Legacies – This Feels a Little Cult-y

By starrymag | June 17, 2021

By: Atiya Irvin-Mitchell

 

 

The episode opens with a flashback at Triad. It’s Ryan talking to a hooded figure. He says he could use her help solving a problem and she’ll get her freedom in exchange for her cooperation. In the present it’s another eventful night at the Salvatore School. The students are doing Romeo and Juliet. Wade (Elijah B. Moore) is Romeo and he’s waiting for Hope (Danielle Rose Russell) who is supposed to play Tybalt. She is fashionably late. Well, technically she’s trying to miss the reading of the play altogether.

 

When she arrives she makes it clear that she’s in no mood to talk about forbidden love. While she’s ranting she unwittingly sends an energy wave throughout the room, leaving the class shaken. She storms off after the bell rings.

 

At Mystic Falls High Dorian (Demetrius Bridges) asks Ethan (Leo Howard) about MG’s (Quincy Fouse) whereabouts. Since Ethan was compelled he doesn’t remember their friendship at all. But Dorian has seen them around together. When Alaric (Matt Davis) arrives he says he told MG to compel him weeks ago, so they shouldn’t have been hanging out at all. Still, MG hasn’t been to school all week. But Ric had someone do a tracking spell. The place MG went is also the place a dead body was found. Dorian and Alaric aren’t sure if something happened to MG or if MG happened to someone else.

 

Hope is angrily boxing and Josie (Kaylee Bryant) approaches. Hope says she’s upset about the break-up but she’ll deal with it. Josie says she actually needs her help. Lizzie (Jenny Boyd) has been at a witchy retreat for weeks and Josie is worried she hasn’t heard from her. Hope agrees to a rescue mission.

 

Once they get to the retreat Hope notes the strange atmosphere. Everyone is dressed in white, weaning crystals, and extremely happy. When they see Lizzie she is extremely energetic and Hope learns Josie wasn’t totally honest. Josie and Lizzie have been talking the whole time. Lizzie explains the crystals: they reflect your energy. If you’re enlightened they’re blue. If you’re overcome with negativity they turn red.

 

At school Jed (Ben Levin) and Finch (Courtney Bandeko) are goofing off in the gym with the other wolves. The bell rings and the wolves leave their dirty towels behind for Finch. There’s a rule that the newest member of the pack has to clean up. Finch thinks it’s unfair for obvious reasons, but a werewolf named Brutus (Xavier Mills) says that the alpha gets to make the rules. Finch proposes that it’s time for a new alpha. Jed says he’s not going to fight a girl to the death, so Finch proposes a nonviolent challenge: they’re going to play pool.

 

There’s a gathering at the retreat and we meet Andie (Sibylla Dean). Lizzie says she’s really mentored her. She’s giving a speech about conquering negative emotions and praises Lizzie for her progress.  Now, Andie says, she wants to use her empathic abilities to help someone less enlightened. She chooses Hope and says the crystals are something that’s been passed down in her family. She holds Hope’s hands and tells her she can tell she’s special. Suddenly Hope’s bad mood is gone and Lizzie’s feeling jealous.

 

Lizzie goes to Andie to thank her and admits she’s had a setback. Her crystal is bright red and she explains that she’s had a problem with feeling competitive with Hope. She asks Andie to cleanse her again, but she says she needs to save her energy. Previously, she’d chosen Lizzie to lead a ritual tonight but she can’t now that she’s “in the red.” Plus, with Hope they’ll have all the power they need.

 

Dorian and Alaric are in the woods and are disagreeing about MG. Dorian reminds Alaric that MG has ripper tendencies and he could’ve gone on a blood binge. But Alaric says that MG is a good kid, so hey shouldn’t assume the worst. Speaking of the vampire, MG appears delirious and covered in blood.

 

Lizzie and a girl named Samantha (Hannah Alline) have been exiled to laundry duty. It’s what people with red crystals have to do until they’re full of good vibes again. Then, something strange happens. Samantha holds one of the gloves Andie was wearing and all of a sudden all of her anger is gone. Her crystal is bright blue again. Lizzie’s is still red and suspicious.

 

Dorian knocks MG out with vervain because he’s convinced that he’s killed someone. Alaric isn’t sure and he reminds Dorian that he’s jumped to the wrong conclusion before. This hits a nerve for Dorian because Stefan killed his family in ripper mode. The only agreement they come to is that they need to get rid of the body.

 

At the pool hall Jed and the pack wait for Finch. Jed is confident about his chances, but then Brutus admits that he’s only won so many games because the pack let him. That realization makes Jed nervous. Finch shows up and she is really, really good at pool.

 

Lizzie spies on Andie in her cabin. Andie tells her reflection in the mirror that she’ll be free soon. When she goes to shower Lizzie goes through her stuff. She finds a drug from Triad, which she drops when she’s nearly caught. Elsewhere, Dorian finishes burying the body. He apologizes for and promises the slain man that he’ll check in on his family and keep an eye on MG. He’s interrupted by a monster.

 

Josie and Hope are supernaturally cheerful. Lizzie tells them this is a cult and they need to leave now. She explains their “enlightenment” is due to a drug from Triad. They start to leave, but Hope and Josie are hypnotized by the ringing of a bell and prevent Lizzie from going.

 

The good news is Lizzie’s anger is keeping her from being mind-controlled. The bad news is Andie has no intention of letting her go. Andie defends herself by saying that she didn’t choose to work for Triad as witches who were kidnapped had to comply or be tortured. She tells Lizzie that she just wants to be free. Andie is not sharing what the master plan is but the ritual requires a human sacrifice, who is apparently going to be Lizzie.

 

Finch is all set to beat Jed, but then she seems to hesitate to make the winning shot after seeing how much he cares about the pack. Back at the cult Lizzie realizes she can break the mind-control by making Josie angry. She pushes all her sister’s buttons until she snaps out of it. And more good news, it wasn’t MG that killed the camper – it was a wendigo. Also, Dorian was just knocked out and not eaten. Even better news, Dorian read MG’s journal and he’s been helping people and not eating them.

 

Josie pretends to be brainwashed and brings Lizzie to the ritual. Lizzie plans to provoke Hope to snap her out of it, but Samantha knocks her out. It seems it is up to Josie to be antagonistic. She throws what happened with Landon in her face, painful loss of virginity included. Josie says that Landon just did what she was too weak to do – ending things. It indeed makes Hope angry. She and Josie fight off the mind-controlled witches.

 

After the fight it’s just Andie and Hope. Andie says she needed a lot of witches, with a lot of power, who wouldn’t ask questions. In addition to torture, sometimes Triad used drugs to get their way with captives. It’s a summoning ritual, Andie doesn’t know what for. Her memory has holes, but that’s probably Malivore related. However, there’s a spell in place that says she has to complete the spell. Knowing she’s doomed either way, she sacrifices herself and douses the girls in the drug. She says she’ll have peace in knowing the girls will be stuck dealing with whatever her death raises.

 

The wolves are partying and Finch and Jed talk. Jed is rethinking some of the old rules. He wonders why Finch threw the game. Finch says being better at pool doesn’t make her leader material. She sees how much he cares about the pack. Jed says before he would’ve called her weak, but now he takes the responsibility a little more seriously.

 

MG and Alaric have a heart-to-heart while Dorian gets stitches. MG admits he’s been having a hard time adjusting. He says it’s been lonely trying to help people alone. Alaric suggests he return to the Salvatore School. MG decides to be honest about what happened with Ethan and says he’ll only return on the condition that he can keep helping people. Alaric agrees.

 

The girls gather around the fire and Josie apologizes to Hope for provoking her. But Hope says she made some valid points, even if they were hard to hear. Hope tells her that she should let herself be happy without guilt.  They’re nervous about the drugs kicking in. They already have because they start imaging they’re panda bears. Then, they see a stormtrooper crawl out of the pit.