1002 A.D.: The Mikaelsons are still hanging out with the de Martels in the South of France. Klaus voices over that things were pretty good, considering they had to hide that they were vampires. Looking back now, Klaus knows he could have done more to prevent what happened next, but “even an endless life cannot be played in reverse.”
Lucien compliments a carving Klaus is making, then asks him to give Aurora a message declaring his love. They’ve known each other since they were kids, and they used to have feelings for each other, but now that Lucien is Aurora’s family’s servant, he can’t exactly waltz up to her and ask her out. He wants to run away with her, but Klaus cautions Lucien against that, and not just because the Mikaelsons need him.
Lucien says that the Mikaelsons will have to leave soon. For one thing, Kol won’t stop killing people. (Kol is why we can’t have nice things.) The locals think there are demons around, so the Mikaelsons are going to have to run sooner or later. Lucien wants to come with them; he and Aurora can continue helping them get by among humans. Lucien is too afraid of Tristan to approach Aurora himself, but he knows Klaus has nothing to fear.
Klaus accepts the message but tells us via voiceover that instead of giving it to Aurora, he told Lucien that she rejected him. Klaus knew that would be her response because he was already hooking up with her. But Lucien won’t settle for a no, so he goes looking for Aurora and finds her making out with Klaus.
She panics, since some guards have been alerted, which means Tristan will soon come to confront his sister. Klaus tells Aurora to run and let him handle Tristan. Lucien tries to turn her against Klaus, telling her that he’s a beast. Aurora sends Klaus and Lucien away, but only Klaus runs. Tristan finds Lucien with Aurora and is deeply unhappy about it.
Present: Klaus is telling this story to Elijah to explain why he thinks Lucien falls in both the “friend” and “foe” categories in Freya’s warning that the Mikaelsons will fall, “one by friend, one by foe, and one by family.” Elijah’s more interested in the “family” part. Klaus says they should just kill Lucien now, “just like old times.” Elijah wonders which of the Mikaelsons he thinks is most likely to betray their siblings.
He’s also curious about why Lucien is in New Orleans and why he told Klaus that Jackson hadn’t bitten him. Klaus is his sire; why would Lucien lie to him? They may need to “resort to something deliciously medieval here.” Klaus asks if this means Elijah wants to work with him again, or if he’s forgiven Klaus for…you know, everything. Elijah says he’ll consider forgiving Klaus when Hayley does, when Gia comes back from the dead, and when Hell freezes over.
Will pays Lucien a visit at his penthouse while Cami and Vincent discuss the recent murder victims. She’s 100 percent convinced that Lucien is the killer. Will texts Vincent just then to say that he brought Lucien in for questioning. Vincent wants to go to the police station in case Lucien gets violent and the police can’t defend themselves. Cami invites herself along.
Hayley yells at some street musicians to keep it down because Hope is trying to take a nap at Kenner Kennel. She complains to Jackson about all the noise from the street. Jackson chalks Hayley’s crankiness up to her sudden return to human life after being a wolf for six months. She notes that since she’s part vampire, all her senses are heightened. She wanted so badly to be with Hope, but now that she is, she feels off. Jackson suggests that they get Freya to babysit so they can go do something alone.
Marcel gathers some of his crew in his loft and tells them that because the recent murders have the police extra-vigilant, the vampires need to lay off feeding on humans for a while. Josh grumpily asks if they’re supposed to feed on animals instead. Josh, let me introduce you to Stefan Salvatore and his amazing human-free diet. Marcel tells him to hit up some blood banks. He trusts that Klaus and Elijah will sort things out quickly and the vampires will be able to resume their normal lives.
A vampire named Aya comes in and warns that things are actually going to get worse before they get better. Fortunately, she can help. Marcel isn’t interested in talking to her, so he tells a vampire to kick her out. Aya just breaks that guy’s arm and kicks him away, then takes out another vampire by jumping on his back, putting her legs around his neck, and twisting her hips. Queen! She tells Marcel she was sent to make him an offer. Instead of hearing it, he vamps out and attacks her. Dude, did you see what she just did? She’s going to kill you with her pinkie!
Klaus and Elijah go to Lucien’s Castle, and though he’s not there, Alexis is. Elijah’s surprised that Lucien willingly went with Will for questioning. Alexis says that he has nothing to hide. The brothers decide to hang out until he gets back. Vincent and Cami watch through a two-way mirror as Will shows Lucien crime-scene photos. He’s totally unphased by the sight of the bodies, and Will notes that he seems familiar with the murders. Lucien says that he fits the pattern of victims (white, male, and rich). He could easily be one of them, if his fate were different.
Will says that in his experience, people like Lucien don’t think about fate – they make their own luck, either good or bad. Lucien replies that people like him also have great lawyers, so once his arrives, he’ll be out of there. He tells Will that he hates being bored, and Will bores him. Lucien also knows that Cami is watching, and he compels Will to let him talk to her alone.
Jackson takes Hayley to St. Anne’s so they can spar in the fighting gym. She’s hesitant to fight him, since she’s stronger than he is and could hurt him, so Jackson suggests that they spar with sticks. She says she’s not in the mood but he knocks her stick out of her hand and eggs her on to fight him. It’s kind of sexy, honestly.
Back at the police station, Vincent won’t let Cami talk to Lucien alone. She insists that she’s safe, since he won’t kill her there, but really, I wouldn’t put it past this guy. Vincent follows her in as she goes to see Lucien, and they take over Will’s interrogation. Lucien fully admits that he’s a ruthless killer, but that doesn’t mean he’s responsible for these murders. He tells Cami and Vincent that they’re just like him – “three souls caught in the orbit of family Mikaelson, yet somehow survived to tell the tale.” He knows all of them have scars.
1002: Lucien’s scars are literal, thanks to his punishment for trying to get close to Aurora. Klaus and Elijah try to get Tristan to let him go, but Tristan says that as the son of a count, he can punish the staff however he wants. The Mikaelsons are guests and don’t get a say in the matter. Tristan whips Lucien, riling up Klaus, who orders him to stop. Tristan says that he knows who the Mikaelsons are, thanks to a tip-off from a survivor of one of Kol’s attacks. Since the family came there pretending to be nobles, they must be hiding, and that must mean that they’re scared. “Somewhere out there, something is even more savage than you,” Tristan says.
He turns back to Lucien but Klaus stops him and vamps out. He warns that what he’s about to do won’t be pleasant. Tristan isn’t scared, and he warns that if anything happens to him, his men will spread the word about where the Mikaelsons are. They won’t be able to hide anymore. Elijah steps in and gets Klaus to back down. Tristan says they’re not that different – they both want to protect their families. Then he draws a knife and cuts Lucien’s mouth the same way the present-day killer has cut his victims.
Present: Cami thinks this just reaffirms her theory that Lucien is the killer. He’s choosing victims who are like Tristan and reenacting his trauma with them. Lucien insists that his experience 1,000 years ago has nothing to do with the murders. Vincent agrees with Cami, but Lucien argues that he’s being framed by someone who wants to turn Klaus against him. That means Lucien can’t protect Klaus, so he’s probably being targeted by someone who wants Klaus dead.
Aya has taken out all of Marcel’s crew and injured Marcel himself, seemingly without breaking a sweat. He attacks her but she just grabs him by the throat and lifts him off the ground. Marcel, take the L here. She reminds him that she’s there to make an offer, but since he’s being so aggressive, maybe they should chat somewhere else. She slices his cheek, in the process exposing him with something that makes his vision blur and knocks him out.
Alexis is willing to do her cipher thing with Elijah, though she doesn’t want to include Klaus, since he’s already seen the prophecy. He wants to see what it looks like for Elijah. She asks if Elijah’s sure he wants to see the future. “Well, I never could resist a good spoiler,” Elijah says. They both drink from Alexis and see the same things she showed Klaus the first time, plus more – Lucien, Marcel, and Cami are also involved. Klaus tells Elijah to find out where Marcel’s (friend and family) loyalties are now while Klaus goes after Lucien (friend? Family? Foe?).
Jackson and Hayley are still sparring. She tells him that every full moon over the past few months, when she turned human, all she could think about was Klaus. She’s distressed that their ability to remain human now is all dependent on Davina and her candle. What if she blows it out while Hayley’s holding Hope and she hurts her daughter? Hayley’s thoughts are consumed by blood and destruction, and she doesn’t want to feel like that around Hope.
Jackson urges her to keep fighting and let out her anger. She goes back to sparring and accidentally draws blood on his cheek. She starts to vamp out and tells him to leave, but he won’t. He lets her lick the blood from his face, then bite his neck. They go from this to making out, and from that to…well, you know.
Elijah goes to Marcel’s loft, where he finds the aftermath of Aya’s attack on everyone. Josh is just waking up, and he tells Elijah what happened. Elijah spots a black business card on the floor and asks the name of the woman who took everyone out. He’s not surprised when Josh says it’s Aya. Yes, Elijah knows Aya – in fact, he sired her. He dips the black card in some blood, which makes some writing appear at the bottom of the card.
Cami asks Lucien why he wanted to talk to her. She guesses it’s because she knows Klaus, and Lucien wants to make him look bad. Lucien cracks up at that. He looks at her hand like he’s reading her palm and says Klaus must like her because she always thinks like a mortal. He wants Klaus to trust him, and he knows Klaus listens to Cami. He doesn’t blame Klaus for his trauma from 1,000 years.
1002: Klaus brings Lucien some water while he’s alone. Lucien has somehow gotten his hands on a knife (I guess Tristan dropped it – good job, Tristan!), which he stabs Klaus with. Of course, that doesn’t do anything to Klaus, and he tells Lucien not to bother trying to hurt him. Lucien tries to grab the knife back and accidentally cuts his hand. He and Klaus both watch in shock as the wound heals itself. The other wounds on his body do the same. Klaus realizes that when his blood touched Lucien’s, it healed him. I guess Mikael and Esther didn’t provide their children with any kind of vampire handbook, so they have to learn all this stuff themselves.
Lucien tells Cami and Vincent that he wasn’t quite like Klaus yet, but he didn’t care. He just wanted revenge. He finds Aurora and Tristan, and as he’s about to stab Tristan, a guard comes up behind Lucien and impales him.
Present: Lucien clarifies that he died, like, no kidding. Most people don’t survive that. Also, it was 1002, when a torn cuticle could kill you. “Talk about trauma,” he says – not death, but “the humiliation of being judged by one’s betters.” He refuses to ever go through that again. For Cami’s sake, though, he’ll declare and even prove his innocence. He opts for logic: Why would he kill people, leave their bodies behind, and risk his safety? He has nothing to gain by killing random people. His enemies, however, do.
Cami asks who he thinks is framing him. Before Lucien can answer, Klaus bursts in. He tells Cami it’s time to go, but she wants to hear Lucien’s theory. Klaus says he’ll just lie, like he liked about not being bitten by Jackson even though Elijah saw the bite. Lucien says that Klaus is just going to hand Tristan his victory. Tristan is the real killer.
Marcel wakes up in a mansion, where Aya gives him a bag of blood to help him continue to recover from the toxin she gave him. She says she and her people can keep the blood supply coming, as well as make daylight rings. Now Marcel wants to listen. Aya knows that he was turned by an Original but built himself and his community on his own. She and her people want to restore New Orleans to the way it was under his previous rule. Marcel laughs off her “sales pitch” but asks who her people are. Aya calls them the Strix, the oldest vampire society in the world.
Elijah arrives and tells Marcel that the Strix are responsible for a ton of wars, assassinations, and plagues. “You have to break rules if you want to build a new world,” Aya says. Marcel guesses that they know each other. Elijah zooms to Aya and jams his hand into her chest, grabbing her heart. He knows she’s not there alone. That’s when Tristan joins them, just as Elijah was expecting.
Some vampires surround Elijah and Marcel, so Marcel suggests that they each fight half of them. Elijah doesn’t trust Marcel, though, and Tristan doesn’t want to fight. He offers Elijah a handkerchief to wipe the blood off his hands, which means he knows Elijah pretty well. He sends everyone else away, but Marcel and Aya won’t go. Tristan warns that Elijah’s sireline and life are at stake. (Heh. Probably a poor choice of words, Tristan.) He needs to hear what Tristan has to say. Elijah dismisses Marcel, advising him to be more careful about people he associates with in the future. Uh, he was kidnapped. It wasn’t a willing association. Marcel tells Elijah to remember who his friends are, since it looks like he’ll need them.
Back at the police station, Klaus tells Lucien that if Tristan’s involved in the murders, he’ll find out. First, though, Klaus plans to drain Lucien of vervain, question him, and then kill him. Lucien’s willing to answer questions, since, as he keeps insisting, he’s in New Orleans to protect Klaus. Klaus asks why he lied about his werewolf bite, then. Lucien says he just didn’t want to bother Klaus. Plus, he can cure werewolf bites on his own.
Lucien tells Klaus that if he were the killer, Klaus would be right to question his mental stability. But who would benefit from Klaus thinking Lucien is the killer? Tristan. He wants Klaus to kill Lucien, leaving him without backup when Tristan inevitably comes after him. Klaus says it’s a good theory but he doesn’t need Lucien’s protection. Lucien knows that, but what about Klaus’ friends and family? His associations make him vulnerable.
Will comes in, unaware that Klaus showed up. Klaus compels him to believe that he’s Lucien’s lawyer. Will says his counsel won’t be necessary – another body was just found, and since the victim was killed just before his discovery, Lucien couldn’t have killed him. He’s free to go. “And like a phoenix, I rise,” Lucien says. No, that’s the other show. Wait, both other shows.
Elijah confronts Tristan for coming to New Orleans unannounced with his “flock of sycophants,” talking about a threat. He’s not happy that Aya is conspiring with Marcel. Tristan says he’s being dramatic. Elijah warns that he’s not the “patient, fun-loving social butterfly” Tristan remembers him being. Tristan tells him that Marcel is a “potential recruit” but has nothing to do with the issue at hand: Klaus, Elijah, and Rebekah’s sirelines are verging on war, and Tristan thinks Lucien wants to take out Elijah’s sireline.
Elijah isn’t concerned, but Tristan warns that Lucien could use Klaus to take him out. If Klaus could torture Marcel, curse Hayley, and make Elijah watch Gia die, then say he was just trying to beat Dahlia, he could easily fall victim to Lucien’s attempts to convince him that it’s logical to kill his own brother. Elijah tells Tristan that Klaus is on his way to kill Lucien right now. But Tristan says Elijah needs to stop Klaus – Alexis knows of an object that can kill Elijah. Tristan and Aurora don’t have it, so Lucien must, or he must know where it is. If he dies before telling them where it is, someone else might get their hands on it.
Klaus waits for Cami across the street from the police station, where she tells him that Vincent thinks Klaus should kill Lucien. He needs due process, though. Yeah, I’m sure Klaus would be happy to wait for that. Cami asks what Lucien meant about rising like a phoenix.
1002: Klaus and Elijah prepare Lucien for a Viking funeral, discussing whether Klaus’ blood really healed him. Since the blood couldn’t bring him back after he died, the brothers guess that they can only heal the living. Klaus is sad that he couldn’t save Lucien, but his sadness soon turns to relief when Lucien suddenly gasps for breath and sits up.
Present: Cami guesses that Klaus is struggling with the thought of killing Lucien because he’s the first person Klaus ever turned, the first of his sireline. He sees Lucien leaving the station and starts to follow him. Cami stops Klaus, telling him he doesn’t have to do this. He appreciates her attempt to keep him from an act he might regret, but when she’s not looking, he zooms away. Elijah finds him stalking Lucien and tells him that new information has come to light.
1002: Lucien completes his transformation and tells a scared servant how awesome he feels. He’s massacred a few people, and Klaus is disappointed because it means they’ll have to leave. Lucien says they’re the same now, like brothers. He wants Klaus to teach him how to be a vampire. Pleased to have a student, Klaus uses the scared servant for an object lesson on how to kill.
Present: Klaus goes home with Elijah instead of going after Lucien. He says he’s reaping what he sowed. He should have killed Lucien 1,000 years ago. Elijah notes that Lucien brought out Klaus’ “savagery.” Klaus says they each brought out the worst in each other. They made each other who they are. Elijah tells him that they’ll kill both Lucien and Tristan as soon as they have the weapon Alexis knows about. Klaus is happy to hear that Elijah wants to work with him on this, but Elijah says it’s because circumstances necessitate it. He still doesn’t forgive Klaus.
Klaus expresses regret over acting righteous and not using reason. Freya said one of them will be killed by family, but Klaus promises that he’ll never kill Elijah. Notably, Elijah doesn’t make the same promise. He just leaves the room.
Josh scrubs blood out of Marcel’s carpet, like, hire a housekeeper, Marcel! Don’t make Josh do that stuff! Marcel still has Aya’s card, and he sees that the text Elijah uncovered at the bottom is an address in New Orleans. He’s equally annoyed by Aya coming into his home and Elijah dismissing him like a child. Cami and Vincent wonder what’s really going on, since Lucien apparently isn’t the killer.
Tristan goes by the most recent crime scene, silencing his phone when he gets a call. It’s from Aurora, who leaves him a message saying she’s decided to end her stay at the monastery ahead of schedule. She doesn’t mention that she’s killed a bunch of monks. She tells her brother not to start the party without her. After she hangs up, she steps up onto the railing of an outdoor balcony, enjoying the fresh air and sunshine for a few moments before letting herself fall off the edge.
Etc.: You’re telling me that even in the year 1002, people were asking their friends to give notes to their crushes? I wonder when humans started writing, “Do you like me? Check yes or no.”
Hayley’s been back with Hope for, like, 24 hours after seeing her only a handful of times over six months, but yeah, Jackson, get a babysitter and take Hayley out to spend LESS time with her.
$5 says Tristan has said, “Do you know who my father is?” at least 20 times in his life.
Ugh, the Strix. It was a good idea on paper, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired.
Elijah, fun? No way. THIS is Elijah.
An Eternity of Misery 
