S02.E04: Live and Let Die

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Knowing that it's only a matter of time before Klaus comes after them, Davina takes Mikael to her family cabin in the woods. When Hayley gets a tip that Vincent is recruiting young, unsuspecting teenagers in order to build a werewolf army, she enlists the help of Elijah and Marcel to rescue the group. After Cami inadvertently lets Klaus in on Davina's whereabouts, she tags along in an attempt to truly understand the deeply rooted hatred he has for his parents. At his mother's urging, Kaleb seeks out Davina in order to locate the missing white oak stake and is caught off guard when he has a dangerous encounter at the cabin. Lastly, Josh, who continues to struggle with his vampire identity, opens up to an unexpected ally.

 

Promo:

 

Clip:

[Morrigan2575]

he Klaus/Cami and Elijah/Hayle/Baby Vamp parts seemed really unnecessary.

Loved the Josh/Aiden bit, I couldn't figure out why they were looking at each other at the fire truck. Was waiting for a betrayal of some sort.

Loved the Mikael/Klaus fight but I'm a little pissed that Mikael was just able to pull the knife out, while both Elijah and Klaus suffered helpless.

Love the new Esther, actress is really good at crazy/menacing with just enough soul to not make her a cliche villain.

[Lila82]

The Klaus/Cami and Elijah/Hayle/Baby Vamp parts seemed really unnecessary.

 

 

The latter was integral to reminding Elijah that he is a sexual being and should spend less time worrying about his brother's mental state and more time making thinly veiled innuendoes and rolling up his shirt sleeves.  He and Hayley have emotional baggage for days and the last thing we need is another love triangle, but his scene with Gia was hot.  There's so much crying on this show; it's nice when the actors get to smolder a bit.

 

Although, Daniel Gillies easily has the most chemistry with the actress playing...his mom.  It's like the producers felt someone should challenge Klaus/Rebekah for most inappropriate familial relationship.

 

My only positive on the former was a Sharon Van Etten song!  She makes everything better.

 

Final complaint: Kol is over a thousand years old.  Please, please, please let him break the cycle of ancient vampires falling in love with teenage girls.  Davina deserves better.

[Artsda]

Cami is just an entire waste.

[Tippi Blevins]

I had entirely forgotten that Cami was even on this show. 

 

I enjoyed Elijah and Gia's training session. Elijah likes when a woman knows the quickest and most direct route to a man's heart.

[bluebonnet]

I wasn't digging the upcoming Elijah/Haley/Gia love triangle, but damn, Elijah and Gia have some great chemistry.  I'm shipping it.  Plus this episode made me actually want to swoon Elijah: "As a devout feminist, I refuse to say you hit like a girl."  Swoooooooon.  

 

Unpopular opinion here, but I've always like Cami.  She's like this great character development tool who doesn't get in the way of the plot.  Plus, she's never the reason everyone else is ending up dead.  

 

I hope the Mikael story pans out.  I'm not feeling Esther at all. She's just so ridiculous.  "Oh, I made a mistake when I turned my kids into vampires because it made them killers but I'm going to go ahead and use a pack of murderers to make it all better and while I'm at it, I'm going to murder and torture as many as possible."  Ugh.  Can.  Not.  Stand.  Her.  I rewatched her episodes from TVD and the only improvement has been the actress playing her.  Right now I'm rooting for a good Mikael story because as ridiculously villainous as he is, at least we don't have to listen to him pretend that he's really this amazing person deep inside.  

[HunterHunted]

"Yay more Cami!!!!!" said no one ever.

I realize that the central conceit of this show is family, power, revenge, but they need to open themselves to some romance. At least enough so that the endless power-jockeying doesn't get tedious and repetitive. And not the endless longing and pinning of Hayley and Elijah or Marcel/Cami/Klaus. I appreciated the movement toward some romantic storylines Elijah and Gia (yay!), Josh and Aidan (yay!), Klaus and Cami: the revenge (boo!), and Kol and Davina (seriously?). I thought Josh looked wary at the ambulance, Aidan was giving the sex eyes.

I'm hoping that Kol starts power playing soon. He's never been much of a follower and he's always been a bit psychotic. He knows that Mikael is alive and Kol is clearly chaffing under Esther and Finn.

This show is a sausage fest. We need more powerful women, who aren't related to the main characters or 16 year olds. I didn't mention Cami or Hayley because they aren't powerful; they are boring.

[rue721]

Loved the Mikael/Klaus fight but I'm a little pissed that Mikael was just able to pull the knife out, while both Elijah and Klaus suffered helpless.

 

They did at least try to set up Mikael being able to pull it out with that "pep talk" to Davina about warriors being able to ignore pain. I agree that that's not really *enough* set up, but meh, it's SO MUCH MORE FUN than Mikael just sitting there with Papa's Knife in his stomach that I'm down for the SL, even though it only just barely makes any sense. I was cheering when he just pulled it out, too. Because that's so Mikael. Of course he would do that, he's basically Mikael Myers. He can be such a fun villain.

 

Also, the fight between Mikael and Klaus really *was* good. I was surprised, I was really into it and honestly didn't know how it would end (though in retrospect, they really telegraphed the thing with Papa's Knife, but in the moment, I was totally distracted by the stake). Last season/so far, either Klaus has outmatched the person he's fighting, to the point that it's not even really a fight (I mean, even when he fought a bajillion vampires in that "pick up the coin" fight, everyone knew he was going to win, didn't they?), or he's fought someone who is just categorically not going to kill him because they love him and even tell him so (i.e., Elijah and Rebekah). Mikael's fun because he really does seem like a threat.

 

Anyway, I loved everything about Mikael's SL in this episode, including his really-not-that-harsh training session with Davina. And that he started it with the exact same line as Elijah used to start Gia's training, too.

 

(Took my other thoughts on Mikael to a speculation thread, because I was spinning some theory and figured it didn't really belong here).

 

I'm hoping that Kol starts power playing soon. He's never been much of a follower and he's always been a bit psychotic.

 

Kol being at the cabin didn't seem primarily romantic, to me? I thought he was basically just playing Davina (though he does have game, I thought the whole thing about "you have a lecherous mind" was cute), and was there primarily because he realized that Mikael was under her control (he saw during the bar fight, even though he denied it to Esther after) and wanted to do reconnaissance. He clearly doesn't relish being under Esther's control, so I think he's probably trying to come up with a plan for playing Mikael and/or Davina against her. For all I know, though, he's going to want to possess Davina though -- I mean, he seems to like being Kaleb, but Davina is very powerful, she's got to be attractive as someone to possess. I wonder what spell he put on that bracelet and whether he now has control over Mikael. I doubt he just straight up released Mikael and stuck to his side of the deal, right? Kol's always looking out for #1, I would think he'd try to leverage even that deal into a better situation for himself, beyond just Mikael being free?

 

Plus this episode made me actually want to swoon Elijah: "As a devout feminist, I refuse to say you hit like a girl."  Swoooooooon.

 

Loved this! Also, that soon after, he says he feels responsible for Gia, and she zings back, "says the devout feminist." LOL. A lot of the dialogue was crackling tonight, which was really fun, it made the show much sharper than usual imo. That they were training and it wasn't as sausage-fest-y as usual and had witty dialogue made it feel very Buffy to me -- in a good way. Also, Elijah was actually pulling off the stubble -- I think because he didn't try to weirdly pair it with a suit -- so I was much more interested in him starting a romantic SL than usual, of course.

 

The Haley/Elijah/Gia love triangle thing really doesn't work for me, probably because I never bought the Haley/Elijah "romance" (especially now that Marcel straight up told Gia that Elijah can't resist a "bird with a broken wing." That's fine in terms of him training a new vampire but is just creepy when it comes to him fostering romantic feelings for a (then) runaway, pregnant teenage girl. I get why he's felt protective of Haley, because honestly, she was in such a vulnerable position last season that it would take a pretty cold person not to have been protective of her, but the reasons why him being protective are understandable also make him fantasizing about getting her into his bed too creepy for me to support).

 

I wish they would give up on giving Haley a romantic SL at all right now, because she actually works pretty well in terms of her female friendships (I liked her friendship with Rebekah last season, and how she interacted with Cami, and I liked her girl talk with Gia in this episode) and, against all odds, even the Werewolf Queen thing is working relatively well. I guess because the werewolves are such a group of schmucks that I can totally believe that the most competent person in that pack is Haley, sad as that is. They don't need to give her fifty storylines, she can just be Werewolf Queen, mourn her baby, and make some friends (I was about to say "female friends," but then I remembered that I actually liked how her friendship with Klaus started forming at the end of last season, too, so I guess "female and Klaus" friends). 

 

"Yay more Cami!!!!!" said no one ever.

 

(Took my thoughts about Cami specifically to the character thread, because obviously I am in the mood to blather on tonight and thought that would be a better place to put it (sorry to be so long-winded!)).

 

More specific to this episode, one of my favorite scenes was (surprisingly) when Cami ran up to the cabin panting like a fiend and Klaus teased her that she was about to have a heart attack, she told him he needed to not hurt Davina, he said sure, and she hugged him. That was very sweet and light without being OOC, imo, and I would be totally down for more interactions like that. On the other hand, I could do with zero more interactions like the awkward "Ask me to dance" "You['re saying you] want to dance?" "No, but..." stuff in the bar. Though maybe the show is actually taking Cami/Klaus in the direction of becoming friends rather than a romantic pairing, and that's why the quasi-romantic bar scene was so awkward anyway? Klaus even randomly vanished at the end, which was about as romantic as a brown bag lunch. I hope the show is steering them toward a friendship, because imo Cami and Klaus actually do have legit good friend chemistry (though of course YMMV), and it seems like such a shame to waste that. The Josh/Davina friendship has been a highlight of the show, imo, and there is definitely space for more lighter, fresher friendships like that, and for more lightness altogether on the show.

 

Instead of trying to force Klami (LOL no idea what the ship name is but I hope that's it) in order to create a love triangle by sheer will, I hope that the show lets Camarcel happen *while* retaining the Klaus/Cami and Marcel/Klaus friendships. That also would be an evolution from the weird Marcel/Rebekah/Klaus love triangle of last season, since Klaus would not longer be able to be violently jealous and Marcel would finally have an SL that's not awkwardly about Klaus (and also not awkwardly incestuous, because Rebekah lived with him as his sister for HOW long?).

Edited October 28, 2014 by rue721

[AlliMo]

That Gia/Elijah training scene made *me* a little sweaty.

 

I feel like the obvious answer here is for them to just find a way to throw Esther and Mikael at each other. If nothing else, they'll keep each other occupied long enough for Klaus, Elijah and Co. to come up with a decent plan.

 

I loved Daniel Gilles line delivery that ended with, "your particular brand of... sass." I was swearing at the last scene that they'd better not touch a hair on his perfectly coiffed head, then I got distracted by him being all chained up. Basically, I just love Daniel Gilles.

Edited October 28, 2014 by AlliMo

[immortalfrieza]

This episode shows exactly what the vast majority of episodes on this show and Vampire Diaries should be like. A little talking here and there, but mostly the characters kicking each other's asses for 40 minutes. Both shows are being too much like a soap opera with supernatural creatures for my taste, though Originals is much better about it.

[Kaboom 2.0]

Cami sure was not sweaty at all after running in the woods for a long time in hot and humid weather (eyeroll). I see no chemistry between her and Klaus other than possibly a mild friendship. I do commend her for looking out for Davina, that girl has no idea what she's up against and needs someone to care.

 

I really thought this ep would be awful since it opened with Cami monotoning, UGH. But thankfully I rather enjoyed it: Mikael training Davina, the awesome actor portraying Finn (I seriously cannot take my eyes off him, he is always doing something with his face or body that makes me focus on what the character is saying/doing), Kol causing trouble, Mikael in a tank top, Marcel making plans and looking fantastic as he does so, Elijah the feminist schooling both the baby vamp and those awful wolves of Esther in his own debonair way, Klaus vs Marcel in a damn good fight, very little Hayley, chained up Elijah.

 

Shouldn't Klaus know better than to leave Mikael alone even after plunging Papa Tunde's knife in his chest? Mikael Myers, indeed (TM rue721). I'm still waiting for Esther vs Mikael, I'm positive Kol will have a hand in that after betraying mother dearest. I still demand that Kol, as a witch himself, somehow find a way to recover his true form...no knocks against the actor currently portraying him but I miss NB.

 

If Jackson the Marble Mouthed Werewolf is truly gone than I say yay, show and thank you! Thankfully the delish Aiden has stepped up to pull focus. I may, MAY, have squeed a bit at the end when he and Josh, master of giving nicknames, met up at the bar. Will their attraction turn to lurve? How will Davina react to her Josh finally finding a significant other? Will Josh give Aiden an adorable nickname like Mittens? Squee.

[patchwork]

I kept waiting for them to cut back to Kol wearing the bracelet. It'll be weird if he didn't take advantage of the situation somehow. 

 

Much prefer this Esther, she has a gravitas the others have lacked and it's so nice to see witch hypocrisy alive and well. 

[driedfruit]

Loved the Mikael/Klaus fight but I'm a little pissed that Mikael was just able to pull the knife out, while both Elijah and Klaus suffered helpless.

I didn't mind it since I always thought Mikael is more powerful than Klaus and Elijah put together. Otherwise the foursome of Rebekah/Klaus/Elijah/Kol should've had nothing to fear as there was four of them and one of dad. I assume Mikael's strength was Alaric level. And Alaric singlehandedly defeated the combined force of Klaus, Stefan, Damon, and Bonnie's magic without breaking a sweat. 

 

Anyway, I loved everything about Mikael's SL in this episode, including his really-not-that-harsh training session with Davina. And that he started it with the exact same line as Elijah used to start Gia's training, too.

Mikael's very presence is chilling. It's such a vast improvement on the threadbare weaksauce villains of last season.

 

What I'm intrigued about is how the show is paralleling Mikael and Elijah. That and how in 2.01/2.02 the zoom on the slow footsteps past the boundaries and the near identical thrilled smiles. Seems to me as much as they loath him, Klaus and Elijah admire Mikael enough to emulate his ideals on strength and patriarchy.

 

I've shifted my perspective about Mikael's intentions towards young Klaus. Given what we know of his own upbringing, he would view beating Klaus as a necessary evil. If Mikael believes ultimate power is overcoming pain, then he might've been training the weak one extra hard to get him there.

 

What I'm waiting for is a curve ball with Kol. He didn't seem frightened of Mikael at all in the 1800s, and while that could be explained, I'm starting to wonder if their relationship isn't as bleak as the others. On one hand, Kol is not good with obedience, so Mikael should hate him. On the other hand, Rebekah wasn't good with it either, and she was his favorite... It's a hard call.

 

Oh and I don't think Elijah quite grasps what feminist means. His love of damsels in distress seems to contradict it at least. 

Edited October 28, 2014 by driedfruit

[ElectricBoogaloo]

First of all, I loved Josh's online profile at the beginning of the episode. Secondly, I love that he is finally getting a love interest! I kind of wish they weren't doing this whole star crossed lovers thing ("A vampire in love with a slayer - it's rather poetic in a maudlin sort of way") because you know it's just going to cause The Drama, but I'd rather see that than the usual Klaus drama. Is the werewolf guy's name Aidan? I must be getting old because I thought his name was Hayden - ha!

 

I don't like Cami as a character but I do love when she gives Klaus shit. Her comment about Papa Tunde's knife was great, as was her general exasperation with him. Klaus annoys me so much that when he and Mikael were fighting, I found myself hoping that they would simultaneously die.

 

Loved that before Elijah took on all the werewolves, he carefully removed his jacket and folded it neatly. I also loved that no one else moved to stop him because they all know that's Elijah.

 

Is Phoebe Tonkin even trying to do an American accent anymore? In that first scene, her natural accent was SO strong that I felt like she had just given up completely.

[driedfruit]

I really thought this ep would be awful since it opened with Cami monotoning, UGH. But thankfully I rather enjoyed it: Mikael training Davina, the awesome actor portraying Finn (I seriously cannot take my eyes off him, he is always doing something with his face or body that makes me focus on what the character is saying/doing), Kol causing trouble, Mikael in a tank top, Marcel making plans and looking fantastic as he does so, Elijah the feminist schooling both the baby vamp and those awful wolves of Esther in his own debonair way, Klaus vs Marcel in a damn good fight, very little Hayley, chained up Elijah.

I love the actor. I really hope they don't waste him by killing Finn off or switch his body anytime soon. Initially I was annoyed about the recasts, but Finn is such an immense upgrade. 

 

I don't mind Cami. She works fine as a bartender, but ditto everyone who mentioned her lack of chemistry with Klaus. I'm surprised the show is still pushing this pairing. The one Mikaelson she's remotely compatible with is Finn, lol. If she ever finds out his true identity, they can bitch about Klaus over coffee. 

Edited October 28, 2014 by driedfruit

[rue721]

What I'm intrigued about is how the show is paralleling Mikael and Elijah. That and how in 2.01/2.02 the zoom on the slow footsteps past the boundaries and the near identical thrilled smiles.

 

They paralleled Klaus and Mikael a lot last season, too, in Le Grand Guignol and Farewell to Storyville especially (they even intercut between Klaus and Mikael going into the graveyard with the white stake in the same way). I figured that was just because Klaus is obsessed with Mikael, but it was interesting to hear Elijah echoing him in this episode, too. Tbh, I'm not sure where the show is going with that?

 

I'm still waiting for Esther vs Mikael, I'm positive Kol will have a hand in that after betraying mother dearest.

 

Are you guys sure that Esther and Mikael are going to *fight*? Mikael doesn't seem to me like he has a serious problem with anyone except Klaus, and maybe with werewolves in general. Esther has decided she's not going to kill anyone [in her immediate family] this time around anyway. I'm wondering if they're going to team up against the siblings, instead of teaming up with a kid or two by their side. Although maybe he's pissed at her for creating vampires, and that'll be a wedge? But he was the one who convinced her to do it!

 

I don't like Cami as a character but I do love when she gives Klaus shit. Her comment about Papa Tunde's knife was great, as was her general exasperation with him. Klaus annoys me so much that when he and Mikael were fighting, I found myself hoping that they would simultaneously die.

 

Totally agree. I laughed when she called the knife -- what, the "knife of ludicrous torment" or something? The dialogue in this episode was pretty great altogether, I really appreciated that. These writers have done some good episodes in the past -- they did one of my favorites from last season, Tangled Up in Blue. The writers for next week are good, too -- they did Le Grand Guignol, which imo was another highlight from last season.

 

It seems like the show retained a lot of the writing staff from last year and that they're a really good group. Although oddly, it's a bunch of people without many previous shows under their belts? What's odd to me about that is that the CW/WB likes to recycle actors and writers from show to show, so it seems like most of the series are filled with people from previous series. But I guess they didn't have a whole lot of cancellations last year, so no reason or ability to shuffle writers around, and the show itself must be a reasonably nice place to work considering that they didn't all flee (if you look at the writing staff of the first season of TVD, in contrast, they basically all left after that season. I think only like one or two stayed? and even Kevin Williamson basically left, lol).

 

Anyway, yes, I like that Cami is always calling out Klaus. Her uncle was a straight-shooter, too, so I guess that makes sense (man, I wish *he* would come back! He must have gone to the Other Side since he died as a vampire, right? Can Esther or Davina bring him back?)? I really do like Cami whenever she's *not* being a psychologist. Probably a reason I like her relationship with Davina is that Davina told her flat out to stop with the psychobabble, and Cami actually did.

 

I was also rooting for Mikael to stake Klaus in that fight because what would happen if he did? Obviously the show can't be like, "whoops, no more Klaus!" so I assume it would have to be something complicated and weird. Would Klaus go to the other side, and Esther would sense that and yank him out to put him in a new body? Would he be weirdly haunting people's dreams like Mikael did? I like Joseph Morgan as Klaus so I don't particularly want Klaus to be in a new body, and I like Klaus anyway so I don't want him dead/gone but...I dunno, it just seemed interesting to think about the possibilities. I also sure didn't want Klaus to just stake Mikael and get rid of him so fast! Plus, it was kind of a fluke that Klaus won against Mikael last time (since so many other people were involved in that fight), but apparently it made him really confident that he can basically take Mikael whenever he wants, and that attitude irritated me throughout the first half of the episode. He seemed very "oh wtvr, just biding time until I kill him" in the whole lead up to going to the cabin, which I think is insane considering that in the 1000 years *before* he killed Mikael, he was fleeing from him in (appropriate!) terror, and considering that selling Mikael as a real threat has been essential to SO MANY plotlines. Maybe he was just bluffing, but if so, then he did fool me. So I kind of wanted him to lose the fight just to freak him out, lol.

 

Shouldn't Klaus know better than to leave Mikael alone even after plunging Papa Tunde's knife in his chest?

 

What I laughed at is that he used the automatic close on the trunk door. It was so weird that he was just standing there as the trunk door slowly and softly closed over Mikael's body laying in a heap. LOL. Where is he even fixing to bring Mikael? Please not to his house, that is nuts.

[immortalfrieza]

They paralleled Klaus and Mikael a lot last season, too, in Le Grand Guignol and Farewell to Storyville especially (they even intercut between Klaus and Mikael going into the graveyard with the white stake in the same way). I figured that was just because Klaus is obsessed with Mikael, but it was interesting to hear Elijah echoing him in this episode, too. Tbh, I'm not sure where the show is going with that?

I'd say that with both instances the writers are trying to point out that as much as Mikael and his kids loathe each other Mikael has had a VERY strong influence on all of their behavior, they're just making it pretty explicit here.

 

Are you guys sure that Esther and Mikael are going to *fight*? Mikael doesn't seem to me like he has a serious problem with anyone except Klaus, and maybe with werewolves in general. Esther has decided she's not going to kill anyone [in her immediate family] this time around anyway. I'm wondering if they're going to team up against the siblings, instead of teaming up with a kid or two by their side. Although maybe he's pissed at her for creating vampires, and that'll be a wedge? But he was the one who convinced her to do it!

Yes, I don't see any reason that once Mikael finds out about Esther that they'll be enemies, far from it. In fact, Klaus killing Esther is the reason Mikael is so doggedly obsessed with killing Klaus, so Mikael will probably join up with her to put an end to him.

 

What I laughed at is that he used the automatic close on the trunk door. It was so weird that he was just standing there as the trunk door slowly and softly closed over Mikael's body laying in a heap. LOL. Where is he even fixing to bring Mikael? Please not to his house, that is nuts.

Knowing Klaus he was probably planning have a witch put an anti locator spell on Mikael and then bury him out in the middle of nowhere or toss him in the ocean to suffer forever, but of course Mikael pulling out the knife put a stop to that.

[Lady Calypso]

First of all, I loved Josh's online profile at the beginning of the episode. Secondly, I love that he is finally getting a love interest! I kind of wish they weren't doing this whole star crossed lovers thing ("A vampire in love with a slayer - it's rather poetic in a maudlin sort of way") because you know it's just going to cause The Drama, but I'd rather see that than the usual Klaus drama. Is the werewolf guy's name Aidan? I must be getting old because I thought his name was Hayden - ha!

 

 

So did I. I can actually see Josh/Aiden being the catalysts to start bringing the werewolves and vampires together. Even as supporting characters, I can see both of them easily playing a big role in this vampires vs werewolves storyline. Although I do actually fear for Aiden dying by the mid season finale. It would be a strong storyline for Josh, but at the same time, it's just cliche to kill off the significant other for drama. I love Josh regardless, and I love him and Aiden together after just one scene, so if it means Josh lives and gets character development to boot, I won't be too mad. I'm kind of hoping they upgrade Steven Kreuger to a series regular; at least I'll feel safer about his survival rate on this show.

 

Also, thank god they got rid of Jackson. I like Oliver much better than Jackson and I liked Oliver's scenes with Elijah. 

 

I like Cami, I like when she stands up to Klaus (seeing as nobody else seems to have the balls to do it in such an aggressive manner that she can), and I like her friendships with Davina and Hayley. I don't particularly like her with Klaus, unless it's friends, and I like her and Marcel together. Oh, and now I like her with Finn. So, heh, not a Cami hater here. Just a Cami/Klaus romance hater.

 

Yes, I don't see any reason that once Mikael finds out about Esther that they'll be enemies, far from it. In fact, Klaus killing Esther is the reason Mikael is so doggedly obsessed with killing Klaus, so Mikael will probably join up with her to put an end to him.

 

 

Exactly. Unless Mikael thinks that Esther is getting in the way of his plans, or he disagrees with her methods, then I think they'll probably team up in some way. The thing is that we don't know how Esther and Mikael feel about each other. We know they were married to each other, but that's about it. So it's really up to interpretation on their relationship. We know they share a common goal (well, Esther wants to rid the world of vampires; Mikael just wants to kill Klaus) but are they actually different goals? Esther seems fine with leaving her children alive but has found a way to turn them human instead. Mikael just wants to kill Klaus and he doesn't care about his other children. So I don't see why Esther would object to Mikael's plans. She was going to do worse back in season 3 of The Vampire Diaries.

 

Mikael truly is the best villain they've had on the show, and TVD. Is he campy? In a way, of course he is. He's the villain that just won't die. But I'm happy he's around. They built him up so much on TVD, he appears for three episodes and then gets killed off easily. I was disappointed by the build up of Klaus actually being afraid and supposedly been running from him for centuries. So him coming back to life last season was a brilliant move by the show. And him being able to pull the blade out of his chest was well done as well. He's more effective than Esther is, actually. While Esther pretends that she gives a crap about her kids, Mikael clearly couldn't care less. He has a set goal, while Esther kind of flip flops and pretends to be all about family. She may care about her kids to an extent, but clearly not enough as she was going to kill them. 

 

I can't wait for Kaleb/Kol to reveal himself to his siblings and Davina. I do miss Nate Buzolic, though. No offense to Daniel Sharman, as I do think he's doing a fine job portraying Kol, but I prefer NB's psychotic way of portraying Kol. Plus, no fears of Davina/Kol becoming a thing.

 

I like Gia a lot. I think she's doing a great job and I like her chemistry with Elijah. I did like Hayley/Elijah for the first half of the first season, but they lost my interest the second half. Now, I really don't want anything to happen with them. Speaking of Elijah, poor guy. I do think this could be what tips him over the edge and truly chooses the vampires. Maybe Esther will show him how weak Elijah really is when he's around Klaus. 

[PinkRibbons]

My memories are murky; was there not any kind of conflict between Mikael and Esther after she cheated on him? I feel like before now we've been given the idea that Mikael beat up on Klaus a lot more mostly because he knew the kid wasn't his. I even had the impression that he was punishing Esther in a way by hurting one of her children. So I do wonder on what kind of terms those two would be.

[rue721]

Knowing Klaus he was probably planning have a witch put an anti locator spell on Mikael and then bury him out in the middle of nowhere or toss him in the ocean to suffer forever, but of course Mikael pulling out the knife put a stop to that.

 

If Klaus is true to form, I actually expect him to pull right up to his house and open the trunk ready to carry Mikael up to the spare bedroom or something. That he wondered the earth for a millennia dragging the daggered bodies/corpses of his entire family around with him in coffins is just so bizarre that it's still my favorite thing about the character, so I figure or at least hope that he'll want to keep Mikael close. Plus, I don't have any idea of what he could be planning to *do* with his father even going on the assumption that Mikael's paralyzed with the Mystical Knife of Eternal Torment stuck in him, but I assume he has something in mind because he always does stuff for max drama. He's got to at least be planning to show Mikael to Elijah, I would think? I'm so curious about everything that's going to happen when that trunk opens up, tbh. That's what I'm most looking forward to seeing next week.

 

Speaking of, though, what was Klaus talking about when he said he'd followed Cami's advice w/r/t Mikael? Did he mean that he was enjoying the little things, like that his father was laying at his feet suffering hideous torment, instead of putting on blinders to everything but the big questions, like whether he'd actually killed his father yet?

 

I'd say that with both instances the writers are trying to point out that as much as Mikael and his kids loathe each other Mikael has had a VERY strong influence on all of their behavior, they're just making it pretty explicit here.

 

Yes, I think you're right. It'll be interesting to watch that develop, now that Mikael and Esther are back on the scene and everyone's going to be able to see the similarities between them and their children for themselves.

 

Also, thank god they got rid of Jackson. I like Oliver much better than Jackson and I liked Oliver's scenes with Elijah.

 

I'm glad that Jackson's gone, but I hate Oliver, too. All I really remember of Oliver last season was that he mocked Diego for the grudge against his pack that Diego carried because the pack had slaughtered his entire family, that after mocking Diego, Oliver had the class to wonder across the party to flirt with the fifteen-year-old wallflowers, and that he smothered Eve in her bed to keep the secret that he'd been involved in the bombing that had paralyzed her and killed members of their pack. Tbh, I was hoping that Finn killed Oliver when he flung him against that car.

 

The werewolves are just awful in general, and while I think Hayley's right that it's unjust that they're excluded from the power games and parties in the Quarter, I TOTALLY GET how their invitations have been getting lost in the mail and why WHOOPS nobody happened to bother breaking that curse Celeste had on them for a couple decades or so. My hopes are up for Aiden though, he seems to break that pattern of werewolf buffoonery.

 

My memories are murky; was there not any kind of conflict between Mikael and Esther after she cheated on him?

 

This is just from memory, so anybody who remembers better please correct me, but I think this is the timeline:

 

1. Henrik and Klaus go to watch the werewolves turn and Henrik is killed.

2. Esther and Mikael ask another witch in their village to put a spell on their kids to protect them, but the other witch refuses.

3. Mikael convinces Esther to do the spell herself.

4. To finish the spell, Mikael stabs the kids to death and feeds them blood. (I guess Esther's also working on the spell somehow?)

5. Esther helps the newly-vamped kids out with the daylight rings, etc.

6. Klaus loses control with bloodlust and murders somebody as he's feeding, triggering the werewolf curse.

7. Mikael realizes that Klaus isn't his biological son.

 

Then, I'm not sure what the sequence of events is for this stuff:

Esther puts the binding spell on Klaus, with the help of Mikael and Elijah to keep Klaus tied down.

Mikael slaughters Klaus's biological father and the father's pack.

Mikael disappears (I hazily remember a mention of him going off to hunt down werewolves generally? But I'm not sure).

Klaus murders Esther somehow and for some reason.

 

Finally:

Elijah and Rebekah find out Esther's dead and help Klaus bury her.

Klaus tells them that Mikael killed Esther, and they believe him.

Elijah, Rebekah, and Klaus swear the "always and forever" pact over their mother's grave.

 

Then at some point I guess they managed to dagger Mikael and chain him up in that casket that Katherine found him in, in TVD? And also at some point exhumed Esther and put her in that chained-up coffin. But I don't remember at all how that happened or even if they've told us. Also, at some point someone paints this whole story on the walls of a Mystic Falls cave. Esther's ring also somehow makes it all the way down from VA to LA to some direct descendent of Klaus's biological father (SO MANY QUESTIONS about Esther's relationship with Klaus's biological father, and even how the guy has direct descendents, since I thought Mikael's whole schtick was that he was wiping them all out and Klaus was the last one left?).

[Crucial]

I liked this episode.  What an upgrade for Finn and Esther (I almost hate to see original Esther in flashbacks).  I did like the interaction with Mikael and Davina.  I love Davina so I pity Kol when she finds out what he did.  Speaking of Kol, I hope he has a way to betray Esther and Finn and work with Elijah and Klaus.  It's such a switch but I am now rooting that Klaus and Elijah pays back Finn, Esther, and Mikael - hoping they have the help of Kol (and Original Kol comes back).  I can do without Haley and any lead bitch pack talk she gives (but I admit it's because I don't care for the actress).  Please send Cammie to visit her relatives too.

[Cattitude]

I like this episode. I really like Mikael and Klaus.

 

I wasn't feelin' Elijah and Gia at all until the heart grab. They did have some chemistry during that long stare, but nothing like Elijah usually has with everyone.

Why does Plec like triangles so much? Klaus/Cami/Marcel AND Hayley/Elijah/Gia. Both are not needed. I wanted Elijah to finally get to win in love and then unexplained fake conflict between he and Hayley. ugh!

 

I'm no Caroline fan for sure, but Klaus and Caroline had loads of chemistry and Cami always comes off as poor sustitute for Caroline, who isn't truely needed on TVD so I don't see why she can't just come over to TO and send Cami off far away.

 

Esther is just gross, though the new witch is great. I understand that she wants to right a wrong so she says, but seems more set on being in control and KEEPING her family submissive to her. She just seems to hate them so much for something she caused. A real mother could never hate her children so much. I really dislike her having Elijah. boo!

New Finn is great, but I miss real Kol. I like the fake one too but he is not Kol.

[mac123x]

I have a crush on Daniel Sharman, and hearing his natural accent (versus the fake American he did on Teen Wolf) makes him that much more dreamy.  I like Finn's actor too, but I wish they'd given him a different gesture to indicate when he's doing magic -- he looks like he's playing the worlds smallest violin.

 

Then at some point I guess they managed to dagger Mikael and chain him up in that casket that Katherine found him in, in TVD?

 

Mikael somehow learned that a Doppleganger was born in Mystic Falls, and came there (probably hoping to catch Klaus when he finally showed up for Elena's blood).  Bonnie's mom cast the dessicate-a-vamp spell on him and put him in the crypt where Katherine finally found him.