Teen Wolf Season 3 Episode 3
What They Say:
Fireflies – Boyd and Cora are under the influence of the full moon. Scott and Derek seek help from an unlikely ally.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Teen Wolf had some surprising reveals in the previous episode with what’s going on when it comes to Erica and Boyd, or realistically just Boyd at this point. It turned deadly quickly and pretty nasty with how they were being manipulated and made feral in a big way. The only thing that saved them was a bit of luck when you get down to it with Alison showing up there. But tensions are still running high in general and having Derek’s sister appear amid this group just makes things even more problematic since it leaves you wondering what additional family history and connections will come into play that could upset the dynamic that’s been set so far.
Because of the full moon out there, it’s definitely welcome to see both Scott and Derek working towards trying to stop Boyd and Cora from what they’re doing, since they’re pretty much ravenous at this point. While Derek has just been intent on finding them both, with an obvious bit of near conflict over who to go after more, he’s given in to Scott’s plan that they really need to work together because of the power that both Boyd and Cora have after the way they’ve been manipulated the last couple of months. And for Scott, he just needs to be away from Alison for the moment since he did reveal the truth to her about how her mother was trying to kill him, and for good reason. The relationship she had with her mother is pretty defining and bringing some sense of closure to it in this way isn’t exactly a welcome thing.
While Scott and Derek are out hunting them down, in a somewhat isolated preserve at that, there’s lots of bad things going on out there in them woods. We see how Boyd almost rips apart a couple of kids and then we see a pair of young lovers get accosted by some nasty bugs, so much so that one of them ends up being utterly devoured by them in a quick but grisly way. But even outside of the preserve things are going down badly under the full moon as Lydia is kept involved as well, where she discovers a dead body at the school pool that puts quite a fright into her. It’s simply not a good night to be out in the world with all the things going on.
What gets to be fun about shows like this is that as it progresses and as the groups and connections change, it can turn into strange bedfellows. Such is the case here with the hunt as both DErek and Scott realize that things aren’t going as well as they could and they need someone with experience actually hunting werewolves. Which has Scott going to Alison’s father, even if he does claim to be out of the game at this point. His attempt to win him over for some help is a complicated thing, especially when you consider what he lost in the second season because of what his own father did, it makes the choices here all the more understandable in all the directions it does go. I really liked Alison’s father in the second season and seing a potential new avenue for him here is definitely welcome.
Argent brings a really nice change of pace to things here. While Scott and Derek aren’t exactly feral, they are a bit more primal with how they track and hunt Bringing Argent into it, he has a coldness and authority to him because of his understanding of the hunt in the way a man does it. His voiceover for it works well, especially since it’s run parallel to Alison doing much the same on her own as well. His dialogue for it, his understanding of the wolves in a way that even Derek and Scott have to admire as it almost seems like things they aren’t even aware of in some ways, is just fantastic as it brings in the years of experience. The formulation of a plan hits quickly after he assess their abilities and seeing it all pushed towards the high school isn’t unexpected.
The same can also be said about the other plot points that have existed so far this season with the dynamic between Peter and Derek. His showing up has him pushing Derek in a few different ways when it comes to dealing with Cora and Boyd, while also tying it back to Deucalion as well since that’s the main thrust of things under the surface at the moment. Derek’s slowly trying to come around to Scott’s way of thinking with some things, and he knows Peter’s not really the guy to listen to for things, but there’s a draw to him as well with it since there are some real fundamentals to what Derek can do, including making new werewolves rather than being tied to Cora and Boyd.
Even Lydia and Stiles have some good material here, from the way Stiles is worried she’s relapsing again after what she went through in the previous season to what he starts to understand about some of the killings that are going on in town. It brings us back full circle to what we saw at the start of the season with Heather and some really awkward moments, but it’s what’s needed to make sure the connections are properly drawn. Stiles has long been the detective side of this combination of sides that exists and that definitely works well, especially since he has the same kind of need to do right and plenty of compassion like Scott, but approaches it with more emotion and empathy.
In Summary:
Teen Wolf is pretty action heavy here but it manages to draw in quite a lot of story and character points as well. The cast is fairly fluid at times with what it wants to do and that makes for some strange combinations, which we see here with Argent drawn in, how Scott’s mother is making more headway and even the nature of Peter’s angle for things. The series has long impressed me with the way it deals with its characters, making changes along the way and allowing them to grow in more natural ways, and this episode does that just right, particularly when it comes to Argent. Though you’ll be hard pressed to imagine he’d go all in from here on out, it makes for some good situatiosn to come up and a layer of trust that can be built upon. With a lot of characters here, lots of emotion and plenty of exploration of what it is to be a werewolf, the episode hits lots of great notes and a solid show as a whole as well.
Grade: A-