Teen Wolf Premiere 3×01 "Tattoo"
The day everyone has been waiting for has arrived – well maybe not everyone, but definitely a day that I’ve been anticipating for a while – the beginning of Teen Wolf season 3! The last two seasons have been absolutely wonderful and surprisingly heartbreaking and fantastic for an MTV show, surpassing the expectations of myself and fans worldwide. However, with the news of Colton Haynes (Jackson Whittemore) and Gage Golightly (Erica Reyes) leaving, I was wondering how they were going to add that into the hopefully brilliant new plotline of this season.
The episode begins with an unconscious Isaac being revived by an unidentified woman, who apparently knows all about werewolves and demands that a woozy Isaac get on the back of her motorbike. They take off, and are soon in pursuit by the Alpha twins Ethan and Aiden, who manage to easily catch up to the speeding motorbike. They crash, and the twins manage to somehow merge together into one freaky looking golem-esque Alpha werewolf man. It’s terrifying, and extremely weird, and the unidentified girl manages to electrocute them enough that they flee.
Meanwhile on the other side of town, Scott is getting a tattoo with Stiles there as moral support – Stiles jokingly suggests that he get a Kanima tattoo, but Scott goes with two simple bands around his arm (most likely because this is Tyler Posey’s actual tattoo that they probably got annoyed with covering up in any scene). However after it is done and they get back to the Jeep, the tattoo gets healed by Scott’s werewolf powers; he wonders how Derek managed to have the triskele on his back without it healing. The two boys drive home and pull up next to Allison and Lydia, who are apparently going on a double date. However since things are awkward at the least between Allison and Scott, awkwardness ensues when they meet eye contact; then a deer comes charging straight through Lydia’s windscreen and dies on impact, utterly terrifying and freaking out all four of them. At the hospital, Isaac and the unidentified girl are wheeled in on gurneys, Ms McCall helping them, and out of earshot the girl whispers that she needs the Alpha. Not Derek, though… Scott.
Cut to the first day of school after the summer holidays in Scott McCall’s junior year of high school. Everyone’s had a fresh start –Scott has been reading up to become a better student, Stiles grew his hair out (and daaaamn), Allison spent four months in France attempting to get over Scott after their break up last season and Lydia… well, she was Lydia. Apparently she’s still trying to get over Jackson, who was forcibly moved to London by his father: “an American werewolf in London, great.” Erica and Boyd are still missing, and Derek has spent the summer looking for them, while the threat of the Alpha Pack is still most definitely there. A new English teacher is introduced – Ms. Blake – who is apparently (spoilers) Derek’s new love interest for the season. Stiles notices that Lydia has a bandage around her ankle from where her dog bit her, and realizes that there’s something weird going on with the animals, like how they recognize something’s wrong before an earthquake. Once… twice- a black bird smashes into the window, killing itself. Then a huge flock of the birds fly straight towards them, smashing through the windows and causing havoc as Stiles fights to protect Lydia. While at the hospital, an Alpha named Kali drugs Isaac.
Melissa McCall calls Scott and asks him to come to the hospital, and when he does, meets a blind man who we do not yet realize is the leader of the Alpha pack, Deucalion (unless you’re me and recognized Gideon Emery from that glorious voice of his). Scott discovers that another Alpha named Ennis has taken a sedated Isaac and is trying to kidnap him. Scott attacks, not realizing that he is an Alpha, and gets his ass completely handed to him – but is saved by the most badass entrance that Derek Hale has ever made. They take Isaac back to the Hale house, calling Stiles on the way, while Derek creates a remedy for Isaac, and Scott asks for help with his tattoo problem. Back at school as Lydia is remarking on how Beacon Hills is turning into a “beacon for the supernatural”, the unidentified girl who escaped from the hospital grabs their arms, asking for Scott. She hurries off after seeing the Alpha twins at the end of the hallway. Sheriff Stilinski visits Dr. Deaton, hopefully for some help on the animal problem, and discovers that all of the cats kept there have clawed themselves to death.
Derek helps Scott with his tattoo problem while Scott explains that he needs something permanent when everything is so ‘ephemeral’, and how a tattoo to him also feels like an open wound. Stiles holds down Scott as Derek turns on a blowtorch to make the tattoo permanent again. When Scott regains consciousness, the tattoo is there, and when he goes to leave he sees that the door has been painted over, but only on one side. He scratches the paint off to reveal the Alpha pack symbol which had been painted there four months ago, and Derek confesses about the Alpha pack’s presence in Beacon Hills. Isaac regains consciousness and demands to know where our mystery girl is; she’s in the locker room at Beacon Hills High, fighting off the entirety of the Alpha pack, successfully until Deucalion enters the room and slits her throat with his claws.
As Allison and Lydia are picking paint colors for Allison’s bedroom wall, when they notice that the bruises on their arms that the mysterious girl gave them form a symbol. The symbol is seen on a floor, and the camera pans to Boyd, clutching Erica’s arm in the dark. Then nothing.
This episode has been highly awaited and highly anticipated, and I can guarantee that it most definitely wasn’t a disappointment. There was enough humor from Stiles, enough badassery from Derek and the Alpha pack and enough plotline to make the episode absolutely wonderful. I am psyched for the new season and I hope it’ll live up to everything it’s promised to be, even with the dismissal of my favourite character Erica, and the introduction of my favourite voice actor, Gideon Emery.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDjN5l7Pp1Q]