The last episode, as most fans will recall, left us seriously hanging!  Ivy had just died in Vincent’s arms.  Hope had just realized she needed violence in order to keep the whispers quiet, which Klaus swore to help her with.  The Nightwalkers made enemies of most of New Orleans, including Marcel.  That’s just to name a few things!

Fortunately, the “Originals” picked up right where it left off!

That’s a Violent Version of “Hop on Pop” 

Klaus and Hope have realized she needs violence to control the voices in her head.  The episode thus opens with Hope throwing her father into walls.  From the blood on his face, it looks as if they’d been at it for a while.  Klaus is taking it well too.  In his head, he no doubts this is the first time he’s been able to give his daughter something she needs.

It doesn’t last long before the two realize Hope isn’t angry enough with Klaus for this to work.  She needs someone she wants to hurt.

Now, the brains of most fans might have shouted “Elijah” at this, but remember that Hope is a teenager that didn’t know Elijah very well.  She is angry at him, enraged, but she wasn’t betrayed by him.

She was, however, betrayed by Roman.  Discovering this, Klaus rushes off to hunt down the boy who got Hayley killed as much as Elijah did.

Poor, Poor, Declan 

Is there anybody out there who isn’t screaming “TELL DECLAN ALREADY!?” There is no longer any point in protecting him.  The guy thinks he is going crazy just like the rest of his family.  He thinks it even more so now that people keep Compelling away his memories.  He thinks they are blackouts.

At this point, the kindest thing would be to tell him.  If no one does, he may end up screwing the situation worse than it already is in New Orleans.  I don’t know he could do that yet, but I have a suspicion that he could find a way.  After all, he has absolutely no allegiances in this city except to Hope.

Vincent’s Got his Hands Full of Witches 

First, Vincent watches Ivy die in his arms from poison.  He then mourns next to her body just as all the witches wake up.

Newsflash: The witches were killed only after consuming vampire blood in the cups they drank from.  The witches now have to decide whether to feed and live forever or off themselves.

Vincent, as he tells Elijah, does not have time to help save Hope, whom Vincent believes is beyond saving.  Vincent is prioritizing the witches, prioritizing Ivy.

Any bets on what Ivy decides?

Yep, she doesn’t want to become the very thing plaguing New Orleans.  She doesn’t want to become thing that poisoned her and her witch sisters.  The problem is, this decision also forces Vincent to mourn her again, to mourn someone he loves again.  How many loses can one very human survive?

I didn’t think it was very fair when Ivy began telling Vincent about how beautiful the afterlife would be.  Yes, she did it to comfort, but that wasn’t what he needed.  He was being abandoned again.  He was being left alone, again.  Who cared if she went somewhere with honeysuckle?

As it was, Vincent shows her what the afterlife for the witches of New Orleans really looks like.  It’s a graveyard.  The witches have been dying and getting caught there for ages.  That’s what awaits Ivy if she dies.

The New Parenting Style

Klaus is proud of what Hope is doing.  It can be seen in how pleased he is to lock up Roman and how disappointed Klaus is when Hope won’t let him stay and watch.  Klaus’ happiness with this turn of events also shows when he talks to Elijah later about it.

However, as Klaus justifies letting Hope torture Roman, it raised a question for me.  If Klaus believes that even a little relief is worth torturing a boy, worth triggering Hope’s werewolf side, worth torturing her own father . . . would Klaus let Hope torture Elijah if she asked for it?

Scary thought.

Our Lives May be Forever, But our Allegiances are Not

While it may have fallen a bit into the background, there are stile consequences of Elijah’s time without his memory.  He still loves Antoinette.  That shows in how he goes to her immediately when she calls.  It shows in how Elijah tries to persuade his brother to free Roman under the guise of providing Klaus with his usual wisdom.

However, it is also obvious that Klaus has not forgiven him.  I don’t believe that’s just about Elijah’s betrayal without his memory, but for Elijah’s continued allegiance to Antoinette.

At the very bottom of it all, Klaus Mikaelson wants to be loved, but he wants to be loved above others.  He doesn’t like to share.  He doesn’t like losing his siblings to other people.  That showed in how Klaus killed, tortured, and tricked all of Rebecca’s suitors.  It only makes sense for him to do the same now to Elijah’s attempts at love.

The Love Interest or the Victim? 

In the beginning, most fans thought Roman was going to be Hope’s love interest.  It is hard to tell whether the plot will still end up going that direction.  Will she torture him to death in the chamber?  Probably not, not before those black veins go up her arm and drive her nuts.  Will she still fall in love with him?  Forgive him?  If so, could he go onto the spin-off with her?

Meanwhile, in Horrorland . . .

Did anybody else feel like they’d stepped into a “SAW” movie?  It never went that far, but it sure felt like it had the potential.

Marcel finds out where the Nightwalkers are staying.  He goes to the warehouse and leaves a voicemail for Josh to follow him later.  The situation ends up being a trap.  Marcel is strapped to a chair and a weird gas mask put on his face.  The stuff that makes up a Super Vamp is drained from him.  The Nightwalkers are hoping to use it against the Mikaelson family, against Hope.

Josh comes to the rescue!  He even got it on the big fight scene!  Marcel gets free and, together, they put some of those Nightwalkers in their place!  The catch?  Josh gets one of the plungers of Super Vamp juice in his chest!

Anybody else super psyched to see Super Vamp Josh?

Damn it.  Talk about misreading a situation.  It wasn’t Super Vamp juice in the plunger.  It was poison and it killed Josh.  It killed the guy who has dodged death more times this season than a Mikaelson!  Then we fans got a dose to our own hearts as Josh and Marcel admit to each other being family, with a brief kiss to Marcel’s cheek.

This season just breaks our hearts at every turn, it seems.  Who will we lose next?  I hesitate to even wonder.

A War Like New Orleans has Never Seen Before . . . or Not?  

On the one side, we have Vincent wanting to free the dead witches from the Ancestral Well.  It means it would change the place Ivy goes when she dies.  It also means that from now on, the magic the witches of New Orleans wield will come from the earth, not from the generations before them.  It is one of the greatest acts of love Vincent can show Ivy, rather than fight to change her choice.

On the other side, we have Antoinette rallying the Nightwalkers.  She does this under Elijah’s direction.  She also wants her brother back from Hope’s clutches.

But then it becomes apparent this isn’t going to become a war at all.  Antoinette has tricked Emmett and the Nightwalkers into gathering in one place.  Elijah did this to save Roman and also to serve the Nightwalkers to Klaus, Hope, and Marcel on a silver platter.

Hope unleashes on the Nightwalkers and kills them where they stand.  (Nearly killing Declan, who was on the other side of the wall).

And Klaus thought his daughter was merciful.

One Final Jerk of the Heart Strings

As we come into the final season, we all asked ourselves how each character’s plot lines would be concluded.  Josh’s has come to an end and it couldn’t have been more elegant.  He is seen being flirted with in the bar early in the episode, but can’t move on from Aiden.  (His boyfriend from earlier in the season).  After he dies, Josh is in the woods and sees a Jeep pull up with Aiden.  He gets in and leaves, with a kiss.

Antoinette says goodbye to Elijah after a kiss, too, with the hope they shall see each other again.  Once more, Elijah has sacrificed what he wants to stand by family, by his brother.  Is there any other future possible for him by the end?

Vincent was able to hold Ivy as she died and I have to give the actor kudos for his grief scene.  That poor man . . . what happiness is there for him now?

Hope curled up with Roman as she waited to find out if her werewolf curse was triggered by Declan’s death.

The good news?  Klaus saved Declan.

The bad news?  Bill, the guy who was helping Declan find old diaries, died.

Hope’s werewolf curse is triggered.

With just three episodes remaining, how many more deaths, twists, and betrayals can we handle?