Legacies just gave Hope Mikaelson a new boyfriend in Landon Kirby and now that fledgling relationship is about to be put to the test. Because The Originals' Roman Sienna (Jedidiah Goodacre) is back. Yep, Hope's problematic (but still hot) ex is about to re-enter the picture for some reason, and Landon is not going to love it.
Check out the synopsis for Legacies Season 1, Episode 14, which will air March 14 and -- Vampire Diaries alert! -- bring back the Miss Mystic Falls pageant:
"Let's Just Finish the Dance"MISS MYSTIC FALLS - As the Salvatore School prepares to host the Miss Mystic Falls pageant, Hope (Danielle Rose Russell) secretly deals with a recent trauma that's causing her magic to go on the fritz. Meanwhile, the unexpected arrival of Roman (guest star Jedidiah Goodacre), a boy from Hope's past, causes Landon (Aria Shahghasemi) to be on alert. Elsewhere, MG (Quincy Fouse) struggles with the fallout from his recent actions, while Josie's (Kaylee Bryant) secret desire to win Miss Mystic Falls takes a backseat to Lizzie's (Jenny Boyd) plan for the pageant. Matthew Davis also stars.
First of all, Hope secretly deals with a recent trauma? What more trauma could Hope be facing? She already lost her mother Hayley, then her father, Klaus. Is she losing another member of her Originals family?!
Speaking of Hayley, though...
Roman was first introduced in the Season 5 premiere as Hope Mikaelson's classmate at the Salvatore Boarding School, which is the current main setting of Legacies. Roman was connected to Hayley's death through his mother Greta, who was a Purist obsessed with eliminating hybrids. (Klaus was a vampire and a werewolf, and he became the Original Hybrid. Hayley was a werewolf who became a hybrid. Hope is a tribrid -- the first werewolf-witch-vampire hybrid.)
Anyway, Hope and Roman got hot and heavy before the drama with his mama played out. In fact, last May, when the final season of The Originals was playing out, consulting producer Jeffrey Lieber told TV Guide he saw comparisons between Hope and Roman and the Klaroline relationship of Klaus and Caroline:
When you move from being the child to the parent, one of the things you do is you start to look back on your own history with a new insight. I think it's important for Klaus to now look back on his relationship with Caroline when they were 'younger.' He's got to look back at his relationship with Caroline through the lens of what's going on with Hope and Roman. There are some similarities in terms of it being an antagonistic love story. I think that mirror causes him to look at things in a very different way... There was some deception in their past. There was some aggression in their past. So he's really trying to come to terms with who he was and what he is and what she's become to him.
A lot has changed since then, and since the end of The Originals. Hope has matured so much just since the start of Legacies. Recently, Klaus was name-dropped by the Necromancer, in an episode that revealed Klaus doesn't regret his choice to die but he'll never achieve true peace until Hope does.
Hope already went through a relationship with a mysterious guy, and now she has Landon -- whose past still has plenty of mysteries, with more to come. How will Landon react to Roman, Hope's first kiss? And why is Roman coming to Mystic Falls?
It should be fun to see the twins' reaction to the Miss Mystic Falls pageant, anyway, knowing that their mother Caroline won that back on The Vampire Diaries. Lizzie gunning for the win is expected, but hopefully quiet Josie speaks up and pushes for herself.
Legacies has seen several Vampire Diaries stars appear -- including Zach Roerig as Matt Donovan, a cameo by Steven R. McQueen as Jeremy Gilbert, Jodi Lyn O'Keefe's episode return as the twins' biological mother Jo; and the regular appearances by Demetrius Bridges as Dorian Williams and star Matt Davis as headmaster Alaric Saltzman. We're still hoping to see both Candice King as Caroline Forbes-Salvatore and Chris Wood as Kai Parker, but those hopes will probably have to carry over into the 2019-2020 Season 2.
It would also be possible, but not probable, to see Damon and Elena Salvatore on Legacies; the actors Ian Somerhalder and Nina Dobrev are busy with other shows, but Legacies did recently reveal that the Salvatores were raising children together, including a daughter Stefanie named in honor of the late Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley).
On the Originals side, Danielle Rose Russell stars as Hope Mikaelson, and there are some other Mikaelsons we'd love to see (when is Aunt Freya coming?) but no one else has arrived so far. Apparently the Mikaelson "family friend" Landon visited in New Orleans was Vincent, but he wasn't shown on screen. Other than that, we've just had location nostalgia from occasionally popping back to New Orleans.
The Originals did just end last year, so it's understandable if The CW wanted to give Legacies a chance to establish itself rather than packing it with TVD and Originals alumni. Legacies has certainly found its own voice at this point, and the past two episodes in particular have been fantastic.
Jedidiah Goodacre should be a great addition as Roman, even if the last thing Legacies needs is another love triangle complication. Besides, it would be more like a square or even up to a pentagon at this point, considering Rafael and Josie also have chemistry with Hope.
Legacies Season 1 continues Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on The CW, as one of the many shows air in the midseason. Roman will return on March 14, one week after the episode directed by The Vampire Diaries alum Paul Wesley. As much as we're curious to see Roman again -- and welcome any other Vampire Diaries Universe returnee -- one shouldn't hold out hope for Ian Somerhalder to be one of the them, despite that recent photo.
