Ever since Allison Argent died heroically at the end of Teen Wolf's third season, fans have been clamoring for the actor who played her, Crystal Reed, to return.
And finally, the wait is over.
BuzzFeed News can exclusively reveal that Reed will guest star on the Feb. 23 episode of Teen Wolf, titled "The Maid of Gévaudan." But there's a twist: She won't be playing Allison Argent. Instead, she'll breathe life into the progenitor of the Argent family line, Marie-Jeanne Valet, in the flashback-heavy episode, written by executive producer Jeff Davis.
Before talk of this episode emerged, Reed had been reluctant to return to Teen Wolf. "Allison had such an amazing end to her life, I feel like bringing her back in any way might tarnish that beautiful story," she told BuzzFeed News in a phone interview.
But when Davis called her to talk about the seedlings of what would become "The Maid of Gévaudan," she couldn't resist.
"Basically, Jeff just said, 'France in the 1700s,' and I was in," Reed said of the call that reeled her back. "He was definitely playing into my emotions. He knows that I have been dying to do a period piece and I love getting my head around different accents and different cultures. He didn't even have much of a character worked out other than it was based on the Maid of Gévaudan. And I knew the legend, so before really knowing anything further, I said yes."
Davis created a storyline that not only allowed Reed to return to Teen Wolf, but also informed the present-day plot: Scott (Tyler Posey), Stiles (Dylan O'Brien), Lydia (Holland Roden), Malia (Shelley Hennig), and Liam (Dylan Sprayberry) are trying to figure out how to defeat the Beast of Gévaudan, a supernatural creature that’s been resurrected in Beacon Hills that the Maid of Gévaudan, Marie-Jeanne Valet, faced in 1765.
"She was a peasant girl who had fashioned a bayonet onto a spear and was supposedly one of the first to survive an attack by the beast," Davis told BuzzFeed News over the phone. Allison's grandfather, Gerard Argent (Michael Hogan), recounts Valet's story to Scott's pack in hopes they can deduce the creature's weaknesses.
"Valet is another female warrior, and I think one of the great things Crystal does is she gives our viewers, especially our young female viewers, someone to look up to," Davis said. Plus, he noted, "we also get to see her wielding a crossbow again!"
Though Reed has long maintained that she had no interest in playing Allison again, out of respect for how nobly the character died, Valet's choice of weapon is hardly where the similarities between the two characters end. "There are little things I got to do with the character that Allison might have done — a little look or a gesture or the way she walks; I sort of made sure they were a little bit the same because they're family after all," Reed said, adding that Valet's driving force is also the same as Allison's. "She shares that basic, intrinsic quality Allison had that was just pure kindness. She's fighting for justice and for what's right, and that's something I think they have in common that people will love. It's the hero and the bravery that gets us at the end of the day."
And that's also why Reed is open to the idea of exploring other ways she could bring the Argent family's long lineage back to television. "There have been some little chats about that," she said of a potential spin-off. "That would be amazing. I would be so stoked to do that." Davis said if that's something MTV and the fans wanted, he'd be on board as well, because there's plenty more Argent history to unveil. "If I had all the time in the world, this would have been a two-parter and we would have delved even deeper," he said. "It almost feels like we didn't get to tell enough of her story."
Whether this episode marks the start of a new chapter for Reed on MTV or simply a brief homecoming, one thing is for certain: The fans are the ones who made it possible.
"They definitely were a deciding factor," Reed said of returning to Teen Wolf. "When Jeff was going through the character and ended by saying, 'And that's where the Argents begin,' my heart sank. Allison was so close to me and a big bone of contention was that she never had a funeral. It's almost like the closing of a casket would be the end of her story and I wanted to be able to give that to fans. Sometimes I read comments on my social media and the passion is still so strong ... it feels like a whole lot of love all the time in the best way possible. It never ceases to amaze me, really."
