The first thing you need to know is, no matter how funny or charismatic he may be, Kai Parker is first and foremost a violent psychopath.
Because if he wasn’t absolutely freaking crazy and a power-hungry murderer, he could easily be my favorite character in the TVD Universe. As it is, I think Kai Parker is second only to Katherine Pierce herself when it comes to TVD villains. So, if Legacies was going to bring back one of TVD‘s baddies, I’m glad it’s Kai Parker.
But, for those that might be watching Legacies without ever having watched TVD, Kai Parker may be nothing more than what Alaric, Josie, and Lizzie have mentioned during the course of the first two seasons. So, here is a quick rundown of all the things you should probably know about Kai before he makes his dramatic return to the TVD Universe in Legacies season 2, episode 12.
What you need to know about Kai Parker
He went on a family killing spree
We all know that the Gemini coven requires sets of twins born to its members to Merge on their 22nd birthday. This is how the coven chooses its leaders, and has been this way for a long time. (We learned in Legacies season 1 that this is actually a curse placed upon the coven.)
When Kai learned about the Gemini Merge ritual, and everything that his coven had done to try and keep power out of his hands, he lost what little control he had and went on a killing spree. (For info on the Merge, check out this handy reference guide.)
His actual target was the blonde twins, Liv and Luke, born with the intention of them merging, allowing the coven to skip over him and Jo as possible leaders.
He killed his sister, and then himself, slaying his entire coven in the process
After merging with Luke in an attempt to spare the coven Kai’s leadership, in the wake of him and Jo merging, Kai learned that if he dies, so does his entire coven. This became especially tempting to him when he learned about how siphon-witches can become vampires but still retain their ability to do magic, since their immortality is based in magic, and they can draw from that well whenever they wish.
So, to rid himself of the troublesome coven members who keep trying to imprison him, he took his own life, setting himself on an immortal course, and eliminating every other member of his coven in the process.
Kai Parker is a vampire, or more specifically, a heretic
After Kai took his own life, he awoke in transition, and, after drinking his father’s human blood, turned himself into an immortal vampire/witch hybrid, known as a heretic.
Honestly, this makes him even more terrifying, because now he has a steady source of power at his fingertips at all times.
If you want to watch Kai come back to life and complete his transition, check out this clip:
Bonnie used her power and hatred to lock Kai away in another prison world
His worst nightmare. And this was all thanks to Josie and the twins, and the hatred burning through Bonnie after Kai sent Elena off to sleep until Bonnie dies, forever separating Bonnie from the person she cares about most in the world. Which is where we pick things up tonight when we return to the prison world with Alaric, Josie, and Lizzie, and come face to face with Uncle Kai right where Bonnie left him. Oh, and with all the trouble-making Salvatore School students that Alaric sent there.
