Who knew that it would only take five seasons for the writers to explain the whole doppleganger situation? If that had been the only positive from this episode, I would’ve considered that a win. Lucky for us viewers there Is much more to enjoy in ‘Original Sin’.

Let’s bitch it out…

Finally. Finally someone has explained the doppleganger situation. I feel like a giant weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I can stop pretending I understand, or that it’s okay to take this leap of faith for the sake of the show. I finally do understand: Silas (Paul Wesley) found his one true love in the form of Amara (Nina Dobrev). Too bad he made Qetsiyah (Janina Gavankar) the pawn in his little game to achieve immortality, which made Qetsiyah go crazy, murder Amara (apparently quite bloodily and dramatically), and entomb Silas for eternity. And, as we know, she provided him with the cure in the hopes that he would take it, die and as a big eff you, end up stuck in the afterlife with Qetsiyah forever. Well if that’s not true love, I don’t know what is.

Naturally there’s more to the story. When Silas and Amara took the immortality potion nature had to compensate for their never ending life by creating “shadow selves” – doppelgangers – who would live and die to keep the balance. And since these dopplegangers are of a pair of lovers, in each lifetime the universe tries to bring them together, over and over again? Okay, I can buy it. I just needed this five seasons ago when this whole doppleganger scenario was introduced. I’ve always wanted some kind of explanation so my heart is filled with joy now that I finally have one. 

And you know what? The explanation plays right in to the hands of Stelena – Stefen/Elena – fans everywhere, which makes me even happier. For two thousand years, Stefan and Elena have been falling in love, over and over and over again. Sorry Damon (Ian Somerhalder), but you can’t fight fate. And while the Delena fans jump up in outrage at my comments and say “but she loves him and he said she was his whole life!”, my counterpoint is simply this: when Damon confesses his undying love for her, what happens? Do they embrace? Exchange sentiments of love? Nope! Stefan wakes up and Elena is more concerned with him than with Damon’s declaration. One more point for the good guys. (Yes, I’m completely biased)

What’s funny is that during the explanation of the dopplegangers, I began thinking that maybe Silas wants Katherine (Nina Dobrev for the hat trick!) because of some weird love connection connected to her role as doppleganger. The fact that both Qetsiyah and Silas want to bleed Katherine dry to use the cure for their own devices didn’t even enter my mind until it was spelled out. Although I love watching Katherine suffer as a human, it’s now clear that by giving her the cure Elena accidentally doomed Katherine to die after all (and in the process saved her own life). Ironic, huh?

Other Observations:

• I guess it finally happened. My boy Matt Donavan (Zach Roerig) finally joined the land of the supernatural. The one human left on the show is now no longer human. It was easy to make that argument even when he died a whole bunch of times because only the Gilbert ring is supernatural. But now Matt’s possessed by some kind of traveller and he’s no longer the innocent, boy next door Matt. I feel like I should be mourning the loss of the last human in our cast of main characters.
• I’ve missed “good” Stefan. I’m glad we get him back for the episode. (who knows how long we are going to have to deal with this whole amnesia deal?). I fear that I have already lost my patience with this latest development, and it has literally only lasted 0.2 seconds at the end of the episode. This does not bode well for next week and beyond.
• Quetsiya is awesome. First of all, after hearing Professor Shane (David Alpay) refer to her so many times last season, it is nice to get her back story and find out more about her. In addition, she is hilarious! She has the same sarcastic wit as Damon and Gavankar executes it to perfection. She and Damon are perfectly matched as they go jab for jab in a verbal sparring match. And she’s right; her name is impossible. I had to resort to searching Twitter to find the correct spelling (good thing she was trending during the show!) since even IMDB refers to her as Tessa. The character is a great addition to the show so I hope she sticks around.
• No Bonnie (Kat Graham) this week is always a reason to rejoice, especially considering her terrible storyline this season. Unfortunately this also means no Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen), which is completely unacceptable. Something must be done about this. I can’t go a whole season where every Jeremy scene is tied to Bonnie. Let’s get Quetsiya on the case.
• OMG I am dying at these flashback scenes! And I thought the flashbacks to  the 1800s were bad. I was not expecting a flashback two thousand years to… wherever that was. I don’t have the words. I’m still trying to block out the entire thing.

Flashbacks aside, this episode is a great one for me. I love when questions get answered every once in awhile. Do you like the doppelganger explanation we got? Where do you think this whole “amnesiac Stefan” situation is going? Why didn’t Silas get amnesia too? What do you think will become of Katherine? Sound off below!

The Vampire Diaries airs Thursdays at 8pm EST on The CW