- SPOILER! --> If you haven´t seen Episode 100, 500 Years Of Solitude (#5.11) don´t read this.
Katherine Pierce spent the majority of the episode, "500 Years of Solitude," lying on her deathbed believing her end was near. In celebration of her impending doom, Damon, Stefan and Co. took shots as they reminisced about the terrible things Katherine has done since season one. But after Nadia introduced a Plan B for how Katherine could skirt death, she jumped at the chance. By the end of the hour,
Katherine took over Elena's body -- but only Nadia is in on the plan. R.I.P. Elena?
The episode also featured a long list of cameos, listed here in order of appearance:
- Sheriff Forbes (Marguerite MacIntyre),
- Klaus (Joseph Morgan),
- Emily Bennett (Bianca Lawson),
- Rebekah (Claire Holt),
- Aunt Jenna (Sarah Canning),
- Uncle John (David Anders),
- Elijah (Daniel Gillies),
- Vicki (Kayla Ewell),
- Tyler (Michael Trevino),
- Alaric (Matt Davis).
Julie Plec talks to
THR about the episode's memorable returns and that shocking Katherine/Elena body-snatch in the final minutes.
The 100th episode featured a ton of cameos, including characters we haven't seen in a while. Since you couldn't feature everyone who made an impact, what were the guidelines with who would appear?
We knew we wanted to bring back everybody that had ever been a series regular for part of our family long-term. On top of that, we just love shouting back to little things, little characters, over the course of the series that were either embedded in the story or had great moments like the Uncle John moment [in season one] or Emily Bennett who, of course, was Katherine's sidekick back in the day.
The opening was quite comedic, with the major characters reminiscing about Katherine. How did you want to open this particular episode?
In the beginning, we're reminding the audience that Katherine used to just be a human girl who accidentally got pregnant -- and losing that baby, or having it taken away from her, was the catalyst for the rest of her life and the very thing that turned her into the person that she is. Coming off something so intense and learning that she's going to die, we loved that idea of kicking off the episode with what felt like a celebration.
It was also one of the rare moments where you had a lot of the major players in the same room.
Let me tell you, it takes some time to shoot when you get more than four people in a room too.