Legacies: Why There Are Two Versions Of Alaric In Lizzie's Therapy Box
Warning: Spoilers for Legacies season 4, episode 7, "Someplace Far Away From All This Violence."
In Legacies season 4, episode 7, "Someplace Far Away From All This Violence," Lizzie enters the therapy box to find two versions of her dad, Alaric, and there's an important reason why. Season 4 has been a tumultuous one for Lizzie (Jenny Boyd). Just when it appeared that she was truly starting to grow, Hope (Danielle Rose Russell) turning into the Tribrid and shutting off her humanity threw everyone for a loop. It affected no one more than Lizzie, as Hope attacked Alaric (Matthew Davis) and put him in a coma. He currently hangs somewhere between life and death, still alive but functionally brain dead.
Historically, Lizzie hasn't been one to handle stress or heartbreak well, but Legacies season 4 has shown she has indeed grown at least a bit. Rather than stay at the Salvatore School and risk lashing out at everyone and causing emotional damage (as she has always done in the past), she chose to enter the prison world of the therapy box and work out her feelings. She arguably emerged worse off than when she went in; Lizzie now seems determined to kill Hope rather than rehabilitate her, like the rest of the Super Squad. But her time in the Old West-themed simulation was an interesting one that revealed much about how she views her dad, Alaric, and her relationship with him.
Legacies Just Proved Alaric Is The Most Important Character In The TVD Universe
In the Legacies season 4 episode, strangely, Lizzie ran into not one, but two versions of her father in the therapy box. The first was her dad, the professor of a school who had been charged with burning it down. This dad was bespectacled, wearing a proper suit, desirous of keeping Lizzie away from the evils of the world - and locked up in the town jail. Lizzie also encountered her "Uncle Ric," who, in the simulation, she'd never known. Ric was grizzled, with a scarred face and milky, blind eye, quick with a gun and a seasoned vampire hunter. It may have seemed to be just a fun way for Matthew Davis to play two characters in the episode, but it has deep meaning. Longtime viewers of The Vampire Diaries know that "Ric" is who Alaric used to be, back when he was fighting monsters and deadly forces side-by-side with the Salvatore brothers. Lizzie subconsciously recognizes that Ric is who her father was before he settled down and became the headmaster of Legacies' Salvatore School, before he became their dad. More importantly, Lizzie comes away from the therapy box convinced that she needs to be more like Ric, the old, ruthless version of her dad, not Alaric, the current, more forgiving version.
Lizzie has always had a love-hate relationship with Hope Mikaelson. Alaric took in the young Hope after her dad died, and devoted a lot of time to Hope's needs and wants. While Josie (Kaylee Bryant) has largely made her peace with it, understanding why their dad gave so much attention to Hope, the long-simmering resentment has grown deep roots in Lizzie. She loves Hope but also deeply resents her and has struggled more than the others to forgive her at times and to view Hope as an adopted sister, not a threat. Clearly, Lizzie is done giving Hope second chances; Tribrid Hope turning off her humanity and attacking Alaric after he'd upended his life–and that of his young daughters–was the final straw for the more volatile Saltzman twin.
The two versions of Alaric also reveal the deep resentment that Lizzie has for her dad. The mild, professorial version of Alaric who preaches forgiveness and letting go of vengeance–i.e. who Alaric is now–was trapped in a jail cell in Lizzie's therapy box, and useless to her. But the Uncle Ric version of her dad–i.e. who he had been before in The Vampire Diaries, when he was quicker to violence and brutality–is the one who gave her the tools to get things done. And she gets things done in her vision by killing Hope. No forgiveness involved. By the time Lizzie emerges from the therapy box, she's turned away from Alaric's teachings of forgiveness in Legacies and embraced vengeance. It does not bode well for when she and Hope meet next.
New episodes of Legacies are released Thursdays on the CW.