The Originals 2.09 “The Map of Moments”

Parents who hate each other sure make life worse for their children. When Esther and Mikael meet it’s all taunts and threats, a millennia old.

While Davina enjoys her flirtation with Kol/Caleb, and Cami rues her association with Finn/Vincent, Hayley and Klaus (with no pretenses of being any longer involved or even very simpatico on any subject) finally get to meet their darling daughter, protected so attentively and contentedly by Rebekah.

There’s a moment of an old-school polaroid selfie with parents and child, plus aunt and uncle, that is the happiest moment ever experienced by this group (and it cleverly calls an earlier moment from 1914 when a photographer needed a shelf of explosive dust to get his shot, of a much less happy brood), that is instantly rendered moot by Klaus reminding them it must be destroyed to protect all knowledge of Hope.

There’s a slight pretense of scoffing at Dalia’s threat (“she’s a 1000 years dead!”) since Esther and Mikael are both still around and kicking, even if it’s vampire magic that preserves them.

Yes, even Esther, because Klaus has had about enough, and kills her, but only after Rebekah has tricked her into consuming some blood-laced wine. Now she finally gets to be (again?) that which she hates most. The best result is that this turns off her magic.

Vincent however is free and still a witch, and while Esther’s hourglass spell (wonderful visual simplicity, very Wizard of Oz for this show, which is never a misstep) fails to put Rebekah in Cami’s body, it does put her somewhere weird.

This is one of those episodes where everything percolating along for months culminates as it naturally should, with just enough new wrinkles to tease us for the winter hiatus. In this case, the new element is a madhouse of witches, which seems to keep attracting people who can never leave, thanks to Kol. So just as we have new portrayers for Kol and Finn and Esther, we now have a Rebekah analog (maybe Claire Holt will still be called on for flashbacks?). The show remembers that Marcel cares for Cami and Rebekah, equally, and that Kol hates him for being more popular than himself with his own family.

We see little of Marcel’s vamp candidates (but we hear of them); we see none of Hayley’s betrothed, but she does explain it all to Elijah, who takes it as a prince hearing from a rival queen should take it (even if they grab for one last moment of gusto). Elijah seems tortured by Esther’s captivity of him, but not permanently damaged. And Klaus continues along his reasonable vein, working for alliances with his family and friends rather than isolating himself with a kingdom of one. The Originals mid-season finale is all quite well done, but it feels somehow more competent than urgent.