If you have yet to watch Thursday’s episode of The Vampire Diaries, avert your eyes now. Everyone else, you may proceed…

Tyler’s war against Klaus on The Vampire Diaries claimed its first major casualty during Thursday night’s midseason finale. The Original retaliated against his hybrid’s rebellion by drowning Tyler’s mother, Mayor Carol Lockwood — not to mention killing all 12 hybrids in Tyler’s pack.

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The devastating loss caps off what has been an impressive maturation arc for Tyler this season. But now that he’s on his own, he’ll be reeling. At least he’s not entirely alone — the tragedy secures him a place in The Society of Orphaned Children, a fast-growing Mystical Falls club that already includes Elena, Jeremy, April and Matt (who’s practically an orphan).

So how will Tyler cope with the death of his mom? What do Klaus’ actions mean for the increasingly complicated Tyler/Caroline/Klaus love triangle? On a different note, will Elena, now set free by Damon, really be able to stay away from the elder Salvatore brother? And how will April deal with finally knowing the truth about Mystic Falls’ strange happenings?

We took those burning questions and more to executive producer Julie Plec. Read on for all the scoop!

TVLINE | Why was it important for Carol to be the big casualty?

It definitely felt like the consequence of a revolution has to be either the captain that led the charge or one of the people closest to the captain. It was Tyler or Tyler’s mom. But somebody was going to have to pay.

TVLINE | We didn’t actually see Tyler react to the death. How will he deal with it?

[When] the next episode picks up, a little bit of time has happened, and we’ll see that Tyler’s not handling it altogether too well. He’s keeping to himself, refusing to show his emotions and stewing in his own grief and anger, which is making it difficult to help him. It’s sad for Caroline, who just wants to be there for him.

TVLINE | He’s lost his dad, his mom and Uncle Mason. Is there any family that’s going to come out of the woodwork? Or is he on his own?

At the moment, he is left, sadly and tragically, alone.

TVLINE | Did Tyler just let Hayley go after that betrayal?

His first order of business was to get there and try to stop [Klaus]. Of course, we saw he was too late. After this, if he could find Hayley, he would probably give her a piece of his mind — if not a heart pulled from the chest. But she’s skedaddled. We won’t be seeing her for a while.

TVLINE | Klaus did some really horrible things in this episode, to say the least. How will that affect his budding, sort-of relationship with Caroline?

It’s definitely a fairly severe setback. I don’t think Caroline’s going to be looking at him with her goo-goo eyes anytime soon. But as we’ve seen with Klaus, he always has a way of getting under people’s skin for better or for worse. I wouldn’t say it’s the last we’ve seen of a connection between them. It’s the last that she’s going to want a connection between them.

TVLINE | Moving on to Elena, is the sire bond really broken?

No, Damon’s choice of words was really indicative of what he wants in this moment. He could have set her free and said, “Never see me again, never talk to me again, never think of me again.” He could have done all those things. Instead, he just sent her packing back to Mystic Falls. She has to go home. She has to listen to him. She’ll be sitting at home, wondering what he’s up to, and he’ll be sitting at that lake house, regretting his choice, yet knowing it’s the choice he had to make. So it’s lots of sad longing to be had between the two. [Laughs]

TVLINE | Elena’s feelings for Damon could still be real despite the sire bond. Will we get a definitive answer to that?

Until the sire bond fundamentally doesn’t exist – which as long as Elena’s a vampire, it seems to be that’s going to be in play – we’ll have to ask ourselves those questions. But the journey of Elena trying to get to the bottom of how she feels and expressing herself to him is going to be part of the ride. ‘Cause she, in fact, really believes what she feels is 100 percent genuine and real. She feels like she’s got the evidence to back it up, in that there wouldn’t be a sire bond to begin with if there wasn’t some kind of love there. It’s a tale of a couple who wants to be together and realizes that they shouldn’t, yet really wants to. [Laughs] So what do they do?

TVLINE | I was curious about something Professor Shane said about the cure for immortality. If one is made mortal again, wouldn’t he or she revert back to a dead state?

All these conversations about the cure are meant to have the audience asking those kind of questions. What does it mean? What form does it come in? What will it do to the people who take it? Can it be used as a weapon? Can it be used as gift? Is it one of those horrible Twilight Zone things where you take it and then you age to the age that you were and you’re dead? You never know. There’s a lot of different ways this could go, and our hope is to keep people guessing.

TVLINE | So clearly April takes out Rebekah’s stake, thank goodness. But what’s she going to do with all this new information that she has now?

[Laughs] April is going to be like that one person you’re like, “Shoot. Why did we let her live?” [Laughs] She’s angry. She feels manipulated. She feels lied to. And she’s not going to take it lightly. So she’s going to be a little bit of a problem in the next episode.

TVLINE | As angry as she is, I can only imagine how angry Rebekah is after being staked yet again.

Rebekah, who’s queen of betrayal, has perfected the art of revenge beautifully and really takes some of our team to task in a great, wicked way.

TVLINE | Does she go after Klaus?

No, no, no. She’s saving Klaus. She’s saving Klaus for another time, another day. First thing first, she’s trying to get back at Stefan.

Stayed tuned to TVLine for lots more Vampire Diaries scoop! In the meantime, hit the comments with your thoughts on the bloody episode.