Ep 8. Dead Man on Campus

As the episode opens, Elena and Bonnie are seen discussing about the fact that they’re back to being friends after the whole “expression” magic debacle from last season. They’re both excited about returning to school, but things take a turn for the dark when they realize that there’s a new guy named Aaron (played by Shaun Sipos) who’s starting this semester.

We learn that Aaron has some history with Dr. Wes Maxfield (played by Rick Cosnett), one of their professors. Stefan and Damon also happen to know Maxfield - he’s the vampire who helped them get rid of the Augustine vampires last season.

Elena and Caroline decide to throw a “mega-party” to celebrate the start of the new semester. Meanwhile, Stefan and Damon try to get information out of Dr. Maxfield about his history with Aaron. They also find out that Maxfield has been experimenting on vampires.

Just when things are starting to get interesting, Tyler arrives and shows them a picture of his hybrid friend that had been killed by a professor at his school. The professor turns out to be Dr. Maxfield. Tyler is adamant that they shouldn’t let Maxfield continue with his evil experiments, but Stefan advises caution - it’s best to leave it till they can get more information.

At the party, several interesting things happen. Elena tells Aaron that she knows his parents and that he should come to her if he has any questions. Later, Caroline finds Aaron in a room, with his wrist slashed. She calls Elena and Stefan, who try to save Aaron’s life.

At the hospital, Aaron tells Elena about his family and how they were all killed by “animal attacks”. Elena is suspicious, given that Aaron doesn’t know anything about vampires, and that his professor (Maxfield) has been experimenting on vampires. She goes to Stefan and Damon with her suspicions, and they all decide to confront Maxfield.

Maxfield denies everything, but Stefan counters by telling him that they know he experimented on humans too, not just vampires. Maxfield claims that he’s the only one trying to find a cure for vampirism, but Stefan doesn’t believe him. Damon threatens Maxfield, but Maxfield is unfazed.

Meanwhile, Bonnie has been obsessing about the fact that her magic isn’t the same as it was before, after her resurrection. She’s been trying to do magic using expression, but it’s been causing her physical pain. Jeremy tries to make her see that she doesn’t need to use expression to become a good witch, but Bonnie is determined to get her old magic back.

In the final scene, we see that Aaron survived his suicide attempt, but Dr. Maxfield shows up at his hospital bed, telling him that he needs to make the most of his second chance at life. Little does Aaron know that Maxfield is actually a vampire, and that he plans on using Aaron to get to Elena and the Salvatore brothers.