Teen Wolf Season 3, Episode 20: "Echo House" Recap/Review

Um, so can I just say, WHAT. THE. FUCK. WAS. THAT. EPISODE?

I was not at all prepared for how absolutely mind-fucky things got with regard to Stiles, and judging by the end-of-season trailer that aired during Wolf Watch, we are DEFINITELY not at all prepared for what's coming, either. EVERYTHING IS SO TERRIBLE. So, I'm just gonna stop summarizing and just get right into what happened, and what everything means, okay? Let's talk "Echo House!"

Just a warning to anyone reading this who HASN'T seen the episode--it's pretty disturbing, so much so that they put a warning at the beginning for the first time ever, which reads, "Due to the mature theme of this episode, viewer discretion is advised." So, if you are easily triggered by seeing television characters commit suicide (none of the important characters, though!), prescription medication abuse, and/or stereotypical and incorrect portrayals of how mental health centers are run, this might not be the best episode for you to watch, or recap for you to read. Anyway, on we go!

Previously, on Teen Wolf: Stiles was harassed and psychologically tortured by the nogitsune currently hitching a ride in his body, which caused symptoms that were so eerily similar to those experienced by Stiles' mother before she died that Sheriff Stilinski insisted that the doctors run some tests on him. Sure enough, when they did an MRI on Stiles' brain, the scans showed signs of frontotemporal dementia, the same illness that killed Claudia Stilinski. Also, Sheriff re-examined the case of a girl named Malia Tate, who was involved in a car accident eight years ago and never found afterward. As it turned out, Malia is a werecoyote, and spent the entire last eight years living in the woods in full coyote form until Scott saved her life by roaring her into submission and turning her back into her human form. Chris Argent went to a man called Katashi, or "Silverfinger," for answers about the nogitsune. In retaliation, it appeared that the nogitsune in Stiles framed Chris and Derek for Katashi's murder. Oh, and Deaton found some extra special poisonous moss called letharia vulpina, which he used to weaken the nogitsune currently residing in Stiles. Fingers crossed!


It's night time and raining as we meet up with the Stilinskis, riding along in Sheriff's SUV. Stiles seems to be more or less himself, thank god, but he looks so sad that my heart breaks a tiny bit, and we're barely a minute into the episode. He glances over at his dad, who looks just as sad as Stiles, if not moreso. Damn you, Stilinski family feels! It's too early to make me this emotionally vulnerable.

They pull up in front of Eichen House's front gates, and before they get out, Sheriff gives his son a look like he's totally about to regret what he's about to do. Stiles looks like he's thinking the same thing, to be honest, but he just grits his teeth and musters up all the courage he can to get out of the car. They stop outside the front gate, staring at the wrought-iron fence that surrounds the building, and Stiles gulps from anxiety. He looks like he's about to head inside when they hear the sound of a dirtbike approaching. It's Scott! He parks his bike and immediately runs toward them, and demands to know why they didn't tell him their plans. "Because we wanted to avoid something like this," Sheriff admits. Stiles assures his bestie that it's only for 72 hours, but Scott reminds him of the fact that this is the same place that William Barrow stayed, and look what ended up happening to him--he came into the hospital with a tumor full of flies, almost killed a doctor, AND almost killed Kira! He also reminds Sheriff that he doesn't know all the facts yet, but Sheriff thinks he's got the idea.

"I know enough. Nogitsunes, kitsunes, oni, or whatever they're called," Sheriff argues, and Stiles can't help but almost chuckle as he replies that he pretty much knows what they know. Sheriff gets serious, and informs Scott that he saw Stiles' MRI, which looked exactly like his dead wife's, so he's understandably scared as hell, and plans on going to Los Angeles the next day to talk to a specialist to figure out what's going on. Stiles looks like he's just been kicked in the gut to hear his dad say that, but he remains silent. Scott asks him why he'd put Stiles in Eichen House, of all places, but Stiles insists that it was all his decision, not his dad's.

"Stiles, I can't help you if you're in here," Scott pleads. "And I can't hurt YOU," Stiles counters, clearly frustrated and terrified. Scott swears that Deaton, Chris, and Kira are all helping them look into ways to exorcise the nogitsune from him, so they're going to figure something out. "And if we can't..." Scott starts to add, but Stiles just cuts him off. "If you can't," Stiles repeats, as he leans close to Scott's face so Scott's dad can't hear them. "If you can't, then you have to do something for me, okay? Make sure I NEVER get out." NOPE. NOPE. NO NO NO NO. That is NOT an option! Stiles pulls away, squeezing Scott's shoulder comfortingly for a moment before giving one last glance to his dad and heading inside before he changes his mind.

(via peetahales)
Inside Eichen House's lobby, it's pretty quiet, since it's late and everyone is in their rooms, for the most part. Of course, there are a couple twitchy patients in wheelchairs sitting around, just so we know we're going to be treated to the typical mental institution tropes in this episode. Stiles is pretty distracted as he looks around, but a middle-aged nurse appears out of nowhere to usher Stiles and his dad into her office with a creepy smile. Once they're seated, Sheriff starts filling out all of the requisite paperwork as the nurse explains the general procedure to Stiles. "The first seventy-two hours there's not phone calls, no emails, no visitors. We'll be taking you from here to a brief physical. In the morning, you'll be assessed by a staff psychologist, speak to a social worker, and attend group therapy."

As she's filling him in, Sheriff Stilinski keeps getting distracted by the orderlies in the hallways, the sound of slamming doors, and the buzzer that goes off whenever an orderly enters one of the staff rooms. You can tell that despite what he said to Scott outside, he's really not a big fan of Stiles being here. And, honestly, I don't really understand why he had to come HERE, of all places, either, considering the fact that he's still surrounded by a ton of innocent people who could be hurt by Nogitstiles. Sheriff hands the nurse the paperwork, and states that he feels like he's forgetting something, but the news continues speaking as if she didn't even hear him. She hands Stiles a pair of slippers that he'll be wearing, since patients aren't allowed to have shoelaces, and asks him if he's wearing a belt, before requesting that he empty his pockets into a basket, to be returned to him later.

Sheriff is getting more anxious by the second, and realizes that Stiles forgot his pillow. Stiles is still in his "fake it 'til you make it"-mode, and tries to play it off like it's no big deal in an effort to move things along and get this stay over with as soon as possible, but Sheriff is pretty distraught about it. "No, no, you're never going to be able to fall asleep! Uh, we gotta go back." He gets up, but Stiles tells him to forget about it, since he doesn't need it, but Sheriff continues to ramble on about how pillows are the first thing that you pack when you go somewhere, and curses himself for forgetting about it. Stiles assures him that he can just bring it for him tomorrow, if it's that big of a deal, and continues to empty his pockets. The fact that Stiles is trying to act all zen about this just makes Sheriff MORE uncomfortable about this entire plan, and eventually, he tells Stiles to stop what he's doing and come back home with him. "I'm not checking you in here if you're not going to get one good night's sleep!" Sheriff demands, but Stiles just stands up and claps his hands on his dad's shoulders. "Dad, I haven't had a good night sleep in weeks," Stiles reminds him softly, before giving him a Stilinski man-hug supreme. GOD, MAKE IT STOP. Sheriff is crushed, and Stiles looks like he's about to cry. Eventually, the nurse stands up, and asks Stiles to follow her up to his room.

Stiles and the nurse walk up what appears to be an endless square-spiral staircase, when Stiles spots a familiar-looking, but unidentifiable girl in the hallway as he passes it. He stops and stares at her for a moment, before the nurse tugs on his arm and urges him to keep following her. He looks up at all the floors above him, where he sees a guy about his age fumbling with a rope made out of bedsheets. Stiles immediately runs ahead of the nurse, trying to see what the guy is doing, and asks the nurse if she sees it too, but she just calls out for him to stop. It's Stiles, though, so he doesn't--instead, he continues to run up the stairs, and we can here the guy mumbling the same riddle, over and over. "I'm the part of the bird that's not in the sky, I can swim in the water and still remain dry." OH GOD, MORE RIDDLES. This is so not going to end well.

Sure enough, Stiles can tell that the guy is about to hang himself with the bedsheet, and yells at the nurse to do something, but she doesn't move fast enough. Before either of them could get up there, the kid jumps off the railing of the staircase and hangs himself to death. Stiles is pretty horrified, as you would be; it's one thing to find a dead body, it's another to literally watch someone kill themselves. Stiles looks down at the bottom of the stairwell to see a crowd of people, gasping at the sight of one of their fellow patients committing suicide. His eyes grow wide, though, when he sees the bandaged form of the nogitsune, skulking around in a white doctor's lab coat, and growling away. Nooo, get out of here! TITLE CARD!

When we return from the opening credits, we meet up with Chris Argent, who is talking to Deaton, Allison, and Scott, who are at the animal clinic, on the jail payphone. Chris asks Deaton if he had any issues with Hakada, (who I've apparently been incorrectly calling Hakara) but Deaton assures him it was nbd, and that the "white wolf" was exactly where Chris said it would be. "But, we have two problems now," Deaton admits. "First, the lichen is not a cure. It will wear off in a matter of days." Chris more concerned with whether the lichen worked to the point that the oni will leave Stiles alone for a while, until they can come up with a better plan. Deaton briefly hints that Eichen House has an "unusual" history, and believes it's possible that the oni won't be safe there, either, which should buy them some time.

Chris asks Deaton for the second problem. "I checked with your contacts in Japan," Deaton begins. "The Yakuza boss you saw killed by the oni never found the scroll." Scott is confused about the whole scroll thing, so Deaton drops a lesson on them about the Shugendu. "A Shugendu scroll. The Shugendu were the ascetic mystics of Japan." Chris interjects that the scroll had the process of expelling a nogitsune from a body. Scott insists that they need to FIND that scroll ASAP so that they can turn Nogitstiles into Real-Boy Stiles. Deaton reveals that Chris' contacts gave him the name of the last person to buy the scroll, Kincaide. Allison's eyes about bug out of her head when she realizes that Kincaide was the werewolf crony of Katashi's, the one who got all up in Isaac's grill in "Silverfinger." 

Deaton figures Katashi must have been looking for the scroll, but Chris claims that Stilinski told him that nothing that looked like a scroll was found among his belongings. "And a paranoid like Katashi would keep it close. Probably on him, at all times." Chris reasons. Allison asks what the Shugendu scrolls look like, so Deaton pulls a scroll out of a file cabinet and shows it to her. Any chance that particular scroll is going to be important at some point? When she asks him if they come in different sizes than his scroll, Deaton gets a puzzled look on his face, and replies that they can come in any size. "Then, I think I know where it might be," Allison reveals. YES! You get it, girl!

Back at Eichen House, Stiles is being led to him room by the nurse as he begs her to let him use the phone.

STILES: [anxious and desperate] "Okay, I know it's the whole twenty-four hour thing, but I really need to use the phone."

NURSE: "The accident that occurred is being taken care of."

STILES: "You're seriously referring to THAT as an accident? Are you kidding?"

NURSE: [unlocks his door] "Incident."

STILES: [deadpans] "Slightly better. Still need to use the phone!"

As you can see, the nurse gives exactly no fucks about Stiles or his nerves, but Stiles still tries to bargain for five minutes of phone time, before trying to haggle three minutes out of her. The nurse gives him the choice to go to sleep, or to have his first experience with the facility's five-point restraint system. Behind him, Stiles' new roommate calls out, "I would go with sleep," and raises his hand as high as his own restraints will allow so he can wave at them, which distracts Stiles just long enough that the nurse can quickly close the door and lock it behind her. Stiles rushes up to the door and yells for her to wait, but he's too late. Stiles' new roomie introduces himself as Oliver, so Stiles introduces himself briefly. "There was a suicide, huh?" Oliver asks, and Stiles admit that yeah, there was. "Is it Monday?" Oliver asks. "There's a much higher rate of suicides on Mondays." HAHAHA, yeah, tell that to the Teen Wolf fandom, who basically feels like dying around 11pm EST every Monday night.

Stiles seems to be a little creeped out by Oliver, so he turns back at the door and yells for someone, ANYONE, to open the door for him and let him out of there. Oliver decides to distract the newbie Eichen House patient by informing him that he heard the suicide when it happened, and asks him if it happened in the stairwell. When Stiles asks him how he knew, Oliver admits that he heard the echo, which makes Stiles even more creeped out. "It's this place, something about the way that it was built. Everything echoes, eventually. That's why they call it Echo House." Stiles doesn't really have much to say about that, and is clearly overwhelmed with everything that's happened the past few days, so he just stares forlornly out the window, and Oliver eventually falls asleep.

We watch the sun rise through the windows, which wakes Oliver up. When he looks over at Stiles' bed, he finds him in the exact same position as he was in when he fell asleep, and asks Stiles if he stayed like that the whole night. "Yeah, I can't sleep without my pillow," Stiles admits, and I literally die from feels. Seriously, I'm blogging from the grave as we speak. Oliver starts to cough and hack, which must be difficult, since his wrists, ankles, and shoulders are still bound to the bed, so Stiles decides to be nice and ask him if he's okay. Oliver claims he swallowed a bug the day before, and now it feels like it's stuck in his throat, which sends Stiles back into pissy territory. "That's disgusting, Oliver," Stiles mutters, before asking if he knows when they unlock the doors in the morning. They hear a click out in the hall, and Oliver cutely informs him that they're unlocked now.

Oliver is showing Stiles around the little courtyard in the back, and informs him that the violent patients are kept in a closed ward as he points out various people that they pass, including Hillary, who has OCD, and Gary, Dan, and Mary, who all apparently think they're Jesus. I'm not going to even justify the jokes about the last three by talking about it. I'm sorry, but this isn't at all realistic, which is pretty much the one flaw in this otherwise fine episode. They make their way to the payphone, where a girl in a grey sweatshirt is talking to someone with her back to them. Oliver asks Stiles why he wants to use the phone, to which Stiles replies, "Because, after one night, I've changed my mind about this place being safe for me. Or anyone. Ever." Okay, wait a minute--first of all, isn't Stiles not allowed to use the phone for 72 hours? And also, wasn't the whole point of Stiles being put in Eichen House that everyone else would be safe FROM him? Which, would just put ALL the patients he's interacting with in danger, as I pointed out earlier? THIS MAKES NO SENSE. Okay, moving on.

 "No. No, I think you're wrong," the girl at the payphone says, loud enough for Stiles and Oliver to overhear. "I really think I should tell them. They're going to want to know the story. The whole story." This definitely gets Stiles' attention, and he stops even pretending that he's not listening, at this point. "I really. think. they. should. know," the girl states firmly. "Yes. I do. [whispers] One of them is standing right behind me." Stiles is SO confused, and just stares at the girl, who is really cute, with very short, very curly brown hair, as she hangs up quickly and slowly walks past them, not looking either of the boys in the eye as she leaves. Once she's out of earshot, Oliver identifies the girl as Meredith, and claims "she's a little weird." "You're 'a little weird' Oliver, she's a LOT weird," Stiles snits rudely. HEY! Quit being a dick, Stilinski. I know you're stressed, but you don't have to be mean.

(via garfinski)
Stiles picks up the phone and taps on the button a few times before he realizes it's dead. Oliver just looks at Stiles like he's an idiot, and points out that the phone is always turned off for 24 hours after a suicide, which seems like a weird rule to me, but what do I know? Stiles is pretty annoyed by now, and asks Oliver why he didn't tell him before he spent all this time waiting on the phone to be free, but he just replies, "Why didn't you ask?" LOLLLL. Stiles angrily slams the phone back onto the receiver and strides away, as Oliver sprints to catch up with him. When Oliver asks him what he's going to do now, Stiles rudely retorts, "I'm gonna get out of this nuthouse." Oliver politely reminds him that that's not exactly a PC term for this sort of facility, but Stiles is distracted when he sees the same tall, brunette girl he caught a glimpse of when he arrived last night.

It's Malia! She turns around when she hears Stiles call out her name, but doesn't say anything, so of course, Stiles starts to ramble, as he's wont to do. "Hey, it's Stiles. Do you remember me? I'm friends with Scott? Remember, we're the ones who helped you out, when you--" Stiles isn't able to finish that thought, though, because Malia just hauls out and slugs Stiles in the face. OH SHIT! I love Stiles, you all know I do, but I wasn't exactly upset to see that happen, because he tends to get a little thoughtless when he's anxious and stressed. Stiles falls to the ground, and a couple of orderlies immediately run over and pull Malia off away from Stiles before pinning Stiles to the ground. One of the orderlies, Brunsky, tells Malia that she'll end up in the closed ward if she keeps it up, while Stiles tries to explain that he was the one who was actually punched, and not the puncher.

The orderlies don't care, though, and keep him pinned down, until Stiles, whose face is slammed against the floor, looks through the grates and realizes that the room below him is the room he was in when he was dreaming/sleeping walking all over the place in "Ridded." He flashes back briefly to when he was laying on the floor, with a bear trap on his foot, until motherfucking MARIN MORRELL appears out of nowhere and yells at the orderlies to get the fuck out. YESSS! God, I have missed her so fucking much. She gives the orderly the evil eye as he backs away from Stiles, and then kneels beside him. "Stiles," she begins, as she sees Stiles quietly freaking out on the floor. "You saw something, didn't you?" Stiles confesses that he's been down in the basement before, after a moment of shock that Marin is still alive, and then looks down the grates in the floor to see the basement again, where the kanji "己" or "onore" is carved into the wall.

Meanwhile, Derek and Chris are in adjacent cells in the Beacon Hills jail, and the two sit back-to-back against the wall between them as they continue brainstorming. Derek is trying to use his superhearing to figure out whatever new information he can from the various law enforcement officers in the building. First, he hears a random deputy talking to Parrish, who informs him that Sheriff is out for the day, and that the Katashi murder is now an official investigation, so all the evidence that wasn't blown up will be placed in lock-up. So, basically just Derek and Chris, then, yes? Back in the cells, Derek confirms Chris' suspicion that the various LEOs are moving all of the evidence, which likely includes whatever Katashi used to hide the Shugendu scroll. Chris asks him if he learned any other details that they didn't already know, but Derek says all he heard was that Katashi's stuff was going to a federal lock-up, and that Sheriff is gone for the day.

"You know if all of this is true, people are dead because of Stiles," Derek admits with concern. Chris points out that it isn't really Stiles, though, and reminds him of what happened with Jackson. Derek claims that they just happened to get lucky with Jackson, and figures their chances of getting lucky with Stiles' case probably isn't that great. They remain silent for a moment as a deputy passes them, and once he's gone, Derek asks, "What happens when you DON'T get lucky?" Chris thinks it depends on whether or not there's any part of Stiles still inside of him, and then asks Derek if he's ever heard of the berserkers, which, of course he has, because Derek is a mythology buff.

DEREK: "Germanic warriors. They wore the skins of bears to channel their ferocity."

CHRIS: "They didn't just wear them. They became them. You know, a couple years ago, a family came to us for help with their son. This group of teenagers, they were doing all sorts of rituals with animal skins. Somehow, they tapped into it. But, with berserkers, the human side doesn't last long--they're not tempered by the moon."

DEREK: "He killed people?"

CHRIS: "He tore them apart. Eventually, I had to tell the family their son was gone. Took three of them to take them down, almost every bullet we had. And when it was over, I felt no remorse, none. I knew that kid was long gone."

I'm glad that these two seem to be becoming pals, but maybe this isn't the best story to tell someone whose entire family is dead as a result of his family killing people with no remorse? Derek does not seem at all unaffected by this story, and gulps anxiously as he asks Chris if he would feel any remorse if he had to put Stiles down. "Stiles? Yes. But not a nogitsune," Chris confesses. I don't like any of this stuff about putting Stiles down, but I REALLY hope that all this talk of berserkers means that we're gonna see some next season or something. Also, random note--I am 99% positive that I read a fic on A03 that had berserkers that was almost exactly as Chris described, with him and his hunter friends going after a teenager who turned into a berserker. I wonder if Jeff read it?

It's group therapy time at Eichen House, and all the teenagers are gathered around in a circle with Ms. Morrell, who, as usual, is doing her psychology thing by using nothing but metaphors. "I want to go back to the topic of guilt today," she begins, as she opens her group therapy binder. "It might surprise you to hear me say that guilt is a good thing. It's a rather mature emotion." Malia looks over at Stiles, who gives her a little smile. Marin notices this exchange, and brings up the fact that Malia said in a previous group session that guilt made her feel like she was sick to her stomach. Oliver continues to cough in the background, as Marin says, "Guilt often becomes physical. You feel it in your gut," as she looks over at Stiles again. Stiles is starting to get a little antsy, and looks around the room in an effort to distract himself. "It's not just psychological." Unfortunately, it doesn't work, because he starts hallucinating that he's seeing the nogitsune, still dressed like a doctor, talking to one of the nurses.

Stiles starts hyperventilating a bit as he freaks out internally, so Marin asks him how guilt makes him feel. He admits that it makes him feel nervous, which Marin seems to have expected. "Like a sense of urgency? You feel a need to make up for something you've done. To apologize," she responds, as Stiles anxiously wrings his hands and jiggles his leg and looks around the room more. Of course, the nogitsune is just chilling in Stiles' peripheral vision, which is only making matters worse. Marin tells them that it's healthy to feel guilt, as Stiles notices that the nogitsune is sitting in the chair beside him, digging his bandaged fingers into his leg. Meredith watches Stiles twitch nervously, as Marin asks them what someone who doesn't feel guilt is called. "A sociopath?" Oliver asks, as he raises his hand into the air. Marin tells him he's correct, but when she looks back over at Stiles, she sees him anxiously rubbing at his neck and chewing on his knuckles. Under his fingers, she can see what looks like red lightning bolts spreading up Stiles' neck, and her eyes widen in alarm. She apologizes to the group, and insists that they take a break, before asking Stiles to come talk to her alone.

In her office, Stiles pulls up the back of his shirt for her to reveal a huge, reddish-purple, blotchy pattern on his left shoulder blade. And, this is the closest we've come this far to a shirtless Stiles scene, which is a complete travesty, if you ask me! Which, you didn't. Marin identifies the mark as a lichtenberg figure, which typically appear on lightning strike victims. "The fact that they're appearing on you after a shot of wolf lichen is both significant and strange," she admits. "By 'significant and strange,' do you mean, 'hopeful and optimistic?'" Stiles asks sarcastically, but as you can probably assume, the answer is no.

So, my theory is that the marks appeared after he was dosed with the lichen because he was electrocuted in "Galvanize," but was probably healed of the mark by the nogitsune. Now that the nogitsune is weakened, and doesn't have control over Stiles, the mark showed up again, which would explain why Marin tells him that he has until the marks fade before the nogitsune will have full control over his body again. She pulls a bottle of pills and a vial out of her cabinet, and hands the bottle to Stiles. Stiles assumes they're sleeping pills, but she corrects him by telling him they're actually amphetamines. "Sleeping is exactly what you DON'T want to do. You're vulnerable when you're asleep." Why does she have a bottle of amphetamines in her cabinet? Does she tap into her speed stash when she needs a boost to do druid stuff or something?

Stiles seems relatively relieved to hear that all he has to do is stay awake, but she reminds him that it's just a short-term solution. "For now. If your friends haven't figured out something by the time those marks fade, I'll come find you." Stiles figures she means that she'll do that to give him further instructions, but really, she means she's going to give him an injection of pancuronium bromide, which they use in lethal injections to induce respiratory paralysis. WHY WOULD YOU TELL SOMEONE POSSESSED BY A TRICKSTER SPIRIT SOMETHING LIKE THAT. Stupid move, bb, seriously. That's like basically asking the nogitsune to come back and kill you with it just for the sake of irony.

As you can probably imagine, Stiles is not pleased to hear that she's just going to straight up kill him if the nogitsune takes over again, but Marin reminds him that she's just doing what she's always done--maintain the balance of nature, as druids are supposed to do. He's not at all a happy camper, and I don't blame him a bit, tbh. "Well, okay then. Missed our talks. Thanks for the illicit drugs," Stiles snaps, as he stomps away. Before he leaves, Marin calls out to him. "Stiles? Stay awake." Okay, seriously though, why don't they just keep giving him letharia vulpina shots until they figure something out? It probably isn't toxic to humans if they gave it to him in the first place, right? Ugh, why does no one listen to me?

The hallways are dark and completely empty of people as Stiles wanders around. He finds a door that leads to the basement, but it's locked. Frustrated, he rattles the doorknob and pounds on the door with his fist, but, you know, he's (mostly) human (right now), so it makes no difference. Behind him, Oliver's voice stammers, "What are you doing?" which startles Stiles to the point where he almost screams. Once his heart gets over the initial shock, Stiles tells his new friend that he needs to get through that door. Oliver claims that nobody in the building has keys to the basement except for one person--Brunsky, the head orderly, the one who is a huge dick, and who supposedly has a key to every door in the building. Of course, this gets the gears turning in Stiles' head, so he asks his new roomie if Brunsky has his keys on him at all times. "If you want 'em," Oliver begins nervously. "You'll probably have to figure out a way to trick him." Considering he's been possessed by a trickster demon fox for God knows how long, Stiles is not at all worried about his ability to snatch Brunsky's keys. YES! Stiles shenanigans are my fave!

Time to catch up with the rest of the pack, eh? Or at least the ones who aren't currently incapacitated or incarcerated. Allison and Lydia are at the Argent Abode, where they open the front door to find Scott and the twins waiting for them out in the hallway. Allison doesn't waste any time filling them in on the deets. "My father said all of the Katashi evidence is being moved to a federal lockup by armored car tonight, probably within the next few hours." So, the federal authorities really do give a fuck about the several dozen murders that have happened in the last few months, huh? Crazy. Anyway, it takes a moment before the implications of Allison's words hit the boys, but when they finally do, Ethan stops dead in his tracks in the hallway and blurts out, "We're going to rob an armored car?!" Aiden and Scott give the girls some similar side-eye, because this is probably the most illegal thing they've attempted yet, but Lydia just shrugs and sighs. "Well...we're going to try." BEST PACK EVER. I love Stiles, but I really wish we would have seen more of the gang this episode, it seemed weird without them!

Back at Eichen House, "No One's Here To Sleep" by Naughty Boy ft Bastille (one of three amazing songs from this episode) plays as Stiles dashes into the boys restroom. He swallows a handful of pills and pops the bottle back into the pocket of his sweatpants before washing the pills down with a handful of water. He's staring at his reflection in the mirror and willing himself to stay awake as long as possible when he realizes that he's not alone in the bathroom. In the mirror, we can see that Malia is totally just taking a shower and watching him freak out a bit. Naturally, Stiles averts his eyes like a gentleman, and babbles a whole bunch about how he didn't see anything until Malia literally tells him to shut the fuck up. "Stiles, I don't care," Malia interrupts, which shuts him up right quick. "In the woods, there was no boy's and girl's room. And if you really need to know, they keep the water temperature in the girl's room too low. It's much hotter in here. Ever since I turned back to human, I just can't seem to get warm."

Stiles suggests her chronic coldness could be due to her having a low core temperature, or being sick, but Malia just sarcastically reminds him that she used to have a fur coat, so Stiles is ultimately like, "Touche, girl." Malia finishes up her shower and grabs a towel, and calls Stiles out when he inadvertently started staring at her before she was fully covered up. She asks him what he's doing, so once he realizes she's no longer naked, he turns to face her and admits that he wanted to ask her why she punched him. As it turns out, she has a pretty good argument, to be honest.

MALIA: "Did you think I was going to thank you?"

STILES: "No. [beat] ...Maybe? We did kind of save your life."

MALIA: "You're right, Stiles. [shakes head sarcastically] Thank you. Thanks for invading my home. For putting me on the run. For turning me back to human, so I can look at my father every day, and try to figure out how to explain to him that the reason my sister and mother are dead is because I almost ATE them on a full moon. Thank you, so very much."

To be fair, Stiles looks like he feels extremely guilty, now that he's heard Malia's side of things, and quietly informs her that he and the gang were just trying to help her. She gets serious, and tells him that if he really wants to help her, he'll figure out a way to help her change back into a coyote again. Stiles is shocked to hear that she wants to back to her no doubt simpler animal existence, and gets that expression that he gets when he's come up with a plan. Malia is an observant girl, and immediately can sense that Stiles has answers, so she grabs him by his shirt and demands that he tells her what he knows. "I might know somebody who can teach you how to change," Stiles admits. I sure hope he's talking about Scott, and not like, Peter, especially given what we've learned in the last episode. Malia asks him what he wants, so he confesses his need to get into the basement via stealing the head orderly's keys. If Malia helps him get in, he'll help her with her shape-shifting issues. Sounds simple enough, right?

Let's catch back up with the rest of the pack, yeah? They're all gathered in Chris' study, where Scott comes right out and says that their plan is pretty awful. "It's not THAT bad," Lydia chirps optimistically, but Ethan adds, "It's not that good!" from across the room. As they talk, Aiden just sits in one of the desk chairs, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. This scene is priceless, so I'm just going to transcribe it.

LYDIA: "None of us knows the route they're going to take. If Allison can get one of her dad's GPS trackers on the armored car, then we can follow it."

ALLISON: [points to a mark on a map] "So when it gets here--"

AIDEN: "--We attack 'em!"

LYDIA: [not impressed] "No. Your bikes will be in the middle of the road, looking like you guys got into an accident. And, when the drivers get out to help..."

AIDEN: "We attack them!"

LYDIA AND ALLISON: [in unison] "NO!"

LYDIA: "You'll distract him. And Scott will break open the back door!"

SCOTT: [skeptical] "...I hope?"

LYDIA: [to Ethan] "And YOU will get Katashi's finger."

ETHAN: "It's not his actual finger, is it?" [He and Scott both look at Lydia in concern]

LYDIA: [annoyed] "You are so out of our league."

LOL! They are all the best. Ethan asks why they're not just having Sheriff help them out, since it's his son they're trying to save, but Scott reminds him that he's the fucking SHERIFF, one who is already being reviewed for possible impeachment, so if he were to get caught, it'd be bad news bears. Allison assures them that their plan is going to succeed, as much for her own benefit as for everyone elses. "We can do this. We're losing Stiles, my dad is in jail for murder...We need to do this." YOU TELL THEM, ALLY A. Still, I'm pretty sure this scheme of there's is probably the wildest and most illegal one they've pulled off thus far, and that includes their efforts to kill Peter, their efforts to catch Jackson when he was a kanima, their efforts to take Gerard out of the game, AND their efforts to get away from Scott's dumbass dad.

Back at Eichen House, Malia and Oliver are in a(n orchestrated) knock-down, drag-out fight on the floor of the courtyard. Oliver is yelling, "You're lying! YOU'RE LYING," as he pins her arms to the floor, and other patients are calling for orderlies to break it up before Malia gets hurt. Finally, Brunsky and another orderly show up to peel Oliver off of her, but he continues to shout, "She said they're gonna put holes in my head! She said they're gonna put a hole in my head!" Once they've taken Oliver back to his room, Stiles, who had been watching from the shadows, pretends to be concerned about Malia and kneels down to help her up so no one notices that Malia has pickpocketed Brunsky's keys and is handing them off to him. Yay, Malia! She must have inherited some of Peter's sneakiness and deviousness, hahaha. That's a pretty brilliant move, though, not gonna lie! Oliver flashes a smile at the two before he's gone, just so we know this was a set-up, but Brunsky still gives Malia and Stiles a look like he knows they're up to something. Uh oh.

At the Sheriff's station, Chris is brought into an interrogation room in handcuffs, and seems VERY surprised when he sees who is waiting for him in there. "They told me my lawyer was here," Chris growls, to the visitor we have yet to see. "So, either I'm going to congratulate you on recently passing the bar, or I should be worried about something." When we pan over to the table, we see that the Latina hunter lady, who was last seen cutting off Peter's finger, is the one waiting for him. OH SHIT! OHHHH SHIT. "Hello, Kristof," the woman says, with an evil smile. MORE HUNTERS, FUCK. Just what everyone needed, right? It's not like they don't have way more important things to deal with or anything.

We cut back to Eichen House, where Stiles is once again wandering around the dark and empty halls in order to make his way to the basement. He takes out the keys he and Malia lifted off of Brunsky, and once he sees the coast is clear, he starts working his way through the different keys, trying to find the right one for the basement door. "Come on," Stiles mutters under his breath. "I thought this guy had the key to everything?" Of course, it was obvious from the creepy music in the background that Stiles was never going to find the right key before he got caught, which is totally what ended up happening. Brunsky grabs his shoulder from behind him and gleefully replies, "I do! But nobody has the key to that room."

He grabs Stiles by the arm and pulls him down the hall, and at some point picked up some more orderlies to help, because by the time Stiles is pushed into what they call the "quiet room," there are three of them total. Naturally, Brunsky is one of those stereotypical orderlies who take great pleasure in fucking with their patients and who should have no right to work in the mental health field whatsoever. He must have frisked Stiles at some point, too, because he found the bottle of speed that Marin gave him, and asks him where he got it. "The vending machine?" Stiles snarks, but Brunsky just laughs and jokes about how he loves the sarcastic patients best. He orders one of the other orderlies to give him 5 mg of Haldol. Stiles starts to freak out when he realizes they're sedating him, and he starts apologizing in an effort to stop them from dosing him. Brunsky just laughs, though, and watches as Stiles is stabbed in the ass with a syringe and left to fall asleep on the floor. Before he passes out, he slurs, "Wait! You don't understand. You don't get it, I've gotta stay awake!"

Sorry guys, but this is where my inner-nurse starts screaming in annoyance and tearing her hair out. First of all, orderlies are basically like nurse's aides. They help with patient care, but rarely ever do they have the authority to pass medications, unless they're specially certified , which is a relatively new thing for non-nurses, and which is only legal in about a handful of states, if I recall correctly. Passing medications is nearly always the responsibility of the nurses. Second of all, Haldol is NOT a sedative, it's an antipsychotic medication that happens to have sedative side effects. AND, it's a medication that is totally contraindicated with any form of dementia, so if Stiles truly does have FTD, then he should NOT have been given Haldol at all. So yeah, since Stiles hasn't actually been diagnosed with a psych disorder, he shouldn't have been given an antipsychotic, especially one that is contraindicated with his other illnesses. Allow me to step down from my nurse soapbox and continue, yeah? The weird thing that I should point out before we move on is that as Stiles is falling asleep on the floor, you can hear voices in the background, and one of them is very clearly Stiles' voice shouting "LYDIAAAAAAA," but Stiles isn't actually saying it. Is this some kind of link to Lydia sensing that Stiles was at Eichen House during the events of "Riddled?" Hmm.

Meanwhile, Scott is getting ready to leave his house to join up with the rest of the gang, when he finds Kira standing on his porch, with a bag slung over her shoulder. (I would be remiss if I didn't mention the fact that the glass is still busted out of their screen door from all the oni/twins destroying it in "Silverfinger," which is a nice bit of continuity, tbh) He asks her what she's doing at his house, since he's on his way out, so Kira lets herself into the house and admits that she's come to help him and the pack. Scott starts to say that it probably isn't the best idea for her to come, which Kira immediately assumes is because they found out that her mother has control of the oni. Scott insists that's not the case, because he's a nice boy who totally understands that she has no control over what her mother does. "Yeah, but it still feels like it is [my fault]. And if I can help, shouldn't I?" Kira asks him earnestly. Scott reminds her that people who help him and his friends usually end up getting hurt, like, fatally.

Still, Kira claims it's not a problem, because one of the kitsune's powers is instantly becoming an expert with a sword. She goes to pull out the ninjada she stole from one of the oni from the bag, and accidentally almost slices Scott in half when she swings it too hard. Scott is alarmed for a moment, but once Kira shows off her badass skills, he immediately decides that she should come with them. YES! Kira the Badass is my favorite. Can she and Allison become best friends already? And then they can teach Lydia how to fight, too? And Stiles, too, once he's been de-foxed? That seems like an ideal scenario, tbh.

(via derekhaie)
When we catch back up with Stiles, he's waking up in a dark space, and once he notices the slats of light shining onto his face, he realizes that he's trapped in a locker in the high school's locker room, just like in the first dream he had in "Anchors." Stiles starts freaking out, because this is TOTALLY A DREAM SEQUENCE, and thus he totally fell asleep even though he was specifically told not to, so now every moment he's asleep, he's risking the nogitsune gaining control over his body again. He starts muttering "Oh, no, no, no" as he pounds on the door, but this time, the door isn't opening. He starts yelling at anyone who may be listening to let him out, but no one answers. Instead, a shadow passes over Stiles' face, and when he looks out the slats in the locker, he sees the bandaged-up nogitsune skulking around outside the door. "Let me in!" the nogitsune growls, but Stiles is just really over being psychologically tortured by this guy.

"Okay, screw you and your stupid riddles," Stiles snaps. The nogitsune just slams his hand on the door and insists that there are no riddles this time. Stiles pleads with him plaintively to just let him out, but no such luck-- the nogitsune won't let Stiles out until Stiles lets him take control of Stiles' body again. This part kind of confused me, because the nogitsune has been hitching a ride in Stiles' meatsuit for God knows how long, but why does he keep needing permission to take control? Are nogitsunes like angels in Supernatural or something? I could understand it this time, because he's probably still weakened from the lichen shot, but he needed Stiles to give him permission in "Riddled" too!

ANYWAY, it doesn't matter, because just as the nogitsune bellows, "LET ME INNNNNNN," Stiles awakes from his dream with a loud shout on the floor of the "quiet room," where Malia is kneeling beside him and shushing him quietly. Malia saves the day, yay! She places a hand on his face comfortingly as she urges him to be quiet so they don't get caught, and Stiles, whose eyes are still all wet from being bullied by the nogitsune, asks her how she managed to find him. "I broke the lock," Malia confesses with a little smile. "If I concentrate, I can be pretty strong!" I love her, IDGAF. Tumblr seems to be insistent that she's shady, but I don't really get that impression (though, I also wouldn't be surprised if that turned out to be true, considering she is the offspring of Peter Hale, supposedly). Malia helps him up to his feet, and informs him that she's found another way into the basement. The only problem is, they have to go through the closed unit, which, according to her, is where they keep "the real psychos." Yeah, that's totally politically correct terminology, there.

Outside the Sheriff's office, Scott, Kira, and Allison are hiding in the parking lot behind a couple of cars. Allison is using the binoculars on her crossbow to keep an eye on the armored car that holds all of the evidence in the Katashi case. When she sees that the coast is clear, she tells Kira that it's her move. Kira, with an Argent GPS tracker in hand, uses her fox-powers to sprint over to the armored car and stick the tracker under the back end of it, while Scott watches her intently to make sure she doesn't get busted. Kira's little smile when she manages to get it on the vehicle is adorable, but of course, Deputy Parrish comes out of the station, which forces Kira to have to hide on the other side of the car. Parrish opens the passenger door as he instructs the driver to get moving, but is stunned when he sees the driver is currently knocked out by a nasty, bloody blow to the head.

He immediately pulls out his gun and starts to make his way around the vehicle, which does nothing to soothe Scott's (or Kira's) nerves. Scott tells Allison that they have to do something, but by the time Parrish makes it to the trunk of the car, the back doors suddenly burst open, and a large man jumps out, grabs Parrish's head, and slams it onto the trunk, knocking him out, too. Scott is really freaking the fuck out now, and asks Allison who the hell that guy is. She is pretty shocked too, and reveals that it's Kincaide, the guy who met with Isaac during the staged gun deal, also known as Mr. Honey-Voice. OH SHIT, this is so not going to end well.

Inside, Chris is still in the interrogation room, talking to the Latina hunter lady. He asks her if she wants to talk about the Code, which I'm guessing she does. "Ours is more than a code of behavior. It's a code of honor. These things bind our families! You don't abandon such things lightly." Chris is like, "Oh, you wanna talk about the fucking Code? What about the part that said my wife had to kill herself by having me help her stab a knife to her heart after she accidentally got bitten by a werewolf?" Latina Hunter Lady (whose name is apparently Araya) insists that Victoria honored the hunter tradition with her death, but Chris argues that she would have been better served honoring her family, and especially her daughter, by staying alive.

(via derekhaie)
"Your family is very complicated though, isn't it?" Araya asks slyly, and Chris immediately realizes that she's trying to get some information. He demands to know what she's trying say, and asks her if she's talking about Allison. "What are you fishing for?" Araya stands up and heads for the door, but not before stating, "I don't fish, mijo. I hunt." OH GOD. Is it possible that she is Victoria's mom? I don't remember anything about Victoria's family or heritage, but between Araya's weird insinuations about Chris' family, and the fact that she called him "mijo," which is a truncated way of saying "mi hijo," or "my son," I feel like they have to be related somehow. And what does she want with Allison? I NEED TO KNOW EVERYTHING.

We return to the sheriff's station, where Kincaide seems to have found Katashi's finger amongst all the other evidence in the armored car. He's about to skedaddle when Scott and Allison (who has her crossbow pointed at him) approach him and demand that he give them Katashi's prosthetic. As you can probably guess, Kincaide thinks they're just adorable, and can't help but chuckle and ask them why he should give it to them. Allison reminds him that there's a briefcase with $150,000 in it that he's welcome to have instead, but Kincaide informs her that the scroll in Katashi's finger is actually worth $3 million. Holy shit! That seems pretty steep, even for a historical artifact that could possibly have some supernatural information in it.

He slips the prosthetic in his pocket, so Scott, extremely frustrated at this point, says, "Give me the finger!" BAHAHAHA, I am a twelve year old. Kincaide side-eyes him, and Scott just sighs. "You know what I mean." Thankfully, Kira, bless her heart, breaks up that awkward moment. At some point, she must have climbed onto the top of the truck, because she just jumps off of it and onto Kincaide's back in an effort to like, choke him or something? Of course, she's like, 1/4 his size, so he literally just twists slightly and easily drops her ass on the ground. A for effort, girlfriend, you'll get it next time! He's SUPER pissed now, and flashes his blue eyes and wolf fangs as he deadpans, "I guess negotiations are over!" SHIT.

(via scotthowling)

Malia and Stiles have finally made their way into Eichen House's basement, and Stiles immediately tenses up when he recognizes the room from his dream. He stops dead in his tracks when he sees the "己" kanji carved into the wall next to where Malia is standing. When he points it out to her, she asks him what it means, and he briefly explains that it means "self." Malia is puzzled, as any person would be, and figures he should maybe give her more of the story, so she can help. Stiles is afraid she's not going to like him anymore if she learns the rest of the story, but Malia's like, "Try to remember that I'm a werecoyote who murdered her own family. I won't judge, promise." Aw!

Back to the Battle of Silver Finger--Allison shoots Kincaide with an arrow right in the chest, but it barely even fazes him, he just pulls it out and throws it onto the ground. Kira hauls off and gets ready to slug him right in the face, but he gets her in a choke-hold and throws her back against the cement wall. He backhands Allison and she goes flying right next to Kira, which is the last straw for Scott. Fully wolfed out, he lunges at Kincaide and gets a swipe across his face that doesn't even break the skin. Confused, Scott smacks him down again, but again, it barely does anything. When a punch to the gut doesn't even make a difference, Kincaide grabs Scott by the arms and headbutts him.

To Scott's credit, he just shakes himself off and gets back into the game despite this epic beatdown, but he still ends up getting thrown onto the ground and kicked to hell and back. Kincaide kneels over him and cracks, "You have the eyes of an alpha, but where's the strength?" Not to miss a dramatic entrance, the twins appear out of nowhere and smug, "Up here!" before jumping down and kicking the ever-loving SHIT out of him. Why could the twins do it and Scott can't? I have a couple theories that I'll get into in a bit. Lydia runs over to Allison to make sure she's okay, and she is, so they watch in horror as the twins do their thing.

Malia and Stiles are still in the basement, looking through a shitload of old files, trying to find any answer they can get about the nogitsune and Eichen House. "Well, this place used to be a lot more fun," Malia jokes, as she reads the various papers she's found. "Electroshock, ice baths, trepanation..." Those first two things, we've already seen so far--Isaac, Allison, Stiles and Scott have all had ice baths this season, and Isaac and Stiles (and Boyd, which will never not make me sad) were both electrocuted pretty badly. However, Stiles' radar pings at that last word, and recalls that Oliver was talking about trepanation earlier, when they had their mock fight--trepanation is an old-timey practice that used to be done in an attempt to release evil spirits from the body. OH GOD, PLEASE TELL ME NO ONE WILL BE DRILLING HOLES IN STILES' HEAD.

Stiles is getting pretty antsy, and declares that there isn't anything here that can help him with his problem, and fidgets a little bit before he asks Malia if she can check and see if his lichtenberg figure is still on his back. She takes a peek under his shirt, and informs him that the marks are almost gone, which she assumes is a good thing, but quickly realizes by the look on Stiles' face that it is most certainly NOT good. When she helps him put his shirt back on, her cold hands brush over his back and makes him shiver, so she apologizes and reminds him of the whole not-being-able-to-get-warm thing. Stiles, always the charmer, assures her it's fine, and takes her hands in his to help her warm them up. Malia gets this look on her face, like she's never had anyone be nice to her like this before, which is probably accurate, since she just went back to being a human for the first time in almost a decade.

She stares at him for a long moment, and when he catches her gaze, she decides to go for it, and lays a kiss right on his mouth. In true Stiles fashion, his eyes get huge in surprise before he starts to get into it. When they pull away, Stiles realizes that this must be Malia's first kiss, and asks her if she wants to try it again after she assures him it was a good first kiss. Stiles looks like Dylan O'Brien, so of COURSE Malia wants to kiss him again, so they just start making out, right there on the basement couch! A LOT of people hated this scene, for tons of reasons--either they don't think Malia should have the faculties to consent because of her recent re-humanization, they don't think either of them have the faculties to consent because they're both in a mental health center for whatever reason, they just don't trust Malia, or, most likely, they prefer to ship Stiles with a more male, moody, and brooding were-creature whose name rhymes with Ferek Bale. All of these reasons are legit, and I'm totally not hating--everyone likes what they like and dislikes what they dislike, it happens. HOWEVER, watching Dylan O'Brien kiss people is literally a weakness of mine, so I'm having a really hard time finding things to complain about. Sorry guys!

The song they're making out to is called "Feel Real" by Deptford Goth, and it is amazing, and is probably in the top three of my 3B soundtrack playlist, if we're being honest. Anyway, so they make out for a bit, and he's got his hands all tangled in her hair, and she's groping his back, and it's all pretty hot. She pulls away a bit, and he leans in to kiss her again when she stops him. "I want to try something else," she admits, but Stiles is high on horny boy hormones right now, so he's just all, "Bwuh? Something else?" She nods, and takes off her shirt, revealing a really cute bra underneath. Stiles doesn't even bother trying to pretend like he's not staring at her boobs, but after a moment, he looks back up at her and silently asks if she's sure. She totally knows what he's thinking, though, so she nods in encouragement before Stiles screams internally and immediately starts kissing her again.

(via fightforthisloveeeee)
"Now you've got to breathe/It's only where your feet fell/People are so cool/Somebody wants you/A lover come back/I wanna dance like her/Like nobody's watching, 'cause nobody's watching." 

They do a little maneuvering so Malia can lay down on the couch, with Stiles on top of her, and he just looks at her like "HOLY SHIT A PRETTY GIRL ACTUALLY WANTS TO FOOL AROUND WITH ME." Malia smiles a sweet smile at him, so he kisses her again before kissing down her neck. Malia shivers a little bit, but otherwise, her face is totally shouting "God is real" from the mountaintops. I am a huge Stydia shipper, but even I loved this scene. /unpopular opinion. I'll have more to say about this in the notes at the end. The last shot we get is of Stiles gripping Malia's hand as the continue to hook up on the couch.

(via scottiemchottie)

When we return to the Get-Along Gang, Kincaide is thrown onto the ground, where Scott is still recovering from his own beatdown. The twins descend upon Kincaide, ready to just kill the guy, but Scott, Lydia, and Allison yell at them to cut it out. Aiden can't believe that Scott is willing to risk Kincaide coming back for them later, and even Ethan, who seems to have had quite the turn-around regarding his violent tendencies, adds, "Scott? We've seen guys like this, trust us--he's dangerous." Scott reminds him that they are too, although they're not in the way that Kincaide is; they're dangerous in the way that they never give up until they eventually win.

Scott thinks that Kincaide is a smart enough guy to remember who they are, and judging by the look on the man's face, I think it's safe to say that he wasn't expecting mercy, especially not from an alpha. And extra-especially since it's likely that Kincaide is an omega, albeit a super strong one. Scott reaches over and pulls the prosthetic finger out of Kincaide's breast pocket, and pulls this itty-bitty scroll out of it. Seriously, it's like the size of a pill. "We're here to save a life, not end one," Scott proclaims, and Allison, Lydia, and Kira just look SO proud of him. The twins, however, seem to be pretty confused about what just happen, but they trust Scott enough not to push it. As they leave, Scott drops the silver finger onto the ground. Question, though--aren't their fingerprints gonna be all over everything? Sheriff might still have to tamper with some evidence.

Back to Malia and Stiles--they're spooning on the couch, all blissed out after some seriously shirtless-hugging, or at least some making out and heavy petting. (The episode seemed to suggest that Stiles actually slept with her, but Shelley Hennig supposedly said in an interview that all they did was make out. Who knows?) They're smiling and holding hands, when Malia glances over at the wall and notices something. She walks over to where the kanji is carved into the wall and instructs Stiles to follow her. When she knocks on the wall, they realize the wall is hollow, judging from the knocking echoing through the whole building. Stiles finds a heavy pipe laying in a pile of random junk, and uses it to break through the drywall and see what's hiding in the space behind it. Couldn't everyone hear them making so much racket down there? Especially considering everything is supposed to echo? Sigh.

They're both horrified when they find that it's a dead body hidden in the wall. Upon closer inspection, Stiles realizes that it's the nogitsune's body--the corpse is covered in bandages, and is wearing a military bomber jacket with WW2 insignia on it, just like the shape the nogitsune has been using to terrorize him. There's also a sword sitting in his lap. Malia, being the ballsy girl she is, reaches into the hole in the wall and checks the pocket's of the corpse's clothes, and finds what looks like an old, weathered photograph.

She shows it to Stiles and asks if he recognizes anyone in it. Stiles eyes grow wide when he examines the photo, and admits, "One of them. I need to get this to Scott." Unfortunately for him, he doesn't get a chance to do it, because out of nowhere, Oliver appears and tazes him right in the back. As Stiles falls, Malia backs away from Oliver and stares at him in shock. Oliver looks almost sheepish as he stammers, "You took Brunsky's keys...I took his stun gun." He uses it on Malia next, before she has a chance to get out of the way, and she, too, falls to the floor, too stunned to move.

 "I also got his Haldol," Oliver adds, as he kneels next to Malia. He pulls out a syringe and quickly stabs Malia in the leg with it, which causes her to pass out within seconds. THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS, JEFF. You couldn't have gone with Ativan? Hell, even using like Xanax would have been more believable. Good lord. "Like I was saying, Stiles, I heard they used to do trepanation down here." Stiles weakly asks him what the fuck he's doing, and watches as Oliver finds a hand drill just laying around and picks it up. Oliver assures Stiles he's going to let the "evil spirits" out of his head, which does nothing to soothe Stiles' anxiety. He starts hyperventilating on the floor as Oliver holds the drill up and turns it on for extra effect. Damn, remember when we all loved Oliver? That was a good time. Being possessed by a void kitsune must have a huge toll on his mind and body, if Stiles and his "very perceptive eye for evil," as he calls it, wasn't able to immediately identify that he was shady. This is a DISASTER.

At some point, Stiles passed out, although I don't know if that's because he was drugged, or what. But, when he regains consciousness, Oliver starts to giggle, and tells Stiles that his time at Eichen House has helpfully made him very familiar with how to put someone in five-point restraints. Stiles looks down, and realizes that he's been bound to a chair, and though he tries his hardest, he can't break free. "Oliver," Stiles pleads. "Stop this." Oliver is about to say something, but is interrupted when he's hit with a coughing fit, which results in him coughing up some blood and what looks like a fucking FLY into his hand. EW WHAT THE FUCK. Stiles continues to try to talk him out of whatever he's about to do, but Oliver just wipes the blood off of his lips and walks toward him, drill in hand. He turns the drill on, and is about to start drilling into Stiles' head when a growling voice in the background states, "Start with her."

Oliver stops what he's doing and walks over to where Malia is passed out, revealing that the NOGITSUNE IS RIGHT BEHIND OLIVER. Wait, so is his presence a hallucination? Or is this entire scene a hallucination? I AM SO CONFUSED. "You did this," Stiles stammers. "You got into his head." The nogitsune just shrugs. "Every Dracula needs a Renfield." I'm pretty impressed with the nogitsune's pop culture knowledge, to be honest. Stiles looks over and sees that Oliver is binding Malia to her very own chair, and immediately starts to panic. He begs the nogitsune to let her go, but, as expected, the nogitsune is just like, "Let me in!" Stiles frantically starts to break through his restraints, to no avail, as the nogitsune continues to manipulate him into doing what he wants. "Stiiiiiiiiles, do you want her to leave here alive? Do you want US to leave? We can walk out of this place."

Considering how desperate the nogitsune seems to be to take control of Stiles' body, I have a feeling that he's bluffing about him killing Stiles. However, considering all the nogitsune has done thus far, I'm sure he's totally willing to kill Malia off if it'll accomplish his goals. Stiles continues to plead with the nogitsune to leave her alone and let her go. The nogitsune approaches where Stiles is sitting, but is momentarily distracted when he sees his corpse chilling in the hidden space in the wall. It takes little time for him to shake himself off and continue to do the whole "LET ME IN" thing to Stiles. As he fights his restraints, Oliver braces Malia's head with one hand as he starts to hold the drill up to Malia's temple. "JUST LET HER GO, PLEASE!" Stiles shouts, as Oliver starts the drill and gets ready to go. The nogitsune keeps chanting his catchphrase, and Stiles squeezes his eyes shut, a tear running down his cheek, before his body suddenly goes slack as he passes out.

Oliver is just seconds from drilling a hole in Malia's head when a voice calls out, "Oliver." He stops what he's doing and looks up to see the restraints binding Stiles' wrists falling onto the ground in pieces. Stiles rubs his wrists, but it's obvious by the tilt of his head and the lowered tone of his voice that this is totally the Nogitstiles. He walks toward Oliver, who backs up until he's cornered. Oliver smiles nervously at him, which causes Nogitstiles to smirk a little bit before quickly snatching the drill from him and busting him right in the head with it. WHY IS NOGITSTILES SO HOT AND SCARY. It's really freaking me out. With Oliver fully passed out on the floor (if not dead from blunt force trauma to the head), Nogitstiles is free to set the drill on the table and walk away. He's almost to the door when Malia starts to stir. She notices him about to leave and weakly gasps, "Stiles?" Nogitstiles just smirks as he walks right on out of the basement. OH. SHIT.

Scott has met Deaton at the animal clinic, where Deaton is reading the Shugendu scroll in hopes of translating it. "There isn't much here, unfortunately," Deaton admits somberly. Scott asks him if there's ANYTHING that could possibly help, so Deaton prefaces his news with the fact that his Japanese isn't that great. Yeah, we know, dude. "But, it appears to say that one method of expelling a nogitsune is to change the body of the host." Scott is completely stumped, so Deaton adds, "Which begs the question--how do we change Stiles' body?"You know him?"" The answer to this question hits Scott right in the face, and he replies, "By turning him into a werewolf." YESSSSSSSSS! I am so here for that, tbh.

Finally, we return to Eichen House, where Malia is all packed up and ready to leave. Behind her, Marin Morrell calls out, "Do you know where you're going?" "Shout" by Ida Redig begins to play as Malia admits that she doesn't, but that she does know who she needs to find. Marin immediately guesses that she's looking for Scott McCall, which perks Malia up a bit. "You know him?" Marin smiles, and informs her that not only does she know him, but she knows where Malia can find him. Afterward, Malia rushes out the door, carrying a long, thin bag in her hand that I'm guessing contains the sword that Stiles and Malia found on the corpse in the wall.

"I'm gonna shout from the top of my lungs now/'cause I need someone like you/I need somebody somebody like you."

She stops in front of the gate for a moment, and before she leaves, her eyes flash blue, and she smiles. Everyone seems to think this is absolute proof that she's evil, and maybe she's right, but I like her, gdi.

Next episode: We learn the story of the nogitsune and it's connection to Kira's family, while the rest of the pack tries to find Nogitstiles. Again. Also, Nogistiles starts some shenanigans.

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[screencaps via KissThemGoodbye]

NOTES/QUESTIONS/SPECULATION:
-Alright, back to the Malia/Stiles thing. So, Stiles has been going through hell the past couple of weeks--nightmares, hallucinations, losing the ability to read, being possessed by a dark spirit who terrorizes and tortures him and his friends. He's finally back to himself, for the most part, but he's spending all his time panicking and trying to figure out another plan before he loses control again and maybe ends up being killed. And here comes Malia, a girl who has plenty of darkness of her own to deal with, regarding her guilt over what happened to her mom and sister, and complete confusion regarding being in a human teenagers body after spending nearly a decade in the body of a coyote. Malia wants to explore her body and experience things that other teenage girls do, and Stiles desperately needs a distraction, and this particular distraction also seems to really like him even despite all of the bad shit that he's indirectly been involved in. So I guess to me, it makes perfect sense that they would hook up, even if it's not exactly the best timing. Sure, they probably had better things to do, and sure, they might not have been in the perfect state of mind, and yeah, the nogitsune totally ended up using his connection to her against him in the end, but I don't know, I guess I just thought it was a pretty sweet scene? It's nice to see Stiles be happy for once, however temporarily.

-Now, onto Scott, and the question that everyone has been wondering--Why wasn't Scott strong enough to take on Kincaide, especially since he's an alpha (a true alpha, at that) and Kincaide was a beta or omega? I have a couple of possible theories to explain that. One is that it was because Scott's pack was fractured. If you count the twins, Scott has four werewolves in his pack, a banshee, one human researcher/strategist, one human hunter, and possibly a kitsune, from the way things seem to be going with Kira. Isaac has spent the last two episodes in the ICU at the hospital after being seriously injured, and Derek has spent the last two episodes in jail after he and Chris were accused of murder, so Scott already has been separated from half of his betas. I'd like to think that he gains powers from his non-werewolf packmates, but that's not really stated in canon, so it's possible that Isaac and Derek not being able to back him up played a role in his lack of strength. The fact that he was so much less powerful than Kincaide could also suggest that there's part of him that's still fighting his werewolf side, or maybe he hasn't fully embraced and accepted his true alpha powers yet, which is why he doesn't have full access to them. A less likely theory is that as a true alpha, his strength comes from his force of will and his character, and not from actually being physically powerful. I don't really like that one as much, though, because I want Scott to be strong to help the pack defend the town from all the beasties that keep showing up.

-Okay, let's talk Araya. Do you think her hunter family is related to the Argents in some way? I really like the theory that she was Victoria's mom, but other than the conversation Araya had with Chris, there is no other evidence that supports it. Either way, it seems that both families seem to go back pretty far, and Araya seemed to be hinting that the fellow hunters might not be so accepting of the Argent's new code. I don't think there will be enough time in the last four episodes to really address this hunter threat, but I have a feeling this will come to a head in season 4. Anyone else getting the feeling the Argents are gonna have to choose sides? Something tells me they'll be fighting on the McCall Pack's side.

-I really miss Isaac, you guys. I really hope he comes back soon.

-What was Malia doing in Eichen House in the first place? I'm guessing that she was either forced to go by the police or something as a result of literally living on her own for the last eight years in the woods, or she tried to tell her dad about who she really is, but since she can't control her shift yet, she couldn't prove it, and he thought there was something mentally wrong with her. My personal headcanon right now is that she shifted for the first time in that car with her mom and sister, and her stress/grief/fear/confusion is what ultimately allowed her to be a full coyote (plus, perhaps some latent Hale shape-shifting genes). After she became a coyote, she stayed that way until Scott literally forced her to shift back, so she never really learned how to control her powers the way that Scott, Isaac, et al had to learn. There were a lot of people who pointed out that her eyes changed at the end of the episode, but I'm not necessarily sure that means that she CAN shift and just lied/hinted that she didn't to get closer to Stiles, for whatever reason, but I don't know, that smile seemed more like a "Hey, I'm out of Eichen House, it seems like I'm starting to make some friends, and I'm going to get help so I can learn how to control my powers. Plus, I hooked up with a really cute dude, so life is good for the first time in a while"-thing.