How long have you known Elena would end season 3 in transition to become a vampire?
JULIE PLEC: The ending had been in the works for about two years. In the first series of books, that’s what happens to her. When Kevin [Williamson] and I first came on the show, we said, “Well, it can’t happen to her the way it happens in the books,” which is on, like, page 200 of the first book. [Laughs] That felt obviously too soon, and rushed, and we didn’t want to make a show about a teenage girl who instantly becomes a vampire. But we always knew that her journey would take her there eventually, and we just kept riding the wave of when it felt right. You’ve got a girl who just sorta lost her last adult living family member when Aunt Jenna died last year, so when we started this season, what we really wanted to do was begin this relationship with Alaric as her guardian and mentor, and then tear that away from her at the end leaving her and her brother with nobody. It felt like now was the time — when you’re left with no grownup, no adult supervision, no parent, no guardian — for Elena to experience the next evolution of her journey. All the stuff that we did with having her get stronger over the course of the year, training and getting in touch with her physical self, and all the grief and all the emotion that she went through, all the compassion that she has for everybody, it will all play into next year and what kind of person and vampire she will actually be — if she should choose to see the transition through.
Obviously, she will transition.
There will be a discussion to be had about it at the beginning, but the road we’re going down is pretty balls out.
How soon will we see Elena's transition?
Plec: The transition of it all will take place in the first episode. There's a nice 24-hour window there and that will be particularly dramatic and traumatic. Looking past that, all I can say is if Elena becomes a vampire, if you really think about who she is and what we've seen in her, she's fiercely protective, she spent a lot of time in this last season getting physically stronger, her compassion is her greatest gift and her greatest weakness, so in death that becomes magnified.
How will Stefan following Elena's orders to save Matt and not her affect him?
Plec: The first episode is a lot of people feeling a lot of guilt, a lot of torment and Elena having to manage all of that in the midst of realizing she has a big decision to make. Obviously Stefan knew he was going to come right back for Elena, but she ran out of time. That is a decision that's going to haunt him and infuriate Damon, but probably lead Elena to explain even more to Stefan why she chose him because of that.
How will Damon react to Stefan's fatal choice?
Plec: This could drive a pretty severe wedge between the brothers. Certainly the intention is not to subtly and forcefully rip them apart; it's more that they're going to have different points of view. It's going to bring back a lot of the issues about Damon when he came to Mystic Falls and what he expected his vampire life to be. They're just not going to agree. It's going to be frustrating for both of them, and even though they're in it together, they're coming at it from different sides.
Let’s talk about Bonnie’s deal with Klaus.
It’s the same magic that was able to put Klaus into Alaric’s body and Esther into Rebekah’s. So you can extrapolate the future of Joseph Morgan on this show from that logic.
When will the others learn about Bonnie's spell?
Plec: Bonnie's first thing that's going to have to happen is that we're going to learn how long she has to keep this secret, what kind of bargain she made with Klaus, is she going to be able to tell her friends, specifically Caroline, right away? As a witch who can be looked at for solution, trying to figure out a way to keep Elena from having to be a vampire is going to be high on her priority list and she's going to have a very limited amount of time to do it. In the first episode, we'll see Bonnie step right up to the precipice of the darkest form of her magic and need to either jump on in or stay back on the ledge.
And how will Caroline react to all of this information?
Plec: She's just been completely bamboozled and experienced the most horrifying and devastating moment of her entire life, so realizing that it wasn't real and that all of those painful goodbyes were not Tyler but were with Klaus, that's going to be a low blow.
Bonnie could get scared of dark magic and think it’s something she should stay clear of, or she could become addicted to it. What can you say about where Bonnie’s headed?
What’s next for Bonnie really is a deeper, more emotional exploration of her witchcraft, of her legacy as a witch. Next year is really gonna be about having her understand not just that there are consequences for her actions, but that ultimately she needs to get in touch with who she really is as a witch and what kind of witch she wants to be. So there’s gonna be a lot of soul-searching and a lot of ups and downs for her. Hopefully it will be a really beautiful and thoughtful journey for her.
As Tyler, Klaus told Bonnie her witch sisters would not be happy with her for what she’d done to save her friends. Will them getting pissy with her be something we see next season?
I think definitely. What I love about what Bonnie did was she basically said to both her ancestors and sisters of witchhood and the vampires, “Stop pushing me around. I’m gonna do what I need to do to protect the people I love, and I don’t really care who likes it or doesn’t.” So it’s a big moment for Bonnie taking back her own strength, and we’ll definitely see the repercussions of that next year.
Before we talk about Klaus as Tyler, we have to touch on the scene where Tyler and Caroline were planning to meet in two hours and run away together. I almost started crying, and I didn’t even know why.
Yeah. I loved that moment. One of the things that we do every now and then on the show is we get to play in a little wish-fulfillment teen fantasy land. The idea of running away with the boy you love and escaping danger — it had this awesome Escape From Witch Mountain vibe that I remember so much with being a kid. So I love that scene for the enthusiasm they have for their adventure in spite of all the darkness that surrounds it. They’re two teenagers in love who are going off to be in love on the road.
So what happens with them next season? What will Caroline be thinking?
The first thing she’ll be is fairly shocked, and stunned, and probably borderline ecstatic, but also very confused when she realizes that presumably Tyler will live to see the other end of the story. And then she’s going to be, excuse my language, f—ing pissed at Klaus, who is doing some and will continue to do some subterfuge as far as who he’s pretending to be inside of Tyler’s body. [Laughs] We’ll see how much play he gets out of that.
But the Council still knows what Caroline and Tyler really are.
[Laughs] Oh yes, they do. That’s definitely gonna be the focus of our first episode back. The Council knows too much and needs to take action against not just those on the inside who have been deceiving them [Mayor Lockwood, Sheriff Forbes, and Dr. Fell], but also the vampires that have taken up residence in the town.
Are you thinking of introducing any new badass Council members?
We’ll definitely meet new characters in that context who have a very strong point of view about what this town should be doing.
A lot of people had talked about leaving town: The Originals, Tyler and Caroline, whichever Salvatore that Elena didn’t choose.
Now that what happened to Elena happened to Elena, I think anybody that was planning on leaving town or had agreed to leave town will have a change of plans.
So Damon sticks around. What can you say about Rebekah?
Rebekah is going to be persona non grata amongst the heroes of the show, if not everyone, for what was a very, very, very aggressive and [Laughs] murderous move. So even Matt, her sweet little football captain, is gonna probably have a hard time getting past that. He’s not necessarily gonna be talking to her anytime soon. So we’ll get to see how she responds to being ostracized even more so than she’s already been. And for a girl who doesn’t like to be lonely, that’s not gonna be the easiest thing for her. Also, she just ended Klaus’ opportunity to make hybrids, so he ain’t gonna be so happy about it either.
Did Elijah sanction Rebekah trying to kill Elena, or did she go rogue?
You know, actually, I don’t have the answer for that yet. I’d like to think Rebekah made a really bold and brash choice there and will pay some pretty tough consequences both from her brothers and for herself socially. I’ll have to discuss that with the other writers and make sure they’re onboard. [Laughs]
That’s what I would like to think, too, since Elijah’s still my favorite Original. Does he stick around town then?
Your favorite Elijah is our favorite Elijah, as you know. Daniel Gillies has a doctor show on NBC, Saving Hope [premiering June 7], and so his future with the vampire show is completely linked to his future with the doctor show. But we do get to use him sporadically with their permission, and they’ve been lovely about it, so we’ll see what else we can do moving forward.
With Alaric gone, and Elena no longer being able to help Klaus make his hybrid army, who is the Big Bad next season?
That is a question that remains. Where is the Big Bad gonna come from? That’s gonna be part of the fun of laying that out and understanding who our villain is gonna be and why.
Did Elena know that Meredith had given her vampire blood when she told Stefan to save Matt first?
That is a question that we will ask and answer when we come back next season.
And just checking: Matt did survive, right?
I think for Matt to not survive that after everything would be just too damn tragic.
:lol: Dann stellt sich aber die Frage, warum Rose die tote Mary nicht einfach fragen könnte. :? Mal sehen, ob da noch etwas dazu kommt.
:lol: Matt und Beccy passen auch ganz gut zusammen und leid tat sie mir auch irgendwie. Der Twist am Ende ist den Machern wieder richtig gelungen!
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