Did that feel like a midseason filler episode to anyone else?

Legacies Season 4 Episode 1 was supposed to be one of the final episodes of Legacies Season 3, but The CW opted to save four episodes for the beginning of Legacies Season 4, and it completely ruined the momentum.

If you watch Legacies online, you know the Malivore plot has been dragged kicking and screaming about two seasons too long, but "You Have to Pick One This Time" found him in captivity but still messing with the teenagers at the root of the story.

Malivore is a horrible villain because there are never any stakes when he's on the scene. He's this all-seeing, supposedly violent abomination that fails to do anything to freak these characters out.

After the way, he manipulated Hope into choosing between Landon and saving MG while also revealing to Kaleb that there was a much bigger reason behind his past, well, all I can think is that he is fond of teen drama and wants these people at odds.

There are no stakes here because the show likes to keep everyone alive to fight another day, and it's grating on my nerves.

If this were The Vampire Diaries or The Originals, half the characters would have been killed off by now. The themes of Legacies are shrouded in darkness, and the sooner we start having all of the characters face the repercussions of the villains, the better.

I wanted to like Cleo being Hope's muse, but in what world would Malivore allow that to happen?

For the most powerful person in the universe, he's as dumb as rocks, and that's saying something. There was a specific look he shot at Cleo when he realized what she had done, and it might be her undoing.

Now that Hope is all inspired, maybe we'll finally see her utilizing her true power. The show has been heavily building towards her activating her vampire side, and it's about damn time.

This journey started back on The Vampire Diaries, continued on The Originals, and has moved frustratingly slow on the show Hope is supposed to be the leader of.

The positive about Hope activating this new side is that it should allow her to wipe the world of Malivore and give us fans some new villains to look forward to.

I suspect there will be a wave of anti-Mikaelsons on the way to Mystic Falls when it inevitably happens.

Hope choosing MG was a big step forward for the show, but it didn't make it more challenging. Her friend was bleeding out and possibly dying, and she put her own happiness on the line to save him.

Her arc reminds me of Bonnie's from The Vampire Diaries. Bonnie was always sacrificing her happiness for her friends' good, and the series ended with her losing her lover and saving Mystic Falls.

It makes me think the writers are following a similar trajectory here.

Hopefully, we get to see some of Hope's family coming to help her in this battle with Malivore because how can they really not be a part of this?

While the show feels like it's moving sideways and preventing the inevitable, "You Have to Pick One This Time" featured a lot of character development, which is a surprise.

Hope and M.G. bonding was nice, but I especially liked the Lizzie, Josie, and Finch of it all.

Lizzie has this knack for inserting herself where she doesn't belong, and putting herself in the middle of Josie and Finch's relationship was just par for the course. Still, it also allowed Lizzie to witness her deeply rooted issues.

Apologizing to Hope was one thing, but admitting that she was doing the wrong thing most of the time highlighted that she wanted to change.

I did laugh when she mentioned Ethan because I forgot that dude existed. If the writers are going to forget characters, why shouldn't we?

Kaleb's realization will have a huge effect on his life because now he knows that he's killed a lot of people.

Being a vampire, it's natural to kill people and feed on their blood, but Kaleb had a watered-down version of his history fed to him, and Malivore unlocking the truth will do more harm than good.

We know M.G. has had a ripper phase, so it's possible we will get the two of them working together a la Stefan and Caroline to go on a rampage.

As a whole, this was not a great episode. With the Malivore plot still very much driving the drama, it's hard to care about the show.

There is so much potential with a show that focuses on these people who can be heroes or villains, but the writers are consistently choosing the wrong direction for the show, and it's hard to watch.

If Malivore is wiped out in the next few episodes and Hope gets her full-fledged Tribrid side off the ground, I'll have faith that the show can turn things around.

Beyond that, we need new leadership because the show is simply not utilizing the characters well enough in its current form.

What are your thoughts on the direction of the story?