Teen Wolf Season 1 from Derek’s POV
So I actually think Derek’s character is very consistently written, and that seasons 1 and 2 are examples of excellent writing (I know, shocker of an unpopular opinion around here 😂). I've been thinking about Derek's portrayal, and what the story looks like from his perspective, and it's like a different show altogether, so I thought I'd share.
Let’s take a moment to think about The Story So Far, from Derek’s POV:
• Derek was an arrogant jock brought up in a loving but very large family (ie used to a certain level of independence, and who would need to really act up for any adult other than Uncle Peter to pay attention and get involved).
• Not going to go into the Paige thing at this point, in case anyone reading this has only seen season 1.
• Falls for Kate, who takes advantage of him and eventually burns down his house, with all of his family in it except one of his sisters. Comes back from school to find his home burnt down, his family dead, and puts two and two together in his mind. What would young Derek have learned from that? A few things: don’t trust people, ever. It makes you too vulnerable. Don’t let people in, it puts you and yours in literal danger. It’s All His Fault and he basically killed his family. And - Seduction is power.
• Moves to New York and tries to get over this trauma. Probably doesn’t get very far, since the number one lesson he learned in his life is Don’t Let People In. He becomes a very angry person.
• Eventually Laura tells him she’s off to Beacon Hills to investigate. This is probably not something that came out of the blue, rather she was probably investigating the cause of the fire as a way of coping with her grief. Not only does Derek not have that, he had to spend 6 years watching her do that, knowing that he was responsible for their deaths (in his mind), and not being able to say anything. Either she wouldn’t figure it out, and he would feel guilty forever, or she would, and she would hate him forever. He lived with this eating him up for 6 years. Then off to Beacon Hills she goes, saying she’s close to figuring something out, but not telling Derek why.
• Then she goes radio silent. Derek has no reason to equate this radio silence with anything other than “she found out it was me, and now she hates me.” But Laura is literally all he has. So he goes to Beacon Hill the next morning, to try and explain. Instead, he finds half of her dead body in the woods. That’s the dead body of the last person who ever cared about him. (Not counting Peter - because while Derek cares for Peter, who was arguably his closest family member before the fire, he doesn’t expect him to ever recover). Laura is dead, and it’s probably hunters, and the only way to not let guilt and grief take over is to focus on his anger. He takes Laura back to the burnt out husk of his family home, and buries her under the family symbol for revenge.
• Literally within a few hours of him finding Laura’s body, two people come sniffing around the exact scene of the crime. He goes to check it out - it’s clear they’ve been here before (he found the inhaler) but it’s also clear they’re not hunters. They’re useless teenagers. One of them smells like a wolf. He tells them to fuck off.
• These two kids might not have been hunters, but there’s something weird going on with them. So he stalks them to try and find out what’s going on.
• Turns out this Scott kid was newly bitten. There’s something else going on here - an alpha who isn’t Laura. He’s apparently turning people, making new wolves. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? He’s not sure.
• But things are getting more complicated - the Argents are back. Not Kate, no, thank god, but her brother and his kid. And Scott is making all of the same mistakes he used to make - he needs to stop this before it all blows up in his face.
• Before he gets a chance to get his mind around any of this, let alone mourn the loss of his sister whose body he just discovered a couple of days ago, shit hits the fan and those asshole teenagers GET HIM ARRESTED FOR LAURA’S MURDER. That’s what he gets for not being distrustful enough of people. These idiots are going around like they know everything, when it’s clear they know NOTHING. He tells them exactly that.
• There’s not enough evidence, and so after this utterly humiliating experience, they let him go. Despite this, nobody doubts for a second that Derek is guilty.
• The one saving grace in this situation is that the Argents don’t know he’s here. But Scott is still making all the same mistakes Derek made in the past. And so Derek, who hasn’t had a single friend in literal YEARS, is poorly socialised, and has only ever had the great example of Peter as a mentor, actually tries to take Scott under his wing. He really, really *tries*. He just sucks at it.
• Scratch that, the Argents know he’s here, and they know who he is. He was just minding his own business at the service station when Argent tried to intimidate him and smashed up his car.
• This rogue alpha situation is becoming a problem, so Derek begins to go out at night and look for him.
• One such night he’s out tracking the alpha, there’s a commotion. The alpha attacks a car. As Derek moves to get closer, he gets shot in the leg. Uh oh. Hopefully it’ll heal. He slinks back to the preserve and his burnt out husk of a house.
• Well, shit. It was a Wolfsbane bullet. It’s not healing. That is NOT good. He needs help, or he’s going to die.
• Derek has not asked for help in a very long time. Not as a teenager, when it would’ve made him look weak, and not since the fire, because he literally doesn’t trust anyone enough to help. But this time he’s completely alone. And if he doesn’t get help, he’s going to die. SCOTT. Scott can help. He’s been helping Scott, so Scott owes him. He’s an idiot, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Scott needs his help, so Scott needs him alive, so Scott will help.
• Scott doesn’t care. Derek makes him to the school, barely conscious, and asks Scott’s peer - Jackson - where he is. That asshole won’t even tell him. He tries to carry on but pretty much passes out in the corridor. He’s literally on the brink of death in a building full of people, and is actively asking for help, and NOBODY CARES. NOBODY even STOPS.
• Eventually he makes it out, finds Scott and his friend, and they tell him to fuck off. Seriously?! He passes out again. Scott is like “Stiles, you deal with him, I don’t have time for this shit.” And leaves. They keep joking about letting him die.
• For all the nasty comments, that kid driving the jeep is the only one who actually hasn’t left him to die. Scratch that, he wants to dump him at his house and ditch him. His house with no locks where everyone who wants him dead knows to find him. Derek starts to panic.
• Derek has hours left to live and nobody is helping. Even though he has made it simple for them and told them exactly how to help. Scott, the one person he thought might care, is literally taking his time having dinner with his abusers’ daughter instead of doing the one thing that can save his life. Fuck it, he’s just going to cut off his own arm.
• Scott makes it back with the bullet in the nick of time. Fuck people.
• To add insult to injury, Derek has a run in with Chris at the service station and he smashes up his car.
• Derek is back at home, minding his own business, when the literal worst thing that could possibly happen happens. KATE ARGENT shows up in his home. The last time she was here, she was burning his family alive. She shows up with guns, incapacitates him, taunts him about his dead sister, his dead family, tries to pump him for information, and when none is forthcoming and it becomes clear he’s “outlived his usefulness” - she tries to kill him.
• Derek runs. The house isn’t safe anymore.
• Derek still tries. He tries to make an ally out of Scott. He’s the only non-psychopathic werewolf left in Beacon Hills. Derek has no pack, no one. They’re stronger and safer together. If only he would stop being such an idiot.
• His search for the alpha points to Deaton. The guy clearly knows things. Things about him. He is not forthcoming with information. Derek has no time for this shit. He roughs him up a bit. Unfortunately, Scott picks that night to come up with the stupidest plan EVER and apparently decides to broadcast his existence to all of Beacon Hills. Aaand then he gets mauled by the alpha.
• To add insult to injury, when he comes to Derek finds out that Scott has thrown him under the bus by telling the fucking sheriff that he, Derek Hale, trapped a bunch of kids at the school, kept them hostage, and killed a man. Great. Now all of beacon hills wants him dead. Back to being on the run. It’s not like his home is a safe place to stay anyway.
• He needs help, but the last time he asked for help that didn’t go so well. Scott didn’t give a shit. A building full of people left him for dead in the corridors and no one stopped. He passed out on the road and the only reaction people showed was annoyance at stopping the traffic. Actually, you know who did help? That Stiles kid. He’s probably Derek’s best bet if he needs a safe place to crash.
• Stiles has a lead - he can hear them talking about it. That other guy doesn’t want to help. Apparently Stiles is the king of brilliant ideas, and an improvised strip tease is exactly what it takes for that Danny guy to help them. (Again, what did Derek learn? Seduction is power.)
• Things are not looking good. Their one lead seems to point to... Scott’s mother? They need to think about this.
• If the hunters didn’t kill Laura... then the alpha did. An alpha more powerful than Laura? Derek doesn’t want to let the hope bloom in his chest, but maybe another one from his family got out? Survived the fire? But then why aren’t they coming for him? Why Scott?
• They need to talk to Peter. Surprisingly, Stiles appears to have a decent sense of priorities and skips his Lacrosse game to help with this.
• Bad news. Peter is the alpha. Uncle Peter. Uncle Peter has recovered?! What?! And now he’s killing people?! He killed Laura?! He attacked him?! Act now, think later. That Stiles kid is in danger, he needs to get him out of harm’s way first.
• After a fight, Derek and Peter have a heart to heart. This is huge. Derek isn’t alone in the world after all. He *does* have family. He wasn’t in control before. He was angry. Derek can understand that. Maybe things can be okay after all... they need to talk to Scott.
• They go to the school, and Peter does something Derek didn’t know was possible. He sticks his claws in Scott’s neck as a way of sharing memories. Well, shit. This reminds Derek of something, but he can’t quite figure out what.
• He feels a bit more powerful now. A bit safer, knowing he’s got someone else on his side. He can go back to the Hale house.
• Scott is at Derek’s house when the hunters attack. This is bad. They’re probably going to take him - he barely got away last time. But he can’t let them get to Scott. He has to protect Scott. So he buys him time. As a last-minute decision, he takes Scott’s phone. Hopefully someone can figure it out. Use it to track him. That Stiles kid is pretty smart. Maybe he can figure it out.
• Derek is held prisoner and tortured by Kate. On his own property. I don’t think I need to go over this - what you see is what you get. Kate shows him off to Allison like he’s some circus animal, and Allison barely reacts with anything but fear. She voices all the guilt and self-loathing and resentment he’s kept to himself for 6 years. He gets physically and emotionally tortured. For days. In his own basement.
• Derek only got caught because he was buying Scott some time to get away. When he hears Scott’s howl he thinks maybe he might have a chance of getting away after all. Except then Scott shows up and refuses to help him out. Derek is seriously freaking out. Kate could be back at any point. They can talk about this later, but he needs to leave NOW.
• Eventually Derek breaks himself out, fuelled by the mix of relief and panic that came with Scott’s appearance. Wait, Scott might actually be saying something important. Now that he’s free he can pay attention. Shit, Scott might be right. Peter didn’t lose control and kill Laura in a moment of confusion. He lured her here. It was premeditated murder. Peter MURDERED his sister.
• Barely does he make it back to the house before Allison and Kate show up to kill him and Scott. Scott won’t listen to him, won’t listen to any of his advice. Kate shoots him. Everyone there leaves him for dead. And this is the sad thing - if Derek did die, right here right now, no one would mourn him. No one would miss him. No one. At all. He’s completely alone.
• By the time he comes to, Stiles and Jackson are on the scene and Peter is being burned alive. Again. It’s a horrible sight, but this time the thought of Peter murdering his only family left alive is worse. Derek wants revenge. Scott asks him to let him do it. But fuck Scott. He’s spent weeks trying to help him, WEEKS, and for what? To die alone in a ditch, with all of Beacon Hills wanting him dead. He wants revenge, yes. But what he needs right now, also, more than anything, is a pack. He needs to not be alone. And so he needs to be the alpha. He kills Peter.
I find it interesting when people say that Derek is intended to be the villain or the antagonist in this season, because to me that really isn't the case. He's more of a red herring than anything. Scott may see him as a threat, but if you actually look at things from his perspective, he actually goes OUT OF HIS WAY to help Scott and Stiles, over and over again, and gets nothing but shit for it.
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