The Originals recap: The Other Girl in New Orleans

I don’t know that I ever thought I’d say this, but I’m so excited to see Finn! Maybe it’s the fabulous haircut or the fact that he showed so much sass in this season’s flashbacks, but I’m genuinely pleased that the dullest of the Mikaelsons has returned. I have to disagree with Tristan that he’s the most noble — that’s kind of Elijah’s thing — but I’m willing to hear him out. Also, Finn’s return means two very good things: 1) Tension is building, and you know it’s going to be big if they need backup; and 2) We’re one sibling away from a full reunion (now that we know Rebekah’s whereabouts).

In other words, this hour perfectly set us up for next week’s midseason finale. Now, let’s talk about what went down!

Act One: When In Doubt, Torture

Cami, still tragically stuck in Alexis’ not-so-torture-friendly dress, finds herself at Marcel’s gym, where Aurora reveals her plan: She’s going to turn all of the gym’s current inhabitants into vampires so that when they wake up and need to feed, Cami will be their only option. And until then, Aurora’s going to channel her inner 13-year-old at a slumber party and ask some questions. However, unlike a 13-year-old, if you lie to her, she kills you. So, there’s that.

Meanwhile, back at the compound, Freya has trapped Tristan with a boundary spell. But because he claims he can resist compulsion, they have to come up with a better way to get the coordinates out of him, and no, it does not involve Freya with a knife. Instead, it involves Hayley…with a baby?

Our Elijah Moment of the Week is one line: “Unless she’s violently teething, I don’t recommend this as a daycare.”

With that, Freya agrees to watch Hope at Hayley’s apartment while Hayley bites Tristan repeatedly. At least until Mary shows up at her apartment and Hayley’s forced to confront the situation with Jackson. When the oh-so-understanding Elijah overhears, he tells her to go to her family. But that doesn’t keep him from smirking about the fact that she just admitted that the reason she didn’t chase after Jackson was because she figured Elijah might need her help. Be careful, Hayley. Those wolves of yours probably like being able to control when they turn.

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Elsewhere, Klaus and Lucien are following Aurora’s twisted scavenger hunt to try and find Aurora while Aurora goes on a hunt of her own…to discover the truth about Cami. After all, what is the thing that these two women have in common? Could Klaus like them both for their twisted brothers? Eh, it’s unlikely. And considering that Cami has never been exorcised for demons or diagnosed with bipolar disorder, I doubt it’s either of those. Instead, perhaps it’s that both women have a dark side.

Act Two: A Proposition of Betrayal

Speaking of a dark side, Marcel gets a visit from Aya, who has decided that it’s time for him to prove his loyalty to the Strix. She gives him a stake that will subdue an Original and tells him that he is to use it on Elijah in order to free Tristan. Only then will they trust him.

So as Marcel ponders this, Freya manages to get Tristan weak enough for Elijah to peak inside his mind and see the word “Cepheus.” Of course, that doesn’t mean anything to us, but at least it’s something. And it will have to do for now, because Marcel just showed up all full of betrayal and whatnot.

As you’d expect, Elijah puts up a fight, and when Hayley overhears, she stops Mary — who’s mid-sentence about how Jackson loves Hayley and needs her (because a man can’t chop wood and drink whiskey all day) — to literally jump from her balcony into the Mikaelson compound. (I hope it sounds as cool as it was.)

Once there, Hayley’s able to help Elijah, but even she can’t stop Marcel from daggering him. The good news, though, is that Marcel has a plan. He quickly undaggers Elijah, tells Aya to get Tristan out of there (before she can see what he’s really up to), heals Freya, and hands over the dagger (which apparently contains dark magic). Marcel then offers Tristan Klaus’ blood to heal his werewolf bites, and just like that, he has the trust of the Strix.

As for Hayley, she heads home to tell Mary that protecting the people she loves is what she does. If Jackson loves her, he’ll rejoin her and do the same. But she gets that he needs time, so she’ll be here when he’s ready to talk.

NEXT: Marcel wins MVP

Act Three: Heartbreak and Resurrection

Still at the gym, Aurora demands to know Cami’s greatest shame. Cami obliges, telling Aurora about the time she was arrested for assault and battery during her junior year of college. After her roommate was abused by her boyfriend and refused to tell anyone, Cami was the one who ran into the guy at a bar. So she took a beer bottle to his face, and then let her fists finish the job. As she puts it, he wasn’t laughing anymore when they pulled her off of him.

In this moment, it’s Aurora who’s psychoanalyzing Cami. She realizes that Cami’s shame is not in her actions but in the fact that she enjoyed what she did to that guy. And now we finally understand why Cami went into psychology: to better understand her own dark impulses. (In other words, she’d make a great vampire.)

Finally, Klaus enters the gym just in time for Aurora to inform him that he’s in danger of losing the love of his life (who is Aurora, by the way). Klaus tries to play the “Cami is no rival to you” card, but when it’s clear that talking isn’t going to work, Cami headbutts Aurora, and Klaus takes it from there.

Taking Aurora outside, Klaus tells her how he really feels: Not only does he want to kill her for what she’s done to Cami, but he wants to watch her suffer first. By the end of it, he says she will associate his name with “fear and pain and the dull realization that you are nothing to me.” As if that breakup wasn’t harsh enough, he then goes inside her mind and steals the latitude coordinates that he needs to find Rebekah. The only thing that keeps him from killing her is when he hears Cami fighting for her life from the transitioning vampires inside.

Klaus arrives just in time to kill a vamp, hug Cami, and take her home, where he reveals that he heard her bar story. And yet the only thing he does about it is make a joke about already having the guy killed. KLAUS MADE A JOKE.

Cami then falls asleep as, elsewhere, Lucien sits with a heartbroken Aurora. But most importantly, Marcels gets intel on Cepheus. Apparently, the Strix have a few corporate assets, including private airlines. In fact, they specialize in cargo jets, and it just so happens that one of the vessels has the code name Cepheus. Now, they can match the flight plan of said jet on the night Rebekah disappeared to the coordinates that Klaus got from Aurora, and Rebekah will be home free. Only then will Elijah and Klaus get to do something “delightfully gruesome” to Tristan and Aurora.

Also home free is Finn! After Tristan mentions something to Freya about what she’s put him through — inside the necklace? — Freya brings her oldest brother back. And like I said, 2015 agrees with Finn Mikaelson.

Altogether, I love watching all of the pieces of this puzzle come together. This episode only made my love for Aurora (and all of her crazy) grow, and at this point, any sort of betrayal will break my heart. So I guess that means I should probably get some tissues for next week’s midseason finale, huh?

What did you think of the hour? Hit the comments with your thoughts, or find me on Twitter @samhighfill. And don’t forget to check out showrunner Julie Plec’s blog for insider info on the hour.