The scenes (seemingly) set in Cleo’s home village in the Legacies season 4 premiere saw the character speak an unfamiliar language, but what is it? Debuting in 2018, Legacies is the second spinoff from ‘00s teen TV phenomenon The Vampire Diaries. Like its predecessor The Originals, Legacies expands on the Vampire Diaries universe by focusing on a group of supernaturally powered students attending the Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted.

The series has received criticism for focusing on its leads Hope and Landon over Legacies‘ supporting cast (unlike The Vampire Diaries), but the series has a diverse and sizable group of characters outside of the main duo. For example, Omono Okojie’s character Cleo, a witch introduced in season 3, has proven pivotal to the fate of Landon and looks set to play a major role in season 4. However, as of the Legacies season 4 premiere, she is still trapped in some sort of Prison World by the show’s main antagonist Malivore.

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Malivore captured Cleo in the season 3 finale by consuming her whole, so it was a surprise to see her safe, sound, and seemingly reunited with her family, early in Legacies season 4 premiere. However, this idyllic scene was soon revealed to be a trap set by Landon-Malivore, which series heroine Hope helped her escape from (albeit by impolitely exposing the fake food found in Cleo’s false memory). Before this rude awakening, though, several scenes including the episode’s cold open saw Cleo talk to her dead family members in a subtitled language. She was speaking Yoruba, an African language spoken in numerous West African nations.

 

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Cleo’s last name, “Sowande,” is also Yorubian, making her character one of 50 million people worldwide who call the language their own. Mostly spoken in Nigeria, Yoruba can also be heard in neighboring nations such as the Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, and The Gambia. The Legacies season 4 premiere marks the first time Cleo spoke Yorubian in the series since she has been interacting mostly with fellow Salvatore School students until this point. Interestingly, it is implied that Legacies series villain Malivore speaks Yorubian too since the golem was able to create a convincing fake memory for Cleo. However, this could be because Malivore’s powers allow the villain to use the memories of each character against them, meaning the golem wouldn’t need any knowledge of Yorubian that Cleo didn’t already possess.

In any case, the antagonist dropped his disguise pretty early when he started speaking in English before the end of the episode’s cold open, and it was not hard for viewers to guess that Malivore was the one talking to Cleo long before Hope and MG arrived to save her from the villain’s machinations. However, like Landon in Legacies season 3, Cleo remained trapped in the Prison World by the episode’s end even though she was able to break out of Malivore’s trance. Only time will tell whether the character will escape the villain’s clutches, but hopefully, Cleo’s survival might mean that Legacies viewers hear more of the witch’s native language in the future.

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Cathal Gunning
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Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies and TV online since 2020. His obsessions include The Simpsons, Stephen King, the Scream series, and the horror genre in general. He has spent more time thinking about Stranger Things than the writers of Stranger Things, and he has never seen a Star War.

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