The alpha wolf is continuing its strange series of attacks and that has Derek and Scott working more closely together at last.
What They Say:
The Tell – A new animal attack raises more questions; Scott and Allison skip school; Derek deals with the hunters on his own.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Life in this simple little town is getting a bit more complicated with all that’s going on. The opening shows us how the alpha wolf is getting more involved in its hunt, which doesn’t seem to have much rhyme or reason just yet, as it kills what it feels like could just be fun. This is why the video store clerk gets nailed pretty hard, off camera at least, and when Jackson walks in to rent a movie for his girlfriend that he doesn’t want to watch again (fool, The Notebook is awesome!), things go to hell for him pretty quickly. It’s a creepy scene as he’s knocked down and the wolf draws its claw along his neck lightly, leaving a simple cut that has a strange purple glow to it.
Because of this, there’s a two pronged move to try and figure out what’s going on. You have Derek and Scott who are doing their investigation of things to find the alpha wolf, but Scott is feeling the pressure of both this hunt and the way he finds the rules of it all to be foolish, and the demands of being a teenager that’s not doing well with some of his classes and just wants to live long enough to actually finish high school. It’s a natural reaction, but it’s not really played well here with the emotion behind it and the dialogue for it all. You can see why Scott is panicking over having to deal with both sides of this, but there’s still that lack of a thrill that he should be feeling when it comes to what he realizes he can do, and that there are things he has to do in order to survive so he can actually deal with those teenage issues.
Running in parallel to this is Stiles, who is going through his investigation of events as he knows something is going on with Jackson and Lydia after the video store event that he’s convinced has something to do with the alpha wolf. This is more fun than I thought it would be, though Stiles can be annoying with his particular style to things, but through it and what we see of the other two, there’s plenty of tension building up. Jackson is completely on edge after what he’s felt, since he didn’t seem to actually see anything, but Lydia did catch a glimpse of the wolf and even got it on video. That scene where Stiles learns of this, as she’s doped herself up a bit to not remember the incident, is amusing since it puts the two of them close together and she’s pretty fun when she’s mellow.
While there’s plenty of tension and building drama to the show, the fun area is definitely fun as it involves Scott and Allison skipping school for the day since it’s her birthday and she has understandable reasons for not wanting to be there. The two get along pretty well at this point and have good chemistry together, and it continues to be very refreshing to watch what feels like a normal teenage relationship in that they’re close, there’s some real desire to be had there, but they also know how to just hang out and have fun with each other. And smile. They smile at each other a lot which is a great thing. This part of the show has definitely been a big plus for me since it helps to make these important characters a lot more believable, even when they do other stupid things.
In Summary:
This episode focuses heavily on basically getting its hands on all the characters and providing a better look at them in the more personal sense. While the alpha wolf storyline is ongoing and we get Scott and Allison spending some really good quality time together, it’s set against the back-drop of the parent teacher conferences. Through this and what we see from certain teachers, we get a much better handle on how these kids really are in a lot of ways, from the pain they’re hid-ing and the real abilities they have that aren’t being utilized in the pursuit of academics but other things. There’s a lot to like here, which helps ease the really bad sequence that has Allison’s aunt going on a hunt for Derek that doesn’t help either of them to come across well. Derek continues to be the weak point in the series, both in what they’re doing with the character and the perfor-mance. Beyond that though, this is a good episode, but one that helps to flesh things out rather than to really move the storyline forward.
Grade: B
