We’re two-thirds of the way through the second season of Teen Wolf, and we’ve bailed off into “the who and the how and the what, now?” territory to the point that I may need Cliffs Notes. I’ll break down “Restraint”, “Raving”, and “Party Guessed” as best I can. If you can shed some light where I’m confused or I completely got it wrong, comment me! One note: if this reads really far-fetched, just go with it. All of this really has transpired in just a few short weeks, and the cast is selling the hell out of it.
So, Jackson is in fact the Kanima, and a new wrinkle is that he seems to also lapse into lizard-like behavior while still physically human, which has terrifying repercussions for Allison when she corners him in the locker room, while he’s completely naked, and he gets very menacing very quickly before he snaps out of it. Unfortunately, Scott bursts into the mix just as that happens and they commence breaking apart the locker room and tearing sinks off the wall.
The fight rolls into the hallway and Mr. Harris, Erica, Matt, Isaac, and Stiles descend all at the same time. Harris drops them all into detention and then we get a glimpse of what’s happening to Jackson as he receives his commands with flashes of altered text. Across the library, Stiles and Erica have uncovered that Jackson was born after his mother died, triggering his Kanima susceptibility and now the attack that took his parents looks intentional. While they’re processing all of that, Jackson lizards out in the library and breaks free. He attacks Erica on the way out, so Scott leaves Allison behind and takes Erica to Derek to heal and conditionally joins Team Alpha.
Elsewhere in that episode, Mama Argent hears first-hand from Scott’s mama (who’s discovered a near-empty box of condoms after ransacking his room) that Scott and Allison are doing the deed and she responds the only way she knows how – by threatening him. This escalates later and we’ll get to that.
Complicating the issue, Scott has just told Allison they should publicly see other people to deflect attention and in episode eight, “Raving”, this puts her and Matt at a rave at the same time as Team Alpha and Scott and Stiles, and Jackson (who’s hunting someone), and Harris. Erica and Isaac try to keep Jackson occupied and distracted long enough to dope him but they do it too late and an alumnus ends up dead.
Stiles handles the setup, using some neat black powder and mind control mojo from the vet (who doesn’t wholly ID how he’s clued in to all of this, but we do find out he’s in cahoots with the guidance counselor) to try to keep everyone supernatural inside. Then Stiles, Erica, and Isaac try to hold Jackson and find out they haven’t drugged him hard enough when he transforms and escapes.
On the other side of the rave, Scott is wolfsbaned by Mama Argent and she gets him pretty close to death before Derek hears that Scott is in trouble and gets Stiles to break the powder circle. He arrives in time to rescue Scott and bites Mrs. Argent in the process. Inside the rave, Matt makes a move on Allison, but she shoots him down. When she drives him home and he leaves his camera behind she sees his stalkerazzi shots of her, and what follows is a very tense scene where he asks for the camera back but she doesn’t open the door for him, instead keeping the window at the halfway point. She doesn’t tell Scott about any of this.
On the Lydia front, it turns out her mystery student friend is a young Peter Hale and the whole charade with him has been a mindfrak to get her to bring Derek to him, because apparently somebody thought burying what was left of him under the floor at the Hale home was a really good idea. In “Party Guessed”, Lydia preps for her social bee birthday event, as part of Peter’s demand that she work with him, except she doesn’t get any takers until Stiles and Scott call in drag queen and lacrosse team reinforcements.
Then Lydia drugs all of them into hallucinating their worst nightmares while she sneaks out and drugs and kidnaps Derek—who’s been in over his head all night babysitting his team’s transformation under the full moon by himself—to take him to Peter. (I call bullshit about teeny-weeny Lydia dragging an unconscious Derek anywhere, but whatever.)
When she gets him to the Hale house, she lines up a few mirrors under the full moon to reanimate Peter and he clutches Derek’s arm and drains the Alpha from him while Lydia stares horrified at what she’s set into motion. Interestingly, while the Scoobies have had all this going on, they have been completely oblivious to what’s been happening with Lydia—Holland Roden has been busting her ass in a vacuum, unfortunately. I want her back with everybody else ASAP.
At the Argent home, Mama Argent has pretty much agreed to fall on her sword rather than wolf out, even though her husband isn’t on board with that yet. GPA says it’s the only way, and that the Mama Argent they know and love is already gone. She tries to talk to Allison beforehand but Allison is preoccupied. Later that night, instead of using pills or a gun, Mama and Papa Argent fake Mama’s suicide with a really big knife, while sitting on the bed in Allison’s room as the moon rises, so Mama Argent can always feel closer to her. (Say it with me—the HELL?)
Crystal Reed wins all the awards for Allison’s complete meltdown when she arrives at the hospital afterward. For now, the truth of her mother’s death isn’t known, and Scott has no idea about any of it. One aside—I think this is the first episode where Allison and Scott never speak to each other.
Back at the party, Scott and Stiles realize they’ve been drugged just as the party is busted up by the cops. Matt ends up in the pool and can’t swim (ding ding ding) and then Jackson pulls him out. As the partiers scatter, Scott sees a lizarded Jackson out in the street, crouching at Matt’s knee—and we have our commander. So, even though we’ve had scenes with Matt and Jackson where Matt seems creepy but Jackson exhibits no recognition of him, whatever their bond is, it’s only there when Jackson is altered.
Also in the mix—Sheriff Stilinksi has been let go because the aftermath of the Jackson kidnap shenanigans was a restraining order, which didn’t reflect well on the family name. That doesn’t stop he and Stiles from piecing together that all of the killings have some connection to a 1990s swim team at the high school. (So is Matt real, then?)
I like that mythology has suddenly gotten very large here. I don’t think the Peter and Kanima arcs are connected, but I won’t be surprised if they are. I hope we find out exactly what GPA is about with his creepy self. I thought at the outset of the season that we might end up with Allison as a big bad. We’re very close to the end of the season, so if they’re going to take her gloves off, it’s going to have to start tonight. I thought it was interesting that Scott’s hallucination was a concern that Jackson and Allison were hooking up and Allison’s was coming face to face with her alternate self, so they’re really far apart on their worries right now. I’d like to see what happens when they put that on the table. Nice job, too, on the misdirect about Mr. Harris, although I think there’s still something to him we don’t know yet.
Only three episodes left! NOOOO! On the upside—the show has been renewed for a huge 24-episode third season, (which will likely move from Atlanta to Los Angeles) coming next year. Congrats to the show as well for its Saturn Award for Best Youth-Oriented Television Series!
Teen Wolf airs at 10 pm ET/9 pm CT Monday on MTV in the U.S. and 10:30 pm ET/7:30 pm PT on MuchMusic in Canada. You can catch up on missed episodes online at each network’s website.
Photo Courtesy of MTV