The Originals "Chasing the Devil's Tail" Review: Father Disfigure, Disclosure: I know one of the co-writers of this episode in real life. For those keeping score, she also wrote one of my favorite episodes of Season 1, and though I like to think I can still be objective, consider yourself disclaimed! Because this makes it two for two: I really loved this episode also.
Growing up, sons and dads experience many important rites of passage. Tossing a baseball back and forth on the lawn. Splitting an ice-cold beer for the first time while mom's away (shopping, probably!). Hunting for a magical orchid while discussing the nature of inborn evil. Fellas, you all know what I'm talking about. Do you remember how old YOU were when you attended your first football game, or murdered your undead werewolf birth father for knowing too much? Klaus Mikaelson was only tad over 1,000 years old when he did the latter, and trust me, it made for an awkward orchid-hunting trip. But awkward family sometimes make for stellar entertainment.
Our better natures seemed to be the concept of the day in "Chasing the Devil's Tail," as the episode separated our characters into three equally riveting subplots and explored how simple moral decisions affect everybody's actions. We began and ended with the Klaus and Elijah storyline, which found Elijah in a hallucinogenic coma wherein his innocent boyhood self repeatedly had violent interactions with his modern-day inner monster. In my opinion this represented symbolism about our dual natures, but don't quote me on that.
Klaus tried to wake Elijah up by jumping into his brain, but Esther had spelled Elijah's skull so that he couldn't. Luckily, he noticed a flower-shaped burn on Elijah's neck and knew how to wake him up: by finding the same kind of rare MacGuffin orchid that she'd used to put him down. This led to his aforementioned hike with his birth father Ansel, who insisted he knew where the orchid was. But Klaus suspected that Ansel was just another of Esther's stooges, and Ansel only sounded like a bigger and bigger creep when he mentioned that he'd been watching Klaus's every move from the Other Side for 1,000 years. The final straw was when Ansel revealed that he knew Hope was still alive (werewolves know how to geolocate their family members when they turn, didn't you know that?), so Klaus had to murder him. By episode's end, Elijah was awake and Hope's fate remained a secret, but now Esther was reaaally bummed that her ex-boo was dead so she kidnapped Cami! Guys, I'm starting to think this cycle of drama has no end in sight!
The second plotline of "Chasing the Devil's Tail" (and again, any of the three of these stories would have made for an outstanding episode by themselves) found most of the rest of the gang teaming up to capture Finn. After a fascinating therapy scene in which Finn and Cami mutually conned each other into a date, we saw Hayley, Marcel, Aiden, and Josh pull off a sort of Ocean's Eleven But With Monsters witch heist! (A heist of a witch.) First they staged a werewolf attack on Cami (Hayley in a hood but with glowing eyes: a VERY scary mental image, to be honest) and then lured Finn into the church, where he beat up Aiden and nearly killed Hayley but was arrow'd at the last second by none other than Jackson! See, he was apparently done moping around the swamps because nobody had showed up to Oliver's funeral (ugh, it was at dawn, though) and made a strong decision to help his friends finally.
So at the last second he busted in to rescue Hayley, help subdue Finn using magical chains, and even re-proclaim his love for Hayley like a sunken ship suddenly bursting up out of the ocean again. It was an exciting and moving culmination of a lot of good intentions by an all-star rag-tag crew. Plus, you know, Josh and Aiden flirtations will always be A+.
The episode's third amazing subplot involved the sudden rad-ificiation of Kol. If we're being real, until The Originals, Kol's main appeal was his flippant assholery, but—and I guess this is my fault for being a dummy—it turns out he'd been a full-blown practicing witch before Esther turned her brood into vampires, and now he was ecstatic to regain those abilities. I suppose the idea that her kids were all witches before their transition makes sense, and further explains why she chose to dump Kol and Finn into witches' bodies. (And don't be mad, but I only just now made the connection that body-jumping was what Klaus was doing when we first met him back in The Vampire Diaries Season 2. So it's sort of a family thing I guess.)
Anyway, this meant that Kol not only had designs on remaining a witch and possibly working against even his own mother, but he had a SECRET LAIR full of forbidden science magic. That is honestly my dream come true, and it understandably had an effect on Davina, particularly during a heartracingly romantic scene in which he turned an ordinary string into a tennis bracelet for her. Their chemistry—and his seemingly sincere advances—have been one of the best things about this season so far, and "Chasing the Devil's Tail" only underlined that. I'm a sucker for anytime someone carries someone else, and when Kol set her down upon her bed (in the attic for some reason?), I got chills. But all good things must come to an end, as Marcel soon arrived to abduct Kol! So Davina awoke not only to a missing Kol, but to a missing White Oak Stake, and while she probably assumes that Kol stole it, I think we can agree that he probably didn't and Marcel probably did. Misunderstanding! Hang in there, girl.
Chasing the Devil's Tail" was particularly clever in how it brought all three disparate plotlines together, setting up what should be a fantastic showdown next week. More than a mere hostage exchange—Klaus has Finn and Kol while Esther has Cami—it should be entertaining just seeing the entire family reunited. Will Mikael get an invitation? Will Rebekah remember to crack a window if she leaves Hope in the car? So many things to look forward to! I really and truly loved this episode. Both The Originals and its mothership TVD are particularly great right now, and it's almost boring to reiterate this fact every week. But it's true! The Originals is amazing and so was "Chasing the Devil's Tail." Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go sleep through every single werewolf funeral, because come on, werewolves.
