Peter Howland

Peter James Howland also known as Howl is a resident of Whitetail who lives in a cottage in the Whitetail National Forest. He is reclusive and lives with no electricity or running water, making contact with the other Whitetail residents only when necessary.

Early Life and Family
Peter Howland was born in 1948, presumably in Boston, MA. He was the only son of Degory and Bitsy Howland. He had two older sisters, Charity and Mercy Howland, who were born six years before him and who died three months before his birth.

He attended boarding school at some point in his childhood, but it is unknown where or for how long.

According to Peter's younger cousin, Sandra it was "hard to say" if there was ever love in his family. The loss of Charity and Mercy had a great impact on Bitsy Howland, who was, because of this, likely not emotionally present for much of Peter's childhood. Sandra states that "all I remember of my aunt was that she cried. And she drank." Degory Howland was physically abusive and it is implied that Peter retaliated against this abuse, resulting in frequent fighting that led his aunt to jokingly refer to the family home as 'Madison Square Garden'. In episode four, Sandra recalls a specific incident in which, after taking the blame for her when she had broken a plaster cast of Charity and Mercy's handprints, Peter was beaten badly by Degory. This incident would have taken place in the summer of 1961, when Peter was thirteen.

Helion
Peter Howland's family owned and operated the weapons manufacturing company Helion, which brought them considerable wealth throughout his childhood. This was also the source of many disagreements between him and his father-- Peter often disagreeing with the ways the family profited off of war.

When he was nineteen, Peter had the idea to expand the company by developing rocket fuel. A new chemical plant was opened for this purpose, which Peter was placed in charge of. Though the plan was to develop fuel for rockets, this did not bring in as much profit as manufacturing weapons did, and so his father Degory had the plant shift towards making better weapons.

At one point, the chemical plant was storing Ammonium Perchlorate-- a very dangerous chemical-- in large quantities and in cheap drums. Peter noticed the weaknesses in these drums and predicted that cracks in these drums would lead to them essentially turning into bombs. He mentioned this to his younger cousin Sandra, who encouraged him to tell one of their fathers. Peter told no one about the cracks in the drums, which resulted in an explosion at the plant in 1966. Peter's father and seven other people were killed in the explosion and Helion ended up having to pay millions in settlements. The chemical plant was closed down immediately, and it was after this that Peter left home to enlist in the marines.

Military Service and Overseas Travel
Peter Howland enlisted in the Marines in 1967 after causing an explosion at the Helion chemical plant. After enlisting, he was sent to Vietnam where he "found out the truth about the world", as he tells Brett in episode two. Little else is known about his time in the Marines.

After his service, he went to Pakistan and began working as a laborer across the Middle East and Africa. It is unknown for how long he was travelling before he met photojournalist Gerda Pulnik in Cairo, Egypt. The exact year that Peter and Gerda met is unknown, though it is estimated to be somewhere around 1969. The two developed a romantic relationship and he travelled with her for a number of years as she photographed warzones across the world. It is known that they were in Israel in 1969, Sudan in 1971, Algeria in 1973, and Antigua in 1988.

In February 1988, Peter wrote to his younger cousin Sandra, informing her that he'd fallen in love and asking her to keep his inheritance safe and to use it if she needed.

It is unknown when, but at some point after this, Peter left Gerda for reasons that stemmed from his mental health struggles and his belief that he did not deserve "something so pure". It is unknown where he was in between his time with Gerda and his time living in Whitetail, Minnesota.

Whitetail, Minnesota
In 2001, Peter Howland inherited land in Whitetail, Minnesota from ex-girlfriend Gerda Pulnik, who died in a bombing in Israel. The land he inherited consisted of 190 acres near the Southwest edge of the Whitetail National Forest and included a cottage. When he moved in, he kept the cottage disconnected from the electrical grid and avoided interaction with the other residents as much as possible. In episode one he states that he lived on this land for thirteen years on and off, though as of the events of the show in 2017, he seems to be living there year-round.

In April of 2015, Peter discovered the body of eighteen year old Jacob Wells, whom the town had been searching for for days, on the edge of his property and called the police to report this. The following summer, on one of his regular visits to the grocery store, he was approached by Jacob's sister Peregrine Wells, an employee at the store who felt bad that he had to make the walk from his house to the store and offered to deliver groceries to him. Peregrine delivered groceries to his cottage monthly and began to make conversation with him. After a few months, she asked him to teach her survival skills. He agreed and began teaching her, at which point she began visiting him more regularly. By Spring of 2016, she was visiting him every Saturday morning. That summer, when he needed repairs done on his roof, Peregrine recruited four of her classmates-- John Francis Van Calcar, Lexy DeKoenig, Eric Miller, and Woodsley O'Connor-- to help. The other four then began learning from and training with Peter alongside Peregrine. Sometime during this time, he was given the nickname "Howl", presumably by one of the teens.

Peregrine had the idea for a survival challenge in which Howl would lead the teens into the woods, separate them, and ensure that they get lost. The goal of this challenge, referred to as The Final, was for the teens to make it out of the woods alive. The Final was planned for Spring 2017, but ended up actually occurring the weekend of February 13, 2017.

In December of 2017, Howl faced legal threats from Donald Van Calcar-- father of John Francis Van Calcar and uncle of Peregrine and Jacob Wells-- who blamed him for an injury his son sustained while training for The Final and believed that he was at fault for Jacob's death. Donald claimed that Howl knew Jacob was alive and neglected to tell the authorities, citing a call rumored to have been made to the sheriff's department before the discovery of Jacob's body in which a man with a "low, gravelly voice" asked about a reward for finding Jacob alive and was told that there was none. It is unclear whether or not Howl made this phone call or even if it was ever actually made. In spite of Donald's threats of taking legal action and of most of their parents expressing disapproval, most of the teens still planned to partake in The Final and Howl was still willing to help them. Donald Van Calcar stopped pursuing legal action after his son promised not to participate.

On February 13, 2017, Howl led Peregrine, Eric, and Woodsley into the woods. All four of them split up several miles in and the plan was for them to stay the night in the woods and make their way back in the morning. That night a snow storm hit, greatly endangering the Final participants and reducing their chances of finding their way home. Whitetail citizens sent out a search party for the teens participating in the Final, but forgot to consider that Howl may not be equipped to survive the storm. When the teens went to see Howl at his cottage after returning home safely, they found it empty. Peregrine considered trying to send another search party, but she knew that by then it would be too late. Howl's body is never found, though he is eventually presumed dead.

After Howl's death, his land was returned to Gerda's next living kin, Brett Ryback. Sometime after The Final, during Peregrine's freshman year of college, Brett visits her and informs her that while looking through some of Howl's things left in the cottage, he finds a photo of Howl and Gerda that is torn in half, the half with Howl remaining and the half with Gerda missing. On the back of the remaining half, Howl had written "Peregrine-- you can't change what happened." This implies that Howl may have intentionally disappeared during The Final, and so it is unclear whether or not he is actually dead. Brett speculates that he may have left Whitetail for the same reason he left Gerda-- he couldn't handle and did not think he was worthy of something good in his life.

Peregrine Wells
Howl was first approached by Peregrine in the summer of 2015, after he discovered the dead body of her brother Jacob in the woods near his property. Peregrine was working as a cashier at the grocery store he was shopping at and was drawn to him due to his connection to her brother. She felt bad that he had to walk into town to get his groceries and offered to deliver them to him. She delivered groceries to him monthly, making small talk as she did. After a few months, she asked him to teach her survival skills. He agreed and began teaching her, at which point she began visiting him more regularly. By Spring of 2016, she was visiting him every Saturday morning. It is implied that in this time they grew very close, with Peregrine's mother Kathy noting how happy her visits with Howl seemed to make her and how much she seemed to admire him.

In the summer of 2016, when he needed repairs done on his roof, Peregrine and four of her friends volunteered to help. These friends then began joining Peregrine in learning survival skills from Howl. Peregrine eventually had the idea for the survival challenge known as "The Final", in which Howl would lead her and the other teens into the woods the next summer, getting them lost overnight so that they may prove their ability to find their way home the next day. Howl agreed to this and was, according to Peregrine, "excited" to help with The Final. After the parents of Peregrine and her friends were informed about The Final, Peregrine's mother forbid her from going to visit Howl or planning for The Final. Howl also faced a lot of backlash from the people of the town, as well as media attention due to rumors of his intentions with the teens and his involvement in Jacob Wells's death.

In January of 2017, recently after Peregrine had convinced her mother to change her mind about The Final, Howl once again walked into town to go grocery shopping and ran into Peregrine when she was at work. According to Peregrine, they "had a good talk."

Peregrine began planning for The Final again after this interaction, moving the date up to February 13 of that year. On the day that The Final occurred, Howl led Peregrine and two other teenagers into the woods. The three teens narrowly made it out, but Howl never returned from the woods and was presumed dead. It is revealed around a year after the events of The Final, that prior to his disappearance, Howl had left Peregrine a note on the back of a photograph reading "Peregrine-- you can't change what happened", implying that his disappearance (or possible death) was not accidental and that there is a chance he had survived. Brett, who had discovered the photograph, speculates that, because the picture on which the note is written was ripped in two, he may have taken the other half with him and he may want Peregrine to try to find it.