Previously on Teen Wolf [2x09 Party Guessed]
"Party Guessed," the ninth episode of the second season, comes at an important time in the season where questions are being answered and the players are being moved into place for the resolution of the season. In this episode, the audience finds out what has been going on with Lydia this season, the connection between the victims of the kanima, the identity of the kanima's master, some smaller answers about anchors and the meaning behind Derek's tattoo, and also witnesses a death of a major character. In addition to the action that comes with the major events that happen in this episode, this episode includes some of the best introspective character moments of the entire series.
This episode focuses on three mostly-unrelated storylines. The main plot of the episode involves Lydia's birthday party as well as Scott, Stiles, and Allison trying to figure out more about the kanima and his master. Meanwhile, in the abandoned train station Derek calls home, Derek and his betas prepare for and deal with the effects of the beta's first full moon. The final storyline centers around the Argents dealing with the consequences of Victoria's injury.
The episode opens with a dream sequence. Lydia is in the shower and as we've come to learn, this means that something terrifying is about to happen. She opens the curtain and finds herself on the lacrosse field surrounded by an adoring crowd cheering for her while she's attacked by Peter Hale. She wakes up to find dirt in her bed (which is the scariest part of it for me) because even though she's not dreaming anymore, she's still be haunted and influenced by Peter and seeing all sorts of horrific things. Lydia tells us that the full moon is on Wednesday, her birthday and the night of her party and Peter has a plan. The cold open ends with Peter in his alpha form bursting through a window and Lydia screaming.
(I love the credits of this show!)
After the opening credits, there are a couple relatively boring scenes setting up the Argent's side story and Derek's pack's side story. There's a nice conversation between Scott and Derek about Jackson, the kanima, and honesty.
This episode seems to take place immediately after the rave and Allison is taking Matt home. This scene starts off as a typical awkward end to a date but as the scene goes on things get a lot more tense. Matt leaves his camera bag in the car and Allison discovers that Matt has been stalking her. I really like their performances in this scene. Crystal does a great job showing Allison trying to play it cool while actually being really terrified. It's one of my favorite scenes.
After this, we get a scene showing Derek's pack preparing for the full moon. One of the things I love about this scene is that Boyd gets to show his intelligence and we get to hear more about pack dynamics and the relationship a werewolf might have with his or her alpha, beta, or omega status.
It's a short scene and then we get Lydia and a product placement for Macy's coming into Allison's room to talk about outfits for the party. This scene includes one of my favorite moments when Victoria comes in and asks to talk to Allison who says she can't. I'm not really a fan of Victoria as a person (I think she's terrifying) but this scene makes me really feel for her. She knows she's going to die and this is the last time she talks to her daughter. She stops for a bit and watches her look at dresses with Lydia. Part of me wonders how things might have been different if Victoria and Allison had had that talk. If Allison could've stopped it and convinced her mom to just become a werewolf. Or if Allison would have reacted less with the need for vengeance in the episodes that follow. Would Gerard's influence have been less effective if Allison had heard the reasons from Victoria herself?
Meanwhile, Stiles and his dad look through an old yearbook and find the picture of the swim team which includes all of the victims of the kanima. Finally, they know the connection between the victims. That plus their knowledge of the kanima and master's fear of water gets Scott and Stiles closer to figuring out who the kanima's master is.
It's spring break but I guess there's still lacrosse practice at the school? Anyways, there's a nice scene where Lydia touches Jackson and he has an actual lucid moment where he warns her away from him. *insert great cap of kanima-eyes!Jackson here* (See below.)
One of my least favorite scenes is when Allison approaches Lydia's house going to the party. It's quiet and might be going for creepy when a couple random people WOOOOOO and walk past her. It's feels a bit disjointed and also implies that there will be lots of partiers at the party which is not the case until Stiles invites his drag queen friends. It's whatever but the impression it doesn't fit for me.
It's followed by one of the funniest Stiles moments of the show when he tries to fit his giant present for Lydia through her front door. Every time I want to reach into the screen and tilt it in a way that will get him through the door without injury.
Scott, Stiles, and Allison recap the swim team discovery and the implication of it and also realize that no one is at the party. (I mean, what happened to the WOO PARTY guy that scared Allison before. Wtf.) There's a somewhat interesting moment when Allison suggests that they do something about it but Scott says pretty honestly, "We don't owe her a party," and mostly he says this because Lydia has ignored Stiles for years. We don't get much of Scott's opinion about Lydia but I like that he's matter-of-fact in his opinion about how she's hurt his best friend by not valuing his attention. Scott and Stiles come through though with the drag queens and the lacrosse team.
This is where the scenes with Derek and the betas really start. There's not really much to say about them except that there's a scary thing that goes on Erica's head, they talk about anchors (Isaac's = his dad, Derek's = anger,) the typical Teen Wolf fight music plays, and there are some pretty caps of Derek and Erica/Boyd. (Actually, there's a lot of pretty caps in this episode in general. See below.) Things don't go well and Derek has a bad night. Again. He even calls Scott for help and guess what? Scott doesn't answer.
At the party, things are awkward between Scott and Allison, Jackson arrives, and we realize that Lydia has spiked the punch with wolfsbane. Oh and Matt's here too. I wonder if that is significant. (Also, I like this song.) There's another subtle funny Scott moment when Lydia asks, "What is with the two of you?" and Scott responds something about Stiles like Scott's first thought for his (platonic) significant other is Stiles. The attention given to Scott's focus on Allison in fic is not really accurate enough to be a defining characteristic of Scott, in my opinion, and this moment shows that.
Oh yeah, Matt is at the party and is talking to Allison. (He makes me so uncomfortable.) I love Allison's response of "Well, police officers call it stalking," to Matt's "Photographers call them candids," and I love how she takes him down when he grabs her. Badass.
This marks the beginning of the wolfsbane-induced hallucinations. I love the insight into the characters these scenes give us. It's really powerful and I love this kind of storytelling device.
Allison's hallucination is first. It's really scary to see Allison with an arrow embedded in her stomach especially when we don't know what's going on at this point. Then we see the shooter was hunter!Allison. What the hallucination says is really interesting to me. She talks about how pathetic Allison is for always yelling for help. This is a turning point for Allison, I think, and the last time we see her before she finds out about her mother's death. It's the last time we see the version of Allison that yells for help. In the next episodes of season two, she goes to the extreme opposite. What we have on the show currently is a much more balanced Allison. A happy medium between the hard hunter Allison and the sweet vulnerable Allison.
Stiles's hallucination is really heartbreaking. Dylan is just ridiculous when he cries. It hurts me so much. Through this hallucination, we learn more about his mother's death, how he blames himself, and also how he thinks his dad views him. It's really hard to watch Sheriff Stilinski drunkenly spew hate at Stiles but it's even more upsetting because we know that it's all coming from Stiles's own mind and insecurities.
And if that didn't upset you enough, it's time for Victoria Argent to die. Like I said, I didn't love this character and I don't mind that she died but this is a really great character death scene. If I had to make a list of best character death scenes, this would probably be on it. (Please don't make me make that list!) They are both heartbreaking in this scene and I love the tight camera angles putting you right in the moment with them. The only thing I don't like about this scene is that Victoria decides to die in Allison's room to feel close to her or something. Like, I love you so much I killed myself in your room. Thanks, Mom. (It's probably because they had the set for Allison's room and a set for the Argent's basement and thought the room was classier. Also, this scene is broken up with other scenes but I decided to talk about it all at once.)
Scott's hallucination is the least effective to me. He sees Allison and Jackson making out and then Jackson is the kanima and Allison is into some kinky shit. What's significant about Scott's hallucination is that after he snaps out of it, he realizes what is going on.
Jackson's hallucination is of his birth parents showing up. They don't have faces and then neither does Jackson. Obviously, Jackson has major identity issues and this is a serious scene but I can't not think about this gifset every time I see that scene.
There's a fun scene where Stiles gets his head dunked in the pool and sobers up so Scott and Stiles can look for Lydia. Unfortunately, she's left the party though and blows some purple powdered wolfsbane in Derek's face. He's knocked out, Lydia looks completely blank, and the purple of the powder and the red of the blood on his face remind me of a less fun Festival of Colors.
At the beginning of the final act, Allison steps off an elevator and is hysterical about her mother's death. I feel particularly bad for Chris in this situation because he's not been onboard with this plan all episode and now he has to see how it has affected Allison. I think this is a big turning point for Chris and, in a different way, a turning point for Allison. Obviously. (What's weird for me is that this seems to be the same room they had Lydia in in the first season finale. Like, why would they put the DOA Victoria in the same room? The obvious answer is that this is one of their hospital sets.)
Fortuitously, just when Scott and Stiles don't know what to do next, people decide to start throwing people into the pool. Guess what? Matt can't swim. Matt freaks out. Matt is rescued by his pet Jackson. Matt looks silly with his clothes wet. The cops bust the party. Everyone freaks out.
Outside, Scott sees a furious looking Matt with the kanima curling his tail around Matt's legs. Cool. Confirmation. The thing that bothers me about this scene is that Scott is standing still. All around him people are running and freaking out trying to get away from the cops. There's a cop behind him who has apprehended a girl. I like the chaos of the moment but I feel like Scott is seconds away from being arrested.
In the final scene of the episode, Lydia has shown an unusual amount of strength by dragging Derek into the Hale house where she's uncovered Peter's corpse. Still in a trance-like state, she adjusts some mirrors, Derek looks like he's in porn, and Peter is resurrected and says something stupid.
My least favorite scenes are difficult to determine since I think most of what happens in the episode is necessary. There are, however, some scenes that I don't feel like I need to see more than once and most of those scenes deal with the build-up to the death of Victoria. I don't respond well to Gerard's manipulation of Chris and, as much as I've loved Michael Hogan in other roles, I just don't really want to hear him talk and there are two scenes prior to Victoria's death that are a bit long, full of dialogue, and don't fit the pacing of the rest of the episode as well as they could. Most of all, I wish that Chris would stand up for himself and for his wife and not let Gerard dictate their actions.
Party Guessed originally aired on July 23, 2012 and was directed by Tim Andrew.