If you spent years watching The Vampire Diaries universe, you know the drill with villains. They usually start out as some brooding guy in a suit with a tragic backstory and a drinking problem. But The Hollow in The Originals was different. It wasn’t a person you could just dagger or snap the neck of and call it a day. It was a literal infection of power. Honestly, by the time season four rolled around, the show needed something that didn't just feel like "Klaus versus another disgruntled relative."
The Hollow, or Inadu, if we’re being formal, basically reset the stakes for the Mikaelsons. It forced them to do the one thing they hate most: stop being selfish.
Who Was Inadu?
Most people forget that The Hollow wasn't just some random ghost. She was a girl named Inadu, born into a tribe of powerful witches in the New Orleans area long before the city was even a thought. Her people—the same ancestors the New Orleans witches constantly talk about—tried to imbue her with so much power during her mother’s pregnancy that they accidentally created a monster. She was hungry. Not for food, but for life, magic, and suffering.
She was so erratic and cruel that her own tribe had to kill her. But killing a witch that powerful is like trying to put out a forest fire with a water pistol. It didn't work. Her spirit lingered, and her death actually created the werewolf curse. That’s a massive piece of lore people often overlook. Every single werewolf in the show exists because of Inadu’s final breath.
Why The Hollow in The Originals changed the game
Before this entity showed up, the Mikaelsons were the apex predators. If you had a problem, Klaus killed it. If you had a diplomatic issue, Elijah talked it to death (and then Klaus killed it). But you can't bite a shadow. You can't heart-punch a sentient blue light that lives in the soil and the trees.
👉 See also: Nothing to Lose: Why the Martin Lawrence and Tim Robbins Movie is Still a 90s Classic
The Hollow was a psychological parasite. It preyed on the weakest parts of the characters. It took Hope Mikaelson—the literal heart of the family—and turned her into a vessel. This shifted the show from a supernatural mob drama into something closer to folk horror. Think about the imagery: the jawbones, the constant whispering, the blue light. It was creepy in a way the show hadn't been since the first season.
The dark ritual of the four pieces
To stop her the first time, the ancestors had to divide her remains. It’s a classic trope, sure, but the execution in The Originals felt heavy because of the cost. They split her into four bones. For centuries, these pieces were kept apart because if they ever came together, she’d have enough "weight" to manifest in the physical world again.
When she finally did come back, she wasn't just looking for her old body. She wanted something better. She wanted the power of a Mikaelson-Hollow hybrid.
Imagine that for a second. A witch who is already a god-tier entity possessing a child who is a witch, a werewolf, and a vampire. That’s game over. The power scaling in the TVDU (The Vampire Diaries Universe) usually gets a bit messy, but here, it actually made sense. The threat felt existential. If Inadu won, the world didn't just get a new ruler; it got a vacuum that would eventually swallow everything.
✨ Don't miss: How Old Is Paul Heyman? The Real Story of Wrestling’s Greatest Mind
Misconceptions about Inadu’s power
A lot of fans argue that Silas or Arcadius (Cade) were stronger. Look, Silas was a great psychic, and Cade literally ran Hell. But The Hollow in The Originals felt more "primal." She wasn't bound by the same rules of nature that Silas was. She was a glitch in the system.
Some viewers thought her defeat was "too easy." Was it, though? The solution required the permanent destruction of the "Always and Forever" vow. For a family that survived a thousand years by sticking together, being forced to live on separate continents or else the world ends is a pretty brutal loss. It wasn't a "happily ever after." It was a "we survived, but we're broken."
The impact on Hope Mikaelson
You can't talk about Inadu without talking about how she shaped Hope’s entire life. Hope spent her childhood being hunted by this thing. It’s why she ended up at the Salvatore School. It’s why Klaus eventually had to make the ultimate sacrifice.
The Hollow wasn't just a seasonal "big bad." She was the catalyst for the ending of the entire series. Without Inadu, Klaus and Elijah are likely still wandering around New Orleans, causing trouble and drinking expensive bourbon. Her presence forced the redemption arc to reach its conclusion. It turned Klaus from a man who would burn the world for his daughter into a man who would die so she wouldn't have to be a monster.
🔗 Read more: Howie Mandel Cupcake Picture: What Really Happened With That Viral Post
What we can learn from the New Orleans Coven
The witches of New Orleans are consistently the most interesting part of the show’s world-building. Their relationship with Inadu is complicated. They feared her, yet some worshipped her because she represented "pure" power. It’s a recurring theme: the desire for power usually leads to the destruction of the person seeking it.
The Hollow is the ultimate cautionary tale of the TVDU. She was a child who was given too much, expected to be too much, and ended up being nothing but a void.
How to dive deeper into the lore
If you're looking to really understand the mechanics of the Hollow's curse, you need to re-watch Season 4 and Season 5 with a focus on the "Ancestral Well." Most of the clues about Inadu’s origin are buried in the dialogue between Vincent Griffith and the Elders.
- Watch the "Voodoo" elements: Notice how the show shifts its visual language when Inadu is the focus. It moves away from "European" style magic toward something much more grounded in the Bayou.
- Track the Werewolf lineages: If you’re a fan of the Crescent Wolves, go back and look at the Seven Tribes. The Hollow’s mother was the head of one of those tribes. It adds a whole layer of tragedy to Hayley Marshall’s story.
- Analyze the sacrificial themes: Compare Klaus’s sacrifice to the original sacrifice made by Inadu’s mother. The symmetry is there, and it's definitely intentional by the writers.
The story of the Hollow isn't just about a scary ghost. It's about the legacy of trauma and how the mistakes of ancestors can haunt a family for a thousand years. It took the strongest vampires in history to realize that sometimes, you can't win by fighting; you can only win by letting go.