'Legacies' Season 2 Episode 5 just revealed that Vardemus and Ryan Clarke have more in common than viewers thought

Viewers have been wary of Vardemus since his first appearance in the second episode of the season, and now those worries have been validated and amplified.

Well, that was a doozy of an episode!

Ever since Professor Vardemus made his first appearance in the second episode of Season 2 of 'Legacies', he has been a mystery viewers have been trying to unravel. From his peculiar aura to his asserting supernatural superiority, we knew this was someone to watch out for.

Then came his meddling with Josie, who has been walking on the darker side this season. With neither her sister, nor her father to take care of, the new Josie is a bit more selfish, and not in a good way. Vardemus tries to get her to use dark magic, but of course, his intentions seem more sinister. When performing dark magic takes a big toll on Josie, she does go to Vardemus for help and he uses a weird hourglass that sucks out the darkness from Josie that was making her ill.

And now, it seems all our worries about Vardemus being a bad guy were validated after the fifth episode revealed that Vardemus is, in fact, Ryan Clarke -- Malivore's son, Landon's half-brother, and Hope's eternal pain-in-the-neck. As the episode ended, Vardemus took off his special red ring and put it back on, and when the camera panned away and back to his face, we see that he now has Clarke's face. Of course, this raises more questions.

What does Clarke want with Josie and her magic? Who rescued him from the Malivore pit and how did he get the ring that is helping him perform magic? What happened to the real Vardemus? And why is Clarke (as Vardemus) consuming the bodies of the defeated Malivore monsters? It is most likely the red-cloaked entities that we see in every other episode this season that did bring Clarke out. However, we don't know whether Clarke is still trying to help his "dad" or his efforts are in service to these red-cloaked mystery figures.

If we were wary of Vardemus before, this week's episode just raised our suspicions by a hundredfold and we hope the students of Salvatore School (and Mystic Falls High) unearth what Vardemus/Clarke has planned for them.

'Legacies' airs on The CW on Thursday nights.

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