Klaus is having a calm, respectful conversation with New Orleans’ chief of police. Just kidding – he’s dangling the chief off a balcony at the Compound by his neck. Klaus is a little upset that the police haven’t been able to find Aurora. Freya and Elijah join them, all, “Just another day at the Compound.” Elijah tells Klaus to release the chief, so Klaus drops him off the balcony. How did Elijah not see that coming? Freya asks if torture is necessary right now. No, but it’s fun!
Marcel arrives late for a meeting with the Mikaelsons because he was making sure the Strix were out looking for Aurora. He’s ticked that Klaus lost the carving. Freya defends him, since Cami didn’t keep quiet that she had it and no one knew that Aurora had a deal with Madison. Instead of appreciating her for this, Klaus chastises her for not being able to find Aurora with a locator spell. That’s not Freya’s fault, since Aurora is cloaked, but Klaus tells her to get back to work anyway. Freya asks if he talks to Rebekah the way he talks to her. No, he daggers her and keeps her in a coffin for decades at a time. Count your blessings.
Elijah asks about Madison, but Marcel doesn’t have any information from the Strix. Klaus thinks he’s getting pretty comfortable with his new crew. Marcel reminds him that it’s to Klaus’ benefit. Klaus asks if there’s anything else the Mikaelsons should know, implying that he’ll hurt Marcel if he keeps secrets. “Why don’t we reserve any malevolent intentions for ex-girlfriends?” Elijah suggests.
Freya goes to the bell tower for her umpteenth attempt to find Aurora. I guess it would make too much sense for her to ask Vincent for help, seeing as how he has all that power from the ancestors now that he’s regent. This stab at a locator spell just sets Freya’s map on fire. Then the spindle she was using flies into a wall, right into a New Orleans postcard. Oh, she’s in New Orleans? How helpful! Aurora appears in the doorway and asks if Freya’s looking for her.
Aya finds Davina working on the spell to sever the Originals from their sirelines. She should be working with the other Sisters, but Davina figures she can do this on her own, since she previously worked on the spell from Esther’s grimoire. Aya would like a little more confidence, since her life is at stake here. Davina says she just needs a binding agent. Esther’s was unique, so Davina needs to confer with someone who knew her techniques. Aya guesses that she wants that someone to be Kol.
She warns Davina that in every negotiation, there’s a point where the “lesser” person has to give in. Davina is approaching that point. Davina isn’t intimidated, and she warns that if Aya doesn’t let her and the Sisters resurrect Kol, they might never get the right binding ingredient. Aya backs down, offering up a Hand of Glory, a candle that will open a window to the afterlife. Davina will have the length of the candle’s burning to talk to Kol. If he gives her the information she needs, Aya might let her bring him back permanently.
Klaus meets up with Hayley in a park where she buried Jackson’s heart under a sapling. She wants Hope to have a place to visit a part of him when she’s older, so she’ll remember how much he loved her. Klaus expresses his condolences, but Hayley’s tired of hearing them from everyone, since they don’t make a difference. He thinks she could use a distraction from her grief, so he asks her to keep an eye on Cami in case Aurora decides to target her again. Hayley thought watching Cami was Klaus’ job, but he knows Cami won’t let him come around her anymore.
Elijah calls Klaus from the bell tower, where there are signs of a struggle and no Freya or Aurora. He finds a sprig of lavender, a compass, and a note: “A forest of pine / And a box made so fine. / Come quickly, if not / Then poor Freya shall rot / Buried in dirt for all time.” Sloppy meter. Lazy rhyming. Not your best work, Aurora.
Marcel visits Davina as she’s getting ready to contact Kol. She thinks he’s there to make a request on Aya’s behalf, but he tells her he’s on Davina’s side. In that case, she asks him to talk to Aya about letting her resurrect Kol permanently. Marcel says Kol can wait – Marcel’s life is in more imminent danger. Davina asks for confirmation that he doesn’t trust Aya, and he promises he doesn’t. But she needs to remember that Aya always plays her own game (like everyone else in New Orleans), so the two of them need to stick together. When this is over, he’ll help her raise her “pain-in-the-a%$ boyfriend” from the dead.
Klaus meets up with Elijah in the bell tower so he can read for himself what Elijah calls “the world’s must unfortunate limerick.” He’s sick of playing Aurora’s games. Klaus remembers that Alexis’ prophecy featured Freya being buried alive. He grabs the compass and the brothers head out to find Freya. She’s still above ground, in a cabin with Aurora, who gave her the same concoction Tristan gives her when she has “episodes.” It’s rendered Freya weak, unfocused, and unable to use magic. She’s confident that Klaus and Elijah will come rescue her. Aurora’s counting on that. She shoots Freya and wonders if she’ll still be alive when her brothers get there.
Hayley lets herself into Cami’s apartment and asks her if it was worth risking the lives of every vampire in the world just to get one over on Klaus. Cami hasn’t been herself lately, and Hayley’s ticked that in her “less-than-sane moments,” she’s been putting people Hayley cares about in danger. Cami thought she’d proven herself by risking her life to save Hayley, and now she wants space to deal with the fact that she’s a vampire. She doesn’t need a lecture from Hayley – she’s been lecturing herself for weeks. Hayley just hands her a coat and says she’s taking Cami to school.
Klaus and Elijah use the compass to find Aurora’s hideout, then split up to track down Freya. They agree that no matter what happens, this will be Aurora’s last day alive. Elijah goes into the cabin and finds one of the white oak bullets. Meanwhile, Klaus finds dirt covering a recently dug grave. Aurora approaches Elijah in the cabin with a gun and tells him that Freya’s been buried alive.
Klaus has already dug up a coffin, but all he finds inside is a message: “Guess again.” He realizes he’s surrounded by newly dug graves, all topped with lavender, and there’s no way to know which contains his sister. Freya calls on Finn’s spirit for help. He uses his magic to make blood from her gunshot wound rise up and push through the lid of the coffin into the lavender planted above it. This is all Klaus needs to figure out which grave Freya’s buried in.
Back inside, Elijah lets Aurora know that he doesn’t think she’ll be able to kill him when no one else has been able to for 1,000 years. She laughs at the thought of him and Klaus believing in the myth they created. “Nothing lasts always and forever, and certainly not you,” she says. He tells her to go ahead and pull the trigger, then, but realizes she won’t do it without Klaus there. Aurora confirms that she wants to make Klaus watch Elijah die.
Hayley takes Cami to St. Anne’s to teach her to fight without relying on dark objects. Cami doesn’t see the point, since she carries around an object that will paralyze anyone who attacks her. Plus, she knows that as a baby vamp, she won’t be much of a fighter. Even Josh could beat her. Hey! What did Josh ever do to you?
Hayley notes that St. Anne’s was condemned, and if Marcel hadn’t seen it as a place to build a gym, it would have been torn down and replaced. It’s still a church, but it’s something more now. Hayley’s the same – she’s a hybrid, a mother, a widow, and an alpha. Cami’s a psychologist, a bartender, and a member of a family with a weird legacy. Now she needs to embrace being a vampire, too. If she doesn’t, she’ll end up dead. Cami says she’s not used to getting advice instead of giving it. She’s willing to keep listening, but Hayley wants action now. They’re going to spar in the ring.
Davina lights the Hand of Glory and brings forth Kol’s spirit in a kind of astral projection. He’s happy to see her but wishes she hadn’t joined the Sisters. Aya comes in and comments on their 1,000-year age difference. “Aya. I thought someone would have killed you by now,” Kol greets her. She says some people are more durable than others. If he’s helpful, she might let him come back for good. Davina asks him about the sireline-unlinking spell, pretty sure he knows the last ingredient she needs. Kol makes Aya leave before he’ll tell Davina anything.
Back at the cabin, Elijah guesses that Aurora thinks he’s responsible for her breakup with Klaus. He says she’s to blame, since Klaus couldn’t handle her craziness. This stings Aurora. Elijah continues that Klaus realized he wasn’t in love with Aurora, and once he’d tossed her aside, all that was left was patheticness.
He tries to grab the gun from her but she doesn’t let him. She tells him love is a trap, and only the love of a family is unbreakable. It’s the only love worth fighting for. Now Aurora’s only family is in a box, suffering over and over. She’s going to kill Elijah to end Tristan’s suffering. In the process, she’ll hurt Klaus by making him watch his brother die. That’ll heal her broken heart.
Klaus bursts in with Freya and tells Aurora to stop. She doesn’t see any reason to. Elijah tells Klaus that she has white oak bullets, but Klaus doesn’t think Aurora will pull the trigger. She calls his bluff, but Freya uses magic to send her shot off-course. Unfortunately, the bullet bounces off a wall and hits Freya. How many times is she going to get shot in one episode? Aurora uses this distraction to zoom away. “Tend to Freya,” Klaus instructs Elijah. “I have to murder my ex.”
Kol tells Davina that because the sireline links are part of Esther’s most powerful spell, they’re impossible to break. Davina thinks he’s lying and reminds him that if she can figure this out, she can bring him back. Kol clearly knows what she needs for the spell but won’t tell her because she won’t like what it is.
Elsewhere at the Strix’s headquarters, Aya tells Marcel that the Sisters can do a spell to eavesdrop on Davina and Kol. Marcel doesn’t see the point, but Aya clearly doesn’t trust Davina to disclose the last ingredient of the unlinking spell. Davina tries to work through the pieces again, knowing that the loophole to the sireline links must be related to blood. Kol tells her that breaking them requires a death. He begs her to stop.
Davina ignores him and works out the ingredient herself: a heart outside the sireline link. In other words, the heart of a vampire who doesn’t have a sire. The only one who fits that criterion is Hayley. The Sisters relay the information to Aya, who also works out that the spell requires Hayley’s heart. Marcel protests against killing her, but Aya snaps his neck and tells the Sisters to find Hayley.
Klaus looks for Aurora in the woods on the cabin’s property, but she finds him first and shoots him in the shoulder. She compliments his artistry with the knight carving and decides that since he likes chess, her parting quip should be related to the game: “Queen takes king.” But she’s made the classic villain mistake of talking instead of acting, and Klaus is able to pull a “no trespassing” sign off a fence and Frisbee it into her stomach so he can get away.
Hayley and Cami spar, and though Cami isn’t up to Hayley’s level, she does get in some good moves. She appreciates Hayley’s help today. Davina calls Hayley to warn her that the Sisters are on their way to kill her. They arrive just then and use magic to fling Hayley around the gym. Fortunately, Cami has her paralyzing dark object handy, and she uses it to immobilize one of the witches. She fights another while Hayley uses a jump rope to decapitate the paralyzed witch. A third witch gives her and Cami magic migraines, and the remaining Sisters start to rip out Hayley’s heart.
Klaus ambushes Aurora and is able to get the gun from her. He figures it’s a waste of white oak to use her bullets on her, but dead is dead, so why not? She begs him not to kill her. “You never should have come back,” he tells her. “You never should have let me,” she replies. She knocks the gun out of his hands and trips him onto his back. She takes the gun back and apologizes as she prepares to kill him. Elijah arrives and Aurora shoots him instead, then zooms off.
The Sisters continue to extract Hayley’s heart from a distance. She yells at them to come and take it if they want it. Davina wants to go try to save her, but Kol has a better idea: He’ll draw magic from the Hand of Glory and knock Davina out. Because she’s linked to the Sisters, they’ll go down, too. This works, and Hayley is indirectly saved. “Definitely our worst date ever,” Kol laments to an unconscious Davina.
Klaus reaches into Elijah’s chest to pull out the bullet, which didn’t enter his heart. Elijah tells Klaus to leave him and go after Aurora, but Klaus isn’t about to walk away when he’s this close to saving his brother. He doesn’t care that they agreed to kill Aurora – he won’t leave Elijah. He breaks Elijah’s neck, which stops his heart and allows Klaus to grab the bullet before it can do any real damage.
Aya goes to St. Anne’s to try to get Hayley’s heart on her own. She’s able to knock Hayley out but Marcel arrives and warns Aya that killing her will start a war. Aya tells him not to let his “association with werewolf trash” distract him from the chance they have to break the sireline links. Marcel replies that the Mikaelsons will kill them before they can do the unlinking spell. He thinks they have another option. If she doesn’t let him try it, she’ll be condemning herself and the other Strix to a horrible death. He wants to break the links as much as Aya does, but he wants to do it the right way. She gives him until midnight, or he’ll lose his heart along with Hayley’s.
Cami wakes up in her own bed, unsure how she got home. Hayley has left her beer and a note telling her that next time they’ll drink together. Hayley’s at the Compound, telling Klaus and Elijah that the Strix are working on breaking the sireline links. They just need an unsired heart. Klaus is annoyed that Marcel didn’t tell them that, but Hayley wants him to back off, since Marcel saved her. She’s sure she can handle herself if the Sisters came after her again. They’d be smarter to find a workaround.
Klaus thinks they already have. Elijah and Hayley catch on, realizing that Jackson was also an unsired hybrid, thanks to the unification ceremony. Klaus wants to dig up his heart before the Strix can get to it. Aurora will definitely come after the Mikaelsons again, and Klaus would like all the vampires in New Orleans to still be linked to their sires when that happens, so they’ll feel obligated to help fight her. Elijah agrees, reluctantly telling Hayley that they need to get Jackson’s heart.
Davina regains consciousness and realizes that she and Kol have lost time they could have spent together. She’s still sure that Aya will give her what she needs to bring him back, but he isn’t. He wants Davina to let him go. The longer she’s in the coven, the more danger she’ll be in. She tells him that when she brings him back, they can face the Sisters together. Kol still doesn’t want her to be part of the Sisters, but he can’t really argue with her plan. As they’re kissing goodbye, the candle goes out and he disappears.
Hayley, Klaus, and Elijah arrive in the park too late to get Jackson’s heart. She laments losing the only piece of him she had left. Klaus and Elijah promise that they’ll find whoever got there first and pay them back. That person happens to be Marcel, who delivers the heart to Aya. Davina confirms that it’ll work for the spell. Aya asks how Marcel got it, and he says nothing happens in his city without his knowledge. She praises his creative leadership. Marcel warns her not to get in his way again or he’ll be just as creative in plotting her death. Aya’s pleased that he’s finally learning something important: “Commitment to a common goal is as strong a bond as family.”
Klaus works on a new carving at the Compound so he can replace Hope’s favorite toy, since Aurora had it turned into bullets. He thinks Freya’s surprised that he came to her rescue today. He promises that because she’s his sister and in his family, she’s covered by the “always and forever” promise. Elijah enters and seconds that. Freya asks what they’re going to do next, with Aurora out in the world with white oak. Klaus and Elijah know they’ll most likely have other enemies coming their way, but they already have a plan to deal with them: kill them all.
Aya finds Aurora in the woods and offers an alliance. Aurora doesn’t see the point, since she already has a goal and a plan for achieving it, but Aya thinks teaming up with a like-minded person will make it easier to succeed. “I suspect our worlds can change with a bang,” she says. Aurora smiles in agreement.
Etc.: I’m not sure which is funnier – Klaus holding a cup of coffee in one hand while dangling the police chief over the balcony, like he’s going to take a sip in between threats, or Freya walking in on them and not even blinking, since this is just how Klaus is.
I’m surprised Cami hasn’t compelled her way into a nicer place to live. Not that there’s anything wrong with her apartment. It’s just that there must be empty houses in the Quarter that she can spread out in.
The trick with Freya’s blood and the lavender is the most useful thing Finn has ever done. Not that the bar was very high.
New life goal: Find an opportunity to greet someone with, “I thought someone would have killed you by now.”
Tristan mentioned Hayley’s unsired status all the way back in “A Walk on the Wild Side.” Makes you wonder how much he knew about the unlinking spell.
An Eternity of Misery 