The Originals Season 4 Finale: The Mikaelsons Have a Heartbreaking Choice to Make

The Mikaelsons will face their hardest decision yet in The OriginalsSeason 4 finale.

Now that The Hollow has taken control of Hope's (Summer Fontana) body, the only way to defeat the evil spirit is to divide and quarter it into four Mikaelson siblings. The catch is that whatever siblings volunteer to be a host for part of the spirit can never see each other again or they risk the pieces of The Hollow reuniting. Now the family must decide if their bond of always and forever is worth breaking to save the youngest member of their family.

TVGuide.com got a chance to talk to executive producer Michael Narducci about how the drama of separating the family will play out and what fans can expect in the season finale. Check out his answers below.

How are the Mikaelsons going to take the news that they have to be separated in order to save Hope?

Michael Narducci: I think that is a big part of the drama of the episode. Every single one of them will have a different episode. In fact, their perspectives are pretty unique to each of the characters. There are complications to the spell that Vincent wants to do, such that it's not immediately clear who will be the four volunteers who have to be a carrier to The Hollow as they divide it, draw and quarter it.

Freya, realizing that she may need to be a part of this in order to make certain that neither of Hope's parents will be separated from the child she loves and that she loves, is willing to make a pretty terrible sacrifice, which will be revealed over the course of the episode. Without saying too much, I'm really looking forward to the fans' reaction to Elijah's point of view, Klaus' point of view, which is basically, "I'm going to do whatever I have to do for my daughter," and Rebecca, Hayley. Everyone is going to have a different perspective. There are wrinkles to Vincent's spell that we will unpack over the course of the episode that make things more and more complicated for the Mikaelsson family.

Speaking of Hope, Summer Fontana has done such a great job this season. What is it going to be like seeing her fully taken over by The Hollow?

Narducci: When we hired Summer we knew that she could play sweet and we knew that she could play this kind of instinctive power based, this level of authority and power that is demanded of any person playing a Mikaelson. What I had no idea when we hired her was how she would play this dark and very treacherous spirit who has taken over Hope's body. She outdid herself. I think she is incredible in this episode and in the [penultumate] episode where we got to see this merciless, all-powerful evil peeking through the eyes of this little girl. It's incredibly creepy, scary and frightening.

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Is there any hope for Hayley and Elijah in the wake of all of this?

Narducci: Whenever you are dealing with characters that are immortal, they are going to live for a very long time -- or at least they have the potential for that. You can never really say there is no hope. That's one of the things that our show has said again and again. Just when you have given up on someone, some thing or some relationship, you are mistaken to believe we have seen the last of anything.

That said, I think the journey of this season for them was to realize there were some irreconcilable differences. Hayley, as mother to this child, wants to raise Hope in an environment where she has responsible mentorship and a possibility for a peaceful life. As we said, the theme of our entire Season 3 [was] that anybody who is in the orbit of the Mikaelsons -- loving the Mikaelsons is a death sentence. Hayley doesn't want that for her child. She doesn't want her child's friends or her child's inevitable eventual romantic interest to be in the orbit of the Mikaelsons and end up dead. Knowing that violence is a big part of Elijah's life, she has to start to think about whether she needs to distance herself from Elijah and the Mikaelsons.

Who is going to have the roughest time in the finale?

Narducci: I think the most devastating moments for me are when we see the Mikaelson family together for the last time and the full weight of this decision lands on them. So the people who made a vow a thousand years ago have to consciously choose to break that vow forever. There are some epic scenes between characters we've wanted to see together all season kind of admitting how they feel. Certainly Klaus' goodbye is heartbreaking and I think that's rough on him. Elijah will have to make a choice that is unlike anything any character has had to choose to do on our series ever before. I think it's within his character, it's true to his character, but it's a very difficult thing that he chooses to do -- so probably those two.

The Originals Season 4 finale airs Friday, June 23 at 8/7c on The CW.

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