‘The Originals’ Executive Producer Julie Plec Teases What’s in Store for Tonight’s Mid Season Finale and More!

The mid-season finale of The Originals airs tonight, and the show’s executive producer is spilling details on what viewers can expect to go down with the Mikaelson family, what’s in store for Hayley and Elijah’s relationship and even when we’ll start to find out what abilities baby Hope harbors in her mysterious DNA.

This show is all about familial drama, but with the revelation of the Mikaelson curse and the role of the siblings’ aunt, Dahlia, in the whole situation, the drama was definitely kicked up a notch. “Dahlia’s definitely somebody we haven’t heard the last of as we move closer to the end of the season,” hinted Julie. “When we come back [from holiday break] we’re going to start to dig into that backstory deeper and really start to understand what that curse is all about – How it came to pass, even more so than what we’ve already seen, and what it means for this family.”

At the center of the curse and its effects is baby Hope, the supernatural melting pot whose abilities no one really knows much about. Plec shared that we could start catching little glimpses of Hope’s abilities in the second half of the season saying, “There’s a lot of things coming up in the second half of the season. What is this curse of the first born? What does it mean? What does it mean for Hope? What does it mean the fact that Hope is born to witch blood, born of werewolf descent and also born, sort of, as a progeny of a vampire, what does that mean? While we’ll never kind of drop that all on you at once, little things will start to materialize that will make us realize that there is something extraordinary about this baby. Not just because she’s so damn cute, but because she is sort of a trifecta of all the supernatural beings.”

Although keeping Hope safe will be Hayley and Klaus’ main concern, it sounds like there could still be a little room for romance for at least one of them. “I wouldn’t go writing off Hayley and Elijah anytime soon. In fact, along with the holidays often comes some joy and cheer in that area,” teased Plec. “I think that the saddest thing about Elijah is he, whether it’s through conditioning of his mother or just his own sense of self-loathing, he genuinely believes that if he loves too deeply he will hurt the person that he cares for. That coupled with the fact that Hayley is the mother of this child that’s not his, and she’s the mother of his brother’s child, it’s like ‘hands off’ that he needs to feel with her, but it’s so hard because he deeply cares for her. We’ll really get to watch that struggle moving forward, for both of them. He’s been blowing Hayley off all year, and it’s been kind of killing her a little bit. She’ll finally get to confront him about that, and they’ll have it out a little bit. We’ll try to start getting a sense of where everybody stands in that relationship. Not to say it’s going to end in flowers and rainbows, but it’s definitely going to be very profound.”

On another romantic note, many fans were expecting some sort of Klaus/Caroline reunion, or even just a mention of the TVD favorite, that has yet to happen this season. When asked about why The Vampire Diaries regular hasn’t shown up in physical or mention form yet, Plec replied, “I started getting all these tweets saying ‘where’s the Caroline mention,’ ‘how dare you, where’s the Caroline mention!’ and I looked at all the writers like ‘what are they talking about? Did we promise a Caroline mention?’ Because I didn’t know what anybody mean. Then finally I saw something where somebody tweeted a TV Guide article that said there’ll be someone from Klaus’ past showing up in episode 7, which of course is his actual father. And then something that I said at Comic-Con when I first, we were breaking the story of that episode, when his father made reference to Caroline, and I said ‘oh yeah we’re actually talking about her right now’. When we actually wrote the script and delivered it, the mention went away.” If you want to know more about what Julie said about a TVD/TO crossover episode, you can read it here.

Finally, the supernatural show’s EP teased what fans can expect from tonight’s mid-season finale. “In our 9th episode, our midseason finale, we get to see our version of holidays with The Originals. There’s something that’s a Louisiana tradition that’s been around since about the 1700s called Bonfire Season. Starting in the beginning of December, they’ll start to build bonfires out by the water, and back in the day, all around all the land. It’s almost kind of like a wooden version of a Christmas tree, and so all through December leading up to actually Christmas Eve, there’s fires burning through the city. So we decided to take that folklore and make it our own as though The Originals had actually been the ones to bring it with them from Mystic Falls to Louisiana back when they first arrived.”

Want more Originals mid-season finale details? Check out our sneak peek into tonight’s episode!

The Originals airs tonight at 8pm on The CW.

Photo Gallery: Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.com

Responses

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  1. I’m happy to hear that we’re finally getting some development on Hayley & Elijah. That romance was really pushed to the background this season, and it kind of creeped me out that he seemed to lose all interest in Hayley once she was no longer pregnant…

    As far as the Caroline mention goes, this team really needs to hire a PR expert to right their ship. Julie couldn’t even remember saying something THAT important ( she spent a good portion of said interview talking about how they would never erase Caroline from the narrative and how important she is to Klaus), so I can’t understand if she’s being purposefully dimwitted or if they actually don’t keep track of their talking points at all. She could certainly learn a thing or two from the Arrow/Flash teams; they not only execute crossovers flawlessly, they are masters of PR and online etiquette.

  2. This is just disappointing news from Julie about Klaus and Caroline. That Comic-Con interview was her way of defending the lack of Klaus and Caroline interaction for the first season. She said at Comic-Con they were always thinking of ways to bring Caroline in and she hadn’t been erased from Klaus’ story. Literally, that’s what they did, erase her. Did she feel bad that she went back on what she was videotaped saying? She seems to be saying, Caroline who?

    I don’t understand why crossing Caroline over for a visit is such a battle and why it is something that’s a barrier rather than a way to bridge both shows in positive ways. Other CW shows are handling it with grace. The show with the lower ratings got a huge boost. (Their own history has shown how crossovers last season with actual current characters increased their ratings tremendously.) That would be The Originals in this instance. Yet, the person who spent the most one on one time with Klaus and the one he promised to be the last love of has had her name mentioned one single time in a year and a half of episodes. We’re getting close to a year since they interacted, which included a big ole- never come back. That’s truly a way to honor the fans.

    If I were to cite articles from when the spinoff was announced and what the plans for Klaus and Caroline were in the future, would Julie see what’s she said and what she’s done have been completely different? It happened again.

    I’m not sure if the executives are trying to further alienate the people who want to see them together with their indifference or just want them to be patient. If it’s the latter, how long do they expect people to wait? If they don’t want them to wait, just come out and say it will never ever happen. Forgetting even the tiniest crumb that was planned at one point to show that the relationship did have an effect on Klaus is bothersome.

    I also think the article is written a little oddly. If Julie was asked why Caroline hasn’t crossed over, what was her answer? Her anecdote about dropping the mention doesn’t answer it. Why hasn’t Caroline crossed over? What was her answer to that question?

    1. To answer your question, she was addressing why Caroline hadn’t shown up or been mentioned this season when fans were under the impression she would. The short answer: Script changes, which is pretty standard stuff. Things get cut, changed and dropped all the time before a show becomes what you see on air. Plec’s mistake was mentioning Caroline at all if it were so early in the production process that she or any mention of her could have been cut out. A mistake I’m sure she learned from which is why she hasn’t given much new info on ‘Klaroline’ since.

      As far as the crossover, as stated in the crossover article, she said she won’t force a TVD/TO crossover if the storyline doesn’t allow for it at the moment…that includes Caroline and anyone else from TVD crossing over…She seemed very adamant about not forcing things to happen on either show when the timing isn’t right, storyline-wise. I’m assuming that’s what took so long for TVD fans to get their Delena rain kiss…but they eventually got it in a non-cheesy, non-forced way.

      Thanks for your thoughts.

      1. Hi Jasmine,

        Thanks for clearing it up.

        “Much new info” or no new info?

        Forcing a crossover and ever having a crossover both read to me: never going to happen. I wish she would come out and say it. In my opinion there have been ways to include Caroline in The Originals story without forcing it. Wouldn’t Caroline have called Klaus as soon as she couldn’t figure out how to get Bonnie back? That’s completely in character. A phone call wouldn’t require a lot of additional work I wouldn’t think and it doesn’t take anything away from the narrative of either show.

        It’s kind of funny at how horrified she was that she might have promised a Caroline mention on the show. Caroline? Klaus doesn’t know a Caroline, she’s been erased, right?

        I would like her to come out and say it won’t happen. I’m watching both shows now, but if there is no hope I’m going with which of the shows I’m enjoying more and right now that’s TVD. I’ve really enjoyed this season and more of the characters. I love Klaus, but I haven’t loved the choices they’ve made with his character or the show. It’s their show and they can do whatever they want. Maybe they’ll change my mind, but implicitly stating this story would continue and not following through definitely has me very skeptical about what they are actually planning to do.

      2. I agree with you Jasmine, Julie really shouldn’t have said anything at all if there was even the slightest possibility that the mention could get cut. She’s gotten a bad rep with the Klaroline fandom (and fandoms as a whole) for promising things and never following through on them. This really just added fuel to the fire.

        I’m really hoping that the TVD/TO teams’ creativity got sparked when they saw how easily The Flash and Arrow worked a crossover into their narratives. Sure, it wasn’t seamless, but the crossovers served each show’s story and it felt like an organic mix, which is what Julie is always talking about with crossovers. There have been a few opportunities to bring the stories together, but all of them just sort of passed us by. If they’re not willing to cross people over, then they should do something like a time skip to separate the shows for good. Why even keep the door open if you’re not willing to tackle the issue at all?

  3. . I am so much of a fan of Elijah and Haley and I have been since day one. And I am looking forward to tonights episode and I am feeling really excited but really nervous Just looking at the promo the look on Elijah face he looks so sad and the last thing that I want is for Elijah to be sad and with everything that his mother did to him. I guess Haley is going to tell him about Jackson and I don’t know how he is going to react. I don’t know how she could do this when she has feelings for Elijah. I am so tired of him getting hurt. Michael never said that there was going to be full closure for this couple. And another article it says that Hayley is pulling a dangerous game for marrying Jackson when she has feelings for Elijah so appartenly there wont be full closure. I hope tonight that she tells him how she feels and I hope Elijah tells her the same and I want that kiss. Someone thinks that they will have sex and then say good-by. I want them to make love but not right now down the road and I want them to be endgame. Someone said that Elijah and Haley will always find there way back together. And I am tired of people saying that Klaus is the alpha I don’t think he is, he was not born in the bayou. I would love Haley and Elijah to run away together but I know that will never happen. There are a lot of fans that like Haley and Elijah and I would hope they would not ruin that.

  4. If julie din’t want to continue with Klaroline then she should of told us that she was not going to continue with them before the spinn of began. But she didn’t she gave interviews that gave us hope or got us excited but since the show began it has only been lies or manipulation. We have been ignored, angered and dissapointed with the attitude they have presented us every time we mention Klaroline.
    Now that the family is all intact, fans probably have one giant question left in mind. What will happen to Klaus and Caroline’s relationship if Klaus jumps over to New Orleans in “The Originals” while Caroline (Candice Accola) is stuck in TVD’s Mystic Falls? Klaroline shippers, do not fear. Julie Plec told TV Guide, “Even if the spin-off does happen and we have two shows, I don’t predict that that would be the end of (Caroline and Klaus’) relationship.”
    And what’s in store for Caroline and Klaus the rest of the season? Julie Plec said, “We haven’t seen the end of the strange and somewhat perverse and beautiful and horrific and amazing and awful dynamic between Caroline and Klaus.”

    The Vampire Diaries’ Klaus has moved on to another city, but does that mean he’s forsaken his love for Caroline?
    Everyone’s favorite hybrid is spinning off to his own drama The Originals on The CW this fall, and he even impregnated a werewolf along the way. But fans of The Vampire Diaries can’t deny that Klaus (Joseph Morgan) and Caroline (Candice Accola) have a unique chemistry. In fact, some fans refuse to believe in anything but Klaroline.
    “They’re so exciting together,” series boss Julie Plec said at the Comic-Con panel on Saturday. “Some [fans] are rooting against every single woman on this show because of that… and it’s not like she doesn’t exist [anymore]. In a way, she’s the Buffy to his Angel.” And while that sounds romantic, Buffy and Angel didn’t end up together.
    Get all the Comic-Con news

    At what point are you going to address the romantic relationship between Caroline and Klaus? They appear on two different shows now, so does that mean they can’t be together?

    In the very beginning, Caroline is like a ghost in Klaus’ psyche. She may or may not get mentioned right away because ultimately he’s not thinking about love. He’s not thinking about romance, he’s thinking about revenge. He’s thinking about taking down Marcel and he’s a little distracted by the whole baby scenario, too. However, we will get to see her again and it’s sooner rather than later. If logistics don’t facilitate that, then we will certainly let him work through it in the narrative of the show because he had a powerful, powerful feeling for her and we’re not going to pretend like it never happened.

    According to Plec, the sparks between the two characters took her and the rest of TVD writers by surprise. “We knew that we were taking this young, bright-eyed girl and this seasoned vampire and we were going to give them a moment,” she revealed of the Season 3 scene in which Klaus gave Caroline his blood. “And it was something we thought was very interesting for Klaus, who had been so dispassionate about anybody else, to connect with this random person for no apparent reason.”

    But the obvious chemistry between Klaus and Caroline didn’t change the fact that the Original was still a very big baddie. “We were like, well here’s this character who’s loathsome — absolutely loathsome — and we don’t want to make him not loathsome, he’s the villain,” Plec told fans during the panel. “And so how do you continue to evolve this this connection that these two have that works so powerfully without compromising the villainy of a hideous and hateful and delightful character?”

    The EP acknowledged that it would be tough for Caroline to fall for someone like Klaus — at first. “We knew in these four years that there was no way Caroline could ever… I mean, he murdered the Mayor, her boyfriend’s mother.” But, Plec added, “There is something so magical between them that I would say it is definitely not the end of their journey.”

    We know there’s no official plans to get Caroline on the show yet, but are you guys going to be planting any seeds in the narrative that indicate her presence?
    PLEC: Yeah, we’ve talked about – there’s a conversation Klaus is going to be having with someone who has been keeping observations on his past and who will probably mention the connection that Klaus had with a particular woman in his past and reference Caroline. Obviously that was a big moment, a big relationship for him and continues to linger in his heart and his brain. He’s got eternal plans I think he declared. Yes, we haven’t erased her from the narrative at all. We’re biding our time until there’s an opportunity to bring them together or not bring them together depending on where the story goes.

    Read more at http://collider.com/the-originals-season-2-details-julie-plec-interview/#LvIsMmClrJySL818.99

    1. Wow seeing all the blatant… lies (that’s really the only word for it) put together like that is actually very discouraging.

      Sometimes I can’t remember why I was so excited for Klaroline to be brought up on The Originals. Seeing that promotion all over again… it’s because that’s what they promised. It’s not a delusional fandom upset about a ship. It’s a group of people that literally had the rugged ripped out from under them.

  5. I would love to see caroline and klaus togetheralso klaus did say to caroline I intend to be your last love no matter how long it takes so I would really love that to happen it would be amazing xx