You guys, VD-Day is finally here! Tonight, at long last, is the season 2 premiere of "The Vampire Diaries." If you managed to somehow miss The CW's best new show in years when it debuted last season, it's not too late to catch up before tonight's episode. (And even if you are an avid viewer, a little refresher never hurts, right?!) We took a look back at all 22 of Hollywood Crush's season 1 recaps to put together this handy guide for you. Here goes:
Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev) was just your average high school cheerleader in Mystic Falls, Virginia until her parents died in a tragic car accident. She was having a hard time living with her Aunt Jenna (Sara Canning and younger brother Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen) and adjusting to life without the 'rents until sexy new student Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley) showed up at school.
Her instant attraction to the hunky new kid was mutual, and, after he quoted "Wuthering Heights" to her, and they both scrawled furiously in their diaries about it, the two shared a kiss that would lead to some life-changing events. (Thankfully, the cheesy smoke machines and the "Dear Diary" voiceover conceit that marred the pilot were nixed after a few eps.)
Meanwhile, Stefan's mischievous (and sorta evil) older bro Damon (Ian Somerhalder came to town too, presumably so he could take off his shirt a lot (it's cool, we didn't mind) and seduce various Mystic Falls women. Elena's BFF, Bonnie (Kat Graham, found out she had special powers—turns out, she's a witch.
So, Stefan and Elena started dating, and Stefan revealed that he and his big bro had dated the same girl, Katherine (also Nina Dobrev). Drama alert! S gave E a protective locket, presumably so she would resist his brother's charms and they wouldn't have to fight over the same girl again. Said locket contained vervane, a magical herb that makes humans able to resist a vampire's powers of persuasion. Elena got suspicious of Stefan's strange behavior after a while, and finally asked him the million-dollar question: "What are you?" He was all like, "Say it!" and then she was all like "Vampire!" Oh, wait, different high school vampire love story.
Guess what? That mysterious ex? She's the one who turned Stefan—and Damon. And PS—she and Elena are pretty much identical twins. Not such a great thing for E to find out after she TOTALLY DID IT with Stefan.
Elena's little brother Jeremy started dating Vicki (Kayla Ewell), the bad-girl little sister of Elena's ex-boyfriend. She was awesome, and not only because she was on "Freaks and Geeks"—she also introduced him to a bunch of druggies who hang out in folding lawn chairs in the cemetery. Weird. Then Damon decided to turn her into a vampire, which was pretty cool (though Jeremy was confused by her even more erratic-than-usual behavior). But apparently that was too much awesomeness for more than one episode, because Vicki died for good at the Halloween dance in front of little Jer's very eyes. Good thing Damon was there to erase the young Gilbert's memory.
Damon worked his way in with the town council, a secret coalition of longtime Mystic Falls dwellers united to protect the town against the vampire scourge of the past (i.e. around the time the Salvatore brothers actually lived). Bonnie's witchy ancestor haunted her dreams until B found out that Emily was Katherine's handmaiden who had vowed to keep her safe during the vampire persecution. Em had sealed her in a tomb, and she wasn't dead after all. Damon wanted to find her, and that's why he was actually back.
After the winter break, Jeremy got a new love interest who was even awesomer than Vicki, and even more undead (she was a vamp from the Salvatore bros. era). Anna (Malese Jow) initially wanted to get close to Jer so she could get a valuable Gilbert family heirloom that would unlock the tomb Katherine was trapped in which also contained her mother, Pearl, but then she totes fell in love with him. (Then he tried to turn himself into a vampire, but Anna was sad because it was really so he could be with his ex, Vicki. A couple of episodes later, they actually started dating.) Actually, Bonnie was the key to opening the darn tomb, thanks to her magical book of witchy secrets. But, whoops! When the gang finally opened it, Katherine was nowhere to be found. And the power it took to do the spell killed Bonnie's grandma. Friendly witch no more! Little Bonnie Bennett was out for revenge.
A hot new teacher, Alaric (Matthew Davis), came to town, and flirted with Aunt Jenna. Alaric teamed up with Damon to find his dead wife Isobel, who was actually now a vampire because Damon turned her. She was in contact with Katherine. (My, what an incestuous vampire world they live in.) Also! Elena was adopted, and Isobel was her birth mother.
Vicki's body was found, so the town knew something was up.
Stefan went on a human blood bender, and Uncle John Gilbert came to town. Uncle John began to mastermind an evil plot: He wanted to use another Gilbert family device to incapacitate all the vampires in town, round them up, and kill them.
Isobel came to town to help John, who turned out to be her baby daddy (so: Elena's adoptive uncle was actually her birth father). Elena asked Bonnie to de-spell the device so it wouldn't work (and thus protect her bf), but Bonnie was still mad about Grams' death, so she said she would but then faked it. She wanted the vampires to die. The device went off, and all the vampires in town dropped to the ground, writhing in pain. John rounded them all up and burned them in a fire, but the Salvatores got out. Anna didn't (SOB!). Elena made out with Damon on her front porch (!), then went inside and chopped off her uncle/father's fingers (!!). Oops, that wasn't Elena—that was Katherine (!!!).
Other people you should probably know about: Caroline (Candice Accola), Elena’s friend who had a fling with Damon then started dating Elena’s ex-boyfriend Matt (Zach Roerig), whose BFF is Tyler Lockwood (Michael Trevino), the mayor's son and Vicki's evil ex-boyfriend. Tyler's totes a werewolf.
Aaaaaaand scene. Feel caught up?
How psyched are you for tonight's season two premiere?
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