Nina Dobrev Understands Elena's Decision On 'Vampire Diaries'

The "Vampire Diaries" season finale Thursday night answered some questions (like which Salvatore brother Elena wanted), but also posed a bunch more.

Warning: spoilers ahead!

As the episode, titled "The Departed," came to a close, a tear-filled Elena told Damon that while she cared for him, her one true love is his good-guy brother, Stefan.

"I understand why she made the decision," Nina Dobrev told about her character Thursday night in New York. "I respect her decision, and I think, having seen the last three years, what's happened in her life, everyone will also. They may not be happy, half the people will not be happy regardless, but they'll get it, and it's her decision at the end of the day."

And, the drama didn't end there: After Elena broke the news to Damon, she and her friend Matt drove off the same bridge her parents did years before, their car sinking into the river.

Much like that other time, Stefan plunges into the water to save her, except she sacrifices herself to save her pal. Cut to the very last second of the episode, where her dead body lies still while Stefan looks on, mourning her loss. But, nothing is what it seems, and her eyes open. Little did anyone know, she had vampire blood in her, courtesy of Dr. Meredith Fell, from a previous injury.

Dobrev said "it doesn't matter" what she thinks Elena should have done, adding, "I have absolutely no say in who she chooses or how that all goes down. That's a Julie Plec question."

Well, Plec, the show's executive producer, said that for Elena, life as a vampire is a distinct possibility. "The ending had been in the works for about two years," she told Entertainment Weekly. "It felt like now was the time — when you're left with no grownup, no adult supervision, no parent, no guardian — for Elena to experience the next evolution of her journey."

Over the course of season three, Elena certainly faced a number of hardships, including the loss of her mentor, vampire hunter Alaric. "All the stuff that we did with having her get stronger over the course of the year, training and getting in touch with her physical self, and all the grief and all the emotion that she went through, all the compassion that she has for everybody, it will all play into next year and what kind of person and vampire she will actually be — if she should choose to see the transition through," Plec explained.

So, will she transition? The executive producer noted, "There will be a discussion to be had about it at the beginning, but the road we're going down is pretty balls out."

Share your reaction to the "Vampire Diaries" season finale in the comments below!