The Originals review – 2×14: ‘I Love You, Goodbye’

And there is one wedding to rule them all. The werewolf – hybrid wedding finally takes place as Hayley (Phoebe Tonkin) makes a choice and baby Hope is returned home. But is this the last we will see of brother Kol (Daniel Sharman)?

Let’s bitch it out…

Ah the power of a wedding. It can make even the most cynical and negative people in to believers. This is proven by Hayley and Jackson’s (Nathan Parsons) wedding making a crying sap out of this reviewer; proving the infinite power of a union. The two most annoying people on the show get married and the biggest naysayer about them being together -me – actually shed a few tears. And what a wedding it was! Between the soft lighting, the spiral staircase to their altar at the top and all the attractive guests who’s eyes flashed after the kiss, this was one wedding not to be missed. Geez.. for someone who didn’t even have a wedding dress until a few hours prior, Hayley sure pulled off a beautiful wedding! How does this girl get so freaking lucky to have Jackson and Elijah (Daniel Gillies) fighting for her on her wedding day?!

Ok. I’ve taken a few deep breaths so now we can discuss Elijah’s almost confession before the wedding. Boy can that man make a speech. Even back in his days on The Vampire Diaries, I can remember how much I loved listening to him talk. This episode is no different, except that Hayley throws a wrench in his plans and asks him not to confess his love. The power of his tears was too much for me. But he did the right thing. Hayley said it best when she told him Jack could give her what she needed and she couldn’t always count on that from Elijah. Talk about a heart breaker.

But that speech, combined with the beauty of the wedding and Hayley’s speech to Jack at the end, about how she married him for herself and not for the wolf clans, was enough to finally win me over. I’m definitely on team Jayley (is that what the ‘shippers’ are calling them? Could it be Hackson instead?).

After a weird, vague plot where Klaus (Joseph Morgan) was going to kill Jackson on his wedding day, he instead invites the newlyweds to move in to the compound. I just didn’t buy all this. Klaus is a single minded guy. When he’s made up his mind about something, nothing will change it. No matter how hard his siblings may try, Klaus does whatever Klaus wants. This is why they have all hated him for a certain period of time. So the idea that one conversation with Elijah is enough to change his mind about killing Jackson just doesn’t fly with me. But I get what they were going for – Elijah speaking on behalf of the union because Jack can make her happy shows the audience Elijah giving his blessing. It just seemed a bit half hearted to me.

As you may have noticed, I’m avoiding the elephant in the room. Its something I’ve condemned for the past few weeks now and it looks like it finally happened. But again, I need to take a few breaths and remember that this is a show about supernaturals. Everyone on this show has died a few times already and been brought back to life at some point or another. So the fact that my beloved Kol just died a bloody, painful death surrounded by his siblings… well.. clearly I’m not believing it until it punches me in the face. There could be a hundred ways he could be brought back so I’m holding on to hope that this isn’t the last time we see Kol alive. Yes, maybe I’m delusional but hey – we all have our delusions, amiright?

Other Observations:

• Clearly Cami (Leah Pipes) knows something is up with baby Hope’s magic that saved their lives last week. But for some reason she doesn’t actually tell anyone about it? I’m sure she will claim that it was the excitement of the wedding day, etc, but this is what I would consider ‘burying the lead’.
• And just like that, the writers managed to give us an excuse for keeping Rebekah in her new body, played by Maisie Richardson-Sellers, while always leaving the door open for Claire Holt to come back. “I’ll stay in this body as long as it takes to bring you back” is pretty blatant. We get it – Claire Holt wanted a break but she didn’t want to leave the show permanently, and Rebekah’s character is too important to write off the show. But don’t get me wrong – I’m actually liking Richardon-Sellers as Rebekah so I don’t mind as much as I thought I would when they threw another body jumping storyline at us.
• I knew Finn (Yusuf Gatewood) was too good to kill off just like that. And I’m glad because he’s my favourite villain of the show, but I just wish it wasn’t so obvious. Oh, the brother with no alliances? Well let’s reintroduce long lost sister Freya (Riley Voelkel) in to the mix. She’ll coincidentally be the strongest witch and she will pledge her allegiance solely to Finn, and then be there to bring him back to life. Surprise surprise. However, stories like these are why I’m holding out hope for my boy Kol.

So what did you think of this episode? Do you think Kol is dead for good? Do you think we will see big bad Dahlia before the season is done? What did you think of the wedding? Sound off below!

The Originals airs on Mondays at 8pm EST on the CW.