Much like the students, Alaric Saltzman almost forgot that this year, it was the Salvatore School's turn to host the annual Miss Mystic Falls.

Lizzie leads the charge of organizing the event mainly because she's gunning for the crown, but her dreams are shot when she realizes her arch-nemesis Dana's mother is one of the judges on the committee. 

Lizzie switches to plan B and picks the next best in line according to science: Hope. 

Hope has the makings of a pageant queen according to Lizzie. She's beautiful, she's well-spoken and she has a heartbreaking story that will resonate with the judges. 

But Hope is unsure about her involvement in the pageant given the angry outbursts she's been experiencing throughout the day. 

Lizzie takes her to a secluded part of the forest and encourages her to scream at the top of her lungs which is a comforting temporary release. 

To make sure Hope has the best chance at winning, Lizzie gives her all of her mother, Caroline Forbes' notes about winning, and her mother's Miss Mystic Falls dress. 

Josie tries to hide her disappointment in her sister picking Hope instead of her. 

Penelope, Josie's on-again-off-again girlfriend, encourages Josie to go after what she wants regardless of what Lizzie's "winning plan" is, but Josie can't bear to let her sister down. 

Despite Penelope's pleas, Josie throws the competition in favor of Hope by falling into Hope's competitor. 

Meanwhile, Landon has been on edge most of the day after Hope's ex-boyfriend and the guy partially responsible for her mother's death comes to the school to "help out."

He tries to qualm his worries by boozing it up but that only makes things worse for him when he finds out Hope has been keeping a major secret from him about meeting his birth mother. 

Landon abandons Hope at the last minute as she's about to enter the competition much like Stefan abandoned Elena on The Vampire Diaries. 

Roman steps in as Hope's escort and the two share a dance. 

Josie finally reads the letter from Penelope and finds out that she's leaving the school to study in Belgium. 

She confronts Lizzie about only caring about herself and not realizing that she wanted to be in the pageant.

She then finds out Lizzie knew Penelope was leaving and didn't even care to tell her about it which sets her off completely. 

She questions if Lizzie even thought about how giving Hope their mother's dress would make Hope feel. 

Lizzie is confused explaining that "some dude" gave Caroline that dress, but Josie informs her that "the dude" was actually Klaus Mikealson, Hope's late father. 

Hope overhears and has a complete breakdown over her father. All of her pent-up emotions begin pouring out.

Lizzie calms Hope and the two promise that they will help each other fix their broken relationships. 

Meanwhile, MG is dealing with a monster sent to the school by Triad Industries. 

Medusa, also known as Nia, is the most dangerous monster of them all because she uses her charm to lure in MG. 

The students become aware of the threat on campus when Hope realizes MG's mother was turned into stone.

Medusa wants to get her hands on Landon Kirby, but MG protects his friend as an 'I'm sorry' for killing him. 

MG and Nia click after she's locked up and he tells her the Salvatore School is a place of second chances. 

MG also hashes things out with his overbearing mother who allows him to stay at the school despite insisting he transfer overseas.

As she's leaving, Veronica kidnaps Landon and brings him to Clarke. 

She tells Clarke his "asset" failed to deliver so she followed through. 

Josie catches Penelope right before she leaves. Penelope admits that she spelled all the pens she gave the students and faculty so she could "read their journals."

She gifts Josie a book with all of her findings and alerts her to a 'merger' between herself and Lizzie. 

She explains that once Josie figures out what her father has been hiding from her, she'll understand why Penelope did the things she did to protect her.