Board Thread:WARNING ALL USERS False Info\Spoilers/@comment-24565701-20140221023529/@comment-6383956-20140225031134

LadyX wrote:

Derek said that there was a rumor, that doesn't mean he believed it. He did manipulate Scott into helping him there, but what he did do, was keep a kid who was barely in control of himself from becoming an alpha. What do you think Scott would've been like if he had turned into an alpha at that point? Peter never would've stopped, so he had to die. There was no getting around it, not even counting the avenging Laura's death. The alpha pack was originally coming for Jackson, not Derek, they had to change that last minute. He did tell them people would be after them though.

Wanting to kill the Kanima can't be held against him either. You've got to make tough choices to protect the greater good. Kill one teenager, or allow said teenager t kill 50 townspeople? Granted, he need to make sure he had the right person before any murdering happened, but it was the right choice. Derek obviously believed it enough to think it would cure Scott -- but totally deprived Scott of the chance to find out. And, oh, right -- Peter was already mortally wounded. There is zero chance he could have survived the wounds he already had. Derek killed him because he wanted to be an Alpha. The end.

Derek obviously didn't tell his little teenage packsters that the Alpha pack was after them -- he told them hunters would be after them, sure. But they were completely surprised there were other packs when Erica and Boyd heard other werewolves. Derek didn't bother mentioning that another pack might want them dead -- even when they were like "Ciao, going to find another pack!" Never so much as raised the possibility to them. (The Alpha pack originally being after Jackson isn't canon since that never actually happened on the show -- does not enter into this discussion at all.)

And, yeah, wanting to kill the kanima *can* be held against him given that -- as far as he knew -- it was just another shapeshifter that needed to learn how to control itself. He was totally willing to help Scott because he knew he needed Scott to find the werewolf that Laura had been looking for and that had presumably killed her. (Remember, Scott told him he thought he'd been the one to attack the bus driver and Derek had no reason not to believe him and yet did not want to kill Scott.) Later on he found out the kanima was a kid he'd bitten to begin with (and therefore had created himself) and that someone was actually, actively controlling it.... and he still wanted to kill the kanima. And ultimately tried to do so, even after Lydia helped Jackson. So to recap -- Derek wants to help shapeshifters learn to control their powers if it helps him, otherwise the correct solution is always murder?

We've seen a lot of character development and growth from Derek, and he's definitely a good guy now. But it has taken him a lot to get there and much of that growth has been Scott's influence.