60 Teen Wolfs in 60 Days: day 23, Battlefield

[hth]

Man, this season has been so weak that I'm actually happy to see the return of lacrosse. Fucking lacrosse.

 

Okay, we're starting out well. O'Brien gets to some acting. The lighting guys get to work it, with the morning lens flares. Melissa remains kind of a trainwreck, but I've fully tipped over into finding her trainwreckiness endearing. It's just a nice handling of the required exposition.

 

Aw, that's some very sad eyebrows on Scott when his mother says she doesn't know “what” he is. I know I've been all up and down the scale on whether I like how flawed Melissa is or whether it makes me just frustrated that Scott can count on so little support from her. But I do think it at least has the advantage of being a departure from the norm. I think in this genre, the advice that the protagonist gets from Mom is supposed to be in some way morally authoritative; she may not even know what's going on, but she'll make some general suggestion that we're meant to believe is sound advice. It's striking how weird and unexpected it feels to have Protagonist's Mom not be the moral compass at all, but initially to react out of a pretty natural fear and desire to prioritize her own and her family's safety. Scott is the one who has to balance out the larger questions, and eventually get Melissa to come around to the broader view.

 

It's an interesting difference in the way Isaac responds to the failure of the Hale pack, and the way that Boyd and Erica respond. Boyd and Erica have for whatever reason internalized Derek's message that “you're not a pack without an alpha,” and they – not unlike the kanima – are looking for some newer, stronger master. Isaac goes the opposite direction; instead of looking to trade up on alphas, he goes to the known quantity – to Scott, who isn't an alpha at all, but is someone Isaac feels he can trust. Obviously this turns out to be the better bet; Isaac sticks around another season, while Boyd and Erica fall into the hands of a strong master who only causes them harm. I suppose maybe it's Isaac's differing background: he's already had his fill of people who rule by strength instead of kindness, and he's willing to take a chance on someone whose strength is still questionable, but whose kindness he believes in – someone who cries over weak things instead of using them to bolster his own power. I think it's interesting to wonder in that scene with Isaac at the vet's office who Isaac is relating to – if he wants to be Scott and do the things Scott can do, or if he sees himself as the wounded animal whose pain Scott can take away. I suppose it doesn't have to be either/or.

 

So this is a big turning point for Stiles, I think. He's been at this for almost two full seasons now, and he's coming – long, long, long after most of us would have – to question whether this is a viable future for him. He came in all the way back in “Wolf Moon,” all gung ho about how we were going to take this werewolf business and knock it on its ass. He spent all of first season trying to jury-rig a life plan for Scott. He faced Peter and Chris and didn't give them any more ground than he absolutely had to. Second season has worn harder on him; I don't know that I think the writers have fully sold that these events were somehow more traumatic, but we're going to roll with it and say that they have been anyway, because trauma isn't necessarily logical. Now he's seriously questioning whether this is something we can do at all, or if the territory Scott is carving out for himself is something he needs to hold without Stiles' help. Scott is willing to look at his mother when she's begging him to protect her and basically say, it's complicated – because Scott is essentially a humanitarian who can't let himself sell Derek and his pack, even for someone he loves. Stiles is a very good person, but he's not that type of altruist; he's caught now between two imperatives, wanting to do anything in the world to help Scott and the fact the he absolutely will sell more or less anyone to protect his father. Stiles dove into this without question or comment; he just did it. Now he has to be intentional about his choice, which is an altogether more adult way of moving through the world. I think there's a very real sense that Stiles' childhood ended in that sheriff's station during “Fury,” and everything from here on out is in some way a brand new character, an adult Stiles bearing the weight of his adult choices. Or – well, I guess he's still a bit in limbo in this episode and the next, ending one phase in “Fury” but not setting himself fully to the next one until he seals his future with “you still got me” at the end of “Masterplan.” Ah, but we're getting ahead of ourselves, yes?

 

I'm willing to embrace the Peter is an evil genius who understands people all too well, and understands Derek particularly. The idea that he understands Jackson's deepest motivations, down to and including the things he'd “never admit” – that might be a bridge too far for me. Has Peter even met Jackson? Maybe he gets this special knowledge of the bond through having been inside Lydia's head. That's the only explanation I can come up with. Peter's quite a lot of fun as the archetypal “character who lays bare the truths that no one else is willing to just say,” but it'd be nice if he actually based his knowledge on something in-canon, instead of just his archetype.