Teen Wolf Season 3, Episode 18: "Riddled" Recap/Review
Man, this episode of Teen Wolf was seriously an intense hour of television. From the very first phone call Stiles made to Scott, to the last exchange with Kira's mom, I was literally buzzing with fear and anxiety, in the best way possible! It was a mindfuck, that's for sure, although that seems to be par for the course where Season 3B is concerned. So yeah, "Riddled" was another amazing episode in a long series of amazing episodes this season, and I'm not going to waste any more time summarizing when I could be talking about it!
Previously, on Teen Wolf: Kira learned that she's a kitsune, a werefox who has the ability to create fire/lightning bolts called "foxfire." Lydia's banshee powers started revealing themselves even stronger in the form of auditory hallucinations, and Stiles assured her that her instincts have been dead-on ever since they realized she was supernatural. Stiles has been dealing with a ton of negative symptoms that may or may not be related to his mother's illness. The gang figured out (with a little help from a former Yakuza mobster named "Silverfinger" Katashi) that the ninja dementors are actually demons called oni, whose job is to seek out and destroy void kitsune, or "nogitsune," which are dark spirits who possess people. Oh yeah, and Stiles is probably possessed by one, because he was able to kill like three oni with no problems. That's totally going to end well.
The cold open this week begins in Scott's bedroom for a change, where he's snoozing in bed. His phone starts to buzz, and when he sees it's Stiles, he immediately answers and asks Stiles what is going on. There's nothing but silence for a moment, and when Scott calls out his name again, we can finally hear that Stiles is breathing heavily, like he's scared. After what feels like an eternity, Stiles' terrified voice whispers, "Scott?" which causes Scott to leap out of bed and assure Stiles that he's here with him. He asks Stiles again if he's okay. "Scott, I don't know where I am, I don't know how I got here! I think I was sleepwalking." Scott automatically goes into true-alpha-problem-solving-mode and asks Stiles to look around and tell him what he sees so Scott can try to come find him.
Stiles, still borderline hyperventilating, says that it's too dark, so he can't really see anything, and adds, "Oh, no, there's something wrong with my--" before the call drops and the line goes dead. NOOO. Scott starts to panic, and reflexively redials Stiles' number to try to get back in touch with him, but it goes straight to voicemail. He starts to pace as he curses at his phone and tries again, but no luck. He runs a hand through his hair and stares at his phone, willing it to ring, and he breathes a sigh of relief when Stiles calls back a few seconds later. When Scott answers, Stiles stammers, "Scott, I don't think I can get out of here, I can't move." Scott asks him where he is, and Stiles shifts to full freak-out mode. He rambles that he has no idea where he is, it's still too dark for him to see anything, and adds that he can't move his leg, because it's stuck on something and he's pretty sure he's bleeding. Scott starts to freak out a little himself, and asks him how bad it is, but he gets no answer, so Scott repeatedly asks him if he can hear him.
He eventually tells Scott that he's still there, and mentions that there's a terrible smell, wherever he is, and that it's so intense it's making his eyes water. Scott informs him that he's going to call the Sheriff, which only makes Stiles more upset. "Wait, no, no no no no no, don't do that--" Scott remind him that his dad can help, but Stiles makes Scott promise that he won't call his dad, because he already worries too much about Stiles and all the crazy life-or-death situations they get into on the regular. Scott is super stressed about this request, because he doesn't think that he'll be able to find Stiles without help, but Stiles insists that Scott can do it and urges him to keep his dad out of it. Scott worries that he won't be able to do it, but Stiles cuts him off, and tells him that he has to hang up, but he'll call Scott right back. Scott shouts at him not to hang up, but Stiles promises he'll call back soon and hangs up on him. Scott tells Stiles to hang on, but it's no use, the line is already dead. THIS SCENE IS SO STRESSFUL, I CAN'T. Poor Scott! Poor Stiles! Also, no one can ever argue that Scott wouldn't move mountains for Stiles, because LOOK HOW STRESSED HE IS.
Scott lunges for his dresser and starts getting dressed as he pounds on the wall and shouts at Isaac to wake the fuck up. Isaac flings himself into Scott's room within seconds and asks Scott what's wrong, so Scott tosses him his spare motorbike helmet with an order to get dressed, because they have to go find Stiles. When Isaac asks Scott what's wrong with Stiles, Scott pauses, and realizes that he has no idea, because he has no clue where he is. NOOOOO.
Meanwhile, Harleighblu's "Let Me Be" plays in the art room at Beacon Hills High School, where Lydia is sketching Aiden, who is posing on a stool in the middle of the room. It's a really good sketch, too, because Queen Lydia is good at EVERYTHING. Aiden drops his head and rolls the stiffness out of his neck, which annoys Lydia, because she instructed him not to move. He asks if they're allowed to be on the premises after hours, and worries that a security guard might catch them. LOL, that's a good joke, Aiden. Lydia laughs and agrees with me. "There IS no security. The number of homicides in this school has seen to it that no sane person will EVER take a night job here again." I love when TW gets meta, you guys. And she's right, you know. Remember that security guard that Peter killed? And the sheriff's deputy that Jennifer killed? And that's not even getting into Paige or the pianist at the recital or Mr. Westover...
Aiden starts waggling his eyebrows suggestively at Lydia upon hearing this admission that they're all alone in the school, but Lydia just sasses him about losing the pose again. "You know, when you said you wanted me to model for you, this wasn't what I thought you had in mind," Aiden points out, which just makes Lydia scoff, because she doesn't bang murderers anymore. He shrugs his shirt off and throws it onto the floor, because Jeff Davis has the hugest crush on the twins and wants them to be half-naked on the show as often as possible. Lydia just smirks and tells him that nude models usually don't wear pants, but her eyes about pop out of her head when Aiden slips off his pants and throws them at her face. She blushes a little bit as Aiden goes to pull off his boxer briefs, but their sexy interlude gets cut off with a record screech when Lydia starts to hear weird things, as she's wont to do.
She stands up, knocking her stool over in the process, and gapes as Aiden just stands there in his tube socks and underwear, looking awkward as fuck. "Did you hear that?" she asks. Aiden hesitantly replies that he hears music, and asks her what she's hearing. "Voices," she states blankly. We pan over to the speaker, where instead of music, we heard static and muffled crying. As it gets louder, we hear Stiles' terrified voice murmuring "Come find me." YIKES THIS IS TERRIBLE.
Scott and Isaac are rushing down the stairs to go try to find Stiles when Scott's phone finally rings again. He stops what he's doing when he sees that it's Stiles, and answers it. Stiles fearfully asks Scott if he called the Sheriff, but Scott swears to him that he didn't, he only told Isaac. Isaac leans in so he can hear the conversation better, while Scott assures him that they're getting ready to leave to find him, and asks him to try to get any detail that he can to help them out. Stiles guesses he's in some kind of basement, like in an industrial building or something, and he thinks he sees a furnace. He mentions that it's freezing, wherever he is, before again telling Scott that he has to hang up again because his phone is about to die. He quietly pleads with Scott to come find him, but Scott worriedly asks him why he's whispering. "Because I think there's someone in here with me." Yup, I was just about to be like "HOW COULD THIS BE WORSE," and then they totally made it worse. And it's only going to get more brutal from here. MY HEART CAN'T TAKE THIS SHIT. TITLE CARD!
"A Million Drums" by Claire (which is one of my current obsessions) plays as we cut over to the Yukimura household. Kira is in her pajama, laying prone on her bed as she reads one of her textbooks from school. She leans over to turn on the light to her lamp, and frowns when the light won't turn on. Inside of getting up and getting a new light bulb herself, she shouts to her mom in the other room to ask if they have any. Oh, teenagers. She sits up and pulls off the lampshade, but before she can even touch the light bulb, it flickers with light. She instinctively pulls her hand away, and the light goes back out. Curious, she reaches her hand out again, and watches in shock and amazement when she can see little bolts of electricity shooting out from her fingertips and into the bulb, which relights it. Sweet skills, girl! When she grabs the bulb in her hand, the amount of electricity is too much for the light bulb, and it completely shatters. Yikes!
(via teenwolf)
Of course, her mother comes in just in time to see the bulb burst, and asks her WTF she just did. Kira claims it was just an accident, so her mom instead scolds her for the fact that it's way past her bedtime. Hey now, she's studying! That's a productive reason to be up late! It's not like she's up all night scrolling on her Tumblr dashboard, like I am, you know? When her mom replaces the broken bulb with a fresh one, her own fingers spark with electricity, which doesn't escape her daughter's notice. Still, she says nothing about their powers or supernatural status, and quickly replaces the lampshade before ordering Kira to go to sleep. Secrets, secrets are no fun; secrets, secrets, hurt someone, Mama Yukimura! Tell your daughter what's up!
(via teenwolf)
Scott and Isaac burst into Stiles' bedroom, only to find that Lydia and Aiden are already there. Scott asks her if Stiles called her, too, but she tells him that she HEARD him. "Don't ask," Aiden exclaims. "It gets more confusing when you ask." Isaac gives Aiden a look that's like, "Tell me about it, dude." Lydia points out that it's definitely not more confusing than the current state of Stiles' bedroom, and I immediately get even MORE worried about Stiles when the camera pans back so we can see his case board. There are dozens and dozens of strings of red yard connected to various photos and documents on the board, all of them tied to a huge pair of shears that has been stabbed into his mattress. Lydia informs them that Stiles uses red yarn for unsolved cases, and the four of them stare at his walls in horror. Aiden suggests that he is dreaming/sleepwalking that he's part of an unsolved case. "Or IS an unsolved case," Isaac mutters negatively.
"Hold on," Lydia states. "Is he still out there? You don't know where he is?" Scott updates her on what he learned from Stiles' phone call regarding his location, and Isaac adds that they came to get a better scent to try to track him. When Lydia asks what else Stiles said, Scott admits that he said he thinks his leg is injured and possibly bleeding, which doesn't help Lydia's anxiety one bit. Isaac mentions that Stiles said that he was freezing cold, and Aiden remembers that tonight is the coldest night of the year for their area, and the low temperature is going to be in the 20s. I know they're from central California, but considering the Polar Vortex my region has been dealing with all winter (with temperatures as low as -20 degrees F) I have a hard time getting worried about 20 degree weather.
She asks him what Sheriff said, so Scott is forced to confess that he hasn't called him yet, because Stiles made him promise not to tell him what happened. Thank god for Lydia and her common sense, because she immediately is like, "Stiles is bleeding and freezing and you didn't call his dad?" Scott doesn't think it's necessary yet, because they can track him by scent, though he's operating on the assumption that Stiles is sleepwalking and couldn't have gone far on foot. Unfortunately, Aiden is the only one who noticed that Stiles' Jeep isn't in the driveway, which means that he is sleepDRIVING as well as sleepwalking, which is TERRIFYING. Lydia goes to call Sheriff Stilinski, since she made no promises to Stiles about doing so, but Scott, desperate to keep his promise, suggests that he could get more help, like Derek and Allison, but Lydia points out that calling everyone EXCEPT the cops is not a great plan. Aiden backs her up by reminding him that Lydia only gets these weird feelings when someone is about to die, so they should probably be taking it more seriously.
Scott finally decides to see reason and tells her that since the station is only five minutes away, they can stop there next. They go to leave, but Lydia stops Aiden and informs them that they'll catch up with them, because she's sure there has to be clues somewhere in this room. "Yeah, evidence of total insanity," Isaac snits, and I get kind of disappointed, because hey dude, I know you and Stiles are barely friends, but that's not helpful! Scott sighs, and insists that they'll figure out what's wrong with Stiles AFTER they save him from hypothermia and god knows what else, so Lydia urges them to go, with the promise that they're right behind them.
(via teenwolf)
We finally catch our first glimpse of Stiles, who is practically in tears and trying to access the flashlight on his camera. Once he gets it working, he turns to look around, and finds that his fucking FOOT is CAUGHT IN A BEAR TRAP. Just like the ones Papa Tate stashed all around the nature preserve. Stiles screams in terror and pain when he sees his mangled left foot. NOOOOOO.
He rolls over and sobs a bit, but is completely startled when he hears a noise nearby. "Who's there?" Stiles asks fearfully. "I know you're there, I can hear you!" He pans his phone's light around the room, and it looks pretty much like Stiles described to Scott--big, industrial, with lots of machinery around. He stops when he notices a person hiding behind the furnace. The man is crouched down, almost kneeling, and seems to be writing something on the wall. He lowers his hand, revealing that it's covered in a glove made of what looks like bandages, and rolls a piece of chalk towards Stiles.
Stiles focuses on the piece of chalk, but when he turns back to the man, he's gone! In his place is the kanji onore, "å·±," the same sign that all the wolves + Lydia got tattooed behind their ears. OH SHIT. Stiles is pretty terrified at this point, and mutters, "Self" under his breath, which causes a magical gust of wind to blow the chalk (and a bunch of dried up leaves) across the floor of the basement toward the wall. Then, the chalk outline of the kanji completely dissipates into white smoke. WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING. Stiles just stares at it in fear and starts to breathe heavily again.
At the Sheriff's Department, Sheriff Stilinski looks at a map and allows him one moment of ruminating over what the fuck is happening to his child right now, before pulling himself together and giving out orders. (Also, the fact that he and Chris Argent still wear their wedding rings makes me cry ALL THE TEARS, you guys) He turns to Scott, and decides that if Stiles' Jeep is gone, that should be where they start. He instructs his newest deputy, Deputy Parrish, who is super adorable, to put out an APB on Roscoe, which, if you're curious, is a teal blue 1980 CJ5 Jeep. He asks another deputy, Cordova, for a list of any building in Beacon Hills with an industrial basement. He reminds all of his men that since it's the coldest night of the year, he'll get hypothermic very quickly, especially if he's only wearing his pajamas, so they need to move quickly. "Let's move fast, let's think fast," he orders, before calling Isaac and Scott into his office.
Once they're alone, Sheriff asks them if there's anything he needs to know that the others can't know, and Scott admits that Lydia knew he was missing. When he asks if she could help find him, Isaac assures him that she's working on it. Scott adds that he also called Allison and Derek to help them out as well. Sheriff asks them if they can track him by scent, but they're interrupted by Deputy Parrish, who informs them that they've located Stiles' Jeep.
Cut to Beacon Hills Memorial Hospital, where police cruisers, plus Scott and Isaac on Scott's motorbike, pull up to Roscoe, only to find that the battery is dead. Sheriff figures he must have left a door open or something, but Scott doesn't understand why he would come here in the first place. As soon as they get inside, Melissa meets up with them and lets them know that security is already doing sweeps of every floor, but they haven't found anything yet. Sheriff asks about the basement, so Melissa has him follow her so they can search it together.
Meanwhile, Scott and Isaac decide to check out the roof just in case, only to find that Derek beat them to it. He tells them that Stiles isn't there, at least not anymore. Isaac says he'll go update the Sheriff, and Scott instructs him to go figure out why Allison isn't answering her phone, because they could really use her help on this. When he leaves, Scott joins Derek, who asks him if he's noticed how strong Stiles' scent is up there. Then, we get a little lesson on werewolves and their olfactory senses. "You ever hear of chemosignals? [beat] Chemical signals that communicate emotion. Just our sweat can give off anger, fear, or...disgust. Take a deep breath, and tell me what you feel." Scott takes a whiff and realizes that Stiles' scent smells like stress and anxiety, which Derek confirms. Scott asks him what Stiles could have possibly be doing up there, but he has no idea--all he does know is that Stiles was definitely in some kind of struggle when he was here. When Scott wonders who he was struggling with, Derek figures that he was struggling with himself. OH GOD. I don't like annnnny of this! My bbs. :( I do like Derek being a super helpful older brother/teacher/mentor, though! It's like when he was teaching Scott to use his senses at Isaac's house after Papa Lahey got killed. I am digging this Yoda-y Derek!
Agent Douchenozzle seems to have more or less recovered from being stabbed in the shoulder with one of the oni's ninjadas, though he's still in a sling, and he swaggers into the office to see what's going on. He heads for Deputy Parrish's desk, and asks him where everyone is. When he gets no answer, he asks if they have any leads on their "sword-wielding maniac." Wait wait wait, so he gets stabbed in the shoulder with a SWORD by a demon demon-hunter, and then hears his son and his buddies shifting into wolves and fighting them and jumping through windows and stuff, and he still thinks it was just some sort of run-of-the-mill home invasion? He's either SUPER stupid, or SUPER shady, and I still can't decide which. Deputy Parrish instantly wins my affections by gesturing toward some wanted posters hanging up in the office, complete with a drawing of a guy who looks like Zorro. "Nope, but we've got posters up all over town of your guy," Parrish says with a smirk. ADN points out that it doesn't exactly look like what he told the sketch artist, so Parrish just sighs and reminds him that they kind of have more important things to worry about than some dude who stabbed him. ADN gets worried, and asks what their high priority is of the night is. Dun dun dunnnn!
At the Stilinski house, Aiden is snooping through photos of Scott and Stiles on Stiles' desk as Lydia looks around the room for clues. Lydia twiddles her thumbs as she looks at the case-board, which has basically taken up two and a half walls of his bedroom. Aiden smirks when he finds a framed copy of one of Lydia's Nemeton sketches, and scoffs. "Didn't you draw this?" She tells him to put it back, but he retorts that he must REALLY like Lydia. Yes, he does, jerkoff, and she likes him too! Jealousy isn't very attractive, Aiden. Lydia suggests that maybe he just likes the tree, but Aiden points out that there's a note on the back of the frame that says, "For Lydia." While it's possible that it was meant as a gift for her, I'm still thinking that this is a clue from somewhere in Stiles' unconscious, and I really want to see it brought back into play later!
Lydia's phone beeps, and she checks it to find that she got a message from Scott. "Nothing at hospital. Derek headed to high school. Isaac going to find Allison. I'm with Stiles' dad." Lydia is pleased to hear that the Sheriff has finally been brought into the fold, but Aiden just whines about the fact that they're stuck in Stiles' room, staring at the walls. She shoots him another one of her glares and gets back to studying the photos on the board. Aiden reaches up and tugs on a string, which makes a sound much like a guitar string being plucked. Underneath, there is a small current of whispers that Lydia totally notices. She asks him what he just did, and when she learns he pulled on the string, she pulls on one too, and listens to the whispers that come out of it. "What did that sound like to you?" Lydia asks, so Aiden replies that it sounded like a string being pulled, duh, no whispers or anything weird like that. Lydia pulls the string again, and is frustrated that he can't hear it, too. "Lydia, I'm not sure anyone hears what you hear."
She tells him she hears whispering, and after listening more, she tells him she hears them talking about a house of some kind. She plucks the string for more answers, and listens as the voices draw her to a photo of a house that is hanging on the wall, right where the string is attached. She determines that this is the house the voices were telling her about, so Aiden examines the photo and asks her what "Eichen House" is. Lydia freezes for a moment, before admitting that Eichen House is a mental health center, the one where William Barrow (the shrapnel bomber from "Galvanize") was committed. Oh, that is soooooo not good, not at all. Aiden asks her if that's where Stiles is, and Lydia is relieved to say that it is. Yay, Lydia! Embrace those banshee powers!
Stiles is still laying on the floor of the basement, and swears under his breath when his phone finally dies and takes away his only source of light. He throws his phone onto the floor and takes another look at his foot. He bends over and tries to break open the trap, or at least widen the gap far enough to get his foot out, but he's not strong enough. His shriek of pain when he touches the trap literally broke my heart into a million pieces. God damn you and your awesome acting skills, Dylan O'Brien! Stiles is startled when the man from earlier comes out of the shadows, and he manages to pull himself up off the floor a little bit in order to get into a more defensive stance. "Who's there? WHO ARE YOU?" he bellows, as he tries to see who the man is. The man says, "Watagushi, na ke de wa nai," but Stiles doesn't know Japanese (and neither do I, so I couldn't tell you what this means! Japanese speakers, please help a girl out in the comments!) He continues on to say something else in Japanese, but his voice is so mumbly that I can't hear a word he's saying. Let's just say the guy is creepy and mush-mouthy and move on, yeah?
After reiterating that he doesn't speak Japanese, the man replies. "Not 'Who are you?', Stiles. 'Who are WE?'" Stiles is basically crying in fear, for which I do not blame him at all, because this is terrifying, tbh, and the guy changes the subject to the fact that the temperature is dropping. He points out that "we" (He and Stiles?) have stopped shivering, and asks him if he knows why that is not a good thing at ALL. "It's the body trying to conserve energy," Stiles gasps. "It was my fifth grade science report. Hypothermia." The man (who I'm going to assume is the nogitsune) starts listing off the symptoms that come next (slurred speech, fatigue, etc) and informs him that they will both die if they don't get out of there. Stiles yells at him to stop saying "we," but the nogitsune claims he's trying to keep him from freezing to death out there, and says that he needs to get out of there.
"How? THERE'S A FREAKING STEEL-JAWED TRAP ON MY LEG!" Stiles bellows. The nogitsune steps into the light, revealing a face covered in bandages, with silver fangs like a lamprey fish (just like the nogitsune in the flashbacks). "Is there?" the nogistune asks curiously, and Stiles just sobs into his fist. "Noticed something different. The trap was on your right leg earlier, wasn't it?" Stiles insists that it wasn't, but when he looks back down, the trap IS on his right leg, even though it was totally on his left before. Stiles asks him what the fuck he's trying to do, but the nogistune swears they're just looking out for Stiles' best interests. "We're trying to save your life." I AM SO CREEPED OUT OH MY GOD.
Sheriff arrives in his cruiser at Eichen House and meets Lydia, Scott, and Aiden in front of the wrought-iron gates. "Lydia," he begins, trying not to say too much in front of his clueless deputies. "I don't want to say 'Are you sure about this?', but..." Lydia swears that Stiles is in this building, so they all run into the building and make a bee-line for the front desk, where Sheriff Stilinski requests entry into their basement. AW YEAH SHERIFF! I'm just wondering how the deputies feel, to be constantly deferring to a bunch of (admittedly amazing and smart) teenagers, though.
Back at the station, Blobfish walks back over to Deputy Parrish's desk with a handful of papers, and asks if it's the exact transcript from Scott's phone call with Stiles. Parrish insists that it's what Sheriff gave them. "But these words?" ADN asks. "Stiles says, 'Something smells terrible, my eyes are watering?'" Pretty sure those aren't the EXACT words, but whatever, it's still right in context. Parrish just shrugs, because who gives a fuck about ADN? Especially when he's been so shitty to Sheriff Stilinski and the rest of the department, who seem to all be loyal to him. (And for good reason!) ADN turns around when he hears Melissa's voice at the front desk, asking for him, and walks out of the office to meet with her. He asks her what she's doing here, but Melissa replies, "My shift was over, I just wanted to see if I could help." Real-life angel Melissa McCall for President of the World 2014, amirite?
In the hallways of Eichen House, the group follows Lydia's lead, and when she starts to walk into the main room, she senses that they're in the right place, and runs forward to get a better look around. Sheriff busts through a door to a stairwell, and they all rush down the stairs into the basement proper and split up to find Stiles. You can tell by the furnace and the hot water tank that they're in the same place that we've seen Stiles so far, but he isn't anywhere to be found. Scott turns to Lydia in hopes that she has some kind of feeling that can help him, but her face just looks confused and a little devastated. "I don't get it," she whispers, frustrated. "This HAS to be it!" Sheriff Stilinski's fear and frustrations eventually become too much for him, and he shouts. "Where is he? Where is my son?"
Lydia jumps back away from him and closes her eyes, scared and pissed at herself for leading them into what ended up being a false alarm, and Sheriff immediately regrets blowing up on her and apologizes. It reminds me a lot of Stiles and Lydia's scene in the season finale of Season 2, remember? When he was talking about how badly he'd be hurt if she died? Like father, like son. Lydia maintains that she doesn't understand how she could have gotten this wrong, and Aiden sympathetically rubs her shoulder and gently leads her back up the stairs, as Sheriff and Scott dejectedly follow behind them. As the camera pans up to follow them up the stairs, we can see that the Japanese kanji for "self" is carved into the wall, right where the nogitsune drew it in chalk with Stiles. Noooo! Lydia wasn't technically wrong, Stiles IS there, just not in the way that they think. Don't doubt yourself, my banshee queen!
We meet back up with Melissa, who is riding in the passenger's seat of her ex-husband's car as they drive to God knows where. It is then when we get to witness a pretty hilarious conversation that is not only pretty smart, but also kind of insightful, with regards to Melissa and ADN's relationship. Melissa asks him what the fuck he's trying to say, and ADN suggests that Stiles is still sleepwalking.
The nogitsune is still terrorizing Stiles in what looks like the basement of Eichen House, and write the "å·±" on the chalkboard again. "You don't understand, do you?" he lisps through his ridiculous silver teeth. "It's a riddle." Stiles is looking extremely worse for wear, at this point. You can see the cold is making him drowsy, and he looks tense as hell. The nogitsune asks him if he knows any riddles, and he manages to weakly state that he knows a few. The nogi decides to test Stiles, and tells him a couple riddles, which he's able to answer correctly. What gets bigger, the more you take away? A hole. What gets wetter, the more it dries? A towel. When he asks, "When is a door not a door?" Stiles freezes, before replying that it's "When it's ajar." The nogitsune places his hand over the "å·±" he's scrawled on the wall, and asks his final riddle. "Everyone has it, but no one can lose it. What is it?"
Stiles hasn't heard this one before, and after thinking about it for a moment, he admits that he doesn't know. The nogi stands up and growls at Stiles a bit, before starting to walk toward him. Stiles is starting to shiver again, and sputters through the tears and snot running down his face. "Everyone has it, but no one can lose it," the nogitsune asks again. "What is it?" Stiles starts to break down again, and stammers that he doesn't know. The nogitsune continues to slowly make his way toward him, and repeats the riddle again. It moves really weirdly, like it's walking through jello or something, it's bizarre. When Stiles doesn't respond, he starts asking the riddle in Japanese, which, of course, Stiles doesn't understand.
He starts to cry again, and bites at his knuckles, so the nogitsune bellows the riddle in Japanese again, right in Stiles' face. Stiles backs up in fear, and the nogitsune makes this movement like, "Eh, fuck it," and grabs the chain attached to the bear trap before pulling on it. Stiles screams at him to stop, but he continues to drag him by the trap attached to his leg. Stiles' pained screams literally shatter whatever was left of my heart into smithereens, it's terrible. He continues to shriek, "No, wait, WAIIIIIT," as he's dragged across the floor, and after what feels like a million years, we find that Stiles was actually in the coyote den the entire time, sleeping on the floor and dreaming that he was in Eichen House's basement! Melissa and ADN have found him, and Melissa holds onto him to keep him from thrashing as she assures him that he's okay.
Eventually, he quiets down, but Melissa holds onto him tightly, rubbing his arms to try to warm him. He's covered in dirt, and the look on his face is somewhere between terror and disappointment. Part of me wonders if this wasn't something Stiles was at least a little conscious about. Think about it--if Stiles knew he was being controlled by a malevolent force, wouldn't he want to get as far away from his friends as possible? And judging by the nogitsune's "We're trying to save your life," comment, I'm thinking that Stiles was trying to die of hypothermia on purpose so that he could protect his loved ones. STOP CRUSHING MY HEART, STILES STILINSKI/DYLAN O'BRIEN.
After the break, we head over to the Argent Abode, where Isaac is pounding on the front door. Allison stumbles out of bed, still in her pajamas and with adorable bedhead, and answers the door. "What the hell have you been doing?" Isaac demands, not even letting her get a greeting in. She side eyes him, and points out that she's been sleeping, like normal people do at night. She asks him what HE'S doing, and he gets confused. He asks her why she didn't get any of their texts and phone calls, and she frowns before running to her room to find her phone. Isaac closes the door behind him before following her. She informs him that her phone was off, and adds that she never turns her phone off as she boots it up. When she sees all of her missed calls and texts about Stiles, she gets worried, and immediately asks if Stiles is okay.
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Isaac assures her that they found him a couple minutes prior and took him to the hospital, and she sighs with relief, before apologizing again for missing the memo. "I don't know what happened, I never turn it off." She sees that she has some voicemails, and clicks on them as they listen to them on speaker. We hear a male voice speaking in rapid Japanese, which naturally puzzles both Allison and Isaac, since neither of them speak Japanese. Isaac asks who it is, but she has no idea, so he just leans in so he can hear it better.
(via halebunnies)
Over at the hospital, Aiden is helping Derek jump Stiles' Jeep, which is an uncharacteristically nice thing for either of them to do. Man, they really must be trying to woo Scott, eh? Aiden asks Derek if he thinks Stiles was just sleepwalking, or if he thinks that there's something shady afoot, to which Derek replies, "In this town, there's always something more." True that! Aiden mentions that he might KNOW something more, so Derek gives him one of his patented eyebrow-raises that silently orders him to start talking, pronto. Aiden admits that he eavesdropped on Stiles and Scott's conversation in "Silverfinger," where Stiles was worried that he was the one who sent Barrow after Kira by writing the code on the chalkboard in the chemistry room.
Derek scoffs at the idea that Stiles could be the one possessed by a void kitsune. "You think STILES, skinny, defenseless, Stiles, is the nogitsune? A powerful, dark spirit?" Aiden points out that he's not the only person thinking it could be happening, he's just the only one saying it, because no one else wants to consider the possibility. Derek still doesn't understand why the nogitsune would jump into someone like Stiles when it could have someone stronger and more powerful, which made me laugh, because it almost sounds like he's disappointed that the nogitsune didn't possess him instead. Silly Derek. It's not until he looks down at the jumper cables in his hands and touches the clamps together, causing a spark of electricity, that he gets a dawning realization about what could have possibly happened. OH SHIT, he's thinking about Kira, isn't he?!
Inside, Melissa and ADN are talking quietly in the hall, as Scott and Lydia wait silently in the lobby's bench as Sheriff Stilinski comes out and gives them an update. "He's sleeping now, and he's just fine," he says quietly, as everyone breathes a sigh of relief. "He doesn't remember much, it's a bit like a dream to him." He turns to Blobfish and thanks him for his pretty awesome deduction for where Stiles could be. ADN shrugs it off, and says it's just lucky that Stiles mentioned the smell in his phone call to Scott, because it made him think of the animal repellant that the police used to keep the animals out of the coyote den. Sheriff Stilinski is like, "Dude, I'm trying to thank you here, can you quit being a dick?" So, he quits being a dick, for ONCE, and the two men shake hands. Aw, now ADN needs to stop being a dick and stop trying to impeach Sheriff!
Melissa breaks up this tender moment and tells Scott and Lydia that they need to get home, since they have school in the morning. She gives her son a quick hug before Scott takes Lydia's hand and walks with her out of the hospital. Can I just say how much I love how tactile and affectionate the pack is with each other? I feel like they're always holding hands or rubbing each other's shoulders and it makes me SO happy. MORE PACK SNUGGLES PLEASE. Lydia is still beating herself up about the fact that she was 100% sure that Stiles was at Eichen House, but Scott tries to comfort her by pointing out that he wasn't very much help at all either. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to make her feel any better. She starts to hear a loud clanking noise as Scott adds that it doesn't matter what happened, as long as he's safe and okay now. He can tell something's up, and asks her what she's hearing, but she's still insecure about what happened earlier, and lies that she doesn't hear anything. NO, LYDIA! BELIEVE IN YOURSELF.
In the locker room at school the next day, Scott sits on a bench and texts Dr. Deaton, "Anything yet?" After a moment, he gets a reply. "Working on it." Snow Ghosts' "Gallows Strung" plays as Scott walks out of the locker room and into the hallway. At the other end of the hall, Kira sees Scott, and calls out for him, but Scott is so distracted by how worried he is about Stiles, he either doesn't hear her, or chooses to ignore her, and instead walks away. Aw, Kira! She looks really disappointed, and is about to turn around when Derek appears out of nowhere and sympathetically says, "He's a little preoccupied. But, I can help you." Oh Derek, when are you going to quit pretending like you still look like you could pass for a high schooler? That massive 5 o'clock shadow begs to differ. Kira asks him why he would want to help her, so he informs her that he needs her to tell him everything that happened at the power station in "Galvanize." "Actually, I want you to show me." You guys, I seriously LOVE the possibilities of a Kira/Derek friendship, omg. I need more!
Melissa and Sheriff take a peek into Stiles' hospital room, where he's sleeping relatively soundly. In the hallway, Melissa takes a deep breath before deciding she needs to confess Stiles' last visit to her to his dad. "It was the other day," she admits quietly, clearly nervous about what she's about to say. "I asked him some questions, just symptoms, and, um..." Her voice breaks on the last word, and she just gives him the most sympathetic look ever, unable to finish that sentence. Sheriff sighs and assures her that it's okay before taking a small notepad out of his pocket and flipping it open. "I think I--, uh, I think I know what you're talking about. I've been writing these down for the past two weeks." He hands her the notepad, where he's written a list of symptoms he's noticed in Stiles: impulsivity, hallucinations, insomnia, night terrors, dissociative, confusion. Sheriff looks Melissa, who looks like she's about to cry, in the eyes, and says that he thinks they need to do some tests. Nooooooo! STILES IS NOT SICK. I REFUSE TO BELIEVE IT.
Kira and Derek, in their adorable matching black leather jackets, have just arrived at the power station where Barrow brought Kira. They walk around the giant main room, and Kira informs Derek that she thinks it happened around where they're standing, though she admits that in the light of day, everything looks the same. Derek notices a scuffed line in the floor and follows it to a power generator, where an aluminum baseball bat is stuck to the machine. Kira asks why there's a bat there, but Derek immediately recognizes it as Stiles' bat and goes to pull it off. Cue Sterek shipper insanity on Tumblr. The bat is REALLY stuck to the generator, and it takes a ton of Derek's strength to wrench it off, which leads him to realize the bat has been magnetized. He steps back to the beginning of the scuffed line on the floor, and puts the tip of the bat on it. The magnetization causes the bat to grind against the floor as it reattaches itself to the generator. Look at Derek being the brains of the operation! I LOVE IT. Failwolf no more! He turns to Kira and states, "Kira, I need you to tell me everything you know about foxfire." When Kira looks extremely puzzled at this request, he nods to the sign behind her, which reads, "DANGER--HIGH VOLTAGE." You don't say.
(via teenwolf)
Isaac and Allison have actually attended school, for once, instead of running around and getting into trouble with Allison's dad. They made a pitstop to Mr. Yukimura's classroom, where they played him the weird voicemail that was left on Allison's phone. He confirms that it is, in fact, in Japanese, and asks her who left the voicemail for her. Apparently, there are multiple messages, all of which say the exact same thing, and all of which were left by someone calling from a blocked number. Isaac asks him if he can translate it, and he thinks he can, mostly. "The man speaking is giving directions, actually. The first line is, 'All evacuees are required to stand at least ten feet back from outside fences.'" Allison and Isaac are both clueless, naturally, and ask him what that means. "Fences surrounding a Japanese internment camp during World War II," he replies. Oh shit, there's our WWII connection! We've known since 3B started that this was going to play a major role in the story.
"After Pearl Harbor, Japanese-Americans were rounded up and put into camps," Papa Yukimura continues. "This man is reading instructions to prisoners upon their arrival." Can I just say that I LOVE that this show is tackling the subject of Japanese internment in the 1940s? It was one of many extremely shameful events in American history, and it's astounding and embarrassing at how little most modern-day Americans know about the subject. I personally hadn't learned anything about it until I was 19 years old, when I took History of Injustice in the United States at my first college. So yeah, the fact that kids watching this show are learning something like this that they're probably not taught in school is amazing to me. ANYWAY, Papa Yukimura turns off the voicemail and hands Allison's phone back to her as he stands up from his desk. Allison asks him where a recording like this would come from. He claims he has no idea, and reveals that the recording is a fake, because it talks about a camp called Oak Creek, which apparently never existed. Isaac and Allison both sigh and look at each other, like, "What the fuck do we do now?"
Lydia, whose hair looks amazing in one of those milk-maid braids that goes around her head, is standing by Scott's locker as she waits for him to exchange his books. She flinches when she hears a locker door slammed nearby, and Scott immediately notices that something is up. Scott asks her if she's okay, but she just lies again. "Yeah, I'm just a little hypersensitive to loud sounds today," she whispers, as she flinches again at the sound of another locker being slammed shut. Scott can tell she's lying, but decides not to push it, and instead expositions that Stiles is having a bunch of tests done today. "I was gonna go over around six to visit. You wanna come with me?" he asks hopefully.
Aw, I love their friendship so much! And I love how he's trying to protect her by keeping a close eye on her. Lydia is still a little shell-shocked from all the loud sounds, and replies that she should probably just go home instead. No, Lydia! Quit ignoring your instincts! Another locker slams, and she's visibly startled by it. Scott looks around the hallway before asking again if she's okay, but she absently shrugs it off. "Yeah," she responds quietly, as she walks toward the front doors to the school. "I'll text you later." Scott looks extremely worried as she walks away, jumping at the sound of books being dropped on tables and locker doors clanging. She rushes down the hallway and runs out the door to get away from the noise. YIKES.
(via halebunnies)
Melissa, Sheriff, and Scott are with Stiles in the MRI room, as Dr. Gardner (who I was sure died when Barrow stabbed him with the scalpel) looks at Stiles' chart and stammers, "I'm not sure I know how to pronounce this, or if it's not actually a misspelling..." Everyone in the TW meta tag on Tumblr is convinced that Stiles' name is going to play a huge role in this season with regards to the nogitsune, and this seems like just more proof! We know that it's a Polish name that is super hard to pronounce, which is why Sheriff Stilinski instructs Dr. Gardner to just call him "Stiles." The doctor turns to Stiles, and explains the MRI process to him; he warns him that he's going to hear a lot of noise, as a result of the electricity going through the metal coils and causing the magnetic pulses. He asks Stiles if he needs earplugs, or headphones so he can listen to music, but Stiles insists that he'll be fine.
He shifts his weight on the bench, covered up in his flimsy robe, as Sheriff assures him that they'll just be in the other room while he's in the MRI tube. He and Melissa smile at him soothingly, and Stiles pats his dad on the shoulder as they leave. Scott stays behind, so he and Stiles can make the rest of us ugly sob with their brotherhood. "You know what they're looking for, right?" Stiles asks Scott, who is cracking his knuckles awkwardly. "It's called frontotemporal dementia." Scott watches Stiles with concern as he explains that it's when the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain start to atrophy, or shrink, and then delivers the worst news--it's what his mother had, because it's the only form of dementia that can affect teenagers and young adults, and there's no cure. NO. STILES IS NOT SICK.
Scott tries his best to hold back his tears, and does the sweetest thing a dude can do for his brother-in-arms. "Stiles, if you have it, we'll do something." Stiles just stares at the wall, not wanting to think about the possibility, and not understanding the gravity of Scott's words. "I'LL do something," Scott insists. OMG! Scott said he'll bite Stiles to cure his dementia! OMG! I know this is a terribly unpopular opinion, but I love the idea of werewolf!Stiles! I'll get into that more later. Stiles tears up himself, and pulls Scott into the most tender and heartfelt hug I've ever seen. SCILES/SKITTLES FOREVER. THE OTP OF OTPS. From the other side of the glass, Melissa and Sheriff watch their kids hug it out, and almost start to cry as well.
(via teenwolf)
Outside the hospital, Kira and Derek pull into the parking lot in Derek's Toyota SUV. Kira hesitantly gets out of the car, and after a moment, she stops Derek as he walks toward the entrance. "I don't know if I should go in," Kira begins. Derek just quirks his eyebrows at her in his patented, "Why?" face, so she rambles on. "You're gonna tell Scott that Barrow might have used foxfire, created by me, to jumpstart the nogitsune's power inside Stiles." Derek is like, "And your point is?", so Kira reminds him that she more or less helped a powerful dark spirit take a ride in Stiles' meatsuit. Derek suddenly understands, and deadpans, "You should probably wait here," which totally relieves Kira. Aw, she must feel so guilty! It's not like it's her fault, she doesn't even know how to use her powers yet. The foxfire she created was basically a survival instinct.
Stiles is being slid into the MRI machine as Mr. Gardner informs him that the MRI will take between 45 minutes and an hour. In typical Stiles fashion, he starts rolling and cracking his neck just as the doctor instructs him not to move. Stiles can't NOT move, though, because he's Stiles, so he starts to wiggle just a little bit before he's told to cut it out. LOL. He warns Stiles in advance that he's going to hear the noise, and Stiles starts to hear loud clanging noises soon after. Stiles purses his lips and sighs as he tries to tune out the sound.
Meanwhile, Lydia is parked somewhere in her car, where she's hearing the same clanging noise as Stiles, just like earlier in the day. OMG, did she somehow unconsciously know that Stiles was going to be getting an MRI? Man, she really needs to start telling people these things IMMEDIATELY so they can try to figure it out! You would think after almost three entire seasons, this gang would learn the concept of "full and immediate disclosure," right? Anyway, you can tell the noise is really bothering Lydia, because she rubs her temples a little bit before cranking up the music in her fancy Toyota. The song is "Slippin' Around" by Zhala, and it is AMAZING, just like all of the Teen Wolf soundtrack. She continues to pinch the bridge of her nose and generally look like she's being driven crazy by the clanging noise.
Back in the hospital, Scott and Derek are sitting across from each other in the lobby, elbows on their knees, waiting for Stiles to finish his tests. The fact that Derek stayed to comfort Scott just made my heart super happy. Scott brings up Derek's lesson earlier on chemosignals, and mentions that it reminded him about how Derek taught him how to use anger to control his wolf-side. "I think YOU ended up teaching ME more about that," Derek admits, which makes Scott grin a little bit. Scott asks him if he's teaching him again, but Derek prefers to think of it more of it as him passing on some "trade secrets." See? Helpful Beta Derek > Alpha Failwolf Derek. Even Derek thinks so! "You know I took Cora back to South America, right? It's where she spent most of her time after the fire. But, that's not the only reason I left. I needed to talk to my mother." Scott says what we're all thinking, which is--isn't Derek's mom dead? Yup, yes she is.
Derek doesn't get into HOW it happened, he just vaguely describes what they talked about. "She told me something that...changed my perspective. On a lot of things. She said my family didn't just LIVE in Beacon Hills, they protected it. This town needs someone to protect it. Someone like you." MY HEART, IT'S EXPLODING WITH SCEREK LOVE. Also, WHAT ELSE DID SHE SAY. Something she said had to be about Peter, right? Derek fully glared at him when he got back from the Other Side or whatever. Scott smiles, and retorts, "And someone like you, to teach me a few trade secrets." Derek chuckles a little bit at that, but his face grows serious when he sees Scott putting the pieces together in his head. "He's trying to protect us," Scott says, and he rises to his feet. "Stiles is protecting us." Derek realizes that Stiles was trying to protect them from himself, and they both run to the roof to look for clues.
(via teenwolf)
When they get back to the roof, Derek asks Scott what they should be looking for, but he's not really sure. "But, I think Stiles wasn't just up here struggling with himself, I think he was struggling NOT to do something." Scott notices something on top of the back-up generator, and climbs up onto a machine in order to find it. He reaches up and swipes his hand over the top of the fenced-in box that surrounds the generator, and swats a bag onto the ground. Derek paws through the bag to reveal that it's full of what looks like jumper cables, wire cutters, and other power tools. Why would Stiles/the nogitsune leave that stuff there? The two start looking around for signs of foul play, and eventually find a thick wire hanging over the roof that looks like it's been cut severely enough that it's starting to spark. OH SHIT!
Lydia is still in her car, and the clanging, hammering sound she's been hearing in her head reaches such a loud level that she visibly squirms in her seat, gripping the steering wheel as tightly as she can. After a moment, she can't take it anymore, and screams one of her patented screams. However, we can't hear it. THIS IS SO NOT GOOD WHY IS SHE SCREAMING. Is she trying to drown out the noise? Is it some kind of foreshadowing for what's about to happen? I DON'T LIKE THIS AT ALL.
(via teenwolf)
Dr. Gardner is looking at the MRI scans in the observation room, and the disappointed look on his face does nothing to soothe Sheriff and Melissa's fears. After a moment, Dr. Gardner points out an orangey-red portion of Stiles' brain, which is showing signs of atrophy. The atrophy is mostly in the frontal lobe, from what I can tell, and not as much the temporal lobe, but I think the point we're supposed to take from this is that Stiles' scan shows signs of frontotemporal dementia. NOOOO STILES. IS. NOT. SICK. I cannot handle a devastating chronic illness on top of all of these life-or-death supernatural shenanigans, it's too much to handle. Sheriff's face is ALSO devastating, and Melissa tries to comfort him by rubbing his back. The song in the background is "The Call" by Ruu Campbell by the way. Gorgeous choice for this scene.
Inside the MRI machine, Stiles is reacting to the loud noises about as well as Lydia was, which is to say, not at ALL. His face and body are clearly tense, and after a few long moments of Stiles squirming and trying not to hyperventilate, he squeezes his eyes closed and gets sucked back into his weird nightmare/hallucination. I'm kind of distracted by Stiles' stubble, tbh. Is that wrong of me? Derek has perma-stubble 100% of the time, I don't know why Stiles can't have a little five o'clock shadow action going on.
(via qhuinn)
He's still in the MRI room, standing next to the machine, but he's in his real clothes, and it's almost completely dark. Everything has a vaguely fuzzy quality to it, too. He looks around, absolutely confused as to how he got here, only to find the bandaged form of the nogitsune skulking behind him. They circle around the machine, and the nogitsune asks Stiles if he's figured out his riddle yet. "If you answer correctly, we might consider letting them go," the nogitsune slurs, as he hobbles around the room. Doesn't he kind of give you Gerard vibes? I can't be the only one thinking this, it's creeping me out.
Stiles asks him who he'd be letting go, so the nogitsune moves theatrically towards the glass separating them from the observation room, where Melissa and Sheriff are still confabbing with Dr. Gardner. "Your friends. Your family. Everyone that ever meant something to you. We're going to destroy all of them, Stiles! One by one." Stiles starts to cry, and asks him why the fuck he's doing this to him/them. Instead of answering, he just repeats the riddle from earlier. "Everyone has it, but no one can lose it. What is it?" Stiles maintains that he doesn't know, so he repeats it again. After Stiles replies the same way twice more, he starts shouting the riddle as he tugs off the dirty bandages covering his face. Stiles grabs his head in fear and basically starts sobbing, until he finally shouts, "I DON'T KNOW."
Just as the nogitsune is starting to peel off the last layer of bandages, Stiles hears a familiar voice (not the nogitsune's) whisper, "What is it Stiles?" That's when Stiles realizes he actually knows the answer--a shadow. Which isn't really correct, is it? I mean, when it's dark, you don't have a shadow? What if the real answer is a NAME? More on that later. Stiles turns around slowly to see the nogitsune take off the rest of the bandages, revealing that Stiles was under the bandages the whole time! Or rather, his shadow was. (I automatically thought back to last season's TVD finale and heard Silas' "Hello, my shadow self" line when I watched this scene the first time, hahaha) Stiles' shadow (who is totally hot, more so than Stiles usually is) smirks at him, which causes everything to go to SHIT.
(via teenwolf)
Stiles opens his eyes in the MRI machine, and you can tell by the dead eyes that it's not our Stiles who is in there. He hears a noise, and looks around the inside of the MRI machine as the lights start to flicker and go out. The manner in which he moves is suspiciously reminiscent of kanima!Jackson in season 2, and it's really weirding me out. In the observation room, everyone is startled by the lights flashing, but Dr. Gardner shrugs it off as yet another power surge. Sheriff Stilinski turns his attention back to the MRI machine, only to realize that Stiles is no longer inside! OH SHIT.
Scott and Derek are still on the roof, heading for the door back into the building, when the wire the nogitsune/Stiles cut sparks behind them, which causes an electrical explosion behind them. Derek and Scott dive out of the general range of the explosion, and watch in horror at what Stiles inadvertently did. The wire ends up breaking itself completely, and since the electricity isn't out completely, the wire is still live, and sparks ominously as it starts whipping around the roof of it's own accord. THIS IS SO NOT GOING TO END WELL AT ALL.
As it turns out, Stiles ended up returning to his hospital room, so he can change out of his hospital gown and into his clothes. He finishes tying his shoelaces as he watches everyone in the hallway starting to hysterically run around the hospital, freaking out about the power going out once again. He walks into the hallway and looks around, stopping when he senses someone nearby. The elevator doors open to reveal MAMA YUKIMURA, standing inside in a leather jacket, looking badass as hell. He walks toward her, staring at her with amusement. "You know me," she calls out confidently. Stiles nods in acknowledgment that he does, so she continues.
(via teenwolf)
"Then you remember that I won't be deterred by your choice of host, even if it is an innocent boy." Stiles just smirks that damn smirk at her and asks her if she's threatening "us," and two oni pop up on either side of her, as if to answer his question. "Now I'm threatening you," she replies. Stiles just chuckles, and states, "We're not really afraid of your little fireflies." Medical personnel and patients are running around, not even noticing this conversation going down. Stiles goes to turn to join the crowd of people vacating the building, but before he can go, she has to get in the last word. "If the oni can't defeat you, I know someone who will." OH SHIT, SHE MEANS KIRA, DOESN'T SHE. And if she does, I have a feeling the nogitsune already knows that was her plan. He stops to look back at her glaring at him, and smirks again before leaving for good.
(via teenwolf)
Outside, Kira is still waiting for Derek when the live wire starts whipping its way down onto the parking lot. It falls in a path that's aiming right for her, and her eyes are wide as she exclaims, "OH MY GOD!" NOOO, THIS IS NOT HOW THIS SHOULD BE ENDING, I NEED MORE ANSWERS.
Next episode: Stiles gets into a ton of shenanigans that may or may not involve the oni, shooting Coach in the gut with an arrow, and an explosion in the Sheriff's department.
[screencaps from KissThemGoodbye]
Click HERE to move on to my recap of the next episode of Teen Wolf!
NOTES/SPECULATION:
-We know that Lydia's banshee powers have been getting stronger and more pronounced over the last two seasons, and going by Celtic lore, banshees are usually attached to families, particularly ones with names that began with Mc- or O'-, like, say, Scott McCall? So it would make total sense that Lydia would be tuned for death/disaster that involves people in Scott's pack, but ever since the ritual in "Lunar Ellipse," it seems as though Lydia has been especially connected to Stiles, especially judging by this episode, where she knew Stiles was in Eichen House (although it was in his dream, and not in reality), and when she was hearing the noises from his MRI. It also makes me think of "Galvanize," where Lydia heard electricity buzzing all day. We thought she was just predicting Kira's death/harm, but what if it was a signal that Stiles was going to get electrocuted by Kira's foxfire, which is what supposedly "jump-started" the nogitsune's control over Stiles? Something to think about, I guess.
-The voicemails Allison got were definitely shady, both because her phone was turned off (something she claims she never does) and because they were from a supposedly non-existent internment camp. I keep thinking back to that drawing of the Nemeton that Lydia drew that he framed and left with a note that said, "For Lydia." Is it possible that he was conscious enough at some point to leave his friends clues that the nogitsune wouldn't notice? And if that's the case, is there a way that he could have sent the voicemails to Allison as a hint, too? OR, are the voicemails a clue that something isn't quite right with Allison? I can't really tell. THIS SEASON IS MAKING ME CRAZY WITH ALL THE ANALYZING.
-How does Mama Yukimura control the oni? Is it part of her gifts, or is she doing some kind of magical spell? According to Japanese lore, kitsune can perform magic, the same as a witch (or in this universe, a druid, I'd imagine). And, better yet, how could the nogitsune in Stiles so easily defeat the oni, when the one that was in the Kumicho in Chris Argent's flashback was killed easy-peasy? Is this nogitsune juiced up on the Nemeton's reawakened power, or is it just stronger?
-Okay, here's my argument for werewolf!Stiles--first of all, if he really is sick like his mother, he's probably going to need the bite to stand any chance of surviving long-term. A lot of people say that Stiles' awesomeness comes from the fact that he's just a regular old (although very clever) human who only has the strength of his brain to protect him, but I just feel like the bite would just make that even more true? Like, even with werewolf powers, Stiles' strengths would still be his brilliant mind, and even though he would have the strength to defend himself, I still feel like his role would be more in the planning than in the actual physical fighting part. No matter what species Stiles is, he's still going to be the brains, with Lydia, and Scott, Derek, and Isaac are the brawn, with Allison and Kira both having the ability to switch sides as needed. If anything, the bite will probably cure his ADD and make him even MORE able to concentrate on the mission planning, you know? And, we wouldn't have to worry about him getting injured, because he'd be able to heal like everyone else. That just seems like a win to me.
-WHAT DID TALIA TELL DEREK WHEN THEY TALKED? Like, Derek seemed really pissed at Peter when he got out, so there had to be something about him in that conversation. Plus, he said his conversation with Talia "changed his perspective on a lot of things," so I feel like this had to be a pretty in-depth conversation. ARE WE EVER GOING TO FIND OUT? I really want to know!
Previously, on Teen Wolf: Kira learned that she's a kitsune, a werefox who has the ability to create fire/lightning bolts called "foxfire." Lydia's banshee powers started revealing themselves even stronger in the form of auditory hallucinations, and Stiles assured her that her instincts have been dead-on ever since they realized she was supernatural. Stiles has been dealing with a ton of negative symptoms that may or may not be related to his mother's illness. The gang figured out (with a little help from a former Yakuza mobster named "Silverfinger" Katashi) that the ninja dementors are actually demons called oni, whose job is to seek out and destroy void kitsune, or "nogitsune," which are dark spirits who possess people. Oh yeah, and Stiles is probably possessed by one, because he was able to kill like three oni with no problems. That's totally going to end well.
The cold open this week begins in Scott's bedroom for a change, where he's snoozing in bed. His phone starts to buzz, and when he sees it's Stiles, he immediately answers and asks Stiles what is going on. There's nothing but silence for a moment, and when Scott calls out his name again, we can finally hear that Stiles is breathing heavily, like he's scared. After what feels like an eternity, Stiles' terrified voice whispers, "Scott?" which causes Scott to leap out of bed and assure Stiles that he's here with him. He asks Stiles again if he's okay. "Scott, I don't know where I am, I don't know how I got here! I think I was sleepwalking." Scott automatically goes into true-alpha-problem-solving-mode and asks Stiles to look around and tell him what he sees so Scott can try to come find him.
Stiles, still borderline hyperventilating, says that it's too dark, so he can't really see anything, and adds, "Oh, no, there's something wrong with my--" before the call drops and the line goes dead. NOOO. Scott starts to panic, and reflexively redials Stiles' number to try to get back in touch with him, but it goes straight to voicemail. He starts to pace as he curses at his phone and tries again, but no luck. He runs a hand through his hair and stares at his phone, willing it to ring, and he breathes a sigh of relief when Stiles calls back a few seconds later. When Scott answers, Stiles stammers, "Scott, I don't think I can get out of here, I can't move." Scott asks him where he is, and Stiles shifts to full freak-out mode. He rambles that he has no idea where he is, it's still too dark for him to see anything, and adds that he can't move his leg, because it's stuck on something and he's pretty sure he's bleeding. Scott starts to freak out a little himself, and asks him how bad it is, but he gets no answer, so Scott repeatedly asks him if he can hear him.
He eventually tells Scott that he's still there, and mentions that there's a terrible smell, wherever he is, and that it's so intense it's making his eyes water. Scott informs him that he's going to call the Sheriff, which only makes Stiles more upset. "Wait, no, no no no no no, don't do that--" Scott remind him that his dad can help, but Stiles makes Scott promise that he won't call his dad, because he already worries too much about Stiles and all the crazy life-or-death situations they get into on the regular. Scott is super stressed about this request, because he doesn't think that he'll be able to find Stiles without help, but Stiles insists that Scott can do it and urges him to keep his dad out of it. Scott worries that he won't be able to do it, but Stiles cuts him off, and tells him that he has to hang up, but he'll call Scott right back. Scott shouts at him not to hang up, but Stiles promises he'll call back soon and hangs up on him. Scott tells Stiles to hang on, but it's no use, the line is already dead. THIS SCENE IS SO STRESSFUL, I CAN'T. Poor Scott! Poor Stiles! Also, no one can ever argue that Scott wouldn't move mountains for Stiles, because LOOK HOW STRESSED HE IS.
Scott lunges for his dresser and starts getting dressed as he pounds on the wall and shouts at Isaac to wake the fuck up. Isaac flings himself into Scott's room within seconds and asks Scott what's wrong, so Scott tosses him his spare motorbike helmet with an order to get dressed, because they have to go find Stiles. When Isaac asks Scott what's wrong with Stiles, Scott pauses, and realizes that he has no idea, because he has no clue where he is. NOOOOO.
Meanwhile, Harleighblu's "Let Me Be" plays in the art room at Beacon Hills High School, where Lydia is sketching Aiden, who is posing on a stool in the middle of the room. It's a really good sketch, too, because Queen Lydia is good at EVERYTHING. Aiden drops his head and rolls the stiffness out of his neck, which annoys Lydia, because she instructed him not to move. He asks if they're allowed to be on the premises after hours, and worries that a security guard might catch them. LOL, that's a good joke, Aiden. Lydia laughs and agrees with me. "There IS no security. The number of homicides in this school has seen to it that no sane person will EVER take a night job here again." I love when TW gets meta, you guys. And she's right, you know. Remember that security guard that Peter killed? And the sheriff's deputy that Jennifer killed? And that's not even getting into Paige or the pianist at the recital or Mr. Westover...
Aiden starts waggling his eyebrows suggestively at Lydia upon hearing this admission that they're all alone in the school, but Lydia just sasses him about losing the pose again. "You know, when you said you wanted me to model for you, this wasn't what I thought you had in mind," Aiden points out, which just makes Lydia scoff, because she doesn't bang murderers anymore. He shrugs his shirt off and throws it onto the floor, because Jeff Davis has the hugest crush on the twins and wants them to be half-naked on the show as often as possible. Lydia just smirks and tells him that nude models usually don't wear pants, but her eyes about pop out of her head when Aiden slips off his pants and throws them at her face. She blushes a little bit as Aiden goes to pull off his boxer briefs, but their sexy interlude gets cut off with a record screech when Lydia starts to hear weird things, as she's wont to do.
She stands up, knocking her stool over in the process, and gapes as Aiden just stands there in his tube socks and underwear, looking awkward as fuck. "Did you hear that?" she asks. Aiden hesitantly replies that he hears music, and asks her what she's hearing. "Voices," she states blankly. We pan over to the speaker, where instead of music, we heard static and muffled crying. As it gets louder, we hear Stiles' terrified voice murmuring "Come find me." YIKES THIS IS TERRIBLE.
Scott and Isaac are rushing down the stairs to go try to find Stiles when Scott's phone finally rings again. He stops what he's doing when he sees that it's Stiles, and answers it. Stiles fearfully asks Scott if he called the Sheriff, but Scott swears to him that he didn't, he only told Isaac. Isaac leans in so he can hear the conversation better, while Scott assures him that they're getting ready to leave to find him, and asks him to try to get any detail that he can to help them out. Stiles guesses he's in some kind of basement, like in an industrial building or something, and he thinks he sees a furnace. He mentions that it's freezing, wherever he is, before again telling Scott that he has to hang up again because his phone is about to die. He quietly pleads with Scott to come find him, but Scott worriedly asks him why he's whispering. "Because I think there's someone in here with me." Yup, I was just about to be like "HOW COULD THIS BE WORSE," and then they totally made it worse. And it's only going to get more brutal from here. MY HEART CAN'T TAKE THIS SHIT. TITLE CARD!
"A Million Drums" by Claire (which is one of my current obsessions) plays as we cut over to the Yukimura household. Kira is in her pajama, laying prone on her bed as she reads one of her textbooks from school. She leans over to turn on the light to her lamp, and frowns when the light won't turn on. Inside of getting up and getting a new light bulb herself, she shouts to her mom in the other room to ask if they have any. Oh, teenagers. She sits up and pulls off the lampshade, but before she can even touch the light bulb, it flickers with light. She instinctively pulls her hand away, and the light goes back out. Curious, she reaches her hand out again, and watches in shock and amazement when she can see little bolts of electricity shooting out from her fingertips and into the bulb, which relights it. Sweet skills, girl! When she grabs the bulb in her hand, the amount of electricity is too much for the light bulb, and it completely shatters. Yikes!
(via teenwolf)
Of course, her mother comes in just in time to see the bulb burst, and asks her WTF she just did. Kira claims it was just an accident, so her mom instead scolds her for the fact that it's way past her bedtime. Hey now, she's studying! That's a productive reason to be up late! It's not like she's up all night scrolling on her Tumblr dashboard, like I am, you know? When her mom replaces the broken bulb with a fresh one, her own fingers spark with electricity, which doesn't escape her daughter's notice. Still, she says nothing about their powers or supernatural status, and quickly replaces the lampshade before ordering Kira to go to sleep. Secrets, secrets are no fun; secrets, secrets, hurt someone, Mama Yukimura! Tell your daughter what's up!
(via teenwolf)
Scott and Isaac burst into Stiles' bedroom, only to find that Lydia and Aiden are already there. Scott asks her if Stiles called her, too, but she tells him that she HEARD him. "Don't ask," Aiden exclaims. "It gets more confusing when you ask." Isaac gives Aiden a look that's like, "Tell me about it, dude." Lydia points out that it's definitely not more confusing than the current state of Stiles' bedroom, and I immediately get even MORE worried about Stiles when the camera pans back so we can see his case board. There are dozens and dozens of strings of red yard connected to various photos and documents on the board, all of them tied to a huge pair of shears that has been stabbed into his mattress. Lydia informs them that Stiles uses red yarn for unsolved cases, and the four of them stare at his walls in horror. Aiden suggests that he is dreaming/sleepwalking that he's part of an unsolved case. "Or IS an unsolved case," Isaac mutters negatively.
"Hold on," Lydia states. "Is he still out there? You don't know where he is?" Scott updates her on what he learned from Stiles' phone call regarding his location, and Isaac adds that they came to get a better scent to try to track him. When Lydia asks what else Stiles said, Scott admits that he said he thinks his leg is injured and possibly bleeding, which doesn't help Lydia's anxiety one bit. Isaac mentions that Stiles said that he was freezing cold, and Aiden remembers that tonight is the coldest night of the year for their area, and the low temperature is going to be in the 20s. I know they're from central California, but considering the Polar Vortex my region has been dealing with all winter (with temperatures as low as -20 degrees F) I have a hard time getting worried about 20 degree weather.
She asks him what Sheriff said, so Scott is forced to confess that he hasn't called him yet, because Stiles made him promise not to tell him what happened. Thank god for Lydia and her common sense, because she immediately is like, "Stiles is bleeding and freezing and you didn't call his dad?" Scott doesn't think it's necessary yet, because they can track him by scent, though he's operating on the assumption that Stiles is sleepwalking and couldn't have gone far on foot. Unfortunately, Aiden is the only one who noticed that Stiles' Jeep isn't in the driveway, which means that he is sleepDRIVING as well as sleepwalking, which is TERRIFYING. Lydia goes to call Sheriff Stilinski, since she made no promises to Stiles about doing so, but Scott, desperate to keep his promise, suggests that he could get more help, like Derek and Allison, but Lydia points out that calling everyone EXCEPT the cops is not a great plan. Aiden backs her up by reminding him that Lydia only gets these weird feelings when someone is about to die, so they should probably be taking it more seriously.
Scott finally decides to see reason and tells her that since the station is only five minutes away, they can stop there next. They go to leave, but Lydia stops Aiden and informs them that they'll catch up with them, because she's sure there has to be clues somewhere in this room. "Yeah, evidence of total insanity," Isaac snits, and I get kind of disappointed, because hey dude, I know you and Stiles are barely friends, but that's not helpful! Scott sighs, and insists that they'll figure out what's wrong with Stiles AFTER they save him from hypothermia and god knows what else, so Lydia urges them to go, with the promise that they're right behind them.
(via teenwolf)
We finally catch our first glimpse of Stiles, who is practically in tears and trying to access the flashlight on his camera. Once he gets it working, he turns to look around, and finds that his fucking FOOT is CAUGHT IN A BEAR TRAP. Just like the ones Papa Tate stashed all around the nature preserve. Stiles screams in terror and pain when he sees his mangled left foot. NOOOOOO.
He rolls over and sobs a bit, but is completely startled when he hears a noise nearby. "Who's there?" Stiles asks fearfully. "I know you're there, I can hear you!" He pans his phone's light around the room, and it looks pretty much like Stiles described to Scott--big, industrial, with lots of machinery around. He stops when he notices a person hiding behind the furnace. The man is crouched down, almost kneeling, and seems to be writing something on the wall. He lowers his hand, revealing that it's covered in a glove made of what looks like bandages, and rolls a piece of chalk towards Stiles.
Stiles focuses on the piece of chalk, but when he turns back to the man, he's gone! In his place is the kanji onore, "å·±," the same sign that all the wolves + Lydia got tattooed behind their ears. OH SHIT. Stiles is pretty terrified at this point, and mutters, "Self" under his breath, which causes a magical gust of wind to blow the chalk (and a bunch of dried up leaves) across the floor of the basement toward the wall. Then, the chalk outline of the kanji completely dissipates into white smoke. WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING. Stiles just stares at it in fear and starts to breathe heavily again.
At the Sheriff's Department, Sheriff Stilinski looks at a map and allows him one moment of ruminating over what the fuck is happening to his child right now, before pulling himself together and giving out orders. (Also, the fact that he and Chris Argent still wear their wedding rings makes me cry ALL THE TEARS, you guys) He turns to Scott, and decides that if Stiles' Jeep is gone, that should be where they start. He instructs his newest deputy, Deputy Parrish, who is super adorable, to put out an APB on Roscoe, which, if you're curious, is a teal blue 1980 CJ5 Jeep. He asks another deputy, Cordova, for a list of any building in Beacon Hills with an industrial basement. He reminds all of his men that since it's the coldest night of the year, he'll get hypothermic very quickly, especially if he's only wearing his pajamas, so they need to move quickly. "Let's move fast, let's think fast," he orders, before calling Isaac and Scott into his office.
Once they're alone, Sheriff asks them if there's anything he needs to know that the others can't know, and Scott admits that Lydia knew he was missing. When he asks if she could help find him, Isaac assures him that she's working on it. Scott adds that he also called Allison and Derek to help them out as well. Sheriff asks them if they can track him by scent, but they're interrupted by Deputy Parrish, who informs them that they've located Stiles' Jeep.
Cut to Beacon Hills Memorial Hospital, where police cruisers, plus Scott and Isaac on Scott's motorbike, pull up to Roscoe, only to find that the battery is dead. Sheriff figures he must have left a door open or something, but Scott doesn't understand why he would come here in the first place. As soon as they get inside, Melissa meets up with them and lets them know that security is already doing sweeps of every floor, but they haven't found anything yet. Sheriff asks about the basement, so Melissa has him follow her so they can search it together.
Meanwhile, Scott and Isaac decide to check out the roof just in case, only to find that Derek beat them to it. He tells them that Stiles isn't there, at least not anymore. Isaac says he'll go update the Sheriff, and Scott instructs him to go figure out why Allison isn't answering her phone, because they could really use her help on this. When he leaves, Scott joins Derek, who asks him if he's noticed how strong Stiles' scent is up there. Then, we get a little lesson on werewolves and their olfactory senses. "You ever hear of chemosignals? [beat] Chemical signals that communicate emotion. Just our sweat can give off anger, fear, or...disgust. Take a deep breath, and tell me what you feel." Scott takes a whiff and realizes that Stiles' scent smells like stress and anxiety, which Derek confirms. Scott asks him what Stiles could have possibly be doing up there, but he has no idea--all he does know is that Stiles was definitely in some kind of struggle when he was here. When Scott wonders who he was struggling with, Derek figures that he was struggling with himself. OH GOD. I don't like annnnny of this! My bbs. :( I do like Derek being a super helpful older brother/teacher/mentor, though! It's like when he was teaching Scott to use his senses at Isaac's house after Papa Lahey got killed. I am digging this Yoda-y Derek!
Agent Douchenozzle seems to have more or less recovered from being stabbed in the shoulder with one of the oni's ninjadas, though he's still in a sling, and he swaggers into the office to see what's going on. He heads for Deputy Parrish's desk, and asks him where everyone is. When he gets no answer, he asks if they have any leads on their "sword-wielding maniac." Wait wait wait, so he gets stabbed in the shoulder with a SWORD by a demon demon-hunter, and then hears his son and his buddies shifting into wolves and fighting them and jumping through windows and stuff, and he still thinks it was just some sort of run-of-the-mill home invasion? He's either SUPER stupid, or SUPER shady, and I still can't decide which. Deputy Parrish instantly wins my affections by gesturing toward some wanted posters hanging up in the office, complete with a drawing of a guy who looks like Zorro. "Nope, but we've got posters up all over town of your guy," Parrish says with a smirk. ADN points out that it doesn't exactly look like what he told the sketch artist, so Parrish just sighs and reminds him that they kind of have more important things to worry about than some dude who stabbed him. ADN gets worried, and asks what their high priority is of the night is. Dun dun dunnnn!
At the Stilinski house, Aiden is snooping through photos of Scott and Stiles on Stiles' desk as Lydia looks around the room for clues. Lydia twiddles her thumbs as she looks at the case-board, which has basically taken up two and a half walls of his bedroom. Aiden smirks when he finds a framed copy of one of Lydia's Nemeton sketches, and scoffs. "Didn't you draw this?" She tells him to put it back, but he retorts that he must REALLY like Lydia. Yes, he does, jerkoff, and she likes him too! Jealousy isn't very attractive, Aiden. Lydia suggests that maybe he just likes the tree, but Aiden points out that there's a note on the back of the frame that says, "For Lydia." While it's possible that it was meant as a gift for her, I'm still thinking that this is a clue from somewhere in Stiles' unconscious, and I really want to see it brought back into play later!
Lydia's phone beeps, and she checks it to find that she got a message from Scott. "Nothing at hospital. Derek headed to high school. Isaac going to find Allison. I'm with Stiles' dad." Lydia is pleased to hear that the Sheriff has finally been brought into the fold, but Aiden just whines about the fact that they're stuck in Stiles' room, staring at the walls. She shoots him another one of her glares and gets back to studying the photos on the board. Aiden reaches up and tugs on a string, which makes a sound much like a guitar string being plucked. Underneath, there is a small current of whispers that Lydia totally notices. She asks him what he just did, and when she learns he pulled on the string, she pulls on one too, and listens to the whispers that come out of it. "What did that sound like to you?" Lydia asks, so Aiden replies that it sounded like a string being pulled, duh, no whispers or anything weird like that. Lydia pulls the string again, and is frustrated that he can't hear it, too. "Lydia, I'm not sure anyone hears what you hear."
She tells him she hears whispering, and after listening more, she tells him she hears them talking about a house of some kind. She plucks the string for more answers, and listens as the voices draw her to a photo of a house that is hanging on the wall, right where the string is attached. She determines that this is the house the voices were telling her about, so Aiden examines the photo and asks her what "Eichen House" is. Lydia freezes for a moment, before admitting that Eichen House is a mental health center, the one where William Barrow (the shrapnel bomber from "Galvanize") was committed. Oh, that is soooooo not good, not at all. Aiden asks her if that's where Stiles is, and Lydia is relieved to say that it is. Yay, Lydia! Embrace those banshee powers!
Stiles is still laying on the floor of the basement, and swears under his breath when his phone finally dies and takes away his only source of light. He throws his phone onto the floor and takes another look at his foot. He bends over and tries to break open the trap, or at least widen the gap far enough to get his foot out, but he's not strong enough. His shriek of pain when he touches the trap literally broke my heart into a million pieces. God damn you and your awesome acting skills, Dylan O'Brien! Stiles is startled when the man from earlier comes out of the shadows, and he manages to pull himself up off the floor a little bit in order to get into a more defensive stance. "Who's there? WHO ARE YOU?" he bellows, as he tries to see who the man is. The man says, "Watagushi, na ke de wa nai," but Stiles doesn't know Japanese (and neither do I, so I couldn't tell you what this means! Japanese speakers, please help a girl out in the comments!) He continues on to say something else in Japanese, but his voice is so mumbly that I can't hear a word he's saying. Let's just say the guy is creepy and mush-mouthy and move on, yeah?
After reiterating that he doesn't speak Japanese, the man replies. "Not 'Who are you?', Stiles. 'Who are WE?'" Stiles is basically crying in fear, for which I do not blame him at all, because this is terrifying, tbh, and the guy changes the subject to the fact that the temperature is dropping. He points out that "we" (He and Stiles?) have stopped shivering, and asks him if he knows why that is not a good thing at ALL. "It's the body trying to conserve energy," Stiles gasps. "It was my fifth grade science report. Hypothermia." The man (who I'm going to assume is the nogitsune) starts listing off the symptoms that come next (slurred speech, fatigue, etc) and informs him that they will both die if they don't get out of there. Stiles yells at him to stop saying "we," but the nogitsune claims he's trying to keep him from freezing to death out there, and says that he needs to get out of there.
"How? THERE'S A FREAKING STEEL-JAWED TRAP ON MY LEG!" Stiles bellows. The nogitsune steps into the light, revealing a face covered in bandages, with silver fangs like a lamprey fish (just like the nogitsune in the flashbacks). "Is there?" the nogistune asks curiously, and Stiles just sobs into his fist. "Noticed something different. The trap was on your right leg earlier, wasn't it?" Stiles insists that it wasn't, but when he looks back down, the trap IS on his right leg, even though it was totally on his left before. Stiles asks him what the fuck he's trying to do, but the nogistune swears they're just looking out for Stiles' best interests. "We're trying to save your life." I AM SO CREEPED OUT OH MY GOD.
Sheriff arrives in his cruiser at Eichen House and meets Lydia, Scott, and Aiden in front of the wrought-iron gates. "Lydia," he begins, trying not to say too much in front of his clueless deputies. "I don't want to say 'Are you sure about this?', but..." Lydia swears that Stiles is in this building, so they all run into the building and make a bee-line for the front desk, where Sheriff Stilinski requests entry into their basement. AW YEAH SHERIFF! I'm just wondering how the deputies feel, to be constantly deferring to a bunch of (admittedly amazing and smart) teenagers, though.
Back at the station, Blobfish walks back over to Deputy Parrish's desk with a handful of papers, and asks if it's the exact transcript from Scott's phone call with Stiles. Parrish insists that it's what Sheriff gave them. "But these words?" ADN asks. "Stiles says, 'Something smells terrible, my eyes are watering?'" Pretty sure those aren't the EXACT words, but whatever, it's still right in context. Parrish just shrugs, because who gives a fuck about ADN? Especially when he's been so shitty to Sheriff Stilinski and the rest of the department, who seem to all be loyal to him. (And for good reason!) ADN turns around when he hears Melissa's voice at the front desk, asking for him, and walks out of the office to meet with her. He asks her what she's doing here, but Melissa replies, "My shift was over, I just wanted to see if I could help." Real-life angel Melissa McCall for President of the World 2014, amirite?
In the hallways of Eichen House, the group follows Lydia's lead, and when she starts to walk into the main room, she senses that they're in the right place, and runs forward to get a better look around. Sheriff busts through a door to a stairwell, and they all rush down the stairs into the basement proper and split up to find Stiles. You can tell by the furnace and the hot water tank that they're in the same place that we've seen Stiles so far, but he isn't anywhere to be found. Scott turns to Lydia in hopes that she has some kind of feeling that can help him, but her face just looks confused and a little devastated. "I don't get it," she whispers, frustrated. "This HAS to be it!" Sheriff Stilinski's fear and frustrations eventually become too much for him, and he shouts. "Where is he? Where is my son?"
Lydia jumps back away from him and closes her eyes, scared and pissed at herself for leading them into what ended up being a false alarm, and Sheriff immediately regrets blowing up on her and apologizes. It reminds me a lot of Stiles and Lydia's scene in the season finale of Season 2, remember? When he was talking about how badly he'd be hurt if she died? Like father, like son. Lydia maintains that she doesn't understand how she could have gotten this wrong, and Aiden sympathetically rubs her shoulder and gently leads her back up the stairs, as Sheriff and Scott dejectedly follow behind them. As the camera pans up to follow them up the stairs, we can see that the Japanese kanji for "self" is carved into the wall, right where the nogitsune drew it in chalk with Stiles. Noooo! Lydia wasn't technically wrong, Stiles IS there, just not in the way that they think. Don't doubt yourself, my banshee queen!
We meet back up with Melissa, who is riding in the passenger's seat of her ex-husband's car as they drive to God knows where. It is then when we get to witness a pretty hilarious conversation that is not only pretty smart, but also kind of insightful, with regards to Melissa and ADN's relationship. Melissa asks him what the fuck he's trying to say, and ADN suggests that Stiles is still sleepwalking.
MELISSA: "You mean, he's been asleep the WHOLE time?"
RAFAEL: "People who sleepwalk can do crazy things. I mean, one guy goes down to the kitchen and cooks an entire meal, another guy's found mowing his lawn. Naked."
MELISSA: [chuckles] "Does any of that matter?"
RAFAEL: "Remember that townhouse apartment we lived in? There was that one night, I came home drunk..."
MELISSA: [side-eyes him] "Oh, ONE night..."
RAFAEL: "Let me finish! So, I'm drunk, passed out on the bed. I get up to go to the bathroom, and then suddenly I hear YOU, yelling 'What the hell are you doing?'"
MELISSA: "Because you were in the closet, peeing into the laundry basket!"
RAFAEL: "Yeah, I thought it was the bathroom!"
MELISSA: "Ah, no, you were drunk off your ass."
RAFAEL: "But, I was convinced it was the bathroom. So, how do we know Stiles isn't convinced he's in some kind of basement, and isn't actually there? [chews lip] I think when he called Scott, he was still asleep. He's still asleep right now."
MELISSA: [serious] "Then where is he?"
RAFAEL: "I've got an idea about that, too."Okay, so 1) we now know that ADN had a drinking problem, just like Sheriff Stilinski was said to have a couple years ago, which could explain why he and Melissa ended up getting divorced and why Scott is so resentful towards him. 2) this is AWESOME and totally explains why Lydia felt that Stiles was at Eichen House, but when they got there, he wasn't there. He's there in his DREAM, and since he's still sleeping, Lydia mistakenly believed that he was there IRL and not just in his unconscious. This also makes me think about "Anchors," and how Lydia was in one of Stiles' dreams, telling him not to go through the door. Is it possible that Lydia, because of her banshee powers, and because of her emotional-tether connection to Stiles, has been visiting his subconscious and unconscious in order to protect him? If so, I LOVE it.
The nogitsune is still terrorizing Stiles in what looks like the basement of Eichen House, and write the "å·±" on the chalkboard again. "You don't understand, do you?" he lisps through his ridiculous silver teeth. "It's a riddle." Stiles is looking extremely worse for wear, at this point. You can see the cold is making him drowsy, and he looks tense as hell. The nogitsune asks him if he knows any riddles, and he manages to weakly state that he knows a few. The nogi decides to test Stiles, and tells him a couple riddles, which he's able to answer correctly. What gets bigger, the more you take away? A hole. What gets wetter, the more it dries? A towel. When he asks, "When is a door not a door?" Stiles freezes, before replying that it's "When it's ajar." The nogitsune places his hand over the "å·±" he's scrawled on the wall, and asks his final riddle. "Everyone has it, but no one can lose it. What is it?"
Stiles hasn't heard this one before, and after thinking about it for a moment, he admits that he doesn't know. The nogi stands up and growls at Stiles a bit, before starting to walk toward him. Stiles is starting to shiver again, and sputters through the tears and snot running down his face. "Everyone has it, but no one can lose it," the nogitsune asks again. "What is it?" Stiles starts to break down again, and stammers that he doesn't know. The nogitsune continues to slowly make his way toward him, and repeats the riddle again. It moves really weirdly, like it's walking through jello or something, it's bizarre. When Stiles doesn't respond, he starts asking the riddle in Japanese, which, of course, Stiles doesn't understand.
He starts to cry again, and bites at his knuckles, so the nogitsune bellows the riddle in Japanese again, right in Stiles' face. Stiles backs up in fear, and the nogitsune makes this movement like, "Eh, fuck it," and grabs the chain attached to the bear trap before pulling on it. Stiles screams at him to stop, but he continues to drag him by the trap attached to his leg. Stiles' pained screams literally shatter whatever was left of my heart into smithereens, it's terrible. He continues to shriek, "No, wait, WAIIIIIT," as he's dragged across the floor, and after what feels like a million years, we find that Stiles was actually in the coyote den the entire time, sleeping on the floor and dreaming that he was in Eichen House's basement! Melissa and ADN have found him, and Melissa holds onto him to keep him from thrashing as she assures him that he's okay.
Eventually, he quiets down, but Melissa holds onto him tightly, rubbing his arms to try to warm him. He's covered in dirt, and the look on his face is somewhere between terror and disappointment. Part of me wonders if this wasn't something Stiles was at least a little conscious about. Think about it--if Stiles knew he was being controlled by a malevolent force, wouldn't he want to get as far away from his friends as possible? And judging by the nogitsune's "We're trying to save your life," comment, I'm thinking that Stiles was trying to die of hypothermia on purpose so that he could protect his loved ones. STOP CRUSHING MY HEART, STILES STILINSKI/DYLAN O'BRIEN.
After the break, we head over to the Argent Abode, where Isaac is pounding on the front door. Allison stumbles out of bed, still in her pajamas and with adorable bedhead, and answers the door. "What the hell have you been doing?" Isaac demands, not even letting her get a greeting in. She side eyes him, and points out that she's been sleeping, like normal people do at night. She asks him what HE'S doing, and he gets confused. He asks her why she didn't get any of their texts and phone calls, and she frowns before running to her room to find her phone. Isaac closes the door behind him before following her. She informs him that her phone was off, and adds that she never turns her phone off as she boots it up. When she sees all of her missed calls and texts about Stiles, she gets worried, and immediately asks if Stiles is okay.
(via halebunnies)
Isaac assures her that they found him a couple minutes prior and took him to the hospital, and she sighs with relief, before apologizing again for missing the memo. "I don't know what happened, I never turn it off." She sees that she has some voicemails, and clicks on them as they listen to them on speaker. We hear a male voice speaking in rapid Japanese, which naturally puzzles both Allison and Isaac, since neither of them speak Japanese. Isaac asks who it is, but she has no idea, so he just leans in so he can hear it better.
(via halebunnies)
Over at the hospital, Aiden is helping Derek jump Stiles' Jeep, which is an uncharacteristically nice thing for either of them to do. Man, they really must be trying to woo Scott, eh? Aiden asks Derek if he thinks Stiles was just sleepwalking, or if he thinks that there's something shady afoot, to which Derek replies, "In this town, there's always something more." True that! Aiden mentions that he might KNOW something more, so Derek gives him one of his patented eyebrow-raises that silently orders him to start talking, pronto. Aiden admits that he eavesdropped on Stiles and Scott's conversation in "Silverfinger," where Stiles was worried that he was the one who sent Barrow after Kira by writing the code on the chalkboard in the chemistry room.
Derek scoffs at the idea that Stiles could be the one possessed by a void kitsune. "You think STILES, skinny, defenseless, Stiles, is the nogitsune? A powerful, dark spirit?" Aiden points out that he's not the only person thinking it could be happening, he's just the only one saying it, because no one else wants to consider the possibility. Derek still doesn't understand why the nogitsune would jump into someone like Stiles when it could have someone stronger and more powerful, which made me laugh, because it almost sounds like he's disappointed that the nogitsune didn't possess him instead. Silly Derek. It's not until he looks down at the jumper cables in his hands and touches the clamps together, causing a spark of electricity, that he gets a dawning realization about what could have possibly happened. OH SHIT, he's thinking about Kira, isn't he?!
Inside, Melissa and ADN are talking quietly in the hall, as Scott and Lydia wait silently in the lobby's bench as Sheriff Stilinski comes out and gives them an update. "He's sleeping now, and he's just fine," he says quietly, as everyone breathes a sigh of relief. "He doesn't remember much, it's a bit like a dream to him." He turns to Blobfish and thanks him for his pretty awesome deduction for where Stiles could be. ADN shrugs it off, and says it's just lucky that Stiles mentioned the smell in his phone call to Scott, because it made him think of the animal repellant that the police used to keep the animals out of the coyote den. Sheriff Stilinski is like, "Dude, I'm trying to thank you here, can you quit being a dick?" So, he quits being a dick, for ONCE, and the two men shake hands. Aw, now ADN needs to stop being a dick and stop trying to impeach Sheriff!
Melissa breaks up this tender moment and tells Scott and Lydia that they need to get home, since they have school in the morning. She gives her son a quick hug before Scott takes Lydia's hand and walks with her out of the hospital. Can I just say how much I love how tactile and affectionate the pack is with each other? I feel like they're always holding hands or rubbing each other's shoulders and it makes me SO happy. MORE PACK SNUGGLES PLEASE. Lydia is still beating herself up about the fact that she was 100% sure that Stiles was at Eichen House, but Scott tries to comfort her by pointing out that he wasn't very much help at all either. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to make her feel any better. She starts to hear a loud clanking noise as Scott adds that it doesn't matter what happened, as long as he's safe and okay now. He can tell something's up, and asks her what she's hearing, but she's still insecure about what happened earlier, and lies that she doesn't hear anything. NO, LYDIA! BELIEVE IN YOURSELF.
In the locker room at school the next day, Scott sits on a bench and texts Dr. Deaton, "Anything yet?" After a moment, he gets a reply. "Working on it." Snow Ghosts' "Gallows Strung" plays as Scott walks out of the locker room and into the hallway. At the other end of the hall, Kira sees Scott, and calls out for him, but Scott is so distracted by how worried he is about Stiles, he either doesn't hear her, or chooses to ignore her, and instead walks away. Aw, Kira! She looks really disappointed, and is about to turn around when Derek appears out of nowhere and sympathetically says, "He's a little preoccupied. But, I can help you." Oh Derek, when are you going to quit pretending like you still look like you could pass for a high schooler? That massive 5 o'clock shadow begs to differ. Kira asks him why he would want to help her, so he informs her that he needs her to tell him everything that happened at the power station in "Galvanize." "Actually, I want you to show me." You guys, I seriously LOVE the possibilities of a Kira/Derek friendship, omg. I need more!
Melissa and Sheriff take a peek into Stiles' hospital room, where he's sleeping relatively soundly. In the hallway, Melissa takes a deep breath before deciding she needs to confess Stiles' last visit to her to his dad. "It was the other day," she admits quietly, clearly nervous about what she's about to say. "I asked him some questions, just symptoms, and, um..." Her voice breaks on the last word, and she just gives him the most sympathetic look ever, unable to finish that sentence. Sheriff sighs and assures her that it's okay before taking a small notepad out of his pocket and flipping it open. "I think I--, uh, I think I know what you're talking about. I've been writing these down for the past two weeks." He hands her the notepad, where he's written a list of symptoms he's noticed in Stiles: impulsivity, hallucinations, insomnia, night terrors, dissociative, confusion. Sheriff looks Melissa, who looks like she's about to cry, in the eyes, and says that he thinks they need to do some tests. Nooooooo! STILES IS NOT SICK. I REFUSE TO BELIEVE IT.
Kira and Derek, in their adorable matching black leather jackets, have just arrived at the power station where Barrow brought Kira. They walk around the giant main room, and Kira informs Derek that she thinks it happened around where they're standing, though she admits that in the light of day, everything looks the same. Derek notices a scuffed line in the floor and follows it to a power generator, where an aluminum baseball bat is stuck to the machine. Kira asks why there's a bat there, but Derek immediately recognizes it as Stiles' bat and goes to pull it off. Cue Sterek shipper insanity on Tumblr. The bat is REALLY stuck to the generator, and it takes a ton of Derek's strength to wrench it off, which leads him to realize the bat has been magnetized. He steps back to the beginning of the scuffed line on the floor, and puts the tip of the bat on it. The magnetization causes the bat to grind against the floor as it reattaches itself to the generator. Look at Derek being the brains of the operation! I LOVE IT. Failwolf no more! He turns to Kira and states, "Kira, I need you to tell me everything you know about foxfire." When Kira looks extremely puzzled at this request, he nods to the sign behind her, which reads, "DANGER--HIGH VOLTAGE." You don't say.
(via teenwolf)
Isaac and Allison have actually attended school, for once, instead of running around and getting into trouble with Allison's dad. They made a pitstop to Mr. Yukimura's classroom, where they played him the weird voicemail that was left on Allison's phone. He confirms that it is, in fact, in Japanese, and asks her who left the voicemail for her. Apparently, there are multiple messages, all of which say the exact same thing, and all of which were left by someone calling from a blocked number. Isaac asks him if he can translate it, and he thinks he can, mostly. "The man speaking is giving directions, actually. The first line is, 'All evacuees are required to stand at least ten feet back from outside fences.'" Allison and Isaac are both clueless, naturally, and ask him what that means. "Fences surrounding a Japanese internment camp during World War II," he replies. Oh shit, there's our WWII connection! We've known since 3B started that this was going to play a major role in the story.
"After Pearl Harbor, Japanese-Americans were rounded up and put into camps," Papa Yukimura continues. "This man is reading instructions to prisoners upon their arrival." Can I just say that I LOVE that this show is tackling the subject of Japanese internment in the 1940s? It was one of many extremely shameful events in American history, and it's astounding and embarrassing at how little most modern-day Americans know about the subject. I personally hadn't learned anything about it until I was 19 years old, when I took History of Injustice in the United States at my first college. So yeah, the fact that kids watching this show are learning something like this that they're probably not taught in school is amazing to me. ANYWAY, Papa Yukimura turns off the voicemail and hands Allison's phone back to her as he stands up from his desk. Allison asks him where a recording like this would come from. He claims he has no idea, and reveals that the recording is a fake, because it talks about a camp called Oak Creek, which apparently never existed. Isaac and Allison both sigh and look at each other, like, "What the fuck do we do now?"
Lydia, whose hair looks amazing in one of those milk-maid braids that goes around her head, is standing by Scott's locker as she waits for him to exchange his books. She flinches when she hears a locker door slammed nearby, and Scott immediately notices that something is up. Scott asks her if she's okay, but she just lies again. "Yeah, I'm just a little hypersensitive to loud sounds today," she whispers, as she flinches again at the sound of another locker being slammed shut. Scott can tell she's lying, but decides not to push it, and instead expositions that Stiles is having a bunch of tests done today. "I was gonna go over around six to visit. You wanna come with me?" he asks hopefully.
Aw, I love their friendship so much! And I love how he's trying to protect her by keeping a close eye on her. Lydia is still a little shell-shocked from all the loud sounds, and replies that she should probably just go home instead. No, Lydia! Quit ignoring your instincts! Another locker slams, and she's visibly startled by it. Scott looks around the hallway before asking again if she's okay, but she absently shrugs it off. "Yeah," she responds quietly, as she walks toward the front doors to the school. "I'll text you later." Scott looks extremely worried as she walks away, jumping at the sound of books being dropped on tables and locker doors clanging. She rushes down the hallway and runs out the door to get away from the noise. YIKES.
(via halebunnies)
Melissa, Sheriff, and Scott are with Stiles in the MRI room, as Dr. Gardner (who I was sure died when Barrow stabbed him with the scalpel) looks at Stiles' chart and stammers, "I'm not sure I know how to pronounce this, or if it's not actually a misspelling..." Everyone in the TW meta tag on Tumblr is convinced that Stiles' name is going to play a huge role in this season with regards to the nogitsune, and this seems like just more proof! We know that it's a Polish name that is super hard to pronounce, which is why Sheriff Stilinski instructs Dr. Gardner to just call him "Stiles." The doctor turns to Stiles, and explains the MRI process to him; he warns him that he's going to hear a lot of noise, as a result of the electricity going through the metal coils and causing the magnetic pulses. He asks Stiles if he needs earplugs, or headphones so he can listen to music, but Stiles insists that he'll be fine.
He shifts his weight on the bench, covered up in his flimsy robe, as Sheriff assures him that they'll just be in the other room while he's in the MRI tube. He and Melissa smile at him soothingly, and Stiles pats his dad on the shoulder as they leave. Scott stays behind, so he and Stiles can make the rest of us ugly sob with their brotherhood. "You know what they're looking for, right?" Stiles asks Scott, who is cracking his knuckles awkwardly. "It's called frontotemporal dementia." Scott watches Stiles with concern as he explains that it's when the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain start to atrophy, or shrink, and then delivers the worst news--it's what his mother had, because it's the only form of dementia that can affect teenagers and young adults, and there's no cure. NO. STILES IS NOT SICK.
Scott tries his best to hold back his tears, and does the sweetest thing a dude can do for his brother-in-arms. "Stiles, if you have it, we'll do something." Stiles just stares at the wall, not wanting to think about the possibility, and not understanding the gravity of Scott's words. "I'LL do something," Scott insists. OMG! Scott said he'll bite Stiles to cure his dementia! OMG! I know this is a terribly unpopular opinion, but I love the idea of werewolf!Stiles! I'll get into that more later. Stiles tears up himself, and pulls Scott into the most tender and heartfelt hug I've ever seen. SCILES/SKITTLES FOREVER. THE OTP OF OTPS. From the other side of the glass, Melissa and Sheriff watch their kids hug it out, and almost start to cry as well.
(via teenwolf)
Outside the hospital, Kira and Derek pull into the parking lot in Derek's Toyota SUV. Kira hesitantly gets out of the car, and after a moment, she stops Derek as he walks toward the entrance. "I don't know if I should go in," Kira begins. Derek just quirks his eyebrows at her in his patented, "Why?" face, so she rambles on. "You're gonna tell Scott that Barrow might have used foxfire, created by me, to jumpstart the nogitsune's power inside Stiles." Derek is like, "And your point is?", so Kira reminds him that she more or less helped a powerful dark spirit take a ride in Stiles' meatsuit. Derek suddenly understands, and deadpans, "You should probably wait here," which totally relieves Kira. Aw, she must feel so guilty! It's not like it's her fault, she doesn't even know how to use her powers yet. The foxfire she created was basically a survival instinct.
Stiles is being slid into the MRI machine as Mr. Gardner informs him that the MRI will take between 45 minutes and an hour. In typical Stiles fashion, he starts rolling and cracking his neck just as the doctor instructs him not to move. Stiles can't NOT move, though, because he's Stiles, so he starts to wiggle just a little bit before he's told to cut it out. LOL. He warns Stiles in advance that he's going to hear the noise, and Stiles starts to hear loud clanging noises soon after. Stiles purses his lips and sighs as he tries to tune out the sound.
Meanwhile, Lydia is parked somewhere in her car, where she's hearing the same clanging noise as Stiles, just like earlier in the day. OMG, did she somehow unconsciously know that Stiles was going to be getting an MRI? Man, she really needs to start telling people these things IMMEDIATELY so they can try to figure it out! You would think after almost three entire seasons, this gang would learn the concept of "full and immediate disclosure," right? Anyway, you can tell the noise is really bothering Lydia, because she rubs her temples a little bit before cranking up the music in her fancy Toyota. The song is "Slippin' Around" by Zhala, and it is AMAZING, just like all of the Teen Wolf soundtrack. She continues to pinch the bridge of her nose and generally look like she's being driven crazy by the clanging noise.
Back in the hospital, Scott and Derek are sitting across from each other in the lobby, elbows on their knees, waiting for Stiles to finish his tests. The fact that Derek stayed to comfort Scott just made my heart super happy. Scott brings up Derek's lesson earlier on chemosignals, and mentions that it reminded him about how Derek taught him how to use anger to control his wolf-side. "I think YOU ended up teaching ME more about that," Derek admits, which makes Scott grin a little bit. Scott asks him if he's teaching him again, but Derek prefers to think of it more of it as him passing on some "trade secrets." See? Helpful Beta Derek > Alpha Failwolf Derek. Even Derek thinks so! "You know I took Cora back to South America, right? It's where she spent most of her time after the fire. But, that's not the only reason I left. I needed to talk to my mother." Scott says what we're all thinking, which is--isn't Derek's mom dead? Yup, yes she is.
Derek doesn't get into HOW it happened, he just vaguely describes what they talked about. "She told me something that...changed my perspective. On a lot of things. She said my family didn't just LIVE in Beacon Hills, they protected it. This town needs someone to protect it. Someone like you." MY HEART, IT'S EXPLODING WITH SCEREK LOVE. Also, WHAT ELSE DID SHE SAY. Something she said had to be about Peter, right? Derek fully glared at him when he got back from the Other Side or whatever. Scott smiles, and retorts, "And someone like you, to teach me a few trade secrets." Derek chuckles a little bit at that, but his face grows serious when he sees Scott putting the pieces together in his head. "He's trying to protect us," Scott says, and he rises to his feet. "Stiles is protecting us." Derek realizes that Stiles was trying to protect them from himself, and they both run to the roof to look for clues.
(via teenwolf)
When they get back to the roof, Derek asks Scott what they should be looking for, but he's not really sure. "But, I think Stiles wasn't just up here struggling with himself, I think he was struggling NOT to do something." Scott notices something on top of the back-up generator, and climbs up onto a machine in order to find it. He reaches up and swipes his hand over the top of the fenced-in box that surrounds the generator, and swats a bag onto the ground. Derek paws through the bag to reveal that it's full of what looks like jumper cables, wire cutters, and other power tools. Why would Stiles/the nogitsune leave that stuff there? The two start looking around for signs of foul play, and eventually find a thick wire hanging over the roof that looks like it's been cut severely enough that it's starting to spark. OH SHIT!
Lydia is still in her car, and the clanging, hammering sound she's been hearing in her head reaches such a loud level that she visibly squirms in her seat, gripping the steering wheel as tightly as she can. After a moment, she can't take it anymore, and screams one of her patented screams. However, we can't hear it. THIS IS SO NOT GOOD WHY IS SHE SCREAMING. Is she trying to drown out the noise? Is it some kind of foreshadowing for what's about to happen? I DON'T LIKE THIS AT ALL.
Dr. Gardner is looking at the MRI scans in the observation room, and the disappointed look on his face does nothing to soothe Sheriff and Melissa's fears. After a moment, Dr. Gardner points out an orangey-red portion of Stiles' brain, which is showing signs of atrophy. The atrophy is mostly in the frontal lobe, from what I can tell, and not as much the temporal lobe, but I think the point we're supposed to take from this is that Stiles' scan shows signs of frontotemporal dementia. NOOOO STILES. IS. NOT. SICK. I cannot handle a devastating chronic illness on top of all of these life-or-death supernatural shenanigans, it's too much to handle. Sheriff's face is ALSO devastating, and Melissa tries to comfort him by rubbing his back. The song in the background is "The Call" by Ruu Campbell by the way. Gorgeous choice for this scene.
Inside the MRI machine, Stiles is reacting to the loud noises about as well as Lydia was, which is to say, not at ALL. His face and body are clearly tense, and after a few long moments of Stiles squirming and trying not to hyperventilate, he squeezes his eyes closed and gets sucked back into his weird nightmare/hallucination. I'm kind of distracted by Stiles' stubble, tbh. Is that wrong of me? Derek has perma-stubble 100% of the time, I don't know why Stiles can't have a little five o'clock shadow action going on.
(via qhuinn)
He's still in the MRI room, standing next to the machine, but he's in his real clothes, and it's almost completely dark. Everything has a vaguely fuzzy quality to it, too. He looks around, absolutely confused as to how he got here, only to find the bandaged form of the nogitsune skulking behind him. They circle around the machine, and the nogitsune asks Stiles if he's figured out his riddle yet. "If you answer correctly, we might consider letting them go," the nogitsune slurs, as he hobbles around the room. Doesn't he kind of give you Gerard vibes? I can't be the only one thinking this, it's creeping me out.
Stiles asks him who he'd be letting go, so the nogitsune moves theatrically towards the glass separating them from the observation room, where Melissa and Sheriff are still confabbing with Dr. Gardner. "Your friends. Your family. Everyone that ever meant something to you. We're going to destroy all of them, Stiles! One by one." Stiles starts to cry, and asks him why the fuck he's doing this to him/them. Instead of answering, he just repeats the riddle from earlier. "Everyone has it, but no one can lose it. What is it?" Stiles maintains that he doesn't know, so he repeats it again. After Stiles replies the same way twice more, he starts shouting the riddle as he tugs off the dirty bandages covering his face. Stiles grabs his head in fear and basically starts sobbing, until he finally shouts, "I DON'T KNOW."
Just as the nogitsune is starting to peel off the last layer of bandages, Stiles hears a familiar voice (not the nogitsune's) whisper, "What is it Stiles?" That's when Stiles realizes he actually knows the answer--a shadow. Which isn't really correct, is it? I mean, when it's dark, you don't have a shadow? What if the real answer is a NAME? More on that later. Stiles turns around slowly to see the nogitsune take off the rest of the bandages, revealing that Stiles was under the bandages the whole time! Or rather, his shadow was. (I automatically thought back to last season's TVD finale and heard Silas' "Hello, my shadow self" line when I watched this scene the first time, hahaha) Stiles' shadow (who is totally hot, more so than Stiles usually is) smirks at him, which causes everything to go to SHIT.
(via teenwolf)
Stiles opens his eyes in the MRI machine, and you can tell by the dead eyes that it's not our Stiles who is in there. He hears a noise, and looks around the inside of the MRI machine as the lights start to flicker and go out. The manner in which he moves is suspiciously reminiscent of kanima!Jackson in season 2, and it's really weirding me out. In the observation room, everyone is startled by the lights flashing, but Dr. Gardner shrugs it off as yet another power surge. Sheriff Stilinski turns his attention back to the MRI machine, only to realize that Stiles is no longer inside! OH SHIT.
Scott and Derek are still on the roof, heading for the door back into the building, when the wire the nogitsune/Stiles cut sparks behind them, which causes an electrical explosion behind them. Derek and Scott dive out of the general range of the explosion, and watch in horror at what Stiles inadvertently did. The wire ends up breaking itself completely, and since the electricity isn't out completely, the wire is still live, and sparks ominously as it starts whipping around the roof of it's own accord. THIS IS SO NOT GOING TO END WELL AT ALL.
As it turns out, Stiles ended up returning to his hospital room, so he can change out of his hospital gown and into his clothes. He finishes tying his shoelaces as he watches everyone in the hallway starting to hysterically run around the hospital, freaking out about the power going out once again. He walks into the hallway and looks around, stopping when he senses someone nearby. The elevator doors open to reveal MAMA YUKIMURA, standing inside in a leather jacket, looking badass as hell. He walks toward her, staring at her with amusement. "You know me," she calls out confidently. Stiles nods in acknowledgment that he does, so she continues.
(via teenwolf)
"Then you remember that I won't be deterred by your choice of host, even if it is an innocent boy." Stiles just smirks that damn smirk at her and asks her if she's threatening "us," and two oni pop up on either side of her, as if to answer his question. "Now I'm threatening you," she replies. Stiles just chuckles, and states, "We're not really afraid of your little fireflies." Medical personnel and patients are running around, not even noticing this conversation going down. Stiles goes to turn to join the crowd of people vacating the building, but before he can go, she has to get in the last word. "If the oni can't defeat you, I know someone who will." OH SHIT, SHE MEANS KIRA, DOESN'T SHE. And if she does, I have a feeling the nogitsune already knows that was her plan. He stops to look back at her glaring at him, and smirks again before leaving for good.
(via teenwolf)
Outside, Kira is still waiting for Derek when the live wire starts whipping its way down onto the parking lot. It falls in a path that's aiming right for her, and her eyes are wide as she exclaims, "OH MY GOD!" NOOO, THIS IS NOT HOW THIS SHOULD BE ENDING, I NEED MORE ANSWERS.
Next episode: Stiles gets into a ton of shenanigans that may or may not involve the oni, shooting Coach in the gut with an arrow, and an explosion in the Sheriff's department.
[screencaps from KissThemGoodbye]
Click HERE to move on to my recap of the next episode of Teen Wolf!
NOTES/SPECULATION:
-We know that Lydia's banshee powers have been getting stronger and more pronounced over the last two seasons, and going by Celtic lore, banshees are usually attached to families, particularly ones with names that began with Mc- or O'-, like, say, Scott McCall? So it would make total sense that Lydia would be tuned for death/disaster that involves people in Scott's pack, but ever since the ritual in "Lunar Ellipse," it seems as though Lydia has been especially connected to Stiles, especially judging by this episode, where she knew Stiles was in Eichen House (although it was in his dream, and not in reality), and when she was hearing the noises from his MRI. It also makes me think of "Galvanize," where Lydia heard electricity buzzing all day. We thought she was just predicting Kira's death/harm, but what if it was a signal that Stiles was going to get electrocuted by Kira's foxfire, which is what supposedly "jump-started" the nogitsune's control over Stiles? Something to think about, I guess.
-The voicemails Allison got were definitely shady, both because her phone was turned off (something she claims she never does) and because they were from a supposedly non-existent internment camp. I keep thinking back to that drawing of the Nemeton that Lydia drew that he framed and left with a note that said, "For Lydia." Is it possible that he was conscious enough at some point to leave his friends clues that the nogitsune wouldn't notice? And if that's the case, is there a way that he could have sent the voicemails to Allison as a hint, too? OR, are the voicemails a clue that something isn't quite right with Allison? I can't really tell. THIS SEASON IS MAKING ME CRAZY WITH ALL THE ANALYZING.
-How does Mama Yukimura control the oni? Is it part of her gifts, or is she doing some kind of magical spell? According to Japanese lore, kitsune can perform magic, the same as a witch (or in this universe, a druid, I'd imagine). And, better yet, how could the nogitsune in Stiles so easily defeat the oni, when the one that was in the Kumicho in Chris Argent's flashback was killed easy-peasy? Is this nogitsune juiced up on the Nemeton's reawakened power, or is it just stronger?
-Okay, here's my argument for werewolf!Stiles--first of all, if he really is sick like his mother, he's probably going to need the bite to stand any chance of surviving long-term. A lot of people say that Stiles' awesomeness comes from the fact that he's just a regular old (although very clever) human who only has the strength of his brain to protect him, but I just feel like the bite would just make that even more true? Like, even with werewolf powers, Stiles' strengths would still be his brilliant mind, and even though he would have the strength to defend himself, I still feel like his role would be more in the planning than in the actual physical fighting part. No matter what species Stiles is, he's still going to be the brains, with Lydia, and Scott, Derek, and Isaac are the brawn, with Allison and Kira both having the ability to switch sides as needed. If anything, the bite will probably cure his ADD and make him even MORE able to concentrate on the mission planning, you know? And, we wouldn't have to worry about him getting injured, because he'd be able to heal like everyone else. That just seems like a win to me.
-WHAT DID TALIA TELL DEREK WHEN THEY TALKED? Like, Derek seemed really pissed at Peter when he got out, so there had to be something about him in that conversation. Plus, he said his conversation with Talia "changed his perspective on a lot of things," so I feel like this had to be a pretty in-depth conversation. ARE WE EVER GOING TO FIND OUT? I really want to know!
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