WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Legacies Season 3, Episode 7, "Yup, It's a Leprechaun, All Right," which aired Thursday on The CW.
Last week's episode of Legacies, "To Whom It May Concern," made it clear that the Salvatore School was in serious trouble. After Alaric enlisted the student body to fight the Necromancer and Malivore and then sent everyone home so he could help Hope search for Landon, many of the students never returned. By law the school is required to have 30 students, and after some maneuvering, Alaric managed to reach that low number to ensure the doors could stay open. Unfortunately, in this week's episode "Yup, It's a Leprechaun, All Right," a large bill puts the school in jeopardy again -- until a surprising new arrival brings the luck of the Irish.
When the episode begins it's already clear the drastic decrease in students has created a cash flow problem for the school, as the reduced amount of money coming in from tuition has led to the cancellation of all parties and special events and the closure of the pool and smoothie bar (!). Lizzie is determined to return the students to their normal way of life by holding fundraisers throughout the next month. That is, until a letter arrives from the city that says the school owes $91,000 in property taxes within the week, money they clearly don't have. Suddenly, fundraising month becomes fundraising day and the desperation to collect as much cash as possible is very real.
Of course, since the word hasn't gotten out about the Salvatore School fundraiser, no one shows up. At least notz until a rainbow supernaturally transports something onto school grounds. When Kaleb goes to find it, he discovers a leprechaun has arrived. While Kaleb sees this as a problem, Lizzie sees it as an opportunity. Her research shows that leprechauns attract wealth, so just by keeping him at the school, they can attract customers to their fundraiser.
The leprechaun works like a literal lucky charm, customers arrive in droves, buy everything the students offer to sell and clamor for more. Of course, the leprechaun is a monster and, therefore, his influence comes with a major drawback, which the student learn firsthand when the fundraiser spins out of control and the customers turn violent.
It's at this point Lizzie tells Hope about the leprechaun, and she's furious to learn Lizzie's been hiding a Malivore monster from her. The presence of a Malivore monster means a portal to the prison world where he was sent must be open -- the prison world where Hope clearly believes Landon could still be alive.
Hope lets the leprechaun go and enlists new student Cleo to help her track him so he can lead them to the portal to the prison world. Unfortunately, on its way out of the school, the leprechaun devours all the money and shiny objects, leaving the Salvatore School with no funds raised after all. It then heads straight for the local bank where Alaric is attempting to get a loan to save the school. As he's leaving the bank, the leprechaun attacks him and, to save him, Cleo casts a spell that makes the leprechaun expand, first causing him to float and then to explode spewing green leprechaun guts everywhere. This prevent Hope from finding the portal the leprechaun emerged from but, on the plus side, those guts include all the money the leprechaun ate, including all the fundraiser money, enabling Alaric to pay the school's bill.
So while the leprechaun brought wealth -- and then violence -- to the Salvatore School, ultimately, he ended up saving the day after all, even if he had to die for it to happen. Yet, his appearance and Hope's determination to use him to find the portal to the Malivore prison world also indicated the Salvatore School may not be done with Malivore and his monsters after all. After over two seasons it seems like Malivore's monsters may never stop figuring out ways to menace the school in one way or another.
Legacies stars Danielle Rose Russell, Jenny Boyd, Kaylee Bryant, Quincy Fouse, Aria Shahghasemi, Peyton Alex Smith, Matt Davis, Chris Lee, Ben Levin and Leo Howard. New episodes air Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.