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Is everyone sufficiently traumatized after the latest episode of The Originals?
“What, Will, I, Have, Left” finally brought Hayley back to our screens when Roman led Hope right to her mother while following his mother’s instructions.
Unfortunately, there was no time to celebrate or even smile.
From the moment Hope walked into that house, we all knew it wouldn’t end well.
And for those of us with internet access and uncontained curiosity, we all knew exactly how it would end…
With Hayley’s death.
Photo: Quantrell Colbert/The CW
In true Hayley fashion, she went out fighting for her daughter until the end.
She knew she didn’t have a chance against Greta and Elijah (we’ll get to him later) so she had to take the threat out with her.
With Greta gripping her heart, Hayley summoned every ounce of strength she had left, ripped off Greta’s daylight-wearing-ring finger, and then flung both of them onto the lawn where the sun burned them alive.
BAMF.
Phoebe Tonkin was amazing.
From reasoning with Roman to telling Hope to look away rather than witness her pain to her reverent gasp when she saw Elijah to her final gaze at her daughter before she ran toward death, Tonkin nailed each and every powerful emotion Hayley experienced.
And her phenomenal performance made it so much more painful to watch Hayley’s last act of heroism.
That being said, it’s a disgrace Hayley died in order to stop a mediocre villain whose motivations remain murky at best.
Also, since when does a normal stake bring Klaus Mikaelson to his knees?
Hayley, a regular, still fairly young vampire, had someone’s hand on her heart and she managed to fight back.
Klaus just sitting there useless screamed plot contrivance.
Photo: Annette Brown/The CW
Then, we have the Hope factor.
She already carried the guilt of Hayley’s kidnapping and now she’ll have her mother’s death on her head, too.
It’s pretty obvious the next step is for her to trigger her werewolf curse, which means killing someone.
Maybe Roman? Sure, he did sort of protect her in the end in the weakest way possible, but it’s unlikely he’s long for this world.
If Hope doesn’t kill him, Klaus will.
Now, the real question, will Hayley stay dead?
I don’t think so. First, more than one of the show’s writers has said on Twitter or in interviews that Phoebe Tonkin will be back in some capacity.
Second, bringing people back to life is fairly standard in this universe. Davina brought Kol back. The Hollow brought Davina back.
Photo: Tina Rowden/The CW
And aside from snakes, blood rain, and other weird things (locust?) falling from the sky, there hasn’t been a lot of screen time devoted to the Hollow this season.
That magic remains inside the Mikaelson siblings and connected to Hope, who’s already a powerful witch in her own right.
It’s not too hard to see Hope and Freya figuring out a way to channel that magic and power in a way that leads to Hayley’s resurrection.
And if it comes down to trading a life for a life, Elijah and Klaus would probably both be willing to die in order to give Hope her mother back.
Of course Elijah would need his memories back for that.
Here’s the thing. I hate this version of Elijah as much as the next person. He sucks. I’m ready for Marcel to undo his compulsion. Or bring back to Davina to rip it out of his head. Whatever. Make it happen.
Photo Credit: Annette Brown/The CW
Despite his level of sucking, I’m going to defend Elijah’s actions last night.
He doesn’t have an emotional connection to anyone in the Mikaelson family, including Hope and Hayley. Should he be okay with a woman and teenager being tortured? Absolutely not.
But his emotional connection is to Antoinette.
So he wanted to protect her family. Her teenage brother and her mother. In his mind, the entire Mikaelson family is a plague on humanity because that’s what they vampire wiki taught him.
No, it’s not right and it makes me want to scream because the Elijah Mikaelson we know and love would never in a million years act this way.
This is not the same man. That’s the whole point.
Elijah chose to have his memories erased because he wanted to protect Hope. He knew he wouldn’t be able to stay away from Klaus. He did what he thought was best.
And now Hayley is dead and Hope will have to carry that pain and suffering forever.
When the real Elijah returns, he’s going to be devastated.
Photo: Tina Rowden/The CW
As for Klaus, he’ll need to continue figuring out how to be a good father now that he’s officially the only parent Hope has left.
He’ll probably have guilt of his own: taking too long to find Hope, not dragging Elijah home when he had the chance, being born in the first place—we’re pretty used to Klaus’ spectrum of pain at this point.
It’s basically a question of will he do what’s best for Hope or will he start killing everyone involved first?
(Then again, maybe that is what’s best for Hope at this point).
MISCELLAENOUS MUSINGS
-All right, let’s talk about the Klaroline of it all.
The bad boy scene outside the car was cute. It played like a nice throwback to their past. Because whether you ship it or not, there was a mutual attraction and curiosity between them. And at that point in the hour, they both believed Hope ran away with a boy and wasn’t necessarily in grave danger.
(Now would be a good time for shippers to look away).
The scene in the car with the flirting and Caroline saying he wouldn’t notice her now? I could not roll my eyes hard enough. It played like shipper bait. Retconned shipper bait because I remember Caroline lining up to kill Klaus at every opportunity along with her friends. I also remember him stabbing her with a lamp.
Here’s the thing. I shipped them in the past and I could probably do it again given the right story. This is not it. This is sweeping everything under the rug because they’re older and wiser now and she somehow knows him super well even though they haven’t spoken in years until the beginning of the season?
Why didn’t the writers say that Klaus has kept in touch with Caroline in order to monitor Hope? That would have made more sense. It would explain the ease between them, too. Seven years of phone calls is a great way to get to know someone.
-Declan, who I completely forgot existed, is Cami’s cousin! Except why wouldn’t anyone know that? Even if they don’t share a last name, he never mentioned to a soul that he’s working at the same place his cousin did?
Also, what about Cami’s brother? Did the writers forget that he also died in New Orleans? Wouldn’t Declan mention him?
This is going to go somewhere, right? Maybe he’s secretly investigating the supernatural? Maybe he came to take up the O’Connell legacy?
There has to be a greater purpose other than giving Freya and Vincent a reason to disagree.
-Rebekah and Kol have to show up soon, right? We’re running out of episodes to bring the family together.
-I know Charles Michael Davis directed the episode (and did a great job), but why wasn’t Marcel in the episode? Wouldn’t he be the first person Klaus called once he realized Hope was in trouble and he was too far away?
-Vincent and Freya’s friendship remains super fun to watch. And Ivy seems like a great match for him—here’s hoping she survives the season.
-Poor Hope
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