Legacies - This Christmas Was Surprisingly Violent

Discussing Ep. 2.8

I have to say, this episode felt like the writing and production staff was just mildly keeping busy before Christmas break and they decided to just throw something together because they were eager to go on holiday.

Regardless, I took it merely as a fun episode and other than the stuff with Raf, it was really more relaxed than previous episodes. I mean, you can't more ridiculous than a WWE-style throwdown between Krampus and Santa Claus!

I can't say much about this storyline. Truth be told, I was fully expecting Santa Claus to be the bad guy because they tend to throw little twists like that, that perhaps Santa was another victim of Malivore and to stop from going back he had to do something dastardly and find Landon or something. But nope, they didn't go that route. Actually, what I was impressed by was the fact that they were sort of keeping time, as it were. At various points, they specifically said that it was still October in their world, it was still autumn. So they still had Halloween to go through. I would be really interested to see how a school of werewolves, vampires and witches celebrate Halloween! But we didn't get that this year. It'd be interesting considering all the monsters that are showing up now that you could totally have famous monsters like Dracula or Frankenstein or the Wolfman show up. Maybe there are licensing issues with those but it would be cool.

Hope was very much my kindred spirit in this episode. I'm not really one for Christmas either, for various reasons. So I could totally empathize with her attitude and being all miserable and what not. I was seriously upset this past November when it started to snow during MY season, MY autumn.....the best seasons of them all (with spring coming in a close second). So yeah....I was totally on Team Hope in this episode. Though I couldn't understand Hope's reasoning, per se. She doesn't like Christmas because essentially she doesn't have her father and mother around. Fair enough. But she does have family....two aunts (Freya & Bex), an uncle (Kol), a baby cousin (Nik) and an older (adopted) brother (Marcel) in NOLA. So, cry me a river about not having family to spend Christmas with! Considering this wasn't exactly Christmas, I'm going to assume when the real Christmas falls upon the Legacies world, that she WILL go to NOLA to spend it with her family and stop bitching about not having a family to spend Christmas with!

For a guy who has no powers of immortality, he sure is hard to kill! He's died like....what....three times already? First was at the end of last season, then when his original body was killed after he transferred over to SimuLandon, and then again at the end of the episode. I'm not sure how I feel about his story arc here. I get that he was trying to get revenge on his father, Mudman Sr. (aka Malivore), and was essentially willing to sacrifice anyone to do it. But last episode, he was willing to kill his brother and Hope to do it. This episode, he's willing to work with Hope and sacrifice himself? I don't know....the turnaround felt a bit too quick for me. Though I will say that it was kind of nice how he was sort of able to make peace with Hope. Hell, I might have shipped them if he didn't get killed. I'm assuming he's dead at this point and if he isn't, then I don't see how you kill him.

And it seems we get a returning character from S1:

 
I'm kind of happy to see the Necromancer again. He had personality and style and even had a bit of a history with Klaus, even though Klaus didn't remember him. So at least there's some connection there with Hope. I'm curious to see where this goes and if he's at all connected to the prophecy. He was, after all, ditched in Malivore so did Mudman Sr. release him? And if so, who is the other druid since there were two of them?

I suppose I better talk about this particular scene where once again, a TVD alum was referenced in a bit of a ridiculous way. So they're telling us that Damon gave his prized 1969 Chevy Camaro convertible to the Saltzman twins as a Sweet Sixteen gift? Bullshit! I don't care how good a friend Damon is with Alaric, there is no way he'd give that car up, especially in the condition it was in. I had to refresh my memory because I was sure it got wrecked when he and Elena drove it into the Grill in order to stop the Travellers in S5. Then I read that Stefan had it rebuilt and gave it back to Damon. So no....there is no reason and no way that he'd just give it up to Alaric and his daughters out of the kindness of his heart. To me, I'm willing to bet Elena TOLD him to give it away (being the bossy woman that she is) because what use does a middle aged father have for such a car? And why wouldn't he keep it for Stefanie Salvatore? A classic car like that?

And with the way Lizzie talked about it disparagingly, even going so far as to have sex with Drowned Pirate on it (while a dead Landon was in the trunk) just goes to show that if Damon did indeed gift that car, it was in vain because it's clear no one has any appreciation for it!

Speaking of Lizzie and Drowned Pirate, I almost lost my shit when Sebastian referred to Lizzie as a drunken pirate in reference to her driving. If she had responded with a "well, you look like a drowned pirate!" line, I would have freaked the fuck out (incidentally....such a thing has happened on Riverdale....I made a blurb about something COMPLETELY ridiculous and lo and behold....it actually manifested on the show! So, you never know.)! They went traditional CW here, with Sebastian showing off his abs and Lizzie just melting into a puddle of drooling fangirl and decided to get it on right then and there. So, it was a bit of a step back but I'm not too upset about it since Lizzie has shown growth especially when it comes to Landon. I liked how she was willing to seek Landon out and not only bring him back to Salvatore School but to Hope, not Josie. And she expressed how she too was willing to help Landon in whatever challenge that Malivore throws at them. So, there was some real growth there. I'm also sceptical about Lizzie's inner geekiness.....she seems to know a lot about Lord of the Rings, talking about hobbits and Mount Doom and what not. For a girl who bashes Landon for such things, she seems to know a lot about it!

The Rafael storyline felt a bit tacked on but I was happy nonetheless that Raf got some shine in this episode. There isn't much to say about it though considering we find out that his mom is either dead or is somewhere out in the world. My guess is, we will see her because if she's not dead, then there's a real chance she will show up. I was happy that Raf got to meet his father and connect with him. It was a nice contrast as opposed to what happened with MG and his father. I wonder if this means that Raf will take a hiatus from the show because like I said before, he doesn't serve much of a purpose. Even he himself admitted that while he felt welcomed at the Salvatore School, he was nevertheless an outsider. I don't necessarily get why Raf is having those anger issues and how he can change his eyes. I can't remember werewolf mythology because they've messed with it so much but I recall that werewolves become stronger or more in touch with their wolf side closer to the full moon, but otherwise cannot access that side at will. Anyway, it's a minor point.

Fuck, I felt bad for Josie. Not that I necessarily blame Landon for hurting her, he wasn't in an enviable position either. Having to break her heart like that could not have been easy and while I applaud him for trying his best to build up her self esteem and soften the blow, there's very little anyone can do to stop the pain. It hurts like a motherfucker and I'm curious to know what this will mean for Josie because now, she's essentially got nothing. Lizzie has Sebastian. Hope now has Landon. Who does Josie have? Her girlfriend, Penelope, is gone from last season. Even Vardemus is gone, so there isn't anyone there to comfort her. Even her dad may not be there if he's re-assuming the Headmaster role (which, by the way, sucks for Mystic Falls High, for the principal to just up and leave at the beginning of the school year....it's October....to go back to his old job. Maybe they'll get Jeremy to fill in as principal even though he has no prior qualifications). I'm hoping this will mean some kind of descent into darkness for Josie because they keep flip flopping with it. Not that I necessarily mind the inner conflict.....she needs that....but they need to pull the trigger on this one way or the other.

Overall, it was a fun and funny episode. So we'll have to wait until 2020 to see what happens.

2020.....where did all the time go?