Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
After two episodes where the kids of the Salvatore School have tangled with one of The Vampire Diaries universes biggest villains, Kai Parker (Chris Wood), they all deserve a break, right? So that’s what their teacher Emma Tig (Karen David) gives them, with a therapy session/simulation that sends the cast of Legacies to a film noir world on tonight’s gorgeously filmed “There’s a Place Where the Lost Things Go.”
“We really set a very strict test for ourselves in terms of what was noir, and what wasn’t,” Legacies Executive Producer and co-writer of the episode Brett Matthews told Decider. “We really tried to play by those rules.”
That applies to the plot, which finds Hope (Danielle Rose Russell), Josie (Kaylee Bryant), Lizzie (Jenny Boyd), MG (Quincy Fouse) and Rafael (Peyton Alex Smith), as well as Emma taking on classic film noir roles, ranging from the hard-nosed detective to the starlet with a dark past, as well as the actual look of the episode. For the latter, Legacies recruited the show’s director of photography Mike Karasick, a guy who knows a thing or two about lighting.
“[He’s] somebody who gets that light and shadow and really embraced noir,” Matthews continued, “and wanted to not just tell a noir story, but to tell a noir story in a manner consistent with the cinematic rules of the period.”
That level of dedication extended to every part of the production, from hair, to makeup, to wardrobe — look for a subtle shout-out to some members of the production team in a list of names halfway through the episode — but ultimately, the idea for the episode started with the characters.
“We always start with character, because you just have to,” Matthews said. “We have a lot of characters going through a lot of sort of precipitous things in this moment … One of the things we love about Legacies is it’s this elastic sandbox and we do get to do these format breaking episodes. So it felt like a good one to do that because a lot of times it just lets you explore things in a more abstract, fun way while still really landing what a character is going through emotionally.”
As for what happens to those characters? As you can probably imagine, the whole film noir therapy session doesn’t go as smoothly as expected; and after some climactic events, things on Legacies will never be the same. But to paraphrase a classic line, at least Matthews will always have this episode.
“[I] never really thought I’d get a chance to do one,” Matthews said, of the film noir story, “but was very excited and really thought the overarching, consistent thematics of noir — it’s one of the most consistent genres ever — lended itself to what all our characters were going through. And then [EP] Julie [Plec] was kind enough to say yes, so that’s really where it came about.”
Check back after the episode airs tonight for plenty more with Matthews, breaking down the big events of the episode. Legacies airs Thursdays at 9/8c on The CW.
