'Legacies' Season 2 plays it too safe as it struggles to replicate the success of 'The Originals'
Last week's episode of 'Legacies' was the second part of the two-episode arc featuring the return of Kai Parker (played by Chris Wood) -- one of the baddest villains in 'The Vampire Diaries' universe.
It started with Alyssa Chang (Olivia Liang) sending the Saltzmans to the prison world where Kai is trapped. Well, Kai and the unruly students that Alaric Saltzman (Matthew Davis) banished to the prison world.
The first of the two episodes featured Kai's signature snark as he sort of worked with Josie Saltzman (Kaylee Bryant) in order to find a way out. Of course, Kai double-crossed her, found out about Malivore and used the portal to escape the prison world and as an added bonus, everyone forgot about him -- leaving behind Josie, her sister Lizzie Saltzman (Jenny Boyd) and their father Alaric .
In the second part of the story, Kai is seen in Mystic Falls and though he schemes with the Necromancer, he does not quite get away with much. Alaric beheads him at the end of the episode, saying, "This is for Jo." The only other casualty is Sebastian (Thomas Doherty).
However, neither of those casualties count in the larger scheme of things for 'Legacies' -- in the sense that their impact remains low. Take Kai for instance -- we knew that Chris Wood's return was temporary and with his death, showrunner Julie Plec just closed off all doors for a future return of the character.
If anything might have hurt, it could have been Sebastian's death -- though few fans might have mourned for Lizzie who still seemed to care for him in spite of what he did to her -- feeding her vampire blood without her knowledge and consent.
At the same time, if one looks back to the 'The Vampire Diaries', there were still deaths of smaller characters that had more impact. There was Anna, Jeremy Gilbert's vampire girlfriend, Rose, Damon Salvatore's vampire "friend" and even Vicki Donovan, whose death hurt her brother, Matt Donovan quite a bit. More heartbreaking than any of these was the death of Jenna Sommers -- Elena Gilbert and Jeremy's aunt -- who was killed by Klaus Mikaelson. The biggest death was that of Stefan Salvatore's in the final episode of the show.
'The Originals' was even more daring than its predecessor. Right from the get-go, it was darker and more hardcore. Characters like Cami O'Connell, Jackson Kenner and Kol Mikaelson had deaths that shifted the fabric of the show. Of course, the most painful death was that of Hope Mikaelson's mother herself, Hayley Marshall. The show even ended with Klaus and Elijah Mikaelson mutually staking each other.
Considering the legacy that 'Legacies' comes from (pun intended), the spinoff of a spinoff is playing it much too safe. There have been no major deaths so far -- whoever dies comes back to life (we're looking at you, Landon Kirby) and whoever dies was there for only a short period of time.
If 'Legacies' truly wants to shake things up, we need one of the inner circle members to have something major happen to them. Like for example, Hope could die and become a full-on tribrid like her father.
Even Josie who broke the mora miserium and unleashed her dark side went back to becoming normal Josie when she got back to the normal world -- which was quite disappointing. What would have been worthwhile to watch would have been dark Josie trying to live with the rest of the Salvatore School students while warding off the villains.
'Legacies' airs on The CW on Thursday nights at 9/8c. The next episode of 'Legacies' will air on March 12.