The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: Teen Wolf Season 3A

The Ugly

-Derek’s terrible, no good, very bad, never ending man pain. Did we go a single episode this season without one of the following: Derek has something bad happen to him, Derek gets blamed for something that’s his fault, Derek gets blamed for something that’s not his fault? I mean, I haven’t seen a character be punished this much on a TV show ever. I keep joking with people that if this were another show they’d kill that character off because there literally nothing left for him. The show just kept piling on and not letting Derek get a chance to deal with one thing before another 5 popped up nor did it allow any of Derek’s choices, terrible though they may be, to work out. There was no balance and he paid far more of a price than any other character on this show, which is sad considering how big of a role he played in this first half. Like I used to not care about Derek as a character but this show made me actively root for Derek to not be on the show anymore because they fucked up his character so badly. It got to the point where I started, and kinda still do, want Hoechlin to get Batman just so I don’t have to be put through this bullshit again.

-Derek giving up his alpha status. Like I mentioned last week, I don’t give one single solitary iota of a fuck that he was doing this as a heroic action, this was literally the worst plotline they could have pulled with Derek. I gave you about 20 mins worth of reason why I hated this so I won’t go too much into it any more but let me say, I don’t think the show is sending the best message with Derek giving up his alpha status. Yes it was nice that it saved his sister but it’s not like that was a particularly triumphant moment or tough decision. In the real world, when you assume a position you have to deal with the consequences. I think it would have been much more interesting seeing Derek come to the same serenity with his alpha powers.

-SlowMo. Good grief did they over do it with the slow motion this season.

-Logic Holes/Show Rules. Why is this show only following the rules it established when it suits it? Like now that Scott is a True Alpha he can break mountain ash lines? Are the wolves not affected by the full moon anymore? This season felt so disjointed, as if by design but then we get to the finale and all those missed connections and non-existent interactions felt like just that.

-Emotion Stunting/Pretending Awful Shit Didn’t Happen. How did everyone keep everything bottled inside while all this shit happened? These are the most mentally strong teens I’ve ever seen on TV cause nothing seemed to phase them. I mean, Allison found Erica dead in a closet, Isaac witnessed Boyd be murdered, all the characters saw various friends and family attacked but you would have thought everything was fine. Like how did it take Stiles until episode 11 to have a panic attack? Derek of all people seemed to be the only character who got to deal with his emotions, and that’s saying a lot. I’m not saying they had to break down crying but this series thrives on the character’s and their emotions and the first half of the season felt really unreal in terms of dealing with tragedy. Also, is everyone just gonna act like the alpha twins didn’t murder their friend? Like how is it ok that the twins are Danny and Lydia?

-Cora. What in the entire fuck was the point of bringing in another Hale into the equation if you don’t explore her relationship with Derek and then have her be nothing but a dying girl for the last few episodes? It’s insane to me that they’d introduce such a pivotal character in and then do nothing with her. Like she literally just felt like the means to an end to get Derek to give up his alpha status and leave.

-Boyd’s storyline. I’m gon wait till the end of the season before I get on the race angle, but I don’t think any character was short changed more this season than Boyd. They couldn’t even muster up the energy to give him a complete backstory before killing him in the next episode. I’d have rather they not tried at all rather than half ass the plot.

-The pain/angst disparity between everyone and Scott. Outside of trying to off himself in “Motel California” and a few battles, Scott didn’t have anything awful happen to him. Let’s look at some characters for a bit: Lydia (nearly strangled to death, keeps finding dead bodies), Isaac (beat up, locked in small spaces, torn between two packs), Boyd (killed), and I could go on and on. Whatever happened to him having to deal with the fact that Aiden and Ethan were supposed to be going after Lydia and Danny? He never had to make a hard or brutal decision at all in this first half. I mean I am NOT going to get into a discussion regarding whether certain characters deserved to be alphas (at least not today) but I can’t help the hollow feeling regarding his ascent to True Alphadom because he didn’t go through nearly the amount of tests Derek did. This next half of the season really needs to take the fight to Scott and make him prove that he deserves his rank.

-The fact we never got the answers to the following questions:
Who is Braeden and what did she have to do with anything?
How did Morrell and her know about True Alpha Scott when Deaton didn’t find out till he was taken?
Is Morrell still alive?
How does Deucalion turn into the Demon Wolf?
How did Jen get the mistletoe in Danny and Cora?
What was Cora doing all them years before the Hale fire?
If killing a beta means that an alpha would want to kill the others, why did we never see Derek struggle with this?
What relationship did Harris have with Jen?
Why did Kali keep trying to kill Derek after she found out Duke killed Ennis?
What was the impetus behind forming the alpha pack?
Why did Derek even attempt a relationship with Jen?
WHY DID DEUCALION WANT DEREK AND SCOTT IN HIS PACK? (Prob my number one question)