Scott's Dark Arc in Season 4
I’ve seen fans of Teen Wolf wonder when Scott was going to go through his ‘dark arc.’ After all, Derek and Allison had theirs in Season 2. Stiles had his in Season 3B. My belief is that Season 4 was Scott’s dark arc; it simply didn’t look like the others and so it didn’t look like what the audience was expecting. You see, Scott was never going to turn into an obvious monster. Instead, he was going to turn into his father.
To elaborate, Scott was never going to become a serial killer. He was never going to install his pack as a tyrannical regime with himself as the Holy Lord at its apex. He was never going to abandon his friends or innocent people. His arc was never going to be that cliché. Instead, it was going to be something every person has to grapple with sooner or later.
Scott’s dark arc was about making excuses.
After all, Rafael McCall made plenty of excuses. He drank to deal with his job. He abandoned his family because he made a mistake. He stalled an impeachment process, playing with Noah’s life, simply to find a way to talk to his son. He was going to bail on that very same chance because Scott wasn’t immediately receptive to him. Rafael always had an excuse not to do what he should have done. He wasn’t a fiend either. He was neglectful but not cruel. Callous but not sadistic. Absent but not a dead beat. In a way, he’s a much more practical, realistic antagonist. Which is why Rafael’s redemption, his attempt to make up for his mistakes wasn’t fighting the good fight but “I’m keeping my promises this time.”
As fans of Scott McCall (as well as Derek and Deaton and Kira) have pointed out, Scott’s heroism doesn’t come from having the right answer or being the mightiest warrior, it comes from him never giving up. I don’t really need to repeat the speech from The Divine Move (3x24) do I? What Season 4 gives is opportunities, temptations for Scott to give himself an out.
It starts in Muted (4x03). After the terror, pain, and loss of the first three seasons, Scott is ready for this semester to settle down. He’s going to play lacrosse, he’s going to date Kira, and he’s going to start working toward his future. As he tells Derek in I.E.D. (4x05), “this was the semester I was supposed to be able to focus on school again,” but what he really means is that this is the season when he gets to be who he always wanted to be.
So, it’s very fitting that his dark arc starts with him injuring Liam out of frustration at tryouts. In Season 1, him wanting to get a good night’s sleep before tryouts serves as the dividing line between who he was and who he was forced to become. As the action starts, he’s eager to have something for himself, which Stiles tells him is okay, but throughout the episode, we sees Scott’s frustration grow as he sees that chance taken by a cocky freshman. Scott is confronted with the opportunity to make his first excuse. While using the alpha power would be cheating, it’s his power, earned through pain and suffering. Stiles, as Stiles often does, points out that it’s not fair that Liam might “steal all your glory after you worked your tushie off.”
Scott’s aggression causes an injury on the field, though as Stiles also points out it is an accident and not a deliberate misuse of Scott’s power but it could have been. And there begins the temptation for Scott in Season 4: not to bathe his claws in the blood of his enemies but to put what he wants above everything else. And there are things he wants beyond captain of the lacrosse team. He wants to concentrate on his schoolwork. He wants an actual relationship with Kira. He wants a roof over his and his mother’s head as well as his best friend’s family not being crushed by medical bills. He wants a chance to get into a good college. He wants to drink and party at the bonfire rather than making sure everyone else is safe. “That sounds fun too,” Malia tells him sarcastically.
He could have all these things, and to get them all he has to do is relax his principles a little. Doesn’t he deserve to? So what if he takes shortcuts like recycling Derek’s words that didn’t work on him so he doesn’t have to come up with his own? Scott being confronted with opportunities to make excuses is embodied in four particular instances: the money, the nightmares about Liam in Time of Death (4x08), the battle in Monstrous (4x10), and the final battle with Peter in Smoke and Mirrors (4x12).
Garret’s money is the most obvious case. Without context, stealing money from someone else is wrong. In context, it’s not so clear. Garrett and Violet received that money for killing innocent werewolves, and they were paid for it from a dead pool that is offering 25 million dollars for Scott’s head. The McCall family is in danger of losing their house, in dire financial straits and the Stilinski family isn’t much better. The money is ultimately Peter’s, the person who caused all his terror the first place. Scott contemplates keeping it, contemplates making the excuse, until he is confronted by his mother in A Promise to the Dead (4x11).
Then there’s Liam. Liam is a problem. Scott didn’t want a beta (and contrary to fan theories, there was no indication he needed a werewolf beta in his pack or there would be dire consequences). Liam is stubborn, has a disorder that makes him dangerous, is a target for assassins, and is not sure even if he wants to be in the pack, though he would still be Scott’s responsibility during the terrible dangers of Kate being back and the Dead Pool. But a solution had presented itself to Scott through Derek and Deucalion in the past. “Tell him, Kali, tell him what it’s like, killing one of your own.” “Liberating.” Also contrary to fan theories, Scott isn’t immune to the urge to kill. It’d be easy; after all, Deucalion got away with it, Peter got away with it, Derek got away with it. Scott has always done the right thing when they haven’t, and in return he only gets more responsibility, but that’s why he’s the alpha. It could all go away if he compromised this once. It is an enticing excuse. “Let me help you,” intones the Mute, “Let me show you what to do.”
And with that ringing in his ears, Scott goes into the battle at Argent Arms. He’s taken on this responsibility because someone had to. He’s going to fight, and the enemies going to be gunning for him. “You’re still number one on the dead pool.” These renegade hunters were trained to kill him, but they can’t even try to kill him out of hatred. They’re going to kill him, his friends, and innocent people who can’t fight, simply for cash. It’s self-defense, but it’s only self-defense if he has no other choice. Up on that table, slashing at that hunter, he has every reason in the world to tear that stranger in half. He gets close.
The dark arc completes itself in La Iglesias. Scott has no reason whatsoever to spare Peter’s life except his own principle that every life has value. Peter managed to crawl back from the dead only to demonstrate that he’s learned nothing. He’s stolen power, corrupted others, and done the same things he did in Season 1 again in Season 4. From Peter’s own speech, there is no reason to believe that he wouldn’t do it again when he got the chance. This decision is right after Scott has been transformed into a mindless killing machine (again!) and forced to hurt the girl he loves. He is angry. He should be angry.
All Scott has to do is make the excuse that is right in front of his face. They always are. “I moved out the next day,” says Rafael. “I was out of my mind,” says Peter. “I can if they’re willing!” says Derek. “That the only way to save one person is to kill another,” says Deucalion. “I know a werewolf’s nature,” says Gerard. “To stop them from ever hurting anyone again,” says Jennifer. “To win the game.” Everyone else has good reasons for what they did. So does Scott. No one (especially me) would have been upset if just this once he tore Peter’s head from his body to end his threat once and for all.
But it would be an excuse. It would be leaving and sending an e-mail later. Scott knows that the right thing to do is to “think that there’s something about him that can be saved.” Even though this is Peter. This is the man who took his dreams from him and replaced them with nightmares. But when Scott knocks Peter out and turns to look at the altar where he lost his humanity for a bit, he knows he’s done the right thing. And the Dark Arc concludes.
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