“In spite of our differences, there is no one I would trust more with my daughters life.”

That was a mother of a finale!!! When war is declared in New Orleans, its a blend of tragedy, heartbreak and somewhere in between, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. What happens when you’re enemies start out-smarting you with their newly acquired parental instincts? Hayley’s willing to do absolutely anything to save her baby, while we get a fantastic season finale, without going too overboard! Let’s dig in shall we?

We start off with Hayley writing a letter to her unborn baby girl, explaining how tough it was for her growing up without parents. She promises that’s something she won’t ever have to do because she will always have  a safe home, someone to tell her ‘I love you’ every single day and someone to fight for her. She’s going to have a real family, in other words. There’s a beautifully touching moment between parents-to-be as she invites Klaus to touch her kicking belly. We see how genuinely happy this baby makes Klaus because it brings out a side of him that I don’t think he even knew he had.

That happy moment is quickly cut short by the witches, who are on a mission to kill the newborn when the moon fades. As Hayley lies on the church table giving birth, Klaus burst through to protect his baby momma– but weakened, isn’t strong enough. The witches pin him up to the wall to watch his baby’s birth.  Hayley gets to hold her beautiful daughter and for a split second, everything is perfect. That is until Monique slices Hayley’s throat, leaving her to bleed out on the table as Genevieve takes the baby for the sacrifice. This was literally two minutes into the finale and so many emotions had gone through me. I was mad, sad, excited, happy and completely unsure if the tears streaming down my face were joyful or full of sorrow. Either way, I was ready to find out how the hell the writers would get out of this one.

Soon enough, Elijah mustered up the strength to arrive at the church only to see Klaus holding Hayley’s lifeless body. His facial expression emitted so much pain and my tears just kept pouring. Seeing these two original brothers, the bad guys crumble over this one woman. How a woman can change everything! But the damage had been done and they had to get it together to save the new little lady in their life. They headed over to the cemetary but no luck. Elijah was convinced the witches must have gone somewhere else but Klaus realized that the witches had put a spell on the cemetery, turning into a long fun-house maze. It’s at that moment that Elijah finally (I think for the first time) lost his cool and broke down. He literally let it all go, expressing how he finally let someone in, something he never does. He needed Hayley to survive, but because of Klaus’s need for power, she was gone and Elijah was left broken. It was refreshing to see him actually express emotions and explain what he’s feeling.

PLOT TWIST: Hayley’s not actually dead! Were you really going to fall for that guys? In a normal world, she totally would have been but not after giving birth to a hybrid-wolf-vampire-witch baby. (She’s part witch because Klaus’s mother was the original witch! Therefore, when she died with the baby’s blood still in her system she awoke a couple of hours later in transition. Hayley was becoming a hybrid! The look of shock and relief on Elijah’s face when he saw her walk in literally gave me goosebumps. You could tell just how in love he really is with her and while it might be a weird triangle, Klaus seemed genuinely glad that she was alive and his brother was happy. But onto the more pressing issues. Without her, the boys would have never been able to find where the witches were planning to sacrifice the baby. Thankfully, Hayley had a new-mother connection to her daughter–she could sense her presence and they were able to find the witches right in time. Despite being originals and hybrids, their powers didn’t stand a chance against the witches who were channeling the power of their ancestors. But, the trio had something that dead witches don’t have– brains and a cause to fight. Klaus figured that if he killed one of the harvest witches, she would interrupt the spell and stop channeling the elders. That left Monique who was super determined to kill the baby and get back their fourth harvest girl. Marcel arrived just in time to throw the dagger that he found in Kieran’s lair, which sliced with a thousand cuts. I can’t say that I’m disappointed to see her go. She was such a pain in the ass. Despite saving the baby, Marcel ran off with her in order to save his people who were all still suffering from last nights fight and slowly dying because of the guerrera wolf bites.

Meanwhile, Davina was growing more and more upset with Klaus. She arrived at the Quarter to see all the vampires dying, including Josh and Marcel. She was able to gather just enough off Klaus’s blood from the street where he and Marcel fought, to save one person. Marcel offers the blood to Josh, who clearly has less time than he does. All the events leading up to this episode have made Davina pretty much despise Klaus so she finally decides to steal some dark magical artifacts from Kieran’s lair to use when she does the spell to bring back Michael from the dead. Literally, the whole time she was doing the spell I couldn’t help but think how stupid she had become. There should be a rule between meddling with forces from the other realm. Also, why is it so easy for these teenage witches to perform such spells, but all the witches in Mystic Falls can’t do them?! It doesn’t make sense. I guess there’s one part that does redeem Davina in my book. When she made the spell, she included the part that makes Michael her personal prisoner. Just like she was locked up in the attic for a long time, now she has control over his actions. He can have his revenge on Klaus, but only when she says its time. This will definitely become useful when she realizes just how stupid her decision to bring back the evil father was.

And you know she’ll regret bringing him back even if she thinks he’s her secret weapon because Marcel and Klaus finally made peace. Most of the wars happening in the Quarter were because once upon a time Marcel tried to bring Michael back to destroy Klaus. It’s literally like history repeating itself. Upon returning to the quarter and seeing all of his men dead, he finally realized that this war was all his fault and pretty pointless. As a thank you for saving his newborn baby, Klaus insisted Marcel drink his blood to heal his werewolf bite. The two made up and Klaus promised he would find whoever killed off the vampire army, clearly unaware that it was Michael and assuming that it was the guerrera wolves.

Meanwhile, Elijah had captured and tied Genevieve up. Hayley wanted to know why she had try to kill an innocent baby and she revealed who was behind the whole idea in the first place; Ester. Yeah, Elijah and Klaus’s dead mother was communicating through to Genevieve that this baby should be killed. Her need to “annihilate all of her flesh and blood,” was even powerful from the grave. Genevieve explained that nothing would stop her until the baby was dead. Blood started pouring from her eyes and nose as the ancestors started killing her. She asked that they apoligize to Klaus for her, but Hayley was in no mood for her bull-crap. She stabbed her full force. “Well I’m not sorry,” she exclaimed. You go momma!

The harsh realization dawned upon everyone that their hope for a safe environment and family for the baby would never be possible. The innocent baby had inherited all of their enemies, but no powers to protect itself (at least for now.) They could try to keep the baby safe in New Orleans or take it out of the city, but either way enemies needing power would never stop looking for her. Hayley’s only plan was that they fake the babies death and give her away so she can have a normal and happy life– not the kind of life Hayley had after her parents died and she was left lonely and scared. Despite how upsetting the choice to give up her baby was, Hayley realized there was no way they could ever protect their little girl and she wanted better for her. So that’s what they did. Marcel found a still-born baby at a hospital, stole it, put it in a box and led Oliver to it. He explained that the wolves would stop trying to kill off the vampires in the town or else he would let Klaus know that he killed his baby. After this, Marcel agreed to have his memory wiped so that he would not put the baby in any danger. When Francesca held a city meeting explaining how the gang violence on the street from the night before had to be taken care of, she set up a memorial for its victims. In the middle of that memorial was a tribute to baby Mikealson.

Cami arrived at Klaus’ place after hearing the news that his baby had passed. This scene was surprisingly sad. I’m not sure if I’m on team Cami and Klaus or team Cami and Marcel, or if there even is a team. Regardless, Klaus has some strong feelings for many women in this town, Cami included. He thanked her for coming with condolences but admitted that there are so many demons that are trying to kill him and those beautiful things around him. She’s beautiful and he doesn’t want her to be collateral damage, so he insisted that they couldn’t be friends anymore. It was hard, but it was the right thing to do. Will she stay away? Probably not. I feel Cami has a much bigger role in all of this!

The parent’s said goodbye to their baby girl. Hayley drank a little blood from its finger, thus completing her transition. In order for their plan to work, it had to be believable. If all three of them didn’t show up at the memorial that night it would become suspicious. Therefore Hayley and Elijah went to publicly display her grief of losing the baby. Meanwhile, Klaus went to deliver the baby to her new care-giver/ mom, Rebekah!!! See, she wasn’t really gone for good!! The reunion was a bittersweet one. Despite their differences, there is no one Klaus trusted more with his daughters life. Rebekah took the baby and promised to find a witch that would put a cloaking spell on her. She envisioned a yard for the littler girl to play in with a white fence to keep her safe. It really came full circle. Rebekah had always been looking for a family and love. While she might have been disappointed in the family and had no luck with love from men, this baby would be everything she ever needed. Don’t you think Rebekah would make like the best/sweetest/most protective mom ever?? “What’s her name?” she asked. “Hope,” Klaus replied. “Her name is Hope.” A more fitting name does not exist. This baby is hope that maybe love is possible. That evil can become good. That not everyone is born into this world bearing the cross of their parents. That there is a way out from the madness that is involved in being a hybrid-werewolf-vampire-witch. That maybe, forgiveness can be given. This baby is everything for Klaus. It’s the hope that one day, they might all see each other again.

I would have been satisfied with this ending because in this instance, a cliffhanger just wasn’t necessary. There’s enough to keep me going through until the fall. Enough questions. With all the witches killed, will the fourth harvest girl resurrect? What will happen between the witches and vampires? Will Klaus ever find love? Will Hayley and Elijah be an item? Is Rebekah not an obvious person to give their child too? Will anyone catch on that the baby never died? How/when will Klaus find out Mikheal is alive and how will he defeat him? See, so many questions! The cliffhanger wasn’t too ‘omg’. It was just enough to really put the icing on the cake. While Klaus & co. believed everything was finally going to be ok, Esther resurrected herself from the dead into a youngin’s body. As she placed a rose on her own grave, the man that returned wit her said, “may you rest in peace.” “What fun would that be?” she replied. The end. You know things are going to get super crazy once the season returns in the fall. Now both Mikealson parents are back. After all, this is The Originals!