The Originals Season 4 Finale Was Absolutely Filled with Emotional Goodbyes

Departing showrunner Michael Narducci sounds off on his final episode and what the future could hold for the CW supernatural series

By Lauren Piester Jun 24, 2017 1:00 AMTags
The Originals season 4 finaleThe CW

So much for Always and Forever. 

The Mikaelson family officially broke their vow to stick together on tonight's finale of The Originals, but it was for an incredibly good reason. In order to save Hope (and all of New Orleans) from the evil Hollow that had possessed her, Vincent (Yusuf Gatewood) explained that he had to divide up the Hollow and put it into something that was both eternal and related to Hope (Summer Fontana) by blood—AKA her vampire family. 

He needed four vampires, and then he needed those four vampires to go in four completely different directions, never able to see each other or Hope again in order to keep the Hollow from gaining power and trying to steal Hope's incredible power back for itself.

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So that's exactly what happened. Klaus (Joseph Morgan), Elijah (Daniel Gillies), Rebekah (Claire Holt), and even Kol (Nathaniel Buzolic) who arrived just in time to keep Freya from turning herself into a vampire) all had pieces of the Hollow put into them, and then they scattered around the world. Weirdly enough (or not weirdly at all), they all seemed pretty happy in the episode's closing moments. 

Kol went off with Davina (Danielle Campbell). Rebekah and Marcel (Charles Michael Davis) reunited in New York after he and Sofya (Taylor Cole) broke up, and they got back together with nothing to stop them. Before Elijah took off, he had Marcel compel him to forget about the vow entirely, freeing him from his devotion to his brother and allowing him to become the floppy-haired jazz pianist we always knew he could be. Klaus, meanwhile went off on his own, but still kept an eye on his family every once in a while. While Freya (Riley Voelkel) was happy with Keelin (Christina Moses), Hayley (Phoebe Tonkin) found Hope a spot at Alaric Saltzman's (Matt Davis) school for magical kids, which is the spinoff we need immediately

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Executive producer Michael Narducci, who has been with the show since the pilot, wrote tonight's finale, and it marks his final episode with the show. Julie Plec will be taking the reins for season five as Narducci moves on to his own projects, but we hopped on the phone with him one last time to talk all about his final episode and the end of Always and Forever. 

E: News: This is a little bittersweet, because this is your last finale, right?

Narducci: It is, yeah. It felt like the right time to move on, and I'm very happy that season four turned out the way it did. I had a great deal of fun working with the writers on it and working with the cast and our crew, and I feel happy and I'm excited to see what's next.

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Did you feel any pressure to go out with—not really a bang, in this finale, but it's a pretty big ending for the show.

Yeah, it feels like an appropriate end to season four, and it feels like we are closing the door on a chapter in the life of the Mikaelson family without slamming the door shut, as you said, with a big bang. It felt like the truth is, these characters have been around for a thousand years, and they've had their ups and downs and they've had their moments of being together and their moments of not being together and their moments of isolation and separation, and you know, we set out to tell a story about the family coming face to face with a very dark and frightening evil.

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For the first time in our show, the Mikaelsons weren't just at war with some faction of vampire or werewolf or witch that was trying to defeat them. The Hollow was a true evil entity that could have done irreparable harm to New Orleans and perhaps the world at large, and the only thing that stood in its way was this family of vampires who are by no means heroes, but in this one instance, they manage to do something close to the right thing and I thought that was a worthy story to tell.

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I have to admit I kind of laughed when Vincent said the only way to save Hope and defeat the Hollow was to end the "Always and Forever" vow, because of course. Why did you want to end the season on that?

We wanted to tell a story where the plot required this evil spirit to be basically drawn and quartered, and so these four different pieces have to go four different directions, and at the same time, there had to be a sacrifice involved in order to kind of make the magic work. Somebody had to give up something, and in this case, all four of the Mikaelson siblings gave up something. 

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They gave up the ability to be together. And yet, as you look at them, seems like Kol has the possibility for love in his future, and Rebekah and Marcel, there's nothing now standing in their way for them to fulfill their romantic storyline, and Elijah in those final moments, seems to be possessed of a newfound desire to find aspects of himself that have been hidden or basically tramped down for centuries. So that leaves Klaus, and who knows what's going to happen next for Klaus? I'm eager to see what comes next and what the season five storyline is, but whether it's good or bad for Klaus, I just love that in this moment, he is perhaps for the first time that we've ever seen him, acting selflessly.

He's leaving Elijah so that Elijah can have peace, and he's leaving Elijah so that the seeds of the Hollow that are now nestled inside of two brothers does not have the opportunity to grow by their proximity. And he's doing the right thing. It's not the easy thing, but he's doing the right thing for the people he loves, and that's the sign of emotional growth. And having gotten Klaus to that place, I do feel like this was a nice ending point for the season and for my tenure on the show.

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It did seem like, despite their sacrifice, everybody was really happy at the end. Even Klaus at least looked happy to see that everyone else was happy.

Yeah, I think there's a little bittersweet moment of joy, and of course, you have to imagine that a little bit of time has passed by the time Klaus finds Elijah, there's been a little bit of passage of time that might help heal some of the wounds.

I think deep down, given the circumstances, they know that this is their only solution, and I think they embrace their fate with courage and, you know, there's a certain gallows humor in the scene in act three when Rebekah wonders if this will be their redemption, and Klaus kinda chuckles and says, does anyone actually believe that? And Elijah says, absolutely not, but it's a nice sentiment. And I think that defines their choice in that moment. It's hard, but for one moment in a thousand years, they have the chance to do the right thing, and they do the right thing and it's a nice choice.

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Can you talk about the significance of Elijah having Marcel compel him to forget about the vow?

I think there's a lot of different ways to look at it. Elijah has buried aspects of himself behind the red door and sublimated those instincts and forgotten things in the past, and knowing that, I think he goes to Marcel and asks him to take away this loyalty to a vow that has kept him, in a way, in service to Klaus for a thousand years. Perhaps because Elijah feels guilty that he didn't stop Mikael from abusing Klaus, for a thousand years, he has tried to help his brother, and in this episode, Klaus released him from that vow and said I need you not to follow me. I need you not to come to my defense when I inevitably begin to suffer and fall because I don't have my daughter anymore, because I don't have my family anymore. I need you to leave me alone or the Hollow will win.

And Elijah knows that his defining character trait is his willingness to go to any lengths to help Klaus. So he's got to get rid of that in order to ensure that the Mikaelsons are able to sidestep the disastrous return of the Hollow. The Hollow is something that eats away at your basic instincts. It kind of tricks you by latching onto your secret desires and your most intimately held wishes, and Elijah knows that's how the Hollow's going to get to him, by preying upon his love for Always and Forever. So he's got to wipe that out. And if you think about it, wiping away such a huge part of your identity is, in some symbolic ways, much like Elijah's choosing a complete blank slate. He's almost committing a suicide of the character that he has portrayed for a thousand years, and then the question becomes what will emerge in the wake of that decision? And that's great story for season five.

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What do you know about the plan for season five? We've heard rumors of a teenage Hope…

We always talked about  where stories can go, and even in season one we had ideas about what the chapters for the Mikaelsons might look like going forward, and things that we wanted to see, and there are still things that I think Julie and the writers will want to address coming out of season four. I think there's a lot of fun story to explore. But no, I have no idea what they're going to do, and I'm excited to view it like everybody else, because I love the characters so much and there's so much story to tell, so it feels like, you know, it will be great to have the experience of witnessing it as a fan.

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Do you anticipate a lot of spinoff talk with Hope at the school at the end? Because I think that would be a great show.

I'm glad you think so. Certainly I think Hope is a wonderful character and you know, everybody wants to believe that their show has multiple spinoff possibilities. I certainly would watch a show starring Hope Mikaelson.

Finally, whose journey are you proudest of as you say goodbye to the show?

It's such a tough question. I really love so many different elements of this show. I'm proud that we took Marcel from the vampire king of New Orleans and kind of the adopted son of Klaus and showed really why he is a unique individual who is different from the man who raised him, and how he has overcome adversity and been a proper king of the city and is now choosing to focus on something else, this love he has for Rebekah.

I'm very proud, and in fact, when I wrote Hayley scenes, I would often think about her feelings for her daughter and I would inject my feelings for my daughter, that I would do anything to protect my kid in the same way Hayley would do anything to protect her kid, and also, I have to say, the relationship between Klaus and Elijah and the idea that at the end of the day, they show each other the most love by their decision to give each other what they need and go their separate ways. Those, I think, are the key relationships and the key characters that I will always think of when I think of the show.

The Originals will return to the CW in 2018.