Previously – Esther wants to ‘fix her family’, Davina and Kol are on the fun, Jackson seems like maybe he’s back on the alpha path after Oliver’s death, Klaus’s dad is back from the dead and Klaus finally has his big brother back from his mother’s insidious clutches.
Flashback – a young Elijah chases Klaus through the woods, Klaus vanishes and young Elijah is confronted by a blood splattered older version of himself. This is all part of the dream state Elijah is locked in and Klaus is trying to enter his mind in order to help but Esther has magically locked him out. It’s wonderful to see Klaus so devoted to helping his brother. Hayley arrives and asks what Klaus is doing, she notices a rash on Elijah’s neck which Klaus says he has seen before. His mother used to use the petals of an orchid to put Mikael to sleep when he was in a rage and then subdue him with magic before using the roots of the plant to wake him. Klaus figures that if Esther is using that again it probably grows in the bayou and he sets out to find it. Hayley wants to join the fight but Klaus insists she stay clear of Esther. Hayley promises she won’t go after his mother but after he leaves she tells Elijah’s sleeping form that instead she will go after everything Esther loves instead.
Jackson lays Oliver to rest in the bayou, Hayley arrives and Jackson is drunk. He’s upset because Crescent tradition states that they hold funerals at dawn but no-one showed up to pay their respects to Oliver. The loyalty to the pack is gone. Hayley says it’s not gone and she is willing to wait for him since he waited for her, their people need their alpha.
Marcel asks where that alpha is since Hayley has arrived at his place accompanied by Aiden instead of Jackson. Hayley dismisses the question and says they are planning to take down Finn and assume Marcel wants in. Their only issue is they don’t think Finn has a weakness but Marcel assures them that he does, and that he happens to have said weakness on speeddial. Oh come in blondie…your time is up! Said weakness is in a session with said Mikaelson brother, a meeting which goes from her saying she thinks she is over dealing with Klaus to asking Finn if she can get another advisor because basically she fancies Finn. He’s a bit surprised but they arrange a date.
In some crappy motel Davina the teenage witch and a certain troublesome Mikaelson are hiding out. She is fed up with his charm offensive and he apologises but he needs her and tells her he has a way to take Klaus down without hurting her friends. Just as he reveals this his arm starts to burn and suddenly runes spelling out his name appear, apparently that’s Mother Dear calling him home. Esther thinks she has everything under control, Kol will soon come home and Elijah is going to wake up and take her offer, so that just leaves Finn to bring in Cami…wait what? What do they need Cami for? Esther gives Finn some magical doohickey to use to to subdue her without force but he refuses, he can bring her in without that. He also looked a little upset that his time with Cami seems to have come to an end.
Out in the bayou Klaus is looking for the orchid but finds Ansel instead. Ansel offers to help, since he used to procure them for Esther to use on Mikael. Klaus says he doesn’t need help and Ansel says that’s fine, but if Klaus is going to storm off he might want to storm off to the west. I like this guy, if sass was inheritable I’d totally see where Klaus gets it from.
Davina and Kol are heading back to town and talk about Kol’s history. He was the only one of his siblings who actually used magic before they turned and he loved it, so when he lost his magic he had a thousand year “dark period”. He mentions he spent a lot of time with witches, learning from them and teaching them (if you want to see more then check out the webseries running alongside the main show). Esther brought him back as a witch partly to make up for that and partly so he could follow Davina. He was the one who chose to flirt with her.
The vamp/wolf alliance are plotting to take Finn down (squeeeeeeeeeeee Jaiden. Just look at these two, that mirrored body language while they are looking at the map SO CUTE!) and Cami arrives carrying a box of dark objects that can be used against witches. She’s in.
Out in the bayou Klaus is stomping around in a huff with Ansel following. Ansel asks is Klaus has any questions and Klaus replies just one, can he help Elijah without having to listen to Ansel. Ansel tells Klaus that he waited for him when he was alive, knowing that one day Klaus would trigger his curse and would need him but Mikael killed him first. Ansel watched as Klaus travelled the world, saw monuments built and feasted on the blood of history’s finest but he never found peace. The only moments of joy he saw Klaus experience were simple pleasures – climbing the Himalayas, tending his horses, teaching Marcel Shakespare, painting, feeling Hope kick (*blows nose loudly* I’m fine, just got all these feels in my eye). Of course Klaus being Klaus asks if Ansel had his eyes shut while Klaus slaughtered whole villages and then asks a question that cuts right to the bone – “Have I made you proud father?” A mere 6 words but so much pain.
Kol returns and Esther asks what he’s been up to since she sent him after the stake days ago and they need it. Kol pretends not to know about Mikael being back but Esther calls him out, he says that he was protecting her plan. She wants the stake at any cost and walks out. Kol picks up a knife and pockets it – what the hell is he up to now? Seriously, I have zero clue what he is up to, whose side he is on or why…
Klaus finds the tree where the orchid is growing but it’s surrounded by vervain. Ansel offers to retrieve it and Klaus asks what the catch is. Ansel tells Klaus to read his mind and see that he has no allegiance to Esther and that Klaus’s cowardice is causing Elijah more harm. Apparently that’s enough, Klaus tells him to gather the orchids.
In the cemetery Kol meets Davina, he tells her what Esther wants him to do and then asks her for help. He needs her blood to open a tomb that he used to use as a playhouse until he pissed off one of her ancestors who locked him out of it. Davina agrees and inside finds all manner of dark objects and witchy paraphernalia Kol collected on his travels over the centuries. He tells Davina that he taught her ancestor and friends how to make dark objects and he’s been looking for them (oh god, don’t let him near Kieran’s cupboard!) but he has the most important one. A Dagger like those Klaus used to punish him. His plan is to change the dagger (with Davina’s help) so it will work on Klaus, putting the hybrid down without killing off his sire line. Oh Kol, you devious little sod. If you weren’t plotting against Klaus I’d kiss you!
At Preservation Hall Cami and Finn flirt a bit until she gets a call and goes outside to take it. Finn gets suspicious when she doesn’t return immediately and goes outside to see her being savaged by a werewolf. The wolf escapes to the roof, whistles at him and then runs off, when Finn turns back to check on Cami she is gone.
Ansel uses his machete to prepare the orchids and Klaus comments that he’s always seen a blade have a different purpose. Ansel says that Mikael taught him to kill but Klaus was born to create. Klaus starts talking about what would happen if he took Esther’s offer, if he sacrificed his vampirism. Ansel says that it wouldn’t be a sacrifice, he could be king to an entire species as a werewolf and would be a better father. Klaus says he is no longer a father but it seems Ansel knows the truth. When Klaus was a boy, after every full moon Ansel would wake after his transformation closer to Klaus’s village. Since his return he’s been waking further from New Orleans. He knows the call of his own bloodline – Hope – and he wants to help Klaus protect her.
Finn calls Aiden, he’s furious at him for not protecting him properly. Finn is working on locating Cami and says he will meet Aiden there, minus the rest of his wolves since they cannot be trusted. All according to plan for the vamp/wolf alliance who are at St Anne’s church. Hayley gives Cami her blood to heal the bite, she was the werewolf in the alley. Jaiden flirt a bit while they are putting out the candles in the church. Honestly, I totally ship these two. They are beyond adorable. That done they run over the plan one more time, Aiden will lure Finn to the altar, Hayley will jump him and they will use a set of shackles from Cami’s box of dark objects that prevent a witch from doing magic. Marcel is out looking for Davina and eager to inflict pain on Kol for interfering with his surrogate daughter.
Speaking of Kol, he’s telling Davina about the daggers and his plan to change the one he has left, he needs their connection to do it but she still isn’t entirely trusting him. As a demonstration he gets her to help him turn a piece of rope into a silver chain, a new bracelet for Davina to replace the one he broke (thus setting loose his homicidal father).
Ansel finishes the salve for Elijah and gives it to Klaus. The hybrid has considered Ansel’s offer but he can’t accept it. H says he would have liked to have been Ansel’s son, but he has to protect Hope. Ansel wants to help but Klaus cannot trust that his intentions are pure, or that Esther wont twist them. Ansel says he doesn’t believe Klaus is capable of doing what he is about to do. Klaus says that’s the first lie he has told and then proceeds to gut Ansel with the machete. Klaus holds his dying father, his face filled with pain and revulsion for what he has done before he steals himself even as tears roll down his cheeks (and mine).
Davina thinks that she should get going, she and Kol talk about where she will go since she lied to Marcel, she’ll go back to the attic she says. She asks when they will work on the dagger and Kol says soon but they need to trust each other first.
Finn meets Aiden in the alley in front of St Anne’s and as Aiden is suggesting a rescue plan Finn mentions his little brother. Aiden comes sailing into the church at the end of Finn’s punch, he knows he has been set up. Josh runs to the side of his unconscious not-quite boyfriend and Finn snaps his neck for his trouble. Hayley jumps Finn and he starts ripping her heart out with magic in very slow, painful fashion. Just as well cos it’s time for ALPHA TO THE RESCUE! Jackson puts two arrows in Finn and Cami slams the shackles on him while Jackson and Hayley have a little moment.
Klaus returns home and heals Elijah with the ointment Ansel prepared and then enters Elijah’s mind. He helps the younger version of his brother to defeat the monstrous older version, saying he needs him to help defeat their demons together and save their family. Elijah wakes as his younger self stakes the older version. I was still a little bit teary from Klaus killing Ansel at this point but hearing Klaus talking to Elijah, telling him that they might be monsters to most people but for Hope they will be the knights in shining armour, yeah, someone pass the kleenex!
At the church Jackson and Hayley have another moment, he tells her he waited so long for her because their parents were sure that they could change things together. Hayley says she isn’t sure she’s quite up to his expectations but Jackson says she is better.
At the compound Klaus gives Elijah a book he got from Ansel and tells his brother about his father. The book holds a drawing of Klaus as a boy – so that’s where Klaus gets it from. Klaus tells Elijah that Ansel knew about Hope being alive and that was why he had to kill him. Elijah says that they must protect whatever innocence remains at any cost. I’m still not entirely sure if Elijah is talking about Hope, Klaus or himself at this point.
Esther walks into the tomb and finds Ansel’s body, impaled the way he was when Klaus found him and she breaks down.
Kol returns a sleeping Davina to the attic and is considering taking the stake when Marcel shows up.
Elijah ties his tie and straightens his suit but his hands are trembling and again he remembers killing Tatia.
Davina wakes to find herself alone and the stake missing.
At Rousseaus Cami is drinking alone when Esther shows up bearing one hell of a grudge and starts casting a spell.
Klaus and Elijah are discussing their next move when Marcel and Hayley arrive and tell them that moves have already been made and they have left a present each for Klaus and Elijah in the ballroom. A shackled pair of Mikaelson inhabited witches hang from the stairs and suddenly Klaus has his game face back. You know the one, that smirk that promises bloodshed in the very near future!
