Legacies returned tonight after a few weeks’ break and with just three episodes left of The CW series’ third season, the series has a lot of ground to cover. A lot has happened in Season 3. Early on, the kids at the Salvatore School said goodbye to Rafael and then Landon. Josie tries to live without magic and briefly attends Mystic Falls High, the school nearly closes down due to a lack of students, Landon returns, but then he breaks up with hope and for as wild as all of that sounds, it really doesn’t even scratch the surface.
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With such a momentous season thus far, these last three episodes are set to explore some of the emotional challenges of those events and as we’ve seen all season long, each of the characters on Legacies has been doing a lot of growing and changing this season. This week’s episode, “This Feels a Little Cult-y” particularly sees some major moments for some key characters. ComicBook.com recently sat down with series executive producer Brett Matthews to chat about this week’s episode, that very interesting tease for next week’s episode, and what’s next for some of our favorite characters.
Warning: spoilers for this week’s episode “This Feels a Little Cult-y” below.
ComicBook.com: One of the things that is really great about Legacies overall are all the pop culture and entertainment references that are built in each episode. This week’s episode gave me major Midsommar vibes at the witchy wellness retreat. Was that intentional and if so, how did that come about?
Brett Matthews: Well, I mean it’s certainly a movie we’ve seen and love deeply. I think that movie is kind of a masterpiece in its own way, which is not to say that I find it pleasant to watch. But you know what’s interesting is that the director [Ari Aster] gave an interview and said it was really about a relationship ending. It’s about a breakup and when you watch the movie through that lens? Fascinating. And so, you know Picnic at Hanging Rock is another movie that has like that same vibe and so yeah I mean it’s definitely an aesthetic that has been, you know, cults and that sort of a vibe is, is well-trod in sort of horror movies but it’s not your standard slasher, it’s a different vibe and so Legacies is definitely a show that really enjoys experimentation and enjoys dipping a toe into all these different genres and so this is a kind of very specific genre that really fit the story we want to tell and so it’s something we embrace. It’s a little more surreal than our average episode, and all those fun things, but it was very much us, and part of being very much us is also like, you know, trying on these different experiments in terms of what the show looks like from week to week. That’s one of the things we love about the show which is you don’t know exactly what you’re going to get. So hopefully this is another one, again just as course grounded in the character journeys and this week especially Hope, Josie, Lizzie is a big grounding element and it’s a really big journey for them and it’s really fun to see them together, working together and at odds and all that stuff as they always do. So yeah, that’s that was sort of the genesis of it.
Speaking of journeys, all season we’ve seen the entire Super Squad, and all the characters on the series do a lot of growing. That really comes together in this week’s episode and one of the things that really jumps out for me is Lizzie. She’s been on this path of dealing with her mental health and her personality quirks since the day we met her, but we finally see her fear, accept, and also use the thing that she’s always seen as her weakness as her strength. How would you say that is going to impact Lizzie for the remaining episodes of the season?
Well, I think you’ve put a pretty beautifully but the thing that is so admirable about Lizzie is she’s somebody who really tries to make herself a better person. And that’s beyond any specific issue. She’s just somebody who’s dedicated to self-improvement. The downside of that can sometimes be like sort of a lack of acceptance of your own quirks and your flaws or your personality, and so that’s fun because we just love Lizzie, just the way she is. And I think we all want to see Lizzie love herself. And so, you know, it’s a deep journey. I don’t think it will ever just be the easiest path for her. You know it’s very much, you know, she’s got a lot of her mother in her too in a sort of way, she’s got a lot of Caroline Forbes, in the sense of, you know, just somebody who wrestles and is self-critical, you know, sees themselves as broken in a certain way but she is obviously growing beyond that and growing into somebody who is more accepting of herself and her quirks and we love that about her. And so, that journey is not always 100% correct. And there are setbacks but it is definitely a journey, we want to continue on with her and so you look at Lizzie from season one to season three, still the same person, but there’s no question has gone on a pretty good journey and some of that three-season journey begins to really crystallize for her here. I think I think you’re right.
I think another big shift this episode is Hope. Hope has been through it. She’s always had to deal with hard truths, but this season and particularly this episode we really see her having to sit with those hard truths and take them into herself and accept that again. There’s this big piece of acceptance with this episode. How does this episode set Hope up for the remaining episodes of the season?
Well, I think you clearly see what is on her mind. And so, you know, Landon is one of if not the most important person in her life. And love like that is sometimes facts be damned. Hope has certainly explored it from that perspective and Hope is somebody who is generally capable of accomplishing the impossible. And so it’s just wrestling with, you know, when do you keep fighting, when do you give up. And I think the takeaway from this episode is, you know that her friends are there for her, and is not a thing she has to take on all by herself. But it is a sobering, she is definitely having a sobering moment where some of these outside perspectives are making her see her journey in a different way. The question is, you know, do you accept fate or do you fight fate, and they have definitely been a couple who has time and again chosen to fight fate. And so that is Hope’s nature, that is for DNA and so that is obviously a very hard thing for her. It’s who she is at her core, and it’s who her family was. That is where she generally comes from. But this one’s real tricky for her. How she resolves that will obviously be the point of the story of moving forward.
You mention the word sober and it made me think of the intoxication going on with the cult and I have to ask: pandas. Why pandas?
Who doesn’t like pandas? You know the girls end up on a sort of acid trip. It’s just the idea we had. It was something the actors really embraced it for fun and that is ultimately the joy of Legacies, on some level, that you can do that. And so I don’t know. We really love it. I hope people like it. It’s certainly a weird one, but we do a lot of weird things. That will have callbacks in future episodes, but it’s sort of fun for the girls as a trio who exist at the center of the show.
I was going to ask because those panda puns were great and they have to come back again. And I think it was actually kind of a nice treat because that episode has some pretty heavy moments.
Yeah, that’s a part of Legacies, I think. That’s, obviously, there are very high stakes and there’s mythology, but it’s a relentlessly optimistic show. And we like that about it. And so, you know, sometimes people might not like the show because it’s something that’s kind of not like the other two shows, but that is what we liked most about it is, you know, we can certainly do The Vampire Diaries, The Originals types of episodes and we do a couple each season, but Legacies in its very DNA was meant to be a different thing and that thing is optimistic at a time where the world got very dark.
And there are a couple of other characters we get big moments for this week. MG was right about the Wendigo, but it also feels like it’s time for him to come and that’s huge for him, but specifically I want to talk about Jed. Finch’s challenge for him seemed to hit something in him. How do you feel like Jed is going to be changed by Finch’s presence in the pack?
Well, I think that the questions he has raised will stay with him. And Jed has definitely been a person who’s ascribed to a certain methodology for doing things as most wolves do, their pack animals. And he’s always sort of embraced that system, and learned to work with and learned to climb to the top of this, arguably, outdated hierarchical structure and so you know Finch is just somebody who comes in and challenges those rules, but she doesn’t challenge them to from a place of wanting to supplant. And I think that is going to stay with Jed moving forward. It’s just, it’s always been this way but does it have to be this way I think something. So, you know, that is the message of that storyline, you know, Jed has always been somebody who’s led sort of by force within the class, you know, because that’s what has been taught to him and, but yet has this great big heart. And so I think his journey will be one of learning that you can lead from a different place and people will follow you even more. And I think the wolves almost seemed to be a little more isolated school themselves and I think now you’re seeing the whole school draw together in the face of this threat. And those lines are dissolving, and that’s the beautiful thing, that’s sort of the point of the school. That’s beautiful.
And one last thing. At the very end, we see another interesting and slightly terrifying thing come out of a hole and it looks an awful lot like Darth Vader. What can you tease for next week’s episode?
You know, it’s a big one. It’s a wacky one. It is sci-fi, it is space, it’s something we’ve wanted to do from season one and finally found ways to do. It’s a really great turn for Hope, Josie, and Lizzie that really touches on some of Hope’s history as a character through The Originals and the title, “A New Hope” is obviously referential in one way, but it’s also referential in this character and how long we as fans and people who make the show have now been with her in exploring some of where she came from and some of where she’s going. At times ridiculous, at times emotionally resonant, but that’s very much what it is at the core of that episode, the friendship between these three young women and Hope’s journey from where this show began and where it is heading in the show moving forward.
