'The Vampire Diaries' Season 2, Episode 4 Recap (VIDEO)

'The Vampire Diaries' Season 2, Episode 4 Recap (VIDEO)



You know, if for some strange reason 'The Vampire Diaries' ratings start slipping, Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec could just spin off Damon and Katherine into their own hourlong celebration of evil and it would probably do quite well.

Who wouldn't want to watch the two wicked vampires cause trouble together, indulging their bloodlust with with devilish smirks on their faces while trying to out-quip each other?

But for now, we should be happy that two such wonderfully sinful characters reside on one of The CW's best shows. They are simply some of the brightest spots in an all-around solid ensemble. Yesterday was no exception.

With a title like 'Memory Lane,' last night's episode was destined to be an origin story of sorts. But instead of flashbacks that revealed more about the Salvatore brothers, we were educated on the history of werewolves in Mystic Falls and the true motive behind Katherine's return.

But the most important part first: Katherine and Elena finally met face-to-face (employing some advanced Steve Urkel/Stefan Urquelle technology that allowed two versions of Nina Dobrev to appear in the same frame together) and it was just as tense as you would expect: that is to say, very, very tense! Katherine was terrifying, Elena was terrified. Let's hope they meet again soon, because Nina's chemistry with, um, herself was electrifying. "How is this possible?" Elena meekly exclaimed when Katherine confronted her. "How do we look exactly alike?"

"You're asking the wrong questions," Katherine purred. Intriguing!

Back in the beginning of the episode, Katherine employed some mysterious trickery and invaded Stefan's dreams. (Side note: How'd she do that? We don't know. Maybe they'll explain some other time, because that was some Bonnie-level freaky witch stuff.) Stefan got mad and seduced her, then stabbed her in the back (literally) and locked her up in the secret basement dungeon cell where the family grows vervain. Yeah, Williamson and Plec are not kidding around -- they got to the action right away.

Katherine explained (via flashback) that the Lockwood family werewolves were the reason vampires were hunted to extinction in Mystic Falls so many years ago, but now their numbers were drastically diminished. She was able to escape from the tomb because she made a deal with George Lockwood to keep each other's secrets safe (yup, he was a werewolf). He helped her fake her own death, she gave him that mysterious moonstone Mason's been after.

A juicy flashback tidbit -- turns out, Katherine didn't start compelling Stefan until after she revealed that she was a vampire. He professed his love for her with some super steamy romance novel language long before the compelling. "I never compelled your love," present-day Katherine told Stefan. "It was real, and so was mine."

An even juicier flashback tidbit -- Katherine truly was in love with Stefan. She even went back to give him a kiss and tell him she loved him before she disappeared. Maybe Stefan's love really is why she came back to Mystic Falls? Nah. This is Katherine we're talking about. It has to be a little more layered than that.

The second part of Katherine's trickery came into play after her discussion with Stefan: she'd been ingesting vervain daily for the past 140 years, so it had no effect on her. She escaped, had the aforementioned encounter with Elena, then threatened Caroline -- she had enlisted the new vampire to try to break up Elena and Stefan. Luckily, Elena could tell, so she and Stefan employed some trickery of their own and faked an argument so everyone could overhear and think they were fighting.

Meanwhile, Uncle Mason remained ultra-cavalier about turning into a wolf. No big deal. And Tyler wasn't even scared that his uncle transformed into an animal (seriously, why aren't these people freaked out more by all the supernatural stuff happening in their town?) -- he was mad that Mason wouldn't explain why the curse wouldn't affect him. Later, Tyler got his Uncle to do his best menacing Damon impression and admit the truth -- "You have to kill somebody! Human blood triggers the curse."

Mason also got in on the trickery bandwagon by pretending to avoid the silver Damon kept slipping him at Aunt Jenna's pitiful four-person barbeque. (Let's be real, it was ultra lame except for Damon's hilarious 'Dances With Wolves' drawing that Caroline described as "puppy with a tutu!") Turns out that whole silver thing is a myth, so when Damon stabbed him in the gut with a silver knife, he got preeetty angry. As one would when once was just stabbed in the gut by a person one was supposedly in a truce with. Seriously, they could've remained peacefully aware of each other's presence but Damon had to go and screw it all up. Typical Damon. You can always count on him to make trouble out of nothing.