When Caroline reacts negatively to Elena’s budding romance with Damon, she’s painted as petty — Elena even goes so far as to slutshame her for having eagerly slept with Damon back when he was just the smirking, mysterious new guy to town.

Elena acting so out-of-character is its own problem, but do Plec and Co. really think we’ve collectively forgotten about how Damon sexually and physically abused Caroline in season one? None of the characters think to mention it, and the show therefore dismisses an important aspect of its past, rejecting the careful character work behind Caroline. It’s unfair to the character and to Accola, who so far hasn’t been given many opportunities this season to flex those immensely powerful acting muscles we’ve seen her rock in the past.

News of a backdoor pilot for a Plec-produced TVD spinoff called “The Originals” couldn’t have come at a better time. While the arrival of Klaus and his family of thousand-year-old baddies propelled “Vampire Diaries” through some of its best story work, their complicated mythology has almost become too big for Mystic Falls. Perhaps taking them out of the equation will be just what “Vampire Diaries” needs to get back to basics. At the very least, let’s hope it allows Katherine (also played by Dobrev, in an amazing feat of duality) to fall back into the fold. Though Rebekah (Claire Holt) makes for a fine supremely evil queen of the undead, life without Katerina Petrova is far too boring and whiskeyless.