Note: Do not read on if you have not yet seen the Season 4 finale of The CW's "The Vampire Diaries," titled "Graduation."
"The Vampire Diaries" finale closed some doors, but opened a lot of other ones. Stefan (Paul Wesley) is in a safe at the bottom of the ocean after Silas revealed to the younger Salvatore brother that he is his doppleganger and pushed him off a cliff; Damon (Ian Somerhalder) and Elena (Nina Dobrev) confessed their love for one another; Bonnie (Kat Graham) brought Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen) back from the dead, but now she's officially a ghost; Klaus (Joseph Morgan) and Caroline (Candice Accola) shared a tender moment; Katherine (Dobrev) is now a human after Elena shoved the cure down her throat; and Matt (Zach Roerig) and Rebekah (Claire Holt) finally kissed and planned a summer vacation far from Mystic Falls.
The hit CW series's showrunner Julie Plec and the show's stars Joseph Morgan and Nina Dobrev broke down the "Vampire Diaries" finale and shared what's to come in Season 5.
Silas Is The New Stefan
Plec told Entertainment Weekly that the writers had been planning this game-changing storyline since the end of Season 3, but it was hard to get everyone on board with another doppleganger storyline. "We had to convince a lot of different people of how it could work and what could make it work so that we didn't end up in a similar situation as with Katherine and Elena, where we exhausted Nina to the point of being unable to get out of her bed, because we accidentally overworked her so much," Plec told Zap2It. "Creatively, everybody was very excited."
Apparently, Paul Wesley (Stefan) is more excited than anyone that he finally gets to play a character who's far from the show's safe hero role that he's been stuck in for four seasons. "He's very enthusiastic about this, and has been supportive of it all along," Plec told Zap2It. "He's been dying for something; to be a jerk, to be evil, to be the bad guy, to be able to stretch his muscles."
But will we ever see Stefan as Stefan again? "If and when he finally gets free, he’s not necessarily gonna come out of there all sunshine and rainbows," Plec teased to EW.
Elena, A Happy College Co-Ed?
After admitting that he's a terrible boyfriend, Elena told Damon that she loves him and the two shared a passionate fireside kiss, while poor third wheel Stefan was drowning. Though there's no word as to how the Stefan/Silas situation will affect the back-on Delena, it seems they're blissfully unaware. "I really like playing a lighter Elena so hopefully going to college will bring out her fun and frisky side," Nina Dobrev told TV Guide, though it's not clear where yet.
Plec told Zap2It that we're going to see "Damon trying to be a good boyfriend, and while it's not going to be easy, he's going to try like hell to make it work, and they're going to have a real opportunity for happiness."
Jeremy's Back, But Will Bonnie Be?
"The Vampire Diaries" finale also saw Bonnie reveal to Jeremy that she sacrificed her life to save his so he didn't have to go back to the other side when she closed the veil. As difficult as that decision must've been for Bonnie, Plec hinted that the writers' decision to bring Jeremy back was an equally challenging one. She wanted to assure fans that it wasn't a cheap move. "Critically, you can look at something and go, 'Well, that's a take-back, it's not fair,' but emotionally, I think, it's a positive. We might get hammered for it. We'll see," the showrunner told Zap2It. "[Getting Jeremy back] resets [Elena], in a way, where she can now get on with her life and live like the Elena that we know ... I'm hoping people will be so glad to see our Elena pull her life back together, they'll accept it."
Plec told EW that Kat Graham "will be a regular. She will be around. If anything, we’ll see as much if not more of her. And it gives us a great way to develop more stories for her outside of just her being the witch that comes in and tries to save the day. I’m excited about the opportunity to tell a romantic relationship between two people who can’t physically be together."
The End of Klaroline?
Topping the list of sweeter moments in the "Vampire Diaries" finale was the kindness Klaus exhibited toward Caroline, saying her current love Tyler could return to Mystic Falls, especially now that he's headed to New Orleans in "The Originals" spinoff. "There is a responsibility for the fans who were rooting for Klaus and Caroline to at least give them some sort of resolve," Joseph Morgan told TV Guide at The CW 2013 upfront. "That's not saying it's the end of that because there's the potential of crossovers between the shows, but just something to acknowledge that we owed that to them."
A Human Katherine Pierce
Elena's doppleganger Katherine was the long-awaited answer to the "Who will get the cure?" question in the "Vampire Diaries" finale, with Elena forcing it down her throat during an epic cat fight. So what will a human Katherine be like? "She's still very, very bad," Plec told Zap2It. "If anything, she feels silly for letting herself get vulnerable, and she's taking out that frustration of her own vulnerability on Elena."
But there might be some frustration being taken out on Katherine as well. "It may be time to pay some of the price for all the crappy things she’s done to other people over the last 500 years," Plec teased to EW.
