Dawn Oliveri has come on board The Vampire Diaries as Andie Star, reporter for Action News.

Okay, it's not really called Action News. But Damon just likes saying that.

Typically under compulsion from Damon - and stuck making bite-based love to him in the bathtub - Andie will play a key role in her boyfriend's plan to take down Elijah tonight. How so?

"She takes the [role] of facilitator," Oliveri tells TV Guide. "She becomes the hostess of the party, but is hypnotized. Unknowingly, she's facilitating this crazy night. It's like harboring a criminal, but you have no idea you're doing it."

Oliveri says she signed on for an "undisclosed" number of episodes and returns to film more next week.

Does she fear Andie will be disposed of by Damon when he's through with her?

"Damon thinks that he's just using her, but Andie is smarter than the girls you've seen him fall [for]. Andie is a worthy opponent, not in physicality, but in the mind. What's going to be interesting is when Andie comes to from her comatose state. She's a news reporter so she's not going to be a victim of a crime and let things happen. The unfortunate thing for Andie is she's going to want to get to the bottom of it."

Yeah. We foresee curtains in her future.