Legacies - I Thought You'd Be Happier To See Me

 

Discussing Ep. 4.5 - So a bit of a topsy-turvy kind of episode, where I definitely felt some TVD vibes coming off of Hope in particular and a cameo by Rebekah that was cool and yet rather unsatisfying.

Hope's turn as a humanity-off vampire somewhat mirrors Elena's turn when she turned her humanity off in that she comes off more annoying than cool. I think the term that I'm looking for that describes them both is bratty. But in Hope's case, it's perhaps more earned in that she is the most powerful being in the world and so who can actually tell her what to do now? I think this bratty nature is what is giving her that aura that she's not someone you'd love to hate but rather she's someone you just can't stand, which is perhaps what they are going for in the end. I'll be curious to see how they will redeem her because she's definitely doing things (i.e. putting Alaric in the hospital) that are really, really going to be tough for her to accept if and when she turns her humanity back on. 

And it was great to see Rebakah again! And it was nice to see she hadn't lost her touch, trashing country music to no end (I do wonder if Claire Holt likes country music or not and they put in that in just for her!). I do find it funny how Rebekah, like Caroline, is supposed to look like a teenager (or at the very least, a young 20-something year old) but they look much older than that and are recognized as such by other characters! But as much as it was nice to see Beks again, I'm still trying to figure out what her role was in this episode other than to show that the dagger wouldn't work on Hope. And also, speaking of that dagger, is that the one that Kol created for Klaus? I'm assuming it was (though didn't that one melt or something on TO?) because a regular dagger was black and she needed white oak ash to make it work. 

But beyond that, I don't get what she did other than to highlight that, indeed, Hope's humanity is turned off. And the thing that I wonder about is where this is all going now. Consider that Beks is aware that Hope, the most powerful being on Earth, is roaming around with her humanity off. Clearly this goes against what Beks believes is right. She clearly doesn't approve of Hope killing innocent people. So....what is she going to do? Is she going back to NOLA and just forget about Hope? Is she going to write her off as a lost cause? On TO, you'd have to believe that Beks would rally the family together, that'd she get Kol and Freya and Marcel together and go looking for Hope and come up with a plan to save her. But I have a feeling that that's not what she's going to do. 

This is why I have an issue with her cameo in the first place. By rights, it should lead to further involvement from Beks and the rest of the family. For all of them to just give up and walk away and hope it works out runs contrary to what we know about how that family operates when one of their own is in trouble. For all the headaches and heartaches the Mikaelsons endured for the sake of Hope's survival on TO, only for Beks and Freya and the others to shrug their shoulders and not try and save her when she's a danger to herself and the rest of the world just doesn't make any sense. They realize that neither Klaus nor Elijah would approve of Hope going the way she's going. So why wouldn't they all try and save her? 

As for the other storyline, this was weird. If it hadn't been the tendency of the showrunners to make death a complete non-factor on the show since the TVD days, then I might have felt something here with Alaric essentially dying before our eyes. But I don't believe he's gone for one second. I will say that I did like how Hope really went out of her way to beat the shit out of him. That was brutal! Really helped to set her character as a changed person. But they really built this up as though this was Alaric's swan song and I don't think it had the impact that it could have had.

If anything this storyline did, it helped to accentuate just how useless Dorian is! I mean, Lizzie mentioned that Dorian was in Shanghai with Emma and therefore wasn't around to help. What fucking purpose does he serve then? When Alaric needs him the most, he's not even there! Alaric was there when Dorian was in the hospital but he's not there when Alaric is in the hospital, on his death bed? Fuck that guy! And then there was that second line about how Caroline was in the Congo, still looking for a solution for the Merge. Good grief! Why not put her on the moon if you're going to make up excuses as to why any one character is not there? I can't imagine Alaric dying without Caroline or even Elena and Damon showing up to say their goodbyes. But then again, where the hell have they all been up to this point anyway so them not showing up to say goodbye to Alaric wouldn't be out of character for any of them. Still doesn't make a lot of sense though.

And while it was cool to see Summer Fontana take on the role of young Hope again, I feel like we keep retreading this issue that Lizzie, in particular, keeps having with Hope....that being that Alaric always chose Hope over the Wonder Twins when they were growing up. How many times do we have to go over this? While I can understand Lizzie's fresh hatred for Hope after finding out that it was she who put Alaric in the hospital, why do we need to go over all this again? It all just felt rather contrived as a way to have Alaric apologize to Lizzie and Josie as a way to tug at the heart strings. For me at least, it didn't work.

And then we have yet another trademark from the Plec handbook....the love triangle. Though this is somewhat different, yet the same, in that Ethan and MG are friends, not brothers. And yet, they kind of act like brothers and so it's pretty much the same. They've toned down the romance aspect between Josie and Finch to the degree that I'm not annoyed by them, so perhaps they will do a decent job with this love triangle storyline so that it doesn't become too cringe. But then when I think about it....what triangle is there? Lizzie already said that she doesn't really feel anything for Ethan, so I don't get how they're going to create any drama between the three of them.

So they've set up this new storyline where Triad is back again. Although this feels like it came out of nowhere, the fact that the original (?) vampire/werewolf/witch lines that created the Triad now see Hope as the new threat makes sense, in an ironic sort of way. I will say that I'm intrigued by this although the fact that Triad has existed for all this time and never made a move against the likes of Klaus or the Mikaelsons and yet now have a bone to pick with Hope doesn't really make that much sense. But at least they've added a new crinkle to all of this so it has piqued my interest. 

So overall, a good bridging episode to the next step in the storyline. Like I said, I got some TVD vibes with Hope mirroring Elena, but also with Beks mirroring Damon when he was trying to get through to no-humanity Stefan by taking him to a bar. And also, Hope channeled a bit of her father by throwing darts at that vampire, much in the same way that Klaus watched Stefan do the same to that werewolf that would become the first (failed) attempt at creating a hybrid. 

So yeah...some callbacks to TVD for sure!

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