Although Lizzie’s death on Legacies was a solid (if short-lived) surprise, the series missed a trick by not killing off her sister Josie Saltzman (Kaylee Bryant) instead. Even when characters die on Legaciesthey’re never really dead. Much like its franchise predecessors The Vampire Diaries and The Originals, Legacies tends to kill off characters for an episode or two only to revive them later via some narrative sleight of hand, supernatural intervention, or a combination of the two.
Legacies’ sense of humor added to the Vampire Diaries franchise formula and made this approach to death easier for fans to forgive since the series doesn’t tend to take itself too seriously, making its fake-out deaths excusable. Legacies season 4 darkened the tone of the show and made it a more mature series than the supernatural soap opera of the first few seasons, the quickly-reversed deaths can now seem somewhat out of place. This has never been more true than when Legacies season 4 made the mistake of temporarily killing off Lizzie when it could have killed off another character more definitely.
Since the show has historically played fast and loose with death, Legacies season 4’s Lizzie death should have been replaced by the demise of the other Saltzman sibling, Josie. Josie’s actor left the series, and her departure could have been artistically incorporated into the show’s narrative by having Tribrid Hope kill her, making the char actor more irredeemable and giving Josie a more satisfying sendoff. Not only that, but the ease with which Legacies revives dead cast members means the character would not even need to permanently die for the storyline to work. With Kaylee Bryant leaving the series, the logical choice would have been for Hope to kill Josie, prompting Lizzie to finally take her down with the help of Josie’s former love interest, Finch. In contrast, killing off (and immediately reviving) Lizzie had much less impact, particularly when Josie’s Legacies exit amounted to her just taking a bus out of town. Lizzie spent most of Legacies season 4 plotting to kill Hope and psyching herself up for their showdown, so some fans were understandably annoying when she couldn’t go through with taking down the Tribrid after all that planning.
Legacies Cheated Josie By Ending Her Arc Too Soon
In contrast, if Tribrid Hope had killed Josie, her fight with Lizzie would have had far higher stakes. Whether Josie’s Legacies exit ends up being permanent or temporary, not killing the character off was a major missed opportunity. Lizzie’s plan (to have Hope kill her so that she could come back as a Heretic) meant that she was revived before the end of the episode, sapping her apparent death of any potential tragic impact. In contrast, if Hope had killed the Kaylee Bryant character Josie shortly after she parted ways with Finch, Josie’s love interest and her sister would have been united in their desire to avenge her and take down the Tri bridging .
Hope would have had a harder time fighting off both of them at once and, crucially, Lizzie would have gone through with her conviction to kill the Tribrid if she was grieving the loss of Josie. As it was, Lizzie’s death at the hands of Hope was too short-lived to be shocking, and Josie’s exit lacked dramatic weight and pathos. Both of these problems would have been avoided by giving Lizzie’s Legacies season 4 death to Josie since Kaylee Bryant was moving on from the series anyway.
Legacies’ Creators Admitted They Didn’t Give Josie The Right Send-Off
Since Legacies season 5 isn’t happening, Josie’s character is officially gone for good. It’s more than disappointing given that Josie’s arc was leading up to what would have been an epic fight against Tribrid Hope. However, the script dictated that Josie got on a bus and was neither seen nor heard from again. This exit was one of the worst excuses that The Vampire Diaries universe has used to see off a character considering the high number of exits the franchise has explained away. It landed so awkwardly that even the series creators acknowledged it in a line delivered by Hope. During Legacies season 4, Hope and Lizzie are having a conversation in which the latter is comparing her losses to Hope’s. In turn, Hope shoots back at the Saltzman sister, saying, “Your sister went on vacation. And your dad is still alive.” Legacies’ admission that Josie Saltzman left the show via a bus vacation demonstrates the general awareness that the reasoning behind her exit was ill-thought-out. Building up the character to fight the main protagonist-turned-antagonist and then ultimately not delivering set Legacies up for a poor ending and cheated the character out of dramatic heft.