The real danger starts to make an appearance, albeit while wearing masks.
What They Say:
Illuminated – Beach Hills is under curfew from the power outage. The teens throw a blacklight Halloween party. Scott tries to earn Kira’s trust.
The Review:
As Teen Wolf continues to work the larger storyline, it’s also managed to give us some individual story episodes that definitely work nicely. They’re not quite monster of the week kind of pieces, but the gist of it is that we get a relatively self contained story that allows us to enjoy the moment while seeing the larger threads teased and massaged. While the story involving Derek and Peter has been intriguing, I have to admit what I’ve enjoyed the most are the small moments with Kira as she’s made a part of the season. By herself she’s certainly an interesting kind of awkward when it comes to Scott, but I also love the way her parents get involved in things as her father is a real piece of work that’s just having fun with it. There’s also the continuing interest in seeing what Isaac and Allison are like, particularly since her father had the line of the week last week when he saw them undressing together.
The fallout from the power station incident is rather comical here, especially as Scott’s father is questioning them all and they’re trying to play off some of what happened so that it doesn’t turn into dealing with any really awkward questions considering her energy manipulation ability that cropped up. There’s some real cuteness between Kira and Scott with how they handle it, but the best has to be Stiles and his father as the two of them really are fun to watch since his father is so rarely lighthearted like that. Scott’s father is really having a hard time grappling with how Beacon Hills is operating since there are so many unexplained things going on town and sheriff Stilinsky doesn’t seem to be taking certain things seriously when it comes to this situation. But that’s simply because of his recent newfound knowledge of what’s really going on around there.
The town itself is in an awkward phase here because of that power station issue as there’s no real power throughout it and that’s making things difficult. But not so much that they won’t stop school, even if that violates all sorts of regulations. With parties cropping up and general silliness abound, it has a kind of odd lightness that makes it fun even if you know that Bad Things are coming. Especially since it’s Halloween and the kids can’t resist getting out there. Which is even more hilarious when you see a group of kids come across Derek and say the magic words. You wait for the bad moment, but he’s actually pretty cool with them even if he does freak them out. It’s the kind of small moment that really does hit the right note for how his character has changed over the seasons.
The story with Kira is layered nicely here as well as she’s realizing that there’s definitely a lot going on with her since the power station incident, and potentially before then as well depending on how it’s interpreted. When she takes a picture of herself with a cell phone, she’s surrounded by a flow of flames and energy that’s not seen when looking at her normally. Which has her wanting to get her phone back that Scott’s father has from the investigation since there are images like that on there. She’s trusting Scott really well at this point after what they’ve been through, so it’s a really nice bit of interaction when she trusts him to go through the picture process and to see how he reacts right to it, understanding the problem she faces should her problem be discovered. Secrets definitely can help bond people closer together and even more so when dealing with teenagers.
That whole issue turns into quite the little caper, bringing Stiles into play, but the real fun is that in the end, it has the two of them spending more time together. And that includes Scott starting to find his life after Allison, which is definitely a necessity considering the way both of their lives are going. Taking her to a rave in Derek’s old place may not be the best of ideas, but we get the Hollywood vision of what they’re like with all the paint and colors, the strobe lights and all that it entails, while also bringing in the dark spirit that’s starting to circle things in town. It may be unrealistic, but it definitely looks great and sets the right tone for what’s going on. Which goes badly when Ethan gets caught up by the creature that’s stalking the place, but it also feels like Danny is being changed as well based on the way he reacts while getting the body paint work done as it’s very tribal and hints at something larger. His relationship with Ethan has been great to watch so getting even a little more fun time for them here is good since Ethan and Aiden came back to school.
Another neat twist that comes as the rave unfolds is that we get the awkward moment where Allison sees Scott there with Kira, and Kira ends up backing away even as the two kind of acknowledge that they’ve moved on. So when Scott goes to find Kira again, he uses his powers to to see her in the crowd. But he’s able to see the power flowing around her and it takes on the look of a fox for a very brief moment around her face, which really does look intriguing. There’s a lot of fun little character moments as the whole rave plays out, especially with Lydia being the bored one in the middle of it all in seeing how all her friends are acting, but she’s also the first to really realize there’s something else among them because of her specialized skillset. And naturally, she gets caught p in it in a pretty bad way with what’s going on, though there’s a twist to it all.
Sidebar: the helmet that the DJ wears reminds me heavily of the Grendel visage from the Matt Wagner comic series.
The small moments really do end up dominating things here, and it’s all quite appealing as there’s some good character material that’s also advancing the overall plot. But we also get some really intriguing bits as well, such as Stiles finally realizing what the key he found early on may be about and Scott talking openly with Kira about what he saw with her. We also get a strange moment with Isaac, when Allison is kissing him of all things on the dancer floor, and we see that he’s been branded with the number five behind his ear. That spirals into the others that have been taken down by the mystery person who all also have that number on them. Which isn’t limited to the rave directly either, painting a very dangerous big picture game that’s come into play as everyone is being marked in the same way. It also clues Scott in that Derek is back in town…
In Summary:
This episode is mostly about setup in a lot of ways as it moves along as it’s only in the final minute or two do we get a look at what the real threat may be. A threat that may be looking to take down a lot of those in the area as collateral damage. Those last couple of minutes are really engaging since it builds so beautifully to it throughout the episode and it hints at what’s coming in a really enticing way. But it balances it with a lot of great character material since there are so many different things going on with all the relationships here and their connections to each other. The rave is forced just in the quality of it but it provides the right visuals and certainly ups the ante in how it makes everyone look and feel. Add in the twist with Stiles that’s coming into play and there’s a whole lot to like with what’s going on, especially if you’re like me and a big advocate of Scott and Kira getting closer.
Grade: B+
