Finale Burning Questions Answered: The Vampire Diaries, NCIS and Grey's Anatomy

Nina Dobrev | Photo Credits: Warner Bros

Another TV season is in the books, and there are no shortage of burning questions left behind.

The Vampire Diaries: Elena is a vampire? Really?!

Yep, Vampire Diaries' teen heroine will be growing some fangs come Season 4. "It will be a very emotional, very complicated first episode when the show returns, but Elena's future is pretty set," says executive producer Julie Plec. What's not a done deal is just which brother she'll end up with. "That's the best question of all!" says Plec, adding that though Elena (Nina Dobrev) chose Stefan (Paul Wesley) in the season finale, "everything has changed. Not necessarily how she feels about the boys, but who she is. This may bring her closer than ever to Stefan, or it may give her a deeper bond with Damon [Ian Somerhalder]. Plus, she'll start learning things, like how Damon compelled her to forget their first meeting. Those memories will come back, and it'll add more fuel to the fire." —Ileane Rudolph

NCIS: Who survived the explosion?

By finale's end, it looked as though everyone's lives were in danger after a bomb detonated at NCIS headquarters — even Ducky's (David McCallum), and he was a thousand miles away on a beach in Florida! What gives? "I'm not gonna massage it," says exec producer Gary Glasberg. "David signed a contract to come back. The goal is to give him an opportunity to play something different. We talked about Ducky's heart attack for a long time." And although several cast members (including Pauley Perrette and Michael Weatherly) are still in negotiation for Season 10, it looks like the rest of the team will make it through as well. There won't be a new set, either: "You'll see caution tape and repairs, but the building survived." That's not to say the blast won't have its repercussions. Tony (Weatherly) and Ziva (Cote de Pablo) will find themselves in an interesting position when the show returns. "It wasn't an accident to put them in the elevator [at the end]," says Glasberg. —Chris Willman

Grey's Anatomy: Is Lexie the first casualty from the plane crash?

We say first — rather than only — because when the Season 8 finale concluded, crash survivors Meredith (Ellen Pompeo), Derek (Patrick Dempsey), Cristina (Sandra Oh), Mark (Eric Dane) and Arizona (Jessica Capshaw) were all stranded in a forest with nary a match to keep them warm. "Just because you saw people alive at the end of the finale doesn't mean they're going to be alive when the season starts up," creator Shonda Rhimes has said. She's vague as to why she killed off Lexie (Chyler Leigh), but speculation is that Leigh was cut to free up cash for the original stars, who reportedly all signed on for two more seasons. And with Pompeo locked in, there's no need to keep a Little Grey waiting in the wings. —William Keck

For more scoop on the finales of Supernatural, Smash, Once Upon a Time, Hawaii Five-0, Scandal, Bones, NCIS: LA, CSI, Fringe, The Mentalist and How I Met Your Mother, pick up the June 4 issue of TV Guide Magazine, on sale Thursday.

Subscribe to TV Guide Magazine now!