So grab your tissues and join us on this trip down a vampire-filled memory lane.
First up, co-creator and executive producer Kevin Williamson.
They had chronicled on the wall how Margaret Mitchell wrote the story of Scarlett OHara.
Credit: Bob Mahoney/The CW; Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic
And ultimately Scarlett fell somewhere in the middle.
You could see why she loved Ashley and why she loved Rhett.
Each man represented something different.
Rhett was the future, was opportunity.
Then you look at Ashley, who was love and passion and legacy and tradition.
This is Katherines story.
This is when she bit them.
This isnt our current story; this is yesterdays story.
There, I started realizing, weve got to go there.
Im most proud of the cliffhanger [at the end] of season 1.
I remember sitting in the room and Julies like, No, Damon and Elena have to kiss.
That has to be the cliffhanger.
Dont you rememberDawsons Creek?
Youve got to do it.
And Im like, No, they cant.
We were already fighting about Elena being with Damon or Elena being with Stefan.
I saw it clearly: This is season 1.
This is about Stefan and Elena.
Elena is not at that place yet where she would kiss him.
Shes not drunk; shes not crazy.
Shes our heroine; we cannot sacrifice her character and have her make that move against Stefan.
Unless Ill never forget that moment in the writers room its Katherine.
And then we just started backfilling the whole story: How do we get there?
How can we make it Katherines return?
Then we started plotting the whole thing where aunt Jenna invites her in.
Theres so many thing that went into that.
Anna dies in the fire!
Then of course, uncle John gets his finger cut off, the big reveal that its Katherine.
In my entire career, Its my favorite cliffhanger episode ever.
Thats when I felt like we had a show that could be successful and that could be really fun.
It was a beautiful time.
As told toSamantha Highfill
The Vampire Diariesairs Fridays at 8 p.m.
ET on The CW.
