THE PERFORMER | Phoebe Tonkin
THE SHOW | The Originals
THE EPISODE | “You Hung the Moon” (Oct. 15, 2015)
THE PERFORMANCE | It’s a good thing Hayley’s werewolf curse has been lifted on The Originals, because it would be a crime to keep Phoebe Tonkin off our screens for another minute.
Thursday’s hotly anticipated Hayley/Klaus reunion — the two hadn’t seen each other since he orchestrated that curse on her entire pack — was guaranteed to be electric, but Tonkin’s ferocious portrayal of a hybrid-mother scorned officially upgraded the encounter to a full-on lightning storm.
Emotionally, this episode ran Tonkin through the gamut, and she crushed every challenge that came her way: Hayley’s rage during that must-replay battle against Klaus, her pain when she first laid eyes on Hope (walking!) and, ultimately, her sense of tentative joy with Jackson.
Tonkin has already delivered her share of standout moments throughout The Originals‘ 46-episode run — we still get all misty-eyed thinking about that Season 1 finale speech when she decides to give up Hope — but her level of commitment and the sheer scope of her performance in Thursday’s episode certainly raised the bar for her moving forward. We look forward to what’s next.
