FLASHBACK TO DAMON’S LIFE IN 1970s NEW YORK / THE BAND DEAD SARA PERFORMS — Realizing that Elena (Nina Dobrev) needs some time away from Mystic Falls, Damon (Ian Somerhalder) takes her to New York City, where he lived and partied hard in the 1970s. When Rebekah (Claire Holt) also shows up in New York, she’s impressed with Elena’s secret agenda. Flashbacks reveal Damon’s hedonistic life in the underground club scene and a complicated encounter with Lexi (guest star Arielle Kebbel). Meanwhile, Caroline (Candice Accola) and Stefan (Paul Wesley) try to convince Klaus (Joseph Morgan) that it would be in his own best interest to help them track Silas down, and Bonnie (Kat Graham) struggles to keep her grasp on reality and do the right thing. Garreth Stover directed the episode written by Brian Young & Charlie Charbonneau (#417).
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.
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.”
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.)
NINA DOBREV INTERVIEW AT ELTON JOHN'S OSCAR PARTY (VIDEO)
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.
