Can Klaus Recover On 'The Originals'?

It was another tough week on The CW's The Originals for everyone's favorite bad boy. On Tuesday night's episode, we got to see Klaus' emotional side through a series of flashbacks that belonged to both his memory and the memories of Rebekah and Elijah. When we left the Original siblings last week, they were trapped in the witches graveyard with Klaus holding the White Oak Stake and more than ready to exact revenge on his sister. But it turns out that death, destruction, misery, and pain aren't the only things Klaus Mikaelson is capable of.

In case you need a refresher, Klaus is feeling deep betrayal from finding out the Rebekah called their father to New Orleans in 1919 in hopes of running him out of town or having him killed. And now, he's decided that she deserves to die or at least to suffer and feel the fear that he felt in that moment. Tough stuff.

Elijah, because he's the voice of reason, tried to reason with his determined brother — who's running around brandishing the White Oak Stake with every intention of putting it through his sister's heart. But his attempts end up being unnecessary because Rebekah has a thing or two she wants her brother to know. And the first thing, is that he brought this betrayal on himself by tormenting and controlling her for so many years.

Here's where The Originals threw us for a loop — Klaus got emotional. And when we say emotional, we don't just mean he waxed poetic about their "Always and Forever" promise. He cried. He cried a lot. And it was shocking and disarming and totally unexpected coming from this character, whose personality has shaped the show and steered it away from any emotion that wasn't anger, desire, or paranoia. There's another side of Klaus that we've never seen, apparently a side that cries actual tears, and that's not something we'd ever have expected.

After plunging Papa Tunde's knife into Elijah's stomach to get him out of the way. (There's the Klaus we know and love.) It's just him and Rebekah trapped in the graveyard hashing out their longstanding issues. Klaus tells Rebekah that it wasn't his intention to torment her — to him, he's been protecting her from the evil outside of their family because there's nothing he loves more than his family. But the moment is short-lived and he starts making accusations and trying to force her to admit that she actually wanted him to be killed — which, she maintains, that she did not. She just wanted to scare him off so that she could be with Marcel. Klaus doesn't believe her and ends up partially daggering her — but misses her heart on purpose.

Rebekah then brings up a point that explains everything — all of the Mikaelson kids are damaged beyond repair and they're doomed to live forever with that pain. They've all been damaged by their father — Klaus with his paranoia, Rebekah with her fears of abandonment, and Elijah who devotes himself wholeheartedly to everyone but himself — and now they can't be together. It's then that Klaus shows compassion that we knew he was capable of, but he'd never actually shown. Through more tears, he lets Rebekah go.

I bet you thought he was going to kill her anyway, even after their sibling heart-to-heart and trip down memory lane that proves that there's no one in the world they love more than each other. Wrong. He tells her, through more tears, that they can't be together — they're just a mix of volatile ingredients that'd be better off alone. And since the binding curse that trapped them initially has been broken, Rebekah turns to leave. Even though something about this felt like they really wanted to work it out.

After Klaus removes the dagger from Elijah and they return to their home, he has to face Marcel — which, to everyone's surprise again, he doesn't murder him on the spot. Instead, he kind of stares at Marcel while he throws a childlike tantrum and then turns and retreats to his bedroom. Could this be the end of Klaus Mikaelson the ruthless ruler of New Orleans? Is he done being calculated and venomous towards the people he loves? Cutting Rebekah loose seems to have had an effect on him that no one could've predicted.

In the last few seconds of the episode, Elijah turns up and banishes Marcel and his motley crew of vampires from the French Quarter and the Mikaelson family home. Assuring him that he's only granting him this mercy because of his sister. Klaus steps down the stairs and tells Elijah that he sounds just like him and that's he's proud. So will Elijah take over while Klaus mends his broken heart?

We still can't get over the fact that Klaus actually cried.

Image: The CW