Wooooo, infodump!

[the_deep_magic]

Finally, we know... some... of what is going on!  Ish!

• Before I get into the "continuity" (because it's mostly continuity, let's face it), I have to say I was impressed with the structure of the episode and the dueling unreliable narrators... until, of course, they had to make Stiles say out loud "Hey, we are listening to unreliable narrators."  That's another thing that pisses me off about this show -- it pretends to trust its audience to keep up by throwing out mystery after mystery, then goes and cabbages everything out.  I mean, good job remembering to reference the book Ms. Blake mentioned in the first episode, but all Stiles needed to say was "I don't trust Peter because he is an undead dickwad who does nothing unless it benefits him somehow."


• Werewolf "continuity": after being attacked, it's customary for werewolves to hide and heal for two days (how convenient); it's unusual for werewolves to be "shapeshifters" (presumably meaning full wolves), but it seems to be a family trait since Peter could do it; losing a pack member is "like losing a limb" (unless you're doing the killing, I guess?); if Gerard is to be believed, the origin of werewolves is in ancient Greece... who then somehow migrated to Northern Europe to learn human stuff from the Druids? (I'm hoping Gerard was either being allegorical or pulling that bit out of his ass); packs had "emissaries" to the Druids, but sometimes only the alpha knew who the emissary was; betas appear to have golden eyes until they've taken an innocent life (human or not?); hints that werewolves age slower than humans -- so Derek/Stiles may be an even creepier pairing than we know!


• Hale "continuity": even Cora favors henleys, albeit lower-cut ones; Derek was a basketball player, a popular kid, somewhat close with Peter (not as close as Peter claims, probably, but close enough to listen to him), and has always been a creeper!wolf; Peter seems to have subconsciously taught Derek his lurking-around-the-high-school ways; Talia was a powerful, well-respected alpha shapeshifter; Laura had blonde hair (unlike her body in the first season) and accompanied her mother on pack business; Deaton is the "emissary" to the Hale pack (and may or may not be a Druid) but it's implied that only Talia knew -- Derek and Cora definitely didn't; Derek was programmed with an even more tragic backstory than Sue Lynch's character in Wreck-It Ralph


• Argent "continuity": Gerard and Chris (and presumably Allison as well, who would have been old enough to remember it) lived and seemed well-established in Beacon Hills around the time of the fire; Gerard purposefully started the feud with Deucalion (which might not be his real name) and killed his own people with some sort of gas (and because he wanted to try out his bitchin' homemade spiked mace?); Gerard had the chance to kill Deucalion but didn't, so that we might have a more convoluted plot


• Other "continuity": Stiles doesn't seem to know about Derek's relationship with Kate; supernatural stuff has been going on in Beacon Hills for a long time (possibly more than just werewolves, but unconfirmed) and blamed on animal attacks; Morrell is the alpha pack's emissary; Deucalion can see "as a wolf" (god knows what exactly that means); Stiles intends to ask Derek for the truth (possibly whilst naked)


• Thank god for Scott calling Gerard's bullshit there at the end, because I spent the whole episode pounding my head back against the wall at the thought that he would trust anything that came out of Gerard's mouth.  Including the black ooze.  Finally Scott does something smart!  And threatening!  Is it weird that I found the threatening kind of hot?  Don't answer that!


• Finally, teenagers that look like teenagers!  I guess everybody has to look super-young in a flashback.


• At least BHHS has been shitty for a while now: leaving (some expensive) musical instruments out with unlocked doors, letting non-high-schoolers wander in during the school day, no pesky janitorial staff to interrupt late-night werewolf attacks


• Oh look, another abandoned building in Beacon Hills!  Maybe it has something to do with those darned currents.  Or maybe the writers genuinely don't know where else to set things.  Count 'em up: house (I'm counting the Hale house because the county's left it standing), train depot, numerous unnamed warehouses, mall, distillery...  Did I miss any?


• Another actual good moment: if Peter was telling the truth about Derek being like Scott at Scott's age, that would explain much of Derek's contradictory behavior towards Scott, both angry at him and wanting to protect him.  Interestingly, Derek seems to have become a sort of approximation of what Peter was before the fire.  That would also help to explain why Derek has kept Peter around -- I don't believe for a second they were besties, but I do think Derek confided in Peter and looked up to him even as he was being manipulated, and that pathological relationship continues.


• I wasn't clear on this -- was it Peter who chose Ennis to be the alpha who bit Paige?  Derek genuinely seemed surprised.  And also very, very stupid, even for a 15-year-old.  No matter who gave Paige the bite, she wouldn't have been in the Hale pack, and therefore would've had to move out of Hale territory with the alpha who bit her.  I want to believe that Peter never actually convinced him; he just talked about it all the time and then went behind Derek's back to Ennis.


• I really wish we'd gotten to see how, exactly, Kate came into the picture.  I understand if they couldn't get Jill Wagner back for the episode, but it was just bizarre that Kate's name never even came up.  Because it seems like bb!Derek would've been skittish and untrusting of anyone after what happened with Paige, especially since she flat-out told him that he said and did things that made her suspect he was different.  Yet not long after this, he supposedly gave Kate enough (unspecified) information to take down one of the most powerful alphas in the area and most of her pack?  Though I guess it's a possibility that Kate's seduction of Derek was purely sadistic and she knew enough to kill his family without his "help," but Derek still blames himself because Kate told him it was his fault.  You know what?  Fuck Jeff Davis.  Just... fuck him.  The second part of this season better consist mostly of Derek snuggled in bed between Stiles and Ms. Blake (who probably won't survive until then: I repeat, fuck Jeff Davis).  ETA: I will forgive the writers all some of their sins if this theory -- which makes an ENORMOUS amount of sense -- turns out to be true.


• At the very end, was Derek looking at the spiral in the distillery from years ago, or a new one?  Either way, who does he think the "vendetta" is against?  Ugh, now we've got at least four parties in play: the Good Guys, the alpha pack, the Darach, and the hunters.  Maybe the emissaries, too.  Strangely enough, until we find out who it is, the only one who doesn't seem to have a motivation for vendetta is the Darach.  The last 4 episodes are going to have to be just as infodumpy as this one for any of this shit to make sense.


• Last thing, I swear: I don't know that I'd ship Stiles/Cora, but they need to have their own spinoff show where they investigate mysteries and bitch at each other until Stiles comes of legal age and Derek has some time to get some hardcore, in-patient therapy to recover from the unending series of traumas that have comprised his life.

Again, such potential... largely wasted, though we did get a few answers.  And more questions.  JFC, even The X Files wasn't this stupidly complicated, and that's including the last two years when T-1000 showed up for no apparent reason.