Discussing Ep. 4.9 - What the fuck is going on?!? With one major departure of a cast member, this whole show seemed to go into a tailspin with this mid season finale!
There is speculation that this is merely a career move on her part, in that she wants to focus on other roles, perhaps in movies or in another television series. While she certainly has the looks and talent to go far in Hollywood, looks and talent are no guarantees for success. As Dman has pointed out in the past, so many actors leave a hit show thinking they'll use that momentum to strike it big in Hollywood, only to fizzle out in spectacular fashion. Looking at the TVD/TO cast members, NONE of them have gone on to anything noteworthy, with perhaps the exception of Nina, but even she has struggled to find success equal to or greater than that which she achieved on TVD. While the various actors have gotten some minor roles here and there, none of them have been breakthrough roles. None of them have made it big to the level they achieved on TVD and TO. Hell, even Jenny Boyd, who has been acting longer than Kaylee has, never achieved the success that she currently has with Legacies! So why would Kaylee, on the strength of one role in a movie that hasn't even been released yet, figure she has what it takes to do what others haven't? Not saying she can't be successful but why throw away a secure role and income to take a chance in the wilderness like that?
The other reason that I've read that has been bandied about is that she had personal issues with both Matt Davis and the executive producer, Brett Matthews. I don't know about Brett though I've heard that he's been creating a toxic work environment that's been rather homophobic in nature but it's all rumour and hearsay at this point. I have also read tweets (since deleted) by Matt Davis that had others in the Twitterverse accuse him of being both racist and a Trump supporter. Even Paul Wesley had a back and forth with him, and Kaylee even clapped back when he apparently called the Covid virus the "Chinese Virus." This is all news to me but this would explain why Kaylee and Matt have not really shared any scenes together this season. When Alaric was in the hospital, it was Lizzie, not Josie, who went and had that heart-to-heart with him in his mind. And you'd think she'd go and visit Alaric at least before she left town! So I'm beginning to wonder if there is any truth to the rumour that perhaps Kaylee decided to leave because she found the environment, or certain costars and producers, too toxic for her liking.
The way they handled her character's departure was nothing short of sloppy, abrupt and ridiculous! There was no build up to this other than in the previous episode. Suddenly, Josie has to leave. Where is she going? Fuck knows! Why? Well, apparently she feels like she can help Hope but she can't do it while staying at the school. So how does going away help her do that exactly? Fuck knows! Why did she have to leave right away, like right in that moment without delay?!? Fuck knows! Why couldn't she visit Alaric in the hospital instead of writing him a note? Why couldn't she wait to find out where Lizzie went and say goodbye in person? Fuck knows! Why couldn't she wait to say goodbye to her other friends? Fuck knows! When will she be back? Fuck knows!
As opposed to before when she left the school, she had a clear destination. She was going to live in Mystic Falls with Damon and Elena and attend Mystic Falls High. Her motives and destination were clear and solid. Here, she provides no information as to where she's going, who she is staying with, how she intends to support herself or what she specifically intends to do! Her reasons are as vague as shit. And keep in mind that she is still only 17 years old! I hate how everyone, including Finch and Lizzie, are just okay with this. No, I have to believe that this departure was not planned and the writers were scrambling to come up with some reason to write Josie off the show. Considering that this started out with Hope locking Josie in that therapy box....as a punishment? Why? She showed that she's quite capable of killing her friends, so how was putting Josie in that therapy box a form of torture? Why not kill her like she did Lizzie? None of this makes sense! Funny thing is, the obvious answer to take her character out of the show would have, indeed, been to kill off her character completely...but we can't have that!
Because if Josie dies, then she ends up in limbo with none other than Alaric! And we certainly can't have them sharing scenes together, now can we? This is why I'm thinking that maybe there's fire to all this smoke regarding her having issues with Matt Davis. But then my question is: why not get rid of Matt Davis instead of Kaylee? This is all speculation at the end of the day. Who knows what is going on behind the scenes. What I do know is that I said that I would have lost my mind if they had Josie move out to the Congo with Caroline...but now I'm thinking that probably would have been the better alternative! At the very least, they could have written it that Caroline was in trouble and that she needed either Josie or Lizzie's help. Hell, write it that Aurora found out where Caroline was and sought to punish her too because she found out that Caroline and Klaus were once very close, so she set a trap for her. Then, somehow Caroline gets a message to the Salvatore School and that would have given the justified urgency for Josie to leave right away and head off to the Congo in search of Caroline where she could stay away in Offscreenlandia forever! Instead, we got her boarding a bus to literally Parts Unknown, leaving her dad, sister, girlfriend, and best friends all high and dry because of 'reasons!' Fuck, pay me the money! I'll give you a far better storyline than what those hacks in that writer's room are coming up with!
Speaking of abrupt departures, what the hell happened with this storyline? Aurora's brilliant and tactical maneuver, switching bodies with Hope, barely lasted half an episode! What the fuck? I mean, I thought it was hilarious the way DRR was insulting Lizzie, using Aurora's speech patterns! "Get it through that bottle-blonde head of yours, I'm not Hope Mikaelson!" It was great! And the way Aurora was trying to learn to use Hope's body, all the while Lizzie was mocking her. I was hoping that this would go on for at least another episode. And I loved how Aurora referenced Tristan, though I'm surprised she didn't directly say his name, by saying how she wanted to trap Hope in that coffin and dump her in the ocean where she would drown and die repeatedly, just like Klaus arranged for Tristan to suffer as well!
But instead of continuing that storyline, they abruptly end it in the most anticlimactic way possible! Her plan to imprison Hope in that tomb designed to hold a god was intriguing to me. First, I kind of got Buffy vibes there when Aurora mentioned gods. I recall when Buffy met Glory and she realized that she wasn't a demon but rather a god, that was a cool moment. So they're now opening the possibility that gods are also inhabiting the Legacies world. Thing is though, they've already shown this! Remember that brother of Cupid? He was a god. And so is Charon. Anyway, I would have liked to have seen this storyline play out more. Have Hope be trapped in that tomb to the point that she's right next to the ocean or something. Continue to have Aurora inhabit Hope's body for at least another episode and have Lizzie and all of them try and figure out who is who. This was such a wasted storyline that I don't even know why they bothered to do it in the first place if only for shock value.
Speaking of shock value, I will admit, they got me! I mean, this episode was so asinine with the Josie departure that I wasn't putting it past them that they would totally have Hope switch on her humanity based solely on the tears and that heartfelt speech by Lizzie. Well done! I was duped and happily so! First, I thought they did well in addressing Jenzy's concern of how Lizzie was able to completely forget everything that she and Hope went through and found the will to kill her without issue. I liked that Lizzie couldn't bring herself to do it! That totally fell in line with the relationship they developed. And I liked that Hope finally crossed a line. She crossed a line and killed one of her best friends and she did it with ease. This is the kind of obstacles she needs to overcome. I really like this development on Hope's part.
And it looks like Baby guessed right and Lizzie is now a vampire/heretic. This makes sense too since, with Kaylee's departure, the Merge essentially lost all meaning because Josie isn't there, if the Merge had any meaning to begin with. Yet another reason why I think this departure was not planned given how much emphasis they put on the Merg, only for Kaylee's departure to completely make it moot. So now Lizzie is a Heretic and I'm legitimately curious as to how they're going to make this work. I'm truly wondering how much Kaylee's sudden departure ruined the plans that they had. I really feel like the body switch and Lizzie's transformation was something that should have been prolonged as it really feels like too much too soon. I'm iffy about this so I'll hold my judgement to see how they play it all out.
As for the trio in limbo, this was dumb. Clearly they keep putting up these roadblocks and I don't know what for. While I appreciate the concept that one good deed doesn't erase a lifetime of misdeeds, why are they prolonging this? I don't care! So we see that Landon is a good person. We knew this already! So we see that NecroTed has a lot of apologizing to do. No shit! And now they have that Sphinx guy back and I don't even know where they're going with this and I don't really care either.
The other thing that I thought was stupid was Finch's rationale for not going with Josie on her trip. I mean, that whole scene of the pack coming and worrying about Jed because he got a broken arm, acting like he was on Death's door and so worried about their future that Finch had to step in as the interim Alpha was just so fucking stupid!!! Jed had a broken arm! Wouldn't his werewolf powers heal him up pretty quick? And even if he was healing at a normal rate, so what? It's a broken arm! Why did Finch, all of a sudden, feel the need to step in and take over the pack, enough so that she was willing to let Josie go? I'm telling you, if Josie had instead been summoned to help Caroline in the Congo, it would have made more sense for Finch to stay behind as she may not have a desire to go as it would be dangerous. But instead, they come up with this contrived plot of the wolf pack in trouble and needing Finch to take over and it was just absolutely ridiculous!
I liked this development with Ethan. I mean, he surprised the hell out of me. Again, I was duped into thinking that Lizzie compelled him to forget what she was doing and have him tell the Super Squad a different story. Instead, Ethan voluntarily told MG a lie because he wanted to get on Lizzie's good side. I liked the anger coming off of MG in this one. I'm glad to see him finally reaching a breaking point and drawing a line in the sand too. Whether or not he will regret kicking Ethan out after he learns what Hope did to Lizzie will be an interesting development to watch for. But this was a good development for both characters and I like how Ethan was able to essentially kick Jed's ass, using his powers to an effective degree.
And then we have this dude who apparently caused both Kaleb and Ethan to act all insane to the point of wanting to kill him. I'm assuming he's going to be related to Malivore in some way considering he seems to only affect those who were altered by Malivore. I suppose I'm mildly intrigued about his backstory and why he gave Jed the warning that having him around is going to be really bad news. He has been added to the cast so I guess we'll see where this goes. And Kaleb seemed to be talking about leaving too, but I don't really care about his character as he seems to flip flop between good and bad so often that he's become boring, so his departure wouldn't be a big loss.
This episode really seemed like a clusterfuck of different elements coming together and I can't help but wonder had Kaylee not been departing if this season finale would have looked a lot different. At the end of the day, it's sad that Kaylee is leaving the show because she was an enjoyable character, especially when she went into Dark Josie mode. At the same time though, perhaps her character had hit her peak. Where else could she have gone from here? She's already played the villain. She's already conquered her various hang ups regarding love and relationships. She seemed to be at a bit of a dead end, to be honest.
And I do wonder if this spells the beginning of the end for the show. Not that Josie's character was so crucial to the success of Legacies. Even TVD was able to survive two seasons without Nina. But if Kaylee's issues were indeed regarding a toxic work environment, then I can't believe she'd be the only one who had any issues. This could be similar to what Charisma Carpenter faced when she was let go during her run on Angel when she was bullied by then EP Joss Whedon. I then have to question what the hell Plec is doing over there! She's the one ultimately in charge. You're telling me that Kaylee's issues, either with Matt or EP Brett, were beyond being resolved? You're telling me that Kaylee felt so strongly about it that she'd be willing to quit midway through the fourth season and Plec couldn't do anything about it?
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark!
Anyhoo, Merry Christmas and see you all next year!
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