With just a handful of episodes left to Season 5 of The CW series The Vampire Diaries, there’s no way to predict who will make it out alive. Enzo is seeking an eye for an eye, The Travelers sole focus is on finding a permanent home, the Other Side is disintegrating, and Caroline is suppressing a crush that could hurt a friendship. And in Episode 19, “Man on Fire,” viewers will get to flashback to 1960 and finally learn what really happen to Enzo’s true love, Maggie.
During this recent interview to discuss what’s still to come this season and into the next, actor Ian Somerhalder (“Damon Salvatore”) and executive producer/writer Caroline Dries talked about how the events of this episode will affect the friendship between Damon and Enzo (Michael Malarkey), where Damon and Elena (Nina Dobrev) will be for the rest of this season, where The Travelers are at, at this point, what the disintegration of the Other Side will mean for those already dead and the deaths still to come, that there will be at least three character deaths before the end of the season, how these characters will have to form a united friend to fight for a common cause, the fate of Tyler (Michael Trevino) and where Caroline’s (Candice Accola) love life is headed. Check out what they had to say about The Vampire Diaries after the jump, and be aware that there are some spoilers.
Question: How will it affect things with Damon and Enzo, with Enzo believing that Stefan killed the love of his life?
CAROLINE DRIES: Enzo takes matters into his own hands when he realizes that the love of his life, who he’s been looking for since we met him, was killed by the hero of the series. It turns out that the worst person in the world has killed Maggie. I think he just wishes he’d never found out what happened to Maggie.
IAN SOMERHALDER: It’s the same sensibility that Damon went through with Katherine. It’s that deep, deep, deep love. If you love someone when you’re 20 and you carry that love with you until you’re 90, it’s not going to be the same dynamic. But unfortunately, these dudes don’t die, and that memory is so fresh. She would have been an elderly lady, at that point, but he just wanted to see her. It’s a delicate thing because Damon knows how volatile Enzo is. I just wish Damon could shake him and say, “Yo, dude, you’re being a little unreasonable here. You crazy bastard! Let it go. Let’s go have some drinks, go to a strip club, and get this done.” That seems like a logical thing to do. That’s all they do. The whole season finale is in Vegas. It’s awesome!
What’s it like to work with Michael Malarkey?
SOMERHALDER: He’s so connected, every time. It’s really great to be around actors like that. They just really elevate the material, not that the material needs elevating. It’s already there. It’s awesome. We just get to play it. But, it’s really cool to see that transformation of reading something on a page and it coming to life. Nina, Paul and myself have been together for so many years, at this point, that we know everything about one another. So, to have somebody new come in, with a really fresh perspective and who’s someone that’s really diving into the material in a very deep, profound way, that’s really rewarding. It’s very cool. And to see the writing come to life in front of you is pretty positive.
DRIES: He’s just a breath of fresh air.
SOMERHALDER: It’s amazing. I remember the first scene, when we were in the cell in 509, we were rehearsing in that cell, and that cell almost killed all of us. There was just dust and all this stuff. But I remember the first rehearsal and I thought, “Oh, yeah, man. This guy is on it. Not only does he look like Johnny Depp, but he’s just in it. I can’t wait to see what Damon and Enzo end up doing.”
Where will Damon and Elena be at, for the rest of the season?
DRIES: One of the best scenes from the show Paul [Wesley] directed was when Damon said, “I don’t even want to look at you. I don’t want to hear your voice. And I definitely don’t want to be your friend.” That was just so heartbreaking. He said, “I don’t want to look at you,” so as writers, we were like, “Let’s see if we can do a whole episode where Damon doesn’t really look at Elena.” They do interact, but they don’t actually have a scene together. Even in the moment (in this episode) where Damon brings Elena home and puts her in bed, he disappears before she opens her eyes. I thought that was cool because he was, in a way, keeping his promise. But moving forward, in the next episode, we purposefully throw them into a world together where they can’t help but be literally on top of each other in the cabin in the woods story. They can’t be away from each other, and they can’t be close to each other. So, we’re just trying to play into the drama of them now. It’s this weird purgatory in their relationship, where they don’t know how to act when they can’t escape each other.
SOMERHALDER: Something with Damon that’s always been, since the very inception of this person, is the push and the pull. It’s always been that way with Elena. It was his brother’s girlfriend, and it looks like this woman he was in love with. There’s always this pushing and pulling, and it really does make a very dynamic component to their relationship. It creates tension, it creates chemistry, and it creates all this cool stuff, and they know how to do that very well (on this show). It’s pretty evident that it’s there to stay, for awhile. It’s always uncomfortable to watch. It’s like someone running their nails down a chalkboard.
DRIES: Every time one of them is in the room with the other, they don’t have to say anything, but their tension and chemistry exists. That’s what makes them, as a couple, so powerful. Even if the storyline is them not dating, it’s actually a love story.
SOMERHALDER: Note to self, when you’re 173 years old, don’t date an 18-year-old. Find someone your own age. You’ll be better off.
Where are The Travelers at, at this point?
DRIES: We were trying to give The Travelers the simplest goal in the world, which is just wanting a place to call home. They’re not trying to be bad guys about it, but there’s this thing they have to do to make that happen. We always get criticized for being so confusing and having all this mythology, so we tried to make it as simple as possible without having all of these rules.
SOMERHALDER: That’s the audacity of life. Everything needs a place to live, whether you’re coral, whether you’re a squirrel, or whether you’re a person. That need and desire is probably more powerful than anything, other than to survive. There are some really cool scenes coming up with lots of Travelers, where you really get a sense of what you’re going through. You’ll be sympathetic towards them.
DRIES: It’s not an actively violent drive.
SOMERHALDER: They’re cool. They’re grungy. A lot of them are hot.
DRIES: They’re like hipsters going to Coachella.
One of the consistent themes of this show has been unexpected consequences. Will that be the case for The Travelers?
DRIES: Their unexpected consequence is thinking that they can go up against vampires like Damon Salvatore and thinking they even stand a chance. So, yeah, there will certainly be unexpected consequences for them.
Why did you want to tear down the Other Side?
DRIES: The Other Side component was our desire to get rid of the Other Side. We want it so that, moving forward, when characters die, they’re dead.
As the Other Side disintegrates, will we see some familiar faces?
DRIES: Yeah. The fun of the Other Side is that it’s just basically a storage facility for all of our friends. So, yes, definitely.
Will there be any permanent death, then, before this season is over?
DRIES: Yes, there will be.
More than one?
DRIES: I can think of three, off hand.
Is there any connection between the way Vicki disappeared and the way Katherine disappeared?
DRIES: They looked very similar, but in my mind, no. It was just death. Something took them. Whatever you want to call it sucked them out. I guess it was the same idea, but in my mind, it was different. I guess it’s pretty much the same. When we sat down to write it, we wanted it to be different, but it’s pretty much the same thing. Whatever is out there that takes our souls away is what it is.
Will these characters have to form a united front, or will relationship complications prevent that?
DRIES: Pushing towards the finale, they have a united cause because The Travelers are trying to rip away their home, and that’s something that they rally around. In the meantime, the Other Side is falling apart. The question is, what’s going to happen with Bonnie and what’s going to happen to our friends over there, that we occasionally check in with? Do they just go away, like Vicki did? There are these things spiraling out of control around them. When you see the finale, hopefully you’ll feel this giant thing that happens. We’re breaking Season 6 right now, in the writers’ room, and we start with everyone in a different orbit. So, Season 6 will be a lot of bringing people back together and picking up the pieces.
Now that Tyler has been hijacked by a Passenger, where is that going?
DRIES: Michael Trevino is a good actor, and we wanted to find him a storyline where he could be more front and center that wasn’t a relationship storyline or a love storyline. So, we wanted what happened to Katherine to happen to Tyler. The drama of that is that there’s no getting him out. That knife is gone, so he’s stuck. We wanted to play that out and give it its due, as a full arc. You’ll see what happens. In the finale, it reaches a climax.
What can you say about what’s to come for Caroline, in the rest of this season?
DRIES: She’s got a relationship/crush/feelings for someone that are going to creep up to the surface, and that is going to cause a potential rift between her and one of her friends. So, she’s like, “Okay, I’m gonna just push that down.” It’s going to be just a little bit under the surface. And then, moving into Season 6, we’re gonna see her actually set her sights on someone and try to make the move.
She’s going to make a move on the person that she has a crush on?
DRIES: Mm hm.
The Vampire Diaries airs on Thursday nights on The CW.