The Vampire Diaries: Season 2 Episode 17 Recap

FINALLY this show is back! Last we saw Mystic Falls, Klaus was coming after Elena, Caroline told Matt the truth, and Isabelle came to see her daughter!

This week was full of double crosses on all sides of the line of good and evil. Moms were betraying daughters and friends were keeping secrets left and right!  Instead of doing a typical run through of the episode, let's go through the betrayals!



1.  Isabelle vs. Katherine. With Isabelle back in town, it's hard to pinpoint just where her allegiances lie. At first, I thought for sure Katherine would be with Isabelle. She's been the big bad and it seemed like Isabelle's been behind some of the major events in Elena's life. I thought for sure they were both going after Elena, especially after their friendly reunion in the foreclosed mansion. Isabelle was going to give Klaus Elena and the moonstone and Katherine would be safe. I couldn't believe she would betray her own daughter, but these two women have always been about saving themselves.

It turns out my first instinct was right! Isabelle had used Katherine to find the moonstone, but ended up turning her over to one Klaus's henchmen, leading Elena to safety.

2. Isabelle vs. Elena. As I mentioned, Isabelle turned out to be a TRIPLE crosser, making Elena believe she was there for good, then convincing Katherine she was there to actually help her, then actually she was working for Klaus the whole time. While she was compelled by Klaus, it did seem she had Elena's safety on her mind. While she did betray everyone, she seemed to do right by Elena in the end. The moment of them at her "grave" was sad, I almost felt bad for her. After confessing that Elena must be very disappointed in her mother now, she ripped off her enchanted necklace and just burned to death right in front her eyes. While Elena no longer cared for her, that's still got to be pretty messed up to watch her dead mother die AGAIN.

3. Isabelle vs. John. John has loved her forever, and that last speech of his actually tugged at my heart strings a bit. He has done her bidding for who knows how long and for her to kill him like she did was just cold-blooded. I had forgotten he had that magic ring, so when Damon said he'd be okay after being pronounced dead I was surprised. These long hiatuses are messing up my memory on the continuity.


4. Caroline vs. Matt and The Sheriff. Caroline and Matt was my favorite pairing before she became a vampire, so it was so hard to see Matt react so poorly to her news. He was such a mess, making the connection to his sister Vicki's death. When confronting her and getting the full story, Zach Roerig was just stellar in that scene. His heartache and begging to forget, I was just sold. I fully believed every second of that, so when he went out to the car to tell her mom all that had been said, I was floored. Now Caroline will face a battle on two fronts - the upcoming werewolves (you know they're coming back) and her mother who already considers her dead.


5. Katherine vs. The Salvatore Brothers. Katherine has always been about protecting herself, no matter who else suffers, so her betrayal is pretty much expected. I was just surprised that she seemed to WANT to be on the side of the good guys, but because they kept her out of the loop she ended up trusting Isabelle to keep her safe. If they had kept her in the loop about Bonnie getting her powers back and their plan to have her tap in to the undead witches' energy to amplify it. She flat out said to Isabelle that because they didn't have their act together, she'd work with her because how else would she escape Klaus? Well, it turns out she should have had a little faith since it appears Isabelle handed her directly over.

Other odds and ends: 

• Favorite quote: Damon to Katherine: "Don't mistake the fact that we didn't set you on fire in your sleep for trust."
• I loved the death spot scenes: they found the spot because of Damon's reaction to being so near to their power. Even in death, the witches don't like him - they made him stuck in place in the sunlight and then turned off the power of his ring causing him to slowly burn. If Bonnie hadn't been there to knock him loose, he'd have died and turned to ashes. 
• The scene of Bonnie communing with the dead witches was so creepy! Angry whispers getting louder, candles lighting and the flames rising, then her screaming out and Jeremy getting knocked aside. Jeremy should have gathered that something was wrong, despite Bonnie's assurances otherwise. 
• How much power can you draw from 100 dead witches? Enough to turn you in to Storm from X-Men!
• Bonnie is willing to die for Elena and her friends. If she is the force ultimately used to kill Klaus, using all of the witches' power at once will kill her. Damn, now that's one amazing best friend. 
• Ok seriously, who hides the moonstone in a soap dish when it's a matter of Elena's life? 
• Now that Klaus has Katherine and the moonstone, what is his plan? I'm assuming he still needs Elena's blood as the doppelganger, but he must have something in mind for Katherine. 
• So Alaric isn't Alaric anymore; he's now been possessed by Klaus. While I'm glad Klaus is finally here and can't wait for the madness to kick in to high gear as the season comes to a close, I can't help but feel that's a bit of a cop out. I wanted KLAUS, not a possessed Alaric. 

We'll see what happens next week at the big 70s dance when Klaus-Alaric and the Salvatores battle at school. Will they bust out their secret weapon (Super Bonnie) early?

Let me know what you think of Klaus-Alaric in the comments. Did you have a hard time keeping track of alliances, double crosses, and triple crosses like I did?