Aurora wasn’t the only one up to no good in tonight’s episode. Check out our recap of the highlights from The Originals season 3, episode 8, “The Other Girl in New Orleans.”
The Great Manipulator: Aurora
If you’re ranking tonight’s manipulators, Aurora must go at the top of the list. Not only did she kidnap Cami to use as bait to get Klaus to come to her, but she made him jump through useless hoops to do so, giving her time to turn some newbie vampires and have them wake up thirsty for blood.
While she was waiting for both Klaus and the newbies to do their thing, she dove into Cami’s psyche and tried to figure out what it is about the blonde that Klaus seems so enamored by. Since Aurora and Cami don’t have much in common, she wasn’t successful, but thanks to Cami’s biggest shame, Aurora learned a truth that Klaus had yet to uncover. Cami is drawn to psychology and Klaus because she wants to understand her own dark desires that she once dipped into. She tries to use this to drive a wedge in between Klaus and his shrink, but Klaus is too smart for her. He speeds her outside, yells a bit, and ultimately steals the latitude of Rebekah’s location from Aurora’s mind in a weak moment.
Later, after Klaus arrives and saves Cami (first from Aurora, and later from the newbie vamps), they have a heart to heart and we learn that Klaus heard Cami’s revelation. He jokes that he has sent vampires to kill her college roommate’s abusive boyfriend (you know, the guy Cami pummeled til he “wasn’t laughing anymore”), but Cami tells him never to kill for her.
The Reluctant Manipulator: Marcel
While everyone else is running around trying to figure out how to get the information they need out of Tristan, Cami, and Aurora, Marcel was being forced to manipulate his friends by Aya and the Strix. In order to prove his loyalties (AKA not have his Strix membership revoked, and you know… die), Marcel has to enter the Mikaelson residence as a friend and stab Elijah with the old stake thingie they used on Rebekah a couple of weeks ago.
In order to complete his Strix mission, but not start World War Mikaelson, Marcel had to figure out a way to show the Mikaelsons he is still most loyal to them. He tried to convince Elijah to release Tristan, buying him time, but when that didn’t work, he had to go with a surprise approach. Marcel and a bunch of his suited Strix buddies surprised Elijah on the stairs and jumped him. Elijah kills all but a few of them, and Hayley hears him in distress.
Hayley races to Elijah’s rescue in time to watch Marcel drive a stake through his stomach. She seems stunned by what happened and is quickly taken in hand by the two remaining Strix suits. Marcel rips both of their hearts out before they can harm her though, and the vamp speeds off to find Aya.
He finds Aya and Tristan, and sees Freya stabbed and bleeding on the floor. He convinces Aya that she needs to get Tristan out of their ASAP, so they speed away. As soon as they vacate, he feeds Freya his blood, and asks her to remind her brother when he wakes up angry, to remember who their friends are. Clearly Marcel is not team Strix.
The Determined Manipulator: Elijah
In the midst of everything else, Elijah has the task of trying to get the longitude of Rebekah’s whereabouts out of Tristan. He begins his torturous manipulations with Freya tying up and spelling Tristan in a circular prison. Once he is certain Tristan can’t escape, he releases Hayley to do her worst. She bites and drinks from Tristan, making sure he is given the fatal dosage of werewolf venom (read: any). She also got to release a little tension and anger, which was nice of Elijah to provide an outlet for.
When Hayley’s attacks don’t loosen Tristan’s lips, he lets Freya work her magical wiles on Tristan. She weakens him as much as she dares without killing him, and lets Elijah finish the job. He uses his ability to look into Tristan’s head to find the longitude he’s looking for. He doesn’t see the numbers he wants, but one word does stand out to him: Cepheus. He asks what that might stand for, but Tristan is as tight-lipped as ever.
The next time we see Elijah and company alive and well, Freya is showing them the dagger that Marcel was given by the Strix. She sees the dark magic in it, and then makes sure to remind Elijah that Marcel healed her and spared Hayley’s life as well. Marcel could have dealt the Mikaelsons a death blow that night, but instead he offered them the chance to keep him as a double agent inside the Strix.
The final moments
The last bit of the episode shows Elijah receiving a text from Marcel explaining that Cepheus is the name of a cargo ship on a voyage the night Rebekah’s body was taken. Since Klaus was able to retrieve the latitude from Aurora’s mind, they can find Rebekah by locating where the ship’s path and the latitude overlap. The Mikaelsons can now retrieve their lost sister and reunite the fam.
Oh, and Freya resurrected Finn. We don’t yet know if this is permanent or temporary, but he has his original Mikaelson face, so it could go either way.