In an interview with Give Me My Remote, Vampire Diaries EP Julie Plec talks season 4.
Warning: Spoilers Below
No pressure there, clearly.
JP: And so I went into season 3 and I told all the actors, “This is the year we really need to prove to everybody that we’re good at what we do and this show is never going to falter. And the quality of storytelling, quality of production, quality of performance is our priority, and we’re going to do it, we’re going to work our asses off so nobody thinks this was just a fluke.” And we did so well in season 3 that I think in the back of our heads, we thought we could step back a little in season 4 and sleep a little. And then we get to season 4 and we realized, no, it’s been going so well, we haven’t faltered yet, let’s just drive this train all the way to the end of the series and never let anyone say, “You really blew it.” So that’s the goal.And there’s no doubt you guys have some passionately vocal fans. For something as momentous as last season’s finale, were you glued to social media to see the reactions?
JP: As anybody who knows me knows, as much as I say it would be wise for me to go hide in a bunker, I can’t help myself. Even though I don’t want to, even though it’s bad for me, I check that Twitter.I will tell you this, when that season finale aired, I had never in my young life on Twitter, experienced anything like the response. And, by the way, it was not all good. It was equal parts, “how dare you, you horrible bitch” as there were adoration and accolades. It was the most intense, endless responses on Twitter. Hours of people reacting emotionally. Crying, sobbing, pleading, loving, everything. It was wild. It was cool. And I’m glad I let myself experience even if some of it was hard to read.
We had decided [to make Elena a vampire] in season 2 and quickly decided that was too soon. So when we got to the end of season 2 and talking about season 3, we knew that’s where we were going to land. Everything we did was to get us there. It was great to be confident about that choice when we started the season, because then we made a lot of strategic plans and delicate, quiet little character points and story points that allowed us to take it to the end of the year.
What role does Klaus play in that madness?
JP: The consequences of [Klaus] having spent time in Tyler’s body promises that Caroline will hate his guts for another day. Klaus, I think, will get a strange and almost amused thrill of finding different ways to break up Tyler and Caroline. It almost becomes a sport for him, because he’s not really a piner. He’s not going to sit around and cry in his tea…he’s just going to take action. And when the most evil man in the world decides he doesn’t want the girl to be with the boy, then he’s not just going to sit back and wait for them to have conflict; he’s going to create conflict. He’s kind of a naughty little vixen. A male version of a naughty little vixen.And what can you say about Bonnie’s path?
JP: Bonnie is going to have a very difficult road ahead that launched in the first episode. The consequences of that will send her on a path that could go one way or the other.
