Discussing Ep. 3.4 - Okay, this was complete bullshit. This is wandering into TVD S5 territory of writing where the storylines all turn and end on a dime and there doesn't seem to be any long term plan or storyline in place at all.
I'll get my biggest gripe out of the way first. Alyssa Chang. What the fuck? This is writing at its worst, like...this is Riverdale level of writing! I have no idea what to make of this character. Is she good? Is she bad? Is she traumatised? Is she narcissistic? What the fuck is she? "Oh, she's just complicated!" Fuck you! Just like it was last season, she started out as some troubled witch who was being a pain in the ass to the other students and faculty. She became an outcast and decided to exact her revenge on those who she thought were against her, only to change her mind on a whim (mainly because of MG) and join with the very people she was hellbent on hurting. And guess what? She did the EXACT SAME FUCKING THING THIS SEASON!!!!
She starts out this season as some bitchy student who kept putting all the other students down, only to be checked by Lizzie...she then goes and joins NecroTed and is bent on getting revenge on those who wronged her...only to have her mind changed by the Wonder Twins and MG? Really? Are the writers so bereft of ideas that they had to do the exact same arc for this character that they did last season? The way she is able to change her mind (or have her mind changed by others) is ridiculous. Not to mention how her entire personality changes! Now she's a good person and not a bitch anymore? Why? And her story about how she lost control of her witchy powers and incinerated her parents was such a weak payoff! I was expecting so much more in terms of her background. Instead, she's like the witch version of a Ripper, but not really since she obviously does have control of her powers. So what's the point? And to boot, she gets the guy in the end. She got MG! Why reward this goofy character like that?
Then we have Malivore, the big bad that has been essentially the catalyst for all the fairy tale monsters for the past two seasons. He shows up here without any fanfare or build up, meeting Landon and taking over his body. I forgot what Malivore's intentions were throughout the first two seasons but it didn't matter anymore. He seemed bent on destroying NecroTed because he possessed him or something. He's given the chance to talk after possessing Landon and he doesn't say anything noteworthy. Hell, I thought he would end up possessing Landon permanently. In the end, he's in the prison world with NecroTed for all time. It's like he's the Silas of Legacies, this big bad from last season that should have gone out in a blaze of glory at the end of the season only to go out like a candle at the beginning of it!
And the same can be said for NecroTed. Not that I mind his departure seeing as how I viewed him as little more than a rodeo clown. Other than unleashing Malivore on Earth, he seemed directionless. And he came off as too comical. No doubt he'll return and will have made peace (if not an alliance) with Malivore and will come back proclaiming the end of the world and all of that nonsense once they find their way out of the prison world. And on that note, fuck these prison worlds! I suppose they made a self-deprecating joke when Alyssa commented about how much Bennett blood they actually have on hand, but I don't even know why Bennett blood is even necessary. Bennett blood was required to open that prison world that Bonnie and Damon and Kai were in because Grams Bennett used her blood to create it. That's it! That's all! Why do they need Bennett blood to CREATE one?!? Why not use anyone's blood?
And now that they have a supernova that will continue to explode for the next few years, they can seemingly open as many prison worlds as they want! It's amazing how this franchise takes the 'specialness' out of every single anomaly that they create. They have to one up it somehow and in the end make that what was once special and unique seem pedestrian and ordinary. A werewolf-vampire hybrid (Klaus)? We can beat that by making a witch-vampire mix (Heretics)! An alternate dimension (the Other Side) created by a powerful witch (Qetsiyah)? We can beat that by making several alternate dimensions (prison worlds)! A witch-vampire-werewolf tribrid (Hope)? We can beat that making fairies and phoenixes and mud people!
Speaking of tribrids and of people with no direction, once again it seems like Hope's world revolves around Landon. And once again, I ask...why? Why is it that there is nothing else in this girl's life? From the moment she woke up to the very end of the episode, her thoughts were of Landon and finally having sex with him. Great! So now what? You had sex and he suddenly disappeared (I'm sure many a woman can relate to that experience! HA! I made a funny.). So what's next? I'll tell you what's next. She's going to spend the next episode trying to find him and save him and be with him and all that bunk. I had such high hopes from last episode because they touched on the areas of Hope's life that they could explore and develop her character with but they choose not to.
In a lot of ways, she's like a warped version of Elena. I always felt like they were trying to make Elena into the TVD version of Buffy but it didn't work, trying to fit her into a hero role that she didn't fit into at all. Buffy was thrust into a job that she didn't want. She was born a Slayer and endowed with certain abilities to perform her duty as a Slayer to kill vampires and other monsters and to give up any semblance of a normal life to do so. And though she tried to have romantic relationships with the likes of Angel, her duty as a Slayer would always interfere with that. It's not the same with Elena or with Hope. Not by a long shot. Though the show keeps telling us that she's the hero and she always saves the day and they do show it, they don't show or tell us why. She's been touted as the hero, more by Landon than by anybody else, but she has no obligation whatsoever to fulfil that role.
She did at one point, seeing as how her tribrid status was the only thing that could defeat Malivore. But after that, why does she do what she does? One thing that seems to hit all hero types in different genres is that they become tired of always 'saving the day.' They become uniquely qualified to be a particular hero (either by birth or a science experiment/accident or by their own sense of justice) but they find that the work of fighting evil and saving the day never ends and they hit that point where they want to quit and walk away. But with Hope, I don't know what her motivations are to save the day, to be the hero. For the past two seasons, her tribrid nature has barely played any kind of role in creating any drama in her life. They certainly don't qualify her for being the hero when you have phoenixes and fairies and siphon witches wandering about. Is it because it's what Landon expects from her? It seems like her whole life revolves around Landon: to save Landon; to kiss Landon; to fuck Landon; to talk with Landon; to live up to Landon's expectations. What is her life at this point without Landon? What would her motivations be without Landon?
Don't get me wrong. I'm beyond chuffed that she chose Landon as her boyfriend. But my issue is that she seems to have made him her entire world. That's a fucking red flag if I've ever saw one! And this is why I say she's like Elena in that I remember Elena saying in one episode that she had to discover who she was without Damon, only to go back to Damon in the very next episode! Who is Hope without Landon at this point? What would she do on the show without Landon? It's funny, if not ironic, that in the last episode, when she wasn't with Landon, that we got to see her hobbies (painting) and see her come to grips with her feelings on Klaus. Like I said, there are so many aspects to Hope's character that they could explore, so many other challenges and personal vices and character development that they could work with if they would just stop focusing on the teen romance bullshit! By all means, keep Landon in the picture but don't have him be the focal point. Rather, have him be an ally....like in a normal relationship!
I will say that I'm curious to know what they all will do now. Malivore and NecroTed are gone, so the two big bads of the season have been wiped out. Alyssa turned good so she's no longer a threat. What do any of them do now. Looks like Josie is taking a break, which is sad since she was actually one of the few characters that was interesting since she was struggling with her dark side. Lizzie could be too but she's going to be busy now regretting not getting together with MG. MG and Alyssa are a thing. Landon is gone and Hope will be busy looking for him. What do they do now?
I'm actually not that intrigued to find out!
