After two episodes of hints and sexual tension, we get confirmation that Marcel and Sofya are sleeping together. He’s having trouble shaking off his day, so she offers to distract him. Then another distraction shows up in the form of Vincent. He tells Marcel that the kids they rescued have disappeared again.
Will takes the kids to a group of people in the woods. He’s sedated them and prepared them for a ritual. One of the people gives Will a wooden pendant with an ouroboros on it. It’s a token of their “master’s” power, and Will needs it “for what’s to come.” Will promises that he won’t let anything – including Vincent – stop them.
Klaus, Hayley, Elijah, and Hope meet Vincent at the Compound so he can heal Hope. He reminds them that they have to leave New Orleans as soon as he’s done. They agree, willing to do pretty much anything to help Hope. Vincent does the spell he did on the other kids, then tells the adults that Hope is now “purified.” After reminding them again that they have to go ASAP, he starts to leave. But as Hope approaches Klaus, a bunch of crows fall into the courtyard, dead. Hope hears whispers and says they’re repeating a name over and over, “Kre Nah Han.” Vincent says it’s Creole and means “the Hollow.” It’s coming.
The visitors get an extension on their check-out time and end up spending the night. In the morning, Hope’s fever returns. She wants to see Klaus, but he thinks it’s more important for him to go out and kill some witches. Elijah asks for a stay of execution and Hayley says she’ll go talk to Marcel: “Out of the three of us, I win Most Likely Not to Get Killed on Arrival.” Whatever they’re dealing with is Marcel’s problem as much as the Mikaelsons’. Klaus gets to stay back with Hope. Elijah warns Hayley that the Marcel she used to know is gone, and whoever he is now isn’t their ally.
Freya and Keelin have started working on a way to weaken Marcel, but Freya’s going to take a break to go to New Orleans and try to help Hope. Keelin suggests that she try to get some of Marcel’s venom while she’s there. Freya invites her along, but Keelin would rather not get caught robbing the deadliest vampire in the world. Freya offers her a moonlight ring to boost her power. Keelin says it’s basically a cure for werewolves, all she’s ever wanted. She expects there to be a catch but Freya says it’s insurance. Keelin realizes after she’s put on the ring that it’s spelled so she can’t remove it. Now she’s obligated to help Freya.
Klaus checks on Hope, who is, disturbingly, in the bed where Cami died. She’s still cold. He tells her that when she’s better, they’ll eat beignets together and plan a fun trip. Hope knows from Hayley that New Orleans is the place Klaus loves more than anywhere else in the world. “Putting your love in a place is a mistake,” he tells her. Now that he’s back in his home, he’s reminded that it’s better to love people.
Vincent meets with some witches (including Maxine) at St. Anne’s, telling them that some other witches are making human sacrifices to an entity called the Hollow. Elijah arrives and says the Mikaelsons want to defeat it. He dismisses everyone else and tells Vincent that they need to work together. Elijah has a history of getting rid of “undesirable” things in New Orleans. Vincent figures he’s one of those things, so he should work alone.
Elijah won’t sit back and do nothing while children are at risk, but Vincent notes that he let Davina die. Elijah guesses that Vincent only sees him as a “merciless butcher.” He’s fine with that – it won’t stop him from doing everything necessary to save Hope. “Right now, according to you, you are facing two evils,” Elijah notes. “Wouldn’t it be nice to have one of those by your side?” Vincent says they’ll do things his way, and Elijah agrees.
Marcel gathers some witches to tell them that their problems are now his. Someone’s taking children, which goes against his single nonnegotiable rule not to mess with kids. He points out a graffitied ouroboros and says someone must know who’s responsible. A witch replies that they don’t owe him anything. Hayley pops up and says she understands that the witches don’t trust Marcel. But her daughter is sick, and Hayley would like any help she can get to save her. The witch tells her that she saw someone named Lara drawing an ouroboros on her window with blood. Lara’s not a witch, though – she’s a werewolf.
Freya and Keelin break into Marcel’s penthouse for a task they won’t be telling the other Mikaelsons about. Freya says they’re “overly sensitive” when it comes to him. Keelin notes that Freya doesn’t seem to have feelings about anything. They’re not sure where to look for any venom Marcel might have stockpiled, so Freya tells Keelin to take advantage of the enhanced instincts her new moonlight ring gives her. “Sorry, I don’t do bloodhound,” Keelin replies. Freya opts for magic instead.
Vincent uses the Zealot’s ashes for a spell he hopes will let him and Elijah trace the Hollow’s energy to it and to its other fanatics. Elijah asks if the Hollow has spoken to Vincent. Vincent compares it to a broadcast. He was able to shut it out, but others can’t. Elijah asks if Eva was one of them. Vincent tells him that there’s a difference between what people project and what’s in their hearts. The Hollow used the dark, twisted parts of him against him. It did the same with Eva and took everything Vincent ever loved away from him. If they run into it again, it will use the things Elijah wants to keep buried to make him do what it wants him to do. (Translation: The red door is going to open again.) That will make Elijah a liability to Hope.
Hope tells Klaus that Hayley said Vincent was a witch who could make her better, but she feels worse instead. He assures her that Hayley and Elijah are working with Vincent to help her. Hope asks if Klaus knows what the Hollow is. She can feel the other kids connected to it – it wants them, and she thinks it wants her, too. Klaus promises that he won’t let anything take her. He’ll protect her “always and forever.”
Vincent’s spell connects him to the Hollow’s fanatics, including Will. Hayley calls Klaus from the bayou to check in on Hope and let him know that she and Marcel are going to see Lara. Klaus is like, “Once you’ve gotten what you need out of her, uh, ‘take care of her,’ you know what I mean?” Hayley and Marcel find Lara, and Hayley guesses that she won’t want to talk to a vampire. Marcel warns her that the Hollow’s fanatics are violent, so she should be careful. Hayley approaches Lara, who knows who she is and why she’s there. Lara’s sorry but the missing kids are “as good as dead.”
Will meets Vincent at St. James Infirmary, thinking his friend just wants to have a drink. Vincent tells him that he’s dealing with some dark magic that took out his wife and might now be trying to take out his best friend. Will pulls out his gun and asks Vincent if he came to confront him. Vincent says that the Hollow won’t deliver on whatever it promised Will. Will’s fully gone, though, and thinks the Hollow rewards people who are loyal to it. Things might be different if Vincent had done what it wanted him to eight years ago. Cami might not have died.
The Hollow showed Will how different things could have been, and let him see all the evil in the city. Will thinks the only way to fix it is to do “one little evil thing” himself. Vincent reminds Will that this isn’t who he is. He can help Will walk away from this. Will says he can’t – Vincent can’t even help himself. “You’re in the middle of everything that’s to come,” Will tells him. “They” sent Will here to kill Vincent. He fires his gun but Elijah zooms in and takes the bullets. He throws Will to the ground and comments that he has quite a monster inside him. “You want to see mine?” he asks.
While Hope sleeps, Klaus tells her that she has a warrior’s heart – a Mikaelson’s heart. Her strength is bigger than the hold the Hollow has on her. She has more power than she knows. He takes off her anti-magic bracelet and she wakes up. She tells him she saw the other kids, who are all scared. She asks Klaus to promise that if he ever sees the blue light, he won’t look at it.
Freya tries to magically crack Marcel’s safe but doesn’t have any luck. Keelin isn’t sure they should break into it anyway, since that’ll let Marcel know that someone was there. She tells Freya to go help Hope. She’ll stay back and use her wolf hearing to crack the safe. And no, she won’t try to run away.
Elijah tries to get into Will’s mind but magic keeps him out. Vincent wants to take the time to break the spell instead of letting Elijah torture Will to talk. Will is his friend, and he’s a victim like the kids. Elijah gives Vincent five minutes. In the bayou, Lara tells Hayley that she didn’t know children were going to get brought into what she and the other Hollow fanatics were doing. She thought they were just trying to take back the city from the vampires. They kept quiet for five years and watched Marcel “lord over” New Orleans. Marcel argues that he kept the peace but Lara yells that it wasn’t his city to rule. It belongs to everyone, not just the vampires.
The Hollow offered its followers the power they needed to regain control, as long as they pledged their allegiance. Hayley reminds Lara that she’s a Crescent wolf and has a pack. Lara’s upset that Hayley left – she chose the Mikaelsons over the wolves. The pack and Hayley mean nothing to her now. Hayley acknowledges that she wasn’t with her pack when they needed her, but now she needs help to save Hope. Lara laughs at her and says no one can help the kids. The Hollow wants power that only comes from sacrifice. The kids will die so it can get stronger. It will feed and rise, and everyone will bow before it, “the great beast.” Even Marcel will. Lara says she won’t be there to see it, then stabs herself in the throat.
Vincent doesn’t break the spell on Will in five minutes (Elijah times it with his pocket watch), so his time’s up. Vincent doesn’t want Will harmed – Will’s his friend and Vincent doesn’t want him killed because of something he’s responsible for manifesting. Elijah lets Vincent keep going but Will manages to free himself from the restraints they put on him. He grabs his ouroboros pendant and uses it to power up a backhand that sends Elijah flying across the room. “There’s no going back, Vince,” Will says. He blasts Vincent aside with power, then walks out. “Any other wonderful ideas?” Elijah asks. Vincent says he tagged Will with magic so they can track him back to the kids.
They head to the bayou, where Vincent asks if Elijah told the others to behave themselves. They meet up with Klaus, who left Hope with Freya and says Hope is fighting whatever’s happening to her. Vincent assures him that once they save the other kids, Hope will be fine. Marcel, joining the group with Hayley, notes that then the Mikaelsons can be on their way. Hayley knows this isn’t a time for reunion but she takes a moment to say hi to Vincent anyway.
They decide to split up to find the kids. Marcel calls dibs on Klaus as a partner, not wanting Klaus out of his sight. Klaus guesses that Marcel’s on this mission just to be nice, not because he cares about Hope. He doesn’t expect Marcel to care about her, since he’s the reason she spent five years without her father. Marcel shoots back that he was doing her a favor. Right now they need to focus on the task at hand: finding the bad guys and getting rid of them. That’s what a king does. “All I see is a petulant prince,” Klaus snarks. His priorities have changed in the past five years. Hope is at the top of his list. He’d love to get revenge on Marcel by leaving him to continue trying to prove that he’s better than Klaus.
Hayley tells Elijah and Vincent that Lara’s connection to the Hollow changed her. She mentions the blue light, which Vincent clarifies is the Fifolet, a spirit from New Orleans legend. Elijah just wants to know how to kill it. Back at the Compound, Freya mixes up something for Hope, who’s sleeping fitfully. Will takes his pendant to the woods, meeting up with the fanatics who took the kids from him. The kids are wrapped in sheets, about to be sacrificed. The fanatics invite Will to join them as they regain their power, take their “rightful place,” and get rid of anyone who denies their master.
Klaus and Marcel are already lurking nearby, and Hayley, Elijah, and Vincent arrive as Will says he knows what he has to do. A fanatic offers him a long knife. Klaus is done with “this circus of sadists,” and he grabs a weapon dangling from a tree and throws it at one of the fanatics. While the vampires attack the fanatics, Hayley and Vincent grab the kids.
Will chants something, clutching his pendant. Vincent tries to get him to stop, saying it’s over. “No, Vince – it’s only just begun,” Will replies. He uses the power from his pendant to drag Marcel toward him. Klaus grabs Will by the throat, and Will gives him a demented smile. “You can’t stop what’s coming,” he says. But Klaus can stop Will, which he does by snapping his neck.
Klaus and Marcel suddenly find themselves surrounded by a circle of fire. Elijah tries to get in but a barrier spell keeps him out. Even though they remain in the circle physically, Marcel and Klaus are transported to a place that kind of looks like limbo, and also suspiciously like the Upside Down from Stranger Things. Vincent realizes that they screwed up – the fanatics wanted them here. They’re channeling Klaus and Marcel’s power to anchor the Hollow to the real world.
The kids are still alive but they’re linked to the ritual. Vincent says they need to break the spell to free Marcel and Klaus, but he doesn’t know how. It’s a sacrificial ritual, so…they have to sacrifice someone. In the place that is definitely not the Upside Down, where everything’s shaded blue, Klaus tells Marcel not to look into the blue light. Vincent thinks he can find a loophole in the ritual by linking it to Elijah. Staking him would only kill him temporarily, but it might be enough to break the spell. They should probably hurry, though, because Marcel really wants to look at the blue light.
Vincent starts the spell to end the ritual, and Hayley gets the unfortunate job of staking Elijah. Once he’s desiccated, the spell breaks. “We’re not cold anymore,” Hope tells Freya happily. Okay, but when you say “we” like that, it’s creepy.
The other kids reunite with their families at St. Anne’s, and Maxine thanks Vincent for his heroics. Elijah watches from the doorway like, “Okay, I’ll let you take all the credit for this, even though I died to save them.” Up in the balcony, Hayley tells Marcel that a lot of horrible things happened in New Orleans, including a lot of things she regrets, but Hope was born there, so it’s not all bad. Now the city’s Marcel’s, and Hayley hopes it brings him peace. As she’s leaving, Marcel tells her to let Hope know that she doesn’t need to fear him and never did.
Freya meets Keelin in the bell tower, apologetic about dragging her into things and taking away her control. Keelin notes that since she’s on the same most-wanted list as Freya’s loved ones, she’s basically Team Mikaelson. Freya takes her hand and does a spell to make the moonlight ring removable. Keelin asks if that’s her way of apologizing or expressing gratitude. Freya isn’t sure since she’s not great at either.
Klaus and Elijah grab a couple of souvenirs from the Compound before they’re banished again – Klaus gets an M insignia and Elijah gets a bottle of alcohol. “Here’s to a wretched day,” he toasts, sharing a drink with Klaus. Klaus says they’ll leave as soon as Hope is better. She’s the only thing that matters. Hayley takes Klaus’ place and asks Elijah what he would have done to the kids if Vincent hadn’t found a way to break the spell without sacrificing one of them. “Whatever I had to do,” he replies. Hayley doesn’t like that they keep putting the Mikaelsons’ lives ahead of others’. They need to do better.
Marcel finds Vincent at St. James Infirmary, where Vincent tells him that Will is dead. The Hollow must have wanted them there tonight, and it wants to come into the real world. Did they really end things, or are they just getting started? Well, we’re only four episodes into a 13-episode season, Vincent, so I think you know the answer to that.
Hope wakes up in the middle of the night and sees a plate of beignets by her bed. Marcel asks Vincent if he thinks the Hollow will come after him. Vincent thinks it might have already gotten to him. He asks what Marcel saw when he was in the circle. “Nothing. Not a thing,” Marcel replies. Hope snacks on a beignet as she walks through the Compound. A light flickers on and off when she passes it. Vincent hopes Marcel’s right that they’re done with the Hollow, but the thing about New Orleans is that “nothing ever stays buried.” As Vincent leaves, the lights in the bar flicker on and off.
Marcel’s glass begins to glow blue. He turns around and sees blue light illuminating a broken mirror. Hope finds Klaus on a balcony and smiles as she approaches him. Marcel walks toward the mirror, which cracks until it forms the pattern of an ouroboros. Klaus’ back is to Hope, and when he turns to face her, his eyes glow blue.
It’s just a nightmare, but Hope knows it means something. “The Hollow,” she gasps in her bed. “It’s here.”
Etc.: Joseph Morgan (Klaus) directed this episode.
Every time I type “ouroboros,” I imagine Damon saying, “If I have to hear the word ‘ouroboros’ one more time, I think I’m gonna actually have to learn how to spell it.”
Marcel, maybe don’t give a big rallying speech mentioning the disappearances of children while there are children present. You’re going to freak them out.
Way to not have any security on your penthouse, Marcel.
Aww, Will and Vincent were besties. I wish we’d seen them interacting more, especially after the five-year time jump.
In the previous episode, Elijah told Hayley she was a Mikaelson, then took it back because she doesn’t have the heart of a Mikaelson. Here, Klaus tells Hope she does have the heart of a Mikaelson, but he considers that a good thing.
Here’s more on the spooky urban legend of the Fifolet.
An Eternity of Misery 