Here we are at the mid-season finale, everyone! How did we get so far so fast? I feel like we just arrived in The Big Easy (although easy is not the way anyone would describe the Originals’ time in New Orleans thus far).
Tonight’s episode begins at a dinner party. Hosted by Klaus and attended by Marcel and his closest allies, as well as Hayley, this is where Klaus tries to win everyone over while still reminding them that he’s the boss. As a peace offering, he essentially orders a wolf hunt in the bayou. He suggests the vampires hunt down any remaining werewolves to calm their fears he’s planning on turning them into hybrids – if none are alive, he can’t create new hybrids and therefore the vamps aren’t threatened.
All of Marcel’s gang seems intrigued, but Hayley, understandably, is furious.
When Elijah and Rebekah swoop in to get Hayley away from Klaus, she says she’s protected. She would rather they go help “her people” in the bayou, so they do. They break up the wolf hunt but then stumble on Eve the werewolf, who tells them lots of werewolves from other places have come to the bayou because rumours about Hayley and the baby have spread. They want to see it. Eve says the Originals should want to keep them alive.
When they come face to face with one of those outsider werewolves, they find him wearing a ring that apparently matches one their mother (a very powerful witch) once wore. They’ve found the bloodline of Klaus’s family.
Back in the city, in their latest meeting for his memoirs, Cami confronts Klaus with the photo from 1919 she found last episode. He compels her to forget but… It can’t be that easy, right? Right. She’s left notes for herself all over her apartment and recorded their conversations to revisit later. Klaus catches up to her again, though, and although she has sudden sympathy for him, he compels her once more to forget and to leave town, for her own protection (now that she knows about him and his life).
After Klaus admits to all of the scheming he’s done against Marcel so far this season, the two go to fetch Davina. Marcel tells her he knows about her deal with Elijah and this time she can’t fool him – they want to move her to their home.
But first, Klaus and Marcel meet with the faction, the group of humans Marcel has always corroborated with to keep a balance in New Orleans. Klaus is less accommodating and threatens them, offering nothing more than “scraps.” They retaliate by blowing up a bar shortly thereafter — letting in sunlight, igniting some vampires and shooting others with wooden bullets. This is the beginning of a war.
Klaus admits to underestimating the faction. Then he and Marcel call a meeting and decide to kill them all. Of course, Father Kieran is spared. He’s the lone survivor, largely in part because he’s Cami’s uncle. Klaus tells him to choose new leaders so they can reopen negotiations. Klaus later goes to Kieran to ask a favour. He wants Kieran to protect the werewolves he now knows may be descendants of his family so he doesn’t have to call off the hunt (so he still looks powerful) yet his family is protected (although he would never admit it to his siblings).
In private, to Marcel, Klaus admits to being jealous of his empire, then proposes they rule side by side as equals, friends, brothers. Marcel’s smile-only response could mean almost anything, especially since we know he’s been plotting with Rebekah behind Klaus’s back.
Now that Davina has moved in with the Originals, she has contact with a wider variety of people. Hayley is one of the first to make a move. Klaus makes no promises to keep her safe after the baby is born, so she swears she will pay him back accordingly. Then she goes to Davina to ask her to find the loophole in the curse that keeps her werewolf pack stuck as wolves.
Most powerful quote: “I will not do to my child what was done to me,” says Klaus.
Weirdest alliance: Davina, Josh and Hayley. Especially after Hayley convinces Davina she’s just a pawn and the little witch retaliates by going to Cami and undoing all her compulsion – so now she remembers everything and won’t be leaving town, as per Klaus’s wish.
The tables have turned: Marcel is now choosing Klaus over Rebekah, even after he begged her to choose him over Klaus.
What the heck I can’t wait until next year to know this! “I know the words that will make him hate you forever,” says Rebekah to Marcel about something that happened in 1919. She knows something Klaus doesn’t and has threatened Marcel with it, now that he's bailing on her.
