Previously – Klaus wants his brothers to help him against Esther. Cami has been prepped to be the human body for Rebekah. Bex is on the run with Hope and after a dodgy episode in a diner now has a mentally unstable Elijah with her. Kol wants to dagger Klaus but needs Davina’s help and Klaus and Hayley are off to see their daughter.
Flashback to December 1914, Kol and two of his witchy friends are raiding a house. Kol finds the massive paragon diamond he needs for his spell and leaves his witches to clean up the house. Klaus and Marcel find him though, take the diamond and seal his witchy friends into the house which belonged to the Dowager Fauline – the woman we saw Kol murder in the Awakenings webseries. Klaus leaves Kol with a “Merry Christmas Brother.” Oh that’s so coming back to bite hime isn’t it?
Rebekah hangs a wreath on the door of the house she, Elijah and Hope are hiding out in, she’s coddling Elijah and he knows it. She asks him about the diner but he claims not to know what happened beyond his impulse to protect Hope.
Kol and Davina are working on a spell to protect Cami from being body-jumped into, Marcel and Kol are still at odds but Marcel can’t do anything because Davina needs his assistance for their spell. Davina asks why they are so off with each other and Kol tells her that he always felt like the odd one out in his own family. Klaus, Elijah and Rebekah were their own group, they had time for Marcel but never for their own little brother. Kol mentions he had the diamond they need back in 1914 before Klaus took it. Davina suggests they spend they day stealing it back.
Out in the woods somewhere Mikael is busy eating his way through werewolves when he gets a visit from Esther. He’s killing every werewolf he finds on his way to find Ansel, Esther lets him know that Klaus already beat him to that one. Mentioning Klaus gets Mikael angry and he attacks, but Esther isn’t really there, she’s an illusion. She reappears to tell him that they need to talk about their children.
At the safehouse Elijah plays with hope while Rebekah is collecting firewood for a family tradition she says she hopes to revive. A car arrives and Hayley is out of it almost before it stops to see her daughter at last. Hayley takes Hope from Elijah and holds her before passing her to Klaus (*sniffs* I’m fine). Rebekah builds her fire while she and her brothers discuss the “curse of the first born”. They can’t be sure of the truth of it since they heard about it from Finn, who of course got it from Esther. Elijah dismisses the threat though since it was over 1000 years ago and Dalia is long dead – yeah, cos that was such a definite with Esther…
They finish building the fire and Rebekah says something is missing, Klaus seems less than thrilled at whatever she is going on about and Elijah laughes, saying he’s sure Klaus would rather choke on the ashes. Rebekah explains to a clueless Hayley that they used to write wishes for each other to burn for luck, it was Kol’s favourite part of the tradition which is more reason that Klaus wants to ignore it but MamaWolf has other ideas. Hope’s first Bonfire Season.
Back in New Orleans Cami wants to talk to Finn to see if there is any chance that he can stop Esther performing the bodyjump spell. Marcel tries to object but since there’s a strong possibility that in a few hours Cami won’t exist any more she’s not overly thrilled with people trying to control her right now.
At the safehouse Klaus is spending some quality time with his daughter, Hayley wants him to write his wish but he replies that he can’t since he’s holding Hope. Baby watches on during a zinger filled back and forth exchange between her parents which results in Hayley holding Hope while Klaus writes a sarcasm laden wish.
Cami sits down with Finn to try and reason with him but since he’s a freaking nutjob she doesn’t get much out of him beyond some ranting about right and wrong and the impossibility of Klaus’s redemption. He vows that when he gets free he will end every vampire in the city and show no mercy to anyone who stands alongside them, not even Cami. She is pretty rattled and runs off, telling Marcel to lock Finn back in his coffin.
Elijah is still being troubled by visions from his dream time, Rebekah asks what he sees when he goes away like that, he replies “things I’ve done.” So are those visions real? Did he truly kill Tatia? I still don’t believe that!! He confesses he is tempted by the deal Esther has offered and wonders if a majority would suffice to get her to leave the rest of the family alone. 3 of out 5 siblings, since she already has Finn and Kol.
Davina finds a picture stashed in a drawer of the Mikaelsons 100 years ago and asks Kol about his relationship with Rebekah. He says that she was mostly loyal to Klaus and Elijah but once she did him a solid. She caught him ransacking Klaus’s room for the diamond after he took it and was going to turn him in but he told her about the dagger plan and she agreed to keep things from Klaus.
In the present Rebekah finds a polaroid camera in the house and asks Nik if he can “squeeze them into a selfie”. Elijah quips that Niklaus is a “virtuoso at cramming his siblings into confined spaces”. The little family have a moment over the picture before Hayley throws it into the bonfire, to protect Hope. Rebekah says it’s not fair, she’s going to take Esther’s deal to protect everyone else. And take Esther down in the process.
The Mikaelson siblings discuss the possibilities and difficulties they face in taking Esther down. Rebekah seems to have it all worked out, if they fail she gets to be human till she’s old and wrinkly and then they can put her back in her old body. Elijah is apprehensive of trusting Kol (sensible). Kol says he will help but in exchange he wants the paragon diamond, Marcel asks what for and Kol admits his dagger plans.
Rebekah and Klaus drive back to the city and discuss their plan on the way. I have missed these two together so much, it’s incredible how far they have come since Farewell To Storyville. From screaming, death threats and banishment to Klaus saying that if everything goes south he will be there to pull her out.
Hayley goes to see Elijah and finally tells him about Jackson and the werewolf alpha wedding ritual thingy, she confesses that she doesn’t love Jackson but she still couldn’t marry him if there was something between her and Elijah. He kisses her and tells her to marry Jackson, to do what she must to unite her people. Elijah will unite his and one day Davina will lead the witches, and they will make the city safe to bring Hope back to them…right before some serious clothing removal and who knows what else…
Kol returns to the compound and tells Marcel, Cami and Davina of Miss Angelica Barker, Rebekah’s new host body instead of Cami. Kol just needs 1 more thing, he has to have access to the hourglass that Esther uses in her spells and the only way he will get back in her good books enough to get close to it is if he brings her the white oak stake. Marcel refuses but Klaus shows up and agrees to let Kol take the stake.
Kol chats his way back into his mother’s good graces again and enquires after Finn, Esther says she fears he may have fallen into the grip of Klaus and Elijah but that she has made arrangements (anyone else think that can only mean Mikael???) while she continues to look for REbekah…who happens to walk in at that very moment.
Cami, Marcel and Davina discuss the plan, which is lots of witchy talk for basically jamming the body jump spell so Esther can’t put Rebekah into Cami or herself into anyone else.
Esther and Rebekah talk over a drink, wine not tea at Rebekah’s request, Bex asks where the sales pitch is but Esther says she doesn’t need one, Rebekah wants to be human and that’s what she is offering. Elijah is happiest when there is order and music, Klaus when he is the centre of attention and Rebekah when she is surrounded by humans (Kol is apparently happiest when doing what he is told…oh mother dear if only you knew.). Rebekah agrees to the deal and they begin. Out in the cemetery Esther prepares everything and then produces the white oak stake. Rebekah freaks out when Esther says that her plan all along has been to destroy each of her children’s vampire bodies as they agree to her deal. Freeing them from the curse of vampirism and destroying each of their sire lines thereby ridding the world of vampires too. Rebekah asks her to stop the spell but Esther says she can’t the spell was locked in the second she turned over the hourglass. Klaus intervenes and tells her to stop the spell and again she says it’s impossible. Klaus offers himself in Rebekah’s place (*sobs*). Esther declines, she’s made a deal with Mikael to allow him to kill Klaus. The time is almost up on the spell, Kol yells no and Klaus stabs Esther in the throat.
Davina starts her jamming spell, both hour glasses explode and Cami and Rebekah both collapse. Klaus brings Rebekah’s body home, Marcel finds out that Finn has been freed (by Mikael) just as Cami wakes up…and is still Cami…still no Rebekah though. Marcel asks if Esther is dead and Klaus replies that she is exactly where she needs to be.
Somewhere out in the city Kol is chipper, he tells Davina that back in 1914 Rebekah turned him in to Klaus, his brothers daggered him in front of all their Christmas party guests. Kol has waited a century for his payback which is to dump his sister into the body of a woman who is confined in the witch prison cum madhouse that is the Fauline cottage. Klaus will be occupied looking for his sister making Kol and Davina free to finish working on the dagger now they have the diamond.
Esther wakes up in what looks like Marcel’s “Garden” and has a blood bag tossed at her by her favourite son. She’s a bit twitchy, probably because she’s in transition. Turns out that although she thought she was one step ahead her offspring had her number, Rebekah asked for red wine when she met with Esther earlier so she could hide her own blood in the glass her mother drank. Vampire blood in her system when she died means she now can either drink the blood and become and vampire (and no longer a witch) or die. Become what she hates most or be dead, more choice than she ever gave her children. Klaus leaves just as she reaches out for the blood bag…
Klaus and Marcel meet with Kol over Rebekah’s body and Kol returns the white oak stake as promised. Keeping Klaus on side even while he plots to take him down. Kol might actually more diabolical than any of his siblings.
A girl wakes in a house haunted by strange cries, she runs to the door to try and escape but the house is sealed, she realised what has happened, Kol has double crossed her, she beats at the door and begs to be let out, crying out that she is Rebekah Mikaelson!
So there it is, mid season finale and yeah…absolutely nothing I was expecting…even if I didn’t really know what to expect.
The Originals returns tomorrow night, Monday 19th of January at 8/7c on the CW.
