'Legacies' Season 2 Episode 14: Was dark Josie 'inspired' by Willow from 'Buffy? Fans call out the similarities
Spoiler alert for 'Legacies' Season 2 Episode 14 'There's a Place Where the Lost Things Go'
In this week's episode of 'Legacies', dark Josie has finally taken over Josie Saltzman's body and all things point to her being intent on staying. While Emma Tig's simulation was meant to work as a group therapy exercise, it led to the others realizing that Josie's dark persona is bringing more trouble.
However, for fans of the '90s cult hit, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer', Josie's dark personality seems quite familiar. In Season 6 of Joss Whedon's show about the teenage vampire slayer, Buffy's witchy friend became the main antagonist when she became dark Willow, after the death of Tara, her girlfriend. Her issues with addiction to powerful and dangerous magic combined made her quite a powerful villain.
Sounds familiar? While Josie may not have lost a lover permanently, we have seen her romantic relationships with different characters falling apart. There was Penelope and potentially Hope Mikaelson from Season 1 and in Season 2, she had to give up Landon Kirby who decided that Hope was the one for him.
However, the addiction to powerful and dangerous magic holds true for both Josie and Willow. Willow was catalyzed to become her dark self by others who later became genuine threats. Again, the same holds true for Josie with the Necromancer clearly being the behind-the-scenes threat this season.
Fans have, of course, pointed this out and they cannot stop comparing the two characters. One fan tweeted, "Dear Legacies writers: at least credit Joss Whedon & co for some of Dark Josie since she’s pretty much a younger Willow Rosenberg. Kaylee Bryant does an amazing/creepy job. #Legacies." Another fan wrote, "Josie Saltzman's bad side reminds me of when Willow went bad on Buffy lol. It had so many similarities it's crazy. Wonder if they used that for inspiration."
Another tweeted when dark Josie first appeared, "I guess when they said Josie's make was "inspired by" Dark Willow I thought there'd be some differences. Not "it's exactly the same down to the hair color and vein locations." #Legacies."
We can't forget to mention that Alexis Denisof, who played the Watcher, Wesley Wyndam-Pryce on 'Buffy' is also on 'Legacies' in a Watcher-like character (now that Rupert Vardemus is himself again). Additionally, Denisof is married to Alyson Hannigan who played Willow.
Of course, this could give us a clue as to how we can get normal Josie back. On 'Buffy', it was Xander's heartfelt speech that helped bring normal Willow back. While on 'Legacies' it's Landon who is more like Xander, we think it might be Hope who could do the same - it would certainly be something "Hosie" shippers would love.
'Legacies' airs on The CW on Thursday nights at 9/8c.
