Raising the stakes
The final season of The Vampire Diaries is here at last…
“This is the beginning of the end,” says Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder) to brother Stefan (Paul Wesley) in the season eight premiere of The Vampire Diaries. He means it, too – not only does this final season bring an end to TV’s lone surviving vampire saga, it also marks the end of an era of undead screen romance. Twilight is no more, Being Human finished years ago, and True Blood ended in 2014.
But what kind of resolution would Somerhalder and Wesley like to see for the Salvatore brothers after almost a decade of love, death, hot sex and coldblooded killing? “Happy endings don’t happen in Mystic Falls,” admits Somerhalder. “But the happy ending that I could see is this girl [Elena] gets to live her life never even knowing these two brothers exist. Talk about the most epic case of robbing the cradle. You have these guys who are like 160, 170 years old, dating an 18-year-old… Honestly, if this town could be rid of vampires, and forget that they ever even existed, I think it would be such an amazing moment for humans, just to be able to go back and live their lives. These supernatural beings serve the purpose of this story, but at the end of the day it’s about humanity. That’s what every story is about.”
Though it remains to be seen what the show’s producers have in store for their characters, Somerhalder and Wesley agree on the appropriate ending for their characters, whether or not their former co-star Nina Dobrev (Elena) returns one last time before the great big fade to black… “Paul and I think,” says Somerhalder, “that the Salvatore brothers should go to some beautiful island in the Caribbean, and in their Speedos sit on the beach all night, looking up at the Moon, bonding as brothers, drinking 60-year-old Barbados rum. And when the sun comes up they should have their final toast, give each other a hug, and then throw their rings into the sea and just… pfft. That’s a happy ending.”
Fans, however, are still busy tweeting their wishes for a #SterolineJuneWedding for Stefan and Caroline (Candice King). “So maybe we just need to have a June wedding!” teases Wesley. Fangs for the memories, Vampire Diaries…
The Vampire Diaries returns to US screens on 21 October, and will air on ITV2 in the UK.