Episode list

Seattle police detective John Kanin's (Lou Diamond Phillips) search for his vanished girlfriend, Ruby Cates (Mia Kirshner), brings him to the small Pacific Northwest town of Wolf Lake. There he becomes embroiled in a local power struggle and discovers that something a force ancient and mystical exerts an irresitible control over the people of the town.

Kanin (Lou Diamond Phillips) learns that an affliction known as "the Changing" kills a surprising number of teenagers in Wolf Lake every year, and confers tremendous status and privilege on those who survive it. But when he tries to figure out exactly what the Changing is, he runs afoul of the townspeople and incurs the wrath of Sheriff Donner (Tim Matheson).

An accident involving a tanker truck exposes one of Tyler Creed's (Scott Bairstow) schemes to Sheriff Donner (Tim Matheson), sparking a violent confrontation. Meanwhile, Sherman Blackstone (Graham Greene) has a strange way of helping John Kanin (Lou Diamond Phillips) find his missing girlfriend: He gives the already flu-sick detective a bowl of chicken soup laced with a powerful hallucinogen

A local woman's serial-killing spree puts the entire town on edge, while the collapse of Willard Cates (Bruce McGill) due to health problems ignites a struggle in the wolfen community to determine who will be the pack's next Alpha Male.

A rapist from within the town's wolfen community tries to hide behind the human justice system, because among the wolves the penalty for rape is instant death. Meanwhile, Ruby (Mia Kirshner) is told by her father, the pack's Alpha Male, that if she doesn't agree to marry Tyler Creed, (Scott Bairstow) her true love John Kanin (Lou Diamond Phillips) will be killed.

Willard Cates (Bruce McGill), the town's Alpha Male, is murdered, intensifying the clandestine struggle to determine who will be the next leader of the pack

Told in flashback, Mr. Blackstone tries to explain what happened at the election of a new successor that ended with a series of mysterious deaths.

Ruby (Mia Kirshner) searches for a way out of her forced marriage to Tyler Creed (Scott Bairstow), while a disfigured and haunting young woman named Lenore takes John Kanin (Lou Diamond Phillips) hostage in the cabin he has rented from Sherman Blackstone (Graham Greene).

A self-styled monster-hunter rescues Ruby (Mia Kirshner), in her wolfen form, from poachers. But he's not acting out of altruism: He plans to videotape her transformation back into human form and release it on the Internet. Elsewhere in the town, Sophia Donner (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is on the brink of the Changing, which will either kill her or empower her. Meanwhile, Sheriff Donnner (Tim Matheson)clashes with John Kanin (Lou Diamond Phillips), who discovers a vital clue to Ruby's whereabouts and to the identity of the person responsible for her sudden disappearance from his life months earlier.