Teen Wolf ‘Visionary’ recap: West eyes story

The problem with this episode of Teen Wolf is that it’s entirely dependent on the fact that the audience think quite highly of Derek — and that you feel he is almost essential to the current storyline. I know that Derek has his huge fanbase and that they were probably clamoring for something like this, but unfortunately I am not it. When the show tried to trick us about him supposedly being dead a couple of episodes ago, I felt no sense of urgency.

Now, you might say that’s because it was completely obvious Teen Wolf would never kill Derek off … at least not like that. And that’s true; it was 100 percent obvious. But it’s also because I’m kind of in a realm where I wouldn’t exactly be devastated if Derek had to go. As you can imagine, his backstory wasn’t all that compelling.

Derek’s Eyes

We find out that several years prior — no one will actually tell us a date — Derek used to play basketball and he would use it as a way to hit on girls. And it worked, because he found musically talented Paige to satisfy his teenage hormones. (Or maybe he wasn’t a teenager, in the way you would count years. Who knows?)

What follows is what the show wants you to think is the epitome of star-crossed: Young Derek was falling in love, but Young Peter was scared that Paige wouldn’t survive her teenage years — let alone a lifetime. I know I’m watching a show where the main character had a similar love story during season one, but something about this flashback love story feels like a farce. Perhaps it’s because it’s only one episode. Or perhaps it’s because Peter was doing his best Peeping Tom during every event he was telling in his story.

In the end, Peter told someone to bite Paige … which they do. But The Bite doesn’t take. Paige dies in Derek’s arms by his choice, without ever even being offered a chance to say goodbye to her family. This is why Derek’s eyes go from an innocent yellow to an icy blue. Though, I don’t think it explains exactly why Derek is who he is; something tells me that having your entire family murdered would be much more of a shock. But I guess we’ll have to leave that to a future flashback. Well, I never thought I’d type that phrase.

You know, the best part about the Derek flashback is the actors they cast. First off, Young Derek looks exactly like a young version of Derek, so kudos to that. But also, they actually look like teenagers. And plus, they actually look like they’re supposed to live in whatever time period it was. It was like a very fascinating time capsule. (Plus we met Mama Hale.)

Deucalion’s Eyes

On the other hand, we have Gerard telling us the story of Deucalion and how he became blind — which I think we have to agree was much more interesting, if only because it finally gives us some backstory as to everyone’s motivations.

Let’s cut to the chase here: Gerard decides to attack Deucalion’s pack, killing them in the process (which is where the episode finally picked up steam) and then took two arrows and stabbed Deucalion in the eyes. This is how he went blind.

It’s fascinating to think that the Teen Wolf writers will stop at nothing to make Gerard completely unlikable. But I’m OK with it. I won’t ask questions about why Gerard decided to simply blind Deucalion and not kill him, though. But I am thinking about it.

In turn, Gerard offers to Scott and Alison that this means Deucalion “sees as a wolf.” “Maybe we can use that to our advantage!” they say because we’re too dense to understand. (Plus, we figure out that the Druids helped werewolves shape back and forth.)

But not so fast. A big part of “Visionary” was that narrators are unreliable. Peter didn’t decide to tell Stiles and Cora that he was a Peeping Tom (and I’m not sure if he told them he decided to order a bite on Paige, anyone?), meanwhile Gerard decided not to inform Scott and Alison that he attacked the werewolves unprovoked. I can’t imagine what huge ramifications that will have going forward, except for what we already know: both Peter and Gerard are a bit untrustworthy.

Overall, this was an OK episode. I admire what Teen Wolf is trying to do. And trust me, no one wanted a slower installment more than I did — but this wasn’t the kind of slow installment I was looking for. I wanted to recover our bearings in the present storyline to know where our characters stand. Like I said, I’m sure more people are fascinated with these flashbacks than I am and they probably loved it. But you couple my gripes with the fact that I don’t truly care for History Lessons and … well, it’s just OK. Almost C+ territory for me. But what did you guys think?