Teen Wolf Recap: “Visionary”

by Kevin Ranson:

Teen Wolf Recap: “Visionary”
Original Air Date (MTV): Monday July 22, 2013
Season 3 Episode 8

How can you tell if Gerard Argent and Peter Hale are lying? Their lips move.

A young boy runs through the woods, stalked by hunters; ultrasonic emitters herd him everywhere. Another runner asks if the boy is a Hale just before he’s impaled in the throat; Chris and Gerard Argent are leading the hunt. Underneath a ruined house, a younger Peter and Derek Hale hide and wait for the hunters to pass… a story told to Stiles by Cora. Listening in, Uncle Peter claims that Derek used to be like Scott and that Peter was more like Derek’s best friend than uncle back then. He also says that what changed the color of Derek’s eyes from yellow to blue was, of all things, a girl.

Inside a band room many years before, a young woman’s cello practice is interrupted by boys playing basketball in the hallway. When she complains, one of them teases her until she goes away, but after the other boys have their laugh and leave, the boy stays to get the girl’s name: Paige. She already knows who Derek is and a romance blossoms; the teens sneak off together out at an abandoned distillery. Unfortunately, that same location was also used werewolf packs to meet.

Elsewhere, Gerard receives a bit of healing from Scott – with Alison watching close by – in exchange for everything he knows about Deucalion. Gerard complains that his cancer is gone but doctors can’t explain why his body produces and oozes the black fluid. He confesses that he knows Deucalion may have lost the use of his eyes, but the alpha is not always blind.

At a wolf meeting with Deucalion, Kali, Ennis and others in attendance, the most powerful alpha who also happened to live in the area was Talia Hale, and everyone wanted to be in her favor. Deucalion actually tried to talk Ennis outof revenge against the Argents for what they did to one of his pack – gee, I wonder what changed his mind, hmm?

As Derek and Paige grow friskier, Uncle Peter – between bites of a product placement Reese’s cup – suggests turning Paige so her finding out about his wolf side won’t matter. Of course, present-day Peter makes it sound like it he didn’t suggest it and that Derek was the one obsessed with the idea; it also meant convincing an alpha to do the deed.

Back at the other version of the story, Chris and Gerard Argent discover the hiding place where they lost track the Hales; Chris calls it a nemeton, a sacred druid meeting place. Gerard explains that werewolves had a relationship with druids, called them emissaries, and the legend of Lycaon being punished by Zeus to create the first weres; druids taught werewolves how to shift back and forth. While Stiles finds out that Peter and Cora already knew Ms. Morrell was a druid, they also reveal that Deaton used to advise Talia back in the day.

Late at the school one night, Ennis attacks Paige and Derek tries to defend her, but he had already bitten her; as sometimes happens, the bite doesn’t take and she begins to die of it. Meanwhile, Deucalion sets up a meeting to make peace with the Argents, but Gerard lies about the wolves springing a trap – it had been him. Gassing the weres and inoculating himself with an antidote, Gerard get the upper hand and puts Deucalion’s eyes out with silver-tipped arrows… way to screw it up for everybody, Grampa.

Derek takes Paige back to the nemeton, but he couldn’t save her; worse yet, she already knew he was a werewolf and didn’t care. To end her pain, Derek kills her with his own hands, and his eyes turn blue because of taking an innocent life – is that what also happened to blue-eyed Peter? While Talia consoles Derek, Uncle Peter claims that he took Paige’s body and left it where it could be found, the victim of another Beacon Hills animal attack. At Deaton’s business, Deucalion is told he’ll never see again, so his beta Marco attacks him. Deucalion dispatches him and realizes that he can not only take the power of another wolf but can see as a wolf; as Gerard said, Deucalion isn’t always blind.

Even after listening to Grampa Argent’s story, Scott suspects Gerard’s lying, threatening to take away more than his pain if those lies get anyone hurt. Stiles also suspects Peter wasn’t telling the whole truth, either. Isn’t it amazing that anyone listens to either of these guys?

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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.