Legacies - A New Hope

 

Discussing Ep. 3.15 - Ya know, I had heard prior to watching this that the episode was going to have ties to TVD, TO and was going to be set in space. So I didn't know what to expect. I will say that this episode was both fun, frustrating and I really felt like they were out to personally drive me insane!

In a lot of ways, this episode just seems to point to the idea that Lizzie and Landon should just become an item at some point during the series. That would be the biggest development on the show EVER but I say that because it's just absolutely hilarious how Lizzie has tried so hard to hide the geek part of her personality. The fact that she would write a fanfic that included elements of Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and ninjas is just absolutely hilarious! The fact that she makes fun of Landon in particular means that there may be some kind of attraction on her part. Mind you, I have a feeling that they're going more in the direction of Lizzie and MG, which I wouldn't oppose since they have been building that relationship up during the series, so that's fair.

I had said last week that I had hoped they got past all the truth bombs and psychology reveals, but apparently that wasn't the case. Still, I'm not upset because they did this all in a very creative and funny way that it made it entertaining. Focusing more on Lizzie's insecurities more than the others, especially when it came to Hope, was nothing new. We knew this about her and about the Wonder Twin's relationship with Hope and I was surprised they had brought this up again. But I guess it was one of those things that, much like the last episode, was meant to solidify the trio together and I think they did a rather decent job with it. 

Then we got to Reveal #1. Well done, Legacy writers! Well done! I wasn't expecting this at all and I almost fell out of my chair when I saw the original Hope Mikaelson pop up in that room. It was both fantastic and funny at the same time, given how Summer Fontana is a bit older now and looks NOTHING like DRR! Like, putting them side by side, you can't imagine one growing up and looking like the other. But this was great and it was a nice little nod to TO and the Hope from that series. Brought back good memories of a time when vampires and werewolves and witches were quite bad ass in the TVD universe. But then we got to Reveal #2.

I mean, I said it last week that I had hoped that the entity who was in that room that Clarke was looking into would turn out to be The Hollow or that she would make an appearance on the Legacies show at some point. And lo and behold, who does Originals Hope think is walking around as Lord Marshall....but The Hollow! I literally got up from my chair and paced around my room when she said that! I was so shocked that they had even mentioned her, let alone created the possibility that she might make an appearance on the show! I was so excited that perhaps all my dreams and visions of The Hollow returning and replacing Malivore as the big bad in the series had FINALLY come to pass!

But no! 

It was still all about this glorified Play Doh fuck! 

And I get it. Even Legacies Hope said it, that The Hollow was defeated and is no longer a threat and I can accept that. But like I also said, it's Malivore fatigue at this point. He's been the big bad for the past 3 seasons and I'm just here like, when does it end? I had also wanted them to go back to a time when Hope was actually afraid of something worth being afraid of. Malivore has been far too comical and non-threatening to be seen as something that Hope should be afraid of. Her mere existence, her blood, is a threat to Malivore. He can't do fuck all to her, so why is she afraid? The Hollow, on the other hand, has done far more devastating acts against Hope to the point that she would create the kind of trauma that Hope would be afraid to face again and that's why I wanted her to return. And I will say that I liked how they kind of turned this around for the Hope character. It's not that she's afraid of Malivore, but more like she's afraid of what she has to become (i.e., a tribrid) in order to defeat her. But that's also where I have a major issue with both Malivore as a villain and Hope's supposed dilemma.

Like it's been asked before.....why does Hope have to become a tribrid to defeat Malivore? Her blood seems to do the job just as effectively. I've said this to others in the comment section that there has to be a cost, or a threat, to Hope becoming a tribrid other than she becomes immortal. I recall when Klaus was set to become the world's first hybrid and how Elijah really built that up, with Klaus having the powers of both a werewolf and a vampire and being able to create his own race of hybrids and nothing, not even sunlight or silver, could stop him. Given Klaus' personality at the time, that was a real threat that needed to be stopped. With Hope, no such threat exists. So she becomes a tribrid. Whoop-dee-dooo! She defeats Malivore....and then what? She remains the most OP supernatural creature in the world and spends all her time trying to live as a normal high school student? 

I could see it if they were trying to build it up that indeed, the so-called Super Squad, becomes a thing and they all start hunting monsters throughout the world, then Hope could use her powers to defeat powerful monsters. But if she defeats Malivore, then all the fairy tale monsters disappear, right? So then she's left with nothing but boring vampires, werewolves and witches. And she's the most powerful out of all of them. So what's the challenge? That's why I say, there has to be something else, some kind of cost or threat, for Hope for turning into a tribrid. Otherwise, she sort of becomes like One Punch Man, this overpowered being who becomes bored with life because no one can challenge him. Where is the challenge for Hope once she becomes a tribrid? Even an internal struggle to not let her powers overwhelm her would at least be something that could serve as a cost or threat to her becoming a tribrid.

Then we get to the second storyline and I honestly couldn't have cared less about this. Other than MG, it featured the bit players that don't matter. And while I feel bad about saying that, it's true. Jed is just comedy fodder at this point. He's a set prop because that's the only material he's got to work with. He acts like a dumb jock and I can't, for the life of me, understand what he brings to the show. He's not even that funny, so that element isn't even there. And as for Kaleb....what the fuck? This was just as aggravating to watch as any Josie-Finch scene out there. Kaleb mopes around, giving MG the cold shoulder and saying that everything is alright when it was clearly not. The sheer level of immaturity and self pity was tough to watch. And having them re-battle the wendigo, this time together, just to get to the point where Kaleb finally reveals that he was jealous of MG and Ethan? This was fucking stupid and a waste of my time.

As was this! Who the fuck does she think she is?!? Coming in there, berating Alaric for putting her useless boyfriend, Dorian, in danger? Alaric has the patience of Job at this point because I would not have stood for this. I bring this up again and it's worth bringing up again....Dorian and Emma abandoned Alaric! That's it, end of story. Alaric owes of either of them NOTHING!!!! It was Dorian who decided to come back to Mystic Falls. Alaric didn't ask him. Dorian did it all of his own volition. And I forgot that Emma's a witch. Does she really think she can escape the supernatural when she's a part of it? What is it with Plague that she has to put Alaric through constant torture and surround him with such useless people? Him having to see Emma and Dorian kiss is just....it's just such a fucking slap in the face that he doesn't need! He doesn't deserve that so why are they putting him through this bullshit? 

What I did like is that Alaric basically said that he always had Dorian's back, no matter what (which is truly magnanimous of him). I hope that was a subtle jab at both Dorian and Emma because, clearly, neither one of them have Alaric's back! Fuck them! Fuck both of them! Even if Emma and Alaric end up as an item, I don't wish to see that at all. Get some other woman on the show to be a PERMANENT love interest for Alaric. He doesn't need some fucking fair-weather, hypocritical friend who'll abandon him when he needs her the most! And Dorian can go and just fuck off. I don't know what he brings to the show or to Alaric. He's super judgmental and his personality is as charismatic as drywall. And he's willing to throw Alaric under the bus just to save his own worthless ass when it came to getting in trouble by Emma? Please! He's no replacement for Damon, that's for sure, as far as a drinking buddy for Alaric goes. He's barely a worthwhile replacement for a potted plant at this point.   

So Clarke made his long awaited return to the show. I am curious to see what role he will play in the final episode and how that will set up next season. And of course, we do have to find out what happened to Cleo and Landon and if they play a part, at all, in Clarke's plans. I have to assume that they do and that Clarke has been aware of what's been going on with everyone. I'm looking forward to his return because, again, it's at least a personality that Hope and the others can engage with and it's not some low-moaning-groaning claymation creature come to life.  

So, like I said, an entertaining episode and very creative one. They did a good job with their homage to Star Wars. Let's hope they can end it all on a good note next week!

Legacies - This Feels A Little Cult-y

 

Discussing Ep. 3.14 - So for an episode that served as a welcome back, I didn't mind this one too much, though it was disappointing in some respects. The fact that there was no relationship drama and Lizzie was back and funny as ever I think is what held my interest throughout the episode. This felt like a bridge to the final two episodes and the final arc of the season, so I am curious how they're going to try and wrap everything up with these last couple of episodes. 

We keep seeing Clarke throughout the season and I'm really hoping that it's for a reason and not just out of some simple contributing element to the overall plot. Either he's coming back or he isn't. When I saw him talking to that silhouette in the cell, I was REALLY hoping that the silhouette would turn out to be the Hollow from TO. I know it was a longshot but at this point, I'm getting such Malivore fatigue and the thought of taking a chance and introducing a new villain who is as personal and as powerful as the Hollow is such a a tantalizing idea! Instead, it turned out to be your run-of-the-mill witch who was acting as some kind of hippie cult leader. 

Now, I will admit that I was intrigued as to what her plan was and if she was indeed a mere witch or if there was something more to her. But at the end of the day, she was a mere witch who was recruiting other witches to perform a specific spell for Clarke to bring about some guy who literally looked like a cheap knock off of Darth Vader. And in that I was disappointed because I thought it would lead to something far loftier. With the crystals and that big crystal that Andi had everyone touch and the fact that she had basically everyone under her control, I expected her to do a lot more. 

And I was sort of expecting a little more from Lizzie, to be honest. While she kind of retraced previous steps of being insecure and drawing humour from that (I LOL'd at that line about the dicks), I was hoping we'd get something different. Still, she was rather funny and in essence, she was the hero of the episode for discovering Andi's secret and being able to break the hypnosis that Hope and Josie were under. What I'm really hoping for is that this episode truly serves as a transition for these characters to finally move on to something else. While I appreciated the truth bombs that they all served each other, I think they should be moving past all that at this point. 

One thing that I didn't understand at all was how Hope was able to defeat a gaggle of witches all on her own. Look, I get that Hope is super powerful but I didn't think she was THAT powerful. She essentially beat the equivalent of an entire coven all on her own! There must have been like 20 witches there, all under the control of Andi (who I assumed was a powerful witch in her own right) and Hope just jumped down and took them all out on her own! I don't think so. I've said this before to Dark Rose that I truly believe that if Hope is turned into a vampire, then she should malfunction, for lack of a better term, because she'd be so OP that it would be unfair for her to become almost god-like and not suffer any consequences for it. There has to be a cost to attaining all that power and it would be intriguing if indeed Hope essentially became the villain. I'd be down for seeing that. 

And then we get to the second storyline, which was Finch and Jed. It seemed to be the theme of this episode for characters to sort of regress back to what they were early on in the series. So despite Finch's seemingly smooth integration into the pack, she apparently had to go through a hazing of sorts and be the low girl on the totem pole, doing the menial jobs and serving the pack. Jed really seemed to regress to his old ways and I didn't get why. Jed looked like a chump in the end and I don't know what his purpose is on the show other than to look like a chump or a dummy or an asshole or a scumbag. It just seems like he can't do anything right and, like Kaleb, is a character that if he were to disappear in the next episode, I wouldn't miss him at all. I don't get why they need the werewolves at the school anyway when they don't seem to contribute anything at all to helping the school. It seems like it's always magic, magic, magic that saves the day. 

What surprised me about this storyline is where they DIDN'T go with it. I was fully expecting Finch to challenge Jed for the Alpha position by beating him in a wrestling match or boxing match.....in something physical where she couldn't possibly have won from a physical standpoint but did it because of her pluckiness and determination. Look, I'm all for female empowerment but not when it comes at the unnecessary cost of emasculating a male character (sometimes there's a need for it, but sometimes not). I didn't think it was necessary here and thankfully the writers thought the same. Finch didn't really annoy me as much as I thought she would and I can appreciate the fact that she was a pool shark who essentially took mercy on Jed and let him keep his Alpha position even though she easily could have taken it from him. So it's a nice display of a positive character trait on her part. But like I said, I don't know what all this does for the Jed character other than making him look like a complete and proper loser. 

And then we get to the last of the storylines that dealt with regressions of character (or at least, it was implied). I was shocked as all hell that the show remembered that MG used to be a Ripper! But that's what they were hinting at as Dorian seemed to be on the rampage and was bent on essentially killing MG because he believed he had returned to his Ripper ways. I have to say, Dorian is just fucking annoying! You'd think he was brand new to Mystic Falls or something the way he just assumed it was MG and was not willing to entertain any other explanation, despite the fact that he knew MG! I'm not a fan of the guy to begin with considering he's still with Emma and they both abandoned Alaric. But beyond that, in this episode he tried to come off as compassionate and almost as the champion for the victims but it felt so pretentious. So...yeah...he can go and fucking blow it!

I don't know, I thought this was a weird and unnecessary side story that they wrote that didn't really pay off in any big way at the end. I get that MG was somewhat distraught about breaking his friendship with Ethan and felt the need to be distant. And I suppose I could see it that he wanted to continue helping people using his vampire powers, but to have it that it looked like he had regressed to his Ripper ways (when they have barely mentioned that at all for like 2 seasons) without any real catalyst that made the audience believe that it might have actually happened did little to make me a fan of this storyline. It really was a lot of bells and whistles for nothing in the end. I guess it was also done for a laugh as it was finally a wendigo that they got to face, but still. Didn't really add much to the overall storyline.

So I guess the question is, who is Darth Imitator and what is his overall plan? Is it Clarke underneath there? Are we going to get an answer as to why there are seemingly two Malivore's wandering around (the one in the prison world and the four-armed one that Hope and Landon faced)? Where have Landon and Cleo gone to? 

And what was with the panda outfits? Was that a play on words for pandemic? 

That was my theory anyway.