The threat of Esther and her plans loom large in “The Originals,” but there will be some happy moments in Monday’s mid-season finale on The CW.
“They have a family Mikaelson bonfire tradition where they do something special for each other and you get to see that and it’s a sweet family bonding moment,” Claire Holt, who plays Rebekah Mikaelson, told Access Hollywood. “It’s something I loved shooting. It was really special.”
While Claire wouldn’t explain the details of the tradition, leaving that as a surprise for the viewers, she did say it has roots in New Orleans.
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“I think it’s around Christmas is when it’s set, but it’s a tradition that – it’s actually a New Orleans tradition and I hear that Julie [Plec, Executive Producer] says that she loves to just take traditions and claim them as Mikaelson family traditions, which is something you can do because there’s no one around to dispute it because you’re an 1000-year-old vampire. It’s actually really cool. It’s actually a special New Orleans tradition.”
Joseph Morgan also previewed some joy for Klaus and his siblings (par, Finn, presumably).
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“I think it’s the closest we’ve been for a while to being a happy family, I would say — those of us who are on the same side at the moment, who are allied are together — and we’re in a safe place for a moment all together and we try our best to do something very human and create a happy memory even though it can’t last,” Joseph told reporters late last month, after Warner Bros. brought Access to the show’s Atlanta set.
“It certainly felt like it’ll be a couple of really heartwarming moments in that episode and yeah, I hope that that comes across,” he continued. “It felt like that when we were filming it. And I think they need that as well because there’s so much intensity and drama and the buzz word is ‘epic’ for the show — it’s like it really needs those human moments and those moments when we see these broken creatures are just people wanting to connect with each other and to feel loved and we allow them those few moments, I think, in the Christmas episode.”
Klaus will also get his first contact with his daughter, baby Hope, since handing her off to Rebekah for safe keeping in the Season 1 finale.
“He’s still getting to grips with it, I think,” Joseph said of Klaus and parenting. “It’s potentially the easiest it’ll ever be because she can’t speak yet.
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“She’s this kind of delicate, beautiful little thing that he’s created and his world is blood and violence and war and so it’s very new for him and it’s a place that he doesn’t rest easy,” he added.
Working with the infants who play Hope (Charles Michael Davis told us there are three or four babies playing Hope) has helped create unscripted moments.
“You can do kind of what you want because the baby’s gonna do what they want, so like if the baby tries to reach up and touch my face, I’m not gonna [say], ‘Not Now! We’re not doing that,'” Joseph laughed. “You react to it because you’re trying to create these magic moments that are spontaneous and so, yeah, it’s really refreshing because especially with a TV series, where, in some ways you have a little less freedom than with film because you have a time slot that you have to fill, so… your scene potentially needs to be a certain length because the other scenes are a certain length and they all need to add up to 42 and a half minutes, so with the baby… try telling a baby that. You can’t do that. … You improvise a little and you try and create these moments, so yeah, it’s nice.”
“The Originals” continues Monday night at 8/7c on The CW.
— Jolie Lash
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