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Season 3, Episode 8:
Visionary
In the aftermath of a climactic previous episode, Scott, Allison, Cora, and Stiles seek out some untrustworthy storytellers to find out about the possible origins of the Darach as well as the Alpha Pack. Scott and Allison make a risky deal with Gerard to find out what happened when the alphas were first in Beacon Hills years ago. Meanwhile, Stiles and Cora listen to a long-winded tale from Peter about Derek's first girlfriend Paige, what happened to her, and why the alphas are involved. The audience is finally introduced to the Hale matriarch and former alpha, Talia Hale. And Gerard explains that emissaries like Dr. Deaton and his sister Ms. Morrell were each assigned to a specific pack, and Ms. Morrell is the emissary of the alphas. The tragedy that happened to Paige gives insight as to why Derek has remained so isolated for his entire life, and the story seems to imply that Peter is to blame for all of it. The flashbacks reveal that Deucalion was once a good man, and Gerard corrupted him through taking his sight.
Tropes
- Whole Episode Flashback: This episode features nearly no plot in the present day. All of the plot occurs in the stories told by Peter and Gerard.
- A Day in the Limelight: Peter's story features this,though it’s surprisingly not Peter who’s in the limelight. It's Derek. Peter tells most of the story about why Derek tends to isolate himself so much. We learn more about Derek in this episode than any other episode in the series.
- Framing Device: For the entire episode. Peter's story about Derek and Paige occurs within the frame of Gerard's story of the alphas and how Deucalion lost his eyesight. This framing of the episode is a reference to Heart of Darkness and the way its story is told. This fact is made clear by Stiles's name-dropping Heart of Darkness to Cora at the end of the episode.
- Unreliable Narrator: To the MAX. This episode wants to point out the fact that both Gerard and Peter are unreliable narrators SO BADLY, that it has both Scott and Stiles say that they didn’t trust their respective narrators.
Stiles's comment to Cora at the end of the episode continues the way that the entirety of season 3A pays Homage to the novel Heart of Darkness. Stiles explains to Cora that one of the biggest parts of Heart of Darkness is that its narrator is clearly not to be fully trusted. - "Rashomon"-Style: Since this episode is told by two extremely untrustworthy people who have shown that they’re both unafraid of lying to make themselves look good and others look worse, this episode is a prime example of "Rashomon"-Style storytelling, and it’s amped up by the fact that the episode is a flashback episode. Peter’s story has some obvious lies in it, and so does Gerard’s. At times in the episode (especially the scenes surrounding the distillery), Gerard and Peter tell about the same event, but they each tell it in different ways. Some of the differences in their stories can be explained by the fact that every person experiences something from a differing viewpoint from another person. However, the episode does a really good job of causing the audience to question which narrator, if any, is telling the truth. And these scenes with the slight discrepancies are where that aspect shines brightest.
- Separate Scene Storytelling: A supertrope to a bunch of the tropes listed for this episode, this one might seem unnecessary. The fact that this episode’s events have already occurred but the audience watches them unfold rather than just listen to Gerard and Peter speak is what makes this trope present here.
