Wolfblood

- Season 1

(2012)

Schoolgirl Maddy Smith is a wolfblood, daughter of parents who turn into wolves (not werewolves) at full moon, which will be her destiny when she is older. Her friend Shannon has taken photos which she believes to be proof of unusual creatures in the area. Surly new pupil Rhydian Morris arrives at Maddy's school. He has super-human strength when taunted and, angered, involuntarily changes into a wolf. Maddy decides she must protect him, not just for his own sake but to stop him exposing her family's secret and claims he is a distant cousin come to visit.

Maddy is disturbed when her friends Shannon and Tom post copies of photos with evidence of wolfbloods around the school so Rhydian steals Shannon's original memory card. He is, however, sympathetic when Shannon explains how years ago she saw a wolfblood and has been trying to find more evidence ever since. Maddy's parents invite Rhydian to dinner and explain that not all wolfbloods are harmless, some crave human prey. Aware that Shannon and Tom are in the woods at night on their quest to find their 'beast', Maddy and Rhydian go after them. Rhydian, unknown to anybody ...

The school organizes an exhibition in which pupils show photographs of themselves with their families but Rhydian, who has none, feels left out. When the exhibition is vandalized he is the immediate suspect but Maddy gives him an alibi whilst suspecting the true culprit was Tom, angry that his father did not come to see his work. However Rhydian uses his special powers as a wolfblood to detect that the real vandal was Jimmy, a boy who has constantly taunted him and who is consequently excluded.

With a week of exams ahead and the snide Jimmy returning to drive a wedge between her and Tom, Maddy is frightened as she discovers that she is about to undergo her first transformation. This occurs in a stressful Maths exam though Rhydian causes a diversion by hitting the fire alarm, for which he gets detention. Later Shannon is involved in a fire at the science lab and, whilst she is rescued by Tom and Rhydian, she is convinced that she saw Maddy, who also tried to save her, partially transform into a wolfblood.

The class are on the island of Lindisfarne for a school trip and Shannon continues to tell Tom her suspicions that there is something odd about Maddy and Rhydian. When Rhydian falls and hurts himself the party is forced to stay in a hotel but there is a full moon and it will be Maddy's first transformation so she and Rhydian flee the hotel after dark to hide in the lime kilns. Shannon drags Tom after her having heard wolves howl but Tom believes that there is actually a ghost dog, of which they were told. Shannon hopes to catch them out but Maddy and Rhydian are back ...

Exhilarated by her first transformation Maddy changes her image, dyes her hair, puts on black lipstick and shows she can street dance, attracting the attention of class hunk Dean Samuels. Kay, one of three mean girls who see Maddy and her friends as geeks, asks Maddy to her party knowing that it will attract Dean but tricks Maddy by giving her the wrong venue. When Rhydian phones Maddy to tell her she arrives in an angry mood, out-dances Kay and shows her up when Kay tries to humiliate her. Realising that she had been used she storms out with Shannon, Tom and Rhydian,...

It's the day of the dark moon and Maddy and Rhydian have lost all their wolfblood powers. Shannon thinks she can prove Maddy is the beast.

Shannon invites Maddy, Tom and Rhydian for a sleep-over whilst her parents are away but, unsurprisingly, announces that she wants them to go out to hunt for the beast. Maddy has a cold and is given a tablet but it contains wolfsbane and she is in danger of transforming. Rhydian takes charge and locks them both in the bathroom, incurring the jealousy of Tom, who sees Rhydian as his rival for Maddy. Maddy escapes and the others, looking for the beast, catch up with her but by this time she has changed back to her normal self and manages to avoid detection again.

Rhydian finds a box of stolen designer clothes in the woods and starts selling them around the school. Maddy urges him to stop but after he is blackmailed by his customers into one more journey to the woods he is arrested and held in a cell. With his actual foster parents away visiting it is down to Maddy's parents to impersonate them and get Rhydian out of the cell before the moon rises.

Walking home from school Rhydian is approached by Ceri, a wild-looking woman who says she is his mother. She accuses him of having gone soft following his integration into human life and wants him to go away with her and join her pack, espousing a more savage life-style. Rhydian is tempted but after he is made to feel special by his schoolmates following his showing on the football field he knows where his real loyalties lie.

Rhydian shows Maddy how to use Eolas, an enhanced wolf sense taught him by his mother which gives greater sensory powers. Her mother Emma is appalled whilst Dan, her father, admits he once used Eolas and the parents argue about Maddy. As a result she runs away, convinced that she can get by on her own with Eolas. However when she reaches a town she is almost deafened by the loud noises induced by Eolas and threatened by a girl gang so that she is very grateful when her parents and Rhydian rescue her and learns the folly of her arrogance.

On the same night that Maddy and Rhydian rashly decide to transform in the woods Kyle Weathers, a self-proclaimed 'beast hunter' who has read Shannon's blog arrives in town and gets her and Tom to show him the woods where the Wolfbloods run, eventually caging the pair. Seeing that they are only wolves, not monsters, and that Kyle has used her and plans to sell them to a zoo, Shannon, helped by Tom and Weathers' ambitious assistant Jo, who is happy to turn the tables on him, release the Wolfbloods. Shannon and Tom have saved the lives of Maddy and Rhydian but they ...

A ragged small boy, Bryn, approaches Rhydian in the wood, claiming to be his brother Bryn and asking him to return to Ceri and the pack though Rhydian is reluctant. At the same time Shannon, anxious for evidence of wolves so that they can be protected, uses a chemical wolf bait to attract them. Maddy rushes to warn Rhydian, leading to a showdown between her and Ceri which exposes the Wolfbloods' secret and angers Shannon, to think that her best friend never told her the truth about herself. However, after sad farewells have been made, Shannon realises the importance ...