Teen Wolf rewatch -- ep 1.1 Wolf Moon
So I've been contemplating for awhile now doing a rewatch of Teen Wolf from the start and doing write ups on each episode as I do so. Mostly because I binge watched most of the series and so didn't do any write ups at the time, but also so I can rewatch and see how my opinions may have changed now that I know these characters better and in light of where they are at the end of season four.
It should be interesting; most episodes from the first two seasons I've only seen twice - once when I started watching the show on Netflix and then again when I got hooked and bought the dvds. I really got into the show between 3a and 3b and the things that finally pulled me in aren't necessarily the same things that pulled a majority of the fandom base (at least on tumblr) in. i.e., I wasn't immediately smitten and bowled over by the possibilities of Stiles/Derek. I loved both of those characters from the start, especially Stiles, but that wasn't a pairing that really jumped out and smacked me in the face from watching the show. (Of course, you stick even a toe in the fandom and you will get smacked in the face with Sterek whether you want to be or not. Hell, I was pretty much being smacked in the face with Sterek even before I was in the fandom just by general cross fandom pollination.)
I don't know if I really shipped any one pairing my first binge watch through, tbh. I adored Scott and Stiles' relationship even then, but it didn't really tip over into shipping when I watched.
Probably because Scott/Allison was such a huge part of the show and were so very extremely cute together. I didn't really start shipping Scott/Stiles until S3b, which y'know if you can watch that season and not ship those two at least a little, you're watching a different show than I am.
It's going to be interesting going back and rewatching now that I am very much on the Scott/Stiles bandwagon, to see if I'm going to end up looking at things differently. And also to see what things leap out now as having more significance due to later events. And also, just to watch the characters and actors grow and evolve. :)
So first up is the pilot:
My overwhelming reaction on rewatching this? OMG baaaabies. Everyone looks so young. It hasn't really been all that long really and even less time in canon but everyone has grown so much, Scott and Stiles especially.
Scott is adorable now, I swear he was even more adorable back then. I put it down to the floofy hair. The "My mother does all the grocery shopping" line kinda epitomizes the whole innocent puppy adorableness Scott had going in this ep.
Things that jumped out at me for one reason or another:
The Sheriff asking Stiles if he listens in on all of his phone calls -- we know now that the answer is pretty much yes, and he has been for a while. At least as far back as when Scott's dad left. (Though we still don't know exactly when that was, but I just get the feeling that it's at least a few years in the past here.)
Jackson may be a douche but he's not stupid -- he's the only one other than Stiles to really put together that Scott shouldn't be able to do what he's doing. Granted, that's because he's jealous and threatened, but still.
Derek was totally eavesdropping on Scott and Stiles' discussion of Scott getting bit and Stiles jokingly telling him about lycanthropy. You can't get me to believe otherwise.
I generally try not to think too much about the Teen Wolf timeline because anything beyond the most cursory examination of it gives me a headache, but Stiles referencing Derek being just a few years older than him and that the Hale fire was ten years ago, couple with what we know about Kate now really really brings how messed up it is into high focus. (I'm assuming the "a few years older than us" line is left over from when Derek is supposed to be 19 in this ep, which obviously for many many timeline reasons he very obviously cannot be. Just... timeline. Headache.
Did involuntarily spend a couple of minutes trying to reconcile when does Stiles turn 17 thing given that he's been 16 in this ep (set in January) long enough to have his license but it still 16 at the beginning of s3. And is possibly 17 by 3b? It does sorta work if his birthday is in the fall sometime between the end of 3a and the beginning of 3b. So I think I'm gonna go with that as a general working theory. But again, Teen Wolf + timelines = headache.
Allison and Scott were completely adorable and had lovely chemistry right from the start.
The line the teacher says to Allison as they're walking into the classroom -- about Beacon Hills hopefully being her last stop for a while -- in retrospect given what happens is a really huge ouch.
Another line -- Allison telling Lydia that her mother used to be a buyer for a boutique in San Fran... Victoria Argent, fashion buyer is a very very hilariously scary image.
It says something about Stiles that he correctly stumbled on lycanthropy as easily as he did and that he researched the hell out of it, but didn't dismiss it as being imaginary or impossible. Either that he has an amazingly open mind when he's looking for solutions to problems (which yes, he does seem to), or that, consciously or unconsciously(more likely unconsciously) he'd had some encounters with the weirdness that tends to be Beacon Hills and that makes him more likely to consider ideas outside the box. But either way, for someone not in the know to figure out the right answer when it seems pretty ludicrous is something to note. Stiles is the one who figures things out, indeed.
I wonder if, when Derek offered to drive Allison home from the party, he was aware she was an Argent and the niece of the woman who murdered his family. If he was, it makes him making sure she gets home safe even more significant I think, especially given he just lost his sister and is reeling with grief all over again. He's a good guy, no matter how much shit is thrown his way or what stumbles he takes.
(That's Chris too at his core, a good guy that just want to protect people. That's why I find the budding friendship between Derek and Chris in s3 (and hopefully we'll see more of in s5) so fascinating.)
Another thing I wondered when I was watching, though it's something I've wondered before, just watching Scott in the vet clinic alone brought it up again -- exactly how are Deaton's defenses on the clinic set up? We've seen him keep multiple werewolves out when he wants to, but Scott waltzes in and out with no problem here and in every other episode. Deaton's been attacked in the clinic even, by Derek later in this season and by the oni in 3b (who are at least slowed down by mountain ash). It was something I was dealing with mostly by ignoring, until I just ended up writing a scene in the next Sword of Damocles fic where I needed to know. I finally head canoned that it's like what he set up in the McCall house in 3b -- a circle almost complete and that he just has a door or something further in the bowels of the clinic that he can open or close to activate it. Otherwise, it makes the logical part of my brain hurt.
Also the reveal at the end of the ep that Chris is both the hunter that shot Scott and Allison's father was pretty awesome -- though the name Argent made it less of a surprise and more of a "aha, I knew that name was for a reason!" Still, I appreciated the setup for future plot you get in that one moment. :)
All in all, for a pilot it did its job -- even the first time I watched it, I was invested in the characters and wanted to see what would happen to them. And the setup of the season 1 main mystery -- who is the alpha was there if not explicitly stated.
It should be interesting; most episodes from the first two seasons I've only seen twice - once when I started watching the show on Netflix and then again when I got hooked and bought the dvds. I really got into the show between 3a and 3b and the things that finally pulled me in aren't necessarily the same things that pulled a majority of the fandom base (at least on tumblr) in. i.e., I wasn't immediately smitten and bowled over by the possibilities of Stiles/Derek. I loved both of those characters from the start, especially Stiles, but that wasn't a pairing that really jumped out and smacked me in the face from watching the show. (Of course, you stick even a toe in the fandom and you will get smacked in the face with Sterek whether you want to be or not. Hell, I was pretty much being smacked in the face with Sterek even before I was in the fandom just by general cross fandom pollination.)
I don't know if I really shipped any one pairing my first binge watch through, tbh. I adored Scott and Stiles' relationship even then, but it didn't really tip over into shipping when I watched.
Probably because Scott/Allison was such a huge part of the show and were so very extremely cute together. I didn't really start shipping Scott/Stiles until S3b, which y'know if you can watch that season and not ship those two at least a little, you're watching a different show than I am.
It's going to be interesting going back and rewatching now that I am very much on the Scott/Stiles bandwagon, to see if I'm going to end up looking at things differently. And also to see what things leap out now as having more significance due to later events. And also, just to watch the characters and actors grow and evolve. :)
So first up is the pilot:
My overwhelming reaction on rewatching this? OMG baaaabies. Everyone looks so young. It hasn't really been all that long really and even less time in canon but everyone has grown so much, Scott and Stiles especially.
Scott is adorable now, I swear he was even more adorable back then. I put it down to the floofy hair. The "My mother does all the grocery shopping" line kinda epitomizes the whole innocent puppy adorableness Scott had going in this ep.
Things that jumped out at me for one reason or another:
The Sheriff asking Stiles if he listens in on all of his phone calls -- we know now that the answer is pretty much yes, and he has been for a while. At least as far back as when Scott's dad left. (Though we still don't know exactly when that was, but I just get the feeling that it's at least a few years in the past here.)
Jackson may be a douche but he's not stupid -- he's the only one other than Stiles to really put together that Scott shouldn't be able to do what he's doing. Granted, that's because he's jealous and threatened, but still.
Derek was totally eavesdropping on Scott and Stiles' discussion of Scott getting bit and Stiles jokingly telling him about lycanthropy. You can't get me to believe otherwise.
I generally try not to think too much about the Teen Wolf timeline because anything beyond the most cursory examination of it gives me a headache, but Stiles referencing Derek being just a few years older than him and that the Hale fire was ten years ago, couple with what we know about Kate now really really brings how messed up it is into high focus. (I'm assuming the "a few years older than us" line is left over from when Derek is supposed to be 19 in this ep, which obviously for many many timeline reasons he very obviously cannot be. Just... timeline. Headache.
Did involuntarily spend a couple of minutes trying to reconcile when does Stiles turn 17 thing given that he's been 16 in this ep (set in January) long enough to have his license but it still 16 at the beginning of s3. And is possibly 17 by 3b? It does sorta work if his birthday is in the fall sometime between the end of 3a and the beginning of 3b. So I think I'm gonna go with that as a general working theory. But again, Teen Wolf + timelines = headache.
Allison and Scott were completely adorable and had lovely chemistry right from the start.
The line the teacher says to Allison as they're walking into the classroom -- about Beacon Hills hopefully being her last stop for a while -- in retrospect given what happens is a really huge ouch.
Another line -- Allison telling Lydia that her mother used to be a buyer for a boutique in San Fran... Victoria Argent, fashion buyer is a very very hilariously scary image.
It says something about Stiles that he correctly stumbled on lycanthropy as easily as he did and that he researched the hell out of it, but didn't dismiss it as being imaginary or impossible. Either that he has an amazingly open mind when he's looking for solutions to problems (which yes, he does seem to), or that, consciously or unconsciously(more likely unconsciously) he'd had some encounters with the weirdness that tends to be Beacon Hills and that makes him more likely to consider ideas outside the box. But either way, for someone not in the know to figure out the right answer when it seems pretty ludicrous is something to note. Stiles is the one who figures things out, indeed.
I wonder if, when Derek offered to drive Allison home from the party, he was aware she was an Argent and the niece of the woman who murdered his family. If he was, it makes him making sure she gets home safe even more significant I think, especially given he just lost his sister and is reeling with grief all over again. He's a good guy, no matter how much shit is thrown his way or what stumbles he takes.
(That's Chris too at his core, a good guy that just want to protect people. That's why I find the budding friendship between Derek and Chris in s3 (and hopefully we'll see more of in s5) so fascinating.)
Another thing I wondered when I was watching, though it's something I've wondered before, just watching Scott in the vet clinic alone brought it up again -- exactly how are Deaton's defenses on the clinic set up? We've seen him keep multiple werewolves out when he wants to, but Scott waltzes in and out with no problem here and in every other episode. Deaton's been attacked in the clinic even, by Derek later in this season and by the oni in 3b (who are at least slowed down by mountain ash). It was something I was dealing with mostly by ignoring, until I just ended up writing a scene in the next Sword of Damocles fic where I needed to know. I finally head canoned that it's like what he set up in the McCall house in 3b -- a circle almost complete and that he just has a door or something further in the bowels of the clinic that he can open or close to activate it. Otherwise, it makes the logical part of my brain hurt.
Also the reveal at the end of the ep that Chris is both the hunter that shot Scott and Allison's father was pretty awesome -- though the name Argent made it less of a surprise and more of a "aha, I knew that name was for a reason!" Still, I appreciated the setup for future plot you get in that one moment. :)
All in all, for a pilot it did its job -- even the first time I watched it, I was invested in the characters and wanted to see what would happen to them. And the setup of the season 1 main mystery -- who is the alpha was there if not explicitly stated.