The Vampire Diaries’ Nina Dobrev will appear on The Originals as some new character

In news that—fingers crossed—hopefully makes sense to someone out there, The Vampire Diaries’ Nina Dobrev will appear on Vampire Diaries spinoff The Originals as someone who is technically not any of the several characters she has already played on her own show. See, Dobrev’s normal Vampire Diaries character, Elena, is what the show calls a “doppelgänger,” which basically means that she’s a magic lady who looks exactly the same as a bunch of other magical ladies who have existed for centuries. It’s more complicated than that, but the point is that the show uses the same actors to portray different characters throughout history who have some kind of mystical connection to other people who look just like them. Actually, it’s a bit like Cloud Atlas, but with vampires making out instead of Tom Hanks saying “true true.”

Anyway, this comes from E!, which reports that Dobrev will be playing Tatia, another doppelgänger who has been referenced on the show a few times but has never made an actual appearance. Hardcore Vampire Diaries fans—who can probably do a much better job explaining its weirdo mythology than we can—will recognize the name as that of the woman who was integral in the vampirization of The Originals’ Klaus (Joseph Morgan) and Elijah (Daniel Gillies), so her popping up on that show will probably be a big deal to the people who can understand it. The Originals will return to The CW in early October, and Dobrev’s episode will air in November.