1002 A.D.: The Mikaelsons are still in the South of France with the de Martels, and Klaus and Aurora are secretly seeing each other. He voices over that he never meant to let her know him, and he shouldn’t have let her kiss him. There’s a light in him that makes him feel like the man he wishes he was and makes him forget what he really is. But now he’s turned Lucien, damning someone else to his fate.
Aurora catches Klaus, Rebekah, and Lucien feeding together and runs away screaming. Klaus feels ashamed. He voices over that his family is the first of a new breed that doesn’t have a name. Despite not being human anymore, he still has human desires, like his for Aurora, and he can love. The voiceover comes from a love letter he wrote her.
Present: Aurora tells a magic shop clerk that it was the most beautiful letter she ever received, and she returned Klaus’ feelings. But eventually those feelings crumbled. She asks the clerk to deliver some flowers to Klaus, along with her “special instruction.”
Klaus and Elijah sum up the current plotline at the Compound: Elijah’s first sired wants to kill Klaus, and Klaus’ first sired wants to kill Elijah. So the solution is clear: Kill Lucien and Tristan. They find the clerk dead in the courtyard, holding a note from Aurora: “Roses are red, lavender is blue, come find me before I find you.”
Klaus wants to get right to searching, but Elijah notes that he hasn’t even spoken Aurora’s name in 1,000 years, when he told Elijah never to say it again. Klaus says he won’t wait until Aurora sends them another “gift.” Elijah tells him that when the red door opened, he saw Aurora – he repressed a secret about her. Klaus doesn’t think the secret is about anything worse than what Aurora did to him, so whatever it is can wait. And hey, they can get in some bonding time by killing Aurora together! Then they won’t have to worry about any more of her mind games.
The Axeman’s Jazz Fest is underway in the Quarter, which Cami thinks is horrible timing since there’s a serial killer on the loose. Vincent tells her the tradition is too important to postpone, even when there’s a “second-tier” killer out there. The Axeman was the best killer the city’s ever seen. Well, I’m not sure “best” is the right word. He killed a bunch of people in 1919 with – you guessed it – an axe, then wrote a letter to the local paper vowing to kill thousands the next night. He said he wouldn’t do it if every house in the city threw a big party. They all did, and no one died.
Vincent tells Cami that while some people think the Axeman was a vampire, he was actually a witch. He made his threat during the Fête de Cadeau, when witches give gifts to the city in hopes that the city will give one back. The Axeman’s gift was a day without murder. The city’s gift was an awesome party. Cami clarifies that while frat boys are celebrating a serial killer, the witches are having their version of Christmas. They’ll be easy targets for the current killer. Cami still thinks Lucien is their guy. That means that if he kills again, it’s her fault because she talked Klaus into not killing him. She wants to keep an eye on Lucien. He makes it easy by showing up right where Cami and Vincent are hanging out.
Aurora, on the other hand, is still in hiding, so Klaus and Elijah will have to work a little to find her. They look for some kind of clue in the Quarter, since she likes to play games. Klaus spots some perfume bottles that send him into a flashback.
1002: He and Aurora are in bed together, and she’s urging him not to be so gentle with her. He’s afraid of hurting her, so she asks him to turn her. Then they wouldn’t have to hide their relationship from her family. They’d have no boundaries. Klaus tells her that she’s perfect the way she is.
Present: Klaus examines a bottle of perfume called De Beaucage. He ditches Elijah and goes to a perfume shop with the same name as the bottle. Aurora there’s. Well, that was easy.
Davina’s getting ready for the Fête de Cadeau, and she’s summoned Jackson and Hayley to the City of the Dead. Hayley’s annoyed that since Davina controls the candle that keeps them human, they have to do whatever she wants whenever she wants it. Davina explains that as regent, she’s in charge of the party the witches throw for the city. She needs everyone to respect her, since this is her first public event since she sent Hayley after Kara. Davina thinks something might go wrong, probably because of Van, who has it out for her. Hayley guesses that Davina wants her and Jackson to be her bodyguards. Davina points out that if she dies, the candle goes out and they’re back to being wolves. The Kenners agree to protect her.
Aurora is much happier to see Klaus than he is to see her. She asks about Elijah, and Klaus says he’s been calling since Klaus ditched him, saying something about an ancient secret. Klaus still doesn’t want to hear it, but he guesses that it’s that Aurora slept with Elijah. Aurora says she didn’t, though it would continue the tradition of Elijah hooking up with women Klaus has had his eye on. Klaus asks why she’s in New Orleans. She tells him that the Fête de Cadeau reminded her of the “intimate gift” they once gave each other.
1002: Klaus brings Aurora flowers for her birthday and finds her crying. She has trouble enjoying her birthday because her mother died in childbirth. She feels cursed and broken since her first act on Earth was killing someone. She’s an abomination. Klaus tells her she’s not alone. He did something that he never told anyone about because his siblings would hate him: He also killed his own mother.
Esther birthed him twice, once as a baby and then as the thing he is now. She made him the way he is, then turned her back on him because she was ashamed. Klaus killed her and blamed Mikael, which is why the siblings have been on the run. “However broken you think you are, you are not as broken as me,” he says. Aurora’s annoyed that he always wants to highlight their differences. This makes them the same. This is a gift for them to share, knowing each other’s secret shames. They’ll never tell anyone else and the secrets will never hold power over them. P.S. Aurora still wants to turn.
Present: Klaus notes that Aurora has had 1,000 birthdays since then. “If I forgot to send a card, it’s because I forget about you,” he tells her. He asks if she’s there to remind him. She says she’s there for the same reason as Tristan and Lucien: to protect her sire. If Klaus had turned her like she asked, she’d be protecting Klaus. Since he didn’t, she needs to know where Rebekah is.
Elijah finds Tristan at Rousseau’s and presents him with his assistant’s heart, since the assistant wouldn’t schedule a meeting for him. Elijah, is that really appropriate behavior? He wants to discuss threats to his family. Tristan claims ignorance of anything Elijah doesn’t already know. Elijah tells him that Klaus is probably with Aurora right now, which means trouble. Tristan says that Aurora’s been in a dark period for a long time, so he sent her somewhere to get the care she needs. He thinks Elijah is afraid of what she might say to Klaus.
Elijah says that Aurora “has a habit of cultivating misfortune,” which Tristan agrees with. He admits that she doesn’t know where Aurora is, but he’s sure she’s not in New Orleans, since she would have come to see him. Elijah disagrees and gives him the note she left at the Compund.
Cami and Vincent stalk Lucien as she wonders if he’ll have a festival in his honor in 100 years: “Smiley Face Carver Blues Fest?” Vincent says people like charismatic killers. That includes himself and Cami, who fell for Eva and Klaus, respectively. He doesn’t practice magic anymore because something in him was drawn to Eva’s darkness. He’ll always be on guard about that.
Lucien disappears and the two of them guess that he knew they were following him. But Cami disappears, too, since Lucien has zoomed her to an alley so they can talk in private. He reminds her that the police cleared him of suspicion in the murders, so why is Cami following him? She says it’s her job to read people. Lucien isn’t hard to read. He tells her they need to end their rivalry and hints that he might use violence to do it. She warns that if he hurts her, “a certain someone” will be very upset. Lucien taunts that she thinks she knows him just because she knows Klaus. Cami actually has no idea what Lucien’s capable of, but he’s going to show her. He zooms off, and moments later, Cami finds the killer’s latest victim, still alive.
Klaus tells Aurora she’s wasting her time coming to New Orleans to protect Rebekah, since she’s not there. Aurora argues that she should be allowed to protect her sire, since their fates are intertwined. Klaus doubts that Rebekah will ever trust Aurora, considering what happened the last time she did.
1002: Rebekah finds Aurora bleeding in her bed, having slit her wrists. Rebekah feeds her blood and revives her, then blasts her for trying to kill herself. Aurora says she was distressed because Tristan doesn’t want her to be with Klaus. “My own mind is a demon that haunts me,” she tells Rebekah. “It tortures me and hunts me.” The Mikaelsons don’t have to worry about mental or physical health issues, so Aurora wants to be like them. Rebekah’s like, “We have our own problems, and trust me, you don’t want them.” But Klaus told Aurora that being a vampire makes him feel alive. That’s what she wants. Rebekah reminds her that they’re always on the run, pretending to be people they aren’t. Aurora acknowledges that they’re cursed in a way, but not as much as Aurora is.
She sends Rebekah away, and as soon as she’s alone, Aurora goes to the window. In voiceover, she tells Klaus that Rebekah smelled like berries and the wind smelled like lavender. Aurora steps into the high window and looks down at the garden, then lets go and falls to her death.
Present: The scent of lavender is the last one Aurora remembers from her human life.
The Fête de Cadeau has begun in the City of the Dead and Davina has started receiving gifts from the community. Some of them aren’t as welcome as others, like goats. She suddenly walks away from her guests, and Hayley follows her. Davina confides that she’s struggling to carry on the witches’ traditions. She hates the goats and the scarf she’s wearing, which she only put on because Josephine used to wear one. She thought the witches might respect her if she dressed like Josephine.
Hayley tells Davina that what she did to Kara and her coven wasn’t okay, but she can see that Davina regrets it. Now she’s trying to run from it by being someone she isn’t. Hayley’s learned that no one will respect you until you show them who you really are. She unties Davina’s scarf and tells her that if she acts like someone else, she’ll get the same things (like goats) that person got.
Elijah goes to St. Anne’s to tell Marcel that Tristan seemed to be telling the truth when he said he didn’t know where Aurora was. If he’s hiding something, though, Elijah would like Marcel to use his “fabulous new Strix membership” to find out what it is. Marcel says he’s only with them because he wants to know why they’re in New Orleans. He won’t risk his cover just because Elijah thinks Tristan’s hiding something. But Marcel will have some people trail Tristan and see what he’s up to.
Aurora and Klaus continue reminiscing about their relationship.
1002: Aurora happily approaches Klaus and announces that she “remade” herself and is now his equal. As they kiss, she bites him, which gets him all revved up.
Present: Aurora asks if Klaus remembers what it was like to be with someone as powerful and tormented and cursed as he is for the first time. She’s sure he’s thought about what they had every day since then. She came to New Orleans because she’s never been able to forget what it was like. She’s there for him.
As police remove the now-dead body from the latest crime scene, Vincent and Cami agree that Lucien has to be the killer. She wishes she could have done something to stop him, but Vincent reminds her that humans don’t stand a chance against Lucien. Vincent may need to use magic again to stop him. Cami tells him that she knows how he can use magic without performing any spells.
Will arrives and Cami pretends that she just stumbled across the latest victim. Vincent backs her up, telling Will that Cami tried to save him. But as Will points out, Cami was alone with the victim before then. It doesn’t look good that a person who’s supposed to be helping with the investigation was at a crime scene before anyone called her to come there.
Jackson catches Van doing a spell that involves a wooden doll and a vow that the witches will get justice for people who have been harmed. He attacks Van, who looks like he’s about to use the doll for voodoo purposes. Van asks if Jackson’s going to kill him like his pack killed Kara.
Once Klaus has fooled Aurora into thinking he’s still into her, he tells her she must have forgotten why their love story didn’t end happily. She remembers very well that he left her without looking back.
1002: Finn tells his siblings that the local villagers are talking about vampires, which means word will spread to Mikael. They need to run away. Klaus shares the news with Aurora, asking her to come along, but she doesn’t want to live like a nomad. Klaus thinks that Tristan has turned Aurora against him. She says she turned against him on her own. She doesn’t love him. She’s surprised to admit that, because she thought she did, but suddenly she sees him for the “cruel, wretched thing” he is. Klaus isn’t worthy of anyone’s love. Even Esther knew that. What hope is there for Klaus if his own mother came to hate him?
Klaus reminds Aurora that she promised never to bring up how he killed his mother. “I owe you nothing,” she replies. They’re not alike and she could never love him. Heartbroken, Klaus leaves.
Present: Klaus tells Aurora she’s lucky he let her live after what she said. She acknowledges her cruelty, saying it was uncharacteristic of her. That’s because she didn’t break his heart willingly. Right before Klaus came to her, she talked to Elijah.
1002: Elijah tells Aurora that the Mikaelsons are leaving. She wants to go with them, since she’s like them now, but he says she’s not their blood. She doesn’t think that matters. The Mikaelsons always talk about having a “sacred family bond,” but Aurora knows things about Klaus that Elijah never will, even his biggest secret.
Present: Aurora says that she told Elijah she wouldn’t betray Klaus, and that “true love transcends blood.” He wouldn’t listen.
1002: Elijah asks what Aurora could know about Klaus that his own brother doesn’t. Aurora won’t tell him, but when he roars at her to speak, he unknowingly uses compulsion on her.
Present: Klaus is mad that Aurora told Elijah his biggest secret (even though he has to know that she was forced to). She’s upset that she betrayed his trust.
1002: Aurora doesn’t get why she told Elijah something she swore not to tell anyone. Elijah can’t believe that Klaus has been lying to his siblings about Esther’s death. Aurora says she loves him anyway. Elijah tells her that Klaus doesn’t deserve her love. He uses compulsion again, this time purposely: “You must only see him as the wretched, deceitful monster that he truly is.”
Present: When Klaus asked Aurora to go with him, she had no choice but to say no. She tells Klaus that when Elijah understood what he’d done, he didn’t come back to undo it. Klaus and Aurora’s breakup was Elijah’s revenge for Esther’s murder.
Jackson and Hayley take Van to Davina, who reminds him that by witch law, he can be hanged for trying to kill a regent. Van scoffs and hands over the doll, which isn’t for killing. It’s for a spell that forces someone to confess their secrets. Van wanted Davina to admit to having Kara killed, which would result in her being shunned by the covens.
Davina tells him that Kara came after her first, and Davina had to act before there was a witch war and she was deposed as regent. That would just lead to more deaths. Van asks if she really thinks the covens are better off with her in charge. She does – she knows the old way doesn’t work. If Van wants to leave, he’s free to go, but she’d prefer if he’d stay and help her change things. He leaves without responding, so I think that’s a no.
Elijah tries to call Klaus, not realizing that that’s the last person he should be talking to right now. Marcel comes to the Compound to tell him that his people followed Tristan to a building called the Candide Royale. He never came out, and the building has hidden passageways left over from Prohibition, so Tristan must have used one. Turns out the passageways lead to a storehouse that was recently bought by Kingmaker Land Development – Lucien’s company. Either Tristan and Lucien are working on a truce or they’ve been working together all along.
Klaus asks Aurora why she waited 1,000 years to tell him what Elijah did. She says this was the right time because of Alexis’ prophecy. Oh, and by the way, she killed Alexis. Tristan told Aurora about the prophecy, and when Aurora saw it herself, she saw Rebekah’s death. She wanted to get rid of this “dangerous toy” before it fell into the wrong hands. Now she’s going to change the future Alexis saw. She’s going to turn Klaus against Elijah. Maybe Elijah’s the family from the “friend/foe/family” warning.
Davina thanks Hayley for her advice to be herself. She doesn’t want to control everyone and everything. She brings out the Crescent candle and says she asked the ancestors to give her the magic to lift the curse. They agreed, and when Davina blows out the candle, Hayley stays human. Davina doesn’t want her to be a slave like the older generation would have. She’d rather have Hayley as a friend.
Cami takes Vincent to Kieran’s stash of dark objects, which he tells her is a lot more dangerous than she knows (and also a lot of it came from Treme witches, so he probably doesn’t appreciate her having it). He wishes she’d told him about the objects before. If the wrong person gets their hands on them, they could destroy the city. Will arrives just then and announces that he’s taking everything as evidence in the serial murders. It didn’t take much for him to get a search warrant – Cami’s brother was a mass murderer, Kieran’s death involved a cover-up, and there was another cover-up at today’s crime scene. The only fingerprints on the victim belonged to Cami. That plus the dark objects point to probable cause, which allows Will to arrest her.
Aurora tells Klaus to ask Elijah himself if what she told him is true. Then he should come find her and see who’s on his side. Klaus goes home, where Elijah immediately guesses that Aurora told him everything. He finds it convenient that she chose now, the brink of a sireline war, to turn brother against brother. Klaus says Elijah is a bigger enemy than anyone who wants to take down his sideline.
The two of them pummel each other for a little while, and then Klaus says that what Elijah did to him set him on the path he took in life. Elijah reminds him that Tristan was a huge threat and Mikael was looking for them. What was Elijah supposed to do? He’s stood by Klaus no matter what he’s done. Klaus thinks it was because he felt guilty – his betrayal made Klaus the way he is. They fight each other again, and then Elijah says Klaus needs to look at himself instead of blaming others for how he is. He’s done carrying his brother. If Klaus wants to fight, they’ll fight.
Etc.: I hate that Aurora is painted as being the way she is because of some mental health problem. Like it’s an excuse for her to do the things she does.
I’m not clear on how Klaus connected the perfume to Aurora. Was it like the kind she wore 1,000 years ago, and he recognized the smell?
Really, though, what does a teenager in New Orleans need with livestock? Wait, I know – Davina can open a petting zoo!
Sorry, Davina, but “she attacked me first” isn’t going to be good enough for a guy whose mother you had torn apart by a werewolf.
I’m not sure it was intentional but Aurora using the phrase “dangerous toy” is some nice foreshadowing.
An Eternity of Misery 