Dahlia has taken Klaus up on his offer to let her link herself to him instead of Hope. This will allow Dahlia to end the spell that makes her sleep for 100 years at a time. Then she can focus on teaching Hope to control her magic. She requests a single drop of Hope’s blood to be able to use her power. Klaus asks about Freya, and Dahlia says she’s served her purpose. When the moon reaches its apex, she’ll kill Freya, and Hope’s link to Dahlia will be permanent. Klaus gives her the go-ahead.
As Dahlia gets started, Elijah covers Gia’s burned corpse at the Compound. He asks Cami what she meant when she said Klaus has a plan. The rest of the siblings had their own plan, which Klaus ruined. Okay, well, don’t yell at Cami. She had nothing to do with that. She tells him the plan wouldn’t have worked. Klaus came up with his own, and it requires getting Dahlia to link to him. That means Dahlia’s giving Klaus exactly what he wants. Elijah notes that this will make Dahlia pretty much indestructible. Cami says that Klaus asked her to convince Elijah that Klaus had to act alone. He’s buying time so he can find the right ingredients to defeat Dahlia.
Dahlia finishes breaking the sleeping spell, pleased that she’ll never have to sleep for a century again. “Perhaps one more nap,” Klaus says, then stabs himself with the gold dagger. Thanks to their link, this renders them both unconscious. But it also breaks the sleep spell Dahlia slapped on Freya, and she wakes up.
Back at the Compound, Marcel puts Eva’s body in the room where they’ve been keeping Rebekah’s coffin and waits for Rebekah to wake up in her original body. When she doesn’t, he worries that she’s dead. She wakes up moments later and warns that if he’s still compelled to kill her, it’s going to be a lot harder now. Marcel lifts her out of her coffin and tells her she took a big gamble killing herself. “With Klaus as the dealer, I expect a crappy hand,” she replies. Marcel adds that he rigged the game – Klaus compelled him to hurt Rebekah because he knows what she means to Marcel. They’re giving each other meaningful looks when Rebekah’s phone buzzes with a call from Klaus’ phone.
In the courtyard, Cami expresses condolences to Elijah over Gia, though Elijah doesn’t think she’s sincere since she seems to be okay with Klaus’ actions. Klaus only does what’s best for himself. Elijah’s worried because he can’t reach Hayley. Rebekah and Marcel come down and reveal that Klaus stole the Crescent curse. Elijah’s furious but Rebekah reminds him that Hayley can wait – they need to focus on more pressing issues right now. As soon as Rebekah relays Klaus, Hope, Freya, and Dahlia’s location, Elijah takes off.
Freya tells Elijah that Klaus came up with a new plan to kill Dahlia because their original plan didn’t have the proper ingredients. Elijah confirms what Dahlia already told Freya: Freya’s blood wasn’t the blood of the witch Dahlia loved the most. That’s Esther. Of course, with Esther dead (and turned into starlings), they can’t get that blood. Elijah notes that since Esther’s original body is buried in New Orleans, they can get blood from that.
Vincent visits Davina, who’s mixing something up in the City of the Dead so she can resurrect Kol. He reminds her that the ancestors have given her one single chance to access this kind of magic. She needs to be sure she wants to use it on Kol. Davina says she’s already gotten started. Vincent warns that she should be careful if she’s going to trust a Mikaelson. They’ll always back each other, so she may find herself on the outside of a Mikaelson alliance.
Elijah and Freya reconnect with Rebekah and Marcel with a plan to dig up Esther, give her ashes to Davina, and have her resurrect Esther, thinking she’s bringing back Kol. Not only will that lose them the chance to save Kol, but Davina will turn on them. Freya has a better idea: Find the indestructible stake and kill Klaus, which will kill Dahlia in the process. Marcel notes that he’ll die, too, since he’s in Klaus’ sireline. Hmmm, yeah, I don’t think Freya cares about you, Marcel. Rebekah realizes that the gold dagger is melting. Elijah announces that they have to fulfill Klaus’ plan.
He and Rebekah go to Mikaelson Mansion and dig up Esther’s coffin. Rebekah regrets bringing her back instead of Kol, as well as actively conspiring against Davina, who’s going to use up her one chance to resurrect him. Thanks to Klaus, Rebekah is back in the position to take life rather than create it.
She notes that Klaus took something from Elijah, too. He says Gia was innocent, and innocent people don’t last long around their family. Rebekah’s like, “I was actually talking about Hayley.” Elijah says she was never his, but Rebekah doesn’t like that he feels like he doesn’t deserve her or the happiness he would have with her. Elijah asks where Rebekah’s happiness is. “I supposed it’s a family trait,” she says. “Everything we love, we turn to ash.” She lights Esther’s coffin on fire in an act of DIY cremation.
Marcel looks for Kol’s ashes at the Compound (I guess Klaus hid them so Davina couldn’t just walk in and steal them). Freya asks why he’s helping with Klaus’ plan – does he think it’ll work? Marcel calls it the “Mikaelson paradox”: They want to love and kill each other at the same time. Freya does a quick locator spell, but instead of pointing her toward Kol’s urn, it directs her to a button on the fireplace that releases a little basket, which holds the indestructible stake. She doesn’t mention this to Marcel.
Marcel finds Kol’s urn, but it’s empty. He’s pretty confident that he knows who took the ashes. It’s Davina, of course, so I guess she did just walk in and steal them. Good for her. She’s about ready to use them when Rebekah finds her in the City of the Dead. Davina’s ticked that Rebekah didn’t keep her promise to stay in Eva’s body until she found a way to bring Kol back. Rebekah repeats her vow to do whatever she can for him. Klaus is to blame for her body swap. Now she needs Davina’s help to stop Dahlia. Specifically, she needs Davina to bring Esther back instead of Kol. Davina refuses and uses magic to break Rebekah’s legs, then her neck. She’s going to bring back the only Mikaelson she can trust.
Freya tries to do a spell to stop the dagger from melting but doesn’t have any success. What’s worse, vines are growing and dahlias are blooming in the Compound, just as they did at St. James Infirmary. Freya’s like, “Okay, now we try my plan.” She’s ready to use the indestructible stake to kill both Klaus and Dahlia, and when Marcel tries to stop her, she immobilizes him with magic.
In the City of the Dead, Davina starts her resurrection spell. Marcel tells Freya they can find another way to stop Dahlia. She doesn’t know of any, so she insists on killing Klaus, even though she doesn’t want him or Marcel to die. As Davina’s spell proves successful, Freya says that she wants to be part of the Mikaelsons’ family, but because of Dahlia, she’ll always be alone. Just as she’s about to stake Klaus, he revives and catches her hand. “Sister,” he says. Unfortunately, since he’s awake, so is Dahlia. Back in the City of the Dead, Davina moves closer to the person she’s resurrected. It’s not Kol – it’s Esther.
Rebekah returns and Davina demands to know what she did. Elijah appears and reveals that while they were talking, he swapped Esther’s ashes for Kol’s. Rebekah stops Davina from attacking Elijah with magic and restrains her so Elijah can put anti-magic shackles on her. Rebekah promises that they’ll get Kol back, just not today.
Dahlia’s impressed with how far Klaus is willing to go for Hope. She grabs the indestructible stake and tells Klaus that she severed the link connecting them when the dagger melted. Staking him won’t have any effect on her. She starts to magically draw him toward her, right into the stake, but Marcel tackles him. While they’re distracted, Dahlia disappears with Freya (and the indestructible stake). Klaus hears Hope crying, and he and Marcel run to her nursery, where one of Dahlia’s vines pricks her hand. There’s that single drop of blood Dahlia needs to tap into Hope’s magic. Marcel tells Klaus to get Hope someplace safe; he’ll find Dahlia.
Vincent goes to check on Davina, having sensed that something was wrong. She tells him Elijah hijacked her spell, so she’s going to turn all the witches in the Quarter against the Mikaelsons until the family is broken. Marcel arrives and says she can do that, but she needs to wait until tomorrow. Davina’s learned what Marcel has known since he first met the family: “If you’re not a Mikaelson, you’re cannon fodder.” But right now, they need to work with them. He asks Davina to find Dahlia. Davina has no interest in helping the Mikaelsons, but Marcel reminds her that Klaus’ death means his and Josh’s deaths, too. They need to live to fight another day.
Klaus takes Hope to St. James Infirmary, where he gets a text from Marcel that says, “I found your witch.” Cami arrives and Klaus immediately says that he needs her help. Her response: “‘Hello, Klaus.’ ‘Hello, Camille. Thank you so much for convincing my furious siblings to join my Machiavellian plan.’ ‘Yeah, that was good times. Oh, what did you say? How is my neck? It’s healed, thank you so much for asking.’ Now, you were saying?”
He tells her that he had to make it look like he didn’t care about anyone else. But he can’t even bring himself to say how horrible he feels for having to hurt her. The battle isn’t over and Klaus needs Cami to protect the most important thing in his life. In other words, Cami’s on babysitting duty. He apologizes for hurting her and promises to find a way to make it up to her.
Elijah is keeping an eye on Esther on the other side of the club. She thinks he brought her back from the dead to torture her. He tells her they just need her blood, though if she happens to suffer while providing it, he’ll enjoy it. Klaus joins them, greeting Esther with, “I’ve arrived just in time for another of your deaths.” Elijah’s mad at him but Klaus says he’s the one who’s going to save the day here. He warns Elijah to control himself: “I can see your red door swinging wide open.”
Klaus already has a knife bound with Norwegian soil and Viking ash, so all he needs to finish preparing to defeat Dahlia is Esther’s blood. He doesn’t want to kill her yet, though. He wants to use Esther for some psychological warfare to mess with Dahlia before he kills both of them. Rebekah comes in, noting that Esther gets to join her children as “dancing puppets in Nik’s end-of-days marionette show.” He controls all their moves. Klaus says Rebekah needs him to do that. She and Elijah have fought him over and over, so he had to act alone. The Mikaelsons may fight each other in battle, but they also do whatever it takes to win the war.
Elijah asks about Gia and Hayley. Klaus calls them collateral damage. Elijah punches him for that and accuses him of pretending he needed to fool everyone when all he wanted was revenge. Klaus points out that Elijah daggered him. Elijah says he brought that on himself. To break his enemy, Klaus broke his family. Whatever happens tonight, Elijah will no longer be by Klaus’ side. He got his wish to be alone.
Vincent meets up with Cami (and Hope) at St. James Infirmary and asks why she feels she owes the Mikaelsons. She’s smart and levelheaded; why would she stay in New Orleans when she just keeps being put in dangerous situations? She mentions that her family is from there, but Vincent doesn’t consider that a good argument – his family is full of evil witches, and he’s giving up magic because it’s not good for him.
Cami accuses him of dumping his responsibilities on Davina, who doesn’t know better. Vincent is sure she knows what she’s getting into. However, he’s worried that if she’s not careful, she’ll end up evil, too. Cami asks why he’s walking away and leaving her without a teacher. Vincent gives her a point for that, but she’s still deflecting. She admits that she has “complicated feelings for a monster” who might also have feelings for her.
Dahlia takes Freya to what appears to be an old trolley depot, where she says traitors were once killed. She thinks it’s a fitting place for Freya to die. As she does a spell that puts them in a kind of bubble, Freya says she used to pity Dahlia, but now she knows that Dahlia lost her ability to love a long time ago. “Darkness isn’t born, you know,” Dahlia replies. “It’s created by the snuffing out of the light.” Freya would never have been able to fix her. Dahlia always saw Esther when she looked at Freya – the sister who turned her heart to stone. Dahlia’s going to use that stone to crush all of Esther’s children.
Klaus and Rebekah arrive, and Dahlia mocks them for “bringing vampires to a witch fight.” Elijah joins them with Esther because the Mikaelsons also brought a witch to a witch fight. Dahlia laughs at the sight of Esther in the anti-magic shackles – are they going to use her to buy their freedom? Dahlia thinks she has an advantage since she has the indestructible stake. Klaus points out that it’s three against one even without Esther’s help, so at most Dahlia will only be able to kill one Mikaelson before the other two kill her. Dahlia says he’s thinking small.
She does a spell to turn the stake to ash, then forces the Mikaelsons to inhale those ashes. The white oak starts burning them from the inside out. Dahlia’s eager to make Esther watch her children die. Esther asks if Dahlia still hates her after all these centuries. Dahlia reminds her of their “always and forever” vow, which Esther broke to be with Mikael. She ended Dahlia’s family, and the Mikaelsons were the result.
As Esther notes that Dahlia made her trade away her firstborn, Klaus inches toward Dahlia with the only knife that can kill her. Dahlia slams Esther for turning her children so they couldn’t provide her with more firstborns. Klaus takes a leap at Dahlia but her magic puts him back down and makes him drop the knife. She tells Esther to say goodbye to the last of her children, then magically makes Freya choke.
Esther says that Dahlia’s won. She’s gotten everything she wanted. Esther wants to make amends and show her sister the freedom she’s found…in death. She attacks Dahlia, which makes her drop the spell that’s choking Freya. Freya blasts through the bubble and hits her siblings with a spell that makes them cough up the white oak. Esther calls to Elijah, who tosses the knife back to Klaus. He rushes to his mother and aunt, running Esther through with the knife to stab both her and Dahlia.
The sisters end up in a field in Norway as their younger selves, before they were kidnapped by Vikings. Esther wishes she’d stayed with Dahlia back then. Her children’s willingness to fight for each other made her realize her biggest sin was not standing by her own sibling. Dahlia forgives her, and I guess they get to stay there forever, with no consequences for the horrible things they’ve done to their own family members. How nice for them. “Seems we’re officially orphans,” Klaus says. Uh, again.
The next day, wind blows the sisters’ ashes away (and, presumably, the remaining white oak ash, supposedly the last white oak in the world). Marcel and Elijah burn the bodies of a couple of fallen vampires, including Gia. Elijah keeps her violin. Klaus gets some blood from some compelled minion so the family can toast together, though Rebekah’s the only one who shows up for breakfast. She acts mad about being back in her original body but he knows she can’t be too upset, since…well, look at her.
Besides, they all won: Freya’s free of Dahlia, and Marcel will forgive Klaus once Klaus lets him take over leading the vampires again. Klaus is going to be a stay-at-home dad, raising Hope with Rebekah and Freya’s help. (Of course he’s assuming they’ll just help without being asked.) Rebekah notes that Klaus is still on the outs with Elijah. Oh, and what will Hayley be doing while Klaus is raising their child? “This, dear brother, is not what happiness looks like,” Rebekah tells him. She leaves him to drink his victory toast alone.
She meets up with Freya, who wants Rebekah to have the same ability she now has to choose her own fate. Freya has healed Eva’s body so Rebekah can have her pick between being a vampire or a witch. Rebekah’s surprised that Freya’s doing something so kind. Freya says that Rebekah was the first in the family to see her as a sister. She deserves to have a sister looking after her for once. Freya urges Rebekah to leave and be free.
Rebekah calls Marcel, who already knows about the choice she’s been given. When he comes to see her, she’s packing her car to leave town…in Eva’s body. She hasn’t made a decision yet about how she wants to live, so she’s going to see what it’s like to be mortal for a while. She’ll look for a way to bring Kol back and then go from there. Marcel promises to try not to start a war with Klaus while she’s gone and kisses her goodbye.
Klaus goes to Rousseau’s, wanting a drink because he’s sad about Rebekah leaving again. Cami tells him to stop compelling the customers to leave so he can hang out there alone; she needs the tips. Heh. He gives her $100, and she remembers how he gave her the same thing when they first met. She was only working that shift to fill in for someone else. If she hadn’t been there, Klaus might be talking to someone else right now. He thinks that if it weren’t for that night at Rousseau’s with a $100 bill, they would have just met somewhere else. “I would have found you,” he says softly. He thanks her for the drink and leaves.
There’s a full moon that night, and Elijah waits in the bayou for Hayley to emerge in human form. He assures her that Hope is safe and promises to figure out a way to free Hayley from the Crescent curse. Hayley asks him to be there for Hope so Klaus isn’t the only family she knows.
The season began with Rebekah telling Hope a story, and it ends with Klaus telling her one. It’s about a wolf king who fought a war for a precious treasure, his princess. Though he won, he lost allies (shot of Marcel, in case we didn’t connect the dots) and made new enemies (shot of Davina with some witches). The wolf king ended up alone, and though he didn’t get a happily ever after, “sometimes even the worst endings are not really endings at all.” Elijah finds Klaus drinking alone later and Klaus pours him a drink. He finishes Hope’s story: “You should know, my littlest wolf, that even when all seems burned to ash, in our story, there is always another chapter to be told.”
Etc.: I wish they hadn’t spelled out the Mikaelsons’ plan to get Davina to bring back Esther instead of Kol. It would have been a great twist for them to reveal after the fact that they swapped the ashes without ever letting us know what they were up to.
Freya answers Bonnie’s question about using a locator spell to find inanimate objects: Her human-locator spell probably won’t work, but there’s another spell that does.
I love Cami’s sarcastic “yeah, that was good times.”
How nice of Elijah to let Esther put on some makeup before putting her to use in the plan to take down Dahlia.
It’s never mentioned straight out but the sleep spell is now permanently broken for Freya. I think she gets the happiest ending of everyone here – she gets her freedom and her family. So that’s one truly happy Mikaelson out of four living siblings. Pretty good.
An Eternity of Misery 