Erica Reyes

Template:TW Character

“	Since I just turned sixteen a month ago, I wouldn't mind getting my license. I can't do that if I'm dead, you know.	”
	— Erica to Derek Hale in Battlefield

Erica Reyes was a supporting character in Season 2 of Teen Wolf. She was first introduced as a human girl suffering from a severe case of epilepsy that made her insecure and shy at school. However, when Derek Hale, who had just recently become an Alpha, approached her and offered to give her the Bite, she immediately agreed, as she was desperate to cure her epilepsy.

Erica survived the transformation into a Beta Werewolf, which not only gave her supernatural powers such as super strength and shapeshifting, but it also helped her gain the confidence needed to realize her beauty and embrace the life she had always wanted. From then on, she became close with her new Alpha and her packmates Isaac Lahey and Vernon Boyd, while also doing her best to convince then-Omega Scott McCall to join their pack as well.

However, when it became clear just how dangerous it was to be a supernatural creature in Beacon Hills as a result of all of the Argent Hunters infiltrating the town, she and Boyd made the decision to leave the Hale Pack and their hometown in hopes of making a fresh start with a new pack elsewhere. Unfortunately for them both, they hadn't even made it out of town yet when they were caught and captured by the Alpha Pack, who held them captive in the vault of the First National Bank for the entire summer of 2011 in hopes of using them as leverage against Derek, who they wanted to join their ranks. During her time as a hostage, Erica quickly became frustrated by her imprisonment and attacked one of her Alpha captors, Kali, who easily killed Erica right before Boyd's eyes. However, her body wasn't found until the Season 3 episode Chaos Rising, when Allison Argent hid in a supply closet at the bank to avoid detection from the Alpha Pack and found her decomposing corpse inside.

Erica was a sophomore at Beacon Hills High School at the time of her capture, and was a member of the Hale Pack. She also showed romantic interest in Scott McCall, Stiles Stilinski, and possibly Vernon Boyd.

Early Life

Erica was born to an unnamed mother and father, the latter of whom was an adjuster for the insurance company that dealt with the car accident that killed Jackson Whittemore's biological parents just hours before his birth. (("Restraint")) At some point in her early childhood, Erica developed a severe case of epilepsy that resulted in dozens and dozens of trips to the Beacon Hills Memorial Hospital emergency room, where she was often treated by the head nurse there, Melissa McCall. (("Ice Pick"))

At some point prior to the start of the series, Erica had a seizure in class that was so bad she accidentally urinated in her pants. The students around her were less than supportive. One was about to put a spoon in her mouth (which, contrary to popular belief, should not be used to prevent a seizing person from swallowing their tongue) until they saw the tag on her key ring that warned not to do this due to the fact that it could cause her to break her teeth. Another recorded it on their cell phone with their camera and showed it to everyone, an act that humiliated Erica so severely that her self-esteem and confidence were completely destroyed, and she became a shy, quiet loner. (("Abomination")) In her early high school days, she apparently developed a crush on Stiles Stilinski, though she would not admit this to him until Season 2.

Throughout Teen Wolf

Season 2

In Ice Pick, Erica was in gym class with Scott McCall, Stiles Stilinski, and Allison Argent. It was rock-climbing day led by Coach Finstock, and Erica was paired up against Stiles in climbing up the rock wall. However, Erica, who was already anxious to begin with, only got about half way up before she froze in fear and started to hyperventilate. When Coach believed that Erica was "freaking out," Allison reminded him that Erica is epileptic, which exasperated him before he helped her lower herself down, much to her embarrassment.

After the class ended and everyone left to change back into their normal clothes, Erica, desperate to prove herself capable of climbing the wall, starts to make her way up without a safety harness. Halfway up, Erica got an aura and pleaded with her body to stop before she began to have a seizure, and in a miraculous case of empathy, Scott, who was changing out of his gym clothes, rushed out and caught her before she fell off the wall onto the gym floor. Erica is then taken to Beacon Hills Memorial Hospital's emergency room, where she was assessed by Melissa McCall, who reminded her that she needed to keep taking her anti-seizure medications.

A little while later, Derek Hale appeared and wheeled her gurney into the morgue so he could speak with her privately. He listed all of the side-effects of her anti-seizure medications and remarked on how terrible they sounded before making her an offer that would mean she would never experience them again. Desperate to be free of her epilepsy and the social issues they caused, Erica immediately consented to the Bite and successfully transformed into a Beta Werewolf. The next day, Erica returned to school with a drastically changed style and personality, now feeling confident about her appearance and the power she gained from lycanthropy. She walked out of the school cafeteria, with Scott and Stiles following her outside and watching her get into Derek's Camaro, with both Werewolves smiling dangerously at the two.

The next day, she was approached by Scott in the hall, where he demanded to know who Derek planned on turning next, since he knew Derek needed at least three Betas to make up a fully-powered pack and that at this point, he only had Isaac Lahey and Erica. Erica responded that they wouldn't need to turn a third Beta if Scott would join them, but when Scott made it clear that he had no intention of doing so, Erica changed the subject. She went on to tell him about the time that she had a seizure in the middle of class; she claimed to have never remembered her seizures before that point, but that since one of her classmates recorded it on their phone, including when she unintentionally urinated in her pants, she was unable to forget because everyone made fun of her for it.

After school, she followed Stiles to Boyd's house after Allison, Scott and Stiles learned that he was Derek's final choice for a third Beta. She first attempted to distract him by seductively flirting with him, failing to get him to compliment her new appearance before she took a car part that she had stolen from Stiles' Jeep and beat him over the head with it and tossing him into a nearby dumpster. She then joined Derek, Isaac, and Boyd at the ice rink where Boyd worked, with the entire pack facing off against Scott when he attempted to talk Boyd out of accepting the Bite. While Scott successfully defeated Erica and Isaac, Derek dominated him easily due to his Alpha powers, and Boyd revealed that he had already been turned by Derek.

In Abomination, after losing to Scott in a two-vs-one situation, Derek is training Erica and Isaac. Derek repeatedly slams both of them, and then suggest that they try something that isn't so predictable, hearing this, Erica jumps on Derek and passionately kisses him. Derek throws her off and tells her to never do that again because he wants Erica to go for Scott. That night during the game, Erica catches Stiles in the principal's office and she takes him to Derek. They demand to know what Stiles saw at the mechanic shop, as he's explaining it, the creature shows up and knocks Erica into the wall, rendering her unconscious.
After the creature leaves, everyone meets up outside and Derek tells them that the creature is called a "Kanima," he says its dangerous and because of this they have to kill it.

In Venomous, Erica is sent by Derek to retrieve Jackson, they suspect him of being The Kanima. Erica finds him in the locker room and she takes him back to the hideout and holds him down as Derek tests him but he ends up not being the Kanima. While at school, she and Isaac discuss how they're going to handle the Kanima situation, they plan on testing Lydia Martin in Chemistry class. They're doing an experiment which requires them to rotate partners, Erica starts with Scott, he asks her to hold off on whatever it is they plan on doing, Erica leans in on him and realizes something, she tells Scott they she smells Allison all over him, even though they pretended to break up. She begins to flirt with him, saying that she'd be "wanting him all the time," implying she's attracted to him, but Scott turns her down. Before it can go any further, the bell is rung and they have to switch partners. Erica is paired with Allison next.

She begins to mess with Allison's emotions, telling her that she and Scott would never last, Allison attempts to get back at her but Erica then puts her claws on Allison's leg, teasing with the concept of a girl fight in the lab and that it would be "hot." She, Isaac and Derek soon discover that Lydia passed the test and therefore, must be the Kanima, she and Isaac searches the school for her but then they learn that she's been taken to Scott's house. Erica enters Scott's room, she and Allison get into another confrontation, Allison shoots an arrow at Erica but she catches it; however, its covered in Kanima venom, which paralyzes Erica. She is then thrown out of Scott's house.

In Restraint, Derek tells her and Isaac to get closer to Scott and Stiles because they may need their help in stopping the Kanima. At school, Erica hears Stiles asking Lydia about Jackson's parents, they're buried in Beacon Hills Cemetary, she soon realizes that Jackson must be The Kanima. Stiles tries to stop her from going after Jackson because there's more to it, he tells her that just because she has the alpha bite makeover, that doesn't mean she can go around destroying people but Erica believes that's exactly what it means. She informs Stiles that she use to have a crush on him but he never noticed even once then they see water coming out the locker room, moments later, Scott and Jackson comes out, Erica holds Jackson back as Mr. Harris approaches, he gives all of them detention in the library. As Harris exits the library for a moment, Scott and Stiles approach Erica, wondering how Jackson's parents died, she tells them it was a car accident, she knows this because her father was the insurance investigator, she goes on to tell them that Jackson will get a huge settlement when he turns eighteen.

Then she and Stiles begin reading the report from her laptop. After learning a little more about Jackson, he begins to shift and leap across the library, Erica shifts and roars but she is is soon paralyzed by Jackson. The venom has caused her to have a seizure. They take her to Derek, he breaks her arm and triggers the healing process, this works and Erica begins to get better.

In Raving, she and Isaac have been task with the job to drug Jackson at the rave. They find him in the club and Erica begins dancing and rubbing against Jackson as a distraction, so that Isaac can inject him with ketamine. However, Jackson catches on and stabs her and Isaac with his claws, thus paralyzing them both. They manage to pull themselves up and subdue Jackson, they take him into an empty room, Stiles joins them. After The Kanima manages to escape the room, Erica and Isaac meet Derek outside but they can't cross due to the Mountain Ash barrier.

In Party Guessed, its the night of the full moon. Derek tells them that this time of power doesn't come without consequences, such as the urge to rip apart anything in sight. To this, Erica say that it's a good thing she had her period last week, Derek pulls out a headband with spikes embedded within, Erica is the one who'll have to wear that. As the full moon approaches, she along with her other pack-mates, Isaac and Boyd are being chained up inside the subway car. Isaac asks why Erica get to wear the headband with spikes, and Derek replies that she'll be able to withstand more pain than Boyd and Isaac, she is held in place as Derek screws the headband on. Erica begins to shift, she's becomes angry and eventually breaks free of her chains along with Boyd and they attack Derek. He knocks Erica to the ground and eventually manages to chain her back up.

In Battlefield, she and Boyd are walking through the woods, she reminds Boyd that Derek said they need to be back by sun rise. They stop because they hear a howl, moments later they hear several howls. They soon arrive at the Hale House, they tell Derek that they're running away, they'll do it when everyone is at the game, Erica tells Derek that she just turned sixteen and she would like to get her driver's license. Derek tells them they'll need a pack to survive and they explain that they may have already found one, Erica tells Derek about the howling they heard in the woods. Derek explains to them, the "Beau Geste effect", its when one wolf can modulate its howls to sound like dozens more, but Erica and Boyd doesn't care and they leave anyways. It is later revealed that the howling was actually being done by The Argents, they used a microphone and a recording.

Erica and Boyd are being chased through Beacon Hills Preserve by the hunters on ATV's. As they run, Erica is shot in the leg with an arrow by Allison, she defiantly stares at Allison as she readies another arrow, but Boyd jumps in front of Erica, catching it and Allison shoots him as well. She continues to fire arrows into Boyd even when Erica begs Allison to stop, but she doesn't.

In Master Plan, Erica and Boyd are tied to the ceiling of the Argent House with their mouths taped over, they're in the basement, and not much longer, Stiles is thrown into the basement. Stiles tries to take the wires from around Erica's wrist but it shocks him and her. Chris Argent enters the basement and tells them that his family has been hunting fora very long time, they've learned that certain level of electric current can keep werewolves from transforming, another level prevents them from healing, and at another level can reduce their strength to that of a human. He further explains that the lines between natural and supernatural start to blur, and that sometimes you can be surprised by which side of the line you end up on. Chris goes towards the electrical switch, as if he's going to turn it up, but he actually turns it down. Later, she and Boyd are seen running through the woods, they stop to catch their breaths, and they suddenly find themselves surrounded by a pack of werewolves.

Season 3

In Tattoo, it is revealed that Erica and Boyd have been missing for four months, and that they had been captured by the Alpha Pack.

In Chaos Rising, While under hypnosis, packmate Isaac Lahey tells Derek, Scott, Stiles and Deaton that Erica is dead. Erica's dead body is later discovered in a storage room closet. Allison found it when hiding from The Alpha Pack, after breaking into the bank.

In Fireflies, Derek is at the bank, he is seen holding her body, with a look of distraught.

In Currents, Boyd's flashback shows him and Erica in the bank vault. She asks Boyd what does he think will happen during the lunar eclipse, Erica says that she hopes it'll make them stronger. She then stands up and as her eyes begin to glow gold, she attacks Kali, but, unfortunately, she was quickly killed during the confrontation.

Personality

“	In a word... Transformative.	”
	— Erica describing her life after the Bite in Ice Pick

Before the Bite, Erica was shy, quiet, and awkward, often too afraid of being humiliated like she was during one of her seizures to be outgoing and try to make friends ever again. However, after she received the Bite from Derek Hale and became a Werewolf, she became much more attractive, which gave her the confidence she needed to finally love herself for who she was. She began to dress in more revealing and trendy clothing and was much more flirtatious around boys that she liked than she was before.

In general, she was a very headstrong girl who was no longer afraid of going after what she wanted. Though she was initially enthusiastic about joining the newly-rebuilt Hale Pack, she realized that her life was in danger in Beacon Hills, and was not afraid to tell Derek that she and Vernon Boyd wanted to run away from home to find a new pack elsewhere, showing Erica's survivor spirit. She was also quite cunning and intelligent, as she was easily able to manipulate Allison Argent's emotions to achieve her own ends, and she was able to hack into her father's insurance records to get information on how Jackson Whittemore's parents died so the Beacon Hills Werewolves could figure out what made him become the Kanima. Even after being a hostage of the Alpha Pack for four months, Erica decided it was worth fighting (and ultimately dying) in a fight against Kali for her freedom (along with the freedom of fellow hostages Boyd and Cora Hale), demonstrating just how brave and selfless she could be.

Physical Appearance

“	"You have beautiful eyes..." "I have beautiful everything."	”
	— Stiles Stilinski and 'Erica discussing Erica's improvements' in Ice Pick

Erica was a gorgeous, tall, lean, and shapely young woman with pale white skin, light blonde hair, and large brown eyes. Before the Bite, she was prone to wearing simple, plain-colored t-shirts and jeans, but afterward, her increased sense of beauty and confidence caused her to prefer trendier, more form-fitting clothing, such as skinny jeans, combat boots, sexy corset tops in bright colors, and a black leather jacket to flaunt her body to everyone. She also wore lots of black eyeliner and bright red lipstick for a bold and sexy look.

Powers

Erica possessed the standard powers of a Beta-level Werewolf, including:

Super Strength: As a Werewolf, Erica possessed superhuman strength to the point where she was able to throw fully-grown men across a room, rip out components of a car engine with her bare hands, hold her own in a battle with the untransformed Jackson Whittemore, and break through the fortified chains and spiked head restraints that Derek Hale used on her to lock her up during the full moon. However, since she was only a Beta, she was still inferior in strength to people of higher rank, such as her then-Alpha Derek, the Kanima, and the Alpha Pack.
Super Speed: As a Werewolf, Erica possessed superhuman speed to the point where she could easily outrun even the most athletic human athlete. She was even able to outrun an ATV going at full speed for some time. She was able to run on two legs or lope on all fours like a real wolf at this speed.
Super Agility/Reflexes: As a Werewolf, Erica possessed superhuman agility, which also extended to her reflexes as well. This allowed her to jump up to very tall heights and across large distances, jump down from tall heights while landing lightly on her feet, perform gymnastic and acrobatic feats, easily dodge oncoming attacks and smaller projectiles such as bullets, and catch larger projectiles such as arrows out of the air before they can hit her.
Super Durability: As a Werewolf, Erica was much more durable to blunt-force trauma than a normal human, allowing her to fall from tall heights or be thrown onto the floor or into thick walls while sustaining minor injuries at most.
Super Senses: As a Werewolf, Erica's senses of sight, smell, and hearing were heightened to superhuman levels exceeding that of even her wolf counterparts. With her enhanced senses, she could see perfectly in the darkness and across long distances, track scents up to several miles (assuming they haven't been suppressed, washed away by rain, or covered up by chemicals or other harsher scents) and interpret the chemosignals in these scents that denote identity or emotional state, and can hear even whispered conversations from many meters away. These senses gave Erica an advantage in battle, because she could hear and smell oncoming threats from far away and analyze what she was seeing much more quickly than a normal human.
Accelerated Healing: As a Werewolf, Erica could heal wounds much more quickly than a normal human; mild to moderate wounds such as cuts, puncture wounds, and broken limbs could heal within moments to minutes, whereas more serious wounds such as broken spines and punctured vital organs could heal within one to several hours. The Bite also cleared up her acne and cured her of her epilepsy, as well as making her immune to all other human illnesses and conditions. Likewise, she could no longer become drunk on alcohol or high on recreational drugs because her body healed the damage that caused the intoxicated feeling too quickly. The only known substances that could hamper Erica's healing ability are wolfsbane (which weakens all canine shapeshifters) and Kanima venom, which caused Erica's epilepsy to temporarily relapse.
- Longevity: Due to her accelerated healing ability, which caused her body to replace aging and dying cells at a constant rate, Erica would have maintained her youth for much longer than a human and would have enjoyed an extended lifespan had she survived her captivity with the Alpha Pack.
Shapeshifting: As a Beta Werewolf, Erica possessed the ability to shapeshift her features into those of a wolf. This caused her to develop a ridged brow, thick sideburns, and glowing gold eyes, and also caused her teeth and her fingernails to extend into fangs. She also had the ability to selectively transform single features, such as causing her eyes to glow to enhance her eyesight or identify her supernatural identity, or extending her claws to cut something or to help her in a fight. Shapeshifting has been said to enhance all Werewolf powers, including (and especially) their healing ability, their heightened senses, and their animal instincts.
Pain Absorption: As a Werewolf, Erica possessed the ability to take pain from living beings though tactile contact, though she was not shown using this ability. To do this, Erica would have needed to touch the person or animal she intended to heal with her hands and then summon their pain into herself, which would manifest as darkened veins traveling up the hands and arms toward the chest, neck, and face.
Animal Instincts: As a Werewolf, Erica possessed the instincts of her wolf counterparts, giving her insight into how they behave in the wild, such as seeking out a pack, hunting, fighting, and fleeing from danger. Since wolves are apex predators, this also allowed her to assert her dominance over "lesser" creatures such as dogs, cats, and deer.

Abilities

Seduction: Due to Erica's increased self-confidence after receiving the Bite and becoming more physically powerful, she began to embrace her attractiveness and used it to tease those who were attracted to her and/or manipulate them into doing what she wanted. This came in handy for Erica many times with her fellow students, but some of the characters, namely Stiles Stilinski, Scott McCall, and Derek Hale were able to at least somewhat resist her charms; Stiles had the least amount of luck resisting due to his attraction toward her, but since Scott had a girlfriend and Derek intended to hook her up with Scott to get him away from the Argents, they were less susceptible to her attempts of seduction.
Pain Tolerance: Erica was shown to possess a very strong pain tolerance, due in part to her female nature as well as her history of illness. As a result of this pain tolerance, Derek chose her to wear a spiked headband to restrain her during her first full moon, as he knew that Erica had a much stronger pain tolerance than Isaac Lahey or Vernon Boyd.

Weaknesses

Erica possessed the standard weaknesses of a Werewolf, including wolfsbane, mountain ash, letharia vulpina, the modified canine distemper virus, electricity, and ultrasonic/subsonic noises. As a Werewolf, she was also vulnerable to the effects of heightened emotions, full moons, and supermoons, as they had the potential to cause her to involuntarily transform under the right circumstances. Additionally, like all Werewolves, Erica was vulnerable to lunar eclipses due to the fact that the peak hours of the eclipse causes lycanthropes to lose their powers while the moon is in the Earth's umbral shadow.

On one occasion, exposure to Kanima venom caused Erica's accelerated healing ability to be temporarily suppressed, which caused her to have a seizure for the first time since she was turned into a Werewolf. However, Derek was able to re-trigger her healing ability by breaking her arm.

Etymology

Erica: Erica is the feminine form of the masculine given name Eric, which originates from the Old Norse name Eiríkr, derived from the elements ei, meaning "ever, always" or "one, some" and rikr, meaning "ruler;" combined, these elements form the meaning "eternal ruler," "one ruler," or "ever powerful." This is an interesting choice in a given name for the character Erica, given the similar meaning of her surname. A notable bearer of the name was Eiríkr inn Rauda ("Eric the Red" in English), a 10th century navigator and explorer who discovered Greenland. The names Eric and Erica were brought to England by Danish settlers during the Anglo-Saxon period and were revived in popularity in the 19th century. Variants of the name in other languages include: Erika (Croatian, Czech, Danish, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Norwegian, Slovene); Eerika (Finnish); Érica (Portuguese, Spanish).
Reyes: Reyes is a Spanish word that is typically used as a given name or surname in Spanish-speaking countries. The name is derived from the Latin word regis, meaning "royal;" while the literal translation of Reyes is "kings," it can also be translated as "royals" or "royalty" like the Latin word from which it originates. The Portuguese variant of this name is Reis. This meaning combined with the meaning of Erica Reyes' given name reflects a powerful person with great potential for leadership.

Trivia

Erica reported that right before she would have a seizure, she would experience what she called an "aura," or a sudden metallic taste in her mouth that tasted like blood, which then acted as a warning that she was about to start seizing.
Erica was the third of five people who were bitten and turned into Werewolves by Derek Hale during his brief tenure as an Alpha. The first two were Jackson Whittemore and Isaac Lahey, and the two that followed her were Vernon Boyd and Victoria Argent.
The reason Erica was killed off in Season 3 was because the actress that played her, Gage Golightly, left the show to appear in a pilot for a new series. However, though the pilot was not picked up to be extended into a series, she still decided to not return to Teen Wolf in a recurring role. Despite this, she did return briefly to film a final cameo, which appeared in the form of a flashback in the Season 3 episode Currents.
Erica shares similarities with My Babysitter's a Vampire's character Erica Jones. Despite sharing the same name, they were both unpopular until undergoing a supernatural metamorphasis. However, Erica Jones transformed into a vampire instead of a werewolf.