'Vampire Diaries' Recap: Episode 13 'Children Of The Damned'

"The Vampire Diaries" is such a fickle mistress. Just when you think something's finally going to get resolved, five more things pop up to confuse you. So I shouldn't have been surprised when last night's episode, which answered so many of the questions I had about the previous week's revealing installment, raised about a gajillion more. Damn you, Julie Plec and Kevin Williamson and your evil ways. Teaching us more about the mysterious Anna and showing us more of historic human Damon's non-evil side, only to raise more questions about Anna's origins and bring us right back to present-day vengeful Damon.

The most entertaining part of last night's episode was definitely the flashbacks to Katherine getting her sexually aggressive vampire on with the young, still-human Salvatore brothers. I know she was an evil vampire and all, but it's nice to see such an assertive female in a time when women weren't viewed as, you know, actual people (even if she wasn't actually human). But the most important thing we learned from the flashbacks is that the townspeople captured Katherine and her partner in crime, Pearl, the town's apothecary — who also happens to be Anna's mother. So that's why Anna's on a quest to open the vault. One question answered, another raised: if Pearl was a vampire, how did she have a child? And when did Anna turn into a vampire?

We found out that Ben the bartender was turned only recently, and Bonnie learned he was a vampire when she kissed him. She thought she was slick when she tried to get away from him, but he sensed that she sensed that something was wrong, and he grabbed her as she tried to run and call Elena.

Speaking of Elena, thank you, ma'am, for asking what the heck a grimoire is (though I wish you would've asked how to spell it, too, since I have no freakin' idea. It's kind of hard to Google something when you don't know how to spell it properly!). Anyway, it's kind of like a "witch's cookbook," we learned, and once the Gilbert diary was found, we learned where it was hidden, too: in Giuseppe Salvatore's (a.k.a. Mr. Stefan and Damon's dad, a.k.a. James Remar — the daddy of another TV badass, Dexter!) grave. Which is where Damon found Elena and Stefan toward the end of the episode. Stefan had gotten a copy of the diary from Alaric, whom he also had a bit of a heart-to-heart with. Alaric told Stefan that Damon killed his wife, and Stefan advised Alaric not to let Damon in on that fact or he'd be dead in a heartbeat.

Damon thought that Stefan was trying to help him open the vault, but when he found Stefan with the already-dug-up grave, he realized that his brother was only playing him. In a fit of rage, he grabbed Elena, fed her some of his blood, and threatened to snap her neck unless Stefan gave him the book. After retreating back to the Gilbert house, Stefan chatted with Jeremy and Jenna and realized that Anna was in the house. When he rushed up to check on Elena, she was gone. Until next week!

What did you think of last night's episode? Were you satisfied with the answers we got, or frustrated that more questions were raised?

Tags Ian Somerhalder, James Remar, Katerina Graham, Kelly Hu, Malese Jow, Matthew Davis, Nina Dobrev, Paul Wesley, Sara Canning, Sean Faris, Steven R. McQueen, TV Recap, Vampire Diaries