The Originals: Brotherhood of the Damned Recap

Synopsis of (2×11): Finn sets a dangerous trap for his brothers in order to deal a blow to Klaus, but finds himself more interested in discovering Klaus’ true secret. Meanwhile, Hayley and Jackson start preparing for their wedding and Marcel must rally his vampires against their growing hunger.

Rating: ★★★★☆

Last time on The Originals, the vampires remained trapped by Finn’s magic within the confines of Klaus’ compound and Marcel was hiding a werewolf bite from his compadres. Klaus, desperate to save Marcel, seeks out Davina, in an attempt to break the boundary trapping his friends. Marcel, meanwhile, is dealing with his own problem and having been bitten, begins to hallucinate memories from his past.

In the past, a young cocky Marcel decides to enlist in the army, leaving a very fractious Klaus back in New Orleans. Klaus no doubt feels like Marcel is abandoning his family, but Marcel leaves anyways while Klaus ominously states that the prodigal son always returns home. Out on the front of WWI, Marcel is quite the lucky soul, having scathed injury while others have perished. Though I’m surprised there weren’t more vampires fighting major wars because of their immortality.

Back in the present, poor Kol, still trapped within the compound with the vampires, continues to attempt to avoid them with Marcel’s help. He remains steadfast that Marcel will continue to protect him, as he is the only one who truly knows where Rebekah is.

At the safe house, Elijah begins to slowly open up to Camille about his violent past and bears his soul like never before. He reveals startling details to Cami about Tatia and his role in her death that even Klaus does not know about.

Meanwhile, under the watchful eye of Klaus, Davina is feverously working on a spell to locate Finn, in an attempt to save Kol. With her spell, she discovers Finn is performing representational magic, combing sacred objects or totems that each represent his three brothers. To her surprise, she also learns that Finn is channeling both of Klaus’ parents. Finn finishes his spell at that moment, causing Elijah, Kol, and Klaus to loose consciousness at the same time.

The three brothers all awaken in a dream like trance within an old rustic cabin that Kol ascertains is a hunt room, a room where witches bring their enemies for target practice. Finn soon joins the three, but is untouchable in his magical illusion.

Out in the bayou, Aiden is the last of the werewolves to ditch their moonlight rings. It looks like the countdown for the wedding has begun and in ten days times, if all goes as planned, the wolves will gain the same abilities Hayley carries and be able to change at will. Jackson and Hayley head off to visit an elder, who just so happens to be Jackson’s grandma, to begin their pre-marital rituals.

Back in the hunt room, Elijah, Kol, and Klaus are powerless and trapped within Finn’s comfinments once more. Well, I think I see a pattern here of Finn and trapping his enemies. Finn’s initial goal is simple enough, to render Klaus powerless so that Finn is able to take the city that Klaus holds most dear, or so he thinks. Finn plans to drop the barrier spell keeping the vampires within the compound, unleashing Marcel and his very ravenous vampire on the residents of the quarter at sundown.

Marcel, still on a downward spiral, continues to hallucinate figments of his past from his time spent at war. Despite Klaus’ insistence, Marcel refuses to come home and instead fights on with his platoon. Before long, a close friend of Marcel’s and a fellow solider begins to die on the battlefield from his wounds. In an act of desperation, Marcel turns him and later turns his remaining soldiers when the war takes a turn for the worse. With his small platoon of vampire soldiers, Marcel plunges into the chaos, mercilessly slaughtering the German soldiers in their path. Thus, the brotherhood of the damned is born.

Back in the hunt room, Finn becomes bored with Kol and his insistence that Finn’s fight is not with him. Tired of his antics, he sends Kol back to his physical body, where Kol is able to warn Marcel and his crew of Finn’s plans for them at sundown.

Hayley and Jackson meet up with Jackson’s sassy grandmother deep within the bayou to participate in pre-marital rituals. Hayley learns she must participate in a rite of divulgement where all Jackson and her must share all of their secrets between the two in order to be cleansed. Hayley immediately grows stoic and claims she cannot do that, likely fearing for Hope’s safety understandably and quickly flees into the woods.

In the hunt room once again, Finn begins to see that Klaus cares for something more than the city itself, as he shows little remorse towards releasing Marcel on the quarter. Finn concludes that Klaus must be hiding something big, and I’d say the secret of his daughter classifies as pretty darn big. Undeterred, Finn claims he has all the time in the world to figure out what his darling brother Klaus is truly hiding.

Back in the woods, Jackson races after Hayley where she divulges to him that some of her secrets are not hers to tell. Jackson counters this by revealing that he is hiding skeletons of his own. Undiscouraged, he promises Hayley that can go slow and insists that he refuses to run from this marriage.

 Growing hungrier, Marcel attempts to rally his eager vampires, insisting that they all live by a code. Marcel insists that they can make it to his place where there is enough blood for them to feed on and a cure waiting for him as well. As the sun drops, the barrier is dropped and the vampires warily head out onto the crowded streets.

Still trapped by Finn, Elijah comes to the conclusion that because Finn performed representational magic, the only thing keeping them there is the accuracy of how well Finn knew Elijah. In essence, Finn chose something that he believed represented Elijah’s character. Elijah convincingly drops the illusion that he has created over the course of his life, commenting that the perceived nobleness was but a deception.

He then tragically reveals to Klaus that it was he who killed Tatia and the illusion keeping them in the room begins to tremble and splinter. Klaus then steps forward, revealing that Finn also failed in representing him, because he is now capable of forgiveness, and genuinely forgives Elijah for killing Tatia. Klaus claims that the bonds of family far outweigh things such as feuds, and that family is even capable of allowing a monster to forgive the sins of another. Stupefied, Elijah and Klaus vanish before Finn’s eyes and wake up in their own bodies, having found a loophole in Finn’s spell.

Meanwhile Marcel and his vampires desperately attempt to reach his place through the throngs of people gathered in the streets. Before they can reach the house, Marcel collapses, but he thankfully later awakens at his house where Gia is safely watching over him. It turns out Gia was able to resist the hunger and managed to get him and the others to safety before blood was spilled. Before the two can say anymore, Finn rudely interrupts them, demanding that Marcel tell him the secret that both Klaus and Elijah are keeping, as he believes he can get the secret out of Marcel. When Klaus comes to check in on Marcel, he finds the place completely empty.

Last but not least, Klaus seeks out Aiden, where he learns of Hayley and Jackson’s pre-marital plans. Outraged, Klaus races off to find Hayley and stop her from sharing the identity and existence of their daughter.