| “ | Braeden: "La Iglesia." Scott: "What happened here?" Braeden: "An earthquake. It leveled the town." Scott: "Then why is the church still standing?" Braeden: "The locals think it's because of what's underneath." Scott: "Do I wanna know?" Braeden: "The church was built over the ruins of an Aztec temple. It belonged to a people called the nagual." Scott: "Shapeshifters?" Braeden: "Werejaguars." |
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La Iglesia (Spanish: "The Church") was a Mexican church that was built on top of the Temple of Tezcatlipoca, the Aztec jaguar god, which was underground. Though the city around it collapsed into ruins during an earthquake an unknown amount of time prior to its introduction, the church remained standing, and the locals believed it was somehow protected by the temple underneath it.
Inside the temple is a large seal carved into a stone wall that is said to represent Tezcatlipoca, the Aztec god of the nocturnal sky, ancestral memory, time, jaguars, and the embodiment of change known as the "Smoking Mirror," who was worshiped by the Nagual people Kate Argent used the area as a base in Season 4. As the "smoking mirror," Tezcatlipoca was strongly associated with the mineral obsidian, and as a result, the temple had a great deal of obsidian in its construction, including an entire room made up of the black glassy stone; Kira Yukimura was even able to smash a chunk off of a wall which eventually became her first Kitsune tail.
The church was the home of two mysterious Berserkers for an unknown amount of time until Kate was clawed so deeply in the throat by then-Alpha Werewolf Peter Hale that she inadvertently transformed into a Werejaguar. After her first full moon, which she endured in Mexico while held hostage at the Calavera Compound, Kate managed to escape her captors and went on the run, but the temple continued to draw her back time after time.
It was there that she came upon the Berserkers, and she soon learned that she could control them, a fact which she immediately exploited to protect herself as she learned to control her new powers. Kate also implied that she seemed to draw some sort of power from the temple, as it was where she was able to perform an Age Regression ritual on Derek Hale ("The Dark Moon") and perform the Berserker Creation Ritual on Scott McCall. ("A Promise to the Dead")
La Iglesia seems to be located in a somewhat dangerous area somewhere in the northwestern part of Mexico, and is especially dangerous after sunset, as Araya Calavera remarked that she had lost a great deal of Hunters who she sent to find Kate in the church ruins; even Braeden, the McCall Pack's guide during their search for the missing Derek Hale, admitted that this was the furthest she had ever made it in the journey to the church, and this was when she and Scott had just made it to the cliff overlooking the village ruins. Braeden also urged the pack to hurry to La Iglesia, as it was not someplace they would want to be after dark. ("The Dark Moon")
Notable Events[]
- An unknown number of Calavera Hunters were sent to La Iglesia by their matriarch, Araya, in hopes of finding Derek Hale and capturing Kate Argent, who they believed to be in the temple underneath the church. However, they were all killed before they could complete their task, likely slaughtered by the Berserkers before they could even reach their destination. ("The Dark Moon")
- Araya hired the mercenary Braeden to accompany the McCall Pack (Scott McCall, Stiles Stilinski, Lydia Martin, Kira Yukimura, and Malia Tate) to La Iglesia, giving them the means to rescue Derek, who had been taken captive by Kate, in exchange for Braeden catching Kate and bringing her back to the Calaveras. ("The Dark Moon")
- Scott and Braeden ultimately reached the church first due to Stiles' Jeep breaking down, forcing the two to go ahead of the others on Braeden's motorcycle. Once there, Scott and Braeden were stalked and nearly attacked by a Berserker, forcing Scott to use his Alpha Roar to scare it away. They finally found a small tomb with Tezcatlipoca's seal carved into the wall, and after Scott punched through it with his Werewolf strength, he found Derek weakly reaching toward him, having been de-aged to his sixteen-year-old self through a mysterious ritual performed by Kate. ("The Dark Moon")
- Though they were able to rescue Derek, Kate remained out of sight during this entire encounter, though she did ultimately follow the group back to Beacon Hills with her Berserkers in tow. ("117")
- After fighting and defeating Scott and Kira at Derek's loft with her Berserkers, Kate brought the four back to La Iglesia, where she locked Kira in a cell covered in human bones in the temple while she brought Scott to the altar room, tied him to a table with leather straps and wolfsbane plants, and performed the Berserker Creation Ritual to turn Scott into one of the animalistic creatures enslaved to her will. ("A Promise to the Dead")
- Kate tested Berserker-Scott's loyalty to her by having him stab Kira in the chest, a wound that would have killed her had she not activated her Kitsune healing ability at the last moment. Worrying about what could be happening to Scott and Kira at Kate's mercy on the night of a full moon of all nights, the rest of the pack and their allies (Stiles, Malia, Derek, Braeden, Liam, and Peter) set off to Mexico to rescue them, not knowing that Peter was working with Kate the whole time. ("Smoke and Mirrors")
- Immediately upon their arrival, one of the Berserkers mortally stabbed Derek in the chest with its bone claws, forcing him and Braeden to stay behind while the others looked for the missing Scott and Kira at Derek's behest.
- When Berserker-Scott began attacking the unaware-pack members, Stiles split off to find Kira and give her her katana, where he ultimately learned that Scott was the Berserker that was attacking the others. All attempts to reason with Scott failed until Liam, who was being choked to death by him, reminded him that he was not a monster, but a Werewolf like him (echoing the speech Scott gave to Liam on his first full moon as a Werewolf), causing Scott to snap out of it and break the skull that bound the Berserker spirit to him. Once he was himself, he realized that Peter was behind this entire situation and began to fight against him. Though Peter initially had the upper hand, Scott eventually became the victor and knocked him out, allowing them to weaken him with yellow wolfsbane to sedate him until they returned him to Eichen House in Beacon Hills.
- The Calavera Hunters, joined by Chris Argent and Jordan Parrish, began fighting against Kate and her remaining Berserker, but they were unable to stop the latter until Derek, who completed his development into an Evolved Werewolf, fully-shifted and incapacitated Kate before breaking the Berserker's skull with his bare hands. Argent then shot Kate with a yellow wolfsbane bullet, which weakened her but did not kill her; she was then able to run away from the church, intent to evade her brother and the Calaveras as they continued to search for her.
Appearances[]
Season 4[]
Trivia[]
- The temple under the church was known as the "Temple of the Smoking Mirror," which had dual references to obsidian (of which much of the temple was composed and which was also known as the "smoking mirror" due to its black glossy shine) and the Aztec god it worshiped, Tezcatlipoca, also known as the "Smoking Mirror."
- A piece of obsidian from the Obsidian Room in the temple was used by Kira to cut her hand and trigger her latent healing powers. Because this activated powers she had not yet used, the shard of obsidian that had drawn her blood was eventually forged into her first Kitsune tail, which took the shape of a shuriken, or throwing star.
- La Iglesia seems to be the only known place where new Berserkers can be created, which is strange given the fact that they are a Germanic mythological creature that is somehow connected to an Aztec mythological creature (the Werejaguar).
- The temple seemed to have its own mystical energy, as it repeatedly drew Kate toward it after her transformation into a Werejaguar, and it was implied to potentially make Kate more powerful, seeing as it was the site of many extraordinary feats she performed (such as Kate de-aging Derek Hale to his ten-years-younger self, turning a True Alpha Werewolf into a Berserker, and surviving a yellow wolfsbane bullet to the chest).
Gallery[]
