Alaric Saltzman (Matt Davis) is undoubtedly one of the unluckiest characters on "The Vampire Diaries," as he has had to face multiple losses in the six years the show has been on air.
After Alaric's wife first left him to become a vampire, he embarked on a romantic relationship with Elena's aunt Jenna. But that did not last long, as Jenna was killed by Klaus to break the hybrid spell that was cast on him.
In season 6, Alaric again found love with Jo and he was all set to start a family with her. But as fate would have it, Kai killed his twin sister Jo on her wedding day, thereby killing Jo and Alaric's unborn twins as well.
Season 7 will see Alaric trying to move past all the tragedy in his life, and this will involve a lot of alcohol and attempts to contact the dead.
This could be something similar to what Elena (Nina Dobrev) did in the first half of season 6 when Damon (Ian Somerhalder) was presumed dead. The first episode of season 6 saw Elena using witchy herbs to hallucinate her boyfriend, who was at the time locked in an alternate prison world.
It remains to be seen what exactly Alaric will do to deal with his grief, but according to executive producer Julie Plec, Alaric's ways are rather unconventional.
"This is not an easy transition for him. He's already been through so much and now he's going through this. This is about as horrible and despicable a thing that could happen," Plec said at San Diego Comic-Con.
"He's not going to recover so easily. He's going to explore his grief in some unconventional ways involving a lot of booze and some secret desires that involve psychics and witches to try to contact the dead and God knows what else," she added.
Although Plec has made the character go through a lot of difficult times, she is hoping he would come out to the other side soon.
"I like to put him in situations that are really terrible because he forces him to dig as deep as he can. I love that. I love messing with Alaric," Plec said. "We'll be rooting for him to come out to the other side."
"The Vampire Diaries" returns to the CW in October.
