Legacies: Why Klaus' Funeral Happened So Long After His Originals Death
The reason for Klaus' long-belated funeral in Legacies was due to how Original vampires die–but it was also the most Mikaelson thing to do.
Warning: Spoilers for Legacies season 4, episode 15, "Everything That Can Be Lost May Also Be Found."
In the most recent Legacies episode, a funeral was held for Klaus Mikaelson, but it's already been years since his death in The Originals' finale. Legacies season 4, episode 15, "Everything That Can Be Lost May Also Be Found," saw the remaining Mikaelson family have an intervention for Hope (Danielle Rose Russell), using a spell to astrally project her to New Orleans to be with them. There was another reason for their family gathering, however, and that was to finally lay The Originals' Klaus (Joseph Morgan) to rest after his side-by-side death with his brother, Elijah (Daniel Gillies), in the Originals finale.
The Legacies episode saw quite a few cameos from Originals characters, including Hope's aunts, Rebekah (Claire Holt) and Freya (Riley Voelkel), uncle Kol (Nathaniel Buzolic), and adoptive uncle Marcel (Charles Michael Davis). It's a good time for them to finally get back together. Hope's been struggling since being turned into the Tribrid and switching her humanity off in Legacies season 4. She's been cold, ruthless, and completely indifferent to the feelings of those who used to be her closest friends and allies, to the point she's starting to self-destruct. As if that weren't enough, however, the Mikaelson family was drawn together to say goodbye to its former head, Klaus.
Initially, it was incredibly confusing when Rebekah explained to Hope that the jazz funeral procession in the French Quarter was for Klaus, not just for the audience, but for Hope itself. As she dubiously pointed out to her aunts, Klaus had died three years ago. The reason for the long-belated funeral was due to how Original vampires die–but it was also the most Mikaelson thing to do. When, in The Originals finale, Klaus and Elijah staked each other, they turned to ash and drifted into the New Orleans sky. As such, what was left of Klaus had been floating in the ether. Using magic, Freya and Rebekah had spent the last few years traveling and gathering up his ashes for Hope, the family's pride and joy.
Hope has always had a complicated relationship with her father, both when he was alive in The Originals and in Legacies, after his death. She knows he had a penchant for cruelty and had done horrible things in the past–but she also saw how he grew, and changed, because of his love for her and the rest of his family. Hope had always worried that once she turned into the Tribrid and triggered her vampire side, Hope might share the most monstrous parts of Klaus, and in some ways, she has. But she also has the best parts of Klaus, including how fiercely and deeply she loves, and how she'll fight for those she wants to protect. Hope may not think she needs anyone right now and that she's grown, but the much older, wiser vampires clearly knew that Hope's love for her late father would be the thing to trigger her humanity flipping back on.
As the "real" version of Hope said to humanity-off Hope while they fought inside her mind, "I am my father's daughter." She unwittingly illustrated how very much like her father she is, explaining that her family has sacrificed so much for her. "I have to be worth that," she explained to her angry half, "and I won't be if I keep letting you set the world on fire instead of living up to what you were meant to be." Humanity on or off, Hope's problem in Legacies isn't that she feels too little, but that she feels so much and doesn't know how to control it. At her worst, she lashes out and pushes those who care most away, just as her father did to his sister and brothers for so many centuries before he learned to make peace with who he is. Only then did he grow into the man he was meant to be in The Originals. Now his daughter is on the same path in Legacies, and while it seems her dark half isn't completely gone, it appears Hope will find her balance a lot faster than Klaus did.
Legacies season 4 returns Thursday, April 28 on the CW.