Board Thread:False Info and Speculative Discussion/@comment-70.49.30.209-20141123024902/@comment-6383956-20141224225640

I think one thing that has people confused is that there's two questions here.

1) Why did Jackson become a kanima?

2) Why was his form a snake?

I mean, it's all very confusing and not very-well explained from the show but the impression that I got is that the kanima is a very specific mutation of werewolf that has different forms --or at least different beta forms? The kanima mutation is caused by internal emotional conflict -- Jackson being an orphan and feeling unloved as a result (again, that's what I got out of it -- that comes more from how they resolved it than anything they said).

Jackson's kanima form was snake-like because he was such a metaphorical snake to everyone around him. That's where the whole "sometimes the form you take reflects who you are" idea comes in.

As for how Kate became a werejaguar? That's a good question -- I think -- and this has even less basis than my theories about Jackson -- it has to do with her technically being dead before she shifted? I'm literally only basing this on her being the "bone lady" or whatever. :P (Maybe it's a combination of dying (sort of) and her personality?)