Post — Aaron Ngo

Major spoilers are included in this episode review. Read with Caution!

I'm crying! I'm crying so much! What a powerful episode! I have been dealing with feelings this week over personal issues and missing a friend, so watching this episode helped a lot with getting out the frustrating tears.

Thank you Daniel Gillies for an outstanding performance! He has excelled my expectations for the final season and is currently the MVP of the series.

This episode picks up where we left off in last week's with both Klaus and Elijah trapped somewhere, but they figure out quickly that they are not alone.

All the Mikaelson siblings also returned in this episode!

Yay! This makes me so happy!

Rebekah and Kol have been missed and seeing them all together, even memory-less Elijah, is what the show is all about. And I love Kol's naked entrance into the chambre de chasse. Freya is also present and tells her siblings this may have been Vincent's way to keep them separate.

The only way out of the chambre de chasse is through the white door. It has five locks for each sibling, which means they have to search the compound for their respective keys.

Klaus and Elijah are close to killing each other before the search begins, so Kol defuses the situation and takes Elijah with him. This leads to a surprising bonding moment for the two brothers.

Elijah wonders why Kol never visited him in the seven years (only Klaus and Rebekah). Kol tells him the truth: they were never close that way because of the exclusion from the vow and how he murdered his wife Davina.

Remember one of the worst things to happen on this show? Elijah may not remember, but Kol sure does.

Elijah asks if he ever apologized for such a cruel act, but Kol says he kind of did, but we all know he didn't really. All Kol cares about though is that he got Davina back, but "not everybody is so lucky".

Klaus wonders if his family key is in the family crest. This leads us into a 15-year flashback with Klaus and Hayley. In the aftermath of season 1, episode 8 ("The River in Reverse"), Klaus took Hayley to the compound for the first time. She tells him for the first time that she wants to believe in him for their child's sake and reveals her pregnant belly.

THE FEELS ARE REAL!

Then the smashing begins. Klaus doesn't find his key, but we get another visitor. Marcel gets dropped inside and reveals the truth: Vincent is not the one behind this mess but rather Hope is responsible! Are we sure she isn't the villain of the season?

Hope (unseen in the episode) is trying to take back The Hollow and to reunite her family. When Marcel tried to stop her, she threw him inside the chambre as well. Unable to do anything with this information until they get out, the siblings continue to search for the keys to escape.

Elijah is clueless without his memories and asks Klaus about his relationship with Hope after finding a stuffed rabbit - one that he gave her the day she was born. Another flashback with Hayley is initiated!

This one happens during the end of season 1 and Hayley is debating names for her newborn daughter. When she brings up "Katherine" though, Klaus swiftly rejects the name with a "God No!" I enjoyed the "Katherine Pierce" mention immensely.

Then Klaus brings up Elijah's devastating reaction to Hayley's first death (when she turned into a hybrid) and belittled Klaus on how they have lost "their family's only hope" - one of the most powerful Elijah Mikaelson scenes.

Then Hayley and Klaus mutually agree on the name: Hope Andrea Mikaelson.

I love how Hope's middle name is Hayley's birth name! That is so beautiful and a memorable way to honor the life Hayley was denied in New Orleans. After remembering, Klaus tells Elijah he was the one who gave Hope her name.

Marcel and Kol are catching up with each other while searching for the key. Marcel asks about Davina, who is not really calling these days. Kol is really happy being with her. He explains to Marcel how he wanted to be a part of the "Always and Forever" so bad until he met Davina.

They find Kol's key in a Shakespeare book, one he gave Hope for her 9th birthday. This is when Marcel figures out the room they're in is the music room. This room didn't exist for a century, so it would be impossible for Hope to replicate on her own.

Only one other person could've seen the room: Freya Mikaelson. Kol showed her the room when she pretended to be his date back in 1914. Klaus confronts his sister, and she admits the truth, explaining how Hope losing both her parents (one dead and one distant) will ultimately ruin her. This is why Freya is helping her.

She leaves the chambre de chasse and takes her lock with her.

Marcel is truly the greatest key finder. He catches up with Rebekah and helps her find the key. Hope hid it with a necklace under the floorboard. A necklace Rebekah gave her as a reminder of her "Crazy Aunt Bex".

This also gives Marcel the chance to tell Rebekah how much he loves her and how he will not die on her unlike Cami or Hayley. But Rebekah isn't worried about getting Marcel killed but destroying him. He tells her that she's doing good job on that right now and leaves the room.

Klaus continues his search and finds a box of letters from Hayley. Another flashback happens! These are too emotional!

Four year flashback. The day Klaus decides to end communication with Hayley and Hope. This is because of what happened in "One Wrong Turn on Bourbon". Klaus insists Hayley is not a Mikaelson and has the chance to escape. But she refuses to give up on him, thus the box of letters she kept sending him.

When he burns the letters, he finds his key in one of them.

Then Marcel and Elijah have an interesting talk about his lack of memories, which ends with Elijah calling him "Marcellus". A strong indicator on his restored memories, or rather he is deliberately not letting them return to him. This enrages Klaus because of how his lack of memories got Hayley killed.

Memory-less Elijah questions that love and his family because he claims he made them all miserable. Kol reminds him that they all make each other miserable - that's how family is supposed to be!

Klaus gives another passionate speech about Elijah being his greatest ally, best friend, and brother, and the memory-less version killed him when he failed to save Hayley. He hates him for taking that Elijah away from him forever.

Then Hope does the thing: she starts ripping the fragments of The Hollow out of them. The pieces merge back into one and all four of them collapse.

While this is going on, Marcel goes on the search for the final key. If Marcel wasn't in the chambre de chasse with them, I have a feeling they'd never escape the room. He helped find two of the keys: Rebekah's and Elijah's and aided Kol in finding his.

Elijah's key ends up being in a coffin filled with snakes. Hope views her Uncle Elijah as death for his role in Hayley's demise and hid his key there. The door opens once all keys are used, and then they're thrown into another maze: Elijah's white corridor.

Kol and Marcel are the first ones to leave the room: The Original Trio remain as Elijah tries to open his Red Door. Klaus tries to leave him, but Rebekah stops him, saying they need to help him get to the other side.

To help Klaus forgive their brother, Rebekah reminds him how angry she felt about Klaus killing their mother. If you hadn't watched The Vampire Diaries, here's a quick reminder: Elena Gilbert exposed the truth about Klaus killing Esther and it broke Rebekah to hear this about her brother.

She tells Klaus that forgiveness isn't easy and that they've all done terrible things, but it is possible to forgive and to never stop fighting for that vow they swore to each other.

With that, Klaus tells Rebekah to leave and promises to bring their brother back.

Klaus stands by his brother and tells him how he died when Hayley died. Then he goes on about Elijah's love for Hayley because she believed in them and fought for them when she could've walked away. He doesn't know who will emerge out of Elijah on the other side, but he can't open the door alone.

They bust through the red door together and the memories flood back into Elijah. All the good memories of Hayley overwhelm him and then he remembers how he left her to die at Greta's hand. His siblings and Marcel watch him get destroyed by the role he played and the love he has. He screams and sobs in agony getting hit with all of it at once!

Even Kol cries for his brother! This was so raw! Daniel Gillies broke all our hearts in that scene!

Klaus fulfills his promise and gives Elijah a vial of his blood to cure Antoinette. Elijah refers to his brother as "Niklaus" and they exchange a look, making his intentions clear. He cures Antoinette out of obligation but ultimately leaves her behind.

Rebekah and Marcel oversee the destruction caused in New Orleans. Rebekah assures Marcel that the city will recover from this, but Marcel isn't too worried about the city, but rather their relationship. He rehashes how they work: he either has her or the city for the past five seasons, but he can't keep bouncing between the two anymore.

Marcel tells her how great being a vampire is (getting to see history), but Rebekah reveals that is essentially the problem. He chose to become a vampire, but she is forever cursed, never given the choice in the matter. She wants to grow old, to have children, and she knows she can't have those things.

She doesn't want her sadness about that to ruin him and kisses him goodbye. I hope this is resolved by series' end because Marcel and Rebekah are endgame. They belong with each other and are only separated because Claire Holt isn't a full-time regular! Ahh!

Klaus is angry with Freya about the role she played in all of this and tells her to give him the room. Freya leaves to check on a sleeping Hope, who has The Hollow inside her now, and Klaus finally reads the letters Hayley sent him.

Elijah, wearing his signature suit and tie, goes out to the bayou to honor Hayley and to give a proper goodbye.

The family drama was the best part of the hour, but Elijah's memories returning and the tight episode filled with the sibling reunion made this episode one of the best in the season. If not the best episode of the season so far! It dealt with the power of family, loyalty, redemption, forgiveness, and how far these people have gone for one another - especially Hayley and Klaus!

Klaus' grief for Hayley through the flashbacks made this episode horribly heartbreaking and it also showed how much he grew to care about her over the years. How he read her letters and broke down over her words got us grieving with him.

Even if this is the final appearance of Phoebe Tonkins as Hayley in the season, her presence will be felt in the last remaining episodes as Elijah and Hope will have to work out their own issues and how they both feel responsible for her death.

Sound off in the comments and share how you're feeling about this amazing episode. Always and Forever... until forever ends. I'm not ready for the show to end.

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