'The Vampire Diaries' Season 3: What about Alaric?

We're getting closer to the Season 3 premiere of "The Vampire Diaries," and the anticipation is slowly taking over our lives. We can barely sleep. We've started twitching. Sometimes we find ourselves rocking back and forth, chanting Klaus's name. It's not cute.

As the season approaches, we've gotten emails from a handful of you about a major lack of intel about Alaric (Matt Davis) and his role in Season 3. Don't worry! We're on the case.

When executive producer Kevin Williamson told E!, "[Alaric]'s going to step forward and get right into the middle of everything," he wasn't kidding.

One person who is happy with Alaric's direction this season? Davis himself. Upon returning from a weekend at the lake house that the entire "Vampire Diaries" cast is sharing for the summer (sweet, huh?), he tweeted, "Morning everyone... Finally broke away from that damn #LakeVortex and am now shooting a new ep. I'd like to call it #Alaricgetshisgrooveback." He then added, "Finally." Zing.

Remember that super cute scene between Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen) and Ric in the Season 2 finale? You can expect Alaric to continue to support the Gilbert kids, though he's more of an older, slightly wiser brother than a father figure at this point.

He's still grieving for Jenna -- hence the sad beard of very sad sadness, we assume -- and despite his continued reliance on that ever-present bottle of bourbon, he is going to play a very active role in Elena's search for Stefan. When no one else will help her, she finds an unexpected ally in her history teacher. (Yes, the kids are going back to school eventually. Unfortunately, this means that Klaus knows right where to find them.)

Speaking of unexpected alliances, let's talk about what you really care about: Damon and Alaric. Their reluctant bromance is going to take a few major hits this season... literally. Sources tell us that these two will come to blows. We're hoping shirtlessness and jello is involved. (Objectification? Us? Never.)

There's a lot of death on this show, so if you're worrying that Alaric is next on the chopping block, we can confirm that he'll get Uncle John's ring back -- it's not doing much good sitting in Elena's drawer waiting for her to produce an heir, anyway. We can also confirm that he's going to need it.

You can cue up the ominous music now.