The Vampire Diaries season 5 episode 3 review: Original Sin
The Vampire Diaries raids the big book of soap opera clichés this week. Here's Caroline's review...
This review contains spoilers.
5.3 Original Sin
Before I could get on and enjoy this flashback-heavy info-dump hour of Vampire Diaries, I had to get over that brazen betrayal from whoever put together that promo. Stefan is indeed out of his watery grave, but Ripper Stefan is still buried deep within. He’s damp and hungry, but his humanity switch remains turned on. Not only is this disappointing, it’s annoying, and what they’ve decided to do with the character instead is downright horrifying. Amnesia, really? And in the same fortnight as Beauty and the Beast did it, too.
So Stefan has gone pretty nuts during his summer holiday in the quarry, but he still remembers enough of himself to stop completely chowing down on the unsuspecting barmaid. Meanwhile, Elena and Katherine are now sharing dreams about their long lost beau and Damon’s trying desperately to not be bothered by his girlfriend’s perpetual preoccupation with his brother. So far I’ve actually been pleasantly surprised by how long they’ve maintained the new relationship, but that goodwill is going to evaporate pretty quick if Stefan’s return ruins it straight away. Let’s fight for this a little.
The fact that Elena and Katherine are sharing Stefan dreams is actually explained in this episode – along with the series long doppelgänger mystery! This is huge news simply because we’ve been dealing with Elena and Katherine’s connection since day one, and now we also have an explanation as to why Stefan was so creepy in early episodes. The two doppelgängers, created when Silas and Katsia’s (more on her in a minute) handmaiden used Katsia’s magic to become immortal, are drawn to each other by fate and design.
Because they became immortal, the universe created doppelgängers to balance things out, and those Nina Dobrev and Paul Wesley-faced people have been falling for each other ever since. I explains the love triangles, it explains why Stefan “had to know her” in the pilot, and it explains why Damon has had to fight so hard to get the girl. There’s also the added excitement of the fact that Stefan and Elena are the last of the line, both being childless vampires, but does that mean that at some point an Elena doppelgänger gave birth to a little Stefan? Ugh. Maybe I’m getting confused, since handmaiden Amara was also killed while presumably childless. Maybe I shouldn’t pull at those threads.
Anyway – we find all of this out directly from the mouth of Katsia, as Bonnie’s lowering of the veil means that she has been able to return – cue silly costumes and wigs! The motivations of Silas and Katsia is where things start to fall apart however, as they seem to be after the same thing. Katsia wants Silas to die and, stupidly, Silas wants Silas to die too. Has there ever been a TV villain who’s dastardly plan is just to commit suicide? Let him do it. I get that doing things his way would lower the veil and put lots of evil creatures back into the world, and they can’t afford to pay all of those actor’s salaries, but it’s still something to consider.
Now, however, Katherine is pretty much a walking cure, and I like that idea very much. She’s been a presence since the end of the first season (longer if you include flashbacks) and now she’s the thing that Elena and co. have to protect at all costs. When Elena fed her that cure in last year’s finale, I would never have predicted the writers’ plans for her would be this fantastic. My hat is permanently off when it comes to Nina Dobrev, and the way she makes both characters so compelling in such different and interesting ways. I need Katherine to become a regular character, because she’s the best thing about the show at the moment.
As you can imagine, Damon isn’t overjoyed with the news that Elena and Stefan have been destined all along, but he’s being surprisingly calm and mature about the whole thing. What happens next, with Stefan’s amnesia and all, is anyone’s guess, but it seems the love triangle is back in full force. Then there’s the gypsy problem, which seems to involve Matt in a big way. He lost half a day somewhere, but was that blood or mud on the floor? I’m glad he’s getting something to do, but now he needs to get involved with the a-plot.
Next week there’s another town event to honour the dead, but Elena’s more concerned with her own dead ex-boyfriend. The writers aren’t tired of writing this love triangle in circles, apparently. See you there!
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