[Image description: Scott McCall, main character of MTV's Teen Wolf, flashing his fangs under his lacrosse helmet with a panicked expression on his face.]Well, it's a week after MTV's Teen Wolf debuted, and another episode has aired. Let's see what the brilliant minds over at MTV have for us this time!
Warning: Spoilers ahead.
When last we saw Scott, he had successfully used his werewolf powers to win at lacrosse, but barely avoided getting caught. He also failed at getting Derrick tried for murder.
This week, the episode begins with Scott and Allison being giggly in the school parking lot after dark. Scott is taking Allison to one of the buses. She asks where he's taking her and he says, "Somewhere we can be alone." Stereotypical teenage naughtiness ahoy!
Scott, showing characteristic good judgment, decides it would be a fantastic idea to sneak into the back of one of the buses to make out. He leads Allison inside and, after making absolutely adorkable faces at each other (seriously - cutest couple ever), Scott starts putting the moves on Allison. As they kiss, happy music swells, little flying hearts leave a heart-shaped trail of hearts around their head, and the moon turns bright pink and becomes bigger in the sky.
Wait, wrong werewolf. No, for this kiss (which rapidly becomes a makeout session of epic teenage proportions), we just get happy music.
But things soon go horribly wrong, as Scott's nails start to grow into wolf claws. (Gee, who saw that coming? Well, everyone who saw this scene as a promo, for one. He realizes he's wolfing out and backs off, clutching his abdomen. Allison asks what's wrong; he tells her to get away. She doesn't, and he continues to transform.
Trying to figure out what's wrong with Scott, Allison receives a shock when he looks at her with his wolf face on. She starts to go for the door (in stunning wolf-o-vision), but he follows her, and when she runs he grabs her ankle and drags her back. Typical wolf behavior, that.
Ah, but Allison is not so easily caught. She delivers a stern kick into Scott's torso and bolts. The door is stuck, however. As she's trying to pry it open, Scott rips up one of the bus seats and throws it at her, though due to darkness and the seat bouncing around I'm not sure if it hit her. Then he comes after her, wraps his fingers over her mouth, and...
Cut to Scott and Stiles walking into school.
It was all a dream! Presumably it ended with Allison dying, but Scott isn't sure; what he is sure is that it felt extremely real and that bothers him. Stiles notes the timing - tonight is the night when Scott takes Allison out on a date, and Stiles believes he has a bad case of nerves. He tells Scott that he'll probably be fine and has been handling his lycanthropy very well considering he hasn't had any instruction. Scott muses that he could use a teacher. Stiles realizes that he's thinking of Derek, and says that asking him for help would be an extremely bad idea, especially considering their recent (successful) ploy to get him arrested. But Scott seems to think it's his only option. He re-emphasizes that the dream felt abnormally real, as if it could actually happen.
Then they exit the back of the school and see one of the buses, mauled, covered in bloody smears and being photographed.
Stiles comments: "I think it did."
Roll credits.
When the episode resumes, Scott is walking through school, searching frantically for Allison. Stiles tells him that she's probably okay and that the damaged bus could just be a coincidence, but Scott ignores him. As he becomes more and more panicked, his heart starts racing and his wolf powers kick in, culminating in him severely denting the door of a locker. He starts to calm down... and just then, Allison knocks into him from behind.
She says that he scared the Hell out of her (really? You bumped into him, lady.) They exchange pleasantries, and Scott stares in undisguised relief until the PA system kicks in. The school principal is on the line, letting everyone know that the recent bus massacre will not impede normal school functions. All are disappointed.
Allison and Scott agree to meet at lunch that day. Allison leaves, and Scott turns to see Jackson attempting to operate the locker he just punched. Scott finds this lulzy.
In chemistry class, Scott and Stiles continue to talk about the bus incident. Stiles suggests that Scott caught a rabbit and ate it.
Scott: "Raw?"
Stiles: "No, you stuffed it in a little werewolf oven and baked it."
I am imagining a werewolf-themed EZ-Bake oven. Eddie Munster so would have had one of those as a kid.
The teacher catches them talking and forces them to move to different seats. Scott ends up sitting right in front of Jackson, who is taking stinkeye lessons from Derek, apparently. Then the student next to Scott (the black girl from the first episode, in fact) announces that she thinks the investigators have found something. The students rush to the window to see paramedics moving a body into an ambulance. Scott notes that this is not a rabbit.
Suddenly the body sits up. It's some older dude, and he's panicked and screaming. Scott is horrified and backs away from the window. Stiles tells him that it's all right; the guy's not dead, so that's a good thing.
Scott responds: "Stiles. I did that."
They continue discussing the subject over lunch. Stiles insists that dreams aren't memories. Scott then decides that it wasn't a dream, and he just doesn't remember exactly what actually happened. The subject turns back to Derek. Stiles is still convinced that it's a bad idea to go to him, but Scott is more determined than ever. He points out that Derek was running around completely human on the full moon. He also says that he will have to cancel his date with Allison. Stiles argues against this.
Just then, Lydia sits down at their table. Stiles is surprised but pleased by this development, and quietly asks Scott why she is sitting with them. Scott has no answer, but shortly afterward Allison and several other students sit down as well. (Although one of them is forced to leave when Jackson shows up because he might have been staring at Lydia's privates.)
They start talking about the attack. One student suggests that it was a cougar; Jackson said that he heard it was a mountain lion. Lydia says that those two are the same thing, but she's not sure. Jackson says it doesn't matter since the guy was probably a homeless druggie. And unchecked classism of the episode.
Then Stiles reveals that he knows who the victim is! News to me. He pulls out his PSP and shows a video which reveals the name of the victim, a somebody Meyers. Scott announces that he knows who the guy is - the guy who drove the school bus back when Scott was a kid. Dun dun dun.
Lydia changes the subject to Allison and Scott's upcoming date, to which she invites herself and Jackson. Scott is hesitant about this new development, but Allison is all for it.
Jackson, on the other hand, is not. Lydia suggests that they go bowling, since he likes bowling, but he says that he only likes it when he has actual competition. Allison takes this as a challenge, and pressures Scott into convincing Jackson that they will be worthy competition. Scott lies and says that he is a great bowler.
(Fun fact: In the Teen Wolf movie, Pamela and Scott go bowling on their one and only date. Mick is also there and gives Scott plenty of stinkeye.)
Back in the halls, Scott and Stiles argue. First Scott's date with Allison has been hijacked into "hanging out," and now he's been talked into doing something he's terrible at. This is reasonable. What's not reasonable is Stiles' heterosexist comments that "once you're hanging out, you're practically her gay best friend - you can start hanging out with Danny." Danny, of course, is the gay goalie who never appears on screen.
Scott continues to fret, but Stiles' brain has been hijacked by his own comments and he notes that Danny doesn't like him very much. He asks Scott if he's unattractive to gay guys, but Scott is busy fretting and also late for work so he doesn't answer.
I know this probably won't go anywhere, but I would really love it if this developed into a subplot wherein we learn that Stiles is bisexual and genuinely interested in Danny. It seems much more likely than Scott and Jackson ever getting together, plus they've been doing a decent amount of lead-up (see: "running gag") for it.
Cut to the Beacon Hills Animal Clinic (the one where Scott and Allison hit it off in the first episode), where Scott has just arrived. He runs inside and apologizes for being late. The vet says that he's all of two minutes late, and Scott says that he just doesn't want him to think he's slacking. The doctor assures him that this could not possibly happen, when who should show up but Stiles' dad, the cop?
He's bringing in a police dog, who is here to get its stitches out, and asks Scott if he's staying out of trouble. Scott says yes, and Stilinsky Sr. and the doctor start attending to the dog. Before he can get going, though, Stilinsky Sr. asks him to look at the photographs of the recent attack victim. He also mentions the wolf hairs on Derek's sister's body, implying that he believes the two attacks to be connected.
Scott brings up the distinct lack of wolves in California, and the vet says that wolves are highly migratory and could be around for any number of reasons. They have some bullshit conversation about how wolves have long-term memory "if driven by a primal urge" or something like that (I do not know but it sounded like complete nonsense and I'm sure my dog would agree). This is apparently relevant to whether Scott would be able to remember something he had done while wolfed out.
The vet says that this victim was not attacked by a wolf, though - a wolf would have gone for the throat and this guy has just been scratched badly. However, he has been scratched badly at the ankle, where Scott grabbed Allison in his dream. Dun dun dun.
After work, Scott brings dinner to his mother, who is working at the Beacon Hills hospital. She appreciates the gift but tells him that there's a curfew on and he is not getting the car for his date. Busted!
(So, in the movie Scott only has his dad, who owns a hardware store. In the show Scott only has his mom, who is a nurse. Talk about heteronormativity.)
Scott is about to leave when he suddenly realizes that he's in the same building as the guy who was attacked in the bus. Investigation time! He absconds to the guy's room and sneaks in.
Meyers is lying in bed, badly damaged but awake. Scott tries to talk to him, but he panicks and starts yelling. Scott's mom rushes in and throws him out while Meyers has a panic attack.
An indefinite amount of time later, someone from the sheriff's office pulls up to Derek's house. We learn that he has orders to ensure that the place is vacant (presumably because it's trashed), and that he's driven up here into the middle of the woods all alone to snoop around the home of the creepy angry man who lives in a burned-out wreck. Yes, there is no way this can possibly go wrong.
The guy seems to sense that he's in danger, as the sound of his own dog barking startles him. Still, he makes his way toward the house, while Derek stares at him from a broken window. Derek's eyes glow bright blue (a contrast to Scott's yellow), and the dog becomes frantic, snarling and trying to climb out through the window. That's enough for this guy, who leaves.
But Derek's day is not about to get better, as Scott walks up to the house almost immediately after the other guy left. Scott takes advantage of Derek's werewolf superpowers by talking to him in a normal conversational tone from the middle of the yard, and asks for Derek's help.
Astonishingly, Derek comes outside to talk to Scott. Scott admits that he has been a royal dick to Derek, and then tells him about the dream and the attack at school. Derek acts like Scott is wrong for assuming that he was the one who attacked the guy, but he doesn't elaborate; he does tell Scott when asked that he is liable to hurt or kill someone. Nice to have that cleared up.
Derek offers to help Scott learn to control his "gift," but there will be a cost. A cost which he will tell Scott at a later date after he has already agreed to pay it. For now, though, he just tells Scott to go back to the bus and check it out and that when he does he will know whether or not he is likely to injure Allison in the near future.
That night, Stiles drives Scott back to the school. They're about to sneak in when Scott tells Stiles to wait outside and keep watch. Stiles complains that he's starting to feel like the Robin to Scott's Batman. (Congratulations, Stiles, you understand how it works.) Scott claims otherwise, but Stiles doesn't buy it, and goes back to the Jeep to sulk while Scott climbs the fence and goes for the bus.
He closes his eyes, smells the air, and has a flashback to the night before when he had a particularly enraging dream and woke up partly transformed. The memory starts to set him off again, but he works to control himself as he goes to make a closer inspection. He touches the door (with his bare hand - oh, Scott, how lucky you are that the police finished checking the place out) and gets a flashback to the dream, then goes inside.
Inside the bus, Scott continues having flashbacks, as scenes from his dream intersperse with scenes of the same things happening to Meyers. He also sees himself throwing the seat from across the room (lolwut?) and flinches. Then he remembers something else - reaching out to a panicked Meyers and grasping his hand as though to help him get up.
Outside, a light starts flashing on school grounds and Stiles honks the horn to alert Scott. Scott also sees the light, and makes a break for it, using a convenient car as a platform to jump over the fence. (Bom-diddy-bom-de-dang-de-dang-diggy-diggy.)
While they make their escape, Scott tells Stiles what he remembered: that Derek had been on the bus, and that Scott had been there trying to defend Meyers. Which raises the question of why Derek would tell Scott how to remember that Derek attacked someone. Stiles brings up some nonsense about "a pack thing," then mentions how good it is to know that Scott wasn't the one who attacked Meyers. Scott agrees: now he can enjoy his date with Allison without worrying that something horrible is going to happen.
Stiles: "I was going to say it means you won't kill me."
Scott (in a kind of "I guess" tone): "Oh, yeah. That too."
In the next scene, Allison is getting ready for her... erm, "hang out." Lydia is there with her, giving advice on clothes. Lydia says no to virtually everything in Allison's closet, then tells her to wear this slinky black thing that is semitransparent and also has sequins - completely inappropriate for bowling. Knowing how manipulative Lydia can be I wouldn't be surprised if she's trying to accomplish something specific.
Just then, Allison's dad comes into the room. Lydia flirts with him (while I can't say that she has bad taste, the person who wrote this definitely does), but Mr. Argent ignores her. He tells Allison that she has to stay in tonight, because of the animal killing people and the curfew and yadda. He talks to her in the way that parents do that I find completely infuriating, but then he smiles and he is so goshdarn charming I cannot possibly be angry.
Lydia comments that "someone's daddy's little girl," then makes absolutely atrocious duckface while Allison contemplates the situation. Finally she makes a decision, and opens her bedroom window, climbs out onto an awning and does an impressive flip onto the ground. Sparrows, I think we have found the next Slayer. Unfortunately, the writers of Teen Wolf have put a firm kibosh on vampires for this show.
So they sneak out to the bowling alley. Allison has a history of bowling with her dad and takes the hobby fairly seriously, which flusters Scott who was last bowling when he was eight. Allison picks out a pink bowling ball (of course), while Lydia prepares to take her first shot... or... whatever it's called. I don't know; I only bowl on the Wii.
In a nod to the movie, Jackson helps Lydia to line up her shot by less-than-covertly feeling her up (oh, Jackson, you sexy beast), but as in the movie she gets a gutter ball. The next throw actually knocks out some pins, but she's not happy with her lack of skills. Then Allison goes up and gets a perfect strike. Jackson follows suit, flaunting his bishie gorgeousness all over the place and leaving Scott in the awkward position of having to live up to his lies.
I predict wolfination within the next minute.
Scott makes his first throw, which he way overdoes, resulting in an epic gutterball that gives Jackson much lulz. Allison and Jackson bicker about Scott's lack of skillz, and right before making his next throw Scott pleads to the heavens that he knock over just one pin.
And then gutters it again. No wolfination, just that irritating cheap camera trick from the first movie.
Over at the Food Mart, Derek is gassing up his car (we can tell it's Derek because, although the camera does not show his face, his leather jacket is looking especially angry) when two cars pull in, pinning his at the pump. Derek glowers at the cars, and one of the drivers gets out, sweet fatherly eyes strangely mismatched with a sneer. It is Mr. Argent.
Back at the bowling alley, Scott once again attempt to do something impressive with his ball. Allison, noticing his struggle, advises him to clear his head and think about something else - specifically, her naked. This gives Scott a raging hard-on - I mean, wolf-o-vision - and he suddenly makes a strike. Bow chicka wow wow.
Back at Food Mart, Derek manages to stare down all of the werewolf hunters and finish gassing his car at the same time. Mr. Argent waits until he's finished, then starts this passive-aggressive spiel about how great Derek's car is and he should take better care of it. He then starts washing Derek's windshield, which I am assuming is an aggressive move - first he insults his personal property, then starts exerting his will over it. Something like that. He tells Derek that he is very protective of the things he loves (i.e., Allison), then insults Derek for not having any living family members. Derek is pissed, and as Mr. Argent goes to walk away, he says that he forgot to check the oil. This does not faze Argent, who has a black belt in Calculated Posturing. He tells one of his men to check Derek's oil, and the guy smashes in the driver's side window and says it looks good to him. Argent tells Derek to drive safely and they leave.
At the bowling alley, Scott scores many strikes and Allison is most pleased. Jackson is not, and Lydia decides to mess with him, asking Scott to help her out with a throw. Scott declines, and she makes irritated duckface all the way to the aisle.
(Hey, look, guys! Our Scott has better judgment than the one in the movie! Aren't we clever.)
Jackson offers to help, but Lydia wants to go it alone. (Ooh. Burn.) She overacts a bit, lets the ball go, and bam! Strike. Apparently you don't actually have to be a werewolf to become a good bowler in five seconds. Actually, it turns out that Lydia is a great bowler, she just "does plenty of sucking for (Jackson's) benefit." Um... yeah. TMI, Lydia.
Jackson, butthurt, skulks off to go play some pinball. Scott follows him and tries to make pleasant conversation. Jackson is not interested in pleasant conversation, and accuses Scott of cheating at bowling. He doesn't think it's steroids anymore, but he's as determined as ever to find out what is giving Scott his amazing competitive edge. He then threatens to tell Allison what it is if/when he finds out, but compared to Argent he is a rookie at Aggressive Posturing.
Derek visits Meyers in the hospital. He tells Meyers to open his eyes, but Meyers is a stubborn person (or possibly asleep) and just lies there. Derek repeats the order, and tells Meyers to look at him; this time he complies. He asks Meyers what he remembers, but to his surprise Meyers knows who he is and keeps repeating two words: "I'm sorry."
Elsewhere, Scott's mother is getting ready to go home when she sees an alert for Meyers' room. She rushes inside and sees that he is dead. He doesn't have any new injuries, though, so how he died is a mystery.
Scott takes Allison home, and asks her if they can hang out again soon. She agrees, but says that she'd rather they go alone next time. SCOAR! They kiss, happy music plays, and Scott leaves a happy man. But! Allison's dad is in the house and he has seen them. Dun dun dun.
Back at Scott's house, his mother goes to tell him that she's going to bed, but he's not in his room. She starts to leave, then hears a thump and turns around. She sees a flailing figure in Scott's room and prepares to hit him with the baseball bat, but it's only Stiles. Apparently this is a common thing for him.
Stiles: "Do either of you even play baseball?"
Scott shows up during the commotion. His mother asks if either of them care that there's a curfew on, and when they say no, she gives up and leaves.
Once they're alone, Stiles tells Scott that Meyers is dead. This angers Scott, who goes to Derek's house to confront them (despite the fact that it is probably midnight by now - I have no idea when Scott sleeps, except between the hours of two and six). Finally, we get to see the inside of Derek's house! It's trashed, by the way.
He tells Derek that he knows what he did, but Derek says that he did nothing. He also reveals that he originally came to Beacon Hills to look for his sister, only to find that Mr. Argent had killed her and was trying to use her to get to Derek. Scott, ever the n00b, says he thinks Derek killed both of them and he is going to Tell Everyone. Who, I imagine, are all going to believe him because he has no evidence and so forth. This provokes Derek into throwing him down the stairs, which causes Scott to wolf out. He makes raeg face at Derek and throws him through a wall. Derek comments "That was cute," and wolfs out (in the same way as Scott.) For some reason, this dark-haired, beefy, leather-jacket-wearing guy with his monster face on reminds me of David Boreanaz.
And the Battle of The Muttonchops is on. Scott's agile, but Derek is both beefy and experienced. He bests Scott, and after they de-transform, tells him that he didn't kill anyone and it isn't either of their fault. Scott says that it is all Derek's fault - but he's not talking about the dead guy, he's talking about being a werewolf. Derek says he was not the one who bit Scott. Scott doesn't believe him at first, but then he has a flashback to the bus and realizes that the werewolf there was not Derek.
Derek says that the werewolf in question was an "Alpha," whereas Derek and Scott are Betas. All I know for sure about that is that it means that said werewolf is uber-powerful and has the ability to make more werewolves via biting. Derek explains that his sister was looking for that werewolf and now he's doing the same thing. But he needs Scott's help. Since the Alpha was the one who bit Scott, he's technically part of his pack, and he's trying to get ahold of him.
The camera makes a cheesy pan to a shot of glowing eyes in the forest. And end episode.
Well, this was exciting. We learned some more about the characters, especially Derek, and set up for something besides long-distance staring and bad assumptions (it's about time!) The black student from Episode 1 made a comeback, and two other black characters (the vet and the guy from the sheriff's) made appearances. Yet strangely, they are the only non-white characters in the show - no other races seem to exist in Beacon Hills. (Unless I'm missing something - if I am, please say so). They're also adult men, again. Cisgender, able-bodied, all that.
And what is up with Danny the gay goalie? Is he ever going to appear, or is he just going to be an ongoing joke for the straight main characters? What, what, what do they think they're doing with that character?
Once again, I feel like this episode was better than the last one, and they have gained my attention with Wolf!Derek. I will be looking forward to next week's episode.
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