The Originals Season 1, Episode 19: "An Unblinking Death" Recap/Review
Well, we've reached the point in the season where every single plotline is hurtling full-throttle towards the finale, and not only can I not believe just how fast this season flew, I am also shocked at just how amazing this show has become since it first started last fall. I've already talked a bit about my disappointment in the majority of this season of The Vampire Diaries, but the Originals, on the other hand, has kept my attention since the very beginning. I think part of the appeal has been the fact that everyone in the show (save for Davina) is a grown adult, so there's no bothering with school, and really, there isn't that much focus on work, either. The Originals is focused solely on the relationships between the characters and the politics between the constantly warring factions in the French Quarter, which has resulted in a lot of drama that seems so much more mature in comparison.
So, to say that "An Unblinking Death" was intense is a HUGE understatement--we get a suicide bombing in the bayou with several different theories on who was behind it, as well as the long and agonizing death of a pretty important character! AND, not only that, but we actually have more and more character development from a character who needs the extra maturity more than any other character (Klaus, of course). There's a boatload of stuff to talk about, so let's settle in, gentle readers, so we can start at the beginning.
Previously, on The Originals: Hayley began embracing her family's legacy as a leader of the Crescent wolves by pointing out that if the various Factions don't at least try to work together, that they might as well just kill each other now, which ultimately gave them all the motivation they needed to sign a peace treaty. Klaus, who is not a fan (as we're all aware), started making side deals with Genevieve and Jackson behind Elijah's back. Marcel sent the Factions a message by scheming to ruin the Fete de Benedictions festival, which resulted in a literal bloodbath, thanks to the bloodthirsty vampires in attendance who couldn't resist some poor, compelled, bleeding drummers stumbling into the party. Also, way back in the 1990s, Hayley's parents and Jackson's parents, as the leaders of the two royal werewolf bloodlines, arranged for the two children to get married in order to unite the two sides again. Klaus' deal with the Crescent werewolves involved a plan to create moonlight rings, the werewolf counterpart to daylight rings, which could give the wolves the upper hand in the brewing war. Bastianna hexed Father Kieran in punishment for his interference in the Harvest ritual, and has been getting worse and worse ever since; it even caused him to go so far as to try to kill Cami in a fit of rage. And now we're caught up!
In this week's creepy cold open, Kieran is in St. Anne's Church, where he is having extremely upsetting hallucinations of Bastianna and Cami's dead brother Sean, who was also hexed a year ago. He kneels at the sacristy for communion, and murmurs, "This is the body. This is the blood. May they cleanse me of sin and preserve my soul in life everlasting." Bastianna sits behind him in one of the pews, and admits that it's a little late for that now, though she's happy to see he still has his faith. Kieran is becoming more and more frightened, and yells at her to stay away, but naturally, these hex-induced hallucinations are supposed to be as terrifying as possible. "If only it could save you, Sean," Bastianna replies, as Sean stands behind him in his seminary school uniform, holding a scythe to Kieran's neck. (In case you've forgotten, Sean used a scythe to kill himself and his fellow seminary school students back when he was hexed by Agnes. YIKES.) Kieran pleads with Sean to stop, and Bastianna appears in front of him, holding the communion cup to his lips and cheers him in life everlasting.
Kieran screeches, "Be gone, demon!", but in reality, he is actually still in the attic with Cami, who is trying to get him to drink some water. Josh, who has come for moral support, uses his vampire strength to hold him down. Kieran slaps the glass out of Cami's hand and spits, "Ugh! I know who you are, you hateful bitch!" He sees Josh behind her, but he thinks that he is actually Sean, and starts pleading to him to forgive him for what happened to him. "Oh, Sean! I tried to help you, I tried to save you. But this city...this city is full of monsters." Josh, hilariously, given the circumstances, is just like, "Yeah, trust me, I'm aware, thanks." He tells Cami to remind him to NEVER piss off a witch, although he's already a target of the witches' ire just due to the fact he's a vampire, alone, so it's a little late for that, I'd imagine.
Father Kieran starts to have a seizure, so Cami and Josh kneel next to him and lay him on his side. After a moment, he calms down, and looks confused as he mumbles, "Cami?" Cami is momentarily thrilled to see Kieran's true personality, for the first time in a while, but he falls back into his delusions as quickly as he came out of it. She takes Josh aside and asks him if he saw that he was lucid for one short second, so Josh looks back at Kieran, only to see that he's anxiously clutching his rosary. "I don't know, Cami," Josh admits. "I mean, maybe he's still in there underneath all the crazy, but the crazy is pretty thick." For whatever reason, Cami takes this as confirmation that she's onto something, and she suggests that perhaps all he needs is a shock to his system to reset his brain, which suddenly gives her an idea. Oh, dear lord, this is so not going to end well. TITLE CARD!
We return to the Abbatoir compound, where Elijah enters the study to find Klaus impatiently searching for something on his bookcase. Elijah asks him if he can help him find whatever it is he's looking for, so Klaus mentions that he's looking for their mother's grimoire, which be believes to be misplaced somewhere. Elijah agrees that that is quite mysterious, which confirms Klaus' suspicions. "Indeed. At first, I feared the witches had succeeded in their efforts to obtain it. But, considering their last attempt ended with me relieving a rather large, tattooed gentleman of his hands, I began to wonder if the thief wasn't a bit closer to home." Elijah plays the clueless act quite well, and has sat down at the desk to nonchalantly scribble in a notebook while Klaus talked. Klaus tells him not to make this difficult for them both, so Elijah gets to the confession.
"Well, admittedly, I did have a theory that your sudden interest in Mother's grimoire was in some way related to whatever foolishness you've been conducting with the Crescent wolves," Elijah begins, quite mild-manneredly. "Therefore, I took it upon myself to carefully place it where naughty little fingers could not pry." HAHAHAHAHA. Klaus once again proclaims that his intention is only to help the wolves in the bayou, which he believed Elijah would think a good cause, but Elijah is bored and unimpressed. "How splendidly noble of you!" Klaus claims his intent is to keep Hayley safe by using Esther's magic to empower the wolves so they can better protect her. However, Elijah turns the tables, and reminds him that it's just as likely that the wolves will use that power to get revenge on those who forced them into exile for decades, (namely, Marcel and the vampires) which will just result in Hayley (and, by extension, the baby) in the middle of a war-zone. "The drums of war were beating long before we returned," Klaus argues, as he walks toward the door. "I suggest you use a little less of this [makes a talking gesture with his hands] and a little more of these [points to his ears]." As he leaves, he sends his brother a fake smile. Did any of these two gentleman ever consider the fact that Hayley is quite capable of protecting herself? Remember that time she killed like four witches armed with crossbows and rifles? When she's no longer pregnant, she'll probably be even more deadly.
Back at the church, Cami has stepped aside to call Marcel and give him an update on Kieran's condition. He feels bad that Cami is in this situation more-or-less by herself, and offers to come help, but Cami's not an idiot, so she totally refuses. "How? By getting yourself killed? You have a target on your back, Marcel. The last thing I need is for you to get hurt because of me." Marcel insists that he's more concerned about HER, because the the way that the hex has changed Kieran's brain chemistry makes him a danger to her, but Cami makes her point quite clear when she promises that if Marcel so much as tries to step foot in the church, she'll kick his ass out herself. She hangs up on him before he can protest, just as Josh comes back up to the attic with a doctor. The doctor, Dr. Sheski, is appalled to see Father Kieran looking so strung-out while chained by the ankle to the radiator, and immediately is like, "What the hell?" Josh, hilariously, pipes up, "Oh, okay, yeah, totally see how we got kind of a 'crime-scene' vibe going here. Just don't freak out, okay?" Dr. Sheski puts on his doctor hat and starts introducing himself to Kieran before starting to take his pulse. Unfortunately, Kieran isn't really up for strangers touching him, and immediately starts to growl and snap at him like an angry animal. YIKES! This is bad news.
Meanwhile, Marcel has been pacing around his hide-out since he got off the phone with Cami, trying to figure out what the fuck he should do to help her. After a few moments of deliberation, he eventually sighs and sits down to call Klaus at the compound. Klaus answers immediately with a warning that the sound of Marcel's voice may make him reconsider how nice and non-murdery he's been to Marcel recently. "Yeah, yeah, I know," Marcel retorts. "I'm on your 'Who's Been Naughty' list. Thing is, Cami needs you. Whatever anger you have towards me, don't make her suffer for it." He informs Klaus that she's with Kieran, and Klaus immediately hangs up to go tend to her. It says a lot about how Klaus must feel about Cami to not only not hold the whole sleeping-with-Marcel thing against her, but also to do what he ends up doing at the end of the episode. I need so much more of Klaus demonstrating that he actually has a heart, it's so amazing to witness.
We return to St. Anne's attic, where Dr. Sheski has finished doing his physical assessment of Kieran, he returns to Cami to inform her that he's going to have to alert the police about what's going on. Cami gets anxious and gestures for Josh to do his thing, which is to compel the doctor in the same way that he does everything, which is in a hilariously bad way. "Oh, right!" Josh says, before he turns on the compulsion eyes. "Dude, be cool. It's just a priest hexed by a witch because of some vampires. Accept that these things are real, then forget them. I mean, later. You forget them later. Crap! Ahh! Okay, let me try again." HAHAHA, Josh, you precious, precious soul, you. Cami senses Josh floundering and tries to reason with Dr. Sheski by asking him to heavily sedate Kieran, but Dr. Sheski is NOT cool with any of this, as would any human who had no knowledge of the supernatural. He thinks Kieran should be put in the ICU, but since there's a boundary spell on the attic, there is no way to get Kieran out, so that's kind of a no-go.
Dr. Sheski continues to emphasize how badly Kieran's physical condition has become--he's dehydrated, malnourished, not to mention the fact that he's having horrifying hallucinations of his dead nephew and the dead witch who hexed him. Still, Cami tries to make him understand that they brought him here for that reason, so that Kieran can get medical attention. Then, she gets to the point of her plan: "But first--Doctor, what do you know about shock therapy?" Poor Dr. Sheski is like, "ECT? Are you fucking kidding me?", but Cami asks him again whether it's true that it has been known to help treat cases of severe psychosis, such as what Kieran is experiencing. Dr. Sheski admits that yeah, it has been shown to help SOME patients, but they still don't fully understand WHY that's the case, so only in very extreme cases is it even suggested as a possible treatment. Cami reminds him that since he's a priest who's been hexed by a witch, this is pretty much as extreme as it gets. I can appreciate Cami wanting to do whatever it takes to help her family, but I don't think that she quite understands that this is magic and the supernatural they're dealing with, not science. I highly doubt Bastianna would have hexed Kieran with this particular curse if there were any medical treatments that could help him.
Out in the bayou, Hayley and Eve are in the shack where Hayley has been staying, where Eve is helping Hayley learn how to do Lamaze breathing in preparation for giving birth. Eve is so sweet, you guys! I love her, which means, of course, that she's totally a goner. Hayley isn't too thrilled by the thought of giving birth without all the fun drugs that make it bearable, nor the thought of giving birth to a baby in the swamp, as opposed to a nice, clean hospital full of trained doctors, but Eve just shushes her. "Hey! The werewolves have been having babies out here since before you were born! Stop worrying!" Hayley points out that she has no idea how to be a mother, since her real mother died before she could really know her, and her adopted mother called her an abomination and kicked her out once she learned Hayley was a werewolf. Still, Eve insists that when the time comes, her maternal instincts will kick in and she'll know exactly what to do. "I hope so," Hayley admits. "As fun as it is to imagine Klaus changing dirty diapers, I'm pretty sure that I'll be doing this alone." Since Eve has been in communication with Elijah, she knows for a fact this isn't true, because she's secretly a Haylijah shipper. This thought alone seems to have summoned Elijah to the bayou for a chat.
He pops his head in the door, polite as ever; "Pardon the interruption. I wonder if I might have a quick word with the conspirators of a supposed uprising?" The three of them end up staying in the shack, where they meet with Jackson and Oliver to talk about their little back-room deal with Klaus. Elijah begins by insisting that they're making a mistake by trusting his brother, but Oliver has a hard time believing that Elijah is just looking out for the wolves' best interests. "Look, Elijah," Jackson adds. "We know all about your brother's reputation, but if there is even a chance that these rings can help us take control of our curse--" ("--Our GIFT--", Oliver interrupts) "--Then honestly? We don't care what he's really after. Won't have to." Elijah reminds them that the other Factions (namely, the vampires, but probably the witches and humans too) would consider the wolves having these rings a pretty serious provocation, but for once, Oliver actually has a good point--he argues that the fact that the werewolves exist at ALL is a provocation to them, so regardless of what they do, it won't really change anything. Hayley tries to reason with Elijah by pointing out that all they don't want to fight, or start a war--they just want a better life than the one they have now, which is a direct result of Marcel's rule.
Elijah maintains that aligning with Klaus will result in nothing but more trouble for all of them, but before he can elaborate, they hear the sound of a motorcycle approaching the encampments. The five of them go to see what's going on, and the unknown man on the motorcycle stops when he sees them coming. He asks which one of them is in charge, but Jackson counters by asking who HE is. Elijah gets this weird look on his face, like he's sensing something off about the guy, and after a moment, he tackles the guy off his bike, just as the bike explodes into a HUGE fireball. Everyone in the vicinity is thrown backwards by the force of the blast, and everything erupts into chaos. Elijah picks himself off the ground, but like everyone else, his eardrums were temporarily ruptured in the explosion, and it takes a few seconds before they heal enough that he can hear anything. His skin and suit are all singed in places and coated in ash, and he's overwhelmed by the sight of the various Crescent wolves who have become casualties in the explosion.
Oliver comes to next to Hayley and asks her if she's okay. Instead of replying, she quickly picks herself up and runs over to where the majority of the werewolves were congregated. She sees a little girl standing next to a man who is critically wounded, presumably the girl's father, and Hayley picks her up and immediately starts to calm her down by telling her that everything is okay now. She calls out for Jackson and hands her off to him to get her away while she examines the man's wounds. Elijah joins her as they both kneel next to the man, and when Elijah lifts up the man's shirt, they see his abdomen is covered both in chemical burns and burns from the fire in the explosion. Hayley figures the guy must have put wolfsbane in the gasoline tank, and determines that since Elijah is the fastest of all of them, he should take this man and anyone else who can't walk on their own to their makeshift hospital. Elijah looks as though he's more concerned about her, but she insists that she's fine, and emphasizes that they need his help.
She leaves Elijah to his work, but when she sees Oliver with a werewolf who has been impaled with a tree branch, she immediately rushes over to help. She tries to stop him before he removes the branch, but she's not fast enough, so instead, she pushes him aside as she starts to do first aid. She instructs Eve to apply pressure to the wound, and orders Oliver to take off his shirt so she can use it as a tourniquet, and grabs the tree branch to help her twist it tighter. Eve is super impressed by Hayley's medical skills, and asks her where she learned all of this. "You get a hell of an education when you leave home at 13," Hayley mutters, before assuring the werewolf that the tourniquet should slow down the bleeding until her healing abilities start kicking in. Oliver can't help but yell as he angrily kicks at a trashcan. "Argh! Vampires. They don't even have the guts to do their own dirty work themselves! I mean, why bother, when you can just compel some poor son-of-a-bitch to do it for you?" Oliver wants to hit the vampires back hard in retaliation, but Hayley, frustrated, pushes him against the wall of a shack and orders him to look after the wounded until she gets back. When Oliver asks her where she's going, Hayley points out that if vampires really are behind this, then she knows exactly who gave the order--Marcel. She grabs another tree branch and breaks it into a makeshift stake before heading towards the city to get some answers.
Things aren't going much better at St. Anne's. Cami, Josh, and Dr. Sheski are all standing around Father Kieran as the doctor reluctantly preps him for electroshock therapy. As they bind Kieran to a chair, Kieran glares at Josh and sneers, "There's a special place in Hell for your kind." Josh, having been a gay kid in a very bigoted and intolerant family even before becoming a vampire, just rolls his eyes, and retorts, "Not the first time I've heard THAT one." He puts a gag in Kieran's mouth to prevent any further colorful insults, just as Klaus decides to grace them all with his presence. Cami asks him what the fuck he's doing there, so Klaus just replies, "I received an urgent call on your behalf. It seems I've been tasked with doing what your coward of a boyfriend could not. Which, by the looks of things, is dissuading you from whatever madness it is you're about to attempt." LOL, Klaus is a dick, for sure, but that doesn't mean he's always wrong.
Since Klaus is disagreeing with Cami's plan, she just ignores him completely and asks Dr. Sheski if he's ready to begin. Which, to be honest, he's not. "Please," he pleads to her, terrified. "I'm begging you, don't force me to do this." Cami feels bad enough for the doctor to NOT make him perform a procedure that he's clearly uncomfortable performing, but not bad enough to NOT go through with electroshocking her hexed uncle. So, she grabs the ECT paddles and insists that she'll do it herself. You know, because a master's degree in psychology is totally the same as being a trained doctor. Klaus, who for whatever reason, has become the voice of gentle rationality in this episode, reminds Cami that her uncle is a good man who doesn't deserve the kind of suffering that this treatment will most certainly cause. "He's been suffering for weeks," Cami argues desperately. "He's dying, Klaus. This might be the only chance he's got." She places the electrodes against Kieran's temples and shocks him, while Josh, Klaus, and the doctor watch, feeling even more awkward and uncomfortable. Poor Kieran! This blows. Like I said, I have a hard time blaming Cami for wanting to help him, but at the same time, that is AWFUL and so disturbing to watch. :(
Hayley is in her car (Elijah's car? Klaus' car? Who knows), driving across the river to Marcel's hideout, while she calls Elijah to tell her she's leaving. "I have to take care of something," she says vaguely. "I'll be back as soon as I can." Of course, Elijah wants to know exactly where she's going, but Hayley stays mum, and simply tells him that she's fine, before instructing him to help take care of her pack while she's gone. Luckily for her, things are still chaotic enough in the bayou to where Elijah is too distracted to think about what she's doing too much. Jackson approaches him and asks if Hayley is okay. "Apparently, yes," Elijah replies with annoyance. Jackson points out that they got lucky with regards to where the explosion happened-- had the bomb gone off closer to the camp, they all could have gotten killed.
The two men walk toward where the wolves in the bayou have congregated to tend to the wounded as Elijah considers Jackson's words. All of a sudden, he has a dawning realization and immediately starts looking around. He quickly spots the flashing light of a bomb attached to an RV next to Eve and Oliver, and yells, "GET EVERYONE OUT OF HERE! NOW!" Unfortunately, he's too late--in an instant, more than a half dozen explosions go off in various locations, severely injuring/re-injuring dozens more people and killing quite a few more as well. Once the not-too-badly-injured start rounding everyone up again to start doing more first aid, one more explosion, the largest yet, goes off right behind them, and Elijah dives over a man laying on the ground nearby in an effort to protect him from further injuries. HOLY. SHIT. This show does not shy away from guts and gore (I mean, people's hearts get ripped out, (or their throats slit, or their heads chopped off) on the regular. But one thing that we're NOT accustomed to on this show is straight-up domestic terrorism, and that is definitely what this is. I can't even imagine what it would feel like for those wolves during this point. I'm getting massive flashbacks to The Hunger Games series-- bombs get dropped on people and blow them all up, and then, once they think it's over, the medics arrive to tend to them, which is when they're subsequently killed by MORE bombs simply for trying to help them. Disgusting, horrifying tactics.
In St. Anne's attic, the gang is waiting around Father Kieran when he finally awakens after the major shocks his brain took. He looks at Cami, relieved, and whispers, "Cami." It lasts all of about a second, before his relief turns to agitation again. "What the hell did you do to me?" he demands angrily, as he struggles against his bonds. Cami turns to her friends and insists that they have to do it again. Josh is, understandably, like, "Whoa, are you serious?", but Cami points out that since he showed momentary coherence, that means that the treatment was working, so they need to try again. Thankfully, Klaus blocks Cami from being able to grab the paddles, and orders Dr. Sheski to check on Kieran. Of course, Kieran immediately growls at him to stay the fuck away from him, but Sheski manages to listen to his heart and determine that since his heartbeat is irregular, keeping up the shocks will kill him. Cami refuses to back down now, so Klaus grabs her by the arm and tells her they need to have a word in private.
He drags her out into the hallway, and doesn't mince words once bit when he says, "I think you need to prepare yourself. This story does not have a happy ending." Cami starts to argue again that the electroshocks WERE helping, but Klaus cuts her off. "[The treatments] WILL kill him. Were you to push him over the brink, I would hate for you to have to live with that, no matter how noble your aim." Cami is still having a difficult time letting this go, because Kieran's her family, and she's furious that Klaus wants her to just give up on him so easily. Klaus shocks me once again by gently suggesting that instead of thinking of it as "time to give up," she should think of it more like "time to let go." Cami staunchly refuses to buy it, though, and insists that in the end, it's her call, and not his.
:( Poor Cami! Poor KIERAN. Losing a loved one is hard enough, whether it's from old age or poor health or a freak accident, and I imagine losing one to a magical curse doesn't make that grief any easier to deal with.
Back in the bayou, those who are only minimally wounded/healing are helping those who are more critically injured, as well as helping dig people out of the wreckage from the trailers and shacks that were blown up. Elijah finds Jackson, who is examining a werewolf girl who appears to not be breathing. "Jackson, she's gone," Elijah whispers gently. Suddenly, the two hear Oliver's voice screaming, "Help! Somebody help!" He kneels next to Eve, who is pinned under an overturned RV. When Elijah sees Oliver struggling to lift the weight of the RV, he rushes over, and the addition of Elijah's strength is more than enough to help. The boys' combined teamwork eventually is able to free Eve, but she has a huuuuge bloody wound on her abdomen and she is fading in and out of consciousness. Oliver is still next to her, holding her head in his lap, as he begs her to hold on, and assures her that she's going to be okay. NOOOO! Why do the tertiary characters I love ALWAYS get killed off? It's a curse!
Meanwhile, Hayley has made it to whatever hideout is now serving as the Pit for all the exiled vampires, where she barges right in and heads straight for Diego. Diego's like, "You done got some nerve coming up in here, mama!" Hayley isn't really in the mood for games, though, after what happened to her people this morning, so she lunges at him and knocks him flat on his back. He gets up and growls at her menacingly, but Hayley doesn't play around, so she shoves him against the wall and stakes him in the chest, just barely missing his heart. "Someone attacked my pack in the bayou this morning," Hayley growls furiously. "And, since I don't see any genius mastermind-types around here, why don't you just tell me where Marcel is, and we can both get on with our day, huh?" Diego struggles against her as he groans in an effort to get out, but Hayley reminds him that the people who died out there today had families, and children. Diego looks like he feels slightly guilty about that, and finally caves--he admits that Marcel used to have a place, and gives her the address. (1917 Patterson, if you're curious) Slightly satisfied with that answer, she yanks the stake out of his chest and takes off for her next stop.
(via vampire-originals)
In St. Anne's attic, Josh is continuing to admire his daylight ring (which I'm sure he's been doing it ever since he got it, considering he's been a nightwalking vampire for at least, like, 6 months now, at this point) while Dr. Sheski stares at Kieran, clearly both disturbed and intrigued by this case. "Um, I wouldn't stand that close to him, if I were you," Josh warns. "He's kind of unpredictable...and murdery." HAHAHA. Dr. Sheski exclaims that this situation is fascinating, and asks him if he could possibly talk to the witches who hexed him, but Josh promises him that he doesn't want to do that. Bastianna might be dead, but the rest of the witches who are still here are pretty vicious when they want to be. Suddenly, Kieran starts groaning and yelling as he struggles against his bonds. After a few moments, he fully BITES OFF HIS OWN THUMB so he can pull one hand out of his restraints and then free himself. HOLY. SHIT. That is so gross and so creepy! Kieran lunges for Dr. Sheski, but luckily, Josh is able to grab him and hold him back before he can hurt him. "Hey! Little help in here?" Josh yells to Klaus and Cami, who are still in the hall.
Hayley calls Klaus as she walks toward Marcel's apartment and asks him where he is. Klaus, of course, is trying to restrain Kieran (who hilariously yells, "HIS WRATH BURNS AGAINST YOU, DEMON") again, while the doctors tries to clean up and bandage the stump where his thumb used to be. Klaus informs her that he's in a bit of a sticky wicket at the moment. Hayley informs him about the bombing in the bayou that morning, which shocks Klaus enough for him to back away from the others to continue the conversation. When he asks where she is, she assures him that she's fine, and lets him know that since she figured Marcel must be behind it, she tracked him down. "Thought you might like to help kick his ass to kingdom come," she snarks, which makes me laugh. No wonder Klaus liked Hayley enough to bone her and unintentionally get her pregnant, they both are pretty similar in this way--violence gets shit done. Klaus orders Josh to take the doctor home and to compel him to forget everything that happened, before returning to his phone call. "Hey, listen. I assure you, once I am finished here, you will have my undivided attention. In the meantime, please stay out of trouble." Hayley promises that she will, and lies that Elijah is with her. OH GIIIIIIRL, you're gonna be in so much trouble!
Elijah, Oliver, and Jackson are in the midst of bringing Eve into her shack and laying her down in her bed. She's still not looking very good, and even Elijah remarks that the healing process should be kicking in by now. Oliver reveals that Eve is actually an untriggered werewolf, ie: she never killed anybody, so for all intents and purposes, she's a human-- no supernatural healing ability. Elijah suggests that his blood could heal her, but of course, Oliver's natural vampire-hating instincts kick in, and he sneers, "Vampire blood? Trust me, she'd rather die." Uh, maybe you should let Eve make that decision? Like really, you'd prefer her to die than take an itty bitty sip of vampire blood? Oliver is the worst. Anyway, Oliver's anger flares up again, and he yells that they can't just let the vampires get away with doing this to their people. Jackson, thankfully, reminds him that they're not even sure WHO is responsible for the attacks, but Oliver is not having his passivity. "The hell we don't! And if we don't fight back, they'll just do it again." Jackson's the alpha, though, so he just stares Oliver down until he stomps his little feet out of the shack.
Hayley has finally sauntered into Marcel's little hideout, and is surprised to find that he's been expecting her. He invites her to come in and sit down, like the true southern gentleman that he is, and jokes, "I'd offer you a drink, but..." before gesturing toward her baby bump. Hayley is still pretty icy, but she attempts small talk by commenting on his "sweet pad."
OMG OMG OMG OMG. SO, we already knew that the Crescent wolves got cursed back in the 90's, by Celeste DuBois (inhabiting Brynn Deveraux's body), which is still kind of weird to me, because if Hayley was just a baby back then, then Jackson, Oliver, Eve, et al would have been young children as well. So, did the curse not affect them until they killed someone? How did all of the current Crescents trigger their curses? There is still so much we don't know! BUT, the fact that Marcel saved Hayley back when her parents died is mind-blowing in itself, though. Like, despite my not-always-so-nice feelings toward him, I love that he's constantly surprising me. Sure, he had a Garden full of vampires that wronged him, but he's saved a boatload of kids, too! It's practically giving me cognitive dissonance over here.
Cami and Klaus are sitting at Kieran's bedside when his heart monitor starts to beep loudly. Klaus informs Cami that Kieran is in cardiac arrest, and suggests that it might be a good idea to look away as he rolls up his sleeves. Of course, Cami needs to know what he's about to do, and in response, Klaus shoves his hand into Kieran's chest and starts massaging his heart. He admits that Kieran's body is shutting down, and that even with the heart massage, he doesn't have much time. Did Klaus go to medical school at some point in his 1,000 years of life? If so, that's kind of awesome. Cami realizes that, hello, Klaus is a vampire, so if he fed Kieran his blood, then Kieran would wake up again. Klaus reminds her that he'd be a VAMPIRE, in transition, but does concede that his death would be a mercy, as far as the hex is concerned. Cami begs Klaus to help him. "I can't let him die, not like this." She starts to cry, and Klaus just sighs, like, "The shit these blonde girls put me through," before reluctantly feeding Kieran his blood. After the blood has made it through his system a bit, Klaus removes his hand from his chest, and Kieran dies quickly. (Which, really, is to be expected, considering he was a HUMAN who just had a hand literally shoved into his chest cavity. YIKES)
Back at Marcel's hideout, Hayley and Marcel are seated opposite each other as they continue to talk about Hayley and her family. She asks him how long he's known who she was, so Marcel admits that when he saw how interested she was in the Crescent wolves, he got suspicious. Then, when she threw the full-moon party at the plantation house, he eventually figured out the rest. Hayley's face goes steely-cold. "Tell me something, Marcel. Did you kill my parents?" Marcel swears that he didn't; he claims that there was infighting among the Crescents, so her parents were laying low somewhere and someone on their team turned on them. He insists that he has no idea who it was--all he knows is that he got there too late, and found her in her crib. Understandably, Hayley's not exactly in the mood to just take him at his word, so Marcel levels with her. "Believe whatever you want, but you were the last Labonair. I mean, could've been a lot of leverage for our side. But, instead, I took you to Father Kieran." OH SHIT. So Marcel and Kieran's alliance has been going on a lot longer than we knew. That is really awesome of Kieran, though.
He pulls out a duffel bag and hands it to her. When she asks what it is, he's straight with her--the bag is full of money and everything else that she'll need to get the hell out of town and move someplace safe. "Whatever happened in the bayou, I'm not your guy. But, the way things are going? Eventually, I might have to be." I honestly think that Marcel is being honest here, and I kind of like how he's taking a no-bullshit approach to this. He's just like, no, I honestly don't have anything against you or your child, despite your connections to the Crescents and the Mikaelsons, which is partially why I saved your life. And of course, it's clear he has his own motivations, too, which Hayley wastes no time pointing out: "So, this is your grand plan? Get me out of town, and Klaus and Elijah follow closely behind?" Again, Marcel is genuine when he says that it would definitely be a positive side effect. She asks him why he's not following his own advice, but we already know his answer. "I was born here, Hayley." Unfortunately for him, Hayley was born there too, and has no interest in leaving town. She gets up to leave Marcel's apartment, but he stops her with some parting words.
Klaus and Cami are still in the attic of the church, awaiting Kieran's awakening, when Klaus reluctantly informs her that he has to go, for now. Cami, a little nervous, asks him what comes next for Kieran, so Klaus explains that when he wakes, he'll be in transition and craving blood. He promises her he'll be back before that happens, but Cami starts to freak out a little. "He's gonna be furious with me," she rambles as she paces around. "He's a priest! I turned him into a vampire! What kind of desperate move is that?" Klaus reminds her that they both know Kieran will never complete the transition, and that the entire goal of turning him was really to allow Cami some time with a lucid Kieran and say her goodbyes before he dies for real. Cami starts to tear up, and rasps, "Klaus, will you stay just a little longer?" Klaus is clearly torn, since he knows what has happened in the bayou with Hayley, but since he's under the impression that she's with Elijah, he sighs and assures her that he will. Aw, Klaus! This is what I love to see from him.
It's nightfall now, and Elijah is still in the bayou, standing somberly outside as he stares out at the lake. He decides to check in with the injured werewolves at their makeshift hospital, and passes several dead bodies during his walk. When he finally catches up with Jackson, he sees that pretty much all of the fight has left him. "Is this the peace you promised?" Jackson asks tiredly. Elijah changes the subject to Klaus, and asks if Klaus' plan is to somehow remove their curse. "Klaus was offering us freedom," Jackson confesses. "Not just from the pain that comes from turning, but from the contempt we've faced our whole lives." Elijah vaguely asks him about his intentions on Hayley's behalf, but Jackson insists that he's just trying to make their home safe for her AND the baby, which seems to satisfy Elijah. Oh man, he's totally gonna heel-turn and join Klaus' side, isn't he? YAY.
Kieran finally awakens to find Klaus and Cami, still at his bedside. As you can imagine, Kieran is MASSIVELY confused about what the fuck has happened the last couple of days. "Cami, what happened? The hex...I could feel it, like a living thing inside of me." He looks down at his right hand to find that the black cross that indicated he was hexed is gone. Cami is so relieved that she hugs him as she starts to cry. That's when he notices the other hand, which is missing his thumb (since he totally BIT IT OFF), and is completely startled and shocked. Klaus, ever the polite gentleman, informs him that he's had a "trying day" (LOL, understatement of the century), and struggles with the best way to explain to him what happened. "It appears the hex was broken by your death..." Klaus begins, which naturally makes Kieran exclaim, "Back up. I died? For how long?" Klaus explains that he was dead for several hours, and Cami confesses that she made Klaus give him his blood, because she couldn't stand to lose him in that way.
As expected, Kieran does not take this news well. "I see. So, the devil has a deal for me, after all." Cami reminds him that his hunger is only going to get worse, but Kieran already knows that, after being head of the Human Faction for god knows how long. Klaus continues to say that if he doesn't feed, he WILL die, again, for good, but Kieran knows that, too. "I know if that's the choice that I have to make, I'm dead already." He then asks Klaus to give him a moment alone with Cami, because he needs to talk to her alone. Klaus immediately agrees and goes to leave, but Cami stops him quickly before he goes. "Thank you for today. For being kind." Klaus' heart grows three whole sizes at these words, since it's been quite a while since something like that to be said to him (probably since Caroline told him that anyone capable of loving can be saved), so he leaves with a tiny, tiny smile.
Oliver has stopped by Eve's house to check on her and see how she's doing. Eve, though weak, is still in decent spirits, but little does she know that Oliver is about to fucking shit on EVERYTHING. I'm just going to transcribe this whole thing, because it's that mindblowing (and TERRIBLE).
This entire time, I was just like shouting, "EVE! GRAB A WEAPON AND KILL HIS STUPID FACE ALREADY. THEN YOU CAN TRIGGER YOUR WEREWOLF GENE SO YOU WON'T DIE AND OLIVER WILL GET HIS COMEUPPANCE" at the television. But, of course, no one ever listens to me. And, I mean, I get that he clearly didn't intend for Eve, or any of the werewolves, to be hurt or killed in this attack. But the fact of the matter is that they DID, and they way he goes about dealing with the mess he made leaves a lot to be desired. So, instead of Eve using all her energy to kill his ass and save herself, Oliver grabs a pillow and starts walking toward her. "They're not gonna find out, Evie. If they did, all those people would have died in vain. I had to do whatever it took to make us strong." NO NO NO NO NO. Eve pleads with him not to do what he's about to do, but he claims that even now, with her, he has to do what is best for the pack. YOU'VE ALREADY KILLED ENOUGH OF YOUR PACK, YOU DICKWEED. Eve insists that it's all over for him, but she's too injured to move or resist when Oliver takes the pillow and shoves it against her face, smothering her. "I'm sorry, Eve," Oliver whispers, until she finally lies still. NOOOOO. I hate Oliver SO MUCH.
Meanwhile, Cami is helping Kieran set his affairs in order before he finally passes. Cami mentions that she's located everything that he's listed for her except for the key he told her about, the one that we've seen him wear around his neck a lot. "That key is a VERY important part of our family legacy," Kieran emphasizes. "You have to find it." She promises that she will, which seems to comfort him a bit. He apologizes to her for getting her involved in the supernatural, and swears that his intention was always to keep her safe by keeping her out of it. "This can't be how it ends," Cami says with a sob, but Kieran, being the good priest that he is, comforts her. "It was the only way it was ever going to end. I made peace with that a long time ago," he assures her gently as he gives her a hug. "Listen, I don't know how bad this is gonna get, and I don't want you to see it. So, in a moment, I'm gonna let go, and you are gonna turn around, and you're gonna walk out of here without looking back. Okay, kiddo? Promise me. Without looking back." Cami starts to sob harder, and after they let go, Cami turns around and walks out of the attic, as Kieran sadly watches her leave.
Outside the encampments in the bayou, a bonfire is roaring as Oliver is passionately pleading his case to the other wolves in an effort to rally them into fighting back against the vampires. "They're counting on our doubts!" Oliver yells to the crowd. "That's right! Yeah! They're counting on our fears! That's right! Right?" Hayley, who has just returned to the bayou after her adventures in town, notices that Elijah is lingering nearby, and walks over to join him. "You stayed," she states in greeting, but Elijah just gestures toward Oliver, who is still on his soapbox. "Come morning, they will know that we are not cowards!" Hayley asks Elijah what the fuck Oliver is doing, so Elijah confesses that he's taking advantage of all the grief and tragedy to make a power play. "He's not alone. There was another attack after you left..."
Hayley is stunned to hear this news, and immediately runs to Eve's shack, where Jackson is standing vigil at Eve's bedside, clearly devastated and drinking whiskey straight from the bottle. Elijah finishes his update in voiceover as Hayley and Jackson grieve Eve's death together. "Your friend Jackson will need your help. They will want vengeance; blood for blood. And, unfortunately, in troubled times, people do not look for the best, but rather, the loudest." True fucking facts, evidenced further by Oliver, who is still shouting at the crowd, who seems to be buying into his propaganda. And, of course, none of them know the truth, which is that Oliver orchestrated the attack himself for this very purpose, and likely with Francesca bankrolling the entire operation and probably even helping with the execution.
Klaus stops by the Coven House to see Genevieve, after leaving Cami and Kieran at the church. She remarks on how surprised she is to see Klaus there, but Klaus has no time to waste on social niceties. "The bayou explosion, the attack on my child-- tell me what you know." Genevieve plays coy, as is her wont, and points out that the werewolves have a boatload of enemies, including Marcel. However, Klaus has had all day to ruminate and theorize about what happened, and has concluded that Marcel would never stoop so low as to cross him in such an atrocious fashion. "The witches, however...I have witnessed firsthand the depths of your cruelty." Genevieve once again feigns offense and chirps, "You don't think I did this? What kind of monster do you take me for? How ugly I must seem next to the pure, innocent glow of your precious Camille. So sad about her uncle, by the way." Klaus takes pleasure in informing her that Kieran died with vampire blood in his system, and that his death released him from his hex. Unfortunately for him, he doesn't have all the information. "A hex of that magnitude?" Genevieve asks dramatically. "Kieran's hex WILL return...if it hasn't already." SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT. And Klaus left Cami alone with him! Oh, fucking Genevieve, I s2g.
We cut to the church, where a dying Kieran begins to get agitated. He frantically unwraps the bandages on his now-thumbless hand, only to find that the hex's black cross is back once again on his other, uninjured hand. He grabs a small cross, which, for whatever reason, has a knife hidden inside. He holds it to his neck, and flashes back to watching Sean to the same, a year ago as he musters up the courage to end his life before he hurts anyone. Unfortunately, his Bastianna hallucinations have returned as well. "No! Not yet, priest," she croons. "There's more work to be done. A final offering, to complete your penance--that which you hold most dear." SHIT SHIT SHIT CAMIIIII. God, those witches are fucking vindictive.
Cutting back to the Coven House, Genevieve plays with a spider that's hanging out in one of her pots of herbs, and adds, "That boundary spell, on the other hand... Now that he's died, I imagine it won't be QUITE so confining." At St. Anne's, Kieran stands in the threshold of the attic door before taking a step out into the hall. Back at the Coven House, Klaus glares at Genevieve, knowing exactly what is about to happen, but she just smirks. SHE IS BANANAS, THIS IS SO TERRIBLE.
Cami is downstairs, sitting in a pew, when Kieran comes downstairs to find her. She's relieved at first, thinking that Kieran has changed his mind about completing the transition. And, in a way, he kind of has--just not the way that she thinks. He grins evilly as he whips out his knife, and Cami realizes way too late that the hex has returned. He's able to slice out at her arm before she can get away, coating his knife with her blood. He chases her up the stairs to the balcony, and creepily licks at the blood off the knife. This instantly brings out his full-on vamp face, which I'm not sure Cami has actually ever seen up-close before, on any vampire? He finally corners her, and, left with no other option of escape, throws herself over the balcony.
YIKES! That takes some serious guts. It's giving me a lot of flashbacks to that time that (human) Elena stabbed herself in the gut to call Elijah's bluff back in TVD season 2. Cami is clearly pretty injured, after falling two stories, but manages to crawl in between the pews to try to hide from him as he descends upon her. "Don't fight it, Cami. In death, we are whole again," Kieran states, as he grabs her off of the floor and throws her onto a row of pews, which break under the force of her fall. Cami screams in fright and tries to grab a piece of wood to use as a stake, but before she can, Kieran grabs her by the leg and drags her down to the front of the room. As he lifts Cami by the hair, Hallucination-Bastianna and Hallucination-Sean egg him on. "Bless her, Father," Bastianna says in encouragement. "Kill her. Rejoice in life eternal," Sean adds. This is already creepy enough as it is, but all the religious overtones just make it even worse, I think. Maybe it's my lapsed-Catholicism.
Cami screams in terror as Kieran whips out his fangs to feed on her, but before he can, Klaus FINALLY shows up out of nowhere and snaps his neck. Cami sighs in relief and starts to cry, out of fear and sadness and guilt, as Klaus looks to her in concern. Her face is bloody and beaten, but she weakly nods, giving him permission to do what he needs to do. "You deserved far better than this," Klaus says, before staking Kieran in the heart. Cami looks away, and I just want to give her a hug. Pobrecita! You'd think Klaus would at least give her a sip of his blood to heal her, wouldn't you?
Marcel is still hanging around his hideout when he receives a phone call from Klaus. Marcel answers and immediately launches into his speech to assure Klaus that he had nothing to do with the bayou bombing, but Klaus is no dummy, and already figured that out a while ago. "I never thought you did. I'm calling to let you know the priest is dead. Your exile is suspended for the next twenty-four hours. You may return to the Quarter to bury your friend." Marcel is shocked and pleasantly surprised, and asks him why he's reacting in such a kind and thoughtful way. Klaus gives his answer in voiceover, as we watch Marcel arrive to Cami's apartment, where she's laying battered and beaten in her bed. Klaus lets him in, and watches him as he hugs her and kisses her on the forehead. "She woke in the dark, not knowing where she was, or who was watching over her. It was your name she called, and if you can grant her comfort, so be it." DAMN! This has got to be one of the nicest things Klaus has ever done, and I am loving it. Get that heart working again, Klaus!
At the bayou, Hayley cries as she sits at Eve's bedside. She eventually kisses her on the hand and leaves the shack. Outside, she finds Oliver still outside, attempting to rally the troops, and, judging by the crowd's response, he seems to be getting quite a few followers as a result of all the drama and tragedy that occurred this day. "Look, I know where I'm going," Oliver tells them. "If any of you want to follow, hey, that's up to you. That's up to you!" God, he is so transparent, I can't believe none of them have figured out what he did yet. SO GROSS.
Marcel returns to his apartment after comforting Cami, where both Diego and Josh are waiting for him. Marcel informs them that Kieran is dead, and asks Josh if he got "it." Josh sighs, and reluctantly hands over a key on a string, which explains how Kieran misplaced it. "It was around his neck, just like you said," Josh admits. He frowns, and adds, "PS? I do NOT feel awesome about this." Aw, Josh! You are too precious for this world. Marcel assures him that he knows he does, but insists that if they want to protect Cami, they had to do it. "People are gonna be coming after this," Marcel reminds him. "Cami is not ready for that, not yet." Diego asks them where they go from here, so Marcel gets into his war metaphors again. "Storm clouds are gathering," he begins, as he pours each of them a drink. "Someone bombed those wolves, and it wasn't us. Witches, humans, vampires, wolves. City is at a breaking point. We need to be ready." They all look very nervous and exhausted as the three of them drink their scotch.
Finally, Elijah is chilling out in the study of the Abbatoir compound when Klaus joins him. "First Marcel's massacre, now bombs in the bayou. I'll assume you're ready to give up this doomed treaty?" Klaus asks, though not unkindly. Elijah just sighs before replying, "This alliance with the wolves... Well, if it's to succeed, I believe you'll want this." He takes out Esther's grimoire and hands it over to his baby brother, who seems to be quite satisfied by this development. Klaus assumes that Hayley is the reason behind Elijah suddenly switching teams, but Elijah pours them both their own drinks as he explains what he learned today. "The rifts in this city run far deeper than I even imagined, Niklaus. These tribes, these Factions... they're families, families who choose to fight. Mayhem has descended upon our home, and if I'm to choose a side..." He trails off, as he hands Klaus his drink, and holds out his own to toast to the two of them. "To our victory, brother." This is probably the third time I've seen this episode, and we are now weeks after the fact, but it still gave me CHILLS to see again. As much as I love Elijah and Klaus separately, I like them even better when they're working together as a team, and it seems that they've finally made up to the point that this could happen! And, the resulting bloodbath is going to be EPIC, I cannot wait.
Next episode: The witches make a move on Hayley, and due to the madness currently happening on the Other Side results in Mikael being able to haunt the the Mikaelsons and Hayley.
[screencaps via Screencapped]
I would normally do notes at the end, but I have literally gone into all of the details that I have to say for this episode in this super-long recap. SO, why don't you guys tell me YOUR notes? :)
So, to say that "An Unblinking Death" was intense is a HUGE understatement--we get a suicide bombing in the bayou with several different theories on who was behind it, as well as the long and agonizing death of a pretty important character! AND, not only that, but we actually have more and more character development from a character who needs the extra maturity more than any other character (Klaus, of course). There's a boatload of stuff to talk about, so let's settle in, gentle readers, so we can start at the beginning.
Previously, on The Originals: Hayley began embracing her family's legacy as a leader of the Crescent wolves by pointing out that if the various Factions don't at least try to work together, that they might as well just kill each other now, which ultimately gave them all the motivation they needed to sign a peace treaty. Klaus, who is not a fan (as we're all aware), started making side deals with Genevieve and Jackson behind Elijah's back. Marcel sent the Factions a message by scheming to ruin the Fete de Benedictions festival, which resulted in a literal bloodbath, thanks to the bloodthirsty vampires in attendance who couldn't resist some poor, compelled, bleeding drummers stumbling into the party. Also, way back in the 1990s, Hayley's parents and Jackson's parents, as the leaders of the two royal werewolf bloodlines, arranged for the two children to get married in order to unite the two sides again. Klaus' deal with the Crescent werewolves involved a plan to create moonlight rings, the werewolf counterpart to daylight rings, which could give the wolves the upper hand in the brewing war. Bastianna hexed Father Kieran in punishment for his interference in the Harvest ritual, and has been getting worse and worse ever since; it even caused him to go so far as to try to kill Cami in a fit of rage. And now we're caught up!
In this week's creepy cold open, Kieran is in St. Anne's Church, where he is having extremely upsetting hallucinations of Bastianna and Cami's dead brother Sean, who was also hexed a year ago. He kneels at the sacristy for communion, and murmurs, "This is the body. This is the blood. May they cleanse me of sin and preserve my soul in life everlasting." Bastianna sits behind him in one of the pews, and admits that it's a little late for that now, though she's happy to see he still has his faith. Kieran is becoming more and more frightened, and yells at her to stay away, but naturally, these hex-induced hallucinations are supposed to be as terrifying as possible. "If only it could save you, Sean," Bastianna replies, as Sean stands behind him in his seminary school uniform, holding a scythe to Kieran's neck. (In case you've forgotten, Sean used a scythe to kill himself and his fellow seminary school students back when he was hexed by Agnes. YIKES.) Kieran pleads with Sean to stop, and Bastianna appears in front of him, holding the communion cup to his lips and cheers him in life everlasting.
Kieran screeches, "Be gone, demon!", but in reality, he is actually still in the attic with Cami, who is trying to get him to drink some water. Josh, who has come for moral support, uses his vampire strength to hold him down. Kieran slaps the glass out of Cami's hand and spits, "Ugh! I know who you are, you hateful bitch!" He sees Josh behind her, but he thinks that he is actually Sean, and starts pleading to him to forgive him for what happened to him. "Oh, Sean! I tried to help you, I tried to save you. But this city...this city is full of monsters." Josh, hilariously, given the circumstances, is just like, "Yeah, trust me, I'm aware, thanks." He tells Cami to remind him to NEVER piss off a witch, although he's already a target of the witches' ire just due to the fact he's a vampire, alone, so it's a little late for that, I'd imagine.
Father Kieran starts to have a seizure, so Cami and Josh kneel next to him and lay him on his side. After a moment, he calms down, and looks confused as he mumbles, "Cami?" Cami is momentarily thrilled to see Kieran's true personality, for the first time in a while, but he falls back into his delusions as quickly as he came out of it. She takes Josh aside and asks him if he saw that he was lucid for one short second, so Josh looks back at Kieran, only to see that he's anxiously clutching his rosary. "I don't know, Cami," Josh admits. "I mean, maybe he's still in there underneath all the crazy, but the crazy is pretty thick." For whatever reason, Cami takes this as confirmation that she's onto something, and she suggests that perhaps all he needs is a shock to his system to reset his brain, which suddenly gives her an idea. Oh, dear lord, this is so not going to end well. TITLE CARD!
We return to the Abbatoir compound, where Elijah enters the study to find Klaus impatiently searching for something on his bookcase. Elijah asks him if he can help him find whatever it is he's looking for, so Klaus mentions that he's looking for their mother's grimoire, which be believes to be misplaced somewhere. Elijah agrees that that is quite mysterious, which confirms Klaus' suspicions. "Indeed. At first, I feared the witches had succeeded in their efforts to obtain it. But, considering their last attempt ended with me relieving a rather large, tattooed gentleman of his hands, I began to wonder if the thief wasn't a bit closer to home." Elijah plays the clueless act quite well, and has sat down at the desk to nonchalantly scribble in a notebook while Klaus talked. Klaus tells him not to make this difficult for them both, so Elijah gets to the confession.
"Well, admittedly, I did have a theory that your sudden interest in Mother's grimoire was in some way related to whatever foolishness you've been conducting with the Crescent wolves," Elijah begins, quite mild-manneredly. "Therefore, I took it upon myself to carefully place it where naughty little fingers could not pry." HAHAHAHAHA. Klaus once again proclaims that his intention is only to help the wolves in the bayou, which he believed Elijah would think a good cause, but Elijah is bored and unimpressed. "How splendidly noble of you!" Klaus claims his intent is to keep Hayley safe by using Esther's magic to empower the wolves so they can better protect her. However, Elijah turns the tables, and reminds him that it's just as likely that the wolves will use that power to get revenge on those who forced them into exile for decades, (namely, Marcel and the vampires) which will just result in Hayley (and, by extension, the baby) in the middle of a war-zone. "The drums of war were beating long before we returned," Klaus argues, as he walks toward the door. "I suggest you use a little less of this [makes a talking gesture with his hands] and a little more of these [points to his ears]." As he leaves, he sends his brother a fake smile. Did any of these two gentleman ever consider the fact that Hayley is quite capable of protecting herself? Remember that time she killed like four witches armed with crossbows and rifles? When she's no longer pregnant, she'll probably be even more deadly.
Back at the church, Cami has stepped aside to call Marcel and give him an update on Kieran's condition. He feels bad that Cami is in this situation more-or-less by herself, and offers to come help, but Cami's not an idiot, so she totally refuses. "How? By getting yourself killed? You have a target on your back, Marcel. The last thing I need is for you to get hurt because of me." Marcel insists that he's more concerned about HER, because the the way that the hex has changed Kieran's brain chemistry makes him a danger to her, but Cami makes her point quite clear when she promises that if Marcel so much as tries to step foot in the church, she'll kick his ass out herself. She hangs up on him before he can protest, just as Josh comes back up to the attic with a doctor. The doctor, Dr. Sheski, is appalled to see Father Kieran looking so strung-out while chained by the ankle to the radiator, and immediately is like, "What the hell?" Josh, hilariously, pipes up, "Oh, okay, yeah, totally see how we got kind of a 'crime-scene' vibe going here. Just don't freak out, okay?" Dr. Sheski puts on his doctor hat and starts introducing himself to Kieran before starting to take his pulse. Unfortunately, Kieran isn't really up for strangers touching him, and immediately starts to growl and snap at him like an angry animal. YIKES! This is bad news.
Meanwhile, Marcel has been pacing around his hide-out since he got off the phone with Cami, trying to figure out what the fuck he should do to help her. After a few moments of deliberation, he eventually sighs and sits down to call Klaus at the compound. Klaus answers immediately with a warning that the sound of Marcel's voice may make him reconsider how nice and non-murdery he's been to Marcel recently. "Yeah, yeah, I know," Marcel retorts. "I'm on your 'Who's Been Naughty' list. Thing is, Cami needs you. Whatever anger you have towards me, don't make her suffer for it." He informs Klaus that she's with Kieran, and Klaus immediately hangs up to go tend to her. It says a lot about how Klaus must feel about Cami to not only not hold the whole sleeping-with-Marcel thing against her, but also to do what he ends up doing at the end of the episode. I need so much more of Klaus demonstrating that he actually has a heart, it's so amazing to witness.
We return to St. Anne's attic, where Dr. Sheski has finished doing his physical assessment of Kieran, he returns to Cami to inform her that he's going to have to alert the police about what's going on. Cami gets anxious and gestures for Josh to do his thing, which is to compel the doctor in the same way that he does everything, which is in a hilariously bad way. "Oh, right!" Josh says, before he turns on the compulsion eyes. "Dude, be cool. It's just a priest hexed by a witch because of some vampires. Accept that these things are real, then forget them. I mean, later. You forget them later. Crap! Ahh! Okay, let me try again." HAHAHA, Josh, you precious, precious soul, you. Cami senses Josh floundering and tries to reason with Dr. Sheski by asking him to heavily sedate Kieran, but Dr. Sheski is NOT cool with any of this, as would any human who had no knowledge of the supernatural. He thinks Kieran should be put in the ICU, but since there's a boundary spell on the attic, there is no way to get Kieran out, so that's kind of a no-go.
Dr. Sheski continues to emphasize how badly Kieran's physical condition has become--he's dehydrated, malnourished, not to mention the fact that he's having horrifying hallucinations of his dead nephew and the dead witch who hexed him. Still, Cami tries to make him understand that they brought him here for that reason, so that Kieran can get medical attention. Then, she gets to the point of her plan: "But first--Doctor, what do you know about shock therapy?" Poor Dr. Sheski is like, "ECT? Are you fucking kidding me?", but Cami asks him again whether it's true that it has been known to help treat cases of severe psychosis, such as what Kieran is experiencing. Dr. Sheski admits that yeah, it has been shown to help SOME patients, but they still don't fully understand WHY that's the case, so only in very extreme cases is it even suggested as a possible treatment. Cami reminds him that since he's a priest who's been hexed by a witch, this is pretty much as extreme as it gets. I can appreciate Cami wanting to do whatever it takes to help her family, but I don't think that she quite understands that this is magic and the supernatural they're dealing with, not science. I highly doubt Bastianna would have hexed Kieran with this particular curse if there were any medical treatments that could help him.
Out in the bayou, Hayley and Eve are in the shack where Hayley has been staying, where Eve is helping Hayley learn how to do Lamaze breathing in preparation for giving birth. Eve is so sweet, you guys! I love her, which means, of course, that she's totally a goner. Hayley isn't too thrilled by the thought of giving birth without all the fun drugs that make it bearable, nor the thought of giving birth to a baby in the swamp, as opposed to a nice, clean hospital full of trained doctors, but Eve just shushes her. "Hey! The werewolves have been having babies out here since before you were born! Stop worrying!" Hayley points out that she has no idea how to be a mother, since her real mother died before she could really know her, and her adopted mother called her an abomination and kicked her out once she learned Hayley was a werewolf. Still, Eve insists that when the time comes, her maternal instincts will kick in and she'll know exactly what to do. "I hope so," Hayley admits. "As fun as it is to imagine Klaus changing dirty diapers, I'm pretty sure that I'll be doing this alone." Since Eve has been in communication with Elijah, she knows for a fact this isn't true, because she's secretly a Haylijah shipper. This thought alone seems to have summoned Elijah to the bayou for a chat.
He pops his head in the door, polite as ever; "Pardon the interruption. I wonder if I might have a quick word with the conspirators of a supposed uprising?" The three of them end up staying in the shack, where they meet with Jackson and Oliver to talk about their little back-room deal with Klaus. Elijah begins by insisting that they're making a mistake by trusting his brother, but Oliver has a hard time believing that Elijah is just looking out for the wolves' best interests. "Look, Elijah," Jackson adds. "We know all about your brother's reputation, but if there is even a chance that these rings can help us take control of our curse--" ("--Our GIFT--", Oliver interrupts) "--Then honestly? We don't care what he's really after. Won't have to." Elijah reminds them that the other Factions (namely, the vampires, but probably the witches and humans too) would consider the wolves having these rings a pretty serious provocation, but for once, Oliver actually has a good point--he argues that the fact that the werewolves exist at ALL is a provocation to them, so regardless of what they do, it won't really change anything. Hayley tries to reason with Elijah by pointing out that all they don't want to fight, or start a war--they just want a better life than the one they have now, which is a direct result of Marcel's rule.
Elijah maintains that aligning with Klaus will result in nothing but more trouble for all of them, but before he can elaborate, they hear the sound of a motorcycle approaching the encampments. The five of them go to see what's going on, and the unknown man on the motorcycle stops when he sees them coming. He asks which one of them is in charge, but Jackson counters by asking who HE is. Elijah gets this weird look on his face, like he's sensing something off about the guy, and after a moment, he tackles the guy off his bike, just as the bike explodes into a HUGE fireball. Everyone in the vicinity is thrown backwards by the force of the blast, and everything erupts into chaos. Elijah picks himself off the ground, but like everyone else, his eardrums were temporarily ruptured in the explosion, and it takes a few seconds before they heal enough that he can hear anything. His skin and suit are all singed in places and coated in ash, and he's overwhelmed by the sight of the various Crescent wolves who have become casualties in the explosion.
Oliver comes to next to Hayley and asks her if she's okay. Instead of replying, she quickly picks herself up and runs over to where the majority of the werewolves were congregated. She sees a little girl standing next to a man who is critically wounded, presumably the girl's father, and Hayley picks her up and immediately starts to calm her down by telling her that everything is okay now. She calls out for Jackson and hands her off to him to get her away while she examines the man's wounds. Elijah joins her as they both kneel next to the man, and when Elijah lifts up the man's shirt, they see his abdomen is covered both in chemical burns and burns from the fire in the explosion. Hayley figures the guy must have put wolfsbane in the gasoline tank, and determines that since Elijah is the fastest of all of them, he should take this man and anyone else who can't walk on their own to their makeshift hospital. Elijah looks as though he's more concerned about her, but she insists that she's fine, and emphasizes that they need his help.
She leaves Elijah to his work, but when she sees Oliver with a werewolf who has been impaled with a tree branch, she immediately rushes over to help. She tries to stop him before he removes the branch, but she's not fast enough, so instead, she pushes him aside as she starts to do first aid. She instructs Eve to apply pressure to the wound, and orders Oliver to take off his shirt so she can use it as a tourniquet, and grabs the tree branch to help her twist it tighter. Eve is super impressed by Hayley's medical skills, and asks her where she learned all of this. "You get a hell of an education when you leave home at 13," Hayley mutters, before assuring the werewolf that the tourniquet should slow down the bleeding until her healing abilities start kicking in. Oliver can't help but yell as he angrily kicks at a trashcan. "Argh! Vampires. They don't even have the guts to do their own dirty work themselves! I mean, why bother, when you can just compel some poor son-of-a-bitch to do it for you?" Oliver wants to hit the vampires back hard in retaliation, but Hayley, frustrated, pushes him against the wall of a shack and orders him to look after the wounded until she gets back. When Oliver asks her where she's going, Hayley points out that if vampires really are behind this, then she knows exactly who gave the order--Marcel. She grabs another tree branch and breaks it into a makeshift stake before heading towards the city to get some answers.
Things aren't going much better at St. Anne's. Cami, Josh, and Dr. Sheski are all standing around Father Kieran as the doctor reluctantly preps him for electroshock therapy. As they bind Kieran to a chair, Kieran glares at Josh and sneers, "There's a special place in Hell for your kind." Josh, having been a gay kid in a very bigoted and intolerant family even before becoming a vampire, just rolls his eyes, and retorts, "Not the first time I've heard THAT one." He puts a gag in Kieran's mouth to prevent any further colorful insults, just as Klaus decides to grace them all with his presence. Cami asks him what the fuck he's doing there, so Klaus just replies, "I received an urgent call on your behalf. It seems I've been tasked with doing what your coward of a boyfriend could not. Which, by the looks of things, is dissuading you from whatever madness it is you're about to attempt." LOL, Klaus is a dick, for sure, but that doesn't mean he's always wrong.
Since Klaus is disagreeing with Cami's plan, she just ignores him completely and asks Dr. Sheski if he's ready to begin. Which, to be honest, he's not. "Please," he pleads to her, terrified. "I'm begging you, don't force me to do this." Cami feels bad enough for the doctor to NOT make him perform a procedure that he's clearly uncomfortable performing, but not bad enough to NOT go through with electroshocking her hexed uncle. So, she grabs the ECT paddles and insists that she'll do it herself. You know, because a master's degree in psychology is totally the same as being a trained doctor. Klaus, who for whatever reason, has become the voice of gentle rationality in this episode, reminds Cami that her uncle is a good man who doesn't deserve the kind of suffering that this treatment will most certainly cause. "He's been suffering for weeks," Cami argues desperately. "He's dying, Klaus. This might be the only chance he's got." She places the electrodes against Kieran's temples and shocks him, while Josh, Klaus, and the doctor watch, feeling even more awkward and uncomfortable. Poor Kieran! This blows. Like I said, I have a hard time blaming Cami for wanting to help him, but at the same time, that is AWFUL and so disturbing to watch. :(
Hayley is in her car (Elijah's car? Klaus' car? Who knows), driving across the river to Marcel's hideout, while she calls Elijah to tell her she's leaving. "I have to take care of something," she says vaguely. "I'll be back as soon as I can." Of course, Elijah wants to know exactly where she's going, but Hayley stays mum, and simply tells him that she's fine, before instructing him to help take care of her pack while she's gone. Luckily for her, things are still chaotic enough in the bayou to where Elijah is too distracted to think about what she's doing too much. Jackson approaches him and asks if Hayley is okay. "Apparently, yes," Elijah replies with annoyance. Jackson points out that they got lucky with regards to where the explosion happened-- had the bomb gone off closer to the camp, they all could have gotten killed.
The two men walk toward where the wolves in the bayou have congregated to tend to the wounded as Elijah considers Jackson's words. All of a sudden, he has a dawning realization and immediately starts looking around. He quickly spots the flashing light of a bomb attached to an RV next to Eve and Oliver, and yells, "GET EVERYONE OUT OF HERE! NOW!" Unfortunately, he's too late--in an instant, more than a half dozen explosions go off in various locations, severely injuring/re-injuring dozens more people and killing quite a few more as well. Once the not-too-badly-injured start rounding everyone up again to start doing more first aid, one more explosion, the largest yet, goes off right behind them, and Elijah dives over a man laying on the ground nearby in an effort to protect him from further injuries. HOLY. SHIT. This show does not shy away from guts and gore (I mean, people's hearts get ripped out, (or their throats slit, or their heads chopped off) on the regular. But one thing that we're NOT accustomed to on this show is straight-up domestic terrorism, and that is definitely what this is. I can't even imagine what it would feel like for those wolves during this point. I'm getting massive flashbacks to The Hunger Games series-- bombs get dropped on people and blow them all up, and then, once they think it's over, the medics arrive to tend to them, which is when they're subsequently killed by MORE bombs simply for trying to help them. Disgusting, horrifying tactics.
In St. Anne's attic, the gang is waiting around Father Kieran when he finally awakens after the major shocks his brain took. He looks at Cami, relieved, and whispers, "Cami." It lasts all of about a second, before his relief turns to agitation again. "What the hell did you do to me?" he demands angrily, as he struggles against his bonds. Cami turns to her friends and insists that they have to do it again. Josh is, understandably, like, "Whoa, are you serious?", but Cami points out that since he showed momentary coherence, that means that the treatment was working, so they need to try again. Thankfully, Klaus blocks Cami from being able to grab the paddles, and orders Dr. Sheski to check on Kieran. Of course, Kieran immediately growls at him to stay the fuck away from him, but Sheski manages to listen to his heart and determine that since his heartbeat is irregular, keeping up the shocks will kill him. Cami refuses to back down now, so Klaus grabs her by the arm and tells her they need to have a word in private.
He drags her out into the hallway, and doesn't mince words once bit when he says, "I think you need to prepare yourself. This story does not have a happy ending." Cami starts to argue again that the electroshocks WERE helping, but Klaus cuts her off. "[The treatments] WILL kill him. Were you to push him over the brink, I would hate for you to have to live with that, no matter how noble your aim." Cami is still having a difficult time letting this go, because Kieran's her family, and she's furious that Klaus wants her to just give up on him so easily. Klaus shocks me once again by gently suggesting that instead of thinking of it as "time to give up," she should think of it more like "time to let go." Cami staunchly refuses to buy it, though, and insists that in the end, it's her call, and not his.
:( Poor Cami! Poor KIERAN. Losing a loved one is hard enough, whether it's from old age or poor health or a freak accident, and I imagine losing one to a magical curse doesn't make that grief any easier to deal with.
Back in the bayou, those who are only minimally wounded/healing are helping those who are more critically injured, as well as helping dig people out of the wreckage from the trailers and shacks that were blown up. Elijah finds Jackson, who is examining a werewolf girl who appears to not be breathing. "Jackson, she's gone," Elijah whispers gently. Suddenly, the two hear Oliver's voice screaming, "Help! Somebody help!" He kneels next to Eve, who is pinned under an overturned RV. When Elijah sees Oliver struggling to lift the weight of the RV, he rushes over, and the addition of Elijah's strength is more than enough to help. The boys' combined teamwork eventually is able to free Eve, but she has a huuuuge bloody wound on her abdomen and she is fading in and out of consciousness. Oliver is still next to her, holding her head in his lap, as he begs her to hold on, and assures her that she's going to be okay. NOOOO! Why do the tertiary characters I love ALWAYS get killed off? It's a curse!
Meanwhile, Hayley has made it to whatever hideout is now serving as the Pit for all the exiled vampires, where she barges right in and heads straight for Diego. Diego's like, "You done got some nerve coming up in here, mama!" Hayley isn't really in the mood for games, though, after what happened to her people this morning, so she lunges at him and knocks him flat on his back. He gets up and growls at her menacingly, but Hayley doesn't play around, so she shoves him against the wall and stakes him in the chest, just barely missing his heart. "Someone attacked my pack in the bayou this morning," Hayley growls furiously. "And, since I don't see any genius mastermind-types around here, why don't you just tell me where Marcel is, and we can both get on with our day, huh?" Diego struggles against her as he groans in an effort to get out, but Hayley reminds him that the people who died out there today had families, and children. Diego looks like he feels slightly guilty about that, and finally caves--he admits that Marcel used to have a place, and gives her the address. (1917 Patterson, if you're curious) Slightly satisfied with that answer, she yanks the stake out of his chest and takes off for her next stop.
(via vampire-originals)
In St. Anne's attic, Josh is continuing to admire his daylight ring (which I'm sure he's been doing it ever since he got it, considering he's been a nightwalking vampire for at least, like, 6 months now, at this point) while Dr. Sheski stares at Kieran, clearly both disturbed and intrigued by this case. "Um, I wouldn't stand that close to him, if I were you," Josh warns. "He's kind of unpredictable...and murdery." HAHAHA. Dr. Sheski exclaims that this situation is fascinating, and asks him if he could possibly talk to the witches who hexed him, but Josh promises him that he doesn't want to do that. Bastianna might be dead, but the rest of the witches who are still here are pretty vicious when they want to be. Suddenly, Kieran starts groaning and yelling as he struggles against his bonds. After a few moments, he fully BITES OFF HIS OWN THUMB so he can pull one hand out of his restraints and then free himself. HOLY. SHIT. That is so gross and so creepy! Kieran lunges for Dr. Sheski, but luckily, Josh is able to grab him and hold him back before he can hurt him. "Hey! Little help in here?" Josh yells to Klaus and Cami, who are still in the hall.
Hayley calls Klaus as she walks toward Marcel's apartment and asks him where he is. Klaus, of course, is trying to restrain Kieran (who hilariously yells, "HIS WRATH BURNS AGAINST YOU, DEMON") again, while the doctors tries to clean up and bandage the stump where his thumb used to be. Klaus informs her that he's in a bit of a sticky wicket at the moment. Hayley informs him about the bombing in the bayou that morning, which shocks Klaus enough for him to back away from the others to continue the conversation. When he asks where she is, she assures him that she's fine, and lets him know that since she figured Marcel must be behind it, she tracked him down. "Thought you might like to help kick his ass to kingdom come," she snarks, which makes me laugh. No wonder Klaus liked Hayley enough to bone her and unintentionally get her pregnant, they both are pretty similar in this way--violence gets shit done. Klaus orders Josh to take the doctor home and to compel him to forget everything that happened, before returning to his phone call. "Hey, listen. I assure you, once I am finished here, you will have my undivided attention. In the meantime, please stay out of trouble." Hayley promises that she will, and lies that Elijah is with her. OH GIIIIIIRL, you're gonna be in so much trouble!
Elijah, Oliver, and Jackson are in the midst of bringing Eve into her shack and laying her down in her bed. She's still not looking very good, and even Elijah remarks that the healing process should be kicking in by now. Oliver reveals that Eve is actually an untriggered werewolf, ie: she never killed anybody, so for all intents and purposes, she's a human-- no supernatural healing ability. Elijah suggests that his blood could heal her, but of course, Oliver's natural vampire-hating instincts kick in, and he sneers, "Vampire blood? Trust me, she'd rather die." Uh, maybe you should let Eve make that decision? Like really, you'd prefer her to die than take an itty bitty sip of vampire blood? Oliver is the worst. Anyway, Oliver's anger flares up again, and he yells that they can't just let the vampires get away with doing this to their people. Jackson, thankfully, reminds him that they're not even sure WHO is responsible for the attacks, but Oliver is not having his passivity. "The hell we don't! And if we don't fight back, they'll just do it again." Jackson's the alpha, though, so he just stares Oliver down until he stomps his little feet out of the shack.
Hayley has finally sauntered into Marcel's little hideout, and is surprised to find that he's been expecting her. He invites her to come in and sit down, like the true southern gentleman that he is, and jokes, "I'd offer you a drink, but..." before gesturing toward her baby bump. Hayley is still pretty icy, but she attempts small talk by commenting on his "sweet pad."
MARCEL: "Oh, it's just temporary. Friend hooked me up. Believe it or not, I still got a few of those kicking around. I need friends, to keep me informed, to warn me when someone is coming, looking to blame me for things I didn't do. [smiles] For the record, you didn't have to work Diego like that. You and I are long overdue for a chat."
HAYLEY: "You want to talk? Talk."
MARCEL: "Tough girl. You're a lot like your dad in that way. [beat] Oh, yeah, I knew him. I knew your whole family. In fact, if you knew them like I did, you'd know just how many enemies they have. Back in the nineties, it was the Crescent wolves who took over the city. Or, tried to. They LIVED to throw down, and they were good at it, too. They didn't care who they killed, as long as they got more power."
HAYLEY: "So, the Crescent curse was your way of stopping them? How heroic."
MARCEL: "It was either that, or kill them all. And I'm not big on indiscriminate slaughter. See, I have this thing about kids."
HAYLEY: [unimpressed] "So I've heard."
MARCEL: [smirks] "Oh, you did more than hear about it, Andréa Labonair. You're living proof."
OMG OMG OMG OMG. SO, we already knew that the Crescent wolves got cursed back in the 90's, by Celeste DuBois (inhabiting Brynn Deveraux's body), which is still kind of weird to me, because if Hayley was just a baby back then, then Jackson, Oliver, Eve, et al would have been young children as well. So, did the curse not affect them until they killed someone? How did all of the current Crescents trigger their curses? There is still so much we don't know! BUT, the fact that Marcel saved Hayley back when her parents died is mind-blowing in itself, though. Like, despite my not-always-so-nice feelings toward him, I love that he's constantly surprising me. Sure, he had a Garden full of vampires that wronged him, but he's saved a boatload of kids, too! It's practically giving me cognitive dissonance over here.
Cami and Klaus are sitting at Kieran's bedside when his heart monitor starts to beep loudly. Klaus informs Cami that Kieran is in cardiac arrest, and suggests that it might be a good idea to look away as he rolls up his sleeves. Of course, Cami needs to know what he's about to do, and in response, Klaus shoves his hand into Kieran's chest and starts massaging his heart. He admits that Kieran's body is shutting down, and that even with the heart massage, he doesn't have much time. Did Klaus go to medical school at some point in his 1,000 years of life? If so, that's kind of awesome. Cami realizes that, hello, Klaus is a vampire, so if he fed Kieran his blood, then Kieran would wake up again. Klaus reminds her that he'd be a VAMPIRE, in transition, but does concede that his death would be a mercy, as far as the hex is concerned. Cami begs Klaus to help him. "I can't let him die, not like this." She starts to cry, and Klaus just sighs, like, "The shit these blonde girls put me through," before reluctantly feeding Kieran his blood. After the blood has made it through his system a bit, Klaus removes his hand from his chest, and Kieran dies quickly. (Which, really, is to be expected, considering he was a HUMAN who just had a hand literally shoved into his chest cavity. YIKES)
Back at Marcel's hideout, Hayley and Marcel are seated opposite each other as they continue to talk about Hayley and her family. She asks him how long he's known who she was, so Marcel admits that when he saw how interested she was in the Crescent wolves, he got suspicious. Then, when she threw the full-moon party at the plantation house, he eventually figured out the rest. Hayley's face goes steely-cold. "Tell me something, Marcel. Did you kill my parents?" Marcel swears that he didn't; he claims that there was infighting among the Crescents, so her parents were laying low somewhere and someone on their team turned on them. He insists that he has no idea who it was--all he knows is that he got there too late, and found her in her crib. Understandably, Hayley's not exactly in the mood to just take him at his word, so Marcel levels with her. "Believe whatever you want, but you were the last Labonair. I mean, could've been a lot of leverage for our side. But, instead, I took you to Father Kieran." OH SHIT. So Marcel and Kieran's alliance has been going on a lot longer than we knew. That is really awesome of Kieran, though.
He pulls out a duffel bag and hands it to her. When she asks what it is, he's straight with her--the bag is full of money and everything else that she'll need to get the hell out of town and move someplace safe. "Whatever happened in the bayou, I'm not your guy. But, the way things are going? Eventually, I might have to be." I honestly think that Marcel is being honest here, and I kind of like how he's taking a no-bullshit approach to this. He's just like, no, I honestly don't have anything against you or your child, despite your connections to the Crescents and the Mikaelsons, which is partially why I saved your life. And of course, it's clear he has his own motivations, too, which Hayley wastes no time pointing out: "So, this is your grand plan? Get me out of town, and Klaus and Elijah follow closely behind?" Again, Marcel is genuine when he says that it would definitely be a positive side effect. She asks him why he's not following his own advice, but we already know his answer. "I was born here, Hayley." Unfortunately for him, Hayley was born there too, and has no interest in leaving town. She gets up to leave Marcel's apartment, but he stops her with some parting words.
MARCEL: "Guy on the bike? The bomber? Word is, he had a gambling problem. Owed money to the casinos--more importantly, to the humans who run them. [beat] And Hayley? When things get bad, remember--I tried to get you clear of it again."
Klaus and Cami are still in the attic of the church, awaiting Kieran's awakening, when Klaus reluctantly informs her that he has to go, for now. Cami, a little nervous, asks him what comes next for Kieran, so Klaus explains that when he wakes, he'll be in transition and craving blood. He promises her he'll be back before that happens, but Cami starts to freak out a little. "He's gonna be furious with me," she rambles as she paces around. "He's a priest! I turned him into a vampire! What kind of desperate move is that?" Klaus reminds her that they both know Kieran will never complete the transition, and that the entire goal of turning him was really to allow Cami some time with a lucid Kieran and say her goodbyes before he dies for real. Cami starts to tear up, and rasps, "Klaus, will you stay just a little longer?" Klaus is clearly torn, since he knows what has happened in the bayou with Hayley, but since he's under the impression that she's with Elijah, he sighs and assures her that he will. Aw, Klaus! This is what I love to see from him.
It's nightfall now, and Elijah is still in the bayou, standing somberly outside as he stares out at the lake. He decides to check in with the injured werewolves at their makeshift hospital, and passes several dead bodies during his walk. When he finally catches up with Jackson, he sees that pretty much all of the fight has left him. "Is this the peace you promised?" Jackson asks tiredly. Elijah changes the subject to Klaus, and asks if Klaus' plan is to somehow remove their curse. "Klaus was offering us freedom," Jackson confesses. "Not just from the pain that comes from turning, but from the contempt we've faced our whole lives." Elijah vaguely asks him about his intentions on Hayley's behalf, but Jackson insists that he's just trying to make their home safe for her AND the baby, which seems to satisfy Elijah. Oh man, he's totally gonna heel-turn and join Klaus' side, isn't he? YAY.
Kieran finally awakens to find Klaus and Cami, still at his bedside. As you can imagine, Kieran is MASSIVELY confused about what the fuck has happened the last couple of days. "Cami, what happened? The hex...I could feel it, like a living thing inside of me." He looks down at his right hand to find that the black cross that indicated he was hexed is gone. Cami is so relieved that she hugs him as she starts to cry. That's when he notices the other hand, which is missing his thumb (since he totally BIT IT OFF), and is completely startled and shocked. Klaus, ever the polite gentleman, informs him that he's had a "trying day" (LOL, understatement of the century), and struggles with the best way to explain to him what happened. "It appears the hex was broken by your death..." Klaus begins, which naturally makes Kieran exclaim, "Back up. I died? For how long?" Klaus explains that he was dead for several hours, and Cami confesses that she made Klaus give him his blood, because she couldn't stand to lose him in that way.
Oliver has stopped by Eve's house to check on her and see how she's doing. Eve, though weak, is still in decent spirits, but little does she know that Oliver is about to fucking shit on EVERYTHING. I'm just going to transcribe this whole thing, because it's that mindblowing (and TERRIBLE).
EVE: "Ollie, how do I look?"
OLIVER: [blinks back tears] "You look fine, Evie. You look just fine."
EVE: "You always were a terrible liar."
OLIVER: "Damn it! Look, all you got to do is just trigger the curse! You'll heal. It's who we are! It's who YOU are. Why can't you just accept that? Why can't anyone see what needs to be done? Living here like animals, fighting between tribes, scared to stand up for ourselves. Who's gonna lead us? Jackson? He wants to bow down to that hybrid. Hayley? She's not one of us. At least no, we have an enemy to hate."
EVE: [starts to put the pieces together] "Oliver, no. Tell me you didn't--"
OLIVER: [scared] "--You don't understand!"
EVE: "Explain it to me, Ollie. I know you. I know you wouldn't hurt your own people."
OLIVER: "Look, it wasn't supposed to happen like this, Evie. I just wanted to make a little noise, just get our people mad. But, I didn't agree to this! They stabbed me in the back, and now..."
EVE: [furious] "Who put you up to this? [beat] You stupid kid. Do you have any idea what the pack is gonna do to you when they find out?"
This entire time, I was just like shouting, "EVE! GRAB A WEAPON AND KILL HIS STUPID FACE ALREADY. THEN YOU CAN TRIGGER YOUR WEREWOLF GENE SO YOU WON'T DIE AND OLIVER WILL GET HIS COMEUPPANCE" at the television. But, of course, no one ever listens to me. And, I mean, I get that he clearly didn't intend for Eve, or any of the werewolves, to be hurt or killed in this attack. But the fact of the matter is that they DID, and they way he goes about dealing with the mess he made leaves a lot to be desired. So, instead of Eve using all her energy to kill his ass and save herself, Oliver grabs a pillow and starts walking toward her. "They're not gonna find out, Evie. If they did, all those people would have died in vain. I had to do whatever it took to make us strong." NO NO NO NO NO. Eve pleads with him not to do what he's about to do, but he claims that even now, with her, he has to do what is best for the pack. YOU'VE ALREADY KILLED ENOUGH OF YOUR PACK, YOU DICKWEED. Eve insists that it's all over for him, but she's too injured to move or resist when Oliver takes the pillow and shoves it against her face, smothering her. "I'm sorry, Eve," Oliver whispers, until she finally lies still. NOOOOO. I hate Oliver SO MUCH.
Meanwhile, Cami is helping Kieran set his affairs in order before he finally passes. Cami mentions that she's located everything that he's listed for her except for the key he told her about, the one that we've seen him wear around his neck a lot. "That key is a VERY important part of our family legacy," Kieran emphasizes. "You have to find it." She promises that she will, which seems to comfort him a bit. He apologizes to her for getting her involved in the supernatural, and swears that his intention was always to keep her safe by keeping her out of it. "This can't be how it ends," Cami says with a sob, but Kieran, being the good priest that he is, comforts her. "It was the only way it was ever going to end. I made peace with that a long time ago," he assures her gently as he gives her a hug. "Listen, I don't know how bad this is gonna get, and I don't want you to see it. So, in a moment, I'm gonna let go, and you are gonna turn around, and you're gonna walk out of here without looking back. Okay, kiddo? Promise me. Without looking back." Cami starts to sob harder, and after they let go, Cami turns around and walks out of the attic, as Kieran sadly watches her leave.
Outside the encampments in the bayou, a bonfire is roaring as Oliver is passionately pleading his case to the other wolves in an effort to rally them into fighting back against the vampires. "They're counting on our doubts!" Oliver yells to the crowd. "That's right! Yeah! They're counting on our fears! That's right! Right?" Hayley, who has just returned to the bayou after her adventures in town, notices that Elijah is lingering nearby, and walks over to join him. "You stayed," she states in greeting, but Elijah just gestures toward Oliver, who is still on his soapbox. "Come morning, they will know that we are not cowards!" Hayley asks Elijah what the fuck Oliver is doing, so Elijah confesses that he's taking advantage of all the grief and tragedy to make a power play. "He's not alone. There was another attack after you left..."
Hayley is stunned to hear this news, and immediately runs to Eve's shack, where Jackson is standing vigil at Eve's bedside, clearly devastated and drinking whiskey straight from the bottle. Elijah finishes his update in voiceover as Hayley and Jackson grieve Eve's death together. "Your friend Jackson will need your help. They will want vengeance; blood for blood. And, unfortunately, in troubled times, people do not look for the best, but rather, the loudest." True fucking facts, evidenced further by Oliver, who is still shouting at the crowd, who seems to be buying into his propaganda. And, of course, none of them know the truth, which is that Oliver orchestrated the attack himself for this very purpose, and likely with Francesca bankrolling the entire operation and probably even helping with the execution.
Klaus stops by the Coven House to see Genevieve, after leaving Cami and Kieran at the church. She remarks on how surprised she is to see Klaus there, but Klaus has no time to waste on social niceties. "The bayou explosion, the attack on my child-- tell me what you know." Genevieve plays coy, as is her wont, and points out that the werewolves have a boatload of enemies, including Marcel. However, Klaus has had all day to ruminate and theorize about what happened, and has concluded that Marcel would never stoop so low as to cross him in such an atrocious fashion. "The witches, however...I have witnessed firsthand the depths of your cruelty." Genevieve once again feigns offense and chirps, "You don't think I did this? What kind of monster do you take me for? How ugly I must seem next to the pure, innocent glow of your precious Camille. So sad about her uncle, by the way." Klaus takes pleasure in informing her that Kieran died with vampire blood in his system, and that his death released him from his hex. Unfortunately for him, he doesn't have all the information. "A hex of that magnitude?" Genevieve asks dramatically. "Kieran's hex WILL return...if it hasn't already." SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT. And Klaus left Cami alone with him! Oh, fucking Genevieve, I s2g.
We cut to the church, where a dying Kieran begins to get agitated. He frantically unwraps the bandages on his now-thumbless hand, only to find that the hex's black cross is back once again on his other, uninjured hand. He grabs a small cross, which, for whatever reason, has a knife hidden inside. He holds it to his neck, and flashes back to watching Sean to the same, a year ago as he musters up the courage to end his life before he hurts anyone. Unfortunately, his Bastianna hallucinations have returned as well. "No! Not yet, priest," she croons. "There's more work to be done. A final offering, to complete your penance--that which you hold most dear." SHIT SHIT SHIT CAMIIIII. God, those witches are fucking vindictive.
Cutting back to the Coven House, Genevieve plays with a spider that's hanging out in one of her pots of herbs, and adds, "That boundary spell, on the other hand... Now that he's died, I imagine it won't be QUITE so confining." At St. Anne's, Kieran stands in the threshold of the attic door before taking a step out into the hall. Back at the Coven House, Klaus glares at Genevieve, knowing exactly what is about to happen, but she just smirks. SHE IS BANANAS, THIS IS SO TERRIBLE.
Cami is downstairs, sitting in a pew, when Kieran comes downstairs to find her. She's relieved at first, thinking that Kieran has changed his mind about completing the transition. And, in a way, he kind of has--just not the way that she thinks. He grins evilly as he whips out his knife, and Cami realizes way too late that the hex has returned. He's able to slice out at her arm before she can get away, coating his knife with her blood. He chases her up the stairs to the balcony, and creepily licks at the blood off the knife. This instantly brings out his full-on vamp face, which I'm not sure Cami has actually ever seen up-close before, on any vampire? He finally corners her, and, left with no other option of escape, throws herself over the balcony.
YIKES! That takes some serious guts. It's giving me a lot of flashbacks to that time that (human) Elena stabbed herself in the gut to call Elijah's bluff back in TVD season 2. Cami is clearly pretty injured, after falling two stories, but manages to crawl in between the pews to try to hide from him as he descends upon her. "Don't fight it, Cami. In death, we are whole again," Kieran states, as he grabs her off of the floor and throws her onto a row of pews, which break under the force of her fall. Cami screams in fright and tries to grab a piece of wood to use as a stake, but before she can, Kieran grabs her by the leg and drags her down to the front of the room. As he lifts Cami by the hair, Hallucination-Bastianna and Hallucination-Sean egg him on. "Bless her, Father," Bastianna says in encouragement. "Kill her. Rejoice in life eternal," Sean adds. This is already creepy enough as it is, but all the religious overtones just make it even worse, I think. Maybe it's my lapsed-Catholicism.
Cami screams in terror as Kieran whips out his fangs to feed on her, but before he can, Klaus FINALLY shows up out of nowhere and snaps his neck. Cami sighs in relief and starts to cry, out of fear and sadness and guilt, as Klaus looks to her in concern. Her face is bloody and beaten, but she weakly nods, giving him permission to do what he needs to do. "You deserved far better than this," Klaus says, before staking Kieran in the heart. Cami looks away, and I just want to give her a hug. Pobrecita! You'd think Klaus would at least give her a sip of his blood to heal her, wouldn't you?
Marcel is still hanging around his hideout when he receives a phone call from Klaus. Marcel answers and immediately launches into his speech to assure Klaus that he had nothing to do with the bayou bombing, but Klaus is no dummy, and already figured that out a while ago. "I never thought you did. I'm calling to let you know the priest is dead. Your exile is suspended for the next twenty-four hours. You may return to the Quarter to bury your friend." Marcel is shocked and pleasantly surprised, and asks him why he's reacting in such a kind and thoughtful way. Klaus gives his answer in voiceover, as we watch Marcel arrive to Cami's apartment, where she's laying battered and beaten in her bed. Klaus lets him in, and watches him as he hugs her and kisses her on the forehead. "She woke in the dark, not knowing where she was, or who was watching over her. It was your name she called, and if you can grant her comfort, so be it." DAMN! This has got to be one of the nicest things Klaus has ever done, and I am loving it. Get that heart working again, Klaus!
At the bayou, Hayley cries as she sits at Eve's bedside. She eventually kisses her on the hand and leaves the shack. Outside, she finds Oliver still outside, attempting to rally the troops, and, judging by the crowd's response, he seems to be getting quite a few followers as a result of all the drama and tragedy that occurred this day. "Look, I know where I'm going," Oliver tells them. "If any of you want to follow, hey, that's up to you. That's up to you!" God, he is so transparent, I can't believe none of them have figured out what he did yet. SO GROSS.
Marcel returns to his apartment after comforting Cami, where both Diego and Josh are waiting for him. Marcel informs them that Kieran is dead, and asks Josh if he got "it." Josh sighs, and reluctantly hands over a key on a string, which explains how Kieran misplaced it. "It was around his neck, just like you said," Josh admits. He frowns, and adds, "PS? I do NOT feel awesome about this." Aw, Josh! You are too precious for this world. Marcel assures him that he knows he does, but insists that if they want to protect Cami, they had to do it. "People are gonna be coming after this," Marcel reminds him. "Cami is not ready for that, not yet." Diego asks them where they go from here, so Marcel gets into his war metaphors again. "Storm clouds are gathering," he begins, as he pours each of them a drink. "Someone bombed those wolves, and it wasn't us. Witches, humans, vampires, wolves. City is at a breaking point. We need to be ready." They all look very nervous and exhausted as the three of them drink their scotch.
Finally, Elijah is chilling out in the study of the Abbatoir compound when Klaus joins him. "First Marcel's massacre, now bombs in the bayou. I'll assume you're ready to give up this doomed treaty?" Klaus asks, though not unkindly. Elijah just sighs before replying, "This alliance with the wolves... Well, if it's to succeed, I believe you'll want this." He takes out Esther's grimoire and hands it over to his baby brother, who seems to be quite satisfied by this development. Klaus assumes that Hayley is the reason behind Elijah suddenly switching teams, but Elijah pours them both their own drinks as he explains what he learned today. "The rifts in this city run far deeper than I even imagined, Niklaus. These tribes, these Factions... they're families, families who choose to fight. Mayhem has descended upon our home, and if I'm to choose a side..." He trails off, as he hands Klaus his drink, and holds out his own to toast to the two of them. "To our victory, brother." This is probably the third time I've seen this episode, and we are now weeks after the fact, but it still gave me CHILLS to see again. As much as I love Elijah and Klaus separately, I like them even better when they're working together as a team, and it seems that they've finally made up to the point that this could happen! And, the resulting bloodbath is going to be EPIC, I cannot wait.
Next episode: The witches make a move on Hayley, and due to the madness currently happening on the Other Side results in Mikael being able to haunt the the Mikaelsons and Hayley.
[screencaps via Screencapped]
I would normally do notes at the end, but I have literally gone into all of the details that I have to say for this episode in this super-long recap. SO, why don't you guys tell me YOUR notes? :)
"Did any of these two gentleman ever consider the fact that Hayley is quite capable of protecting herself?"
ReplyDeleteOnly to an extent, I think. The witches easily kidnapped her back in the pilot episode and could easily do that again. Those vampires in the bar could have easily killed her but they didn’t want to face the wrath of the Originals so they left her alone (Rebekah had to save Hayley from 2 vampire attackers in 1x02 – there’s no way she could take on a bar full of vampires). I also don't think Hayley would be able to take on the witches if they subdued her again. Elijah has a saviour complex though - so he wants Hayley to be helpless that way he can save her. Elijah doesn't actually care about Hayley as a person - his sole interest in her is because Klaus got her pregnant and he likes to play the white knight (we saw it to a lesser extent with Elena & Katherine). Katherine was certainly always more than capable of looking out for herself and spent 500 years doing just that yet in Season 4 Elijah was still looking to "save" her. I think Elijah just wants someone he can save and I think he has some fantasy version of who he wants Hayley to be (and it has nothing to do with who Hayley is as a person) and I think when he realizes she’s not the person he wants her to be he’ll probably lose interest in her just like he did with Katherine in TVD 4x18/4x20 or at least he should if they’re consistent with his character.
I didn't understand why Eve was telling Hayley she had to have the baby in the bayou. That certainly isn't Eve's decision to make – it’s not her child or her body. If Hayley wants to have the baby in a hospital she can pursue that option. Klaus already mentioned he didn't Hayley to have to give birth to the baby in a swamp so that seems like a conversation that Hayley should be having with Klaus - not with Eve. I think Hayley really needs to actually just get Klaus to just sit down and really talk to her.
I think Hayley was in her own car. It's the same car she had in the backdoor pilot episode when the witches kidnapped her. Klaus has a black SUV and Elijah has a dark coloured four-door sedan.
I had the same thought about the Crescent curse. Although if they knew that they'd turn into wolves full time and only be human on the full moon why were they going around killing people in order to trigger the curse? It makes no sense. Although I’m not I like that the werewolves are going out killing people just to trigger their wolf gene – it’s supposed to be a curse not something you aspire to do.
I have big issues with Elijah. First we was mad that Klaus wanted to conspire with Hayley and her werewolf kin but now he's suddenly fine with conspiring with the werewolves as well? I don't get it. I always thought Elijah disliked werewolves so I don't see why he'd ever want to help them and put them in charge. Klaus and Hayley I get - they're both werewolves, their daughter will be a werewolf so they think she'll have a better life with the Crescent werewolves than the vampires or witches. But Elijah seems to flip-flop and change his mind a lot. He hasn't put that much effort into his plan to maintain peace - he gave up very quickly. He does this a lot – he gets angry at Klaus for doing something and then he turns around and does the EXACT same thing.
(This comment was way too long, so I'm splitting it into parts!
ReplyDeletePART ONE:)
I totally agree that Hayley, like we've seen with countless others, could definitely be vulnerable in the right circumstances (especially if you've seen the rest of the season, LOL) and the fact that all these Factions keep scrambling to make alliances and no one knows who to trust leaves all of them in prime situations to get fucked over instantly without even seeing it coming. Especially when war is brewing and your troops are dwindling and you can't exactly turn away willing help, you know?
And I can definitely see where you're coming from with Elijah, I get that impression, too, when you think back to his relationship with Katherine back when she was human. Though she was, even then, still very much Katherine at her core, she hadn't been through the majority of the traumas that made her into the much more ruthless person that she had become. Once could argue that she's always looked out for herself above all else (ex: fleeing from Klaus in the first place, tricking Rose into turning her, etc), it just wasn't until she fled from Klaus and found her entire family murdered that she got so much more cruel and self-serving. I think that's kind of why Elijah and Katherine just didn't quite ring true back in season 4 TVD-- it's pretty clear that he still saw her as his old "Katerina" when there's really nothing that could bring back that scared Bulgarian teenager who was exiled to England and trying to find her place, you know? It was like he was basically in love with someone who doesn't even exist anymore. So, the fact that he would seek someone he believes to be helpless, or at the very least wants to be helpless, is very much in character for him. White-knighting makes him forget the fact without it, he's really no different from his siblings.
I COMPLETELY agree about Eve, though! The only real reason I could think of to support Hayley giving birth in the bayou is that since Hayley is a werewolf with supernatural healing abilities who is giving birth to a tri-brid in a hospital, their presence could raise suspicions about why Hayley/the baby seem to be healing so quickly, etc? But even then, they found an in-the-know doctor beforehand (although she did try to kill Hayley/the baby, so maybe that isn't the best example), so there has to be at least one other doctor who has been read into the supernatural situation, right? Especially in a place like New Orleans that is teeming with witches, werewolves and vampires.
(PART TWO)
ReplyDeleteI think you're right about Hayley's car, I need to start paying more attention to everyone's vehicles! But now that you mention it, I totally remember Hayley driving that car in the pilot when the witches grabbed her. Good catch, and thanks for letting me know!
I'm with you completely on the Crescent curse thing--I'm hoping that more is revealed about the werewolves and their history, because like you said, why would they want to trigger their werewolf gene by killing someone if they knew they'd turn into a wolf full-time? My friend Kathleen and I have a kind-of theory that maybe they accidentally triggered their curse by killing vampires who tried to attack them? I don't think it's been established in canon if killing a vampire as an untriggered werewolf is the same as killing a human, but I feel like that would make a lot more sense, especially with all the tension in the last two decades or so between the wolves and the vampires and the werewolves getting exiled from New Orleans. I first started getting that impression when Klaus ordered Diego to kill all the bayou wolves, and Rebekah and Elijah showed up to help--Eve came out with a stake that never left her hand the entire time she was out there, like she was constantly on alert. It wouldn't be hard for a werewolf out there to have to kill a vampire in self-defense. Then again, Oliver made it out like being a triggered wolf was their legacy and heritage, with that whole ~it's who we are~ thing, so for all we know, killing someone to trigger the gene at a certain age may be a rite of passage or something. You never can tell with this show, haha.
I agree that Elijah has seemed to be very much biased against werewolves, although since Henrik died at the hands of a werewolf, and Elijah and his siblings became vampires as a direct result of those werewolves, I think it makes sense that he would be a little prejudiced against them. And you're right, he definitely has been flip-flopping about his plans and what to do with regards to leading New Orleans, although I think that could be at least partially blamed on the rapidly changing circumstances--what's the point in sticking with a peace treaty if no one is going to abide by it? Marcel's stunt with the drummers started all the chaos, and then the suicide bombing in the bayou just seemed to be the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak. Elijah even said it himself, though, that he often admires Klaus for the methods behind his madness, so while I do think that Elijah is very dedicated to being the noble, honorable, only-get-my-hands-dirty-when-necessary brother for the most part, in the end, he realized that Klaus' actions, as deplorable as they can be, sometimes, gets results? So even though part of him hates it, he'll end up backing his brother because 1) it's his brother, and 2) it's way easier to be on the winning team, and Klaus loves being the winner. And again, I do think it's also his white-knight-y need to protect Hayley, as well. It sort of seemed like as soon as Jackson insisted that he wanted to make the bayou right for Hayley and the baby, Elijah had a hard time working against Klaus and Hayley's plans any longer. It's like when he said, "If I am to choose a side...to our victory, brother"--to him, Klaus is kind of like the devil you know, if that makes sense? But again, we seem to be on opposite ends of the Elijah-love spectrum so obviously YMMV ;)
Once again, thank you so much for commenting! It makes me so happy to know that people are actually reading, and I love getting feedback. I see that I'm getting pageviews and not comments so sometimes it feels like I'm just shouting out into the abyss, hahaha. ;) Per usual, you have excellent points and I am always thrilled to have someone with whom to talk TV! This blog needs some healthy Elijah criticism to compensate for my Elijah stanning, and your comments definitely help! :)