Warning: Spoilers for Legacies season 4, episode 7, "Someplace Far Away From All This Violence."

The past few episodes of Legacies season 4 have shown that it needs to start treating its supporting, supernatural characters more like The Vampire Diaries did. Covid complicated the past few seasons and partially helped to create a storyline that has far too often exclusively revolved around Hope Mikaelson (Danielle Rose Russell) and Landon Kirby (Aria Shahghasemi), as well as Malivore. Legacies season 4 has finally gotten out of its narrative stagnation and propelled itself forward, and the new momentum has shown it could stand to borrow a few more tricks from its predecessor The Vampire Diaries.

Last season of Legacies saw the show begin to shift away from its exclusive focus on the on-again/off-again Hope and Landon relationship and begin to focus on other supernatural characters. It's a long-overdue move, but one that is showing the limitations of where the story can go thanks to Legacies' limiting structure of the past. When their time wasn't primarily taken up by figuring out and defeating the monster-of-the-week, most episodes of Legacies season 1 and season 2 were focused on Hope and Landon, with little time devoted to other storylines. Outside of a few characters, too many supporting characters haven't ever had their stories fleshed out in the past three seasons. Now that they're getting more time in the spotlight, the lack of knowing anything about their past is becoming a problem.

Related: Legacies: The Squad's Backup Plan For Hope Is TVD's Most Brutal Punishment

Legacies season 4, episode 7, "Someplace Far Away From All This Violence," had a perfect example of this conundrum. Werewolf Jed (Ben Levin) tells Kaleb (Chris Lee), "I really hated what I had to do to activate my curse." When Kaleb responds, "Yeah, you never told me about that," Jed tells him, "The details aren't important." Except they are, because up to now, Jed has been a jerk, then a good-hearted but still dumb jock. Him having a sudden moment of real emotional insight into what Kaleb is going through doesn't exactly jive with the character thanks to audiences not knowing anything about his backstory at all. Backstories were something The Vampire Diaries always did well. Even minor recurring characters were given some history so their current motivations were clear and it was easier for audiences to connect with them. Legacies would be smart to start treating its own supporting supernatural characters like The Vampire Diaries and giving them more focus.

Jed stands next to Kaleb in Legacies.

It's one of the reasons that audiences grew to care so much for the characters of The Vampire Diaries, so much so that some of the most-hated villains in the early seasons, the Original vampires, were loved by viewers enough to get their own spinoff series in The Originals. Currently, it's hard to think of any supporting characters in Legacies who are loved enough by audiences or who have an interesting enough story to warrant that sort of audience investment or interest. Virtually nothing is known of how Jed or Kaleb turned or dealt with their new supernatural abilities, or why they are who they are. After setting up a potentially interesting story of Finch (Courtney Bandeko) learning how to be a werewolf in a pack, she's been reduced to little more than being Josie's (Kaylee Bryant) girlfriend, and Ethan (Leo Howard) has also been sidelined. Wade (Elijah B. Moore) appears so infrequently that it's easy to forget he's even on the show.

Granted, Legacies was originally a very different show than Vampire Diaries and The Originals, so having a two-dimensional character like Jed or one used purely for comedic relief wasn't an issue. But Legacies is clearly becoming a different show, one that's more of a true, balanced ensemble. It's for the better, as the show it was before mostly wasn't working. Still, it means audiences have to be truly invested in Legacies' supernatural characters, and their histories and stories, as much as they were invested in The Vampire Diaries' characters. Even with the new direction, until Legacies starts fleshing out its characters so they're all worth investing in, it will never evolve into the show it could be.

Next: Legacies: The Real Meaning Of The Stefan & Damon Guns

Legacies releases new episodes every Thursday on the CW.