Josie returns to the school for her and Lizzie's birthday party, only to reveal that she plans to have the Merge early and warns Lizzie that if she backs out, she'll do "something drastic". Josie learns that the Necromancer is watching the school and meets with him. He offers to team up with her. Lizzie goes to Alyssa to find out if she can win, and Alyssa tells her that she can't because she's a better person now. When Lizzie decides to run away, Josie shows up and kills Alyssa as a warning. Lizzie runs away, but MG catches up with her and convinces her to return. Hope traps Alaric and Kaleb in Vardemus's box to keep them from interfering with her plan, which involves giving Lizzie a potion that would allow Josie's mind to survive if Lizzie wins and absorbs her body. She also has a Plan B that involves Landon. Rafael uses an artifact to find out who died in the woods and leaves. Landon tracks him down, and Raf tells him that it was him who died, killed by the Necromancer. Raf tried to drown himself in order to avoid hurting anyone as the Necromancer's puppet, but he can't. Meanwhile, the Necromancer forces all the students into the gym and emcees a fight between Josie and Lizzie, while revealing a re-animated Alyssa. When Lizzie doesn't show up, Hope appears to fight Josie. Lizzie arrives just in time to save Hope. The Merge starts and both girls faint. Alaric and Kaleb break out of the simulation but arrive too late. Josie gets up and reveals she won. Alaric announces Lizzie's death, but in private it turns out that Lizzie is still alive thanks to Hope's Plan B, which involved temporarily tying Lizzie's life to Landon's, so she came back to life when he did. While Josie was out, MG "incepted" Hope into Josie's mind, and Alaric keeps her body in his secret chamber, where he tells Lizzie she must hide until Josie is saved. Landon refuses to help Raf drown himself and hugs him. The Necromancer mind-controls Raf into stabbing Landon with the golden arrow.
- Astral Projection: Josie appears behind the Necromancer and Chad as a projection when she finds the spying eye. Also, Professor Vardemus appears to Alaric to explain his upgrades to the box and later appears to Landon to explain how to use the silver platter to find out whose blood has been spilled.
- Beam-O-War: Josie and Hope do that for a few seconds during their fight, but Josie is too powerful. Also, Hope isn't actually fighting to win, but to stall for time.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Dark Josie teams up with the Necromancer in order for them to achieve their desired goals.
- The Big Damn Kiss: Lizzie does this to MG before the Merge, partly to siphon him, and partly to give him a kiss in case she doesn't make it.
- Blank White Eyes: The twins' eyes turn white during the Merge. Raf's eyes also turn white when the Necromancer controls him.
- Closet Geek: MG outright tells Lizzie that she's one given all The Lord of the Rings insults she directs at Landon and her knowledge of comic books. She doesn't deny it.
- Dead All Along: Raf learns that he died the night he came back from his father's cabin and was a zombie all this time.
- Deadly Hug:
- Almost, when Dark Josie and MG hug, giving Josie a chance to attempt magically desiccating MG.
- Landon and Raf hug, giving a chance for Raf's mind control to kick in and stab Landon with the Golden Arrow.
- Expecting Someone Taller: Josie's reaction to the Necromancer announcing himself to her in a Large Ham fashion.
- Fake Brit: In the simulation, Kaleb portrays "Professor Hawkins", who is British.
- I Cannot Self-Terminate: Raf wants to drown himself to break free of the Necromancer's control, but that same control prevents him from doing it.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Hope tries to reach the real Josie during the fight and seems to succeed momentarily, only for Dark Josie to take over again.
- I Work Alone: Alaric in the simulation keeps refusing the help of "Professor Hawkins". When he finally agrees to work together, this counts as his breakthrough and he remembers everything.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Josie almost does this to Hope, but Lizzie saves her just in time.
- Internal Reveal: The Salvatore School finds out that the Necromancer is back and has been spying on them for most of the season.
- Large Ham: The Necromancer, of course. This even allows him to be a pretty good emcee promoting the fight between the twins. When Josie compliments him, he replies that Houdini thought so too.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: To keep Alaric busy, the gang uses the box from the previous episode to put him in the middle of an Indiana Jones-style adventure. When Kaleb tries to stop them, they put him into the same dream as a rival scholar.
- Manly Tears: Jed nearly sheds some when he sees Alyssa's dead body, showing that he clearly cares more about her than she cared about him.
- Mind-Control Eyes: Raf's eyes turn milky white when he is under the Necromancer's control.
- Mind over Matter: Dark Josie really likes using telekinesis.
- Neck Snap: Josie kills Alyssa this way using Mind over Matter just to prove to Lizzie that she's serious.
- Oh, Crap!: Hope's reaction when she hears the Necromancer's voice over the school's PA system, clearly recognizing his voice.
- Our Zombies Are Different: Besides Chad, the Necromancer now has Alyssa, who is previously killed by Josie, and Rafael, who was stabbed by Chad the night Raf came back from his father's cabin.
- The Reveal:
- Raf has been a zombie since the night he came back to the school. He just didn't know it, as the Necromancer has suppressed the memory of his death.
- The Necromancer tells Dark Josie that he intends to use the black magic inside of her so that he can raise and control Malivore.
- Stealth Hi/Bye: Josie is really good at appearing when someone is talking about her.
- Synchronization: Hope has Lizzie drink a potion but doesn't tell her that one of the effects is to temporarily link Lizzie's life with Landon's. So when Lizzie dies during the Merge, so does Landon. And when Landon comes back to life some time later, Lizzie wakes up as well.
- Tempting Fate: Savvy viewers will know to expect this when Landon tells Hope that he's not going anywhere, being immortal and all (and also because the Previously on… segment mentioned the Sphinx's prophecy and the golden arrow).
- Title Drop: Spoken by Lizzie when she realizes that MG has successfully managed to convince her to return.
- Wham Shot: Landon watching the blood form a head on the silver platter. The head is Raf's.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: The reason Hope sends MG after Lizzie. Lizzie realizes that but still falls for it and comes back just in time to save Hope.
