Vampire Diaries midseason finale: Will that werewolf venom lead to an Originals crossover? 

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Damon and Stefan always had very different relationships with their mother, so it’s no surprise that her death will affect them in different ways. But what will her death mean for the heretics? And how will Damon cope with the way he left things with Lily?

executive producer Caroline Dries to talk all about the midseason finale:

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: I’ve so loved the Stefan-Damon stuff this season. How is Lily’s death going to affect them and their relationship?

CAROLINE DRIES: Lily for us was a big chapter arc. She was the ring leader of the villains when we caught up to them in the premiere and she’s been this divisive person in Damon and Stefan’s lives. Stefan’s had these moments when he’s needed her and then resented her and at the end, we found that he managed to find some semblance of peace with her. But Damon has always had a chip on his shoulder for her and he’s had a hard time forgiving her, so that didn’t actually seem to affect the brothers too much in terms of their points of view on their mom. They kind of fought and came together and fought and came together. But Lily’s death will really force the brothers to realize that they’re all that they have left and they have very different reactions to the way that she leaves them and the consequences left in the wake of her absence, especially on Damon I would say.

Julie Plec’s blog last week mentioned that it will come back to bite Damon in the ass.

Yeah, well he made it very clear when he essentially spit in her face on her death bed, so now Damon is kind of walking around with that gross feeling of centuries of resentment that he has towards her, and he never got that off of his chest. Now he doesn’t have a second chance to do that and the consequences of that will come out a little bit in the finale and even more so as we launch into the next big chunk of the season.

What do the heretics look like without Lily?

For a few episodes, when Julian was back, it was like Lily had her heretic family and she was actually at peace and things were running how she wanted it to, and she was the glue that held them together. With her dead, we’ll see that they all start to go their own way. They don’t have a central compass in their lives right now, which is good story-wise, because it allows them to emerge in other stories where you’re not expecting to see them. For example, in the winter finale, we get to see Nora and Bonnie start to interact and it’s a little bit of a refreshing new dynamic because these girls haven’t had much to say to one another. It’s fun to see how Mary Louise exists in the real world when she’s out of the safety little vaccuum world that Lily had them kept in.

Are they still crashing at the Salvatore mansion? Will there be a battle over that now?

Now that Lily’s gone, their main obstacle is going to be, we now have no excuse to keep Julian around. Julian’s been doing his own thing as we’ll come to find out in the finale, but the house, I think the ownership will change in the finale briefly, but it’s not something that they’re really fighting over in the finale.

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I would assume Stefan’s still on his mission to kill Julian. Are we building to that battle in this episode?

Yeah it’s a story where Stefan wants revenge on Julian, which he’s wanted for a while, but the story actually becomes a Damon-Stefan story about Stefan needing his brother, in this moment, to help him with his drive, and Damon being along for the ride, but ultimately, having his own point of view on where he wants to be spending his time and if he’s going to help his brother or not. So even though it’s a story about Julian, it more becomes a story about Damon and Stefan. 

Will the identity of this future Huntress be revealed in the midseason finale?

This week, no. Not yet. She continues to be a mystery even over the break. 

One of the things I’m most excited about this week is pregnant Caroline. Is this a faster-than-normal pregnancy?

being one-day-at-a-time episodes and going from day to day, so one season happens in 22 days or less. This season, we’re taking a little bit more liberties with time passages between episodes and whatnot. 

I’m just imagining crazy mood swings now that she’s pregnant.

Yeah, the winter finale features what Caroline is going through as a pregnant vampire who never asked to be pregnant and [it] was not in her very regimented game plan of how she was going to live her life. So when you give a control freak this very unexpected thing, it obviously is going to throw her for a loop. Of course she’s feeling obliged to carry out the pregnancy — they’re Alaric’s babies, and he’s lost so much. But at the same time, she’s not able to complain about it because she’s giving Alaric a whole new family so she’s having a hard time articulating all these crazy conflicting emotions and this is the episode where she turns to the one person she can think of to turn to and let it all out. We really feel for her in this episode. I think she deserves a voice to articulate that.

I think when you see it, you’ll be like, “Ah, that makes sense.”

Will we find out where Enzo is this week?

No, you’re just going to have to wonder where the heck he is. If we’re not seeing him and he was abducted, I’m guessing it’s not good. [

Twitter went crazy last week when there was the mention of Damon being infected with werewolf venom. Fans are wondering if this will lead to a potential

I would remind them that Kai was also infected with werewolf venom in the finale of last season and he seemed to deal with it pretty elegantly due to the fact that he was also a sipher, so remind them of that and say, “Relax, but don’t get too down in the dumps.”

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