The Vampire Diaries

Season 2 Episode 17

Know Thy Enemy

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7.8
out of 10
User Rating
329 votes
8

EPISODE REVIEWS
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Episode Summary

Elena and Alaric are upset with John after Isobel's unexpected arrival devastates Jenna. Damon, Jeremy, and Bonnie search for the spell they'll need to harness the power of Bonnie's ancestors. Caroline, heartbroken, doesn't know how to handle the situation with Matt. Damon and Stefan realize they have a new secret weapon.moreless
FAN RECAP

Fan Episode Reviews (8)

SUBMIT REVIEW

  • that can be a real battlefield!

    10
    By goleghasedak, Jun 12, 2011
    did I get that right? now everyone want to kill everyone! klaus wants to kill Elina & her team, our beloved caracters are going to kill Klaus and his guys and sheriff wants to kill them all!

    thats gonna be intresting!

    pitty for Isoble, I can't say she deserved that or not. I hate Katherin more and more everytime, that makes me hate Isoble too, but she looked so misurable when she was doing what she suppose to.

    John is a idiot, no doubt!

    sorry for Alaric, I liked him alot. a good man.

    Damon was smart with the whole house ownership thing but I don't think thats gonna be so handy.

    I realy wanna kill matt! how could he tell sherif the whole story?! 100% stupid idea! I hope caroline wasn't be completely honest with him! it may put everyone in danger!

    Jenna is gone, who cares?!

    bonnie and jeremy,realy bad idea of the writers to make them couple I think.

    this episode was shocking, full of suprises and good such as last couple episodes.

    good to see them back!moreless

  • Know Thy Enemy

    9.5
    By TrueTvWatcher, May 03, 2011
    Know Thy Enemy was a superb episode of The Vampire Diaries and had a lot of twisting and turning plot points, there was action, drama, intrigue, and humor. I enjoyed the story line with Bonnie and Jeremy who had some good scenes together. I thought Isobel was particularly fun to see again, especially interacting with Katherine. Caroline has a noose hanging right before her and doesn't know it as she tells the whole truth to Matt. It was interesting to see how Klaus makes it difficult to track him with a handy warlocks magic. I look forward to watching the next episode of The Vampire Diaries!!!!!!!moreless

  • "I know that I want Klaus dead which puts me squarely on Team You." -- Katherine

    7.0
    By MovieMark, Apr 24, 2011
    Hiatuses tend to throw me for a loop. I forget when shows are supposed to return and I completely lose any sense of a television schedule. I only just realised Nikita had returned a while ago, and I've missed about 4 episodes already. It's a hard knock life.



    The Vampire Diaries returns with an episode I was initially wary of: performances seemed a little off and I was already reaching my quota on the amount of screen-time allowed for Bonnie and Jeremy and Caroline and Mattt. Things, however, soon heat up (quite literally in Isobel's case), and before you can poke fun at some plot-holes or groan over a woeful line of dialogue, in typical Vampire Diaries fashion, you're bombarded with twist after twist and back-stabbing galore (only figuratively this week, though there's plenty of back-mind-whammying).



    A lot of the character stuff simply didn't interest me this week. Bonnie is a supercharged wicca now? It'd be kinda cool if it wasn't for Jeremy leeching onto every scene and making sure to give his furrowed brow a hefty workout. Matt and Caroline? Not even Caroline can save their scenes this week cos she's just as droopy and mopey as her droopy mopey boyfriend.



    Thank god for vampires, eh? I lapped up every minute of Isobel's time with Katherine. I'm pretty sure Isobel broke some sort of record for betraying so many people in one episode. It's a damn shame that she's dead-dead now, the show never quite knows how to keep a strong hand, character-wise. We'll hardly have any strong returning characters left when season 3 starts up. I did think it was a new brand of lame the way Katherine found the moonstone, but whatevs. I'm over it.



    While Matt may get on my nerves, I did quite like the twist involving his alliance with Caroline's mom. Of course, this will do nothing to help his character, as it looks as though he'll be set on offing her soon enough. Please don't let that happen. If anything, I'd like for Caroline to kill Matt and the mother-unit, and for the writers to take Caroline down a much darker path. She has been too sunshine lollipops for a vampire.



    And what about Alaric, eh? Jenna won't be happy to find out that her boyfriend is one of the oldest vampires ever now. But then again, Jenna never seems to be happy these days. Wait, WHAT? Alaric is...huh? I'm confused. But I'm willing to roll with it. It's a bogglingly badass move. I think he needs to kill Katherine though, as horrible as that sounds. But if we're to believe he's as badass as they say, I demand proof.



    Overall, it's not really a very good episode, but it contains enough shocker, twist-y, turn-y moments to keep it floating just above-average.moreless

  • zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Boring

    4.0
    By adcwolf2, Apr 16, 2011
    Well what can I say I couldnt rate this episode more than a 4 ZZZZZZZ I will summarize as quick as possible before you fall asleep.



    Elenas real mum comes to town with more conspiring over the stone and doppleganger - the best bit was where she takes off her protection stone and frys in the sunlight at the cementary.



    One of Klaus's witches kidnaps Katherine, when she wakes up in a strange room with the same witch performing a spell who turns out to be Klaus in a new body.



    Theres more of the Caroline / Matt dramas BORING - theres two people that need to be killed off.



    Well I've reached my minimum word count and cannot think of anything more to say - not even a Damon momentmoreless

  • It finally begins to pick up.

    8.0
    By alexxXundrgrund, Apr 15, 2011
    Well, my current favorite series on tv right now is back... This episode was pretty good at adding things to the plot, and it introduced Klaus(in a way that made my face go =0), didn't paint Isobel & John as total heartless bastards, showed Bonnie getting new power, and we finally saw Elena & Katherine together in one scene(though I felt that was unneccessary), but while watching I felt like things were dragged out too much, or maybe that just me wanting more...



    No, things were dragged out too much. Isobel's "plan" took up 95.5% of the episode, and did it really take just one episode for the moonstone and Katherine to be in Klaus's hands? Damon apparently did not hide the moonstone very well.



    The location of where the witches died was confusing, when the past episodes made it sound like it was a field where they died, which resulted in a "huh?" from me. How can that house still be standing if people were burned alive there? The room didn't even look charred to me. Consistancy, consistancy.



    So, next week's episode looks promising, it should beat off this episode's slow start with a stick.



    xo, Alexxmoreless
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Cast & Crew: STARS

Matthew Davis

Matthew Davis

Alaric Saltzman
Candice Accola

Candice Accola

Caroline Forbes
Sara Canning

Sara Canning

Jenna Sommers
Nina Dobrev

Nina Dobrev

Elena Gilbert/Katherine Pierce
Katerina Graham

Katerina Graham

Bonnie Bennett
Steven R. McQueen

Steven R. McQueen

Jeremy Gilbert
See All Cast & Crew

Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

Michael Roark

Michael Roark

Cowboy

Guest Star

Gino Anthony Pesi

Gino Anthony Pesi

Maddox

Guest Star

Susan Walters

Susan Walters

Carol Lockwood

Recurring Role

Mia Kirshner

Mia Kirshner

Isobel Flemming

Recurring Role

Marguerite MacIntyre

Marguerite MacIntyre

Sheriff Elizabeth Forbes

Recurring Role

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Episode Photos

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

FILTER BY TYPE

  • TRIVIA (1)

    • Goof: When Maddox attacks Katherine after she ends her phone call with Isobel, Katherine has Elena's necklace around her neck. However, when the camera angle changes after Katherine falls to the floor, the necklace is missing.

  • QUOTES (1)

    • Isobel: (looking at her own grave with Elena) My parents--your grandparents--they put it here when it became clear that the police weren't going to find my body. They visit every week and they bring flowers even though there's no one buried here. The Isobel they knew is dead. So, maybe there's a part of me that's buried here, the human part. The part that I abandoned when I chose to become a vampire. The part that used to dream about the day she'd know her daughter.
      Elena: What?
      Isobel: Instead you got to meet the other part. The part that would betray her own flesh and blood.

  • NOTES (4)

  • ALLUSIONS (0)

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Watch Full Episodes: The Vampire Diaries

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Season 2 Episodes

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Ep 22
As I Lay Dying
Ep 21
The Sun Also Rises
Ep 20
The Last Day
Ep 19
Klaus
Ep 18
The Last Dance
Ep 17
Know Thy Enemy
Ep 16
The House Guest
Ep 15
The Dinner Party
Ep 14
Crying Wolf
Ep 13
Daddy Issues
Ep 12
The Descent
Ep 11
By the Light of the Moon
Ep 10
The Sacrifice
Ep 9
Katerina
Ep 8
Rose
Ep 7
Masquerade
Ep 6
Plan B
Ep 5
Kill Or Be Killed
Ep 4
Memory Lane
Ep 3
Bad Moon Rising
Ep 2
Brave New World
Ep 1
The Return

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