Vampire Diaries
Alaric (Matt Davis) was asked to compel Elena (Nina Dobrev, not pictured) in the Season 6 premiere of "The Vampire Diaries." CW

The Mystic Falls gang is back – except not all of them are allowed in Mystic Falls. Season 6 of “The Vampire Diaries” premiered on the CW on Thursday, introducing fans to a whole new world … one without Damon (Ian Somerhalder) and Bonnie (Kat Graham).

Episode 1 of Season 6 picked up four months after the devastating Season 5 finale. Elena (Nina Dobrev) narrated what everyone has been up to in the past couple months. With the Travelers' curse still on Mystic Falls, Sheriff Forbes () is left to bust kids for underage drinking instead of identifying bodies. Matt (Zach Roerig) joined a squad that works on teaching locals how to defend themselves. Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen) has resorted to hooking up with random girls and playing video games as he mourns Bonnie. Caroline (Candice Accola) dropped out of Whitmore College to work on finding a spell to break the Travelers' curse, while Tyler (Michael Trevino) enrolled in Whitmore and Alaric (Matt Davis) joined as a professor of occult studies. Stefan (Paul Wesley) left town to chase a lead on a witch that has the ability to contact the dead – although he has started working as a car mechanic. As for Elena? She’s going pre-med in her sophomore year – to both do good and get the perks of blood bags – and has resorted to witchy herbs in order to hallucinate Damon.

Jeremy, Caroline and Alaric have been struggling for the past couple months, but the herbs have allowed Elena to put off mourning her dead boyfriend. Instead she uses them to see, touch and talk to Damon. But there is a nasty twist to her herb use – it makes her very thirsty.

Elena doesn’t think anything of her hunger – especially since she has access to an unlimited blood bank. But Luke (Chris Brochu), who has been supplying her with the drugs out of guilt, knows that her herb use has to stop. The only problem? Elena’s not willing to give up seeing Damon.

“I’m not a drug pusher,” he tells her, cutting her off. But Luke should know better than to push a “hangry” and drugged-out vampire. Elena turns violent with him, trashing his room until she gets her next fix.

She gets that fix, but even hallucination Damon tells her that she’s acting insane. Elena tries to shrug him off, but she proves that her habit got out of hand when she attacks a stranded motorist on the outskirts of Mystic Falls. Fortunately Caroline showed up in the nick of time to stop Elena from killing the frightened girl, but that moment of surprise gave Elena’s victim enough time to flee across the magic protected border of Mystic Falls.

As Caroline learned about Elena’s drug habit, Alaric was keeping a close eye on Tyler -- who has had some serious rage issues since coming back from the dead. And it’s good that Alaric was acting as chaperone for Tyler … because he almost strangled Luke when he found out that Luke had been supplying Elena with witch drugs.

After getting caught by Caroline and receiving a rude wakeup call from Stefan, who admitted that he gave up on searching for Damon, Elena decided that she had to stop using the drugs and say goodbye to Damon.

In an emotional goodbye, Elena thanked Damon for saving Stefan and bringing back Alaric and Tyler. But she wasn’t done there. She also thanked him for giving her “everything” she always wanted – “a love that consumed her, passion and adventure.”

“This is the last time I’m going to see you,” she told him, closing her eyes. “This is goodbye, Damon. I love you.”

But Damon was still there when Elena opened her eyes. Elena was left with only one option – ask Alaric to compel her to forget about Damon, to forget that she ever loved him.

Episode 1 of “The Vampire Diaries” Season 6 concluded with Damon cooking breakfast for Bonnie – pancakes with a vampire smiley face made out of blueberries and whipped cream.

What did you think of the Season 6 premiere of “The Vampire Diaries”? Tweet your thoughts to @AmandaTVScoop.

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