The Vampire Diaries season six kicks off with Mystic Falls still a magic-free zone and the whereabouts of Damon and Bonnie still a mystery. When Vampire Diaries returns, several months will have passed since Damon and Bonnie disappeared, with Elena and company moving on with their lives with varying degrees of success outside of Mystic Falls. Calibrating the follow-up to the emotional May finale weighed heavily on the writers.

“When we started this season, [there was a fear that] it’s going to be such a downer, we’re ending it in such a sad spot. How can we reinvigorate the show and keep it feeling fresh and alive and not so heavy to start with?” executive producer Caroline Dries recently told a handful of reporters, citing the season-five premiere — which featured Damon and Elena in a honeymoon phase — as a tonal guide for the season-six opener. “Our solution was to have Elena being in this happy alternate reality in her own mind.”  Continue Reading