You guys. YOU GUYS. After watching The Originals season 1 finale, I'm having a serious case of the feels! ALL OF THE FEELS.

Absolutely any and all emotions which could be crammed into a single hour of television were just crammed into that one and I'm feeling simultaneously elated and exhausted at having been along for this first season ride. 

Seriously. The Originals Season 1 Episode 22 just brought it. Threw down a gauntlet and now I need a time machine so I can skip straight to October and start up The Originals Season 2. 

Fair warning: This review will contain A LOT OF CAPS LOCK. Because ALL OF THE EMOTIONS.

Whew. Deep breaths. Here we go. 

This episode had us all by the throat from the opening sequence. 

It was one of those moments that reminded us that Klaus really does have people in his life about whom he cares a great deal and he can really be quite charming when he's just being a normal sort of guy. He seemed not at all phased by Hayley and Elijah's burgeoning relationship and even poked fun at the fact that he himself was not the object of her desires.

It was downright adorable and light. A perfect balance to the darkness of the scene taking place in the present day. 

After Genevieve induced Hayley's labor, the baby came quickly, with the countdown on for the moment when the witches would sacrifice the baby. Once the baby was delivered, Hayley had only the briefest of moments to hold her daughter in her arms before Genevieve whisked the baby away and Monique slit her throat.

Hayley and Klaus in the nursery, her writing a letter, him getting all happy about feeling the baby kick, intertwined with Hayley giving birth in the church while the witches kept Klaus pinned to the wall, watching his daughter be born and the mother of his child be killed but utterly unable to do anything but watch was simply DIVINE. 

When I tell you that I actually came up off the couch a little bit as Hayley lay there dying and exclaimed out loud that this COULD NOT BE HAPPENING, I need you to believe me. If you need a witness, ask my husband. 

But seriously. For a moment there, it seemed like Hayley was completely a goner and I was not happy about it. 

Hayley and Elijah have finally kissed. ELIJAH LET THIS PERSON IN! And just like that, she was gone. It wasn't fair. It couldn't be possible. 

And it turns out it wasn't.

While Klaus and Elijah wandered around the cemetery Labyrinth trying to find the baby in time to stop the witches' sacrifice, Hayley was busy turning into a hybrid. 

My mind went spiraling out of control because there are no more doppelgangers and how would she transition but OH WAIT!

The baby. 

Tyler proved that the baby could make hybrids and suddenly his appearance in New Orleans made complete sense. He wasn't just there to send Klaus back to Mystic Falls to sleep with Caroline in the woods (though that was a delicious by product of his time in the Big Easy).

He was actually there so we'd have the set-up to know that the baby's blood was capable of making more hybrids so that in this exact moment, we would understand that Hayley's desire to find her child was not only maternal but also imperative to her survival. We would know that this would work.

Nice move, writers. Two points for you guys!

Hayley, Elijah, and Klaus found the baby and the witches and Monique and the blonde one joined forces with their ancestors to keep the vampires and hybrids at bay long enough for Genevieve to complete the ritual, but when it comes to saving her child's life, there's not much that can hold a mother back. 

Hayley took down Genevieve while Klaus killed the blonde one. Just as that psychopath Monique was about to sacrifice the baby, Marcel swooped in and saved the day by killing the teen witch with an object full of dark magic. He had intended the star for Klaus, having gotten it from Cami and Davina, but, ever the quick thinker that he is, Marcel saw the bigger picture.

And he has a thing about kids. Even though Monique was technically a child herself, it was clear that she wasn't an innocent child, particularly as she stood poised over a newborn baby ready to take its life. So he killed Monique and rescued the baby, and while he did use the baby as a bargaining chip to get Klaus to save his life, he never would have hurt her and Klaus knew that. 

This led to the reunion of Marcel, Klaus, and Elijah on Team Vampire after Marcel issued a sincere and heartfelt apology for bring Mikael to New Orleans a century prior. 

That played nicely with the fact that Mikael--not the Guerrera werewolves--was responsible for the permanent destruction which had taken place at the compound. Because Davina raised him from the dead.

Oh yes, she did that. She definitely did that.

But Davina has learned a thing or two in the past year and anchored Mikael to herself. She put him on a supernatural leash and led him to the church attic, with the promise that he'll be allowed to leave when she says he can leave. 

Damn, girl! Way to be in charge!

I'm not sure I'm in love with the idea that Mikael is in the flesh again, but hey, we'll see where this takes us. As Heather pointed out on the most recent The Originals Round Table, Mikael was always a bit underused on The Vampire Diaries. We'll see what the writers can do with him here.

He's not the only supernatural being Klaus and Elijah will have to contend with since Esther, Mommy Dearest, has hitchhiked her way back to the land of the living inside the body of a risen witch. It appears that Finn may have done the same since the second witch who rose with her referred to her as "mother."

What, we couldn't get Kol out of the Other Side before it goes away?? Come on now!

Before the episode ended, I wondered aloud (yes, I'm serious. Again. Ask my husband.) if Esther was the reason the witches were told to kill the baby and as it turns out, I was right. While the baby's sacrifice was ordered as part of the Harvest completion, it seems now that the main reason the baby was supposed to die was because Esther decreed it to be so. 

But because she's made this decree, all the witches will be coming for the baby. The werewolves aren't exactly fond of her either, so they'll likely make a move. Especially the Guerrera wolves.

This led to one of the most heartbreaking and perfect sequence of scenes in the episode. 

To save the baby's life, Klaus, Hayley, and Elijah agree to stage her death and send her away until they can right their wrongs and assure the baby's safety in New Orleans. 

While my one teensy complaint about the night has to do with the manner in which Marcel helped them accomplish this task, that was all made right when Elijah helped Hayley transition and the two said goodbye publicly while Klaus delivered the baby to....

Rebekah.

Claire Holt's exit from The Originals had everything to do with this moment. Everything. And it was perfect.

Who better to protect a baby than the aunt who loves her and who also happens to be immortal? 

Klaus' speech to his daughter and his single-cheeked man-tears had me crying. For real. Maybe it's the mother in me. Maybe it's the JoMo fan in me. Maybe it's both. I was in tears in my living room. 

And then to hear Klaus say that her name is Hope? Oh man, cue the waterworks again. 

The Originals season 1 finale was amazing. Phenomenal. THE BEST! And now? Now we wait until October. It's going to be a long four months.

What did you think of The Originals Season 1 Episode 22? Did you think Hayley was a goner? Were you happy to see Rebekah, even if only for a moment? What do you think of Mikael and Esther's return?

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