Legacies Season 3 Episode 15, “A New Hope,” takes Hope, Josie, and Lizzie on an intergalactic hallucination so Hope can confront the conclusion she knew along but tried to avoid. For a penultimate episode of the season, this trip to outer space could feel misplaced or misguided, but “A New Hope” recenters Legacies on what it should be.
This show is best when it focuses on the family these kids found together through the Salvatore School that stems from these characters being legacies of The Vampire Diaries and The Originals‘ characters. Those themes are ingrained in the show’s fabric, and sometimes it feels like Legacies tries to fight that rather than embrace it.
Could This Be the End for Malivore?
Those themes can get lost when the show tries to pull everything back to Malivore. The most exciting shift in that story comes with Cleo’s backstory, and that’s not even because of Malivore. It’s because of Cleo. Malivore, on his own, is not a compelling villain, but he’s an antagonist, for sure. He keeps Legacies from moving on and telling a new story.
Once again, “A New Hope” feels as though it’s leading to Malivore’s demise. We’ve seen this pattern more than a handful of times now, and it always ends with the not-so twist that Malivore isn’t gone. But, unfortunately, it’s difficult to believe that anything will change this time because it’s been three seasons of Malivore refusing to die.
This time needs to be different because “A New Hope” offers a different route for its characters to take down Malivore. It’s almost bizarre that Legacies took this long to conclude that these characters are stronger together or explicitly state it. What were these characters doing for the last three years if not working together to defeat the big bad?
Regardless, Hope won’t face Malivore alone like all the times before; she’ll have at least Josie and Lizzie by her side. If this change (along with whatever Cleo and Landon have learned) doesn’t end Malivore, who knows what will? And if that’s the case, will Legacies ever be able to tell any new stories that don’t have to do with this mud monster?
Tribrid Hope
For the entirety of Legacies, the only possible way to defeat Malivore is through Hope’s sacrifice. She thinks she succeeds at the end of Season 1 by diving into that disgusting goo pit, but of course, that isn’t enough. Hope must sacrifice even more of herself than that by becoming a full tribrid to defeat Malivore.
It’s logical to believe that Hope will become a fully activated tribrid at some point on this show. It’s simply unfortunate that Hope will have to do so through necessity rather than desire. At the end of “A New Hope,” she admits that this is something she needs to do, and Hope begrudgingly chooses to do so if it means she can protect the people she loves.
Lizzie and Josie’s promise to be by Hope’s side and ensure she doesn’t have to become the tribrid is meaningful, but that hope is short-lived when looking at what Legacies told us about Malivore up to this point. A fully-activated tribrid is the only way to end Malivore. A loophole for the loophole would be fantastic to see, but it doesn’t feel possible.
It’s more plausible that Hope will attempt to defeat Malivore with the Super Squad, see that isn’t going to work, and then find a way to activate her vampire side to end the fight for good. Mikealsons are all about grand gestures and enormous sacrifices, after all.
It would be endlessly frustrating for Hope to do this, and then Malivore rears its ugly head again. So if Legacies does this, please let it be the end of Malivore for the show’s sake but also for Hope’s sake. She doesn’t deserve to think her sacrifice was for nothing after everything.
That said, some small, naive part of me still wishes Legacies will shock us by veering away from its familiar pattern to let the Super Squad win together instead of Hope having to do something she doesn’t want to do. Let Hope become a tribrid if and when she wants to, rather than when she needs to do so.
Celebrating Growth by Revisiting the Past
The best part of “A New Hope” is when Hope, Lizzie, and Josie get to hop into Lizzie’s fanfiction for a little while. Then, of course, it all boils down to Malivore like it always does. Before that, there’s wonderful character work that shows how far each of them had come since not only the beginning of Legacies but before the show even existed.
All three of them are their own worst critic, so it’s moving to watch them sit around a campfire and celebrate their wins and the hard work it took to get them. Lizzie no longer shames herself for being a work in progress but champions herself for wanting to be and do better. Josie knows she’s more than someone who can only be of service to others because being of service to herself is just as important. Even after being the hero of the Star Wars-themed hallucination, Hope needs to be reminded that her fate isn’t sealed.
It’s Josie and Lizzie who have to remind Hope that she’s not alone in this fight because of how far they’ve come individually and collectively. Hope sees the ending of the hallucination as another example of fate telling her she has to go up against Malivore alone. However, Josie and Lizzie know that’s not true because they’ve already become more than what they originally envisioned for themselves in that story.
On top of that, it’s nice to see them wholeheartedly apologize for treating each other poorly when they were younger. So many pent-up feelings are tucked away in those years, and a lot of it can be seen from the difference in depictions of Alaric Saltzman after the story switches from Lizzie’s to Hope’s sequel. This trip to their past leaves this trio feeling stronger than ever before.
Ideally, Legacies will realize the magic it has in these three united and let them stand together as powerful witches to defeat Malivore. The other Super Squad members will likely help without hesitation. That’s how it should be! There are werewolves, witches, and vampires in the Super Squad. Those factions worked together to create Malivore. Who’s to say that tactic can’t work to defeat him, too?
Let a werewolf, a witch, and a vampire choose to combine their blood to use as means to kill Malivore. There are tons of weapons in the Armory. One of them has to be applicable for this situation. This is the fight I want to see in the finale because Hope deserves to make the life-altering decision of becoming a tribrid on her own — not as a last resort to stop a bad guy. Malivore (or any other monster) will be worthy enough to take that agency from Hope.
We know that the Super Squad is stronger together. Ric even tells Emma as much when he by sharing that he teaches his kids that the only way through the danger is together. So let them prove to Malivore that he is no match for their family.
Other Spelltacular Moments:
- Seeing Summer Fontana as Hope Marshall again made me way more emotional than I could have ever anticipated.
- Bringing back the Hollow this way was super smart.
- I flailed when the camera panned up to one of Klaus’s paintings.
- I’m glad MG and Kaleb aren’t fighting anymore. That was getting exhausting, even from a distance.
- Can the Super Squad fully accept Jed now? He tries so hard to be accepted by them.
- The opening and the cutaways being exactly like Star Wars is pretty great.
- It’s so good to see Emma again.
- Hopefully, she can stick around because the Salvatore School could use a teacher. I’m not entirely sure that they have any staff other than Ric at the moment.
- When did the Salvatore School get all of the students that greeted MG? Didn’t Ric only enroll like three new students?
- Hope being over the romance parts of Lizzie’s story is spot on.
- Ethan being a Han Solo character is great because he has that look. Unfortunately, it makes it more evident that we haven’t seen him in a while, and that’s a shame.
- Lizzie can never deny being a nerd now.
- Hope saying, “I have a bad feeling about this,” was PERFECT.
- Lizzie said the title of the episode this week!
- Hope owning that she’s good at kicking ass will never get old.
- When I think I couldn’t possibly love Josie more, we learn that she skipped the scary parts of Lizzie’s story so that she wouldn’t get nightmares.
- Lizzie had a 2-week crush on Jed!
- Did anyone else think Kai Parker was going to walk out of that bathroom? I’m still not convinced that he’s dead.
What did you think of “A New Hope?” Let us know in the comments below!
Legacies is new Thursdays at 9/8c on The CW.
