With Esther on the warpath, and Mikael ready to slaughter any Mikaelsons he can get his hands on, things are more complicated than ever on The Originals mid-season 2 finale.
‘The Originals’ mid-season 2 finale, ‘The Map of Moments’ recap
It all starts with a flashback in which our old buddy Kol Mikaelson is stealing a large diamond from a recently deceased woman. Klaus and Marcel arrive to recover the diamond. Klaus has the house spelled to keep Kol’s two witch accomplices trapped inside. Forever. Ouch.
Kaleb is helping Davina try to protect Cami from Esther’s wrath via a spell, which needs a little time to cook. Marcel is impatient, and in general just hates Kol, so any chance he gets to make his life a little worse, he’ll take.
Esther greets Mikael in the woods (or her spirit projection thing) does. She tortures Mikael a little, they threaten each other. Eventually make a deal. Same old, same old.
Hayley runs to Hope, and Elijah smiles as he hands the eager mother her child. She clasps Hope to her chest, and then hands her over to her daddy, who smiles down at his daughter as if she is the only thing in the world. Watching Klaus in daddy-mode is almost enough to make you forget that he murdered and tortured, like, everyone back in Mystic Falls a few years ago.
Rebekah is building a bonfire, a Mikaelson family tradition, while they all discuss Dahlia and the legend that Finn told them about. They have reasons to believe him, but its a hard truth to grasp.
Hayley comes to get Klaus to fill out wishes to fulfill the bonfire tradition and he resists. He writes down his wish, for her to tell Elijah about her plan to marry Jackson, and she stomps out of the room with baby Hope to avoid him. It’s hard to tolerate him when he’s being haughty.
Cami convinces Marcel to release Finn/Vincent, so she can talk to him, and he immediately refuses any of her comfort. At least eat the grilled cheese! Marcel locks him back up.
Elijah is stacking wood, in a tie no less, and he has a flashback to the red door. He and Rebekah have a heart to heart, and they wonder if maybe a simple majority would be enough for Esther. One of them would have to go the way of Kol and Vincent though, and you can’t help but see the wistful look in Rebekah’s eye.
Kol and Davina are looking for the diamond that Kol stole all those years ago in order to do the spell to create a dagger that works on Klaus, and Kol tells Davina about the one time Rebekah did him a solid in Christmas of 1914 by not tattling on him to Klaus.
Rebekah finds a polaroid camera, and she has Klaus take a selfie of the five of them. Klaus reminds them that they have to burn the picture, because if the wrong people know Hope’s alive it could be devastating. Rebekah tells her brothers that she’s going to take Esther’s deal, but that she’s gonna take their mother down with her. And if you didn’t see this coming, you must have been compelled to forget. If you did, check your vervain supply.
Rebekah convinces the boys that this is in all of their best interests, as she is willing to take the risk of jumping into a mortal body. She mentions that they can dump her back into her immortal one when she’s old and grey, but being mortal again is not the loss for her that it would be for either of them.
Kaleb/Kol is anxious to get his hands on the diamond, so when Marcel asks if he can find a body for Rebekah, Kaleb agrees as long as Klaus hands over the shiny. Rebekah warns Klaus not to hand over the diamond, but Klaus isn’t worried. Rebekah makes sure that Klaus will save her body if they don’t stop Esther’s spell in time, and he assures her that he will.
Hayley tells Elijah about needing to marry Jackson, and he tells her that he wishes for her to be able to make it safe for Hope to return. He then jumps her, cause if they can’t be involved once she’s married, they better bump uglies while they still can.
Kol needs to give the White Oak stake to Esther, and while Marcel basically says a big “hell no” to that, Klaus enters and asks Kol to vow that he’s not going to use it against him. Kol swears it “on the fate of us all.” Now, can we trust the little bugger?
Rebekah presents herself to Esther and Kol, and she asks Mom to persuade her to take her offer, and Esther obliges. It’s not a long speech though, and Rebekah agrees. Esther locked the spell in, so there’s no way for Rebekah to escape once it’s started, and she has the White Oak stake to get rid of her immortal body so she cannot return to it.
She starts the spell. Klaus learns that Esther made a deal with Mikael for Klaus’ life, in return for him bringing her two mortal sons back to her. Kol yells, “NOW!” and Klaus stabs Esther in the neck. Davina begins her spell at the same time, and both Cami and Rebekah begin to convulse and the spell ends.
Klaus saved Rebekah’s body and returned it to their homestead. Cami wakes and is still herself, so at last there’s that. Rebekah remains unconscious, and since Klaus couldn’t stop the spell, her consciousness must now be in the other body that Kol chose. Marcel pleads for Klaus to tell him that Esther is dead, and all Klaus can say is that he and Rebekah took extra precautions. She is exactly where she should be.
Kol tells Davina that he didn’t prepare the body that he said he did for Rebekah. Instead, he prepared a woman who was trapped in the Dowager house that we saw at the beginning of the episode. He then kisses Davina, after telling her that this is the best day he has had in centuries.
Klaus goes to tell Esther, whose body he moved to the crypt, that she died with Rebekah’s blood in her system. Since no one can be both witch and vampire, she can either become what she hates or die.
Kol returns the White Oak stake to Klaus and we see Rebekah awake in the Dowager house just as Kol said.