Legacies – To Whom It May Concern

By starrymag | March 18, 2021

By: Atiya Irvin-Mitchell

 

 

When the episode opens Landon (Aria Shahghasemi) is in Malivore. But instead of nothingness he finds The Necromancer (Ben Geurens) running an ice cream parlor. The Necromancer tells Landon it took him long enough.

 

Back at the Salvatore school Alaric (Matt Davis) is stress reading a letter on his desk. It remains unseen because when Josie (Kaylee Bryant) walks into his office he hides it. He then gives her a new backpack and a lunch he packed for her first day at Mystic Falls High School. Since he’s the headmaster he’s never gotten to send either of his daughters off to school before. He tells Josie not to worry because everything will be fine at the school.

 

Hope (Danielle Rose Russell) is not fine. She’s in her room and thinking of her time with Landon and missing him. The trip down memory lane is interrupted by Lizzie (Jenny Boyd). Lizzie says she’s got a plan to save Hope from herself. She’s prepared to have to convince her. Hope needs a distraction so she says she’s fine with whatever crazy idea Lizzie has. It turns out that Lizzie wants Hope to help give tours to prospective students. Normally this would be Josie’s gig, but Josie is gone. Hope doesn’t really want to be around people, but Lizzie points out they could both use a distraction and she agrees.

 

In the assembly room, which is noticeably empty, they give a very small group a welcome speech. Lizzie is trying hard to sell them on the school, but the lack of other kids is hard to overlook. Apparently news of all the attacks at the Salvatore School has been spreading around the supernatural community. A student named Gaby (Olivia Rodriguez) heard about the time Josie held the school hostage. Lizzie tries and mostly fails to spin it, then she and Hope decide to start the tour.

 

The ice cream shop in Malivore is a punishment for The Necromancer. Having to serve the humans Malivore consumed for eternity is his personal version of hell. Landon is confident that Hope will come to save him. But the Necromancer pokes at Landon. He says that time moves differently in Malivore. Days in Malivore could be months in the real world. Hope could’ve already moved on. So, he offers Landon a deal. There’s a door leading out of Malviore, kept out of his reach as part of the torture. If Landon helps him out of the shackles, they can leave together.

 

The tour runs into another hiccup. Normally, Lizzie and Hope would show the possible students all the other kids having fun. But when MG (Quincy Fouse) and Kaleb (Chris Lee) return from the pick-up spot there are no other students. This isn’t exactly a selling point. When Alaric swings by he explains that recruiting the students to fight The Necromancer was the last straw for a lot of parents. They sent a letter withdrawing their students feeling the school wasn’t safe for their children.

 

This presents multiple issues. No tuition checks mean no money to pay the teaching staff. And the Mystic Falls has a rule that a school needs at least thirty students to run. They need more students or they’ll be shut down. They try to play it cool, but the other students can tell they’re nervous. Kaleb looks to MG to come up with a plan to entertain them. But MG has decided to take Kaleb’s advice and put himself first. So, he’s going to have a mental health day.

 

Kaleb and Hope take the new kids to the gym to meet the wolf pack, which is now just Jed (Ben Levin) and two other wolves. He tries to spin it as exclusivity, but no one really buys it. Kaleb looks to Hope to try and impress them. She starts talking about the gym, but then she thinks of Landon and lights start supernaturally flickering. Kaleb shoes the other kids away and then pulls Hope aside. He tells her that if she has any magical meltdowns she’ll scare the prospective students away. She promises to keep it together as the school is all she has left.

 

Landon tries to problem solve with the Necromancer. He works out that the key to the shackles is right in front of them, but there’s nothing the Necromancer hasn’t or wouldn’t do. Landon knows the answer lies in psychological torture. The Necromancer doesn’t get it. Landon flat out says that Malivore wants The Necromancer to humiliate himself by singing the song required of him at the job he had with Chad. He sings “If You’re Happy and You Know It” and the shackles fall off. But he double crosses Landon and knocks him out.

 

Landon wakes up cuffed to The Necromancer. Why? Because the Necromancer doesn’t believe Malivore would ever make it as easy as walking through a door. He thinks the better escape plan is Landon, which means using him as bait. The Necromancer says Hope is her father’s daughter. She’ll cross any line to save her loved ones, so she’ll come for Landon eventually.

 

Josie is having a better first day. Her new locker is being decorated. Also, Dorian (Demetrius Bridges) is taking over as the new principal. The decorated locker was Finch’s (Courtney Bandeko) idea. They even have a class together where Josie gushes about how kind everyone’s been to her. Then, she finds a note from Lizzie wishing her luck. It makes her feel guilty that she hasn’t thought of Lizzie once since her day started. So much so she runs out of class.

 

MG is in his room taking time to himself when Wade (Elijah B. Moore) walks in. Wade wants to play Dungeons and Dragons. At first MG says yes, but then they’re interrupted by Wade. Then, Alyssa calls MG through the magic mirror. All these things culminate in MG’s breaking point. He tells Wade he doesn’t want to play D&D because he doesn’t like it. He explains to Jed that it’s not his job to comfort him about sleeping with his girlfriend. And he doesn’t take Alyssa’s call.

 

Lizzie and Alaric talk about the state of the school. Ric called some parents and they’re on their way to having thirty students. But they’re still short. Alaric admits they might need to ask Josie to come back. Lizzie says that’d be unfair to her, so they’ve got to figure it out. This is interrupted by Kaleb who tells the Saltzmans the tour is not going well, which makes Ric wonder who is leading it if Kaleb, Lizzie and Jed are all in his office.

 

Hope is leading the tour. It’s actually going okay at first. She explains that the great hall is where they have dances, birthday parties and sometimes show off their magic. But all roads lead back to Landon. Remembering Landon’s phoenix powers makes her so upset she accidentally knocks the other kids unconscious.

 

Hope apologizes to Alaric and company she really tried to control herself. Alaric focuses on trying to salvage the situation, while the other kids remain unconscious on the floor. They just need two more kids to sign on. So the plan is to divide and conquer. Lizzie will take Gaby, Ric will take Gunter (Alec Tincher), and Kaleb will take Cleo (Omono Okaojie).

 

When Cleo wakes up Kaleb is playing the piano. She’s not impressed and wants to know why everyone is so eager to impress her and the remaining kids in the group. Cleo asks if the school is in some kind of trouble. Kaleb says everything is great and it doesn’t matter one way or the other if they enroll. Cleo points out that he’s giving her a private concert. He tries to change the subject, but Cleo says she can’t go to a school where no one’s willing to tell the truth and leaves.

 

The Necromancer and Landon talk. Landon still believes there’s a way out and tries to find more clues. He asks if there’s an inscription on the key, there is and it says the name of a company that makes freezers among other things. There’s a freezer in the ice cream shop.  The Necromancer and Landon both make a run for it and spend a few minutes knocking each other down in pursuit of the key. Finally, the Necromancer is the only one standing. As Landon’s on the ground the Necromancer taunts him. He asserts that Landon’s problem is that he’s not willing to do whatever it takes to win.

 

Gunter and Alaric walk around the library. Alaric says the school could be a good fit, because Gunter is a history buff. They start talking about Gunter’s history and he says his parents are dead, but his guardians are vampires. Vampires who are from a very old bloodline. Alaric doesn’t know where this is going yet. But then Gunter says several vampires from his bloodline were murdered by a famous vampire hunter. He swore an oath to his guardians that if he ever met the hunter in question, he’d avenge them. Gunter charges Alaric, but gets dosed with vervain.

 

Lizzie and Gaby are in the kitchen and Lizzie’s being uncharacteristically agreeable. Gaby is going on and on about how much better her school in Belgium was and Lizzie just nods along. It turns out that Gaby’s former all witch school is the school Penelope Park transferred to. She said that Penelope said the best thing about the Salvatore school was Josie. This sets Lizzie off on a rant about how she feels like Josie will move on without her.  Gaby takes that as her cue to leave.

 

Hope’s in the art studio and feeling overwhelmed she magically splatters some paint across a canvas. Cleo asks Hope about her art. Hope doesn’t want to talk about it. But Cleo thinks she’s finally expressed herself.

 

When Gunter wakes up Ric has chained him to a chair. Alaric says he understands swearing vengeance. He became a vampire hunter to get revenge on a vampire, but then the vampire became his best friend. Gunter doesn’t really care and still wants to kill Ric. So that’s a no on enrolling.

 

When talking to Cleo about what she sees in the paint Hope admits she’s said and afraid. Cleo says she used to play the game with the paint with her sisters. You get the impression they’re no longer around. Cleo asks Hope why she doesn’t leave if the school is full of so many bad memories. Hope says the school isn’t safe but it’s a place where everyone is free to be themselves. And she admits to Cleo that their in a bind over enrollment. Cleo appreciates that Hope’s been honest and decides she wants to enroll herself.

 

When Malivore gets to the freezer he finds the doorway and taunts Landon. But Landon isn’t ready to give up. He chokes the Necromancer with the chains and punches him repeatedly. Then, he jumps through the portal in the freezer.

 

Cleo tells a previously discouraged Alaric and Kaleb she’s on board but that still leaves them one student short. She doesn’t have any family that needs to sign off as she’s on her own. Luckily, Gaby walks in and says she’s in too. It turns out that she and Wade have been playing Dungeons and Dragons online for years. Today they finally met in person and that convinced Gaby the Salvatore school wasn’t so bad. Crisis somewhat averted.

 

Josie talks to Ethan (Leo Howard) and Finch. Ethan understands having a sibling being your best friend, but then having them suddenly not be there. Finch had a rough childhood and became emancipated at fourteen. She says she understands the guilt that comes with getting out of a toxic situation. But she promises it gets better.

 

Lizzie goes to MG with an ice cream sundae. She asks if he’d like to read comics. He wants to, but he doesn’t want to be her crutch. MG tells Lizzie she can’t keep relying on him to fill a void when she’s lonely. They both deserve better he says. She sees that he’s right.

 

The portal took Landon to the prison world. He’s writing a letter where he vows to do whatever it takes to get home no matter what. He puts on Hope’s necklace and goes off to search for a way out.