Performer of the Week: Leah Pipes 

THE PERFORMANCE | From the moment Camille O’Connell first appeared in Season 4 of

, she never stopped looking for her purpose — and, ideally, herself in the process. In fact, during her three-season transformation from bartender to psychologist to vampire, the only constant was Pipes’ commitment to the under-appreciated role.

But she never played into her character’s insecurities. In spite of her dark surroundings, Pipes always infused Cami with a sense of optimism that only made her untimely death all the more heartbreaking.

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Pipes’ killer execution — so to speak — of her final scenes opposite Joseph Morgan. Every phase of Cami’s death was excruciating, and Pipes sold the hell out of ’em, from her initial strength (“I’ve made my peace with dying”) to her eventual breakdown (“I wanted to be brave”). And don’t even get us started on her “Maybe that’s just how you know you love someone” line, spoken to Klaus. Much like Cami after receiving Lucien’s fatal bite, our tear ducts never stood a chance this week.

Of course, the other tragedy of the episode was that we were given a glimpse into what could have been, but ultimately would never be, between Cami and Klaus. With their characters finally willing to drop all pretenses, Pipes and Morgan’s chemistry — previously inhibited by Klaus and Cami’s inability to make sense of what they had — got to shine for several glorious minutes.

We may never know Cami’s full potential as a character, but like ol’ Niklaus said, we’ll carry Pipes’ performance with us for a nice long while.

’s Quentin Lance mourned his daughter Sara twice only to lose her a third time when she left town. And in his experiences with Team Arrow, he has witnessed the impossible, often. So in the wake of Laurel’s tragic death, Paul Blackthorne alternately illustrated the despair and desperation of a father who doesn’t know which way is up anymore. (Just look at his face searching for

any alternative when Nyssa nixes the Lazarus Pit notion.) It was a painfully sobering exchange with Oliver, though, where Blackthorne made the surreal too real, as Quentin explained, “When I became a drunk, when no one else believed me, she did. She’s been my rock.” He then corrected himself, “She was my rock,” before crumpling to the pavement in sorrowful acceptance, us alongside him.

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ensemble during the Fox comedy’s nuptial-heavy Season 5. Her stealth comedic talents were never more apparent than during Cece’s bachelorette outing in “A Chill Day In,” as her stoned alter ego attempted to shoplift a bread maker, momma-bear a mall cop and figure out why we’d ever need shoes if socks had been perfected. Also perfect? Her delivery of the line “I can

deal with Derek right now.” We, however, can’t get enough of Simone.

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— thanks to a layered, heartbreaking turn by Loretta Devine. As family matriarch Cynthia came to terms with her months-long and very secret case of “the blues,” Devine managed to make her character’s deeply rooted denial both funny and poignant. When Maxine finally broke down in front of her entire family — admitting her own desires were so consistently put on hold in service of her family that she didn’t even know her own fast-food preferences — it brought a pin-drop hush over a studio audience that spent most of the installment in a state of raucous laughter. Later, though, as Maxine hilariously learned the joys of unburdening to her therapist — slapping a wad of bills on the table to “keep the meter running!” and finish a tale of smoking cigarettes during both of her pregnancies — Devine underscored her versatility, and her comic timing, too.

Well deserved! Leah Pipes was amazing in those scenes. It was such an honest reaction to facing death. The denial. The acceptance. The fear of not having truly lived. And then the optimism there at the end mixed with a bittersweet sadness. So much nuance presented in just a few minutes. Cami is an underappreciated character for sure as is Leah Pipes as an actress. And the chemistry between the two actors was palpable. She will be missed.

Hell yes to Leah Pipes and Loretta Devine! They were both phenomenal this week. However, I disagree about Paul Blackthorne. He’s usually great and I was expecting him to knock this out of the park but it felt really forced. He failed this episode.

She was great the whole episode but it was her last scene with Joseph Morgan (he was no slouch himself) talking about Klaus’s daughter that blew me away. I also like her choices in her will, a little something she shared with a few characters throughout the series. Great choices with Leah Pipes and Paul Blackthorne

Yeah not so much. The whole episode was one of the corniest I’ve seen in awhile and that’s saying something with The Originals. Cami and Klaus’ chemistry was nonexistent. Hope Leah finds work quickly so she can prove she’s a better actress than she was on the originals. So happy Cami no longer exists in TO universe. Sorry not sorry!!

First of all, THANK YOU for giving Leah Pipes the recognition she so deserves.

Leah Pipes was just amazing and I felt for her in every scene.The show has lost an amazing character and an even more amazing actor because the writers thought her character had “run it’s course”.Frankly, I’m not buying that excuse because they changed her character arc this season and anyone who watches the show could see a potential SL with the dark objects and human faction. I don’t know if it was the shipper hate or budget cuts that led to this decision but I as a Cami fan feel extremely disappointed in the writers and the showrunners. I have lost ALL my interest in this show and I’m never watching this show again.

I really wish with all my heart that Leah lands a role in one of the networks meant for mature audiences where her character is not “under- appreciated”.

Yesterday two very talented but highly underused actresses on TO left us. Leah was extrairdinary. The whole energy she brought to the table was just a ray of sunshine. I loved every tidbit of it. Just excellent.

Danielle’s Davina also died and she proved yesterday how amazing she was. Davina had so much potential but the writers made so many wrong choices with her after resurrecting her back in S01.

I wish both girl a bright future and hopefully for me projects in I will check out.

Much well deserved honor. It was Cami’s Swan Song and Leah gave it her all. I will miss the Brave Bartender and will follow her in all her endeavor.

Leah Pipes has proved to be great as she already had so many times. Amazing actress

Absolutely agree with this! I didn’t think that Cami’s death would sting this much! That last scene where Cami was dying was so heartbreaking and Leah’s performance proved that she truly was one of the most under-appreciated characters on the show. It’s a shame that they got rid of their strongest performer keep probably the worst performer on TV (Phoebe). Also Klaus and Cami’s relationship was so sweet. Gonna really miss Cami.

Leah was certainly under-appreciated and I bid her a fond farewell. I will miss her scenes with Yusuf Gatewood. They had the tendency to layer their characters’ conversations so well that I really came to appreciate S2 Cami and Finn-Vincent more than I had S1 Cami and Finn-Finn. Some of their scenes were like watching Tony Soprano and Dr. Melfi.

I’ve liked Leah since her Life is Wild days and will miss Cami

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