The Originals season 5 episode 3 review: Ne Me Quitte Pas

After a succinct review of Elijah’s last seven years practicing mindfulness, did the amnesiac vampire demonstrate loyalty to his family by refusing to return to New Orleans with Klaus?

Spoiler alert if you missed it: Elijah and his pious devotion to his family are back, even his family doesn’t realize it. It was tricky geographically figuring out Elijah’s path to discovery this week, so let’s take a chronological view.

Bright and sunny Elijah

7 years ago, Elijah arrives on a sunny day in a town aptly named Sunnyvale — pity it was not Sunnnydale as an Elijah/Buffy showdown would have been cool. Elijah’s dark days are behind him. He has been reborn, though there is that pesky hunger to deal with. He does not know his name and does not know he is a vampire. After feeding on a passerby, Elijah removes his designer clothes, cutting the threads to his old life away. He heads off to a big city and finds an undead mentor. Here’s the inside scoop from CW on Elijah’s story of self-discovery:

How to be a Vampire 101

Enter Antoinette. This age-old vampire is a female version of the old Elijah — immaculately dressed, elegant, cultured and an escapee from her family. Despite Antoinette’s measured appearances, she has a dark nature and loves killing her dinner, even if it is with finesse. No “snatch, eat, erase” for these old timers. The still nameless Elijah asks Antoinette on a date to a vampire club. A few curious vampires stare at the pair. Does Antoinette have bullies from her past keeping an eye on her? Or are they looking at Elijah?

Elijah and Antoinette leave the club, stroll through a park, sensually share a human for supper and play a duet on a random piano. Marcel arrives. Suddenly Elijah attending a random vampire rave makes sense — even a reborn pot plant-purchasing Elijah wouldn’t take a date to a rave — it was necessary to the plot.

The vampire club is similar to Marcel’s back in New Orleans. Marcel is now in New York with Rebecca. Therefore Elijah is in New York too. Marcel wants Elijah to get out of Dodge. Antoinette senses danger and heads out of Dodge, after all, she is mindful and seeks not to slaughter carelessly for fear of losing herself in violence.

It’s not so sunny anymore

A panicky montage ensues of Elijah’s escalating rage. He furiously crosses out sections of a map of New York as he searches for answers. Elijah goes back to the club and slaughters carelessly. Bodies pile up in fast-forward. Joseph Morgan, who directed the episode, crafts a kitsch ’80s horror movie scene complete with thumping music and strobe lighting. Marcel arrives and gifts Elijah with his name. He says it was Elijah’s choice to have his mind wiped and he did it for a young girl that means everything. Elijah must trust himself.

On a dark and stormy night in Manosque

Elijah arrives in Manosque in France and reconnects with Antoinette. Fast-forward seven years. They have been shacked up living a simple life and playing duets on the piano. Elijah pops the question to Antoinette, and their perfect eternal life seems sweet until Klaus arrives. Klaus is inconveniently staked by an uncompellable Antoinette. He insists that Elijah abandon his fairytale and come home to their family-in-crisis.

Morgan’s directing of a Gothic stormy night in the French bar is filled with expected tropes of lights going out and thunder cracks. The nostalgic feel is enchanting. The maggots wiggling on the floor and the whispering of The Hollow are a menacing touch. While Klaus attempts to be grandiose about the brothers reuniting to save the day and rule the world, he is on the brink of tears. He is desperate to save his family and desperate for his brother’s love.

The star flickers out

Elijah talks of his past-self in the third person. He admits he knows of the nightmare that is the Mikaelsons and the horrors that resulted from his blind devotion to the family. Elijah stresses that he is no longer a Mikaelson. Then, he does a typical Mikaelson thing: he snap’s his brother’s neck. Thinking Elijah is forever lost, Klaus’ poor, withered soul gives up. Elijah admits to Antoinette that he has known of his past since New York, and if Klaus believed that Elijah was no longer his “north star,” then Klaus would be of no danger to them.

Antoinette has known that Elijah is Elijah since New York, she has been drinking vervain ever since, which is why Klaus could not compel her. Despite holding back the truth from each other for years, they confirm their engagement. Elijah removes his daylight ring as a measure of commitment to his nocturnal mate. He takes a box over to the window that contains the information he has collected on his past. As an Original vampire, he cannot die in the sun, yet he opens the curtains and burns his body and the traces of his past away.

Rejection? Or loyalty to family?

While Elijah told Antoinette he will not return to the Mikaelson fold, he admitted he was calculating in breaking Klaus’ heart. Was this truly because he had researched his and his family’s horrific nature and it repelled him? Or, was causing a rift the only way he could stay away, an honorable action on his part to reduce further harm to the family?

Elijah burning his body was akin to an old monk lashing himself with a whip in penance. A macabre display of his eternal devotion.

Next week’s episode, “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea,” is back in New Orleans and Mystic Falls.

The description of the episode reads:

"Frustrated by the lack of progress made in the search for Hayley, Klaus turns up the heat by taking hostages from each of the three New Orleans supernatural factions. Freya goes to Mystic Falls to check on Hope, who has been sent back to the Salvatore School. Vincent seeks guidance from Ivy after learning that Klaus’ erratic behavior is escalating."

Even with all that, there are still some unanswered questions we have.

Elijah mentioned to Rebecca last season that Manosque in France was the one place in the world where he could live and be content. It is an unlikely coincidence that he found Antoinette there.

Do Elijah and Antoinette have a past connection to the town and to each other?
What is in the catacombs below the bar?

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