Hayley's Arranged Marriage Could Ruin Everything

Leave it up to a bizarre werewolf arranged marriage to throw everything into turmoil. Before the CW's hit vampire series broke for the 2014 Winter Olympics, The Originals aired a high-stakes, bombshell episode that's still got us wondering where they'll go next. We've already dissected showrunner Julie Plec's hints regarding the rest of the season — and after thinking on them even more still, we're worried what Hayley's new arranged marriage will do to The Originals.

The show's most recent episode "Crescent City" put both Hayley and Elijah in uncomfortable positions in regard to their almost/kind-of relationship. Celeste forced Elijah to choose between saving Hayley, Klaus, or Rebekah — and he chose Hayley, leaving Klaus and Rebekah held captive by the witches. There's the logic that he was "doing it for the baby" but even so, Elijah and Hayley have gotten close and he's obviously attached to her so there's that. Hayley, on the other hand, threw her little party for her estranged werewolf family from the Bayou and ended up finding out that not only is she werewolf royalty but, apparently also has an arranged marriage. So, that's really awkward.

Now, one of two things can happen here — and both would throw the perfect emotional/romantic balance of The Originals out of synch. Hayley and Elijah haven't acted on their emotions in fear of Klaus — so they'll undoubtably need to have "a talk" about their almost relationship to see where they'll go and what they'll do. They'll either become a couple (throwing off the Original family dynamic) or decide that they just can't handle it — at which point, legions of fans (myself included) will be disappointed because those two had so much potential to be great parents to that little hybrid bun in the oven. Either way, their romance and their emotions will take center stage.

Option two would be Hayley, who's already expressed interest in getting help to break the curse on her family, going through with the arranged marriage to regain wolf power in New Orleans because she feels it's her duty. We all know that Hayley's got some family issues — she's been abandoned twice and never actually had a family until she was forced into giving birth to Klaus' spawn and ended up becoming an honorary Original. So obviously, her natural reaction to finding out that she has this huge family that's willing and ready to embrace her immediately but also happens to be suffering would be to try to help. So, she'd go through with the marriage and either fall for Jackson OR be miserable because she really did have feelings for Elijah. Oh, and Elijah would be mopey and miserable as well.

Both options involve a lot of "feels" — which is something that we've seen briefly on The Originals but hasn't really taken a position in the forefront of the action. They'd also both likely conclude dramatically, which is something that is so not the show's style. And we'd end up disappointed if we had to see Elijah engage in a silly and petty contest with Jackson over who's the better guy for Hayley (because he'd obviously win). It'd be romantic to see him fight for her (even though it'd be a little too Vampire Diaries for our taste) but just end up being futile and distracting from the otherwise great storylines on the series. Mostly because Hayley's proven that she can hold her own and make her own decisions without someone forcing her hand.

The Originals is set to return on Feb. 25, in an episode that will be forcing Elijah, Rebekah, and Klaus to deal with the repercussions of their decisions. And we can imagine that Hayley, who's already asked Marcel for help in breaking the "Sun & Moon" curse on her family, has big decisions to make as well about her arranged marriage and her responsibility to a family she's never really known until now. Hopefully, she doesn't get wrapped up in a love triangle to rival The Vampire Diaries — because that would ruin everything that's perfect about the show. Introducing the werewolves is a great touch, but if it's just to drum up romantic drama, we're seriously not interested.

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