While Legacies did copy one of Men in Black’s most memorable villains, The Vampire Diaries spinoff wasn’t able to recreate the monster’s original impact. Legacies, like any spinoff of a spinoff, struggled to establish a tone of its own early on in the show’s run. A follow-up for The Originals (which, in turn, was a spinoff of the late ‘00s YA adaptation The Vampire Diaries), Legacies told the tale of Hope Mikaelson, a student at the Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted who uncovered mysteries, became entangled in convoluted love triangles, and defeated an endless array of villains.Legacies was a lighter, sillier series than its predecessors, even if its finale left Hope and her love interest Landon in a surprisingly tragic predicament. However, not everyone who enjoyed The Originals and The Vampire Diaries cared for the more playful, arch tone of Legacies. Credit to the spinoff, Legacies wasted no time in establishing the tone of the series. The show proved that its monster of the week villains would extend far past vampires and werewolves and into goofier mythical beings way back in Legacies season 1, episode 4, “Hope Is Not the Goal.”Related: Legacies Season 4 Episode 7 Parodied Stranger Things Season 3 Finale

Legacies Episode 4 Borrowed Men In Black’s Insect Man

men in black edgar the bug

In ”Hope Is Not the Goal”, Legacies introduced Connor/Arachne, a human spider hybrid that owed its inspiration to Men in Black's Edgar. However, the steal wasn’t a wholesale success. While Legacies’ later Midsommar parody managed to wring a lot of laughs from satirizing the cult horror, Connor/Arachne proved a lot less effective than Men In Black’s villain Edgar. Like Edgar, the Legacies bully Connor turned out to be hiding a non-human (arachnid in Connor's case, insect in Edgar's) body beneath his skin suit. However, unlike Edgar, Connor's transformation was not particularly convincing. For once, the disappointing reveal was not due to a limited special effects budget.

Thanks to advances in CGI technology, "Hope Is Not the Goal” was able to reveal a spider monster that arguably looked more convincing and realistic than Edgar’s bug form in Men in Black. While Men in Black’s special effects were cutting edge in 1997, the CGI seen in an average episode of Legacies is about as believable as the blockbuster’s finale. Instead, when Legacies heroine Josie battled Connor/Arachne, the bigger issue was the lack of commitment to the monster’s arachnid origins. Men in Black star Vincent D’Onofrio went to great lengths to ensure his performance as an insect passing itself off as human felt real, something Legacies couldn’t recapture.

Legacies Couldn’t Replicate Edgar’s Creepy Appearance

arachne pothos legacies

D’Onofrio’s incredible commitment to capturing the movement of a human-sized bug made his performance memorably weird and ensured that, even though Edgar’s eventual CGI appearance is underwhelming, his human form is genuinely unsettling. There is a macabre humor to watching Edgar try and fail to pass as a human while, in contrast, Connor’s Legacies reveal comes out of nowhere since the bully looked and acted like a normal human kid until his real appearance was shown. As a result, the Legacies twist felt shoehorned in where Men In Black’s plot was better foreshadowed.

More: Legacies: Why Lizzie Rarely Used Her Magic (At First)