Rebekah is at an outdoor market in the Treme area, trying to have a civil three-way phone conversation with Klaus and Elijah. She’s stuck in the middle as Klaus complains that Elijah moved to Algiers and Elijah complains that Klaus doesn’t appreciate his efforts to collect allies. Rebekah reminds them that they need to do what’s best for Hope. They can at least all agree on that. When she gets off the phone, she sees a man watching her and gets spooked. When she tries to run from him, he’s joined by another man and they both chase her into an alley. One of them tells her she’ll die for what she’s done.
Rebekah struggles to use magic to protect herself, but it’s no good being in the body of a witch if you don’t know how to use her powers. One of the men shakes some sort of dark object and gives her a magic migraine. Before they can harm her, Marcel zooms in to save her. Rebekah’s surprised that he figured out who she is.
Freya and Finn have set up camp in the bell tower, but Finn wants to go back to Mikael and Esther so he can recharge. Freya wants to see their father, since they’ve been apart for 1,000 years. Finn tells her he’s a monster but Freya insists on it. As for Esther, Freya has no desire to see the mother who willingly gave her up.
At the Compound, Klaus tries to rally Hayley and Jackson to help him go after Finn and Freya. Jackson says the wolves’ top priority is Hope; if Klaus wants spies, he can compel humans. Klaus is offended that Jackson would defy an order in Klaus’ home. Jackson says this is about Hope, not Klaus’ ego. Hayley reluctantly sides with Klaus – Finn’s body disappeared from the morgue, so they need to find him ASAP. Jackson agrees to mobilize the wolves, but only because Hayley asked, not because Klaus gave an order.
Marcel has taken Rebekah to his loft, where they spent 30 minutes not talking (31 now). He’s upset that no one told him that she was back in New Orleans. She says that was at her request. He admits that he followed her because he guessed that she was up to something. He warns that she shouldn’t go to the Treme since the witches there don’t like outsiders. Rebekah says she was looking for something that could boost her magic so she can bring Kol back. She doesn’t appreciate Marcel telling her to be more careful, even though he thinks she could have been killed.
Elijah joins them and Rebekah tells him that her would-be attackers know Eva, the person whose body she’s currently in. Elijah wants to go after them and teach them a lesson, but Marcel suggests going to the coven’s matriarch, Josephine LaRue. She funds the Dowager Fauline Cottage, so she’ll know why Eva was there. Elijah tells Marcel and Rebekah to find out more about Eva while he goes to see Josephine. He wants Rebekah to remember that she’s not as strong as she usually is. Marcel warns Elijah that Josephine is eccentric and has no use for vampires, so his usual charms may not work on her. “My charms are quite adaptable,” Elijah replies.
Finn and Freya go to the City of the Dead to revive Mikael so Freya can talk to him. She knows he’s a horrible person now, but she still wants to reunite with her father. Back in Algiers, Elijah enlists Gia to go with him to see Josephine. She’s a music lover, so Elijah promised that Gia would give her a private violin performance. Gia refuses, telling Elijah to compel a musician from the local symphony instead. Elijah tells her that she’s more talented than any professional musicians in the city. He wants to show Josephine that vampires can be sophisticated. That means Gia will have to wear a dress. She asks if Elijah will wear his dark suit or his other dark suit. Ha!
She thinks he could use a woman to mess up his life. Then she realizes he had a chance at that, but the woman he chose married someone else. Gia tells Elijah that she thought she and Marcel were going somewhere but it didn’t work out, so she kind of understands what Elijah’s going through. Okay, Gia, get back to me when Marcel chooses to marry someone else to strengthen his faction and you find yourself moving across the river because he’s moved her into your house.
Jackson tells Aiden that they need to find Finn, but Aiden thinks it’s a bad move. Now that they wolves have Hayley’s hybrid traits, they’re feeling more self-important. They won’t want to be “cannon fodder” in a faction war. Jackson says sternly that if they all stay alert, no one will be in danger. They need to work together to hunt Finn down. Jackson appreciates Aiden’s concern but would prefer if Aiden would let him worry about leadership matters.
After Jackson leaves, Klaus approaches Aiden and plays the devil on his shoulder, saying Jackson should value Aiden’s input more, considering he took charge of the pack while Jackson was off with Ansel. He warns that Finn is clever and will see the wolves coming if they approach as a pack. They need to be strategic. Klaus will handle the rest.
Marcel complains to Rebekah about having to buy a matching tea set for a visitor they’re about to have. He asks her why she didn’t want him to know she was back. She admits that she didn’t want to see him when she wasn’t herself. Specifically, she thought she might want to kiss him, and she wasn’t comfortable doing that with someone else’s lips. Not that she actually wanted to kiss him! That was hypothetical! She’s “100 bloody percent” sure she didn’t want to do it! Their visitor arrives, a seer named Ruben whom they hope can tell them about Eva. Marcel lies that he found her on the street after her memory was wiped. Ruben doesn’t recognize her but can get information by reading tea leaves.
Freya reveals her identity to Mikael, who thinks she’s lying about who she is until she tells him things only she would know. He’s shocked that she’s alive and demonstrates that he’s not always a monster, at least with one of his children. Jackson tells Hayley he’s more than willing to help her with child care, but she wants to do as much as she can after all her time away from Hope. She notes that she’s barely seen him since the wedding, thanks to all his werewolf responsibilities. He says he doesn’t want to make her feel obligated to be a doting wife. She reminds him that it’s not an obligation, then realizes he’s talking about other marital expectations, like sex. She suggests that they light some candles, put on some Marvin Gaye, and get down to it. Hope doesn’t seem on board with that, since she starts crying.
Ruben makes tea and tells Marcel and Rebekah that they both need to drink it for his spell to work. Rebekah’s leaves say she was “born with a dark side” and fought against her nature but lost. He IDs her as Eva, a witch who was caught kidnapping children to channel their power. The tea starts affecting Rebekah’s breathing, though Marcel thinks she’s just having a panic attack until the tea takes him down, too. Ruben tells him that she’s not who he thinks she is. He magically snaps Marcel’s neck, then reveals that he was one of the witches who sent Eva to the DFC as punishment for preying on children.
Elijah and Gia go to Josephine’s mansion, where Gia plays beautifully. Josephine knows exactly what they’re up to, and though she enjoys the music, she won’t have a conversation with Elijah. She has no desire to give any time to someone whose return to town has led to horrible things, like the murders of elders and the possession of Harvest Girls. Elijah promises to put an end to all that, but Josephine doesn’t believe him. Under his suit and Gia’s music, vampires are all the same – they’re monsters.
Ruben warns Rebekah that the jimsonweed he put in the tea is going to make her hallucinate, then kill her. Fortunately, since she’s Rebekah, not Eva, she knows something Eva wouldn’t: the antidote to jimsonweed. Back at Josephine’s, Gia stands up to her host, annoyed that she dressed up and played Beethoven for an ungrateful audience. She hates Beethoven. Josephine asks what she does like, so Gia plays a jazz piece. Josephine knows it, having once been in love with a jazz musician. (Her mother found out that they were going to elope, and Josephine implies that she damaged her daughter’s hands, ruining her ability to play the violin.)
Josephine appreciates Gia’s candor; she’s not as calculating as most vampires. Elijah admires it, too. Gia says he has great taste and is trustworthy. Josephine decides that if Gia feels that way, she should give Elijah a chance to say why he’s really there.
Aiden goes looking for Finn but finds Mikael instead. He’s already killed a werewolf, so Aiden warns that Klaus will kill Mikael. As Mikael approaches him, Freya tells him they have something more important to do. She gives Aiden a magic migraine, and by the time he’s recovered, Mikael and Freya are gone.
Elijah asks Josephine to spread the word that the witches need to leave Rebekah alone. He promises that she won’t cause any more trouble. Josephine wants something in exchange for Eva’s freedom: Vincent. It’s up to Elijah how he wants to get Finn out of his body. Elijah agrees and calls Klaus, who ignores his call as he’s just arrived in the City of the Dead to find Finn. Finn tells Klaus he’s pretty arrogant to come after a witch in the place the ancestors call home. Klaus doubts that the ancestors care about Finn, and though Finn acknowledges that, at least they don’t hate him like they do Klaus.
He tries to blast Klaus with fire but vamp speed gets Klaus out of the way. Finn makes a gate fly into him instead and calls him a disappointment, just like Mikael always said he was. Klaus says he knows Finn cursed Kol, and that on top of his desire to go after Hope is enough to earn him a death sentence. Klaus overpowers Finn and is about to finish him off when Elijah zooms in and says they need him alive.
Marcel revives and sets his sights on making Ruben pay. Rebekah, who’s already mixed up and administered the jimsonweed antidote, wants him to leave Ruben alone. He was just trying to protect his child. Rebekah has the same instincts after taking care of Hope. Marcel’s happy that she got to be a parent for a while, as she’s always wanted. Rebekah’s pleased that he and Klaus made peace and thanks him for caring about her.
Klaus and Elijah argue over whether to let Finn live and solidify an alliance with a faction Klaus doesn’t really care about. Freya joins them and promises Finn that she won’t let their brothers hurt him. She does a spell that makes her pendant glow. Finn retreats and Vincent becomes himself again. She magically puts him to sleep, then tells her brothers that Finn’s spirit is in her pendant and his hatred of them can no longer hurt their cause. Now Freya wants to make a deal.
She reminds her brothers that she rescued Rebekah from the DFC. Elijah points out that she helped Finn go after Hope, but Freya says she was never a threat to the baby. The Finn she knew never would have wanted to hurt a child – Esther destroyed him, just like she destroyed Freya and Klaus and everything else she’s touched. Klaus has no patience to listen to Freya, since they don’t know anything about her, so she magically puts her memory of being taken away by Dahlia in her brothers’ heads. She tells them that since she’s awake, Dahlia must be awake as well. When she senses Hope’s magic, she’ll come for her, and she’ll kill anyone who tries to stop her. They need to kill her first.
Klaus thinks it’s pretty convenient that Freya has suddenly showed up wanting to kill the woman she’s been with for 1,000 years. Freya says she had to do a lot – and lose a lot – to escape Dahlia, and if Dahlia finds her, she’ll be severely punished. But Freya has sent Mikael to get the things she needs to stop Dahlia from hurting anyone. Klaus still doesn’t believe her but Elijah is ready to join forces. Not that that means he trusts Freya. She tells him she’ll earn his trust eventually.
Hayley can’t console Hope, and it’s making her worry that she’s a bad mother. Jackson takes over, telling Hayley that Mikael killed Jerick. Thanks to Aiden’s decision to keep everyone scattered instead of all together, Jerick was the only casualty. Hayley thinks Aiden learned that strategy from Jackson, but Jackson says his plan would have gotten a bunch of the pack killed. Maybe he had a bad day alpha-wise, but he’s able to quiet Hope, so the day isn’t a total loss. Plus, his reward is sex with his new wife.
Rebekah and Marcel look through all the information they could get on Eva, creeped out by what a horrible person she is. Marcel thinks it’s a good thing Rebekah’s in her body, since it means Eva can’t hurt anyone. Rebekah still feels bad about taking over someone else’s body without consent. He says he gets now why she won’t kiss him. Rebekah corrects that she wouldn’t kiss him if she wanted to, which she doesn’t. No, really, she doesn’t. She doesn’t! Really.
Klaus checks on Hope, not even blinking an eye when Hayley tells him that Jackson got her to go to sleep. He assures her that Finn is no longer a problem. The bad news is that Mikael is. Klaus wants the pack to find him, but Hayley doesn’t want to risk any more of their lives. Mikael is a threat to Klaus, not Hope. Sure, if he comes after her, the pack will protect her, but they’re not Klaus’ mercenaries.
Klaus tells Hayley that the pack exists to serve them. If they won’t fight for Klaus, they won’t live long enough to fight at all. Hayley replies that Klaus is free to do what he needs to do to keep Hope safe, and Hayley will do the same. But if Klaus ever uses her to try to manipulate Hayley again, it’ll be the last time he sees either of them.
Elijah meets up with Gia at his place and tells her that Vincent is free of Finn and will be allowed to go home once Elijah gets any relevant information out of him. Gia would like a thank-you. He gives her a beer and opens one for himself, which surprises her. She guesses that he knew ahead of time that Josephine would like her. Elijah says Josephine was rebellious when she was younger, so he thought she would connect with another rebel. Gia asks if Elijah always tries to stay ten steps ahead. He likes to let his opponent think they’re winning until they realize they’re not. She tells him he just needs to remember that he couldn’t have done this without her.
He starts to loosen his tie and she does it for him. “I told you, you needed a woman to mess things up for you,” she says. She notes that he never said whether he likes how she looks in her dress. (He’d have to be blind not to.) She asks him to help her with the zipper, and he pulls it down quickly, wanting access to her neck.
As they start making out, Klaus voices over stuff about embracing change. Hayley, Jackson, and Hope are hanging out together, the happy little family Klaus isn’t a part of. Freya hangs her pendant in the bell tower to keep Finn’s spirit close. Klaus voices over that when the future is uncertain, you might have to find more allies. “A new day is coming whether we like it or not,” he says as Rebekah sleeps on Marcel’s couch. “The question is, will you control it or will it control you?”
Klaus meets up with Aiden at Rousseau’s and reminds him that the wolves are supposed to be at peace now that they can control when they change. Jackson doesn’t seem to get that the world is different, so the wolves need a new leader. The pack should choose someone like Aiden to be their alpha. Klaus can help him become the leader the pack deserves. Aiden knows Klaus will want something in exchange, but he just asks for protection for Hope. Aiden can take his time deciding what he wants to do, but it’s better to move quickly.
Rebekah wanders into the Treme and comes across a couple of teenagers. Wait, strike that – she’s not Rebekah, she’s Eva. She kills one of the teens, then carves a symbol on the other’s forehead and says she’s going to take her power. Judging from the flashes of memory Eva gets, this isn’t the first time she’s done this.
Uh, what, exactly, made Gia think she and Marcel might develop something? Where was I when that happened?
Maisie Richardson-Sellers (Rebekah/Eva) and Charles Michael Davis (Marcel) have great chemistry.
I love how Gia presents herself as this bad%$#, don’t-mess-with-me chick, and then she plays a Beethoven sonata from memory. She reminds me of a guy from my college who dressed like a pop-punk band member but played classical guitar.
I read that Yusuf Gatewood (Finn/Vincent) was only supposed to be in the first part of this season, but people liked him so much that the writers decided to keep him around as Vincent. I’m happy they did; I like the actor a lot.
An Eternity of Misery 