“In physics, pressure is defined as the force applied to the surface of an object over its area,” Josie voices over as she passionately makes out with Finch. “In psychology, pressure is expressed as the stress associated with the expectation to perform. People sing about it, write about it, collapse under it, and run from it. But some of us seem to keep chasing it.”
Josie and Finch are in a hospital supply closet, and their makeout session is interrupted when Josie’s pager goes off. In her therapy box simulation, a parody of Grey’s Anatomy, she’s a surgical intern at Mikaelson Memorial Hospital. It’s been her dream job since her sister told her it was when she was six. Josie puts her scrubs back on, promising she’ll be at the date she and Finch (who’s a paramedic here) planned for that night. She tells Finch not to worry about her, but Finch isn’t sure who will if she doesn’t. On her way out of the closet, Josie tells Finch to wait a few minutes until she leaves.
Josie voices over that her parents were both surgeons. She’s barely holding it together. She passes a portrait of Klaus in the hallway and knocks on the door to a room without pausing. Lizzie, also an intern, emerges with her clothes rumpled. She’s followed by M.G. (also a doctor), then Ethan (a paramedic). Well, that would certainly be a solution to that love triangle!
In reality, Finch is distressed about Josie being stuck in the box. M.G. tells her that Vardemus warned them not to try to pull her out. They need to let the process finish on its own. Finch worries that Hope tampered with the box and Josie is being tortured. Lizzie comes in and assures her that Josie’s fine. If her experience is anything like Lizzie’s, it’ll be “revelatory.” Cleo asks what she means, and Lizzie says that she found a way to deal with Hope.
M.G. tells her that Hope doesn’t want their help, and they already gave it their best shot. “Well, if Salvatore’s Got No Talent is our best shot, we’re in trouble,” Lizzie replies. Hope could have killed everyone. She could still come back and do that. Cleo doesn’t think she’ll come back, but M.G. wants them to be ready anyway. He’s off to train with Ethan. He invites Finch to come along, but she wants to sit with Josie. Cleo offers to help Lizzie with her plan. Lizzie knows what to do, but she could use inspiration for how to do it.
A woman gets out of her backyard pool after a swim, her swimsuit showing off the Triad logo brand on her leg. She uses magic to summon her cover-up and lies down on a lounge chair. She rings a bell to summon someone she tells to get in touch with the rest of the Triad members. They’ll need to deal with the tribrid sooner than they thought. She opens her eyes to see that the tribrid is already there. She’s found her first Triad member, the witch.
In limbo, Alaric clarifies that he, Landon, and Ted need coins to get to peace, and they can only get coins if they do something good. Landon thinks the point of limbo is to atone for your mistakes. Ted is confused about how limbo works. The three of them are dead, yet they’re able to drink milkshakes (which Ted made at the Grill, using his ample experience). Alaric doesn’t think it matters. They have to play the hand they’ve been dealt.
Ted disagrees. Limbo is full of lost souls (“it’s practically Miami”), so there are plenty of people they can help. In the process, they’ll help themselves. Alaric, however, notes that now that they know the rules, they can figure out how to cheat. When they get a third coin, they won’t go to peace – they’ll steal the Ferryman’s boat and go home. Landon asks why they would do that. Is something wrong back in the real world? Is Hope okay?
Josie voices over that since this is her story, you’d think the hospital would be named after her father, and she’d be the one scrubbing in on an important surgery. Well, it’s not her story – it’s Hope’s. She’s also an intern but is already legendary. Josie watches her from an observation gallery, in awe because Hope is helping to pioneer a new technique. Lizzie isn’t impressed, since Hope is always “annoyingly perfect.” Josie admires Hope’s control and focus. It’s like she doesn’t feel any pressure. Hope’s hand shakes as she makes a cut, and something inside the patient spurts blood. Hope passes out on the OR floor.
Agatha, the witch Hope has found, tries to light her on fire with magic, but Hope has brought a magic-nullifying candle with her. Agatha calls her “an affront to nature herself.” Okay, Greta. Hope notes that Agatha uses black magic to appear young, which isn’t exactly natural. Agatha says that Hope is cursed. The tribrid was never meant to exist and “sullies” the three species’ bloodlines. Hope can kill her but she won’t be able to hide from her fate. “Do I look like I’m hiding?” Hope replies.
She asks where the Triad werewolf and vampire are. Agatha tells her that they have an unbreakable alliance; if anyone breaks it, they’ll burn. Hope notes that Agatha bound their covenant spell in the first place, so there’s no way she included herself in that burn clause. Agatha warns that the werewolf will tear out Hope’s tongue. Hope’s like, “Ooh, tearing out a tongue, I should try that.” Agatha starts to give up the werewolf and vampire but her brand ignites and she catches on fire. Hope shoves her backwards into her pool to put her out. “Oh, integrity. I don’t miss it,” she says.
Next she tracks down the werewolf, using Agatha’s detached, burned head to trick him into opening the door to the bar he uses as his lair. Greg is ready to take Hope out, but she wants to put forth an official alpha challenge. He says she can’t, but his pack’s reactions let Hope know that he’s lying.
“We call him Dr. Death because he can kill your career with a snap of his fingers,” Josie voices over. Not Dr. McDeath? I guess that’s too easy of a joke. Dr. Ted is the only person Hope is scared of. Josie asks him what happened to Hope, and Dr. Ted totally breaks doctor/patient confidentiality to reveal that Hope has a rare genetic condition called CMT. It seems to be the cause of her tremors. Also, it’s not treatable.
Dr. Ted tells Josie to get back to work and make sure Lizzie hasn’t killed any patients. Josie urges him not to give up on Hope, since she’s the best surgical intern and could save countless lives in the future. Dr. Ted says they’re doctors, not dreamers, and they rely on science and facts rather than emotion. Josie shouldn’t let her friendship with Hope cloud her judgment. Josie tells him that everyone relies on Hope, and they’ll fall apart without her. Dr. Ted replies that no one is indispensable. Hope’s surgical career is over.
Alaric tries his hand at getting a coin by apologizing to the mer-man for inadvertently getting him blown up by a landmine. (Say what you will about prestige cable and streaming series but you’ll never get a sentence like that about one of them.) The mer-man decidedly does not forgive him. Ted and Alaric aren’t sure why there are monsters in limbo. Well, the Other Side is gone, so where else are they supposed to go? Alaric hopes they won’t be there long enough to find out the real answer. Landon brings over Vera, thinking she’s a great choice for someone Alaric can help. She doesn’t seem to agree.
Ethan practices his disappearing/reappearing powers in the gym, but he accidentally gets himself stuck in a locker and causes the dummy he was using as a fake Pedro to fall from the ceiling. He complains to M.G. that it seems like his powers only work in high-pressure scenarios or when he’s being controlled by Malivore. M.G. says he just needs to practice.
Ethan doesn’t know how he’ll be able to help fight Hope when he can’t come through for his team. M.G. says that his best skill is getting people to safety. Ethan doesn’t think Safety Guy or Rescue Guy would be a great superhero name. Yeah, who wants to help people? That’s such a dumb, pointless thing to do! Lizzie interrupts “weird bro time” to ask for help. The guys are shocked that she wants that help from Ethan instead of M.G.
Josie grabs her ex, Landon, to get his assistance in stopping Dr. Ted from revoking Hope’s medical license. They’ll need access to old personnel files, which Landon has as an attending. He warns that they could both lose their jobs, but Josie will risk hers if it means Hope keeps hers at the hospital named for her family. She takes Landon’s ID badge and tells him to wait a few minutes before leaving the room they’ve ducked into. Does this count as a running “joke”?
Hope fights Greg, eventually deciding to just flip a pool table on top of him and call it a day. She puts a triangular rack on his face and stomps on it, decapitating him. The pack acknowledges her as their new alpha and bows to her. Great, just what Hope needs – minions. She confirms that they have to do what she says, then tells them to get up. They’re wolves, not royalty. Ooh, someone isn’t as much like her father as she thought! She wants to know where the Triad vampire is. The wolves are all branded, though, so giving up the vampire means they’ll burn to death.
I guess that’s what happened because Hope’s next stop is the Triad vampire’s house. She’s creeped out by the vampire’s butler, who’s suffered some severe eye damage, and wants to get out of there as quickly as possible. She tells him to let his boss know that she’s already killed the witch and the werewolf. The butler says that his boss has been expecting Hope and wants her to come in.
Vera has no intention of forgiving Alaric for secretly running a supernatural school without telling the townspeople. The school destroyed people’s lives, including Dana’s. Vera doesn’t care about a coin when her daughter was eaten by a giant spider. Look, Vera, it’s Mystic Falls. Everyone’s daughter or father or mailman has been eaten by something at one point or another. Grow up. Alaric defends himself, since he was just learning about the existence of monsters when that happened.
Vera says she died of a broken heart. Also lung cancer. She doesn’t know how Alaric isn’t in Hell. “Well, because technically, Hell was a creation of a psychic named Cade and it’s since been destroyed,” he replies. She thinks this scenario is actually Hell. Why is Alaric apologizing when he clearly doesn’t think he’s done anything wrong? Landon agrees, and Alaric tells him he’s not helping.
Alaric thinks Vera’s being hypocritical. She’s in limbo because she’s one of the two most miserable people to ever be on Earth (the other being Dana). Vera thinks he’s one to talk about horrible daughters. Oh, don’t come after Alaric’s kids like that. She can forgive Lizzie, though, because her father is the reason she’s screwed up.
A coin appears in Vera’s hand, I guess because she forgave Lizzie. Alaric tries to grab it from her but is too slow. She thinks he deserves to be stuck there with his regrets. She shoves the croatoan aside and heads for the Ferryman’s boat. Alaric’s annoyed that Landon didn’t have his back, so Landon goes to look for someone else he can apologize to. Ted already has an idea of who Alaric should talk to next.
Cleo has decided to handle the red oak by chopping it into firewood. M.G. shows up and vents about Lizzie asking Ethan for help instead of him. Hope was right – being the leader can be lonely. Cleo reminds him that sometimes it’s hard to make the right decision. Speaking of that, Lizzie asked Cleo to inspire her, but Cleo doesn’t trust her judgment right now, so she said no. M.G. praises her for protecting Lizzie from herself.
Cleo tells M.G. that the red oak is the loophole that nature created to kill Hope. Should she destroy it to protect Hope or make a stake to protect the world from her? M.G. says that Hope gave him a sword to see if he had the guts to kill. He didn’t, so she called him weak. She’s right – M.G. won’t go that far. Hope is one of them whether she knows it or not. They should burn the wood. Cleo magically lights it all on fire and they walk away. But Lizzie and Ethan have been watching and listening in, invisible thanks to Ethan’s new powers.
Josie bugs Dr. Ted during surgery, telling him that Hope was misdiagnosed. CMT passes from father to daughter, and Klaus tested negative after losing a patient. Alaric signed a report stating that Klaus didn’t have the genetic markers. And since Alaric hated Klaus, there’s no way he doctored (heh) the file.
Dr. Ted just focuses on the fact that Josie looked at a file she’s not supposed to have access to. Josie’s fine with being punished as long as the truth is known that Hope doesn’t have CMT. “She is the best of us,” Josie says. Dr. Ted announces that Josie can tell the staff to stop clearing out Hope’s locker. But Josie will have to clear out her own. Her surgical career is over.
After being kept waiting for a little while, Hope finally meets the Triad vampire. She can see Klaus in his daughter. “What do you know about my father?” Hope asks. “Everything, little bird,” the vampire replies. Hope may have never met her before, but we have. The last time we saw her, she was unconscious and supposed to stay that way indefinitely. But sometime in the past 15 or so years, Aurora de Martel woke up.
Hope isn’t familiar with Aurora’s name, so she lists her credentials: She’s the daughter of a count, the first of Rebekah’s sireline, and Klaus’ lover and greatest enemy. She’s not thrilled that the most feared vampire in history put her in a wall to desiccate or that Hayley conspired to make her sleep forever. That rings a bell for Hope: “You were left under a rug in a spare room of the family compound, sort of like an old lamp no one knew what to do with.”
Aurora tells Hope that the Mikaelsons’ arrogance allowed the Triad witch and werewolf to rescue her without anyone noticing. That, and half of them were dead by then. She appreciates Hope for killing the other Triad members, but she’ll be punished for the disrespect Aurora has been shown. Hope’s like, “You can’t kill me, so if that was your plan, you’ll have to go back to the drawing board.” “Death lasts but a moment,” Aurora replies. Hope will experience the fate that Klaus deserved.
Josie visits Hope, who’s grateful that Josie saved her career. Josie asks her to be honest, tossing her a pill bottle from her locker. Hope has CMT after all. Josie guesses that she ran out of the medication she was taking to control her symptoms, which she’d gotten in someone else’s name. She scrubbed in for surgery knowing the risk she was taking. Hope asks if Josie’s going to rat her out. Josie will if Hope can’t give her an explanation that justifies why she risked everything she had.
The real Hope clarifies that Aurora wants revenge on her because Klaus dumped her. Aurora says that Klaus destroyed her life and sanity over centuries. She was very unhappy to wake up and learn that he’d “taken the coward’s way out” for Hope. Hope mentions that her humanity is off, so Aurora shouldn’t expect her to feel guilty. Aurora replies that Hope is also a coward. But she has something to fix that: the Tunde blade.
Hope doesn’t know what it is, but she does know what the Hollow is when Aurora mentions the blade’s connection to it. Aurora says that the blade almost broke Klaus. Is Hope stronger than he was? Hope tells her to bring it on, but Aurora wants to give her a head start. At least that’s what she claims. She pulls out another curved blade and spins to attack Hope while her back is turned. Hope anticipates her move and holds her off. If Aurora wants to play a game, they can play a game. Well, after Aurora wakes up from having her neck snapped.
Hope the intern tells Josie that she’s known since the day she was born that she was supposed to be a surgeon. It’s her destiny, and every moment of her life has been moving her toward it. She doesn’t know who she would be without that goal in mind. Josie thinks Klaus put that on her. He must have hidden his own CMT from Alaric or faked his test results. Hope reveals that Alaric knew about it and covered it up.
Josie denies that her father would do that, but Hope says he lied for the same reason she and Klaus did. Keeping the secret would help the greatest number of people. The hospital needed Klaus; his innovation brought in money, as will Hope’s. Hope promises to talk to the board about reinstating Josie. But Josie doesn’t want to stay. She thought that if she didn’t live up to her legacy – for everyone else, not her – her life would be ruined. But when Dr. Ted fired her, she felt relief.
She’s been trying to live up to Hope’s standard, since she’s always thought that Hope was better. Now she gets that Hope feels pressure, too. It’s made her lose her way, and Josie doesn’t want that for herself. She still wants to be a doctor and help people, but not at Mikaelson Memorial, with all the history and pressure there. There are always people around who need her help.
The word “solus” (alone) appears on Hope’s chart, making Josie self-aware. She realizes that she’s felt the need to live up to the school that was literally made for her. The pressure to save it and her friends means she’ll never have her own life. She tells Hope that if she wants to help the real her, she needs to leave.
Lizzie digs through the ashes of the wood Cleo burned to try to salvage a piece of red oak. She tells Ethan that no one else will be willing to kill Hope (in what she considers self-defense). She learned from her time in the therapy box that “sometimes doing the right thing means people calling you a villain.” Ethan’s reluctant to join Team Kill Hope, since Malivore already made him a villain and he didn’t exactly enjoy it. Lizzie says he’ll be a hero. She’s going after Hope, but she needs someone to protect the others, since they won’t protect themselves. She wants Ethan to do whatever it takes to save everyone if Lizzie can’t take down Hope.
Ethan notes that he could go find M.G. and Cleo right now and tell them what Lizzie’s up to. She thinks that would put them in more danger. She drops a piece of red oak at his feet and says Hope is the only person she wants to hurt. If he won’t help, Lizzie might do a spell to make him forget this conversation. Or maybe she’ll make him think they had a nice chat at the old mill, and that there’s something between them. Ethan clarifies that his options are to help Lizzie kill Hope, which will require him to lie to M.G., or be left with a fake memory.
Aurora revives to find herself suspended from a wall by a stake driven through her hands. Hope is curious about the second weapon, guessing that it’s the real Tunde blade. (The first was a bone from a pig.) She asks what it did to Klaus. Aurora tells her that it burrowed into his chest and caused him horrible agony. Hope thinks that sounds great, so she approaches Aurora with it. Aurora warns that she doesn’t know what she’s doing. She’s reckless just like Klaus was. Hope says he was only reckless when it came to Aurora.
Aurora spits that being the tribrid doesn’t make Hope unique – she’s just like everyone else in her family. Hope stabs her with the Tunde blade, and Aurora vows that just like her family members, Hope will remember her. Hope looks down and sees that the Tunde blade is actually a trident. Aurora promises to explain everything once they’ve both woken up.
Ethan finds M.G. in the gym and apologizes for giving him a hard time earlier. M.G. admits that he was holding Ethan back for a purpose. It’s not that M.G. doesn’t trust him or thinks Ethan can’t handle himself, but because M.G. doesn’t want him to get hurt. He’s not the kind of leader who will never be okay with leaving someone behind. But that’s the kind of leader Ethan wants looking out for him. M.G. fishes for information on Lizzie and Ethan, but Ethan says that they just took a walk to the old mill to talk.
Landon is at limbo’s version of the Salvatore School, looking at a picture of Hope in his old room. Alaric tells him that Ted advised him to talk to Landon. He didn’t know what he would be getting Landon into when he and Hope brought him to the school. Landon says the school is his home, pretty much the only one he’s ever had. Alaric notes that he gave up everything for it, including his life. Landon firmly replies that he doesn’t regret it.
Alaric isn’t sure there’s no hostility there. Landon was ready to move on to peace when Alaric showed up. Landon wants to find a way back to Hope, but Alaric notes that he’d have to give up everything again. Landon thought he’d done enough, and that he and Hope deserved to have their choices matter. They could be happy, even if it wasn’t together. They fought their fate for a long time and fulfilled it. Now Landon doesn’t know what he’s supposed to do. Alaric says he knows and he’s sorry. As he’s hugging Landon, a coin appears in his hand.
Still in the therapy box, Josie voices over that it’s common for her to get so caught up in what other people need that she misses what’s going on. Today she let everything go to do what she thought was right. She sees herself clearer than she has in a long time. Finch joins her outside the hospital, surprised that Josie actually showed up for their date instead of canceling for some sort of crisis. Josie says other people’s problems can wait. Finch leaves to change clothes, telling her not to move.
“I think it was Queen who got it right: Pressure is the terror of knowing what the world is about,” Josie misquotes in a voiceover. She cries a little and whispers her exit word. “The only way to prevent everything from going boom is to let that pressure go,” she continues. She wakes up with Finch at her side. Finch tells her not to leave her like that again. Josie doesn’t say that she’s already decided that’s what she needs to do.
Hope and Aurora are both conscious again, with one very big change: They’re now in each other’s bodies. Agatha watched Hope for a long time and made the trident, then spelled it to look like the Tunde blade (which no longer exists, since it was destroyed to bring forth Inadu). Aurora lets Hope know that her new body has a Triad brand on the neck. Hope thinks Aurora should have burned for betraying the Triad, but Aurora argues that she just manipulated Hope into killing them.
Hope wants her body back. Aurora wonders if her body is as powerful as it normally is without her mind in it. Instead of trying to fight her, Hope zooms off. “I’m quite cute when I’m angry,” Aurora comments.
Cleo finds Lizzie in Alaric’s office and offers to explain why she wouldn’t inspire Lizzie earlier. Lizzie bought her story that her well was dry, but Cleo admits that she was worried about what she might inspire Lizzie to do. She feels bad for being dishonest.
She reveals that she knows of a weapon that will kill Hope and didn’t tell anyone because she’s afraid of what they’ll do with it. That just means she made a choice for them. She destroyed the weapon, which Lizzie says was the right thing to do. Cleo’s surprised she feels that way. Lizzie says she’s been in a dark place, and if she’d known about the weapon, she might have used it. After Cleo leaves, Lizzie goes back to what she was doing – whittling a stake out of red oak.
Etc.: The music in the Grey’s Anatomy simulation is spot-on – not just the use of Amy Winehouse’s “You Know I’m No Good” in the first scene but the background music in other scenes. That’s what really sells the parody.
No offense to people named Greg, but that doesn’t seem like a werewolf name.
Alaric calling the mer-man “sir” cracks me up.
If only they hadn’t killed off the pack Hope briefly takes. They would have come in really handy later in the season.
I’d love to know how people explained Aurora’s presence at the Compound to Hope when she was little.
An Eternity of Misery 