Jeff Davis hates you and doesn't want you to be happy. Yes, you, personally.

[the_deep_magic]

Okay, I didn't actually have as many notes for this one, mostly just PAAAAAAIN and WHYYYYYYY.

• Items of "Continuity": werewolves can take pain from humans as well as animals (if this has been shown on screen before, I don't remember it); Lydia is "important" to Scott; once in a generation, a beta rises to become a True Alpha because of virtue and strength of character and having woobie puppy eyes or some shit like that (no, c'mon, I like Scott, but really?)


• WHY MUST THERE BE VOMIT?  GRAPHIC, VOLUMINOUS VOMIT!  I CAN HANDLE PAIN AND DEATH, BUT NOT VOMIT.  Also, my first thought was not "mistletoe" but "white shoepeg corn."  How did Druish dude get him to eat all of that?  Why did the Forehead Twin with the pain fetish think that Danny and Lydia were the two options?


• So nice of the alpha pack to warn Derek in advance.  And now his alarm goes off when somebody... touches the windows when he's not looking?


• The method of death, which was so meticulously ritualistic before, doesn't matter now to Druish Dude?  Was the kidnapping element just added so Scott could have time to dramatically (not quite) save Deaton?


• More proof that BHHS is the Worst High School Ever: the English teacher is subbing for physics (Because she doesn't have enough classes to teach and there are no substitute teachers?  Just so we remember Ms. Blake exists?), students are having sex everywhere, and nobody actually goes to class for more than five minutes.


• Hooray for competent!Boyd with a plan!  Too bad it's kind of a terrible plan and they have absolutely nothing to fall back on.


• Can we please have some character development for Cora other than "like Derek, she enjoys working out and threatening people."  God, what if it turns out that's what the Hale family was actually like -- fitness freaks who communicated through threats?


• Cool to see Stiles as the supernatural expert that fanon makes him out to be (though he knows what psychometry is but doesn't seem to understand how a Ouija board works).


• Why did Scott not just follow Deaton's scent?  At least throw in a line saying there was no scent trail.


• Just when I was liking Scott/Allison again, that closet boner scene was kinda... weird?  Creepy?  I don't know; something just seemed off about Allison's reaction, and I don't feel like going back to watch it again to figure out what it was.


• At least when the Scooby Gang splits up, they're FINALLY using their phones to communicate, though I don't understand why Isaac told them to turn the power back on when it would hurt/possibly kill both Kali and Derek.  Back to that in a minute.


• YAAAAY Sheriff!  Will Stiles just tell him already?  I was hoping he'd figured it out, but Stiles' "I have to protect my dad" excuse is wearing thinner and thinner.


• In "Master Plan," Chris laid out the effects of increasing amounts of electricity on werewolves in a very specific order: first, they can't transform, then they can't heal, then they lose super strength.  Props to the writers for talking about lethality in terms of milliamps instead of volts, but all points lost for just completely ignoring what Chris had specifically established.  Derek was still shifted -- though Boyd, Kali, and the Forehead Twins were not -- but had no super strength -- which Kali and the Forehead Twins did.  And why did Boyd go diving off the platform when Isaac didn't?  The whole ending was super-confusing and I'm still not sure what exactly happened.  Other than the obvious.


• Cora sobbing over Boyd was a nice touch, but could we not have had some context?  Were they even friends?


• Sigh... I guess I have to accept that Erica's dead.  It would have been more poignant if they could have filmed her in the same room with the rest of the cast, ANY of them, but obviously they couldn't arrange that.

So everything I started writing prior to this season is officially jossed.  Whatever, I'm not changing it.  Anyway, go read this for some excellent analysis of the diminishing returns of manpain in terms of Zeno's dichotomy paradox.  Also, there's a graph.

Comments

[vee-dub.livejournal.com]

So apparently, Derek and Stiles are my OTP. I'm glad I don't actually WATCH the show because it sounds like a big ole mess of angst and shenanigans.

What I'm trying to say is, thanks for the weekly recaps so I don't have to sit through it. Thank you for taking one for the team!

[the-deep-magic.livejournal.com]

Hey, if I can spare the pain of one shipper, it's all worth it. Well, most of it. Also, while Cora rushed directly to Boyd, Stiles went to Derek and put his hand on his shoulder. Probably the only good thing to come out of this episode. Well, that and Scott & Isaac being the most obvious secret!boyfriends ever.

[rhodynne.livejournal.com]

Okay, so I'm an OZ girl of the highest order. Tom was always killing off major characters, so I can deal. I don't appreciate the way TW wasted Boyd, but there you go.
Example: One guy gets out of prison, walks the city all day, and comes back to ask if he can have his cell back because the wide world is just too intimidating. He eventually gets crucified to the gym floor, and we don't care because he was a pedophile creeper, BUT it made an impact 'cause he had a moment of fear and humanization. It took maybe 35 seconds of screen time TOTAL.

Sorry, but the soapbox probably isn't going anywhere yet. :-)

~She's Badass Mama McCall but she's also a floor nurse, this really isn't her milieu.

~The last symbol meant 4 months, why did this one mean tonight? How cute was it he was sleeping? The most soft moment he's had this season, including the sex.

~It drives me INSANE(er) when two characters sit around and tell each other things they already know. BMM (badass mama mccall) has to TELL the Sheriff what ligature marks mean?!? I Don't EVEN think so! If they had discussed it back and forth "Look, he was tied up." "I know, they're deep too, he was suspended." "Thats's how he suffocated." THEN they could have looked at each other like "you're cool." and that would have been a nice moment!

~Ms. Blake in Harris' class...I got nothin'.

~They flooded the apartment.
It almost breaks my brain. Why did they move the couch and bed, and to where? but left the WOOD table. Why does the alpha pack know so much? They knew about Danny and Lydia, they knew about Scott...and they knew to cut the power?
They're gonna need like, three shop vacs, and who feels like going to rent them when they're all sad over Boyd?
Maybe the Darach WORKS for the Alpha pack and Deuc doesn't want to admit he's lost control of it. All their advanced knowledge about stuff came from the druid, and now he's bored and making his own fun. That's why D knows about the currents. The Darach was all "REALLY? We're going to Beacon Hills? I LOVE that town! Let me show you the map of currents!" And after the 16th time he's pulled out the damn map Kali is like, "I'm going to tear out his eyes and tongue and feed them to the twins if you don't get him to SHUT UP!"

~The Stiles and Lydia stuff was good, although yeah, a supernatural expert would have the basics of a Ouija board down at least. But why was Cora there? Did she just not trust them? She didn't want to go home to boring Derek? She's still miffed that Lydia didn't cower?
What I liked the most is it worked. Automatic writing could really be called automatic communication since it doesn't always mean actual written words. She started in on the tree, which means something, and said to talk to Danny, almost as if she wasn't paying attention to what she was saying...
See? See?

~Good moment with Scott and Stiles at the vets. And with Danny in the hospital.
Dylan. :-)
I hope his increasing short temper and brittle nature is character development and not a new thing Dylan's trying.

~Why were Allison and Scott standing like that when she had room to move over to let him into the closet in the first place?

~What do you suppose the Sheriff thought with Scott on the floor and not saving Deaton? Why did he stand so far away and shoot the rope? Not that I actually care, cause SHERIFF, but you know. :-D

~Cora sobbing over Boyd. Again, 35 seconds to establish they have a bond from the vault and the tears go from "meh" to "*sob".

~I've decided the reason Derek can't just de-wolf when someone has got him in a stranglehold baby is he's got PTSD from Kate or whatever and when he gets grabbed like that he panics and can't settle his mind enough to force the change. It's his version of a panic attack.

~Why does Allison always seem to know where to be when absolutely NO ONE is talking to her about anything??


Wow, that soapbox grew stairs, didn't it. :-/ Bless your sweet little heart for letting me play in your lj.

Never change your writing, I don't care if you start making them do balloon animals as pack bonding. I'll still read it. :-)

[the-deep-magic.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's not so much that characters are getting killed off, but that they're doing it in such a shit way to add completely unnecessary angst, not because they are meaningful.

The last symbol meant 4 months, why did this one mean tonight? How cute was it he was sleeping? The most soft moment he's had this season, including the sex.

I figured it was just kind of their calling card in general. And I'll have to go back and watch Derek sleeping again. I need to feel SOMETHING positive from this episode.

It drives me INSANE(er) when two characters sit around and tell each other things they already know.

Ugh, me too. I've heard it called "cabbaging," but that may be a British term? I'm surprised they didn't just start the line of dialogue with, "As you know, Sheriff..."

NOW I HAVE A HILARIOUS MENTAL IMAGE OF EVERYONE SOBBING HYSTERICALLY WHILST DRAGGING SHOP VACS AROUND THE LOFT, THEIR WATERFALL OF TEARS ONLY ADDING TO THE WATER DAMAGE. Why do I think Derek probably didn't get the flood insurance?

I think that we're supposed to assume that Cora now goes to high school with everyone else and is supposed to keep an eye on them. I'd say this was ridiculous after six years of hiding, but since no actual classwork has been done since season one, Cora could probably coast through without knowing how to read.

I hope his increasing short temper and brittle nature is character development and not a new thing Dylan's trying.

I like to think that both Stiles and Dylan are upset because NONE OF THIS MAKES ANY FUCKING SENSE.

Why were Allison and Scott standing like that when she had room to move over to let him into the closet in the first place?

Because BONERS.

Oh, and I like the theory (too interesting to be true) that the Sheriff's actually a werewolf himself and couldn't cross the mountain ash barrier.

I don't care if you start making them do balloon animals as pack bonding.

OH GOD, IT WOULD BE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL MESS. THEY'D ALL SUCK AND GET FRUSTRATED AND THEN CLAWS WOULD COME OUT AND ISAAC WOULD ACTUALLY START CRYING AND STILES WOULD BE ALL "LOOK I MADE A SNAKE" WHILE LYDIA HAS CREATED A ROTATING BALLOON CAROUSEL TO HOUSE HER MENAGERIE OF ANIMALS.

[rhodynne.livejournal.com]

Wow. I did not get that Cora was supposed to BE in HS. I just figured she'd inherited the Creeper Gene and since there is absolutely NO form of security at the school, she made free to wander around. As one does.

Right. Boners. I keep forgetting they're a reason unto themselves. :-)

I also had not heard the theory that Sheriff is a werewolf. I sort of like it. :-)
...even though you're quite right, too interesting to be true. :-P

heeheeheehee Isaac's crying cause he can't even blow the balloons up let alone make anything. and Lydia's handing him complex structures saying "here's a unicorn and a lion fighting." which just makes him cry harder. And Peter walks in and grabs a bunch of blown balloons and wads them together and says "your lower intestines!" and gets crickets. "seriously? Parenthood?" NADA. So he lets out a huff and stalks away, but later, recounting it to Chris, he gets the laugh he was looking for, and so rewards Chris with another blowjob and wow that went somewhere I wasn't completely planning on. :-D

I'm getting my baby brother to watch this season, and at the scene when Derek checks up on Ms. Blake and she says "I have class in 20 minutes" Bro was freaking "The school is completely empty!!" "yup" "Is that what you meant by watching it in spite?" "yup"

Someone somewhere pointed out that Ms. Blake comes in and says she's just filling in until someone more qualified can be brought in and the first person they cut to is Stiles.

[verizonhorizon.livejournal.com]

When are you going to review last night's episode? I'm looking forward to your recaps. You keep me on point for continuity gaffes. Also, is it just me or did this show get really angsty and sad?

[the-deep-magic.livejournal.com]

Aw, I'm glad someone appreciates them! I haven't seen the episode yet -- I don't have cable and I had to give up on the livestream -- but I'll watch it and review it tonight.