a fairly long reaction post
This show is awesome.
The Originals 1x05
I do think this is going to need a rewatch, because I’m not quite sure I follow the logistics of some of what’s going on here, but I loved it.
You know what I love the most? Elijah. Pretty much everything about Elijah in this one was great (although there’s a couple points I’ll get to later that made me crack up at either his hypocrisy or the writers’ forgetfulness).
Except...no, I reject this Elijah/Hayley nonsense that’s brewing. Show, you have a long way to go to earn this. I don’t even reject it out of hand for all time, there is just nothing earned about it in this episode.
(And it’s not because as soon as I circle back to anything to do with Davina it would be impossible for me not to discuss Elena, and probably Katherine to a lesser extent, and therefore Elijah/Elena.)
Although, oh show, I can’t stay mad at you when right after that you get Elijah out of the suit for once (dressed down for Elijah being rolled up sleeves). I’m not saying I’d want it to become the norm, but a little variety doesn’t hurt.
The large dose of backstory we get here is GREAT. It works to explain so many characters and their relationships. And while I may not have followed quite everything I’m pretty sure it all makes total sense or things.
I remain open minded about Rebekah/Marcel but not invested or even terribly interested. There will come a point where it’ll be fish or cut bait, but they’re not quite there yet.
The girls’ adventure day was interesting, I probably should have paid more attention to it; but as it did not involve Elijah I didn’t pay as close attention as I could have.
Damn it, I wanted to see Elijah beat Klaus up for a while. Feels like something is missing in between him taking Marcel out and intending to teach Klaus a lesson, to them arriving home.
Also, wouldn’t this make it pretty obvious to Marcel that Elijah’s been awake for a while? I’d think he’d have some questions for Elijah, Davina, or both.
On to the actual meat of the episode Davina’s backstory and Elijah being awesome...and all the Elena parallels fit to draw attention to.
Oh man, if this wasn’t written to play on Elijah’s doppelganger feelings then they must just think he has a type to get involved with. Not that I see myself shipping Elijah/Davina, and I really don’t see the show going there, but the subtextual callbacks to the Sun and Moon ritual are probably even more effective for being ubtextual as much as I could go for some “You remind me of a friend of mine...” explicit references.
As such, I’m not entirely sure Elijah wouldn’t sacrifice Davina if he had a good reason to. He has at least twice been willing to sacrifice young women he cared about in the name of Klaus - once for Klaus’s goals and once for revenge on Klaus - and he as much as admitted to Davina that his family comes first (I might remind him that we’re talking about what’s left of his family that he hasn’t taken the least amount of vengeance for, most likely because of Elena’s involvement).
Without Elijah’s presence the parallels to the Sun and Moon ritual probably wouldn’t have jumped out at me as much, although I got the impression that even Klaus’s mind might have gone there at a point or two during the backstory-telling. I likely would have drawn the parallels afterward, but with Elijah in there I couldn’t help seeing the similarities while watching it.
And yeah, it does appear the show isn’t making much in the way of big references to TVD outside of Klaus and Hayley’s one night fling (Klaus’s one off reference to Rebekah and small town quarterbacks being about the only one I can think of) so it would have been silly to expect overt references to the similarities, but I sure wouldn’t have minded.
I am *really* glad we’re getting more insight into Davina and her story. This is really her story we’re getting this episode, even if I do focus a lot on the Elijah factor (because I think we’re getting a lot of it through his eyes especially since I can read him as having the same ELENA FEELINGS thoughts that I have). Now I also need to go back and rewatch the other episodes of the series to see if the character interactions implied any of what we’re getting now, especially last week’s with Davina wanting to go into witch territory again.
But right now I keep thinking that I really want Elijah to put Davina and Elena in contact to discuss this whole being a sacrifice thing (although as discussed that might not reflect so well on him). Plus it would mean we’re getting Elijah and Elena interaction on the side, which I always approve of.
And I can now fully go back to thinking Elijah’s going to be writing some letters. And since I have no idea how the timelines of these two shows match up, if at any point in like the next ten (maybe more) episodes Elena ever gets mail she doesn’t discuss I’m going to assume it involve Elijah.
But I also want to discuss the very early stuff. For the first, that’s some really rapping recovery from a drop of blood, but I am glad we got Elijah actually struggling with vampire hunger for once. But his “I would not feed on a child” statement seems to me it could implies a few different things when you (like me) actually remember his willingness to sacrifice Elena to Klaus not that long ago in show time.
1) He’s a hypocrite about it. *He* might not but he would justify t to himself that it was just Klaus’s fault.
2) It’s not exactly the truth. I’m sure Elijah prefers not to do that kind of thing, but he definitely wouldn’t feed on her right now because he knows she’s incredibly powerful so it would be stupid, and he’s trying to get her on his side so he needs to make extra sure to control himself.
3) Relative to his view of Davina, he saw Elena less as a child and more as woman and...gamepiece that became an ally. His treatment of Davina in this situation is a far bit more adult-child than his interactions with Elena ever were.
Most likely? A combination of all the above.
Now, if only I knew if any of this was on anyone’s mind when writing this.
The Originals 1x05
I do think this is going to need a rewatch, because I’m not quite sure I follow the logistics of some of what’s going on here, but I loved it.
You know what I love the most? Elijah. Pretty much everything about Elijah in this one was great (although there’s a couple points I’ll get to later that made me crack up at either his hypocrisy or the writers’ forgetfulness).
Except...no, I reject this Elijah/Hayley nonsense that’s brewing. Show, you have a long way to go to earn this. I don’t even reject it out of hand for all time, there is just nothing earned about it in this episode.
(And it’s not because as soon as I circle back to anything to do with Davina it would be impossible for me not to discuss Elena, and probably Katherine to a lesser extent, and therefore Elijah/Elena.)
Although, oh show, I can’t stay mad at you when right after that you get Elijah out of the suit for once (dressed down for Elijah being rolled up sleeves). I’m not saying I’d want it to become the norm, but a little variety doesn’t hurt.
The large dose of backstory we get here is GREAT. It works to explain so many characters and their relationships. And while I may not have followed quite everything I’m pretty sure it all makes total sense or things.
I remain open minded about Rebekah/Marcel but not invested or even terribly interested. There will come a point where it’ll be fish or cut bait, but they’re not quite there yet.
The girls’ adventure day was interesting, I probably should have paid more attention to it; but as it did not involve Elijah I didn’t pay as close attention as I could have.
Damn it, I wanted to see Elijah beat Klaus up for a while. Feels like something is missing in between him taking Marcel out and intending to teach Klaus a lesson, to them arriving home.
Also, wouldn’t this make it pretty obvious to Marcel that Elijah’s been awake for a while? I’d think he’d have some questions for Elijah, Davina, or both.
On to the actual meat of the episode Davina’s backstory and Elijah being awesome...and all the Elena parallels fit to draw attention to.
Oh man, if this wasn’t written to play on Elijah’s doppelganger feelings then they must just think he has a type to get involved with. Not that I see myself shipping Elijah/Davina, and I really don’t see the show going there, but the subtextual callbacks to the Sun and Moon ritual are probably even more effective for being ubtextual as much as I could go for some “You remind me of a friend of mine...” explicit references.
As such, I’m not entirely sure Elijah wouldn’t sacrifice Davina if he had a good reason to. He has at least twice been willing to sacrifice young women he cared about in the name of Klaus - once for Klaus’s goals and once for revenge on Klaus - and he as much as admitted to Davina that his family comes first (I might remind him that we’re talking about what’s left of his family that he hasn’t taken the least amount of vengeance for, most likely because of Elena’s involvement).
Without Elijah’s presence the parallels to the Sun and Moon ritual probably wouldn’t have jumped out at me as much, although I got the impression that even Klaus’s mind might have gone there at a point or two during the backstory-telling. I likely would have drawn the parallels afterward, but with Elijah in there I couldn’t help seeing the similarities while watching it.
And yeah, it does appear the show isn’t making much in the way of big references to TVD outside of Klaus and Hayley’s one night fling (Klaus’s one off reference to Rebekah and small town quarterbacks being about the only one I can think of) so it would have been silly to expect overt references to the similarities, but I sure wouldn’t have minded.
I am *really* glad we’re getting more insight into Davina and her story. This is really her story we’re getting this episode, even if I do focus a lot on the Elijah factor (because I think we’re getting a lot of it through his eyes especially since I can read him as having the same ELENA FEELINGS thoughts that I have). Now I also need to go back and rewatch the other episodes of the series to see if the character interactions implied any of what we’re getting now, especially last week’s with Davina wanting to go into witch territory again.
But right now I keep thinking that I really want Elijah to put Davina and Elena in contact to discuss this whole being a sacrifice thing (although as discussed that might not reflect so well on him). Plus it would mean we’re getting Elijah and Elena interaction on the side, which I always approve of.
And I can now fully go back to thinking Elijah’s going to be writing some letters. And since I have no idea how the timelines of these two shows match up, if at any point in like the next ten (maybe more) episodes Elena ever gets mail she doesn’t discuss I’m going to assume it involve Elijah.
But I also want to discuss the very early stuff. For the first, that’s some really rapping recovery from a drop of blood, but I am glad we got Elijah actually struggling with vampire hunger for once. But his “I would not feed on a child” statement seems to me it could implies a few different things when you (like me) actually remember his willingness to sacrifice Elena to Klaus not that long ago in show time.
1) He’s a hypocrite about it. *He* might not but he would justify t to himself that it was just Klaus’s fault.
2) It’s not exactly the truth. I’m sure Elijah prefers not to do that kind of thing, but he definitely wouldn’t feed on her right now because he knows she’s incredibly powerful so it would be stupid, and he’s trying to get her on his side so he needs to make extra sure to control himself.
3) Relative to his view of Davina, he saw Elena less as a child and more as woman and...gamepiece that became an ally. His treatment of Davina in this situation is a far bit more adult-child than his interactions with Elena ever were.
Most likely? A combination of all the above.
Now, if only I knew if any of this was on anyone’s mind when writing this.