by Dianna Berrian
Paying homage to their “Vampire Diaries” roots, tonight’s episode starts off with an excerpt from an actual diary. Elijah’s diary, to be exact, which Hayley seemed to have dug up in her quest to snoop through the Originals’ lives. It’s a semi-poetic entry from 1359 that makes a nice prelude to the episode with Elijah’s fears of his family’s dwindling mentalities in becoming vampires. Fitting, seeing as this episode focuses on the cutthroat execution of Klaus and Rebekah’s first phase of taking down Marcel and getting Elijah back. And just what is this plan, Hayley (and we) wonder? Well, the first attempt is to simply ask Marcel for Elijah back. But that’s just Plan A, little wolf. There’s always Plan B – it’s this little pill you probably should’ve taken the day after you slept with a murderous hybrid. Oh…sorry. I meant, war.
While Marcel admires his new suit for the Masquerade Ball, his right hand hat-wearing man Thierry mentions the four missing nightwalkers he sent to look into the werewolf. You know, the ones Rebekah killed last week? He starts to make his stance on the Originals clear, thinking they’re bringing trouble with them since coming back, but Klaus interrupts just in time for him to eat his words. The two butt heads a little when Thierry accuses Rebekah of murdering the vampires. Luckily, Marcel intervenes, preaching peace. Ironic for a vampire, no? It’s at this point that Klaus tries his luck at just asking for his brother back. But Marcel makes a valid point in stating that giving him back Elijah would give his people the wrong impression about who’s in charge. Well we wouldn’t that, now, would we?
In what I’m presuming is the basement/dungeon of the mansion, Klaus checks on his new baby vamp to see if he’s following orders and draining the night walker they kept hostage properly. Seeing that he needs a bit of encouragement to be vicious, Klaus compels him and gives him his first lesson in vampirism. It’s mostly an explanation to the audience through the use of a secondary character, but the information we get here is that the vervain they’re trying to drain the vamp of is what prevents the Originals – the only vampires who can compel other vampires – from using mind compulsion on them. That said, the reason they’re doing it is because Marcel has his friends taking vervain to keep Klaus and his siblings from compelling them, so they want to use this one as their own little trick up their sleeve.
On a different note, Rebekah and Sophie take a trip into the store where Hayley got the wolfsbane from the witch named Katie. Rebekah questions her about the transaction in a rather violent manner. The real discovery is that the person she ratted out Hayley to is a man she loves – Marcel’s right hand vampire, Thierry. Klaus revels in this new information and deems it the key to their entire plan. “Oh to be young and in love in a city where vampires and witches are at war. How tragic!” After filling her brother in, Rebekah asks Sophie to do a locator spell to find Elijah. The witch refuses because she’ll be killed for doing magic, of course. And if Sophie is killed, so are Hayley and the baby. That’s when she divulges about Davina, and, strangely, she seems to know the teen witch. But in order for Sophie to be successful in her spell, they want Katie to do a bigger spell to create a sort of smoke screen to throw off Davina’s witchy senses.
It turns out Marcel does know about Thierry and Katie’s love affair, but it’s also a good source of witchy intel. And he trusts that his friend won’t mess up the community he’s created there. Klaus, on the other hand, tries to instill a bit of insecurity, wondering if the tipping off about the werewolf was a trap that led to disappearance of some of his vampires. In response, Marcel proves his authority and sends Thierry off with a team of night crawlers to “The Cauldron” to do some rousting in order to send a message. A nasty one. And while he’s off commanding his army, Rebekah is playing her own wild card by schmoozing Camille a bit. When the subject of Marcel comes up, Camille gets a wistful look, saying he’s the kind of guy you just can’t shake, even if you know better. Seeing her weakness for the man in charge, Rebekah invites her to the gala as a ploy to distract Marcel.
Thierry and Katie meet up in between the rousting session and he messes her shop up to keep up appearances, but the vampire Klaus drained was compelled to attack her forcing Thierry to commit a crime of passion, killing a fellow vampire. Unfortunately for him, the rest of the vampire crew sees what he did and it’s unforgivable under Marcel’s laws. This plays perfectly into Klaus’ plan of having Katie perform a strong enough spell to use against Marcel and save her boyfriend from his tyrannical leader. Sophie objects to Katie’s forced suicide mission, but Klaus says it best, with a bit of Shakespearean flair, “what’s worth dying for, if not love?”
Later that night, the party is in full effect. It’s a gorgeous affair – very blue, hence the title – and with a faux Gatsby feel to it, complete with Lana Del Rey crooning in the background. Klaus and Rebekah enter the scene, dressed to the nines, and spot Cami shortly after in a rather…unique angel costume. Her unexpected appearance unnerves Klaus just a bit, and seems to trigger Marcel’s suspicions. Knowing it was Rebekah’s doing, he heads her off at the bar and it seems her little plan backfires when Marcel seems more interested in her and her jealousy of the psych student. Between the flirty eyes and banter – not just between Marcel and Rebekah, but also Klaus and Camille – the sexual tension in the room raises a few notches. But eventually, all goes according to plan and Marcel wanders off to sweep Cami off her feet. She questions him briefly about Rebekah, after spying their encounter from afar, but he brushes her off as an old fling and changes the subject with a compliment. Suave, Casanova. Too bad their almost kiss was interrupted by a vampire lackey there to inform him what Thierry did. A dangerous look fills his eyes, making Cami a bit wary, and he’s off to take care of business, once again abandoning the object of his affections. Bad form, buddy. Ditching her twice in a row and showing violence at a party? Yeah, you’re on a real roll.
Now this is where it starts to get a little wonky. First we’ve got Hayley taking a short stroll in her nighty by the pool when she suddenly sees a wolf in the trees. Interestingly enough, it doesn’t make a move for her or the witch, Sabine, that appears behind her to offer to tell her the gender of her baby. Then, while Katie and Sophie begin working their magic, a sleeping Davina starts to get flashes of what they’re doing and wakes up with an entirely overdramatic and breathless “Marcel! Somethings coming!” She gets up to start scribbling in black on her sketch pad which seemingly tells her magic is afoot. O…kay, then.
Back to the party. Up on the balcony now, Marcel, the peace loving leader that he is, gives Thierry once chance to tell his side of the story, but for the most part, he’s not having it. Unbeknownst to him, Cami is still watching him intently. Klaus walks up to join her and she says she sees he’s got a temper and it does’t really appeal to her. On the sly, Klaus hands his baby vamp (sorry, I can’t remember his name) an envelope to deliver to Marcel, saying that it was found at Katie’s shop. It turns out to be the spell that Marcel gave Thierry to make new daylight rings. Since Marcel is big on friendship, he feels he’s lost the loyalty of his 70-year-long friend, thereby sentencing him to 100 years in…wait for it…the garden! So, like, does that mean he has to go plant flowers and plow the fields for the next century? I’m just saying, poor naming skills for a place of supposed imminent doom.
While Rebekah is busy overseeing Sophie’s locator spell to find Elijah, Katie starts walking up the street just outside the party where she meets Marcel and his men, doing a mega spell that brings them all to their knees in pain. The scene flashes back and forth to Davina who keeps enhancing her drawing and it suddenly starts to look like a face – Katie’s face. Katie continues wreaking havoc, destroying lights and making the vampires crumble. Davina starts doing her own magic, crying out for Marcel’s pain. And just as Katie whips out her stake to kill Marcel, Klaus swoops in to save the day, snapping Katie’s neck and making himself appear to be Marcel’s savior. But once Katie is dead, the magic stops and Sophie can’t finish her locator spell without being noticed by Davina. Rebekah refuses to let her continue and put Hayley and the baby in danger.
A now shackled Thierry is face to face with his maker and his fate. “The Garden” looks mostly like an icky, underground tunnel of broken down stone walls and debris, where other less fortunate vampires are chained or buried, rotting away without nourishment. Marcel asks Thierry if Katie was worth it, if his love for her was worth crossing Marcel. Apparently it is. Marcel then proceeds to pin him to the wall, leaving his men to seal him in with bricks. It’s very “Cask of Amontillado”, actually. If that was the intent, I actually have to give a curt nod to Julie Plec. If it was a coincidence, I’ll be taking back my nod.
Klaus and Marcel have a little bro bonding moment where Marcel decides that since Klaus saved him, he’ll give Elijah back. Huh. Guess it was that easy. A little bit after, Klaus heads into Camille’s bar. The smart cookie knows he’s just there to smooth things over for Marcel but she ain’t buying. And for a brief moment, Klaus seems to be considering her as an option, sensing she was a victim of more than a broken heart, but also, broken trust. They lock eyes in a moment of what’s supposed to be sexual tension, I guess. But I have to wonder if he meant it or was just thinking of Caroline before he snapped out of it and compels her to give Marcel yet another chance at wooing her. As far as she’s concerned, she went to the gala and had a perfect evening with Marcel. You know, I was hoping they’d play up her psychology interests a bit more in the show, but so far she’s just the prime candidate for memory altering. I kind of love the oxymoron there, though.
When he gets home, Klaus breaks the news to Rebekah about what he did to Katie. She’s upset by this, of course, thinking their entire plan to save Elijah was foiled. And of course he lets her know of Marcel’s promise of Elijah’s return. But he reminds her of his trust issues, believing the witches to be on no one’s side but their own. He predicts they’ll use Davina’s power against all them, which isn’t really a stretch when you think about it. We all saw the look in Sophie’s eyes. But mostly, Rebekah is disgusted by her brother and the fact that he will, by any means, see to it that he always gets what he wants. I’ve gotta say, the hatred of her brother is a little overdramatic. Then again, the newcomers to the show(s) wouldn’t realize that. Still. I’m waiting for the show to pay their respects to their mothership in some way. Us longtime fans aren’t going to just keep letting them get away with it.
When Marcel arrives at his home, he’s greeted with the wide open arms of Davina. She’s happy to have helped him and saved him, but when he says he’s going to give Elijah back, she refuses until she knows how to kill an Original. Suspense!
Klaus pays Hayley a short visit to let her know that they’re getting Elijah back. She seems happy about it, which confuses him, since she hardly knows him yet misses him. “What is it about him that inspires such instant admiration?” Could it be the suits? The debonair way he rips out hearts? His general swag? Oh, I know. It’s the hair. Or…the fact that he was kind. That works too. She also tells him she thinks the baby is a girl, but fails to mention the slight mishap in the process of finding out. Luckily, while Sophie and company are laying Katie’s body to rest, we get a short flashback as to exactly what that mishap was. Sabine was temporarily possessed and blurting out gibberish in the form of “Nos imnia perdetu el eam”. Or, at least that’s what Hayley typed into the translator she was using to try to decipher the message. Bonus points to anyone who figures it out and lets me know.
So. The baby is a demon? How deliciously…original.
NOT.
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