Original Air Date (CW): November 5, 2013
From its inception, The Originals has indisputably been a series about family; Klaus wants one to rule over, Elijah wants to put his back together, Rebekah wants one of her own, Marcel wants to save his from the witches, and the witches want to save their lineage. Both Hayley and Davina have been betrayed by the ones they were born into, and Camille struggles to put the memory and reputation of her brother in its rightful place.
This week’s episode is aptly titled “Fruit of the Poisoned Tree”. It’s important to note that the title itself is derived from William Blake’s famous poem “A Poison Tree”, which Klaus reads from at the top of the episode as Elijah goes through their mother’s old spell book (we’ll get to the reason for that later).
I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.
Oh, and there’s a dead girl laying on the table, dripping blood all over the carpet, like leftovers.
The central conflict of this episode revolves around the witches hatching another attempt to destroy Hayley’s hybrid baby through the link between Sophie and Hayley. This time, they inject the former with a fever-inducing drug meant to kill the unborn child. However, once Sophie realizes what’s been done to her, she rushes to vampire headquarters with magical herbs meant to delay the drug’s work. Klaus goes after Agnes and the witches, and Elijah attempts to use the aforementioned spellbook to teach Davina how to unbind Sophie and Hayley once and for all. But Elijah isn’t all business, as he manages to find enough spare time to continue to give Hayley the googly eyes. He’s also lost the tie, which brings him down from the ‘corporate takeover’ level to ‘business casual Friday’. But don’t be fooled; Elijah is as dangerous as ever.
Meanwhile, Camille discovers her brother’s tomb has been vandalized with the word “Murderer”, and begins to obsess over the idea that she should be more upset about it than she is. Apparently, when Klaus compelled her into not worrying about her brother’s death anymore, he failed to add the provision that she shouldn’t worry about not worrying. Nevertheless, she seeks out her uncle in the church and asks him for his advice on how to feel more pain, leaving him to respond with an old standard regarding indifference being a part of the healing process. But she’s not buying it.
After finding out what’s been done to Hayley, a far less subdued Klaus corners the priest and the human council during a meeting in the church, and tells them that they’re all going to die unless they bring him Agnes. In a futile attempt to refrain from pandering to violent vampires, they try to find Agnes for themselves. But it doesn’t really work that way when the violent vampires are watching you. Meanwhile, Rebekah whines (as Rebekah does) about not being a part of Klaus and Elijah’s vampire book club, informing her favorite brother that she’s leaving New Orleans. Unless, of course, he validates her presence in their lives. But this is Elijah we’re talking about, who wasn’t all that into validation a few thousand years ago, and isn’t about to start now. He kisses her cheek and wishes her good luck with her journey to freedom.
Trust is also on the table in this episode, as Marcel discovers, through one his crew, that Klaus has been compelling vampires to do his dirty work. Also, he discovers he isn’t actually living at a hotel.
In one of the more confusing points in the episode Sophie decides that magical herbs and a swim are just the thing to delay the miscarriage, instead of breaking the bond. One might think, if your whole point of leverage was about to die, you’d think of something more effective than getting into a 70 degree pool. Like, I don’t know, breaking the bond yourself. When Rebekah rolls her eyes at this whole thing, she rolls for us all.
But fear not, Davina’s introverted knot-untying homework assignment from Elijah is just the thing everyone needs. It works, the rope comes undone, the bond is broken, and now everyone is free to murder everyone else properly. Well, almost. Sophie makes Elijah promise her Klaus won’t kill Agnes for this, and he says of course. Elijah is a man of his word, isn’t he? Arriving at the church just in time to tell Klaus everyone is safe, he keeps his promise and prevents him from killing Agnes… only to kill her himself after ripping everyone’s heart out. This is the Elijah that makes Klaus (and the rest of us) very, very happy.
But while these bonding brothers are enjoying each other’s company and penchant for excessive violence, their sister Rebekah is still on the hunt for someone to tell her she’s pretty. Marcel ends up being the one for the job, after she shows up to make him sorry she’s leaving town, and they end up having turbo-speed (but not in a bad way) vampire sex. But, while he may think she’s pretty, she’s not really pretty enough to leave town for, so that’s the end of that. Well, aside from the fact that a random apple in her purse was the key to finding where Klaus was staying – the plantation where Marcel used to be a slave.
At the end of the day, Klaroline fans can rest easy, as Camille lays one obnoxiously weird and self-righteous rant on Klaus after he comes to help her by telling her the truth about her brother. She’s more interested in condemning his personal choices than the confirmation that her brother wasn’t a psychopath. Or, you know, saying thank you.
Thought that was the end of it? Not quite. Hayley goes missing after a surprise visit with Marcel. Uh oh…
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