Now that’s how you do a midseason finale! What a rollercoaster of emotion! Thanks “Legacies!” We got to focus a lot more on just a couple characters with the twins, MG, Penelope and Rafael mostly sitting out this week. In my opinion it was the right way to go. Can you imagine going from the intensity of Hope in the necromancer’s mind to some basic nonsense about Lizzie and Raf? Me either. Luckily, “Legacies” avoided that particular pitfall in their first finale and ended on an incredibly high note.
Let’s get started with bad ass Ric, shall we? The episode opens with him enacting multiple horrible tortures on the necromancer all of which seem to have zero effect on him. Hope is rightfully annoyed that he won’t let her help. Adding to confusion is the fact that it’s about to be Remembrance day which is the only day Dorian takes off every year. TBH that sounds like a really bad vacation plan and Ric should look into improving that. In any case Ric is in charge of the whole school and the necromancer with zero help right now and he’s spread a little too thin to keep an eye on Hope.
Also pulling Ric’s focus is Rafael’s dead girlfriend Cassie who’s back from the dead this episode thanks to the necromancer. I’m not going to spend a ton of time on it because she’s not going to have a lot of lasting impact and also it kind of sucked. Given the opportunity to apologize, Rafael wastes no time in doing so. And Cassie wastes no time in calling him a murderer and blaming him for her death, as though he’s not already doing that enough. It was a terrible introduction to a character we’re unlikely to see again, and a disservice to a character we’ve grown to know and like. Eventually, they do make peace and Cassie at least nominally forgives Rafael which will hopefully help him move on from his grief as the series continues but overall the whole plot was mostly wasted on me.
So let’s get right at the meat of the episode. While Ric is indisposed, Hope ventures to the dungeons where she begins questioning the necromancer about who and what he is and why he’s not in any of the magic books at the school. At first he doesn’t believe her but once she shows him the books (which seemed like a bad move but did not backfire) he agrees to answer her questions. What follows is more of a cat and mouse game than a question and answer session which culminates in Hope entering the necromancer’s mind and memory with the help of MG.
Instead of being direct (because then what kind of villain would he be?), the necromancer instead lures Hope through his memory of New Orleans and endlessly taunts her about what Klaus is up to in the afterlife. On the one hand it’s good to know they didn’t destroy their New Orleans sets, on the other hand I’m still certain we’re not going to actually get any of the characters back ever so I’m still bummed. After a lot of fun, dark imagery, Hope finally realizes that she does still care about her father and his place in the afterlife. Danielle Rose Russell has never been better and it’s one of the joys of this show to watch her grow as an actress.
In any case, Hope has to be pulled out of the necromancer’s mind by the end of the episode and Ric is rightfully angry with her for going against his direct instructions (though to be fair he was nowhere to be found). The episode ends with Hope learning her father is happy in the afterlife but that he can not find peace until she does.
That feels like kind of a lot to lay on a seventeen year old girl, but I’m not Julie Plec so what do I know? We also learn that Cassie, working under the influence of the Necromancer, was able to coordinate the theft of the magic knife and give it to a Bennett witch ancestor. So the first piece of the malivore (I legit am unclear on how they’re using some of this terminology) is now in the wrong hands.
Just as our heroes are coming to terms with that and Hope is having a nice moment of emotional closure along with Rafael, her bracelet lights up. Landon is in trouble somewhere. And then we end! It was such a good cliffhanger for a midseason finale.
We only have to wait about a month to find out what’s going on with Landon. If this were the season finale I’d be furious, but it really worked here as the ushering in of the larger overarching plot we’re looking at this season. The monsters of the week are great, but they mean nothing if they’re not connected by something else and it looks like we’ll start getting more information on the main plot when we come back on January 24th. See you then!
Make sure to join me on Twitter at Shuffle Online for “Legacies” live-tweeting on Thursdays at 9/8c on 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.