‘The Vampire Diaries’ season 6 spoilers: Caroline and Stefan’s story to build slowly

The Caroline – Stefan relationship on “The Vampire Diaries” is one where almost everyone understandably has a very strong opinion about. There are many out there who love the friendship, and just want things to stay that way for them. After all, how often is it that you have a platonic relationship between a man and a woman on a CW show? It’s realistic.

Then again, there are also many examples out there in life of great relationships that start off as a friendship, and part of the appeal of these two getting together is that it never felt in season 1 like the two could be endgame. Instead, she was more tied to Tyler Lockwood over time, and he was more to Elena. This organic build is part of what makes them interesting.

Regardless of what is decided for these two characters, just be reminded of this: The producers are not looking to build Rome in a day when it comes to figuring out what to do with them. Speaking to TVLine, executive producer Caroline Dries passed along the following message when discussing what some of the plans for these two characters could ultimately be:

“We’re just seeing layers of it … I think Caroline’s not even realizing how deep her feelings are. She just feels hurt and lied to and ignored [by Stefan, who’s not returning her calls]. [Meanwhile, Stefan] can’t even process or fathom the idea of another heavy, emotional connection. In his brain, he hasn’t even opened up his mind to the notion of dating someone or being with someone, actually having a true romance with someone. So it’s a very slow build for them.”

While Stefan may be hooking up with someone in the premiere, we take this as some evidence that we’re meant to see it as fairly mindless, and he is not looking to do it out of any genuine love. He’s probably just trying to ease the pain of his brother Damon and friend Bonnie being dead … at least seemingly.

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Photo: The CW