New Extended Promo For THE VAMPIRE DIARIES Season 6 Episode 12: "Prayer for the Dying"

THE MERGE - When Liv (guest star Penelope Mitchell) and Luke's (guest star Chris Brochu) father arrives to town to celebrate their birthday, they try and convince him to let Jo (guest star Jodi Lyn O'Keefe) and Kai (guest star Chris Wood) take their place in the merge ceremony. After Tyler (Michael Trevino) finds out that the merge is happening sooner than he expected, he urges Liv to let him talk to her father. Meanwhile, after Caroline's (Candice Accola) plan to cure her mother takes an unexpected and devastating turn, Elena (Nina Dobrev), Stefan (Paul Wesley) and Damon (Ian Somerhalder) gather at the hospital, while Jo attempts to save Sheriff Forbes' (guest star Marguerite MacIntyre) life. Lastly, with the merge set to take place, Damon's risky plan quickly sends things spiraling out of control, forcing one of the twins to take matters into their own hands. Jeffrey Hunt directed the episode written by Brett Matthews & Rebecca Sonnenshine (#612).

After a big time jump, the premiere opens with Bonnie (Kat Graham) and Damon (Ian Somerhalder) still gone. While their whereabouts will be revealed quickly, the question of what happened while they were there will be a season-long arc. Elena (Nina Dobrev) will be grieving over the loss of Damon by making some surprising choices and bonding with Stefan (Paul Wesley) and Alaric (Matt Davis), who does some bonding of his own with a woman he meets. Get ready for a handful of new faces, including a militia leader (Colin Ferguson) and a tough doctor at the university hospital (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe). Matt (Zach Roerig) will be thriving as he gets involved in the new magic-less community, while Tyler (Michael Trevino), now back to a human with the werewolf gene, will return to his testosterone-filled, hard-headed personality. Will he reconnect with Caroline (Candice Accola), whom executive producer Julie Plec says will take the loss of Bonnie and Damon "in a weird way the hardest"?