The Insider.com

While Vampire Diaries is known for its shocking twists and neck-snapping turns, one of the show's strongest qualities is its ability to fill entire episodes with exposition and set-up without making the hour feel like a boring ramp up to the exciting action.

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For all intents and purposes, Dangerous Liaisons was an expository episode that laid the groundwork for everything that's to come in next week's All My Children.

But thanks to beautiful balls, brother-on-brother violence, a seriously deadly cocktail and a closing moment that proved True Blood doesn't have the market cornered on hot vampire sex, the hour was as exhilarating an endeavor as the 13 that have come before.

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In order to find out what's next -- and which moments were of particular importance -- EP Julie Plec broke it down for a handful of reporters earlier this week. Here are the choicest quotes!

On Esther's Plan To Snuff Out Her Spawn
"The fact that [her spell] isn't a done deal by [the end of] this episode certainly leaves a lot of potential for how it could all go very right, or very wrong, in the next episode. I think that if the villains on our show have proven anything it's that they have a durability – Klaus said Rebekah's ability to sense things that are wrong borders on the supernatural. There's five Originals and an Original mama, we'll see who comes out the other side to tell the tale. Some major, major stuff goes down that will be interesting and surprising for the audience.

On The Mystic Fall-out From Damon & Rebekah's Tryst
Elena is going to be pissed on multiple levels but also understand that, in a way, she pulled the trigger on that. Damon has every right to be angry with her as well. A lot of people are angry and going to continue to be angry with each other as this unfolds over the next episode. The thing with Damon is that when he's hurt, he lashes out – in a way, this is the most cruel way he could have lashed out. But in a peculiar way shows an evolution of the character because rather than take it out on an innocent human in the middle of a road, he's striking out where it hurts the most – at Elena. By no means is it gentlemanly behavior but it was certainly fun to watch.

On The Murderer Running Around Town
"The next wave of story we have to get through is seeing the outcome of the mother's plan to kill her babies, but as we move forward into that, we dovetail very nicely into [that story and] not only [provide] an answer to that question, but a fairly big set of reveals as to just who's behind that."

On Bonnie's Originals Bond
"Bonnie and Abby will find themselves enlisted by Esther to help in this spell that would help eliminate Klaus. It's all coming back to the Bennett bloodline that had a hand in this 1000 years ago. Now Bonnie and her mom are the keys to seeing this through – it's going to bring them closer and bring some emotional consequences to their relationship as well."

On Elena's Triangular Love Life
"Obviously we're at a bit of a crossroads with Elena and the boys – Stefan's whole 'I'm filled with nothing but rage and anger and no love and no humanity' wall has crumbled and he's the only one preventing himself from truly letting his feelings back in and becoming his old self. Then there's Damon, who she's grown closer to, [but] just put her foot in it big time with him. I think a lot of what we're going to see is the question for Elena: here's this person that I loved, and still love so much in my mind. [Then] here is this friend that I have made but our friendship has grown complicated. At the middle of it all, she's still that girl who is not entirely sure that she's supposed to be in love with any vampires – let alone two. So we'll really be exploring her point of view a lot for the rest of this season. Certainly you won't get to the end of the season without all three of them realizing a choice needs to be made one way or the other.

Vampire Diaries airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on The CW.