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It seems like it's become pretty traditional for monster shows to devote the cold open to the feelings of the people who are about to be murdered, and then their murder. What's up with that? I don't mind taking a couple minutes out of the script to humanize the victims of your monster, but it's always seemed weird to me that the place where it's normally done is the cold open, which is supposed to be where you put your catchiest thing, right? I usually use this bit to finish getting my tea and snacks, because whatever, they're going to be dead soon. I bet I miss a lot of good stuff that way. But come on, I know the people I care about aren't showing up for another three minutes!
I don't know why, exactly, but I think this was the point where I decided I'm down with Melissa. I warmed up to her a bit during the prom scene where she's making fun of and also trying to help mend Scott's shitty hand-me-down suit, but I really liked her here. She still has the same problems that bothered me about her character from the beginning – I think she's too quick to show how frazzled and out of her depth she is which, albeit unintentionally, makes her kid feel like he's responsible for his parent's emotions, and I think that's a rotten thing to do to a child, especially a sensitive one who's already had to watch you be hurt by his father. Nothing about that really changed in this scene, but I don't know. I kind of got over it. Yeah, Melissa and Scott have kind of a dysfunctional relationship (Stiles and his dad do in some ways, too, but the Sheriff is acutely aware of it and does try to mitigate the issues; it doesn't always work, but he's clearly trying, whereas I don't fully get the sense that Melissa understands what she's doing wrong when she tries to be this honest and transparent with her child). But life is hard, and this is a show about wildly imperfect people trying to do more than they're ever really prepared for. It's probably kind of fucked up that I'm harder on Melissa than the rest of them just because I assume that anyone could have trouble werewolfing, but if you have trouble mothering you're some kind of reject.
Speaking of parenting skills, Derek is really working on his patience, isn't he? I love how after every question the kids ask, you can see him go, “...three, four...smile...just answer calmly...five, six...” I think I'd like to read the story that explores at what point exactly Derek figured out that punching them and shouting about how he's saving their lives actually doesn't seem to be that great for them.
Two separate commenters (hello, commenters!) yesterday how super weird it is that they're this devoted to keeping Lydia from knowing anything about anything, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it's super weird. Yeah, I'm sure they're trying to protect her or whatever – although you'd think the fact that everyone knows she has a unique immunity to the bite means they could guess people will keep watching Lydia and she's not going to be just left out of all this (even Chris has specifically asked Allison to keep tabs on Lydia, for god's sake). And I realize they don't know that she's being stalked by Young Ghost Peter, although, hey, they might have tried listening to her for five seconds and maybe learned something. The odd thing is that when I first watched, it seemed obvious to me that they were trying not to tell her because she was still, like Jackson, at least partially an antagonist – a High School Mean Girl who might decide to use any information she had against one or all of them for whatever she thought she could gain out of it. But this time through, it's really obvious to me that we're not supposed to be suspicious of Lydia at all, and that we really are supposed to believe Allison when she says she views Lydia as a friend. And that makes it all so much more nonsensical.
What is it about the light coming in through blinds in that stripey way that always looks so creepy? That's fully horror-movie lighting, and I have no idea why.
RELUCTANTLY, I admit that this is probably not the time, place, or reason to kick Jackson's ass. I can't support this, but I can support that shot of Scott coming up over the row of lockers to get the drop on Jackson, which was my favorite bit of an overall well-choreographed fight scene. Still, though. Come on, Scott, even Stiles thinks you need to pull yourself together, and Stiles was actually seriously advocating Jackson's execution in the last episode.
Actually, though, on a slightly personal note, I think it's hella sweet every time Scott and Stiles flip positions like this (settle down). It's really the mark of a good partnership, I think, that when one person is feeling overwhelmed and irrational, the other one steps in to be the voice of reason – but crucially, everyone gets to feel overwhelmed and irrational when it's their turn. Last year Mary and I went through a staggeringly absurd string of life crises, and trading off regularly between “OH MY GOD NO WE CAN'T THIS IS THE WORST THING EVER” and “this is going to be okay, we'll take this one thing at a time and everything will be okay” is the only strategy that could ever possibly have worked. Scott and Stiles are really good about this; I think if you broke it down in chart form, you'd see that Stiles is the voice of reason slightly more often, but they both do it for each other when things start to feel excessive. Because that's how you keep things going when you live your life jointly, and it never ceases to amaze me how naturally they both seem to accept that this is their jointly lived life that they're trying to salvage.
It's all well and good that Erica's dad keeps everything, but Jackson had to be told that he was adopted, so his parents died when he was too young to remember them. Erica's father has had the paperwork for this particular accident in one of his Yahoo Mail folders since 1998? Come on, now.
Oh, hey, look. I was just being snide, but that is actually what they did, only it's 1995. But whatever, I'm gonna overlook this one because “Jackson's parents were murdered” is another one of those red herrings I love so much on this show. Detective work is really hard!
Scott had this same thing happen before the full moon the first time, too – seeing weird messages written for him on printed things. I don't have the slightest clue how or why that happens, but I like it. It's the kind of scary myth/nightmare/otherworldly event that works without an explanation because it doesn't have any real plot impact. The random events that piss me off are the ones like Peter attacking and brainwashing Scott while invisible or absent or whatever the fuck happened in “Night School,” because then all I can think about is why he doesn't use that power every other time he needs something. Random mystical events are awesome, but only if they have no use value whatsoever except scaring the shit out of these already spooked and probably permanently traumatized kids. Then it's all in great fun.
God, Peter loves a good evil overlord speech, doesn't he? (And, okay, I'm going to admit it: this scene makes a lot more sense when you realize that's Peter. I, um, did not, the first time. I was sleepy and extremely confused, and that's a lot of makeup.) Not that I still know what the “one thing” is that Lydia can do for him. Hear him, I guess? There's no one else he can deliver the instructions for the resurrection ritual to? I don't know, this whole plotline is on the baffling side, but on the whole I think I prefer being walked through the improbable and baffling circumstances of a tv resurrection. Usually they just show up again and get a few lines of handwavey backstory. Peter's resurrection is, ultimately, as handwavey as any other, but at least they spend four episodes on it.
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Date: 2015-04-19 02:35 pm (UTC)From:I had no idea that young student was supposed to be Peter Hale's ghost - Hale always seemed shorter than that. I have problems with the Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock Holmes movies due to the height thing as well.
I'm pretty much handwaving the whole plot at this point - wonder if the writers sit around going "Wait, no, we can't put that in - it'll contradict that thing in episode 3." "Nah, stick it in. They'll never notice!"
ETA: Plus - I especially liked Victoria's murderous pencil sharpening!
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Date: 2015-04-20 11:13 am (UTC)From:The longer I think about it, though, the more I realize what a stupid idea it was for her to go talk to Victoria. She doesn't know anything about the Argents or how they might feel about their teenage daughter being sexually active. She could absolutely have caused serious problems for Allison, or even jeopardized her safety. It would have been more prudent, as well as just respectful, to talk to Scott before she went around discussing this with other people.
Anyway. Melissa's not terribly prudent, but I still like her. I was trying to figure out how to sum her up to someone recently, and I said, "She's kind of squirrely and snarky, but she has a really good heart." And I realized -- oh, man, she's a female Stiles -- or, I guess, Stiles is a male Melissa, really. Scott's going to marry his mother, isn't he? *g*