In any case, take a look at this poll…

Where did you grow up?

I grew up in Louisiana — a little suburb right outside of New Orleans — and I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Where you a good student? Did you like school?

I was a good student, but I was the biggest procrastinator. I was the fastest typist in my school, and I had an obsession with spelling and memorizing. I was the happiest in English class, and algebra was where I cried.

If you want to express your grief about the cancelation, please write the CW and tell them. Leaving comming here won’t help. I wish it would but it doesn’t.

I, myself, will send an email to these guys and let them know about how many of your are writing me and I will get you the adresses as well. But that’s all I can do at this point.

“The Secret Circle” has yet to be renewed (or canceled) for The CW’s Fall 2012 season, but after last night’s epic season finale, it’s clear that executive producer Andrew Miller has some big plans should the show go on.

After a slight ratings dip, the viewership did rise again and remained steady for the Season 1 finale. Creatively, the finale offered an incredible launch for a series of fascinating storylines, so we’re hoping that The CW recognizes that and gives the show another chance. We’ll find out for sure in just a few days, when The CW announces their Fall schedule, but in the meantime, we wrestled as much information as we could from Miller, so here are 5 things to expect from Season 2.

1. Faye will discover that having her individual magic isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Phoebe Tonkin asked Miller to give Faye a “Matilda” moment in the finale, hence her champagne celebration with Melissa — but this is television, and the celebration can’t last too long. “Next year, The Circle will be completely fractured,” Miller says. “They know what it is to be bound, they’ve struggled through being connected to people when you don’t want to be, and this next people is about being apart and finding strength that way. Faye is going to very quickly run out of ‘Matilda’ moments, because it won’t be enough, especially with Cassie and Diana having so much more power than her.”

2. The Balcoin kids are going to add a whole new element to the show. That shot of the four figures overlooking Chance Harbor was a perfect tease. So what kind of people will these new characters be? “A. Sexy, B. sexy, and C., interesting,” Miller laughs. “Those four characters are not all Balcoin. We’ll find that this goal of putting a perfect circle together won’t be as easy as Blackwell had hoped. They’ll bring some moral ambiguity to the battle between good and evil in Chance Harbor at a time when the witches that we have are at a crossroads with their own sense of right and wrong.”

They’ll be particularly intriguing to Faye. “She’ll be the lynchpin between these Balcoin kids coming in and the existing Circle. She’ll seek out the Balcoins, she’ll utilize the Balcoins and their power in a very manipulative way.”

3. Jake will take his grandfather’s note very, very seriously. “Royce was more right than anyone wanted to believe, though he was still a bit crazy. Jake is going to take up his struggle to stop the darkness from seeping into his world and the people he loves. The warning is going to position Jake to be the most badass good guy of all time. An avenging angel with the kind of anger issues that Jake has is going to be really fun to see once he faces the Balcoin kids.”

4. Adam’s vulnerabilities will bring his dark side to the surface. As Jake fights the darkness, Adam has, interestingly enough, invited it in. When we first met Adam, he was the good guy. He always did the right thing. “When push came to shove, and he went to rescue the two huge loves of his life, Cassie and Diana, he was a useless piece of shit to Blackwell’s dark magic. It was like he was the skinny kid on the beach getting sand kicked on him by the bullies, and he sends away from the back of a comic book to be a muscle man so he can never be in that position again. They thought that he was the best guy to take care of the skull, but in fact, he was the worst. He was the most emotionally vulnerable, the most fragile, and the most susceptible to the seductive power of that skull.”

5. Grant is genuinely a nice guy… but he’s got some secrets. We love Diana’s sweet, rom-com love affair with the hot yacht guy, and though Miller tells us that Grant won’t suddenly be revealed to be an evil witch, he is involved in some shady stuff. “I couldn’t break Diana’s heart that much by turning him into a complete bad guy,” he says. “However, I can tell you that Grant works on a yacht for some guy who seems to be coming in and out of Chance Harbor more than anybody with a yacht should be coming in and out of Chance Harbor. Grant is involved with more than he’s letting on, and the people he’s working with are perhaps more interesting than you’d expect.”

We’ve got more Season 2 scoop for you on the way… and of course, we promise to update you immediately when we get word of whether there will be a Season 2. Keep those fingers crossed!

Is John Blackwell good or evil? How will Diana react to the startling admission made by Charles last week? And how is conjuring up a hot pizza delivery guy ever a bad thing?

With The Secret Circle season finale just over 48 hours away, I just got off the phone with Executive Producer Andrew Miller. He answered a number of these questions, while going back over the season as a whole and explaining why Thursday’s episode is titled “Family.”

Will we learn John Blackwell’s true intentions on the season finale?
The short answer is yes. We’ll find out exactly what he wants and why he came to Chance Harbor. It will be a strong enough case for Cassie, at least, to determine her future as a human being… but there’s a complexity to his character. We’re gonna let the audience decide for themselves what they think of Blackwell.

Was that complexity something you aimed for all season?
There should be that kind of ambiguity. From the beginning, when Cassie comes to Chance Harbor and then enters the Circle, she’s very innocent… she then goes through 22 episodes of craziness. And no one is all good or all bad. We tried to play that fine line with all the characters… to order up a hot pizza guy may be fun, but there’s something wrong and manipulating about that, too.

Will there be fallout for Diana after learning Charles killed Amelia?
In a big way. She’ll be distracted at first by Faye’s kidnapping, but let’s just say it’s one thing to realize you have two dads; it’s another to realize they are both evil.

The finale is titled “Family” because all of the characters will have to define what family means to them, whether family is defined by blood or by choice. Diana will definitely be placed in a position to choose.

And what about Charles himself?
There will be a reckoning for Charles… look, magic can be a form of unearned power. You have the ability to do powerful things, but that doesn’t mean you’re a strong person. Charlie and Dawn are prime examples of that, Charles especially because of all he’s done. Magic can also feel like an easy way out, but Charles will need to make some hard decisions if he’s to become the father he wants to be.

How will Melissa react to killing Nick?
It will give Melissa a certain amount of closure. She’s been searching for answers all season in all the wrong guys, and she’ll realize that maybe those answers lie in the Circle.

I know I speak for many readers here when I say I hope this is a season, and not a series, finale. But if it’s the latter, will stories be tied up?
It’s an epic finale. It ties together the storylines of the kids, while weaving in their parents and what happened 16 years ago. It’s satisfying and moving and it answers season-long questions. But in answering questions about Blackwell, it will create new ones for next season if we get one.

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The Secret Circle wraps up its rookie season with a season finale that series creator Andrew Miller describes as “defining.”

“The episode starts off fast with Faye being kidnapped and never really stops,” Miller told The Hollywood Reporter in previewing tonight’s episode. But ultimately, it will be eye-opening for main protagonist, Cassie, who will be forced to determine just who she is by the end of the hour. “For Cassie, it’s about her becoming a woman and her empowerment.”

Miller offered hints as to what a possible season two could look like, and even offered clues as to what the final image of the finale is — and whether there will be a fundamental shift in story should Secret Circle continue.

The Hollywood Reporter: You co-wrote the season finale, “Family.” Were there specifics you had in mind that had to be addressed or wrapped up?

Andrew Miller: From the get-go we wanted a finale that satisfied all the questions that our fans have had over the season. It’s one thing to be fun and sneaky about bringing in all these mysterious elements 16 years ago, Blackwell and the parents. It wouldn’t feel right to skip past the finale and not deal with that. The great part about having 22 episodes is you’ve got plenty of time to lay out a story and it feels like it’s only responsible to address that story completely by the end. But, because we desperately want to have another season, we wanted to do it in a way that when we answer the questions in front of us, they create new questions as we hopefully move forward to season two.

THR: What was the one question you thought was the most important to address in the final episode?

Miller: Probably who John Blackwell really is, what he really wants and what that means. Finding out what Blackwell wants is interesting anyway but how that’s tied in directly to Cassie and Diana is what makes this episode interesting. It’s them defining themselves as witches and as people that propel this series. Blackwell ultimately becomes a powerful way to examine the choices that Cassie has to make and now Diana. And ultimately how that affects the entire circle. Now that [Cassie's] told who she is, she has to define who she wants to be. What we do in the finale is put that question to Cassie and make her decide: Is she dark? Is it dark magic or light magic? Is she good or bad? Is she going to protect the family she has by blood or the family she’s created by choice? These are all the things that define a person and that’s what we wanted to see Cassie deal with.

THR: You brought up Diana. Has there been a shift with that specific character and her relationship with everybody else in the circle once the Balcoin reveal was made? How did that affect her story?

Miller: [Diana and Cassie's] relationship was starting to shift for a while now. This news just pushes it further. From Diana’s perspective, she’s at a point where she is saying, “I don’t want anything to do with her,” and now that I’m told I’m the same as her and share the same blood it’s become this cautionary tale to Cassie. Diana now is desperately struggling to not walk down that same path that she saw Cassie walk down, or desperately avoid the slippery slope that Cassie has slid down already.

THR: Nick returned briefly as a man possessed. What has the reaction been to his arc that recently took place?

Miller: I think people wanted to see Nick back. Some people wanted to see him back longer but we didn’t want to start randomly bringing people back from the dead. Once you start opening that door, it’s hard to close it. With Nick, the only way we could justify his return was he wasn’t coming back as himself. Because of that it felt too difficult to sustain him as a character because you have this devil guy running around yelling at people and that didn’t seem fun. His return was always going to be short-lived because we knew that the lifespan of the shell of a man once known as Nick couldn’t sustain himself for very long. We were glad to have him and it felt like we needed a reminder of what these kids have done and are capable of and the stakes that if you mess around with magic, someone is going to get burned, literally and figuratively.

THR: Will there be a fundamental shift that will take place by the end of the episode that will propel into season two?

Miller: This season is about people being stuck together and trying to become stronger as a group than they are individuals. By the end of this season they will not be stuck together anymore and they’ll have to decide whether it’s worth being together or not. They where stuck together as family because of the binding ritual and their lineage. Now they’re at a place where they’re so different, they’ve grown up so much, they’ve grown apart in many cases and then by the end of this episode, how much they really need each other is up for grabs. We’ll see why it’s so key that they do need each other.

THR: What can you tease to the final image is in the finale?

Miller: I can’t say much but the final image of the finale is an invitation to an entirely new world next season.

THR: Like literally a new city, a new setting?

Miller: I can’t say that specifically, but that dramatic. When you ask if there’s a major shift, there absolutely is. And it takes the whole episode to get them in a place where that means something and when it happens, it happens big.

THR: What kind of emotions do you want people to be left with?

Miller: Ideally, I want them to be desperate to see how the story unfolds. I want people to feel like we’ve taken the characters further than they were expecting the characters to go and dying to see them in the next chapter of the story.

THR: What can you say about where Cassie is in terms of her romantic life? I’m assuming it won’t be all rainbows.

Miller: There will be rainbows for some people. For Cassie, it’s more about what she’s asked to do in this episode and it kind of knocks out romance for her. Having said that, there will be these brief but incredibly important moments with people that she’s had relationships with before that speaks to next season. For Cassie, it’s about her becoming a woman and her empowerment. While romance has played a part in that, this episode is about Cassie defining herself as an adult.

THR: It seems like you already have a blueprint for season two …

Miller: Yes, again, the books are a great starting place. We’ve discovered so much about the characters and in this last bunch of episodes, have expanded the world to place where there’s just a ton of stories to tell now.

For most audiences, this week’s woman to watch won you over years ago as the crowned victor of both Miss Louisiana Teen USA and Miss Teen USA. Since then, this Destrehan, LA native has gone from attending the ultra-prestigious New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts to landing the role of Stephanie Johnson on one of the world’s lon gest-running television shows, Days of Our Lives, where she was nominated for a Daytime Emmy as an Outstanding Younger Actress.

Currently finishing up her first season on CW’s cult supernatural show The Secret Circle, Shelley Hennig stars as Diana Meade, a young witch discovering the limits of her powers alongside her coven circle while the world outside becomes increasingly hell-bent on destroying them.

Shelley took a break from practicing for her first improv comedy show to speak with us about her new show, the challenges of wearing a crown and how to cause a ruckus at Guantanamo Bay.

Playboy.com: You were crowned Miss Teen USA back in 2004. What was the hardest part about being a contestant?

Hennig: I didn’t know that a lot of preparation was supposed to go into getting ready for the pageant. I found a dress for $90 at David’s Bridal, did my own hair and makeup. But I guess the hardest part for me was that I can be pretty candid. It was realizing this was a world that was fairly censored. I remember a lot of the girls were very professional, almost too old…I was like, “Guys, we’re teenagers. We can be teenagers!” [laughs] I was like, “I don’t know what this is about, but I’m going to dive in and do something bigger than myself and maybe get a scholarship somewhere.” I think that’s what helped me in the end, that I wasn’t prepared and was candid, and was a teenager. I think that’s why I won.

Playboy.com: As part of your tour you visited Guantanamo Bay. What was that like?

Hennig: It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever done. We got a briefing before we went to the North Gate, which is where the Cuban soldiers and American soldiers stand on guard 24/7, every day of the year. They were taking us there, and they said, “The only thing you can’t do is point. Whatever you do, don’t point.” Things were good at the time but they didn’t want to take any chances. So the first thing I do when I get there is yell out, “I don’t see any Cubans! Oh wait, is that them?” and I pointed. Three American army guys come over and put my arm down – it was like a movie moment in slow motion. I was so embarrassed! It was the one thing they asked me not to do.

We saw the prison camps, and it was also the time when they were concerned that the U.S. wasn’t treating the soldiers correctly, and all the senators were coming in to take a look. It was a crazy moment in history that I got to be a part of. The best part about it was that I got to run six or seven miles with the marines. I kept up and I got to pass the flag, it was awesome.

Playboy.com: What was it like transitioning from pageants to acting?

Hennig: From Teen USA I got a scholarship to the New York Conservatory of Dramatic Arts, which was my initial plan in entering Miss Teen Louisiana, to get a scholarship somewhere and make it easier on my family and myself. Granted, I had never acted a day in my life. [laughs] I started off very open-minded, and I loved it the first day…but I sucked. I was just not getting it, so I spent two years just busting my little butt, living the acting world.

Playboy.com: Was New York a culture shock for you after Louisiana?

Hennig: I believe I just adapted and didn’t think twice. I think my favorite memory was my first night, at 10 o’clock I decided I wanted groceries and found a place about twenty minutes away. I bought all these groceries because I was told they had something like home delivery. So I paid for it all and then what do I do about this delivery service, and they were like, “Sorry, ma’am, that ended at 7 P.M.” So I walked all the way back with all these groceries because I couldn’t find a cab. [laughs]

Playboy.com: You’re known for being “the innocent one” in The Secret Circle. With recent revelations that you have dark magic, are we going to see you head down that path?

Hennig: I think it’s inevitable, it’s in my blood. I think it’s inevitable that Diana will have to use dark magic to get them out of a situation, and initially Diana doesn’t want anything to do with it. But she might be put in a situation where she has to use it, and who knows, she might like it.

Playboy.com: Have you played an evil character before, or would this be a first for you?

Hennig: I played a bitch on Days of Our Lives when I first started. There definitely was some evil in Stephanie, and while it wasn’t a supernatural evil show, Stephanie is the opposite of Diana: she wasn’t good to begin with.

Playboy.com: If you could have a supernatural power like Diana, what would it be and why?

Hennig: To travel back in time, to see people that are no longer here; I have so many childhood memories that I’d want to revisit. I asked Britt (Robertson) when we were shooting an episode, “If you could travel into the past or future, which would you do?” She said future, and I said past. I’m not one who lives in the past, but I’m definitely a sentimental person so I’d love to go back to the good old days.

Playboy.com: What music will get you on the dance floor?

Hennig: [Laughs] I like rap, hip-hop, country, techno…wait, maybe not techno anymore. I don’t even think techno is a current term… [laughs] I’m a dancer so any music can get me out on the dance floor. Jay-Z is what I’m listening to these days.

Playboy.com: So acting, dancing…should we expect singing next?

Hennig: I definitely have gotten better at singing. With a bit of training I can pull it off, but I would not say singing will ever be my number one talent.

Playboy.com: Be it in the shower, car, or all alone. What are you singing? Do you have a guilty pleasure song?

Hennig: I’m singing Amy Winehouse’s cover, “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow,” from her (Lioness:) Hidden Treasures album. The whole way I was driving back from Vancouver, I was listening to the country station on Sirius and memorized pretty much every country song that is out right now…and anything Miranda Lambert.

Playboy.com: What was your first Playboy?

Hennig: I was in Fred Segal for the first time and there was a coffee table book, as big as your coffee table, of every cover of Playboy Magazine since it started, and it was autographed by Hugh Hefner. So I bought it for my brother as a birthday present.

Playboy.com:You are a good sister!

Hennig: I know, I know. But I couldn’t pass it up for him; he has it proudly in his living room. [laughs]

This time last year, critics were buzzing about the very first scene of “The Secret Circle” pilot.

Charles (Gale Harold) murdered his high school friend Amelia in order to get her daughter, Cassie (Britt Robertson) back to their hometown, where she was needed to complete a circle of magic that would turn deadly more than once over the course of the first season.

We’ve seen Charles display varying degrees of weakness and strength this year, and now, as tensions in town reach a climactic finish, he’ll have to examine his choices and, perhaps, atone for them.

Tonight’s Season 1 finale, titled “Family,” will force Charles into a potentially deadly decision. The most important relationship in his life, with his daughter Diana (Shelley Hennig), is crumbling. He’s learned that she may not be his biological daughter, and she’s discovered the truth about Charles’ potential for darkness.

“We’re asking all of the characters, but particularly Cassie and Diana, to examine the concept of family and decide if family is defined by blood or by choice,” executive producer Andrew Miller tells Zap2it. “By the end of this episode, she’ll have to choose. Diana’s looking at these ‘my two evil dads,’ one more evil than the other, one by blood, and one by choice, and she has to make certain decisions.”

Charles has to decide whether Diana is his priority, or if he can continue to be driven by selfishness. “Charles has thought Diana was his biological daughter this entire time and is now faced with the idea that she isn’t,” says Miller. “He seems to want to be a real father. In the finale, he’ll have to decide what being a real father means and how far he’s willing to go for his daughter.”

As is appropriate for an episode titled “Family,” we’ll welcome Stepfanie Kramer back to Chance Harbor as Kate, Charles’ mother, who definitely has her own agenda. “Everyone needs to turn to their mom every once in a while, and this is the episode where Charles desperately needs to. Kate will put who Diana is into a very clear perspective for him.”

Throughout the season, Charles and Dawn have often been ruthless in their quest to regain the power they were stripped of 16 years ago. When they finally get their power back in tonight’s final episode, it’s not exactly all it was cracked up to be.

“They didn’t really want their powers for any good reasons,” says Miller. “They’d talk about saving their kids and protecting their kids, but the reality is that’s bulls***.” They haven’t been protecting their children at all — hello, witch hunters and demons and zombie-witches and ghosts — and now, they’ll have to be held accountable for their failings as parents.

tsc-secret-circle-diana-cassie.jpg”Magic is a very easy way out, an easy way to feel powerful, but I don’t think it makes you a powerful person. In this episode, Charles in particular, because he’s done so many bad things, will have to decide how much strength he has as a man,” Miller tells us. “He’ll have to decide what he’s willing to risk for the people he loves. He’ll have to redefine himself in a way that we’ll recognize from that first pilot episode. He’s going to have to play the damn price. Everything needs a consequence for balance. Charles is due.”

We’re thrilled to see Harold show off those acting chops that have been subdued all season, and we’re also excited to see how everything that goes down in the finale impacts Diana. Miller explains that she and her newfound sister go through a bit of a role-reversal as the season comes to its dramatic close.

“When we meet Cassie for the first time, she has nothing but Grandma Jane, who she barely knows. Her mother’s dead, her father’s dead as far as she knows, she’s moving into a strange town with a strange old-by-CW-standards lady,” he chuckles. “Diana, by comparison, had everything — a dad, friends, a great guy. By the end of this season she’ll have none of it. She’s lost Adam, she’s lost to some degree her father, and finding out about her father and Amelia plays into the choice she makes about family that puts her into a very interesting place for next season.”

Oh, and in case you were wondering — yes, there will be a significant death in the season finale, which will force the kids to examine whether they truly are stronger as a circle or as separate witches with individual powers.

The CW has yet to make an announcement as to whether or not Season 2 will actually happen — so make sure to show your support and tune in to watch “The Secret Circle” live tonight at 9 p.m. EST. If you really want to throw your weight behind the show, check in on it again tomorrow by downloading the episode on iTunes or live-streaming from the official CW app.