One of the plot points of the Teen Wolf movie was that Eli Hale had been traumatized by
seeing his father go all wolfey and scare off a bunch of coyotes when Eli was just a toddler.
The results are that Eli cannot consciously tap into his werewolf side as a teenager,
which appears to be when other born werewolves we've seen begin feeling their spark.
Someone asked me the other day why the young Hale didn't already have trouble on the full
moon like Derek did when he was 15?
The answer is a familiar one to regular viewers of this channel - strong emotions can completely
block werewolf abilities.
Beyond this failure to launch, Eli also has a visceral reaction to any signs of transformation.
Malia: You know some people pass out when they see a needle? Eli passes out when he
sees his own fangs.
Scott: He passes out? Derek: Fangs come out...
Malia: he's on the floor, claws too.
But there is one big hint that his werewolf spark is activating despite being blocked
almost fully by Eli's strong emotions.
Eli: I sleepwalk, I don't know why, but I just been doing it for the last few months.
Scott: I used to wake up in the woods too. Eli: After you bit by Peter, right?
This was kind of tossed away on screen as a bit of bonding and a moment of "well back
in my day" between Scott and the new kid.
But his sleepwalking signals to me that Eli's spark did kick in a few months before this
point, right when it should have based on what we already know about werewolf puberty.
So far the spark - manifesting only when he's asleep - subconsciously leads him right to
the nemeton, which is a magnet for all supernaturals.
Now it's possible Eli would have continued right along this path of only being troubled
by his spark when he was asleep for at least a little while longer, but then Scott came
along and inspired this fight or flight moment that fully triggered Eli's werewolf spark.
Some in this fandom seem absolutely offended that Derek didn't tell them that he had a
kid during the year or so we were all hanging out together in Beacon Hills back in 2011
and early 2012.
Warning: timeline information ahead may induce nausea, headaches and in rare cases explosive
colitis. Turn back now.
Teen Wolf the movie is set in 2026.
We get that year because everyone says Alison's been dead for like 15 years.
Allison died in November of 2011.
We know it's November because we had Halloween just a couple of weeks before Allison died.
The movie isn't set exactly 15 years later, that's not how people discuss death.
They don't go all "Four score and seven years ago".
Folks just aren't that formal when laying out their personal timelines because they're
not all pedantic fat guys like me obsessing over a TV show.
So the movie isn't exactly 15 years after November 2011, but it's in the ballpark.
And since Eli Hale already turned 15 when the movie starts, then he was born sometime
in 2011 before Allison died.
In case you don't remember your "Health Skills" textbook, it takes nine months to cook a baby
placing the deed that turned on that oven for Eli sometime in late 2010.
So at this moment - when Scott first met Derek in the woods in January of 2011 - Eli is cooking.
Okay, enough with the baking metaphor.
Eli was born sometime during the first three seasons of Teen Wolf placing his conception
prior to this moment in January 2011, before we met Derek.
We arrive at the fact that Derek and his unnamed baby-mom hooked up sometime in 2010 because
we have a full accounting for Derek's whereabouts from January through the end of May 2011.
Eli's conception is in 2010. His birth was sometime in 2011. He turned 15 sometime in
2026, which is when the movie picks up the story.
So why didn't Derek tell you about Eli?
Well we know what he was doing for almost the entire period and it was miserable and
dangerous all the time.
Derek only came back to Beacon hell because his sister was brutally murdered.
He's immediately locked up due to some nosy teenagers.
He's shot with a poison bullet and has to wait for Scott's date to end before he can
get the cure.
Then those same nosy kids get him impaled and then put him on the run for false allegations.
At what point during this period of fear and death should Derek have said, "Oh, by the
way total strangers, my girl is pregnant and I'm gonna be a daddy"?
But then - at the end of season one - he's the alpha.
Just about a month after returning to town, he's an alpha and what happens?
His life gets even more dangerous.
This ungrateful whelp refuses to help him create a stable pack.
And then the ones that do stick around eventually leave because he's a lousy leader.
We then learn he was under threat from the moment he got the spark.
Peter: Why do you think Derek was in such a hurry to build his pack, so eager to strengthen
his power in his numbers? When there's a new alpha, people take notice.
Meanwhile, Eli is still cooking or just out of the oven.
Newborn while his father is off fighting a lizard man outside Jungle.
Jungle, Beacon Hill's first LGBT friendly nightclub and drag show bar.
Again, all through season two, he still barely knows Scott who is too stuck up to join his
pack and only reluctantly joins forces.
So is Derek gonna drop the birth announcement on this guy and then explain that he and the
mommy are registered at Baby Gap?
Is he going to mention it to Peter who he has never trusted anyway?
Derek doesn't know most of these people. And the ones he does know, he doesn't trust.
The town where his family burned to death is extremely dangerous.
He's not saying nothing about nothing that could hurt his baby.
There's more of course. The Alpha Pack, again with the impaling and almost dying.
An actual immortal trickster spirit running around and this C U next Tuesday coming in
with the Bony Bros.
At no point in any of the year or so we knew him was there a calm period of reflection
in which Derek could have passed out cigars with the "It's a boy!" label.
Hell, he was even willing to die rather than give away his remaining sister's location.
Derek: Just go ahead and kill me because you're never gonna find Cora.
Severo: Who the hell is Cora?
Derek didn't tell you about Eli because Derek loves Eli and telling you or even letting
it be known around this town could get his baby killed.