‘Legacies’ Midseason Return Had A Ridiculous Dig At “Crisis On Infinite Earths”

Of all the things I was expecting from the midseason return of The CW’s Legacies, it wasn’t a shout-out to the recently concluded CW crossover “Crisis on Infinite Earths.” The better part? The short, funny scene wasn’t just a ridiculous dig at the superhero epic, it also was tied into the ongoing character arcs and worked as a not-so-sneaky dig at Legacies itself.

This show, folks, is very good.

Spoilers for Legacies Season 2, Episode 9 “I Couldn’t Have Done This Without You” past this point.

There’s a lot going on at the ol’ Salvatore School for Curs-ed Monsters this episode as we deal with the new status quo post midseason finale. Alaric Saltzman (Matt Davis) is back as headmaster, though having a tough time dealing with the changes made by the last (fake) headmaster. Hope Mikaelson (Danielle Rose Russell) is back in her old room, though with a new roommate, and struggling with the fact that she’s alienated Josie Saltzman (Kaylee Bryant) by dating her boyfriend Landon Kirby (Aria Shahghasemi). Josie, meanwhile, is dealing with the whole Hope/Landon thing, as well as having been tempted to the dark side by the aforementioned fake headmaster.

And on top of that, we get flashbacks showing us how The Necromancer (Ben Geurens) made his way from being seemingly erased from existence in Season 1, to popping back up in Mystic Falls in Season 2. Short version? He got blipped back into human form in Texas, got a job at an ice cream shop, and worked his way back to becoming the lord of the dead — and is now working to challenge the series Big Bad, Malivore, at his own game.

…But that’s not what we’re here to talk about today. Instead, it’s all about Lizzie Saltzman (Jenny Boyd), Milton “MG” Greasley (Quincy Fouse) and a sexy new vampire named Sebastian (Thomas Doherty). See, Lizzie and Sebastian are boning all over the Salvatore School, even though Lizzie knows it’s a bad idea. That’s because Sebastian is an unknown, and probably very violent vampire; as we find out later, he was actually a dreaded, murderous pirate vampire, and ultimately because of that he leaves the school.

In the meantime, Lizzie is trying to throw some cold water on her Sebastian cravings and turns to her friend MG, who also not-so-secretly has a crush on her; though also gaslighted her in a previous episode. Lots of stuff going on there, but the scene in question kicks off with Lizzie reading the trade collection of “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” by Marv Wolfman and George Perez.

“So you get to see all these amazing alternate universes,” Lizzie says, “but then eventually everything just resets back to normal and the heroes don’t even remember any of it? Lame.”

The conversation continues until Lizzie admits that she’s only reading “Crisis” because she can’t keep her hands off Sebastian and, “comic books are the literary equivalent of a cold shower.” Pissed off, MG first shoots back that “Crisis” is a graphic novel, not a comic book (I have some quibbles with this, but moving on), before storming off with “Crisis,” an old The Flash comic he was reading, and the jab, “No. This is a seminal work of fiction, not something to run your horny clock out.”

So on the plot level, it moves both Lizzie and MG forward, reestablishing their relationship after MG betrayed her trust. It also helps push MG towards his own love interest at the end of the episode, and Lizzie to realize she maybe has some deeper feelings for Sebastian than just lust.

Then there’s the level of the “Crisis” slam itself, which is timed just two days after the five-part crossover wrapped up Tuesday (January 14) on Arrow and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. Unlike the trade collection (sorry, MG, but that’s what it’s actually called), on TV all the CW shows were condensed into one, new universe called “Earth Prime.” And though initially only seven characters remember what happened, Martian Manhunter (David Harewood) traveled around the new Earth psychically filling the memory gaps for all the rest of the heroes. Still, solid burn, Lizzie.

It’s also not the first time that Legacies has “crossed over” with The CW DC Universe shows… In Season 1’s “Hope Is Not the Goal,” MG fell asleep reading a Flash comic and had a nightmare about one of the speedster’s villains, Gorilla Grodd. And sure enough, the evil, psychic gorilla popped up with the same CGI model from over on The Flash.

There’s another level that this line works on, though, and that’s an epic self burn for Legacies. In the tenth episode of Season 1, “There’s a World Where Your Dreams Came True,” Lizzie used a jinni (a.k.a. a genie) to make three wishes that took her to alternate realities where things got increasingly horrifying. It’s a superbly creative and emotionally charged episode that pushed Lizzie to her limits, but her third wish — that the jinni was never trapped in the evil Malivore in the first place — wiped everything clean, and to this day nobody remembers that those events ever happened, including Lizzie. So in fact, Lizzie’s line in this episode isn’t even really a dig at “Crisis,” it’s a fun, winky joke about Lizzie herself, and the show.

Now if they can just subtly mention that Legacies takes place on Earth Prime, we’ll really get something going here.

Legacies airs Thursdays at 9/8c on The CW.

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