'The Vampire Diaries' Candice Accola: Have we seen the last of Caroline's insecurities?

There are no new "Vampire Diaries" episodes airing until April 7, so to ease our hiatus blues, Zap2it met up with our friend Candice Accola when she made a quick stop in L.A. on a break from filming.

Don't worry, Team Caroline -- Candice is already back in set in Atlanta, so her Hollywood sojourn doesn't mean Caroline's dying... at least, not before episode 20. Klaus (Joseph Morgan) is on the prowl in Mystic Falls, and in this year's season finale, no one is safe.

We'd indulged in some chocolate pop rocks before our interview -- seriously, watch the video -- and we didn't want to ruin our sugar high by talking about the bloodshed to come quite yet! In this sneak peek of our chat with Candice, we chatted about her big performance scene in the most recent episode, where she serenaded Matt (Zach Roerig) until he forgave her for all of her mixed signals. There was a dip, you guys. It's almost too much adorableness to handle.

When we first met Caroline, she was extremely insecure (though refreshingly self-aware). Now, our favorite neurotic little control freak has become the kind of girl willing to let loose, spontaneously jumping on stage to sing a Bangles song in front of the entire town.

Candice tells us that Caroline's sense of self-worth has definitely improved -- surprisingly, thanks to the greatest betrayal she's experienced thus far.

"I think a big turning point in the character of Caroline was when Tyler didn't rescue her from the cage," Candice says.

Despite all the love triangle complications, in the end, it was Tyler (Michael Trevino) who pushed Matt and Caroline toward their reunion.

Tyler was her greatest confidante when no one else could understand what she was going through. "She really gave herself to help all of these people around her. Even having to compulse her mom into forgetting, so her mom couldn't be supportive. It took a lot for Bonnie to be supportive. She's having to hide these things from Matt, and Elena's very much in a different world right now, so the one person that she could count on, that she could really be herself in front of, was Tyler. And then he just completely turned his back on her."

Old Caroline might have let that bring her down, but the new and improved vamped-out Caroline drew strength from the pain.

"I think it was that moment of her saying 'No, this is not how friends treat other friends,' as opposed to being like 'Oh, it's okay, we can be friends now, everything's okay,'" Candice says. "No, she stood up for herself. And i think that when she slammed that door it was also shutting the door on a lot of insecurities. She grew up a lot in that moment. I loved it."

We love Badass Rockstar Caroline too... but we still really miss Tyler. A lot. We're just gonna be over here, consoling ourselves with chocolate pop rocks.

Catch our sneak-peek of the interview below, and as always, stay tuned to Zap2it for plenty of exclusive Vampire Diaries goodies... even in these dark, cold days of hiatus hell.