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.