Season three of Teen Wolf had a bit of a rocky ending. The great, sweeping nogitsune plot was a much better mystery than a reality. It was almost as if the writers ran out of time, couldn’t think of anything better, and were just like, “Alright, we had a good start. I guess we can go with this nonsensical concentration camp story that isn’t very compelling.”
Then Allison (Crystal Reed) died. Allison, who I abhorred in season one with her terrible blah haircut and her doughy eyed innocence. But she had blossomed into one of the most badass, smart, and strong female characters on TV and I admired her. I was devastated by her passing. Then Isaac (Daniel Sharman) left. He was one of my favorites. A strong comic relief character, loyal to the core, and dead sexy. But it goes without saying that they are all dead sexy. This is MTV, after all.
And then Aidan (Max Carver) died and … oh, right. Nobody cared. Sorry Carver brothers.
THEN a shitton of stuff happened in the last ten minutes of the season 3 finale, all set up for the next season. I was kind of conflicted, because on the one hand all of that stuff looked awesome. But on the other hand, we’d just lost two awesome characters and been completely let down by the writing. So it is with a relived sigh that I tell you from the moment the season 4 premiere started, I knew we were getting an awesome season.
Look, I’ll miss Isaac and Allison. So much. But Allison was basically already replaced by Kira (Arden Cho AKA Asian Allison) who is just as bad ass. And Isaac’s replacement in the group comes from Malia (Shelley Hennig). CAN I JUST RAVE ABOUT MALIA FOR A SECOND??? Okay, first of all – I love Shelly Hennig. She is a vision, a dream. She is charisma on toast. (That’s a thing now. Deal with it.) And she is just so goddam funny as Malia. Where Isaac’s source of comedy drew from his dad’s abuse and his falling for Allison while trying to stay loyal to Scott (Tyler Posey), Malia’s comedy comes from the fact that she was an effing coyote for most of the years of her life and she legit does not know how to be a human. It’s great because she is so matter of fact about how she would do things as a coyote, like eating an injured coyote if there wasn’t any food. But she wouldn’t eat Lydia (Holland Roden), so it’s progress.
And I’m so happy for Stiles (Dylan O’Brien), because as much of a Stiles/Lydia fan as I am, it’s just so nice to see someone treat him like he deserves her. And Malia and Stiles are so cute together! And gurllll, you can see Lydia is super jealous. I loveeeee it.
Anywho, we start off with the gang in Mexico, trying to get Derek (Tyler Hoechlin) back from a group of hunters. Which, I really don’t understand. Derek is useless. Why are we still romanticizing Derek? He has always been a useless, kind of lame character. Isn’t the point of him literally just to be a terrible alpha so we understand that Scott is the real hero and the true alpha? And yet, we’re still supposed to care about Derek for some reason? Okay, sure. Whatever.
http://youtu.be/zs9290471rw
So evidently the plan to get Derek back is for Malia and Kira to dance all up on each other for a gratuitous length of screen time. I’m not gonna lie: I was into it. Then they all get poisoned with wolfsbane smoke and Scott realizes: the Mexican hunters DONT have Derek. Because wolfsbane smoke gives him premonitions now. JK, it was just true alpha intuition.
So then the hunters torture Scott with electricity until he figures out that Kate Argent is still alive. Even though they could have just told him. Those dicks.
The hunters tell Scott and his posse they have to travel to some church in the desert to where Kate was last spotted to find Derek. Along the way we get some Stiles/Malia smooches, some prime Malia coyote comedy, an understanding of this newfound core group’s dynamic, and of course a new mysterious creature (possibly even two!).
The gang never runs into Kate Argent (Jill Wagner), but they do find someone hidden in the church. Scott opens the secret compartment and a hand reaches out to him. This was done SO well, because I found myself suddenly racking my brain, wondering who I’d forgotten about. Who was important enough to the story for this to be a good surprise, yet someone the gang could have not realized they were missing? Was it all a clever rouse and perhaps Isaac would be making an appearance this season???? Here’s the really cool thing: It actually was Derek. But he had regressed in age several years to his teenage self.
http://youtu.be/CSJL1evO7n4
INTRIGUE!!!!
Despite my dismay with the way last season ended, Teen Wolf is consistently one of the most compelling TV shows I’ve ever seen. This season could not have started off better. It’s one of those shows where you literally never know where it’s going to take you, so I won’t even pretend to guess. But I certainly can’t wait to find out. There are only two things I require from this season: Many more deadpan Malia coyote jokes, and for Lydia to finally hone her effing banshee skills. Seriously, if there was ever a group of people who could use a banshee who understands her powers, it is this group of incredibly sexy, supernatural high school students.
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