Cami, Davina, and the Problem With Women on The Originals
The Originals is a television show that has always had profound issues with it’s treatment of and representation of women. It’s a topic that I and many other people who have critically examined the show have discussed in many different instances and in many different ways, and the sheer volume of criticism that has been levied against the show’s portrayal of women speaks to what an enormous issue it is. But, regardless of your opinion on the show, it’s characters, and what it’s done in the past it seems like everyone can and is agreeing that they’ve taken these issues to an astoundingly unacceptable level. In this past episode they killed two women. Two women who have been main characters on the show since the show began, who were killed violently, who’s deaths exist now solely to serve as plot devices for the love interests they left behind, and who are only the latest and most high profile in a list of dead female characters that is just about as long as the list of female characters that have ever existed on The Originals. And that’s not okay.
This entire episode is, on it’s surface, meant to be an ode to Cami as a character. But, what is readily apparent from everything that actually happened on the show, it’s really an ode to Cami’s role in changing Klaus as a character. And while my opinion on Klamille has always been clear, I don’t want to make it sound as if it’s wrong to acknowledge the impact that one character has had on another, especially if that character or relationship arc is coming to an end. But it’s extremely problematic when the impact of a relationship eclipses the character itself, and it’s even more problematic in an instance like this because it fundamentally alters the weight given to Cami’s death and how the audience is meant to see it. The problem here isn’t just that Cami is dying, it’s that she’s dying because of Klaus, and that we’re all supposed to think that it’s relatively okay because Cami has somehow “fulfilled her purpose” in the story line. It equates the importance of Klaus’ progression as a character with Cami’s LIFE. It tells the audience that Cami, a character who has essentially become the female lead of the show in this past season, has as much value to the story as something that will motivate the male lead’s story line for the next three or four episodes. Regardless of how you feel about Cami as a character, I think the problem is obvious.
But beyond that, what I find even more disturbing is everything that has happened before Cami’s death. Cami was made the lead during this season and given the arc that was supposed to define her as a character, only for her to be fridged twice. Cami has been a supporting character who was tangentially involved in a few plots in the first two seasons, and then in the third season she was pushed to the forefront and her character arc WAS the plot, and somehow the writers managed to make BOTH climaxes of that plot into CAMI’S DEATH. And just… why?! Why leave your female characters by the wayside and give them no significant development until you decide to kill them? She has been the primary love interest of the male lead for the entire run of the show, so why did she only become worthy of this level of attention when violence committed against her was going to become one of Klaus’ primary motivations going forward? Hurting female characters is bad enough, but The Originals went out of it’s way to relish in Cami’s destruction as much as it possibly could, and still somehow ensured that the major impact of her loss would be Klaus’ pain instead of her loss.
And as if this wasn’t bad enough, Davina’s death is almost worse to me because it was so dismissive and cheap. Davina has been a main character since the start of the show, she’s arguably the most powerful person on the show entirely, and her murder is just a footnote of the episode tacked on at the end of Cami’s obituary. Not only that, but it’s actually really violent. I think the writers were aiming for a really big shock moment with that, but I simply CANNOT believe that none of them for one second thought, “hey, maybe writing a death where a teenage girl is violently murdered by her out-of-control boyfriend is a pretty disturbing image to present to a mostly female and fairly young audience”. And just… why in the world would you ever do that? The writers had to go very far out of their way to create a scenario in which Kol would believably kill Davina (hell, it’s barely believable that he even COULD kill Davina given the fact that she’s always held her own against an Original before) and there were dozens of other characters who logically would have and could have killed her instead of him, and yet Kol is the one pulling the metaphorical trigger. Why?
Well, the obvious reason is the exact same that it was for Cami. Because making Kol the one to do it ensures that they’ll be able to maximize his manpain. And I have to say, while the issues with Cami’s death are difficult to top, I think they actually did manage to top it with Davina’s death in a few ways. One, which is the most obvious to me, is the one I just mentioned. Presenting a scenario where a woman is violently killed by her love interest is a profoundly disturbing image to present to an audience, regardless of the context. But also something I find really bothersome is how the characters are weighted against one another. Remember how I made the comparison between Klaus and Cami, and how the death of the pseudo female lead is being treated as if it matters as much as the character arc for the male lead for a few episodes’ time? Well when it comes to Davina and Kol that chasm is even more extreme. Now, I am a huge Kol fan, I lobbied for his presence on the show from the minute the show was announced, however in the context of the actual show itself he is not a hugely important character at this time. He’s only become a significant presence this season, and Davina has appeared in FIFTY more episodes of The Originals than he has. And yet… Davina’s death is worth whatever angst the writers will squeeze out of this for Kol. So much of her characterization had to be erased, so much of the story line had to be altered, all so Kol can feel sad about being the unwilling puppet in his girlfriend’s death. And we have no legitimate explanation why.
Something else I find very interesting about both of these deaths is the way that the characters were treated in the context of the story, and how common this pattern seems to be on The Originals in terms of how the show frames victims and victimization. What I find very curious about the hows and whys of Cami and Davina’s deaths is that their deaths really fall under the umbrella of that old fiction writing stereotype of “if you want to hurt a woman hurt a woman, and if you want to hurt a man hurt a woman”. I mean, Cami isn’t killed because she’s Cami, she’s killed because Klaus likes her and Lucien knows that. She as a person is irrelevant to the scenario, she’s just an object that the writers are putting in between Klaus and Lucien to make their grudge have some kind of weight. But then contrast that with Davina’s death. Davina is the target of the ancestors, and Kol is almost the “Cami” of the scenario, he’s just the object that exists between Davina and the ancestors. But despite the similar setup and dynamic the female characters are the characters that are actually dying, and the male characters are the characters we’re meant to sympathize with most and view as the victims.
And this kind of leads me to some of the broader problems that The Originals has with the way it treats women. Because Cami and Davina’s deaths are probably the most extreme examples of this “hurting a woman to hurt a man” issue that the show has had, but they’re certainly not the only examples. The number of women on the show who have been harmed or even killed as a direct result of their relationship to a love interest is staggering. By my count there are 10 female characters who have died on The Originals who’s deaths have been directly related to the characters they were in relationships with. And, even more disturbingly, THREE female characters on The Originals have been murdered BY THEIR LOVE INTERESTS. And not only do the women vastly outnumber the men when it comes to these issues (as far as I’m aware, no male character has been killed by their love interest, and two male character’s deaths were directly related to their love interests), but the women who are affected by these prejudices are far more important characters than the male characters affected. For instance, the top three female characters on the show in terms of episode count have ALL been killed at some point as a direct result of their relationship with a love interest (Hayley’s death may not have stuck, but were it not for her relationships with Klaus or Elijah she never would have been killed), and ALL of their deaths were used to fuel angst for the male characters. In contrast, the only male characters who’s relationships contributed to their deaths are Jackson and Tim.
And this is something that applies nearly across the board, both in terms of the volume of characters killed and the importance of the characters who have been killed. I always knew that The Originals was unfairly skewed in favor of their male characters, but until I actually looked at the numbers I had no idea how skewed it really was. At first glance it might have actually been encouraging, the gender makeup of the cast of characters who have appeared for more than one episode is actually 32 women and 28 men. But, of those 28 men, 13 of the characters have died. Do you know how many of the women have died? 28. That’s right, The Originals has as many dead recurring female characters as they do recurring male characters, period. And as I said before, the three female characters who have appeared the most in the show have all been killed (although frankly the distinction isn’t even that necessary given that nearly EVERY WOMAN on the show has died, period). And the “most important” male character that has ever been killed off? Jackson. Hayley, Cami, and Davina have all died, and the “top three” male characters who have bitten the dust are Jackson, Diego, and Aiden. Does something seem a little askew there?
And the thing of it is, the writers spend an inordinate amount of time trying to defend their writing failings with all manner of excuses, and frankly there are a lot of fans who back them up on that. The show is about the supernatural, the show is very violent, the show is about violent characters, the show has to have real stakes so people have to die, etc. However, there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING IN THIS WORLD THAT CAN EXCUSE OR EXPLAIN THIS KIND OF GAP. The number of women on the show who die is more than double the men. The number of women who are killed because of their romantic relationships is FIVE TIMES AS MANY as the men. And this is something that has been going on for the ENTIRE run of the show with no sign of improvement. I mean Jesus, if anything I think we can all agree that it’s actually getting WORSE.
Regardless of how anyone feels about Cami and Davina as characters, about their relationships, or about the show itself, I think there are certain things that are completely undeniable at this point. The writers constantly defend themselves on the grounds of creating the art that they need to create, but they’re creating a television show that is meant to entertain it’s audience. And what couldn’t be clearer is that murdering women is a vital part of this creation. These writers need to understand that murdering women is not art, murdering women is not entertainment, and quite frankly anyone who believes that it is should not be creating art or entertainment. I have no doubt that this trend will continue and I have no doubt that one of the few women who have escaped death in this show so far will be killed before the show ends, if not before the season ends, and I have no doubt that my complaints or the complaints of others will have no effect on the eternally deaf ears of the writers. However, what they’re doing is not okay. I am not okay with it, many other people are not okay with it, and the writers need to know that we’re not okay with it.
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