[Warning: this post contains spoilers from Thursday’s episode of The Originals, “The Axeman’s Letter.”]

“Always and forever” no more. Klaus and Elijah have stood by each other for over a thousand years, but after tonight’s episode of The Originals, the past came back to tear the brothers apart, maybe for good.

After Klaus’ ex-love Aurora came to New Orleans to win his heart back, she revealed the real reason why she dumped him all those years ago: when Elijah accidentally discovered how to compel, he made her tell him the truth about Klaus killing Esther and blaming it on Mikael. In his anger, Elijah then compelled Aurora to break Klaus’ heart and leave him. Now that Klaus knows the truth about what Elijah did, the two brothers fought and declared war on each other.

“One of the things that our show is absolutely about is the nature of this relationship,” executive producer Michael Narducci tells Nerdist. “Elijah, who can’t seem to abandon his monstrous brother, and Klaus, who couldn’t live without him but is constantly doing terrible things to his brother, sometimes out of love, sometimes out of his own diabolical, paranoid, psychological delusion. And now, interestingly enough, we’ve found out that there is a great sin from Elijah’s past, where maybe Elijah has stood by Klaus’ side for all these centuries because of a sense of guilt over something he did. And now we’re realizing that maybe the noble, beautiful, honorable Elijah has some flaws or chinks in his armor, and it’s a little bit more complicated.”

But this divide between the two Mikaelson brothers couldn’t have come at a worse time.

“I really love those scenes where they are acknowledging that their relationship is fraught with conflict and drama and pain, but they are still blood,” Narducci says. “Given everything that’s going on, despite their conflicts and how much they currently loathe each other to the point of what you saw at the end of this episode, they need to stand together, because what’s coming at them is far worse than each of them are to one another.”

That might have a little something to do with the fact that both of their first sired vampires, Tristan and Lucien, might actually be working together to rile up the sire lines into a war. What could they possibly be planning together while pretending to be at war with each other?

“Very soon you’re going to find out,” Narducci says. “These vampires understand that a prophecy has been delivered that the Mikaelsons are going to die, and it’s going to happen very soon. And if they die, then we die too. Even though we have strife between us and we’re competitors, the danger is that we’ll just be wiped out when our sires are wiped out. So let’s put aside our differences and find a way to hijack this prophecy and take control of it, control the narrative and make it work out in our best interest.”

So what option does that leave the Trinity of Tristan, Lucien and Aurora?

“If they don’t want Elijah, Klaus and Rebekah to die–because that would be bad for them–what is the alternative?” Narducci says. “The Mikaelsons need to be taken off the chessboard in a way that will render their own lives safe and that might require that the Mikaelsons be disposed of in some way where they cannot die but they’ll never come back and either threaten anyone else or be threatened themselves.”

And Lucien was a busy vampire tonight, as he ended up framing Cami for the human murders that have been plaguing New Orleans ever since he arrived in town.

“There’s a little bit of a misdirect about what you can get out of a murder investigation that might help the larger motive of our villains,” Narducci teases. “Right away, we’re going to see that the effects of Cami being arrested and her room full of dark objects being discovered by the police might actually play a larger role into what the big mastermind villains are up to and how they want to deal with the Mikaelson family.”

But don’t expect to see Cami in a “legitimate jail cell, with a cup banging on the bars.”

“Things are going to get a lot worse, a lot more quickly than that for her, because of where she ends up,” Narducci says. “And [Detective Kinney] is also going to wind up in dire straits. The episode ends, and he has arrested Cami. Very, very soon, both he and Cami might find themselves together in some difficult terrain.”

Next week, expect to see Klaus and Aurora’s “love story” take a turn for the downright disturbing.

“In episode 6 we see everyone we love and care about in extreme situations and jeopardy while we also see part two between Klaus and Aurora and how their relationship will evolve in the now,” Narducci says. “It ends with the single most frightening combination of romance and fear that we have ever put onscreen. It is romantic and sexy but also the most horrifying ending we have ever done.”

Throw your best guess as to what that could possibly be in the comments section below.

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Images: The CW

The Originals airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on The CW.