You don't want the bald guy from Lost to fill you in retroactively. Trust me on this.

[the_deep_magic]

Let's see which is longer this week: my recap or my rant.

• Items of "Continuity": Cora is 17 (my ass) and she hasn't told Peter -- and presumably Derek -- where she's been for the past six years (is no one ever going to ask how she survived?); Morrell is Deaton's younger sister and seems to be helping the alpha pack without knowing their full plan (or at least Deucalion's plan, which I doubt the other alphas even know); the alphas are pimpin' it up in a penthouse above the remaining Argents; Beacon Hills has more abandoned buildings than Chernobyl


• Glad to see more screen time for Boyd, but he wasn't actually on the lacrosse team, nor was he at the cross country team's first "practice."  Is he just along as a fan?


• Stiles' iPad appears to be more self-aware than the writers.


• Scott's wound -- particularly after it's been stitched up -- looks suspiciously like the tree at the end of the opening credits, which Lydia was drawing during music class.  At least three of the Druish (because they're not quite Druid, and... please tell me you get the reference) murder victims were killed up against trees.  Will this amount to anything?  Who the fuck knows.


• Military-grade armor-piercing arrowheads?  For what military?


• The fight between Scott and Allison was probably the most emotionally complex thing that's happened all season.  Also it was kinda hot.


• Damn, being an alpha must pay well.  A penthouse?  Really?  Y'know, I bet Peter has one, too.


• Ugh, the "planning" scene was the stupidest thing ever.  How exactly are you going to get Deucalion alone, Derek?  How are you going to puppy-face your way out of everyone getting killed, Scott?  Where did you get that vest, Boyd?  (Okay, the last one was a little off topic, but ARMS.)


• Ooh, bad press on the Toyota.  Poor gas mileage AND abandoned on the side (in the middle?) of the road.


• So Danny definitely doesn't know Thing #1 is a werewolf.  Does Lydia know about thing #2?  Is anyone going to share?


• On a related note, are Lydia and #2 fucking at school?  JFC, somebody Lysol all the desks right now.


• In the elevator scene, it seems pretty clear to me that Deucalion is threatening Allison.  Has Scott lost his everything-is-Allison input filter?


• Gee, it's a good thing Danny's phone doesn't have an off switch or any kind of volume control.  Then how would Stiles sext him?  (Seriously though, I want to see the content of those texts.)


• The bit with Finstock and the whistle was almost aggressively not funny, though I loved Stiles losing his temper there at the end.


• So far, the black ooze has been associated with wolfsbane poisoning and bodies rejecting the bite.  I was starting to think there was some type of connection, but I think they're just using it as multipurpose gross stuff to let us know Something Bad is Going On.  Because otherwise, how would we be able to tell?


• I want to know how Scott and Deucalion arranged their meet-up and why they picked the abandoned mall.  Does Deucalion have a cell phone?  Were they slipping each other notes?  Carrier pigeons?


• You know, I want to like Kali, but her entire characterization is her nasty-ass toenails.  That's it.


• How did Deucalion get into the vet clinic?  Did Deaton forget to shut the doggy gate?  Peter seemed to think he couldn't get in.


• So... Kali and the twins are just not going to notice poor (t)Ennis (ball)'s squished head?


• Why didn't Allison bother to, say, hit Deucalion or even Ennis with an arrow or five?  They are trying to kill her not-boyfriend.


• Lydia's "some Druids practice sacrifice before battle" was the laziest example of writing on the show with the laziest writing I've ever seen.  Cheers.


• ARGH, the ending with Derek and Ms. Blake.  I want to like them as a couple, but I have a hard time even buying them as a couple.  If that wanky Tumblr post had anything right, it's that "boy + girl = WUV" is taken as a given.  Even Jackson and Lydia were more believable, and you know how I feel about that "relationship."  I realize there are 27 other story threads going on, but at least give them some back story other than "I saved your life once, now I get to pop up and scare you (and also bleed on you)."  If this is going to happen, and it is, I want to buy it.  Because the gifs of the kiss from next week look kind of hot, but it's going to take a hell of a lot of suspension of disbelief for me to pretend it's a rational action on either of their parts.  Unless Ms. Blake is an evil seductress, and c'mon, is there even any room left on Derek to stab another knife to twist?


• Peter and Derek each lurk once, but for once, Derek does it with more flair.  Or blood.  Definitely one of the two

I've been spending too long thinking about ways in which Tumblr has ruined changed fandom.  I know that post that's being passed around is probably from a troll, but that doesn't change the fact that many Derek/Stiles shippers (and I'm speaking as one, though hopefully not one of these) are the most entitled, martyr-complexed group of fans I've ever encountered.  Dude, we are by far the largest ship in the fandom.  That makes the whines of "stop picking on meeeee!" much less convincing.  It seems to me that the lack of comms, and thus the lack of mods, on Tumblr is making this disproportionately worse.  On a platform like LJ, mods set rules for the comm, and if there are people who are rude or wanky, they can say, "These are the rules of this sandbox.  If you don't like them, make your own sandbox."  And because modding takes a great deal of time and personal investment, the wankers don't bother.  But on Tumblr, to even respond to a wanker, you have to reblog their post, increasing the visibility and driving the "notes" count up, which apparently means something.

And as for the entitlement, it doesn't help that Jeff Davis is so involved with the fandom, which I've probably said before.  It's not a bad thing in itself, but his coy interactions plus a young (age-wise) fandom that largely has no concept of the fourth wall is a disaster.  Just because you ship them doesn't mean that's what the writers intended -- hell, half the fun of it is that it's not what the writers intended.  And just because it's such a popular ship does not mean it deserves to become canon.  Because here's the thing: YOU DON'T ACTUALLY WANT IT TO BECOME CANON.  I mean, you think you do, but even if you have faith in the writers (does anyone?) and they don't fuck it up so masterfully that you actually gape at the TV for several minutes on end, then turn to your best friend and ask her to please tell you that it was a hallucination (The X Files, anyone?), it's never going to live up to the way you wanted it to go in your head.

I don't know all the details of what's been going on in TW fandom, particularly Derek/Stiles fans vs. everyone else, and quite frankly I don't want to.  I want to bitch about the episodes and ogle hot guys and write porny fic that I don't want to become canon.  Because filling in the gaps is where most of the fun is.

Okay, the recap was much longer.  I'll try harder on the rant next time.

Comments

Re: This got away from me. Sorry.

[rae1013.livejournal.com]

OH! You're so right. Derek is touch starved and just starving for some kindness in his life. Which just makes the relationship with Blake all the more horrible to me. And that's only because they haven't given her a role outside of damsel in distress and forced love interest.

If she had half of a personality I'd be less afraid about the make out scene. Hell, the writers put more of an effort to develop the lesbian couple in the woods and they were only around for less than a fourth of one episode.

If Blake's characterization weren't so shady (shady in that it is so lacking) I wouldn't be as worried. My fear is that Derek let's himself close to someone again and it turns into another 'Kate' situation.

OH! What if Blake is the head Alpha. Like holy shit. Cause Scott didn't sense that Duke was an alpha or even that he was a werewolf while leading him all over the hospital. What if Blake is HBIC and the Alpha's are terrified of her and that is why she was the one to suspend the twin, and also why she didn't have a nervous breakdown in the basement.

Oh, this is my new head canon. I can't think of anything else but how glorious this would be. Better even than her being the Darach.

Re: This got away from me. Sorry.

[the-deep-magic.livejournal.com]

If Blake's characterization weren't so shady (shady in that it is so lacking) I wouldn't be as worried. My fear is that Derek let's himself close to someone again and it turns into another 'Kate' situation.

Yes, this. I don't want her character to turn out to be as bland as she seems, but the only other option seems like she's secretly EEEEEEEEVIL. And it would be awesome if she were head alpha. Bad for Derek, but awesome.