Will the real Klaus Michaelson please stand up?  Actually, he probably did, given the history of Klaus’ wildly erratic behavior.  He works on impulse and emotion more than logic, and suddenly this is a strange new empire. 

“Reigning Pain in New Orleans” all begins with a toast at the table in the courtyard.  Klaus, Marcel, Marcel’s closest advisors, and a very uncomfortable Hayley dine in celebration of the new regime.  Everyone looks like their underwear is too tight or something, judging by the squirming and total displeasure of this moment underneath the fake smiles.  Klaus toasts all the wonderful new things in store for New Orleans under his rule, and then confirms with everyone Hayley is indeed pregnant with his child.  So they must do everything to protect her.  But the claims he won’t use the child to produce more hybrids is false and to prove it, he gives the order for everyone to go into the woods and kill all the werewolves to extinction.  Psst, Klaus, you’re not impressing the mama of your child here.

Marcel is in quite a pickle.  He’s loyal to Klaus now as promised, and everyone else is loyal to him, so we get to see the side conversations of him assuring his people that this isn’t over and they need to play along.  Of course this is putting stress on his secret relationship with Rebekah, so much so that Marcel needs to break it off.  He loves Rebekah, but his needs to protect his crew more.  Yeah, she doesn’t take it so well, issuing her warnings again about Klaus (well, duh!). 

Marcel has to introduce Klaus to the human council, and needless to say, since this is Klaus, there’s friction.  Klaus issues the ultimatum they will do what he says without their kickbacks, so these silly, silly humans attack Klaus’ entourage with the hopes that he’ll submit!  Ha!  I’ll tell ya, these people were a shame to my human race and deserved to die.  Klaus, with Marcel’s blessing, kills the entire council except for Father Kiernan (yay, Todd Stashwick lives to carry on his role!).  Marcel makes it clear Father Kiernan is more valuable alive than dead, plus he’s Cami’s uncle.  That was all Klaus needed to hear.

On the other side, Elijah and Rebekah go to save Hayley, but she assures she’s fine at the compound.  She begs them to save her werewolf family instead.  So off to the woods they go.  They find the vampire army Klaus sent and turn them away with warnings that no werewolves will be harmed.  Of course since Elijah and Rebekah are originals, the group goes away without retribution, realizing the camp is empty anyway.  That’s when Elijah finds Eve, and she’s got a doozy of a lead.  She tells them to go find the clan of new werewolves arriving because of the baby and protect them.  They’ve got a story to tell!

While Klaus is pushing around his authority (I so wanted a “Respect my authorita!” line) and Elijah and Rebekah are in the woods, Davina becomes the latest occupant at the compound.  Klaus wants her around and proudly told Marcel that her being stuck at the church was a trick at the behest of Elijah.  So, she moves and easily finds Josh, who’s hiding at the compound in fear of his life.  They bond, but Hayley decides she wants to make it a threesome.  So they’ve got their little group going now.  First part of the bonding ritual, “To Tell the Truth.” Hayley tells Davina that Elijah killed Agnes.  Davina doesn’t believe her, because that means she’s safe and Marcel lied to her.  When Josh confirms it to be true, suddenly Marcel is on her naughty list with everyone else except Josh and Hayley.  Well, there is one other person that can help…

Cami.  She’s figured out all the tricks to overcome compulsion, like tape recording her sessions with Klaus and leaving her notes at home reminding her to check the recorder.  She’s also clinging onto this photo of Klaus and Marcel in 1919, so that story will mean something later. 

Eventually we hit the point where everything comes together, and it kind of leaves you going, “huh?”  Klaus and Marcel have a heart to heart, and Klaus admits his jealousy of Marcel.  That’s when Klaus offers to make Marcel an equal and they rule together.  Now, don’t get me wrong, Marcel has definitely grown on me and become quite the sympathetic character but Klaus’ sudden turnaround seems odd.  Is he doing this because he truly considers Marcel family or because it’s a strategic move?  We never really get a clue either way, so it just results in us shrugging our shoulders.    

As for Klaus’ real family, Elijah and Rebekah, they did find the other werewolf clan and came back with an artifact to support their story to Klaus.  It was a ring worn by their mother.  Seems that this group of werewolves is tied to…wait for it…Klaus’ real father.  So guess what?  They’re his family!  Klaus pretends not to care but then secretly arranges a deal with Father Kiernan to protect them, the order coming from Kiernan and not Klaus (a change of heart would have looked bad in front of the other vampires).  Kiernan wants something in return though, Klaus has to get Cami to leave town.  One compulsion later, it’s done, even though Klaus was quite broken up about it.  He even shared with her the memory of him turning into a werewolf and being chained up by his father in the season premiere so she would see how horrible he is.  She’s all set to go until Davina arrives asking for help.  Guess who knows now how to remove vampire compulsion from someone?  It hurts though. 

Back at the compound, Elijah meets with Hayley and tells her the werewolves are safe, so he gets a nice hug out of it that almost leads to a kiss.  Elijah backs away though, because his need to be loyal to his brother is too strong right now.  Exactly like Marcel and Rebekah.  Why is Klaus preventing his siblings from getting laid?  That’s so cruel!  Anyway, Elijah finds Klaus in the courtyard and apologizes for thinking his intent for his child was bad.  Klaus accepts and invites Elijah and Rebekah to join him in the courtyard.  After all, they’re family. 

Stray thoughts

–        As a midseason finale this was okay.  It was a good episode and all, but it felt like any other episode and not one taking you into a five week break.  Cami screaming her fool head off in agony though was one hell of a visual to go into the midseason break, don’t you think?  We’ve got until January 14th to cling onto that. 

–        The story has been witches lite lately.  Judging by the previews we’ll get into that next episode, but now that Klaus has pissed off the humans, the witches, the werewolves, and several of the vampires, I still say his regime is off to a shaky start, even if he has made amends (for now) with his family. 

–        I’m wondering why Davina thinks she needs Cami’s help.  That’s going to be an interesting scheme.  With all the differing sides and factions in this tale, is Davina possibly forming a whole new allegiance?  The “We’re the innocent victims stop kicking us around” gang?  Father Kiernan certainly needs an ally like that right now.  I’ll tell ya, all this scheming makes my head hurt.

–        Did anyone call the twist about Klaus’ werewolf family?  I guess it makes sense since Hayley and he have conceived the miracle child, but I do wonder what kind of role that will play in the overall story.  Will it only be a few episodes or a lingering thing?   

Okay, that’s a midseason.  Catch you all again in mid-January!  In the meantime, feel free to comment what you think about not only this episode, but the first half of the season.    

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