Damon and Elena's "Turbulent" Relationship

The Vampire Diaries Spoilers

Now that Katherine’s body-possessing scheme has been discovered on The Vampire Diaries, it’s only a matter of time before Elena (Nina Dobrev) is returned to her rightful body — but what of the repercussions? In her absence, Damon (Ian Somerhalder) has gone off the deep end. He’s killed Aaron Whitmore, kidnapped Jeremy, and been an all-around jerk. Can Delena move forward from here?

[When Elena returns] it makes her question, ‘Have I changed? Has my outlook on what I deem acceptable and moral changed? Who am I?’ executive producer Caroline Dries told Entertainment Weekly. “We threw Elena into this situation where she is still in love with this guy, who we all have known as the guy who killed her brother and has done all these horrible things.” So: same questions, new crisis?

These are questions Elena has struggled with before, though seemingly settling when she decided to declare her unconditional love for Damon at the end of Season 4. They were brought up again when Damon unceremoniously broke up with Elena after the truth about his Whitmore serial killings came to light. It seemed a bit like lazy writing then, and it does now — though we’ll hold off total judgment until we see this play out.

Does Katherine’s time in Elena’s body and Damon’s subsequent reaction to what he presumed was Elena’s rejection make these questions interesting again? We’re not sure how Delena can go back to the way they were before after everything that’s happened, but we’re not sure what the new Delena will look like, either.