60 Teen Wolfs in 60 Days: day 22, Fury

[hth]

Shoulda been called “Fangs of Fury.” Really a missed opportunity.

 

I feel like – and I can't prove this, but I strongly feel like Scott is standing there trying to make faces like he's following any of this conversation. He's only there for his trustworthy face anyway, right?

 

WELL, I'M GLAD SOMEONE FINALLY SAID IT. Honestly, Derek, when you're on the phone begging for Scott to help you handle the unpleasant children you bit on purpose, it's time to admit this isn't working out the way you imagined it would. It's actually kind of sweet: Derek is the impetuous middle child of a born-werewolf family headed up by an especially respected alpha. It makes sense he never expected his mother to be gone any time soon, and it makes sense that no one ever expected he'd have to be her successor. He never really wanted to be an alpha, he never really learned the skills of it, and unlike Scott, he doesn't have the special Protagonist Dice Pool that makes him good at alpha-ing through Purity of Spirit or whatever. I actually love that he's not good at it. It makes perfect sense.

 

I thought Gerard was supposed to be canny and cunning and all that, but his manipulation attempts are actually pretty laughably transparent. If he were trying to manipulate anyone other than a teenage girl, I think he'd have a problem.

 

The whole extended stand-off in the sheriff's station – I think it's fairly well constructed, but it really suffers from Matt not being a likable/hateable villain. I don't know, he's just a big blank for me. Maybe it's the actor. Maybe it's the dumb Batman-villain backstory – you know, like old-school Batman, where something painful happens to a person one time, and they launch themselves on a mad quest to wreak unlimited destruction, accessorized in ways that vaguely evoke their trauma? I'm surprised they don't have this asshole running around in a snorkeling mask. I just feel like Matt's really sucking the air out of what could have been some pretty suspenseful sequences.

 

But yay! They at least did that thing for me where Scott is on one knee with one hand on the floor, and what is with that, why do I love it so much?

 

The reveal that Scott has been in contact/working with Gerard was hella effective, though. I remember being just floored by that when I first saw it. I feel like it's the only genuine shock of the series' back half? I mean, I didn't see Matt coming necessarily, but I also didn't care that much, so it wasn't exactly a shock when he was revealed to be the kanima-master.

 

It's a weird choice, I think, to have Peter observe Gerard both killing Matt and taking the reins on the kanima. That was a good bit, gruesome and foreboding and all that, but it didn't actually need an observer. I don't remember, does it matter in the next two episodes that Peter knows? I feel like it doesn't? But this run of episodes is a blur for me. Christ, I'm watching them one per day this time, and they're still kind of a blur.

 

Y'all, I'm sorry these have been short and boring recently. I'm having a shitty, complicated week, and while this project was meant to be a fun de-stress, I really hadn't factored in that I don't like season two at all. BUT! I know for sure that they get rid of all the people I can't stand in s3 and bring in some good villains and get back to making things weirder and keeping the focus more on the characters – because really that's a lot of my issue with this season. It's not really about anything anyone does. Some guy is pursuing an old vendetta, and it's basically a giant, extended procedural where they try to find out who it is and put a stop to it. It's fine, that's whatever, but the whole point of these horror-soaps is that the intense emotional crap our heroes are going through should be fueling the story throughout. No one really has much emotional anything going on except Allison and Lydia, who are basically relegated to B-plots while we worry about the fucking kanima, and I DON'T CARE. I don't. I mean, it's great that Beacon Hills will be less murdery now, but I'm really not here for that. I'm really here for Scott, who's had basically jack shit to do this season on his own show.

 

Just a few more days. Then, far less complaining and far more human sacrifice.