‘Vampire Diaries’ Season 6 Spoilers: Juicy Sarah Salvatore Twist; Damon And Elena Grow Closer In Episode 9 [RECAP]

“The Vampire Diaries” is all about juicy twists! After a week off for Thanksgiving, the hit CW series returned on Thursday night with episode 9, “I Alone.” The episode found Damon (Ian Somerhalder) teaming up with Elena (Nina Dobrev) to retrieve Bonnie (Kat Graham) from 1994 -- but of course the rescue mission wasn’t that simple.

Damon needed the ascendant in order to travel to the 1994 universe. The only problem was that the ascendant was in Jo’s (Jodi Lyn O’Keefe) possession, and giving it up meant the possibility of Kai (Chris Wood) returning to kill her. Of course Jo’s life meant nothing to Damon compared to the possibility of getting Bonnie back. He compelled Alaric (Matt Davis) to steal the ascendant from his girlfriend, and used Liv (Penelope Mitchell) to send him and Elena to 1994.

Liv and Elena were suspicious of how Damon got his hands on the magical token, but went through with the plan anyway. The catch was that the pair only had eight hours during the full moon to get Bonnie and come home. Once getting to 1994, the pair began searching for Bonnie but couldn’t find her. “Vampire Diaries” fans will remember that Kai left Bonnie in Portland when he stabbed her and stole her blood. Fortunately Bonnie had Kai’s pager, and Damon was able to get in touch with her. She was six and a half hours away from Mystic Falls -- leaving barely enough time for her to return to get back to Damon and Elena.

It seemed like everyone was going to get the happy ending they wanted, but Elena figured out the truth about how Damon acquired the ascendant when she read about Jo and Kai in the 1994 newspaper. With her memories of Damon still gone, this was another strike against her former lover. He had known that stealing the ascendant would put Jo’s life at risk, and he went through with the plan anyway. Elena thought that he was just rescuing Bonnie as a way to win her back, but Damon finally opened up to her about what truly happened while he was stuck with Bonnie for months. He explained that he thought May 10, 1994 was his “personal hell” because he took some lives after a petty spat with Stefan (Paul Wesley). The day still haunted him, but Bonnie remained hopeful for the both of them.

“I’m doing this for Bonnie, not for you,” Damon told Elena.

Damon’s words touched Elena and she apologized to him for erasing her memories of him. While the two still have a long road ahead of them, Damon promised that they’d make new memories. Their touching moment was interrupted when Liv’s magic brought them back early. Elena was angry, but Liv had bigger problems other than Bonnie still being stuck in 1994 – Kai had returned to the land of the living and was out for blood.

Kai visited Liv at the bar she worked at. She didn’t recognize him, but when the place cleared out he made his identity known. Fortunately Tyler (Michael Trevino) was hiding in the shadows and was able to rescue Liv before Kai was able to get his hands on her. But Kai had no plans on giving up. He ran into Elena and Damon in the woods, taunting them with magic before seeking safety from them in Mystic Falls.

But the 1994 storyline wasn’t the big shocker of episode 9. Sarah Salvatore (Gabrielle Walsh) asked Matt (Zach Roerig) to set up a meeting with Stefan so that she could finally meet her family. She got face-to-face with her uncle … and Enzo (Michael Malarkey).

Enzo was immediately intrigued by a living Salvatore relative, but Stefan warned him to back off. With Enzo and Matt sitting at the bar, Stefan sat down with Sarah to learn about her past. But there was a twist – she's not the real Sarah.

“I know you’re lying,” Stefan told her while Enzo was distracted from eavesdropping.

Forcing her to take a ride, Sarah immediately began to panic over Stefan’s doubt. “Why don’t you believe me?” she asked, showing him photos of her parents, Gail and Zach Salvatore.

But Stefan had good reason for not believing her – he knew the real Sarah Salvatore and she was an art major at Duke University. Although he told everyone that the baby had died, he made sure that a great family adopted Sarah at the hospital.

“Even though she doesn’t know me I’ve looked out for her her entire life,” Stefan explained.

So, why did “Sarah” claim to be Sarah? According to the con artist, whose real name is Monique; she had met Sarah while at camp. Sarah had no desire to find her real family, so Monique decided to find them for her in order to get the perfect life she never had. She didn't anticipate on Sarah's family being vampires though.

Stefan wanted Sarah to have a normal life and decided to spare Sarah’s. Instead of killing her, he compelled her to forget everything she knew about Sarah Salvatore and leave Virginia. But before she could leave town, Matt arrived to complicate the situation. Stefan tried to explain that she was a con artist and that the real Sarah was dead, but a lurking Enzo knew that something was fishy. He grabbed Monique and threatened to kill her unless Stefan told him the truth. Stefan wouldn’t budge, and Enzo snapped her neck.

Season 6, episode 9 of “The Vampire Diaries” ended with Matt vowing to kill Enzo with Jeremy’s (Steven R. McQueen) help. Meanwhile Damon ruined his friendship with Alaric, and Bonnie was left crying in 1994. But it was Kai's final moments with Tyler that will have fans on the edge of their seats until next week. Kai wanted to know if Tyler was interested in “making a deal with the devil.”