When Legacies Season 1 returns on January 24, we know it's going to jump into the search for Landon Kirby (Aria Shahghasemi). Apparently that search is going to get dirty -- literally! -- for Hope Mikaelson (Danielle Rose Russell) in Episode 8, "Maybe I Should Start at the End."
TVLine revealed that as the midseason 2019 premiere title, adding that this first photo of Hope "foreshadows an upsetting discovery":
The search takes a grim turn, eh? Hope looks pretty rough in that photo. It's not clear what happens to get her so dirtied-up, but with a title like "Maybe I Should Start at the End," it's possible the episode structure will play with time and give us some flashbacks to fill in the gaps. We already know Landon met with trouble since Hope's swanky bracelet warned as much in the Episode 7 midseason finale.
Episode 7, "Death Keeps Knocking on My Door," ended with Hope's bracelet letting her know her kinda-sorta-boyfriend Landon was in danger. We last saw him heading to New Orleans to meet Hope's family friend -- which was revealed to be Vincent from The Originals, although we didn't get to see him on screen and won't be seeing him in the midseason return. At some point after that, bad things went down for Landon.
What bad things? Well, Episode 7 ended with a mysterious someone holding a photo of Landon and his mother Seylah, whose necklace has the Malivore symbol. The mysterious gloved figure also watched footage of the knife being destroyed.
The episode also told us that knife -- which had such a big role in the first half of Legacies, with direct ties to Landon -- was one of three locks to Malivore. The Necromancer told Hope Malivore was created to wipe the scourge of the supernatural off the face of this Earth. When all three locks return home, The Necromancer said, Malivore would be free to "open its jaws of death once again." Hope asked what that even meant, and The Necromancer toyed with her, saying let's hope she's not still alive to find out.
At this point, we know Episode 8 will give us a dirty and disturbed Hope with some kind of upsetting discovery. About Landon? Presumably. We're hoping the midseason premiere gives more answers on Landon and his mother Seylah and their connection to Malivore. There's a deep mystery there.
Josie Saltzman actress Kaylee Bryant previously teased connections ahead between the monsters of the week and the overall Big Bad, sharing this with CinemaBlend:
It feels in the beginning like 'Oh, it's a dragon' and then 'It's a gargoyle' and it all kind of seems like it's not correlated. But you'll see throughout the season every single monster is there for a reason, and it all leads up to a Big Bad that I think is not going to disappoint people.
Speaking of Josie, though, Legacies fans will be wanting to check in with the many other characters, who are now somewhat disconnected from the Landon/Hope/Malivore storyline. Episode 7 was very Hope-centric (along with some Klaus closure), and it sounds like Episode 8 will continue that story. But will there be room for more stories? Episode 6 left us on some emotional notes with the return of Jo in "Mombie Dearest." And we know at least one character has a "rude awakening" ahead, possibly tied to some bad decisions for another character.
Plus, there are so many relationships, and potential relationships, to revisit and explore at the Salvatore school in the new year.
We're also holding out hope for more references to Caroline Forbes-Salvatore, if not an appearance this season, to reveal more about what The Vampire Diaries alum is doing out there to help her twins avoid The Merge. That storyline is directly tied to Josie and Lizzie's Uncle Kai, which is why both showrunner Julie Plec and Kaylee Bryant have said they really want Chris Wood's Kai Parker to appear on Legacies. There are several characters from The Vampire Diaries and The Originals that I'd love to see on the spinoff, and Kai and Caroline are certainly in the top five.
Kaylee Bryant also teased the tone of the episodes to come in the back half of Legacies Season 1:
We have such fun, fun episodes and such dark episodes. I think that Legacies is really fun in that -- The Vampire Diaries and The Originals have a mature dark tone to them, and Legacies is a lot lighter, in my opinion, and kind of doesn't take itself too seriously. Initially, I think we were all kind of figuring out the tone. I think we kind of found our pace throughout after Episode 5 of just knowing when it's OK to make the jokes and when it's OK to let yourself cry. It's just a really interesting tone that I don't think people are quite used to, but I think that our writers have done a really fantastic job.
On that note, Kaylee Bryant pretty much promised that the show gets even better moving forward. Sure, she's biased -- since she works on the show as the popular Josie -- but here's how she put it to me:
Every single script I get keeps getting better and better. It started probably with Episode 5, funny enough. When Lizzie slept with Raf my heart was broken for Josie. I was sitting there, flipping the pages going 'OK, so how does she react? What happens?' And then I realized that was the end of the episode. I felt that kind of anxiousness that you get when you finish an episode on Netflix and you have to watch the next episode. And ever since Episode 5 I've had that feeling every single time of 'I HAVE to watch the next episode, I have to see what happens next.'
Looking forward to it! Legacies is definitely finding its place at this point in The Vampire Diaries Universe. Fans just have to hope the characters and storylines stay strong, and retain viewers, so that the show can get another season. Then maybe they can bring back those Vampire Diaries and Originals characters that would fit so perfectly into the story.
Legacies Season 1, Episode 8, "Maybe I Should Start at the End" airs Thursday, January 24 at 9 p.m. ET on The CW. Here's what else you can look forward to watching on TV in midseason 2019.
