The Originals 2x19 When the Levee Breaks

 

Before I watched this episode, I stumpled upon some spoilers saying that it was both „heart-wrenching” and „soul-crushing”, and seeing as I’m never above jumping to the worst possible explanation (in fact, that is my go-to method of approaching everything in my life), I immediately assumed that Hope was going to die. It makes a lot of sense. Obviously they’re not going to kill off Hayley or any of the Mikaelson siblings anytime soon, and while it would be definitely sad to watch Hayley cry over Jackson’s dead body, „heart-wrenching” may be taking things a bit too far if that was the case. So who else? Cami? Marcel? Davina? All important characters, but would it be really that sad if they died? Probably not. So it has to be Hope, right? Sounds logical enough to me. But thankfully, the writers of The Originals are apparently not quite as cruel and heartless as I assumed them to be. Also, it turns out there are characters on this show that other people care a lot more about than I do, because honestly, I didn’t even blink when The Thing happened. As usual when someone I care so little about that I regularly forget that they’re on the show dies, it was only the reaction of other characters that made it sad for me. All that said, please don’t ever kill Hope off, alright? If you don’t want to bother with a toddler on set, or if it gets tiring writing in a way where you always have to take the baby into consideration, just ship her off to somewhere safe, like you’ve already done it once. I don’t think I could deal with watching Hayley break down if her daughter was killed. So please don’t?

Alright, so now that that’s settled, let’s see what actually happened in the episode. To sum it up in word, it was intense. I mean, it started out with an undead Josephine with her head barely attached to her body delivering Dahlia’s message to the Mikaelsons. It can’t really get any more intense than that. After a while I just stopped paying attention to what she was saying because the blood dripping from the cut on his neck under her collar was so fucking mesmerizing, I couldn’t tear my eyes off it. Then Klaus accidentally punched off her head, and I guess that’s what I get for finding that incredibly morbid scene so fantastic. God I love this show so much. Also, Klaus’ face after said head-punching was priceless, I wish I could find a gif of it somewhere. Oh and yeah, the message, I think it was about something like giving them time until nightfall to give up Hope, or at least that’s what people kept saying in the episode. Obviously they weren’t going to give her up so what to do then? Last week, Hayley was all about leaving town with Jackon, but now she backtracked by saying, "No matter how far we go she's still gonna be able to track us.” You don’t say? Like that’s literally the first thing you should have thought about when Jackson brought up the idea of leaving. 

Thankfully, her second plan seemed slightly more reasonable, but only slightly: get rid of Hope’s magic, because that’s what Dahlia is using to track her, not to mention what she’s after in the first place... and THEN leave. Well, better than nothing, I guess. Aiden offered his help because lately he’d been feeling really bad about betraying Jackson by working for Klaus, and he managed to procure an enchanted anti-magic necklace for Hope, by way of Davina. He also brought up the idea of running away to Josh, who happily agreed, which was a sure sign that it would be one of them who died by the end of the episode. The question is, which one? Soon after, Dahlia paid a visit to Hayley, telling her all sorts of horrible-sounding things about Hope’s future, including the fact that since she’s so little, she’s never going to remember Hayley so what’s the harm in taking her anyway? "You can take comfort in the fact that for her, it will be as if you never existed." What a wonderful person Dahlia is. Then, as if things weren’t bad enough, Aiden went and confessed everything to Jackson, which just about confirmed that he was the one to die that night, and sure enough, Dahlia murdered him in a particularly cruel fashion, deliberately making it look like Klaus had done it. Naturally, it was Josh and Davina who found his body, and Josh’s reaction was truly heartbreaking. Poor thing. And all that literally seconds after Davina told him that she’s happy that at least he’s getting her happy ending. Which is probably why she looked so absolutely crushed by this unfortunate turn of events, and decided to give Marcel the dagger that Kol had gave her before he died, the one dagger that can incapacitate Klaus. Given that earlier in the episode Marcel voiced his concern about Klaus’ mental state and even said it out loud that if things get out of hand, they might have to use it, things weren’t looking all that bright for Klaus. 

Speaking of Klaus, he was driving everyone crazy at the Mikaelson compund by being overly cheerful about Mikael’s death, and by refusing to tell them where he has hidden their father’s ashes, which, as we’ve learned last week, are a prime ingredient in creating the weapon that can kill Dahlia. Klaus wasn’t in a very trusting mood towards either of his siblings because they were still advocating for trying to reconcile with Freya, who was pissed at Klaus for killing her beloved father. She also gave Elijah and Rebekah a choice between Klaus and herself, a kind of ultimatum that Klaus would also offer to Elijah later, telling him that he knows what Freya really is up to, and he’ll let him in on his masterplan if Elijah forsakes Freya. Now this was an interesting bit. Klaus said "Freya gave herself away when she complained about our *single* weapon to kill Dahlia. Now, I know there is a way to defeat our hated enemy without her." Which doesn’t really make any sense in itself. Why would Freya need another copy of the same weapon if that weapon is specifically designed to kill Dahlia? Exactly how many times Klaus thinks she’s gonna want to kill her? Anyway, he would later go on to claim "I know what Freya is planning, and I know how to kill Dahlia.", but we never really found out what he meant by that because Jackson and Co. chose this moment to arrive with Aiden’s body and accuse Klaus of killing him, to which he readily admitted. Wait, what? As he would later tell Cami (Cami! Cami is back!), he did it so that Hayley will have a reason to question her pack’s loyalty to Hope, and decide to stay. And also because he wants everyone to fear him. Typical Klaus. This was a really nice scene with Cami, when she confronted him about his actions and he babbled something about what a better man would do, but it was also weird because I didn’t know Klaus and Cami were a thing? I mean, I know that they were supposed to be each other’s romantic interests in season 1 but that never really worked out, and I think we can all agree that they work much better as friends, Cami works better as a couple with Marcel, and Klaus should probably never, ever be allowed to be in a romantic relationship. Okay, that last part might just be me, please don’t lynch me Klaus/Caroline shippers!

Anyway, Elijah naturally took Klaus’ side in the whole „killing Aiden” business which didn’t really sit well with Hayley – she even dared him to kill her at one point which was equally badass and painful for me as a hardcore Elijah/Hayley fan. In the end she only asked him to help her escape with the pack, which he did, and now it was Klaus’ time to get angry. They had a little fight in the room where Klaus had spend the episode painting away – this prompted Elijah to realize that Mikael’s ashes must be in the paint, which is something that’s probably going to be important later -, and it ended with Elijah daggering Klaus while whispering „for Hope” into his ears, as Rebekah and Freya watched on. Klaus quickly fell into vampire-coma as the bell rang for midnight, probably signalling Dahlia’s arrival, and the episode ended on this very ominous, but very powerful note.

Episode MVP: Leah Pipes as Camille O’Connell

Quotes of the episode:

"Under normal circumstances the annihilation of our father would be rather commendable, Niklaus." – Elijah Mikaelson

"This may come as a surprise for you Camille, but I'm not a terribly good person." – Klaus Mikaelson