Legacies - You Can't Run From Who You Are

 

Discussing Ep. 3.11 - I was pleasantly surprised at how good this episode was. Largely, it addressed some of my concerns from the last episode. Some of those scenes that I thought I would cringe at, I didn't (at least not massively). And it turns out that theory that Jenzy heard about is coming true after all. 

Dark Josie! Though she was merely an aspect of Josie's personality that manifested itself in visual form, nonetheless I loved seeing this side of Josie again. And damn...if ever there was someone who could play Wednesday Addams at any point, it's Kaylee Bryant! She just looks awesome! Anyway, as far as this episode goes, I loved Dark Josie making an appearance. She just comes off as more fun and carefree and entertaining than regular Josie. And it looks like Kaylee has more fun with that role. Much like Nina with Katherine and Paul with Ripper, it just seems like when the actor gets to play the villainous part, they have a better time doing it. 

Though I don't really get how that crystal thingy makes it that a person's subconscious act like a completely different person, at the very least it gave a plausible reason for Josie to be reluctant to re-absorb her powers. That, and the fact that Hope was in danger created a very believable and well structured problem for Josie. I like that development and how they set it up so that Josie had no choice but to take her magic again, and giving her a real conflict in not wanting to absorb it again for fear of Dark Josie returning. And giving Lizzie a viable and believable excuse for not being there was also a well established problem that led to Josie getting her magic back.

I'll say this as well, since I had expressed disappointment in Lizzie for not telling Josie about Finch being a werewolf. I also complained about how Finch should have known about Salvatore School and the werewolf community there but seemed oblivious about it. They actually addressed all of that quite well, because I had completely forgotten about the werewolf curse having to be triggered by the person committing murder! It was a viable excuse for Lizzie for not telling Josie and wanting to confront Finch herself. I say 'excuse' because I still believe that Lizzie wasn't necessarily doing it to protect Josie as much as she didn't want Josie developing a relationship with Finch and leaving her in the dust. Just her reaction at the end when MG was saying how Lizzie did it to protect Josie made it seem like she sort of had ulterior motives.

The story of how Finch became a werewolf was actually a good backstory. You could understand why she blocked out that particular memory and how and why she wasn't fully aware of all the aspects of being a werewolf and why she may not even be aware of werewolf packs in Mystic Falls and what not. She was never told such things by her grandfather. I'm assuming that he hadn't triggered his werewolf curse and was therefore dying of whatever he was dying from in the hospital and so he thought that Finch becoming a werewolf would save her from his fate. Again, a plausible reason. Therefore, I didn't hate this at all. 

Nor did I hate Hope's storyline. First off, I like this look! Looked scary and bad ass! Second, it was nice to have Hope be the one in danger and not having her save Landon for once. It also set up the conundrum for Josie as to whether or not she should re-absorb her magic. Thirdly, it also set up the revelation that Landon may not be Landon anymore. Again, I like the setup because it was logical and believable. Hope, as this monster that went after dead flesh, seemed to be going after Landon. While I assumed it was because it was Hope's incessant infatuation with Landon, it turns out that that may not be the case.

I was even impressed in how they used Wade. Now, it was a bit goofy how the monster was seemingly straight out of D&D but it gave Wade a role to play and the fact that he picked up on Landon's bizarre behaviour, especially as it pertained to playing D&D, made him quite useful in the episode. I think my only gripe with this is that it was revealed too soon and Clarke (as we're all assuming it's Clarke) playing the part of Landon was doing a bit too good of a job. If he has full access to Landon's mind, I don't see how he could not know about the D&D campaign that Landon created. He seemed to play the part of Landon to a T quite well up to that point. I'm sure they'll come up with a reason but either way, I am intrigued by this development.

I'm intrigued if only by the potential of seeing Dark Landon, so to speak. Like I said about Josie, it seems like the actors have a better time playing the villain, and so it would intrigue me to see how Aria (London) goes about playing that role. Actually, I was convinced that Aria was mouthing the words of NecroTed while his voice was being overdubbed by the actual actor. I was amazed that he could actually mimic NecroTed so well! So yeah, it would be neat to see an evil version of Landon. Also, could Clarke fall in love with Hope? Though he couldn't do anything beyond what Landon did (i.e. have sex) because he's also a son of Malivore and would die. Still, that would be an interesting twist that he did not account for. Also, I wonder what Landon would think that Hope, the love of his life, couldn't tell the difference between him and Clarke. Would he just let it slide or would he hold it against Hope. I would support the latter, giving the guy the Spaldings to be offended and maybe even change for the dark side, but if he's the simp he's always been, he'd probably do the former. I guess we'll see.

As far as the Cleo storyline goes, I was meh about it. I still don't get how it works with Cleo and her inspirational powers. And as far as her and Kaleb went, I will say that his attempts at trying to 'woo' her were cringe. In a lot of ways, I'm glad she just flat out told him to be himself and to knock that shit off because it was getting embarrassing. But I'm not really invested in that particular storyline. As far as that do-hickey goes, I will say that it's also a bit goofy that it was created by Leonardo DaVinci, but if they can make it that he did it for a plausible and logical reason, then I'd be willing to go along with it. 

Lastly, I wonder if they're teasing MG making Ethan a vampire already. I'm curious to know what it was that Ethan actually did, if he tried stopping the criminals on his own and got the shit beat out of him for it. Though I can't imagine he's on death's door considering he was able to get himself back to their clubhouse. Still, they left it on a good cliff hanger so it will be interesting to see if MG has to make that choice at this point.

Like I said, I didn't hate this episode. Whoever wrote and directed it did a good job with it. I know this quality won't last long and I weep already for the upcoming scenes between Josie and Finch or more romance between Kaleb and Cleo. So I'll enjoy the quality of this episode for this week.

Oh! And one more thing, there was no more of that stupid, yellow lighting in this episode! Everything looked fucking natural, even indoors. I applaud that!