Season 3 Episode 19 - No More Heartbreaks Review
After watching the latest episode of The Originals, No More Heartbreaks, I couldn't make up my mind about Davina's whirlwind romance, Lucien's bravado or Camille's death. I set out on a marvelous adventure. To clear up the chaos in my mind, I went to the most chaotic mind I know to see how he deals with it. It all started with me pulling up a wordfile of comprehensive notes and my partner arriving with an ink drenched slab of paper on which notes were hastily scribbled. Kol & Davina Maddy: Uuuum, I can't read my notes. So you got any thoughts on the episode? Analyze: ... let me check my notes. Well, I didn't have very strong feelings one way or another, towards this episode. Some episodes get me really enthousiastic and thinking about all their complexity, others have me disappointed and thinking about all of their faults but with this one I'm rather stuck in between. What about you? Maddy: I think it's not a bad episode, but I feel like a lot of it was forced. Especially the drama between Kol and Davina, though I think that entire concept is forced to begin with. Analyze: I agree with all of that. Well, this isn't going to be very entertaining. Maddy: Just throw in a few insults here and there. Analyze: Yeah euh, asshole, cunt, you don't know what you're talking about, but you are completely right. I actually wrote some notes about Kol's consistent selflessness towards Davina, like the biggest example: Him letting her dagger him. Maddy: They're all pretty traumatised by that. They could all use Cami. Analyze: Maybe they can hold a seance. Anyway, I don't buy that at all. Because when you look at his previous characterization, even towards his family, he's always been quite selfish. Even when it comes to impulse. Maddy: Especially when it comes to impulse. He's a character of impulse. Analyze: He is and when in season 4 of The Vampire Diaries, did you watch that season? Maddy: I felt like I needed a bath afterwards, but yes. Analyze: Well if you'll recall, when Kol feared death at the hands of Silas he nearly murdered his own sister with the white oak stake. In "The Awakening" miniseries he used Davina's own ancestors' love for him to get him the golden dagger. Finn has suggested that he's had dozens (if not hundreds or thousands) of "loves" over the centuries, and yet somehow this girl whom he's spent a few months with gets him to change his whole personality instantly? What makes Davina so special? Maddy: Well, I think it could have worked if they'd done it slowly, explored both of their characters and how she'd be the one that was different. Even Klaus needed three seasons to get to the point where he is in this episode, playing nursemaid instead of running out to go take vengeance on Lucien. Like after the episode where he found out Rebekah had summoned Mikael. He didn't sit around and think about it, Camille couldn't stop him from going to find his sister to kill her. But after 3 seasons of being confronted with his selfishness and its consequences, after having to be selfless for his daughter, etc. he finally learns. With Kol, he meets Davina, he kind of likes her spunk, does some dirty dancing and all of a sudden he's in love with her. After she brings him back, enough in love with her to act in a way that is completely inconsistent with everything we've ever seen from him. Analyze: Exactly, and without there being artefacts. Usually when someone changes, there are artefacts of their previous personality that remain behind for a while. People don't change all at once, there are times when they fuck up or revert. Even on the road to being more selfless, someone may still be selfish at times or about certain things. Or have moments where their pure, natural impulse gets the better of them anyway. Maddy: Not ignoring the fact that, let's be honest, his entire characterization has been thrown out of the window. The moment we really get the opportunity to explore his character, he's bad because of some spell by the ancestors. Analyze: It's really a perfect example of the plot determining the character rather than the character determining the plot. Maddy: And it isn't even necessary. Kol, historically, has a habit of killing those who get close to him. The ancestors could've just let Davina resurrect this dangerous, crazy vampire and waited. Analyze: And they could've explored his reasons for destroying so many women's lives in that. They could've shown how he's in this thing, how much Davina (in her teenage naivitée) loves him and wants him to change and yet how their relationship turns toxic and why. And the dialogue seems so melodramatic. It's understandable to hear that from a young girl like Davina, but not from Kol. A thousand years should've given him some perspective on "one true love." Maddy: Well, he's always sounded like a teenage boy. Analyze: They could've at least then explored why after a thousand years he's still like that though. Instead they saddle all of his conflict on to this spell by the ancestors, to have a plot twist, and this star-crossed rushed romance with Davina. The Ancestors
Maddy: Speaking of the ancestors... I'd like to quote Kevin Williamson in saying... Analyze: Black hole of plot? Maddy: Exactly. The gang is doing something? Ancestors. Lucien turned into a super vampire? Ancestors. We don't even know how many there are, how powerful they are. They're just this ominous, all-powerful thing. Analyze: I actually think the ancestors' powers to disrupt spells, etc. isn't that bad. Because Lucien being immune to all of the gang's most powerful tricks makes him a more formidable foe. It actually avoids the black hole of plot somewhat in that the gang can't just lock him away or something. What I didn't like, is that their power isn't consistent. Maddy: Yes, didn't we already see the extent of their magic in the finale of season 1? When Hope is about to be sacrificed? Analyze: That's an interesting point, actually. One of the witches trying to sacrifice Hope even goes on to say that Elijah, Klaus and Hayley are fighting them "in their place of power at their strongest hour" and yet nowadays the ancestors can just undo any spell anywhere and dessicate an original even when he's about to leave town. If they had this kind of power, surely many plotlines would be dead in the water. Maddy: The thing is that we don't exactly know how powerful these spells are. We just know that there is a time limit and we have to create suspense. Analyze: I think that shows part of a problem with magic on The Originals. While I love it, it's often really unexplained how powerful spells are, people are, etc. Instead of having the ancestors be all powerful, I think it would've made much more sense to have the ancestors recruit other witches. I mean, they have the nine covens at their beck and call, after all. Where are all of them? Camille
Analyze: Now, after that rant on inconsistency, let's move on to what's arguably the centerpiece of the episode: Cami's death. Maddy: It was very sweet and touching. Analyze: Touching? Like in a priest touching young boys in a bad place kind of sense, or... Maddy: She does have some priest roots in her genes, but no. Actually sweet. Basically, I'm not mad that they killed off a main character because it drives the plot forward. It definitely also shows how the other characters act. Vincent's in denial, Klaus is raging that he won't accept it, etc. Elijah's reaction I found especially interesting. He's just "it's bad, but let's move on now." Analyze: I actually kind of disagree on that. I get what they were trying to do with it. I think they didn't show enough how the character's changed because of her and that influenced their actions now. Just that they cared about her. Except for Klaus, but that was often too explicit. Maddy: It's a bit too much telling and not enough showing. Too much dialogue. Analyze: But what I will say about that scramble to save Cami is that... The original family has often managed to escape the consequences of their evil actions and this time around they just can't. So I think they wanted to get across that powerlessness they now feel. To have the episode be all about that. But while I think that's interesting, I think there wasn't enough focus on that for the episode to truly explore that. Just the scramble itself and some throwaway lines. Maddy: The plot is all over the place in this episode. Analyze: I think they also tried to get a lot of excitement out of the episode. And to deal with a lot of plot threads, like the one with Kol and Davina. I think they tried to do too much at once. I think the episode would've been a lot purer and more emotional if they'd stuck more with Camille's POV. Maddy: Yes, it was too cluttered. It lacked the necessary focus. Analyze: For example I love the simple beginning shot. Just this shot of Cami's psychology books (to show what her hopes and dreams used to be), then moving on to a broken picture of her and Kieran (a reminder of what she's lost) and then her body laying there. A tragic contrast. No words required. Maddy: One I really liked is the shot of Camille just sitting there, staring at something, while Hayley, Freya and Klaus are talking. She's not listening. She's in her own thoughts. Analyze: I agree. I liked the haze she was in. A nice way to pull the audience into Camille's mind through audio-visual techniques. Maddy: Exactly. This was Cami's episode. They should've stayed with Camille's POV. It reminds me of the episode of Breaking Bad where Walt spends the entire episode trying to kill a fly. We liked the episode because it was character driven. But I think if they'd done that, people would've been bored out of their minds. Analyze: I think some would've. But I think it would've been an interesting episode for most. Especially because it could've been more emotional being in the POV of the person's who's dying the entire time. Everything in the Breaking Bad episode slowly builds to getting in Walt's head and understanding where his mind is after everything that happened. In this episode we don't really have that. Aside from the Klaus stuff, we don't really explore who Camille was as a character. Maddy: One thing I dislike though is the overuse of exposition in the dream sequence. The "you are the light in the shadow" thing. Analyze: I actually liked that part. I liked how it sounded poetic. I think it's very memorable. Though there were actually a lot of people that think her death was pointless and her arc unfinished. Maddy: Do you agree? Analyze: I think I know where they were going for with her arc. She's this good person who hangs around with the Mikaelsons and is in danger of becoming bad, especially when she becomes a vampire, but in the end dies without giving into that. Unlike the Mikaelsons, whom vampirism did turn bad. And I think in that respect, they succeeded with it. But I think they could've done more with her arc. Her being such a well-beloved person she was in the graces of almost all powerful people, like Marcel, Davina (when she was regent), Klaus, etc. She may have been one of the most powerful characters on the show. Maddy: For a human. Analyze: No, period. In spite of being human. It's a pity they never explored her legacy with the human faction in this regard. Maddy: Yeah, what happened to that? Analyze: They just dropped that after season 1. It would've been interesting to see Camille trying to use it to create a peace between all of the factions and how that would've played into her character. Maddy: It would play into her legacy in two ways: On one hand she's known as the brother of a psychopathic murderer. On the other hand she's known as the niece of Kieran, someone who had a legacy of trying to be a peacemaker. Analyze: The brother thing definitely could've hung over her. Will she become like her brother? That could've been a very interesting opportunity with the cop, where he expected her of doing terrible things. Seeing her trying to defend herself against his accusations to avoid going to jail but at the same time being in a position where Klaus could've gotten rid of that problem instantly (through immoral means). Maddy: Yes, there's no way Klaus would've let her go to jail. Analyze: The one time they dug into it was with Lucien, I think. In episode two where she goes to Klaus and asks him to deal with Lucien because the cops can't. She's finally using that power, but she already has to reign him in so that he doesn't kill him. That spiraling out of control would've been interesting. Her being confronted with the fact that despite wanting to protect people, she's become the consigliere to some true monsters.
Maddy: So you wanted them to explore her doing things with the wrong methods? Analyze: Not just that. How she tries to walk a middle line in general. She is good, but at the same time she treats and enables monsters. It's interesting how she can be both moral and immoral at the same time. Not exploring that is my biggest problem with Cami. Stray Observations Maddy: There is one more important thing we have to talk about... Analyze: I was just about to say, it's time for stray observations. Random shit we noticed. Maddy: First off: Lucien does not take his power well, does he? Analyze: What do you mean? Maddy: He goes overboard with it. Way too cocky. I don't think he's going to be a good replacement for Klaus. Analyze: Well, he's a guy who started off as a powerless stable boy and spent 1000 years searching for power. As a kid he had no power, so he never had to learn to use it responsibly. Now that he has it, he's just giving in to everything he could never have then. Maddy: Power is like a drug. Analyze: Very true. Analyze: Anyway, I didn't like how Davina instantly put asleep all those vampires. Maddy: I did think "Jesus, she's powerful." Analyze: I thought it was inconsistent. In season 2 she couldn't even use pain inflication
on a dozen or so super-wolves. Granted they're more powerful, but still there were like thirty vampires? Maddy: More like fifty. But yes, that's what I meant. She seems to be very inconsistent in terms of how powerful she is. Sometimes she's the damsel in distress, sometimes she's this all-powerful harvest girl.
Maddy: I got a good one. I hated the club music. It always plays while I'm at the gym and so all I could think about this time was Lucien partying and it pissed me off. Analyze: Let that be an inspiration. Next time you're at the gym, just go ahead and snap everyone's necks. Maddy: Too bad there's almost no-one there. Analyze: Next: This is minor but at one point Lucien jokes to Davina that, among other things, he liked "wine over whiskey." I think this was a missed opportunity. "I like bourbon over wine" would've been as funny and more interesting. With one final word change you really would've connected it to exactly how obssessed Lucien is with emulating Klaus that he'd even emulate his preferred drink. Maddy: Isn't bourbon a kind of whiskey? Like a brand? Analyze: Is it? I don't know. But even if that's true, I feel like it'd be too subtle to be symbollic. I find it hard to believe that was consicous. Maddy: "Love will make you strong Klaus..." Analyze: Uuuum, yeah. I thought the dialogue with Camille was a mixed bag. It was emotional but sometimes too melodramatic and explicit. Maddy: The more serious observation though; not sure I buy Cami sleeping through the entire night when Finn died in... how many hours? Analyze: Finn did have the drive from Mystic Falls, but yeah. That doesn't sound like it would've been as long. Though I thought it was quite hilarious she was bitten and then took a nap for several hours. You could argue it's bloodloss or something, but I find it kind of unbelievable. Maddy: I understand they prolonged it with the potions, but they still had an entire night before she woke. Analyze: Last observation: I liked the sentence "love makes one weak" from Lucien. Maddy: Yeah, he's so good at coping, isn't he? Such a good "coper." Analyze: I didn't like its structure and it felt somewhat cliché, but I like that it echoed what Klaus said to Elijah in the first episode of The Originals. Fit with him trying to emulate Klaus. Maddy: Except that he doesn't know who Klaus is at this point. Lucien's holding on to an ideal version of him. Analyze: It's really both an ideal and a demonised version. He sees Klaus as both a boogeyman and the thing he wants to be. He wants to be the boogeyman. It really shows the contrast between who Lucien thinks he's trying to emulate, who he is and how Klaus has changed since Cami came into his life. Maddy: So, that essentially sums up the episode, doesn't it? Analyze: Yeah, that's why I had it as the ending, you idiot.
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Copyright: The images used in this article are screenshots taken from the episodes of the show. We are allowed to use them under section 107 of the US Copyright Act of 1976. The Originals belongs to the CW and Alloy Entertainment.
