Warning: The following contains spoilers from Thursday’s season premiere of The Vampire Diaries.

The Vampire Diaries returned for Season 6 on Thursday night, but not all of its players were back to their old selves.

Elena, for one, was suppressing her grief by taking witchy drugs to “see” Damon and feeding on humans on the outskirts of Mystic Falls — not that it was helping. To truly make the pain go away, she asked Alaric for a drastic favor.

Then there’s Stefan, who was off living a new life with a new girl, while Damon and Bonnie were bonding… somewhere.

Below, executive producer Caroline Dries weighs in on the duo’s whereabouts, Ric’s response to Elena’s request, the love triangle’s future and much more.

LOST IN…? | So where are Damon and Bonnie hanging out? “We’ll figure it out in the next episode,” Dries reveals. “They’re discovering it along with the audience.” Could the presence of Collective Soul’s 1993 ditty “Shine” and Damon’s flannel attire mean that they’ve gone back in time? “It’s supposed to make you ask questions like that,” is all Dries would say. (Hmm, could the upcoming 1990s Damon/Stefan flashbacks in Episode 4, which “help tie together a bunch of storylines,” have something to do with all this, too?)

FORGET ME NOT | Overwhelmed with the idea of feeling the loss of Damon for eternity, Elena asked Original vamp Alaric to compel her to forget she was ever in love with the elder Salvatore. But will Alaric actually go through with her request? “That’s a big part of the next episode,” Dries replies. “Damon is his friend, too. For her, it’s a hard decision. But for him, it’s also like, ‘I don’t know if I can do this to my friend.’ So that will be his emotional journey in the next episode.” Continue Reading at TVLINE