Teen Wolf, Season 3, Episode 4 "Unleashed" Recap/Review

JFC, that was intense, and I have to say that my heart is a little destroyed by Isaac's entire existence right now. That story-line hit me where my heart lives, guys. I'm not even going to try to introduce this episode any further, and instead just get down to business. Notes/comments/speculation will be at the end (mostly, anyway; I'm kind of an expert at interrupting myself and tend to do it frequently) so if you're not into that, you can skip it easily.

Previously, on Teen Wolf: There's a pack of Alphas/an "Alpha Pack", who had Derek's long-lost, thought-to-be-dead younger sister Cora and Boyd held captive for 3-4 months. Isaac's dad was an abusive shitbag who used to punish him by locking him in a deep-freezer, until Derek found Isaac one night while he was working his job as a grave-digger and gave him the gift of lycanthropy. (Also, Jackson the kanima accidentally killed Isaac's dad for him, oops, but that's another story for another day) Stiles' childhood pal Heather wanted to sleep with Stiles, but ended up getting kidnapped and killed in a trio of virgin sacrifices, which also included a cute lesbian named Emily who just wanted to mack on her girlfriend on a camping trip, and a pool lifeguard who was wearing a purity ring. Moving on!

We begin the episode at Dr. Deaton's veterinarian's office, where a nervous-looking dude has brought his sick little dog in for a check-up. The dude, whom the interweb tells me is named Kyle, is nervous that the exam will hurt his dog, but Deaton kindly jokes that its actually the pet's OWNERS who usually feel the brunt of the pain. Scott helps calm the dog down, so the guy makes a comment about how the dog "knows who the Alpha is," which doesn't escape Scott, nor Deaton's notice. Nor mine, if we're being honest. The dog, whose name, Bullet, is emblazoned on his leather collar and leash, is determined by the good doc to have eaten something he shouldn't have, so Kyle and Bullet are sent off on their merry way.

After they've left, Scott finds something in the pup's stool sample and points it out to his boss. Deaton walks over to examine in, and identifies the small berry as mistletoe, which is yet another plant/herb that is toxic to doggies, were-pups like Scott, AND humans.

Meanwhile, outside in the parking lot, Bullet gets scared and runs away from his owner before he can be loaded into the car. Kyle chases the little guy around in a dark alley for a few minutes, until he finally hears barking nearby, which leads him to assume that Bullet is hiding under a dumpster. He crouches down to reach under it and grab his pup, but when he reaches his arm out, something injures him, somehow, so he yanks his hand back out.

He assumes that Bullet must have bit him, but when he hears a noise behind him, he turns around to see that Bullet was behind him the whole time! OH SHIT. Stupidly, the guy decides to take another peek under the dumpster to see who/what nipped his hand, even though he just determined it wasn't his pet. As he crouches down to peek under the dumpster, he hears a whisper. "Closer...closer..." Clearly, this guy has never seen a horror movie before, because I'm pretty sure rule number one is DON'T LISTEN TO CREEPY VOICES THAT YOU DON'T RECOGNIZE. He does it anyway, despite mine and his dogs frantic protests and leans in a little closer. Needless to say, it doesn't take long before whatever is under the truck grabs Kyle. And, presumably, bashes his head in, strangles him with a garrote, and slashes his throat.

Scott notices some weird noises coming from outside and goes out into the parking lot to investigate. Bullet runs straight for him, but Kyle has completely vanished. The creepy chanting that we've heard in all the previews/promos is back with a vengeance, but I don't think Scott can hear it. Scott just kind of looks around and tries to figure out WTF is up with his town, now. TITLE CARD.

As she walks down the hallway at school, Ms. Blake ALSO hears some weird noises and understandably gets a little freaked out, considering the events that transpired last week. (Last week for us, anyway. I'm pretty sure it's probably only been a day or two since the boiler room fiasco in the show's universe. Does anyone understand how this timeline works? Honestly, I don't even think the writers do, it's wibbly-wobblier than the Doctor Who timeline!) She walks down the hall as quickly as her teacher-heels allow until she finally make it to her classroom. She sighs in relief as she closes the door and locks it, assuming she's safe from whatever is lurking around the school.

PSYCHE! Because actually, Derek is standing right behind her, creepin' like always! Ms. Blake is so startled, she shrieks as she looks around for something she can use as a weapon, finally settling on a wooden pointer. She asks him what he wants; is he here to threaten and/or kill her to keep her from blabbing his secrets? Nope. He just wants to make sure she doesn't have major post-traumatic stress after witnessing that huge werewolf brawl the other night that almost got her and Derek both killed. She rambles on in a Stiles-like way about how she doesn't think she's mentally okay, and that her therapist would argue that she hasn't been emotionally stable in quite a while. He laughs gently and takes the pointer away from her as he promises her that he thinks she'll be fine.

She's not so sure about that, and brings up that she has to start teaching The Crucible that day to a bunch of dumb students, so he peacocks by smugly suggesting that she teach them that it's an allegory for McCarthyism. Aw, Derek, no one likes a show-off. I like how much of a book-nerd Derek is, I feel like we always see him reading when he's not kicking ass or working out half-naked. What kind of books do you think he likes? Did he graduate from high school? I forget. I wouldn't blame him if he didn't, since having your whole family burn to death in a fire and having to flee town to avoid the same fate is a pretty legitimate excuse for dropping out.

ANYWAY, Ms. Blake assumes that his McCarthy reference was meant to be a subtle hint that she needs to keep her mouth shut, and assures him that she's not going to tell anyone what she saw. Derek seems satisfied, so he turns to leave, but before he can open the door, she asks who he is. He introduces himself as "Derek," so she responds that her name is Jennifer. He smiles a tiny bit at this info, and takes his leave. She looks a little scared and a little intrigued and a whole lot aroused, TBH. We all know that Derek can't actually have a good day, so this is about as happy as it gets, folks.

It's lacrosse cross-country practice in the middle of the school day, because that's how they do in Beacon Hills. Stiles is listening to Scott recap the whole thing with Kyle from last night-- Kyle, their client, just vanished, without even taking his car or his dog with him. Stiles is understandably unnerved by this information, after what happened to Heather, and asks if the guy looked "virginal" in about fifty different anxious ways. "Definitely not," Scott earnestly replies. "Deaton makes me have sex with all of his clients. It's a new policy." Oh my gods, Scott made a joke! He seems to think it's hilarious and smiles adorably at his best friend, waiting for a response. Stiles isn't amused, though, mostly because he's worried about himself as per usual. Aw, come on! Scott never jokes! At least give the guy a pity laugh or something.

Scott is having a hard time buying the whole "virgin sacrifice" thing, and reminds him that they don't know he's dead yet; for all they know, he's just missing. Still, Stiles is positive that he's been strangled/throat-slashed/head-bashed by now, though, because he was probably a virgin, like Stiles, who is also a virgin, and who therefore needs to be sexed like, RIGHT NOW, you guys. He starts to really get intense in his freak out about his virginhood, and after listening to him for a minute, perfect, dimpled Danny (Hey, Danny!) walks up in his perfect green v-neck and offers to help a buddy out. 

Stiles is so startled, he literally screams in surprise. Then, once he realizes what Danny is offering, he's like, "Bwuh?" He's totally into it, though, especially when Danny literally says "Come over to my place at 9:00. Plan to stay the night. I like to cuddle." DANNY IS THE BEST. Stiles is so considering it (and Scott seems pretty intrigued, too, tbh), until Danny points out that he's totally kidding. Stiles doesn't even pretend to not be offended and hurt about this turn of events, which I'm taking as confirmation that Stiles is bisexual. No one can tell me otherwise! (Well, you can, but I will refuse to believe you. In this house, everyone is presumed bisexual unless they're explicitly stated to be gay. Sorry, I make the rules.)

Unfortunately, once again, we are denied our shirtless Stiles while the boys change for practice, but they do make up for it with (spoiler alert) SHIRTLESS ISAAC AND DANNY so okay, no complaints here! Nope, nada.

                                                                 
(via dylanobrinen)

                                                                     
(via teenwolf)
UNF. Isaac waltzes into the locker room after missing like, the first whole week or two of school. Oops! Coach Finstock explains that all lacrosse players are required to run cross-country this season so they don't turn into "fat-asses" in the off-season or something. I don't know, I was too distracted by these very-obviously-not-fat-ass dudes changing over here. Here's a reminder, in case you already forgot (but I didn't, because it's literally seared into my eyelids):

(Upon re-watching this scene, I also noticed that Coach Finstock was totally checking out those buff, underage, male students of his while they were changing, so, there's that, I guess. Way to be a creeper, Coach.)

Outside in some weird wooded path area I assume is adjacent to the school, the team is preparing to start their run. Isaac's in the middle of tying his shoes when the Alpha Twins flank him on either side and try to psych him out a little by making faces at each other. They're names are Ethan and Aiden, by the way! Since they actually have lines in this episode, I figure we should probably learn them (and by "we," I mean "me," because I literally have not cared whatsoever about them until this point).

Anyway, their intimidation tactic works; when Coach blows the whistle, Isaac finally realizes that they're the Alphas that chased him and Braeden down and almost killed them both way back in "Tattoo," and he gets SUPER angry. To be fair, though, Isaac hasn't been in school all year until now, so it's not like he could have known. Now, though, he can finally share with the rest of his buds that they're in the Alpha Pack so that they can stay safe! While he's at it, he should probably let Danny and Lydia know that they shouldn't be flirting with them, just to be on the safe side.

Instead, he says nothing until Scott notices his anger and stops him before he can run off. Isaac stops just long enough to tell Scott that "it's them" before he chases after them. Scott watches his boyfriend running head-first into danger and has no choice but to follow after him to back him up. SCISAAC FOREVER. Also, let's look at Stiles' running, shall we? He runs like I do (ie: poorly, and embarrassingly)

                                                                       
(via tuperting)
Isaac looks like he's quite the runner, and gets really close to catching up with the twins, but after the path takes a sharp turn, he loses sight of them. He stops to look around and hey his bearings as he takes in the gorgeous scenery. Unfortunately, that's what the twins were expecting, so they catch him completely off guard and shove him so hard that he rolls like, five yards away and across a field before he stops, giving the twins the perfect opportunity to pin his arms behind him to beat him up. Ethan dramatically asks his bro Aiden how many bones are in the human body, and since neither of them can remember,  Aiden suggests counting them as they break them. Never fear, though! Scott the Jokester interrupts them by punching Aiden in the face so hard that he breaks his jaw. He turns to Ethan and smugs, "Welp, that's one!", like he thinks he's Derek Hale or something. Bahahaha.

Isaac scrambles to his feet, like "Yeah! Take that!", and the wolfies quickly get all fanged out and werewolf-eyed up and ready to fight. Their impending dubstep showdown gets interrupted, though, when they all hear a scream from nearby. The four of them stop what they're doing and run towards the noise to find the rest of the team crowding around a tree. A tree to which Kyle's dead body has been tied with Bullet's conveniently-labelled leather leash. He's soaked in his own blood, and was clearly strangled before he was throat-slashed. Stiles totally called it!

After god knows how long, Sheriff Stilinski and his deputy from last week (Deputy Graeme, I think?) finally show up and get the lacrosse team, who has just been sitting and staring at the body this whole time, to move away from the crime scene. Stiles wastes no time pointing out to his dad that Kyle's killing seems to fit the MO of the other murders, but, per usual, his dad blows him off and tells him to go back to school. Coach Finstock tries to help the officers out by ushering the kids away, and reassures them that it was probably just a homeless guy. In designer duds? I don't think so, dude. Scott informs him that Kyle was actually a senior at BHHS, which seems to make Finstock pretty distraught, if only for a brief moment. "Oh god...he wasn't on the team, was he?" Oh, Coach, you and your priorities.

They're interrupted by a screaming blonde who has stumbled upon Kyle's body. It turns out that she's Kyle's girlfriend, although how she managed to figure out where he was remains to be seen. Maybe someone on the team texted her? Who knows. Either way, she seems to be extremely upset at the sight of his dead body. And really, despite all the death Scott, Isaac and Stiles have seen in the past year (such as Peter being flambéed and clawed to death, Isaac's father being ripped to shreds, as well as all the other kanima victims, etc), they're not unaffected by this newest murder, either. The deputies escort the girl from the scene, and as the boys walk away, they speculate over who they think the killer is.

Isaac is sure the Alpha Twins and/or the entire Alpha Pack are behind it, because they got here around the same time the murders started and are very obviously killers. Stiles, on the other hand, believes that garroting someone to death and tying them to a tree is too human of a murder technique to be done by a werewolf, who would be much more likely to just maul and eat them, so he's sticking with his virgin sacrifice theory. The two boys predictably put Scott in the middle to validate one or the other's argument, much to his displeasure. Scott reluctantly reveals himself to be Team Isaac at first, and suggests that the concept of "virgin sacrifices" may be a little too far-fetched. Stiles has a pretty good point, though: "Scott, your eyes turn into yellow glowsticks, okay? Hair literally grows from your cheeks, and then will immediately disappear, and if I were to stab you, you would magically heal, but you're trying to tell me you have trouble with the concept of human sacrifices?"

Scott can't really argue with that logic, and looks helplessly over at Isaac for some support, but he's not buying it. Trouble in Bromance-land is brewing already, eep! Isaac is 100% sure that the Alphas killed Kyle, as well as Braeden, and he's determined to kill them in order to make it even. (You forgot about poor Erica, Isaac! And also, when are we going to learn more about Braeden?)

At the Hale Loft, Cora is demonstrating she is, in fact Derek's sister, because she's channeling all of her pent-up murderous rage into exercising, and hops around the room, doing pullups, pushups, etc. Derek orders her to stop, because she's not done healing yet, but she ignores him. She informs him that she's training so she can take down the Alpha Pack, and she wants Derek to help. Of course she does, because all the living Hales seem to have death wishes. Except Peter, that is, whose middle name is literally "self-preservation;" he has already died once, so he's definitely not planning on doing it again until he's good and ready. Derek can't stand when people don't listen to him, as we well know, so he nudges her hand out from under her while she is mid-pushup, which causes her to lose her balance and fall to the floor.

She's way pissed now, so she gets up and starts to spar with him for a few moments, but he's only blocking her hits, not fighting back, since she's still healing and he's been trying to convince her to relax for a while, now. This sends her rage into critical mass, and she explodes on him about the fact that she was kidnapped and held captive for months just for a grumpy brother who doesn't want to help her out. Apparently, she has thought he was dead this whole time, just as Derek thought about her, which REALLY confuses me. Where did she go after the fire? Wouldn't the fact that their bodies weren't found be in the police report? And why have we still not gotten any answers about this? I love the fast pace of this show and how it allows the drama build up over time, but man, I hate when it's used to the extent that important stuff gets lost in the shuffle, like this.

Derek just growls "Sorry to disappoint you," but his gruff apology is cut off by the sound of his security alarm. It's the same sound that I use for my alarm on my iPhone, so the noise automatically makes me cringe. UGH, come on, show! You can do better than iPhone ringtones. She asks what that alarm means, and he's just like, "Ugh, fuck my fucking life." Ennis pulls open the loft door and waltzes right in, as he asks if Derek is ready for round two. Cora doesn't even take a second to think before she instinctively lunges for him, just like her big bro. And, just like her big bro, she's taken down swiftly and easily, and is pinned to the cement floor in a choke hold. Derek is distracted about this attack on his sister, which allows Kali and her fucking bare-ass feet and black talons to pounce on Derek.

The two fight, and though he almost gets the upper hand at one point by grabbing her by the leg and throwing her across the room, she jumps up and pulls down an exposed pipe from the ceiling and twirls it around like a fucking samurai. She runs over to him and whacks him across the face with it, knocking him down to the floor, face-first. Then, before he has the chance to get to his feet, she fully IMPALES HIM THROUGH THE CHEST WITH THE PIPE THROUGH HIS FUCKING BACK. OUCH OMG. Derek groans as blood dribbles from his open mouth and chest wound. Deucalion chooses that moment to walk in with his cane, and snarks about how exhausting it was to listen to them fight. He crouches before Derek and suggests that they have a little chat.

At school, our Actual Sleeping Beauty, Allison, is snoozing during Ms. Morrell's French class, which does not escape that French-Canadian teacher/guidance counselor's notice. She first tries to wake Allison up politely, ("Madmoiselle? Madmoiselle Argent?") and, when that doesn't work, she yells "Allison!!!" Allison awakes with a start, and for a moment, Ms. Morrell somehow morphs into Allison's mom (AKA, Victoria Argent, AKA, the scariest woman on television). This brief hallucination scares the piss out of Allison, and everyone else, because she is TERRIFYING, but she morphs back into Ms. Morrell after a second. Marin snarks, "Êtes-tu fatigué??"* Oh man, grief-induced hallucinations are no joke.

*(I think that's what she said, anyway. Despite being facil in a handful of languages, my French skills are severely lacking. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.) 

The bell rings, which puts Allison out of her misery, at least in front of her classmates. As they file out of the room, Ms. Morrell (whose first name is apparently Marin, thank you internet, again) (Future Emily note: oh, wait, I already knew that, because Deucalion called her Marin in "Chaos Rising." Nice memory, there, 2013 Emily) tells Allison she's worried about her. WHAT IS YOUR DEAL, MARIN MORRELL?! She suggests that Allison come in to see her for a session in the guidance office, but what Allison would prefer is for Marin to just tell her what she was doing at the bank the other night. Ms. Morrell, being a psychology whiz and all, turns that question back on her, and asks HER what SHE was doing there. They both remain silent for a moment, and you really have to give Allison credit for managing to hold her own against this adult, who is in a position of power. Get it, my warrior princess!

Marin declares that they have a "situation", but offers a compromise, of sorts: if Allison can tell her the French word that describes their current situation in English, she won't get lunchtime detention for sleeping in class**.  Allison stammers a bit, but ultimately doesn't know the answers, so Ms. Morrell corrects her before leaving the classroom. "Impasse."  So, she totally wanted Allison to have lunchtime detention, right? Also, I figure Allison should probably know "impasse," considering the fact that she's French, knows enough French to understand what the Argent Code is when her dad recited it to her for the first time, and literally just spent the whole summer in France, but whatever.

**(Did anyone else who is reading this have lunch detention in high school? We only had teacher [after-school] detentions, Saturday detentions, and in-school suspension. I only got one detention ever, and it was for forgetting my source cards for my senior paper. We were supposed to use the detention to find the sources we forgot, but instead my BFF and I just distracted the teacher the whole hour by talking to her and didn't do any work. Basically, my point is that detentions were useless at my school, and lunchtime detention seems to be just as useless, but I digress...again.)

It's a new school year, so just as Economics has been traded for Intro. to Business, Chemistry has been replaced by Physics, with Mr. Harris, of course, who is dropping a lesson on inertia and momentum today. As he writes notes on the chalkboard, Scott whispers to Isaac, who is sitting in front of him, and begs him to hold off on antagonizing the twins until "he" (ie: Stiles, with the help of Lydia) figures out wtf their deal is. Isaac is literally radiating with rage, though, so he ignores him. After a moment, he can't take it anymore, and finally asks Harris if he can use the restroom. Apparently, Isaac's plan was to just beat the shit out of two enormous and powerful Alphas? In the middle of the hallway? Oh Isaac, I know you're drunk on hate right now, bb, but you really need to think about these things before you act. Don't be like your own crazy Alpha!

As Isaac walks out the door, Scott jumps up and blurts out that he has to use the loo as well. Way to be subtle, dude. Now everyone in the class knows you're fucking. Harris is a dick about it, per usual, and after some rude comments involving Scott's bladder exploding urine all over the classroom and still not being allowed to leave until Isaac returned, Scott reluctantly returns to his notes, leaving Isaac on his own.

Once out in the hallway, Isaac sees the twins just standing there, waiting for him, so he speeds up his pace as he prepares himself for a fight. You would think they're about to beat the shit out of Isaac, right? WRONG! Instead, Aiden hauls off and straight up slugs his brother in the face! Surprise! And Ethan seems way too happy about having a bloodied, beaten face, to be honest.

                                                     
(via vaso-movies-and-stars)
Aiden continues to punch Ethan and push him around. Isaac just kind of stares at them, horrified, all, "Um, pardon me?" Aiden helps his brother up off the floor, and turns him as he slams Ethan's head into the lockers. All the while, Ethan continues to grin like a huge goof. TBH, I was really confused about this whole fight, too, until Aiden rolls Ethan in Isaac's general direction and walks away, and then it all starts to make sense.

                                                                  
(gif by tylerhecklins)
Harris must have heard all the commotion, because he and the students in his classroom file out into the hallway and to find Isaac standing over a bloody Ethan. Of course, Harris automatically assumes that Isaac did it, even though it would take all of like, one second to check his knuckles to see that there is literally no evidence of his hands causing those injuries. Poor Isaac! :( Scott is seething, and Danny crouches down to comfort Ethan. Dude is really milking it for all it's worth, considering it's an injury that will likely be fully healed before the next class even starts, and it seemed like he really loved being punched a dozen times anyway. Still, there are totally sparks flying between Ethan and Danny. Danny Boy, stop it! You can do so much better than this Transformer Wolf!

                                                               
(via austingabe)
At the Hale loft, Kali is still clutching the pipe that is currently impaling his chest, and Ennis still has Cora in a choke-hold on the floor. Deucalion apologizes for the pain and suffering, and claims he told Kali to be gentle with them. "This is me being gentle," Kali retorts, and twists the pipe around a bit to emphasize her point. I seriously love and hate Kali so much, it's intense. Felisha Terrell is super gorgeous, too, which makes it even worse. HOW IS THIS CAST SO FUCKING GOOD-LOOKING? It just kills me. Derek spits out some blood as he sputters at them to let Cora go. Deuc gestures to Ennis to release her, and uses that as a way to point out how he's a totally reasonable guy. Yeah, okay, dude.

Cora hops over to help Derek, but he shakes his head at her as vigorously as he's able to in his current state as a warning to stop and keep herself safe. She reluctantly stops, and wipes at her face nervously/guiltily. Derek asks Deucalion if he's here to kill him, bur Deucalion scoffs at the thought. "Don't lump me in with sociopaths like your uncle," Deucalion insists, and shudders at the the possibility of being Peter Hale. Heh! He goes on to continue his spiel by talking about how despite being a blind guy, he has a whole lot of vision, and his plans are far more complex than "simple murder," blah blah blahhhh. His eyes glow red for emphasis, and they're really creepy, omg. When they're in full wolf-mode, he has no pupils, so his eyes look like huge, red, glowing laser pointers. Also, I hope you guys are settled in, because the rest of the Derek scenes involve Deucalion monologue-ing in typical supervillain fashion.

Isaac and Scott are walking together to Isaac's locker, and Scott's giving his new BFF a pep talk. The gist is: this isn't a big deal, Isaac only got lunch-time detention, so if the twins' goal is to piss Isaac off, then he needs to do the opposite and stay cool, etc. Isaac won't be deterred, though, and points out that he's not the only one they're messing with, and glares across the hall. Scott follows Isaac's gaze, only to see Aiden flirting with Lydia, who, thankfully, is playing hard to get.

They both eavesdrop on the pair, and overhear Aiden asking her if she wants him to help her study. She reminds him (and everyone else) that she's got a genius-level IQ of 170, so she hardly needs his help, so he backpedals a bit and concedes that she can help him instead. She seems partial to the idea, but says nothing, only giving him a patronizing pat on his buff chest before she walks away, clearly playing hard-to-get and succeeding. Aiden notices the boys staring at them, and gives them a little smirk, just so they know that the twins are fucking with them on purpose. Scott's pretty obviously livid at this point, and Isaac is pretty amused to see that the twins are getting to him, now, too. Before he leaves, Isaac eye-bangs his best buddy a bit in a super adorable fashion. Did I mention Isaac looks fiiiiiiine in that sweater? They are styling him so awesomely this season.

Stiles is creeping around in the hallway, where all the deputies are congregated. As usual, other than the police presence and the dead body, the school is just going on like nothing happened. After the deputies walk away for a moment, Stiles approaches Kyle's girlfriend and takes her aside. He prefaces the conversation by admitting that what he's about to say is really inappropriate, before asking, "Was he a virgin, or did you two...?" As predicted, she slaps him right in the face, because, DUH, he's a complete stranger and a man on top of that who is asking super invasive questions to a girl who is grieving and traumatized! And of course, his dad's deputy catches them. She wraps an arm around the girlfriend and leads her away and gives Stiles the stink-eye. Before she leaves, the girlfriend stops and reluctantly admits that no, Kyle wasn't a virgin, which makes Stiles extremely confused. I looked everywhere for a gif of the slappage, but I can't find it anywhere! I know it exists though, so I will add it later if I stumble across it somewhere.

He doesn't have long to think about this new turn of events, though, because his dad spots him and chews him out for goofing around when he's trying to figure out who is killing these people. Apparently, news has spread about it, so the FBI has showed up to form a task force to help out the Sheriff's office. Stilinski is like, "Do you have any idea what a terrible nightmare this is?", but Stiles' face is like, "Yeah, I think I probably know better than anyone, thanks." Instead of telling him this, and/or spilling the beans on the werewolf situation, he just sighs and says that he's trying to find a pattern.

Kali's hands are soaked in Derek's blood from holding/twisting the pipe she shoved into his back, and as she continues to hold onto it, Derek spits out a bunch more blood onto the floor, which just adds to the huge red puddle in the middle of Derek's loft. Cora yells that Kali's killing him, but Kali reassures her that while she could easily kill him, he's not dying yet. Still, she does point out that eventually, it will be too late to pull the pipe out and save him, so she encourages "Deuc" to get down to business so they can be done with it and leave before he gets permanently dead. You know, just to be on the safe side.

Deucalion snarks about the downside to being in an Alpha pack: they all want to be in charge. However, he insists that he's not some power-hungry maniac, okay? He's only interested in "discovering new talents," like Derek, the semi-new Alpha. Derek is having a hard time speaking, thanks to the pipe that is currently embedded in or around his heart and lungs, but he manages to gasp out that he's not interested. Deucalion is pretty offended that he hasn't even let him say his pitch yet, but Derek correctly surmises that he wants him to kill his own pack. Deucalion corrects him-- he just wants him to kill one packmate, because after that, Derek will love the power he gains so much that he will gladly kill the rest, no begging, blackmail, or ultimatums required. Yikes, this is soooo not good. 

Good ol' Deuc explains that he, Kali and Ennis each killed their own packs, too, and Kali confirms it by happily describing how liberating it was. (I'd add more pictures about this scene, but you've pretty much seen it all: everyone is in exactly the same position as before, just talking it up. I'm sure you guys get it.) Then, Deucalion gets personal, and tells Derek that he shouldn't want to be surrounded by a bunch of "maladjusted teenagers, bound to become a liability." To add insult to literally injury, he goes on to mention that he's pretty sure one member of his pack is already getting into trouble as they speak. NO NO NO NO NOO.

Cut to the school, where Harris is in charge of lunch-time detention. There's probably like, between six and eight kids in there, so Harris assigns them menial labor to complete in pairs: wiping down chalkboards, re-shelving the library, and, for Isaac and Allison, restocking the janitor's closet. Isaac is not really big on the whole "being around Allison" thing, and tries to beg Harris to let him switch with someone else, but you guys know Harris-- he takes pleasure in their pain, so as soon as he hears that Isaac is uncomfortable being around Allison, he's, like, "Yeah, now you absolutely have to work with her, no arguments or exceptions!" and basically tells him to deal with it. Isaac doesn't look pleased, and Allison looks pretty uncomfortable herself.

Stiles is still wandering around the school, and notices a little makeshift memorial that was set up at Kyle's locker as he walks down the hall. He stops to study the pictures and messages that are written all over it when Boyd comes up behind him to hang up a postcard with the Air Force logo on it. Stiles is surprised to see that Boyd is back at school, as am I. I really hope we learn more about Boyd and his captivity this season, I feel like we've barely learned anything about him! 

Boyd, who has always been pretty shy on the best of days, is even more so now that he's still dealing with the trauma of his best friend/possible girlfriend's death and being held hostage for four months. So, yeah, he just kind of side-eyes Stiles a bit, and deadpans that he would have told Stiles he was coming back, but they're not actually friends. Heh. Stiles changes the subject to Kyle, and asks if Boyd knew him. Boyd briefly explains that he did, because they were in Junior ROTC together. Stiles assumes that Boyd must have been a friend of Kyle's, but Boyd just mutters, "I only had one friend. And she's dead, too." OMG, Boyd! Erica! This is seriously too sad for words.

And here's where my heart shatters and melts into soggy goo. Allison opens the janitor's closet door for Isaac, since his hands are full from pushing a dolly full of boxes of cleaning supplies. Inside, they walk in to unpack the boxes and shelve its contents, and they awkward bump into each other a bit as they get situated. Isaac looks pretty anxious as his eyes dart around the room, and Allison senses his discomfort. She asks if he's okay, but he lies and says he is, but after a beat, he adds that he's not a fan of small spaces. I automatically get a terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach about what's about to come next. 

I think Allison understands what Isaac means, and she thinks for a moment before she asks if she can ask him a question. Isaac does not seem okay with that, and asks her if she has to, but she ultimately decides to ask, anyway. "Did you tell anyone that I was at the school the other night?" He shakes his head and asks if he was supposed to, but she just smiles weakly and states that it would make her really happy if he didn't. Isaac scoffs at that, since she stabbed him a bunch of times, "with knives," and thus, her happiness is not really anywhere in the vicinity of his list of priorities at the moment She corrects him by stating that she actually stabbed him with Chinese ring daggers, not knives, but she apologizes all the same. Once he recognizes that she's trying to make amends, he starts to warm up to her a little, and they kind of cutely and sweetly chatter for a few short-lived moments.

Emphasis on the "short-lived" part. Since this is Isaac Lahey we're talking about, and he, just like Derek, cannot have a moment of happiness EVER, his bantering with Allison is interrupted when the door slams shut and the lights go out. Isaac handles this about as well as you would expect, considering he spent a good portion of his life regularly locked in a deep freezer as punishment for God knows how long. As he frantically rattles the doorknob, he starts mumbling "no, no, no, no." Allison suggests that perhaps it's locked from the outside, but Isaac points out that, if this was the case, he would be able to break the lock. He pushes himself against the door and realizes there's something (a vending machine) blocking the door, which is why he can't get it open. He anxiously pulls off his sweater and throws it aside as he paces nervously, running his hands through his hair and swearing under his breath. Allison tries her best to calm him down, but it's futile, he's pretty fucking triggered right now, and his feelings of panic are getting worse by the second.

He braces himself against the door frame and starts beating at the door, yelling "NO!" and "COME ON!" over and over, and we cut between his panic attack in the closet, and flashbacks to him in his basement in the locked freezer, yelling and trying to beat himself out. OH MY GOD ISAAC MI POBRECITO LET ME HUG YOU.

I feel compelled to point out that Teen Wolf's actors, who are mostly new-ish to acting and often inconsistent, have all improved significantly the last 2.25 seasons. Tonight, it's Daniel Sharman who really, really knocked this episode out of the park. Seriously! Because of his amazing acting in this episode, I found it really difficult to care about scenes that didn't include. I'm not even just saying this because I love the shit out of this guy, although I do. Especially after reading his live tweets on the MTV Teen Wolf Twitter last night. Did you guys see? If not, you missed out BIG. Anyway, this scene was just that good. I literally held my breath until Scott showed up, because it was so intense to watch.

 (gifs from teenwolf @ Tumblr)
ANYWAY, all of the anxiety and door-beating becomes too much for Isaac, so he instinctively shifts into wolf-mode, which pretty much kills any remaining sense of control he had left. He turns to find Allison, who has been pretty worried about him this whole time, standing behind him. He growls as he lunges toward her, and Allison reflexively backs up to try to avoid him. It's a janitor's closet, though, so it only takes a couple of backwards steps before she's completely cornered. She manages to fight him off pretty well, but thankfully, Scott comes to the rescue and frees them from the closet before Isaac can seriously hurt her. He pulls Isaac off of her and throws him out into the hallway. Once he's on the ground, he grips Isaac in a chokehold and growls at him like he's the fucking Alpha. I don't speak wolf, but I'm pretty sure the growl behind that "ISAAC!" means, "CUT IT THE FUCK OUT, DUDE." After a moment, Isaac takes a deep breath and finally relaxes, allowing his fangs and golden eyes to fade away.

Isaac scrambles backwards away from them and leans against a wall once he sits up. He feels terrible, obviously, and begins to apologize profusely to Allison when he realizes he clawed up her arm. Allison sympathizes with him, though, and takes care to emphasize to Scott that it wasn't Isaac's fault, not that Scott even needs to be told this whatsoever. I mean, Scott and Allison were both at Isaac's house last season after Isaac's dad was killed, and they both saw the deep freezer, so I think it's safe to say that they both understand Isaac's situation, are extremely mindful of his traumatic history, and don't blame him a bit for having a claustrophobia-induced panic attack.

Scott deduces that not only do the twins want to make Isaac angry, they want to get someone hurt or killed. My question is, how did the twins/the Alphas in general know about Isaac's abuse history to use it against him in the first place? Anyway, Isaac asks him if this means they're finally going to do something to fight back against them, and Scott finally agrees that they are. He really does look pretty steamed up as he explains his plan-- basically, they're going to make the twins really, really angry. Ohhhhh kids, you are playing with fire! These dudes are already basically the Hulk to begin with, don't poke the bear! On the other hand, these guys have basically tortured Isaac like, three times in the four episodes that have aired thus far in the season, so the twins really do deserve whatever they get, in my humble opinion.

(via poseyhoechlin)

Outside, Stiles is following Lydia and babbling about what he's been trying to learn about this most recent murder spree in Beacon Hills. I'll just transcribe his lines, because it shows just how much Stiles is already unraveling.

STILES: "You know that there's a temple in Calcutta where they used to sacrifice a child every day? That's every day a dead baby, Lydia. Every day! Hey, you wanna know what today is? It's 'Dead Baby Day!' Oh no, wait, that's every day, because every day is 'Dead Baby Day,' yay!"

He says it all in a very Seth Cohen-y way, which seems to be par for the course with him this season. I dig it! The Seth Cohen-Stiles Stilinski parallels, not the dead babies. Dead babies are definitely not great whatsoever. Anyway, Lydia impatiently waits for him to finish speaking before she asks him why the fuck he's telling her, of all people, this information.

Stiles confesses that since Scott's dealing with the Alpha Twins, he doesn't have anyone else to help him come up with theories about what has been happening. Lydia is stunned to hear that the twins are Alphas, and I'll be real with you-- at first, I was really mad at the gang for keeping Lydia in the dark once again, even now that she is up to speed on the supernatural world, but then I remembered that Isaac just returned to school today, which means no one else knew the twins were in the Alpha Pack until this morning. Oops! Lydia pretends that she knew this the entire time in an attempt to cover up just how hurt she is that she was once again the last to know important information, and Stiles is too wound up to notice she's lying. So, he continues by saying that he thinks the murders are happening in threes, because "ancient people love threes."

He has deduced that the first trio of sacrifices were virgins, and that now he thinks that this round is possibly "people with little dogs." She shuts him down right away by reminding him that he can't predict a pattern using one data point, but Stiles doesn't want to wait around for more people to die before figuring it out. The way he says it seems to indicate that he's still got some lingering mommy issues to deal with. Lydia sighs and advises him to let humans like his dad handle it, since it seems to be a human murderer and not a wolf. Stiles, who has forgotten that his dad is the Sheriff of the entire county for a reason, refuses to let his dad get involved, so after Lydia walks away, he starts to brainstorm who else could probably help them. So, who is the next best human who could possibly know what has been happing in this town? Dr. Deaton.

(Sidebar: I really want Lydia's outfit! he's wearing a blue button up with a white collar and little pink dachshunds embroidered all over it, paired with this neat brown faux-leather skirt. Kudos to the costume team on this show, seriously. I don't know if it's the tax credit the show got for moving its filming location to California, or what, but the styling has been on point this season)

Outside in the parking lot, Isaac is nervously pacing around while he watches Allison work. She takes apart Ethan's bike, and then hotwires Aiden's so that Isaac can drive it. Once she's finished, she starts the engine and gives Isaac a quick crash course in driving a motorcycle, which involves her holding his hands in hers as she demonstrates how to use the front break and throttle, as well as some lingering stares at each other's eyes and lips. You know, just so we fully understand that Isaac and Allison have as much chemistry as Isaac and Scott (or Isaac and anyone he talks to, for that matter) and that a Scott/Isaac/Allison threesome is inevitable at this point. I s2g, if this episode doesn't result in a tonnnnnn of Scallisaac OT3 fic on Tumblr/AO3, I will be so fucking disappointed. Don't let me down, internet! Allison warns Isaac not to wreck, and he's all like, "Whatever, wouldn't be the first time."

Allison snaps a quick (and cute!) pic of one boyfriend to send to their other boyfriend in order to indicate to Scott that it's time to fulfill his role in the plan. He walks into Ms. Blake's English class and takes a seat right next to Ethan. He smiles at the twins like the cat who ate the canary as Ms. Blake rushes in and explains that she is as ready to leave as they are, since it's the last period of the day. She's had a rough 24 hours, don't you think? As she starts discussing the new book they're about to read, Great Expectations (Wait, aren't they supposed to be reading The Crucible? Does she teach multiple grades/levels or something?), Scott pulls out a large gear and spins it on his finger as Ethan and Aiden glare at him. "This looks important!" He pulls out another gear-looking thing, which a bunch of wires stick out. "I have NO idea what this thing does." Needless to say, Aiden gets fucking pissssed.

He rushes out of class when he hears his motorcycle revving its engine, despite Ethan's protests. Isaac is speeding around the hallways, like a pro, and stops just before he runs over Aiden.  He screeches at Isaac to get off his bike, and Isaac's all, "Gladly!", as he suavely removes his helmet and flips himself over Aiden's shoulders. Of course, the bell rings right then, and the classes funnel out into the hall to see Aiden, who holding his bike and helmet in the middle of the hallway. Sucka! Ms. Blake notices the commotion and rushes out, and when she sees Aiden and his bike, she's all, "Are you fucking serious with this shit? I did not sign up for this. You're suspended!" (Because apparently, at BHHS, you only get lunchtime detention if you beat a kid to a pulp, but if you drive your motorcycle through the hallways? Suspension.)

 (via drunklaheys)

Scott, Isaac and Allison are standing shoulder to shoulder in the crowd that has formed in the hallway, giggling away as Aiden glares at them. I love this prank, and I love those three SO MUCH, you guys. I have to admit, though, I'm slightly concerned now that Allison has pretty much made herself out to be in their make-shift pack, and thus has basically painted a target on her back. On the other hand, it was kind of inevitable-- between Allison helping Scott and Isaac today, and Chris getting back into the hunting game when he lent a hand to the pack to round up Boyd and Cora, it's pretty much guaranteed that they'll be back to their badass fighter-selves in no time.

Stiles shows up at Deaton's vet clinic, and the good doctor's pretty surprised to see him. Stiles doesn't really beat around the bush as he reminds Deaton of the fact that people are dying all over the place again, and his dad is trying to figure out what to do, but he can't really do that when he's missing all the supernatural parts; Deaton, on the other hand, always seems to know what's happening, even when no one else does. Stiles looks over at Deaton, who looks like he's feeling pretty guilty.

Over at the loft, Derek's still bleeding away on the floor of his loft, as Deucalion exposits about how he discovered a little-known power that Alphas possess. He came about this information when his beta tried to take his Alpha title away from him, right after Deuc lost his eyesight. As you can probably guess, that Beta didn't live to tell the tale. Once Deucalion killed him, he realized that he became stronger and more powerful, so he decided to continue to test his theory by killing the rest of his pack, one by one. Each time he killed one, he absorbed their power, which gets us to the main point of his spiel-- he believes that he made the best of use of his Betas' talents by absorbing them for himself, and in the process, made himself a better werewolf/Alpha. Okay, though, but if he's so powerful, THEN WHY CAN'T HE SEE? These are the questions I actually want answered. Also, this whole time, he's been folding and unfolding his walking stick, to really emphasize his Alpha-ness, I guess.

Deucalion pulls Derek's bleeding face up by the hair and he gropes at Derek's cheekbones and forehead with his fingers. He informs the room that Kali was right, Derek does look like his mother, which Derek does not want to hear. Deuc promises that Derek will get to know him in time, but as you can imagine, our favorite Sourwolf is not interested joining his pack whatsoever. Derek replies that he does know Deucalion, and then proceeds to refer to him as a fanatic. Uh oh. This causes Deucalion to reach Gerard Argent-levels of scenery-chewing. Seriously, though, somewhere out there, Peter Hale is rolling his eyes at the dramatics of this fucking speech, that's how hilariously bad it is.

DEUCALION: "Know me? I am the Alpha of Alphas! I am the apex of apex predators! I am Death, Destroyer of Worlds! I am the DEMON WOLF!"

As he roars, Kali finally pulls the fucking pipe out Derek's chest as thunder and lightning crash outside. The pitch of Deuc's bellows were so loud that his sunglasses cracked. To his credit, he seems to realize just how ridiculous he was, and quips, "I hate when that happens." Hee! Kali offers her arm to Deucalion, and the three Alphas waltz out of the apartment. Cora is finally able to tend to her big brother, so she rushes over to him and kneels at Derek's side as he flips over onto his back and tries to catch his breath. Tumblr has already come to the conclusion that "I AM THE DEMON WOLF!" is the new "MOUNTAIN ASHHHHHHH!" and I am so pleased. I think this particular brand of terrible dramatics is just the levity we need for what is becoming a pretty dark and intense show. We need have laughs to try to cancel out all of the torture and bullshit.

At school, Lydia's drawing a sketch of a tree. Danny comes up behind her and leans against the back of her chair as he compliments her on her art skills. She agrees that she's awesome, which makes me so happy, I am loving Lydia's confidence in her intelligence/talents this season. He suggests that maybe she should be in art class, but she just kind of hums in response, only half-paying attention, so after a beat, he adds, "Because you're not in music?" This snaps our girl out of whatever fugue state she's in, and she realizes she's in the band/orchestra classroom, rather than wherever she's actually supposed to be. Danny plays the trumpet, FYI, which is adorable, don't you think? (I'm a former band nerd, if you hadn't picked up on it yet. Yay, flute/mellophone/French horn!)

The band director never shows up, so everyone leaves after fifteen minutes, per the unspoken rule of high school/college in America. After everyone has left, Lydia begins to feel like something bad is going down, between the fact that she seems to have blacked out again, and the fact that the teacher is nowhere to be found. She looks around the empty room a bit and finds a cell phone sitting on the piano. She notices it's still recording audio, and rewinds it to the beginning. She hears the band director announce that he's about to begin to play the third piano part for some piece, so she fast forwards it a bit, and listens. After a few moments, she starts to get bored, and is about to fast-forward it again when there is a loud keysmash, followed by complete silence. She leans over the phone to listen closer, and begins to hear that creepy chanting from earlier that has been in all the promos. For the first time, I think one of the main characters can actually hear it too! By this point, she's completely horrified, because just like us, she wants to know WHAT THE FUCK SHE IS.

Meanwhile, Stiles is with Deaton in the exam room in Deaton's office, where he exposits some more about what he knows. He lists all the symbols and stuff we've seen throughout the series so far, like mountain ash, triskeles, the bank logo, etc. During Stiles' research, he's learned that they're all from the Celtic druids, who are pretty notorious for sacrificing people to appease the gods. He recounts the Lindow Man as an example, who died from the three-fold death 2,000 years ago, and then brings up the mistletoe they found in his stomach. Deaton's heard it all before, though, Stiles is rightfully pissed off that Deaton didn't warn them or explain this earlier, but to be fair, Deaton seems to feel pretty guilty about holding back all this time.

Deaton confesses that after he's spent the last ten years trying to hide/deny/push away this whole supernatural thing, and admits that after a while, doing just that has become a "powerful habit." So, I'm guessing this is confirmation that, after the Hale House fire, Deaton was pretty much, like, "Peace out, supernatural community!" and pretended to just be a Muggle until he was forced to come out when Scott got bitten and Peter was revealed to be the Alpha?

Anyway, Stiles can definitely relate to Deaton's moral crisis, considering he's been lying to his dad for almost a year now, so instead of hassling him more, he gets down to the real questions: is a druid behind this? Deaton doesn't believe that to be the case, because "druid" in Gaelic means "wise oak" (like the tree Lydia was sketching?), and since the druids believe in maintaining a balance in nature, they wouldn't be killing all these people, because it goes against their beliefs. His theory is that it's a druid copycat. Deaton, WHO/WHAT ARE YOU? I've wanted to know for like, over two seasons now. I'm hoping that he's a druid and that Stiles and Lydia are magical somehow. MAKE IT SO, DAVIS.

Their brainstorming is interrupted by Lydia calling to Stiles give him a heads-up about what happened at school. When he answers, he's rude to her again, right off the bat, before she's even able to inform him about the band teacher's disappearance. Mellow out a little, Stiles! You don't need to be a dick to the girl you claim to have loved for like ten years or something ridiculous. When he finally stops talking long enough to hear her update, he asks her if the teacher is really missing, but she corrects him. "Not missing. Taken." She closes the piano, which reveals some deep scratches from fingernails/claws and some blood. HOO HA! HEE HA! HOO HA! HEE HA! More crazy chanting!

Lydia meets up with Stiles and Deaton in the band room. She replays the audio of the chanting from the teacher's cell phone for them, and the doc asks if he can have a copy of the recording, which is a convenient excuse for a blatant Samsung and Dropbox product placement. I love that they don't even try to be at all subtle anymore. Though, tbh, I prefer product placement to actual commercials, so whatever. You do you, MTV. Stiles asks Deaton to help him search the band director's desk, but instead, he just dumps more Celtic druid mythology on them while Stiles searches through the desk drawers by himself. Basically, in this ritual Deaton suspects is being performed by the druid copycat, each group of three who are sacrificed will have it's own purpose/power: virgins, healers, philosophers, warriors, etc. So, we already had the three virgins in Heather, Emily, and the lifeguard; now, it turns out that the band director was in the military, and since Kyle was in Junior ROTC with Boyd, they assume that warrior/soldier is the second pattern of sacrifices.

Stiles automatically worries that Boyd is next, since he just had the revelation that he is in ROTC as well, and goes to call him to warn him about the new pattern. Meanwhile, Deaton notices Lydia's confused face, and asks her what is wrong. She explains that she just remembered that there's someone else that they know with a military connection. We cut to Mr. Harris' classroom, where he is grading tests at his desk, on which sits a nameplate thing that reads, "A cadet will not lie, cheat, or steal, or tolerate those who do." He starts to hear whispering, which grows louder and louder until the chanting and creepy music starts up again. He must be able to hear the music, too, because he looks very freaked out.

It must be after school now, because Isaac and Scott are walking down the stairs into an empty hallway. Isaac laughs as he tells Scott that he wishes he could have seen the twins' faces when Scott pulled the pieces of Ethan's bike out of his backpack, and states they must have been pissed. Of course, they then run straight into the Alpha Twins, who are in fact, pretty pissed.

They start to strip and morph into the XXL Alpha, and Scott looks seriously shocked as he watches them, even though Peter warned him about it a couple episodes ago. Seriously, Scott's raised eyebrow and "WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK" face is truly hilarious. Isaac fronts like they can take XXL Alpha and starts rolling up his sleeves in anticipation, but Scott's way smarter than that, and is like, "Are you insane? Fuck that shit!" He pulls Isaac away, but they're barely able to make it to the end of the hall by the time XXL Alpha catches up with them. He grabs one boy in each hand, and lifts them both off the ground by their necks. The morphed-together twins knock the boys together like rag dolls and let them fall to the ground with a thump.

Huge-ass Alpha growls a bit, but stops at the sound of Deucalion's walking stick dragging behind them. If werewolves had tails, XXL Alpha's would be between their legs right now. The twins immediately separate themselves and stand quietly in front of their Alpha-Alpha, who removes the red tip of his cane to reveal this crazy diamond-shaped like, shiv-thing attached to the end of it. He whips it across both of the twins' faces in punishment, the sight of which causes both Scott and Isaac to flinch sympathetically. Gnarly.

The twins dolefully take their strikes, and once Deucalion walks away, the twins follow behind him submissively, leaving Scott and Isaac extremely confused, but otherwise unharmed. I know they're probably just leaving them alone because they want Derek to kill them so that Derek can absorb their powers and eventually be brought into the Alpha Pack, but it still seems weird that they didn't hurt them at least a little. Weird. Isaac asks who the hell that weird blind dude in the super-tight roll-neck sweater was, and Scott, who is still stunned at this reveal, remembers his discussion with Derek in "Tattoo" and answers "Deucalion." Shit.

Deaton, Stiles and Lydia are investigating Harris' classroom. Deaton hopes that perhaps Harris just left early, but Stiles finds his briefcase still sitting by the desk, and assumes that probably isn't the case. He rustles through some papers and finds a test graded "R." Lydia join him, and finds another test on the desk that is graded "H." Deaton's faced grows more and more concerned as he takes the pile of tests from them to examine himself. He reorganizes the pile and sighs. After a tense moment, he explains that there's another Gaelic word to describe druids who "take the wrong path." That word is "darach," which means "dark oak." We see the tests, and each test is marked with a letter: D-A-R-A-C-H. Yikes!

(via austingabe)

Ugh, if my heart wasn't destroyed already, it definitely is now. Derek is sullenly looking out the window at the storm that's still brewing outside. Isaac, behind him, is incredibly confused, and stammers that he doesn't understand what Derek is trying to say. He asks if something happened today, but Derek lies that now that Cora is here, it's too much for him and so he needs Isaac to move out by tonight. It's still pouring down rain from when Deucalion was yelling like a maniac, so Isaac kind of laughs in hopes that this is a joke. "Where am I supposed to go?" "Someplace else," Derek answers tensely, not budging whatsoever. Remember, this is the kid Derek saved from an abusive father by giving him power to fight back, who he more or less took in and cared for after that same abusive father was killed. As you can imagine, Isaac is pretty hurt, and quietly asks if he did something wrong. OMG STOP IT HURTS. Poor Isaac, this sucks.

Derek, who, to his credit, does not look like he's enjoying this one bit, just tells him he's doing something wrong by not leaving like he asked. Isaac is still kind of chuckling nervously, like, "... seriously? Right now? When it's pouring down rain, and when I haven't even had time to figure out where I'm going to live next?" Derek, who either stupidly figured that Isaac would just go quietly, or who just hoped that Isaac would be hurt/pissed but wouldn't question it, just bellows angrily at him to get out. When Isaac still doesn't move, Derek lobs his glass of water/vodka in the general direction of his head, which forces Isaac to cower to avoid getting hit with broken glass. Sound familiar? Because that is basically how we met Isaac in the first place. CAN WE PLEASE STOP HURTING ISAAC NOW?

 (via hoechloin)

Isaac is visibly hurt/betrayed/sad/shocked/pissed, and just glares at Derek, who also looks angry and super sad. As Isaac storms off, we can see that Cora has been hiding in a corner, eavesdropping and holding back tears as this all goes down. DEREK WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR PROBLEM? I like Derek, for the most part, especially in the last half-dozen episodes or so when his attitude seemed to be improving, but this is gross fucking behavior. I understand that he's trying to protect him, in his own misguided and characteristically-Derek way, and that he had to lie and be brutal about it because Isaac is loyal and wouldn't leave if he wasn't pissed, but gods, that was still super painful, omg.

The thunder and lightning is still rumbling outside while Scott studies in his bedroom. He hears a knock at his door, which he incorrectly assumes to be his mother. Instead, it's Isaac, soaking wet in just his white v-neck, holding his duffel bag in one hand. Scott looks at him with concern, and Isaac, who looks really uncomfortable, sighs and asks Scott if he could do him a favor. Aw, Isaac looks so defeated, and Scott looks so confused. Ugh, these IRL puppies! I love them so much. I'm so glad Isaac finally moved in to Casa McCall, though, even if it's only temporary. He needs quality Scott time and friendship, as well as some Mama McCall love. And, it just makes it that much easier to have that poly relationship with Allison. I'm just saying. I bet Scott will be super pissed at Derek for pulling that shit on Isaac, too, if Isaac actually tells him.

At the nature preserve (I assume), Harris is tied to what looks like a WISE OAK, and he's pelted by the pouring rain as he pleads for his life. The Darach has wrapped a garrote around his neck and the width of the tree, and he's already kind of choking as it is. Also, he's apparently been in on this murdering/sacrificing thing this whole time, and for some stupid reason, he's completely shocked that whoever the Darach is would betray him by killing him. Harris claims that the mystery Darach still needs him, because if he dies, they'll figure out who he or she is and what they're planning. In response, the mysterious serial killer/sacrificer just twists the stick in the garrote and puts Harris out of his mystery. TBH, I always thought Harris was a vampire, even despite the fact that Jeff Davis said there would never be vamps on TW. Either way, I'm surprised it took him this long to get killed. I doubt he'll be missed. Anyway, the chanting continues to overwhelm everything, and we still have no idea who this Darach is. I do have some theories, though.

Next week, according to the promo: Deucalion comes out to play and causes a shitload more chaos; there is more fighting (or flashbacks to past fighting) between the Beacon Hills pack and the Alpha Pack; somebody (probably an Alpha) dies; and some of the werecubs get hurt a bunch. That's all I can really discern because it goes so fast, but I'm super excited/nervous about it.

Click HERE to read my recap of the next episode of Teen Wolf.

[Screencaps from Screencapped.net, and, as always, gifs are credited to their respective Tumblr accounts below the image.]

Okay, lets see if I can wrap this up in less-than novel-length, shall we? Oh, what am I saying, we all know that's not possible.

NOTES, COMMENTS AND SPECULATION:
-I am loving this new, badass warrior-princess Allison who isn't mopey about Scott all the time. Who corrects people on the difference between "knives" and "Chinese ring daggers." Who hotwires/destroys their enemies' motorcycles. Who teams up with friends and frenemies alike in order to keep people safe. Please keep this version of Allison around! Between Allison's actions today, and Argent's exhilaration during last week's werewolf round-up, something tells me that the Argent fam will be back in the hunting game sooner rather than later.

-Also, I kind of take back what I said last week about the Allison/Scott/Isaac triangle thing.  Instead of being worried about them breaking their friendships into pieces (Scott and Isaac's, Scott and Allison's, etc) I really just want them to all three be in a relationship with each other. Isaac needs all the loving he can get to heal, and Scisaac is basically canon at this point anyway, so it makes total sense! Everyone is happy, and the audience gets to see pretty people make out a ton. That's what we call a "win-win-win" ;)

- I love Derek, despite him being reckless, impulsive, and unable to think a plan through in a long-term sense, but after the stunt he pulled with Isaac, I'm not his biggest fan right now, regardless of what his intentions may have been. He's going to need Isaac and Scott (and, by extension, Stiles, Lydia, and Allison) if he's to have any chance of survival. He really crossed the line by literally throwing post-traumatic stress triggers in Isaac's face, and even if that weren't the case, it's still not the way to go about staying alive. Although, honestly, I don't think he really cares if he lives or dies at this point, which is also pretty worrisome. It's almost like he knows that he's a gonner, but is hoping that perhaps he can still save his Betas, even if he himself doesn't end up surviving. Hopefully, having Cora around will help at least distract him from his suicidal tendencies, if not motivate him to stay alive for her sake. On an unrelated note, I kind of laughed when I thought about how boring it must have been for Tyler Hoechlin to just hang out on his hands and knees and pretend there was a pipe impaling his heart/lungs for however long it took to film those scenes. If they bored me, they definitely must have bored him!

-Stiles' nerves are already pretty obviously beginning to fray, and I don't think it's even been one whole week (in the show timeline) since the events of the premiere happened, when he learned about the Alpha Pack. He's being a dick to his friends, especially Lydia, and he's pissing off his dad by getting involved in his work in order to protect him from the supernatural shenanigans. Plus, all these druid sacrifices are just compounding all of that stress. Stiles was in pretty bad shape at the end of last season, though, despite how much he tried to make it seem otherwise. We saw him talking to Ms. Morrell in the guidance office about his anxiety over all the traumatic things that had happened in last seasons "Battlefield" (Season 2, Episode 11). If I were to hazard a guess, I would say that he probably didn't deal with any of that stress and anxiety over the summer, either, so all this most recent drama has been just exacerbating his already serious panic levels to an outrageous level. It's going to be interesting to see where his character goes from here with all these stressors in his life as a result of all the incredibly fucked up shit that is happening. (Dylan O'Brien looking really exhausted from all the acting work he's doing outside of Teen Wolf is really helping him sell Stiles' growing emotional instability, too, haha. He needs a vacation!)

-More Danny! Always more Danny. Unless you're going to kill him, of course, in which case I am okay with less Danny, if it means he stays alive. You know, because Jeff Davis totally listens to what I have to say to begin with. But seriously, just make him join Team Human already! His computer skills would perfectly complement Stiles' research abilities.

-I really like the mythology stuff we picked up in this episode, between the Alphas in the Alpha Pack absorbing their Betas' power, and all of the Celtic druid stuff. I can't wait to see where they go with this, but I already see a lot of potential for plot-holes. Like I said earlier, I love the fast pace of this show 95% of the time, but I feel like a lot of potential character development ends up getting lost in the swing of things. Like, for example, we could have/should have learned more about where the fuck Cora has been/why she thought Derek was dead. Or, we could have had Isaac talk to Scott or Allison about either his panic attack after being locked in the janitor's closet, or about Derek throwing a glass at him. OR, they could reveal literally ANYTHING about what happened during Boyd's time in captivity, or what/how he's doing now that he's back, or how/why Erica died, etc. So much potential! Sigh. I'm hoping that I'm just being impatient, and that they're just taking it slower since they have double the episodes to tell their stories, but ughhhh. I WANT TO KNOW EVERYTHING NOW.

-I still think Gerard is involved in this, somehow. I've read a lot of speculation that it's Peter, and honestly, I'm open to that theory as well, since it's pretty obvious he has his own agenda and we already know that he isn't above killing people to achieve it. But I don't know, I think Gerard is either pulling the strings, or otherwise manipulating Peter/the Alpha Pack/the Darach into doing his bidding, just like he did with Allison and Kate. I am curious as to Deaton/Morrell are involved, too, and whether they're just acquaintances, or working on the same team, or what. SO MANY QUESTIONS YOU GUYS.

If you happened to make it through this novel of a recap, please tell me what you think about the episodes! I am always interested in what you awesome readers are thinking, so please, comment away!