This Year Will Be Different

School is back in session for the students of the Salvatore School with a new headmaster, Professor Vardemus. Hope has been attending Mystic Falls High, where she meets Maya and Ethan, and runs into a suspicious Alaric, who has become the new principal. Lizzie meets a mysterious person, Sebastian, who has inexplicably appeared at school. Lizzie falls for Sebastian immediately, upsetting MG. Landon becomes popular at school after everyone assumes he destroyed Malivore, putting a strain on his budding relationship with Josie. The school and town fall victim to a cyclops, whom Hope and Alaric defeat. After the fight, Hope has a breakdown after talking with Landon and reveals to Alaric what happened: that she and Landon had an "epic" love, she is Klaus' and Hayley's daughter, and Ric is the closest thing she had to a father. He promises her they will figure it out together. The cloaked man murders a jogger and carves the Triad Symbol into his forehead.

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