OK, so “The Overlooked” was WAY, WAY talky as Ms. Barnes gave us a whole lot of exposition about the who and the why of her wicked ways. And almost the whole thing is set inside the hospital, after it’s vacated of everybody not supernatural due to the California equivalent of a hurricane.
We start with Ms. Barnes arriving at the loft and trying to sway Derek that it’s ALL LIES but Scott and Stiles beat her there. Derek swings her aroud the room a bit and and then Scott threatens mistletoe. She says she (and only she) can save Cora and she’ll help if they keep her safe, so off they go to the hospital.
Meanwhile, the rest of the gang give it a fair go to distract the Alpha pack and get Ms. Barnes to Cora who’s progressed to vomiting black blood, except she and Derek end up locked in an elevator after she tries to run, and decide that’s the best place (for now) to keep her safe. So the Scoobies dodge and distract the Alphas, and Isaac even buddies up with Team Argent as they all come to the hospital, and so does Peter, so everybody’s at least got their alignments worked out.
Stiles ends up spending a fair amount of time locked in an ambulance with am unconscious Cora and has a heart-to-heart with her about everything that’s been brewing in his brain this season. And he gets to resuscitate her when she stops breathing. Go, Stiles!
While Derek and Ms. Barnes await rescue, she unspools her story. In short, she was Kali’s emissary and Kali tried to kill her, on Deucalion’s orders, in order to fall in with his pack. Except Ms. Barnes (then Julia) crawled to the tree where Derek sacrificed his girlfriend and drew enough life from it that she became the Darach, and now the werewolves better look out because she will not be overlooked anymore.
While she’s telling Derek all that, the Scoobies dodge the Alphas and Mama McCall gets to be a badass with electro-shock paddles. Then the power flips back on, the elevator is freed, and Ms. Barnes knocks out Derek and escapes with Scott’s mom.
Deucalion says he can help get her back if Scott falls in with them. Then we revisit my idea that the love story of this show is Stiles and Scott when Scott decides to go with him, ostensibly to get his mother and Papa Stilinksi back and Stiles tearfully begs him not to go.
We pick up with Mama McCall and the sheriff being held at the base of the old tree in the Hale cellar, but they’re OK for now. Interestingly, we didn’t see Lydia in this episode to know how she’s faring after her run-in with Ms. Blake.
And that’s where we begin this evening. I realized that the move to LA for the production has meant a lot of “boxed” episodes set inside the school, or the vault, or the loft, or a motel, and now the hospital. That’s not a good or bad thing, just an observation. I had wondered how they’d repeat the Atlanta landscapes, and it seems with the exceptions of a few scenes in the woods, they didn’t try. That’s got to be easier on everybody when you stick to a fixed set.
We’re almost to our hiatus. Look for a season three marathon all day next Monday on MTV in the US before the midseason finale airs next Monday night. Here’s a sneak peek of “Alpha Pact,” which airs tonight at 10 pm E on MTV and MuchMusic.
Photo courtesy of MTV.