The Darach

Jennifer Blake (née Julia Baccari; also known as The Darach and the Dark Druid) is one of the two main antagonists of Season 3 of Teen Wolf and one of the two overarching antagonists of the 2023 film sequel Teen Wolf: The Movie. According to Alan Deaton, she was a Darach, a dark Druid who forsaken mission to maintain the balance of nature to dark magic. 
She was the former Emissary of Kali's pack, but her Alpha brutally mauled her and left her for dead. Wanting revenge on the Alpha Pack, Julia chose a new identity, Jennifer Blake, and decided to perform numerous ritualistic sacrifices in hopes of building up enough power to kill Deucalion and the Pack. To do so, she posed as the English teacher of Scott McCall, Stiles Stilinski, Lydia Martin and Allison Argent during their junior year of high school. Throughout the season, she claimed the lives of twelve civillians, whose abilities were added to hers.
Though she successfully killed Kali in retaliation for her betrayal of their friendship and left the Steiner twins on the brink of death, she was unable to defeat Deucalion until the lunar eclipse rendered him powerless. Ironically, Jennifer became powerless as well after Derek tricked her into restoring the Alpha's vision. Her last Mountain Ash defense was broken by Scott during his ascension to Alpha status, allowing Deucalion to claw her throat out. Desperate to survive, she crawled towards the Nemeton to regain her health and strength, only to be killed for good by Peter Hale after she recognized his plans of taking Scott's True Alpha powers for himself.
She was portrayed by Haley Webb, who also portrayed Janet Cunningham in The Final Destination and Lauren Huxley in Sugar Mountain
==Bio==
===Early History===
Jennifer Blake was born Julia Baccari, and she trained to become a Druid Emissary, eventually becoming the adviser to a pack of Werewolves under the leadership of a female Alpha named Kali. The two women were inseparable and it is implied the two had a romantic relationship in the past. However, this is never confirmed or denied. 
Sometime after Deucalion had killed all of his Betas and decided to start an Alpha Pack, Kali wanted to join as well, mainly to remain close to her lover Ennis, driving her to kill all of her Betas without thinking twice before reluctantly going after Julia. Despite severely mauling her, Kali could not bring herself to kill Julia and elected to let her die of her injuries, a decision that would come back to haunt her years later. Julia, with her last ounces of strength, managed to crawl towards the Beacon Hills Nemeton grove, which had recently received a spark of power from the death of a virgin, Paige Krasikeva, who was mercy-killed by her boyfriend Derek Hale after she had rejected her transformation into a Werewolf. The spark of power helped Julia stay alive long enough to be found by then-Deputy Noah Stilinski, who sent her urgently to Beacon Hills Memorial Hospital. Upon her arrival to emergencies, Julia manipulated dozens of ravens to sacrifice themselves by flying themselves through the hospital's windows, an event deemed a "freak accident" by the public, to gain enough power to survive. However, the encounter with Kali left Julia brutally scarred and terrifying in appearance. 
Consumed with vengeance towards the Alphas, Julia adopted the name, Jennifer Blake, and made her mission to kill Deucalion, Kali and the rest of the Alpha Pack in the name of every one of their victims. In order to accomplish this mission, she set out to sacrifice trios of human civilians of different categories-- virgins, warriors, healers, philosophers, and guardians. 
===Season 3A===
Having acquired a new and unblemished physical apppearance, Jennifer enrolled as an English teacher in Beacon Hills High School, becoming the teacher of Scott McCall, Stiles Stilinski, Lydia Martin and Allison Argent during their junior year. Throughout the story arc, she managed to kill twelve innocent civilians to increase her beauty and acquire abilities like exceptional superhuman strength, healing of herself and others and heightened knowledge and strategic skills. In "The Girl Who Knew Too Much," she attempted to kill Lydia Martin by strangling her with a garotte until Noah Stilinski, Scott and Stiles intervened. Soon, Jennifer abducted Scott, Stiles and Allison"s parents, Sheriff Stilinski, Melissa McCall and Chris Argent, as part of her final sacrifice. 
In the night of the lunar eclipse, she easily overpowered Kali and the Steiner twins before giving Kali a chance to apologize for betraying their friendship and trying to kill her years ago. She went on to explain that she needed a tremendous amount of power to gain a new appearance after Kali ruined her real face, which she demonstrated by activating her telekinesis to lift the shards of glass of the broken skylight of Derek's loft. Despite initially confessing to Deucalion that she loved Jennifer, the toe-clawed Alpha seemed to have completely shredded every last piece of affection that she had for her previous adviser, furiously yelling that she regretted not ripping her head off when she was in a perfect position to do so. Enraged beyond belief, Jennifer launched all of the shards towards Kali's body, mortally wounding her. The Steiner twins tried to defeat her in their Voltron-Wolf form, but she grabbed their neck and snapped it, leaving them for dead. 
She convinced Derek to fight for Scott's cause and team up with her as her guardian against Deucalion in exchange for leaving the parents alive. Though Derek and Jennifer were easily overpowered by the self-proclaimed "Demon Wolf," Scott stalled long enough for the lunar eclipse to take place, leaving all Beacon Hills Werewolves without their abilities. Jennifer returned and would have killed Deucalion had Derek not stopped her. Derek reasoned that Deucalion needed to see the price Jennifer and her real face suffered as a result of creating the perfect Alpha Pack, tricking Jennifer by "convincing" her to restoring the Alpha's eyesight. Unfortunately for her, she was left too weakened to kill him and then attacked Derek when he refused to kill him for her. 
The lunar eclipse came to an end, forcing Jennifer to create a perfect circle of Mountain Ash as a last defense. Determined to save his friends and the parents, Scott pushed through the Mountain Ash and his sheer willpower allowed him to break the circle, rising to True Alpha status at last. Scott threatened to kill Jennifer if she did not stop the storm, even if it meant tainting his newly-acquired Alpha status. Deucalion insisted nothing would change the color of his eyes and clawed Jennifer's throat out himself, saving Scott the trouble. 
Despite the severity of her wounds, Jennifer managed to crawl towards the Nemeton, hoping to use the power it had received from Allison, Scott and Stiles' surrogate sacrifice ritual to survive once more. However, she was interrupted by none other than Peter Hale and she bursted into dark laughter upon seeing it was him. She remarked how he managed to come out on top despite everyone else suffering and revealed that he could become an Alpha again by killing Scott and taking his True Alpha status for himself. He became enraged upon hearing the word "Again" and delivered a second slash to Jennifer's throat, taking her life for good. He shouted that he is and has always been the Alpha at the top of his voice. 
===Legacy===
Jennifer Blake did not leave a good legacy behind, mostly due to her cruelty and evil nature as a former druid. 
As Jennifer predicted, Peter was planning to kill Scott and steal his Alpha powers. He conspired with Kate Argent so she could have her revenge on the McCall pack, unjustly blaming them for Allison's death. Kate turned Scott into a Berserker, hoping the Pack would either kill him or Scott would kill them. Fortunately, Liam Dunbar was able to get through to Scott, who was able to overcome his Berserker impulses. Realizing everything was Peter Hale's fault and doing, Scott engaged him in mortal combat. He was even more motivated to defeat Peter when the latter threatened to kill Scott's Beta Liam. Finally, Scott was able to subdue Peter and told his sire that Peter was never meant to be an Alpha because he stole the power from Laura Hale. Not only did Scott finally triumph over Peter, but it made the pack stronger than ever. 
Jennifer's actions and their impact on the families of her victims would later benefit Tamora Monroe and Gerard Argent as they built together an army of fellow Hunters to wipe out the world's supernatural communities, including the McCall Pack members. At least one man joined Monroe and Gerard's crusade in hopes of avenging his son's murder at the hands of Jennifer according to Monroe, even though Jennifer was already dead and there was nothing the man could do but move on from his son's death. It was not clear whether the victim in question was the lifeguard of the "virgins" trio or Kyle, the first of the trio of "warriors." 
The Anuk-ite, a creature that could exploit and feed off people's deepest fears, assumed the form of Jennifer Blake in front of Derek. This proved that Julia's influence on the Werewolf left him haunted and with the fear of losing the people he cared about through if he were to be manipulated through love again. Though he opened his eyes and was petrified by the creature, he was freed from his stone prison following the creature's death at the hands of Scott and Stiles.
In Teen Wolf the Movie, Adrian Harris revealed himself to be alive, albeit covered in marks and bruises from Jennifer's garrote. It is currently unknown why she spared his life; either Mr. Harris somehow convinced Jennifer not to kill him or he managed to slip away without anyone noticing. 
==Personality==
Nothing of Jennifer's personality as Julia Baccari was explored. However, she may have been committed herself to the practice of being a druid at one point as Deaton describes the Darach as a druid who went on a dark path implying that Jennifer was once a kind hearted individual like Deaton was. She was also close to her alpha Kali, implying she was once a good person until her best friend's betrayal when Kali severely marked her beyond recognition and left her on the brink of death. Since then Jennifer desired revenge against Kali, Deucalion and the rest of the Alpha Pack above everything else. As such, she believed Deucalion to be sociopathic and arrogant, showcasing that she can be hypocritical. Her anger of the Alpha Pack drove her ambitions, and her having no qualms to kill Lydia, Scott and their friends despite them being teenagers. However Jennifer may have had genuine feelings for Derek, and only started to hate him when he betrayed her. She also told Scott that Deucalion would do whatever he could to make Scott a killer. She displayed no hesitation, guilt or remorse for kidnapping and killing numerous Beacon Hills citizens to obtain the abilities to kill Deucalion and his fellow Alpha. She went aa far as to claim that her victims had voluntarily "lent" her their power in the name of destroying the Alphas. However, in reality all of them were oblivious of the supernatural world, with the guardians trio as the only exception. 
Thanks to her glamour powers, she was able to blend in among the people of Beacon Hills. She devoted herself to her human sacrifices without anyone, including Kali and her fellow Alphas, suspecting her original identity or her role as the perpetrator of the murders. Aside from her unquenchable desire for vengeance, she had a strong sense of self-preservation, which helped her survive Kali's attack. If Peter Hale hadn't intervened, her self-preservation would have saved her once more during her attempt to restore her health by consuming a portion of the Nemeton's power. 
==Relationships==
===Kali===
Back when she was still known as Julia Baccari, Jennifer had a close relationship with Kali, who personally claimed to Deucalion that Jennifer was one of the few people that she had ever loved. However, Kali's desire to join Deucalion's new Alpha Pack to remain close to her presumed lover Ennis led her to slaughter her own Betas to absorb their powers before reluctantly going after Jennifer, whom she did not want to kill due to her belief that she was harmless. After mauling Jennifer's face and body beyond recognition, Kali elected to leave Jennifer to die "peacefully" of her wounds instead of delivering a final blow. Unbeknownst to Kali, Deucalion or their fellow Alphas, Jennifer managed to save herself by coming into physical contact with the Nemeton tree of Beacon Hills, which gave her enough power to survive her wounds and be taken to the hospital for recovery.
Nearly a decade later, Jennifer heard that Deucalion, Kali and the rest of the Alpha Pack had returned to Beacon Hills to recruit newly-ascended Alpha Derek Hale and his protege Scott McCall, a Beta with the potential to become an incredibly-rare True Alpha. Jennifer enrolled in Beacon Hills High School as an English teacher to monitor as the Alpha Pack antagonized Derek, Scott and their packmates. Even after using Jennifer as leverage against Derek, Kali was unable to recognize Jennifer as her previous Emissary, likely due to Jennifer's glamouring powers changing her scent as well. It would be only in the battle between the packs in the hospital that Kali would unmask Jennifer. When Kali and Deucalion spotted her trying to leave the hospital, Kali raced forward and tried to kill her former emissary to prevent the former from destroying her and her packmates in retribution for what they had done to her.
At the night of the lunar eclipse, Jennifer and Kali engaged in combat and Jennifer emerged victorious after having completed four of the five sets of human sacrifices. Jennifer ranted that she needed a large amount of power to acquire a new appearance after Kali had ruined her real face, emphasizing her point by telekinetically levitating the shards of glass of the broken skylight of Derek's loft. While Jennifer initially thought it was possible for Kali to apologize for her poor choices, her hope disappeared when Kali spitefully yelled that she regretted not ripping Jennifr's head off when she had the chance, prompting Jennifer to launch all of the shards towards Kali, mortally wounding her.
===Derek Hale===
Derek was Jennifer's lover who seemed to genuinely love Jennifer. The feeling was mutual until Derek learned Jennifer's true nature. Due to the lies and manipulations on Jennifer's part,the relationship between Derek and Jennifer with nothing but abusive and cruel irony that Derek was manipulated through love a second time. 
===Deucalion===
===Scott McCall===
In "The Overlooked", Scott and Stiles beat her to it, and told Derek that Jennifer was the Darach and pointed out how she tried to kill Lydia. However, Jennifer feigned ignorance, completely denying her role in Lydia's attempted murder.
===Lydia Martin===
To Lydia Martin, Miss Blake was just an ordinary teacher; in time, Lydia and her friends would learn that Jennifer was the Darach, a dark Druid who turned to dark magic and denouncing her code to maintain balance in the world. For the McCall pack, it was Lydia's Banshee premonition and fugue states that allowed them to find the bodies of the sacrifice victims. 
In "The Girl Who Knew Too Much," Jennifer began seeing Lydia as a threat to her plans after Lydia saved Scott and the other Werewolves from their suicide attempts, saw her drawing the Nemeton's roots in her journal and predicting that Mr. Westover was taken. She stole Aiden's phone and sent Lydia a text, saying they needed to talk because it was a manner of life or death. Lydia was lured away from the recital went to Jennifer's classroom, when she suddenly heard the demonic chanting of the Darach's sacrifice. Jennifer bashed Lydia on the head, knocking her out cold. She was also the first person who recognized Lydia as a "Banshee" and revealed the younger woman's true identity as the Weeping Woman. She then compared Lydia to herself, quoting Shakespeare by stating that they "look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under't." When Lydia begged her to stop, Jennifer said she wished she could, but that Lydia didn't know the Alpha Pack like she did. Fortunately, Lydia was saved by Noah Stilinski, who the Darach later abducted to be the first "guardian" of her final sacrifices. 
In "The Overlooked", however, Scott and Stiles beat her to it, and told Derek that Jennifer was the Darach and pointed out how she tried to kill Lydia. However, Jennifer feigned ignorance, completely denying her role in Lydia's attempted murder. Her attempts to kill Lydia left an emotional and physical scar on her; because of Jennifer, Lydia was taken to a nearby hospital to receive treatment after the Beacon Hills Hospital suffered a blackout and was therefore, unavailable to help her friends evade the Alpha Pack. Lydia ended up having a bruise ring around her neck from the garotte and knife. As such, Lydia refused to let her mother cover up her wound because she believed that she shouldn't be ashamed of surviving someone tried to kill her. Lydia also played a key role in finding her friends' parents by realizing that the "trees" she was drawing these past few weeks were actually illustrations of the Nematon's roots. 
In "Lunar Eclipse," Jennifer killed Kali and apparently, Lydia's former lover,Aiden and his brother, Ethan, much to Lydia's horror. Jennifer told Lydia she wanted her to "scream" so she could lure Derek and Cora back to the Hale loft. As Cora went to check up on her friend, Jennifer got Derek to help her finish Deucalion once and for all in exchange for Scott, as will as his, Stiles and Allison's parents. Despite Cora's protests, Derek joined Jennifer, leaving Cora and Lydia alone. This would, fortunately, be the last time that Jennifer or Lydia would see each other before the former's death at the hands of Peter Hale. 
===Noah Stilinski===
Despite Stilinski once saving her life, Jennifer had no qualms against him being one of her sacrifices for her five-knot sacrifices. 
==Victims==
*Five-knot sacrifice victims.
**Virgins (blow to the head, sliced throat or strangulation by garrote)
***Heather
***Emily
***Unnamed lifeguard
**Warriors (blow to the head, sliced throat or strangulation by garrote)
***Kyle
***Unnamed Music Teacher
***Adrian Harris (former accomplice and attempted victim; spared his life for unknown reasons)
**Healers (asphyxiation)
***Dr. Hilyard
***ER Attending Physician
***Unnamed doctor
***Alan Deaton (attempted; saved by Scott McCall)
**Philosophers (throats slit)
***Deputy Tara Graeme
***Mr. Westover
***School Orchestra Pianist
**Guardians (attempted; they were saved because of Scott, Deucalion and Derek defeating the Darach)
***Melissa McCall (attempted through crushing the Nemeton cellar; failed)
***Chris Argent (attempted through crushing the Nemeton cellar; failed)
***Noah Stilinski (attempted through crushing the Nemeton cellar; failed)
*Lydia Martin (attempted to burn and later through three-fold death)
*Vernon Boyd (attempted through wolfsbane poisoning; indirectly)
*Scott McCall (attempted through wolfsbane poisoning and later burning)
*Allison Argent (attempted through burning and crushing with the Nemeton barn)
*Stiles Stilinski (attempted through burning and crushing with barn)
*Isaac Lahey (attempted through crushing the Nemeton cellar; failed)
* Cora Hale (poisoned with mistletoe; survived)
* Kali (shot shards of glass into her body, thus killing her)
==Trivia==
* Like many antagonists, Gerard is also indirectly the cause of Jennifer's descent into villainy, which makes him once of the overarching antagonists of The Movie. 
**It was Gerard who blinded Deucalion, leaving to his packmate Marco to attempt to kill him because the incident made him believe his Alpha had become weak.
**However Deucalion killed Marcos and stole his powers, leading him to form the Alpha pack recruit Kali. 
** Kali killed her own betas, including leaving Jennifer (out Julia) to die, inspiring Jennifer to get her revenge on the pack and cause the events of season 3A. Additionally if it wasn't for Jennifer kidnapping Chris, Noah and Melissa it wouldn't have caused Scott, Allison and Stiles to undergo a sacrificial ritual to find their families and release the Nogitsune. 
* Interestingly, Druids are drawn to a certain calling and have expertise in that area.
** For Alan, his interest in healing and medicine left him to becoming a vet for pets and later, supernatural creatures. 
** Meanwhile, Marin is interested in guiding people, which is why she became the guidance counselor for the school and later Eichen House. 
** For Jennifer, it is unknown what Jennifer was knowledgeable in when she was Kali's Emissary, but given her extensive understanding of the supernatural world and her cover as a teacher, it may have been knowledge itself. 
* Jennifer is so dangerous that she knows how to manipulate others into getting what she wants, as best seen in "The Overlooked:" 
**She preyed on Stiles' love for his father and manipulated Derek, Stiles and Scott into taking her to the hospital so she could abduct Melissa;
** She later revealed to the Hale Pack that Deucalion is after Scott as well because of his status as a true Alpha. The tension between Derek and Scott broke for a second and made it easier for her to kidnap Melissa. 
** She even manipulate Derek into helping her due to recognizing Derek's strong bond with Cora and Scott. It is especially seen with the latter, given that he was unwilling to help her until Jennifer made him realize that Scott wouldn't be safe from Deucalion lest he helped her. 
* As Deucalion and Peter are dark antithesis of what Scott could become if he became power hungry, and if he didn't have people like Stiles to help him gain control of his anger or how Kate is an example of what Allison would become if she let her hatred of Derek Hale fester her and let Gerard manipulate her, Jennifer Blake is a good example of a dark antithesis of Lydia, which was lampshaded in "The Girl Who Knew Too Much." 
** Both are attractive young women who hide their true selves. (Jennifer used a glamoring spell that made her like an attractive young woman and Lydia pretty wore a metaphorical mask as a mean girl. However unlike Jennifer, Lydia grows out of this and embraces herself as an intelligent young woman, embrace her true self
** They were both close with their Alphas. 
** They both were manipulative towards a werewolf romantically. 
*** Lydia showed an interest in Scott and kissed him in the boys' locker room to get an edge on Allison and revenge on her boyfriend for spending more time with Alison. However, unlike Jennifer, Lydia stops being a "mean girl" and actually develops a sisterly relationship with Scott in later seasons. 
*** Jennifer also manipulated Derek into a romantic relationship so she could get him to help her enact vengeance on the Alpha Pack. Unlike Lydia she never really did care for Derek. 
**They are both supernatural creatures who are unassuming but powerful woman (Jennifer in all powerful former druid turned Darach, and Lydia Martin, a powerful female banshee). 
**While both are physically beautiful, Lydia is beautiful on the inside as well, unlike Jennifer, who is ugly on the inside and beautiful on the outside.
**Also unlike Jennifer, who manipulating the man she "loved" Lydia genuinely loves her boyfriends, Jackson and Stiles and still remains close with
* Given how Kali and her pack were associated with Talia, Deucalion, Ennis and their packs, it is highly likely that Julia knew the Deaton-Morrell siblings, Alan and Marin prior to the series, as they were each emissaries (Julia, Marin and Alan) of their respective packs (Kali, Deucalion and Talia's)
* Jennifer had no qualms of sacrificing others no matter what their ages (such as Stiles, Heather, Kyle, Scott or Lydia, despite them being innocent seventeen year olds
* Jennifer was the third love interest of Derek Hale and appeared to be his second healthy relationship since Paige. However, after her true colors are revealed, Julia becomes the second woman who manipulated Derek into having a relationship with her, the first being Kate Argent.
** It is also hinted the despite using him, Jennifer had some level of care for Derek because she seemed genuinely hurt that her ex-boyfriend tricked her into draining her powers after she healed Deucalion's eyes.
** However, the love the two shared wasn't true and is regarded abusive. She was merely obsessed with Derek because his unintended sacrifice of Paige gave the Nemeton power, which gave her power as well.
*She serves as the main antagonist of "The Darach" story arc of th3 season (Season 3A), the overarching antagonist of season 3B and actively shares the role as overarching antagonist alongside Gerard Argent from Teen Wolf: The Movie
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