- Title: Legacies – This Year Will Be Different
- wiki: link
While some of the episode deals with relationship struggles between Landon (Aria Shahghasemi) and Josie (Kaylee Bryant), and MG‘s (Quincy Fouse) chances of wooing Lizzie (Jenny Boyd) getting shot down again with the arrival of a mysterious stranger (Thomas Doherty), much of “I’ll Never Give Up Hope” focuses on the girl that time forgot. While hunting a troll, Hope (Danielle Rose Russell) unexpectedly runs into Alaric (Matthew Davis) now the principal of Mystic Falls High School. While adamant about not putting a student in danger, something allows Alaric to trust Hope to help in taking out troll (which leads to Hope’s second-first meeting with another important person in her former life).
Along with reuiniting Hope with Alaric, who she finally reveals her true identity to, the episode is also notable for introducing Alexis Denisof as the new headmaster of the Salvatore Boarding School for the Young & Gifted. Along with foreshadowing more trouble from Malivore, “This Year Will Be Different” also suggests the new headmaster is far more morally ambitious than the school’s previous one. As for Sebastian (Doherty), is he something else that has been released from Malivore, or some new (or possibly quite old) threat just now making its presence felt?
