The Vampire Diaries Season 6 Episode 6 recap: Crashing on Memory Lane

On this week’s episode of The Vampire Diaries, Damon is finally back. He clues Stefan in on the twilight zone he was living in and says he can’t seem to stop thinking about Elena. Elena, on the other hand, doesn’t want anything to do with Damon. When Caroline lets her know that he’s back, Elena rearranges her plans so she can completely avoid Damon.

Stefan finally tells his big brother about Alaric helping Elena to forget about Damon. Of course Damon has no idea why anyone would want to forget about him and is beyond upset at Alaric for allowing this to happen to his best friend. Damon reassures Stefan that if he can simply see Elena, the fireworks will go off and they’ll fall in love all over again.

It might be that simple with any other girl but Elena is a tough nut to crack, Damon.

But before we go any further into this episode, let’s get to the first causality of the night. As Trip was driving into Mystic Falls, he had along with him a gang full of vampires, including Ivy. Since the place is still magic-free, Ivy and the others died. This is the second time Ivy has died, so let’s see if she’s really a goner this time.

Damon decides to show up at Elena’s dorm room and convince her to open the door. It’s awkward and painful to watch this scene because you know how much Damon wants Elena to just open that door! He loves her beyond words. Still hesitant, Elena opens the door, but flees before Damon can see her. If she doesn’t have her memories, I don’t quite understand why she’s freaking out about seeing Damon.

Elena makes Alaric promise that he won’t give her the memories back unless she asks for them. He then mentions to keep an eye out for Jo, because she cannot be compelled. While snooping at the hospital, Jo talks with Elena about the girl she miraculously saved at the cornfield the other day.

Elena blames Liam for exaggerating the girl’s condition, but Jo isn’t having it. She tells Elena to cut the bull because she already knows exactly what Elena and Alaric are. Jo also threatens Elena that if she notices any more blood bags that go missing, she’ll know exactly who to look for. Elena ends up putting two and two together and figured out what Jo is. If she can’t be compelled and isn’t afraid of having vampires around the hospital or being in a relationship with one — she must be a witch.

Speaking of witches, Damon isn’t telling everyone the truth about Bonnie’s whereabouts, saying instead she wasn’t with him and that’s why she didn’t come back when he did. Jeremy is obviously taking this  very hard. I don’t blame Jeremy for being so upset that Damon is back and not Bonnie, because he didn’t even get to say goodbye.

He walks in on Damon creeping in Elena’s dorm and tells him how he still pays Bonnie’s cell phone bill just so he can hear her voicemail recording. Aw! Poor Jeremy! I just want to give him a big hug and cry with him about missing the Bon Bon!

Damon can see how badly Jeremy is suffering and tells him that Bonnie wasn’t with him because she found peace and is in a better place. See? Damon can be mean and sarcastic but he always knows when to be sympathetic.

As if this weren’t hard enough to deal with, Matt calls Caroline to let her know that she’s most likely the next victim on Trip’s hit list, because he has Ivy’s cell phone and can see that Caroline was the last person that she called. I guess Trip thinks that Ivy only had vampires for friends because he’s headed out to get Caroline, who could’ve just been a normal human friend of Ivy’s.

Damon finally gets the call he’s been waiting for and probably heard the angels singing when he saw Elena’s number. She knows she has some feelings developing for him but she can’t explain them. She obviously doesn’t let him know this, but she does tell him that she thinks it would be good if they meet for a talk. He doesn’t want to let her know he’s already in her room, so he pretends that he’ll meet her there shortly.

Unfortunately, Caroline also lives there and Trip shows up, ready to snatch himself a vampire. Trip does get what he wants; it’s just a different vampire. Elena calls Alaric to let him know of the struggle she’s witnessed in her room and that someone has taken Damon. As he’s leaving, Alaric bumps into Jo who wants to have a straightforward talk with him. He comes clean.

Trip has Enzo and Damon in the back of his van and he’s headed towards the Mystic Falls border. Elena and Caroline are at one borderline while Stefan and Alaric are at the other. They’re both pretending to have car troubles so when Trip shows up he’ll hopefully want to be a Good Samaritan. Right before the action goes down, Elena tells Caroline that if Damon survives this, she wants her memories back.

The Vampire Diaries -- "The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get"

I knew Elena would eventually want them back! She has to remember what he looks like and who can say no to a face like that!

Trip comes speeding towards Alaric and Stefan’s fake car-trouble scene and they get ready to roll on the rescue mission. Alaric goes up to Trip’s window to ask for help while Stefan stays back by the car to let Caroline and Elena know what’s going on.

Since Trip is not a good person, he doesn’t want to be a helper, which forces Alaric to smash through the window. But as Alaric is trying to grab hold of Trip, he gets injected with vervain and Trip hits the gas pedal while heading straight into the car where Stefan is seated. Lucky enough Stefan was able to get himself out of the way but now Alaric, Enzo and Damon are a part of a massive — and real — car crash. Stefan lets the girls know what he’s just witnessed and tells them something no one wanted to hear: The other guys are now past the border of Mystic Falls and Stefan is the only one who can help grab the three out.

Stefan plays the brave soldier role once again and goes into the Mystic Falls border line, getting hit with every death he’s gone through. As all the magic continues to wear off, Stefan fights to help save Damon and Enzo first. He ends up getting them all back across the border again, but sees Alaric on the ground.

It’s a good thing Jo played creepy stalker and followed Alaric. Now she can help save the day. She’s also an awesome doctor who knows how to save Alaric from dying thanks to Trip. Jo tells Alaric that if she moves him past the border, he’ll bleed out and die. It’s a close call, but he pulls through.

Later we find out that, because Jo was able to save Alaric right before he died, Alaric is no longer a vampire and Elena can no longer ask for her memories back. I thought the opposite would’ve happened and she would’ve automatically gotten her memories back, but nope. Guess she’ll have to make some new ones on her own. Fortunately, Elena does seem willing to give Damon another shot.

vampire-diaries-stefan-carolineIt looks like Caroline, on the other hand, has finally had it with trying to mend her friendship with Stefan. He asks if they could just forget everything he’s done, but she tells him that she doesn’t want to be friends with him anymore.

I know Caroline is lying and it mainly has to deal with the fact that she has feelings for him that go beyond friendship. She’s done this before with Klaus, so I doubt she’s actually sticking to her guns now.

Damon isn’t giving up hope on his relationship with Elena even though he knows she won’t be able to get her memories back. He goes back to her room and this time Elena opens the door. It’s a magical moment for Damon as you see his eyes glitter with excitement as he looks at Elena. Elena however looks like she’s completely confused as to why Damon is looking at her that way.

The tease for next week’s episode makes that last scene look like it didn’t actually matter for Elena and that she’s focused on moving on with her life, which somehow includes Liam. Damon gets to meet Liam and you can bet that he’ll be his typical sarcastic Damon Salvatore self when Liam tries to step up and challenge him. Wrong move, kid!

What were your thoughts on this episode? Do you think Ivy is really gone now? I don’t get why she was brought back to only be killed off again. How long do you think it will take Jeremy to go back to his normal self? He’s heartbroken after seeing Damon come back and not Bonnie. I don’t blame the guy, but someone should be there to help him — and he should want the help. Do you think Jo and Alaric make a cute couple? I want Alaric to be happy so I hope she doesn’t do something stupid and hurt him. Plus it’d be nice to use her as their witch versus the twins since they don’t have the best background. Wonder how they’ll react to seeing Damon. Do you think Caroline and Stefan will ever end up together? Do you think Elena and Damon will ever get back together? One of these if not both will probably happen by the end of the season. I’m not really rooting for either. Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

New episodes of The Vampire Diaries premiere Thursdays at 8pm ET on The CW

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