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This article is about Katerina Petrova from the television series. You may be looking for Katherine von Swartzschild, a character from the novels.

I have everything I want, Damon... Or I'm about to. Once that last bell rings, this stupid town will go up in flames, and everybody will go poof. Well, they'll burn alive first, but then their ashes will go poof.
Katherine to Damon in I Was Feeling Epic

Katherine Pierce, born Katerina Petrova (Bulgarian: Катерина Петрова) was a witch of the Traveler sub-culture and a former main character of The Vampire Diaries. She was also the second-known Petrova Doppelgänger of Amara and a former vampire. She was the main antagonist of season one (mostly off-screen through John Gilbert's and Isobel's actions, as both were working for her in order to kill off the tomb vampires), and one of the main antagonists of season two, the second half of season four and the first half of Season Five. She was also the final antagonist of season eight. Katherine can be considered the main antagonist of the series overall due to being a major antagonist in the first, second, fourth, fifth and eighth seasons and all the antagonists that were a result of her actions.

In 1490, she was disowned by her father because she brought shame upon her family after giving birth to a baby girl out of wedlock when she was seventeen. She was forced to give the baby up for adoption and then was then exiled to England. She quickly assimilated into English culture and met two nobleman brothers, Niklaus and Elijah Mikaelson. At first, she was attracted to both men, but in time, she eventually learned that she was a Petrova doppelgänger and that Klaus was planning on using her as a sacrifice in order to break the curse that bound his werewolf side. She sabotaged his plan by running away with the moonstone, which bound the curse, and then tricked Rose into feeding her vampire blood so she could turn herself into a vampire. Because Katherine was no longer human, her blood no longer was a viable component of the ritual to undo the curse. Klaus was so infuriated with Katherine's sabotage, that she was forced to live on the run for over 500 years as he hunted her down.

Her activities during her first centuries as a vampire are unknown, but at some point between the 15th and 19th centuries, she took on the alias "Katherine Pierce" (an anglicized version of her birth name) and eventually met and befriended Pearl, Anna, and Emily Bennett. In the late 19th century, she traveled to Mystic Falls, where she met Stefan and Damon Salvatore, whose family hosted her at the Salvatore Estate. She later fell in love with both brothers, and subsequently fed them her blood, resulting in their eventual transitions into vampires after they were killed by their father in early autumn of 1864. When the Founder's Council found out the identities of the vampires in town, she faked her death and escaped being sealed in the tomb with the aid of George Lockwood, who helped her in exchange for the moonstone.

During the twentieth century, she continued to keep tabs on Stefan while still hiding from Klaus, including two separate sightings in Chicago in the 1920s and the 1980s. In 2010, she came back to Mystic Falls with the intention of finally earning her freedom from Klaus by handing over the Petrova doppelgänger who came after her, Elena Gilbert. To sweeten the potential deal with Klaus, she killed Caroline Forbes, who had Damon's blood in her system and later transitioned into a vampire, and tricked Mason and Tyler Lockwood into triggering their werewolf curses, just so they could each also serve as the vampire and werewolf sacrifices necessary in the ritual. She even tracked down the moonstone so that she could give Klaus every component necessary to break his curse. However, when her plans ultimately fell through, she fled Mystic Falls again shortly after Klaus broke his hybrid curse on his own, knowing that he was not done punishing her for her betrayal half a millennium ago.

After failing to induce Klaus' forgiveness by securing the cure and handing it over to Elijah in Season Four, Katherine managed to draw Klaus away from Mystic Falls by revealing to him in a letter that a witch in New Orleans named Jane-Anne Deveraux was plotting against him. Once Klaus and Elijah officially returned to New Orleans, Katherine moved back to Mystic Falls, confident that the Mikaelsons would be too preoccupied with their complications there to pay any attention to her.

In Graduation, Katherine initiated a violent fight with Elena, believing that Elena got the life that Katherine deserved. Just as she was about to rip her descendant's heart out of her chest, Elena forced the cure down Katherine's throat, which resulted in Katherine returning to a human/Traveler for the first time in over 500 years.

Following these events, she went on the run for the summer, but when she realized that her return to humanity made her vulnerable to all of the various supernatural enemies she had made over the centuries, she returned to Mystic Falls, hoping to sweet-talk Stefan and Damon into giving her their protection. However, she was forced to flee again when the immortal Silas came looking for her at the Salvatore Boarding House and tried to kill her. Silas later revealed to Damon that Katherine's blood became the cure after she had ingested it, which is why he wanted Katherine so he could cure himself and die so he could be reunited with his true love in the afterlife. She ran from him for weeks, but eventually, Damon helped Silas lure Katherine to the house and fed him her blood, which turned him back into a witch.

Though Katherine should have died after Silas completely drained her of blood, Katherine's survivor instincts won out, and she managed to live through the attack. Unfortunately for Katherine, she learned shortly afterward that having the cure removed from her bloodstream had caused her body to start rapidly aging in order to compensate for the 500+ years she had been "alive" as an immortal vampire. Not ready to die, her daughter Nadia reminded her that as the daughter of a Traveler, Katherine had the magical powers necessary to become a Passenger in someone else's body. She ultimately cast the Passenger spell on her deathbed to transfer her spirit into Elena's body, with help from Nadia and a Traveler named Mia. After the gang discovered this, Stefan stabbed her with the Traveler Knife, expelling her from Elena's body, but not before Katherine made amends with a dying Nadia. Upon learning she was denied entry to the Other Side, and therefore also denied a reunion with her daughter, she was dragged by unseen forces into what is presumed to be a hell of some kind.

It was revealed that Katherine was sent to Hell where she manipulated Arcadius since the minute she was sent there. She eventually returned became an ally of Kai Parker and after Cade's death and became the queen of Hell. Shortly after, she was killed by the Mystic Falls Gang after Bonnie sent hellfire back to hell while Katherine was there. Hell was destroyed and Katherine's fate remain unknown, either she was destroyed with hell or moved on and found peace.

Katherine's notable ancestors include Amara, who was Silas' true love and presumably the world's first immortal woman, and Tatia, whose blood was involved in the creation of the adapted spell of immortality that was cast on the Mikaelson Family by Esther, as well the curse that bound Klaus' werewolf side. She is also the maternal ancestor of Isobel Flemming and that of Isobel's biological daughter, Elena Gilbert. She was once the romantic interest of Stefan and Damon Salvatore, as well as Mason Lockwood. Since the late 15th century, she has also been the romantic interest of Elijah, with whom she was involved in the 21st century until he effectively ended their relationship by leaving to join his half-brother, Klaus, in New Orleans.

Katerina Petrova was a member of the Petrova Family.

Early History[]

Katerina Petrova (Cyrillic: Катерина Петрова) was born into a noble and wealthy Bulgarian family on June 5, 1473. In 1490, when she was about 16 or 17 years of age, Katerina became pregnant by an unknown man, a Traveler, and her family disowned her for the shameful birth of an illegitimate daughter. She carried the child to term, but seconds after her daughter's birth, Katerina's father took the child away and gave the child to another family, claiming it would be better for both of them to never see one another. Katerina was devastated by this and was banished to England, where she admitted to "quickly becoming English." In 1492, she met Trevor, who introduced her to Lord Elijah, who in turn introduced her to his younger brother, Lord Niklaus. Katerina was attracted to Klaus, until she found out what he was, and that he was planning on using her as a sacrifice to break the the Hybrid Curse placed on him. She escaped with the help of Trevor, who had fallen in love with her. He led her pursuers astray and told her to go east to a cottage in the woods where she would be safe. When she arrived at the cottage, Katerina met a vampire named Rose.

When Rose found out that Katerina had escaped from Klaus with the moonstone, she locked her in a room and told her that she would take her back to Klaus as soon as the opportunity arose, not wanting to suffer Klaus' wrath. Katerina tried to commit suicide by stabbing herself with a knife, saying she would rather die than go back to Klaus, but Rose force-fed her some of her blood to heal her. When Rose turned her back to confront Trevor, Katerina hung herself with a length of rope. Later, when Katerina woke up in transition, Trevor asked why she did it and claimed he would have helped her live. Katerina responds by saying that he would have been able to help her run and that running was never going to be enough.

Rose then explained to Trevor that Katerina used him to escape, and, knowing Klaus would find out their role in the escape, Rose attempted to kill Katerina with a stake. Katerina used the owner of the cabin as a shield, which resulted in her death. Katerina then gave in to her instincts and drained the little old lady, completing her transition into a vampire. She then threw the body towards Rose and Trevor and fled into the night. Katerina returned to Bulgaria in the later months of 1492 to find her entire family brutally slaughtered by Klaus. She knew he had done it as revenge for her escape and subsequent transition. She was last seen weeping over her mother's dead body.

Katherine may have stolen the spell for making Daylight Amulets from Esther's grimoire before fleeing from Klaus as this may explain how Emily was able to make Katherine, Bethanne, Pearl, Anna and Harper daylight rings and her a necklace in 1864.

Sometime during 1498, Katherine returned to Bulgaria after escaping from Klaus. Katherine searched every village and cottage for her daughter, Nadia Petrova, who was eight at the time, but had no luck in finding her.

Katherine killed a man outside the French Court of Versaille. Nadia, who was in search of information on her mother's whereabouts, offered a large amount of gold to a man who witnessed Katherine commit this murder and informed him that Katherine had been on the run for 228 years by this point.

372 years had passed when Katerina arrived in Mystic Falls, Virginia in 1864, by which time she had taken the name Katherine Pierce, presumably to avoid detection by Klaus. At some point, she had become friends with Pearl and her daughter, Anna; another friend she made prior to this point was the witch Emily Bennett, whose life Katherine had saved, putting Emily in her debt. Emily forged Katherine a special piece of jewelry with a lapis lazuli stone, which allowed her to walk in the sun without being burned and helped her keep her vampire identity a secret. She was taken in by one of the town's founders, Giuseppe Salvatore, having spun a story about being orphaned by a fire that killed her family in Atlanta to win his sympathy. Katherine met and fell in love with his younger son Stefan Salvatore, though she quickly began a physical relationship with Stefan's older brother, Damon, as well. Katherine created quite a few vampires while living in Mystic Falls, which inevitably alerted the Founding Families to their existence. Pearl warned Katherine that the town knew about the vampires after discovering an elixir that Honoria Fell had asked to be sold at the local apothecary which contained vervain. Pearl tried to convince her to leave, but Katherine refused, claiming she had a plan in motion. Her plan, it turned out, was to eventually turn Stefan and Damon into vampires, having seduced them both during her stay at the Salvatore household.

Realizing how quickly the Founder's Council would take action against the vampires, Katherine struck a deal with George Lockwood: she would give him the moonstone if he would help her fake her death in the inevitable vampire round-up. Eventually, Stefan unwittingly suggested to his father that he knew a vampire, and Giuseppe guessed Katherine's true identity. Giuseppe spiked Stefan's drink with vervain, and later that same night, Katherine bit him. She was incapacitated by the vervain in his bloodstream, and, hearing the commotion, Giuseppe burst in to take her away. Damon later went to rescue her, and Stefan, upset that he had hurt his brother and jeopardized Katherine's life, helped him in the effort. They were both killed by their own father, who was so ashamed that his sons had been seduced by a "demon" that he preferred to keep the story that they had died honorably in the war against the vampires.

Katherine and the other vampires were taken to Fell's Church to be destroyed, but George helped Katherine escape, as per their previous arrangement. She gave George the moonstone, but instead of leaving right away, she turned to see Stefan's body one last time while it was still lying in the road. She ran to Stefan, kissed him, and promised they would be together again someday. After transitioning into a vampire, Damon was told by Emily that Katherine was trapped in the tomb beneath the church, and as a result, the older Salvatore never stopped loving Katherine, as he impatiently awaited the day he would be able to rescue her from the tomb. In reality, Katherine was still lying low to evade Klaus, and she admitted to Stefan that she had seen him in the front row of a Bon Jovi concert in the 1980s to prove that she had continued to keep tabs on him over the decades.

Katherine was in Chicago at the same time as Stefan, but she only observed him from afar. After a police raid cleared out the speakeasy, Katherine spotted Rebekah's necklace on the ground. She moved to pick it up, but ran away before Stefan could see or notice her. She watched him for a few moments before slipping into the shadows.

Katherine employed the talents of the vampire Will, who owned the music club and bar, Billy's in New York City. He also ran an identity theft ring that secured new identities for vampires. Damon, who was friends with Will and helped him by killing people to steal their ID cards, unwittingly helped Katherine in her mission to remain undetected, though he did not realize this fact until much later.

Anna told Damon that she had seen Katherine during this year in Chicago.

It was revealed that Katherine was watching Stefan and Lexi from afar at a Bon Jovi concert.

Throughout The Vampire Diaries Series[]

When Katherine learned of the escape of the Tomb vampires, she gave her descendant and friend, Isobel, a Lapis Lazuli medallion, enabling the young vampire to walk in the sun. Katherine needed the tomb vampires dead because she didn't want Klaus to find out she was still alive, so she had Isobel retrieve Johnathan Gilbert's invention and give it to John Gilbert to use against the vampires in Mystic Falls. This resulted in the deaths of the remaining tomb vampires.

In Founder's Day after the chaos has settled, Katherine, having stolen some of Elena Gilbert's clothes, goes to the Gilbert house, where she poses as Elena in the presence of Damon. The two kiss, only to be interrupted by Elena's aunt, Jenna Sommers. Unaware of the presence of vampires or the existence of Katherine, Jenna invites her into the house. Katherine startles John Gilbert in the kitchen, still pretending to be Elena. She notices the magic Gilbert ring he is wearing and, using a butcher's knife, viciously chops his fingers off, then stabs him. Elena arrives and comes to John's aid while Katherine hovers behind her.

Seeing John Gilbert seriously injured, Elena calls for help and is terrified by Katherine's super-speed around the house before leaving. Upon her return, Damon and Stefan are left reeling after she's caused so much damage in so little time. At the mayor's wake at the Lockwood mansion, she engages in a small power play with Bonnie, claiming that it never ends well for Bennett witches. Bonnie attempts her usual attack against vampires, but Katherine, a much older vampire than Bonnie is used to encountering, seems to have a certain amount of resistance to such spells.

Katherine claims to Stefan that she returned for him, and the two engage in light banter, Katherine playfully and Stefan suspiciously. Their conversation effectively ends when Stefan tells Katherine he hates her and in retaliation, she skewers him with a metal rod. Later, Damon demand the truth after he and Katherine make out, and she confesses that she never loved him and that "it was always Stefan" that she loved.

Later, she visits Caroline Forbes in the hospital and tells her to give the Salvatores a message: "Game on." Then she smothers Caroline with a pillow, killing her with Damon's blood in her system. A few days later, Katherine appears in Caroline's bedroom and tells her not to be frightened, and that they were going to have so much fun together.

After blackmailing Caroline into distracting Elena, Katherine sets her sights on Stefan for the day. She gets an early start by manipulating his dreams, bringing him back to when he had escorted her to the Founder's Ball in 1864. In the dream, he notices that Damon has found someone to entertain himself with - Elena. Katherine then takes the dream to the present day, where Elena and Damon are getting cozy at the Mystic Grill. Stefan wakes suddenly to find Elena asleep in his arms, but he quickly realizes it is actually Katherine.

Later, after he has locked Katherine up in the cellar and threatened her with vervain unless she tells the truth about her return, Stefan interrogates her and she reveals her deal in 1864 with George Lockwood, a werewolf. In exchange for the rare moonstone, Lockwood saved her from imprisonment in the tomb. Stefan points out that she betrayed all the other vampires, including her friend Pearl, just to fake her death, and Katherine seems to have no regrets about her past actions. She insists that she never compelled Stefan to love her, that his love for her was real, and she only compelled him not to fear her. After she escapes the interrogation, she finally meets her doppelgänger, Elena, face to face. In a final flashback to 1864, Katherine is ready to leave Mystic Falls, but falls back to kiss an unconscious Stefan one last time, promising they would be together again one day.

It is soon revealed that Katherine had set up Mason Lockwood's first kill in order to trigger his werewolf gene. She continues to manipulate him by seducing him and persuading him to find the moonstone from the Lockwood mansion. After Mason is killed, Katherine compels Jenna to stab herself as revenge on the Salvatore camp, and also compels Matt to pick a fight with Tyler and not stop until Tyler kills him. Katherine decides to retrieve the moonstone herself with the help of Lucy Bennett, a witch. She dances with Stefan and briefly tries for a diplomatic surrender, but when he refuses to give up the stone, she kills Aimee Bradley in the middle of the dance floor. Later, Caroline successfully lures Katherine into a room upstairs that Bonnie had put a spell on, preventing vampires from leaving it. Stuck in the room with Damon and Stefan, Katherine goads the brothers until they attack her.

Unfortunately, Lucy had cast a spell over Katherine and Elena so that whatever happened to Katherine would also happen to Elena. After learning of Bonnie's involvement, however, Lucy turns the tables on Katherine; after her debt to Katherine has been paid by getting her the moonstone, Lucy incapacitates her. Katherine awakes imprisoned in the tomb, where Damon says she should have been for a long time. As Damon closes the door of the tomb, Katherine screams that Elena is in danger and needs to be protected.

After learning from Rose about the existence of the Originals, Elena visits Katherine to ask her about her past. Katherine complies in exchange for incremental amounts of blood; he time in the tomb without sustenance has weakened her. Through flashbacks, Katherine reveals that she had borne a child before she was turned, and that she was the first Petrova doppelgänger. She explains that, as such, Klaus wanted to sacrifice her as part of a ritual to break a curse. Katherine recounts how she foiled Klaus' plan by tricking Rose into turning her, thus rendering her useless for the sacrifice. Now that another doppelgänger had appeared, the moment Klaus discovered Elena's existence he would find her for the sacrifice and attempt the ritual again.

When Stefan finally arrives searching for Elena, Katherine warns them that Klaus would not hesitate to kill all of the people Elena loves, just like Klaus had done to her. Stefan accuses her of tricking Elena, in a desperate attempt to get herself out of the tomb, but Katherine insists that the tomb is the safest place to be, as no vampire would want to enter for fear of being trapped. Later, alone once more, Katherine peruses the Petrova Family history that Elena had brought, tearing up over drawings of her parents.

In an attempt to get the moonstone from Katherine, Bonnie performs a spell that involves burning Stefan's picture of Katherine from 1864 and throwing the ashes on her, rendering her unconscious for a minute or two. Jeremy, in a valiant effort to spare Bonnie from overexerting her powers, ventures into the tomb alone and asks Katherine for the moonstone. Naturally, she refuses, so he shoots a stake into her chest and, while she's distracted, throws the ashes into her face and incapacitates her. While she is unconscious, he enters the tomb, searches for and finds the moonstone, and tries to leave but Katherine revives and attacks him. When Stefan and Bonnie arrive, Katherine holds Jeremy hostage and demands that Bonnie open the tomb so that she can escape. When Bonnie fails, Katherine bites Jeremy but Stefan reacts by entering the tomb and throwing Jeremy out of it, now imprisoning himself along with Katherine.

Katherine is very pleased with herself for trapping Stefan with her. She enjoys planting dreams in his head while he sleeps, though later she does offer the useful advice of seeking out Isobel for information about Klaus. After Elena strikes a deal with Elijah, the warlock Jonas breaks the spell of the tomb, allowing vampires to leave it. Elijah allows Stefan to leave, but compels Katherine to stay inside.

When Damon visits Katherine in the tomb fishing for confirmation about how to kill an Original, she begs Damon not to kill Elijah, because then she would be stuck in the tomb forever. Later this is revealed to be a lie: rather, Katherine knew that killing the Original that had compelled her would actually release her from the compulsion. After they've staked Elijah, Damon finds Katherine in his shower, cheekily asking for a robe to borrow. She further surprises Damon by reaffirming her pledge to help him protect Elena. Katherine subsequently takes up residence with the Salvatore brothers, much to the displeasure of Elena.

Katherine repeatedly states that she will help them to deal with Klaus, and engages in research with the brothers. She is staked and nearly killed by Luka Martin when he infiltrates the mansion via astral projection in an attempt to release Elijah, but is rescued by Damon, who unwittingly burns Luka to death. When his father strikes out in a rage against Elena, Katherine tricks him into believing that she is Elena and kills him. Later, she flirts with Damon in bed, despite admitting to him that she knew the dagger would kill the vampire who used it, and, having to make a choice between Damon and Stefan in a deal with John and Isobel, she chose Stefan once again. Needless to say, Damon does not play along and asks Katherine to find another room to sleep in.

Despite insisting to Stefan and Damon that she's on their side when it comes to killing Klaus, Katherine reunites with Isobel, formulating a contingency plan in case things don't go well for the Salvatores. She helps Isobel kidnap Elena, but soon Isobel double-crosses her and the warlock Maddox incapacitates her, later delivering her to Klaus.

In The Last Dance, Klaus/Alaric compels her to tell him everything she knows, even coaxing out of her information she isn't sure about. He denies her request that he just kill her; he considers death to be a "kindness" after searching for her for over 500 years, and promises to draw out his punishment for at least half as long. After their conversation, Klaus/Alaric hands her a pocket knife and compels her to stab herself repeatedly until he returns. In Klaus, Katherine asks Klaus/Alaric why he would undo the curse in Mystic Falls knowing that a lot people will try to stop him.

Klaus/Alaric reveals to her that he must perform the ritual at the doppelgängers birthplace. Katherine remarks that she didn't know that was a requirement, to which Klaus/Alaric responds with the cruel reminder that, though she had fled before she could learn these details, Klaus did just fine finding her birthplace - and slaughtering her family. As Klaus/Alaric is leaving, he tells her she can't leave until he tells her to. Later, Damon and Andie Star go to Alaric's apartment to discover Katherine is alive. Damon tells Katherine he has vervain, which won't undo Klaus/Alaric's compulsion but will prevent further compulsion. Before he gives it to her, he demands to know why she double-crossed them with Isobel. She replies that she didn't think the others could stand a chance against Klaus and she was looking out for herself. Damon gives her the vervain and tells her she owes him - and he will collect. Later that night Katherine is drinking and dancing around the apartment until she hears Klaus/Alaric returning. He tells her Alaric's body is no longer useful. Irritated when Katherine tries to ply him with alcohol, Klaus/Alaric snatches the bottle away from her, throws it against the wall and compels her to sit down and shut up. Having taken the vervain, Katherine only pretends to submit to his compulsion. When Maddox returns with Greta and Klaus' casket, they perform a spell to return Klaus to his true body. They open the casket and Katherine watches in horror as the real Klaus walks out.

In The Last Day, Damon goes to Alaric's apartment to collect his debt for giving her vervain. He asks Katherine where Klaus is keeping the werewolf. Katherine is reluctant to help out but reveals that Klaus has captured Caroline and Tyler. She is shocked to learn that Elena has vampire blood in her system and Damon warns her that this means she would have to compete with Elena for Stefan's love forever. Katherine reveals that Caroline and Tyler are being held in the tomb.

Klaus returns to Alaric's apartment and is immediately suspicious of Katherine. He compels her to tell him what she has been doing but, as she is taking vervain, she is able to lie. Still suspicious, he compels her to remove her daylight bracelet, walk to the window and stand in the sunlight. Katherine has to do it to keep up the ruse and screams in pain until Klaus relents, satisfied. Later that night, after Klaus returns to the apartment and tells Katherine that Elena is with Greta, Damon appears and tells Klaus that he rescued the werewolf and vampire and killed Maddox, thereby foiling his plan. Klaus has Katherine leave the room, then informs Damon of his backup plans. Katherine revives Damon with a blood bag (Klaus had knocked him out off-screen) and tells him that Klaus has gone to begin the ritual. She admits that she had to do something so Klaus wouldn't realize she was on vervain, and reveals that Klaus made her make a call as Elena to lure someone out, explaining that he needed another vampire. Damon asks why Klaus didn't use him as the vampire in the sacrifice. Apparently Klaus had said that Damon was as good as dead. She points out the ugly wound on his arm and asks what it is. He replies, "It's a werewolf bite."

In The Sun Also Rises, Damon shows Katherine his werewolf bite but decides to leave. She is hurt that after 145 years he is leaving without saying goodbye and tells him not to depart on bad terms. She insists that she didn't have a choice and had to lure Jenna for Klaus, adding that she chose her life over Jenna's. Damon observes that Katherine will survive all of this without a scratch. Katherine points out that she doesn't let love get in the way and Damon tells her to enjoy an eternity alone. He leaves to offer himself to Klaus, but Katherine insists that Klaus won't accept him as his blood is impure.

In As I Lay Dying, Damon has a flashback and remembers speaking to Katherine in the 1860s. In it, she asks if he will miss her while he is off fighting and he says he will, but points out that she will still have Stefan. Katherine asks if it is so wrong for her to want them both. However, Damon hallucinates that Elena has joined them. Elena tells him that Katherine was just toying with him and he could have walked away - he had a choice. Flashback-Katherine bids him to return quickly.

Stefan shows up at Alaric's apartment looking for Klaus and finds Katherine there, wondering why Klaus' compulsion hasn't worn off. He admits that they failed to kill him just before Klaus returns. She watches as Stefan tries to bargain with Klaus for the cure to a werewolf bite. Klaus calls Katherine over and bites her; she starts to panic, but Klaus immediately feeds her his blood, and the bite heals, revealing that Klaus' blood is the cure. Meanwhile, Damon suffers more hallucinations of Katherine, mixing the present with the past, thinking he is chasing her through some woods. He remembers begging Katherine to feed him her blood so they could be together forever. Back in the apartment, Klaus calls Katherine over and compels her to take his blood to Damon and to come right back. She leaves immediately, but Stefan, knowing that Katherine has been ingesting vervain, worries that she will never deliver the cure to Damon.

However, Katherine does follow through and appears at the eleventh hour, interrupting Elena's would-be final moments with Damon. She admits that she decided to deliver it because she owed Damon. Elena asks about Stefan, and Katherine informs them that Stefan has surrendered himself to Klaus in exchange for the cure. Before she leaves, and after taunting Elena about working two Salvatores at once, she adds that it's OK to love them both - she did, after all.

Katherine makes her first appearance of the season in The End of the Affair, when she calls Damon and gives him information about Stefan's whereabouts. She declines to tell Damon where she is, but is later seen exiting a phone booth in Chicago. In Disturbing Behavior, she is still in Chicago and catches Stefan's attention outside of a boutique where Rebekah is trying on clothes. She fishes for information about Rebekah's necklace, which Klaus is looking for and which Stefan gave to Elena. She wants to know Stefan's plans, but he refuses to share them. Katherine warns him about plotting against Klaus, as well as dealing with Rebekah. She later saves him from Gloria's torture by stabbing the witch in the neck, and wants in on his plans if they involve taking down Klaus, but he turns her down again.

Towards the end of the episode, Katherine fools Bonnie into thinking she's Elena, and manages to steal Esther's Talisman. She shows up at the Boarding House with the necklace, proposing to Damon that they team up and get away from Mystic Falls to go on a little "road trip".

In The Reckoning, after they stop the car, Katherine reveals to Damon that she has kidnapped Jeremy. She needs Jeremy because he is able to communicate with ghosts, and he has a connection with Anna, one of the only people who knew anything about Mikael, a vampire who hunts vampires. Anna says Mikael is the only one who can kill Klaus for good, and he was entombed by a witch in the 1990s. Anna reluctantly gives them information about him, warning them that Mikael will kill all of them if awakened.

Katherine ignores her warning, and is able to locate his tomb with Jeremy's help. Katherine spends two days trying, unsuccessfully, to get Mikael to feed, and finally brings him a human and drips fresh blood into his mouth. Mikael opens his eyes, and, horrified, orders her to stop feeding him the blood. As he continues to lay in his coffin, still very weak, she begins to doubt his formidable reputation. She asks him whether he can kill Klaus or not, and Mikael answers affirmatively. He asks Katherine to remove the chains restraining him; after she does, he reveals that he does not feed on living things, and proceeds to attack and feed on her.

In Homecoming, Damon enlists Katherine in a plan to kill Klaus. She pretends to be Elena so that Elena won't be in danger when everything goes down. However, during the party, Klaus, thinking that she is Elena, reveals that in the event that Klaus is killed, the other Hybrids will kill Damon. Katherine then runs back to the Salvatore house, revives Stefan (whom Mikael and Damon had incapacitated to keep him away from the party) and tells him what Klaus said. She tries to convince him to care enough to stop Damon from killing Klaus, because regardless of what he decides, she is going back to see the plan through.

Back at the party, Mikael compels one of the hybrids to grab Katherine (pretending to be Elena) and threatens to kill her if Klaus does not leave the Lockwood house. Klaus, believing that Mikael is bluffing, says to go ahead. Mikael then stabs Katherine, who falls down apparently mortally wounded, right as Damon jumps Klaus. Much to Mikael's surprise, Katherine stands up, throws wolfsbane grenades at the approaching hybrids and flees the scene.

Later, she calls Damon to tell him he had a good plan and confirms Damon's assumption that she's already heading out of town. She hangs up with Damon and turns to Stefan, who is in the passenger seat. He asks Katherine why she, who has wanted Klaus dead for 500 years, would stop a plan to kill him just to save Damon. Katherine says she did it not just to save Damon, but also Stefan's humanity. He doesn't believe her, reminding her that she only cares about herself. Katherine tells him he knows that's not true, and that despite everything that had happened, she did love Stefan and Damon.

Katherine then says that humanity is a vampire's greatest weakness, and no matter how hard one tries to suppress it, it keeps trying to fight its way back in - and sometimes, she lets it. Stefan confesses that he doesn't want to let his humanity back in after everything he has done. Katherine says that he must, because she needs him to get angry enough at Klaus to do what she has planned next. She convinces him to steal the coffins that Klaus keeps his family in, before she herself puts as many miles as possible between her and Klaus.

In We All Go a Little Mad Sometimes, Katherine appears to Elena through vivid hallucinations. She torments Elena, telling her they're both the same and that she deserves to die. She proceeds to tell Elena that now that she's a vampire, Stefan is going to hate her, too. Later, Elena finds herself walking to the Wickery Bridge with Connor on one side and Katherine on the other, asking her if she's ready to die yet and telling her she can't take back what she's done, that she's a monster who deserves to die.

In Down the Rabbit Hole, Katherine makes her dramatic return. Unseen by the characters or viewers, she kills Massak and presumably steals the headstone from him. Later, she confronts and attacks Elena in the caves, defeating her and switching clothes with her. As Vaughn is about to finish Jeremy off, "Elena" swoops in to save him. She is about to bite Vaughn and kill him when Jeremy reminds her of the Hunter's Curse; instead she just knocks Vaughn out. Katherine continues to pose as Elena while Jeremy begs her to heal Bonnie with her blood to save her, but "Elena" insists they must raise Silas and get the cure first. Growing impatient, Katherine reveals her identity and grabs Jeremy, slits his wrist, and puts it in Silas' mouth, causing Silas' eyes to open. To speed things up, Katherine bites Jeremy's neck and holds the wound over Silas' mouth. Silas gains enough strength to raise his hand and hold Jeremy's head in place, so Katherine grabs the now unguarded cure and flees.

While not physically appearing in Bring It On, Katherine did send the vampire Will to kill the werewolf Hayley, who was now no more than a liability, having served her sole purpose of telling Katherine where to find the cure and how to get it. Later on, Hayley reveals to Klaus that Katherine had successfully managed to avoid him for over five hundred years because she had established a network of people who were willing to do anything for her, including tie up loose ends.

In American Gothic, when Elena and Rebekah track her to a small town where she has compelled everyone to keep her presence there, among other things, a secret. However, Elena is able to glean information from the townsfolk, who are unaware that Katherine has a doppelgänger and believe that Elena is Katherine. Katherine spots Elena searching the town and ambushes her, but Rebekah quickly intervenes and reestablishes dominance. Rebekah and Elena bring Katherine to a diner to interrogate her, which she unwillingly endures with her usual snark. When Katherine mentions Jeremy, whose death she had caused, Elena remains indifferent and Katherine realizes that her descendant has abandoned her humanity. Rebekah attempts to compel Katherine to reveal where the cure is, but Katherine smiles and informs them that she's on vervain. However, she does reveal that she wants the cure in order to barter with Klaus for her freedom. When Elena finds out Katherine is supposed to be meeting someone named "EM", she exchanges clothing and accessories with Katherine and goes to the meeting in her place.

After Elena leaves, Katherine antagonizes Rebekah until the Salvatores arrive, demanding to know where Elena is. Katherine admits that Elena has unknowingly gone to meet Elijah, with whom she hints at having a sexual relationship. Rebekah tells Stefan where Elena is meeting "EM" and Katherine reluctantly agrees to take Rebekah and Damon to the cure.

Katherine takes Rebekah and Damon to a home she says is hers and, after opening a safe, claims that the cure has been stolen. They don't believe her, so Rebekah heads upstairs to search, leaving Damon alone with Katherine. He notices that the fish tank suspiciously has no fish in it, but only a large treasure chest. When he reaches into the tank, his hand gets burned - it is filled with vervain. Damon begins to attempt to scoop out the chest with a net when Katherine shoves his head into the vervain for several seconds, then sends him howling in pain to the floor. She secures the chest herself and almost escapes out the front door, but Rebekah reappears and blocks her way. Katherine tosses the cure away from herself, distracting Rebekah long enough so that she can escape.

While Elijah and Elena discuss the foolishness men who believe the innocent girls they (Elijah and the Salvatores) fell in love with still exist within who Katherine and Elena are now, Katherine appears suddenly and snaps Elena's neck. Elijah kneels by Elena's lifeless body and confronts Katherine about her killing Jeremy and feeling nothing for Elena despite their similarly tragic fates. Katherine says she didn't enjoy killing Jeremy, but that doing so was necessary to survive. Elijah wonders aloud if that's what he is to her -- a means to survive. She protests, insisting that she loves him, but Elijah cannot be persuaded. She makes a last-ditch effort by reminding him that she can't broker a deal with Klaus without his help, but this appears to hurt the situation more than it helps, and Elijah leaves her.

Katherine arrives, alone, at the home of the woman Elena and Rebekah had first talked to when they got to town and retrieves her "package" - the real cure and the key to securing her freedom. Later, Katherine confronts Elijah on the street and tells him that he was right: she's told so many lies to survive for so long, she's beginning to believe them herself. She admits that she doesn't remember who she was when they met, but that she'd like to find out. Katherine explains that she could use the cure to make Klaus mortal and kill him, but this would mean losing Elijah, a consequence she's not willing to accept. Elijah, moved by Katherine's speech, still resists temptation and raises concerns about Katherine's track record for deceiving men. Katherine responds by taking his hand and placing the cure in it, saying she wants him to trust her like she's now trusting him, and that he must decide what happens next, with both the cure and their relationship.

In The Originals, Katherine returns to Mystic Falls after Klaus' departure to New Orleans. She casually strolls into the Salvatore boarding house and tells Stefan and Damon that Hayley was exactly what they needed to get rid of Klaus for good. Later, she shows up at Rebekah's house uninvited and eavesdrops on Rebekah's phone call with Elijah. She insists that she and Klaus are the same in that they are driven by their loneliness, and Klaus won't be able to walk away from his new situation with Hayley.

After Rebekah refuses to follow Klaus and Elijah to New Orleans, Katherine begs Elijah to stay with her so they can make a life of their own and let Klaus deal with his own business. Elijah kisses her on the forehead and says, "Goodbye, Katerina".

In She's Come Undone, Katherine meets with Bonnie, who wants Silas' headstone which Katherine stole along with the cure. Katherine, reluctant to give up her potential leverage, asks Bonnie how she could benefit from handing it over, but Bonnie just vaguely insists that she would make it worth Katherine's while.

Later, she arrives at the Salvatore boarding house at the brothers' request; they want Katherine's help with bringing back Elena's humanity, and Katherine is more than happy to torture her doppelgänger. When she enters the house, she taunts Rebekah and Matt before heading down to the cell where Elena is locked up. Katherine pulls Elena out of the vault and makes a snarky remark about checking to see if Elena still has a heart before she plunges her hand in Elena's chest. Katherine interrogates her, asking about what transpired between Elena and Elijah in Willoughby; Katherine clearly believes that whatever Elena said turned Elijah against her. In response, Elena goads Katherine about running from Klaus for so long, calls her a self-obsessed maniac and cruelly wonders aloud why anyone would want to be with "damaged goods" like her. Katherine retaliates by grabbing Elena's neck and admits that she's done terrible things to survive, but instead of turning off her humanity, she dealt with it. She adds that Elena wouldn't last a week as a vampire without everyone fawning over her before she locks her in the vault again. After a moment, she decides that seeing Elena go on a rampage would be more entertaining and unlocks the vault, leaving it open for Elena to escape.

She returns to the main level of the house and pours herself a few successive glasses of bourbon while talking to Damon. She taunts him by predicting that Elena will rush back to Stefan when she gets her humanity back, calling this the tragedy of Damon: he never gets the girl. At that moment, Stefan shows up and reveals that Elena has escaped. Katherine feigns carelessness before admitting that she would derive more pleasure from seeing Elena continue her downward spiral than if she managed to start recovering from it.

Bonnie sets up another meeting with Katherine, who has figured out that Bonnie needs the headstone because it contains Qetsiyah's blood. Having the headstone would give Bonnie the power to drop the veil to The Other Side whenever she chooses, instead of having to wait to channel the power of the full moon. Katherine asks again what is in it for her, and Bonnie sweetens the deal by promising that once the veil is dropped, she'll find out from Qetsiyah how she made Silas invulnerable to any weapon, and in turn Bonnie will share the secret with Katherine. With the prospect of finally having true freedom from Klaus in her sights, Katherine agrees to the deal.

In The Walking Dead, Katherine met Bonnie in the woods where we learned that Bonnie wanted to charge all three points of the Expression Triangle (where the massacres had taken place) and channel the mystical energy from Silas' tombstone. That would drop the veil inside the points of the Triangle just long enough to get what she needs -- which is to contact Qetsiyah and find out how she put Silas down. Katherine tried to walk away, but Bonnie had linked them so that Katherine was on an invisible leash and whatever happened to one of them happened to the other. Bonnie couldn't have Silas getting inside Katherine's head and finding out Bonnie could do the spell whenever she wanted. She went with Bonnie to the other two places where the massacres took place and then they went to a cave which is located in the center of the expression triangle. Katherine heard someone coming, so Bonnie gave her more leash so she could go stop them. It was Elena, who managed to stake Katherine in the stomach. Bonnie felt it, too, and bled. Elena could've finished Katherine off, but Stefan had heard from Bonnie about the link, so he stopped Elena. Katherine bolted.

In Graduation, Katherine confronts Bonnie, demanding the immortality that she was promised in return for the tombstone containing Qetsiyah's calcified blood. When Bonnie informs her that she is out of luck since Bonnie was unable to contact Qetsiyah about the spell, Katherine gets angry and vengeful, and threatens to kill Elena, who she feels has a better life than she deserves. Bonnie threatens her right back, but is distracted by other students arriving for graduation, giving Katherine the opportunity to slink away. When Elena arrives back at the school looking for Bonnie and Jeremy before the veil is put back up, she is ambushed by Katherine, who throws her against lockers and kicks her around. After a few nasty comments from Katherine, Elena gets riled up and begins to fight back with almost equal measure. Katherine gains the upper hand, and is about to rip out Elena's heart when Elena pulls the cure out of her pocket and shoves it into Katherine's mouth. She forces Katherine's jaw shut to break open the vial as she struggles to get free from Katherine's grip. After a few moments Katherine falls unconscious next to Elena, who wishes her a "happy, human life."

In I Know What You Did Last Summer, Katherine is first seen upon a street in Mystic Falls, paranoid and disheveled. She goes to the Salvatore house for help and she talks with Damon. She begs him for protection now that she is human, weak, slow and unable to protect herself against her numerous enemies, to which Damon reluctantly agrees.

Whilst she is taking a bath in Damon's tub, Silas imitating Stefan shows up suddenly. They flirt and when they are about to kiss Silas grabs her neck, attempting to drown her and she grabs a razor and cuts his face before running downstairs. Damon stops her, throws her to Jeremy and tells him to take her far away, however not to tell him where he is going. Damon stays in the house with Silas, and Silas reveals the whole truth about Stefan suffering "like he has".

Silas asks him to return Katherine for his brother, Damon makes up his mind and immediately calls Jeremy and tells him to return to the house. As soon as Jeremy turns around, Katherine knows what is happening and demands Jeremy to stop the car, however when he tells her to shut up, she tries to escape causing an accident where she and Jeremy are seriously injured by crashing into a post. She limps from the car, spotting a barely conscious Jeremy who asks for her help, she ignores him and hobbles away, leaving him dying in the middle of the road.

In True Lies, after leaving Jeremy to die, Katherine flees into the woods. The morning after, she's leaving the woods and getting sick. Katherine walks to the road where she stops a car. Katherine thanks the woman for stopping and the woman tells her she looks just like Elena, but Katherine insists she's much prettier than Elena. The woman maces Katherine, and as Katherine shrieks in pain, the woman pulls out her phone to text Silas. Katherine angrily tackles the woman, smashes her phone, and knocks out the woman, and then Katherine shrieks again in pain from punching the woman, since she's used to having her super strength and not feeling pain. A gun loading is heard behind Katherine and she looks over to Matt, who tells her it looked like it hurt, but his gun will be more effective. Matt and Jeremy take Katherine and keep her out of sight since Silas has the whole town hunting her. They give her some clothes since she was in a robe and Matt begins to tie her up. Katherine compliments Matt on his eyes, telling him they made her soft and that she should have ripped his head off when she had the chance.

She asks them if the rope is really necessary and Jeremy reminds her that she almost got the two of them killed and left him to die. Katherine says she was doing what she always does anything to survive. She also tells them she's been through this a thousand times: she's the leverage, the one thing everyone wants. She says she's now like the moonstone, as Matt settles her in the truck. Later, they stop at the gas station where Katherine says she needs to get out of the car, but Jeremy tells her no. Katherine then complains that she needs to go to the bathroom and should go like a lady. Jeremy unties her and tells her to hurry, Katherine tells him that she's getting sick and is coughing up green stuff and tells him to get her something for it, Jeremy tells her he can't so she begs Matt to do it. As Matt gets medicine for her and Jeremy gets gas for the truck, Katherine goes to the bathroom and sees an opportunity to run. When the clerk in the store sees Katherine, he begins to call Silas as Katherine runs off. Jeremy catches her and tells her to stop running and takes her back to the truck. That night, Jeremy, Matt, and Katherine create a bonfire. She sees a shotgun, but Jeremy tells her not to think about it. Katherine replies that she doesn't know how to use a gun because she didn't need one and that she was much deadlier. Katherine then complains that, after surviving childbirth, the death of her entire family, and running from Klaus, she's upset about being defeated from a sinus infection. After Silas stabs Jeremy (by stabbing himself first), Katherine returns and shoots Silas.

In Original Sin, Katherine decides to accompany Damon and Elena in search of Stefan, after having the same dream as Elena with the possible whereabouts of Stefan. She says that Stefan is also important to her and she jokes in all the way to Damon and Elena about their relationship.

When they get to the place where the doppelgängers saw Stefan, Katherine is asleep in the car. Damon and Elena decide to enter and leave her there. After Katherine enters and meets Nadia, Katherine flees until she meets again with Elena in the forest. They have a conversation and Nadia appears, snaps Elena's neck and takes Katherine. When they are about to escape, Silas arrives. Nadia tells him that she isn't going to deliver Katherine. Silas enters in her head and tries to force her to commit suicide, when Nadia is about to do it, Silas falls to the ground in pain and they flee.

Katherine is rummaging in Nadia's stuff when she enters the room. Nadia is conversing with Katherine when Silas calls her and says she must deliver Katherine. Katherine takes the phone asking what he wants with her and Silas replies: "The cure still exists, and I still want it. It's just running through your veins right now. Your blood is the cure, Katherine."

In Monster's Ball, Nadia and Katherine are still at the Motel, hiding from Silas when Nadia gets a call from him. He tells her he wants Katherine, but Nadia refuses to give her up. Nadia continues to tease him about his inability to use his powers, and Silas tells her he can track them through cell phone tracking. Nadia quickly hangs up on him and tries to take Katherine away. Katherine asks her why she doesn't just hand her over to Silas so he can just have his "little sip" of her blood. Nadia tells her that Silas needs every last drop of blood in her body, which will kill her.

Later on, Nadia and Katherine are eating lunch at a diner and Nadia tells her that she's been tailing her for 500 years and that she wants answers, and if she gets them, she'll let Katherine go. Katherine agrees and Nadia tells her that in 1864, she heard about the vampire round up in Mystic Falls, when Katherine sold out her other friends. Katherine tells her about the many horrible things she's done and Nadia asks her if she remembers ripping a mother away from her daughter. Katherine doesn't recall this and Nadia tells her that Katherine killed her mother in Paris in 1645, and that she has been spending the last 500 years hunting Katherine down for revenge. Katherine realizes that Nadia does not plan on letting her go. Nadia tells her it's time to leave and Katherine seizes the opportunity to grab a nearby cane and stab Nadia with it in the chest before running off.

Katherine later finds Nadia in an alleyway, trying to get the cane out of her chest without touching her heart and Nadia asks her why she didn't kill her. Katherine says she knows Nadia's story about her mother was false. Nadia says it was a test and that Katherine failed. She says she wanted to get under Katherine's skin and she succeeded. Katherine asks her what game she is playing and Nadia tells her that Katherine really did kill her mother, but it was not in Paris but in England on April 6, 1492. She says how her mother was exiled by her family two years earlier and how Katherine put her mother's neck in a noose and threw her off a chair, snapping her neck, the same way Katherine died when she was human. Katherine is confused and Nadia reveals that her name is Nadia Petrova, and that Katherine is her mother. She is the child that was born out of wedlock and was taken away from Katherine by her father when she was human. Katherine is shocked to learn this. Later on, Nadia wakes up to find the cane removed from her chest and looks up to see Katherine, and tells her she is a fool for not running because Silas will find her. Katherine says she isn't worried, she is good at running and that Silas doesn't need her until he figures out how to destroy the Other Side because if he dies as a witch he will be stuck in "supernatural purgatory".

Katherine says she has had a question bugging her for 500 years. She asks Nadia where she was in 1498. Nadia says she cannot remember because she was only 8 years old, and Katherine tells her that by then she had escaped Klaus and went back to Bulgaria. She tells Nadia she searched every village, every cottage looking for her and she couldn't find her. She says she went back for her, and that it's nice to meet her. Nadia begins crying and smiles before accepting a cup of tea from Katherine.

When Katherine arrives at the Salvatore mansion, lifeless Silas on a couch nearby, she's ecstatic in knowing that she may have toppled the all mighty Silas and escaped death for good. But Damon has other plans. After Katherine unsuccessfully pleads for him to spare her (she doesn't want to die after all), Damon shoves her neck down Silas' throat, draining her of her cure-laced blood. Moments later, Katherine suddenly awakens with her heart still thumping: "Am I in hell?"

In Handle with Care, Katherine celebrates the fact that she hasn't died by indulging in food when she notices that her hair is starting to gray. She then dyes her hair and moves into Elena and Caroline's dorm room and pretend to be her but Caroline realizes that she is Katherine then she takes her neck. Katherine says that she needs a place to live, Caroline at first says no but Katherine tells her that she can help with the Dr. Maxfield and Caroline accepts.

Later, the professor Maxfield in his laboratory, is conducting experiments with vampire blood, Caroline appears and Katherine takes the opportunity to inject a substance into his neck, the professor faints on the floor. Caroline and Katherine planned to drain the vervain in his system to compel him to tell them everything he knows about vampires, Katherine takes over and begins to drain blood from the professor. He tells them that the secret society planned to invite Elena to belong to the group but for his suspicions that she was a vampire, they desisted. Katherine then takes the decision to impersonate Elena and Caroline stays with the professor.

She later attends a gathering at Whitmore House posing as Elena to make people believe that Elena is human, she meets Aaron and begins to ask him questions about the secret society but Aaron seems to have no idea what she's talking about. When they are talking, she loses her tooth while eating the food.

Katherine then suspects that she may be dying and goes to Dr. Maxfield for help. She tells him the truth that Elena is her doppelgänger and tells him that he has to help her to not die.

In Death and the Maiden, Katherine is in the laboratory of Dr. Maxfield asking him to help prevent her aging but he tells her that she were turned into a vampire over 500 years ago and now that she is human the time is catching up with her. He says that he can't do anything to stop it and that if it continues at this rate, she has a few months of life. He leaves and Katherine is very frightened by that.

Later, Caroline is at Whitmore College and she meets Nadia, they are talking and then Katherine comes, Nadia tries to tell Caroline that Katherine is her mother, but Katherine interrupts her and doesn't permit, Caroline leaves and they are left alone. Nadia wants to know the reason for her abandonment again but Katherine says that she never abandoned her, she says that Nadia was snatched out of her arms at birth because her father thought she was a knocked-up and second of all, that it's been 500 years and that she isn't required have to do the whole mother-daughter bonding thing.

Caroline interrupts the conversation between Nadia and Katherine and takes Katherine to the Salvatore Mansion, since Qetsiyah need her to perform the spell to the resurrection of Bonnie.

Katherine helps with Qetsiyah's spell but exchange for help with the issue of aging, Qetiyah accepts make a spell to stop it but after she resurrects Bonnie, Katherine agrees. Katherine, Amara and Elena are ready to perform the spell. They have to give some of their doppelgänger blood to do the spell. Qetsiyah cuts their hands and put their blood on Bonnie's grimoire, when they are about to complete the spell, they are interrupted by Silas.

When Katherine is trying to clean her blood after being cut by Qetsiyah on the hand, Caroline offers her blood to cure her but Katherine can't drink vampire's blood. After Katherine finds Qetsiyah alone in the mansion and she says it's time to do the spell, Qetsiyah tells her that she not going to help her and Katherine realizes that Qetsiyah is dying, she screams for help but Qetsiyah dies in her arms.

Later in the college Caroline is preparing her room for Bonnie too come back to life. Then Katherine arrives and understands that she has to go. She looks for her bag but can't find it. Nadia appears with her bag and tells Katherine that she will travel to Prague and she wants Katherine to come with her. Katherine says that it's all a fantasy. She would rather rip her own heart out than do more mother-daughter bonding with Nadia. Now that she is human, it wouldn't really be that easy. She says that she doesn't want to know her. Nadia is very sad about that and then Katherine says that she's never going to see her again. Katherine leaves the room.

In Dead Man on Campus, Katherine was the one to help Matt with his problem. She explained him to what Travelers are- they're a faction of witches that heavily believe in the spirit world. What they did to Matt was attach themselves onto his spirit like a parasite. Lucky for Matt, Katherine also happens to know who else can help him out, her daughter.

Katherine needs Stefan's help as part of her plan with Matt. After sweet talking and then moving onto guilt tripping, when the first didn't work, she got him to agree. He should have waited until she told him the whole plan because he sure is shocked to be formally introduced to Nadia of all people.

Nadia, Katherine, and Stefan are waiting in one of the store rooms when Matt comes in. Nadia calls forth her boyfriend out of Matt so Katherine can demand answers. Nadia through they're only mission was to kill Silas when that was just half of what Gregor came to Mystic Falls to do. He was sent to Kill Katherine. She has a dagger they want. It's one of the few things that can truly kill a spirit user. It seems she never had a liking for Travelers. Why? Well she believes they're all judgmental hypocrites. She should know, her father was one. Then kills Gregor. Nadia looked slightly upset with her mother.

Katherine hates running. She's done before and it's why she left behind a letter for Nadia explaining why she wanted to kill herself. Stefan saw it and saved Katherine from plummeting to death. She told him she was dying of old age, that the cure had somehow sped up the process. He told her this wasn't the way. Not for the Katherine Pierce. And then he walked away and she smiled.

In The Cell, Stefan was keeping a close eye on Katherine after the suicide attempt. She was writing in a diary at his request because he's worried she will try to kill herself again. But Katherine was just as concerned about him since she overheard some of his PTSD. Stefan didn't want to talk about it, but Katherine had already invited Caroline over to help.

Katherine tells Caroline that the therapy that she found in a textbook didn't work. Stefan was still freaking out and Katherine was questioning whether or not Caroline and Stefan had ever hooked up, Caroline answer that they are just friend and Katherine say that her loss because he's great in bed. Katherine pointed out that Stefan is the hero of the story and it can't be himself that he needs to save.

Her solution was to get into the safe with Stefan. He pointed out it was dangerous and she reminded him that she was dying anyway so it didn't matter if he ate her. Stefan started freaking out and getting upset and Katherine continued to talk him. She suggested that what he was really upset about was Damon and Elena and that he wanted to run away and never come back, but he kept finding excuses not to. She believes his trauma is because he'd rather experience the physical pain than the emotional pain.

To further prove her point, Katherine exposed her neck to Stefan. He got his vampire face on, but her words were getting through to him. They kept getting closer and it seemed like they were going to kiss and that was when Caroline felt the need to open the box because she thought it was too quiet.

Stefan is alone in the room and Katherine goes to see what he's up to. She helps him straighten up. Stefan tells her that she was right he does need to move on. They kind of drift towards each other. Katherine caresses his chest and then Stefan kisses her.

In Fifty Shades of Grayson, Katherine wakes up next to Stefan in bed. She leans over to cuddle when she notices gray hairs on the bed. She frantically covers herself with a sheet and leaves the room as Stefan looks on amused.

In the woods, Matt is helping Katherine to stay in shape. After some playful banter, Katherine worries when she can't hear what Matt is saying. Nadia arrives with the suicide note that Stefan gave to her. Nadia then slaps Katherine across the face and says that's for trying to "leave" without saying goodbye. In the Salvatore kitchen, Katherine ask Nadia if she's worthy of forgiveness. Nadia thinks that she is worthy and has been thinking about a plan to keep her mother alive.

Nadia suggests that Katherine try spirit possession. Since Katherine's father was a witch from the coven of the Traveler then technically Katherine is a Traveler witch too, meaning that she could use the spell to live in someone else's body. After Katherine says that Stefan prefers her in her current body, Nadia realizes that Katherine's question about forgiveness was in regards to Stefan and not her. Nadia angrily tells her mother to kill herself and see if anybody misses her.

Later, Katherine is looking at herself in the mirror when Stefan appears. She brings up their night of passion but Stefan says they got swept up in the moment and he can't just forget the last 147 years. Katherine asks what she has to do to get redemption and Stefan says one night isn't enough to erase her history. Katherine responds that either one night or an eternity and he still won't look at her like he looks at Elena. As Katherine begins to leave, Stefan stops her and clutches her hand. He says that he's sorry that she's dying and she replies that she is too.

Katherine calls Nadia and wants her to resume the plan of switching bodies. As they're talking, Katherine begins to have chest pains and doesn't answer Nadia back. As Nadia calls at her, she suffers a heart attack and falls down the stairs.

In 500 Years of Solitude, Katherine is dying. She recells a memory. In Bulgaria, a pregnant, human Katherine is having the contractions of childbirth. The baby is born, and Katherine is told that it is a girl, and begs to see her baby as they take her away. Katherine's father tells her that the baby will be better for it, and Katherine cries on her mother's shoulder. Katherine cries because they won't let her even hold her baby. She attempts to get up and grab her baby from her father, but her mom stops her, and Katherine cries some more. Stefan explains that the doctors think that Katherine had a heart attack. Nadia says that Katherine won't die of a heart attack. Stefan tells Nadia that Katherine is dying. He's compelled the doctors to let him take her home so she'll be comfortable.

Upstairs, Katherine asks Stefan if they're talking about her. Stefan says that they're "reminiscing" trying to gloss it over a bit for her. She says that she probably deserves it. While they're talking, she's looking at her hands and asks him if her hand looks wrinkled to him. He says it looks fine. Katherine tells him that if she "starts to sag. Anywhere," that he's to slit her carotid artery. Stefan accuses her of being vain, and she says that she'd rather go glamorous. Then, she's convinced that she sees an age spot on her hand, and Stefan tells her it isn't one and holds her hand. Katherine asks Stefan why he's being nice to her. He says that since she's dying, he can "muster" some compassion for her.

Katherine is not only dying but plagued by visions that have haunted her for her entire life. Her daughter gets ripped from her arms and Klaus murders her entire family. Damon returns to his more evil ways by trying to kill her and settling for taunting her psychically. Katherine is haunted by her past mistakes and it only gets worse as Damon manipulates her mind. She revisits the first time she ever saw Stefan and realizes that the doppelgänger connection might be truer than she thought.

Jenna reminds Katherine of how Katherine compelled her to stab herself in the stomach, and Damon appears in her place and reminds Katherine of how he had to compel Jenna to believe that she has just walked into the knife. Then Uncle John is there, "Hello fingers. Goodbye fingers." And then Elijah is where John was, sitting on the bed next to Katherine. She reaches up to touch his face, and then it's Damon again. Damon tells her that no one is coming to say goodbye, because no one cares. Nadia has sneaked into the room behind him, snaps his neck, and says that she cares.

Nadia, Mia, and Katherine are discussing the words to the spell that have to be spoken for Katherine to jump into Nadia's body. Nadia wants her to repeat the spell, but Katherine won't. Finally, Katherine asks for a moment alone with her daughter. Katherine tells Nadia that letting her father take baby Nadia away from her is her biggest regret in life. She should have fought harder for her. She says that she spent the next 500 years making sure that she didn't make that mistake again. She says she's had a long life and finally got to know her "daughter." Katherine tells Nadia that she has spent the last few centuries searching, and Katherine doesn't want that life for her. She wants her to live. Damon has regained consciousness on the floor, but he doesn't let on. His disbelief at this conversation is pretty evident on his face. Katherine says that she's made selfish decisions all her life, this is just another one. Nadia gets mad and says that she won't sit by Katherine's side just to watch her die and storms out. Katherine stabs herself with another does of sedative and her eyes close.

Stefan sits down on the bed. Katherine says something about how these drugs she's on are "hard core." Stefan tells her to close her eyes, that he's come to say goodbye. Katherine says that she doesn't want to, because she wants to see him. He tells her that she will, and they go into her memory/dream thing of coming home and finding her family dead. He asks her if this is really the memory she wants to revisit. She says that it was the worst day of her life, and that Damon told her it was all her fault and that she deserves it. She says that she thinks Damon was right, she doesn't even deserve to be loved. Stefan disagrees and asks her to open her mind to him. Stefan takes away all the blood and gore of the scene, and all the bodies and then leads her to a crib, with a crying baby in it. We're led to believe that it's baby Nadia laying there. Stefan tells her that she's a 17-year-old girl and none of this is her fault. The baby cries again, and Katherine goes to the crib. There's a bright white light, and Katherine seems to go into it.

Stefan says, aloud, "Goodbye, Katherine" and Elena walks in and asks if she's gone. Stefan tells her that not yet, but she won't open her eyes again.

She dies for a second but refuses to go and literally makes her own heart beat again. Elena is standing over her newly conscious body and gives Katherine her heartfelt and sweet forgiveness. Katherine convinces her, and the audience that she's ready to die. Then grabs Elena and does the traveler spell to steal her body. The episode ends with Katherine impersonating Elena.

In The Devil Inside, she fights with Elena over her body. She needs her corpse to possess Elena's completely but doesn't know where it is. She compels Matt to find out facts about Elena and tries to convince everyone that she is Elena. Nadia is going to find out where her mother's body is and needs to leave her alone so she traps her to the bed just in case Elena fights and breaks through. Elena almost breaks free, but it is too late as Nadia is already back and pushes her aside so Katherine gains the control again.

As others are already worried about Elena, Katherine goes to the Matt's party in order to find information about her body and to be less suspicious about Elena's solitude. She talks with Stefan pretending to be Elena and asks him if he is heartbroken over Katherine's death and is upset that he is not. She asks him if they should have funeral or at least some flowers as she tries to find out about where her corpse is and at the same time hopes that Stefan would feel sorry for her death. Stefan reveals to her that Damon put her body to the place it "should have been long time ago". Katherine figures it means the tomb where Damon put her before, to punish her from 146 years of wasted waiting as she was not there.

She informs Nadia and they find her body and start ritual to make Elena's body hers but Elena breaks through and intervenes, hurting Mia who is casting the spell. Elena then runs off, but Katherine has changed the password so she can't call for help. Elena runs to Damon but is too late. As Elena didn't kill Mia she ends the spell and Katherine takes her body over. Katherine takes now permanent control over her body. Damon tries to fix thing between him and Elena, but as Katherine has control she breaks up with him. Katherine decides to stay in Mystic Falls to win back Stefan.

In Total Eclipse of the Heart, Katherine enjoys her life as Elena. She keeps Nadia close to Matt so she could find out all she needs about Elena and she is devoted to win Stefan back. She is trying to find a way to make his way closer to him and when Stefan calls her and wants to talk, she invites him to the Bitter Ball. They share a dance and she tries to convince him that she has given up on Damon and says that she doesn't like the person she has become with Damon and asks if Stefan does. When Caroline pulls her aside and tells her that she should slow down with Stefan she begins to worry that Caroline might have feelings for him. When she returns to Stefan she sees that Damon has kidnapped Jeremy, she leaves to call Nadia and asks her to find out what would Elena do in this situation and also ask Matt if Caroline has feelings for Stefan. She is very displeased to find out that Elena would do anything to save her brother, because Jeremy's death would be very convenient for her. In need not to break her cover has Elena, she begs Stefan to help her save Jeremy and tells him where he is.

They find Enzo with Jeremy and while Stefan is fighting Enzo, she more like pretends to help Jeremy than is really helping. When the encounter is over she asks Stefan about Aaron hoping that it will give her more reasons to apparently give up on him. She asks why did Stefan hide this fact about them and says that they should be honest with each other. Stefan tells her that he used to wish that Damon would mess up so badly, that she (Elena) would give on him, but as he saw that Damon was always there for her, he begun to like the person his brother has become and he doesn't want to lose him. Katherine takes the opportunity and promises to him that she will help him get Damon back, but makes it clear that she is doing it only for Stefan.

In No Exit, Katherine is first seen when she is studying with Stefan as she hopes to win him back as Elena. When Caroline visits Stefan and receives call from Tyler who informs Caroline that Nadia is compelling Matt, who is now missing, she starts to worry and calls Nadia, and tells her to kill Matt if he is danger to her secret. When Stefan decides to go after Damon, she offers to go with him so she could spend more time alone with Stefan. When they stop to tank, she uses the opportunity to break his car and make herself dirty, so they could find a hotel and get the room and shower, while they are waiting for the car to be repaired. When Stefan is a getting shower, she answers Enzo's call who asks for their help, since he is trapped with Damon and hopes they could save them, before Damon kills him or he is forced to kill him. Katherine doesn't rush to tell this information to Stefan and instead of it she focuses on seducing Stefan. They kiss, but Stefan breaks it and tells her that it is wrong, since she just broke up with Damon. While Stefan leaves her alone she calls Nadia and asks who does she think Stefan loves more: Damon or Elena, and reveals to her that she hopes that if she gets Damon to feed on her it would leave Stefan no choice, but to kill him to save her. When They find Damon, she steps into the house and pretends that she loves him and then cuts herself in front on him, forcing him to fight his urge to feed on her because he loves her. When Damon loses control and feeds on her she kicks the stake in front of Stefan and tells him that Damon is killing her, essentially asking him to kill Damon to save herself. Her plan backfires, when Stefan doesn't kill him, but cut's himself asking Damon to feed on him instead. Later she meets crusty Nadia, and tries to celebrate her good mood about her success with Stefan and her disappointment that Damon is still alive, but then she finds out that Nadia got bitten by Tyler and she is dying.

In Gone Girl, Katherine told Nadia she couldn't ask Klaus for his blood because he wouldn't help her anyway. Instead, she'd called Wes, who allegedly was willing to study Nadia's blood and create the antidote. He took some blood, and Katherine vowed to be a better mother, which meant saving her daughter's life. Caroline called Katherine and tried to get her to come help set up for a surprise birthday party for Bonnie but Katherine said she had to make arrangements for Aaron's funeral, which trumps a birthday. Exhausted anchor Bonnie tried to get her to meet her for coffee, but Katherine said she was at the spa buying Bonnie a gift certificate for her birthday. Katherine wondered why they were being so clingy. She phoned Damon, who told her to come on over and talk about what happened at the farmhouse. Katherine knew Damon would never put Elena in that danger again, so they must know she's Katherine.

Katherine takes Nadia to the church and tells her that they will leave once she is better. When looking for Wes, she found him dead. She then got a call from Stefan, letting her know that he has Nadia. Katherine stormed in the Salvatore Boarding House and said she was there to see her daughter. As Nadia took her last breaths, she said, "My mother's name is Katherine. I'm looking for her." I teared up. Katherine told her she found her, she's right there. Nadia said her mother's a liar, a murderer, she manipulates, and she betrays, and she'd do anything to survive. Nadia just kept saying she's looking for her mother. Katherine wanted to show her what her life should have been like. She said they had a little cottage. It was an ordinary summer day. Nadia had built a fort that she would show her mother in the morning. Katherine told her good night and to sleep well. And then Nadia died. "Your mother loves you," Katherine said, with a tear falling down her face.

As Katherine struggles with the realization that her daughter is gone for good, Nadia's ghost appears before them all and looks on with great sorrow as her mom utters the exact phrase she's always longed to hear. She seems ready to move on but also upset at the sight of her mom grieving. "Anchor" Bonnie, who is overcome with compassion, extends her hand and Nadia takes a hold of it and enters the Other Side. Suddenly, Katherine is left on her own and it's time to pay the piper. She kisses her daughter goodbye, closes her eyes, and covers her body. Then she stands up resolutely and…tries to make a dash for it, unfortunately for her, Damon's on the other side, blocking the exit. "Hello, Katherine. "Did you really think I'd miss this?" Realizing she's been beaten at her own game, Katherine concedes. "So who's got the knife? Which one of you gets to kill the elusive Katherine Pierce once and for all?" Uncomfortable silence falls over the room and you can almost hear crickets. Katherine, annoyed that they're being cowards. She decides to have her fun while she can and gets the party started by dishing out something called a reality check: she changed all their lives for the better, whether they care to admit it or not.

Just as she confesses her affection for the younger Salvatore, Stefan stabs her with the Traveler knife. "I guess this is how our love story ends," she gasps, her voice ridden with hurt. She collapses onto the floor, right next to daughter's body. Before going over to the Other Side, Katherine fills Bonnie in on yet another secret: she left Elena the worst parting gift ever. Apparently Katherine didn't like being forced to choose between running or spending time with her ailing daughter. "Katherine Pierce wasn't about to go gentle," she states. And what does Katherine hate more than anything else? The idea of cute and sweet little Elena winning. So while at Dr. Wes' decrepit lab, Katherine finds the syringe containing Nadia's blood sample and also a tape recorder in which Dr. Wes revealed that the werewolf toxin would be useful in making the vampire virus contagious, and freaking injects into Elena's body. Katherine could care less about the repercussions of her actions. If she can't have Stefan, no one can. She flashes an haughty smile and decides it's time for her to head on over to the Other Side. She grabs hold of Bonnie's shoulders but nothing happens. 'Are you broken?' she demands via her furious expression. Bonnie doesn't know what's going on either and why this particular journey has malfunctioned. Suddenly, a gust of wind extinguishes the candles in the church and the doors burst open. Howling air whips around the sacred site and some powerful, unseen force blasts Katherine backwards. She claws desperately at the ground but it is to no avail.

In We're Planning a June Wedding, Katherine's remains were seen and a dagger made from her bones was created with the purpose to kill her. She also sent Kelly and Vicki Donovan to destroy Mystic Falls.

In I Was Feeling Epic, Katherine first appears under the guise of Elena, whom Damon and Stefan assume has just awoken from her long slumber due to the temporary death of Bonnie Bennett. Unbeknownst to Damon and Stefan, Katherine's identity was revealed after an embrace with Damon. When confronted about the whereabouts of the real Elena, Katherine mockingly admitted that Elena is hidden and will burn to death upon the ring of the Maxwell Bell. In return for this, Stefan stabbed Katherine, who temporarily died.

After a couple of hours, Katherine returned from the dead and overheard the phone call between Stefan and Damon, in which Stefan revealed he had found Elena in Mystic Falls High School. After Damon reveals the bone dagger he had forged, Katherine admitted that the dagger had the ability to send her to Hell, but not keep her there. Desperately, Damon asked Katherine what her price was for the safe return of Elena, however, Katherine retorted that she already had everything she wanted.

After finalizing a plan to destroy hell, with the help of Bonnie and Vicki, Damon returned to the tombs to confront Katherine, who assumed that Damon was bluffing, and would not actually carry out the plan.

Shortly after the Maxwell Bell unleashed hellfire, Katherine was taken to the tunnel beneath Mystic Falls, where Bonnie would redirect the hellfire on its way to the Armory. After a struggle between Stefan and Damon, Stefan eventually killed Katherine with the dagger, dying himself in the process through the hellfire. With the destruction of hell through the hellfire, Katherine is permanently dead.

Personality[]

"I was you before you even existed!"
—Katherine to Elena

In her early life, Katherine was a young and beautiful girl who was punished by her family for having a child out of wedlock. Initially named Katerina, she had loved her daughter very much and was heartbroken as she was taken from her and she never even got to hold her. After she was banished from Bulgaria, she relocated to England and seemed quite capable of making independent and intelligent choices. Katerina was characterized as a caring and polite person. She was quick to adapt to her relocation and enjoyed socializing and playing games with others. Katerina was also known to fall quick for men and yearned to be in the affections of others, even declaring to Elijah that life was not worth living if they did not believe in love. Despite her banishment from Bulgaria and estrangement with her relatives, Katerina maintained affection for them and was particularly close to her mother.

Despite her innocence and naivety, Katerina had a sense of self-preservation and immediately sought to protect herself against Klaus by stealing the moonstone and escaping the ritual that meant her death in the process. She had sought out vampires, Rose and Trevor for assistance, but betrayed them by consciously deciding to become a vampire herself for survival and igniting Klaus' wrath upon them all.

"Do you think that, after all horrible things I've done...it would be possible to be forgiven?"
—Katherine to Nadia

After Elena forced The Cure down her throat when she had tried to kill her, Katherine was rendered a weak human and had to spent two months on the run from all of the enemies she had acquired in her 500+ year lifespan. She enlisted the help of Damon, but was momentarily sold out when Silas offered Stefan for Katherine. After that failed, Katherine was granted reluctant protection under Jeremy, Matt, and Damon from Silas. Her transition to human left her weak, disheveled, and miserable as she struggled to get used to her vulnerability. Katherine's personality as a human is largely the same as when she was a vampire. She maintains her sassiness, insensitivity, independence, pride, selfishness, and sense of self-preservation. She had initially left Jeremy to die after a car crash while on the run from Silas and immediately accused Elena of being Katherine while held at gunpoint. However, Katherine soon starts to show some signs of shifting away from her "psychotic bitch" demeanor. She willingly goes back to save Jeremy's life from Silas despite risking her own survival and agreed to help rid Matt of the passenger inside him named Gregor.

Katherine also becomes slightly less hostile with certain members in the Mystic Falls gang, creating a strained but not entirely unfriendly alliance with Caroline, Matt, and Jeremy. She seems to have a soft spot for them somewhere, shown in her decision to save Jeremy from Silas and most prominently her interactions with Caroline to get Wes Maxfield unsuspecting of her and Elena being vampires in return for using her college dorm for a few days. Katherine also helped Matt with his passenger and went to him to help her put off her death by exercises, though Matt still sticks to the belief "Katherine cares only for Katherine." [2] She also met her long-lost daughter Nadia Petrova from 500 years ago and has genuine though complicated love for her, even attempting to cut off all ties with her for the sake of protecting her from Katherine's inevitable death since she couldn't be there for her.

Perhaps one of the most marked differences in Katherine's actions is her increased openness with her true emotions and vulnerability, particularly with Stefan. As she was dying of eventual old age after Silas drained The Cure out of her, Katherine falls into a depression with her loneliness and impending death to point she briefly lost the will to survive. Her misery climaxed into a suicide attempt by jumping off a clock tower, but failed when Stefan saved her. However, Katherine's inspired with a will to live through the recent support of Stefan. She becomes emotionally dependent on him in her darkest hours and quickly fell in love with him again, admitting that he was the only reason she wanted to live. Katherine's softer sides are made more obvious than ever before, wondering to Nadia if she could be redeemed for her past misdeeds and is worthy of forgiveness; a sharp contrast from her vampire self who had no remorse over anything and justified it as means to survival.

"We manipulate, we thirst for power, we control, we punish, but our actions are driven by one singular place deep inside. We're alone, and we hate it."
—Katherine about Klaus and herself

After she had turned, she immediately fled the only vampires she knew and apparently learned to survive as one on her own. The large gap of time from her transition to her arrival in Mystic Falls is a mystery, but she likely befriended Pearl during this time. In 1864, she seduced both Damon and Stefan Salvatore, revealing to a compelled Stefan that she had big plans for the three of them to be together. Although she did develop genuine affection for both brothers, and even love for Stefan, she was also calculating and selfish, selling out the other vampires in town in order to fake her own death. Her actions both in 1492 and 1864 demonstrate an extremely well-developed sense of self-preservation, almost always at the expense of any human compassion or remorse.

In present day, Katherine remains very much the same in this respect. She returns to Mystic Falls with the goal of securing the moonstone as well as a vampire, a werewolf, and the second Petrova Doppelgänger, solely for the purpose of handing them over to Klaus in exchange for amnesty. In the process, she manipulates and seduces Mason Lockwood to have him do her bidding, orchestrates the activation of both Mason's and Tyler's werewolf gene, turns Caroline into a vampire, compels Jenna to stab herself, lures Jenna out of her house to be sacrificed in Klaus' ritual, and leaves behind her a trail of other casualties, all in the name of securing her freedom. However, she redeems herself to the Salvatores, if only slightly, first by delivering the antidote to Damon's werewolf bite and later by helping in the plan to kill Mikael.

Despite her ruthlessness, it is clear that Katherine has deep, genuine feelings for Stefan. Unable to reveal herself to him without ruining the usefulness of being dead, she still observed him from afar over the years, admitting as much to Stefan in the present day. In fact, Katherine is usually at her most honest about her true feelings when she believes she is unobserved, as when she kissed an unconscious Stefan before leaving Mystic Falls, and when she looked on at him in the 1920s speakeasy.

Her relationships with other characters also sometimes reveal a crack in the "psychotic bitch" facade. Although she claims to his face that she never loved him, Damon still holds some of her affection, and she has offered him genuine help more than once. With regard to her doppelgänger, although she was willing to trade Elena's life for her freedom from Klaus, she never demonstrated any real animosity toward her. In fact she freely admitted an admiration for her descendant's tenacity, a quality she values in herself. And despite fearing Elijah nearly as much as Klaus because of her escape centuries earlier, she has since become his ally, and even seems to genuinely care about and possibly love him.

Katherine's extremely heightened sense of self-preservation has helped her develop a knack for creating elaborate plans and deceptions. Even when she takes a risk, which must be well worth it, she proceeds with caution and a means of escape in place. Thus, despite whatever feelings she has for Stefan, Damon, and now Elijah, it cannot be certain whether she would save their lives over her own, though the evidence so far suggests Katherine could not help but choose her own survival above all else.

Moments before her death, she took advantage of Elena and possessed her because of her traveler heritage. In Elena's body, she tried to keep it a secret and one of the first things she did was break up with Damon. Her ultimate goal was to assimilate herself in Elena's life and discard Elena's soul/essence and try to have a romantic relationship with Stefan. Katherine first tricked Matt into thinking she was her, and got information from him to know more about Elena's life, compelling him to forget that she is in Elena's body. She pulls it off for a while, hiding from Elena's friends most of the time, but eventually everybody finds out, even though she had the help of her daughter, Nadia, who was also trying to keep it a secret. Stefan called her to the Salvatore house, and Katherine accepted her death in the end, but before she is finally gone revealed that she injected Elena with the ripper compound.

Throughout her centuries-long life, Katherine has always been tough, feisty, independent and smart. If a task needs doing, she'll find a way to accomplish it, usually through a combination of uncompromising will and skilled manipulation of people and circumstances. Her personal motto - "Better you die than I" - does well to encapsulate her instinct for self-preservation as well as the detached cruelty which many vampires choose to adopt. But in her private moments, there is yet a glimpse of the human girl who once said that life is too cruel to live without love.

Attitudes[]

"Humanity is a vampire's greatest weakness. No matter how easy it is to turn it off, it just keeps trying to fight its way back in."
—Katherine

Based on what has been shown in the series, Katherine has no regard for human life. To her, humans are a means to an end, whether as victims to feed on or pawns in a plot for personal gain. The notable exceptions to this general disregard are Stefan and Damon Salvatore.

In 1864, Katherine took sadistic pleasure in demonstrating to a human Damon how a vampire lures in a victim by playing the role of a lost woman in order to stop a coach on a deserted road, anticipating the concern this would draw from its passengers. She fed on and killed her victims without any apparent remorse. In the present day, though she has shown no qualms about harming humans, her violence towards them is usually attended by a vague sense of purpose: she chops off John Gilbert's fingers and stabs him as she infiltrates the Gilbert home; she turns Caroline into a vampire as part of her plan to plead amnesty with Klaus; she maims and kills Aimee Bradley to emphasize how badly she wants the moonstone and compels Matt and Sarah to provoke Tyler into killing them; she knocks out Jeremy to use him to get to Mikael; she kills cemetery visitors in order to feed and awaken Mikael; and she kills various people on the island in order to get to the cure.

The only humans that Katherine, as a vampire, has seemed to not view as mere collateral damage were Damon and Stefan, whom she lived with in 1864. Although her relationships with both brothers seem to have had a certain amount of manipulation and scheming involved, Katherine demonstrated both before and immediately after Stefan's transition-death that she genuinely cared for him. Her relationship with Damon does not appear to have had the same depth of such feelings, but she cared enough about him to want to turn him into a vampire. Still, her behavior around the Salvatores was so wrapped up in whatever her ulterior motives happened to be that it's not always clear where the selfish manipulation ended and the genuine affection began.

Katherine's attitude toward vampires does not diverge far from her attitude toward humans; she merely has to be more clever in how she manipulates them. She was willing to sell out those she considers friends, like Pearl and the other vampires in Mystic Falls at the time. She regards werewolves to be little better than humans: she only deals with George Lockwood in order to procure her escape from Mystic Falls in 1864, and uses Mason Lockwood and Tyler Lockwood in her plan to strike a deal with Klaus. She deals with witches with a bit more wariness, though her arrogance sometimes gets the better of her. Although she apparently lived with Emily Bennett for years and treated her as a confidante, she betrayed her during her escape from the town. Later, Lucy helps Katherine to repay a debt, but Katherine underestimates the witch's willingness to turn against her after the debt is paid.

Like most vampires in the series, Katherine's attitude towards the lives of others has been significantly influenced by the end of her human life and how her vampirism affected her family. She suffered the heartache of being separated from her illegitimate daughter and disowned by her family, and not long after suffered the despair of finding her entire family dead, brutally murdered by Klaus. Any trace of the human girl who still believed in love seemed to evaporate after this last great loss, though it peeks through occasionally when it comes to Stefan.

Overall, Katherine has no respect for anyone's life but her own, and will not spare a life unless it suits her interests to do so. Although she has risked her life in the past to save Damon and Stefan, doing so was in the context of repaying a debt and killing Klaus, it remains untested whether her affection for the brothers could ever truly transcend her sense of self-preservation.

As a human, Katherine's attitude towards fellow humans did change slightly, but not to a large extent. She did seem to understand the fragility of human life when she began to experience the effects of ageing, but this did not seem to shift her views that human life was worthless too much.

Based on what has been seen, Katherine doesn't really care about her fellow vampires, and would do anything to get what she needs from them. Katherine has been seen to toy with certain vampires as shown with the Salvatore brothers. Katherine has had relationships with Original vampires, and betrayed those as well.

Katherine had once been running from Klaus, whom she feared for his power. She has always proven to be much stronger than most vampires in the series except for the Originals. She also is able to manipulate certain vampires very well.

As a human, her personality has not changed much as she was as a vampire. But she has become afraid of them as she has people after her and she is not able to defend or protect herself.

Physical Appearance[]

Main article: Katerina Petrova/Appearance

Almost every character who has met any combination of the Petrova doppelgängers has remarked that Katherine looked identical to Elena, Tatia, and/or Amara. As such, Katherine was an extraordinarily beautiful and seductive young woman: she had a heart-shaped face with fine bone structure, a wealth of brown curly hair, and almond-shaped, deep brown eyes with thick dark lashes.

Katherine and Elena are remarked to be identical, but once you know what to look for, you can distinguish the two easily. Katherine's hair seemed to be a shade darker than Elena's, and she parted it on the left, while Elena parts hers in a deep part on the right. Elena seems to have naturally wavy hair, while Katherine's hair naturally had loose or tight curls. Katherine wore make-up very differently than Elena; Katherine favored a dark smoky eye with thick winged eyeliner, and her choice in lipstick was a darker, sultry pink appearance, while Elena preferred a bronze smoky eye and thin eyeliner. Katherine, having much curlier hair, seemed to have a much greater volume than Elena's, especially when Elena wore her hair stick-straight.

There are even more subtle differences that only a true fan of Katherine or Elena can detect. Katherine's irises seemed to be a shade darker than Elena's, and Katherine seemed to squint slightly, while Elena's eyes are wide open, reminiscent of doe-eyes. Katherine was also incredibly theatrical in her movement, exaggerating almost everything as though she had rehearsed any given situation over and over again.

Katherine's choice in clothes was drastically different than Elena's. Katherine was often seen wearing either leggings or dark super-skinny jeans to show off her fit figure, along with either blue, purple, or black tank tops. She would almost always wear a black leather jacket over her clothes, either cropped, full length, buttoned or with a zipper. An obvious way to distinguish Katherine's style from Elena's is by looking at Katherine's shoes. Katherine was always seen in black high heeled booties, open-toed pumps, or tall, black "500 dollar boots." Katherine was also seen to wear a lot more jewelry than Elena, including her lapis lazuli daylight bracelet, chain bracelets in either silver or gold, and a watch. In Season 5, she was seen to care less about her appearance, but was still seen in cute, fashionable outfits. She was shown in dark grey J-Brand jeans, lower heeled boots than when she was a vampire, and either black camisoles or long-sleeved shirts with lace sleeves. In Fifty Shades of Grayson, she was seen in sports gear, a baseball cap, and, during her final scene, a dark burgundy cardigan. When deducing where Katherine bought most of her clothes, she was quoted as saying that she bought most of her shoes in Paris. The majority of her jeans are J-Brand, and almost the entirety of her tops were from Bebe.

Whenever Katherine pretended to be Elena, she parted her hair in a deep right parting, and styled the front of her hair in loose curls and waves, leaving the back of her hair straight or slightly wavy. However, Katherine would choose clothes that Elena wouldn't wear, and the main distinguishing feature was usually her thick abundance of hair.

Powers and Abilities[]

Katherine after being cured possessed all the standard powers and abilities of a mortal Witch. She then possessed little fighting ability and also possessed a weak form of Traveler magic, due to belonging to a cursed culture of witches. However, she was shown using her witchcraft only twice, in order to become a passenger in Elena's body, and to give her daughter a vision of what her life should have been like. It has also been mentioned by Caroline that Katherine was not an easy target as she was able to perceive sneak attacks before they happened as a result of the heightened survival instincts she developed after spending five centuries on the run from the Original Vampires.

"This is Katherine we're talking about. She's going to see a sneak attack coming from a mile away."
—Caroline about Katherine's uncanny self preservation
Katherine had possessed all the standard powers and abilities of a non-Original vampire. She has shown to be a very experienced fighter, able to hold her own against both Stefan and Damon in battle. Being 538 years old made Katherine one of the most powerful vampires to appear in the series, until she was forced to take the cure which turned her back into a witch of the Traveler subculture. Katherine was shown to be known and feared by nearly everyone.

Katherine was sent to hell after her death. In hell, she manipulated Arcadius and after his death she became the "queen of hell". As a spirit of hell she was immortal, though unlike Cade, when stabbed with a bone dagger she could only be sent to hell temporarily rather than being destroyed. Her only weakness was the destruction of hell, while she was there.

Weaknesses[]

Katherine had the typical weaknesses of a non-Original vampire until she was forced to take the cure in 2011, which turned her back into a witch of the Traveler subculture. She then had the typical weaknesses of a witch until her death in the same year. When she escaped from Hell and later became the Ruler of Hell after Arcadius' demise, she could only temporarily be killed and sent back to Hell if stabbed by a weapon made from her own remains and the only way to permanently kill her was to destroy Hell while she was still in there.

Former Minions[]

  • Emily Bennett - She was Katherine's handmaiden in 1864 as well as a powerful witch. Katherine betrayed her when she told the people in town that Emily was a witch.
  • Henry Wattles - He was a vampire who helped Katherine to investigate the werewolf attacks within the town of Mystic Falls back in 1864. Henry was staked and killed by Alaric Saltzman.
  • George Lockwood - George was a werewolf and the co-conspirator in Katherine's faked death. She and George made a deal in which George helped her escape, telling no one of it, in exchange for giving George the moonstone.
  • Will - He had a business to get vampires fake identities, but since he was unable to walk in sunlight and kept busy with his work at his bar, he made a deal with Damon where Damon could feed on his customers in exchange for stealing their IDs for him. He was said to have provided many, if not all of Katherine's identities over the last few decades, many of which were during the 1970s.
  • Mason Lockwood - Mason was a werewolf and a romantic partner of Katherine's in the 21st century, whom she manipulated in order to obtain the moonstone. Mason was killed by Damon.
  • Jimmy - He was a friend of Mason Lockwood. Katherine used her power of mind control on Jimmy and compelled him to attack Mason after accusing him of sleeping with his girlfriend, Marla. Mason accidentally killed him, which triggered his werewolf curse.
  • Isobel Flemming - Isobel is Elena's biological mother and Katherine's descendant. She helped Katherine in her plan to destroy the tomb vampires and seek information about The Originals. Katherine also helped her obtain a lapis lazuli necklace to allow her to walk in daylight. Isobel later betrayed Katherine.
  • John Gilbert - Isobel, acting as a proxy for Katherine, asked John to get a device, enchanted by Emily Bennett, that was taken from Johnathan Gilbert in 1864. John failed to get the device, so Isobel managed to get it herself by kidnapping Jeremy in order to trade him for it. She then gave it to John, who used it to destroy the vampires who had been freed from the tomb. Katherine was the one to instigate the plan to kill the tomb vampires.
  • Jenna Sommers - Katherine used compulsion on Jenna to spy on Elena and Stefan. After Katherine learned of Mason Lockwood's death, she ordered Jenna to commit suicide by stabbing herself, though Jenna thankfully survived her injuries.
  • Caroline Forbes - Katherine turned Caroline into a vampire by smothering her with a pillow in her hospital room after Damon had healed her with his blood. Afterward, she continued to threaten and manipulate her to do her bidding. She ordered Caroline to keep Elena away from Stefan and to occupy her for the day so that Katherine could spend time with him.
  • Matt Donovan - After learning of Mason's death, Katherine used her power of compulsion on Matt by ordering him to provoke Tyler Lockwood into killing him in order to trigger Tyler's werewolf curse. She then planned to hand over Elena, Tyler, Caroline and Bonnie to Klaus, along with the moonstone, so that he would have all the components needed to break the Hybrid Curse. Her hope was that she could leverage these items for her freedom, but her plan ultimately backfired. Also compelled him to know things about Elena after possessing her body.
  • Sarah - Katherine compelled Sarah to attack Tyler if Matt failed, and when Caroline broke up Matt and Tyler's fight, Sarah attacked Tyler and he accidentally killed her by shoving her away from him, resulting in Sarah breaking her neck when she fell and hit her neck on the corner of a table. Sarah's death triggered Tyler's werewolf curse.
  • Arcadius - Katherine started manipulating Cade since the minute she was sucked to hell. He did everything she wanted. She used him to get to the Salvatore brothers. He was killed and she used his death to become the new ruler of hell.

Relationships[]

Nadia Petrova[]

"I went back. For you."
—Katherine to Nadia
Main article: Katherine and Nadia

Nadia Petrova is the daughter of Katerina Petrova. Katherine gave birth to Nadia back in 1490 but Nadia was taken from her before she even got the chance to hold her. When Katherine returned to Bulgaria after being exiled to England and escaping Niklaus Mikaelson, she found that he killed her entire family and was devastated. She then began her search for her daughter who was 8 years old at the time, but to no avail, she was not able to find her. Over the years, Nadia was turned into a vampire, learning the story of her mother and searched for her for 500 years. When they meet again, Nadia introduces herself and begins to test Katherine, telling her she killed her mother in Paris. Katherine sees through this lie and Nadia reveals she did kill her mother, only in 1492 in England after she was exiled by her family. Katherine is shocked to learn that Nadia is her long lost daughter and although despite her conflicting feelings, she pushes Nadia away after learning of her impending death. Nadia is angered and clearly upset at her mother's attitude and actions towards her, and that she seemingly cared more about earning Stefan's forgiveness than her own. However, despite her anger, she wishes Katherine would desire to live longer and is conflicted between her anger towards her for her wishing to give up her life, or her wish to be at her mother's side as she dies. Katherine ends up choosing to say goodbye to Nadia as Nadia dies of Tyler's werewolf bite over running away and saving her own life. This choice results in her death at the hands of Stefan.

Stefan Salvatore[]

"Stefan, I love you. I've always loved you. I guess this is how our love story ends."
—Katherine to Stefan in Gone Girl
Main article: Stefan and Katherine

Katherine fell in love with Stefan when she met him in Mystic Falls in 1864. Although she was also seeing Damon, she had a clear preference for Stefan. She secretly watched over him while running from Klaus, and later admitted she had never once stopped caring about him. Katherine was unwilling to put her love for Stefan above her own survival and when she returned, they became enemies, as Katherine wanted to deliver Elena to Klaus in exchange for her freedom and Stefan was in a relationship with her. Nonetheless, Katherine persisted in her affections for Stefan despite his supposed hatred of her and declared she would wait for him forever if need be. Some time later, Elena tried to kill Katherine in revenge and almost succeeded before Stefan came and saved her. As Katherine's health began to deteriorate after through the loss of The Cure, she developed a friendly but complicated relationship with Stefan. Katherine helped him deal with his PTSD while Stefan in return prevented her from committing suicide. She locked herself and Stefan in the safe where she prompted Stefan to realize he was unable to accept the reality of the loss of Elena and that physical pain was easier to handle. Afterwards, Stefan admitted to Katherine he should move on and they end up sleeping together. Katherine's feelings towards him are stronger than his and her dying wish is for Stefan to find her worthy of redemption.

Elijah Mikaelson[]

" I just keep wanting to believe you, but how can I when, at every turn, you give me reason to doubt you? I don't know you."
—Elijah to Katherine in American Gothic
Main article: Elijah and Katherine

The relationship between Katerina Petrova and Elijah Mikaelson, was once sweet and friendly up to the point where Katherine betrayed Elijah for her own freedom and that broke his relationship with his half-brother Klaus. When Elijah found Katherine in the vampire tomb, he compelled her to stay there until he said otherwise. Elijah later revealed that he made Katherine pay for betraying him, by running away from him as he was trying to save her life. She later witnessed his brother Klaus daggering Elijah. In American Gothic, it is revealed that Elijah and Katherine have been sleeping together and were in a relationship together, as they both have admitted to being in love with each other, although it is questionable whether Katherine's love for Elijah is genuine or just another ploy to get freedom. However in The Originals, Elijah left Katherine behind in Mystic Falls and went to New Orleans after saying and kissing her goodbye, ending their relationship. Even though he was a hallucination in 500 Years of Solitude, Katherine was happy to see him and had shown to have missed him.

Elena Gilbert[]

"I forgive you. You weren't born evil. Life made you that way."
—Elena and Katherine in 500 Years of Solitude
Main article: Elena and Katherine

The relationship between Katherine Pierce and Elena Gilbert has been mostly antagonistic throughout the series. When Katherine first came back to Mystic Falls in 2010, she's jealous of Elena for earning the affections of Stefan (and Damon whom she had also loved). Katherine also planned to deliver Elena to Klaus in exchange for his forgiveness for running from him. Katherine, however, has also stated that she's more indifferent to Elena than anything else. She merely saw her as someone who had the same fate as her. After Katherine killed Elena's brother Jeremy, they were each other's only remaining family. After Elena turned her humanity off, she impersonated Katherine for the first time, as it was usually Katherine to impersonate Elena. Katherine later attacked Elena, resulting in Elena giving Katherine the cure, and making her human.

Damon Salvatore[]

"I thought I'd give it a shot. Truth is, you just don't do it for me anymore."
—Damon to Katherine in The Reckoning
Main article: Damon and Katherine

The relationship between Katherine Pierce and Damon Salvatore has been complicated since their meeting in 1864, when Katherine stayed in their estate and Damon was serving in the Confederate army. Damon fell deeply in love with Katherine, but unbeknownst to him, she'd also been seeing his brother Stefan, sparking the brothers' lifelong rivalry. Their relationship ended when the town began eradicating the vampires. She was then taken away, and Damon and Stefan were shot by their own father while in an attempt to save her, causing the latters' turning into vampires. Damon since then, has spent the following 150 years obsessed with freeing her from her tomb, only to find out that she was never in it in the first place. This ignited a newfound rivalry between the two. Despite them sharing a complicated alliance in modern times, Damon has shown to lose his patience with her rather quickly and this sparked an antagonistic relationship between the two. Damon and Katherine continued to be at odds with each other throughout the series up to Katherine's death.

Other Relationships[]

Appearances[]

The Vampire Diaries[]

Season One

Season Two

Season Three

Season Four

Season Five

Season Six

Season Seven

Season Eight

The Originals[]

Season Five

Legacies[]

Season One

Season Two

Episode Absence[]

Season Two

Season Five

Stefan's Diaries[]

Stefan describes Katherine as being very beautiful, when she first arrives to Mystic Falls, even though he is supposed to be engaged to Rosalyn Cartwright. She and Stefan kissed in the library at the Veritas Estates for the first time. She stays in the carriage house with Emily and she killed Rosalyn out of jealousy. She acts as innocent to avoid being uncovered as a vampire. Katherine was with Damon before Stefan and compelled him to take her secret better. Stefan believed her to have died. He tells Damon that he is wasting away Katherine's gift.

Novels[]

Main article: Katherine von Swartzschild

Katherine von Swartzschild (born Katerina von Swartzschild) was a young German girl, who was the daughter of Baron von Swartzschild. She was very sickly, weak, and fragile as a young human girl and during her childhood, and was told by a surgeon that she was going to die. After this news, her maid, Gudren, fetched the village vampire Klaus and asked him to turn her into a vampire. He did so, though Katherine had no say in the matter, and she became a vampire. Believing she was still sick, her father took her to the Salvatore Boarding House to cheer her up. There she met Stefan Salvatore, the younger human son of Conte di Salvatore, and she fell deeply in love with him. However, she also displayed interest in Stefan's elder human brother, Damon Salvatore. In The Awakening, she said to both of the brothers that the only way to stay in Salvatore Estate was if she chose which Salvatore to marry. She said that she would tell them which one she had chosen for marriage on Sunday in twilight. Katherine first came to Stefan during the night, presumably during lovemaking and she gave him her blood. However, Katherine also gave Damon her blood as well. Both brothers were furious when they found out that Katherine had given both of them blood and not just one of them, displaying Katherine's coy, selfish and childish tendencies. Katherine told both of the brothers that she refused to choose between the two of them, leading the rivalry and competition between the brothers to heat up even more intensely. Katherine believed that if she turned both Stefan and Damon, then she, Stefan and Damon could all live happily ever after together. The brothers refused Katherine's wish and it turned the brothers against each other even more. Katherine became extremely distraught and upset by both Stefan and Damon fighting over her, so Katherine decided to commit "suicide". The next day, Stefan and Damon had found her ashes outside alongside her small lapis lazuli ring, which protected her from the sunlight and her dress, along with a note saying that she was selfish. Damon and Stefan both blamed each other for her death, and ended up fighting each other to death with swords. Stefan and Damon both ended up stabbing each other, and both died. They woke up in their tombs, with their lapis lazuli rings on, having both been transformed into vampires, bounding the Salvatore brothers to each other for all of eternity.

Name[]

  • Katherine is a feminine first name of uncertain origin. It appears to come from the Greek Αικατερινη meaning "each of the two", or possibly from καθαρος (Katharos) meaning "pure". The name is common in English. Katerina is of Bulgarian or Russian origin and means "pure".[3]
  • Petrova is feminine and one of the most common surnames in both Russia and Bulgaria. The surname is derived from the first name Pyotr (Пётр, Russian) or Petar (Петър, Bulgarian), both equivalent to the English name Peter. Petrov means "son of Peter" in Russian and Bulgarian.[4]

Tropes[]

  • A Day in the Limelight - has an episode named after her, plus frequent flashbacks into her origins.
  • Briarpatching - Katherine uses this technique on Damon when she tells him not to dagger Elijah as she would be stuck in the tomb forever.
  • Magnificent Bastard - Plan B.
  • Katherine fits the Light Feminine And Dark Feminine trope, especially with Elena. Elena and Katherine are both doppelgängers who share an uncanny physical appearance. Elena is the Light Feminine (good, moral) and Katherine is Dark Feminine (bad, immoral). Both share a common love and interest in Stefan and are often in competition with each other for his affections.

Trivia[]

  • Katherine's birthday is June 5 and her astrological sign is Gemini. In a deleted scene of season two, her original birthday was June 22, ironically and coincidentally the same birthday as Elena.
  • Vanessa Monroe, a research assistant and former student of Isobel, mentions in Bad Moon Rising that Katherine arrived in Mystic Falls in April 1864, but this is inconsistent with Katherine's story that her family perished in the Atlanta campaign fires, which occurred in September of that year.

Gallery[]

22galeria Katerina Petrova has a photo gallery.


References[]

See also[]

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