[Warning: This story contains spoilers from the midseason finale of The Secret Circle.]
The Secret Circle's midseason finale dropped one heck of a bomb: Cassie (Britt Robertson) is not the only kin of John Blackwell within the coven.
While the obvious answer points to Faye (Phoebe Tonkin) also being the offspring of the mysterious Blackwell — since we learned her mother Dawn (Natasha Henstridge) had an obsession with him — executive producer Andrew Miller says we'll have to wait awhile to find out which coven member is Cassie's half-sister ... or brother!
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"Jake knows the existence of such a child, but the emergence of the second Blackwell offspring will be revealed in due course," Miller says, noting that there's a good chance Chris Zylka will be back on the show to provide that information.
Having a second child of Blackwell within the circle is a far cry from the original L.J. Smith novels the series is based on. Couple that with the series killing off coven member Nick (Louis Hunter) so quickly, it seems the producers are trying to distance themselves from the books, but Miller says that's not the case. "In a weird way, in the next chunk [of episodes] we're almost embracing the books more. We can't follow the books as a road map because it's so different. On the horizon, the books have amazing relationships and dynamics that we're going to reach for."
Miller notes that one of the upcoming major similarities will come in the secret of the kids' pasts. "There's history there about [the] kids being born in the same year that we'll start to explore," he says. "That's one answer we'll find that's similar to the books."
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The mystery of who John Blackwell is will begin to unfold as well. "[Blackwell]'s a complicated figure, but we'll get into a little more of his background and exactly what happened to him as we continue," Miller says, noting that they'd love for The Secret Circle's enigma to have a big impact like Klaus (Joseph Morgan) does on The Vampire Diaries. "They're similar in that if John Blackwell existed in our world ... he would be someone that has a long plan and has had a long plan, not dissimilar to Klaus. Certainly the impact that Klaus has, which is so fun to watch, were someone to come along to our show like that, it would be fun to have that."
Pointing to the obvious answer that Faye is the coven member related to Blackwell, Miller notes that she will begin to explore ways to obtain her own magic. "Faye has wanted her own individual magic from the get-go," he says. "The idea that Cassie is the one who has this opportunity is infuriating. ... It will drive her more to seek out alternative ways to separate herself from the group and find power on her own, which will probably have terrible consequences on other people."
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As for what happened 16 years ago, which claimed the lives of many of the coven's parents, and apparently John Blackwell, too, Miller says they're considering using flashbacks as a device to tell that story. "We do need to delve into this backstory and we are exploring ways to experience that past in what I think are really exciting and interesting ways in the very near future. Pretty soon on the heels of the new year, we'll start to see more of the past than we've seen thus far."
The Secret Circle returns with fresh episodes on Thursday, Jan. 5 at 9/8c on The CW.
