Episode 'The Vampire Diaries' Season 2, Episode 17 - Know Thy Enemy Recap

We’re back and so is Isobel, sporting excellent bangs of evil!  Unsurprisingly, having your estranged vampire birth mother show up unannounced on the front porch is awkward.  Elena orders Aunt Jenna not to invite her in.  FINALLY.  For a town full to the brim with supernatural beings, the citizens of Mystic Falls are downright Canadian about home security.

Isobel manages to let two cats out of the bag before she vamps off: she and Elena had already met and she is Alaric’s supposedly dead wife.  Aunt Jenna does not take this well, ordering her lying niece and now officially ex-boyfriend to back off.

At Salvatore HQ, Katherine brats around the mansion like the evil vampire twin that she is, pledging loyalty to Stefan and Damon’s Team Save Elena while actually scheming to do the opposite. Cheers to the awesome actressing of Nina Dobrev who does a bang up job at playing both Elena and Katherine.

Caroline freaks out about Matt.  Stefan counsels her on What To Do When You Tell Your Human Boyfriend You Are Vampire and It Doesn’t Go Well.  Stefan is totally Caroline’s get a grip friend and I love it.

Meanwhile, Damon reviews his to-do list for the day:

1. Practice Sexy Eyebrow Calisthenics
2. Poorly Conceal Raging Love for Elena with Sarcasm
3. Harness Ancient Dead Witch Power

While Damon, Bonnie, and Jeremy run off to handle task number three, Isobel and Katherine enjoy blood cocktails at Isobel’s latest lair and toast their plan to double-cross Team Salvatore and deliver Elena to Klaus.

This dynamic duo manages to kidnap Elena from a Historical Society luncheon.  But!  We find out Isobel has been compelled by Klaus and is following his orders, which are to double-cross Katherine and deliver both her and the moonstone, which Damon was hilariously keeping in the soap dish in his bathroom.

Once her Klaus-compelled work is done (including ambushing ex-hubby Alaric and handing him over to a random man-witch), Isobel sets Elena free, rips off her daywalker necklace and dies for real and forever.

By the end of the episode, Katherine has been triple-crossed and Klaus-napped, Bonnie is packing the powers of 100 dead witches, Damon and Stefan are feeling smug about it, and Alaric has been body snatched by Klaus.

Next week, more double crossing and attempts at self-sacrifice than you can shake a (pointy) stick at.  Plus, dance party!!!  See you then . . .