By 
“We are bound forever to those with whom we share blood…that bond can be our greatest strength or our deepest regret.”
The Originals officially launched tonight on The CW with that voiceover from Elijah (Daniel Gillies), which sums up in a nutshell why this crazy family remains together “Always and Forever.”
We’ve loved each of the Original vampires since their respective introductions on The Vampire Diaries and we’re very excited to follow them to New Orleans. We’re also looking forward to getting to know each of the new characters the series brings.
While the premiere did tackle some things we’ve seen before since we’re not new viewers, there were plenty of moments that we absolutely loved that left us squealing and others that had us intrigued. But despite our love for the show and the characters, we can admit that the premiere had a few ‘misses’ as well.
Let’s start with our favorite parts:
The Cold Open
How much fun was it to see the Original family arriving in New Orleans for the first time 300 years ago? We even got to see Kol (Nate Buzolic) in his coffin with a dagger in his chest (what did he do to make Klaus (Joseph Morgan) angry?). Then we got our ‘first’ look at Rebekah (Claire Holt), Elijah and finally Klaus, who was quite messy, as he enjoyed his latest meal. The scene was a perfect brief introduction to the siblings’ personalities and their dynamic.
Sassy Rebekah Returns
It’s no secret that we were not big fans of the ‘gentler’ Rebekah, who was so desperate to be human last season on TVD. We’re not against the Original sister having a softer side; we know she loves blindly and it’s cost her many, many times. But it was nice to see her smart mouth coming back. “Ignore him; he’s a beast”, “I may be old, but I’m hardly senile” and “Are we running an orphanage?” were just some of her best lines of the night.
Sophie’s Motives
When we met Sophie (Daniella Pineda) in the backdoor pilot, she seemed to be just going along for the ride until her sister’s death forced her to step up. This time, we got to see more of her grief (heartbreaking) and we got to see that she’s a fighter who has nothing left to lose. Binding Sophie to Hayley was smart and we’re enjoying that Sophie has no problem going toe to toe with two Originals. We can’t wait for her to meet Rebekah.
Elijah and Hayley have CHEMISTRY
Okay, we know a lot of people out there are not fans of Hayley (Phoebe Tonkin), but we’re willing to give the writers a chance to fix the character and they’re off to a good start. Like Rebekah, Hayley had some great quips, but we were much more interested in the dynamic between Hayley and Elijah. He wants to protect the baby, but he’s the first person to ask Hayley how she feels. The sparks were flying between the two in all of their scenes and we want more.
Klaus and Elijah Get Physical
We loved all of the brothers’ scenes, but our favorite was the knock down, beat-you-with-a –fence-post brawl that they had. Elijah was ready to kick Klaus’ ass for being willing to abandon his child and Klaus wasn’t going to stand there and take it. But it wasn’t until Klaus pointed out that he hasn’t felt anything for centuries and asked why Elijah did and Elijah responded with how he failed to protect him and he should have killed Mikael that we melted into a puddle of tears. Gillies and Morgan always bring it, but damn that scene was powerful.
Klaus Daggers Elijah
How many times have we watched Klaus dagger one of his siblings on TVD? But we did not see this one coming at all (and if anyone says they did before a certain spoiler-y article came out yesterday, we call liar). It was a powerful moment as Klaus explained that he didn’t want Rebekah to come to New Orleans and he’d realized Elijah was his weakness and he had to fight the war alone. “Forgive me, brother.”
Bob Mahoney/The CW
Davina and Marcel’s Dynamic
When we first saw Davina (Danielle Campbell) in the attic, we assumed Marcel (Charles Michael Davis) was keeping her prisoner. But the young witch seems pretty proud of the fact that she can stop the other witches from practicing magic AND she’s worried what the ‘old ones’ will do to Marcel. Is this a Stockholm syndrome situation or does Davina have another reason to be on Marcel’s side? We are so curious.
And then there were the misses…
Elijah Meets Cami
Cami’s (Leah Pipes) scene was a waste of time. Nothing against Ms. Pipes or the character, but that was a terrible way to introduce her. People who watched TVD already know her from the backdoor pilot and new viewers probably will not remember she existed. The exposition-heavy scene was too much. We wish the writers had waited until episode two to bring her into the mix.
Marcel Gets Shortchanged
We LOVED Marcel’s introduction in the backdoor pilot. It was awesome getting to see his fun, ‘life is a big party’ side. We understand why it was more important to show the bad things he was doing, especially from Elijah’s point of view, but we feel like new viewers might automatically assume he’s all villain. We prefer our characters layered and we know that Marcel is, but this felt like a disservice to him and to new fans that missed out on “How Do You Like Me Now.”
Klaus Daggered Elijah
Yes, this goes in both. We get that Mr. Gillies is busy since he’s on two shows, and we’re really impressed that it was so unexpected, but we need this fixed immediately.
What were your best and worst moments of the premiere? Share them with us in the comments below!
To be honest, I think people are forgetting that every new show ever has over the top exposition. It’s why most people hate pilot episodes. Since this is a spinoff and most likely 98 percent of the audience is already familiar with these characters from TVD, it felt extra annoying to the majority of the audience. But it’s still a necessary evil and that’s why I didn’t put it on the ‘miss’ list.
You missed a few misses. Aside from the few ‘hit’ scenes that you mentioned, the rest of the episode was pretty much a case of the exposition flu. Every word that Gillies’ character Elijah threw up was exposition. Every person he came in contact with was immediately assaulted with a great big chunk of back-story or explanation vomited at their feet for no reason. Then he almost infected Tonkin’s character Hayley, but she only threw up a little bit before she managed to hold it in. The dialogue sounded forced and unrealistic in most scenes, with the notable exception of the ‘negotiation’ scene between Marcel and Elijah and the interactions between the original brothers, Klaus and Elijah. Introducing new people to the show in this way is not going to help keep them interested. I hope that people who are new to this show’s universe will stick around for the eye candy long enough to be able to enjoy actually entertaining and engaging story lines once this terrible bout of exposition flu is over.
The fight was the best.
That conversation between Elijah and Cami felt strange, who goes around telling your business to a complete stranger?
When Klaus daggered Elijah, I wasn’t surprised but I was pissed and this comes from a huge fan of Klaus. Still love him but he can make me want to knock him upside his head sometimes. All in all, good episode. Oh, loved the flashbacks, hope there are more coming.