Maid of Gevaudan is the 18th episode of Teen Wolf Season 5 and marks the return of actor Crystal Reed to the show.
The title references Marie-Jeanne Valet, an 18th century French woman who is said to have survived an attack by the real Beast of Gevaudan.
It aired on Tuesday February 23, 2016 at 9pm on MTV.
Synopsis[]
Hoping to align with a familiar ally, the Argents reveal a key clue to the mystery of the Beast of Gevaudan. Meanwhile, Scott McCall tries to take on the Beast himself.
Full Recap[]
Two men, Marcel (Daniel Bonjour) and Sebastien (Gilles Marini), struggle through the rain. The men wear what appear to be French military uniforms and say they are running from British soldiers. Sebastien collapses face down in the mud, Marcel picks him up and helps him to move on.
- EDITOR’S NOTE: Marcel and Sebastien are apparently in Canada in 1760 during the Seven Years War (1754-1763). This would place the Beast of Gevaudan storyline in 1764 after they've returned to France.
At some point, Sebastien writes a letter to his sister Marie-Jeanne Valet. He explains that, even with the help of their “Indian” allies, they are losing the war. Montreal has reportedly fallen to the British and both Marcel and Sebastien are injured.
The men take shelter in a small shack. A British search party, with dogs, can be heard in the storm outside. The woman inside says they should look elsewhere for shelter because there is a creature of the night at large in the land. She describes it as a “Shapeshifter, a demon.” When pressed by Sebastien she says it’s a “demon wolf.”
Outside, the British advance as the rain pours and the lightning flashes. They are taken out one by one by an unseen, growling attacker. One Brit makes it inside but the growls follow and pulls him back out. Sebastien’s letter is seen lying on the floor of the shack.
Gerard Argent explains that the letter made its way into the hands of Marie-Jeanne (Crystal Reed). He describes her as a “skilled hunter” and says she would later face the beast with nothing more than a “steel-tipped pike.”
Marie-Jeanne stalks an unseen animal through the snow-covered woods above Gévaudan, France (Location: Griffith Park, Los Angeles).
Gerard says that she would be known to history as the Maid of Gevaudan.
Lydia and Jordan Parrish have been listening to Gerard tell the story. Parrish says maybe somebody should resurrect Marie-Jeanne to take on the beast. He heads for the exit. Lydia asks him to stay but he explains that he is not just a harbinger of death, he’s the cause of it. Lydia follows after but Gerard says they should let him go. Chris Argent says Jordan isn’t their only hope of stopping the Beast. Gerard believes Lydia may be able to stop it.
Stiles and Hayden carry a badly wounded Liam into one of the school classrooms. The wounds on his chest and abdomen are deep and ragged. Stiles, almost passes out and then suggests they inflict more pain in order to spur his healing. Hayden kisses him instead and the tell-tale dark lines of pain leave Liam and enter her through the kiss. He falls back apparently no longer in pain.
Gerard says Lydia and Marie-Jeanne are similar in that they are skeptical of their own abilities and were both once skeptical of the supernatural.
In an Inn in Gevaudan, a man is about to tack up a sign that details the search for “LA BETE.” Marie-Jeanne fires a crossbow bolt into the sign, tacking it to the wall. He thanks her. Marie-Jeanne reads the letter from her brother and the barman says she should not give up hope.
At another table men discuss the attack on an 11-year-old girl, she was torn limb from limb. They discuss the varying descriptions of the beast. Some say it is party hyena, part wolf, that it has red fur, black fur, cloven hooves or a stripe down its back. The barman joins the conversation saying they know it kills at night and targets the head and neck. They say “Where the beast finds a lamb, there it seeks another.” They say it never eats its victims, killing for sport which no animal does. There is word that the king is planning to send professional hunters to Gevaudan to kill the beast. Until they arrive the suggestion is to use volunteers for a hunting party.
Sebastien arrives in the Inn and says the best hunter in Gevaudan is Marie-Jeanne. Brother and sister embrace. Marcel tells the barkeep he will still have a job.
The old man looking for volunteers to hunt the beast agrees with Sebastien and asks Marie-Jeanne to lead the search for the beast. The other patrons in the bar begin to chant her name. Marie-Jeanne plays it off as a joke, saying she hunts animals not rumors. The laughter dies down when a man (Henri) carrying the body of a young boy (Emile) enters the inn. Emile is the barkeep’s son. His last words were “La Bete.” Marie-Jeanne says she does not know what creature is responsible for the death but she will lead the hunting party at dawn.
In Beacon Hills, the beast throws Scott into a wall at the school. He’s quickly back on his feet and turns to face it but the beast scurries off to another part of the school. Scott gives chase.
Lydia wonders why Sebastien didn’t warn Marie-Jeanne about the beast. Gerard says they’d talked about everything he’d seen during the war but Marie-Jeanne was a skeptic.
Early morning the hunting party is gathering their weapons at the inn. Marie-Jeanne is chiding her brother for being superstitious. He assures her he saw it with his own eyes. Marie-Jeanne says she’s been through every inch of the woods and hunted every creature under the sun. Marcel points out that she’s not hunted under the moon. Sebastien says she will need more than ordinary steel to stop the beast.
As the hunters set out, Marie-Jeanne sees Marcel locking the cellar door.
Gerard says they hunted from dawn to dusk searching for the beast as it slept. It was just after midnight when the first torch went out. The hunting party is attacked one after the other. Marie-Jeanne looks into the darkness trying to get a bead on the beast. She manages to hit the beast with an arrow. She gets scratched and drops her crossbow. She pulls out her knife. She spies the beast’s glowing white eyes and prepares for its attack.
Henri (Lachlan Buchanan) comes running from the darkness, tells Marie-Jeanne to get down and casts a circle of Mountain Ash dust. The beast slams into the barrier but can’t get through. The beast runs away. Henri explains that the beast is a werewolf.
Malia Tate is making her way through the screaming throng of students running through the hallways at the high school. She grabs a guy and slams him against the wall, demanding to know where Stiles is. He doesn’t know. She takes out her phone and calls Braeden and tells her to bring all her shotguns to the school.
A girl falls in the hallway and backwards crabwalks away from the approaching beast. Scott grabs her and throws her roughly into a classroom and barricades the door with his body. The beast is right outside the door. Scott yells at the girl to go out the window. She does, just before the beast rips the door and Scott out of the room.
Lydia senses something and almost collapses. Chris catches her but she wants to leave because something is wrong. Gerard says she should hear the rest of the story. Lydia says everything she’s read says the beast was killed by Jean Chastel. Gerard says the internet (and apparently Allison in Season 1) got it wrong. Chris says Gerard knows the story better than anyone.
Henri brought Marie-Jeanne to his home which was protected by a circle of Mountain Ash trees. He has more Mountain Ash and Mistletoe in small bottles on his table. He says he’s been gathering the knowledge and supplies to survive a werewolf. He offers to teach Marie-Jeanne but she says she doesn’t want to “survive” one. She wants to kill one.
Scott runs to the Library. Sydney and more than a dozen other students are hiding behind shelves and book carts. The Beast growls and Scott urges them to go upstairs before it gets to the Library. They make it to new hiding places just before the beast comes in. Scott’s eyes flash red as he growls back.
Gerard explains that Marie-Jeanne knew she couldn’t just arm a new hunting party with “mistletoe and rowan berries.” She needed an advantage.
Marie-Jeanne pours wine for everyone in the inn and says she expects everyone to drink in honor of the dead. The drink appears to have a bitter taste. Marcel breaks his glass cutting his hand. Marie-Jeanne takes him outside to the well to wash the blood away. She asks for a cloth to wrap his wound but instead he gives her the key to the cellar saying she’ll find what she is looking for in there.
She takes the key, opens the door, descends and finds a pile of dead bodies. She returns to Marcel with crossbow drawn. He begs her to kill him. He reaches for the bow and the arrow flies up and away as Marie-Jeanne jerks back. Seeing his blood on the snow, she realizes that Marcel is not the killer, merely covering for him.
Inside the inn, Sebastien begins to cough and gasp. His eyes glow white. Gerard says the maid confronted her brother the moment she walked back in. She says he’s killed children. He says he kills whatever there is that crosses his path. He says it’s what he is, what he has become. He apparently drank rain water from the paw print of the wolf while running from the British in Canada. He says, according to the old story, when you drink from the print you become the demon wolf.
While hiding from the British, Sebastien transformed and killed the woman in the shack and all the soldiers outside.
At the inn, Sebastien dares his sister to tell the others that he is the beast. He promises to tear them apart in a matter of moments. Marie-Jeanne is in tears as Sebastien kisses her on the head, promises that she’ll never catch him and walks away.
Gerard explains that Marie-Jeanne and Henri worked together to figure out how to kill the beast. Henri says they need a weapon that will use the beast’s weight against itself. They forge a steel spear tip in the shape of a fleur-de-lis. Marie-Jeanne’s blood runs down the blade as she places it on the staff.
Scott is getting beaten badly by the beast in the Library but keeps coming back for more. As Scott turns to face the creature once more, Liam leaps from behind and drives his fists into the beast’s head. Braeden follows up with several shotgun blasts and Malia runs toward the fray. Apparently having had enough of the fight, the beast leaps through the library’s giant window and into the night. Braeden chides Scott for going up against the beast. He admits he knew he didn’t have a chance but did manage to get its scent.
According to Gerard, Marie-Jeanne hunted Sebastian for three years, finally cornering him in 1767. Marie-Jeanne runs through the snow apparently fleeing from her brother who is in human form with an arrow sticking out of his arm. As he follows, black, smoke-like shadows rise from the snow and coalesce around him to form the beast. As the beast is now quite close, Marie-Jeanne slides along the ground and picks up the spear that was hidden in the snow. She quickly turns to face Sebastien. Momentum carries the beast onto the spear which protrudes out his back.
Sebastien becomes human again and calls the spear sticking through his body a “minor injury.” He says he will recover and kill everyone they know and history will remember his name. Marie-Jeanne explains that no one will remember. He realizes she’s talking about Damnatio Memoriae and becomes angry that she plans to take his name. He suddenly starts bleeding black goo and realizes that the spear has substantially damaged him. Marie-Jeanne explains that the spear is not ordinary steel, Wolfsbane and Mountain Ash, forged with her blood under the light of a full moon.
Marie-Jeanne kisses him and declares that history might remember Sebastien, but only as a beast. Sebastien falls in the snow and dies. Marie-Jeanne takes her spear and walks away.
Chris explains that Sebastien was erased from history, every signature, every possession. Gerard says they burned it all. He says the name Sebastien Valet has been forgotten for more than 150 years. Chris says when the beast remembers who it is the teenager inside is forgotten, gone forever.
Lydia points out that Marie-Jeanne did not defeat the beast alone. She had the help of Henri, the magistrate, the whole town and even Marcel. She says they need Parrish.
Jordan Parrish leaves his gun and badge on the Sheriff’s desk and walks out.
Lydia wants to find Parrish but Chris says he’s dangerous because he is a shapeshifter who’s only learning how to use his power. Lydia thinks she’s in the same position but Chris says they’re not the same. He says Lydia can access the supernatural, it works through her, but she isn’t controlled by it.
Lydia confronts Gerard about why he is suddenly on their side. He slides her a lighter with a fleur-de-lis etched in the side and explains that Marie-Jeanne married Henri Argent. She was the first of the Hunters. Lydia exits saying she is not an Argent and she’s not Allison.
Liam chases after Scott concerned about his injuries. Scott races to the school parking lot, following the scent of the beast. It leads him to a car. Scott pries open the trunk and finds the bloody size ten shoe they’ve been looking for. It’s Mason’s car and he shows up and asks them what they’re doing. Before they can tell him he’s the beast, Corey becomes visible behind him and grabs him. They both become invisible and run away.
Soundtrack[]
- ZAYDE WØLF - "Save Tonight"
- Scene: We meet Marie-Jeanne Valet, the Maid of Gevaudan.
Episodes List[]
| ← Season 5 Season 5 Season 6 → | |||
| #01 Creatures of the Night | #06 Required Reading | #11 The Last Chimera | #16 Lie Ability |
| #02 Parasomnia | #07 Strange Frequencies | #12 Damnatio Memoriae | #17 A Credible Threat |
| #03 Dreamcatchers | #08 Ouroboros | #13 Codominance | #18 Maid of Gevaudan |
| #04 Condition Terminal | #09 Lies of Omission | #14 The Sword and the Spirit | #19 The Beast of Beacon Hills |
| #05 A Novel Approach | #10 Status Asthmaticus | #15 Amplification | #20 Apotheosis |
Gallery[]
