TV REVIEW: The Originals Season 2 Episode 5 “Red Door”

By Erin Resnick

Quick tip: If I go missing please do not leave me 67 voicemails. Send me a text, find me on Myspace, or DM me a tweet in less than 140 characters. Odds are my mother has chained me up while she hexes me with an evil voodoo Elmo doll and I’m much more likely to respond to your AIM instant message in this case (my screen name is ELiJAhSgURL4EvRR for future reference).

This week’s episode of The Originals was a close look into how futile leaving voicemails are and how parents just don’t understand. Luckily, there were more wigs, another doppelganger, and shirtless Daniel Gillies covered in fake blood to keep us glued to our screens.

Esther had remained just as delusional as ever as she kept Elijah chained in her Crypt of Horrors. She insisted Elijah relive his most painful memories so he would become so consumed with guilt he would beg his mother to release him from his beautiful body and forcefully inhabit the body of some poor witch. It was okay for her to ruin someone’s life as long as her family was together again as witches and not the vampires she created.

With the cleansing of Elijah’s memories came the introduction of Tatia, the Nina Dobrev doppelganger Elijah and Klaus had both loved and the girl Esther had murdered for her blood to keep Klaus’s werewolf side dormant. Both Elijah and Klaus had loved the girl, but it was Elijah’s heart Tatia desired. They even made out in front of a pig.

Meanwhile, Klaus was still hanging around at Davina’s cabin making sure the witch was okay. He entrusted the white oak stake to Cami, who went to fetch the car, as he quickly deduced just who resided in Kaleb’s body. The family reunion was short lived as Mikael had snatched Cami and the stake.

Back in Elijah’s flashbacks, he remembered the day Klaus first transformed into a wolf and as he heartbreakingly revealed to his brother that Mikael was not his biological father. Tatia had stumbled onto the scene only to find mangled bodies everywhere. Elijah recounted that he had compelled her to forget. According to Esther, though, Elijah’s memories were all wrong. Elijah had no yet mastered the art of compulsion and it was by his fangs that Tatia had died and not by Esther’s hand.

Mikael forced Cami through the woods as he lamented she was to become leverage. He made sure not to feed off her and instead ravaged and compelled a hillbilly party in the woods. Cami stayed strong as she tried to psychoanalyze the vampire and offered him therapy.

Over in Marcel’s shanty, he and Hayley gave each other mad props for fighting off the evil wolves, but Hayley soon realized that the handful of voicemails she had been leaving for Elijah and Oliver were going unanswered. Maybe they were in trouble. Marcel was going to join the hunt, but it was off to help Klaus first.

Back at Davina’s cabin, she had regained consciousness and was determined to finish the unlinking spell since her bracelet was no longer working. Koleb was there to help, but it wasn’t long before Davina was able to tune into his magic and reveal that he was, in fact, Kol. Although the secret was out, he still wanted to help her. If they couldn’t unlink the sire line then they would de-spell the white oak stake.

Back in Esther’s deluded world, she was determined to make Elijah see he had continually hidden the worst parts of himself behind a door, including Tatia’s death, all thanks to her. He kept himself immaculate, suited up, and dapper as heck because he believed it was truly masking the horrors he hid from himself.

Klaus had successfully murdered the entire hillbilly population of New Orleans only to find his father with Cami. The two tussled and Mikael was successful in finally utilizing the stake. Except, Davina and Koleb had beat Mikael to the punch; with their linked magic they could keep the stake from killing Klaus and his sire line. Marcel and Hayley had also popped up and the team vowed to destroy Mikael, who fled for the first time in his life.

Hayley quickly rushed to save Elijah and make tons of mouth noises with him, but it turned out to all be a hallucination set by Esther. She would force Elijah to live in a dream world until he came to his senses.

Things we need to discuss:

• Stay delusional, Esther.

• We finally saw a deeper layer to Mikael. Not only was he upset that Klaus was not biologically his, but he was devastated Klaus had murdered Esther and pitted his other children against him. Something tells me we aren’t finished in learning more about Papa Original.

• Finncent does not like voicemail. That’s funny because I’m pretty sure they only relayed message by parrot 900 years ago in his time as a pirate (he was a pirate, right!?).