The Originals & TVD
I loved the emotional dynamic between Klaus, Marcel, and Rebekah. Klaus impulsively gets involved with Marcel and unabashedly identifies because he thinks the kid is no threat; he certainly does better by young Marcellus than Mikael did by him, but he still grooms his adopted son into a warrior and turns him against the rest of the family. Sketchy race politics are kind of a given here, but I think it tried to poke holes in at least some conventional narratives as well.
THERE WAS FLASHBACK HAIR YOU GUYS. Alexander, what’s-his-name Governor’s Son, Stefan - Rebekah latches into these losers and decides she LOVES THEM FOREVER, ELIJAH PLEASE CAN WE KEEP HIM PLEASE PLEASE?! (I almost wonder that Matt didn’t actually end up being a positive step for her? In that she didn’t want to be with him forever - she’s now capable of bonding with someone and letting him go, she can resist the negs and manipulations she’s going to get from her brothers for (literally) ever, Klaus didn’t see Matt as a threat so she didn’t do the protective bonding thing she always does.)
The quick failure of Rebekah’s attempt to resist getting all mama wolf over Hayley was so perfect. She claims twice not to care, and then leaps in to protect Hayley from every threat in sight. I also loved that Rebekah met both Cami and Sophie so soon. (Two episodes in, and already I’m pretty sure The Originals has had more conversations between women than Angel: the Series did in its entire run. JUST SAYIN’.)
Given how much I usually end up yelling about pregnancy narratives, I was surprisingly satisfied Hayley’s strand of the episode. Because I think what was so important to Hayley was just knowing that she had a choice - what with what she’d thought was a foolproof contraception method failing her, witches pushing her around, trapped in the creepy Mikaelson compound so she doesn’t get accosted by Marcel’s goons, of course she wanted to seize some control. But when someone tried to take the choice to stay pregnant away from her, then she wanted to prove to herself that she could do that, too. And only after all that could she see her way to what she wanted. I somewhat think that was a part of the reason she didn’t end up trying to induce the abortion? Because if she chose not to try it, then it was still up to her, but if she tried it and it didn’t work, she would’ve been right back to that trapped feeling, and in a much worse position with both Klaus and Elijah. The show could have taken the easy way out and framed it such that Hayley didn’t have a choice. Anything goes in mystical pregnancies, you know? One of the witches could’ve mentioned that they’d tried and werepuppies are immune to aconite, or Klaus could have been threatening her into keeping it - the show was really careful to give Hayley a choice and explain why she made the choice she did. There’s still a million ways this can go wrong, but this episode went very right for me. (Also, that subtle little encounter with the judgmental witch? You’re doing the right thing. So loaded, but in a way that felt real.)
And all of that came together in my favorite scene of the episode, where Hayley and Rebekah return home and there are just so many strong familial dynamics flying around between the three of them.
Klaus isn’t anything special by nature, but he’s had a long, long time to learn, and he’s highly motivated to put those lessons to use. Rebekah, like a lot of fandom, makes the mistake of assuming that she’s seen Klaus be emotional and short-sighted so that’s all he ever is, but actually, he’s perfectly capable of knuckling down and coming up with a few decent moves of his own. Handing over Elijah to Marcel without knowing what he was getting his brother into was risky, but probably a risk he had to take to get in there at all.
Meanwhile, Elijah is their damsel in distress. BBY. And the addition of a force that can take them out, ofc, raises the stakes (lol) at least for Rebekah and Elijah. They’ll be working from a totally new script, since the white oak ash tree has gone up in flames, but it adds a lot of possibilities.
True Lies
- I…actually do not have any notes from this episode, which means that I enjoyed it just fine but didn’t find anything particularly exciting about it.
- The way Silas works is cool. He forces you to hand over your consciousness and life force by drawing on your emotions, particularly the nasty ones - your anger, your fear, your shame - and makes you destroy yourself.
- lol@ Matt finally becoming useful once he’s possessed by someone else. I did really like his scene with Bonnie.
- RIPPAH!