The plot thickens…
Seriously, doesn’t that make you mad? Some reviewer is given an intense, exciting forward moving story like “Le Grand Guignol” and you get a lame line like “The plot thickens?” Sheez, some people. J
When I used to do Vampire Diaries reviews, every once in a while I’d have to somehow express in words what I felt about that episode in a long arc where it was nothing but intense forward motion in story. Usually I was limited to explicatives like “Wow!”, “Amazing!”, “Breathtaking!”… you know, all the clichés that people love throwing around for one word reviews, thus making us look like we’re experts or something. The latest episode of The Originals is pretty much that. A lot of plot meant to bridge the stories before and after. It was great. Do you need to know anything else?
Yes, I have a real review
Well, let me first say, welcome back to my TV screen Sebastian Roche! I missed you buddy. I’ve had the honor of meeting Sebastian several times at Supernatural cons (he even wooed my daughter by speaking French), and he takes any role and delivers it with an exclamation point. As the very ruthless Mikael, he did far more than inflict terror on his children. He had us all on a squirmy edge, taking out an entire theater full of patrons and close acquaintances of his children just so everyone would forget the legacy the Klaus, Rebekah, and Elijah created during their time in New Orleans. They may have built that town, but it was all forgotten by the time Mikael left. Even Marcel was presumed dead, so no wonder he and Rebekah weren’t able to run off together.
I struggle with the whole Mikael backstory, because I don’t think The Vampire Diaries handled it all with real care. I thought it was the job of the vampire hunter to take out the entire vampire race. So why was he willing to spare both Rebekah and Elijah to get to Klaus? Elijah especially was spared from death back in 1919 and stayed behind to deal with Mikael so his siblings would be given some time to flee. Doesn’t Mikael want all of them dead? What’s terrible is when you see how fearsome he was in a flashback like this, Mikael’s death on The Vampire Diaries in season three turns out to be very anti-climactic and way too easy. That’s probably why when you see the story play out like this here, it’s very shocking. They were given their chance for a do-over with The Originals and man did they do-over!
But fearsome doesn’t just belong to Mikael. Klaus is a vampire on the edge as well. It was rather clever of Elijah to summon Cami to keep Klaus calm during recuperation from removing Papa Tunde’s knife (nice digging there Elijah) while he went off to deal with the witch problem. Granted I was thinking who the hell was watching Father Kieran, who’s own plight of suffering has been tabled for a couple episodes for the Mikaelson struggles. But she’s the only one that can get through to Klaus, and even that was only marginal. Still, the scenes between Cami and Klaus are always so stunning from a viewer perspective, and this episode just deepened that bond. Bravo to the writers for figuring out they have a goldmine with these two.
However, Klaus is rather determined to kill Rebekah, and Celeste had setup most everything to assure he would be given that chance. Her capture by the werewolves didn’t seem to matter. Everything was already in motion by that time. If anything, that distraction gave Elijah his chance to setup for Celeste the ultimate test, thanks to newly revived Monique Deveraux. The witch story really benefits from Elijah remembering his mother was the most powerful witch ever and he knows everything in her grimoire. He happened to have the perfect spell handy that would test Celeste’s loyalty. He knew she would try to jump bodies. If that happened and she was truthful with the other witches about her intent, her power would be absorbed by the collective. If not, she’d go back to her body. Monique didn’t see any harm in going along with this. Good girl.
On the other side of town, Marcel and Rebekah figured out very quickly running wasn’t going to work and Klaus would hunt them the way Mikael hunted them all those years ago. She was tired of running and Marcel had an answer. Kill all the evil witches until Davina came back, and she could help them neutralize Klaus with a cloaking spell. Thanks the Thierry, who’s still a weasel, they setup a meeting with Bastiana and Genevieve (Celeste declined since she was being held captive). Marcel was able to rip off Bastiana’s head ala ripper style before Genevieve fled. One witch down and the worst one is gone! Still, no Davina. There were two other young dead witches too, so I assume we’ll see at least one of them rise next episode?
Elijah had some private time with Celeste to see what her game plan was with the werewolves. She gave them a remedy, some icky stuff in a jar they had to take during the next full moon. She insisted it would work, but Elijah had to choose. Give it to Hayley and lose her to the werewolves, or destroy the potion and lose Hayley to the disappointment that the spell wasn’t reversed. Elijah gave Hayley the jar telling her it would work, and then took Celeste away. Oh, did I fail to mention that Elijah bit Celeste and we got to see his full on vamp face for the first time ever? Gee, I don’t think I need to mention that. It’s pretty much been all the buzz ever since it happened. Still, it’s nice to recall, isn’t it?
All three plots converge at the cemetery. Elijah went there with Celeste, Marcel and Rebekah went there to retrieve Davina, and Klaus went there all a raging because he figured Rebekah would be there. Cami tried her best to convince Klaus not to be like his father, but after finishing the gruesome story about the theater, he figured he wasn’t that bad a monster. Right. There is where I need your help Vampire Diaries fans. Klaus pulled out of a clever hiding place the white oak stake that Esther created for Alaric to kill originals back in season three. (Alaric, I still miss you!) Do you remember how Klaus got that? Was it because it was left in Kol when Jeremy killed him? It’s all a blur. Anyway, Klaus has it and he’s ready to kill little sister with it, much like Mikael when he had his white oak stake. Not the same, huh Klaus? You didn’t fool any of us with your “I won’t dehumanize them” crap.
Celeste cleverly covered her bases in her revenge plot, creating a force field that would trap all the originals in the cemetery once they entered. That means to Elijah would have to watch his siblings fight to the death, blah, blah, revenge is complete. She even decided it was time to leave Sabine and take another body. EXCEPT, she didn’t realize that Monique had done Esther’s spell. Oops. What do you know, instead of returning to the collective as she had promised, she went back to her original body through her bones that were lying in a crypt in the cemetery. Elijah knew that would happen and was waiting right there as she materialized. Celeste got to experience her “oh s***” moment before Elijah killed her. It was pretty sweet.
Want to know what was sweeter? Marcel was able to leave the cemetery with Davina, but Rebekah was trapped. So guess who came to life when Celeste was killed? Yes! Davina is back! Hot dog! Will she be the same Davina, or will she be darker? I don’t care! Davina is back!
Of course it all ends with three originals trapped in a cemetery until the next moon rise and Klaus with the white oak stake hunting Rebekah while Elijah plays interference, fighting off the new Mikael just like he did with the old one all those years ago. Good times! I like family gatherings but geesh, this is just whacked. I’ve said it before I’ll say it again, the Mikaelson family is the most f***ed up clan ever. You’ve got nothing on them Winchesters!
So, this all leaves me with nothing critical to say other than, I WANT MORE! Would it be too much to ask though to send a little relief Father Kieran’s way? Since Davina is alive and back at the church, hopefully she can help now. Luckily, we get more for two more weeks before the show goes on a three week break, then ends the season with a five episode run.
You see, I got it right. The plot thickens.