It’s an age-old saying: The Vampire Diaries giveth Steroline, and The Vampire Diaries taketh Steroline away.
After seasons and seasons of teasing feelings between Stefan (Paul Wesley) and Caroline (Candice Accola King), the two star-crossed BFFs finally decided to give a real relationship a try in the season seven premiere … only to then have Enzo (Michael Malarkey) finally pick a side in the heretics vs. Mystic Falls crew battle and kidnap Caroline. Now the blonde vampire is trapped, a hostage in the old Salvatore home, being tortured by Stefan’s mother Lily’s (Annie Wersching) “chosen” family of vampire/witch hybrids. It’s always one step forward and two steps back with these two!
“There’s no such thing as a relationship with no obstacles,” TVD executive producer and co-creator Julie Plec tells Nerdist. “They will certainly face their fair share.” But don’t lose hope, Steroline fans: there is light ahead of this dark tunnel!
“But listen, we are committed to seeing if they can make it work with each other,” Plec promises. “And they are committed to seeing if they can be one of the few happy couples in the Mystic Falls universe.”
Someone who isn’t happy? Newly-graduated Deputy Matt Donovan (Zach Roerig), who just witnessed all of his human friends getting massacred by Lily’s heretics, and who almost died at the hands of his best friend Bonnie (Kat Graham) in order to try and save Caroline.
“Matt’s journey is very much a journey that is taken in small shifts over the course of this season,” Plec teases. “He starts out having to basically bury most of his graduating class and to close up shop on the town. Yet he, in spite of constantly being in the center of danger, is unwilling to leave it behind.”
Expect to see Matt make some big decisions going forward that might have some huge consequences.
“He’ll have to take on supernatural beings that are more powerful than him, he’ll have to wrangle his friends who have different objectives than he does, and ultimately will have to do everything he can to try and ensure that the town can one day return to its former glory,” Plec says. “It’s not an easy task and he’s going to find himself in some definite precarious situations. But I’m rooting for him, personally.”
What Plec is most excited for viewers to see from this season is a mix between Lily’s “chosen” family and her actual, blood family.
“These new heretic characters are incredibly wicked and wonderful and delightful and horrible in all the best ways, including a character we’ll meet down the line played by Todd Lasance [named] Julian,” Plec says. “He’s such a terrific addition to the show as well as all the other heretics.”
She continues, “And I love the family relationship between Lily and Stefan and Damon [Ian Somerhalder]. We know so little about their upbringing and what their mother meant to them, and now here we are getting to watch this war being fought between mother and sons when there is clearly still so many residual feelings there that none of them are really able to comprehend. Watching them work their stuff out with each other over the course of the first episodes of the season is going to be awesome.”
What do you think of Steroline’s chances? Did Enzo make the right choice in handing Caroline over to Lily? What is Matt going to get himself tangled up in? Hit the comments below to weigh in with your thoughts now!
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Images: The CW
The Vampire Diaries airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on The CW.
