God, my heart broke for Derek this week...I might end up staying up for next week's ep, but that would be silly given my sleep issues. Waking up early and watching it before work makes better sense.

Derek is all sour and growly and trying to be Scott's yoda, where Stiles, who doesn't know any specific werewolf facts, knows lots of other random stuff, knows Scott inside out, and can draw parallels like a mofo, so he teaches Scott some of the most important lessons.

I bet Derek learnt most of what he knows from people he loved and trusted--I mean, it was his family, right? His attempt to build a pack out of some pretty shallow high school kids (only Boyd initially looked like his head was on straight, even though Isaac nutted up in the end) was such a desperate grab at recreating what he'd lost, but that's not how what he'd lost had been built, was it?

Worst. Alpha. Ever.

Had I more time and talent, I should start a FAILWOLF meme.

Derek hasn't randomly bitten complete strangers and tried to recruit them by urging them to kill all their friends, or been killed himself because he assumed that murdering someone's closest surviving relative was water under the bridge after saying "oopsie!" I'd say Peter Hale still has the Worst Alpha in All the Land crown.

We are assuming he bit Mama Argent, aren't we?

True dat.

Although, I suspect Dr Deaton (aka The Vet of Mystery) didn't hire Scott randomly, or else Peter Hale chose Scott as a heads up for Deaton.

EXACTLY! God, he's just such a mess, poor guy - Kate Argent really did a truly spectacular job of breaking him into pieces. (.... Admittedly I enjoyed that plotline MUCH more than I should have.) And he is so very not cut out to be an alpha, from all I can see, and his attempts to build a pack are just macaroni art level bad. Argh. Basically he should be second in command to somebody who has a clue and does the thinking and organising - he was probably great with Laura, being her backup and all, but he is SO not cut out to build his own pack. He mainly seems to excel at looming and getting topped, from what I've seen - Peter beat the crap out of him repeatedly, ffs.

Despite his hilarious levels of hottitude, I really want to give the guy soup and a blankie and read him bedtime stories.

It turns out that my back-button reflex from Winchesters-with-wings applies to Stiles-with-fangs. I do not want to read stories where he's been turned, whether he's the sassiest alpha that ever did snarl, or Derek's devoted beta, or whatever.

It goes too far away from what I like about the show, which is Stiles, even as he doesn't really believe he can, being of so much value just for his brains and his heart.

If the layout is that Scott is an alpha, and Stiles is in his pack, along with Isaac and whoever else stumbles by (I have no idea what's up with Allison right now--but I want her in, with Lydia and Kanima Jackson)...I don't know what that means for Derek, but I feel he's pretty clearly failed at his season of the alpha, time to let someone else have a go.

Can Scott just become the alpha? I thought in this universe you either had to kill the current alpha or had to create your own werewolves to become an alpha.

Oh DEAR, has it been that bad? I mean, unsurprising I guess but I still feel bad for the guy. Derek SO needs all the hugs, and a firm clip around the ear from time to time.

Yes, I would rather Stiles stayed human (were he a wolf, I think he might be more of an alpha than Scott, actually). What I'd like from fanfic at the moment is some good long Hale family backstory stuff - guilt-stricken Derek and bereft Laura on the road, clutching a few soot-smudged relics of their lives, like reverse Winchesters: hiding from hunters, saving things - tbe family business.