The Originals - Recap: After My Reign, Whatever
When Davina started vomiting dirt, Klaus and the gang began an episode of fighting the elements that ended with a depressing death and with a massive twist. The Originals continued tonight!
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Episode 11 opened with a conversation between the group regarding the impending she-beast of doom that was Elijah’s old flame, Celeste. Hayley (Phoebe Tonkin) sat by sick to her stomach knowing very well that she’d been the one to hand over Celeste’s bones to Sophie for her consecration spell. Remember, the witches don’t have a link to their power now that their elders are dead. If Sophie could perform this ritual, truth be told, she’d become an elder in her own right. The conversation was cut short due to the spontaneous earthquake that seemed centered on Mikaelson Manor. Upstairs, young Davina began convulsively vomiting dirt, much to Marcel’s concern. Yes, that is concerning. It didn’t take long for Hayley to come clean to Elijah privately, though that didn’t go over very well. Elijah’s “you read my diary!?” teenage-girlish response was brief and cold, leaving Hayley to spend most of Episode 11 sulking.
Before long, Elijah was interjecting his two cents into Sophie’s business with his ex-girlfriend’s bones. Sabine, who also thought Sophie’s behavior to be disrespectful and kind of loony, stood by idly as Elijah dragged Sophie back to his home. There, she became aware of Davina’s baffling behavior, a clear indication that the power inside of her was eating her alive. The power channeled through The Harvest was meant to do just that. When its traveling was halted by Davina’s refusal to participate, she took on the power of three dead witches. Now, that massive amount of magical energy was looking to escape. As Sophie continued to explain, Davina would magically work her way through the four elements, beginning with Earth, if they refused to allow her to perform The Harvest against Davina’s will.
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While Marcel and Elijah were initially skeptical, Klaus and Rebekah took the spontaneous earthquake as a definitive sign. In the teen witch’s bedroom, Rebekah attempted to softly and kindly convince Davina to participate willingly, promising to protect her and stand by her side. Davina, refusing to trust yet another vampire entirely, began her state of epic panic at this point, as though puking up literal chunks of ground wasn’t enough reason to do so. Rebekah shut her up with an injection of a sedative. In town, Klaus met with Father Kieran (Todd Stashwick) to alert him of all that was transpiring. Kieran has connections to the people as well as the supernatural beings. If Davina was to do everything from cause an excessively windy day, to flood the Quarter, and to finally incinerate everyone alive in one fiery blast, the civilians should probably be slightly aware of the need to take flight or duck and cover. By the time the Wind started blowing through the streets, even Elijah and Marcel couldn’t deny the signs.
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At this point in Episode 11, each of our characters began to simultaneously further the cause of protecting the kingdom they built while protecting their own interests. For example, Marcel began obsessing over the need to protect Davina from *gulp* being murdered. Rebekah, on the other hand, had her own agenda, which has been continuing to build momentum. She inevitably met with Sophie during her bartending shift to remind her of what they both stood to lose. If the witches regain power, that makes them formidable opponents for the vampires. Meaning, Klaus and Marcel would stop at nothing to outsmart them back into submission. Rebekah was quite convincing in her offer to Sophie. When all is said and done, the Original sister would have one more ally in her alliance against her brother and ex-boyfriend.
Elijah, looking to pay his one true love her last respects, joined Sophie and Sabine during their ritual. Saving her remains and keeping his promise to bury her safely away from the witches’ clutches was no longer an option. If a witch’s remains are consecrated, her magic is forever linked back to the coven. Celeste never wanted that. She simply wanted to R.I.P. like the rest of us boring, worm food folks. Sabine felt for Elijah, having known true love once herself. Though, things certainly got awkward when Sophie chimed back in. Celeste’s bones were already stripped. Man, all that witchy paraphernalia and nowhere to go, Sophie.
As all of this was transpiring, Marcel decided that he’d had enough of this young girl, whom he considers family, being treated like nothing more than a body to use in some archaic ritual. Snagging her sedated self from her bedroom, Marcel ran off with Davina and hid her somewhere nowhere would think to look. Elijah realized at once that the only chance of locating Davina was a locator spell thanks to a little help from Sabine. Unfortunately, Davina’s magic radiated across all of New Orleans, leading the spell to only point out the vague location of the river. Luckily, Rebekah has a connection that nobody but we the viewers know about. Thierry (Callard Harris), who wasn’t looking forward to drowning over and over or burning up for good, pointed out a specific hideout on the docks. Rebekah, continuing to navigate this chess match well, kept this knowledge to herself.
Of course, Celeste’s bones being all dried up was the most epic of snags. Without any link to their magic, Sophie couldn’t become the elder required to slit Davina’s throat. (They were speaking fairly casually about it at this point, so don’t judge me.) Elijah had one last-ditch idea that seemed just crazy enough to work. For all of you folks not familiar with The Vampire Diaries, the Mikaelson mother was an awesomely powerful witch who inevitably came back from the grave to attempt to massacre her entire family full of monstrosities. Klaus, always one for fond memories, has kept his mother’s remains all to himself in a coffin in their basement. Oh, she failed, obviously. Hence the spinoff! If they could consecrate her mother’s bones, thereby making the risky sacrifice of handing her powerful magic over to their enemies, they’d take a necessary step in saving the city. The other catch was that the woman’s remains needed to be consecrated on property owned by their family, and vampires can’t own property. Luckily, we have a she-wolf here carrying some awful hell-spawn hybrid inside of her at the moment, and that baby could essentially act as a landowner. With a little help from Father Kieran, the group hurled their mother’s casket into the ground of their family plantation, dripped a few droplets of blood, sign of the cross, amen! Let’s go slit a teenager’s throat!
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By the time Rebekah had made it to Marcel’s side, Davina was already busy vomiting up pure Water and the rain was pouring down all over the city. It was nice to see Marcel and Davina make amends prior, as he offered a genuine apology before swearing his allegiance to her. Rebekah only needed to point out in the aftermath that this girl was as good as dead either way. Once she left, Davina seemed to come to her senses. She made the best of her situation and chose to value the memories of love from her short life before agreeing to attend this Harvest. If she was meant to die, she refused to take out the entire French Quarter in an act of selfish stubbornness.
I really liked how a trail of Fire followed Marcel as he carried Davina into the cemetery for the ritual. The act was fairly quick. Davina agreed to partake, Sophie slit her throat in a flash, and the elders resurrected the girls once the power had been transferred. Oh, wait! That didn’t happen by any means. The elders didn’t show up to the party, folks. Everyone sans Sabine watched on as Davina simply remained collapsed on the ground along with the three other teenage corpses of her friends. Awkward, Sophie. So awkward. R.I.P. Davina, though I'm fairly certain we haven't seen the last of you. TTFN… Ta ta for now.
Marcel, infuriated by the deception of it all, fled back to the compound to blow off steam. It’s important to note that this week was a good one for Klaus. He showed compassion to Hayley by helping her deliver food to those taking shelter in Kieran’s church. Of course, they were of his werewolf bloodline. If you recall, Klaus became privy to their recent migration to New Orleans, and he used this as an opportunity to both show compassion and connect to Hayley. Now, it was Marcel who received a shoulder to cry on. Klaus recalled the feeling of once assuming that his best friend, Marcel, had burned to death during one of the massive destructive fires that engulfed the French Quarter in the past. It was also a great moment for Marcel, who finally dropped his guard entirely to mourn the loss of Davina, recognizing the entire battle for power and control to be for nothing when those he loves die. Davina, it seems, was the last of them. Also, are we under the impression that Marcel started one of those two fires Klaus noted?
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In the end, Hayley made one last effort to reconnect with Elijah, who’d spent the last two hundred years mourning the loss of Celeste. Would he truly choose the dead over the living if he loves both of these women? It seemed that, for one super steamy moment, he was going to give in to Hayley with a kiss, but alas, Elijah is an Original tease. She ran off into the night on her own, devastated. Back at Mikaelson Manor, Klaus and Rebekah had a final talk to recap the day of death and destruction. Episode 11 closed with Rebekah’s amazing final question being answered; where did all that power go? Back in the cemetery, we watched as Sabine performed some sort of voodoo ritual before absorbing what seemed like all of the power held by Davina into herself. While the city seemed empty, she then met with three resurrected figures, one of whom was an elder who’d previously attempted to complete The Harvest the night Marcel rescued Davina. These three were resting in peace, so why did Sabine call them forth to her? In one last massive twist, “Sabine” revealed the truth. She is Celeste. Thus, Celeste has been keeping busy working as a tour guide to make few bucks on the side.
By the way, the title, “Après Moi, Le Déluge,” translates to "After my reign, the nation will be plunged into chaos and destruction." Sometimes it's meant more casually, as though to say, "After my reign, whatever." What does it all mean?
What did you think of Episode 11 of Season 1 of The Originals, “Après Moi, Le Déluge”? Now that Celeste is back in business and presumably evil, will Elijah run back to Hayley? Does this have something to do with the baby? Were you impressed by Klaus’ compassion this week? Do we think Davina is actually dead?
Thanks for reading my Recap and Review of Episode 11 of Season 1 of The Originals, “Après Moi, Le Déluge”!