Thinking about the entire existence, the whole point, of the Panda Promise was that Hope wouldn’t have to do it alone. Having lived through the trippy-tween-sci-fi-come-to-life world where Hope eventually became the Loner Tribrid, the unhinged Mikaelson killer, in order to defeat Malivore, Lizzie and Josie made her promise—Panda Promise!—that she wouldn’t be a lone wolf and that they’d be with her to face Malivore.
Yet what happened? After a very lovely dinner and tree-growing ceremony, Hope faced Malivore alone. Yes, Freya didn’t even stay the night. Yes, Hope was kidnapped. Yes, she sent Alaric home with Kaleb after she turned. Yes, Josie was trying to rescue Cleo and Landon. I don’t remember what Lizzie was doing, honestly. Yes, there were circumstances. And, yet, the very thing the Trio promised not to let happen, happened. Josie had sex with Finch instead of going to check on Hope, whether to see if she needed help in the fight (which I took to be ongoing after the rescue spell ended, but regardless) or if she needed help in the aftermath of the moment. Lizzie ended up spending the night on the couch in the foyer due to all the sex happening in her bedroom. Neither of them seemed to remember the Panda Promise, to think about Hope at any time. Was it any wonder, then, that Hope became a monster?
Given that it seems the switch flipped subconsciously as Hope killed Landon, I’m not sure anything could have been done if they had gone to check on her after. But maybe. Maybe they could have pulled her back.
If they had been there with her, though? I think it’s a whole other Tribrid. Because after being abandoned by her family and her friends, Landon was, in that moment, all Hope had left—and he, once again, didn’t want to fight for her—and she killed him. Imagine if Josie and Lizzie had been holding each arm. Hope wouldn’t have been alone. She would have had her “sisters,” her crush, the girls who loved her, who’d been through the ringer with her for the past few years, who’d Panda Promised to be at her side. Landon’s dead, and she crumbles, but she’s held up by the twins. She’d saved them—from the Prison World, from Dark Josie, from the Wiccan Wellness Cult—and now they would be saving her. Panda Promise.
