The premiere opens four months after last season's finale, which saw the destruction of the Other Side, and the deaths of major characters Bonnie and Damon. In the aftermath of this tragedy, the Mystic Falls gang have mostly gone their separate ways in order to deal with their grief.
Caroline has dropped out of Whitmore and has spent the summer with her mother, Liz, on the outskirts of Mystic Falls as the Traveller's anti-magic spell prevents vampires from entering the town without dying for real. Caroline is preoccupied with researching magic and the Traveller's in the hopes of breaking the protective spell keeping her and the others from returning to their home town. In other news, Caroline brings up the fact that Stefan has skipped town without saying goodbye and has been ignoring her calls- and she is PISSED! Hopefully Caroline's angst foreshadows that the romantic tension that has been running rampant between these two characters will finally amount to something this season!
Alaric, who returned from the dead at the conclusion of last season, is dealing with his new-vampirism by switching the bourbon in his hip flask for blood. He is now teaching Occult Studies at Whitmore and providing Caroline with the books she needs in order to research the Traveller's anti-magic spell. Alaric appears to be the only character in regular contact with Stefan, who Alaric believes to be travelling the world in search of a way to bring back his brother Damon from the dead. Contrary to what Alaric believes, Stefan has settled down as a small town mechanic and is dating a new character named Ivy.
Meanwhile in Mystic Falls, Matt has joined the new protective services group in town. Matt juggles his responsibilities to this militia-esque group with babysitting Jeremy, who has gone off the deep end since his girlfriend Bonnie's death. According to Matt, Jeremy sits on the couch all day playing video games, getting drunk before noon and sleeping with a new girl every week. In other words, Jeremy is dealing with stuff the way Jeremy always does! I know Bonnie is dead, but I still couldn't help but scream at my TV when I saw Jer hooking up with another girl!
Elsewhere, Tyler is dealing with the loss of his hybrid-powers by channeling his rage into training with the football team (much like he did when we met him back in season one) at Whitmore! Apparently he and Caroline are on speaking terms now, despite the fact that she slept with his arch-nemesis Klaus last season.
At first glance our main protagonist, Elena, appears to be dealing remarkably well with the loss of both her boyfriend and best friend, however, the audience soon learns that Luke Parker is providing her with magic herbs that allow her to hallucinate spending time with Damon, and therefore removing the need for her to deal with her grief at all. Unfortunately, a side-effect of the herbs is increased thirst for blood, which leads to Elena attacking a young girl on the outskirts of Mystic Falls, who manages to escape. Elena's vampirism is only kept a secret thanks to Matt kidnapping the girl and having Caroline compel her before she could reveal who attacked her. When Caroline reveals to Tyler what Luke had been doing, his barely suppressed rage explodes and he starts to choke the young witch, only to be stopped by Alaric. I quite like a return to the Tyler from earlier seasons, I found his character much more interesting when he was dealing with the revelation of the supernatural community and his werewolf gene than I ever did when he was a hybrid. On the other hand, I found Elena's choice to live in denial about Damon and Bonnie's deaths highly predictable and uninteresting.
After being encouraged by Stefan, who she hadn't spoken to in months, Elena decides to try and let Damon go by no longer using the herbs. As Elena breaks down, the scene shifts to show the audience Damon and Bonnie happily enjoying breakfast somewhere, revealing that they still exist in some capacity despite the collapse of the Other Side. Although I fully expected Bonnie and Damon to be resurrected, I am still eager to find out where they are and what they have been doing for the last four months!
Overall rating: ★★★★
I felt that this episode was an extremely strong start to the season, especially after the less-than-stellar Katherine-less second half of season 5. Most of the opening storylines for the season were compelling, apart from Elena's typically annoying decision to cling to Damon through psychedelic drugs rather than deal with her grief in a meaningful way!
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