The Originals - Recap: Heeere's Niklaus!

Episode 14 of Season 1 of The Originals, “Long Way Back from Hell,” was based entirely around the psychological torture of Rebekah (Claire Holt), as she meandered her way around an abandoned sanatorium. Nothing quite spells out scary like shrieking ghostly twins or rotting old people vomiting blood in bathtubs, am I right? Meanwhile, Klaus (Joseph Morgan) made out okay for the most part. That is, until all Hell broke loose. No, they weren't in a gargantuan old hotel, but the abandoned sanatorium still reminded me of The Shining thanks to Rebekah's wild bout with craziness and Klaus' fight for revenge. While Elijah (Daniel Gillies), Marcel (Charles Michael Davis), and Hayley (Phoebe Tonkin) searched desperately for the lost Originals, Klaus learned more and more about his family’s unknown dark treachery. Fun! Here is the Recap and Review of Season 1 Episode 14 of The Originals, “Long Way Back from Hell”!

Episode 14 opened with Rebekah awaking in the abandoned sanatorium that once housed hundreds of civilians dying of an unfortunate influenza outbreak. Rebekah, we’d soon come to learn, still reeled from the multiple werewolf bites she’d taken just hours prior. Therefore, whatever was transpiring in the present, which was essentially nothing, was blurred with vivid memories of the past. Rebekah immediately tried to escape the confines of the place where she’d once worked as a nurse, only to find herself staked in the process. Genevieve (Elyse Levesque) wasn’t about to let her old frienemy get away that easily. Exposing Rebekah, it turned out, was a massive part of Celeste’s (Shannon Kane) sinister scheme.

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For some reason I’d assumed that Klaus was stashed somewhere far, far away, but, nope, there he was just a few floors up from a very traumatized Rebekah. Klaus, for what it’s worth, looked quite peaceful to begin with save for the deep gash down his torso. Before long, we were clued in to the grand scheme of Genevieve’s intentions in the sanatorium. Back in 1919, she was involved in the massive plot against Klaus that Rebekah and Marcel had drummed up to rid themselves of his presence forever. She wasn’t at all intent on torturing Klaus as she’d begun to do to Rebekah. Instead, she removed that heinous Hell-dagger from his chest and brought his presence back to reality. Remember, last episode Sophie had plunged the blade into his heart, subjecting him to, what we’d later come to learn, felt like imprisonment in Hell on Earth. Klaus brushed off the residual pain quickly, and Genevieve began to expose the truth.

For reasons that were still unknown, Genevieve was intent on joining forces with Klaus, and the Original hybrid was certainly in no position to deny any offers. Linking Klaus to Rebekah’s mind through a blood ritual, Genevieve kicked off the most important plot arc of Episode 14. Back in 1919, Rebekah and Marcel had previously conspired to convince Genevieve to act as their personal witch. Rebekah, set on feigning a friendship with her fellow nurse, never intended to actually befriend the woman, though the two hit it off. Rebekah immediately revealed that she was aware of Genevieve’s status as a practicing witch, but she wasn’t expecting Genevieve to counter by admitting to being pleasantly surprised to see a vampire working as a nurse. This made matters a lot more tangled. For example, the two shared drinks over jazz, and the seemingly wholesome and pure Genevieve admitted to having a bit of a crush on Klaus, the bad boy, over Elijah, the gentleman. That’s a woman Rebekah can appreciate!

In the present, Elijah crashed Sophie Deveraux’s untimely funeral, much to her niece Monique’s sadistic pleasure. Elijah appeared looking to decimate the entire lot of them, but the threat ended up being unnecessary. Monique passed on a spell from Celeste that enwrapped Elijah’s flesh in semi-temporary tattoos of several names, a map to finding his siblings. Well, that was kind of easy and helpful! Back at Mikaelson Manor, Marcel and Hayley attempted to aid Elijah in decoding this riddle. Apparently, this is some sort of common witch game normally played with children. If the riddle is cracked, the tattoos disappear, in this case indicating that Elijah had discovered the key piece to locating Klaus and Rebekah. After locating Sabine’s name on his wrist, it didn’t take long to recognize the list of Celeste’s dozens of personas, but which one held the clue?

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Here’s the thing; a lot of this is still sort of unclear. We know that Celeste can hop from body to body in order to stay alive and well over the decades, but we don’t really know how yet. For example, Klaus and Marcel quickly traced back the name of the girl most likely to be next in line just prior to Sabine, a woman who eventually committed suicide after allegedly being ostracized from her coven for using dark magic. Clearly, Celeste had tired of that body and was ready for the next poor thing to come along. Is this a possession situation? Where do these witches go if Celeste needs to hitch a ride? I guess only time will tell! The next name on the list, a witch named Clara, threw up a red flag. She seemed to be the only witch included, according to some kept records, who hadn’t taken her own life. Meaning, for some reason, Celeste was forced from this body.

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We continued to watch Rebekah manipulate her way through 1919 while the Rebekah of the present wandered aimlessly like a drunken bum with a terrible fever through the hallways of the sanatorium. It’s always a little difficult to recap psychological torment for obvious reasons, but imagine, say, witnessing a scene where Rebekah and Marcel got hot and heavy in the old morgue back in the day, only to then flash to the present to witness a dead girl in a dingy bathtub heaving up blood. Woo, the spookiness! What was important to note about Rebekah’s relationship with Genevieve was that she eventually regretted the decision to drag her into her personal mess. As a true friend, she wasn’t looking to ask for such a large favor, though she eventually did as she was pressed for time. An Original's gotta do what an Original's gotta do.

Remember, Marcel and Rebekah were looking to draw her father, Mikael the vampire hunter, to New Orleans in order to see to it that Klaus landed on the receiving end of his white oak stake, the only weapon strong enough to permanently kill an Original. Genevieve was happy to oblige, seemingly not so in the know regarding the nature of Rebekah’s desire to see her father again. The spell to call him forth was simple enough. In the cemetery, Genevieve tapped into a dagger of Mikael’s, a weapon previously thought to have been stolen by Klaus, subsequently landing a young Nik on the receiving end of a beating from his furious father. Of course, Klaus, who’d in the present been listening in on Rebekah’s memories as she relived them in agony, kicked himself for not realizing that Rebekah had swiped it the entire time.

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Eventually, Rebekah nearly clawed her way to the exit of the sanatorium, desperate to prevent Genevieve from completing the story and revealing the ultimate betrayal to Klaus. Unfortunately for Rebekah, Celeste intervened and revealed the true nature of her plan. It’s fairly simply, I think. Celeste wants to use Rebekah’s treachery from about a century ago to act as the catalyst to destroy the Mikaelson family from the inside out. When Klaus learns the truth, he’ll stop at nothing to destroy her and Elijah will be forced to step in to protect. Intervening will eventually bring the brothers to blows. Surprise! Rebekah and Celeste have met before. Actually, Rebekah has killed Celeste before.

Back in 1919, we were also introduced to another friend of Genevieve’s, Clara. Clara, if you recall, was the special name in Elijah’s tattoo riddle. For whatever reason, Rebekah panicked after the ritual to bring Mikael to New Orleans was completed. In the morgue, she begged Genevieve to undo the spell, but it was simply too late. At this point, both women were desperate, though Genevieve was the only one crazy enough to want to clue Klaus in on the situation. Rebekah, realizing that doing so would be her ruin, acted on impulse and shoved a contaminated bloody rag into Genevieve’s mouth, infecting her with the deadly strain of influenza. Clara aka Celeste accidentally witnessed what was basically a murder, and was unfortunately caught in the crossfire. Rebekah compelled sanatorium employees to keep them locked in quarantine until they died. Wow, I guess that was pretty awful, huh? I mean, why couldn’t Rebekah simply do away with them with a quick snap of their necks? She’s ridiculous good at that! Also, now we know that Klaus was responsible for the first Celeste's death, and Rebekah was responsible for killing Clara. This family has an uncanny ability for unknowingly getting this witch killed!

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In the present, Klaus was absolutely immobilized with rage. Genevieve took her chances and fed him some blood, rejuvenating him fully before releasing him. I loved the moment when Klaus quickly swung around with the Hell-dagger, pointing it at her throat only to realize that she’d barely flinch. She's not his target, of course, and he took off to find the ill Rebekah so that he could administer her eternal punishment. Klaus doesn't need an overdose of werewolf venom to seem insane, obviously. The two shared a bit of a brawl in the basement of this wretched hellhole, but Rebekah wasn’t really in the mood to beg or plead for forgiveness any more than she had to. Instead, she simply gave in to the fact that she’d probably end up with that awful dagger stuck deep inside her heart. Fortunately, Marcel was also privy to what had gone down with Clara and knew exactly where to find Rebekah. Just in time to protect her from Klaus, Marcel lept to her defense. Seriously, though, he really only bought Elijah an extra few seconds to turn the tables on his brother, daggering Klaus instead. I get that Elijah wanted to protect his baby sister, but I’m not sure Klaus deserved that. After all, he almost met the ultimate death thanks to Rebekah. I’d say he has a right to be a little pissed!

Just to tie up a few loose ends before closing the recap of Episode 14, Hayley did have her own side-plot this week. Recognizing one of the names on the list as a Deveraux, Hayley realized that Celeste must have been inside that body at the time her bloodline of wolves was cursed by an order from Marcel. Elijah confirmed that in some casual banter with him, though Marcel admitting to knowing more than he let on. In the end, it was Hayley who knocked Celeste unconscious outside of the sanatorium, and it was Hayley who maybe just tipped the scale in their favor.

What did you think of Episode 14 of Season 1 of The Originals, “Long Way Back from Hell”? Did Klaus deserve that? Will he and Rebekah ever make amends now, or has Celeste already won? Will Celeste give in to Hayley’s wishes?

Thanks for reading my Recap and Review of Episode 14 of Season 1 of The Originals, “Long Way Back from Hell”!