Where Are Damon & Bonnie On 'TVD'?

Maybe "When are Damon and Bonnie?" would be a better question to ask. On Friday, following The Vampire Diaries Season 6 premiere that only gave fans a pancake-filled glimpse of what happened to Damon and Bonnie when The Other Side collapsed, Julie Plec opened up about their location. In and interview with E! Online, Plec revealed that next Thursday's episode, "Yellow Ledbetter," will reveal where Damon and Bonnie are. But the showrunner also revealed a way for fans who can't wait, like myself, to figure out where — or, again, WHEN — Damon and Bonnie are. And the clues are in the titles of TVD Season 6's first three episodes. So, what can we guess? Damon and Bonnie time-traveled to the early '90s.

Plec told E!, "Anybody who wants to get a little clever trying to figure it out, they should dig a little deep into the episode titles and see if they can find some guesses." And dig, I did before coming up with a conclusion that makes perfect sense, when I remembered that Damon was wearing a flannel unironically. The three episode titles that Plec referenced during her spoiler-y interview with E! are the premiere title, "I'll Remember," and the following episodes, "Yellow Ledbetter" and "Welcome to Paradise." So, let's break down the clues that absolutely prove that Damon and Bonnie are somewhere in the grunge-era.

Clue #1: That Flannel

Damon Salvatore does NOT wear flannel and he would never wear flannel ironically either. I don't even think, in the five seasons TVD has been on the air, Damon's worn a color once. And now, all of a sudden, he's gone full lumberjack in a red flannel? Flannel might be back in in 2014, but that doesn't mean Damon would wear it — unless he were transported back to a time before we knew better about flannel, aka the '90s.

Clues #2-4: The Episode Titles

A quick Google search revealed exactly the hidden meaning that Julie Plec seemed to be hinting at (admittedly I had an edge because of my Pearl Jam-loving boyfriend), these are all song titles. But that's not all — they're all song titles of songs that were released before 1995.

The premiere, "I'll Remember"

The title of the Season 6 premiere also happens to be the same title as a Madonna song that was released in 1994.

Episode 2, "Yellow Ledbetter"

Thursday's new episode, "Yellow Ledbetter," is the title of a 1992 song by Pearl Jam (thanks again to my boyfriend).

Episode 3, "Welcome to Paradise"

And last but not least, the third episode of the current season is titled, "Welcome to Paradise," which also happens to be the title of a Green Day song from 1992.

Clue #5: Three Key Words — "Familiar, Nostalgic, Empty"

When Plec was asked about Damon and Bonnie's pancake-filled location, she decided to respond by dropping three key words for fans to decipher. Now, here's the interesting thing — I get the use of the words "nostalgia" and "empty" to describe the '90s what with everyone's obsession with being a "'90s kid" and that it was the grunge era. But it's the familiar part that makes me wonder, could we be learning about where and what Damon was up to in the early '90s from this Season 6 timeframe? As far as Damon's history goes, we've only learned about his past up to the 1970s. So, this could be Plec's way of introducing another segment of Damon's story.

However, the "familiar" key word could also be a reference to the fact that Elena and Bonnie were both born in 1992. Sure, they'd be babies then, but the '90s would be familiar to Bonnie.

Conclusion:

So, what can we decipher from these five clues? Obviously that Julie Plec loves early '90s music — just kidding. Damon and Bonnie have obviously been sent back to either 1992 — because that's when Elena and Bonnie were born — or to 1993, which would fall between the two years these three songs were released. And now TVD has officially introduced time traveling into the already-crowded supernatural mix on the series. It almost makes me miss doppelgängers — almost.

Image: Annette Brown/The CW, damon-salvatore/Tumblr