1919: Klaus and Elijah are at a jazz club with a very diverse clientele – human and supernatural, cops and civilians, Black and white. They toast with a werewolf named Lana who helped them come up with a plan to smuggle alcohol into the city when Prohibition goes into effect. Klaus and Elijah are happy to have finally realized their vision of a unified New Orleans. Elijah credits Klaus with doing most of the work: “This was all you.”
Present: Klaus is dreaming this in his bed at the Compound, suffering the effects of the Tunde blade. “This was all you,” Elijah tells him.
Cami comes to the Compound, both interested in what Elijah has to say and annoyed that she’s wasting time with him when she should be looking for a way to save Kieran. Elijah’s like, “I’ll see your hexed uncle and raise you a brother with a torture device in his chest and a missing Hayley.” He tells her that he stabbed Klaus with the blade and is going to remove it. He wants Cami to stay with Klaus because he needs a caregiver while he’s weak, and Elijah doesn’t think he’ll kill her. He cuts Klaus open and reaches into his chest to pull out the blade as he says that Klaus seems to respect her. She challenges him to see himself and others in a different way.
Klaus will be weak as he recovers from the blade, but Elijah doesn’t want him regaining too much strength, so Cami needs to feed him her own blood, since she takes vervain. Maybe she can also talk him into not killing Rebekah. Elijah’s off to find Celeste, since he suspects she’s plotting a final move against the Mikaelsons. Klaus warns that he’ll pay for stabbing him.
Hayley takes Celeste to Eve and a couple of Crescent wolves in the bayou (it’s safe to assume one of the wolves is Jackson). Eve is there to stop Celeste if she tries to hex Hayley, and vice versa. Hayley asks about Brynne, knowing Celeste possessed her in the ’90s and cursed the Crescent wolves. Celeste confirms this, so Hayley tells her to undo the curse.
Cami lets Klaus drink from her wrist, and he doesn’t drink in moderation despite the pain from the vervain. He says the line between what sustains people and what causes them pain is pretty thin. She wonders if he means her blood or his need to hunt down people who have hurt him. She asks how he can hate Rebekah, his own sister. Klaus replies that she’s done what no one else could for 1,000 years – she ripped his heart out.
1919: Klaus and Elijah watch Rebekah and Marcel together at the jazz club, fully aware that they’re just pretending they’re not a couple. Elijah’s like, “Can we have one night out where you don’t whine about them?” Klaus ignores him and makes a public toast supporting Rebekah and Marcel, which confuses them. Then he privately tells Rebekah that he’s always ruined her relationships because he wanted to protect her. Now that they’ve found a home, she can settle down and be happy.
Present: Klaus tells Cami that he let his guard down. Marcel and Rebekah had already betrayed him by summoning Mikael to New Orleans. Cami gets that Klaus wants revenge, but she notes that Marcel and Rebekah could be anywhere by now. Klaus disagrees.
1919: It’s been six months since Genevieve did her spell to summon Mikael to the city, but there’s been no sign of him. Rebekah guesses that it failed. She heads off for a Women’s Temperance Society meeting, even though she’s secretly helping smuggle alcohol. Mikael is in the club and watches her go.
Present: Marcel and Rebekah are in the process of making a run for it (well, a drive for it), but she knows Klaus will hunt for them as long as it takes to find them. They won’t be able to hide forever. Marcel says there’s one way they can.
Klaus already knows it – a cloaking spell. That means Marcel and Rebekah will need a witch. Marcel wants to resurrect Davina and take her with him and Rebekah. Rebekah notes that they don’t know which witch to kill to bring her back. Marcel’s fine with killing all three, but she reminds him that they’re so powerful, they were able to neutralize Klaus. They don’t have a better choice, though, so they turn around and go back to New Orleans.
Elijah goes to the City of the Dead, looking for Celeste. Monique is there and won’t tell him anything helpful. She has no objections to the Mikaelsons being destroyed. Elijah tells her that he’s also the child of a witch – a witch whose power is now in Monique, thanks to the generosity of the Mikaelsons and Sophie’s channeling during the Harvest ritual. He knows Celeste will jump into another body when she runs out of options, and the other witches will be left to fend for themselves.
Monique insists that Celeste has faith and will stick around to help them restore their power. Elijah tempts her with a spell from Esther’s grimoire that’s similar to the one Celeste uses to jump into other bodies. When she jumps next, her power will flow back into the earth. If she tries to take another body, the spell will ruin her plans. He asks Monique to find Celeste.
Rebekah and Marcel go to Thierry to ask for his help. He’s skeptical that they’ll be able to carry out their plans successfully. Marcel says he’s faced worse odds and survived.
1919: Mikael strikes up a conversation with Marcel, who doesn’t know who he is. Mikael says that Rebekah reminds him of his late wife. He reveals who he is by giving Marcel a copy of the photo Genevieve used in the spell to summon him. He compels Marcel to sit and listen to him. Mikael knows Marcel is desperate to get rid of Klaus, but he didn’t get why until he saw Marcel with Rebekah. He promises he won’t hurt Rebekah, his favorite child, and he’ll let Marcel have New Orleans. He’s there to see his sons.
Present: Klaus asks for unvervained blood, but Cami thinks he’s too weak to go get it himself. When she tells him to get back into bed, he quips that women say that to him all the time. Cami doubts that, but he says plenty of women find him charming.
1919: Elijah finds Klaus in bed with Lana, who has offered the Mikaelsons tickets to the opera that night. Klaus tells Elijah to let Rebekah invite Marcel.
Present: Klaus tells Cami about the opera they were going to see, Les Huguenots. Like Romeo and Juliet, it’s about a couple who fall in love despite their families being enemies. Unlike Romeo and Juliet, the final act features a father killing his own child. I assume it’s not a comedy, then.
In the bayou, Celeste mixes up an elixir Hayley can give the Crescent wolves during the next full moon to break their curse. Hayley doesn’t trust her. Celeste says she likes Hayley and wants her to be free of the Mikaelsons. Elijah arrives and the wolves growl at him. Come on, Jackson, he saved your life! Well, okay, he’s also in love with your arranged bride, so carry on.
Elijah warns Hayley not to trust Celeste, but now Hayley believes she’s trying to help. She wants him to hold off on doing anything to Celeste until the next full moon, after they’ve determined whether the elixir is legit. Elijah says it’ll take an army to hold her off. Hayley says she has one. Wolves howl from all over the bayou, backing her up. Hayley tells Elijah to help her or get out of her way. Instead, he grabs Celeste and zooms off with her and the elixir.
He accuses Celeste of tricking Hayley, but Celeste insists that the elixir will work. Elijah asks why she would curse the wolves, then offer them the cure. She says it’s the best thing she can do for Hayley and the worst thing she can do to Elijah. No matter what happens next, Elijah has lost Hayley. If he destroys the elixir and kills Celeste, Hayley will turn on him. If he gives her the elixir, she’ll eventually leave him for her family. She’ll be happy, Elijah won’t, and Celeste will be satisfied that she got her revenge. It’s up to Elijah: Give Hayley what she wants and lose her, or keep it from her and see what happens.
Thierry arranges a meeting with the three resurrected witches, but only Bastianna and Genevieve show up. They’re only there as a courtesy, since he’s been friendly to the witches in the past, and they’re curious about what he claims he knows that they would be interested in. He tells them that Marcel and Rebekah want Davina. Thierry could hand Bastianna and Genevieve over to them to be killed, or he could just kill them himself.
He vamps out but Bastianna chants and gives him a magic migraine. Marcel and Rebekah run in and he kills Bastianna by literally ripping her head off with one hand. Genevieve holds them off with a magic migraine (Rebekah) and fire (Marcel), then runs off. Rebekah thinks they’ve lost their shot since Genevieve will be on guard now, but Marcel refuses to fail Davina again. He’s not leaving her behind.
Klaus rants to Cami about Elijah, telling her that Mikael enlisted him to kill Klaus.
1919: Mikael surprises Elijah at the Compound and says he just wants to talk. Even though he hunted his children for centuries, he never intended to hurt Elijah. He’s blood, a child Mikael is proud to call his son. He wants to give Elijah a chance to take out Klaus. Elijah attacks him but Mikael fights him off without even wrinkling his suit. Elijah won’t believe anything his father says, and if Mikael thinks he would betray Klaus, he’s an idiot. Mikael wants Elijah to understand that Klaus is an abomination, and abonimations can’t be reasoned with or changed. They should only be erased.
Present: Cami notes that since Klaus is immortal, Mikael couldn’t really kill him. He tells her about white oak.
1919: Mikael pulls a white oak stake on Elijah and gives him an ultimatum: “Stand with me or fall with him.” Elijah struggles to push him off, yelling that he will always choose Klaus. Mikael repays this by shoving a piece of wood in his chest.
Present: Klaus tells Cami that Elijah still feels guilty that he didn’t stop Mikael that night. Klaus doesn’t blame him since Mikael was pretty determined to get what he wanted. He gets notification that Marcel and Rebekah are in New Orleans and announces that story time is over. He breaks a statue and pulls our old friend the indestructible stake out of it.
Klaus heads out to get a drink (unvervained blood, not alcohol), and Cami follows him. She says she thought of killing him after Davina returned all her compelled-away memories, and she thought of stabbing him with the Tunde blade, but instead, she stopped and weighed the good she sees in Klaus against the horrible things she knows he’s done. She would have regretted hurting him, and she knows Klaus will regret hurting Rebekah. He won’t survive the pain of killing her. Cami knows that from having lost a sibling of her own.
Klaus says Rebekah deserves it for bringing Mikael to town. Cami tells him he’d turn into his father if he terrorized Rebekah and Marcel the way Mikael terrorized him. That slam hurts more than any other insult that’s been hurled at Klaus: “Mikael was the monster monsters were afraid of.” He takes her away to show her.
Elijah takes Celeste back to Hayley and promises that the elixir will work. Hayley’s thrilled, and he’s a little thrilled himself when she hugs him. When they pull apart, he leans in to kiss her but winds up planting one on her forehead instead of her lips. He hopes the wolves know how lucky they are to have her. Hayley goes off with her family and Celeste taunts Elijah for being so chaste with her.
He asks what her endgame is. “This game never ends,” she replies. He’s just lost the woman he never made a move on because he was too busy helping his family. Now his family is beyond help. Elijah thinks they’ll heal, but Celeste says there won’t be time. She’s sure Marcel halted their escape from town so he could get Davina. If Elijah hadn’t been hung up on Hayley, he would have figured things out sooner. Klaus probably already has, and he’ll make a move Elijah won’t like. Elijah vamps out and eyes Celeste’s neck. “Do it,” she dares him. He does.
Klaus takes Cami to the spot in the Quarter where the opera house stood before it burned down in 1919.
1919: It’s show time, but only Klaus and Rebekah have arrived with Lana’s tickets. After Rebekah leaves their box to look for Marcel, Mikael sits down behind Klaus and presses the white oak stake into his back. He doesn’t want to kill Klaus immediately; first he has to taunt him like a true villain.
Klaus says he’s not the person he used to be, an animal desperate for Mikael’s attention. If Mikael kills him, he’ll die knowing he was right to hate Mikael, and he’ll be proud of what he’s achieved in New Orleans. If Mikael’s going to kill him, he should do it already. Mikael says Klaus is right to be proud. People in New Orleans respect him. Mikael’s going to kill all of them, too – he’ll wipe out anyone who remembers Klaus positively. It’ll be like Klaus never existed.
The lights go down and Mikael tells Klaus he’s made some alterations to the show they’re about to see. When the curtain rises, there are a bunch of bodies on stage. Among them, Lana has been impaled and an unconscious Marcel has been tied to a big wooden X.
Present: Klaus tells Cami that Mikael compelled the audience to believe they were just watching a show. Klaus and Rebekah tried to save Marcel, but Mikael stopped them. As he was reaching into Marcel’s chest to pull out his heart, Elijah arrived. He determined that Marcel was a lost cause and got his brother and sister to run away with him. After they left, Mikael let Marcel live, but he burned the opera house down with all the attendees inside.
Klaus says the last piece of him that felt human also died in the fire. He won’t terrorize Rebekah and Marcel the way Mikael did. He’ll kill them quickly.
Elijah takes Celeste to the City of the Dead, though she says she would have come willingly if he’d just asked her. She’s eager to have a front-row seat to watch “always and forever” fall apart. That pact was a myth – one she died for. She can jump into a new body if Elijah kills her, but he’ll spend the rest of his life wondering if any woman he falls for is her. He’ll end up alone for eternity. He runs at her but she’s standing at a gate with a magical barrier that keeps him in the cemetery. She tells him the spell will allow the Mikaelsons to enter but not leave.
Elsewhere in the City of the Dead, Rebekah and Marcel get Davina’s body, but like Elijah, Rebekah is unable to leave. She tells Marcel to get Davina someplace safe, but he refuses to leave her. Rebekah promises to join him as soon as she can. Celeste tells Elijah that the spell is tied to the moon, so it’ll be broken the next evening. She doesn’t think Rebekah will survive until then.
Celeste announces that it’s time to say goodbye to Sabine’s body and find a different one to hang out in. She stabs her neck with a piece of glass and dies. Monique arrives and tells Elijah he was right. She points him toward a crypt, where she performed a spell earlier. Celeste wakes up there, back in her original body. Elijah tells her that he was right – she abandoned her fellow witches. He stabs her, killing her for good.
Marcel takes Davina’s body to her old room at St. Anne’s, where she wakes up moments later. Meanwhile, Klaus arrives in the City of the Dead, yelling for Rebekah.
1919: Mikael goes out to the streets of the Quarter, yelling that the final act is approaching and he needs his performers. It’s time to finish “this tale of sorrows.” Klaus, Elijah, and Rebekah see the burning opera house, and Rebekah is overcome with grief for Marcel. Elijah says he’ll stay back and hold Mikael off. Klaus wants them to fight Mikael together, but Elijah knows they can’t beat him. They need to split up and send him on a wild goose chase. Klaus should take Rebekah somewhere safe, and Elijah will find them.
Rebekah blames herself for what happened, but Klaus thinks he’s responsible. He starts to apologize but gets interrupted when people run into the streets, realizing the opera house is burning. He laments that they have to leave their home. Elijah says again that Rebekah and Klaus need to leave, as hesitant as they are to be separated.
Present: Rebekah finds Elijah, who’s not pleased to see that she’s still in New Orleans. Klaus comes across both of them and tells Elijah to get away from their sister. All three of them vamp out, ready to fight, but Klaus is the only one who can do irreparable damage. He’s the one with the indestructible stake.
Etc.: Yeah, trusting Thierry is a great idea! That’s never hurt Rebekah before!
Fittingly, Les Huguenots has a character named Marcel.
I’d completely forgotten about the indestructible stake after season 4 of The Vampire Diaries, so it was kind of exciting to see it here. It’s like a cameo from an actor you’re familiar with. “Hey, I know that thing from the other show!”
I don’t want to dwell on Marcel ripping off Bastianna’s head with one hand, since it’s gross, but Marcel rips off Bastianna’s head with one hand. I didn’t know vampires could do that!
Elijah must not be very good at tracking Klaus because they don’t see each other again until 1933.
An Eternity of Misery 