In a show that is built on its sibling relationships, is this the best episode of the premiere season? And did we just lose one of those siblings permanently?

Let’s bitch it out…

Stuck in the graveyard, forced to deal with each other, Klaus (Joseph Morgan), Elijah (Daniel Gillies) and Rebekah (Claire Holt), come to terms with many truths about their thousand years together. And cause this reviewers to shed more than a few tears, and gasp out loud at more than one moment. I’ve always said that the one thing I love the most about this show is how they interact with each other. The undying love that’s there, despite a thousand years of fighting and betrayal, is the thread that keeps the show together.

This is proven, perhaps to a fault, by the secondary plot lines involving Marcel (Charles Michael Davis), Davina (Danielle Campbell) and Cami (Leah Pipes). Honestly, all I can think during the Marcel scenes, where he is trying to get Genevieve (Elyse Levesque) to break the spell, is what a waste he is. Here he is, running around town trying to make deals to save his lady, when its probably better for her to stay in the cemetery with her brothers. And the worst of it all is that he’s giving up Davina to the people she’s most afraid of because it will get him a favour from the witches. Yawn. The only interesting part outside that cemetery is the few comic moments provided, surprisingly, by the dying priest Kieran (Todd Stashwick).

So now that we’ve established what a snoozefest the secondary plotlines are, perhaps we can deal with the fact that they’ve just potentially written off one third of the greatness that is this show. As evidenced in this very episode, the siblings are what make the show and are what keep the viewers tuning in. So why on earth would they writer Rebekah out of this show? The whole episode I was running potential scenarios in my head, wondering what they could be planning and I’ve come up with a few ideas. The most obvious of which is that she will leave for a few weeks, as we’ve seen before, and she will come back of her own free will because she wants her brothers and her family back (and to save Elijah from potentially becoming like Klaus). That’s the only one that makes sense for the show. The only other option, which I can’t really see as an option, is that she will go find her home and her family in Mystic Falls with the other loaveable reject, Matt (Zach Roerig). These are the only two viable options that I can see, but I still land with option one. The show won’t be the same without the three living siblings.

We all know that I usually hate flashbacks. But something about the originals as kids with little British accents, and little Klaus being so sweet to his baby sister just gets me. But when these actors throw wigs on trying to play themselves as medieval teenagers, I’m not buying it anymore.

So I’m just going to be honest: I cried through this whole episode. When Klaus cries, you can bet money that I’m crying too. (There’s no shame in that!) and seeing them realize just how damaged they all are was a heart breaking moment. Rebekah said it best: they are the definition of cursed. And this tearjerker of an episode, which forced the siblings to confront each other and the hard truths (while giving us the most screen time of them together maybe since the series began), is the best episode of the season, in my humble opinion. It’s exactly what I am looking for from this show.

Other Observations:

• WTF is wrong with Marcel!? Who is he to be wimpering about how Klaus and Elijah came in and stole his home and his city?! Clearly he is forgetting the one major fact that he wouldn’t even be alive if it wasn’t for Klaus. And that this was Klaus’ city before Marcel stole it when they ran from Mikael (Sebastian Roche). He is in no position to be complaining about how wronged he is when he only got that home and that city because of them.
• AND another thing : we’ve had to sit through the terrible chemistry between Marcel and Rebekah for this whole season, and try to believe in this everlasting love that caused them to send for Mikael to kill/scare Klaus, yet he won’t leave with Rebekah when it comes down to it? I’m sorry, but wasn’t he driving their getaway car last week when they decided to go back for Davina? That whole goodbye scene just seems like the biggest cop-out ever. His pride is hurt so now everything he’s done and promised is for nothing, and she’s just OK with that?! The only positive result of this is that I don’t have to watch them together anymore and pretend I’m buying it.
• We all know how I feel about the ever annoying Hayley (Phoebe Tonkin), but this episode just proves my theory that less is more when it comes to her. Her goodbye scene with Rebekah was touching and sad and I enjoyed it, in addition to the fact that I only had to deal with Hayley for about one minute of screen time.

So, does anyone agree that this is the best episode of the series so far? Where do you think Rebekah is going? Do you think this is a temporary or permanent goodbye? Sound off below!

The Originals airs on Tuesday nights at 8pm EST on the CW.