‘Legacies’: Alexis Denisof’s New Headmaster Character Is the Dandy Snape-Substitute 2019 Needs

It’s been a long, hard year, replete with tragedy, heartbreak, and the looming specter of humanity’s potential destruction mere decades down the road. Enter a savior, the hero 2019 needs, in the form of Alexis Denisof prancing around on Legacies as new Salvatore School headmaster Professor Vardemus. Is he potentially evil? Sure. But his introduction this week on “This Year Will Be Different” was so delightful, at least for the moment his eventual villainy doesn’t really matter.

Spoilers for Legacies Season 2, Episode 2, “This Year Will Be Different” past this point.

There were a lot of things that were great about Legacies‘ second episode. Unlike the slow-burn summer vacation of the season premiere, episode 2 picked up with the new school year, some new romantic pairings (or potentials) and Hope Mikaelson (Danielle Rose Russell) feeling lost and alone. That led to some absolutely heartbreaking scenes involving her now ex-boyfriend Landon (Aria Shahghasemi) and a peanut butter milkshake, as well as her reconnecting with former mentor/father figure Alaric Saltzman (Matthew Davis) to kill a literal troll (well, cyclops).

Alaric, by the way, has transitioned from growing a beard professionally to sporting said beard as the principal at Mystic Falls’ regular human high school. That leaves a gap at the Salvatore School, so enter Professor Vardemus. And when I say “enter Professor Vardemus,” I mean, dude gets a serious entrance into the show, complete with a cane, long stroll, and reveal shot.

Over the course of the episode, it becomes clear that Vardemus isn’t just the opposite of Alaric, i.e., cold and businesslike where Alaric was emotional to a fault. No, that would have been the easy way to go, and Legacies is too smart for that. Instead, Vardemus is a heady combination of Professor Snape, Harold Hill from The Music Man, and The Wizard of Oz. He is, by turns, a total humbug, a faker, a showman, and a legitimate threat.

It’s the whole package, too, and the way Denisof presents him. His snippy British accent is like Buffy‘s Wesley Wyndham-Pryce sucking on a particular sour lemon, while his three-piece suit wardrobe is snappy, but clearly trying a little too hard. What’s up with the large, ruby ring on his finger? Where did he come from? Is he rich, or just pretending to be rich? Even the cane he uses to support himself is revealed to be just an affectation, to the delight of the Salvatore students. It’s also straight out of the Willy Wonka playbook, which does not bode well for any students who don’t play by his rules.

That last part, by the way, reveals his overall mission in this season, and it’s vintage Severus Snape (before his ultimate redemption), only with the usually pious Josie Saltzman (Kaylee Bryant) acting as his Draco Malfoy. See, he’s impressed with Josie’s aggressive use of magic against a fellow students who made moves on her new boyfriend Landon (the less said about that, the better), and wants her to join his elite class of witches. This isn’t Dumbledore’s Army he’s luring her into; if anything it’s Voldemort’s Death Eaters, as Vardemus believes in the eventual reveal, and ultimate superiority of magical creatures.

Hard to think he’s wrong given Alaric and Hope spend most of the episode slaughtering a monster while the Mystic Falls students stay completely oblivious, but of course, he is wrong. Supremacy of any kind is, at its root, evil, and that’s the path that Vardemus is leading Josie down here, preying on her co-dependency and lack of confidence in order to turn her to the dark side. In that he definitely falls more on the side of Voldemort — or perhaps Dolores Umbridge, and there certainly are distinct comparisons to the ultra-prim headmistress — than Snape.

But until his evil is revealed, Vardemus is the dandy Snape-substitute we need right now, a deliciously snotty teacher with exquisite fashion taste and Denisof’s perfect, disdainful delivery. The only thing that would make this all more perfect is if Josie’s ex-girlfriend Penelope Park (Lulu Antariksa) returns to save Josie from his dastardly clutches/challenge him to a sick burn-off. Until then, we’ll just sit over here, quietly enjoying Vardemus’ sneer.

Legacies airs Thursdays at 9/8c on The CW.

Where to watch Legacies