The Originals Review: Episode 2×11 – “Episode of the Damned”

It’s Marcel’s Time To Be In The Spotlight While The Rest Of Our Heroes Must Keep Baby Hope Secret From Finn

On this week’s The Originals, we finally get a glimpse into more of Marcel’s back-story. It’s all induced by a sort of fever he’s suffering from after getting bit by a werewolf when trying to save Aiden from being bit and fed on. Klaus is determined to get to Marcel in time to give him some of his blood to heal him but will Marcel be able to keep control over the vampires who are growing ever more thirsty and eager to take a bite out of Kol? A rare alliance is formed between Klaus and Davina who both have people they want safely removed from that spelled house, while Hayley is out in the woods wrestling with the decision on whether to go through with her marriage to Jackson, since doing so would threaten to spill her secrets. The biggest of all being Baby Hope, whose secret existence is further threatened when Finn magically mind-naps his brothers. He wants to further drive the wedge between each of them, but will Klaus be able to forgive when Elijah reveals a thousand-year-old secret? Let’s discuss!

Time For A Reminder Of Why Marcel Is The King

For much of this season, we’ve been throwing in comments on these reviews that Marcel was being under-utilised and that there needed to be more material for him. Finally, our wish was granted and we got some action just for our favorite self-proclaimed King that was entirely about his character journey instead of being the assistant to the other lead characters. In present day, Marcel is suffering from a sickness due to the werewolf bite he suffered last week when trying to break up a scuffle between the vampires and werewolves. During this haze, he begins to see visions of a brother-in-arms from when he served in the army back around 1916-1918. As it turns out, Marcel turned the men he was serving alongside into vampires when they were on the verge of death. Marcel must struggle to stay alive and well enough in order to keep his fellow trapped vampires in check so they don’t feed on Kol or the people out on the streets when the spell is lowered later that night.

“What you are feeling is the hunger. It will be unlike anything you’ve ever known. It will eat you from the inside but you are in control. It is your greatest weapon and the Germans are coming over that hill, thinking to waltz over our corpses to take the town. But that’s not gonna happen because one thing stands in the enemy’s way: us. And make no mistake, we are one unit, one army, we are family. Family is not determined by blood but by who you fight for and who will fight for you. Tonight we will feed on the blood of our enemies and if we die, we be reborn and we will feed again. We are the Brotherhood of the Damned and we cannot be defeated.” ~ Marcel

The flashback scenes were nicely crafted, with all the feel of a heroic war film but thankfully not so generic as the ones commonly put out on the big screen. The costuming and make-up all enhanced the authenticity of the setting and the interactions between Marcel and Klaus actually proved rather humorous. If you look past the temper tantrums Klaus is throwing and the general misbehaviour, it becomes entirely evident that Klaus is simply wanting to keep Marcel out of the line of fire. But Marcel’s heroism and attempts to do the right thing are made all the more compelling given the historical context. It’s already been established as part of the canon that Marcel was a slave when he was rescued by Klaus but here, we see the midpoint between his origin story and present day, where he is serving in a racially segregated troop. This is a much better way to handle stories where race is concerned, where the historical accuracy is taken into account but a POC character doesn’t have to be defined solely by their race, either. The two arcs of Marcel’s were beautifully intertwined together at the episode’s conclusion, with Marcel’s rousing speech to the newly-vamped soldiers playing over the present Marcel and other vampires fighting off their bloodlust to get back to the compound where they can feed on Marcel’s supply of blood and Marcel can get saved with his stash of Klaus’ blood. It was strong directorial work by Sylvain White, and strong acting by Charles Michael Davis (which we already knew he was capable of but it’s nonetheless thrilling to watch). We got the impression that there’s more to the story regarding these vamp-soliders, perhaps Marcel was harboring some guilt though we don’t know over what; hopefully this is just the introduction for a greater arc for Marcel.

Finn Plays Bloodhound As He Sniffs Out Secrets

The question we had about what Finn was doing with his parents was finally answered. Finn is channeling them! (Why we didn’t assume that sooner is beyond us). His plans to get revenge on the vampires trapped in the house by all but pushing them right onto some unsuspecting humans is put somewhat on the back burner as he see him focusing more of his attention on the rest of his brothers. One by one, they all fall down as their minds are pulled into a “hunt room,” a sort of magical prison to keep the Mikaelson boys trapped while Finn can interrogate, torture, or just anything he pleases to them. He can sense that there’s a secret being kept by Klaus in particular, though it’s unclear if he can tell that Elijah is in on it, too. Writers Kyle Arrington and Diane Ademu-John infused some spot-on imagery to better enhance the story and characterisations, made all the more lively by the directing which nicely moved to include shots of the animal heads on the wall that represented each brother (Big Bad Wolf – Klaus, Noble Stag – Elijah, Wiley Fox – Kol, and the Boar – Finn). Yusuf Gatewood carried on with his stellar level of performance, making us all the more hopeful that he’ll stay on the show for a lengthy duration. Even with him being technically “the villain” of the ongoing arc, we love the way Finn has been written. There’s so many layers to his actions and motivations and given the fact that they had mentioned Esther’s older sister… we wouldn’t even rule out Finn getting back on board with the rest of his siblings to band against her. Can you imagine it? All the Mikaelson siblings banding together? Not to mention that new one in that house with Rebekah…

“You know if I didn’t know better, I’d say you were hiding something from me. Something big, something dark. Maybe your real father found out what it was and you had to kill him.” ~ Finn

So while our lead Mikaelson brothers, Klaus and Elijah, must keep their lips sealed about baby Hope being alive from Finn, that same secret is threatening to be spilled because of Hayley’s marriage ritual. She needs to smoke some blue flower because apparently werewolf marriage rituals need to be weird and borderline on appropriative but the drama comes into play when it’s revealed that all Hayley’s secrets will be revealed upon doing so. The way this all played out seemed to make very little sense to us. We’re just not a fan of the way it played out. With how hard Hayley has been pushing and fighting for whatever is in the best interest of her daughter, we find it enormously hard to believe that one little pretty speech from Jackson was going to coax her into going through with this. We’re just really not sure what to make of Jackson, either. He’s much more developed now and he’s easier to like now but it’s very difficult to take him seriously as a viable threat to the scorching pairing of Hayley and Elijah. He’s really feeling more like a placeholder at this point. Perhaps he’ll be killed off to add some angst to the story but there’s not much else we can see him currently adding to the story. But if the writers want to keep him around, we’d reckon they’ll find a way to make it work.

True Family Forgives

Elijah’s shown to still be playing therapy with Cami and we had to groan at the lazy name-dropping of Freud, since it seemed as if the writers hadn’t bothered to learn anything about Freud since many of his theories were entirely ridiculous (from “penis envy” to the “Oedipus complex”) and to not have poked fun at them is either a poor choice of writing or a lack of research. But moving along from this hiccup, there was some great symbolism at work as Elijah talked of the red door behind which all of his deep, dark sins are kept. Elijah has had a difficult time healing after Esther’s physical and psychological torture but now we saw some larger strides being made. Just when it seemed as if Finn would get the truth out of Klaus and discover baby Hope’s being still-alive, Elijah leapt onto the figurative grenade to admit a century-old secret: that he was the one who killed Tatia and not Esther.

“It turns out my brother is even more depraved than I am. He is the noble stag no longer. Indeed an altogether different beast is creeping through the cracks, and you have also failed in your representation of me because there is one thing you never thought me capable of, forgiveness. You, Finn, have remained a boar for centuries but here is where your true fault lies, you never learnt that the bonds of family far outweigh anything else. Such bonds trump petty jealousies, they overcome ancient feuds and yes, they are capable of allowing one monster to pardon the great sins of another.” ~ Klaus

Daniel Gillies has been handling the grittier side of Elijah tremendously well and now we see him looping back around as Elijah finds his way back. Finally we got to see Joseph Morgan and Daniel Gillies have one of their heart-to-heart interactions. Klaus’ forgiveness of Elijah is yet another indication of his character development and Elijah’s confession only served to further ground the character. It’s a nice reminder to have that Elijah is more than just the perfectly-tailored older brother that keeps everyone else in line. It feels like it’s been too long since these two had such a serious moment on-screen but it was well worth the wait. Now with this recent turn of events, the plot has moved nicely along. There’s no doubt that the bond between these brothers is stronger than ever, which it will need to be for them to carry on the fight against Finn and anyone else that may threaten baby Hope’s well-being, and also carry on in their pursuit of getting Rebekah back.

FINAL VERDICT

The main thing that we loved about this episode was everything it offered with developing Marcel as a character. We were already excited at seeing the promotional photos but the content itself was even better. We sincerely hope that this was just the introduction to an even greater arc since there were still so many questions left unanswered about all those vampire soldiers and what happened to them after the battle. Director Sylvain White’s strongest work came at weaving those two arcs together. We’re also curious to see if that episode conclusion was a preview of a closer relationship between Marcel and Gia, which is something we’re routing for since we’re not keen on the flip-flopping Cami was doing between Marcel and Klaus. Writers Kyle Arrignton and Diane Ademu-John did solid work throughout but they also paced it well so that the episode concluded with excitement and suspense, with both the disappearance of Marcel and the other vampires and also Klaus storming off to stop Hayley and Jackson’s wedding rituals since it would threaten to expose Baby Hope. This was one of our favourite episodes of the season, as the show played to its strengths: the bond between the Mikaelson siblings and re-working Marcel back into the fold. More of this, please!

Questions, Comments, Concerns…

• Nooooo, not my sweet Marcel! Damn werewolf should’ve kept his teeth to himself!
• So THAT’S what Finn was doing with his parents.
• Davina checking to see if Klaus is okay? Oh, how the tables have turned!
• For the record, Freud got A LOT of things wrong. But hey, we could just take fictional characters’ words for it instead of listening to the person who ACTUALLY has their Psychology degree. *sips tea*
• Hayley’s so in denial if she thinks this wedding is going to be a thing. #Haylijah5Ever
• I am SO HERE for Marcel getting more screen time.
• Klaus showing up to visit Marcel in the trenches… you know it’s because he missed him! *heart eyes*
• I TOTALLY CALLED IT HAYLEY IS PLAYING RUNAWAY BRIDE
• Hayley’s a mama now, she can’t go spilling that secret; that’s way more important than some long-haired wolf.
• Elijah dropping some truths and looking all devastated to have hurt Klaus and then Klaus forgiving him, do you hear the sound of my heart breaking???
• Klaus is off to break up the wedding YES boy, go get your future sister-in-law!