Spoilers ahead for the November 14 episode of Legacies Season 2, called "Screw Endgame."
Legacies embraced its Vampire Diaries origin with a decade dance in "Screw Endgame," but the biggest bombshell had nothing to do which Salvatore School students would go full 80s. The episode ended with Professor Vardemus meeting Alaric for a drink, and the whole point of the scene at first seemed to be Legacies dressing Matt Davis as Indiana Jones. Instead, after Alaric left, Vardemus recognized somebody with ties to Malivore, and he revealed that he's not who he has seemed all along. As it turns out, Vardemus is none other than Clarke.
The big shock came when Vardemus -- or "Vardemus," as the case apparently is -- removed his ring in the bar, revealing that he's really Ryan Clarke, using the ring to somehow pass as Vardemus.
While this immediately raises the question of whether Clarke killed the real Professor Vardemus and took his place at some point since Vardemus' introduction in Season 2, Legacies executive producer Brett Matthews clarified about Vardemus in comments to TVLine, saying that "he has" been Clarke this whole time. When asked if there were hints along the way that Clarke and "Vardemus" were one and the same, Matthews said this:
Pretty shocking, right? It’s something we’ve known all along, and there was the occasional breadcrumb, but the reality is that Clarke has done a good job infiltrating the school. His plan will be laid bare over the next couple of episodes. In our minds, you’ve never met the real Vardemus, only Clarke.
Legacies fans, don't feel like you missed something if you were shocked by the reveal that Clarke is Vardemus! According to Brett Matthews, Clarke has done such a good job infiltrating the school that there simply weren't big hints for viewers to have picked up on any more than the students at the Salvatore School.
Viewers were fooled into thinking they were two separate people just as much as the Legacies characters have been, but at least those of us watching from home aren't in any danger from the twist! That's undoubtedly not the case particularly for Hope, against whom Clarke has big reasons to hold a grudge, and probably Josie, considering how Vardemus has already begun to push her in a dark direction.
None of the good guys know that Vardemus is Clarke at this point, and Hope is the only one who would know just how big of a threat he poses if the truth came out. There are a lot more questions than answers about him at this point. When asked if Clarke has the power to absorb people like Malivore, Bett Matthews explained:
Well, what do we know about Clarke? We know he’s, in fact, the son of Malivore. Why he’s in the state he’s in, as well as what that state exactly is, will be a question that gets answered in the very short term.
It sounds like Legacies viewers don't have too much longer to wait to get some answers about the state of Clarke, which hopefully means answers in the first half of the season rather than following the fall finale. Next week's episode will see the Legacies debut of The Originals' Freya, so there may not be a ton of time to focus on Clarke/Vardemus. Still, was the twist at the end of "Screw Endgame" a sign that Kai won't be the biggest bad on Legacies Season 2?
Find out when new episodes of Legacies air Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on The CW. Legacies will be paired with a brand new show in 2020, so prepare for something other than Supernatural as the lead-in in the not-too-distant future!
