"How about it? Care to join your bastard son on a witch hunt?"
Writing these little teaser intros where I'm not allowed to spoil anything is harder than you think.
Papa Mikaelson is home from his scavenger hunt, and guess who was (sort of) waiting with open arms! I shared Rebekah's astonishment that he and his son were even speaking, let alone trying their hands at teamwork. One reason this little union worked for me was that they didn't really unite. It would have been completely unbelievable if they started skipping in unison and finishing each other's sentences. They both sulked around taking snipes and digs at each other, and in the end even the most powerful vampire there ever was and the father that hunted him were wildly unsuccessful at taking down Dahlia. I also like that Klaus seemed giddy when Mikael finally agreed to work with him. Was that just residual feelings of longing for a father/son bonding experience or was Klaus enjoying that he was able to talk Mikael into something? Probably a little of both. And finally, Klaus couldn't kill his father without asking, one last time, why he was so hated by him, and Mikael finally answered him. Hats off to your acting skills, Joseph Morgan.
Rebekah and Elijah almost didn't exist in this episode. They were around but they didn't really do much. Even as Mikael spoke his final words, they just stood there without a reaction, almost no movement. I found it so eerie. Not that I expected them to stop Klaus or even be all that sad, but I feel like at some point something that was happening should have warranted a reaction of some kind.
Well, Klaus' concerns about Jackson being an idiot and a liability seem to be valid after all. It's been established that Dahlia is drawn to Hope's power so, sure Jackson, take that tiny defenseless beacon away from all the defenses and strategies that currently surround her and hide Hope behind a tree in the bayou. That'll keep the world's darkest and strongest witch from finding her. Fool proof. I thought for a while that he planned on taking Hayley and Hope without Hayley's consent. Kidnapper style. But no, she turns out to be just as dumb as her husband. Where's Cami? She's needed to talk some sense into these two. Or she needs to be around to talk Klaus out of double homicide should he ever find out.
Josh and Aiden are as adorable as ever. Cuddles in the morning, lovers' spat in the afternoon and pep talks with supportive boyfriend vibes over night caps. How long until the writers realize what a fantastic couple they have on their hands and tear them apart?
We finally met Dahlia. I have the highest of hopes for Claudia Black in this role and she hasn't disappointed me yet. She's powerful and mean and evil pours out of her. She's basically sci-fi royalty at this point. I can't wait to see where Dahlia takes us. I'm a little worried that after so much hype, the reality of the character could fall flat. Or that her take down could seem unrealistic. Seeing Dahlia with Freya made me really sad for Freya. She's been going on and on about how her aunt has ruined her life, but I don't think I bought into it until now. I was sad to see Josephine go, too. I wonder why she approached Dahlia at all if she knew who she was? Is she really that into the violin?
3 out of 4 psycho ninja style vendettas
Bites and pieces
I don't know why, but everyone drinking the magic tea made me think of teatox (some kind of herbal tea detox that keeps popping up on my Instagram feed). I couldn't stop laughing. Do you think the Originals ever do a family juice cleanse?
I thought it was kind of sad that Kaleb gets a headstone and Kol doesn't. Speaking of fallen Mikaelson siblings, is Finn still stuck in the blue necklace? And does Klaus have his original ashes stashed away somewhere too?
The magic ingredients to kill the wicked witch of the Big Easy are soil from where she was born (because it ties her to the earth), Viking ash (to represent what she hates most: the sane folks that tried to stop her from being a raging loon) and Freya's blood (the closest thing Dahlia ever had to love). Or something.
This episode was a merry-go-round of alliance shifting confusion. Even for The Originals. Rebekah turned on Freya after the vision she had as an anchor and threw her sister out, but quickly changed her mind after she was scolded by Elijah. Former mortal enemies tried to to team up and turn several lifetime's worth of hate into something useful. Hayley and Jackson tried to make a run for it, and leaving everyone else to presumably die. Aiden didn't keep Klaus in the loop as promised OR keep his word to his lifelong friend and pack alpha. I need some teatox for my migraine.
Klaus: "I've always felt that the best defense is a good offense. So I'm going to find a way to murder that godforsaken witch."
Davina: "It must really suck to be you all the time."
Klaus: "Well, it hasn't been a picnic. Honestly."
Mikael: "Did you come to critique my parenting skills or whine about how little you were loved? You were weak before, but you are weaker still."
Dahlia: "You should know better than to defy me."
Sounds so much like the 'why do you make me hit you' that abusive types like to throw around. We get it. Dahlia's a creep.
Klaus (to Mikael): "You just wouldn't be you without a knife, would you?"
Dahlia: "That's the thing with tragedies. In the end, all the heroes die."
I hope that's not supposed to be foreshadowing.
Klaus: "You despised me, didn't you? I want to know why!"
Mikael: "I don't know. I just did."
At least he finally admitted it. It only took a century.
Although I agree hide in the bayou plan was not good, I'm not sure it WAS the plan? Because at the end when Haley asked why "you" were late, "you" turned out to be Marcel and then Haley said the safest place in NO was Algiers, the hospital that Elijah had warded. So I think that maybe the plan was always to go there and they were using Aiden as a diversion? Or maybe Haley went behind Jackson's back and decided to go to Algiers.
ReplyDeleteYou might be right, percysowner, but I thought Hayley was saying that to cover their tracks. Aiden did say that Jackson was mad that he didn't show up at 845. I think their idiot plans just fell through.
ReplyDeleteI was quite impressed by Dahlia's power. She took down several originals and a very powerful witch as if it were nothing and immediately destroyed the weapon they created to use against her. Indirectly she also lead to Mikael's death and she killed Josephine.
ReplyDeleteI think Josephine was just already going somewhere and Dahlia was waiting for her there, knowing she'd come there. Once she spotted the person whom she thought was Dahlia I'm guessing she figured there was no use in running. I mean, the woman took down the original family like they were nothing and has an entire town as spies for godsakes.
While I thought the final scene between Klaus and Mikael was appropriately emotional, I feel like they never really knew how to use Mikael as a character. He was almost always a blunt object who just came in, wrecked shop and then left. I'm sad he's gone before we've had a chance of seeing him become a more three dimensional character (though while I think the "I don't know" comment was appropriate from Mikael's POV, I hope the writers don't stay with that answer and offer us the actual one that Mikael wasn't aware of).
Funnily enough characterization-wise the two things that worked best for me were Josephine's death and Aiden's dilemma. Josephine's death because the poor woman just wanted to protect her community and stay out of all this but it was either side with Elijah against a super-powerful witch or side against Elijah and the originals. Either way was really suicide, and of course she died for it (fighting other people's battles).
Aiden because I got the impression he really wanted to do well by his pack in the previous episodes, but I also see he's a good friend to Jackson and now he's made a decision that he can't back down from anymore. I can easily imagine feeling like it's a "damned if I do, damned if I don't" scenario, which I can relate to.
Great review, Laure. I so agree.
ReplyDeleteSeeing Klaus and Mikael working together while sniping at each other was a lot of fun, and it was satisfying that Klaus finally got Mikael to admit there was no reason for all that hatred before Mikael's way overdue death. Claudia Black is doing a great job with the exceptionally evil Dahlia; this was the first time I felt anything for Freya, who has most certainly *not* been crying wolf. (Pun intended.) Jackson and Hayley were utterly idiotic, trying to take that baby away from the protection of the most powerful vampires on earth. And Josh and Aiden are turning in to Romeo and Juliet, aren't they? I hope that doesn't mean they're both going to die tragically.