CWOh, The Originals. *Sniff* Why you gotta do us so dirty like that?!
Warning: major spoilers below! Do not continue reading until you have watched "When the Levee Breaks!"
Another episode of The Originals, another death, another night spent crying into our glasses of wine. You'd think we'd be used to this routine by now, but this time, the CW supernatural drama took the life of Aiden (Colin Woodell), aka one-half of the beautifully romantic vampire/werewolf gay relationship that we've been loving ever since Josh (Steven Krueger) first got his star-crossed boyfriend. It hurt even worse since during the whole episode, we watched as these two boyfriends professed their love for each other and made plans to run away together. Ouch, our hearts!
And here's the kicker: Dahlia (Claudia Black) murdered Aiden and framed Klaus (Joseph Morgan) for the kill, knowing it would set Mikealson against Mikaelson, weakening their bond and lessening their threat against her. Klaus went along with the charade to inspire fear in everyone, but it ultimately led to his demise: Davina (Danielle Campbell) gave Marcel (Charles Michael Davis) the dagger she spelled to take down Klaus, and the Original hybrid watched as all his siblings and loved ones literally stabbed him with it, taking him down for the count in the time his family needs his violent ways the most.
So can the Original siblings take down Dahlia without Klaus' help?
"That is the million dollar question that everyone is struggling with," executive producer Michael Narducci says. "They're going to stand up to someone who is the most powerful thing we've seen in this universe, and they're going to have to find a way to deal with her without the most dangerous member of their family."
Though it hurts a lot right now, Narducci explains that killing off Aiden made the most sense for the story they're trying to tell.
"We knew off the bat that we wanted to tell a beautiful Romeo and Juliet story between Josh, a vampire, and Aiden, a werewolf," Narducci says. "Our goal was to create a complicated, layered person who was put in many dilemmas in regards to his loyalty to his pack, outside sources putting pressures on him, the difficulty of being a werewolf loyal to the crescents and dating a vampire, but also his belief that maybe he should be alpha. Him being an ambitious person and questioning the leadership of his own friend led him to be vulnerable to Klaus and his own Faustian machinations."
He continues, "Once we had that story in motion, we felt like we really put this guy in a dilemma and simultaneously, that story was going forward and we had another story which was Dahlia comes to town. Her goal should be to divide the Mikealsons and to ruin the vow of 'always and forever' so they would be easier to take down. If Dahlia is smart, then she could use someone's death the way that she says she's going to use Aiden's death as the kindling to light a fire that divides the Mikealsons."
The writers know that fans are going to take this casualty hard, since they had a hard time letting go of Aiden as well.
"I remember being in the room when the discussion came to the point of what if she takes Aiden and kills him and frames Klaus for it?" Narducci says. "And Klaus couldn't just say he didn't do it for many reasons: 1) It's a sign of weakness; and 2) He wants the Crescents to be questioning loyalty so Hayley [Phoebe Tonkin] doesn't have the freedom to run. All these story points collided in a way that it seemed like it would be the thing that would happen even though everyone in that room loves Aiden. Every one of us is sad to see Colin Woodell go, but we felt like that was the best story."
Another big part of the story we have yet to see? How Josh is going to grieve his lost love...and the revenge he'll end up seeking because of it.
"That's a big part of the next episode," Narducci says. "Josh is wrecked by this."
Narducci knows the juxtaposition of the sweet, loving scenes between Josh and Aiden throughout the episode leading up to his murder makes the loss hurt so much more.
"We had talked about many different endings for Josh and Aiden," Narducci says. "We talked about the possibility of them running off together, we talked about the possibility of one of them being captured and the other having to risk everything to try and save him. We had a bunch of different storylines planned, and I think that this one was really tough. We really felt this one in the room."
But he also argues that Josh would have had to say goodbye to Aiden at some point anyway, so this wasn't all that unexpected.
"There is an argument to be made that Josh, as a vampire, would have lost Aiden someday no matter what," Narducci says. "Vampires are immortal and mortals have a finite life span. This idea of them having a happy ending, nobody really gets a happy ending. You have to just live for those beautiful moments as they come and live in the now. If that's the metric by which we judge Josh and Aiden, they had one of the most beautiful and happiest stories of anyone on our show. They had romance and love and beauty. Now, Josh has to continue and that's a very universal story."
So put those pitchforks away, guys.
"I'm very proud of this episode but I was scared," Narducci says. "I thought you guys would be angry at us for Aiden and I think you are. But that's OK. This is the beginning of the storm that will take us through the end of this season. By now, the family is a house divided. This is going to put the people we care about in the most jeopardy we've ever seen. That is the story we're going to tell in the last three episodes."
The Originals airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on the CW.