Even with its more obvious ties to the wider universe, Legacies has continued a tradition that Damon first started in The Vampire Diaries. Of the two spinoff shows in the Vampire Diaries universe, Legacies is the one that is least closely connected TVD, with a few characters crossing over, but most being brand-new or only having made guest appearances in Vampire Diaries and The Originals. Likewise, while a few overarching storylines have carried over for characters who have a lengthy history in the universe, for the most part, Legacies stands alone.
Even so, Legacies has found ways to honor The Vampire Diaries and even The Originals throughout its three seasons and counting. Most notable was the Legacies season 3 episode "Salvatore: The Musical!" that saw the students of the Salvatore School putting on a musical that told the story of The Vampire Diaries. Other major characters from the previous series have also shown up on Legacies, such as when TVD villain Kai Parker (Chris Wood) returned for a memorable two-episode arc in Legacies season 2.
But Legacies has also incorporated less flashy threads from The Vampire Diaries into the spinoff and one of the most touching traces its roots back to one of Damon Salvatore's (Ian Somerhalder) favorite things. A recurring theme in Legacies has been Alaric Saltzman (Matthew Davis) and his love of bourbon. In early seasons, a fancy bottle of bourbon could regularly be spotted in his office, and he would often sip on a tumbler of it after a particularly hard day, occasionally sharing a drink with friend Dorian Williams (Demetrius Bridges). In Legacies season 3, however, drinking bourbon together grew into a regular ritual for Alaric and Kaleb (Chris Lee), who has become Alaric's right-hand man. It's a tradition that was first shared by Damon and Alaric in The Vampire Diaries, and has quite a bit of symbolism.
Though they initially started out as hated enemies, their relationship evolved to eventually become a tight bond in The Vampire Diaries as Damon and Alaric learned to trust each other. The thing they bonded over was an appreciation for bourbon, with their strange friendship being forged over many glasses of bourbon over the years – Alaric even earned the nickname "Professor Bourbon" at one point. One of the most touching moments involved Alaric's "death" in The Vampire Diaries season 3 when he is killed and starts his turn into becoming an Original Vampire. Damon hands him some bourbon and stays with him to the bitter end. A few episodes later, Alaric died for real (at least for a while), and for a long while after Damon continued to toast his dead friend with bourbon, even keeping people from sitting in the chair Alaric had always occupied at their favorite watering hole.
Now, it's a ritual that Alaric has passed onto Kaleb, who, despite technically still being a student at the school, has become a genuine friend to Alaric. As such, the bourbon bond is now a prevalent theme in Legacies, with it being overtly referenced a few times in the second episode of Legacies season 4. Alaric reminds Kaleb of what it means to share his duties as the protector of the Salvatore School, saying, "That doesn't just mean keeping secrets and drinking my bourbon. It means we have to do the things that no one wants to do."
The season 4 premiere revealed that Alaric met Kaleb when he was just a high school student, and brought him to the Salvatore School after Kaleb had gone on a vampiric killing spree, a memory Kaleb had suppressed. The old vampire hunter Alaric might have immediately killed Kaleb, seeing him as nothing but a monster. But Alaric's views have evolved over the years, thanks in large part to his friendship with Damon Salvatore in The Vampire Diaries. Giving Kaleb a second chance and eventually forging a bond of mutual trust shows how much Damon impacted Alaric's life. Now that Damon is gone, Alaric continuing his bourbon toast tradition with Kaleb in Legacies is a fitting way to honor his fallen friend.