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"The Vampire Diaries&amp;#039; executive producer Julie Plec has explained the decision to kill off Jenna. In the last episode, Jenna (Sara Canning) was staked and murdered by Klaus (Joseph Morgan) as part of the sacrifice. Plec has now told TV Guide that someone very close to Elena (Nina Dobrev) had to die during the ritual. She said: &amp;quot;We spent an entire season building to this sacrifice ritual and bringing Klaus in and we felt like the loss of life in the sacrifice ritual needed to be as deeply personal as possible in order to show how big of a move it was that Klaus is making and how profound of an impact it would have on not only Elena&amp;#039;s life, but on everybody.&amp;quot; Plec also hinted that Elena may have to be &amp;quot;the adult in the family&amp;quot; now that her last remaining parental figures, Jenna and her biological father John, have died. &amp;quot;Elena began the series having just lost her parents and as an orphan and that is part of what defines her,&amp;quot; she said. &amp;quot;Along the road she has found her birth mother, discovered the identity of her birth father and yes, had a surrogate guardian in Jenna, but when it&amp;#039;s all said and done this is a girl who has experienced so much profound loss and that journey is continuing for her. It&amp;#039;s all part of who she is and it&amp;#039;s rough and it&amp;#039;s brutal but we want to take Elena to the next place.&amp;quot; Plec added that while the last episode concluded the mythology storyline, the finale will provide &amp;quot;emotional resolution&amp;quot;. &amp;quot;We also want to really give the audience a window to where we&amp;#039;re going in season three,&amp;quot; she teased. &amp;quot;A taste of what the series is going to be like as we move forward.&amp;quot; The Vampire Diaries airs on Thursday at 8/7c on The CW in the US and on Tuesday at 9pm on ITV2 in the UK. &amp;gt; &amp;#039;The Vampire Diaries&amp;#039;: &amp;#039;As I Lay Dying&amp;#039; in pictures "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/vampire-diaries/news/a318919/vampire-diaries-exec-explains-death/>