I was looking forward to the much-anticipated face-off between Marcel and Klaus on “The Originals” (Tues. at 8:00 p.m. on the CW) last night. While the two vampires and former friends brought different assets to the table, that didn’t necessarily mean it wasn’t a fair fight. Klaus is an Original (so he can’t be killed) and a hybrid (so he’s even more powerful than a vampire). Marcel is just a regular vampire, but he has an army of fellow vampires, plus a pocket witch (Davina) on his side. This was going to be a long, drawn-out battle to the death, right?
Well, no, not really. It only took a few minutes for Klaus to prove he can kill an entire army of vampires with his bare hands before Marcel cried uncle, picked up the coin Klaus had put on the ground for his first minion, and hand over the white oak dagger as Rebekah stood powerlessly nearby. It was the right thing to do, and good on Rebekah for nudging her boyfriend to make it happen. Though Marcel’s men took a heavy hit, not everyone was killed, and sucking it up saved lives. Marcel is a great leader, and he makes a strong point later when he tells Klaus he has something his new boss will never have — the loyalty of those who believe in him.
So, yes, inevitable, totally logical in many respects — and still pretty damn disappointing. We knew Klaus was strong, and we knew he wouldn’t have an army of his own to fight with him. I guess it seemed as if the battle to drag Klaus away had to be accomplished in one big fight sequence. But I thought this face off might have been more effective and more convincing if it hadn’t been so damn quick. Klaus is Superman? Seriously? Stronger is okay. Unbeatable (at least for now) is just disappointing.
This fast resolution approach is an issue I often have with “The Vampire Diaries,” in that huge amounts of plot are churned through with little time for us (or the characters) to digest it. This felt like a missed opportunity, given all of the build-up we’ve seen on “The Originals” since the first episode. The pacing of this spin-off has also been better — or was, until last night.
Of course, the battle isn’t truly over. Marcel and Klaus are always going to butt heads, and though I don’t know what this means for Rebekah (Klaus chose not to stab her with the dagger, so that’s progress), I’m hoping she can continue her relationship with Marcel for a least a while until Klaus throws a tantrum for some reason. Then again, Klaus is in therapy (yay, Cami!), so we might see some scenes in which he asks his siblings to do trust exercises and listen to him read letters about his feelings. Watching Klaus cry as he confronted Elijah and Rebekah in last night’s episode was a fabulous scene (don’t we love Joseph Morgan?) — and needed to happen so that the show still had a full cast (we can only have so many weeks with Elijah stuck in a coffin, people).
I’m sure the game plan for “The Originals” is going to be twisty-turny and there are more battles ahead. I just hope the show takes it’s time. I, for one, am in it for the long haul, and I’m sure I’m not the only one.
What did you think of last night’s episode?