Julie Plec With Fresh Spoilers: A Darker Elena May Mean A Change Is In Order

TV Guide has gotten the skinny on our favoriteVampire Diaries couples from the mistress of TVD spoilers herself, Julie Plec. The Winter Premiere will take the angsty tension up a noch January 5th and Plec promises real consequences for Stefan’s actions and a new Elena, more adaptable and torn than ever.

“[Elena and Damon] are trying very hard to understand that the Stefan that they know is gone forever and that he betrayed them,” executive producer Julie Plec dishes. “Elena understands … that ultimately it’s time for her to move on with her life and not hold onto a ghost of her past. One of the big things in the episode back, however, is when Stefan reappears in their lives,” Plec says. “At what point do they start to understand the part he played in saving Damon’s life and then what does that mean to each of them? Stefan is definitely acting from a place of aggressive and not completely rational spite [towards Klaus],” Plec elaborates. “That is going to be a big issue for Elena [and she'll say], ‘You could’ve handled this differently, you can be different, you could feel differently and is winning this war more important than the people you have to hurt along the way?’ Right now revenge is definitely his priority.” Meanwhile, Klaus will be quite the opponent. “We’re going to continue to explore his vulnerabilities while also making him madder and madder and more violent and more evil,” Plec says.

“Now that Stefan is out of the picture, in her mind there’s a way to free herself up and allow that tension to come out andplay,” Plec says. “The question of ‘Does Elena love Damon [and] has she been fully falling for him all along?’ is going to be very much a part of the season.” Plec goes on to spoil, “Elena realizes that in order to survive and in order to protect the people she loves the most, sometimes she has to behave more like Katherine than Elena, and sometimes a dark choiceneeds to be made, a violent act needs to be enacted and it’s troubling for her,” Plec says. “So who is she really at her core? She’s clearly not the girl-next-door do-gooder, she never has been.”