by Kevin Ranson:
Teen Wolf Recap: “Tattoo”
Original Air Date (MTV): Monday June 3, 2013
Season 3 Episode 1
Need a defibrillator in a hurry? Try a car battery! Or not…
Welcome to season three of “Teen Wolf!”
Isaac gets shocked awake – literally – y a young woman suited up for a bike ride, telling him to “hold on.” He can’t remember anything; the woman says “they” share memories with their claws… or steal them. Somewhere through a dark city street, Isaac senses something; they’re not just being followed, they’re being run down! Forced to make a detour through a warehouse window, the bike slides out; their twin stalkers touch, merge, and become a single monstrous entity. The woman fires an electrical round that separates the stalkers, but when the sparks stop flying, they’re gone.
Scott gets a lesson from a tattoo artist about rites of passage, but discovers too late that his body heals everything without leaving a mark – even if it’s intentional. Also, needles make Stiles faint. Meanwhile, Allison is riding with Lydia on their way to a double-date just as Scott and Stiles catch up to them a at stop light. After four months with no contact between Scott and Allison, awkwardness ensues until a deer runs head-first through the windshield of Lydia’s car – no one is hurt, but everyone is shook up. Scott senses that it’s terrified… and the moon is full. At the emergency room, the young woman and Isaac are brought in; the woman is mumbling about finding an alpha, but she’s referring to Scott.
Back to Beacon Hills High: the first day of the new school year. Lydia is looking for “fresh men” and sees double: the Doublemint twins that were stalking Isaac the night before have apparently been enrolled. Back at the hospital, volunteer nurse Melissa notices that Isaac’s wound is healing too quickly and Derek can’t be reached for advice; he gives Melissa her son’s name, Scott, as his “next emergency werewolf contact.” Stile’s dad Sheriff Stilinski intercepts Melissa in the hallway, expressing his need to talk to the mysterious woman since Isaac can’t remember anything, but the woman isn’t as sedated as everyone thinks.
As the first class of the day gets underway – just before Allison and Scott start passing notes – every student gets a text at the same time from the teacher as she’s walking in, informing them that it’s the last text they’ll get in class; good trick. With all the phones off, Melissa is forced to pull Scott out of school, prompting a warning from Scott’s new English teacher about his prior attendance issues. At the hospital, another alpha sneaks in and sedates Isaac, but she’s too late to catch Isaac’s mysterious rescuer. Back in school, Scott misses Beacon Hills High’s re-enactment of The Birds; is Lydia attracting animal suicides?
Melissa brings Scott up to speed while the doctors figure out that Isaac doesn’t need an operation. A blind man joins Scott in the elevator and asks for his assistance; something is off, but Scott doesn’t sense it. Catching up to Isaac in an elevator, Scott wolfs out and attacks the fake orderly who wheeled him in. The orderly is another alpha and begins making short work of Scott until the door opens onto the next floor… with Derek waiting in ambush. “Shouldn’t you be in school?” he asks a pride-wounded Scott.
Derek and Scott carry Isaac back to Derek’s old place; Isaac is still wounded “on the inside.” Derek tells him that the alpha pack is his problem, not Scott’s. At school, the mysterious woman ask Lydia and Allison where Scott is; when they tell her they don’t know, the woman grasps both of their wrists, leaving bruises; she breaks it off and makes a hasty exits when she notices the Doublemint twins watching her. Alison’s father, Chris, reminds her that the deal to stay in Beacon Hills was to stay out of future werewolf business. After consulting with the vet about the weird behavior of local animals, the sheriff is shown the back room at the clinic office; the caged pets have inexplicably killed themselves.
Stiles shows up at Derek’s place as Derek is listening to Scott lament his missing tattoo, an early eighteenth birthday present to reward himself for letting Allison “have her space” all summer. Derek says he can help, but he’ll have toburn the mark on to make it stay. It works, but Scott notices that Derek has painted over something in his front door: the alpha pack mark. While Derek explains how a pack of alphas is even possible and who their leader “Deucalion” is, the blind man from the elevator who answers to that name unleashes his pack on Isaac’s rescuer. Before striking her down, he allows her to guess that Scott is a threat… and that intends to use Derek to destroy the teen.
Lydia and Allison are comparing color swatches when they notice that the pattern the bruises on the arms make together, the same symbol on the floor as the scene fades to a vault-like room. From behind, two people who look suspiciously like they might be the missing Erica and Boyd grasp hands…
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Kevin A. Ranson is the author of The Spooky Chronicles and the upcoming vampire thriller The Matriarch. He also the creator/critic for MovieCrypt.com and the “ghost writer” for its horror host Grim D. Reaper (often seen skulking around horror conventions). Find him on Facebook, on Twitter @KevinARanson, and his author blog at ThinkingSkull.com.
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