Legacies - Goodbyes Sure Do Suck

 

Discussing Ep. 3.2 - I don't know if this episode was supposed to occur during last season or not because it felt so arbitrary and anti-climactic. I can even begin to explain how annoyed I was with this episode.

So this was supposed to be Raf's swan song, his final goodbye, so to speak. I felt nothing. I think it's because they slotted this in as the second episode of this season and not as the final episode of last season. You get the feeling that that's how it was supposed to go considering the ending with NecroTed and Alyssa and the Sphinx. Raf has been such an infrequently used character on the show that dedicating a whole episode to his goodbye felt pointless. If this were a character like Lizzie or Josie or even Alaric, I might have felt something. I didn't feel anything. And considering how non-permanent death is in this universe, why would anyone feel any kind of grief over this character saying goodbye?

I will say that the one moment that I did feel something was when Raf's mom met him for the first time. When he called her mom and she felt she didn't deserve to be called that, I liked that part. The rest was all bullshit. The idea that this woman, who apparently abandoned Raf and his dad when he was born, would suddenly feel the need to do the right thing and stay in a prison world indefinitely with the two men she could not have cared less about when she left them? Utter bullshit! As was the idea that Sheriff Mac KNEW that she would come back. "She's a mother." So what? Believe me, there are tons of mothers out there who have selfishly fought against that maternal instinct and abandoned their children in favour of themselves. Why would this woman, after 17 years of being on her own, go back because of maternal instincts? It's a bit too convenient for me. I mean, she said it herself! The biggest selling point of her joining Raf and his dad was that there was no full moon! So I can't foresee that trio living in peace in that prison world for very long. 

And speaking of that prison world....what the fuck was this nonsense about using a supernova to create it? Why a supernova? Why use an astronomical occurrence that the writers clearly know nothing about? A super nova takes YEARS to occur:

"So, how long does a supernova take to explode? A few million years for the star to die, less than a quarter of a second for its core to collapse, a few hours for the shockwave to reach the surface of the star, a few months to brighten, and then just few years to fade away."

This is not like seeing a solar eclipse. It doesn't happen in a day! And plus, if they could even see one with the naked eye, rest assured two things occurred. One, that the core collapse of the supernova occurred HOURS if not DAYS, WEEKS, MONTHS or even YEARS before they actually saw it! It's called light speed folks! Consider that if the sun were to explode right now, we couldn't "see" it for another 8 minutes! That's how far away the sun is. Imagine how far another star is from us? We can't see it 'exploding' in real time. It would take time for the sight to reach us! Secondly, it wouldn't have been as clear and as bright as they made it out to be. It'd look like a regular star that got brighter and then dimmed. You wouldn't even notice it unless you were looking for it! And most certainly not it the daytime. So them treating the supernova exploding like it's an event equal to a bunch of firecrackers in the sky is completely asinine!

As is their use of Hope at this point. I've said this before and I'll say it again and keep saying it until something changes: I don't know the directions that they're giving DRR, if they're telling her to act like she's only there for the paycheque and nothing more because that's how it comes off. Even with the absence of Josie, Hope still feels sidelined like she's a recurring guest character like a Sheriff Liz or an Alaric on TVD rather than the lead character. And her demeanour, yet again, feels so off! With Landon constantly saying that Hope will come and save the day because that's what she does, it feels like lip service and that Hope's character does it ONLY because it's like a job to her rather than something she WANTS to do. Even her relationship with Landon, that is now the hallmark of her character, feels so forced at this point. In that talk they had by the pier, she seemed genuinely amused at Landon's gripes rather than concerned. Her face said it all. It says it all the time. She looks bored! She looks dispassionate! She looks like she's forced to sit there and talk with people when in reality she'd just like to get the hell out of dodge and do something else!

And if that's the case, who can blame her? She has ZERO purpose at this point, other than loving and caring for Landon and being his girlfriend and always coming to the rescue to save her friends. When I sit here and think about it, what's her character like beyond that? They don't focus at all on her tri-brid status. They don't focus at all on her family history. They don't focus at all on who she is as a person. No hobbies, no ambitions for life, not even a career goal that would conflict with her supernatural nature. I mean, they have SO MUCH to work with and to give DRR as a way to create a struggle for her character: her trying to control her powers and her rage that is both inherited by her father and is a by-product of being part werewolf; her trying to repair or recreate the Mikaelson family name in the world (since all the world knows of that name is pain and suffering) and the pressures and burden of trying to do that all by herself; her trying to navigate the depression of most of her family dying in the tragic way that they did; her grappling with enemies of Klaus or the Mikaelsons who still hold a grudge and would love nothing more than to take it out on her. When this series started, I thought those were elements they were going to address. If anything, it seems like the writers forgot where Hope came from (i.e. The Originals). They forgot that this was a spin-off show of The Originals and that Hope was supposed to be the star of it!

My other gripe, yet again, are the villains and what their over-arching goal is. Oddly enough, I agreed with Alyssa in that NecroTed's ambition was rather weak. But, so is hers. She seeks to team up with NT and subdue Malivore and bring back all these monsters so that she can get her revenge on the Salvatore School? And then what? At least hers is a basic revenge story. But I think that's what makes the threat so weak overall. It's simple pettiness that has no basis for making a bunch of people suffer. Alyssa's character is just so undefined. Yes, she's a potential psychopath but it was never established whether she is one or not. Last season, it was all about her crush on MG and being rebuffed by him and her taking it out on the Wonder Twins. And yet, when she had the chance to kill them, she didn't. Now, she seems to have no problem with someone dying at SS and causing pain and suffering. She's a character that really came out of nowhere as a villain and her motivations, though justified to a certain extent, seem very immature and I think that only adds to the overall sense of triviality of the show. And NecroTed is more of a jester than a real threat. You can't take that guy seriously at all. I'll admit I liked him at his debut last season but they really made him out to be little more than comedy relief. And I can accept a comedic villain but you have to have that element of danger and deadliness, that behind that clown facade is a killer who will not hesitate to kill you. I don't get that from NT at all now. He comes off as more like a guy who will go on and on about how he will kill me rather than actually killing me!

I'm hoping that since they've established NT and Alyssa's goals as the villains, that perhaps things will pick up in regards to giving Hope and the other something to work towards. I don't like this day-in-the-life writing that they have going on. Each episode feels is more isolated in their storyline rather than being part of a season-long story arc.

I can hope that it changes but I don't think it will.