The Originals - S4E4 - Keepers of the House

Previously on The Originals, “Haunter of Ruins”

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A few things to start:

1. I didn’t talk too much about Keelin, the werewolf from the seventh clan, because I thought she’d be dead by now. That’s my PTSD from watching The Vampire Diaries. Black characters never lasted long on that show. The actress, Christina Marie Moses, was also on the CW show, Containment.
2. We are four episodes in so I can definitively say, *deep breath* I don’t think the actress playing Hope is very good. This is unfortunate because a lot of this season hinges on that character and so far she hasn’t shown that she has the chops to pull this off.
3. This is the second episode directed by series star Joseph Morgan.

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The Hollow Crown  

One thing that Marcel has always asserted is that New Orleans was better off with him running it. These past few episodes have shown that assessment to be flawed. Before the Mikaelsons returned, Marcel was running the Quarter with such an iron fist that Vincent tapped into sacrificial magic to gain enough power to challenge him. In the five years that the Mikaelsons were gone, that untamed magic has recruited a group of people to complete its sacrifices. Vincent figures out that Detective Will Kinney (Jason Dohring) is one of the Hollow’s followers and when Marcel and Hayley team up to find out more information, they find a werewolf who is also a follower of the Hollow. Though this entity is set up as the Big Bad of this season (it kills kids so it’s definitely not good), there is something to be said for it bringing together humans and wolves, witches, and presumably some vampires, to take back the city. Ideally, there should be harmony between all the groups and not just one of them presiding over everyone.

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Because the kids are still tied to the Hollow, Hope is still sick, Marcel and Hayley, and Vincent and Elijah, respectively, team up to track down the Hollow and its followers. When they’ve set up a way to track the group, they end up walking right into a trap. It turns out the Hollow needed to be tethered to this plane and to do that it needed to draw on some powerful magic, like the power of two hybrid vampires, Marcel and Klaus.

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Over in the B plot, Freya is still working with Keelin to come up with a biological-magical way to de-power Marcel. Freya puts Keelin on a leash by giving her a spelled ring that lets her control her werewolf nature, but also helps Freya keep track of her. They don’t find anything to stop Marcel, but Keelin proves her loyalty to Freya. It’s a rather intimate scene and it hints at a possible romance between the two characters. It would be some new territory for the show, and frankly, none of the actors on this show have ever struggled to find chemistry so I would love to see how this plays out.

Unfortunately, the acting of Summer Fonatana is dragging the show’s grade down this week. This season has been set up wonderfully with lots of conflict built in for Klaus, Marcel, and Vincent. Each of them is struggling with the vestiges of their past and the darker side of their nature, but all that is also tied up in the Hollow and Hope’s life so most of the show centers around this young actress who isn’t as adept as her adult counterparts. A decade ago, this would have been forgivable since most child actors weren’t very good, but in the golden age of television, child actors have stepped up their game and Fontana isn’t quite there yet. The final scene this week with Hope waking from a dream foretelling Klaus’ possession by the Hollow should have been chilling, and instead it fell flat due to line delivery. I hope it gets better, but I’m not sure how it can.