In Episode 319 of The CW series The Originals, called “No More Heartbreaks,” a violent encounter has left Cami’s (Leah Pipes) life hanging in the balance and Klaus (Joseph Morgan) is forced to rely on his family and allies to help find a cure. All with the same goal in mind, Freya (Riley Voelkel) has turned to her arsenal of spells, Vincent (Yusuf Gatewood) and Marcel (Charles Michael Davis) have teamed up to gather a crucial ingredient, and Hayley (Phoebe Tonkin) and Elijah (Daniel Gillies) are on the hunt for a potential antidote.

During this exclusive phone interview with Collider, executive producer Michael Narducci talked about whether anything could change Lucien’s mind, whether the Mikaelsons will be able to stay united, how deeply Cami has fundamentally changed Klaus, Davina and Kol, the ancestors’ plan, Marcel’s loyalties, and how Hope fits into everything. Be aware that there are some spoilers.

Collider: Is there anything that could change Lucien’s mind, at this point, or is he too driven and focused to hear reason anymore?

MICHAEL NARDUCCI: One thing that’s cool about Lucien, to me, is that it’s not like he’s got political ambitions. He really was motivated to impress and woo Aurora, and now he’s realized conclusively that she wants nothing to do with him. I think a character is extremely dangerous when they have been scorned, in that way. He definitely wants revenge against Klaus for having had to live in Klaus’ shadow for a thousand years, and having had to live in a constant state of fear that he could be killed, the moment Klaus had the slightest displeasure with him. And he also hates Klaus because Klaus, a thousand years ago, took Aurora from him. From Lucien’s point of view, Aurora was never able to see Lucien as a possible romantic figure because of Klaus. There’s a lot of blame, anger and hatred there, and he wants to hurt Klaus. It’s a very pure, very sinister, but very understandable motive, and now he has the power to complete it.

Klaus being taken hostage united everyone and forced them all to work together. Will they have to remain united in order to fight what’s still to come, or will they splinter, like they have in the past?

NARDUCCI: When you are faced with overwhelming odds and you are in a life-or-death situation, you are going to grasp every available strategy to survive and ultimately to win. There may be some members of the Mikaelson family that are willing to do things that other members of the Mikaelson family will find abhorrent and reject. Even though they are united against this common threat, the strategies that the family may choose may cause a splinter between those who think the price of their survival is too great and that what they are doing is actually going to be a far greater curse than if they were to just let Lucien kill them. And so, that will be some of the drama from the remainder of the season. Can the family stay together, even in the face of these arguments about how best to deal with Lucien.

Aurora nearly killed Cami, and Lucien has bitten Cami. Is there a limit to just how many really strong, really bad people can go after Cami before she’s really dead?

NARDUCCI: Yeah, there is a limit. What do we know about Cami? She is the brave bartender who believes in her heart that people are broken, but at their core, they truly do want to be good. And I think there’s truth to that belief, but she’s brave and she’s an optimist and she puts herself in danger, again and again. Cami has survived her hexed uncle, Papa Tunde, her confrontations with Klaus, going head-to-head with Mikael, being stuck in a room with Lucien, being held captive by one of Lucien’s bodyguards, going head-to-head with Aurora twice, and even being turned into a vampire. She has been at the center of a lot of conflict and adventure and excitement, over the course of the season. As you saw in Episode 318, she is facing something now that I don’t know if she’s going to be able to recover from. The question becomes, if you’re going to be true to the character and to the thematic circumstances of our show, which are that anybody who comes into the orbit of this family, including Jackson and Finn, there is the threat of death. That’s where a genre show gets its jeopardy and its stakes. But more importantly, in these moments that we have in this life, when we are connected, how do characters affect one another. I can tell you that Cami O’Connell has come into Klaus Mikaelson’s life and she has fundamentally changed him, forever. I think that will be one of the things that we explore. These two characters have changed one another forever, and that’s something we’re going to explore throughout the rest of the season.

Klaus has to know that Cami didn’t turn off her feelings for him, no matter what she might have said. If she does survive this, can he even see himself trying to explore anything deeper there, knowing that all of these threats keep coming after her because of him?

NARDUCCI: Before this season is over, Klaus is going to have to face the fact that he is responsible for a lot of what has befallen Cami. He’s also going to have to acknowledge what her feelings for him are. He’s also going to have to state, I hope to her, what his feelings are for her, definitively. That’s something I’m really looking forward to the audience getting to see.

Clearly, Davina needs help in dealing with Kol. What can we expect to see there, and what do the ancestors hope to gain from their hold on Kol?

NARDUCCI: The ancestors hate Davina. At least some of the ancestors were killed because of Davina. They gave her a shot at Regent, and then when she refused to oust the vampires, they turned on her and she turned on them. There’s basically a cult coup taking place, where the ancestors have rejected Davina and rejected Vincent, and they’re stepping up to put their own puppet dictator in charge and they’re going to try to wipe out vampires, and especially get rid of the Mikaelsons. They’re using Kol as a bit of a puppet because they have their hooks deep inside him. It was their magic that was, in part, used to resurrect him. Anything magical that happens in New Orleans, they have a hand in. So, when Davina used her power to bring back Kol, they were able to inject within Kol this insatiable bloodlust and this urge to kill innocent people. Now, they’re going to use Kol as a weapon, and that weapon may be used against Davina, or anybody else, and ultimately it may be used against Kol’s own family. How are they going to stand up against this unstoppable force of spirits that can’t be killed? You can’t attack a ghost, let alone an entire community of ghosts who have been living and dead throughout the history of this city. That’s where a very surprising alliance between some of our characters is going to come in, and they’re going to go on what’s basically a suicide mission to try to stop the ancestors, once and for all. It’s one of my favorite stories, and probably my favorite pay-off to the entire season.

We’ve recently seen Marcel and Vincent team up together, but they’re still a bit on the outside of everything that’s going on with Lucien. What can we expect from them, coming up?

NARDUCCI: I would say that that’s about to change, in a very big way. Yes, they’ve been on the outside, but given everything that’s happening to New Orleans, and given the fact that the Mikaelsons have unleashed this very dangerous foe, Lucien, into town, and given that Davina has unsired Klaus, so that all of these vampires that Klaus has angered, infuriated, disrespected and manipulated over the course of history, who are no longer linked to Klaus’ life, can come and have their revenge against Klaus. Maybe they won’t kill him. Maybe they’ll just make him suffer, bury him alive, destroy everyone he loves and destroy the town that he loves. So, there are bad things coming, and Marcel knows that this is, in part, because of Klaus and the way that Klaus does business. Marcel has to decide that if being on their team means that everyone and everything he loves is put into jeopardy, maybe he shouldn’t be on their team. That’s going to be a dark night of the soul for Marcel, as he questions where his loyalties lie.

Will we see where and how Hope fits into everything, or is that something that will have to come later?

NARDUCCI: It’s a little difficult, given that she’s two years old. Season 1 was about the pregnancy and the birth of Hope. Season 2 was about Dahlia coming and wanting Hope. And we wanted Season 3 to be about the family and their history, and the people they’ve affected and how that affects them now, in the present. Baby Hope wasn’t around for most of that history. Yes, she’s a part of the family, but she’s also two years old. Quite honestly, it’s a little bit comical to get into vampires being thrown around through walls and witches casting spells, and then there’s a little baby toddler entering the room with a rattler. It’s not something that we wanted to explore. But there will be a little bit of a time jump, and we will see a slighter older Hope next season. Even this season, we will get a sense and a reminder of how potent Hope’s power is. The mystery of who she is still exists. I don’t mean who she is, in that she absolutely is Klaus and Hayley’s child, but the mystery of what she is and what she will be capable of, when she comes of age. We’re still going to explore that. We’ll get some hints of that, this season. In the finale, there is a beautiful moment where that might happen. And then, we’re looking at exploring that more in Season 4.

The Originals airs on Friday nights on The CW.