During last week's "Vampire Diaries," Mystic Fall's mother of the year Esther devised a clever scheme to kill her devilish son Klaus: She bound all of the Original siblings together with a spell, so that if one of them were to die, they would all die. But if there's one Original sibling that's proven that death is never permanent, it's Elijah.
As actor Daniel Gillies reminds HuffPost TV, he's already died -- and been resurrected -- four times.
In Thursday night's all-new episode, "All in the Family," Elijah will ultimately give Damon (Ian Somerhalder) and Stefan (Paul Wesley) a dangerous ultimatum where the price is Elena's (Nina Dobrev) life. If they want to save Elena, then they have to help Elijah stop his mother from going through with her plan. "Elijah can be a decent master of ceremonies when things need to happen," Gillies told HuffPost TV. "He's a bit of a DJ at the forthcoming party."
When it comes to Elijah, we never really know what side he's on, but he does seem to have a blossoming friendship with Elena. Could his fascination with Elena stem from her being one of the Petrova doppelgangers?
"I hate the word doppelganger," explained Gillies. "Don't you find it to be the most unattractive word that you've ever heard? It almost sounds like porn position or something. I don't know what it is about it, but it's the most hideous name that they could have chosen for the show. It's just repulsive. That doesn't mean Elena is at all repulsive! She's gorgeous."
All digressions with the word "doppelganger" aside, Gillies believes that Elijah's immediate attraction to Elena may have stemmed from Elena's likeness to Tatia, the Original Petrova, but it certainly doesn't end there.
"I think that his feelings [for Elena] are unique to the situation that has arisen," said Gillies. "He's run into this person who demonstrates a kind of triumphant spirit. In the beginning when we met Elijah, she was just an instrument to his immediate desires and nothing more, but I think he prides his courage over all other qualities and the valor of being true to oneself, so the more that he got to know her, the more he adored those qualities in her. She's more noble than anybody."
Wait, does this mean that Elena now has another incredibly good looking guy in love with her? Watch out Delena and Stelena fans, it looks like Gillies is throwing down a few fighting words. (Team Elijana, anyone?)
"He feels something for her more purely than Damon or Stefan ever could because I think their attraction to her was more immediately physical," said Gillies. "Elijah has a deeply spiritual attraction to Elena. I think that they mutually do."
That's not to say, however, that Elena didn't betray his trust when she gave her blood to the Original Witch to complete her binding spell. "There's going to be some hell to pay," said Gillies, and judging from next week's promo, it looks like Barbie Klaus Rebekah (Claire Holt) is ready to rip Elena's head off.
But for those of you hoping that Esther's spell would somehow backfire, Gillies has some unfortunate news for you: "She's a rather effective witch, so I'm going to guess that she was successful in her endeavor."
She may have been successful casting the spell, but that doesn't mean it will get carried out accordingly. Now that the Original siblings are all bound together, they might just have to learn to play nice.
"There's a considerable degree of tension and distrust between the Original family," said Gillies. "It's a period of great trepidation for everyone involved. If the last trilogy of episodes could have a name it would be called 'The Original Minefield.' If you place your foot in the wrong spot, you're doomed. Proceed with caution is all I'll say."
However, if they plan to take out mommy dearest Esther, they'll have to somehow work together. "It doesn't really make sense for them to be completely in harmony with one another, but that doesn't mean that they can't work toward a common goal," teased the actor.
In fact, Gillies is well aware of the fans’ pleas for an Originals spin-off and said that he already has an entire -- and much more adult -- premise mapped out in his head.
"Lots of people have been talking about a potential spin-off, which we'd all love to do. Claire [Holt], Joseph [Morgan] and I have talked about it. This family is so uniquely creepy, and the writers are slowly starting to humanize them and make them into truly compelling characters. I've always said that it would be neat to watch an R-rated version of this family, kind of like 'The Sopranos.' I see them as gangsters living in some sort of corporate vampire world, living in New York. There would be swearing and violence and all sorts of mischief. Forget 'True Blood,' this would be the best show ever."
"The Vampire Diaries" airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. EST on The CW. Watch the promo for this week's all-new episode, "All My Children," below.
As much as we love Elijah Mikaelson, he didn't quite make our list of favorite supernatural characters, but guess which "Vampire Diaries" stars did?
