[Warning: this post contains spoilers from Thursday’s episode of The Vampire Diaries, “Live Through This.”]

Raise your hand if you’re still screaming about a certain you-know-who’s hookup on The Vampire Diaries?!

After complaining about her lack of a love life in the present-day storyline, The CW’s supernatural drama revealed that three years in the future, during the flash forward storyline, Bonnie and none other than Enzo are in love. Yeah, you read that right: Bonnie. And. Enzo. Are. In. Love. And not only that, but Bonnie has checked herself into some sort of hospital/rehab center after blaming herself for losing someone close to her. Is it just us or are these flash forwards getting more and more intriguing?

Nerdist got the chance to screen the episode early, and immediately following the shocking hour, TVD executive producer Caroline Dries broke down all the major developments, including why they decided that Bonnie and Enzo, despite hating each other in the present, made sense together as a couple in the future.

Bringing Bonnie and Enzo together 

If you were as shocked as us at this new couple, Dries reveals that was the whole point of bringing them together in the first place.

“We had this scene last year where Bonnie opens the door and Enzo’s there and he’s got an iPod, bringing it to Lily to give her some music that she likes, and Kat [Graham] and Michael [Malarkey] had such sparking chemistry in this really short, funny scene,” Dries says. “We were like, huh, they actually have a fun energy. Let’s explore that relationship. But of course, they have no reason to like each other so in present day, we’ve been telling their hate story. The whole point is that, when you see them kiss in the future, you’re supposed to be like, wait, how did they get there?”

And while each flash forward has focused on only one character per episode, Dries reveals that the flash forwards will circle back to characters we’ve already seen once the show has established where each character is three years from now.

“We’re just trying to hit where everyone is right now, which is I know frustrating because it takes so long to hit everyone,” Dries says. “But it’s just to give you a flavor of the world where we’re at and then we’ll start to tell an actual linear story once you’re oriented.”

Alaric and “Jo”

Alaric getting his wife Jo back was too good to be true. Sure, the Phoenix Stone woke up her dead body, but it didn’t bring back her soul. It simply placed an old vampire soul that was trapped inside the stone into Jo’s body. So now Alaric has this woman who looks and sounds like his dead wife back in his life, but he knows it’s not really Jo. Harsh.

“We have this mythology of the Phoenix Stone and what it actually does, so the mystery for the next episode will be how Faux-Jo can integrate into the world that we’ve created in Mystic Falls and at Whitmore,” Dries says. “It’s the story we’ve dealt with in the writers room of how do you handle someone who looks exactly like your dead wife but isn’t? A lot of writers had different takes on it. Some of them were like, ‘They should fall in love,’ and some people were like, ‘No gross!’ That undermines the actual character of Jo. I think it will play out in an interesting and tragic and also bittersweet kind of way for Alaric.”

Trouble in paradise for Steroline

Now that Stefan knows the truth about why Valerie stood him up all those years ago (she was pregnant with his child and Julian made sure there was no baby for her to tell him about), it’s going to make him rethink everything about his relationship with Caroline.

“[Valerie just] dropped a huge bomb on Stefan, and what we learn about Valerie’s persona as this dark soul, this dark cloud when she enters the room, we start to understand why she’s so weighted,” Dries says. “When she drops the bomb on Stefan’s lap, it will basically shake him to his core and define the rest of his season for him. Stefan learns this huge news, and then in episode 6, he admits how this affects him, even in the present day.”

Adding fuel to the fire of their issues, Stefan also lied to Caroline, and didn’t tell her what Valerie revealed to him about their baby.

“It will start to make her feel insecure about where she stands with him,” Dries says. “Stefan will just be able to continue to struggle with how to be a good guy, to validate his relationship with [Valerie] and their past together, and also feel like he’s not leaving Caroline in the dust. And she is going to find an inner strength that she didn’t know that she had.”

Julian’s return

Now that Lily’s love Julian has been brought back to life via the Phoenix Stone, expect him to bring chaos in his wake … but not in the way you might think.

“As we start episode 6, we’re expecting the devil has come to Mystic Falls, and then you’re going to be hopefully pleasantly surprised when you meet him,” Dries says. “He’s fun, and full of life, and charming, and incredibly attractive, and he just kind of wins over everyone back in his family and we realize why they loved him so much. The fun will be him revealing his true self.”

And if you noticed that Julian had that strange “X” scar on his chest just like Stefan has in the future storyline, and that it disappeared when the Phoenix Stone brought him back to life, you are one eagle-eyed viewer.

“We saw in the future that Stefan has got that scar and he is bleeding and we also saw that Beau has one [in the present] and it is healed, and then Julian came back [without his],” Dries says. “To tease it would basically give it away, but it will certainly not be the last time you have seen it. Right when you think you understand how Stefan got his in the future, you will be thrown for a loop, so it will be a recurring theme throughout and until the end of the season.”

As for Damon and Bonnie’s decision to kill Julian out of revenge for learning that Lily gave Kai the idea to put Elena under the “Sleeping Beauty” curse, that will not go over well with Stefan.

“Damon has a strong point of view on how to handle Julian and Stefan has a completely different view,” Dries says. “The brothers will start clashing.”

And now that Lilly picked Julian over Enzo, what’s his next move?

“The next episode will hold a fun welcome home party for Julian,” Dries says. “Enzo will be one of the guests invited and he will show and judge the competition, so to speak, he is not out completely yet.”

What did you think of all the twists and turns from tonight’s episode of TVD? Hit the comments section below to weigh in now!

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Images: The CW

The Vampire Diaries airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on The CW.