Rebekah finally arrives in New Orleans on Tuesday’s episode of The CW’s “The Originals” and she certainly creates quite a stir with her arrival.
“I always get these amazing badass chick things to do, so it was a great entrance,” Claire Holt told reporters at a screening on Monday. “I was very happy, didn’t mind waiting an episode for that.”
To be clear, the lone female “Original” did appear on last week’s series premiere, a redux of the backdoor pilot that aired during “TVD” last season, though she was literally calling it in from “The Vampire Diaries” town of Mystic Falls. But the disappearance of her more sensitive brother, Elijah (Daniel Gilles), forces her to arrive to the family’s old stomping grounds.
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On last week’s debut episode, Elijah arrives to New Orleans in pursuit of the family’s impetuous sibling, Klaus (Joseph Morgan). He was lured back to New Orleans by its witches in hopes that he’d dethrone the city’s despotic ruler and his former protégé, Marcel (Charles Michael Davis). After Elijah discovered that werewolf Hayley (Pheobe Tonkin) is miraculously pregnant with Klaus’s child, Elijah becomes a problem for Klaus, who promptly dispenses of his sibling.
“Her primary goal is to come to New Orleans and find Elijah,” Holt said. “Right now, that’s what her quest is, her mission, and she doesn’t really care for making relationships with other people or bonding.”
So while Rebekah has no interest in sticking around longer than she has to, there are certainly things that threaten to extend her stay at the family’s former stomping grounds.
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“So right now, she thinks that she’s just going to pack up and leave as soon as she finds Elijah,” the 25-year-old Australian teased. “There’s obviously history that makes her stick around, like a very hot guy.”
In its bid to stand on its own feet, showrunner Julie Plec has said that there aren’t any “TVD” crossovers planned for the episode and Holt reiterated that.
“There’s totally potential for [crossovers],” she said. “And over the course of the series, if we’re lucky enough to stay on the air, then we’ll get to that sort of sharing. But right now, we’re focusing on our storyline.”
“The Originals” was at least partially developed as an option for those that have grown up (but not completely outgrown) watching the vampire love story and to capture new viewers who didn’t watch the mothership series. On Tuesday, the series will air for the first time on a different night than its predecessor.
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Last week, it attracted 2.15 million total viewers, losing about 16 percent of “TVD’s” audience. Can it survive when it moves to its own night on Tuesdays at 8/7c?
“Sometimes I think we could really use the help,” Holt admitted. “And sometimes it makes me think we can stand on our own two feet. I think we’re very lucky to have loyal fans from ‘TVD’ and hopefully they’ll come over to us whatever night we’re on.”