I think Liz will die...

And jeez what an episode :|

I think Liz is gonna be the next character to go.

Last week's episode of The Vampire Diaries left off with incredibly dire circumstances for several characters, so are we headed towards some major death on the show? At a recent press Q&A with Julie Plec that IGN attended, the Vampire Diaries executive producer remarked that when it came to the end of Season 2, there would be, "Severe and tragic consequences and the loss of life would be extreme over the last several episodes." 

Added Plec, "It's a vampire show and in vampire shows the stakes are high and the death count has to match that, because if we don't follow through on the shakes that we're setting up – if you guys don't believe the consequences are life and death – then we're not doing our job." 

Plec revealed that this week's penultimate episode of Season 2, "The Sun Also Rises", "takes place over the rest of the night and it is Klaus' attempt at executing the sacrifice ritual to break the curse and the part that Jenna is meant to play in that and what everybody else has to do to try to keep her from being the vampire that Klaus sacrifices." She also promised some especially "fierce" and "badass" moments for Bonnie. 

The Vampire Diaries has managed an impressive feat, mixing core elements of teen romance with an anything goes vibe that gives it an appeal to folks like, well, me, complete with deep mythology, huge twists and turns and some notable gore. But Plec said she always wanted to keep that romance element, adding, "That's my opinion. The other fans will have other opinions. Some people are like, 'Enough with them and the kiss! Get back to the blood and the guts!' But I think that's why this show works, is because it can deliver all of it. Just when you're in your most intense genre moment – unpeeling the onion layers of the mythology -- then you can have a human moment, a relationship moment." 

Last week's episode, "The Last Day," had a very notable scene between Elena and Stefan, as Elena, who looks to be on the cusp of turning into a vampire, thanks to Damon, tells Stefan she never wanted this to happen and wanted to live out her days as a normal human. If you noticed (and perhaps appreciated, as I did) that this made Elena the exact opposite of Twilight's Bella Swan, who desperately wants to give up her humanity to be with Edward forever, you were on the right track. 

Explained Plec, "I loved this [last scene] between Stefan and Elena, because when we started this show, the similarities toTwilight were so extreme. And this was our way of sort of closing the book on that chapter of similarities. Because for Elena to say, 'I've never even wanted this for a minute, because I'm still a kid and I still have choices to make in my life – choices that I wanted to make,' I loved that about Elena. I just think that's so beautiful and was happy to be able to let her have this introspection, when the choice has already been made for her." 

Damon fed Elena his blood in order to save her, but did so without asking, potentially damming her to a life (or an undead life, as it were) we now definitively know she does not want. Asked if it's a risk to have Damon do something that may be very difficult for the audience to forgive, Plec replied, "I think the interesting thing about Damon, which is complicated for us as writers, is the lengths to which people will forgive him. That was never more clear than at the beginning of the season when he snapped Jeremy's neck and then everybody was like, 'He was upset! He's sad!'" 

"Yes, of course Damon deserves to be loved," said Plec, "Of course Damon deserves a lot of things, but Damon's still got… issues! And so for this, this thing he did to Elena, this is sort of his biggest lesson to learn - in that you can love someone, with all the power in your soul, but you still have to remember who they are and what they want. And we talked about it like turning off the life support for a coma patient, a loved one. What were their instructions in brain death? Do you keep them on life support because you can't say goodbye, or do you give them their wish? And that's the difference right now between Stefan and Damon, is Stefan sees those things and sees that with love, you have to take the other person's wishes into consideration. And Damon, because he's been so screwed in the head by love, and it's his Achilles heel… This is about him learning that lesson." 

Plec revealed that the season finale ("As I Lay Dying") involves Damon needing to seek Elena's forgiveness for what he did. "He does try to seek her forgiveness and he desperately wants it. And as we've seen, he now has the extra reason, with the werewolf bite. 'I can't die with you hating me.' That's his point. But how does that play out?" 

"The finale is basically the end of the road of Damon's character journey for the year," Plec remarked, "We could have ended with the sacrifice ritual and just gone out really big. The next episode is enormous and very emotional. And that could have just been it. We could have waited and that could have been the end of the season. But for us, we started this season and Stefan said to Damon, 'For the first time, I see you starting to feel something and starting to care. Do not let this ruin you. Do not let Katherine ruin you. Do not let any of this come between us. Do not take a step backward.' And here we are – we've come full circle and he's done so many things and made so many choices that have been so screwed up. And now he's at the end of his life, so he believes, and he needs to come to terms with all of those decisions he'd made in the year and not just in the year – really since Katherine seduced him 145 years ago. So he's reliving those mistakes that he made with Katherine, trying to get Elena's forgiveness." 

She also added that the finale involved, "What Stefan has to do, determined to do anything he can possible to save his brother. Stefan's whole cross to bear is, 'Wait a minute. My brother is finally showing his humanity – the humanity I took away from him 145 years ago. I can't let him die now!' But there's no cure, so what the hell is he going to do?" 

As for what's to come next season, if you have been enjoying all of the mythology about Klaus and Elijah, it sounds like you may be very happy, as Plec teased, "Season 3 is very much the season of the Originals."