The Originals S02E06 Recap: Wheel Inside the Wheel

972 AD in Norway. A girl walks through the bitter cold, a mother prays. She calls her sister, and the woman outside begs for her help. She wishes to have children and Dahlia tells her to go out and have her sisters. The girl left her coven because she was never as strong. Dahlia tells her that had she stayed she could have helped herself, but she doesn't believe it. Esther begs for her help, even though the sacrifice will be high for what she asks, and Dahlia cannot refuse her.

Oliver wishes for death. Finn orders that he be killed for his crimes, and invites the other wolves to see what happens to traitors. His mother praises him, as she goes to attend to her own problem. Elijah hangs, still strong and full of life. She's disappointed that he still refuses to take her offer. She remembers the child that he was, and believes that child would be appalled to see what he would become, is. She would do anything for that child, for him. She slips the slumped Elijah's throat, murmuring an incantation.

Haley comes running at the sound of anguish inside. Klaus is cleaning up, his interrogation isn't going as well as he had hoped. Witches are delicate creatures, and as suspected he has Elijah captive. He plans to draw his mother out. Klaus goes to change, and Haley wants to help him find his mother, but he can't afford the distraction.

Gia reports back to Marcel. She's found nothing so far, Marcel hopes that Klaus has had better luck. Haley bursts his bubble. She wants to mount her own rescue mission, not to save Elijah, but Oliver. She knows he and Elijah were fighting, and she's heard that Oliver is about to be executed. She thinks that if Oliver is saved, then they may find something on Elijah. She needs a distraction. Finn is in control of the wolves, and if they can keep him away she can swoop in and grab Ollie herself. Marcel doesn't want her to take on the wolves alone. If she's killed, he will be too, and he can't have that. She doesn't plan to go in alone. The wolves still have an alpha, she just needs to find it.

Cami gets a surprise visit from Finn. He can read on her face that she's having a whole lot of drama with Klaus, and that she's been sucked into the crazy. Finn thinks that Klaus is relying on her too much, but Cami feels a professional obligation to help him. She's described Klaus as a danger, but she doesn't think he's dangerous to her. She doesn't want to talk shop with happy hour. He orders a whiskey neat for himself, when he orders her drink she freaks just a bit and makes an excuse to run.

Klaus digs up his mother's grave and prepares to set it on fire when Elijah comes out to stop him. Klaus rushes in after his brother. Elijah notes that Klaus looks concerned about him. Klaus wants to know what his mother has done to him. Elijah tells him that their mother is looking at saving them, that she only wants to talk. Klaus isn't fooled, he throws a chair though his brother's illusion. His mother appears. She's trying to help him find his way, and she will give Elijah back to him. Klaus doesn't believe her. Esther admits that she has lied in the past, but she plans to be straightforward now. She will turn him into the man that he should have been, she will do it for both Elijah and Klaus.

The plantation they stand in was ruined by fire, which she finds tragic. She points that he never intended to build his home there, even as Haley was pregnant with his child, and Elijah and Rebekah sought to protect them. He was too busy on conquest. Klaus doesn't appreciate her motherly critique. He's endured lifetimes of misery, trapped in a state of perpetual despair. He can't take her hypocrisy, and only wishes to have his brother back. It breaks Esther's heart to see him like this she claims. The truth is that her love is a curse and she's no better than Michael, who also crawled back from the grave to ruin their children. Esther is silent for once. She didn't know that the destroyer rose, brought back to kill him by Davina, nor did she know that Kol knew.

Cami looks through the parish records, and is shocked to find Finn's name there. Marcel bets that she wants a new advisor right about now. Cami wants answers. She checked her uncle's records and found that the Griffiths are a family of witches. Marcel tells her that it gets worse, that Finn Mikaelson is inside of said advisor. Cami is exasperated. He came in asking about Klaus, then ordered her favorite drink. It's likely that he's been watching her for awhile and she wants to know why. Marcel isn't sure, but tells her that she's done with him. Cami is far from done though.

If what he says is true, Esther thinks that they should band together against Michael. But Klaus isn't clinging to his mother, not even against he monster that she let raise him. She is not evil, and Michael was not always a demon. She tells him that Michael once doted on his children. He loved Finn and Freya most. Klaus isn't interested in her memories. She thinks that all his years of hatred have colored his perceptions. She tells him that if Michael attempts to harm him she will strike him down herself. Klaus still refuses to align, he's never had an issue killing parents. Esther offers him something more, his real father.

Haley searches the woods for her family. She catches a pair of arrows that Ansel fired straight at her. She tells him that he has to try harder if he plans on killing a hybrid. He looks like he plans to make good on that when Jackson stops him, telling Ansel that he knows Haley, that she was to be his wife once.

Esther walks with Klaus out to a grave. She asks him if he remembers killing her. Klaus has many reasons, her turning him and his siblings into monsters, casting him out, denying his hybrid nature, lying about his father. There are many reasons, too many to pinpoint where his hatred begins. He calls her a whore, and Esther slaps him for crossing the line. He knows nothing of her love for his father, and how losing a child changes a couple.

Jackson tells Haley how Francesca offered him a moonlight ring, so long as he called her Alpha, but he declined. He was roughed up. By the time he healed and heard what happened to her, it was all over. That was when he met Ansel, and he's been teaching him the old ways. Haley's kind makes Ansel antsy. She tells him that her kind are the wolves, and they need an alpha, Ollie needs an alpha. Jackson isn't jiving with what she's laying down. Ollie spilled his own kinds blood, he plotted with the Guerras. Ollie is trying to make up for that mistake, but Jackson doesn't care. If he doesn't want to be the alpha that is fine, she'll save him herself. Ansel has no love for vampires, but he refuses to let a wolf die at the hands of witches, atleast Haley found one backer.

Esther tells Klaus how after Freya died, Michael was inconsolable. They had to pack up their things and leave, and Michael's despair eventually drove them apart. Esther tells him how she was drawn to Klaus's father at that time. Klaus doesn't want to hear the story. If this Adonis was so great why did he not claim his son, why let a monster raise him. Esther takes the full blame, she forbade him from taking Klaus, from claiming him. She knew if Michael had learned of his infidelity, he would have destroyed them all.

Marcel asks Cami if she actually thinks that she's going to be able to spy on the ancient witch. He doesn't want her in the middle of his hatred against Klaus. Cami is ready to embrace her heritage, thinking that if she had before then the Guerras would have never risen to power, and the wolves would have never seized the Quarter, and Klaus wouldn't have lost his baby. Marcel receives a call. Haley tells him that she didn't get her Alpha, but she got the next best thing if he found a way to keep Finn distracted. He thinks he has something.

Esther told Michael that she was pregnant, and it renewed his spirits. Because of Klaus they were a family again, and they had many children after. Their family was built on secrets, but Esther sees him as her joy. She tells him that she could give him what he desires. That she placed Kol and Finn into witch bodies, and she could do the same for him in the body of a werewolf. That mortality will bring him peace, and he could have a family. She's offering happiness, but Klaus only wants his brother. He tells her that he will kill her in this body or any other. She uses her power against him. She had hoped that he would take her up on her offer, but she sees that his wickedness knows no bounds. She snaps his neck and leaves him.

Past. Klaus stumbles and discovers a dead man. He looks into the man's face, and he awakens. Esther apologizes for the headache. She asks if he was dreaming. He was remembering the day he found his father, after Michael had already slaughtered him. Esther calls it her darkest hour, saying that had he not killed her after she's not sure that she would have recovered. She sees that he awoke earlier than she expected. She gives him Elijah's location, and tells him that he is free to take him home. He will then be free to make his own decision, just as Klaus is. She insists that all that she has told him is the truth.

Marcel lays his trap. He has his vampires scout the area, on the lookout for trouble. Cami is inside. She thanks Finn for coming, claiming that she was too abrupt earlier. The pair share a drink.

Haley strides into the cemetery to free Ollie, but Ansel tells her that they already know that they're there. With no time to be gentle she breaks his chains.

Cami asks Finn how he would diagnosis Klaus, his favorite subject. He's depressive, paranoid, has a lack of impulse control. Cami says she can't make a proper diagnosis. There's too much history she doesn't know, she asks how he manages. Some red flags go up. Cami explains that he's said that he has some issues with his own brothers. Finn eases back, telling her that he's not particularly close to his brothers. She asks about his parents as Marcel listens in. She apologizes for prying, since she sort of freaked out before about his prying. She claims that she's just trying to understand coping mechanisms, to learn from the master. Marcel is getting antsy outside, when a lone wolf comes and disturbs him, warning that vampires caught in the quarter are to be killed on site. Dumb schmuck. He tells his scout to run as fast as she can.

Haley is ready to give the wolves coming at them a fight, but Ansel talks her down. He came to save a wolf, and he won't sit by and watch her slaughter others. He tells her to take Ollie out the back, and he'll hold off the others.

Cami apologizes for offending Finn, but he claims she hasn't. He notices that she seems on edge. Outside Marcel battles the wolf. Finn asks if its because of Klaus. Finn notices that her questions are unexpected. Cami searches for a weapon under the table. She deflects telling him that maybe she's asking the sort of questions she is because she's worried that he's going to tell her to stop spending time with Klaus. He tells her that she can tell herself whats best. She says that she has a destructive pattern, that she's drawn to the bad boys, that maybe deep down she feels thats what she deserves. Rather than attacking her, he tells her that he can help her break this destructive pattern if she lets him. Cami puts her knife away, crisis averted.

Marcel is taking a beating when Gia comes back around to help him out with the wolf. The wolf tosses her like a rag doll, but it gives Marcel a chance to snatch his heart.

Haley and Ollie make their way out of the crypt, but the wolves know that they're there. The leader of the opposition calls to Haley. She comes out of her hiding spot, telling them that they should just let them go, but he's not so willing. Ollie calls them all idiots for lining up to fight a hybrid. The prize is nothing more than to kill him, all because a witch gave the order. Ollie may have lost his way, but he never lost sight of the goal. They were going to be a pack, and now they're all turning on each other. If they do that then they are nothing. The wolves part and let Ollie and Haley pass.

Klaus is in the graveyard. He hears the sound of fighting and runs over to help, snapping the neck of the nearest attacker, when he comes face to face with Ansel, who just happens to look exactly like his dear old departed father. Ansel knows his face, and calls him by his name, but Klaus won't believe what he's seeing. He thinks that Ansel is just another phantom that his mother has conjured. Ansel tells him that he is real. He recently woke surrounded by wolves after his death long ago. He knows nothing of Esther or her bargains. He tells Klaus that he is his son. He goes to touch Klaus, but Klaus stops him. Even if what Ansel says is true, he is nothing to Klaus, and he can crawl back to hell.

Gia has a pretty nasty wolf bite on her neck. Marcel gives her a vial of Klaus's blood, the only cure for a wolf bite. He tells her that he's running low, so she shouldn't get bitten again, and she points out that she got bit saving him. He admits that when she took off, he thought she had really left. In the past when things got tough she ran, because she never fit in anyways, but she feels different there. She doesn't plan on running anymore. Marcel gets a call from Cami. She's had worse dates, and she thinks that Finn has a thing for her, doesn't everyone? But she points out that if she's Finn's blind spot then she can take him down.

Jackson isn't so happy that Ollie was retrieved, and less so that Ansel isn't back yet. Ollie has a confession, but Jackson already knows that he sold him out to Francesca. He can't make up for that, but he tells him that he's the one. He's the alpha. Their people were not made to be slaves. Ollie begins coughing, choking on his own blood. The witches said that he only had until midnight. Ollie dies with Jackson helpless to save him.

Klaus finally finds Elijah. He tears down the doll holding him captive, and breaks his chains. Esther tells him that he won't wake, which gives Klaus another chance to consider her offer. She promised that Elijah would be fine, which he sees as a lie now, and doesn't appreciate the atrocity claiming to be his father. She tells him that his father is really back. She pulled him from the other side before it collapsed, and left him with his kind in the bayou. She brought Ansel back for Klaus, to give him the father he never knew back, so that he could help him be the wolf he should have been. Esther offers him this gift, this chance, and should he reject her again he will be all alone and unloved for eternity she tells him. She tells him not to refuse her out of spite. He hates her now more than ever. She came for his child his daughter. She tries to use her powers against him. When she came after his baby she declared war, and he plans to make her suffer as only he can. He is his mother's son after all. He leaves his mother behind, and takes Elijah.

Past. Esther lost Freya not because of the plague, but because of the bargain that she made with the witches. She had no choice but to let Dahlia take the child away because she bargained not only her first born, but the first born of every generation. If she did not kill his child then Dahlia would return and she would kill their entire bloodline. Now, Esther tells Finn that Klaus did not accept her offer, that he still doesn't understand why she had to make the sacrifice and cause him the pain she did, to save them all.