The Originals recap: 'One Wrong Turn on Bourbon'

Remember how Klaus used to worry about being a bad parent and scarring his child? Well, unfortunately, it does seem that Hope has a few scars. Although, she certainly isn’t broken.

We start the second episode of the season with Hope remembering the last time she saw her father. When she was nine, she used magic to visit him. Only, she interrupted him literally ripping a woman’s heart out. As she was faced with a father who was covered in other peoples’ blood, Klaus yelled at her to “get out,” and that was the end of their relationship as she knew it. But now could be the start of their second chance seeing as how Klaus is in town to find Hayley.

Klaus’ first stop is paying a visit to Freya, and when the flowers next to Hope’s bed die, she runs to him, desperate for that father-daughter reunion. But Klaus makes sure he’s long gone by the time she gets there. This reunion isn’t going to come easy.

From there, Freya pays a visit to Vincent, lets him know that Klaus is in town, and suggests he sits down with Ivy, the best seer in all of New Orleans. If Vincent can’t shake the feeling that this is all going to end badly, why not talk to someone who might be able to give him an answer to that question? (Plus, Ivy’s cute and Vincent is very single.)

As for Klaus, he heads to see Marcel, who’s struggling to reestablish himself as the king of New Orleans when the vamps no longer see him as one of them. (Reminder: He’s a super Original now.) Klaus asks for Marcel’s help finding Hayley, after which he visits Hayley’s boy toy, Declan, which leads to this wonderful exchange:

Klaus: “Does Hayley have any enemies?”
Declan: “Nah, she’s a single mother, not a supervillain.”

Not surprisingly, Klaus doesn’t exactly love Declan and when Declan starts playing the “I was more of a father to Hope than you were” card, Klaus decides he’d like to kill this guy. But that’s when Hope shows up and throws her father across the room. Not the reunion she probably expected, but it’s kind of perfect.

Klaus compels Declan to forget their entire interaction before once again leaving Hope. He can hear the evil whispers when he’s near her. He knows it’s not safe.

With that, Hope will return home, where, DID I MENTION THERE WAS A BOY?! Earlier in the day, Roman showed up on her balcony. It seems word spread around the school that Henry killed himself and Roman wants to pay his respects. He feels bad about the fact that his friends bullied Henry. Hope informs him that Henry’s not dead while also informing us that apparently Lizzie, one of Caroline and Alaric’s daughters, is the school gossip, which basically means she’s following in her mother’s footsteps. As for Roman and Hope, they’re CUTE.

And when Hope gets back home after her brief reunion with her father, she finally tells Roman the truth: This house of horrors that she calls home — where apparently a sleeping Aurora is just chilling in the parlor? — is home to NiKlaus Mikaelson, her father, which makes her “the mythical tribrid freak show.” But that doesn’t make Roman turn away. Rather, he scoots a bit closer to her on the couch and brushes her hair from her face…before he’s interrupted by Klaus. Hope tells him to run seeing as how her father “will literally wear your spine as a necklace.” So leave he does. And then Klaus enters.

But before we get to that chat, let’s deal with the Henry of it all. Josh and Marcel head to the bayou and successfully convince the wolves to hand Henry over. Marcel promises to punish him with a few years in the garden, after which he will protect him as “one of his guys.” But before they bury him, Marcel and Josh question him about Hayley’s disappearance. Marcel very quickly realizes that Henry is protecting his sire…which means Hope was behind her mother’s disappearance.

And that brings us back to Klaus and Hope’s confrontation. Hope explains that she knew something big had to happen to bring him home, and she assures him that Hayley is perfectly safe, sleeping peacefully in a coffin thanks to a spell that Hope wrote herself. Klaus makes a comment about how she’s not the sweet girl she once was, which allows her to reveal that she got the idea from reading his memoirs. After all, he used to put his family members in coffins and use them as leverage.

Speaking of Klaus’ old tricks, he grabs her and takes a glimpse inside her mind, which reveals that Hayley is at St. Anne’s church. He heads out to get her when Hope uses magic to shut the doors. She is going to get her talk regardless of what Klaus wants. (Next: A death rocks the city)

Hope wants to know why Klaus stopped calling and writing, and he explains it all stopped after she saw him rip that woman’s heart from her chest. “Sorry I interrupted your murder orgy,” she tells him. He claims the reason she came to him that night was because letters weren’t enough, and that’s when he realized it. Plus, he can’t forget the horror in her eyes when she saw him. “I was nine,” she tells him, “I saw this scary monster who looked like my dad.” Hope then struggled with the man she saw that night and the one who called her a princess. “I didn’t know which version of you was real,” she says. Pulling a line from The Notebook, she tells him that she “waited for him for years” to explain what had happened or to apologize. But he didn’t.

Klaus says that, in his experience, fathers always cause pain. “You were such a sweet little girl,” he says, “Perhaps I was always bound to leave you broken.” Hope is surprised that he’d call her “broken.” “Maybe you’re right, she says. “Maybe that little girl you miss so much would be better off if she never loved you at all.” She then opens the doors and allows Klaus to leave, which he does.

Meanwhile, Freya and Keelin — yep, Keelin’s back for now! — are discussing Hope. According to Freya, she’s right on track seeing as how Freya’s teenage temper tantrums resulted in birds falling out of the sky and villages burning. You know, normal angsty teen stuff. But as for Freya now, she’s packing for her new life with Keelin, in which they’re both looking forward to getting an opportunity to think about their future and, just generally, breathe.

Across town, Ivy is helping Vincent get a read on Hope. According to the cards, Hope Mikaelson will be the city’s downfall, complete with sacrifice, slavery, famine, flood, and fire. That is if Vincent can’t change her course.

Also not feeling great about Hope is Josh, who warns Marcel that they need to prepare for the worst. But Marcel’s protective of his sister of sorts. Speaking of those two, Hope pays Marcel a visit just as he’s putting Henry in the garden. As Henry’s sire, she tells him not to be scared, after which she tells Marcel about the burden she deals with every day: Her family sacrificed everything for her. “I’m supposed to be worth it,” she says. “I’m supposed to be better.” She tells him that Klaus thinks she’s broken before revealing that she’s scared her dad doesn’t love her anymore. Marcel reassures her that’s not true. “No matter what, your dad will love the very worst of you until the oceans are dust,” he says, adding, “You are worth every sacrifice. And you are good. Period. Show me anybody who says otherwise and I’ll eat ’em.” Yep, I love these two so much.

Now that Klaus knows where Hayley is, he and Freya go to retrieve her, but all they find is an open, very bloody coffin. He tells Hope what happened and promises that this is his fault and he will fix it. He called Alaric and made arrangements for her to return to Mystic Falls tonight. Once he knows she’s safe, he will find Hayley. Just then a snake comes out of Hope’s mouth — the ultimate sign that it’s time to go. He tells his daughter that he loves her and leaves.

Freya, realizing she has to stay, tells Keelin to go, see the world, and breathe. “I can’t be the reason your whole life is on hold.” She can’t be helpful to her family with that burden on her heart. “I can’t love you and my family at the same time,” she tells Keelin. “I don’t want you to stay.” With that, Keelin walks out.

As for the city, things were looking good until, just before Hope got in Roman’s car to go back to Virginia, someone found Henry, dead, hanging above the city. But the question is: Who killed him?

This episode was a very important one for the series: It was the reunion of Klaus and his daughter, and I have to say, I thought it was pretty great. We all knew that Klaus as a father would be a bit messy, and this stuck to that, all the while showing us just how strong – and in many ways, like her father — Hope has turned out to be. And in addition to giving us that reunion, the hour did a great job of setting up the many ominous things to come. (R.I.P. Henry)