Lauren will not be coming back next year. [... In Season 4,] we're gonna spend a little less time talking about giant movements and war and more time talking about the brothers' relationship and how they react to that war. I think we sort of have a new species of supernatural being that we'll be introducing in season four that will take people by surprise. [...] In terms of Mary, we're definitely delving into all of that. I think my goal is to answer those questions sooner than people are expecting us to. I think in the first half of season four we'll actually answer a lot of those questions. [...] We have the Croatoan virus on our board of ongoing mythology, and it will return in some form or another that we're working on.
Source: Kristin on E!Online