| “ | I could have never predicted that I would find such unconditional love in the most unexpected of ways. Through a drunken one-night stand with my greatest enemy. But... I also wouldn't do it any other way. To be loved... to be part of a family, the Great Mikaelsons, and all that comes with it, the good and the bad. The 'Always and Forever.' | ” |
— Katherine to Klaus on becoming part of the family.
| ||
Katherine Pierce, born Katerina Petrova (Bulgarian: Катерина Петрова) is a main character of The Originals and the first true witch-vampire hybrid. She is the second-known Petrova Doppelgänger of Amara and a former vampire and witch of the Traveler sub-culture. Katherine was first introduced in The Vampire Diaries as 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 and the second half of Season Four. She is the first born child and daughter of Anton Petrova and Mariya Petrova (Harman), and the older sister to Nedyalka Petrova.
Katherine is the mother of the first naturally born tribrids, Adyelya Mikaelson and Håkon Mikaelson, the twin daughter and son she had with her former enemy, the Original Hybrid Niklaus Mikaelson. She is the former Regent of the Nine Covens and the leader of the French Quarter Coven, as she had to leave New Orleans with Adyelya in order to protect her daughter. Katherine also took up the mantle of the Leader of the Trinity Coven and the Leader of the Travelers (alongside Markos).
After giving birth to a baby girl out of wedlock when she was seventeen in 1490 and being forced to give the baby up for adoption, she was disowned by her father for the shame she brought her family. She was then exiled to England, where she quickly assimilated into her new culture and met two nobleman brothers, Niklaus and Elijah Mikaelson. At first, she was attracted to both men; however, she eventually learned that she was a Petrova doppelgänger and that Klaus was planning to use 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 her 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.
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, Katherine encounters Klaus and returns to his mansion where they sleep together, conceiving their twins, Adyelya and Håkon. In the morning, Klaus sends Katherine away with money, fake records and clothing, telling her that he never wants to see her again, to which she replied "I've ruined too many good shoes running from you".
Arriving at the bus station and thanking Matt, Katherine decides to go to New Orleans to find a witch to help her become a vampire again. Shortly after arriving in New Orleans, Katherine encounters Hayley and saves her life from three vampires; the two girls then agree to live with one another. A couple of months after living in the French Quarter, Katherine seeks out Jane-Anne and Sophie Deveraux for help, but they detect her pregnancy. The Deveraux sisters plan to use her to gain the Mikaelsons' help against Marcel and to also complete The Harvest and bring back their daughter and niece; Monique. This pulls Katherine into a conflict involving the supernatural community.
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 due to Katherine being pregnant with Klaus' baby. Katherine has a one-night stand with Klaus as well, conceiving their daughter, though they eventually grow feelings for one another.
Katerina Petrova is a member of the Petrova Family. Katherine is also a member of The Travelers and Trinity Coven by birthright, in which she descends directly from the main branch of witches in the powerful Harman Family, coming from Hecate, The Witch-Queen's direct, revered and royal bloodline. She is now the Regent of the Nine Covens, as well as a Leader and Elder of the French Quarter Coven. Katherine also has ties to the Mikaelson Family and the Helland Family via her daughter, Adyelya.
History[]
Early Life[]
Katerina Petrova (Cyrillic: Катерина Петрова) was born into a noble and wealthy Bulgarian family on June 5, 1473. Growing up, Katerina's father was a witch of the Traveler sub-culture and her mother was a powerful witch from an extraordinary coven. Katerina was fascinated with magic and all it could do; however, the practice of magic was forbidden in the household, especially Traveler magic. She soon learned that her father was in hiding for deserting his own coven, The Travelers, because he had fallen in love with her mother and wished to settle down, instead of living a nomadic lifestyle. As her mother was a witch, not of the Traveler sub-culture, it was forbidden for her father to marry her; to be together, her parents ran away.
In 1490, when she was about 16 or 17 years of age, Katerina met a man named Markos, the leader of the Travelers, in the village by her family's estate. She was captivated by his charm and intelligence and would sneak out to see him. Katerina slept with Markos and became pregnant. When Katerina's father learned of the pregnancy, he became angry and ashamed, and decided to move the family to the vacation mansion, as he did not want the village to be aware of Katerina's pregnancy. 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 the loss of her daughter, and fought her father to have her back, but he refused her. She was then soon disowned by her father, and banished to England, where she quickly became 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 latter 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 Amulet's 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.
1720[]
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.
1864[]
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.
Katherine 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 her 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. She 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 honourably 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 returned 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.
1920s[]
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.
1970s[]
Katherine employed the talents of the vampire, Will, who owned the music club and bar called 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.
1983[]
Anna told Damon that she had seen Katherine during this year in Chicago.
1987[]
It was revealed that Katherine was watching Stefan and Lexi from afar at a Bon Jovi concert.
Throughout The Vampire Diaries[]
Season One[]
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.
Katherine stabs John.
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.
Season Two[]
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 demands 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 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 Stargo 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's 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's 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's 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.
Season Three[]
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.
Season Four[]
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 A View to a Kill, Jeremy mentions Katherine, saying, "We might as well look up Katherine Pierce and see if she wants some company in hiding, 'cause he (Klaus) will come after us!"
In Into the Wild, unknown to the viewers or characters, Katherine kills the mysterious attacker to save Jeremy.
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.
Katherine does not appear again until 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 of the 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. Elijah walks away from Katherine with the cure, unsure of what to do with their relationship.
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.
Katherine tortures Elena.
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.
Bonnie links Katherine to her.
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.
Katherine fighting Elena before she is given the Cure.
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 out the cure 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." When Katherine later wakes up, she is alone in the the dark school. At first she is confused, but she quickly remembers her fight and how Elena forced the cure into her mouth. Horrified at the thought of being human, Katherine goes to the nearest bathroom to look in the mirror, truly confirming that she is no longer a vampire. Not willing to let herself be discouraged, Katherine tells herself that she is a survivor and that she won't be backing down without a fight.
Katherine and Klaus have their one-night stand.
With nowhere to go and no compulsion, Katherine seeks out shelter in the Mystic Grill to rest and figure out her plan. She soon encounters Klaus, who mocks and taunts her for being defeated by Elena, a young vampire with no skill. Katherine angrily snaps at Klaus, despite being terrified of him, especially now that she is human. Yet Klaus does not kill Katherine, and instead tells her it will be more amusing for him to see Katherine perish in a slow, human way. Katherine initially moves to storm away, but Klaus offers her shelter and help for a simple night. Drunk and desperate, Katherine accepts Klaus and returns with him to his mansion, where they sleep together and conceive their twins, Adyelya and Håkon.
The following morning, Katherine wakes up to an empty bed, though not expecting anything less. Katherine and Klaus share a brief breakfast together, in which Klaus informs her that he no longer wishes to see her within Mystic Falls and that it is time for her to leave. Katherine briefly taunts Klaus about sleeping with her, asking him what his 'precious Caroline would think,' though she also agrees to leave town. With a final goodbye, Katherine informs Klaus that she no longer plans to break any heels running from him.
Before leaving town, Katherine arrives at Matt's house, asking him if he can give her a lift. Initially, she is refused by Matt, but Katherine convinces him to help her by informing him that she is leaving town for good, meaning that she will no longer be terrorizing Matt and his friends. After going to the bank and stocking up on supplies, Katherine has Matt drop her off at the bus station so she can leave town.
Season Five[]
Klaus hears the unborn baby's heartbeat for the first time.
In the season premier episode, The Originals, set during the summer, Klaus is lured to New Orleans where the witch Sophie Deveraux reveals that Katherine is, in fact, pregnant with Klaus' child--not knowing that the child is truly unborn twins, something which is revealed later. She revealed that the baby is one of natures "loopholes." She later revealed that it was because of Klaus' werewolf side that Adyelya was conceived, as well as the potent magic running through Katherine's bloodline. Sophie then demands that Klaus help her or she will kill the baby and it's mother.
Klaus initially had no interest with having anything to do with the child, especially as Katherine was involved, even telling to the witches that they made a mistake if they thought they could get to him by using Katherine and their child as leverage. But after words of consideration from Elijah Mikaelson, and an exchange from Camille O'Connell, he later changed his mind. When Elijah asked him about Katherine and their unborn child, Klaus replied to him that "every king needs an heir."
Throughout The Originals[]
Season One[]
Season Two[]
Season Three[]
Season Four[]
Personality[]
Witch[]
1400s (1st Time)[]
- "I was you before you even existed!"
- —Katherine to Elena
Throughout her life, Katerina's personality was greatly shaped by the events she experienced within her life; many of these incidents, her relationships with her family, her romantic relationships, etc. have developed Katerina even into her late life, and her personality as a vampire. As a young child, Katerina was full of wonder, imagination and a love for magic, which she learned in secret from her mother, alongside her younger sister. Her father, on the other hand, lived in fear of magic--due to his past with his coven, the Travelers, and running away to marry Katerina's mother--and, as such, he banned magic within the household. Despite her father's rules, Katerina still yearned for magic and was determined to learn it from her mother; she was also drawn to the supernatural, and the magical. Sneaking around to practice magic and explore what she could find of the supernatural world is how Katerina developed her ability to sneak around quietly, and be light on her feet.
When Katerina was still young, only two-years-old, her younger sister, Nedyalka, was born. At first, Katerina was jealous of her sister, feeling as though her baby sister took all their parent's attention. Yet Katerine softened up to her baby sister, quickly becoming protective of her. As Nedyalka grew, her and Katerina became very close, the both of them learning magic together. Being the older sister, Nedyalka looked up to Katerina, and as such, she did her best to be a good role model for her sister. Katerina was a kind girl to the others in the village--despite her father being nervous with his daughter interacting with the other villagers--and always did her best to be of help to others. She would always make sure that her younger sister was also taken care of.
Katerina, for the most part, was a sweet and caring person, trying her best to be compassionate with others. However, she could also be naive when it came to trusting others and the supernatural world; in addition, Katerina could be easily swayed and manipulated, and even though she loved her sister and still cared for others, she still felt jealousy towards others at times. Though, perhaps, both a bad and good thing, Katerina wore her heart on her sleeve--though she was still loyal, and a protective individual of the ones she cared and loved about, such as her litter sister, Nedyalka, and her mother, Mariya.
As she grew older, Katerina was now a young and beautiful girl who discovered love; she wore her heart on her sleeve. As proof, she met a young man, by the name of Markos, and Katerina fell in love with him and fell pregnant with his child. Before she could tell him though, Markos left the village and Katerina behind, pregnant with their child. She was punished by her family for having a child out of wedlock, or more specifically, her father (who had grown bitter due to his fear). Katerina had loved her daughter--Nadia--very much and was heartbroken as her daughter was taken from her; due to this, Katerina was never even able to hold her. After she was banished from Bulgaria by her father, something which also broke Katerina's heart as she had to leave her younger sister, she relocated to England and seemed quite capable of making independent and intelligent choices (though Katerina was also trying to appear strong and confident, she was also scared and lonely, missing her sister). 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, though she was terrified and nervous. 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. While living in England, she developed a growing relationship with both Klaus and Elijah, though her relationship with the former was mostly due to the ritual and her relationship with the latter was the start of possible love. Despite her banishment from Bulgaria and estrangement with her relatives, Katerina maintained affection for them and was particularly close to her mother and sister; she wrote letter to send to her sister, though she was never sure of whether they made it to her mother and sister due to her father. Even with her father having banished her, Katerina also still missed him and loved him, despite everything.
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's wrath upon them all.
Present Time (2nd Time)[]
- "Do you think that, after all horrible things I've done...it would be possible to be forgiven?"
- —Katherine to Nadia
In The Originals, Katherine grows to be tough as nails and protective of the people she cares about.
After Elena forced The Cure down her throat when she had tried to kill her, Katherine was rendered a weak human, but she quickly decides not to let being a human stop her from being a survivor. Her personality remains largely the same as when she was a vampire; she maintains her sassiness, insensitivity, independence, pride, selfishness, and sense of self-preservation. Despite this, her initial transition from vampire to human left Katherine weak and dishevelled, and in her moment of weakness and vulnerability, Katherine does turn to Klaus for help, and they sleep together--he then gives her money, fakes IDs, and everything she needs to begin a new human life.
Katherine moves to New Orleans as she is determined to become a vampire again, and she is unwilling to stop searching for a way, no matter what. On her journey, she becomes best friends with Hayley Marshall--her former minion--and her personality slowly begins to change for the better (though she remains a highly skilled manipulator with extremely questionable morals, willing to do anything to get what she wants). She begins to see the value of friendship in Hayley, and has come to trust her werewolf friend--Katherine first change begins when she saves Hayley's life from three vampires for being a wolf in the Quarter. Slowly, Katherine is opening and learning to trust the people around her.
After discovering she is pregnant, Katherine decides she wants to protect her unborn child, despite the father being Klaus, because it's her chance to have a family and be loved by someone else--as Katherine has been alone since her family died, and her daughter was taken away from her. From this moment, Katherine becomes determined to protect her unborn child. When she learns that she is carrying twins, Katherine is both happy and excited at the prospect, and as her pregnancy continues and she faces impending motherhood, Katherine became more tender and determined to keep her children safe this time. She also develops a closer relationship with the Originals; she grows a sister bond with Rebekah (coming to see beyond their history), and even begins to express a desire to raise her children with Klaus and grow their relationship.
Despite being human and pregnant, Katherine is also a witch and learns how to use her magic. As she grows into her magic, she starts to feel more confident and is able to handle herself very well against threats like Mikael, despite her fragile state. She soon becomes stronger and more reliable.
Vampire[]
- "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 Katerina had turned, she immediately fled the only vampires she knew and apparently learned to survive as one on her own. The first thing she did was return back to her home village to see her family; upon arriving home, she discovered that her mother and father, her younger sister, all her aunts and uncles and cousins, as well as all the villagers had been slaughtered by Klaus. This was due to Katerina's betrayal and escape with the moonstone. Seeing this, Katerina's heart was shattered; she loved her mother and younger sister, and her father, even though he had banished her. Knowing that it was her fault for them being killed completely destroyed Katerina; she turned off her emotions and left the village. This was the fundamental moment which changed Katerina to Katherine, and sent her on a path of survival, at the expense of anyone, to keep herself alive. Even more, after Katherine could not locate her daughter anywhere in Bulgaria, she truly gave up and gave in to her lack of emotions, with all her emotions turns off and blocked away. Katerina only learned to care about herself and keep herself alive from this moment onwards.
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. Katherine truly developed genuine affections and love for both brothers, and them for her--though she came to love Stefan more than Damon--but to her past of losing the those she loves, and knowing that Klaus was still looking for her, Katerina 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, and still keeps her emotions turned off, and mostly blocked at bay. 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, compelsJenna 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; however, due to. 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, building upon the feeling they once had for one another. Soon enough, their feeling grow into intense love.
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.
However, it was Katherine's most fatal flaw--her jealousy--that becomes her doom. Tired of being compared to Elena, and jealous that she had a life that Katerina never got--one with school, both parents that loved you, lots of friends, the boys she loved--she decided to go after Elena. Katherine's goal was to kill Elena. However, it did not go as planned, and Elena, having the Cure, forced Katherine to ingest it and turned he rinto a human.
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.
Witch-Vampire Hybrid[]
- "With her gone... I have turned it all off... nothing matters to me anymore... and the witches that tried to kill my baby...they're worth nothing more than food."
- —Katherine to Elijah, about losing her daughter.
Katherine was transformed into the first trust witch-vampire hybrid by the blood of her daughter and son. Katherine died shortly after giving birth to her children, but their blood was in her system at the time. She is the first true hybrid because she was not a siphoner prior to being a hybrid. When she awakes, she shows the ability to know where her babies are, even if they are hidden from her by a powerful spell. Katherine was even able to feel the death of her son, which causes her great rage and giref. She is also a very protective mother; it is especially shown in the scene where she kills Genevieve, because she killed her son, Håkon Mikaelson, and then tried to kill her daughter, Adyelya Mikaelson. She puts her daughter's safety and fate before her own needs by giving up her daughter to Rebekah and Nadia, even if it breaks her heart, but knowing it is the right thing to do, especially following the death of her newborn son.
Katherine grows a hatred for the witches because, partly due to her heightened emotions, but mainly because they succeeded in killing her newborn son and then tried to kill her newborn daughter as well. She vows to slaughter all the witches and make them pay for what they've done to Adyelya. As such, in Season Two, Katherine turns off her emotions and goes on a rampage against those who took Håkon from her and forced her to give away Adyelya for her own protection. She goes down a dark path, becoming ruthless, cold, and cruel. She truly beings discovering power, and is trying to figure out who she is as a person now, especially without her son or daughter with her anymore.
Katherine is having a difficult time because her transition meant the loss of her son to the witches, and then the loss of her daughter in order to keep her safe, and Katherine thinks it is her fault because of her selfish desire to want to be a vampire again--if she hadn't come to New Orleans, then Håkon and Adyelya wouldn't have been in danger as the witches wouldn't know about her and her unborn children. When Katherine kills Francesca, this seems to impact her immensely, causing her to go on a spree of tearing up the nursery for Håkon and Adyelya. She states that she doesn't feel any better, that she wants her son to be alive again and she wants her daughter back in her arms, something she would willingly give up her new witch-vampire hybrid status to have. From this moment on, Klaus takes on a mentoring role, teaching Katherine how to use her new hybrid status to her advantage and how to manage her emotions, though Elijah disagrees with Klaus on how he "mentors" Katherine.
She has also shown several arrogant traits. She tells Elijah that she doesn't need a caretaker, as "hybrids are invincible". She is also confident in her belief that she could take down both Esther and Finn, despite the latter taking down both Klaus and Elijah, and the former being one of the most powerful witches in history, and the one responsible for the creation of vampires. This almost costs her when she faces Finn, and she only survives thanks to the intervention of Jackson and Hayley.
Despite her arrogance she is still terrified of Klaus, even though she has a good relationship with the latter eventually.
Katherine has displayed a capacity for being sympathetic to the struggles of others, most notably Davina and Cami, and gave them the advice and support that they needed at the time. In both situations, Katherine was unapologetic and blunt but well-meaning, earning her the friendship of both women.
Attitudes[]
Towards Humans[]
- "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 Damonhow 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 Carolineinto 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, Lucyhelps 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.
Katherine's attitude towards humans may change as she is human now. Her interaction with humans will increase now as she is a human.
Towards Vampires[]
Based on what has been seen, Katherine doesn't really care about her fellow vampires, and would do anything to get things 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.
Now 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[]
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 an oval 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. In season 2, 3, and 4, Katherine was 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.
Once she becomes human, she was seen to care less about her appearance, but was still seen in cute, fashionable outfits. At the start of her pregnancy, she was shown in dark grey J-Brand jeans, flat heeled boots, and either black camisoles or long-sleeved shirts with lace sleeves. Towards the end of her pregnancy, she wears a lot of dresses.
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[]
Witch[]
Vampire[]
Witch-Vampire Hybrid[]
Weaknesses[]
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.
Relationships[]
Nadia Petrova[]
Adyelya Mikaelson[]
"I love you. Your Mom"
—Katherine's final words in her letter to her daughter.
Main article: Katherine and Adyelya
Katherine holding Adyelya shortly after she was born in From a Cradle to a Grave.
After being forced to ingest the Cure and turn back into a human/witch, Katherine fell pregnant with twins from her one-night-stand with Klaus. She discovered her pregnancy in New Orleans when she was used by the Deveraux sisters to build an alliance with the Original Family by luring Klaus back into town. Katherine at first rejected the idea of her pregnancy, and she was first worried about becoming a mother; this was due to the fact that she had a difficult family life and had lost her first child. At one point, she also considers whether or not to abort the fetus. However, during a vampire attack, she realized that she will never let anyone hurt her baby and will always protect her child, especially because she finally had a chance to start over with someone who would love her unconditionally: her future child. From that moment onwards, Katherine vowed to always keep her unborn child alive, no matter what, even if it meant working with Klaus if she had to.
She then learned that she was pregnant with twins, one of them being her daughter, which mader her overjoyed because her first daughter was taken away from her. However, she was also terrified of knowing that she was having twins; not only a little girl, but also a boy, though from this moment on, Katherine also began preparing even more to be a mother. Katherine cares about her children's survival, even more than about her own life, as it can be seen when she fought against Silas when she was given to him by Damon, and then afterwards against Mikael to again save her own life and that of her son's and daughter's. In order to protect Adyelya from the people that are trying to kill her, and who killed her brother, Håkon, Katherine and Klaus decided it was better to send Adyelya away to Rebekah and Nadia until the city was safe for her to return.
After Adyelya's departure, Katherine falls into depression, and then she soon turns her emotions off. She kills Francesca Guerrera, as well as the witches of the New Orleans Coven and even wolves in order to have her vengeance for not only Adyelya, but also Håkon. She also told to Klaus that she will never find peace and her pain will not fade until she can hold Adyelya in her arms again, and see Håkon alive again, something to which Katherine admits she knows can't be done. It is in this moment that the Travelers begin to help Katherine to take control of the New Orleans witches to begin making it so the covens can help protect Adyelya; in addition, she also starts to look into her family history to help. She was finally able to hold her daughter again when she was reunited with Adyelya in The Map of Moments. Adyelya returned home on her mother's wedding day to Markos, Leader of the Travelers, and lived in the compound with her mother, father, uncle Elijah and new stepfather, Markos.
Katherine attempted to run away with Adyelya, with the help of the Traveler's and Hayley's pack, due to the increasing danger brought on by Dahlia and Klaus' family. Katherine left a voicemail for Elijah and told him she no longer wanted her daughter to be a Mikaelson. Katherine and Markos, as well as Hayley and Jackson and their pack, were soon found by Klaus and Dahlia. Klaus took custody of their child after offering Dahlia the alternative to killing Katherine, which is sealing Katherine and her coven, the Travelers, within one of the old abandoned cemeteries, effectively cursing them to the grounds, sealing their magic and binding them to the full moon; in addition, Dahlia also bound the spell to the lives of Hayley and her pack, who were also cursed with the Crescent Curse.
As such, Katherine and the Travelers were only able to leave the tomb for the length of the full moon, and access their magic for that short period, though unable to break the spell. Elijah took Adyelya to see her mother on those occasions. Katherine missed her daughter's first steps due to the Curse, and saw her baby walk for the first time in You Hung The Moon. As of that episode, Katherine regained custody of her baby and moved out to live outside the compound with Adyelya and Markos, just in eyesight and earshot of Klaus. However, Katherine, with Markos, would return to the compound due to the danger of the Strix, but has since left New Orleans with her daughter and the Mikaelsons in coffins in a sleeping spell. The Travelers also travel with Katherine as well, helping to keep them safe and protected.
Niklaus Mikaelson[]
Elijah Mikaelson[]
Hayley Marshall-Kenner[]
Davina Claire[]
Stefan Salvatore[]
Damon Salvatore[]
Elena Gilbert[]
Other Relationships[]
Name[]
- Katherine is a feminine first name of uncertain origin. It appears to come from the Greek Αικατερινηmeaning "each of the two", or possibly from καθαρος (Katharos) meaning "pure". There are several famous bearers of this name, including Catherine de' Medici and Catherine the Great from Russia. The name is common in English. Katerina is of Bulgarian or Russian origin and means "pure".
- Petrov/Petroff (masculine) or Petrova (feminine) is 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.
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. But this was later retconned.
- Katherine is revealed to be pregnant, by Sophie, in the Pilot/The Originals episode.
- It is later revealed in Tangled Up in Blue that she is pregnant with twins, a boy and girl.
- Katherine is the first to attempt to kill the babies, by poisoning herself. However, she decided not to go through with it. The others include: Agnes, Tyler Lockwood, Mikael, Genevieve, Abigail, Monique Deveraux, and Esther.
- Katherine is the fourth main character to be a Hybrid.
- The first was Klaus.
- The second was Tyler, but due to being killed and returning from the Other Side, he is back to being a werewolf.
- And the third was Hayley; her transition was initiated by Tyler, who kidnapped Katherine and used her babies' blood to test his theories by turning Hayley into a hybrid.
- Most people use the the Anglo version of her name, Katherine.
- She is one of the two main antagonists in season two, the other being Niklaus Mikaelson.
- She shares some similarities with Hayley Marshall:
- Both came from old supernatural lineage.
- Katherine comes from the Trinity Coven (Harman Family) and the Travelers, and Hayley comes from the Crescent Wolf Pack.
- Both are called by a name other than their birth one; Hayley being born as Andréa Labonair and Katherine as Katerina Petrova.
- Both were involved with the Mikaelson brothers.
- Katherine is in love with and date Elijah, though they break up prior to the start of The Originals. She then later sleeps with Klaus to conceive their twin children. Eventually, their relationship develops into one in which Katherine is with both Klaus and Elijah.
- Hayley has a brief relationship with Elijah through season 1 and 2 of The Originals.
- Both of their astrological sign are Gemini.
- Both came from old supernatural lineage.
- Katherine's doppelgänger blood could have been useful when she was human, making her a target if Klaus had desired to create more hybrids.
- However, due to Katherine also becoming pregnant, this would no longer be an option for Klaus.
- Also, Klaus is seemingly no longer interested in doppelgänger blood, something he needed for creating hybrids. His interest is, instead, in keeping Katherine and their unborn children alive.
- Silas had sought Katherine because the cure was running through her veins. He used her cure-laced blood to turn back into a witch in Handle with Care, which infuriates Klaus as the process nearly kills Katherine and their unborn children.
- Katerina, Isobel, Rose, and Klaus are the only characters to have an episode named after them.
- Nina Dobrev who plays Katherine Pierce, was born in Bulgaria (България) and speaks Bulgarian (Български). For this reason, Katherine, who was German in the books, became Bulgarian in the TV series.
- In the books, Katherine von Swartzschild was German, a vampire of great beauty, but also immature, manipulative and selfish. In the TV series, Katerina is Bulgarian, a vampire of great beauty, but is also self-centered and ruthless. Katherine Pierce and Katherine Von Swartzschild are both vain, sadistic and manipulative woman who faked their deaths.
- Katherine Pierce and Katherine von Swartzschild are very much alike; both closely associated with Klaus, evil in Mystic Falls /Fell's Church, have easygoing attitude and hate Elena. The only difference between them is Katerina Petrova has black curly hair with brown eyes, and Katherine von Swartzschild is blonde with blue eyes.
- Rose was the vampire responsible for turning Katherine on the TV series. However, Klaus was the one who turned Katherine in the novels, completely changing the back stories of Katherine and Klaus for the series. Klaus felt emotion for Katherine, so wanted to avenge her death in the novels.
- The second time Katherine is turned--this time into a vampire-witch hybrid--it is via the result of dying with her children's blood in her system. Thusly, she is turned by the blood of Klaus' children instead.
- Katherine was a "birthday gift" from Trevor to Klaus in 1492.
- Katherine's life is seriously affected by Klaus in the books and the series.
- In the books, Katherine Von Swartzschild becomes insane, paranoid, unstable, selfish, cruel, and sadistic because of Klaus's influence for centuries.
- In the series, Katherine Pierce becomes the same, but because her child was taken away from her, and her family was slaughtered by Klaus. She then later becomes pregnant with his children after being turned into a human again.
- Katherine's parents and sister are the first of Klaus' victims to be seen in the TV series.
- Though, unknown to her, Katherine's mother and sister are resurrected.
- When Katerina first arrived in Mystic Falls, she said she was an orphan who lost her family in a fire. She may have burned down her house with her family inside after they were murdered by Klaus.
- 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.
- Katherine wore a cameo lapis lazuli necklace until the 1920s.
- This necklace is seen in all 1864 flashbacks and in 1920s flashback. After this she wears a different necklace, then turns it into a bracelet.
- She is the first of three women in her family to have slept with Damon Salvatore. Both of her descendants Isobel Flemming and Elena Gilbert have also slept with him.
- Many people have fallen in love with or felt attracted to Katherine. Vampires and humans alike Stefan, Damon, Mason, Trevor and Elijah have all been in love with her. Noah was also obsessed with her. It is thought that the Petrova doppelgängers have an uncanny ability to win others affections, especially from men, as evidenced by all of the love triangles the three Petrova women have been involved.
- Others can usually tell Katherine apart from Elena by their hair, make-up and wardrobe choices. (See Physical Appearance.)
- Katherine is quite adept at disguising herself as Elena. She has been mistaken as Elena by Jenna Sommers on many occasions, which resulted in Jenna inviting Katherine into the Gilbert's home and being lured into a trap after receiving a frantic call from "Elena".
- Katherine used mind compulsion on Jimmy, Matt and Sarah to activate the werewolf curses in first Mason Lockwood and then Tyler Lockwood.
- Despite claiming to know all about The Originals in The House Guest, she did not know that Klaus wanted to become a hybrid, that the dagger and white oak ash would not work on him, or that the curse was fake, until after The Sun Also Rises.
- Katherine is the first vampire shown to be fed on by another vampire.
- She has been absent from Mystic Falls since Homecoming, but came back in Pictures of You.
- She, Damon, Stefan and Caroline have all been bitten by either a werewolf or a hybrid, and were all healed with Klaus' blood.
- Katherine's remorseless behavior suggests she may have "turned off" her humanity, However she did - deliver Klaus' blood to cure Damon, warn Stefan about how dangerous Klaus was and rescued him from the witch Gloria, alerted Stefan to Klaus' intention to possibly kill Damon - plus her own admission, Katerina may still have human emotions.
- Katherine possibly knew about Tatia, when Elena asked her in Katerina what the Petrova family has to do with Klaus.
- She is present in Pictures of You, The Originals, She's Come Undone, The Walking Dead and Graduation, and she plays a role in Bonnie's plan to defeat Silas.
- She is the first vampire to be cured of her vampirism and was technically the second oldest living mortal at 538 years old.
- She is also the first former-vampire to become pregnant after being Cured of her vampirism.
- Katherine is the first parent to be turned into a vampire/witch hybrid by her children.
- She is the second female character to be married on screen.
- The first is Hayley, who marries Jackson.
- She, Davina and Hayley were the first, and so far only, ones to use a book reference by calling Klaus and the other Mikaelsons the Old Ones.
- Katherine was killed in the same manner as Camille O'Connell and Davina Claire (throat slit).
- She and Camille were also killed by major female antagonists.
- Katherine is the first main character of The Originals to be widowed, the second being Hayley. In the entire TVD/TO universe, she is the second character as the first was Alaric, and Hayley is the third.
- Katherine is the 2nd Doppelgänger of the Petrova line.
- Technically, Katherine had all three of her children taken away from her, at one point or another:
- Nadia was taken away from Katherine by her father when she was born. Katherine searched for her, but could never find her.
- Håkon and Adyelya were kidnapped at their birth by the witch of the French Quarter Coven as they wanted to sacrifice the twins (following orders from Esther). Before the twins can be rescued, Håkon is sacrificed, and just as the witches are about to kill Adyelya, she is saved by Marcel, Klaus, Katherine, and Elijah.
- Following the death of Håkon, Klaus and Katherine fake Adyelya's death and send her away with Rebekah and Nadia for protection.
- Katherine met her daughter, Nadia, in the episode Bloodletting when Nadia kidnapped Katherine from Tyler.
- Nadia is Katherine's first daughter and child, and she may be the reason that Katherine became the person she was.
- Nadia reveals to Katherine that she is her daughter in the episode The River in Reverse.
- Katherine and her ancestor, Tatia, have both had a child with an unknown man.
- Though it is later revealed that Nadia's father is Markos, the Leader of the Travelers.
- Katherine, Nadia, Silas, Klaus, Rebekah and Elijah all speak multiple languages.
- In the novels, Katherine's relationship with Klaus is very different from the TV series. Klaus is the one to save her from a certain death as a human by turning her into a vampire, and, shortly after her death as a vampire, he brings her back to life in order to fight the Salvatore brothers and their friends. Katherine is shown to have been loyal to Klaus for centuries, although it is implied that her companionship with him drove her insane and made her selfish and cruel.
- Katherine hates junk food - prior to her transitioning to a human - calling it toxic poison.
- While Katherine is pregnant, she goes through many cravings for junk food, such as ice cream, chips and so on.
- As of The Originals, it is revealed that Katherine was never human, but a Traveler Witch, as she received the gene from her father.
- It is also later revealed that Katherine's mother was a witch as well, from the Trinity Coven and Harman Bloodline, though Katherine was not aware of this while growing up.
- She suffered from a heart attack in Dance Back from the Grave, which nearly kills her and her unborn children.
- She is one of the oldest witches alive in the universe (as Esther, Dahlia, Qetsiyah, and the Hollow are not alive).
- Katherine performed her first spell as a Traveler in House of the Rising Son.
- Katherine admitted, that she once thought Stefan was her one true love to Klaus in A Closer Walk With Thee.
- Ever since the death of her son, Håkon, in From a Cradle to a Grave, Katherine has blamed herself for his death.
- The death of her son caused Katherine to turn off her emotions in season two of The Originals.
- Katherine believes that if she hadn't been selfish and trying to become a vampire again--which is what led her to New Orleans--then her babies, Håkon and Adyelya, could have been born somewhere safe and not inside a warzone.
- Katherine and all her known doppelgängers and predecessor's names all end with an A, Amara, Tatia, Elena and Katerina.
- Both Katherine and Elena were terrorized and eventually drained of blood by powerful immortals in order to achieve a certain goal (Klaus drained Elena to break the Hybrid Curse and Silas drained Katherine to cure himself of immortality, though her pregnancy with Klaus' children kept her alive).
- Katherine is the 9th main character in the TVD and TO universe to die after Vicki, Jenna, Alaric, Jeremy, Bonnie, Silas, Davina and Sophie.
- However, she comes back to life.
- Like her Ancestor Amara and her Doppelgänger Elena, Katherine had a close relationship with a Bennett Witch.
- Amara was Qetsiyah's handmaiden, Bonnie is Elena's best friend and Emily was Katherine's handmaiden.
- Ironically in ancient times, Qetsiyah's handmaiden was Amara, Katherine's ancestor, but in 1864 Emily Bennett was Katherine's handmaiden, Qetsiyah's descendant.
- She shares similarities to Tyler, in regard to their experience with Klaus:
- Both had their lives ruined by Klaus
- Both were on the run from Klaus
- Klaus killed the last of their family
- The core difference between the two, is that Katherine chose to run from Klaus and cover her tracks. She then later comes to be under his protection when she is pregnant with his kids. Tyler on the other hand, chose to fight and avenge his mother and fallen hybrid friends.
- Katherine wears a necklace, a Mikaelson crest locket, which is shaped like a heart, that has a small, folded-up painting of Håkon—painted and given to her by Klaus—inside it.
- Katherine, along with Klaus, Kai and Kol, are arguably the most popular villains in The Vampire Diaries. Ironically, all their names start with the letter "K". Fans have dubbed this group of villains Team K.
- In The Tale of Two Wolves, Katherine's photo is seen at the boarding school. This is a continuity error as the photo was destroyed in The Sacrifice on The Vampire Diaries. She also has a chapter, alongside Klaus, in the history books for Mystic Falls in the school's library.