TV RECAP: The Originals “The Map of Moments”

By Erin Resnick

How will your family be spending the holidays this month? Will you gather for dinner and eat a huge feast? Exchange gifts with your dearest loved ones? Or maybe you’ll get together in a large group with all your extended family and throw stuffed animals at each other in a ball pit at Chuck E. Cheese’s. Whatever floats your familial boat is not for me to judge. If you’re the Mikaelsons, your holiday will probably be spent trying to murder your parents and manipulate your siblings. A real festive Christmas if I do say so myself.

This week’s episode of The Originals, entitled “The Map of Moments,” gave us a heaping helping of delicious twists and turns. Thankfully, the episode began with its biggest gift of all: A Kol-centric flashback. Tying in the webisodes, Kol had been on the hunt for the perfect paragon diamond to complete his ultimate dagger to protect himself from Klaus. In 1914, Marcel and Klaus had found him and his diamond, even spelling his witches into a crazy, witch-infested house where they would never be able to leave.

In the present, Elijah and Rebekah were preparing to reunite baby Hope with Klaus and Hayley while Koleb worked with Davina to help save Cami’s life from future inhabitance. In the woods, Esther had decided to pay a visit to a wolf-hungry Mikael. He accused the witch of never caring for him as she had chosen not to bring him over from the Other Side with her. She didn’t care too much for the reunion and was only after his allegiances to her cause.

The reunion with Hope was precious as Hayley and Klaus set eyes on their baby girl for the first time in months. Rebekah had even decided to continue in the family tradition of building a bonfire where they would throw in their written hopes and dreams. Klaus wasn’t so much into this continued tradition or the selfie Rebekah made them take, but the reunion with his daughter had softened him to his siblings and Hayley.

On the other hand, Elijah was still on edge from Esther’s reign over him. He confessed that he was serious about taking Esther’s deal, if only to finally rid of her from their lives. If a small majority of them gave into her deal then maybe she would ease up on trying to bring terror to their family. They could continue to keep Hope safe. Rebekah argued with his off-kilter reasoning and decided that if anyone would take Esther’s deal, it would be her; she could take down Esther at the same time as the spell were to go down and if she was forced to body swap it would not be a death sentence for her. She could finally have a normal life, have children, and in her old age, Klaus and Elijah could jump her back into her own, young body. Instead of Cami, they would use the body of an unknown, random human.

Pictured: Daniel Gillies as Elijah — Photo: Annette Brown/The CW

In the French Quarter, Cami was convinced that a face-to-face with Finncent would help their mission. Unfortunately for the human, she was wrong. Finn was fiercely loyal to his mother, always and forever.

While Klaus and Rebekah set off to prepare Rebekah for Esther’s deal, Hayley finally revealed the truth of her upcoming marriage to Jackson to Elijah. The moral Mikaelson was caught off-guard, but insisted Hayley follow through with her promise to the wolves. But he would make sure to shirtless hug and make tons of mouth noises with Hayley before that happened.

Marcel and Koleb had jumped on board to help Klaus and Rebekah, but Kol insisted on Klaus handing over the white oak stake to appease Esther and the diamond he had waited one hundred years for. He would hand the stake over, keeping his cover, and in the aftermath of their plan, snatch it back to return to Klaus. All he had ever wanted was his rightful place with his siblings and giving his word to Klaus was as good as gold.

Rebekah dropped in to make her presence known and relay to Esther that she would accept her deal. There was no time like the present, though, and Esther toasted Rebekah on her decision. While Esther performed the spell, Davina would be ready at the compound to interrupt the proceedings so that Rebekah would body-jump into the random body and not Cami’s. As Esther prepared, she revealed that after Rebekah successfully took on her human form, she would destroy her Claire Holt body with the white oak stake. Rebekah and even Kol were stunned and Klaus could not stand idly by. He tried to intervene, but Esther proceeded with the spell before he could fully interrupt. She succeeded, but not before Klaus could murder her human vessel. Rebekah couldn’t hold on and her spirit successfully jumped from her body. A Grateful Cami woke up loving every part of her name and staying alive.

Another flashback shed light on the night Kol was daggered. He had tried to manipulate Rebekah into joining his plan to steal the diamond back, but was thwarted when he was double-crossed; he had been daggered in front of a party full of people. But Rebekah’s double-crossing would be her downfall as Kol had revealed to Davina that he had made sure to use a witch locked in the crazy house as her vessel. Davina swooned and gave into teenage lust with Koleb (Quick Q: How old is Kol?).

Esther awoke in her tomb only to find a blood bag and Klaus waiting for her. In a twist of events, Rebekah had tainted her wine with blood and Klaus’s murder of his mother’s vessel had turned her into a vampire. The vampire-hating matriarch was now in transition.

In the crazy house of witches, Rebekah awoke in her new vessel, scared, confused, and unaware of her surroundings.

Things we need to discuss:

• If there’s a witch insane asylum where hundreds of witches had perished over the years, imagine the amount of crazy witch magic just floating around in there.

• Since when does the white oak stake destroy the body completely? Is this a way to ensure Kol and Finn can’t return to their original bodies? Mikael walked back from the Other Side with no problem and I’m pretty sure the stake just lightly toasted their bodies. You can’t tell me in the midst of all of Kol’s witch-capades he never had the witches preserve his body a la Esther.

• How hard would if be for Finncent to help Esther jump into a new body?

• I’m kind of shocked Dahlia didn’t show up in one form or another. I was sure she would pop up and start wreaking havoc.