The Vampire Diaries makes its triumphant return to our television screens tonight and we cannot be more excited to see how Mystic Falls and the vampire Scooby gang deal without the presence of Elena Gilbert.

At the end of season 6 of The Vampire Diaries, Elena was linked to Bonnie in a sadistic little spell that meant as long as Elena was alive Bonnie would continue to die. To save Bonnie and have her best friend be able to live out the rest of her days, Elena was put in a sleeping/death-like spell (think Sleeping Beauty but with more teen angst) until Bonnie dies of old age.

But the show still has a lot going for it despite losing its main character. The drama that unfolded during the last few episodes set up season 7 of The Vampire Diaries to be an epic magic battle between vampires and witches and vampire witches alike.

Heretics are a thing

If you don’t remember what a Heretic is, it’s essentially a vampire that can perform magic. What, you thought witches can’t be vampires? Psht, that’s so two seasons ago. If a witch had/has the ability to absorb magic from other sources, like Kai did, when they become a vampire they can then siphon magic from themselves in order to continue being a witch — you know, since being a vampire is essentially a magical curse all on its own. Yep. Welcome back to The Vampire Diaries, where the mythology is more confusing than the actual story.

And yeah, that’s a lot more confusing than we’d like it to be. But here’s where the simple part comes in: Damon and Stefan’s mother befriended six Heretic vampires when she was being a horrible Ripper lady in the 1800s. When she and her crew got caught by the Gemini coven, they trapped her and her friends in a 1903 prison world much like the 1994 prison world Bonnie and Damon were trapped in last year.

However, Kai was able to essentially free Lily and her Heretic vampire friends in the season finale last year and now we have six vampires who are not only old as hell (and therefore strong as hell) but also way more powerful than anything Stefan, Damon, Caroline or Bonnie have ever dealt with.

There’s going to be time jumps

This sounds more frightening than it actually is, we promise. At the end of last season we saw a glimpse of a dystopian looking Mystic Falls, and that’s legitimately what happens after years of the town being ruled by Lily and her Heretics.

However, we won’t be spending all our time in the dystopian world, thank goodness. The Vampire Diaries season 7 will continue to explore present day Mystic Falls to help explain how the town got in such a bad shape. There will be occasional time jumps to the future just so we can see some results of what our favorite characters do in the present, but we’ll mostly be staying in the year 2015.

And that is all you really need to remember about The Vampire Diaries season 6! While there are obviously smaller things like the fact that Enzo is still in town, Matt continues to hate vampires, and Stefan and Caroline are finally starting to go after one another, those will be easier to get back into and remember than trying to figure out why there’s a vampire that can do magic.

Will you watch ‘The Vampire Diaries’ season 7 premiere tonight?

The synopsis for tonight’s episode reads, “After a twisted plan left the life of his girlfriend Elena linked to that of his best friend Bonnie, Damon is forced to navigate his new reality without the love of his life. A newly empowered Bonnie has decided that she will be Damon’s moral compass and keeps a close eye on him as he, in turn, cautiously keeps tabs on Alaric, following the loss of his fiancée Jo. Meanwhile, as he waits for Caroline to sort out her emotions, Stefan takes an active role in protecting the town from Lily and her family of Heretics, who have wasted no time wreaking havoc in Mystic Falls. Elsewhere, Enzo struggles to find his place in Lily’s new life, and is quickly forced to decide where his true loyalties lie. Finally, with the stakes higher than ever, Matt, who has recently completed his deputy training program, teams up with Stefan and Caroline to put a stop to the Heretics, but an unexpected turn of events leaves one of them in a dangerous position.”

It’s not TVD without a little danger! Or, rather, a lot of danger! The Vampire Diaries premieres tonight at 8:00 pm.