Posted by Lucia Heroine TV | August 4, 2011, 11:33 (EST) | 16 Comments
Category: TV Series
It’s the summer hiatus – and IT SUCKS. So to help wile away those lonely TVD-less hours as we await Vampire Diaries Season 3, we’ve rounded up a slew of guest bloggers (and huge Vampire Diaries fans) for a series called Ripping Open TVD. Each blogger will be focusing on one particular aspect of what we’ve just experienced in Vampire Diaries Season 2 and adding a hefty dose of Season 3 speculation. Remember: These are guest posts, so these are the opinions of the person writing them, not necessarily Vampire-Diaries.net. Cool? Cool. This week, Lucia of Heroine TV looks back on Season 2′s introduction of Katherine in the flesh and explains why she was such a breath of fresh air in Mystic Falls.
After Katherine’s dramatic entrance in Founder’s Day last year, a lot of Vampire Diaries fans could not wait to see more Katherine. “Hello John. Goodbye, John.” STAB! That was certainly a way to make a lasting impression. Previously we had only seen her in flashbacks, but now our Scarlett O’Vampire was ready to move on to mischief making in the present. Look out, 21st Century! With all the anticipation for her character over the summer months, one might assume that her depiction in Season 2 would be a disappointment. Nothing is ever as good as you hope it to be, right? Hype ruins everything, right? WRONG. In the penultimate episode of Season 2, Damon told Katherine, “Somehow you’re the only one who wins.” He asked, “How’d that happen?” Yeah, how did that happen? With Season 2 complete, many fans are even more fascinated by Katherine than before, and she ended up being one of the biggest reasons for my personal love of the show’s sophomore season. Yes, Katherine has fabulous hair and impenetrable eye makeup that can withstand violence and captivity, but there’s more to it. Katherine has really proved herself to be one of the best villains in recent pop-culture history. She has achieved this through a combination of three elements: she is motivated by self-preservation, always plans ahead, and brings a sense of fun to her scenes.
“Better you die than I.”
As villains go, Katherine’s motivation is supremely simple: self-preservation. She doesn’t want to rule the world, open a hell-dimension, kill Superman, enact revenge using an incredibly complicated scheme, nor steal piles of gold and diamonds from a cursed tomb. And no, she absolutely does not want to start a hybrid super race, like Klaus. Thank goodness! If you’ve ever watched television or film before, then you know how such schemes usually work out. Hint: not well. A Buffy or a James Bond type usually jumps in to save the day, and Villain X is toast. Better luck next time, Villain X. Maybe the sharks with frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads weren’t your best idea.
The best villains, in my opinion, are the ones with clear and attainable goals, who are focused and know how to manipulate every situation into getting what they want. These people get what they want over and over again, and they win over and over again. No evil laughs necessary. Hey, an evil laugh and an occasional mustache twirl have their place, but the super arch stuff can become pretty ridiculous and overdone. That’s why super villains make for such great comedy, such as Dr. Horrible or Dr. Evil. Katherine, unlike the stereotypical villain, is not primarily motivated to do “evil,” but to stay alive. In her mind, she is just doing what she has to do to survive; she doesn’t see herself as the villain of the story. (Of course, she’s willing to kill an innocent teenager in the middle of a crowded masquerade ball, just to make a point, so I think we’re safe in applying the “villain” label.)
Katherine is occasionally motivated to act in ways that do not directly impact her survival — like torturing Elena and the Salvatores — and she has fun doing it, but ultimately she never takes one eye off the prize. Her own well-being trumps anything else she may be feeling. If she were to corner her prey nearby a pool full of sharks with laser beams, for example, she would look for a quick exit before taunting her victim. Ultimately, the secret to her success is absolute selfishness. She cares a lot more about her own well-being than her enemy’s discomfort. She isn’t blinded by anger, fear, or, more importantly, love. As she explained to Damon when he asked her how she always wins, “I didn’t let love get in the way.” No she did not.
Of course, Katherine is not completely cold or unfeeling. As the Season 2 finale proved to us, she was capable of saving Damon’s life, even though it did not benefit her. More importantly, however, that decision didn’t hurt her. If she had thought that the pit-stop to Damon’s bedside would have gotten her killed, I guarantee that she would not have made it. She does feel things like anger, fear, and love, but she just doesn’t let those feelings control or define her. Major self-discipline, huh? I guess that is her superpower.
While Katherine may have changed over time, it was actually her decision as a human that would change her life forever. When she realized what Klaus had planned for her, she fled; and given the choice between dying or becoming a vampire, she chose the latter. She tricked Rose into feeding her vampire blood, and then hanged herself. As Katherine explains to Rose, “Better you die than I.” She knew that by turning she would no longer be of use to Klaus as a doppelgänger sacrifice, and made the best decision she could, under the circumstances. As parts of Katherine’s journey from 1492 to the present were slowly revealed over the course of the season, we could see how one move for survival became an entire way of life. She later repeats the same sentiment to Elena (in regard to The Sacrifice, Part Deux): “Better you die than I.” Sorry, Elena! And there we have it — Katherine Pierce in a nutshell. Katherine has made a conscious choice to always choose herself, no matter what. While her methods may be complicated, her motivation is as simple as can be.
“Do you honestly believe that I don’t have a Plan B?”
In Plan B, Damon really thought he had pulled one over on Katherine. He killed her pet werewolf and smugly asked, “Oh, did I put a kink in your master plan?” Katherine retorted: “Do you honestly believe that I don’t have a Plan B? And if that fails, a Plan C? Then a plan D, and … you know how the alphabet works, don’t you?” As we soon learned, she wasn’t bluffing. Recounting every letter of Katherine’s alphabet of plans would take too long, so let’s just focus on some of the highlights.
- First off, Katherine was smart enough to grab the moonstone when fleeing from Klaus back in 1492. Prescient.
- Later, Katherine would barter the moonstone to secure her freedom from the tomb, making a deal with George Lockwood. She did her research before coming to Mystic Falls, and this enabled her to fake her death, and stay safe from Klaus for another 146 years or so.
- At the end of The Return, Katherine turned Caroline into a vampire. The immediate reason seemed to be in order to have a spy in the Scooby camp. She was able to manipulate Caroline into keeping her apprised of Stefan and Elena’s movements, and even tried to facilitate a breakup. But ultimately, we would learn that Katherine planned to use Caroline as the vampire in the sacrifice. Tricksy.
- Katherine already knew that the Lockwoods had the moonstone, so before returning to Mystic Falls she found Mason Lockwood, manipulated the triggering of the curse, and convinced him that she was in love with him. He would be her ticket to finding the moonstone, as well as serve an additional function as the werewolf sacrifice.
- When things with Mason didn’t work out (due to an unfortunate heart snatching incident), Katherine had a back-up plan. She would make sure that Tyler Lockwood triggered the curse and turned into a werewolf, using Matt Donovan. She even had red-shirt Sara in her back pocket as a failsafe. Tyler turned. Success!
- Katherine’s plans hit a snag, however, when Lucy double-crossed her. Katherine had the moonstone, but she landed in the tomb. Once stuck in the tomb, she realized that maybe it was for the best. As she pointed out to Stefan, “I don’t want my freedom. Because when Klaus shows up in town to kill us all, and he will, I’ll be in the tomb, where no vampire will enter because they can’t get out. I’ll be the safest psychotic bitch in town.” She also used the moonstone in her possession as leverage. Well played, Katherine!
- While stuck in the tomb together, Katherine managed to convince Stefan that he should look to Isobel for help with keeping Elena alive. Stefan played into Katherine’s hands and contacted Isobel. The result? John swooped into town and introduced the one weapon that could kill an Original. When Damon went to Katherine for details, she used reverse psychology on him, convincing him that killing Elijah was the last thing she would want. What Damon didn’t know was that once Elijah was dead, his compulsion would be released, and Katherine would be able to exit the tomb. Add another win to the Katherine column.
- Even after she was kidnapped by Klaus, Katherine’s well laid plans continued to aid her. Throughout the season, Katherine was carefully checking things off on her Sacrifice Shopping List (™ Vee). Ultimately, Klaus would adopt Katherine’s plan as his Plan A (he had a Plan B too, of course), leaving her in the clear, sacrifice free.
- After Stefan brought her down in 1864 by slipping her vervain, Katherine learned her lesson and made sure not to let that happen again. She went all Vizzini and built up an immunity to vervain. This little detail would ultimately guarantee her freedom at the end of the season. Because she had become immune to vervain, she was able to sip some post-kidnapping (thanks to Damon’s delivery) and feign compulsion. Ultimately, this would allow her to escape from Klaus.
The lesson is: always be prepared … for 146 years in the future. As we saw over the course of the season, things didn’t always go as planned for Katherine, but there was always another plan where that one came from.
“She loves to play games…”
As Damon explains, “She’s Katherine. She loves to play games and you’re fooling yourself if you think you’re going to find out what she’s up to before she wants you to know.” Yes, Katherine loves to play games, but as we learned over the course of this season, this is Klaus’s game that she’s playing, and she wasn’t given much of a choice. Play or die. The stakes in this game are high. And yet … Katherine still treats it all like a game of tag. Everyone is chasing her while she giggles. Thus, we can see that Katherine is not all self-preservation and planning. After all, if she were, that would be incredibly boring and uninspiring. Katherine also makes sure to have fun while she’s playing her dangerous game. Without Katherine’s perspective, this life and death stuff could go to a very broody and overwrought place. (I’m looking at you, Salvatores and Gilberts.) I mean, I love drama and tears too, but I’m also really glad that Katherine is around to make all the serious stuff a bit more fun.
I think a great villain should be fun and enjoy life. Otherwise, why should we buy that she would want to survive at all costs? Katherine appreciates the finer things. Exhibit A: “Oh, his eyes are soooo bluuuuue.” Clearly she has excellent taste. Ahem. Exhibit B: anytime she’s near a buffet table, she takes the time to seductively nibble on fruit. Life’s all about the little pleasures, right? There’s just something awesome about sincerely enjoying a strawberry, right before blackmailing Stefan into dancing with her, and then casually killing a teenager right in the middle of a crowd. That scene wouldn’t have been as good without the strawberry and the dance, right?
When Katherine got stuck in the tomb, she made the most of it and applied it to her plan, as mentioned above. She figured out how these new circumstances could benefit her. Katherine also “made the most of it” by torturing Stefan. She could have gotten all morose or angry, what with the bad lighting and difficulty of maintaining proper hygiene, but when an opportunity for amusement came, she took it. Yes, messing with Stefan’s mind was cruel, but Katherine is a villain, so that kind of thing is fun for her.
Another example can be seen in Klaus, when Katherine was stuck in Alaric’s apartment. She may have lost her freedom, but when Klaus left her alone in Alaric’s swank pad, she made the most of it. She found the bourbon and daaaaaaanced! No partner? Well, a dance party with a lamp would have to do. You know, sometimes you just have to make your own entertainment. Katherine may have sacrificed love for the sake of her survival, but you get the sense that she makes the most of her precious undead days.
One of the key aspects of Katherine’s personality that makes her so amusing is how spoiled and demanding she is. Despite the fact that her ability to strategize moves ahead could make her president of the chess club, Katherine still manages to act like a petulant child. It is the existence of all of these elements together that makes her so fascinating — that dichotomy between being a very real and dangerous threat, and pouting because she didn’t get her way. Damon may think that pouting is unattractive for a woman of her age, but I strongly disagree. ‘Tis amusing.
So, in conclusion, Katherine is an inspired and entertaining villain, and has really made Season 2 of The Vampire Diaries a success. She makes me want to write an alphabet poem — A is for “All the boys wrapped around Katherine’s finger”; B is for “Bonnie can’t give Katherine headaches”; C is for “Catch me if you can”; and so on. (Yes, I suck at writing poems. I know.) It is not a happy accident that Katherine has lived for over 500 years. She has worked hard to make this happen, successfully evading the oldest vampires in history for five centuries. In Katherine’s mind, she is not the villain of the story … and that’s what makes her such a perfect villain. So, thank you to the writers for creating a villain who not only knows how to make an entrance, but can follow through on threats, is fun to watch, and makes a compelling exit too. More Katherine, please.
Lucia is a graduate student in southern California, who happens to be addicted to television. You can read more of her pop culture musings on her blog, Heroine TV, where she regularly recaps The Vampire Diaries and Mad Men, and writes about lots and lots of other shows sporadically. She has recently started the Heroine TV Podcast, which you can subscribe to in iTunes. You can also follow her on Twitter (@heroine_tv), where she never tires of talking about television.
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