Back to the Future
Cassie and Diana realize that their Balcoin blood allows them to flash back in time, so they head back to the 90s to check out what their mothers were up to on their prom night. Lets take a moment to discuss that in 20 episodes of this show tonight is the first time that the writers have directly addressed the fact that the parents were all in HIGH SCHOOL when they had Cassie & company. Based on how old Charles, Dawn, and Ethan look, it seems like that was a safe assumption but come on! Blackwell used magic to make sure all of the women in the circle got pregnant?! Really, Secret Circle? Really? Creepy, creepy, creepy.

Nick
It turns out Nick is pretty much just as useless dead as he was alive. There’s really not much to say about his brief reappearance in Chance Harbor other than that it gave Melissa and Jake a couple of really nice emotional moments. Particularly, Melissa’s speech to Adam about not being remembered in high school because they’re always off fighting doing magic was great. Also, that’s the most Melissa’s gotten to do all season. What a shame.

Charles can’t take the mind games
As the mythology of the Chance Harbor circle is revealed layer by layer, the one consistent is how thoroughly Blackwell has screwed up Charles’ life. First, Blackwell has a kid with Charles’ girlfriend and now he makes Charles relive the moment when he killed a member of his own circle. Charles needs to man up and join in the effort to take Blackwell down. No more crying on the kitchen floor and begging his daughter to leave town. Pull yourself together, go kill Blackwell, and then make out with Dawn. It sounds like an A+ plan to me!

Looking ahead
Forget everyone else’s problems, someone NEEDS to rescue Faye! Who’s going to make funny quips while Faye is busy being kidnaped by Eben?!

Secret Circle isn’t perfect, but over the past 5 or 6 episodes the show has found a nice groove and was able to course correct some of the major problems with the first half of the season. It’s a shame that next week’s episode will probably be its last, but at least it’s going out on top!

The Secret Circle airs Thursday nights at 9 PM on the CW.

We open with Alaric sitting at his desk like a creeper. Caroline is also at school talking to Tyler on the phone – Caroline has to take down dance decorations and Tyler had to pack up Klaus’s house because he’s ready to move on. Rebekah is also there cleaning up and is super bummed that she had to miss the dance and also that her mom is awful – her disappointment level is about the same for both perhaps? She also gives her condolences to Caroline re: Alaric. Speak of the vampire – Alaric takes Caroline hostage and starts a little torturing.

Meanwhile, Elena and Jer Bear are at home repainting their most recent guardian’s room when Stefan comes in and is like maybe chill for a day before you ready the room to rent out to your next victim? But, they’re going full steam ahead. Damon and Bonnie then show up and give them the scoop on how Alaric is now the worst.

So, Klaus is packing, totally ready to go; he just needs his human blood bag. Rebekah is like, forget her, let’s just go. No can do for Klaus – so Rebekah hits the road alone. [Ed. Note: Come back soon, Rebekah!]

Elena gets a a call from Alaric (before she knows about him being a vamp, but now she knows fo sho). He asks her to come down (alone) because he’s holding Caroline hostage. She goes of course.

Klaus is over at the Gilbert Residence now to claim his gal (she’s already left – but no one knows this yet). The boys don’t let him in so then he starts throwing crap through the house like balls and fence posts. He’s just about to pull out the fire and propane when everyone learns that she’s at the school.

So, Bonnie decides that we need to do an immobilization spell on Alaric (like her mom did on Mikael). Abby shows up and tells Bonnie the deal (it’s some dark magic and requires stopping a human heart temporarily for it to work). (She’s late and Damon says he forgot about her dependability, oh you).

Stefan and Klaus are now at the school to get this moving and they talk about Elena and the boys and the boys’ relationship with each other. Bonnie then makes the boys and Klaus drink her blood so they’re linked for this to work. Jeremy is going to be the human heart of course.

Alaric and Elena are still at a stand-off in the school when Elena buys a few seconds for Caroline to escape. She runs into Klaus who tells her to go home – it’s sexy of course.

Elena is telling Alaric to just kill her, but he won’t. The boys and Klaus then show up, and a fight ensues. The link gets broken somehow – I missed how though. Both Stefan and Damon are taken down temporarily. During this time, Elena figures out that if she dies, Alaric dies – hence why he’s been reluctant to kill her.

Klaus ends up taking Elena and draining her because he wants Alaric dead – Alaric tells the boys to go save her. Tyler is still at Klaus’s packing. There’s some faux sire bond drama, but Tyler ends up saving Elena. Klaus is pissed; the boys come. They end up taking down Klaus the way they planned on taking Alaric down – it’s super creepy. Jeremy is dead for like two seconds, but he’s cool now.

The boys walk Elena home, and she apologizes for trying to force a brother husband situation. She just doesn’t want to lose more people. The boys are then off to drop Alaric’s body in the Atlantic (which is exactly what my husband told the TV to do – so he was pleased…yet annoyed they told Elena). The remaining gang then has a victory party – there’s drinking! Caroline reminds Elena that she has to choose between the boys, bummer.

Where is Alaric you ask? Bringing together a council meeting and telling everyone about Caroline and Tyler and how their mom’s are covering for them. Also, peeps know Alaric is a vampire now.

The boys are on the road and are fairly satisfied with themselves. We won! Then they discuss the Elena situation – whoever doesn’t win will leave town…for sixty years until she dies and then they can be bros again. We end with Elena and Jeremy talking about feelings. Jeremy then leaves the room and Elena passes out and is bleeding from her face parts. Finale next week!

I enjoyed this episode more than last week’s, but not my fave still. However, I am looking forward to the finale of course. Can’t wait to see what happens to the council folks and Elena!

The Vampire Diaries airs Thursday nights at 8 PM on the CW.

What can you tease about your big episode this week. Abby helps Bonnie with a spell…
Yeah… (laughs) We have to be very careful about what we say. It’s, let’s say, it’s exciting because there will be more revealed about Abby and what happened, why she left. So she basically explains more. There’s more coming up unveiling the connection between Abby and Bonnie. Not really explained, but there’s just more revealed. And the spell is pretty important to some of the things that have been going on. [There are] some big shifts because of the spell. It’s kind of cool having a character that’s a vampire that knows the world of witchcraft because [she] can still utilize and tap into things that a vampire wouldn’t necessarily know, so it’s pretty exciting.

It’s kind of like she’s a hybrid in a different way.
Yeah, a new kind of hybrid. I love that about the show, that they have all these types of mixes. I love that.

Yeah, definitely. Obviously most of your scenes have been with Kat Graham (Bonnie). Will we see you interact with anyone else this week?
Yes, there will be more interaction and hopefully, I’m excited about where that might lead. But yeah, there will be more interaction and that’s exciting, too.

Bonnie and Abby have had a very rough past. Do you think it will be possible for them to slowly repair their relationship?
I think that’s something that we’re going to have to see what happens. Abby’s not doing the best job. (laughs) This is all really new for in the sense of I think, when you shut something out for so long… And it’s probably going to be more based on what Bonnie allows, because people who have been abandoned by their parents or parent might want to come back or might want to give themselves but will you be received is the question.

Were you surprised when you found out that Abby turns into a vampire? Was that a big shock when you got the script?
I was so excited. I can’t even tell you. They never let us know. They are very secretive. And that was not the original intention. So as a character develops, they develop a story and you find out in little bits and pieces and you don’t really know. And I was really excited. I thought I was just going to be a witch and I didn’t even know they would allow a witch to turn vampire. They haven’t had that happen. And then also being a mixed ethnic background, I thought it was really exciting to be a girl and to be of a mixed background and a vampire. I thought “Oh this is really unusual.” That’s so rare that that’s even been able to be portrayed. So yeah, it was really exciting.

The show has such a vocal fandom. Have you gotten a lot of good reactions to your character on Twitter or otherwise?
Yeah. I’ve become a Twitter fan because of the show. You really communicate with people around the world and I love it. There’s been a good reaction which before I even aired, I saw people talking. They were like wait a minute, she looks young and this and that and they’re like well, witches can do spells (laughs). It was really cool because I found out things about the show that I didn’t know just reading blogs and Twitter. Because the story is so intricate, I read. But the books are very different. And then I did my own research. But talking to people who actually have been watching from A to Z and know the history of the bloodlines and everything, that was really fun.

It’s such a mythology based show. You can’t miss a second of it. I imagine there was a lot for you to read about.
Yeah! But exciting. Then you’re meeting everybody and watching them perform and how we interact, it’s a really nice vibe. I love it. I really love it.

Is there someone that you haven’t had a scene with that you would love to work with?
Yeah, there’s a couple. I would like to have some scenes with some of the originals. I would love that. I love that whole family. And I’m the one who freed their mother, so I feel like I should.

Does whatever happens in tonight’s episode leave things open for your character to return in the future?
You know, we don’t know. The good thing about Vampire Diaries, is you can be killed and return again. You can be brought back from death. There’s so many possibilities. All I have to do is cross my fingers. And you’ll see when you watch. I kind of wonder what people think. The fans probably have a better idea than me. They’ve been watching and they’re like “okay this leading up to…yeah, no she’s not coming back.” And some of them would be like “nope that’s a window.” So I’m just as interested in if she’s coming back as anybody else. And speaking of the family vibe, I’m really excited because I just did a short film that Joseph Morgan, who plays Klaus, wrote and directed.

I knew about that, but I didn’t know you were a part of it!
I’m the actress. There’s only one actor in it. I worked on the production level too. And it’s just amazing. It looks so beautiful. And we’ve been editing non-stop on it and it’s just wonderful. And I’m doing some music on it. So, very, very exciting stuff. Plus we had a bunch of Vampire Diaries crew working on it, so it has some of the feel of family when you’re working together.

Definitely. And what’s the short film called?
It’s called Revelation.

I’m looking forward to when it comes out.
We’ll keep people posted on Twitter.

I saw Joseph posting on Twitter, he was very excited about it.
He’s such a great director. It’s a whole different genre to working in that format, but we both wanted to do this project a few months back. He’s also a painter, and I’m a painter. And so many of the areas that a lot of people don’t know him for…he’s really talented and exciting to see. I think he’s going to be more than people realize.

Definitely. If you do get to return, I know you mentioned you’d like to have scenes with some of the originals, is there anything else you’d like to see with Abby? Perhaps some of her backstory?
I would like to explore some of the other sides that Abby’s been hiding. I think she probably has a whole past, what’s happened over the last fifteen years is going to I think, interconnect with who she is today and why she’s having so much trouble staying and being solid for someone else who she cares about. I think there’s a whole backstory that might connect and when you have the witch bloodlines, it goes way back. So, I would love to see some of that explored and then interaction with current people and how that connection is and where it comes from.

Besides Joseph Morgan’s short, do you have any other projects coming up that people can see you in?
I did a movie that’s in post production, called Mafia. Then I did another film called Dysfunctional Friends which is a comedy, kind of a Big Lebowski type of comedy. And just working right now on the Joseph Morgan project and music as well. I’m doing an album and one of the songs that I’m putting in the film, I co-wrote with one of the former members of Nine Inch Nails, Jerome Dillon. So yeah, working on an album, working on editing and then good old art and painting. I want to attach an art show with the Joseph Morgan project, because we both paint.

Be sure to tune in tonight at 8 PM to the CW for an all new episode of The Vampire Diaries.

So I think, just when you’ve seen it all, the show takes a completely new turn. And I’m pretty sure we haven’t seen anything yet. Tell me everything!
I can barely say anything, actually. What’s great is that somehow, as much fun as we had the first 15 episodes, with the whole fire and ice story, establishing all the characters and stuff like that, I don’t know what was in the water in the writer’s room, but the stuff they came up with to wrap up this season is (laughs) oh my gosh, I kind of don’t even know how to tease it. It’s so intense by the finale, I just think people are going to be in total and utter shock. What happens with some of the characters that you have come to know and love and hate and all of it…Such big, explosively bad things happen. I can’t (laughs)…I’m kind of still in shock, to be honest with you, that that is how we wrapped up the story, or at least this season’s story. Viewers are in for…(laughs) I don’t know. I don’t even know what to compare it to. Viewers who like the show, I think, will think that it’s perfect. Because I think it’s what people have come to love and expect of the show at this point. And boy, the writers stepped up big time. So yeah, I can’t wait.

I’m excited! There was so much speculation about the body on the beach. Did you have your suspicions? Did you expect it to be Daniel?
It was funny because I really for a long time thought no, it’s not Daniel. There’s no way it could be Daniel on the beach. But the way that they wrap everything up in such amazing secrecy, by the time we got to close to getting that script, I thought you know what? (Laughs) Maybe it is Daniel. Maybe it’s Josh’s character. I wouldn’t put it past them on this show, that’s the thing. The stakes are really high and one of the things that happens is that you need to be able to do very, very big things with principal characters, because it’s got a lot of impact and I think that’s what makes the show fun. But at the same time, it’s really tough because it’s a really tight group of people at this point and we take everything very personally. Even if it means were not going to see them or whatever. Because everybody can come back on Revenge, that’s the beauty, i.e. the flashback episode that’s coming up. And so you take some comfort in that — in knowing that there’s a very good possibility they will back around in some capacity sooner than later. But it is a family. And I really love having everybody around. And everybody I am extremely fond of everyone in very different ways. I’m completely enamored with everyone I get to work with on this show, so I don’t like when those bad things happen.

I remember thinking it’s got to be Daniel, and then I kept changing my mind. The way they did it was very clever.
Yeah, I thought that they handled it in really kind of the perfect way. At this point, if it hadn’t been Tyler, I can’t even imagine what else he would have gotten up to on the show because was totally out of control, out of his damn mind. So there was nothing else that was going to happen except he was going to strap a bomb to himself and blow up Grayson Manor or Nolan’s house or something or the Stowaway.

He would have done something crazy, he had to be stopped.
He had to go down. Although we do miss us some Tyler Berrol. As ill-fated as the Nolan/Tyler relationship was, every so often I’m like aw, I kind of miss that. Maybe one day there will be some more lovin’ coming Nolan’s way.

I hope so!
Me too! Me too.

That would be lovely.
I will tease there’s a little lovin’ coming my way before the season is over.

Ooh, very good.
It may not be the way anyone expects, on the show, per usual. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Nolan’s obviously still very involved in helping Emily with her big master plan. Are we going to see a lot of Nolan/Emily moments?
The thing with these characters is that regardless of their feelings toward one another, they’re very tied up together at this point. And even if in her heart, she would still like to lose me by the side of the road or whatever it may be, we just can’t walk away from each other that easily. For the time being, our fates are linked together. For good or for bad. And we will see how bad that actually is (laughs). We get up to a lot of trouble. All I can say is that by the end of the season, Nolan has learned a couple of tricks from Emily. (laughs)

Any more solo take-downs in Nolan’s future?
Hmmmm. I’m not going to say no. He’s been a very observant pupil of Emily Thorne, and she may be surprised at what he’s retained. We’ll see the results of that.

That’s exciting. And where are we going to see the Nolan/Jack friendship go as the season wraps up?
Oh, I’m so glad you you asked me this! It’s such an unusual, kind of perfect friendship, because in no kind of regular world would these two guys be in the same vicinity of each other. But somehow, in the circumstances of our show, these guys have become unlikely friends. And Nolan’s world at this point, at least certainly in the Hamptons, really revolves around Jack and Emily and to a certain degree, Declan. And so that relationship is key because if Jack hadn’t become such an ally to both of us, he probably would be going down really fast. There’s too many people and too much money [and he] could cause too much trouble. So in a sense, he kind of has to keep us close to him. Whether he knows that or not, I think will be revealed as the story goes, but Jack would not be in a good spot without Emily and Nolan’s help at this point. Especially with what happens with the trial coming up. He should stay close to the home fires, keep those home fires going. There’s some really interesting Jack stuff coming up and actually what’s really interesting is you’re going to get to see the origin of their relationship. And for me, that was very exciting because no one had really ever explained it. And I hadn’t even thought to ask how these guys originally met. I just kind of assumed they bumped into each other sort of every summer. But it’s much more than that. So you will get to see the origins of their friendship and I think that that’s a jumping off point for things to come.

And we saw the show venture a bit into New York City, are we going to see more of the Hamptons residents venture outside of the Hamptons?
Yeah. I think so. Gosh, by the time we end the season, we’ve got nowhere else to go but worldwide. There will be more fun in the big city. But I think for the time being, for the trial at the very least, everyone has been told to stick close to the summer island there. We will probably stick close to the beach but it does open up a new world for a lot of these characters. But I think so much of the identity of the show and the identity of these people is sort of linked with these summers that they spend [there], and certainly with this past summer where everything went haywire for everybody pretty much. I feel like that’s part of the mythology of the show at this point although it would be fun to jump on an international flight somewhere and see what happens with those characters. And I think there’s a very good chance you will.

And I imagine it’s not the last we’ve seen of fake Amanda.
Faux-Manda? Like my character says, (laughs) girlfriend just keeps popping up like the homicidal stripper version of wack-a-mole.

(laughs) Yes!
She cannot stay out of trouble, that one. It’s very complicated because of the nature of her friendship and her history with Emily, but she’s another person that knows too much, too. She’s a total live wire. You cannot count on her for two seconds to know what she’s going to get up to. And it’s usually exactly what she shouldn’t be getting up to, so yeah, I don’t think we’ve seen the last of (laughs) Faux-Manda.

So you guys have wrapped now and you’ve had a whole season to play in Nolan’s world. What has been your favorite part?
Aww, man. I couldn’t even name one thing. Because it’s really been the entirety of the experience and I wouldn’t have changed anything. Not any person, not any thing, not any circumstance. It’s been the most fun I’ve got to have on the job that I’ve worked on for the longest in my whole career. The fact that I can say that many, many, many, many months into a job is a real testament to how incredible this group of people is that I’m fortunate to work with. I could say it was getting dressed up in crazy Nolan gear. I could say it was the writers for giving me these amazing things to get to say. I could say it was the actors I get to work with [and] our relationship that transcended the show. I could say it was working with Mike Kelley and getting to explore the recesses of his twisted imagination. But all of those things collectively, I could say it was shooting on the west coast even though we’re supposed to be Hamptons-based and the feeling early on that this show will only really work if we shot it in the Hamptons but now I’ve come to love subbing every single beach city for east coast locations. It’s all of it. It’s the whole thing. And ultimately, it’s really the fans. That has been the best part, is the reactions that everyone has had. Because we could be having a great time making this but if no one else is enjoying it, it’s really not that much fun. So I think it’s really been the viewers and the fans that have made this something entirely special and unto itself and I think as a result, a lot of people in the industry have sat and taken notice. And I think you will see a lot of night time melodramas next fall. Fingers crossed people will come back to the original that kind of brought that whole genre back. But that’s up to us to do our job and tell a great story and to keep people coming back. And boy, the way they end this season, I can’t imagine that anyone who has invested any time in this show is not going to want to know what happens.

So is it safe to say that the finale ends on a really big cliffhanger of some sort.
O.M.G.

I’ll take that as a yes.
How about I just give you a straight up yes. Really the answer is YES, all capitals.

All capitals, twenty exclamation points.
At least three.

(laughs)
I cannot wait. I’m just so curious to see how people are going to react to this because it’s not what anyone is expecting. And it’s really big. It’s really big. Hold your breath. We will bring it and serve it up on a silver platter with clams and lobsters or something.

I expect no less. And where would you love to see Nolan go in season two?
I would like to get into the mystery that is Nolan’s story. I would be really curious for everyone to get to see, including myself, the workings of NolCorp. I never go into the office or anything. I guess I do everything from my iPad and cell phone. But I’d be really curious to see a bit more of Nolan’s world. And really to continue to dig into the origins of he and Emily and David Clark’s story and also maybe to explore Nolan’s family life a little bit. A lot of that is out of my own curiosity about learning more about the writers’ vision for this character. Because I can make up a million things in my head, but then they’ll throw a story line at me that throws all of that out the window. So, yeah, you’re going to get to see a little bit of those things before the season is done though and I just want more!

More Nolan! Team Nolan!
More Nolan love. More Nolan lovin’. He’s just a lonely guy.

He deserves it!
I think so. And I’m curious to see what that does to him and how that affects the way he relates to everybody else and the way he puts himself out there to everybody in the world. And I think, if I have my way, Nolan might be sporting a little bit of a different look.

New hair!
Mmmm…something…something to keep it fresh and interesting. If not for anybody else but just for me. I knew that it was time for something when on Twitter Kevin Williamson said, “Gabe, it’s time for Nolan to get a haircut.”

(laughs) You were like, okay I guess it really is.
I was like, you are preaching to the choir. But yeah, something new, something fresh, something you haven’t seen yet. But we’ve still got a mother load of stuff to get through before that. I am very excited for everyone to see the finale and the flashback episode and all the goings on in between. Oh my gosh, now that I’m thinking about it, there’s so much stuff! Alright, alright, I’m excited for all of it. Every single episode from here to the end is chock full o’ deception, surprises, left turns, twists, new…[stops himself]

I know, I know you can’t say a lot. What can you tease about tonight’s episode, Absolution. What can we expect?
19 will…oh my gosh. It will cement Emily’s plans and also take them in a potentially new direction. That’s as much as I’m going to tease about that.

Be sure to tune in tonight at 10 PM to ABC for a brand new episode of Revenge!