| “ | "Why do you have all of this?" "To protect myself. I have spent half a lifetime gathering the implements and skills to survive a Werewolf. I can teach you... if you want to know." "I do not care about surviving one. I want to know how to kill one. |
” |
— Marie-Jeanne and Henri Argent in Maid of Gévaudan
| ||
Marie-Jeanne Argent, (née Valet), was the progenitor of the Argent family of Werewolf Hunters. She is best known as the famed "Maid of Gévaudan" who slew the Beast of Gevaudan in 1767, despite having learned that the Beast was her own older brother, Sebastien Valet. She is the ancestor of Gerard Argent, Alexander Argent, Chris Argent, Kate Argent, and Allison Argent, and was the wife and hunting partner of Henri Argent.
Throughout Teen Wolf[]
Season 5[]
Marie-Jeanne was first mentioned, albeit vaguely, by Chris Argent during a conversation with his father Gerard in The Sword and the Spirit. When Chris asked Gerard if he had heard of any reliable methods to kill the recently-resurrected Beast of Gévaudan, Gerard stated that the only method he had ever been told was a "simple spear in the hands of a young woman," which led Chris to realize that he was talking about the Maid of Gévaudan.
In the flashbacks to the 1760s in Maid of Gévaudan, Marie-Jeanne was shown hunting an animal with a bow and arrow throughout the snow-covered woods of France. Later, she was seen dining at a tavern, where the owner, Rene, was about to nail a poster on the wall that announced news of "La Bête de Gévaudan". Before he could grab his hammer to affix the poster to the wall, a crossbow bolt flew across the room and pinned the poster where he had pressed it, surprising Rene. He looked over and saw Marie-Jeanne holding her crossbow at the bar and thanked her for the assistance before returning to fill her drink and give her her meal. When Marie-Jeanne became engrossed in reading the letter she was sent from her brother, Sebastien Valet, who was fighting in the Seven Years' War in North America, Rene insisted that she not give up hope.
She set down the letter and began peeling an apple while the men at the next table, including the Magistrate, Monsieur Tolbert, began discussing La Bête, and the fact that there were so many conflicting reports about what it looked like. Tolbert informed them that until the King sent a band of his best men to help hunt the Beast, it was up to them to arrange their own search party. Just then, a male voice called out from behind them that they all knew who the best Hunter in Gévaudan was—his sister, Marie-Jeanne. At the sound of the man's voice, Marie-Jeanne turned and was shocked to find her brother, Sebastien, and his comrade, Marcel, standing in the doorway. She wasted no time rushing over to him to give him a hug. Once their tearful reunion was over, Tolbert approached Marie-Jeanne and asked if she was willing to lead their hunting party, to which she laughed and replied that she hunted animals, not rumors.
However, her demeanor changed completely when Henri Argent came into the tavern with the body of a young boy in his arms. Rene, realizing that it was his son Emile, rushed over to cradle his body while he sobbed. When questioned about what had happened, Henri explained that Emile was attacked and that his last words were "La Bête." Marie-Jeanne, though still skeptical that the Beast was a supernatural being like everyone else believed, agreed to lead the hunting party and instructed them all to meet there at dawn.
The next morning, Marie-Jeanne was preparing her weapons for the hunt at the tavern along with the other men involved in the hunting party. Upon seeing Sebastien's concerned expression, she chuckled and remarked that she didn't think he was so superstitious, but Sebastien retorted that he didn't need to believe in something he saw with his own eyes. She reminded him that she knew every inch of the woods and had hunted nearly every animal under the sun, but Henri, who had been listening to their conversation, asked her if she had hunted all of the animals under the moon. When they left to start their hunt, Marie-Jeanne noticed Marcel conspicuously locking his storm cellar, and though she seemed mildly suspicious, she shrugged it off in favor of focusing on the task at hand.
After their dawn hunting party failed to get them any closer to the Beast, they decided to start a new hunt after sundown. When darkness fell, the hunters were each attacked by the Beast one by one as they were yanked away by their ankles. When Marie-Jeanne saw the creature, she shot at it with an arrow, only to be badly scratched on her thigh by its claws. As she desperately limped away from the approaching Beast, she was suddenly grabbed by Henri, who quickly threw a jar full of Mountain Ash in a line around them. He tackled Marie-Jeanne to the ground as the Beast lunged toward them, only to be blocked by the mystical properties of the ash. Realizing he was unable to pass, the Beast fled, leaving a shocked Marie-Jeanne and Henri behind. Marie-Jeanne exclaimed that the Beast was no wolf, and Henri, appalled by her ignorance, informed her that it was actually a Werewolf.
Henri then took Marie-Jeanne to his cabin, which was surrounded by a circle of rowan (Mountain Ash) trees, to patch up her injured leg. She curiously picked up jars and bowls full of Mistletoe and Mountain Ash, asking him what they were for, forcing Henri to explain that he had spent half of his life gaining the skills and the implements to survive a Werewolf attack. Sensing how curious she was, Henri offered to teach Marie-Jeanne what he knew, if she wanted, but Marie-Jeanne replied that she had no interest in learning how to survive a Werewolf—what she did want was to know how to kill a Werewolf.
Knowing that they needed to know who they were dealing with before they proceeded, Marie-Jeanne and Henri returned to the tavern with bottles of wine that they had laced with Mistletoe and insisted that everyone there, including Rene, Tolbert, Marcel, and Sebastien, drink it in honor of the dead. After everyone had a glass, they toasted to all who were killed by the Beast and drank their wine, with Marie-Jeanne and Henri keeping a close watch on everyone, since a Werewolf would have a bad reaction to the herb-laced alcohol. Marcel noticed the Mistletoe berries at the bottom of his glass and realized with horror that Marie-Jeanne was suspicious, so he crushed his glass in his hand to create a diversion. Marie-Jeanne quickly rushed Marcel out to the well to use the cold water to clean his bleeding wounds before asking him if he had a cloth to wrap his palm. Marcel fished out a small key from his pocket and handed it to her, cryptically informing her that she would find what she was looking for in his cellar.
Down in the cellar, Marie-Jeanne held up her lantern and was horrified to find that the basement was filled with the dozens of mauled bodies of men, women, and children alike. Believing this was damning evidence that Marcel was the Beast, Marie-Jeanne returned to the well where he was waiting for her and aimed her crossbow at his throat. She accused him of being the Demon Wolf, but Marcel neither confirmed nor denied this accusation, merely telling her to release the arrow and free him from this life. When she saw that his hand was still bleeding and dripping onto the snowy ground, Marie-Jeanne realized that Marcel couldn't be the Beast, but was rather just covering for him, since a Werewolf's wounds would have healed by this point.
It was then that she was hit with the revelation that the Beast was her own brother Sebastien, who had reacted to the Mistletoe-laced wine while she was gone and revealed his blue Werewolf eyes. When she confronted him inside the tavern, she angrily accused him of killing innocent people, which Sebastien openly confirmed without argument, informing her that he had transformed after accidentally drinking rainwater out of a wolf's paw print in the woods while serving in the French military and pointing out that his kind kills anyone who dares cross their path. He noticed that Marie-Jeanne was briefly considering exposing him to the rest of the tavern, but he warned her that if she did so, he would have no problem with slaughtering the lot of them within moments. He then kissed her on the forehead as he got up to leave and assured her that she would never be able to stop him or catch him, as he was the feared Beast of Gévaudan.
After her confrontation with her brother, Marie-Jeanne went to Henri's cabin to request his help in killing her brother, the Beast. While brainstorming a way to kill him, Henri suggested that they needed something that would use the Beast's size and weight against itself, leading them both to decide that a pike, or spear, would be their best bet. They then mixed steel with wolfsbane and Mountain Ash to make a sharp tip for the pike, which they made in the shape of a fleur-de-lis. Once it had cooled, Marie-Jeanne forged the pike tip with her own blood, which she shared with Sebastien, under the light of a full moon.
It took her three years to finally find her brother, but she was ultimately able to track him down in 1767, chasing him into the woods. Though she sustained wounds to her arms, she was able to use the pike that she had stashed in a snow bank to impale him straight through the chest, forcing Sebastien to shift back into his human form. At first, Sebastien sneered that it would take much more than a pike to kill him, but when he began coughing up black blood, she informed him of the mystical nature of the pike, since the Wolfsbane and Mountain Ash was disabling his accelerated healing ability. Sebastien attempted to take comfort in the fact that even if he did die, he would live in infamy, and that everyone would remember him as the feared and ferocious Beast of Gévaudan, but when Marie-Jeanne assured him that no one would remember his name, he realized that she planned to punish him with damnatio memoriae. He became furious that Marie-Jeanne would erase all traces of his name, which he shared with her, but Marie-Jeanne just kissed him on the forehead to echo their last meeting and promised him that if he was remembered, it would be only as a Beast. Sebastien then died, and though Marie-Jeanne seemed upset to have lost her brother, she did not shed a tear—she simply took a deep breath, removed the pike from Sebastien's chest, and returned home.
At the tavern, Marie-Jeanne joined the rest of the townspeople, including Rene, Monsieur Tolbert, and Henri, in front of the fireplace, where they all burned every contract, letter, and document with Sebastien's name before repossessing his belongings as part of the damnatio memoriae punishment, ensuring that every trace of his existence had been destroyed. Sometime later, after Marie-Jeanne and Henri had been hunting partners for some time, their partnership grew into a romantic relationship. They eventually got married, with Marie-Jeanne taking his last name, Argent, and became the progenitors of the first generation of wealthy, aristocratic Werewolf and supernatural creature Hunters who shared Marie-Jeanne's expert hunting skills and Henri's extensive knowledge of the supernatural.
Personality[]
| “ | Marie-Jeanne was a lot like you, Lydia-- skeptical of her abilities, and, once, just as skeptical of the supernatural... | ” |
In the short time that Marie-Jeanne appeared in the series, she was shown to be a very moral person who could not tolerate the innocent being harmed. She cared deeply about her brother Sebastien, worrying about him constantly while he was serving in the Seven Years' War in North America. However, when she learned that Sebastien was the Beast of Gevaudan, her strong morals and sense of duty and honor could not be overcome by her love for her brother, leading her to slay him herself so that he could no longer kill innocent humans. Much like her distant descendant, Allison Argent, Marie-Jeanne was headstrong, independent, and somewhat stubborn, and could not be bossed around by anyone if she didn't want to be. She was also shown to be skeptical of the supernatural, not believing that the Beast could be anything but a wild, feral animal rather than a supernatural being until she finally saw it with her own eyes and could no longer deny that there were mystical forces at work around her.
Physical Appearance[]
| “ | "His claws got into Scott's neck. He was going to kill him, but then he stopped and he said a name-- Marie-Jeanne." "He saw Scott's memories." "He saw Allison." "They must have looked like each other. I mean, maybe exactly alike..." |
” |
— Stiles Stilinski and Lydia Martin about Marie-Jeanne's resemblance to her descendant Allison Argent in Apotheosis
| ||
Marie-Jeanne was shown to be identical to her distant descendant Allison Argent, with pale white and lightly freckled skin, dark brown curly hair, full rosy lips, and warm brown eyes. She was of medium stature and had a lean, athletic build. She was shown to prefer wearing simple, casual blue gowns with brown leather boots and a dark, navy-blue hooded cloak to keep her warm while she hunted during French winters. She nearly always had her quiver of arrows and her bow strapped to her back as well and did not seem to wear any jewelry or makeup.
Skills[]
| “ | That letter would eventually find its way into the hands of a young woman-- a skilled Hunter who would later face the Beast armed with nothing but a steel-tipped pike. | ” |
As a human, Marie-Jeanne possessed no supernatural abilities. However, she had many skills, including being such an expert hunter of mundane animals that all the men in her village proclaimed her to be the best hunter in Gévaudan, choosing her to be the leader of the hunting party for the Beast. According to Marie-Jeanne, she knew every inch of the forest in her village like the back of her hand and had hunted nearly every animal under the sun. As a hunter, she was extremely skilled in weaponry, particularly with a longbow and crossbow, much like her descendant, Allison Argent.
She was also shown to be a quick learner after Henri taught her what he knew about Werewolves, using her newfound knowledge to create a plan to identify the Beast by lacing the tavern's wine with mistletoe. She was also shown to be a very observant woman, having noticed Marcel acting suspiciously while locking his cellar, realizing that he couldn't be a Werewolf after his hand continued to bleed instead of healing quickly, and rapidly figuring out that Marcel had to be covering for her brother, Sebastien, with regards to his skills as the Beast.
Weaknesses[]
Since Marie-Jeanne was a human, she possessed the common weaknesses of her species, including mortality.
Equipment[]
- Pike: Marie-Jeanne's pike was a wooden staff that had a steel fleur-de-lis-shaped tip, which had been mixed with Mountain Ash and Wolfsbane during its creation before being forged with her own blood under a full moon, creating a mystical weapon that finally allowed her to fatally wound the Beast.
- Crossbow
- Longbow
- Quiver of Arrows
- Knife
Etymology[]
|
Trivia[]
- Marie-Jeanne was played by Crystal Reed, who also played Marie-Jeanne's 20th/21st century descendant, Allison Argent.
- Marie-Jeanne was said by Chris and Gerard Argent to be the first Argent Family Werewolf Hunter, suggesting that, prior to her marrying into the family, the Argents were mostly concerned with the scholarly aspects of Werewolves and other supernatural creatures, such as how to protect oneself from them, rather than actively hunting and slaying them as Marie-Jeanne wanted to do.
- If this is the case, then it is possible that it was Marie-Jeanne who came up with the first Argent Family Code, "Nous chassons ceux qui nous chassent," or "We hunt those who hunt us," which was adhered to by her children with Henri and the rest of her descendants until the 21st century.
Gallery[]
See also[]
- ↑ Gerard's grandfather
- ↑ Gerard's mother
- ↑ In "Maid of Gévaudan", Gerard tells Lydia in 2012 that Sebastien's name has been forgotten for over 150 years. This means that by 1862 (150 years before 2012), no living person (besides the Argents and the Dread Doctors) knew about the Beast's true identity. So, Marie-Jeanne must have died before 1862.