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shipperxEW's: Everything you need to know About Vampire Diaries to be up to speed for season 2...
Who are Damon, Elena, and Stefan, the triangle at the center of the show?
Stefan (Paul Wesley) and Damon (Ian Somerhalder) are estranged vampire brothers who both recently returned to their hometown, Mystic Falls, Va. Damon is the bad boy who drinks human blood, while Stefan is the good guy who usually feeds on less fortifying animals. (He did go on a Homosapiens bender late last season after his teenage girlfriend, Elena, made him drink from her so he'd be powerful enough to save them in a fight.) Damon's hobbies include getting drunk, dancing, and using his expressive eyebrows to enhance dialogue that has earned him a spot on Entertainment Weekly's 2009 list of TV's Best Bitches. Stefan enjoys brooding, reminding his brother that Elena (the only human Damon cares for) will not be his, and presumably working on his rock-hard abs.
What powers do the Salvatore brothers have?
Besides the ability to make us frequently rewind? Like other bloodsuckers in the Vampire Diaries world, Stefan and Damon have superspeed and superhearing, and can use mind compulsion on humans to control their actions and erase their memories — unless the human is wearing or has digested vervain, an herb that can also physically incapacitate a vampire. (Elena wears a vervain necklace given to her by Stefan.) Unlike other vampires, Damon and Stefan can walk in daylight because of the magical rings they wear. Also of note: ''Feeling'' is a button vampires can choose to turn on or off, which accounts for the varied level of humanity found from vamp to vamp. The older the vampire, the stronger the vampire. Witches can give vampires serious headaches.
How did Stefan and Damon become vampires?
Pay attention to this one, newcomers! Stefan and Damon's past — specifically, their vampire lover Katherine(played by the same actress that plays Elena) — has come back to haunt them. The brothers were turned in 1864, when the undead in Mystic Falls were rounded up by members of the founding families known as the Council to be burned in the church. They tried to free Katherine, and were shot and killed by their own intolerant father. They died with Katherine's blood in their system — Damon had drunk from her willingly, Stefan only under compulsion — so their bodies began the transformation. Each brother intended to die a true death rather than consume human blood to complete the transformation into a full-fledged vampire, but Stefan's father accidentally staked himself when Stefan went to say goodbye, and the blood overpowered him. Damon had wanted to become a vampire only when he thought it meant spending eternity with Katherine, but Stefan — wanting to spend eternity with his brother — tempted Damon with a tasty young lady and the promise that if he turned, he would no longer feel the pain of losing Katherine. Damon vowed to spend eternity making Stefan's life hell because Katherine had chosen to turn Stefan as well.
So how is Katherine back?
It turns out Katherine's handmaiden, a witch named Emily, used magic to save the Mystic Falls vampires — sort of. She sealed them in a tomb underneath the church. Damon spent 145 years trying to find a way to free Katherine, and in the end, he used Elena's best friend, the witch Bonnie (Katerina Graham), and her powerful grandmother (Jasmine Guy), pictured, to open the tomb using their ancestor Emily's spell book. The plan was for Damon, who'd racked up a body count by this point, to take Katherine and leave town. The problem: Katherine never went into the tomb. Damon later found out that Katherine had convinced a guard at the church who was obsessed with her that she'd turn him if he let her go. Katherine knew where to find Damon all along; she simply didn't care.
Elena found out that she was adopted, and that the man she called ''Uncle John'' was actually her biological father. He'd fathered Elena with a girl named Isobel when they were teens. A doctor delivered the baby (Elena) and raised her as his own. Isobel went on to become a paranormal psychologist who spent her career at Duke researching unexplained activity in Mystic Falls. [Elena's biological father] sent Isobel to Damon for research, not knowing that Isobel wanted to be turned into a vampire.
Why DID Isobel want to become a vampire?
We don't think we've heard the real reason. Alaric , the man Isobel ultimately married after parting ways with [Elena's biological father], is hella hot. Anyway, here's what else we know: Alaric walked in on Damon draining Isobel's blood, then saw Damon flee with her body. Alaric came to Mystic Falls for answers... and to kill Damon. [...] Alaric and Damon, oddly enough, have proven a highly entertaining duo.
An exchange that sums up what we hope is the beginning of a beautiful friendship:
Damon: ''That was fun. Oh, don't look at me like that. I know you hate me. Guess what? Everyone hates me. But you can't deny we were badass.''
Alaric stands to leave, and punches him in the face.
Damon (to bartender): ''It happens.''
Why does Bonnie dislike vampires?
Bonnie's grandma made it clear that witches in their family will keep the existence of vampires a secret — as long as the vampires understand that witches protect their own first. Bonnie blames Damon and Stefan for Grams' death.
So where exactly did we leave off?
All hell broke loose on Founder’s Day. The vamps who'd been sprung from the aforementioned tomb when the witches didn't have enough juice to properly close it were there to munch on the founding families. Uncle John planned on using a device (one that he and Isobel worked together to obtain for Katherine, who wanted the tomb vamps dead — interesting) to round up those vampires and set fire to them in the apothecary basement. The one-time-only device had belonged to his ancestor Johnathan Gilbert, who fancied himself an inventor, but it was Emily who made it work. For an estimated five minutes, it would emit a frequency that would incapacitate vampires (and other supernaturals, it turns out) so the police/Council could capture them. Isobel had kidnapped Elena's brother, Jeremy, and threatened to kill him if Elena didn't get the device from Damon. Damon gave it to Elena — only because he trusted Elena, and she believed that Bonnie had taken the magic off it so it wouldn't work. Turns out Bonnie lied. Damon was among those captured. Luckily, he had thanked Bonnie for her supposed help at the parade earlier in the day, and she had a momentary change of heart. She helped Stefan save Damon.
Cliff-hanger: Damon kissed Elena, but it was Katherine. WHAT?!
After his conversation with [Elena's brother], Damon ran into Elena on the front porch as he was leaving her house. He told her he'd come home to Mystic Falls wanting to destroy it, but on that evening, he found himself wanting to save it. ''How does that happen? I'm not a hero, Elena. I don't do good. It's not in me.... It's reserved for my brother, and you, and Bonnie — even though she has a reason to hate me — still helped Stefan save me,'' he said. He knew Bonnie did it for Elena. ''Which means that somewhere along the way, [he moves closer] you decided that I was worth saving. And I wanted to thank you for that.'' Damon landed a kiss on her cheek, but then there was a steamy lip-lock (pictured) that got rewound an embarrassing number of times. It was the payoff for much sexual tension. See: Damon explaining why he hadn't used mind compulsion on Elena when she wasn't wearing her vervain necklace on a road trip (''I didn't compel you in Atlanta because we were having fun. I wanted it to be real'') and Damon stepping in to dance with her at the Miss Mystic Falls pageant when Stefan was off the blood wagon. Elena's aunt Jenna, with whom she and Jeremy now live, interrupted the kiss and told Elena to come inside. Bad move, since that invitation went to Katherine...
