4.2 117 Derek Hale, everyone’s favorite grouchy mentor and foil to Stiles, was found in a teenage state (played by Ian Nelson) last week by the gang in their Mexican cave. This week he’s back in town and back under the care of Scott, Stiles, Dr Deaton, and the rest of the Beacon Hills shifter community. As it turns out, Lil Derek had a little getting trouble to his lycanthropy during his teenage years, and he needed a magical macguffin, the triskelion, to help him focus himself and control his abilities. Kate Argent, herself a new were creature, needs that macguffin to help control her own homicidal, gas-station-attendant-eating ways. (The attendant is named Briggs, which I can only assume is a nod to drive-in movie critic and fan of all things gore Joe Bob Briggs.) Then again, if she has the power to change Derek back into Teen Wolf Too, then does she really need that amulet? That question is never really addressed, so let’s forget it and just move on, shall we? Despite Derek being a teenager—and being played by a different actor—Teen Wolf does a great job with the writing for the character. Unlike standard, growly Derek, teenage Derek was regressed back before the Hale family fire, so he trusts Kate Argent and he’s a lot more friendly and open with the gang. Of course, as his scenes with Stiles remind us, he’s still Derek, and there’s still a lot of comedy tension there, even if Derek is now the younger of the two rather than the older two. It’s one of many really funny moments from the pen of writer Eoghan O’Donnell, who plays to two of the show’s strengths: the Stiles family and Peter Hale. It was a lot of fun to see the Stilinski boys back together for a few scenes, with teen Derek serving as their mutual link; in scenes like the interrogation scene, in which Sheriff Stilinski expresses horror at the thought of Stiles and Scott getting involved in time travel, show that there’s not really all that much difference between father and son in spite of the years separating them (it helps that both of them are very funny characters in their own right, and Linden Ashby does a wonderful job of physical comedy during his scene studying young Derek). In a world where teenagers turn into monsters, is time travel really that far-fetched? Of course, thanks to the returning Kate Argent (AKA actress Jill Wagner, who also hosts the Wolf Watch after-show) things will quite quickly get heavy. With the reappearance of the berserkers from the abandoned Aztec temple, who look like a combination of Lord Humungous from The Road Warrior and Rattleshirt from Game of Thrones, there’s clearly going to be some significant action this week, and it’s fun to see the kids—including wee babby Derek—getting involved in the action. Malia’s fight-first-and-ask-questions-never mindset is going to be a lot of fun this season and Christian Taylor does a good job of capturing the fight scenes on film without revealing too much of the new this season’s version of the oni. It wasn’t the height of what Teen Wolf can be, but it was a great example of just how much fun the show can be without sacrificing both horror (the splattered guy in the bathroom) and action (the extended fight between the berserkers and all the Teen Wolves). The theft, which wasn’t perpetrated by Big Bad Kate, looks to be the work of the Mexican hunters, or some other nefarious person wearing leather shoes. I have no doubt this ties back in a greater way to Mexico, which means the return of the show’s second-creepiest mother character (not Mama Argent, AKA the scariest person ever on TV). Read Ron’s review of the previous episode, The Dark Moon, here. US Correspondent Ron Hogan is sad to see Baby Derek go, but it’ll be fun to have Adult Derek back, if only so the show continues to have some beard on its characters and angst in its heart. Find more by Ron daily at Shaktronics and PopFi. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.
