Discussing Ep. 4.8 - Now THAT'S what I'm talking about! Pretty much all the things that I griped about in previous episodes seemed to have been addressed in this one and I couldn't be happier.
In so many ways, I feel like this season should have been the first season, where the transition from The Originals to Legacies was more clearly made. With the cameos from Freya and Rebekah and now Aurora, it feels like such a disconnect from TO because they took so long to make this connection. Oh well...guess better late than never, right? I had to laugh because when Aurora brought out Papa Tunde's blade, I was sure that thing was destroyed. Again, it had been so long that I forgot what actually happened. I was pleasantly surprised by how things ended up and glad that they're sticking to established canon. Aurora getting one over on Hope, turning the tables on her and occupying her body? I really like that twist. I wish that Tristan was alive too but I imagine he died the moment Elijah killed himself and his entire sire line was wiped out. Come to think of it, how many scores of vampires were killed during that moment? I wonder if Aurora will bring that up or not.
So now this sets up a whole bunch of complications that will be intriguing to see how they play out. The fact that Lizzie is bent on killing Hope, the fact that Cleo and MG want to save Hope, the fact that Landon wants to white knight and save Hope too! There are a lot of opposing factions at play here and now that Aurora is inhabiting Hope's body, it creates even more problems. I also like how Hope is inhabiting Aurora's body but with her humanity still off. She's still a danger, inhabiting the body of the very first female vampire in history. How will she solicit help from anyone to get her own body back? I could really see this as the gateway through which Hope regains her humanity but it kind of sucks because I could see it that she won't do anything horrific that would cause her any great regret, like I outlined in my previous review. But I am curious to see how this plays out.
I had completely forgotten that Jo used to be a doctor and that Josie was essentially mimicking her birth mother in this episode. Beyond that, I wasn't really a fan of this, though I do wonder if they were paying tribute to the show Saving Hope as a both a pun and the fact that Daniel Gillies played a doctor on that show!
Anyway, this wasn't as fun or as impactful as Lizzie's therapy session. I don't really understand what it is that Josie is planning to do. She feels she has to let go of the pressure in order not to feel any of it. Much like Baby alluded to, it could be that Josie is finally looking out for herself rather than looking out for everyone else. But, didn't she go through this already? She says that she needs to leave. But she's already tried leaving Salvatore School once and it didn't work out. Like it was said in the Godfather Part 3: "Every time I get out, they pull me back in!" I think Kaylee is filming a movie so I could see her stepping away from the show for a while and this is the excuse. But at the same time, who the hell is going to rein in Lizzie? How could Josie possibly leave her friends and the world hanging because she couldn't handle the pressure?
As for Lizzie, I like her direction. She seems more focused and less worried about her own issues and insecurities. It's funny that the destruction of Hope is what is giving her this new found determination. In a lot of ways, I like this as it seems like all the repressed feelings that she had are finally coming out and she's being more honest. Though ironically enough, she's also being more devious, spying on Cleo and MG and getting a hand on the last red oak wood. Plus, she essentially wiped Ethan's memories, which to her credit she was honest about doing in the first place. But damn! That's cold! MG disappointed me with his decision to burn that wood and it surprised me that Cleo wouldn't figure that Nature would never allow an immortal to exist and therefore burning the wood away would not work. Either way, they're sort of going back to TVD/TO roots with red oak wood playing a factor rather than white oak wood. If Lizzie performs a spell like Esther did and makes that stake indestructible, then we would have come full circle!
By far, this was the weakest of the segments of the episode for various reasons. However, I do have to give them credit for answering my question as to where all the people who died end up going. But it's kind of dumb that they're all just wandering around aimlessly in limbo. Once again though, it's funny how much they're referencing both TVD and TO this season. The back drop of the clock tower in Mystic Falls, the return of Aurora, the mention by Alaric how "Hell" was created by Cade (which I wish was never part of the canon!). But this segment once again returned to the fairy tale element of Legacies and I think that's why it felt so out of place.
Also, who the fuck cares? That whole scene between Landon and Alaric was just so uninspiring. The idea that Alaric had to make peace with someone, anyone, in order to cross the river was just stupid, given all the good things he's done in life and all the heartache he's endured. It was clearly an excuse to visit Mystic Falls again and to get some laughs. And Landon once again becoming the white knight, determined to go and save Hope? I laughed when his illusion self failed to stir any kind of emotion out of Hope in the last episode, so perhaps Landon's lovey-dovey approach will be just as unsuccessful and we can finally ditch this character arc. I want Lanivore back!
So for the most part, a really good episode. It seems like the general consensus among the comment sections on various platforms is that this is the best season of Legacies to date. And I truly believe it's because they got away from all that fairy tale nonsense that launched Legacies into a totally separate world that shared little to nothing with TVD and TO, the shows from which it spawned from. I said this to Baby in regards to the theme episodes in that I felt like they were trying to create a separate identity for Legacies the way The Originals had a separate identity to The Vampire Diaries. But with Legacies, they went way too far too soon. I still recall that first episode with the dragon, I kept thinking "what the fuck is that?!?"
Though they were able to turn it around into something decent, it still created this rift where you couldn't imagine a Klaus or an Elijah or a Stefan or a Damon wandering into the Legacies world. My goodness, the snarky one liners from Damon alone would have burned the world to the ground! That's why I think that this season, where they're making the connections to TVD and TO and making the show more a part of the TVD universe instead of a separate one is what is helping to make it an enjoyable season. I keep reading the same thing over and over again: "I get TVD/TO vibes this season!" And it's true. I don't mind necessarily that they created a new mythos with Malivore and all the fairy tale monsters. But they should have worked up to that instead of dropping it at the outset. It's funny because in those hospital scenes, either Josie or Hope was talking about living up to a family legacy. Prior to this season, Hope has never really had to deal with any of that. It's really only this season that her family's past has actually caught up to her and she's now left to face the legacy of the Mikaelson family and of Klaus in particular!
So kudos to the writing staff for finally taking a step back in order to take a few steps forward. This was definitely needed and I'm very invested to see where this all goes. Again, I love that I'll get to see more of Aurora in some upcoming episodes. I love the cross purposes of Lizzie and MG and how they're both out to get Hope but for different reasons.
Next episode is the mid season finale....let's hope they can finish out 2021 on a strong note!
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