The Vampire Diaries: Happy Graduation?

What if you threw a graduation ceremony and nobody came? That's the dilemma facing the Mystic Falls seniors — many of whose relatives are dead — as the end of high school approaches on The CW's Vampire Diaries. "Elena is sans family," says executive producer Julie Plec. "There is a line in the [penultimate] episode when Elena is filling out graduation announcements and she says, 'Who am I supposed to send mine to?'"

The bigger question is, which of the seniors — Elena, Stefan, Caroline, Matt, Bonnie and Rebekah — will actually make it to the big event, which airs May 16? "Definitely not all of our wayward, delinquent students will be present when it comes time to collect their diplomas," Plec says. "I'm not saying they won't be alive — they just won't be able to extricate themselves, as graduation falls right in the middle of a crucial supernatural time."

Appropriately, the caps and gowns are blood red. And the gift atop everyone's wish list is the long-teased vampire cure, which will "be ingested by a vampire," confirms Plec. "This will be one of the finale's final moments."

Next season, Diaries will tear a page from the 90210 playbook by having some of the students enroll at a nearby university, Whitmore College. Others, Plec hints, "may choose to run off to Europe, New Orleans or parts unknown."