2015. május 26., kedd

The Originals 2x20 City Beneath the Sea


Oh boy. I knew it wasn’t going to be pretty when Klaus woke up after having been betrayed by his own siblings and daggered by none other than Elijah. What I couldn’t possible have known was that it was going to become un-pretty way before he even woke up. Turns out I didn’t take Dahlia into consideration, but then again neither did Elijah, so I guess I shouldn’t blame myself. In any case, what a great episode! It’s probably gonna get old real soon if I keep saying this every week, but I can’t help it, and anyway it’s always true – this show is really something else. Honestly, if someone came to me when I was watching season two of The Vampire Diaries and told me that only a few years from now I’m gonna willingly follow a series centered on the Mikaelson brothers, and what’s more, I’m going to adore it, I probably would have laughed for a good twenty minutes. Oh how things have changed. Anyway, enough about me, let’s talk about The Originals!


Last week I was wondering whether Klaus would appear in this episode at all, being vampire-dead at the moment and everything, and even thought aboout the possibility that maybe Joseph Morgan had some pressing matters to attend to when they were shooting this, and asked for a little time out. Well , it turns out I couldn’t have been more wrong: this episode was still very much about Klaus, as we joined him in the Dahlia’s memories and learned a whole lot about her past and motivations. To be honest I don’t remember this kind of mind control (or whatever you want to call it) ever having been used or even just mentioned on either of the two shows, but I guess Dahlia is not an ordinary witch and she can do things no one else can? The only other person I can remember being able to get into people’s heads and showing them things that weren’t really there is Damon Salvatore, who’s very much not a witch... but then I remember that when Klaus was first introduced he was able to use Alaric’s body as his temporary vessel so he could delay showing his true form, and that’s something he never did ever again, so maybe I shouldn’t really think too much about supernatural powers coming and going when it comes to the TVD-verse, and just accept that there’s always going to be things that I can’t possibly anticipate because I literally couldn’t known that they were even an option.

Anyway, as I was saying, Dahlia got into Klaus’ head, or she made him get into hers, whatever, and started showing him around her childhood memories. Namely, the one where she and her sister Esther were kidnapped by some vikings. I guess I never really thought about their original nationality before, but given all this, they were probably English. That would at least explain the accents of some of the Mikaelson children. At this point it’s not really clear why exactly are we watching this particular memory, but Dahlia cuts right in the middle of it: she has a proposition for Klaus, and if he’s willing to hear her out, there’s a possibility that they can be allies. Uh-oh. Literally none of this sounds good in any shape or form.

Then we jump forward a little to watch a young Dahlia being forced to perform dark magic so that in exchange the vikings wouldn’t abuse Esther. The problem is, Esther is not really at risk of being abused anymore, because as it turns out, she’s been very willingly hooking up with a dashing young viking called Mikael. She even plans to give up her magic so she can have a family with him. Young Dahlia understandably feels upset and betrayed, and it was at this point that I started to wonder why are the writers tryng to make her likeable. The best villains are always the ones who are evil with no excuse, and sure, all these memories might make me pity her a little bit but they won’t change the fact that she wants to take Hope away from her family? I pray to God this won’t turn into one of those „Dahlia is actually completely justified in everything she’s doing and if you really think about it, she’s not evil at all” kind of scenarios, because I’m not sure I’m quite ready to start watching a Dahlia-centric spinoff just yet.

All these memory-flashbacks finally paid off towards the end of the episode when Dahlia showed Klaus a young Freya, unable to control her immense powers, and very obviously being in need of Dahlia’s assistance. Dahlia says that when she took Freya away from her mother it was actually to „save her from herself”, because firstborn witches in this bloodline possess devastating power, and if kept out of check, there’s no telling of the destruction they might cause to themselves and everyone around them. Hope will suffer even more because, as Dahlia put it, her magic will be tainted with vampire blood as well as the aggressive wolf temperament. So really, Dahlia only wants to help Hope by channeling her magic, and she doesn’t even want to take her away. Now that definitely puts things into a different perspective... except that she wants Klaus to raise her, without Hayley being around. Yeah, that doesn’t sound shady at all. In any case, she gave Klaus some time to think, and she even woke him up magically despite the dagger in his chest. What will Klaus do with all that information? Well, let’s just take a look at everything else that happened in the episode, and we’ll find out soon enough.

While all of this was going on inside Klaus’ head, his siblings were busy devising their ultimate plan to defeat Dahlia. Of course, it wasn’t easy to come to an agreement at first: Freya wanted to use Hope as bait to lure Dahlia to a ground where she will be made mortal and could be killed, but Elijah basically said „over my dead body”, and besides, Hayley and co. were still gone, so there was no way they could get their hands on Hope anyway. The plan itself wasn’t that bad though, and Elijah decided that they should create a magical decoy to lure Dahlia. The only witch around to help was Vincent, who didn’t want to do so because he’d just about had it with all these vampires and their assistance-seeking, and besides, he was already working on a different spell for a different Mikaelson – more on that later.He also thinks their plan is simply stupid: they had previously decided to replicate Hope’s powersource and transfer it to a Golem doll, but now Vincent insisted that a doll won’t fool Dahlia, and that they need something with a heartbeat instead. Fortunately, Elijah already seemed to know what to do: he tracked down Hayley’s pack, told her about the plan, and asked for a little bit of Hope’s blood, which he then promptly injected into Freya’s neck. Now she has both a heartbeat AND Hope’s magical blood in her system, and thus the perfect bait for Dahlia is ready. Freya was understandably not happy about any of this but you gotta do what you gotta do to help your family, right?

Speaking of family, the Crescent wolves were still in mourning after Aiden’s death. Jackson decided to bury him in a little grave by the side of the road so that the pack can proceed quicker, but Hayley insisted that they give him a proper, true Crescent funeral. She even invited Josh to it which was very nice of her. I’m gonna go ahead and admit that I never cared much for Aiden or his relationship with Josh, but I do love Josh himself and I felt really terrible watching him say goodbye to his love. And now he’s gone, who knows where... I wonder if he will come back to the big finale, or at all... maybe the actor got another job and they needed a way to write him out too? I’ll better look into that. Anyway, as I said earlier, Elijah showed up in the wolf camp to talk to Hayley, but before he got to do so he had to endure a little bit of taunting from Jackson, in the vein of „I got the girl and you didn’t”. Ugh Jackson. Let’s just wait and see who’s gonna have the last laugh, shall we? Right now Jackson has every reason to feel confident because after Elijah has left, he told Hayley that if she goes back to the Mikaelsons after all this Dahlia business ends, he won’t go with her, so she has to choose between them, and Hayley immediately chose Jackson. Eh. We all know this isn’t going to last for long, right? Right...? As of now, Hayley seems pretty determined about this. At the end of the episode she left Elijah a voice-mail, which was nothing short of heartbreaking:

"Elijah, I'm calling to say goodbye. Hope and I, we can't be part of your family anymore. All Hope's ever had for family tried to destroy her. That can't be my little girl's story. Family is supposed to love you. Even if she is free of Dahlia's firstborn curse, Hope would still be Klaus' daughter. She'd inherit a thousand years of enemies, all his anger and rage. I don't want Hope to be a Mikaelson. All the pain that comes with that name, she doesn't deserve that. Elijah, I... goodbye."

And guess who just happened to overhear all that? That’s right. Klaus. So naturally, he went to Dahlia and accepted her offer. I guess that makes sense – he has been hurt by pretty much everyone he loves in a very short amount of time, and Dahlia’s proposition does seem reasonable as long as you don’t think about it too much. However, we also have reason to believe that he’s just playing his aunt and will end up betraying her in the end. Because this quote: "I never cared for Hayley. But you should know, the rest of our family will stand against us, in defense of her." Come on dude. You can fool yourself but you can’t fool your audience. And also, "They have more than earned everything that is to come", he said of his siblings, and that sounds way too dramatic a statement, even from Klaus. So I guess what remains to be seen is, how far along is Klaus willing to go to convince Dahlia that he stands with her? Will he torture? Will he kill? And if he does, what kind of contrived way the writers will manage to find to redeem him yet again after he inevitably wins the day for Team Good? I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

Episode MVP: Joseph Morgan as Klaus Mikaelson

Quote of the episode:
Hayley’s message to Elijah, see above

Random tidbits:
 - I mentioned Vincent working for another Mikaelson earlier – Rebekah, to be precise. Marcel brought him in to undo the spell that was binding her to those eight teenage witches, which include Davina. He reluctantly did the spell ("When we're done, we're done. I'm not your witch for hire." Sure Vincent, whatever you say ;), but the episode ended without it being actually cast. Maybe next week, then?

 - Meanwhile, Davina has been working on a resurrection spell for Kol, the execution of which is, I guess, yet another thing we can look forward to in the finale.

 - And then there’s the tiny fact that the covens wanted Vincent to be their new leader now that Josephine is dead, but he doesn’t feel like practicing magic anymore, so he decided to ask Davina to take his place instead. She definitely seemed to take to the idea after he has tempted her with the promise of necromancy, so we’ll see how all that’s gonna play out.

 - Cami told Elijah the truth about Klaus not killing Aiden, but at this point it doesn’t really matter anymore. Elijah is going to have unwavering faith in his brother whatever he does anyway, but still, it’s nice that he knows. Now, if only Hayley could find out as well...

 - Speaking of Elijah, him catching that arrow and then the axe at the wolf camp was one of the most badass things he’s ever done, and that’s saying a lot.

 - Marcel giving leadership advice to Hayley was all kinds of awesome.

 - I can’t help but think that under normal circumstances – that is, if it did not come right after having been betrayed and thus angered by his siblings – Klaus might have understood where Hayley was coming from. After all, she didn’t say she doesn’t want Hope to be Klaus’ daughter because of him personally, but because of all the enemies that he and his family have stacked up over the centures. Even Klaus has to see that that’s a perfectly reasonable line of thought.

Nincsenek megjegyzések:

Megjegyzés küldése