“ | That's why you're so great at being a vampire, Marcel. You chose this. I didn't have a choice. I'm cursed and I'm angry. | ” |
— Rebekah to Marcel in The Kindness of Strangers
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Rebekah Mikaelson-Gerard (Elder Futhark: ᚱᛖᛒᛖᚲᚨᚺ ᛗᛁᚲᚨᛖᛚᛋᛟᚾ) is the former female protagonist of The Originals. She was a major recurring and guest character in the third, fourth, and fifth seasons of The Vampire Diaries. She is the sole female Original vampire.
Rebekah is the second daughter of Mikael and Esther. She is the younger sister of Freya, Finn, Elijah, Kol, and the elder sister of Henrik and the younger half-sister of Klaus. She is the aunt of Freya and Mathias' unborn son, Klaus and Alex's children, Hope, Miranda, Jenna, and Nik. Freya and Keelin's son, Finn, Elijah and Katherine's daughter Victoria, Kol and Davina's twins Ace and Isabella. She is the step-aunt to Jaxon, Nikolina, and Lillian. She is also the adoptive aunt to Adella. Rebekah is the wife of Marcel and mother of Mason.
Throughout her millennium-long life, Rebekah's actions and personality have been heavily influenced by her relationship with Klaus and her desire to live a normal, human life. She has also been romantically involved with a few characters from the series. In the 12th century, she was in love with a Vampire Hunter named Alexander who was a member of the Brotherhood of the Five. In the late 19th and early 20th century, she was in a relationship with Klaus' protégé Marcel Gerard while she and her family lived in New Orleans. After she fled New Orleans with Klaus to escape her father Mikael, she was briefly in a relationship with Stefan Salvatore in Chicago during the early 1920s, and because she chose Stefan over her half-brother, Klaus daggered her for ninety years in punishment for her perceived betrayal. Once she was undaggered in 2010, she had several brief flings with both Stefan and Damon Salvatore before finding herself in a romantic relationship with a human, Matt Donovan. Shortly afterward, she followed her brothers Klaus and Elijah back to New Orleans, where they once again settled as a family, allowing her the opportunity to rekindle her relationship with Marcel.
In the middle of the first season of The Originals, she was finally given her freedom by her brother Klaus and left the city to fulfill her desires at a normal life. However, she returned briefly in the season's finale to become her niece Hope's guardian after Klaus and Alex faked her death for her own safety. After her mother and brothers Finn and Kol were resurrected, Esther began tracking Rebekah's movements, forcing her to rejoin her family in New Orleans to plan how to best protect Hope from the new threats she faced.
In The Map of Moments Rebekah came up with a plan to take down her mother, which involved pretending to take her offer to possess the body of a mortal and rejoin her mother and brothers Finn and Kol. However, because of a trick played on her by Kol in retaliation for Rebekah slighting him in 1914, Rebekah's spirit was unknowingly placed in the body of a witch named Eva Sinclair, who was imprisoned in the Fauline Cottage asylum due to her crimes against the children of the New Orleans covens. She was then trapped in the asylum until her sister Freya awakened from her century-long and freed them both with her magic. In I Love You, Goodbye, when her brother Kol died, she made a promise that she wouldn't leave her new witch body until she finds a way to bring him back. She later confirmed this decision again in Exquisite Corpse after Eva temporarily regained control over her body and used it to attempt to complete the Rite of Nines using the children Eva had kidnapped and channeled both prior to her imprisonment and afterward; because Rebekah's spirit was the only thing keeping Eva's body alive, and because the eight teenage witches, including Davina Claire, were still linked to Eva's body, Rebekah's return to her true body would cause them to die as well, a fate that Rebekah did not want for them.
After Vincent assisted her in severing her host body's connection to the eight teenage witches, Klaus compelled Marcel to kill her if she attempted to leave the compound in an effort to keep them from interfering with his plans. Unwilling to force Marcel to kill her by attempting to leave, Rebekah figured out that Klaus wanted Eva's body to be killed in order for her spirit to return to true body, and, not wanting Marcel to go through the pain of killing her himself, Rebekah fatally stabbed herself/Eva through the throat. Rebekah commits suicide in her mortal body in order to keep a compelled Marcel from ending her life because of Klaus' orders. As she expected, the death of her host body caused her spirit to return to her original body. However, after Dahlia was defeated, Rebekah's sister Freya healed Eva's body so that Rebekah could return to it and continue her work in bringing Kol back from the dead.
After months had passed, Rebekah was confronted at her house in Morocco by Aya and dozens of her fellow members of The Strix, who, on Tristan de Martel's orders, killed Eva's body once again so that Rebekah would have to return to her own. The Strix, who intended to neutralize her and bring her back to Tristan in New Orleans, attacked her en masse, and though Rebekah would normally be at an advantage due to her age and status as an Original, she was weakened from not having fed during her six months in the coffin.
After quite a bit of fighting, Aya finally incapacitated her by stabbing her in the heart with a cursed stake that had been created by the Moroccan Witch and that acted similar to a white oak ash dagger, allowing her to put Rebekah's body back in her coffin and fly her back to her home. Unfortunately for Aya and Rebekah, Rebekah's body was intercepted by vampires under Aurora de Martel's control, and once Rebekah was in their possession, they dropped her body in the Gulf of Mexico and wrote her location on two pieces of paper before they were killed by Aurora. One piece of paper had the latitude, and the other had the longitude, so that Tristan and Aurora would each have half of the location, preventing them from being killed by the Mikaelsons without risking losing Rebekah forever.
Rebekah spent a month at the bottom of the ocean, completely aware of every sensation, until Elijah finally had a boat crew dredge her up. However, upon awakening, Rebekah realized she had a skull-shaped weal on her arm that, along with the intense bloodlust she was feeling, indicated that she had been cursed by the stake. After several hours, Rebekah became so rabid and violent that she attacked Alex and the rest of her family, forcing Freya to enchant a knife that would allow her to remove the cursed patch of skin. Unfortunately, Rebekah realized upon driving to the airport that her curse and the skull-shaped weal had returned, which led Rebekah to beg Elijah to dagger her and to both keep her incapacitated keep her condition a secret until after they were sure the prophecy had been broken, after which point Elijah could have Freya come up with a cure and awaken her. Though Elijah initially refused, he eventually gave in and neutralized her before hiding her body in a safe place in the meantime.
By the end of third season, she was saved from the effects of an insanity hex when Freya bound her life, as well as that of their siblings to Klaus; she and the others, except Klaus who was daggered with Papa Tunde's Blade, would spend the next five years in a Chambre de Chasse while Katherine, Arielle, Hayley, Alex, and Jeremy searched for a cure for Marcel's venom.
In the fourth season, Rebekah was revived by Freya to help deal with Marcel, who had nearly destroyed their family, though after being reunited with her family, she and Kol headed to Europe. They both returned to New Orleans after Elijah's death in order to deal with the Hollow. In doing so, she now contains one fourth of the Hollow's spirit. She left for New York City shortly thereafter, where Marcel joined her.
In the fifth season, the Mikaelsons' are forced to reunite in New Orleans due to a new threat. With the Hollow in Hope, Jax, Nina, and Lily, Klaus decides he was going to sacrifice himself but Freya and the kids put the Hollow into Aurora and then killed her, which also killed the Hollow so that they could do a spell to bring Alex back to life. Elijah, Klaus, and Rebekah take a walk into the French Quarter. Klaus told Rebekah if she wants kids as a vampire she could with a spell that Freya had placed on her. But, if she wishes to be human, Klaus arranges for her to receive the Cure in Mystic Falls whenever she wants.
Rebekah is a member of the Mikaelson Family and an unnamed Witch Family. She also has ties to the Gilbert Family, Petrova Family, Salvatore Family, and Labonair Family.
Physical Appearance[]
Rebekah is a beautiful and very attractive woman and has natural light blonde hair, light blue eyes, full lips, and pale light skin with a small dusting of freckles across her cheeks and nose. She is a tall and slim Caucasian female. She's over 1000-years old, but physically is an 18 year old teenage girl. When Rebekah is in her vampiric form, her eyes will turn red with small veins protruding around the area of her eyes and her teeth will lengthen into fangs, possibly longer than that of regular vampires. Her eyes also seem a lot redder than normal vampires.
In terms of fashion sense, Rebekah is often seen wearing stylish and mature clothing with trendy coats and fashionable jewelry, such as long necklaces and pendants or dangle earrings. She is mostly seen wearing the colors of white, black, brown or gray. She often wears low-heeled boots and shoes with dark jeans or leggings. As a human and early years as an Original vampire, she was very in-tuned with fashion and her style was very "in" to the times, for example in the 1920s, Rebekah wore the classic "flapper" dresses with long pearl necklaces and matching jewelry.
Rebekah has long, icy blonde-hair, which is usually naturally wavy; however, she can occasionally be seen with straight or curled hair or pulled back in a casual style, rarely wearing any hair accessories. In early centuries, Rebekah had long, waist length hair with braids and flowers; however her hair changes with the times.
During special occasions, such as dances and balls, Rebekah wears very elegant dresses, for example, at the Mikaelson's Ball she wore a beautiful green one-shoulder dress. However, she mainly wears slacks and jeans and has an overall very formal sense of style. Rebekah's makeup usage is minimal, subtle daily; but she tends to wear more for special occasions.
Powers and Abilities[]
Original Vampire[]
Rebekah possesses all of the standard powers of an Original Vampire. Rebekah is currently the strongest female vampire alive and one of the strongest vampires in the world, perhaps with the exception of her older brother, Kol. Previously, Rebekah was weaker than her hybrid brother Klaus, until his death. Due to her Original Vampire status, the powers Rebekah possesses are stronger than those of a non-Original surpassing in strength, even the most ancient ones, like Aurora De Martel, who was the first vampire she ever sired. She was easily capable of subduing both Damon and Stefan Salvatore, both of whom are almost two centuries old and very skilled fighters, Marcel Gerard and Katherine Pierce to name a few.
Rebekah is shown to be a skilled operator of mind compulsion. Throughout the series, she has been shown to compel people to do her bidding. A testament to her skills with this ability is when she compelled Tyler Lockwood to turn without the full moon after becoming a hybrid. Although being inferior to her brother Klaus, Rebekah has been shown on many occasions to stand up to him without fear, however, she has been easily subdued by Klaus on many occasions. Due to her advanced age, Rebekah has a higher threshold for werewolf venom than any other non-Original vampire. She was seen able to kill many fully transformed werewolves on a full moon, before being finally subdued herself. This shows her physical strength as Rose-Marie, despite being over five hundred and sixty years old, failed to defeat even one werewolf.
Rebekah has subdued almost every non-Original vampire she has encountered. The only times she has been defeated was when they had the element of surprise, but she was quick to turn the outcome of the battle around. It has been shown that Rebekah possesses an adequate skill in hand-to-hand combat, being able to kill many members of the The Strix and hold her own against the very skilled fighter Aya — despite having not fed for six months.
In Savior, It was shown that Rebekah is an extremely strong vampire. She was able to fight tribrid Alexandria Gilbert with ease to the point of her near death. Rebekah was also able to subdue Elijah, an equally powerful vampire, easily by snapping his neck. When infected with the cursed stake, it took both Klaus and Elijah — both extremely skilled and powerful Original Vampires — to restrain a rabid Rebekah, showing the power she possesses.
Witch[]
Rebekah was an untapped witch prior to her transition into an Original vampire. When she was placed into a witch's body, she had the powers of one, such as when she first perform a spell with Cassie in order to send her brothers a message. The spell immediately started working, however, before it could take effect, they were both interrupted. She also displayed an inability to control her magic, as seen when she accidentally caused a magical wind to blow away the locator spell she and Kol were preparing upon him calling her untrained. However, she later did manage (with Kol's help) to perform a spell which allowed her and Kol to channel the power of dozens of dark objects, the white oak stake and Klaus himself in order to overload Finn's power source. This weakened him significantly. She later attempted a locator spell with Freya, in order to locate their aunt Dahlia, however, she interrupted the spell upon learning of Freya's connection to Dahlia. Rebekah and Davina performed various spells in their attempt to create a decoy of Hope, eventually creating a golem. Rebekah stayed in her witch-body until she was killed which caused her spirit to transfer back into her Original, vampiric body.
Weaknesses[]
Rebekah has the typical weaknesses of an Original vampire. While in the body of Eva Sinclair, Rebekah had the typical weaknesses of a witch.
Name[]
- Rebekah is a feminine name of Hebrew origin (רבקה). The name means "to tie". *It's a biblical name, of the wife of Isaac and mother of Esau and Jacob. Alternate version of it is Rebecca.
- If Rebekah was to truly follow Norse traditions, her surname should technically be Mikaelsdotter (daughter of Mikael) as oppose to Mikaelson (son of Mikael).
Trivia[]
- As the only female Original Vampire - and with Amara being cured and killed - she is the oldest and most powerful female vampire on the planet.
- As of 500 Years of Solitude, she is the most-recurring character on The Vampire Diaries with 37 appearances.
- Rebekah is the only non-main character who appeared in 35 episodes during two seasons.
- She appeared in 18 episodes in Season Four, more episodes than Bonnie, Matt, Tyler and Jeremy who are main characters.
- She is the third Original vampire overall to appear in either series, with Elijah being the first, and Klaus the second.
- Rebekah was the second Original to have been seen neutralized by Klaus with a white oak ash dagger, the first being Elijah.
- Rebekah is one of only nine recurring characters to appear in more than 10 episodes during their inaugural season on The Vampire Diaries. The others being Annabelle, who appeared in 11 episodes during Season One; Elijah Mikaelson, who appeared in 12 episodes during Season Two; Atticus Shane, who appeared in 11 episodes in Season Four; Nadia Petrova, Wes Maxfield and Enzo who appeared in 12 episodes each in Season Five; Josette Laughlin and Malachai Parker who appeared in 17 and 16 episodes respectively in Season Six and Rayna Cruz who appeared in 13 episodes in Season Seven.
- Rebekah is the only recurring character to appear in almost every episode of a singular season without becoming a main cast member. She appeared in 17/22 episodes during Season 3. She also appeared in 18/23 episodes during Season 4.
- Both Claire Holt and Bianca Lawson (Emily Bennett) played Emily Fields' girlfriends in Pretty Little Liars.
- Rebekah is the third Original Vampire neutralized by Elena Gilbert.
- Ironically, when acting on H2O, Claire Holt portrayed a mermaid called Emma Gilbert and in The Vampire Diaries, she initially hated a girl named Elena Gilbert. She also killed Elena.
- Rebekah refers to herself as Kol's "baby sister" implying that she is the youngest of the Original family, with the exception of Henrik who died long ago.
- It was later confirmed that she is the youngest Original vampire.
- She is now the fifth-youngest of the Mikaelson Family with the birth of Nik.
- Out of all the Original vampires, Rebekah can be considered the most stubborn and ill-tempered.
- During the second season of The Vampire Diaries, an old and powerful vampire (possibly one of the Original vampires) named Adrienne was set to appear, but in the end, the character was removed and instead Rebekah appeared in Season Three.
- Like Elijah, Rebekah appears in all but three episodes between her first and last appearance of her debut season.
- Rebekah has been shown to be neutralized ten times:
- By Alexander in 1114, in The Five.
- By Niklaus Mikaelson in 1835 in House of the Rising Son.
- By Niklaus Mikaelson in the 1920s, in The End of the Affair.
- By Elena Gilbert, in 2010 in Homecoming.
- By Niklaus Mikaelson, in 2010 in The New Deal.
- By Alaric Saltzman in 2010 (via Kol Mikaelson), in All My Children.
- By Alaric Saltzman, in 2010 in Do Not Go Gentle.
- By Niklaus Mikaelson, in 2010 in The Five.
- By Aya, in 2013 in Beautiful Mistake. (Cursed Stake)
- By Elijah Mikaelson, in 2013 in Savior. (With Consent)
- Rebekah has been seen to be neutralized the most times out of all of her siblings. Following Rebekah is Elijah, who has been shown to be neutralized six times, Kol, who has been seen neutralized five times, and Finn, who has been shown twice.
- When neutralized for the second time, in 1835, Klaus left her daggered for 52 years which is just as long as he had suffered from the Hunter's curse after having killed The Five in 1114.
- Rebekah is the only non main character so far who appeared in 16 consecutive episodes of The Vampire Diaries (from O Come, All Ye Faithful to I Know What You Did Last Summer).
- Rebekah is the first Original vampire to be possessed by a witch (Esther).
- In Do Not Go Gentle, while Esther was possessing her, she got Alaric to neutralize her again, making this the second time she was neutralized and missed a high school dance.
- Rebekah has had sex with both Salvatore brothers, Stefan in the 1920s and Damon in 2010.
- A running joke with Rebekah on TVD was that she always was forced to miss school dances, in spite of how excited she was to attend them.
- She missed Homecoming after being daggered by Elena, the 1920s Decade Dance after being daggered by Alaric, and missed the 80s Decade Dance after it was canceled by Mayor Rudy Hopkins.
- Fortunately for her, she was finally able to attend the Prom in 2011.
- Rebekah technically killed Elena Gilbert in The Departed.
- Rebekah has met every main character in both shows, except Vicki and Jenna, as both Vicki and Jenna were already killed before she first appeared.
- Rebekah was involved with a vampire hunter named Alexander centuries ago and this relationship was seen in Season 4.
- Rebekah's name was originally "Bex," but it was changed to Rebekah, just like Meredith's name was originally "Mary".
- Rebekah is known to be called by nicknames. Some of those include:
- Klaus, Kol, and Alex sometimes call her "Bekah."
- Damon called her "Sexy Bex."
- Stefan called her "Sweetheart," in the 1920s.
- Rebekah herself, Kol, and Alex sometimes called her "Bex".
- Hope, Jax, Nina, Lily, Miranda, and Jenna have called her "Auntie Bex".
- Other nicknames given to her are "The She-Devil," and "Evil Blood Slut" by Caroline along with "Barbie Klaus," by Damon.
- Three of her brothers take care of her and protect her in their own way.
- Klaus takes care of her in his perverted manner.
- Elijah shows tenderness to her almost always.
- Kol protects her from Klaus, and he is always there for her.
- Rebekah is one of four girls who have sex with both Salvatore brothers, Stefan and Damon, the first being Katherine, the third being Elena and the fourth being Caroline Forbes.
- Alexandria Gilbert is Rebekah's first true friend in the series.
- Rebekah is one of four recurring characters who appear in more than 20 episodes. The other two are Elizabeth Forbes, Elijah Mikaelson and Carol Lockwood.
- Rebekah is well known for wanting to be human again. While she doesn't necessarily hate being a vampire, she desperately wants to be able to settle down, get married, and have children.
- She is the only Original vampire who wanted to take the cure.
- Rebekah was indirectly responsible for the death of Galen Vaughn by leaving him to starve.
- She admitted to Stefan that she wants to have children one day with someone who loves her enough to stand outside her window with a boombox.
- Both Esther and Silas have taken the form of Rebekah.
- In the 12th Century, Rebekah spoke fluent Italian.
- She also spoke French in the 18th Century.
- It is revealed that she was in love with Marcel sometime in the past; however Marcel was forced by Klaus to choose between Rebekah and immortality. He chose the latter.
- Like Klaus and Kol, Rebekah has a habit of using "love" and "darling" as terms of endearment while addressing female characters.
- Rebekah also tends to use the word "bloody" commonly as an adjective.
- She was shown kissing Nadia Petrova. Implying that she might be bisexual, or she was just trying to show Matt a good time. This being the first on screen kiss between two characters of the same sex on TVD.
- She is also the first character to engage in an on-screen threesome (which she shared with Matt and Nadia).
- She is the only character that has been in both season premieres of TVD Season 5 and TO Season 1.
- Klaus has killed most of Rebekah's lovers.
- Rebekah sees a lot of herself in Davina due to her circumstances, as well as due to Klaus killing Davina's lover as he has killed so many of her own. Just as Elijah had lied to them both, and both have been manipulated by Marcel. Rebekah and Davina are also both trying to bring Rebekah's brother, and Davina's boyfriend Kol back.
- Rebekah worked as a nurse in the 1900's.
- Genevieve tortured and exposed various acts Rebekah was involved in to Niklaus.
- In Le Grand Guignol, it is revealed that Rebekah was Mikael's favorite child. However, it was later said that Freya was Mikael's most beloved child, suggesting that Rebekah was either seen as a replacement for his long-lost eldest daughter, or that Mikael simply had a soft spot for his daughters that he did not share with his sons.
- Rebekah is the first lead character to not appear in an episode of The Originals.
- After Farewell to Storyville, Rebekah is no longer a main character in The Originals as Claire Holt has left the show.
- Rebekah is still considered a recurring character on the show, allowing the opportunity for Claire to return.
- In From a Cradle to a Grave, Rebekah briefly returns to New Orleans in order to take guardianship of Hope and keep her protected in a safe place away from the supernatural drama brewing in her birthplace.
- Rebekah describes her beliefs as being agnostic, as she says that she has lived too long to truly believe in any god.
- In Rebirth, she tells Hope a bedtime story about her Father and New Orleans.
- In Rebirth, she puts the toy Klaus gave to her as a child next to Hope in her crib.
- Rebekah had a relationship with both of the Governor's known sons.
- She first had a relationship with Emil, which ended with his death at the hands of Niklaus.
- Rebekah then had an on-off relationship with Marcel Gerard, the governor's illegitimate child with a slave woman. Their relationship most recently ended when Rebekah left New Orleans in Farewell to Storyville. Though it was rekindled when Rebekah returned possessing Eva Sinclair's body.
- Finn believes that Rebekah will be interested in Esther's deal.
- This is proven true in The Map of Moments, though not for the reason Finn believed.
- Rebekah is the first non-Passenger spirit to lose the control of her host body she possesses.
- She is the first former main character of The Originals to return as a guest and be portrayed by another actress, in this case, Claire Holt's place was taken by actress Maisie Richardson-Sellers.
- Following Rebekah's possession of Eva Sinclair and her subsequent killing of Eva's spirit, Rebekah has elected to remain in Eva's body for several reasons:
- 1) She wants to fulfill her promise to her brother Kol, whom she promised to use her powers to resurrect after he was hexed to death by their brother Finn.
- 2) She wants to help her brothers and sister defend Hope against Dahlia, and she believes her magic could be of assistance.
- 3) She is aware that Eva's body is still linked to the eight witches, including Davina Claire, whom Eva channeled as part of her ritual to complete the Rite of Nines, and knows that since her spirit is the only thing keeping Eva (and, by proxy, the eight teenage witches), she does not want to condemn them to death by returning to her true body.
- Rebekah was temporarily forced into her Original body by Klaus, however, Freya healed Eva's body, and gave Rebekah the option of which body she wished to live in. But as of now, she is no-longer possessing Eva Sinclair's body.
- Despite playing part in the plan to trick Davina into resurrecting Esther Mikaelson instead of Kol, she nonetheless still intends to fulfill her promise and find a way to bring back her brother from the dead.
- Damon referred to Rebekah as Barbie Klaus, when coincidentally Klaus Barbie was a real life historical figure it's possible that it was intentional since Klaus Barbie's real first name was Nikolaus and he was known to have tortured and killed dozens of French prisoners.
- Like the rest of her siblings Rebekah was born with the Witch gene due to her mother's heritage and have the potential to practice magic but never tapped into her power.
- In Beautiful Mistake, Aya incapacitates Rebekah by using a dagger designed to desiccate a vampire with one thrust.
- Rebekah was the second Original to request to be daggered.
- She is the only Original whose sireline is still fully intact. Her brother's have been destroyed while Klaus' has been broken.