'The Originals' Series Premiere Photo Preview: Flashback hair, evil daddy and baby mama drama

Even though The Originals is a brand new series, it’s not like the other freshman shows premiering this fall. For one thing, most fans have already seen the first episode. It aired in April as a ‘backdoor pilot’ episode of The Vampire Diaries.

After that, we got to see the director’s cut of the pilot, which took out most of the Mystic Falls’ references, allowing the new show to separate itself from the ‘parent’ show and giving new, non-TVD watching viewers a chance to see if this universe is a better fit for them. (If you haven’t seen it, you can watch it here).

Now we’re getting the first look at the new premiere episode, “Always and Forever.” Since The CW has not released an official episode description yet, the pictures are the only real clues we have so far as to what’s going to happen in the first episode, aside from what Julie Plec has said about it being a retold version of the pilot through Elijah’s (Daniel Gillies) eyes.

What do the pictures tell us? Here are a few of our ~~best guess~~ theories.

First of all, look how sad Klaus (Joseph Morgan) looks! That is positively heartbreaking and when this still was released, many assumed Elijah was helping their father Mikael (Sebastian Roche) torture Klaus. But if you look closely, it seems (at least to us) that Elijah is trying to get his brother to relax and offering him comfort.

That leads us to this still. Perhaps Klaus has activated his werewolf gene? Maybe tying Klaus up is not a means of torture, but a way to protect him and others from the change that occurs during the full moon. Or maybe Mikael is just a twisted bastard, but we’re not buying that Elijah is the bad guy.

Back in the present, Klaus and Elijah seem to be butting heads as Hayley (Phoebe Tonkin) lingers in the background. In the director’s cut edition of the pilot, Elijah made a deal with Sophie (Daniella Pineda) to keep Hayley with the Mikaelson family. We’re guessing Klaus isn’t thrilled with that arrangement.

This one has us curious. We’ve mentioned that exploring the chemistry between Tonkin and Gillies is on our wish list, but what’s happening here? Judging by the clothes, we’re going to assume this takes place the first time Elijah and Hayley meet when he learns about the baby. Maybe he’s compelling her to tell the truth?

Feel free to look through the rest of the gallery and then share your thoughts and theories in the comments.