'The Originals': Riley Voelkel On Fighting The Hollow

Magical demonic force The Hollow has gotten its hooks into Klaus and Marcel on “The Originals,” and Mikaelson witch Freya is getting heavily involved.

“It’s definitely something bigger than we’ve ever dealt with before and it’s dark magic and Freya’s able to zone in on the fact that it is magic,” Riley Voelkel, who plays Freya, told AccessHollywood.com. “It is something very powerful and dark and she knows that it’s now affecting both Marcel and Klaus.”

And, according to Riley, The Hollow has serious plans for the Original hybrid and super-charged vampire Marcel.

“They’re going to have these visions and Freya’s kind of tapping into the fact that The Hollow is going to want to [pit] these two against each other,” she said. “And even though Freya, I think, doesn’t really care for Marcel, she’s trying to look at what the best thing is moving forward because it’s affecting her brother now and her niece. Something is finding its way into multiple people in her family.”

Freya’s first solution attempt could be to fight magic with magic.

“We’re going to start to see the power of The Hollow start in this next episode and how it can get in people’s heads and she could possibly try to cleanse them of it,” Riley said. “She knows what it’s doing, but she doesn’t know what the outcome is and how powerful this thing is, so she just wants to protect Klaus going into this and just go from there.”

The Hollow is also after the children of New Orleans, including Hope Mikaelson, Klaus’ daughter, and Freya’s niece. Vincent helped break its hold on the kids and Klaus and Marcel in last week’s episode, but don’t expect Freya and the New Orleans witch to team up just yet. They’re going to be approaching the problem from different angles.

“Vincent still really wants nothing to do with Freya after Davina,” Riley said. “They used to work together all the time and I think at a certain point they’ll realize it’s bigger than them and their battles with each other and it’s about saving these kids. So in that way, I think they will be coming from the same angle and possibly discussing tactics, but … Vincent [isn’t] going to warm up easily to Freya and her asking any kind of help or trying to work together.

“He’s still very angry at her,” Riley continued. “But I think they both have the ultimate goal of saving these kids — her mostly caring about Hope and him not wanting kids to be involved in this crazy force that he’s dealt with for years and feels somewhat responsible for, but also is probably the only one who knows the power that it holds. So on some level we need each other to figure it all out.”

Beyond The Hollow storyline, Freya will be getting out of the bell tower more in the episodes ahead, especially with the introduction in the season premiere of the Keelin character (played by “Containment” alum Christina Moses).

“Yes, you’re going to see, I think, Freya get out of the house in multiple ways. I think you’re going to see a whole other side of Freya starting in kind of this next episode. Like you said, Freya’s normally stuck in her bell tower doing location spells and coming up with concoctions and always coming in when she’s needed, but we don’t really see this other side of her, this vulnerable side, or her have any kind of relationships outside of the family,” Riley said. “Anything she’s ever had has been short-lived and not important to her. She’s just always all family all the time and it’s interesting to see there’s some kind of connection between her and this new character Keelin, which she was not expecting. I think she did not care or have any sympathy for her whatsoever at the beginning, but to see someone actually kind of help her even if she kind of forced her to — just to see [Freya] have a teammate and have someone who actually does what she says and actually cares to help is definitely a change for her. She has a different teammate now so she can kind of get out of the house and do some things that normally she would do on her own.”

“The Originals” airs Fridays at 8/7c on The CW.

Jolie Lash