‘The Divine Move’ ends season 3 on a fittingly high note. Not that I would have expected anything different from one of the strongest stretches of episodes I’ve ever seen in a TV serial.
All season long Teen Wolf has been trashing every single cliché that teen dramas have been know for, and in ‘Insatiable’ that subversion reached its climax; a tragic, shocking and game changing climax. Beacon Hills will never be the same.
‘De-Void’ definitely required the viewer to keep up to date with what’s been happening over the past few weeks. In that regard, it’s a massive reward to those of us who’ve been glued to the show since the start of this incredible stretch of episodes.
It’s important to note that a lot of ‘The Fox and the wolf’ requires a certain amount of oversight. It’s the sort of episode that doesn’t pay attention to historical detail, and throws the repercussions of certain actions to the wind. It’s all fine though, when you remember the nature of this show, and see how well a creative licence serves it at a time when exposition is the name of the game.
‘Echo House’ was less propulsive than the last few weeks, but still retained the intelligent writing and creative strength that we’ve all become accustomed to since the winter premiere.
Most other series would fall apart if they tried to cram as much chaos into an episode as possible, but this is Teen Wolf. Chaos in Beacon Hills is no big deal, and it was definitely the name of the game here, but every single move was calculated and important and, best of all, fun.
This episode was close to perfect. It made use of every character, maximised the crazy and upped the stakes. Lydia and Derek finally got more attention, the horror spectacle was the best it’s ever been, and the Kitsune myth got even more dangerous. The biggest highlight of this episode though, was Dylan O’Brien.
‘Silverfinger’ was an important episode in terms of filling in the gaps in this season’s mythology, adding even more essential monster info into the mix. I’ve been enjoying the heck out of this season so far, but it was a relief to get some background to what’s been happening in Beacon Hills. Even though it heralded a wealth of exposition, the episode didn’t let up once, and balanced all those long explanations with explosive fun.
It’s weird to say this, but artistically ‘Illuminated’ was one of the strongest episodes of the series. Now that the show has proven it’s capability in terms of direction and great story-telling, it’s showing strengths in other areas. Here, both bright and fiery sexual energy stood out amongst disparate elements of dark horror, and it all worked so well.
It’s obvious how much fun the writers have been having this season. With all crazy gore so far, it’s hard to imagine any other teen show that rivals it right now and rightly so. ‘Galvanize’ was another in an unbroken run of typical Teen Wolf fare, with even more of last week’s gross out moments, and a few more twists along the way.
‘More Bad than Good’ was definitely more good than bad, though it was a little less substantial than ‘Anchors’. This week we were thrown right into the thick of the search for Malia, and though the episode lacked many major revelations until the final few minutes, it was still full of Teen Wolf’s trademark fun and games.
Finding out that a show you love is continuing to grow in popularity is less of a blessing and more a curse. Desperate to keep their newfound audience, the writers start to panic and draw out the unnecessary, scared to change anything too much. The result is a series that’s nothing but false developments and recycled storylines. Thankfully Teen Wolf isn’t that kind of a series. The show seemingly smashed its own ratings records with this winter premiere, and it’s so satisfying that it happened at a time when Teen Wolf pulled off one of its strongest episodes.
‘Lunar Ellipse’ was a fitting end to the first half of the season. Story lines were tied up and given resolution, and almost everything that came up during the season was brought together in a fun, explosive and crazy way, which is definitely in keeping with the past 2 finales we’ve seen.
This was all about bridging the gap; getting everything in place for next week’s summer finale. It’s great that things seem well set up, but it’s hard to sit through an episode knowing that all the good stuff is being saved for next week.
Teen Wolf does this a lot; throws you into the midst of chaos with very little explanation, but it always seems to come together in the end. ‘The Overlooked’ follows that roadmap, with an episode that starts off with craziness from all angles, but pulls everything back in for a nice cohesive finish.
After a step back last week to give us some vital background to what’s been going on this season, ‘The Girl Who Knew Too Much’ was a return to the present, as one of the season’s biggest mysteries came to a head. It’s an episode that boasts some impressive character work for the show’s supporting players, and some really great twists with regards to its more important regulars.
As it’s growing, Teen Wolf is layering its pre-conceived mythology more and more. Season 3 has probably seen the biggest contribution in that respect, particularly because of its ever expanding cast. ‘Visionary’ was a necessary trip back to not only fill in the blanks, but to give us some insight that we never really knew that we wanted.
If the past few weeks were about giving us a chance to take a step back and look at where we were, ‘Currents’ was the show going back to full speed. Everything that had happened so far this season came to a head here, with even the less important stories making it to forefront, and it was one of the most cohesive episodes of Teen Wolf to date.
“A lot could happen in one night.”
Was this episode really as filler as it seemed? It may have felt like a time waster at first, but after a while it seemed like everything that happened was pretty important...almost.
There’s only so far you can take broken story-telling. ‘Frayed’ strays a little further than conventional methods of this kind of TV writing, but despite feeling a little too scattered at times, it was still pretty compelling, and every bit as effective as it was supposed to be.
