Legacies recap: A Gargoyle wreaks havoc at the Salvatore School
If you’re anything like me, the first two monsters have made one thing clear: Legacies is not at all what I was expecting. First, they battle a dragon and this week, they take on a gargoyle?! If I had read that those were the monsters, I probably would’ve scoffed and thought that the show was going too big. But I have to tell you guys: This show works. Yes, it’s going big, but that’s what makes it so fun (amongst other things). I am all in on Legacies. Let’s get into week three.
We start with the first flashback of the series, which takes us to 14th century France, where we find the mysterious knife that Landon stole and the gargoyle that came to life at the end of episode 2. Long story short, a couple of witches come to take the knife, and the gargoyle serves as its protector. Translation: The gargoyle murders both men rather viciously.
Back in present day, Ric is studying the knife while the gargoyle lurks outside his window. So, while Ric gets to the bottom of what’s going on, he decides to get some of the students out of the school. He informs Hope, Lizzie, and Josie that they will all be doing a bit of community service around Mystic Falls as punishment for the fight that broke out at the flag football game — or where Hope is concerned, as punishment for using black magic. And when Lizzie tries to blame Josie for what happened at the game, Josie attaches herself to Hope for the day.
The students arrive at the Mystic Falls town square — memories!!! — where Lizzie, MG, and her crew take over graffiti cleanup while Hope and Josie focus on trash duty. But Lizzie’s service doesn’t last long when Dana and the truly terrible students at Mystic Falls High show up and one of them throws a strawberry milkshake all over Lizzie, an action that sends her storming back to the school and straight into her father’s office.
Ric’s in the middle of talking to Emma — who wants to know why he’s never attended a counseling session with her — about how the knife is seemingly indestructible when Lizzie waltzes in and blames her father for everything that’s happened the past few days, because if he’d just attended the flag football game instead of running around with Hope, none of this would’ve happened. When Lizzie declares that she won’t be returning to community service, it’s hard to argue, so Alaric tells her she can help the primary students in the garden. Turns out, that consists of her hanging out with the world’s cutest human, Pedro (and his bow tie!), when the gargoyle attacks. Thankfully, Lizzie is able to complete a spell before the gargoyle scratches her because said scratch paralyzes her.
While all of that is unfolding at the school, Hope and Josie turn an argument into a bonding opportunity when they both admit that they’ve spent years “poking” each other. And when Josie tries to push Hope for answers about the Landon mission, Hope gets so angry she puts the trash poker through her own foot. Thankfully, the vampire part of her will help her heal quickly. And the brief violence is what ultimately breaks the tension between the two when Josie jokes, “You poked yourself.”
From there, the two girls really start to get to know each other. Hope finds out about Jo’s crush on Rafael — and Lizzie’s “dibs” — and Hope confesses that Alaric is punishing her for using black magic. As far as Lizzie’s concerned, Josie tells Hope that Lizzie’s “sensitive.” She explains, “Our mom is going on these really long recruitment missions recently. It’s why she’s extra testy. She just really misses her.” And of course, missing a mom is something Hope knows all too well. Josie talks about how she remembers when Hayley would come by the school, and she apologizes for not sending Hope flowers when she died, a fact that means she and Lizzie definitely deserve a bit of poking.
Back at the school, Alaric tries to draw the gargoyle away with the knife, but when he comes face-to-face with the thing, it quickly knocks him out. Now with the knife, the gargoyle tries to leave the school but it appears that the spell Lizzie completed right before being paralyzed was a boundary spell. The gargoyle can’t get out … which means it’s going to terrorize the hallways of the school until somebody stops it.
Before we get to the action of it all, MG and Dana enjoy a brief make-out session in the town square, at least until MG compels Dana to tell him the truth about her feelings: She’s in love with her best friend’s boyfriend and wants to use MG to make him jealous. But it’s okay because MG is obviously using her to make Lizzie jealous. And just like that, MG knows he can’t kiss her anymore without taking advantage of her, and so he compels Dana to forget about their make-out and leave. Only, he finds her a few minutes later with Kaleb on the bus. And they’re not kissing. Rather, Kaleb is feeding from her, a fact he asks MG to keep secret. As he puts it, “vamps over tramps.” MG reluctantly agrees.
By the time Hope and Josie get to the school, Josie has to take down the boundary spell, which means they need to kill the gargoyle before it has the chance to escape. First, they run into Alaric, who has a theory about why the gargoyle didn’t kill him.
Together, the three of them head to the library, where Alaric steps in front of Hope before the gargoyle can kill her (an action that nearly gives Josie a heart attack). But the gargoyle doesn’t stab Ric, and when it hesitates, they attack. Ultimately, Hope and Josie use a spell to explode the gargoyle, but the win is not followed by a celebration. Josie is incredibly upset that her father nearly died for Hope, and she storms out of the room before he can explain that his research told him the gargoyle wouldn’t harm him. Back in France, this gargoyle took a vow to never harm humanity, but instead, to fight evil on its behalf. In this scenario, the gargoyle saw the supernatural beings as the evil and Ric as the one who needed protection.
Ultimately, Hope convinces Ric that in order for the school to stay safe and for everyone to work together, there can’t be secrets, and so Ric tells the students about the dragon and the gargoyle. He then gives Dorian the knife as he’s clearly about to hit the road. And as Dorian leaves, Landon and Rafael return…
For those of you who don’t know, Jeremy is from The Vampire Diaries and is essentially a son to Ric. He first found out about vampires when he, well, dated one. (Not to mention that his sister was also dating one at the time.) Now, Jeremy has been tasked with keeping Raf and Landon safe. He tried to scare them away by writing “Run, Wolf or DIE” on a dollar bill — which Landon hid from Raf, by the way — but when that didn’t work, Jeremy had to step in. Jer put an arrow in the werewolf hunter’s chest — his weapon of choice is a crossbow — and now, is taking the guys back to the school (after Raf forgives Landon for lying to him, which doesn’t take long).
The episode ends with Hope seeing Landon in the hallway and walking away, while outside the school’s gates, Dana and her bestie Sasha are waiting to meet up with Connor and deface the school. But when Sasha steps out of the car and ends up yelling, something very large lands on Dana’s car. We end on Dana’s scream.
There’s so much I like about this show, and it’s not just the fact that they’re going big with the monsters. The relationships are really working for me, with the twins, Hope and Josie, Hope and Landon, and more. They’ve found a great balance of grounded, emotional drama and over-the-top supernatural fun, and I look forward to it every week.
