Teen Wolf Season 3, Episode 13: "Anchors" Recap/Review

[Note: I really should have written the TVD midseason finale first, but I was so excited to watch/recap the winter premiere of TW that I decided to go for it, especially since TVD doesn't come back for another two weeks. Sorry about the slight out-of-orderness of it all, I promise that the "Fifty Shades of Grayson" recap will be up ASAP!]

OMFG IT IS SO GOOD TO BE BACK TO THIS SHOW. I will always love TVD and The Originals, but as the quality of the former has slowly decreased, Teen Wolf has worked it's way up to #1 TV show in my heart. Even when the fandom goes absolutely batshit over the tiniest things, or Davis deals with character's issues particularly problematic ways. So yeah, it feels SO good to be back! I haven't enjoyed recapping an episode nearly as much as I enjoyed writing this one, and I'm hoping it's an indicator of awesome things to come in the final eleven episodes of season 3!

Right off the bat, I'm just going to say that this episode was some fucking Inception-level shit. Like seriously, Stiles, Scott and Allison need some kind of a totem ASAP just so they can tell what's real and what is just their subconscious messing with them via dreams and hallucinations. As usual, I have a few minor complaints, but for the most part, I loved the shit out of "Anchors" and I am so fucking pumped to see the rest of 3B. So, let's get hopping, yeah? Also, as fair warning, I have a SHITLOAD to say about this episode, so this recap is probably going to be long as fuck. I'll break it up with a lot of nice gifs and things so it's not just a wall of text, because that can be really hard to look at after a while.

Previously, on Teen Wolf: Sheriff Stilinski has FINALLY been clued in to the supernatural world of Beacon Hills, thank god! Kate Argent, Chris' sister/Allison's aunt was the hunter responsible for starting the fire at the Hale House and killing nearly all of Derek's family. She was then brutally killed by Peter in retribution, though he was also killed shortly afterward. (Although, as we all know, his death didn't exactly stick) Scott and Allison broke up at the end of Season 2, and during season 3A, Allison and Isaac got to know each other better and are now totally crushing. Stiles and Scott are, and will forever be the bestest bros ever. Also, Scott's deadbeat dad, FBI Special Agent McCall, is in town and is getting all up in the Sheriff's police business. Jennifer somehow made Cora deathly ill, which forced Derek to donate his alpha "spark" to save her, and as a result, he's back to being a blue-eyed beta/omega.

Once the battle with the Alpha Pack/Darach was settled, Derek and Cora left town. The twins defected from the Alpha Pack at the last second, likely due in part to their relationships with Lydia and Danny, and almost died after fighting against a super-charged Jennifer. A few days before she was killed by Peter, she informed Lydia that she is, in fact, a fucking BANSHEE (If you can't tell, I'm still RIDICULOUSLY EXCITED FOR THIS DEVELOPMENT.) Jennifer kidnapped Sheriff, Melissa, and Chris as part of her final guardian sacrifices, so their children, Stiles, Allison, and Scott, with Deaton's help, performed a ritual to learn their location, which involved the Golden Trio being drowned and brought back to life. Doing so gave power back to the Nemeton, which was basically dead beforehand, and the process of dying and coming back to life caused them to develop a darkness around their hearts. Oh yeah, and since the Nemeton has power again, it's basically a beacon calling out to all kinds of scary supernatural creatures. Oh, and also, Scott finally rose to his True Alpha status, because he's awesome. I think that's everything!

We open in a really cool shot, where we zoom in from that huge cliff that overlooks the greater Beacon Hills area right into Stiles' bedroom window. He's in bed, and he tosses and turns a bit before rolling onto his back and gripping onto his sheets with his hands. He's clearly having a nightmare, which we've all been expecting more or less since last season ended. He whimpers, "No, no, no! Don't let them in, don't let them in!" After a little more tossing and turning, the light in his room changes, like the light is shining in through the slats in window blinds. He wakes up with a start, only to find that he's not in his bed at all, he's in a locker! (On a slightly shallow note, in Stiles' dreams, he's dressed in his pajama pants and a tshirt, and we can actually see his arms, for once! Bless you, Dylan O'Brien, and your Mazerunner bootcamp.)


He starts slamming on the door of the locker until he finally manages to break himself free, and once he is able to step outside, he realizes that he's in the BHHS boy's locker room. Stiles catches his reflection in the mirror over the sink, and it looks warped, like in a funhouse mirror. Stiles leaves the room and pads barefoot down the hallway, where he walks into Jennifer Blake's former classroom, whose door is still open. After considering his options for a moment, he decides to just go for it, and walks in to find the room is completely ransacked. Desks and chairs are thrown around haphazardly, and the blinds on the windows are half-ripped-off and hanging by a thread. In the center of the room, the Nemeton has parked itself and it's crazy long roots in the middle of the destruction. CREEEEEPY. Is Stiles connected to the Nemeton more strongly than the rest of them? Because spoiler alert, he's the only one who is dreaming about it, at least this week. Stiles slowly approaches it, and holds out a hand to touch it, much like in his weird death-dreams in "Lunar Ellipse." Once his hand is hovering right over it, roots shoot out and wrap themselves around his hand and tug it down toward the stump, Devil's Snare-style.



That's when Stiles wakes up in bed and jerks himself into a sitting position as he tries to catch his breath. From the other side of the bed, Lydia's voice rings out. "Are you okay?" She sits up and starts rubbing his shoulder soothingly. Stiles sighs, and after a moment, he starts to explain how he had a dream within a dream, which Lydia helpfully refers to as a "nightmare." He rubs her hand with his before clutching it for support, which is when he realizes that something isn't right, because he and Lydia totally don't normally act so touchy-feely, no matter how much he might want that to be the case. Confused, he glances first at their entwined hands, and then at her hand resting on his shoulder. She smiles at him, but he's still not fooled. "Wait a sec, Lydia...? What are you doing here?" She continues to smile sweetly at him, but before she can answer, the door creaks open a crack, which distracts both of them.


He tries to get up as he informs her that he's going to close the door. She grabs hold of his arm, and asks him where he's going, so he just repeats himself. Not liking where this is going, Lydia nuzzles her head into his shoulder and suggests he go back to sleep, but he still continues to try to get up, despite his best lady's insistence that he forget about it. "What if someone comes in?" he whispers, but she doesn't understand why anyone would want to do that. Eventually, Stiles makes it to the door, and Lydia's pleas for him to turn back get more and more desperate. "Stiles? Just leave it, please? [beat] Stiles? Stiles, come back to bed. Stiles, please? Don't go in there, please! Don't!"


Stiles ignores her warning and walks through his bedroom door, leaving Lydia and his bedroom behind. Now, he's in the nature preserve, in front of the Nemeton. Again. Stiles walks toward it, and bright lights, like the ones on the lacrosse field, turn on of their own accord. Stiles puts a hand up to block the light from his eyes, and when he notices the mist that is starting to hover over everything and the wind whipping around him, he realizes that he's still dreaming. The attack of the dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream! (Sounds like a task for The Glitch Mob, tbh) He starts muttering to himself again, "This is just a dream! This is just a dream, get it out of your head, Stiles. You're dreaming! Alright? So, wake up, Stiles! WAKE UP, STILES!" After pounding his head with his hand several times, he finally manages to scream loud enough to wake himself up. The sun is out, and the birdies are chirping when he finally opens his eyes and finds himself in his bed. Stiles gets about two seconds to figure out what the fuck just happened before his dad opens up his door and tells him it's time to get ready for school. He gets up and out of bed, and we transition to...


...Scott and Stiles, who are walking together outside of school where Scott is questioning him on his inability to wake up. (The song in the background is "Don't Wake Me Up" by Robot Koch's side project, Robots Don't Sleep. It is AMAZING and it has been on repeat ever since this episode aired) I should note that again, Stiles is just wearing a plain, reddish-orange v-neck tshirt with no hoodie, baggy light-wash jeans, and Nike hightops, none of which are very characteristic of Stiles. "Yeah, beyond terrifying. You ever hear of sleep paralysis?" Scott correctly guesses that it's not good, nor is it fun, but Stiles starts to describe it anyway. He asks Scott if he's ever had dreams right before waking up, which result in waking up unable to move or talk. Scott admits that he's had those kind of dreams before, so Stiles drops a lesson on sleep science on all of us.

"It happens because during REM sleep, your body is basically paralyzed. It's called muscle atonia. That way, if you start dreaming about running, you don't actually run in your bed. [...] Sometimes, your mind can wake up before your body does. So, for the split-second that you're actually aware that your body's paralyzed..." Scott: "And that's the terrifying part?" Stiles confirms this, and adds that it turns dreams into nightmares. "You can feel like you're falling, like you're being strangled, or, in my case, like you're in the center of a grove of magical trees where human sacrifices take place." LOL! Man, the dialogue this week was solid. ANYWAY, the boys walk into the school, and Stiles turns his attention to his newest theory-- what if their little druid sacrifice ritual is still affecting them in weirdo ways? Scott asks if he means PTSD, but Stiles is thinking something a little more supernatural, obviously, since they basically just reawakened a Hellmouth.


They take their seats in their classroom, and Stiles admits that there is something that is really terrifying him about all of this--he can't tell his dreams from reality, and thus, he doesn't even know if this conversation that they're having is even real in the first place. NEWSFLASH: It isn't, because Stiles wakes up in his dark bedroom, AGAIN, only this time it's finally real! He's screaming his head off and thrashing like crazy. Sheriff, also in his pajamas, hears his son's panicked shouts and runs in and restrains his son as he kicks and flails. He continues to tell his son that everything is okay, and finally, Stiles starts to calm down a little. HOLY SHIT I AM SO NOT PREPARED FOR ANY OF THIS. Does anyone else get the impression that this is not the first time Sheriff has had to do this? On the plus side, Dylan O'Brien's acting is superb in this episode, as well as EVERYONE else. Literally, everyone. TITLE CARD!

(Also, I am digging the new credits! Everything is red, now, and there's a lot of it sprinkled in the episode as well, so I'll try to point it out when I see it.)


Scott is in the midst of getting himself ready for school, rushing around packing up his books and getting dressed and whatnot. He stops himself on his way out his bedroom door when he notices his shadow out of the corner of his eye. His hands are human, but the shadow looks like his claws are out, which concerns him, since he's not had problems controlling his wolf since the beginning of season 2. He clenches his hand into a fist and then releases it again, and is relieved when his hand's shadow is back to normal. When he opens the door, he finds bb Isaac on the other side, just about to knock. Things are still a little awkward between them, and it's only going to get worse. Believe me, I have a LOT to say about Scisaac this week, but anyone who reads my recaps regularly could probably guess that. Isaac nervously asks his bestie if he's going to school, so Scott replies that yup, he is. Isaac is nervously like, "Oh, cool, me, too."

Then, this happens:
ISAAC: "Can I ask you a question?"
SCOTT: [confused] "Okay."
ISAAC: "Are you angry at me?"
SCOTT: "No."
ISAAC: "Are you sure?"
SCOTT: "No...?"
ISAAC: [confused] "What does that--what does that mean?"
SCOTT: "I guess I'm not really sure how I'm feeling? [smiles awkwardly and shrugs] Heh."
ISAAC: "Okay...[beat] Do you hate me?"
SCOTT: [kinder] "No! Of-of course, not."
ISAAC: "Do you wanna hit me?"
SCOTT: [really confused] "No."
ISAAC: "I think you should hit me."
SCOTT: "I don't wanna hit you!"
ISAAC: "Are you sure?"
SCOTT: [laughs awkwardly] "Why would I wanna hit you? You didn't do anything, did you?"
ISAAC: "No! No! I mean...what do you mean?"
SCOTT: "I mean, like...you didn't kiss her, or anything, right?"
ISAAC: "No! Absolutely not, no."
SCOTT: "Did you want to?"
ISAAC: "Oh yeah, totally!"













(via delenawolflove)
OH LAHEY, keep it in your damn pants! Now, this is where I'm torn. I love Scott, I love Isaac, I love their bromance, I love Isaac being part of the McCall family and pack. Scott is not a violent person by nature, nor is he one to act on jealousy in the way that it's shown to happen this week. In fact, the ONLY times we've ever seen Scott be violent in the past has been either right after he was first bitten or during his first few full moons when he couldn't control himself or his wolf yet. So this week, when Scott bites his lip and then totally shoves Isaac through the door and into the wall in the hallway, I was pretty confused, because that's pretty OOC for him, especially considering the fact that he took Isaac in because Derek was being all angsty and triggered Isaac's life-long abuse memories by throwing a glass at him. Throwing an abuse victim into a wall? Not cool, not even if you guys are bros, or werewolves who can heal a bruise within minutes. I'm not okay with any of that, because it's not fair to either of their characters, and in fact is super problematic in many ways, not the least of which because they come off as treating Allison like an object to be possessed by one of them. Plus, Isaac being like, "I think you should hit me, " just made me sad, because it's clear that that's what he thinks is a natural punishment for doing something wrong, even though in my opinion, I don't think he's even done anything wrong. (Though, Allisaac is my OTP so I'm pretty biased, lbr)

BUT, during this whole episode, we see Scott struggling to maintain control of his wolf, and in some cases, failing, for the first time in months. I believe this is a result of a double-whammy rush of power/darkness. He just recently rose to alpha status and gained all the powers that come with being an alpha (and possibly more, if true alphas actually have powers that regular alphas don't). Plus, now he has to deal with the whole darkness-around-his-heart/open-door-in-his-mind thing.  So, I'm choosing to believe that Scott's violent outbursts this week are a result of losing control of his wolf and all the darkness-related shit, and not because he's jealous that his BFF has a (likely requited) crush on his ex-gf. You know what would solve part of this problem? If Allison, Isaac, and Scott just FINALLY admitted that they're all into each other and just live a happy polyamorous life together. Everyone wins, and everyone is stabilized by the three-way anchor situation. MAKE IT HAPPEN, JEFF.

ANWAY, so Isaac gets launched at the wall by Scott, and a couple paintings fall off their nails and crash to the floor upon impact. Isaac pulls himself up into a seated position on the floor and groans a bit as Melissa walks upstairs to see what all the commotion is. That's when she gets awesome, and STAYS AWESOME this whole damn episode. "Hey! You two supernatural teenage boys! Don't test my entirely UN-supernatural patience!" She gestures at Isaac, who is still sprawled on the floor, as emphasis. Isaac nods at her, and when she's flounced away, he looks over to Scott and quips, "Feel better?"

(via renhi)
Stiles is doing his own pre-school routine over at the Stilinski house. This time, he's wearing a brown and tan striped hoodie over a white t-shirt with blue trim and brown khakis, so I feel a little more certain that this isn't a dream. Unfortunately, when Stiles picks up a book, the letters are all jumbled up, and he can't read the title. He stares at the book in confused and blinks a bit in hopes that it'll clear itself up. For the record, this phenomenon is called "acquired dyslexia," or "alexia" and it is NOT GOOD AT ALL. When I skimmed through the wiki page for it, they talked a lot about brain injuries and other neurological/psychological illnesses that can cause it, and it's making me REALLY nervous for Stiles. Sheriff stops in the doorway to check on Stiles, and when he notices him staring at his book, he asks if he's alright. Stiles glances back at the book, whose letters have rearranged themselves in the correct order. ("Allies and Axis: World War II and the International Struggle for Power," just in case it becomes important later.)


He remains silent though, which really seems to worry poor Sheriff. He tilts his head a bit as he stares his son down, and finally, Stiles lies and claims that he's fine, blaming his weirdness on his nightmare. Sheriff doesn't seem to believe it, though, but doesn't question him about it. Stiles notices he's holding a big file box in his hands, and asks him what he's up to. Sheriff vaguely replies that he's just looking through some files from the office. Stiles notes that the box has a huge yellow sticker that reads: "SHERIFF'S STATION, DO NOT REMOVE" on it, but Sheriff just deadpans, "Well, yeah, unless you're the sheriff!" Hahaha. Stiles is just like, "Oooookay, then," so his dad orders him to get his butt to school, per usual.

We skip through Allison's pre-school routine and catch her right as she's running out the door of the Argent Abode. She calls out to her dad that she's leaving, and rushes right to the elevator. Unfortunately, we get no DILF Chris Argent today, boooo! Oh well. After a moment of waiting to get to the ground floor, she starts to get cold and rubs her arms with her hands in an effort to warm herself. She's a little unnerved when she sees her breath creating fog, but doesn't seem to think anything of it until the elevator doors open and she finds herself at Beacon Memorial Hospital. It looks exactly how it did after the evacuation in "The Overlooked"-- everything looks like it's been ransacked after the various werewolf/druid brawls that occurred there, and the emergency generator lights are the only source of light in the place. As she walks out of the elevator and down the hall, the lights flicker, and you can see a weird phantom-y version of Allison with her ring daggers behind her, still in the elevator. The door to the morgue pops open of its own accord, and for whatever reason, Allison thinks it's totally reasonable to just walk in.


ALLISON. WHAT ARE YOU DOING. TURN AROUND RIGHT NOW, MISSY. She doesn't listen to me, because they never do, and when she gets in, she takes a look around. The ceiling has a leak, and rain water drips onto the morgue's table. She jumps in fear when the door slams shut behind her, again, all by itself. CREEPY. WHY ARE YOU HERE ALLISON? RUN AWAYYY. Then, one of the doors to the drawers where the bodies are kept pop open. As Allison walks closer, she can easily read the name on the dag hanging from the door. "Kate Argent." She gets a few brief flashbacks of her aunt Kate; when Kate first came back to Beacon Hills in "Magic Bullet" (S01E04) and they hugged and laughed, when Kate took Allison to hunt and kill Derek and Scott in "Codebreaker" (S01E12), and when Peter killed Kate by slashing her throat with his claws.


She steels herself and walks to the door and carefully opens it and peeks inside. The drawer looks like it's about a mile long, and is a little dirty, but it's otherwise empty. Of course, after a moment, Kate crawls up the drawer in this really jerky, disjointed and creepy manner that makes her look like a zombie. The strings in the background go CRAZY as Allison runs for her life to get the fuck out of that morgue. She pushes open the morgue doors and is totally shocked to find that she's actually pushing through the SCHOOL'S main doors! WAIT, so she was just hallucinating the entire time she was walking out of her apartment, driving in her car, AND walking into the school? That is TERRIFYING. She stops and tries to catch her breath as students rush around her, trying to get to their lockers/classes, which is when Lydia finds her. She asks her bestie if she's okay, and Allison gulps and she nods her head in response. Lydia's no idiot, though, and just stares at her with concern.


Outside, a bus pulls up to the curb as Scott scoots into the motorcycle parking area on his dirtbike. He pulls his helmet off, but when he goes to hang it on his handlebars, he catches his reflection in the visor and sees his eyes glowing red. You can see him internally being like "WTF IS WRONG WITH ME TODAY" as he panics, and he closes his eyes and shakes his head in hopes that he's just seeing things. When he checks again, his eyes are back to their usual brown shade, so he just tries to shrug it off and walks toward the school. It doesn't take long before he catches a glimpse of his shadow on his way there, which looks like Peter Hale's old alpha form. Huge, hairy, and terrifying. I can't tell if Scott's afraid that it's following him, or if he's afraid that he's turning into it and doesn't realize it, but he runs backwards down the stairs and away from the school in an attempt to get away from it.













(via scottspack)
He runs right into Stiles, who must have just arrived at school himself. He asks Scott if he's okay, and when Scott gulps a bit and shakes his head yes, Stiles calls him out on the fact that he looks the opposite of okay. He insists that he's fine, but Stiles also knows better. "No, you're not. It's happening to you, too. You're seeing things, aren't you?" Scott is shocked that Stiles is calling him out on it, and asks his bro how he knew that he was hallucinating. Stiles sighs and rolls his eyes as he shrugs, and Scott can tell right away that Stiles is talking from his own experience. Lydia and Allison appear behind him, and Lydia cuts him off before he has the chance to say anything. "Because it's happening to all three of you." DUN DUN DUNNNNN.






















(via kaiju-drifter)
At the Sheriff's office, Sheriff Stilinski is in his office, chewing on a pen and looking through the huge amount of cases he's been revisiting. And really, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, because the visual aids he's made to help connect all of his unsolved cases is both intense and TOTALLY something Stiles would do. There are pictures of the kanima's victims, the people killed in Jennifer Blake's ritual sacrifices, calendars with the dates of the full moons, and strings connecting everything. He pins a photo of a youngish looking girl with waist-length brown hair (I'm bad at kid ages, but I would guess that she was between nine and eleven years old) onto the bulletin board over one of the calendars and stares at it. He flashes back to a memory he has of who I assume is the girl in the photo. There's an overturned car in a pile of leaves, and a bloodied arm is laying out the broken-out window. When we return to the present day, Sheriff has placed a post-it note on the photo of the girl that reads "Malia Tate." HMM, that name sounds like another name we learned recently. *coughTaliaHalecough*


Back at the school, Lydia is strutting into the school as she leads the Golden Trio down the hallway. She's taking a tiny amount of pleasure in the fact that she's no longer "the town nutjob." Allison insists that they're not crazy, but Lydia just side-eyes her. "Hallucinating? Sleep paralysis? Yeah, you guys are fiiiiiine." Scott points out that the fact that they died and then magically returned to life probably doesn't come without some side effects, but they are prevented from discussing the topic further by the late bell. Stiles makes the executive decision that they all need to look out for each other until they figure this out. As he passes Lydia on his way to his class, he snits, "And Lydia, stop enjoying this so much!" Lydia just smirks, all, "Whatever, dude!"


New teacher alert! Mr. Yukimura is the new history teacher who is replacing Mr. Westover, who was killed as a philosopher sacrifice in Jennifer's crazy druid ritual in the first half of the season, if you recall. Apparently, no one warned him about the fact that being a teacher at BHHS is about the same as being the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts, ie: it's a death sentence. He introduces himself to the class. Apparently, he and his daughter, Kira, moved to Beacon Hills three weeks ago, which is conveniently (I think) when Scott, Allison and Stiles sacrificed themselves to the Nemeton, although with Jeff Davis' timeline skills, we can never be for certain. Still, that can't be a coincidence, I'm guessing. Then, he partakes in some supreme embarrassment of his daughter, who is also in their class, by making a comment about how she has no friends yet. When he points her out to the class, Scott turns to look at her and gets that look on his face that he got with Allison a lot. Aw, yeah, get it Scott! And Kira! He turns their lecture to WWII, which apparently is going to be a big theme in 3B. Then, Scott looks down at the floor and sees that his shadow is turning into the ugly Peter-style alpha and gets freaked out again.


Meanwhile, Allison and Lydia are sitting together in art class, where Allison is trying and failing to paint as the result of her extremely shaky hands. I'm getting flashbacks from "Frayed," tbh. Lydia points out the fact that shaky hands aren't exactly characteristic of a sharpshooter like Allison, and Allison, who is clearly second-guessing her abilities, admits that it's been happening ever since that night. She drops her paintbrush into her (RED) paint, which splatters all over her paper and launches her back into her flashback of Kate getting her throat ripped out, followed by a flashback of her hallucination of Kate earlier.

Noticing her best friend's currently fragile mental state, she rips the splattered page off of the huuuuge sketchpad on which she's painting, and calmly instructs her to try again. Allison takes a deep breath and sighs in an attempt to calm her nerves, and shakily tries to start her painting anew. Lydia sits down next to her and watches her paint, which probably isn't going to do much to help with her shakiness, but what do I know? Across the room, Isaac is painting on his own easel and looking like a super-hot model as he watches Allison with concern. Aw, bb, you must be getting Allison-stalking lessons from Scott, bahaha, and I mean that in the most affectionate way possible.


Scott has accompanied Stiles to his locker, and suggests that maybe their post-death symptoms will go away after a little more time. Stiles doesn't think so, though. "Yeah, try not to forget that we hit the reset button on a supernatural beacon for supernatural creatures. I think there's a pretty good chance that things are NEVER going back to normal." As he talks, he fiddles with the combination on the lock on his locker, but when he pulls on it, it doesn't open. Confused, he looks back at the dial to start the combination again, but there are no longer numbers on the dial. Instead, they are magical symbols used in witchcraft and wicca, which aren't that helpful for a combination lock, you know? So, after consulting my book of shadows and the interwebs, here are the ones I can make out-- the one that looks like an "M" at the 9 o'clock side is used to symbolize a woman's body and her body fluids, and the triangle on the opposite side is the symbol for the element "water." The circle with the line through it at the 12 o'clock point is the symbol for "salt," and the small circle on its left symbolizes "sun." I can't figure out the rest of them because they're kind of hard to see, and some of them I've never seen before. I also feel compelled to mention that Stiles isn't wearing his hoodie anymore, which makes me suspicious, but maybe he just got hot or something, I don't know. Scott is too distracted by accidentally eavesdropping on Kira's conversation with her father down the hall to notice his friend's current difficulties.


Down the hall, Mr. Yukimura is arguing with his daughter about his methods of embarrassment earlier, and he points out the fact that she told him earlier that she wanted to make friends. When she's like, "Uh, not like THAT," he reminds her that she also said she wanted to be noticed. "I could set myself on fire and be noticed!" she whines, but her dad is clueless, and points out that then, she'd be dead. She tells him that's the point, but is distracted when she suddenly notices Scott looking at her. I don't necessarily think she's a bad guy, but I do think she's somehow clued into the supernatural, and I also think that somehow she knew that Scott was supernaturally listening in on their conversation. Scott tries to look like he wasn't just eavesdropping on her, and turns back to Stiles. He starts to pant a little, like he's a little woozy, just as Stiles looks back to his lock and finds that it's back to its regular numbers.


That's when he realizes that Scott's having problems of his own. He alerts Scott to the fact that his eyes are GLOWING, but try as Scott might, he can't make them shift back. He puts a hand over his eyes so as to not draw attention to them as he gasps that he can't control it. Stiles immediately shifts into problem-solving mode and instructs Scott to put his head down before he leads him over to an empty classroom in the MOST conspicuous way that he could have possibly chosen. Of course, Kira totally takes notice of that, too, and stares at them until they're out of sight. Once safely in the room, Stiles quickly closes the door while Scott rips off his flannel overshirt. Stiles follows after him, but Scott, who is still panting and trying to maintain control over his wolf, bellows at him to stay away, because he doesn't know what's going to happen. Stiles assures him that it's okay, since it's not like Stiles hasn't helped him through this a dozen times, but Scott continues to back away from him. After a moment, Scott desperately looks down at his extended claws, and squeezes his hands into fists, cutting the palms of his hands with his claws and bleeding all over EVERYTHING.


Stiles is horrified at this pretty frantic and intense display of self-harm, and really, it's not the first time we've seen Scott go down that road over the seasons, which is not at all comforting. Scott roars loudly in pain, which again, super subtle, guys, and then falls to the floor. When he opens his fists, his claws are gone, and Scott explains to Stiles that pain keeps werewolves human, which was the first of very few lessons he learned in the Derek Hale School for Lycanthropes Who Want to Werewolf Good in Season 1. Stiles kneels down next to him gently informs him that this isn't just something in their heads, this is something real and scary that is happening to them, and he thinks he's getting worse. He then turns the topic to himself and confesses to the fact that he literally has to scream himself to get out of the dreams he's trapped in, and adds that he keeps getting these bouts of acquired dyslexia where the letters he reads are all jumbled up to the point that he can't make out the words. Scott asks him if it's a problem right now, so Stiles stands up and looks around the room. The notes on the chalkboard, along with the words on the posters around the room are all completely jumbled and illegible, and Stiles admits anxiously that he can't read anything. NOOOOO.


"Ghost" by Sir Sly, which is another amazing song in a string of amazing songs in this episode, plays while Lydia and Allison are at the nature preserve. Which reminds me-- WHAT THE FUCK YOU, GUYS? THERE ARE PREDATORS OUT THERE. GO IN LYDIA'S BACKYARD OR SOMETHING. As usual, they don't listen to me, and instead, Lydia hangs a target on a tree in hopes that a little archery practice is just what Allison needs to get her stride back. Allison's not convinced, but Lydia reminds her that if she doesn't think that it will work, it will definitely NOT work. Lydia rubs her hands together and encourages Allison to get her head in the game and see what happens. Allison picks up an arrow from her quiver and pulls back the string. As expected, her aim is shaky, and the first arrow she shoots goes right into the ground a foot or so to the side of the tree she was aiming for. Allison looks supremely embarrassed as she picks up another arrow, but Lydia gives her no judgement. When the second shot goes about as well as the first, Lydia cheerfully suggests that she pull the string differently.












(via kaiju-drifter)
"Try the Mongolian draw." Lydia's face is HILARIOUS as she studies the target, and when Allison looks at her, all, "Girl, WUT?" Lydia's just like. "What? I read!" Allison begrudgingly tries it Mongolian-style, but it just whizzes right past the tree, and Allison is seriously bummed out about it. Lydia can sense Allison's discomfort, so she does a much nicer version of Allison's mom-hallucination from "Frayed." She rubs her shoulders, and encourages her to take a deep breath to compose herself as she imagines the arrow hitting the target. Man, my Allydia feels are off the charts this week! You can tell just by the way the wind settles and the camera zooms toward Allison's face that she's entering another one of her fugue-state hallucinations. When Allison opens her eyes, she spots a figure running in the periphery of her vision.


She asks Lydia if she saw it, but Lydia has no idea what she's talking about. Allison picks up her quiver and throws it over her shoulder as she instructs Lydia to stay put while she investigates. Lydia is like, "Are you SERIOUS?" but Allison promises she'll be right back. Lydia curses her under her breath. I loooove that callback to the first season, when Allison was experimenting with the explosive arrowheads Kate left her. There are so many Season 1 callbacks this week, I am looooooving it! Allison ditches her to run after the shadowy person. Allison's outfit is really cute this week, too, I forgot to mention it because I was distracted by all the drama. I want that sweater on my body RIGHT NOW. A female voice whispers, "Over here," clearly trying to taunt her, and Allison turns to follow the sound. Thinking the voice is Lydia's, she calls out for her, but she's nowhere to be found. "Allisonnnnn," the voice sing-songs, and Allison continues to turn and shout for Lydia, unable to find the source of the sound.

All of a sudden, it's night-time outside in the nature preserve, and Allison is quite understandably confused and a little distraught by the darkness that envelopes the woods. Her bow is already loaded with an arrow, and when she turns to look around, she finally spots Kate, who zooms toward her in that creepy, still-frame jerkiness that she seems to always have in this episode, and that make her look like some terrifying demon/spirit. Allison immediately pulls up her bow and aims right for her dead aunt, and though her hand is still shaky, her aim is true.


She releases the arrow, and then out of nowhere, it's daytime again as Allison returns to reality, and Isaac just barely manages to catch the arrow a split second before it can lodge itself in Lydia's forehead. Isaac looks super stressed out, but Lydia is a lot calmer than I would expect. Maybe it's her banshee powers, or maybe she just doesn't want to make Allison feel bad about her little hallucination, since it's not like Lydia is a stranger to fugue states where she doesn't realize where she's going or what she's doing. Allison automatically drops her bow and starts apologizing profusely, holding her hands up in a non-threatening manner while the other two try to calm themselves down again. Lydia's eye-twitch at the end is HILARIOUS to me, she's so just like, "WHAT IS MY LIFE NOW?"






















(via redhoodedwolf)
At the McCall house, Scott and Isaac walk into Scott's room while Isaac fills him in on what happened with Allison and Lydia in the woods. Scott can't believe Allison would try to kill Lydia, even unintentionally, but Isaac informs him that Allison said the same thing that he's heard from Scott and Stiles about their issues, only she's been having hallucinations about her aunt. "Whatever is happening to you guys is getting worse. And if I hadn't been there, Lydia would be DEAD." Scott's attention catches on that last bit, and he asks Isaac what he was even doing there in the first place. Isaac's face looks super guilty, but he says nothing, probably because saying "I was following Allison because I like her but also so that way I could make sure she's not losing her mind" probably won't help his case. So, once again, Isaac gets shoved into wall of the hallway. Downstairs, Melissa shouts, "Aw, you guys, come on! This house doesn't have a supernatural ability to heal!" Never change, Melissa McCall! When Melissa orders them to stop rough-housing, Isaac just smiles awkwardly as he tries to pull himself up.

















(via forever-the-original)
Stiles has stopped by the station with a vase of flowers that are apparently going to be laid on Claudia's grave. "You know last time we brought one of these to her grave, it was stolen the same day? One hundred dollars, down the drain." OMG, my heart. Cut it out, Stilinskis! I'm too emotionally vulnerable for your feels right now! Sheriff reminds him that it's the thought/gesture that counts, and if someone needs those flowers that bad, they can take them. Stiles notices that his office is literally covered in paperwork from various cases, and asks his dad what the fuck he's up to. "I've been looking over some old cases from a more... illuminated perspective, if you know what I mean." Stiles reads through a file (looks like his reading is okay right now?) and reads out the description. "Strange sighting of bipedal lizard man sprinting across freeway." LOLOLOL FOREVER. Dylan's delivery was PERFECT. Sheriff tells him to throw it on the kanima pile, which only makes me laugh harder.

Apparently, it took Stiles this long for him to realize that his dad is looking for supernatural elements in his old cases, but I won't hold it against him, because he's dealing with weirdo sleep issues and his brain isn't working at full capacity right now. Sheriff explains that he's got at least a hundred cases which, had he known about creatures of the night before, could have been solved. Stiles, protective as ever, naturally broaches the fact that this could a road he doesn't really want to take, but, like Stiles, Sheriff believes it's HIS responsibility to figure out what's been happening. I mean, he is the sheriff, after all, so I'd say he isn't wrong. Apparently, there's a case that's been really bothering him. I figured it'd be the one he talked about in "Alpha Pact," with the girl who foresaw Claudia's death and who was speculated to be Lydia's now-deceased older sister, but it's a different one, a car accident, that also happened eight years prior. 2003 was a big year in the Teen Wolf universe, I guess? Paige's death, Claudia's death, Deucalion losing his eyesight and starting the Alpha Pack, possibly Lydia's sister's death too? (Remember, in TW-Land, it's still fall of 2011)

"Eight years ago, when I was elected sheriff of the county, my first duty was to tell a man that not only had his wife and two kids died in a car accident, but that, as best we could tell, his nine-year-old daughter had been dragged from the wreck by coyotes." YIKES THAT IS TERRIBLE. Stiles figures he means eaten, so Sheriff clarifies that they didn't even find the car until three days after the accident happened. They found two of the bodies in the car, and both of them were covered in blood, claw marks, and bite marks, which made them think that coyotes got to them, too. Stiles correctly assumes that his dad is thinking werewolves, and points out that it's possible that it really was just coyotes, considering how many of them are in their area. Sheriff confirms that it's possible that could be true. But, there is one factoid that is keeping Sheriff from thinking it was just a regular old animal attack-- it happened on a full moon. Awwww, shit. Stiles glances at all the boxes of files on the floor and asks where they're all going. One of the boxes has a label that says, "To FBI Field Office Special Agent McCall." AWWWW NOOO GET THE FUCK OUT AGENT DOUCHENOZZLE BLOBFISH. Sheriff just looks at the floor, all, "Yeah, about that..." I DON'T LIKE THIS I DON'T LIKE THIS.

The next day, Stiles comes into school (wearing a yellow tshirt and red plaid flannel over top, so probably not dreaming? Maybe?) and walks into Coach Finstock's Intro. to Business class just as the bell rings. He sees that a girl is sitting at his usual seat, so he asks her if she can sit somewhere else. She replies in sign language, which Stiles doesn't understand, so he decides to just pick his battles and sit elsewhere. As he flips through his book for the right page, he's completely unnerved by the fact that everyone is completely silent, including Finstock, who is standing at the front of the class. When Stiles finally notices him, he points out that he thought he was in the wrong class for a second, but Coach's face stays blank as he signs the exact same thing the girl signed to him.


"Uhhh, okay. I don't-I don't actually know sign language. Actually, I didn't even know that you knew sign language. Or that it was even an elective here..." He gulps nervously and decides to make a run for it, which is probably what I'd do too, tbh. Coach continues to sign at him as he walks to the door, and when he turns back to look at the class, he realizes that they're all signing the exact same thing to him, too. He looks like he's on the verge of a panic attack, and he falls against the wall in horror and confusion until he's snapped out of it by Coach whistling and shouting at him. He asks Stiles if he was paying attention, so Stiles tries to cover up his nerves by joking that he's paying attention NOW.


"Stilinski! Stop reminding me why I drink! He lowers his voice to a mutter and adds, "Every night..." Stiles catches Scott looking at him worriedly, but Stiles lies and says he's all good, and claims he just fell asleep for a moment. That does nothing to calm Scott's anxiety, and he whispers, "Dude! You weren't asleep!" Stiles doesn't get it at first, so Scott pointedly glances at Stiles' desktop. Stiles looks both horrified and embarrassed, which turns to straight up confusion when he notices the notes that he scribbled in his notebook in his very own fugue state. "WAKE UP" is written in basically every possible direction and order and combination of capitals and lowercase. It's creepy, and giving me serious vibes to the second season, when Lydia wrote "SOMEBODY HELP ME" backwards all over the chalkboard. On a positive note, Stiles has really nice handwriting for a boy.


During lunch, the McCall pack sits at a table outside the school and brainstorms what the fuck is happening to them. Scott and Stiles are on one side, while Isaac, Allison and Lydia are on the other. Scott starts off their discussion: "What happens when you have a near-death experience and come out of it seeing things?" Stiles adds, "And is unable to tell what is real or not..." Allison: "And who is being haunted by demonic versions of dead relatives..." Isaac unhelpfully points out that they're all locked up as a result of being insane, which doesn't really amuse Stiles, who snaps at him for not being helpful. In reply, Isaac cracks, "For half my childhood, I was locked in a freezer, so being helpful is kind of a new thing for me." Stiles, in another uncharacteristic display of intense rudeness, asks Isaac if he's still milking the whole abuse thing, which kind of reaaaaally pissed me off. I get Isaac using humor to deal with his past problems, because I totally do the exact same thing, much to the awkwardness of everyone involved. But Stiles' response? He can be a dick, but he's not [usually] a cruel dick, and I just don't know where that kind of a line came from. Like, is he just grumpy from stress and sleep-deprivation? Is he jealous because of how much Scott likes him? Ugh. Don't be mean, Stilinski!


After a moment, Kira approaches their table and nervously babbles that she couldn't help but accidentally overhear them talking about everything.. Wow, guys, maybe you shouldn't be so obvious about your supernatural status while you're in a school full of humans? "...I think I might know what you guys are talking about," she begins cheerfully. "There's a Tibetan word for it, it's called 'Bardo.' It literally means 'in-between state.' The state in between life and death." Lydia, clearly unhappy to be outsmarted by the new girl, asks her what her name is, and Scott cutely introduces her to the table as Kira before she can say anything. Everyone at the table turns and looks at her in confusion, but he just shrugs and points out that she's in their history class, and Kira grins when she realizes that Scott specifically noticed her. I know that everyone is suspicious of her, but I don't really care-- I love her! She's cute, she's smart, and she's super charming, even if she does seem way too excited to be talking about death. I think she's just excited to have a chance to meet new friends. Plus, I love Scott, but I also love Allison/Isaac together, so if Jeff Davis isn't going to give us a Scott/Allison/Isaac polyamorous lovefest, then I want Scott to get to be happy with his own cute maybe-supernatural girl.


Lydia climbs back on her throne and asks her if she's talking Bardo in Tibetan Buddhism or Indian Buddhism, so Kira sits down next to Stiles and replies that both are applicable-- either way, all the symptoms they were just describing is part of Bardo. "There are different progressive states where you can have hallucinations. Some you see, some you just hear. You can be visited by peaceful and wrathful deities." Isaac asks for some clarification as to what she means by "wrathful deities," but Kira just smiles and chirps. "Like, demons!" Stiles is not at all surprised to hear that demons are a real thing, after all the shit he's seen. Allison gets back to the whole "progressive states" thing, and asks Kira what the last state is. Just as cheerfully, Kira informs them that the last stage is death, as in, the person dies. Again, I don't think Kira is a bad guy, but I'm wondering what her level of knowledge of the supernatural is. I should probably save my Kira talk for the end as well, bah. Anyway, all of the kids' faces go completely cold at hearing that news, because NO NO NO, ALL ABOARD THE NO TRAIN TO FUCKTHATVILLE, NONE OF MY BABIES ARE GOING TO DIE OR I S2G I WILL RIOT.


Also, I'm pretty sure in Bardo, the last stage isn't death, but reincarnation or enlightenment, depending on what path you take. (Or, you get stuck in Bardo forever, I think. Someone correct me if I'm wrong!) Anyway, naturally, Stiles and Scott decide to go to Beacon Hills' finest druid super-vet to verify the information that they just learned from Kira at school. Deaton guesses that their subconscious, particularly Stiles', since he's the one with the nightmares, is trying to send them a warning. Stiles is like, "Well, that's stupid, considering I don't speak sign language," but of course Deaton knows enough to be dangerous, so he asks Stiles to show him what he can remember in hopes that he can translate. Stiles is able to duplicate a rough approximation of the signs, which Deaton translates to mean, "When is a door not a door?" Stiles is like, "FUCKING SERIOUSLY," but Scott has been reading up on his riddles, apparently, because he totally knows the answer! "When it's ajar!" That's really cute, actually. Stiles can't believe that his subconscious is trying to tell him a riddle, but Deaton disagrees.


"Not necessarily. When the three of you went under the water, when you crossed from unconsciousness to a kind-of 'super-consciousness,' you essentially opened a door in your minds." Scott asks if that means they accidentally left the doors open, and Deaton just kind of laughs as he points out that it's actually "ajar." Stiles doesn't like the sound of any of this, but Deaton reminds him that they knew there were risks when they did the ritual. When Scott asks what they need to do about it, Deaton's like, "Yeah, I don't really know what to tell you, honestly." Stiles recognizes the look on his face and tone of his voice, and takes it to mean that while Deaton knows exactly what's wrong with them, he has no idea what to do to fix it, and I get smashed with more Mama Stilinski feels, because I imagine that's where this anxiety is stemming from. Deaton admits that what he does know is that having an opening into your mind is NO BUENO, and tells them they need to figure out how to shut their fucking doors, and with a quickness. I love you, super-vet, but man, you are just barely helpful at the best of times.

When they walk outside of the animal clinic, they're blinded by Sheriff Stilinski's headlights as he pulls into the parking lot. Stiles is nervous that something is up with him, but he's fine--he's actually there to get Scott's help on a case. Scott doesn't get why he needs his help, specifically, so he starts to give him the basics on a case he's investigating. "Eight years ago, almost an entire family died in a car accident. One of the bodies, a young girl named Malia, was never found. There's enough evidence to have me thinking that... a werewolf could have caused the accident, and then dragged her body away. If you could somehow get a lock on her scent, if you could somehow help me find her body, it might provide the missing clue." Both boys are visibly shocked at this newest development in the case, particularly the part about a werewolf they may or may not know. I just love how much Sheriff has embraced the new supernatural world he's been exposed to. Stiles wonders what happens if it WAS a werewolf, so Sheriff reminds them that whoever it was got away with it, and still needs to be caught and punished. At first watch, I thought that it was probably Peter, because Peter's a shithead, and we all know it, but now I'm wondering if it wasn't someone else. Maybe Malia herself, maybe Papa Tate? Who knows?!


Sheriff Stilinski pulls into the driveway of the Tate family's home, which now only has Papa Tate and his dog, Astro. PS, Papa Tate is totally Father Kieran from The Originals, so if I accidentally call him that, that's totally why. Inside the house, Sheriff watches as Papa Tate opens a box with a box-cutter and talks about the huge coyote population around his house. I imagine the guy is probably super hateful towards coyotes, if he truly is clueless about all of this. He pulls a rat trap out of the box, and explains that since vermin is coyotes' main food source, if you catch/kill all the food, the coyotes will leave for greener pastures. I'm not a hunter, like at all, so forgive my ignorance, but is that an actual way to get rid of coyotes? It sounds weird. He points out that he likes to be left alone these days, which Sheriff can totally sympathize with, so he explains that he only has a few questions about the case, and then he'll skedaddle.


Of course, Sheriff is only keeping Papa Tate busy and distracted so that Stiles and Scott can sneak into Malia's bedroom and try to catch a scent. There's another rat trap on the floor of her room that they have to carefully step over on their way in, and, of course, the door is super squeaky when Stiles awkwardly tries to open it to let them in. Father Kieran assumes that Sheriff has found new evidence in his family's case, but Sheriff tries to maintain expectations by clarifying that it's POSSIBLE new evidence. Back in Malia's room, Stiles keeps tossing stuffed animals and other possessions at him in hopes of having any of her scent still on them, but it's been eight years, so it's all mostly faded by now.

Scott confesses that the only thing he can smell is some animal, and when Stiles asks him what kind of animal he smells, Scott notices a huuuuge Rottweiler standing in the doorway, and is like, "Uhhh, dog." The dog growls at him, and Stiles gets super jumpy. "Hiiii puppy! Get rid of it! [...] Yes, you! Glow your eyes at it! Be the alpha!" Scott reminds him that he doesn't have control over his wolf anymore, but Stiles insists that he try something, so Scott just adorably coos, "Niiiice doggie?" Oh my god, Scott, you are the fucking cutest. Stiles just gives him the most hilarious side-eye, and, as expected, this totally doesn't work, and the dog immediately starts barking aggressively at them as the boys watch, frozen in fear.


Sheriff hears the commotion and his face is hilarious, like, "AW SHIT, ABORT ABORT ABORT." Thankfully for them, Father Kieran doesn't seem to notice any hinkiness afoot, and simply yells at the dog, whose name is Apollo, to STFU until it finally does and runs away. PAPA TATE IS SETTING OFF MY SHADINESS RADAR, YOU GUYS. Is he an alpha were-something?! Or is this just a misdirect? Stiles hands Scott a journal to smell, but he still can't smell anything except for the dog. Stiles continues to look around, and finds a picture of Malia sitting on a picnic blanket with who I'm guessing is her sister, who is holding onto a baby doll,. Naturally, Stiles the detective snaps a picture of the photo on his phone before he and Scott sneak back out of the house.


Meanwhile,Sheriff Stilinski has apparently shared his murder theory with Papa Tate, although I have no idea how he could explain that without also opening his eyes to the land of werewolves, kanimas, and dark druids, but who knows? Father Kieran's not happy about this news, mostly because he's spent the last eight years thinking it was a simple car accident turned animal attack, and quite understandably, he doesn't want to have to relive the loss of his wife and kids all over again. "Who the hell would want to murder my wife and girls, my whole family?" Sheriff explains that he's trying to find out who, but Papa Tate is NOT INTERESTED. He asks him to just leave him alone, and after Sheriff apologizes, Papa Tate yells at him to go away.

Later, Sheriff, Scott, and Stiles meet down the street to debrief, and Scott apologizes for not being able to help, but he thinks it's just been too long to get a good scent. Sheriff assures him that it was a long-shot anyway, and then starts emotionally beating himself up about the fact that he just made things worse instead of better. He thanks the boys for their help, and tells them he'll catch them later before he drives off in the cruiser. Once he's gone, Scott can tell that Stiles feels guilty, too, and points out that a lot of police cases go unsolved, so why is Sheriff so upset? Stiles admits that he thinks his dad thought that this was one case he might be able to figure out, now that he knows. When Scott asks Stiles why his dad was so worried about it now, eight years after the fact, Stiles is forced to drop the bomb on him that his dad dropped earlier. "Well... he wants to be able to solve one more... while he's still sheriff." Scott is confused about the whole "still sheriff" part, and Stiles sighs, because he knows Scott's about to be PISSED. NO NO NO. Sheriff Stilinski can't NOT be sheriff! What will we call him, then, if Jeff continues his streak of not revealing the first names of the Stilinski men?


And, he is! We cut over to the McCall house, where Scott is bellowing how much Agent Douchenozzle sucks at the top of his voice. Is ADN staying with them? That's way awkward, if so. Kick him the fuck out, Mama McCall! Melissa appears to have just gotten off work, because she's in her pink scrubs when she walks into the house to find Scott and Agent Douchenozzle arguing in the living room. Scott basically tells him to get the fuck out ASAP, and then adds that he can't believe that ADN's doing this to his best friend. ADN starts in on the denials, about how he's just doing his job, blah blah blah, he has to follow orders, blah blah blah. "Your job SUCKS!" Scott shouts. The look on his face when he says that line is PRICELESS. God bless you, Tyler Posey. Melissa asks them what the fuck is going on, so Scott informs her that ADN is trying to get Sheriff fired. ADN insists that's not true, but when asked what he is doing, he snits, "Conducting a case for impeachment?" 


Melissa speaks for all of the fandom when she tells him that that line sounds suspiciously like "trying to get Sheriff Stilinski fired," but Agent Douchenozzle maintains that it's actually the fact that Sheriff Stilinski isn't able to resolve/close cases, which is why he's getting fired, which is also why ADN is doing his job by gathering evidence, blah blah blah, more denials. "Your job SUCKS," Melissa spits, and god, I just love her so much! Scott starts to get that constipated-looking rage face that seems to be par for the course when he wolfs-out at inopportune times, and Melissa notices that his anger is making his claws come out. She walks straight over to Scott and takes his hands as she looks him in the eye, while ADN watches curiously. GET THE FUCK OUT, DUDE.


"Calm down, and come with me, RIGHT NOW," Melissa orders gently, but firmly, and when she sees Scott's eyes turn involuntarily start glowing red, she pulls her son out into the hall by the stairs before her ex-husband can see anything. Thankfully, Agent Douchenozzle doesn't follow them, because then he'd ruin all the AWESOMENESS that is the precious angel Melissa McCall. Scott is barely holding himself back, and now his fangs are growing out out as well. It looks like it's almost painful for him to try to hold his wolf in, and it's veryyyy nerve-wracking, if we're being honest. She keeps telling him to breathe, and brings up the fact that Stiles told her that they had come up with a way to control these sorts of situations. "You find an anchor, right? Scott, find your anchor!" To her everlasting credit, she looks a tiny bit nervous, but not at all afraid, just like any good nurse, which is so fucking great of her. Remember when she first found out he was a werewolf, and how horrified her reaction was? So much character development! Scott gasps that Allison was his anchor, and since they're not together anymore, it's not really a viable anchor any longer.. A lot of people were asking why he was able to control himself without her last season, but he truly an alpha until the last episode, nor did he have all this darkness shit plaguing him 'til that point, either, so I think this makes perfect sense that the werewolf power-increase in conjunction with the darkness around his heart has overwhelmed his previously-well-handled self-control when it comes to his lycanthropy.


"Then be your own anchor," Melissa replies urgently. Scott squeezes his eyes shut tightly, and his mouth opens in a silent scream as his fangs go away. When he opens his eyes, they're brown again, and he starts taking deep breaths as a way to try to calm himself down. Melissa sighs in relief, and then gets started on a helpful lecture. "Sweetheart, let me tell you something that no teenager ever believes, but I swear to you that it is the absolute truth-- you fall in love more than once. It'll happen again, and it'll be just as amazing, and extraordinary as the first time. And maybe just as painful. But it'll happen again, I promise. And, until then? BE YOUR OWN ANCHOR." YOU GO MAMA MCCALL. I LOVE YOUUUU. Also, she's totally talking about Sheriff Stilinski, too, riiiiight? RIGHT? I'm choosing to believe that she was, and no one can tell me differently.




















(via teenwolf)
Stiles is laying in bed, waiting for what is sure to be extremely troublesome sleep, when Scott opens his bedroom door and walks in with a flashlight. Stiles sits up and asks him what he's doing, and we get a glorious callback to the pilot. "You and me, we're going to go out and find the body. A dead body." AWWW YISS. This is surely going to go totally well, right? They're like the supernatural version of the Hardy Boys or some shit, it's awesome.


Over at the Argent Abode, Allison is laying on her back in her bed as Isaac climbs all over her and kisses her stomach and chest and neck and shoulders. It's perfectly complimented by William Arcane's "Departed" in the background, which is a super sexy song for a super sexy scene. Seriously, it's super hot and I want them to be together RIGHT NOW. After a moment, Allison stops him. "Are you sure Scott's okay with this?" Isaac's a little distracted by all the macking going on, because for once, he doesn't have to keep it in his pants, so she pulls his head up and asks again. "Yeah, he's 100 percent over it," Isaac replies, before he gets back to smothering her with kisses, but Allison is surprised that Scott would say that. "Well, not in so many words. But, he's moved on. You should too." He pulls his shirt over his head, and Allison is a little overwhelmed by the sight of his abs and pecs, and can't help but run her hand over his chest.


She notices he's wearing a necklace of some kind around his neck, and asks what it is. He doesn't seem to know what she's talking about, so he reaches toward his neck and feels around for it. That's when a really dirty looking Kate Argent pops up behind him. Oh, and that necklace? It's actually a garrote, the ends of which are gripped in Kate's hands. "Let's do him, Allison," Kate purrs in Isaac's ear. "Let's do him together!" That is such a Kate thing to say and do, holy shit. She chokes Isaac with the garrote, and all of a sudden, Allison realizes that she totally stabbed him with one of her ring daggers without even knowing it. PSYCHE! ~It was all a dream~ She wakes up with a gasp and sits up in bed, and realizes that she and Lydia must have fallen asleep while they were studying, because Lydia is currently still snoozing on the side of the bed, and their books cover the rest of the space. When Allison lays back, she frowns, and reaches under her back before pulling out a ring dagger, which she actually had IN REAL LIFE. OMG, she could have sleep-stabbed Lydia! These guys need like 24/7 babysitters, holy shit.


Stiles and Scott are traipsing around the nature preserve as Stiles discusses more of the shitload of problems they're possibly facing. "You know, if my dad's right, that means there's another werewolf in town that we haven't met yet. [...] And if it turns out to be something like triplets who turn into, like, a three-headed hound of Hell, I'm seriously not up for that." God, I hope that isn't a breadcrumb or some kind, I think we've had enough Mighty Morphing Power Creatures for a while. Scott agrees that that would be terrible, especially considering his wolf is a little out of control at the moment. They come upon a ravine of sorts, and Scott stops suddenly at the sound of a coyote howling. Of course, the ever-graceful Stiles runs right into him, which sends Scott's cell phone down into a mud puddle. Oops! He apologizes, and blames it on the fact that he hates coyotes. "They always sound like they're mauling some tiny, helpless little animal." Hahahaha! It's funny because it's true.

Luckily, Scott still has control over his reflexes, so he's able to jump down into the ravine with ease. Stiles, on the other hand, slides down the whole way, though he is able to manage to stay upright. Scott wipes the mud off of his phone on his sleeve, but miraculously, the phone is still working. What kind of magical phone is that? Stiles sees something in the distance and asks Scott for the flashlight. They walk a couple of yards and realize that they've found the car from the accident. Scott brings up an excellent point-- isn't that car evidence? Stiles guesses it was in a way too remote and inaccessible for it to be worth fishing out, so I guess that answers that question, sort of. Anyway, the car is completely crushed like an aluminum can, and there are huge grooves in the metal that look like claw gouges. Scott can fit his own fingers in the grooves, so Stiles figures it's safe to assume that it's a werewolf, and not a coyote, because they have actual fingers, and Scott confirms that it appears that Sheriff was right about there being another werewolf.














(via wolvesofagony)
The boys crouch down and take a peek inside the car, and after flashing around the flashlight a bit, Stiles sees something near the back, so he reaches in to grab it, and pulls out a slightly-beat up baby doll, the same one that was in the picture of Malia and her sister. CREEPY. Scott and Stiles look at it in confusion, and are completely scared out of their wits when the baby's voicebox chirps, "I'm hungry!" He automatically drops the doll on the ground and screams in terror, and even Scott jumps backwards away from it. After a moment, Stiles is like, "I think I just had a minor heart attack." YEAH, YOU AND THE REST OF THE TEEN WOLF VIEWERS ABOUT A MILLION TIMES DURING THIS EPISODE.


Scott hears some distant growling, and when he looks toward the source of the noise, he sees a glowing pair of eyes hiding out behind a tree. "Please tell me you see that," Scott stammers as he maintains eye contact with the creature. Stiles whispers that, yup, he sees it, alright, so Scott reflexively runs after it, leaving his entirely human friend to fend for himself. Sound familiar? God, I hope Stiles doesn't end up getting bitten by and turned into a [SPOILER ALERT!] WERECOYOTE! Scott chases after the animal with all of his might, and his eyes start glowing again as he calls upon his alpha powers to give him a boost. He launches himself across that crazy ravine thing, just like in the beginning of the premiere in Season 2, and lands face to face with the animal, which is totally a COYOTE and not a wolf! I'm certainly not a canid expert or anything, but seriously-- that is so not a wolf, it's way too small. It does growl at him, though, so Scott pulls alpha rank on it, and in turn, the coyote flashes its blue eyes at Scott. Scott is dumbfounded. "Malia?" The coyote is like, "BYEEEEEE" and runs away, though, so Scott doesn't really get any more answers. So, werecoyotes are a thing in this world? And some/all of them can change into a full coyote?! I NEED MORE INFO NOW.

















(via scottlockwoods)
So, you've probably been wondering what Derek's been up to, yeah? He took off at the end of 3A for god knows where, and I think we were all hoping that he was chilling on the beach somewhere, reading one of those random leather-bound books, maybe doing some chin-ups and calisthenics, as he's wont to do. But, it's Derek Hale, so, of course that's not happening. Our ending scene begins as the camera pans over a table of bloody mallets, hammers, ice picks, and pretty much every scary-looking torture instrument known to man. There are whimpers and moans of pain in the background, as well as some crackling electricity, and at the end of the table we see a fancy smartphone buzz with a text message. "Scott McCall: Derek call me." "Scott McCall: Derek, need help. Call back ASAP!"


OH, OF FUCKING COURSE THEY'RE BEING TORTURED. The camera leads us right to Peter and Derek, who are both shirtless and bound to a chain-link fence by their wrists and currently being tortured via electrocution. That ALSO sounds familiar, eh? Hunters? Derek looks over at his uncle and gives him the most intense glare EVER. Peter's all, "Why are you looking at me like this is my fault?" Derek: "Because it IS your fault." The mystery torturer turns on the electricity again, and they both simultaneously start seizing in response to the shock. When he flips it off, Peter groans again, but he's still got quips even despite his pain. "Yeah, you're probably right."


Next week: Things are looking pretty generally bad for Stiles. Scott gets some tough love from the twins in an attempt to re-learn control, the Sheriff makes a discovery in one of his cases, Allison feels worthless without her hunter skills, and HOPEFULLY, someone rescues those poor Hales. They're too pretty to be tortured like that.

Click HERE to read my next recap of Teen Wolf!

[Screencaps from KissThemGoodbye, per usual]

NOTES/SPECULATION:
-Okay, I've got like fifteen bazillion theories about the Tate case. Did Malia get bitten by a werecoyote or something and somehow accidentally kill her family? Is it possible that Papa Tate is an alpha werecoyote? Is the similarity to Talia Hale supposed to suggest that the Tates have the ability to shape-shift into actual coyotes in the same way that Talia and Laura (and to an extent, Peter) could shift into legit wolves as alphas? I saw a meta on Tumblr where someone theorized that Mama Tate was leaving Papa Tate and was taking the girls with her, so he got mad and shifted and caused the wreck and turned his daughter, which I kind of dig, but you'd think that werecoyote-ness would be genetic, just like lycanthropy, right? OR, different theory, could Papa Tate be the one torturing Derek and Peter?

-I have been reading a lot about acquired dyslexia, or alexia, which is the reading issue that Stiles has been having. According to wiki, it can be caused by brain injury, stroke, or progressive illness, all three of which I think can be applied to Stiles in some way. We all saw how hard he hit his head in "Lunar Ellipse," it was bad enough that he was unconscious for at least an hour, if not several. Though, I would imagine the frontal lobe of his brain is the one that would be most affected by the impact, and not as much the temporal/occipital/parietal lobes, which is what lobes are usually affected in brain injuries that cause alexia, but I'd think it's possible that he could have hit his head on the dash, and then subsequently hit the back of his head on the seat when he rebounded. We also know that his mother died, and though we don't know why, Jeff Davis has hinted that it's due to a progressive, chronic illness, which would mean that he has family history of such illnesses. Finally, in the trailer for season 3B, there is a cut of Stiles falling to the floor in what looks like the locker room, and his face is droopy on one side, which is characteristic of strokes. These are just educated guesses on my part, but the alexia plus the cut of Stiles in an MRI machine in the trailer is enough to make me SUPER SUPER SUPER worried about Stiles.

-Can we learn more about Lydia and her bansheeness, already? I feel like I've been waiting a million years to figure out more and I need to know NOW. I have this feeling that she's going to be instrumental in seeing what's wrong with the Golden Trio re: the darkness without being affected by it, thanks to her general supernatural immunities, but we haven't seen enough of her yet for me to know for sure. Either way, I'm loving her in 3B. I love that she read up on archery because Allison is into it, I love how cool she was about the fact that Allison accidentally nearly killed her, and I love how detective-y she's gotten. MORE LYDIA PLZ.

-I am also loving the five of them (Scott, Stiles, Allison, Lydia, and Isaac) brainstorming this newest supernatural clusterfuck together. Now we just need Derek to join in and my dreams will have officially come true! I have a feeling that Derek, once he's done being tortured and dealing with it, will be a lot more chill and efficient, because I think being a beta is who he was meant to be. I just feel like he'll thrive more in an advisor/soldier capacity rather than a leader; he'll be able to help them with the supernatural stuff they've yet to learn, but can also not have to worry about the pressure of having to make sure things go the right way. Scott is much more suited to that role, especially once he has some experience under his belt. /unpopularopinion

-What about the Yukimuras? I've already talked about how much I like Kira, but I'm still on the fence about her dad. There is a lot of speculation that they're both kitsunes, and I was struck by a thought when Kira was talking about peaceful and wrathful deities. There's already plenty of meta out there about the two different kinds of kitsunes, light and dark. (I forget the Japanese names for them and haven't had any luck digging up the specific meta, but I think the light is a Shorigitsune and the dark is a Nogitsune? Someone PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong. Is it possible that Kira is the light kind, and her father (or maybe grandfather who seems to know Chris Argent) are the dark kind? I've heard other speculation that they're also hunters, so who the fuck knows. Wouldn't it be fucked up if Mr.Yukimura ended up being sort of like Chris Argent to Kira's Allison? I guess we're going to have to wait and see, I'm just spitballing, here.

-Like everyone else, I'm kind of over Derek getting tortured all the time, but the addition of Peter, especially in the aftermath of what Derek did last season to heal Cora, is kind of interesting, actually. We all assumed, after Peter's little show of theatrics when he killed Jennifer on the Nemeton, that his agenda was all about becoming alpha again. Unfortunately, there's one little problem, if we assume that Peter didn't inherit the donated alpha spark: now, Derek isn't even an alpha, so technically, they're both omegas, which kind of fucked them both over in the grand scheme of things, didn't it? Victoria Argent said it herself; "Don't you know that the lone wolf never survives without a pack?" Peter and Derek may have each other, but that's not going to be enough to face off against an established pack, or even a group of hunters. I'm really interested to learn how they ended up in that situation to begin with.

Comments

  1. I don't know, I don't really like Kira. I mean, it's only the first episode, so I could think she's the best thing ever by the end of the season, but I really liked the show with out her, and so she just feels weird. Of course, I know that she brings the plot for 3B, so I guess I'm just more excited to see what she brings. That must bee the beacon in Beckon Hills that Dr. Deaton talked about!

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  2. @Katy--I'm with you there on wondering what her purpose is in coming to Beacon Hills! Is she a kitsune, or a hunter, or both? Neither? I can't wait to find out!

    As for not liking Kira, that's totally okay, too! I think on Teen Wolf, it's natural to be suspicious of new characters, especially given our track record with them! Gerard, Matt, Jennifer all ended up being bad news! But like you said, it's just the first episode of this new half, so maybe she'll grow on you? That's how I was with the twins, I really didn't like them at first, but now I kind of like Ethan and am indifferent to Aiden.

    Thank you for commenting! I'm interested to hear what you think about the rest of the season. :)

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