S03.E14: This Feels a Little Cult-y

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

In an attempt to control some of Hope’s negative emotions, Josie suggests they join Lizzie at a wellness retreat for witches. Alaric and Dorian team up after learning MG may be in trouble.

Promo:

Original air date: 6/10/21

[janeta]

The wendigo was totally cool, and being in the midst of Brood X where I am, that fake darth vader looks just like a cicada to me.

[RachelKM]

I enjoyed that episode.  I tend to like to episodes in which Hope spends time working with either, but preferably both, Lizzie or Josie.

Ha! It was finally a wendigo! Nice call back.  Also, yay MG.  Way to come through with the save even after Dorian tranqed you without hesitation or explanation.

Speaking of, I know Dorian has a specific backstory explaining his distrust of Vampires. But his militant stance is hecka jarring after he literally helped run a school that was made for them. Wary with evidence?  Yes.  Knock'em out without a hint of doubt about a kid he knew for years.  Seems like a hard left.

Can this be the last Episode that Hope mopes about Landon?  Please? 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

The only thing worse than emo Hope is angry Hope. I get you're mad that your boyfriend dumped you and ran off, but maybe quit taking it out on everyone else?

Great job making the cult extra culty, show. The only thing missing was taking their money and turning them into sex slaves.

I know I'm supposed to like Finch for bucking the system and then showing mercy to Jed, but I still find her really annoying.

Awww, MG is still playing superhero even without his sidekick Ethan. I laughed when Doran showed Alaric MG's notebook and his only comment was that MG needs a better superhero name.

[Artsda]

I enjoyed the cult episode, kind of reminded me of Dynasty doing the same with Kirby last season.

No Landon, that was a plus.  

[ybrik]

Not a fan of the episode. Feel like there were too many storylines in the episode. Honestly if they stayed with the cult storyline the whole time it would been better and helped the cult storyline get more fleshed out. I mean did we ever see how Josie got one of the crystal necklaces? 

Didn’t really need the alpha storyline 2.0 with Finch taking Raf’s place.

[Lady Calypso]

This was a weird episode, especially the ending, as well as the multiple plots...but I really missed the girls interacting together, and the cult storyline, besides the end scene, was actually really good. 

The MG/Dorian/Alaric plot felt like it was a bit out of place. I forgot why MG was running away or why Dorian was suddenly anti-MG (I know he's had issues with vampires, but he's also been JUST FINE in previous episodes so it felt sudden and jarring), but the Wendigo wasn't half bad looking.

Finch/Jed's C plot was...ok. I don't think it was needed, but it was nice to see more of Jed and more of the wolf pack. We don't get enough focus on the wolves on this show, so it was nice to finally get them in their own plot.

So now we are getting a Star Wars parody with Wannbe Darth Vader. Great. It could be fun, so we'll see.

[tennisgurl]

Well what do you know? The Wendigo, the lupus of the monster world, was finally the creature of the week! This was mostly a good episode, I thought the main plot with the girls at the Midsommar cult was a pretty fun main story, so much that I would have really liked to see more of it. Every time they cut away from them I wanted them to cut back. I wanted to know what the deal was with the with cult leader, but I guess we can still find out later. The Hope/Josie/Lizzie dynamic is always a fun one to explore, and they really mined a lot out of all three of them and their various issues. Instead of angsty Hope, this week we got pissed off Hope, and a Hope with a bit of a post break up selective memory. Landon was the one who broke up with her and I can see why she's annoyed he didn't tell her who he was way before, but its hardly like he just dumped her because he felt like being a jerk or didn't like her anymore.  

The other two plots felt pretty undercooked, especially everything with Dorian/MG/Alaric. I know that Dorian has a thing with vampires in his backstory, but where did this sudden zero tolerance policy for vampires come from? He worked with vampire kids at the school for years without a problem, so why is he all stake first and ask questions later all of the sudden? And with MG of all people? It was confusing, I wasn't sure why MG was in the woods, who was dead, why Dorian was being such a pill, I seriously thought that I accidently skipped a few scenes. At least the Wendigo looked pretty cool. 

It was nice seeing Jed and the wolves get a subplot, they tend to be the group that gets the least amount of focus of the three main groups, but most of it was focused around Finch and how awesome the show thinks she is. They are really pushing her as the ultimate cool girl, and its not working for me. 

So it turns out the witch was trying to raise...Darth Vader? Landon is going to be so disappointed he missed this. 

Edited June 11, 2021 by tennisgurl

[Chris24601]

I'm pretty sure the entire reason for the "tripping balls" sequence at the end was all about concealing the identity of who came out of the pit for another episode; though its obviously Clarke since...

A) Hope while under the effect of hallucinogens is obviously going to associate Clarke with "bad Darth Vader expy."

B) Clarke has been turning up in cameo shots for the last several episodes.

C) The cameo at the start of this episode had him making a deal with the very witch who was our antagonist because her deal required her to resurrect someone.

As for Dorian's reaction with MG... MG is a Ripper like Stephan, aka the guy who murdered his whole family. They can lose themselves in the blood pretty easily and MG was right in the location where a bunch of people were dying/going missing. If you're already paranoid about potential Ripper situations because of what happened to your own family, its understandable to jump to conclusions...

Plus, as they all pointed out; It's NEVER a Wendigo.

[ursula]

On 6/11/2021 at 2:33 PM, tennisgurl said:

Dorian has a thing with vampires in his backstory, but where did this sudden zero tolerance policy for vampires come from? He worked with vampire kids at the school for years without a problem, so why is he all stake first and ask questions later all of the sudden? And with MG of all people?

Especially with MG. MG is a ripper like Stefan Salvatore was. It’s not that he hates supernaturals but this is a very specific trigger for Dorian. I actually commended the show for being consistent with this.

 

I enjoyed the episode. All the plots were interesting. And though Finch isn’t a popular character, I really liked the way they used her interaction with the wolves to explore a group in the school that hasn’t got a lot of limelight. I also liked that after all the initial drama, she and Josie have a healthy relationship where they’re in love and have their own things going on.

[Chris24601]

Yeah, the biggest issue with a lot love interests in a lot of shows (not just Josie’s) are that they appear to exist solely in relation to the protagonist; no friends or relationships or any apparent interior life beyond the relationship.

I think one of the things that made Hope/Landon suffer a lot was that by removing Raf and then removing a bunch of other supporting characters due to working around the Covid restrictions was that it basically stripped Hope and Landon of much of anything beyond their relationship.

So, yes, seeing Finch used outside of Josie’s orbit and see the underrepresented werewolf segment of the school and allowing a bit more development for Jed goes a long way towards alleviating that feeling.

Another point worth bringing up again in relation to this show is how unlike its predecessors it is in terms of presenting our protagonists as genuinely heroic. If this were TVD or TO, I’d fully expect that MG had gone Ripper and they’d have to take him back to dry out and have some sort of Dorian has to compromise his principles thing because of “protagonist-centric morality.”

But on this show Dorian is wrong about MG (while still being right about Rippers in general), who’s actually been going around trying to use his powers to be a genuine hero and is even applying knowledge he gained at the Salvatore School to do it. Similarly Hope can be a hothead and Lizzie a real bitch and Josie has her repressed dark side, but they’re unquestionably heroic in nature. The same, after a little character development with Kaleb and even Wade.

I just keep feeling the need to express how refreshing it is that pretty much all the main characters remain genuinely sympathetic and moral rather than trying to make excuses all the time for why they aren’t actually so bad.

Or as I like to say, if most of the TVD/TO characters turned up on Legacies pulling their usual behavior, Hope would have eliminated them by the end of act four in the same episode because that’s how this show rolls... and I love it for precisely that reason.

[foxfreakinmulder]

On 6/11/2021 at 1:33 PM, tennisgurl said:

It was nice seeing Jed and the wolves get a subplot, they tend to be the group that gets the least amount of focus of the three main groups, but most of it was focused around Finch and how awesome the show thinks she is. They are really pushing her as the ultimate cool girl, and its not working for me. 

I agree. I don't know what it is but there is something about her I just can't warm up to.

So Hope has Captain American strength now or I'm not remembering that she's always been that strong? I really hope she's done moping over Landon because I'm starting to not like her. It's funny, Lizzie was my least favorite character when this show started and now she's one of my favorites and Hope is becoming one of my least favorite.

Since the 3 girls were tripping balls and thought they were pandas maybe the person that came out of the hole doesn't really look like dollar store Darth Vader.

Yay MG saved the day!

[Unclejosh]

Hope has always been super strong as she is a werewolf.

[RachelKM]

I somehow forgot that it was established that MG was a ripper.