Have you ever looked in the mirror after not seeing yourself for a while and been shocked by your own reflection? Imagine how the mighty Necromancer feels when he wakes up with a normal human face.

Legacies’ midseason premiere starts off with the story of how the Necromancer got to where we saw him last, underneath a red cloak standing in front of the Malivore pit. We jump back a year in time to see him waking up in Texas without his powers.

This is not exactly the “peace” Malivore promised him.

This episode cuts back and forth between the Necromancer’s journey over the past year and present-day at The Salvatore School. Landon may have finally chosen between Hope and Josie, but that doesn’t mean the awkwardness of the love triangle is over.

Josie’s been avoiding Hope, and Hope is very aware of it. The Hope and Josie dynamic is one of my favorites on the show, and the drama with Landon has gone on for far too long. Hope makes it her mission to reconnect with Josie and get back to the friendship they once had.

Now that “Professor Vardemus” AKA Clarke is gone, Alaric has been reinstated as headmaster. His first order of business: find out more about the ancient vampire who’s kissing his daughter in the hallways.

Alaric decides to give Sebastian a series of tests to prove whether or not he’ll be a good fit at the school. He chooses Landon to supervise since he’s the only one Sebastian can’t kill (when are we going to learn more about Landon’s powers?).

Hope has her own test to pass- living with a roommate. New character Alyssa Chang has taken up shop in Hope’s old bedroom while she’s been busy, you know, getting erased from the world and stuff.

We check back in with the Necromancer a month into living as a human. He’s out of his element working in an ice cream shop. After experiencing the most human thing of all, dealing with an annoying boss, the Necromancer bonds with his coworker Chad. When Chad introduces himself our favorite villain tries to return to the dramatics that we’re so familiar with. But “I’m the…Ted” just doesn’t have the same ring to it. Oh yeah, the Necromancer goes by Ted now. Go figure.

We jump back to present-day and are faced with another awkward moment between Josie, Landon, and Hope. Josie and Landon are having an uncomfortable yet bearable conversation when Josie spots Hope coming and immediately takes off. Before getting cut off by Landon, Sebastian, a witness to all this, chimes in with “Is this what they call teen drama?”.

Yes, Sebastian. Yes, it is.

Fortunately, we get a break from the secondhand embarrassment that is high school relationships to see what “Ted” and Chad are up to. The Necromancer (I just can’t call him Ted, it sounds ridiculous) tells Chad the truth about who he is, and surprisingly Chad believes him. Chad claims to believe in all things the government is hiding like Bigfoot and lizardmen, so why wouldn’t he believe in the Necromancer?

The Necromancer shows Chad what he’s been working on. He can now successfully bring a bug back to life again. Chad’s impressed and agrees to help the Necromancer get his powers back, because who wouldn’t help your creepy coworker bring things back to life?

After a failed attempt to bring a cat back to life, the Necromancer decides to visit the Malivore pit to look for answers. Obviously, when he and Chad arrive, the pit’s disappeared since at this point in the timeline Hope’s already sacrificed herself to close it. Seeing Malivore “defeated” inspires the Necromancer to aim higher which he starts doing by sacrificing Chad.

With bigger aspirations, we see the Necromancer with a renewed sense of confidence in a makeover-style montage turning himself back into the Necromancer we’re used to seeing. Face paint, colored contacts, and a big cut to the forehead later, he’s back to his typical self. Somehow he’s skipped over the dead cat level and now has his full powers back, as shown by him raising Chad from the dead.

The guy’s understandably pissed but still agrees to help the Necromancer with his mysterious plan. They put on red cloaks and head to our favorite place, Mystic Falls.

Speaking of Mystic Falls, Sebastian successfully passed his first test: fitting in with the werewolves. After a game of dodgeball, Captain Cheekbones (we can thank Jed for that nickname) and the pack are on good terms. Landon and Sebastian, on the other hand, have a rocky relationship.

Personally, I was a huge fan of Sebastian calling Landon out for leaving Mystic Falls saying that if the girl he loved was in danger, he would’ve never left. Landon had that one coming. Landon has never been one of my favorite characters on Legacies, and his actions this season haven’t changed my mind.

Sebastian’s second test is to fit in with the vampires at the school. MG, still harboring some resentment towards Sebastian for his involvement with Lizzie, complains to Alyssa that he wants Sebastian to fail. Taking things into her own hands, Alyssa purposefully cuts herself on a plate to make Sebastian lose control and drink human blood. This plan backfires when its MG, not Sebastian who loses control. MG absolutely has the makings of a ripper. Hopefully, we’ll get to explore that further down the line.

Likewise, Josie’s slipping out of control in her own way. She’s still practicing dark magic and is almost caught by Dorian when Hope comes to her rescue. Hope tells her about a spell they can do to protect the sand clock Clarke gave Josie from breaking open.

We get to see Hope and Josie doing a spell together again, reminiscent of the time they first did magic together in the pilot. They’re successful, but it’s a temporary solution, not a permanent one.

Afterwards, they finally get a moment to talk about how their situation with Landon has impacted them and their relationship. Hope reveals she saw Josie and Landon together at their movie night and that’s why she didn’t return to the school right away. Both girls decide they want to try again and work on rebuilding what they had before. This was easily the standout moment of the episode. I swear, these two have the most chemistry I’ve seen in The Vampire Diaries universe since Delena.

Sebastian’s final test is to fit in with the witches, which doesn’t go over very well. Alyssa tries to intimidate him which leads to Lizzie coming to his defense, and then him running off.

Landon finds him and Sebastian reveals that his parents sold him to a merchant ship when he was a kid and whenever he tried to escape from it they always found him. He’s never felt safe anywhere. This resonates with Landon, since before The Salvatore School Landon never had a home either. So he tells Alaric Sebastian passed all the tests and deserves to stay. Meanwhile, we see that Ric’s been reading up on “Sebastian the Merciless”, an infamous vampirate.

This leads to an intense confrontation between Alaric and Sebastian when he finds Sebastian feeding on a woman. He shoots him with his crossbow (he’s always true to his vampire hunter roots) and tells him to stay away from his daughter. But, Alaric’s a sucker for second chances and still offers Sebastian a chance to come back to the school if he follows the rules.

However, Sebastian has other plans. He threatens Alaric and reveals that he’s been mind-controlling Lizzie. He has no intention of staying to abide by a set of rules and said that if Alaric wants to protect his daughter he’ll have to kill him.

We don’t know exactly what happened after that, but Alaric tells Lizzie Sebastian left on his own volition and won’t be coming back. I don’t think Ric would’ve taken the chance of him hurting Lizzie, so I’d bet Sebastian’s desiccated somewhere nearby.

As for the other Saltzman twin, Josie has a talk with Landon where they decide to be friends. To put what I hope is the official end to the love triangle, Josie and Landon redecorate Hope’s now shared room to look like her old one did, with a few extra changes. The three of them hug and all seems to be well.

But of course, this is Legacies. Nothing can be good for too long.

The Necromancer and Chad are now in Mystic Falls and raised a Malivore monster to unleash havoc on the school. Next week we’ll be dealing with a monster who preys on everyone’s insecurities and it looks like there’ll be a lot of drama ahead.

Other Musings:

• When Dorian mentioned Caroline at the beginning of the episode it reminded me how annoyed I am that we haven’t seen her yet. Candice King is open to returning, what are we waiting for?
• Chad suggesting “taking a leak” on Malivore for revenge has to be one of the funniest lines in the show.
• I love Lizzie, but I don’t think choosing to talk to MG about her problems with Sebastian is a good idea at all. You know he likes you, give the kid a break!
• There was a very little amount of Hope in this episode, what’s that about? This tribrid deserves her fair amount of screentime.
• Also noticeably missing was Kaleb, I want to see how he reacts to Dorian’s new intern being his sister.

What do you think happened to Sebastian? How soon do you think the sand clock is going to break open? Should Hope and Josie be together instead of with Landon?

Let us know what you think in the comments!