Tonight (December 8), The CW brings us the midseason finale of The Originals, titled “The Map of Moments,” and getting us ready for the episode, we spoke with the show’s Executive Producer, Michael Narducci, with some questions about the show leading into this installment, and some insights on what might be happening next.
See some photos from the episode here, and come back after 9PM for a post-mortem once the episode has aired!
KSITEV’s CRAIG BYRNE: Does Esther have any idea who this baby is that Rebekah has been seen with?
MICHAEL NARDUCCI: All we know is that Esther has been using these starlings to track down Rebekah’s location. It’s not that the starlings seeing the baby with Rebekah is a one-to-one remote viewing situation. Esther does have whereabouts on Rebekah and knows where she was, and is getting closer to tracking her down, but she hasn’t seen her with the baby. That will be a big question that the Originals are asking, is ‘how do we protect the fact that the baby has survived’ – protecting that information from getting to Esther.
Yusuf Gatewood (Finn/Vincent) is going to be a series regular. Should we worry about the fates of characters like Kol/Kaleb who HAVEN’T been upgraded?
I think we should worry about just about everybody. We’re clearly not going to kill off Klaus, but he might suffer some witch’s enchantment that puts him into suspended animation. We’re trying to tell a story where the threats are real, and just because Yusuf has been added… Finn is occupying that body. Who’s to say someone doesn’t come along and have some opinions about that? There’s a lot of different things, especially when you’re doing these body invasion storylines, where a new character might enter a body, or an old character might come out of a body. There’s a lot of fun to be had there.
So, there is some plans afoot for some pretty spectacular and also very tragic character status changes, which I think will be a big part of what’s going to happen moving forward.
What can you tease about the Dahlia storyline?
In Episode 9, we’re going to have the entire family reunited for the first time in quite a while. It will be something that they have to discuss – “what are we going to do to if and when this person, who would be basically a 1000-year old immortal witch, shows up and tries to take our baby Hope?” At the same time, there’s another 100-year-old witch who is very much a clear and present danger, so they’re going to have to deal with Esther first. But down the line, you can expect that this problem of whether or not Dahlia is out there is going to escalate in a very big way, as we build towards our season finale.
How will the bond between Hayley and Jackson affect her interactions with Elijah and Klaus?
I think immediately. Hayley made a decision to honor the betrothal, the arranged marriage that her family set up, because she knows that by marrying Jackson who is the Alpha of the crescent wolves, and these people who are out in the Bayou who have been subjugated by the witches with the moonlight rings, he can not only release them from that subjugation and force Vincent and Esther to lose their army of wolves and he would gain an army of wolves who would also be empowered. So this is a very smart, strategic move if he wants to gain power and be able to make a stand against whatever Esther’s plans are. At the same time, it is an arranged marriage, with someone who she clearly has feelings for. She likes Jackson, but I think it’s pretty obvious to everyone that she shares a child with Klaus, and she also has a strong emotional connection with Elijah. In Episode 9, you’re going to see Hayley reveal to the Mikaelson family what she has planned, and we’ll see reactions from both brothers that are both in character and pretty spectacular.
What kind of drama might the romance between Josh and Aiden add to the different factions?
I think there’s definitely a problem for Josh in that empowered werewolves who can control their form can bite and kill vampires 24/7. It would be like being the strongest, most powerful species in the city of New Orleans, and then all of the sudden, almost any werewolf you come into contact with would be able to kill you. So, that’s a definite threat. Aiden must know that what’s great for his people might not be so great for his boyfriend, and that’s going to lead to some, I think, pretty serious conversations about ‘is this relationship too dangerous for the both of us, and are we willing to pursue this despite the kind of Romeo and Juliet – or Romeo and Romeo – nature of our relationship?’ So it’s definitely something we’ll be playing with going forward.
The Originals “The Map of Moments” airs at 8PM ET TONIGHT (December 8) on The CW!
