Last season the
Mikkaelson vampires split up, each of them taking a shard of the Hollow into
themselves, they all went their separate ways to keep this evil apart and stop
it from hurting hope.
This season starts 7
years after this and I am absolutely freaking amazed that these characters have
managed to handle their shit for this long. So it’s no surprise that after 7
years everything’s kind of falling apart
The city is run by
Vincent, with Freya (witches), Josh (vampires, but not really because Marcus is
puppeteering him from a distance) and Hayley (werewolves). They’re preparing
for Mardi Gras and everyone’s all “hey why do we have to worry about this,
everything is fine.” While Vincent is all “really? You fuckers are going to
burn it all down. You always do”
Josh is already laying
the foundation for that because the werewolves are “we’re going to have this
party” and the witches are all “yay we’re planning this party” which the
vampires are basically told “just stay out the way” so I’m kinda with Josh when
he says “yeah, we’re gonna want some daylight rings for that.”
Freya also has her
own conflict because she’s in love with Keelin (despite the whole kidnapping
and experimentation thing everyone is just forgiving and forgetting) but Keelin
is now in Lebanon because keeping same sex couples apart is super
So let’s start
burning stuff down
At the special school
for magic students which is like a few years too late to develop the whole
magical school popular trope thing which clearly died out a bit sooner than
Plec thought. We meet a now older Hope who is in school and we have a briefly
appearing hot guy who will no double be more important later. Hope has daddy
issues because she’s Mikaelson and this is kind of necessary and she’s super
super upset that he can’t even pick up a damn phone to call her.
She has the same
decision making ability as the rest of her family and decides that a bullied
Crescent werewolf in her school needs some help- so she gives him her blood so
she can turn himself into a hybrid. Because becoming something dangerous and
different which has caused several wars in the city is a great idea. Also
encouraging your classmates to messily commit suicide so they can come back as
a dangerous vampire wolf will get you suspended. Oops. Way to keep up family
tradition, Hope
But what about the
rest of the family? Well Kol seems to be doing the decent thing and staying out
the way and only calling his niece to give her terrible advice. This is good,
because of The Hollow inside each Original if two of the family get together
then things starting getting ominously biblical. Flowers die, water turns to
blood, the warning signs are not subtle
Which would be useful
in case, y’know, they accidentally bumped into each other so they can realise
they need to leave the country. But unfortunately Klaus has decided to stalk
his brother Elijah who has had all his memories magically erased. Klaus has
always been co-dependent, usually he focuses this on Rebekkah because she’s had
the audacity to be more involved in other people than in him. He could always
rely on Elijah to follow him around in his usual martyr complex. Elijah didn’t
even have a life that didn’t, on some level, revolve around Klaus - and now he
can’t even remember Klaus exists
So Klaus keeps stalking him in France and causing all of this apocalyptic nonsense which is getting everyone so stressed - so much so that Freya thinks she won’t be able to pack it all in and go live with Keelin in the Lebanon. Despite everything falling apart she does appeal to Vincent to absolve her guilt so she can be with Keelin without thinking that she’s abandoning everyone.
Rebekkah is also
supposed to be living a deliriously happy like with Marcel, with lots of luxury
and romance and he even proposed to her and it’s all going to be wonderful.
Except she can’t say yes because she’s also obsessing about her family and
Marcel is losing patience with it, giving her an ultimatum - marry him or he’s
out because he’s tired of these shenanigans.
Since Klaus stops
picking up his phone and everyone needs him to grow up and stop ruining things
for once, they deputise Caroline to go visit. Klaus now has a reputation for
being unstable and murdering people for funsies
So nothing’s changed
there then
While cleaning up
after his latest slaughter (because we’re all quite casual about massacres but
not about ruined furniture), Caroline pretty much pins Klaus down. She knows he
isn’t any more unstable than usual, but his paranoia over Elijah means he has
decided to kill all their enemies and the descendents of their enemies but it’s
probably more a distraction from other issues: namely Hope. He hasn’t even
picked up the phone to speak to her because he has daddy issues. Caroline
finally tells him what everyone needed to for the last few centuries - that was
a thousand years ago and it’s about time he got over it
Note that we’re all
more concerned about Klaus being an absent dad than we are that he’s running
around being a serial killer, because The Originals.
In New Orleans things
get more tense, Hayley tries to talk to the adoptive mother of the new Hybrid
about trying to protect the kid who is obviously now a target for everyone. And
then he loses control and kills a popular vampire. And the vampires are Not
amused that there’s a new hybrid in town that can so easily kill them. Hayley
manages to keep things calm with an epic speech because she’s very very very
good at being reasonable but things are… tense. Also Hope has sired this new
hybrid so she now has complete control over him. I’m sure this will cause no
problems, honest.
I suppose I should
mention hayley’s new human boyfriend of the dubiously thick Irish Accent and
sexy blue eyes. But he’s human so he’s going to be tragically turned or
tragically die or tragically turn out to be a secret demon or leprechaun or
something.
And part of that
tension involves someone - it looks like a magic user - knocking Hayley out and
making her disappear. Losing the voice of reason we’re all going to need
Because Rebekkah has gone to see Elijah. As
well. Good gods Rebekkah, WHHYYYY?! When water turns to blood this is NOT A
GOOD SIGN
Rejected, Marcel has
decided to return to New Orleans
And hearing Hope has disappeared Klaus decides he’s going to as well.
I am afraid
I am afraid that
after the Vampire Diaries groaned on about 3 seasons after it’s natural
end and the Originals kept limping on rehashing the same old conflicts
long after the writers should have admitted that they’d reached an end, we now
have Hope. In her magical school. With magical friends. And, after a 7 year
gap, Hope is approaching old enough to be a protagonist in her own right (and
maybe with Caroline and Alec’s own children). What are the chances of Plec
Frankensteining this series yet again?
One of my pet hates
about the Originals is a pet hate I have for all media - I find it very
hard to get invested in the stories of people who are constantly digging
themselves out of the last hole they made while simultaneously making three or
four holes for the future. Obviously this is a reasonable story now and then
but when your entire plot revolves around bad decisions causing problems for
future plot points, it gets old.
Hey, anyoen remember
Eddie, Josh’s new boyfriend? He was mentioned like once in season 4 and then
dropped in a pit
Freya, just abandon
this town, there is no hope.
