Matt Daehler is the secondary antagonist in the second season of Teen Wolf and was the first master of the Kanima.
He was portrayed by Stephen Lunsford.
Biography[]
Matt was a student at Beacon Hills High, a photographer and was also on the lacrose team. When he was 9 years old, he came over at Isaac Lahey's house to trade comics. Isaac's abusive father was the coach of the Beacon Hills swim team and had taken them over to drink out of celebration for them winning, despite them being only 17. When Matt arrived, Isaac's brother Camden threw him into the pool and Matt drowned due to not being able to swim. Isaac's father jumped in and revived him, but also berated the young boy and threatened him to never tell anyone. Matt never did and at nights he would wake up gasping for breath-leading his parents into believeing he was an asthmatic.
When Matt turned 17, he began having an obsession with Allison Argent. He started photographing her at her aunt's funeral, and Lahey had got in one of his shots. Matt felt an unbelievable rage for his near-drowning years earlier and wished that Lahey was dead. The following morning he found out Lahey was dead. In "Shape-Shifted", he lends Jackson a night-vision camera for Jackson to record his expected full moon transformation. He'd spied on Jackson using his camera and witnessed his transformation into the Kanima. He and the Kanima touched hands seemingly by instinct. Through a supernatural bond that formed between the two of them he saw that Jackson had killed Lahey for him and Matt became Master of the Kanima. He used the Kanima to murder all members of the swim team who were involved in the incident, except for Jessica whom he killed directly.
He notices a strange flash in each of his photo shots of Scott McCall (caused by Scott's uncontrolled werewolf eyes which were triggered by the flash of his camera). In "Restraint", he steals a translated portion of the bestiary depicting the Kanima from Allison's tablet. He takes Allison out on a date to a warehouse party in "Raving", unaware that Allison was only using him to throw her parents off her back about staying away from Scott, where he kisses her, but Allison finds out he's a stalker upon finding his many inappropriate photos of her. In "Party Guessed", she confronts him about his photos, but when his behavior annoys her, she judo-flips him.
Later on, he is thrown into the pool, which causes him to go into a panic, raising Scott and Stiles' suspicions seeing as to how the kanima is afraid of water, and especially since Jackson helps him out of the pool. He is seen, by Scott, with Jackson in his Kanima state revealing Matt's the Kanima's Master.
In 2006, nine-year-old Matt had gone to Isaac Lahey's house to trade superhero comic books with him. The swim team of Beacon Hills High at that time were having a pool party at the house and drinking alcohol to celebrate their winning the state championship. Matt was thrown into the pool by Camden, Isaac's older brother, despite yelling that he can't swim, resulting in him almost drowning. He was resucitated by Coach Lahey who berates him about not knowing how to swim and demands he tell no one what happened. Matt obliged keeping the incident secret, causing himself trauma and having irregular nightmares where he's drowning.
In "Fury", at the Sheriff's station, Matt has Jackson murder all the deputies on night shift, destroys all the evidence linking him to the murders and takes Scott, Stiles, Derek, Stilinski and Melissa hostage. He reveals he knows all about the supernatural events occurring and demands Scott hand over the bestiary. He needed answers as to why he was beginning to transform into the Kanima, but Derek silently realized Matt had broken the rules of the Kanima. The Master is to use the Kanima to kill murderers, while Matt had him kill innocent people and he had killed Jessica Bartlet directly. The hunters attack the building and in the struggle between the Argents, Jackson, and Scott and Derek, Matt escapes but Gerard kills him by drowning him, using this opportunity to become the Kanima's new Master.
