While I have enjoyed every episode to this point I will go on record as saying this episode is the moment “Legacies” really took off. The teamwork between the students along with the great world building in Mystic Falls is shaping up to make this show shine in a different way than its predecessors. My hopes have gotten extremely high and I’m hoping that’s not premature, but each episode has been better than the one before and the monster of the week gimmick is working so well!
Pictured (L-R): Jenny Boyd as Lizzie and Kaylee Bryant as Josie | Photo: Bob Mahoney/The CW
“Legacies” is also doing a great job of softening up every character while keeping them all distinct. Let’s start with Lizzie. She is the most aggressive new character and while I’m sure she’ll remain so, her behavior in “Hope is Not the Goal” goes the extra mile to show other facets of her personality. Her “heroing” through the whole episode is so hilariously misguided and the behavior of a girl who’s still trying to figure out where she fits in a world that has started to change very quickly.
Moving on to Josie who seems to have always played second fiddle to her twin. In this episode, she managed to step up for herself and Rafael at the same time! Separated from Lizzie for the second episode in a row, she gets the most shading she’s gotten so far. While she gets to know Rafael a little more, the school Alpha (I don’t believe that’s a thing or that Alaric would allow it) basically tries to force Rafael to submit to the pack. That goes about as well as you’d think for a foster kid who’s never had a good experience with authority.
Josie’s relationship with Rafael progresses nicely too. When the other wolves try to beat him up, she siphons some power from the house and lays them out. It’s a nice deflection from Lizzie too who initially called dibs on Rafael. When Josie and Rafael get caught in a giant spider demon’s web toward the end of the episode she naturally kisses him more than once to siphon wolf power from him so she can help them escape. It’s sure to throw a wrench into her relationship with Lizzie later, but for the moment it was nice to see Josie go after something she wanted without thinking of the repercussions first.
This brings me to Hope and Landon. I’m pretty invested in their relationship and this episode went a long way to sealing that deal for me. They have such good chemistry especially during the scenes in the school. Landon sincerely warning Hope about the mean townie kids only to have Hope respond with “Relax, Eeyore” and then get welcomed into the mean girl clique with no effort was a solid gold exchange and went so far to show their relationship to each other. I’m anxious for both of them (mostly Hope) to lighten up and realize they have a lot more in common than not.
The main plot of the episode is that mean townie Dana has turned up dead in the woods and Sheriff Matt thinks it’s one of the Salvatore students. Alaric assures him that’s impossible and they’re at odds for the whole episode. Fortunately, it turns out it wasn’t a Salvatore student and Dana isn’t actually dead! She is however extremely sick which leads Hope, Lizzie, MG and Kaleb to believe she’s been turned. It’s not too long before she is fully dead though. She literally melts like Judge Doom in the school parking lot which is when the kids realize something nastier is afoot and they find Josie and Rafael in the clutches of the giant spider demon!
That’s when my favorite thing of the episode happens. Hope and the twins team up again and use their awesome magic skills to defeat the spider demon! As much as I’m shipping multiple actual couples I’m most invested in the relationship between Hope, Lizzie and Josie. Just like Hope and Landon they have so much more in common than they think they do and their journey from enemies to frenemies to grudging friends is going to be my favorite thing to watch this season.
By the end of the episode the girls seem to be on better terms, Rafael submits and joins the other wolves (he’s sure to be alpha by the midseason finale) and Kaleb has been apprehended and locked away for feeding on townies. To be honest, Kaleb is the least compelling plot to me right now and so if something were to happen to him I wouldn’t be sad. Hopefully if he sticks around he kicks the human blood addiction and gets more interesting, but for now, he just feels like a distraction from the real issue of the monsters coming to life all over Virginia.
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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.