Teen Wolf, Season 4, Episode 1: The Dark of the Moon

Is it just me, or is this show back on the air awfully quickly? Season 3 only ended at the end of March. Not that I’m complaining, of course.

Stiles and Lydia are in Mexico (I think it’s Mexico – it looks very very stereotypically Mexico) apparently pursuing  a plan Lydia considers suicidal. They go to a party – a very crowded party – that requires a card with a skull on it to get in. They’re given free drinks but Lydia drops a bullet casing with the same skull carving into hers

It gets them into a meeting with Araya, the hunter who lurked around the edges of last season not doing an awful lot. Lydia and stiles think the hunters have kidnapped Derek and they’ve brought $50,000 for his released. She mocks the for coming alone – and out in the party we see Malia and Kira and Scott (Stiles dramatically says they brought and Alpha, personally I think Kira is more intimidating but they all get to do their shiny eye glow). Kira also fails at blending in and fails far far more at dancing. Malia helps by pulling her close which also adds some suggestiveness to their dancing.

It also goes on for way too damn long. C’mon Teen Wolf start of a new season, we need plot, not dancing.

So back to Araya who expositions on the Dark of the Moon being a time for grief and reflection (does this mean something or was it shoe horned in for the sake of a nifty title?), when Scott takes down one of the guard and Stiles removes $10,000 from their offer. Two goons attack Malia and Kira and they’re taken down very quickly. Scott takes out another (leaving an indent in the wall)

The hunters, the Calaveras, respond by gassing the whole place with wolfsbain, rendering Malia and Scott helpless. Araya mocks their inexperience but in the confrontation, Scott realises Araya also doesn’t know where Derek is. She tases him

Flashback! Scott tells Lydia and Stiles about Derek’s disappearance and that he found the Calaveras’ bullet casings in his loft. Using her banshee abilities, Lydia confirms he’s not dead – but she’s not sure if he’s alive. Which is helpful. Zombie wolf? Vampire Derek?

Back to the present to Scott waking up in a bathroom, locked in with Malia, Stiles and Kira and discovering that Araya has taken Lydia. Malia is bemused why they would find Lydia (she’s quite happy to say, as a coyote, she would have no problem leaving the weak or injured for dead – or cannibalism for that matter. Stiles points out this is actually progress with Malia.)

Araya’s all curious about banshee powers, mainly so she can be super duper creepy and then ask questions about Scott. Which means more tasing Scott and chaining him up and lots of electroshock in a rather convoluted fashion to make Scott tell them where Derek is. Yes, he doesn’t know so Araya keeps asking leading questions about shepshifters, people who could have been turned they didn’t know about – maybe not by a bite. The electroshocks trigger memory (Alpha memory?) and Scott remembers Kate Argent asking if she could be turned by a scratch – and yes, she was clawed.

Stiles tries to get Malia to concentrate on listening by staring into his eyes. She kisses him. This is understandable – why Stiles thought staring into his eyes would allow her to focus is beyond me

I have to say this is one of the most inefficient information retrieval systems ever. I mean, if you’d talked him through it and dispensed with the whole electroshock thing you probably would have reached the same answer.

Of course, being Alpha, Scott also breaks his chains before revealing Kate Argent. Quick flash to her where she has imprisoned Derek wrapped in vines.

Araya lets them go – she’d already sent 4 men to where she thought Kate had been seen. Yes, Araya ALREADY FREAKING KNEW ABOUT KATE! We had that whole scene just so Scott could remember for himself? She wants them to go see if they can do better than her missing Calaveras hunters. She adds that she will hunt Scott when he turns someone

She sends a guide with them, Braeden. On the drive, Scott and Stiles do a quick recap and exposition of who Kate Argent is. The Calaveras checked to make sure that Kate wasn’t changing since she died by the Alpha claws and checked the body. Seeing her growing claws they swapped the bodies and took her somewhere so Kate could commit suicide like a good hunter (not bothering to tell Chris Argent, apparently. Because REASONS) since the Calaveras are REALLY inflexible when it comes to the hunters code. Kate decided she wants to live and is happy for lots of Calaveras to die to make that happen. She’s also got glowy green eyes.

Blue is grief, yellow is normal werewolf, red is alpha. What’s green? As they know from the Kanima, just because you’re bitten by a werewolf doesn’t mean you become one. Car trouble means Scott and Braeden have to go off alone (After a reminder that Kira is Scott’s love interest)

The car trouble turns out to be a giant bone claw jammed into the engine.

From Dusk Till Dawn: Season 1, Episode 1

Beautiful creepy opening, a woman talks about “rising again” as we pan over a beautiful golden Aztec carving.

From which we cut to a woman running at night, during a storm, through a heavily forested, tropical place wearing very inappropriate clothes for doing so. She is chased by men in loin clothes until she runs into a man in an elaborate ceremonial costumes. I’m going to assume this is the past and these are Aztecs. He makes another reference to “dusk till dawn” because they’re really hammering the title and his two men drag the woman to a pit filled with snakes. They throw her in and she is bitten repeatedly – until one snake slithers into her open mouth and down her throat.

Cut to a more modern scene with two police (rangers apparently) in a car, the younger, Freddie, looking through crime scene photos of a series of dead women, all of which have had their eyes removed and at least one has had their eye placed in a wound  in the palm of her hand. Nasty. I think the Freddie has invited the older man, Earl to a Christening but it could just as easily be an excuse to explain how holy water works (which I’m sure will be relevant later, given the givens).

They stop at a shop in the middle of nowhere where they’re regulars for Earl to buy some booze and to ask after the Gecko brothers who just robbed a bank, killing a lot of police and taking a bank teller hostage. A bank robbery? How very retro of them. Earl pockets a nifty knife from the bathroom and goes back into the shop where he is shot, presumably by one of the Gecko brothers. Damn, the character was beginning to grow on me. But we have confirmation this show is not afraid of gore (which should shock no-one).

Either we go back in time or the man heals well – because we cut to Earl waking up in a morning going out, meeting Freddie and talking about how his dedication to the job left with him hardly any time to spend with his daughter before she went to boarding school. He’s not a very positive person and he says no when Freddie asks him to baptise his child (time travel backwards. Have I mentioned how much I hate shows that like to mix up the chronology?) and continues to be really kind of depressing – but also giving sage, fatherly advice to Jessie about making sure he spends lots of time with his family.

All this talk about not having much time just before he was shot. Poetic – lacking in any kind of subtlety, but poetic. As they get in the car the radio announces the Gecko’s bank robbery and kidnapping.

Cut to said brothers bickering, they’re heading to Mexico and Seth is not impressed by brother Richie’s itchy trigger finger. Seth keeps the peace and they go into the shop in the middle of nowhere, Seth reviewing the crime in his mind in the bathroom (apparently bothered at least somewhat).

In the shop Richie flirts awkwardly with another customer, Jessie, and hallucinates her coming on to him. As he gets creepier she calls him crazy which he is very very touchie about. She and her friend Libby try to leave – but Richie is blocking the door and holding a gun. While Seth, in the bathroom, tries to convince himself his brother is totally ok. He goes out, leaving his fancy knife behind.

To find Richie holding the store hostage and claiming they recognised him and threatened to kill him. Seth doesn’t believe him and is very not amused. Seth starts to talk things down when the cops arrive – he and Richie take the girls hostage to the back of the store, taking the time to threaten the clerk while Earl is in the bathroom and Richie has another moment resulting in the dead Earl

And Freddie, outside, hearing the gunshot. Seth barricades and fires at Freddie to get him in cover while Richie shoots the clerk as well. Just because. Firefight while Seth reminds Freddie that they have nothing to lose

Earl is a tough old guy and isn’t dead – still gasping threats at Seth and wise mentor advise to Freddie. I think I might like this guy.

Review: Obsidian Butterfly by Laurell K Hamilton, Book 9 of the Anita Blake Series

 Anita killed one of Edward’s backups – which means she owes him a favour and he has finally called to collect. Or his alter ego has – reassuring Anita that what he wants in New Mexico is nice and legal. And a holiday away from her love life is probably not a bad idea.

Little did she imagine she’d be plunged into Edwards and that the cold, lethal assassin has a fiancée and she has 2 children – all of which have no idea about the man she’s going to marry.

And while the job may be legal – it’s brutal. Dozens of people have been killed or mutilated – and the deaths are some of the worst Anita has ever seen. Worse, it’s been done in a way neither she nor Edward’s erstwhile and experienced back up have ever seen.

Anita has to find and stop the murderer even as the death toll rises. That means facing Aztec gods, a fellow necromancer, ancient vampires and a prejudiced police force – even before she gets to the monster itself, which can feel her looking for it, and is watching her.

The writing style of this book – indeed of this series – walks that line between being evocative, setting the scene and having that fun, snarky, hard boiled internal narrative that I so love and being extremely over descriptive, pointless and dull. Since this book is set apart from her lovers, it pulls it back and goes back to earlier books where it is more for setting scene, theme and mood, rather than us enjoying 20 pages describing just how blue Jean-Claude’s very blue eyes are.

And it really does convey the sense of place. It’s one of those books where you’re nearly sure the author must have spent some time in the location in question because they seem to know it. There’s such a realness to the scene and the area that you rarely get from second hand accounts.

The story also went back to the roots of what Anita does. Police investigation. Finding the big gribbly monster and killing it. Following the clues, enduring the grisly, horrifying crime scenes, trying to find the monster before it causes too much damage, putting life, limb and moral code at risk trying to protect innocent people. We have twists and turns, brilliant ideas and deductions alongside the gruelling police work. It was a great story to read, the plot never made me bored or had me turning away – and as in previous books we have multiple plot lines that come together nicely, bringing in Riker, Itzpaplotl and the Big Bad all in a natural, well paced and inter-related manner.

The only time I felt the story pacing was off was during the long and repeated monologues while Anita considered her own relationships and when looking at Edward’s with Donna. I can understand the latter – but they were drawn out, repeated, and the same message, information and growth could have been shown much more concisely. My only complaint is I feel the story ended with rather an anti-climax

I also liked the building of Edward as a character, finally adding more to him than “man who has guns.” I’ve never particularly liked him as a character – I always considered him to empty, more a convenient walking weapon than any real kind of person. This added a level of depth even though it was a series of masks – and showed something he truly cared about as well as his growing relationship with Anita. It humanised him without damaging his aura of mystery too much – it was well done.

There is a lot less sexual content in this book than there were in previous – yet there are still moments which feel all the more gratuitous and unnecessary because of that – like Bernardo having to strip. And Blade. And Deuce. And every man having apparently had a penis transplant with an elephant or the sexy times with the werejaguars. Nor did Anita have to be seen as a potential sex interest for Bernardo, Ramirez, Red Woman’s Husband and even Olaf. I don’t see this adding anything else to the story and just adds that even the villains in this series must have 14 inch penises.

Anita continues to be a strong, determined woman who does her own things, dishes out shit when deserves, takes the lead unless her respect has been earned, makes her own decisions, refuses to be belittled and can stand toe-to-toe with any other man there. She has some Keille independence, but otherwise is a pretty awesome character. Anita faces sexism, labels it and calls it out – she expects it and has a very realistic and cynical view of what it is to be a woman in her profession and circles.

The other women in the book? Not so much. I’ve said before, Anita seems to present herself as a strong character despite being female, rather than a strong female character.  Donna is repeatedly presented as insecure, fragile, innocent (even Olaf thinks so) and weak – which Anita has to drag her over the coals for. Professor Dallas is petite, tiny – and the whole time we see her everyone, even the big bad vampire, is worried about her being Olaf’s victim. Paulina is dangerous – but we switch to the second mode of attack and Anita analyses how unattractive she is (and insecure about Anita and her husband) and she ends up dead. Amanda the Amazon – yes, I know – is a woman who can fight, but she is described as not only being tall and strong – but only her breasts let you know she’s actually a woman. She’s described in a way that downplays or dismisses her femaleness – and she ends up dead.