What "pact"? Was the title anything but a stupid pun?

[the_deep_magic]

The livestream didn't load on time and I missed the first 5 minutes of the episode.  Turned out they were the BEST 5 minutes of the episode.  Anyway...

• Before I begin, I realized I basically marked half of my notes with "whatever the fuck that means," so I'm just going to use the abbreviation WTFTM.  Also, "how fucking convenient" will be abbreviated HFC.


• Items of "Continuity": taking too much of someone else's pain can kill a werewolf; an alpha can heal a pack member (or any werewolf?) by giving up the alpha "spark of power" and becoming a beta again, HFC; the Darach is not just following the Tellurian (that may be a Star Trek word; can't be arsed to look it up) currents, she is "in sync" with them, WTFTM; Peter was Talia's younger brother (just like Derek was Laura's younger brother, hmm...); The Girl's name was Brayden (sp?) and she was sent by Morrell to "restore balance, WTFTM; if Derek joins the alpha pack, it "paves the way" for Scott to join, WTFTM; Scott's dad is an FBI agent; at the end of the episode, Derek is presumably a beta again


• Items of "Continuity," Stilinski edition: Stiles' mom's first name was Claudia; she died when Stiles was 8, and he was with her when it happened; the Sheriff was at the scene of an accident and told by a dying (psychic? werewolf?) teenager to go be with his wife, but he wasn't ready to believe; he implies he's seen other signs of the paranormal in Beacon Hills but didn't believe them, either.


• Ffffff, the elevator scene with Derek and Stiles.  Need I say more?  Stiles was so desperate for Derek to wake up.


• I love Isaac finally confronting Derek, even though 1) it was at the worst possible time; and 2) he didn't mention the way Derek had treated him, specifically.  Derek admitting that he was lonely was huge, and I kind of wish it had gotten more emphasis.  And of course Derek is doing nothing; every time he does something, no matter how well-intentioned he makes things worse.  That's basically what Isaac just finished screaming at him.


• When Peter was explaining the whole alpha-healing thing, I thought it was interesting that he kept referring to it specifically as a "spark" (where have we heard that before, hmm?) and even more so that, talking specifically to Derek, said, "That spark that intensifies the color of your eyes from a bright yellow into a searing red."  Yellow, not blue.  Is this significant or is he just talking in generalities?  Or were the writers just not paying attention?  Also, WHY THE FUCK DOES ANYONE EVEN LISTEN TO PETER?  It sounds like the "alpha spark" would be spent in the healing process, but that would leave a pack without an alpha, so Peter's obviously hanging around trying to steal the alpha power back.


• Holy shit, Lydia has a parent!  It's a good, character-building scene for Lydia, but the sudden appearance and show of care from her mom just seems bizarre at this point.


• Okay, I'm assuming that Chris gave himself up to Jennifer assuming that he could rescue Melissa and the Sheriff once he was taken to where they were (though how he has every damn thing in the county mapped out but never thought of the Nemeton, I don't know -- HFC).  Still, he could have been a hell of a lot smarter about it.  Even if he didn't want to tell Allison or Isaac about his plan, he could have at least put a GPS tracker (you know he's got them) in his boot and told somebody else or even left a note to show everyone else where he'd been taken.


• Why is the reason Jennifer tried to kill Lydia a mystery?  Jennifer referred to Lydia as a philosopher, and at that point, she was the only one who knew the truth about Jennifer's identity, as well.


• Why do Stiles and Lydia go to school?  It's not like they've cared much about it up until now, and it's not getting Stiles any closer to finding his dad. 


• I was worried about that Stiles/Lydia kiss in the preview, but I think they handled it it well for once.  Great acting from both Dylan and Holland.  I love Stiles' expression afterwards, the way his eyes keep flicking away and back to different parts of Lydia's face.  And when he says "That was really smart," she looks like she's finally figured out that he doesn't hero-worship her anymore.  See, Jeff?  We had a small, simple moment that told us an enormous amount about the relationship of these two characters and the universe didn't collapse in upon itself.  Take note.


• Why was Lydia seeing Morrell at the beginning of this semester?  It was the previous school year that she was possessed by Peter and forced to go to the guidance counselor by her parents. 


• Also impressed with the way Holland and Ian handled Lydia and Peter seeing each other again when they were given literally nothing to work with by the writers (see this post). Supposedly this will be addressed in later episodes, but Jeff seems to think "addressed" means "mentioned in a single sentence of dialogue."


• Okay, so I'm assuming the alphas dashed off from the hospital in the middle of the night, completely abandoning their search for Jennifer, to go after Morrell.  Why now?  She's been their emissary all this time, and they just now think she might know something about the Darach?  Did they catch her spray-painting ARGENT on the hospital doors or something?  Subtle, by the way.  The mountain ash ring was cool, but Morrell does nothing but piss me off every time she's on screen.  I laughed aloud when Deucalion said Scott could make his own decisions and she said "Not without all the information."  SO HOW ABOUT SOME OF THAT INFORMATION, LADY?  And then the alphas just... let her go?


• When the Sheriff asked Chris, "You been tied up before?" and he replied, "Many times," there was a long pause and I really, really wanted him to follow it up with "See, Victoria was pretty kinky..."


• In the vet clinic, no one seems surprised by mentions of Gerard or Paige, WTFTM.  When are they telling each other these things?  And why are they not telling each other really important things?


• HA HA TURNING THE NEMETON INTO A "BEACON" FOR FUTURE SUPERNATURAL BEASTIES IN FUTURE SEASONS.  It's also on some sort of "hill," I presume.


• Ok, here's where I really have a problem.  Twice in this episode (and many times before in the show) there are sudden, literally magical, solutions to problems that have never even been hinted at before.  HFC.  At least the "alpha spark" bullshit kind of makes sense, but the substitutionary sacrifices aren't to save the parents or stop the Darach -- they're to find the Nemeton.  That's it.  How, exactly, are they going to do that?  Will it suddenly light up?  Why are all three kids necessary?  Seems like one would do.  Why would it affect a werewolf the same way it would affect a human?  I guess that it's going to trigger some stolen memories in somebody, thus establishing some kind of thematic link with the Isaac-dunking that happened in the beginning.  Otherwise, it's just the writers thinking "Hey, the ice bath thing looked cool before, so..."


• Having a permanent darkness around your heart is NOT like a tattoo, Scott, JFC.  Yet again, it seems like they writers are trying to link the nonsense from earlier episodes in the most trite way possible.


• Also, are the full moon and the lunar eclipse on the same night? It seems like they'd have to be, but the way the characters talked about it was confusing. Kali left Derek until the full moon to... what, kill a beta, and last episode that was "in less than 24 hours," but in this episode, Stiles said they had "less than 2 days until the lunar eclipse." Yes, those technically fall within the same time frame, but if you know something's tonight or tomorrow night, why say "less than two days"?


• The reveal of Scott's dad was well done.  This episode did have some genuinely good moments, most of which I've mentioned before (the elevator scene, Isaac confronting Derek, the Sheriff's monologue, the parents trapped together in the root cellar, and the Stiles/Lydia kiss), but the deus ex machinae have already started popping out and it just makes me want to headdesk and pretend that fanon is the only canon.  Because all those cool theories about alternate realities, Peter as Paige's boyfriend, Stiles as the link between the sacrifices, etc?  They're going to amount to nothing.  What is shown on the screen is meant to be taken literally.  This is just not as cerebral of a show as it pretends to be, as we pretend it is.  Prove me wrong, Jeff.  Please, please prove me wrong.

I have a hunch they're going to wrap up a lot less in this mid-season finale than I thought they would... or they're going to do it all upsettingly quick and simple, like stabbifying Jackson into werewolfdom.  My guess is that they wrap up the Darach storyline, but I have trouble seeing how they could even do that satisfactorily in one episode.

Comments

[the-deep-magic.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I'm not sure I'd want Isaac to actually kick Derek's ass, just stand up to him and tell him he's not going to take any more shit. I'd rather not compound Derek's guilt and manpain at this point (even though this is one thing he does deserve to feel guilty about). I want to see Derek acknowledge it and make amends.

And I didn't like that look at the end when Derek was changing.

Somebody commented on that gif on Tumblr that Peter had the biggest power!boner ever. And, yeah, pretty much. How has Derek not figured out how much Peter gets off on fucking with him?

Do you remember the parent/teacher conference? Dad was all "what's her problem" and mom said "there IS no problem" and then the teacher was "She's the Smartest and Prettiest"?

I do remember that scene, but apparently not too well -- I thought both her parents were waiting to hear bad news from the teacher. Anyway, I suppose continuity in absentee parenting is the least of our concerns.

Papa Argent pissed me off with that. He must have thought he would just get her with his many knives

"Surely she will think I am only carrying this one gun, which I will drop on the floor to convince her I am unarmed. She doesn't seem like the suspicious, planning type."

Yeah, I didn't even touch the panic attack issue since I don't know much about them, but it does seem like getting the person's focus completely off the spiraling thought of "Oh shit I'm having a panic attack" would at least slow it down considerably. It was kind of an iffy pretext for the kiss, but a) I'm kind of glad they actually highlighted the seriousness of the situation, considering all the other shit Stiles has been through without panicking; and b) it was a genuinely good, relationship-revealing moment between Lydia and Stiles.

The mountain ash thing was cool. Imagine Stiles in Mountain Ash Tutoring with Morrell. "No, its more of a twist to the wrist, good triangle, though"

Oh god, how HYSTERICAL would that be? Stiles keeps coming up with, like, an octagon or the Bat symbol and Morrell's just shaking her head, thinking "Who the hell IS this kid?"

The big tubs are probably for bathing animals, so I'll give Deaton a pass on that. (Where he got that much ice, I don't know -- did Stiles stop at the 7-11 on the way?) And it's not said that the fake deaths will give the Darach any power, just that they'll find the Nemeton (again, HFC). It WOULD be interesting if Jennifer felt it and told the parents... therefore it will not be on the show.

An extra moment for Stiles, alone because his father has been kidnapped, his best friend has walked away with the enemy, his lover ally Derek is AWOL, hammering his dad's star out in hopes he needs it again.

I HAVE NEVER WANTED TO HUG A FICTIONAL CHARACTER SO MUCH. Well, maybe Derek, too. It can be a group hug. Or a group "hug." I'm fine with either.