As we reach the last episode of “Wolf Pack” season 1, our feelings of being underwhelmed continue. The tensions were not as high as they should have been, and the two big reveals were somewhat predictable. The reason we are as critical as we are, is because it was very easy to make this series interesting. It would not have mattered if it had been riddled with cliches. We expect that since vampires and werewolves are the most common creatures in tales of the supernatural and they peaked with “The Vampire Diaries” almost a decade ago. Nothing has come close since, and we don’t need it to. We would have been very happy with a cliched storyline in “Wolf Pack,” if it had been entertaining. This season should only have been six episodes long. We remember reading that the story was about the wolf pack coming together, but after a tedious eight episodes, we can’t even say that has happened. Where was the bonding between them? Where were the questions that Blake and Everett should have asked Harlan and Luna about what this kind of life means? And finally, where was the application of their powers to their real lives? Not a single thing we have asked for is something unique, but their inclusion would have added so much more to the story.
We think the biggest problem of the series was that the protagonists ended “Wolf Pack” Season 1 the way they started it, with zero-character development. The argument can be presented that the events of “Wolf Pack” span just a few days, and that is not enough for real growth. But in that case, why don’t we know more about what the characters are like? Who is Everett without his anxiety? What was Blake like before her parents’ divorce? What else does Harlan do when he is not partying and hating on his father? And finally, what actually goes on in Luna’s mind? A better read on the characters would have made us like the series a lot more. Even Kristin had scope, but the writers really left it until the very end. We should have also known more about Prisha, however, there is a saving grace and that is Garrett. He is the only character who is not one-dimensional and shows his love for his children in all of its complexity sprinkled with his fear for their future and what they could be. Garrett Briggs is the only character that kept us going through the season, and he is who we are worried about as the episode comes to a close.
Spoilers Ahead
The Pack Is Looking After Baron
Picking up from the end of “Wolf Pack” Episode 7, Baron is injured, and Everett makes the call to pull out the silver-plated knife in his heart, despite others asking him to wait. The silver is supposed to keep him from changing back, but nobody in the pack is sure if that is the reason or not. However, in the space of a few seconds that it took for Everett to pull the knife out, Baron got a look at some of the pack members’ most critical memories. He sees himself through their point of view, and in every situation, Kristin and Garrett take the place of the parents. He sees Blake’s parents fighting and almost crashing their car, and he understands that Harlan’s distrust of Garrett probably started when he overheard him telling Prisha to be prepared as Luna had killed her own horse. He saw what Everett had to go through due to his anxiety. There are a few other visions, one where he sees Austin asking him why he is drawing him when the sketch on the notebook is that of a wolf. We are not sure whether to assume that this memory belongs to Luna or if it is something else. As for his other visions, we understand that he wanted to attack Cyrus because of the conversation between him and Harlan and the fact that the latter’s friends did not like him. But there was one particular vision that intrigued us, one where Everett tells him that the wildfire was what changed Baron. Does that mean Baron was a human before he turned into a werewolf? We can expect more of his backstory in the coming seasons.
When the pack brings Baron back to Everett’s house and tries to understand how to save him, they get the call from the unknown man once again. He tells them that they need to remove the silver from Baron if they are trying to stop the bleeding. But if he dies, then the pack will lose its abilities, and their bond will be broken. This opens up a choice for the pack members. They bandage Baron’s wound, which is the best they can do for now. While debating their next step, they figure out that Baron’s power is his ability to turn others into wolves. As for their powers, Everett tells Blake that, unlike her, he doesn’t want to change back because turning into a werewolf has cured him of his anxiety like nothing else has. But a question we had after watching this was whether Harlan and Luna will be affected the same way since they were born wolves and not turned later like Blake and Everett. What effect would Baron’s death have on them?
The next day, Cyrus was brought to the police station for questioning related to arson. Kristin also brings Harlan and asks him to speak with Cyrus to try and help him. She assures him that she won’t be recording him and tells him to turn on the white noise machine if he doesn’t believe her. Frankly, why did none of the pack members or anybody else find her suspicious before this episode? Isn’t bringing Harlan in to talk to Cyrus some kind of breach of police procedure? We don’t mind plot holes taken in the interest of creative liberty, but it was a little too much that not one person throughout the eight episodes found something off about Kristin’s overly understanding and maternal way of investigating and interrogating the teenagers. Either way, Harlan talks to Cyrus, who tells him that he did set fire to an abandoned building once, but it was ages ago and was not related to the wildfire at all. We don’t know why he felt the need to say that, but alright.
The real development in this scene was that the white noise had somehow helped Luna hear the conversation between Harlan and Cyrus. When Harlan leaves the room and Kristin enters, she looks at Luna pointedly before turning off the white noise machine, which turns out to be her first clue that she is somehow involved in everything that is going on.
Meanwhile, at Everett’s house, when Blake comes to visit him with Danny, the child recognizes Baron and looks scared of him. Everett and Blake eventually deduce that Danny must have seen Baron at the parking garage where Blake worked, which is where he kept claiming that he also saw Kristin. Danny tells Blake that she shook his hand, and the duo realizes that is how Kristin marked people—to protect them from the wolf. Despite her being suspicious, we believe that Kristin might be the good guy after all. She gives Harlan the recording that Garrett had made in the woods when he did not think he would make it out alive. Additionally, she just seems to want to see her children in safe hands. When the dead bodies are discovered by an anonymous tip and the investigation is taken over by the homicide department and the FBI, Kristin does say that she trusts Garrett, especially after seeing how protective he is of Harlan and Luna. She had long since been spying on them to understand their bond and if Garrett had their best interests at heart, and the family had passed her test successfully. Meanwhile, Garrett learns about Baron and takes him to the hospital. While he asks the pack to wait outside, Harlan and Everett decide to go in regardless.
‘Wolf Pack’ Ending Explained: What Happens to the Wolf Pack? Who is Kristin Ramsey?
As we reach the final few minutes of “Wolf Pack” Season 1, we see that Blake and Danny are being taken away by social services for a while, and their dad has to file an appeal to get them back. As Blake is dealing with this information, Kristin tells her that Danny could be healed. It is a controversial topic, of course, but the harsh reality of the situation makes Blake think.
Meanwhile, just as Blake is being taken away, Everett is being sent back to a medical facility by his parents. They are doing this because they believe that Everett threatened his mother, as we saw in “Wolf Pack” Episode 7 when he walked into the hospital with an injured Baron. All of this is not a good look for Everett’s case. Finally, coming to Harlan, he runs into someone he knows in the hospital, Cody, and upon learning that his last name is “Malcolm,” he understands that he is the son of the person who was a part of Cyrus’ father’s group all those years ago in the wildfire. But before Harlan can do anything, he is taken away by the police for the murder of Officer Tyler. The werewolf had killed the officer, but the blame fell on Harlan, at least for the time being.
Back in the hospital, Malcolm takes Baron to what we think is the fire depot. Kristin reaches there, tipped off by the anonymous caller, and she finds a man waiting in the place. We are assuming that he must be Harlan and Luna’s father since he says something about their meeting not being a reunion. As gunfire is exchanged between them, Kristin gets another call, and the anonymous person tells her that she made the pack, but he kept them alive, and he has called Garrett to the same place as Kristin. Garrett finds Kristin, and she confesses to him that she is Harlan and Luna’s mother and that she just wants to help them. Baron is right there, and Kristin heals him, as that is her ability. She also incapacitates the man and would have killed him if not for Garrett’s intervention. Kristin tells Garrett that any ecosystem revolves around the kind of apex predator it has. Maybe that is her plan that she wants to execute with the pack. She tells Garrett that they would be the perfect parents for the pack, and when he questions her about whether she wants him to be their human father, Kristin makes her intentions clear that she wants him to be a wolf. The camera turns towards Baron, who has his teeth bared and is ready to attack Garrett and turn him into a wolf at his mother’s orders.
Final Thoughts On ‘Wolf Pack’ Season 1
We have said this before, and we are saying it again: this series was released after its time. It would have been way better received if this was 2012 instead of 2023. We see this happening with quite a few series these days, and that is concerning us. Moving on to another thing, does anyone else think that Harlan Briggs looks like Chase Stokes, who plays John B in “Outer Banks”? Maybe we said that because we recently saw the show. But otherwise, our love for Rodrigo Santoro continues. He really brought something to the character that went beyond what the writers had written for him, and we are thankful for that. We hope he gets a meatier role in “Wolf Pack” Season 2, and all we have to do now is wait for it.
