The Originals recap: 'Beautiful Mistake' 

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All I took away from this hour is that Aurora, Tristan, and Lucien spent a century playing mini-Mikaelsons, and I want nothing more than to watch an entire spin-off of it. But in all seriousness, that twist points to something this show does so well: Despite the fact that there are always things that you can predict — there will be a threat to the family; the siblings will fight; someone will inevitably get daggered — how this show goes about crafting its stories is never redundant. On the contrary, this feels like one of the freshest and most exciting stories yet…probably because the only thing better than watching the Mikaelsons bicker is watching the Mikaelsons bicker while facing mini-Mikaelsons who are also bickering. 

We start things off with a naked Aurora in Klaus’ bed and an angry Klaus — but she’s

— looking for answers. However, we won’t find out what she knows or why she’s naked — though hopefully you can figure

out — until the end of the hour. For now, we’re going back to 24 hours before their horizontal mambo. (Spoiler, sorry.)

When Freya returns from drinks with Newbekah — thanks to some witchy teleportation — she finds the compound in a state of disarray after Klaus and Elijah’s disagreement. And yet it seems that the brothers, like the gentlemen that they are, have called a truce. They both agree that they must expose and destroy Lucien and Tristan. In other words, they’ve directed their fury elsewhere.

And for Klaus, that means spending the day with Aurora trying to discern whose side she’s on in this war. Naturally, he decides to do that with a tour of New Orleans, beginning with lunch. After all, a good gentleman feeds a lady some blood before prying for answers. 

Somehow finding an empty bar — which is a miracle at any time of day in New Orleans — Klaus gets a few minor answers out of Aurora. She is not his enemy, nor is she Rebekah’s. However, she isn’t exactly Elijah’s biggest fan. As Elijah tells Freya, the last time he saw their sires, he compelled them to believe that they were Mikaelsons and run from Mikael. So Tristan, Lucien, and Aurora spent a century thinking they were Elijah, Klaus, and Rebekah as a decoy to keep Mikael from finding his real children. 

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Eventually, the compulsion wore off, but the Mikaelson mindset never did: Tristan, Aurora, and Lucien swore a pact of vengeance, with the only thing getting in their way being Tristan and Lucien’s distrust of each other. (See what I mean by mini-Mikaelsons?)

Continuing their tour around the city, Klaus takes Aurora to the oh-so-romantic cemetery, where she reveals that over the centuries, she’d dream of him. And when she so much as doubts the feelings Klaus had for her, he takes her back to the compound to toss aside some furniture, punch through a brick wall, and reveal a painting he made of her. The wall apparently leads to Klaus’ old art studio, which he now refers to as a “tomb” for his memory of Aurora. But over all these years, Klaus has never been able to free himself of her love. 

Okay, I’m not going to lie. I’m really enjoying this epic love story for Klaus. It’s such a different side to him. And of course, because no woman can resist a man punching through a wall, Aurora and Klaus kiss and head to the bedroom. More on that in a bit. 

After having drinks with Freya, Rebekah, who’s apparently very close to getting her hands on the spell that will bring back Kol, has a run-in with Aya. And by run-in, I mean that Aya slits her throat, forcing her back into her vampire body. So I guess that settles that.

And when Freya — who’s currently drinking Elijah’s blood to help cure her hangover, and I’ve never loved her more — gets a bad feeling, she realizes that something awful’s happened to Rebekah. By the time Freya teleports herself to Rebekah, our blond-again friend is mid-battle with Aya and her many Strix colleagues. But Freya, continuing to prove that she’s the most useful Mikaelson, snaps all the necks in the room and asks Rebekah to come home.

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