Kol Mikaelson (Elder Futhark: ᚲᛟᛚ ᛗᛁᚲᚨᛖᛚᛋᛟᚾ) is a major recurring character on The Originals. He also had a recurring role in the third, fourth and fifth season of The Vampire Diaries, where he served as an antagonist and anti-hero.
Kol is the third son of Mikael and Esther. He is the younger brother of Freya, Finn, Elijah and older brother of Rebekah and Henrik and the younger half-brother of Klaus. He is the uncle Freya and Mathias' unborn son, Klaus and Alex's children, Hope, Miranda, Jenna, and Nik. Elijah and Katherine's daughter, Victoria, Rebekah and Marcel's son, Mason, Freya and Keelin's son, Finn. He is also the step-uncle to Jaxon, Nikolina, and Lillian. He is the adoptive uncle of Adella. Kol is the father of Ace and Isabella Mikaelson and husband of Davina.
Throughout his life, Kol struggled emotionally with his status as the black sheep of the family, and the belief that his siblings considered him to be more of a nuisance than their own brother. He was shown to be rather spiteful and jealous over Marcel Gerard, whom he perceived was treated more like family than he ever was. As a result of this insecurity, Kol often lashed out violently which earned him a dangerous reputation and on occasion, the ire of his siblings. In reality, his bad behavior is revealed to be simple cries for attention.
During the fourth season of The Vampire Diaries, Kol feared the return of Silas and was adamant about stopping him. He antagonized the Mystic Falls Gang and at one point Elena Gilbert proposed a truce between them. However, the truce was really a setup to kill Kol and it ultimately led to his demise at the hands of Jeremy Gilbert in A View to a Kill. In the fifth season, Kol was seen on the Other Side as it was slowly collapsing due to Markos' emergence. He encountered Matt Donovan and expressed fear for himself and the other supernatural beings on the Other Side. Kol told Matt to warn everybody who was alive.
Kol escaped the destruction of The Other Side as seen in the second season of The Originals. His mother, Esther managed to resurrect him and place him into the body of a young witch named Kaleb Westphall. He temporarily aided his mother and his recently resurrected brother, Finn, but quickly followed his own agenda. He ended up pursuing a relationship with the young witch Davina Claire, and joined his brothers Klaus and Elijah, where he ultimately helped them defeat Esther and their father Mikael, once and for all. However, in retaliation for assisting his brothers in stopping their mother by turning her into a vampire, Finn hexed Kol with a deadly spell in Sanctuary. He consequently died for the second time in I Love You, Goodbye, surrounded by his family, girlfriend, and best friend. Moments before Kol's death, Rebekah and Alex promised to bring Kol back.
While looking for ways to bring back Kol in Wild at Heart, Davina casted a suspension spell and poisoned herself in order to access the Ancestral Plane to see Kol and confirm if a spell The Strix gave her could actually resurrect him. Although the spell is an effective one, Kol tried to lie and say it wasn't because he was worried about the consequences of using it. As Davina is discovered and flees from the Ancestors' realm, she realizes Kol's attempt at deception for her protection. Kol holds the Ancestors off long enough for his girlfriend to escape.
In Heart Shaped Box, Davina uses a Hand of Glory to bring Kol forth from the Ancestral Plane in order to figure out the missing ingredient for the Sireline Unlinking Spell. He attempts to lie to her by saying that the spell is impossible to break, but she uses her intuition and logic to figure out that the missing ingredient is an unsired heart which Kol devastatingly confirms. After Kol draws magic from the Hand of Glory to knock her out in order to effectively put down the rest of the Sisters that were attempting to extract Alex's heart, Davina wakes up a few hours later. She looks at the Hand of Glory and becomes upset that they have wasted so much time. She tearfully tells him that she loves him and shares a goodbye kiss with him before the candle blows out and Kol is sent back to the Ancestral Plane.
In A Streetcar Named Desire, Kol is successfully resurrected in his true form as an Original Vampire by Davina. In An Old Friend Calls, Kol tells Davina her spell brought him back how he was when he died in the body she resurrected, his true body, which was an Original Vampire. After she made him a daylight ring, Kol is reunited with all of his siblings and best friend and received a warm welcome from all his siblings except for his murderous brother Finn and Rebekah who was daggered for her own safety after being afflicted by the Cursed Stake.
In Behind the Black Horizon, it was revealed by Davina that the Ancestors had corrupted the spell that brought him back to life, causing him to want to rip out Davina's throat, making him slowly become more feral and to give in to his heightened bloodlust until he does. The more he resists killing Davina, the more Kol becomes savage and thirsty for blood to the point he was a mindless animal looking only to feed, beyond thought or reason. It was only after he killed Davina that a horrified Kol was released from the curse, and he was devastated for having unknowingly killed the love of his life.
In The Bloody Crown, after Marcel completed his transition into an Upgraded Original Vampire, he used his toxic werewolf bite on both Kol and Elijah as revenge for Davina's death from Elijah's betrayal, and for Kol having unwillingly killed Davina due to the Ancestors. A poisoned Freya saves Kol, Elijah, Rebekah, and herself by using the spell Dahlia cast to survive a thousand years, to put them all in a slumber in stasis to prevent the poisons from killing them until Alex, Katherine, Arielle, and Hayley can find cures for them. They are linked to a neutralized Klaus' lifeforce, while their minds are in a Chambre de Chasse, to be with each other in peace until they awake.
In the fourth season, he is cured from the bite and heads to France with Rebekah. They return back to New Orleans after Elijah's temporary death and he finds that The Hollow has brought Davina back to life. When The Hollow possesses Hope and controlling her siblings he and his siblings use themselves to separate the Hollow's spirit and he leaves for San Francisco. Seven years later, it is also revealed that he and Davina are now married.
Kol is a member of the Mikaelson Family and an unnamed Witch Family. He is apart of the Claire Family through his marriage to Davina Claire. He also has ties to the Petrova Family, Gilbert Family, Labonair Family, and Salvatore Family.