Legacies – Let’s Just Finish the Dance

By starrymag | March 21, 2019

By; Atiya Irvin-Mitchell

 

 

In the latest episode of “Legacies” it is time for a sexist, antiquated, anti-feminist tradition. And it couldn’t come at a worse time as after the events of last week (MG killing Landon and Landon rising from the dead) the students at the Salvatore school are still reeling.

 

We open the episode with a fully-clothed Landon (Aria Shahghasemi) and Hope (Danielle Rose Russell) snuggled up in Hope’s room. She’s trying and failing to sleep. Landon attempts to wake her up from what appears to be a nightmare and for his troubles he gets magic’ed across the room.  When she realizes what she did she’s very apologetic and promises she’s fine, but clearly seeing her boyfriend dead was a triggering experience for the tribrid. More on that later.

 

Landon goes to share his concerns about Hope’s emotional state with Alaric (Matt Davis). It is there that we learn that MG (Quincy Fouse) and Rafael (Peyton Alex Smith) are getting some intense therapy and Ric’s researching phoenix lore. Landon’s just happy that he knows what he is.

 

Ric tries and fails to get Hope to open up over sparring. When he connects seeing Landon dead with her past losses she freaks out and blasts him across the room. Yikes. She apologizes profusely and then heads to the woods to wolf out, hoping that’ll help her blow off some steam.

 

While Ric lays on the floor Lizzie (Jenny Boyd) comes into deal another blow. Remember that antiquated, anti-feminist tradition? It’s the Salvatore school’s turn to host the annual Miss Mystic Falls Pageant and the students need to rush to make the school human friendly. Ric and Lizzie make an announcement that everyone needs to nix the magic for the next few days.

 

Hope and Landon are helping to store some exotic and possibly illegal pets in the basement and Landon wants to talk. Now that it seems he can’t die on Hope, he feels like there are no more obstacles in their relationship. As if on cue Roman Sienna (Jedidiah Goodacre) walks through the door.

 

For those of you who didn’t watch “The Originals,” long story short, Roman’s mother was a werewolf hating vampire who convinced Roman the Mikaelson’s were evil and needed to be exterminated. But he and Hope shared a brief romance that ended when Roman’s assistance in his mother’s plan lead to Hayley’s (Hope’s mother) untimely death. When the ex and current boyfriend meet it’s awkward to say the least, but we learn that with all the monster mania he’s been doing some recruiting for Ric.

 

Elsewhere, MG’s mother Veronica (Erica Ash) makes an appearance at the school. Unsurprisingly, she’s not showing a lot of concern for MG’s emotional state after killing Landon, she just doesn’t like that her son’s a “murderer” now. She doesn’t believe the school’s a good fit anymore.

 

More on the pageant front. Penelope (Lulu Antariska) strides up to Josie and wants to talk about the letter Josie (Kaylee Bryant) hasn’t read. Josie brushes her off, so Penelope redirects to the pageant and calls it a sexist and outdated nightmare. Josie says she’s participating in that sexist outdated nightmare. And she’s not the only one.

 

Lizzie’s in full-on competition mode and ready to wow the judges. She meets the first two Mrs. Thompson and Dr. Brandt and makes a great impression, clearly having read up on them, the third’s a little trickier though. It’s Vera Lillian, as in Lizzie’s nemesis Dayna’s mother. It’s clear Dayna badmouthed Lizzie to her mom (Tanya Christiansen) so Lizzie decides with Mrs. Lillian as the head judge this isn’t going to be her year. So, she drops out. But never fear, she says another Salvatore Stallion will be taking home the tiara: Hope.

 

At first Hope isn’t so into the whole beauty queen scene, but Lizzie reminds her that she wanted to stay busy so she reluctantly agrees. Lizzie has a complicated eight binders worth of a plan to help Hope win and gives her a special dress to look pageant pretty in. She also wants Hope to play up her orphan status to gain the sympathy vote, which Hope’s not thrilled about. Let the games begin.

 

Now for MG. Apparently, he’s feeling some ostracism for the Landon incident, but gets a nice refrain after being called a killer. A girl named Nia (Joi Liaye), wearing comic book merchandise, is in need of a tour. MG shows Nia around the campus and they playfully spar about who’s best Green Lantern only to be interrupted by Veronica.

 

Veronica tells MG she wants him to leave the school and MG blows up at her and storms off. Fun fact, it seems there are other schools for supernatural kids in the world.

 

For the contestants it’s dance rehearsal time. Lizzie tells Hope that the competition has already started and Penelope fills in for MG as Josie’s dance partner. There’s a lot going on here. Josie plans to throw the pageant hoping it’ll smooth things over between her and Lizzie. Penelope says she knows it’d mean a lot to her to win since her mother was Miss Mystic Falls. Landon doesn’t get how Hope could be so nice to Roman after what he did. Hope tries to explain Roman’s family situation, but Landon feels he got crucified over taking the knife. For the non-“Originals” viewers (not that Landon knows this), after Hayley’s death Hope did nearly kill Roman for aiding and abetting his mother’s plan.

 

The throwback’s a little too much for Hope as her magic starts going haywire. Lizzie notices and takes Hope to the woods. She says she knows Hope’s headed for the meltdown and encourages her to scream and it out where she can’t hurt anyone. She does and feels a little better.  Landon comes outside to apologize to Hope, but the reconciliation stalled when he notices MG’s mother’s been turned into a statue. They’ve got another monster on their hands.

 

The kids bring Ric up to speed and Landon suspects Roman. He halls off to interrogate the vampire and MG and Ric go to search the campus.

 

More “Posie” drama. When Josie tells Penelope she intentionally blew her interview, Penelope’s appalled, but Josie brings up something more upsetting – how Penelope knew her real feelings. It turns out Penelope gave up pens that allowed her to see everything written with them. Josie calls Penelope obnoxious and selfish for meddling and storms off.

 

While MG and Ric search, Ric tells MG he thinks they’ve got a Gorgon on their hands. A Gorgon is a creature with snakes for hair that can turn people to stone with a look. MG thinks of Nia and starts lightly defending his new friend. Ric picks up on what he’s saying and not saying, but before MG can explain Ric gets petrified. But it appears the Gorgon’s powers don’t work on vampires. Nia’s looking for Landon and MG says he’s not giving him up. Nia apologizes and snaps his neck.

 

Outside an upset Landon’s getting drunk and Penelope also wounded joins him. They talk a little and Landon decides to be honest with Hope because he says being with her has taught him the importance of honesty. Penelope scoffs and says she’s gonna tell him how dishonest Hope’s been. Uh-oh.

 

It’s announcement time for the escorts and Landon’s late. He shows up just before it’s Hope’s turn, but he’s hammered and not happy with Hope. He tells her Penelope told him that she’s been lying to him about his mother. She tries to explain but he leaves. This leaves her without an escort, but Roman swoops in.

 

Now for Josie. Lizzie wants her to trip and knock down the girl in front of her, but Penelope encourages her not to saying she deserves to have some self-respect. But Josie doesn’t want to disappoint her sister so she takes a literal fall. Penelope gets upset and leaves.

 

Outside Landon tries to clear his head. Unfortunately, he runs into Nia who threatens him. Fortunately, though, before this can go too far MG rings a bell three times, which knocks her out. It was either that or decapitation. Landon says he and MG are even now.

 

At the competition Josie’s upset now. She read the letter. Penelope’s leaving the school and Lizzie knew. Lizzie doesn’t understand why Josie’s upset. Josie says it’s because Lizzie doesn’t think about anyone but herself and points to the dress she gave to Hope as an example. Lizzie doesn’t get what about the dress could possibly upset Hope or Josie. It’s just a gift from some guy who had a crush on Caroline. Of course, it’s not just any guy. Josie says Klaus Mikaelson (Joseph Morgan) gave the dress to Caroline way back when.

 

Hope asks Roman (vamp hearing) what the twins are fighting about and he tries to play it off. But Hope demands answers and he relents and explains that the dress is from her father. That is the final straw, which unfortunately happens right as she’s announced the winner. She starts hyperventilating and the room starts to shake. Lizzie sees the impending magical disaster and rushes to Hope. She hugs her and siphones the magic so that Hope doesn’t level the room. Lizzie tells Hope to let it out and she cries.

 

In the dungeons Nia tells MG that TRIAD kidnapped her family and threatened her into collecting Landon. He asks about his mother and she explains she heard the way his mom was talking to him and decided she had it coming. She apologizes and worries that she’s headed for decapitation, but MG tells her that at the Salvatore school it’s not about how badly you screw up; it’s about being willing to fix things.

 

Hope and Lizzie talk in Lizzie’s room about magical mental health and how their respective favorite people are not happy with them. They make a pact to help each other out from now on.

 

An upset Landon confronts Ric for lying and decides to get some air.

 

MG apologizes to Veronica for snapping at her, but decides to stand firm in a different way. He reminds his mother that he hates being called Milton and tells her that no other place in the world would give him a second chance after killing someone, so he’s only leaving the Salvatore School in a graduation gown or body bag.

 

Penelope’s leaving and Josie stops her, asking if she was really going to go without a goodbye. There’s a school in Belgium because Penelope’s mom got a job. Penelope explains that she hoped Josie would give her a reason to stay, but she didn’t. She says everything she did was done because she loves her. She gives her papers where Ric wrote about the merge and kisses Josie goodbye.

 

Landon’s bad day isn’t over yet. Outside he runs into Veronica who at first says she wants to apologize for MG, but then tazers and kidnaps Landon. It seems she works for TRIAD.