This show, it is relevant to my interests...
Okay, so, I mentioned Shakespeare references in Teen Wolf.
Um, Cliff Notes for the show:
Scott is bitten by an alpha werewolf, becomes a werewolf himself, falls hard for Allison, the daughter of the werewolf hunters who've just come to town. Allison's aunt gets killed by the alpha for killing almost his entire family in a house fire that landed him in long-term care until just recently. He's crazy as a bedbug, gets put down by his nephew, who then becomes alpha. Allison's grandfather comes to town looking for revenge; meanwhile, the captain of the lacrosse team (I got nothin, there...) begs to be bitten, but turns into a reptilian revenge monster controlled by another student (and Allison's grandfather, who's controlling the student). Allison's mom tries to kill Scott and gets bitten herself when the alpha shows up to rescue him. Hunter rules say she has to kill herself before she turns, but she misses the timing by thaaaaaaat much and is already changed when she stabs herself (apparently) to death. Grandpa whips Allison and her dad into a fury of revenge. Shit, meet fan.
Since it's a show about a teen werewolf and his werewolf-hunting girlfriend, we'll just take all the Romeo and Juliet references as read, with one exception which I'll get to later.
They've also referenced Macbeth and Hamlet. Interestingly, both of those, AND the one R&J bit that's not immediately obvious, come from Gerard Argent, the extremely suspicious patriarch of the hunter family. He quotes "something wicked this way comes," from Mac, which, okay, talking about werewolves here, so, from his POV, maybe, but I think he will turn out to have been referring to himself, because GERARD IS NOT WHAT HE SEEMS. The Hamlet reference is much more interesting; he tells his son Chris not to act like he (Chris) is Hamlet and Gerard is the poison king whispering in his ear.
The thing I find really interesting about that Hamlet reference is that he’s casting himself not in the role of Hamlet’s father, which, since Chris is his son, you’d think would be the case, but as Claudius. Who tricked Hamlet into a rigged fight with a former friend. I’m going out on a limb here and saying that former friend would be Derek, who knows Chris Argent well enough to call him by his first name. Even the dead sister fits.
My guess is that Chris will find out, in the fight which seems inevitable at the end of the episode, exactly how Victoria came to be bitten, and that’s going to make him turn on Gerard. I wouldn’t be surprised if Gerard’s omnipresent pill case becomes the parallel to Claudius’ poison in the cup.
Now, for the R&J thing. Gerard quotes a line from 1.1, when Romeo is bitching at Benvolio, dead set on being MISERABLE OMG. Here's the speech the line appears in; I've italicized the line Gerard quotes:
Why, such [being miserable] is love's transgression.
Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast,
Which thou wilt propagate, to have it prest
With more of thine: this love that thou hast shown
Doth add more grief to too much of mine own.
Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs;
Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes;
Being vex'd a sea nourish'd with lovers' tears:
What is it else? a madness most discreet,
A choking gall and a preserving sweet.
Gerard, damn his eyes, does to Allison exactly what Romeo is accusing Benvolio of doing: using his "grief" and "worry" about his granddaughter to magnify her own grief at her mother's death (and he SO had his fingers all up in THAT pie, yo)to the point where she's so overwhelmed by it that she completely rejects anything youthful or girlish, and closes herself down into a killing machine. Like, um, well. Lady Macbeth, who pretty much does the same thing with words instead of physically smashing all her stuff. If there's something wicked coming, like the kanima, or a scary-ass teenage killing machine, Gerard sent it in this direction.
Um, Cliff Notes for the show:
Scott is bitten by an alpha werewolf, becomes a werewolf himself, falls hard for Allison, the daughter of the werewolf hunters who've just come to town. Allison's aunt gets killed by the alpha for killing almost his entire family in a house fire that landed him in long-term care until just recently. He's crazy as a bedbug, gets put down by his nephew, who then becomes alpha. Allison's grandfather comes to town looking for revenge; meanwhile, the captain of the lacrosse team (I got nothin, there...) begs to be bitten, but turns into a reptilian revenge monster controlled by another student (and Allison's grandfather, who's controlling the student). Allison's mom tries to kill Scott and gets bitten herself when the alpha shows up to rescue him. Hunter rules say she has to kill herself before she turns, but she misses the timing by thaaaaaaat much and is already changed when she stabs herself (apparently) to death. Grandpa whips Allison and her dad into a fury of revenge. Shit, meet fan.
Since it's a show about a teen werewolf and his werewolf-hunting girlfriend, we'll just take all the Romeo and Juliet references as read, with one exception which I'll get to later.
They've also referenced Macbeth and Hamlet. Interestingly, both of those, AND the one R&J bit that's not immediately obvious, come from Gerard Argent, the extremely suspicious patriarch of the hunter family. He quotes "something wicked this way comes," from Mac, which, okay, talking about werewolves here, so, from his POV, maybe, but I think he will turn out to have been referring to himself, because GERARD IS NOT WHAT HE SEEMS. The Hamlet reference is much more interesting; he tells his son Chris not to act like he (Chris) is Hamlet and Gerard is the poison king whispering in his ear.
The thing I find really interesting about that Hamlet reference is that he’s casting himself not in the role of Hamlet’s father, which, since Chris is his son, you’d think would be the case, but as Claudius. Who tricked Hamlet into a rigged fight with a former friend. I’m going out on a limb here and saying that former friend would be Derek, who knows Chris Argent well enough to call him by his first name. Even the dead sister fits.
My guess is that Chris will find out, in the fight which seems inevitable at the end of the episode, exactly how Victoria came to be bitten, and that’s going to make him turn on Gerard. I wouldn’t be surprised if Gerard’s omnipresent pill case becomes the parallel to Claudius’ poison in the cup.
Now, for the R&J thing. Gerard quotes a line from 1.1, when Romeo is bitching at Benvolio, dead set on being MISERABLE OMG. Here's the speech the line appears in; I've italicized the line Gerard quotes:
Why, such [being miserable] is love's transgression.
Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast,
Which thou wilt propagate, to have it prest
With more of thine: this love that thou hast shown
Doth add more grief to too much of mine own.
Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs;
Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes;
Being vex'd a sea nourish'd with lovers' tears:
What is it else? a madness most discreet,
A choking gall and a preserving sweet.
Gerard, damn his eyes, does to Allison exactly what Romeo is accusing Benvolio of doing: using his "grief" and "worry" about his granddaughter to magnify her own grief at her mother's death (and he SO had his fingers all up in THAT pie, yo)to the point where she's so overwhelmed by it that she completely rejects anything youthful or girlish, and closes herself down into a killing machine. Like, um, well. Lady Macbeth, who pretty much does the same thing with words instead of physically smashing all her stuff. If there's something wicked coming, like the kanima, or a scary-ass teenage killing machine, Gerard sent it in this direction.