The Vampire Diaries Review: “While You Were Sleeping” (Season 5, Episode 16)

Katherine Pierce (Nina Dobrev) may be dead, but she’s far from gone. On this episode of The Vampire Diaries, Elena (also Dobrev) explores a bit of her inner-mind and discovers that Katherine hasn’t lost just yet. You may recall that as a final parting gift to her doppelganger, Katherine injected herself with a little vengeance – in the form of the vampire-eat-vampire serum, laced with werewolf venom for an extra kick. Werewolf venom, even in this form, is still deadly to vampires. As we’ve seen before, the decline is a painful process of physical ailments and hallucinations. So not only does Elena spend most of this episode writhing in emotional pain as she slowly loses her grasp on reality, but she is suffering from hunger pangs as vampires willing to let Elena gorge herself on them were the one thing in short supply.

At the center of Elena’s delusions was her recently deceased friend, Aaron Whitmore (Shaun Sipos). A few episode back, at the height of Damon’s (Ian Somerhalder) heartbreak misery, Aaron suffered an unfortunate accident – if you can call Damon ripping his throat out to prove Katherine right an accident. Perhaps since Katherine was impersonating Elena unbeknownst to her friends and family, it was more like a miscommunication of sorts. Either way, Elena’s subconscious obviously had the deep seated notion that something terrible had happened to him during her three week hiatus into the deepest crevices of her own mind.

This, naturally, forced the issue of Damon coming clean to Elena, which led to the couple confronting the truth about their relationship. Surprise, surprise, even with all the recent bumps in the road, they are still madly, deeply in love with each other. Which is probably a good thing considering that for a few moments earlier on, two vampire blood craving vampires were alone, together. It still remains to be seen if the cure that the travellers traded with Stefan (Paul Wesley) cures Elena completely, or just has managed to quell the annoying side effects for now.

As the season progresses, the travellers have become an intimate part of the storyline and from the looks of it, they don’t plan on retreating anytime in the near future. The doppelganger curse that Elena and Stefan are unfortunately part of didn’t die with Silas (also Wesley), or even with Katherine. Apparently there is another human Stefan look-a-like conveniently living in Atlanta, which if you didn’t know, is where The Vampire Diaries is filmed. Caroline (Candice Accola) and Enzo (Michael Malarkey) have formed an uneasy alliance to kill him on the travellers behalf, a compromise in order for Stefan to not be forced to repeat the brain frying episode we witnessed earlier this season.

The travellers are an interesting brand of people. They’ve survived over the centuries tasked with a certain purpose, but they are very tight lipped about what they intend to do from this point on. Viewers already know that it somehow deals with the doppelgangers, and given the fact that Elena and Stefan are lined up to be the last remaining ones, this doesn’t necessarily bode well for them. Another dilemma that our favorite supernaturals are unprepared for is the witch that Bonnie (Kat Graham) thinks she’s training and her newly introduced brother, Luke (Chris Brochu).

At first Live (Penelope Mitchell) appeared to be a harmless newcomer to the world of magic, but instead it looks like her talents extend far beyond the realm of witchcraft. She may want to reconsider her major and look into the drama department, seeing as she’s such a great actress. There’s a lot of mystery surrounding these two new characters. Especially since brother dearest already indicated that Bonnie and her friends are going to find themselves in danger. It’s hard to tell if this plot is in any way related to the travellers plans, but it definitely adds another element of suspense to the season. Now that The Vampire Diaries has buried the Katherine story arc, there’s some big shoes left to be filled.

Are you impressed with the direction that the show is going? Do you think Damon and Elena will make it through the season with their couple status still in tact? What do you think the travellers have planned? Let us know all your theories on The Vampire Diaries in the comment section below!