by Dianna Berrian
In lieu of Thanksgiving coming up this week, it seems fitting to have an episode of “The Originals” with so many family values. Loyalty, compassion, gratitude. Lying, thievery, betrayal. But as long as you’re absolved of your sins, it’s all peachy right? Well, that’s exactly Rebekah’s hope when she takes up Father Kieran’s confessional. “Are you even Catholic?” Hey, Father, quit making jokes. She needs absolution!
24 hours earlier… Rebekah is sitting down having “breaky” with Klaus who continues interrogating her about Marcel, clearly suspicious of his baby sister. Of course the biting of Elijah causes her to be extra cautious in answering his questions and, though they bicker (Did Klaus really just say “poppycock”?), he would never bite her. “You know my preferred punishment for your indiscretions is the dagger.” Ouch, with a side of burn. “There is something fundamentally wrong with you.” Well, duh, Rebekah!
Out in the Bayou, Elijah is all hot and bothered with Hayley watching over him so closely. Oh, sorry. I have my head screwed on right and can clearly see he’s just in agony from the hybrid bite. Hayley’s still pissed at Klaus and promising to “annihilate” him once Elijah gets a clean bill of health again. And her quota of saying something stupid every episode is fulfilled. Noble Elijah doesn’t want her to worry and tells her to just keep reading her family bible and that she should leave when the hallucinations start. But that won’t happen because clearly the girl who doesn’t do drama likes being in the center of it. Meanwhile, outside, that blonde lady from last episode with the matching werewolf birthmark is creeping in the woods watching them.
Marcel brings Tyler in to introduce him to the He-Vamp-Klaus-Haters club and lets him share his Klaus stories with the group. He tells them a little about how Klaus’ werewolf side trumps his vampire side which is what made it possible to get Hayley pregnant. He also tells them about the sire bond that makes any hybrid he creates utterly devoted to him, and the great hybrid massacre of ’12, where Klaus murdered his 12 hybrids because they “betrayed him” by breaking the bond. (Mind you, that was all HAYLEY’S doing!) Soon Rebekah joins the party so she can tell them about the baby being able to mass produce hybrids and falsely places accusation on Klaus of just itching to get his hands on that. Since they’re skeptical to believe her, Marcel assures them she is there to help them. But being that she only wants to take down Klaus and not the baby, she snaps Tyler’s neck. Because I’m sure that’d earn her a ton of brownie points with the rest of the vampires…
Klaus spends his morning ranting to Cami about his siblings deceiving him, dictating his lifelong misery while she types it out on the typewriter. (There are Hemingway references, yes!) Tired of being his lap dog, she calls him out on his repetitive destructive cycles and how he uses her to vent then compels her to forget cause he’s too scared to trust. And of course the obligatory reference to her Psychology degree, just in case we forgot. We didn’t.
Rebekah and Marcel toss Tyler into the “Garden” for safekeeping so that he can’t get in the way of taking down Klaus and saving the baby. Sidenote: Why is it that Tyler is always brought in only to be sent off or tucked away again? Seriously! Marcel promises Rebekah he has a special place for Klaus for the next 52 years where he won’t have anyone to talk to but himself. Looks like there’s some guilt in Rebekah’s eyes, maybe even econd thoughts? No, it’s just regret. Regret that she didn’t betray him sooner because if she had buried him 100 years ago she could have been queen to Marcel’s king. (Honey, you also then wouldn’t have met Stefan in the 20s or Matt and had the summer of your life which only had to end because you came to this spinoff. Just saying.)
Elijah starts semi-seizing and hallucinating about a very beautiful woman in the bath, who, if I’m not mistaken, is the woman we saw him cozying up to in the flashback from episode 2. He calls out the name “Celeste” once or twice until he sees Hayley once again who wastes no time making a slightly jealous comment on how attractive the woman is. Yeah, apparently being able to see his thoughts or memories when he touches you is a thing now. Not really feeling it but whatever you wanna do, writers. He soon realizes they’re being watched so Hayley looks out the window to check and sees Blondie the creeper standing in the trees. She runs out and calls to her but the creeper runs away. You’re a smart one, Hayley Marshall.
Klaus approaches Josh with a task, unaware of the fact that his vampire lackey is no longer compelled. So straight away, Josh goes to Marcel and reports that Klaus wants him to steal a dagger from him to which Marcel instructs: “Tell him you searched high and low but you couldn’t find the dagger. Then you tell him you saw I had it on me and if he wants it, he’ll have to come and get it which won’t be easy because I’m paranoid and I’ve beefed up my posse.” And he does. He tells Klaus Marcel is supposedly clearing out the compound for a date. Pleased with him, Klaus promises a daylight ring when he is king but if he should be betraying him, he assures Josh he’ll be spending the rest of his life in “exquisite agony wishing for a merciful death.” But it looks like Josh has put his faith in Marcel: “Adios, Klaus.”
While Father Kieran is probably praying to forget whatever sins Rebekah poured out to him, Klaus is hanging out in the pew behind him with a flask. He offers the good Father a drink and wants to talk about Cami, confirming Kieran’s suspicions that Klaus is compelling her. In a strange show of compassion, Klaus tells him Cami needs to leave New Orleans. They’re on the brink of war and it’s too dangerous for her to keep digging for information about Sean, and he actually says outright that he cares about her survival. He pleads with Father Kieran to convince or to leave or he’ll be forced to compel her to go. See, Klaus isn’t all bad.
Back in the Bayou, Elijah is still writhing and hallucinating. He flashes back to his moment with Celeste when he walks in on her bathing and we learn that she is a witch. Supposedly Klaus was up to no good – what else is new? – and she wanted him to help seeing as he only ever listens to Elijah. And then they flirt a little and the affection Elijah has for her becomes apparent. When he’s back in his right state of mind, he keeps begging Hayley to leave and go after the creepy blonde lady to seek out answers. That’s what she came for. But Hayley keeps refusing. In a second flashback when he’s hallucinating again, Elijah stumbles upon Klaus playing a very one-sided shootout game and a growing pile of bodies. But don’t worry, he’s spread rumors that the bodies are a result of the witches seeking blood sacrifice for their rituals. Except…Celeste is a witch. And he throws in a biting jab or two at Elijah about his lady love that causes his brother to shoot him. It’s at this point real time Elijah sits up shouting and grabs Hayley, saying “I’ll kill you, you bastard.” Reality and delusion coincide as he throws her into the wall in a chokehold but before any damage can be done, a stake is stabbed into his back. Blondie the creeper saves the day. Wait. No. I’m supposed to be mad about that. Grr!
Klaus walks into the compound, empty just as Josh said. Marcel shows up, and after a bit of intimidating staring, Rebekah walks out too, revealing her betrayal to her brother. Marcel whistles for his army to come out and maybe 15 or so vampires appear. Klaus gives an evil villain type monologue that could have been better worded, laughing at the so called cavalry. Then Marcel brings even more vampires out, looks to be maybe 100? Is that an exaggeration? Well, okay, it’s a lot of vampires. It sends a slight flicker of fear across Klaus’ eyes, but not enough. So taking a page from an old friend, Klaus tosses a coin out and says anyone who wants to live and swear their loyalty should pick it up now. Cause, you know, he’s immortal and all so they can’t kill him anyway but they’ll die trying. But no one takes it. Instead, vampires start going after him and he starts killing and maiming. He spreads his arm as if it’s a piece of cake but the gesture is quickly taken advantage of as they get chains around his wrists and hold him down, piling in to take turns beating him with fists and crowbars, stabbing him and slicing him. Rebekah and Marcel are just standing there watching him get what he deserves until finally, Rebekah starts coming forth with the dagger wanting a taste while Klaus hangs his head in defeat. But a sudden growl halts her and her brother raises his head with his hybrid face in full effect. She drops the dagger and jumps back and Klaus starts kicking ass and taking names, biting and fighting and raging. Quickly, Rebekah tells Marcel to take the coin. “He won’t stop until everyone is dead and he will kill you too. End this. Take the coin.” Marcel shouts “ENOUGH” and, indeed, takes the coin, on his knees. “I hereby pledge my allegiance to you. You have the keys to my kingdom. It’s yours.” Awesome scene, but story-wise: anticlimactic. I thought the war would last longer than this.
Far from all the bloodshed, Cami is in the cemetery trying to clean off Sean’s grave of another bout of vandalism. Father Kieran comes by for moral support while she goes on about how she thinks she’s going crazy like Sean did. Heeding Klaus’ advice, he starts telling her she should leave for a while, give her head some space. But she can’t. She pulls a drawing of a design that used to be a kind of code she and Sean used when they were little but has no memory of drawing it. Father Kieran’s reduced to begging, but that doesn’t seem to work either.
Meanwhile, Hayley and Blondie sit around the campfire and exchange family stories. Okay, not really. Hayley bombards her with questions. Blondie’s name is Eve and she’s been following Hayley because she brought an Original to werewolf country. What happened to all the wolves in that family tree? Marcel happened. He killed most of them and the descendants that survived were worse off. Marcel strong armed a witch into putting a curse on them so that their natural state was wolves. They only become human on the full moon. (Awesome!) The birthmark is the telltale sign of the wolves so she needs to keep it hidden. Oh yeah. Elijah’s all better now. Guess all it took was a stake in the back to make the hybrid bite go away. Huh.
Marcel’s crew mourns their loss as they cover up all the dead bodies and begin burning them. Klaus walks up beside his progeny as he overlooks the process. Now that he’s king, he wants his old living quarters back. And Marcel’s cool with that. But there’s still something he’ll never have – loyalty. “You can’t buy it. You can’t own it. You can’t force it. It comes only out of love and respect for the people who believe in you. And it is something that you will never know. Enjoy your kingdom.” He told you!
Back at the plantation, Elijah and Hayley finally get back home. She coerces him into showing her what happened to Celeste and he lets her see the memory of when he finds her dead in the bathtub. Hayley’s disturbed to find she died because of Klaus but Elijah argues that she died because he cared too deeply for her. He allowed himself to “loosen the reigns…and…abandoned him in the name of [his] own happiness. Celeste paid the price.” Well, gee. If you have to sacrifice your happiness to fix a part of your family that doesn’t want to be fixed, why bother? Because Elijah has an eternity to accomplish a single task – his brother’s salvation. “If I let that go, what value would I be to my family, myself, to your child?” She puts her hand over his in comfort but he draws away, not wanting to let her get to close for fear of the inevitable. But then despite himself takes her hand back for a moment then gets out of the car. So, I guess, fine, it’s being acknowledged that Elijah cares for her on some level. And she, him. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it!
Klaus is brooding, looking out the window and toying with the tip of the dagger when Rebekah reluctantly approaches behind him. And since he only has one dagger… “Which one of you will you be punishing today?” He grabs her and holds it to her neck, furious that she betrayed him. Adding fuel to the fire, Elijah walks in. “Perhaps it should be you. Stealing my child away with every fawning moment of tenderness you show to Hayley. She’s adored you since you arrived. And now my child, my blood, will grow up to call you father.” Oooh, right in the feels. Maybe that’ll ward you off of Hayley, Elijah. (I could only hope…) And in all of this, Rebekah tries to make him see that they never abandon him, he just drives them away. It spurs an immense amount of emotion in Klaus and an extremely well delivered monologue from Joseph Morgan that I couldn’t help but type out:
“What have I done lately other than cooperate and bow down to you, brother, to make up for daggering you for the greater good of our plan to reclaim our home? Looked the other way, sister, while you repeat the same cycle with Marcel, falling again for a man you shouldn’t be with. While he controls the empire that we built. That he took! Now, I make no excuses for past sins, but in the one moment when you two could have chosen to stand by me, to believe in me, believe my intentions for my own child were pure, you chose to stand against me, to side with my enemies. I wanted our home back. Now I have it. So I’m going to live there, and the two of you, you can stay here together, and rot.”
In the end, he gives up the dagger to Elijah. On his way out to the car, he tells Hayley she’s coming with him. “If you try to fight me you will lose. As will anyone else who tries to stop you getting in this car.” Thinking brightly for once, she gets in.
Cami and Father Kieran are back at the church. Turns out Cami figured it out – her foggy brain and lost time and the weird drawing. She deciphers the code and it leads her to looking up newspapers from 1919. And in them, she just so happens to find a photo with both Klaus and Marcel in it. Whoooopsie!
So…what about Tyler?
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