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butterfly2x09
1) Gerard and Peter are like double sides of the creepiest coin in the world right now. Actually, it's interesting. Both of them are focusing their manipulation on a young woman who they are trying to make vulnerable and mould as they see fit.
It's easier to feel sympathy for Peter than for Gerard because Peter is more focused (he wanted revenge on the people who killed his family) and because we've actually witnessed the damage that Kate & Co. did to the Hales. But both of them use the same techniques.
(arguably, you could say that Derek starts down this road with Erica, but then it stops after she's a werewolf, at least from what I've seen)
2) So, the punch makes you hallucinate your fears? Allison is scared of herself; of being weak, of being conflicted, and of the weapons she carries. Stiles worries that he's a burden and that he's only making things worse for people. He fears loss of the people that he loves through his own actions. While Allison is afraid of the violence from herself, the violence toward Stiles in his hallucination comes from someone he loves.
3) I have...ugh. I have thoughts. The Victoria stuff. She's killing herself because of bigotry. Because the idea of being a werewolf is so abhorrent to her that she would literally rather die. And Chris buys into the idea, too. That's an issue. That's the reason that things like Kate killing the Hale family happen. So, the scenes with her...they frustrate me (in a well-written way). Because the reason she's dying is the same reason she was willing to kill Scott. She believes the only good werewolf is a dead one.
I mean, why did Derek bite her? Because she was killing Scott and he was trying to save him. She hit Scott with her car. She set him up in a death room. Derek was reacting in response to her attempt to murder a sixteen year-old boy. It was defense-of-others.
Also, I wonder if Allison will remember that her mom actually, to her face, threatened to kill Scott earlier this season. You are growing up in a viper den, honey. Take care, because following in the footsteps of your grandfather, mother and aunt will just lead to you poisoning your own heart.
2x10
1) I was reminded of this by the previously for the episode -- the kanima seeks a master. It seems to be that control is just as big a theme as trust. Control is the other side of trust, because you don't need to attempt to control people that you trust. Jackson isn't trusted by anyone and he doesn't trust anyone (not even the girl he loves). He's fully under someone else's control. Allison isn't trusted by her family, so they seek to control her (contrast this to Scott's reaction to finding out she'd told on Jackson -- he had trusted her, so her breaking that trust was emotionally-painful for him). Peter obviously can't trust Lydia to help him in her right mind, so it's all about manipulation and control.
Derek veers wildly between trying to trust people and trying to control them. He has major intimacy/trust issues because of what happened six years ago (and they weren't helped by what his uncle did last season) -- and yet he does want to trust, even though he can't admit it. He wants to trust Scott; wants to trust Stiles; wants to trust his new pack. But he associates trust with death and betrayal and the loss of everything that matters. Asking instead of ordering or threatening is an extension of trust and a loss of control, and he's been doing a lot more of that this season, especially with Scott (as well as admitting that he has no clue what he's doing).
Matt, as both Allison's stalker and as Jackson's master, is all creepy attempts to control other people. He feels betrayed (like Derek) and he's decided that gives him the right to kill the people who have betrayed him (unlike Derek and like Peter).
2) "Scott, do you believe this?"
I, ah. Hmm. Sheriff Stilinski asking for Scott's opinion was...I don't know. I have to think about this one for a bit. That he doesn't have trust in his son but he does in Scott, despite the fact that Scott has been right there for basically every single thing Stiles has done that could be considered untrustworthy/a breach of trust. Why does he trust Scott?
Also? Ouch. Stiles's relationship with his dad is very strained right now. All the lies have created a huge barrier between them.
And then, when he hears the gunshot, he calls Scott's name first.
3) "You're still an alpha. But, as usual, not a particularly competent one." And Derek doesn't respond to that. He knows that it's true -- he's been saying all season how much he doesn't know what he's doing.
...oh, Deaton knew the Hale family. He knew Derek's mom and helped her out. He's helping out Derek because of that.
Okay, so Deaton implies (or Derek infers) that Scott is the person that Derek needs to trust. But Scott doesn't trust him. Except that Derek has been extending trust toward Scott all season. He saves his life, he does try to do things Scott's way, he bends for Scott, he confesses to Scott that he doesn't know what he's doing. So, Sheriff Stilinski trusts Scott (and not his own son) and Derek also believes that he needs to trust Scott.
It's like the show is trying to reinforce Scott which, okay, he's the protagonist but it's... I don't know, I need to think about this some more. It's interesting.
4) "I wasn't close to my own mother." It's strange to hear Gerard offer that as a contrast to Allison, because we've seen no evidence that she was close to hers. She's always come across, on the show, as being much closer to her dad than to her mom. But identifying her with her dad doesn't serve Gerard's purposes, so I understand why he's leaning the other way, especially as he goes on, using Allison's grief -- and her guilt over being, like Gerard, not that close to her mother -- in order to try to twist her into his puppet (puppet-leader that he's pulling the strings on). He wants her to be operating on grief and pain and guilt; he doesn't want any rational thought to enter into her mind -- a pretense of rational thought, yes, but not actual rational thought (and he probably wants that in part to get Chris to fall into line).
And now she's taking on the exact mantle that terrified/dream-killed her in the previous episode. Cold, violent, scornful.
"The one who forced my mother to kill herself." Check out the framing on that sentence.
5) Again, we have Stiles and Derek interacting as equals in that conversation -- sharing information freely, trying to plan. And we have Derek telling Scott to save Stiles before he does anything else.
6) So, Stiles has to watch helplessly as his dad get bashed in the head by Matt. Unable to help or do to anything but be a witness. For someone as driven by his protective instincts as Stiles is, that must have been extra painful. We also have him watching as other people fight the kanima, again unable to help.
7) ...talk about a difficult introduction to the supernatural! Melissa has seen her son shot, and now she's watching impossible creatures battling each other and she knows her son is a werewolf. Man, what a strange night for her. (hey! Melissa knows now!)
8) So, Scott sold Derek out. Actually, that puts a different spin on all the trust conversations in the episode. They were hammering so hard on the 'trust Scott' angle because the audience was going to learn that you can't trust Scott (which makes me think that Derek was inferring the wrong conclusion from Deaton's statement and that Deaton didn't mean that he should trust Scott because, omg, he should not trust Scott. Not now. Scott is actively betraying him. Scott is only part of his park in order to betray him). I'm going to need some time to think about the mechanics of the betrayal but, wow. Siding with the people actively trying to kill you over the person who has done nothing but try to help you.
Also, I'm really glad Derek heard that conversation.
9) Wow, this show is really into hurting people using their worst fears, isn't it? Matt dies in water, just like Peter is defeated by fire last season. And both of them are ultimately killed (or 'killed' in Peter's case) by someone who needs to do it to take their power from them. Derek takes the alpha power from Peter and Gerard takes the power to control the kanima from Matt (oh, foreshadowing with Matt starting to turn into the kanima, because we know there's no way that Gerard will stay within the rules of the kanima. He does not believe himself bound by rules).
And, like Peter, Matt was someone who was ultimately defined by the people who hurt him.
1) Gerard and Peter are like double sides of the creepiest coin in the world right now. Actually, it's interesting. Both of them are focusing their manipulation on a young woman who they are trying to make vulnerable and mould as they see fit.
It's easier to feel sympathy for Peter than for Gerard because Peter is more focused (he wanted revenge on the people who killed his family) and because we've actually witnessed the damage that Kate & Co. did to the Hales. But both of them use the same techniques.
(arguably, you could say that Derek starts down this road with Erica, but then it stops after she's a werewolf, at least from what I've seen)
2) So, the punch makes you hallucinate your fears? Allison is scared of herself; of being weak, of being conflicted, and of the weapons she carries. Stiles worries that he's a burden and that he's only making things worse for people. He fears loss of the people that he loves through his own actions. While Allison is afraid of the violence from herself, the violence toward Stiles in his hallucination comes from someone he loves.
3) I have...ugh. I have thoughts. The Victoria stuff. She's killing herself because of bigotry. Because the idea of being a werewolf is so abhorrent to her that she would literally rather die. And Chris buys into the idea, too. That's an issue. That's the reason that things like Kate killing the Hale family happen. So, the scenes with her...they frustrate me (in a well-written way). Because the reason she's dying is the same reason she was willing to kill Scott. She believes the only good werewolf is a dead one.
I mean, why did Derek bite her? Because she was killing Scott and he was trying to save him. She hit Scott with her car. She set him up in a death room. Derek was reacting in response to her attempt to murder a sixteen year-old boy. It was defense-of-others.
Also, I wonder if Allison will remember that her mom actually, to her face, threatened to kill Scott earlier this season. You are growing up in a viper den, honey. Take care, because following in the footsteps of your grandfather, mother and aunt will just lead to you poisoning your own heart.
2x10
1) I was reminded of this by the previously for the episode -- the kanima seeks a master. It seems to be that control is just as big a theme as trust. Control is the other side of trust, because you don't need to attempt to control people that you trust. Jackson isn't trusted by anyone and he doesn't trust anyone (not even the girl he loves). He's fully under someone else's control. Allison isn't trusted by her family, so they seek to control her (contrast this to Scott's reaction to finding out she'd told on Jackson -- he had trusted her, so her breaking that trust was emotionally-painful for him). Peter obviously can't trust Lydia to help him in her right mind, so it's all about manipulation and control.
Derek veers wildly between trying to trust people and trying to control them. He has major intimacy/trust issues because of what happened six years ago (and they weren't helped by what his uncle did last season) -- and yet he does want to trust, even though he can't admit it. He wants to trust Scott; wants to trust Stiles; wants to trust his new pack. But he associates trust with death and betrayal and the loss of everything that matters. Asking instead of ordering or threatening is an extension of trust and a loss of control, and he's been doing a lot more of that this season, especially with Scott (as well as admitting that he has no clue what he's doing).
Matt, as both Allison's stalker and as Jackson's master, is all creepy attempts to control other people. He feels betrayed (like Derek) and he's decided that gives him the right to kill the people who have betrayed him (unlike Derek and like Peter).
2) "Scott, do you believe this?"
I, ah. Hmm. Sheriff Stilinski asking for Scott's opinion was...I don't know. I have to think about this one for a bit. That he doesn't have trust in his son but he does in Scott, despite the fact that Scott has been right there for basically every single thing Stiles has done that could be considered untrustworthy/a breach of trust. Why does he trust Scott?
Also? Ouch. Stiles's relationship with his dad is very strained right now. All the lies have created a huge barrier between them.
And then, when he hears the gunshot, he calls Scott's name first.
3) "You're still an alpha. But, as usual, not a particularly competent one." And Derek doesn't respond to that. He knows that it's true -- he's been saying all season how much he doesn't know what he's doing.
...oh, Deaton knew the Hale family. He knew Derek's mom and helped her out. He's helping out Derek because of that.
Okay, so Deaton implies (or Derek infers) that Scott is the person that Derek needs to trust. But Scott doesn't trust him. Except that Derek has been extending trust toward Scott all season. He saves his life, he does try to do things Scott's way, he bends for Scott, he confesses to Scott that he doesn't know what he's doing. So, Sheriff Stilinski trusts Scott (and not his own son) and Derek also believes that he needs to trust Scott.
It's like the show is trying to reinforce Scott which, okay, he's the protagonist but it's... I don't know, I need to think about this some more. It's interesting.
4) "I wasn't close to my own mother." It's strange to hear Gerard offer that as a contrast to Allison, because we've seen no evidence that she was close to hers. She's always come across, on the show, as being much closer to her dad than to her mom. But identifying her with her dad doesn't serve Gerard's purposes, so I understand why he's leaning the other way, especially as he goes on, using Allison's grief -- and her guilt over being, like Gerard, not that close to her mother -- in order to try to twist her into his puppet (puppet-leader that he's pulling the strings on). He wants her to be operating on grief and pain and guilt; he doesn't want any rational thought to enter into her mind -- a pretense of rational thought, yes, but not actual rational thought (and he probably wants that in part to get Chris to fall into line).
And now she's taking on the exact mantle that terrified/dream-killed her in the previous episode. Cold, violent, scornful.
"The one who forced my mother to kill herself." Check out the framing on that sentence.
5) Again, we have Stiles and Derek interacting as equals in that conversation -- sharing information freely, trying to plan. And we have Derek telling Scott to save Stiles before he does anything else.
6) So, Stiles has to watch helplessly as his dad get bashed in the head by Matt. Unable to help or do to anything but be a witness. For someone as driven by his protective instincts as Stiles is, that must have been extra painful. We also have him watching as other people fight the kanima, again unable to help.
7) ...talk about a difficult introduction to the supernatural! Melissa has seen her son shot, and now she's watching impossible creatures battling each other and she knows her son is a werewolf. Man, what a strange night for her. (hey! Melissa knows now!)
8) So, Scott sold Derek out. Actually, that puts a different spin on all the trust conversations in the episode. They were hammering so hard on the 'trust Scott' angle because the audience was going to learn that you can't trust Scott (which makes me think that Derek was inferring the wrong conclusion from Deaton's statement and that Deaton didn't mean that he should trust Scott because, omg, he should not trust Scott. Not now. Scott is actively betraying him. Scott is only part of his park in order to betray him). I'm going to need some time to think about the mechanics of the betrayal but, wow. Siding with the people actively trying to kill you over the person who has done nothing but try to help you.
Also, I'm really glad Derek heard that conversation.
9) Wow, this show is really into hurting people using their worst fears, isn't it? Matt dies in water, just like Peter is defeated by fire last season. And both of them are ultimately killed (or 'killed' in Peter's case) by someone who needs to do it to take their power from them. Derek takes the alpha power from Peter and Gerard takes the power to control the kanima from Matt (oh, foreshadowing with Matt starting to turn into the kanima, because we know there's no way that Gerard will stay within the rules of the kanima. He does not believe himself bound by rules).
And, like Peter, Matt was someone who was ultimately defined by the people who hurt him.