'The Originals': Flashback to the 1800s -- FIRST LOOK

The Originals, the CW’s Vampire Diaries spinoff, may debut Oct. 3, but there’s at least one reason to look forward to the second episode (which airs in the show’s regular Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET time slot on Oct. 8): Flashbacks! As you can see from our exclusive first look photo, even in the 1800s, Klaus (Joseph Morgan) and Marcel (Charles Michael Davis) had a complicated relationship. Also, it’s nice to know the show wastes no time getting Davis shirtless. Well done.

The episode, titled “House of the Rising Son,” finds Rebekah (Claire Holt) arriving in New Orleans at the insistence of good brother Elijah (Daniel Gillies) and worrying that bad brother Klaus is up to no good. Klaus, of course, is scheming against his former-protégé-turned-rival Marcel for control of the French Quarter in the present day, and Marcel has his own dangerous plan afoot. Per the episode synopsis, “after a run-in with Marcel, Rebekah is reminded of all the anger and disappointment Klaus has caused her throughout the years.” Could that have something to do with Vampire Diaries and Originals exec producer Julie Plec naming those pricey desiccation FX shots when the Originals get daggered as an example of something she’ll tweak for the spin-off? In general, you want to learn from past mistakes and make things simpler or easier to execute, she tells EW in our Fall TV Preview issue on newsstands now: “We can create our new version of it. If someone on Twitter starts screaming about how it doesn’t match, then okay. You don’t want to get those comments, but most people won’t notice.”