THE VAMPIRE DIARIES RECAP: ORIGINAL SIN

Welcome to Season 5 people! I have to say I was a little worried about how the plot lines would go this season without Klaus and the Originals, but boy did they take all of that suspicion away with Original Sin. The Wow factor of this episode was off the charts! I had to watch it twice to make sure I didn’t miss anything. Two words come to mind when trying to describe this episode – Holy Qetsiyah!  Let’s get this party started!

We begin with Stefan on the hunt for his next meal, and he found a bartender to feed on. He bit her neck and then told her to run away(well at least he isn’t in full Ripper mode because he could have killed her). Stefan left the bar and the sun was up. He started to sizzle and realized he didn’t have his daylight ring on. He fell to his knees in pain. Immediately after, Elena jumped awake in bed with Damon. She had a dream about Stefan at a bar in pain that felt too real to her. Damon didn’t care to hear the details of her dream about his brother, but Katherine entered the room said she had the same dream. That wasn’t a good sign for Stefan so they were going to look for him, all three of them together. Elena wanted to lock Katherine in the basement, but Damon didn’t want to let her out of his sight. Knowing that Silas wanted her, he wanted her for leverage.

Silas was on the phone with Nadia (the traveler/threesome thief). He didn’t believe that she really killed her sidekick and wasn’t sure he could trust her yet. So he asked her find out if Matt was alive (since he had his ring on). He wanted her to find him and get whatever information she could out of him and then kill him permanently (please don’t kill Matt).  

Stephan woke up in a cabin with a gorgeous but mysterious woman (Yay! Janina Gavankar finally made her TVD debut) who saved him from the sun. She offered him a blood bag and he took it without question. She told him that wasn’t the first time she saved him. She also, got someone to get him out of the quarry and Stefan repaid the man by killing him. Whoops! She asked him who he was because she had seen that face on someone else before. He told her that he was the doppelganger for an evil immortal man named Silas. She told him Silas wasn’t always evil, he was normal at one point.

There was a flashback scene to Greece 2,000 years ago. Silas was just a regular man in love with a woman. The woman said Silas was her true love, and Silas convinced her to create the immortality spell so he could be with his true love forever. She assumed she was his true love, but when she found out Silas just used her to be with another woman, she put him in a tomb with the cure. She hoped he would take the cure and die (which would leave him stuck on the other side for Supernaturals that she created to trap his soul). Who is this woman you ask? Qetsiyah alive in the flesh (this was my first big gasp of this episode, especially since I had a recent interview with Janina Gavankar and had no idea she was playing Qetsiyah).

She said Silas wanted to destroy that other side and take the cure and die. Stefan was hesitant at first and asked if she was Qetsiyah, how was she alive? Qetsiyah explained that when Bonnie lowered the veil, she could come back and took the chance. She wanted to stick it to Silas since it appeared no one else was able to, and that’s why she came for Stefan. Whew! She is the definition of a woman scorned!

Matt was at the Grill and bumped into Nadia in the alley. She grabbed his head and his eyes went black again and suddenly Matt was gone. Gregor, the man she killed in last week’s episode, was using Matt’s body like a host. It appears that he can take over Matt’s body whenever he wants. He was upset with her because she killed him. Nadia told him that at least she got a host for him that has a ring (so if he dies he can come back). This whole situation seems strange but I will say I enjoyed seeing Zach Roerig (Matt) play a different role with an accent. Nadia made Matt call Elena in is regular voice to find out where Katherine was.

Back at Qetsiyah’s cabin, she decided she wanted to change her name to something that wasn’t so old-timey. She went with Tessa because it was a little different, but not unheard of. Stefan got her to tell more of her story with Silas.  She told him that she made the immortality elixir for their wedding day, but while she was at the altar waiting for him all the flowers started dying and she knew that Silas had already taken it. She went after him and found him in the woods with his true love, Amara, who just happened to be her handmaiden. Scandalous! In the flashback scene they showed Silas start to reveal her face, (I kept thinking OMG it’s going to be a Qetsiyah Doppelganger and Janina Gavankar will be playing two roles! That would be a twist! Well I was wrong about the twist. It was even more shocking than that) and she looked just like Elena and Katherine. She was the Original Petrova Doppelganger!!! I did not see that coming at all!

Tessa explained that Silas was the first version of Stefan, and Amara was the first version of Elena. When they became immortal, nature created shadow selves for them both. She told Stefan that Silas is stronger than her now because he has been feeding off of people, and has had time to practice mind control. That is why she needed Stefan.

Another flashback to 2000 years ago- Qetsiyah was with Silas and pretended to forgive him. She offered him the cure and the chance to be without her (which she referred to as a second chance) but he declined. She told him that it worked on someone else she tried it on. Silas knew she was up to no good. Qetsiyah cut Amara’s throat and ripped her heart out! Wow! She put up a “supernatural barrier” between him and a peaceful afterlife. She confessed that she wanted Silas to take the cure and kill himself; then he would find out that he would be with her instead of Amara. That didn’t work out too well for her. Tessa told Stefan that she had “trust issues” (that’s putting it mildly) and didn’t want him to leave. She needed him to get to Silas so she hit him with a headache that brought him to his knees.

Damon and Elena (Katherine was asleep in the car) found the bar from her dream. They went inside and found the bartender with a bandage on her neck. They compelled her and she told them she was attacked by a guy and she ran away. Katherine came in the bar and Nadia showed up shortly after. She looked at both of them and asked which one was Katherine Pierce. Elena distracted her and told Katherine to run. Nadia through Elena across the bar so fast poor Damon couldn’t even help her out. Nadia was gone. Elena went to go after them but Damon stopped her and said if she had to let Katherine go, then she should. He didn’t want her getting hurt. Aw! They kissed and she left.  

Katherine was running for her life and stopped to catch her breath and she had a cramp. Elena caught up to her and Katherine was actually glad it was her. Katherine asked her why she didn’t kill her after she gave her the cure. Elena told her that she values her humanity and gave her the cure hoping she could find a piece of her own humanity buried under all of her bad behavior. Nadia came out of nowhere and snapped Elena’s neck (how in the world is she that strong to snap a vampire’s neck?) and took Katherine.

Damon finally found Stefan and he was tied to a chair with vines. Stefan told him who the woman was, and Damon referred to her as “Qetsi-whatever” which proved her point in wanting to be called Tessa. She was going to cast a spell on Stefan to weaken Silas’ powers so she could turn him into a useless immortal and make him take the cure. She asked Damon why Katherine wasn’t with her and he figured out that she planted those dreams to get them there. Stefan was still surprised that Katherine was human and took the cure. He still has a lot of catching up to do. Stefan wanted Silas gone so he told her to do the spell.

Nadia took Katherine to her car and Silas was waiting for them there. He said he put a GPS tracker on her car and it worked better than a locator spell. Silas commanded Nadia to point her gun at her heart and right when he told her to pull the trigger, he fell screaming to his knees. Tessa’s spell worked, and both Stefan and Silas bled from their eyes.

Damon was worried about Stefan and Tessa assured him that he would wake up. She said all she did was burn through his conscious mind (oh well in that case…no worries). She told Damon that he should leave Stefan with her if he wanted a chance with Elena. She said he couldn’t mess with fate and for centuries she had watched Elena and Stefan fall in love over and over again. She said it was her favorite soap opera while she was on the other side. She said that as Doppelgangers, destiny was on their side and that she and Damon were merely there to keep things interesting. Damon was not trying to hear that. He told her to go to hell and she knocked him out cold.

Nadia and Silas’ were on the phone, and Silas told her that his ex-fiancé must be back (since he lost his psychic powers). One thing they had in common was that they both wanted the cure, and they wouldn’t stop until they got it. He told her that Katherine was still his priority, and she better keep her alive. Nadia didn’t make any promises. Katherine took the phone and asked Silas to just let her go. He dropped the bomb when he told her that the cure was running through her veins. Her blood was now the cure (What???)!

Back in Mystic Falls, Matt got a call from Elena and she told him they found Stefan. She asked if he was alright because he didn’t seem like himself when they spoke earlier. Matt didn’t remember talking to her at all that day; he looked down and saw mud on his boots. He got off the phone with Elena and knew something was wrong.

At the Salvatore house, Damon saw how lovingly Elena was tending to Stefan and it bothered him. She asked him what Tessa told him and he told her that she said they didn’t have a chance. He went on to tell her that the universe was on her and Stefan’s side and there was nothing they could do. Damon got a little emotional and said, “No one tells me who I love.” He told her that she was his life and he wouldn’t let anything get in the way of that (Aw! I like sweet, protective Damon). Right when he was about to kiss her, Stefan woke up. Damon welcomed him back and he just stared at them. Then he said, “I have no idea who you people are!”

Oh My God! What in the world is going on? What do you think about Tessa? Will Stefan get his memory back? What will happen when everyone realizes Katherine’s blood is the cure? Will more people take it? Who is Nadia really, and why can she over power a vampire? What is a traveler?  Let me know your thoughts in the comment section below.

The Vampire Diaries airs Thursday nights at 8/7c on The CW.