“ | You were trapped in a safe and tossed in a quarry. Water flooded in. You tried to scream, you tried to escape, but all you could do was drown over and over and over again. The only thing keeping you sane was that one day one of the two people you loved would come rescue you, but they didn't. I did. Always remember that. | ” |
The relationship between the cured vampire/human doppelgänger Stefan Salvatore and the ancient Traveler witch Qetsiyah.
Qetsiyah rescued Stefan from the safe that Silas locked him in at the bottom of Steven's Quarry in the Season Five episode Original Sin. From then on, Qetsiyah and Stefan remained uneasy frenemies until her death in Death and the Maiden.
Throughout the Vampire Diaries Series[]
Season Five[]
In Original Sin, Qetsiyah (under the guise of Tessa) saved Stefan from burning to death in the sun (as Silas had stolen his daylight ring) and took him to a nearby secluded cabin to recover from his four months of drowning and starving at the bottom of the quarry. When he woke up, she gave him several blood bags to recover and quickly revealed her true identity as Qetsiyah, the witch who, with her then-fiancé Silas, had created the first spell of immortality. She explained that when Bonnie dropped The Veil between the living world and the Other Side (in Season Four's The Walking Dead), she decided to take matters into her own hands and revive herself before Bonnie put the veil back up in order to fulfill her mission, since her hunters had failed to kill Silas as she had hoped.
She then revealed more details behind what happened between her and Silas 2,000 years ago—she had initially created the immortality elixir in order to take it with her true love Silas so they could be together for eternity. However, Silas, who, in reality, was in love with Amara, Qetsiyah's handmaiden, stole the elixir and left her at the altar, taking the elixir with Amara and becoming the first immortal man and woman in the process. Because of immortality went against the will of Nature, Nature sought to restore the balance by creating a bloodline of dopplegängers that could die, one from Amara (what became known as the Petrova doppelgänger line of Tatia, Katerina, and Elena, and possibly others) and the other from Silas (what became known as the Silas doppelgänger line of Stefan, and Tom Avery, and possibly others). Qetsiyah went on to explain that while she was on the Other Side, she was forced to watch as the doppelgängers of Silas and Amara fell in love with each other "century after century," stating that the universe was intent on repeating Silas and Amara's love and suggesting that that was why Stefan and Katherine fell in love, along with why Stefan had a relationship with Elena as well.
Shortly after this revelation, Qetsiyah used her magic to neutralize Stefan, and then melted silver over a fire to use to bind him to Silas in order to cast a spell to suppress Silas' psychic powers of mind control and illusion creation. However, Damon interrupted her when he final Stefan, and insisted that he was going to take his brother and leave. However, when Stefan learned of the plan to disable Silas, he persuaded Damon to let her finish her spell, so they could finally defeat him. Once Qetsiyah was finished, she informed Damon that Stefan and Elena were destined to be together, and that Damon, like Qetsiyah herself, were "just the obstacles that keep things interesting." Perhaps feeling a kinship with Damon, Qetsiyah offered to stay with Stefan and keep him safe so Damon could run off with Elena and live happily with her, but Damon loved his brother too much to betray him like that and instead attacked her. Unfortunately for him, Qetsiyah neutralized him with a pain infliction spell until he lost consciousness before leaving to gather herbs for another spell. Elena arrived soon afterward and helped both brothers escape. That night, Stefan awoke with no memories of his identity or his life, revealing that Qetsiyah's spell injured his brain so much that he developed retrograde amnesia. Later, Qetsiyah was seen performing another ritual in a room full of candles that involved her blood.
In Monster's Ball, Qetsiyah arrives at the Whitmore College Historical Ball dressed as Cleopatra. She sat next to Stefan at the bar and openly flirted with him, not realizing right away that Stefan didn't remember her because of her spell. Damon interrupted their conversation so he could speak with Stefan privately. Damon and Silas then incapacitated Stefan by snapping his neck so Silas could temporarily regain his psychic abilities and use them to obtain the information he needed from Qetsiyah about the Anchor while he posed as Stefan. Unaware of the switch, Qetsiyah was delighted when she was asked to dance by "Stefan" (really Silas), allowing Silas to easily obtain the information about the Other Side's anchor that he wanted without Qetsiyah knowing that he'd done so. Later, Stefan woke up after his snapped neck had healed, which caused Silas to collapse in pain on the floor in front of Qetsiyah, causing her to become quite concerned until the real Stefan arrived and alerted her to what Silas had done. Qetsiyah, furious that Silas would double-cross her again, used her newly-regained talisman to magically stop Silas' heart from beating and desiccate him. Afterward, Stefan left with Qetsiyah to go back to her cabin, not knowing that part of Qetsiyah's plan would be enacted that evening without any effort on her part; at the Salvatore boarding house, Damon had just fed Silas Katherine's cure-laced blood, causing him to be cured of his immortality and become a witch again.
In Handle with Care, Stefan awakened on a couch next to Qetsiyah in her cabin. Stefan wondered aloud what he was doing there, so Qetsiyah explained that they spent the night drinking tequila and doing body shots with each other. When Stefan noticed her good mood, she gleefully informed him that she accidentally checked his texts from his friends and learned that Silas had taken the cure and was now mortal. When Stefan inquired as to the specifics on how the anchor is tied to Silas, Qetsiyah refused to answer his questions. She then attempted to open the door and exit the cabin, which is when she realized that Silas cast a spell to trap them there until sundown while he went to get the anchor first. Elena, who had been left behind by Silas, Damon, and Jeremy, tried to call Stefan, but Qetsiyah answered his phone instead and taunted her by implying that she and Stefan slept together. Elena, confused and hurt, arrived at the cabin, where she inadvertently got trapped in the cabin with them and learned that this was Qetsiyah's intention when she lied about sleeping with Stefan just to get her there. When she realized that Damon was helping Silas, she used Elena's phone to call him, and she threatened to torture Elena unless Damon killed Silas.
Stefan and Qetsiyah were attempting to make dinner together while Elena sat by herself. When Damon called to fill Qetsiyah in on Silas' situation, Stefan whispered to Elena at a level that only vampires could hear that he didn't hate her as he had acted, and that the situation was under control because he had a plan. Realizing the sun had gone down and Silas' barrier had broken, Stefan quickly subdued Qetsiyah by stabbing her so that he and Elena could then flee the cabin at vampire speed. Later that night, after Stefan returned home, he entered his room and was surprised to see Qetsiyah there waiting for him. He offered to heal her knife wound, but she declined, as she stated that it existed as a reminder of his betrayal. She then went on to remind Stefan of all the things she did to help him, including rescuing him from the safe in the quarry and removing his memories to save him from the pain of the experience. When Stefan attempted to apologize, Qetsiyah responded by painfully giving Stefan his memories back, forcing him to suffer the side effects from all of the trauma he experienced.
Quotes[]
- Stefan: I don't want to hurt you, so get away from me before I rip your throat out.
- Qetsiyah: Hello to you, too. I brought dinner.
(Tessa holds out a blood bag. Stefan hesitates for a moment, then grabs the blood bag savagely and starts to suck it down.)
- Qetsiyah: A vampire doppelgänger who's burdened by a conscience. Now I've seen everything.
- Stefan: You saved me from burning to death outside that bar this morning, didn't you?
- Qetsiyah: And I pulled you from the quarry before that. That is, I figured out where you were and told the former owner of this cabin to pull your lock box from the water. You thanked him... by biting off his head.
- Stefan: Look, if you really are Silas' one true love, and you're not dead, then why don't you do us all a favor and run off into the sunset together?
- Qetsiyah: Silas was my true love. I never said I was his. I'm Qetsiyah, that sane, rational, well-adjusted woman you seem to know so much about.
- Stefan: What are you doing here? I thought you were dead and on the Other Side.
- Qetsiyah: I was-- for 2,000 years. But I came back... for you.
- Stefan: 2,000 years is a hell of a long time to hold a grudge.
- Qetsiyah: You have clearly never been left at the altar.
- Qetsiyah: (to Damon) Century after century, I watched versions of Stefan and Elena find each other, like magnets, always the same story-- conquering all, falling in love. You didn't think your brother was Silas' first shadow? Destiny has been trying to get the doppelgängers together forever.
-- Original Sin
- Qetsiyah: You have no idea who I am, do you?
- Stefan: No offense, but actually, I have no idea who a lot of people are.
- Qetsiyah: Tessa. Formerly known as Qetsiyah.
- Stefan: The girl who wiped my memories.
- Qetsiyah: Nothing personal, little ex-boyfriend drama. Let me make it up to you. Buy you an "I'm sorry" drink?
- Qetsiyah: Good morning, sleepy-head. (Stefan is startled awake) Sleep well?
- Stefan: Oh. Tessa. Hi.
- Qetsiyah: You're confused. Is that the amnesia or the tequila?
- Stefan: Um, I think both. I'm still trying to piece together last night.
- Qetsiyah: We bonded over our misery. There were body shots. The misery lifted. Here. Berries?
- Stefan: Thanks. What's got you in such a good mood?
- Qetsiyah: I happened to see a text message pop up on your phone after you crashed last night. Warning from your friends. Silas took the cure. He's a witch. He's mortal and now, I can kill him. Get up gorgeous-- your doppelgänger dies today.
- Qetsiyah: (answering Stefan's phone) Stefan's phone.
- Elena: Who's this?
- Qetsiyah: Uncanny. Your doppelgänger voice is exactly like Amara's. So whiny.
- Elena: Tessa. Where's Stefan?
- Qetsiyah: He's here. Well, not "here" here. He hopped in the shower. Between us girls, he works up quite the sweat, but I guess you know that. May I leave him a message?
- Elena: Yeah. Remind him that you're a crazy bitch.
- Qetsiyah: I would, but I think that's maybe his type.
- Qetsiyah: (to Stefan) You were trapped in a safe and tossed in a quarry. Water flooded in. You tried to scream, you tried to escape, but all you could do was drown over and over and over again. The only thing keeping you sane was that one day one of the two people you loved would come rescue you, but they didn't. I did. Always remember that.
Trivia[]
- Qetsiyah loved Stefan's ancestor, Silas.
- Qetsiyah has watched all of Silas' and Amara's doppelgängers get matched together for 2,000 years, including Stefan and Elena.
- Qetsiyah had an attraction to Stefan.
- It was originally believed that the linking spell Qetsiyah cast that connected Stefan to Silas that caused Stefan's memory loss was an unintentional side-effect, but it was revealed in Handle with Care that it was actually intentional, and that Qetsiyah was trying to ease his pain.
- When Stefan betrayed her, Qetsiyah repaid him by returning all of his memories, including the ones of drowning and starving for four months straight in the quarry, to force him to relive the trauma over and over again.
- Qetsiyah tried to use Stefan to make Elena jealous.
- Stefan aided Qetsiyah in her goal by killing Silas so that she can be with him forever on the Other Side.