The Big Bad of Teen Wolf season 5 is La Bête du Gévaudan, but how much do we actually know about it?
The Beast was created when the Dread Doctors used a human teenage chimera to resurrect this ancient werewolf who had made his mark on history in the middle of 18th century France. Legend tells of how the Argents were the ones to finally defeat it, guaranteeing their place in the history books right alongside the monster they slayed.
We don’t know why the Dread Doctors want to create the perfect killer, only that they’ve spent decades bending the rules of science and mysticism to prolong their lives. Have they been doing this in an attempt to create The Beast for some other nefarious reason? Or is The Beast just another way for them to attempt immortality?
Theo was the first step in the right direction for the Dread Doctors. We’re missing parts of his past, but we do know he was only 10 years old when he watched his sister die in a freezing cold river. He was willing to kill his sister and have the Dread Doctors rip out her heart so he could become a genetic chimera and be subjected to their tests.
Theo wasn’t the right chimera, though. There was a reason why the Doctors failed and a reason why they changed their methods. On their journey to create the perfect killer, to create the Beast of Gévaudan, Theo was merely a stepping stone.
When we first see The Beast in episode 12, it’s a monstrous creature shrouded in darkness with glowing white eyes. He intentionally goes after Hayden and Liam instead of Deputy Clarke. This is the first of several instances where we only see The Beast at night.
Looking at the footage from when The Beast attacked the technician at the Telecom communication towers, Stiles realizes the creature came from somewhere underneath the building. When they decide to do some field work, they come across a message written in mercury, damnatio memoriae.
Theo is quick to destroy the Latin phrase before he informs Scott and Stiles that The Beast is not a chimera. Scott says he thinks it’s just a kid underneath, someone like them, but Theo says, “Not anymore.” Stiles tells Scott the phrase means “condemnation of memory.” This leads them to believe that The Beast is not new, but something rather old instead. The Dread Doctors resurrected the original Beast of Gévaudan.
Later, Gerard confirms to Chris that this is the original Beast and that its only purpose was to kill, with no regard for life at all.
In episode 13, Theo and Tracey come across the Latin phrase once more, again written in mercury, but this time it’s scrawled across the lockers at school. According to Theo, “they” are trying to get The Beast to remember who it was, though it’s not clear who he’s talking about. “Isn’t it just a kid underneath?” Tracey asks, but Theo doesn’t care about that and neither do the Dread Doctors. The person they used is inconsequential; the Doctors needed a body because they couldn’t resurrect The Beast without one.
Seeing as the Latin phrase is being scribbled around town, it sounds like whoever is trying to get it to remember who it was also doesn’t care about its present day body. It wants The Beast to remember who it was back when it was La Bête the first time around. This could potentially fall in line with what the Dread Doctors want, as they need the Beast to kill mercilessly in order to fulfill their unknown mission.
So what happens when The Beast does remember? Theo doesn’t know, but he suggests that it doesn’t even know it turns back to human during the day. This means The Beast’s true identity could be anyone we haven’t seen it come up against yet.
The creature once again shows up at night, this time at the school and in the presence of Theo, Tracey, and the Dread Doctors. We also learn that the original Beast killed about 500 people before it was stopped by the Argents.
During their road trip into the New Mexico desert to rescue Kira, Scott and Stiles do some research. Scott reads from a book about damnatio memoriae, which explains that it was a Roman practice whereby the government destroyed all images of and information about the damned. They believed being forgotten was a punishment worse than death.
Scott also reads that this was later used on a serial killer in 1598 named the Demon Tailor, who lured children into his Parisian shop, boiled them, and ate their flesh. No one knows the Demon Tailor’s real name. Scott assumes this means the Demon Tailor was turned into the original Beast, although La Bête du Gévaudan folklore puts the monster in France during the 1760s. Perhaps The Beast had been around long before his infamous attacks on the Argent family.
In show canon, this is all we know about The Beast of Gévaudan up to Teen Wolf season 5, episode 13, “Codominance.” It’s not enough to figure out which person is inside The Beast or what exactly the Dread Doctors are planning to do with it, but if you’ve got any theories, let us know in the comments below!
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