![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Hello, friends! Sorry this one is so late today – I've been helping my parents unpack after they moved here a couple of weeks ago, and dutiful child that I am, overhelped a bit, leading to some back problems. I'm not wholly down for the count, but not being able to get comfortable made me pretty grumpy for the last day or so, and I've been putting off Teen Wolf for a happier time. Because Teen Wolf is happiness. Now I'm feeling less bad, so I'm getting this one up this evening and tomorrow's hopefully on time tomorrow!
Ah, denial! Always a good look, Scott. Stiles is sloppy drunk, and you're still the one embarrassing yourself with this “we're taking a break” routine. Also, dammit, show! Why do all my fandoms have leads who really need to lighten up but can't get drunk? First Steve Rogers, now Scott. What did fanfic writers ever do to deserve this? All we want is a not-very-labor-intensive means of getting our heroes to do things they wouldn't ordinarily do, and here you are forcing us to come up with “good reasons” that they would make “out-of-character decisions,” like a bunch of fascists.
I'm still trying to parse this breakup plotline. Lydia seems to feel it's justified because “Scott locked us in a classroom and left us for dead” – so maybe the trust issue is that Allison doesn't really believe he was trying to find keys, and that he really did leave them for dead, like so he could sneak out without them? That would indeed be upsetting, but I can't think what would make you believe that. The only other way that “leave them for dead” makes any earthly sense is if they had reason to believe they were more likely to survive if Scott stayed with them than if he left – which might be true! Since he's the fangiest friend they have! But also he was the actual target of the Alpha, so it's just as reasonable to assume that he drew fire away from them. And also, none of this matters, because they don't know any of that. I'm leaning more and more toward this just not being a coherent plotline.
Harris is an abusive asshole (and not in the awesome way that Finstock is an abusive asshole), but you have to feel his pain just a little for once. Teenagers do not follow simple directions! They do things that have no reason or meaning or utility, when doing the right thing would literally be equally simple if not simpler! They're the actual worst. I mean, I love them, and I miss working with them. But god almighty, they are the worst.
I'm glad the water helps. Really anything that keeps Scott soaking wet is entirely acceptable to me.
Danny, comin' around to Team Scott! I was so happy to realize at about this point that he was going to become a recurring character with an actual speaking role and opinions and a personality. I was happy when he was just a thing that existed in the world: Beacon Hills Lacrosse's out and proud gay goalie. But then he continued to say things! And take positions on topics! And be an early adopter to the awesomeness of Scott!
So, Lydia. Obviously she's giving out two different stories here, and I really wish we knew more about her at this point, because there are a couple of different options here, and I have no way to guess which is which. If she has correctly sussed out that Allison's breakup plan is stupid and that Scott is a good guy (and a strong guy, which is obviously what Lydia cares about more) who doesn't deserve the crap he's taking from Allison right now – then lying to Allison about what she really thinks is an interesting choice. I think it would have to mean that Lydia already has a deep-seated loyalty toward Allison and thinks that what a good friend does is back up your girl whether or not her decisions are any good. Or else it means that she was already planning to make a move on Scott and trying to get Allison fully over him faster? But then that undercuts the implication that he has a higher sexual magnetism as the full moon approaches that Lydia is vulnerable to. Or, also, she could think that Allison is totally in the right, but be perfectly happy to butter Scott up with this whole “you should be grateful” bit, because the aforementioned sexual-magnetism boost has her sizing him up quite differently now, when she hasn't shown the slightest interest in him previously. I think if I were presented with a similar range of choices a couple seasons down the line I could guess more accurately, but Lydia is still a very protean character in first season, and it's frustrating to me. I want to know!
What's the point of lying to Stiles, while we're at it? It doesn't seem to be to spare his feelings. I guess it could be just to shut him up, so he doesn't have some kind of heartbroken freak-out on the field, but that seems like a reach, and certainly Scott's smile suggests that he's actively fucking with Stiles. So was he hoping that Stiles would make a move on Lydia and get humiliatingly rejected? That seems...like a weirdly subtle form of evil in comparison to the rest of the full-moon modus operandi. Everything else indicates that Scott just becomes selfish and short-tempered, not that he has any interest in setting up a long game to make someone else unhappy. From the perspective of Scott's unchecked id, what's the payoff in stringing Stiles along here? Guys, I'm beginning to think this episode might be a hot mess.
When I was a small child, I named my teddy bear Melissa. We had a dictionary that I loved looking over, because it was huge and had gold-edged pages and felt very fancy to me, and it had an appendix in the back with personal names and their origins, in which I read that Melissa had to do with honey or bees or whatever its etymology is – I can't recall at the moment. Anyway, I agree with Kate: Mr. Bear is a lazy-ass name even for a five-year-old, Allison.
The full moon doesn't actually effect anything in the ER or anywhere else. There's real data on this. It's actually a falsifiable thing, and it's one of my pet peeves, so I'm pointing it out, but in fact tons of nurses believe it is true, because that's how confirmation bias works, so it's really perfectly in character and appropriate for Melissa to say that. And in Beacon Hills it probably is true. I just have a hard time letting that one go, because – people, stop saying that! It's not true. Unless you live in a paranormal series, in which case, carry on.
Excellent use of the fake-out. I didn't see it coming, either! I absolutely adore how Stiles' one and only superpower is basically that he's an incredibly good liar. He is! And happily, he uses his powers for good, because jeez would that guy be dangerous if he were more of a narcissist than he is.
See, now it makes sense that Scott is trying to hurt him. And he does, certainly, but I notice that up until the very last minute, he was canny enough to decide he'd get more traction making Stiles feel sorry for him. Not that it was ever going to work – Stiles is not Scott, and he doesn't duck out of doing what needs to be done just because it sucks and he hates it – but Scott was capable of forming a credible plan. It's just that his plan was still motivated by a direct benefit to Scott, which is what makes the earlier lie still feel like a bothersome outlying data point.
And by “help you kill him,” of course I totally mean “kill him myself even though I explicitly told you this might be your one and only chance to regain your humanity that time you begged me to help you regain your humanity.” Derek, you really are a jackass at this point in your life. I mean, that's not really a complaint. I think it's cool that they've set up this profoundly ambiguous character, who can believably swing back and forth between saving Scott from doing something he'd regret forever and – well, being the exact type of jackass it takes to terrorize children, torture veterinarians, and stab Scott in the back when it's convenient. Usually when you have this sort of “bad-boy but really he's on our side” character, he turns out to be pretty much all show in the “bad” department; in reality he's a reliable ally who just comes across as scary. But Derek really isn't just a good guy who wears a leather jacket; there are many perfectly good reasons for Scott not to trust him, and I appreciate that. It makes Scott seem less stupid than he would if it were just a matter of, “But he glares at me and wears leather! I think we better assume the absolute worst!”
