The Originals 2.20 & 2.21

The backstory on Aunt Dahlia: Superwitch, is finally forthcoming in “City Beneath the Sea.” Which is an evocative title that has little to do with her extended flashback to her original days of Viking servitude, after they attacked her village and kidnapped all the women. Her treacherous sister Esther soon allies herself with Mikael, abandoning their bond, but Dahlia is left to work magic for them or die. Thus she begins plotting her revenge.

It’s not the best backstory ever, but thankfully Claudia Black doesn’t have to play much of it, as she’s the older model, not the kidnapped ingénue. And she really does finally come into focus verbally sparring with Klaus. He’s still daggered, but as she explains, he’s in her mind, witnessing her sob story. His dandyish side comes out as he makes note of how his mother became the traitor she remained, and he of course forges an alliance with the most powerful person in his head, Dahlia. In return, she channels him the power to un-dagger himself, which is the most kickass moment in the exposition-heavy episode. He rises from his own coffin, extremely pissed off.

“Fire With Fire” is better, because it focuses on the lightning-fast moves of the present, not the regrets of the past. Hayley and Jackson prepare to flee (maybe to Alaska) but are hampered by a drenching storm conjured by Dahlia. The elder of the wolves has a spell to tell if evil magic is about, and it is, and they can’t really flee. Especially when Klaus, well-fed by Dahlia’s mind-controlled victims, shows up to fight for his daughter.

Jackson is ready to take him on, but he doesn’t get very far, because Dahlia has a spell that revives Hayley’s clan’s curse, that they stay as wolves from one full moon to the next, and they all start changing. I’m not sure why a pack of ravening werewolves is any better than a group of feral humans, but this leaves Hope alone in a truck. However Klaus isn’t yet ready to give her up to Dahlia. He wants them both free of the sleeping curse before that happens. Dahlia for some reason listens. She sees a kindred soul in her nephew for sure.

Earlier, Klaus seemed to carry out her whims against his siblings. He compelled Marcel to capture and keep Rebekah contained in her host body, he killed Gia before Elijah’s eyes, and he drank Camille when she tried to reason with him.

But something else is up, it seems, because Camille survived, and he whispered a part of his plan in her ear as he pretended to kill her. Elijah and Rebekah still have choreographed moves to make, too. Freya’s been sent to sleep again, but, really, it’s too bad about Gia. We don’t usually see vampires revive from taking off their daylight rings in the sun.