Is Someone Coming Back From the Dead?

   

Credit: Nino Munoz/The CW © 2013 The CW Network

The Vampire Diaries tends to ramp up the stakes near the end of a season. What will the final chapter in Season 5 bring? TVD executive producer Julie Plec gave some hints on Twitter, and one of them implies that someone will be returning from the great beyond. Who might it be?!

What can we expect from the end of Season 5? According to Julie’s recent tweet: “Mayhem, death and some rebirth.” In other words, just another day in the lives (and deaths) of the supernatural residents of Mystic Falls. But what to make of this talk of “rebirth.” Here’s what we know…

We know that the Other Side is disintegrating, and that means the possible passage of many deadTVD characters out of the supernatural purgatory to somewhere else. Most of them will probably disappear into whatever beyond exists in this fictional universe, but we now know from Markos’ recent return that it is possible to pass through Bonnie and back onto this mortal plane. Might a dead character make the same trip?

If we have money on anyone, it’s Kol Mikaelson (Nathaniel Buzolic), who we’ve not only seen in the promo for future episodes, but who has more meta-incentive than any other character due to the fact that his family now has its very own spin-off. Will Kol make it back to appear on The Originals, or are we just indulging in too much wishful theorizing?

Another possibility lies with the Petrova family. No, we’re not talking about Katherine (though we wish we were), who is in whatever version of hell TVD has, but her daughter: Nadia (Olga Fonda). We think the person Matt is pulling through the Other Side in this promo looks an awful lot like the Traveler. Does Matt go to find her so she can help the fang gang defeat her Traveler brethern (and because he’s still crushing on her)? That would constitute as a rebirth, yes?

To be honest, this show can be so zany and unpredictable, and has such a casual relationship with death, that it’s hard to predict just who Julie might be talking about when she teases a “rebirth” of one character. We’re spoiled for choices, and all of them offer their own narrative excitement.