How Many Times Does Alaric Die In The Vampire Diaries And Legacies - And What Kills Him?

Potentially one of the most important characters in "The Vampire Diaries" universe, Alaric Saltzman (Matthew Davis) made his first appearance nine episodes into the titular show's first season, seemingly just a new history teacher with a vested interest in Mystic Falls. As audiences, along with the teens and vampires, get to know Alaric, it's clear he knows about the supernatural ties of the town and will do anything he can to avenge the death of his wife, Isobel (Mia Kirshner), who he believes died in her pursuit of bloodsuckers.

Over the course of "The Vampire Diaries," the history professor-turned-vampire hunter often winds up dead before being brought back to life. It's not uncommon in the series, with characters like Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen) dying and coming back to life several times, while the vampire Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder) and witch Bonnie (Kat Graham) travel between the spirit and human worlds on a few occasions. In "Legacies," Alaric continues in a teaching role, educating the next generation of supernatural children at the Salvatore Boarding School for the Young and Gifted as its headmaster. 

Both shows feature Alaric facing death on many fronts, adding up to nine deaths in 11 seasons. From stabbings to car accidents to becoming a ghost, Alaric Saltzman has been through it all, sometimes even multiple times. Here is every episode Alaric dies in throughout "The Vampire Diaries" and "Legacies," and how he expires each time.

Just seven episodes after his introduction, Alaric faces his first death in "The Vampire Diaries." In Season 1, Episode 15, "A Few Good Men," Alaric is still searching for answers about his wife's death, particularly because Damon seems to be the responsible party. At the same time, it looks like Isobel is Elena Gilbert's (Nina Dobrev) biological mother, adding a new dynamic into the search and another layer to Elena's life history.

After Damon reveals to Alaric he's responsible for Isobel's death, Alaric approaches the vampire, ready to stake him. He begs to know where his wife is while Damon continues to antagonize him by claiming that Isobel asked him to turn her into a vampire. Alaric ends up stabbed with his own stake, bleeding out on the floor of the Salvatore home. However, the ring from Isobel that he always wears revives him as Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley) watches in shock. It might be one of those things you forgot happened in Season 1, considering how much unfolds as the show continues on.

Alaric's death and reincarnation introduces the characters and audience to the Gilbert family ring and its powers. Created by witch Emily Bennett (Bianca Lawson) and used throughout the series, it's one of the magical objects that changes the game in the fight against the supernatural in Mystic Falls. It repeatedly helps bring Alaric and Jeremy back to life — although death has a price, and cheating it that many times has consequences that come up for Alaric later in "The Vampire Diaries."

Season 2 introduced the Originals, a group of siblings-turned-vampires who are the ancestral link for all created vampires. Should one die, their entire bloodline crumbles to dust, literally. The second season of "The Vampire Diaries" also adds werewolves into the mix, presenting another supernatural creature that the humans of Mystic Falls need to watch out for. The two supernatural species are both trying to break a curse. If vampires break it, they can walk in the sunlight. If werewolves break it, they can control when they turn.

Alaric's second death comes simply because he's in the way of someone else trying to kill Damon. In "Crying Wolf," Alaric isn't the intended target, but the Gilbert ring ensures that he survives as a group of werewolves break into the Salvatore home. He's stabbed again, this time by a werewolf in search of the moonstone needed to break the curse. While audiences don't see the stabbing on-screen, Damon hears the commotion and walks in just as Alaric falls to the floor.  The werewolves believe he's dead because they don't know about his special ring. 

By the end of the episode, Alaric wakes up as Damon tidies up the living room after being tortured, rolling up and removing a bloodied rug. He has to lie to Jenna (Sara Canning), Elena's aunt, about where he was. He is supposed to meet her, but since he was dead at the time, he tells her he was asleep instead. It's one more thing Alaric has to lie to her about, something he laments about to Damon just before the werewolf stabs him.

Season 3 of "The Vampire Diaries" is not only the best season according to IMDb, but also particularly deadly for Alaric, who dies six times over the course of the season. The first comes in Episode 4, "Disturbing Behavior," when Elena and Alaric try to stop Damon from lashing out against Caroline's father. Damon breaks Alaric's neck after checking to ensure he's wearing the Gilbert ring. Knowing Elena can't physically stop him, Damon removes Alaric from the picture so he can continue his plan unhindered. It's starting to take longer for Alaric to come back, and he wakes up several hours later.

In Episode 10, "The New Deal," Jeremy is compelled over the phone to stand in front of a car so someone can run him down, but Alaric pushes him out of the way and is hit instead. His ring still works in this case because a supernatural being is driving the car that hits him, but it's working slower than before. Although he has potentially fatal injuries that need medical intervention, like internal bleeding and broken ribs, he heals while at the hospital.

Three episodes later, in "Bringing Out The Dead," Elena returns home one night to find that Alaric has been stabbed. He's still alive, and asks Elena to kill him so his ring will bring him back. Although he's been attacked by the serial killer who's going after council members, it turns out the killer is actually Alaric himself. Because he has died and come back several times now, there's a side of him that's becoming darker, and he doesn't always remember what that side does. This becomes a recurring issue in the second half of the season.

Alaric dies three more times in the last four episodes of Season 3 of "The Vampire Diaries." In Episode 19, "Heart of Darkness," Alaric is held in the Salvatore home basement in an attempt to find out where the darker side of him hid a white oak stake the group can use to kill an Original vampire. Klaus (Joseph Morgan) shows up, also concerned about the unknown whereabouts of the stake because he's an Original, and breaks Alaric's neck in an effort to speed up the process.

One episode later, in "Do Not Go Gentle," Esther (Alice Evans), the mother of the Original vampires, tries to turn Alaric into the ultimate vampire hunter by giving him the power of an Original. After Esther casts a spell to make that happen, she stabs Alaric, killing him so he can return as an Original and carry out her plan of ridding the world of vampires. When he comes back to life, Alaric doesn't understand how he is alive when he doesn't have the ring, though the darker side of him quickly takes over and starts hunting vampires.

In the Season 3 finale, "The Departed," Alaric is hunting down Originals, but Elena is his downfall. When Esther completed the spell that turned Alaric into an Original, it was with Elena's blood. This linked their life forces, so if she died, he would too. Matt and Elena get into a car crash as they try to leave town, putting Elena in the hospital with fatal injuries. While she is revived when a doctor gives her vampire blood, Alaric still dies, becoming a ghost only Jeremy can see. 

While Alaric dodges death at the hands of several supernatural individuals throughout the four seasons of spin-off series "Legacies," brain trauma is the cause of his final "passing" in "The Vampire Diaries" universe. 

In the fifth episode of "Legacies" Season 4, "I Thought You'd Be Happier To See Me," Alaric meets up with Hope Mikaelson (Danielle Rose Russell), the daughter of Original vampire Klaus, who once attended the Salvatore Boarding School. She beats him savagely, leaving him for dead in the street as a message to her friends now that her humanity switch is off. Alaric's daughters Josie (Kaylee Bryant) and Lizzie (Jenny Boyd) head to the hospital after hearing their dad is in surgery. His death seems mundane, since it's a traumatic brain injury that causes it — and one of the things only adults will notice in "Legacies" is that these injuries are common in the series.

Although he's severely wounded and in a coma, Alaric's body doesn't actually die, despite experiencing him brain death, because his injury is caused by a supernatural being. Though not completely dead, Alaric is in a limbo state. He's just on the edge of taking the boat to the afterlife, until the Ferryman stops him and he embarks on adventures with the Necromancer (Ben Geurens) and Landon (Aria Shahghasemi) in limbo. He's in a coma until Episode 12, when he wakes up after he manages to make a Necromancer wish work in his favor.