'Teen Wolf' 3.06 "Motel California" Review

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Now that I’ve written separately about the problem with Jennifer Blake and Derek Hale, reviewing this episode can be done without the distraction of random love-making scenes with the mortally wounded. Aside from that, ‘Motel California’ might well be one of the best episodes outside of last season’s ‘Battlefield’ and easily a stand-out for season three so far. The entire cross-country team plus Lydia and Allison are in the middle of nowhere forced to stay at a sketchy hotel with a history of violence that fuels an exploration of the inner demons of three of our increasingly tortured Were boys: Scott, Boyd, and Isaac. It also gave Team Human a chance to show why they continue to be the most capable characters on the show.

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Boyd and Isaac had to deal with particularly painful pasts consisting of survivor’s guilt or the long-reaching effects of living in an abusive household. Sinqua Walls and Daniel Sharman sold their scenes of personal anguish but they’ve both been struggling all season so let’s hope this was an emotional apex for their characters. Perhaps this could serve as something cathartic for them to have survived but that could just be me being optimistic. It was no shocker to see Boyd and Isaac struggle in this psychologically affecting environment but seeing just how far Scott’s fallen was.

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Scott’s glimpses of inner turmoil included a disturbing scene with his former love Allison that twisted the unrequited nature of his feelings with her into something quite unsettling. Thankfully, the show didn’t feel the need to dwell for long on that as rape-eyes Scott McCall would have been something I doubt they could come back from magical influence or not. The focus of his suicidal urges led to the finest moment of Scott and Stiles’ friendship yet. Standing in a pool of gasoline with a lit road flare and every desire to remove himself from an existence that he sees as a never-ending torrent of heartbreak, tragedy, and death was a way to see how trapped Scott feels. He’s always been the one that wanted to fight back, to find the better way, and never give up hope. When this type of character goes this far under the influence it’s a very revealing look at how much the darkness inside of him is growing by the day.

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It's a good thing that Scott has great friends around him that truly will have to step up now more than ever for their supernatural comrades. One of the best things about Teen Wolf is how often it’s the supes that are affected by various threats and need the humans to save them and not the other way around. This episode was a testament to that as Allison’s bravery, Stiles impulsiveness and heart, plus Lydia’s unfailing intelligence kept the number of deaths at the Glen Capri from going up. Stiles didn’t think twice before he walked into the gasoline with Scott. Dylan O’Brien’s performance was excellent from the way his eyes welled up with tears at the sight of his best friend without hope to the way he stepped up and saved him—the friendship between these two is something that remains one of the most important relationships on this show and it was great to be reminded of why that is.

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It wasn’t only the ‘good’ Weres that struggled this episode either as we actually had a chance to get to know one half of the Alpha twins a little better. Ethan and Danny took the unplanned rest stop as a chance to get intimate and it’s not as bad mortally wounded sex but if your partner ominously implies that I hope you are a survivor doesn’t that kill the mood a bit? It was clever to separate Ethan from the rest of his pack as it gave our faves a chance to rescue him and for Ethan to owe them in some fashion. Divide and conquer is really the only way to deal with the alpha pack and I’m hopeful we’ll see more solo jaunts from the remaining alpha pack members that puts them on the same side as the pack they’re currently targeting—putting everyone on a more equal playing field against the Darach.

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Overall, this episode created a mood and tone that got under the skin of the viewer as much as one of the targeted hotel guests. We even got confirmation that Gerard Argent is alive and...he isn’t exactly well but he is being hidden away and Chris Argent knows it.  I can’t wait to see what becomes of that in future episodes. His revelation that it was the bite of Deucalion that seemingly started the Glen Capri’s suicide curse also gave us another guess as to the nature of the Darach and that it could well be more connected to at least Deucalion than we first thought. It would be nice if Teen Wolf had more episodes like this one that were tight in theme and execution if you don’t count the Derek/Jennifer scenes and I see no reason to as they had no place in this and it was jarring whenever the focus shifted over to them.