Julie Plec Interview

Is there any hope for Tyler to return?
Tyler had to leave in the same way Katherine had to leave. When Klaus puts his mark on you, you're pretty f---ed. So we do not have any plans to bring him back until there is a resolution to his Klaus problem and with Katherine it took her out for two years. Tyler does appear in one episode this season, but it's not his "return."

When the show returns, it seems Caroline and Elena might go head-to-head.
Caroline in her darkest day has never been anything but a fixer, and her efforts to fix Elena and try to get her on the right track are not going to go over so well. These girls are peers and best friends, but one of their behaviors has changed, so it's a real world paradigm of high school friendships, with one friend getting out of control and what you try to do about it and how they respond to you.

What can we expect from Caroline and Klaus' relationship?
We haven't seen the end of the strange and somewhat perverse and beautiful and horrific and amazing and awful dynamic between Caroline and Klaus. Even if the spin-off does happen and we have two shows, I don't predict that that would be the end of that relationship.

Some people haven't loved the direction that Bonnie's character has gone this season. What can you say about her future?
I think everyone has an opinion about Bonnie. Some love her, some hate her, some love to hate her, some defend her with everything they have and some yawn and say, "Who cares?" She's one character that never had one singular point of view from the fan base. But for us she has always been the one who's caught in between what's right and what's wrong and what her heritage calls for and what she wants to do in the name of her friends. Now she's under extreme manipulation by Shane or Silas, whatever you want to call him right now, yet she's really just being driven by a desperate desire to bring Jeremy back from the dead. So he's exploiting that emotional drive she has and taking it to the next level and I don't even know if Bonnie right now is aware of how insane she is! Her mind has a very clear drive which is, "I can bring Jeremy back."

The second half the season will be more grounded in high school. What can we expect?
We just started shooting the prom episode, which is episode 19 and graduation is going to be the finale. We'll get to end the season with all of those great questions of who's going to be where, who's going to be with who, who's going to do what.

So when will we know who Elena is taking to prom?
You may have to wait until someone puts up the wrong photos or I accidentally slip and say something in the press.

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Spoiler From TV Line - 26th February 2013

Any scoop on the upcoming Klaus sex scene on The Vampire Diaries?

There will be blood ink. Teases exec producer Julie Plec of the anticipated coitus session in Episode 16 (airing March 14): “I will say that Joseph Morgan has some tattoos that I didn’t know he had until shooting this scene.” (BTW, Plec wouldn’t say if his partner in fornication was someone we’ve met before).

Any scoop on Elijah’s Vampire Diaries return?

Plec confirms that viewers will get “a little Elijah flavor” before the planted Originals spin-off airs in April. “It’ll be fun to have him back in our Mystic Falls universe,” she adds. “We finally get a sense of what he’s been doing during his whole absence from our world.”

Can you give us any Vampire Diaries scoop on Silas?

Plec will eventually put a face to the name, telling TVLine, “We do plan at some point to meet the real Silas.”

4x16 'Bring It On' New Promo

4x15 'Stand By Me' Rehash

Spoiler From Zap2It - 25th February 2013

We visited the set last week and -- in addition to getting some scoop on Tyler's return -- we also got to watch Nina Dobrev pull double-duty as she filmed a scene for episode 4x18, "American Gothic." In the past, we've seen Katherine pretend to be Elena plenty of times, but now, we'll get to see Elena's best impression of Katherine. Katherine didn't seem too impressed by the likeness, though... she thinks Elena's innocence will be a dead giveaway. (Not to mention her haircut.)

10 Things To Discuss And Think About From 'Stand By Me'

1. Nina Dobrev is a gift. I'd be remiss not to make this priority one on the things-to-discuss list. Who knew that "Degrassi's" most annoying teen mom ever would grow up to do this? From her stubborn resolve as she waited for Jeremy to wake up, to her crumpled face and horrified wailing as she finally let the news sink in, Elena was laid bare tonight. Nerve endings exposed, Dobrev brought Elena's emotional rollercoaster to life so vividly that it was impossible not to ride it with her; I felt positively battered by the time the credits rolled. If major awards showed acknowledged The CW, this would be a performance of note for them.

2. Elena turns off her humanity. Even as a vampire, Elena has been the humanity of the show. While her earnestness can be irritating at times, her bleeding heart and undeniable compassion has kept the rest of her friends from steering too far off course. With Katherine back on the prowl, Elena's disconnect from the core of her character will be especially interesting, and will undoubtedly present a new challenge for Dobrev. It's also interesting because, presumably, a vampire without humanity might not be capable of the same love, at least not to the same depths, as a vampire with humanity. This might be pretty crippling to her romance with Damon.

3. That pesky sire bond. There's been a lot of discussion amongst "TVD" fans this season about Elena's agency or lack thereof. Her lack of control over certain aspects of her life doesn't necessarily pose a problem for me as a viewer, though; I appreciate it as a metaphor for what love can do to a person, particularly a young person experiencing personal turmoil. In this case, it's a pretty brilliant storytelling device. It prevents us from needing a time-jump in order to get Elena past being completely paralyzed with grief.

4. Brothers. Seeing Elena lose Jeremy reminded Stefan and Damon that, through everything, they're lucky -- because they still have each other. Stefan has been holding a grudge against Damon for presumably taking advantage of the sire bond; Damon has been holding a grudge against Stefan for not being the comrade he wants him to be. But they still have each other, and their unspoken appreciation for that was a pivotal moment in their relationship. It doesn't mean they're going to get bunk beds and start a book club together, but it does mean that they're back on solid ground, allies instead of competitors.

5. Tyler remains gone, for now. It was absolutely heartbreaking to listen to Caroline plead with Tyler to get in touch while he ignores her calls. He promised to forget about her if they couldn't find a way to get rid of Klaus -- not ignore her immediately and stop trying to find a way within 24 hours. Bummer. I do have a little good news for Forwood shippers, though. The outcry over Michael Trevino's understated, anti-climactic exit seems to have had an impact on the writers of the show. They've changed their minds! I can reveal that he will be back to share one more pivotal moment with Caroline this season. Your voices have been heard!

6. Silas is Shane! Kind of? We've seen witches do some blood-magic body-swapping on "The Vampire Diaries" before, but we've never seen someone completely shift into the image of another person before. It's a nice way to show off Silas' incomparable power right off the bat, and also to put David Alpay's talents to better use. Here's hoping that Rebekah manages to get that particular piece of information back to Mystic Falls ASAP.

7. Bonnie is bad news. Sigh. If I had one gripe about the episode, Bonnie was it. I'm hoping it's soon revealed that Silas used some sort of magic persuasion to turn Bonnie into such a brainwashed follower, because this season we've watched her become stronger and more intelligent, and it was frustrating to watch her backpedal so much. Even Elena managed to immediately accept that sacrificing 12 people and raising all the dead monsters to save Jeremy wasn't an option; why was Bonnie so easily convinced otherwise? It felt rushed. That said, I am intrigued by the idea of a darker Bonnie, and I do see how Jeremy's death could be the trigger.

8. Matt Donovan, ladies and gentlemen. I've been crowing about how awesome Matt Donovan is for years, so I felt particularly vindicated tonight. One of my favorite moments of the series was when Matt fell apart in Elena's arms upon learning of Vicki's death. Tonight was a perfect mirror of that as he went to great lengths to keep her propped up in the wake of devastation. Their little trip to the stoner pit and his subsequent breakdown, alone in his truck, drove home the human side of the tragedy. A teenage boy died. A kid who liked to draw and occasionally smoke pot and play X-Box, who had just managed to patch his life up, who video-chatted with girls and dug the batting cages. Matt was there to remind us that at his core Jeremy wasn't a powerful hunter; Jeremy was a kid.

9. The Gilbert house is gone. Losing the house marked the end of an era for "The Vampire Diaries." Elena literally can't go home again. It probably wasn't a bad idea to char the place; after all, literally all of the people who have lived there have died at some point or another. That's a lot of bad vibes. I hear Elena will officially be moving in to the Salvatore house... again. Even though Stefan and Damon have had a bro-bonding moment, having Elena living down the hall probably won't make things particularly easy on Stefan.

10. Goodbye, Jeremy. Kudos to Steven R. McQueen for a heck of a performance over the course of four years. Jeremy has changed and grown beautifully. We've seen him experience love and loss, sacrifice and triumph, and we've seen it take a toll and make him stronger. The work that McQueen put into this season definitely showed -- and I'm not just talking about his arms. (But I am talking about his arms a little bit.) We'll all miss him.

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Vampire Diaries 4x16 Official Synopsis

Ep 16 'Bring It On'

THE NEW NORMAL — Elena’s (Nina Dobrev) new outlook has everyone concerned, leading Stefan (Paul Wesley) and Damon (Ian Somerhalder) to agree that going back to the normal routine of high school would be the best thing for her. Caroline (Candice Accola) is pleasantly surprised when Elena decides to rejoin the cheerleading squad, but her pleasure turns to shock when Elena’s behavior proves dangerous. Not giving up on their search for the cure, Damon and Rebekah (Claire Holt) work together until his unwanted advice catches her off-guard. Klaus (Joseph Morgan) tries to use Hayley (Guest star Phoebe Tonkin) to get the information he’s after and makes an intriguing discovery in the process. Meanwhile, a bored Elena throws a wild party and gets into an ugly fight. Jesse Warn directed the episode written by Elisabeth R. Finch & Michael Narducci (#416).

Interview With Julie Plec - Elena's Humanity, Jeremy's Death, Bonnies Darkness

I imagine killing off Jeremy was not an easy choice. Why did you feel it was necessary to kill him?
This whole year has been about the evolution of Elena as a vampire, starting from a girl who expressly claimed it was the last thing she wanted. And then just as she was finally getting a handle on it, the sire bond problem reared its ugly head. We knew we wanted to get her to the darkest place possible, so that Elena, the most compassionate character, would become dis-compassionate and turn her humanity off. So we knew we had to tear someone extremely important out of her life. Everybody is equally important to her, but when you really think about it, it’s her protectiveness of her brother that kept her together. Tearing her brother away from her would be the thing that would make her fall apart.

Obviously, the death of her brother is not something Elena can get over quickly, so is it safe to say she’ll be humanity-free for a sizable chunk of the season?
It’s safe to say that it’s going to be very difficult to bring her back from this place that she finds [herself in], which ironically, in spite of it being relatively emotionless, is actually her new happy place because it is a place with no pain, no guilt, no suffering and no extremes other than just an appreciation for life as a vampire and a desire to feed.

How is humanity-free Elena different from Katherine?
Everything Katherine does is a sexual manipulation, is in her own best interest, for her own survival. She will plead and flirt and tease and lie and mindf—, excuse my language, anyone and everyone in order to fill her own best interest. Elena is more blunt and honest and, “It is what it is, and I am what I am and want what I want. And right now I would like to feed on that girl over there. And I resent you for trying to stop me.” Elena is just more direct about getting exactly what it is that she wants. She doesn’t need to rely on the tricks that Katherine has to pull out of her bag.

Will we also see a more reckless, fun side of her now that she doesn’t have this human responsibility on her?
Yes, without a doubt. Elena has not had the easiest time of it, becoming a vampire. We didn’t want her to just jump right into the wish fulfillment side of vampirism, although I’m sure there’s plenty in the audience who would have enjoyed that. But that felt counter-intuitive to this character that we had defended so strongly as a human. Now, suddenly, we get to experience those things of what it’s like to be a vampire, party all night, never grow old, never die.

How is her new state going to affect her relationship and her feelings for Damon?
That is the big question. What is the truth of what she feels? How does the sire bond play into all this. What is their dynamic going to be moving forward when she’s not driven by a love for him necessarily. A lot of questions come up and get answered in the next couple episodes.

Are they still in a relationship?
We’ll have to find out.

Will the fact that he was the one who told her to do this cause trouble for them later? Or between him and Stefan?
When all is said and done, everybody recognized that in the worst possible scenario, which is what they were in, it truly was the only viable solution. It doesn’t make it good. It doesn’t make it happy. But it really was the thing that needed to happen to release her from her pain. So I don’t think anyone’s going to hold a grudge.

Meanwhile, all of Elena’s supernatural friends have their humanity, so how are they dealing with this new aspect of her?
It’s difficult for all of them. As we’ll see in the next episode, it becomes most difficult for Caroline, who as a fixer and a people person, is trying to get her friend back on track. But Elena’s not really having it so much.

Is there any significance to the fact that she gave the Gilbert ring to Damon? Why not give it to Matt? He could use it.
She, in her moment, was like, “OK, this doesn’t work anymore. So here, have it.” I can say this may not be the last we see of that Gilbert ring in the series. But right now, it’s just out of play.

Was Bonnie seeing a vision of Silas? Or was he actually physically taking on the form of Shane?
That is another question we’ll have to be asking ourselves. What we’ve seen about Silas in the caves is that he can appear as a hallucination…. So the question is, is that what’s happening here? Or is he physically standing before her? Does he look like Shane? Is he taking on Shane’s form? What is going on? What is this guy capable of?

How dark will Bonnie’s path get? Will she continue to try to carry out this plan and kill 12 people?
Bonnie is being extremely controlled and manipulated right now by this Shane/Silas figure. We’ll see that escalate over the next several episodes to its breaking point.

Will Shane on the island survive?
As far as we know, Shane on the island has met his terrible demise, although we did not see him take his last breath. You never know on this show.

Now that Katherine has the cure, will she play a bigger role this season?
That was definitely not the last we’ll see of Katherine.

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4x16 'Bring It On' Extended Promo

Vampire Diaries 4x15 Song List

Ep 15 'Stand By Me'

Noah Gundersen "Family"

4x16 'Bring It On' Short Promo

Will The Vampire Diaries Have A Prom Episode?

Will we get more pretty dresses and boys in tuxedos?

In September 2012, in an EW interview with Julie Plec and Nina Dobrev, we were informed that Season 4 may well end with a Mystic Falls High School graduation. That means.... PROM, right?

There is a couple of pieces of (what now seems to be deleted) evidence that there will be a TVD Prom episode.

Cherrix Casting Facebook Page submitted casting information:

"Before reading please understand that your response MUST include a fitting day, fitting time AND days you can work. (ex. Fitting-Friday 22nd, 11:00am, Available for all dates)

Vampire Diaries is looking for extras to work our prom scene in Decatur, Ga. Tuesday Feb 26th, Wed Feb 27th, Thurs 28th and Mon Mar 4th. Age 18-30. You will need to be available for a fitting Friday Feb 22nd or Monday Feb 25th--between 10am and 7pm. If available please email recent photo along with your name, phone number, email address, age, height, weight, clothing sizes (MEN-shirt size, pant size, shoe size, WOMEN-Measurements, dress size, shoe size), including your shoe size, color, make-model, year of vehicle to vampirediariescasting@gmail.com. SUBJECT LINE: PROM, Please include Fitting day, time AND days you can work."

Back in December, Julie Plec also tweeted:

Since we have recently had behind the scenes photos for 4x18 titled 'American Gothic', these dates suggest that 4x19 should be filming around this time and should air 4th April (if my calculations are correct).

Camille Guaty Interview

How was Caitlin pitched to you? What did you know about her going in?
Nothing. I'm not kidding. I knew absolutely nothing. I didn't know if I was a witch, a werewolf, a normal person. I had no idea, and even at the audition, they gave me completely ambiguous sides, and I just made something of it. It was three pages of, “I have no clue about who this person is,” because everything's so confidential with the show.

So, I booked it and then, when I was there, and I read the script, I was doing so much background research because there's so much that's going on in this show. I'm like, who is this person? Who's Silas? And then Nina Dobrev’s  playing these two different characters. I was so confused when I jumped in, but then it all came together. And I have my own interpretation of what I think it is.

If we came into the show with no idea of who everyone was, we’d be so confused.
Yeah. That's how I was. I had never seen it, and everyone's always telling me amazing things about it, so when I had the audition, I started to download episodes, and I was completely lost. I was Wikipedia-ing everybody and trying to do a family line of who's connected to who before the audition just so that I could have some reference point of the world that I was walking into.

Thankfully for your character, she doesn't know anybody. She doesn't know anything. All she knows is Shane, right?
Right. And that's what David Alpay said, the actor playing Shane. He said, “Well, you don't really need to know anything.” But it does help to know about what's happening with Silas, and that I was a witch. That helps. To get yourself in the world, I think it really does help to know what's going on around you.

We get the sense that Silas creates these hallucinations to work for him, but then, at the end, you're comforting Shane which we’d assume was another hallucination. Do you have any theories about what she is or what that was about?
My theory is — and now this is the great thing, I think, about Vampire Diaries, that it leaves a lot of things to the imagination — that Caitlin could be one of Silas's illusions, but I think that I'm working with Silas. Because he is the most powerful of all witches, the ones who have passed are working with him. But we’ll see.

So even her pretending to be good would probably serve a purpose of his in the end?
Absolutely, and plus I wanted to resurrect my son, and then my husband wanted to resurrect me. So I feel like it's kind of like a chain. If the most powerful one is out, then we all are out.

Are you in the next episode?
I'm not in the next episode.

Are you in any upcoming episodes?
I could be. Everyone's always like, “Well, do you die?” It's like, “I was already dead.” So that's good because you can't kill me.

Did they tell you anything about Shane and Caitlin’s life off screen in the good days?
I think it was for us to create ourselves. We had a very healthy marriage. We were very happy together, and when our son died, it definitely tore us apart, as you can imagine. The death of a child tears any relationship apart, but made me a little crazy because I knew that I had these powers and the ability to bring him back. So while doing that, that took my life. So, yeah, now I'm dead.

What was the cast like?
Everyone was great. I mean these people have been together for so long, and I think it's interesting to come in on this show of all young adults and a hit show and seeing how they work. And they were all fantastic.

And David's new. Is there a comfort in knowing not everyone has been there since day one, four years ago?
Oh, absolutely. I mean, I've been doing this for so long that coming in is always a little bit like being on your first day of school. You keep quiet to yourself, but then by the end of the first episode, you're making jokes with everybody. It's easy. It was a very easy set to come into. Plus, I had worked with some of the wardrobe people before as well, on one of my very first shows that I was on.

Which one?
Raising Dad. It was a sitcom with Bob Saget. So it was really great to be working with her as well.

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Cynthia Addai-Robinson Cast As Aja

Bonnie Bennett is getting a new mentor — hopefully with better intentions than her last one.

Actress Cynthia Addai-Robinson will play Aja, a powerful witch, with a connection to Bonnie's mother, who comes to Mystic Falls to help Bonnie control her magic. Seeing as Jeremy is (most likely) dead, does this mean that the only other person with the ability to guide Bonnie with her magic, Professor Shane, is also about to croak?

Addai-Robinson will appear in the March 21 episode.

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Spoiler From TV Guide - 19th February 2013

Is Jeremy really dead on The Vampire Diaries? How will Elena ever get over that?

You'll find out if he's truly a goner before the next episode ends. But regardless of whether he lives, Elena is going to be in a bit of a state for a while. At times she will seem complete completely numb, while at others she will display a fiery recklessness that leads her to do something she might ultimately regret.

Spoiler From TV Line - 19th February 2013

Anything you can share about this week’s Vampire Diaries? Based on the promo, Elena doesn’t appear to be taking Jeremy’s death well — assuming he is actually dead.

Let’s just say Elena invents a new stage of grief to cope with her brother’s apparent passing, and it’s hot.

4x14 'Down The Rabbit Hole' Rehash

Nina Dobrev Interview

This season has been a thrill from the start. What's your feeling about season four?
It's been really cool, especially because you always hear actors say doing a TV show for X amount of years can be boring and repetitive, but over the last four years, Elena has been changing and evolving and growing so much. Julie Plec, executive producer has done such an incredible job of keeping it fresh and exciting and making me excited to come to work every day. Especially this season -- and especially with the death of Jeremy. Between last week's episode and this week's, it's been very challenging for me as an actress, but very fulfilling. It's an emotional rollercoaster and I had to go to some dark places.

What was your reaction to finding out Jeremy would be killed?
I think we were all shocked and surprised, but that's the show -- it's a vampire show, people have to die all the time. And for Elena, it was very important that she lose Jeremy for what she's about to go through. It becomes a big part of her journey. I know Steven was very bummed, but also excited because he had a lot to do leading up to it -- his character grew and became so strong. It's bittersweet but made for some amazing television.

In many ways, Jeremy was the person who really kept Elena tethered to her humanity. Will this loss threaten to make Elena embrace the less desirable sides of vampirism?
Jeremy was the last person she had left, so it's very likely that Elena could go off the deep end now that she doesn't have the one thing that kept her human. Elena wants to protect the people she loves and saw this new-found strength as a way to protect everyone. But, in this case, she couldn't protect Jeremy and lost the only family member she had left. She won't take it lightly. It's going to destroy her.

Jeremy was also one of the only remaining characters who touched everyone in Mystic Falls. Will his death, in some ways, reinforce the group?
They do come together, but everyone is sort of walking on pins and needles around Elena so they don't trigger something and send her into a psychotic break. They live in a mystical world, so just because Jeremy's dead, it doesn't mean he's really dead in her mind. So she's looking for any solution she can to bring him back -- Elena is basically mentally unstable, going a little crazy and everyone is trying to help.

Obviously Elena still misses Jenna and Alaric, but I would imagine losing Jeremy has a much more profound and prolonged effect on her. True?
Losing Jeremy really, really, really changes Elena. Sometimes people recover from tragedy and sometimes they don't -- but it's a long journey for her. Elena's mourning peroid is much different than any I've ever seen depicted on TV before. She goes off the deep end and spirals downwards into a black hole of death and sadness and misery. I mean, your instinct is right when you asked if we'll see an Elena who embraces her vampire side to a different degree. It's an Elena we haven't seen before, and you'll be shocked, quite frankly. I was very surprised where the episodes take her because it's almost like she's a completely different person that you won't recognize to some degree.

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Spoiler From Zap2It - 18th February 2013

Our not-so-merry band of monsters is currently stuck on an island off the coast of Nova Scotia, and that's not the only traveling outside of Mystic Falls they'll be doing this season. The Atlanta set of "The Vampire Diaries" has recently been transformed into both a bustling NYC street, and a festival in Pennsylvania. Katherine may have committed the ultimate crime against Elena, but after she snagged the cure, she's not going to disappear again. We can expect her to stick around long enough for her to come face-to-face with Elijah. Could there be a centuries-old romance rekindled?

4x15 'Stand by Me' Webclip 2