Not The Bend & Snap
These Elle Moments Parallel The Legally Blonde Ending
She is that girl for a reason.
Spoilers for Elle ahead. Elle Woods has always been that girl, and Elle is just showing us how. The Legally Blonde prequel series, which premiered July 1 on Prime Video, features several parallels to the iconic 2002 film — what, like it’s hard?
Several moments in the last two episodes recall the ending specifically, where high-school Elle, played by Lexi Minetree, goes on a journey similar to Reese Witherspoon’s OG character's, which teaches her an important lesson and boosts her confidence.
In the penultimate episode, Elle surprises everyone by taking the stand at the mayoral debate to expose that candidate Dean Wilson (James Van Der Beek) is blackmailing Principal Anderson (Matt Oberg). The high school principal misappropriated school funds by giving the money to Wilson’s mayoral campaign to keep his secret lovechild... well, a secret. Maybe now Elle’s classmates will finally get those tater tots.
And in true Elle fashion, she used societal wardrobe norms to crack the code, pointing out how an orange suede coat in Principal Anderson’s office couldn’t possibly belong to his wife because no one who lives in Seattle wears suede. This called back to how Elle used the sacred rules of getting a perm to prove Brooke Wyndham’s (Ali Larter) innocence in the original movie.
Elle’s newfound popularity is short-lived when her classmates turn on her after her internship application essay is published in Cosmopolitan without her knowledge. When an embarrassingly heartfelt public apology didn’t help the situation, she decides to accept her Cosmo internship and head back to Los Angeles.
However, like when she abandoned Brooke’s case in the movie, Elle realizes that she’s simply running away from her problems and finds her way back to Seattle to finish what she started.
She even has an inspirational figure reminiscent of Holland Taylor’s Professor Stromwell from the original film in Anna St. George, a Grace Coddington-esque stylist who is impressed by Elle’s fearlessness and fashion instincts. Much like Stromwell, Anna gives Elle the final push she needs to not give up and address her unfinished business.
If only any of these parallels showed how Elle learned the “bend and snap” for herself. But hey, there’s always Season 2.
