Charles Michael Davis on Marcel's Possible Strix Alliance, Cleaning Up After Jackson and Hayley 

Charles Michael Davis‘ dapper appearance in the above photo — Thursday’s episode of

Vampire Diaries Newbie on the Heretics’ Night Out, Stefan’s Past With Valerie

The hellish hour centers around a Strix gala, of which Marcel is Aya’s honored guest. And speaking of the new lady in Mr. Gerard’s life, Davis says fans are right to sense 

“I think there’s pretty good chemistry there,” CMD tells TVLine of Marcel and Aya. “But I also think that each one of them, alone, would have chemistry with a balloon. They’re pretty charismatic people. But, yes, something is brewing there, and there’s more of that in this upcoming episode — including a great scene at the end that I think people will love.

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Below, CMD discusses Marcel’s dealings with the Strix, his new playpen — recently made unclean by Hayley and Jackson — and his complicated relationship with M.I.A. Rebekah.

TVLINE | Since I haven’t talked to you yet this season, what do you think of Marcel’s fight club setup?

I thought it was really cool. Daniel Gillies and I had dinner when we first got on the show, and we talked about how we both do Muay Thai. We were like, “It’d be so cool if we had a fight club, but that’s never going to happen.” So we show up for the first episode of Season 3, and there it is. It’s a hexagon, though, not an octagon; that’s trademarked or something. But we think our hexagon is pretty cool.

TVLINE | Are you a trained fighter? All I know is that you’re not someone I would ever want coming after me in a ring. 

] Yeah, I took a couple years of Muay Thai, and when I found out during the break that I would be doing a lot more action, I went back and started training with a group I’d trained with before — except they’d been training while I’d been shooting, so they’d gotten a lot better. I got my ass kicked.

TVLINE | Did Marcel give permission for Hayley and Jackson to defile that space?

No! And I found that out myself when I watched the episode a couple nights ago. I was like, “Damn! That was pretty hot.”

] Yeah, they’ll use a black light, so it’ll be thoroughly clean.

TVLINE | So, what else can we expect from the big gala on Thursday?

There’s a big fight scene, and it’s so great. There’s no dialogue ’til the end, and I feel like we don’t have too many of those. Usually, there’s fighting with a little exposition happening at the same time. But [director Matt Hastings] wanted something more like Bruce Willis in 

, where the hero’s getting his ass kicked, leaving you wondering how he’s going to come back from this. You’ll see a lot more action from Marcel, but also his intelligence.

TVLINE | The Strix really seem to want Marcel on their side. Will he be easily swayed?

I feel like the house cat — the kids come over, and they want to play with it, but the cat’s just like, “meow.” … They’ve piqued his curiosity, but he still wants to sniff them out.

TVLINE | Lastly, we haven’t heard much about Rebekah this season. Where do she and Marcel stand now?

Like, what would be their Facebook status? “In an open relationship” 

Your thoughts on all things Marcel, Strix and 

Yep, the octagon is a UFC trademark, so all other MMA cages have to be a different shape.

I remember when trademarks were used for true innovation…now they are just ways for corporations to stymie competition.

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