ELENA GILBERT’S CRYING. Standing in the Mystic Falls cemetery where she’s said many goodbyes — and even a few hellos — Elena’s surrounded by everyone she loves. Well, almost everyone. One person is missing. Did we forget to mention that this is a funeral?

It’s a sunny January day in Atlanta as the Vampire Diaries cast films its last group scene in the woods. In between takes, there’s laughter and excited whispers about who’s in town for the upcoming wrap party, but when showrunner Julie Plec, the director of the show’s final hour, calls “Action,” an emotional fog sets in. This is a goodbye — and it’s a big one. “We wanted to go big, emotionally, with the action, and with the spectacular of it,” says Plec, who co-wrote the episode with co-creator Kevin Williamson. “We were absolutely feeling epic.”

When The Vampire Diaries premiered on The CW in 2009, it found itself smack in the middle of the vampire craze. With the success of both Twilight and True Blood, this was network television’s chance to see if fans still thirsted for blood, and when the Vampire Diaries pilot attracted the largest audience of any series premiere in CW history at that time, all signs pointed to yes. “I remember being in Vancouver with Ian [Somerhalder],” Zach Roerig, who plays Matt, says of filming the pilot. “In the hair and makeup trailer, Ian’s like, ‘Hey, kid, get ready for the ride of your life.’” Somerhalder adds: “Twilight was very much the zeitgeist of pop culture. There was just that sense that the market desired this genre. This material was going to work.” Continue Reading at EW