Legacies Season 4 Is Making Caroline's Absence Even Worse

With Legacies season 4, Caroline's continued absence from the show has grown beyond being believable and has become a disservice to her character.

Considering the storylines it's exploring, Legacies season 4 is making the ongoing absence of Caroline worse and even harder to explain than it already was. Caroline Forbes (Candice King) was an integral character throughout The Vampire Diaries' eight seasons. Initially starting out as a two-dimensional Mean Girl and frenemy to main protagonist Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev), Caroline grew into being one of the most interesting and compassionate (not to mention beloved) characters in the show. Legacies season 4 is just emphasizing that she should be an integral part of the spinoff, too.

However, her impact wasn't just felt in Vampire Diaries. She's also the surrogate mother of Josie and Lizzie Saltzman (Kaylee Bryant and Jenny Boyd) and, though she hadn't intended to get pregnant, she raised them as her own with Alaric Saltzman (Matthew Davis). Throughout their formative years, Caroline was incredibly protective and close with her daughters, putting her own life on hold to be there for them. It's why her absence from Legacies has always been so odd, and Legacies season 4 is only making it worse.

In the beginning, Legacies was its own show and the creators wanted it to be its own thing, focusing not on the adults of the previous shows but on the teenage students in the new spinoff. Thus, in Legacies season 1, Caroline's absence was explained away by mentions of her being in New Orleans, researching ways to stop the Merge from happening to Lizzie and Josie. But various episodes in the show have stretched the willing suspension of disbelief regarding the reasons Caroline stayed away. Now, Legacies season 4 brings the show studiously ignoring Caroline's absence to the point of absurdity. Josie and Lizzie are teenage girls and their father is currently in a coma, essentially rendering them temporary orphans. Legacies has established the twins talk to their mom all the time; she'd know that Alaric is in a coma and her daughters are grieving and alone. At this point, Caroline remaining in New Orleans is an absurd oversight Legacies can no longer avoid. Caroline needs to show up in the next few episodes of Legacies season 4. At the very least, the show has to make at least some attempt to provide a new explanation for why she hasn't returned to Mystic Falls yet.

If Caroline doesn't appear in Legacies season 4, it would be an enormous disservice, not just to the plausibility of the story, but also to her as a character. Through the course of The Vampire Diaries, Caroline went from being selfish to one of the most selfless characters in the show. Her loyalty and bravery were unparalleled; if her friends and family needed her, she was there in a heartbeat even if it meant risking her own life. She was also one of the most compassionate characters on the show, often the first or only one to show up for others when they were hurting or grieving. What's more, both of her parents died during The Vampire Diaries with her mom dying of cancer. Caroline knows what it's like to sit by a hospital bed and watch a loved one die. The idea that she would let that happen to her daughters alone is borderline offensive and upends literally everything that has been established about Caroline's character.

The past few seasons of Legacies have admittedly been something of a mess, with the show seemingly forgetting it was part of the Vampire Diaries universe. But Legacies season 4 has seen a course correction in the past few episodes, bringing back elements from The Vampire Diaries and The Originals. It's also brought back a few characters from those shows for cameos, so there's no reason to believe Candice King couldn't also return as Caroline. King is also game: In an Instagram Live interview in April, she said she'd absolutely return if asked. Now it's up to Legacies season 4 to do right by the characters and story and end Caroline's absence.

Next: Legacies Just Proved Alaric Is The Most Important Character In The TVD Universe

Legacies releases new episodes every Thursday on the CW.