Sink Your Teeth Into These Juicy Details About The Vampire Diaries' Final Season

We now know for sure that season eight will be the final season of the show.

In the season seven finale, Enzo and Damon gave into the darkness, and things got messy pretty fast. While we can't help but love this epic duo, there is sure to be a lot of drama in store next season as the rest of the gang tries to clean up their bloody mess.

Bonnie has certainly been through a lot in the series, and season eight will be no different. Not only has she lost all of her magic, but she has also lost two of the most important men in her life. "She's starting at an absolute deficit in terms of being able to fix this problem," Julie Plec explained to TV Line. "That's going to have a great impact on her."

After many ups and downs this past season, Stefan and Caroline finally find light at the end of the tunnel when they reunite in the finale. While many fans are scared that something bad is in store, Plec gave a little bit of assurance about the fate of their relationship. "I'd really like to see Caroline and Stefan enjoy some of that comfort for as long as we can eek it out, before they have to stumble across another obstacle."

That being said, Alaric, aka the father of Caroline's twins, isn't completely out of the picture as the actor behind the Occult Studies professor, Matt Davis, is still going to be a series regular next season. "I fundamentally believe that they'll be able to keep their unconventional family together and to stay strong for the girls and for each other," Plec said about Alaric and Caroline's relationship.

Just because it's the final season doesn't mean there won't be new people! "We're putting Kristen Gutoskie into the role of Seline, the new nanny," Plec told us at Comic-Con. "She's someone that Caroline is still trying to figure out when Alaric hired the hot nanny instead of the old nanny. We've got Demetrius Bridges, who was Xander on Containment, playing Dorian, who is one of Alaric's new interns. We've just cast Natalie in a role, this great Australian actress, in the role of Cybil. There's many more to come."

Given that this is the final season, it would be pretty crazy if Nina Dobrev didn't come back. After all, she made a promise to Julie Plec! The president of the network, Mark Pedowitz, confirmed that they have talked to Nina about her return. "She was integral to The Vampire Diaries," Pedowitz said at a Television Critics Association panel. "Hopefully it will work out — but, should it not, Julie has planned a great series finale for fans."

Julie Plec revealed to TV Guide that this season will explore Stefan's past. "[It's] a story that we've been dying to tell for about five years," she explained. "It's the one piece of Stefan's history that's been talked about on the show that we've never shown, which is his time as the Ripper of Monterey."

Caroline still hasn't gotten the June wedding with Stefan that she talks about on the show's pilot episode! Plec hasn't forgotten about that line, and she's making us think we might get that wedding on the series finale.

Plec is planning on a lot of references to the first season, beginning with the fact that all the episodes will be titled after lines from season one. The writers are also tossing around ideas about Miss Mystic Falls and Founder's Day.

The show's writer Julie Plec revealed that the first episode of season eight will be titled "Hello, Brother," which fans know is Damon's iconic line to Stefan when he finally returns to Mystic Falls in the first season.

During a TCA panel, Plec gave the implication that the final season would be like one big reunion. "I will say that at some point over the course of this season, I would like to see everyone's face that I can possibly see again, whether it be in the finale or in flashbacks or the characters who are still alive finding their way through Mystic Falls one last time," Plec told Entertainment Weekly. "This year is about delivering on eight seasons worth of passion and enthusiasm for these characters and I would be really disappointed not to be able to show off all their faces one last time."

If Elena were to return, a flash-forward would be one of the only plausible solutions for the show, other than killing off Bonnie, of course. "[Co-creator] Kevin [Williamson] and I have two very different points of view about flash forwards," Plec told EW. "He and I will be doing a lot of talking and emotionally battling, in a good way, [to decide] the right path to take this series to an end."

You can catch the final season when The Vampire Diaries returns on Oct. 21!