Teen Wolf: "Alpha Pact".

Previously on Teen Wolf: "The Overlooked."

This episode would've been really excellent if not for these three factors:

1. The idea of Derek (or indeed anyone) trusting Peter about anything now stretches credibility to breaking point. I realise that Derek is desperate, emotionally vulnerable, and an idiot, but even these traits shouldn't be able to completely overrule his other distinguishing feature: his paranoia when it comes to trusting anyone. Why on earth listen to anything Peter says, when Peter is so obviously a Disney villain of the first degree? Whenever he gives anyone some "useful advice", the camera immediately pans round to show him rubbing his hands together in glee, and/or dropping arsenic into their wine glass. COME ON. No one is less deserving of a second chance than Peter.
2. On a related topic, Peter and Lydia's bizarre, 10-second non-scene at Derek's apartment was atrocious. Not only has NOTHING been resolved with regards to their backstory as victim and abuser, but there was comedy music in the background of them just sort of blinking in embarrassment as if the last time they'd seen each other, Peter had done nothing worse than accidentally seeing her in her underwear or something. This is one of the worst continuity issues of the season, made even more unpleasant by the fact that Jeff Davis literally just forgot about it.
3. The entire cast's inability to keep each other informed of what's going on. Teen Wolf sometimes manages to be pretty genre-savvy about using cellphones etc (ie, in the hospital scene where Allison and Isaac use video chat to see what's going on inside). However, there are also A LOT of problems that could be solved with very simple communication. Basically, everyone needs to learn to text everyone else AS SOON as they find out any information about the Darach/the Alpha Pack/evil relatives coming to town, and also everyone needs to start wearing GPS tracking chips in their shoes. Actually I'm sorta surprised the Argents don't already do that.

Source: Teen Wolf Tumblr.

There were a bunch of great things in this episode, though. The minor character appearances were back on form, featuring Morrell as a total badass (I almost find her interesting now), Shantal Rhodes being flawless as per usual (LUV HER), and Scott McCall's douchey deadbeat dad showing up and being instantaneously dislikeable. Honestly, introducing him via Stiles was an inspired idea, because if Stiles doesn't like someone? Then we don't like them either. DEADBEAT DAD MCCALL IS THE STEVE CARLSBURG OF TEEN WOLF.

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Regarding the Hale scenes, I don't care if Cora lives or dies. Also, Derek's ongoing ~internal conflict~ over whether to sacrifice his alpha-ness (OR WHATEVER) suffered thanks to a problem that we see quite a lot in this show. Because there are so many characters and the last three episodes have taken place over a single 36-hour period, the structure is allllll over the place. Derek and Cora were essentially put on hold for most of the episode while Stiles and Lydia inexplicably went to school and everyone else ran around trying to find their kidnapped parents. As far as I recall, it was permanently nighttime in Derek's apartment (probably because it's located in Gotham City, where the sun doesn't shine), while Ms Morrell, Scott and the Alpha Pack were only seen during what were presumably flashbacks to the night before. This disjointed chronology didn't necessarily make the episode difficult to follow, but was kind of a mess. The best thing that came out of the Hale scenes was the idea of Derek lovingly chewing up and then regurgitating raw meat into Cora's mouth in order to cure her mistletoe poisoning. A beautiful family moment.

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ISAAC LAHEY PERSONALITY ROULETTE RETURNS. A couple of people on Twitter mentioned that they think Isaac's characterisation is totally legit, but I'm still not 100% on that one. I mean, I do understand why he'd be angry at Derek? But in this scene in particular, it just seemed like his dialogue was being written directly from Derek's internal self-loathing, with a Greek chorus in the form of Peter Hale's Voldemortian bad advice. Still, the show seems to be pushing Allison/Isaac, of which I can only approve, and he did get a characteristically hilarious Werewolf Manicure moment towards the end. (Sorry. I'm still obsessed with all the Werewolf Manicure shots in this show.)

I guess I have to talk about the panic attack scene because it's an important character moment, but I kinda feel like we all already know that Dylan O'Brien is a brilliant actor? Not to mention the fact that Stiles is the most consistently well-written character on the show, bar none. In season 1 I would've been majorly annoyed at any hint of Stiles/Lydia because it's just too reminiscent of "nice guy gets the girl" bullshit, but now they actually know each other and value each other's presence in the supernatural shitstorm that is Beacon Hills, I wouldn't mind if Stydia actually happened.

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Finally, I'd like to talk a little more about the glaring absense of a Peter/Lydia scene in this episode. To me, this is representative of this season's failure to recognise what is an important emotional/character arc and what isn't. Huge amounts of emphasis have been put on completely unnecessary details, such as the bizarre addition of the Derek/Paige backstory. (Unecessary both because Derek already has enough manpain and because there's no need to attach the Darach to the Hales. NOT EVERYTHING HAS TO BE ABOUT DEREK HALE.) Boyd, Erica and Cora were all completely ignored, despite the fact that a sibling reunion and the death of a two characters should've had a major impact in the lives of Derek and his pack. Likewise, Lydia and Peter's backstory has been cast aside, leaving the audience to wonder what, exactly, is meant to be the painful emotional driving force we were led to expect this season? If Jeff Davis was truly dedicated to the concept of "This Might Hurt", we would've had an entire episode of angst and trauma re: Boyd, far more conflict surrounding anyone's decision to trust Peter after what he did to Lydia (and others), and a longterm focus on the developing relationship between Derek and Cora.

Miscellaneous

• HAHAHA RIDICULOUS ICE BATH BULLSHIT TIME. LOLLLLL Teen Wolf Science. 
• Glad to see they're maintaining the Teen Wolf canon trend of people curing Derek's injuries by punching him. Actually, we should've known that Jennifer was evil from the start, because she healed Derek by using the perverse and ridiculous method of actually tending his wounds and showing him physical affection. Hellllooooo, didn't she realise that Derek only responds to rage, violence, and fear?
• "There might be a way. But it's dangerous. And we'll need Scott." -- you could replace literally every Deaton dialogue scene with this one line.
• When Chris Argent was all, "I'm used to getting tied up," I totally thought Melissa or the Sheriff was going to make a bondage joke. Basically, I assumed that he was referring to the massive quantities of kinky sex he was obviously having with Victoria. You know, before she died and turned into Allison's Obi-Wan Kenobi Force Ghost. 
• I also LOLed at the thing with the elevator doors because I read it as "ARG"... "ENT".
• That whole guidance counsellor scene was just amazing. I STILL DON'T UNDERSTAND THEIR MOTIVATION FOR GOING TO SCHOOL THAT DAY, THOUGH. In terms of the narrative they "had" to be there in order to figure out the thing about the tree, but from a character standpoint IDK why they weren't just helping everyone else go on the Great Parent Hunt.
• CHRIS ARGENT, GUN NUT. I will never stop being entertained by scenes where people just unload gun after gun after gun onto a table. GUNS. GUNS EVERYWHERE. VERY USEFUL. VERY TOUGH. THANK YOU. GOODNIGHT. (If you don't understand what I'm talking about, watch this video.)
• Lydia has a mother?? Someone on Twitter informed me that her parents appeared briefly in episode 1x05, which I'd clearly forgotten in amongst the flurry of 27 new characters and plot arcs (or alternatively because I drank solidly throughout season 1). Anyhow, I'm pretty surprised that Lydia's mum seems so nice, supportive, and non-neglectful, and they had a good scene together.
• Re: Jeff Davis and the downward spiral of Teen Wolf season 3, I wrote some more meta last night.

Previous Teen Wolf posts.