The Originals Season 2, Episode 2: "Alive and Kicking" Recap/Review
Could this season of The Originals be any better? If anyone was to tell me before this show started that I would end up loving this show more than pretty much any other show on television, I probably would have laughed. I liked Klaus, Elijah, and Rebekah just fine, but I figured it would basically be exactly like the Vampire Diaries, only with a baby that nobody wanted. I am very glad to be wrong on this, because this show is seriously great, between all the battles between supernatural factions and the politics involved, the emotional growth of these Mikaelsons and their allies, and the complicated relationships between them, there is SO MUCH TO LOVE ABOUT THIS SHOW.
Anyway, I'm still ridiculously behind, so I'm just going to plow into the recap so we can talk about the shenanigans that have been happening in the French Quarter, 'kay? Kay.
Previously, on The Originals: New Orleans was the Mikaelsons' home once, back from the early 1700s to 1919, and last year, Klaus decided he wanted it back. Then, all of his power grabs resulted in a sequence of events that ended up losing Klaus and Elijah their control over the city: Genevieve and Francesca ended up betraying Klaus by 1) enchanting the moonlight stones so that they drew on Klaus' strength, weakening him when the stones were used to keep the werewolves from turning on the full moon, and 2) then giving the stones to Francesca and the recently-revealed and triggered Guerrera werewolves instead of the Crescents as they were intended. Oh, and then Francesca handed Hayley over to the witches in exchange for the stones, which both led to Hayley's death and subsequent transition into being a hybrid after she gave birth to Hope, and almost led to Hope's death as well. So, Hope was sent away to live with Auntie Beks, wherever she's living these days. Wanting to make the city safe enough for Hope to return someday, Klaus convinced Hayley that they have to retake control of the Quarter.
Meanwhile, Marcel decided to rebuild his decimated vampire community after Francesca and her wolves killed nearly all of them, and it looks like rocker-girl Gia is next on the list to be turned. Oh, yeah, and not only did Davina bring Mikael back to life to punish Klaus, but Esther managed to bring back her spirit AND the spirits of her deceased sons Kol and Finn so they could possess a couple of witches in the Quarter (Harvest girl Cassie, and manwitches Kaleb and Vincent, respectively) to enact Esther's own plan. So far, no one knows about the other, so basically, it's gonna be a shit show. And, now we're caught up!
We kick off this episode in a flashback to Cadiz, Spain in 1701. In the distance, a village seems to have been completely set ablaze, and two men (who we will soon learn are Klaus and Elijah) flee the scene on horseback. They finally make it to a cottage, which is completely trashed-- blood is splattered on everything, bodies are strewn across the floor, and furniture is overturned. Suddenly, Klaus' voice rings out, "Kol!" as very long-haired versions of himself and Elijah rush into the cottage, and, surprisingly, they are both disgusted by what they see. "All my efforts to keep this family concealed," Elijah spits angrily. "Yet, debauchery like this has led Father directly to us." I love how back in these days, Elijah had an accent. Nice detail! Anyway, Klaus once again yells for Kol and insists that it's no time for games. That's when Kol (in his original, also long-haired body that looks just like Nate Buzolic) stumbles into the room, still feeding on a woman who is struggling weakly against his grasp. Eventually, he bleeds her dry and drops her lifeless body unceremoniously to the floor before turning toward his brothers and quipping, "Come, come, brother! It's always time for games."
(via oh-my-sins)
Kol picks up a nearby metal mug full of wine, or mead, or whatever booze they drank in the early 18th century, and takes a swig while Elijah firmly insists that they need to flee, because Mikael has almost caught up with them. Kol, only half-listening, sits himself on a chair and kicks his boot-clad feet onto the table before retorting, "If Mikael were upon us, I imagine Niklaus would be quite dead." Klaus is furious now, and he angrily points out that he barely managed to escape him, and that he had dramatically left the head of his horse speared on a pike in the middle of the town square. UGH, Mikael seriously is the worst. What kind of moral superiority does he have over his children, again? Because I'm pretty sure Mikael tops literally anything Klaus has ever done, and he's pretty much a monster in his own right. Anyway, Kol feigns horrification and whispers, "He killed poor Theo? What a BEAST." LOL, Nate Buzolic's delivery of that line was flawless, it's making me forget just how much I absolutely love Kol. He reminds them that since Mikael hates Klaus the most of all of them, he'll likely just chase Klaus above all else if he flees, leaving the rest of them able to stick around and do as they please. "Perhaps I'll make myself mayor?" Kol suggests, but Elijah is not at all amused by his antics. He informs his little brother that it's of utmost importance that they stick together, and adds that since Rebekah and Finn are already on the ship, they should probably get a move on.
(via davinasclaire)
Still, Kol isn't really keen on leaving, and drops some truth bombs on them. "Rebekah does what she's told because she fears Nik! And Finn is in no position to argue, given the dagger in his heart." He insists that he'll take his chances without him, but when he turns to leave, Elijah is blocking his path. Annoyed, he turns heel to go the other direction, but Klaus is blocking him, as well. Kol's eyes widen in alarm as he realizes what's about to happen to him, just as Klaus states, "I find it amusing that you think you have a choice." He pulls out another dagger and holds it against Kol's chest while Elijah grabs his arms and pins them beind his back. "No!" Kol howls, as he struggles against them. "I swear to you, the day will come when I'm not so easily subdued! And, on that day, I will make you suffer!" Klaus is like, "Yeah, whatever-- today's not that day, so..." and jams the dagger in Kol's heart to the strains of Meg Myers' "Go," whose metal guitar riffs are a SUPER awesome juxtaposition to the old-fashioned flashback. We can just add "amazing soundtrack" to the endless list of reasons why this show is the fucking best.
Kol starts to desiccate and screams in pain before we return to the present-day, where Kol, who is still possessing Kaleb and will henceforth be referred to as Koleb, is walking down the streets of the French Quarter. He smirks as he spots a pretty girl in a sundress passing him as he crosses the street, so he uses some magical telekinesis to blow the girl's skirt up. Oh, I forgot how lecherous Kol is. He then turns the corner and passes a fruit stand, where he grabs an apple off of a pile and proceeds to bite into it without paying. The owner of the stand starts to protest, but Kol just uses telekinesis again to knock the stand over completely so he's too preoccupied to make a scene about it. He continues down the street, but stops when he sees Davina walking out of a café with a coffee. Koleb eats his apple and stares at her as she hails a cab to take her back to wherever it is she's going, giving us an excellent close-up of Daniel Sharman's scruffy face before we make our way to the TITLE CARD!
When we return, Elijah has just returned to the Mikaelson compound, where he finds several dead and bloody bodies littering the courtyard. There are bloody paw prints leading into one of the halls that eventually turn into human footprints, which Elijah follows into the bathroom, where Hayley is taking a bubble bath. Elijah takes note of another drained body next to the doorway as he takes in the sight of Hayley in the bath. She turns her head towards him and sarcastically asks if he's come to check up on her, but Elijah just plays it cool and points out what an eventful evening she seems to have had. "I was having a crappy day, so Klaus took me to the Cauldron," Hayley explains glibly. "Wouldn't you know, we ran into some witches." Elijah, who has taken the Stefan role in this redux of the Stefan/Elena/Damon triangle after Elena was turned into a vampire, retorts, "So, would you like me to remove your leftovers?" but Hayley isn't really in the mood for his judgement. So, she stands up in the tub, in all her naked (and kind of alarmingly skinny, if I'm being honest) glory, challenging Elijah to look at her in an attempt to take back the power.
(via maliahales)
Elijah does not avert his eyes one bit, but he does grab her a towel and hands it to her, looking exasperated, leading Hayley to roll her eyes in annoyance. COME ON YOU GUYS, PLAY NICE. I feel like they're both very much the same in the way that they strike out at others when they're feeling insecure, and it's just causing all kinds of tension and pushing of each others' buttons. Hayley brings up the fact that he shouldn't really be judging her, since it's not like she's done anything Klaus hasn't done a thousand times over, but Elijah makes an excellent point-- she should probably be holding herself to a higher standard than Niklaus Mikaelson, you know? "I'm a hybrid now," Hayley argues defiantly. "And I have a werewolf temper to go with my new appetite. And, the witches who tried to kill my baby are worth nothing more than food." She then excuses herself to go get dressed, leaving a frustrated Elijah to go find Klaus and tear him a new one about his recent extracurricular activities with Hayley.
"You took her on a WITCH HUNT?" Elijah asks incredulously, but Klaus insists it was intended to just be a mission to get the witches to find the white oak stake with a locator spell. It just turned into a witch hunt after the witches weren't able to locate it, since we learned in the last episode that Davina has been cloaking it for that very reason, so Klaus unleashed Hayley to take out her frustration on them. And, since Klaus has been solidified as the "Damon" in this iteration of the triangle, the following argument that the two brothers have is pretty expected, although still totally relevant to their current situation.
BUT, Elijah has his own good argument, too. "You'll take her to the Bayou," he insists to his wary brother. "Find any remaining wolves. Perhaps her people can reach her. Now, more than ever, she needs a connection to something, some of her humanity." Granted, he also makes the mistake of equating humanity to dignity, but still-- isn't this pretty much the case of every newly-turned vampire? Helping them find a link to their humanity so that they don't turn into mindless monsters who feed on literally every human they come across? Still, Klaus looks skeptical, and Elijah is clearly annoyed at Klaus' bad influence on Hayley, and UGH, can't everyone just get along?
Across the river, Marcel and his new group of vampire recruits are meeting near Marcel's loft. Gia is in a nearby alley, playing the bongo drums amongst other street musicians, artists, and vendors, while Marcel gives one of those big speeches of which he's so fond while Elijah hides nearby and eavesdrops. "Gia's proven herself. She knows what she's getting into. So, she's going to be the first one that I turn. Everybody else? First, I need to be sure that you can handle moving up a notch on the food chain. The emotional ups and downs, the solitude, and bloodlust... Imagine hearing the sound of a heart beating, beating, beating, and wanting more than anything to feed. That's what it's like to be a vampire. It's not for everybody. Some folks, well... let's just say it brings out the worst in them."
Before we move onto the next flashback, I just want to talk a little about Marcel's vampire-turning practices. I always wondered what his methods were, how he decided who to turn, and how turning these people resulted in such a loyal community of vampires, so this speech has been very enlightening. I'm glad that he's not just turning people willy-nilly, you know? We've all seen firsthand in these shows what happens when the wrong people get turned into vampires (see Vicki Donovan and Ivy on the Vampire Diaries), so it's cool to see that he's concerned with the future of the vampire species. He reminds me a bit of Raphael Santiago from the Mortal Instruments books-- he loves being a vampire, and indulges in his cravings whenever he feels like it, but as leader of his clan, he's also very concerned about following the Law and ensuring that 1) vampires aren't exposed to the world, and 2) that the vampires practice restraint, since if they all kill off all the humans, they'll eventually have nothing to eat.
But, I digress! Back to the story. So, Elijah takes Marcel's last sentence to heart, which transports him to a flashback to 1821 New Orleans, right after the Mikaelsons saved Marcel from the abuse he sustained from being a slave and brought them into their home. Also, as much as I am LOVING these Kol flashbacks, I'm just a tiny bit bummed that there's no Rebekah. She wasn't daggered yet, was she? I'm pretty sure that wasn't until Marcel was older and they were all sneaking around Klaus' back. ANYWAY, Elijah is standing near the piano in one of the compound's many rooms, and watches as bb Marcel stumbles his way through some classical piece that I don't recognize. He eventually stops play and complains that he can't do it, but Elijah, ever the sweet teacher, just replies, "Now, you once said the same thing of your reading, and now you devour everything from sonnets to scriptures! So, devote yourself to your music, and soon, you shall be Johann Sebastian Bach." as he smiles at Marcel with pride. Aw, Elijah! I need more interactions between him and children, because it is seriously super adorable. Of course, Klaus somehow gets some feeling that someone other than himself is getting attention, because he staggers into the room and immediately ruins the moment.
"Well, isn't this nice? My older brother and my ward, getting along like two peas in a pod." Elijah is smart enough to know when to quit while he's ahead, so he turns to Marcel and assures him they'll resume their lesson later. "Why don't you resume your Hamlet? Act one, scene three today." He affectionately pats Marcel on the back and sends him on his way, and as he leaves the room, Klaus hilariously tries to do the same and completely misses his shoulder before trying to play it off like he hadn't. Drunk Klaus is the best Klaus, let's be real. Elijah just takes one look at him and snarks, "Congratulations, you've been DRINKING," but Klaus insists that he doesn't have anything better to do because of the "lifeless monotony" that has befallen the compound, particularly because Rebekah is still pissed at him for killing her boyfriend Emil, the Governor's son and Marcel's half-brother. Elijah points out that since Klaus literally threw him over the balcony to his death, he probably should have anticipated this outcome, but Klaus continues to be a pouty baby.
"You monopolize young Marcellus with schooling," Klaus begins, as he pours himself another drink. "He and I used to have so much fun. If only there was someone with whom I could share a bit of roguery." Elijah is annoyed with Klaus' usual theatrics, and has just left the room mid-conversation when Klaus follows him out and pulls a white-oak-ash dagger from his inner jacket pocket as he reveals that he actually has found someone. Elijah knows EXACTLY what Klaus has just done, and gasps, "You didn't!" but Klaus just shrugs and starts to laugh maniacally while Elijah rushes downstairs.
Sure enough, Kol is awake from his dagger-nap, and is understandably pissed and hungry after about 120 years of being daggered, so when Elijah makes it to the courtyard, he finds that Kol has just finished feeding on and killing all of the servants. When Kol sees his brothers, he claps his hands and exclaims, "Bravo! That was delectable. But, make no mistake, Nik-- I'm still cross that you daggered me. But, as far as apologies go? It's a start." Elijah is NOT a happy camper, and turns toward Klaus and angrily asks him if this is really his idea of fun, but Klaus just throws Elijah's growing friendship back into his face and replies, "Well, you and Marcellus have grown thick as thieves... why should I be alone?" Ohhhh shit.
In the present day, Elijah is still so preoccupied by his daydream-flashback that he didn't even notice that Marcel saw him standing nearby and approached him. Marcel points out that he wasn't exactly expecting to see Elijah on this side of the river, but Elijah just retorts that he didn't expect Marcel to be reassembling a vampire crew, either, which seems kind of silly, because why WOULDN'T Marcel rebuild his army? They got thrown out of the Quarter and are super outnumbered against the werewolves, too, even if the Guerreras are all dead and the original twelve moonlight rings were destroyed, so the only way they can survive is if the vampires who are left (if there are any aside from Josh and Marcel) band together and make more vampires to fight against them. Marcel pretty much agrees with me: "My community was fine until Klaus had the brilliant die to make moonlight rings. Now, that Harvest girl's making more, offering them to the wolves in exchange for their allegiance. And the wolves are just kneeling at her feet. The Quarter's become a dangerous place, and you? You're the last true vampire left! You ask me, you're better off joining MY community. Maybe that's why you're here?"
Unfortunately for Marcel and his plans for the future, Elijah is NOT actually there for join Team Vampire. He is, however, there to propose a deal to Marcel-- if Marcel helps Elijah find the missing white oak stake, then Elijah will allow Marcel to keep doing his "vampire social experiment" without any of Elijah's violent interference. Marcel isn't that thrilled that Elijah is pulling rank on him once again, so he just smiles fakely and reminds him that he has no idea where the stake is. Elijah figured as much, though, because like Marcel said in the last episode, the white oak stake isn't a weapon that gives Marcel any kind of advantage; however, Marcel is the only one of Elijah's allies who has an amiable relationship with Davina, and Elijah is sure that she can help them by doing a locator spell for it.
"Thing is, I'd speak to her myself, but I feel the conversation might become a little unpleasant," Elijah adds, and though Marcel interprets this as a veiled threat against Davina, I honestly think that Elijah was referring to the last time he saw Davina, when she magically forced him to choke up all the blood he had drunk before knocking him out cold. If I were him, I wouldn't be eager to have another meeting with her when she's still that pissed at him, either! So, Marcel insists that Elijah will not, under any circumstances, go near Davina, which is just what Elijah wanted to hear. "Then, it's settled!" Elijah declares with a smirk. "You'll deal with the matter personally." He pats Marcel patronizingly on the shoulder before he walks away, and Marcel just sighs.
Over at St. Anne's Church, Davina and Mikael are both in the attic, where Mikael is restlessly pacing around the room as he watches Davina poring over Esther's grimoire and taking notes in a magical language in a small notebook. Bored, Mikael sighs and drawls, "How frustrating. A novice trying to interpret the work of a master." LOL! I get the feeling that Esther and Mikael didn't like each other much near the end of their marriage, but I do love how Mikael still brags about how powerful Esther was. Maybe the dislike is mostly just on Esther's end? Davina frustratedly snaps that she's just trying to figure out a simple de-linking spell, but Mikael reminds her that erasing the link between Klaus and all of the thousands of vampires he's sired (and those who were sired by them, and so on) isn't exactly SIMPLE. Davina argues back that she's not trying to unlink ALL of the vampires, just Marcel and Josh, which once again makes me wonder if this plan is going to have any effect on the vampires of Mystic Falls, all of whom were sired from Klaus' bloodline except for Alaric, who was created by magic like the Originals were. Still, Davina insists that she's been studing Esther's grimoire for weeks, so it's just a matter of time before she figures it out, but Mikael is desperate to get out and slaughter his kids, you know, so he'd like to speed up the process as much as he can.
He even goes so far as to offer to help her with the spell, which makes me kind of suspicious, to be totally honest-- he's a vampire-hating vampire, so he's not going to want to do anything that will keep him from killing every vampire he can get his stake on, right? Even if he is genuinely trying to help her, I can't imagine he wouldn't just end up killing Marcel and Josh himself anyway if Davina did end up figuring out the spell to unlink them. So, Davina quite understandably doesn't trust him, and points out that it's very likely that he's just trying to trick her into casting a spell that would release him from the bracelet she uses to control him. "You know, for somebody who despises Klaus so much, you certainly share his paranoia," Mikael snits. "The sooner you perform the spell, the sooner I'll be free to kill the bastard." Davina is so tired of his shit that she's thrilled to receive a text message to distract her from his constant whining. When she checks her phone, she sees that it's a message from Koleb, which reads, "Coffee? Now-ish?" Davina smiles and leaves the attic, quickly making her way down the stairs and through the main room of the church. Unbeknownst to Davina, Koleb is hiding around a nearby corner, and when he's confirmed that she's gone, he slips up the stairs toward the attic to do some snooping.
Afterward, he meets up with Casther and Finncent at Lafayette Cemetery so that he can give his mother and brother an update on his progress. He informs them that he's nearly positive that she's hiding something in the attic, because the door was locked with what he describes as a "rather complex" spell. Casther figures it must be a weapon or a source of power, and adds that since she'd rather not have any surprises in the future, she wants him to take Davina out to dinner to figure out what magical back-up plan and with which team she's aligned to be on the safe side. Koleb points out that he had to stand her up for their coffee date so he could get into the attic, so she's probably not going to want to go out with him now, but Finn, not one for excuses, snaps at him to just do what he's told. "Oh, of course!" Koleb bellows in annoyance. "Finn the sycophant speaks up! Are you gonna grovel at your mother's heels for eternity, or what?"
Their mother breaks up their fight before it can even really begin and reminds them that they have more than enough conflict to come without adding their own squabbling to it. They finally arrive to what I'm thinking might be the lyceé/coven house, a huge stone building among the crypts in the cemetery that also I think may be where Hope was almost sacrificed in "From a Cradle to a Grave" last season. It would make sense to have a magical school for ancestral witches in a cemetery where all of their dead ancestors are buried, right?Waiting for the three of them there are a group of at least a dozen disheveled-looking werewolves, who, of course, are immediately called "free-loaders," by Koleb, though Casther calmly corrects him-- they're their new friends, and, more specifically, they're werewolves in need Esther's moonlight rings, which only she can supposedly provide. They then move inside one of the crypts, where Esther has a veritable sweatshop of witches making moonlight rings as quickly as their little fingers can make them. Casther insists that it won't be long now before they have enough for an army. "And, when we do, we will pay your brothers a visit," Esther adds, as she picks up a stone and looks at it curiously. "We will teach them the unfortunate errors of their vampire ways." Oh, this is so not going to end well.
Over in the Bayou, Hayley and Klaus are wandering around in hopes of finding wherever the Crescents have been living, as per Elijah's earlier orders. Hayley's outfit in this scene is fabulous and I want ALL of it-- black acid-washed jean jacket over a tight black top and dark skinny jeans with stompy boots. Ungh, I love her style on this show. ANYWAY, Hayley reminds Klaus that the encampments have been deserted, but Klaus, who has full control over his senses since becoming a true hybrid, insists that their scent is fresh, which means that the Crescents must be hiding nearby in a place they will eventually find. "And then what?" Hayley snits. "It's not exactly like they're going to welcome us-- if there's one thing these people hate more than vampires, it's HYBRIDS." Still, Klaus argues that what the New Orleans werewolves hate is that they don't have any power, which is why so many of them have joined Team Casther/Finncent. Since the Crescents have yet to join up with her, it's imperative that the two of them get to them first and sway them to their side.
Hayley doesn't seem confident in their ability to find them, but Klaus points out one ability of hybrids that I don't think has been explicitly confirmed until now, but I'm glad it was: not only do hybrids have the perks of vampires, but they also have complete access to their werewolf senses at all times. Which means Hayley, as the only non-Original hybrid in existence (and maybe Hope someday, if we ever figure out what her full range of abilities is) has the most heightened senses of any creature on earth except for Klaus. He gives her a look and encourages her to try to sniff out her pack, so Hayley reluctantly closes her eyes and breathes in deep. Klaus looks at her curiously when it seems that Hayley has caught a scent, but when she opens her eyes, she just rolls them before snarking, "This is stupid." Klaus is frustrated by Hayley's lack of confidence, and argues, "Your people need a leader! YOU are their queen!"
This clearly puts a lot of pressure on Hayley, because she turns back toward him and retorts, "I am a MESS. I cry all day, I feed all night. All I can think about is how much I miss my daughter." Klaus reminds her that she's not alone in the grief that she feels, and in her frustration, she demands to know if he's even thought about Hope once since she's left, and it shows just how much Klaus has grown since last season that he doesn't totally rip her head off for suggesting such a thing. "I have not STOPPED thinking about her! When it pains me, I seek comfort in the idea of what I will do to those who would harm her." He then gestures to a nearby overturned chair near the encampments, where a flannel jacket has been unceremoniously thrown over it. Having been properly motivated with the thought of her daughter returning home to them, she sighs and rolls her eyes again before lifting the sleeve of the coat and sniffing it. Klaus encourages her to concentrate, and after a moment of focusing on the scent, she follows the trail, which leads away from where they were standing. Klaus follows after her, smiling proudly as he goes.
Back across the river, Elijah is standing in the alley, watching two older men playing chess, when Marcel returns to update him on their plan. Apparently, Davina is coming to see Marcel there, since vampires still aren't welcome in the Quarter, and Marcel insists that Elijah needs to get the fuck out of there before she arrives. Elijah argues right back that he's not leaving until he knows where the stake is and whom is in possession of it, but Marcel has an excellent point-- Davina is hardly going to help them out if she thinks Elijah or Klaus has any part in it whatsoever. "First thing I learned living with your family--" Marcel adds. "Wherever you people go, threats and bloodshed are soon to follow." He once again repeats that Elijah needs to stay the fuck out of sight and try not to kill anyone while he's meeting with Davina. Then, he turns to meet Davina, leaving Elijah to be transported into yet another flashback.
It's 1821 again, and Elijah has just returned home to find Klaus and Kol playing chess in one of the many rooms of the compound. "Forty-six," Elijah rants, as he paces around the room. "An entire tenement. FORTY-SIX BODIES DRAINED!" Kol insists that this is nonsense, and after a beat, he adds, "It was at least sixty!" Klaus can't help but laugh when Kol jokes that the authorities must have neglected to check the attic, and hilariously points out that it makes no sense whatsoever that their victims always try to run to the attic. Elijah is extremely annoyed, as expected, because he keeps doing whatever he can to make sure that Mikael doesn't track them down, and his efforts are nullified by the fact that Kol and Klaus can't help mass-murdering people in ways that are sure to draw the wrong kind of attention.
Of course, Klaus, ever the petulant one, at least in these days, snits, "I'm surprised you have the time to concern yourself with us, given the hours you spend doting on Marcellus." Elijah quickly realizes that all of Klaus' shenanigans with Kol have been because of his jealousy of the relationship Elijah has been building with bb Marcel, and then puts his foot down-- since Klaus' actions are sure to bring Mikael back to them, it's no longer safe for Marcel to live with them, so they'll have to send him away. Furious, Klaus retorts, "You would punish the boy for Kol's antics? I would just as soon put him in a box!" LOL! No wonder Kol is so resentful, good lord. Kol is super offended, and asks if Klaus would really choose "that whelp" over his own family, so Klaus replies that Marcel IS their family and makes the final decision that Marcel will be staying, no matter what.
In the present day, Elijah pulls himself out of his memories and focuses on the task at hand. Nearby, Marcel has met up with Davina in a nearby building. They both break out into the most beauteous smiles when they see each other, and though Davina immediately asks him what's going on, Marcel first insists upon getting a hug. Before they talk business, Marcel asks her how she's doing, and mentions that he heard she went back to school. When he asks her if she's made any friends, she briefly mentions her interactions with Koleb. "I don't know... this one guy asked me out, but then he stood me up." Marcel just looks incredulous, and replies, "He stood you up? Say the word, and he's dead." AW MARCEL. God, I love everyone so much this season, I cannot get over it. Davina just laughs, and Marcel decides it's as good a time as any to get to the point. "Okay, I hate to ask for a favor, but... I need a locator spell. Something's missing... a white oak stake that's powerful enough to kill an Original." Davina's face goes from delighted to horrified, and she whispers, "Did one of them put you up to this?" Marcel, confused, reminds Davina that if the stake is used on Klaus, literally every single vampire sired by him will die, including himself.
Davina points out that she's quite aware, and tries to suggest that while she's not the one who holds it, if she WERE to find it, it's not like she could in good conscience hand over the stake to them. "He and Elijah are both brutal, sadistic monsters!" Of course, that's when Elijah comes out of the woodwork. "I do wish I could disagree with you," Elijah says pleasantly as he walks toward him, and Marcel is so annoyed he can't help but sigh in frustration and roll his eyes. "Tragically, however, you're quite right." Davina is appalled that Marcel would bring him into this as Elijah continues. "Although, you and I both have excellent reason to find that weapon. I want to protect my family, and you want to protect your friends. We'd do well to forget our grievances and join forces." I think Elijah truly believed that he was being fair and considerate, but he GROSSLY underestimated Davina's resentment toward the Mikaelson brothers. Davina furiously makes clear that she has no intention of helping him, and when Marcel tries to talk her down, she cuts him off. "No! NO. I'm-I'm DONE listening." She then turns to Elijah with hatred in her eyes and adds, "For a long time, you and your family have had all the power. You manipulate and kill anyone who gets in your way. That time's over. From now on, you can know what it is to be afraid."
(via davinasclaire)
She storms off, leaving a supremely pissed Marcel and a surprised but intrigued Elijah behind to squabble amongst themselves. As soon as she's out of earshot, Marcel angrily argues that he told Elijah to stay out of their meeting, but Elijah maintains that he needed to speak with her face-to-face. Marcel assumes he means he purposely wanted to piss Davina off enough so that she wouldn't want to help them, but Elijah confesses that he had a different intention entirely. "I wanted to see for myself," he explains. "She cares for you, and yet, how cavalier she was at the jeopardy you now face." Marcel is confused and asks him what the fuck he's trying to say, so Elijah reveals the theory that Davina's behavior just confirmed-- "She knows the stake will not be used because she knows precisely where it is. She's had it all along." This isn't at all a revelation for us, of course, but it will certainly play a huge role in how these different groups of people vying for power will interact from now on, and I, for one, am super pumped!
Back in the Bayou, Hayley and Klaus have finally found where the rest of the Crescents have been hanging out, and are lurking on the outskirts of the clearing while they plan their next move. As expected, since Jackson has apparently gone AWOL on them, Oliver has decided to step up and fill the power vacuum as the alpha. When Hayley points this out, however, Klaus reminds her that her new vampire nature hasn't negated the Crescent clan birthmark on her shoulder blade, and that she needs to talk to them as a reminder that she's one of them. Nervous, Hayley hesitantly ventures out into the clearing to talk to them, with Klaus following behind her, though, naturally, Oliver takes one look at them and sneers, "The hell you two want?" Klaus is appalled at this bit of disrespect, as he usually is when people who he sees as beneath him dare backtalk him, and immediately threatens to rip his tongue out if he doesn't shut up. Hayley's not pleased that Klaus is already getting snippy, so she gives Klaus the stink eye before turning to Oliver and saying her piece. "Our pack has been divided by people who want us to be their slaves. What we need right now is a leader. Someone who will reunite us and make us strong again. Someone who will fight for our pack. If you let me, I can be that person."
I was totally inspired by her speech, because watching Hayley find purpose with her family and learning to embrace her inner leader last season was a joy, in my opinion, but, of course, Oliver has to be a huge dick about it. "You think we can trust you? You're not one of us! Hell, you're not even a wolf! You're a blood-sucking vampire parasite." Yeah, says the guy whose scheming not only got many of his own people killed (including Eve), but it also resulted in Hayley getting handed over to Genevieve and the witches, which led to Hayley getting murdered and turned into a hybrid in the first place. It's not like she asked for this, you know? I don't know if Oliver is just being an ignorant dick or if he's projecting his own guilt on her or what, but I really don't like it. Klaus just rolls his eyes, and Hayley, not willing to let Oliver get to her, urges him to say what he just said again to see what happens. Oliver is showing off for the pack, though, and just keeps on his streak of douchenozzling. "You tough girl. You're gonna attack me? In front of all them? You'll just give them another reason to say yes to Cassie and her moonlight rings. Yeah, they would rather follow a WITCH than you. Me? Hell, I'd rather DIE than follow you." DAMN, dude, who hurt you?
Klaus is not about to allow the mother of his child be slandered in such a way, so he zoops over to Oliver, knocks him flat on his ass, and stomps on his chest with his boot-clad foot as he praises Oliver for not making him drag this out. Hayley immediately gets pissed at him and yells at him to let Oliver go, which, of course, was exactly Klaus' goal all along. He plays the bad-guy and retorts, "You need to learn about the art of politics, love! You gain support by KILLING your detractors!" Hayley argues that despite the fact that the Crescents clearly aren't her biggest fans anymore, they're still her family, even Oliver, and once again orders him to let Oliver go. Klaus takes notice of all the wolves watching Hayley intently and smiles proudly before taking his foot off of Oliver's sternum. "You see?" Klaus declares loudly to the crowd of werewolves. "There's your queen. Powerful, fearless, and-- unlike me-- MERCIFUL." He then turns to Hayley and reminds her that the wolves need to show her more respect before informing her that she's in charge now-- whatever she decides to do w/r/t the Crescents is now up to her. Confused, Hayley asks Klaus where he's going, so Klaus replies that he's out to find Cassie and give her a little lesson on what is and isn't allowed to be done in "his" city.
Meanwhile, Elijah and Marcel are strolling around the streets of whatever neighborhood is "across the river" from the French Quarter, discussing what they've learned so far. Marcel is sure that Davina won't use the stake on Klaus, since she knows it will kill him and Josh as well, but, as Elijah points out, that doesn't exactly stop her from using the stake on ELIJAH, who didn't sire any of her friends. (Do we even know any vampires who were turned by Elijah or someone Elijah turned? I don't think we've met any so far.) "I guess you better behave!" Marcel says with a wry smile, but Elijah is not at all amused. He tries to appeal to Marcel's rational side by asking what would happen if someone else found out that Davina had the stake, or if, god forbid, an enemy learned that the stake exists and manages to get their hands on it. Marcel concedes to Elijah's point once he realizes that this could totally put Davina in danger as well, and promises that he'll convince her to give up the stake. Unfortunately for Marcel, Elijah isn't really inspired by Marcel's promises, and makes it clear that Davina will end up giving back the stake, voluntarily or not, which does nothing to improve Marcel's mood. "Look. Hey, do you ever wonder why your family has so many enemies? It's because you make stupid moves like this. It really makes me wonder how the HELL I ever survived you people."
Marcel has an excellent point there, though-- both Elijah and Klaus are getting much better about their "Oh, this guy is inconveniencing me/betraying me/not agreeing with me, so he has to die"-problems, but they're still pretty trigger-happy in ways that will certainly end up fucking them over eventually. Anyway, this comment launches Elijah back to ANOTHER flashback to 1821. In it, bb Marcel (who has still-wet blood dribbles on his lips) is sitting in the courtyard (which back then had a dirt floor) with Kol, watching a dozen presumably-compelled actors performing Hamlet for them. "Please, let me go," Marcel stammers anxiously. "Mr. Kol, I don't--I don't like this." Kol hilariously replies, "Don't be absurd! Shakespeare should be experienced in the flesh! In truth, these aren't the finest actors, but we ARE in the colonies." BAHAHAHA. I had forgotten how much I missed Nate Buzolic's version of Kol until this episode, tbh, though I absolutely adore Daniel Sharman and I want him to stay forever. Can Kol get his original body back and then we can just keep Kaleb as a cooperative witch? Hell, they can even turn him into a vampire, I don't care, I just want both Nate Buzolic AND Sharman on this show. Unless Sharman decides to go back to Teen Wolf, which is another option I would wholeheartedly support. Pleeeeease?
ANYWAY, Kol gestures for the stage to alert the actors to resume their play, so one man bellows, "In venom to thy work!" and runs another man through with a sword right in front of Marcel's eyes. Marcel gasps in shock, terrified at this turn of events, as another actor replies, "Exchange forgiveness with me, noble harlot--" until Kol cuts him off, annoyed that the man has butchered Shakespeare for daring to quote the passage incorrectly. He informs the man that it's actually "Hamlet," not "harlot" and snaps the poor guy's neck without a second thought. Fortunately for Marcel, Elijah and Klaus finally arrive, having heard all the commotion. Elijah immediately demands to know what the fuck Kol is doing, so Kol tries to claim that he was just introducing Marcel to the theater, something Kol figured would please Elijah. However, considering Marcel is just a kid, exposing him to compelled people being slaughtered in front of him isn't at all what Elijah wants Marcel to have to deal with. "If the lad is going to be a vampire, he'll have to learn somehow, won't he?" Kol argues in frustration. "Come, I've already fed him some blood. All you have to do is snuff him, and voila! One of us."
He sees Elijah's furious look, and it becomes clear that this was all just a test to see where his brothers' loyalties really lied. "Well, that's what you WANT isn't it?" Elijah grabs Kol in a chokehold, and Klaus grabs Kol's arms in a nice parallel to the first flashback in this episode. However, Klaus gives Elijah a look and tells him to let go, and after a tense moment, Elijah does that. If you think this is some kind of growth on Klaus' part, though, like Kol did, you are about to be sorely mistake. "Thank you, Nik," Kol says pleasantly. "At least SOMEONE knows the meaning of family." Klaus just scowls at him, though, and turns around to face him. "I told you before," he growls, as he pulls his dagger out of his jacket. "Marcellus IS family." Elijah grabs Kol by the arm, while Klaus shoves the dagger into Kol's heart as he struggles to get out of their grip. Yeah, Kol was a bit of a tool back then at best and a murderous sociopath at worse, but man, I guess that explains why he's never been super happy with his brothers in the past.
Meanwhile, in the present day, Elijah and Marcel are still in the same alley as before, where I guess Marcel has just been watching Elijah zone-out this whole time. "I don't fault you for your suspicion," Elijah admits. "Nor Davina for her contempt. That does not alter our present dilemma. She has that stake. I want it back." I kind of love how Elijah straight-up understands that his family is generally monstrous and has a ton of skeletons in their closet, and has no trouble acknowledging that people have every reason to hate them and want to get retribution. I think this has been made especially clear for both Elijah and Klaus in the time since last season's finale, when it finally clicked in Klaus' head that all of the bad things that happened to him/his family-- pregnant Hayley constantly being targeted, Genevieve and Francesca turning on them, Hope nearly getting killed and the fact that she had to be sent away, etc-- are all because of their horrendous actions. Hopefully this means they'll be more mindful in the future? They're still Mikaelsons, though, so I'm trying to maintain expectations.
Davina has returned back to St. Anne's attic, where she is lounging on the couch and continuing to study Esther's grimoire and her own notes. Naturally, Mikael is still pacing and staring at her in annoyance, which bothers her not a bit. She reminds him that as long as she has the bracelet, she owns him, so he needs to get over himself, but it's Mikael, so he's not exactly happy to be receiving such disrespectful talk from someone he clearly believes is beneath him. "You foolish little girl," Mikael sneers angrily. "You imprison me here, you refuse my help, but all the while, that hybrid monstrosity roams this city, free to prey on everyone you care about." He waits for a moment before adding, "...Those few that remain." Davina continues to ignore him, and when her phone suddenly beeps, she happily accepts this distraction from Mikael's whinging. She sees she has both a missed call and missed text from Koleb-- "Can I make it up to you over dinner?" Davina smirks, and takes off.
The sun has set in New Orleans, and it's dark outside when Klaus arrives at Lafayette to track down Cassie. As he walks through the seemingly empty cemetery, he shouts,"What happened to decorum? Does no one greet their guests anymore?" The fact that the Mikaelsons are still so old-fashioned (and yet still hold very progressive beliefs) is one of my favorite things about them, to be honest. The werewolves all start creeping out of their hiding spots in between various mausoleums, some hopping down from the roofs of various crypts until they're all surrounding Klaus dramatically. He declares this to be much better than before, though he does take care to mention that he's disappointed in how many of his strong fellow werewolves have allowed themselves to be, in Klaus' words, "neutered by a sixteen-year-old girl."
When he asks where the witch who has the nerve to create moonlight rings without his express permission, he looks around in hopes of finding her until she finally approaches him, the wolves parting to make way for her as she does so. "Niklaus," Casther replies serenely. "I've been expecting you." Ohhhh, shit! Also, shouldn't he have figured that Cassie was actually his mother much sooner than he actually does? I doubt Genevieve had time to share the moonlight ring spell before Hayley killed her, so who else would know how to do it BUT Esther? Unless Klaus assumed that Esther somehow taught her when she was in limbo or something. I don't know, I know I'm nitpicking but it just seems weird to me.
The two move inside one of the crypts to talk privately, where Klaus sits at the table and watches her suspiciously as she makes tea for them both. "I must offer my condolences on the tragic loss of your child," Casther begins, which DAMN, that's cold, lady! Klaus speaks for all of us when he reminds her that it was actually HER people who sought to kill her before she was "killed by the werewolves." When she says nothing, and simply hands Klaus a cup of tea, he asks her if the tea is supposed to be some sort of a peace offering. Casther points out that it's chamomile, which has many healing properties, and weirdly asks him if he knows that it's a flowering plant as another weird hint as to her true identity. "I did," Klaus replies coldly, not really enjoying her idea of chit-chat. "The plants grew wild near my boyhood home. But, neither the tea, nor your botanical musings explain the reason why you've taken it upon yourself to forge new moonlight rings." In true Esther fashion, she continues to remain totally calm and pleasant despite the fact that Klaus is becoming more tense and aggravated by the second.
Klaus, knowing that she's baiting him, tries his best to keep his cool, and feigns kindness when he admits that she has an ambitious strategy, though he makes it well known that he believes she's not taking certain factors into consideration. "But, allow me to offer a few words of advice, if I may be so bold? New Orleans is a vicious place, and your enemies are everywhere. Behind your back, before your eyes... You will need to remain vigilant against those who would seek to destroy you. [pauses] Some of whom you may NEVER see coming." Casther really does seem to know her children, though, especially after spending over a millenia watching them from the Other Side, so she seems to have expected this response. She assures him that she's already began to take precautions, and adds that even as they speak, measures are being taken to ensure that her plan goes smoothly, which only makes Klaus more suspicious and nervous.
Speaking of her plan, Davina and Koleb are chilling at a table at Rousseau's, where the two are starting to get to know each other a little better to the tune of Keep Shelly In Athens' "Recollection." Davina must have just asked him about his family, because Koleb is in the middle of dodging the question by vaguely explaining that his family are "crazy as loons" before asking her about hers. Davina sort-of fills in some blanks for us by briefly expositing that her dad was distant, and that her dad's attitude toward her was much better than her mom's-- since her mom allowed her to be sacrificed in some ritual for more power, I'm going to have to go ahead and agree with her on that one. Koleb jumps on that admission and guesses that her mother is likely a control-freak, and when Davina nods in confirmation, he sympathizes with her. "Yeah, same as mine. She's the reason I stopped practicing magic for so long."
So, I'm going to go on ahead and take that as confirmation that the Mikaelson children did practice a little magic, or at least Kol did, before they were turned into vampires? It would explain how all of them are pretty knowledgeable about magic despite having been vampires for the majority of their lives. Anyway, Davina is shocked to hear that he's a witch, and Koleb cranks up the charm to 100%. "Don't look so surprised, love! I didn't just ask you out because you're gorgeous. No, we're, uh, kindred souls." Davina, confused, asks him what he means by that, so Koleb continues on to say that Davina's story is well known around the Quarter as the Harvest girl who told her entire coven to fuck off.
"I'm a lot like you," Koleb adds after a beat. "Don't really believe in rules and authority. Your courage, it should be celebrated." Well, that's quite a peek into Kol's perspective! And it's not hard to understand why he'd say such a thing, given that he has the most controlling, manipulative, and abusive parents in the universe and his siblings are just about as dysfunctional as you can get after a thousand years of vampirism and squabbling and daggering each other. Anyway, Davina's pretty much smitten at this point, which, of course, is when Marcel calls to ruin the moment. Davina decides to take the call, insisting that Marcel will never stop calling her if she doesn't answer and promising to make it quick.
As soon as she's out of earshot, Finncent comes out of nowhere and creeps up behind Koleb to point out that he's clearly stalling. Koleb is in a bit of a bind, because as nuts as Kol is, I really do think he has a soft spot for Davina now, and unless he is an EXCELLENT actor, there is at least part of him that doesn't want Davina to come to any harm as a result of his mother's plans. Finncent patronizingly orders him to quit complimenting her and get to the point of this entire endeavor, which is to find out what her secret weapon is. "I'm wooing her, FINNCENT," Kol snits hilariously in response. "It requires charm, and personality-- something you'd know nothing about." LOL, sick burn, Kol! And totally accurate, in my opinion-- OG Finn was super hot, if you recall from TVD, but otherwise, he was boring, self-loathing, and too much of a mama's boy to be very interesting in comparison to his much more lively and emotionally-complex siblings. Then again, Finn WAS daggered for like 900+ years of his 1,000+ year life, so it's not like he's had much time to develop a personality, you know? Maybe I'm being too hard on him.
Also, do you think we're ever going to learn anything more about Finn's backstory with his ~true love~ Sage from TVD? You'd think he'd at least know a LITTLE something about relationships with women, right? I wouldn't mind seeing her again in flashbacks, tbh, even if she was kind of gross and misogynistic. Anyway, Finncent once again reminds his little brother that Esther is intent on getting answers, and if Koleb can't get them, then they're going to have to play it his way, instead. Koleb frustratedly asks him if he's planning on boring the answers out of her, but Finn IS a Mikaelson, after all, so of course his plan was much more violent. "If you want to find out if someone has a weapon, you provoke them into using it," Finncent explains to an increasingly-nervous Kol.
We then cut to the outside of the restaurant, where Davina has begrudgingly answered Marcel's call; Marcel talks to her from the passenger seat of Elijah's car as they presumably drive to the Quarter. Davina immediately maintains that she never once said that she had the stake, but Marcel reminds her that since Elijah is convinced she does have it, it's a problem whether she has it or not. Davina rolls her eyes in a perfectly teenage response and states for the record that she doesn't give a fuck what Elijah thinks either way, but Marcel is most concerned about Davina's safety, since anyone who's ever had beef with Elijah or Klaus is going to be coming for her to get that stake. "Fine," Davina concedes. "Let them try." This is not at all what Marcel was hoping would result from this conversation, and he literally has no idea why she's being so stubborn about this. "D, come on! Just tell me where you are!" When Davina remains silent, he adds, "Hey, we can talk about this!" Annoyed, Davina admits that she's at Rousseau's, but insists that Marcel not bother coming after her, because she's certainly not staying now. She heads back into the bar after she hangs up on them, as Elijah gives an exasperated Marcel a look before hitting the gas pedal and increasing their speed.
Inside, the restaurant is full of a crowd of people who are filing out when Davina returns, and she gives Koleb a confused look when she asks him what's happening. Koleb is clearly not pleased by his brother's interference in his plans and claims that some guy announced that the restaurant was being closed for a private party. Davina figures this is a good turn of events, since she needed to get out of there anyway, but when she suggests that they need to go at once, she gets approached by a crowd of burly werewolves. "And what's your rush, sweetheart?" one of the werewolves interrupts with a smirk. "Why don't you stay and party with us?" As we all well know, Davina doesn't really take kindly to condescension, especially when it centers on her being a young, naive girl, so she angrily growls at them to get out of her way, pronto. When the werewolf doesn't move, she hits him with a pain infliction spell and he drops to his knees like a rock. Unfortunately for her, this only makes his fellow wolves jumpy, and they all start to surround Davina and Koleb, the latter of whom is feeling pretty anxious about now. "Can you do that with the rest of them, or...?" Koleb asks, clearly stressed out, but Davina confesses that she can't hit them all at once. I bet she's really missing her extra boost of Harvest magic right about now, eh?
The werewolf she hit with the mystic migraine recovers and rises to his feet before shoving Davina across the room. I think Koleb momentarily forgot that he's not an Original vampire anymore (or at least just got so caught up in defending his new lady friend that he got the (super mistaken) impression that he could totally take on a bunch of moonlight-ring-wearing werewolves who are quite stuck under his mother and Finncent's thumb), because he instantly lunges for the wolf who attacked Davina and gets thrown across the room and into the wall of booze bottles behind the bar. OUCH! I felt that in my bones. The wolves begin to descend upon Davina, who is still sprawled on the floor, so she grips her bracelet and murmurs a spell under her breath. Meanwhile, a couple blocks away, Mikael suddenly senses that something is happening, and smiles widely when he realizes that he can actually leave the attic. Back at Rousseau's, Davina has been grabbed by a different werewolf, who is about to chomp down on her neck when Mikael finally shows up and full-on rips the werewolf off of her, throwing him across the room. "You filthy DOGS," Mikael spits, before he lunges for the werewolves and starts to fight them.
Koleb is coming to behind the bar, and when he peeks over to see what's happening, he is shocked to his core by the sight of his father alive and kicking so much ass in the middle of the restaurant. Mikael snaps one werewolf's neck before ripping out the hearts of a couple others, while Davina once again gets attacked by ANOTHER wolf. When she struggles to get out of his grip, her bracelet falls off of her wrist, which frees Mikael from her control. He turns to her, realizing what has happened, and sneers, "Well, now. What an interesting turn of events!" He roughly grabs her and pulls her to her feet before he vamps out and swears he's going to enjoy this meal, but, before he can go to town on her carotid artery, Elijah arrives and rips him off of her, not realizing right away that the dude he just manhandled is actually his resurrected father.
Once Mikael turns around to face him, the color drains out of Elijah's face, and he whispers, "Father?" Mikael continues to smirk, because you know he gets off on this shit. "Hello, son. I'd hoped to see your brother first, but we have some unfinished business as well." When was the last time Elijah saw Mikael, anyway? I'm pretty sure he was daggered when Klaus killed Mikael in TVD, so it could have been their disastrous meeting in 1919 that we learned about in "Le Grand Guignol," or it could have been later, since I'm pretty sure Mikael was actively hunting them up until he made the mistake of trying to kill baby Elena so she couldn't be used to break Klaus' werewolf curse and was subsequently desiccated by Bonnie's mom in 1990s and entombed in North Carolina, if I remember correctly? Who the fuck knows. Anyway, Elijah starts to attack Mikael, so he pulls the white oak stake out of the waistband of his pants and pins Elijah against a nearby bar while he tries to stake Elijah in the chest. Elijah is struggling to keep the stake from making contact with him when Marcel arrives to rescue Davina. He tells her they're getting the fuck out of there, NOW, but Davina stops him and admits that if she can get her bracelet, she can use it to control Mikael.
Marcel looks around the room and sees the bracelet has fallen next to the head of one of the recently killed werewolves. He checks to make sure Mikael is still occupied with Elijah before dashing over to grab the bracelet. Mikael gets the upperhand in his fight with Elijah, and manages to shove the tip of the stake into Elijah's chest, causing him to roar out in pain. Marcel tosses the bracelet to Davina, which Mikael totally hears. He zoops over to Davina to attack her, but she's already got the bracelet on her wrist and uses it to stop him before he can feed on her. She then orders him to "go back," and though he's clearly loathe to listen to her, he reluctantly vamp-speeds off to do as he's told. Elijah, who is still recovering from his wounds, stares at Davina in horror, and Marcel is both disappointed and scared as well when he finally starts to process the implications of this situation. Davina refuses to feel guilty, though, at least regarding Elijah and Marcel, so she just scowls and shakes her head at them before she takes off as well. Elijah finally notices Koleb crouched behind the bar and staring at the lot of them, and asks, "Something to say?" Wisely, Koleb just responds, "Not me, mate. Not a bloody thing," clearly wanting to maintain his cover for the time being. It's clear that Koleb is just as horrified by the return of his father, which is VERY interesting considering what we learn later.
And, of course, while all of this intense fighting was happening, Klaus and Casther continued to have a very awkward and cryptic tea date in one of the crypts in Lafayette Cemetery. Klaus sips his tea and quite rudely states that his mother also used to make chamomile tea, which he has always loathed. Casther is amused and just replies, "Would you have preferred mint?" Klaus seems to be quickly coming around to what is going on with Cassie/Esther, and starts fishing. "You know, she was insane, my mother," Klaus begins, and when Casther raises her eyebrows at him, he continues on. "No, it's true. She believed we were abominations. 'A curse on this earth, stretched over generations,' is how she put it. But, SHE was the true monster. She changed her children, stole our innocence, made us vampires, condemned us to an eternity of bloodlust, and then acted as though WE were to blame."
YESSSS! Klaus can often be petulant and childish, but this is NOT one of those times. This time, he is speaking the absolute truth when it comes to Esther and Mikael, and really solidifies what I've been saying since we learned that they would be coming back-- considering all of the terrible things that Esther and Mikael have done, to their children and to others in the name of making up for their past mistakes, gives them no moral high ground whatsoever over the children they call monsters. Anyway, this definitely hit Casther where it hurts, so she concedes, "She sounds AWFUL," before adding, "Are you building to a question, Niklaus?" As it turns out, it was her way of addressing him that first tipped Klaus off. "You use my full name, as though we are familiars," Klaus replies coldly. "I find it insulting. Before she died, a witch revealed that your coven was under my mother's influence." He smiles fakely and asks if Esther has been speaking to her since Cassie's return, but Casther just smiles and insists that Esther doesn't have to talk to her, because she already knows exactly what she would say. "She would tell you to go to your room for being SO rude."
Yeah, that was probably the wrong way to go about it, there, Essie. As expected, Klaus loses his temper and slams his hand on top of Casther's and looks her in the eye. There's something about the way that she looks at him that gives Klaus a revelation, but before he can comment on it, a group of her werewolf minions come in and surround him threateningly. Casther assures them that things are fine, and that "Niklaus" was just leaving, taking great care to further antagonize him by continuing to use his given name. Klaus insists that he'd happily slaughter the lot of the werewolves, but Casther reminds him that since he still hopes to leave the werewolves, doing so would be killing the people he hoped to lead at some point, which, naturally, makes Klaus absolutely furious. "Besides, there's no need for bloodshed," she continues calmly. "We can always resume this discussion another day." She pauses before wishing him a good night, and promising that they will be speaking again quite soon until Klaus finally leaves.
When Elijah arrives home, he meets Klaus in the wine cellar so that they can discuss the day's events. Elijah is clearly horrified and anxious, but, as usual, Klaus is too wrapped up in his own shit to really notice. He breaks the neck off of a bottle of wine and starts immediately starts ranting. "It is worse than we thought. I met the witch, Cassie. I studied her, her presence, the way she carried herself. The fervor with which she voiced her hatred of our kind. I looked into that girl's eyes, and I swear to you, Elijah, she's not just GUIDED by our mother. She IS our mother." Elijah is even more stunned than he was previously, and he breathlessly exclaims, "What is HAPPENING?"
Klaus swears that he's going to kill her, and goes as far as to say that he'll boil her bones and feed her to the dogs if that's what it takes to finally get rid of her. Elijah tries to interrupt him, but, of course, Klaus is on a roll, and he incredulously asks him what could possibly be more important than the return of their mother. Elijah just stares at Klaus, and is like, "Uh, how about our dear old father?" He goes on to say that he saw Mikael today, quite alive and enslaved by one of Davina's spells. AND, to make matters worse, Mikael has the stake, so if she decides to send him after them, they're fucked. Klaus takes a deep breath before stating, "Well, then, there's only one question we need to ask, isn't there? Which of our parents do we kill first?" AWWW YISS!
The two brothers walk out into the courtyard, where Hayley has just returned home with the rest of the Crescent wolves she and Klaus tracked down in the Bayou. She tells them that they can take any of the rooms on the first floor as Klaus approaches her, leaving Elijah to lurk and eavesdrop from across the room. "Are we running a kennel, now?" Klaus asks rudely (especially considering that, hello, he's a werewolf, too!), but Hayley insists that she'll take care of them. Klaus informs her that they're currently under siege by the batshit Mikaelson parents, so it's not exactly the time for guests, but Hayley has an excellent point-- if these wolves aren't with them, then they're going to end up joining the witches, which isn't exactly in their best interest, either. "You asked me to step up," Hayley maintains. "This is me stepping up." Klaus just smiles and quips that he may be a good influence on Hayley after all, which launches Elijah into the last flashback of the night.
It's just after they daggered Kol for the second time, and Elijah is dressing him in clean clothes and placing him in his coffin while Elijah has a little one-sided chat with his baby bro.
OH SHIT! We all know where this is going and it makes me SO SAD. So, we catch back up with Elijah as he returns to his bedroom to finish changing into his evening clothes. Marcel was reading Hamlet in a chair, and hops to his feet excitedly to exclaim, "Elijah! I did it! I memorized the whole passage!" He proudly informs Elijah that he could perform it for him, if he'd like, but Elijah just sarcastically replies, "Could you, now? Marcellus, have you ever considered you might to be the center of the given universe?" Marcel's face falls as Elijah shouts for Klaus to come upstairs, and the young boy asks Elijah if he's done something to make him angry with him. Elijah insists that it's more like he's BORED, and calls for Klaus once again until he finally joins them. When he asks what the deal is, Elijah sighs. "Remove him," Elijah instructs coldly. "You brought him here. He's your burden to bear, if, indeed, we are to accommodate this little scavenger." OUCH OUCH OUCH MY HEART. This was so harsh that even KLAUS is like, "Dude, what the fuck is wrong with you?" He looks to Marcel with sympathy and takes his hand. "Come now, little warrior! Let's have another go at The Bard, shall we?" He leads the boy out of the room, leaving Elijah looking extremely guilty to have been so cruel to Marcel.
OH MY GOD, this explains so much! I always wondered why Elijah and Marcel were always so prickly toward each other, but this makes it clear that Elijah never really had a problem with Marcel-- in fact, he actually quite liked him for the humanity he brought out in Klaus. It was all just a ploy to push him away so Klaus and Marcel could have a close bond without any jealousy on Klaus' part; one in a long, LONG line of sacrifices Elijah has made in the name of Klaus' happiness. And, as it turns out, he's planning to do the same thing in the present day, only this time, it's with someone who has a much bigger place in Elijah's heart. When we return to the current-day Mikaelson compound, we see that Elijah is still eavesdropping on Klaus and Hayley's conversation. Klaus brings up the fact that he hasn't spotted Oliver, and hilariously assumes Hayley put him out of his misery, but as it turns out, Hayley managed to convince Oliver to be a double-agent. The plan is to have him pledge his loyalty to Casther and to keep her informed of everything he learns about what they're doing.
Klaus is so proud of his little queenie, and praises her on her good work. Once Klaus turns to leave, Elijah, still up on the balcony, thinks for a moment about what to do next. He finally comes downstairs as Hayley is leading a couple of werewolf girls to their new bedrooms. Elijah approaches her and states that she seems to have her work cut out for her. Hayley asks him if he was about to leave, so Elijah starts channeling his 1821 self. "To be perfectly honest with you, the presence of all of them here, it's... it's a little much." He emotionlessly proclaims the fact that he's leaving to be for the best, since Hayley needs to be with her kind now more than ever, and then bolts before Hayley can argue with him. ELIJAH STOP BEING SO DISTANT TO HAYLEYYYYYY. I am loving all of the Klaus/Hayley stuff SO MUCH, but Elijah and Hayley drifting apart like this is hurting my heart so much, especially since it's clear they both still have feelings for each other, they're all just too afraid to admit it. More on this in the notes.
Over at the coven house, Koleb has arrived at the greenhouse and immediately lunges for Finncent. He grabs him by the shirt and shoves him against the wall as he bellows, "What the bloody hell was that!?" Finncent orders him to calm the fuck down, but Koleb will not be deterred from his anger. "You almost got me killed! Those wolves didn't just go after Davina, they almost attacked me!" Casther enters the room just then and interrupts by informing him that she was the one who gave the order, citing the fact that the attack needed to look convincing as justification for Koleb getting his ass handed to him by the werewolves. He roughly lets go of Finncent and turns to yell at his mother, instead.
"Look at my head!" he shouts, as he points to the bruising and cuts around his left eye and temple. "This isn't gonna heal for weeks! I haven't had a scar in A THOUSAND YEARS!" God, I love Kol/Koleb so fucking much. Casther is not at all sympathetic to him, and reminds him that not only will he live, but Davina will feel guilty for getting him hurt in an attack that she will feel as though she caused, and will seek him out to apologize and insist that she owes him. Still, this talk does nothing whatsoever to make Koleb any happier about his current situation. "Well, I've had enough of your plans!" he continues to rant. "You stick me in this body, you force me to sneak around like some common toady. If this is the grand new life that you planned for me, then you can have it back!" Casther, as calm and serene as she tries to stay at all times, will not tolerate any backtalk whatsoever from her children, especially Finn and Kol, since they're her key to getting Klaus and Elijah to comply with whatever plans she has going on right now, so she hits Koleb with a mystic migraine that causes him to fall to his knees as his nose begins to bleed. "You are here by my grace!" Casther argues. "And you will remain by my grace! Have I made myself clear?" Koleb might not want to be stuck under his mother's thumb, but he does quite like being alive again, so he confirms that he's got the picture, and she stops the spell.
She does seem to feel a little guilty for hurting him, though, because she gently takes Koleb's face in her hands and looks at him before getting back to the task at hand. She looks over at Finncent and states that he was in St. Anne's Church's attic during the wolf attack, and Finncent adds that the door was open and the room was completely empty. Casther sighs and stands to her feet before asking, "So, how did Davina tear apart a pack of vicious wolves? She must have had the weapon with her. What was it? A dark object? A book of spells?" Koleb, wanting to at the very least put a crimp in her plans, lies by insisting that he was knocked out in the attack and didn't see a damn thing. BAHAHA, this is going to be SO AWESOME, especially when Esther and Mikael finally figure out the other is back. I am SO PUMPED to learn more about their relationship, ughhh.
Across the river, Marcel and Elijah are once again meeting in that same alley from earlier, where Gia is playing a gorgeous song on her violin. Marcel guesses that Elijah has come to say that he can't find Davina anywhere-- not the attic, the lycée, or anywhere near it. Elijah replies that he has people looking all over the city, but he's assuming Davina really is gone, likely to help Mikael heal from the werewolf bites and scratches he sustained during the fight. Marcel still feels sympathetic for Davina, and insists that she's clearly scared, but Elijah gets tense and insists that if he finds out that Marcel had even the slightest suspicion that Mikael had returned, things will NOT be ending well for him. That's when Marcel and Elijah have a pretty awesome and enlightening conversation.
Elijah just smirks and asks why he would want to be a "benefactor to a collection of lost children," but Marcel just rolls his eyes and retorts, "That's right. You never were any good with children. But, like it or not, vampires exist because of you." He walks over to Gia and nods at her, and after a moment, she nods back. Marcel rubs her shoulders comfortingly and tells Elijah that the vampires are going to need his help, too. Gia gives Marcel one more nod of consent before Marcel quickly snaps her neck and catches her body before it falls to the floor. Elijah is shocked that Marcel just outright killed her, but Marcel assures him that he fed her his blood a couple hours beforehand. "When she wakes up, she's gonna need a mentor. I hope that you can do better with her than you did with me." YESSSS VAMPIRE GIA IS HEEEEERE! Now, she just needs to come to Ohio and turn me into a vampire so we can get married, yeah?
Next episode: Elijah and Klaus have an awkward family dinner with Casther and Finncent, Marcel continues to encourage Elijah to get more involved with the vampire community and Gia's vampire-training, and we learn a little more about Klaus and Esther's relationship back when he was still human.
[screencaps via Screencapped]
NOTES/SPECULATION/QUESTIONS:
-I NEED MORE JOSH. COME ON, JOSH.
-So, what are Kol's plans, do you think? Kathleen and I are sure that he's going to jump ship eventually, it's just a matter of when and who he teams up with once he does. I have a feeling there is too much animosity between him, Klaus, and Elijah for Kol to join their side unless it's absolutely necessary, so it's probably most likely that he'll be doing his own thing. Also, as much as I do think Kol does have genuine feelings for Davina, I also think that her magical abilities will probably play a big role in whatever plan he's hatching on the d/l. I'm definitely excited to see where it goes from here, though, and it's only partially because of how much I love Daniel Sharman. Time will tell!
-I talked earlier about how the Elijah/Hayley/Klaus triangle is playing out very much like the Stefan/Elena/Damon triangle after Elena was turned into a vampire, and while a lot of people would think that's a bad thing, I actually find it a very intriguing parallel. As much as I'm loathe to admit it, Elijah is very much like Stefan in this iteration of the triangle-- he's not exactly as self-loathing or self-righteous as Stefan, but he definitely doesn't embrace his vampirism in the same way that Klaus does. I mean, I'm pretty sure we've never even seen him feed on anyone purely for food, it's only ever been blood bags. In fact, the only time we HAVE seen him feed on anyone was when he attacked Celeste, and that was only to scare/attack her, not to eat. So, in that vein, I think Elijah is a lot like Stefan in the way that he is sort of horrified/turned off by Hayley exhibiting her vampire nature by feeding on/killing whatever witches she comes upon. Remember the episode "The Rager" in Season 4 of the Vampire Diaries, when Elena had unknowingly drank beer that was spiked with werewolf venom shortly after she was turned into a vampire? She and Stefan started hooking up in his room at the boarding house and she bared her fangs/vampire face while they were making out, and Stefan was literally repulsed by her. I'm not saying that their situation is exactly the same as Elijah and Hayley's, but I do think that Hayley being a vampire now has tarnished his perception of her.
Then, conversely, Klaus is playing the Damon role, encouraging her to relish in feeding and using her enhanced speed/strength/reflexes to be an even more formidable fighter than she was before she was turned and trying to help her embrace the perks of being a hybrid. In all honesty, while the indiscriminate killing isn't exactly a good look, I feel like this is the much healthier way of going about it-- as much as many of the vampires like to act like their condition is a curse, or the worst thing that has ever happened to them, it isn't without its upsides, and it's much better to just accept what you are than try to repress it, you know? I mean, shit, they're immortal, they're powerful, they're going to stay young forever-- what's so bad about that? And with compulsion and blood bags, they don't even have to eat people if they don't want to. It just seems silly to spend an eternity hating yourself when it doesn't have to be that way.
Anyway, I'm still ridiculously behind, so I'm just going to plow into the recap so we can talk about the shenanigans that have been happening in the French Quarter, 'kay? Kay.
Previously, on The Originals: New Orleans was the Mikaelsons' home once, back from the early 1700s to 1919, and last year, Klaus decided he wanted it back. Then, all of his power grabs resulted in a sequence of events that ended up losing Klaus and Elijah their control over the city: Genevieve and Francesca ended up betraying Klaus by 1) enchanting the moonlight stones so that they drew on Klaus' strength, weakening him when the stones were used to keep the werewolves from turning on the full moon, and 2) then giving the stones to Francesca and the recently-revealed and triggered Guerrera werewolves instead of the Crescents as they were intended. Oh, and then Francesca handed Hayley over to the witches in exchange for the stones, which both led to Hayley's death and subsequent transition into being a hybrid after she gave birth to Hope, and almost led to Hope's death as well. So, Hope was sent away to live with Auntie Beks, wherever she's living these days. Wanting to make the city safe enough for Hope to return someday, Klaus convinced Hayley that they have to retake control of the Quarter.
Meanwhile, Marcel decided to rebuild his decimated vampire community after Francesca and her wolves killed nearly all of them, and it looks like rocker-girl Gia is next on the list to be turned. Oh, yeah, and not only did Davina bring Mikael back to life to punish Klaus, but Esther managed to bring back her spirit AND the spirits of her deceased sons Kol and Finn so they could possess a couple of witches in the Quarter (Harvest girl Cassie, and manwitches Kaleb and Vincent, respectively) to enact Esther's own plan. So far, no one knows about the other, so basically, it's gonna be a shit show. And, now we're caught up!
We kick off this episode in a flashback to Cadiz, Spain in 1701. In the distance, a village seems to have been completely set ablaze, and two men (who we will soon learn are Klaus and Elijah) flee the scene on horseback. They finally make it to a cottage, which is completely trashed-- blood is splattered on everything, bodies are strewn across the floor, and furniture is overturned. Suddenly, Klaus' voice rings out, "Kol!" as very long-haired versions of himself and Elijah rush into the cottage, and, surprisingly, they are both disgusted by what they see. "All my efforts to keep this family concealed," Elijah spits angrily. "Yet, debauchery like this has led Father directly to us." I love how back in these days, Elijah had an accent. Nice detail! Anyway, Klaus once again yells for Kol and insists that it's no time for games. That's when Kol (in his original, also long-haired body that looks just like Nate Buzolic) stumbles into the room, still feeding on a woman who is struggling weakly against his grasp. Eventually, he bleeds her dry and drops her lifeless body unceremoniously to the floor before turning toward his brothers and quipping, "Come, come, brother! It's always time for games."
(via oh-my-sins)
Kol picks up a nearby metal mug full of wine, or mead, or whatever booze they drank in the early 18th century, and takes a swig while Elijah firmly insists that they need to flee, because Mikael has almost caught up with them. Kol, only half-listening, sits himself on a chair and kicks his boot-clad feet onto the table before retorting, "If Mikael were upon us, I imagine Niklaus would be quite dead." Klaus is furious now, and he angrily points out that he barely managed to escape him, and that he had dramatically left the head of his horse speared on a pike in the middle of the town square. UGH, Mikael seriously is the worst. What kind of moral superiority does he have over his children, again? Because I'm pretty sure Mikael tops literally anything Klaus has ever done, and he's pretty much a monster in his own right. Anyway, Kol feigns horrification and whispers, "He killed poor Theo? What a BEAST." LOL, Nate Buzolic's delivery of that line was flawless, it's making me forget just how much I absolutely love Kol. He reminds them that since Mikael hates Klaus the most of all of them, he'll likely just chase Klaus above all else if he flees, leaving the rest of them able to stick around and do as they please. "Perhaps I'll make myself mayor?" Kol suggests, but Elijah is not at all amused by his antics. He informs his little brother that it's of utmost importance that they stick together, and adds that since Rebekah and Finn are already on the ship, they should probably get a move on.
(via davinasclaire)
Still, Kol isn't really keen on leaving, and drops some truth bombs on them. "Rebekah does what she's told because she fears Nik! And Finn is in no position to argue, given the dagger in his heart." He insists that he'll take his chances without him, but when he turns to leave, Elijah is blocking his path. Annoyed, he turns heel to go the other direction, but Klaus is blocking him, as well. Kol's eyes widen in alarm as he realizes what's about to happen to him, just as Klaus states, "I find it amusing that you think you have a choice." He pulls out another dagger and holds it against Kol's chest while Elijah grabs his arms and pins them beind his back. "No!" Kol howls, as he struggles against them. "I swear to you, the day will come when I'm not so easily subdued! And, on that day, I will make you suffer!" Klaus is like, "Yeah, whatever-- today's not that day, so..." and jams the dagger in Kol's heart to the strains of Meg Myers' "Go," whose metal guitar riffs are a SUPER awesome juxtaposition to the old-fashioned flashback. We can just add "amazing soundtrack" to the endless list of reasons why this show is the fucking best.
Kol starts to desiccate and screams in pain before we return to the present-day, where Kol, who is still possessing Kaleb and will henceforth be referred to as Koleb, is walking down the streets of the French Quarter. He smirks as he spots a pretty girl in a sundress passing him as he crosses the street, so he uses some magical telekinesis to blow the girl's skirt up. Oh, I forgot how lecherous Kol is. He then turns the corner and passes a fruit stand, where he grabs an apple off of a pile and proceeds to bite into it without paying. The owner of the stand starts to protest, but Kol just uses telekinesis again to knock the stand over completely so he's too preoccupied to make a scene about it. He continues down the street, but stops when he sees Davina walking out of a café with a coffee. Koleb eats his apple and stares at her as she hails a cab to take her back to wherever it is she's going, giving us an excellent close-up of Daniel Sharman's scruffy face before we make our way to the TITLE CARD!
When we return, Elijah has just returned to the Mikaelson compound, where he finds several dead and bloody bodies littering the courtyard. There are bloody paw prints leading into one of the halls that eventually turn into human footprints, which Elijah follows into the bathroom, where Hayley is taking a bubble bath. Elijah takes note of another drained body next to the doorway as he takes in the sight of Hayley in the bath. She turns her head towards him and sarcastically asks if he's come to check up on her, but Elijah just plays it cool and points out what an eventful evening she seems to have had. "I was having a crappy day, so Klaus took me to the Cauldron," Hayley explains glibly. "Wouldn't you know, we ran into some witches." Elijah, who has taken the Stefan role in this redux of the Stefan/Elena/Damon triangle after Elena was turned into a vampire, retorts, "So, would you like me to remove your leftovers?" but Hayley isn't really in the mood for his judgement. So, she stands up in the tub, in all her naked (and kind of alarmingly skinny, if I'm being honest) glory, challenging Elijah to look at her in an attempt to take back the power.
(via maliahales)
Elijah does not avert his eyes one bit, but he does grab her a towel and hands it to her, looking exasperated, leading Hayley to roll her eyes in annoyance. COME ON YOU GUYS, PLAY NICE. I feel like they're both very much the same in the way that they strike out at others when they're feeling insecure, and it's just causing all kinds of tension and pushing of each others' buttons. Hayley brings up the fact that he shouldn't really be judging her, since it's not like she's done anything Klaus hasn't done a thousand times over, but Elijah makes an excellent point-- she should probably be holding herself to a higher standard than Niklaus Mikaelson, you know? "I'm a hybrid now," Hayley argues defiantly. "And I have a werewolf temper to go with my new appetite. And, the witches who tried to kill my baby are worth nothing more than food." She then excuses herself to go get dressed, leaving a frustrated Elijah to go find Klaus and tear him a new one about his recent extracurricular activities with Hayley.
"You took her on a WITCH HUNT?" Elijah asks incredulously, but Klaus insists it was intended to just be a mission to get the witches to find the white oak stake with a locator spell. It just turned into a witch hunt after the witches weren't able to locate it, since we learned in the last episode that Davina has been cloaking it for that very reason, so Klaus unleashed Hayley to take out her frustration on them. And, since Klaus has been solidified as the "Damon" in this iteration of the triangle, the following argument that the two brothers have is pretty expected, although still totally relevant to their current situation.
ELIJAH: "She grows more savage by the day! Can you not see that she is falling apart?"
KLAUS: "Perhaps the problem is your high standards? Hayley is one of us now. Being a vampire only exaggerates what you are, and wolves are wild things. She knows she can never live up to the pretty little picture you paint of her in your head. Your judgement only hurts her more."
ELIJAH: "I am trying to help her, and I asked you to help her, brother."
KLAUS: [rises to his feet] "I am helping! You should have seen her last night-- covered in witches' blood, and smiling from ear to ear! She is embracing this. A little less criticism from you, and Hayley will be just fine."
ELIJAH: [incredulous] "Niklaus! The mother of your child deserves much better than just fine!"They both have pretty good arguments, imo. Klaus totally has a point when he says that Elijah has pretty much put Hayley on a pedestal. It seems pretty clear that while Elijah is a vampire who doesn't exactly hate being one, he never, ever wanted this for Hayley, and although he may not be as self-hating as his eldest brother Finn, he still eschews the ultraviolence of his kind unless he's protecting his loved ones. So, now that he sees Hayley killing/feeding on witches indiscriminately, especially after what she did to Francesca, I really do think Elijah's perception of Hayley has definitely been tarnished. And, since we know that Hayley is overwhelmed by insecurity since she's been, especially after Hayley's talk with Elijah at the end of the last episode-- she triggered her werewolf curse when she was twelve years old, and since then has been taught to see vampires as parasitic monsters. Now, she's a hybrid, and there's nothing she can do to change it, and she's being blamed by other werewolves for something that she had no choice about (and by the people who actually indirectly led to her being turned in the first place *coughOLIVERcough*) so all she can do is feed her heart out and hope that the bloodlust will help drown out all of the other feelings.
BUT, Elijah has his own good argument, too. "You'll take her to the Bayou," he insists to his wary brother. "Find any remaining wolves. Perhaps her people can reach her. Now, more than ever, she needs a connection to something, some of her humanity." Granted, he also makes the mistake of equating humanity to dignity, but still-- isn't this pretty much the case of every newly-turned vampire? Helping them find a link to their humanity so that they don't turn into mindless monsters who feed on literally every human they come across? Still, Klaus looks skeptical, and Elijah is clearly annoyed at Klaus' bad influence on Hayley, and UGH, can't everyone just get along?
Across the river, Marcel and his new group of vampire recruits are meeting near Marcel's loft. Gia is in a nearby alley, playing the bongo drums amongst other street musicians, artists, and vendors, while Marcel gives one of those big speeches of which he's so fond while Elijah hides nearby and eavesdrops. "Gia's proven herself. She knows what she's getting into. So, she's going to be the first one that I turn. Everybody else? First, I need to be sure that you can handle moving up a notch on the food chain. The emotional ups and downs, the solitude, and bloodlust... Imagine hearing the sound of a heart beating, beating, beating, and wanting more than anything to feed. That's what it's like to be a vampire. It's not for everybody. Some folks, well... let's just say it brings out the worst in them."
Before we move onto the next flashback, I just want to talk a little about Marcel's vampire-turning practices. I always wondered what his methods were, how he decided who to turn, and how turning these people resulted in such a loyal community of vampires, so this speech has been very enlightening. I'm glad that he's not just turning people willy-nilly, you know? We've all seen firsthand in these shows what happens when the wrong people get turned into vampires (see Vicki Donovan and Ivy on the Vampire Diaries), so it's cool to see that he's concerned with the future of the vampire species. He reminds me a bit of Raphael Santiago from the Mortal Instruments books-- he loves being a vampire, and indulges in his cravings whenever he feels like it, but as leader of his clan, he's also very concerned about following the Law and ensuring that 1) vampires aren't exposed to the world, and 2) that the vampires practice restraint, since if they all kill off all the humans, they'll eventually have nothing to eat.
But, I digress! Back to the story. So, Elijah takes Marcel's last sentence to heart, which transports him to a flashback to 1821 New Orleans, right after the Mikaelsons saved Marcel from the abuse he sustained from being a slave and brought them into their home. Also, as much as I am LOVING these Kol flashbacks, I'm just a tiny bit bummed that there's no Rebekah. She wasn't daggered yet, was she? I'm pretty sure that wasn't until Marcel was older and they were all sneaking around Klaus' back. ANYWAY, Elijah is standing near the piano in one of the compound's many rooms, and watches as bb Marcel stumbles his way through some classical piece that I don't recognize. He eventually stops play and complains that he can't do it, but Elijah, ever the sweet teacher, just replies, "Now, you once said the same thing of your reading, and now you devour everything from sonnets to scriptures! So, devote yourself to your music, and soon, you shall be Johann Sebastian Bach." as he smiles at Marcel with pride. Aw, Elijah! I need more interactions between him and children, because it is seriously super adorable. Of course, Klaus somehow gets some feeling that someone other than himself is getting attention, because he staggers into the room and immediately ruins the moment.
"Well, isn't this nice? My older brother and my ward, getting along like two peas in a pod." Elijah is smart enough to know when to quit while he's ahead, so he turns to Marcel and assures him they'll resume their lesson later. "Why don't you resume your Hamlet? Act one, scene three today." He affectionately pats Marcel on the back and sends him on his way, and as he leaves the room, Klaus hilariously tries to do the same and completely misses his shoulder before trying to play it off like he hadn't. Drunk Klaus is the best Klaus, let's be real. Elijah just takes one look at him and snarks, "Congratulations, you've been DRINKING," but Klaus insists that he doesn't have anything better to do because of the "lifeless monotony" that has befallen the compound, particularly because Rebekah is still pissed at him for killing her boyfriend Emil, the Governor's son and Marcel's half-brother. Elijah points out that since Klaus literally threw him over the balcony to his death, he probably should have anticipated this outcome, but Klaus continues to be a pouty baby.
"You monopolize young Marcellus with schooling," Klaus begins, as he pours himself another drink. "He and I used to have so much fun. If only there was someone with whom I could share a bit of roguery." Elijah is annoyed with Klaus' usual theatrics, and has just left the room mid-conversation when Klaus follows him out and pulls a white-oak-ash dagger from his inner jacket pocket as he reveals that he actually has found someone. Elijah knows EXACTLY what Klaus has just done, and gasps, "You didn't!" but Klaus just shrugs and starts to laugh maniacally while Elijah rushes downstairs.
Sure enough, Kol is awake from his dagger-nap, and is understandably pissed and hungry after about 120 years of being daggered, so when Elijah makes it to the courtyard, he finds that Kol has just finished feeding on and killing all of the servants. When Kol sees his brothers, he claps his hands and exclaims, "Bravo! That was delectable. But, make no mistake, Nik-- I'm still cross that you daggered me. But, as far as apologies go? It's a start." Elijah is NOT a happy camper, and turns toward Klaus and angrily asks him if this is really his idea of fun, but Klaus just throws Elijah's growing friendship back into his face and replies, "Well, you and Marcellus have grown thick as thieves... why should I be alone?" Ohhhh shit.
In the present day, Elijah is still so preoccupied by his daydream-flashback that he didn't even notice that Marcel saw him standing nearby and approached him. Marcel points out that he wasn't exactly expecting to see Elijah on this side of the river, but Elijah just retorts that he didn't expect Marcel to be reassembling a vampire crew, either, which seems kind of silly, because why WOULDN'T Marcel rebuild his army? They got thrown out of the Quarter and are super outnumbered against the werewolves, too, even if the Guerreras are all dead and the original twelve moonlight rings were destroyed, so the only way they can survive is if the vampires who are left (if there are any aside from Josh and Marcel) band together and make more vampires to fight against them. Marcel pretty much agrees with me: "My community was fine until Klaus had the brilliant die to make moonlight rings. Now, that Harvest girl's making more, offering them to the wolves in exchange for their allegiance. And the wolves are just kneeling at her feet. The Quarter's become a dangerous place, and you? You're the last true vampire left! You ask me, you're better off joining MY community. Maybe that's why you're here?"
Unfortunately for Marcel and his plans for the future, Elijah is NOT actually there for join Team Vampire. He is, however, there to propose a deal to Marcel-- if Marcel helps Elijah find the missing white oak stake, then Elijah will allow Marcel to keep doing his "vampire social experiment" without any of Elijah's violent interference. Marcel isn't that thrilled that Elijah is pulling rank on him once again, so he just smiles fakely and reminds him that he has no idea where the stake is. Elijah figured as much, though, because like Marcel said in the last episode, the white oak stake isn't a weapon that gives Marcel any kind of advantage; however, Marcel is the only one of Elijah's allies who has an amiable relationship with Davina, and Elijah is sure that she can help them by doing a locator spell for it.
"Thing is, I'd speak to her myself, but I feel the conversation might become a little unpleasant," Elijah adds, and though Marcel interprets this as a veiled threat against Davina, I honestly think that Elijah was referring to the last time he saw Davina, when she magically forced him to choke up all the blood he had drunk before knocking him out cold. If I were him, I wouldn't be eager to have another meeting with her when she's still that pissed at him, either! So, Marcel insists that Elijah will not, under any circumstances, go near Davina, which is just what Elijah wanted to hear. "Then, it's settled!" Elijah declares with a smirk. "You'll deal with the matter personally." He pats Marcel patronizingly on the shoulder before he walks away, and Marcel just sighs.
Over at St. Anne's Church, Davina and Mikael are both in the attic, where Mikael is restlessly pacing around the room as he watches Davina poring over Esther's grimoire and taking notes in a magical language in a small notebook. Bored, Mikael sighs and drawls, "How frustrating. A novice trying to interpret the work of a master." LOL! I get the feeling that Esther and Mikael didn't like each other much near the end of their marriage, but I do love how Mikael still brags about how powerful Esther was. Maybe the dislike is mostly just on Esther's end? Davina frustratedly snaps that she's just trying to figure out a simple de-linking spell, but Mikael reminds her that erasing the link between Klaus and all of the thousands of vampires he's sired (and those who were sired by them, and so on) isn't exactly SIMPLE. Davina argues back that she's not trying to unlink ALL of the vampires, just Marcel and Josh, which once again makes me wonder if this plan is going to have any effect on the vampires of Mystic Falls, all of whom were sired from Klaus' bloodline except for Alaric, who was created by magic like the Originals were. Still, Davina insists that she's been studing Esther's grimoire for weeks, so it's just a matter of time before she figures it out, but Mikael is desperate to get out and slaughter his kids, you know, so he'd like to speed up the process as much as he can.
He even goes so far as to offer to help her with the spell, which makes me kind of suspicious, to be totally honest-- he's a vampire-hating vampire, so he's not going to want to do anything that will keep him from killing every vampire he can get his stake on, right? Even if he is genuinely trying to help her, I can't imagine he wouldn't just end up killing Marcel and Josh himself anyway if Davina did end up figuring out the spell to unlink them. So, Davina quite understandably doesn't trust him, and points out that it's very likely that he's just trying to trick her into casting a spell that would release him from the bracelet she uses to control him. "You know, for somebody who despises Klaus so much, you certainly share his paranoia," Mikael snits. "The sooner you perform the spell, the sooner I'll be free to kill the bastard." Davina is so tired of his shit that she's thrilled to receive a text message to distract her from his constant whining. When she checks her phone, she sees that it's a message from Koleb, which reads, "Coffee? Now-ish?" Davina smiles and leaves the attic, quickly making her way down the stairs and through the main room of the church. Unbeknownst to Davina, Koleb is hiding around a nearby corner, and when he's confirmed that she's gone, he slips up the stairs toward the attic to do some snooping.
Afterward, he meets up with Casther and Finncent at Lafayette Cemetery so that he can give his mother and brother an update on his progress. He informs them that he's nearly positive that she's hiding something in the attic, because the door was locked with what he describes as a "rather complex" spell. Casther figures it must be a weapon or a source of power, and adds that since she'd rather not have any surprises in the future, she wants him to take Davina out to dinner to figure out what magical back-up plan and with which team she's aligned to be on the safe side. Koleb points out that he had to stand her up for their coffee date so he could get into the attic, so she's probably not going to want to go out with him now, but Finn, not one for excuses, snaps at him to just do what he's told. "Oh, of course!" Koleb bellows in annoyance. "Finn the sycophant speaks up! Are you gonna grovel at your mother's heels for eternity, or what?"
Their mother breaks up their fight before it can even really begin and reminds them that they have more than enough conflict to come without adding their own squabbling to it. They finally arrive to what I'm thinking might be the lyceé/coven house, a huge stone building among the crypts in the cemetery that also I think may be where Hope was almost sacrificed in "From a Cradle to a Grave" last season. It would make sense to have a magical school for ancestral witches in a cemetery where all of their dead ancestors are buried, right?Waiting for the three of them there are a group of at least a dozen disheveled-looking werewolves, who, of course, are immediately called "free-loaders," by Koleb, though Casther calmly corrects him-- they're their new friends, and, more specifically, they're werewolves in need Esther's moonlight rings, which only she can supposedly provide. They then move inside one of the crypts, where Esther has a veritable sweatshop of witches making moonlight rings as quickly as their little fingers can make them. Casther insists that it won't be long now before they have enough for an army. "And, when we do, we will pay your brothers a visit," Esther adds, as she picks up a stone and looks at it curiously. "We will teach them the unfortunate errors of their vampire ways." Oh, this is so not going to end well.
Over in the Bayou, Hayley and Klaus are wandering around in hopes of finding wherever the Crescents have been living, as per Elijah's earlier orders. Hayley's outfit in this scene is fabulous and I want ALL of it-- black acid-washed jean jacket over a tight black top and dark skinny jeans with stompy boots. Ungh, I love her style on this show. ANYWAY, Hayley reminds Klaus that the encampments have been deserted, but Klaus, who has full control over his senses since becoming a true hybrid, insists that their scent is fresh, which means that the Crescents must be hiding nearby in a place they will eventually find. "And then what?" Hayley snits. "It's not exactly like they're going to welcome us-- if there's one thing these people hate more than vampires, it's HYBRIDS." Still, Klaus argues that what the New Orleans werewolves hate is that they don't have any power, which is why so many of them have joined Team Casther/Finncent. Since the Crescents have yet to join up with her, it's imperative that the two of them get to them first and sway them to their side.
Hayley doesn't seem confident in their ability to find them, but Klaus points out one ability of hybrids that I don't think has been explicitly confirmed until now, but I'm glad it was: not only do hybrids have the perks of vampires, but they also have complete access to their werewolf senses at all times. Which means Hayley, as the only non-Original hybrid in existence (and maybe Hope someday, if we ever figure out what her full range of abilities is) has the most heightened senses of any creature on earth except for Klaus. He gives her a look and encourages her to try to sniff out her pack, so Hayley reluctantly closes her eyes and breathes in deep. Klaus looks at her curiously when it seems that Hayley has caught a scent, but when she opens her eyes, she just rolls them before snarking, "This is stupid." Klaus is frustrated by Hayley's lack of confidence, and argues, "Your people need a leader! YOU are their queen!"
This clearly puts a lot of pressure on Hayley, because she turns back toward him and retorts, "I am a MESS. I cry all day, I feed all night. All I can think about is how much I miss my daughter." Klaus reminds her that she's not alone in the grief that she feels, and in her frustration, she demands to know if he's even thought about Hope once since she's left, and it shows just how much Klaus has grown since last season that he doesn't totally rip her head off for suggesting such a thing. "I have not STOPPED thinking about her! When it pains me, I seek comfort in the idea of what I will do to those who would harm her." He then gestures to a nearby overturned chair near the encampments, where a flannel jacket has been unceremoniously thrown over it. Having been properly motivated with the thought of her daughter returning home to them, she sighs and rolls her eyes again before lifting the sleeve of the coat and sniffing it. Klaus encourages her to concentrate, and after a moment of focusing on the scent, she follows the trail, which leads away from where they were standing. Klaus follows after her, smiling proudly as he goes.
Back across the river, Elijah is standing in the alley, watching two older men playing chess, when Marcel returns to update him on their plan. Apparently, Davina is coming to see Marcel there, since vampires still aren't welcome in the Quarter, and Marcel insists that Elijah needs to get the fuck out of there before she arrives. Elijah argues right back that he's not leaving until he knows where the stake is and whom is in possession of it, but Marcel has an excellent point-- Davina is hardly going to help them out if she thinks Elijah or Klaus has any part in it whatsoever. "First thing I learned living with your family--" Marcel adds. "Wherever you people go, threats and bloodshed are soon to follow." He once again repeats that Elijah needs to stay the fuck out of sight and try not to kill anyone while he's meeting with Davina. Then, he turns to meet Davina, leaving Elijah to be transported into yet another flashback.
It's 1821 again, and Elijah has just returned home to find Klaus and Kol playing chess in one of the many rooms of the compound. "Forty-six," Elijah rants, as he paces around the room. "An entire tenement. FORTY-SIX BODIES DRAINED!" Kol insists that this is nonsense, and after a beat, he adds, "It was at least sixty!" Klaus can't help but laugh when Kol jokes that the authorities must have neglected to check the attic, and hilariously points out that it makes no sense whatsoever that their victims always try to run to the attic. Elijah is extremely annoyed, as expected, because he keeps doing whatever he can to make sure that Mikael doesn't track them down, and his efforts are nullified by the fact that Kol and Klaus can't help mass-murdering people in ways that are sure to draw the wrong kind of attention.
Of course, Klaus, ever the petulant one, at least in these days, snits, "I'm surprised you have the time to concern yourself with us, given the hours you spend doting on Marcellus." Elijah quickly realizes that all of Klaus' shenanigans with Kol have been because of his jealousy of the relationship Elijah has been building with bb Marcel, and then puts his foot down-- since Klaus' actions are sure to bring Mikael back to them, it's no longer safe for Marcel to live with them, so they'll have to send him away. Furious, Klaus retorts, "You would punish the boy for Kol's antics? I would just as soon put him in a box!" LOL! No wonder Kol is so resentful, good lord. Kol is super offended, and asks if Klaus would really choose "that whelp" over his own family, so Klaus replies that Marcel IS their family and makes the final decision that Marcel will be staying, no matter what.
In the present day, Elijah pulls himself out of his memories and focuses on the task at hand. Nearby, Marcel has met up with Davina in a nearby building. They both break out into the most beauteous smiles when they see each other, and though Davina immediately asks him what's going on, Marcel first insists upon getting a hug. Before they talk business, Marcel asks her how she's doing, and mentions that he heard she went back to school. When he asks her if she's made any friends, she briefly mentions her interactions with Koleb. "I don't know... this one guy asked me out, but then he stood me up." Marcel just looks incredulous, and replies, "He stood you up? Say the word, and he's dead." AW MARCEL. God, I love everyone so much this season, I cannot get over it. Davina just laughs, and Marcel decides it's as good a time as any to get to the point. "Okay, I hate to ask for a favor, but... I need a locator spell. Something's missing... a white oak stake that's powerful enough to kill an Original." Davina's face goes from delighted to horrified, and she whispers, "Did one of them put you up to this?" Marcel, confused, reminds Davina that if the stake is used on Klaus, literally every single vampire sired by him will die, including himself.
Davina points out that she's quite aware, and tries to suggest that while she's not the one who holds it, if she WERE to find it, it's not like she could in good conscience hand over the stake to them. "He and Elijah are both brutal, sadistic monsters!" Of course, that's when Elijah comes out of the woodwork. "I do wish I could disagree with you," Elijah says pleasantly as he walks toward him, and Marcel is so annoyed he can't help but sigh in frustration and roll his eyes. "Tragically, however, you're quite right." Davina is appalled that Marcel would bring him into this as Elijah continues. "Although, you and I both have excellent reason to find that weapon. I want to protect my family, and you want to protect your friends. We'd do well to forget our grievances and join forces." I think Elijah truly believed that he was being fair and considerate, but he GROSSLY underestimated Davina's resentment toward the Mikaelson brothers. Davina furiously makes clear that she has no intention of helping him, and when Marcel tries to talk her down, she cuts him off. "No! NO. I'm-I'm DONE listening." She then turns to Elijah with hatred in her eyes and adds, "For a long time, you and your family have had all the power. You manipulate and kill anyone who gets in your way. That time's over. From now on, you can know what it is to be afraid."
(via davinasclaire)
She storms off, leaving a supremely pissed Marcel and a surprised but intrigued Elijah behind to squabble amongst themselves. As soon as she's out of earshot, Marcel angrily argues that he told Elijah to stay out of their meeting, but Elijah maintains that he needed to speak with her face-to-face. Marcel assumes he means he purposely wanted to piss Davina off enough so that she wouldn't want to help them, but Elijah confesses that he had a different intention entirely. "I wanted to see for myself," he explains. "She cares for you, and yet, how cavalier she was at the jeopardy you now face." Marcel is confused and asks him what the fuck he's trying to say, so Elijah reveals the theory that Davina's behavior just confirmed-- "She knows the stake will not be used because she knows precisely where it is. She's had it all along." This isn't at all a revelation for us, of course, but it will certainly play a huge role in how these different groups of people vying for power will interact from now on, and I, for one, am super pumped!
Back in the Bayou, Hayley and Klaus have finally found where the rest of the Crescents have been hanging out, and are lurking on the outskirts of the clearing while they plan their next move. As expected, since Jackson has apparently gone AWOL on them, Oliver has decided to step up and fill the power vacuum as the alpha. When Hayley points this out, however, Klaus reminds her that her new vampire nature hasn't negated the Crescent clan birthmark on her shoulder blade, and that she needs to talk to them as a reminder that she's one of them. Nervous, Hayley hesitantly ventures out into the clearing to talk to them, with Klaus following behind her, though, naturally, Oliver takes one look at them and sneers, "The hell you two want?" Klaus is appalled at this bit of disrespect, as he usually is when people who he sees as beneath him dare backtalk him, and immediately threatens to rip his tongue out if he doesn't shut up. Hayley's not pleased that Klaus is already getting snippy, so she gives Klaus the stink eye before turning to Oliver and saying her piece. "Our pack has been divided by people who want us to be their slaves. What we need right now is a leader. Someone who will reunite us and make us strong again. Someone who will fight for our pack. If you let me, I can be that person."
I was totally inspired by her speech, because watching Hayley find purpose with her family and learning to embrace her inner leader last season was a joy, in my opinion, but, of course, Oliver has to be a huge dick about it. "You think we can trust you? You're not one of us! Hell, you're not even a wolf! You're a blood-sucking vampire parasite." Yeah, says the guy whose scheming not only got many of his own people killed (including Eve), but it also resulted in Hayley getting handed over to Genevieve and the witches, which led to Hayley getting murdered and turned into a hybrid in the first place. It's not like she asked for this, you know? I don't know if Oliver is just being an ignorant dick or if he's projecting his own guilt on her or what, but I really don't like it. Klaus just rolls his eyes, and Hayley, not willing to let Oliver get to her, urges him to say what he just said again to see what happens. Oliver is showing off for the pack, though, and just keeps on his streak of douchenozzling. "You tough girl. You're gonna attack me? In front of all them? You'll just give them another reason to say yes to Cassie and her moonlight rings. Yeah, they would rather follow a WITCH than you. Me? Hell, I'd rather DIE than follow you." DAMN, dude, who hurt you?
Klaus is not about to allow the mother of his child be slandered in such a way, so he zoops over to Oliver, knocks him flat on his ass, and stomps on his chest with his boot-clad foot as he praises Oliver for not making him drag this out. Hayley immediately gets pissed at him and yells at him to let Oliver go, which, of course, was exactly Klaus' goal all along. He plays the bad-guy and retorts, "You need to learn about the art of politics, love! You gain support by KILLING your detractors!" Hayley argues that despite the fact that the Crescents clearly aren't her biggest fans anymore, they're still her family, even Oliver, and once again orders him to let Oliver go. Klaus takes notice of all the wolves watching Hayley intently and smiles proudly before taking his foot off of Oliver's sternum. "You see?" Klaus declares loudly to the crowd of werewolves. "There's your queen. Powerful, fearless, and-- unlike me-- MERCIFUL." He then turns to Hayley and reminds her that the wolves need to show her more respect before informing her that she's in charge now-- whatever she decides to do w/r/t the Crescents is now up to her. Confused, Hayley asks Klaus where he's going, so Klaus replies that he's out to find Cassie and give her a little lesson on what is and isn't allowed to be done in "his" city.
Meanwhile, Elijah and Marcel are strolling around the streets of whatever neighborhood is "across the river" from the French Quarter, discussing what they've learned so far. Marcel is sure that Davina won't use the stake on Klaus, since she knows it will kill him and Josh as well, but, as Elijah points out, that doesn't exactly stop her from using the stake on ELIJAH, who didn't sire any of her friends. (Do we even know any vampires who were turned by Elijah or someone Elijah turned? I don't think we've met any so far.) "I guess you better behave!" Marcel says with a wry smile, but Elijah is not at all amused. He tries to appeal to Marcel's rational side by asking what would happen if someone else found out that Davina had the stake, or if, god forbid, an enemy learned that the stake exists and manages to get their hands on it. Marcel concedes to Elijah's point once he realizes that this could totally put Davina in danger as well, and promises that he'll convince her to give up the stake. Unfortunately for Marcel, Elijah isn't really inspired by Marcel's promises, and makes it clear that Davina will end up giving back the stake, voluntarily or not, which does nothing to improve Marcel's mood. "Look. Hey, do you ever wonder why your family has so many enemies? It's because you make stupid moves like this. It really makes me wonder how the HELL I ever survived you people."
Marcel has an excellent point there, though-- both Elijah and Klaus are getting much better about their "Oh, this guy is inconveniencing me/betraying me/not agreeing with me, so he has to die"-problems, but they're still pretty trigger-happy in ways that will certainly end up fucking them over eventually. Anyway, this comment launches Elijah back to ANOTHER flashback to 1821. In it, bb Marcel (who has still-wet blood dribbles on his lips) is sitting in the courtyard (which back then had a dirt floor) with Kol, watching a dozen presumably-compelled actors performing Hamlet for them. "Please, let me go," Marcel stammers anxiously. "Mr. Kol, I don't--I don't like this." Kol hilariously replies, "Don't be absurd! Shakespeare should be experienced in the flesh! In truth, these aren't the finest actors, but we ARE in the colonies." BAHAHAHA. I had forgotten how much I missed Nate Buzolic's version of Kol until this episode, tbh, though I absolutely adore Daniel Sharman and I want him to stay forever. Can Kol get his original body back and then we can just keep Kaleb as a cooperative witch? Hell, they can even turn him into a vampire, I don't care, I just want both Nate Buzolic AND Sharman on this show. Unless Sharman decides to go back to Teen Wolf, which is another option I would wholeheartedly support. Pleeeeease?
ANYWAY, Kol gestures for the stage to alert the actors to resume their play, so one man bellows, "In venom to thy work!" and runs another man through with a sword right in front of Marcel's eyes. Marcel gasps in shock, terrified at this turn of events, as another actor replies, "Exchange forgiveness with me, noble harlot--" until Kol cuts him off, annoyed that the man has butchered Shakespeare for daring to quote the passage incorrectly. He informs the man that it's actually "Hamlet," not "harlot" and snaps the poor guy's neck without a second thought. Fortunately for Marcel, Elijah and Klaus finally arrive, having heard all the commotion. Elijah immediately demands to know what the fuck Kol is doing, so Kol tries to claim that he was just introducing Marcel to the theater, something Kol figured would please Elijah. However, considering Marcel is just a kid, exposing him to compelled people being slaughtered in front of him isn't at all what Elijah wants Marcel to have to deal with. "If the lad is going to be a vampire, he'll have to learn somehow, won't he?" Kol argues in frustration. "Come, I've already fed him some blood. All you have to do is snuff him, and voila! One of us."
He sees Elijah's furious look, and it becomes clear that this was all just a test to see where his brothers' loyalties really lied. "Well, that's what you WANT isn't it?" Elijah grabs Kol in a chokehold, and Klaus grabs Kol's arms in a nice parallel to the first flashback in this episode. However, Klaus gives Elijah a look and tells him to let go, and after a tense moment, Elijah does that. If you think this is some kind of growth on Klaus' part, though, like Kol did, you are about to be sorely mistake. "Thank you, Nik," Kol says pleasantly. "At least SOMEONE knows the meaning of family." Klaus just scowls at him, though, and turns around to face him. "I told you before," he growls, as he pulls his dagger out of his jacket. "Marcellus IS family." Elijah grabs Kol by the arm, while Klaus shoves the dagger into Kol's heart as he struggles to get out of their grip. Yeah, Kol was a bit of a tool back then at best and a murderous sociopath at worse, but man, I guess that explains why he's never been super happy with his brothers in the past.
Meanwhile, in the present day, Elijah and Marcel are still in the same alley as before, where I guess Marcel has just been watching Elijah zone-out this whole time. "I don't fault you for your suspicion," Elijah admits. "Nor Davina for her contempt. That does not alter our present dilemma. She has that stake. I want it back." I kind of love how Elijah straight-up understands that his family is generally monstrous and has a ton of skeletons in their closet, and has no trouble acknowledging that people have every reason to hate them and want to get retribution. I think this has been made especially clear for both Elijah and Klaus in the time since last season's finale, when it finally clicked in Klaus' head that all of the bad things that happened to him/his family-- pregnant Hayley constantly being targeted, Genevieve and Francesca turning on them, Hope nearly getting killed and the fact that she had to be sent away, etc-- are all because of their horrendous actions. Hopefully this means they'll be more mindful in the future? They're still Mikaelsons, though, so I'm trying to maintain expectations.
Davina has returned back to St. Anne's attic, where she is lounging on the couch and continuing to study Esther's grimoire and her own notes. Naturally, Mikael is still pacing and staring at her in annoyance, which bothers her not a bit. She reminds him that as long as she has the bracelet, she owns him, so he needs to get over himself, but it's Mikael, so he's not exactly happy to be receiving such disrespectful talk from someone he clearly believes is beneath him. "You foolish little girl," Mikael sneers angrily. "You imprison me here, you refuse my help, but all the while, that hybrid monstrosity roams this city, free to prey on everyone you care about." He waits for a moment before adding, "...Those few that remain." Davina continues to ignore him, and when her phone suddenly beeps, she happily accepts this distraction from Mikael's whinging. She sees she has both a missed call and missed text from Koleb-- "Can I make it up to you over dinner?" Davina smirks, and takes off.
The sun has set in New Orleans, and it's dark outside when Klaus arrives at Lafayette to track down Cassie. As he walks through the seemingly empty cemetery, he shouts,"What happened to decorum? Does no one greet their guests anymore?" The fact that the Mikaelsons are still so old-fashioned (and yet still hold very progressive beliefs) is one of my favorite things about them, to be honest. The werewolves all start creeping out of their hiding spots in between various mausoleums, some hopping down from the roofs of various crypts until they're all surrounding Klaus dramatically. He declares this to be much better than before, though he does take care to mention that he's disappointed in how many of his strong fellow werewolves have allowed themselves to be, in Klaus' words, "neutered by a sixteen-year-old girl."
When he asks where the witch who has the nerve to create moonlight rings without his express permission, he looks around in hopes of finding her until she finally approaches him, the wolves parting to make way for her as she does so. "Niklaus," Casther replies serenely. "I've been expecting you." Ohhhh, shit! Also, shouldn't he have figured that Cassie was actually his mother much sooner than he actually does? I doubt Genevieve had time to share the moonlight ring spell before Hayley killed her, so who else would know how to do it BUT Esther? Unless Klaus assumed that Esther somehow taught her when she was in limbo or something. I don't know, I know I'm nitpicking but it just seems weird to me.
The two move inside one of the crypts to talk privately, where Klaus sits at the table and watches her suspiciously as she makes tea for them both. "I must offer my condolences on the tragic loss of your child," Casther begins, which DAMN, that's cold, lady! Klaus speaks for all of us when he reminds her that it was actually HER people who sought to kill her before she was "killed by the werewolves." When she says nothing, and simply hands Klaus a cup of tea, he asks her if the tea is supposed to be some sort of a peace offering. Casther points out that it's chamomile, which has many healing properties, and weirdly asks him if he knows that it's a flowering plant as another weird hint as to her true identity. "I did," Klaus replies coldly, not really enjoying her idea of chit-chat. "The plants grew wild near my boyhood home. But, neither the tea, nor your botanical musings explain the reason why you've taken it upon yourself to forge new moonlight rings." In true Esther fashion, she continues to remain totally calm and pleasant despite the fact that Klaus is becoming more tense and aggravated by the second.
CASTHER: "I assumed that was obvious. An alliance between the wolves and the witches would restore balance to our home."
KLAUS: [suspicious] "Well, that's a lofty goal for a teenage girl."
CASTHER: [unperturbed] "Long ago, the witches and the wolves were at peace. Then came the vampires; a plague made flesh, a curse on this earth. You have NO humanity, and so you punish those who do. Witches have a coven, werewolves have a pack, and so we are a constant reminder of everything you have forsaken. Creatures like you will ALWAYS hate the living, and so we will always have to defend ourselves. The rings level the playing field. If we are united, nothing can stand against us."
Klaus, knowing that she's baiting him, tries his best to keep his cool, and feigns kindness when he admits that she has an ambitious strategy, though he makes it well known that he believes she's not taking certain factors into consideration. "But, allow me to offer a few words of advice, if I may be so bold? New Orleans is a vicious place, and your enemies are everywhere. Behind your back, before your eyes... You will need to remain vigilant against those who would seek to destroy you. [pauses] Some of whom you may NEVER see coming." Casther really does seem to know her children, though, especially after spending over a millenia watching them from the Other Side, so she seems to have expected this response. She assures him that she's already began to take precautions, and adds that even as they speak, measures are being taken to ensure that her plan goes smoothly, which only makes Klaus more suspicious and nervous.
Speaking of her plan, Davina and Koleb are chilling at a table at Rousseau's, where the two are starting to get to know each other a little better to the tune of Keep Shelly In Athens' "Recollection." Davina must have just asked him about his family, because Koleb is in the middle of dodging the question by vaguely explaining that his family are "crazy as loons" before asking her about hers. Davina sort-of fills in some blanks for us by briefly expositing that her dad was distant, and that her dad's attitude toward her was much better than her mom's-- since her mom allowed her to be sacrificed in some ritual for more power, I'm going to have to go ahead and agree with her on that one. Koleb jumps on that admission and guesses that her mother is likely a control-freak, and when Davina nods in confirmation, he sympathizes with her. "Yeah, same as mine. She's the reason I stopped practicing magic for so long."
So, I'm going to go on ahead and take that as confirmation that the Mikaelson children did practice a little magic, or at least Kol did, before they were turned into vampires? It would explain how all of them are pretty knowledgeable about magic despite having been vampires for the majority of their lives. Anyway, Davina is shocked to hear that he's a witch, and Koleb cranks up the charm to 100%. "Don't look so surprised, love! I didn't just ask you out because you're gorgeous. No, we're, uh, kindred souls." Davina, confused, asks him what he means by that, so Koleb continues on to say that Davina's story is well known around the Quarter as the Harvest girl who told her entire coven to fuck off.
"I'm a lot like you," Koleb adds after a beat. "Don't really believe in rules and authority. Your courage, it should be celebrated." Well, that's quite a peek into Kol's perspective! And it's not hard to understand why he'd say such a thing, given that he has the most controlling, manipulative, and abusive parents in the universe and his siblings are just about as dysfunctional as you can get after a thousand years of vampirism and squabbling and daggering each other. Anyway, Davina's pretty much smitten at this point, which, of course, is when Marcel calls to ruin the moment. Davina decides to take the call, insisting that Marcel will never stop calling her if she doesn't answer and promising to make it quick.
As soon as she's out of earshot, Finncent comes out of nowhere and creeps up behind Koleb to point out that he's clearly stalling. Koleb is in a bit of a bind, because as nuts as Kol is, I really do think he has a soft spot for Davina now, and unless he is an EXCELLENT actor, there is at least part of him that doesn't want Davina to come to any harm as a result of his mother's plans. Finncent patronizingly orders him to quit complimenting her and get to the point of this entire endeavor, which is to find out what her secret weapon is. "I'm wooing her, FINNCENT," Kol snits hilariously in response. "It requires charm, and personality-- something you'd know nothing about." LOL, sick burn, Kol! And totally accurate, in my opinion-- OG Finn was super hot, if you recall from TVD, but otherwise, he was boring, self-loathing, and too much of a mama's boy to be very interesting in comparison to his much more lively and emotionally-complex siblings. Then again, Finn WAS daggered for like 900+ years of his 1,000+ year life, so it's not like he's had much time to develop a personality, you know? Maybe I'm being too hard on him.
Also, do you think we're ever going to learn anything more about Finn's backstory with his ~true love~ Sage from TVD? You'd think he'd at least know a LITTLE something about relationships with women, right? I wouldn't mind seeing her again in flashbacks, tbh, even if she was kind of gross and misogynistic. Anyway, Finncent once again reminds his little brother that Esther is intent on getting answers, and if Koleb can't get them, then they're going to have to play it his way, instead. Koleb frustratedly asks him if he's planning on boring the answers out of her, but Finn IS a Mikaelson, after all, so of course his plan was much more violent. "If you want to find out if someone has a weapon, you provoke them into using it," Finncent explains to an increasingly-nervous Kol.
We then cut to the outside of the restaurant, where Davina has begrudgingly answered Marcel's call; Marcel talks to her from the passenger seat of Elijah's car as they presumably drive to the Quarter. Davina immediately maintains that she never once said that she had the stake, but Marcel reminds her that since Elijah is convinced she does have it, it's a problem whether she has it or not. Davina rolls her eyes in a perfectly teenage response and states for the record that she doesn't give a fuck what Elijah thinks either way, but Marcel is most concerned about Davina's safety, since anyone who's ever had beef with Elijah or Klaus is going to be coming for her to get that stake. "Fine," Davina concedes. "Let them try." This is not at all what Marcel was hoping would result from this conversation, and he literally has no idea why she's being so stubborn about this. "D, come on! Just tell me where you are!" When Davina remains silent, he adds, "Hey, we can talk about this!" Annoyed, Davina admits that she's at Rousseau's, but insists that Marcel not bother coming after her, because she's certainly not staying now. She heads back into the bar after she hangs up on them, as Elijah gives an exasperated Marcel a look before hitting the gas pedal and increasing their speed.
Inside, the restaurant is full of a crowd of people who are filing out when Davina returns, and she gives Koleb a confused look when she asks him what's happening. Koleb is clearly not pleased by his brother's interference in his plans and claims that some guy announced that the restaurant was being closed for a private party. Davina figures this is a good turn of events, since she needed to get out of there anyway, but when she suggests that they need to go at once, she gets approached by a crowd of burly werewolves. "And what's your rush, sweetheart?" one of the werewolves interrupts with a smirk. "Why don't you stay and party with us?" As we all well know, Davina doesn't really take kindly to condescension, especially when it centers on her being a young, naive girl, so she angrily growls at them to get out of her way, pronto. When the werewolf doesn't move, she hits him with a pain infliction spell and he drops to his knees like a rock. Unfortunately for her, this only makes his fellow wolves jumpy, and they all start to surround Davina and Koleb, the latter of whom is feeling pretty anxious about now. "Can you do that with the rest of them, or...?" Koleb asks, clearly stressed out, but Davina confesses that she can't hit them all at once. I bet she's really missing her extra boost of Harvest magic right about now, eh?
The werewolf she hit with the mystic migraine recovers and rises to his feet before shoving Davina across the room. I think Koleb momentarily forgot that he's not an Original vampire anymore (or at least just got so caught up in defending his new lady friend that he got the (super mistaken) impression that he could totally take on a bunch of moonlight-ring-wearing werewolves who are quite stuck under his mother and Finncent's thumb), because he instantly lunges for the wolf who attacked Davina and gets thrown across the room and into the wall of booze bottles behind the bar. OUCH! I felt that in my bones. The wolves begin to descend upon Davina, who is still sprawled on the floor, so she grips her bracelet and murmurs a spell under her breath. Meanwhile, a couple blocks away, Mikael suddenly senses that something is happening, and smiles widely when he realizes that he can actually leave the attic. Back at Rousseau's, Davina has been grabbed by a different werewolf, who is about to chomp down on her neck when Mikael finally shows up and full-on rips the werewolf off of her, throwing him across the room. "You filthy DOGS," Mikael spits, before he lunges for the werewolves and starts to fight them.
Koleb is coming to behind the bar, and when he peeks over to see what's happening, he is shocked to his core by the sight of his father alive and kicking so much ass in the middle of the restaurant. Mikael snaps one werewolf's neck before ripping out the hearts of a couple others, while Davina once again gets attacked by ANOTHER wolf. When she struggles to get out of his grip, her bracelet falls off of her wrist, which frees Mikael from her control. He turns to her, realizing what has happened, and sneers, "Well, now. What an interesting turn of events!" He roughly grabs her and pulls her to her feet before he vamps out and swears he's going to enjoy this meal, but, before he can go to town on her carotid artery, Elijah arrives and rips him off of her, not realizing right away that the dude he just manhandled is actually his resurrected father.
Once Mikael turns around to face him, the color drains out of Elijah's face, and he whispers, "Father?" Mikael continues to smirk, because you know he gets off on this shit. "Hello, son. I'd hoped to see your brother first, but we have some unfinished business as well." When was the last time Elijah saw Mikael, anyway? I'm pretty sure he was daggered when Klaus killed Mikael in TVD, so it could have been their disastrous meeting in 1919 that we learned about in "Le Grand Guignol," or it could have been later, since I'm pretty sure Mikael was actively hunting them up until he made the mistake of trying to kill baby Elena so she couldn't be used to break Klaus' werewolf curse and was subsequently desiccated by Bonnie's mom in 1990s and entombed in North Carolina, if I remember correctly? Who the fuck knows. Anyway, Elijah starts to attack Mikael, so he pulls the white oak stake out of the waistband of his pants and pins Elijah against a nearby bar while he tries to stake Elijah in the chest. Elijah is struggling to keep the stake from making contact with him when Marcel arrives to rescue Davina. He tells her they're getting the fuck out of there, NOW, but Davina stops him and admits that if she can get her bracelet, she can use it to control Mikael.
Marcel looks around the room and sees the bracelet has fallen next to the head of one of the recently killed werewolves. He checks to make sure Mikael is still occupied with Elijah before dashing over to grab the bracelet. Mikael gets the upperhand in his fight with Elijah, and manages to shove the tip of the stake into Elijah's chest, causing him to roar out in pain. Marcel tosses the bracelet to Davina, which Mikael totally hears. He zoops over to Davina to attack her, but she's already got the bracelet on her wrist and uses it to stop him before he can feed on her. She then orders him to "go back," and though he's clearly loathe to listen to her, he reluctantly vamp-speeds off to do as he's told. Elijah, who is still recovering from his wounds, stares at Davina in horror, and Marcel is both disappointed and scared as well when he finally starts to process the implications of this situation. Davina refuses to feel guilty, though, at least regarding Elijah and Marcel, so she just scowls and shakes her head at them before she takes off as well. Elijah finally notices Koleb crouched behind the bar and staring at the lot of them, and asks, "Something to say?" Wisely, Koleb just responds, "Not me, mate. Not a bloody thing," clearly wanting to maintain his cover for the time being. It's clear that Koleb is just as horrified by the return of his father, which is VERY interesting considering what we learn later.
And, of course, while all of this intense fighting was happening, Klaus and Casther continued to have a very awkward and cryptic tea date in one of the crypts in Lafayette Cemetery. Klaus sips his tea and quite rudely states that his mother also used to make chamomile tea, which he has always loathed. Casther is amused and just replies, "Would you have preferred mint?" Klaus seems to be quickly coming around to what is going on with Cassie/Esther, and starts fishing. "You know, she was insane, my mother," Klaus begins, and when Casther raises her eyebrows at him, he continues on. "No, it's true. She believed we were abominations. 'A curse on this earth, stretched over generations,' is how she put it. But, SHE was the true monster. She changed her children, stole our innocence, made us vampires, condemned us to an eternity of bloodlust, and then acted as though WE were to blame."
YESSSS! Klaus can often be petulant and childish, but this is NOT one of those times. This time, he is speaking the absolute truth when it comes to Esther and Mikael, and really solidifies what I've been saying since we learned that they would be coming back-- considering all of the terrible things that Esther and Mikael have done, to their children and to others in the name of making up for their past mistakes, gives them no moral high ground whatsoever over the children they call monsters. Anyway, this definitely hit Casther where it hurts, so she concedes, "She sounds AWFUL," before adding, "Are you building to a question, Niklaus?" As it turns out, it was her way of addressing him that first tipped Klaus off. "You use my full name, as though we are familiars," Klaus replies coldly. "I find it insulting. Before she died, a witch revealed that your coven was under my mother's influence." He smiles fakely and asks if Esther has been speaking to her since Cassie's return, but Casther just smiles and insists that Esther doesn't have to talk to her, because she already knows exactly what she would say. "She would tell you to go to your room for being SO rude."
Yeah, that was probably the wrong way to go about it, there, Essie. As expected, Klaus loses his temper and slams his hand on top of Casther's and looks her in the eye. There's something about the way that she looks at him that gives Klaus a revelation, but before he can comment on it, a group of her werewolf minions come in and surround him threateningly. Casther assures them that things are fine, and that "Niklaus" was just leaving, taking great care to further antagonize him by continuing to use his given name. Klaus insists that he'd happily slaughter the lot of the werewolves, but Casther reminds him that since he still hopes to leave the werewolves, doing so would be killing the people he hoped to lead at some point, which, naturally, makes Klaus absolutely furious. "Besides, there's no need for bloodshed," she continues calmly. "We can always resume this discussion another day." She pauses before wishing him a good night, and promising that they will be speaking again quite soon until Klaus finally leaves.
When Elijah arrives home, he meets Klaus in the wine cellar so that they can discuss the day's events. Elijah is clearly horrified and anxious, but, as usual, Klaus is too wrapped up in his own shit to really notice. He breaks the neck off of a bottle of wine and starts immediately starts ranting. "It is worse than we thought. I met the witch, Cassie. I studied her, her presence, the way she carried herself. The fervor with which she voiced her hatred of our kind. I looked into that girl's eyes, and I swear to you, Elijah, she's not just GUIDED by our mother. She IS our mother." Elijah is even more stunned than he was previously, and he breathlessly exclaims, "What is HAPPENING?"
Klaus swears that he's going to kill her, and goes as far as to say that he'll boil her bones and feed her to the dogs if that's what it takes to finally get rid of her. Elijah tries to interrupt him, but, of course, Klaus is on a roll, and he incredulously asks him what could possibly be more important than the return of their mother. Elijah just stares at Klaus, and is like, "Uh, how about our dear old father?" He goes on to say that he saw Mikael today, quite alive and enslaved by one of Davina's spells. AND, to make matters worse, Mikael has the stake, so if she decides to send him after them, they're fucked. Klaus takes a deep breath before stating, "Well, then, there's only one question we need to ask, isn't there? Which of our parents do we kill first?" AWWW YISS!
The two brothers walk out into the courtyard, where Hayley has just returned home with the rest of the Crescent wolves she and Klaus tracked down in the Bayou. She tells them that they can take any of the rooms on the first floor as Klaus approaches her, leaving Elijah to lurk and eavesdrop from across the room. "Are we running a kennel, now?" Klaus asks rudely (especially considering that, hello, he's a werewolf, too!), but Hayley insists that she'll take care of them. Klaus informs her that they're currently under siege by the batshit Mikaelson parents, so it's not exactly the time for guests, but Hayley has an excellent point-- if these wolves aren't with them, then they're going to end up joining the witches, which isn't exactly in their best interest, either. "You asked me to step up," Hayley maintains. "This is me stepping up." Klaus just smiles and quips that he may be a good influence on Hayley after all, which launches Elijah into the last flashback of the night.
It's just after they daggered Kol for the second time, and Elijah is dressing him in clean clothes and placing him in his coffin while Elijah has a little one-sided chat with his baby bro.
ELIJAH: "I see a change in him. For the first time in centuries, he acted solely for the benefit of another. I believe that young Marcellus, with whom he can identify and even nurture, holds the key to our brother's troubled soul. Unfortunately, Kol, your wretched behavior will only serve to distract him from the auspicious path. Now, you might well consider me a hypocrite to betray you as I have. For his sake, you must sleep. Even I must make certain sacrifices, if, indeed, we are to preserve the precious bond between Niklaus and that child."
OH SHIT! We all know where this is going and it makes me SO SAD. So, we catch back up with Elijah as he returns to his bedroom to finish changing into his evening clothes. Marcel was reading Hamlet in a chair, and hops to his feet excitedly to exclaim, "Elijah! I did it! I memorized the whole passage!" He proudly informs Elijah that he could perform it for him, if he'd like, but Elijah just sarcastically replies, "Could you, now? Marcellus, have you ever considered you might to be the center of the given universe?" Marcel's face falls as Elijah shouts for Klaus to come upstairs, and the young boy asks Elijah if he's done something to make him angry with him. Elijah insists that it's more like he's BORED, and calls for Klaus once again until he finally joins them. When he asks what the deal is, Elijah sighs. "Remove him," Elijah instructs coldly. "You brought him here. He's your burden to bear, if, indeed, we are to accommodate this little scavenger." OUCH OUCH OUCH MY HEART. This was so harsh that even KLAUS is like, "Dude, what the fuck is wrong with you?" He looks to Marcel with sympathy and takes his hand. "Come now, little warrior! Let's have another go at The Bard, shall we?" He leads the boy out of the room, leaving Elijah looking extremely guilty to have been so cruel to Marcel.
OH MY GOD, this explains so much! I always wondered why Elijah and Marcel were always so prickly toward each other, but this makes it clear that Elijah never really had a problem with Marcel-- in fact, he actually quite liked him for the humanity he brought out in Klaus. It was all just a ploy to push him away so Klaus and Marcel could have a close bond without any jealousy on Klaus' part; one in a long, LONG line of sacrifices Elijah has made in the name of Klaus' happiness. And, as it turns out, he's planning to do the same thing in the present day, only this time, it's with someone who has a much bigger place in Elijah's heart. When we return to the current-day Mikaelson compound, we see that Elijah is still eavesdropping on Klaus and Hayley's conversation. Klaus brings up the fact that he hasn't spotted Oliver, and hilariously assumes Hayley put him out of his misery, but as it turns out, Hayley managed to convince Oliver to be a double-agent. The plan is to have him pledge his loyalty to Casther and to keep her informed of everything he learns about what they're doing.
Klaus is so proud of his little queenie, and praises her on her good work. Once Klaus turns to leave, Elijah, still up on the balcony, thinks for a moment about what to do next. He finally comes downstairs as Hayley is leading a couple of werewolf girls to their new bedrooms. Elijah approaches her and states that she seems to have her work cut out for her. Hayley asks him if he was about to leave, so Elijah starts channeling his 1821 self. "To be perfectly honest with you, the presence of all of them here, it's... it's a little much." He emotionlessly proclaims the fact that he's leaving to be for the best, since Hayley needs to be with her kind now more than ever, and then bolts before Hayley can argue with him. ELIJAH STOP BEING SO DISTANT TO HAYLEYYYYYY. I am loving all of the Klaus/Hayley stuff SO MUCH, but Elijah and Hayley drifting apart like this is hurting my heart so much, especially since it's clear they both still have feelings for each other, they're all just too afraid to admit it. More on this in the notes.
Over at the coven house, Koleb has arrived at the greenhouse and immediately lunges for Finncent. He grabs him by the shirt and shoves him against the wall as he bellows, "What the bloody hell was that!?" Finncent orders him to calm the fuck down, but Koleb will not be deterred from his anger. "You almost got me killed! Those wolves didn't just go after Davina, they almost attacked me!" Casther enters the room just then and interrupts by informing him that she was the one who gave the order, citing the fact that the attack needed to look convincing as justification for Koleb getting his ass handed to him by the werewolves. He roughly lets go of Finncent and turns to yell at his mother, instead.
"Look at my head!" he shouts, as he points to the bruising and cuts around his left eye and temple. "This isn't gonna heal for weeks! I haven't had a scar in A THOUSAND YEARS!" God, I love Kol/Koleb so fucking much. Casther is not at all sympathetic to him, and reminds him that not only will he live, but Davina will feel guilty for getting him hurt in an attack that she will feel as though she caused, and will seek him out to apologize and insist that she owes him. Still, this talk does nothing whatsoever to make Koleb any happier about his current situation. "Well, I've had enough of your plans!" he continues to rant. "You stick me in this body, you force me to sneak around like some common toady. If this is the grand new life that you planned for me, then you can have it back!" Casther, as calm and serene as she tries to stay at all times, will not tolerate any backtalk whatsoever from her children, especially Finn and Kol, since they're her key to getting Klaus and Elijah to comply with whatever plans she has going on right now, so she hits Koleb with a mystic migraine that causes him to fall to his knees as his nose begins to bleed. "You are here by my grace!" Casther argues. "And you will remain by my grace! Have I made myself clear?" Koleb might not want to be stuck under his mother's thumb, but he does quite like being alive again, so he confirms that he's got the picture, and she stops the spell.
She does seem to feel a little guilty for hurting him, though, because she gently takes Koleb's face in her hands and looks at him before getting back to the task at hand. She looks over at Finncent and states that he was in St. Anne's Church's attic during the wolf attack, and Finncent adds that the door was open and the room was completely empty. Casther sighs and stands to her feet before asking, "So, how did Davina tear apart a pack of vicious wolves? She must have had the weapon with her. What was it? A dark object? A book of spells?" Koleb, wanting to at the very least put a crimp in her plans, lies by insisting that he was knocked out in the attack and didn't see a damn thing. BAHAHA, this is going to be SO AWESOME, especially when Esther and Mikael finally figure out the other is back. I am SO PUMPED to learn more about their relationship, ughhh.
Across the river, Marcel and Elijah are once again meeting in that same alley from earlier, where Gia is playing a gorgeous song on her violin. Marcel guesses that Elijah has come to say that he can't find Davina anywhere-- not the attic, the lycée, or anywhere near it. Elijah replies that he has people looking all over the city, but he's assuming Davina really is gone, likely to help Mikael heal from the werewolf bites and scratches he sustained during the fight. Marcel still feels sympathetic for Davina, and insists that she's clearly scared, but Elijah gets tense and insists that if he finds out that Marcel had even the slightest suspicion that Mikael had returned, things will NOT be ending well for him. That's when Marcel and Elijah have a pretty awesome and enlightening conversation.
MARCEL: "Yeah, what? You gonna threaten me? My people? I mean, get in line! The witches hate us, the wolves can kill us any time they like. I can't even go into the Quarter without risking my damn life, and I used to RUN the Quarter. And now, Mikael's back-- the vampire who HUNTS vampires. You really think that works in my favor?" [pauses] "You want my help finding Davina? I need to know where you stand. Now, Klaus is on Team Wolf. What are you?"
ELIJAH: [unamused] "I don't do teams."
MARCEL: [shakes his head] "I'm sorry, but that's not an option. See, you're an Original. Every vampire that's ever been sired is an extension of you and your family. Now, you can walk away from that and side with Klaus and the wolves, but you're not one of them, and you never will be. You want allies, right? Look around! This is ground zero for a new vampire community. Now, you may think that you're better than us, but we're all you got."
Elijah just smirks and asks why he would want to be a "benefactor to a collection of lost children," but Marcel just rolls his eyes and retorts, "That's right. You never were any good with children. But, like it or not, vampires exist because of you." He walks over to Gia and nods at her, and after a moment, she nods back. Marcel rubs her shoulders comfortingly and tells Elijah that the vampires are going to need his help, too. Gia gives Marcel one more nod of consent before Marcel quickly snaps her neck and catches her body before it falls to the floor. Elijah is shocked that Marcel just outright killed her, but Marcel assures him that he fed her his blood a couple hours beforehand. "When she wakes up, she's gonna need a mentor. I hope that you can do better with her than you did with me." YESSSS VAMPIRE GIA IS HEEEEERE! Now, she just needs to come to Ohio and turn me into a vampire so we can get married, yeah?
Next episode: Elijah and Klaus have an awkward family dinner with Casther and Finncent, Marcel continues to encourage Elijah to get more involved with the vampire community and Gia's vampire-training, and we learn a little more about Klaus and Esther's relationship back when he was still human.
[screencaps via Screencapped]
NOTES/SPECULATION/QUESTIONS:
-I NEED MORE JOSH. COME ON, JOSH.
-So, what are Kol's plans, do you think? Kathleen and I are sure that he's going to jump ship eventually, it's just a matter of when and who he teams up with once he does. I have a feeling there is too much animosity between him, Klaus, and Elijah for Kol to join their side unless it's absolutely necessary, so it's probably most likely that he'll be doing his own thing. Also, as much as I do think Kol does have genuine feelings for Davina, I also think that her magical abilities will probably play a big role in whatever plan he's hatching on the d/l. I'm definitely excited to see where it goes from here, though, and it's only partially because of how much I love Daniel Sharman. Time will tell!
-I talked earlier about how the Elijah/Hayley/Klaus triangle is playing out very much like the Stefan/Elena/Damon triangle after Elena was turned into a vampire, and while a lot of people would think that's a bad thing, I actually find it a very intriguing parallel. As much as I'm loathe to admit it, Elijah is very much like Stefan in this iteration of the triangle-- he's not exactly as self-loathing or self-righteous as Stefan, but he definitely doesn't embrace his vampirism in the same way that Klaus does. I mean, I'm pretty sure we've never even seen him feed on anyone purely for food, it's only ever been blood bags. In fact, the only time we HAVE seen him feed on anyone was when he attacked Celeste, and that was only to scare/attack her, not to eat. So, in that vein, I think Elijah is a lot like Stefan in the way that he is sort of horrified/turned off by Hayley exhibiting her vampire nature by feeding on/killing whatever witches she comes upon. Remember the episode "The Rager" in Season 4 of the Vampire Diaries, when Elena had unknowingly drank beer that was spiked with werewolf venom shortly after she was turned into a vampire? She and Stefan started hooking up in his room at the boarding house and she bared her fangs/vampire face while they were making out, and Stefan was literally repulsed by her. I'm not saying that their situation is exactly the same as Elijah and Hayley's, but I do think that Hayley being a vampire now has tarnished his perception of her.
Then, conversely, Klaus is playing the Damon role, encouraging her to relish in feeding and using her enhanced speed/strength/reflexes to be an even more formidable fighter than she was before she was turned and trying to help her embrace the perks of being a hybrid. In all honesty, while the indiscriminate killing isn't exactly a good look, I feel like this is the much healthier way of going about it-- as much as many of the vampires like to act like their condition is a curse, or the worst thing that has ever happened to them, it isn't without its upsides, and it's much better to just accept what you are than try to repress it, you know? I mean, shit, they're immortal, they're powerful, they're going to stay young forever-- what's so bad about that? And with compulsion and blood bags, they don't even have to eat people if they don't want to. It just seems silly to spend an eternity hating yourself when it doesn't have to be that way.
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