Vampire Diaries’ Twist That Could’ve Killed the Love Triangle

You could say The Vampire Diaries is known for a lot of things, but for right now we’ll just go with plot twist and an epic love triangle. Executive producer Julie Plec told TVLine how one of the show’s biggest surprises nearly ended the push and pull between Damon (Ian Somerhalder), Elena (Nina Dobrev), and Stefan (Paul Wesley).
In Season 2, a rejected Damon saw a moment to get back at Elena for telling him she’d always choose his brother: He decided to hurt hers. When Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen) walked into Elena’s bedroom, Damon snapped his neck. Luckily, the little Gilbert was wearing his protective ring and came back to life... although Damon didn’t know that.
"As we said in Episode 3 that season, he admitted, no, he did not know,” says Julie. “When he acted out in that moment, it was to kill and to make a point and to sever his relationship [and] ties with these people forever, to make the loudest, angriest and most aggressive statement he could.”
Those ties remained bound, however, and Julie admits it’s partly because that’s what the audience wanted. She says, “The most fascinating thing that came out of that was the outpouring of people who were like, 'Poor Damon. It's Elena fault for rejecting him.' For years, we'd sit in the writers room and be like, 'People are morally bankrupt! [Laughs] Our fanbase is very forgiving — a lot more forgiving than we are.'”
And for fans that thought the will-they-won’t-they dance between Damon and Elena was excruciatingly slow, Julie admits she expected it to last even longer. “Kevin and I were convinced that Damon killing Jeremy would slow down the love triangle by about five seasons, if not kill it completely,” she says. “That was a bold choice that we wanted to take. We wanted Damon to still be a true villain."
To be fair, pretty much every character has done their fair share of murdering by now and even Rebekah (Claire Holt) didn’t stay upset for too long after her own brothers were killed — for keeps. Mystic Falls is a mad, mad world.
Source: TVLine