Can't Go Back: A Teen Wolf Season 4 Round-Up

Alright, so a lot of confusing stuff has gone down this season up to the events of 04x10 "Monstrous," right? And a lot more confusing stuff is going to go down because of the confusing stuff that has already happened. Do you understand? No? Me either, but I'm going to try to make sense and order of what has been revealed so far, as well as coming up with some predictions about what the last two episodes of this season will be bringing us. I plan on making a decent guess at the timeline of the season, as well as the timeline of the events that led to the deadpool, plus we have a LOT to speculate about in regards to banshees, true alpha werewolves, nagual werejaguars, berserkers, and what the fuck Jordan Parrish might be, as well as our dear Stiles. We'll probably be talking a lot about the characters, too, naturally, because that's the best part. Basically, get saddled in, kiddos, because I have some words to say. ALSO, just as a warning-- this post will contain speculation based on some things said in interviews (specifically Aaron Hendry's interview) and also based on the promo for 04x11 "A Promise To The Dead," SO, if you're not into those kinds of spoilers, I suggest you turn back now. ;)


TIMELINE
I know I've said on multiple occasions that it's stupid to try to make a timeline for this universe, because Jeff Davis is allergic to numbers and continuity, but I'm a girl with OCD and a number/date fixation, so I just can't help but try to make sense of all of this, even if it is all just a bunch of educated guesses and assumptions. We ended Season 3(B) at some point in mid-late November, and picked up again during what I'm guessing was their winter break, so late December-early January. During the time-jump, there was one full moon that the pack spent at the lake house. Then, we pick up at Season 4 proper.

The problem is that, like I said, continuity isn't really a big thing for this show, so even though they say that a party is happening on a Friday and then skip ahead to a Monday the next episode, it still somehow ends up being Friday again the next episode, even though they pick up RIGHT AFTER the previous episode left off. SO, after a ton of hair-pulling and head-desking, I have finally decided that we're just going to count this season in days, 'kay? HERE GOES:

• 04x01: "The Dark Moon" covers the course of two days over a weekend, between Scott, Kira, Stiles, Malia and Lydia's arrival to Mexico in the afternoon and leaving La Iglesia with Derek and Braeden the following late night/early morning.
• 04x02: "117" picks up a little less than a day later when the pack returns to Beacon Hills and stops at Deaton's for help with Derek, and lasts the duration of another day, ending right after the Hale vault was robbed.
• 04x03: "Muted" begins roughly a week later (according to Derek, who says he and Peter have searched for Kate for a week without any results) and lasts the course of a day, from when the Mute kills Sean Walcott's parents and brother at their home to when the Mute ultimately kills Sean on the roof of the hospital after Scott was forced to bite Liam to keep him from falling four stories to his death.
• 04x04: "The Benefactor" picks up right where "Muted" left off late that night, and lasts the course of one full day while Scott (with help from Stiles and the rest of the pack) tries to convince Liam that he's going through a serious change while he turns into a werewolf. It ends near the end of the full moon, where Scott manages to calm Liam down and insists that being a werewolf doesn't make you a monster, and where Lydia and Kira manage to crack the first deadpool list with the name "Allison."
• 04x05: "IED" has a time jump over the course of the weekend and begins at night, when Carrie Hudson is killed by Garrett. The episode lasts over the course of the day, while Scott, Stiles, Kira and Liam try to figure out which of their fellow students/lacrosse teammates is the assassin/are the assassins, and while Lydia and Malia struggle to decode the second part of the deadpool. It finally ends late that night, when Jordan and Meredith help them find the second key ("Aiden") and when Scott discovers that Garrett and Violet are the assassins, after they tried to kill both Brett AND Scott.
• 04x06: "Orphaned" picks up less than an hour after the end of "IED," where Sheriff and ADN are arresting Violet for murder and attempted murder. The episode continues on to the next day and lasts about 24 hours from the beginning of the episode, while Garrett stabs Liam with a wolfsbane blade to blackmail Scott into helping him jailbreak Violet, and Malia and Derek team up to search for Satomi's pack. The episode ends late that night, after Scott finally rescues Liam, and Derek and Malia find the majority of Satomi's pack dead of mysterious causes, as well as Braeden who has been shot and injured. 
• 04x07: "Weaponized" opens where we left off in "Orphaned," with Stiles and Scott counting the money in Garrett's duffel ($500,000 total) and listening to the instructional tape sent to Garrett from the Benefactor. The episode continues on to the next morning, where the juniors are taking the PSATs at the high school. (The episode is said to be a Saturday, for what it's worth.) Once the school is infected with the virus and quarantined, the pack is forced to stay at the school for the duration of Saturday and aren't released until Sunday morning.
• 04x08: "Time of Death" opens up on Sunday night, where Scott has accompanied his dad to the Sheriff's station so he can begin his weapons discharge report. The episode cuts to the next morning, where Scott, Stiles, Liam and Kira plan to "kill" Scott that evening. Kira shocks Scott into an extremely slow heart rate that night, giving them 45 minutes to draw out the Benefactor, a plan which is ultimately futile. The episode ends late that night, where Stiles and Malia talk about Peter, and Scott and Kira discuss the Benefactor being a banshee.
• 04x09: "Perishable" presumably picks up the day after "Time of Death," judging by the fact that all of them were in fresh clothes and Lydia seemed to have just been told about Meredith and Lorraine's connection by her mother. The episode then lasts over the course of 24 hours--Jordan is kidnapped by Haige and set on fire the night after Scott "died," and after he heals, he returns to the station to beat Haige up what I'm guessing is several hours later. Afterward, Jordan goes with Lydia and Scott to Derek's loft, where they all discuss the supernatural and the deadpool that night until the early morning. Then, Lydia presumably goes to the Stilinski's house and stays the night with Stiles as the two work on cracking Lorraine's message overnight and into the next day. Liam, Scott, and Malia go to the lacrosse team's bonfire after school, while Lydia and Stiles go to Eichen House. Both groups almost get killed by people involved in the deadpool, and are both saved at the very last minute late that night.
• 04x10: "Monstrous" picks up shortly after where "Perishable" left off, with Scott and Liam being informed of Satomi's pack being found just hours after they had just nearly been set on fire by Haige's rent-a-cop mooks. Meanwhile, Lydia is at the Sheriff's station, waiting for Meredith to spill about what the fuck she's been doing with the deadpool, and Stiles is forced to stay in his room at the hospital by Melissa until he gets a CT scan. The episode continues on until that night, ending with Stiles and Malia finally shutting down the deadpool for good, Lydia and Meredith discussing the supernatural and why Meredith enacted the deadpool, and Peter and Kate vaguely discussing their plan.

So, in total, if you add it all up, the amount of time that spans between "The Dark Moon" and "Monstrous" is roughly 21-22 days, so not even a full month. Time really flies in the Teen Wolf universe, doesn't it? They've all grown up a TON since Scott was bitten and everything started about 12-13 months ago.

DEADPOOL

Now that we have that all worked out, let's dig into how the deadpool fits into the series' storyline, based on the information we've gleaned so far. If the dates on the medical files are accurate (and there is definitely a chance that they aren't), Meredith was hospitalized in 2009, about 4-5 years after the fire, when Peter was admitted. I'm guessing that the ages are accurate, but I'm pretty sure that the birth year for Meredith (and also for Malia in her birth/adoption records) is incorrect because whoever wrote them was using 2014, the real world year, instead of 2012, which is what year it is in the show's universe. SO, Meredith was sixteen in 2009 (making her nineteen in the present day, only a year or two older than the high school kids), and Peter was thirty-eight, making him forty-one in the present day. 

A lot of people thought this had to be wrong, but I don't think it is. We already know that werewolves age differently than humans; I get the impression that they physically age about the same as humans while they're children/adolescents, and then once they go through puberty, they start to age much more slowly. Emotionally, though, they seem to mature much more quickly than humans, which would explain why Cora was able to live on her own and more or less take care of herself when she ran away at age eleven after the fire. So, the fact that Peter and Derek look close in age in their flashbacks seems to fit with this theory-- I'm guessing that Derek probably was fifteen, give or take two or three years, while Peter looked as though he was in his late teens/early-to-mid 20's when he was actually in his late 20s-early 30s. All of the werewolves we've seen who were born wolves or who were bitten but have lived as wolves for a long time all appear to be very age-ambiguous, and I think that's intentional-- Deucalion could have been anywhere from mid-30s to late 40s, Kali and Ennis could have been late 20's/early 30's, the twins could have been anywhere from 17-25. Even Satomi, who we know to be over 100 in years, doesn't look a day over 60.

BUT, I digress! Okay, so Peter and Meredith are in the same long-term care ward at the hospital, and somehow, Meredith's brain and Peter's brain find the same supernatural wavelength, which allows Meredith to hear all of Peter's thoughts as though he was actually speaking to her directly. I get the feeling that this is somehow the result of whatever injury Meredith sustained at Lorraine's lake house from the record player kind of blew open her the psychic receptors involved in her banshee powers, which made her more vulnerable to Peter's attempts to be heard. We already know that Peter knows enough about banshees to be able to hitch a ride in Lydia's brain and manipulate her into bringing him back into the dead, so for all we know, he could have been subconsciously or unconsciously sending out his thought waves in hopes that SOMEONE would be able to pick up on them. So, he's overwhelmed with rage because he warned Talia about the fire and she blew him off; grief because he lost the majority of his family from something he felt could have been prevented; frustration because he's locked inside his body with no way to move or do anything while he heals; and pain, because he's covered in 4th degree burns that went all the way down to the bone in many places. That would be a recipe for disaster for ANYONE, especially someone who already has a tendency toward the manipulative and sociopathic. 

So, since he can't do anything else while he's in a coma, he just stews in all of these negative feelings and starts to plot his revenge in intricate detail, not knowing that Meredith was privy to every single thought he had for months. He rants about how his older sister made them weak by preaching that they're predators, not killers, and even though he was sure the Argents were going to come after them, they didn't listen, and the Hale Pack paid the price for it. His plan was to kill off all of the supernaturals in Beacon Hills, whether they're werewolf or banshee or any other kind of shapeshifter, and start over completely by remaking the supernatural population in his own image. This part especially made me nervous, because we've already noticed how the supernaturals Peter creates end up being different in some way-- his biological and bitten progeny have become true alphas, werecoyotes, and werejaguars, not to mention that his bite triggered Lydia's latent banshee abilities several years before they were supposed to awaken. He also did something weird to Jackson in Season 1 that brought him to his knees in pain on two occasions, though it's possible that it's because Jackson was originally supposed to be Peter's child, before Colton Haynes got the role of Roy Harper on Arrow and bolted, which would have explained the whole kanima thing, too. 

What makes me even more suspicious is the fact that he brought up several of the assassins who tried to take out some of the deadpool names by their code names, which seems to suggest that Peter was at least acquainted with them-- the Mute (who even knew Peter by name in "Muted"), the Chemist, and, most suspiciously, the Desert Wolf, who he shouldn't remember, considering the fact that Talia supposedly took all of Peter's memories about Malia and her biological mother. I'll be getting into this in more detail in a bit! Why would he know professional killers by name? Did they have a reputation for killing supernaturals for profit? Two of the three are dead, so will we even ever learn more about their back-stories? Guh! Peter also rants that he will be paying the assassins with the money in the vault, if he has, and even plans to disseminate the deadpool list from the professional assassins to hunters and then to your typical every-man who could use the extra cash as some sort of metaphor about how, in the end, anyone can be corrupted by money. To say that Peter put a lot of thought into this is an understatement, and while I'm inclined to believe that Peter is telling the truth about not remembering any of this, and not wanting the deadpool to be going down now, I'm still not convinced that he didn't know what he was doing at the time. It's been well-evidenced in the show that Peter is a manipulative little shit, and Meredith seemed to have long had a reputation for being fragile and unstable, so it wouldn't be unreasonable to think that he knew he could convince Meredith to enact this plan for him, even if he eventually lost those memories as a result of repressing what he went through when he was in a coma.

Fast-forward a little bit to when Meredith was finally released back to Eichen House after she recovered in the long-term care ward. She eventually figures out that Brunski was an "Angel of Death"-style serial killer (if she didn't already know this before), and knew that Brunski was likely going to keep killing people, so she decided that she could use him to her advantage and somehow manipulated him into doing her bidding, whether by blackmailing him with the knowledge of his kills or using some yet-unknown banshee mind-whammy. At some point around this time, Lorraine, who had previously only predicted Maddy's death, ended up predicting ten deaths, including her own, all of whom ultimately were killed by Brunski, which is how Lorraine figured out what Brunski was up to in the first place. From there, she figured out that Brunski was using the code to power the deadpool, and tried to escape Eichen House to return to the lake house to stop it, but Brunski caught her before she could, and then later killed her because she knew too much about what he was doing. That's why she left the coded message for Lydia, to help her figure all of this out, knowing that if the deadpool continued, Lydia would eventually end up on it.

After Lorraine died, though, it seemed like the deadpool was put on hold for a while. It wasn't until Allison died during the battle against the oni at Oak Creek and Meredith heard Lydia wail for her death that she realized it was time to start over again in earnest-- in Meredith's mind, too many innocent humans die as collateral damage in throwdowns between supernatural creatures. From there, she put a pretty seriously detailed plan into motion, beginning with Brunski making a tape that had a man talking about the Hale family and the triskelion they used to help their young betas gain control, which was sneaked into Kate's car's tape player to trick her into figuring out a way to get into the Hale vault-- they somehow knew she was desperate to get her jaguar-side under control, and banked on her thinking the triskelion would magically give her what she needed to go back to being the perfect hunter/soldier she was meant to be. 

Then, Brunski (and/or Brunski's hired guns) followed Derek, Kate, and Peter into the vault to steal the bearer bonds, which Brunski somehow converted to cash without arising anyone's suspicions as to how a dumbass orderly managed to get his hands on $117 million dollars in bearer bonds. Meredith used her banshee/psychic powers to figure out who all of the supernaturals were in town, and put them on three different encoded lists, along with their values. I'm guessing somehow, Meredith got the information about the code from Lorraine, and set it up so that the payments would go out automatically as long as visual confirmation of the kill was provided. The list first went out to professional killers (the Mute, the Orphans, the Chemist), then hunters, and then any old human, including Coach Finstock, the Stilinskis, and Liam/his mother/Dr. Geyer, etc, just like Peter originally told Meredith it would go down. The more people who received the list, the more people who showed up to try to take out some of the names on the list, which is why the killings became more and more rapid over time. 

Even though Meredith was carrying out Peter's orders, it's clear that she still felt bad about it-- according to Aaron Hendry (Brunski's actor) she had a conversation with SOMEONE in her head at Eichen House when Stiles was there, where she was talking about the deadpool. Remember? Her side of the conversation was, "No. No, I think you're wrong. I really think I should tell them. They're going to want to know the story. The whole story. I really. think. they. should. know. Yes, I do. One of them is standing right behind me." When it happened, we all assumed that she was talking about Stiles/the nogitsune, but now, it seems like she was talking about MALIA, who was one of the names on the deadpool, and who was standing just a few yards away from where Stiles was when he overheard the conversation. Way to go, Aaron Hendry, because you just blew my mind! Meredith helped Stiles, Isaac, and Scott find Lydia, and helped them again when they needed a second cipher key to the deadpool. So, on some level, she liked Scott's pack, and even though she still put them on a hit list, and made them the most valuable of the names on the list, she did at least give them a heads up as to what they were dealing with? I really can't pin down her motives, which makes me wonder if maybe Peter really did mind-whammy her in some way back then. Weirder things have happened!

PETER, KATE, & THEIR REAL PLANS

If Peter isn't actually interested in wiping out all of Beacon Hills' supernatural population, and really did forget all about those thoughts like he claims, then what is he up to? We already guessed Peter would be going after Scott's alpha powers after his interactions with Jennifer Blake in "Lunar Ellipse," but he seems to have been just chilling out since the beginning of 3A. He helped the kids with their major problems if necessary, especially if there was something in it for him-- he tried to help the pack tap into Isaac's altered memories from when he got caught looking for Erica and Boyd by the Alpha Pack; he did the ritual with Talia's claws with Derek so he could talk to her, since he got her claws in return; he gave Lydia assistance with her banshee powers, on the condition that Lydia help him figure out what memory Talia took for him; he helped Scott and Lydia go into Stiles' head while he was possessed by the nogitsune, which resulted in Scott somehow getting Stiles a brand new body, just like his old one, that he had full control over; and he helped Malia and Scott figure out Kate's motives in somehow using her nagual mojo to de-age Derek. Other than those occasions, though, Peter has been completely off the radar, and we don't even really have any hints as to what kind of schemes he's been working behind the scenes during the last 34 episodes or so. That's the scary part!

My main question is, why are Peter and Kate working together? Peter LOATHED her for what she did to him and his family, so much so that he went out to kill literally everyone who helped her set the Hale fire in any way before finally "killing" her. And really, what Peter did to Kate was worse than death, from Kate's perspective, anyway, because she has always more-or-less hated werewolves (or any shapeshifter, really). It wasn't until she fully turned that she decided that being a werejaguar would be better than dying, and while I'm sure she does appreciate what the enhanced strength and senses can do for her from a hunter's standpoint, it's obvious that she still has a lot of self-loathing when it comes to the actual transformation, and the bloodlust/rage/loss of control that accompanies it. She has claws and fangs, but she still relies on her shotgun unless she's triggered into turning somehow, like when the assassin shot her while she was interrogating them about the Benefactor. Not only that, but it seems her ultimate goal is to reunite the family and go back to making the Argent family hunter royalty again, especially since it seems the Calaveras have risen up the food chain in the power vacuum that opened up when Victoria died, Gerard was neutralized, and Chris and Allison changed their Code and began protecting the McCall Pack. 

While that goal is understandable, given who Kate is, and how she was raised, but I just don't understand why she would team up with Peter, the guy who did this to her, who bit Scott and started all of the supernatural drama that got her sister-in-law and favorite niece killed, her grandfather rotting away in some nursing home for wayward sociopaths. In a way, Peter sort of decimated her own family, though not to as severe degree as she did his. Which brings me back to my original question-- why the fuck would two people who despise each other team up? I know that this show often brings up the "Sometimes, circumstances arise that force you to work with people you you ordinarily wouldn't"-trope, like letting Peter help them turn Jackson from a kanima to a werewolf, or when Scott teamed up with Deucalion to take out Jennifer, but in this case, it just doesn't make that much sense to me. I mean, Peter wins in this scenario, if Kate helps Peter kill Scott so he can be an alpha again, but what is Kate getting out of it? Just getting control lessons isn't enough-- I'm sure Kate could have found a werecreature SOMEWHERE who would be willing to help her, especially if they didn't know she was a hunter, and what she had done in the past. What else is she getting in return?

The other thing I'm wondering regarding Kate is what she thinks will happen once their plan is done and she's gained total control over her jaguar side. She wants to get the Argent family back together, and go back to the way things were before she returned to Beacon Hills, but how exactly is that going to work? We haven't seen or heard from Gerard since "Visionary" in Season 3A, so we don't know whether he's still sick and spitting up werewolf ink 24/7, or if he eventually turned, or what happened. And not only that, but Chris has changed remarkably since Kate "died"-- he and Allison temporarily quit hunting, before eventually getting back in to protect the Beacon Hills Pack from the Alpha Pack and the Darach. Then, once the Nemeton was reawakened by Allison, Scott, and Stiles' sacrifices, Allison and Chris changed their Code from "Nous chassons ceux qui chassent"/"We hunt those who hunt us" to "Nous protégeons ceux qui ne peuvent pas se protéger eux-memes"/"We protect those who cannot protect themselves." 

Most importantly, Chris and Allison became full-time hunters attached to (and in Allison's case, a member of) the McCall pack, not only protecting them from harm from others, but also helping them protect the town itself from malevolent supernaturals. So, if Kate and Peter were to succeed in killing Scott and anyone else in the pack, do you REALLY think Chris would want to have anything to do with her? I wholeheartedly believe that he wouldn't. There's no way. Allison died protecting her friends, Scott, Lydia, Stiles, Isaac... she would have even done the same for Derek, and Kira, and the twins. So, in Chris' mind, he has to protect them, because Allison wouldn't have wanted any less. They're as much his family now as they were hers, and they've been there for him in ways his own flesh and blood never have. Nope, Chris would not stand for Scott's death, I refuse to believe otherwise.

So, now that we've talked about their motivations, what do we think their actual plan is? From the looks of the promo, it seems that either Peter is going to turn on Kate by somehow convincing or manipulating Malia into killing her, or they're going to try to trick the pack into THINKING that he's turning on her to distract them from his real plan. I was leaning toward the former, at first, but now that I've had time to think about it a bit, I'm now thinking that it's probably the latter. The promo seems to suggest that what they're planning involves taking Scott and Kira back to Mexico to La Iglesia for some sort of ritual (possibly requiring Kira's thunder kitsune powers in addition to Kate's werejaguar magic), so if I were a betting girl (and I'm really not), I would guess that they're going to set up diversions to either distract or incapacitate the rest of the pack so they can't follow or intervene. That would be the smart thing, anyway, because think of all of the plans the kids have figured out and the problems that they've solved since they all began acting like a real, cohesive pack? In order to pull off capturing a powerful true alpha and his equally powerful thunder kitsune girlfriend, they need to make sure that Stiles, Lydia, Derek, Malia, and Liam are all wrapped up in other stuff, because the five of them have both the strength and the smarts to royally fuck their shit up. And that's not even considering Chris, who, like I said earlier, would never stand by and allow Kate and Peter to kill Scott-- Chris has the added benefit of being Kate's older brother, who knows her better than anyone. She's definitely going to have to figure out a way to sideline him to make sure he doesn't give the rest of the pack his aid. I'm going to assume the berserkers will probably play a huge role in keeping Chris and the kids occupied.

When it comes down to the final battle, I feel like we have several possibilities. I think the least likely possibility is Peter killing Scott, since Scott is the titular Teen Wolf, and Tyler Posey loves being on this show so much that I don't think he'd be willing to leave just yet. Though, I will concede that it's definitely possible that he could die and be resurrected somehow, because this is, of course, a show about magic and the supernatural. Plus, we know that Peter has been getting stronger (which may or may not be connected to Derek's sudden loss of his werewolf powers, though I think the timing is just too convenient to be a coincidence) so theoretically, Peter COULD somehow overpower Scott, especially if Scott ends up freezing up because he doesn't have it in him to kill Peter, or anyone, for that matter. Another possibility is that Scott will ultimately kill Peter, which is probably one of the more likely scenarios, considering the powers that be have been VERY heavy-handed when it comes to the foreshadowing of Scott ending up having to kill someone. If this happens, I would hazard a guess that it would definitely be self-defense-- I mean, Peter has done so many horrible things, I'm pretty sure he'd be justified no matter which way you look at it. 

How Scott will go about killing him could go several different ways, too; since we've seen his face morph into a more wolf-like shape, he could lose control and end up becoming the same kind of monstrous looking alpha as Peter, which would give him a power/size boost to overpower Peter and kill his ass. It seems like everyone on Tumblr is gunning for Scott's to have a dark arc, and though I'm not at all opposed to the idea (if it's temporary thing, like Allison's dark arc at the end of Season 2), I just think it's more probable that Scott will end up finally embracing his wolf/alpha side, understanding that he can let his wolf out and defend himself and his pack/territory without becoming a killing machine, which could allow him to finally shift into a full wolf like Talia and Laura. Like Scott's dad was talking about earlier, even though it's not easy to take another man's life, sometimes you have to do it, especially if they don't give you a choice. Peter has done lots of terrible things and has often been let off with no consequences, and letting him live yet again could just end up getting more people hurt and/or killed in the future. 

I've also seen some other theories that don't involve Scott or Peter killing the other. I saw several on Tumblr that suggested that, since Brett's actor (Cody Saintgnue) is sticking around in Season 5, and it would be really weird and uncool if Scott just starting ganking Satomi's betas, maybe Satomi ends up sacrificing herself in Scott's place? So, Peter ends up an alpha, but Scott doesn't end up having to die. Brett would then either join Peter's pack or defect to Scott's, or do what Derek did at first, just helping the McCall pack while staying an omega. Then, there's Sheriff's threat to Peter that he won't be letting him get away with doing a third terrible thing in his presence, or the fact that Chris snatched that neurotoxic yellow wolfsbane plant and we still have no idea for what purpose he plans to use it, so I could see either of them swooping in at the last moment to help Scott out if it comes to it. Either way, it's gonna be super dramatic and have a lot of impact on where we go from here, especially if Scott ends up having to kill Peter. 

THE DESERT WOLF, PETER, & MALIA HALE

I already have a bad feeling about Malia's mother, if she does turn out to be the Desert Wolf, solely based on the few references we've heard of her. Here's the information that we know so far, all of which is suspect already, simply by virtue of having come from Peter's mouth in the first place:

• Peter supposedly has not found her real name, yet-- only her alias, the Desert Wolf, a term used to describe coyotes. Because of this, he's not 100% convinced that she is, in fact, Malia's biological mother. Hell, we're not even sure that she's even actually a werecoyote-- for all we know, she could just like the animal, or the name. Still, Malia is the only werecoyote we've ever heard of so far, so being born to a werecoyote mother would make the most sense, unless we're dealing with another case of "the shape you take reflects the person that you are," or Malia is just a result of being born to Peter, with his unique ability to create unusual werecreatures.
• In the flashbacks of Peter and Meredith at the hospital, Peter brought up the Desert Wolf when he was listing off professional killers, possibly professional killers who specialize in carrying out hits on supernaturals. 

The last point is what makes me most worried about her and her possible motives, for two reasons: 

1) Peter shouldn't have known who the Desert Wolf was in those flashbacks, because Talia supposedly took his memories of his daughter and her mother. This could be explained in a bunch of different ways-- maybe it's a continuity error, maybe she's not actually Malia's mother, or maybe Peter isn't being completely honest about what he knows about his offspring. Any of those seem plausible. 

2) If the Desert Wolf really is a professional assassin, then shouldn't she have been sent a copy of the deadpool? She was specifically named by Peter, along with the Mute and the Chemist, both of whom also received the deadpool and who each killed at least a handful of people before they were killed. If she is Malia's mother, wouldn't she want to come and try to help protect her? Or, if she is a killer for hire, wouldn't she want to try to go after some of the other names on the list? The fact that she never showed up for that worries me, mostly because we don't have enough information to get a good idea of what her motives are. My dearest friend Kathleen has a theory that the Desert Wolf will be showing up either in the finale or next season with plans to take out Malia, which seems just as likely as anything else. If you recall, Malia and Stiles did get into an argument about Peter when she admitted that he was going to help her track down her mother-- Stiles insisted that killing doesn't run in families, but Malia replies, "Maybe it does in mine." That could definitely be foreshadowing that her mother has the same (or worse) murderous instincts as her father, perish the thought. I guess I'm mostly just worried about how little we know about her, honestly. I NEED ANSWERS NOW.

WHAT IS PARRISH?

I know we've already kind of gone into this already, but does anyone have any ideas as to what Parrish is? I'm still leaning toward him being a phoenix, but there are parts of the lore that doesn't fit (namely, if he goes up in flames and is reborn, he should be reborn a baby, or at the very least start over with no memories, which doesn't seem to be accurate.) Still, we know that Jeff is quite fond of taking liberties when it comes to the mythology of the creatures on his show, but who knows! I also really like the idea of him being an angel or some kind of deity (Kathleen had a great one about Jordan being Apollo, which I adore), because he's a kind-hearted hero with a smile like sunshine on a rainy day, so why wouldn't he be some sort of celestial being? The fact that we really don't know anything about the extent of his powers is what is making speculation so hard, I think-- all we've seen is him completely regenerating skin, muscle, bone, ligaments, hair, and nails after being set on fire, and we don't even know if his healing is just from fire-related injury, or any injury in general? If it's the former, it's possible that he could be a salamander, who have similar abilities, but he could just as easily be immortal. I don't know! I'm really hoping he has abilities outside of healing, though, because while being more or less invulnerable is nice, it would be super helpful if he had some kind of defensive abilities, too. 

SATOMI'S PACK

We've only had brief glimpses of packs outside of Derek's and Scott's over the course of the series, but Satomi's pack seems to be unique in comparison. When we saw the flashbacks in "Visionary" of Deucalion, Ennis, Kali, and Talia, as well as their respective betas, it seemed to fit with what we had been told about werewolf packs in this universe-- they all have an alpha and at least three betas. In these flashbacks each of them seemed to have closer to five or six betas a piece, which was similar in set-up to Deucalion's alpha pack, in which he was the alpha-alpha to four beta-alphas. Scott's pack has always been unique in the way that it's not only werewolves-- at its largest, Scott had Isaac and the twins as his betas, a human hunter, a human researcher, a banshee, and a thunder kitsune. Now, he has Liam and Malia as his beta wolf/coyote, a banshee, a kitsune, a Stiles (for lack of a better term, because we have no idea what the fuck is up with him) and a Derek, who is for all intents and purposes a human at this moment, though it's possible that he'll be turned back soon. 

Satomi's pack, however, is probably the largest we've ever seen. I counted the bodies in the screenshots from when Derek found all the canine-distemper-infected wolves in the woods, and it seems that there were anywhere from ten to twelve of them. When Kira finally found the rest of the pack, its surviving members were shown to be the alpha, Satomi, and seven betas, including Brett and Lorilee. That's still a huge pack, even losing over half of it like she did, which seems to suggest that Satomi is even more powerful than she appears to be (and she is a mega-badass, just look at her fighting Deaton and the lady assassin Satomi killed!) 

And, even more interestingly, her pack seems to practice non-violence as a general rule. Sure, we've seen Satomi kick ass to defend herself, and Brett wasn't afraid to toss that hunter around (though he seemed as though he was trying to protect Lorilee more than he was trying to defend himself), but in general, they're not fighters. Both Lorilee and Brett just stood there and accepted that they were about to die when they had the laser sights trained on them, rather than fighting back or even running away, which makes me wonder if it isn't connected to their Buddhist practices. There are theories floating around that Satomi was the alpha you went to when you were an out of control beta or omega, and that she would teach you control with the Sun, Moon, Truth mantra. I really like it, and am using it as a headcanon until told otherwise, because it fits right in with her history-- despite her desperate attempts to stay in control at all times, she still ended up failing to control her instincts, and ended up setting a man who was actually trying to protect her and the internees on fire and killing him in the most painful way possible. I could totally see her dedicating herself to finding control again, and then once she learned how, she began teaching others so they didn't make her mistakes. Basically, I guess what I'm trying to say is that I want to know more about Satomi already!

CHRIS & WOLFSBANE

I already talked about this a little earlier, but I have a feeling we haven't seen the last of that rare wolfsbane breed that Violet and Garrett used to poison Brett and Liam. Chris made a big scene trying to break into that wolfsbane grow-house, stole that plant specifically and hid it in a safe in Argent Arms where very few people would think to look (and where even fewer people would have the ability to find it, seeing as it requires a key AND a passcode to get inside.) So, what is Chris' plan? Is it just about keeping the plant out of enemy hands, or is he planning to keep hold of it in the case that he needs it in the future. Maybe he thinks he might need it to take out Kate, worst case scenario? Or maybe Peter, since Chris and Peter do have unfinished business after he tried to kill Kate (and ultimately turned her into a werejaguar.) I know a lot of people have been suspicious of Chris and his motives this season, especially with his little run-in with the Calaveras in his armory, but I think it's way more likely that he's planning to use it to help than it is that he's planning to use it against the McCall Pack in some way.

NEW HUNTER FAMILY?

What about the hunter brigade that was sent to Argent Arms to take out Scott and Satomi's packs? We saw the symbol on the arrow, which looks to either be a bat or a bird of some kind, and this kind of introduction reminded me a LOT of how we were introduced to the idea of both Kate's return AND the Calavera family. Last season in "Insatiable," the penultimate episode of 3B, Derek found a bunch of shell casings on the ground, and gave one to Chris to identify, since they were different from the ones he knew the Calaveras used. Chris looked at it and his eyes widened in horror before he whispered, "That's impossible." We then forgot all about it because Allison died, but it turned out that the shotgun shell had a fleur-de-lis on it, the Argent family symbol, which was our foreshadowing that Kate was still alive and coming back for some drama. It was same with the brass left at Derek's loft after the Calaveras and Kate showed up-- the shells had the skulls engraved on them, which led them to Mexico and the Calaveras in their search to bring Derek back. I'm not sure that we will get a solid introduction to whatever hunter group or family those arrows belonged to, but I have a feeling they're going to play a role in next season, because the hint was dropped in the same kind of way-- we got a brief glimpse at the symbol in the antepenultimate episode of this season, and then immediately got distracted by the fighting at Argent Arms. Maybe we'll meet them at the end of the finale as a cliffhanger, maybe they'll be where we pick up in Season 5, but I guarantee we haven't seen the last of them, especially considering the fact that Derek, Chris, and Braeden seem to have killed some of them. I doubt they'll take that very kindly, especially considering they probably see Chris as one of them who has lost their way.

AGENT DOUCHENOZZLE

There have been teases that Agent Douchenozzle will be making his reappearance in tonight's episode, "A Promise To The Dead," and, believe it or not, I am really excited to see where his character goes from here. As much as I hate to say it, part of me might actually be growing to like him, now that he's taken Queen Melissa's words to heart and seems to actually be making some progress when it comes to listening and being nice and open and honest. The question is, will Scott end up telling him the truth? On the one hand, they've already read Jordan in, which was pretty successful, and Liam, too, and as an FBI agent, having him in the know so he can try to cover up the supernatural aspects of the deaths that seem to follow him around could be a good thing. There's still part of me that doesn't quite trust him yet, though, partially because I can't ignore the nagging thought that he knows more about the supernatural world of Beacon Hills than he lets on. And, as many people on Tumblr have pointed out, in the original Teen Wolf movie, the "Teen Wolf's" dad is ultimately revealed to be a werewolf, so it's possible that he has been playing dumb to some degree about everything he's seen/experienced in town. However it ends up going, I hope it ends well-- I also have this nagging feeling that as soon as he and Scott patch up things for real, he's gonna end up getting killed by like, a berserker or something, which will probably destroy Scott emotionally. Not as much as it would if it was his mother, but if anything could send Scott onto a dark arc, I would say the loss of one of his parents would be a surefire way to make that happen.

DEREK & HIS FATE

I've already talked about how much I don't really like this whole de-wolfing Derek thing, no matter how awesome and hot I might find him to be when he's using weapons and fighting like a human. Derek has been raised in the werewolf culture his entire life, even if werewolves don't actually start shifting until they're teenagers, so he's still spent the majority of his life not worried about minor injuries or illness, never panicking about a broken arm or a gunshot as long as wolfsbane wasn't involved, always being strong and fast with sharp senses. After having to mercy kill his first girlfriend, losing nearly all of his family, losing nearly all of his betas, being used by nearly all of the women he loved, being tortured by hunters and alphas alike, being a werewolf is like, the one constant thing he still had, the basest part of his identity. I honestly can't believe he's taking being a human again as well as he has, though I suspect the fact that he's too focused on the deadpool and distracted by his fun-times with Braeden to really be thinking about it that much, but it still has to be hard, fighting in all these battles while worrying about things that he's never had to worry about before, like the fact that regular people, when shot by bullets, are seriously wounded for WEEKS afterward, rather than hours. 

But, not only is his recent transfer to the human team not resolved yet, but we still have to deal with the fact that Derek is most likely dying, judging by his name being a cipher key to the deadpool, and the fact that all of the cipher keys before him were names of people who had died, chosen by a banshee. Does that mean that the magic Kate put on him to de-age him/drain his power/transfer his power to Peter is what is killing him? Or is it something else? There are a TON of people who think that Kate somehow made a double of Derek, and that the Derek we've seen has been Derek-but-not-really-Derek, kind of like Sam in Season 6 of Supernatural, when he was without his soul-- he still had likes and dislikes and physical needs like hunger and desire for sex and whatnot, but he was missing everything that made him himself. 

The argument is that this Derek is too chill and happy, I guess, which means that there has to be another Derek that is grouchy and angsty who is still hidden somewhere in Mexico. I'm totally down for the Double-Derek theory, because that means that the Derek that is still in Mexico could still be a werewolf, but I honestly think the change in his personality is simply because he's actually HAPPY now-- he hated being an alpha, because he was in a constant struggle with the pressure he was under to make sure that his betas were safe in the face of the hunters and the Alpha Pack despite having NO idea what he was doing. Now, he's back to being a beta, which is what he was BORN to be, he's made friends with Scott and Stiles and Lydia, as well as Chris and Sheriff and Jordan, he's got a pack who cares enough about him to notice that he's missing and immediately break into a Mexican hunter's house to find him, he can share his wealth of knowledge and mentor Scott without any of the responsibility of doing what it takes to protect the pack, a leadership quality that Scott has in spades. The other option I'm hoping for, if there is no werewolf Derek hidden somewhere, is that Scott bites Derek and turns him back into a werewolf. Then, he would truly be Scott's beta and the pack could be strong and united and everyone would be happy. THAT'S ALL I WANT, YOU GUYS. I WANT THEM TO BE HAPPY. 

MEREDITH & HER FATE

So, where do things with Meredith go from here? Is she even going to be charged with anything? How could they do that without getting into Peter's role in it? Do you think Sheriff will just try to brush this under the rug? Honestly, knowing this show's habit of killing off female characters (and especially villains, though I wouldn't necessarily call Meredith a villain), I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't end up getting murdered somehow, maybe by Peter or Kate or the berserkers. What do you guys think will happen?

THE BERSERKERS

This has been my season-long question-- who the fuck are the berserkers? And how does Kate have control over them? Hell, I really just want to know the extent of Kate's powers (like, can she do real magic? Or is she just doing spellwork? I NEED TO KNOW) but I have accepted the fact that I'm probably not getting answers about this, at least not any time soon. I kind of love the theory that Erica and Boyd are the berserkers-- if Kate is La Loba, and Jeff is using the La Loba story that involves a woman collecting bones to be turned into wolves, it would be an interesting twist to have Kate bring Erica and Boyd back to life with their bones and turning them into berserkers. That's mostly the part of me that REALLY misses Erica and Boyd talking, though, because I feel like their stories were both squandered. Either way, I'm hoping that the berserkers have actual identities-- even if we stick with what we know about berserkers, which is that they're humans who have somehow tapped into ritual magic in animal skins and who wear animal skins and bones to channel their ferocity, they are still HUMANS wearing those skins and bones, you know? 

MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS:

-Peter was either acquainted with or knew of the Mute, to have brought him up in the flashbacks as the professional assassins to be hired to kill the supernaturals on the deadpool. The Mute even knew him by name, which we saw when he threw his tomahawk at Peter's chest in "Muted." So, is it possible that Peter killed the Mute to keep his secret? Why would the Mute try to kill Peter if he wasn't on the list? Did the Mute know that Peter was pretty much the Benefactor? I'm still confused by that part. 

We still have a few hours until the episode-- what are your predictions? Theories? What do you want to happen? What DON'T you want to happen? I really, REALLY, want to know!