Gabriel Valack

Template:TW Character

“	Theo was a first step in the right direction for the Dread Doctors. Think of who they are... Parascientists who have prolonged their lives and twisted the laws of Nature in pursuit of one goal-- the creation of the perfect killer. And now they've done it.	”
	— Valack to Lydia Martin in The Last Chimera

Dr. Gabriel Valack, more commonly known as Valack, was a supporting character in Season 4 and Season 5 of Teen Wolf. He made his first appearance in A Promise to the Dead as a patient in Eichen House's supernatural ward who had performed trephination on his own head to expose his third eye, giving himself a powerful form of extrasensory perception. This allowed him to see events as they happened in the past, present, and future, even if he wasn't physically present at the time and place where the event occurred. He also had the ability to share these visions with others, as he did to Alan Deaton when he asked to know if Derek Hale was dying from Kate Argent's Age Regression spell, though this typically causes those he shares these visions with to go into a coma. He was killed in Lie Ability when Lydia Martin's enhanced Banshee wail shattered his skull while he was experimenting on her.

Early Life

Little of Valack's early life is known. What has been revealed about him is that, at some point in his life, he had a career as a well-respected physician. It was during this period of time that he apparently had an encounter (or possibly an extended history) with the Dread Doctors; this interaction with them disturbed him so greatly that he wrote a novel titled The Dread Doctors, which was meant to act as a tool to help those whose memories had been suppressed or modified by the Doctors to recover the aforementioned memories in the form of flashback-hallucinations. His intention in writing this book was that was that someone who had been experimented on or had their memories tampered with by the Doctors would read the book, which would cause their lost memories to resurface enough to lead them to Valack to learn more about it. (("A Novel Approach")), (("Required Reading")) However, only one copy of the book was ever printed, which was the one that fell into the hands of Tracy Stewart in autumn of 2012. After Tracy's death, the book was subsequently found in her bedroom by Malia Tate, who read it and then passed it on to the McCall Pack to read as well. (("Dreamcatchers")), (("Condition Terminal"))

During Valack's career as Chief Medical Officer of Eichen House, Valack became enamored by the supernatural and began to perform his own experiments on those in the facility's supernatural ward by using the ancient practice of trephination, or drilling a hole into a patient's skull. According to Alan Deaton, Valack performed trephination on every supernatural creature he came upon, including Werewolves, Banshees, and Wendigos, among many others. These experiments initially amplified the powers of these supernatural victims, but the intensity of these enhanced supernatural abilities eventually grew so great that it would ultimately kill them. This was particularly true of Banshees, whose enhanced powers would cause them to hear the screams of every dying person on earth until they finally foresaw their own deaths, leading them to ultimately wail so loudly for themselves that their screams killed them. (("Amplification"))

It is unknown when he decided to perform trephination on himself, or if someone else, such as the Dread Doctors, did it for him, but it can be assumed that it was the powers he gained from the procedure (extrasensory perception and the ability to create powerful illusions in the minds of those who looked into his third eye) that eventually led him to be imprisoned in Eichen House's supernatural ward himself. (("A Promise to the Dead"))

Throughout Teen Wolf

<tabber> |-|Season 4=

In A Promise to the Dead, Valack made his first appearance in the series when Alan Deaton visited Eichen House to ask Valack about South American mythology. However, Valack already knew that what Deaton really wanted to know was about La Loba, or the Bone Woman, the monikers given to Kate Argent as a result of her transformation into a Werejaguar. Deaton asked him if what Kate did to Derek Hale was permanent and if he would die because of it, which piqued Valack's interest and led Deaton to confess that he had made a promise to the woman he loved to protect her son. Valack insisted that in order for Deaton to get the information he needed, he was going to have to show him what he saw with his powers of illusion, though Deaton was reluctant to look into his third eye due to what he knew about Valack's reputation. Despite this, Deaton still ended up making visual contact with Valack's third eye, and this put him into a coma that allowed him to learn that Scott McCall would soon be turned into a Berserker by Kate. Had it not been for Lydia Martin, who Banshee-screamed him awake, Deaton could have possibly remained in this coma indefinitely. In Smoke and Mirrors Valack was seen again when Peter Hale, sedated by yellow wolfsbane after his failed attempt to kill Scott McCall, was brought to Eichen House's supernatural ward to be Valack's roommate. Valack explained to him that they were locked in the facility with large amounts of Mountain Ash before revealing his third eye to Peter. Whatever Valack caused Peter to see caused him so much fear that he was last seen screaming for help, and Peter has yet to be seen since, suggesting that he may have been put into a coma like Valack's other victims.

|-|Season 5A=

In A Novel Approach, Scott McCall, Kira Yukimura, Stiles Stilinski and Lydia Martin went to the Eichen House in order to question Valack about the Dread Doctors, though Stiles and Lydia were the only ones who could go into his room due to all the Mountain Ash. During the interrogation, Valack implied that he had a history with the Doctors, which was then confirmed when they later appeared at Eichen House. According to Valack, the Doctors were parascientists who worshiped the supernatural and who used electromagnetic forces to bestow upon themselves several supernatural powers, including the ability to extend their lifespans, the ability to manipulate electromagnetic fields, and the ability to manipulate and suppress the memories of those upon whom he experimented. He then urged them to read his book, The Dread Doctors, which he wrote specifically to help trigger the memories of the Dread Doctors in those whose minds had been manipulated. However, in return for his help, Valack demanded that Lydia record her Banshee scream for him on a small audio recorder, which she reluctantly did despite Stiles' protests. After the pack fled the facility upon the arrival of the Dread Doctors, the Doctors went into Valack's room and used an instrument to suck out his third eye, presumably stripping him of his extrasensory perception. However, he was able to escape his cell at Eichen House using the audio recording of Lydia's Banshee wail with a styrofoam cup, giving it enough focus and direction to break the glass of his cell. Since this point, Valack then apparently began working as a physician at Eichen House again by using a yet-undefined illusion casting ability to glamour himself and allowing him to take on the appearance of Dr. Conrad Fenris. Once Lydia was admitted to Eichen House after Theo Raeken forcibly used the Werewolf memory-manipulation ritual on her and caused her to become catatonic, she was put under Valack's care. When Lydia proved unable to remember what happened to her pack in the aftermath of Theo and the Dread Doctors' attacks, Valack performed trephination on Lydia by drilling a hole into her skull behind her ear, which amplified her Banshee abilities and gave her extrasensory perception as well, presumably at least in part to make up for the fact that he had lost some of his own abilities-- according to Lydia, Valack wanted her to "be his eyes." During flashforwards in The Last Chimera and present-day scenes in Amplification and Lie Ability, Valack took advantage of Lydia's enhanced powers to figure out why the Dread Doctors chose Theo Raeken as their first Chimera, and tried his best to protect her after Theo and his Chimera Pack arrived at Eichen to capture her, as Valack knew how important of a role Lydia would play in the upcoming battle and believed neither the Dread Doctors nor Theo had made that connection yet. However, it was revealed that in the end, Valack was willing to sacrifice Lydia's life if it meant finally learning the identity of the last Chimera, who had been engineered by the Dread Doctors to hold the spirit of the Beast of Gevaudan. Unfortunately for Valack, Lydia became so consumed by her powers (and by the fear of hurting her loved ones) that she screamed her most powerful Banshee Scream to date, which was so forceful that it blew off half Valack's skull and killed him before he could use his mysterious Dread Doctor mask on her to learn the Beast's Chimera identity.

Personality

Thus far, Valack proved to be a very enigmatic character whose true motivations and personality have yet to be completely revealed. However, it appears that he at least somewhat wanted to help the McCall Pack fight against the Dread Doctors, though his actions to achieve this (such as drilling into Lydia Martin's skull to amplify her Banshee abilities) were, at best, morally gray. Despite his dislike for the Dread Doctors, many of his past and current actions and methods seemed to be quite similar to those used by the Doctors, such as his experimentation on supernatural creatures using trephination. When he still had his third eye, he was shown to be quite powerful, possessing the ability to both see into the past as well as to see current events, even when he wasn't physically present for them. He also possessed the ability to induce powerful illusions that can cause his victims to become comatose, which he retained in a weaker and more limited form after losing his third eye.

He seemed to get some joy out of causing terrifying illusion-induced comas on his victims, as the Eichen House employees had strict instructions not to allow Valack to have visitors for this reason, though exceptions were made on special occasions for people like Alan Deaton, who understood the supernatural better than anyone. Like Peter Hale, Valack seemed to always be looking out for himself and the goals he intended to accomplish, and rarely offered his assistance to others without getting something else in return, as evidenced in A Novel Approach, when he refused to share information about the Dread Doctors with Lydia and Stiles unless Lydia recorded her Banshee-wail on his audio recorder. Valack also appeared to constantly seek knowledge and information, and was keen to make sure he paid attention to the details he would learn in conversation just in case they would work in his favor later on. He was also unbothered by the idea of collateral damage with regards to his goals, and was more than willing to sacrifice the lives of others for what he believed was the "greater good," such as when he killed Nurse Cross, and was also willing to kill Lydia if it meant learning the identity of the Beast.

Physical Appearance

Dr. Valack was a middle-aged man of medium stature who had ruddy white skin, graying light brown hair, and blue eyes. At one point, he had a hole drilled in the middle of his forehead to expose his third eye, but since the eye was stolen by the Dread Doctors in A Novel Approach, his craniotomy appeared to have healed, although this may just be part of his glamour. When Valack was first introduced, he was seen wearing the usual neutral-colored t-shirts, sweatsuits, and lounge pants that are characteristic of the patients at Eichen House. However, since his escape, he has been using his abilities of illusion to masquerade as Dr. Conrad Fenris, and as a result, has started dressing like him in khaki slacks, white button-up shirts, and neutral-toned sweater vests.

Powers and Abilities

Valack's abilities remain undefined at this time, and it is still unknown if Valack lost at least part of his powers after having his third eye taken by the Dread Doctors. However, the power he has been shown to use consistently is his power of illusion, to make others see and believe things that aren't actually there. He has used this ability to put Alan Deaton in a coma (which allowed him to learn that Kate Argent was going to turn Scott McCall into a Berserker in A Promise to the Dead), and to glamour himself to take the appearance of others, such as when he made himself look like Aiden to manipulate Lydia so she would stop fighting and trying to escape, and taking the form of Dr. Conrad Fenris to manipulate Natalie Martin into admitting Lydia into Eichen House. It is also possible that he possessed some form of mind control as well, as he seemed to have used supernatural means to help force Natalie into believing that Eichen House was different from when Lorraine Martin was there and that Lydia would be safe in their care.

In the past, he has demonstrated the ability to see events that have happened, were currently happening, or were about to happen, even without being physically present. This was evidenced when he revealed that he had seen Scott McCall, Stiles Stilinski, and Allison Argent reawaken the Nemeton with their surrogate sacrifice ritual in Alpha Pact, or when he saw that Deaton would come to him to learn more about Kate Argent in A Promise to the Dead. He also has an expansive knowledge of the supernatural, the Dread Doctors, and Chimeras, and, in some ways, helped the Beacon Hills supernatural community in some ways by providing them with information.

Weaknesses

• Mortality: Despite Valack having supernatural powers, he is still technically a human, and thus is just as prone to illness, injury, and death as any ordinary person would be.

Equipment

• Medical Drill: Valack used this drill to perform trephination on dozens of patients while working as Chief Medical Officer at Eichen House.
• Dread Doctor Mask: Originally created by The Surgeon, this mask harnesses electromagnetic forces and allows the wearer to see things no one else can see by honing in on specific frequencies. However, this helmet will most likely kill anyone who wears it who does not possess the ability to manipulate electromagnetic forces (like the Dread Doctors themselves and one of their Chimeras, Josh Diaz, who could safely wear the mask), according to Valack and Deucalion.

Etymology

• Gabriel: Gabriel is a masculine given name that originates from the Hebrew name גַבְרִיאֵל (Gavri'el), meaning "God is my strong man." Gabriel was one of the seven archangels in Hebrew tradition who appears in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, where he announced the births of John the Baptist to Zacharias and Jesus Christ to Mary. According to Islamic tradition, Gabriel was the angel who dictated the Qur'an to Muhammad. Though it was occasionally given as a name in English beginning in the 12th century, it didn't become popular in the English-speaking world until the end of the 20th century. Variants of the name in other languages include: Jabril, Jibril (Arabic); Gavri'el (Biblical Hebrew); Gavrail, Gavril (Bulgarian, Macedonian); Dzhabrail (Chechen); Gabrijel (Croatian); Gabriël (Dutch); Gavriil (Greek, Russian); Gavriel (Hebrew); Gábor, Gábriel, Gabi (Hungarian); Gabriele (Italian); Gabriels (Latvian); Gabrielius (Lithuanian); Gavrilo (Serbian); Cebrail (Turkish); Havryil (Ukrainian); Gavrel (Yiddish).
• Valack: Valack appears to be a made-up surname that doesn't seem to have any known etymology.

Trivia

• Dr. Valack is one of the most mysterious characters on the series, as he has appeared in two different seasons without any real indication of whether he is a "good guy" or a "villain," though it is most likely that he is somewhere in the middle.
• Of all of the members of the McCall Pack, Valack seems most intrigued by Lydia Martin, possibly because she has been described as an exceptionally powerful Banshee.
• Valack seems to have an intriguing history with the Dread Doctors, and it was also revealed that he had a bronze-colored mask that looks suspiciously like the ones the Dread Doctors wear in Amplification. He tested out this mask (which he claimed he hadn't used in years) by putting it on Nurse Cross' head, and it seemed to suffocate her somehow, though the exact effects of the helmet on her remain unclear as of now.
• Though Peter Hale was revealed to be his roommate at Eichen House in Smoke and Mirrors, Peter did not appear with him at all in Season 5, which suggests that his absence may be related to Valack somehow. Valack even quoted Peter when talking to Stiles and Lydia in A Novel Approach by saying, "We're all works in progress," which Lydia recognized as a phrase commonly spoken by Peter.
  • It's possible that Peter has been put in the sixth floor of Eichen House, where all of the victims of Valack's illusions who have been put in comas are admitted.
• In an ironic twist, Valack told Schrader that Lydia could "shatter his skull with her voice if someone decided to teach her how" after Schrader referred to Lydia as a "pretty little thing," only for Valack's own skull to be shattered by Lydia's scream after Meredith Walker taught her how to do it in The Sword and the Spirit.