The Originals Review: Episode 2×05 - “Red Door”

Another Doppelgänger, Secrets Revealed, and Another Round of Butt-Kicking on this week’s “The Originals”

On tonight’s The Originals, we get introduced to yet another doppelgänger, Tatia, through flashbacks in Elijah’s head induced by Ester’s probing. Elijah’s struggling to keep it together, as his mother unravels memories he thought he knew for centuries. Klaus must rescue Cami after Mikael escapes and makes off with her and the white oak stake. Hayley and Marcel team up to help Klaus and Elijah, while Davina learns the truth about Kaleb’s identity. How will she react to this news? How will Klaus handle yet another conflict with his father? And what about poor Elijah? Let’s discuss!

Brotherly Love Makes Us Teary-Eyed

Despite all of the hype leading up to this episode involving the appearance of yet another doppelgänger, that part of the plot did little to nothing for us. To be frank, we’re entirely over the endless love triangles (or squares or any other shapes) especially ones involving doppelgängers. Love triangles are a tired old trope that need to be buried away for a few years (or decades). Nothing even remotely interesting was offered to us about Tatia. We learned nothing about her, her personality, her character, her motivations, must we really continue? The only purpose she served was a source of man-pain for Elijah. Sure, we may learn more about her in future episodes, but in judging this episode alone we had no patience to have a new female character introduced that had nothing interesting to offer on her own.

“And do our siblings share this affliction? Do you share this affliction?” ~ Klaus
“No. I do not.” ~ Elijah
“He is not my father, is he?” ~ Klaus
“You listen to me. This changes nothing, for any of us. We are here for you, as we shall be always.” ~ Elijah

But what was brilliant in the flashback sequence was the scene that played out between Elijah and Klaus. Apart from the slightly questionable looking wigs, the set-up was visually solid. Seeing Klaus wake up surrounded by dismembered bodies effectively set the mood for the dark insecurities Klaus is now struggling with. Klaus may have exhibited some questionable personality traits and decisions but here we see one of those insightful moments that get to the root of what’s going on in the deepest layers of Klaus. This is the moment where Klaus realises that Mikael is not his father, and that his other roots are the source of his lycanthropy. The dialogue between Klaus and Elijah was beautifully composed, but also worth commending are Joseph Morgan and Daniel Gillies’ performances. That moment where Elijah is devastated at the pain his brother is feeling was phenomenal, as you could read it all entirely from his face before he uttered a single word. The forehead-touch was a nice addition as well. It was simple, but entirely effective in punctuating the emotionality of the scene, before the doppelgänger had to show up and make a mess of everything… as they do.

Mama, Please Stop Torturing Me

Poor Elijah just can’t catch a break. He’s still chained up by Mummy Dearest and she’s painstakingly trying to break him down till he’s a wreck ready to accept her as his lord and saviour. We rather liked the plot development about these apparently false memories of his. We’re not sure if Ester’s telling the truth about his asking her to alter the memories of his crime. There’s a part of us that’s wondering if she’s just manipulating him into doubting himself so she can get her way. We don’t exactly have a preference as to whether we want her story to be true or not; just the fact that we’re questioning it shows that it’s decent story-telling that isn’t too predictable. We also love the whole set-up of Ester’s lair. The dark mood lighting from all those candles with the melted wax, the statue behind Elijah being all lit up in what is probably some subtle symbolism, it all comes together quite nicely.

“Have you forgotten where you are, son? Save your strength, son. My chains don’t break so easily. Having sweet dreams?” ~ Ester

We have to be honest; we completely fell for that dream sequence at the end where Hayley came charging through in a blaze of glory to rescue Elijah. Perhaps it was wishful thinking on our part, as we’re loving seeing Phoebe Tonkin do more action. This was a nice moment to offer viewers a glimpse into Elijah’s mind, and heart, as he often tends to keep such personal desires hidden from everyone. We’ve seen time and time again that Elijah puts family first, but in this dire moment, his fantasy is not for his brother to come save him but the woman he “craves.” (That “I crave you” line made us audibly react, in the best way possible). It was also a way to further demonstrate how far gone Ester is in regards to the cruelty she’s willing to inflict. Now that Sonja Sohn is playing Ester, we are getting a terrific performance every week and tonight was no different.

Davina & Kol Kick Off Some Dynamic Duo-ness

Now that Klaus has come properly face-to-face with “Kaleb,” it takes him all of a minute to call him out as Kol. This wasn’t the only secret to be brought out into the open; with a touch of the hand, Davina has a vision of who Kaleb really is and what he has done (releasing Mikael). In an impressive display, she tosses him into the wall like a rag doll and we finally had the old Davina back. We don’t mind seeing vulnerability in Davina but some of the way she was being written fell flat for us. Now we see her back on track just as we wanted, and re-focused on her mission of revenge. The special effects for hers and Kol’s show-down was quite nice, too, from the wirework (we’re just guessing on the logistics of how it was done) combined with the editing of the visions she had that led to her discovery of the truth.

“You ruined the spell and now my friends are gonna die because of you.” ~ Davina
“My mother said, ‘Kill the spell or kill her’ and I happened to like you.” ~ Kol
“Oh please.” ~ Davina
“Listen, you don’t disobey Mother Dearest without some consequences. Yes she brought me back to life but she’s mad as a hatter, and that man you’ve made your pet, my father, well he’s more of a lunatic than she is.” ~ Kol

Despite the rough start, Davina and Kol start to find their rhythm, as Kol offers himself up to be channelled so Davina can stop Mikael from killing Klaus. We weren’t all that keen on this relationship when it started but now that Davina has resumed being the one in control, we’ll far more interested in seeing how this all will play out. Kol has basically burned all bridges with both sides of his warring family so now he’ll have to play nice with Davina if he hopes to stand a chance of making it out alive. We still don’t trust him, though. If somewhere down the line, Davina decides to trust him only to have him betray her because he’s looking out for himself, we won’t be surprised in the least. The brief moment where Marcel came over to talk to Davina and expressed concern over her being with Kol was a too-brief moment that we absolutely loved. It was so precious to see Marcel play the role of protective big-brother. We quite miss seeing Marcel and Davina together and sincerely hope that they’ll be reunited again soon.

FINAL VERDICT

Director Michael Robison did some great work in this episode. In addition to the previously mentioned bit with Klaus and the macabre display of dismembered bodies, another solid part was with the humans Mikael compelled to relay his not-so-nice sentiments through. With all the masks, the eerie stillness, and the bonfire being the main source of light, it was a nice little homage to the horror genre, without the terrible writing of course. Writers Declan de Barra & Diane Ademu-John gave some solid material to Ester, which Sonja Sohn performed brilliantly. We also enjoyed the snippets of Hayley and Marcel teaming up together. We’d love to see that further developed as the season carries on, as they haven’t had much time together but we have a feeling they’d work quite well with one another. The ending was also nicely written, with Mikael retreating due to all of the allies Klaus had developed. It’s symbolic of how important those connections were for him to make. One on one, he would not have survived the encounter. But with the friends and loved ones (and even Davina, whose motives were of course different from the rest) fighting alongside him, Mikael could not carry out his kill mission. Klaus’ original blood-family may be a large source of angst but now, we see him with the opportunity to create a family of his own choosing. This personal growth from Klaus is one of a few plot points we look forward to seeing more of.

Questions, Comments, Concerns…

• My chains don’t break so easily -> Well THAT’S a loaded line if ever I’ve heard one!
• Not another doppelgänger -_-
• YES! I love that he knew it was Kol! You go, Klaus!
• Daddy’s just escaped from the boot of your car. Oops.
• Where there’s music, there is food. Well damn Mikael, you’d be quite the party if you weren’t such a jerk.
• This is such a beautiful scene between Klaus and Elijah. <3 #PassTheTissues
• You could do with some couch time. YEAH, HE COULD.
• Finally! Badass Davina’s back! No more snivelling, unleash that witch fury!
• YES FINALLY SOME MARCEL ACTION I need MORE! Can Hayley and Marcel become a crime-fighting duo? Please?
• Look at Marcel being the protective big brother *falls into a fit of giggles at cuteness*
• Hayley coming in to save the day and save her boo I AM HERE FOR THIS
• “I CRAVE YOU” Elijah, WE KNOW
• NO NO NO WHY IS THIS A DREAM NO NO WHY MUST YOU HURT ME LIKE THIS