| ā | Talia Hale spent nine months trying to convince me of the miracle of childbirth. You know what it really felt like? A parasite. Talia said it was a gift, that the coyote passes down part of her power to her daughter. She called it "beautiful." I call it "theft." | ā |
ā The Desert Wolf to Malia Tate in Apotheosis
| ||
Corinne, better known as the Desert Wolf, is a minor character and antagonist in Season 5 of Teen Wolf. She was introduced as a Werecoyote and a highly skilled assassin who has been sought for years by the U.S. Marshals, presumably among other federal agencies and organizations.
She was first mentioned by Peter Hale in Season 4's Time of Death, when he admitted to his daughter, Malia Tate, that all he had learned about her mother's identity was that she was known by the code-name "the Desert Wolf," due to the fact that his sister, Talia Hale, had used her Alpha memory-manipulation ability to take all of his memories of his tryst with Corinne as well as those of the existence of his daughter. It was then later confirmed by both Peter and Braeden, the latter of whom is a former U.S. Marshal, that the Desert Wolf is a powerful and dangerous assassin whom the federal government had been tracking for quite some time.
After Peter and Kate Argent were defeated at La Iglesia, Braeden (presumably with her lover, Derek Hale) continued tracking the Desert Wolf at Malia's request, as she was determined to finally find her birth mother. In A Novel Approach, Malia read The Dread Doctors novel by Gabriel Valack, which triggered a repressed memory of the Desert Wolf shooting at her family's car right before the car crash that caused Malia to full-shift into a coyote and kill her adoptive mother and sister. In Ouroboros, it was revealed that the Desert Wolf not only knew that Malia was alive, but also intended to kill her. As part of this plan, the Desert Wolf captured Alan Deaton, the mentor to the members of Malia's pack as well as their Emissary, in order to use him as a hostage.
During the second half of Season 5, the Desert Wolf continued her mission to find her daughter Malia, eventually revealing in The Sword and the Spirit that the reason why she had captured Deaton and sought out Malia is because Malia inherited a part of her powers in childbirth, causing her powers of strength, speed, and healing to be extremely weakened. She believed that killing Malia would allow her to regain the full strength of her powers back and attempted to do just that after she teamed up with Theo Raeken to lure Malia and Braeden to Fort Jewett to save Deaton.
However, before she could kill Malia, Deaton reminded her that the ritual would only work on a full moon, and that killing Malia then would cause her to lose her powers forever, leading Malia to wait until the night before the full moon before going after Malia again. However, what the Desert Wolf didn't know was that Malia's Alpha, Scott McCall and Deucalion a close friend of Talia Hale's, had helped Malia come up with a plan to defeat her mother using the talons of a deceased Werewolf-Garuda Chimera named Belasko to absorb the rest of the Desert Wolf's powers, presumably rendering her powerless.
Early life[]
Almost nothing is known about the Desert Wolf's early life, except that, at one point, she had a romantic tryst with Peter Hale that resulted in a pregnancy. ("Time of Death") Peter's older sister, Talia Hale, then spent nine months trying to convince Corinne of the beauty in having a child. However, she lost a significant amount of her powers during the birth of her daughter due to the child involuntarily absorbing them by unknown means. Before she could even name her newborn child, Talia took the baby from her to prevent her from killing the baby to regain her power, and subsequently put the newborn up for adoption. ("The Sword and the Spirit"), ("Apotheosis") She also took all of Peter's memories of his affair with the Desert Wolf and the child they conceived together, likely to prevent her from using Peter to find their child. ("Letharia Vulpina")
The child was eventually adopted by Henry Tate and his wife Evelyn, and was named Malia, which possibly caused the Desert Wolf to lose track of her for some time. With her strength, speed, and healing abilities decreased significantly, the Desert Wolf was forced to resort to using weapons like a human and eventually became an expert markswoman in order to compensate for her lack of power; though her powers were inferior to the majority of shapeshifters, she was still stronger and faster than a human and could heal somewhat faster than one as well. ("The Sword and the Spirit") When the Desert Wolf finally found her daughter's new family, Malia was eight years old, so the Desert Wolf attempted to kill her to take back the power that she believed Malia stole from her by shooting at the car Malia, Evelyn, and her adopted sister were driving in during a full moon. ("Required Reading")
Evelyn, terrified by the gunshots, jerked the steering wheel wheel and drove off the road into the nature preserve, where she lost control of the vehicle and drove into a tree. The stress of the attack caused Malia to transform for the first time, and she fully shifted into her coyote form with the power of the full moon. However, since she had no control over her transformation, she became so overwhelmed with aggression that she attacked and killed Evelyn and her sister before running into the woods. ("Anchors"), ("More Bad Than Good") Since Malia stayed in her full-coyote form for the next eight years or so and lived as an animal during that entire time period, the Desert Wolf presumably believed that Malia had died in the crash until her name showed up on the Deadpool hit-list in early 2012, which was sent out to all the known assassins, both supernatural and human alike. This is what likely caused the Desert Wolf to restart her plan to kill her daughter and reclaim her powers. ("Orphaned")
Throughout Teen Wolf[]
In Time of Death, Peter Hale came upon Malia Tate in the Hale Vault, where the two discussed the fact that Peter was Malia's biological father. When Malia asked about her biological mother, Peter informed Malia that while his sister, Talia Hale, had taken his memories of who her mother was and Malia's existence, he had hired a private investigator to find out; all the PI was able to learn thus far was the codename of a woman who might be Malia's mother, the "Desert Wolf," marking Corinne's first mention in the series. Malia, who knew that the term "desert wolf" was another name for a coyote, realized that it was likely that she really was her mother due to Malia's born Werecoyote heritage.
In Monstrous, a flashback was shown to Peter's time in a coma, when he was telepathically sending his thoughts through the brain of a Banshee named Meredith Walker, who was his roommate at the hospital. Peter, who was beginning to lose his sanity due to being trapped in his mind as a result of his coma, had begun a plan to raze the supernatural community of Beacon Hills to the ground by creating a "Deadpool," or hit-list of supernatural creatures, which would allow him to recreate the supernatural community in his image.
He decided to use the $117 million worth of bearer bonds in the Hale Vault to fund it, and then made it known that he wanted to start by sending the list to assassins such as The Mute, The Chemist, and even an assassin like the Desert Wolf. This revealed that the Desert Wolf was, in fact, an assassin, and indicated that, despite many of his memories of her being stolen by Talia, he was still aware of her status as an assassin and seemed to dislike her. This also indicated that Meredith, who then orchestrated the Deadpool according to Peter's exact specifications, likely had the list sent to the Desert Wolf somehow, which then likely revealed Malia's continued existence to Corinne due to her name being on the list as "Malia Hale."
In A Promise to the Dead, Peter once again met up with Malia, this time at a lacrosse game at Beacon Hills High School, where he revealed that he was now certain that the Desert Wolf was Malia's biological mother, but that he needed Malia's help in killing Kate Argent before he could help Malia find her.
In Required Reading, Malia suddenly remembered the night of the car crash that resulted in the death of her family after having read The Dread Doctors, a tool to help people trigger repressed memories. Prior to this flashback, Malia believed that it was her first transformation during the full moon that caused the crash that killed Evelyn and Kylieher family. However, in reality, the Desert Wolf shot at the car that night in effort to kill Malia, which is what caused the crash and which led to Malia's first transformation into a Werecoyote (and, by extension, the mauling and deaths of her adoptive mother and sister due to trauma and a lack of control over her transformation).
In Ouroboros, the Desert Wolf entered the old Russian laboratory used by the Dread Doctors and killed Alan Deaton's companion, Vadim, before telling Deaton not to move. When she asked him if he knew who she was, he admitted that he knew what she was called the Desert Wolf. She then tied him to a chair and beat and tortured him for information regarding her daughter, as she admitted that she heard a rumor that Malia was still alive. Deaton claimed not to know anything about any daughter, though the Desert Wolf was skeptical that he was being honest, so she simply replied that she hoped he was telling the truth, because otherwise, she would just have to kill Malia all over again.
In The Sword and the Spirit, she tied Deaton up in an abandoned military based known as Fort Jewett. Malia, Braeden and Theo Raeken arrived at the base, after which point Theo knocked Braeden out with her own shotgun and then shot Malia in the stomach with it, revealing that he was actually working with the Desert Wolf the entire time. Theo gave the Desert Wolf the shotgun, and in return, she gave him Belasko's talons, which she had stolen from Deaton, and which Theo planned to use to steal the Beast of Gevaudan's powers.
After Theo left, the Desert Wolf and Malia began to fight, during which time she told Malia that she didn't even have a name because Talia Hale took her away before she could give her one. However, she then said what Malia did have was power, such as super strength, super speed, and a regenerative healing ability, which she claimed Malia stole from her during childbirth.
Though Malia was physically more powerful, the Desert Wolf had a stronger desire to kill Malia to get her powers back, a motivation that, when paired with her expert skills and experience, allowed her to gain the upper-hand. However, just as the Desert Wolf was about to kill her, Deaton stopped her and reminded her that the ritual to take her power back wouldn't work unless it was a full moon, insisting that killing Malia now would ensure that she got nothing in return for her efforts. The Desert Wolf appeared torn, but before they could fight further, the Beast of Gevaudan arrived and began attacking Deaton, visibly alarming the Desert Wolf and forcing her to retreat in order to plan her next move against her daughter.
In A Credible Threat, the Desert Wolf showed up at Beacon Hills High School to intimidate Malia by grabbing her leg just as she had jumped onto a news station's truck to cut the cord to stop their transmissions, which would otherwise draw the Beast of Gevaudan there. When the Desert Wolf wondered aloud why Malia would destroy the cables, Malia informed her that she was doing it to save lives, because the Beast was intending to kill a lot of people. Corinne was unmoved by this response and reminded her that people die every day before referring to her as "sweetheart," a term of endearment which Malia immediately rejected.
The Desert Wolf, impressed by Malia's determination, proposed a compromise to their dilemmaāif Malia came with her right then, she would help her solve her current predicament with the Beast in exchange for Malia helping her with their own predicament regarding her powers, after which she might even start to call Malia "daughter." However, Malia refused this offer and threatened to kill her, which only made her laugh and reply, "You really are my daughter." Knowing that Malia was motivated to fight against the Beast to save someone in particular, the Desert Wolf tried to question her about it in order to find leverage against Malia. She then eventually realized, after seeing Stiles Stilinski standing nearby, that Malia was doing all of this for him and guessed that he was Malia's boyfriend. The Desert Wolf then disappeared before Malia could react further, allowing her to finish her task by disabling the news station vans.
In The Beast of Beacon Hills, the Desert Wolf stood outside of the Sheriff's station, where she eavesdropped on the phone conversation Lydia Martin was having with Malia, which allowed her to hear that Malia was with Braeden at the McCall House, surrounded by a mountain ash barrier. At some point, the Desert Wolf enlisted the help of the Werewolf-Kanima Chimera, Tracy Stewart (a member of Theo Raeken's Chimera Pack, though it is unknown how or when this alliance between Corinne and Tracy occurred) to help her break through the barrier to get inside the McCall House.
While she was creeping through the house looking for Malia, she stepped on several pistachio shells that Braeden purposely left on the floor, alerting the mercenary to her presence. Braeden then came out from behind the wall as they began to fight, and though Corinne was clearly a skilled fighter, Braeden managed to get the upper-hand and knocked her to the floor. By the time the Desert Wolf recovered and got up, Braeden had vanished, and when the assassin walked toward the front door, she found that Braeden had fixed the mountain ash barrier, trapping her inside the house with Malia. Instead of being angry, Corinne simply laughed and muttered, "I love a cage match."
In Apotheosis, the Desert Wolf continued to be locked inside the McCall House with Malia, where she heard Malia attempting to text Stiles for backup on her phone with her enhanced hearing. Corinne encouraged Malia to call as many friends as she wanted before asking her how many people she would be killing that night. As she slowly made her way through the house toward Malia, who was hiding upstairs in the hallway, she was nearly shot by Braeden, who was still bunkered down on the front porch. Corinne informed Braeden that she was close, but didn't quite make it, and assured her that she would get another chance before adding that she had better make it a headshot to ensure that it killed her.
When Malia slowly walked toward the staircase, the Desert Wolf heard a floorboard creaking overhead and instructed Malia to come down to face her, as she wasn't going to stop until she got back what Malia stole from her. Malia insisted that she didn't steal anything, but the Desert Wolf argued that she did, explaining that Talia Hale spent nine months acting as her doula while trying to convince her of the beauty of childbirth, particularly the part where the coyote passed down part of her powers to her daughter. However, rather than seeing this as a gift as Talia did, the Desert Wolf claimed she saw it as theft, and saw Malia herself as a parasite.
Just then, the Desert Wolf heard another floorboard creaking underfoot and turned to find Braeden rushing toward her, causing the assassin to fire at Braeden several times, one of which hit Braeden in the side and forced her to fall back to prevent further injury. Malia slowly made her way downstairs upon hearing her friend hurt, and she and her mother ducked behind opposite walls. Just as Malia was about to jump out to attack her mother, the front door opened, and Stiles rushed in just as the Desert Wolf aimed her gun at his face. Not wanting her human ex-boyfriend to be harmed, Malia jumped out from behind the wall, her claws and fangs out, and pushed him out of the way before tackling the Desert Wolf, causing them both to fall onto the glass coffee table, which shatters under them. When Stiles saw that the Desert Wolf had hurt Malia, he jumped over the couch to punch her, but she simply shoved him onto the ground, where a shard of glass was shoved through his shoulder.
The Desert Wolf then picked her gun up off the floor and shot Malia several times in the stomach, causing her to stumble backward down the hallway as the Desert Wolf cornered her. She explained that though it wasn't yet the full moon, it was close enough, before allowing her eyes to glow blue and her claws to extend. She stabbed Malia in the abdomen with her clawed and demanded her powers back, not knowing that earlier, Stiles had thrown Malia the jar with Belasko's talons, which she affixed to her own claws before stabbing the Desert Wolf in the stomach with them and replying, "I want my family back." Malia's eyes began to glow bright blue as she absorbed the Desert Wolf's powers, and the blue began to fade from her mother's eyes. Suddenly, Braeden appeared and knocked the Desert Wolf out with the butt of her gun. It is believed that the Desert Wolf has since been imprisoned in Eichen House, much like her daughter's father Peter Hale, though her supernatural status remains unknown.Personality[]
The Desert Wolf is a tough, cruel and selfish person who is both a murderer and an assassin for hire. She's very good at her job due to the fact that she enjoys inflicting violence and death upon others, and she is said to be a perfect shot when it comes to firearms, which she learned to use after the birth of Malia weakened her Werecoyote powers. Corinne also appears to be very power-hungry, since she has shown she is willing to go as far as to kill her own daughter in order to get her full powers back.
She does not care about collateral damage as long as she gets what she wants, as evidenced by the fact that she has no remorse for killing Malia's adoptive mother and sister; she admitted that she didn't necessarily intend for them to die, but also didn't care that they did, especially since she doesn't consider them to be Malia's "true" family. She also seems to put little value on the lives of others, particularly other humans, as when Malia insisted that the Beast was going to kill a lot of people, the Desert Wolf simply retorted that people die every day, indicating that the death of others means nothing to her if it doesn't affect her directly.
Physical Appearance[]
Desert Wolf is a beautiful woman in her late 30s to early 40s with shiny, straight, dark brown hair and brown eyes. She is of average height with a slim yet athletic figure, and is in great physical shape. Her clothing choices are both utilitarian and body-conscious, as she typically sticks to dark colored pants, shirts, and jackets with boots in order to keep a low profile and remain anonymous in a crowd, though she enjoys wearing waist-cinched tops to accentuate her slim, hourglass-shaped body.
Powers and Abilities[]
The Desert Wolf was originally a full-strength Werecoyote, but she passed down part of her powers upon giving birth to her first and only child, Malia Tate, which weakened her considerably and made her less powerful than most Beta-level werecreatures. However, she still had superior strength, speed, reflexes, agility, durability, and healing to a regular human, and could still transform into her Werecoyote form, though it is unknown if she was able to fully-shift into a coyote. This was evidenced by the crime scene photos of a recent assassination where she tore apart several fully-grown men with only her Werecoyote abilities.
However, it is presumed that since Malia absorbed the remainder of the Desert Wolf's powers with Belasko's talons, she has been transformed into a regular human or at the very least a powerless Werecoyote, though this has yet to be officially confirmed.
Aside from her former supernatural abilities, the Desert Wolf is an extremely skilled markswoman who is a perfect shot when it comes to firearms and other weaponry. She is also an expert criminal, as she has been able to evade federal authorities for years despite being hired by numerous people to carry out assassinations for at least a decade and has even prevented the U.S. Marshals from learning her true identity, which is why only very few people know her first name, Corinne.
Weaknesses[]
As a Werecoyote, The Desert Wolf possessed all the standard weakness associated with the species, including but not limited to Wolfsbane, Mountain Ash, full moons and strong emotions, lunar eclipses, electricity and several others.
However, now that it is presumed that she has become a mundane human, she likely possesses all of the weaknesses associated with that species, namely mortality, since without her accelerated healing factor, she would be vulnerable to illness and injury just as any other human would be.
Etymology[]
- Corinne: Corinne is a feminine given name that is the English or French form of Corina, Corinna, or Korinna, which means "beautiful maiden." It is derived from the Greek word kore, which means "maiden," and was also an epithet for Persephone, the goddess of springtime and Queen of the Underworld in Greek mythology. Interestingly enough, a variation of Corinne's name is Cora, which is the name of Corinne's daughter Malia's paternal cousin, Cora Hale, and as a result, both of their names share the same meaning: "maiden." Variants of the name in other languages include: Corinna, Korinna (Ancient Greek); Cornelia (Ancient Roman, Dutch, Italian, Romanian); Kornelija (Croatian, Serbian); KornƩlie, Nela (Czech); Cokkie, Corrie, Lia, Lieke (Dutch); Corinne, CornƩlie (French); Korina, Kore (Greek); KornƩlia (Hungarian, Polish); Corina (Romanian).
Appearances[]
Trivia[]
- Some of her powers were allegedly stolen by Malia Tate during childbirth, though she still retained a weaker level of these powers until the rest were stolen by Malia in Apotheosis. This is why the Desert Wolf attempted to kill Malia on several occasions, including when she was a young child and when she was a grown teenager.
- It is unknown as to whether all female Werecoyotes pass down a portion of their powers to their offspring, or if this is a trait that is specific to Malia and Corinne themselves.
- It is possible that Talia Hale purposely encouraged the Desert Wolf to continue her pregnancy, not just because Malia was a member of the Hale bloodline by birthright, but also because she knew that doing so would make her weaker and would impede her ability to kill others for a living.
- Corinne is a professional assassin who has killed countless people throughout the course of her career. She is so well known that multiple federal agencies, including the U.S. Marshals, have been tracking her for quite a while.
- Because of all of the people she has killed, the Desert Wolf previously had glowing blue eyes to indicate she has taken the life of an innocent human.
- In The Sword and the Spirit, it was revealed by Alan Deaton that the Desert Wolf's first name is Corinne. It is unknown if he has always known this about her, or if she shared this information with him at some point while he was her captive.
- At some point in The Beast of Beacon Hills, Corinne made an alliance with the part-Werewolf, part-Kanima Chimera Tracy Stewart in order to get into the McCall House, which was surrounded by Mountain Ash, so she could finally kill Malia.
- According to Teen Wolf writer Will Wallace, the Desert Wolf is currently imprisoned at Eichen House.[1]
- This is somewhat comical, considering that the Desert Wolf's former fling and the father of her daughter, Peter Hale, was imprisoned there as well. Thought he escaped because she was imprisoned.
- She is one of two shapeshifters in the series who use firearms despite not needing them as a result of their enhanced physical condition and their natural weapons (claws and fangs). The other shapeshifter is Kate Argent.
Gallery[]
References[]
See also[]