Teen Wolf Review-Creatures of the Night and Parasomnia
I was so excited to hear that Teen Wolf was back, and the first two episodes were a great start to the season. I especially enjoyed how they structured the premiere, beginning the episode from Lydia’s perspective in Eichen House, which made no sense until the end of the episode, which demonstrated that these Eichen House scenes are a flashforward. I personally think that was a pretty exciting way to start off this season, particularly with showing us snapshots of what has already happened to the rest of the characters-to Stiles, Scott, Malia, Kira, Liam, Parrish, Sheriff Stilinski and Mama McCall.
I definitely thought it was a clever way to introduce this season and increase the tension and sense of doom right from the beginning, without giving too much away. I was also very pleased to see Lydia’s kickass banshee skills and powers, and hopefully this is not the last time we see them. I want to see Lydia grow into her powers. And the second episode did a good job of introducing some of the evil that we’ll see go against the McCall pack this season.
It was so hard to see the way that Lydia was being treated in this episode during the flashforward scenes at the beginning and end, and so it was great to see her escape and kicking ass, even if it was only for a short while. Her catatonia was pretty heartbreaking, for as convinced as the lady was that Lydia was simply playing with her, to me at least it seemed like something horrible had happened to Lydia, and I was so confused as to where the rest of the pack was that they were allowing her to be kept locked up like this. But somehow she broke out of her trance, and escaped Black Widow style which was totally awesome, and she was so close. But then she starts to hallucinate Aiden, and that’s when things go south and she gets captured to be locked up again. And that’s when Lydia says, “Please, I have to tell them. They’re going to die. My friends. They’re all going to die.”
Throughout the rest of the episode, I was so concerned about why the rest of the characters seemed to not care about where Lydia was, and then that they didn’t seem to know she was in Eichen House. But we were being played by the writers, as we found out at the end of the episode. Lydia’s being interrogated by the doctor about what happened to her friends just after senior year started, and we see glimpses which don’t look too good. It’s going to be a rocky and angsty season, that’s for sure!
One of my favourite relationship dynamics on Teen Wolf right now is the friendship between Scott, Stiles and Liam, which appears to be very much like Scott and Stiles parenting Liam. Scott is the caring, loving one, whereas Stiles is more of the tough love persuasion, and so the contrast during their interactions is always a highlight, and often hilarious. Whilst Stiles worries about his vision for the post-highschool future for their group and tries to figure it out with Scott, they have Liam tied up because of what happened during the last full moon. What I love about Scott and Stiles is that even though Scott is the Alpha, Stiles works alongside him to help Liam learn to control his powers. It makes sense, after all it was Stiles who figured out what happened to Scott in the very beginning, and these two do make a great team. And Scott really does make a great Alpha, the way he looks out for Liam and is constantly reassuring him.
I don’t believe it’s any coincidence what Mrs Yukimura tells Kira, about the Wild Hunt, made up of ghosts collecting souls. It seems more like foreshadowing of what’s to come this season, and the creature we see attacking Scott on behalf of the creepy doctors. That story has got to have some connection to the current storyline. But it’s interrupted by the beautiful Scira reunion, which was lovely.
At the same time, Parrish is telling Mama McCall and Sheriff Stilinski about the beast that escaped and is after Scott. I can’t wait to find out what he really is. Listening in to the conversation, Liam runs off to find Scott. It’s totally adorable how much he cares for Scott and wants to protect his Alpha, which is why the fight between them that we see in the flashforward scene is particularly worrying. What happened for them to get to that place?
But of course, one of the best things to have come out of Teen Wolf, is the diverse McCall Pack, and their very first scene back together is the fight against the mysterious creature who Parrish unwittingly released. With Kira, Scott attempts to hold his attacker off, and they both get some good hits in, but are ultimately unsuccessful. Kira is so badass whipping out her sword belt and really battling the creature, but I was disappointed that we didn’t get to see any of her kitsune powers which definitely would’ve evened the field a bit. Why do the writers insist on only showing us her sword skills?
Liam shows up to warn them and gets in on the fight, and even new guy Theo (who is Mike Montgomery on PLL!) shows up, but fails to be of any real use in the fight, as the creature seems to have Scott right where he wants him, and is taking his powers. But it’s not as easy as it seems, and Scott fights back as the True Alpha that he is. The rest of the pack (except Lydia) have showed up by this point, and it’s a pretty great sight, to see the whole range of powers that make up the McCall pack. Theo tells Scott that he came back to Beacon Hills because he wants to be a part of the pack, but honestly, it’s pretty suspicious, and that’s the line of thought that Stiles is following.
Then they go on to Senior Scribe and Lydia is safe and sound, which is confusing at first, until you watch the final moments of the episode, and it all falls into place. I personally love this scene the most, because it’s really quite emotional, and a reminder that the pack will be splitting up once this year is over, to go to different colleges, even though Stiles is dedicated to keeping them as close together as possible. It’s also a great reminder of some old friends, and we see Derek’s initials as Stiles goes to write his. Malia decides to go with Tate, and I’m so proud of her for that. Hale may be her biological family, but it’s not her real family. And when Scott goes to write his name, he includes Alison’s as well. It’s a pretty heartbreaking moment, but it’s so significant, because even though she’s gone, the others will never forget her. And as Lydia remarks, she’s still with them. That’s what it means to them.
I really enjoyed the way they introduced this part of the mythology for the season, through Tracy’s perspective and getting to explore her as a character a little first, rather than just throwing another creature at the pack. Poor Tracy, she’s been through a lot and it’s not going to get any better for her. Tracy isn’t just being plagued by monsters, she is one of them, and considering the amount of screen time this character had during the episode, I hope that we get to see more of her as we begin to dicover what exactly is going on this time in Beacon Hills and who is after Scott. It will be interesting to find out if Theo is working with these doctors.
I guess I really understand Stiles’ perspective because I believe we’re similar in several ways. I certainly don’t have a great deal of trust in anyone, and have paranoia and anxiety a mile high, so I completely understand where he’s coming from. But what’s the most significant part of the confrontation between Scott and Stiles about trust is that this contrast in responses is why they make such a great team when it comes to all the supernatural stuff going on. Because if Stiles trusted everyone like Scott, they probably would be dead several times over from the villains in the different seasons. Stiles has a great gut instinct, and it’s saved them many times. But at the same time, without Scott’s trust in people and willingness to give second chances, there wouldn’t be a pack, they wouldn’t be friends with the other characters, or have been able to save so many people. Scott’s trust plus Stiles’ suspicions makes for a great balance. And I’m glad that Stiles didn’t believe that sob story Theo tried to use to convince Scott, because in the end, we find out that Stiles was right about the signatures.
I also love that Liam went with him when he was ‘stalking’ Theo, because I enjoy their interactions a lot, and it makes sense that Liam would do this, because we’ve seen he has a strong instinct to protect Scott. So the idea that Scott’s best friend doesn’t trust the new guy probably sets off a few alarm bells. I adore Stiles and Liam working together, and can’t wait for more scenes of them. Maybe we can get them teaming up again to dig up some more dirt about Theo? And I do love that Stiles’ dad changes his mind about Stiles’ wild accusations, that maybe there is some merit in them. I can’t wait for Theo to slip up and for Stiles to be there and see it all.
I’m so glad that Stiles was pushing Liam into telling Mason the truth about being a werewolf, especially after Mason continues to pursue the truth and finding out what happened. If he doesn’t find out the truth soon, then he’d probably get into some trouble when he goes searching for it. Also, it’s better for their friendship and for Liam’s sake. We’ve seen that the other characters have been able to get through difficulties with the help of each other, and without that support base, it might not be possible. I also want Mason to discover the truth because I think it would be great for him to be in more episodes, and I’d love to see him interact with the pack more and find out about their powers. He’s one of the few people I trust on Teen Wolf, apart from the main characters, and they really could do with some more people to trust and help out occasionally.
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