Julie Plec talks about Damon&Elena 

...And you can't talk about love triangles without talking about Elena and Damon (Ian Somerhalder). The bad boy vampire has come a long from where he started in Season 1. “We’ve watched Damon’s journey as he struggled with his role as hero and leading man and the knocks that come along with that and the problems that’s given him,” says Plec. “His own personal transformation is a big part of this year and the rest of the season.” He delivered perhaps his most unselfish moment when he told Elena he loved her and then erased her memories of the confession. Plec says there wasn't a lot of debate in the writers room about whether it was too early for such a reveal. “It felt right,” she says. “We felt like it was exactly the right time given the journey that he had just experienced with his brother when Stefan made a very profound admission. It was time for Damon to make an admission of his own.”

Although Damon is growing and he and Elena have been less combative lately, they're not quite on equal friendship footing yet. “I think that Elena, given that she doesn’t know that he said that, there’s still a little bit more growth for Elena to return fully to friendship with Damon,” she points out. “But that path is set definitely.”