‘Teen Wolf’: Who Is The Benefactor? Top Theories Including Danny & More
We’re nearly midway into Season 4 of ‘Teen Wolf’, and the mystery of The Benefactor is weighing as heavily on fans’ minds as is the mystery of where Derek’s eyebrows go when he shifts. Read on for the prevailing theories!
The mystery of The Benefactor is one of the most compelling storylines we’ve seen from Teen Wolf since the mystery of the Kanima in Season 2. However, while the Kanima could have been literally anybody, what we’ve seen from The Benefactor’s motivations thus far are murky enough that they’re throwing fans off of any particular trail. The mystery is especially compounded by the fact that dead things don’t stay dead in Beacon Hills, giving us a way larger pool to choose from. Read on for the prevailing theories, and let me know who you think is the one responsible for killing off the supernaturals in Beacon Hills! (Spoiler: my money’s on Danny.)
‘Teen Wolf’: Who Is The Benefactor? Top 4 Theories Including Danny & The Argents
What we know about The Benefactor so far is that they have created an encrypted list called the “dead pool” on which is listed every supernatural in Beacon Hills (sans newbie Liam). They pay off their assassins using the $117 million stolen from the Hale family vault (hilariously located underneath Derek’s fave spot to be, Beacon Hills High), and they’re happy to employ high schoolers like Garrett (Mason Dye) and Violet (Samantha Logan) to do their dirty work.
The best clues pointing us toward The Benefactor’s identity are the two passcodes that have unlocked two thirds of the dead pool list — “Allison” and “Aiden.” The addition of Aiden’s name kind of gums up the works — it’s hard to believe that anybody who cares about Allison’s death also cares about Aiden’s, and vice versa, but the person behind the dead pool is clearly not operating on all cylinders.
With all of that said, let’s get theorizing!
1. Gerard Argent
A curmudgeonly lunatic, Gerard Argent (Michael Hogan) has been causing trouble long before he arrived on the scene in Season 2. It was his zealotry that influenced his daughter Kate (Jill Wagner) into thinking that it would be just a super idea to seduce Derek (Tyler Hoechlin) and to burn his whole family alive. (Well, most of them. We meet a new Hale relative every day.)
Gerard crawled away, beaten and bloody, in Season 2, but we met him again in Season 3A so that he could tell us a long-winded story about how he blinded Deucalion and basically made him into the beta-killing Alpha pack-leading monster he became. As far as we know, Gerard is still alive.
Evidence for Gerard being The Benefactor:
-Not a fan of supernaturals.
-Probably next level pissed about Allison’s death.
-Is crazy.
Evidence against Gerard being The Benefactor:
-Probably doesn’t know Aiden; definitely doesn’t care about his death.
-Hopefully he died! Good things happen sometimes.
2. Victoria Argent
Where Chris Argent (JR Bourne) has since mellowed on the whole let’s-kill-everything-with-glowing-eyes thing, wife Victoria (Eaddy Mays) wasn’t as sympathetic prior to her death. Indeed, the unfortunate set of circumstances that led to her death were of her own supernatural-hating machinations. She tried to kill Scott (Tyler Posey) for dating Allison, and when Derek went to save Scott, Victoria tried to kill Derek, too. She had no chance against the then-Alpha, who bit her in self-defense.
As it was part of the hunter code at the time, she was forced to commit suicide rather than change into a wolf herself. Before Chris helped her plunge the knife into her chest (because romance), her eyes glowed beta yellow, indicating that she had already changed. Given werewolf healing, could she still be alive somewhere?
Evidence for Victoria being The Benefactor:
-Not a fan of supernaturals.
-Probably next level pissed about Allison’s death.
-Is crazy.
-Used an electric pencil sharpener as a metaphor for what she would do to Scott’s downstairs implement for sleeping with her daughter — does not mess around.
-Eaddy Mays is still heavily involved in the Teen Wolf fandom; she even writes fanfiction! I’m sure she’d love to be back on the set.
Evidence against Victoria being The Benefactor:
-Probably doesn’t know Aiden; definitely doesn’t care about his death.
-Her glowing eyes may have just been a decision made because it looked cool — she may very well be dead.
-Stiles (Dylan O’Brien) would be on the list for his inadvertent involvement in Allison’s death; we haven’t seen the full list yet, but I also feel like Victoria would be the type to throttle him dead with her own bare hands, anyway — list be damned.
3. Chris Argent
As said above, Chris has softened on his anti-supernaturals stance and, at the end of Season 3B, decided to adhere to Allison’s new code — “We protect those who can’t protect themselves.”
However, at the end of “I.E.D.,” the July 21 episode of Teen Wolf, he totally caved and echoed the old code — “we hunt those who hunt us” — to the Calaveras who were threatening him. Maybe it was a trick, but maybe he has gone off the deep end after Allison’s death; maybe he had arrived in Beacon Hills prior to Scott’s warning texts that Kate was alive and maybe he was the one behind the heist! (Maybe.) We know that he really loves flash bombs, after all.
Evidence for Chris being The Benefactor:
-Historically not a fan of supernaturals.
-Is grief beard-level pissed about Allison’s death.
-In an exclusive interview with HollywoodLife.com, JR Bourne used the word “vengeance” a lot when describing both The Benefactor’s and Chris’ motivations this season. I’m still suspicious about it.
-Loves flash bombs; they were used to subdue Kate and Peter both so that The Benefactor (or their lackey) could make off with the loot.
Evidence against Chris being The Benefactor:
–Probably doesn’t really care about Aiden’s death, and Aiden sure as hell wasn’t an innocent.
-It would be awful for Chris to have developed so much as a character only for him to backslide and forget Allison’s code just a scant few months after her devastating death. So, I’m hoping that won’t be a thing we’ll have to watch.
-He is so handsome?? (Seems relevant??)
4. Danny Mahealani
For those of you in denial about the absence of Danny (Keahu Kahuanui) this season, join me in the belief that he will still be making an appearance!
We don’t know a lot about Danny despite his character having been in the series since the beginning. However, what we do know is that he is super good with computers and has also known about the supernatural situation in Beacon Hills since forever. Furthermore, it was the death of twin brother Aiden (Max Carver) that was the catalyst for Ethan (Charlie Carver) to leave Beacon Hills — and Danny — behind. Finally, while Danny and Allison were never portrayed as super close, she was still an innocent that died in supernatural crossfire.
Evidence for Danny being The Benefactor:
-Good with computers; is the type to be able to create an encrypted list, to interact with his assassins solely via technology.
-Presumably upset about Ethan leaving, even though we didn’t see a lot of their relationship from his end.
-Creator Jeff Davis and co. have been keeping mum about Keahu’s appearance (or lack thereof) this season, but Danny has always been a background character. Now that the season has wrapped, it wouldn’t be a spoiler to say whether Danny would appear or not — unless he has an important role. Say Anything like John Cusack, Teen Wolf crew!
-While he doesn’t seem the type to have the McCall pack on his list, why wouldn’t he? We don’t know a lot about him, and he had a crush on Matt Daehler, controller of the kanima! Crazy attracts crazy, and we don’t know Danny’s not crazy.
-As a high schooler himself, he wouldn’t mind enlisting fellow high schoolers.
-As a clever high schooler, he probably knows about the Hale vault; he knew about the ley lines intersecting Beacon Hills, and he probably has the whole place mapped out.
Evidence against Danny being The Benefactor:
-Doesn’t seem the type to have the McCall pack on his list.
-He is so, so handsome?? (Also seems relevant??)
-At the Wolfs Bane 2 Con in Birmingham over the weekend of July 11-13, Holland Roden (Lydia Martin) allegedly said in a meet and greet that Danny wouldn’t be appearing this season.
The above four aren’t the only theories being discussed, but they are the most prevalent. For example, there are dreamers out there hoping for the return of Jackson (Colton Haynes), and, who knows, it could even be Peter (Ian Bohen)! We haven’t seen Peter on the list yet, and his tomahawk-in-the-chest could have been a red herring; he could have orchestrated the robbery himself in order to avoid suspicion. We don’t know a whole lot about recently-appeared bad dad Papa McCall (Matthew Del Negro), either, and it’s not like he’s contributing a lot, plot-wise, other than his ridiculously handsome face.
Finally, while it’s certainly possible that The Benefactor is someone we haven’t even met yet, it wouldn’t be very impactful for this entity with an intense grudge against the supernaturals of Beacon Hills to be a new face.
While I’m Team Danny (and may have just convinced myself of Papa McCall’s guilt), I want to hear what you think, HollywoodLifers. Who’s your best guess for The Benefactor? Let me know!
— Amanda Michelle Steiner
Follow @AmandaMichl
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