We are three episodes in and “Legacies” continues to be such fun! We’re getting a lot of world building which is super, along with a lot of character development which is much needed. Lizzie remains a bit underwritten, though she’s easily one of the most magnetic characters. Penelope has not quite inched out of standard mean girl territory but she’s working on it. Hope and Alaric feel the most fully formed for obvious reasons, but even their personalities are getting layers I didn’t know I was missing until I saw them in action.
Pictured (L-R): Matthew Davis as Alaric, Danielle Rose Russell as Hope, and Kaylee Bryant as Josie | Photo credit: Mark Hill/The CW
Let’s start with Alaric since his new traits impact the main story the most. He’s a father now (I mean he has been for sixteen years, but we’re only just seeing it). His relationships with Lizzie and Josie (and Hope to an extent) make him a much different man than he was when he was previously hanging around with Damon on The “Vampire Diaries.” Similarly, being in charge of a school has grounded his energy in a nice way. Alaric was originally an educator when we first met him and on that level, it’s nice to see him get back to his roots.
Where we get a little more depth to this, though, is when we find out that the dragon and this episode’s gargoyle are new occurrences. I saw some annoyance online about why we were just now finding out about all these other creatures when it’s always just been wolves, vampires and witches. While I wasn’t annoyed, I was curious. And I’m honestly pretty satisfied with the partial explanation that they just seem to be coming out of the woodwork now because of some combination of Landon and that knife he accidentally stole. Getting everyone on the same uneven footing at the start of this show is one of the better choices. Seeing Alaric potentially in over his head because he’s never seen anything like this before is a delight.
It’s also pretty clear that Alaric has never run the school so much on his own before. While Caroline is off on an extended “recruiting trip” (sure…) he’s overseeing the whole school and all the kids. Now while I believe Alaric is supremely capable of handling a lot of things, I also know for a fact that Caroline was the brains and brawn of the Salvatore school before she “left.” Can you tell I’m sad she’s not around? I’m sure she was also a lot more present with the twins which easily explains away some of Lizzie’s less charming moments.
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On to the plot! This week the Salvatore School is plagued by a creepy-ass gargoyle and boy was it so much fun! Before we get there though we’re still dealing with the aftermath of the flag football game last week. Again, I think everyone involved has taken it too seriously…it’s coed flag football… In any event, the whole town of Mystic Falls has been vandalized and for some reason it’s up to all the supernatural kids to clean it up.
Once they’re in town Lizzie throws Josie under the bus by telling everyone else it was Josie who threw the football game. So Josie retaliates by sticking with Hope for trash duty instead of going with Lizzie to clean up graffiti. It’s a good thing too because not only does Josie form a tenuous bond with Hope over their absent mothers and the overbearing Lizzie, but Lizzie also gets doused in strawberry milkshake for talking back to Dana and her lackies.
Lizzie goes back to the school to change and pout when she runs across a kid named Pedro. They’re together when the gargoyle attacks and Lizzie is able to use Pedro’s power to seal the school so the gargoyle can’t get out. Unfortunately, she also gets scratched and infected with some kind of greyscale-looking disease and is out of commission for the rest of the episode. Josie feels some “twin pain” but mostly she and Hope have a good day until they realize something more sinister is afoot back at the school.
The girls arrive back at the school in time to confront the gargoyle who keeps attacking students and teachers alike. Before it can go for Josie and Hope Alaric jumps in front of it and it stops its attack. We find out that gargoyles were originally protective statues and our gargoyle assumed Alaric was in some kind of danger. Unfortunately, the damage is done when Josie unloads on him because he could have died. I get both sides, but I also think it was a little early for this specific storyline. Fear of abandonment feels like more of a midseason plot than an episode three plot.
Outside of the school we get the biggest reveal of all. Landon and Rafael are roughing it in the woods catching rabbits and stuff to stay alive when Landon gets a bright idea. He gets Rafael to start making bets with people on the street that he can’t climb to the top of a building. Since he’s a wolf it’s obviously stacked in their favor but it’s not too long before they catch some bad attention. When they’re counting their spoils back in the woods they get attacked and tied up by some mysterious figures before they get saved by Jeremy Gilbert! I hope he’s around a little bit. It’s nice to keep old characters around to bridge the gaps. In any case, he delivers them back to the Salvatore School by the end of the episode and they’re back where they started after a one episode detour.
We end the episode with a quick check in on all our characters. Alaric is in the doghouse, MG is maybe getting in with Lizzie. Hope gets snubbed by Josie and then snubs Landon in turn when he arrives back at the school. Also Kaleb has been feeding around town which feels like it won’t last too much longer because the final scene shows Dana and one of her townie friends getting extremely murdered by something supernatural in the woods. I kind of hope it’s Kaleb because he’s a little annoying and refuses to play by the rules.
I am definitely looking forward to episode four which is sure to deal with the fallout from Dana and her friend’s deaths. Hope and Landon’s reunion is also sure to be fraught in an awesome teen soap way and then there’s Josie and Hope’s tentative friendship that could easily get stronger or crumble before it’s even formed. It’s shaping up to be a super fun first season of “Legacies” and I can’t wait to see how it develops!
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Featured image credit: The CW
Kristin was a military brat growing up but now she lives in Orlando with her husband Will and their dog Egon. She and her best friend Wil (not the husband!) have written a novel together and recently started the podcast “So…I’m Watching This Show” where they discuss movies, TV shows and pop culture in general. Most nights you can find her drinking wine and live tweeting way too many things.