60 Teen Wolfs in 60 Days: day 47, Insatiable

[hth]

Dr. Deaton is such a badass. Tell me you'd stick your hand down a werewolf's throat. That's some good veterenarianing, there.

 

Aw, what a lovely Isaac/Allison scene, with them being total teenagers (honestly, they were one inch from, “But do you like me, like me?”) about the kind of problems that no teenager actually has.

 

Coach, aren't you covered by Workers' Comp, if not by your actual health insurance? You were shot during PE class. This was definitely an on-the-job injury. You need to talk to your union rep, dude!

 

There is a lot of Scott/Stiles touching in this scene. Like, this is Scott's automatic reaction to every sign of distress Stiles puts out – to put his hand on him to gentle him. I just feel like you don't even need plot devices to write fic for this pairing; it can all be just like, Stiles gets an earache, so Scott camps out next to him and pets him constantly until they just decide to have sex, the end. And it would be completely in character.

 

I suppose this exchange is meant to imply that Scary Orderly Guy was Finstock's high school bully or something, and that's perfectly believable. But really, Coach F, this seems like the perfect time to get over all that. What's so great about this guy's life now? He's all like, “Oh, you're only a TEACHER, huh?” but I don't see why that's so much more of a life-failure than wrangling paranoid schizophrenic children. They're both professional jobs, though on the low-paid end of the spectrum. There's no power differential here! I mean, I get that the point was just to set up a mini Hero Moment for Finstock, and I'm all for that. I just think it was a little clumsily done.

 

Okay, this is a nice song, but it really very, very unfortunately makes it sound like this scene is about to turn into a Chris/Allison love scene, and world of no, for obvious reasons. And it's not even just the music; the way he's kind of hovering over her for her attention and the way the camera focuses on him stilling her hands with his. It's just dubious directing choices all over the place here.

 

I really like that after all the hand-wringing about Dire Secrets and “I knew he'd never forgive you if he knew” and all of that, Scott learns the terrible truth and is just like, “Yeah, that sounds like some shit that happened. You got anything else?” Maybe if Scott had led the normal life his father thinks he has, that would be intensely upsetting news, but it really just does not rate on Scott's Traumameter.

 

Stiles, it is an embarrassing day when you let Isaac be quicker on the uptake than you in re: Meredith's phone thing. Isaac's never even seen her use the phone like you have! You better be dying; it's your only reasonable excuse.

 

All right, “I just didn't feel like doing my homework” made me love Isaac a little bit. I've always generally approved of him, but only here at the eleventh hour did I truly come to love him. I'm going to be terribly disappointed if he doesn't come back for a guest appearance at some point. (Though with my luck they'll bring Jackson back and leave Isaac.)

 

There's another fight scene where they will not turn on a damn light, and I can't figure out what the hell is up with the Go metaphors culminating in Kira realizing something about her mother. I think we already knew she was wielding the oni, right? Or did we the audience know that, but Kira didn't? I did like Lydia being made of pretty stern stuff and doing her best to make sure that no one got themselves killed racing in to rescue her. I mean, that failed, but she really did try! Roden didn't have all that much to do in this episode, but she was still a standout for me; she's a lot like Bourne for me, in that I often feel like the force of her talent outstrips her material so that you feel like she's much more key to what's happening than she really is in terms of the script. (Also she's much like Bourne for me in that I find them both just fucking absurdly hot. Like, to be in this show with this cast and reliably be the most gorgeous thing on the screen – this is a genuine superpower.)

 

Funny story. This is another of the episodes I slept through much of the first time; I vaguely remember that Meredith was involved, but not how she got involved (turns out it's not entirely clear even now). I vaguely remember the Go game and both Stileses deteriorating. And then I woke up at the very end, with Allison dying in Scott's arms, and I remember lying on the couch, groggily trying to process whether she was dead or just – supernatural-show dead, a two-and-a-half-episodes kind of dead. I quite clearly remember thinking, “This scene will be really stupid and overwrought if they bring her right back,” and then also, “Usually the second person in the credits doesn't die....” I think I was pretty deep into “Divine Move” before I settled into feeling fairly confident she was for realsies dead. It was actually kind of a neat experience – I'm not usually one to care too much about spoilers, so even if I don't seek them out, I tend to be exposed to things like who's leaving a show next season, because it's hard to be on the internet and miss some of this stuff. So minor-character death takes me by surprise pretty often, but I usually know if a lead is being written out. It's rare to actually experience it unfolding without any of that prior knowledge, like an actual story instead of like tv.

 

I did wonder if the crane shot at the end was meant to evoke Victoria in Chris' arms at the end of “Raving,” because the frame is composed very similarly. Either that or it's just a lazy gimmick that felt like the obvious go-to both times, which would be disappointing. I'm going to call it an homage! It's much nicer if you decide it's an homage.

 

 

Comments

[green_grrl]

Unfortunately, I think creepy orderly guy's taunt makes total sense to him. He was a bully in school, and now his job allows him to push around people who can't complain because they won't be believed. I think in his head Coach is lesser because if he has trouble with a kid, all he can do is blow a whistle. If orderly has trouble with a kid, he can stab him with a hypo. (It's stomach churning just to type that, but, I think, a fair read of what we see of his character.)

Holland is so beautiful that when they have her hair up in that braid (?) that goes all the way around like a crown, with the lighting and slo-mo, I just lose the plot and stare. (JR. Bourne, I just ... well. UNF.)

The show actually was able to keep a lid on the spoiler! The big tease was that one of the main cast was going to die, but at the time we didn't know which one it was going to be and there was a ton of speculation. Of course once the ep aired, we knew it was Allison gone for good.

[hth]

Yeah, I guess I could see that. Given that he's an actual-facts crazy serial killer, he's likely to have a slightly skewed vision of the world, and maybe to think that *everyone* measures a job where you can physically overpower people as the Very Best and Most Powerful. In the real world, I think "psychiatric orderly" is usually one of those jobs people are not jealous of, but I bet he thinks they secretly are.

I know exactly what you mean! They do those shots of Lydia with the big eyes and the braid and the emoting, and she's just *ethereal* -- she's like, worrisomely beautiful. Is that a thing for people other than me? When people are so pretty that it just makes you anxious because it's probably some kind of trap, like this is how they distract you when the robot uprising begins?

But, yeah. Chris I would fuck. Lydia I would be scared to touch!