Exclusive

Ian Somerhalder Dishes on Directing His Latest Vampire Diaries Episode

Exclusive: Watch a clip from the show's April 1 return

By Jean Bentley Mar 31, 2016 5:00 PMTags

Ian Somerhalder stepped behind the camera for a second time on The Vampire Diaries, and the fruits of his labor air on Friday as TVD returns from a month-long hiatus.

"This episode is obviously very different from the last one," he tells E! News of this latest directorial outing. "My last one was very fast-paced, very dark, very conceptual. Caroline's turning into this very dangerous sexy maniacal lunatic and it was a lot of fun. It was dark. This one was really setting up where the rest of the season will go."

Allow him to explain: "The setup is what's going to happen in the next episodes of this show and the cool thing is that the first episode we're fully in the future so the tone is set where we're three years in the future and we're not going back."

In the episode, Damon will make Stefan an offer he probably can't refuse: to transfer the hunter's mark to him. You can watch an exclusive sneak peek of that pivotal moment above!

"To be honest with you, when I first heard about this mark I was a little concerned because it could get hokey, but the reality of it is—and this is what Julie [Plec] explained to me and she was right—is that it's a way to bring everyone together," Somerhalder dishes.

He continues, "Rayna has this weird, intimate relationship with Stefan where she can feel what he's feeling and what he's doing and he's running all over the world with Valerie. … She knows this man intimately, but every cell in her body wants to kill him. That mark represents that, and anyone that mark touches she's like Terminator 2. She's like Robert Patrick in that movie where she just keeps coming. It's funny, Damon cuts her into pieces and puts her in a well and she still comes back! It's just impossible."

Watch the clip above, and tune in to The Vampire Diaries on Friday at 8 p.m. on the CW.