The Originals Season 2, Episode 11: "Brotherhood of the Damned" Recap/Review
Like I said at the end of the last recap, I absolutely ADORED this episode. First of all, any TV show that sheds light on a historical topic that most high schools have erased from their curricula is amazing, and something not enough people know about are the African-Americans/black Americans who fought in World War I, despite the fact that they were barely treated like people in the country for which they were fighting in the war. Plus, something The Originals does really well is taking historical events and people (like the casquette girls, for example, which was covered in the aptly named The Casket Girls) and weave it into their own mythology. Rebekah Mikaelson ended up freeing a bunch of casquette girls and turning them into vampires so they could never be hurt by men, and as we learned in this episode, Marcel turned his entire all-black regiment, the Harlem Hell Fighters, an actual regiment of black infantry soldiers who fought in World War I, into vampires to ensure their survival when the military didn't provide them any gas masks despite knowing that mustard gas would likely be used on them. That is seriously BRILLIANT to me, and Marcel's amazing leadership skills existed even then, making this entire plotline extremely fascinating to watch. On the other end, we also got our first look at the astral plane when Finn trapped his three brothers there for some witchy secret-pulling. Basically, this episode was very good, so let's just jump on in and talk about it, shall we?
Previously, on The Originals: Finn, Kol, and Esther came back from the dead/ancestral limbo and are now inhabiting the bodies of various witches while they're scheming up ways to make the rest of the Mikaelson children miserable. Cami and Hope are hiding out at the new Mikaelson safe house with Elijah so he can keep them safe from Finn, who was already on the warpath to begin with, and only became more furious toward Klaus, Elijah and Kol when he learned they had killed Esther (and her vessel Lenore) when she had vampire blood in her system, causing her to awaken in transition. Elijah has been dealing with PTSD-style side effects following Esther torturing him and purposely breaking the spell in his mind that caused him to forget that he had killed Tatia when he was still a newborn vampire, along with ten centuries worth of brutal violence. Hayley and Jackson decided to get married in a Unification ritual that will allow them, as the Alphas of the Crescent Wolf Clan, to share Hayley's hybrid ability to control her werewolf transformation, giving them the power to break free from Esther and Finn's control. However, this ceremony requires them to do several trials of devotion beforehand, which could be interesting. Finn trapped the vampires and werewolf communities in the Mikaelson compound with a boundary spell while they were in the process of forging a truce and an alliance against the witches AND cast a spell on the vampires to increase their hunger with the intention of having the two groups kill each other. Thought Kol and Davina managed to break the spell long enough to get the werewolves, Hayley, and Klaus out of the house, but since it also stopped the vampires' daylight ring from working, they were forced to stay behind. Klaus also re-trapped Kol in the compound in punishment for what he did to Rebekah, leaving him at risk of being killed by one or more of the dozens of hungry vampires who are trapped with him. Which is where we pick up today!
The episode opens with a woman inside St. Anne's Church, who is covering all of the statues inside the main room with red satin sheets. Everyone is congregating out in the streets-- most adults and children are clad in either red or white outfits and carrying flags in the same color, but there are also parishioners of the church who are wearing red or white robes as well, many of whom are carrying statues covered in red sheets as well. In case you were curious, they're celebrating a holiday called Carillon Eve, which I had never heard of until I watched this episode, and what I honestly cannot find much information about. I thought that the show's timeline was in January, but I've seen articles online that say it's on December 20th, so who knows.
Anyway, among the crowd is Klaus, who stomps through the Quarter while he talks to a still-trapped Marcel on the phone. Klaus informs him that despite his search of the entire French Quarter, Finn has totally vanished, and he can't get the barrier taken care of until he can strangle it out of him. Marcel, who has likely not slept all night, thanks in part to his magically-increased hunger, among other things, and sounds disappointed when he admits that Klaus had a Plan B. As it turns out, though, he does-- Davina, who will be helping him break his spell. All Klaus asks is that Marcel and the vampires keep Kol alive until they figure out where Rebekah is. Yeah, maybe you should have thought about that before you impulsively shoved him in there with a den of ravenous vamps, eh Klausy? Marcel winces and shoves up his left shirtsleeve to reveal that he was, indeed, bitten by Jerick in the last episode. Klaus gets impatient and asks him if he's even listening, so Marcel is forced to admit that he got bitten last night, which upsets Klaus so much he literally stops in his tracks and sighs in worry before assuring him that he will be getting him out of there and get him his blood to cure him, no matter what it takes, which is definitely comforting. When the two hang up, Marcel looks at the doorway, where he sees the Mikaelson family seal on one of the nearby walls. His vision starts to blur from the werewolf venom until he's finally transported into a flashback.
Let's go back a little over a hundred years ago to 1916, where Marcel is standing in his Army uniform in the middle of Klaus' study at the compound, where Klaus is yelling at him for having the nerve to enlist in the military. He insists that Marcel isn't leaving the house, but Marcel hands over his deployment orders and states that the US government says otherwise. "369th Regiment," Marcel explains as Klaus skims the papers. "They call them the Harlem Hell Fighters. Boat leaves tomorrow." Klaus assumes that this impulsive decision is because he forbid him to be with Rebekah, which must be at least partially true, because he silently snatches the papers out of Klaus' hands. Eventually, Klaus concedes that he can't actually stop Marcel from leaving-- which is weird, since you wouldn't expect Klaus to give a shit about human laws like the military owning your ass after you enlist-- but he does angrily remind Marcel that they are his family, which is something he needs to learn ASAP if he hasn't already. "Family are not just people who coddle you, who grant you your every whim!" Klaus shouts. "They are people who fight for you! Who you fight for! And, if this family endeavors to stop you from making a tragic error of the heart, then by all means express your discontent! But what you do NOT do is abandon us!" Marcel still has nothing to say, so he turns his back on Klaus, picks up his bags, and walks out the door, which does nothing to calm Klaus whatsoever. "Fine. Go!" Klaus yells behind him. "You'll be back! The prodigal son always returns home."
The flashback ends, and Marcel finds himself back in the late 2012-early 2013 version of the compound, still staring at that same seal on the wall. He pinches the bridge of his nose in discomfort from the werewolf bite until he notices the groans of discomfort and hunger coming from the vampires in the courtyard who are waiting for further updates/instructions. Marcel looks down at all of them from the balcony, and both Gia and Josh look back up at him with concern and worry. "Yeah, I'm home, alright," Marcel mutters under his breath. "Last place I wanna be." Well, shit. TITLE CARD!
When we return, Marcel is sitting on the couch in that one living room area that is off the courtyard, checking on his werewolf bite and looking concerned. However, when Kol comes into the room and joins him, he immediately covers up his arm and puts on his grouchiest face. "What's with the church bells?" Kol asks, as the bells in question ring loudly from nearby. "It sounds like the preamble to me own bloody funeral!" That's when Marcel explains Carillon Eve to all of us non-NOLA residents. "It's Carillon Eve," he replies impatiently. "The locals shroud the eyes of angels so the dead can walk among us for the night without judgment. The bells wake the dead and guide them to eternal rest." His tone then becomes sarcastic when he adds, "So, whether you live or die today, you can join the festivities!" Kol just laughs humorlessly and brings up the fact that Marcel is going to have to make certain that he doesn't die, considering he's the only person who knows where Rebekah is, but Marcel is not in the mood for games, nor is he willing to concede that Kol is right, so he instead points out that Kol is grossly underestimating how hungry he is and how much he'd love to give his hungry friends a bite to eat.
Then, Kol makes the mistake of bringing up how Davina would be very upset if that were to happen, so Marcel breaks out Overprotective Dad-routine round 12390823912 and basically tells him he's going to regret testing him. Kol can sense that something is up with Marcel but he can't quite figure out what, and Marcel leaves to go return to his real friends in the courtyard. However, once again, Marcel gets woozy from the werewolf venom, and as his vision blurs, the furniture in the room changes to that of the late 1910s. Just then, a hallucination appears right before Marcel's eyes-- specifically, Joe Dalton, who you may remember from "Rebirth" as the vampire who helped the gang out with the Guerreras and died for his trouble. Marcel takes in the sight of him in his World War I Army uniform with confusion and gasps before whispering, "Joe?" Joe just smiles and replies, "Hey, Corporal." Aaaaaand flashback time!
It's now 1918 in Séchault, France, and Marcel has been fighting with the Harlem Hell Fighters for just about two years now. Marcel is crouched in the trench next to Joe and the rest of the regiment as shots are being fired in their direction. As they reload their rifles, Joe takes note of Marcel's daylight ring and remarks that he's a bit of a mystery. Marcel, knowing where this line of questioning is going, insists that he's just a fellow soldier like him, but Joe doesn't think they're that much alike because he's been watching Marcel for a while now. "Yeah, now, I see you take bullets to the gut, then next minute, I see you pulling guys into the trench like nothing ever happened. It's some mystery." Joe goes on to say that he's got two theories as to what is up with him, and Marcel just cocks his gun and gets ready to change the subject by getting back into the fight, but Joe's not done yet. "One, you've got guardian angels patching you up every time you get shot. Two, you're something else all together."
Before Marcel can respond, their Major comes in and breaks the news that headquarters doesn't have enough gas masks for the whole unit, and I'm sure that the amount of melanin in their skin played a huuuge role in who gets the gear and who doesn't. Joe incredulously pipes up that they'll be dead in hours without them, but the Major has a very understandably cynical view about it all. "Have you forgotten what they call us?" Major asks impatiently. "We're the Brotherhood of the Damned, because we've been set up to fail. We can't hold fire. We're meant to stall-- not stop-- the enemy." Of course, we know that Marcel LOVES a good inspiring speech, and he's really, really good at giving them, too, so he's not at all here to listen to this kind of negativity.
"Now, hold on, Major!" Marcel yells in response. "Our line has held longer than any line in the Western front! They call us the Brotherhood of the Damned because everyone here would rather BE damned than let the enemy break this line! If you don't know that, then we need a leader who does!" DAMN, DUDE! That was actually really awesome. Of course, before the Major can tell him off for insubordination, he's hit in the head with a shell and dies instantly, and even though he was just about to yell at Marcel, he still leaps forward to cover him from any more gunfire. He turns to the rest of the unit, who are all looking horrified at the loss of their leader, and orders them to get down, covering them with his body when they dive onto the floor of the trench. The men all look at Marcel, both confused and impressed by his willingness to be hit in order to protect him, and once the fire has stopped for the moment, Joe grabs Marcel by the collar and shoves him against the wall. "Listen here!" he says firmly. "I don't care what you are, or how you do what you do. But, I believe you're here for a reason." Marcel tries to walk away, not wanting to get exposed, but Joe stops him before he can get far. "To be the leader you just talked about," Jo finishes, before backing away from Marcel and adjusting his battle helmet. "So, what's it going to be, Marcel?" Marcel sees the rest of the unit looking at him expectantly and is so surprised by this response that he stands in silence for a moment as he considers his options.
Suddenly, he snaps back into the present day when he finally hears Gia calling his name and trying to snap him out of his daze. When he finally gets his bearings, he looks around to see that all of the vampires, Gia and Josh included, are staring at him in concern. When she asks him if he's alright. Marcel pauses for a moment before nodding and insisting that he's totally fine, he's just hungry. He then leaves the courtyard while Gia shakes her head in disbelief and looks over at Josh, clearly not buying their fearless leader's excuses. GOD MARCEL, STOP BEING THE STOIC ONE ALREADY, OKAY? That position has already been filled by Elijah fucking Mikaelson, remember?
At St. Anne's Church, Klaus is impatiently pacing back and forth in front of the sacristy while Davina kneels in the middle of the aisle, surrounded by lit candles, and tries to cast a spell. After a moment, Klaus snits, "Haven't you found Finn yet?" Davina just ignores him, but when she doesn't answer right away, he adds, "I must say, for a witch of your caliber, your spells are not particularly efficient." LOL KLAUS STOP BEING SUCH A POUTY BABY. Davina finally just sighs and points out that since duh, Finn's using all his power to block her locator spells, so she has to try something new, and it would work a lot more smoothly if Klaus weren't lurking over her like a creeper. Klaus actually has the audacity to tell her not to get testy, which is hilarious, because as far as he's concerned, they both want the same thing, but Davina is still pissed at him for his treatment of Kol yesterday. "Really?" she asks incredulously. "Because my goal is to get Kol out of your house alive, which seems to be about number ten on your list." Klaus just chuckles and insists that he's at least number nine, but this does nothing to endear Davina to him, so she demands to know what the hell is wrong with him that would possess him to let his own brother be eaten by hangry vampires. The answer is that Klaus also has a sister, whom he prefers, because Rebekah is amazing, and it's almost like Davina feels a little guilty about what happened to her, because she realizes that she can't really argue against that and remains silent, leaving Klaus to finish his lecture.
"So, until he tells me where she is, Kol can rot, as far as I'm concerned," Klaus adds. "And, you might wanna get your villains straight, love, because Finn is the architect of this fiasco." He then orders her to get moving on the spells so they can finally figure out where he's getting his power and stop him. Davina raises her eyebrows at him, clearly amused by his temper, but does what she's told and gets back to the spell. After she lifts her hands and begins to chant the incantation, she closes her eyes and waits until she begins getting visions of Finn, who is in the middle of performing his own spell in one of the tombs at Lafayette Cemetery. He's leaning over a cauldron full of blood, and several items are sitting on the table around him, including what looks like a fox tail, a feather, and a deer antler. Davina pulls herself out of the vision and opens her eyes to inform Klaus that she got flashes of his big brother combining sacred objects, or totems, in order to perform representational magic. Klaus looks very concerned and asks her where he is and what he's using to fuel himself, so she dives back in to see that he's in the Lyonne tomb of the City of the Dead, before gasping at the sight of both Mikael and Esther laying unconscious and desiccated on the floor with the runes still carved in their forehead.
When she passes this information along to Klaus, he looks pretty amused and smugly remarks, "And here I thought I was the poster-child for least grateful offspring!" We quickly cut over to the Lyonne tomb, where Finn is in the middle of dipping what looks like a wolf paw into the blood mixture in the cauldron. Back at the church, Klaus turns to Klaus with an eager smirk and asks her if she'd like to join him in crashing Finn's magic party, and in a testament to Davina's bravery and willing to help her loved ones, even if it means teaming up with her enemy and going up against someone who is both powerful and ruthless. Unfortunately, Klaus makes it about two steps down the aisle before he stops dead in his tracks and starts gasping, as though someone is choking him. "Now who needs to pick up the pace?" Davina asks impatiently, but when Finn lights a sage smudge-stick and starts wafting the smoke over the cauldron with the blood and wolf paw, Klaus immediately loses consciousness and collapses onto the floor. Davina, both confused and concerned, given Klaus is her only chance to free Kol, Marcel, and Josh, kneels beside him and starts trying to wake him up. YIKES!
Back in Arkansas, Elijah and Cami are still chilling at the safe house, where they're protecting each other and Hope from Finn, Esther, and Mikael, though the last two aren't exactly a threat to anyone at the moment. Cami is in psychologist-mode, and explains to Elijah that what they need to do to help him deal with the side-effects of Esther's torture is to confront his subconscious. "An element of my thesis is on suppression of past trauma and how it can manifest in a barren and often violent behavior." Elijah is much more willing to do this than he was, say, yesterday, for example, but he's still looking at Cami with a condescendingly amused expression. "You know, I believe it was 1897 when a dear friend of mine-- let's just call him the godfather of modern psychoanalysis-- mentioned something similar to me over tea in a Viennese café." HAHAHAHAHA. Yes, in case you were confused, he is, in fact, name checking Freud right now, which Cami totally calls him out on before reminding him that she knows something about what Elijah's going through that even Freud didn't know. When Elijah rolls her eyes and asks her what that could possibly be, she bluntly replies, "What it feels like when someone takes away your deepest, ugliest pain without your consent," a statement that wipes the smile right off his face. YESSS CAMI! YOU FUCKING TELL HIM. "It is both a blessed relief and a COMPLETE violation. Sound familiar?"
Elijah, not liking where this is going, but knowing that he should probably listen to what she has to say if he wants to get past all this, sighs but otherwise remains silent. "Good," Cami states. "Let's start with what you've referred to as the 'red door.'" He reluctantly explains that it is both a literal image from his past of his family's slaughterhouse and also a metaphor for all of the unspeakable acts of violence he's committed throughout his eternal life, since Esther's little mind-wipe spell ended up being way more powerful than she imagined and allowed him to not just forget killing Tatia, as she intended, but also anything else that he was ashamed of. At least, 'til she cracked that door open like Castiel busting down Sam Winchester's hell-wall. Cami asks him if there have been many "unspeakable deeds," which makes Elijah chuckle humorlessly before standing to his feet and pacing around the room. "Oh, Camille, you know I'm no stranger to violence. Typically, however, I am possessed of a, uh, certain... control. However, now and then, I can be consumed with chaos. And, untethered from that control... that's where the deeds are concealed-- behind that door."
When Cami wonders why that door in particular is the image his mind is using to represent these horrors, Elijah informs her that it's where the first woman he ever loved told him she loved him in return, an admission that makes her smile until she hears what comes next. "It's also where I laid her body after I took her life." Like, I get why Elijah feels like this act makes him feel like a monster, but wouldn't it be kind of important for him to note that he had been a vampire for all of, like, two days, and didn't have control over his bloodlust? He may have killed Tatia, but it was hardly a premeditated killing-- he just had no idea what he was doing and couldn't process the implications until it was too late. Regardless, Cami's smile falls, and she looks at him sympathetically, almost as if she knows why it happened, and Elijah confesses that no one knows the truth about this except for himself, Esther, and probably Finn-- not even Klaus, which is why it has to stay a super-secret secret, since Klaus loved Tatia as much as he did and is still under the impression that Esther killed her.
"Not only is this a lie," Elijah insists guiltily. "It's a lie of my own creation. And my brother doesn't forgive. He doesn't forget. Therefore, I think it's best that I forget for both of our sakes." Uhhh, except ELIJAH DIDN'T CREATE THAT LIE, EITHER. Esther did when she spelled him to forget! STOP PUTTING ALL THE BLAME ON YOURSELF BB. Of course, Finn is still in the Lyonne tomb, where he's still working on his spell. He takes the deer antler and dips it into the blood-filled coffin, along with the wolf paw, and uses it to stir everything up, which causes Elijah to become weak and stumble into a nearby chair. Cami worriedly asks if he's okay, but Finn finishes stirring his potion from Lafayette Cemetery, and Elijah subsequently passes out and falls onto the floor, which just makes Cami even more freaked out. It's a good thing they're essentially unkillable and still have the stake in their possession, because that is seriously a huuuuuge risk to just be unconscious indefinitely like that! Jinkies.
Back in the compound, Gia and Josh are in a hallway outside the courtyard and talking about how worried they are about Marcel. When Gia asks him what the hell is wrong with their sire, but Josh replies that he can't even concentrate enough to think about it, because he's too fucking hungry for life. Gia insists that they're all hungry, which naturally is when Kol decides to wall his tasty human-witch body down the stairs, causing Gia and Josh to both turn to stare at him and salivate at the thought of draining him. Gia starts to approach him, and Kol, concerned for his life, states outright that if they even try to sink their fangs into him, he'll be giving them a mystic migraine the size of North America. Gia's so hangry at this point that she claims it'll be worth it as she lunges for him, but Kol just thrusts his hand forward and squeezes it into a fist that gives Gia enough aneurysms in her brain to make her fall to her knees as she clutches her temples. When Marcel hears the commotion and comes to investigate, he demands to know what the fuck Kol is doing, but he argues that his "so-called protection detail" was trying to eat him before declaring that he plans on teaching them a lesson. As he reaches out his hand again, we cut to Lafayette Cemetery, where Finn is dipping the fox tail into the blood/totem mixture in his cauldron, and Kol ends up succumbing to his spell before he can cast another on Gia. He collapses onto the floor and falls unconscious, confusing Josh, Gia, and Marcel so much that they just stare at each other blankly.
On the astral plane, Klaus and Elijah have just awakened in the middle of what looks like an old-fashioned country shed. As they look around and try to get their bearings, they see that there are stuffed animal heads mounted on the four walls surrounding them, which unnerves them all. Kol arrives shortly afterward, and does not look pleased to see them. The sight of Kol leads Elijah to realize that something is definitely up, and when he asks him what the fuck is going on, Kol explains that where they're currently located is called a "chambre de chasse," or a hunt room-- a place on the astral plane where witches bring their victims to basically torture them in creative ways. "Our bodies are in the real world, laying dead on the floor, whilst our minds are in here, represented by these creepy animal heads," Kol adds, as he warily looks around the room. It takes Klaus no time whatsoever to realize that this is obviously a Finn-plan, and immediately starts shouting for him to come out and show himself. When he does, Klaus rushes toward him to grab him in a choke-hold, but Klaus' hand can't even get close, as though Finn has a boundary spell around himself that prevents people from coming within a foot of where he's standing. "Save your strength," Finn sneers. "In here, I am untouchable," he explains as he gestures around the room. "My magic, my rules. So, make yourselves at home! We're gonna be in here for a while." Aaand it's shit like this that makes me understand why Klaus wasn't the least bit sad when Matty Blue killed Finn back in the TVD Season 3 episode "The Murder of One."
In the real world, we finally catch up with Hayley and Jackson in the Bayou, where they have just met up with Aiden. He hands them a bowl full of the moonlight rings he collected from the rest of the pack in preparation for the Unification Ceremony. Hayley assures him that they're better off for it, but Aiden reminds her that it's easy for her to say, since she's a hybrid-- until the two of them get hitched, Aiden and the others are stuck turning on the full moon and aren't able to access their wolf abilities while not transformed. He also brings up the fact that there are still some of the Bayou wolves who are on Team Finn, and if they come there to attack them, they're going to easily rip through them, which leads him to ask them when the wedding is going down. "Ten days," Jackson replies. "After that, Hayley's power is your power-- the full moon won't control you anymore." Hayley nods in agreement, and Jackson continues on to say that they need to spread the word that any wolf who wants to be in on this power-sharing needs to be at the ceremony to bear witness to their wedding.
Aiden promises he can handle that, and when he asks them what they're about to do, Jackson excitedly exclaims that he and Hayley are going to go find a wolf elder to conduct the wedding and to observe the trials they have to endure prior to the ceremony. Hayley looks totally alarmed by this information, but Jackson assures her that it's much less scary than it sounds, and swears that all they'll be doing is "saying a few oaths, doing some trust falls, and smoking a little blue calamus root out of a peace pipe." That actually sounds pretty fun to me, honestly-- way better than the precaena classes they make you take if you want to get married in the Catholic church like my parents did. Which is actually pretty funny because my mom isn't Catholic, she's a pagan witch, but shhh, the Church doesn't need to know that. Anyway, Hayley is still visibly nervous about all of this, which both Jackson and Aiden notice, and the latter is like, "Welp, good luck with that, bruh," before he takes off. Hayley turns to Jackson and asks him where they plan on finding an elder, so Jackson just smiles widely and tells her that depends whether or not she's interested in meeting his grandmother. Oh shit! I'd like to learn more about werewolf elders, to be honest. I mean, we know all about witch elders and their roles in the coven (they have authority from their years of experience and are the only ones with the power to perform certain spells), but the role of elders in wolf packs is a whole different story. MORE WEREWOLF HISTORY/MYTHOLOGY PLEASE AND THANK YOU.
At St. Anne's Church, Klaus is still passed the fuck out on the floor, and Davina is pulling a Stiles and frantically slapping him across the face to wake him up. Hilariously, you can tell Joseph Morgan is having a REALLY hard time not laughing while Danielle Campbell fake-slaps him, because he's got a very small smile on his face. "The one time I need you!" Davina groans, but before she can go back to hitting him, Klaus' phone starts to ring, and Davina pulls it out to check it. When she sees it's Cami, she answers it in, visibly confused as to why she'd be calling him. Cami is equally confused as to why Davina would be answering Klaus' phone, and when Davina admits that she can't wake Klaus up, Cami is both relieved and concerned. "What?" she yelps. "Elijah collapsed, too. What's going on?" The question makes something click in Davina's mind, and when she realizes what Finn's doing, she groans again in frustration-- he's using the representational totems to trap the rest of his brothers, which means Kol is in trouble. LOL, glad Davina cares about Klaus and Elijah. Unfortunately, neither Cami nor Davina have any idea how to help them, which is brutal.
Meanwhile, in the chambre de chasse, Finn remarks that their little room on the astral plane is at least more comfortable than the coffin the three of them kept Finn in for nearly a millennia, which just causes Klaus to chuckle as he gestures around at all the severed animal heads around them. "The heads are a nice touch," Klaus admits, and he points to each head in turn as he describes them. "Let me guess-- I'm the big bad wolf? Kol, the wiley fox. Elijah is the noble stag. And you, fittingly enough, are the boar! Bit obvious, as far as symbolism goes..." LOLOL. Finn sure is a bore, that's for sure. As for animal symbolism, I did a little bit of research to dive further into this, because it's kind of interesting.
Boars are known for being wild earth creatures, obviously, in part due to the fact that they don't have that many predators, so they have a bit more freedom than many animals. When they do get into a conflict of some kind, they're usually pretty ferocious, and are known for ripping out their opponents jugulars with their tusks. Pretty hardcore! They're also known for being solitary creatures, with the exception of mama boars, who are dedicated to their litters and have what some call supernatural-levels of protection for their young, because they go into berserker-rages if they believe their offspring are threatened. The Celtic Druids used to call themselves boars because of how solitary they are and also their affinity for being in the forest. All of this sounds a lot like Finn, honestly, because he comes off passive but truly is ruthless when he wants to be. The one thing that doesn't really fit his personality is the fact that boars are said to "love with wild abandon," which is why they're often referred to as symbols for fertility and virility, which are NOT words I would use to describe him-- he's got way too much hate in his heart now to be able to love anyone-- you saw how quickly he turned on Cami when he realized that she was onto him.
Klaus referred to Elijah as the "noble stag," which seems to fit him very well, since he's always called the noblest of the Mikaelson children. Like boars, deer are earth creatures, but unlike the boar, the deer in symbolism is very much linked to the arts, specifically poetry and music, which is right up Elijah's alley, given his affinity for the piano and violin. Deer totems are said to balance soft, gentle qualities with strength and determination, which is quite fitting, considering we've seen Elijah be both to his loved ones and those he respects. Other qualities attributed to deer symbolism are the ability to move through life and obstacles with grace (like Elijah's talent in making deals and mediating between Klaus and whomever he's fighting that day), being in touch with their inner child and innocence (Elijah's dreams of his younger self, his insistence that they maintain Hope's innocence as long as possible, stating that Klaus, too, could still have some innocence left in his heart), being sensitive and intuitive (he may not be open with his feelings, but he is excellent at reading people), regeneration (well, he IS a vampire, and an Original vampire at that, which means few things can permanent hurt him), and vigilance, which is pretty much a necessity to be in his family. So, essentially, Finn did choose well, but as we'll see later, the brothers will be able to manipulate his understanding of the circumstances enough that they could break through it anyway.
We've already had Klaus referring to Kol as "wily" before now, so the fact that Finn chose the "wily fox" to represent him is not at all surprising. In this case, the fox used was a red fox, which has its own specific associations-- red foxes in particular are solar symbols as a result of their color, which connects it to radiance, energy, and passion, as well as linking it to the root chakra that involves primal instincts and motivations. As we all know, foxes are also known for being clever, cunning, and even have trickster-like manipulation gifts, which I'm sure Kol has gained due to his Mikaelson heritage-- he, Elijah, and Klaus are all about finding loopholes in their deals and arrangements, like that time Klaus ordered Kol not to kill Jeremy, so he compelled Damon to do it for him instead. Plus, he literally just pranked Rebekah, both to get even regarding a grudge he's been holding for a century AND to ensure that Klaus and Elijah were too busy running around and trying to find her that they wouldn't notice that he and Davina were working on the dagger. If that's not a trickstery behavior, I don't know what is. A lesser known description of fox symbolism is control, because they're all about being cautious and restrained, making sure they're being smart about what they're doing and not jumping into anything without a back-up plan, which is DEFINITELY something that Kol is guilty of doing. He's the one who is always waiting to see which way the wind is blowing before he commits to anything, and he's not opposed to switching teams if he finds that one side or the other is better suited to his agenda.
Finally, the big bad wolf himself! The information I've found about wolf totems is kind of conflicting. One source describes them as cunning, intelligent, compassionate, loyal, and communicative; the first two are very descriptive of Klaus, but the last three are less so. However, a second source is much more fitting to Klaus' character/personality. They seconded the intelligence and cleverness, but also discussed the need for freedom and generally being wild as the other positive attributes, which is 100% Klaus, given he spent his entire life either being oppressed by Mikael or being hunted down by him, so it's only natural that he'd want ALL THE FREEDOM. In terms of negative attributes, the wolf totem can indicate sensitivity to perceived threats, which is absolutely correct in terms of Klaus-- he is literally the textbook definition of being paranoid and having a persecution complex, though there is good reason as to how he developed that characteristic. Another negative quality is that since wolves emphasize the role of instinct, they can often get so caught up in those instincts that they end up letting the aforementioned fears of threats run wild and make terrible, terrible decisions. For all of you who are caught up on Season 2, you'll know that this becomes especially accurate around episode 18, which I will hopefully be recapping in about a week. So, yeah, most of the wolf symbolism fits our Klausy boy, but there is enough that doesn't quite fit that Klaus can use it to his advantage where Finn's magic is concerned. (My sources can be found here and here).
OKAY! So, now that we've talked about THAT, let's get back to the story, shall we? So, Klaus asks Finn why the fuck they're there, though he assumes it has to do with Esther's recent conversion to the undead community, but Finn insists it's not about their mother, but about the three of them, because he wants them to know what it feels like to be powerless, and he's going to show them by taking away their beloved New Orleans. Wow, Finn could literally fill a swimming pool with everything he doesn't know about his family, couldn't he? That is some seriously impressive ignorance. Elijah rolls his eyes and demands that Finn release them, as though he thinks that will actually work, but while Finn does say that he will eventually release them and the vampires from the compound, he's waiting until sundown, when the Carillon Eve marchers will be walking down the street right next to the mansion full of ravenous vampires who haven't eaten in like two days. His goal, apparently, is to have those vampires chow down on all of the locals, exposing them to the city and ensuring that they'll have to flee their hometown and never return. Okay, so I know I've said this a million times, but SERIOUSLY-- he's willing to put an entire parade of innocent humans at serious risk of being exsanguinated by the vampires he starved on purpose, just to prove to everyone that vampires are bad? How does he have a moral high ground, again? Finn gives less of a shit about human life than the rest of them do, at this rate, because the vampires, including his brothers, are all discrete feeders now, except for when Elijah accidentally loses it (and that happened BECAUSE OF ESTHER). Ugh, this just makes me so angry.
Kol is not happy about any of this, and he insists to Finn that his fight has nothing to do with him, and that he is in real danger, here, considering his body is still laying unconscious in the aforementioned house full of hungry vampires. Finn doesn't exactly appreciate Kol's self-absorption, though. "All you care about is your own fragile mortality!" Finn yells. "But, what if you were made vulnerable? What then?" Finn balls his hand into a fist and flicks his wrist, giving Kol a mystic migraine that causes his nose to bleed in both the chambre de chasse AND the real world. In the compound, Marcel, Josh, and Gia all smell Kol's blood as his nose starts to bleed, which stirs up all of their hunger. Gia vamps-out and lunges for him, but Marcel jumps in to prevent either of them from feeding on him before arguing that thanks to Finn's spell, if any of them try to feed on him, they won't be able to stop, and then all they'll be left with is dead Kol and the rest of them will still be starving. The baby vamps growl and hiss and try to push past Marcel, but he's not having it. "Look at me!" Marcel insists. "I have been at war, in the trenches, starved, with my men. If we fought through it then, you can now. We're going to fight this hunger TOGETHER." They're still struggling against him, but he seems to be getting through to them. Marcel then catches the hallucination of Joe standing behind them, which transports him back into another flashback.
It's still 1918 in Séchault, France, and Joe is sitting in the trench away from the rest of the unit as they all hold out their cups for Marcel to pour hot chocolate powder into it. Marcel makes it over to Joe and fills his cup as well, remarking that while they have no rations or gas masks, they do have plenty of cocoa, but Joe just laments that it's more dirt than cocoa. He then rolls up his sleeve and holds it out to Marcel, pointing out that he knows Marcel is starving and offers to give him a little snack, but Marcel just shoves his arm away. "Never one of us," Marcel insists. "Catch me a German, then we'll talk." Just then, a soldier rushes over to inform Marcel that he's needed back at headquarters, so Marcel gets to his feet and walks over there.
Once he arrives, he looks around the tent to find that there is a gramophone player playing jazz music and a tray full of very fancy-looking food, including an actual roast pig with an apple in its mouth, on the desk. Naturally, Klaus is sitting behind the desk, twirling a helmet on his finger and smirking gleefully. "Hate the war-- love the hats," Klaus states smugly in greeting, which is just SO DAMN KLAUS, and Marcel is both annoyed and disgusted by Klaus and his lavish food and creature comforts while his men are dying and starving out in the trenches. When Marcel asks him what he's doing there, Klaus insists that he just missed an excellent meal, so he thought he bring him dessert. He gestures toward two very beautiful women standing on either side of him, who immediately walk toward the famished Marcel and bare their necks to him.
He's so hungry that all he can focus on is the blood pumping through their hearts and into the rest of their body, so he loses himself for a moment and is just about to sink his teeth into the nearest girl's neck when Klaus finally admits the caveat-- if he eats, then he has to come home with Klaus and return to New Orleans where he belongs. Marcel instantly backs away from the girl and glares at him angrily for both manipulating him and wasting his time when he's so badly needed elsewhere. He gruffly tells Klaus he has to get back to his men, and Klaus loses any patience he may have had to start with. "Your men?! Don't be bloody ridiculous, Marcel!" Klaus sneers in frustration. "Let the food fight amongst themselves if you must, but make no mistake, your place is at home with your family!" Marcel angrily reminds Klaus that he was the one who defined family as the people who will fight for you, and who you fight for, and that's who these men are to him. He then orders Klaus to go back home before he leaves Klaus and all his luxuries to return to his Hell Fighters.
In the present, Marcel has once again zoned out as he's remembering the flashback, and when he comes back, he sees the hallucination of Joe choking on his own blood across the room and starts to walk toward him with his hand out. Josh, looking concerned, grabs his arm to stop him, and Gia notices that there is blood on his sleeve and becomes even more worried. She pushes up his sleeve, and both she and Josh are horrified beyond believe when they seen the festering wound on his forearm near his elbow. Gia asks him if it's a werewolf bite, but he tries to pass it off as a scratch, though they're definitely not buying it. "It's a BITE!" Josh retorts in frustration. "You're six ways to dead if you don't get Klaus' blood in you." He would know, too, considering his brush with death at the hands of Klaus' toxic hybrid teeth last season. He then asks Marcel what's going to happen when the rest of the vamps find out, but Marcel insists that no one is going to find out, because both of them are going to keep their mouths shut about it.
The two both glare at him in response, and when they hear the Carillon Eve bells ringing from down the street, Gia loses her patience completely. "You hear that?" Gia asks furiously, before pointing at Kol's unconscious body on the couch. "That's the sound of food that we can't even get near while you're sitting here protecting that idiot." Marcel reminds her that it's just hunger, and there are certainly people who are much hungrier than they are out there, but Gia retorts that Marcel made them a promise when he turned them, and it hasn't exactly been held up lately, between being beat up, bitten by wolves, exiled in Algiers, and now trapped in this compound. "And now, when we're all looking to you for help, you don't even tell us that you're dying!" Gia adds, and though Marcel looks as though he's going to interrupt her, he doesn't. The church bells and hand bells continue to ring outside, and Marcel rushes out into the courtyard to find all of the vampires, Gia and Josh included, standing as close to the front entrance as they can get, vamped-out and salivating at the thought of all the human blood walking around outside. Marcel then catches sight of Joe's hallucination standing next to him. "We don't all get to get out of this alive, son," Joe says somberly, and Marcel is just so overwhelmed, it's actually really sad. MARCEL BB, LET ME HUG YOU.
The camera pans from Klaus' body on the floor of the church to Elijah's body on the floor of the safe house, to Kol's on the couch of the study in the compound, before we all finally return to the chambre de chasse. Finn, in a very loving brother move, has just cast another pain infliction spell on Kol that gives him a nosebleed, and he angrily wipes the blood off his face. Awesome, so not only is he willing to risk the lives of dozens and dozens of humans who just wanted to celebrate Carillon Eve, but he's also totally cool with risking the life of his own brother, however he may have hurt him? FINN IS THE WOOOOOOOORST. I mean, yeah, Klaus left Kol in the compound, which was totally terrible and not easily forgivable, but even Klaus will say in a couple episodes that no matter how horribly he treats his siblings, he would never outright them. When you're at like Mikael levels of intolerance, hatred, and murder, then maybe it's time for you to look at your life, and look at your choices.
"Okay, point made," Kol says to Finn, trying his best to sound polite so as to not to earn him more pain from big bro Finn. "Now, nobody loves a joke like old fox-boy here, but if you could just get me back to my body--" Elijah just smirks and remarks that he is sort of enjoying watching Kol squirm, given that's likely the same fate he gave to Rebekah. He pulls out his pocket square and hands it to Kol to wipe his face in another totally-Elijah move, but Finn is gleeful at this reminder and points at Elijah in emphasis before exclaiming, "Yes! What did you do to Rebekah?" Kol sighs in exasperation and points out that all he did was play a little prank on her to repay her for the prank she played on him, and insists desperately that if Finn just sends him back to his body, then he'll tell whomever whatever they want to know. Finn is visibly amused by all this drama going down and casts another pain infliction spell to shut Kol up before admitting that he may have been a little short-sighted. "Rebekah," Finn adds, as he looks at Klaus and Elijah. "You don't know where she is, and the only thing standing between you and our sister is this selfish fool." He points to Kol, who looks very alarmed, but as it turns out, Finn is about to give him exactly what he wants, though it's hardly a perfect situation in the real world, either. "Maybe it's time for you to go enjoy the rest of your mortal life while you still can," Finn adds, before making a fist with his hand that causes Kol's astral projection to vanish, startling and worrying both Klaus and Elijah in the process.
Kol then awakens with a gasp on the couch at the compound, and, as expected, the very hungry Josh, Gia, and several other vampires start to swarm around him and hiss aggressively at him. "...Is it too late for an apology?" Kol asks sheepishly, and judging by the fact that Gia immediately lunges for him, I'm gonna go with NO. Fortunately for him, Marcel swoops in just in the nick of time and vamps him into the next room, and Kol, impressed by his loyalty, thanks him for saving his ass. "Oh, don't thank me yet," Marcel growls before lunging for him himself and trying to feed on him, but Kol holds his arms out protectively and insists that Marcel just needs to hold it together for a little while longer as he points at the window, where the sun is setting in the horizon. When Marcel gets suspicious and asks him what he's talking about, Kol admits that Finn plans on releasing them all at sundown. Marcel scrubs at his face with his hands in frustration as the implications of this plan become obvious to him.
He points out that the streets will be full of people just outside the compound, and Kol nods in confirmation. "And you'll be half-crazed with hunger. You'll feed your way through the crowd, and that will be the end of vampires secretly living off the fat of New Orleans!" Kol replies. When Marcel glares at Kol, he suddenly sees another hallucination of Joe in his Army uniform behind him, and Kol is very clearly confused and a little concerned by Marcel's constant zone-outs today. He snaps his fingers in front of his face to get his attention. "Marcel!" Kol yells, which finally gets him to focus, but when Kol realizes just how weak, woozy, and out of it Marcel is, he sighs in defeat. Do you think he knows about the werewolf bite? I'm not really sure. "Listen to me," Kol insists. "You are outmaneuvered, out-manned, and, quite frankly, you're... you're out of your mind. We're not going to get out of this alive." Marcel, remembering Joe's words earlier ("We don't all get to get out of this alive, son,"), determinedly insists that they will ALL be getting out of this alive. YESSS! FEARLESS-LEADER MARCEL IS BACK. I can't wait for the pep talks that are to come, because we all know Marcel excels at that.
Meanwhile, Hayley and Jackson are hiking around the Bayou still, and Hayley adorably asks if they're planning on Baton Rouge, but Jackson assures her they're almost there. He asks her if she's nervous, but Hayley shakes her head in the negatory, though she does concede that she should be, since she's his grandmother and all. Jackson jokes that she usually likes the girls he brings home, which amuses Hayley very much, but he quickly backtracks and promises that he's actually never brought a girl home, which is kind of surprising, but not really. We all know it's pretty much been Hayley-Central in his head since he learned that they were supposed to get married, so I guess it makes sense, but you'd think there'd be at least a few hookups along the way. "So, you've gotta make a good impression, since she's got no one crazy to compare you with," Jackson says with a smile, but Hayley assures him it'll be fine. "I am great with old people. And babies. It's just the in-between that I suck at," Hayley replies, which is hilarious because it's so true. Suddenly, Jackson's grandmother appears out of nowhere and snarks that as cute as they are, they're running late. Jackson sweetly kisses her on the cheek and hugs her before introducing her to Hayley as Mary. Hayley instantly starts to say how nice it is to meet her, but Mary just holds up a hand and quips, "You can turn off your old-people charm now," which shuts Hayley up right quick. Aw, I like her! Sassy people are my favorite.
Anyway, Mary once again points out that they're late, and that they need to get moving if the two of them want to get married anytime soon. Hayley clears her throat awkwardly and asks her about the pre-marital rituals they need to do before the ceremony, so Mary begins to list them. "Fasting, purification, the Rite of Divulgement, to name a few." Hayley's eyes immediately widen in alarm at that last one, and when she worriedly asks her what that actually entails. "Oh, it's simple! You speak the truth, he speaks the truth, secrets are cleansed, everyone's happy!" Hayley still looks alarmed, so Mary continues, "The two Alphas smoke the root of the blue calamus flower. It links your hearts and minds together. The ceremony won't take if there are lies separating you. This way, there are none. It's the most important ritual, apart from the ceremony itself." YIIIIKES! I mean, for the most part, Hayley has been very forthcoming to Jackson about everything, but there's still one very-Hope-shaped secret Hayley is keeping, and not only is it not fully her secret to tell, but then you've got Klaus to worry about if she spills about it. So, when Mary pats her on the arm affectionately and jokes that she hopes she doesn't have too many skeletons in her closet, Hayley starts to panic and insists that she can't do it before scampering away, much to Mary's confusion and Jackson's horror.
Over on the astral plane, Elijah and Klaus are now alone with Finn, since Kol was sent back, and Finn certainly looks pleased to have them right where he wants them. "So, what shall we talk about while we wait for nightfall?" Finn asks pleasantly, before gasping mockingly and adds, "Oh, I know! Let's talk about our parents!" Elijah and Klaus aren't exactly pleased, but they play along anyway. I apologize in advance for the fact that I'm going to just be straight-up transcribing much of these last few chambre-de-chasse scenes, because the dialogue is PERFECT and the information within it could be pretty important later.
Klaus, angry and not wanting Finn to get any closer to the secret they're keeping than he already is, asks him if he truly wants to know why Klaus killed Ansel, to which Finn replies with an emphatic "yes." "Because when blood relations let me down, I don't stop to reason with them," Klaus sneers. "I remove them." Finn ain't buying it, though, and honestly, I don't blame him, because that was a kind of lame retort, no matter how true it may be. "So, the secret is... there is no secret? You long for nothing? Care for no one?" Yeahhhh, nobody who knows Klaus actually believes that, and Finn is no exception, so he tells Klaus just that-- it's clear that he's hiding something, and since Finn controls Klaus and Elijah's presence on the astral plane, he can keep there however long it takes to figure it out. As Finn walks away from him, Elijah tries his best to maintain a blank expression, but Klaus looks understandably pissed and terrified at Finn's line of questioning. Welp, this is a hot damn mess.
Back in the real world, Hayley is alone in the woods in the Bayou when a frantic Jackson finally catches up with her. She sighs and maintains that she can't do this, but Jackson desperately tries to argue that she's not the only one who has stuff that they'd rather not confess. Hayley brings up my earlier point, which is that some of her secrets aren't actually hers to tell, but Jackson continues to state that some honesty will likely be a good thing. "Jack, I live with the Original family!" Hayley exclaims in frustration. "In that family, sometimes honesty... can get you killed." This stuns Jackson into silence, because that is heavy as fuck, but he quickly shakes it off and replies, "We all have things we hope will never see the light of day. You probably won't like what I have to say any more than what you're holding back."
Hayley sighs again and admits that she wishes that were true, but she knows better than to believe it, but Jackson is insistent about this, and for good reason, considering the success of the Unification ceremony literally rests on them doing this rite. He promises that they'll take everything one step at a time, and she can stop at any time if she gets uncomfortable. When Hayley still looks hesitant, he gets super serious. "And, when it comes time to open up, I'll go first. Because I don't run, and I don't scare easy. Your secrets are my secrets. Your demons my demons. And, you'll never have to fight them alone. I promise you that." Aw, Jackson, how are you literally the best guy out there? If only there were like thousands of men like that out there-- he's much better than any of the exes I have to my name. Anyway, Hayley closes her eyes and takes a deep breath as she considers this for a moment, but when Jackson holds out his hand to her and begs her to come back with him, she ultimately takes it and lets him lead her back to Mary's. Aw, yay trust!
Over at the compound, Josh is walking around the groups of vampires and encouraging them to relax, but everyone is still looking anxious and strung-out from starvation. Marcel comes out onto the balcony overlooking the courtyard, and when Gia sees him, she instantly rushes over to him. "I'm gonna give you two minutes to explain why we don't come up there and take the witch," she demands angrily. "You lied to us! You betrayed everything that you taught us! How can you lead us?" YIKES! That is super harsh. First of all, Kaleb/Kol may be a tall guy, but he still doesn't have enough blood to feed ALL of them, so most of them would still be starving, and thanks to the spell Finn cast, the six pints of blood they got from him wouldn't be enough anyway. Besides, he knows where Rebekah is, and she's technically one of them, since she's a vampire, even if she's in a witch body at the moment. Also, I don't think Marcel had much, if any, control over the events that have happened lately-- I mean, really, this is pretty much what it means to be a vampire in New Orleans. You fight with the werewolves, you fight with the witches, you squabble with the human faction, sometimes the vampires are in charge, sometimes they're not. It's a rollercoaster. Anyway, Marcel is stunned speechless by Gia's words, and once again gets transported into a flashback.
In 1918 Séchault, France, it's nightfall when Marcel finally returns to the trenches after his disastrous reunion with Klaus, only to find that mustard gas bombs were dropped on the Harlem Hell Fighters while he was gone. Apparently vampires are immune to its effects, because he doesn't seem at all bothered by it as he rushes into the trench, but unfortunately, his men didn't have their gas masks, so they're all either dead or dying. He desperately starts checking on each of the men in turn and cursing under his breath when he realizes he's too late for most of them. Fortunately, Joe is still alive, though he's fading fast. "Joe! Joe, no!" Marcel cries as he takes Joe's face in his hands, and when Joe laughs humorlessly and reminds him that they never got their gas masks, Marcel's eyes fill with tears, and he begins to panic.
"I'm sorry," Marcel insists desperately. "I failed you, brother." Joe coughs up some more blood before he weakly replies, "Not if you make us into vampires like you. Let's make this fight more even. Turn us." Marcel frantically looks around the rest of the men who are still alive, but coughing harder and harder as time passes, and he looks pretty conflicted about this request. However, when it comes to his men, he's not going to let them die, so eventually, he realizes what needs to be done and bites into his wrist before thrusting it into Joe's mouth. YESS! BLACK VAMPIRE SOLDIERS! THIS IS THE BEST. Also, I'm going to guess vampire blood doesn't heal mustard gas poisoning, so they probably just died from their injuries and then awakened in transition. Also, I'm wondering how they managed to continue fighting after the sun came up the next day, since Marcel's the only one with a daylight ring. Maybe he managed to find a witch to help him out? I seem to remember Joe having a daylight ring when he died, so I'm just going to assume that's what happened.
In the present day, Marcel pulls himself out of his daydream to see that the crowd of vampires has become even more anxious as they gather around him. He then musters up all the determination and motivation he can summon before he addresses his vampire progeny below him from the balcony.
MARCEL: "Hey! I'm sorry I let you down, okay? All of you. But, the way that you're feeling right now, this despair? This hunger? I have been through it, and if you let me help you survive it, I guarantee you, it will make you stronger! At sundown, Vincent's gonna drop that barrier spell right there, and those doors are gonna open, and we are gonna be smack in the middle of a parade of innocent people. We can't fall apart now!"
Back on the astral plane, Finn, Elijah, and Klaus are each seated in their own chairs in the chambre de chasse while they continue their discussion, which is mostly just Finn trying to bait Klaus into unintentionally exposing his secret. "It's a shame, really, for you to lose New Orleans," Finn begins. "You've worked so hard to make this city a home. On the other hand, this city hasn't given you much in the way of good fortune. You have Marcel's betrayal, Father's attack, the loss of your child..." Wait, how does Finn know about the Marcel and Mikael thing from 1919? He was daggered back then. Maybe he was watching on the Other Side or Ancestral Limbo when Klaus found out? That seems to be the only logical explanation. Anyway, at the reference to Hope, Elijah looks worriedly at Klaus, but he's keeping his poker face going, so Elijah decides to try to distract Finn from this topic of conversation by baiting him into exposing his own weaknesses.
"It is a delicate craft," Elijah states pleasantly, a statement which confuses Finn so much that he turns away from Klaus and waits for him to elaborate. "Representational magic?" Elijah continues, demonstrating that he knows quite a bit more about magic than you'd expect someone who has never had any interest in it before. "One must be ever so precise. If you misrepresent us, the very enchantment this room was built upon would collapse, would it not?" Klaus isn't quite sure where Elijah is going with, but definitely seems intrigued as he turns his attention to Finn, who insists that he has most certainly not misrepresented them. Still, Elijah reminds him that he can't be sure, because it all depends on how well the hunter knows his prey. Then, he does something that I was definitely not expecting to happen in this episode, but I am seriously glad he did, because it just adds to the incredible character development they've both had this season. "This façade, this illusion that I have created over the course of my life-- the noble stag?" Elijah says anxiously. "It is nothing more than a deception-- to myself, to everyone."
Elijah turns to Klaus, looking both terrified and distraught about what he's about to say, which definitely puts both on edge. "If I were a truly noble brother, I would not have withheld from you a vile deed, one that I, like a coward, allowed Mother to erase from my memory. It was I who killed Tatia." Both Klaus and Finn are stunned by this confession, and the room starts to shake and warp around them as Elijah flickers in and out of focus for a moment. "I hunted her down, and mercilessly, I feasted upon her flesh. I tore her from us. Mother took the blame." Ugh, I know that Elijah is just trying to make it sound worse than it is so he doesn't fit the "noble stag" representational totem, but still, it makes me so sad to hear him say that, because he didn't do it on purpose! He loved her, and he fed on her because he had just been made a vampire and had no control over his bloodlust and she was bleeding right in front of him. It doesn't absolve him of her death, but it's not like it was a premeditated murder, here.
Anyway, Elijah kneels in front of Klaus, looking both disgusted by his actions and ashamed of himself, and admits that he believed that if he knew this secret, he would never, ever forgive him, and when he looks up at his younger brother pleadingly, Klaus simply looks back at him with a saddened expression. Finn looks momentarily alarmed, but when he sees that the hunt room hasn't changed, he crows, "The act may be reprehensible, but your admitting to it proves you to be the man I thought you to be!" He gestures around the room and declares that his magic stands. Klaus, however, is not so sure. "Does it?" he asks with a weak smile as he suddenly gets an idea, and Finn's smugly triumphant smirk starts to fall. "It turns out my brother is even more depraved than I am," Klaus begins, and Elijah looks up at him with tears in his eyes. Klaus stands and looks around the room at the various animal heads that are mounted on the walls as he continues his rebuttal. "He is the noble stag no longer. Indeed, an altogether different beast is creeping through the cracks." He turns to face Finn and adds, "And, you have also failed in your representation of me, because there is one thing you have never thought me capable of." Klaus turns back to Elijah, who looks both guilty and momentarily terrified. However, whatever he was expecting, it was most certainly not that Klaus would squeeze his shoulder affectionately instead of furiously punishing him in some way.
"Forgiveness," Klaus says firmly, and the room starts to shake again, causing Finn to look truly afraid for the first time since they arrived in the chambre de chasse. "You, Finn, have remained a board for centuries, but here is where your true fault lies-- you never learnt that the bonds of family far outweigh anything else! Such bonds trump petty jealousies. They overcome ancient feuds. And, yes, they are capable of allowing one monster to pardon the great sins of another." YESSSSS! FAMILY IS POWER PT. 3498723409823987123 THIS SEASON. Finn looks up in shock as he sees the wolf head on the wall burst into flames, which startles him so much that he jumps to his feed. When Elijah looks over at the other wall, he sees that the stag's head is also ablaze, which causes the room to shake even more. "How is this possible?" Finn asks desperately, but Klaus just points out the obvious-- "Your magic is as flawed as your perception of your own siblings!" Klaus then wonders aloud just how untouchable Finn really is, but just as both he and Elijah lunge for Finn, the latter quickly releases the spell, which causes them to return to their bodies in their respective locations in the living world. GOD, THAT WAS SO AWESOME. I just love when smug bastards get taken down a peg, and that certainly happened in this episode.
Elijah is the one who wakes first, still on the floor of the safe house where he fell hours earlier. When he sits up, he realizes that Cami has been sitting at his side all afternoon while she anxiously waited for him to return. She worriedly asks him if he's okay, but Elijah just takes a deep breath and insists that he is, for now, at least.
Meanwhile, at St. Anne's Church, Klaus has awakened on the floor in the aisle of the main room, where Davina, too, has been sitting next to him this whole time and waiting for him to return. "What happened?" Davina asks nervously. "Is Kol okay?" BAHAHAHAHA. Klaus is like, "I'm fine, thank you for your concern," before getting to the good stuff. "The same, however, cannot be said for your friends and the people of the French Quarter. Now, I can stand here and explain to you the specifics, or you can show a little trust and come with me." Davina simply shrugs as she stands to her feet and grabs her jacket from the nearby pew as she retorts, "I'm the one who's been waiting for you to move your ass! Let's go!" She shoulder-checks Klaus as she pushes past him to leave, and Klaus just smiles and laughs to himself at just how wonderfully bossy Davina is before he follows her outside.
Okay, this next scene is AMAZING, but it cuts back and forth a ton between the vampires, led by Marcel, slowly making their way through the Quarter to Algiers, and flashbacks to 1918 France, where Marcel is giving another motivational pep talk to the newly-turned vampires of his regiment. The dialogue I'll be quoting is the actual speech Marcel gives the soldiers, but it also applies to their current situation, so bear with me. Also, the song that is playing is "Up In Flames" by Ruelle, and it is absolutely perfect. Here we go!
The vampires are pushing their way through the many red-and-white clad humans celebrating Carillon Eve and trying their best not to eat them. Many of them are leaning against each other for support, and they all look so strung-out and generally out of it that the locals give them weird looks, probably thinking they're all on drugs, or detoxing from drugs, or SOMETHING. In flashback, Marcel is in the middle of the trench, with the surviving members of the unit are gathered around him in a circle, having just awoken in transition. "What you're feeling is a hunger. It will be unlike anything you've ever known." In the present, Gia and Josh hold onto each other tightly as they make their way toward Marcel's apartment. "It will eat you from the inside." In flashback, Joe comes up behind Marcel, looking proud and contented by their new supernatural status. "But you are in control. It is your greatest weapon. And the Germans are coming over that hill, thinking to waltz over our corpses to take the town! But that's not gonna happen, because one thing stands in the enemy's way! Us!" Joe and some of the other newly-vampire soldiers growl in anticipation as they let out their vampire faces. In the present, Marcel is struggling to stay on his feet, and his vision continues to blur as he is overwhelmed by the sounds of heartbeats around him and leans on Gia and Josh for support.
"And, make no mistake, we are one unit! One army! We are FAMILY!" In the present, Marcel stumbles again, and Josh grabs him by the shoulder of his coat and keeps him from falling onto the ground. "Family is not determined by blood, but by who you fight for! And who will fight for you!" In flashback, bombs rain down upon the battlefield just outside the trench in which Marcel and the Hell Fighters are standing. "Tonight, we will feed on the blood of our enemies, and if we die, we will be reborn, and we will feed again! WE are the Brotherhood of the Damned, and we CANNOT be defeated!" Marcel yells to the unit, and all of the vamp-soldiers cheer loudly in agreement before Marcel orders them to go over the top and storm the enemy's troops. They all climb up and rush onto the battlefield as the German army shoots at them with bayonets, but despite the gunfire, they're able to overpower them and feed upon every soldier they come upon. In the present, Marcel continues to lead his new vampire army down the streets of the Quarter, though it's obvious he's getting weaker and weaker by the moment.
In flashback, one of the German soldiers stabs Joe with the blade end of his bayonet, but though it clearly stings a little, Joe just pulls it out and drops it before tearing into his neck and draining him, which heals his wound. In the present, Gia stumbles, but Marcel manages to hold her up while still leaning on her as well in order to keep himself on his feet. In flashback, Marcel and his vampires continue to slaughter the German soldiers, while in the present, Marcel and the others use all of their remaining focus to keep themselves from noticing the pounding carotid arteries of every human they pass, taking deep breaths and putting one foot in front of the other on their journey back to Algiers. Gia suddenly gets a hopeful and determined look on her face, and she whispers, "I think we're gonna make it!" Of course, that's when Marcel finally can't take it any more and loses his strength completely, causing his knees to buckle as he collapses onto the ground. NOOO MARCEL!
Davina and Klaus have just made it to the parade of marchers going past the compound, but after they look around for a moment, Davina remarks that there doesn't seem to be any bloodbath happening, so where they hell are they? Klaus determines that they should split up and instructs her to go look around while he tries to sniff them out himself. She continues to do as she's told as Klaus leaves, but after a moment, she spots Kol across the street and completely drops what she's doing in favor of rushing over to him, wrapping her arms around his neck, and kissing him passionately. I don't really blame her, to be honest-- if my boyfriend looked like Daniel Sharman and was a badass trickstery witch, I'd probably do the same.
In Algiers, Marcel has just awakened on the floor of his loft to find that his head is resting in Gia's lap as she affectionately runs her fingers over his hair. Wait, did she and Josh dead-lift Marcel all the way to the loft in their condition? That is seriously impressive! Go Team Marcel! "Welcome back, soldier," Gia murmurs with a smile. "Fed you some of Klaus' blood. You weren't exactly lucid." She pulls up his sleeve to show him that his bite is completely healed, and he looks super relieved to hear this news. When he sits up and looks around, he spots a half dozen empty blood bags littering the floor, and Gia giggles as she informs him that everyone is getting into his stash of bloodbags downstairs. Marcel seems surprised that she hasn't joined him, though I'm assuming that she at least had a little while she was waiting for Marcel to rejoin them, but Gia apparently wanted to stick around so she could apologize for being a pain in the ass earlier. Giiiirl, intense hunger will make anyone grumpy! "Only the weak don't challenge authority, Gia," Marcel insists. "You did good."
Just then, a person clapping in applause can be heard from behind them, and when they turn to the door, they find Finn standing in the doorway with a mocking smile on his face. "I applaud you all for your... strength of character," he continues on, and though his voice has a faux-polite tone to it, you can tell that he's seriously pissed after he was thwarted by his brothers on the astral plane AND completely underestimated the vampires' desire to remain in New Orleans at all costs. He then informs Marcel that he just finished congratulating the vampires downstairs, and when Marcel angrily demands to know what he did to them, Finn assures him that he did nothing that can't be reversed. "I came to ask you a question, Marcel" Finn adds. "See, earlier today, I spent some time with my brothers. They went to great lengths to hide something from me. A secret they'd do anything to keep." Marcel glares at him angrily (though we all know that Marcel was compelled to believe that Hope died) and Gia just looks terrified as Finn explains that while he may not be able to convince Klaus and Elijah to spill, but he's certain that he can find a way to rip it out of Marcel. When Marcel rises to his feet and lunges at Finn, Finn casts a pain-infliction spell on Marcel just as the camera cuts away.
A short time later, we return to the safe house, where Cami is sitting on the couch with Hope in her arms as Elijah paces around and speaks to Klaus on the phone. When Klaus asks how Hope is doing, Elijah smiles and assures him that both Hope and himself are in excellent hands, though he will happily return to New Orleans if Klaus says the word. However, Klaus states that he's needed where he is, so Elijah just nods in agreement and turns the topic back to their home. "So, the city is safe?" Elijah asks, to which Klaus cutely responds, "Well, I wouldn't exactly go flinging around terms like 'safe.'" before getting into the bad news-- "Marcel and his vampires have inexplicably disappeared; Kol is in the wind; Rebekah is still lost, and Finn is dangerously suspicious of the secrets we keep." He pauses a minute before bringing up what happened in the hunt room earlier, and he insists that he meant what he said, and that not only is he capable of forgiveness, but he does forgive Elijah for what happened to Tatia. Elijah is so moved by Klaus' uncharacteristic reaction to this confession that he looks as though he might actually cry, but before he can respond, Klaus reminds him that they need to stay focus on their common enemies before telling him he'll call him back.
Just as Klaus hangs up, Aiden arrives at the loft, and Klaus correctly assumes that he's eager to find his boyfriend, which Aiden confirms before asking him what he needs. Klaus instructs him to question the wolves and see if any of them have heard whispers of where Finn might have taken the vampires. Unfortunately for him, the werewolves have mostly all returned to the Bayou in preparation for Hayley and Jackson to finish their wedding trials so they can finally do the Unification ceremony, according to Josh. This is all news to Klaus, and when he suspiciously asks Aiden what kind of wedding trials they're talking about, he just shrugs in confusion and says that it's just old-school werewolf stuff, like smoking blue calamus. We all know Klaus has been around for a long, long while, so he's actually familiar with blue calamus and the fact that werewolves used it for divulgement rituals in the past.
The scene cuts to the Bayou, where Hayley and Jackson are walking hand-in-hand toward Mary's house. Back at the loft, Klaus is now totally on edge since he's realized that Hayley is likely going to confess the truth about Hope, so he asks Aiden if he knows if a divulgement ritual is on the agenda. When Aiden has no idea, Klaus asks for where Jackson took Hayley, and he mistakenly gives Klaus this information before realizing that something shady is going down. Klaus heads for door and tells Aiden to stay on point, and when Aiden asks him where the hell he thinks he's going, Klaus gives Aiden a very weird look and replies, "I'm going to have a little chat with the bride-to-be. Remind her that some secrets need to stay buried." Ohhhhhh, shit, this is going to be a literal bloodbath.
Next episode: Hayley and Klaus have a little difference in opinion regarding the trials necessary to complete the Unification ceremony; Rebekah finally meets the girl in the coffin and realizes that they're more connected than she ever realized; and Finn tortures the vampires some more.
Previously, on The Originals: Finn, Kol, and Esther came back from the dead/ancestral limbo and are now inhabiting the bodies of various witches while they're scheming up ways to make the rest of the Mikaelson children miserable. Cami and Hope are hiding out at the new Mikaelson safe house with Elijah so he can keep them safe from Finn, who was already on the warpath to begin with, and only became more furious toward Klaus, Elijah and Kol when he learned they had killed Esther (and her vessel Lenore) when she had vampire blood in her system, causing her to awaken in transition. Elijah has been dealing with PTSD-style side effects following Esther torturing him and purposely breaking the spell in his mind that caused him to forget that he had killed Tatia when he was still a newborn vampire, along with ten centuries worth of brutal violence. Hayley and Jackson decided to get married in a Unification ritual that will allow them, as the Alphas of the Crescent Wolf Clan, to share Hayley's hybrid ability to control her werewolf transformation, giving them the power to break free from Esther and Finn's control. However, this ceremony requires them to do several trials of devotion beforehand, which could be interesting. Finn trapped the vampires and werewolf communities in the Mikaelson compound with a boundary spell while they were in the process of forging a truce and an alliance against the witches AND cast a spell on the vampires to increase their hunger with the intention of having the two groups kill each other. Thought Kol and Davina managed to break the spell long enough to get the werewolves, Hayley, and Klaus out of the house, but since it also stopped the vampires' daylight ring from working, they were forced to stay behind. Klaus also re-trapped Kol in the compound in punishment for what he did to Rebekah, leaving him at risk of being killed by one or more of the dozens of hungry vampires who are trapped with him. Which is where we pick up today!
The episode opens with a woman inside St. Anne's Church, who is covering all of the statues inside the main room with red satin sheets. Everyone is congregating out in the streets-- most adults and children are clad in either red or white outfits and carrying flags in the same color, but there are also parishioners of the church who are wearing red or white robes as well, many of whom are carrying statues covered in red sheets as well. In case you were curious, they're celebrating a holiday called Carillon Eve, which I had never heard of until I watched this episode, and what I honestly cannot find much information about. I thought that the show's timeline was in January, but I've seen articles online that say it's on December 20th, so who knows.
Anyway, among the crowd is Klaus, who stomps through the Quarter while he talks to a still-trapped Marcel on the phone. Klaus informs him that despite his search of the entire French Quarter, Finn has totally vanished, and he can't get the barrier taken care of until he can strangle it out of him. Marcel, who has likely not slept all night, thanks in part to his magically-increased hunger, among other things, and sounds disappointed when he admits that Klaus had a Plan B. As it turns out, though, he does-- Davina, who will be helping him break his spell. All Klaus asks is that Marcel and the vampires keep Kol alive until they figure out where Rebekah is. Yeah, maybe you should have thought about that before you impulsively shoved him in there with a den of ravenous vamps, eh Klausy? Marcel winces and shoves up his left shirtsleeve to reveal that he was, indeed, bitten by Jerick in the last episode. Klaus gets impatient and asks him if he's even listening, so Marcel is forced to admit that he got bitten last night, which upsets Klaus so much he literally stops in his tracks and sighs in worry before assuring him that he will be getting him out of there and get him his blood to cure him, no matter what it takes, which is definitely comforting. When the two hang up, Marcel looks at the doorway, where he sees the Mikaelson family seal on one of the nearby walls. His vision starts to blur from the werewolf venom until he's finally transported into a flashback.
Let's go back a little over a hundred years ago to 1916, where Marcel is standing in his Army uniform in the middle of Klaus' study at the compound, where Klaus is yelling at him for having the nerve to enlist in the military. He insists that Marcel isn't leaving the house, but Marcel hands over his deployment orders and states that the US government says otherwise. "369th Regiment," Marcel explains as Klaus skims the papers. "They call them the Harlem Hell Fighters. Boat leaves tomorrow." Klaus assumes that this impulsive decision is because he forbid him to be with Rebekah, which must be at least partially true, because he silently snatches the papers out of Klaus' hands. Eventually, Klaus concedes that he can't actually stop Marcel from leaving-- which is weird, since you wouldn't expect Klaus to give a shit about human laws like the military owning your ass after you enlist-- but he does angrily remind Marcel that they are his family, which is something he needs to learn ASAP if he hasn't already. "Family are not just people who coddle you, who grant you your every whim!" Klaus shouts. "They are people who fight for you! Who you fight for! And, if this family endeavors to stop you from making a tragic error of the heart, then by all means express your discontent! But what you do NOT do is abandon us!" Marcel still has nothing to say, so he turns his back on Klaus, picks up his bags, and walks out the door, which does nothing to calm Klaus whatsoever. "Fine. Go!" Klaus yells behind him. "You'll be back! The prodigal son always returns home."
The flashback ends, and Marcel finds himself back in the late 2012-early 2013 version of the compound, still staring at that same seal on the wall. He pinches the bridge of his nose in discomfort from the werewolf bite until he notices the groans of discomfort and hunger coming from the vampires in the courtyard who are waiting for further updates/instructions. Marcel looks down at all of them from the balcony, and both Gia and Josh look back up at him with concern and worry. "Yeah, I'm home, alright," Marcel mutters under his breath. "Last place I wanna be." Well, shit. TITLE CARD!
When we return, Marcel is sitting on the couch in that one living room area that is off the courtyard, checking on his werewolf bite and looking concerned. However, when Kol comes into the room and joins him, he immediately covers up his arm and puts on his grouchiest face. "What's with the church bells?" Kol asks, as the bells in question ring loudly from nearby. "It sounds like the preamble to me own bloody funeral!" That's when Marcel explains Carillon Eve to all of us non-NOLA residents. "It's Carillon Eve," he replies impatiently. "The locals shroud the eyes of angels so the dead can walk among us for the night without judgment. The bells wake the dead and guide them to eternal rest." His tone then becomes sarcastic when he adds, "So, whether you live or die today, you can join the festivities!" Kol just laughs humorlessly and brings up the fact that Marcel is going to have to make certain that he doesn't die, considering he's the only person who knows where Rebekah is, but Marcel is not in the mood for games, nor is he willing to concede that Kol is right, so he instead points out that Kol is grossly underestimating how hungry he is and how much he'd love to give his hungry friends a bite to eat.
Then, Kol makes the mistake of bringing up how Davina would be very upset if that were to happen, so Marcel breaks out Overprotective Dad-routine round 12390823912 and basically tells him he's going to regret testing him. Kol can sense that something is up with Marcel but he can't quite figure out what, and Marcel leaves to go return to his real friends in the courtyard. However, once again, Marcel gets woozy from the werewolf venom, and as his vision blurs, the furniture in the room changes to that of the late 1910s. Just then, a hallucination appears right before Marcel's eyes-- specifically, Joe Dalton, who you may remember from "Rebirth" as the vampire who helped the gang out with the Guerreras and died for his trouble. Marcel takes in the sight of him in his World War I Army uniform with confusion and gasps before whispering, "Joe?" Joe just smiles and replies, "Hey, Corporal." Aaaaaand flashback time!
It's now 1918 in Séchault, France, and Marcel has been fighting with the Harlem Hell Fighters for just about two years now. Marcel is crouched in the trench next to Joe and the rest of the regiment as shots are being fired in their direction. As they reload their rifles, Joe takes note of Marcel's daylight ring and remarks that he's a bit of a mystery. Marcel, knowing where this line of questioning is going, insists that he's just a fellow soldier like him, but Joe doesn't think they're that much alike because he's been watching Marcel for a while now. "Yeah, now, I see you take bullets to the gut, then next minute, I see you pulling guys into the trench like nothing ever happened. It's some mystery." Joe goes on to say that he's got two theories as to what is up with him, and Marcel just cocks his gun and gets ready to change the subject by getting back into the fight, but Joe's not done yet. "One, you've got guardian angels patching you up every time you get shot. Two, you're something else all together."
Before Marcel can respond, their Major comes in and breaks the news that headquarters doesn't have enough gas masks for the whole unit, and I'm sure that the amount of melanin in their skin played a huuuge role in who gets the gear and who doesn't. Joe incredulously pipes up that they'll be dead in hours without them, but the Major has a very understandably cynical view about it all. "Have you forgotten what they call us?" Major asks impatiently. "We're the Brotherhood of the Damned, because we've been set up to fail. We can't hold fire. We're meant to stall-- not stop-- the enemy." Of course, we know that Marcel LOVES a good inspiring speech, and he's really, really good at giving them, too, so he's not at all here to listen to this kind of negativity.
"Now, hold on, Major!" Marcel yells in response. "Our line has held longer than any line in the Western front! They call us the Brotherhood of the Damned because everyone here would rather BE damned than let the enemy break this line! If you don't know that, then we need a leader who does!" DAMN, DUDE! That was actually really awesome. Of course, before the Major can tell him off for insubordination, he's hit in the head with a shell and dies instantly, and even though he was just about to yell at Marcel, he still leaps forward to cover him from any more gunfire. He turns to the rest of the unit, who are all looking horrified at the loss of their leader, and orders them to get down, covering them with his body when they dive onto the floor of the trench. The men all look at Marcel, both confused and impressed by his willingness to be hit in order to protect him, and once the fire has stopped for the moment, Joe grabs Marcel by the collar and shoves him against the wall. "Listen here!" he says firmly. "I don't care what you are, or how you do what you do. But, I believe you're here for a reason." Marcel tries to walk away, not wanting to get exposed, but Joe stops him before he can get far. "To be the leader you just talked about," Jo finishes, before backing away from Marcel and adjusting his battle helmet. "So, what's it going to be, Marcel?" Marcel sees the rest of the unit looking at him expectantly and is so surprised by this response that he stands in silence for a moment as he considers his options.
Suddenly, he snaps back into the present day when he finally hears Gia calling his name and trying to snap him out of his daze. When he finally gets his bearings, he looks around to see that all of the vampires, Gia and Josh included, are staring at him in concern. When she asks him if he's alright. Marcel pauses for a moment before nodding and insisting that he's totally fine, he's just hungry. He then leaves the courtyard while Gia shakes her head in disbelief and looks over at Josh, clearly not buying their fearless leader's excuses. GOD MARCEL, STOP BEING THE STOIC ONE ALREADY, OKAY? That position has already been filled by Elijah fucking Mikaelson, remember?
At St. Anne's Church, Klaus is impatiently pacing back and forth in front of the sacristy while Davina kneels in the middle of the aisle, surrounded by lit candles, and tries to cast a spell. After a moment, Klaus snits, "Haven't you found Finn yet?" Davina just ignores him, but when she doesn't answer right away, he adds, "I must say, for a witch of your caliber, your spells are not particularly efficient." LOL KLAUS STOP BEING SUCH A POUTY BABY. Davina finally just sighs and points out that since duh, Finn's using all his power to block her locator spells, so she has to try something new, and it would work a lot more smoothly if Klaus weren't lurking over her like a creeper. Klaus actually has the audacity to tell her not to get testy, which is hilarious, because as far as he's concerned, they both want the same thing, but Davina is still pissed at him for his treatment of Kol yesterday. "Really?" she asks incredulously. "Because my goal is to get Kol out of your house alive, which seems to be about number ten on your list." Klaus just chuckles and insists that he's at least number nine, but this does nothing to endear Davina to him, so she demands to know what the hell is wrong with him that would possess him to let his own brother be eaten by hangry vampires. The answer is that Klaus also has a sister, whom he prefers, because Rebekah is amazing, and it's almost like Davina feels a little guilty about what happened to her, because she realizes that she can't really argue against that and remains silent, leaving Klaus to finish his lecture.
"So, until he tells me where she is, Kol can rot, as far as I'm concerned," Klaus adds. "And, you might wanna get your villains straight, love, because Finn is the architect of this fiasco." He then orders her to get moving on the spells so they can finally figure out where he's getting his power and stop him. Davina raises her eyebrows at him, clearly amused by his temper, but does what she's told and gets back to the spell. After she lifts her hands and begins to chant the incantation, she closes her eyes and waits until she begins getting visions of Finn, who is in the middle of performing his own spell in one of the tombs at Lafayette Cemetery. He's leaning over a cauldron full of blood, and several items are sitting on the table around him, including what looks like a fox tail, a feather, and a deer antler. Davina pulls herself out of the vision and opens her eyes to inform Klaus that she got flashes of his big brother combining sacred objects, or totems, in order to perform representational magic. Klaus looks very concerned and asks her where he is and what he's using to fuel himself, so she dives back in to see that he's in the Lyonne tomb of the City of the Dead, before gasping at the sight of both Mikael and Esther laying unconscious and desiccated on the floor with the runes still carved in their forehead.
When she passes this information along to Klaus, he looks pretty amused and smugly remarks, "And here I thought I was the poster-child for least grateful offspring!" We quickly cut over to the Lyonne tomb, where Finn is in the middle of dipping what looks like a wolf paw into the blood mixture in the cauldron. Back at the church, Klaus turns to Klaus with an eager smirk and asks her if she'd like to join him in crashing Finn's magic party, and in a testament to Davina's bravery and willing to help her loved ones, even if it means teaming up with her enemy and going up against someone who is both powerful and ruthless. Unfortunately, Klaus makes it about two steps down the aisle before he stops dead in his tracks and starts gasping, as though someone is choking him. "Now who needs to pick up the pace?" Davina asks impatiently, but when Finn lights a sage smudge-stick and starts wafting the smoke over the cauldron with the blood and wolf paw, Klaus immediately loses consciousness and collapses onto the floor. Davina, both confused and concerned, given Klaus is her only chance to free Kol, Marcel, and Josh, kneels beside him and starts trying to wake him up. YIKES!
Back in Arkansas, Elijah and Cami are still chilling at the safe house, where they're protecting each other and Hope from Finn, Esther, and Mikael, though the last two aren't exactly a threat to anyone at the moment. Cami is in psychologist-mode, and explains to Elijah that what they need to do to help him deal with the side-effects of Esther's torture is to confront his subconscious. "An element of my thesis is on suppression of past trauma and how it can manifest in a barren and often violent behavior." Elijah is much more willing to do this than he was, say, yesterday, for example, but he's still looking at Cami with a condescendingly amused expression. "You know, I believe it was 1897 when a dear friend of mine-- let's just call him the godfather of modern psychoanalysis-- mentioned something similar to me over tea in a Viennese café." HAHAHAHAHA. Yes, in case you were confused, he is, in fact, name checking Freud right now, which Cami totally calls him out on before reminding him that she knows something about what Elijah's going through that even Freud didn't know. When Elijah rolls her eyes and asks her what that could possibly be, she bluntly replies, "What it feels like when someone takes away your deepest, ugliest pain without your consent," a statement that wipes the smile right off his face. YESSS CAMI! YOU FUCKING TELL HIM. "It is both a blessed relief and a COMPLETE violation. Sound familiar?"
Elijah, not liking where this is going, but knowing that he should probably listen to what she has to say if he wants to get past all this, sighs but otherwise remains silent. "Good," Cami states. "Let's start with what you've referred to as the 'red door.'" He reluctantly explains that it is both a literal image from his past of his family's slaughterhouse and also a metaphor for all of the unspeakable acts of violence he's committed throughout his eternal life, since Esther's little mind-wipe spell ended up being way more powerful than she imagined and allowed him to not just forget killing Tatia, as she intended, but also anything else that he was ashamed of. At least, 'til she cracked that door open like Castiel busting down Sam Winchester's hell-wall. Cami asks him if there have been many "unspeakable deeds," which makes Elijah chuckle humorlessly before standing to his feet and pacing around the room. "Oh, Camille, you know I'm no stranger to violence. Typically, however, I am possessed of a, uh, certain... control. However, now and then, I can be consumed with chaos. And, untethered from that control... that's where the deeds are concealed-- behind that door."
When Cami wonders why that door in particular is the image his mind is using to represent these horrors, Elijah informs her that it's where the first woman he ever loved told him she loved him in return, an admission that makes her smile until she hears what comes next. "It's also where I laid her body after I took her life." Like, I get why Elijah feels like this act makes him feel like a monster, but wouldn't it be kind of important for him to note that he had been a vampire for all of, like, two days, and didn't have control over his bloodlust? He may have killed Tatia, but it was hardly a premeditated killing-- he just had no idea what he was doing and couldn't process the implications until it was too late. Regardless, Cami's smile falls, and she looks at him sympathetically, almost as if she knows why it happened, and Elijah confesses that no one knows the truth about this except for himself, Esther, and probably Finn-- not even Klaus, which is why it has to stay a super-secret secret, since Klaus loved Tatia as much as he did and is still under the impression that Esther killed her.
"Not only is this a lie," Elijah insists guiltily. "It's a lie of my own creation. And my brother doesn't forgive. He doesn't forget. Therefore, I think it's best that I forget for both of our sakes." Uhhh, except ELIJAH DIDN'T CREATE THAT LIE, EITHER. Esther did when she spelled him to forget! STOP PUTTING ALL THE BLAME ON YOURSELF BB. Of course, Finn is still in the Lyonne tomb, where he's still working on his spell. He takes the deer antler and dips it into the blood-filled coffin, along with the wolf paw, and uses it to stir everything up, which causes Elijah to become weak and stumble into a nearby chair. Cami worriedly asks if he's okay, but Finn finishes stirring his potion from Lafayette Cemetery, and Elijah subsequently passes out and falls onto the floor, which just makes Cami even more freaked out. It's a good thing they're essentially unkillable and still have the stake in their possession, because that is seriously a huuuuuge risk to just be unconscious indefinitely like that! Jinkies.
Back in the compound, Gia and Josh are in a hallway outside the courtyard and talking about how worried they are about Marcel. When Gia asks him what the hell is wrong with their sire, but Josh replies that he can't even concentrate enough to think about it, because he's too fucking hungry for life. Gia insists that they're all hungry, which naturally is when Kol decides to wall his tasty human-witch body down the stairs, causing Gia and Josh to both turn to stare at him and salivate at the thought of draining him. Gia starts to approach him, and Kol, concerned for his life, states outright that if they even try to sink their fangs into him, he'll be giving them a mystic migraine the size of North America. Gia's so hangry at this point that she claims it'll be worth it as she lunges for him, but Kol just thrusts his hand forward and squeezes it into a fist that gives Gia enough aneurysms in her brain to make her fall to her knees as she clutches her temples. When Marcel hears the commotion and comes to investigate, he demands to know what the fuck Kol is doing, but he argues that his "so-called protection detail" was trying to eat him before declaring that he plans on teaching them a lesson. As he reaches out his hand again, we cut to Lafayette Cemetery, where Finn is dipping the fox tail into the blood/totem mixture in his cauldron, and Kol ends up succumbing to his spell before he can cast another on Gia. He collapses onto the floor and falls unconscious, confusing Josh, Gia, and Marcel so much that they just stare at each other blankly.
On the astral plane, Klaus and Elijah have just awakened in the middle of what looks like an old-fashioned country shed. As they look around and try to get their bearings, they see that there are stuffed animal heads mounted on the four walls surrounding them, which unnerves them all. Kol arrives shortly afterward, and does not look pleased to see them. The sight of Kol leads Elijah to realize that something is definitely up, and when he asks him what the fuck is going on, Kol explains that where they're currently located is called a "chambre de chasse," or a hunt room-- a place on the astral plane where witches bring their victims to basically torture them in creative ways. "Our bodies are in the real world, laying dead on the floor, whilst our minds are in here, represented by these creepy animal heads," Kol adds, as he warily looks around the room. It takes Klaus no time whatsoever to realize that this is obviously a Finn-plan, and immediately starts shouting for him to come out and show himself. When he does, Klaus rushes toward him to grab him in a choke-hold, but Klaus' hand can't even get close, as though Finn has a boundary spell around himself that prevents people from coming within a foot of where he's standing. "Save your strength," Finn sneers. "In here, I am untouchable," he explains as he gestures around the room. "My magic, my rules. So, make yourselves at home! We're gonna be in here for a while." Aaand it's shit like this that makes me understand why Klaus wasn't the least bit sad when Matty Blue killed Finn back in the TVD Season 3 episode "The Murder of One."
In the real world, we finally catch up with Hayley and Jackson in the Bayou, where they have just met up with Aiden. He hands them a bowl full of the moonlight rings he collected from the rest of the pack in preparation for the Unification Ceremony. Hayley assures him that they're better off for it, but Aiden reminds her that it's easy for her to say, since she's a hybrid-- until the two of them get hitched, Aiden and the others are stuck turning on the full moon and aren't able to access their wolf abilities while not transformed. He also brings up the fact that there are still some of the Bayou wolves who are on Team Finn, and if they come there to attack them, they're going to easily rip through them, which leads him to ask them when the wedding is going down. "Ten days," Jackson replies. "After that, Hayley's power is your power-- the full moon won't control you anymore." Hayley nods in agreement, and Jackson continues on to say that they need to spread the word that any wolf who wants to be in on this power-sharing needs to be at the ceremony to bear witness to their wedding.
Aiden promises he can handle that, and when he asks them what they're about to do, Jackson excitedly exclaims that he and Hayley are going to go find a wolf elder to conduct the wedding and to observe the trials they have to endure prior to the ceremony. Hayley looks totally alarmed by this information, but Jackson assures her that it's much less scary than it sounds, and swears that all they'll be doing is "saying a few oaths, doing some trust falls, and smoking a little blue calamus root out of a peace pipe." That actually sounds pretty fun to me, honestly-- way better than the precaena classes they make you take if you want to get married in the Catholic church like my parents did. Which is actually pretty funny because my mom isn't Catholic, she's a pagan witch, but shhh, the Church doesn't need to know that. Anyway, Hayley is still visibly nervous about all of this, which both Jackson and Aiden notice, and the latter is like, "Welp, good luck with that, bruh," before he takes off. Hayley turns to Jackson and asks him where they plan on finding an elder, so Jackson just smiles widely and tells her that depends whether or not she's interested in meeting his grandmother. Oh shit! I'd like to learn more about werewolf elders, to be honest. I mean, we know all about witch elders and their roles in the coven (they have authority from their years of experience and are the only ones with the power to perform certain spells), but the role of elders in wolf packs is a whole different story. MORE WEREWOLF HISTORY/MYTHOLOGY PLEASE AND THANK YOU.
At St. Anne's Church, Klaus is still passed the fuck out on the floor, and Davina is pulling a Stiles and frantically slapping him across the face to wake him up. Hilariously, you can tell Joseph Morgan is having a REALLY hard time not laughing while Danielle Campbell fake-slaps him, because he's got a very small smile on his face. "The one time I need you!" Davina groans, but before she can go back to hitting him, Klaus' phone starts to ring, and Davina pulls it out to check it. When she sees it's Cami, she answers it in, visibly confused as to why she'd be calling him. Cami is equally confused as to why Davina would be answering Klaus' phone, and when Davina admits that she can't wake Klaus up, Cami is both relieved and concerned. "What?" she yelps. "Elijah collapsed, too. What's going on?" The question makes something click in Davina's mind, and when she realizes what Finn's doing, she groans again in frustration-- he's using the representational totems to trap the rest of his brothers, which means Kol is in trouble. LOL, glad Davina cares about Klaus and Elijah. Unfortunately, neither Cami nor Davina have any idea how to help them, which is brutal.
Meanwhile, in the chambre de chasse, Finn remarks that their little room on the astral plane is at least more comfortable than the coffin the three of them kept Finn in for nearly a millennia, which just causes Klaus to chuckle as he gestures around at all the severed animal heads around them. "The heads are a nice touch," Klaus admits, and he points to each head in turn as he describes them. "Let me guess-- I'm the big bad wolf? Kol, the wiley fox. Elijah is the noble stag. And you, fittingly enough, are the boar! Bit obvious, as far as symbolism goes..." LOLOL. Finn sure is a bore, that's for sure. As for animal symbolism, I did a little bit of research to dive further into this, because it's kind of interesting.
Boars are known for being wild earth creatures, obviously, in part due to the fact that they don't have that many predators, so they have a bit more freedom than many animals. When they do get into a conflict of some kind, they're usually pretty ferocious, and are known for ripping out their opponents jugulars with their tusks. Pretty hardcore! They're also known for being solitary creatures, with the exception of mama boars, who are dedicated to their litters and have what some call supernatural-levels of protection for their young, because they go into berserker-rages if they believe their offspring are threatened. The Celtic Druids used to call themselves boars because of how solitary they are and also their affinity for being in the forest. All of this sounds a lot like Finn, honestly, because he comes off passive but truly is ruthless when he wants to be. The one thing that doesn't really fit his personality is the fact that boars are said to "love with wild abandon," which is why they're often referred to as symbols for fertility and virility, which are NOT words I would use to describe him-- he's got way too much hate in his heart now to be able to love anyone-- you saw how quickly he turned on Cami when he realized that she was onto him.
Klaus referred to Elijah as the "noble stag," which seems to fit him very well, since he's always called the noblest of the Mikaelson children. Like boars, deer are earth creatures, but unlike the boar, the deer in symbolism is very much linked to the arts, specifically poetry and music, which is right up Elijah's alley, given his affinity for the piano and violin. Deer totems are said to balance soft, gentle qualities with strength and determination, which is quite fitting, considering we've seen Elijah be both to his loved ones and those he respects. Other qualities attributed to deer symbolism are the ability to move through life and obstacles with grace (like Elijah's talent in making deals and mediating between Klaus and whomever he's fighting that day), being in touch with their inner child and innocence (Elijah's dreams of his younger self, his insistence that they maintain Hope's innocence as long as possible, stating that Klaus, too, could still have some innocence left in his heart), being sensitive and intuitive (he may not be open with his feelings, but he is excellent at reading people), regeneration (well, he IS a vampire, and an Original vampire at that, which means few things can permanent hurt him), and vigilance, which is pretty much a necessity to be in his family. So, essentially, Finn did choose well, but as we'll see later, the brothers will be able to manipulate his understanding of the circumstances enough that they could break through it anyway.
We've already had Klaus referring to Kol as "wily" before now, so the fact that Finn chose the "wily fox" to represent him is not at all surprising. In this case, the fox used was a red fox, which has its own specific associations-- red foxes in particular are solar symbols as a result of their color, which connects it to radiance, energy, and passion, as well as linking it to the root chakra that involves primal instincts and motivations. As we all know, foxes are also known for being clever, cunning, and even have trickster-like manipulation gifts, which I'm sure Kol has gained due to his Mikaelson heritage-- he, Elijah, and Klaus are all about finding loopholes in their deals and arrangements, like that time Klaus ordered Kol not to kill Jeremy, so he compelled Damon to do it for him instead. Plus, he literally just pranked Rebekah, both to get even regarding a grudge he's been holding for a century AND to ensure that Klaus and Elijah were too busy running around and trying to find her that they wouldn't notice that he and Davina were working on the dagger. If that's not a trickstery behavior, I don't know what is. A lesser known description of fox symbolism is control, because they're all about being cautious and restrained, making sure they're being smart about what they're doing and not jumping into anything without a back-up plan, which is DEFINITELY something that Kol is guilty of doing. He's the one who is always waiting to see which way the wind is blowing before he commits to anything, and he's not opposed to switching teams if he finds that one side or the other is better suited to his agenda.
Finally, the big bad wolf himself! The information I've found about wolf totems is kind of conflicting. One source describes them as cunning, intelligent, compassionate, loyal, and communicative; the first two are very descriptive of Klaus, but the last three are less so. However, a second source is much more fitting to Klaus' character/personality. They seconded the intelligence and cleverness, but also discussed the need for freedom and generally being wild as the other positive attributes, which is 100% Klaus, given he spent his entire life either being oppressed by Mikael or being hunted down by him, so it's only natural that he'd want ALL THE FREEDOM. In terms of negative attributes, the wolf totem can indicate sensitivity to perceived threats, which is absolutely correct in terms of Klaus-- he is literally the textbook definition of being paranoid and having a persecution complex, though there is good reason as to how he developed that characteristic. Another negative quality is that since wolves emphasize the role of instinct, they can often get so caught up in those instincts that they end up letting the aforementioned fears of threats run wild and make terrible, terrible decisions. For all of you who are caught up on Season 2, you'll know that this becomes especially accurate around episode 18, which I will hopefully be recapping in about a week. So, yeah, most of the wolf symbolism fits our Klausy boy, but there is enough that doesn't quite fit that Klaus can use it to his advantage where Finn's magic is concerned. (My sources can be found here and here).
OKAY! So, now that we've talked about THAT, let's get back to the story, shall we? So, Klaus asks Finn why the fuck they're there, though he assumes it has to do with Esther's recent conversion to the undead community, but Finn insists it's not about their mother, but about the three of them, because he wants them to know what it feels like to be powerless, and he's going to show them by taking away their beloved New Orleans. Wow, Finn could literally fill a swimming pool with everything he doesn't know about his family, couldn't he? That is some seriously impressive ignorance. Elijah rolls his eyes and demands that Finn release them, as though he thinks that will actually work, but while Finn does say that he will eventually release them and the vampires from the compound, he's waiting until sundown, when the Carillon Eve marchers will be walking down the street right next to the mansion full of ravenous vampires who haven't eaten in like two days. His goal, apparently, is to have those vampires chow down on all of the locals, exposing them to the city and ensuring that they'll have to flee their hometown and never return. Okay, so I know I've said this a million times, but SERIOUSLY-- he's willing to put an entire parade of innocent humans at serious risk of being exsanguinated by the vampires he starved on purpose, just to prove to everyone that vampires are bad? How does he have a moral high ground, again? Finn gives less of a shit about human life than the rest of them do, at this rate, because the vampires, including his brothers, are all discrete feeders now, except for when Elijah accidentally loses it (and that happened BECAUSE OF ESTHER). Ugh, this just makes me so angry.
Kol is not happy about any of this, and he insists to Finn that his fight has nothing to do with him, and that he is in real danger, here, considering his body is still laying unconscious in the aforementioned house full of hungry vampires. Finn doesn't exactly appreciate Kol's self-absorption, though. "All you care about is your own fragile mortality!" Finn yells. "But, what if you were made vulnerable? What then?" Finn balls his hand into a fist and flicks his wrist, giving Kol a mystic migraine that causes his nose to bleed in both the chambre de chasse AND the real world. In the compound, Marcel, Josh, and Gia all smell Kol's blood as his nose starts to bleed, which stirs up all of their hunger. Gia vamps-out and lunges for him, but Marcel jumps in to prevent either of them from feeding on him before arguing that thanks to Finn's spell, if any of them try to feed on him, they won't be able to stop, and then all they'll be left with is dead Kol and the rest of them will still be starving. The baby vamps growl and hiss and try to push past Marcel, but he's not having it. "Look at me!" Marcel insists. "I have been at war, in the trenches, starved, with my men. If we fought through it then, you can now. We're going to fight this hunger TOGETHER." They're still struggling against him, but he seems to be getting through to them. Marcel then catches the hallucination of Joe standing behind them, which transports him back into another flashback.
It's still 1918 in Séchault, France, and Joe is sitting in the trench away from the rest of the unit as they all hold out their cups for Marcel to pour hot chocolate powder into it. Marcel makes it over to Joe and fills his cup as well, remarking that while they have no rations or gas masks, they do have plenty of cocoa, but Joe just laments that it's more dirt than cocoa. He then rolls up his sleeve and holds it out to Marcel, pointing out that he knows Marcel is starving and offers to give him a little snack, but Marcel just shoves his arm away. "Never one of us," Marcel insists. "Catch me a German, then we'll talk." Just then, a soldier rushes over to inform Marcel that he's needed back at headquarters, so Marcel gets to his feet and walks over there.
Once he arrives, he looks around the tent to find that there is a gramophone player playing jazz music and a tray full of very fancy-looking food, including an actual roast pig with an apple in its mouth, on the desk. Naturally, Klaus is sitting behind the desk, twirling a helmet on his finger and smirking gleefully. "Hate the war-- love the hats," Klaus states smugly in greeting, which is just SO DAMN KLAUS, and Marcel is both annoyed and disgusted by Klaus and his lavish food and creature comforts while his men are dying and starving out in the trenches. When Marcel asks him what he's doing there, Klaus insists that he just missed an excellent meal, so he thought he bring him dessert. He gestures toward two very beautiful women standing on either side of him, who immediately walk toward the famished Marcel and bare their necks to him.
He's so hungry that all he can focus on is the blood pumping through their hearts and into the rest of their body, so he loses himself for a moment and is just about to sink his teeth into the nearest girl's neck when Klaus finally admits the caveat-- if he eats, then he has to come home with Klaus and return to New Orleans where he belongs. Marcel instantly backs away from the girl and glares at him angrily for both manipulating him and wasting his time when he's so badly needed elsewhere. He gruffly tells Klaus he has to get back to his men, and Klaus loses any patience he may have had to start with. "Your men?! Don't be bloody ridiculous, Marcel!" Klaus sneers in frustration. "Let the food fight amongst themselves if you must, but make no mistake, your place is at home with your family!" Marcel angrily reminds Klaus that he was the one who defined family as the people who will fight for you, and who you fight for, and that's who these men are to him. He then orders Klaus to go back home before he leaves Klaus and all his luxuries to return to his Hell Fighters.
In the present, Marcel has once again zoned out as he's remembering the flashback, and when he comes back, he sees the hallucination of Joe choking on his own blood across the room and starts to walk toward him with his hand out. Josh, looking concerned, grabs his arm to stop him, and Gia notices that there is blood on his sleeve and becomes even more worried. She pushes up his sleeve, and both she and Josh are horrified beyond believe when they seen the festering wound on his forearm near his elbow. Gia asks him if it's a werewolf bite, but he tries to pass it off as a scratch, though they're definitely not buying it. "It's a BITE!" Josh retorts in frustration. "You're six ways to dead if you don't get Klaus' blood in you." He would know, too, considering his brush with death at the hands of Klaus' toxic hybrid teeth last season. He then asks Marcel what's going to happen when the rest of the vamps find out, but Marcel insists that no one is going to find out, because both of them are going to keep their mouths shut about it.
The two both glare at him in response, and when they hear the Carillon Eve bells ringing from down the street, Gia loses her patience completely. "You hear that?" Gia asks furiously, before pointing at Kol's unconscious body on the couch. "That's the sound of food that we can't even get near while you're sitting here protecting that idiot." Marcel reminds her that it's just hunger, and there are certainly people who are much hungrier than they are out there, but Gia retorts that Marcel made them a promise when he turned them, and it hasn't exactly been held up lately, between being beat up, bitten by wolves, exiled in Algiers, and now trapped in this compound. "And now, when we're all looking to you for help, you don't even tell us that you're dying!" Gia adds, and though Marcel looks as though he's going to interrupt her, he doesn't. The church bells and hand bells continue to ring outside, and Marcel rushes out into the courtyard to find all of the vampires, Gia and Josh included, standing as close to the front entrance as they can get, vamped-out and salivating at the thought of all the human blood walking around outside. Marcel then catches sight of Joe's hallucination standing next to him. "We don't all get to get out of this alive, son," Joe says somberly, and Marcel is just so overwhelmed, it's actually really sad. MARCEL BB, LET ME HUG YOU.
The camera pans from Klaus' body on the floor of the church to Elijah's body on the floor of the safe house, to Kol's on the couch of the study in the compound, before we all finally return to the chambre de chasse. Finn, in a very loving brother move, has just cast another pain infliction spell on Kol that gives him a nosebleed, and he angrily wipes the blood off his face. Awesome, so not only is he willing to risk the lives of dozens and dozens of humans who just wanted to celebrate Carillon Eve, but he's also totally cool with risking the life of his own brother, however he may have hurt him? FINN IS THE WOOOOOOOORST. I mean, yeah, Klaus left Kol in the compound, which was totally terrible and not easily forgivable, but even Klaus will say in a couple episodes that no matter how horribly he treats his siblings, he would never outright them. When you're at like Mikael levels of intolerance, hatred, and murder, then maybe it's time for you to look at your life, and look at your choices.
"Okay, point made," Kol says to Finn, trying his best to sound polite so as to not to earn him more pain from big bro Finn. "Now, nobody loves a joke like old fox-boy here, but if you could just get me back to my body--" Elijah just smirks and remarks that he is sort of enjoying watching Kol squirm, given that's likely the same fate he gave to Rebekah. He pulls out his pocket square and hands it to Kol to wipe his face in another totally-Elijah move, but Finn is gleeful at this reminder and points at Elijah in emphasis before exclaiming, "Yes! What did you do to Rebekah?" Kol sighs in exasperation and points out that all he did was play a little prank on her to repay her for the prank she played on him, and insists desperately that if Finn just sends him back to his body, then he'll tell whomever whatever they want to know. Finn is visibly amused by all this drama going down and casts another pain infliction spell to shut Kol up before admitting that he may have been a little short-sighted. "Rebekah," Finn adds, as he looks at Klaus and Elijah. "You don't know where she is, and the only thing standing between you and our sister is this selfish fool." He points to Kol, who looks very alarmed, but as it turns out, Finn is about to give him exactly what he wants, though it's hardly a perfect situation in the real world, either. "Maybe it's time for you to go enjoy the rest of your mortal life while you still can," Finn adds, before making a fist with his hand that causes Kol's astral projection to vanish, startling and worrying both Klaus and Elijah in the process.
Kol then awakens with a gasp on the couch at the compound, and, as expected, the very hungry Josh, Gia, and several other vampires start to swarm around him and hiss aggressively at him. "...Is it too late for an apology?" Kol asks sheepishly, and judging by the fact that Gia immediately lunges for him, I'm gonna go with NO. Fortunately for him, Marcel swoops in just in the nick of time and vamps him into the next room, and Kol, impressed by his loyalty, thanks him for saving his ass. "Oh, don't thank me yet," Marcel growls before lunging for him himself and trying to feed on him, but Kol holds his arms out protectively and insists that Marcel just needs to hold it together for a little while longer as he points at the window, where the sun is setting in the horizon. When Marcel gets suspicious and asks him what he's talking about, Kol admits that Finn plans on releasing them all at sundown. Marcel scrubs at his face with his hands in frustration as the implications of this plan become obvious to him.
He points out that the streets will be full of people just outside the compound, and Kol nods in confirmation. "And you'll be half-crazed with hunger. You'll feed your way through the crowd, and that will be the end of vampires secretly living off the fat of New Orleans!" Kol replies. When Marcel glares at Kol, he suddenly sees another hallucination of Joe in his Army uniform behind him, and Kol is very clearly confused and a little concerned by Marcel's constant zone-outs today. He snaps his fingers in front of his face to get his attention. "Marcel!" Kol yells, which finally gets him to focus, but when Kol realizes just how weak, woozy, and out of it Marcel is, he sighs in defeat. Do you think he knows about the werewolf bite? I'm not really sure. "Listen to me," Kol insists. "You are outmaneuvered, out-manned, and, quite frankly, you're... you're out of your mind. We're not going to get out of this alive." Marcel, remembering Joe's words earlier ("We don't all get to get out of this alive, son,"), determinedly insists that they will ALL be getting out of this alive. YESSS! FEARLESS-LEADER MARCEL IS BACK. I can't wait for the pep talks that are to come, because we all know Marcel excels at that.
Meanwhile, Hayley and Jackson are hiking around the Bayou still, and Hayley adorably asks if they're planning on Baton Rouge, but Jackson assures her they're almost there. He asks her if she's nervous, but Hayley shakes her head in the negatory, though she does concede that she should be, since she's his grandmother and all. Jackson jokes that she usually likes the girls he brings home, which amuses Hayley very much, but he quickly backtracks and promises that he's actually never brought a girl home, which is kind of surprising, but not really. We all know it's pretty much been Hayley-Central in his head since he learned that they were supposed to get married, so I guess it makes sense, but you'd think there'd be at least a few hookups along the way. "So, you've gotta make a good impression, since she's got no one crazy to compare you with," Jackson says with a smile, but Hayley assures him it'll be fine. "I am great with old people. And babies. It's just the in-between that I suck at," Hayley replies, which is hilarious because it's so true. Suddenly, Jackson's grandmother appears out of nowhere and snarks that as cute as they are, they're running late. Jackson sweetly kisses her on the cheek and hugs her before introducing her to Hayley as Mary. Hayley instantly starts to say how nice it is to meet her, but Mary just holds up a hand and quips, "You can turn off your old-people charm now," which shuts Hayley up right quick. Aw, I like her! Sassy people are my favorite.
Anyway, Mary once again points out that they're late, and that they need to get moving if the two of them want to get married anytime soon. Hayley clears her throat awkwardly and asks her about the pre-marital rituals they need to do before the ceremony, so Mary begins to list them. "Fasting, purification, the Rite of Divulgement, to name a few." Hayley's eyes immediately widen in alarm at that last one, and when she worriedly asks her what that actually entails. "Oh, it's simple! You speak the truth, he speaks the truth, secrets are cleansed, everyone's happy!" Hayley still looks alarmed, so Mary continues, "The two Alphas smoke the root of the blue calamus flower. It links your hearts and minds together. The ceremony won't take if there are lies separating you. This way, there are none. It's the most important ritual, apart from the ceremony itself." YIIIIKES! I mean, for the most part, Hayley has been very forthcoming to Jackson about everything, but there's still one very-Hope-shaped secret Hayley is keeping, and not only is it not fully her secret to tell, but then you've got Klaus to worry about if she spills about it. So, when Mary pats her on the arm affectionately and jokes that she hopes she doesn't have too many skeletons in her closet, Hayley starts to panic and insists that she can't do it before scampering away, much to Mary's confusion and Jackson's horror.
Over on the astral plane, Elijah and Klaus are now alone with Finn, since Kol was sent back, and Finn certainly looks pleased to have them right where he wants them. "So, what shall we talk about while we wait for nightfall?" Finn asks pleasantly, before gasping mockingly and adds, "Oh, I know! Let's talk about our parents!" Elijah and Klaus aren't exactly pleased, but they play along anyway. I apologize in advance for the fact that I'm going to just be straight-up transcribing much of these last few chambre-de-chasse scenes, because the dialogue is PERFECT and the information within it could be pretty important later.
KLAUS: "You now, I figured you wouldn't be kind to Mother, but imagine my surprise to learn that Mikael met the same fate! Bravo, brother."
FINN: "You see, the parents I was interested in talking about was your father. Your real one? I mean, you longed to know him your whole life. Yet, at the first opportunity, you murdered him! Why, I wonder?"
KLAUS: [shrugs] "Possibly the same reason you took out Esther. Severing parental ties has a way of freeing one up to recognize one's true potential."
FINN: [rolls his eyes] "Quite. But, Esther was no fool. She pinpointed your wants, and knowing your true father was at the top of the list!" [He makes a noise to mimic the sound of killing someone for emphasis] "No, something else occupies the top of your list of affections. And, it's not your favorite city, because I'm about to take that from you-- using your own vampires!-- and I barely get a rise out of you! I thought maybe it was Rebekah, but you remain calm, even when the one person who knows her fate probably just met his."Wow, Finn is seriously insane. Yikes! Elijah just sighs in boredom and pipes up, "I am fighting the monumental urge to mount your severed head upon one of these walls..." but Finn just ignores him. "And then, I thought it was your favorite brother, but Mother broke him into a thousand pieces, and rather than fix him, you left him to fend for himself God knows where." Ouch! It's not that Klaus doesn't give a fuck about Elijah's condition, its just that they have to prioritize. Still, this leads Finn to consider what's really going on here, and boy, does he get close. "You know, if I didn't know better, I'd say you were hiding something from me. Something big. Something dark. Maybe your real father found out what it was, and you had to kill him?" Well, Finn might be a borderline sociopath, but he's no dummy, that's for sure.
Klaus, angry and not wanting Finn to get any closer to the secret they're keeping than he already is, asks him if he truly wants to know why Klaus killed Ansel, to which Finn replies with an emphatic "yes." "Because when blood relations let me down, I don't stop to reason with them," Klaus sneers. "I remove them." Finn ain't buying it, though, and honestly, I don't blame him, because that was a kind of lame retort, no matter how true it may be. "So, the secret is... there is no secret? You long for nothing? Care for no one?" Yeahhhh, nobody who knows Klaus actually believes that, and Finn is no exception, so he tells Klaus just that-- it's clear that he's hiding something, and since Finn controls Klaus and Elijah's presence on the astral plane, he can keep there however long it takes to figure it out. As Finn walks away from him, Elijah tries his best to maintain a blank expression, but Klaus looks understandably pissed and terrified at Finn's line of questioning. Welp, this is a hot damn mess.
Back in the real world, Hayley is alone in the woods in the Bayou when a frantic Jackson finally catches up with her. She sighs and maintains that she can't do this, but Jackson desperately tries to argue that she's not the only one who has stuff that they'd rather not confess. Hayley brings up my earlier point, which is that some of her secrets aren't actually hers to tell, but Jackson continues to state that some honesty will likely be a good thing. "Jack, I live with the Original family!" Hayley exclaims in frustration. "In that family, sometimes honesty... can get you killed." This stuns Jackson into silence, because that is heavy as fuck, but he quickly shakes it off and replies, "We all have things we hope will never see the light of day. You probably won't like what I have to say any more than what you're holding back."
Hayley sighs again and admits that she wishes that were true, but she knows better than to believe it, but Jackson is insistent about this, and for good reason, considering the success of the Unification ceremony literally rests on them doing this rite. He promises that they'll take everything one step at a time, and she can stop at any time if she gets uncomfortable. When Hayley still looks hesitant, he gets super serious. "And, when it comes time to open up, I'll go first. Because I don't run, and I don't scare easy. Your secrets are my secrets. Your demons my demons. And, you'll never have to fight them alone. I promise you that." Aw, Jackson, how are you literally the best guy out there? If only there were like thousands of men like that out there-- he's much better than any of the exes I have to my name. Anyway, Hayley closes her eyes and takes a deep breath as she considers this for a moment, but when Jackson holds out his hand to her and begs her to come back with him, she ultimately takes it and lets him lead her back to Mary's. Aw, yay trust!
Over at the compound, Josh is walking around the groups of vampires and encouraging them to relax, but everyone is still looking anxious and strung-out from starvation. Marcel comes out onto the balcony overlooking the courtyard, and when Gia sees him, she instantly rushes over to him. "I'm gonna give you two minutes to explain why we don't come up there and take the witch," she demands angrily. "You lied to us! You betrayed everything that you taught us! How can you lead us?" YIKES! That is super harsh. First of all, Kaleb/Kol may be a tall guy, but he still doesn't have enough blood to feed ALL of them, so most of them would still be starving, and thanks to the spell Finn cast, the six pints of blood they got from him wouldn't be enough anyway. Besides, he knows where Rebekah is, and she's technically one of them, since she's a vampire, even if she's in a witch body at the moment. Also, I don't think Marcel had much, if any, control over the events that have happened lately-- I mean, really, this is pretty much what it means to be a vampire in New Orleans. You fight with the werewolves, you fight with the witches, you squabble with the human faction, sometimes the vampires are in charge, sometimes they're not. It's a rollercoaster. Anyway, Marcel is stunned speechless by Gia's words, and once again gets transported into a flashback.
In 1918 Séchault, France, it's nightfall when Marcel finally returns to the trenches after his disastrous reunion with Klaus, only to find that mustard gas bombs were dropped on the Harlem Hell Fighters while he was gone. Apparently vampires are immune to its effects, because he doesn't seem at all bothered by it as he rushes into the trench, but unfortunately, his men didn't have their gas masks, so they're all either dead or dying. He desperately starts checking on each of the men in turn and cursing under his breath when he realizes he's too late for most of them. Fortunately, Joe is still alive, though he's fading fast. "Joe! Joe, no!" Marcel cries as he takes Joe's face in his hands, and when Joe laughs humorlessly and reminds him that they never got their gas masks, Marcel's eyes fill with tears, and he begins to panic.
"I'm sorry," Marcel insists desperately. "I failed you, brother." Joe coughs up some more blood before he weakly replies, "Not if you make us into vampires like you. Let's make this fight more even. Turn us." Marcel frantically looks around the rest of the men who are still alive, but coughing harder and harder as time passes, and he looks pretty conflicted about this request. However, when it comes to his men, he's not going to let them die, so eventually, he realizes what needs to be done and bites into his wrist before thrusting it into Joe's mouth. YESS! BLACK VAMPIRE SOLDIERS! THIS IS THE BEST. Also, I'm going to guess vampire blood doesn't heal mustard gas poisoning, so they probably just died from their injuries and then awakened in transition. Also, I'm wondering how they managed to continue fighting after the sun came up the next day, since Marcel's the only one with a daylight ring. Maybe he managed to find a witch to help him out? I seem to remember Joe having a daylight ring when he died, so I'm just going to assume that's what happened.
In the present day, Marcel pulls himself out of his daydream to see that the crowd of vampires has become even more anxious as they gather around him. He then musters up all the determination and motivation he can summon before he addresses his vampire progeny below him from the balcony.
MARCEL: "Hey! I'm sorry I let you down, okay? All of you. But, the way that you're feeling right now, this despair? This hunger? I have been through it, and if you let me help you survive it, I guarantee you, it will make you stronger! At sundown, Vincent's gonna drop that barrier spell right there, and those doors are gonna open, and we are gonna be smack in the middle of a parade of innocent people. We can't fall apart now!"
GIA: "Innocent, guilty-- we're hungry. We have to feed!"
MARCEL: "We don't feed on locals! That's our rule! That's how we've survived three hundred years in this town, and that is why we get to call it home! Because we live by a code!"
GIA: [angrily] "The same one that won't let you tell your own people that you're dying of a werewolf bite?"
MARCEL: "I'm not dying of anything. I've got a vial of Klaus' blood at my place right across the river, along with enough blood to satisfy ALL of you! All we have to do is get there." [He turns to Josh and gives him a pleading look] "You once asked me what I was fighting for. I told you that I was fighting for this city, for our home. But, if we feed out there, we lose it. The barrier will be down any moment now. Let me help you get home."YASSS MARCEL. Man, I'd be one of his vampires in a heartbeat. His motivational speeches get me every time. Just then, the church bells start to ring again, just as the sun finally goes down and darkens the streets. Everyone's attention is turned to the front entrance of the compound, and a curious Kol sneaks out onto the balcony, though he sticks to the shadows, to watch them curiously as Marcel hesitantly walks toward the doorway. Marcel gingerly holds out his hand toward where the barrier was, but when it easily passes through it with no resistance, Marcel determines that they're free and turns back to his progeny, all of whom are trying their best to do as Marcel says and resist the humans full of tasty blood walking past them. "It's down," Marcel announces. "Let's go."
Back on the astral plane, Finn, Elijah, and Klaus are each seated in their own chairs in the chambre de chasse while they continue their discussion, which is mostly just Finn trying to bait Klaus into unintentionally exposing his secret. "It's a shame, really, for you to lose New Orleans," Finn begins. "You've worked so hard to make this city a home. On the other hand, this city hasn't given you much in the way of good fortune. You have Marcel's betrayal, Father's attack, the loss of your child..." Wait, how does Finn know about the Marcel and Mikael thing from 1919? He was daggered back then. Maybe he was watching on the Other Side or Ancestral Limbo when Klaus found out? That seems to be the only logical explanation. Anyway, at the reference to Hope, Elijah looks worriedly at Klaus, but he's keeping his poker face going, so Elijah decides to try to distract Finn from this topic of conversation by baiting him into exposing his own weaknesses.
"It is a delicate craft," Elijah states pleasantly, a statement which confuses Finn so much that he turns away from Klaus and waits for him to elaborate. "Representational magic?" Elijah continues, demonstrating that he knows quite a bit more about magic than you'd expect someone who has never had any interest in it before. "One must be ever so precise. If you misrepresent us, the very enchantment this room was built upon would collapse, would it not?" Klaus isn't quite sure where Elijah is going with, but definitely seems intrigued as he turns his attention to Finn, who insists that he has most certainly not misrepresented them. Still, Elijah reminds him that he can't be sure, because it all depends on how well the hunter knows his prey. Then, he does something that I was definitely not expecting to happen in this episode, but I am seriously glad he did, because it just adds to the incredible character development they've both had this season. "This façade, this illusion that I have created over the course of my life-- the noble stag?" Elijah says anxiously. "It is nothing more than a deception-- to myself, to everyone."
Elijah turns to Klaus, looking both terrified and distraught about what he's about to say, which definitely puts both on edge. "If I were a truly noble brother, I would not have withheld from you a vile deed, one that I, like a coward, allowed Mother to erase from my memory. It was I who killed Tatia." Both Klaus and Finn are stunned by this confession, and the room starts to shake and warp around them as Elijah flickers in and out of focus for a moment. "I hunted her down, and mercilessly, I feasted upon her flesh. I tore her from us. Mother took the blame." Ugh, I know that Elijah is just trying to make it sound worse than it is so he doesn't fit the "noble stag" representational totem, but still, it makes me so sad to hear him say that, because he didn't do it on purpose! He loved her, and he fed on her because he had just been made a vampire and had no control over his bloodlust and she was bleeding right in front of him. It doesn't absolve him of her death, but it's not like it was a premeditated murder, here.
Anyway, Elijah kneels in front of Klaus, looking both disgusted by his actions and ashamed of himself, and admits that he believed that if he knew this secret, he would never, ever forgive him, and when he looks up at his younger brother pleadingly, Klaus simply looks back at him with a saddened expression. Finn looks momentarily alarmed, but when he sees that the hunt room hasn't changed, he crows, "The act may be reprehensible, but your admitting to it proves you to be the man I thought you to be!" He gestures around the room and declares that his magic stands. Klaus, however, is not so sure. "Does it?" he asks with a weak smile as he suddenly gets an idea, and Finn's smugly triumphant smirk starts to fall. "It turns out my brother is even more depraved than I am," Klaus begins, and Elijah looks up at him with tears in his eyes. Klaus stands and looks around the room at the various animal heads that are mounted on the walls as he continues his rebuttal. "He is the noble stag no longer. Indeed, an altogether different beast is creeping through the cracks." He turns to face Finn and adds, "And, you have also failed in your representation of me, because there is one thing you have never thought me capable of." Klaus turns back to Elijah, who looks both guilty and momentarily terrified. However, whatever he was expecting, it was most certainly not that Klaus would squeeze his shoulder affectionately instead of furiously punishing him in some way.
"Forgiveness," Klaus says firmly, and the room starts to shake again, causing Finn to look truly afraid for the first time since they arrived in the chambre de chasse. "You, Finn, have remained a board for centuries, but here is where your true fault lies-- you never learnt that the bonds of family far outweigh anything else! Such bonds trump petty jealousies. They overcome ancient feuds. And, yes, they are capable of allowing one monster to pardon the great sins of another." YESSSSS! FAMILY IS POWER PT. 3498723409823987123 THIS SEASON. Finn looks up in shock as he sees the wolf head on the wall burst into flames, which startles him so much that he jumps to his feed. When Elijah looks over at the other wall, he sees that the stag's head is also ablaze, which causes the room to shake even more. "How is this possible?" Finn asks desperately, but Klaus just points out the obvious-- "Your magic is as flawed as your perception of your own siblings!" Klaus then wonders aloud just how untouchable Finn really is, but just as both he and Elijah lunge for Finn, the latter quickly releases the spell, which causes them to return to their bodies in their respective locations in the living world. GOD, THAT WAS SO AWESOME. I just love when smug bastards get taken down a peg, and that certainly happened in this episode.
Elijah is the one who wakes first, still on the floor of the safe house where he fell hours earlier. When he sits up, he realizes that Cami has been sitting at his side all afternoon while she anxiously waited for him to return. She worriedly asks him if he's okay, but Elijah just takes a deep breath and insists that he is, for now, at least.
Meanwhile, at St. Anne's Church, Klaus has awakened on the floor in the aisle of the main room, where Davina, too, has been sitting next to him this whole time and waiting for him to return. "What happened?" Davina asks nervously. "Is Kol okay?" BAHAHAHAHA. Klaus is like, "I'm fine, thank you for your concern," before getting to the good stuff. "The same, however, cannot be said for your friends and the people of the French Quarter. Now, I can stand here and explain to you the specifics, or you can show a little trust and come with me." Davina simply shrugs as she stands to her feet and grabs her jacket from the nearby pew as she retorts, "I'm the one who's been waiting for you to move your ass! Let's go!" She shoulder-checks Klaus as she pushes past him to leave, and Klaus just smiles and laughs to himself at just how wonderfully bossy Davina is before he follows her outside.
Okay, this next scene is AMAZING, but it cuts back and forth a ton between the vampires, led by Marcel, slowly making their way through the Quarter to Algiers, and flashbacks to 1918 France, where Marcel is giving another motivational pep talk to the newly-turned vampires of his regiment. The dialogue I'll be quoting is the actual speech Marcel gives the soldiers, but it also applies to their current situation, so bear with me. Also, the song that is playing is "Up In Flames" by Ruelle, and it is absolutely perfect. Here we go!
The vampires are pushing their way through the many red-and-white clad humans celebrating Carillon Eve and trying their best not to eat them. Many of them are leaning against each other for support, and they all look so strung-out and generally out of it that the locals give them weird looks, probably thinking they're all on drugs, or detoxing from drugs, or SOMETHING. In flashback, Marcel is in the middle of the trench, with the surviving members of the unit are gathered around him in a circle, having just awoken in transition. "What you're feeling is a hunger. It will be unlike anything you've ever known." In the present, Gia and Josh hold onto each other tightly as they make their way toward Marcel's apartment. "It will eat you from the inside." In flashback, Joe comes up behind Marcel, looking proud and contented by their new supernatural status. "But you are in control. It is your greatest weapon. And the Germans are coming over that hill, thinking to waltz over our corpses to take the town! But that's not gonna happen, because one thing stands in the enemy's way! Us!" Joe and some of the other newly-vampire soldiers growl in anticipation as they let out their vampire faces. In the present, Marcel is struggling to stay on his feet, and his vision continues to blur as he is overwhelmed by the sounds of heartbeats around him and leans on Gia and Josh for support.
"And, make no mistake, we are one unit! One army! We are FAMILY!" In the present, Marcel stumbles again, and Josh grabs him by the shoulder of his coat and keeps him from falling onto the ground. "Family is not determined by blood, but by who you fight for! And who will fight for you!" In flashback, bombs rain down upon the battlefield just outside the trench in which Marcel and the Hell Fighters are standing. "Tonight, we will feed on the blood of our enemies, and if we die, we will be reborn, and we will feed again! WE are the Brotherhood of the Damned, and we CANNOT be defeated!" Marcel yells to the unit, and all of the vamp-soldiers cheer loudly in agreement before Marcel orders them to go over the top and storm the enemy's troops. They all climb up and rush onto the battlefield as the German army shoots at them with bayonets, but despite the gunfire, they're able to overpower them and feed upon every soldier they come upon. In the present, Marcel continues to lead his new vampire army down the streets of the Quarter, though it's obvious he's getting weaker and weaker by the moment.
In flashback, one of the German soldiers stabs Joe with the blade end of his bayonet, but though it clearly stings a little, Joe just pulls it out and drops it before tearing into his neck and draining him, which heals his wound. In the present, Gia stumbles, but Marcel manages to hold her up while still leaning on her as well in order to keep himself on his feet. In flashback, Marcel and his vampires continue to slaughter the German soldiers, while in the present, Marcel and the others use all of their remaining focus to keep themselves from noticing the pounding carotid arteries of every human they pass, taking deep breaths and putting one foot in front of the other on their journey back to Algiers. Gia suddenly gets a hopeful and determined look on her face, and she whispers, "I think we're gonna make it!" Of course, that's when Marcel finally can't take it any more and loses his strength completely, causing his knees to buckle as he collapses onto the ground. NOOO MARCEL!
Davina and Klaus have just made it to the parade of marchers going past the compound, but after they look around for a moment, Davina remarks that there doesn't seem to be any bloodbath happening, so where they hell are they? Klaus determines that they should split up and instructs her to go look around while he tries to sniff them out himself. She continues to do as she's told as Klaus leaves, but after a moment, she spots Kol across the street and completely drops what she's doing in favor of rushing over to him, wrapping her arms around his neck, and kissing him passionately. I don't really blame her, to be honest-- if my boyfriend looked like Daniel Sharman and was a badass trickstery witch, I'd probably do the same.
In Algiers, Marcel has just awakened on the floor of his loft to find that his head is resting in Gia's lap as she affectionately runs her fingers over his hair. Wait, did she and Josh dead-lift Marcel all the way to the loft in their condition? That is seriously impressive! Go Team Marcel! "Welcome back, soldier," Gia murmurs with a smile. "Fed you some of Klaus' blood. You weren't exactly lucid." She pulls up his sleeve to show him that his bite is completely healed, and he looks super relieved to hear this news. When he sits up and looks around, he spots a half dozen empty blood bags littering the floor, and Gia giggles as she informs him that everyone is getting into his stash of bloodbags downstairs. Marcel seems surprised that she hasn't joined him, though I'm assuming that she at least had a little while she was waiting for Marcel to rejoin them, but Gia apparently wanted to stick around so she could apologize for being a pain in the ass earlier. Giiiirl, intense hunger will make anyone grumpy! "Only the weak don't challenge authority, Gia," Marcel insists. "You did good."
Just then, a person clapping in applause can be heard from behind them, and when they turn to the door, they find Finn standing in the doorway with a mocking smile on his face. "I applaud you all for your... strength of character," he continues on, and though his voice has a faux-polite tone to it, you can tell that he's seriously pissed after he was thwarted by his brothers on the astral plane AND completely underestimated the vampires' desire to remain in New Orleans at all costs. He then informs Marcel that he just finished congratulating the vampires downstairs, and when Marcel angrily demands to know what he did to them, Finn assures him that he did nothing that can't be reversed. "I came to ask you a question, Marcel" Finn adds. "See, earlier today, I spent some time with my brothers. They went to great lengths to hide something from me. A secret they'd do anything to keep." Marcel glares at him angrily (though we all know that Marcel was compelled to believe that Hope died) and Gia just looks terrified as Finn explains that while he may not be able to convince Klaus and Elijah to spill, but he's certain that he can find a way to rip it out of Marcel. When Marcel rises to his feet and lunges at Finn, Finn casts a pain-infliction spell on Marcel just as the camera cuts away.
A short time later, we return to the safe house, where Cami is sitting on the couch with Hope in her arms as Elijah paces around and speaks to Klaus on the phone. When Klaus asks how Hope is doing, Elijah smiles and assures him that both Hope and himself are in excellent hands, though he will happily return to New Orleans if Klaus says the word. However, Klaus states that he's needed where he is, so Elijah just nods in agreement and turns the topic back to their home. "So, the city is safe?" Elijah asks, to which Klaus cutely responds, "Well, I wouldn't exactly go flinging around terms like 'safe.'" before getting into the bad news-- "Marcel and his vampires have inexplicably disappeared; Kol is in the wind; Rebekah is still lost, and Finn is dangerously suspicious of the secrets we keep." He pauses a minute before bringing up what happened in the hunt room earlier, and he insists that he meant what he said, and that not only is he capable of forgiveness, but he does forgive Elijah for what happened to Tatia. Elijah is so moved by Klaus' uncharacteristic reaction to this confession that he looks as though he might actually cry, but before he can respond, Klaus reminds him that they need to stay focus on their common enemies before telling him he'll call him back.
Just as Klaus hangs up, Aiden arrives at the loft, and Klaus correctly assumes that he's eager to find his boyfriend, which Aiden confirms before asking him what he needs. Klaus instructs him to question the wolves and see if any of them have heard whispers of where Finn might have taken the vampires. Unfortunately for him, the werewolves have mostly all returned to the Bayou in preparation for Hayley and Jackson to finish their wedding trials so they can finally do the Unification ceremony, according to Josh. This is all news to Klaus, and when he suspiciously asks Aiden what kind of wedding trials they're talking about, he just shrugs in confusion and says that it's just old-school werewolf stuff, like smoking blue calamus. We all know Klaus has been around for a long, long while, so he's actually familiar with blue calamus and the fact that werewolves used it for divulgement rituals in the past.
The scene cuts to the Bayou, where Hayley and Jackson are walking hand-in-hand toward Mary's house. Back at the loft, Klaus is now totally on edge since he's realized that Hayley is likely going to confess the truth about Hope, so he asks Aiden if he knows if a divulgement ritual is on the agenda. When Aiden has no idea, Klaus asks for where Jackson took Hayley, and he mistakenly gives Klaus this information before realizing that something shady is going down. Klaus heads for door and tells Aiden to stay on point, and when Aiden asks him where the hell he thinks he's going, Klaus gives Aiden a very weird look and replies, "I'm going to have a little chat with the bride-to-be. Remind her that some secrets need to stay buried." Ohhhhhh, shit, this is going to be a literal bloodbath.
Next episode: Hayley and Klaus have a little difference in opinion regarding the trials necessary to complete the Unification ceremony; Rebekah finally meets the girl in the coffin and realizes that they're more connected than she ever realized; and Finn tortures the vampires some more.
As it seems it’s going to take you a while to recap the season finale episode, I want to know your opinion about it because the last two episodes were too painful for me to watch.
ReplyDeleteI have the feeling like the show just went back to the beginning. I mean the whole show’s premise were Klaus’ redemption right? And somehow all the improvement the character has develop he managed to screw it up in a few moments
And its so sad that the season ends with everybody angry with everybody (especially with Klaus) because to me (as you also said) the best moments in the season were when all the character worked together the strategies, the teams up… and especially the Michaelson’s sibling caring for each other so I definitely feel like we’re back to the beginning – a hateful Klaus, an abused Rebekah, Elijah losing someone he cares about because of Klaus again, Davina being used… again
And I don’t know… I can handle Klaus hurting any people, killing strangers and even if he decides to kill half New Orleans population ( it would be awful of course) but I could handle it; but what I cannot stand is when he hurts his siblings the ones who have been always with him.
So I suppose the next season four episodes will be dedicated to cami playing therapeutic on Klaus and Elijah and trying to fix their relationship and Elijah will be mad with Klaus for a while and then he will forgive him as he always does.
I am glad Freya will stay. I fell really sorry for Hayley she didn’t deserve what Klaus did to her at all and that made sad because I was really enjoy the friendship she was develop with klaus, and I do believe her plan was better to disappear with hope until dahlia had to sleep for a century and then they could find the way to kill her
And As much as I would like that Elijah would leave Klaus I think he did right by staying with hope Klaus definitely can’t be the only thing she knows. And I’m not saying that klaus doesn’t love her, he does. And I’m sure he truly believe that everything he has done was in the name of protect her but Klaus is to damaged and without the appropriate help he can (even I know that would never be his intention) damage hope too
There were also a couple of thing I don’t understand:
-why dahlia only can be killed with the blood of the witch she loved the most?
-when marcel was compelled to kill Rebekah if she tried to escape why didn’t she use magic to break his neck or to cause him one of those awful headaches that witches loves to do? I mean I was happy to have Claire Holt back but still it did not made sense to me.
-I know that eventually Elijah´s going to forgive Klaus for killing Gia as he forgave him for cause celeste dead and that is something I don´t get because I believe that when somebody kill someone you love you should hate that person or at least don´t want to see him/her anymore but TVD/TO universe in a while ago they all are hanging out with their love ones murderer
ReplyDeleteAbout Klaus I hate him right now and that makes me sad because I really don’t want to hate him but I don’t think I can feel empathy for him anymore. I mean I know she had a horrible childhood, his father tormented him his mother lied to him and try to kill him twice. yes I get it and I always have thought that every child deserve and should be loved by their parents. But:
1- I know our child experiences affect us but they don’t determinate us. As Elijah said once to Rebekah “she (Esther) didn´t make us monster we did that to ourselves” (maybe I just too caught up in Sartre philosophy) but I agree. we are absolutely responsible for our acts.
2- So my real problem with Klaus is not that he is a cold killer psychopath. My problem with him is that he is always justifying himself, NOT taking responsibility of his acts, blaming an others and playing the victim role and for me that is really immature.
3- Speaking of being immature I have wonder so many times. Is this guy really a thousand years old? He act like a little baby. Seriously I am so mad with Klaus right now that I wasn’t nor a litter bit move by his interactions with hope nor his sweet moment with cami in the bar (and I am a klamile fan)
Sorry for the long commentary (it is almost as long as your recaps) is just than in my city the originals is not a very popular show actually I don’t know anybody who watch it. So I just needed to exchange my impressions with someone and since you and I seem to agree in many point I would like to know your opinion.
As it seems you like supernatural tv shows. Do you watch penny dreadful? If you don’t I highly recommend it. If you like literature characters as Dorian gray, frankstein, Dracula…
Finally feel yourself free to correct any mistake I have made. I am really trying to improve my English
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