So Teen Wolf is finally back and the first episode didn’t wait at all before jumping right into the middle of everything. Literally. The episode starts in the middle of a conflict. It opens with Isaac horrifically injured and being helped out by a previously unseen female character. The two are being chased by twin Alpha werewolves, and through some very dangerous maneuvers on a motorbike and some high voltage weaponry, the girl helps Isaac manages to take down both Alphas. The twins have a weird ability to merge into one super-powered werewolf, kind of like a chimera hybrid abomination. It was the strangest part of the episode—not including all the abnormal animal behavior, such as bad CGI deer running straight into Lydia’s car, crows suicide-bombing the school, and cats mutilating themselves to death.
And I thought this CGI was bad. The deer this episode is soooo much worse.
Oh, and did I mention that the girl helping Isaac escape the Alpha twins is badass. And PoC. I think she might be called Cora, who Wikipedia describes as: “a 17-year-old girl with ties to the Beacon Hills werewolves”. But I can’t find a picture of the actress for comparison. I hope she’s Cora, meaning that she’ll be sticking around for a while—but unfortunately, she seems to have had a very definitive death at the end of this episode, so maybe not.
Oh, yeah, spoiler alert.
To start off, Scott and Allison are still pining for each other, meaning that being in close proximity to one another causes them emotional distress. However, Allison’s probably still getting over her mother’s death from last season, so I’ll let it slide. Jackson has moved away to London—but don’t worry, Lydia mentions offhandedly that Derek taught him how to not kill people on the full moon. It’s only that thing that all the other new werewolves had problems with for the entirety of the previous two seasons, but the actor left the show, so there’s not much that can be done for that. However, as Lady Saika just pointed out to me, the “‘American werewolf in London’ is a coy reference to another corny Eighties werewolf movie”. I’m not sure how I feel about that. Somehow, it almost makes it worse. I spent all last season with Jackson, only to get a one-liner about an Eighties movie.
Oddly enough, though, most of the melodrama this episode does not come from relationships. Tyler Posey, Scott’s actor, got a tattoo recently, and it was written into the show. Scott gets two black bands on his upper left arm. Unfortunately, his werewolf powers heal over them, upsetting Scott, as he really wanted to have a tattoo. Furthermore, Derek has a tattoo, so Scott knows it has to be possible. Derek fixes Scott’s problem by taking a blowtorch to Scott’s arm, the heat from which reveals the marks. So… in order for Scott to get a tattoo, Derek had to set him on fire?
Nice!
…Maybe, I think. No, not really. That was just annoying angst.
What I can say that I like about the tattoo is that the show gives it meaning to Scott’s character. It’s going to be an unchanging mark on him, despite all the chaos that’s going on in town. Teen Wolf even delves into the history of tattoos and what they meant to Samoa and Tahiti people. Essentially, it just means getting a mark. Big shocker.
According to Wikipedia, that is not the sole origin of tattoos. It started in a bunch of places. Also, because it has non-Caucasian origins, it so totally has to have a deeper meaning, because that’s what non-Caucasian things are when in tattoo format: deep and meaningful. Scott might as well have just gotten Chinese characters going across his bicep for all the more significant “it’s an unchanging mark” is.
Anyway, the external conflict comes about from Isaac being in the hospital after the Alpha werewolf attacks. Melissa, Scott’s mom, is trying to help him, and there’s going to be problems when Isaac’s taken in for surgery and the doctors notice his rapidly healing werewolf wounds. One of the Alpha werewolves—the woman of the group, Kali—disguises herself as a nurse and takes Isaac to surgery where… nothing happens. The surgeon just thinks that there was a mistake, since Isaac looks perfectly healthy at that point. Following that, Kali siphons Isaac’s unconscious and drugged body off to another Alpha from her pack. But before they can make off with him, both Scott and Derek come to the rescue.
The Alphas seem to be interested in getting Isaac out of the way, because he interfered with something that we don’t know about yet. Isaac doesn’t know what it is either. Werewolves have been shown to be able to give people memories when biting them, but they apparently also have the ability to steal memories. So whatever happened right before the episode started, we know nothing about.
Overall, I think it was a good start to the season. I have to say, though, that the music is way too loud. It becomes difficult to hear the characters over it, and it was probably my biggest grievance with the whole episode. Other than that, I guess I’ll just have to see how the rest of the season turns out.
Still not worried, though.
Lady Geek Girl and Friends 