Wolfsbane

“	Garrett: "That's wolfsbane? I thought it was purple." Violet: "Not this species-- which is very rare and very expensive." Garrett: "What's that supposed to mean? Don't screw up?" Violet: "Don't miss, okay? All you have to do is nick him. It'll work fast... even on an Alpha."	”
	— Violet and Garrett (also known as The Orphans) about a rare yellow strain of Wolfsbane in I.E.D.

In Teen Wolf, Wolfsbane, also known as aconite or monkshood, is an extremely toxic herb for Werewolves, Werecoyotes, and presumably Werejaguars. The effects of contact with wolfsbane can vary depending on the dosage, the species, and the method of ingestion. Most wolfsbane will kill a Werewolf if it reaches their heart, though it can be cleared by ingesting the ashes of the exact same strain that poisoned them, or by literally burning out a wound that has been made by a wolfsbane-laced weapon if the correct type of wolfsbane is unavailable. It was first introduced in Season 1 and played an important role in every season of the series. In the real world, when handled or consumed in large doses, wolfsbane can be very toxic to humans.

Species[]

There have been multiple species of wolfsbane introduced in the series, some of which has a specific name (such as Aconit Napel Bleu Nordique which translates to Nordic Blue Monkshood, a favorite of the Argent Hunters) and some of which is identified solely by its color (for example, purple, blue, and yellow wolfsbane, as well as the modified black wolfsbane created by the Dread Doctors).

The blue and purple varieties of wolfsbane are most commonly seen within the show. Yellow wolfsbane, also known as Aconitum anthora is far less common, as it was described as being very rare and very expensive. The Dread Doctors were also shown to use a modified black liquid said to be wolfsbane which only weakens the werecreature for as long as they are given it intravenously, and then it wears off with no after-effects, essentially being used as a sedative.

Effects and Examples of Use[]

So far, all species of wolfsbane introduced have worked as a poison in one way or another, though whether its effects were temporary or long-lasting depended on how it was administered and the specific type and dosage.

The first instance of wolfsbane being seen in the series was the purple variety in plant form, which was used by Derek Hale to keep his sister Laura Hale's corpse in her full-wolf form rather than her human form in hopes that he would not be blamed for her murder. ("Second Chance at First Line")
- Stiles Stilinski then stole one of the plants and put it in his backpack, which newly turned Werewolf Scott McCall was holding while riding in Stiles' Jeep. Even this indirect exposure to the plant for a sustained amount of time caused Scott to become flushed with sweat while having difficulty breathing, almost like he was having a panic attack.
Derek Hale was shot in the forearm by Kate Argent using a rifle bullet that was full of Nordic Blue Monkshood, a rare type of blue wolfsbane. As a result, the wound would not heal as it normally would and eventually began to fester, becoming irritated and poisoning his blood to the point where it turned black. He also became weak, dizzy, and lightheaded, preventing him from feeling as though he could defend himself from attackers. As time went on, his symptoms only became worse, and he informed Stiles Stilinski that if the wolfsbane reached his heart, he would die, nearly forcing him to cut off his arm to prevent this from happening. Before he was able to cure himself, Derek vomited a large amount of black blood before passing out on the floor. He healed himself of this infection by taking the same wolfsbane and burning it to ash before packing the ash into his bullet wound, causing him a great deal of pain until his body healed itself. ("Magic Bullet")
- Unbeknownst to either Derek or Jackson Whittemore, Derek exposed Jackson to the same wolfsbane when he accidentally clawed the back of the human's neck during a tense discussion at school, as Derek presumably had wolfsbane-laced blood on his fingers.
Jackson Whittemore became very pale and sickly-looking throughout his time being poisoned by the aforementioned wolfsbane exposure, and experienced a number of hallucinations and weakness before he was treated for the infection. ("The Tell"), ("Heart Monitor"), ("Night School"), ("Lunatic")
Jackson Whittemore, still suffering from wolfsbane poisoning due to being cut with Derek Hale's blue wolfsbane-coated claws, went to the doctor for treatment of his symptoms, where he hallucinated that Dr. Fenris (who had morphed into Derek Hale), was digging into the back of his neck and pulling out a large purple wolfsbane plant (despite originally being poisoned with the blue variety). ("Wolf's Bane")
Scott McCall was shot by Argent Hunters using weapons with an unknown form of wolfsbane during a standoff when Derek Hale was attempting to kill Jackson Whittemore. Alan Deaton rescued Scott and brought him back to the animal clinic, where he cured Scott of his infection by unknown means. ("Co-Captain")
An Argent Hunter disguised as a Sheriff's deputy sneaked into the Beacon County Sheriff's Station with a syringe full of liquid purple wolfsbane with the intention of injecting and killing the newly-bitten and turned Isaac Lahey (who was incorrectly accused of killing his father, Mr. Lahey) on Gerard Argent's orders during his first full moon as a Werewolf. Fortunately, Derek Hale and Stiles Stilinski arrived in time to stop the Hunter before he could kill Isaac and smashed the syringe full of wolfsbane so it couldn't be used. ("Shape Shifted")
When Lydia Martin is on a double date with Stiles Stilinski, Scott McCall, and Allison Argent at the Beacon Hills Ice Rink, she hallucinates a purple wolfsbane plant growing out of the ice that leads her to where Peter Hale's body appears to be trapped under the ice's surface, causing her to scream in terror. ("Ice Pick")
Victoria Argent used a purple variety of wolfsbane in her attempt to kill Scott McCall by putting it in a vaporizer so that it would irritate his lungs and his death would be ruled as a severe asthma attack. Meanwhile, Derek Hale and Vernon Boyd were hit multiple times with wolfsbane bullets that prevented them from healing at their normally-rapid rate, leading Derek to instruct Boyd to take his car to the animal clinic for treatment. ("Raving")
- Derek Hale managed to save Scott from dying and took him to the Beacon Hills Animal Clinic, where Alan Deaton once again treated their respective wolfsbane poisoning.
Lydia Martin, while being manipulated by the spirit of Peter Hale, laced the alcohol punch at her birthday party with wolfsbane so that everyone first became intoxicated and then began hallucinating, preventing anyone from interfering with Peter's plan to resurrect himself using the Worm Moon and a blood sacrifice forcefully taken from Derek Hale, his closest remaining kin. She also used a powdered form of the purple wolfsbane to knock Derek out so that she could drag him to the Hale House ruins for the ritual, causing him to be sedated and confused. ("Party Guessed")
The Darach secretly put powdered purple wolfsbane in Bobby Finstock's whistle, which he blew numerous times on the bus ride to the cross-country team's out-of-town meet. As a result, the four Werewolves on the bus (Scott McCall, Isaac Lahey, Vernon Boyd, and Ethan Steiner) all began experiencing terrifying hallucinations that drove all but Isaac to attempt suicide. ("Frayed"), ("Motel California")
In flashbacks to the early 2000s, Gerard Argent used an unknown type of wolfsbane to create a fog that would not only incapacitate the members of Deucalion's pack with whom he was meeting, but also his human Hunter accompanying him, as he planned to kill them all and make it look like the Werewolves ambushed them, claiming his own teammates deserved it for wanting to come to a truce with the wolves as well. Gerard gave himself some sort of antidote to prevent the fog from affecting him, and once everyone was incapacitated, he killed them all (with the exception of Deucalion) by bludgeoning them to death with a baseball bat embedded with Werewolf claws he had harvested over the years of hunting. ("Visionary")
Ethan and Aiden were shot with wolfsbane-filled bullets that were eventually revealed to be fired by the surprisingly-alive Kate Argent. This caused them to weaken and bleed black blood until Derek Hale burned the wolfsbane out of their wounds to heal them. ("Insatiable")
The Calavera Family used wolfsbane fog in their in-house nightclub and in their compound in order to identify and incapacitate any werecreatures who entered, using it to catch Scott McCall, Malia Tate, and Kira Yukimura (the latter of whom, as a Kitsune, was merely disoriented by the fog rather than truly being affected by it). This fog seemed to act only as a tranquilizer and left no after-effects in those exposed to it. ("The Dark Moon")
- Additionally, Derek Hale was found wrapped up in purple wolfsbane plant vines to prevent him from being able to break out of the stone tomb in which he was hidden by Kate Argent, and may have been an ingredient in the ritual she used to regress his age back to his sixteen-year-old-self.
Peter Hale was attacked by The Mute, who threw a wolfsbane-coated military-grade tomahawk at him that buried into his chest, while he was at Derek's loft. Though he wasn't poisoned long enough for the wolfsbane to give him many side effects, Derek was forced to use a blowtorch to burn the poison out due to the fact that he had no way of identifying what strain of wolfsbane it was. ("Muted")
The pair of assassins known as The Orphans, Garrett and Violet, used what they described as a rare and expensive variant of yellow wolfsbane to coat Garrett's forked blade, which he intended to take out Brett Talbot, a Beta from Satomi's Pack who was on the Deadpool for $1 million. However, though Garrett did nick Brett with the blade, he was not outright killed by it, as Violet intended to use him as bait in order to catch her true target, Scott McCall, a True Alpha who was the highest-valued person on the list at $25 million. The wolfsbane weakened him to the point where he could barely crawl away from his attackers, and he was brought to the animal clinic by Derek Hale, Stiles Stilinski, and Peter Hale for treatment by Alan Deaton, which required cutting open Brett's chest and letting the yellow wolfsbane vapor escape from the wound. ("I.E.D."), ("Orphaned")
Garrett stabbed newly turned Beta Liam Dunbar in the chest with his forked blade, which was recoated in the rare and expensive yellow wolfsbane Violet purchased. He then threw Liam in a well in the Beacon Hills Preserve and used him to manipulate Liam's Alpha and friend Scott McCall into helping him by making him give up the Deadpool money he confiscated and assisting him in breaking Violet, who had been arrested for her attack on Scott, out of federal custody. Though both Garrett and Violet were killed by Kate Argent and her Berserkers before they could tell Scott where Liam was being held, Liam's roar allowed Scott to hear and locate him so that he, too, could be brought to Alan Deaton's clinic for the same treatment Brett received. Though Brett was weakened by the wolfsbane, Liam did not seem to experience this as strongly, as it only seemed to prevent his stab wound from healing properly and otherwise had little effect until he was rescued. ("Orphaned")
The majority of the members of Satomi's Pack were found dead in the Beacon Hills Preserve, where Derek Hale and Malia Tate assumed they had been killed with a strong strain of wolfsbane; however, it was soon learned that they actually had been killed by The Chemist's modified canine distemper virus, which caused many of the same symptoms as wolfsbane poisoning. ("Orphaned"), ("Weaponized")
Purple wolfsbane plants were used by the Werejaguar Kate Argent as she performed the Berserker Creation Ritual on Scott McCall to turn him into a Berserker under her control. The plants were used to bind Scott and prevent him from using his superhuman strength to break out of his restraints. ("A Promise to the Dead")
Chris Argent used a yellow wolfsbane plant he stole from a greenhouse to create a bullet he intended to use on his sister Kate Argent, who had teamed up with Peter Hale in an attempt to kill Scott and steal his powers for Peter. He ultimately shot Kate in the chest with the bullet, but it was slow to affect her, allowing her to run off and treat herself of her poisoning before it could kill her. ("Monstrous"), ("Smoke and Mirrors")
- Some of the yellow wolfsbane was also used to sedate the incapacitated Peter Hale until they could get him to Eichen House's supernatural ward. This type of wolfsbane was spoken of like a tranquilizer or sedative rather than a poison, making it possible that this was not a lethal strain of yellow wolfsbane. The rest of the plant was then kept safe by Argent until months later.
When Hayden Romero and Liam Dunbar were captured during a McCall Pack mission by the Dread Doctors, they brought the two back to their operating theater, where they immediately inserted a large IV drip of a special black wolfsbane solution that was presumably altered by the Doctors themselves in order to prevent him from fighting back. The wolfsbane only served to sedate him until Hayden was able to pull the IV out of his arm so they could try to break out. ("Ouroboros")
It was revealed during Theo Raeken's betrayal of Scott McCall that he had been secretly poisoning Scott for weeks by giving him inhalers full of wolfsbane vapor that were presumably created by the Dread Doctors. Use of this type of inhaler during a panic attack was enough to irritate Scott's lungs enough that he started having asthma attacks again, which hadn't happened since he was turned. The more Scott used his inhaler, the worse his lungs and breathing got, and it also began slowly weakening his other powers as well, making it easier for him to be fought by the feral Liam Dunbar, whom Theo manipulated into killing Scott and becoming an Alpha so he could turn his girlfriend Hayden Romero without Scott's permission. Theo's end goal was to kill Liam after he became an Alpha so that he would become an Alpha himself and presumably develop into a true Werewolf. Scott discovered this wolfsbane poisoning when he destroyed his inhaler in a fit of anger and saw a puff of purple smoke that indicated wolfsbane had been added to it. ("Required Reading"), ("Strange Frequencies"), ("Ouroboros"), ("Lies of Omission"), ("Status Asthmaticus")
Chris Argent reluctantly gave his father Gerard Argent the rest of his yellow wolfsbane stash, which Gerard ate in order to reverse the side effects of being bitten by an Alpha Werewolf while ingesting Mountain Ash, ultimately healing him and returning him to human state. ("Codominance")
Malia Tate allowed Theo Raeken to sedate her with the Dread Doctors' black wolfsbane in order to sedate her while he transported her to the operating theater, since she wasn't supposed to know where it was. ("The Sword and the Spirit")
The Chimera Pack, sans Theo Raeken, seemingly incapacitated Deucalion enough to bring him to the Dread Doctors Operating Theater and hook him up to an IV of the Dread Doctors' black wolfsbane infusion. He remained in this state for at least a week, only to reveal that he let them capture him and was able to escape the whole time. ("The Sword and the Spirit"), ("Amplification"), ("Lie Ability"), ("The Beast of Beacon Hills")
In flashbacks to 1767, Marie-Jeanne Valet (with help from Henri Argent) mixed an unknown type of wolfsbane with Mountain Ash in the steel she was using to forge her pike and forged it with her own blood under the light of a Full Moon. She then used this pike to kill her her brother Sebastien Valet, who had been transformed into the Beast of Gevaudan and had killed hundreds of people over North America and France. ("Maid of Gévaudan")
Scott McCall used Marie-Jeanne's Pike, which was reforged into The Surgeon's sword-cane but still contained the wolfsbane and Mountain Ash essence within the metal, to kill the spirit of Sebastien Valet after he was exorcised from Mason Hewitt's body using Lydia Martin's Banshee voice. ("Apotheosis")
Tamora Monroe, a new Hunter in Beacon Hills, used powdered purple wolfsbane hidden in a lacrosse ball to poison Brett Talbot, who she identified as a Werewolf due to his enhanced agility and strength on the lacrosse field. ("Raw Talent")
- Brett ultimately died after being hit by a car, as the wolfsbane prevented him from healing his wounds from the fight against Monroe. ("After Images")
In an attempt to impress his new leader, Tamora Monroe, Nolan Holloway tried to kill the young orphaned Werewolves Jiang and Tierney, who were locked up in a cell in Beacon County Sheriff's Station not only for murdering two members of Monroe's army but also to be protected from Monroe and the other Hunters, who desired to kill them in order to avenge their deceased comrades, with a vial full of liquid purple wolfsbane but Liam Dunbar managed to snatch the poison from Nolan's hand before he could throw it to the floor before dragging the teenage hunter to be arrested. ("Pressure Test")
A pair of British Hunters hired by Gerard Argent captured Jackson Whittemore, tranquilized him with purple wolfsbane, and then ambushed Ethan Steiner at their apartment, where he, too, was shot with a purple wolfsbane dart. Ethan smugly informed the Hunters that they should have used yellow wolfsbane on Jackson because as a Werewolf-Kanima hybrid, purple wolfsbane has no effect on him. This allowed Jackson to break free of his restraints and subdue the Hunters before presumably healing Ethan of his wolfsbane poisoning. ("Werewolves of London")
Liam Dunbar used powdered purple wolfsbane in an attempt to trigger Mrs. Finch to confirm whether or not she was a Werewolf, though her ability to control herself was so strong that she did not react, aside from a single sneeze due to the dust. ("Genotype")
- Mrs. Finch then used the wolfsbane against Scott and Liam when she realized that they might try to kill the half of the Anuk-ite that had taken the form of her daughter, Quinn, which caused both of them to fall onto the floor in coughing fits for a few minutes.
Chris Argent tracked Derek Hale down to North Carolina, where he was about to hide the rest of the remaining yellow wolfsbane solution in one of the Hale Vaults. However, before they could do so, they were ambushed by Kate Argent, who stole it on her father Gerard Argent's orders. ("Broken Glass")
Gerard Argent used the yellow wolfsbane stolen from Derek Hale to create two bullets, one of which he gave to Tamora Monroe to shoot Scott McCall (who was fortunately healed by Derek using fire), and the other which he kept to shoot his daughter Kate Argent, whom he hated for being a Werejaguar. It is unknown whether or not the wolfsbane ultimately killed her. ("The Wolves of War")
An amnesiac and newly-resurrected Allison Argent, who did not remember any of her packmates in the McCall Pack, was manipulated by the Nogitsune into killing Scott McCall, tricking her into believing that he was responsable for the decimation of her family. After cornering Scott to a cliff, she stabbed him with one of her Chinese ring daggers that were coated with wolfsbane before bringing him to a warehouse. Once Scott successfully reminded Allison of their relationship, she used a road flare to burn the wolfsbane out of his wound and system before it could reach his heart. Shortly afterwards, Peter Hale held Allison by the throat with his claws and prepared to slit her throat for trying to kill his nephews Derek and Eli Hale. Before he could kill her, Chris Argent threw one of Allison's Chinese ring daggers at Peter, who caught the wolfsbane-coated weapon, which distracted and weakened him enough for Allison to free herself and knock him out through an elbow to his face. ("Teen Wolf: The Movie (2022)")

Cure[]

The most common treatment for curing wolfsbane poisoning is burning it out with fire as shown when the Ethan and Aiden were attacked by the resurrected Kate Argent; their blood turned black as it poured from their wounds, and Derek Hale was forced to burn it out with a torch to save them due to the fact that they had no idea what strain of wolfsbane it was and thus could not use the ash like Derek did when he was shot with the Nordic Blue Monkshood. However, this is not always the case such as for the yellow wolfsbane as Deaton had to slice Brett's chest open to cure him of the wolfsbane and, once cut open, yellow mist came flowing out his chest. Strangely enough, when Scott McCall was shot with a yellow wolfsbane bullet, Derek was able to cure him by burning out the wound, just as he did for the twins. These methods are usually only painful for a short time due to the Werewolf/Werecoyote/Werejaguar's accelerated healing ability.

Trivia[]

On several occasions, wolfsbane has been known to glow, especially when seen with Supernatural Eyes.
Yellow wolfsbane had been used to "cure" Gerard and sedate Peter Hale. However, it's been said to be fatal to Werewolves, assuming that the Wolfsbane used by Garrett and Violet was the same strain of yellow wolfsbane.
For unknown reasons, Jackson Whittemore, the only known part-Werewolf, part-Kanima hybrid (who is not a Chimera like Tracy Stewart), is immune to the effects of purple wolfsbane and can only be weakened by yellow wolfsbane, according to Ethan Steiner.

Gallery[]

Teen Wolf Wiki has 37 images related to Wolfsbane.

Wolfsbane

Contents

Species[]

Effects and Examples of Use[]

Cure[]

Trivia[]

Gallery[]

See also[]

Fan Feed