Posted by Staff | October 3, 2011, 20:33 (EST) | 76 Comments
Category: TV Series

This picture of Stefan captures our own expressions so perfectly! First: If you haven’t read Crissy Calhoun’s Vampire Diaries In Review for The End of the Affair, you should remedy that right now. This post will refer to points brought up in her review, as well as in the comments and on Twitter. we’re seeing a lot of the same questions and theories pop up, so we’re throwing it all into a mega blog of post-End of the Affair goodness.

We’re focusing on a very particular aspect of the show’s mythology in this post, in case you think we’ve forgotten about Caroline (May She Live Forever). The Year of the Originals has begun!

Clearing up some confusion:

• The flashbacks in The End of the Affair were not a single night. This is the biggest point of confusion we’re seeing, so let’s clear it up. We think this stems from the similarities in Rebekah’s dresses, but Stefan’s association with the Originals was for more than one night. Remember: Klaus stresses to Stefan that the two were close and Klaus had even visited Stefan’s apartment at some point. This was a relationship built up over time.
• Why did neither Klaus nor Rebekah die when using the dagger on each other? Elijah established in Klaus that the dagger will not work on Klaus (pre- or post-sacrifice) because of the Original’s werewolf blood, so it stands to reason that Klaus is also exempt from the “curse” on the dagger, not being a full-fledged vampire. But that doesn’t explain Rebekah stabbing Klaus, right? We’re working off three theories at the moment: 1) All Originals are exempt from the dagger curse, so are able to wield the dagger on each other without harm to their own person; 2) Rebekah did not die when she stabbed Klaus because the dagger will not work on him (something she knew) due to his mixed heritage; or 3) the dagger curse does not actually exist (after all, we haven’t seen another run-of-the-mill vampire wield the dagger and those crafty Originals have made up curses before). What is said about the dagger in The Dinner Party: “It must be brandished by humans alone for it will bring death to all demons who wield it.” Elena then later adds: “Originals believed in truth and honor. It was forbidden for a vampire to kill another vampire.”
• Rebekah’s necklace. A lot of people seem to have taken it as fact that Rebekah’s necklace is a love charm because of the exchange between Stefan and Rebekah in the nightclub. When Stefan notices it, Rebekah tells him that a witch gave it to her and that “supposedly it’s magical.” When Stefan inquires further, she playfully replies, “It brought me love, didn’t it?” Now, we fully admit that we don’t know for sure the necklace isn’t a love charm, but that’s mostly because we don’t know what it is at this point, other than a possible means for Gloria to contact the “original witch,” thus hinting that that is the witch who gave it to Rebekah. Also? Rebekah seemed very panicked when she discovered it was gone. Somehow we doubt this is just some silly love charm.

What we learned in The End of the Affair, and questions we still have, in bullet points!:

• Rebekah is an Original. In an episode full of twists, this was perhaps the biggest: Rebekah, who we’ve known for months would be an old flame of Stefan’s, is Klaus’s younger sister. She is the third of seven Original siblings that we have met so far on the show, and the fact both she and Klaus have a history with Stefan not only pulls the narrative in even tighter but is a testament to the meticulousness of Klaus’s plans. We have to wonder: Surely it can’t be a coincidence that Stefan is a vampire that Katherine sired, given the history between the doppelganger and the hybrid?
• Stefan knew Klaus and Rebekah in the Twenties. And Klaus viewed Stefan as a brother, and admired Stefan’s Ripper Ruthlessness (TM). Whaaaaaa? That “blackout” Stefan had of his time in Chicago? Not a blackout at all, but a direct result of Klaus’s compulsion. In order to cover his tracks, Klaus compelled Stefan to forget he ever knew the hybrid or his sister. (More on that in a bit.)
• According to Klaus, Rebekah is “totally mad.” First off, Klaus called someone else “totally mad.” Think about that for a moment. Second: Do you hear that? The screaming bullet train of foreshadowing? Couple that with her warehouse temper tantrum near the end of the episode, and we are so excited to see what awaits us in the next few episodes.
• The curse binding Klaus’s werewolf side was created by an “original” witch. And Klaus tells Gloria with absolute certainty that that witch is dead. (Somehow, from Klaus’s tone and expression, we’re not sure she died of natural causes.) Once again, the show reinforces the point that every spell a witch casts has a loophole, information we’ve previously learned from episodes such as Masquerade, The Dinner Party, Katerina and Klaus. And, just as an aside, are we all in agreement that the original witch might be the original Bennett witch?
• The significance of Elena’s necklace. If, like us, you’ve been convinced since Friday Night Bites that the necklace Stefan gave Elena had meaning beyond a repository for vervain, then you must have been just as thrilled when it was revealed that said necklace originally belonged to Rebekah. Not only that, but a witch gave it to the Original sister. Now, Gloria never says she needs the necklace, only that she needs Rebekah, but it’s been well-established that personal items can be helpful in contacting a person after their death (Emily Bennett’s necklace, Vicki’s belongings). The natural conclusion, given Rebekah immediately reaches for her necklace when Klaus explains why he’s pulled her dagger out, is that the necklace is how Gloria means to contact the original witch. (As for why Elijah nor Katherine ever let on that they recognized the necklace Elena wears all the time – let’s just roll with it, okay?) What is interesting is that Klaus seemed to be unaware the necklace had any significance at all until Rebekah had her freak-out in the warehouse. Call us conspiracy theorists (it’s true) but we think that necklace may be far more important than just being a means for contacting a dead witch.
• Speaking of witches, What is the DEAL?! Because – DUDE. We have had it drilled into our heads for two seasons (and change) that witches maintain the balance, yet time and again we have encountered witches who are practically slaves to the vampire agenda. Maybe this is wishful thinking, but we have a feeling that the witches 1) have created a “fail safe” (or a loophole, if you will) in case Klaus unleashed his werewolf side (we’re not buying that Elena still being alive is the reason why Klaus can’t create more hybrids because didn’t Elijah say the witches had discovered a way for the curse-breaking spell to work without killing the doppelganger?), and 2) are using vampires, werewolves, etc., as pawns in their own chess game.
• How much does Katherine know anyway? You guys, was Katherine just around, stalking Stefan in the club the entire time his friendship with Klaus and Rebekah was blossoming? Or did she just happen to arrive at the same time as our Original hunter? And in all that time that Katherine was stalking Stefan, do you think she ever nudged him along a particular path? Did she know he was hanging with Klaus? Or did she only have suspicions based on the aftermath of the nightclub shootout? Was Katherine’s plan to turn Elena over to Klaus in Season 2 really her only plan to get Klaus off her back, or did she attempt another course of action before? If there’s anything we know for certain about Katherine – other than the fact she’s a BAMF – it’s that she’s a planner and a survivor, and she will throw her allegiance to whomever gives her the best chance at survival. Also? She knows things.
• Who is after Klaus? And this is where the speculation runs rampant. We had our first glimpse of guest star Sebastian Roche this week, in the 1920s flashback, and he was definitely after Klaus and Rebekah. But interestingly, during the bar conversation between Stefan and Klaus in the present, after Klaus reveals he compelled Stefan to forget he had ever met Klaus and Rebekah, Stefan determines that Klaus was running away from someone (which is when we’re introduced to “a someone” in flashback). And given Klaus’s reaction to Stefan’s theory, it seemed clear that Klaus is still running from someone, or at least the memory of someone. That means one of two things: Either Roche is playing a vampire hunter who’s managed to be worked over by a witch so he doesn’t age or (and we’re thinking this may be the more likely scenario) we have yet another one of the Original family on our hands. And that? Is exciting on multiple levels, not the least of which is that the rift in the Original family runs long and deep. At one point, Rebekah tells Stefan that she made a choice to be with Klaus, which implies that all of the Originals were given a choice: to side with Klaus or to side with…whom? If Sebastian Roche’s character is indeed an Original, is he an elder sibling…or is he the vampire father Klaus despises so much?

We undoubtedly missed some things, but what do you think, Vampire Diaries fans? What do you think about the huge and small revelations in relation to the show’s Original mythology?

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