According to EW, Dexter’s Courtney Ford “has signed on as Vanessa, a graduate student from Duke University, who will help Alaric, Elena and Damon dig through Isobel’s old research.” MTV points out that “the biggest of course, is whether or not there’s some love interest potential with Vanessa. After all, Mystic Fall has quite a few eligible bachelors and not enough single ladies.” Also, Executive Producer Kevin Williamson dropped some hints at Comic-Con: ”We do know in the third episode Alaric (Matt Davis) and Damon (Ian Somerhalder) travel to Duke University to look at paranormal research and there is a grad student there who helps them dig into it and you know…she’s not without her own intrigue.”
