We’ve reached the end. The Originals season 5 is complete, and we now know how the story ends for Rebekah, Klaus, Elijah, Kol, and all the rest. Do you feel unsettled, too?
It’s been a long road for the Mikaelsons on the CW. From their first appearance in The Vampire Diaries season 2 to this final chapter in The Originals season 5, the Mikaelsons have been complicated, frustrating, unsavory, and wonderful in almost equal measure. It’s not easy wrapping all of that up in one season, let alone one episode, but for the most part, this was a wonderful finale… except for that ending. More on that later.
First and foremost, I want to talk about all the wonderful things this finale gave us. Why don’t we start with Freya and Keelin? Sounds good to me. These two are wonderful together, and after all the crap Freya has been put through since her brothers and sister welcomed her into the family fold, she more than deserves the happy ending she got here. Freya lived as a hostage of her Aunt Dahlia for far too long, so it is only fitting that now she have a chance to be free and loved for the rest of this life.
It seems equally natural that they want to start a family, and while I may admit to have been taken aback at first by them asking Vincent to be the father of their children, the longer I thought about it, the more it made total sense. If Vincent is the father, this child will be biologically part witch and part werewolf. They could have raised any child to be accepted by both communities, but having a child who is born into both will truly bond them together for life. It’s exciting to think Hope could have a cousin who is in touch with both sides of their supernatural heritage and can bond with her over the uniqueness of their circumstances. I hope somewhere down the line on Legacies we get to visit Aunt Freya and Aunt Keelin and their family.
Also, I love that they are planning to stay in New Orleans. After all, the Mikaelsons called it home for a very long time, and I want Hope to be able to return there and make memories in the same places her mother and father did. I want her to feel their love for her when she returns to Freya and Keelin’s place for holidays or for her cousin’s birthday parties. It might not be vampire central anymore, but that doesn’t stop it from being home.
We didn’t get much of Kol in this episode, and the complete lack of Davina is a damn shame, but I’m glad that he got his happy ending, too. After all, he’s the Mikaelson who spent the most time in his coffin, daggered and carted around by Klaus (next to dearly departed Finn, of course). I get a warm feeling in my heart picturing Kol and Davina living on the West coast, soaking up the sun, eating tacos from a food truck and enjoying their lives. They will always be that way-cool couple in my eyes and that’s exactly what they deserve.
Who’s next… how about Marcel and Rebekah?
These two. Sigh. They have gotten it wrong so many more times than they’ve gotten it right. Klaus might have been a contributing factor to their on again/off again love story, but they threw enough of their own monkey wrenches into the mix for Klaus’ interference to be pretty much nullified. This season began with them together, and it ended with them finding a way to live their version of happily ever after.
While I’m extremely happy with Marcel and Rebekah finding contentedness in each other, Rebekah’s true happy ending is the final gift that Klaus gives her. Does anyone remember when we first learned about the Cure? Do we remember how fondly Rebekah dreamed of growing old and having babies and being mortal again? Well, the Cure is back in action. Apparently Caroline has the resources to get her hands on it, and will have it waiting for Rebekah when she’s ready to take it. It is the only ending that makes sense for the Original sister. She’s craved the feeling of mortality for too long, and now she will have a chance to embrace it on her terms once and for all.
And Marcel’s pledge to be there for Hope if she ever needs him definitely has this fangirl wondering if Charles Michael Davis might be planning for Marcel to find himself taking a trip to Mystic Falls sometime in the near future. There are definitely some possibilities there, and while I want to see Hope create a life for herself outside of the Mikaelson fold, it’s good to know that she has powerful people in her corner for when she inevitably gets herself into supernatural danger. She’s Klaus and Hayley’s daughter after all, guys. Trouble will most definitely find her.
Okay, moving on to all things Elijah and Klaus. This is where the finale comes off the rails for me. I knew that we would lose one of them in sacrifice to save the world from the power of the Hollow that has been plaguing us all season, but I really never believed it would be Klaus.
Since the moment Elijah abandoned Hayley in her moment of need, mind-altered or not, I knew he couldn’t find any sense of happiness without her. I knew that his death was going to be the balm to sooth his soul, and hopefully Hayley would be waiting for him in the next adventure. I assumed that since he HAD to die to find peace, Klaus wouldn’t have to. Klaus could live and spend his next few decades traveling the world with Caroline. Hope would have her life at school and beyond knowing that her father was out living his best life. She’d see him for holidays and the occasional father/daughter weekend off screen on Legacies and I would be fine with that. I NEVER, and I do mean NEVER, imagined that these brothers would die side by side in a sacrifice/suicide pact.
The Mikaelsons have been fighting for survival for centuries, not to mention the 5 long seasons spanning some 20 or so years that we’ve gotten to watch unfold. It seems wrong that these two would be so accepting of their fate in this instance. Why would they fight so hard to survive just to give up?
The penultimate episode of this series literally wrote us the chance at a better ending. All Elijah had to do was find a way, ANY WAY, to interrupt the siphoning ceremony and take Klaus’ place. If he begged his brother to let him join Hayley and save Hope and Klaus from having to live without each other, I can see Klaus giving up his role as sacrificial lamb. If Klaus believed that this is what Elijah needed, then I don’t see why he wouldn’t have put his pride aside and survived for his daughter.
I can’t help but imagine that this ending was more in service to the actors than the story. There, I said it. I love Joseph Morgan and Dan Gilles, and wish them all the best in their future endeavors, but I can’t help but wonder if they asked to be done with these characters once and for all, and the writer’s room obliged. They didn’t want to have to worry about possible appearances on Legacies. They didn’t want to worry about whatever future spinoffs Julie Plec dreams up. If this is the case, I understand, but I just don’t think this ending serves the characters as well as it does the actors.
Ultimately, this was a decent finale. Up until Elijah and Klaus’ deaths, it’s a great finale. It brought guest stars back and old storylines to a close. It reminisced about the characters and the events of the last five years with grins and snarky comebacks. It reminded us all of how much this family loves each other, which has been the grounding force for The Originals entire run. It may not have ended the way we all dreamed it would, but it has come to a close and as the characters that live on in this universe embrace living in an Originals-free world, we will all move on to new adventures as well. We will always have 5 seasons to look back on and rewatch for decades to come. We will always have, “Always and forever.”
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