It’s been about three years now since I revived
this channel and started producing weekly
content. In that time I’ve been surprised by a great many things but nothing has surprised
me more than some of your obsession with teeth.
“Can you explain why Scott had extra fang in season 4 and somehow they disappeared the
next season”
“...he has 6 fangs, but in many episodes when he growls 4, and there is one moment
where Derek has 6 fangs, how is that?”
“what was causing scott to evolve more as a werewolf in season 4 with visions of liam
and scott talking about how growed more fangs”
“Can you do a theory about his fangs the difference between time of death s4 I think
e8 and before?”
“Is scott envolving because look at his fangs at season 4 ep 8 he dies and then after
that his fangs grow longer”
[overlapping voices]
Shut up! Shut up!
I’ll tell you up front that the teeth on Teen Wolf were usually a function of aesthetics
they looked that way because it made the character look good on camera. There were a couple of
misguided efforts with CGI but teeth only really mattered that one time and even then
it was just a minor point in a much larger story arc.
Liam: Maybe it's part of being an alpha
Like you're becoming more of a werewolf.
Teen Wolf led us into the idea of fangs kinda slowly. I mean, yeah, they showed the over-sized
bite mark on Scott suggesting a shark bit him right in the six pack. But the first close
up werewolf teeth we saw were Scott’s little nubbins in the pilot episode.
Those tiny taters were immediately replaced with a bigger set in the very next scene,
establishing in-universe that Teen Wolf teeth can change just like all other physical attributes
depending on the level of transformation and the level of control the individual has over
their werewolf side.
Of course, in reality, one of these scenes was done for the pilot presentation and other
was added several months later after they got a full season order.
But in-universe we have a canonical teeth thing now .
It’s a minor point but it does come up later in Season 4. You can see the difference in
Peter’s teeth in his encounter with Kate in the vault versus his final fight with Scott.
Out of control werewolves have a more pronounced bite.
Anyway, back to the beginning, we had a situation late in Season One where Teen Wolf wandered
into the uncanny valley of ill-conceived CGI teeth.
I actually have this clip saved as Peter Jankey Teeth.
Keep in mind that this was more than a decade ago and for all it’s ambition and the excellent
writing and directing, Teen Wolf was a low-budget cable show. They did what they could to scare
the crap out of us and they were successful more often than not. But these teeth? Oh boy.
After Season 1 everybody got fangs and all the fangs were slightly different based on
the actor’s real teeth and whatever the character needed.
The Alpha Pack needed to look more menacing than average. The appliances they gave Boyd
and Cora during their rampage in the episode Fireflies seemed a little over the top too.
And they did this thing where it’s either a camera angle trick, some post production
witchcraft or a special dental set, but in certain scenes it seemed the teeth jutted
forward to look more canine. That was a cool efffect.
Anyway, these were literally all choices made by the producers, directors and special effects
folks. There were some times when the writers would add fang details to the story but mostly
the teeth were just to add to the overall character transformation,
the look of things.
That all changed in Season 4. It is the only season where teeth actually matter.
Liam: There's something different isn't there.
Scott: I've got more fangs.
Liam: Maybe it's part of being an alpha?
Like you're becoming more of a werewolf.
Scott: Or more of a monster.
Liam: What if it makes you stronger?
What if it's like you're growing?
I have a feeling that this dream sequence from Time of Death is the only reason I still
get so many questions about dental issues.
Liam: Maybe it's part of being an alpha, like you're becoming more of a werewolf.
Scott: Or more of a monster.
This is late in Season 4, a season that saw Scott going through some stuff. He created
a werewolf and was watching people die all around while he felt helpless to stop it.
Add to this the money pressures the writers introduced this season and the strained rekindling
of his relationship with his father and Scott was super stressed out and beginning to lose
it at this point.
All this pressure would culminate in that warehouse scene where he almost gives in fully.
This right here is what the whole extra teeth thing was all about. The extra fangs are foreshadowing
Scott losing control and becoming more monstrous in an episode they literally called Monstrous.
That’s it. There’s no huge subtext here. There’s no canonical evolution of werewolves
to be found in the more aggressive dental appliances. As I’ve said about a billion
times, werewolves who lose control become monsters and monsters have great big teeth.
If anything, this is Scott’s most devolved moment in the series. This is Scott at his
very worst, his least human form. But it served as an important lesson. He was able to take
what he learned from that warehouse experience into his fight with Peter in Episode 12. He
knew how far he could let the monster take over without giving in completely.
As to why they switched back to a more regular-looking looking dental appliacne for Season 5, again
it’s kind of a let down it’s so simple. The more normal fang arrangement is just to
show Scott is more in control of himself. But they did keep some of the more aggressive
changes. His incisors are now pointed where they were flat before Season 4.