Teen Wolf Season 3, Episode 19: "Letharia Vulpina" Recap/Review
Man, was this episode a rollercoaster, or what? Although, it's not like that isn't what we've come to expect from this show. I mean, "Letharia Vulpina" was kind of unintentionally hilarious in the way that it was mostly everyone running around hysterically, trying to figure out what the fuck Stiles had been up to for the last two days, but that doesn't mean that it didn't pack some emotional punch, too! Plus, there were plenty of entertaining bits to go around. It was pretty sweet to see Deaton getting his hands dirty for once, Kira exploring her new powers was a joy to behold, watching Allison and Lydia antagonize Peter gave me SO MUCH LIFE, and I think I unintentionally started shipping Chris and Derek on accident. Is that wrong?
The most intense parts for me was watching Scott and Allison visit Isaac, because I can't stand to see my bb hurt, and the last scene with Scott and Stiles. Seriously, Kathleen and I were talking about it, and it literally almost felt like watching a rape scene, in a way. Not in the fact that it was rapey (although there are definitely BOUNDS of consent issue with regard to the nogitsune using Stiles' body, but we'll get into that later) but just in that it was just so horrifying to see Scott watching a malevolent creature possess his best friend and brother in arms and forcing his body to do terrible things to him and the people Stiles cares about. :( My babies!
ANYWAY there is a shitload of things to talk about, so lets just get right to it, shall we?
Previously, on Teen Wolf: Scott and the other wolfies learned that werewolves can use their abilities to help take the edge off someone's pain by absorbing it into themselves. Derek and Peter went on a rescue mission for a Hale heirloom that turned out to contain the claws of the deceased Talia Hale, which Derek used in a ritual to be able to talk to her. Allison and Isaac continued to be one of the hottest and most adorable couples on this show. Stiles found out that the nogitsune possessing him was taking the form of his shadow under all those bandages, and somehow he gave it control of his body in order to protect his friends and family. While possessed, Stiles had an internal struggle with the nogitsune on the roof of the hospital, where he ended up tampering with one of the electrical wires. Eventually, the fire caught fire and ended up breaking off of the electric post, which led to a humongous live wire flapping all over the place and heading straight for poor little Kira's sweet face. And now we're caught up!
Alright, guys, I hate to sidebar this early in the game, but I have to say, I have NO idea where this first scene in the cold open took place. It's the same location where Bb Chris Argent got into a shoot-off with some Yakuza mobsters and some oni twenty-four years ago, which I originally thought was in Japan. When I started thinking about it more, I realized that Japan's weapon laws are wayyy more strict than in the USA, which means it wouldn't be an ideal location for an arms deal. Plus, SPOILER ALERT--Deaton shows up, and unless he had major notice, I have a feeling that he didn't just fly all the way to Japan just to do what he's about to do, no matter how much he might love Scott. So yeah, this scene might be in Japan, it might be in Beacon Hills or in a BH-adjacent town, who knows? ANYWAY, back to what's happening.
We pan in on a really nice mansion on a huge hill overlooking the city, where a Japanese man stands on the balcony, drinking some scotch. He re-enters his home, which is styled in a very sleek-looking Eastern aesthetic, and heads straight for a huge red poof in the middle of the floor of the main room, where a wolf lays. "Why is it taking so long?" the owner of the house demands, and one of his bodyguards (I presume) swears that the doctor is en route as they speak, and comes highly recommended. The man gets REALLY pissed at that remark, and sets down his drink so he can pick up his handgun. "Did I ask for a professional reference?" he sneers, as his cronies immediately stand to their feet and look like beaten puppies. "I ASKED why it was taking so long! THAT is a question of TIME, not QUALITY OF SERVICE! Do you think I would pay an idiot to look at him?" Whoa, pump your breaks there, buddy! No need to be rude His hired help immediately starts stammering that they would never dare suggest such a thing, but the man just keeps ranting, and demands to know why his wolf hasn't moved a muscle in twelve hours. The poor wolf cub just stares at them forlornly, unable to do so much as move his head. Pobre lobito.
The man asks one last time where the doctor is, but thankfully, Deaton isn't an idiot, and didn't keep him waiting any longer than necessary. He strolls in, wearing this super fly charcoal jacket and carrying his black leather medical bag, with two more security guards flanking him on either side. Deaton is really hot, you guys, I think it's easy to forget with the huge dearth of beautiful young people on this show, so I feel compelled to remind you all. He stops a couple feet away from the man and bows before butchering some kind of greeting/apology combo in Japanese. The man suggests he save the apologies for if he can't do anything. Also, Deaton refers to him as Hakada-san, so he shall henceforth be known as Hakada, or boss man, for laziness purposes.
Deaton crouches down by the wolf and digs around his bag for some gloves. Hakada asks him if he's had any experience with wolves before, which, LOL! Girl, please. Deaton plays coy, and asks what his patient's name is. It's Yuki, by the by. Deaton grabs Yuki by the head, and asks him what he's been into lately as he manipulates the wolf's face with his hands. I'm pretty sure there's some kind of veterinary explanation for what he's doing, but it seems like he's working some druid mojo on him? Maybe he's like, reading his mind or something. After he examines Yuki's mouth, he asks Hakada if Yuki had been around any strange plants. "Something that looks like moss? It would be bright green, almost neon? It's called lichen, and it's highly toxic. I need to know if Yuki's consumed any."
Boss man gets the weirdest look on his face, like he's been totally feeding or exposing Yuki to strange plants, and urges him to just treat Yuki for the poison, if that's what's wrong with him. Unfortunately for him, Deaton refuses to treat him unless he knows the specific type of lichen they're dealing with, and requests that he be allowed to obtain a sample to know before. Because in addition to a veterinarian, he's also a botanist. Although, now that I mention it, that's probably something that druids are taught to do, yeah? Hakada stands up and reluctantly orders one of his cronies to escort Deaton out to the garden, where he thinks Yuki got into some moss. The cronies all remain motionless, though, just shoegazing away, until Hakada starts yelling at them furiously in Japanese. Deaton just stands there awkwardly until Hakada stomps his little feet and spits, "Superstitious idiots," before stating that he'll take Deaton there himself.
Deaton follows the boss man through a walkway lined with bushes and trees that lead to a huge set of stone doors with ornate wrought-iron locks. Hakada unlocks the door and slowly walks into the garden, definitely a little creeped out himself. Of course, it's the same garden where the Yakuza + Chris Argent vs Oni showdown happened twenty-four years ago, and we're reminded with brief flashbacks of the oni killing the nogitsune in the Kumicho's body. Hakada asks him if this is what he's looking for, as Deaton's eye catches on that same fountain that got bathed in the nogitsune's blood, all that time ago. Now, it's covered in a bright green moss, exactly as Deaton described. He walks past Hakada and goes straight for the fountain, before starting to dig through his bag. He pulls out one of those glass jars he uses to hold his herbs, mistletoe, mountain ash, etc, and asks Hakada if he'd mind holding it for him.
Hakada takes the vial from his hand, and watches Deaton as he starts to clip some samples of the lichen. He asks if Deaton really thinks Yuki got into the garden and ate the moss, but Deaton admits that he doesn't think so. "Actually, I think Yuki probably doesn't come anywhere near here. I doubt if you could even drag him in. Some part of him probably senses what happened here, to your father, and the nogitsune possessing him." This was the WRONG answer, apparently, because Hakada immediately points his pistol at the back of Deaton's head and pulls back the safety. However, Deaton is never less than completely cool and collected, so he continues to speak despite the loaded weapon currently aimed at his temporal lobe. Although, judging by what happens in a minute, it's likely that he expected this reaction.
"This particular lichen is called letharia vulpina," Deaton explains. "'Wolf lichen.' They used it to poison wolves and foxes. They'd put out pieces of meat with crushed glass and bits of lichen in it. The glass perforated the intestines of the animal, so the vulpinic acid could reach the internal organs faster." Hakada immediately assumes that Deaton used it to poison his dog, but Deaton swears he didn't--instead, he gave Yuki a paralytic agent, the same one he used to coat the outside of the glass Hakada is holding, which is why Deaton was wearing gloves when he handled it. GENIUS! Hakada tries to shoot Deaton, but his hand goes completely numb, and eventually he drops it on the ground. "Kanima!" Hakada proclaims, before he falls onto the ground.
So, did Deaton like, milk Jackson for his venom or something, before he turned into a wolf? I guess there was a ton of it inside that body bag he was in during the season 2 finale, maybe he harvested it or something? Who knows? "I guess we both know a few things, Hakada-san," Deaton quips, as he stands up and walks over to his body to take the vial from his hands. "Born from the blood of a nogitsune," Deaton whispers, as he holds a clump of letharia vulpina in front of Hakada's face. "This lichen is quite special. More powerful than you know!" He puts the lichen in the jar, although I'm completely confused as to why he wouldn't take as much of it as he could find. Who knows when they're going to need to take out a fox or wolf again? Hakada weakly asks him what he's planning on doing with it, so Deaton stands up in the most badass pose he can muster, his face bathed in moonlight, and replies. "There's a fox hiding in a teenage boy, and I'm going to poison it." God bless Alan Deaton. TITLE CARD!
(via teenwolf)
When we return from the opening credits, we finally pick up where we left off in "Riddled." Kira is standing in front of the hospital, staring in shock as she watches a live wire from on top of the hospital whipping its way toward her. She narrowly manages to duck in time to avoid being hit with it, and when she turns around, she sees the wire barreling toward an ambulance that is returning to the ER, setting off one of the most unfortunate series of events yet. The paramedic driving the ambulance swerves to avoid the wire, forcing Kira to dive out of it's path, before accidentally driving over the curb and hitting a fire hydrant. So, of course, the water from the hydrant starts to flood the parking lot, and the live wire flops into the water, electrifying the puddle.
Kira stands up and stammers, "Oh god!" as she realizes that this has the potential to hurt a TON of people. Allison and Isaac show up in Allison's car, and they stop in the middle of the parking lot when they see Kira. The puddle continues to grow, lapping up on the tires of the ambulance JUST as the paramedic decides to get out of the ambulance and see what's going on. So, naturally, he gets electrocuted and immediately drops to the ground. Kira sees this happen, and yells out to everyone in the parking lot to stay back. Unfortunately, Allison doesn't seem to hear her, and almost walks into the puddle in her effort to reach Kira. So Isaac dives in front of her and pushes her into the grass, which protects her, but doesn't give him enough time to get out of the way himself. Once electrocuted, he falls to the ground, where his entire right side makes contact with the electrified water. NOOOOO. This is exactly what happened to Boyd and that ended TERRIBLY.
A redheaded girl (who won the "Die on Teen Wolf" contest they held last fall) gets out of her car to see what the fuck is happening, and ALSO steps into the water, gets shocked, and collapses on the ground. IT NEVER PAYS TO BE CURIOUS IN THIS TOWN. STAY WHERE YOU ARE, GUYS. Another guy in a silver car is so distracted by the live wire, which has returned to whipping around in the air, that he doesn't even notice that he's about to run Kira over. She hops onto the hood of his car at the last minute, and sprints her way up the car before doing a super sweet backflip off the trunk and into the puddle. I know that everyone hates the pointless slow-mo acrobatics, but I think they're really cool to watch, tbh. She lands on the ground in front of the wire, and stares at it just as Scott and Derek finally make it down from the roof and run toward her. Derek notices the water before Scott does, and quickly stops him before they both touch the puddle. Shouldn't it not be electrified anymore, since the wire isn't in it anymore? Physics/chemistry isn't really my thing, so it's incredibly likely I'm just talking out of my ass.
The boys watch Kira as she reaches out and grabs the wire in one hand, and slowly raises the other hand to cap over the live end. The electricity flickers in all of the lit signs around the hospital, and her hand starts to glow orangey-pink as she closes her eyes and focuses on drawing in the electricity. SHE IS SO FUCKING BADASS, I CAN'T EVEN DEAL. When she opens her eyes, they're glowing a bright orange-pink. Scott and Derek are completely shocked and in awe of how amazing Kira Yukimura is, and continue to watch her until her eyes return to brown. A crowd of people flee from the inside of the hospital, including Mama Yukimura, who totally caught the tail end of her daughter's little superhero maneuver. Kira drops the now-dead wire onto the pavement, and Derek rushes over to Isaac to check his pulse. Worried, he turns to Scott and yells, "Scott! He's not breathing!" NOOOOOOO.
(via teenwolf)
Fast-forward 48 hours, where we meet back up with Scott, laying prone on his bed, reviewing the events of the past several days in his head. We can hear Derek's voice shouting that Isaac isn't breathing again, as we dive into Scott's flashbacks. Isaac is pushed into the ER on a gurney, with nasty-looking burns covering the whole right side of his face, neck, and entire arm. Down the hall, Mama Yukimura grabs Kira's arm and pulls her aside. "I saw what you did," she scolds. "Now is not the time for anybody else to see!" She pulls her outside just before we make a brief return to present-day Scott. When we dive back into his memories, we see Deputy Parrish approach the Sheriff to inform him that Stiles' Jeep was seen leaving the hospital. Sheriff urges him to get everyone looking for him. A couple feet away, Agent Douchenozzle asks Deputy Cortes (or is it Manning) if the wire looks cut, before instructing him to keep an eye out for signs of sabotage, which doesn't make Sheriff any happier.
Back in reality (or at least, what I assume is reality, though you can never tell with Jeff Davis) we get a gratuitous (but still always appreciated) shot of Scott's amazing ass as he lifts himself off the bed. He sits on the edge of the bed and continues to think, as Derek's advice from earlier rings through his brain. "You have to tell Stilinski. You have to tell him what's really wrong with Stiles." Man, this is one of how many good ideas of Derek's in the last couple episodes? Consider me no longer referring to him as a failwolf.
(via juliabaccari)
William Fitzsimmons' "Hold On" plays as Scott somberly gets ready for school, and walks into the kitchen to find his mother drinking tea, just as sad as he is. When Scott asks if there are any updates on Stiles, she informs him that they're still looking for him, but she figures if anyone can be missing for two days and still be totally okay afterwards, it would be Stiles. Scott changes the subject to Isaac's condition, and Melissa sighs, before standing up and suggesting that they swing by the hospital on the way to school to see him. Scott is seriously SO sad, it's killing me! One best friend is possessed by a demon fox and doing god knows what, while the other is laying in the hospital with major electrical burns and damage from electrocution. EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE.
Meanwhile, Sheriff Stilinski is sitting glumly in his office, staring at the last text message he received from his son. "Am ok. Please don't look for me. Be back soon." Too many Stilinski family feels happening so early in the episode. :( Deputy Parrish pops into the office and interrupts Sheriff's thoughts as he informs him that a delivery man is here to drop off some packages and needs Sheriff's signature. "It's just printer cartridges and stuff, batteries for the next blackout. Not a bad idea, considering the number of electrical problems in this town." Why do I get the terrible feeling that is a hint of some kind? Agent Douchenozzle walks into the office to join them and asks if Sheriff has a minute, which Parrish takes as his cue to leave. When Sheriff asks him what's up, ADN admits, "This might sound strange, but have you had any issues with Yakuza?" Sheriff identifies them as the Japanese mafia, but otherwise, he doesn't have a clue. "Specifically, a guy named Katashi," ADN clarifies. OH SHIT, this is so not good.
Melissa and Scott have arrived on the third floor of the hospital, where they find IRL Sleeping Beauty Allison, dozing on a bench outside of Isaac's room. Scott gently rubs her shoulder to wake her up, and as she opens her eyes and stretches, Scott asks her if she's been there the entire night. Allison nods and tells them that the doctors wouldn't let her see Isaac, because she's not family. "I told them he doesn't have any," Allison adds sadly, but Melissa disagrees. "Well, he's got us!" Melissa proclaims stubbornly. "And I have a keycard," she chirps, as she holds up her ID. Melissa McCall is literally an angel of the lord.
(via teenwolf)
She wipes her card through the lock on Isaac's room, and advises Scott and Allison to make their visit brief. The doors open, and the two slowly enter the room. Isaac is still in the ICU, in a shock room, equipped with defibrillators and other emergency equipment. When they're close enough to see Isaac, Allison quickly grabs Scott's hand. Scott looks at her and squeezes her hand soothingly before leading her to Isaac's bedside. I do admit, I got some residual Scallison feels from this scene, but I really don't think it was a romantic thing, I think they're both just worried sick about Isaac and need the support. I already talked about how tactile the McCall pack has become in the last recap, so I think this is just another example of it.
Isaac looks TERRIBLE--his entire right side is burnt, including his face and arm, and the burns are almost black. It looks painful as hell, basically, and Allison literally gasps when she sees him. She figured he would be healing by now, since it's been two days, and Scott is surprised to see that he hasn't as well. He gingerly reaches down and wraps his hand around Isaac's arm. Allison asks him if he's in pain, and he grimaces as he admits that he is. Naturally, Scott sucks up as much of his pain as he can bear, and tells Allison that while it won't improve his burns, it can at least take the edge off the pain so his body can focus on healing. Allison, getting more upset, asks if Stiles could really do this, but Scott reminds her that it's whatever is possessing Stiles that made him do this. "Well, then how do we get what's inside of him the hell out of him?" Allison asks. Scott assures her that he's working on it.
(via argentsallison)
At school, Scott has caught up on Kira, who is giving him the 411 on kitsune and nogitsune as they walk down the hall. Now that Stiles the research whiz is out of commission for the time being, Kira's gotta step up, I guess.
Way in the back, Scott is leaning against his locker, confabbing with the twins. Aiden points out that the lack of Stiles and oni lately, as well as the just general quietness around town, should probably be making them pretty nervous, and Scott agrees that it's definitely the calm before the storm. He's distracted when he hears a series of high-pitched chirpy noises, and after listening for a moment, he realizes it's one of Chris and Allison's ultra-sonic emitters. The boys run out into the hallway, and eventually realize that the noise is coming from the basement, so they waste no time running down there to see what the fuck is going on. Once they've rushed down the stairs, they turn down the hall to find a boy standing in the corner, facing the wall. It's Stiles! But judging by the dark, mischievous glint in his eye, I think it's safe to say it's not ALL Stiles. He turns around to face them, and holds his hands up in the air in a non-threatening gesture. In one of his hands, there's an emitter, flashing and chirping. "Okay, I know what you guys are thinking, but it's me. I swear to GOD it's me!" I'm not buying it, tbh. He's not flaily enough for Stiles.
True to form, Ethan and Aiden immediately gets wolfed out and lunge for Stiles. They charge toward him, and they each eventually get one hand around Stiles' neck and hold him up into the air in a choke-hold. Scott rips Ethan off of him and throws him into a shelf, before yelling, "I SAID STOP!" When Aiden actually has the audacity to growl at him, Scott straight up ROARS in his face, which causes him to literally back away, like a dog with his tail between his legs. So, Scott's pretty much their alpha at this point, right? I'm not a huge fan of the twins (I like Ethan more than Aiden, but I could take or leave either of them, tbh), but on the other hand, Pack McCall needs all the strength they can get, and without them, Scott only has two werewolves. I don't know if Stiles, Allison, Lydia, and even Kira give Scott any power/strength, because while they are absolutely pack, they're still humans/banshees/kitsunes, you know? I like to think that they do, because without Stiles, Allison and Lydia, Scott would have never become a true alpha in the first place, but I'm not in charge of the werewolf magic rules, so who knows.
(via teenwolf)
ANYWAY, Stiles glances at Scott, clearly impressed by his intimidation tactics, and once again swears up and down that it's really him. "I don't know where I've been for the last two days, or what I've been doing, but this is me, I promise." Ethan, still trying to catch his breath after being thrown around, asks Stiles if he knows what happened at the hospital. Stiles claims he knows even more than that, and picks up a folded up piece of paper that's laying on top of a duffel bag on the floor. He identifies the paper as a blueprint for the hospital's electrical system, and points out how his handwriting is all over it in red sharpie, but he's very concerned. "I know I did this, I caused the accident." He opens up the bag under the spread out blueprint, and adds that the contents of the bag looks like it could be used for something else. Ethan sees a saw of some kind in the bag and pulls it out as he asks what the FUCK Stiles has been up to lately. "I think something worse," Stiles admits grimly. "A lot worse."
Lydia is just sauntering down the hall, lost in all the chatter around her, when she notices her mom standing outside her classroom, talking to a man who looks suspiciously like Peter Hale. Everyone in the hallway slows down as Lydia focuses on Peter, but by the time she manages to make it all the way over to her mother, he's already gone. "Why were you talking to him?" Lydia demands, but Mama Martin doesn't really get why her daughter is so wigged out. She claims that he's a dude from the Health Department, who started talking to her first, but Lydia is hilariously like, "Really? That's what he told you?"
Mama Martin just shrugs and informs her that they're scheduling hearing tests with the students. Lydia gets that look on her face that says she's starting to put the clues together, which her mother just mistakes for spaciness. "Yes! HEARING. I'm guessing we should sign you up!" So sassy, Carol Lockwood! Also, how flawless is Susan Walters, anyway? She's likely almost twice Holland's age and looks just as fresh-faced, it's amazing. Linden Ashby is a lucky dude! Mama Martin says Peter gave her his card, but Lydia, so annoyed by this point, breaks the news that it's just a piece of paper with a number on it. "I know," Mama Martin purrs. "Still got it!" I LOVE HER.
Scott and the twins are still with Stiles in the basement, pulling balls of rope and other tools out of the bag that Stiles found. "What were you doing, building a Terminator?" Ethan asks, but Stiles isn't really in a joking mood right now. Scott finds a folded up map, and realizes that it's of the nature preserve. Aiden points out the trail that the cross-country team runs during practice, and Scott follows the trail with his finger until he reaches the location of where Malia Tate's mom's wrecked car is still hanging out. Stiles reminds them all that it's ALSO in the same area where Papa Tate hid all of those bear traps. HEY, wait a minute--didn't Sheriff make it his sole duty to make sure that all of those traps were removed? Wasn't that why he had his deputies clear all the people from the preserve? Plot hole, or am I missing something?
As all of this drama has been happening, the cross-country team went ahead without them and started warming up outside. Coach blows his whistle as an order for them to get running, and the team takes off. Danny is at the front of the crowd with the awesome runners, because he's amazing at everything, but Kira, who seems to have joined the team at some point, is amazed at herself when she finds herself catching up with him pretty easily. Danny is pretty confused to see her keep pace with him, so she just gives him a cute little smile before taking off and leaving him behind. You go girl!
Chris Argent gets off the elevator outside his apartment, looking super hot, per usual, and is about to go in when he notices that his front door is ajar. His hunter instincts start tingling, and he immediately whips out his gun and slowly makes his way into his apartment, keeping an eye out for any intruders. He peeks into Allison's room on his way through the hall, before he finally makes it to his office. From the doorway, he can see another one of his emitters has been stabbed into the top of that awesome desk of his.
He checks around the half-open door, but lets his guard down when he assumes that there isn't anyone else in the room. He stares at his desk, trying to figure out what the emitter is doing there, when he hears a voice behind him. "Lose something?" Chris turns and instinctively lunges at DEREK FUCKING HALE, who easily disarms Chris and puts him in a clawed-hand choke-hold. Of course, Chris has about a dozen weapons on him at any given time, so he pulls ANOTHER gun out of the back waistband of his jeans, and holds it up to Derek's head.
"Why are you breaking into my apartment?" Chris demands, although not particularly unkindly, despite the current circumstances. "Why are YOU leaving emitters in MY loft?" Derek retorts, but Chris swears that he has no idea why it would be there. He decides that there's clearly been some misunderstanding, and removes the gun from Derek's temple, and after a moment, Derek reluctantly removes his hand from Chris' neck. Chris massages his throat as he saunters over to his desk, and informs Derek that he's spent the last 48 hours trying to track down Stiles. Derek asks him if he had any luck, and when he answers in the negatory, Derek admits that he hasn't been able to find him either. They stare at each other for a long, tense moment, before Derek folds. "Okay, we're both trying to find Stiles. You mind if I ask what you plan on doing when you find him?" Chris claims it depends on which Stiles he finds, which isn't really the answer anybody wants to hear right now, and pulls the emitter out of his desktop.
"Renegade" by DANK (which is yet another obsession of mine right now) plays as Kira continues running like she's The Flash or something, just sprinting away, giggling in amazement of her new-found skills. Across the preserve, Stiles' Jeep pulls up to where Coach is sitting and waiting for the team to return. Scott and Stiles jump out of the car and call out for Coach, but naturally, he wants to know what the fuck Stiles is doing and where he's been for the past two days, just like everyone else. However, Stiles cuts him off and orders him to listen up.
Back in Chris' office, Chris notices that his safe/hidden cupboard in the wall has been broken into, and points it out to Derek before he slowly opens the door. Inside is a silver briefcase, which Chris insists is not one of his. Derek reaches for it, but Chris tells him to be careful, and quickly feels around the edges of the briefcase to make sure that it isn't booby-trapped somehow. He pulls it out of the safe and sets it on the table, which makes me realize that it totally looks like the suitcase that Katashi's goon gave to Isaac in exchange for that one Argent pistol. Sure enough, when Chris assumes that there's no bomb inside and opens it, he finds stacks and stacks of hundred dollar bills.
Derek runs his finger over the stacks and asks him how much money he thinks is in there. "One hundred and fifty thousand," Chris confesses. "But it doesn't make sense, we never took the money." Derek doesn't know anything about the fake buy he did with Isaac, so he asks whose money it is. "It belongs to a Yakuza named Katashi. He has a nickname--" "--You mean, something like, 'Silverfinger?'" Agent Douchenozzle calls out from the doorway, holding up Katashi's prosthetic finger in an evidence bag. Chris is not thrilled to see ADN again, and asks him where he found it, which was apparently on Katashi's dead body. YIKES! So that must have been what he was talking about earlier, eh?
"Dreaming of You [Dub Mix]" by Thrillseekers plays as Danny continues to run through the woods, desperately trying to catch up with Kira. He's doing pretty well, too, WHAT IS DANNY? Out of nowhere, Ethan pounces on him, and the two of them roll around in the leaves for a moment before finally coming to a stop. "What the hell are you doing?" Danny whines, as he winces from the impact of his ribs against the ground. "Uh, I...missed you?" Ethan exclaims, before laying a big kiss right on him. Danny's like, "WHAT THE FUCK?" for a minute, but eventually gets into making out with his ex-bf.
Kira is still sprinting as if her life depended on it, when Scott also comes out of nowhere and tries to stop her, which ultimately results in him having to lift her into the air and spin to keep her from falling. SCOTT MCCALL, IRL DISNEY PRINCE, YOU GUYS. Kira squeals a bit in fright before being placed on the ground, and then immediately asks Scott if he saw how fast she was going. "I felt it!" Scott replies, and though he's excited for her, they've got business to do. "But we need to stop the others!" Kira's face falls as she realizes that more drama is happening, but before she can find out why, Stiles runs toward them, with Coach in tow, and yells at everyone to stop moving and to stay right where they are. He looks at the ground and sees a circular handle attached to a chain under a pile of leaves, and slowly pulls on the chain as he tries to find a trap.
Unfortunately for him, it's just a chain that isn't attached to anything, which causes Coach to laugh at the false alarm. "Congratulations Stilinski, you found a length of chain," Coach deadpans, as he slow claps sarcastically. "Can somebody NOW tell me what the hell is going on?" Coach states, clearly tired of all the drama. Of course, Coach starts walking right for a clear trip-wire, which Scott and the twins see at the last second, but it's too late--Coach trips the wire, which results in an arrow being shot right in his gut. Kira gasps loudly, and everyone stares at him in horror. Coach being coach, he just looks at the arrow in his abdomen and whispers, "Aw, crap" before he falls supine onto the ground, blood leaking out of his wound. The gang immediately kneels beside him to assess the damage.
My most favorite song of this entire episode, "2 Thingz" by BASECAMP, plays as Lydia and Allison walk up the stairs in Derek's building and stop outside the loft door. Then, the girls have an adorable, hilarious, and true conversation.
I agree that Lydia totally needs to learn about her banshee powers, and Peter, being the one who bit her, probably knows a lot more about her and her abilities than anyone else (except for maybe Deaton). Still, I can't help but agree with Allison, too--Peter is NOT to be trusted. When Lydia opens the loft door, they find Peter standing with his back to them, staring theatrically out of that huge wall of windows, as if he wasn't just totally eavesdropping on that whole conversation outside. Nice try, Petey. Also, doesn't Peter have his own place? Why is he always at Derek's loft? "The hunter and the banshee," Peter purrs, as the girls stand in the hallway. "Ladies, please come in." THIS IS SUCH A BAD IDEA.
Meanwhile, Coach is screaming his lungs out on the ground of the preserve, as Stiles tries his best to put pressure on his arrow wound. He wants them to get the arrow out of him, ASAP, but of course, no one wants to do that because only a doctor/surgeon should do that. "OH MY GOD, I'M GONNA DIE! GET IT OUT OF ME!" Coach screeches, but Stiles insists that Coach is going to die. Of course, Coach doesn't believe that one bit, so Aiden tries to remind him that if he stops moving, it will hurt less. They assure him an ambulance is coming, but the boys are starting to get desperate, so Aiden yells at the rest of the team to get back so the gang can figure something out.
Once they've all vacated the area, Scott takes Coach's hand in his and starts siphoning away as much pain as he can, which looks like a lot, because he's panting and groaning quite a bit. After a minute, Coach goes quiet, and Aiden figures he passed out from the pain. Stiles takes his hands off of Coach's abdomen, and stares in horror at the blood staining them. Oh, symbolism. "Oh--I could have killed him. I could have killed him! What if it was his head, or his throat--" Scott cuts him off and reminds him that he DIDN'T shoot him in those places, and that Coach is going to be fine. Aiden informs them that he hears sirens, so the ambulance is on its way. Stiles looks less than pleased when he realizes that his father will ALSO be coming as well.
Derek and Chris are sitting on a bench outside the Sheriff's office, each with one wrist handcuffed to it. Chris asks him if he has any idea why Stiles would frame them for Katashi's murder, but Derek retorts that he didn't think Stiles was smart enough to frame them for murder, so he never considered the possibility. That's your bad, dude, the kid is the son of the Sheriff! "To be honest, I'm not entirely convinced that's why we're here," Chris admits, but Derek doesn't understand. "McCall's gonna come out here in a minute, he'll probably talk attorneys. [beat] Say you agree to allow mine to represent you." Derek asks him why the fuck he should trust his lawyer, which reminds me that this isn't the first time Derek's been arrested, so he probably already has one of his own, hahaha. Chris snits that he's not planning on calling his lawyer yet anyway, he just needs more time to figure out what the hell is going on.
Peter is staring at the girls, who are standing on the other side of Derek's table, and immediately insists that Allison GTFO. Lydia hilariously quips, "The LAST time I was alone with you, I almost bled out on the lacrosse field. She stays." Peter is offended that she would think he was trying to kill her, because she was supposed to be his backup plan. I REALLY wish we had gotten some elaboration on that. Did he know she was a banshee before he bit her? Is that why he did it? And while we're at it, how was he able to use her to bring himself back to life? "Not to mention," Peter continues, "The bite is what brought out your latent abilities. Do you think power like that was just gonna come out on its own? Tsk, tsk." Lydia gives him some MAJOR side-eye, but Peter maintains his argument, and adopts the accent of an old-timey film villain. "I'm the spark that lit your fire, sweetheart." HE IS SO DRAMATIC, IT'S HILARIOUS. I hate Peter and wish he was dead (and want Lydia to be the one to kill him, before pissing on his ashes and dancing on his grave), but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate his snark and theatrics, especially if he's actually being somewhat helpful for once.
(via teenwolf)
Allison argues that he attacked her and left her for dead, but Peter just claims that power doesn't come without a little agony. "I didn't ask for it," Lydia replies coldly, but Peter doesn't think it matters, because now she's taking advantage of her abilities. "How about the fact that you brainwashed her and used her to bring yourself back to life?" Allison retorts, as I shout, "AMEN!" at the television. That's when Peter solidifies the argument that he's a total sociopath. "So that I could be here today to help you master your abilities! Isn't it amazing how things come full circle?" Allison proclaims Peter to be 100% insane, and grabs Lydia's hand before stating that they're leaving, and pulling her toward the door. Allison and Lydia's hand-holding, Peter-harassing day today is one of my favorite parts of this episode, tbh. They are both QUEENS. Before they hit the door, Peter pulls out the big guns to get them to reconsider.
"You want the truth, Lydia?" Peter begins, which causes Allison and Lydia to stop and listen to what he has to say. "It's not the scream that gives you power. All the scream does is help drown out the noise, allowing you to hear what you really need to. And I can help you focus your hearing." Lydia and Allison turn, as Allison points out that he clearly wants something in return. "No, I'm dedicating my life to helping out narcissistic teenage girls," Peter deadpans. "Of course I want something in return." He grabs the wooden triskele urn and opens it before dumping Talia's claws onto the table.
Back at the preserve, Coach is being loaded into the ambulance, while Aiden searches Stiles' Jeep, and Sheriff Stilinski finally talks to his son. Scott watches from the Jeep as Stiles tells his dad what's been happening. Stiles wipes his bloody hands on a handkerchief as he listens, and then he and his dad hug it out, as they do. Ethan calls Scott over, and has him look at all the stuff he found in Stiles' trunk. Scott identifies a blue roll of wrapping paper as the same stuff they used to wrap Coach's fake birthday present. "Isn't that William Barrow's thing?" Ethan asks with worry. "A bomb made of nails and bolts, all wrapped in a birthday present?" Scott's eyes widen as he realizes the connection, and he looks over at Stiles, who is still with his dad. Ethan asks him where Barrow set off the bomb, and Scott gets even MORE worried and scared when he realizes that Barrow bombed a school bus.
We cut to the school, where Papa Yukimura yells at a crowd of students to get out of the way as he runs toward a school bus in front of the school. He has a walkie-talkie in hand as he approaches the bus, while other teachers evacuate all the students in the bus bay. Once he gets onto the bus, we see that there is only one student left sitting in the seats--good old Jared, whom you may recall from Season 3A's "Frayed," when Stiles intentionally made him throw up (after being carsick the whole bus trip) in order to do rest-stop surgery on Scott. Papa Yukimura slowly walks toward where Jared is sitting on the back of the bus. "They told me not to move," Jared babbles anxiously. "They told me not to move. They said, 'Stay right where you are, and don't move a muscle.'" Papa Yukimura assures him that it's okay, but Jared goes on to tell him that he didn't know what it was when he picked it up. Mr. Yukimura gives him a heads up that he's going to take a look at the package, which is wrapped up just like Coach's present, only bigger. Wait, why would they send in Kira's dad, and not like, a bomb squad guy?
Time to check back in with Allison and Lydia, who are still trying to get some information from Peter. Allison picks up one of Talia's claws, and is surprised to hear that they belong to Derek's mother. Peter confirms that yes, they're his sister's, and explains that before Talia died, she took a memory from him, which is only something a powerful alpha can do. I was confused at first, because we've seen Peter do that claw thing a billion times as a beta, but he's only SHARED memories, he hasn't actually stolen any. ANYWAY, Peter insists that the memory he needs is locked inside Talia's claws. "Why would your sister wanna steal a memory from you?" Lydia asks bluntly. "Well, if I remembered the memory, I might be able to tell you," Peter sasses back. Lydia sighs, and leans on the table as she asks Peter what she needs to do. Wait, if she took the memory from him, how does he even know that it's missing? I'M SO CONFUSED.
Sheriff Stilinski and his deputies have finally arrived at the school, where they're continuing to evacuate the students. Deputy Parrish walks over to the trunk of a cruiser and goes to open it, and Sheriff, who knows what he's about to do, orders him to wait for the bomb squad. Parrish just rolls his eyes and reminds Sheriff that he was in the army, and was a certified HDT for two years. That really isn't very long to be in the military, is it? Like, a tour in Iraq or Afghanistan could be a year long, so that wouldn't be a lot of time for basic training, tech school, etc etc etc. Anyway, Parrish pulls out a bomb-defusing outfit and insists that he can at least figure out if they're dealing with a real bomb until the real bomb squad shows up. Sheriff finally backs down, and watches as Parrish gets onto the bus.
(via lonewolfed)
At the loft, Peter yells at Lydia to focus. Lydia is aggravated, and insists that she is focusing, but Peter's not buying it. "No, you're not! I can see the wheels spinning behind your eyes. Your hearing is attuned to a level of the universe no one else can hear! But ONLY if you're listening!" Lydia maintains that she's trying, but Peter is losing his patience, and lunges at her as he yells, "TRY HARDER!" Allison cuts him off by whipping out her cattle-prod taser and holding it right in front of his face, which causes him to back up and sneer at her.
He whips out his claws, fully ready to start a smackdown with her, and points out that her "Auntie Kate" had one of those tasers. Which, she did, and totally used it on Derek a bazillion times, if I recall correctly. Allison is SO NOT HERE for Uncle Peter and his manipulation, and just stares him down, but he's not at all deterred, even when Lydia tells them both to cut it out. "Didn't do her much good as I ripped her throat out, did it?" he purrs, but Allison just retorts, "She didn't shove it up your a--" Lydia cuts her off with a screechy, "STOP IT!", and angrily throws the claws at them so hard that Peter has to duck to avoid them. The four claws ultimately embed themselves into a wooden column a couple feet away. Holy crap, does she have super strength that we don't know about? Can Allison train her in hunter skills already?
Allison and Peter just gape at Lydia, amazed, but Lydia's face is doing that thing it does when she's hearing voices. Then WE actually hear the voices, and though I can't make out any words, you can very clearly hear a woman crying through the whispers. Peter can tell something is finally happening, and asks her over and over if she's hearing something, but she just tunes him out and continues to listen to what she's being told by Talia, or whoever is talking in the memories. Man, I really wish I knew how these powers work. Is she hearing memories? Or are dead people telling her what she needs to know? Is it both? Lydia slowly walks toward the claws, and when she turns to face Peter, her face looks like she's heard something particularly horrifying. "What did Talia take from me?" Peter demands. "TELL ME WHAT SHE KNEW!" Lydia sighs before confessing, "You're not just an uncle." Wow, what a weird and stilted way to phrase that. Does that mean that Peter's a father? That is definitely terrifying, tbh. Peter's face goes from, "Uh, the fuck you say?" to "HOLY SHIT I ACTUALLY CREATED ANOTHER LIFE?" in the span of a second.
We return to the Sheriff's Department, where Derek is considering the handcuffs around his wrist, attaching him to the bench on which he sits. He reminds Chris that he could easily get out of them and scram, but Chris isn't having it. "So could I, but I'm not interested in being a fugitive from the law," he states, as he takes a look around the office. Derek just scoffs, and snits, "Well, I'm not interested in being a victim to a seventeen-year-old possessed by a psychotic FOX," as he continues to fiddle with his cuffs. That line killed me, seriously. It's all in the delivery. We've spent so much time talking about how great Dylan O'Brien's acting is, or how much Tyler Posey's acting has improved, but Tyler Hoechlin deserves SO much credit for how awesome Derek has become, especially considering how different he is from Derek. Anyway, Chris orders him to cut it the fuck out, and Derek eventually caves, though he takes great care to remind Chris that he shouldn't expect him to risk his own life just to protect him when this all inevitably goes sideways. Famous last words, amirite?
At the school, Papa Yukimura is walking down the hall toward his classroom. Kira walks in the front doors to the school just as he reaches the doorway, and a female voice asks him to shut the door behind him. It's Mama Yukimura! OH SHIT! Kira can tell something is shady going down, and since her dad didn't notice her, she makes the executive decision to take a leaf out of Scott's book and hover outside the door as she eavesdrops on their conversation. Papa Yukimura goes straight for his bookshelf and pulls a thick, heavy history textbook from it.
"You hid them in a book? Couldn't you find something more secure?" Papa Y assures her that no high school student willingly opens a textbook that size, and sets the book on his desk. Mama Y runs her hand over the book as Papa Y points out that she hasn't talked to Kira about any of this yet. He urges her to open up to her, and insists that she needs to know, especially about this. Papa Yukimura opens up the book to reveal that it's had nine rectangular holes carved into the pages to hide what looks like black, ceramic daggers.
"You've already sacrificed five," he reminds her. "Three of the oni are gone. How many more tails are you willing to sacrifice?" OH MY GOD THEY'RE HER TAILS. Okay, so in kitsune lore, kitsunes gain a tail every one hundred years that they are alive, which means that she's probably ANCIENT, if Davis is drawing from that mythology. CAN WE LEARN MORE ABOUT TW KITSUNES ALREADY? Anyway, Mama Yukimura says she's willing to lose them all, if she must, and gently pulls one of the long, black daggers from the book, as Kira watches from the small window in the door. Mama Y holds up the dagger, and after a moment, snaps the knife in half, which releases a greenish-blue puff of magic. She remains steady as she sets the pieces down and reaches for another dagger, but Papa Y definitely flinched. She snaps another dagger in half, which elicits another wince from her husband, and sets the broken pieces on the table. "These oni will be stronger," she assures him. "Much stronger." OMG. So, I'm guessing since the tails increase a kitsune's power as they age, that she can use the magic inside them that is released when they're broken to create a spell to bind her to the oni and allow her to control them? That is so fucking AWESOME, I can't even. What do you think happens when she loses all her tails? Will she die?
(via halebunnies)
Deputy Parrish, in his bomb defusing gear (but no head protection, probably because they want us to see his pretty, pretty face and super-green eyes) wedges himself in the aisle on the bus as he sets up next to a hyperventilating Jared. "Jared, it would be very helpful if you could avoid throwing up on the potential explosive device. Hey, can you do that for me?" Jared nods through his flop sweat, and replies that he thinks so. Parrish takes a pair of wire clippers and is about to cut the ribbon on the gift when this adorable conversation happens.
Jared flinches when the ribbon is cut, but nothing happens, which seems to surprise Parrish. I don't know if this is some kind of hint, or if maybe it was just a bad acting choice on the part of the actor, but it ALMOST looks like Parrish is disappointed that it's not a real bomb? That might just be my new character paranoia, though, because every newly introduced character ends up evil, more often than not. So, I'm sticking a pin in this to come back to later, if it turns out to be relevant. Parrish slowly lifts up the top of the box and pushes it back so he can get a peek inside. When he is able to see the contents, he sighs at what he finds. Outside, the boys (Stiles, Scott, and the twins) are standing with the rest of the school around the bus bay, when Sheriff receives a message on the radio from Parrish, who says it's not a bomb, but something else. They all watch as Parrish walks to the front of the bus, and holds something up to the glass of the bus' windshield. It's Sheriff's nameplate from his desk, which definitely confuses Parrish. Sheriff, on the other hand, realizes that there is actually a bomb, it's just not where they thought it would be, and briefly flashbacks to earlier in the episode, when he received all of those packages from Parrish and the delivery boy. OH NOOO.
A sheriff's deputy at the Sheriff's department answers a phone call, and suddenly, everything in the office dissolves into chaos. Derek and Chris watch as various deputies run around like chickens with their heads cut off, until finally, one of the deputies run over to them and unlock their handcuffs. Chris asks him what's happening, but he gets no answer. Derek focuses his hearing, and notices a ticking sound coming from Sheriff's office, which is right behind them. Chris asks him what's happening, but Derek is too busy zeroing in on the source of the sound, which is coming from the boxes still sitting on the desk from earlier. Derek realizes it's a bomb about a second before it goes off, which gives him just enough time to yell "GET DOWN!", throw the deputy unlocking his handcuffs onto the floor and to dive over Chris, shielding him as the bomb detonates. The glass windows shatter, raining broken pieces of glass, broken splinters of wood, and shredded up paper all over them. HOLY SHIT. HOOOOLY SHIT. THIS IS A DISASTER.
(via twmoondogs)
After the break, we return to Papa Yukimura's classroom, where he and Mama Yukimura are standing together, watching the sun set through the windows, and a thunderstorm approaching. We cut back over to the Nemeton, where another swarm of fireflies are flying out of the crack in the stump. Included in the swarm is a firefly that glows greenish-blue, like the magic from the broken tails.
Back at the Sheriff's department, Sheriff, Scott, and Stiles have arrived to find the place in shambles. Sheriff calls for an ambulance to come STAT, as deputies in various states of injury limp around the office. Scott starts to hyperventilate a bit as he takes in all the destruction, but he's called away by Stiles, who is kneeling next to a deputy who is looking pretty bad. He's bleeding out of his mouth, and seems to be having a lot of trouble breathing.
Across the room, Chris is helping Derek stand up, to little success. Derek sways a little bit, and when Chris catches him, we can see that there are about a hundred shards of glass and bits of wood sticking out of his back, through his coat. Derek winces, but swears he's okay, and it's true--we've seen Derek come back from way worse than that, even as a beta. Plus, Derek can heal and Chris can't, so it only makes sense. So much for not protecting Chris, eh? Derek may be a lot of things, but there was no way he wasn't going to protect anyone he could, thanks to the huge heap of survivor's guilt he's accumulated. Chris looks him dead in the eyes, and points out that Derek saved his life, but I'm pretty sure Derek is too busy being about thisclose to passing out to give a fuck either way, tbh.
(via teenwolf)
"Can you do something?" Stiles asks Scott, as they watch the deputy struggle to hang on to life. "Take his pain? Anything to make it easier?" Scott is like Derek, in the way that he's not going to let someone suffer if they don't have to, so he goes on ahead and reaches his shaky hands toward the deputy to siphon off some of his pain. Unfortunately, it seems to be too late--the deputy manages to lift his head a little bit and sputter blood out of his mouth before in an attempt to say something before he dies. Scott is absolutely DEVASTATED, because he was still draining his pain, and could literally feel that man's life running out of him as he died. He looks like he's just been kicked in the gut as his eyes tear up, while he gently places the man's hand back on his chest. It's absolutely devastating to witness, so Sheriff, who must have seen a little bit of that go down, yells at Stiles and Scott to get the fuck out, pronto. Stiles is looking pretty bad himself, so Scott pulls him away before his dad gets any more stressed. As they walk toward the door, they run into Kira, who immediately admits that the oni are coming. Scott yells at a distracted Stiles that they need to get him out RIGHT NOW, and drags him out of the office.
(via thosedamnwerewolves)
At the Hale Loft, Peter has reached the "anger" stage of whatever feelings he's dealing with, and slowly tries to corner Lydia for more answers, though she insists she has none. "I said, I don't know! I don't know its name, if it's a boy or a girl, or if it's some mutated wolf-baby." Peter knows that she's lying, and grabs her by the shoulders. "Tell me what you know! TELL ME!" Unfortunately for him, Allison has had enough of Peter manhandling her girlfriend, so she totally tases him in the back with her cattle-prod, causing Peter to let go of Lydia and fall to the floor in a twitching heap. Lydia's face when it happens is PRICELESS, she is giving me major Black Widow vibes, tbh. Allison quips that NOW they're going to leave, and they take a final look at Peter groaning and writhing on the floor before Allison takes Lydia's hand and skip out the door together. I love Allydia so much it hurts. Once the girls are out the door, Peter turns onto his side and bellows, "LYDIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA."
(via argentsisaac)
Stiles is driving Scott and Kira to the animal clinic in the pouring rain, as Scott explains to newbie Kira that the building is set up kind of like his house, with mountain ash in the walls, which should buy them a little time from the oni until they can figure something else out. Stiles reminds them that if what happened at Scott's house in "Silverfinger" is true, then they CAN get in eventually, which isn't exactly comforting for him. "Nobody's got any better ideas?" Stiles asks, but Scott and Kira remain woefully silent. At a lack for better option, Stiles agrees on the animal clinic plan.
Across town, Lydia and Allison are sitting in Allison's car in some random parking lot, while each of them surf the internet on their respective phones. Allison informs Lydia that she's found hers, and asks Lydia if she's done the same. Lydia pulls up an article from "The Beacon Ledger," which is titled, "Malia Tate Found After 8 Years Missing," and complete with a selfie of Malia in a car. She clicks on the picture, and holds her phone up side-by-side to Allison's phone, on which Allison has found a selfie of Peter. What a minute, where did that picture come from? Did she get that off of Peter's Instagram account or something? That's kind of hilarious, tbh. "Peter and Malia?" Allison asks. "Father and daughter," Lydia replies. HOLY SHIT, I have SO many questions, all of which I will go into at the end. I will note though, that they do look a lot alike, they both have that strong Hale eyebrow game. I am fully in favor of anything that puts more Shelley Hennig on my television, though, so I can dig this story line.
The rain is in a total downpour at this point, and Stiles quickly pulls into the parking lot of the animal clinic and tries to rush everyone inside. Unfortunately, in the time it takes for them to fiddle with the lock, they hear the tell-tale rattle/chirp noise that indicates that the oni have arrived to fuck shit up, their ninjada swords already out and ready to go. Scott throws the keys at Stiles and orders him to get inside, right before he pulls his wolf out and roars at the oni. They all start to fight, and Stiles finally is able to get the door open. He yells for Kira to get inside with him, but she's too busy watching Scott fight like a pro. She tries to help him by throwing dog cages and random garbage at them, which works about as well as you would expect, namely, terribly. The oni nearest to her holds his sword up to fight her, but she instinctively grabs the oni's wrist and pulls, causing it to drop it's sword as it flops onto the ground.
As usual, she is completely stunned that she was able to fight like that, and runs over to pick up the dropped sword, as Scott continues to swipe and kick at the oni. She ducks when an oni swings at her, and manages to backhand it right in the face with the sword she stole. This impresses Scott so much that he stops and just gapes in awe at her at a moment, while Kira squeals internally about how fucking badass she is. She only takes a moment, though, and after that, she goes back to kicking the shit out of them. Unfortunately, Scott gets caught off-guard by an oni, and gets stabbed right in the gut with it's sword. Kira screams "NOOOO!", just as I did, and runs over to Scott, kicking the oni in the back in order to get him away from her boyfriend. Scott gasps and groans through the pain, and Stiles, who has been watching through a crack in the door, calls out to Kira to bring him inside, even though the ninjada is still embedded in his abdomen.
Kira and Stiles help Scott walk into the treatment room in the back, and lean him against the table. Scott grabs onto the sword that is currently impaling him, and groans loudly as he gives Kira a look that screams "GET THIS THE FUCK OUT OF ME RIGHT NOW." Kira nods and grabs the sword, and is just about to pull it out of him when Stiles grabs her by the wrist so tightly that she's forced to let go. Once he has her arm in the air, he shoves her head into the table, which knocks her out. She falls onto the floor, and Stiles turns to Scott and sighs. Scott is 100% confused, and can tell that Stiles isn't himself, because it's like his entire demeanor has changed. He calmly walks up to Scott and playfully taps his fingers on the hilt of the sword before wrapping his fingers around it and holding up a hand to seem less threatening. Scott begs him not to do what we all know he's about to do, but Stiles just assures him it's fine, and braces himself on Scott's shoulder, like he's about to pull the sword out.
Instead of pulling it out, though, he just twists it, which causes Scott to scream in agony. He pulls the sword out a tad before twisting it the opposite way, just to add insult to (literal) injury. Dylan O'Brien has REALLY had a chance to stretch his acting wings a little bit, to move out of his comfort zone, and he does it so well it is frightening. "Does it hurt?" Stiles asks, but Scott just groans and gasps in pain. "Hey, look at me. You really should have done your readings, Scott." He twists the sword again, and drops a lesson on Scott about kitsunes. "The nogitsune FEEDS off chaos, strife, pain. This morning, you took it from Isaac, and you took it from Coach, and then from a dying deputy." Stiles rubs Scott's shoulder, as if the nogitsune in him actually gave a fuck about him. "All that pain, you took it all. Now, GIVE IT TO ME," he bellows, as he smacks a hand against Scott's head, and starts siphoning all of the pain from Scott's face and feeding on it. He looks like he's literally about to have an orgasm, if I'm being honest, and Scott looks like he's dying for a moment, until Stiles finally lets go.
(via teenwolf)
Scott starts to gasp when he comes to, and his eyes are as big as saucers as he just gapes at Nogitstiles. "Oh, you really have to learn, Scott. You really have to learn not to trust a fox!" We flash back to various points in the episode--Stiles' face right before he turns to face Scott and the twins, Stiles' face as he took Coach's pain, and the deputies. I think it's safe to say that Stiles hasn't been Stiles at any point in this episode, it was just the nogitsune pretending to be him. "Mmm-mm," Nogitstiles continues. "No, 'cause they're tricksters! They'll fool you. They'll fool EVERYONE." Am I the only one getting major Heath-Ledger-as-the-Joker vibes from Nogitstiles? It's amazing.
Out of nowhere, Deaton appears, and deadpans, "Not everyone," before jabbing him right in the neck with a syringe full of what I assume is letharia vulpina. Nogitstiles starts to gasp for breath, and when he realizes what just happened, he starts to chuckle a bit at Deaton's plan before he passes out and falls to the floor. Scott lets out a breath of relief before turning to Deaton, confused, and asking what the fuck just happened. Deaton remains quiet, and quickly grabs hold of the sword still sticking out of Scott's gut and wrenches it out, causing Scott to moan in pain again before his internal organs start stitching themselves back together.
Once he's healing, he turns back to the task at hand. "What was that? Was that a cure? Is he okay?" SCOTT MCCALL FOR BEST PERSON IN THE UNIVERSE. Seriously, you guys, Nogitstiles literally just twisted a sword in his gut and nearly tried to kill him, and Scott is still more concerned about Stiles and his well-being than his own right now. How can anyone dislike him? Deaton admits grimly that the nogitsune is poisoned and weak, but not dead yet, which is NOT good news. NOOO.
Next episode: Stiles checks himself into Eichen House in order to protect his friends from himself, and gets punched in the face by Malia. Also, the rest of the pack scrambles for a way to save him.
Click HERE to move on to my next recap of Teen Wolf!
[screencaps via KissThemGoodbye]
NOTES/SPECULATION/QUESTIONS:
-OKAY, let's talk about Peter and Malia possibly being father and daughter, because I have a shitload of questions. First of all, why would Talia take that memory away from Peter? Did she know he was evil, and was trying to protect her from him? Or was the mother involved in it, as well? What if the mother is someone like a hunter or something, and Talia figured it was better off if the child didn't know her father? Also, Malia is a werecoyote, not a werewolf, so how does that work? Was her mother a werecoyote? Or is it, again, another case of "the shape you take reflects the person that you are?" It would make sense that she was a Hale, though, considering that she could actually take the full form of a coyote, just like Talia and Laura could be a full wolf. How are the Tates involved? Was she adopted, or was Mama Tate the mother? I'm guessing the former, since the fact that Malia was a werecoyote seemed to have taken them by surprise, since she got all moon-crazy when they were driving together and ended up getting them killed.
-How terrible was that whole experience for Stiles? Running around, sabotaging shit, getting people killed, putting his friends and family into tons of danger, torturing his best friend/brother. This will definitely change him--he's going to have a lot to deal with when the gang gets rid of the nogitsune, and I'm really scared for him. :(
-How is Mama Yukimura involved with the nogitsune? Why did she put her husband in charge of her tails? How is he involved in all this mess, since he's Korean and likely not a kitsune? I'm guessing that's why they moved to Beacon Hills, to take care of the nogitsune, but how did they know it was here? As usual, I have way more questions than I do answers.
-Derek and Chris' friendship gives me so much life, tbh. Like, I just really want them to be drinking buddies or something, they have interesting chemistry. Do they have a ship name? Cherek? Deris? Hargent?
-Do you think kitsunes get the features of foxes when they need them, like werewolves have fangs, claws, etc? That could be interesting. I like the color of their eyes a lot.
-If the nogitsune feeds off of chaos, strife, and pain, he probably feasted today, didn't he? Think about it--an ambulance wrecked into a fire hydrant, three people at the hospital were electrocuted, two of whom died, and one of whom was put in intensive care, everyone else was running around hysterically in the dark. Then, Coach got shot with one of his traps, so more pain, plus the chaos of the school and police running around. THEN, there was that bomb threat at the school, so more chaos, and the ACTUAL bomb at the sheriff's office, which caused so much more chaos and pain, and then he ate Scott's pain for dessert. He may be weakened by the wolf lichen, but he's still got a ton of power to sustain him, which is bad bad bad bad badddddd.
The most intense parts for me was watching Scott and Allison visit Isaac, because I can't stand to see my bb hurt, and the last scene with Scott and Stiles. Seriously, Kathleen and I were talking about it, and it literally almost felt like watching a rape scene, in a way. Not in the fact that it was rapey (although there are definitely BOUNDS of consent issue with regard to the nogitsune using Stiles' body, but we'll get into that later) but just in that it was just so horrifying to see Scott watching a malevolent creature possess his best friend and brother in arms and forcing his body to do terrible things to him and the people Stiles cares about. :( My babies!
ANYWAY there is a shitload of things to talk about, so lets just get right to it, shall we?
Previously, on Teen Wolf: Scott and the other wolfies learned that werewolves can use their abilities to help take the edge off someone's pain by absorbing it into themselves. Derek and Peter went on a rescue mission for a Hale heirloom that turned out to contain the claws of the deceased Talia Hale, which Derek used in a ritual to be able to talk to her. Allison and Isaac continued to be one of the hottest and most adorable couples on this show. Stiles found out that the nogitsune possessing him was taking the form of his shadow under all those bandages, and somehow he gave it control of his body in order to protect his friends and family. While possessed, Stiles had an internal struggle with the nogitsune on the roof of the hospital, where he ended up tampering with one of the electrical wires. Eventually, the fire caught fire and ended up breaking off of the electric post, which led to a humongous live wire flapping all over the place and heading straight for poor little Kira's sweet face. And now we're caught up!
Alright, guys, I hate to sidebar this early in the game, but I have to say, I have NO idea where this first scene in the cold open took place. It's the same location where Bb Chris Argent got into a shoot-off with some Yakuza mobsters and some oni twenty-four years ago, which I originally thought was in Japan. When I started thinking about it more, I realized that Japan's weapon laws are wayyy more strict than in the USA, which means it wouldn't be an ideal location for an arms deal. Plus, SPOILER ALERT--Deaton shows up, and unless he had major notice, I have a feeling that he didn't just fly all the way to Japan just to do what he's about to do, no matter how much he might love Scott. So yeah, this scene might be in Japan, it might be in Beacon Hills or in a BH-adjacent town, who knows? ANYWAY, back to what's happening.
We pan in on a really nice mansion on a huge hill overlooking the city, where a Japanese man stands on the balcony, drinking some scotch. He re-enters his home, which is styled in a very sleek-looking Eastern aesthetic, and heads straight for a huge red poof in the middle of the floor of the main room, where a wolf lays. "Why is it taking so long?" the owner of the house demands, and one of his bodyguards (I presume) swears that the doctor is en route as they speak, and comes highly recommended. The man gets REALLY pissed at that remark, and sets down his drink so he can pick up his handgun. "Did I ask for a professional reference?" he sneers, as his cronies immediately stand to their feet and look like beaten puppies. "I ASKED why it was taking so long! THAT is a question of TIME, not QUALITY OF SERVICE! Do you think I would pay an idiot to look at him?" Whoa, pump your breaks there, buddy! No need to be rude His hired help immediately starts stammering that they would never dare suggest such a thing, but the man just keeps ranting, and demands to know why his wolf hasn't moved a muscle in twelve hours. The poor wolf cub just stares at them forlornly, unable to do so much as move his head. Pobre lobito.
The man asks one last time where the doctor is, but thankfully, Deaton isn't an idiot, and didn't keep him waiting any longer than necessary. He strolls in, wearing this super fly charcoal jacket and carrying his black leather medical bag, with two more security guards flanking him on either side. Deaton is really hot, you guys, I think it's easy to forget with the huge dearth of beautiful young people on this show, so I feel compelled to remind you all. He stops a couple feet away from the man and bows before butchering some kind of greeting/apology combo in Japanese. The man suggests he save the apologies for if he can't do anything. Also, Deaton refers to him as Hakada-san, so he shall henceforth be known as Hakada, or boss man, for laziness purposes.
Deaton crouches down by the wolf and digs around his bag for some gloves. Hakada asks him if he's had any experience with wolves before, which, LOL! Girl, please. Deaton plays coy, and asks what his patient's name is. It's Yuki, by the by. Deaton grabs Yuki by the head, and asks him what he's been into lately as he manipulates the wolf's face with his hands. I'm pretty sure there's some kind of veterinary explanation for what he's doing, but it seems like he's working some druid mojo on him? Maybe he's like, reading his mind or something. After he examines Yuki's mouth, he asks Hakada if Yuki had been around any strange plants. "Something that looks like moss? It would be bright green, almost neon? It's called lichen, and it's highly toxic. I need to know if Yuki's consumed any."
Boss man gets the weirdest look on his face, like he's been totally feeding or exposing Yuki to strange plants, and urges him to just treat Yuki for the poison, if that's what's wrong with him. Unfortunately for him, Deaton refuses to treat him unless he knows the specific type of lichen they're dealing with, and requests that he be allowed to obtain a sample to know before. Because in addition to a veterinarian, he's also a botanist. Although, now that I mention it, that's probably something that druids are taught to do, yeah? Hakada stands up and reluctantly orders one of his cronies to escort Deaton out to the garden, where he thinks Yuki got into some moss. The cronies all remain motionless, though, just shoegazing away, until Hakada starts yelling at them furiously in Japanese. Deaton just stands there awkwardly until Hakada stomps his little feet and spits, "Superstitious idiots," before stating that he'll take Deaton there himself.
Deaton follows the boss man through a walkway lined with bushes and trees that lead to a huge set of stone doors with ornate wrought-iron locks. Hakada unlocks the door and slowly walks into the garden, definitely a little creeped out himself. Of course, it's the same garden where the Yakuza + Chris Argent vs Oni showdown happened twenty-four years ago, and we're reminded with brief flashbacks of the oni killing the nogitsune in the Kumicho's body. Hakada asks him if this is what he's looking for, as Deaton's eye catches on that same fountain that got bathed in the nogitsune's blood, all that time ago. Now, it's covered in a bright green moss, exactly as Deaton described. He walks past Hakada and goes straight for the fountain, before starting to dig through his bag. He pulls out one of those glass jars he uses to hold his herbs, mistletoe, mountain ash, etc, and asks Hakada if he'd mind holding it for him.
Hakada takes the vial from his hand, and watches Deaton as he starts to clip some samples of the lichen. He asks if Deaton really thinks Yuki got into the garden and ate the moss, but Deaton admits that he doesn't think so. "Actually, I think Yuki probably doesn't come anywhere near here. I doubt if you could even drag him in. Some part of him probably senses what happened here, to your father, and the nogitsune possessing him." This was the WRONG answer, apparently, because Hakada immediately points his pistol at the back of Deaton's head and pulls back the safety. However, Deaton is never less than completely cool and collected, so he continues to speak despite the loaded weapon currently aimed at his temporal lobe. Although, judging by what happens in a minute, it's likely that he expected this reaction.
"This particular lichen is called letharia vulpina," Deaton explains. "'Wolf lichen.' They used it to poison wolves and foxes. They'd put out pieces of meat with crushed glass and bits of lichen in it. The glass perforated the intestines of the animal, so the vulpinic acid could reach the internal organs faster." Hakada immediately assumes that Deaton used it to poison his dog, but Deaton swears he didn't--instead, he gave Yuki a paralytic agent, the same one he used to coat the outside of the glass Hakada is holding, which is why Deaton was wearing gloves when he handled it. GENIUS! Hakada tries to shoot Deaton, but his hand goes completely numb, and eventually he drops it on the ground. "Kanima!" Hakada proclaims, before he falls onto the ground.
So, did Deaton like, milk Jackson for his venom or something, before he turned into a wolf? I guess there was a ton of it inside that body bag he was in during the season 2 finale, maybe he harvested it or something? Who knows? "I guess we both know a few things, Hakada-san," Deaton quips, as he stands up and walks over to his body to take the vial from his hands. "Born from the blood of a nogitsune," Deaton whispers, as he holds a clump of letharia vulpina in front of Hakada's face. "This lichen is quite special. More powerful than you know!" He puts the lichen in the jar, although I'm completely confused as to why he wouldn't take as much of it as he could find. Who knows when they're going to need to take out a fox or wolf again? Hakada weakly asks him what he's planning on doing with it, so Deaton stands up in the most badass pose he can muster, his face bathed in moonlight, and replies. "There's a fox hiding in a teenage boy, and I'm going to poison it." God bless Alan Deaton. TITLE CARD!
(via teenwolf)
When we return from the opening credits, we finally pick up where we left off in "Riddled." Kira is standing in front of the hospital, staring in shock as she watches a live wire from on top of the hospital whipping its way toward her. She narrowly manages to duck in time to avoid being hit with it, and when she turns around, she sees the wire barreling toward an ambulance that is returning to the ER, setting off one of the most unfortunate series of events yet. The paramedic driving the ambulance swerves to avoid the wire, forcing Kira to dive out of it's path, before accidentally driving over the curb and hitting a fire hydrant. So, of course, the water from the hydrant starts to flood the parking lot, and the live wire flops into the water, electrifying the puddle.
Kira stands up and stammers, "Oh god!" as she realizes that this has the potential to hurt a TON of people. Allison and Isaac show up in Allison's car, and they stop in the middle of the parking lot when they see Kira. The puddle continues to grow, lapping up on the tires of the ambulance JUST as the paramedic decides to get out of the ambulance and see what's going on. So, naturally, he gets electrocuted and immediately drops to the ground. Kira sees this happen, and yells out to everyone in the parking lot to stay back. Unfortunately, Allison doesn't seem to hear her, and almost walks into the puddle in her effort to reach Kira. So Isaac dives in front of her and pushes her into the grass, which protects her, but doesn't give him enough time to get out of the way himself. Once electrocuted, he falls to the ground, where his entire right side makes contact with the electrified water. NOOOOO. This is exactly what happened to Boyd and that ended TERRIBLY.
A redheaded girl (who won the "Die on Teen Wolf" contest they held last fall) gets out of her car to see what the fuck is happening, and ALSO steps into the water, gets shocked, and collapses on the ground. IT NEVER PAYS TO BE CURIOUS IN THIS TOWN. STAY WHERE YOU ARE, GUYS. Another guy in a silver car is so distracted by the live wire, which has returned to whipping around in the air, that he doesn't even notice that he's about to run Kira over. She hops onto the hood of his car at the last minute, and sprints her way up the car before doing a super sweet backflip off the trunk and into the puddle. I know that everyone hates the pointless slow-mo acrobatics, but I think they're really cool to watch, tbh. She lands on the ground in front of the wire, and stares at it just as Scott and Derek finally make it down from the roof and run toward her. Derek notices the water before Scott does, and quickly stops him before they both touch the puddle. Shouldn't it not be electrified anymore, since the wire isn't in it anymore? Physics/chemistry isn't really my thing, so it's incredibly likely I'm just talking out of my ass.
The boys watch Kira as she reaches out and grabs the wire in one hand, and slowly raises the other hand to cap over the live end. The electricity flickers in all of the lit signs around the hospital, and her hand starts to glow orangey-pink as she closes her eyes and focuses on drawing in the electricity. SHE IS SO FUCKING BADASS, I CAN'T EVEN DEAL. When she opens her eyes, they're glowing a bright orange-pink. Scott and Derek are completely shocked and in awe of how amazing Kira Yukimura is, and continue to watch her until her eyes return to brown. A crowd of people flee from the inside of the hospital, including Mama Yukimura, who totally caught the tail end of her daughter's little superhero maneuver. Kira drops the now-dead wire onto the pavement, and Derek rushes over to Isaac to check his pulse. Worried, he turns to Scott and yells, "Scott! He's not breathing!" NOOOOOOO.
(via teenwolf)
Fast-forward 48 hours, where we meet back up with Scott, laying prone on his bed, reviewing the events of the past several days in his head. We can hear Derek's voice shouting that Isaac isn't breathing again, as we dive into Scott's flashbacks. Isaac is pushed into the ER on a gurney, with nasty-looking burns covering the whole right side of his face, neck, and entire arm. Down the hall, Mama Yukimura grabs Kira's arm and pulls her aside. "I saw what you did," she scolds. "Now is not the time for anybody else to see!" She pulls her outside just before we make a brief return to present-day Scott. When we dive back into his memories, we see Deputy Parrish approach the Sheriff to inform him that Stiles' Jeep was seen leaving the hospital. Sheriff urges him to get everyone looking for him. A couple feet away, Agent Douchenozzle asks Deputy Cortes (or is it Manning) if the wire looks cut, before instructing him to keep an eye out for signs of sabotage, which doesn't make Sheriff any happier.
Back in reality (or at least, what I assume is reality, though you can never tell with Jeff Davis) we get a gratuitous (but still always appreciated) shot of Scott's amazing ass as he lifts himself off the bed. He sits on the edge of the bed and continues to think, as Derek's advice from earlier rings through his brain. "You have to tell Stilinski. You have to tell him what's really wrong with Stiles." Man, this is one of how many good ideas of Derek's in the last couple episodes? Consider me no longer referring to him as a failwolf.
(via juliabaccari)
William Fitzsimmons' "Hold On" plays as Scott somberly gets ready for school, and walks into the kitchen to find his mother drinking tea, just as sad as he is. When Scott asks if there are any updates on Stiles, she informs him that they're still looking for him, but she figures if anyone can be missing for two days and still be totally okay afterwards, it would be Stiles. Scott changes the subject to Isaac's condition, and Melissa sighs, before standing up and suggesting that they swing by the hospital on the way to school to see him. Scott is seriously SO sad, it's killing me! One best friend is possessed by a demon fox and doing god knows what, while the other is laying in the hospital with major electrical burns and damage from electrocution. EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE.
Meanwhile, Sheriff Stilinski is sitting glumly in his office, staring at the last text message he received from his son. "Am ok. Please don't look for me. Be back soon." Too many Stilinski family feels happening so early in the episode. :( Deputy Parrish pops into the office and interrupts Sheriff's thoughts as he informs him that a delivery man is here to drop off some packages and needs Sheriff's signature. "It's just printer cartridges and stuff, batteries for the next blackout. Not a bad idea, considering the number of electrical problems in this town." Why do I get the terrible feeling that is a hint of some kind? Agent Douchenozzle walks into the office to join them and asks if Sheriff has a minute, which Parrish takes as his cue to leave. When Sheriff asks him what's up, ADN admits, "This might sound strange, but have you had any issues with Yakuza?" Sheriff identifies them as the Japanese mafia, but otherwise, he doesn't have a clue. "Specifically, a guy named Katashi," ADN clarifies. OH SHIT, this is so not good.
Melissa and Scott have arrived on the third floor of the hospital, where they find IRL Sleeping Beauty Allison, dozing on a bench outside of Isaac's room. Scott gently rubs her shoulder to wake her up, and as she opens her eyes and stretches, Scott asks her if she's been there the entire night. Allison nods and tells them that the doctors wouldn't let her see Isaac, because she's not family. "I told them he doesn't have any," Allison adds sadly, but Melissa disagrees. "Well, he's got us!" Melissa proclaims stubbornly. "And I have a keycard," she chirps, as she holds up her ID. Melissa McCall is literally an angel of the lord.
(via teenwolf)
She wipes her card through the lock on Isaac's room, and advises Scott and Allison to make their visit brief. The doors open, and the two slowly enter the room. Isaac is still in the ICU, in a shock room, equipped with defibrillators and other emergency equipment. When they're close enough to see Isaac, Allison quickly grabs Scott's hand. Scott looks at her and squeezes her hand soothingly before leading her to Isaac's bedside. I do admit, I got some residual Scallison feels from this scene, but I really don't think it was a romantic thing, I think they're both just worried sick about Isaac and need the support. I already talked about how tactile the McCall pack has become in the last recap, so I think this is just another example of it.
Isaac looks TERRIBLE--his entire right side is burnt, including his face and arm, and the burns are almost black. It looks painful as hell, basically, and Allison literally gasps when she sees him. She figured he would be healing by now, since it's been two days, and Scott is surprised to see that he hasn't as well. He gingerly reaches down and wraps his hand around Isaac's arm. Allison asks him if he's in pain, and he grimaces as he admits that he is. Naturally, Scott sucks up as much of his pain as he can bear, and tells Allison that while it won't improve his burns, it can at least take the edge off the pain so his body can focus on healing. Allison, getting more upset, asks if Stiles could really do this, but Scott reminds her that it's whatever is possessing Stiles that made him do this. "Well, then how do we get what's inside of him the hell out of him?" Allison asks. Scott assures her that he's working on it.
(via argentsallison)
At school, Scott has caught up on Kira, who is giving him the 411 on kitsune and nogitsune as they walk down the hall. Now that Stiles the research whiz is out of commission for the time being, Kira's gotta step up, I guess.
KIRA: "The thing is, in all the stories, kitsune are tricksters. They're mischievous. They don't really get caught up in right or wrong, or even understand it."
SCOTT: [confused] "What's that mean, it's just doing this for the hell of it?"
KIRA: "No, there was something else I found. If you somehow offend a nogitsune, they can react pretty badly."
SCOTT: "...How do you offend a nogitsune?"
KIRA: "I don't know, but if it's doing something this bad, then someone really, really offended it."In the locker room, Coach is screeching his whistle in order to get the cross country team to listen up for his announcements. "Anybody catches the slightest glimpse of Stilinski, you contact the first available teacher! Got it? GOT IT?" Everyone mumbles a "Yes, Coach," which mollifies him enough to continue on his speech. He bought a card for Isaac. "And every one of you LOSERS is not only going to sign it, you're going to write a personal message so profound and deep, it's gonna bring a tear to Coach's eye." LOL, Coach is the best. He asks who is going to sign first, so Danny hops on up and waltzes up to write his note, earning himself a slap on the ass from Coach, along with a warning to "keep it PG."
Way in the back, Scott is leaning against his locker, confabbing with the twins. Aiden points out that the lack of Stiles and oni lately, as well as the just general quietness around town, should probably be making them pretty nervous, and Scott agrees that it's definitely the calm before the storm. He's distracted when he hears a series of high-pitched chirpy noises, and after listening for a moment, he realizes it's one of Chris and Allison's ultra-sonic emitters. The boys run out into the hallway, and eventually realize that the noise is coming from the basement, so they waste no time running down there to see what the fuck is going on. Once they've rushed down the stairs, they turn down the hall to find a boy standing in the corner, facing the wall. It's Stiles! But judging by the dark, mischievous glint in his eye, I think it's safe to say it's not ALL Stiles. He turns around to face them, and holds his hands up in the air in a non-threatening gesture. In one of his hands, there's an emitter, flashing and chirping. "Okay, I know what you guys are thinking, but it's me. I swear to GOD it's me!" I'm not buying it, tbh. He's not flaily enough for Stiles.
True to form, Ethan and Aiden immediately gets wolfed out and lunge for Stiles. They charge toward him, and they each eventually get one hand around Stiles' neck and hold him up into the air in a choke-hold. Scott rips Ethan off of him and throws him into a shelf, before yelling, "I SAID STOP!" When Aiden actually has the audacity to growl at him, Scott straight up ROARS in his face, which causes him to literally back away, like a dog with his tail between his legs. So, Scott's pretty much their alpha at this point, right? I'm not a huge fan of the twins (I like Ethan more than Aiden, but I could take or leave either of them, tbh), but on the other hand, Pack McCall needs all the strength they can get, and without them, Scott only has two werewolves. I don't know if Stiles, Allison, Lydia, and even Kira give Scott any power/strength, because while they are absolutely pack, they're still humans/banshees/kitsunes, you know? I like to think that they do, because without Stiles, Allison and Lydia, Scott would have never become a true alpha in the first place, but I'm not in charge of the werewolf magic rules, so who knows.
(via teenwolf)
ANYWAY, Stiles glances at Scott, clearly impressed by his intimidation tactics, and once again swears up and down that it's really him. "I don't know where I've been for the last two days, or what I've been doing, but this is me, I promise." Ethan, still trying to catch his breath after being thrown around, asks Stiles if he knows what happened at the hospital. Stiles claims he knows even more than that, and picks up a folded up piece of paper that's laying on top of a duffel bag on the floor. He identifies the paper as a blueprint for the hospital's electrical system, and points out how his handwriting is all over it in red sharpie, but he's very concerned. "I know I did this, I caused the accident." He opens up the bag under the spread out blueprint, and adds that the contents of the bag looks like it could be used for something else. Ethan sees a saw of some kind in the bag and pulls it out as he asks what the FUCK Stiles has been up to lately. "I think something worse," Stiles admits grimly. "A lot worse."
Lydia is just sauntering down the hall, lost in all the chatter around her, when she notices her mom standing outside her classroom, talking to a man who looks suspiciously like Peter Hale. Everyone in the hallway slows down as Lydia focuses on Peter, but by the time she manages to make it all the way over to her mother, he's already gone. "Why were you talking to him?" Lydia demands, but Mama Martin doesn't really get why her daughter is so wigged out. She claims that he's a dude from the Health Department, who started talking to her first, but Lydia is hilariously like, "Really? That's what he told you?"
Mama Martin just shrugs and informs her that they're scheduling hearing tests with the students. Lydia gets that look on her face that says she's starting to put the clues together, which her mother just mistakes for spaciness. "Yes! HEARING. I'm guessing we should sign you up!" So sassy, Carol Lockwood! Also, how flawless is Susan Walters, anyway? She's likely almost twice Holland's age and looks just as fresh-faced, it's amazing. Linden Ashby is a lucky dude! Mama Martin says Peter gave her his card, but Lydia, so annoyed by this point, breaks the news that it's just a piece of paper with a number on it. "I know," Mama Martin purrs. "Still got it!" I LOVE HER.
Scott and the twins are still with Stiles in the basement, pulling balls of rope and other tools out of the bag that Stiles found. "What were you doing, building a Terminator?" Ethan asks, but Stiles isn't really in a joking mood right now. Scott finds a folded up map, and realizes that it's of the nature preserve. Aiden points out the trail that the cross-country team runs during practice, and Scott follows the trail with his finger until he reaches the location of where Malia Tate's mom's wrecked car is still hanging out. Stiles reminds them all that it's ALSO in the same area where Papa Tate hid all of those bear traps. HEY, wait a minute--didn't Sheriff make it his sole duty to make sure that all of those traps were removed? Wasn't that why he had his deputies clear all the people from the preserve? Plot hole, or am I missing something?
As all of this drama has been happening, the cross-country team went ahead without them and started warming up outside. Coach blows his whistle as an order for them to get running, and the team takes off. Danny is at the front of the crowd with the awesome runners, because he's amazing at everything, but Kira, who seems to have joined the team at some point, is amazed at herself when she finds herself catching up with him pretty easily. Danny is pretty confused to see her keep pace with him, so she just gives him a cute little smile before taking off and leaving him behind. You go girl!
Chris Argent gets off the elevator outside his apartment, looking super hot, per usual, and is about to go in when he notices that his front door is ajar. His hunter instincts start tingling, and he immediately whips out his gun and slowly makes his way into his apartment, keeping an eye out for any intruders. He peeks into Allison's room on his way through the hall, before he finally makes it to his office. From the doorway, he can see another one of his emitters has been stabbed into the top of that awesome desk of his.
He checks around the half-open door, but lets his guard down when he assumes that there isn't anyone else in the room. He stares at his desk, trying to figure out what the emitter is doing there, when he hears a voice behind him. "Lose something?" Chris turns and instinctively lunges at DEREK FUCKING HALE, who easily disarms Chris and puts him in a clawed-hand choke-hold. Of course, Chris has about a dozen weapons on him at any given time, so he pulls ANOTHER gun out of the back waistband of his jeans, and holds it up to Derek's head.
"Why are you breaking into my apartment?" Chris demands, although not particularly unkindly, despite the current circumstances. "Why are YOU leaving emitters in MY loft?" Derek retorts, but Chris swears that he has no idea why it would be there. He decides that there's clearly been some misunderstanding, and removes the gun from Derek's temple, and after a moment, Derek reluctantly removes his hand from Chris' neck. Chris massages his throat as he saunters over to his desk, and informs Derek that he's spent the last 48 hours trying to track down Stiles. Derek asks him if he had any luck, and when he answers in the negatory, Derek admits that he hasn't been able to find him either. They stare at each other for a long, tense moment, before Derek folds. "Okay, we're both trying to find Stiles. You mind if I ask what you plan on doing when you find him?" Chris claims it depends on which Stiles he finds, which isn't really the answer anybody wants to hear right now, and pulls the emitter out of his desktop.
"Renegade" by DANK (which is yet another obsession of mine right now) plays as Kira continues running like she's The Flash or something, just sprinting away, giggling in amazement of her new-found skills. Across the preserve, Stiles' Jeep pulls up to where Coach is sitting and waiting for the team to return. Scott and Stiles jump out of the car and call out for Coach, but naturally, he wants to know what the fuck Stiles is doing and where he's been for the past two days, just like everyone else. However, Stiles cuts him off and orders him to listen up.
Back in Chris' office, Chris notices that his safe/hidden cupboard in the wall has been broken into, and points it out to Derek before he slowly opens the door. Inside is a silver briefcase, which Chris insists is not one of his. Derek reaches for it, but Chris tells him to be careful, and quickly feels around the edges of the briefcase to make sure that it isn't booby-trapped somehow. He pulls it out of the safe and sets it on the table, which makes me realize that it totally looks like the suitcase that Katashi's goon gave to Isaac in exchange for that one Argent pistol. Sure enough, when Chris assumes that there's no bomb inside and opens it, he finds stacks and stacks of hundred dollar bills.
Derek runs his finger over the stacks and asks him how much money he thinks is in there. "One hundred and fifty thousand," Chris confesses. "But it doesn't make sense, we never took the money." Derek doesn't know anything about the fake buy he did with Isaac, so he asks whose money it is. "It belongs to a Yakuza named Katashi. He has a nickname--" "--You mean, something like, 'Silverfinger?'" Agent Douchenozzle calls out from the doorway, holding up Katashi's prosthetic finger in an evidence bag. Chris is not thrilled to see ADN again, and asks him where he found it, which was apparently on Katashi's dead body. YIKES! So that must have been what he was talking about earlier, eh?
"Dreaming of You [Dub Mix]" by Thrillseekers plays as Danny continues to run through the woods, desperately trying to catch up with Kira. He's doing pretty well, too, WHAT IS DANNY? Out of nowhere, Ethan pounces on him, and the two of them roll around in the leaves for a moment before finally coming to a stop. "What the hell are you doing?" Danny whines, as he winces from the impact of his ribs against the ground. "Uh, I...missed you?" Ethan exclaims, before laying a big kiss right on him. Danny's like, "WHAT THE FUCK?" for a minute, but eventually gets into making out with his ex-bf.
Kira is still sprinting as if her life depended on it, when Scott also comes out of nowhere and tries to stop her, which ultimately results in him having to lift her into the air and spin to keep her from falling. SCOTT MCCALL, IRL DISNEY PRINCE, YOU GUYS. Kira squeals a bit in fright before being placed on the ground, and then immediately asks Scott if he saw how fast she was going. "I felt it!" Scott replies, and though he's excited for her, they've got business to do. "But we need to stop the others!" Kira's face falls as she realizes that more drama is happening, but before she can find out why, Stiles runs toward them, with Coach in tow, and yells at everyone to stop moving and to stay right where they are. He looks at the ground and sees a circular handle attached to a chain under a pile of leaves, and slowly pulls on the chain as he tries to find a trap.
Unfortunately for him, it's just a chain that isn't attached to anything, which causes Coach to laugh at the false alarm. "Congratulations Stilinski, you found a length of chain," Coach deadpans, as he slow claps sarcastically. "Can somebody NOW tell me what the hell is going on?" Coach states, clearly tired of all the drama. Of course, Coach starts walking right for a clear trip-wire, which Scott and the twins see at the last second, but it's too late--Coach trips the wire, which results in an arrow being shot right in his gut. Kira gasps loudly, and everyone stares at him in horror. Coach being coach, he just looks at the arrow in his abdomen and whispers, "Aw, crap" before he falls supine onto the ground, blood leaking out of his wound. The gang immediately kneels beside him to assess the damage.
My most favorite song of this entire episode, "2 Thingz" by BASECAMP, plays as Lydia and Allison walk up the stairs in Derek's building and stop outside the loft door. Then, the girls have an adorable, hilarious, and true conversation.
ALLISON: [stops Lydia before she can knock on the door] "While it's smart to bring me with you, I still think the rest of this is totally insane."
LYDIA: [frustrated] "I tried to find Stiles and I led everyone into a mental institution! I call that a colossal failure."
ALLISON: [nods understandably, but sighs]
LYDIA: "Look, I need to figure this out, and he is the only offering help."
ALLISON: "Peter doesn't offer help! He offers a chance for YOU to be manipulated into giving him what he wants!"
LYDIA: [smirks] "Fine! Let's see what he wants!"
I agree that Lydia totally needs to learn about her banshee powers, and Peter, being the one who bit her, probably knows a lot more about her and her abilities than anyone else (except for maybe Deaton). Still, I can't help but agree with Allison, too--Peter is NOT to be trusted. When Lydia opens the loft door, they find Peter standing with his back to them, staring theatrically out of that huge wall of windows, as if he wasn't just totally eavesdropping on that whole conversation outside. Nice try, Petey. Also, doesn't Peter have his own place? Why is he always at Derek's loft? "The hunter and the banshee," Peter purrs, as the girls stand in the hallway. "Ladies, please come in." THIS IS SUCH A BAD IDEA.
Meanwhile, Coach is screaming his lungs out on the ground of the preserve, as Stiles tries his best to put pressure on his arrow wound. He wants them to get the arrow out of him, ASAP, but of course, no one wants to do that because only a doctor/surgeon should do that. "OH MY GOD, I'M GONNA DIE! GET IT OUT OF ME!" Coach screeches, but Stiles insists that Coach is going to die. Of course, Coach doesn't believe that one bit, so Aiden tries to remind him that if he stops moving, it will hurt less. They assure him an ambulance is coming, but the boys are starting to get desperate, so Aiden yells at the rest of the team to get back so the gang can figure something out.
Once they've all vacated the area, Scott takes Coach's hand in his and starts siphoning away as much pain as he can, which looks like a lot, because he's panting and groaning quite a bit. After a minute, Coach goes quiet, and Aiden figures he passed out from the pain. Stiles takes his hands off of Coach's abdomen, and stares in horror at the blood staining them. Oh, symbolism. "Oh--I could have killed him. I could have killed him! What if it was his head, or his throat--" Scott cuts him off and reminds him that he DIDN'T shoot him in those places, and that Coach is going to be fine. Aiden informs them that he hears sirens, so the ambulance is on its way. Stiles looks less than pleased when he realizes that his father will ALSO be coming as well.
Derek and Chris are sitting on a bench outside the Sheriff's office, each with one wrist handcuffed to it. Chris asks him if he has any idea why Stiles would frame them for Katashi's murder, but Derek retorts that he didn't think Stiles was smart enough to frame them for murder, so he never considered the possibility. That's your bad, dude, the kid is the son of the Sheriff! "To be honest, I'm not entirely convinced that's why we're here," Chris admits, but Derek doesn't understand. "McCall's gonna come out here in a minute, he'll probably talk attorneys. [beat] Say you agree to allow mine to represent you." Derek asks him why the fuck he should trust his lawyer, which reminds me that this isn't the first time Derek's been arrested, so he probably already has one of his own, hahaha. Chris snits that he's not planning on calling his lawyer yet anyway, he just needs more time to figure out what the hell is going on.
Peter is staring at the girls, who are standing on the other side of Derek's table, and immediately insists that Allison GTFO. Lydia hilariously quips, "The LAST time I was alone with you, I almost bled out on the lacrosse field. She stays." Peter is offended that she would think he was trying to kill her, because she was supposed to be his backup plan. I REALLY wish we had gotten some elaboration on that. Did he know she was a banshee before he bit her? Is that why he did it? And while we're at it, how was he able to use her to bring himself back to life? "Not to mention," Peter continues, "The bite is what brought out your latent abilities. Do you think power like that was just gonna come out on its own? Tsk, tsk." Lydia gives him some MAJOR side-eye, but Peter maintains his argument, and adopts the accent of an old-timey film villain. "I'm the spark that lit your fire, sweetheart." HE IS SO DRAMATIC, IT'S HILARIOUS. I hate Peter and wish he was dead (and want Lydia to be the one to kill him, before pissing on his ashes and dancing on his grave), but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate his snark and theatrics, especially if he's actually being somewhat helpful for once.
(via teenwolf)
Allison argues that he attacked her and left her for dead, but Peter just claims that power doesn't come without a little agony. "I didn't ask for it," Lydia replies coldly, but Peter doesn't think it matters, because now she's taking advantage of her abilities. "How about the fact that you brainwashed her and used her to bring yourself back to life?" Allison retorts, as I shout, "AMEN!" at the television. That's when Peter solidifies the argument that he's a total sociopath. "So that I could be here today to help you master your abilities! Isn't it amazing how things come full circle?" Allison proclaims Peter to be 100% insane, and grabs Lydia's hand before stating that they're leaving, and pulling her toward the door. Allison and Lydia's hand-holding, Peter-harassing day today is one of my favorite parts of this episode, tbh. They are both QUEENS. Before they hit the door, Peter pulls out the big guns to get them to reconsider.
"You want the truth, Lydia?" Peter begins, which causes Allison and Lydia to stop and listen to what he has to say. "It's not the scream that gives you power. All the scream does is help drown out the noise, allowing you to hear what you really need to. And I can help you focus your hearing." Lydia and Allison turn, as Allison points out that he clearly wants something in return. "No, I'm dedicating my life to helping out narcissistic teenage girls," Peter deadpans. "Of course I want something in return." He grabs the wooden triskele urn and opens it before dumping Talia's claws onto the table.
Back at the preserve, Coach is being loaded into the ambulance, while Aiden searches Stiles' Jeep, and Sheriff Stilinski finally talks to his son. Scott watches from the Jeep as Stiles tells his dad what's been happening. Stiles wipes his bloody hands on a handkerchief as he listens, and then he and his dad hug it out, as they do. Ethan calls Scott over, and has him look at all the stuff he found in Stiles' trunk. Scott identifies a blue roll of wrapping paper as the same stuff they used to wrap Coach's fake birthday present. "Isn't that William Barrow's thing?" Ethan asks with worry. "A bomb made of nails and bolts, all wrapped in a birthday present?" Scott's eyes widen as he realizes the connection, and he looks over at Stiles, who is still with his dad. Ethan asks him where Barrow set off the bomb, and Scott gets even MORE worried and scared when he realizes that Barrow bombed a school bus.
We cut to the school, where Papa Yukimura yells at a crowd of students to get out of the way as he runs toward a school bus in front of the school. He has a walkie-talkie in hand as he approaches the bus, while other teachers evacuate all the students in the bus bay. Once he gets onto the bus, we see that there is only one student left sitting in the seats--good old Jared, whom you may recall from Season 3A's "Frayed," when Stiles intentionally made him throw up (after being carsick the whole bus trip) in order to do rest-stop surgery on Scott. Papa Yukimura slowly walks toward where Jared is sitting on the back of the bus. "They told me not to move," Jared babbles anxiously. "They told me not to move. They said, 'Stay right where you are, and don't move a muscle.'" Papa Yukimura assures him that it's okay, but Jared goes on to tell him that he didn't know what it was when he picked it up. Mr. Yukimura gives him a heads up that he's going to take a look at the package, which is wrapped up just like Coach's present, only bigger. Wait, why would they send in Kira's dad, and not like, a bomb squad guy?
Time to check back in with Allison and Lydia, who are still trying to get some information from Peter. Allison picks up one of Talia's claws, and is surprised to hear that they belong to Derek's mother. Peter confirms that yes, they're his sister's, and explains that before Talia died, she took a memory from him, which is only something a powerful alpha can do. I was confused at first, because we've seen Peter do that claw thing a billion times as a beta, but he's only SHARED memories, he hasn't actually stolen any. ANYWAY, Peter insists that the memory he needs is locked inside Talia's claws. "Why would your sister wanna steal a memory from you?" Lydia asks bluntly. "Well, if I remembered the memory, I might be able to tell you," Peter sasses back. Lydia sighs, and leans on the table as she asks Peter what she needs to do. Wait, if she took the memory from him, how does he even know that it's missing? I'M SO CONFUSED.
Sheriff Stilinski and his deputies have finally arrived at the school, where they're continuing to evacuate the students. Deputy Parrish walks over to the trunk of a cruiser and goes to open it, and Sheriff, who knows what he's about to do, orders him to wait for the bomb squad. Parrish just rolls his eyes and reminds Sheriff that he was in the army, and was a certified HDT for two years. That really isn't very long to be in the military, is it? Like, a tour in Iraq or Afghanistan could be a year long, so that wouldn't be a lot of time for basic training, tech school, etc etc etc. Anyway, Parrish pulls out a bomb-defusing outfit and insists that he can at least figure out if they're dealing with a real bomb until the real bomb squad shows up. Sheriff finally backs down, and watches as Parrish gets onto the bus.
(via lonewolfed)
At the loft, Peter yells at Lydia to focus. Lydia is aggravated, and insists that she is focusing, but Peter's not buying it. "No, you're not! I can see the wheels spinning behind your eyes. Your hearing is attuned to a level of the universe no one else can hear! But ONLY if you're listening!" Lydia maintains that she's trying, but Peter is losing his patience, and lunges at her as he yells, "TRY HARDER!" Allison cuts him off by whipping out her cattle-prod taser and holding it right in front of his face, which causes him to back up and sneer at her.
He whips out his claws, fully ready to start a smackdown with her, and points out that her "Auntie Kate" had one of those tasers. Which, she did, and totally used it on Derek a bazillion times, if I recall correctly. Allison is SO NOT HERE for Uncle Peter and his manipulation, and just stares him down, but he's not at all deterred, even when Lydia tells them both to cut it out. "Didn't do her much good as I ripped her throat out, did it?" he purrs, but Allison just retorts, "She didn't shove it up your a--" Lydia cuts her off with a screechy, "STOP IT!", and angrily throws the claws at them so hard that Peter has to duck to avoid them. The four claws ultimately embed themselves into a wooden column a couple feet away. Holy crap, does she have super strength that we don't know about? Can Allison train her in hunter skills already?
Allison and Peter just gape at Lydia, amazed, but Lydia's face is doing that thing it does when she's hearing voices. Then WE actually hear the voices, and though I can't make out any words, you can very clearly hear a woman crying through the whispers. Peter can tell something is finally happening, and asks her over and over if she's hearing something, but she just tunes him out and continues to listen to what she's being told by Talia, or whoever is talking in the memories. Man, I really wish I knew how these powers work. Is she hearing memories? Or are dead people telling her what she needs to know? Is it both? Lydia slowly walks toward the claws, and when she turns to face Peter, her face looks like she's heard something particularly horrifying. "What did Talia take from me?" Peter demands. "TELL ME WHAT SHE KNEW!" Lydia sighs before confessing, "You're not just an uncle." Wow, what a weird and stilted way to phrase that. Does that mean that Peter's a father? That is definitely terrifying, tbh. Peter's face goes from, "Uh, the fuck you say?" to "HOLY SHIT I ACTUALLY CREATED ANOTHER LIFE?" in the span of a second.
We return to the Sheriff's Department, where Derek is considering the handcuffs around his wrist, attaching him to the bench on which he sits. He reminds Chris that he could easily get out of them and scram, but Chris isn't having it. "So could I, but I'm not interested in being a fugitive from the law," he states, as he takes a look around the office. Derek just scoffs, and snits, "Well, I'm not interested in being a victim to a seventeen-year-old possessed by a psychotic FOX," as he continues to fiddle with his cuffs. That line killed me, seriously. It's all in the delivery. We've spent so much time talking about how great Dylan O'Brien's acting is, or how much Tyler Posey's acting has improved, but Tyler Hoechlin deserves SO much credit for how awesome Derek has become, especially considering how different he is from Derek. Anyway, Chris orders him to cut it the fuck out, and Derek eventually caves, though he takes great care to remind Chris that he shouldn't expect him to risk his own life just to protect him when this all inevitably goes sideways. Famous last words, amirite?
At the school, Papa Yukimura is walking down the hall toward his classroom. Kira walks in the front doors to the school just as he reaches the doorway, and a female voice asks him to shut the door behind him. It's Mama Yukimura! OH SHIT! Kira can tell something is shady going down, and since her dad didn't notice her, she makes the executive decision to take a leaf out of Scott's book and hover outside the door as she eavesdrops on their conversation. Papa Yukimura goes straight for his bookshelf and pulls a thick, heavy history textbook from it.
"You hid them in a book? Couldn't you find something more secure?" Papa Y assures her that no high school student willingly opens a textbook that size, and sets the book on his desk. Mama Y runs her hand over the book as Papa Y points out that she hasn't talked to Kira about any of this yet. He urges her to open up to her, and insists that she needs to know, especially about this. Papa Yukimura opens up the book to reveal that it's had nine rectangular holes carved into the pages to hide what looks like black, ceramic daggers.
"You've already sacrificed five," he reminds her. "Three of the oni are gone. How many more tails are you willing to sacrifice?" OH MY GOD THEY'RE HER TAILS. Okay, so in kitsune lore, kitsunes gain a tail every one hundred years that they are alive, which means that she's probably ANCIENT, if Davis is drawing from that mythology. CAN WE LEARN MORE ABOUT TW KITSUNES ALREADY? Anyway, Mama Yukimura says she's willing to lose them all, if she must, and gently pulls one of the long, black daggers from the book, as Kira watches from the small window in the door. Mama Y holds up the dagger, and after a moment, snaps the knife in half, which releases a greenish-blue puff of magic. She remains steady as she sets the pieces down and reaches for another dagger, but Papa Y definitely flinched. She snaps another dagger in half, which elicits another wince from her husband, and sets the broken pieces on the table. "These oni will be stronger," she assures him. "Much stronger." OMG. So, I'm guessing since the tails increase a kitsune's power as they age, that she can use the magic inside them that is released when they're broken to create a spell to bind her to the oni and allow her to control them? That is so fucking AWESOME, I can't even. What do you think happens when she loses all her tails? Will she die?
(via halebunnies)
Deputy Parrish, in his bomb defusing gear (but no head protection, probably because they want us to see his pretty, pretty face and super-green eyes) wedges himself in the aisle on the bus as he sets up next to a hyperventilating Jared. "Jared, it would be very helpful if you could avoid throwing up on the potential explosive device. Hey, can you do that for me?" Jared nods through his flop sweat, and replies that he thinks so. Parrish takes a pair of wire clippers and is about to cut the ribbon on the gift when this adorable conversation happens.
JARED: "You look really--"
PARRISH: [distracts Jared as he prepares to clip the ribbon] "--Handsome? Thank you. For a second there, I thought you were going to say I look really young, and I was going to have to launch into my explanation about how I'm actually twenty-four, and that anyone can look young if they eat right and exercise. Although, it's probably just good genes anyway, right? [snips the ribbon]"
Jared flinches when the ribbon is cut, but nothing happens, which seems to surprise Parrish. I don't know if this is some kind of hint, or if maybe it was just a bad acting choice on the part of the actor, but it ALMOST looks like Parrish is disappointed that it's not a real bomb? That might just be my new character paranoia, though, because every newly introduced character ends up evil, more often than not. So, I'm sticking a pin in this to come back to later, if it turns out to be relevant. Parrish slowly lifts up the top of the box and pushes it back so he can get a peek inside. When he is able to see the contents, he sighs at what he finds. Outside, the boys (Stiles, Scott, and the twins) are standing with the rest of the school around the bus bay, when Sheriff receives a message on the radio from Parrish, who says it's not a bomb, but something else. They all watch as Parrish walks to the front of the bus, and holds something up to the glass of the bus' windshield. It's Sheriff's nameplate from his desk, which definitely confuses Parrish. Sheriff, on the other hand, realizes that there is actually a bomb, it's just not where they thought it would be, and briefly flashbacks to earlier in the episode, when he received all of those packages from Parrish and the delivery boy. OH NOOO.
A sheriff's deputy at the Sheriff's department answers a phone call, and suddenly, everything in the office dissolves into chaos. Derek and Chris watch as various deputies run around like chickens with their heads cut off, until finally, one of the deputies run over to them and unlock their handcuffs. Chris asks him what's happening, but he gets no answer. Derek focuses his hearing, and notices a ticking sound coming from Sheriff's office, which is right behind them. Chris asks him what's happening, but Derek is too busy zeroing in on the source of the sound, which is coming from the boxes still sitting on the desk from earlier. Derek realizes it's a bomb about a second before it goes off, which gives him just enough time to yell "GET DOWN!", throw the deputy unlocking his handcuffs onto the floor and to dive over Chris, shielding him as the bomb detonates. The glass windows shatter, raining broken pieces of glass, broken splinters of wood, and shredded up paper all over them. HOLY SHIT. HOOOOLY SHIT. THIS IS A DISASTER.
(via twmoondogs)
After the break, we return to Papa Yukimura's classroom, where he and Mama Yukimura are standing together, watching the sun set through the windows, and a thunderstorm approaching. We cut back over to the Nemeton, where another swarm of fireflies are flying out of the crack in the stump. Included in the swarm is a firefly that glows greenish-blue, like the magic from the broken tails.
Back at the Sheriff's department, Sheriff, Scott, and Stiles have arrived to find the place in shambles. Sheriff calls for an ambulance to come STAT, as deputies in various states of injury limp around the office. Scott starts to hyperventilate a bit as he takes in all the destruction, but he's called away by Stiles, who is kneeling next to a deputy who is looking pretty bad. He's bleeding out of his mouth, and seems to be having a lot of trouble breathing.
Across the room, Chris is helping Derek stand up, to little success. Derek sways a little bit, and when Chris catches him, we can see that there are about a hundred shards of glass and bits of wood sticking out of his back, through his coat. Derek winces, but swears he's okay, and it's true--we've seen Derek come back from way worse than that, even as a beta. Plus, Derek can heal and Chris can't, so it only makes sense. So much for not protecting Chris, eh? Derek may be a lot of things, but there was no way he wasn't going to protect anyone he could, thanks to the huge heap of survivor's guilt he's accumulated. Chris looks him dead in the eyes, and points out that Derek saved his life, but I'm pretty sure Derek is too busy being about thisclose to passing out to give a fuck either way, tbh.
(via teenwolf)
"Can you do something?" Stiles asks Scott, as they watch the deputy struggle to hang on to life. "Take his pain? Anything to make it easier?" Scott is like Derek, in the way that he's not going to let someone suffer if they don't have to, so he goes on ahead and reaches his shaky hands toward the deputy to siphon off some of his pain. Unfortunately, it seems to be too late--the deputy manages to lift his head a little bit and sputter blood out of his mouth before in an attempt to say something before he dies. Scott is absolutely DEVASTATED, because he was still draining his pain, and could literally feel that man's life running out of him as he died. He looks like he's just been kicked in the gut as his eyes tear up, while he gently places the man's hand back on his chest. It's absolutely devastating to witness, so Sheriff, who must have seen a little bit of that go down, yells at Stiles and Scott to get the fuck out, pronto. Stiles is looking pretty bad himself, so Scott pulls him away before his dad gets any more stressed. As they walk toward the door, they run into Kira, who immediately admits that the oni are coming. Scott yells at a distracted Stiles that they need to get him out RIGHT NOW, and drags him out of the office.
(via thosedamnwerewolves)
At the Hale Loft, Peter has reached the "anger" stage of whatever feelings he's dealing with, and slowly tries to corner Lydia for more answers, though she insists she has none. "I said, I don't know! I don't know its name, if it's a boy or a girl, or if it's some mutated wolf-baby." Peter knows that she's lying, and grabs her by the shoulders. "Tell me what you know! TELL ME!" Unfortunately for him, Allison has had enough of Peter manhandling her girlfriend, so she totally tases him in the back with her cattle-prod, causing Peter to let go of Lydia and fall to the floor in a twitching heap. Lydia's face when it happens is PRICELESS, she is giving me major Black Widow vibes, tbh. Allison quips that NOW they're going to leave, and they take a final look at Peter groaning and writhing on the floor before Allison takes Lydia's hand and skip out the door together. I love Allydia so much it hurts. Once the girls are out the door, Peter turns onto his side and bellows, "LYDIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA."
(via argentsisaac)
Stiles is driving Scott and Kira to the animal clinic in the pouring rain, as Scott explains to newbie Kira that the building is set up kind of like his house, with mountain ash in the walls, which should buy them a little time from the oni until they can figure something else out. Stiles reminds them that if what happened at Scott's house in "Silverfinger" is true, then they CAN get in eventually, which isn't exactly comforting for him. "Nobody's got any better ideas?" Stiles asks, but Scott and Kira remain woefully silent. At a lack for better option, Stiles agrees on the animal clinic plan.
Across town, Lydia and Allison are sitting in Allison's car in some random parking lot, while each of them surf the internet on their respective phones. Allison informs Lydia that she's found hers, and asks Lydia if she's done the same. Lydia pulls up an article from "The Beacon Ledger," which is titled, "Malia Tate Found After 8 Years Missing," and complete with a selfie of Malia in a car. She clicks on the picture, and holds her phone up side-by-side to Allison's phone, on which Allison has found a selfie of Peter. What a minute, where did that picture come from? Did she get that off of Peter's Instagram account or something? That's kind of hilarious, tbh. "Peter and Malia?" Allison asks. "Father and daughter," Lydia replies. HOLY SHIT, I have SO many questions, all of which I will go into at the end. I will note though, that they do look a lot alike, they both have that strong Hale eyebrow game. I am fully in favor of anything that puts more Shelley Hennig on my television, though, so I can dig this story line.
The rain is in a total downpour at this point, and Stiles quickly pulls into the parking lot of the animal clinic and tries to rush everyone inside. Unfortunately, in the time it takes for them to fiddle with the lock, they hear the tell-tale rattle/chirp noise that indicates that the oni have arrived to fuck shit up, their ninjada swords already out and ready to go. Scott throws the keys at Stiles and orders him to get inside, right before he pulls his wolf out and roars at the oni. They all start to fight, and Stiles finally is able to get the door open. He yells for Kira to get inside with him, but she's too busy watching Scott fight like a pro. She tries to help him by throwing dog cages and random garbage at them, which works about as well as you would expect, namely, terribly. The oni nearest to her holds his sword up to fight her, but she instinctively grabs the oni's wrist and pulls, causing it to drop it's sword as it flops onto the ground.
As usual, she is completely stunned that she was able to fight like that, and runs over to pick up the dropped sword, as Scott continues to swipe and kick at the oni. She ducks when an oni swings at her, and manages to backhand it right in the face with the sword she stole. This impresses Scott so much that he stops and just gapes in awe at her at a moment, while Kira squeals internally about how fucking badass she is. She only takes a moment, though, and after that, she goes back to kicking the shit out of them. Unfortunately, Scott gets caught off-guard by an oni, and gets stabbed right in the gut with it's sword. Kira screams "NOOOO!", just as I did, and runs over to Scott, kicking the oni in the back in order to get him away from her boyfriend. Scott gasps and groans through the pain, and Stiles, who has been watching through a crack in the door, calls out to Kira to bring him inside, even though the ninjada is still embedded in his abdomen.
Kira and Stiles help Scott walk into the treatment room in the back, and lean him against the table. Scott grabs onto the sword that is currently impaling him, and groans loudly as he gives Kira a look that screams "GET THIS THE FUCK OUT OF ME RIGHT NOW." Kira nods and grabs the sword, and is just about to pull it out of him when Stiles grabs her by the wrist so tightly that she's forced to let go. Once he has her arm in the air, he shoves her head into the table, which knocks her out. She falls onto the floor, and Stiles turns to Scott and sighs. Scott is 100% confused, and can tell that Stiles isn't himself, because it's like his entire demeanor has changed. He calmly walks up to Scott and playfully taps his fingers on the hilt of the sword before wrapping his fingers around it and holding up a hand to seem less threatening. Scott begs him not to do what we all know he's about to do, but Stiles just assures him it's fine, and braces himself on Scott's shoulder, like he's about to pull the sword out.
Instead of pulling it out, though, he just twists it, which causes Scott to scream in agony. He pulls the sword out a tad before twisting it the opposite way, just to add insult to (literal) injury. Dylan O'Brien has REALLY had a chance to stretch his acting wings a little bit, to move out of his comfort zone, and he does it so well it is frightening. "Does it hurt?" Stiles asks, but Scott just groans and gasps in pain. "Hey, look at me. You really should have done your readings, Scott." He twists the sword again, and drops a lesson on Scott about kitsunes. "The nogitsune FEEDS off chaos, strife, pain. This morning, you took it from Isaac, and you took it from Coach, and then from a dying deputy." Stiles rubs Scott's shoulder, as if the nogitsune in him actually gave a fuck about him. "All that pain, you took it all. Now, GIVE IT TO ME," he bellows, as he smacks a hand against Scott's head, and starts siphoning all of the pain from Scott's face and feeding on it. He looks like he's literally about to have an orgasm, if I'm being honest, and Scott looks like he's dying for a moment, until Stiles finally lets go.
(via teenwolf)
Scott starts to gasp when he comes to, and his eyes are as big as saucers as he just gapes at Nogitstiles. "Oh, you really have to learn, Scott. You really have to learn not to trust a fox!" We flash back to various points in the episode--Stiles' face right before he turns to face Scott and the twins, Stiles' face as he took Coach's pain, and the deputies. I think it's safe to say that Stiles hasn't been Stiles at any point in this episode, it was just the nogitsune pretending to be him. "Mmm-mm," Nogitstiles continues. "No, 'cause they're tricksters! They'll fool you. They'll fool EVERYONE." Am I the only one getting major Heath-Ledger-as-the-Joker vibes from Nogitstiles? It's amazing.
Out of nowhere, Deaton appears, and deadpans, "Not everyone," before jabbing him right in the neck with a syringe full of what I assume is letharia vulpina. Nogitstiles starts to gasp for breath, and when he realizes what just happened, he starts to chuckle a bit at Deaton's plan before he passes out and falls to the floor. Scott lets out a breath of relief before turning to Deaton, confused, and asking what the fuck just happened. Deaton remains quiet, and quickly grabs hold of the sword still sticking out of Scott's gut and wrenches it out, causing Scott to moan in pain again before his internal organs start stitching themselves back together.
Once he's healing, he turns back to the task at hand. "What was that? Was that a cure? Is he okay?" SCOTT MCCALL FOR BEST PERSON IN THE UNIVERSE. Seriously, you guys, Nogitstiles literally just twisted a sword in his gut and nearly tried to kill him, and Scott is still more concerned about Stiles and his well-being than his own right now. How can anyone dislike him? Deaton admits grimly that the nogitsune is poisoned and weak, but not dead yet, which is NOT good news. NOOO.
Next episode: Stiles checks himself into Eichen House in order to protect his friends from himself, and gets punched in the face by Malia. Also, the rest of the pack scrambles for a way to save him.
Click HERE to move on to my next recap of Teen Wolf!
[screencaps via KissThemGoodbye]
NOTES/SPECULATION/QUESTIONS:
-OKAY, let's talk about Peter and Malia possibly being father and daughter, because I have a shitload of questions. First of all, why would Talia take that memory away from Peter? Did she know he was evil, and was trying to protect her from him? Or was the mother involved in it, as well? What if the mother is someone like a hunter or something, and Talia figured it was better off if the child didn't know her father? Also, Malia is a werecoyote, not a werewolf, so how does that work? Was her mother a werecoyote? Or is it, again, another case of "the shape you take reflects the person that you are?" It would make sense that she was a Hale, though, considering that she could actually take the full form of a coyote, just like Talia and Laura could be a full wolf. How are the Tates involved? Was she adopted, or was Mama Tate the mother? I'm guessing the former, since the fact that Malia was a werecoyote seemed to have taken them by surprise, since she got all moon-crazy when they were driving together and ended up getting them killed.
-How terrible was that whole experience for Stiles? Running around, sabotaging shit, getting people killed, putting his friends and family into tons of danger, torturing his best friend/brother. This will definitely change him--he's going to have a lot to deal with when the gang gets rid of the nogitsune, and I'm really scared for him. :(
-How is Mama Yukimura involved with the nogitsune? Why did she put her husband in charge of her tails? How is he involved in all this mess, since he's Korean and likely not a kitsune? I'm guessing that's why they moved to Beacon Hills, to take care of the nogitsune, but how did they know it was here? As usual, I have way more questions than I do answers.
-Derek and Chris' friendship gives me so much life, tbh. Like, I just really want them to be drinking buddies or something, they have interesting chemistry. Do they have a ship name? Cherek? Deris? Hargent?
-Do you think kitsunes get the features of foxes when they need them, like werewolves have fangs, claws, etc? That could be interesting. I like the color of their eyes a lot.
-If the nogitsune feeds off of chaos, strife, and pain, he probably feasted today, didn't he? Think about it--an ambulance wrecked into a fire hydrant, three people at the hospital were electrocuted, two of whom died, and one of whom was put in intensive care, everyone else was running around hysterically in the dark. Then, Coach got shot with one of his traps, so more pain, plus the chaos of the school and police running around. THEN, there was that bomb threat at the school, so more chaos, and the ACTUAL bomb at the sheriff's office, which caused so much more chaos and pain, and then he ate Scott's pain for dessert. He may be weakened by the wolf lichen, but he's still got a ton of power to sustain him, which is bad bad bad bad badddddd.
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