Kaleb's sister Kym arrives to Mystic Falls for Commonwealth Day, just in time to witness MG and Lizzie capture a zombie. Josie learns about the effect the spell from Kurutta's sword had on Lizzie and goes to New Orleans to consult Freya Mikaelson about it. Freya teacher her the words to the spell, and Josie uses it on Freya to have her remember her niece Hope. MG and Kaleb capture Sebastian and put him in Dr. Saltzman's old office until they know what to do with him. Meanwhile, a new monster called Croatoan arrives to Mystic Falls and starts killing people keeping secrets, starting with a town councilman. The creature goes after Lizzie for keeping Hope's secret about being back. Sebastian reveals that he knows what happened at the lost colony of Roanoke, since he was there at the time. It involved a witch named Cassandra unleashing the Croatoan on the town in order to find a killer, who was Sebastian himself. Josie arrives just in time, when the Croatoan is about to kill Hope and Lizzie, and uses the spell on the entire town. With the secret revealed, the Croatoan returns to its primary mission and grabs Landon to take him to Malivore. Sebastian remembers that Cassandra unleashed the creature on Roanoke to keep attention away from him, whom the witch loved. She was the one who desiccated Sebastian but was killed by the creature before she could get rid of it. He gives MG his medallion, which protected him from the Croatoan and which Hope uses to destroy the creature. Landon is furious at Hope for keeping her secret from him and isn't sure if he wants to be with her or Josie. Raf remembers his own feelings for Hope and tells her he can't be near her. Sebastian convinces MG to tell Lizzie the truth. The escaped zombie leaves behind its eyeball, which is used to spy on the school through a magic ritual.
Meanwhile, Mac brings Alaric in for questioning about the murders at the bar. Alaric admits to having been at the bar with Headmaster Vardemus but leaving shortly after. He has Mac call Mayor Donovan, who vouches for Alaric. She then admits that she allowed her feelings for him to get in the way of her job. Alaric also admits that he likes her, but he can't be open with her about everything, he just needs her to look the other way on occasion. She says she can't do that, so Alaric explains that he believes a zombie killed those people at the bar, also revealing the existence of other supernatural beings. Naturally, the Sheriff disbelieves him, so he brings in Kaleb to wipe her memory of this.
- The Big Easy: Josie goes to New Orleans to consult with Freya Mikaelson.
- Continuity Nod: Josie consults with Hope's aunt Freya on the Japanese spell. At the end of the episode, Freya comes to Mystic Falls after regaining her memories of her niece.
- Geek:
- Lizzie knows exactly how to distract Landon. She then asks him about his opinion on Ewoks. Cut to a scene about Landon excitedly talking her ear off about them while making a sandwich. Lizzie is so bored she nearly nods off.
- Later on, Landon references a number of "versus" films and gets offended when Lizzie refers to them as boring.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Cassandra was killed by the very creature she brought into being.
- Instantly Proven Wrong: Kaleb tries to convince his sister that there's nothing interesting at the Salvatore School, moments before a zombie bursts through the door and is captured by MG and Lizzie.
- Internal Reveal:
- Everyone finally regains their memories of Hope.
- Lizzie learns that Sebastian is real.
- Josie tells Lizzie about Penelope's journal and tells her to stop using the pen Penelope gave her.
- Landon tells Lizzie that he and Josie haven't slept together, so Lizzie tells Hope that she still has a chance.
- Let's You and Him Fight: Landon has an idea to unleash the zombie on the Croatoan, figuring the monsters will fight, which will allow them to get away. This turns out to be incorrect, as the two monsters completely ignore one another.
- The Lost Colony of Roanoke: It's revealed that Roanoke was wiped out by a creature summoned by a witch named Cassandra because of the murders Sebastian committed. Initially, he believes that she unleashed the creature to find out the culprit. However, after Josie's spell jogs his memory, he remembers that Cassandra knew it was him all along and wanted to protect him from the townsfolk, so she unleashed the Croatoan to seek out the colonists' secrets and keep them distracted. She was planning on destroying the creature but gave her protective medallion to Sebastian instead, so the creature killed her before she could banish it. At some point, Malivore took the Croatoan, so even Sebastian forgot some of the details of those events.
- Love Triangle: After his memories of Hope are restored, Landon doesn't know who he wants to be with anymore and tells Josie he needs time to figure out his feelings. Gets even more complicated with Raf, who remembers his own feelings for Hope but doesn't want to ruin his friendship with Landon. To get even more complicated, both Josie and Hope crushed on one another in the past.
- There's also some ambiguity with MG, who has long had feelings for Lizzie but also likes Kaleb's sister Kym.
- Manly Tears: Sebastian after remembering the whole truth about what happened at Roanoke.
- The Reveal: Lizzie and Hope reveal a bunch of secrets to one another, as they're trying to keep the Croatoan from killing them.
- Hope had
a crush on Josie when she was 14. - Lizzie thinks Hope is cool, even though she is loathe to admit it.
- Also, the ending of the previous episode implied that Josie suspected Landon of having feelings for Hope. In fact, between episodes, she reads Lizzie's diary entry on remembering Hope and figures out the whole truth.
- Matt Donovan is now the Mayor of Mystic Falls.
- Hope had
- Running Gag: Landon has to keep reminding others that phoenixes don't have Super-Strength.
- Sinister Schnoz: The Croatoan has a long, pointy nose, which it uses to stab its victims in the throat to keep them from screaming, before stabbing them with it multiple times in the chest.
- Title Drop: Spoken by Landon to Josie about his feelings for her after regaining memories of Hope.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: The Super Squad believes they can stop Malivore from sending any more monsters if they capture one of them instead of destroying it. They capture the zombie with the Malivore symbol on its forehead, but are seemingly proven wrong when the Croatoan shows up anyway. What they don't realize is that Malivore didn't create the zombie, it was the mysterious hooded figure at the cemetery, so they may still be right.
