The Originals episode 18 review: The Big Uneasy

Another fast-paced episode of The Originals ramps up the tensions between the various factions...

This review contains spoilers.

1.18 The Big Uneasy

It only took 42-minutes for Elijah quest for peace and inter-species party times to go belly up but, boy, was The Big Uneasy fun to watch. Exhausting, but fun. I’ve said it before but, if there’s one thing The Originals seems to have inherited from its parent show, it’s the fast, breakneck storytelling pace; able to explore a potentially season-long arc in just one brilliant episode and then just moving onto the next like it’s no big deal. That might have meant that we’ve seen allegiances change in this first season more times than we can reasonably keep track of, but, with The Vampire Diaries currently parked on its laurels and refusing to move, it’s a good thing.

After coming back from a lengthy hiatus, The Originals didn’t bother with much catch-up and went straight into set-up for the upcoming string of episodes leading up to the finale. Elijah is standing around looking smug about his brilliant plan to achieve peace in New Orleans, Klaus is scheming with the werewolves, Marcel is scheming with Thierry and Hayley has settled into her role as Queen of her pack quite nicely. If anything, everyone has a little piece of the power pie but, as is almost always the case when different factions try to co-exist, no one is happy with just a little piece.

The party was an ingenious way of getting everyone together, with Elijah still determined to instil peace to his family’s city and not anticipating that exiled former monarch Marcel might try to sabotage his efforts. This was actually a big episode for Elijah, as his moralistic determination was given a kicking throughout, finally imploding when he found out that, not only are the werewolves, witches and humans passively aggressively fighting against his plan, but Klaus has also chosen to side with a family not perceived to be his own. It’s with Elijah that Rebekah’s absence can be most keenly felt, and his shift this week puts him on his own. see more