Who Is Sophie on The Originals? What You Need to Know About the Witch

In the pilot for The Originals, The Vampire Diaries’ new spin-off, we met a witch named Sophie (Daniella Pineda). In the space of the episode, she lost her sister to Marcel’s (Charles Michael Davis) machinations, revealed herself to be a walking EPT test, and teamed up with Klaus (Joseph Morgan) to take down New Orleans’ top vampire. So what do we know about Sophie, the witch who makes a mean batch of gumbo?
Sophie will just as soon make you that bowl of gumbo as plot your demise. “Sophie is a very genuine but no-BS kinda gal,” Daniella Pineda tells TVFanatic. “And she’s needed very much by Joseph Morgan to take down Marcel. So she might not be as powerful as a vampire, but she’s a certainly strategist and she’s necessary for this story.”
At The CW Upfronts, Daniella told Wetpaint Entertainment, “She’s like Buffy the Witch Slayer. … She’s kinda slaying vampires, but she’s a witch. But she also needs vampires in order to take down the main vampire. “
Sophie and her sister, Jane-Anne, captured Hayley (Phoebe Tonkin), once Sophie — using her magical pregnancy-perceiving power — discovered the werewolf is due to have Klaus’s baby. The witches realized they could use the information as leverage to get the Original to help defeat Marcel. As the self-proclaimed “king of New Orleans,” Marcel forbids witches from practicing spell.
When Marcel learns that Jane-Anne performed magic (she was helping her sister take Hayley hostage), he kills her for breaking his rules. Though the two siblings had already planned on taking out Marcel, but Jane-Anne’s death convinced Sophie that it needed to be done. She proceeded with her sister’s plan, telling Klaus that Hayley is pregnant with his child. She explains, “as keepers of the balance we [witches] still know when nature has cooked up something new. For example, I have a special gift of sensing when a girl is pregnant.”
Apparently Sophie is responsible for Hayley and the baby thanks to the spell performed by her sister; that doesn’t mean she won’t kill it, though. She told Klaus, “Because of Jane-Anne's sacrifice, the lives of this girl and her baby are now controlled by us. If you don't help us take down Marcel, so help me, Hayley won't live long enough to see her first maternity dress.”
Eventually, Klaus comes around. But just killing Marcel won’t do the trick. Sophie tells Klaus there are rules. Instead, she explains her plan to the hybrid. “Your brother needs to cement his place in Marcel's world. His inner circle, the daywalkers-- that's where we begin. They're his friends, his family. We'll be hitting him where it hurts.”
Daniella wasn’t kidding about Sophie being a strategic thinker! We can’t wait to see what this witch has in store for the vampires of New Orleans!