Oh, it is good to have the Mikaelsons back! Check out what happened tonight when Eva Sinclair got a chance to wreak a little havoc on The Originals season 2, episode 17.

‘The Originals’ season 2, episode 17 recap

The episode begins with Rebekah dreaming about Eva Sinclair chasing her as a child. As soon as Eva’s body awakes, we discover that it seems Rebekah is no longer in control. (Meanwhile, Elijah is working out some sexual frustrations with Gia, but no bother.)

Eva quickly makes her way to the nursery, where she puts both Klaus and Hayley down without too much trouble, and escapes out the window. She didn’t take Hope.

Klaus assigns Marcel the task of finding Eva and shackling her, thereby taking away her ability to do magic. He also tells (that’s right, he’s apparently the dictator now) Hayley to go to Elijah and ask his elderly witch friend to call off the bounty for Eva Sinclair so he can get Rebekah removed before the witches dispose of the body. When Hayley raises concerns about leaving Hope, Klaus declares that only he knows how to keep Hope safe, and with all the work Jackson has been doing to secure the compound, there is no safer place for her.

Hayley does as she’s told (though we can see her patience for being ordered around waning oh so very soon) and goes to help Elijah. She discovers that he and Gia have clearly been getting it on. She seems a little put off by it, but really, what does she want from him? She’s married to Jackson, so yeah, it only seems fair that Elijah is free to do as he pleases.

Klaus summons Freya to the compound to get Rebekah’s spirit returned to her original body, but we soon learn that because Eva has taken control, Rebekah is now lost in Eva’s mind and Freya can’t do anything. Klaus says he knows someone that can help, so he shackles Freya and they leave.

Ms. LaRue and Vincent each tell the same story of how Eva began to change from wild, free witch to a child snatcher and drainer of their untapped, pure magic. Ms. LaRue refuses to extend the grace period from the day before, and basically declares it Eva hunting season.

Klaus has taken Freya to visit their now vampiric mother. Klaus compels her to tell the truth, and is ready to raid their mother’s mind for the spell to save Rebekah.

Ms. LaRue is not happy about being threatened by Elijah in her own home. Before anybody leaves, she tells Hayley she sees an immense darkness in her future and that she should be terrified of it. We’re pretty sure that darkness has a name, and it’s name is Dahlia (cue dramatic music).

Vincent has a nice little chat with a now shackled Eva, and soon discovers that she didn’t kill any children. All the children are alive, just being channeled. She has them cloaked so they couldn’t be found.

Eva convinces Vincent that they need to unite the witches. She only needs one more victim to complete the ritual.

Eva and Vincent make a visit to Ms. LaRue and things are not exactly friendly.

Esther and Freya have a little spat as Freya definitely has some mommy-abandonment issues. Esther soon turns on her daughter and tries to convince Klaus that Freya will turn on him as soon as Dahlia arrives. Klaus doesn’t fall for her antics.

Eva and Vincent kidnapped Josephine to complete the ritual of nines. As soon as the ritual is complete, the children and Josephine will all die. When Vincent realizes this, he knocks Eva out and calls Elijah to let him know that he was never in Eva’s corner. He was always going to betray her. He discovers that all the witches are linked to Eva and that if they kill Eva, all nine witches will die as well. They are gonna need a VERY powerful witch to unlink them.

Cut to Freya, Klaus, and Esther. They have their spell, but Freya needs an anchor for her magic or she will be lost in Eva’s mind just like Rebekah. She tells Klaus that she can use him, but Esther butts in to remind him that this is what Freya wants. She will have access to his entire mind and will report everything he plans to do to protect Hope to Dahlia. Enter Elijah. He is having no part in leaving Rebekah in peril and offers himself to be Freya’s anchor. Freya finally has enough and breaks the shackles and snaps Klaus’ neck. She leaves with Elijah.

Freya, using Elijah as an anchor, performs the spell and sends Marcel and Vincent into Eva’s mind. Marcel hears Rebekah’s scream and runs off after her.

Marcel finds Rebekah locked in the depths of Eva’s mind. He frees her and sends her running away while Eva begins torturing him. She leaves Marcel (after crushing his eyes…eww) to put Vincent down. He tries to draw his dagger to kill her, but she overpowers him. Suddenly, Klaus arrives and joins Elijah, allowing Freya to draw from both of them for power and Vincent is able to kill her as Rebekah watches.

THE SPELL WORKED! All the witches and Eva awaken with Rebekah firmly in charge of Eva’s body.

Rebekah tells Klaus that the link still exists, and in order to keep Davina and all those witches alive, she is going to stay in Eva’s body. Klaus addresses his concern that Freya has seen into his mind, but Rebekah dismisses it.

Freya is embraced by the witch community of New Orleans for putting Eva out of commission. She now has a home and friends.

Klaus remains unconvinced that Freya is on his side (big surprise there). Freya leaves him to stew and goes to visit Esther. She tells their mother that she now knows that she and Klaus can never be allies and that she will turn the entire family against him. Freya then turns their mother into a flock of birds that all drop dead in the tomb. It seems that Esther is finally out of commission.

Next week’s episode can be summed up in two words: Heeeere’s Dahlia!