Everything comes to an end, but nobody expected the Mikaelsons to go out like that. It’s been years since the finale aired on The CW, and yet, if you browse any TV forum or Reddit thread today, the debate over season 5 of The Originals is as heated as it was in 2018. Some fans call it a poetic tragedy. Others? They think it was a rushed mess designed solely to launch the Legacies spin-off.
Family is power. That was the oath. But by the time we hit the fifth year of the show, that power felt more like a curse than a gift.
Honestly, the jump in time changed everything. We left season 4 with the siblings scattered to the four corners of the earth, unable to be near each other because of The Hollow. Then, boom. Seven years later, Hope is a teenager at the Salvatore School, Klaus is back to his murderous ways in Europe, and Elijah has absolutely no idea who he is. It was a bold move by Julie Plec and the writing team. It worked for some, but for those who missed the New Orleans jazz-and-blood aesthetic of the early years, it felt like a different show entirely.
The Time Jump and the Hope Mikaelson Factor
Let’s talk about Danielle Rose Russell. Replacing a child actor is always risky, but she stepped into the role of Hope Mikaelson with a lot of grace. However, her presence shifted the focus. Season 5 of The Originals stopped being a show about the ancient power struggles of the French Quarter and became a "coming of age" story wrapped in a tragedy.
Hope’s teenage rebellion is what actually kickstarts the plot. She kidnaps her own mother. Think about that for a second. In an attempt to see her father, Klaus, she inadvertently sets off a chain of events that leads to the biggest casualty of the series. It’s messy. It’s frustrating. It's exactly how a 15-year-old with too much power would act, but man, it was hard to watch Hayley Marshall pay the price for it.
The stakes felt different this time around. We weren't fighting Marcel or some ancient coven for control of a city. We were fighting the literal internal collapse of a family that had survived a thousand years.
Why the Villain Felt... Weak?
If there is one major critique that almost everyone agrees on, it’s the "Purist" vampires. After facing off against monsters like Silas, Dahlia, and Lucien Castle, a group of Nazi-esque vampires led by Greta Sienna felt like a step down.
They weren't scary. Not really.
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Their ideology was hateful, sure, but they lacked the charismatic menace we’ve come to expect from the TVD universe. They were a plot device. Their only real job in season 5 of The Originals was to provide a reason for the Mikaelsons to unite and, eventually, to cause the circumstances of Hayley’s death. When you compare them to the complexity of Marcel Gerard in season 1, the drop in quality is pretty noticeable.
The Tragedy of Hayley Marshall
We need to address the "Ailey" in the room. Hayley’s death in episode 6, "What, Will, Be, Forgot," was a polarizing moment in television history. Phoebe Tonkin had been the heartbeat of the show since the backdoor pilot in The Vampire Diaries.
Watching her die in the blistering sun, stripped of her hybrid side, was brutal.
Some argue it was necessary for Hope’s character development. Others feel it was a "fridging" of a strong female lead just to make the men in the show feel something. The nuance here is that Hayley died a hero's death—protecting her daughter—but the fact that she was absent for half the season before that happened left a sour taste in many fans' mouths. It felt like the show was already moving on from her before she was even gone.
Elijah Mikaelson and the Memory Loss Arc
For most of season 5 of The Originals, Elijah isn't "Elijah." He’s Joel, a piano player in France.
This was a brilliant bit of acting by Daniel Gillies, but a painful experience for the audience. The "Noble Brother" was gone. Because he didn't have his memories, he didn't step in to save Hayley. In fact, he actively hindered Klaus from saving her. The moment he gets his memories back in the hallway of his mind—that scream he lets out—is probably the most haunting scene in the entire series.
It changed the trajectory of the ending. Elijah couldn't live with the guilt of what he’d done while he was "away." This is the context people miss when they complain about the series finale. It wasn't just about Klaus; it was about Elijah's soul.
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The Finale: "When the Saints Go Marching In"
The end of season 5 of The Originals is a tear-jerker. Period.
Klaus Mikaelson, the Great Evil, decides to sacrifice himself to destroy The Hollow and save his daughter. It completes a redemption arc that started way back in Mystic Falls. But the controversial part? Elijah going with him.
"I don't know what comes next," Klaus says.
"Neither do I," Elijah responds.
They stake each other. They turn to ash together.
Some people hated this. They wanted Klaus to live and be a father to Hope. They wanted Elijah to go back to New Orleans and find some semblance of peace. But if you look at the show as a tragedy rather than a fantasy-adventure, the ending makes perfect sense. They started together, and they ended together. Always and Forever wasn't a pinky swear; it was a suicide pact.
What Most People Get Wrong About Season 5
A common misconception is that the season was "bad" because it was shorter. It only had 13 episodes compared to the usual 22. This actually helped the pacing in some ways, but it forced the writers to cut corners on the world-building.
Another thing? People think Klaus’s death was "forced" by the actors wanting to leave. While Joseph Morgan was definitely ready to hang up the fangs, the story had been heading toward a sacrificial end since season 1. You can’t have a protagonist who is an immortal, unkillable hybrid and expect a "happily ever after" in a world built on consequences.
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The Legacy (and Legacies)
We can't ignore that this season served as a 13-episode pilot for Legacies.
We spent a lot of time at the Salvatore School. We met Alaric Saltzman again. We saw the twin daughters, Lizzie and Josie. For fans who just wanted a conclusion to the Mikaelson story, this felt like an intrusion. It’s hard to stay immersed in a family drama when the show keeps winking at you about a spin-off.
Despite that, the emotional beats between Klaus and Caroline Forbes (Klaroline fans, stand up) were some of the best moments of the year. Seeing them walk through the streets of New Orleans gave a sense of closure to a dynamic that had been dangling for years.
Next Steps for Fans of The Originals
If you’ve just finished a rewatch or are diving in for the first time, the experience doesn't have to end at the finale. To truly understand the lore, you should:
- Watch the "Awakening" Web Series: These are short digital episodes that focus on Kol Mikaelson in 1914. It fills in massive gaps about how the family interacted before the modern era.
- Track the "Originals" Novels: Written by Julie Plec, these books (The Rise, The Loss, The Resurrection) are canon and cover the family’s arrival in New Orleans in the 1700s. They explain why Klaus and Marcel’s bond was so unbreakable in the early seasons.
- Analyze the Cinematography: Notice how the color palette of season 5 shifts from the warm, gold tones of New Orleans to the cold, sterile blues of the school and the "afterlife" spaces. It’s a subtle hint at the loss of the "home" the Mikaelsons fought so hard to build.
- Compare the Pilot to the Finale: Watch the very first episode of The Vampire Diaries where Klaus is mentioned, and then watch the finale of The Originals. The character growth is objectively one of the best in television history.
The series is a masterpiece of flawed characters. It isn't perfect, and the final season is definitely the most flawed of them all, but it stayed true to the central theme: the terrifying, destructive, and ultimately beautiful power of family.