Warning: spoilers lie ahead for the "Since When Do You Speak Japanese?" episode of Legacies Season 2.
The Vampire Diaries universe continues on thanks to spinoff Legacies, which will officially bring one of the original show's greatest villains back in the second half of Season 2: Kai Parker. Yes, after Legacies spent a couple of seasons setting up reasons for Kai to return to the action, Chris Wood is reprising his role. He won't be back on screen as Kai for a while yet, but "Since When Do You Speak Japanese?" revealed a way Legacies could pull it off. Hopefully, however, this isn't how Legacies does it.
Chris Wood actually made an appearance in this episode, although it wasn't new footage or a cameo filmed by Wood on the sly. Vampire Diaries fans got a blast from the past when MG checked the tape of a camcorder and discovered that it was not blank, as he believed, but rather held a message that was a game-changer on The Vampire Diaries.
Remember the video Kai recorded to tell Bonnie that he'd cast a spell that linked her life with Elena's, seemingly guaranteeing that the only way Elena could wake was if Bonnie died? That recording was apparently sitting around in a camcorder, which itself was apparently sitting around the Salvatore Boarding House all these years. Chris Wood was back as Kai, without Kai actually returning to the action in the present.
Is this a sign that Legacies doesn't intend to free Kai from the Prison World Bonnie and the twins had trapped him in on The Vampire Diaries, and will instead work around the Prison World? It's not impossible for Kai to simply appear via flashback or messages left behind before he was left in his current Prison World, nor is it impossible for some characters to visit Kai in the Prison World. Alaric didn't rule it out!
I don't want to speak for anybody else, but that's not what I'm hoping for out of Chris Wood's return. Admittedly, he's only returning as a guest star, and there are no signs that he'll be back on a recurring or series regular basis, so Legacies might not have the time to unleash Kai on the world and then get rid of him again. And characters visiting Kai in the Prison World wouldn't be so bad.
Chris Wood won't make his Legacies debut until 2020, but check out the Vampire Diaries recording that was featured in the "Since When Do You Speak Japanese?" episode:
We need to feel some danger from Kai on Legacies, right? This is the man who killed Josie and Lizzie's mom, who was pregnant with them, on her wedding day. My fingers are crossed that Legacies has something more exciting in store than flashbacks and recordings, and I'd love more than just a visit to the Prison World. Legacies does have a big bad of its own this season without importing one of The Vampire Diaries' big bads, but Kai would make a killer addition to the present, and just imagine him wreaking havoc at the Salvatore School!
Tune in to new episodes of Legacies on Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on The CW to keep an eye out for future clues about Kai's return in Season 2.
