I've been knowingly hard on Teen Wolf. And that's been for a lot of reasons, really: the largest is that I really do want it to be one of the best shows on TV, like I truly believe it is. But with a supernatural drama, getting weirder, stranger, crazier, and more abstract is par for the course (see: The Vampire Diaries), and all of that growing head-spinning insanity can be a lot for a viewer to take in. When we jump from werewolves to hunters to Kanimas to Kanima masters and gay clubs and trannies, are we doing this just to be weird and wild or are we actually attempting to make a good show?
So for two weeks, I took a break from recapping and just watched "Raving" and "Party Guessed", keeping my thoughts to myself as Allison's mom died and Matt was revealed as the Kanima master (which, WHOA, were complete surprises). And I don't know if that waned my growing frustrations or the back half of the season is shaping up to be the much better end, but "Fury" was, in the best possible word I can think to use, brilliant. There is a lot you have to know in order to watch this show—especially at this point—but Teen Wolf can show a lot better than it can tell, and because of this, it's by far the best in the episodes where it pushes all of that knowledge and momentum into an hour of no-frills all-thrills action, and "Fury" might stand alone as the best episode of this type. You have to have the fillers because they're food for the game-changers, and this was one hell of a tide-shifting hour.
But amidst all of tonight's developments—you saw it, so we don't need to go through every single bit of it—what worked best about "Fury" is how smart it all was, on every single level. I've said so many times that Tyler Posey isn't really the singular star of Teen Wolf nor the best actor in the ranks, so it's phenomenal how Michael Hogan and Colton Haynes and Crystal Reed and even Linden Ashby (Stiles' dad) Melissa Ponzio (Scott's mom) were the stars of the hour here. Hogan's convinced me of his wrath as the season's gone on, but even stabbing Scott in the stomach wasn't as convincing as tonight, when he ironically drowned Matt and shockingly took his place as the Kanima master. The show has been edging him too close to Chris and Allison for some time now (who are relatively sensible people despite their allegiances), so I can't believe I didn't see this coming, as it's the last thing to make Gerard Argent a real dangerous threat, a far more formidable villain than a regular, plain old archerin' Argent.
Speaking of Matt, Stephen Lunsford performed pretty damn well in his swan episode. He didn't always look the part (when Derek was completely not impressed that Matt was the Kanima master, I couldn't help but agree with him), but he sure knows how to hold a gun and yell a bunch, and he made it count where it mattered most: in revealing his motivations for killing Isaac's dad and those unfortunate swim team members. Meanwhile, Allison finally steps into her mother's shoes tonight, and just like Colton Haynes and Holland Roden, Crystal Reed has really embraced a darker, edgier version of her character and done it full throttle. There are a million ways in which this change of heart wouldn't work with an incapable actress, but Crystal can quickly made that pretty, innocent face a stern, forceful one, and that's not an easy feat. The scene where she warns Scott to stay away from her was a pivotal one, and she absolutely nailed it.
And on top of all that, another unexpected revelation: I was surprised last season that the show chose to reveal Scott to Allison so early, but I never expected Scott to go wolf in front of his mother, who literally has no idea about much of anything until a Kanima and a transformed Derek are busy throwing each other around in front of her. One thing Teen Wolf has been impressively good at as a show is managing who knows what—Scott still has no idea, I believe, that Allison's mother is dead, and absent Lydia still has no clue about anything at all—and it does a great job of nailing those moments of revelation at the best, most unexpected times.
I have an immense amount of trust in Teen Wolf as we get to the last two episodes of the season, simply because it has never failed on the action front, and there's no more room to waste time. Even if we've had to wind through some wonky roads to get here, the characters and actors are at the top of their game, so now it's time to keep the payoff going.
SumOlogy: Glad to be back. Glad we're friends again.
Grade: B+
Leftovers
Other grades: I give "Raving" a B+, mostly for all the Jackson action and the Victoria and Chris closer, and "Party Guessed" a B-, because the revelation was great, but all of those horrible hallucinations didn't really amount to that much at the end of the day.
It took Scott an awfully long time to recognize his mom on the tapes.
It amazes me still how well they use Stiles as comic relief even as everyone around them is about to die. It's so great. When Stiles' mutters "bitch" as Jackson paralyzes him, I nearly choked on laughter.
Derek hates Stiles even when he's about to die.
Matt shooting Scott was f*cking AWESOME.
WHAT IS THE VET'S DEAL, YOU GUYS?!
Chris Argent's shirt was unbuttoned just about all the way down.
Did anyone notice in Allison's room that her book was opened (and had a seashell book on top of it, too) to "What to Know About Binge Eating Disorder and Obesity?" Is the show trying to tell us something?
Tyler Hoechlin was shirtless this week because I mean someone had to be.
I thought Matt's whole Greek mythology speech about Orestes and the furies was really ambitious, because I doubt that 96% of the audience knew what he was talking about.
"Why would this kid want most of the 2006 swim team and its coach dead?" "Isn't it obvious?! OUR SWIM TEAM SUCKS!"
Gerard Argent stays dropping lines of knowledge and folklore, and you love it.
"It's like a freakin' Halloween party every full moon."
"I know you don't want to hurt people." "Actually, I want to hurt a lot of people."
"Imagination is more important than knowledge."
"He's got a very distinct cranium. It's weird."
"THAT'S OEDIPUS, YOU DUMBASS!"
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