The Originals season 5 episode 7 review: God’s Gonna Trouble The Water

Klaus, Freya and Hope shine in a stellar episode of The Originals that lays Hayley to rest and delivers an existentialist punch.

Following Hayley’s horrific death, last night’s episode of The Originals, “God’s Gonna Trouble The Water”, was a tearjerker that united characters and pumped faith back into the final season. After an empty funeral procession in New Orleans, Freya and Klaus sob at the Bayou, reflecting on Hayley’s passion and the importance of love.

Freya is shattered by Hayley’s death and is comforted by Keelin’s return. Hope is defiant in her grief. She determines to learn whatever magic is required to rid her family of the curse that is forcing them apart. Caroline sends Klaus a letter of condolence via Hogwart’s magical delivery service. It’s a pity she neglected to mention Hayley’s name.

Klaus attacks and captures Elijah and Antoinette. Then, his angry form morphs into a bundle of adorable love. He etches Hayley’s name into a tree and reaches out to his daughter, Hope. Klaus does not wish for Elijah to be reunited with his memories. It is not out of spite, but rather Klaus fears for the torment that Elijah will bear once he learns of his love for Hayley and his betrayal.

The three musketeers hang out together and make a deal with Elijah. Marcel agrees to de-compel the amnesiac in exchange for a vial of Klaus’ blood to cure Antoinette of the deadly wolf venom. Josh admits he had may have overgrown his footwear. He allowed Greta to escape, which led to Hayley’s death. Vincent assures Josh that he had no such power, nor responsibility. Vincent only ever lays blame on the Mikaelsons. Everyone else is a mere victim of circumstance.

Antoinette fears that Elijah recalling memories will doom their relationship. It’s more like a plea to viewers, rather than a conversation with Elijah — an attempt to deem their 7-year relationship true, and herself worthy of rescue. Antoinette tries to distance herself from the warped ideology of her late parents and the purist vampires gathering in New Orleans. Sorry, as Klaus said a few weeks ago, inaction against zealots is just as evil as supporting them.

As highlighted by The CW’s inside view of the episode, a war is brewing in New Orleans:

Marcel and Vincent weave magic and mesmerism in an attempt to return Elijah’s memories. Physically, Elijah is in agony. Mentally, his mind breaks and he returns to the white corridor with the red door.

Last season, in S4E10, Elijah’s mind fractured when his soul was trapped in the pendant. Freya transported Hayley into Elijah’s mind to find the memory at his core. His mind presented as an infinite corridor — 1000 years of memories behind closed doors. Alas, Elijah’s defining memory was not of his and Hayley’s love. It was of the horror behind the red door; Elijah in vampire-viking mode, mass-slaughtering innocents in the moonlight. Elijah would have murdered Hayley had he not heard Hope’s voice in the corridor. He was drawn out through the red door, yet Hayley and Elijah’s relationship never recovered.

Over in the Bayou, Klaus falls unconscious and wakes in the courtyard of the Mikaelson compound. Elijah enters and says there is no way out. The trailer for next week’s episode reveals that Elijah and Klaus are not the only ones trapped in Elijah’s mind.

Is the “always and forever” vow so strong that it can unite the siblings in Elijah’s mind?

Ivy advised Klaus that The Hollow’s curse will lead to fire across the water and the destruction of firstborns. The fire from Hayley’s pyre spread across the water. Firstborns, Freya and Hope, are on the hit list. Elijah’s mind may be a prison world divined by Ivy and the witches, or The Hollow. It can be no coincidence that Ivy practiced astral projection magic this week. Did she also just slip into the conversation with Klaus that she was a firstborn?

Such a “chambre de chasse”, or mini astral witch-made dimension, has been seen a few times before on The Originals. Freya and Hope should be able to break them out, yet the prisoners may need to find totems within the dimension that represent them — just as Elijah and Klaus had to identify queen chess pieces, representing the women they had betrayed, to leave the parlor constructed by Aurora’s witches for Tristan in S3E14.

By the way, Aurora is still in the cellar!

The original clan’s predicament is akin to Jean-Paul Sartre’s 1944 play No Exit, in which three damned souls expect to be delivered to Hell for eternity. Instead, they find themselves trapped together in a small waiting room. The infamous quote from the existentialist play, “L’enfer, c’est les autres”, roughly translates to “Hell is other people.”

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