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in a bad dream.
Scott’s and Theo’s strange journeys to the underworld have clear parallels. Both are instigated by Kira’s powers, both are repeated scenes that begin in a body locker, and both are described with the language of dreams.
Before Scott goes under, he asks a question (“Time of Death”):
Scott: What happens while I’m out? Am I gonna feel anything?
Noshiko: It might feel like you’re dreaming.
Scott: Good dreams, or bad?
Noshiko: I suppose that’s up to you.
After Theo comes back from underground, he answers one ("Memory Found"):
Liam: Theo?
Theo: I’m fine. Just, just thought I was somewhere else for a second.
Liam: Where?
Theo: In a bad dream.
Both dreams are up to them, in some sense, shaped by their fears. What’s interesting to me is how similar those fears seem: mirrored versions of the same thing.
am i gonna hurt someone?
Hurting innocent people is Scott’s greatest concern in becoming a werewolf (“Pack Mentality”). His death dream is all about that: what if becoming an Alpha means hurting more people, the way he’s seen so many Alphas do? What if it means hurting the person he feels the greatest urge to protect? Tied up in this worry is guilt about the harm he feels he’s already done. Liam was only at the hospital because of Scott, and his name is on the deadpool because he was turned into a werewolf. Scott fears that he will become exactly like the Mute, obsessed with nothing but killing, taking pleasure in it. The Mute’s presence is also a reminder, however, of the truth of the matter: the Mute was the threat to Liam, and responsible for his transformation. Scott not only saved his life but was a victim of the Mute himself, since he never had any intention of biting anyone.
Theo’s dream is dominated by the fear of being hurt, not hurting someone, but I think we see the same guilt about the harm he’s already done—to his sister, the one he felt the greatest urge to protect, the one he “should have been looking out for” (“Strange Frequencies”). Theo runs from this guilt at first, but does wind up facing it, admitting that his heart belongs to his sister. At the same time, their entire interaction, and even the fact that it takes place in the hospital, hints at the Doctors’ involvement in Tara’s death. The show is intentionally vague about the extent of Theo’s agency in Tara’s murder (and much more extensive meta has been done on it elsewhere), but I feel confident saying that, even if Theo lacked empathy as a child, he wouldn’t have killed his sister without the Doctors’ involvement.* He definitely wouldn’t have taken her heart. Theo was their victim too.
(*As a side note, this subtext is one reason this sequence frustrates me. Tara comes to stand for all of the people Theo killed, but Josh’s, Scott’s, and Tracy’s deaths are much more firmly Theo’s fault, and only addressed piecemeal once he returns. This, however, is a whole other can of meta worms…)
i don't want to be one of the bodies.
For Theo, it’s “that simple” (“Amplification”). This sentiment lurks behind his obsession with power and self-definition, and his fear of failure; to the Doctors, people are just bodies with potential, and failures are just bodies. Fittingly, that’s exactly how Theo starts in the dream sequence: in a body locker, just another body. This is also where Scott’s dream begins, but the location is more marked with Theo, as Scott’s real body is in a locker, while Theo’s is not. Likewise, Scott is barefoot in real life but wears shoes in his dream, while Theo has shoes on in real life but not in the dream, more of his body bared. Theo’s dream revolves around the ultimate transformation into a body. Each sequence ends not with Theo dead but with the realization that he is going to die, that he is nothing but a collection of organs.
Scott’s dream also involves the transformation into a body, as his fear that he is turning into a killer is symbolized by his changing fangs. The sequence takes place in a school, but Scott slowly transforms from team captain to Alpha—and to killer. In order to see the list of people he might kill, he has to type his own name as a password, adding his name to the list of the dead. For Scott, becoming a mindless killer is his own death. By the end, as he’s spattered in Liam’s blood, he is no longer Scott, or even human. He is nothing but a grinning collection of teeth.
maybe i should just be no one again.
The thing that really kicks me is that, for all of their differences, Scott and Theo end up in the same place of despair:
Both of them give in to the transformation, and give up all control. Killing is nominally an expression of control, but for Scott, killing Liam represents the loss of everything he stands for, everything he has tried not to give in to since he was first bitten. Theo, I think, cooperates with Tara as a way to try to retain control over the situation (a tactic of his, as Demonzdust has shown), but ultimately, this decision only reflects his own powerlessness, his lack of control.
These dream sequences have clear differences. Scott chooses to go to his dream underworld to try to save people, and Theo is sent to his when he tries to kill everyone. Scott is in the dream for forty five minutes, while Theo is underground for months. Theo is terrified of being hurt, and Scott terrified of hurting someone. Ultimately, however, these dreams express similar feelings of guilt, fear, loss, and death.