This week felt much more like a typical Legacies episode in that Hope sexily bullied all the men she met, slayed monsters and got her heart broken; Lizzie was the one breaking hearts and Josie, once again, made some questionable romantic decisions.
Hope’s hunt of the troll from last week leads her to Mystic Falls High, where she runs into the new principal, Alaric Saltzman, who assumes she’s a student there.
Back at the Salvatore school, Landon finds himself popular now because everyone thinks he’s the guy that defeated Malivore – even if he doesn’t remember it while Josie struggles to be okay with dating someone who everyone (suddenly) wants. Clearly, she’s learnt nothing from the time she dated Penelope. Salvatore also has a new headmaster Vardemus and he is very insistent on driving his “supernatural beings first and are the future” agenda further.
Hope meets a very kind Maya who takes one look at the clothes the poor thing has been in for five months now and offers to fix her up. I like Maya not only because of how readily she helped the sad girl in the bathroom and but because she saw her chance to put Hope in a denim jacket and ran with it.
Hope convinces Alaric that she’s a vampire hunter and together they defeat the troll with some of their usual teamwork (or at least think they do) but Maya walks in on them. They get MG to compel her to forget, making him late for his study date with Lizzie, who’s only agreed because she’s having a ‘semester of yes.’
But don’t worry too much about Lizzie, because she’s just run into someone who will definitely be keeping her busy. Sebastian. He’s got an accent, Thomas Doherty’s face and calls her Elizabeth. Basically he’s straight out of the Gothic Victorian romance of Lizzie’s dreams and nobody can blame her for falling for him right away.
Alaric is suspicious that Hope isn’t telling him the truth about who she is and wants to know if he already knew her. (Last episode he gathers that someone was missing from their lives because they were in Malivore.) Hope doesn’t tell him because it wouldn’t change anything. They learn that they haven’t actually killed the troll and set off in search of it.
Forget the troll because Hope spots something much more troubling: Josie and Landon on their first date. Apparently their date was as miserable as I was watching their entire romantic arc unfold.
Sebastian drops by to see Lizzie again. He tells her that although they’re obviously drawn to each other, she shouldn’t let him get too close because he’s ‘complicated.’ Pfft, okay, Edward Cullen. Lizzie tells him that she’s waiting for MG in an attempt to downplay just how into him she is and Sebastian see right through it. But he tells her that she shouldn’t have to wait around for anyone and I just ship this so much. (MG, I love you endlessly and I’m so sorry I feel this way.)
Lizzie (and me): Let’s talk about Sebastian
Alaric and Hope take on the troll in town square but nobody else in the entire goddamn town sees it! Seriously, Landon was sitting five feet away the entire time and didn’t notice Hope getting thrown around like a rag doll. Oh look, a metaphor for their relationship this season. (Too soon? Feels like it’s too soon.)
Turns out the troll was actually a cyclops this entire time and when Hope kills it, the body dissolves into a million light particles for some reason and finally Landon turns around to see Hope for the first time this season.
(Someone on this show must truly understand what I want in life because the perfect Handon song here is Sparks Fly.)
Lizzie tells MG about her crush on Sebastian and how he is her fresh start to be with someone who knows absolutely nothing about her or her struggle with her mental health. It’s crushing to MG who knows everything about her and still loves her anyway – not despite, but because of everything he knows about her.
Oh Legacies, how much I love you for hurting me every week.
Hope is about to leave town again when Landon comes up to talk to her, having recognized her from their run in earlier. In my personal favorite scene again, Hope and Landon discuss each other’s relationship drama, even if it kills Hope to hear Landon talk about Josie. She tells him that she’s in love with a boy who doesn’t know she exists and in return, he talks about how hard he’s been trying to keep his relationship with Josie perfect.
Hope tells him that sometimes you just have to be brave enough to be imperfect with people. What she doesn’t tell him is that it’s something he taught her. Landon tells her to take her own advice (AND SHE SHOULD) but gives her his untouched milkshake as a pick-me-up.
Except it’s peanut butter blast, whipped cream on the bottom. Hope’s personal milkshake order. He doesn’t know why he ordered it, but he just did. Landon walks away, leaving Hope (and us) with the devastating realization that even if he doesn’t remember her right now, Hope and Landon are a part of each other, no matter what. Even if there’s nothing she (or we) can do to fix the horrible situation they’re in.
Oh Legacies, how much I love you for hurting me every week x2.
Landon takes Hope’s advice and fixes his relationship with Josie (yay, said nobody ever) and they become official or whatever the kids call it.
Hope goes back to Alaric and finally tells him the truth about who she is because he’s still the closest thing she has to a father. He has no reason to believe her, but he does anyway and promises to help figure things out.
Josie earlier in the day gave a witch who hit on Landon a nosebleed, because we all know she deals with jealousy in a completely rational way. However, this immediately endears her to Vardemus. He invites her to join a special advanced offensive magic group, an extracurricular Alaric would be downright thrilled about.
And finally Red Coat from last week (yes, I lifted that nickname from PLL and what about it) pops up to stab a random jogger (who was running through a Mystic Falls cemetery at midnight, not impressed with this guy’s self preservation instincts) and engraves the Triad symbol on his forehead. Typical TVDU bad guy stuff, nothing to see here.
This was such a wonderful episode, definitely better than the premiere. There’s a lovely balance to it, with the perfect amount of laughs and heartbreak. Hope’s reintegration into everyday life now that Alaric knows who she is will definitely be interesting. Especially looking forward to learning how the twins deal with it.
Although as seen in the promo for next week’s episode, Josie may not be as nice to Hope as she was once, now that they’re interested in the same boy. Another thing I can’t wait to see go down.
What did you think of this Legacies episode? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
