Teen Wolf – Alpha Pact
What They Say:
Alpha Pact – Scott must make a difficult choice to save friends and family; Derek and Peter contemplate a way to save Cora’s life.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Teen Wolf has thrown a lot of material at this season and plenty of background that helps to expand the overall world that Scott is now a part. It’s been slow but interesting in the first two seasons, but now we’re finding ourselves in a new situation where Scott has been drawn in to Deucalion’s side in order to do what’s necessary. With the events at the hospital in the prevoius episode, everything has just gone in an intense way, especially now that in some very loose way, Derek’s working with the Argents in order to get things moving. With Scott’s mother and Stiles’ father missing, it’s understandable why Scott went in the direction that he did, but it’s also going to complicate things more as the wolf side gets drawn to what it does.
Because of the bonds that have been forged over the series so far, there’s enough people that are interested in an intense way on getting the missing adults back, especially since Isaac has felt like he’s finally found a home. His push back against Derek is interesting, but you also get the truth from Peter about it in that he’s using his anger as a way to shift his allegiance more to Scott as an up and coming Alpha. Stiles has also made an interesting shift in this episode, having lost Scott in a way, by working with Allison and Argent in a clean and obvious way to track down where Jennifer is in order to get them back. Stiles is struggling for a lot of reasons at this point but Allison’s father is one that can shake him back on track in the right way.
The dynamic that slowly changes here is very interesting as it progresses, especially as we see another nudge made about how Allison and Isaac are getting closer together when the two of them get blindsided by her father as he offers himself up to Jennifer in order to get closer to them. Stiles is taking everything in a very bad way after trying to get Lydia back on track with them and what they need to do, and it’s a fast downward spiral for him. Even more interesting in its isolated way is what’s going on with Cora as Derek discovers a way to help her that would reduce his ability in a significant way, reducing him to beta status. It’s a pretty interesting series of events going on all while Deucalion and Scott are offscreen for most of it and Jennifer continues to take more of the center stage here.
One of the best moments of the episode is one that I really wanted to see go further involes Lydia trying to calm down the panic attack that Stiles is having and goes for the obvious kiss to try and help him. It’s a brief moment overall and it shifts focus not long after, but the two of them together has been a big part of the fun of the series overall and a moment like this really does hit it well and gives you hope for more between the two characters as it progresses. Lydia also gets another really fun moment to shine in this episode when she goes to try and get Derek for some help and runs into Peter for the first time in a long time and that makes for a beautifully awkward moment on both their parts.
Another intriguing moment is when we get some time dealing with the adults that have been captured by Jennifer as Argent continues to try and figure a way out of the bindings that he’s in. The sheriff has been filled in by Scott’s mother on what’s going on, which he’s reached the point of being able to accept now after all that he’s seen and understood. This also allows him to deal with an event from his past that involved his wife and a nod towards when he had met Argent before when he wasn’t the sheriff, and that helps to bring some things full circle, especially when it comes to how he’s dealt with his son over the years and not being full receptive to what he’s said and his lack of belief in him.
In Summary:
The plan that evolves in the final minutes of the episode is amusing in a lot of ways as a surrogate sacrifice is put into play. But it’s an unsurprising attempt by the younger generation to save their parents as that is their main focus. There’s a lot of power at play going on here and as they’re told at one point, there’s a lot more to the world and what’s out there than they’ve seen so far. Consequences are the big part of events here as everyone is having to make choices and seeing it come together is nerve wracking in a lot of ways, especially since it involves those without any powers. As the show moves quickly into the summer season finale, there’s a whole lot to like here in this episode, especially those final moments where some less than subtle reveals are made about emotional connections that once again highlights just how much everything has changed from the first season.
Grade: A-