Rebekah voices over that all of us have demons inside. She imagines her younger self being chased by Eva through an abandoned warehouse. When Eva catches her, she yells that this is her house. Rebekah voices over that some days you control the demon, but some days it controls you. Marcel has been sitting by her bed while she sleeps, as she requested, and when she wakes up as Eva, she uses magic to knock him out.
Rebekah tells us that the demon feeds on lust and longing. While Elijah and Gia have sex, Davina and her fellow abducted witches remain unconscious. Rebekah says that the demon never sleeps. It tempts us into crossing lines we never thought we would. Eva hears Hope crying and goes up to her nursery. Rebekah says the demon hunts and haunts us, making us unable to know who to trust. Elijah lies awake next to Gia while Vincent, still at Rousseau’s, looks at a picture of Eva. “Once it’s turned your loved ones into enemies, the demon will have consumed you whole,” Rebekah says.
Hayley catches Eva approaching Hope’s crib and knocks her away. Eva fights back, blasting Hayley out of the room. Klaus comes to his daughter’s rescue but can’t fight off Eva’s magic. He manages to slash Eva in the leg. Realizing she’s outnumbered, Eva flees, leaving Hope untouched.
Klaus pulls out the magical shackles the Mikaelsons used on Finn, noting that he should just keep them out all the time. He gives them to Marcel and instructs him to find Eva/Rebekah. Marcel warns that he won’t be the only person looking for her – the Treme witches are going to be on her trail again, since Elijah’s agreement with Josephine to let him find her has expired. Klaus tells Hayley to go see Elijah and get him to talk Josephine into extending the deadline. Hayley doesn’t want to leave Hope, but Klaus reminds her that their werewolf army is on the job. Plus, Klaus himself will be there. Right now, the best way to protect Hope is to get Rebekah out of Eva’s body and “back into the original model.”
Hayley goes with Elijah and Gia to Josephine’s house, and it’s…really awkward. “Well, now I see why you didn’t answer my calls,” Hayley comments, sensing that Elijah and Gia hooked up. Elijah is too polite to point out that Hayley married someone else, so she doesn’t get to comment on who he spends time with. He even introduces Hayley to Josephine as family.
Freya comes to the Compound, where Klaus orders her to put Rebekah back in her original body. Not that he trusts her. He’s just desperate. Freya says it won’t be that simple – Rebekah’s now lost inside Eva, and Freya doesn’t have a spell to search Eva and find her. Klaus says he knows someone who can help. He throws some anti-magic shackles on Freya before inviting her to tag along.
Marcel finds Vincent at Rousseau’s, trying to keep a low profile because all the supernatural beings in New Orleans hate him. Plus, if he keeps drinking, it’s easier to ignore them. Marcel asks how many drinks it’ll take for him to forget about Eva. He tells Vincent that she’s on the loose, and he needs Vincent’s help to track her down. Vincent isn’t interested in helping.
Neither is Josephine, who tells Elijah, Hayley, and Gia that they need to let the witches going after Eva take her down. Eva will just use up Rebekah like she did the other witches. Vincent explains this to Marcel: A couple of years ago, Eva kidnapped some kids. He and Eva met as teens and he practiced magic for the first time with her. Josephine tells Elijah, Hayley, and Gia that they used wild magic, but the witches allowed it because Vincent and Eva were so happy.
Vincent knows the names of the kids who went missing; he’s clearly haunted by what his wife did. He put together a posse to find them but Eva used a strong spell to cloak them. Josephine says she was caught anyway. Vincent managed to find a kid with a locator spell before Eva could cloak him. He confronted her and she tried to convince him to let her take three more kids.
Josephine explains that she was trying to complete the Rite of Nines. If she sacrificed a witch from each of the nine New Orleans covens, she could create a new coven that would give her more power than the elders and Harvest Girls. She wanted kids because they’re pure and easier to control. Hayley guesses that that’s why Eva went after Hope. Josephine says that Eva would have killed Hope and channeled her powers. Vincent never found Eva’s original abductees, and they died unconsecrated, unable to be with their ancestors. Marcel urges Vincent to help him find Eva before anyone else dies.
Josephine tells Elijah that he won’t get an extended deadline. She doesn’t like considering Rebekah collateral damage, but that’s what she’ll be. Josephine is willing to let her die if it means Eva goes down for good.
Klaus takes Freya to the City of the Dead so they can consult an expert on mind invasion and body jumping: Esther. She’s back in the crypt where Klaus left her, since she doesn’t have a daylight ring. Freya’s furious with Klaus for turning to her, but he notes that he can compel Esther now, so she’ll have to help them. He compels her to only tell the truth, then invites Freya to search her mind for spells.
Eva hides out in an abandoned magic shop, mixing up something to heal her from Klaus’ werewolf venom. Marcel manages to sneak up on her and slap the anti-magic shackles on her before she can react. He orders her to release Rebekah, and Eva warns him not to get too violent or he might never see Rebekah again – or Davina. She taunts him for not realizing that Davina’s been gone for days. Marcel threatens to torture Eva into giving him Davina’s location but Vincent knows that won’t work. He thinks he might be able to get Eva to open up to him.
Elijah tries to change Josephine’s mind but she isn’t charmed. Hayley objects but Elijah is willing to take no for an answer as long as Josephine gets that their alliance is over. She warns him not to threaten her – he needs her, not the other way around. Josephine turns to Hayley and says a storm is coming: “Your darkest demons ride upon it.” There’s blackness in Hayley’s future.
Instead of being helpful to Vincent, Eva criticizes him for selling her out and working with vampires. They could have gotten rid of all the vampires if he hadn’t been so weak. Vincent says he didn’t have a choice. Eva argues that change was necessary because the covens weren’t united. She insists that she didn’t kill any children – they’re all alive, just unconscious. They don’t have to die for her to get their power.
Esther is happy to see Freya, who doesn’t feel the same way. Klaus tells Esther that Dahlia’s on her way to town to get Hope, so he needs Rebekah back in her original body to help fight. (Esther’s been out of the loop and is the last to learn that Hope is alive.) Freya has the power to do that but not the knowledge, which they need from Esther.
Eva tells Vincent that she didn’t blame him for turning on her. He “just couldn’t see the light.” She thinks he sees it now that he’s been in her shoes, having his body stolen by a Mikaelson. He must know what they have to do. Eva only needs one more witch to finish the ritual. She and Vincent will take all the power they need and let the kids go. Marcel interrupts before Vincent can respond, deciding they need to try a different tactic. Vincent hits him with a blast of magic and blows him out of the building, then releases Eva from her shackles.
Hayley, Elijah, and Marcel regroup at the Compound, where Hayley complains that not only is Eva on the loose again, but she has a sidekick, too. Marcel piles on the bad news: Counting Davina, Eva has eight witches and only needs one more. Hayley announces that if she comes after Hope again, Hayley will kill her, Rebekah or no Rebekah. Elijah says they should fortify the house, kill Vincent, and capture Eva. He won’t abandon his sister.
But Eva and Vincent don’t go to the Compound – they go to Josephine’s house. Eva’s decided to take her as the ninth witch instead of Hope. Josephine tries to reason with Vincent, knowing he hasn’t been himself recently. He tells her he’s only really been himself with Eva.
Esther writes down her spell, pausing to address Klaus’ criticisms of how she went after Hope. She didn’t want to; she just needed to keep Dahlia away. Basically, Klaus should get over it because Esther wanted to save him and his siblings. “I always wondered what maternal compassion sounded like,” Freya comments. She wouldn’t know since Esther gave her away. Esther defends herself, noting that she made that deal before she knew what it would be like to be a mother. She figured she’d have a bunch of kids and wouldn’t miss the first one. When Freya was born, Esther saw a light in her. She thought it might warm even Dahlia’s heart and that Freya would live a good life.
Freya says that Esther should have come for her. Esther agrees, but she knows it would have been a mistake. It would also be a mistake for Klaus to let Freya help him. The light she had as a child is gone, thanks to all her centuries with Dahlia. If she’s offering to help Klaus, she’ll want something in return. Klaus breaks up their argument and butters Esther up, saying he’s glad she gave up Freya so he could be born. “You should think of me as an upgrade,” he says.
Eva and Vincent take Josephine to the warehouse where Eva’s stashed the other eight witches. She just needs to link Josephine to the others to get their power. Oh, but she neglected to mention that they’ll need to sacrifice some of them to get what they want. Vincent pretends to approve, then knocks her out.
Marcel gets word of Josephine’s disappearance and guesses that Eva’s now with all nine of her witches. Vincent calls and reveals that he only played along with Eva to trick her. Marcel’s like, “You couldn’t have done that without blasting me through glass doors?” Honestly, that’s fair. Vincent reports that the first eight witches are all linked to Eva, so if she dies, they all will, too. To unlink them, they’ll need a really powerful witch.
Freya needs an anchor to enter Eva’s mind and find Rebekah. Because Esther gave Freya away, she doesn’t have a home, and therefore, no anchor. She realizes she can channel Klaus’ power for the spell. Esther says that’ll give her access to Klaus’ past and present – she’ll know everything about him. Klaus notes that she’ll be able to pass all his secrets along to Dahlia. He thinks he was right not to trust his sister.
Elijah arrives and says he’ll be the anchor instead. He’ll do whatever it takes to get Rebekah back. Klaus warns that Dahlia could learn everything she needs to destroy the family. Freya frees herself from her shackles and snaps her fingers to break Klaus’ neck. “For an upgraded model, you’re not very sharp,” she comments.
Gia hangs out with Hayley and Hope at the Compound, offering to provide a last line of defense in case someone gets through their werewolf guard. True, she doesn’t really care about Hayley, but Elijah does, and she won’t let anything happen to people he cares about. Gia tells Hayley that Elijah was “wound up” after she married Jackson. She guesses it’s hard to be the person everyone turns to for 1,000 years. He deserves the chance to live how he wants.
Elijah, Freya, Marcel, and Vincent take Eva to the warehouse from Rebekah’s imagination so Freya can go into her mind. Wait, strike that – she’s sending Marcel and Vincent into Eva’s mind. She warns that if Eva kills Marcel in there, he’ll die for real, and if he kills Eva before he frees Rebekah, Rebekah will be gone forever. Freya does a spell to give Vincent a psychic link to a knife so he’ll have a weapon. Unfortunately, it involves stabbing him. She channels Elijah and sends Marcel and Vincent into Rebekah’s imagination.
Klaus revives alone with Esther, who warns that Freya will turn his siblings against him. He’s surprised she cares. She tells him she’s spent her time in the crypt thinking about what might have been if her children had remained mortal. “We would have burned bright for a while, and then burned out,” he replies. She sees turning them as a sin but he sees it as the only one of her faults that he can forgive. He likes them as Originals. Esther tells him they’re “a macabre echo of a family,” and it’s her fault. She wanted to undo it so they would love her again. Klaus says she’s a comedian and tells her to enjoy the darkness.
Marcel finds little Rebekah hiding in a cabinet and assures her that she’s safe. He tells her to run as Eva approaches. She magically gives him pain and says she makes the rules there. She sticks her thumbs in his eyes, which makes his eyes bleed for real. Vincent intervenes, telling Eva it’s over. She compliments him for tricking her, saying he’s colder than she remembered. Once again, he made her think he loved her before stabbing her in the back. He tries to literally stab her with the knife Freya gave him but she gives him a magic migraine.
Freya’s losing control of the spell, but Klaus arrives and offers himself up as another source to channel. This allows Vincent to fight Eva off. He tells her he was devastated that he couldn’t save the kids from the woman he loved. She blames him for what’s about to happen and kisses him. But before she can kill him, Rebekah sneaks up behind her and stabs her. Marcel and Vincent wake up, as do the nine witches, but Eva remains unconscious. When she finally revives, she’s Rebekah.
Once Rebekah’s back home at the Compound and everything’s settled a little, Klaus wants to put her back in her original body. She says she’s staying put for now. Eva’s body is linked to Davina and the other witches; if Rebekah leaves it, they’ll die. She admits to liking Davina and not wanting her harmed. Plus, all the witches in New Orleans will come after the Mikaelsons if the kids die, and they already have enough on their plate with Dahlia on her way. They need allies, or at least not more enemies. As if those weren’t enough reasons, Rebekah needs a witch’s body so she can bring Kol back.
Klaus tells her that Freya was in his head and knows his secrets. Rebekah doesn’t think she saw anything that will hurt them. She’d like to be a united family for at least a little while. Klaus agrees to give her that pause – “for now. For you.” In a pretty un-Rebekah-like move, she thanks him, which makes him smile.
She voices over that the Mikaelsons have a saying: “Kill a demon today, face the devil tomorrow.” At Rousseau’s, Vincent burns his picture of Eva. Rebekah warns that killing a demon doesn’t get rid of all your enemies. Josephine rewards Freya for her heroics and tells her that she’s a Quarter witch now. New Orleans is her home, and the witches will share her allies and enemies.
Later, Klaus finds Freya at Rousseau’s and lets her know that he still doesn’t trust her. He sees the real her. She calls him paranoid and warns that that will lead him to end up alone. She claims that all she saw in his head were “anger issues and a questionable taste in women.” Hey, don’t talk about Caroline like that! (Or maybe that’s foreshadowing for next season.) Freya says she was alone once, and Klaus doesn’t have to be now. But she only has so much patience.
Rebekah voices over something about gearing up for a fight and tending to our wounds. Freya goes to Esther’s crypt and says she despises Dahlia. The light in her is gone because Dahlia put it out. “I was five and she was the devil,” Freya says. Dahlia took everything she had. Esther is no longer Freya’s mother but Dahlia isn’t her, either. That said, Esther was right that Klaus shouldn’t have let Freya into his head. She learned that he’ll never trust her, which leaves her no choice: She’ll have to turn the Mikealsons against him one by one. Now she knows how. Esther asks why Freya’s telling her this, and Freya says she won’t be around to see it. She gives Esther some magical pain, then makes her explode in dozens of starlings.
Etc.: What good is a werewolf army if they don’t do anything when there’s a threat in Hope’s nursery? If Hayley and Klaus hadn’t come in, the army would have failed their very first time trying to protect Hope.
Adorably, Hope sleeps with a stuffed wolf.
Dahlia and Eva basically have the same desire – build a super-coven – so thank God they never teamed up.
Nice attempt at a fake-out with Vincent, but the audience has no reason to believe he’s not the good guy he’s been presented as.
An Eternity of Misery 