Reviews Series / Teen Wolf

Now, in contrast my theory is that it is Gerard. The writers on this show are not very original, and this would not be the first instance of a villain pretending to be a helpless invalid while secretly engaging in supernatural shenanigans in their spare time. Peter was pretending to be a catatonic nursing home patient in season one, while sneaking out at night in the form of a giant evil wolf-monkey. When we have seen flashes of the Darach's face it does vaguely remind me of a Gerard rocking an Emperor Palpatine look.

The Darach's involvement here was confusing though. Supposedly three sacrifices, as noted by both the trend AND the suicide scoreboard in the motel office. But there were four werewolves affected by the wolfsbane. Interestingly, Isaac did not attempt suicide. He just hid under the bed. It was Alpha Pack member Ethan that rounded out the three. Was the Darach supposed to have anticipated this? The other sacrifices (virgins, soldiers) were more precisely targeted. This was rather clumsy. Drive a bunch of werewolves crazy with wolfsbane and hope that three of them would successfully kill themselves and/or each other?

Overall, the episode was like a short horror film. But it felt disconnected from the ongoing show storyline as a result. In the end no questions were answered. Why is the hotel such a suicide magnet? Was it even really part of the Darach's plot or just a coincidence that the group ended up there. Why were the targets selected so randomly?

There were some bright spots. Danny and Ethan were cute. But it is annoying the way their relationship has apparently developed offscreen. The same goes for Derek and Jennifer. He barely knows her, but now he's having (massively unsafe) bedroom activities with her while covered in bloody claw gashes? A bit out-of-character for him to say the very least. Also unsanitary. Good thing Jennifer is not the Sex Ed teacher!

However, Allison loses major points for trope cluelessness when it comes to horror movies. Stuck for the night at a scary hotel in the middle of nowhere, the place is possibly haunted and there are a bunch of werewolves on the premises? Does she accept her father's offer to come pick her and her friends up? Of course not! If this had been a movie she would have been among the first to die!

LOL, "giant evil wolf-monkey." That's exactly what I thought when I saw him the first time. (Personally, I've always thought Gerard looks a bit like John Mc Cain.)

I really hope that Gerard isn't behind the Darach. I wouldn't mind him having an agenda and manipulating people like puppets.

Another thing I wondered about that episode: Why were only the werewolves affected by the wolfsbane? When Lydia spiked the punch, Stiles and Allison hallucinated as well, and heck, Jackson was a lizard person and even he hallucinated. Why only the werewolves?

I KNOW. The Dennifer drove me CRAZY, because I wanted to like it! This is what I commented on a review video on You Tube: Derek is too messed up to be in a healthy relationship. We all love our fanfics, but he has some serious issues to work through. I mean, his anchor is ANGER. Plus, you would think that Derek would be at least a little sexually traumatized from the shit with Kate. I mean, a) he was probably underage and b) you would think he'd be hesitant to sleep with someone he barely knows. Even if he likes her and completely trusts her (after 2 days), she could still be seducing him like Kate. Plus, he should be worried about the alpha pack using her against him. (I MADE THIS DAYS BEFORE 'CURRENTS.' I CALLED IT!)

Concerning Jennifer: I was enjoying her character, but I'm not sure I do anymore. She needs to be relevant to the general story soon and not just to Derek's life. Otherwise she's just a character who was created to give Derek a love interest and shut up the Sterek fans. I love Allison because her life doesn't revolve around Scott. If all Jennifer ever does is ramble, talk about books ('cause she's an English teacher, get it? Yeah, that wasn't exactly smooth character development) and cheesily fall for Derek then I am going to bust a blood vessel.

Look at it from Jennifer's point of view: The first time they met, Derek was covered in blood after wolfing out and she didn't really see what happened. I don't think she even know he saved her life. The second he was creepily standing in her class room waiting for her. While they shared some interesting conversation, Derek told her nothing about himself and the situation. The next time they met, he was pretty much dying. Sound like someone you want to get it on with? Regardless of how hot Derek is, it's a pretty bad decision on her part.

So yeah. Having a hard time jumping on Team Dennifer. It's honest to god reading like bad Character/OC fanfiction right now.

That really sums it up pretty well. Either Jennifer has a Sookie Stackhouse level attraction to dangerous supernatural men, or else she is really weird (or desperate). Yes, Derek looks like Tyler Hoechlin and positively oozes masculine sex appeal. But he is a werewolf and on at least two of the occasions that she has seen him he has been covered in gouges and blood. He obvious gets into a lot of brutal werewolf battles. Jennifer is either extremely kinky or she has some kind of occult agenda of her own that she is hiding.

Meanwhile, Derek, is still working on his relationships with friends he has known for almost a year, a sister whom he thought was dead and an uncle who used to be (*snicker*) a giant evil wolf-monkey who murdered his other sister and rammed his claw right through Derek's body! Mind you, this is after the woman who seduced him as a teenager returned and engaged him in an involuntary B&D situation involving flirting, electricity, physical harm and the promise of a painful death!

One would think that Derek would err on the side of caution in starting any new relationships, especially romantic ones! I get that the closest he has to real friends are Scott and Stiles, a couple of teenage boys. But seriously, ask for some third-party opinions on this Derek dude! Even your sister or still-possibly-evil uncle can probably offer more in-depth advice if given half a chance.

Also, Jennifer shows every sign of being a Satellite Love Interest, which frankly we don't need to waste precious screen time on. 90% of the fans want to see Derek with Stiles, and if not then they would rather see him single. He was fine as single character. Like Stiles or Isaac, he does not need a girlfriend to define his character. Plus we all want more Danny, and lost time spent on Jennifer is just annoying.

As was noted on the trope page, wolfsbane is really poisonous and Finstock at least should be dead from blowing on that whistle. As for nobody else being affected, who says they weren't? Lydia started hearing the dead again, something she does not seem to be able to do on-demand otherwise. Allison was acting a tad weird, even though she was not hallucinating. With Stiles it is always hard to tell if something is up or if he just missed a dose of Adderall. Danny had Ethan's hot, muscular body to distract him. We didn't really see what effect, if any, the other kids may have experienced.

I did find it funny that Finstock apparently let the two gay guys share a room. But then, we learned way back in season one that he is okay with hooking up his players if it will promote commitment to the team.

So many things going on, so little coherence...

Man, I laughed really hard at your first paragraph there. At this point, I actually hope that Jennifer has her own agenda so her motives will make more sense. Of course, then Derek's heart will be broken... for the twenty-thousandth time :/

Exactly! I would much rather see Derek have screen time with Isaac (who he hung out with for months while looking for Erica and Boyd, do it would be cool to see how that relationship has grown), his family, Boyd, Stiles, and even Scott!. Those bonds really need to grow! If we'd seen Derek have any sort of personal conversation with Boyd, then Derek freaking out after Boyd's death would have been much more emotional for the viewers.

And at this point, the season could have gone the exact same without Jennifer. If, say, Cora was in her place (minus the sex, naturally), I feel like this whole season would be better. Cora would have a good reason to be alive. Imagine: After the big showdown, Cora (just remove Peter from the equation) finds her brother. Then the two estranged siblings are forced to work to keep Derek from dying as the watcher learns more about Cora and their relationship. Then later, Boyd, Isaac and Derek are fighting the alphas (because there is no Jennifer to take hostage - seriously, Derek is an idiot for getting a girlfriend when alphas are trying to kill him). Then Lydia, Cora and Stiles show up, but Cora gets taken hostage. Derek is forced to kill Boyd, and Cora feels like it was her fault. There. Fixed.

But in "Party Guessed," everyone is affected equally. Scott doesn't have a more dramatic reaction than the others. I guess the Darach could be making their visions worse...

I know... This season is trying to be too epic.

As I keep saying, here and on other forums, relationships mostly develop offscreen on Teen Wolf. It is one of the show's biggest failings. Scott's relationships with Allison and Stiles are the only ones that get developed onscreen. Other characters are supposedly very close, but we rarely see how they got to where they are. Especially in Derek's case. He has a lot of characters in his orbit, most of whom we see very little interaction with. Boyd would have been a case of Black Dude Dies First had Gage Golightly not left the show, necessitating Erica's death first.

The thing is that we know Derek cares about people, especially his own little circle. Part of the driving force behind the Sterek ship is that even though Derek professes to find Stiles annoying, he can always be counted on to risk his life to protect him. That results in Boyd's death being more Derek-centric than Boyd-centric. It is a tragedy because Derek lost (indeed was forced to kill) someone he knows, and losing people is Derek's emotional Achilles Heel. Even though Boyd technically tried to leave his pack to find another (note: we never really saw or heard Boyd comment about what a mistake that was!).

Jennifer comes across as a Ship Sinking attempt on Jeff's part, because she appears to just clutter up an already overly-large ensemble cast. To your point, Derek should be reconnecting with Cora, especially since the death of his family has been one of his biggest life traumas. I'm actually a little amazed he lets her out of his sight! It was at least nice to see her with Stiles and Lydia. The slasher in me thinks that she might kind of like her potential future brother-in-law. :-)

As for the wolfsbane thing, the only argument I can make is that in "Party Guessed", everybody drank the spiked punch, whereas on the bus with the whistle, they were breathing very faint amounts of wolfsbane. The werewolves, with a superior sense of smell and general metaphysical sensitivity to the stuff might have been affected more strongly than the humans given such a small dose.

Yes, they are trying to be epic, and instead they are overreaching and losing too many things along the way.

I've always wanted to see Derek have more overt relationships with characters. When he bit his three betas, I was hopeful, but he never really seemed to connect with them. He actually treated them a bit like soldiers, training them hardcore and getting them to do his bidding. Then later, we're shown that he does care about them. But the problem is that we never saw them have meaningful conversations. The show could have cut one scene of Scallison and developed those relationships, but no.

Before I even started watching the show I knew about Sterek due to all mu fanfic friends who wouldn't shut up about it. (Actually I was essentially forced to watch the show. I was hesitant to because, I mean, ot was called Teen Wolf.) Then I kept wondering why the ship was so popular. And then they were saving each other's lives and TOTALLY FLIRTING I REFUSE TO ACCEPT ANYTHING ELSE and I was was like, "Yep. I get it."

There are really only a few creators who can handle large casts, and I fear that Jeff Davis isn't isn't one of them. All these new characters just feel unnecessary. I consider the characters to be the selling point, so this is worrying.

I guess it's better just to accept what the show sells us... I still think it's BS.

No, if the show has a problem, it is that Jeff cannot handle a cast the size of the one he's amassed. He obviously likes to create new characters. But I equate his habit with my mother's gardening. She loves to *plant* things. But she is not fond of weeding, watering and pruning. So by mid-summer her garden usually looks like a wild mess. Likewise, it is mid-summer and Teen Wolf is also a wild mess, because Jeff is juggling multiple characters in each of his primary, secondary and tertiary casts.