What does a supervillain want most? Is it power? Vengeance? Or just plain and simple closure? On this show where even our main anti-hero has found himself drawn inexplicably to a powerless therapist who effortlessly sees all his flaws, the latter need may be the biggest motivator of all.
We’ve seen psycho-babble from Camille before, and from Vincent (when Finn was possessing him and passing as her therapist). Vincent seems to have picked something up from that ruse, because he’s seeing Davina embrace a future he rejected, and he knows the potential to become the next evil super-witch (he’s known a few) is a possible result of her quest to resurrect Kol.
Her insight and training is what led Camille to the truth about Klaus’ guilt in the killing of Aiden (his hands were, for once, clean), but Vincent is worried about her, too, and calls her on her destructive fascination with Klaus, making her realize that she is, in her own words, deeply “in love with a monster.”
Love is the other force that motivates the Mikaelsons. And while Marcel knows that everyone outside of their blood bonds is mere “cannon fodder,” he also may be inside those bonds himself, as Klaus’ chosen heir and Rebekah’s eternal lover. Esther challenged Elijah’s deepest beliefs about himself this season, but didn’t destroy his loyalty to Hayley or his need to aid and protect his siblings. Not even Klaus did that by daggering him (with the voodoo bone knife that causes pain and incapacitation but not death), and he told Camille how to pull it out of his chest when the time was right.
In the end, it’s about the siblings coming together (with Rebekah back in her right body, one more time – Good luck to Claire Holt on her new show Aquarius, btw! David Duchovny is surely scarier than Klaus has ever been!), with Freya finally amongst their number, to take down the older generation of Dahlia and Esther (in the welcome person of Alice Evans, still intimidating if fresh from the coffin again).
Yes, Rebekah and Elijah teamed up to trick Davina into resurrecting Esther rather than their brother, child’s play for them against the powerful but naïve young witch. It’s a cool moment when she crawls out of the sarcophagus to everyone’s surprise.
Rebekah actually returns to her witch body, the most pleasant development of the episode as Maisie Richardson-Sellers has proven as valuable to the cast as Yusuf Gatewood this season. If we can’t have Claire, Maisie will more than do, and Yusuf’s Vincent is probably the most interesting and nuanced witch we’ve yet met (next to Josephine of course).
So Dahlia creates a spell on the site of traitorous hangings that will destroy Freya, and punish the Mikaelsons once and for all (points for her clever use of the White Oak Dagger once last time).
All it takes to freeze her mid-spell is Esther walking, nude, into her circle of salt, and offering the loyalty and partnership and love she withheld 1000 years ago. Her interruption allows Freya to break free and aid the dying Mikaelsons, and even for Klaus to kill both mother and aunt. It’s a fairytale ending that recalls (sorry) Frozen in reverse; rather than thawing two princesses of ice, their long-delayed embrace creates two queens of ash, locked in a final embrace before being blown to dust.
Corny? Sure, but also strangely beautiful, and such a finality that we know next season won’t be about Esther and Mikael and their mistakes, but rather Klaus’ own estrangement from all the enemies he made while fighting Dahlia. The Mikaelsons are poised to go their separate ways, but I can predict an opposing force bringing them back together soon enough.