This week’s episode of The Originals, “Exquisite Corpse,” is all about killing Eva Sinclair and saving Rebekah from her body. There were a few speed bumps along the way, but in many ways, it was a filler episode, ending a plot line and setting up others. This episode had no real inclusion of the overall arc except for some insights in Freya’s character.
This second season of The Originals has dealt with body snatching amongst the original family. It started out as a great high-jinx plot line, similar to that of the doppelgangers of The Vampire Diaries, but it has been played out at this point of the season. It makes sense to be able to replace actors who don’t necessarily want to return or have schedule conflicts. The replacement actors have created so much character inconsistency with Esther, Finn, Kol, and Rebekah. These new actors don’t really channel the characters, and I can’t help but miss the actors that I fell in love with on The Vampire Diaries. The only one who I do think pulled it off was Daniel Sharman as Kol, but really he just pulled off cocky and obnoxious well. Most of all, I really want Claire Holt back on the show.
This episode did perpetuate the major theme: it always comes down to family and protecting each other. Elijah and Klaus always go about this in different ways, which is nice to see. We now have Freya added to the mix. Freya and Esther were reunited, and it was great to see Esther not trust her. It was also great to see Freya kill her. I sympathize for Freya, but I don’t trust her. Freya is accepted by the witches and sees Klaus’ weaknesses, bringing more even more power. I don’t like to see Klaus weaker than someone else in this show, which just shows that even because he is characterized as evil, Joseph Morgan has brought to life a multifaceted character.
Elijah and Gia is a thing now. It is surprisingly nice to see that Hayley is semi-jealous when she finds out. We spent all of season one building up to a relationship between these two, but other factors put a hold on that. I am still holding out hope for Elijah and Hayley to be a couple.
The topic and threat of Dahlia is put off in this episode, but now that Eva Sinclair is taken care of, Dahlia will now be the center focus. Klaus and the rest of the original family, Hayley included, will do anything to keep Hope safe. After episode “The Devil is Damned,” where Cami was saved by Hope magically shutting the car off was never address again, I think it will be interesting to see that plot line played out further, but it might be just a rehash of Wyatt from the show Charmed.
The season finale is drawing closer and closer. That means a meeting with Dahlia is imminent.
Will Dahlia live up to the big bad status that Freya claims? Or will it be Freya who turns out to be the real problem they should be worried about? And when will we get Claire Holt and the real Rebekah back?
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Episode Grade: 6/10
The Originals airs Mondays at 8/7c on The CW.
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