan appear violent towards a human Elena during their entire romantic relationship, which he is instantly remorseful over—and Elena consistently puts Stefan first.
This episode is not only a great Stefan episode, but it’s a great Stelena one, too. It shows why they work and why they are such a mature relationship—Elena is there for Stefan’s addiction and she does not once turn her back on him despite literally being 16/17 years old.
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I enjoyed this episode for the flashbacks—you did not see Stefan in a good light at all, and you saw his power over his brother. Usually we see Damon as the powerful one between them, but Stefan was the bad influence and Stefan was the brother who needed to be saved pre-transition (and during transition).
(The episode is also strongly coded as Steferine and Stelena and you can easily gather that Stefan does feel guilt over what he knows happened to Katherine and that he carries that with him. Why else would we go back to specifically seeing the episode open to Katherine being pulled back into the cart and taken away from him? If that was not an important moment, we only would’ve seen her get taken away by the Council members and have Stefan focused only on Damon dying beside him.
Say what you want, but Season 1 is heavily coded in pro-Steferine and it’s evident in the text, oftentimes with Stelena content. You cannot say he hates Katherine when Elena and Katherine have far more similarities between them than their looks. Note how we never see Valerie until she’s retconned in.
Proof:)
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There’s also some great tidbits about Katherine’s affection for both brothers: the fact that she had Daylight Rings made for them both, the fact that she fed them, and the fact that she ensured Emily was with them when she couldn’t be. Antis can say what they want about Katherine, but she did love those boys with what she was capable of loving them with while also putting herself first. I did like seeing Stefan’s viewpoint and the way he reacts to her "death", too. Damon falls apart; Stefan remains stoic and untouchable (and overwhelmed).
I also think the episode is great for what I view as the B Plots: Anna and Jeremy, Anna getting closer to Jeremy, the Invention (!!!), John Gilbert and his role in Mystic Falls’ supernatural culture…
I think this is a really great end to a three-episode arc of Stefan’s blood addiction. (It’s far better than the later seasons trying to tackle it, imo. No humanity Stefan can be fun but I think Stefan struggling with his blood addiction and how that means he’s personally failed is far more intriguing as a narrative and showcases that he’s capable of being knocked down and getting up again. He values feeling; he values the human experience. No humanity Stefan is intriguing in itself, but people overlook blood addict Stefan who doesn’t turn off his humanity.)
4. 1x06 LOST GIRLS
THIS IS SUCH A GREAT FLASHBACK EPISODE. Stefan/Katherine/Damon is an intriguing OT3 but I don’t think it’s necessarily an even OT3 and that is a meta for another day.
We learn about 1864, which is brightly coloured with a filter that makes all the scenes and the narrative itself pop. It’s infinitely more brighter than the present day scenes and I like to think it’s because of how Stefan looks back on it: fondly, despite the hurt he feels.
I think this is a great Katherine-centric episode wrapped in a Stefan-centric episode despite the fact she only appears in flashbacks. You only see tidbits of her time in 1864 with the Salvatore boys, but it was enough of an intriguing snapshot to what you would hope is far more flashbacks later down the line. (I am still disappointed to this day.) Every scene she’s shown in is positive. Stefan has this habit in 1A to reflect back on Katherine in a positive light—his use of language "She was beautiful", "she had a laugh that made you laugh"…
I view this episode as being a heavily-coded Steferine episode. Yeah, there’s Datherine, but I think this episode and 1x13: Children of the Damned truly tie together the fact that Damon is a man who wants an escape from Giuseppe and Katherine as a vampire had that escape for him. Stefan’s display of affection is genuine. I believe Damon’s is, too, but tied with how trapped he feels under his father’s thumb, she is an escape.
This episode may also be from Stefan’s perspective, but it also does not support his narrative that Katherine compelled him to love her. I think 1864’s storyline suffers from the fact that show never prioritised providing more flashbacks to that time and contradicting and even challenging the perspectives of Stefan, Damon and Katherine… but you can only go on what you see and what you’re told.
Stefan genuinely loved (loves, even) Katherine. He loves her willingly. She only compels him to accept the truth of her vampirism so that they can continue on as they were. She compels him to drink her blood so that if anything happened to him, he’d be safe. (Yes, it’s a questionable act to compel someone to drink from you, no matter the reason.) Katherine was overwhelmed by his pureness in his capacity to love a monster like her. You see it in the way Katherine facially reacts to both brothers: Stefan overwhelms her and Damon is safe.
Damon only went after Katherine because of Stefan. I think Season 1 onwards really promotes the narrative that Damon wants what Stefan wants: the girl, the reputation, the control, the ability to be so good. This episode of 1864 only cements that. Damon wants to be Stefan.
This is a great episode that shows Elena’s capacity to listen. And I personally think this episode helps reiterate the Elena we’ve seen so far: she is levelheaded and capable of seeing all sides of a story once it’s presented to her. She is strong and she is capable of rational thought—and she can make the really hard decisions. You saw this side of Elena in 1x04: Family Ties. She was able to act rationally and quickly in defence of Caroline. (I personally think this is one of the last times we see this side of Elena because an Elena who calls out Damon’s abuse is an Elena who cannot textually fall in love with Damon as a character.)
This is also a great episode that demonstrates that Stefan isn’t as pure and good as the narrative likes to frame him to be. He came back to this town for Elena because she looked like Katherine, which is a character piece that gets dropped after 1x11. Stefan did not come to Mystic Falls for Elena. He came to Mystic Falls for Katherine. I believe every time he looks at Elena, he does see Katherine—not necessarily that he mistakes them, because he is one of the only few people who can tell them apart instantly because he studies people but because Katherine was the instigator of so much for him. The fact Elena is her descendent and doppelgänger should add a fucked up layer to their relationship that is never addressed.
This episode ALSO showcases that Stefan has never, ever looked at Elena in the same way he has looked at Katherine and the anti-Steferine text the writers try to input into the narrative, especially in 5x10: Fifty Shades of Grayson, is instantly undermined by the fact that this episode presents Stefan looking at Katherine like she has personally hung the moon and stars for him. (I believe he still looks at her this way. You cannot convince me that Stefan Salvatore who is capable of so much love had simply been able to rid himself of Katherine Pierce when the text proves he continuously repeats history and keeps her photograph and remembers her birthday. If Stefan doesn’t care, he does not care and he cares about her.)
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And it’s okay that he doesn’t look at Elena this way.
ALSO THE FACT THAT IT ONLY REITERATES STEFAN’S CAPACITY TO RESPECT AND ALLOW SPACE FOR ELENA’S AGENCY.
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Stefan will forever and always be better than Damon for the sole fact that he learned from his mistake with Damon in 1864 and lets Elena make her own decisions, even if that decision is to leave him. Stefan doesn’t want to be alone. We see this play out when he convinces Damon to feed in 1x13: Children of the Damned. Stefan is incapable of being in his own company and that is okay, but he is willing to be abandoned by Elena if she views it as integral to her safety.
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This episode was also great for Damon because you see his naivety and his capacity to love his brother freely, but ultimately, who Damon becomes after 1864 does make the boy we see in 1864 seem like a shadow of himself. Damon is capable of love, and yet, we do not see this amplified. It’s a pity because 1864 Damon is a strong Damon. Season 1 Damon’s storyline is truly tragic.
3. 2x07 MASQUERADE
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Besides the fact it brought me one of my favourite Katherine looks AND people dolled up? I think Masquerade was one of the best episodes to display strategy, cunning, and team work. I personally love it because Katherine is playing with all of them and, yes, she does get outwitted by Lucy whom she doesn’t suspect would betray her for Bonnie, but she does prove to be a formidable force that I think a lot of the characters are oftentimes scared of but the narrative subsequently lets down.
(Also, can we please appreciate the fact that Katherine was not outwitted by Stefan, Damon, Elena or Jeremy, but ultimately BONNIE AND LUCY BENNETT? Everyone else continues to prove to NOT be on Katherine’s level.)
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It’s also the first time we see Katherine with both Salvatores in the same room… and I think what the episode (and tbh entire SHOW) is ultimately let down by is Romantic Hero Damon’s slut-shaming. His inability to simply weather being rejected by Katherine, someone whom he had chased and apparently loved, is really gross and disgusting and is something I should rant about some other time.
But I think it’s pretty interesting how Katherine has both Salvatores in a room with her and we see her only zero in on Stefan. He’s the one she wants to talk to. He’s the one who has her attention. Damon is merely a blip.
She literally says it herself. Damon is "the brother who loved me too much" and Stefan is "the brother who didn’t love me enough" but this perception is so wrong because Stefan is the one who carries Katherine everywhere he goes. Later down the line, Damon can’t even remember Katherine’s birthday. Remember when he said she was essentially the love of his life? He spent almost 150 years "in love" with her? Damon does not know how to love anyone because he is not capable of it. If he loved Katherine as much as he postured in Season 1, he would have fought for her in Season 2. (He is guilty of moving onto the next doppelgänger and projecting onto her, BUT ANOTHER TIME.)
Out of both Damon and Stefan, Stefan is the one who watches and listens to Katherine and wants to know more. He literally figures out she’s running from someone and asks quietly who it is she’s running from. Damon would’ve approached the conversation with aggression, but Stefan doesn’t. I think if Katherine had been given the time to be comfortable with him, maybe she would’ve implied someone bigger and badder was out there.
But this episode shows Stefan’s capacity to be compassionate and caring, even though you can easily read it as him not caring at all. If he didn’t care, he would’ve rolled his eyes and approached the conversation with far less tact. (Remember, this is the man who carried around her picture for almost 150 years, remembers her birthday almost 6 years later, and literally gives her peace and closure on her deathbed.)
You literally see how important Stefan is in the story of snaring Katherine because HE is the one she dances with (and the scene is so romantically coded since "Head Over Heels" plays in the background). Katherine is still capable of getting the on-up on Stefan because Stefan has NEVER dealt with Katherine at her most tenacious.
She literally admits she stalked Stefan and this is a storyline that I think deserved prominence, especially in Season 3 with Klaus around, because Katherine is all for one and none for all… yet she kept to the shadows to check in on Stefan. Why? How? How did she feel when she saw Klaus and Stefan become friends? How did she feel when Stefan turned off his humanity? It’s a great tidbit on how Katherine wants Stefan but ultimately her need to survive overpowers her need to be that girl who believes in true love that we see later in 2b. (She loved in 1490 ad 1492 and look at where it got her—her baby was taken from her, she lost her family when she was banished, Elijah betrayed her, Klaus used her, and her family was brutally slaughtered.)
The writing oftentimes angles it like the boys saw this inner survivor in Katherine in 1864… but all they saw was a playful girl who had fun with her toys and fell in love. I know once you become a vampire all that compulsion wears off, but the way the boys frame Katherine is impossibly unrealistic based on their personal knowledge of her. And considering she was believed dead by everyone, the fact that they believe her to be this evil mastermind is untrue to what we’ve textually seen.
There’s not a lot of information out there in the universe about her, because if there was, Klaus and Elijah would have heard about it and have continued chasing her, but they believed her dead in 1864. That’s the point of her faking her death. The show sets up these intelligent characters and yet fails in supporting that by being lazy with their worldbuilding. It’s simple: Katherine "died" in 1864 when she kept to the shadows and Elijah was visibly surprised to hear that Katherine was, in fact, not dead.
There’s a lot of infomodding by the writers on both Damon and Stefan. Even Season 1 didn’t truly uncover everything Katherine has done to survive Klaus—all it did was show she was not in the tomb and had planned it. Still, not an evil bitch—that plot did not affect two human boys until they involved themselves.
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Anywho.
On another note: Lucy and Katherine’s relationship is the ONE TIME this show ever delves into the fact that Katherine DOES help people. Yes, she probably helped Lucy to gain from her and use her, but she still did it. I truly believe that Katherine does create situations where people are endangered (look at how she orchestrated Mason’s transition into a werewolf) but I also believe she seizes spontaneous opportunities to use to her advantage. Girl is SMART. (And… you know… maybe she does want to help people sometimes.)
You have Jeremy not being afraid of Katherine (stupid mistake). You have Lucy (!!!) who should have stuck around to support Bonnie and flesh out the Bennett family storyline because these are powerful Black women who happen to be witches and we deserve to see Bonnie with her family. Lucy is also pretty, so, I’m shallow. Caroline also gets her revenge on Katherine, which is a great character piece and wraps up that storyline nicely imo.
Elena is not a dominant feature in this episode, which is why it is also so great. You see everyone play with Katherine while Elena remains at home.
Katherine planning for Elena to come to the masquerade is merely another great character piece. She has studied Elena so well that she understands what type of person she is—someone who is definitely a survivor but someone who does not survive as tenaciously as she does (and Elena fans can come at me, but I got another meta for that in my brain).
They also demonstrate the literal link between Katherine and Elena with the spell that binds them together. Katherine understands she has lost the Salvatores’ love for her, so she uses their love for her doppelgänger and descendent against them to secure her survival. Name me someone who is just as smart and just as detailed as Katerina Petrova. I’ll wait.
Even though this episode ends with Katherine’s capture and failure, I still believe it is a truly epic display of how lethal she is mentally. It also provides the textual evidence of how she had be able to outwit one of the strongest people in the canon’s entire history—Klaus Mikaelson. (Katherine is smarter than Klaus, simple as that, another meta for another day.) She is meticulous, she studies the people around her, and she plans for everything. No, she did not plan for Lucy to betray her because she did not ever see Lucy in a circumstance where she displayed her loyalty to her family. Katherine, otherwise, would’ve planned for it. (And while we do not have textual evidence of Lucy never demonstrating her loyalty to family, the way she responds to Bonnie is evidence enough that she is isolated from her own line and that Katherine did not ever see her in this situation, so.)
Katherine had to fail so 2b could include her and FURTHER demonstrate her intellectual prowess.
Locking Katherine in the tomb was definitely where her entire story was heading, but having Damon do it feels… really gross to me. I guess because of how I view him as a slut-shamer, I really didn’t like that he continues to shame the woman he allegedly loved sooooo much. I think it would’ve been more poignant if Bonnie had done it, since Emily was the one who did it in 1864 and it would’ve been a nice throwback to how Katherine had betrayed Emily.
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I also really appreciate how the episode ended with Stelena still broken up. Elena now understands being with Stefan is dangerous and not because of his vampirism. It is dangerous to the people she cares about—and her giving up Stefan in this moment is truly one of her only selfless acts, because 2b is going to prove that while Elena is self-sacrificing, she is ignorant and even uncaring to the fact that the sacrifice she will plan to be a part of involves other people.
2. 2x07 KATERINA
YOU GOTTA LOVE A KATERINA PETROVA CENTRIC EPISODE.
This episode literally demonstrates that Katherine is not a villain nor is she a one-dimensional character, either. She was born in a different time, has lead a life far different to any of our heroes, and she has experienced tragedy that, while, yes, Elena would understand, no one ultimately does.
Katherine’s entire identity is interrogated in this episode and only proves that Katherine’s identity (the "Katherine" one, if you will) is one that she had to manufacture to keep herself safe. She lost who she was when she lost her mother in 1492. Katherine is secure in who she is because the woman she has become in the present day is nothing like the girl she was in 1492. Loss shapes people. You cannot say that loss has shaped Elena and not say the same for Katerina Petrova.
This episode is a great doppelgänger episode because it ultimately shows how socially intelligent Katherine is. Do I think Elena could survive the life she had lead? No. And that’s a meta for another day. It’s okay that Elena could not live Katherine’s life because while they are shadows of one another, they are not each other. (A lot of fans don’t seem to get this imo.)
This episode really humanises Katherine and I think even shows us why people like Elijah and Stefan would fall for her. She is a person who is saturated in tragedy but she is a phoenix who rises from the ashes and is stronger. Katherine’s strength is ultimately what attracts people to her—her physical, mental and emotional strength. (And I believe that this demonstration in this episode of how she is so quick to think on her feet and to save herself while being completely overwhelmed and out of her element is mere proof of 1) why Katherine is the strongest character in this entire series and 2) why Klaus Mikaelson wants to possess her even after she has ultimately rendered herself useless to him. It’s because she is smarter than him and someone was egotistical and emotionally controlling as him cannot stand that.
Trevor is merely a step for Katerina. He does not save her; Katerina saves herself.)
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A lot of fans seem to think that Elena is just as strong of a survivor as Katherine. While that is definitely a meta for another day, I think this exchange proves that Elena is not. Elena may be Katherine’s shadow, but she is not Katherine. Katherine does not see the value of being sacrificed so other people are safe (she had no one) and she would prefer to never have a home if it meant she had her life. Elena, on the other hand, views it differently. This exchange is a great example of how these two women are so different due to their personalities, circumstances, relationships and contexts.
Katherine will make the hard decisions. Elena, ultimately, cannot.
No other episode LETS this exist in the same space. It’s okay to be different—isn’t that the whole challenge of a doppelgänger? The show has hammered it in that Katherine is Elena’s evil shadow self who is a harbinger of Elena’s own destruction when, ultimately, it’s Elena’s existence that brings destruction to Katherine.
Katherine values herself, and there is nothing wrong with that. Elena does not value herself. 2b demonstrates this. If you really think about it, this exchange is a great demonstration of how Katherine and Elena view death: Katherine does not embrace it while Elena almost welcomes it.
Btw, there is literally nothing wrong with how either woman approaches the situation before them. I am only pointing out that this episode only demonstrates that Katerina Petrova is a phoenix and she burns herself so she can rise from her own ashes. Elena does not—and never has, imo—destroyed herself in such a way to save herself. (Other people—Bonnie in particular and Stefan and Caroline—do this for her.)
This episode is great imo because it showcases that Katherine is a person beneath it all with her own genuine and believable motivations. And I think this episode truly is what launches her into being an anti-hero and even a protagonist. She is most certainly a protagonist in her own story. (This episode also interrogates her being the villain considering that Damon had believable and smart motivations to behave in the way he did in Season 1 against the Council and Elena has betrayed a few people even in the first two seasons. Basically: Katherine is not worse than them. The narrative will try to tell us so, but her motivations are real and human and, quite frankly, make far more sense than our "protagonists".)
I really like this episode for the sole fact it establishes Katherine as a true survivor. She is mentally and emotionally so strong and only begins to plant the seeds of celebrating Katherine’s intelligence and quick thinking. She was born in Bulgaria into a wealthy family and tossed out after she gave birth and thrown to England where she had to learn English, new customs, a new culture, and most likely knew nobody. Katherine is multidimensional, a fierce character, and someone who deserved a lot more respect by the narrative itself. 2x09 only proves this.
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This scene can definitely be read as Elena once again making everything about herself, but I think it ultimately shows her finally breaking. Elena is a strong person who seems to internalise a lot of her feelings, and this is one of the very rare moments we see her break down because she’s a 17-year-old girl who has so much weight and responsibility on her shoulders—and so many deaths, too—that she finally breaks.
Ultimately, 2x09 is Katherine’s story, but it showcases the strength and fortitude Elena needs to have in order to survive this. Elena does have it, but she shows it in a different way to Katherine because who she is and the life she lives does not provide her with the same opportunities as Katherine has had.
I definitely think this is an episode that presents two contradictory statements about Elena.
The first one is that she doesn’t want anyone to die for her, like Stefan. He feels so responsible for her safety that he will die to protect her, which is something Elena, as a survivor of death, does not want. Elena should have PTSD from the deaths of her parents. I believe she would also be insecure wrt her identity, especially considering she learned of her true birth parents and has had to come to terms with untangling "Uncle John" as her father. (This would’ve been an interesting storyline for Season 2, but I digress.) The show doesn’t delve into anyone’s real trauma (even though it does favour Elena’s) and it’s such a missed opportunity.
Both doppelgängers have, in a sense, lost their home—Katerina lost her literal home and her parents in a literal, cruel way, and Elena lost who she was when her adoptive parents died and when she discovered she was, in fact, not blood-related to them.
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The second one is that she eventually comes to terms with her need to die for this sacrifice because she does not see any other way to get out of this mess she was unfortunately born into. But for her to die, a vampire and a werewolf must die… So, I think the episode introduces Elena’s compassion but shows it only in the extent of the people she cares about. It’s great, imo.
We are led to believe Elena is better than Katherine because she values life… but she doesn’t. Katherine made the choice to sacrifice Trevor and Rose and she owns it. Elena? Elena dying in Klaus’ sacrifice requires two other individuals to be involved. Katherine literally laid it out for her in this episode.
You see it reiterated in 2x21: The Sun Also Rises when Jules was sacrificed. Elena did not care because she did not know Jules. But when Jenna is sacrificed? It’s not okay. And I understand it’s difficult to truly care about people you don’t know, but Elena did sign Jules’ death warrant when she chose to be sacrificed. Thus, Elena is not selfless nor is she completely compassionate—she is compassionate when it suits her and her morals are not as black and white and perfect as the narrative tries to push so passionately.
Elena comes to understand Katherine’s plan: hand the doppelgänger (Elena), the vampire (Caroline) and the werewolf (Tyler) over to Klaus. So, with this very clearly laid out, it makes Elena’s self-sacrifice in the later episodes to be incredibly selfish and cruel to the vampire (Caroline) and werewolf (Tyler). For Elena to die, two other people have to die.
Elena also has poor self-worth in comparison to Katherine. She does not view herself as deserving to live over other people (the people she cares about). She does not believe that people should die for her. Katherine certainly didn’t think her family deserved to die for her, either, but she had lost her parents in a far more brutal way than Elena and was alone. This episode, if anything, provides Katherine’s own personal tragic context and demonstrates that she is an individual who looks out for herself because she has no one else. (And why should she? We later see that Elijah had been her person and had betrayed her. Elena is the presentation of someone who is not betrayed by those she cares about while Katherine is the presentation of someone who is betrayed by those she cares about.)
2x09 is a great episode because it dives into Katherine and shows that she is a survivor through-and-through and really deserves her closure, the way the Petrova line continued and eventually resulted in Elena Gilbert, Klaus Mikaelson, and Katherine’s humanity.
Literally, this episode demonstrates how multidimensional Katherine is and only proves that she is the best character to come out of this entire series. NOBODY does it like her.
1. 1x22 FOUNDER’S DAY
This section is literally a mess because I THINK THIS IS A FANTASTIC EPISODE. There’s so much to talk about that I simply do not even know where to begin.
2x01: The Return is honestly one of the best episodes because of KATHERINE PIERCE but this episode is honestly amongst the best season finales for me (it sits with Supernatural’s Season 1 finale and Charmed’s Season 1-3 finales), which is why it’s #1. It gets me excited. It’s seriously SO GOOD. It has horror elements, suspense, MYSTERY, and intelligent thinking and strategy.
I really enjoy rewatching this one and looking at it as a fan who knows the existence of doppelgängers, Katherine Pierce, werwolves, etc. And here’s why:
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LITERALLY THE BEST INTRODUCTION EVER.
Look, there’s no point in putting this one last. Katherine’s entire return to Mystic Falls is completely epic. She’s on screen in the present day for pretty much five minutes and she is honestly flawless.
As someone who has watched this show many times over and has tried to distinguish the differences between Elena and Katherine, it’s incredible to see how this one still fools me. Of course, I know it’s Katherine, but she is so convincing as Elena with her quiet, delicate air that does give people space to exist. She holds herself a touch more confidently, but she ultimately embodies who Elena is.
Elena can, and never has, been able to properly pretend to be Katherine because, despite being a reader of people, she cannot read Katherine nor exhibit what makes her her. And this episode really marks why Katherine is ferociously smart and intimidating: she took the time to watch Elena and understand how she carries herself, how she talks, and even how she looks at people.
Katherine will always have the one-up on Elena because she’s patient enough to learn the intricacies of the people around her. She has to.
I may no longer be a Delena fan, but I remember being on the floor at the Damon and Elena kiss. Ths is the ONLY time I will enjoy them together: he is kind and gentle and she is open and giving… except it’s Katherine. I personally think it’s amazing how Damon was so in love (or infatuated or in love with the idea of her) of this woman and yet… he cannot tell when he’s kissing Katherine (but Stefan will).
(I personally do not believe Elena would ever kiss Damon, no matter what the Season 2 finale wants me to believe.)
THE INVENTION!
Seriously, I miss Season 1 so badly because of how everything came together at the ultimate price. I really enjoyed the inventions that played a significant role in this season. I honestly miss them because I did like the fact that the Muggles really had the ability to protect themselves against these OP supernaturals.
Seeing Anna die so coldly really sucks, but it also seems to cement this theme in TVD that sometimes shit happens and then you die. A lot of the women in this show simply stay dead, which is disappointing. I think Anna was one of the first big losses. I’d say Lexi would be if she had more than an episode for us to fall in love with her. But Anna is ultimately Elena without her parents, but she meets a horrible fate because the person protecting her (Jeremy) is unable to actually protect her.
I also think Jeremy’s struggle with his grief and depression finally implodes. I really dislike that Jeremy’s suicide attempt is merely a five minute scene in 2x01 because… it’s a great juxtaposition to Elena’s need to sacrifice herself in these extreme supernatural situations while Jeremy is the complete opposite with mundane situations. (This show also missed the mark in properly exploring death and grief. They’ve touched on it but it’s so disappointing.)
THE ENDING WITH CAROLINE AND TYLER AND MATT IN THE CAR IS PERFECT. What is Tyler? Why was he affected? I hate that the werewolf lore was dropped after Season 2. The fact that Caroline almost died but didn’t, and Tyler was affected… and Tyler’s dad was straight up murdered… It really set up Season 2’s werewolf arc, although I do wish Season 2 had done a better job of it. (Katherine being the only vampire who knew of werewolves was a great one-up and something that I think the protagonists, especially Stefan, should have taken advantage of.)
No matter how I feel about Matt and Tyler (both are trash, Matt more so), Caroline bringing them together displays just how good of a person she is. Matt and Tyler have both degraded her (yes, Matt has stood up for her… but it’s not enough when his love declaration involves "I want to strangle you") and they are both quite horrible to her, but Caroline is a character who gets the raw end of the stick in terms of her presentation and her arc. She is a good person who deserves to be applauded for being a good person.
Speaking of a good person, BONNIE BENNETT is completely underrated. The fact that she didn’t deactivate the Invention so the town could be safe from vampires is simply an underestimated decision that Bonnie has made in the entire series. She is always thinking of others. She knows that if she doesn’t deactivate this Invention, she will lose Elena, but that’s a risk she’s willing to take.
I think Bonnie’s relationship with vampires (particularly the Salvatores) should’ve remained antagonistic for a lot longer. She lost her Grams because of them. We know nothing of Bonnie’s personal family and having her actually present in Mystic Falls for most of Season 1 would’ve been far beneficial in developing her as a character separate from Elena and the supernatural than her absence ever achieved.
Damon begins an arc of redemption in this episode where he stands up for Elena against Jeremy by… exhibiting the abusive behaviour of his father (it would be fascinating to explore how Damon does not literally break the cycle of abuse that destroyed him as a young man but the show NEVER goes into it) and he apologises to Jeremy for his part in Vicki’s death. But this arc remains solely in this episode. Damon does not show remorse for any of his actions thereafter. But it was great while it lasted!
Personally, I think this is the last episode where the Council is ever truly a strong narrative point. I personally really like the existence of the Council, of how these humans are looking out for the people of their town and have NO IDEA who they are really dealing with. (Damon integrating into this Council was a fantastic plot line.)
VENGEFUL TOMB VAMPIRES? A REPEAT OF 1864? The tomb vampires deserved a better arc considering they had suffered for 150 years and were incredibly old and smart. How many other vampires had been wronged in Mystic Falls? Were there any other inventions? The tomb vampires were a great way to flesh out the vampire lore and… they just dropped it after this, which is disappointing.
This is the only episode where I did enjoy the tension between Stefan/Elena, Damon/Elena. I think Damon really stepped up as a hero and truly was deserving of his rescue by the end of the episode. He turned out to be selfless, less aggressive and violent, and seemed to have been where he needed to be for his redemption arc. (But like I said up top: this redemption arc does not continue past this episode.)
Stefan sacrificing himself to go and save Damon from the burning basement is true to his character and is a great juxtaposition from how we began this series with him ready to abandon his brother in the basement to punish him. To Stefan, his brother is worth saving. Damon has proven himself (somehow, tbh—I don’t believe Season 1 Damon has proven himself to be worthy of Stefan’s trust yet) and Stefan acknowledges that by putting his brother before himself and before Elena.
I think it’s that display of love that Bonnie responds to and is the reason why she magically sucks the oxygen out of the fire so Stefan can save Damon. Once again, a Bennett comes to the rescue, but this time, Bonnie learns from Grams’ mistake.
(One thing: It’s cruel in hindsight to have Elena comfort Stefan and inform him she loves him, not Damon. I honestly do not understand WHY we would need Elena to do this as Elena has not once shown any romantic feelings for Damon—and he is undeserving of being the recipient of said feelings imo—and yet we continue to be TOLD she must show she likes Damon as more than a friend and more than simply respecting him for being Stefan’s brother. The narrative really fails in building up the Damon/Elena potential romance because of who Damon is.
It’s especially fucked up for her say this and then reveal she was emotionally cheating on Stefan with Damon as of 3x01: The Birthday… The later seasons are really good at ruining the very enjoyable and genuine character moments of the earlier, stronger seasons.
Damon does not deserve Elena’s romantic love. It should have remained unreciprocated.)
This episode is great. It has drama, love, scandal, KATHERINE PIERCE, everything being tied up together, lore, werewolves, questions, vengeance, KATHERINE PIERCE. It really makes the season worth watching because it wraps it all up and has HIGH STAKES.
LOOK AT THE ENDING OF THE EPISODE. JOHN GILBERT IS LITERALLY LYING BLEEDING OUT ON THE KITCHEN FLOOR AND ELENA WALKS IN. It’s so very much like a horror movie and that’s when TVD was at its best—when Kevin Williamson was on board and it had such Scream vibes to it.
LET’S WRAP IT UP
HONOURABLE MENTIONS:
This show should have remained suspenseful with horror elements to it with a love story that existed in a rich supernatural world because that was when TVD was at its best. The episodes that resonated best with me are from the seasons that had rich lore and had the love story as a secondary to the fleshing out of the world. The moment the love story became prominent and the lore took a backseat is when the show itself became very poor and unremarkable to me.
Still images are by me. I’ve done my best to credit and link where I’ve gotten the gifs I’ve used in here.
I based this off of:
- How I feel when I rewatch the episode.
- If I ever start my watch on the episode.
- The narrative (character arc and plot arc) featured in the episode.
- The impact of the episode wrt strengthening the overall narrative.
- How little I hate it—every episode has its flaws imo but these flaws do not distract from the episode itself.
This is also hella long, sorry not sorry. Be glad I spared your plurk lists!
5. 1x20 BLOOD BROTHERS
Technically, I really, really enjoy 1x17: Let the Right One In, 1x18: Under Control and 1x19: Miss Mystic Falls (although… not so much) because it’s the three episodes that, imo, launched the Stefan Salvatore Has A Blood Problem and He Personally Struggles With This arc that the show does and doesn’t do justice to.
But 1x20! This episode is the accumulation of Stefan being tortured and weakened by the tomb vampires and being fed Elena’s blood (1x17); his inability to really function on it and acts similarly to someone who is high off of a drug they’ve taken (1x18, 1x19); and he highly struggles with the fact that he’s incredibly self-aware enough to understand that who he is when he drinks from the vein is not a person he wants to be (1x19). 1x20 is the accumulation of that last point: Stefan gives up.
Stefan literally sits in the Salvatore Boarding House basement/cellar and refuses to drink, refuses to talk, and refuses to simply let himself accept that he made a mistake and he can fix it. He literally goes to the quarry at night without his Daylight Ring, ready to kill himself when the sun comes up.
That’s pretty fucking heavy.
This episode is really great upon rewatching because it goes into Stefan’s psyche, guilt, and even amplified compassion and how he holds himself so strictly to being the perfect person. (I also believe he suffers from depression, too.) Stefan is a perfectionist, and him being a vampire and not being able to control his bloodlust is a perfectionist’s nightmare.
When you look at it, in 1x06: Lost Girls and 1x13: Children of the Damned, you get a brief look into the Salvatore household in 1846. Stefan is clearly the peacemaker; he is the person who tries to get his father to be calm around Damon and see that his son has value, and Stefan is Damon’s only anchor and person in his house. Stefan acts a lot like Damon’s protector even though Stefan is the younger brother.
Stefan even goes back to their father to give him closure and ends up killing him. Stefan’s need to look out for everyone is what ultimately gets him in trouble, and I think this episode cemented it: he does not look after himself. Despite going back to school and college countless of times, Stefan never learned one important thing: self-care.
Stefan is also put on a pedestal. Look at how everyone views him as the pure one, the good one—Stefan cannot make mistakes, because if he makes mistakes, he disappoints and destroys that perfect view people have of him. Stefan Salvatore cannot be flawed.
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I think 1x20 is the perfect example of how Stefan handles not being able to control a situation—poorly. He sees it as a negative reflection on himself. He has to be able to drink animal blood. He has to be safe for Elena to be around. He has to be sober and focused to be able to rein in Damon.
Stefan is pretty perfect in the lead up to 1x17: he’s well-adjusted, he’s a good guy, and he seemingly has his shit under control.
What I also really, really enjoyed about this episode was the juxtaposition between Damon and Elena’s reactions.
- Elena: It's so hard to see him locked up like this.
Damon: You're the one who locked him up.
Elena: You helped.
Damon: I couldn't have him running around chewing on people. While the town was looking for vampires, now, could I?
Elena: It had nothing to do with you actually caring about him?
Damon: Your thing, not mine.
Stefan: I'm not hungry.
Damon: Of course you are. We're eternally hungry. Take it. The human blood should be gone by now. You want to explain why you're still in here. Feeling sorry for yourself? Come on. Drink up. Fine. Starve. What do I care?
Damon: He's just being dramatic. He's not gonna starve himself.
Elena: Why would he say that?
Damon: He feels bad about hurting that girl. It's a very typical Stefan martyr stuff. It will pass.
Elena: Will it? Because he seemed to be in a lot of pain.
Damon: Yeah. Well, that will pass, too, once he eats.
Elena: I didn't mean physical pain.
Damon: I know what you meant.
For Damon, this isn’t new. He’s dealt with this before. Stefan eventually gets over his self-pity and moves on to the next day. I also don’t believe Damon is capable of being emotionally there for Stefan because Stefan has spent his entire mortal and immortal life being his protector and hasn’t required Damon to step into that role. (I know in the later seasons it’s revealed that Damon does protect Stefan from Giuseppe’s abuse, but Damon does not re-step back into this role at all, and I think it has to do with Damon’s belief he cannot save anyone.)
For Elena, this is super new. This is Stefan at his worst. This is a Stefan who is so downtrodden and defeated. She’s used to the self-possessed man who is poised, knowledgeable, and emotionally stable. But unlike Damon, Elena doesn’t turn her back on Stefan and let him wait it out.
If you think about it, this is a fantastic example of Elena’s ability to be there for people (and one of the rare instances she is, imo). Her brother has a drug problem at this point in time. She is constantly trying to be there for him, to be his support and to replace the drugs in that way. She knows how to deal with the emotional highs and lowers a drug user experiences. This is Elena at her best.
Damon, truthfully, does not know how to cope with these emotional highs and lows because he has never had to look after Stefan in such a state. 150 years and he has not picked up a single skill—he simply waits him out. Because, for Damon, Stefan is the brother who is so self-possessed and capable that he believes Stefan can get himself out of it.
She constantly puts herself in danger—and I’d say that this is the ONLY time we ever see Stefan appear violent towards a human Elena during their entire romantic relationship, which he is instantly remorseful over—and Elena consistently puts Stefan first.
This episode is not only a great Stefan episode, but it’s a great Stelena one, too. It shows why they work and why they are such a mature relationship—Elena is there for Stefan’s addiction and she does not once turn her back on him despite literally being 16/17 years old.
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I enjoyed this episode for the flashbacks—you did not see Stefan in a good light at all, and you saw his power over his brother. Usually we see Damon as the powerful one between them, but Stefan was the bad influence and Stefan was the brother who needed to be saved pre-transition (and during transition).
(The episode is also strongly coded as Steferine and Stelena and you can easily gather that Stefan does feel guilt over what he knows happened to Katherine and that he carries that with him. Why else would we go back to specifically seeing the episode open to Katherine being pulled back into the cart and taken away from him? If that was not an important moment, we only would’ve seen her get taken away by the Council members and have Stefan focused only on Damon dying beside him.
Say what you want, but Season 1 is heavily coded in pro-Steferine and it’s evident in the text, oftentimes with Stelena content. You cannot say he hates Katherine when Elena and Katherine have far more similarities between them than their looks. Note how we never see Valerie until she’s retconned in.
Proof:)
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There’s also some great tidbits about Katherine’s affection for both brothers: the fact that she had Daylight Rings made for them both, the fact that she fed them, and the fact that she ensured Emily was with them when she couldn’t be. Antis can say what they want about Katherine, but she did love those boys with what she was capable of loving them with while also putting herself first. I did like seeing Stefan’s viewpoint and the way he reacts to her "death", too. Damon falls apart; Stefan remains stoic and untouchable (and overwhelmed).
I also think the episode is great for what I view as the B Plots: Anna and Jeremy, Anna getting closer to Jeremy, the Invention (!!!), John Gilbert and his role in Mystic Falls’ supernatural culture…
I think this is a really great end to a three-episode arc of Stefan’s blood addiction. (It’s far better than the later seasons trying to tackle it, imo. No humanity Stefan can be fun but I think Stefan struggling with his blood addiction and how that means he’s personally failed is far more intriguing as a narrative and showcases that he’s capable of being knocked down and getting up again. He values feeling; he values the human experience. No humanity Stefan is intriguing in itself, but people overlook blood addict Stefan who doesn’t turn off his humanity.)
4. 1x06 LOST GIRLS
THIS IS SUCH A GREAT FLASHBACK EPISODE. Stefan/Katherine/Damon is an intriguing OT3 but I don’t think it’s necessarily an even OT3 and that is a meta for another day.
We learn about 1864, which is brightly coloured with a filter that makes all the scenes and the narrative itself pop. It’s infinitely more brighter than the present day scenes and I like to think it’s because of how Stefan looks back on it: fondly, despite the hurt he feels.
I think this is a great Katherine-centric episode wrapped in a Stefan-centric episode despite the fact she only appears in flashbacks. You only see tidbits of her time in 1864 with the Salvatore boys, but it was enough of an intriguing snapshot to what you would hope is far more flashbacks later down the line. (I am still disappointed to this day.) Every scene she’s shown in is positive. Stefan has this habit in 1A to reflect back on Katherine in a positive light—his use of language "She was beautiful", "she had a laugh that made you laugh"…
I view this episode as being a heavily-coded Steferine episode. Yeah, there’s Datherine, but I think this episode and 1x13: Children of the Damned truly tie together the fact that Damon is a man who wants an escape from Giuseppe and Katherine as a vampire had that escape for him. Stefan’s display of affection is genuine. I believe Damon’s is, too, but tied with how trapped he feels under his father’s thumb, she is an escape.
This episode may also be from Stefan’s perspective, but it also does not support his narrative that Katherine compelled him to love her. I think 1864’s storyline suffers from the fact that show never prioritised providing more flashbacks to that time and contradicting and even challenging the perspectives of Stefan, Damon and Katherine… but you can only go on what you see and what you’re told.
Stefan genuinely loved (loves, even) Katherine. He loves her willingly. She only compels him to accept the truth of her vampirism so that they can continue on as they were. She compels him to drink her blood so that if anything happened to him, he’d be safe. (Yes, it’s a questionable act to compel someone to drink from you, no matter the reason.) Katherine was overwhelmed by his pureness in his capacity to love a monster like her. You see it in the way Katherine facially reacts to both brothers: Stefan overwhelms her and Damon is safe.
Damon only went after Katherine because of Stefan. I think Season 1 onwards really promotes the narrative that Damon wants what Stefan wants: the girl, the reputation, the control, the ability to be so good. This episode of 1864 only cements that. Damon wants to be Stefan.
This is a great episode that shows Elena’s capacity to listen. And I personally think this episode helps reiterate the Elena we’ve seen so far: she is levelheaded and capable of seeing all sides of a story once it’s presented to her. She is strong and she is capable of rational thought—and she can make the really hard decisions. You saw this side of Elena in 1x04: Family Ties. She was able to act rationally and quickly in defence of Caroline. (I personally think this is one of the last times we see this side of Elena because an Elena who calls out Damon’s abuse is an Elena who cannot textually fall in love with Damon as a character.)
This is also a great episode that demonstrates that Stefan isn’t as pure and good as the narrative likes to frame him to be. He came back to this town for Elena because she looked like Katherine, which is a character piece that gets dropped after 1x11. Stefan did not come to Mystic Falls for Elena. He came to Mystic Falls for Katherine. I believe every time he looks at Elena, he does see Katherine—not necessarily that he mistakes them, because he is one of the only few people who can tell them apart instantly because he studies people but because Katherine was the instigator of so much for him. The fact Elena is her descendent and doppelgänger should add a fucked up layer to their relationship that is never addressed.
This episode ALSO showcases that Stefan has never, ever looked at Elena in the same way he has looked at Katherine and the anti-Steferine text the writers try to input into the narrative, especially in 5x10: Fifty Shades of Grayson, is instantly undermined by the fact that this episode presents Stefan looking at Katherine like she has personally hung the moon and stars for him. (I believe he still looks at her this way. You cannot convince me that Stefan Salvatore who is capable of so much love had simply been able to rid himself of Katherine Pierce when the text proves he continuously repeats history and keeps her photograph and remembers her birthday. If Stefan doesn’t care, he does not care and he cares about her.)
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And it’s okay that he doesn’t look at Elena this way.
ALSO THE FACT THAT IT ONLY REITERATES STEFAN’S CAPACITY TO RESPECT AND ALLOW SPACE FOR ELENA’S AGENCY.
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Stefan will forever and always be better than Damon for the sole fact that he learned from his mistake with Damon in 1864 and lets Elena make her own decisions, even if that decision is to leave him. Stefan doesn’t want to be alone. We see this play out when he convinces Damon to feed in 1x13: Children of the Damned. Stefan is incapable of being in his own company and that is okay, but he is willing to be abandoned by Elena if she views it as integral to her safety.
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This episode was also great for Damon because you see his naivety and his capacity to love his brother freely, but ultimately, who Damon becomes after 1864 does make the boy we see in 1864 seem like a shadow of himself. Damon is capable of love, and yet, we do not see this amplified. It’s a pity because 1864 Damon is a strong Damon. Season 1 Damon’s storyline is truly tragic.
3. 2x07 MASQUERADE
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Besides the fact it brought me one of my favourite Katherine looks AND people dolled up? I think Masquerade was one of the best episodes to display strategy, cunning, and team work. I personally love it because Katherine is playing with all of them and, yes, she does get outwitted by Lucy whom she doesn’t suspect would betray her for Bonnie, but she does prove to be a formidable force that I think a lot of the characters are oftentimes scared of but the narrative subsequently lets down.
(Also, can we please appreciate the fact that Katherine was not outwitted by Stefan, Damon, Elena or Jeremy, but ultimately BONNIE AND LUCY BENNETT? Everyone else continues to prove to NOT be on Katherine’s level.)
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It’s also the first time we see Katherine with both Salvatores in the same room… and I think what the episode (and tbh entire SHOW) is ultimately let down by is Romantic Hero Damon’s slut-shaming. His inability to simply weather being rejected by Katherine, someone whom he had chased and apparently loved, is really gross and disgusting and is something I should rant about some other time.
But I think it’s pretty interesting how Katherine has both Salvatores in a room with her and we see her only zero in on Stefan. He’s the one she wants to talk to. He’s the one who has her attention. Damon is merely a blip.
She literally says it herself. Damon is "the brother who loved me too much" and Stefan is "the brother who didn’t love me enough" but this perception is so wrong because Stefan is the one who carries Katherine everywhere he goes. Later down the line, Damon can’t even remember Katherine’s birthday. Remember when he said she was essentially the love of his life? He spent almost 150 years "in love" with her? Damon does not know how to love anyone because he is not capable of it. If he loved Katherine as much as he postured in Season 1, he would have fought for her in Season 2. (He is guilty of moving onto the next doppelgänger and projecting onto her, BUT ANOTHER TIME.)
Out of both Damon and Stefan, Stefan is the one who watches and listens to Katherine and wants to know more. He literally figures out she’s running from someone and asks quietly who it is she’s running from. Damon would’ve approached the conversation with aggression, but Stefan doesn’t. I think if Katherine had been given the time to be comfortable with him, maybe she would’ve implied someone bigger and badder was out there.
But this episode shows Stefan’s capacity to be compassionate and caring, even though you can easily read it as him not caring at all. If he didn’t care, he would’ve rolled his eyes and approached the conversation with far less tact. (Remember, this is the man who carried around her picture for almost 150 years, remembers her birthday almost 6 years later, and literally gives her peace and closure on her deathbed.)
You literally see how important Stefan is in the story of snaring Katherine because HE is the one she dances with (and the scene is so romantically coded since "Head Over Heels" plays in the background). Katherine is still capable of getting the on-up on Stefan because Stefan has NEVER dealt with Katherine at her most tenacious.
She literally admits she stalked Stefan and this is a storyline that I think deserved prominence, especially in Season 3 with Klaus around, because Katherine is all for one and none for all… yet she kept to the shadows to check in on Stefan. Why? How? How did she feel when she saw Klaus and Stefan become friends? How did she feel when Stefan turned off his humanity? It’s a great tidbit on how Katherine wants Stefan but ultimately her need to survive overpowers her need to be that girl who believes in true love that we see later in 2b. (She loved in 1490 ad 1492 and look at where it got her—her baby was taken from her, she lost her family when she was banished, Elijah betrayed her, Klaus used her, and her family was brutally slaughtered.)
The writing oftentimes angles it like the boys saw this inner survivor in Katherine in 1864… but all they saw was a playful girl who had fun with her toys and fell in love. I know once you become a vampire all that compulsion wears off, but the way the boys frame Katherine is impossibly unrealistic based on their personal knowledge of her. And considering she was believed dead by everyone, the fact that they believe her to be this evil mastermind is untrue to what we’ve textually seen.
There’s not a lot of information out there in the universe about her, because if there was, Klaus and Elijah would have heard about it and have continued chasing her, but they believed her dead in 1864. That’s the point of her faking her death. The show sets up these intelligent characters and yet fails in supporting that by being lazy with their worldbuilding. It’s simple: Katherine "died" in 1864 when she kept to the shadows and Elijah was visibly surprised to hear that Katherine was, in fact, not dead.
There’s a lot of infomodding by the writers on both Damon and Stefan. Even Season 1 didn’t truly uncover everything Katherine has done to survive Klaus—all it did was show she was not in the tomb and had planned it. Still, not an evil bitch—that plot did not affect two human boys until they involved themselves.
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Anywho.
On another note: Lucy and Katherine’s relationship is the ONE TIME this show ever delves into the fact that Katherine DOES help people. Yes, she probably helped Lucy to gain from her and use her, but she still did it. I truly believe that Katherine does create situations where people are endangered (look at how she orchestrated Mason’s transition into a werewolf) but I also believe she seizes spontaneous opportunities to use to her advantage. Girl is SMART. (And… you know… maybe she does want to help people sometimes.)
You have Jeremy not being afraid of Katherine (stupid mistake). You have Lucy (!!!) who should have stuck around to support Bonnie and flesh out the Bennett family storyline because these are powerful Black women who happen to be witches and we deserve to see Bonnie with her family. Lucy is also pretty, so, I’m shallow. Caroline also gets her revenge on Katherine, which is a great character piece and wraps up that storyline nicely imo.
Elena is not a dominant feature in this episode, which is why it is also so great. You see everyone play with Katherine while Elena remains at home.
Katherine planning for Elena to come to the masquerade is merely another great character piece. She has studied Elena so well that she understands what type of person she is—someone who is definitely a survivor but someone who does not survive as tenaciously as she does (and Elena fans can come at me, but I got another meta for that in my brain).
They also demonstrate the literal link between Katherine and Elena with the spell that binds them together. Katherine understands she has lost the Salvatores’ love for her, so she uses their love for her doppelgänger and descendent against them to secure her survival. Name me someone who is just as smart and just as detailed as Katerina Petrova. I’ll wait.
Even though this episode ends with Katherine’s capture and failure, I still believe it is a truly epic display of how lethal she is mentally. It also provides the textual evidence of how she had be able to outwit one of the strongest people in the canon’s entire history—Klaus Mikaelson. (Katherine is smarter than Klaus, simple as that, another meta for another day.) She is meticulous, she studies the people around her, and she plans for everything. No, she did not plan for Lucy to betray her because she did not ever see Lucy in a circumstance where she displayed her loyalty to her family. Katherine, otherwise, would’ve planned for it. (And while we do not have textual evidence of Lucy never demonstrating her loyalty to family, the way she responds to Bonnie is evidence enough that she is isolated from her own line and that Katherine did not ever see her in this situation, so.)
Katherine had to fail so 2b could include her and FURTHER demonstrate her intellectual prowess.
Locking Katherine in the tomb was definitely where her entire story was heading, but having Damon do it feels… really gross to me. I guess because of how I view him as a slut-shamer, I really didn’t like that he continues to shame the woman he allegedly loved sooooo much. I think it would’ve been more poignant if Bonnie had done it, since Emily was the one who did it in 1864 and it would’ve been a nice throwback to how Katherine had betrayed Emily.
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I also really appreciate how the episode ended with Stelena still broken up. Elena now understands being with Stefan is dangerous and not because of his vampirism. It is dangerous to the people she cares about—and her giving up Stefan in this moment is truly one of her only selfless acts, because 2b is going to prove that while Elena is self-sacrificing, she is ignorant and even uncaring to the fact that the sacrifice she will plan to be a part of involves other people.
2. 2x07 KATERINA
YOU GOTTA LOVE A KATERINA PETROVA CENTRIC EPISODE.
This episode literally demonstrates that Katherine is not a villain nor is she a one-dimensional character, either. She was born in a different time, has lead a life far different to any of our heroes, and she has experienced tragedy that, while, yes, Elena would understand, no one ultimately does.
Katherine’s entire identity is interrogated in this episode and only proves that Katherine’s identity (the "Katherine" one, if you will) is one that she had to manufacture to keep herself safe. She lost who she was when she lost her mother in 1492. Katherine is secure in who she is because the woman she has become in the present day is nothing like the girl she was in 1492. Loss shapes people. You cannot say that loss has shaped Elena and not say the same for Katerina Petrova.
This episode is a great doppelgänger episode because it ultimately shows how socially intelligent Katherine is. Do I think Elena could survive the life she had lead? No. And that’s a meta for another day. It’s okay that Elena could not live Katherine’s life because while they are shadows of one another, they are not each other. (A lot of fans don’t seem to get this imo.)
This episode really humanises Katherine and I think even shows us why people like Elijah and Stefan would fall for her. She is a person who is saturated in tragedy but she is a phoenix who rises from the ashes and is stronger. Katherine’s strength is ultimately what attracts people to her—her physical, mental and emotional strength. (And I believe that this demonstration in this episode of how she is so quick to think on her feet and to save herself while being completely overwhelmed and out of her element is mere proof of 1) why Katherine is the strongest character in this entire series and 2) why Klaus Mikaelson wants to possess her even after she has ultimately rendered herself useless to him. It’s because she is smarter than him and someone was egotistical and emotionally controlling as him cannot stand that.
Trevor is merely a step for Katerina. He does not save her; Katerina saves herself.)
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A lot of fans seem to think that Elena is just as strong of a survivor as Katherine. While that is definitely a meta for another day, I think this exchange proves that Elena is not. Elena may be Katherine’s shadow, but she is not Katherine. Katherine does not see the value of being sacrificed so other people are safe (she had no one) and she would prefer to never have a home if it meant she had her life. Elena, on the other hand, views it differently. This exchange is a great example of how these two women are so different due to their personalities, circumstances, relationships and contexts.
Katherine will make the hard decisions. Elena, ultimately, cannot.
No other episode LETS this exist in the same space. It’s okay to be different—isn’t that the whole challenge of a doppelgänger? The show has hammered it in that Katherine is Elena’s evil shadow self who is a harbinger of Elena’s own destruction when, ultimately, it’s Elena’s existence that brings destruction to Katherine.
Katherine values herself, and there is nothing wrong with that. Elena does not value herself. 2b demonstrates this. If you really think about it, this exchange is a great demonstration of how Katherine and Elena view death: Katherine does not embrace it while Elena almost welcomes it.
Btw, there is literally nothing wrong with how either woman approaches the situation before them. I am only pointing out that this episode only demonstrates that Katerina Petrova is a phoenix and she burns herself so she can rise from her own ashes. Elena does not—and never has, imo—destroyed herself in such a way to save herself. (Other people—Bonnie in particular and Stefan and Caroline—do this for her.)
This episode is great imo because it showcases that Katherine is a person beneath it all with her own genuine and believable motivations. And I think this episode truly is what launches her into being an anti-hero and even a protagonist. She is most certainly a protagonist in her own story. (This episode also interrogates her being the villain considering that Damon had believable and smart motivations to behave in the way he did in Season 1 against the Council and Elena has betrayed a few people even in the first two seasons. Basically: Katherine is not worse than them. The narrative will try to tell us so, but her motivations are real and human and, quite frankly, make far more sense than our "protagonists".)
I really like this episode for the sole fact it establishes Katherine as a true survivor. She is mentally and emotionally so strong and only begins to plant the seeds of celebrating Katherine’s intelligence and quick thinking. She was born in Bulgaria into a wealthy family and tossed out after she gave birth and thrown to England where she had to learn English, new customs, a new culture, and most likely knew nobody. Katherine is multidimensional, a fierce character, and someone who deserved a lot more respect by the narrative itself. 2x09 only proves this.
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This scene can definitely be read as Elena once again making everything about herself, but I think it ultimately shows her finally breaking. Elena is a strong person who seems to internalise a lot of her feelings, and this is one of the very rare moments we see her break down because she’s a 17-year-old girl who has so much weight and responsibility on her shoulders—and so many deaths, too—that she finally breaks.
Ultimately, 2x09 is Katherine’s story, but it showcases the strength and fortitude Elena needs to have in order to survive this. Elena does have it, but she shows it in a different way to Katherine because who she is and the life she lives does not provide her with the same opportunities as Katherine has had.
I definitely think this is an episode that presents two contradictory statements about Elena.
The first one is that she doesn’t want anyone to die for her, like Stefan. He feels so responsible for her safety that he will die to protect her, which is something Elena, as a survivor of death, does not want. Elena should have PTSD from the deaths of her parents. I believe she would also be insecure wrt her identity, especially considering she learned of her true birth parents and has had to come to terms with untangling "Uncle John" as her father. (This would’ve been an interesting storyline for Season 2, but I digress.) The show doesn’t delve into anyone’s real trauma (even though it does favour Elena’s) and it’s such a missed opportunity.
Both doppelgängers have, in a sense, lost their home—Katerina lost her literal home and her parents in a literal, cruel way, and Elena lost who she was when her adoptive parents died and when she discovered she was, in fact, not blood-related to them.
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The second one is that she eventually comes to terms with her need to die for this sacrifice because she does not see any other way to get out of this mess she was unfortunately born into. But for her to die, a vampire and a werewolf must die… So, I think the episode introduces Elena’s compassion but shows it only in the extent of the people she cares about. It’s great, imo.
We are led to believe Elena is better than Katherine because she values life… but she doesn’t. Katherine made the choice to sacrifice Trevor and Rose and she owns it. Elena? Elena dying in Klaus’ sacrifice requires two other individuals to be involved. Katherine literally laid it out for her in this episode.
You see it reiterated in 2x21: The Sun Also Rises when Jules was sacrificed. Elena did not care because she did not know Jules. But when Jenna is sacrificed? It’s not okay. And I understand it’s difficult to truly care about people you don’t know, but Elena did sign Jules’ death warrant when she chose to be sacrificed. Thus, Elena is not selfless nor is she completely compassionate—she is compassionate when it suits her and her morals are not as black and white and perfect as the narrative tries to push so passionately.
Elena comes to understand Katherine’s plan: hand the doppelgänger (Elena), the vampire (Caroline) and the werewolf (Tyler) over to Klaus. So, with this very clearly laid out, it makes Elena’s self-sacrifice in the later episodes to be incredibly selfish and cruel to the vampire (Caroline) and werewolf (Tyler). For Elena to die, two other people have to die.
Elena also has poor self-worth in comparison to Katherine. She does not view herself as deserving to live over other people (the people she cares about). She does not believe that people should die for her. Katherine certainly didn’t think her family deserved to die for her, either, but she had lost her parents in a far more brutal way than Elena and was alone. This episode, if anything, provides Katherine’s own personal tragic context and demonstrates that she is an individual who looks out for herself because she has no one else. (And why should she? We later see that Elijah had been her person and had betrayed her. Elena is the presentation of someone who is not betrayed by those she cares about while Katherine is the presentation of someone who is betrayed by those she cares about.)
2x09 is a great episode because it dives into Katherine and shows that she is a survivor through-and-through and really deserves her closure, the way the Petrova line continued and eventually resulted in Elena Gilbert, Klaus Mikaelson, and Katherine’s humanity.
Literally, this episode demonstrates how multidimensional Katherine is and only proves that she is the best character to come out of this entire series. NOBODY does it like her.
1. 1x22 FOUNDER’S DAY
This section is literally a mess because I THINK THIS IS A FANTASTIC EPISODE. There’s so much to talk about that I simply do not even know where to begin.
2x01: The Return is honestly one of the best episodes because of KATHERINE PIERCE but this episode is honestly amongst the best season finales for me (it sits with Supernatural’s Season 1 finale and Charmed’s Season 1-3 finales), which is why it’s #1. It gets me excited. It’s seriously SO GOOD. It has horror elements, suspense, MYSTERY, and intelligent thinking and strategy.
I really enjoy rewatching this one and looking at it as a fan who knows the existence of doppelgängers, Katherine Pierce, werwolves, etc. And here’s why:
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LITERALLY THE BEST INTRODUCTION EVER.
Look, there’s no point in putting this one last. Katherine’s entire return to Mystic Falls is completely epic. She’s on screen in the present day for pretty much five minutes and she is honestly flawless.
As someone who has watched this show many times over and has tried to distinguish the differences between Elena and Katherine, it’s incredible to see how this one still fools me. Of course, I know it’s Katherine, but she is so convincing as Elena with her quiet, delicate air that does give people space to exist. She holds herself a touch more confidently, but she ultimately embodies who Elena is.
Elena can, and never has, been able to properly pretend to be Katherine because, despite being a reader of people, she cannot read Katherine nor exhibit what makes her her. And this episode really marks why Katherine is ferociously smart and intimidating: she took the time to watch Elena and understand how she carries herself, how she talks, and even how she looks at people.
Katherine will always have the one-up on Elena because she’s patient enough to learn the intricacies of the people around her. She has to.
I may no longer be a Delena fan, but I remember being on the floor at the Damon and Elena kiss. Ths is the ONLY time I will enjoy them together: he is kind and gentle and she is open and giving… except it’s Katherine. I personally think it’s amazing how Damon was so in love (or infatuated or in love with the idea of her) of this woman and yet… he cannot tell when he’s kissing Katherine (but Stefan will).
(I personally do not believe Elena would ever kiss Damon, no matter what the Season 2 finale wants me to believe.)
THE INVENTION!
Seriously, I miss Season 1 so badly because of how everything came together at the ultimate price. I really enjoyed the inventions that played a significant role in this season. I honestly miss them because I did like the fact that the Muggles really had the ability to protect themselves against these OP supernaturals.
Seeing Anna die so coldly really sucks, but it also seems to cement this theme in TVD that sometimes shit happens and then you die. A lot of the women in this show simply stay dead, which is disappointing. I think Anna was one of the first big losses. I’d say Lexi would be if she had more than an episode for us to fall in love with her. But Anna is ultimately Elena without her parents, but she meets a horrible fate because the person protecting her (Jeremy) is unable to actually protect her.
I also think Jeremy’s struggle with his grief and depression finally implodes. I really dislike that Jeremy’s suicide attempt is merely a five minute scene in 2x01 because… it’s a great juxtaposition to Elena’s need to sacrifice herself in these extreme supernatural situations while Jeremy is the complete opposite with mundane situations. (This show also missed the mark in properly exploring death and grief. They’ve touched on it but it’s so disappointing.)
THE ENDING WITH CAROLINE AND TYLER AND MATT IN THE CAR IS PERFECT. What is Tyler? Why was he affected? I hate that the werewolf lore was dropped after Season 2. The fact that Caroline almost died but didn’t, and Tyler was affected… and Tyler’s dad was straight up murdered… It really set up Season 2’s werewolf arc, although I do wish Season 2 had done a better job of it. (Katherine being the only vampire who knew of werewolves was a great one-up and something that I think the protagonists, especially Stefan, should have taken advantage of.)
No matter how I feel about Matt and Tyler (both are trash, Matt more so), Caroline bringing them together displays just how good of a person she is. Matt and Tyler have both degraded her (yes, Matt has stood up for her… but it’s not enough when his love declaration involves "I want to strangle you") and they are both quite horrible to her, but Caroline is a character who gets the raw end of the stick in terms of her presentation and her arc. She is a good person who deserves to be applauded for being a good person.
Speaking of a good person, BONNIE BENNETT is completely underrated. The fact that she didn’t deactivate the Invention so the town could be safe from vampires is simply an underestimated decision that Bonnie has made in the entire series. She is always thinking of others. She knows that if she doesn’t deactivate this Invention, she will lose Elena, but that’s a risk she’s willing to take.
I think Bonnie’s relationship with vampires (particularly the Salvatores) should’ve remained antagonistic for a lot longer. She lost her Grams because of them. We know nothing of Bonnie’s personal family and having her actually present in Mystic Falls for most of Season 1 would’ve been far beneficial in developing her as a character separate from Elena and the supernatural than her absence ever achieved.
Damon begins an arc of redemption in this episode where he stands up for Elena against Jeremy by… exhibiting the abusive behaviour of his father (it would be fascinating to explore how Damon does not literally break the cycle of abuse that destroyed him as a young man but the show NEVER goes into it) and he apologises to Jeremy for his part in Vicki’s death. But this arc remains solely in this episode. Damon does not show remorse for any of his actions thereafter. But it was great while it lasted!
Personally, I think this is the last episode where the Council is ever truly a strong narrative point. I personally really like the existence of the Council, of how these humans are looking out for the people of their town and have NO IDEA who they are really dealing with. (Damon integrating into this Council was a fantastic plot line.)
VENGEFUL TOMB VAMPIRES? A REPEAT OF 1864? The tomb vampires deserved a better arc considering they had suffered for 150 years and were incredibly old and smart. How many other vampires had been wronged in Mystic Falls? Were there any other inventions? The tomb vampires were a great way to flesh out the vampire lore and… they just dropped it after this, which is disappointing.
This is the only episode where I did enjoy the tension between Stefan/Elena, Damon/Elena. I think Damon really stepped up as a hero and truly was deserving of his rescue by the end of the episode. He turned out to be selfless, less aggressive and violent, and seemed to have been where he needed to be for his redemption arc. (But like I said up top: this redemption arc does not continue past this episode.)
Stefan sacrificing himself to go and save Damon from the burning basement is true to his character and is a great juxtaposition from how we began this series with him ready to abandon his brother in the basement to punish him. To Stefan, his brother is worth saving. Damon has proven himself (somehow, tbh—I don’t believe Season 1 Damon has proven himself to be worthy of Stefan’s trust yet) and Stefan acknowledges that by putting his brother before himself and before Elena.
I think it’s that display of love that Bonnie responds to and is the reason why she magically sucks the oxygen out of the fire so Stefan can save Damon. Once again, a Bennett comes to the rescue, but this time, Bonnie learns from Grams’ mistake.
(One thing: It’s cruel in hindsight to have Elena comfort Stefan and inform him she loves him, not Damon. I honestly do not understand WHY we would need Elena to do this as Elena has not once shown any romantic feelings for Damon—and he is undeserving of being the recipient of said feelings imo—and yet we continue to be TOLD she must show she likes Damon as more than a friend and more than simply respecting him for being Stefan’s brother. The narrative really fails in building up the Damon/Elena potential romance because of who Damon is.
It’s especially fucked up for her say this and then reveal she was emotionally cheating on Stefan with Damon as of 3x01: The Birthday… The later seasons are really good at ruining the very enjoyable and genuine character moments of the earlier, stronger seasons.
Damon does not deserve Elena’s romantic love. It should have remained unreciprocated.)
This episode is great. It has drama, love, scandal, KATHERINE PIERCE, everything being tied up together, lore, werewolves, questions, vengeance, KATHERINE PIERCE. It really makes the season worth watching because it wraps it all up and has HIGH STAKES.
LOOK AT THE ENDING OF THE EPISODE. JOHN GILBERT IS LITERALLY LYING BLEEDING OUT ON THE KITCHEN FLOOR AND ELENA WALKS IN. It’s so very much like a horror movie and that’s when TVD was at its best—when Kevin Williamson was on board and it had such Scream vibes to it.
LET’S WRAP IT UP
HONOURABLE MENTIONS:
- 1x10: The Turning Point
- 1x12: Unpleasantville
- 1x13: Children of the Damned
- 2x01: The Return
- 2x04: Memory Lane
- 2x11: By the Light of the Moon
- 2x16: The House Guest
- 2x18: The Last Dance
- 2x21: The Sun Also Rises
- 4x18: American Gothic
- 5x05: Monster’s Ball
- 5x09: The Cell
- 5x11: 500 Years of Solitude
- 6x14: Stay
This show should have remained suspenseful with horror elements to it with a love story that existed in a rich supernatural world because that was when TVD was at its best. The episodes that resonated best with me are from the seasons that had rich lore and had the love story as a secondary to the fleshing out of the world. The moment the love story became prominent and the lore took a backseat is when the show itself became very poor and unremarkable to me.
Still images are by me. I’ve done my best to credit and link where I’ve gotten the gifs I’ve used in here.