poppycock: (#11517584)
ꀘ꒒ꋬ꒤ꇙ ꂵ꒐ꀘꋬꏂ꒒ꇙꄲꋊ ([personal profile] poppycock) wrote2018-12-22 05:51 pm

[community profile] entranceway app (fourth wall re-app) part 1/2


Name: Crystal
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E-Mail: fancynewmail@gmail.com (Please do not display.)
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Other Characters: N/A

Character Name: Niklaus Mikaelson
Series: The Vampire Diaries / The Originals
Timeline: The Originals, 4.9, “Queen Death”
Canon Resource Link: »»

Character History:
"I remember the sweet boy who made me laugh and gave me gifts, who loved art and music. I wanted to be just like you. How could you have fallen so far?" - Rebekah to Klaus, The Originals, 1.16, “Farewell to Storyville”
♚ ♚ ♚

MYSTIC FALLS, VIRGINIA, 10TH CENTURY

The Mikaelson family immigrated from the Kingdom of Norway to the New World some decades before the 11th century. It was there Niklaus was born, the brother of seven total siblings, to the Viking warrior Mikael and his witch bride Esther. Niklaus, more commonly Klaus and affectionately Nik, grew up surrounded by brothers and a sister who loved, supported, and protected him. However, not even their love and protection could save him from Mikael; Klaus also grew up under the constant physical and psychological abuse of their father.

Though Mikael's viciousness was directed towards all of the Mikaelson clan, the brunt of it always fell on Klaus' shoulders. From birth, Mikael despised his son: beating Klaus from an early age and at least once to the point of near-death. These beatings were for seemingly minor offenses: not being able to shoot a deer as a child, dulling a blade, etc. The reasoning for this intense hatred is unclear, even to Mikael himself. When Klaus later asks to explain his detest, Mikael’s only answer was that he didn’t know why he hated Klaus, he “just did.” Mikael would call him pathetic, weak and essentially worthless despite Klaus’ attempts to please him and live up to his expectations. As a child and later as an adult, this instilled a terrible fear and lack of self-worth inside of Klaus. Yet despite that, he was full of love and wanted to be loved in return, quick to playfulness and impressively creative, carving figurines and chess pieces. He loved his siblings, Elijah and Rebekah especially. Elijah would teach him to hunt, encouraged him, and guided him in ways Mikael didn’t. He and his little sister Rebekah were thick as thieves, both so alike in temper and humor. Klaus adored and doted on her.

Despite Mikael’s abuse, perhaps Klaus would have lived a happy life. However, one full moon Klaus snuck away with his littlest brother Henrik into the woods to watch the men turn into werewolves. Henrik was attacked and killed. In response, Esther performed a spell designed to make the entire family into immortals so they could never be hurt or killed again. It was this spell that turned them into vampires, and the first of their kind. Notably, Esther also channeled power for the Immortality Spell from the White Oak Tree in their village. Only the wood from this specific tree can kill an Original vampire. The tree was destroyed by the Mikaelsons by fire. (Or was it completely…)

With this immortality came bloodlust, and it was not long after that Klaus killed, triggering his werewolf curse. Elijah finds him after his first full moon, crying and shaken, among his victims’ remains. After this, there was no hiding the truth from Klaus and Mikael: Klaus was born out of the adulterous union of Esther and a werewolf named Ansel. As Klaus later learns, Esther did all she could to prevent Klaus’ werewolf transformation out of fear and desperation, spelling a necklace that weakened Klaus and quelled his anger. This was done in hopes that it would keep Klaus from killing anyone and activating the curse. But as Klaus puts it she left him to suffer at the hands of a father who “valued only strength.” She turned him into “the weakling he hated.” Now Mikael had another reason to hate him: he was the result of his wife’s unfaithfulness, a werewolf, and therefore an abomination.

Mikael slew Ansel before Klaus could find him, though he did find his body, impaled on a spear. Soon after, Esther performed a spell to suppress Klaus' werewolf side at Mikael's behest. Esther, in performing this spell, used the blood sacrifice of a village girl named Tatia and an object called the moonstone to bind the curse. Tatia was loved by both Klaus and Elijah, though she chose Elijah in the end. Tatia was a Petrova doppelgänger, whose blood contained magical properties. It is revealed later that Elijah, overcome by bloodlust, attacked and killed Tatia after she learned what he was. Esther went to magical lengths to suppress this memory of Elijah’s. Only after did Esther use Tatia’s blood in the spell. Tatia’s murder, supposedly by Esther’s hands as Elijah and Klaus believed, was a loss they both grieved.

After Esther effectively suppressed Klaus’ werewolf side, he was spurred by rage over learning the truth and suffering her betrayal. Klaus killed his mother and kept this secret from his siblings for centuries out of fear of hatred and abandonment, placing the blame on Mikael instead. These paranoias have continued to haunt him and drive him to extremes, as did the continuing threat of Mikael. Their father had apparently carved a stake from the White Oak before it was destroyed and intended to kill Klaus with it. Terrified, they flee their home.




"Over the course of my life I’ve encountered no shortage of those who would presume to speak of good and evil. Such terms mean nothing. People do what is in their best interest, regardless of who gets hurt. Is it evil to take what one wants, to satisfy hunger, even if doing so will cause another suffering? What some would call evil, I believe to be an appropriate response to a harsh and unfair world." - Klaus, The Originals, 1.04, “Girl in New Orleans”
♚ ♚ ♚

SOUTHERN FRANCE, 1002

Above all, what Klaus desires and cares about most is his family. Despite Mikael’s abuse and Esther’s manipulations, he has clung unerringly to his siblings from the beginning. Before leaving the New World and their murderous father, he, his older brother Elijah, and his younger sister Rebekah made a pact that would define and curse them all. They pledged to take care of each other, to never abandon or betray one another, and to love each other, no matter what; always and forever.

And so they left their home together, eventually arriving in the south of France with their other living siblings, Finn and Kol. They had no choice but to keep a low profile, traveling the countryside to avoid Mikael and feeding off human travelers. They lived by one code: to leave no survivors and hide the bodies in order to protect themselves from Mikael’s notice and wrath. Eventually, they fall upon a caravan of noblemen and a noblewoman, slaughtering the lot. Weary and tired, Kol and Rebekah appeal to their other siblings to take their meals’ identities and live a better life. As they are having this discussion, they realize there is one survivor stowed away, a servant named Lucien. He begs and pleads for his life, appealing to their plight and offering his assistance in their ruse. There’s contention from both Finn and Elijah, and Klaus is the deciding vote: they agree to spare the servant in return for his help.

Lucien does successfully introduce Klaus, Rebekah, Elijah, Finn, and Kol to the Count de Martel as nobles. The very first night they are there, they are introduced to the Count’s children, Tristan and Aurora. Klaus is quickly infatuated with the enigmatic Aurora, calling her “exquisite” the moment he sees her. It so happens Lucien agrees and has held a torch for her for quite some time, but warns Klaus that Tristan would kill anyone for looking at her. Klaus, being invincible and who he is as a person, ignores this and begins to court Aurora behind Lucien’s back, despite his friend’s feelings and warnings. This, unsurprisingly, does not turn out super well for anyone involved: Lucien discovers Klaus and Aurora’s affair and maddened by his anger and despair, unwittingly brings Tristan down upon them. At Aurora’s urging, Klaus leaves in time, but Lucien is caught and presumed to have been with Aurora.

Tristan locks Lucien up and tortures him mercilessly. Driven by guilt for what has befallen his friend, Klaus and Elijah try to appeal to Tristan to let Lucien go. He refuses and reveals that because of Kol’s murderous antics in the nearby villages, Tristan knows they are monsters. If they try to interfere, he will reveal them for what they are and force them to flee. Klaus is angered by this and only Elijah’s good sense and staying hand holds Klaus back. However, it doesn’t stop Klaus from later attempting to quietly rescue and release a bloody and mutilated Lucien. Lucien doesn’t appreciate this too much and stabs Klaus the moment he is free. Though this obviously doesn’t kill Klaus, his blood spills on Lucien’s wounds, healing him. Thinking this blood exchange made him like Klaus, Lucien goes after Tristan in revenge, only to be killed for his efforts.

Grieving and upset, Klaus arranges to burn Lucien’s body in a funeral pyre. He reveals that he tried to give Lucien his blood after his death, but it did not work. They can only heal the living. Like a phoenix, Lucien rises from the flames and ashes as a vampire in transition, since he died with Klaus’ blood in his system. He completes the transition by drinking human blood. Klaus worries that Lucien is mad at him, but Lucien professes he owes only thanks to Klaus for ascending him to a higher being; for giving him a rare gift. He wants Klaus to show him how to be like him. Knowing this means he has his friend’s love back, Klaus agrees and they paint the town red.

Klaus continues his affair with Aurora, but one night she finds him, Rebekah, and Lucien feeding. Terrified, she runs away. Heartbroken and desperate, he writes her a letter explaining what he and his family are: they are monsters, but he is still a man and he knows he can love because he loves her. She accepts him then, body and soul, and for a time they become confidants and lovers. She pleads with him often to make her like him, so they can be together forever and she might be cured of her mental illnesses, but Klaus does not want to curse her to his fate. Later, she confesses to him she killed her mother during her birth and this makes her a monster; Klaus, overtaken by his remorse, confesses with complete trust to her that he killed his mother in a fit of rage and she could never be as wretched as he.

Unbeknownst to Klaus, Aurora devises a way to turn herself into a vampire. She attempts to take her own life and so Rebekah saves her by feeding her blood. Aurora jumps to her death and awakens to transition. Though upset by Aurora’s human death initially, Klaus realizes the benefits of the woman he loves being as immortal and terrible as he. (Roughly and against a wall, even.) But the happiness and acceptance Klaus experiences in France is short-lived. Mikael finds them because of Kol’s reckless behavior. Aurora pleads with Elijah to let her go with them. Elijah inadvertently compels her, forcing her to admit that Klaus killed Esther. Wrathful and discerning, he then compels her to believe she doesn’t love Klaus, that he is a monster and a beast, and that she could never love him.

This is what she tells Klaus when he finds her and tries to convince her to come with him. Heartbroken and slighted in a way he will never abide or allow again, Klaus leaves her. During this or perhaps slightly afterward, Elijah turns Tristan. He compels him, Aurora, and Lucien to believe they are Elijah, Rebekah, and Klaus respectively as a decoy. He and his siblings flee as do their progenies.




"Go right ahead. Laugh at the girl who loved too easily. But I would rather have lived my life than yours, Nik. No one will ever sit around a table telling stories about a man who couldn’t love." - Rebekah to Klaus, The Vampire Diaries, 4.04, “The Five”
♚ ♚ ♚

TUSCANY, ITALY, 1114

The Mikaelsons run from their father for over a century, presumably disguising themselves as nobles as they did in France. Klaus explains they were following the Normans as they conquered the south, feeding and turning people into vampires along the way. The bloodshed draws notice, but Klaus tells Elijah he welcomes the infamy. They happen across a vampire hunter in Tuscany who slaughters their kind in public displays. His name is Alexander, and he is one of Brotherhood of the Five, a supernaturally enhanced group of hunters who exist to kill all vampires. When the Mikaelsons were first turned, Esther crafted a spell to place on lapis lazuli rings which when worn protect them from burning up in the sun. With these rings, the Mikaelsons seem to fool the Five since they can survive the sunlight like other vampires cannot. They use this to their advantage, electing to stay with Alexander to discover his plans. Klaus and Elijah encourage Rebekah to seduce Alexander to this end, but she ends up falling in love with him.

This proves to be their and the Fives’ undoing. Using spelled daggers coated with White Oak Ash, Alexander and the other Hunters stab the Mikaelsons through their hearts and condemn them to a sleep much like death. (Notably, Elijah’s daggering and “death” breaks his compulsion of Tristan, Aurora, and Lucien at that time. That’ll be important later...) However, as a vampire and werewolf hybrid, the dagger does not work on Klaus. He awakes to brutally slaughter all of them, including Alexander. This is the first time we are witness to the growing extent of Klaus’ cruelty and paranoia. Klaus removes the daggers from all of his siblings with the exception of Finn. (The flippant explanation to this, repeated often throughout the series, is that Finn hates what they are and is a bore.) After Klaus removes the dagger from Rebekah, she awakes to find Alexander’s body impaled against the wall. Enraged, Klaus demands to know what Rebekah revealed to him, grabbing her and shaking her, accusing her of trusting Alexander over him. He says he cannot ask the truth of Alexander, for he ripped his tongue out. Crying, Rebekah insists he told him nothing, but Alexander did reveal what weapon they intended to use against all vampires: a cure for vampirism, the map of which is tattooed on their bodies. His sword holds the key to deciphering them. However, once they died, the marks disappeared.

For Klaus, slaying the five hunters had an unexpected and terrible consequence. He suffered the Hunter’s Curse for 52 years, four months, and nine days, plagued by hallucinations and nightmares that haunted him and tried to convince him to kill himself. Yet being what he is made this nearly impossible. The curse was only lifted when a new potential Hunter was awakened. Klaus describes the experience in The Vampire Diaries canon as “unrelenting, never-ending torture” and the only period of his life when he “actually felt time.”




"Love is a vampire's greatest weakness, and we are not weak, Elijah. We do not feel and we do not care."
"We did once."
"Too many lifetimes ago to matter."
- Klaus and Elijah, The Vampire Diaries, 2.19, “Klaus”

♚ ♚ ♚

ENGLAND, 1491

The next few centuries pass without relative incident besides their father hunting them down relentlessly and forcing them to live in terror. It’s revealed by Elijah that during this time Klaus’s paranoia and cruelty grows. He hides his loneliness and sheds what is left of his humanity. He begins to insist that as vampires, they do not feel, and they do not care; they have no reason to do so, only to take what they want.

During this time Klaus becomes obsessed with finding the next Petrova doppelgänger to break his curse; he wants to be more powerful than he is now. He needs to be powerful, in order to survive and defeat his father. He wants to break his curse to make more hybrids like him so he won’t be alone. To do so, he begins a rumor called the Sun and the Moon Curse, a curse which when broken by a vampire or a werewolf would release vampires from the dangers of the sun or werewolves from their slavery to the moon, respectively. With this rumor he sends both vampires and werewolves in search of the key ingredients he needs to break his curse: the moonstone and the Petrova doppelgänger.

In 1492 the Mikaelsons are in England, posing as English noblemen. It’s there they finally find what they are looking for: Katerina Petrova, the spitting image of Tatia and the next doppelgänger. Klaus woos her, intending to sacrifice her as part of the ritual to break his curse. She learns of his plans, takes the moonstone, and runs. In order to save herself, Katerina becomes a vampire, supposedly ending the Petrova line and condemning Klaus to his curse forever. Again, because of who Klaus is as a person, he retaliates by finding Katerina’s family and slaughtering her entire household for her defiance. However, not even that revenge is enough for Klaus. He spends centuries afterwards with an ear to the ground, intending to kill Katerina should he ever find her again.




"A love that was born alongside our love for you... Our family's newest member. You may hate me. But your hatred only marks you as my kin. And I knew you to be my son. You and I are bonded by fate, by history and by blood, and you, Marcel, you will always be my family." - Klaus to Marcel, The Originals, 3.21, “Give ‘Em Hell Kid”
♚ ♚ ♚

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, 1702—1919

The next three centuries pass. We know in the 1500s the Mikaelsons were in Copenhagen, Denmark. By 1702, they are in Cádiz, Spain, where Mikael once again caught up with them because of Kol’s penchant for giving into his bloodlust and making no effort to hide his mass murders. Mikael burns the city to the ground and slaughters Klaus’ beloved horse Theo as a warning. Kol is obstinate and refuses to run anymore; Elijah and Klaus dagger him and take his and Finn’s bodies to the New World, in hopes of escaping Mikael.

They arrive on the shores of New Orleans after sailing up the Mississippi River. New Orleans becomes their second, true home, a place where Klaus, Elijah, and Rebekah settle and begin to help build. In 1720, Elijah and Klaus play a hand in constructing the city’s first levees. By the 1800s, Klaus has sired vampires and created something of a kingdom where his family, though primarily he, is in charge. This control and relative peace is something Klaus takes to with alacrity, finally feeling as if he has a home with his siblings at his side. However, even this reprieve does not quell Klaus’ paranoia, jealousies, and rage. In 1820, the family is living in the Governor’s mansion, paying the man off with gold to turn a blind eye to their existence and their proclivities. When Rebekah asks her brothers for permission to turn the Governor’s son into a vampire because she is in love with him, Klaus throws him off a balcony in front of her eyes and ends his life. This is a pattern that is suggested to have occurred before and will continue: Klaus murdering Rebekah’s lovers and sometimes Elijah’s out of fear they would love him less and abandon him.

At the Governor’s son’s funeral, Klaus, Elijah, and Rebekah pass a man whipping a young slave. The boy fights back. Driven by rare compassion and empathy, Klaus kills the man on the spot and introduces himself to the child. The boy does not have a name and so Klaus proclaims that survivors must have names. He suggests Marcellus, which means “little warrior,” and decides to take Marcel under his wing as his ward. Marcel is one of the Governor’s slaves, and so Klaus later threatens and chokes the man until he agrees to free him. It’s revealed by Marcel that the Governor is his biological father and his mother a slave who died from illness. Moved by Marcel’s similar plight, Klaus tells Marcel family isn’t just those whom which they share blood. They can choose.

Klaus grows particularly cross with Elijah during this time due to Elijah’s enchantment with a New Orleans witch and his growing closeness to Marcel. Because of Klaus’ resentment of Elijah’s love for the witch Celeste, and the power of the New Orleans witches in general, Klaus puts in motion a plan to cripple Elijah and the witch faction. Elijah states Klaus has slaughtered dozens of people within a few weeks time. He expresses concern that this will bring their father down upon them, but Klaus remains unworried and says he blamed the deaths on the witches. Surprise, surprise; in retaliation, the witches were rounded up and killed, including Celeste. The next year in 1821, Klaus grows jealous of Elijah’s close relationship with Marcel and undaggers Kol to entertain himself. They kill an entire tenement building for fun. However, Kol soon grows angry when he realizes Klaus cares for Marcel much more than he cares for him, Klaus’ own flesh and blood. He stages a Shakespearean play for Marcel using compelled actors with real weapons. When Klaus and Elijah witness this, Kol threatens to turn Marcel into a vampire. Realizing Kol is too dangerous, Klaus daggers him. (This is the most healthy family ever.)

By 1835, Marcel is fully grown and falls in love with Rebekah, who falls in love with him. This angers Klaus, who forbids Marcel from pursuing his sister after Marcel asks for his blessing. Klaus claims that men come and go for Rebekah, but he is the constant. (Incest alert.) Against his wishes, Marcel and Rebekah eventually give into their feelings and are caught by Klaus, who in a fit of jealousy daggers Rebekah, proclaiming she needs to learn a lesson in what she can and cannot take from him.

Later that year, Marcel is shot by the Governor while trying to free slaves. He is dying when Klaus finds him. He pleads with Klaus to make him a vampire. This is a conversation they’ve had in the past. Like with Aurora, Klaus refuses despite how he embraces his own monstrousness and immorality, not wanting the damn those he loves to such a fate; to becoming like him. Marcel tells Klaus that he knows what Klaus is, who he is, and convinces Klaus to finally turn him into a vampire. It’s that or lose Marcel completely.

Klaus undaggers Rebekah in 1887. He reveals with sadistic pleasure to her that he gave Marcel a choice before he turned him: to live a human life with Rebekah or become a vampire and stay away from her. Obviously, Marcel chose immortality. Once again, Klaus always wins.

Despite Klaus’ protests and displeasure, Marcel leaves to fight in World War I. He’s so slighted by Marcel’s attempt at independence that Klaus eventually follows him to Europe and attempts to lure him back to New Orleans. He fails ultimately, but Marcel does return home in 1919 and is welcomed back by Klaus with open arms. During this time, Klaus and his family are attempting to broker a deal with the humans and werewolves of New Orleans to create a ruling class of supernatural beings with Klaus and his family hidden at the head. This is challenged by one of the New Orleans witches, Papa Tunde, who also considers himself king of the city. Klaus is who he is as a person and slaughters Papa Tunde’s power source, his twin sons, and then kills Papa Tunde too.

After Marcel’s return to the French Quarter, he begins seeing Rebekah again in secret. Klaus knows this, confessing to Elijah that he has known it for quite some time. However, after the deal with the human faction and the werewolf faction was cemented and his family’s power acknowledged, Klaus gives Marcel and Rebekah his blessing. He tells Rebekah they are safe now and to be happy; that all his attempts to keep her from happiness in the past have been to protect her from heartbreak when they had to run. Unbeknownst to Klaus, Rebekah and Marcel already enlisted the help of the witch Genevieve to bring Mikael upon New Orleans in a desperate attempt to be together.

Mikael does come some months later despite Marcel and Rebekah’s hope the spell did not work. He confronts Klaus at the opera house, taunting his bastard son for calling him father. Klaus is undoubtedly shaken, but replies that he’ll die knowing his hatred of Mikael is just. He’ll die being proud of all he has built here. Mikael tells him that he will burn the city to the ground and make certain no one remembers his name. Mikael sets the city ablaze and leaves Marcel for dead. Klaus and Rebekah, reeling from the loss of their home and of Marcel, run at Elijah’s urging. Elijah separates from them in an effort to draw Mikael away from his siblings.





"Thank you. I had forgotten what it was like to have a brother." - Klaus to Stefan, The Vampire Diaries, 3.03, “The End of the Affair”
♚ ♚ ♚

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, 1922

Klaus and Rebekah, still on the run from Mikael, hide in Chicago where they party every night and drink all they want. Yet despite their carefree fun, they are still restless and grieving Marcel and their home. It’s there they meet the vampire Stefan Salvatore at a speakeasy, who unknowingly helps them both heal. Rebekah quickly falls in love with him. Klaus tolerates their romance because of his amusement for Stefan’s brutality and his growing friendship with the man. They become like brothers; Stefan encourages Klaus, insisting that his family wants him dead because they can never be what he is. Klaus replies, “An abomination?”

“No,” Stefan says, “a king." (Just what he likes to hear.)

Mikael finds them soon after, and Klaus compels Stefan to forget both him and Rebekah for their safety and his. Klaus drags Rebekah away, but she fights him. She wants to say with Stefan. Klaus gives her a choice: to choose him or Stefan. She chooses Stefan, and so Klaus daggers her, terrified of being alone once again. (We all saw that coming.)

It’s unclear if Klaus and Elijah reunite in the decades after Chicago, but Rebekah remains daggered. Klaus grows increasingly paranoid and inconsolable when Mikael vanishes without a trace during the 1990s. No witch can locate him and no contacts catch a whiff of him. Using the unique logic that can only be accredited to Klaus, he convinces Elijah that he abandoned their siblings’ coffins at the bottom of the sea, all in order to estrange Elijah and to avoid feeling so helpless.

Elijah, enraged, separates from Klaus.




"Mother made us vampires. She didn’t make us monsters. We did that to ourselves." - Elijah, The Vampire Diaries, 3.15, “All My Children”
♚ ♚ ♚

MYSTIC FALLS, VIRGINIA, 2000s

Katerina Petrova, now Katherine Pierce, is still alive at the turn of the century. So is her family, which still unbeknownst to Klaus, did not end with her. She has spent centuries learning all she can about Klaus and the Mikaelsons. Katherine takes the newly turned vampire Isobel Flemming, the mother of the next Petrova doppelgänger Elena Gilbert, under her wing, convincing her to find a way into Klaus’ inner circle to protect her daughter.

She succeeds, but Klaus is too shrewd to not recognize her treachery and compels Isobel to reveal all she knows. He decides to use her in a plan to find the moonstone, capture Elena and Katherine, and complete the ritual sacrifice that will break his curse. He convinces Katherine that if she aids him, he will pardon her sins against him. Also during this time, Elijah is actively working against Klaus in Mystic Falls, planning to eventually kill his brother for condemning their siblings to an eternity at the bottom of the sea.

Klaus’ introduction in The Vampire Diaries timeline begins when he possesses vampire hunter/history teacher Alaric Saltzman using the powers of his loyal witches. This is a ploy Klaus is revealed to use often: taking the place of someone in a trusted inner circle to obtain information and eliminate threats. He’s painted as an enigmatic villain with quite the sadistic sense of humor, sending Elena creepy notes to “save him the last dance” at an upcoming high school function.

Klaus leaves Alaric’s body and returns to his own. He works on securing contingencies to his original plan and makes it so Elena has no choice. She agrees to come with him and die by his hands. (There is also a witchy failsafe that Klaus doesn’t know about that maybe, maybe won’t work to save her life.) At the ritual is when he comes face to face with Stefan again, who has reformed from his previous behavior, still does not remember Klaus, and is in love with Elena. Stefan attempts to bargain with him, but there is nothing that can be said or done: Klaus has wanted to break this curse for centuries and he is overjoyed to finally do it with no care for anyone else’s suffering. (In point of fact, a little suffering is just and amusing to him.) Not to mention, he has plans for Stefan, the man who he once called brother.

He and his witch complete the ritual. The curse must be lifted on the night of the full moon and so Klaus begins the excruciating change into a werewolf. Elijah, Bonnie, and Damon are waiting for this. Bonnie begins a spell to weaken him in his already weakened state. Klaus lays on the ground, contorting into a werewolf, terrified at the sight of his brother standing over him. Elijah punches a hand through his chest. With his heart is his brother’s hands, he says the only thing that will save him. Their siblings’ bodies are safe and not at sea. He will take Elijah to them. He gives his brother his word.

Amidst the screams and protests of Bonnie and Damon, Elijah escapes with Klaus.

Later, Elijah presses the issue of being reunited with his siblings, and so Klaus takes him to Alaric’s apartment where he’s been staying along with a captive Katherine Pierce. Stefan is also there to plead with Klaus to save his brother, whose been poisoned by a fatal werewolf bite. In another patented Klaus move, he stabs Elijah with a dagger, ensuring his brother he will be reunited with his family… though not the way Elijah intended.

Faced with Stefan’s plight, Klaus offers him a deal: to become the human blood-drinking ripper he once was and leave Mystic Falls with him. Only then will he give Stefan the cure to a werewolf bite, which so happens to now be his blood. After Klaus persuades Stefan to drink human blood again with a cruel satisfaction, he agrees. Klaus tells Katherine to bring the cure to Damon and come right back, unaware that she is on vervain and can’t be compelled. (She does bring the cure to Damon, but she doesn’t come back.)

Klaus takes Stefan away from Mystic Falls for the summer. It’s a charming little romantic getaway for them, Klaus ordering Stefan to feed off and kill people against his will as they search for, torture, and kill werewolves. Klaus has a plan and is focused and vicious in achieving it: to make more hybrids like himself. To create an army, so that no one will ever be able to touch him again. It’s not working, hence all the killing. Every time he attempts to turn a werewolf, they die. With each death, he becomes more and more angry and desperate.

They need a witch to tell them why he can’t make hybrids. Klaus takes Stefan to Chicago to visit a witch they both once knew, though not in Stefan’s memory. It’s there, after Stefan finds a picture of him and Klaus from the 1920s, that Klaus confesses they had been friends and calls Stefan his “number one fan.” The witch tells them there’s no way she can find out why he can’t make hybrids. Only the Original Witch (spoiler alert: it’s Esther) can. The only way she can contact Esther is with her necklace, a necklace that after Esther’s death Rebekah wore as a keepsake.

With no other choice, Klaus undaggers Rebekah. (Though not before smiling with affection at her corpse and stroking her cheek.) When Rebekah awakes, rather cross with Klaus if you can believe it, she reveals that she doesn’t know where the necklace is. She must have lost it in the 1920s. (Guess who has it? Stefan. Guess who Stefan gave it to? Elena, who is very much not dead.) Klaus lifts his compulsion of Stefan then, hoping now that they have spent time together and that he remembers loving Rebekah, Stefan will stay with them; they can be what they were. Klaus’ every motivation is driven by this: he’s alone. He feels alone, and he will do anything to feel as if he is not. He punishes those who dare feel or act in ways that don’t suit his needs.

But Stefan’s loyalty remains with Damon and Elena. Klaus and Rebekah, once again thick as thieves, sense this from Stefan’s prodding and probing; he wants to know who Mikael is and why they were running from him. They return to Mystic Falls to find what he’s hiding: that Elena’s alive and her blood is the key to Klaus creating more hybrids. To punish Stefan for his disloyalty, Klaus compels him to attack Elena and to turn his humanity off. He takes Elena’s blood, which is all he values her for, and makes his first hybrid out of the werewolf Tyler Lockwood, one of Elena’s friends.

During all of this, Damon and Katherine have been trying to find Mikael to get rid of Klaus. It’s only after Damon tells Klaus that “his friend Mikael” knows he is in Mystic Falls that he vanishes in fear, leaving Rebekah there to handle things as he finds several more werewolves and turns them. It’s the only way he might defeat his father. (It’s revealed around this time that since Klaus “frees” these wolves from their slavery to the moon, they are sired to him. This means they feel indebted to him and will do anything he tells them to do, whether they want to or not.)

However, while he is gone Elena convinces Rebekah that Klaus’ control over her needs to stop. She discovers that Klaus killed their mother and tells Rebekah. Driven by the betrayal and grief of Klaus’ lie and his mistreatment of her over the centuries, she agrees to help Elena and Mikael kill Klaus. They stage a lie that Mikael has been killed to lure him back. Obviously this doesn’t go as planned. Mikael confronts Klaus, who believes Mikael has Elena hostage as bait. (But it’s Katherine, lol.) He goads Klaus for being alone, twisting the knife by saying no one cares for him anymore. He calls him a coward for hiding behind his hybrids. Klaus tries to call his bluff: he won’t kill Elena because she’s his only leverage. Mikael does, stabbing her, and in the tumult Damon appears with the White Oak Stake to kill Klaus, but Klaus is saved by Stefan, who knows Klaus’ hybrids will kill Damon if Klaus is killed. (What a drama rollercoaster.)

Klaus grabs the White Oak Stake and rams it in Mikael’s chest, finally killing him after 1,000 years of running in terror. It’s an act that brings him little peace, as his tears and future behavior can attest. He releases Stefan from his compulsion, claiming he has earned his freedom. Later, Klaus talks to an undaggered (but not fully conscious Rebekah) about how his dreams for creating a family home are now ruined; Elena told him Rebekah found out about the little issue of his matricide. This is how Klaus deals with the judgement on his sins: he avoids it until he can manipulate his desired reaction, too frightened to end up alone. He daggers her again.

Releasing Stefan is a terrible idea in the end, because Stefan decides to exact his revenge by stealing the Mikaelsons in their coffins, including his beloved Rebekah.

Klaus is furious when he realizes what Stefan has done, threatening to kill him and everyone Stefan has ever met. From Klaus, this is obviously not an empty promise. Stefan, using his leverage, later tells Klaus to tell his hybrids to leave town. When Klaus refuses, Stefan kills one of them. But Klaus is not cowed nor does he consider himself backed into an impossible corner. He orders Tyler to bite and poison his girlfriend Caroline. He convinces the mayor of the town that his hybrids can protect Mystic Falls. It’s only when Stefan ruthlessly threatens to eliminate Klaus’ family and nearly does kill Elena that Klaus complies, telling his hybrids to leave.

Tyler does bite Caroline, unable to resist Klaus’ orders, as Klaus knew he would. Later that night, he shows up at Caroline’s house and makes it clear he will cure her if Caroline’s mother, the Sheriff, agrees to offer him her support. She agrees for her daughter’s life and invites him in. What follows is more of the twisted compassion Klaus is capable of; he confesses to Caroline that he too has thought of ending his life, a time or two, but there is so much to live for. Caroline admits she doesn’t want to die, that she wants what life has to offer, and so Klaus offers her his blood to heal her. The next morning, Caroline awakes to a gift from Klaus: a diamond bracelet worthy of a princess.

Klaus is not about the let Stefan off the hook now that his hybrids are out of town and demands Stefan return his family. Stefan again refuses. However, it’s no matter to Klaus, who has already planned to find the location of his family’s bodies through manipulating and threatening Bonnie and her mother. Bonnie divulges the information and Klaus does eventually get his family back - minus one coffin.

Damon left Klaus another surprise, having undaggered Elijah as well. Klaus pleads and bargains with his brother then, professing he needs Elijah to help him retrieve the remaining coffins with the words of their bond: always and forever. They can be a family again and he can confess to Elijah what he knows about their mother’s death. (What Elijah already does know.)

Who truly knows if he would have (not likely) but Elijah knows better to trust Klaus’ “vulgar” promises and instead undaggers Finn, Rebekah, and Kol, who all now know what fate befell Esther. Frightened and knowing he is overpowered, Klaus attempts to escape. Finn, Kol, and Rebekah attack him and prevent this, holding him there. Klaus admits that he meant for this house to be their home, a place where they could be a family again and never be alone. Elijah, Kol, Finn, and Rebekah seize that opportunity to tell Klaus they’re leaving him. Confronted by his deepest fears, Klaus yells that he will hunt them down, that he can’t be killed; Elijah says if he does, he will become the one thing Klaus hates: their father. And once they have the last coffin back, Klaus will fear them.

The door of the house opens then and in walks their mother, the Original Witch, who Bonnie and her mother released from that last coffin. Overcome and ashamed, Klaus ducks his head. Stunned, his siblings watch as Esther approaches Klaus and orders him to look at her. When he does, she asks him why she is here. Klaus assumes, “You’re here to kill me.”

Esther replies, “Niklaus, you are my son and I am here to forgive you.” She looks at the rest of the Mikaelsons, Klaus at her side, and says, “I want us to be a family again.”

And they all lived happily ever after. The end.




No, they don’t. And it’s not. Guess who secretly wants to kill Klaus and his siblings? Their own mother and Finn, who hates what he is, as if their own father wasn’t enough.

Esther organizes a ball. Encouraged by his mother, Klaus invites Caroline. He sends her a dress and a note to save him a dance. She arrives wearing the dress and the bracelet he gave her. Klaus is stunned, much like he was with Aurora. He has no scruples letting his interest be known: he asks her how she is faring after her father’s recent death, calls her ravishing, compliments her dancing skills, and admits he knows she was Miss Mystic Falls. (Because researching your date’s life is super not creepy and totally attractive.)

Despite Caroline’s cold shoulder, Klaus is determined to win her affections. He confides in her about his father’s treatment of him, shares his love of art with her, and even offers to take her anywhere she wants to go. She’s not wooed and instead says he does these extravagant and cruel things because no one would love him otherwise. And it’s true: Klaus uses his love and knowledge of art, music, and culture as a way to seduce women he covets. He offers them the world, too afraid to offer himself. Angry at her rejection, Klaus suggests that their evening is over, but later she finds a drawing Klaus left her and a note thanking her for her honesty.

Unbeknownst to Klaus and his siblings, Esther uses the ball as an opportunity to perform a spell linking their lives together. If one of them dies, all of them will. So it’s Klaus and Rebekah team-up time! After finding out the White Oak still survives, they find a way to join forces with Finn by reuniting him with his first love, the vampire Sage. Klaus convinces Bonnie to undo the linking spell by threatening to kill her boyfriend. Rebekah, meanwhile, is torturing Damon, but Stefan stops by to trade the White Oak for his brother. One of the stakes was already used in an attempt to kill the Mikaelsons. Klaus and Rebekah learn Finn is dead and with his death, Sage and his entire vampire line also dies. This is a nice little failsafe for the Originals, who refuse to divulge what sire line the Salvatores originate from to save all their cute butts. Stefan gives them most of the stakes and Rebekah gives him Damon as a sign of good faith for return of the last two, much to Klaus’ displeasure.

Later, Rebekah confronts Klaus about his blasé attitude over Finn’s death. “Good riddance,” is his reaction. “I wanted a family. They just didn’t want me.” Determined not to suffer his grief and vulnerability, he tells Rebekah they are now unlinked and not responsible for each other. He plans to get the stakes, take Elena, leave town, and create a new family of hybrids. When Rebekah asks what happens if she chooses to stay, Klaus is fearful and resentful of the idea of being alone again, calls her just as pathetic as Finn.

All of Klaus’ plans to retrieve the remainder of the White Oak and Elena are foiled and foiled again by Esther, who returns not only to possess Rebekah for a time, but also to reveal her secret weapon: she’s been influencing Alaric from the Other Side all this time. She plans to awaken this alter-ego for good and create Alaric as another Original who will have the power to kill her children.

Esther is killed by Alaric. Klaus takes her body to put her right back into her coffin. There, he waxes poetic over her corpse that his survival will haunt her through eternity; that he will build an army so big that no one will touch him. She will never destroy him.

Well, she’s going to give it another shot apparently. Working with the Salvatores, Klaus helps to free Elena and Caroline from Alaric’s clutches, swayed by his infatuation for Caroline but really more greedy for Elena’s blood. Klaus attempts to take Elena amidst all of this but fails; Tyler, who released himself from his sire bond, turns on Klaus. He and Stefan hold him down as Bonnie performs a spell to desiccate him. They plan to keep him alive to save his bloodline, which was revealed to include the Salvatores. But with Alaric after him with the White Oak, Bonnie transfers Klaus’ soul into Tyler’s body and preserves Klaus’ body in the event of his death to make certain her friends won’t die.

It turns out to be a smart move, for Alaric does end up killing Klaus and in front of Rebekah. Rebekah is so distraught at the death of her brother that she kills Elena in revenge, not knowing Elena had vampire blood in her system.

Since Alaric dies with Elena (their lives are linked) Klaus, possessing Tyler, wants Bonnie to transfer him back to his original body. While waiting, Klaus is informed through Tyler’s phone that Caroline (and Rebekah) have been kidnapped by a new foe, the Town Council. Not over her nor ready to let the opportunity to play hero pass him by, he rescues Caroline but leaves Rebekah, calling her “little sister” and telling her to “keep them busy.” Caroline, ecstatic to find Tyler alive, begins enthusiastically making out with him thinking it’s her boyfriend. Despite Klaus’ minimal and amused protests, he eagerly returns her advances until she realizes who he is and decks him across the face. He tries to point out him saving her was risking exposure for him, but she’s not convinced being a halfway decent person for two seconds is really something that deserves a gold star. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Later, when Klaus is in his own body and Rebekah has escaped, she confronts him, upset he saved Caroline over her. Klaus is glib and unconcerned, packing up Elena’s blood and suggesting they hit the road and make more hybrids. He points out that he didn’t leave her in any real danger; she can’t be killed, proving once again that Klaus is willing will let others suffer for his own purposes. But Rebekah is inconsolable, telling him that he knows nothing about family; how can he think to create one with his hybrids? She mourned him, thinking she’d never see him again. She destroys the bags of Elena’s blood as Klaus watches, telling him that it’s always been her: she loved him through everything and he didn’t even care.

This defiance cannot go unpunished. Rebekah has destroyed what Klaus sees as his only opportunity to be secure and not alone. He lashes out, as he’s apt to do. Klaus takes her by the neck and tells her she’s right. He doesn’t care. She isn’t his family, his sister; she is nothing to him. He snaps her neck and leaves her.

He returns to Mystic Falls only at the request of Tyler’s mother to protect Tyler. Though he does not care about Tyler much at all, he does not want his remaining hybrids to die. He meets Hayley Marshall, a werewolf from Tyler’s past when he was breaking his sire bond, and begins to suspect (wrongly) that Tyler and Hayley had an affair. That Tyler would cheat on Caroline seems to truly upset him, but he has no scruples using it to his advantage. Tyler, Hayley, and Caroline encourage this assumption to cover their true motive: break the sire bond of his other hybrids and defeat him. (Why do these people keep trying?)

Klaus helps Damon interrogate Connor, who is discovered to be a vampire hunter of the Five. It turns out that over the centuries their marks have become invisible to all but other Hunters and potential Hunters. It also turns out Jeremy is a potential Hunter. Considering Klaus’ history with the group and his knowledge of their weapon, Klaus takes Connor and Jeremy in an effort to find the location of the cure and either give it to Elena to make her human again or destroy it. He orders Jeremy to draw the tattoo, but soon realizes it’s not the full mark yet and compels Jeremy to tell him why: the marks grow with each vampire kill.

He tries to convince Rebekah to aide him in this endeavor. He and Rebekah reveal to Stefan about their history with the Hunters, about the marks, and the cure. Klaus berates her anew for falling for any man that shows her a hint of affection. Rebekah argues back, accusing Klaus of leaching every moment of happiness from her life. She deduces Klaus’ plan to cure Elena to make more hybrids and refuses the help him. But Klaus, the cunning asshole he is, knows Rebekah would refuse to tell him where Alexander’s sword is. He knows she would tell Stefan.

She does, after a bit of manipulation from Stefan. Klaus is waiting in the wings with a dagger, knowing Rebekah would only get in the way. She tells him to go on and laugh at the girl who loved too easily, but no one will ever tell stories about a man who couldn’t love. She calls him a coward and to look her in the eyes while he daggers her. Klaus is visibly shaken by this and daggers her, too ashamed to look her in the eyes as he does so.

He leaves Mystic Falls for Italy, where he digs up Alexander’s bones and finds the sword. While he is gone, Connor escapes and Elena kills him, so now she suffers the Hunter’s Curse. Wanting to protect Elena so he might give her the cure, Klaus takes her and locks her up so she does not kill herself. Klaus leaves her in the care of his hybrids and goes out. Meanwhile, Tyler helps one hybrid, Chris, betray Klaus. Elena escapes to kill herself after a bungled rescue attempt from Stefan. Klaus isn’t happy obviously, and we’re all reminded of that old adage: if you want something done right… Luckily, the Mystic Falls crew have discovered awakening a new Hunter will end the curse, so Klaus doesn’t have to kill them all on principle.

It works like this: Klaus discovers his hybrid’s treachery, overhearing Tyler and Hayley attempting to convince him to flee. Tyler pleads with him to spare Chris’ life and Hayley offers her own life in exchange, announcing she’d rather die than be one of his “sired little bitches.”

“Don’t tempt me, little wolf,” is Klaus’ reply. He agrees to let Chris go, but only so Stefan and Jeremy can kill him, making Jeremy a Hunter and saving Elena.

This works out even better than it sounds for Klaus, considering he gave up a treacherous hybrid for a date with Caroline earlier.

So begins their pseudo-date, which takes place at the Miss Mystic Falls Pageant, an event Caroline has organized. They flirt and enjoy the company of each other, despite Klaus being the original fuckboy and Caroline’s counter-manipulations. He has no regret using her break up with Tyler, which he believes is real, to his advantage. She asks him if he would ever take the cure and he deftly avoids giving a genuine answer, only questions why he would ever cure himself of being the most powerful creature in the world. Klaus teases her then, revealing a glimpse of his playful sense of humor, and Caroline laughs as well. He does answer her later, confessing with some vulnerability he has thought about being human. He’s thought about being on the verge of death everyday, having to work that hard to survive, and how satisfying every day must be when you do.

With all of Klaus’ remaining hybrids unsired by Tyler and Hayley, they both decide to launch their plan to condemn Klaus during the holidays. Fortunately for Klaus, Hayley elucidates the situation: she warns Klaus of Tyler’s plan, because she’s secretly had her own this whole time. She’s made a deal with Atticus Shane, a professor at a nearby university. Professor Shane plans to awaken Silas, the first immortal and the bearer of the cure, to save his own family. To do so, he must plan three sacrifices of twelve people. In return for Hayley’s help, he will help her find her biological parents. Hayley sets Klaus up to kill his hybrids, of which there are twelve, to complete a sacrifice.

He does, slaughtering them all viciously and mercilessly for their betrayal. He then searches for Tyler and finds Carol, Tyler’s mother. Carol begs Klaus not to kill Tyler because her son is all she has. He kills her, knowing his mother is all Tyler has, remarking on the beautiful symmetry.

Klaus takes a few days to chill and then turns an entire bar full of people into vampires to motivate Jeremy to become a Hunter. It is the most effective solution, since he can’t count on the Salvatores to do anything efficiently, effectively, or without motivations of their own. This plan is foiled by Kol, who hearing of Silas’ imminent return, kills all of Klaus’ vampires. His time spent with Silas worshippers centuries ago have taught him a thing or two about Silas bringing about the end of time, and he’d like to prevent that. Klaus threatens to dagger Kol if he doesn’t back off. He complies, but not before compelling Damon to kill Jeremy.

Rebekah confronts Kol with a dagger, knowing if he is daggered his compulsion will break. (Stefan has already stopped Damon and locked him up.) Kol turns on her with the White Oak Stake, but Klaus stops him before the situation escalates more; at the end of the day, Klaus will always care for Rebekah and his siblings, no matter how he treats them. Kol absconds with the remaining daggers, being no fool. Naturally, knowing Rebekah has a dagger and Kol has the rest is inconvenient for Klaus, who is most comfortable when he has his siblings under his thumb. Not to mention, he would still like to dagger Kol for his purposes. Rebekah, in an understandable huff, refuses to give the dagger up.

Klaus is unaware that Kol is at Elena’s house with Jeremy, who both kill him. To say Klaus doesn’t react well would be a gross understatement. Despite his annoyance with Kol and despite their disagreements, Kol is still his brother; he loves him dearly. Klaus never intended for Kol to die, only to be punished on his terms. He bellows as much to Elena and Jeremy, threatening to burn the house down and when they run from the flames, kill them both without blinking. When Jeremy argues he can’t kill Elena, Klaus shouts he doesn’t care about his hybrids; that he doesn’t want Elena to take the cure. So full of rage, he reveals he planned all along to destroy it and kill them all.

Before he can make good on his threat, Bonnie arrives and lures Klaus into a trap. He is now stuck in Elena’s living room for a few days with a barrier spell. Klaus rages, telling them all he will hunt them to their ends. When Tyler and Caroline arrive the next day, Klaus has calmed and is staring with grief at his brother’s charred body, forced to remain in eyesight of it. Tyler goads him, threatening to shove the cure down Klaus’ throat to kill him. After they cover Kol’s body, Klaus appears tortured and attempts to manipulate appeal to Caroline, telling her they are even now and to get Bonnie to release him. She refuses, nastily enough to anger him, and so Klaus uses a floor lamp to impale her and drag her inside the barrier, where he bites and poisons her.

Tyler pleads with Klaus to help Caroline, to save her, but he refuses even after Tyler apologizes and promises to be his slave again. Klaus looks unhappy even with the ball in his court. Yet he clings to his hurt and spite, even after Tyler leaves Caroline in the room with him in an effort to save her. If Klaus wants this, he can watch Caroline die. It’s only after Caroline tells him he’s capable of love and capable of being saved that Klaus is moved. He’s swayed watching her begin to die and heals her, not wanting to become a complete monster.

Of course, he sort of ruins that later. Caroline and Tyler retrieve Alexander’s sword and with Klaus’ help, find out there’s only one dose of the cure. He warns Rebekah, who is on a mission to find Silas’ body, that she must get to it first. Knowing Klaus will kill Tyler since the cure is meant for Elena, Tyler decides to run. Caroline pleads with Klaus to spare him, but Klaus refuses, unable to let someone who has wronged him live a happy life. He makes one concession, for Caroline’s sake: he’ll give Tyler a head start.

The barrier spell expires after Tyler runs, and Klaus is free. Silas has also been freed and the cure has been stolen - not by Rebekah, but by Katherine, who is the true mastermind here. She’s been behind the scenes this entire time, in particular influencing Hayley. She sends a vampire after the werewolf to tie up her loose ends, but Hayley makes a deal with Klaus: she’ll tell him all about Katherine if he saves her.

He does in the nick of time and spirits her away to his home, where he questions her. She divulges what she knows, confessing she helped Katherine because Katherine knew something about her family. Klaus shows her his art, confessing that he considers it a metaphor for control. Everything is his choice: the canvas, the color, etc. Klaus is the most comfortable when he is in control. She expresses how much she likes one of his paintings, and Klaus glibly and bitterly asks if it’s because it allows her to see into his deep, wounded soul. She says no; it illustrates how twisted he really is and she suggests she can relate.

All this talk and drinks leads to its obvious conclusion: Klaus and Hayley have sex. Afterwards, Klaus notices a birthmark on her shoulder; it’s the mark of a Louisianian pack of wolves. She demands to know more and Klaus, remarking that family is sacred, does.

Klaus is later confronted by Silas, who has taken the form of Professor Shane. (Silas can appear in any form. Neat.) Silas tells Klaus to help him find the cure or he’ll torment him for eternity.

Elijah returns (\o/) with Rebekah soon after to support his little sister’s desire to take the cure, become human, and live out her life. If they give the cure to Silas and save Klaus that promised torment, Silas will basically end the world. Klaus still wants to refuse Rebekah, but Elijah tells him to put a cork in it because Klaus’ personal discomfort isn’t reason enough to put the world in jeopardy. Incensed, Klaus tells Rebekah that when she’s sick, dying, and begging for his blood, he’ll deny her.

Later, Elijah offers the White Oak Stake to Klaus as a peace offering. Not much peace comes of it, considering Klaus threatens to kill Katherine, who Elijah cares about, if he ends up having to run from Silas. Rude. But typical. Speaking of Katherine, Klaus receives a letter from her warning him of a New Orleans witch plotting against him.


CONTINUED »»