‘The Originals’ Review: Always isn’t Forever in ‘Crescent City’

So much went down on last night’s episode of The Originals that it’s going to take me some time to fully process everything. “Crescent City” was the kind of spectacular episode that made me forget to breathe through half of it and even now, I’m sitting here wondering what just happened and where we go from here.

I’m so impressed with how much this show has turned around since the hiatus. I enjoyed it before, but it was missing that urgency that makes viewers count the minutes between episodes. It seems like the writers have found it and then some and now we have to wait three weeks until the next one.

Maybe by then I’ll be able to talk about this one with coherent thoughts and not just ‘OMGs’ and exclamation points, which is basically what the inside of my head probably looks like at the moment. But let’s try and get past that and talk about all of the huge things that happened in this episode.

Let’s start with the big one: Sophie died! I can’t say that I saw that coming, mainly because I didn’t see the point in killing her. She hadn’t connected with anyone so who would miss her? But that didn’t matter because she was murdered by her niece! Monique woke up after Papa Tunde died and Celeste was conveniently there to greet her (along with a bunch of tourists that handled someone bursting out of a mausoleum really well).

But Monique was not happy with Sophie. At first it seemed like it was because she was upset about her mother being dead (understandable), except that wasn’t the real issue. The ancestors on the other side were not amused by Sophie’s lack of faith and even though she eventually completed the Harvest, it wasn’t good enough. Monique calmly stood there and made her aunt (who gave up everything to save her ungrateful self) bled out of her nose and eyes. I’m sure this is a minority opinion (at least on social media), but I’m going to miss Sophie and I’m sad she never had a drunken hookup with Klaus.

Speaking of Klaus…the Original hybrid was not having the best time in this episode. First, his pal Kieran was hexed by Bastianna (the Harvest witch). Genevieve (the witch who helped Marcel and Rebekah) gave Cami a way to help her uncle – all she had to do was plunge Papa Tunde’s blade into Klaus’ heart. Thankfully, Cami is smart and wanted to be on the winning side so she gave Klaus a heads’ up. They tried to save Kieran by bleeding the vervain out of his system and having Klaus compel him to forget the curse, but that didn’t work.

Klaus went for Plan B, which involved kidnapping Monique and urging the witches to come out and bargain with him. Marcel was not okay with hurting a child so Klaus just snapped his neck to shut him up. That was when Sophie came over and plunged the blade into Klaus’ heart! This was something else I didn’t see coming (I assumed Klaus was the one getting stabbed, but I never pictured Sophie being the one to wield the blade. Not that it matters because she’s dead now).

While this was happening, Hayley and Rebekah were hosting a werewolf party at the plantation house. Rebekah was approached by a (naked) wolf named Oliver and he was just excited to party and enjoy his only night in human form. Rebekah was a little reluctant at first, but then Oliver won her over and they were dancing and she was smiling and I think we all could guess where this was going at this point because Rebekah has the absolute worst luck with men. Sure enough, it was all part of a plot by the witches to get her alone and vulnerable…

Hayley had her hands full with a werewolf named Jackson, who surprised Hayley by explaining that they were supposed to be married. Yes, you read that right and it’s okay to laugh because it was silly. Basically, they each are descended from the Original werewolves, but they came from separate bloodlines and it was their destiny to get married and make the quarter safe for werewolves or something (sorry guys, werewolves are not my thing and I might have been busy rolling my eyes at the arranged marriage and ended up missing some of the details).

Naturally, Hayley’s reaction was pretty similar to mine (what else would you say if some random guy told you that you were betrothed?), but she was interested in the werewolf part of the story. She wants to help break the curse. Unfortunately, the witches had other ideas in mind for the evening and suddenly the house was on fire and there was no way out. Hayley called Elijah for help because duh, but he wasn’t exactly having the best night either.

Earlier in the episode, Hayley had pointed out that Celeste had to be one of the witches who came back and Davina had seen the warning. Elijah went to talk to Sabine and it turned out that he’d put the pieces together and I really appreciated the nod to the first episode when Elijah and Sabine met in the quarter and she knew exactly who he was. The scenes also painted a clear picture of how Celeste has been manipulating everyone the whole time (like when she warned Hayley’s baby would be a danger to all witches). Elijah wasn’t amused, especially when Celeste said that she wanted to rid him of his ‘always and forever’ notion.

That’s when she kissed him (excuse you) and put some kind of curse on him that weakened him. Celeste warned that when it wore off, he’d have just enough time to save one person: Klaus, Rebekah or Hayley, but not all of them (I have to confess that as much as I love my ship, I wanted him to save Rebekah so that someone would put her first). But Hayley called from a house that was on fire so I’m not going to blame Elijah for rescuing her first (not only does he have feelings for her, but she’s got the magical miracle baby thing happening too).

Elijah pulled Hayley out of the fire and then she asked him to go back in and save her friend (I could have done without this part, but fine, we need the angst and story or whatever). He went into the woods to look for Rebekah, but Celeste was waiting to gloat about how he’d chosen Hayley over his siblings and now the witches had both of them. Elijah was not okay with that and headed back to the compound to push around Marcel’s guys and demand that everyone join the search for his siblings and then he was going to kill all the witches (BAMF).

This episode, you guys…it was just so good. I love that the Original siblings are in danger. I love that Elijah chose Hayley and now he’s going to have to deal with the consequences of that. I love that Kieran is still in real danger. I love that the witches are the kind of villain that was originally (no pun intended) missing from this show. I don’t love that Sophie is dead, but I do love the irony that Monique was the one to kill her and now the teenager has joined with the resurrected witches. This can’t be good for anyone.

I still don’t love the werewolf story and I probably never will, but the conflict that comes from it will be good. Will Hayley choose the werewolves over the Originals? Will she turn her back on Elijah after everything (she better not)? These are the stakes (again, no pun intended) that this show needs and I’m so happy everything has been clicking over the past few episodes.

Now let’s talk about Klaus and Rebekah. The witches have moved them from the quarter and trapped them in a sanitarium to torture them. Did I mention the part where we have to wait three weeks to see this episode? I cannot wait to see how it all plays out and what the Originals are going to do to stop the witches or if they can stop them.

What did you guys think? Were you surprised that Sophie died? Can you believe Monique killed her? Did Cami make the right choice by not stabbing Klaus? Did Elijah make the right choice to save Hayley? Are you as excited as I am at the thought of him going on a killing spree (maybe I need mental help)? Hit the comments and share your thoughts and theories with us!