The Vampire Diaries - Season 6B - EPs, Cast on [Spoiler]'s Death, Jeremy's Exit Twist and More

Why choose this peaceful, non-fatal, end for Jeremy?
Caroline Dries: Jeremy has died a few times, so we really wanted it to feel special, but official too and like we mean it this time. [It was] grown-up closure. That's why we felt like it was right for him to become a man and say, "I'm ready."

Steven R. McQueen: It made my last couple of scenes fun. I got to joke around with everyone, rather than being sad about it. My last scene was Enzo's foot on my face and [director Chris] Grismer shot it a good nine times and then [everyone] all come running out in these superhero costumes with a big cake and I got my face shoved in the cake and they kept filming; I just saw it.

Why have Jeremy leave before Bonnie returns?
Julie Plec: Our decision to say goodbye to Jeremy in the middle of the season was born out of wanting to feel like his character made a strong decision in spite of his circumstance. It couldn't really line up with Bonnie's journey because her journey right now is never-ending and we don't know when she'll be back or what will come of her. He needed to make decisions for himself mostly because of Bonnie being the final straw. There were still be a conversation to be had or a reunion of sorts to deal with once we get our Bonnie back, but Jeremy needed to get up and go.

Why have him become a vampire hunter rather than really go to art school?
Plec: The biggest point we wanted to make is that when you come out of Mystic Falls, there is no such thing as a normal [life]. As Elena said, "Maybe smoking a joint with my brother is the most normal thing I've ever done." Jeremy was someone who went through so much and needed a purpose, and Elena believed it was get out and go to art school and be normal, but Jeremy's secret is, "I'm forever changed but I'm going to use this change for the powers of good." Of course, Elena would never go for it because she's trying to be the protective big sister but Alaric gets it.

How was it filming Forbes' death?
Marguerite MacIntyre: I have to say ... the hardest thing for me has been that everybody knew it was coming so for weeks beforehand. Everyone has been very emotional with me and I'm like, "Dude, I'm fine." When we did the table read when I had the first scene where there was first trouble after Ian was like, "You get better right?" I'm like, "No." From then on he was very clingy.

Plec: In this episode and next week's episode, we like to hit on the theme of the ordinary business of dying and there's so much emotion attached to it, but there are so many logistics attached to it from planning the funeral to picking out flower arrangements. All of these things we've done along the way with Caroline in spite the supernatural circumstance that was created with her mom getting a very human disease. We've enjoyed exploring the simple basic logistics of having to accept the death of someone you love and literally and figuratively put them in the ground. It's surprisingly emotional and we wanted to make sure we captured all those moments.

Dries: When [co-executive producer] Brian [Young] and I were trying to think of what the theme of this episode is we liked that there was no mystery to Elena's parents' death just like cancer just chooses you. Marguerite was sitting with Damon and was a dark scene and the studio and network read it and said, "Could there be some silver lining? This is so depressing, there's no answer to Elena's parents death or an upside to cancer!" And I'm like there is no upside to cancer, that's the whole point! So Julie asked Marguerite to write a thing of what would the sheriff would say to her daughter at her funeral and Julie shared it with me ... so we added the speech when Sheriff says to Damon about Caroline being extraordinary, but exceptionally ordinary. That sparked from what Marguerite had written about her own character. So it did add this silver lining that she is OK with that. So even though I was like, "This note is so annoying!" it brought the ideas together.

Plec: Marguerite and I have been good friends since we did Kyle XY together and three episodes into Season 1, we were looking for the sheriff and Kevin [Williamson] was like, "What about your friend Marguerite?" So I called her and said, "You want to be a sheriff? You can come to Atlanta and we can hang out together" and she came and entered our universe and six years later was the last parent standing, the last grownup standing. She has been on the chopping block of death since Episode 4 of Season 1 and over a certain amount of time her relationship with Caroline became so profound that we thought we'll never kill her because this mother-daughter relationship is one of the most important bonds on the show! So every time we talked about [her dying] I would burst into tears. The cancer story line killed all of us.

Who will replace her as sheriff then?
Plec: That seat is going to remain vacant for awhile; it's an answer that will come in Season 7. But her death will put people on new paths and make them make choices about who they want to be and what they want to do with their lives so maybe someone's path will lead them in that direction.

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Full Article at TV Guide