Tuesday, May 23, 2017

The Originals, Season Four, Episode Nine: Queen Death

Image result for the originals


At the end of the last episode, Elijah was ambushed by the Hollow and stabbed in the back by the nasty rose thorns. This of course means that the Original family has to band together to save one of their own.  At times like this, I tend to become a little less interested in The Originals, for the simple fact that we already know that Elijah is not going to die. Nope, not gonna happen.  It's not helped by the fact that the Original family is so ridiculously strong, it's hard to create even a remotely believable antagonist. At this point, I'm not even sure that The Hollow counts.  Okay let's do this and pretend to be filled with anticipation and worry for Elijah.

Hayley is the first one to notice that Elijah is missing because she wakes up in bed alone.  Hayley wanders downstairs to speak to Klaus, who's in the middle of allowing Hope to have the sugar high of all creation.  Seriously? The great hybrid is that much of a push over with his daughter?  The last time Hayley saw Elijah, he was on the way to see Marcel to hand over the dagger.

In the woods, Elijah is writhing in pain, trapped in a circle. Of course he's busy telling The Hollow how his family will come for him and bring doom upon her because that's what the Mikaelsons do. Sofya/The Hollow wants the Mikaelsons to come calling, looking to trade her former jaw bone for Elijah.  Sofya/The Hollow plans to take her jaw bone back and kill Elijah anyway because doing so will end his sire line and in the process offer up the big sacrifice that she needs to return to her body.

Vincent thus far is out of the loop and that's because the followers of The Hollow have completely trashed St.Anne's. As he's discussing this with Maxine, who shows up but The Hollow herself.  Vincent is quick to send Maxine on her way in order to protect her.  Being one to throw shade, The Hollow brings up Vincent's dead wife and not being one to be defeated in a battle of words, Vincent points out that she's standing there in a vampires's body. This causes The Hollow to smash Vincent against the pews and even though she's pissed, she still wants Vincent by her side again. The Hollow also informs Vincent of the trade that she wants to make for Elijah.

Vincent makes his way to the Mikaelson compound to let the family know that The Hollow has Elijah and what her terms are. As if the kidnapping of Elijah isn't enough inducement, apparently The Hollow has warned that if the Miakelsons don't hand over the jaw bone, that she will take it anyway and burn down the city in the process. This is when they decide that Hope, despite being the most powerful Mikaelson, needs to leave the room and play with something. The Hollow's threat inspires different reactions from the assembled crowd. Hayley and Freya want to save Elijah, Klaus wants to kill everything that moves, Marcel wants to find a way to save Sofya and Vincent, wants to use Elijah's death.

Vincent is quick to point out that Elijah has had a good long life, built on the blood and lives of those with a much shorter lifespan.  Vincent questions just how long the Originals think that they are entitled to walk the earth.  As far as Vincent is concerned, dipping the jaw bone in Hayley's blood and then stabbing Sofya through the heart is the perfect plan. Elijah's death can then be channeled to put the Hollow down. Vincent's little speech does strike a nerve with Freya, especially when he says that everyone dies. This causes Freya to think about Finn, whose soul she had kept inside a pendant. Yes, this is Freya's light bulb moment.

Freya proposes putting Elijah's soul into the pendant for sake keeping. The only problem with this plan is that because Elijah has been poisoned for so long, he may not be strong enough for the transition. Since The Hollow needs a sacrifice, Klaus decides to offer up himself and tells Freya since he hasn't been poisoned she should be able to keep his soul in the pendant. With Klaus dead, they can free Elijah and cure him with the venom concoction Freya made.


There are so many holes in this plan but at this point, they're all out of ideas. An almost sad Klaus watches as Keelin plays with Hope, who clearly knows that something is up with all of the adults in her life. As it turns out, The Hollow is able to block any kind of tracking of Elijah; however, she cannot block Marcel's venom which is using to slowly poison Elijah. It's time for everyone to head to their official tasks.  Hayley and Freya take off to save Elijah, Marcel to stab and deal with The Hollow and Klaus to become the sacrificial lamb courtesy of Vincent.

Klaus is certain that Vincent is pleased to have the opportunity to kill the great Klaus Mikaelson, because people have after all have been trying for centuries. Vincent however isn't pleased and instead invokes Cami, suggesting that by agreeing to do this, it means that Klaus is finally living up to all the belief that Cami had in him. Klaus then does his I'm so emotional face and stares into the camera.

Certain that she has everything under control, Sofya is just taking it easy hanging out by the fire when Marcel approaches.  Marcel claims that he stole the bones and that he is willing to hand it over in exchange for The Hollow returning Sofya. The Hollow takes her bones and puts them into the hollow of a tree and as she does so, Marcel stabs her in the back and waits.

After all the big build up about killing Klaus, of course it hardly comes as a shock that Klaus doesn't die because well, Klaus.  Some witches who have sided with the Hollow show up holding Maxine hostage.  Vincent does his best to try and talk them down and when Klaus finally has enough, he goes into action. Though Klaus manages to take them all of the witches out, the last witch left standing has just enough time to burn the thorns before he dies.  Also, you knew damn well that something capable of killing an Original wasn't going to be around for long didn't you?

Hayley and Freya show up at the little cabin where Elijah is being held.  Hayley arrives in wolf form to kill the people The Hollow left to guard Elijah. Freya struggles to break the spell around Elijah and says that she needs more time.  Of course she does and of course she isn't going to get it.

The blue orb is back and it mutates into The Hollow, before promptly striking Marcel down. Since Marcel didn't chose to be loyal, The Hollow declares that her great kingdom will be built on his ashes.  That's kind of dropping the mic.  In blue orb form, the Hollow floats into the cabin to finish killing Elijah. Klaus somehow manages to arrive in time with the pendant and encourages Freya to stuff Elijah into it quickly.  Unfortunately, because Elijah is having his soul sucked out, Freya is struggling. Elijah desiccates right before their eyes and the pendant breaks in pieces. If this were anyone but one of the core members of the Original family, I might actually be worried but Elijah has plot armour up the whazu.

Klaus puts Elijah's body in the coffin back at the compound and then starts freaking out at Freya to do something.  Hayley has to step in ask Klaus to give Freya a minute. Really, cause screaming at her is just going to make it better faster. Freya tries again and she cannot see her hear Elijah in the pendant. Cue big emotional faces from Freya, Hayley and Klaus. Hope enters and they try to send her away but she stands her ground long enough to put her hand on Freya's shoulder, so that they get a vision of Elijah.

Back at St. Anne's, Vincent has gathered up the last of the surviving witches to tell them to get the hell out of town. Vincent then heads to see Marcel to ask him to hand over the the book, he previously told Marcel to kill him if he asked for it. I guess when shit hits the fan, promises go out the window. Marcel does however warn Vincent that he will kill him if things get out of hand. Dear writers, you better not go down the black on black crime route.

So, it's time for the Hollow to self birth and that means crawling out of the tree where she placed her bones, looking like an over grown child stepping out of the womb. It's all kind of gross really. After a good stretch, the ground starts to shake.

Okay, so The Hollow is officially sort of human again.  This of course makes no sense because for her to become human, should'nt Elijah actually be dead?  Is it enough for his soul to have left his body for new housing?  Also, Elijah's entire sire line is gone and that means shit ton of people are dead.  It occurs to me that when Vincent was arguing to let Elijah die, he didn't think of all of the others that he would be condemning to death. I expect that from Klaus but Vincent?

I've become so cynical watching The Originals that I fully expected Maxine to die when she was taken hostage.  We all know how this universe just loves to kill off Black people, particularly if they're witches, unless of course they can be turned into servants like Bonnie.  I'm glad Maxine made it out and hopefully she can make it to the end of the season, though if that does happen, it's because she's been fridged.  I am however now worried for Vincent, seeing as how he has the dangerous book in his hands and is desperate to stop the Hollow.  Vincent, unlike Marcel, has never really been portrayed as the uppity negro and is therefore a much more interesting character. It would be awful if the writers decided that he has to go.

So, Marcel has a code that he lives by  but does he really have to sacrifice his life for a white woman? Are we ever going to see him with a WOC?  Marcel is supposedly more powerful than Klaus but all we've seen is Marcel being battered and pushed around.  Sure, Marcel occasionally throws his weight around by reminding the Originals that they are only in town because he allows it but beyond that, what has he really done?

I see that they are going to work Hope into the plot more.  I'm irked however that now that Freya has been brought into the action more that she has handed over babysitting duties to Keelin.  Really? We're going to turn Freya's new Black lover into a nanny for Hope? The Originals never fail to go to the lowest common racist denominator.  Keep staying classy.