Something has definitely happened in the writers room between the end of the third season and the beginning of the fourth season. Teen Wolf has a completely different feel to it, and it might even be too much of a leap for viewers to wrap their heads around – at least right away. The show has evolved to become a veritable mess of mythological-driven storylines, most of which subscribing to the theory of delayed gratification, since none of the characters seem particularly content at the moment.
The season premiere last week left fans gawking at a teenage version of Derek (Ian Nelson), courtesy of the were-jaguar version of Kate (Jill Wagner) – who until the final scene of season three, we were under the impression was dead. Just as one Argent takes her final bow, another one emerges. Or, re-emerges. If season one taught us anything, it’s that Kate doesn’t understand boundaries the same way most people do, so it’s really no surprise that when the time came to follow the hunter’s code and end her own life – which we painstakingly saw Allison’s mother do earlier on in the series under semi-similar circumstances – she ran away from the challenge.
Instead, Kate has become a threat to hunters and supernatural-friendlies alike. She has allied herself with some ancient race of unknown supernaturals – Peter (Ian Bohen) referred to them as berserkers, although he wasn’t really in a position to go into any detail at the moment – but after what we discover at the end of the episode, it seems like they are some form of exceptionally strong mercenary-for-hire types.
It’s unclear who manipulated Kate into discovering the location of the vault for their own personal benefit, or if she had any idea what was happening, but judging by the look on her face, she didn’t see that one coming. She was absolutely crushed with the revelation that Derek’s “magical” trinket was just a piece of junk and would in no way help her to control her transformation around a full moon.
