The Vampire Diaries Review: “Handle With Care” (Season 5, Episode 6)

If there is a silver lining to the whole Katherine being human again situation, it’s that she actually needs people to like her now and it’s had an interesting effect on her actions. Katherine has always been a survivor. It has benefited her in the past to look at people as disposable. Unfortunately, she doesn’t exactly have that option these days.

Since Silas conveniently relieved Katherine of the responsibility of carrying the cure in her bloodstream, this is the first time in the last 500 years that she wasn’t being actively hunted by anyone. It must be a relief to finally be able to relax. Or, it would have been if it wasn’t on the verge of being completely overshadowed by her pending demise.

I can’t decide if this is the elaborate work of karma, or just really tragic. Katherine never asked to be a doppelganger. She was born with unfortunate luck and it has pretty much continued to haunt her over the course of her very lengthy life. It’s not really any different from Elena (also Dobrev), who is another unfortunate victim of this curse, and has paid for it at every turn. Except that Katherine has always chosen herself over other people. It was her against the world, and no one else has really claimed importance. Where Elena is self-sacrificing and honorable, Katherine is selfish and crass.

It would be nice if before Katherine takes her final bow, she actually did something worthwhile. She has come through in the clutch before, but ultimately it was always in her best interest. On tonight’s episode of The Vampire Diaries she wasn’t completely intolerable, though. She covered for Elena and through a whole secret society off her vampire track.

It’s always strange to watch her do anything with noble intentions, and since she is using it to her advantage with the whole not wanting to die thing technically it’s not selfless, but she and Caroline (Candice Accola) still made a good team. And, I love that The Vampire Diaries is already setting up a new villain with the Augustine vampire – Silas is a passing fancy for me at best.

Are you excited to see a slightly different side of Katherine, or do you think she’ll prove to be the same old Katherine in the end? Now that Amara is alive and well (er, at least physically), what does this mean for Silas? How far will Tessa go to make him pay? Let us know all your thoughts from this episode of The Vampire Diaries in the comment section below!