The Originals
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“The Originals” Ep. 5.01: “Where You Left Your Heart”

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Hey guys! I’m Kristin from the podcast “So…I’m Watching This Show.” I’ll be live-tweeting and recapping “The Originals” for its fifth and final season on Shuffle and I’m so excited for you all to join me! Let’s get to it!

Warning: spoilers ahead! Don’t say we didn’t warn you…

When we left the Mikaelsons at the end of Season 4, Klaus (Joseph Morgan), Rebekah (Claire Holt), Elijah (Daniel Gillies) and Kol (Nathaniel Buzolic) had all come together in New Orleans to absorb pieces of The Hollow from their daughter/niece Hope (now played by Danielle Rose Russell after a 7-year time jump). In order to keep the peace and not end up murdering Hope, they had to agree to separate and never see each other again. Obviously, in order to keep the show compelling, the Mikaelsons all have to come back home from their relative happiness. The main snag in this plan is Elijah, who asked Marcel (Charles Michael Davis) to compel him to forget his entire family.

Rebekah and Marcel met again in New York City; Kol and Davina Claire (Danielle Campbell) ran off to San Francisco; and Elijah hilariously became a kind of hippie musician playing for tips in a piano bar in France, nary a cufflink nor double-breasted suit in sight. 

The fifth and final season of “The Originals” opens with Klaus waxing poetic about the importance of family to a deeply disinterested French nightclub bouncer, whose heart Klaus promptly rips out and eats in front of a line of unsuspecting humans just looking for a night of fun. Then we smash cut to Mystic Falls, VA, and what I’ll be referring to as the Salvatore Academy for Supernatural Youngsters, where a girl who is definitely Hope (based solely on the braid down one side of her head) is giving two vials of her blood to a boy named Henry before she tells him to be discreet. They’re obviously up to no good, which is confirmed when, instead of being discreet, Henry chugs the blood right in the hallway and then immediately jumps out a window. 

Finally, we arrive back in New Orleans where Vincent (Yusuf Gatewood), Josh (Steven Krueger), Freya (Riley Voelkel) and Hayley (Phoebe Tonkin) are at Rousseau’s for a drink! Freya’s hair is longer, Hayley’s hair is shorter, Josh looks the exact same and Vincent has adopted an extremely unfortunate hat that he insists on wearing for the entire episode.

The quartet is discussing the seven years of peace they’ve enjoyed and their plans to keep the peace during the upcoming Mardi Gras celebrations – which is when a very cute and doomed bartender named Poppy arrives with a tray of oysters for Hayley from some guy named Declan (Torrance Coombs). Apparently he’s her boyfriend, which is troubling, and later he calls Hayley a “big eater,” which I can’t even speak about. 

We bounce around a bit more after this, back to Mystic Falls, where Hope is being suspended because it turns out she helped make Henry a hybrid when she gave him her blood. She also has a much bigger chip on her shoulder about Klaus being MIA than it seems like she should if she knows the reasons why. Then we’re suddenly in Lebanon, where Keelin and Freya are laying on cots in a medical tent and chatting, which led me to wonder how the fuck Freya got to Lebanon so quickly until it’s revealed she’s doing a kind of long distance astral projection that sometimes loses signal, which is undeniably the most romantic thing to happen in the episode. They’re discussing if Freya will join Keelin in Lebanon for a few months or if she will stay in New Orleans and keep trying to get her family back together.

Meanwhile, in NYC, we see the second most romantic moment in the episode (if only because I’m not the hugest fan of Rebekah/Marcel). Marcel proposes adorably, but Rebekah is reluctant to accept. In my opinion it’s because the ring is…not good, but Rebekah insists it’s because she wants her family back together. 

Piano Bar Elijah, who is still sans suit, actually seems to be enjoying a beer, which begs the question: did Marcel remove his entire personality when he compelled him? We don’t have time for that though, because Klaus enters; that immediately kills a vase of roses, we assume because two pieces of The Hollow are together again.

Rebekah has hilariously taken a break from deciding whether or not to marry Marcel in order to take a bubble bath. Marcel stomps in and they start fighting only to be interrupted by dead flower petals falling right onto Rebekah’s head. And then blood starts coming out of the faucet and Rebekah gets really steamed, and her eyes do the cool vampire thing that we don’t see enough of anymore.

Back in New Orleans, Freya is packing up all her magical doo dads so she can join Keelin while Vincent is trying to tell her that the peace is too fragile for any of them to leave. It turns out he has a point, because in addition to Hope turning her friend into a hybrid, she’s also returning to New Orleans, which she shouldn’t be, and then Freya’s flowers instantly die and the water in their vase turns to blood. It was a very dead flower-heavy episode… Needless to say, Freya can’t go since bad shit is seriously nigh.

Next thing we know, Hayley is decking her not-boyfriend Declan right in the jaw. He takes it like a champ, which is nice. He’s also CRAZY handsome and a chef, but I almost couldn’t see him over the absurdity of his IRISH BROGUE. He is a fine addition to the show, (see above re: handsome af) but I’m not interested in the obstacle he presents for a #Haylijah reunion, which is my top priority.

Finally, halfway through the episode, we get our only Kol sighting, and it’s only on Facetime and he only mentions Davina – we don’t see her. But he’s able to make Hope feel better about what she’s done to Henry and that’s nice. It’s good to see at least some of the Mikaelsons have learned how to be people.

Then comes the very least-good thing in this episode, where Marcel gives Rebekah a supremely hypocritical ultimatum that if she doesn’t marry him at City Hall that very day, he won’t listen to her talk about her family anymore. Which is rich coming from the guy who’s been “secretly” texting Josh constantly for the past seven years.

Even though I knew Caroline would be back this episode, it in no way prepared me for her being the one Rebekah thinks can find Klaus when shit hits the fan. Needless to say, I blacked out the literal second Caroline breezed into Klaus’s latest slaughter and pinned him against the wall by the neck.

Cutting short the best scene in the episode so far, we’re back at Rousseaus’ where I’m beginning to think Vincent’s terrible hat will be this season’s first MacGuffin. Bartender Poppy is very cute and charming, and doesn’t charge Freya and Vincent for their drinks before she leaves the bar, straight to her death. Vincent takes a break from contemplating his hat to tell Freya that she should go to Keelin because love is what makes life worth living.

Then comes the most fun exchange of the episode – and it’s not even Klaus and Caroline! Hayley has found a Passport in Hope’s room and asks where she was planning to go. Hope responds that she met a guy who “lives in England and says he’s 25 but seems older.” And I’ll tell you I laughed my ass off at her totally deadpan delivery of that line. I think Danielle Rose Russell is a great addition to the show and perfectly cast as Hayley and Klaus’s child.

Obviously, Hayley immediately realizes that Hope was going to try and find Klaus because she misses her dad, and they have a very nice talk until Henry starts shrieking from the courtyard, where he’s holding an extremely dead Poppy (RIP the cute bartender). This causes a ton of issues with the witches and the vampires, all of which is pretty tedious and, honestly, if you’ve watched this show before you know there are only two outcomes. Either the Mikaelsons will avoid all the trouble because they’re our heroes, or they won’t and it’ll be war. My money’s on the latter tbh, but for the moment Hayley is able to keep the peace.

Back with Klaus and Caroline, she is simultaneously scolding him about losing contact with Hope, meticulously cleaning up his massacre (because the house is historical!) and catching me up on what I didn’t know from the end of “The Vampire Diaries” (RIP Stefan I guess…).

Their chemistry is insane. I will become a broken record of that phrase this season, so buckle up. 

Then it’s time for the end of episode character check-ins: Hayley is making excuses to Declan’s voicemail about how she’ll be late for their date when she’s mysteriously slammed headfirst into the nearest brick wall. She collapses to the ground and sees something off-camera that seems to scare her. Marcel is all dressed up at City Hall when a rando dude hands him an envelope basically telling him Rebekah won’t marry him. Rebekah has somehow made it to the piano bar in France by 3:45 pm that same evening, where she’s spilling her guts to Elijah. And then finally the fountain in the Mikaelson courtyard starts running red with blood, which – I’ll be honest – I was waiting for all episode!

We’re finally treated to a voice-over by Vincent, who is sitting in the cemetery writing in his diary, as many in this universe are wont to do. He talks about how tipping points in history are only definable in retrospect, which is true in general and extra true in this show. The VO continues, as Freya finds Hayley’s cracked cell phone in the alley and hands it to Hope, just as Klaus calls, while Vincent reiterates that if the Mikaelsons ever reunite, The Hollow will bring about unspeakable torment. Hope answers the phone and tells Klaus that Hayley is missing. Klaus assures her he’s on his way back to New Orleans. In the cemetery it starts raining blood on Vincent (thus retiring his awful hat if there’s any justice in the world) and the episode closes.

This episode was a whirlwind premiere, made all the more frenetic by no less than six location changes. Hopefully, we’ll be down to just the one location by the time episode three comes around and all the Mikaelsons have reunited in New Orleans. This was definitely a piece-moving/catching up episode, so not a lot of actual plot happened, but it’s been seven years and that’s a lot to catch up on in one episode! I’m excited to see where this final season takes us, and I’m delighted to bring some recaps your way!

Catch me live-tweeting “Good Girls” every Monday at 10/9c and “The Originals” every Wednesday at 9/8c on @shuffleonline or countless other shows during the rest of the week on @soimwatching.

 

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