Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Teen Wolf: Season 2, Episode 8: Raving




Stiles is having a fun time at the police station with his dad, feeding him healthy vegetables (that’s torture Stiles! I heartily disapprove) and questioning him about the various cases. Stile’s dad can’t really keep the confidential information confidential because of the big board full of information on the wall behind him. Giving up keeping secrets, it turns out there’s one thing linking the three victims (Stiles’s mechanic, the pregnant woman and her husband) – they were all 24. And while Isaac’s father wasn’t, Isaac had an older brother who died in the military – and he would have been 24 had he lived. Stiles’s father goes from trying to keep the information from Stiles, to actively discussing the case with him (did I mention that Stiles makes this show?) Stiles points out that same age meant they went to the same class at school (then they have a gloriously little snark because Stiles’s dad didn’t spot this). Checking the class notes they find that they were all in the same class.

And one of the faces in the yearbook for that class? Is the woman selling tickets to an underground party (which Matt mentioned in passing last week). Which is where Matt is, along with Jackson acting even more odd than usual, and Scott, watching Jackson. Jackson doesn’t kill her, but it’s clearly an option for later

Meanwhile Allison and Daddy Argent (who likes to pretend he isn’t evil) are having a nice daddy-daughter day at the morgue, checking out the Kanima’s victims, while Daddy fills her in on all the stuff she already knows, the kanima, what it is, that it’s being controlled by a human. He launches into another hooray, go Argents speech, followed by questioning Allison about what she knows (that would be this matriarchal Argent society, y’see). He has the gall to suggest that her protecting her friends makes her responsible for the dead (as opposed tom her keeping secrets from her family because they’ve proven to be callous murderers? Can something please eat the Argents, now?)

Scott and Derek (and Isaac, yapping along behind them) go to see the still mysterious vet, Scott’s boss and guy who knows way more than he should, about saving Jackson (Derek still wants to kill him, I agree, but Derek concedes). There follows lots of debates about why the weregecko can’t kill a pregnant woman (because it can only kill murderers and the foetus isn’t a murderer? Because Jackson’s mother died while pregnant?) and they make the huge logical leap that since the weregecko is afraid of water and Jackson isn’t, then it must be a link to the controller (who must be afraid of water) and shows that what affects one affects the other. It’s not so much a leap of logic as a plummet of logic, as logic falls into the abyss screaming, but let’s go with it.

Mystery Vet (in case you forgot his name, like me, he’s Dr. Deaton) has some magical help to give Scott and Stiles – some ketamine to slow Jackson and some black, powdery ash that Stiles must use and ignite with his will (words cannot describe how awesome it would be if Stiles became a magic user in this series, hey I can hope). Apparently this stuff is a big supernatural ward and Dr. Deaton has used it before to keep rampaging werewolves at bay.


At school, Stiles and Scott are discussing getting tickets to the underground show, since Jackson wants in, and Stiles reveals more of his dislike for Matt, continued from last episode. Danny won’t give them his so Isaac resorts to beating someone or something to get them.

Allison and Scott catch each other up – Allison on what her family knows, and Scott on Allison’s mother (evil Mummy Argent) and her little display with the pencil sharpener. To help boost their charade, Scott suggests they be seen dating other people – to which Allison mentions she has technically agreed to see Matt. Scott doesn’t question this, with all the pencil sharpeners on his mind, and thinks it’s a great idea. Unfortunately, their little display is witnessed by Mummy Argent herself, who watches in… I don’t even know what that facial expression is supposed to be, I think someone has a taser pressed to her, it’s the only thing that could explain it.


Back at Matriarch Argent HQ, a large room full of men (seriously, even Mummy Argent isn’t there) are listening to their male leader give them orders (someone send them a dictionary!) Allison has spilled all, it seems and they know Jackson is the weregecko – and they plan to take him out at the underground party at Allison’s signal. Allison leaves, leaving the menfolk alone to make the real plans, it’s revealed they’re keeping Allison on a strict need-to-know basis and lying to her –she thinks they’re going to trap Jackson, being Argents, they actually intend to kill him.

And Stiles’s father has bad news – because Stiles has been in so much trouble and had a restraining order against him, Stiles’s dad has been sacked as police chief. Which is a very painful scene that’s really well acted. Poor Stiles.

It’s time for the rave – and the whole gang’s here: Scott, Stiles, Allison, Matt, Isaac, Erica et al. And this is when Allison and Scott both reveal they’re doing their Kanima catching plan right there. Scott’s jaw drops that Allison has decided to tell everything to the Argents, and reveal Jackson’s identity to the shape-shifter murderers that make up her nearest and dearest – and wants her to stay out the way so they can do what they want. At which point Allison’s back bone turns to jelly and she begs him to tell her how she can fix it, she will totally fix it allll. Uh-huh.

Inside, Erica and Isaac join Scott’s plan (and Isaac is a little stunned that Scott cares whether he lives or dies) and with Erica distracting Jackson by dancing with both him and Isaac, Isaac moves in with the ketamine tranquiliser. Nice plan – but it doesn’t work, Jackson claws Erica with his paralyser poison and says in a freaky echoing voice “he belongs to me”. Jackson then moves in on his target – but Isaac isn’t out for the count and leaps in behind him and injects the ketamine into his neck.

Outside the rave, the Argents, upholding their code, decide that Derek and Boyd aren’t allowed to be there and start shooting at them (see, any pretence they had of having any kind of moral code? It’s just gone now). Despite outnumbering them and being armed, Derek and Boyd knock them about like rag dolls (wow, not only immoral murderous hunters, but incompetent, immoral murderous hunters). Boyd takes a wolfbane bullet so has to go home early, alas.

And just in case we though there was any redeemable Argent, Mummy Argent also deliberately runs over Scott with her car, just because. With Scott unconscious, she restrains him and starts to poison him with wolfsbane gas. Yes, she’s murdering him for kissing her daughter. Did we mention that the Argents are evil?

Stiles is having more success, he circles the building with the ash, but doesn’t have enough. Drawing on Dr. Deaton’s advice that he needs to believe to make it so and inspired by a bumper sticker with a quote from Einstein “Imagination is more important than knowledge” (which, by the way, has been showing up a lot around the Kanima and also appears to be their chemistry teacher’s car, so he’s on scene as a major suspect for Kanima controller, assuming it isn’t granddaddy Argent) and ta-da, he has enough dust. Go Stiles.

He then gets to join Erica and Isaac questioning Jackson – who may be drugged but can still defend himself and is speaking with the freaky choral voice. He refers to himself as “us” and says everyone he killed deserved it – Weregecko of Great Justice! Everyone he killed is a murderer – they all murdered him. Then his eyes start to go all geckoy. Then he starts to shift – and Stiles leads Erica and Isaac in running away, just in time to see the gecko burst through the wall to find his victim and kill her.

At least Stiles’s powder works (and he’s cutely proud of it) – preventing Erica, Derek and Isaac from crossing it – and Grandaddy Argent notices it and avoids touching it (uh-huh, not suspicious at all). But Scott, slowly succumbing to wolfsbane while Mummy Argent declares that he’s an omega, alone, protests that he isn’t – and roars. Derek, his alpha, hears and rushes to the rescue.

Finish up with Sheriff Stelinski not recognising the victim from the list he and Stiles drew up (though we saw her in the yearbook – so same year, not same class?), Granddaddy Argent being quite pleased with events – and the guidance counsellor from the school, Ms. Morrel, goes to see Dr. Deaton – showing she knows everything and asking if he’s going to tell them what’s coming. Ooooooooooh, the plot thickens.

Oh, and when Derek rescued Scott from Mummy Argent? He bit her. Someone’s going to be turning furry, assuming the Argents don’t kill her first.


Ok, so Dr. Deaton is a Magical mentor advisor type. Hmmm, reminds me of a trope name, it does. And it doesn’t mix well with the very token POC inclusion we see on this show (Danny a passing reference again, Boyd getting so much less screen time than Isaac and Erica, the Argents only having POC in the background). Oh and one new POC character – who died. It’s not great.

You can probably already guess what I have to say about the Matriarchal Argents. And you’ve got to love how the men are (ineptly) facing the threat while Mummy Argent is worried about the boy deflowering her daughter.

Still it was a good episode – moved things along – I just hope Scott helps out Stiles and spills the big secret to his dad. Oh and Stiles becomes a wizard, because that would be cool. I’m also gleefully hopeful that Scott will join the pack as beta.