Whoa, whoa whoa! What a big bang! The fourth season of The Vampire Diaries ended with a HUGE Salvatore secret. Executive Producer Julie Plec sat down with Zap2it to discuss last night’s epic season finale. Do NOT continue reading if you haven’t seen the season finale yet!;
1. Silas has a doppelganger — and it’s Stefan. Yes, the Petrova women aren’t the only ones with the doppelganger enchantment in their blood. All of the convoluted twists regarding the legend of Silas, his goals, and his abilities came together. Thanks to a loophole, Silas came back to life, revealing that the immortality spell itself had a loophole: doppelgangers. Silas and Stefan share the same face. Stefan is Silas’ doppelganger, and now he’s trapped in a safe at the bottom of an ocean.
This is a storyline that has been in the works for about a year. “Last year, when Season 3 was over, we kept a small group of writers and we stayed for five weeks, to try to break the broad strokes of Season 4. Last year, right around this time, we came up with the doppelgänger pitch,” executive producer Julie Plec tells us.
There were some complications to introducing another doppelgänger character. In Season 2 and early in Season 3, when Nina Dobrev was playing both Katherine and Elena regularly, she grew worn out, physically. Some of the decision-makers behind “The Vampire Diaries” were concerned that playing two characters could take a similar toll on Paul Wesley.
“We had to convince a lot of different people of how it could work and what could make it work,” Julie says. “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. Creatively, everybody was very excited about the Silas doppelganger, it was just a matter of how long it took us to cement it, knowing that’s fundamentally what we’re going to do.”
At the moment, Paul’s not concerned about working too hard — he’s just excited to face a new challenge on the show. “He is so happy,” Julie laughs. “Playing the straight man hero is not always the most exciting job for an actor, and Stefan, of all our heroes, is the straightest on the show. We get to go deeper into his ripper side sometimes, but for Paul, those moments are tvd-423-graduation-bonnie-kat-graham.jpgjust pocket moments of opportunity to dig deeply into his craft, and a lot of other times he feels like he’s just grooming his hero hair. So obviously, he’s very enthusiastic about this, and has been supportive of it all along. 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.”
And in Season 5, he definitely will.
2. The resurrection of Jeremy Gilbert: “Vampire Diaries” fans are used to characters dying — and occasionally, they pop back up later, whether it’s as a vampire or as a ghost. Still, we were (pleasantly!) surprised to learn that Jeremy was coming back from the grave permanently, particularly because his goodbye episode was so heart-wrenching. Didn’t the writers worry that resurrecting him would dull the impact of his beautiful, memorable send-off?
“It’s something that we talked about a lot,” Julie says. “Our intention, originally, was to say goodbye [to Jeremy] permanently. But then a lot of questions came up about the power of this girl losing her only living relative. It was so important to her journey at that moment. The global, eternally reaching tragedy attached to that is really sad, and really depressing.”
Though Jeremy had to die in order to push Elena into the next phase of her life as a vampire, the writers quickly realized that it’d be impossible to bring her back from that dark, desperately tragic point in her life unless they revived Jeremy. Without him, Elena was looking down a long, black tunnel of depression — and that wouldn’t make for a particularly lively Season 5.
“We argued a lot, in the writer’s room — could we successfully bring this character back in a way that wouldn’t feel cheap? Ultimately, I think that the way that it plays out, it does feel like the natural gift at the end of the season for this character that has been through so much,” she explains.
Now Elena has a chance at some happiness in Season 5. “[Getting Jeremy back] resets her, in a way, where she can now get on with her life and live like the Elena that we know,” Julie says. She is cautious, because she knows that some viewers might not be pleased with the loophole Jeremy steps through to return to the land of the living. “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. I’m hoping people will be so glad to see our Elena pull her life back together, they’ll accept it.”
3. Bonnie will still factor in to the storylines. Jeremy didn’t exactly get a free ride back to the land of the living. Bonnie sacrificed herself in order to bring him back for Elena, and now she’s trapped beyond the veil — invisible to everyone, except for Jeremy.
It’s certainly a tragic loss, but don’t worry, Bonnie fans. Kat Graham will still be a big part of the show. “Here’s what I’ll say about Bonnie: I haven’t personally seen ‘Being Human,’ but I do know that they have a ghost character that operates pretty successfully on that show,” Julie says. “This is not the last we’ve seen of Bonnie. If anything, she will be right there in the middle of story next season, just with a few new complications.”
4. Delena goodness! By giving Jeremy his life back, Bonnie essentially gave Elena her life back, too. Unencumbered by the sire bond, her grief, or a gaping hole where her humanity should be, Elena finally got to evaluate her love life with a clear head — and she chose to be with Damon. “In death, you’re the one that made me feel most alive,” Elena told him. Cue the mouth touching! Now, with her vampire boyfriend at her side, she might just be able to enjoy college.
It’s been a rough few years for Damon when it comes to his love life — but Julie tells us it’s finally time for him to have some legitimate joy in his life. “Yes. Absolutely,” she says. “We’re going to get 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.”
5. And what about Katherine? This season, we’ve seen a much more vulnerable side of Miss Katerina Petrova. She spent most of the year on the run. When she finally opened up and fell for Elijah, he rejected her in favor of a new beginning with his family. And then, in a moment of weakness, she allowed Elena to get the upper hand in a major showdown in the high school hallways. Elena, driven by very human emotions, shoved the cure down Katherine’s throat. The thing that Katherine fears most is mortality. Elena gave it to her.
Just don’t expect Katherine to go all Elena on us now that she doesn’t have to drink blood to stay alive. “As a human, she’s still very, very bad,” Julie laughs. “If anything, she feels silly for letting herself get vulnerable, and she’s taking out that frustration of her own vulnerability on Elena. If Elena goes after her, Katherine’s still ready to kick that puppy.”
E! Online sat down with both Nina Dobrev and Ian Somerhalder at The CW Upfronts to talk about the big season finale and redemption;
Attention Emmy voters, it’s time for you to recognize the brilliance that Nina Dobrev has been serving up on The Vampire Diaries this season!
Seriously, the girl acted her face off in the episode where Elena’s brother Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen) died on the CW hit, and we couldn’t help but gush all over her tear-inducing performance when we caught up with Dobrev on the red carpet at the CW’s upfront presentation in New York City. And guess what? We weren’t the only ones sobbing!“The experience of reading that script for the first time in our read-through, I’ve never gone through that in my entire life,” she tells us. “I literally started sobbing uncontrollably as I was reading it.”
While Dobrev wouldn’t spill on which brother Elena chooses (duh!), she does reveal it’s not an easy decision.
“It’s like any relationship. There’s a different connection you have with different people, and I think that Elena had a certain connection with Stefan that was very profound and with Damon it was more excitable,” she says. “Between the two of them, unfortunately, they’re the perfect man, so it’s hard. Maybe she needs to go out and explore other things and discover herself.
“Damon’s grown a lot. It’s about the push and the pull of him really wanting her to be this creature, because her feelings ultimately changed for Stefan, which was very good for Damon, but in all actuality even Damon knows it’s not right; what happened to this young, beautiful woman and watching her deteriorate and fall apart, it’s heartbreaking to see,” Somerhalder previews what fans can expect from Elena’s choice between the two brothers in the finale. “By virtue of that, there’s redemption in some ways.”
Read more + don’t forget the VIDEOS: E! Online
It’s that time of the year again! The cast and crew of The Vampire Diaries come together to celebrate and discuss their season finale’s on The CW Upfronts that took place on May, 16th.
The Vampire Diaries
Celebified/Wetpaint took the time to talk to Joseph Morgan, Daniel Gillies and Arielle Kebbel about the spectacular season finale. Click here to watch it on Youtube or watch the embed below.
The Originals
Danielle Campbell took the time to talk about the spinoff The Originals. Danielle Campbell plays Davina. Click here to watch the interview.
Phoebe Tonkin sat down with TV Fanatic to talk about The Originals. Click here to watch the interview.
Photos:
To be uploaded later today!
E! Online sat down with executive producer Julie Plec to talk about Elena’s choice, an epic battle and Bonnie’s sacrifice;
Elena’s Choice, Take Two: While season three’s finale also featured Elena making a choice between the Salvatore brothers, Plec previews that our heroine isn’t the same human girl who chose Stefan (Paul Wesley) just before dying and coming back as a vamp. “I think that in last year’s finale it was very clear that Elena was struggling with feelings for both brothers and needed to make a decision about what she wanted her life to be and who she wanted to share that life with,” she explains. “This year, she’s had a very traumatic roller coaster of life experience and it’s changed her irrevocably—and at the center of it all was the diehard belief that she loved Damon, that she loved him more than she’d ever loved anyone.
She continues, “Her struggle has been with the realization of the sire bond that she couldn’t even trust those feelings to be true. So it’s more about answering the truth of those feelings and as a result does that mean her distance from Stefan was also not real and not true? She handles that realization pretty well and it’s a great, great, great scene.”Doppelgänger Dragout: Fans who have been salivating over the possible Katherine and Elena fight will not want to miss the finale, with Plec teasing, “Ever since we introduced Katherine, we’ve been waiting to have a knockout, dragout Alexis and Crystal Dynasty-style fight between these two women and it definitely doesn’t disappoint. There’s no ball gowns and swimming pools, but otherwise I think we do it justice!” Can we get an amen?!
Death Can Wait, I Need to Graduate: After her shocking death in last week’s episode, Bonnie the ghost is on a mission in the finale, to bring the veil back up…even if it means crossing over to the other side for good. “It’s a bittersweet journey for her and she has to prepare to make that sacrifice knowing that it will be the thing that separates her from her friends forever,” Plec says. “But in the midst of it all there’s graduation. [Laughs.] And there’s her friends together and she’s going to make damn sure she doesn’t miss that!”
Read more: E! Online
Executive Producer Julie Plec sat down with TV Guide to talk about the upcoming season finale and says that the triangle is back to where it all started;
“Definitely at the end of the season we’re right back to where we started, which is what does Elena really feel and who does she feel it for?” executive producer Julie Plec says in this week’s Vampire Diaries Bite. “One of those three [will also make] very clear steps to move on and start a new life and then the complications that come out of that will be a big part of Season 5.”
Read more: TV Guide
I found a video and am allowed to use some photos of the BloodyNight Con event that took place in Brussels on May 11th and May 12th. Click here for a video featuring Nathaniel Buzolic and Paul Wesley, or watch the embed below. Photos to be uploaded soon!
“When we stared breaking Katherine’s journey for the season, we knew we wanted to lead to a vampire confrontation between the two,” Plec said.
“The idea of having Elena finally being strong enough to at least put up a good fight felt like an opportunity we couldn’t miss. I think Nina [Dobrev], as the hardest-working girl in show business this season, for sure, was just like, ‘Ohmygod, this is gonna be difficult,’ but was really excited about it. She had to shoot the sequence on a Saturday, just her playing both roles, two stunt girls, a film crew, and a lot of knock-down-drag-out goodness.”
Read more: Fashionstyle.com
There’s only one episode left of The Vampire Diaries‘ fourth season. Elena will choose a brother – once again – in next week’s season finale Graduation, and Executive Producer Julie Plec sat down with Examiner to talk about Elena’s decision;
brother our heroine chooses, we can assure you that she does in fact pick one. (No Kelly Taylor-esque ‘I choose me’ moment happening here!) As for the other brother, fret not as he’ll have more than enough to deal with that not landing the girl (for now) will hardly register. Start prepping for one of the series’ best twists ever, basically!”
The sire bond, a supernatural connection between Damon (Ian Somerhalder) and Elena (Nina Dobrev) was one of the more controversial storylines this season on “The Vampire Diaries.”
Because she’d been turned with his blood and had strong feelings for him, those feelings became magnified into a sort of compulsion to obey him and trust him implicitly. The question was, after they finally slept together after years of tension, whether that sire bond was the source of her love for him, or simply a catalyst that pushed them together.
In the next two episodes, we’ll get answers. “Definitely before the season’s over, we have our answer to the question of does the sire bond still exist, and if not, then what are her feelings and who are they for,” executive producer Julie Plec reveals.
Looking back on the season, the sire bond has been one of the more talked-about aspects of the story. I wrote an article about why it worked for me in terms of pushing the story forward, particularly in terms of creating an obstacle that wasn’t insurmountable and providing a better balance for Damon and Elena’s relationship.
Plec says that despite the dissent in the fandom, the sire bond “absolutely” accomplished what the writers intended for it to accomplish. “The bottom line is that Elena as a human made a very, very, very clear choice that she would love Stefan always and forever,” she says. “But then her entire life turned upside down, and any feelings she originally had for Damon were still there, and of course magnified. There was always going to be a little bit of a confusion there for her — but not enough confusion for her to be over Stefan. It would take a lot to rip Elena away from loving Stefan. It would take years and seasons. We’d be eighty, if we followed the natural progression of that relationship.”
Source: Zap2it
Julie Plec sat down with Zap2it to talk about last night’s episode The Walking Dead which had some happy, O-M-G-moments. Be aware of SPOILERS!
“The Vampire Diaries” has developed a reputation for heartbreaking penultimate episodes, and this season’s “The Walking Dead” was no exception to the rule. As we’ve been building to all season, Bonnie (Kat Graham) dropped the veil between the living world, and the mysterious world of dead supernatural creatures. Fortunately, it was only dropped within a small triangle in Mystic Falls, so there was no global hysteria… but there was certainly trouble.
As Julie Plec told us earlier, Bonnie thought she’d beaten Silas. She thought he had no more psychic power over her, because she could see his “true” face. But she was wrong again. Silas’s mental hold on Bonnie was stronger than ever, and he came close to defeating her, but ultimately, she returned him to his true form — and then she turned that true stone back into a shriveled fossil, his face hidden behind his hands. Of course, if he gets one drop of blood, he’ll spring back to life. And doesn’t the worst always happen in Mystic Falls?
Bonnie gave herself over to the mysterious black magic that has gripped her all season. In the final moments of the episode, Bonnie collapsed while trying to get Jeremy back in a more permanent form, whispering, “I have the darkness.” But the expression, as her Grams said, was “just too much.” Bonnie got up from the floor — and looked down at her body.
Yes, “Vampire Diaries” fans, it’s true — Bonnie is, indeed, dead. The photos of her at graduation next week are actually pics of her in her ghostly form, attending the ceremony with her friends, since the veil is still open. As for whether she’ll stay dead? Let’s just say there are still some tricks up her sleeve, and some twists in the plot.
Read more: Zap2it