Teen Wolf Season 3, Episode 5: "Frayed" Recap/Review
So, this episode was HANDS DOWN the best of the season thus far, if not THE best episode so far in the entire series. As far as recapping goes, it's going to be a huge pain in the ass, because it's so non-linear, I have gotten a little lost in figuring out what is a flashback, what is currently happening, and what order these events actually happened. But, from a viewer perspective, this episode is amazing, intense and full of action. So, let's get started, eh? I have been thinking about how I am going to write this recap since the live airing ended, and as annoying as it is, I think I'm just going to write through this in the same order that the episode was shown. I considered recapping the events chronologically, from Scott and Allison's play-fight to Scott breaking up Isaac beating the hell out of Ethan, but that was just as complicated, if not more so. So, here goes nothing!
Previously, on Teen Wolf: Derek went back to the school to check in on Ms. Jennifer Blake's werewolf-induced PTSD, and sparks started flying between them. Braeden, the mysterious mercenary who saved Isaac from the Alpha Pack in the premiere, revealed to Deucalion that she knows he's afraid of the man Scott will become, but Deucalion explained that someone taught him how to "eliminate threats" by having someone else (ie: Derek) kill them for him. Then, he presumably killed her, </3. Isaac suspected the Alpha Twins were behind all the weirdo murders in town, including Braeden's, and wanted to return the favor by killing them. Oh yeah, and the actual murderer is a dark druid, otherwise known in Gaelic as a "Darach." Whew!
lacrosse cross-country team, which is driving through the hills/mountains of California. Thunder rumbles, and Coach Finstock, true to form, shrilly blows his whistle at anyone who dares to annoy him. Near the front of the bus, Boyd and Isaac are sitting together in silence, looking really bummed out and exhausted. I'm glad that they're kind of buds again. With everything they've been through, they need a good support system. After a beat, Isaac sighs and mutters, "Stop thinking about it, man." Boyd retorts that Isaac is clearly thinking about "it" too, so Isaac concedes that they should both stop thinking about "it." Boyd is like, "Uh dude, if I could just forget about it, I would, but I kinda can't." Isaac reminds him that there's nothing they can do about it now, anyway, so what the use in wallowing over it? Boyd's not so sure about that, though, and honestly, Isaac doesn't really seem to be convincing himself, either.
Across the aisle and a few seats back, Danny is sitting with Ethan, who is uncharacteristically anxious, and who has been constantly checking his phone ever since they took off for the meet. Danny asks him if something is wrong, but Ethan lies and claims that he's just waiting for a message. They smile at each other, and after a moment, Danny drops the subject.
Ethan glances back to the very back of the bus, where Stiles and Scott are sitting together in the last seat. Stiles, as usual, is fidgeting anxiously as he fiddles with an iPad, while Scott is mournfully leaning his head against the window with his eyes closed. The image of his sleepy puppy face resting against the glass leads us into our first flashback (of MANY) of the evening...
...Scott is fully wolfed-out and presumably injured, sprawled out on the floor of an abandoned mall or something as he clutches his side. He peers over the edge of this massive hole in the floor and watches in horror as something/someone falls through it. Poor Beacon Hills, the economy must have really hit them hard, to have so many abandoned banks, malls, and warehouses around town. It does come in handy when they need a secluded place for a werewolf brawl, I guess?
Scott is awakened from his flashback-daymare by Stiles, who has been quizzing him on PSAT vocabulary words. Included in the list are "anachronism" and "incongruous," just so we're fully aware of the incredibly wibbly-wobbly timeline of this episode. Stiles helpfully uses the latter in a sentence for him when he needs a little help jogging his memory. "It's completely INCONGRUOUS that we're sitting on a bus right now, on our way to some stupid cross-country meet, after what just happened. Incongruous." Thanks for the help, Stiles!
Stiles gives up and moves on to the next word, "intransigent," whose definition seems to describe the way Scott feels that Stiles is acting right now. "Stubborn, obstinate." Before Stiles can go on to the next word, the bus hits a pothole, and Scott groans in pain from the impact. Stiles asks him if he's okay, but Scott just kind of gasps and chokes back some more moaning. Stiles, acting like Scott's aggrieved wife or some shit, is like, "Goddamnit Scott! I knew we shouldn't have come," complete with finger-wagging and everything. Scott insists that they had to come, because there's "safety in numbers." Stiles reminds him of a little thing called "a massacre," to remind him that numbers still don't necessarily put the odds in their favor. He even uses his SAT study app on his iPad to find more words to help describe their potential situation. "Bloodbath. Carnage. Slaughter. Butchery."
Scott whines a little in pain again when they hit another pothole, which causes Stiles to be like, "That's it! I'm telling Coach!" Scott assures him that he's fine, and of course, Stiles scoffs at that response, because Stiles ain't no fool. He demands that Scott at least let him look at "it." Scott flinches and jerks away when Stiles reaches to pull up his shirt, but after some gentle coaxing, he reluctantly shifts in his seat to reveal some really gnarly and painful looking claw gashes across his entire right side.
Just like every other time he sees someone's gross, gaping wound, Stiles chokes down his urge to vomit and mutters a weak "Aw, duuude." Our favorite little boy-human gives Scott a look like, "That doesn't look like NOTHING, you moron," but Scott explains that since they were caused by an Alpha, they'll take longer to heal than normal. Stiles isn't buying it, though, because Isaac and Boyd are physically fine, aside from the nuclear rage that is currently bubbling inside them, and they were just as injured, if not more so, than Scott was during the battle. Stiles licks his lips in obvious concern, but he keeps whatever he's thinking to himself. Scott's head leans back against the window, and he mumbles under his breath, "I can't believe he's dead. I can't believe Derek's dead." OH NO, YOU DID NOT JUST FUCKING SAY THAT, SCOTT.
Allison and Lydia are secretly a couple cars behind the bus to follow the boys to their meet. As our favorite huntress drives her car, she babbles worriedly about whether she's keeping too close to the bus. Lydia tells her it depends on if she's just following it, or "planning to mount it at some point," Ouch! Lydia 1, Allison 0. Lydia then teases her for so blatantly stalking her werewolfy ex-beaux. Allison doesn't want to leave his side after the other night, and when Lydia gives her a look, she defensively adds that it was Scott who came to HER, and not vise-versa. Lydia asks for deets, so Allison leads us into our NEXT flashback, which is chronologically the very first event out of all the dramatic events that happen this episode...
...Scott and Allison are in Allison's new bedroom in her family's new apartment. Scott holds up an arrow that he found behind the school the night of the big Werewolf Corral in "Fireflies," and asks her about it. (There is sexy music in the background, too-- "Hey Now" by London Grammar, which is a perfect song for a perfect scene.) Allison feigns ignorance, and claims that the arrow must belong to the "archery team." Scott's smug, amused little smile as he explains that there is no archery team at their high school is probably the cutest thing in the world. See?
He also points out that Stiles isn't the only researcher in the group, so he looked up the arrow and learned that it's a military-grade, armor-piercing titanium arrowhead, and since few people in Beacon Hills have access to that kind of weaponry, it has to be an Argent arrow. She then blames it on her father, which would be a good guess, considering Argent was there that night, unbeknownst to Allison. Scott covers for him, though, and brings up the fact that he was under the impression that she and her dad made an agreement to stay out of all the supernatural shenanigans. Allison correctly assumes that he came over to warn her to stay out of it, although Scott claims that he's not here to do that. Allison reminds him that she can take care of herself. He totally knows that, because you'd have to be an idiot to think otherwise, but he also knows that these new Alphas are super scary and strong and have a lot of advantages over the Beacon Hills werewolf pack, so it's not like fighting the wolves she's dealt with before.
Allison feels pretty confident, and suggests that she could take Scott, but he doesn't seem so convinced. Plus, Scott already pointed out that the Alphas are way stronger than he is. They start sizing each other up; Allison has bows & arrows, training, and smarts on her side, but Scott has claws, superhuman-strength, speed, and healing. Then, they turn into school-children. Allison taunts him playfully, all, "Prove it!", which results in the two of them getting into a sexy tussle. Allison karate-chops him, and he blocks her, and it's pretty hot tbh. In the middle of their fight, they get so close together that they almost kiss, but she pulls away at the last minute. After a beat, she gets back into it again by kicking at him. Scott gets the upper-hand and grabs her arm, pulls it behind her back and gently pushes her against the door.
(via bloodydalaric)
Allison gets embarrassed that she was showed up, even if it was by someone that she trusts, and you can tell her old insecurities about being weak are starting to bubble to the surface. She assures him he made his point, and to his everlasting credit, Scott, the gentleman that he is, doesn't protest when she tells him to let go. It's nice to see a dude not push a girl's boundaries for once. He sighs, and his face gets serious as he makes his take-away point quite clear: he's not warning her because he doesn't think that she could kick his ass up and down if she really had her heart in it-- he's telling her because the Alpha Pack scares the shit out of him, and he thinks they should scare her, too. He then closes the door behind him and takes his leave.
Still in the same flashback, Scott enters the elevator of Allison's apartment building, and is shocked to hell and back when he hears Deucalion's voice say, "Going down?" Now, here's where it starts to get confusing, because while we do eventually come back to the conversation that they have in this elevator, we don't get to see it now.
Instead, we skip over that conversation, and cut straight to right afterward, when Scott goes immediately to Derek's loft to tell him about running into Deuc. When he gets there, he finds Derek, Cora, Peter, and Boyd all standing around the table. Scott tells them he knows where Deucalion is living, but they're already aware that he's living right above the Argent's in their apartment complex. Boyd, who is wearing an awesome, 90s-style leather vest with a white tank top under it, reveals that he and Cora followed the Alpha Twins there, which is how they came across this information.
Scott's like, "Then they must want us to know," but Peter figures it's more likely that they just don't give a fuck either way. Scott sees more building schematics on the table and asks them wtf they're doing. Peter is sassy as ever. "Isn't it obvious? The schemers are scheming." He explains that they're launching a preemptive strike, which he refers to as a "coup de main." Derek picks up where Peter left off by expositing that they're going after the Alpha Pack the next day, and bluntly states that Scott is going to help them. This will surely go well, right?
New flashback, to the big battle scene at the mall, where there is an Alpha Pack member fighting against each member of the BH Pack. Of course, Deucalion is pulling a Peter and just standing back to watch all the fighting go down. (Speaking of Peter, he is nowhere to be found. I'm guessing that since 1) he claims he's still not in fighting shape yet, and 2) he disagreed with the idea of a strike against the Alpha Pack anyway, that he decided to also sit this one out. Peter is obviously the MVP of the pack.) Derek is, for once, beating the shit out of Kali, while Boyd and Cora are taken down pretty brutally by Ennis.
We're pulled back to the present-day by Coach Finstock, who has awakened Scott by being as annoying as ever, yelling and whistle-blowing and whatnot at various XC teammates. He spends most of the trip harassing a student named Jared, who is SUPER carsick. After giving him a hard time about his chronic bus-sickness, Coach instructs him to "look at the horizon" to avoid throwing up.
Then, Finstock turns his attention to Scott, who looks worse for wear at the back of the bus. He just assumes that Scott's car sick too, rather than dying of a wound from a supernatural creature of the night. It's Scott, though, so he lies and tells Coach he's fine. Stiles points out that he's a lying liar who lies and is totally NOT fine, since he's bleeding again, this time through his shirt. He yells at his BFF to cut the crap, because if he's still bleeding at this point, he's not just "not healing as quickly as usual," he's actually not healing, AT ALL. :( This is NO BUENO.
Scott cuts him off by gesturing at Ethan, who is totally eavesdropping on their conversation. Stiles, who has been crazy-wound-up all afternoon, likely from being in closed quarters with a bunch of pissed-off werewolves with poor impulse control, is worried about a fight breaking out on the bus. Scott doesn't think Ethan would pull anything in front of everyone, and when Stiles asks about "the two ticking-time bombs" in front of them (Boyd and Isaac, whose ears visibly perk up in obvious offense when they hear themselves being discussed this way), Scott admits that he's hoping they won't try anything, either. He vows to get involved himself if he must in order to avoid any more people getting hurt. I hate to break it to you, my dearest Scott, but you don't look like you could handle even a light scuffle at this point. Judging by the look on Stiles' face, he seems to have the same suspicion.
We flash back to the Hale Loft, where the (mostly) good-guy pack plans their attack. The plan seems to be "kill everybody," as usual, and poor Scott is like, "JFC you guys, can we please for once have a plan that doesn't involve murdering the entire town?" Peter snarks about how "blandly moral" Scott is, but ultimately agrees with him. You know, since he was dead not six months ago, and is really not looking to die a second time. Plus, he actually understands how serious the Alpha Pack's threat is, unlike Derek, Boyd, and Cora, who are basically running on pure anger and vengeance instead of common sense at this point. Boyd seems to believe that the Alpha Pack won't see it coming, but I'm skeptical, since, you know... I've actually seen this show before.
Cora is like, "Why do we need this kid anyway?" as if she's not actually the same age the rest of the high school kids. To Derek's credit, he defends Scott by pointing out that he saved Cora's life, so maybe she should show him a little respect, if not gratitude. Then, he turns back to Scott and reminds him that they both know that they can't just sit back and wait for the Alphas to show their hand before they actually do something.
Cora tries to make the plan more palatable to everyone by adding that they're ONLY going after Deucalion, and not the others, a plan which Boyd compares to cutting off the head of a snake. However, Peter brings up the excellent point that the Alpha Pack is less like a snake, and more like a Hydra, with an additional caveat: even if they can kill Deuc, the rest are still all powerful Alphas and won't just be like, "Okay, you guys win. See ya!" Derek is sure that Deucalion is their leader, and that taking him out will result in the dismemberment of the rest of the pack. Despite this argument, Peter doesn't seem to be quite sold on the plan, and finishes his Hydra analogy, "You know what happened when Hercules cut off the head of the Hydra..." Scott finishes for him, "Two heads grew back in it's place." Peter is so totally proud of Scott for being up to speed on his Greek myths that he quips:
(via screms)
Bahaha. Speaking of summer reading, Lydia is reading a huge textbook entitled, "Thermodynamics: Asymmetry in Time" as she and Allison continue to follow the cross-country team's bus. Our favorite ginger genius asks if Allison's "Don't let Scott and the boys out of your sight" rule is actually a literal one, or just a general guideline, because they are totally almost out of gas. Allison doesn't want to lose sight of them, even though Lydia points out that they both know where the team is headed. She reminds her BFF that Lydia wasn't there to see what happened, which is why she doesn't understand where Allison is coming from.
Lydia bitterly snarks under her breath that she "knows who started it," which definitely pings Allison's suspicion radar. She asks Lydia if that's what Aiden told her, and since Lydia plays dumb with the best of them, she just shrugs it off. Playing dumb and feigning ignorance is a common theme this episode. Suddenly, Lydia, being a math genius and all, puts two and two together and realizes that Allison not only invited her on this outing to help her keep an eye on the boys, but also so Allison could keep an eye on Lydia herself, before laughing at the fact that she didn't see it right away. After further prodding from Allison, Lydia states that she's appalled by the suggestion that she is fooling around with Aiden.
Flashback to god knows when: Lydia and Aiden are making out in Coach Finstock's office, and Lydia stops kissing him just long enough to sass him a bit about where he's putting his hands. He goes bug-eyed and exclaims, "They're on your waist!" She's like, "Yeah, that's the problem," which totally gets him hot, so he picks her up as she wraps her legs around him. She declares this position as moderately improved, so he pushes her down on Coach's desk to presumably have hot intro with her.
(via johnkrasinski)
I am all for Lydia being a sexual being, and the last thing I want to do is police someone's sexual behavior (even a fictional character's!) but I really hope she has a plan with Aiden. Especially considering that she's more than likely going to get caught up in between the Alpha Pack and the Beacon Hills Pack in one way or another. I just love her so much, and don't want her getting hurt, agh! I'm so nervous, eeeeeek! Be careful, Lydia! I do have to say, I do appreciate Aiden respecting Lydia's boundaries and getting into enthusiastic consent and whatnot. He may be an evil Alpha, but at least he seems to be treating her well and isn't afraid or averse to Lydia being a lil dominating with him.
Back in the car, the girls come to a screeching halt as the cars in front of them stop. The same happens up in the bus. Scott grimaces in pain again after he lurches forward, which, as you can imagine, does nothing to alleviate Stiles's concern toward his BFF. Isaac checks his phone alerts and informs Boyd that there's a jack-knifed trailer a few miles ahead of them, which has caused a traffic jam that might cause them to miss the meet. Boyd doesn't care, though, because he's much more focused on hulking out. His eyes flash gold and he growls as he grips the seat in front of him with his claws. Scott can sense the shift in his demeanor, and braces himself to go intervene.
FLASHBACK! We're finally privy to the conversation Scott had with Deuc in the elevator after leaving Allison's apartment. Scott flicks his claws out at the site of the Demon Wolf, but Deucalion scoffs, and snarks that he would have to be "blind, deaf, and quadriplegic" for Scott to be an actual threat to him. Although, he does consider the possibility that Scott could "rise to the occasion" and kill him. He uses some form of the phrase "rise to the occasion" at several different points in this episode, so I'm guessing it's pretty important. This could also tie in with the new clip of Scott levitating in the 3A opening credits and all the subtle and not-so-subtle implications that Scott is going to ascend to Alpha status on his very own.
Scott growls that he's not a killer like Deucalion, but Deuc believes that Scott could change his mind with the right motivation. Like, say, having to kill a person to protect someone that he loves, such as Allison, or Stiles. Scott asks if he came all the way there just to threaten him and his friends, but Deucalion informs him that actually he lives in the building, which is why he's in the elevator. He adds a little comment about how friendly the neighbors have been. just to really piss Scott off. YIKES, Argents, you in danger!
Flashback-forward to the fight scene, again, where Scott is still crawling all over the floor, trying to join in on the battle again. He watches Derek beat the shit out of Ennis, and he struggles to get back on his feet to help him out. That is when Derek and Ennis' fight gets dangerously close to the edge of the huge hole in the floor, and they both fall over it. They each fell, like, three whole stories and landed on the escalators below. Derek landed directly on the stairs of one of the escalators, OUCH, and Ennis landed in the middle of them. Both look pretty dead, and if they were mere mortals, they probably would be! But, I think we've all seen Derek come back from worse than this, you know? Wolfsbane bullets, being lifted into the air by someone whose claws were jammed into his guts MULTIPLE TIMES, and let us not forget that time that he was impaled through the heart with a fucking PIPE for several hours. Derek is so not dead! Derek never, ever dies, EVER.
In the present, Cora is back at the abandoned mall thingy, standing on the escalator where Derek landed when he fell. She touches a spot of blood and examines it, but is startled when she hears a noise. Don't worry though, it's just Uncle Peter. When he identifies himself as such, Cora calls him out for killing Laura, but Peter's like, "Bygones, chica! Your brother killed me, too, you know!" Never mind that there's a huge asterisk next to that statement, since he is a living, breathing person again, unlike sister Laura. Ugh, whatever. When she asks if that means she's supposed to trust him, he turns it on her, and says that he's actually wondering if he can trust her. She reminds him that he's known her for seventeen years, but he corrects her; he knew her for eleven years, leaving six years "unaccounted for," which Peter doesn't like one bit.
Cora gives up the bullshitting and asks why he's there. He's there for the same reason she is, to find out where the bodies went-- were they moved, or did one/both of them find the strength to get up and walk away? And if so, which one? As it turns out, that question is even harder to answer than they thought. Also, where would Ennis and Derek go, if they did get up?
Back on the bus, Scott is pushing past Stiles to walk down the aisle towards Boyd in slow-motion, looking like he's about to faint or die or something, while a voiceover of a conversation he had with Deaton earlier plays over it: "I don't know what else to do. Do I keep trying to get them to listen to me? Do I tell Derek that he's going to get them all killed? How do you save someone who doesn't want to be saved? How do I stop them?" Deaton's advice? "Don't stop them. Lead them." We finally return to normal speed as I shake out my goosebumps. Scott grabs Boyd's wrists forcefully and slowly crouches down onto the seat across the aisle as he gives him the Care Bear Stare and pins Boyd's hands down.
Boyd growls at him to let go, but Scott won't until Boyd tells him what sure-to-be-amazing plan he's come up with to take down Ethan. He goes on to more or less say "Killing's not the answer dude, give peace a chance for a minute," but since Boyd was taken captive by them for four months, where his best friend/girlfriend was killed in front of him, he really doesn't give one fuck what happens. Scott asks him what will happen to Boyd, even if he is able to kill Ethan, but Boyd gives no fucks about it. Scott does, though, because they've already lost Erica, and he can't stand the thought of losing more friends. Thankfully, Isaac helps Scott pin Boyd down when he tries to get loose again. Isaac notices that Scott's bleeding through his shirt, BADLY, and is like, "Wait, how are you still hurt?"
(via coraslahey)
(via kismoirails)
Scott plays it off as nothing, and pleads with Boyd to let him figure something else out (that doesn't involve more of their friends dying) before going after Ethan. Isaac is visibly worried about Scott's gross wound, obviously, and I think Boyd must be too, because he eventually agrees to Scott's terms. They both watch Scott wince his way back to his seat and are noticeably concerned. I think that the fact that Boyd can see that Scott is in no shape to back him up if he goes after Ethan probably played into his decision as well. Boyd may have a lot of rage in him, but he's not an idiot.
Stiles is anxiously chewing on the strings of his hoodie when Scott returns to his seat, and when he learns that Boyd's crisis is averted for now, he brings up their next problem: Aiden keeps checking his phone, like he's waiting for a message or a signal, so Stiles can tell that something wicked this way comes. "I have a very perceptive eye for evil, Scott, you know that." Bahahahaha!
(via obroseys)
He says this all in one breath, with no pauses, he's that anxious. He decides the best way to find out what's up is to constantly pepper Danny with text messages about it until he finally gives up and asks. Like, literally, he sends about a hundred messages in a row until Danny is so annoyed by the constant beeping that he has no choice by to ask him once Ethan notices their shady behavior. Ethan turns his head to look back at Stiles and Scott, and they do the worst job ever of looking inconspicuous. Danny texts Stiles back a few moments later to reveal that someone Ethan's close to is sick and might not make it through the night. The boys deduce it must be Ennis. It's obvious that Ethan knew that Stiles was trying to gain intel, so does he not care if they know that Ennis is alive? Is he trying to help them? Or is this part of their plan to eventually fuck them over? I am thinking way too much about this show, oh my gods.
Sidebar: I'm still not understanding this selective werewolf-hearing thing. Can't Ethan hear everything that anyone on this bus says? He's an Alpha, so his hearing must be even better than all the Betas on the bus, right? Does he just not care enough to pay attention to their every word? Or do the wolves have to be focusing in order to use their long-range hearing? I'm guessing it's just selective for plot-reasons but you guys know I have to fill in plot-holes with satisfactory headcanon, so, I'm just going to go with this: Aiden isn't actively trying to listen in to every single conversation they have, because that would be boring as hell, and that's why he's not aware of everything they've discussed. I mean, they have to talk about pretty stupid stuff sometimes, right? Who has time for that? See? All better!
Still in the present, Deaton is in his office, looking at some puppy x-rays in the exam room, when he hears the bell on the front door ring as someone enters the clinic. As he walks out into the waiting area, he sees Aiden and Kali, holding up a severely-battered, but still alive, Ennis. They are accompanied by none other than MARIN FUCKING MORRELL. YIKES! She looks kind of tired and stressed, too. Being a super-secret triple agent must be exhausting, I imagine.
Marin tells the good doctor that they could use a little help. Deaton, thankfully, is like, "Uh, you can fuck right off, actually, thank you very much," and refuses to open his magic mountain ash gate. He looks PISSED, which makes me happy, because I was worried he was in on all of this for a while. Kali threatens him with her fangs and Alpha eyes, and then threatens to bite/kill Morrell if he doesn't help them take care of Ennis. He's like, "I don't think so, sweetheart," and his face is HILARIOUS. He tells her not to make him insist that they leave, and she blinks in confusion as her eyes magically go back to normal. The look on her face tells me she didn't do it voluntarily. Was that the mountain ash preventing her from harming him/Marin? Or does Deaton have actual powers to force her to shift back or something? Is the reason why he knows so much about druids because he IS a druid or otherwise magical? I NEED TO KNOW NOWWWW. I'm so confused! Maybe, if he is a druid/magical, he can control the mountain ash that is built into the clinic walls/gate?
He calls Lydia, who tries to play off like they're at the movies, but he quickly calls her out on her lie and demands she put the phone on speaker. When she does, he confesses that Scott is still very much injured, which both confuses and concerns the girls. Allison is shocked at the news, and asks, "Wait, he's not healing?" Nope. Stiles explains that it's actually getting worse, and adds that the blood seeping from his wounds is turning black. Ew, we know from experience that the presence of black werewolf ink is never a good sign.
(via theteenwolfs)
So, Stiles sits next to Jared, and gives him the most creepy and excellent Grinch face I have ever seen. Dylan O'Brien has a super-rubbery face, like Jim Carrey, and man, does he make some awesome faces this episode. This one is the best, though, just look at it!
Needless to say, Jared loses his lunch shortly afterward, although we never learn what it is exactly that Stiles did to make that happen. The entire bus flees from the smell as quickly as possible, and Coach is PISSED that they actually have to stop now to clean up. This gives Stiles, Lydia and Allison time to help Scott into the rest stop bathroom without anyone paying attention to them. His shirt is soaked in nasty werewolf ink, and if it weren't for Stiles and Allison supporting him, he probably would have fallen to the ground as they walked. So yeah, Scott is definitely in bad shape.
Allison helps him lower himself onto the floor, and he leans his back against the wall as his eyelids flutter in an attempt to stay awake. She admonishes him for not saying anything about his not-healing injuries until now, but he just kind of mutters a weak apology before he fades into unconsciousness. They look at his wound, and it looks GROSS, worse than Derek's wolfsbane bullet hole from Season 1.
Team Human moves off to the side to discuss what's up. Allison is extremely worried now, as she's seen him heal from far worse injuries than this, so obviously this is not a normal reaction. They're worried that it's too late for them to do anything to help him, but Lydia wonders if maybe it's a psychological problem, rather than a physiological one. Stiles is like, "Psychosomatic?" and Lydia's like, "No, somatoformic. A physical illness from a psychogenic cause." I LOVE GENIUS!LYDIA! Give me more!
They determine that Scott isn't allowing himself to heal because he feels guilty/responsible for Derek's death. Allison asks Lydia how to go about treating him, and Lydia, instead of being like, "There is no way Derek is actually dead, so we should probably just tell him that," decides that they should just stitch him up. She pulls a small sewing kit from her purse, and hands it over to Allison as she explains that if they fix Scott up, it might trick his brain into thinking that he's already healing, which will make his body actually heal him. Hooray for the placebo effect!
At the vet clinic, Deaton is taking care of Ennis and tells Marin to put up the "Closed" sign on the door so they aren't interrupted. Kali looks super sad and concerned, which makes me wonder if there isn't something romantic going on there. I can't wait to learn more about these Alphas and their relationships with each other. It's nice to see the usually-vicious Kali show some actual human emotions for once.
Back at the rest-stop, Allison is sterilizing the needle by running it through the flame of a lighter, and asks Stiles for a clean shirt for Scott to wear when she's done. Stiles goes to retrieve it, adding that he hates needles anyway, so he doesn't need to stay and watch her stitch his wounds up. But, he does stop to ask her if she knows what she's doing. Don't worry, guys, she totally does, because her dad taught her everything from stitching up wounds to hot-wiring motorcycles in Hunter Training 101, apparently. Stiles is worried about the bus leaving before they're ready, so he and Lydia leave to stall them while Allison plays nurse.
If Daniel Sharman was last week's MVP, acting-wise, then Crystal Reed and Eaddy Mays are definitely the MVPs this week (Tyler Posey comes in second place, because this is probably the best acting I've ever seen from him, though, he still has a lot to learn.) Allison tries to keep Scott awake as she struggles to thread the needle. She's stressed, and jittery, which isn't really conducive to fine motor skills.
After a couple failed attempts, Hallucination-Victoria Argent comes up behind her and shits on her for being unable to complete such a simple task. She quite literally calls her daughter a big baby and snaps at her to grow up and get over it so she can get the job done. Frustrated, Allison mutters that she's trying, but her hands are shaking too badly. Mama Argent softens a tiny bit, and instructs her to take a deep breath and try again. When it doesn't work, Allison grunts in frustration. "Okay, how do we approach a situation like this?" Mama Argent asks sharply. Allison is crying at this point, but manages to stammer, "CLINICALLY! AND UNEMO-UNEMOTIONALLY!" Scott fades in and out, which is probably a good thing, so he is too out of it to notice that Allison is arguing with a figment of her imagination. Victoria is like, "OMG, stop fucking crying and do it, then." so Allison takes another deep breath and is finally able to do it. Omg, my heart. It's smooshed. Perfect scene, perfect acting, all the awards for Crystal Reed, etc.
(via dobrien)
Coach is whistling and yelling at everyone to get back in the bus, which makes Stiles and Lydia understandably panicked. Inside the rest-stop bathroom, Allison finishes stitching Scott up and tries to wake him. After several attempts, she panics as well, because he's not responding and doesn't seem to be breathing. Luckily, he's just giving us an excuse to worry for a bit until we get into another flashback...
...Ennis and Derek have just fallen onto the escalators far below, and Scott is just looking at them, in shock at what just happened. He gasps as Isaac gently pulls him away from the edge. Scott starts to break down as Isaac rubs his back. I LOVE Isaac's new wolf-face, btw. It looks a lot like Jackson's wolf-face now, which is much prettier than Isaac's old one. It's like they finally realized that Isaac is a hottie and needs a face to match. (Although, tbh, none of the wolf-faces are attractive at all.) I think the difference is that he has eyebrows. And more sideburns.
(via isaaclaney)
After the flashback, Allison finally is able to wake Scott up and bring him to the present. As he regains consciousness, he murmurs that it's all his fault. Allison assures him it's all okay, and he looks at his stitched up wounds and asks if that was her doing. She confirms that it was, and he's just weakly smiles and mutters, "Nice!" God, I love him. She laughs a little despite herself, and helps him stand up to put on his shirt. Now, we go into my favorite flashback of the night...
...Okay, so this is post-elevator encounter with Deucalion and post-meeting with Derek at the loft, but PRE-fight at the mall. It also has one of my new favorite songs, "Hounds" by Valleys, so if you haven't heard it yet, DO IT!
Scott is putting on a jacket and grabbing his dirt bike helmet. He turns and gasps when he sees Isaac, smiling and leaning against the doorway like an adorable and endearing boyfriend does. Isaac asks where he's going, and doesn't even call Scott out on his lie when he stammers that he's getting something to eat. Isaac's all, "Cool, I'll join you," but Scott tries to beg off, since he has a secret plan in mind. When he's asked what he's eating, Scott's like, "...uhhhh....Mexican?" Isaac hilariously proclaims, "Dude! I love Mexican! Let's go!" even though he can tell Scott's lying out his ass (although he doesn't know why). The fact that Scott is Mexican doesn't escape any Scisaac shipper's notice, especially not yours truly. When Scott assures Isaac that he can eat alone, Isaac just smiles that lovely smile of his and is like, "No way, bro."
Then, Isaac TOTALLY RIDES ON THE BACK OF SCOTT'S MOTORBIKE (not a euphemism), and they end up at the abandoned mall, where Scott explains that they're just going to talk to Deucalion and reason with him. Isaac looks pretty skeptical at this going well, but he's not as afraid as I would expect, considering we still don't know ALL of what happened to him when he was caught by the Alphas. When Scott notices his apprehension, he just shrugs it off and snarks that he's actually hungry now. Scott is too.
Present: Allison helps Scott walk out of the bathroom, and Lydia runs toward them. She asks if he's okay as she takes his bag from him and puts an arm around him to help him walk. It's really cute how Lydia has integrated herself into their makeshift wolf-pack so quickly. I'll more than likely talk a lot more about this later. Scott asks after Stiles, but off he's stalling Coach Finstock. Lydia reminds Allison that they're still nearly out of gas, but since Allison refuses to leave Scott alone now, she takes Lydia's joking suggestion that they just ditch her car as a serious one. Lydia doesn't really like that plan at all, but is ultimately like, "Fuck it!" and runs after them.
(via allisonargents)
Back to the mall-flashback: Scott and Isaac meet up with Deucalion, who's like, "So much for coming alone, eh?" Scott introduces Isaac, but that's not who Deucalion was talking about, since he totally knew that Scott would bring his BF with him. He means Derek, Cora, and Boyd, who walk out of the shadows, wolfy-game faces on and ready for a dubstep werewolf brawl. Scott's pissed that they used the fact that Scott was going to try to negotiate peace as a way to get Deuc alone to fight him, instead. He begs Derek to stop, because there's no way this can go down without someone dying, and they've already lost Erica, so they can't afford to lose anyone else. Derek's like, "No, only Deucalion is dying tonight," but Deuc just smirks, all, "Do you really think a blind dude like me could have gotten to this wasteland all by my lonesome?" Kali, Ennis, and the Alpha Twins waltz on in dramatically, as they do. Time for a showdown!
Present: Allison and Scott finally get to the bus when they hear shouting. Stiles runs up and explains that he informed Isaac about what was going on with Scott, and then Isaac just went off on Ethan. Cut to Isaac, punching the shit out of Ethan as Boyd watches, looking pleased as hell. OMG STILES YOU LITTLE SHIT-STIRRER, you totally did that on purpose to distract the Coach from making everyone leave without them! I'm onto your tricks, buddy! Like he didn't know exactly what was going to happen when Isaac learned that Scott was maybe dying.
(via fuckyeahcorahale)
Once again, Ethan looks like he's enjoying that beatdown wayyy too much, and it weirds me out. At least Isaac gets in trouble for something he ACTUALLY DID this time. Although, I'm worried that Danny thinks Isaac's a homophobic asshole, rather than just a dude who is constantly getting hurt at the Alpha Pack's hands who is only trying to even the score.
Scott runs up and does the whole "ISAAC!!!" Alpha yell thing that he did last time, and Isaac stops, and literally looks like a puppy that you just caught chewing on your shoes, who knows that they were bad, but are still the tiniest bit proud of themselves. It's the cutest fucking thing. Isaac is the best!
(via isaaclaney)
(via paulwelsey)
He's all concerned until he glances at Scott's side and sees that he's better now, and then he smiles because his boyfriend totally isn't dying! Hooray! Could they have a better bromance? I seriously doubt it.
Peter and Cora are at Deaton's office to see if maybe Derek found the strength to drag himself over there for medical attention. Cora doesn't get why Derek would come to an animal clinic of all places, even though they're part WOLF, which is an animal, but Peter explains that Deaton isn't an ordinary vet. "Half the building is made of mountain ash. I'm not actually sure how to get in." Cora suggests using the door, like most normal people, but Peter can sense/hear that the Alpha Pack is there, and stops her.
Inside, Deaton has just finished up with Ennis when Deuc comes in to get a sit rep. Deaton replies that the prognosis is surprisingly good, considering he fell like, hundreds of feet onto a metal barrier between two escalators. Our Demon Wolf looks a little sad as he bends down to kiss each of Ennis' cheeks, and then takes a clawed hand and grips Ennis' face at the temples. Deaton gets that "da fuq?" face that he gets sometimes, as Deuc's own face starts to look a little weird too, and finally Ennis' skull shatters from the pressure of his grip. YIKES. He literally crushed his skull like it was a melon or something, and his hand gets covered it black, goopy blood. He states simply that Deaton overestimated Ennis' odds and takes his leave. Deaton looks both annoyed and grossed out. Way to leave Deaton to deal with the dead, smooshed body, dude!
Outside the vet's office, Cora is trying to decide whether it's Derek, Ennis or both who are under the doctor's care, when Kali bounds out the front door, followed quickly by Aiden. The Hales duck behind an SUV to avoid being seen, and Kali ROARS in grief, as Aiden grips onto her wrists to try to restrain her. When she's all growled out, she falls into Aiden's arms. The rumble of her roar causes a bunch of car alarms go off, and Peter's quickly deduces that she's not distraught about Derek's death, that's for sure. He grabs his nieces hand and they both scamper before they're made.
Flashback to the mall-fight, part 4: Derek's the first to attack after the Alphas show themselves, per usual, so Kali jumps down and uses her toe-claws to slash him in the face. Then, the Alpha Twins flip down onto the next story of the building and fuse in midair to become XXL Alpha, landing right behind Scott and Isaac.
(via mcallaheys)
Scott is fearfully looking around at what's happening: XXL Alpha is growling at him, Derek's still fighting Kali, and Boyd and Cora are fighting against Ennis. Scott looks over to Isaac, who has already wolfed out and who runs straight for XXL Alpha. Scott sighs and rolls his eyes, like, "Goddamnit Isaac," and forces out his game face. It's not the best CGI ever, but it's not the worst this show has done, either. Plus, it's a pretty cool way to show just how in control Scott has become in regards to his inner wolf--instead of anger/a sense of self-preservation kicking him into wolf-mode, he actually pulls out his wolfiness from WITHIN himself, which is something that seems to be hard to do if you haven't fully accepted your abilities. This is SUCH great character development, don't you think? Scott started out thinking of being a werewolf as a curse, and spent quite a bit of time denying it/wanting to change it. Now, he uses it to his advantage and has actually become quite good at it. Yay, Scott! ANYWAY, back to the fight:
Scott darts after Isaac and runs to tackle XXL Alpha, but they both get their asses kicked pretty thoroughly; Scott is thrown against a cement wall and hits it so hard he cracks the wall and a Scott-sized chunk of cement falls off. Isaac's arm is twisted behind his back by XXL Alpha, and he screams in pain as his bones crack and break loudly. OUCH. Before long, every member of the BH Pack is neutralized by their respective Alpha opponents and held down.
(via mccallaheys)
Deucalion finally joins the party and gives Derek a deal: kill Boyd, and the others can go, citing the fact that they've already been beaten. Kali doesn't get why Deuc even wants Derek, since he's just the Alpha of a bunch of useless teenagers, but Deuc points out that some actually have promise, and stares at Scott. Kali decides Derek needs to rise to the occasion, and chokes Cora with her damn clawed feet to put on the pressure: "What's it gonna be, Derek? Pack, or family?"
Derek has no idea wtf to do, but never fear, Badass-Extraordinaire Allison Argent has come to the rescue, shooting her flash-bang arrows all over the place! Deucalion warns them all to cover their eyes, but the flashes are still enough that the Alphas are disoriented. Once again, Boyd is probably having major Vietnam-style flashbacks, but for once she's actually saving him too, so I'm sure he'll eventually get over it. Also, Allison really does look striking in this scene. She's always been compared to Kate, with her beauty and inner dark-side, but when I look at her with her hair all swept off her face like this, I see nothing but Victoria Argent, tbh.
Flashback-in-a-flashback: Allison is talking to Daddy Argent, and emphasizes that someone needs to help the BH Pack. He's doesn't think it needs to be them. He exposits that he's working on getting his consulting business back up, and he has decided that they need to stay the fuck out of this Alpha mess, because Allison needs to graduate high school, or something. He gets a kind of shifty look on his face, and opens a textbook in a really suspicious way that covers up something on the desk. I'm not quite sure what it is, because I couldn't get a good shot of it when I tried to make screenshots, but it kind of looks like a weird, stylized map. Did anyone with a good eye see what it was?
She reminds her dad that an Alpha Pack is outright trying to kill her friends, so wtf is she supposed to do? He thinks they need to navigate carefully (a strategy that is conveniently called "threading the needle"), which Allison says sounds like "saving your own ass." Argent points out that these people aren't her family, but Allison strikes back. "With all the family I've lost, I could use a few friends." YES! Allison for President 2016!
Back to the original flashback, Allison's shooting more arrows, which scares the Alphas enough to allow the Beacon Hills pack to get back up again and regroup. Cora and Derek grab Boyd and get him out of harm's way so he can heal. This is where things get confusing AGAIN: Scott charges at Ennis, which Deuc seems to notice, because he makes a big show of turning his head to watch. Scott and Ennis run straight into each other and proceed to bounce off of one another. When Scott gets himself back up, HIS EYES GLOW FUCKING RED.
(via stilesandscott)
Allison notices, and I think possibly Derek does too, because he charges at Ennis from behind as though he's trying to distract them and gets in some good swipes before he himself gets slashed across the chest. Scott closes his eyes and shakes his head a bit, and his eyes go back to yellow/gold. WHAT IS GOING ON? The three werewolves fight a little more, and Scott ends up on the ground again after getting those claw gashes on his side that Allison just stitched up in the present day.
Derek and Ennis are dancing around the edge of this huge hole, as you recall, and Scott is able to crawl over and swipe his claws across the back of Ennis' calf, which causes Ennis to lose his balance, fall over the edge and pull Derek over with him. That, I assume, is why Scott feels so guilty about Derek, and I get it, but while Derek obviously has a death-wish, he's still a survivor deep inside, so I don't get why everyone was so quick to believe he was dead. It was a pretty gruesome fall, though.
Back to the present, Allison and Lydia have somehow gotten permission to ride to the meet on the bus with the boys. What is with this school? Allison is watching Scott, who just awoke from his flashback-daymare again, and Stiles and Lydia are a few seats ahead, expositing about the sacrifices. Here's what they know: everything has to do with the sacrifices and someone who thinks they're a Darach, a dark druid. Lydia brings up the fact that some ancient cultures do sacrifices to prepare for battle. OH FUCK. Stiles is like, "So, Darach vs. Alpha Pack?" Awesome, this won't end poorly at all. I love how comfortable these two look together now. Stiles might not be actively pursuing Lydia romantically anymore, but there is definitely still a lot of chemistry between them, and it almost looks like Stiles' feelings might actually be requited. Either way, they make a great pair of friends, and I love how close they've become.
Behind them, Allison assures Scott that if Derek really is dead, then it isn't Scott's fault, and I yelp in glee that FINALLY, someone is considering the possibility that he survived! Still, Scott's not so sure. He does thank her for not listening to his speech about not getting involved, though, and that's another thing I love about Scott-- he can admit when he's wrong. Allison just stares at him, and when he asks what she's staring at; she tells him she's just looking at his eyes, and gives him the sweetest little smile. OH YOU GUYS, stop being so cute!
At Deaton's office, Ms. Morrell is covering Ennis' body with a sheet. Deaton tells her that he doesn't think she knows just what she's gotten herself into with the Alpha Pack, but she tells him that it's too late to pull the big brother card. I KNEW THEY WERE SIBLINGS! YESSSSS. So, is he the druid, and she is the darach? TELL ME NOW.
Finally, Ms. Blake is getting into her car, dumping her stuff in the passenger seat, when Derek Fucking Hale, Survivor smacks a bloody hand up against her car window before promptly falling over, much like he did in "Magic Bullet" in Season 1. She's obviously startled, and jumps out of her car to kneel next to Derek, who is splayed out on the parking space next to her, his clothes still torn to shreds from the battle at the abandoned mall. HE'S ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE! YES!!! I KNEW IT.
Next week, on Teen Wolf: Danny gets some Ethan smoochies, Derek gets some teacher smoochies, and everyone else has to spend the night in the shady Motel California, where it looks like everyone either gets possessed or hallucinates to the point of becoming suicidal. Or both. Boyd is drowning in a bathtub, Isaac is screaming inside another fucking deep freezer, and Lydia has bad feelings. Oh, and they want us to think that Mama McCall is going to be killed by Deucalion but I am choosing to believe it is only an illusion/hallucination until forced to think otherwise. Basically, I AM NOT READY FOR THIS. I AM NOT READY AT ALL.
[screencaps are from Screencapped.net, and gifs are credited below the images. If I've made a mistake in the sources, please feel free to let me know and I will change it ASAP. It's difficult to keep everyone's URLs straight sometimes]
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NOTES/SPECULATION:
-First things first: Scott's possible Alpha-tude. On first watch, I thought maybe one of Deucalion's super-Alpha skills was to either temporarily or permanently give Beta wolves Alpha powers. Then, when MTV aired the replay right after the first airing, I thought that Scott maybe had some kind of latent power where he could take Alpha powers away from someone. Now, after watching it for the third time while writing this recap, my theory is that Scott's moral code and general genuine goodness (awesome unintentional alliteration, woo) will give him the ability to earn being an Alpha without actually killing one, and that because he earned it, he has the potential to be a force to be reckoned with. But, right now, he can't fully utilize it, either because he hasn't totally earned it yet, or because he hasn't accepted the fact that he deserves the power. If this is this case, I will be so pleased, but either way I am really excited to figure out wtf is up with him!
-I love Allison more and more every week. Her story-line/Crystal Reed's performance in this episode was spot-on perfect. I am also impressed with Tyler Posey's improved acting skills. I don't even know what else to say, except she and Derek better get over their trust issues quickly because there's no way they can survive without her help. (Same goes for Lydia and her unconventional way of helping-- WHICH, by the way, WHAT THE FUCK IS LYDIA? I NEED TO KNOW!)
-Stiles is awesome, always, and I loved how nervous and wound up he was on that bus ride. He seems to be really alone in all this, considering that Scott has way too much on his plate right now, and Stiles knows this, so he'd never unload on him, plus Stiles purposely keeps his dad out of everything, which means he can't talk to him about it either. He's really taking the stress of all of this on himself, and it makes total sense that he's starting to fray at the edges, as referenced in the episode's title. I can only see it getting worse for him, though, at least for a while, but that can probably be said for every character right now. That's yet another reason why I'd like to see him get closer to Lydia, and Allison, and Danny. He needs people who will help take care of him, since he's so busy trying to take care of everyone else.
-I also LOVE that the emergence of the Alpha Pack and the murders in Beacon Hills are forcing Team Human and Team Wolf to work together for once to get shit done. AND, it's actually working! Bringing Lydia into it was probably the smartest move they ever made, and they should have done it forever ago because they probably would have had better luck through everything; I have a feeling she will be awesome at helping the pack strategize. Allison has totally proven that she is an asset as well, on more than one occasion this season alone (and we're not even fully halfway through yet!) so I really hope that she and Derek can find it in their hearts to at least tolerate one another, if not fully trust each other, so they can work together and hopefully as a group keep each other safe.
-There has been a lot of speculation as to whether or not Danny knows more about this stuff than he's letting on, and I'm interested to see if that is true or not. I could have sworn he made some comment in Season 2 about Jackson and the full moon, which would seem to indicate that he does, in fact, know, but I haven't had a chance to revisit those episodes and confirm. Other than that, I don't really have any solid opinions, aside from the meta I've read on Tumblr, but I could totally see him being more involved than we think so far. He's a fan favorite too, so that would be a perfect excuse to give him more of a role on the show.
-I like Derek and Jennifer Blake's budding romance, and I'm not ashamed. It does seem a little forced, but Derek needs some loving, and we all know she's only temporary anyway so I don't see who it's hurting. To be completely honest, I think a lot of the Sterek stans hating on them together has made me like them a little more out of spite, too. I'm mean, I guess.
-I was really impressed with Isaac this week too, as always. With everything that happened with Derek, I think he must really trust Scott a lot to act the way he did with him (leaning against the door, smiling, making Scott let him come with him, joining into the fighting, etc.) I'm pretty sure Scott is Isaac's new anchor and I LOVE IT SO FUCKING MUCH.
-Deaton/Morrell being siblings doesn't surprise me, but I want to know what their role in this world is! Are they druids, or some kind of like wolf companions, or what? Why does everyone have to be so damn mysterious?
-Can you believe that if this was a regular season of TW, we would already be (nearly) halfway through it? But since it isn't, we're only 1/4 of the way through it? If this much stuff has already happened, the rest of the season is going to be fucking KILLER. Pun intended.
-One last thing regarding Deucalion killing Ennis-- ever since last week, when we found out that he learned that Alphas can absorb the powers of their betas, I've wondered if he wasn't eventually going to try to kill his Alphas to see if he could absorb their power as well. Now that he's killed Ennis, and it kind of looked like he was absorbing his power by doing it, I'm really wondering if that's not the case. I wonder what his end goal is. Eyesight? Immortality? Becoming ruler of the world? Siring a new species a la Klaus Mikaelson the Original Hybrid from The Vampire Diaries? Who the hell knows?! But I am so pumped to find out. It's possible that he didn't really stand to gain powers from killing Ennis, and did it more to create chaos and to pit the rest of his pack against Derek and his betas.
Previously, on Teen Wolf: Derek went back to the school to check in on Ms. Jennifer Blake's werewolf-induced PTSD, and sparks started flying between them. Braeden, the mysterious mercenary who saved Isaac from the Alpha Pack in the premiere, revealed to Deucalion that she knows he's afraid of the man Scott will become, but Deucalion explained that someone taught him how to "eliminate threats" by having someone else (ie: Derek) kill them for him. Then, he presumably killed her, </3. Isaac suspected the Alpha Twins were behind all the weirdo murders in town, including Braeden's, and wanted to return the favor by killing them. Oh yeah, and the actual murderer is a dark druid, otherwise known in Gaelic as a "Darach." Whew!
(via danielsharmoan)
We begin on a bus with the BHHS 
...Scott is fully wolfed-out and presumably injured, sprawled out on the floor of an abandoned mall or something as he clutches his side. He peers over the edge of this massive hole in the floor and watches in horror as something/someone falls through it. Poor Beacon Hills, the economy must have really hit them hard, to have so many abandoned banks, malls, and warehouses around town. It does come in handy when they need a secluded place for a werewolf brawl, I guess?
Scott is awakened from his flashback-daymare by Stiles, who has been quizzing him on PSAT vocabulary words. Included in the list are "anachronism" and "incongruous," just so we're fully aware of the incredibly wibbly-wobbly timeline of this episode. Stiles helpfully uses the latter in a sentence for him when he needs a little help jogging his memory. "It's completely INCONGRUOUS that we're sitting on a bus right now, on our way to some stupid cross-country meet, after what just happened. Incongruous." Thanks for the help, Stiles!
The next word? DARACH. Hahahaha. Scott really doesn't find that one funny at all, though but Stiles is adamant that they talk about it eventually. Plus, considering they're on a five-hour bus trip, this is as good a time as any to brainstorm what the fuck is happening in their hometown. Scott responds to this request by leaning his head against the window again and closing his eyes. Honestly, he looks like he's going to barf. It's okay, Scott, I always feel that way on buses. too. Does dramamine work on werewolves? ANYWAY, needless to say, Stiles and Scott never do manage to discuss the whole darach thing. Maybe next week?
Stiles gives up and moves on to the next word, "intransigent," whose definition seems to describe the way Scott feels that Stiles is acting right now. "Stubborn, obstinate." Before Stiles can go on to the next word, the bus hits a pothole, and Scott groans in pain from the impact. Stiles asks him if he's okay, but Scott just kind of gasps and chokes back some more moaning. Stiles, acting like Scott's aggrieved wife or some shit, is like, "Goddamnit Scott! I knew we shouldn't have come," complete with finger-wagging and everything. Scott insists that they had to come, because there's "safety in numbers." Stiles reminds him of a little thing called "a massacre," to remind him that numbers still don't necessarily put the odds in their favor. He even uses his SAT study app on his iPad to find more words to help describe their potential situation. "Bloodbath. Carnage. Slaughter. Butchery."
Scott whines a little in pain again when they hit another pothole, which causes Stiles to be like, "That's it! I'm telling Coach!" Scott assures him that he's fine, and of course, Stiles scoffs at that response, because Stiles ain't no fool. He demands that Scott at least let him look at "it." Scott flinches and jerks away when Stiles reaches to pull up his shirt, but after some gentle coaxing, he reluctantly shifts in his seat to reveal some really gnarly and painful looking claw gashes across his entire right side.
Just like every other time he sees someone's gross, gaping wound, Stiles chokes down his urge to vomit and mutters a weak "Aw, duuude." Our favorite little boy-human gives Scott a look like, "That doesn't look like NOTHING, you moron," but Scott explains that since they were caused by an Alpha, they'll take longer to heal than normal. Stiles isn't buying it, though, because Isaac and Boyd are physically fine, aside from the nuclear rage that is currently bubbling inside them, and they were just as injured, if not more so, than Scott was during the battle. Stiles licks his lips in obvious concern, but he keeps whatever he's thinking to himself. Scott's head leans back against the window, and he mumbles under his breath, "I can't believe he's dead. I can't believe Derek's dead." OH NO, YOU DID NOT JUST FUCKING SAY THAT, SCOTT.
Allison and Lydia are secretly a couple cars behind the bus to follow the boys to their meet. As our favorite huntress drives her car, she babbles worriedly about whether she's keeping too close to the bus. Lydia tells her it depends on if she's just following it, or "planning to mount it at some point," Ouch! Lydia 1, Allison 0. Lydia then teases her for so blatantly stalking her werewolfy ex-beaux. Allison doesn't want to leave his side after the other night, and when Lydia gives her a look, she defensively adds that it was Scott who came to HER, and not vise-versa. Lydia asks for deets, so Allison leads us into our NEXT flashback, which is chronologically the very first event out of all the dramatic events that happen this episode...
...Scott and Allison are in Allison's new bedroom in her family's new apartment. Scott holds up an arrow that he found behind the school the night of the big Werewolf Corral in "Fireflies," and asks her about it. (There is sexy music in the background, too-- "Hey Now" by London Grammar, which is a perfect song for a perfect scene.) Allison feigns ignorance, and claims that the arrow must belong to the "archery team." Scott's smug, amused little smile as he explains that there is no archery team at their high school is probably the cutest thing in the world. See?
He also points out that Stiles isn't the only researcher in the group, so he looked up the arrow and learned that it's a military-grade, armor-piercing titanium arrowhead, and since few people in Beacon Hills have access to that kind of weaponry, it has to be an Argent arrow. She then blames it on her father, which would be a good guess, considering Argent was there that night, unbeknownst to Allison. Scott covers for him, though, and brings up the fact that he was under the impression that she and her dad made an agreement to stay out of all the supernatural shenanigans. Allison correctly assumes that he came over to warn her to stay out of it, although Scott claims that he's not here to do that. Allison reminds him that she can take care of herself. He totally knows that, because you'd have to be an idiot to think otherwise, but he also knows that these new Alphas are super scary and strong and have a lot of advantages over the Beacon Hills werewolf pack, so it's not like fighting the wolves she's dealt with before.
Allison feels pretty confident, and suggests that she could take Scott, but he doesn't seem so convinced. Plus, Scott already pointed out that the Alphas are way stronger than he is. They start sizing each other up; Allison has bows & arrows, training, and smarts on her side, but Scott has claws, superhuman-strength, speed, and healing. Then, they turn into school-children. Allison taunts him playfully, all, "Prove it!", which results in the two of them getting into a sexy tussle. Allison karate-chops him, and he blocks her, and it's pretty hot tbh. In the middle of their fight, they get so close together that they almost kiss, but she pulls away at the last minute. After a beat, she gets back into it again by kicking at him. Scott gets the upper-hand and grabs her arm, pulls it behind her back and gently pushes her against the door.
Allison gets embarrassed that she was showed up, even if it was by someone that she trusts, and you can tell her old insecurities about being weak are starting to bubble to the surface. She assures him he made his point, and to his everlasting credit, Scott, the gentleman that he is, doesn't protest when she tells him to let go. It's nice to see a dude not push a girl's boundaries for once. He sighs, and his face gets serious as he makes his take-away point quite clear: he's not warning her because he doesn't think that she could kick his ass up and down if she really had her heart in it-- he's telling her because the Alpha Pack scares the shit out of him, and he thinks they should scare her, too. He then closes the door behind him and takes his leave.
Still in the same flashback, Scott enters the elevator of Allison's apartment building, and is shocked to hell and back when he hears Deucalion's voice say, "Going down?" Now, here's where it starts to get confusing, because while we do eventually come back to the conversation that they have in this elevator, we don't get to see it now.
Instead, we skip over that conversation, and cut straight to right afterward, when Scott goes immediately to Derek's loft to tell him about running into Deuc. When he gets there, he finds Derek, Cora, Peter, and Boyd all standing around the table. Scott tells them he knows where Deucalion is living, but they're already aware that he's living right above the Argent's in their apartment complex. Boyd, who is wearing an awesome, 90s-style leather vest with a white tank top under it, reveals that he and Cora followed the Alpha Twins there, which is how they came across this information.
Scott's like, "Then they must want us to know," but Peter figures it's more likely that they just don't give a fuck either way. Scott sees more building schematics on the table and asks them wtf they're doing. Peter is sassy as ever. "Isn't it obvious? The schemers are scheming." He explains that they're launching a preemptive strike, which he refers to as a "coup de main." Derek picks up where Peter left off by expositing that they're going after the Alpha Pack the next day, and bluntly states that Scott is going to help them. This will surely go well, right?
New flashback, to the big battle scene at the mall, where there is an Alpha Pack member fighting against each member of the BH Pack. Of course, Deucalion is pulling a Peter and just standing back to watch all the fighting go down. (Speaking of Peter, he is nowhere to be found. I'm guessing that since 1) he claims he's still not in fighting shape yet, and 2) he disagreed with the idea of a strike against the Alpha Pack anyway, that he decided to also sit this one out. Peter is obviously the MVP of the pack.) Derek is, for once, beating the shit out of Kali, while Boyd and Cora are taken down pretty brutally by Ennis.
We're pulled back to the present-day by Coach Finstock, who has awakened Scott by being as annoying as ever, yelling and whistle-blowing and whatnot at various XC teammates. He spends most of the trip harassing a student named Jared, who is SUPER carsick. After giving him a hard time about his chronic bus-sickness, Coach instructs him to "look at the horizon" to avoid throwing up.
Then, Finstock turns his attention to Scott, who looks worse for wear at the back of the bus. He just assumes that Scott's car sick too, rather than dying of a wound from a supernatural creature of the night. It's Scott, though, so he lies and tells Coach he's fine. Stiles points out that he's a lying liar who lies and is totally NOT fine, since he's bleeding again, this time through his shirt. He yells at his BFF to cut the crap, because if he's still bleeding at this point, he's not just "not healing as quickly as usual," he's actually not healing, AT ALL. :( This is NO BUENO.
Scott cuts him off by gesturing at Ethan, who is totally eavesdropping on their conversation. Stiles, who has been crazy-wound-up all afternoon, likely from being in closed quarters with a bunch of pissed-off werewolves with poor impulse control, is worried about a fight breaking out on the bus. Scott doesn't think Ethan would pull anything in front of everyone, and when Stiles asks about "the two ticking-time bombs" in front of them (Boyd and Isaac, whose ears visibly perk up in obvious offense when they hear themselves being discussed this way), Scott admits that he's hoping they won't try anything, either. He vows to get involved himself if he must in order to avoid any more people getting hurt. I hate to break it to you, my dearest Scott, but you don't look like you could handle even a light scuffle at this point. Judging by the look on Stiles' face, he seems to have the same suspicion.
We flash back to the Hale Loft, where the (mostly) good-guy pack plans their attack. The plan seems to be "kill everybody," as usual, and poor Scott is like, "JFC you guys, can we please for once have a plan that doesn't involve murdering the entire town?" Peter snarks about how "blandly moral" Scott is, but ultimately agrees with him. You know, since he was dead not six months ago, and is really not looking to die a second time. Plus, he actually understands how serious the Alpha Pack's threat is, unlike Derek, Boyd, and Cora, who are basically running on pure anger and vengeance instead of common sense at this point. Boyd seems to believe that the Alpha Pack won't see it coming, but I'm skeptical, since, you know... I've actually seen this show before.
Cora is like, "Why do we need this kid anyway?" as if she's not actually the same age the rest of the high school kids. To Derek's credit, he defends Scott by pointing out that he saved Cora's life, so maybe she should show him a little respect, if not gratitude. Then, he turns back to Scott and reminds him that they both know that they can't just sit back and wait for the Alphas to show their hand before they actually do something.
Cora tries to make the plan more palatable to everyone by adding that they're ONLY going after Deucalion, and not the others, a plan which Boyd compares to cutting off the head of a snake. However, Peter brings up the excellent point that the Alpha Pack is less like a snake, and more like a Hydra, with an additional caveat: even if they can kill Deuc, the rest are still all powerful Alphas and won't just be like, "Okay, you guys win. See ya!" Derek is sure that Deucalion is their leader, and that taking him out will result in the dismemberment of the rest of the pack. Despite this argument, Peter doesn't seem to be quite sold on the plan, and finishes his Hydra analogy, "You know what happened when Hercules cut off the head of the Hydra..." Scott finishes for him, "Two heads grew back in it's place." Peter is so totally proud of Scott for being up to speed on his Greek myths that he quips:
Bahaha. Speaking of summer reading, Lydia is reading a huge textbook entitled, "Thermodynamics: Asymmetry in Time" as she and Allison continue to follow the cross-country team's bus. Our favorite ginger genius asks if Allison's "Don't let Scott and the boys out of your sight" rule is actually a literal one, or just a general guideline, because they are totally almost out of gas. Allison doesn't want to lose sight of them, even though Lydia points out that they both know where the team is headed. She reminds her BFF that Lydia wasn't there to see what happened, which is why she doesn't understand where Allison is coming from.
Lydia bitterly snarks under her breath that she "knows who started it," which definitely pings Allison's suspicion radar. She asks Lydia if that's what Aiden told her, and since Lydia plays dumb with the best of them, she just shrugs it off. Playing dumb and feigning ignorance is a common theme this episode. Suddenly, Lydia, being a math genius and all, puts two and two together and realizes that Allison not only invited her on this outing to help her keep an eye on the boys, but also so Allison could keep an eye on Lydia herself, before laughing at the fact that she didn't see it right away. After further prodding from Allison, Lydia states that she's appalled by the suggestion that she is fooling around with Aiden.
Flashback to god knows when: Lydia and Aiden are making out in Coach Finstock's office, and Lydia stops kissing him just long enough to sass him a bit about where he's putting his hands. He goes bug-eyed and exclaims, "They're on your waist!" She's like, "Yeah, that's the problem," which totally gets him hot, so he picks her up as she wraps her legs around him. She declares this position as moderately improved, so he pushes her down on Coach's desk to presumably have hot intro with her.
I am all for Lydia being a sexual being, and the last thing I want to do is police someone's sexual behavior (even a fictional character's!) but I really hope she has a plan with Aiden. Especially considering that she's more than likely going to get caught up in between the Alpha Pack and the Beacon Hills Pack in one way or another. I just love her so much, and don't want her getting hurt, agh! I'm so nervous, eeeeeek! Be careful, Lydia! I do have to say, I do appreciate Aiden respecting Lydia's boundaries and getting into enthusiastic consent and whatnot. He may be an evil Alpha, but at least he seems to be treating her well and isn't afraid or averse to Lydia being a lil dominating with him.
Back in the car, the girls come to a screeching halt as the cars in front of them stop. The same happens up in the bus. Scott grimaces in pain again after he lurches forward, which, as you can imagine, does nothing to alleviate Stiles's concern toward his BFF. Isaac checks his phone alerts and informs Boyd that there's a jack-knifed trailer a few miles ahead of them, which has caused a traffic jam that might cause them to miss the meet. Boyd doesn't care, though, because he's much more focused on hulking out. His eyes flash gold and he growls as he grips the seat in front of him with his claws. Scott can sense the shift in his demeanor, and braces himself to go intervene.
FLASHBACK! We're finally privy to the conversation Scott had with Deuc in the elevator after leaving Allison's apartment. Scott flicks his claws out at the site of the Demon Wolf, but Deucalion scoffs, and snarks that he would have to be "blind, deaf, and quadriplegic" for Scott to be an actual threat to him. Although, he does consider the possibility that Scott could "rise to the occasion" and kill him. He uses some form of the phrase "rise to the occasion" at several different points in this episode, so I'm guessing it's pretty important. This could also tie in with the new clip of Scott levitating in the 3A opening credits and all the subtle and not-so-subtle implications that Scott is going to ascend to Alpha status on his very own.
Scott growls that he's not a killer like Deucalion, but Deuc believes that Scott could change his mind with the right motivation. Like, say, having to kill a person to protect someone that he loves, such as Allison, or Stiles. Scott asks if he came all the way there just to threaten him and his friends, but Deucalion informs him that actually he lives in the building, which is why he's in the elevator. He adds a little comment about how friendly the neighbors have been. just to really piss Scott off. YIKES, Argents, you in danger!
Deuc sneers that he wants to see what Scott is made of, but before Scott can respond, the elevator arrives at it's destination. As the doors open, the elevator begins to flood with tenants and visitors. Scott walks out slowly and flinches as Deucalion asks if someone could kindly push the button for "penthouse." Of course he fucking lives in the penthouse. Scott is terrified and creeped out majorly. Where do these werewolves get their money? They don't seem to have day jobs, since they're too busy stalking teenagers all the time, so how do they afford penthouse apartments?
Flashback-forward to the fight scene, again, where Scott is still crawling all over the floor, trying to join in on the battle again. He watches Derek beat the shit out of Ennis, and he struggles to get back on his feet to help him out. That is when Derek and Ennis' fight gets dangerously close to the edge of the huge hole in the floor, and they both fall over it. They each fell, like, three whole stories and landed on the escalators below. Derek landed directly on the stairs of one of the escalators, OUCH, and Ennis landed in the middle of them. Both look pretty dead, and if they were mere mortals, they probably would be! But, I think we've all seen Derek come back from worse than this, you know? Wolfsbane bullets, being lifted into the air by someone whose claws were jammed into his guts MULTIPLE TIMES, and let us not forget that time that he was impaled through the heart with a fucking PIPE for several hours. Derek is so not dead! Derek never, ever dies, EVER.
In the present, Cora is back at the abandoned mall thingy, standing on the escalator where Derek landed when he fell. She touches a spot of blood and examines it, but is startled when she hears a noise. Don't worry though, it's just Uncle Peter. When he identifies himself as such, Cora calls him out for killing Laura, but Peter's like, "Bygones, chica! Your brother killed me, too, you know!" Never mind that there's a huge asterisk next to that statement, since he is a living, breathing person again, unlike sister Laura. Ugh, whatever. When she asks if that means she's supposed to trust him, he turns it on her, and says that he's actually wondering if he can trust her. She reminds him that he's known her for seventeen years, but he corrects her; he knew her for eleven years, leaving six years "unaccounted for," which Peter doesn't like one bit.
Cora gives up the bullshitting and asks why he's there. He's there for the same reason she is, to find out where the bodies went-- were they moved, or did one/both of them find the strength to get up and walk away? And if so, which one? As it turns out, that question is even harder to answer than they thought. Also, where would Ennis and Derek go, if they did get up?
Back on the bus, Scott is pushing past Stiles to walk down the aisle towards Boyd in slow-motion, looking like he's about to faint or die or something, while a voiceover of a conversation he had with Deaton earlier plays over it: "I don't know what else to do. Do I keep trying to get them to listen to me? Do I tell Derek that he's going to get them all killed? How do you save someone who doesn't want to be saved? How do I stop them?" Deaton's advice? "Don't stop them. Lead them." We finally return to normal speed as I shake out my goosebumps. Scott grabs Boyd's wrists forcefully and slowly crouches down onto the seat across the aisle as he gives him the Care Bear Stare and pins Boyd's hands down.
Boyd growls at him to let go, but Scott won't until Boyd tells him what sure-to-be-amazing plan he's come up with to take down Ethan. He goes on to more or less say "Killing's not the answer dude, give peace a chance for a minute," but since Boyd was taken captive by them for four months, where his best friend/girlfriend was killed in front of him, he really doesn't give one fuck what happens. Scott asks him what will happen to Boyd, even if he is able to kill Ethan, but Boyd gives no fucks about it. Scott does, though, because they've already lost Erica, and he can't stand the thought of losing more friends. Thankfully, Isaac helps Scott pin Boyd down when he tries to get loose again. Isaac notices that Scott's bleeding through his shirt, BADLY, and is like, "Wait, how are you still hurt?"
(via coraslahey)
Scott plays it off as nothing, and pleads with Boyd to let him figure something else out (that doesn't involve more of their friends dying) before going after Ethan. Isaac is visibly worried about Scott's gross wound, obviously, and I think Boyd must be too, because he eventually agrees to Scott's terms. They both watch Scott wince his way back to his seat and are noticeably concerned. I think that the fact that Boyd can see that Scott is in no shape to back him up if he goes after Ethan probably played into his decision as well. Boyd may have a lot of rage in him, but he's not an idiot.
Stiles is anxiously chewing on the strings of his hoodie when Scott returns to his seat, and when he learns that Boyd's crisis is averted for now, he brings up their next problem: Aiden keeps checking his phone, like he's waiting for a message or a signal, so Stiles can tell that something wicked this way comes. "I have a very perceptive eye for evil, Scott, you know that." Bahahahaha!
He says this all in one breath, with no pauses, he's that anxious. He decides the best way to find out what's up is to constantly pepper Danny with text messages about it until he finally gives up and asks. Like, literally, he sends about a hundred messages in a row until Danny is so annoyed by the constant beeping that he has no choice by to ask him once Ethan notices their shady behavior. Ethan turns his head to look back at Stiles and Scott, and they do the worst job ever of looking inconspicuous. Danny texts Stiles back a few moments later to reveal that someone Ethan's close to is sick and might not make it through the night. The boys deduce it must be Ennis. It's obvious that Ethan knew that Stiles was trying to gain intel, so does he not care if they know that Ennis is alive? Is he trying to help them? Or is this part of their plan to eventually fuck them over? I am thinking way too much about this show, oh my gods.
Sidebar: I'm still not understanding this selective werewolf-hearing thing. Can't Ethan hear everything that anyone on this bus says? He's an Alpha, so his hearing must be even better than all the Betas on the bus, right? Does he just not care enough to pay attention to their every word? Or do the wolves have to be focusing in order to use their long-range hearing? I'm guessing it's just selective for plot-reasons but you guys know I have to fill in plot-holes with satisfactory headcanon, so, I'm just going to go with this: Aiden isn't actively trying to listen in to every single conversation they have, because that would be boring as hell, and that's why he's not aware of everything they've discussed. I mean, they have to talk about pretty stupid stuff sometimes, right? Who has time for that? See? All better!
Still in the present, Deaton is in his office, looking at some puppy x-rays in the exam room, when he hears the bell on the front door ring as someone enters the clinic. As he walks out into the waiting area, he sees Aiden and Kali, holding up a severely-battered, but still alive, Ennis. They are accompanied by none other than MARIN FUCKING MORRELL. YIKES! She looks kind of tired and stressed, too. Being a super-secret triple agent must be exhausting, I imagine.
Marin tells the good doctor that they could use a little help. Deaton, thankfully, is like, "Uh, you can fuck right off, actually, thank you very much," and refuses to open his magic mountain ash gate. He looks PISSED, which makes me happy, because I was worried he was in on all of this for a while. Kali threatens him with her fangs and Alpha eyes, and then threatens to bite/kill Morrell if he doesn't help them take care of Ennis. He's like, "I don't think so, sweetheart," and his face is HILARIOUS. He tells her not to make him insist that they leave, and she blinks in confusion as her eyes magically go back to normal. The look on her face tells me she didn't do it voluntarily. Was that the mountain ash preventing her from harming him/Marin? Or does Deaton have actual powers to force her to shift back or something? Is the reason why he knows so much about druids because he IS a druid or otherwise magical? I NEED TO KNOW NOWWWW. I'm so confused! Maybe, if he is a druid/magical, he can control the mountain ash that is built into the clinic walls/gate?
(via roy-harpers)
Anyway, Ms. Morrell points out that if Ennis dies, the Alphas will go after the others, and reminds him that Deaton's "little protégée" Scott will absolutely be involved, if not killed, in the process. Deaton sighs and caves, because, like everyone else, he loves the shit out of Scott McCall, so he reluctantly opens the mountain ash door and allows them entry.
Traffic is still jammed, wherever the fuck in California the XC team is currently located, and Finstock is yelling at poor, car-sick Jared again. Coach claims that he's an "empathetic vomiter" and that if Jared voms, so will he. Jared begs him to stop talking about throwing up, because it makes him want to throw up, but Finstock continues to sass him about his intense case of chronic carsickness. He then shouts at the entire bus that nothing, not Jared's puke, nor the tornado warning from earlier, nor the traffic jam, will stop them from making it to this cross-country meet.
He yells at Stiles when he raises his hand to point out that there's a food exit like, five minutes away, and cuts him off when the kid tries to explain the benefits of stopping until traffic gets moving again. Coach Finstock WILL. NOT. EVER. STOP. THE. BUS. *sharp whistle* and yells again at everyone on the bus to stop asking questions. Stiles reeeeeallllyyyyyy hates Coach right now, and I don't really blame him at all, honestly. Scott's looking worse by the second, and he informs a very worried Stiles that Deaton's phone keeps going to voicemail. Stiles has had enough, you guys, so he decides to call up Lydia and Allison for assistance. Scott's confused, because assumes they're still at home in Beacon Hills and doesn't think they could be much help at that distance, but Stiles is like, "I'm basically a better sheriff than my dad, dude, I could spot their tail a million miles away. Amateurs."
Anyway, Ms. Morrell points out that if Ennis dies, the Alphas will go after the others, and reminds him that Deaton's "little protégée" Scott will absolutely be involved, if not killed, in the process. Deaton sighs and caves, because, like everyone else, he loves the shit out of Scott McCall, so he reluctantly opens the mountain ash door and allows them entry.
Traffic is still jammed, wherever the fuck in California the XC team is currently located, and Finstock is yelling at poor, car-sick Jared again. Coach claims that he's an "empathetic vomiter" and that if Jared voms, so will he. Jared begs him to stop talking about throwing up, because it makes him want to throw up, but Finstock continues to sass him about his intense case of chronic carsickness. He then shouts at the entire bus that nothing, not Jared's puke, nor the tornado warning from earlier, nor the traffic jam, will stop them from making it to this cross-country meet.
He yells at Stiles when he raises his hand to point out that there's a food exit like, five minutes away, and cuts him off when the kid tries to explain the benefits of stopping until traffic gets moving again. Coach Finstock WILL. NOT. EVER. STOP. THE. BUS. *sharp whistle* and yells again at everyone on the bus to stop asking questions. Stiles reeeeeallllyyyyyy hates Coach right now, and I don't really blame him at all, honestly. Scott's looking worse by the second, and he informs a very worried Stiles that Deaton's phone keeps going to voicemail. Stiles has had enough, you guys, so he decides to call up Lydia and Allison for assistance. Scott's confused, because assumes they're still at home in Beacon Hills and doesn't think they could be much help at that distance, but Stiles is like, "I'm basically a better sheriff than my dad, dude, I could spot their tail a million miles away. Amateurs."
He calls Lydia, who tries to play off like they're at the movies, but he quickly calls her out on her lie and demands she put the phone on speaker. When she does, he confesses that Scott is still very much injured, which both confuses and concerns the girls. Allison is shocked at the news, and asks, "Wait, he's not healing?" Nope. Stiles explains that it's actually getting worse, and adds that the blood seeping from his wounds is turning black. Ew, we know from experience that the presence of black werewolf ink is never a good sign.
Lydia asks Stiles what's wrong with Scott, but Stiles, who is starting to freak out, exclaims, "What's wrong with him? What, do I have a Ph.D in lycanthropy? How am I supposed to know?" Stiles, after Deaton, you're probably the next best thing to a Ph.D in lycanthropy, so I totally get why they'd think that. Allison suggests taking Scott to a hospital, but no one really likes that idea, for obvious supernatural-exposure reasons. She suggests at least stopping at the rest stop that is only a mile or so away so they can check on Scott and brainstorm. Stiles is like, "Hello, what do you think I've been doing this whole trip basically," but Allison just yells at him to reason with the Coach to pull over. Yeahhh, like THAT'LL happen.
Just as predicted, Stiles is failing at trying to convince Coach to pull over to the rest stop. He points out that the next rest stop isn't for sixty more miles, so they should really take advantage of the proximity and stop for a few minutes, but Coach just responds by whistling right in his face. Stiles slowly starts getting more and more enraged, and points out that three hours on a bus without stopping is a reaaaaally long time to go without a bathroom break, and again, Coach just whistles in his face. Every time after that that Stiles tries to talk, he gets interrupted by a whistle, and he gets SO STEAMED UP. Look at this face! Coach gives up and moves on to harassing Jared some more, which gives Stiles a brilliant idea.
Just as predicted, Stiles is failing at trying to convince Coach to pull over to the rest stop. He points out that the next rest stop isn't for sixty more miles, so they should really take advantage of the proximity and stop for a few minutes, but Coach just responds by whistling right in his face. Stiles slowly starts getting more and more enraged, and points out that three hours on a bus without stopping is a reaaaaally long time to go without a bathroom break, and again, Coach just whistles in his face. Every time after that that Stiles tries to talk, he gets interrupted by a whistle, and he gets SO STEAMED UP. Look at this face! Coach gives up and moves on to harassing Jared some more, which gives Stiles a brilliant idea.
So, Stiles sits next to Jared, and gives him the most creepy and excellent Grinch face I have ever seen. Dylan O'Brien has a super-rubbery face, like Jim Carrey, and man, does he make some awesome faces this episode. This one is the best, though, just look at it!
Allison helps him lower himself onto the floor, and he leans his back against the wall as his eyelids flutter in an attempt to stay awake. She admonishes him for not saying anything about his not-healing injuries until now, but he just kind of mutters a weak apology before he fades into unconsciousness. They look at his wound, and it looks GROSS, worse than Derek's wolfsbane bullet hole from Season 1.
Team Human moves off to the side to discuss what's up. Allison is extremely worried now, as she's seen him heal from far worse injuries than this, so obviously this is not a normal reaction. They're worried that it's too late for them to do anything to help him, but Lydia wonders if maybe it's a psychological problem, rather than a physiological one. Stiles is like, "Psychosomatic?" and Lydia's like, "No, somatoformic. A physical illness from a psychogenic cause." I LOVE GENIUS!LYDIA! Give me more!
They determine that Scott isn't allowing himself to heal because he feels guilty/responsible for Derek's death. Allison asks Lydia how to go about treating him, and Lydia, instead of being like, "There is no way Derek is actually dead, so we should probably just tell him that," decides that they should just stitch him up. She pulls a small sewing kit from her purse, and hands it over to Allison as she explains that if they fix Scott up, it might trick his brain into thinking that he's already healing, which will make his body actually heal him. Hooray for the placebo effect!
At the vet clinic, Deaton is taking care of Ennis and tells Marin to put up the "Closed" sign on the door so they aren't interrupted. Kali looks super sad and concerned, which makes me wonder if there isn't something romantic going on there. I can't wait to learn more about these Alphas and their relationships with each other. It's nice to see the usually-vicious Kali show some actual human emotions for once.
Back at the rest-stop, Allison is sterilizing the needle by running it through the flame of a lighter, and asks Stiles for a clean shirt for Scott to wear when she's done. Stiles goes to retrieve it, adding that he hates needles anyway, so he doesn't need to stay and watch her stitch his wounds up. But, he does stop to ask her if she knows what she's doing. Don't worry, guys, she totally does, because her dad taught her everything from stitching up wounds to hot-wiring motorcycles in Hunter Training 101, apparently. Stiles is worried about the bus leaving before they're ready, so he and Lydia leave to stall them while Allison plays nurse.
If Daniel Sharman was last week's MVP, acting-wise, then Crystal Reed and Eaddy Mays are definitely the MVPs this week (Tyler Posey comes in second place, because this is probably the best acting I've ever seen from him, though, he still has a lot to learn.) Allison tries to keep Scott awake as she struggles to thread the needle. She's stressed, and jittery, which isn't really conducive to fine motor skills.
Coach is whistling and yelling at everyone to get back in the bus, which makes Stiles and Lydia understandably panicked. Inside the rest-stop bathroom, Allison finishes stitching Scott up and tries to wake him. After several attempts, she panics as well, because he's not responding and doesn't seem to be breathing. Luckily, he's just giving us an excuse to worry for a bit until we get into another flashback...
...Ennis and Derek have just fallen onto the escalators far below, and Scott is just looking at them, in shock at what just happened. He gasps as Isaac gently pulls him away from the edge. Scott starts to break down as Isaac rubs his back. I LOVE Isaac's new wolf-face, btw. It looks a lot like Jackson's wolf-face now, which is much prettier than Isaac's old one. It's like they finally realized that Isaac is a hottie and needs a face to match. (Although, tbh, none of the wolf-faces are attractive at all.) I think the difference is that he has eyebrows. And more sideburns.
After the flashback, Allison finally is able to wake Scott up and bring him to the present. As he regains consciousness, he murmurs that it's all his fault. Allison assures him it's all okay, and he looks at his stitched up wounds and asks if that was her doing. She confirms that it was, and he's just weakly smiles and mutters, "Nice!" God, I love him. She laughs a little despite herself, and helps him stand up to put on his shirt. Now, we go into my favorite flashback of the night...
...Okay, so this is post-elevator encounter with Deucalion and post-meeting with Derek at the loft, but PRE-fight at the mall. It also has one of my new favorite songs, "Hounds" by Valleys, so if you haven't heard it yet, DO IT!
Scott is putting on a jacket and grabbing his dirt bike helmet. He turns and gasps when he sees Isaac, smiling and leaning against the doorway like an adorable and endearing boyfriend does. Isaac asks where he's going, and doesn't even call Scott out on his lie when he stammers that he's getting something to eat. Isaac's all, "Cool, I'll join you," but Scott tries to beg off, since he has a secret plan in mind. When he's asked what he's eating, Scott's like, "...uhhhh....Mexican?" Isaac hilariously proclaims, "Dude! I love Mexican! Let's go!" even though he can tell Scott's lying out his ass (although he doesn't know why). The fact that Scott is Mexican doesn't escape any Scisaac shipper's notice, especially not yours truly. When Scott assures Isaac that he can eat alone, Isaac just smiles that lovely smile of his and is like, "No way, bro."
Present: Allison helps Scott walk out of the bathroom, and Lydia runs toward them. She asks if he's okay as she takes his bag from him and puts an arm around him to help him walk. It's really cute how Lydia has integrated herself into their makeshift wolf-pack so quickly. I'll more than likely talk a lot more about this later. Scott asks after Stiles, but off he's stalling Coach Finstock. Lydia reminds Allison that they're still nearly out of gas, but since Allison refuses to leave Scott alone now, she takes Lydia's joking suggestion that they just ditch her car as a serious one. Lydia doesn't really like that plan at all, but is ultimately like, "Fuck it!" and runs after them.
Back to the mall-flashback: Scott and Isaac meet up with Deucalion, who's like, "So much for coming alone, eh?" Scott introduces Isaac, but that's not who Deucalion was talking about, since he totally knew that Scott would bring his BF with him. He means Derek, Cora, and Boyd, who walk out of the shadows, wolfy-game faces on and ready for a dubstep werewolf brawl. Scott's pissed that they used the fact that Scott was going to try to negotiate peace as a way to get Deuc alone to fight him, instead. He begs Derek to stop, because there's no way this can go down without someone dying, and they've already lost Erica, so they can't afford to lose anyone else. Derek's like, "No, only Deucalion is dying tonight," but Deuc just smirks, all, "Do you really think a blind dude like me could have gotten to this wasteland all by my lonesome?" Kali, Ennis, and the Alpha Twins waltz on in dramatically, as they do. Time for a showdown!
Present: Allison and Scott finally get to the bus when they hear shouting. Stiles runs up and explains that he informed Isaac about what was going on with Scott, and then Isaac just went off on Ethan. Cut to Isaac, punching the shit out of Ethan as Boyd watches, looking pleased as hell. OMG STILES YOU LITTLE SHIT-STIRRER, you totally did that on purpose to distract the Coach from making everyone leave without them! I'm onto your tricks, buddy! Like he didn't know exactly what was going to happen when Isaac learned that Scott was maybe dying.
(via fuckyeahcorahale)
Once again, Ethan looks like he's enjoying that beatdown wayyy too much, and it weirds me out. At least Isaac gets in trouble for something he ACTUALLY DID this time. Although, I'm worried that Danny thinks Isaac's a homophobic asshole, rather than just a dude who is constantly getting hurt at the Alpha Pack's hands who is only trying to even the score.
Scott runs up and does the whole "ISAAC!!!" Alpha yell thing that he did last time, and Isaac stops, and literally looks like a puppy that you just caught chewing on your shoes, who knows that they were bad, but are still the tiniest bit proud of themselves. It's the cutest fucking thing. Isaac is the best!
(via isaaclaney)
(via paulwelsey)
He's all concerned until he glances at Scott's side and sees that he's better now, and then he smiles because his boyfriend totally isn't dying! Hooray! Could they have a better bromance? I seriously doubt it.
Peter and Cora are at Deaton's office to see if maybe Derek found the strength to drag himself over there for medical attention. Cora doesn't get why Derek would come to an animal clinic of all places, even though they're part WOLF, which is an animal, but Peter explains that Deaton isn't an ordinary vet. "Half the building is made of mountain ash. I'm not actually sure how to get in." Cora suggests using the door, like most normal people, but Peter can sense/hear that the Alpha Pack is there, and stops her.
Inside, Deaton has just finished up with Ennis when Deuc comes in to get a sit rep. Deaton replies that the prognosis is surprisingly good, considering he fell like, hundreds of feet onto a metal barrier between two escalators. Our Demon Wolf looks a little sad as he bends down to kiss each of Ennis' cheeks, and then takes a clawed hand and grips Ennis' face at the temples. Deaton gets that "da fuq?" face that he gets sometimes, as Deuc's own face starts to look a little weird too, and finally Ennis' skull shatters from the pressure of his grip. YIKES. He literally crushed his skull like it was a melon or something, and his hand gets covered it black, goopy blood. He states simply that Deaton overestimated Ennis' odds and takes his leave. Deaton looks both annoyed and grossed out. Way to leave Deaton to deal with the dead, smooshed body, dude!
Outside the vet's office, Cora is trying to decide whether it's Derek, Ennis or both who are under the doctor's care, when Kali bounds out the front door, followed quickly by Aiden. The Hales duck behind an SUV to avoid being seen, and Kali ROARS in grief, as Aiden grips onto her wrists to try to restrain her. When she's all growled out, she falls into Aiden's arms. The rumble of her roar causes a bunch of car alarms go off, and Peter's quickly deduces that she's not distraught about Derek's death, that's for sure. He grabs his nieces hand and they both scamper before they're made.
Scott is fearfully looking around at what's happening: XXL Alpha is growling at him, Derek's still fighting Kali, and Boyd and Cora are fighting against Ennis. Scott looks over to Isaac, who has already wolfed out and who runs straight for XXL Alpha. Scott sighs and rolls his eyes, like, "Goddamnit Isaac," and forces out his game face. It's not the best CGI ever, but it's not the worst this show has done, either. Plus, it's a pretty cool way to show just how in control Scott has become in regards to his inner wolf--instead of anger/a sense of self-preservation kicking him into wolf-mode, he actually pulls out his wolfiness from WITHIN himself, which is something that seems to be hard to do if you haven't fully accepted your abilities. This is SUCH great character development, don't you think? Scott started out thinking of being a werewolf as a curse, and spent quite a bit of time denying it/wanting to change it. Now, he uses it to his advantage and has actually become quite good at it. Yay, Scott! ANYWAY, back to the fight:
Scott darts after Isaac and runs to tackle XXL Alpha, but they both get their asses kicked pretty thoroughly; Scott is thrown against a cement wall and hits it so hard he cracks the wall and a Scott-sized chunk of cement falls off. Isaac's arm is twisted behind his back by XXL Alpha, and he screams in pain as his bones crack and break loudly. OUCH. Before long, every member of the BH Pack is neutralized by their respective Alpha opponents and held down.
Deucalion finally joins the party and gives Derek a deal: kill Boyd, and the others can go, citing the fact that they've already been beaten. Kali doesn't get why Deuc even wants Derek, since he's just the Alpha of a bunch of useless teenagers, but Deuc points out that some actually have promise, and stares at Scott. Kali decides Derek needs to rise to the occasion, and chokes Cora with her damn clawed feet to put on the pressure: "What's it gonna be, Derek? Pack, or family?"
Flashback-in-a-flashback: Allison is talking to Daddy Argent, and emphasizes that someone needs to help the BH Pack. He's doesn't think it needs to be them. He exposits that he's working on getting his consulting business back up, and he has decided that they need to stay the fuck out of this Alpha mess, because Allison needs to graduate high school, or something. He gets a kind of shifty look on his face, and opens a textbook in a really suspicious way that covers up something on the desk. I'm not quite sure what it is, because I couldn't get a good shot of it when I tried to make screenshots, but it kind of looks like a weird, stylized map. Did anyone with a good eye see what it was?
She reminds her dad that an Alpha Pack is outright trying to kill her friends, so wtf is she supposed to do? He thinks they need to navigate carefully (a strategy that is conveniently called "threading the needle"), which Allison says sounds like "saving your own ass." Argent points out that these people aren't her family, but Allison strikes back. "With all the family I've lost, I could use a few friends." YES! Allison for President 2016!
Back to the original flashback, Allison's shooting more arrows, which scares the Alphas enough to allow the Beacon Hills pack to get back up again and regroup. Cora and Derek grab Boyd and get him out of harm's way so he can heal. This is where things get confusing AGAIN: Scott charges at Ennis, which Deuc seems to notice, because he makes a big show of turning his head to watch. Scott and Ennis run straight into each other and proceed to bounce off of one another. When Scott gets himself back up, HIS EYES GLOW FUCKING RED.
Allison notices, and I think possibly Derek does too, because he charges at Ennis from behind as though he's trying to distract them and gets in some good swipes before he himself gets slashed across the chest. Scott closes his eyes and shakes his head a bit, and his eyes go back to yellow/gold. WHAT IS GOING ON? The three werewolves fight a little more, and Scott ends up on the ground again after getting those claw gashes on his side that Allison just stitched up in the present day.
Back to the present, Allison and Lydia have somehow gotten permission to ride to the meet on the bus with the boys. What is with this school? Allison is watching Scott, who just awoke from his flashback-daymare again, and Stiles and Lydia are a few seats ahead, expositing about the sacrifices. Here's what they know: everything has to do with the sacrifices and someone who thinks they're a Darach, a dark druid. Lydia brings up the fact that some ancient cultures do sacrifices to prepare for battle. OH FUCK. Stiles is like, "So, Darach vs. Alpha Pack?" Awesome, this won't end poorly at all. I love how comfortable these two look together now. Stiles might not be actively pursuing Lydia romantically anymore, but there is definitely still a lot of chemistry between them, and it almost looks like Stiles' feelings might actually be requited. Either way, they make a great pair of friends, and I love how close they've become.
Behind them, Allison assures Scott that if Derek really is dead, then it isn't Scott's fault, and I yelp in glee that FINALLY, someone is considering the possibility that he survived! Still, Scott's not so sure. He does thank her for not listening to his speech about not getting involved, though, and that's another thing I love about Scott-- he can admit when he's wrong. Allison just stares at him, and when he asks what she's staring at; she tells him she's just looking at his eyes, and gives him the sweetest little smile. OH YOU GUYS, stop being so cute!
At Deaton's office, Ms. Morrell is covering Ennis' body with a sheet. Deaton tells her that he doesn't think she knows just what she's gotten herself into with the Alpha Pack, but she tells him that it's too late to pull the big brother card. I KNEW THEY WERE SIBLINGS! YESSSSS. So, is he the druid, and she is the darach? TELL ME NOW.
Finally, Ms. Blake is getting into her car, dumping her stuff in the passenger seat, when Derek Fucking Hale, Survivor smacks a bloody hand up against her car window before promptly falling over, much like he did in "Magic Bullet" in Season 1. She's obviously startled, and jumps out of her car to kneel next to Derek, who is splayed out on the parking space next to her, his clothes still torn to shreds from the battle at the abandoned mall. HE'S ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE! YES!!! I KNEW IT.
Next week, on Teen Wolf: Danny gets some Ethan smoochies, Derek gets some teacher smoochies, and everyone else has to spend the night in the shady Motel California, where it looks like everyone either gets possessed or hallucinates to the point of becoming suicidal. Or both. Boyd is drowning in a bathtub, Isaac is screaming inside another fucking deep freezer, and Lydia has bad feelings. Oh, and they want us to think that Mama McCall is going to be killed by Deucalion but I am choosing to believe it is only an illusion/hallucination until forced to think otherwise. Basically, I AM NOT READY FOR THIS. I AM NOT READY AT ALL.
[screencaps are from Screencapped.net, and gifs are credited below the images. If I've made a mistake in the sources, please feel free to let me know and I will change it ASAP. It's difficult to keep everyone's URLs straight sometimes]
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NOTES/SPECULATION:
-First things first: Scott's possible Alpha-tude. On first watch, I thought maybe one of Deucalion's super-Alpha skills was to either temporarily or permanently give Beta wolves Alpha powers. Then, when MTV aired the replay right after the first airing, I thought that Scott maybe had some kind of latent power where he could take Alpha powers away from someone. Now, after watching it for the third time while writing this recap, my theory is that Scott's moral code and general genuine goodness (awesome unintentional alliteration, woo) will give him the ability to earn being an Alpha without actually killing one, and that because he earned it, he has the potential to be a force to be reckoned with. But, right now, he can't fully utilize it, either because he hasn't totally earned it yet, or because he hasn't accepted the fact that he deserves the power. If this is this case, I will be so pleased, but either way I am really excited to figure out wtf is up with him!
-I love Allison more and more every week. Her story-line/Crystal Reed's performance in this episode was spot-on perfect. I am also impressed with Tyler Posey's improved acting skills. I don't even know what else to say, except she and Derek better get over their trust issues quickly because there's no way they can survive without her help. (Same goes for Lydia and her unconventional way of helping-- WHICH, by the way, WHAT THE FUCK IS LYDIA? I NEED TO KNOW!)
-Stiles is awesome, always, and I loved how nervous and wound up he was on that bus ride. He seems to be really alone in all this, considering that Scott has way too much on his plate right now, and Stiles knows this, so he'd never unload on him, plus Stiles purposely keeps his dad out of everything, which means he can't talk to him about it either. He's really taking the stress of all of this on himself, and it makes total sense that he's starting to fray at the edges, as referenced in the episode's title. I can only see it getting worse for him, though, at least for a while, but that can probably be said for every character right now. That's yet another reason why I'd like to see him get closer to Lydia, and Allison, and Danny. He needs people who will help take care of him, since he's so busy trying to take care of everyone else.
-I also LOVE that the emergence of the Alpha Pack and the murders in Beacon Hills are forcing Team Human and Team Wolf to work together for once to get shit done. AND, it's actually working! Bringing Lydia into it was probably the smartest move they ever made, and they should have done it forever ago because they probably would have had better luck through everything; I have a feeling she will be awesome at helping the pack strategize. Allison has totally proven that she is an asset as well, on more than one occasion this season alone (and we're not even fully halfway through yet!) so I really hope that she and Derek can find it in their hearts to at least tolerate one another, if not fully trust each other, so they can work together and hopefully as a group keep each other safe.
-There has been a lot of speculation as to whether or not Danny knows more about this stuff than he's letting on, and I'm interested to see if that is true or not. I could have sworn he made some comment in Season 2 about Jackson and the full moon, which would seem to indicate that he does, in fact, know, but I haven't had a chance to revisit those episodes and confirm. Other than that, I don't really have any solid opinions, aside from the meta I've read on Tumblr, but I could totally see him being more involved than we think so far. He's a fan favorite too, so that would be a perfect excuse to give him more of a role on the show.
-I like Derek and Jennifer Blake's budding romance, and I'm not ashamed. It does seem a little forced, but Derek needs some loving, and we all know she's only temporary anyway so I don't see who it's hurting. To be completely honest, I think a lot of the Sterek stans hating on them together has made me like them a little more out of spite, too. I'm mean, I guess.
-I was really impressed with Isaac this week too, as always. With everything that happened with Derek, I think he must really trust Scott a lot to act the way he did with him (leaning against the door, smiling, making Scott let him come with him, joining into the fighting, etc.) I'm pretty sure Scott is Isaac's new anchor and I LOVE IT SO FUCKING MUCH.
-Deaton/Morrell being siblings doesn't surprise me, but I want to know what their role in this world is! Are they druids, or some kind of like wolf companions, or what? Why does everyone have to be so damn mysterious?
-Can you believe that if this was a regular season of TW, we would already be (nearly) halfway through it? But since it isn't, we're only 1/4 of the way through it? If this much stuff has already happened, the rest of the season is going to be fucking KILLER. Pun intended.
-One last thing regarding Deucalion killing Ennis-- ever since last week, when we found out that he learned that Alphas can absorb the powers of their betas, I've wondered if he wasn't eventually going to try to kill his Alphas to see if he could absorb their power as well. Now that he's killed Ennis, and it kind of looked like he was absorbing his power by doing it, I'm really wondering if that's not the case. I wonder what his end goal is. Eyesight? Immortality? Becoming ruler of the world? Siring a new species a la Klaus Mikaelson the Original Hybrid from The Vampire Diaries? Who the hell knows?! But I am so pumped to find out. It's possible that he didn't really stand to gain powers from killing Ennis, and did it more to create chaos and to pit the rest of his pack against Derek and his betas.
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