In 1912, the Salvatore brothers reunite at a family funeral after being estranged for 50 years. “In that flashback, I’m almost courting his friendship, and in the present day, he’s almost courting my friendship,” Wesley says. “Back in the day, he was resentful of me, and in the present day, I’ve become very resentful of him. The episode is nicely interwoven in that regard.”
Now we know why exec producer Julie Plec told us she wanted #TeamSalvatore to trend on Twitter (which it did). “We’ve been so contentious and hostile with one another that when we have these rare moments of friendship, I think it reminds the audience that these two guys are also an integral part of the triangle,” Wesley says. “It’s not just them both being in love with Elena. It’s that they love each other as well.”
Tonight’s episode also features a bonding moment between Elena and Matt. Should Stefan consider Matt a threat to the show’s central love triangle? “I think he absolutely should be a threat,” Wesley says. “I think there’s a level of simplicity to Matt. He’s a good, uncomplicated kind of guy. At the end of the day, Stefan and Damon both bring a huge bag of complication and things don’t go very well when Damon and Stefan are around. So I do believe that Elena should have some sort of a relationship with someone who is not supernatural. I think for sure that’s a threatening thing, to a degree.”
As for Stefan’s relationship with Elena, there are promo shots from the March 29 episode, “The Murder of One,” of them walking through the woods carrying weapons — him a stake and her a crossbow — and them deep in conversation with him appearing to gently touch her face. “The two of them are on a bit of mission, but during that mission, they sort of divert and talk about their relationship and the reality of what they’ve been through. It’s a good storyline plot point that allows the two of them to be in a close situation and allows for a little bit of intimacy,” Wesley says. Like, verbal intimacy or something more? He laughs. “Verbal. Intimacy in an emotional way,” he says.
Looking ahead to the end of the season, Wesley says he still hasn’t read the script for the finale, but that he’s been doing scuba diving training for a planned underwater sequence in the episode. We assume that means we’re still on target to see a flashback to the car crash that killed Elena’s parents before the series began (good Samaritan Stefan was only able to save Elena). He does offer one tease: “I think audiences can look forward to Stefan and Elena getting one step closer by the end of the season to potentially reuniting,” he says. One step closer to potentially reuniting? That was carefully worded! “I’m very good at that sort of cagey answer,” he laughs.
