The quiet before the storm of the season finale is anything but quiet.
What They Say:
Battlefield – Scott helps win the championship lacross game; Allison and Argent hunt Derek and his wolves.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the previous episode having blown my socks off with all that it accomplished, the tricks of it all and the changes to the characters, the final two episodes of the season have a lot to live up to. But with the revelations and changes made, it certainly opens tiself up to a lot of things happening and going on that can further change the status quo and make it even more interesting. The show does a good job of showing some of the initial fallout well through Stiles going through a bit of counseling, showing us that his dad is back as the sheriff after being involved in the incident. Scott’s mother is keeping herself distant from her son and Allison is coping with the death of her mother by staying apart from everyone, especially Scott. And amusingly, Lydia is the one that seems the most normal at this point according to him.
While things have a subtle, slow and interesting feeling about it in the opening it does take a dra-matic turn as we see Gerard is making his intentions clear. Coming into Scott’s home with Kanima, having him threaten Scott by using his mother as a bargaining chip and just being blunt works well for him. What’s interesting is that he does make it clear what he wants with no coy-ness about it. The desire to get Derek and his pack, to take them down completely, he doesn’t hold back that it’s purely about revenge at this point after what happened to Kate in the first sea-son. That puts Scott in an awkward position in general, but it’s surprising that his mother makes it plain that she wants Scott to do anything Gerard wants to get him out of their lives. She’s in a state of shock overall and just wants it all to go away.
While there are some smaller moments going on here, the main thrust comes down to a couple of things. With the big lacrosse about to hit, Scott’s intending to skip it and Derek’s pack, sans Derek, is ready to skip town so they can have something of a life with some other pack. Isaac is questioning it and finds himself drawn to Scott for some help and answers based on what he’s seen Scott be like with his friends. We do get some neat new little bits about healing abilities that I must have missed before but the main grab from it all is that Jackson has been showing up school where Scott hasn’t and he intends to play in the game. Which forces Scott to get back into the game himself since he knows Jackson is under Gerard’s control and there’s a lot of potential for supreme chaos and death.
While there’s a good deal of seriousness to be had with the situation as the game gets underway with a few different scenarios unfolding, they do manage to slide in some humor as well that works very well. With Stiles actually getting to play for the first time, he’s in shock and his dad is just hilarious with how he handles it all. It’s a good balance to everything as so much more dark-ness unfolds around them. Gerard wants Derek and is willing to set Jackson loose as the Kanima during the game. And with those who left Derek, they’re now being hunted by Allison who is going after them with a coldhearted nature after what happened to her mother. And it’s pretty impressive, though it disturbs her father to no end. She’s intent on taking them out, which goes against how the family has operated under Argent’s rules. She can’t quite pull off the attitude, but she does it well enough to make it work.
In Summary:
There was no way that the episode could measure up to what the previous episode was, but it covers a lot of very good ground here. The fallout between Scott and his mother moves along without as much dialogue as I’d like, but it does the job right when you get down to it. Derek has a length spread out discussion with his uncle as they go over what’s involved in how to really take down Jackson. And Allison really goes to town here on the runaways from Derek in a way that makes you cringe, wondering if she can make a comeback from it to who she was before her mother was killed. But the best for me, small as it was, involved seeing Stiles in the game, goofy and horrible at first, but eventually hitting his stride. That alone was worthwhile, but the cheering section he gets with his father and the grand smile from Lydia really makes it a winner. Right up until it all goes to hell in the final seconds…
Grade: B+
Get More: Teen Wolf, Full Episodes
