'The Vampire Diaries' pics: Damon and Elena get close (Klaus and Caroline too!) at Miss Mystic Falls

What is happening in Mystic Falls?

Judging by these photos from "The Vampire Diaries" episode 407 -- the Miss Mystic Falls episode we've been teasing forever, titled "My Brother's Keeper" -- there's some couple-swapping happening over the next few weeks. Klaus and Caroline look very close to kissing (though she doesn't look like she's particularly psyched about it) and Damon and Elena share a dance by the fireplace. (Of course, that could be a hallucination, but we're 99% sure it isn't.)

Meanwhile, Matt and Jeremy look like they're having a little fun of their own, with Matt's new truck and a whole bunch of kegs. Jeremy and Matt are going to grow closer over the course of the next few episodes as Jeremy goes through a tough time and starts to lean on Matt for a little big brother advice (and beer, apparently).

Also in the photos? Stefan carrying a duffel bag and looking to be headed out of town, plus Olympic champion Gabby Douglas, who makes a cameo appearance at the dance.

"We've had a pretty dark run of it for these last couple episodes," Julie Plec tells us of "My Brother's Keeper."  "Elena's certainly been in a pretty dark place, and next week we kind of hit dark rock bottom, and then [the Miss Mystic Falls episode] that follows is this episode of light and pretty and sun and dancing."

Writer Michael Narducci interrupts, "Still pretty dark."

"Well, yeah, I mean, it's always going to be f***ed up and twisted, but it's a nice refreshing change of pace," Julie laughs. "It gets us back to a little bit of romance, a little bit of good Mystic Falls events at their finest, and it evokes a memory of Season 1, very deliberately, of what was going on in the triangle back then, too."