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Last night Rebekah Mikaelson returned to The Originals and all was right with the world once more. Or it would have been if it wasn’t for that pesky danger the Original family faces at every turn – mostly from their other family members. A lot went down in “The Brothers That Care Forgot” and the stage has been set for the fall finale in two weeks.
Unfortunately, it felt like the episode was trying to do too many things in the span of an hour. I have to confess I was disappointed this week. The episode wasn’t bad by any means; there were plenty of great scenes and important moments, but it didn’t quite live up to the near flawless episodes that preceded it the past few weeks. And that’s okay because even when The Originals missteps, it’s still one of the most enjoyable shows on my TV schedule. So let’s talk about it.
After keeping them chained to the wall overnight, Klaus wanted to start fresh with his brothers and try to convince them to take his side over breakfast. Kol seemed mildly interested, but Finn preferred to pester them about Rebekah’s whereabouts, which led to Elijah attacking him with his fangs. Klaus – let me repeat – Klaus had to restrain Elijah, who wanted to rip his brothers to shreds rather than reason with them. That’s when Rebekah called to let them know Esther was onto her and Klaus decided to stay behind to deal with their brothers while he sent Elijah to help Rebekah.
But that might not have been the right call – or maybe it was since Rebekah could defend herself and the baby. Elijah’s in trouble, people. He continued to have visions of killing Tatia and Esther telling him to clean himself up. Paranoid that people in the diner might hurt Rebekah and Hope, Elijah killed everyone except the waitress and piled their bodies in the kitchen before his sister arrived. Obviously nothing about that is normal, but the question is whether we’re seeing the true Elijah or if he’s a byproduct of Esther’s manipulations. My money is on somewhere in between the two – Elijah’s buried his guilt super deep, but he’s said before on numerous occasions that he is a monster. Now he’s letting that monster out and it’s pretty terrifying.
Rebekah listened intently while Elijah explained Esther’s plan and those of us who watched The Vampire Diaries or even season one of The Originals know that she misses being human and she reiterated again that she wants a child of her own. But does she want it enough to take Esther’s deal? We didn’t get the answer last night because once Rebekah noticed the blood on Elijah’s shirt cuff, she tried to sneak away with the baby and then found the bodies in the kitchen. She snapped her brother’s neck and then called Klaus for a Plan B. He told her where to meet him and then grabbed Hayley so they could go see their daughter (my heart, you guys – this reunion is going to be everything).
But if Rebekah does decide to take her mother’s deal, Esther already has a vessel prepared. Remember when Esther abducted Cami at the end of last week’s episode? Cami woke up in her bed, groggier than usual. Hayley needed her help so they met at Kieran’s secret apartment and that’s when Hayley spotted the strange markings on her back. Cami headed to the compound for answers and Kol and Finn confirmed that the markings were part of an ancient spell and Esther planned to put Rebekah in Cami’s body. Naturally, Cami was not okay with that and honestly, this is one of the things that disappointed me about the episode.
It’s beyond twisted since two of Esther’s sons have shown romantic interest in Cami, but it’s also quite logical – Finn pointed out that Cami has no family to notice if she suddenly has a different personality (sad, but true). While I do see the crazy possibilities with this story, I was expecting something more complicated when it came to Esther’s interest in Cami. Also, I understand the writers wanted the reveal to be a surprise, but I feel like we were cheated out of the Cami/Esther scenes that led up to Cami being returned to her bed. But I am looking forward to seeing where this goes from here. I don’t think Esther will succeed in placing Rebekah in Cami’s body, but that doesn’t mean another witch won’t jump in the readymade vessel – Dahlia, perhaps?
As for Kol, he’s always been good at knowing which side to pick in the moment. He didn’t pick fast enough so Klaus let Marcel come in and torture him for a while (I love Kol, but he had it coming). Klaus stepped in when Marcel almost tore off Kol’s head over Davina and Klaus finally realized Kol acts out because he wants to be part of the family. Klaus assured him that he’ll always be his brother (always and forever) and he told Kol that he mourned his death and tried to avenge him (again, those of us who watched TVD remember the look on Klaus’ face when he watched his brother burn – there’s no doubt he loves Kol). This was an excellent scene and I love the vulnerability Daniel Sharman has added to Kol. It makes me want to root for him – in a cautious way because he’s still Kol and Kol always has an agenda.
Let’s jump back to Davina for a moment. Marcel told her the truth about Kol and the white oak stake (which he gave to Klaus!) and Davina wanted Kol back. Marcel left her alone with Josh while he went to beat up Kol and Davina convinced Josh to invite Aiden over. Her distraction worked and while Josh and Aiden shared their first kiss (aw!), Davina cooked up a new plan to hurt Klaus. Then she headed to the compound, broke Marcel’s neck with magic and took a page from Mikael’s book – she called Klaus ‘weak’ and then he bit her. Thanks to Kol’s dark objects, Davina had poisoned her own blood and Klaus ended up unconscious.
It didn’t last long since Cami needed him and Davina relented, but this was another frustrating part of the episode. Yes, Klaus killed Tim. He was innocent and Davina cared about him and it’s terrible. But it seems ridiculous to have this constant vendetta happening, only for them to end up on the same side. Davina did a stupid thing by bringing Mikael back. She nearly got everyone killed and she’s still blindly focused on hurting Klaus. Get a hobby, girl. Then again, Klaus got gloat when he woke up and point out that he’s not the loser so maybe some good does come from these scenes because Klaus smirking is always fun.
Finally, we need to talk about the wolves since they continue to waste screen time. I know I’m biased – I’ve never been a fan of werewolves and that sucks because vampire and werewolf stories always go hand in hand. But for everything this show does right, they seem to get so much wrong when it comes to the werewolves. For instance, why would we want to root for them? They hate vampires and that’s who we’re here for – the Original family of vampires (and witches). Why would we want to see a wolf pack grow strong enough to cause problems for the Originals? The only reason they’ve given us so far is because Hayley wants them to be safe, but for me, that’s not enough to make them remotely interesting.
This week, Hayley learned of an ancient ritual that would allow the alphas to pass on their powers to the rest of the pack through marriage. Basically, it was something Jackson always knew, but Ansel confirmed it was real. So if Hayley and Jackson get married, she can pass on her hybrid superpowers to all of the other wolves and then they’ll be forever stronger than the vampires and they can ditch the moonlight rings and not be under Esther’s control. Again, not sure why we should want this to happen because it’s bad for our vampires, but let’s just go with it for a moment. Jackson was actually reluctant to get married at first and then Hayley rallied the troops and Josh’s advice gave Aiden the courage to stand up and join them.
The one tiny thing that could make this interesting is if there’s more to the story. Jackson has been talking about marrying Hayley since the day he met her (creepy), but when she first suggested it last night, he shot her down. Sure, maybe he’s just a good guy and knows that her heart isn’t in it (because of Elijah), but he also mentioned his journal and then conveniently left her alone to find it. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but that feels a little suspicious to me – like he wanted Hayley to find it and think the idea was hers, but really, he wanted her hybrid powers all along. After all, his pack is still whole and she’s the last of her line – who’s to say his family didn’t have something to do with putting the odds in his favor?
Or maybe I’m just grasping at straws to find something entertaining about this plot. Maybe it’s just romantic angst for Hayley and Elijah or an excuse for Elijah to kill Jackson since he’s not in his right mind at the moment. I am curious how Hope fits into Hayley’s plans. I know she makes spontaneous decisions, but I don’t really think a supercharged hybrid army of wolves is going to keep Hope safe. Jackson made it pretty clear he didn’t care about her when Hayley was pregnant – and that’s another thing. Will their super wolf line end with Hayley and Jackson since she’s a hybrid now and can’t have any other kids (or can she? My head hurts when I think about supernatural reproductive logic). I just really want there to be more to this plot line to make it relevant because after 30 episodes of this series, I still want the wolves to just disappear.
So now we have to wait two weeks for the next episode and judging by the preview, it’s going to be huge. I honestly have no idea what’s going to happen or which plans are going to work out, but I’m already preparing for the heart palpitations.
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