Teen Wolf News Special Report:
- EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the first in what we hope will be a series of articles on one of the more interesting aspects of Teen Wolf Fandom. User Calicokat approached me with the idea of introducing folks to the "META" concept of Teen Wolf. There are many facets (as there are with each portion of the fandom) but the simple premise behind the META movement is that there is a hidden narrative across the seasons. These articles are not designed to be a comprehensive treatise on the subject, we're only touching on the basics. These articles should in no way be considered canon.
Guest Author: Calicokat
When I first got into Teen Wolf, in Season 3A, I took the story at face value. There was a group of supernaturally gifted teenagers – except for Stiles – and they went on adventures that pitted them against an array of supernatural villains.
The show has since surprised me again and again with the complexity it hides under the surface. Whole scenes haven't happened the way that I remembered them happening. Characters appear and disappear, sets are re-dressed between shots, images reverse, characters start fights I thought others started and were passive when I once found them threatening. Over the next weeks I'll be highlighting some of what surprised me here on Teen Wolf Wikia.
The first unexpected detail that jumped out at me and got me paying closer attention showed up in a rewatch of "Wolf Moon" when I realized a voice speaks to Scott through the water when he plunges into the swimming pool.
Audio File
Startled, he looks upward, gaze scanning the trees, the only hint to the origin of the voice.
If it was Peter, who herded him into the pool, why does the camera sweep through the trees? That seems to leave the later-introduced Nemeton or the forest itself, broadly as the potential speakers.
Like most of the show's discordant details, it begs an explanation without offering one, a seamless feature of the continuing narrative. So far, this is the only voice speaking from the water I've picked up on. However, characters in Teen Wolf have a long and rocky relationship with the local water supply. Events include:
- Derek's near-drowning in Abomination
- Matt's entire water/drowning revenge narrative
- Boyd's attempt to drown himself in Motel California
- Maddy's drowning
- Scott's shower in Wolf Moon
- Peter's shower during the flashback in Co-Captain
- Lydia's terrifying shower in Omega
- Jackson's rise from the waters in Omega
- Scott, Allison, and Stiles entering the Nemeton through the water in Alpha Pact
- Kate hiding out in the sewers near the water treatment plant
- Liam being thrown into a well
- The lake and lake house in Season 4
There are also the more subtle water related details.
- The report on the Hale Fire shown in The Tell points out that local, not county water was used by firemen.
- The puddles of water on the floor of the Hale vault (subject to some dramatic splashing in Weaponized)
- The cold showers werewolf characters take in an attempt to control the shift
- Deaton exorcising the Nogitsune flies from the twins and Isaac
- Danielle dunking Stiles to sobriety in Party Guessed
As the Sheriff says to Deaton in Tattoo "I gotta tell you, I'm starting to think there's something in the water."
Fan theories on what lies beneath the surface abound. You'll find much written by searching #teen wolf meta on Tumblr.
Many have coalesced around an entity nicknamed "Malice" or "Void" that is a chaotic force in the water driving characters to act on the desires buried in their ids, stripping away their impulse control. This entity, say some, is to blame for all the events surrounding water and, by association, drowning.
Various others portray the entity as a vengeful spirit, a drowned soul. Recently this group has come to believe it is Maddy since she was the first character to drown (chronologically).
There are also some who see the roots of the Nemeton spreading a psychic malignancy into the local water table.
Whoever or whatever is in the water, whyever it's encouraging people to "Let go," the evidence adds up to an understated but well developed plot line in place since Season 1, Episode 1 that META proponents believe is steadily working its way toward a reveal.
