‘The Originals’ Season 4 Finale Postmortem: Michael Narducci Talks About Hope’s New Home
“Always and Forever” has come to an end.
In the Season 4 finale of The Originals, the Mikaelson family made the agonizing decision to part ways for the rest of their eternal lives in an effort to save Hope. The Hollow had taken over Hope’s body, and to rescue her, Vincent had to split the evil spirit four ways and place each part into a Mikaelson vampire — Klaus (Joseph Morgan), Elijah (Daniel Gillies), Rebekah (Claire Holt), and Kol (Nathaniel Buzolic). But the plan came with a price: The four siblings would have to stay away from each other to prevent the Hollow from regaining power.
With Kol MIA, that meant Hayley (Phoebe Tonkin) would need to step in. But Vincent’s plan also meant that the four vessels would have to stay away from Hope too — separating mother and child. So, Freya (Riley Voelkel) considered turning but was given a last-second reprieve when her younger brother finally showed up.
Vincent’s spell worked, and the four siblings scattered to the wind, with Klaus saying one last, tortured goodbye to his daughter.
Afterward, they chose very different paths. Elijah got his memories of his siblings wiped so that he could live out his sentence in peace. Kol prepared to propose to Davina (Danielle Campbell). And Rebekah received a surprise visitor in New York City: Marcel (Charles Michael Davis). Maybe those two crazy kids can make it work after all these decades!
And as for Hayley and Hope, well, they headed to a familiar place: Mystic Falls, where Hope will be a student at the school for young witches that Alaric and Caroline founded in the series finale of The Vampire Diaries.
Finale writer and former showrunner Michael Narducci talked to Yahoo TV about the siblings’ big sacrifice, Klaus’s future, and Hope’s new home.
Yahoo TV: What did you want to explore by separating the Mikaelson siblings this way?
Michael Narducci: Throughout the life of our show, they’ve always had access to one another. They’ve always said, “We’re going to stay together.” And yet anyone in their orbit has suffered terribly. So, we wondered if by introducing this 7-year-old child who has her own sense of morals and her own desire to grow up and have a life of happiness and fulfillment — and Hayley and Klaus both want her to have a life of peace and happiness and fulfillment — it may be the Mikaelson way of doing things was perhaps not in keeping with what are Hope’s best interests.
So, that was the germ of the discussion that led us to make these storytelling decisions that we made. I think putting our characters in this difficult position of having to leave one another allows you to explore who Klaus is and what he needs to do before making this decision. It allows you to explore who Elijah is and what he does to ensure that the decision will work and it’s final. What does Hayley do as she watches the Mikaelson family do this, and does it change her feelings for them? What about Freya’s willingness to give up her mortal life and become a vampire in order to preserve Hayley’s role as a mother to this child? Rebekah has her own unique point of view. I quite love that Kol pulled the ultimate comeback and, when his family needed him, despite all of their grievances in the past, showed up. So, putting them in the circumstances allows you to explore their characters in a way we never have before.
Klaus had to do the very difficult thing and say goodbye to his daughter. How does that affect him going forward?
I think that’s a great question. Without guessing what they’re going to do in Season 5, we actually wrote a scene that ended up getting cut from the episode where Klaus starts to return a little bit to his basic instinctive ways. It might be that we will return to Klaus, who’s a little bit lost and a little bit lacking in purpose because he’s isolated and he’s alone and he’s given up access to this little girl who was his pride and joy and was his purpose throughout the season, and actually for the past four seasons.
In order to be a true sacrifice, he had to give up something. And I don’t think Klaus is just smiling and enjoying life separated from his family and his daughter. So how he ultimately reacts is going to be very interesting and will be part of the journey that Julie [Plec] and the writers take us on in Season 5.
Was it always the plan to have Hope end up at Alaric and Caroline’s school?
It was not always the plan. As we broke Season 4, very early on, we had the idea that the family might be separated. And we always knew that in some capacity, Hayley would remain with Hope. The idea of separating those two worlds was too heartbreaking to even consider. We talked about whether or not Klaus could remain with Hope, and for many reasons, it felt like the most poetic version of his sacrifice as dad was to deny him the joy of watching his child grow up.
About midway through the season, Julie came into the room and said she had a great idea that Alaric and Caroline would start a school at the Salvatore house, and she wondered if maybe we could introduce that idea in Episode 8, when Alaric returned as a guest star. And then start to build toward a version of Hope joining that school, which makes sense to me since Hayley would want what’s best for her daughter and provide her with not only mentorship but also companionship in the form of other students. That felt like a very wise decision and one that we all supported.
In the other room that I don’t know too much about, the writers on Vampire Diaries came up with a little bit more of the details and how that was all going to work out, but our finale was actually written a little bit before their finale, so it was a little bit of a juggle for Julie to seed things in one series and pay them off in another. And I commend her ability to do that.
Of course, Klaroline fans will want to know if this means there’s a chance for Klaus and Caroline?
I’m not going to comment on that. I don’t know.
As sad as the separation is, there are some happy endings, like Marcel going to Rebekah. Why did you want to reunite those two?
When you write a finale like this, that is the closing of one chapter and you’re hinting at a new chapter that is about to start, of course there’s a lot of sadness in the episode and a lot of bittersweet moments, and you want to temper that with some beautiful victories. And I think the idea that Elijah finds some semblance of peace and Kol is on his way to propose to Davina — those are beautiful moments, as is seeing Hope at the school.
The Rebekah/Marcel relationship was a major part of the DNA of the series going back to Season 1. The entire history of the Mikaelsons in New Orleans kind of revolved around Marcel and Rebekah. And I think that as much as they kind of denied it and Rebekah has tried to move on and Marcel has been angry at her and tried to forget her, there is something at the core of those two people — a love that they needed to explore without the difficulty of the rest of the Mikaelsons getting in the way. And so now they have a chance to explore that, and where it will lead, I don’t know. But I’m glad that they get that shot.
You’ve left the show now and are working on a new project. Looking back, is there anything you didn’t get a chance to do that you would like to see in the future?
No. Given the limitations of time and production and cast availability and all the different struggles of making a TV show, my work with the writers and with our crew and with the cast is something that I’m proud of.
Of course, I will always want to see more of these characters, and I’m looking forward to Season 5. I think that Davina is a character that I would love to see explored further. We didn’t quite get the chance to do that as much as I would have liked to, given the reduction of being 22 episodes and then being 13.
But I still like the story that we told very much, and I’m looking forward to being a fan and watching it with everybody else. I believe firmly that this is a great group of characters and the family Mikaelson is worthy of further exploration. And the stories are bigger than any one person. So, I’m glad to pass the torch on to the others, and I’m eager to see what they do. I have no doubt that it’s going to be phenomenal.
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