Nina has apparently always said that she wants to come back for the finale, so Elena should be back for the end thankfully! But yeah 8 seasons is a good run, it's hard to enjoy a show once it's been stretched out to nine, ten seasons or more, so I'm glad that TVD is ready to come to an end now. It probably was one or two seasons too many, but there were enough good episodes and arcs mixed up in there (the season 7 episode with Damon re-living the same day again and again was one of the best they ever did!) that I'm going to really miss it once it's wrapped for good :(