10 Things You Somehow Missed In Teen Wolf

10. Based On A True Story

The Season Five episode “Maid of Gévaudan” is best known for Crystal Reed’s return to the series after the death of her character Allison Argent in Season Three. It is less well known that La Bête du Gévaudan’s reign of terror is based on the true story of a series of attacks that occurred in the province of Gévaudan, France between 1764 and 1767. Many hypotheses arose regarding the beast’s true nature, with theorists speculating that the animal may have been an armoured war dog, a striped hyena, a lion, a prehistoric predator, or even a werewolf.

The numerous injuries and deaths caused by La Bête du Gévaudan even attracted attention from King Louis XV, who sent two professional wolf-hunters to stop the attacks. However, the attacks did not end until a local hunter named Jean Chastel killed the wolf with a self-made silver bullet, adding fuel to the werewolf mythology. Jean Chastel is referenced in the episode, when Gerard Argent tells Lydia Martin that the internet was wrong about Jean Chastel being La Bête du Gévaudan’s killer.

Surprisingly, Marie-Jeanne Valet was also a real person. The historical Maid of Gévaudan was famous for being one of the only people to wound the infamous beast, striking it with a bayonet mounted on a stick. Teen Wolf’s maid used a similar fighting tactic and killed La Bête du Gévaudan with a steel-tipped pike. Today, a statute commemorating Marie-Jeanne Valet’s heroic actions stands in Auvers Village, France.