We knew it was too good to be true – the one and only friend Damon (Ian Somerhalder) had left, Enzo (Michael Malarkey), died. But as we quickly saw, the bonds of death will not hold Enzo for long. He is already making plans to return from the Otherside and will be tapping on his frenemy Damon’s shoulder in order to make his great escape. But just how angry will Damon be with Stefan (Paul Wesley), Elena (Nina Dobrev) and Bonnie (Kat Graham) for failing to let him know that Enzo is dead? Well, that will soon be found out in next week’s episode.
In the meantime, during a recent press conference, star Ian Somerhalder and executive producer Caroline Dries talked about the ramifications of Enzo’s death, his ongoing vendetta, what the disintegration of the Otherside means for our heroes both in our world and in the supernatural beyond.
Enzo
CAROLINE: Ian pulled me aside on set one day and said he goes, “If you kill Enzo, I am going to quit.” So we had to rewrite all the end of the season . . . (laughs) No, we purposely had [Enzo] show up at the end as a ghost to imply, “Okay, it’s not over. His story isn’t over.” And so he is going to become kind of this ghost-villain moving forward. So we’ll see him all the way through to the finale as the bad guy.
How Dangerous Is Ghost Enzo?
CAROLINE: You just wait and see. You can do a lot from the Otherside. He’s determined to make Damon’s life a living hell. How he is able to do that because of what is happening on the Otherside, giving him more liberty than some of the other ghosts that have had. So his story isn’t just about him being the villain, it’s about seeing a new set of eyes into this world and, “Oh god, what is going to happen over there?”
Damon and Elena
CAROLINE: I thought one of the best scenes was when Damon said, “I don’t want to look at you, hear your voice, and I definitely don’t want to be your friend.” It was just so heart-breaking. He said, “I don’t want to look at you,” so as writers, we were like, “Let’s see if we can do a whole episode where Damon doesn’t really look at Elena.” They do interact when he is rescuing her at the bar, but they don’t actually have a scene together. So I liked the moment where Damon brings Elena home and puts her in bed and then disappears before she opens her eyes. I thought that was cool because, in a way, he was keeping his promise. But moving forward in the next episode, we purposely throw them into a world together where they can’t help but be literally on top of each other . . . so they can’t be away from each other and they can’t be close to each other. We’re just trying to play into the drama of them in this weird kind of purgatory of their relationship.
IAN: I guess one way to put it is that something with Damon since the very beginning — is the push and the pull. It’s always been that way with Elena ’cause it was his brother’s girlfriend that looks like this woman he was in love with. So there’s always this pushing and pulling, and it really does make a very dynamic component to their relationship. It creates tension, it creates chemistry, it creates all this cool stuff — and they just know how to do it very well. It’s pretty evident that it’s there to stay for a while.
CAROLINE: Like every time one of them is in the room with the other, they don’t have to say anything, but their tension or chemistry exists and I think that is what makes them as a couple so powerful. Even if the storyline is them not dating, it’s actually a love story.
IAN: Note to self: when you’re 173 years old, don’t date an 18 year old. Find someone your own age; you’ll be better off.
Travelers’ Plan
CAROLINE: What we were trying to do was give the Travelers the simplest goal in the world — they just want a place to call home. They are not trying to be bad guys about it, but they will do whatever they need to do to make that happen.
IAN: That’s the audacity of life — everything needs a place to live. Whether you’re coral, a squirrel or you’re a person that need and desire is probably more powerful than anything, other than to survive. So they are determined.
Doppelgänger Blood
CAROLINE: It literally undoes magic. So what we saw with Sloane was when she was a vampire, it strips away her vampirism and leaves her in the state she was before she was a vampire, and in that state she’s dead.
IAN: Which is a bummer, ’cause she is hot!
CAROLINE: So if you were to do that to Damon, the same thing would happen. It’s like, “Oh geez, if they can do this globally, then it will get rid of all vampires.” So that’s the threat. But they could care less about vampires and more about undoing the curse that was put on them.
Bonnie Dying
CAROLINE: We decided, what if Jeremy (Steven McQueen) doesn’t find out? Is that would be a nicer gift for him to have since he’s gone through dealing with Bonnie almost dying a couple times. She’s been through this before, so what if she changes it up and is like, “I’m living on borrowed time anyway. I’m not supposed to be back here. So why don’t I treat every day like a gift, and not be putting the burden on him.”
Tyler’s Situation
CAROLINE: That knife is gone. So he’s stuck. So we wanted to play that out and give it its due as a cool arc. You’ll see what happens in the finale. It kind of reaches a climax.
Carolyn’s Crush
CAROLINE: She’s a got a little something, a little relationship/crush/feelings for someone that is going to creep up to the surface — and that is going to cause a potential rift between one of her friends. So she’s going to be like, “I’m just going to push that down.” But it’s going to be just a little under the surface. Then moving into Season 6, we are going to see her actually set her sights on someone and trying to make the move.
Familiar Faces
CAROLINE: Yeah, that’s the whole fun of the Otherside. It’s just basically like a storage facility for all of our friends.
Any Upcoming Permanent Deaths
CAROLINE: Yes, there will be. . . I can think of three, off hand.
Upcoming For Finale
CAROLINE: Pushing towards the finale, they have a united cause because the Travelers are trying to rip away their home. That’s something they rally around. Then in the meantime, the Otherside is falling apart. So the question is: what’s going to happen to Bonnie? What’s going to happen to their friends who are over there that they occasionally check in with? Will they just go away, like Vicki (Kayla Ewell) did? So they have these things spiraling out of control on them. Then hopefully what you will feel when you see the finale is this giant thing happens — and in Season 6, we start with everyone in a different orbit, in a way. So Season 6 will be a lot of bringing people back together. 
To see what Enzo makes Damon do and whether those Traveler’s can be stopped before they take over the entire town of Mystic Falls, be sure to tune in for an all new episode of THE VAMPIRE DIARIES on Thursday, May 1st at 8:00 p.m. on the CW. Some people just do not know how to stay dead.
Tiffany Vogt is the Senior West Coast Editor, contributing as a columnist and entertainment reporter to TheTVaddict.com. She has a great love for television and firmly believes that entertainment is a world of wondrous adventures that deserves to be shared and explored – she invites you to join her. Please feel free to contact Tiffany at Tiffany_Vogt_2000@yahoo.com or follow her at on Twitter (@TVWatchtower).