'The Vampire Diaries' season 8 spoilers: creator Julie Plec hints at an upcoming 'painful' and 'terrible' death

"The Vampire Diaries" has not been pulling punches when it comes to its final season with an installment plagued with a twist and potentially, even death.

Fans would have to keep their Kleenex at bay for the last remaining episodes of the supernatural series that catapulted Ian Somerhalder, Paul Wesley and Nina Dobrev to superstardom. But while Elena (Dobrev) has been in deep slumber for a couple of seasons now, the Salvatore brothers (Somerhalder and Wesley) continue to wreak havoc, sometimes individually, at other times in a collaborative effort.

Media outlet TVLine reached out to series creator Julie Plec about any tidbit that she can divulge during the midseason hiatus of the show. After all, it would be the last time that she will be pestered with any spoiler requests regarding the hit program. But Plec just would not budge. Instead, she warns of a "painful" and "terrible" death for a major character in the episodes to come.

While she could not be bothered with any more queries about the mysterious persona, she provided some insights into what Stefan will be up to especially now that he has willingly turned off his humanity. It can be remembered that in the winter finale, one of the vampire brothers proposed to Cade (Wolé Parks) to tap into his more violent side in exchange for shortening the duration of his being a manservant. In the end, he embarks with Damon on a road trip outside Mystic Falls.

"Stefan's never been good with temptation while in ripper mode," Plec said. "We know from past experience that Stefan has a threshold, and it'll be Damon's job to monitor his brother and make sure he stays on the good side of that threshold. If he crosses it, there's a risk of losing him forever."

The twist somehow had the tables turned for the Stefan and Damon as almost all season long, the former was trying to shake his rogue brother back to his original self. It will be intriguing how things will pan out for them moving forward.

"The Vampire Diaries'" last couple of episodes endeavors to answer all burning questions when the show finally comes back on The CW airwaves next year, Jan. 13.