In Episode 310 of The CW series The Originals, called “A Ghost Along the Mississippi,” the aftermath of a horrific plan that left Cami (Leah Pipes) dead, leads Klaus (Joseph Morgan) to declare war on Aurora (Rebecca Breeds) and Tristan (Oliver Auckland), and Hayley (Phoebe Tonkin) and Jackson (Nathan Parsons) find themselves pawns in Tristan’s twisted game. As a result, and with Tristan in possession of a powerful weapon that could take the Mikaelson family down once and for all, Klaus, Elijah (Daniel Gillies) and Freya (Riley Voekel) enact a risky plan that leads to a tense showdown with The Strix.
After a screening of the episode at The CW offices, executive producer Michael Narducci talked to a handful of press outlets about the show’s move to Fridays, Cami’s fate, the game-changing shift in who the Mikaelsons’ enemies are, when we’ll see Davina (Danielle Campbell) again, and the Mikaelson family curse. Be aware that there are some spoilers, and stay tuned for Pt. 2 of the interview, which will discuss the shocking events of the episode.
Question: How would you tease this episode, “A Ghost Along the Mississippi”?
MICHAEL NARDUCCI: It’s a transition from the end of the first chapter, with the rival of these three sired vampires in town. They have executed their plot against the Mikaelson family and there has been a serious casualty. Before long, there will be more casualties. There will be a game-changing shift in who our enemies are, what their plan is, and how things are going to escalate quickly, in terms of who is going to be siding with whom against The Originals. Our family, who started off the season very much at odds, is now backed into a corner together against this new threat. Some of the people we thought were allies and friends might not necessarily be thus.
Do you think the move to Fridays will change anything with the show?
NARDUCCI: I don’t think it changes anything for us. We go to work every day, we sit in that room, and we try our best to write the best stories possible and that our production team can create in the quality that we expect and that make our actors happy. We want to tell great stories, and that’s true if it’s a story on Thursday or if it’s on Friday, or if people are downloading it five years from now on some little microchip that they’ve implanted on the back of their cerebellum. It’s all about doing the best job that you can and letting the chips fall where they may.
What do you want viewers to know about Cami’s fate?
NARDUCCI: In the moments at the end of Episode 9, when you see Klaus holding Cami in his arms and her throat is cut open and she’s bleeding everywhere, he’s about as angry as we’ve ever seen him. He’s the one who kills people’s loved ones. He’s the one who destroys his enemies and tears them apart and ruins their lives. Now, someone has done that to him and, in a sense, it’s his fault. Cami was targeted because she was close to Klaus. So, there’s a certain element of rage and there’s also a certain element of guilt that he must feel. Klaus is at his most dangerous when he wants revenge and he wants to take people down for what they’ve done to him, and we’ll see a little bit of that, going forward. We’ll see a little bit of Klaus off-balance and not sure who he can trust. Before long, that’s going to result in the kind of alliance building for Klaus that we’ve wanted to see for awhile. In addition to him being paranoid and neurotic, that’s going to reach its zenith, and then he’s going to have to mend bridges with some people that he’s fallen out with. The big one on that list is Hayley. At the end of Season 2, he participated in Hayley being cursed and turned into a wolf, and she spent six months away from her daughter. It feels like ultimately, for this family to heal, he’s gotta heal his wounds with Elijah and Hayley. That’s something we’re going to play with, going forward.
Since we haven’t seen her for a bit, what’s going on with Davina now?
NARDUCCI: You will get your answer in [Episode 311]. She was shunned in Episode 307. Vincent and Marcel conspired in having her shunned, knowing that if she stayed Regent of the New Orleans witches, she would be very much in danger and she’s have a target on her back. She disappeared for awhile, and we wanted her to disappear so that we could get a sense that being shunned sucks. Nobody is talking to you, you don’t have any power anymore, and you don’t have any political sway or influence. She’s almost a homeless teen, living in New Orleans and trying to get by, and now she’s going to make a comeback, in a big way. Her number one drive is, “I got into this mess of being Regent because I wanted the power to locate and find and resurrect my boyfriend, this guy I fell in love with, who I believe that I can trust.” She’s going to reach out to that person, in a very major way. We may, in fact, be seeing, in some form that I cannot say, a reconnection between Davina and Kol.
What excites you about the rest of the season of The Originals?
NARDUCCI: If the core of the show is about family and the Mikaelson family, and how they affect those they’ve had influence on, you’ll start to see Klaus learning from some of his mistakes, which is a little bit unusual for him. You’ll also start to see some very large consequences for some of the sins of the past. As devastating as the second season was, losing people that we really loved in the last several episodes and seeing the family shattered, we’ll see some of that even greater in this season. We’re going to see the return of some people, and there will be some great moments of hope and romance and love and even forgiveness. There will be a sense that this family that we think of as cursed will endure. But then, we are going to see some really tragic moments that are going to shake Klaus to his core. The finale will be heartbreaking and tragic, as our finales tend to be.
Will some of the people who are connected to the Mikaelsons start to question staying around them with their family curse?
NARDUCCI: Yes, I think we’ll see that. I think we’ll see some people that will be like, “The Mikaelsons are the problem. They came to this town and spoiled everything. How are we going to respond and how are we going to put the Mikaelsons in their place?” Some people that we really love and have thought of as staunch allies will turn against the family. Who’s that going to be? Who’s going to firm up their alliance with the Mikaelson family because they know they should and they know that they tend to win, so maybe it would be a good thing to maintain alliances. You don’t want to be their enemy, necessarily. So, the shifting alliances and the changing terrain of who the opposition force is, is our wheelhouse and what we like to play with.
The Originals airs on Friday nights on The CW.
