Template:Relationship
| ā | Brett: "No, I didn't catch anything." Liam: "No one else in here's like us?" Brett: "I don't know, dude. Maybe. It's Beacon Hills. What's the difference?" Liam: "It felt different." Brett: "What do you mean?" Liam: "It felt off. It felt wrong." |
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This is the relationship between Beta werewolves Brett Talbot and Liam Dunbar.
Brett and Liam were formerly rivals, as the incident that caused Liam to be suspended from Devenford Prep made Brett and his fellow teammates resentful toward him for what he did to their coach; it is currently unclear at what point in life these two characters officially met, but due to Brett's lack of awareness regarding Liam's past with Hayden Romero, it's a safe bet that they met some time between the 6th and 9th grade.
Their first on-screen appearance together was during Season 4's I.E.D., when Devenford Prep's lacrosse team arrived at Beacon Hills High School for a scrimmage, where it was made clear that Brett still held a grudge against Liam. However, unbeknownst to Liam, who had recently been bitten and turned into a Beta werewolf by Scott McCall, Brett, too, was a born werewolf and Beta in Satomi Ito's pack, a fact Liam would not learn until Brett's name appeared on the Deadpool hit-list. Once their supernatural identities were revealed to each other, the animosity between the two began to lessen, especially when Liam's Alpha and pack helped save Brett and his own pack from being killed in the Deadpool.
As of Season 5, Brett and Liam appear to have a tentative friendship, with Brett helping Liam and his best friend Mason investigate the newly-revealed Chimeras and assisting the McCall Pack in protecting Beacon Hills from the Beast of Gevaudan.
Brett and Liam are known as "Briam" by fans.
Early History
As previously stated, it is unknown when Brett and Liam first met each other, but it presumably happened between middle school and freshman year, with Liam being unaware of Brett's status as a born werewolf. (("Required Reading")) The two attended the same high school, Devenford Prep, and played on their lacrosse team together, where they were both known for being extremely talented athletes. However, Liam suffered from anger issues that would later be diagnosed as intermittent explosive disorder, which caused him to act angrily and violently toward others or himself. When this behavior led to Liam getting so many red cards at lacrosse games that his coach benched him for the rest of the season, Liam went into an almost blackout rage and destroyed the coach's car with a crowbar before scrawling "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT" in the paint. Brett and his friends became furious with Liam for what he did to their coach and mocked him for his uncontrollable anger, though Liam's expulsion from Devenford Prep meant that they would not see each other for some time. (("The Benefactor")), (("I.E.D."))
Throughout Teen Wolf
Season 4
In I.E.D., the Devenford prep lacrosse team, including Brett, arrived at Beacon Hills High School. When he got off the bus, Liam, nervous about the upcoming scrimmage and having to face his former teammates, hesitantly approached him. Though it was assumed that Liam would react with anger, he instead extended his hand magnanimously and wished Brett a good game. Brett, along with the rest of the Devenford Prep team, instead of shaking Liam's outstretched hand, began to laugh hysterically before asking him if this was something he learned in anger management. Liam, starting to lose his temper, tried to ignore them, but Brett insisted that their team was going to destroy him on the field for what he did to their coach. When Liam retorted that he paid for what happened, Brett remarked that he was going to pay for it on the field. Just as Liam, a new werewolf, started to lose control of his transformation, Scott McCall and Stiles Stilinski rushed over so that Scott could pull Liam away, leaving Stiles to welcome the opposing team as a distraction.
As the teams prepared for the game, Brett changed into his uniform on the sidelines. Across the field, Liam scowled at Brett, while his best friend, Mason Hewitt, openly checked him out. When Liam mentioned that he didn't care if Brett was twice his size and that he believed he could take him, he realized that Mason had a crush on Brett and called him out on it. Mason insisted he was just trying to be supportive, and when Liam reminded him that Brett wanted to destroy him, Mason agreed that Liam could take him and suggested that he then give Brett to him afterward. Right before the game started, Brett forcefully threw a lacrosse ball at Liam's head and mockingly told him to catch it, but Liam's newly-gained werewolf agility and reflexes allowed him to easily grab it before it could hit him.
Throughout the game, Brett and his friends continued to directly go after Liam in an attempt to psych him out and humiliate him, but Scott and Stiles stayed near Liam and prevented him from starting any fights. During a particularly bad tackle between Liam, Brett, and Garrett (who was secretly an assassin working for The Benefactor), Brett was cut on the leg by a wolfsbane-coated blade hidden in Garrett's lacrosse stick and was so injured he was taken off the field. Shortly afterward, Stiles received a text message from Lydia Martin and Malia Tate, who had cracked the second part of the Deadpool hit-list and had discovered that Brett, among others, was on it, causing Scott to rush into the school to save Brett from Garrett's assassin partner, Violet.
In A Promise to the Dead, Devenford Prep once again was scheduled to play a lacrosse game with Beacon Hills High School, this time in a formal game rather than a scrimmage. While on the field, Liam began to have panic attacks that caused hallucinations, due in part to post-traumatic stress disorder caused by his earlier battle with a Berserker combined with the upcoming full moon the following evening. As he played, Liam hallucinated that a Berserker was on the field attacking players on several different occasions, with Brett noticing Liam's distress the final time and purposely tackling him to snap him out of it. When Liam demanded to know why Brett did that, Brett explained that he could smell Liam's fear from all the way across the field and asked him if he was okay. Liam irritably replied that he was fine, leading Brett to remind him that he wasn't dying before instructing him to get back up onto his feet.
The referee approached the boys soon after and asked if Brett planned on pulling another stunt like that, but Brett simply smirked and stated he wouldn't if he didn't have to before heading back to his team. After the game, Liam was sitting on a bench in the locker room when Brett approached him and asked him if he was okay once again. Liam asked him why he helped him, causing Brett to point out that he didn't know how lucky he was because Scott not only saved his life once, but he saved all of them from being killed in the Deadpool. He went on to explain that Scott was a True Alpha because he earned it rather than stealing it, and that both Scott and Liam had what Satomi called "strength of character" before he once again stated that Liam was lucky to have Scott as an Alpha.
Season 5
In Dreamcatchers, Liam and Mason arrived at Devenford Prep to ask Brett about a recent werewolf attack, where they found him practicing on the lacrosse field with some of his fellow teammates. Mason was in awe that Brett was a werewolf like Liam and Scott, much to Liam's annoyance. As a result, Liam wasted no time showing Brett a picture of Tracy Stewart, who they then believed to be a newly-turned werewolf, on his phone to see if he had seen her before, visibly eager to make this interaction short and sweet.
Brett simply shrugged and remarked that Tracy was cute before stating that he didn't know her. Undeterred, Liam asked if it was possible that Satomi, Brett's Alpha, could have turned Tracy without him knowing, but Brett insisted that Satomi had been keeping a low profile since [[the Deadpool and that she wasn't "recruiting." Mason, who had only just recently learned about the supernatural, was amazed by this entire concept and asked Brett and Liam if Alpha werewolves really just went around biting and turning humans. This led Brett to patiently explain that it does happen, but that some werewolves, like himself and his younger sister Lorilee, are born werewolves, before revealing that their family died in a fire, which was why Satomi took them in.
Upon closer examination of Tracy's yearbook photo, Liam noticed the silver necklace with the leaf pendant that she was wearing and realized that he had seen it in the sinkhole he fell into the previous evening, causing Brett, Liam, and Mason to set off to the Beacon Hills Preserve in hopes of finding more clues about who turned her.
By the time they had started their search in earnest, night had fallen, and after some time walking around aimlessly, Brett remarked that their mission was a waste of time. However, just then, Mason fell into another large hole, causing both Brett and Liam to rethink this analysis. When Liam asked Mason if he could find the necklace in the hole, Mason diligently looked around but was unable to see it anywhere in the dirt. Brett and Liam then helped pull Mason out of the hole, which was when Mason realized that it wasn't actually a sinkhole as Liam had initially believed due to the handprints in the dirt around the hole, leading to the realization that whoever was in it was buried there and then forced to dig themselves out. Liam, stunned by this realization, began to think about the hole he fell into the previous night and figured out that this was a totally different hole, since his was much closer to the bridge and the creek. The three then prepared to leave in order to inform Scott of what they had just learned.
In Condition Terminal, Liam and Mason, in an attempt to blow off some steam, went to the new nightclub, Sinema, together, where they spotted Brett dancing with a young woman and a young man in sequence, indicating that Brett is bisexual or pansexual. Later on, Brett joined the two of them in having some drinks, during which time Liam asked him if he had sensed anyone else in the club who was supernatural like them, since he had had a bad feeling that someone with malicious intentions was there the entire evening. Brett initially stated that he hadn't before admitting that he wasn't sure and reminding Liam that they lived in Beacon Hills, so it was hard to tell. Liam insisted that he senses something different that also felt wrong, though Brett seemed unconvinced.
However, after some time, Brett seemed to get the same feeling that Liam did, as he managed to break up Mason's make-out session with Lucas just before the latter could attack him with his scorpion stingers, revealing that Lucas was a Chimera just like Belasko and Tracy Stewart. Pushing Mason aside, Brett began to engage in a fight with Lucas, and when Brett was slashed across the chest with Lucas' stingers, Liam jumped into the fight to give Brett a chance to rush away, where Mason began tending to his wounds. After Liam was finally successful in neutralizing Lucas by headbutting him in the face and knocking him out, Liam, Brett, and Mason, along with Scott and Kira, wondered what kind of creature Lucas was meant to be, only for the Dread Doctors to arrive and kill him before they had the chance to find out.
In Required Reading, Brett was seen sitting in the bleachers in his Devenford Prep uniform with Mason at the Beacon Hills High School lacrosse field, where they watched Liam and Hayden participating in gym class with their fellow students. Brett noticed the romantic and sexual tension between Hayden and Liam, which caused Mason to explain the origin of the rivalry between the two while pulling up yearbook photos from 6th grade on his phone. Mason detailed a fight that Liam got into with another student in the hallway in elementary school, during which time Hayden walked into it to see what was going on, causing her to be punched by Liam so hard that he broke her nose. When Brett asked what Hayden did, Mason gleefully informed him that Hayden punched him back and broke his nose as well, though she remained mad at him due to the fact that it was school picture day and both of them were forced to have their yearbook photos with their black eyes and broken noses.
In A Credible Threat, Brett, along with his younger sister Lorilee, agreed to help Liam and the rest of the McCall Pack in their attempt to stop the Beast of Gevaudan during their respective schools' televised charity lacrosse game that night. During the game, Kira's inner Kitsune spirit began to take control of her and act violently toward the other players, Scott and Liam decided to go with plan B, which consisted of Brett baiting Kira into hitting him so that she would be kicked out of the game. The plan went over perfectly-- Brett knocked Kira to the ground and taunted her by saying she wasn't so tough now, enraging her so much that she hit him in the face with her lacrosse stick, knocking his helmet off and causing him to fall back onto the ground in the process. This successfully got Kira benched for the rest of the game, though Brett was in a daze for several minutes as a result.
Near the end of the game, Liam approached Brett and insisted that they needed more time to enact their plan against the Beast and stated that Devenford Prep's team needed to stop scoring. Brett scoffed in frustration and retorted that he was trying, and that the Beacon Hills Cyclones "sucked" so badly that it was impossible to lose against them. When Liam, equally frustrated, demanded to know what they were supposed to do, Brett sarcastically suggested that they "stop sucking" before he walked away, forcing Liam to come up with his own plan to buy them more time.
Season 6
In "Raw Talent", Brett is asked by Liam to help practice with the Lacrosse Team for tryouts for first line. Throughout the practice, Brett begins to notice Liam's struggling to control his anger, and as such constantly knocks him down in order to teach him to control his aggression. At one point this results in Brett and Liam crashing into the goalies net, knocking down Corey as well. Liam's anger rises to one point where he grips the ball so tightly he leaves claw marks on the ball, later throwing the ball with enough force it rips through the net and lands all the way in the parking lot. Monroe discovers the ball and notices the claw marks and after observing Brett playing, correctly deduces he is a Werewolf, albeit not the one who left the marks. Monroe later approaches Brett and compliments his performance and returns the ball. Brett quickly realizes something is wrong and Monroe reveals the ball is laced with Wolfsbane. Brett manages to escape into the woods with Monroe giving chase. Brett manages to surprise Monroe and overpowers her easily, but before he can do anything else, he is shot with a arrow by Gerard Argent. Realizing he's outgunned, Brett retreats. In "After Image", Brett slowly begins to succumb to the wolfsbane but manages to remove the arrow. He then sets a trap for the Hunters before being forced to retreat again when Monroe brings out her rifle. Brett then retreats underground. By this time Brett's sister Lorilee has noticed Brett is missing and finds the broken lacrosse stick Monroe used to stab Brett, knowing it's his blood as it's her own blood as well. She asks Scott, Liam, and Malia Hale for help in locating her brother, knowing she can't do it alone. Liam is most adamant about locating him and the group heads out into the woods to locate him. Brett then heads into the underground sewers in attempt to escape, but not before using a rock stacking trick taught to him by Satomi, knowing his sister will be able to see it. Lorilee finds the sign and the group heads underground. By this time the group deduced that Brett has been poisoned, and his slowly dying. Realizing they need Brett to know they are in the tunnels with him, Liam roars to let Brett know where they are. After Scott is injured by an old trap left by Gerard in the tunnels, Malia stays behind with Scott while Liam and Lorilee move on ahead. Liam and Loriee eventually locate Brett, who is now displaying black veins and black blood caused by the Wolfsbane poisoning. After sarcastically calling Liam a dumbass for helping him, Brett thanks Liam. Before they can move, Gerard activates a trap to lure Liam away, prompting Liam to charge at the trap while telling Brett and Lorilee to escape. After realizing it was nothing more than a ruse to lure Liam away from Brett and Lorilee, Liam attempts to get back to them, knowing they are walking into a trap. Liam fails to get to them in time, Brett and Lorilee manage to get out of the sewers, but are immediately hit by a car driven by a hunter working for Gerard, killing them both. Liam, upon discovering their bodies, roars in anger and anguish, as he had failed to keep either of them safe.
Trivia
- Both Liam and Brett are Beta werewolves, although Liam was turned by Scott McCall's Bite, whereas Brett is a born werewolf.
- Brett is envious of Liam because he has a True Alpha as a leader.
- Though Brett and Liam's relationship started off as antagonistic, they are now decently good friends, although they are still often sarcastic to each other.
