Sunday, April 17, 2016

The Originals, Season Three, Episode Eighteen: The Devil Comes Here and Sighs

One of the ongoing problems with The Originals is that because Plec has made her protagonists so very strong, whatever challenge they face is always felt anticlimactic.  Look, we know that most protagonists have plot armor but when it comes to the Mikaelsons, it's plot armor times one thousand. It makes it incredibly difficult to suspend belief or even have moments of fear for a character. To amend this issue, last week, Lucien Castle made himself into an uber Original, killing Finn (the most disposable Mikaelson) in the process.

This week, trouble has come to NOLA in the form of Lucien Castle, who is determined to move beyond his stable boy roots and finally get justice for himself and Aurora.  His first act is to kidnap Klaus and offer him up to Aurora as a symbol of his enduring love.  Though Lucien claims to love Aurora, I don't think that she's really a person to him.  Aurora instead represents all of the things denied to him in his human life because of his position as stable boy.  Aurora is not satisfied with the power Lucien offers or Klaus because she wants her brother back. Lucien promises to either free Tristan or kill Elijah before the end of day.

Luckily for Klaus, Cami saw him being overpowered and kidnapped and runs straight to the compound to inform the Mikaelsons.  Right on cue, Elijah gets a call from Lucien to arrange a meet up and given that Lucien has Klaus, Elijah feels that he has no choice but to comply.  Hayley tries to warn Elijah that this is dangerous and that there's a reason they put the compound in Freya's name.  It amounts to the only safe space for The Originals but Elijah will not be swayed. Hayley and Cami decide to go after Klaus themselves while Elijah deals with Lucien.  Cami is scared but Hayley gives her a pep talk and she's good to go.

Davina takes Kol to a place where magic is locked down so that he can finally get a break from the magic the ancestors are using to make him ultra violent. Am I the only thinking that Kol has always been violent and uncontrollable so the difference is hardly huge?  It works for a bit and Kol is delighted.  They meet with Vincent, who says that he is willing to participate in calming down the ancestors  because he feels that he owes Davina.  As Davina and Kol dance, Vincent heads off to the cemetery to try and talk sense into the ancestors.

Klaus is now in chains and at the mercy of Aurora.  In desperation he tries to persuade Aurora that he didn't kill her because he couldn't bare the idea that they would never come together again.  Klaus compares what he did to how Tristan would lock up Aurora in monasteries when she couldn't control her mental illness.  Aurora however is not swayed forcing Klaus to appeal to the idea that Lucien could never be what she needs.  Aurora concedes that she has taken many gifts from Lucien over the years and not only could she never love him, she sees him as a useful fool.

Elijah confronts Lucien and demands his brother back.  Lucien is amused that Elijah would dare challenge him given the power differential between them now. Elijah cannot stop Lucien from tossing him around the room.  Lucien stalks towards Elijah, intent on killing him, claiming that he can now reasonably tell Aurora that he had at least tried to retrieve Tristan.  Lucien steps right into a spell, Freya has cast on the floor and is forced to stop in his tracks.

Vincent tries to negotiate with the ancestors to find that they won't even communicate with him.  Van walks out of the shadows and informs Vincent that the ancestors won't be speaking with him anymore because he is no longer Regent.  It seems that the ancestors are sick and tired of seeing him pal around with Davina and have decided to go with someone who is as dedicated to taking NOLA back from the vampires as much as they are.

Kol starts to feel the affect of the Ancestors.  The heartbeat begin to drum in his ears and he's very close to losing control when Marcel steps forward and snaps his neck.  Davina is shocked but Marcel explains that he is preventing a bloodbath in his city.  Marcel then instructs Davina to go and help Vincent while he stays behind with Kol.

A shaking and nervous Cami confronts Aurora.  Cami manages to lure Aurora out of the apartment and Hayley arrives and knocks Aurora on her back.  Hayley prepares to rip out Aurora's heart but Klaus calls out for her to stop because Aurora has already taken the uber vampire serum. Aurora gets the upper hand and ends up knocking Hayley unconscious and begins taunting Klaus, asking which one of his women he would like to see killed first.  Klaus begs, reminding Aurora that her real beef is with him.  Cami steps up to the plate but is quickly overpowered by Aurora and dragged into the room. Because Cami is in a home to which she has not been invited, she begins to bleed from her eyes and nose as Klaus screams to leave her alone.

With Lucien trapped in the circle, Elijah and Freya are feeling over confidant.  The Stryx make their way into the room and surround Lucien.  Freya gloats that while she cannot kill Lucien, she can make sure that he feels a lot of pain.  The ancestors are determined to have their boy win this one and give Lucien the power to break Freya's spell. The fight is on and Lucien is able to overpower the Stryx. In a sneak attack, Elijah throws Lucien across the room and then disappears with Freya.

Davina is just about to touch a spell created by Van to bring about the end of the Mikaelsons but is stopped just in time by Vincent.  Since they are both cut off from the Ancestors, Davina suggests that they channel each other to stop the spell.  Back in the bar, Kol is awake and frothing at the mouth and even after having a blood bag, he attacks Marcel.   Marcel suggests that Kol while still an evil bastard needs to regain his control because this is something he doesn't want to do.  Davina and Vincent manage to break the spell and Kol regains a measure of control.  Marcel manages to convince Kol to do the right thing and leave town to ensure that he doesn't harm his precious Davina Claire.

Hayley awakes and grabs Aurora, giving Cami the opportunity she was looking for to inject Aurora with something to knock her unconscious.

When next we see the Mikaelsons, they are gathered safely in the compound.  The plan is to keep Aurora sedated until they can come up with a plan to kill both her and Lucien.

Lucien returns home to find both Klaus and Aurora missing. The first thing he does is to play back the tape to see what happened in his absence.  He watches as Aurora calls him a useful tool.

Davina returns to the club and finds that Kol is gone.  Marcel explains that Kol felt that he head to leave in order to keep her safe but will return when Davina finds a way to make it safe for him. A crying Davina calls Kol who is driving across the NOLA border.  Kol doesn't get far outside of the city because his body begins to age and rot and so he is forced to recross the NOLA border. The moment he is back inside the NOLA border, the Ancestors return to torment him.

Having lost the upper hand, Lucien is determined not to be defeated.  Lucien shows up at Cami's door and she confidant that she's safe because she signed her apartment over to her neighbour which should mean that he cannot enter.  Lucien quickly figured this out however and murdered her neighbour which means that no human has a right to the apartment.  Cami tries to slam the door in Lucien's face but Lucien is both too strong and too fast for Cami.  Lucien grabs Cami and bites her arm which we know is a death sentence.

I really liked seeing the women of The Originals lead the charge this week because they have too often been cast as victims in need of saving.  It was Cami and Hayley who took out Aurora and Elijah would never have been able to even temporarily trap Lucien without Freya's help. Even Davina managed to be the one calm enough to come up with a plan to thwart the ancestors temporarily. I am however disappointed that The Devil Comes Here and Sighs ended with Cami being attacked by Lucien. It seems that the writers cannot stand to have their female characters have even one episode where they are all strong and competent. They better find a way to save Cami.  I don't need to see more of Klaus manpain writ large on the small screen.

I know that I should be able to find the threat to the Mikaelsons credible given that Lucien is an uber original now but I simply cannot because the plot armor is too strong with them. I do however think that it might be fun to watch them run scared for a little while.  Klaus in particular could use a little bit of humbling.

As for what's going on with Davina, (who still hasn't been mushed) and Kol, I quite frankly could give a damn.  At best, it's an uninteresting side plot. Davina's constant interest in Kol, who is a sadist at best is nauseating. She has been warned about Kol seven different ways from Sunday but because she loves him, damn his past.  I am sick of seeing these ancient vampires in love with teenage girls.  I am sick of the idea that the love of a teenage girl suddenly wipes the slate clean when it comes to past actions. Personally, I'm with the ancestors when it comes to Kol.  In fact, I'm with the ancestors when it comes to all of the Originals because they are not good people and have used their power for evil for over one thousand years.