TV RECAP: The Originals “Brotherhood of the Damned”

By Erin Resnick

Imagine if you could astral project yourself anywhere in the world. You could go to DisneyWorld, to the top of the Eiffel Tower, backstage to a Backstreet Boys concert, or into the writer’s room of The Originals. Traveling would be so easy and cost efficient. This week on The Originals, entitled “Brotherhood of the Damned,” Finncent did just that; except he decided to astral project himself and his brothers into a dingy, otherworldly cabin with dead animal heads plastered all over the walls. Family bonding, you know?

Marcel and his posse of baby vampires and Josh were still stuck in the compound, growing thirstier and angrier by the second. It didn’t help that Marcel had suffered a werewolf bite just before the wolves had escaped and Josh and Gia were starting to question his leadership capabilities. Marcel’s arm wasn’t the only part wounded as he began to hallucinate his buddy from his time fighting as a soldier in WWI.

Davina was helping Klaus to locate Finncent, Elijah was namedropping Freud and confessing his wrongdoings about Tatia while having a therapy session with Cami, and Kol was still fending himself off from the hungry, hungry vampires when all three dropped unconscious to the ground. They awoke in an old cabin, somewhere in the nethersphere, brought together by Finn’s rage and desire to unlock their deepest secrets. He had even included different animal heads decorated on the walls to represent each brother and his personality.

Back during WWI, Klaus had tried to convince Marcel, not once, but twice to rethink his position as a soldier. He even tried luring him with beautiful girls as a snack, but Marcel was gaining leadership among his men, he was loyal to their cause. In the present, Marcel used his flashbacks as fuel to wrangle his own legion of vampires. His bite wasn’t going to stop him from keeping his vampires from going savage.

Finn had decided he had no use for Kol; his secrets weren’t needed, and sent him back to the compound so the vampires wouldn’t devour his vulnerable body. But it wasn’t murdering Kol the vampires had to worry about, it was Finn’s spell to release them into the crowd of the parade transpiring outside, leaving them all to ravage and feast on the residents of New Orleans.

Out in the bayou, Jackson had decided to introduce Hayley to his grandmother. The hybrid was excited and warming up to Jackson and their marriage until his grandmother divulged the rituals of their unification, which included recreational drug use to make them spill all their deepest, darkest secrets.

In the blurry cabin, Finn was taunting Klaus to spill his secret; the key to unlocking it wasn’t his biological father, Rebekah, or Elijah. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t break Klaus. In fact, Elijah had figured out the magic behind Finn’s dream world and it all hinged on the projections of the brothers being correct, representations of their true selves. If Elijah could break his mold, the person Finn thought he was, he could break himself and Klaus out. Elijah stayed strong and confessed his secret about Tatia to Klaus who in turn accepted his secret. Klaus backed up his brother and broke his own mold, forgiving Elijah, not harboring any resentment or hurt for what he had done. These acts broke them free from Finn’s magic, returning them to their bodies.

Marcel’s flashbacks presented a fight to the death for him and his soldiers. His comrades had fought hard and honorably and he would make sure his vampires did the same. Finn’s spell on the compound broke and they were all free to roam out in the open. Marcel did everything in his power and led his group through the crowded and partying streets, back to his home for them to feed properly and for Marcel to heal himself of his bite. He awoke with Gia by his side, apologizing and praising his strength through the ordeal.

Unfortunately, Finn had popped in to vamp-knap Marcel and the others. If the secret of Hope was not going to be spilled by a Mikaelson sibling then Marcel would surely be the key. Klaus enlisted Aiden to help him find Marcel, Josh, and the others and the wolf let Klaus in on the unification ritual that would make Hayley confess her secret. It was off to the bayou he went.

Things we need to discuss:

– The flashbacks intertwined with the present day events were beautiful. Marcel is a leader and proved it tenfold.

– What other famous figures in history has Elijah sipped tea with? I think we need a whole other spin-off of just Elijah’s flashbacks mingling with famous figures.

– “I am fighting the monumental desire to mount your severed head upon one of these walls.” – Elijah speaking the words we never thought we needed to hear until now.

– Where would you astral project yourself?

– How many times has Klaus walked through a New Orleans parade while shouting on his phone?