Thread:Paul.rea/@comment-24782789-20140408153619/@comment-11533671-20140411155426

I apologize for "butting in" but Paul is absolutely correct in this. He answered the OP question about how Laura gained her Alpha status; we haven't been shown how she acquired it.

As for Derek taking on Peter? Uh..Peter manhandled both Derek and Scott at the same time easily and was only defeated when Allison and Kate lit him on fire. Only when he was completely immobilized did Derek come out and "kill" him. If you consider killing an enemy that is already defeated and incapable of defense a show of badassery then you have things pretty distorted.

I think you are confusing what happens when one becomes an Alpha. When one becomes an Alpha they gain the Alpha spark. Although the spark does give the Alpha his/her status it doesn't seem to be an automatic power boost. When Derek took Peter's Alpha status, he didn't gain the abilities and knowledge that Peter possessed. You don't gain the powers of the previous Alpha, you only gain the spark to become an Alpha. The powers derived from the spark are up to the new Alpha to develop and hone. For example: Let's pretend that one Alpha werewolf could fly and one day a  beta kills him and takes his spark, this doesn't mean that the new Alpha can fly. He only gained the status not the abilities.

On a final note: Breaking through a mountain ash barrier is pretty BA no matter how "weak" you think he is. It had never been done previously that we are aware of (not even by Deucalion) so I'd say it is pretty powerful. Oh and feats of strength are not limited to physical prowess. One can have strength of will, character, fortitude, etc. so "strength" isn't confined to physical barriers, it is simply a measuring tool. We don't know enough about the powers in the show to say that the ineffectiveness of the Darach's attack is a physical attribute of Deucalion's or not. We simply don't know how he was able to withstand it outside of speculation. With Scott however, we see that he uses his will to make his body physically pass/break the barrier so we can safely assume that his "strength" of will allowed his body to penetrate a barrier that is physically impossible to do for any other werewolf we've seen.