The Wanderer

The Wanderer is a powerful and evil Fae that used henchmen to find Bo and have her abducted.

Character arc

Tamsin, a Dark Fae bounty hunter and mercenary Valkyrie, was employed by a powerful client to locate Bo and bring her to him. He paid her a bounty to find a woman with:

"Eyes both brown and blue. Virtuous, yet lustful. Neither Dark nor Light, yet both." (Groundhog Fae)

When Tamsin hesitated and stalled in fulfilling her contract, her Valkyrie mentor, Acacia, intervened. She told Tamsin that there would be dire consequences for failing to accomplish what they were hired to do as he, the unidentified client, had scores of followers and subordinates.

Rune Glass

Acacia gave Tamsin a Rune Glass with instructions to collect and deposit in it specific items that would be used to put a "whammy" on Bo. Combined with other ingredients in the vial, a serum would be created that would render Bo subject to capture:

"One hair from someone she loves. Two from someone she trusts. And three from her own head."

Tamsin grabbed one eyelash from Lauren's cheek, took two hairs from Dyson's comb, and yanked several strands of hair from the back of Bo's head (Delinquents).

When Bo first walked through the entrance of The Temple during The Dawning rite of passage, she found herself inside a replica of The Dal and the song "The Wanderer"  began to play on its sound system (The Ceremony).

When Bo found herself in the middle of a coven of human witches a powerful entity intervened, possessed one of them, spoke to Bo through her, and told her that her power was beyond her own comprehension, and that soon the two of them would rule together. When this unknown entity killed the two witches, the sky that had been darkened by the witches' invocation cleared and sunlight returned, and Bo was left in a momentary trance in which she saw a merry-go-round in the distance with "The Wanderer" tune playing as the horses went 'round and 'round (Adventures in Fae-bysitting).

In the finale episode of Season 3, Tamsin and Dyson are en route to The Dal and a figure appeared in the middle of the road with his back turned towards them. The song "The Wanderer"  then began to play on the car radio. (The allegation that he was Bo’s father was made by Tamsin at that moment, but it was not confirmed.) When she accelerated and sped into the figure in the road he turned into thick black smoke that engulfed the cabin of her vehicle and whisked the two of them away as it went over the edge of the road and crashed below (Those Who Wander).

The Wanderer card
Episode 3.08 "Fae-ge Against The Machine"

At the end of the episode, Bo enters The Dal looking for Kenzi and Trick when suddenly the song "The Wanderer" begins to play and when she challenged whoever was haunting her, explosions started destroying the interior of the tavern; then black smoke began to swirl around Bo, trapping her within it, and spiriting her away — leaving behind a tarot card on the floor that fell from above displaying the figure of The Wanderer with Bo next to him, both seen only from behind.

Bo appears in card
Episode 3.13 "Those Who Wander"

Afterwards in Destiny’s Child, Hugin, a Crow, revealed to Bo that he and his brother, Munin, had been hired by The Wanderer to collect her and transport her to the Death Train. They were the ones who caused explosions inside The Dal and used magical black smoke to capture her at end of Those Who Wander.

Bo awoke to find herself inside a bedroom caboose of an old fashion, steam-powered moving train (Sleeping Beauty School). She had been in it for one month, awaking after the memory of Bo was restored in those who loved her and knew her (In Memoriam).

In Let the Dark Times Roll, Vex described The Wanderer as, "That’s a tall tale me mommy used to tell me to scare me from fiddlin’ with myself in public." He equated stories about The Wanderer to stories about the Bogeyman.

In Destiny’s Child, Bo believes that she was taken to the Death Train by The Wanderer but could not remember who he was or what had happened when she was with him. Later, she concludes that Rainer was The Wanderer and that he was neither her enemy, nor her father.

Rainer was a rebel general killed in battle who had defied The Blood King and his Blood Laws. The Blood King struck a bargain with Tamsin, the Valkyrie that came to take Rainer to Valhalla: he changed her future and gave her an extra life in exchange for Rainer's soul. The Blood King then erased Rainer's existence from Fae history, and cursed his soul to spend eternity on the Death Train as punishment (Destiny’s Child).

The assumption had been made that Rainer was The Wanderer residing on the train; but in Waves, Rainer told Bo that he had not had her captured and transported to the train. In End of a Line, when the image of Rainer's face appeared in a blank page of a book at The Clubhouse, Tamsin asked who it was and Bo told her it was the face of Rainer, the one who had hired her (Tamsin) to find her (Bo), and Tamsin told Bo that the face was not of "her boss" — which meant, therefore, that Rainer was not, after all, The Wanderer.

The Wanderer in the Book of Fae History
Episode 4.12 "Origin"

In Origin — while searching for information about Rainer in a history book from the Dark Fae archives — Lauren found the image of The Wanderer. She read the prophecy to Bo and showed her the image, and though it bore a resemblance to Rainer, Bo refused to heed Lauren's warning about her involvement with him.

Hugin described The Wanderer as his "decaying former employer" (Destiny’s Child). Crows travel between the living world and the afterlife, which indicates that wherever he is, The Wanderer is decomposing in an underworld.

Although the man that Tamsin described as a "beast" is suggested to be the figure that appears on a tarot card (Fae-ge Against The Machine), and standing on a road seen only from his back (Those Who Wander), the true identity of The Wanderer remained a mystery (at the end of Season 4).

Personality

He can teleport individuals between realms of existence by having his Crows capture them with magical black smoke.

He can transform himself, or his image, into smoke.

Relationships

Potentially Bo's father.

Trivia

• The appearance of a "Wanderer" tarot card (more commonly known as "The Fool" or "The Jester") might "also be a warning that significant change is coming."

• The design of "The Wanderer" tarot card is based on the painting Wanderer above the Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich.

• In Norse Mythology, the god Odin, is said to take the form of an old wanderer when visiting the world of men. Odin is the ruler of the valkyries, and uses two ravens, Huginn and Muninn, to scout the world and report their findings to him.

* Zee claimed to have been worshiped as Odin by the Vikings (End of Faes).

• The identity of The Wanderer was confused with that of Rainer because the latter was also referred to as a "wanderer" for being cursed to ride the Death Train infinitely.

Appearances

• 3.08 Fae-ge Against The Machine (figure appears on a Tarot card)
• 3.09 The Ceremony (mentioned in song)
• 3.13 Those Who Wander (seen from behind) + (figure appears on Tarot card with Bo)
• 4.04 Turn to Stone (mentioned only)
• 4.02 Sleeping Beauty School (mentioned only)
• 4.05 Let the Dark Times Roll (mentioned only)
• 4.06 Of All the Gin Joints (mentioned only)
• 4.07 La Fae Époque (mentioned only)
• 4.08 Groundhog Fae (mentioned only)
• 4.09 Destiny’s Child (alleged to be Rainer)
• 4.10 Waves (mentioned) + (Wanderer card is seen)
• 4.11 End of a Line (Wanderer card is seen)
• 4.12 Origin (mentioned) + (Wanderer card is seen)
• 4.13 Dark Horse (mentioned only)
• 5.01 Like Hell Pt.1 (mentioned only)
• 5.13 Family Portrait (mentioned only)