What They Say:
Muted – A new freshman player jeopardizes Scott’s position on the Lacrosse team. Stilinski investigates a savage murder.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Teen Wolf has had some good stuff going on so far this season, though it’s also been frustrating a bit with the way it’s kind of glossed over at best some of the events of the end of the third season. I’m enjoying the greater use of some of the newer characters to be sure, even enjoying Malia, which I never expected to, but I’ve also wished for a bit more with Kira and Scott in order to work through things a bit. Still, the show wanted to start the season hitting the ground running and it’s done exactly that with the Mexico trip, the were-jaguar and bringing Kate back into things once again. Opening up Scott’s world to bigger things that go bump in the night certainly makes sense and especially at this stage of the series where we’re now in the fourth season. It’s not all Beacon Hills anymore.
That said, it’s actually good to get back to some Beacon Hills stories for a bit. Murders are, unfortunately, nothing new for this area and they do tend to be pretty grizzly. Which is why we saw Scott’s father coming in for a bit and looking into things that the sheriff was having a hard time getting solved. The violent side of Beacon Hills is made clear at the start here as we get to see a young man listening to some horrors going on outside his room after seeing his cat Willow under his bed covered in blood. The introduction of an axe wielding maniac in the house chasing the shirtless young man in sweatpants is definitely nicely done since it has tension, a little eye-candy for the viewers and some damn creepy moments as it works its way along. With the thing on the other side of the door calling out to Sea using a keyboard and voice distorter, we get something that goes up a few notches here in how Sean gets challenged to defend himself and it offers up something really interesting that’s different from how these kinds of moments usually play out.
The show does pick up on some of the events from last week as we get a bit more with what’s going on with Peter and Derek. With the Hale’s now being out 117 million in bonds, they’re doing pretty much everything they can to find Kate since, as Peter says, he can’t exactly just get a job. Scott and Derek are now realizing that they have a lot of problems to deal with but there are some that hit them a little more personally in a way as we see that a new freshman, Liam, is excelling at Lacrosse and there’s some amusing moments where they talk about he may be their first freshman captain based on his ability. That gets the boys to practice, something we haven’t seen much of since season two. We also get a little more reality coming into the series as we see Scott’s mother, Melissa, dealing with problems at the hospital in that they have to start letting people go after all the damage the facility has taken and that the insurance isn’t going to cover it. A realistic effect of all that happened last season. Heck, we even get that nod for Stiles as he and his father are struggling with the Eichen House costs and medical bills. It’s a series of elements that helps to grind down those involved all the more while struggling with the big issues.
Another amusing difficulty that comes into play is that Kira learns that her parents are selling the house and looking to head back to New York. That obviously doesn’t go well with Kira as she’s glad to finally have friends that understand her and the potential of what Scott is. While she tries to make the play about her father having a good job, it definitely falls flat when it’s revealed he was a professor at Columbia prior to coming out here. Her parents are, sadly, a little too dismissive of what she’s found here, especially with the kind of people she’s become involved with, but you can also see them acting that way to try and get her away from it all since it could put her in a whole lot more danger.
With our new villain having caused a triple homicide that Sean did escape from, he’s all the news at the moment. While the sheriff is glad that he doesn’t have to involve the kids because they believe an axe murderer to not be supernatural, we do get some time here and there with the killer and he’s a pretty intense piece of work with no mouth, blood ports to a computer and a really ominous attitude. While you can understand the kids wanting to get involved, it’s good to see that they’re being kept out of it and we get to see how the police are handling it, along with an amusing US marshal that’s brought in to provide some expert opinion on it all. That it’s Braedon using a cover just adds to the fun since she’s using it as an opportunity to try and find Kate. Letting the adults story focus on its own, though you know it will merge later on, definitely is one of the more appealing things about the show because you don’t get a series of clueless and inept adults that just make a mess of things. This series really stands out in that area.
Thankfully, amid all that’s going on, we do get a little bit of good relationship material happening here. With Kira playing the supporting hopeful girlfriend role, she’s been doing her best to get closer to Scott and see what’s really there because she is totally into him. She has a few too many “I’m sorry’s” mixed into things, but when Scott ends up coming back towards her after leaving her and they both make it clear they want more and for things to not be awkward in that way, they get that great kiss that works well for presenting the whole teenage innocence thing. Of course, there’s bigger issues to be had here with her going to be leaving, but that’s just more fuel for the fire as it progresses.
There’s a lot of dark elements to the show to be sure, but like the Kira and Scott angle, there’s a lot of other things to enjoy as well such as Kira’s potentially finding her place here with the way she has an aptitude for lacrosse that may be good for her. We also get a sequence where Stiles is off to help Malia study since he’s intent on helping her, but she’s also quite interested in grinding against him a lot. Stiles is a good guy though and while he intends to get back to that kind of grinding, he wants her to study a bit first. Though a part of me will always want the whole Stiles and Lydia relationship to exist, it’s fun to see Stiles having a good time with someone and being in a relationship of some sort.
Lydia’s role is again one that’s quite awkward in its own way as she’s always got something a little weird going on. Her notes are all over the map and when Stiles discovers this, it makes for a good panic. But Lydia isn’t just about the notes and her disconnect from reality at times as she ends up in the triple murder house and, when one of the deputies investigates as well, they discover a meat locker room hidden inside that doesn’t have venison but rather a lot of bodies. It’s pretty creepy all on its own, but when it ties back to Sean once again after being mostly off screen for the episode, we get to see that there’s far more going on with him than we thought. And that adds another new element to the show with whatever it is he may actually be.This gives us a bit of the minor action component to the show, unless you count the lacrosse material as action, and it gives the hospital a little more to worry about as well. Revealing that Sean is a Wendigo is intriguing, especially if we get more of what he can become, and the kind of fight that ensues is definitely a rough on that once again puts Scott in a really tough place. One with some real bad results coming in the future with what he does to Liam.
In Summary:
While the cast has been pared down a good deal this season to focus on certain aspects of it, we’re getting a lot of good time focusing on Scott and all the problems that surround him and those that are here. It’s an interesting refocus that’s working well for me since it’s a tighter and smaller show while opening it up to the world at large with wendingo’s, were-jaguars and now Scott creating his first werewolf as an Alpha. But we get some bigger things going on in the background with what Kate’s up to and what Derek looks to be facing with his losses. There’s a lot to like here and I’m loving the expanding mythology of the show, but I’m still hoping for a bit more of the whole relationship side as that was what really grounded and humanized the show for me early on. There’s some great moments for it here but I want more.
Grade: B+
