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‘The Originals’ Season 5 Episode 8 ‘The Kindness of Strangers’ Recap

The Mikaelson’s Clan find themselves in a family reunion via some powerful witchcraft. The spell has their spirits locked in a “chambre de chasse” which resembles their family home place.  They are locked in until they each solve the “puzzle” and find their key to unlock the door. The family decides to divide up to try and find the keys, but the clues lead them to some shocking revelations. Elijah (Daniel Gillis) learns a little about his past and what his role in the Mikaelson family was. Klaus (Joseph Morgan) starts to remember back to the past when he first brought the pregnant Haley (Phoebe Tonkin) to the Mikaelson compound and the days after Hope (Danielle Rose Russell) was born. He also remembers the days when he refused to talk to Hope and Haley.  As he burns the letters that he returned to Haley, he finds the key to his lock.

Kol (Nathaniel Buzolic) tries to help Elijah to remember his past so he can return home to Davina.  He finds his key easy enough inside the books of Shakespeare’s work that Davina and he sent Hope. However, they were inside the music room from a century before Hope was born. There was no way that Hope could remember it, but one relative could. Freya (Riley Voelkel) and she admits that she helped to create the chambre de chasse to try and save Hope. As Klaus confronts her, she leaves the compound and her siblings to figure out the riddles on their own.

Rebecca (Claire Holt) who was ripped from her “runaway bride” role is forced to face Marcel (Charles Michael Davis) when he is sent to the chambre de chasse after he tries to stop the very determined Hope who in the “real” world is doing everything in her “magical powers” to bring her family back and that includes using the dark magic that the family has been trying to save her from all these years.  Together they find Rebecca’s “key” in the place where Marcel would hide his love letters to Rebecca centuries earlier. He asked why she left him and she said that she would end up killing him in ways he couldn’t imagine, and she walks away.

When Marcel confronts Elijah about his memories and slip of the tongue makes Marcel question just how much he really remembers.  As Klaus and Marcel are about to confront Elijah the siblings suddenly feel the black magic being ripped from their bodies and they fall to the ground. As they come around, Marcel figures out where Elijah key was located. In a coffin full of snakes located in the dungeon because Hope felt that he was responsible for her mother’s death and that is where he belonged.  With all the keys in hands, they unlock the door which leads them into a more twisted compound, Elijah’s mental maze.

They realize they each have their own door that they must enter to “leave” the maze.  As they exit Elijah realizes he cannot exit his mental door.  So, Klaus takes his hand and the brothers crash through the wooden door together. As they pass through, every memory comes flooding back into Elijah’s heart and as he awakens in his body that heart breaks as he also remembers that he is responsible for the death of Haley.

Hope saves the Mikaelson family as well as New Orleans and the people of New Orleans.  Kol returns home to DavinaRebecca explains to Marcel that she loves him, but she knows he loves being a vampire and she hates it. She is sad, and she doesn’t want to make him live his life with her feeling like that. It would not be fair.  Klaus gives Elijah a vile of his blood to save Antionette. Klaus then goes to the library and finds the letters that Haley had saved from all the years that he returned them to her. As he sits down and starts to read them, tears start to fall as he realizes everything he missed and all the things he knows Haley will now miss.  Elijah takes the vile to Antionette and helps her drink. As she recovers she smiles and says, “I knew you would return”. Elijah turns as he walks out the door and simply replies “please forgive me.” Elijah Mikaelson as we know and love him returns with the complete suit and all on this episode.   He goes to the bayou, to the tree where Haley’s name is carved and stands over-looking over the water with a sadness that broke my heart.

This is the episode all the Elijah fans have wanted and dreaded at the same time.  We have him back but he is broken. We knew that once he remembered who he truly was and just how much he loved Haley that when he realized that her death was on his hands that it would kill him and it did. The pain that hit him was painful to watch.  The pain on each of the Mikaelson’s faces was too much. They all cried for him as they knew that when he returned the pain would crush him.  Elijah was not the only one to bring tears to the viewer’s eyes tonight.  The moment when Klaus sat down and read the letters that Haley had sent him over the years and he had always sent back was also painful to watch.  To see the bad and tough Klaus Mikaelson cry will make anyone weep.  From the previews for next week, Elijah faces off with Hope as she blames him for her mother’s death but I truly doubt she can do anything to him that will hurt as much as the pain of everything rushing back like tonight’s episode.