The Vampire Diaries 5×12 – The Devil Inside

Review by John
Under normal circumstances, one would expect that Katherine’s ploy to take control of Elena’s body would be unsuccessful, ultimately forcing her to take some other measures to survive later in the season. The writers tossed a curve ball into the mix by having Katherine succeed in her bid to take possession of Elena’s body, supposedly locking Elena down semi-permanently in the process.

I doubt that Elena is completely gone; that would be too much of a change to the status quo. However, this does allow Katherine to run rampant and cause all manner of problems for a while, not the least of which is the end of the Elena/Damon relationship (for now, at least), and the consequential return of the violent, self-loathing Damon that we all grew to love in the first place.

It’s just a matter of time before things go back to relatively normal, since this is The Vampire Diaries and nothing ever runs stagnant for long. But that doesn’t mean that it will be easy, and it would be nice if Katherine managed to live on in some capacity. Unless I was hearing it all wrong, there is even a possibility that Katherine could be restored to an actual body, though that is a sight stretch. (The writers have pulled off stranger things, after all!)

With so much wonderfully sexy Katherine action, I suppose that the writers can be somewhat forgiven for bringing back Tyler, a character that serves only to prevent Caroline from being sexy and fun. Tyler is one of my least favorite characters, without a doubt, and this episode does nothing to change my opinion. Tyler was such a jerk on The Originals that he is the last person to comment on Caroline’s behavior, especially since she had no reason to think they would ever be together again.

At any rate, Katherine’s struggles to pose as Elena seem like a prelude to the difficulties she will encounter when trying to seduce Stefan again. He and Elena obviously had a deep history with a lot of personal details, and Katherine is likely to tip her hand sooner rather than later. Not to mention that Stefan was the one who was closest to Katherine, so even if she was posing as Elena particularly well, he is the most likely to recognize Katherine’s subtle signals.

Conclusion
The Vampire Diaries has been on a roll since they stopped dragging their heels with the Silas nonsense, and hopefully the emerging Enzo storyline will be the distraction needed to keep Katherine around for a while. If nothing else, there will be a short period with less of Elena’s typical angst, and that will be a relief all its own.

John Rating
B+

Previously Posted on Critical Myth