‘Wolf Pack’ 1×07 review: “Lion’s Breath”

Let’s recap Wolf Pack Episode7: Everett (Armani Jackson) is in his brat era hallucinating and somehow becomes the Red Power Ranger of the pack, he and Blake (Bella Shepard) are an official couple, Danny (Nevada Jose) is once again traumatized by the murdering wolf, Kristin (Sarah Michelle Gellar) might be the twins’ and Baron’s mom, Baron might be dead, Austin (Rio Mangini) might have killed him, Luna (Chloe Rose Robertson) and Austin might almost have become an official couple; Kristin wants to bang Zaddy Briggs (Rodrigo Santoro), and Zaddy basically confesses Luna and Harlan (Tyler Lawrence Gray) are werewolves to Kristin. Did I miss anything?

It’s getting messy in California. Wolf Pack continues to twist and weave and braid all the loose ends back in but, in the process, also shows us just how much we didn’t know or question. Back to a hypothesis I had a few episodes ago, I think it is highly likely that Kristin Ramsey is a werewolf and, even better, the twins’ and Baron’s mother. The flashback of the faceless, nipple-less woman chasing and killing those firefighters in the last wildfire this big all but confirmed it—there was plenty there that implied my suspicions. Although, her behavior around Baron in wolf form at the kickback was peculiar from a mom. She keeps saying that her son died in a fire. Perhaps she genuinely believes Baron’s wolf form is another young wolf needing guidance. Maybe she doesn’t know it’s Baron? Or she’s not his mom at all.

Already I think we’re seeing the negative implications of Everett stopping his medications. There are so many ways we could look at his hallucination of Baron in his house. Some of the information gathered from it was usable, but was it telecommunication between Wolf Pack members, or could it have been Everett’s subconscious weeding through his deductions in the form of a delusion? As a rule, I wouldn’t say I like the implication that supernatural abilities correct mental illness. I would appreciate it if Everett’s mental health became high maintenance again—there is plenty of storytelling opportunities there. We’ve seen what his anxiety attacks do to the rest of the Wolf Pack, and it was well played. I want more of that.

There’s also the possible element that Danny can see through werewolf form. If he meant to convey that the wolf who attacked and took him, the one with grey fur, was Kristin Ramsey at the parking garage, the implication is that she was the wolf, and he saw who she was. It would be highly disappointing that the kid with autism is labeled and attributed some truth-seeing power. I don’t know, maybe the autistic community would enjoy that storyline, but something seems off to me about manipulating the origins of a diagnosis like that. It would be one thing if he was autistic and had a superpower, but it would be treading risky territory if he had a superpower because he’s autistic. Do you see what I mean? Let’s stop mystifying real-life neurotypical conditions.

I’ve been bouncing back and forth about who could be the giant wolf plucking off people. It looks like Episode 7 is spotlighting Baron as the one who has been killing people—he all but confirms it in Everett’s hallucination. What is becoming very clear is that he can’t be the only werewolf. A few times, we’ve seen wolves that aren’t quite as grizzly as Baron’s wolf form. We caught glimpses in the pilot of different-sized wolves and differing postures. Baron’s wolf we often see on his hindlegs or crouching, whereas there have been other wolves, shorter, that have been seen primarily on all fours.

Due to how much this show tries to avoid visual effects and CGI, we get limited screen time for the various possible wolves, making it harder to differentiate between them and understand just how many there are. This works in the story’s favor by keeping the audience in the dark and prolonging the mystery. Still, it also risks confusing the audience and making the actions of potentially different characters harder to follow and trace throughout the story.

As I said, some things are tied up in Episode 7, while other character decisions leave more things to obsess over. Why did the murder wolf put Pheobe’s (Bailey Stender) corpse in Blake’s motel room? Why wasn’t Austin confused that his attacker was a human before he stabbed him? How will Luna and Austin move past this when Austin potentially just murdered Luna’s long-lost brother? Where the heck was Cyrus in this episode? Why is Everett’s mom so rude to him? And what did his Dad mean in the last episode when he talked about the medication they both take? Will anyone darker than a cappuccino have more than five lines in this series? Also, no one ever eats in this show, have you noticed that? I don’t think I’ve seen one meal shared in the entire season— what’s up with that?

And, we seriously caught Blake slipping—she needs to have more regular check-ins about her boyfriend’s mental health and listen to her brother better. All in all, not great foresight by the parentified child they introduced us to in the first few episodes. Perhaps after what she’s been through, Blake deserves to be a little ignorant or naïve, but still, I don’t think you can let go of your nature that quickly. Something’s out of character here.

Next week is the finale; I have no idea how they’ll wrap all of this up. Perhaps they won’t and leave things on a cliffhanger, although I have doubts we’ll get a second season. Like its predecessor Teen Wolf, this show has immense potential to become a cult hit with supernatural fanatics. I haven’t seen much social media buzz about this show. I feel like you have to go looking to find any evidence of a fandom. I hope the view numbers are there; I’d love for this show to get picked up with a serious opportunity to expand the story and improve upon its diversity. I find that as the episodes go by, I’m more hooked at the end of each cliffhanger. The performances, too, have generally gotten better.

Featured image courtesy of Curtis Bonds Baker/Paramount+