Posted by Vee | April 22, 2011, 13:59 (EST) | 292 Comments
Category: TV Series

Our minds have been racing since around 9pm Eastern last night and we just need to let it all out, fandom. Last night’s episode of The Vampire Diaries dropped mythology on us like a ton of bricks and we’re seeing a lot of confusion as people attempt to sort it out and relate it back to what we’ve been told before. This is our attempt at packing it into bite-sized chunks. We have failed spectacularly at that and have instead just created a list of more questions. But we tried to get the facts in there, too. Or shall we say “facts.” We don’t even know anymore!

Special thanks to Red, Crissy Calhoun and my personal Twitter followers for double-checking my “facts.”

The origin of The Originals.

• Following up Trevor’s mention of the “Original Family” in Rose (EP208), we are told the Originals are an actual family: Two parents and seven siblings (Klaus and Elijah being two of those siblings, but half-brothers). The father was a wealthy landowner in Eastern Europe. (You know, where Bulgaria is…? Interesting, no? In the flashback, Elijah gives Klaus a significant glance when introducing Katerina and saying she’s from Bulgaria.) The family was once human. According to Elijah, how they became vampires is a very long story (that we haven’t heard – yet) but all vampires are descended from these original nine vampires. (p.s. May we please see a family portrait? Purdy please?)
• Elijah makes a point of saying the family was very close, with the exception of Klaus and Elijah’s father. While human, their mother had an affair with a man of a werewolf bloodline. (Werewolves are the oldest supernatural race and this affair was their mother’s “darkest secret.”) Klaus was the product of that affair. So werewolf blood was in Klaus before the Original family was turned into vampires; this heritage wasn’t discovered until after their transformation.
• Elijah’s father tracked down Klaus’ werewolf father and killed him, along with his entire family. This incident, Elijah claims, sparked the vampire/werewolf feud that still rages to this day.
• Originals cannot be killed by sunlight (so Elijah’s lapis lazuli ring is just for show? Or does it serve another purpose?), a typical wooden stake, fire, a werewolf bite, etc. Because the witches (“nature’s servants”) won’t allow any truly immortal creature to exist (they require balance), the only way to kill an Original is with the wood from one particular tree, which happened to be white ash. The Original family made sure to burn this tree, but as we know, ashes from the tree exist. For all of this enormous power, we find it so interesting that even Originals cannot escape the “invitation” rule, as was so clearly demonstrated in the opening scene of Klaus. (By the way, we think this scene was more than just an acknowledgment of how a vampire is affected by being in a dwelling without an invitation. We think the audience needs to remember this for a particular reason. Just our gut feeling.)
• What still remains unclear is whether witches are responsible for the Original family being turned into vampires. Were they created to provide a balance for the werewolves? We have a hard time believing that due to the well-established animosity between witches and vampires. So were they transformed by other means, and why was this particular family chosen?
• Did you miss that part about there being SEVEN OTHER ORIGINALS? Considering Elijah and Klaus seem to be sitting at opposite ends of the Original spectrum right now, what on earth can we expect from their siblings and parents? This is awesome, right? RIGHT?

The Fake Curse and the Real Curse.

• The Curse of the Sun and the Moon, as first explained to us by Isobel’s assistant Vanessa Monroe in Bad Moon Rising (EP203) and subsequently drilled into our heads via Alaric in the “Previously” intros for for-freaking-ever, is fake. Klaus and Elijah manufactured the tale around one thousand years ago and planted it in various cultures around the world via fake documents and etchings, including Aztec. As Red and I discussed last night, this amounts to them plotting over a few cups of blood, getting “blistered” on some good grog, and drunkenly leaving a few history-altering cave drawings here and there. That’s hilarious. Gotta keep immortality from getting boring, right?
• There is indeed a curse, but this curse is placed solely on Klaus. When Klaus’ werewolf heritage was discovered (our question: how was it discovered?) after the Original family’s transformation into vampires, the witches sought to bind his werewolf side. Klaus being both vampire and werewolf makes him far too powerful and, should his werewolf side be unleashed, he will be capable of procreation, fathering a bunch of vampire/werewolf hybrid babies. (Guess it would be an enjoyable road to world domination, right? Though we can’t help wondering what would happen if he were to “turn” humans in typical vampire fashion. Could he create hybrids that way as well? UPDATE: Some people aren’t buying that Klaus would be able to procreate, but aren’t werewolves able to procreate through traditional means? So it is possible that Klaus would be able to do the old-fashioned way if his werewolf side is awakened. But this is total speculation.) So the actual curse that Klaus seeks to break will “awaken” his inner wolf and allow him to propagate an entirely new and deadly race. This is bad for everyone, not just vampires and/or werewolves. We can’t help remembering Bonnie’s words to Jeremy at the end of Know Thy Enemy (EP217): “It’s not just for Elena, Jeremy. It’s for you. It’s for everyone.” Along with the knowledge of how to defeat Klaus, did Dr. Martin also give Bonnie this SUPER OMG IMPORTANT! background information? You need to KNOW YOUR ENEMY, right? Or did Dr. Martin even know about Elijah’s true reasons for wanting to stop Klaus?
• As far we can tell, all of the elements needed for the sacrifice remain the same: the doppelganger, the moonstone, a vampire, a werewolf, and a witch are all needed to perform the ritual. Oh, and a full moon, which now makes even more sense. Klaus and Elijah planted the Curse of the Sun and the Moon “legends” to track down the moonstone and the doppelganger because, as Elijah explains, there’s no easier way to find them than to have two warring species on the look out for them.
• We were also privy to the OMG HUGE revelation that Elijah (via the witches) discovered a way to spare the doppelganger’s life way back in 1492. He claims to know how to save Elena, you guys! Now, we personally love Elijah and want to take him at his word. The guy has a reputation for being honorable, so we’re inclined to trust his motives, particularly when given that flashback peek at his obvious feelings of affection for Katerina, be it romantic or otherwise. But the question is how trustworthy are flashbacks when from the POV of one particular character? In this situation, what does Elijah have to gain by lying? Klaus is here and he’s already doing dirty work. But we’re pretty sure there is more to this than what Elijah has said (so far). We really only have one question: Should Elijah somehow gain control over this ritual, does that mean he can gain control over Klaus? We don’t mean kill him, we mean control him for his own purposes (or that of their close-knit family). We’re talking about a family that tried to ensure they could never die. Unless Elijah’s gone full-blown rogue, which is a possibility, we keep wrapping back around to his sense of honor again. Sigh. This show makes our brains hurt.
• What role does the Petrova bloodline play in the Curse? We’re not one for starting conspiracy theories (oh, who are we kidding?), but we find it interesting that not only is the Original family from Eastern Europe, but we were not privy to their surname in this episode. Hmmm, why is that? The original Petrova (you know, who those doppelgangers are modeled after) just skyrocketed in importance (turns out that’s possible!). Now the question is – is she family or is she a lover? The conversation between Elijah and Katerina about love is not only significant because of its modern day parallels to Elena, Stefan, and Damon, but to a time just before the Curse was set. Klaus reminds Elijah that a vampire’s greatest weakness is love. He has obviously shed much of his humanity in favor of his own pursuits, but Elijah seems more conflicted, even to this day. Petrova blood being used to seal Klaus’ curse is obviously meant to serve as a message (or lesson?) of some sort. Is the original Petrova somehow responsible for the Original family being turned into vampires? Or was she a “weakness” after they were turned? She would have to be human in order for her blood to set the Curse. So what “imbalance” exists there?
• Also significant about the original Petrova, per Crissy Calhoun, is that the curse must be broken in the birthplace of the doppelganger. This is stated clearly by Klaus when talking to Katherine. (Remember how he killed her entire family in Bulgaria, saying they are now “even”> Interesting parallel with what Klaus’ not-father did to Klaus’ actual father and his extended family.) This is also a bit problematic in terms of time and place because we’re clearly told the flashbacks are in England (and we know Katerina escaped while in England) and we’re even there the night before the full moon. How on earth were they getting back to Bulgaria in a day? They were centuries away from the express train, I do believe. But that doesn’t matter because we have yet another mystical piece to the whole sacrifice ritual puzzle. Also, it’s a callback to those Eastern European origins of the Originals and the Petrova doppelganger.

Let’s talk mythology, Vampire Diaries fans. Did we miss anything?

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