Legacies season 4, episode 4 felt a lot like a season finale, and that is because the episode was originally intended to be the season 3 finale. Since the series debuted in 2018, Legacies has had a shaky history. A spinoff of The Originals (which itself was a spinoff of The Vampire Diaries), Legacies struggled to find its feet with franchise fans over its first three seasons.

Often unfavorably compared to The Originals and The Vampire Diaries, Legacies was a lighter series than those earlier cult hits. Chronicling the chaotic lives and loves of the Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted’s supernatural students, Legacies featured a slew of new vampires, witches, werewolves, and assorted paranormal characters for viewers to root for. However, Legacies received criticism for its jumpy, overstuffed plotting, a problem that was not helped by the show’s frequent rescheduling.

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For example, for many fans, the Legacies season 4, episode 4, “See You On The Other Side” felt like a season finale, with numerous longstanding plotlines wrapped up. The episode saw Hope die, becoming a vampire and fulfilling her destiny by transforming into the Tribrid, while the outing also saw her kill series villain Malivore (and longtime love interest Landon in the process). Not only that, but Cleo escaped Malivore, Josie made peace and merged with her Dark Josie self, Josie’s toxic best friend Lizzie and MG confessed their feelings for each other, and Ethan gained powers. The reason for this sense of cohesion and finality is that the episode was originally meant to be the Legacies season 3 finale.

While 20 episodes were originally filmed for Legacies season 3, the final four ended up being held for the start of season 4 due to problems that arose from the COVID-19 pandemic. This explains why season 3 ended on a cliffhanger with the comparatively minor character Cleo’s fate hanging in the balance, and why the first few episodes of season 4 (wherein the villain Malivore-Landon was trapped in the Salvatore School and being questioned by its students) felt like padding to some fans. Originally, these slow burn episodes were intended to set up the season 3 finale wherein Hope finally died. However, thanks to some unfortunate rescheduling, the tone of Legacies season 4 was thrown by these episodes being reshuffled to the start of the next season.

Legacies fans may have been annoyed to see the switch up, as the delayed conclusion of the plotline meant that season 3 had a comparatively uninteresting finale. However, this is not the first instance of the Vampire Diaries spinoff having its episode scheduling thrown into disarray. Originally, the Legacies season 2 finale was intended to be Legacies season 3, episode 4, although in this instance the change-up did the spinoff series a favor. The intended Legacies season 2 finale was a weaker episode than the one that viewers eventually got, meaning little damage was done by this earlier scheduling mishap. However, in the case of season 3 and 4’s scheduling shift, the narrative action of Legacies suffered as a result of the unfortunately-timed season break, resulting in a weaker season finale and an out-of-place early season episode.

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