'The Originals' recap: Their only Hope

Spoiler alert: If you haven’t watched the season finale of The Originals, stop reading now!

[Disclaimer: Time Warner Cable decided to air baseball in NYC tonight, so I had to watch a live-stream, which means no screenshots and few quotables — but I refused not to watch live!]

For those of you who didn’t come over from The Vampire Diaries, I would like to officially welcome you to a freakin’ Julie Plec finale. I mean, come on. The opening bit of that finale? Ridiculously good. The closing bit? Amazing. Everything in between? Shocking, heartbreaking, intriguing, exciting, [insert all good adjectives here]. Now somebody stop me, because I could talk about how great it was all night. Let’s get to it!

In what was probably my favorite opening to an episode all year, we found Hayley in what appeared to be a flashback. She was sitting in the nursery writing a letter when Klaus showed up and made a joke about which of her many suitors she was writing to. Well, two suitors, but he thought he was funny. “How’s our littlest wolf” he asked, to which she responded by letting him feel his little girl kick. Spoiler: Klaus smiled! Like out-of-pure-joy smiled. It was magical.

What we’d find out in Hayley’s voiceover was that she was writing a letter to her child — Zoe, Caitlin, or Angela. During her voiceover, we cut to Hayley’s birth as she promised her baby three things: “A safe home, someone to tell you that they love you every single day, and someone to fight for you no matter what.” In other words, she promised her a family. Cue Klaus entering the church and decapitating one victim before Monique and the other harvest girl pinned him to a wall. As the baby was born, Klaus was spewing insults. It was a poetic Mikaelson welcome to the world, if you will. But as soon as the baby was out and crying, Genevieve handed her to Hayley … just before Monique slit Hayley’s neck.

Wait, WHAT?! We’re not five minutes in, and this finale has shocked me. That moment was epic. We’d later find out that it didn’t stick — which part of me wanted it to, at least dramatically. It felt like the perfect starting off point for Elijah’s undoing, didn’t it?

Back at the compound, Davina found Marcel and just about everyone else bitten. She asked where Marcel had fought Klaus, and then went to retrieve Klaus’ blood off the street using some spell. Sadly, there was only enough blood for one, and Marcel gave it to Josh. He’d find another way to save his men. As ghost Mikael put it: NiKlaus: 1. Davina: 1. As for how Marcel would save his other guys, Cami had an idea/arsenal of weapons.

At the church, Elijah finally arrived — why was he so late? — to find Klaus with Hayley’s head in his lap. My precious Elijah fell to his knees, where Klaus would heal his bite wound. Elijah wanted to know how it had happened, but all Klaus could give him was that he was “bested.” Yeah, that wasn’t working for Elijah. But when Klaus said they took the baby, Elijah’s face dropped. I was sure I’d found my Elijah face of the week, but I was so, so wrong.

The brothers headed to the cemetery to find the baby, but the witches had turned the cemetery into the world’s most depressing and most confusing maze. They’d essentially duplicated the cemetery over and over into eternity, making it impossible for Klaus and Elijah to find their way around. And that was when Elijah lost it. THIS NEVER HAPPENS, GUYS. Elijah yelled at Klaus for how he’d created this world by making enemies. What kind of welcome did he expect his baby to get? “This was our hope, our family’s hope” he yelled. And then, through a cry face that killed me and would have easily been my Elijah face of the week, he added, “Do you understand? I let this person in. I let her in. I don’t let people in.” Confession: I’m crying just typing those words. Let me in, Elijah!

Before sitting, Elijah ended with, “You knew this. You’ve taken her from me. I needed her and you’ve broken me.” Again, beginning of Elijah’s end?

But instead, Klaus pulled a McSteamy and gave his brother a good arm grab and a bit of encouragement. They would find Elijah’s niece, and little did they know they’d do it with Hayley’s help. Mama wolf was back from the dead, and she was one angry b—h (literally). Because Hayley died with her baby’s blood still in her system, her death meant she was now in transition to become a hybrid. One more drop of her baby’s blood, and she’d be stronger than ever. But first things first, she needed to find her baby.

Meanwhile, Cami introduced Marcel and Davina to Kieran’s secret-weapon closet full of “dark objects,” like something called a “Devil’s Star” that would create 1,000 cuts with one throw. Considering Marcel needed Klaus’ blood, it was the perfect weapon. And for Davina? Well she snagged a few artifacts to pull power from to complete Esther’s spell to bring Mikael back. And guess what? It worked! Consider me one very happy viewer at this point.

At the cemetery, Hayley’s motherly senses brought them to the baby, only the witches were already working on the sacrificial spell. The witches pulling from their ancestors meant Klaus, Elijah, and Hayley were facing all the ancestors, not just the three witches in front of them. Klaus managed to kill that one harvest girl before Monique grabbed the knife and was going to kill the baby. BAM! Marcel showed up and killed Monique with the Devil’s Star. And yes, I cheered! But then Marcel raced off with the baby.

At the compound, Klaus found Marcel. Marcel’s plan had been to lure Klaus home and force him to give his blood to his men, but he was too late. At that point, unbeknownst to anyone, Mikael had gotten to all Marcel’s men — yes, Mikael feeds on vamps — and finished them off. Klaus offered Marcel his wrist, a peace offering as they book-ended their rivalry. As Marcel put it, this was the “last note in a song that I started a century ago” when he brought Mikael into town. Marcel apologized, but considering he’d just saved the life of Klaus’ child, he was forgiven.

Klaus then held his child for the first time, during which she looked back at Marcel like, “Can he hold me again?” Yes, baby. Uncle Marcel is hot. Just you wait until you meet Uncle Elijah!

But let’s not hope you meet granddaddy Mikael, who was looking on with the white oak stake in hand. Only he wouldn’t get to use it, because Davina was done messing around. She’d added a little something extra to Esther’s spell and basically put a leash on the monster. Mikael was now the secret weapon confined to the attic. And as much as I loved her badassery, I’m not sure how long that will last. Let’s just say he’s not going to be nearly as willing as she was to spend his days painting and daydreaming.

Still at the cemetery, Elijah and Hayley strung up Genevieve only to find out that this whole plan had been Ester’s decree. So basically, this baby has the worst grandparents of all time. But at least she’d have one less ginger coming after her thanks to the fact that Hayley stabbed Genevieve.

Back at the compound, Klaus and Elijah were trying to come up with a plan when Hayley walked in with the baby. She had promised her baby that she would grow up safe and loved, and she couldn’t do that here. She proposed that they send the baby away, much like her parents did with her. The trick: Everyone else would have to think the baby had died.

And that was where Marcel came in. Marcel went to town — where Francesca was promising to disinfect the city from “gang violence” — and tried to make a deal with Oliver. Vamps would stay out of the Quarter if wolves left them alone across the river. Oliver wasn’t going to agree until Marcel set him up for “killing” Klaus’ child. And thank you, CW, for not showing us the contents of that box.

Within what felt like minutes, the town had set up an In Memoriam for “Baby Mikaelson.” After she saw it, Cami ran straight to Klaus, where he told her to say away from him. He has demons — read: parents — that are hell-bent on killing him and everything he finds beautiful. “And you, you are beautiful,” he told her. Then he told her to go. And without a kiss, which I really wanted in that moment and it surprised me a little bit, Cami left.

Now that the town thought the baby was dead, we got the details. Step one involved Marcel stealing a stillborn from the hospital. And step two involved Klaus compelling the memory of his child from Marcel, and in exchange, giving him some of his blood for safe keeping.

And now for the goodbye: Elijah pricked the baby’s finger to get Hayley through transition, before he and Hayley went to the In Memoriam to draw public attention. Meanwhile, Klaus took the baby to the one person he trusted to keep her safe: REBAKAH!!!!! I honestly did not expect to see her back so quickly. I thought it might’ve been someone from Mystic Falls, but I couldn’t have imagined a more perfect ending!

Klaus reminded his sister to find a witch she could trust to do a cloaking spell, to which she responded, “Perhaps we’ll get a white fence. I think that will be lovely.” Then Klaus kissed his daughter and promised that she would return to him. He told Rebekah there was no one he’d trust more with his daughter’s life, and then he handed his daughter over, along with something else. What was that?

Before Beks left, she asked Klaus for the baby’s name. “Hope. Her name is Hope,” he said. And I died.

But wait! We know Julie Plec doesn’t waste a second of any finale, and this was no exception. In the final moments, a male and female I didn’t recognize were resurrected. They stood over a grave and made a comment about how resting in peace isn’t any fun. Then the male called the female mother. It was Esther’s grave. Wait, is that Esther and Finn? Is that Esther and Finn?! I’d love if it were Kol, but knowing Esther, it’s Finn.

As far as I’m concerned, the more Originals the better. It’s about time we got a modern-day reunion that involved both Esther and Mikael.

What did you all think of that finale? Pretty great, right?

QUOTABLES:

Rebekah: She looks like her mother. Maybe there is a God after all.

Klaus: But she has a hint of Devil in her eyes. That’s all me.