While Legacies season 4 needed to break up Landon and Hope, The Vampire Diaries spinoff wasted way too much screen time before pulling off this twist. Landon Kirby and Hope Mikaelson had a complicated relationship in Legacies seasons 1-3. While the pair were romantically involved on and off throughout the first three seasons of Legacies, Legacies season 3 made it clear that they were destined to eventually break up when Hope found out that physical contact between her and Landon could kill him. This tragic twist ensured the pair would struggle to keep their connection alive.
Sure enough, Legacies season 4 ended Landon and Hope’s love story in a finale that left the two lovers more distant than ever. However, while Landon and Hope’s relationship was doomed from the moment that viewers learned Hope herself was literally toxic to Landon and would kill him if the pair ever consummated their love, this didn’t mean that Legacies season 4 handled the breakup well. Despite the inevitability of the pair’s eventual parting, Legacies season 4 dragged out the “will they, won’t they” dynamic for the entire season, thus limiting the character growth of both the show’s leads.
Legacies Badly Mishandled Hope & Landon’s Story
Hope needed to let go of Landon in Legacies season 4 so that she could grow as an independent character. However, when Legacies season 4 turned her into Tribrid Hope, the main villain of the season, this was arguably the worst way that the series could have handled this breakup. While Hope becoming the Tribrid did mean that she let go of Landon, this only came at the cost of all her human emotions. This made her a villainous monster and also ensured that Landon and Hope’s love story wasn’t technically over, since Hope was not her real self when she abandoned Landon.
The primary issue with Hope turning off her humanity was that this made the Tribrid, the most powerful villain in the Legacies universe, into the show’s emotionless villain. She was nigh-on unbeatable and far more dangerous than any of the monsters of the week that Legacies churned out in earlier seasons. However, outside of Hope’s overpowered villain persona overwhelming the rest of the cast, this twist also spelled doom for her love story with Landon. Tribrid Hope literally had no human emotions, so her claims that she didn’t love Landon rang hollow. Meanwhile, Landon was stranded in Purgatory, neither dead nor alive, and thus unable to affect the plot.
Legacies Never Fixed Its Most Divisive Plot
Legacies season 4 ended with Landon and Hope on weird, sort-of friends terms, and it was clear that there was more to the story that viewers will now never get to see. Since Legacies season 5 isn’t happening, it is not clear whether the show intended to reunite the duo or if the irreconcilable physical differences mentioned in season 3 were still too powerful to allow them to be together. However, what is clear is that the creators of The Vampire Diaries spin-off did not intend for Legacies season 4 to be the show’s last outing, resulting in this disappointing final chapter for Landon and Hope.
