Legacies has done a lot in its first season. It established a whole band of characters, gave them all fully fleshed out identities, and now, we know where we’re leaving them… until season 2, of course.
There are a LOT of things to cover in the Legacies season 1 finale, what with a whole Triad vs. Salvatore School battle, a headless horseman, a betrayal, a sacrifice, and a major game-changing cliffhanger. So, we’re gonna take this one step at a time and try and hit all the important notes.
Let’s start with the Triad battle
We saw Triad breaking open the gates to the Salvatore School at the end of last week’s penultimate episode, so we knew we were about to watch a showdown, but this was actually one hell of a battle.
First, Josie gets shot with Malivore mud bullets that have the ability to disintegrate any supernatural creature from the inside out. She sacrifices herself to save Lizzie, and we quickly learn that not only can their magical properties not be siphoned away, but the only cure is a dose of Hope’s blood. At least we don’t have to worry about Josie’s fate all summer as she was clearly cured by the end of the episode.
We also saw M.G. really step up as a leader in this episode. Not only did he dart his own mother with her own sedative gun, he went on to help everyone get organized to fight Triad. No one questioned his orders, either. Kaleb even listened when M.G. stopped him from taking extraordinarily vicious actions after the battle was over. I was really impressed by M.G. in this episode. He didn’t have to ask people to listen to him, he just knew he was the right man for the job.
I LOVED watching Pedro and Raf and Jed and Kaleb and all the witches battling Triad. We haven’t seen a ton of magic this season, so watching the different covens gang up on Triad was incredibly entertaining. I hope we get another chance to watch the school do what it does best. AND they managed to do so without permanently harming any of Triad’s goons. That is pure class. These supernatural creatures are proving they are the best of humanity, not the worst.
Alaric’s surprising betrayal
After all Headmaster Saltzman has been through in his life (much of which we watched play out throughout eight seasons of The Vampire Diaries), it makes sense that he had a contingency plan for protecting the world from his school. He’s watched witches, hybrids, vamps, and wolves use humans for their own purposes and not care about the consequences time and time again.
I was a little surprised that he ever told anyone else about his plan, though. That was a huge mistake on his part. All it would have taken to prove to parents that he had things under control would have been assurances that he has spent his life fighting supernatural creatures, so he knows their strengths and weaknesses and is more than capable of protecting the world from their powers.
That was the most disappointing part of his betrayal. I’m really glad he took responsibility for the part he played in Triad getting the upper hand at the school, and that he is willing to suffer the consequences that might come from those actions. We will have to wait for season 2 to find out if Alaric will continue to be Headmaster, but I have a good feeling we haven’t seen the last of the Salvatore School’s resident Dumbledore.
A headless horseman?
I was most definitely taken by surprise when Ichabod Crane showed up in the Triad artifact warehouse. I mean, the last thing I expected to see show up for the final Malivore key was a headless horseman, but he was a lot of fun to watch in action.
We got to see both Landon and Hope do battle against the horseman. Landon’s was more like throwing witty quips at it and trying to stay out of its reach, but Hope was a freaking badass. It was fantastic to watch Landon see his girlfriend kick ass and use his brain to solve the dilemma instead.
We even got a neck snap. The Vampire Diaries perfected the art of the broken neck as the vamps used it time and time again to put one player or another down for the count for a little while. It’s the most surefire way to guarantee that a vampire sits out a fight or confrontation. So to see Hope employ it here to keep Landon from stopping her from doing what she has to do is a bit of a trip down memory lane.
Hope’s sacrifice
I’m not gonna lie, ever since we watched Seylah swan dive into Malivore, I felt like SOMEONE was going to end up in the pit before this season wrapped up. I didn’t necessarily believe it was going to be Hope, though. I really thought it was going to be either Landon or one of the Saltzman twins.
Hope really is the hero of this season. She has always charged into danger to save her friends, and this culminated in her making the ultimate sacrifice for all of them. By throwing herself into Malivore to neutralize his power, Hope gave all of the people she loves a chance to survive. And she lost everything.
We won’t know what comes next for Hope, or even where she is until the show returns next fall, but we know that no one remembers her and Alaric has burned most of the proof that she ever existed.
And Malivore is no more
One look at the former pit of black tar known as Malivore, and we basically know that Hope was at least somewhat successful. The pit has dried up, so either Malivore fully formed despite her sacrifice and is walking the Earth somewhere, or mixing her tribrid existence with Malivore was the only way to neutralize it and eliminate the threat once and for all.
So, what is next for Hope and ‘Legacies’?
Well, no one remembers her. Hope is the center of so much of this story, but now, no one remembers anything about her. Will she pop out of Malivore with barely any time passed? Is there a way to re-establish her existence after she comes back? Will she defeat Malivore or simply do battle with him/it?
This is definitely a game-changer for the show. Hope has been the centerpiece of the Salvatore School in almost every episode, often being the only one who can save the day because of things she’d learned from her experienced supernatural family. How will they fare without her? Will we see people remember her in the future? All this will (hopefully) be explained next fall when Legacies season 2 debuts.