Normally after watching an episode of television, people ask "what happened on The Originals"? But after tonight, the question to ask is...

What didn't happen on The Originals? What a packed hour that was! 

Tyler Lockwood's return has certainly shaken things up in the Big Easy! The Originals Season 1 Episode 7 was chock full of action!

All of tonight's story lines were interconnected, but each of them happened in their own circle like a giant Venn diagram. Each story centered around a pair of characters and converged by the end of the hour.

Tyler and Klaus: Tyler was back for...I'm not sure. He came back to give Hayley information, which we'll get to in a minute, but for a little bit there it very much seemed like Tyler came back to die. 

Sure, he wants revenge, but he can't kill Klaus. He can't even outlast Klaus in a fight because he's so much younger than his sire. Tyler has nothing left. So, Klaus decided to let him live. Living is a fate worse than death for Tyler Lockwood.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching these two alpha males go after one another. I have a feeling I'll also enjoy watching Tyler team up with Marcel. 

Hayley and Tyler: Marcel didn't take Hayley. Tyler did. He took her so that he could show her where she's from and what's happened to the rest of her pack and also test the theory that the blood of the Magical Miracle Mikaelson baby could create more hybrids. 

It can. I'm not impressed with this development.

Why did we spend an entire season protecting Elena on The Vampire Diaries from the likes of Klaus if all he needed to do to create his hybrids was to knock up a bunch of werewolves? Then we would've gotten to see JoMo sans shirt a lot more often and maybe Klaus would've been a little less surly. 

Oh, right. Because the product of using hybrid baby blood to create hybrids sires the hybrids to the mother and not to Klaus. Except no one knew that?

Honestly, I'm done with the hybrids. We had a beautiful, orchestral scene with Klaus slaughtering 12 of them and that felt like a metaphoric slaying of the story entirely. Until now.

Tyler believed that Klaus knew that the baby would give Klaus this ability and that the chance to make more hybrids is the only reason Klaus has been keeping Hayley alive. He made her believe this as well, and truthfully, had Klaus known, it would seem like Klaus' usual m.o. But he didn't know and underestimating his reasons for wanting the baby to survive drove the Hayley wedge a little further between the original brothers. Point for Tyler!

Klaus and Elijah: The brothers are at odds. Again. Elijah's still sort of bitter about that whole daggering thing despite forgiving his brother last week. Hayley and Elijah believe Tyler's story that Klaus knew about the hybrid-making potential and confront Klaus about it. Klaus senses Elijah moving in on his incubator and doesn't like it. He doesn't want Hayley for himself, but he has trouble with the thought that any of his siblings could maybe potentially find happiness. If Klaus ain't happy...

These brothers are both fighting to protect the same thing: family. Their interpretations of what and how to fight give them issues. 

Klaus fights for the Mikaelson name, for the power of being an Original vampire. He wants to strike fear into the hearts of those who dare cross him. If enough people are afraid of him, he doesn't have anything to worry about.

Elijah fights for the people, the physical members of the family. Power is important but doesn't seem as important as finding happiness. He wants them to be one big happy, except Klaus has a problem with that whole happiness thing.

Elijah believes that Hayley and the baby can heal what's broken in the Mikaelson clan and will stop at nothing to protect that hope, even going so far as to believe the worst about his brother. Klaus, who actually has a heart sometimes, was hurt by his brother's lack of trust. And because it's what Klaus does when he's angry, he lashed out, biting Elijah and leaving him in the bayou with Hayley.

I'll save comments about Hayley and Elijah until after the next episode, but suffice it to say, I like where this is headed.

Marcel and Rebekah: There was a ton of tension between them for weeks while Marcel was chasing Cami, but both of them seemed uninterested in pursuing anything. Suddenly Rebekah couldn't leave New Orleans without saying goodbye, they slept together, she begged him to leave with her, and now he's showing her the house he wanted to build her once upon a time.

The speed with which this relationship is progressing is sort of bizarre, but I'm not sure I'm complaining. Marcel could have chemistry with a wall and Rebekah wants to love and be loved. It works. 

And there's that whole "help me take down your brother" thing, too. 

Marcel has The Gardens, the place he puts those who break his rules. When Rebekah told him that asking Davina to find a way to kill Klaus would kill him as well, he immediately came up with the plan to wall Klaus into the Gardens. Genius! Thierry's spot will be vacant by Mardi Gras.

But since he's basically killed his brother, Klaus needs Rebekah to be his spy. Rebekah's torn, and understandably so. Here's the brother who's kept her daggered for over half her life parading in front of her with "family! and so what I killed our brother! we're family!" and Rebekah's lonely enough to want to stand by her brother even against her own best interests.

Now that Josh is free from Klaus' compulsion, Klaus has an opening for a new #2 and he needs Rebekah to shoulder the mantle. 

Josh and Davina: While all the heavy stuff was happening everywhere else, the writers gave us some lovely scenes between Davina the Teenage Witch and club-loving vampire Josh. 

Davina, trapped in that attic all day long, has really missed out on a lot of living, and her conversations with Josh drove that point home. Over the course of her mind-erasing, they became fast friends. He even pinky promised to keep her location a secret if she wouldn't erase his memory again.

This will probably come back to bite Davina (Ha. Vampire pun.) but maybe this will just turn out to be another person who cares about her after those who claimed to care were willing to see her die. The girl needs friends, and she's smack in the middle of a hotbed of supernatural activity. She might as well make friends with the vampires.

What did you think of The Originals Season 1 Episode 7? Let's talk about the return of Tyler Lockwood and Davina's friendship with Josh! Do you buy Marcel's interest in Rebekah as being about more than just getting rid of Klaus?

Check out our The Originals quotes page and then let's chat about tonight's episode!

Miranda Wicker was a Staff Writer for TV Fanatic. She retired in 2017. Follow her on Twitter.