Teen Wolf 3x05 "Frayed" Review.
This was written for a challenge at beacon_hills. Spoilers throughout.
Episode: 3x05 - Frayed
Original Air Date: July 1, 2013
Director: Robert Hall
2 Moons
This episode takes place across three time streams. In the present Scott and Stiles are trapped on a school bus travelling across the country reeling from Derek’s death. In the bus is an increasingly agitated Coach Finstock, a barely restrained Boyd and Isaac, a worried looking Ethan and Danny who, since he has no idea what is going on, seems to be quite cheerful. Scott is injured and Stiles is increasingly panicked to note that his injury is not healing. Interspersed with this we see the battle during which Derek lost his life and, even further back, Derek and his pack attempting to make some sort of plan to defeat Deucalion which Scott tries to keep anyone else from being killed in stupid stunts.
As well as existing in different time periods the episode is very clearly separated into two levels of quality. The scenes on, or around, the bus are very good.
The restriction that the characters feel in what they can do, their frustration, is helped by the setting and by the character of Finstock who, through his ostensive authority, limits them both physically and socially. The dialogue, especially Stiles’, is amusing and informative and the performance shows both Stiles’ uncurrent of panic and his continuous, frustrated need to be doing something. When Stiles casually notes that Allison and Lydia have been following them since they left Beacon Hills, and thus are available to help, it refers back to Stiles’ hypervigilance, which we know from last season that he feels at times of high stress, as well as his intelligence which is rooted in his observational skills and his ability to see the larger picture. This can also be seen in his dialogue - for example a favourite line for this episode would be "Crisis averted? OK Good. Because we have another problem: Ethan keeps checking his phone like every five minutes like he's waiting for something like a message or a signal of some kind, something evil though I can tell. I have a very perceptive eye for evil, you know that." - where he shows that he is observing the behaviour of the other people on the bus and evaluating them for threats. While Scott sees what is in front of him and is limited by it, Stiles not only looks at what is in front of him but also looks outside of the obvious to seek solutions - although those solutions are not always the most ethical as Jared can probably attest.
Despite the quality of the scenes set in or around the bus, the rest of the episode is dire. The scenes in the past and the scenes of Cora and Peter trying to work out what happened to Derek’s body lose all tension as, at no point, was Derek’s death even vaguely convincing. Perhaps I have watched far too many screen narratives, have read too many stories, have spent too much time absorbing the narrative conventions and the requirements for television but I could not believe that Derek would be killed off screen where the melodramatic flair would be mitigated by the audience’s distance from the event. Further I could not believe that Derek would be summarily dismissed like that only five episodes into the season given his ongoing centrality to the Alpha Pack plot, to the other characters’ lives and his actor’s… usefulness in being just so pretty for publicity. This dilution of tension in large sections of the episode was underlined, symbolically, in the muddy colour palette and the grittier image quality in the battle and before the battle so that the visual matched the narrative weakness. If this was intentional, well done them, but for me it made these sections as visually unappealling just as the plot was.
By far the battle itself, especially the section where Derek is fighting Ennis and tumbles to his “death” is, by far, my least favourite scene. Not only does it suffer, like so much of this season has, from slo-mo sfx instead of substance but the actual events are, for all that this is the climactic scene, utterly uninteresting. Scott feels guilty because Derek attacks Ennis after Ennis has been attacking Scott and this leads to Derek’s death. In the middle of all this Scott half heartedly swipes at Ennis’ leg, tearing the flesh of his calf, and Ennis loses his balance and tumbles off of the ledge they are fighting on and down onto some escalators below, dragging Derek with him. Given all the trauma that we have seen werewolves, and especially Derek, survive are we really to believe that a fall like that would kill him? Really? Back in season one when Alpha!Peter stabbed him from behind and left him for dead that seemed plausible and Derek, who was only a Beta at that point, survived. Now we’ve to believe a fall killed him? And then no-one actually physically checked they just went “oh dear Derek fell so he must be dead, hey lets all go get on this school bus”?? Nonsense. After a whole episode building up to a scene where Derek supposedly dies you would think that they would make the scene at least plausible. Since I had hoped that the scene would explain why Scott and the rest of the Pack felt Derek was dead - because it was possible that they believed it - this elevated this scene into the worst in the episode.
Although I have barely mentioned her thus far, by far the best scene, to me, was the scene with Allison and her mother in the gas station where the specter of Allison’s mother berates Allison into being able to complete the mission she has given herself. Throughout the episode we have seen Allison trying to hold it together. When Scott confronts her about being at the school on the night of the full moon she tries to stay aloof and confident which Scott, in his misguided attempts to protect her, tries to destroy by proving that he is stronger that her, leading to him hurting her wrist and deflating her bravado. Later her father tries to stop her from trying to help her friends citing family loyalty and tactics for survival to her. It is only in defying both of them that she is able to save Scott twice. Firstly by turning the tide in the battle through her training and her tactics and her weapons which Scott had dismissed earlier.
Then by showing that, while she may not have the physical strength that Scott has, she has the emotional strength to control her emotions and get the job done instead of wallowing in her emotions and - literally - bleeding out due to being unable to turn them off, like Scott has been doing all episode. Through Victoria Argent challenging her to be strong and making her articulate her training Allison is able to demonstrate this strength in order to save a Scott weakened by his own emotions.
It is irritating that a poorly thought out central conceit - Derek’s death - ruined what could have been a good episode. If they had jacked the whole flashback structure, come up with something that was plausible and would still have allowed for Scott’s guilt and Scott’s fears to be realised, then this could have been an interesting character study and still explored the power of the mind over the body, progressed the alpha pack and Scott as developing alpha plots, and been tense. Hell, even retaining the narrative structure could have worked if the central mystery had been believable. Given that in a few episodes Derek goes AWOL for a bit (again) as a result of losses and trauma it would have been possible to have this abandonment be the central mystery. Instead of it being “I can’t believe Derek’s dead” it could have been the far more likely “I can’t believe Derek’s abandoned us/left town”. Still, on a second (and third) viewing this episode does not come across as awful as it did when I first viewed it and the central mystery just irritated me, as if, by having already suffered the disappointment of the episode it lowered my expectations enough than subsequent viewings are able to discern some wheat in amongst all the chaff.
Images from grande_caps
This entry was originally posted at http://aryas-zehral.dreamwidth.org/83905.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Episode: 3x05 - Frayed
Original Air Date: July 1, 2013
Director: Robert Hall
2 Moons
This episode takes place across three time streams. In the present Scott and Stiles are trapped on a school bus travelling across the country reeling from Derek’s death. In the bus is an increasingly agitated Coach Finstock, a barely restrained Boyd and Isaac, a worried looking Ethan and Danny who, since he has no idea what is going on, seems to be quite cheerful. Scott is injured and Stiles is increasingly panicked to note that his injury is not healing. Interspersed with this we see the battle during which Derek lost his life and, even further back, Derek and his pack attempting to make some sort of plan to defeat Deucalion which Scott tries to keep anyone else from being killed in stupid stunts.
As well as existing in different time periods the episode is very clearly separated into two levels of quality. The scenes on, or around, the bus are very good.
The restriction that the characters feel in what they can do, their frustration, is helped by the setting and by the character of Finstock who, through his ostensive authority, limits them both physically and socially. The dialogue, especially Stiles’, is amusing and informative and the performance shows both Stiles’ uncurrent of panic and his continuous, frustrated need to be doing something. When Stiles casually notes that Allison and Lydia have been following them since they left Beacon Hills, and thus are available to help, it refers back to Stiles’ hypervigilance, which we know from last season that he feels at times of high stress, as well as his intelligence which is rooted in his observational skills and his ability to see the larger picture. This can also be seen in his dialogue - for example a favourite line for this episode would be "Crisis averted? OK Good. Because we have another problem: Ethan keeps checking his phone like every five minutes like he's waiting for something like a message or a signal of some kind, something evil though I can tell. I have a very perceptive eye for evil, you know that." - where he shows that he is observing the behaviour of the other people on the bus and evaluating them for threats. While Scott sees what is in front of him and is limited by it, Stiles not only looks at what is in front of him but also looks outside of the obvious to seek solutions - although those solutions are not always the most ethical as Jared can probably attest.
Despite the quality of the scenes set in or around the bus, the rest of the episode is dire. The scenes in the past and the scenes of Cora and Peter trying to work out what happened to Derek’s body lose all tension as, at no point, was Derek’s death even vaguely convincing. Perhaps I have watched far too many screen narratives, have read too many stories, have spent too much time absorbing the narrative conventions and the requirements for television but I could not believe that Derek would be killed off screen where the melodramatic flair would be mitigated by the audience’s distance from the event. Further I could not believe that Derek would be summarily dismissed like that only five episodes into the season given his ongoing centrality to the Alpha Pack plot, to the other characters’ lives and his actor’s… usefulness in being just so pretty for publicity. This dilution of tension in large sections of the episode was underlined, symbolically, in the muddy colour palette and the grittier image quality in the battle and before the battle so that the visual matched the narrative weakness. If this was intentional, well done them, but for me it made these sections as visually unappealling just as the plot was.
By far the battle itself, especially the section where Derek is fighting Ennis and tumbles to his “death” is, by far, my least favourite scene. Not only does it suffer, like so much of this season has, from slo-mo sfx instead of substance but the actual events are, for all that this is the climactic scene, utterly uninteresting. Scott feels guilty because Derek attacks Ennis after Ennis has been attacking Scott and this leads to Derek’s death. In the middle of all this Scott half heartedly swipes at Ennis’ leg, tearing the flesh of his calf, and Ennis loses his balance and tumbles off of the ledge they are fighting on and down onto some escalators below, dragging Derek with him. Given all the trauma that we have seen werewolves, and especially Derek, survive are we really to believe that a fall like that would kill him? Really? Back in season one when Alpha!Peter stabbed him from behind and left him for dead that seemed plausible and Derek, who was only a Beta at that point, survived. Now we’ve to believe a fall killed him? And then no-one actually physically checked they just went “oh dear Derek fell so he must be dead, hey lets all go get on this school bus”?? Nonsense. After a whole episode building up to a scene where Derek supposedly dies you would think that they would make the scene at least plausible. Since I had hoped that the scene would explain why Scott and the rest of the Pack felt Derek was dead - because it was possible that they believed it - this elevated this scene into the worst in the episode.
Although I have barely mentioned her thus far, by far the best scene, to me, was the scene with Allison and her mother in the gas station where the specter of Allison’s mother berates Allison into being able to complete the mission she has given herself. Throughout the episode we have seen Allison trying to hold it together. When Scott confronts her about being at the school on the night of the full moon she tries to stay aloof and confident which Scott, in his misguided attempts to protect her, tries to destroy by proving that he is stronger that her, leading to him hurting her wrist and deflating her bravado. Later her father tries to stop her from trying to help her friends citing family loyalty and tactics for survival to her. It is only in defying both of them that she is able to save Scott twice. Firstly by turning the tide in the battle through her training and her tactics and her weapons which Scott had dismissed earlier.
Then by showing that, while she may not have the physical strength that Scott has, she has the emotional strength to control her emotions and get the job done instead of wallowing in her emotions and - literally - bleeding out due to being unable to turn them off, like Scott has been doing all episode. Through Victoria Argent challenging her to be strong and making her articulate her training Allison is able to demonstrate this strength in order to save a Scott weakened by his own emotions.
It is irritating that a poorly thought out central conceit - Derek’s death - ruined what could have been a good episode. If they had jacked the whole flashback structure, come up with something that was plausible and would still have allowed for Scott’s guilt and Scott’s fears to be realised, then this could have been an interesting character study and still explored the power of the mind over the body, progressed the alpha pack and Scott as developing alpha plots, and been tense. Hell, even retaining the narrative structure could have worked if the central mystery had been believable. Given that in a few episodes Derek goes AWOL for a bit (again) as a result of losses and trauma it would have been possible to have this abandonment be the central mystery. Instead of it being “I can’t believe Derek’s dead” it could have been the far more likely “I can’t believe Derek’s abandoned us/left town”. Still, on a second (and third) viewing this episode does not come across as awful as it did when I first viewed it and the central mystery just irritated me, as if, by having already suffered the disappointment of the episode it lowered my expectations enough than subsequent viewings are able to discern some wheat in amongst all the chaff.
Images from grande_caps
This entry was originally posted at http://aryas-zehral.dreamwidth.org/83905.html. Please comment there using OpenID.