Caution: Minor spoilers ahead for Legacies season 4.
Although Legacies season 4 previously seemed unsure how to use Lizzie, The Originals spinoff is now turning her into the show’s equivalent of The Vampire Diaries fan-favorite Caroline — which is a great move. Earlier in season 4, fans of the series could have been forgiven for thinking Legacies killed off the wrong Saltzmann sister. After Lizzie’s potential went under-served during Tribrid Hope’s villainous rampage, their much-vaunted showdown ending in Lizzie’s sudden death looked like a deeply disappointing twist at first.
However, Legacies season 4 has since revealed that Lizzie always planned for her demise and used the Tribrid’s powers against her. Lizzie dying allowed her to access her vampire powers and come back as a Heretic, stronger than ever. Not only that, but accessing her vampire powers is arguably exactly what Lizzie needed for her character to develop in Legacies season 4.
Like The Vampire Diaries’s Caroline, Lizzie is one of few Legacies character who has the potential to become a better person after she was turned into a vampire. Lizzie and Caroline have both always had their flaws, but the heightened emotions of being a vampire made Caroline more aware of others and more empathetic to them, rather than less. Hope’s character growth stagnated in Legacies season 4 because she had to turn off her humanity after becoming a vampire, making her an unstoppable villain. However, as a human, Lizzie was as manipulative and self-centered as Caroline was unstable and somewhat neurotic. Thus, becoming a vampire could let Lizzie level out and level up in much the same way Caroline did, with her transformation bringing out the innate compassion she has as it did for The Vampire Diaries supporting star.
Admittedly, it is still early days for Lizzie’s vampire potential, but the character already appears to skew closer to Caroline’s vampire persona than that of the humanity-free Hope or Elena. Although doesn't have control of her powers (yet), Lizzie does seem to have more control of her bloodlust than most newly-turned vampires. While Hope may never regain her humanity, Lizzie seems to have held on to some of hers, judging by how horrified she was when she drank from Professor Vardemus. The fact that she immediately gave him her blood proved that vampire Lizzie might be as empathetic as (if not more empathetic than) her pre-transformation counterpart.
It's entirely possible that, just like with Caroline, the intensity of emotions as a vampire could help Lizzie become more balanced and grow as a person. Since Hope was already a steadier, more stable (and, comparatively, blandly holier-than-thou) heroine than Lizzie, her vampiric transformation saw her switch into full-blown sadistic villainy. However, since she was already a more morally ambiguous figure who was still rough around the edges, Lizzie’s Heretic trick may make her a more empathetic character and a character viewers find easier to empathize with as a result. There’s no guarantee that Legacies season 4 will continue this promising character evolution but, for now, Lizzie’s story seems to be revisiting one of The Vampire Diaries’ most enjoyable character arcs.
New episodes of Legacies air Thursday nights at 9 PM ET on The CW.