Teen Wolf Season 3, Episode 22: "De-Void" Recap/Review

This episode of Teen Wolf really was a rollercoaster from start to finish, but even more, it will most definitely go down in history as the MOST DISGUSTING EPISODE EVER. Like, seriously, you guys, Teen Wolf has done some really disgusting stuff in its day (like, say, having a ridiculous clawed hand come out of Jackson's mouth, having Jackson swallow a snake that eventually comes back out HIS EYEBALL, having Gerard projectile vomit a fountain of black goo from every orifice in his body, Deucalion squishing Ennis' head like a melon, and flies coming out of William Barrow's tumor, are just a few examples I can think of off the top of my head), but nothing has made me gag more than "De-Void." I've seen this episode a handful of times by this point, and I STILL like, dry-heave at the sight of the fly going into Derek's wound, or up Ethan's nose.

That said, this episode was still exhilarating, terrifying, and all-around AMAZING, in a "OH SHIT WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING TO MY BABIES" kind of way. We need to talk about it in full detail, so let's get moving, yeah?

Previously, on Teen Wolf: Peter totally attacked Lydia on the lacrosse field and left her for dead, and she's still a little pissed about it (as she should be). Allison and Isaac got their smoochies on. Then, as a result of the nogitsune's trap, Isaac ended up seriously wounded after being electrocuted in a puddle of live wire, and shocked everyone by not healing right away. The Golden Trio of Scott, Allison, and Stiles did a druid ritual in order to save their parents that involved drowning themselves and being magically resurrected. As a result of their sacrifice, they gave power back to the Nemeton, which hasn't had power in years. Stiles got possessed by a nogitsune, a dark kitsune/fox spirit that feeds on chaos, strife, and pain, and has generally just been causing all kinds of shenanigans wherever he goes. Sheriff busted Chris and Derek out of jail in order to get them to help him capture Stiles until they can get the nogitsune out of him, and the last scene from last week's episode ended with Sheriff, Allison, Chris, and Derek meeting up with Nogitstiles at Derek's loft.


It's nearly sundown, and Scott and Kira are speeding along the Beacon Hills highway on their way to Derek's loft. Kira has her newly-restored katana strapped across her back.

At Derek's loft, Sheriff walks in alone first, and holds out a pair of handcuffs. Nogitstiles pretends to be Real Stiles, just to fuck with Sheriff even more, and sadly asks him if he is planning on handcuffing him. "If my son is still here," Sheriff explains carefully, as he walks toward Nogitstiles. "If there's still a part of him standing here in front of me, then he'll put these on willingly and he'll come with me. Because he knows I'm here to protect him, from himself, and from others." Nogitstiles continues to look sad and meek, and eventually holds up both his wrists in front of him so Sheriff can slip the handcuffs on him. Once they're secured, Nogitstiles' entire demeanor changes, and the sad-eyes are replaced with angry/vaguely amused ones. Sheriff realizes really quick that he fucked up, and tells him that he's not his son. Nogitstiles shakes his head mockingly, and easily breaks the handcuffs off.

(via causeallkindsoftrouble)
That must have been the cue for backup, because Allison, Chris, and Derek storm in confidently and arrange themselves in front of Nogitstiles, who seems even more pleasantly intrigued by this chain of events. Allison looks at him, clearly not happy that she has to hurt her friend, and holds up a taser, but as soon as she shoots it, Nogitstiles grabs onto the charges like it's not zapping him with tons of electricity, and pulls the gun out of her hand. Derek wolfs out and lunges at him with a roar, but Nogitstiles easily grabs him by the shoulder, snaps his arm, busts Derek's head on the table, and throws him against the wall like he's nothing. It's actually really impressive, especially considering it's Stiles in all of his 147 lbs of pale skin and fragile bone, you know?

(via causeallkindsoftrouble)
Chris has had enough, and aims his gun right at Stiles' head, which totally alarms Allison, Derek and Sheriff, and which definitely intrigues Nogistiles, although he still cycles back to pretending to be Stiles to ensure that Sheriff stays on his side. Sheriff tries to talk Chris down, but he is resolute. "Why not? I've done it before. Werewolves, berserkers...I can easily add a nogitsune to the list." This is not the first time they've mentioned berserkers, and I'm hoping this means that they're gonna show up sometime in season 4. WEREBEARS, you guys! Sheriff whips out his gun and aims it at Chris, and orders him again to stand down. "You're not going to shoot my son." Chris reminds him that he said himself that Stiles is no longer his son, but you know that doesn't matter at all to Sheriff-- if there's even the slightest chance that they can get him back. Sheriff once again repeats the order to drop his gun NOW, and Stiles starts to fake tear up as he fearfully whines, "Dad, he's going to kill me. He's going to kill me, Dad." Chris reminds Sheriff not to listen to him, but he's just SO OVERWHELMED, and I honestly don't blame him at all, this is TERRIBLE AWFUL NO GOOD VERY BAD.

Sheriff continues to yell at Chris to put the gun down, but he continues to refuse to listen to him, and Nogitstiles just curiously watches all of this go down, secretly getting off on the drama. He decides to turn up the heat, and starts taunting Chris to get him to shoot him. "Pull the trigger!" Sheriff keeps yelling at Chris, but Stiles just calmly states, "Shoot me." Allison starts to worry that Chris is actually going to shoot him, and tries to talk him down, too, but then everyone starts yelling, and it's just super dramatic. Nogitstiles continues to try to goad Chris to shoot Stiles, since we already know gunshots don't do shit to the people nogitsunes are possessing. All of a sudden, Allison realizes what we've all figured out as well--the nogitsune is doing this on purpose, to stall, or to feed, or both, and whispers, "Strife." Just then, the sun starts to set, and the apartment darkens. She and Derek both look out the windows in horror.

Meanwhile, Scott and Kira are still on their way to Derek's, and when Scott sees the sun setting, he cranks up the throttle and speeds down the freeway.

Back at the loft, Allison shouts at them all to shut the fuck up, because this is exactly what the nogitsune wants, but Nogistiles just smirks, "Not EXACTLY. I was kinda hoping Scott would be here!" Chris and Sheriff just glance at each other in confusion as Nogitstiles continues. "But, I'm glad you all have your guns out, because you're not here to kill me." He turns and looks toward the wall of windows, where four oni begin to materialize from the shadows. "You're here to protect me," Nogitstiles admits, as he backs up behind Sheriff and Chris, who re-aim their guns at the oni, naturally. THIS IS SO BRILLIANT AND ALSO SO TERRIBLE, because in the end, NONE of them want to kill Stiles unless it's absolutely necessary. So, in the end, they'll still end up protecting him, even though they wouldn't want to give him what he wants under any other circumstances.

The ninja dementors whip out their swords, so Chris steps forward to take the first shots at them. However, for whatever reason, his gun won't shoot, so Sheriff starts shooting at them for him while he digs out one of his backup guns out of his inside jacket pocket and goes to town on them. Two of the oni break off and start flipping around Stiles, so Derek and Allison turn, the former wolfed out, and the latter with Chinese ring daggers in hand, to protect Nogitstiles' back. I have wanted Allison and Derek to work together for THE LONGEST TIME, and this is probably the closest I'm going to get to a real team up. Ughhhh. TITLE CARD!

Kira and Scott have FINALLY made it to Derek's apartment complex, and park his motorbike on this crazy ramp thing that I don't think we've seen thus far. As they're taking off their helmets, they hear gunshots above them, and when they look up to the top floor, they realize the gunfire is happening in Derek's loft and immediately rush to go help them out. By the time they make it to the loft, the gang is alone, and Chris and Sheriff immediately aim their guns at the door until they realize they're not in danger. Derek has a nasty slash from the top of his shoulder down near his spine from one of their swords, and they're all out of breath and pretty shell-shocked, like anyone would be. Scott asks them what the fuck happened, so Allison admits that the oni just up and disappeared out of nowhere. Sheriff looks devastated as he adds that Nogitstiles totally disappeared, too. SHIT. Can nogitsunes teleport? That is very cool, and also very bad news for the pack.

Noshiko arrives at Eichen House and walks down the stairs to the basement. Wait, how did she get in there? How did she find a key if no one does? Is this another trickster thing? This is one of those episodes where everything moves so fast that sometimes details fall through the cracks. Anyway, as she walks toward the wall that had the "己" carving, she's haunted by the sounds of Rhys screaming after he was burned by the Molotov cocktail. She gasps and starts to tear up when she sees Rhys' more-or-less mummified body, still chilling in the wall cavity. She picks up some pieces of drywall off the floor, and reassembles them so the carving is all in one piece. Behind her, a low voice asks, "Why THAT kanji?" It's Nogitstiles! "Why 'self?'" Noshiko informs him that she wanted to signify that Rhys died as himself, and not as a monster like the nogitsune. She holds out her (supposedly last) kaiken threateningly as she backs away from him.

"If I'm such a monster," Nogitstiles posits quietly as he slinks toward her. "Why'd you call off the oni? What happened to the woman who called out for chaos, strife, and pain to descend upon everyone and everything? What happened?" Noshiko maintains that she doesn't want those things anymore, but unfortunately for her, Nogitstiles does, and he seems to be MUCH stronger than she is. He grabs her by the wrist and twists until she's forced to let go of the kaiken, and taunts her for thinking that she could possibly hide it from him. I'm kind of in agreement, tbh, because hiding it where she already hid Rhys' body and her katana? It's a pretty obvious choice, let's be real.

For a second, you think he's going to use it to hurt her, but instead, he turns the kaiken on himself and pretty much disembowels himself by slicing Stiles' abdomen right open. NOOOOOOOO! That entire body is precious cargo, you uncultured swine! "What have you done?" Noshiko demands, as Nogitstiles drops the kaiken and falls to the floor. She stares at him in horror as he tries to pull himself together long enough to growl, "Chaos is come again." Shakespeare AGAIN? Teen Wolf villains need to get some new material. Nogitstiles throws his head back, and all of a sudden, HUNDREDS OF FLIES FLY OUT OF HIS WOUND AND SWARM AROUND NOSHIKO. Yep, I'm dry-heaving again, tbh. Noshiko swats at the flies with her hands and closes her eyes until they all fly away, but when she opens her eyes again to check on Nogitstiles, his body is gone. YIKES!

We cut to Beacon Hills Memorial Hospital, where doctors, nurses, and visitors are bustling around the halls. We see everything from the fly's perspective as it buzzes around, narrowly missing Melissa's head as she comes out of Isaac's room and sets his file in the folder outside it's door. The fly lands on the file for a minute before flying its way into Isaac's room, where it lands on Isaac's arm, and squeezes it's way into Isaac's circulatory system by ENTERING THE HOLE WHERE THE IV CATHETER IS INSERTED INTO HIS ARM, OMG. IT IS SO GROSS, SO, SO, SO, SO GROSS. Isaac opens his eyes with a gasp, and his irises turn gold as the fly makes its way through his body. GROSS. On a happy note, I am SO HAPPY that Isaac is finally back, I've missed him so much! Although, I am really curious how Melissa is keeping all the other medical professionals from realizing that he's healing WAY faster than humans usually heal, even if he did heal way more slowly than he normally would, had electricity not been involved.

Scott leads Kira into his bedroom after their busy day/night, and Kira thanks him for letting her stay, since she doesn't really feel comfortable being around her parents right now, after everything she's just learned. "I feel like I don't even know them anymore," she admits. Scott assures her it's totally fine, and offers her a tshirt or pj pants to wear to bed, but she says she'll be fine in her clothes. He tells her to take his bed, and settles down in the armchair in the corner to go to sleep. I'm sure they both must be exhausted, I'm pretty sure none of them have really slept or stopped moving since 3b started. Kira lays down in bed and watches Scott as he starts to fall asleep for a moment before telling him he doesn't have to sleep in the chair. He adorably insists that it's cool, and smiles as he tells her that he actually sleeps on it a lot (like, when he and Isaac do Melissa-Guard-Duty in his mom's room, LOL), and closes his eyes again. Kira stays quiet for a moment, before finally piping up, "Please don't sleep on the chair."

Hozier's "Like Real People Do" plays as Scott curls up to Kira in his bed, laying face to face with her, and seriously, this song could be their theme song. I couldn't imagine a more perfect song for this scene, or for this pairing. "I will not ask you where you came from/I will not ask you, and neither should you." Kira looks at Scott with the sweetest face, and whispers, "We're going to save him. We'll figure it out." Scott looks at her like she literally just said the exact words he needed to hear, and leans over to lay the lightest, softest kiss right on her lips. "Honey just put your sweet lips on my lips/We should just kiss like real people do." They both smile when he pulls away, and she turns onto her other side so Scott can snuggle up beside her and spoon. I've been hoping for more from Scott and Kira all season, but honestly, this tiny step forward is perfect and appropriate, given the circumstances. They're both exhausted, physically and emotionally, and are overwhelmed with trying to save and protect their friends. For now, a tiny smoochie and some snuggling is exactly what they need. ANYWAY, as they cuddle, a fly buzzes outside Scott's closed bedroom window, beating on the glass in an effort to get in. THANK GOD they didn't get ahold of Scott or Kira! That would have been a NIGHTMARE, can you imagine how that darkness would have manifested in them?

(gifs via teenwolf)
At the Argent apartment complex, Chris and Allison arrive on their floor, and step out of the elevator to head for their front door. As Chris fumbles with his keys, Allison asks him if he was really going to shoot Stiles. He stops what he's doing and thinks for a moment before admitting, "To be honest? I'm not sure." He opens the front door and slings his bag off of his shoulder to throw inside the apartment as Allison follows him in. "I checked the firing pin," Allison suggests quietly. Chris stares at her for a moment, confused, and asks, "You removed it?" She tries to hide a tiny smile and nods her head in confirmation, but he's not at all mad about it, he's actually a little proud. "That's why the women are the leaders in our family," he says as he cups her face affectionately with his hand. He urges her to get some sleep, and she reluctantly heads to her room. GOD, I HAVE SO MANY ARGENT FAMILY FEELS RIGHT NOW. I'll go into it more in the notes.

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She absentmindedly walks into her room and is about to drop her bag on the floor when she realizes that Isaac is sitting on her bed, waiting for her. Unfortunately, he's looking a LITTLE creepy and is acting kind of weird, which makes me really nervous. She sits next to him on the bed and asks him what the hell he's doing there, so he replies that he thought he would come visit her. She can't believe he'd just walk right out of the hospital, but come on, now--that's basically what werewolves HAVE to do so no one notices they're healed in hours, haha. He smiles a smile that doesn't quite reach his eyes, and claims it's fine, because he feels much better. She brushes his cheek with her hand in amazement that he's finally healed, which, YAY! He was VERY burnt and I was very worried about him while he was in the hospital, especially with all the speculation that Isaac would be the one to die this season. "Giving you the alarm code was a BAD idea," Allison coos with a small smirk, and even Isaac admits that, yeah, it probably was. Still, he leans in and kisses her, and they start making out. YES! It's been too long without some Allisaac macking.

Back at Derek's loft, our favorite sourwolf is chilling in his gray tank top, and dumps an armful of chess pieces onto his table as he sets up a board. Peter comes down the spiral staircase and asks him what the fuck he's doing. "And, more importantly, why aren't you healing?" he adds, as he glances at the nasty gaping wound on his shoulder blade. Derek mutters that it's from one of the oni's swords, and insists it'll heal. Peter's hilariously, like, "By playing chess?" Derek doesn't really find it funny, though, and points out that since Nogitstiles set up a chess board with Derek's name on the king, he needs to figure out if this is just a game of his, and if so, what his play is. "It's not so easy to do when it's a game without rules," Peter suggests cryptically, and as usual, Derek isn't really in the mood for Peter's particular brand of riddles right now, so he asks him to get to the fucking point already.

"You're dealing with the kind of spirit that's lived too long to play by human rules," Peter exposits. "It's a fox spirit. It CHOSE to become human, and supposedly that's something they can do ONLY after about a hundred years." Derek just gives him a look that suggests he should get to the point, so Peter continues. "If a kitsune is an annoying pain in the ass, then a nogitsune, which is a DARK kitsune, is a freaking disaster." Peter dramatically puts on his (admittedly super-hot) jacket and condescendingly reminds him that chess is Stiles' game, and it is NOT the game of an ancient Japanese fox. That's the most infuriating thing about Peter, really--he's an egomaniacal, power-hungry sociopath, but most of the time in situations like these, he's totally right, and so they have no choice but to take his advice or seek his help, which SUCKS, and will eventually likely bite them in the ass. Thankfully, that day is NOT today, so it's whatever. As Derek scowls over his chessboard, Peter gets ready to leave, but can't resist snarking at him to put something on his festering wound so it doesn't get infected. Once he leaves, one of the nogitsune's flies makes it's way into the room and squeezes itself under Derek's skin. GROSS. DRY-HEAVING FOREVER.

The next morning, Ethan and Danny walk into the BHHS locker room after practicing lacrosse out on the field. WHY ARE YOU GUYS AT SCHOOL WHEN IT'S NOT IN SESSION? Do you two have a death wish?! Anyway, Danny gushes to Ethan about how good he is at lacrosse, and is sure that he'll make the team in the winter/spring season if he wants to try out. Ethan grabs a towel from his bag and prepares to wash his face in the sink as he admits that while he does want to try out, he's not sure he'll be able to. "I mean, I kinda don't know if this is the place for me. [beat] For us." Danny looks a little disappointed as he shuts his locker door, and Ethan counters the awkward silence by turning on the faucet and filling the sink with water. He fills his hands with water, and somehow doesn't notice the fact that another one of the nogitsune's flies has just dunked itself right into small puddle in his hands, and gets sucked up Ethan's nose as he rinses the sweat from his face. GROSSGROSSGROSS VOMITVOMITVOMIT.

"I mean, is this...you leaving school again...is this about your brother?" Danny asks hesitantly, as he parks himself on a bench and looks at him in concern. Aw, Danny doesn't want Ethan to go! I wondered how he was feeling now that Ethan's back in school and they seem to be more or less back together. Ethan slowly lifts his head to look in the mirror, and you can tell by his dead-looking eyes that he's totally fly-possessed now, too. "Yeah, it is, actually," Ethan states, his creepy-vibes still going strong. "It's always about my brother, isn't it?" Danny can tell that his typical demeanor has totally shifted, and asks him if he's okay, but Ethan insists that he's fine as he pulls off his tank top. "I think I'm just going to take a shower," Ethan proclaims, so Danny just shrugs, all, "Whatever." That is, until Ethan smirks and adds, "So are you!" Danny's like, "Hell yeah!" and quickly pulls off his shirt before following Ethan in. Oh, to be young, in love, and possessed by a fox spirit's magic flies. (PS, the song in this scene/the next one is "This Electric Night [Dubstep Remix]" by Lizi Kay.

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So, I'm guessing that given by how Ethan and Isaac acted after being fly-possessed, and by how they ALL act in the rest of the episode, that the fly just kind of removes inhibitions and increases their already-occurring feelings. So, love/lust for their significant partners is increased, anger towards siblings, or people who have wrong their family/friends/pack are heightened to the point that they're totally willing to violently act on that anger when they normally wouldn't be inclined to so, etc. It's VERY interested, especially considering how much chaos it ended up creating, with barely any energy on the nogitsune's part. Even if he did severely injure his host, he's still going to be eating VERY well with all of the strife happening. This nogitsune is too smart for it's own good.

Meanwhile, Aiden is with Lydia, who is driving him around in her car. A female GPS voice instructs Lydia to turn right onto Gatner Boulevard and continue for half a mile, which she does. Aiden sighs, and asks Lydia if she's going to tell him where they're going. Lydia vaguely replies that she needs to check on something, so Aiden picks up a piece of paper from the console and asks if it's about "Mahlyah" Tate. He shows her the paper, which seems to have her contact information on it, but she just corrects him on the pronunciation and tells him not to worry about it. OH SHIT, she's been researching her on her own! I was way to preoccupied with what happens next to really fully understand the implications of this part, and now I am way intrigued. Do you think she found out more about her? Like, who her biological mother is? Or how the child of a werewolf could end up a wereCOYOTE? I NEED TO KNOW.

When Lydia is instructed to take another right turn, Aiden jokes that he's pretty sure they're lost, since she just took her fourth right turn, which means they have just driven in a circle. Lydia denies it at first, but then suggests that since her car and the GPS system are new, (she had to replace her car in 3A, if you recall), maybe the GPS is just malfunctioning. Aiden just quips, "Well, maybe the GPS would work better if it was actually on." Lydia is like, "The fuck you say?" since she's just been following its instructions this whole time, but when she looks at the screen, sure enough, the GPS isn't on. (For the record, it totally was at first, so I don't know if this is some weird trick, or if we were seeing Lydia's banshee-hallucination, or if it was a continuity thing, or what.)

She starts to freak out a bit that something weird is happening, Aiden asks her if she's okay, but she just starts to hyperventilate and insists that she needs to stop. She starts driving more erratically, taking a sharp turn into a nearby parking lot, and swerving around the various sections as Aiden yells, "Lydia!" in an attempt to bring her back to reality. Is this the first time she's gotten in one of her banshee-related fugue states with someone WITH her? OH SHIT. Aiden realizes she's heading right for a body that's laying right in the middle of an empty parking lot section, and screams at her to stop, which she finally does. They both run out of the car towards the body, but once he can see who it is on the ground, he puts an arm out to keep her from walking any further. The camera zooms in on the body until we can see that it's totally STILES! NOOOOO. As the two gape at him from a few yards away, a fly buzzes around Lydia's head and proceeds to crawl in Aiden's ear. EW! Why are the flies only going for dudes? And werewolf dudes, at that? Also, random note, but the outfit Lydia wears in this episode is one of my favorites of the season, and I need it on my body RIGHT NOW.

Allison wakes up in her bed to the noise of Isaac messing around with some stuff on her dresser. She rubs the sleep from her eyes, and asks him what he's up to over there. Isaac is CLEARLY out of it, and has the dark eye bags that are indicative of manipulation by the nogitsune. He holds out some of the things he found in Allison's bag--smoke grenades, chains, handcuffs, and points out that there are still a ton of weapons in her room. "I thought your new Code was about protecting?" he asks coldly. Uh, because sometimes to protect people you have to hurt bad guys? Come on, now. Allison argues that the majority of their equipment now is non-lethal, but he holds up one of her Chinese ring daggers and points out that it looks pretty lethal to him. And he would know, having been stabbed with them a ton. "Maybe you should keep them," Isaac mutters. "There's still a few of us out there who aren't so non-lethal...like the twins." OH SHIT, THIS IS NOT GOING TO END WELL.

Our girl is finally starting to realize that there is something seriously wrong with Isaac right now, and slowly sits up in bed as she tries to talk him down. "I thought we were going to give them a second chance," she says carefully, but Isaac's already been pissed at the twins since they took Boyd, Erica and Cora and took his memories/tried to kill him, so now that he's got the nogi-fly in him, his anger is hitting nuclear levels. "They don't deserve it," Isaac spits, as he starts to pack up Allison's bag. "Things are different now," Allison insists. "It doesn't have to be like that anymore." Isaac looks furious as he zips up the bag and snits, "I had a feeling you'd say something like that." He turns to walk out the door, so Allison throws off her covers to go and follow him, but she can't, because ISAAC HANDCUFFED HER ANKLES TO THE BED WITH A CHAIN. Damnnnn! Granted, she can probably pick locks, so all it's gonna do is slow her down slightly, but still man, that's nuts.

At the McCall residence, Scott, Deaton, and Aiden are carrying an unconscious Nogitstiles into the living room, where they prop him up on the couch. Lydia and Melissa follow behind them, and Melissa, ever the nurse, worriedly exclaims, "Guys, this is crazy! He needs to be in the HOSPITAL." Scott reminds her of what he did the LAST time he was in the hospital as Deaton checks his stomach wound. Surprisingly, the incision that goes all the way across his upper abdomen is no longer bleeding, and has actually healed over. It looks MUCH better than it should be for a human, which suggests that Stiles is healing at the same rate of a werewolf/kitsune. Scott asks if that's a good thing, but Deaton figures that while it's probably good for Stiles, it's probably not good for them, because the nogitsune in him will probably come back once he's healed enough. They all stare at Stiles' passed-out body anxiously, and man, he looks BAD. He's super pale, and the bags under his eyes are pretty severe. Poor Stiles :(

At the Sheriff's station, Sheriff's phone rings on his desk. The caller ID says it's Melissa, but before Sheriff can answer it, Agent Douchenozzle hits the decline button and sneers, "You've got some priorities to attend to, Sheriff," when Sheriff glares at him for it. Stilinski is like THISCLOSE to just exploding from stress at this point, and angrily retorts, "McCall, trust me when I say you don't have a CLUE about my current priorities." He smugly reminds Sheriff that if he doesn't attend this preliminary hearing, he'll probably lose his job, but I honestly don't think Sheriff gives one tiny fuck about his job anymore (although, it is VERY important that he keep his job, for his children's pack's sake). Sheriff sighs, and grabs his gun and his badge from his desk before heading to the meeting. Blobfish asks him why he's taking his badge, so Sheriff snarks that he figured he should have it on him in case he needs to turn them in. YIKES! Like, seriously now, with all the shit happening, we do NOT need Sheriff job-drama on top of all of it. I love that Sheriff is so supportive of Stiles and Scott that he would rather lose his job then out all of them for the supernatural shenanigans going on in town. He's such a good guy. As he leaves his office for the hearing, Melissa calls his cell again, but yet again, gets no answer.

Aiden, as usual, wants to just kill Stiles to make things easier, and when that is wholeheartedly shot down by everyone else, he's like, "Well, then why aren't we tying him up with huge chains or something?" Deaton suggests that he may have a better idea, and pulls a small, brown vial from his black doctor's bag. Scott seems to recognize it, and gestures to Aiden to help him hold onto Stiles' head so Deaton can drop the liquid into his mouth. They ALMOST make it without incident, but then Nogitstiles wakes up and instantly catches Aiden off-guard by grabbing him in a choke-hold. I'm guessing since he didn't witness the smackdown with him earlier, that Aiden didn't realize puny little Stiles would actually be a physical threat. Nogitstiles chuckles as he continues to choke Aiden, but eventually, his hand goes numb, and he's forced to let go. As he falls back against the couch, he mutters, "Kanima venom. Nice touch." WHERE DOES DEATON GET THIS SHIT. Do they sell kanima venom on the druid black market? Did he milk Jackson's claws before they turned him back into a werewolf? I need to know these things.

Nogitstiles watches as Aiden roars at him in anger, so he decides to poke the bear a little bit. "You know, they say twins get a feeling when the other one's in pain? You didn't lose that talent, too, did you? Ohhhh, I hope not--you're gonna need it." Aiden, Scott, and Deaton look around at each other, confused and not really sure if they should take him seriously, so Nogitstiles adds, "Okay, I'll give a little hint--Ethan's at the school!" Aiden defers to Scott for advice on what to do, and Scott, seeing how worried he seems to be, urges him to go to the school and make sure he's okay. As he runs out the door, Nogitstiles leans back against the couch and starts to laugh maniacally. "Ohhh, I hope he gets there in time! I like the twins! Short tempers, homicidal compulsions...They're a lot more fun than you bakemono trying to save the world every day." 

OH SHIT! Dylan's delivery of all of these lines are flawless, but the addition of the Japanese "bakemono" just makes it hit home even harder that Stiles isn't really in there at all. (For the record, it seems "bakemono" means shapeshifter, so there you go! Japanese lesson of the day.) Melissa isn't really impressed with Nogitstiles' tone, and asks Deaton if he's got anything to paralyze his mouth. As it turns out, he does--a thick piece of black electrical tape, which he uses to tape Nogitstiles' mouth shut. Frustrated, he screams behind the tape, but everyone's too pissed to care at the moment.

The Sheriff's preliminary hearing is about to begin, and he's seated at his own table, facing what I'm assuming is some kind of review board from the FBI or something. The lady in charge greets him, and assures him that this is just a chance for them to talk about his successes and failures in office so far, as Agent Douchenozzle lingers in the corner. In front of the lady is two stacks of files, one very tall, and one very short. You can tell where Stiles gets his nervous sense of humor, because he cracks, "Which pile is which?" The lady just side-eyes him and the stenographer looks extremely awkward and uncomfortable, so Sheriff just kind of sighs and shrugs, like, "Aw, fuck."

In the dining room, Deaton, Scott, and Lydia are having a private confab about what the fuck they're supposed to do to save Stiles.

SCOTT: "How much longer do you think we have?"

DEATON: [shrugs anxiously] "I wish I knew! But, if we don't figure out something soon, we're going to need a better place to keep him. I think we are GROSSLY underestimating the danger here. He might be paralyzed, but it still feels like he's got us right in the palm of his hand!"

Scott looks over in shock and fear at his best friend, who is staring right back at him as he's getting his wound patched up by Melissa. The fact that Deaton is SO anxious and unsure of what to do is extremely unsettling, because even when he's clearly not giving the gang all the information, we can at least tell that he HAS it. Right now, he really just seems like he's just hoping for some miracle idea to appear in order to save them all, and it's pretty terrifying, to be honest.

At the Argent Abode, Chris is just arriving home when Allison calls him to update him on Isaac. She tells him that she believes he went to the school, but she's not sure, and since he had a head start, she's still trying to catch up with him. Chris assures her that he'll meet her there, and gets to make sure his gun is fully loaded before he heads right back out the door. But, as soon as he opens the door, he finds a VERY strung-out looking Derek standing on his doorstep with a bag slung over his shoulder. Chris is surprised to see him, and asks him if something is wrong, but Derek just vaguely tells him that he needs to show him something.

Inside, Derek pours his mother's claws onto Chris' desk. I just need to note for the record that DEREK IS WEARING A THERMAL WITH THUMB-HOLES IN THE SLEEVES. Like, it's such a contrast, the adorableness of his clothes and the absolute creepiness of his next scenes in this episode. Tyler Hoechlin knocked it out of the park, seriously. "Do you know who these belong to?" Derek asks gruffly. Chris shrugs, not really understanding where he's going with this. "These claws are all that is left of my mother, after your psychotic sister burnt her and the rest of my family alive." Every word he says is filled with more and more anger, and man, even though he is absolutely right to still be pissed about this, it is still SO PAINFUL to watch. Derek turns his head slowly to glare at Chris, and Chris, realizing that something is definitely up with Derek, reaches for his gun. Unfortunately, his sudden moves just cause jumpy Derek to punch him in the head and knock him out. YIKES YIKES YIKES. THIS IS A DISASTER.

Back at the McCall house, Melissa is finishing bandaging Stiles' stomach wound when she realizes that Nogistiles is starting to cry. "Stiles?" she asks softly, as she immediately peels the tape off of his mouth, but of course, Nogitstiles was just playing her, and gives her the meanest side-eye EVER. The way Dylan transitioned from tears to condescending glare was AMAZING, like I seriously cannot state enough how amazing he (and the rest of the actors) did in this episode. "Really, Melissa?" Nogitstiles sneers. "I shed one tear, that's all it takes? Come on, you can't crumble that easily. How are you gonna do when Scott knows the truth?" This gets Melissa's attention, and she asks him what the fuck he's talking about. "When he finds out why his dad really left? You know he overheard it, right?" Melissa's shock just gives the nogitsune even more sadistic pleasure, so he can't help but rub it in.

(via teenwolf)
"You had no idea! You called Stilinski right after it happened. You didn't tell Scott, but you told the Sheriff! And Stiles heard it, like he hears everything, but do you want to know why he never told Scott? Because he knew that Scott would never forgive you. He knew how much he would HATE you." Melissa has been seething this entire time, but she still knows deep inside that this isn't actually Stiles, so she tries to appeal to any humanity that might be left behind. "This isn't you," Melissa insists, but Nogitstiles just retorts, "It is now!" Annoyed, Melissa just puts the tape back on his mouth and runs away to think some thinky thoughts about what just happened. Something tells me that the nogitsune is just trying to play on Melissa's guilt or something, because I can honestly not imagine any scenario where Scott would actually legitimately hate Melissa for why ADN left. I mean, what, did she cheat on him? He's still a dick, so it's understandable. Is it possible ADN isn't even his biological dad? I still don't see how that could make Scott permanently mad at her. He forgives EVERYONE in the end. Hell, the twins killed his friend and he still gave them the chance to earn back his trust.

(via teenwolf)
We return to check in on Sheriff Stilinski's hearing, which, as expected, doesn't seem to be going very well. The main lady sighs and rests her hands on the table before asking "Mr. Stilinski" if he has anything else to say on his own behalf about what they discussed during the hearing. Sheriff is restless and antsy as a result of his son being possessed by an ancient, malevolent fox spirit, and has pretty much lost any and all ability to give any fucks about this shit, so yeah, he's got something to say. "As far as I know, it's still SHERIFF, until you relieve me of this position. [beat] And, if you do decide to relieve me of said position, then get to deciding, because this whole hearing crap is a waste of time." The woman just gives him some side eye as he heaves himself out of his chair and heads for the door. Of course, Agent Douchenozzle takes this opportunity to pipe up, "I have a few words of my own," before Sheriff can make a clean getaway. Sheriff's about DONE, now, and is like, "Of-fucking-course he does." Poor guy! He just wants to save his son and solve all these random ass murders, you guys! "Let me be as short and succinct as possible," ADN begins, but we don't get a chance to hear what he has to say, because...

...it's time to return to the current McCall Pack Brain Trust of Scott, Lydia, and Deaton, who are still trying to figure out what the fuck to do with Nogitstiles.

LYDIA: "The scroll said to change his body..."

DEATON: "...that's if I translated it correctly. We're looking for a cure in something that might actually be nothing more than a proverb, or a metaphor."

SCOTT: "And what if he doesn't want it? He's never asked to be a werewolf!"

LYDIA: "What if it saves his life?"

DEATON: "What if it KILLS him?"

SCOTT: "I've never done this before. What if I bite him, and-and accidentally hit an artery or something?"

DEATON: "That venom is not going to last long. Something needs to be done sooner than later."

SCOTT: [reaches for his phone] "We can try calling Derek again..."

LYDIA: "Maybe we should call someone else..."

OH MY GOD, the knowing-look Lydia gives Scott, and the, "Are you fucking kidding me?" face that Scott makes in return when he realizes she's suggesting that they call PETER, is absolutely perfect. As for that scene, I love that Deaton is at a loss for legitimate solutions, and even questioning his own knowledge and skills. Which, let's be real, is probably a good thing when it comes to languages, considering the questionable translation he gave Stiles about his weird sign-language hallucination, and his sister's similarly-questionable translation of the kanima section of the Argent bestiary. I completely agree with both Lydia and Scott regarding turning Stiles--I mean, my pro-werewolf!Stiles leanings are pretty well known on this blog, but while Scott has an excellent point regarding Stiles consenting to being a werewolf, I think I'm ultimately with Lydia on this one--if Stiles is gonna die anyway, why not risk turning him in hopes that it'll save him? I feel like Stiles would choose living as a werewolf over dying and leaving his dad all alone, even if being a werewolf isn't Stiles' dream. I just kind of see it as the same as all those times they waffled over trying to turn Elena into a vampire to save her from all the people after her doppelgänger blood in The Vampire Diaries, you know? She doesn't want to die and leave Jeremy alone, but literally EVERYONE wants to kill her for her blood and they'll never stop trying to do it, so being a vampire is pretty much the logical conclusion, right? Sorry, unpopular opinion, I know.

ANYWAY, so Peter shows up, all smirking and evil and excited to be in on the action. He walks around where Stiles is perched on the couch, electrical tape still over his mouth, and examines him quietly before cracking, "He doesn't look like he would survive a slap across the face, much less the bite of a werewolf!" You can definitely tell he's kind of getting a perverse pleasure from seeing Stiles like this, all strung-out looking, paralyzed, and unable to crack witty rejoinders, because Peter is a huge creep like that. Scott is disappointed to hear that Peter doesn't think the bite would work, but Peter believes it's more a mind-battle than a body-battle w/r/t the nogitsune, and claims that there are better ways to win their war. Deaton, who has made his dislike and distrust of Peter well known over the seasons, can't help but be intrigued by this, so he asks what he's considering. In answer, Peter grabs Scott's wrist and flicks his claws out. "We're going to get into his head," Peter declares proudly. Hilariously, even Nogistiles can't help but make a face, like, "Damn! Plot twist! I'm kind of impressed."

Danny and Ethan must have seriously just had a three-hour-long shower/sex romp, because they're JUST NOW leaving the locker room. Danny asks if their fun-time means that he can tell Coach that Ethan will be trying out for the team, and Ethan, with the tell-tale fly-possession eyebags, claims he'll think about it. "Sounds like a yes to me!" Danny crows, as he takes his leave. Of course, also-fly-possessed Aiden has been waiting in the wings for his twin, and has plenty to say about his bro's integration into high school life. (Even though, if I recall correctly, Aiden was the one who talked ETHAN into coming back to school, and even used Danny to do it, right? Man, I don't understand that guy) Ethan could sense him there the whole time, and asks him what the fuck he wants, so naturally, he's like "Trying out for the team? Really?" Ethan doesn't understand why he shouldn't, so Aiden reminds him of all of the supernatural bullshit that is currently happening, and suggests that maybe lacrosse shouldn't be his current priority.

"Why should I care?" Ethan snits. "Scott's never gonna trust us anyway! You see the way he looks at us? Like dogs that bit the neighbor? One more little incident, and he's either gonna let us go, or put us down." Um, have they ever met Scott "We're here to save a life, not end one" McCall before? Have they not noticed that he basically let them into his pack despite having a hand in two of his former packmates' deaths, AND has been gently teaching them how to play their way? I get that he's all nogitsune-addled right now, but JFC.

Aiden retorts that he's feeling the same way about Ethan, and whips out his claws and fangs to start a throw-down, but that basically just proves Ethan's point. "See? That's what I'm talking about," Ethan sneers, as he circles around his brother. "I'd probably be in his pack by now if it wasn't for my psychotic brother. The one who has to kill everything in sight?" DAMN! I think there are probably some very deep-rooted resentments that stemmed from when they were still able to do the Voltron Wolf-thing that are just now being brought to life. IT'S NUTS. Aiden quips that Ethan is the only one in his sights, and they continue to circle each other before Aiden finally lunges for him. They barely even get to tussle before they get hit with taser charges and fall to the ground. OH SHIT, it's ISAAC! With one of the Argent's super-powered stun guns! He slings the gun over his shoulder, and cracks, "I guess this is the part where I say something witty." Isaac walks over to the twins and knocks him out with the butt of the gun, and adds, "I'm not witty," before doing the same to the other. ISAAC, why are you so fucking hilarious?

Back at the McCall house, Peter and Lydia are talking privately in another room. Lydia seems a little aggravated, which is understandable, and she states, "I'll do it. I said I would! But, only if you help." She looks to make sure no one is paying attention to them, and adds in a whisper, "And ONLY if Scott doesn't know about it." Why wouldn't Lydia want Scott to know about it? I mean, for those who have seen this episode already, you already know what it's about, and it's really not that big of a deal. I'll get into this more later. Lydia stomps away to go rejoin Scott and Deaton, with Peter following behind her. Deaton asks if they all have a plan, so Peter gets into the deets. "Scott is going to try to dig through Pale-and-Sickly-Evil-Stiles' mind, to unearth Pale-and-Sickly-Real-Stiles. Then, guide him back through the depths of his own subconscious!" Peter is seriously so smug and proud of this little plan of his, and saves the most dramatic bit for last. "But, he's not going to do it alone." Scott's like, "The fuck you say?" So, Peter informs him that he'll be taking Lydia with him. I feel like this was definitely a good idea, but why specifically was Lydia chosen? Because she's a banshee? Because she's his emotional tether? Because he's in love with her? All of those seem like legit reasons.

Isaac has dragged the passed-out twins back into the locker room, and is now manically searching through Coach Finstock's desk. "Come on Coach, you gotta have a lighter," he rants, as he finally finds one in one of the drawers. "I'm gonna burn them. For Erica, for Boyd!" WELP, THERE GOES MY HEART. So long, dear friends, this is the end for me. He pulls out a bottle of whiskey, which I'm just gonna go ahead and believe that he stole from Chris' liquor cabinet until proven otherwise, because that's hilarious to me, and quickly lights the handkerchief he stuffed inside to turn it into a Molotov cocktail. OH SHIT, was that the nogitsune's idea? I can't see Isaac coming up with that on his own. He continues to ramble about how he's going to burn them, but as soon as he steps over the threshold into the locker room, Kira appears with her katana and cuts the flaming handkerchief off of the bottle. WOOT! Isaac compliments her on the sword and drops the bottle onto the ground, which shatters, as slowly begins to corner her. Thankfully, Allison shows up behind Isaac and fully she whacks him upside the head with her crossbow, which knocks him to the floor. YAYYYY!

Seriously, I am so fucking happy that Allison called Kira for backup! Two badass warrior queens, trying to protect their friends. Unfortunately for them, the physical assault causes Isaac to fully wolf out, and the twins have finally regained consciousness, too, so there are three growling werewolves descending upon our ladies. Allison tries to talk some sense into her boyfriend, but his mind isn't really receptive to reason right now. At a lack of better options, Allison and Kira back into Coach's office and shove his desk in front of the door to at least buy them some time. Kira asks if this was a good idea, but Allison figures it probably wasn't. Isaac realizes that the twins are awake, and his attention is immediately redirected to killing the twins. Of course, faced with a new threat, the twins forget about their own fight and become distracted with killing Isaac. Wonderful! "They're not going to kill each other, are they?" Kira asks, as the twins throw Isaac into the door, which causes his back and shoulders to break the glass out of the windows. "I think they're going to try," Allison admits anxiously.

McCall House. Peter is guiding Scott's clawed hands to the correct positions on Stiles and Lydia's neck, and it seems that Scott is going to be the connection between Lydia and Nogistiles. Scott asks him what the fuck they're supposed to do if they find Stiles, but Peter just shrugs and is like, "Guide him out, probably? Hell if I fucking know." Super helpful, dude. Lydia agrees, and mentions the lack of confidence she currently has in this plan, so Peter suggests they figure out a way to give him control back over his mind and body. Scott wonders if this isn't just another trick, and Peter is hilariously, all, "When are you people gonna start trusting me?" Scott gestures to Stiles and clarifies, "I meant him," which is just awkward.

Deaton reminds him that they're running out of time, both because of the kanima venom wearing off, AND the fact that it's nearing sundown, which means the oni are gonna be a problem again. Scott takes a couple deep, steadying breaths and lets the wolf out before jamming his claws into his friends' necks. We can see Scott and Lydia getting sucked into Stiles' mind, and when they finally open their eyes again, they realize that the two of them are strapped to beds in what looks just like Eichen House' rooms. Oh shit, the return of the five-point restraint system! On a random note, I wonder if Melissa ever gets like, overwhelmed by all of the magical shit that keeps going down right in front of her.

The next scene is amazing in the way that the actors in it are PERFECT but it's SO HARD TO WATCH because the acting is so good and it hurts. Derek opens up his bag and pulls out a bottle of lighter fluid, and proceeds to squirt it all over Chris, who has been bound to his desk chair in his study. "Okay, listen," Chris sputters, as lighter fluid is dumped all over his head. "Listen to me! Whatever's gotten into your head, this isn't the way to deal with it!" Derek totally disagrees, though, and replies, "You burn my family, I burn yours!" He finishes pouring the contents of the bottle on Chris' jeans and tosses the bottle aside before pulling out a Zippo lighter and lighting it right in front of Chris' face. "In fact, I'll burn the whole building down around you," Derek adds with a creepy, creepy, strung-out smile. Seriously, he looks like he's stoned, although a stoned person would never have the desire to set someone on fire right in front of them.

Chris blows out the lighter, so Derek angrily grabs him by the face and squeezes as he growls at him. YIKES! After finally quieting him, Derek lets go of him, and Chris tries to appeal to his better judgment. "That was Kate," Chris reminds him. "And you know I had nothing to do with that." Derek lights the lighter again and stares at it in a daze, so Chris adds, "I'm not your enemy, Derek. Not anymore." See what I mean? THIS IS SO GOOD BUT IT IS SO BAD. Derek points out that yeah, he is his enemy, and Allison is, too. NO NO NO NO NO. "Which is why," Derek says with a chuckle. "I'm not going to light this yet. I'm not! We're going to wait until she gets home, and we're gonna let her watch." YIKES YIKES YIKES. Derek bb! Everything is terrible and also Tyler Hoechlin's acting is fucking amazing in this scene. Seriously, I am in awe. Chris starts to panic and fight against his binds, and when he can't, he literally screams in frustration.

Sheriff and Agent Douchenozzle walk into Sheriff's office, where Sheriff shuts the door behind them in a daze. "You just saved my job," Sheriff admits incredulously. Blobfish, who can't not be a dick, is just like, "Yeah, probz." Understandably, Sheriff is curious as to why he'd do such a thing, considering he's seemed to have a personal vendetta against him ever since he got here. ADN sighs and makes his confession. "Two reasons. One, I don't think Sherlock Holmes could figure out half the bizarre crap happening in this town. This place is literally the Bermuda Triangle of homicides, disappearances, and strange occurrences." Bahahahaha! Sheriff's all, "True facts, dude," as he re-pins his badge to his uniform.

Then, ADN admits why he's really here--to talk to Scott. Basically, this whole witch-hunt to impeach Sheriff Stilinski was all just a ruse to give ADN an excuse to actually spend time with his kid? Which, honestly, is the stupidest thing I've ever heard, and ADN is the stupidest person to ever live on this show. Instead of getting pissed at him for almost costing him his job and possibly permanently tarnishing his reputation, Sheriff just kindly tells him that since he did him "a huge favor today" (which, no, he didn't, because it was a result of HIS OWN ACTIONS ANYWAY), so he wants to repay him by advising him to have a sit-down with Scott and tell him everything about all the secrets that Nogitstiles was alluding to earlier. Sheriff is such a stand-up guy. I'd be way pissed at him if he pulled that shit with me, even if I did have bigger fish to fry.

Back in Stiles' subconscious, Scott and Lydia are still bound to their beds, and trying their best to break through their restraints, to no avail. Scott looks over at Lydia helplessly, who deadpans, "Do I actually need to remind you that you're a werewolf?" Scott reminds her that they're in Stiles' brain, so he automatically assumes that metaphysical rules of his mind are a little different than in reality. "You're a supernatural creature with supernatural strength!" she shrieks in frustration. "Break free!" Yay, Lydia! This is not the last of her pep talks, either. Scott's like, "Okay, I got this," and after some struggling, he finally manages to bust through the leather straps, and practically laughs from relief. Then, he gets up and releases Lydia from her bed, as well, as they brush themselves off and try to figure out what to do next. Lydia's at a loss for ideas. "This is my first time in someone else's head," she chirps. Yeah, as opposed to having HER mind invaded, to which she is much more accustomed. Scott instructs her to stay behind him as he heads for the door, but as soon as he crosses the threshold, the door slams shut and locks behind him, splitting them up. NOOOO!

(via lydiasgotstiles)
Lydia pounds on the door and screams out for Scott, but she's stuck. She turns around and is shocked to find that the room has completely changed. Instead of a white painted bedroom with two white beds, it's a whited-tiled hallway. As Lydia walks away from the door, she notices a red balloon falling from the ceiling. She looks toward the ceiling, where a mess of blue and red balloons fall on her and around her, and when they finally stop, she's in what looks like the hallway at school, all decked out in streamers. The floor is covered in balloons, but what is most telling is what Lydia is wearing--no longer is she wearing that lovely peach and pink floral dress, but instead, the silver and black dress she wore in the season 1 episode "Formality," where Lydia was attacked on the lacrosse field by Peter.

It appears that the nogitsune is forcing her to relive her most terrifying memory. Her dress is ripped and bloody, her hair is disheveled, and She Wants Revenge's "Not Just A Girl" plays as she looks around in confusion. Her brain must not have realized right away that she's in a flashback, because she instinctively calls out for Jackson, since that's who she was looking for when she was attacked at the dance. She stops dead in her tracks when she hears a screechy noise, and looks through one of the classroom doors to find the bandaged version of the nogitstune scrawling the "己" kanji onto the chalkboard. When he sees her, she gasps in fear, because I'm not sure she's actually ever seen this version of the nogitsune before. Yikes!

Meanwhile, Scott was transported to a different memory entirely. Instead of reliving the dance, which is an obviously traumatic event for Lydia, Scott is stuck in some kind of alternate-reality version of the closet scene from season 3A's "Currents." In that episode, they didn't get the opportunity to kiss, because they were too distracted with darach and Alpha Pack-related nonsense, but in THIS version, they are just sucking all kinds of face. Scott gets confused after a moment, and starts to pull away, but before he can say anything, Allison shushes him. As she kisses his neck, Scott says he thought he heard something, but she continues to shrug it off. "It's okay! You're with me! Everything's fine, we just have to be quiet. Really quiet!" Allison says with a bright smile, and immediately starts to kiss him again.

The bandaged-nogitsune is now stalking Lydia down the hallway, and slams one locker shut after another as he follows her just to intimidate her. As he growls at her, Lydia starts to panic, and squeezes her eyes shut as she tries to get away from him. In the real world, Melissa notices that Lydia's nose is starting to bleed, but she's stopped by Deaton when she rushes to check on her. Her inner nurse VERY concerned by this bloody nose, considering she has alpha claws sticking in her spinal column and as far as we know, she doesn't have the ability to heal like werewolves do.

Instead, Peter kneels down in front of her and cups her face in his hands as he tries to get through to her. "Lydia? Lydia, can you hear me?" Peter says loudly, as Melissa demands to know what's going on with her. "Lydia, you are stronger than this! Okay? You need to concentrate! Lydia! LYDIAAAAAAAAA!" Under normal circumstances, I might find this touching, but 1) Pydia is one of like, only two ships on this show where I am automatically like NOPE NOPE NOPE. And I ship everyone with EVERYONE, you guys. I only ship Peter with death, sry2say. And 2) We all know that Peter just doesn't want Lydia to be hurt because he needs the information she has for him. UGH, PETER. Anyway, as sleezy as Peter is, his yelling makes it to her, and she covers her ears with her hands in an effort to drown it out. The nogitsune seems to realize that she's starting to see through his illusions, and continues to chase her, but Lydia just runs down the hallway towards the entrance to the school.

In Allison's closet, Scott and Allison are continuing to get their mack on, but Scott is still confused and a little suspicious about this, so he asks her why they're in her closet. She claims that they're hiding, and keeps kissing him, but Scott's like, "Hiding from who? Your dad?" When she insists that he doesn't need to worry about it, Scott really gets to thinking about his current situation, and starts to realize that things are totally off. He tells her he thought her dad already knew they were together, but she just shushes him again, and replies, "Shhh, it's okay, don't worry!"

It says a LOT about how much I love Scott/Kira and Allison/Isaac that this entire scene just felt kind of wrong to me, you know? Like, I love Scott/Allison and I've always assumed they'd be endgame, but at the same time, it also feels like their love has matured, like they genuinely care about each other and love each other, but aren't necessarily IN love with each other? And it seems like Scott feels the same way, because he starts to realize that, hello, they're not together anymore, and also, Allison is never usually this pushy. So, when she starts to kiss him again, he spins them around and pulls away. "Allison, we're not together," Scott states, but Allison just plays dumb, all, "What are you talking about?" Scott says that this is all wrong, and determines that it's a trick. Just then, Scott hears Peter's voice yell, "LYDIAAAAAA!" which makes fake!Allison start to panic. Scott notices that his nose is bleeding, too, and fake!Allison bellows, "NOOOOO!"

The scene cuts back and forth between Scott backing out of the closet door, and Lydia pushing her way through the school's double doors, and they both end up in the white room that Stiles, Allison, and Scott went to when they were sacrificed in that ritual! It's nice that Lydia gets to visit, too, I guess. Scott finally finds Lydia and runs over to her, and when they look in the other direction, they see that, just like when the Golden Trio was here the first time, the Nemeton's stump is in the room! And sitting upon it are the bandaged-nogitsune and real!Stiles, who are playing a game of Go. You know, as one does, when they're stuck in some kind of collective unconscious or something. HOLY SHIT! That is actually really cool, like, what if the game is about who gets control over Stiles' body/mind? And if that's the case, that's really unfair, because I'm pretty sure Stiles probably isn't close to being as good at Go as an ancient Japanese fox spirit, you know? He's super smart, but I feel like cleverness alone isn't gonna give him the advantage. ALSO, I would be remiss if I didn't point out that Subconscious!Stiles is wearing the same clothes he was wearing in "Lunar Ellipse" when he wrecked into that tree and passed out for god knows how long, SO, I'm taking that as confirmation that the nogitsune has been chilling in Stiles' head with varying levels of control over him since then.

Back at the high school, Kira and Allison have finally prepared themselves enough to go in there and take on the werewolf boys before they can kill each other. "Remember," Allison says before they go in, her mini-crossbow in hand. "Try not to kill them." Kira's like, "I was just gonna try to stay alive?" so Allison just shrugs, because that's really all they can do. Allison flings herself into the locker room first, her bow already aimed, and Kira kicks her way in through the other door, slashing her katana around like a pro. I just want them to be this badass female superhero duo, you know? Ally A & Kira Y Take on the World, the Teen Wolf spinoff. Wouldn't it be perfect?

(via teenwolf)
We return to the white room to find Stiles and the nogitsune silently playing Go atop the Nemeton. I have no idea how to play Go, and I'm terrible at pretty much all strategy games, especially those that are metaphors for war or whatever, like Go, so I couldn't tell you who is winning. What I can tell you is that Lydia and Scott immediately start to run towards them, but no matter how hard and fast they run, they don't get any closer to them. Do you ever have those dreams where you're desperately trying to run as fast as you can, but it's like the electrochemical nerve impulses aren't reaching your legs and it feels like you're running through wet concrete? That's kind of how I imagine this is going down for them.

The girls are kicking some SERIOUS ass against Ethan, Aiden, and Isaac, you guys. Like, as I watch Kira fight them with her sword, I get major Braedon vibes from "Tattoo," when she took on the Alpha Pack. Kira's jumping around and slashing the twins with her sword and it is seriously amazing. Also, she looks super cute in her black burglar beanie, leather jacket and leopard print leggings with her Doc Martens. Allison is on the other side of the locker room, where she shoots Isaac in the chest with one of her mini-darts from her crossbow, but Isaac just continues to corner her as he pulls the dart out and throws it aside. Panicking, Allison kicks Isaac in the chest to buy her some time, and Kira does the same to Ethan. Unfortunately, Aiden comes out of nowhere and growls at Allison, who is struggling to restring her crossbow.

Kira notices Allison's alarm and tosses her katana to her, so Allison swaps weapons with her and demonstrates some similarly badass skills with that katana. Does it have magic in it so that whoever is wielding it automatically has samurai skills? Or was Allison just also taught to sword fight during her extensive hunter training? I mean, Gerard's weapon of choice was a fucking broadsword, so I guess the latter theory isn't too unlikely. Kira manages to restring the crossbow, and joins her new BFF where she stands in front of the three werewolves. Wait, does being a kitsune give you natural proficiency with weapons? Or is it just the general intelligence that comes from being a trickster that makes kitsunes quick studies in everything? Either way, YIKES! This is stressful as fuck, you guys.

(via teenwolf)
Back at the Argent Abode, Derek is getting more manic by the second, and is pacing around in front of the window in Chris' study as he rants. "Why shouldn't I kill you?" he rambles, as he anxiously rubs his hair with his hands. "How many of us have you murdered? You are not my ally! You're not my ally, you're a hunter!" He's hyperventilating by this point, and continues to rub his head, as if some part of him KNOWS that he doesn't want to do this, but he can't push through it. "You're right, I am a hunter," Chris admits calmly, still bound in his chair. "Trained before I could even speak, and trained others. [beat] Do you know what the first lesson we teach is? We take our children, and we bind them in a chair just like this, and we wait for them to get out. Most of them, it takes hours. Others? Seconds." 

He screams as he throws himself backwards as he flexes his arms as strong as he can, which breaks the chair enough that he can get out of his restraints. Derek immediately goes into wolf-mode, but Chris has already kicked the chair out from under him and grabbed a handgun that was hidden under his desktop, so when Derek goes to grab him, Chris is able to aim the barrel of the gun under his chin. YIKES! YIIIIKES! Derek growls in his face, but Chris tries to remain calm. "I don't want to kill you, Derek," Chris exclaims sadly. "Don't make me kill you. Please!" SO MANY CHRIS x DEREK FEELINGS, I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO DO. Also, remember that time Chris kidnapped Allison and strapped her into a chair and made her use an arrow to break out and it took her like, two and a half hours? I often forget just how nuts Chris used to be, hahaha. Without Victoria's influence, he's chilled out a LOT. It makes me wonder what she'd be like, had she decided to live as a werewolf. Would she have learned to follow Allison's example, too?

We return to Stiles' subconscious version of the white room, where Lydia and Scott are still trying their hardest to reach Stiles, but they still can't come any closer than like, several dozen yards away from him. They stop to catch their breath and stare at him while they try to figure out what to do. Finally, Lydia gets a brilliant idea. "Stiles is part of your pack!" Naturally, Scott is extremely confused as to where she's going with this, so she elaborates--Stiles might be human, but he's been with werewolf!Scott since the very beginning, helped him gain control over his wolf, helped give him an anchor to his humanity, and is probably part of the reason (along with Allison, and to a degree, Lydia) that Scott became a true alpha in the first place. So, ergo, Stiles is pack. Scott's like, "Oh, duh! Yeah, of course he is." Lydia asks him how wolves signal their position to the other members of the pack, though she already knows the answer, and finally, Scott realizes the point of this conversation.

She gives him an encouraging smile, and the nogitsune, who must have been eavesdropping, starts to look a little panicky. Scott lets his wolf out and replies, "We HOWL!" right before doing just that. His howl reverberates through the entire white room, shaking the stones on the Go board, and right through Stiles' ears into the part of his soul that is connected to Scott. Stiles turns his head and FINALLY sees his best friend #1/brother/alpha and his best friend number #2/emotional tether/future girlfriend and wife standing there, ready to save him. It's almost like he had forgotten about his outside life, and hearing that howl reminded himself of everything about him. The nogitsune growls menacingly at him, so he nervously returns his focus to the Go board. After a moment, he gulps anxiously, and fully uses his arms to swipe all the Go stones off of the board! YAYYYYY STILES YOU TELL HIM!

(via teenwolf)
The nogitsune roars in Stiles' face, which causes Ethan, Aiden, and Isaac to pass out onto the floor of the locker room. When we get a close up of their bodies laying on the floor, we can see there's werewolf ink coming out of their noses and mouths, which definitely freaks Kira and Allison out. Good news is, the possessed wolfies don't seem to be hurt/dead, and Kira and Allison made it out without any obvious injuries, so I'd call that a win! Across town, Chris still has his gun aimed at Derek's chin, but once he notices the werewolf ink dripping out of Derek's mouth and nose and onto his fingers, he begins to get alarmed. Then, Derek just passes the fuck out on his floor. YAY! Chris didn't have to kill Derek either!

Scott finally "wakes up," or returns to this world, or whatever, and immediately retracts his claws from his friends' spines. Lydia gasps as she opens her eyes, and Nogistiles promptly passes out shortly after. "Scott runs around to the front of the couch as he asks Peter and Deaton if it worked. Lydia grabs at the back of her neck, and when no one answers the question, she asks why it didn't work. Peter is pretty unsympathetic about their plight, and just snits, "Because it's not science, Lydia, it's supernatural." He pulls Lydia to the side and whispers, "Now, I did my part. Give me the name." Unfortunately, he didn't say it quietly enough, because Scott heard EVERYTHING and immediately demands to know what they're talking about, thinking it has something to do with their current crisis.

Peter just ignores him, though, and pulls her into the next room so he can add, "A deal is a deal, even with ME." Lydia just gives him this look like, "God fucking damnit, dude," as she rubs at the back of her neck. Her nose still seems to be bleeding, too, which is worrying me. Finally, Lydia leans over to Peter and whispers, "Malia," in Peter's ear. OKAY, SO--why wouldn't she want Scott to know about Peter and Malia's connection? Again, I don't really think it's something he'd hold against Malia, considering how often they work with Peter despite everything. Maybe she thinks he'd be mad because she went over there for help about her banshee situation? Either way, I don't get it, but there's more gross/exciting stuff happening, so I need to stop this tangent and move on.

SO, once Lydia gives Peter the name, (Nogit?)Stiles immediately wakes up, and frantically rips the tape off of his mouth before proceeding to pull out and puke up what seems like literally a hundred feet or so of bandages and what looks like black smoke. Like, it seriously looks like Stiles is puking them up, his eyes are all watery and he's majorly sputtering. Excellent and horrifying acting, Dylan! Bonus fact--I read in an interview with Dylan O'Brien where he said he has a really bad gag reflex and that filming this scene actually caused him to legitimately puke at least once, which made me feel really bad for him. Especially considering in another interview I read, he talked about having a horrible fear of drowning, and then he had to try to keep himself and Tyler Hoechlin afloat in a swimming pool when they filmed the Stiles and Derek pool scene in season 2's "Abomination." So, basically, it sounds like JD loves torturing Dylan on set, which isn't really that surprising to me, tbh.

ANYWAY, the entire gang is just watching in legitimate horror and revulsion as Stiles pukes up an entire hospital's supply of gauze bandages, and I'm especially concerned by Deaton and Peter's disgusted face, because that means that they've never seen anything like this before, and those dudes have seen a TON over the course of their lives. Once Stiles finishes throwing up, he dry-heaves a couple times as he backs away from the pile of bandages, and that's when shit gets REALLY freaky--a figure starts to emerge from the pile, starting with the head, and then the neck, shoulder, and arms. The figure uses it's arms to pull the rest of itself out of the floorboards, which causes everyone to back away from it as far as they can, and once it's fully out, we can see that it's actually the bandaged form of the nogitsune! HOLY SHIT! I didn't think the gang could look more horrified than they were before, but, man, are they! Melissa in particular looks as though she literally cannot believe what she's currently seeing.

The bandaged body holds its hands out in front of his face and notices the bandages, and tries really hard to pull them off before deciding to just lunge at all the bystanders. Deaton shields Melissa and Lydia from him, and Scott and Peter tackle him and pin him to the couch. Peter yells at Scott to hold him down, but Scott notices that it's trying to paw at its face, so he stops what he's doing so he can pull off the bandages over the guy's face. GUESS WHO IS UNDERNEATH? Not the nogitsune, but STILES! Real Stiles! HOW THE FUCK DOES THAT WORK? Everyone is so happy to see him, and Stiles is so happy to see Scott, that they don't realize that the nogitsune (still in Stiles' form) has taken off, with everyone's favorite redheaded banshee in tow. NOOOO! Scott runs after them in hopes of finding her, leaving Stiles to sit on the couch and feel terrible about literally everything. NOOOOOOOO.

(via garfinski)
Next episode: The pack works together to find Lydia and has another showdown with the oni. Meanwhile, your recapper loses her goddamn mind at the ramifications. Seriously. Expect me to cry through the entire thing.

Click HERE to read my next recap of Teen Wolf!

[screencaps via KissThemGoodbye]

NOTES/QUESTIONS/SPECULATION:
-One of my favorite parts of this episode were the interactions between Chris and Allison. Ever since Victoria died, and especially since Allison changed the Code, he has been more and more outwardly proud of the daughter, hunter, and leader Allison is beginning to be, and it's done wonders for their relationship and for themselves as individuals. I think he's especially proud, because ever since he made her the leader, he actually LISTENS to her advice as an equal, and ultimately, it makes him a better person/hunter for it, too. So many feelings!

-How impressive is it that Tyler Hoechlin, whose genuinely kind and sweet personality is only rivaled by the pure sunshine that is Tyler Posey, could so impressively portray Derek, and especially this dark!Derek? I could talk about how amazing he was all day. Hoechlin may not be the most talented actor on the show, but I think he is ridiculously underrated, especially considering how different he is from his character.

-How hot was Chris when he broke through that chair? And also, why does he have a gun stashed under his desk? I want to know all of his weapon hiding spots. You know there have to be a lot of them. I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't some kind of secret hidden room behind a bookshelf or something that is full of weapons.

-I can't believe I didn't say more about it when it happened, but SCOTT'S HOWL BROUGHT STILES BACK. STILES IS PACK. ALSO SCOTT'S HOWL BROUGHT BACK DEREK, ISAAC, ETHAN AND AIDEN FROM THEIR FLY-POSSESSION. I AM CRYING/DYING. My McCall Pack feels > everything else

-Are we ever going to learn how the fuck someone with a werewolf father ended up turning into a werecoyote? Is her mom one? Or is her mom something else that is magical that could have ended up having weird side-effects? Or maybe her mom was human and Malia was born human and then bitten when she was young? I just really can't wait to learn more about her, I neeeeeeeed information about her ASAP.

-HOW DID THE NOGITSUNE SPLIT HIMSELF INTO TWO PEOPLE??? Like, it appears to be that part of the nogitsune's abilities is to shapeshift into whoever they want? (In fact, it may even be a general kitsune skill, if the theories that Noshiko used her kitsune abilities to make herself look older to be able to pass for a mother's age are true) so it's not so much that they're split into two people, as it is that he had fed on enough chaos, strife and pain to be strong enough to make himself look just like Stiles. And I mean, it IS pretty brilliant, because anything he does can still be blamed on Stiles from a legal point of view, and maybe the oni could even hurt/kill the real Stiles on accident, thinking he was the nogitsune! So yeah, it's a very smart plan, but still bad news bears.