ALWAYS AND FOREVER
Oh my god I have got so much to say I don't know where to start.
I have been so excited about The Originals since the Pilot episode was an episode of The Vampire Diaries back in April and I couldn't wait for the actual series to start. I have even just spent 5 weeks watching the first 4 seasons of The Vampire Diaries back to back in preparation for the start of The Originals and The Vampire Diaries (TVD) season 5. So I only watched The Originals' Pilot from The Vampire Diaries a week before it began on TV.
I will admit that having seen the Pilot from TVD twice (including once last week) I was more excited about the second episode of The Originals than seeing what I thought was the first episode again for the third time. I was expecting this first episode to be the same as the one I had already seen with the exception of the appearance of the characters of TVD. I heard that Julie Plec said that these scenes had been deleted so that you don't have to be a fan of TVD to enjoy The Originals but I definitely think that it will be a whole lot easier and also enjoyable for people who are fans of TVD.
Well, so this morning I was sat on the sofa with my cup of tea extremely excited and hoping that my baby would play long enough to let me watch the first episode. Before I even got to the beginning of the episode my baby wanted attention but this didn't bother me too much because I was expecting to be watching a programme that I had already seen twice. Oh how completely wrong I was. Within seconds I realised that this was going to be completely different to what I had already seen and oh my god, like I said at the start I have so much that I want to say about it.
Before I get too involved in the actual episode I want to start by saying I love the character of Klaus Mikaelson. Ever since he made his debut on TVD in Season 2, I’ve been captivated by his edge, his viciousness, his vulnerability and of course, his accent doesn’t hurt. I have also been really interested in the back story of the originals (so season 3 of TVD has definitely been my favourite so far).
I have thought for ages that there should be a spin off series so we can see more of the originals' 1000 year history so obviously I was extremely excited about The Originals. However, I got the impression that it would be almost completely Klaus focused with the other originals there in the background. Especially since, that was the impression the pilot from TVD gave. Again, I was completely wrong again, at least I was about this first episode. Klaus was hardly in it. So I have one question for boss lady Julie Plec: why take the focus away from Klaus in this first episode? Don’t get me wrong, I love Elijah, and I think Daniel Gillies carried this episode beautifully and I have always thought that Elijah gets no where near as much focus as he should. It just wasn't what I was expecting and it is unclear how this will continue.
It’s not easy to take characters with over two seasons of backstory and try and introduce them to a new audience. So by letting Elijah narrate the story, not only did viewers get a history lesson in Vampires 101, but they also saw it through the eyes of someone who was there. However, by placing Elijah, the observer, at the forefront of this battle between witches and vampires, everything that made the backdoor pilot so captivating, for some - the action, the suspense, and the high stakes - was buried under layers of exposition. I personally really enjoyed it because, like how I said many times already, it was not what I was expecting. However, people who saw TVD episode might not like it because it was not what was expected.
The episode begins with a flash back to 300 years earlier when the originals first arrived in New Orleans. Complete with Finn and Kol daggered and in coffins. My first thought was that Kol was only daggered for just over 100 years when he made his first appearance in TVD? But then when it comes to Klaus, he probably daggered his siblings on and off a number of times over the last 1000 years. So I will let this go rather than pointing the finger and say continuity error like I would usually do.
Back to the present day we see Elijah talking to the barmaid Cami about Klaus trying to locate Jane-Anne Deveraux. In true TVD style, when Elijah is talking about his father, Cami replies with
“Your dad was a dick.” (Sorry Cami but you will never be Caroline).
Instead of watching Marcel kill practising witch Jane-Anne Deveraux, we see Elijah get to the scene of the crime half an hour too late. We watch as Jane-Anne’s sister Sophie prays over her body, and wails in agony as Marcel and his vampire minions carry her body away before Sophie can lay her sister to rest.
Like I said, I personally loved how this episode was done, but I think that if you are not already a fan of TVD I am not sure if it will work for you. By putting Klaus in the background, the viewers don’t get a sense of why they should care about him. If this is supposed to be Klaus’s redemption story, then he needs to be a featured player. Elijah describes his brother as “complicated, defiant, ill-mannered, and a little temperamental.” But that barely scratches the surface! All of Joseph Morgan’s fragility is lost, and that’s a shame. (Remember when Klaus had tears in his eyes when he was talking to Cami in the backdoor pilot? Yeah, that didn’t make this cut).
That being said, The Originals worked on many levels. Its darker tone separates it from The Vampire Diaries. There’s no cliche love triangle (yet) and no petty high school drama. This is a story about a family, bound by blood, and frayed after centuries of betrayal and abandonment. At the heart of this series, there’s a war brewing between the witches of New Orleans and the French Quarter’s vampire king Marcel (played by Charles Michael Davis, I am not too sure about him yet). Marcel has restricted the witches from using magic (why? we don’t know), so in order to regain control of the Big Easy, the witches lure Klaus to New Orleans and force him to join their fight.
Now, one might ask what would make an immortal Original hybrid (part vampire, part werewolf) like Klaus play this silly game. The answer is a baby. Yes, Klaus is a soon-to-be daddy, and the witches have tracked down his baby's mother Hayley (Phoebe Tonkin). I was never really that keen on Hayley when she was in TVD. I thought that she was a pretty pointless character and didn't understand why she was there. I guess the reason was so that Klaus actually had someone to have a baby with, there definitely isn't any other characters from TVD who could have been used for this story.
When Elijah meets Hayley, he shows her the story of how they became vampires. A story which TVD fans have seen before, however, we now saw the first time Klaus killed someone and therefore triggering the werewolf and their mother putting the hybrid curse on Klaus. Two things we hadn't already seen in TVD. I can't wait for more flashbacks. When I initially heard that The Originals was being made I was hoping that it was all going to be the history of the family rather than the present day where only 3 of them are left but hopefully we will get the best of both worlds this way.
But Klaus really doesn’t care about his unborn child (yet anyway) but Elijah does. The elder is Mikaelson is big on family and he sees this baby as the thing that can save Klaus from himself. “This child could offer you the one thing you never believed you had - the unconditional love of family.” However, Klaus sees the baby as a power play. As the former king of New Orleans Klaus wants to return to his rightful throne.
In order to do so, he needs to convince Marcel he is on his good side (with a little help from Elijah) and then take his kingdom out from under him. Now, this is where it gets tricky. Klaus could easily kill Marcel; Klaus is indestructible, Marcel is not. So what’s keeping Klaus from killing him? Sophie. The Deveraux has a plan, and everything has to go her way - or else. Before her death, Jane-Anne binded Sophie’s life with Hayley’s, so Sophie is in completely control of this chess game. But Marcel has his own queen ready to destroy the board - Devina. I am getting impatient already though. What is Sophie's plan? Why can't she just let Klaus and Elijah kill Marcel and his minions? Why is Marcel preventing witches from doing magic? What is Devina up to?
“Your dad was a dick.” (Sorry Cami but you will never be Caroline).
Instead of watching Marcel kill practising witch Jane-Anne Deveraux, we see Elijah get to the scene of the crime half an hour too late. We watch as Jane-Anne’s sister Sophie prays over her body, and wails in agony as Marcel and his vampire minions carry her body away before Sophie can lay her sister to rest.
Like I said, I personally loved how this episode was done, but I think that if you are not already a fan of TVD I am not sure if it will work for you. By putting Klaus in the background, the viewers don’t get a sense of why they should care about him. If this is supposed to be Klaus’s redemption story, then he needs to be a featured player. Elijah describes his brother as “complicated, defiant, ill-mannered, and a little temperamental.” But that barely scratches the surface! All of Joseph Morgan’s fragility is lost, and that’s a shame. (Remember when Klaus had tears in his eyes when he was talking to Cami in the backdoor pilot? Yeah, that didn’t make this cut).
That being said, The Originals worked on many levels. Its darker tone separates it from The Vampire Diaries. There’s no cliche love triangle (yet) and no petty high school drama. This is a story about a family, bound by blood, and frayed after centuries of betrayal and abandonment. At the heart of this series, there’s a war brewing between the witches of New Orleans and the French Quarter’s vampire king Marcel (played by Charles Michael Davis, I am not too sure about him yet). Marcel has restricted the witches from using magic (why? we don’t know), so in order to regain control of the Big Easy, the witches lure Klaus to New Orleans and force him to join their fight.
Now, one might ask what would make an immortal Original hybrid (part vampire, part werewolf) like Klaus play this silly game. The answer is a baby. Yes, Klaus is a soon-to-be daddy, and the witches have tracked down his baby's mother Hayley (Phoebe Tonkin). I was never really that keen on Hayley when she was in TVD. I thought that she was a pretty pointless character and didn't understand why she was there. I guess the reason was so that Klaus actually had someone to have a baby with, there definitely isn't any other characters from TVD who could have been used for this story.
When Elijah meets Hayley, he shows her the story of how they became vampires. A story which TVD fans have seen before, however, we now saw the first time Klaus killed someone and therefore triggering the werewolf and their mother putting the hybrid curse on Klaus. Two things we hadn't already seen in TVD. I can't wait for more flashbacks. When I initially heard that The Originals was being made I was hoping that it was all going to be the history of the family rather than the present day where only 3 of them are left but hopefully we will get the best of both worlds this way.
But Klaus really doesn’t care about his unborn child (yet anyway) but Elijah does. The elder is Mikaelson is big on family and he sees this baby as the thing that can save Klaus from himself. “This child could offer you the one thing you never believed you had - the unconditional love of family.” However, Klaus sees the baby as a power play. As the former king of New Orleans Klaus wants to return to his rightful throne.
In order to do so, he needs to convince Marcel he is on his good side (with a little help from Elijah) and then take his kingdom out from under him. Now, this is where it gets tricky. Klaus could easily kill Marcel; Klaus is indestructible, Marcel is not. So what’s keeping Klaus from killing him? Sophie. The Deveraux has a plan, and everything has to go her way - or else. Before her death, Jane-Anne binded Sophie’s life with Hayley’s, so Sophie is in completely control of this chess game. But Marcel has his own queen ready to destroy the board - Devina. I am getting impatient already though. What is Sophie's plan? Why can't she just let Klaus and Elijah kill Marcel and his minions? Why is Marcel preventing witches from doing magic? What is Devina up to?
It appears as though Marcel is using Devina to
detect when witches are using magic. Sophie obviously knows about
Devina, so the real question is why doesn’t she want Klaus to know about
her?
The dynamics between Klaus and Elijah are deeply complex. Both Joseph Morgan and Daniel Gillies deliver phenomenal performances, especially when the two brothers find themselves at odds halfway through the episode. After a fistfight in which the words “I will never let go!” are uttered (not quite sure if it sound more or less pathetic than Titanic though). Elijah tells his brother why, after all these years, he’s never lost hope on him, even when everyone else has. Elijah feels like he failed Klaus. “The first time our father laid a hand on you, I should have struck him dead. I made a promise to you: Always and forever. Family above all.” Firstly, I am pretty sure they made that promise later while they were around their mother's grave, unless they made it before that and we haven't seen it yet. Secondly, every time one of them brings that promise up I can't help but smile because they are not very good at keeping it.
Of course, Klaus isn’t very receptive to Elijah’s regrets. As thick as Klaus would like to pretend his skin is, we all know he is an emotional mess. (This is a man who likes to draw horses, remember?) So Elijah hits him where it hurts. “Who’s more pathetic? The one who sees hope to make his family whole, or the coward who can only see the world through his own fear?”
By the end of the episode, it seems like Elijah has finally convinced his brother to play house with Hayley and the unborn baby in the Big Easy. But Klaus lets his insecurities and paranoia get the best of him and he stakes his brother Elijah with a dagger and dessicates him. For new viewers, this might seem shocking, but TVD fans know that this is a regular event for the Mikaelson siblings. Although, in a way, I was slightly surprised that this happened, I was expecting Elijah to be around a bit longer. Hopefully he will be back, and soon.
There is a reason Rebekah (Claire Holt) is only seen in telephone conversations with Elijah. She is not too happy with Klaus and his constant need to push his siblings away. Klaus put it brilliantly
“One too many times daggered and shoved in a box, I gather.”
So is this baby a way for Klaus to find happiness? A way to save himself? I personally can't see it, considering how he treats the rest of his family but maybe it will change him. I guess we will have to wait 8 months or so. I guess that will be in the final episode of the season.
Well, after months of waiting I really enjoyed this first episode of The Originals and I can't wait until next Tuesday for the second episode along with the first episode of TVD season 5. Tuesdays is now my favourite TV night.
The dynamics between Klaus and Elijah are deeply complex. Both Joseph Morgan and Daniel Gillies deliver phenomenal performances, especially when the two brothers find themselves at odds halfway through the episode. After a fistfight in which the words “I will never let go!” are uttered (not quite sure if it sound more or less pathetic than Titanic though). Elijah tells his brother why, after all these years, he’s never lost hope on him, even when everyone else has. Elijah feels like he failed Klaus. “The first time our father laid a hand on you, I should have struck him dead. I made a promise to you: Always and forever. Family above all.” Firstly, I am pretty sure they made that promise later while they were around their mother's grave, unless they made it before that and we haven't seen it yet. Secondly, every time one of them brings that promise up I can't help but smile because they are not very good at keeping it.
Of course, Klaus isn’t very receptive to Elijah’s regrets. As thick as Klaus would like to pretend his skin is, we all know he is an emotional mess. (This is a man who likes to draw horses, remember?) So Elijah hits him where it hurts. “Who’s more pathetic? The one who sees hope to make his family whole, or the coward who can only see the world through his own fear?”
By the end of the episode, it seems like Elijah has finally convinced his brother to play house with Hayley and the unborn baby in the Big Easy. But Klaus lets his insecurities and paranoia get the best of him and he stakes his brother Elijah with a dagger and dessicates him. For new viewers, this might seem shocking, but TVD fans know that this is a regular event for the Mikaelson siblings. Although, in a way, I was slightly surprised that this happened, I was expecting Elijah to be around a bit longer. Hopefully he will be back, and soon.
There is a reason Rebekah (Claire Holt) is only seen in telephone conversations with Elijah. She is not too happy with Klaus and his constant need to push his siblings away. Klaus put it brilliantly
“One too many times daggered and shoved in a box, I gather.”
So is this baby a way for Klaus to find happiness? A way to save himself? I personally can't see it, considering how he treats the rest of his family but maybe it will change him. I guess we will have to wait 8 months or so. I guess that will be in the final episode of the season.
Well, after months of waiting I really enjoyed this first episode of The Originals and I can't wait until next Tuesday for the second episode along with the first episode of TVD season 5. Tuesdays is now my favourite TV night.
Some of my favourite lines from this first episode include: -
- “I’m Elijah. You heard of me?” I don't know why but I love it when Elijah says this and the way the other person instantly becomes scared. Elijah is actually the good one out of them all.
- “Then leave him to his temper tantrum and return home.” Rebekah always has some good one liners
- “You demand to be left alone at least once a decade, so by now, it’s lost its impact.” I would have thought that it would have been a lot more but it was still funny.
- “One too many times daggered and shoved in a box, I gather.” I have always loved the way the originals talk about each other
