‘Legacies’ EP Explains How Season Finale Twist Will Impact Show’s Future

The CW’s Legacies wrapped up its first season last week with a shocking finale twist. Hope Mikaelson, the show’s central character, sacrifices herself to prevent a huge, supernatural threat from rising to wreak havoc on the world. However, her sacrifice went much further than simply giving her life to save the world. The act literally erases her from existence meaning no one left behind — including those she was closest to — remember she ever was.

It’s a daring move for a show, but series creator Julie Plec explained in a recent interview with TV Guide, that Hope’s sacrifice actually creates a lot of story for the show’s second season. When asked if those left behind would be dealing with a “Hope-shaped hole” in their lives, Plec said that is “exactly” what is coming.

“That’s exactly what we can expect to see,” Plec said. What’s fun about it, and sad about it, is we’ll be able to realize just how much impact Hope had in these people’s lives without them even realizing what they’re missing. And just understanding that they all feel individually like there’s something that doesn’t feel right and that they’re struggling with this feeling of not being complete somehow. It just feels like such a universal experience, especially for teenagers. I’m looking forward to having each of those characters act out on that feeling.”

In case you need a refresher, the big threat of the season was a sort of monster-eater named Malivore who had been turned into a mud-like substance and essentially turned to pit that, when something — or someone — was tossed into it, they would simply cease to ever have existed. However, one of Malivore’s “offspring”, Ryan, wanted to raise the pit back into his true form so that he could essentially body-snatch Landon. Landon just so happened to be Hope’s boyfriend as well as Malivore’s only biological offspring. Once the process of freeing Malivore was started, there was no way to stop it except a huge loophole: Hope. As the only tri-brid of witch, werewolf, and vampire, Hope was the only person who could destroy Malivore, something she did after accepting it as her purpose.

However, even though she acted on her purpose and has been functionally erased, that may not mean she’s actually completely gone — and Malivore may not be gone, either.

“That is the question, I think, that we’re left with at the end of the season, which is — technically if she had destroyed him, would she be destroyed in the process? Maybe not,” Plec said. “So the fact that no one remembers her might mean that there’s still a blackness out there that is keeping her captive. And since we’ve already seen a glimpse of how s—ty that is, I hope that’s not the case.”