Elijah finds Klaus while he’s having a snack and turns up his nose at Klaus’ choice of O-positive blood, calling him a heathen. Klaus tells him they’re no longer killing people at the Compound, since Hope is staying there. He considers going out for dinner, but Elijah reminds him that there are Hollowers everywhere just itching to kill them. Klaus notes that if Elijah hadn’t killed Dominic, they’d be dealing with just him, the devil they know. “Spoken by the devil I know best of all,” Elijah replies.
Klaus asks what his plan is. Elijah wants Freya to place a barrier spell on the Compound so no one gets in or out. Yeah, you guys did that before. It didn’t end well. Plus, as Klaus notes, that leaves them just sitting around while the Hollowers resurrect the Hollow. Elijah doesn’t plan on subjecting himself to the spell, which means Klaus would basically be under house arrest. Elijah advises Klaus to take out his frustrations on the jawbone Hayley found.
Out in the Quarter, Freya is surprised to see Dominic walking around like…well, like Elijah didn’t just kill him. Back at the Compound, Hayley looks through the things she found in her parents’ storage unit. She’s happy to finally have pictures of them. Hope has also been looking through old items, though hers are from the Mikaelsons. She reads a poem by Percy B. Green that’s kind of disturbing but is somehow classified as a nursery rhyme. In the courtyard, Klaus uses a sledgehammer to try to destroy the jawbone, but it remains intact. Marcel can hear the banging from the dungeon.
Klaus finds Hope in the attic and advises her to play somewhere else. He tries to spook her by mentioning bats, but she’s sure there aren’t any up there. “I’ve seen no evidence that your Uncle Elijah doesn’t sleep here, hanging upside-down,” he says. Hope asks if a little boy used to live at the Compound. Klaus tells her they can talk about “ancient history” another time. As he takes her back downstairs, she grabs a toy soldier to take with her. The box that contained all the things she’s been looking at is labeled “Marcellus.”
In the bell tower, Freya does Elijah’s boundary spell. Keelin stops by and says she got an interview to work in a clinic. She wants to stay in New Orleans. Her life in Austin was nice, but she had to hide a lot of things, which meant no one there really knew her. Here, she can be herself. She invites Freya to party with her if she gets the job, but now that Freya knows Dominic is still out there, she needs to focus on taking him out again. She suggests that they get a drink at midnight instead.
Elijah goes to St. Anne’s, where Vincent has moved all his witch stuff. Elijah tells him they need a new strategy to deal with the Hollow, since the ancestors aren’t around to hold it back anymore. Vincent corrects that the ancestors are still there; they only destroyed the link between them and the witches. They can’t reestablish the link easily – it was forged in a Harvest ritual. Vincent doubts that anyone’s going to be willing to hand over their daughters to be sacrificed. (God forbid the girls get any say in the matter.)
Elijah tries to demand the sacrifice but Vincent refuses. He’s only working with the Mikaelsons because they have the same goal. He’s not interested in starting a war with witches. After he leaves, Elijah just helps himself to a knife.
Hayley finds her baby book, which is sadly incomplete. Klaus tells her that Hope was snooping around in the attic and seems restless. Hayley corrects that she’s bored; she should be in school and playing with friends. Klaus says she won’t need friends after Freya teaches her to hone her magic – “she’ll be worshipped.” She won’t be able to do math, though. Hayley knows Hope doesn’t want to be worshipped, but Klaus doesn’t care. (Again, God forbid the girl get any say in the matter.) He just wants his daughter to have the power to protect herself.
Hayley appreciates that Klaus is trying to keep violence out of the house. He’s on her side about protecting Hope’s innocence as long as they can. After all, no one protected theirs. Hayley invites Klaus to look through her family’s things in case there’s something useful there. “Oh, look at that: How to Defeat the Hollow, Volume 1!” he quips, pretending it’s tucked in between some Guns N’ Roses records.
Freya goes to Rousseau’s to enlist Josh for a spell. He has no intention of helping her, considering what she did to Davina. She tells him they’re dealing with a powerful evil spirit that’s targeting Klaus and Marcel. Josh needs to help, not whine. He guesses that if he says no, Klaus and Elijah will kill him. Freya tells him they don’t know she’s there (but come on, he’s right). She wants to set a trap. It’s win-win – she’ll deal with Dominic on her terms and Josh will keep Marcel alive.
Dominic gets more thorns from the abandoned house, explaining to Sofya that he was able to come back to life because he did a protection spell before the party. He knows about Freya’s spell on the Compound, and he also knows that it’s tied to her heartbeat. Sofya starts to leave but Dominic uses magic to make her stay put. She tells him that she heard that Freya left Rousseau’s with a shrouded body. She plans to intercept it and trade it for Marcel.
Dominic thinks Sofya’s feelings for Marcel are interfering with their mission, so he’ll take care of the trade. Sofya reminds him that they had a Mikaelson-related deal, and she and Marcel come as a pair. Dominic says that in that case, he’s broken the deal. He stabs her with the Tunde blade and tells her to keep it safe for him.
Marcel is starting to fall apart a little in the dungeon. Hope comes down and offers him the toy soldier, having guessed that it belonged to him. He tells her he used to live there with Klaus. Hope knows that Klaus is keeping Marcel there because he thinks Marcel wants to kill him. Marcel promises to tell her anything she wants to know if she’ll get him some blood. “I’m seven, not stupid,” Hope says. He tells her she’s brave, too, to come to the dungeon and talk to a stranger. “I’m not scared – I’m a Mikaelson witch,” she replies. He decides to start over and tells her his name.
Freya does her spell at Josh’s loft, transforming Josh so he looks like Marcel. He’s excited to be in a fit, attractive body: “It is an embarrassment of really inappropriate riches.” Freya has him step into a circle made of branches, telling him to zoom out as soon as Dominic gets in it. He won’t be able to do magic in the circle, but he does have Original-killing thorns. “Hey, Freya, I was just thinking – let’s never hang out again. Like, ever,” Josh says.
Klaus looks at Hayley’s childhood pictures while she frets about not being able to reach Elijah. She thinks they should take more family photos. Klaus tells her there’s a reason vampires don’t take them. Hayley notes that not everyone in the family is immortal anymore. He can’t reach Freya, and it makes him frustrated that he’s stuck in the house while she and Elijah are out dealing with who knows what. Hayley tells him that Hope needs him, but Klaus feels trapped.
Hayley realizes that he’s dealing with the aftermath of being trapped in the dungeon for five years. Ooh, trauma! What would Cami say? He tells her how horrible it was, especially the first few weeks. Hayley guesses that he’s worried about how Marcel is handling the same punishment. “No. Let him suffer,” Klaus replies.
Dominic and some minions go to Josh’s loft and find “Marcel” seemingly unconscious in the circle. A spell shows Dominic that he’s really Josh. Freya comes in and gives Dominic and the minions magic migraines. Josh jumps up to help her fight Dominic, but Freya’s plan is a success. She put another circle up in the air, and she brings it down around Dominic before he can realize it’s there. He tells Freya she has no idea what she’s dealing with. She makes it clear that she’s not intimidated.
Elijah summons Vincent to a tomb where he’s killed four Quarter teenagers to kick off another Harvest ritual. Vincent tells him that’s not how this works, but Elijah insists that he find a way to make it fit the ritual, then resurrect the girls – fast.
Marcel’s surprised that Klaus and Hayley are letting Hope wander around the Compound on her own. She says her mother trusts her, but Marcel knows that her father doesn’t trust anyone. She wonders why Marcel hates Klaus, since Klaus took care of him as a kid. Marcel tells her that Klaus raised him and made him who he is. It’s hard to hate the person who made you who you are. You wind up hating yourself instead. Marcel would like to hate Klaus, since it would make things easier, but after loving Klaus for so long, Marcel can’t.
Vincent reluctantly starts the Harvest ritual, then stops and tells Elijah it’s supposed to be performed by a Quarter elder. This isn’t his magic. Elijah reminds him that he was the regent, and Esther recognized how powerful he is. Plus, the Hollow chose him. Whether or not Vincent believes it, he has an undeniable gift. He needs to make this his kind of magic.
Freya gets through Dominic’s protection spells and tells Josh to leave before she does whatever she’s going to do next. He reminds her that he lives there. Plus, he doesn’t want to leave her alone there with Dominic. Freya coldly points out that she’s an evil witch to him, so why would he care what happens to her? Josh leaves and Freya turns back to Dominic, asking where the two other bones needed to resurrect the Hollow are.
Dominic knows that as long as he’s the only one with answers, Freya won’t kill him, so there’s no point in talking. She zaps him with a magical heart attack to give him some motivation. He claims not to know where the bones are, so Freya goes into his mind to get the truth. She hears the word Apisi, which Dominic explains were the guardians who used to protect the bones. They’re not relevant now. Freya decides she can kill him, then, but Dominic gets under her skin by saying he knows where Keelin is right now. She’s leaving her job interview, and someone’s watching her.
Freya accuses Dominic of lying, but he knows Keelin’s important to her, and he’s seen the way Freya looks at her. Freya gives him more magical pain but he just laughs. He tells her he sent some minions to kill Keelin as retaliation for the protection spell Freya did at the Compound. A bunch of Hollowers surround Keelin, but thanks to her new moonlight ring, she can wolf out and take them on.
Dominic continues laughing at Freya, telling her that Keelin could be dead already. If Freya kills him, she’ll never know where Keelin’s body is. She blasts him with magic again and seemingly knocks him out, but he’s faking so he can get the better of her. He throws her across the room, then uses magic to kill her.
Vincent tries the Harvest ritual again, causing wind to blow and his and Elijah’s eyes to bleed. Apparently the ancestors don’t want to accept the sacrifices, and they’re not happy that Vincent is working with Elijah. In fact, they’re so unhappy that they snap Elijah’s neck. Vincent runs to Davina’s tomb and breaks her tombstone so he can pull out her skull.
Josh is at Rousseau’s when Keelin shows up, looking only slightly worse for wear after dealing with the Hollowers. She just couldn’t miss her midnight drink with Freya. Speaking of Freya, since the protection spell at the Compound is connected to her heartbeat, it’s broken now that she no longer has one. A Hollower races in and snaps Hayley’s neck before Klaus can rip out his heart. Dominic follows with some more minions.
Hope hears noises upstairs and decides she needs to go. Marcel tells her it’s not safe. Keelin goes to Josh’s and finds Freya’s body. Ever the ER doctor, she starts CPR. Klaus’ sledgehammer may not have been able to destroy the jawbone but it works pretty well on people, even ones wearing Original-killing thorns. Well, at least until a Hollower is able to stake him through the back. Dominic gives Klaus a magic migraine and sends a minion to find Marcel.
Marcel tells Hope to let him out of the circle. Hope doesn’t want to anger Klaus, but Marcel promises he can keep her safe. She says she can protect herself and her parents. She can stop the bad guys on her own – she’s stronger than anyone thinks. She takes off her anti-magic bracelet and wind blows through the tunnels. Marcel says he knows she’s strong, which is why he’s sure she can free him. She needs to trust him. Klaus rescued and raised him, and he knew Hayley as a baby. They’re family. As a Mikaelson, even one who has only recently been around other Mikaelsons, Hope knows that family means sticking together, “always and forever.” As the minions get closer, Marcel offers Hope his hand and asks if she trusts him. She’s not sure.
Keelin revives Freya, who’s just happy that Keelin’s okay. She realizes that since her heart stopped, the spell on the Compound has been broken. She insists on going home, over Keelin’s protests. Dominic tells Klaus that they’re going to kill all the Mikaelsons, including Hope. Klaus pulls the stake out of his back and uses it to kill Dominic. He goes looking for Hope but instead finds some bodies around the spot in the dungeon where Marcel used to be trapped. Hope’s bracelet is on the ground.
Elijah revives as Vincent hopes that Davina can hear him and will help with the ancestors. He explains to Elijah that she can accept the sacrifice and restore the link. He acknowledges that he shouldn’t be doing the ritual because he lost faith in the ancestors. But he never lost faith in Davina. Thunder cracks over heard and the pedestal Vincent placed Davina’s skull on begins to shake. The four dead girls all awaken, screaming.
Freya and Keelin go to the Compound, finding Hayley still temporarily dead. Keelin wants to help but Freya tells her she’s just getting in the way and should leave. Not cool, Freya! Klaus finds Marcel and Hope out in the Quarter and doesn’t realize at first that she went with him voluntarily (or that he saved her from the Hollowers, who absolutely would have killed her if he hadn’t been there). She sees blood on Klaus’ hands and he lies that it’s paint. Uh, she’s seven, not stupid, remember? Hope admits that she let Marcel out but assures Klaus that he kept her safe. Klaus says he’s not mad at her, and she asks him not to be mad at Marcel, either. He’s her friend.
After checking on the dead girls, Vincent tells Elijah that he got lucky. He asks if Elijah remembers what it’s like to be human. He just put four lives at risk. Elijah’s like, “But we saved New Orleans, so…call it even?” Vincent asks what he would have done if the ritual hadn’t worked. Elijah won’t think about that, since it did. “You are an infection on my city,” Vincent tells him. “You have absolutely no virtue and you have no value, here or wherever it is that you decide to drag yourself next. I feel so sorry for that little girl, that she’s got to be raised in a household with a punk like you. And I’m gonna be praying for her soul, because I know you ain’t got one.”
Hope is home in bed, and Hayley tells Klaus that she has some doubts about his story about having paint on his hands. Klaus hates the thought of her seeing Marcel kill the Hollowers, but Hayley says he told her to close her eyes and sing, so she didn’t witness anything. Klaus laughs a little at the memory of Hope calling Marcel her friend.
Elijah tells Freya that Vincent restored the link to the ancestors, which means they have a way to put the Hollow back where it belongs. She’s been tracing the Apisi line and learned that the last of their family died a few years ago “under dubious circumstances.” You know, like everyone on this show and The Vampire Diaries. She shows Elijah a picture of the last Apisi, someone he once knew: Tyler. On the plus side, he also knows that Tyler’s bones are in Mystic Falls.
Josh finds Vincent as he’s putting Davina’s tombstone back into place. (Vampires aren’t supposed to go to the City of the Dead, since it’s witch territory, but Josh goes there all the time.) Vincent explains that he made a sacrifice to the ancestors. Josh is confused, since the ancestors are the bad guys. Vincent says he needed help from an old friend, and once again, she came through. Josh asks if he felt Davina. Vincent did, and he promises things will be different this time. He made her the gatekeeper for all ancestral magic in New Orleans, which means Davina is their most important ally.
Klaus goes to Marcel’s penthouse to talk about what happened with Hope. He used to tell Marcel to close his eyes and sing when Marcel was a kid. Marcel notes that Klaus didn’t tell Hope about their history. Klaus didn’t see the need to tell her that the boy he once loved as a son is now a man he kept locked up in a dungeon. “But the thing is, we’re not men, are we, Marcellus? We’re monsters,” Klaus replies. He wants to keep Hope from finding that out for as long as possible.
“I knew you were a monster from the moment I met you,” Marcel says – and that’s even without knowing Klaus was a vampire. Klaus reminds him that the Hollow wants them dead and will go through anyone to get it. He won’t let it take people he cares about, including Marcel. Their only chance of survival is to work together.
Keelin runs into Freya out in the Quarter and complains about getting sent away. Freya starts to say that there wasn’t time to deal with her. Keelin just wanted some common decency, but Freya says she’s not a decent person, and Keelin should have realized that by now. Freya’s “ruthless and callous and vicious” when it comes to helping her family. She didn’t care before… She trails off, but it’s obvious she means before she met Keelin.
Freya got distracted today and made a mistake that could have gotten people killed. That can’t happen again. There’s no reason for her and Keelin to hang out anymore. But if Keelin stays in New Orleans, Klaus and Elijah will protect her. Keelin angrily says it’s fine if Freya’s done with her, but she was terrified when she found Freya at the loft. All she wanted was to tell Freya that she’s the reason Keelin wants to stay in New Orleans.
“You make me feel understood, known,” Keelin says. There will always be a spell to do or an enemy to defeat, but when that’s over, Freya deserves someone who gets her. Freya doesn’t know how to respond, so Keelin just says she hopes she finds that someone. She starts to leave but Freya stops her and kisses her. They pause for a moment, looking at each other, then go back for more.
Hope has put Marcel’s toy soldier on her bedside table, and Hayley adds a picture of her father holding her to the décor. She curls up in bed with Hope, both of their Crescent birthmarks on display. In the abandoned house, the Tunde blade suddenly ejects itself from Sofya’s body. Behind her, a black figure forms out of blue light. “The ancestors have returned,” a female voice (belonging to someone we’ll come to know as Inadu) announces. Their power is looking for her, wanting to drive Inadu back into their darkness. Inadu is going to hide inside Sofya so they can’t get to her. With that, she possesses Sofya, making her eyes glow blue.
Etc.: Charles Michael Davis (Marcel) directed this episode. I’m surprised they didn’t have him direct the previous one, which he was barely in. Here, he’s directing, appearing as Marcel, and appearing as Josh pretending to be Marcel.
Hayley has implied in the past that she resented her birth parents for not raising her, so I really enjoy seeing her look at pictures of them and getting that they truly loved her and would have never given her up voluntarily.
I appreciate the continuity we see throughout this series and Legacies of Labonairs having the Crescent birthmark. You can see it on Hayley’s father’s shoulder in one of her childhood pictures.
You have to love how Klaus and Hayley let Hope do whatever she wants at the Compound and don’t think even once that she might come across Marcel.
When Hope resists freeing Marcel from the dungeon, saying she doesn’t want to make Klaus mad, Marcel tells her he’ll protect her. We know that Klaus would never hurt Hope, so it’s heartbreaking that Marcel thinks she needs protection like he did growing up.
An Eternity of Misery 