Can this really end well?
What They Say:
Master Plan – Scott and his friends try to discover Gerard’s master plan; Derek intends to use his own methods for a takedown.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
After a very engaging first season, the second season of Teen Wolf has been a real treat to watch because of the way it managed several different storylines and drew them all together well. Hell, it’s even made the lacrosse coach really engaging and fun to watch throughout and espe-cially with his heartfelt moment at the start here in dealing with Scott and his grades. The series has hit a lot of the right tones throughout and moved the storylines in thoroughly engaging ways as it added tot he cast, grew it surprisingly naturally and expanded the world view. But in the end, a lot of what’s going on here is all about revenge as Gerard is going to make things as right as he can after Kate’s death.
As one can expect from any finale, there’s a lot of loose ends that start coming together in a bigger way. With Jackson supposedly dead, we’re seeing more and more that everything is going exactly how Gerard wants it. Argent is really coming to grips with that now that he’s lost his wife and how he sees the ways that Gerard is manipulating his daughter. And it’s pushing him to try and draw back Allison in any way that he can. With Gerard having his own master plan here and everyone operating as puppets, what’s becoming clear is that one of the big unknowns here that can throw everything off course may just be Peter, who has now made his presence clear to Scott. Talk about a surprising moment for Scott to say the least.
One of the best subplots of the season for me has been seeing what’s been going on with Lydia and Stiles, and the way that Stiles feels like what little chance he’s had is slipping away. Lydia had a great moment in the previous episode during the game where she saw him in a different light, but she’s still thoroughly tied to Jackson at this point because of the manipulations going on. And even though everyone thinks Jackson is dead, she’s still intent on delivering a key she has. Of course, we know Jackson’s not “quite” dead yet with the way his body is healing itself, which of course all goes back to Gerard’s master plan that is using anyone and everyone.
The other thing the show does well is that it manages to keep some characters firmly locked into their paths and worldviews while with others, they are growing, changing and adapting to what’s going on to suit the moment. When we discover that Jackson’s changing into something else, something that isn’t any better when Peter and Derek view the animated clip, we can see the way that allegiances and relations can change, notably when it comes to Argent who just wants to do the best that he can for his daughter. But even Scott’s mom has come around in a great way and Stile’s dad is moving forward on the path in just as good a way. Even Isaac when you get down to it has adjusted well with the whole sides thing by partnering up with Scott a lot.
With the second half of the episode, everything comes to a head in a very, very good way. While the action is about par for the show where it has that low budget feel, weak choreography and kind of limp moments with the cinematography for it, it’s the emotion and overall atmosphere that makes it work. With nearly everyone ending up in the warehouse where it all goes down, we get the true reveal about Gerard’s plan, how Scott figured it out a few episodes back and the trick that went into making the play work right for him. It’s something that you can see in retrospect and it works well here as a lot of subplots tie together and are given a clean break. Sometimes too much of a clean break in a way.
The final episode of the season serves up some solid closure on the overall arc of the season when it comes to Gerard and the Kanima, but it also gives us a great new twist with Jackson as he becomes what looks to be quite a powerful werewolf himself now that the Kanima stuff may be out of his system. But the episode also puts a lot of relationships into play, breaking up Scott and Allison for the time being and reinforcing a Lydia and Jackson relationship that sends Stiles into a small spiral. All of it is understandable, but I had hoped for a little more true love to be found. Not that Jackson and Lydia don’t have something, but that dynamic just doesn’t work as well for me as I’d like. We also get a lot – and I mean a lot – of setup for the next season with the introduction of a pack of Alphas and a look at our favorite veterinarian and guidance counselor who will have greatly expanded roles in it. It leaves you wanting much, much more.
In Summary:
Thankfully, with the third season announced and a bump up from twelve to twenty-four episodes, there is a huge amount of material to look forward to with the next season. And it has a lot to live up to as the first two seasons really did something special here even with its low budget and sometimes amateur approach to things. What it did was make everything work because it felt more real and personal for a supernatural series than most of them do. It didn’t stretch things out, it made it all fit within the context of the world they created and it was massaged juts right to expand that world. I love this cast of characters, this cast itself and the engaging storylines with teenagers that act like teenagers and use the right kind of dialogue, technology and relationship styles that work. While I think the best episode of the season was a few episodes ago, this is a great way to close things up and leave you desperately wanting more.
Grade: A
