One of the biggest cliffhangers of The Vampire Diaries season 3 finale was the surprise body-swap between Klaus and Tyler. But then season 4 came around, and the storyline was resolved within the first few episodes.

We want to know if the writers are going to let Paul Wesley run around all evil-Silas-like for a while, keeping the real Stefan locked away in the lake, or if the Stefan will resurface (literally) fairly quickly, allowing for similar Parent Trap-style mix-ups as Elena and Katherine used to have.

(Imagine the possibilities: an episode opens with Elena and Stefan kissing. The rest of the episode sets up the mystery of whether it was actually them, Silas and Katherine, or another combination of the four. It’d be epic!)

The Delena fans rejoiced when Elena finally chose Damon in the season 4 finale. But remember what happened last time Elena made a choice: she turned into a vampire, and five minutes later she imprinted on sire bonded with Damon. Who’s to say something can’t get in the way of their fragile romance again?

After all, Elena will have a lot to deal with this year. Jeremy has come back to life, Bonnie is dead, she’s off to college, and Silas is sure to wreck havoc with her emotions one way or another.

Because the series isn’t over yet, we’re sure that Elena will eventually go back to Stefan for one reason or another. But will the Damon/Elena relationship be explored first, before they are inevitably broken up again? We’d like some advance warning so we can stock up on tissues, please!

Turning Katherine human and leaving Elena a vampire is potentially the most brilliant move The Vampire Diaries has ever made. We have a complete role-reversal, and there are so many ways the writers could take the story now – if Nina Dobrev can take all the extra work required!

As much as we would love to see Katherine on the show every week, we need to remember (and it’s easy to forget) that Nina Dobrev is only one person. And it’s very likely that the writers will send Katherine away, for logistical reasons, after tying up her arc.

But we hope that before that happens, she gets some meaty scenes where we see her trying to adapt to human life. Maybe Matt can show her the ropes… (Wait. Shh. Do you hear that? Is that a new ship we hear, sailing into port?)

Of course one way Katherine’s story could be resolved is to just kill her off, or turn her into a vampire again. But since there was only one dose of the cure, it’d be a bit of a ret-con if the season opened with her getting some random vampire to bite her and turning her back to the way she was.

But we’d like this issue cleared up by Julie Plec, if for no other reason than to end the ongoing debates on the Vampire Hype podcast about whether or not a cured vampire can ever be un-cured.

And if Katherine can become a vampire again, what lengths will the humans go to to prevent her throwing away her second chance at humanity? We can imagine some great heart-to-hearts between Katherine and Elena, Matt, Damon, and even Rebekah if she’s around.

Remember back in season 1 when Katherine first came to Mystic Falls and chopped off Uncle John’s fingers? That was epic. The Petrova doppelganger storyline has been one of the most rewarding aspects of The Vampire Diaries‘ mythology, and we still hold out hope of eventually meeting Tatia (the original Petrova).

In the season 4 finale, The Vampire Diaries managed to pull off the doppelganger trick again when revealing that Silas’ true face is Stefan. Now we need to know: have there been more Stefans throughout history?

And more importantly: is anyone else a doppelganger? Are there perhaps versions of Qetsiyah and Silas’ human lover running around in Mystic Falls… could this be April’s true purpose?! (Okay, we’re reaching now. We’ll get to April, don’t worry.)

Now that Klaus has gone to New Orleans for The Originals, The Vampire Diaries needs a new big bad.

Seeing as Silas’ true face is Stefan, his long-term appearances on the show are naturally limited. But we hope that Silas will at least last the season. Now that the veil is closed and his plan to die failed, what will he do next? We bet it’ll involve trying to resurrect his past love somehow!

Obviously Julie Plec won’t reveal the entire plot of season 5 before it’s even begun airing (and we wouldn’t want her to!), but we’d like to know if the season will focus on the Silas storyline, or something entirely different.

We were happy to learn that Kat Graham will continue to be a regular character on The Vampire Diaries even though her character was killed off in the season 5 finale. But we wonder what kind of role her character can play now, considering that only Jeremy (and maybe Matt) can see her.

Obviously Vicki and Anna featured pretty heavily back when they returned from the dead in season 2, but that was different – they were plot devices; ultimately there to further Jeremy’s development.

As a regular character, we have to expect that Bonnie’s own development and relationships with the other characters will continue to be at the center of her storylines… but how much can she really develop if she can only speak and act through Jeremy?

Or perhaps, if Bonnie really is sticking around as a ghost on a permanent basis, she’ll find a way to interact with Elena and the others on her own.

This is the million-dollar shipper question. Both Julie Plec and the actors have spoken very openly about wanting to continue the budding Klaus/Caroline romance, both by bringing Caroline to The Originals and having Klaus return to Mystic Falls for guest appearances.

But now that the writing for both shows is in full swing, we’re sure they can give us more concrete details about these crossover episodes. Have they written any of them yet? Have they worked out with the network when they’ll happen and how many they will be?

We’ll take anything at this point, as long as we know there’s something more coming for this brilliant pairing, which shouldn’t work and yet somehow just does.

Before each season we see a bunch of random new casting sides for characters that seem really important, but end up just being in a few episodes before being killed off. Connor, we’re looking at you.

But considering this is the year the characters move from high school to college and everything allegedly changes, could we be seeing some new recurring or even regular cast members?

After all, some spots have been freed up now that the Original vampires have left town. And we’d like to see new love interests for a couple of the characters, like Matt, Tyler, and even Jeremy (who has an unfortunate penchant for dating dead girls).

We’re especially interested in finding out whether any new characters might take an interest in Matt. Matt is one of the most beloved characters in fandom, and he has very little to do on the show.

But maybe if he goes to college this year (we’re sure Rebekah fixed something for him!), he’ll have a chance to find a new purpose – and a new, more stable romantic interest.

Now, let’s get real. This is what we all really want to know!

April Young was introduced in season 4 as a sweet, new, normal human girl. Existing to tie Elena back to the life she used to have, and the humanity and innocence she had lost.

Which was great. Nice parallel. Her scenes with Jeremy and Matt were super cute. But then Connor went and said, “She has everything to do with this.” And ever since then, we’ve been over here like, okay… but why?

The sacrifice rituals were completed, the veil was opened, and now it’s closed. Silas has revealed his true face. What’s left for April to do? In fact, we don’t even know for sure if April will be back in season 5 at all, although actress Grace Phipps hopes she will.

Still, with all the crack theorizing and speculation we’ve been doing, we’d like to see this random character have some greater purpose. So come on, Julie Plec, tell us: what’s the point of April? Does she really have everything to do with this? She’s totally the Key, isn’t she?