Teen Wolf Season 4, Episode 3: "Muted" Recap/Review
HOLY. SHIT. When Kathleen and I were talking about the promo, and were wondering what Sean and his family were going to be, and she mentioned she saw speculation that they would be cannibals, so I was like, "OH I BET THEY'RE WENDIGOS," because I've watched way too much Supernatural. I wasn't exactly serious, but then, lo and behold, they totally were, and now I'm kind of dying laughing because Jeff Davis said we'd be getting back to human problems this season and away from supernatural drama, and yet, we've already been introduced to at least, like, four different varieties of new supernatural creatures: a nagual, a pair of berserkers, a family of wendigos, and that weird mouthless guy who I still do not understand yet. So, needless to say, we have PLENTY to keep us busy in this episode: the introduction of the new lacrosse babies Liam and Garrett, some serious chemistry and detective work with Lydia and Deputy Parrish, and so many A+ Skittles moments that I can't even count them. That isn't even going into the fact that SCOTT TOTALLY BIT SOMEBODY WHICH NO ONE EVER THOUGHT HE'D ACTUALLY DO AND HE DID IT TO SAVE SOME PUNK ASS KID'S LIFE AND NOW I AM DEAD.
...Ahem. I guess I should probably just start from the beginning, yeah? Let's talk about "Muted!"
Previously, on Teen Wolf: Scott got bitten by and turned into a werewolf, after which Stiles forbade him from using his wolf-abilities in lacrosse, because 1) that's how people, including hunters, figure out you're a werewolf, and 2) because it's totally cheating. Then, Scott started practicing hard and made captain of the lacrosse team. Stiles and Malia made out in the basement of Eichen House, which was Malia's first kiss, since she had spent the previous eight-ish years as a wild coyote. Lydia reminded Kira that she's a badass, katana-wielding kitsune who has Scott totally smitten, so much so that he kissed her the night she stayed over at his house when they were trying to catch Nogitstiles. Kate magically de-aged Derek to when he was a teenager, more specifically, to the place in his memories after he met her, but before she betrayed him by killing his entire family in the Hale fire. He managed to finally turn back to adult!Derek somehow, but part of him changed in the process-- his wolf eyes became gold, instead of their former blue. Kate convinced teenage!Derek to get into the Hale family vault for the triskelion coin, which she mistakenly believed would help her finally gain control over her werejaguar transformations, but someone took advantage of the open vault door and stole all of the inheritance money left for Derek, Peter (and Cora?), an astounding $117 million dollars in bearer bonds. Peter then realized that the robbery was actually a heist, something that someone had been planning for quite a while, which is (sort of) where we pick up today!
This week's scary cold open begins with a large, gorgeous house, presumably somewhere in Beacon Hills. It's pretty late at night, and a young, blonde teenage boy walks out onto the porch and down the front steps, looking a little tense, as he calls out for "Willow," who, we'll learn in a moment, is his pet cat. The boy (whose name is Sean Walcott) looks around his neighborhood for a moment, not seeing any sign of her, so after calling out for her one more time, he decides to head back inside his house. He walks into the foyer and locks the door while he yells upstairs, "Mom! I can't find her!" The house is silent while he wanders around the downstairs, turning off various lights, before he finally heads toward the steps. It isn't until he shouts upstairs a second time and gets no response again that he visibly becomes concerned about his alarmingly quiet house.
Sean eventually heads for the stairs, when he freezes at the bottom step, his finger hovering over the light switch on the wall, as though he senses something bad is afoot. He takes one last look around the room, listening for any sound that could indicate trouble, before finally calling out to his parents, wherever they might be, that he's going to bed. Sean still gets no response, but he flips off the light and slowly makes his way upstairs anyway, apparently assuming his parents have already gone to sleep. As he walks down the hall, there's this weird white noise in the background, kind of like the general buzzing of electricity, wind, nature sounds, and the noises old houses make as they settle, but louder, as if someone had turned up the volume. Sean still hasn't shaken off the feeling that something is up, but he can't find any evidence to the contrary, so he finally just sighs and enters his room, slamming the door shut behind him. He immediately strips off his shirt, throws it on the floor in typical teenager fashion, and flings himself upon his bed, ready to settle in for the night.
He's just about turn his bedside lamp off when he notices several dark reddish-brown stains on his light carpet, and instantly gets freaked out. Sucking in a breath, he leans over the edge of the bed and slowly peers underneath, clearly scared about what he's going to find. Fortunately for him, it's just Willow the cat! Sean breathes a sigh of relief and whispers a hello to his kitty, and asks her what she's doing under his bed. He grabs the lamp to hold it near the floor so he can get a better look at her, and is completely startled when he realizes that she is COVERED IN BLOOD. And, judging by her calm, almost aloof demeanor, it's clearly not her own blood, so where did it come from? Sean is so freaked out that he literally falls out of bed, and before he can even get onto his feet, he hears horrified, agonized screams coming from elsewhere in the house. It mainly sounds like a woman's voice, along with smashing glass and a bunch of loud thunks.
Sean is understandably terrified, but when he starts to hear more crashing and the shouts of several males who are quite obviously in pain, he steels himself and bursts out of his room and into the hallway. However, the second he opens his bedroom door, the noises stop instantly, and the house returns to the eerie silence from before. The hall is empty, which confuses Sean, until a large, bulky, visibly-strong man, wearing head-to-toe black combat gear, steps into Sean's line of sight from the room across the hall, with what looks like an axe in his right hand. Sean notices the blood soaking the blade of the axe and dripping onto the floor and wisely retreats back into his room. No sooner has he locked the door behind him that the axe the man was holding is thrown into the wood, the blade only just missing Sean's head by inches. From there, Sean rushes into his bathroom and locks that door behind him as well, only stopping to frantically rifle through the various drawers and cabinets for something he can use as a weapon.
Suddenly, Sean hears a slamming noise that sounds like a door being splintered into firewood by an axe, and becomes so overwhelmed by fear and anger that he practically starts hyperventilating. He keeps his attention on the door in front of him while he listens to the loud footsteps making their way toward the bathroom door. Our axe-murderer gently twists the doorknob before realizing that it's locked. The man (whose name isn't mentioned in the episode, but who is apparently known as "the Mute") uses a gloved hand to type on a keyboard strapped to his arm. Readers who are also in the TW Tumblr fandom-- were any of you involved in the "Who is the Benefactor?" game before the trailer was released? Because this keyboard was part of one of the clues, which leads me to believe that the Mute is likely working for the elusive Benefactor. I'll get into more of this later. ANYWAY, the keyboard seems to be linked to an electronic voice program, and the monotone voice speaks to Sean through the door.
"Hello, Sean," he begins, as Sean clenches his hands into fists inside the bathroom. "I just killed your family. Do you want to die like them? Begging for your life? Or, do you want to fight?" Sean is becoming more and more furious, as you can imagine, and it's obvious that he's torn between beating the fuck out of this guy and getting the hell out of dodge. "I'll give you some help," the Mute's lifeless electronic voice continues. "Wrap a towel around your fist. Smash the mirror. Use one of the shards to defend yourself. Go ahead. I'm waiting." Sean considers his options for a moment as he stares at himself in the mirror, and ultimately decides to grab a towel and wrap it around his fist, just like the Mute said.
Outside the bathroom, the Mute types, "Are you ready, Sean? Because here I come." He waits until he hears smashing glass inside the bathroom before he kicks the door down, ready to fight. However, he's about to be super disappointed, because once he gets into the room, it's completely empty. Instead of smashing the mirror, like he was instructed, he smashed the bathroom window and hopped out of it; the Mute just stood in front of the window and watched as Sean sprinted down the street, barefoot, shirtless, and covered in blood. Then, we finally get to see our axe murderer-- he is completely bald, with no hair, eyebrows, or eyelashes, and he has NO MOUTH-- just a smooth patch of skin where his mouth and oropharynx should be. Guess we know why he's called the Mute now, eh? TITLE CARD.
When we come back, we're at the loft, where Braedon sits down in a chair across from where Derek and Peter are sitting on a couch, and sets her feet on the coffee table. "That table's Italian," Peter snits, but Braedon just quips, "So are these boots!" as she gestures to her feet. They really are fabulous boots, too. As for the table, knowing Derek, it's probably IKEA, so I don't really know what Peter's talking about. (No offense to IKEA--I love IKEA furniture. I'm just saying antique Italian furniture that table is not.) Derek just laughs, because nobody likes Peter or cares about what he has to say. Braedon asks them if they want to continue to talk about fashion, or if they're actually going to talk about money, which is why she came here today. Peter sighs and looks over at Derek for back-up, but he's too busy staring at his reflection in a pair of aviator sunglasses (which, as much as I hate to say it, look suspiciously similar to the sunglasses Deucalion always wore when he was still blind.)
(via teen-wolf)
Peter scribbles down a number on a piece of paper and slides it over to her, but as soon as she sees it, she just side-eyes him, scratches out his number, and scribbles her own onto it before sliding it back. "We're hiring you to find Kate, not assassinate the President," Peter states after he reads her price, but Braedon makes an excellent point-- "I was hired by the Calaveras to find Kate. You're hiring me to find her first. Going AGAINST the Calaveras is what's gonna cost you." Considering the psychological and physical torture Araya and Severo put Derek, Peter, Scott, Lydia and Kira through solely in their effort to HELP them by pushing them to realize that Kate was alive, I can completely understand why Braedon would be insisting on a huge financial incentive to go against them. Though, on the other hand, it kind of worries me, because if she could be convinced to go against the Calaveras for the right price, then that means that someone who is willing to pay her more money than Derek and Peter could get her to go against THEM.
We all know that Peter is not exactly one for compromise, since he's more of a "give me what I want or I'll rip your throat out with my claws," kind of guy, but he's a little desperate, so he writes another number on the sheet of paper and shoves it to her again. Braedon doesn't even bother looking at it before she pushes it back, knowing that there's no way he wrote down a number close to what she's asking, which pushes Peter to the end of his patience. He immediately stands up and starts pacing, just as his equally impatient nephew tears the sheet of paper in half and assures her that they'll pay her whatever-- all they want is to find Kate. You can tell right away that this response does not please Peter, but Braedon seems satisfied, at least enough to leave and get started on her new job. Once she's bounced the premises, Peter slams the sliding loft door angrily and wastes no time making his feelings well know. "ARE YOU INSANE?" Peter demands exasperatedly. Derek replies somberly that they didn't have a choice, because they both spent the last week between this episode and "117" searching for Kate and came up with nada.
However, Peter is more concerned with who Kate told about the vault, because he's pretty sure THEY'RE the ones who actually robbed them, and he reminds Derek that if they can't figure that out, they're not gonna get a dime of that money back. "What do you think I'm gonna do then, huh?" Peter asks, getting more and more hysterical by the moment. "Get a job? My resume is SLIGHTLY out of date!" Actually, I'm pretty sure that the fact that he's likely legally dead is more of a problem than the fact that he's likely never worked a day in his life, but who knows, maybe that's what he's talking about. Anyway, he reiterates that they've been ROBBED, and grabs Derek roughly by the shoulder to turn him around to face him. Unfortunately, Derek's a little on edge since his return to the land of adulthood, and angrily grips Peter's wrist while roars in his face, sharp fangs and golden eyes and all. This is such an uncharacteristic demonstration of impulsiveness that it actually strikes fear in Peter's eyes. "Oh, that's a new look for you," Peter whispers anxiously. He asks Derek what the FUCK happened to his eyes, which I'm pretty sure we all want to know at this point, but Derek predictably has no idea. What he DOES know is that he's willing to pay money to find Kate and figure it out. Ohhhh, geez, this is SO not gonna end well. I don't know if Derek's golden eyes have anything to do with this brief loss of control over his temper, but either way, it's making me REALLY nervous, eeeep!
The next morning, Scott and Stiles are in work out gear and walking to the lacrosse field, where Stiles is assuring Scott that his team captain status is likely secured, since he got his grades up just like Coach asked him to alllll the way back in season 2 (which really was only like, 4-5 months ago, in Teen Wolf time.) Scott points out that Coach never exactly told him he was back on the team, though; he just invited Scott to practice this morning before the team has try-outs later. Stiles just kind of shrugs, because he figures they have more than enough problems right now, without having to worry over meaningless human teenager shit like lacrosse practice. He turns the topic to Chris, and asks Scott if he called him to fill him in on what's they've learned in the last week or so, but Scott admits that while he did text him to give him the particulars, Chris never got back to him.
Stiles makes this, like, record-screech move, and incredulously replies, "You told him his sister Kate came back from the dead over a TEXT?" Scott looks pretty sheepish, and confesses he doesn't have the funds to collect call Chris all the way in France, a sentiment with which Stiles can empathize, because he noticed that more bills for his MRI and his stint at Eichen House have been delivered in the last week, each of which were stamped "Final Notice." Stiles is so overwhelmed with the heap of shit they have to figure out, per usual, that he understandably asks Scott why the fuck they're even there, since their spots on first line/as team captain are not actually real problems for them right now. Oh, poor Stiles, shit is so about to get even worse. Scott gets distracted by something happening behind Stiles, and after a moment, Scott retorts that lacrosse is a real problem now.
When Stiles turns around, he sees various lacrosse players lobbing balls toward the goal, which is being guarded by this, like, lacrosse prodigy who doesn't miss a single shot, even despite the heavy volume being thrown his way. DJ Fresh vs Jay Fay (ft. Ms Dynamite)'s "Dibby Dibby Sound" plays as we watch new-boy Liam showing off with his super skills. Scott and Stiles are in awe, which, for Stiles, quickly turns into exasperated jealousy. "Who the HELL is that?" he demands loudly. Liam whips his helmet off in slow-mo and smirks a very Jackson Whittemore-like smirk. The other new lacrosse hunk, Garrett, is equally stunned by Liam's skills and goes as far as to say that he might become their first freshman captain. This hits Scott like a punch in the gut, and you can tell Stiles is feeling pretty jealous and territorial, too, because he suggests to Scott that they get out there and practice. Yeahhhhh, probably a good idea.
We cut over to the hospital, where Melissa is talking to a new doctor/administrator, who is none other than Connor Jordan, the super intense Brotherhood of the Five vampire-hunter from The Vampire Diaries who BEHEADED hybrids, jacked their werewolf venom, and ripped their earrings out with his teeth. This casting is kind of hilarious to me, to be honest, I love supernatural/fantasy drama revolving doors when it comes to actors. Plus, it's just hilarious that a guy who played a supernatural hunter just showed up to Beacon Hills, especially if he ends up being suspicious. Anyway, Melissa seems to be the nursing coordinator as well as the only nurse in the entire hospital, because she argues that the nursing staff is already spread too thin as it is. The new doctor (whose name I cannot find online for the life of me, so he's gonna be Connor Jordan until we figure it out) assures Melissa that he hates making cuts anywhere, but since they their hospital has been the site of multiple horrors as a result of their town having a Hellmouth, insurance isn't exactly thrilled about having to cover it. SO, they gotta cut back so they can cover the rest of the repairs.
She starts brainstorming aloud, and concedes that it's possible she could cut money from pediatrics, but Connor just tells her to go home and sleep, because her shift is over and her aura of exhaustion is becoming contagious. She argues that she needs to grab dinner first before she heads home, but Connor reminds her that it's actually 7am. LOL, oh Melissa. At first, I wondered why she would want to get food before she went home, rather than after, but maybe since Agent Douchenozzle seems to be sleeping on their couch these days, maybe she's just trying to avoid him? I would probably do the same. Just as Melissa is about to leave for the morning, the two are caught off guard by Sean, who has just rushed through the glass doors into the ER, leaving a big, bloody hand print behind. (Wait, what has he been doing all this time? Did it seriously take him 7-8 hours to run to the hospital from his house?) Sean barely makes it two steps into the ER lobby before he collapses on the ground, reaching toward Mama McCall and Connor with his blood-soaked hands. Welp, guess Melissa's night shift just turned into a double, eh?
Later, Melissa meets up with Sheriff in the morgue, where he has brought her to help him with his case. She slowly opens up a body bag so they can both see what's inside-- the bloody, hacked-up body of Sean's mother. Both Melissa and Sheriff look bone-tired, though not at all unaffected by the sight of yet another brutally murdered citizen of Beacon Hills. Melissa takes a deep breath and guesses that this is why Sean has been refusing to talk to the hospital staff psychologist. Sheriff agrees with that hypothesis, and adds that Sean is clearly going to be in shock for quite a while. Mama McCall asks if the three bodies on the autopsy tables were Sean's entire family, which Sheriff confirms; Sean was the youngest of two children, and his mother, father, and brother were all slaughtered, leaving Sean as the only family member who was able to get away.
"The question is," Sheriff admits with a sigh, "from what?" Melissa corrects him ("from WHO?"), because these people were not killed by claws and teeth-- their bodies are all covered in both deep cuts and blunt force trauma. Sheriff concedes that the medical examiner told him they were killed with an axe of some kind, but he wanted Melissa's take on it anyway, just to make sure they didn't have to involve their children. "If this is every day homicide, instead of the supernatural kind, then maybe we can give them the day off from the world of murder and massacres," Sheriff confesses sadly. Oh Sheriff, there is no ordinary murder in this town, you know this! "When do we get a day off?" Melissa asks, though there was a tiny, kind smile behind it to show him that she's not mad at him, just tired of being constantly exposed to gruesome death and violence. Poor Mama McCall and Papa Stilinski! It must be rough to have to stand back and let your young children protect you/the town instead of the other way around.
Over at the Yukimura household, Noshiko is pulling what looks like silver bars (???) out of a wooden box on an end table, as she calls out to Kira to get moving for school, since Papa Yukimura is waiting for her outside in the car. Kira rushes through the downstairs, flings her bag over her shoulder, and flounces out of their house (whose aesthetics I ADORE, I want to live there so badly) with hardly even a glance at her mother before she goes. Noshiko continues pulling out the silver bars, or whatever they are from the crate, which makes me both super suspicious and confused. Unfortunately, before I can think about it more, Kira suddenly stomps back into the house to voice her own concerns regarding a realtor's sign that had been put in their yard, while her dad follows closely behind her. "What is this?" Kira demands impatiently, as Noshiko plasters a fake smile on her face. "A 'For Sale' sign! It lets people know your house is for sale!" Kira frustratedly turns to look at her father, but gets no back-up-- he merely shrugs and insists that Noshiko was the one who said she would tell her. With the same fake smile, Noshiko reminds her daughter that they always said that the move to Beacon Hills was temporary-- she doesn't outright say that their entire purpose for coming was to slay the nogitsune, but it's definitely implied.
"That was AFTER you told me I was a kitsune and was going to have to destroy a dark spirit by stabbing and killing one of the few friends I've made in this town!" Kira argues, quite rightly, in my opinion, though Noshiko's response still cracks me up: "And you didn't have to! I call that a win!" I don't know--I mean, I'm clearly biased, because Kira is my thunder princess and I love the shit out of her and don't want her going anywhere, but SERIOUSLY! With her dad encouraging her to make more friends last season, followed by the bombshell about how Noshiko was actually almost a millenia old and had lied about her own and Kira's abilities for Kira's entire life, how can she expect Kira to want to leave now? She's just finally made friends who are supernatural like she is, and who are helping her come to terms with it, and even more, she's put down roots! It's kind of unfair to pull her out and take her back across the country now, when she's just finally gotten settled into her new life.
(via makos-lightningrod)
Kira insists that they are NOT moving back to New York, but Noshiko is like, "Why on earth would we stay in this infernal town? Your father is just lucky he hasn't been killed from all the time he spends in that school!" Kira hilariously suggests that Papa Yukimura's teaching skills are unparalleled and that Beacon Hills High School couldn't function without him, but he just as hilariously retorts, "In New York, I was a professor at Columbia." DAMN! Kira rolls her eyes and pouts, and reminds her mother of all the friends she would be losing by leaving; Lydia, Stiles, Malia... Noshiko fills in the blanks and brings up Scott, which doesn't really improve Kira's mood. Noshiko gently assures Kira that Scott isn't her first boyfriend, and he won't be hear last, either, but Kira just sighs and slumps her shoulders before muttering, "He's not my boyfriend."
Over in the locker room, Liam is getting changed after the team's pre-school lacrosse practice, where he's cornered by Stiles and Scott, the former of whom stares him down and sasses him, all, "Hey, bro. Where do you get your juice?" Naturally, Liam is like, "Pardon me?", so Stiles starts pointing out how he just mysteriously managed to be amazing at lacrosse and was showing off by catching every shot. His rambly, insecurity-fueled interrogation is even more enhanced by the amazing Judge Judy-style music in the background, it is HILARIOUS. Liam is still confused, because the whole point of a goalie is to not miss the shot, so he's not really sure why that's supposed to be suspicious, but Stiles will not be convinced that there isn't something weird about this kid. Scott takes a gentler approach, and asks if it's true that he's a freshman. Liam confirms it, but when Stiles points out that he wasn't here last semester, he admits that he transferred this semester from Devonford Prep.
Scott's not a newb when it comes to questioning people, though, and can tell by Liam's jumping heart rate that he's lying. "You transferred? [...] No, you got kicked out, didn't you?" Scott responds. Liam is both anxious from the intense interrogation and shocked that Scott called him out on his lie, but eventually confesses that yeah, he did get kicked out, but what does it matter to them either way? He swears that all he wants to do is to play on the team, and he figures that they need some new players after all the people they've lost, though Stiles vehemently denies it. Scott, unable to be mean about it, concedes that yeah, they do actually need some more good players, which earns him the stink-eye from Stiles for not backing him up.
Stiles sighs and changes tactics. "Alright, how did you get this good? Have you ALWAYS been this good? Or did it suddenly happen just once overnight?" he demands, ignoring the look Scott gives him at his aggressive technique. "Have you ever been out in the middle of the woods during the night of a full moon--" Stiles begins, before getting cut off by Scott, but before either of them can say anything else, Liam assures them that he was taught how to play lacrosse from his step-father, who made team captain when he was a sophomore, just like Scott, a compliment which makes Scott smile. "And yeah," Liam adds, as he picks up his bag and leans arrogantly toward Stiles, "I guess I'm just that good." Scott seems pretty endeared by his spunk, and cutely informs Stiles that he wasn't lying that time, but Stiles clearly still isn't a fan. To be honest, I'm not really either. He reminds me too much of Jackson, who was the only good/neutral character in the history of Teen Wolf who I haven't really liked in some way.
Malia is walking down the hall to class, looking pretty cheerful until she gets to the threshold of her classroom and sees a bunch of algebra problems written on the chalkboards. She's about to turn heel and run far for it, but Stiles ultimately appears right behind her and grabs her by the shoulders so he can shove her into the classroom with him. "I hate math!" Malia whisper-yells at him on their way to their seats. "It's pointless!" Stiles swears that school is very important, math included, because math teaches you how to calculate the tip at restaurants. Lydia, our resident mathematician, hears this slander of her best subject, and reminds her friends that it's also pretty essential for medicine, engineering, economics, but Stiles maintains that tipping is what counts, and gives her a wink. Lydia is NOT impressed, and just rolls her eyes.
The new math teacher, who is VERY pretty, and apparently called Mrs. Flemming, asks for volunteers to go up to the board and answer their homework questions, just before she totally disregards her own statement by choosing three students who hadn't even put up their hands: Lydia, Malia, and a kid named Diego. Malia eyes widen in fear as she mentions to the teacher that she didn't volunteer, but Mrs. Flemming seems to also be of the tough-love/no-sympathy for the fact that she hasn't been to school in eight years teaching method, and insists that she go up to the board to answer her question. Stiles, seated behind her, tries to be supportive by giving her a thumbs up to pep her up, but when she angrily growls at him for forcing her to come to class in the first place, he immediately backs off, because she's TOUGH and could claw him to shreds if she wanted. Up at the board, Malia gets as far as "x =..." before sighing and staring at the problem, as if she's willing her brain to tell her the correct answer. Lydia can sense her alarm, and asks her if she went over the notes Lydia gave her to help her study, but Malia replies that she didn't understand them either.
Lydia is surprisingly sympathetic, so after checking to make sure their teacher is properly occupied, she mutters, "X equals 25." Malia sighs in relief from Lydia's aid and gives her an appreciative look in response, but unfortunately for her, Lydia's not quite done yet. "And sweetheart? Put away the claws!" Malia looks down at the hand that is gripping the chalk, only to find that her blackened claws are out, and she quickly drops the chalk and shoves her hands in her pockets. Poor Malia! It seems like school is really causing her a lot of stress, although I'm thrilled that she's getting so much help from her new friends. Also, Lydia and Malia's outfits are really cute-- Lydia is wearing a lavender blouse with tiny white polka dots and a high-waisted navy blue floral skirt with heels, and her hair is full and curly. Malia is wearing a dusty pink/orange cardigan with a black cami and these fabulous black pants with flowers all over them and boots, with her long hair in a messy braid down her back. I seriously need all of the girls' wardrobes, which honestly, shouldn't be difficult since I'm pretty sure they get everything from Forever XXI, H&M and Macy's like real teenagers do. ANYWAY, Stiles' phone starts to buzz suddenly in his pocket, and he quickly pulls it out to find that he has received an alert for a breaking news bulletin for Beacon Hills, regarding the earlier triple-homicide of Sean Walcott's family.
After class, Stiles has met up with Kira and Scott, and is informing them about the "family-murdering axe-murderer" he learned about from his dad. Scott sheepishly admits that he already knows, because his mom called him after she saw the bodies in the morgue. Stiles proclaims this to be more than enough reason to ditch school to start investigating, but Scott interrupts him to remind him that they have to go to Econ. in five minutes. "Right. Did you forget the part about the family-murdering axe murderer?" Stiles asks incredulously, but Scott retorts that STILES seems to have forgotten that his own dad is the Sheriff, and he would want them all to stay out of it. Clearly, Scott is kind of dreading jumping back into yet another series of murderers that could end in one of them seriously injured or dead, AGAIN, and I can hardly say I blame him, tbh. If Allison wasn't safe, it must feel like none of them are.
Stiles can't believe that Scott doesn't want to do anything to figure out why an axe murderer brutally killed almost an entire family, but Kira is on Team Scott, and suggests that perhaps they let the grown-ups handle it this time. Scott gives him a guilty look of apology, but Stiles is just so stupified by their reactions. "So, the two of you, you just want stay here, school, go to class?" Scott gives him a weak look that screams, "Uh, DUH," to which Stiles just frustratedly replies, "I've never heard anything so irresponsible in my life!" before he flounces away. Scott calls out a reminder for him not to forget about try-outs after school, but Stiles only waves a hand in the air in acknowledgment.
As much as I understand Scott and Kira's hesitance, I think it's really just denial on their part, because much like in Sunnydale, or Mystic Falls, they can't go long without some kind of supernatural catastrophe. Scott gets what he needs out of his locker, and asks Kira if they can reschedule their "talk" for after lacrosse practice, which he promises won't last very long, if she won't mind waiting. Kira starts to stutter out a response, debating whether or not to tell him about the possible move back to New York, but eventually just sighs and assures him that she'll wait for him. Scott declares this to be awesome, before instinctively giving her a quick peck on the lips and rushing to his next class. Kira's eyes go wide in shock at the fact that this is their first kiss in foreverrrrr, but Scott doesn't realize what he just did until he gets to class and sits down at his desk. "Oh, God!"
(via teenwolf)
Somewhere relatively nearby, the Mute sits in a darkened room, wearing only his combat pants and a black tank top. He sits at a desk in front of a laptop, where he's clicking through pictures. He stops to pull a small metal plug out of his neck, which he sets on the table, and replaces with a tube that twists and locks into place. He then flips on a machine which sits next to his laptop, and which begins to to whir as it slowly pushes a thick liquid into his throat through his neck. The liquid looks really dark, which some people speculated was blood, but I'm thinking that this is actually Ensure or a similar food-replacement supplement, because he seems to be swallowing it. It doesn't look like any kind of feeding tube with which I've ever had experience, but this is Teen Wolf, so medical accuracy kind of goes out the window in favor of being cool/creepy-looking. It might also be like, jelly/jam, or some kind of sugar-water, as I've heard speculation that that sugar is what this guy needs to survive. Hopefully, we'll learn more details soon!
Anyway, as he presumably feeds on whatever is in the tube, the white laptop screen fills itself with a complicated code, without him even typing anything, and a loud, rattling noise increases in volume in the background. Is he some kind of psychic who also has magical abilities to manipulate technology with his mind? And is he the one who is making that weird rattling noise? At first, I thought he was called the Mute because he doesn't have a mouth, but maybe he also has the power to make you hear things, or to make you hear nothing buy silence? Either way, it is super interesting. I've also seen speculation that he's an astomi, who are apparently psychic beings who live on scents. I am intrigued, basically, and I hope we learn more about this guy's powers and motivations. I have some theories about his involvement with the elusive Benefactor, but I'll get into that more later.
At the Sheriff's Department, Sheriff Stilinski walks out of his office with Deputy Parrish, who he instructs to go keep an eye on the Walcott's house, by himself, and review the crime scene photos. "Don't blame me for the nightmares," Sheriff adds grimly. Parrish is worried that they're missing something, but Sheriff is worried about it, too, so Agent Douchenozzle has decided to help them out by providing an expert from Quantico who apparently specializes in axe murderers. Parrish assumes he means the US Marshal, but Sheriff Stilinski has absolutely no idea what or who he's talking about. They turn and look out in the bullpen, where Braedon is dressed in a business suit, holding up a fake US Marshal badge. "I called about the case file?" Braedon chirps to a nearby deputy. LOL. Oh Braedon, I love you so much.
School's out, now, and Scott and Stiles are getting dressed for lacrosse try-outs while Scott explains his newest predicament. Namely, the fact that he kissed Kira for the first time since the first time he kissed her, all the way back in "De-Void," before they managed to de-nogitsune Stiles. Stiles proclaims this to be excellent news, because kissing girls is awesome, but Scott is like, "I did! But I didn't!" He laments the fact that it was like the least sexy or even affectionate kiss ever, which Stiles helpfully refers to as a "chaste kiss," because Stiles is an elderly grandmother. "Yeah! And now it's all weird, so completely weird, and I-I-I don't know what to do!" Scott stutters breathlessly. He suggests that maybe he should text her, but thankfully Stiles immediately talks him out of that right away, because COME ON SCOTT. You're the alpha! Stop it with the texts!
Their bro time is cut off by the shrill sound of Coach's whistle as he summons all the kids to gather round before they head out to the field. "As a reminder," Coach Finstock shouts in his usual obnoxious fashion. "It's an open try-out today, all positions available. This is a rebuilding season, people! Jackson's gone, Lahey's gone. Greenberg--the only guy I actually WANTED gone-- was held back. Again." Wait, is this the first acknowledgment that Isaac left? Ouch. :( Coach waits a beat before screaming, "GET YOUR ASSES ON THE FIELD!" Scott is clearly fretting about the whole "all positions open" thing, especially after seeing what Liam can do this morning, and rushes over to Coach to ask him if he's still on the team this year. When Coach is like, "Duh, McCall," Scott asks if he's still in the same position as last year, but Coach just repeats "All positions open" again before heading toward the field. Of course, Liam overheard this entire conversation, and smirks when he realizes that this is his chance to beat Scott to make captain as a freshman.
Deniz Koyu's "Ruby [Original Mix]" plays as lacrosse practice begins, and the prospective team members are broken into groups to do various warm-up exercises that I can't identify because I live in Central Ohio, where there are rarely ever lacrosse teams in high school, and especially not in the winter/spring season. Malia and Kira settle in on the stands to watch their respective boys practice; Kira's holding Scott's spare lacrosse stick, while Malia is clutching her precalculus book, notes, and highlighters so she can continue to study. Coach blows his whistle and starts to time one group while they do laps around the field, and he drops progressively worse insults the slower the students are going. After Coach calls out, "Is that everyone?" in a bored voice, Stiles FINALLY makes it to the end of the lap, panting like crazy before ultimately collapsing onto the grass. Scott eventually makes his way over and helps him stand up while he catches his breath, which gives them both the opportunity to watch Liam, who is doing one-legged push-ups while everyone else sits around and takes a breather before they get back into practice. "He's inhuman! What is he, a werecheetah? Does that even exist? Is that a thing?" Scott suggests that maybe he really IS just that good, but Stiles is skeptical.
(via makos-lightningrod)
Kira has been sadly gazing at Scott while he practices, oblivious to her feelings for him, when Malia finally takes a deep breath and asks what's wrong with her. Kira nervously tries to feign normalcy, but Malia's like, "You reek of anxiety, and it's distracting." Kira continues to clutch onto Scott's lacrosse stick while she babbles the whole thing with Scott earlier, and how that something might have happened, but now she's worried that it's actually nothing, and you can tell Malia is just like, "What the fuck are you on about?" She eventually asks Kira what she wants with Scott, which makes her sigh deeply. "More," she admits, before frowning and drooping her shoulders as she props her chin on the top of the lacrosse stick. Aw, Kira! Scott's just a little clueless sometimes, when he allows himself to be, for a change.
Stiles is attempting to scoop up a lacrosse ball with his stick, but he just keeps fumbling, ultimately grabbing the ball in his hand and dropping it into the net himself as the rest of the team sniggers behind him. He steps up to the line so he can practice his shots, and DAMN, Dylan O'Brien is way more buff than he's given credit for, because you can see all his muscles when he throws the ball toward the net. Unfortunately, the ball just goes straight into the goalie's net without him even trying to catch it, and the rest of the team laughs at him again. Damn, I forgot how mean jocks can be. High school blows. Liam gives him this look, like, "Way to go, sucka!" which earns him a glare in response. "No Defense Remix" by Noone plays, just as Stiles joins Scott at the back of the line and hopefully suggests that perhaps Liam is only good as goalie, but when Liam makes his first shot and easily makes it into the goal, Scott and Stiles quickly realize that no, he's just preternaturally good at lacrosse. Coach is so thrilled to have a Jackson-level lacrosse star again that he literally jumps in the air and yells in delight.
"I hate this kid!" Stiles snits, as he continues to glare at Liam, but Scott, ever the peacekeeper, maintains that they don't have to hate him, since the team does need new players. "What about team captain?" Stiles retorts, and it must have the desired effect from Stiles, because Scott, clearly not fond of that possibility, rushes up so he can ditch someone in line to make his own shot. There's also this one player standing near Scott with a long ponytail and a goatee who looks about as old as Derek is, and I'm not for one second buying he actually of high school age. Scott scoops up a ball in his net and spins his stick in his hand a couple times before he gets a running start and shoots confidently. Both Stiles and Kira are obviously sure that his shot is going to be perfect, but in actuality, it hits the side of the goal and bounces away. OUCH. Garrett, the other new face, jokes about Scott's whiff, but Stiles naturally defends his honor and yells at him to shut up. Savant's "Stargate" plays as we get a montage of the main boys playing. Liam makes every shot that he attempts, of course, while Scott's performance worsens with every move, which does nothing but make him more frustrated and embarrassed. Kira, disheartened, asks Malia, "Isn't the captain supposed to be one of the best players on the team?" She pauses, before adding, "Or good?" DAMN! Poor Scott is getting it from all sides today. I honestly don't blame him at all for being so terrible at lacrosse right now, though-- it's been almost a year since the last time he played, and he's obviously had way more important things to do than practice his shots, you know?
Stiles catches up with Scott, who is beyond frustrated at this point, and asks him what the fuck his deal is today. Scott claims it's an off-day, but Stiles insists that he's actually dying out there, adding, "I feel actual physical pain watching you!" This does nothing to lift Scott's spirits, so he points out that Stiles isn't exactly making a ton of shots, but Stiles argues that he's always been a shitty lacrosse player, so it's expected of him, but not of Scott-the-Alpha-and-Captain. Scott reminds him that on the field, he's a human, so as to not attract the wrong kind of attention, but Stiles thinks he needs to tap into an itty-bitty amount of wolf power to make Human Scott not suck so bad. Scott isn't keen on the idea, because he thinks of it as cheating, which Stiles totally knows, but he thinks Scott should make an exception this time. "It's just, I hate seeing this little freshman come in and steal all your glory after you worked your tushie off. I hate it!" LOLOL FOREVER. God, I love Stiles so much. Scott insists that Liam isn't stealing all the glory, just as Liam makes yet ANOTHER shot and Coach and the rest of the team all whoop in awe as he makes his way to the end of the line. Stiles gives Scott a loaded look, and Scott's jealousy gets the better of him as he glares at the kid, his red alpha eyes sparkling.
After the break, Coach screeches his whistle again and assigns Stiles and Scott to grab goalie sticks and cover the goal for two-on-ones. While they're taking their places and getting their helmets, Stiles suggests that since they don't know Liam isn't a werewolf (or similarly-boosted werecreature), so if Scott used his own powers, he would only be cheating the cheaters, which seems justified. Scott's skeptical, though, because he figures he would have sensed his werewolfiness by now if he was one. Stiles suggests that Scott needs to get closer, but he figures he'll be getting his chance soon enough when he sees Liam glaring at him from across the field. Coach blows the whistle, and Garrett runs toward them to make a shot, but Stiles and Scott actually work really well together, and easily block him. "That's my boys!" Coach crows, as Kira fist-pumps in excitement in the stands. Stiles and Scott are shocked that they actually did it for once, and high five, while Garrett sulks. "Those two are like sons to me!" Coach brags to the other younger players around him. LOLOL. Oh, Coach.
Stiles gives Scott a little wink, and the two quickly and easily manage to take down every guy who comes their way, and during one of their celebratory chest-bumps, Stiles takes it too hard and ends up flying backwards in one of the most comical moments of the episode. Dylan O'Brien must seriously constantly be bruised, because he is SO. FLAILY. It's finally Liam's turn, and he must have Stiles' number, because he starts waving his stick back and forth through the grass to distract him before he rushes toward the goal. Despite Scott's heightened senses, Liam is still able to dodge both of them and make the shot, which is enough to get Malia's attention. "That was luck!" Malia screams angrily from the stands. "Do-over!" Stiles gets so embarrassed, which is adorable, but Coach is just, like, "Ha, that's cute, but there are no do-overs in practice." Malia insists she's willing to put $10 down on Scott and Stiles to block him a second time, which is a bet Coach happily takes. Maybe he's still trying to save up money to deal with his medical bills from getting shot in the gut in Nogitstiles' trap? Who knows. She smiles, satisfied, as Coach yells at Liam to get back in and try it again, which visibly alarms both Scott and Stiles.
(via stiles-stlinski)
The boys each return to their positions, all of whom are very tense. Liam in particular looks especially pissed, and for a second I actually thought he might be a supernatural creature who managed to hide it from them who was quickly having difficulty keeping a lid on his temper. But nope, he's just insecure, much like Jackson. Scott's own insecurity gets the better of him again, and he growls a bit under his breath as the whistle blows, indicating that it's time for Liam to run. Stiles jumps into the air to block Liam, and though Liam was just barely able to dodge him, it gave him no time to dodge Scott's own tackle. When Liam makes impact with Scott, he flies over Scott's shoulders and lands flat on his back with his limbs splayed at weird angles. I was sure it was going to be his shoulder, just like with Jackson in the first season, but instead it was his ankle. Coach yells at everyone that no one should touch or move him, but Liam insists that he's fine and pushes himself to his feet. Unfortunately, he spoke a little too soon, because once he stands up, he crumbles and is only saved from falling by Scott's quick reflexes. It's obvious just by looking at Scott's face that he feels SO, SO, SO GUILTY. Just wait, lobito, you're going to feel SO MUCH GUILTIER here in a couple hours. Stiles runs around and puts Liam's other arm around his shoulder to help support him, while Scott volunteers the two of them to take Liam to the nurse's office to have her check him out.
Coach is PISSSSSSED that they already injured their sure-to-be star player before try-outs were even over, so pissed that as he watches the boys hobble away, he grabs a lacrosse ball off the ground and lobs it away in anger. He wasn't exactly aiming in any particular direction, and the ball ends up flying toward for Malia's forehead as she obliviously stresses over her math homework. Just before the ball makes contact with Malia's skull, Kira demonstrates her lightning-fast (pun intended) kitsune reflexes by using Scott's spare lacrosse stick to catch it, sparing poor Malia an unnecessary concussion. Woooo, Kira! Coach had gasped in horror when he realized it was going to hit Malia, so when it doesn't, he's super impressed by Kira's skills. He orders her to throw it back to see how she does, and while the shot is excellent and forceful, her aim could use some work, because she accidentally throws it so hard that he hits Coach square in the stomach and knocks the wind out of him. He's still majorly impressed though, and manages to gasp, "Someone ask her if she's ever played lacrosse!" to one of the nearby players.
(via teenwolf)
YASSSS KIRA! KIRA YUKIMURA FOR TEAM CAPTAIN! (✿◠‿◠) KIRA YUKIMURA FOR PRESIDENT OF THE WORLD! (｡♥‿♥｡) KIRA YUKIMURA! (~￣▽￣)~
Meanwhile, Deputy Parrish is chilling outside the Walcott's home in his Sheriff's deputy cruiser for security purposes, and examines the crime scene photos while he tries to figure out any reason why someone would want that family dead. He sighs and gives himself a break from the gruesome murder photos by taking a look around the neighborhood. He notices a shadowy figure pass in front of the glass door inside, and immediately reaches for his sidearm and rushes into the house to investigate who the mysterious intruder may be. "Beacon County Sheriff's Department," Parrish shouts, after he walks in through the front door. "This is a crime scene! Show yourself!" Parrish jerks when he sees someone approaching and reflexively aims his gun at them until he realizes who it is-- our banshee queen Lydia Martin, who, naturally, was drawn to the house in one of her usual fugue states-- and breaths a sigh of relief when he realizes that she's not a threat. Then, it hits him that, hello, she's totally not supposed to be here, and he just stares at her. She stares at him right back, wide-eyed in shock and fear and also a little bit of guilt, like, "Yeah, this is somehow both not what it looks like and exactly what it looks like, all at the same time."
Back at the loft, Derek is looking through the files of the Walcott murders that Braedon has helpfully provided for him via her US Marshall cover. She's changing out of her fancy suit and back into her black leather pants and tank top, while Derek, ever the gentleman, has politely turned his back to her so as to not watch. "There's nothing in here about Kate," Derek points out as he skims the report. All he's getting from the report is that the killer used an axe, but Braedon corrects him. "Actually, he used a military tomahawk." Derek complains about that detail not being in the report, and correctly guesses that she knows something she's not telling him, though she insists that she doesn't know much about what's going on yet. "The problem is, the people I need to talk to right now, don't talk to people like you," she informs him, as she leans toward him across Derek's table. Derek, surprisingly, flirts as good as he gets, and asks if he's just supposed to wait for her, though she replies that she needs him to trust her.
As we all well know, Derek trusting women has never worked out in his favor, so he's not exactly inclined to trust this girl, especially since it's sort of hard to trust someone who's loyalty can be bought. They each lean in closer, and Braedon admits that she knows Derek, and knows what he really wants. He's speechless, and just looks her in the eyes with a serious face, before she starts to slink toward him on the other side of the table. "You want what Kate stole from you," Braedon purrs. "Briseann an dúchas trà shúile an chait. It means, 'the true nature of someone is reflected in their eyes.' In your case, the color of your eyes." Actually, it's an Gaelic saying that literally translates into, "Heredity breaks out in the eyes of a cat," but I get where she's going with this.
(via teenwolf)
Derek continues to be speechless, which is pretty typical for Derek, and he thinks hard for a moment while Braedon walks across the loft to pick up her jacket. He sees her shotgun laying on the table and tosses it toward her with his concession-- he's allowing her a week to get the information she needs, if she wants her money. Braedon just gives him a look before throwing her jacket over her shoulder and strutting out of the apartment. Damn, that was hot! I know that one of the season trailers had a short clip of what looked like the two of them making out, so I'm seriously hoping that it was, and they end up hooking up, at least once. On the other hand, I'm a little concerned that Braedon could be bought by someone richer (say, the person who stole the Hale inheritance) to take out our heroes.
Outside the locker room, Kira is sitting on the steps waiting for Scott, with what I'm hoping is her very own lacrosse helmet, smiling. Scott runs out a moment later and apologizes for making her wait so long, and admits that he and Stiles are going to have to take Liam to the ER, because they don't know if he broke or just sprained his ankle. Kira kindly assures him that she gets it and suggests that they can talk later. Scott isn't quite sure what to say, and the awkwardness between the two after what happened earlier is palpable while Scott tries to search for some words. "And, I'm sorry about before. Before-before, when I did that thing in the hallway." Kira winces awkwardly before shaking her head and passively insisting that all is 100% fine, though Scott insists that he had no intention of making things awkward and/or weird. He apologizes once more, and when Kira just smiles and nods in response, he loses his nerve and turns to leave, because when it comes to girls he really is kind of dumb sometimes.
She sadly watches him walk back into the locker room, and sighs inwardly as she laments not having the nerve to be honest with him. "Stakes" by Vancouver Sleep Clinic (which seems to be a band that the music director seems to love playing during Scott/Kira scenes) plays as Kira sits her helmet on the step and considers what to do next. Before she has time to make a decision, Scott rushes back out of the locker room, quipping, "You know what? I'm not sorry!" before sprinting toward her and kissing her, Disney-Prince-style. It's seriously the cutest thing, and you can tell Kira is just SO HAPPY because she can't help but smile while she's kissing him. When they pull away, Kira is beaming, and she chirps, "Text me later?" She's basically perfect for him, tbh.
(via teenwolf)
At the Walcott's house, Lydia leads Parrish into the other room to have what is probably the cutest and flirtatious conversation ever. Seriously, what is with everyone having dynamite chemistry this week? It's actually insane.
(via teenwolf)
I do think that everyone who has suggested that Lydia is psychic is onto something, because I think that actually does play into her powers, aside from the banshee wail, the extra-heightened hearing when it comes to vibrations, and the banshee fugue states that lead her to dead bodies. It's why she drew the Nemeton, and why the math notes she wrote out for Malia ended up not being math notes at all. Also, I'm pretty sure Parrish's "open mind" and reasoning for saying that he doesn't want to believe in anything comes from all of the bizarre supernatural shit he's witnessed since he came to town: an evil fox who looked like his boss' son that ran around town blowing things up; a triple-massacre at the Sheriff's Department, the animal clinic, and the hospital, where he himself was wounded with an oni's blade that ended up magically healing hours later, etc. There's no way he's not suspicious about what's going on in this town. One part of me thinks that he's just a regular human who is eventually going to figure it out, but otherwise has no connection to it; another part of me worries that he's a hunter who is just pretending to be clueless; and yet another part of me wonders if he's not some kind of supernatural being who otherwise has no connection to the drama and is trying to figure who he is and how his powers work. All of them seem like likely enough theories, considering the little we know about him. Either way, something is going on with that boy!
"But, if you're looking for dead bodies, I think you're a little late," Parrish adds, which makes me kind of nervous, since that's a pretty specific thing to ask, isn't it? I kind of scoffed at the theory that Parrish was a banshee at first, too, but now that I think about it more, could there be a chance those people are onto something? I really want more Meredith, though, if we're bringing in more banshees, so I don't want Parrish to be a banshee at her expense. :/ BUT I'M TORN BECAUSE I REALLY LIKE PARRISH AND WANT TO SEE MORE OF HIM. ANYWAY, Lydia's distracted by the wooden wall in front of her, the wood grain of which looks like screaming faces, just like in "Motel California;" as she stares at them, you can hear what sounds like the faces screaming loudly in the distance. OH SHIT. So are the faces really there? Or is it a neurological thing, like a hallucination related to her banshee powers that is alerting her to the presence of death? Or, what if it's the other banshees trying to communicate with her??? Are we ever going to get answers to these questions? God, I hope so.
Lydia lays a shaky hand on the wood panel and presses hard, which causes the panel to pop open like a door, releasing foggy cold air that definitely unnerves Deputy Parrish. Lydia anxiously pulls the heavy door open for Parrish, who has his sidearm up and ready, along with a flashlight. He then heads through the door to lead Lydia, a teenager who isn't anything like a fellow police officer (well, actually she's way more qualified than Parrish is, but he doesn't know that yet, as far as we know), into a hidden hallway. The hall is dark, scary, and freezing, judging by the way Lydia is rubbing her arms. They eventually approach a doorway, which covered in long strips of plastic in place of an actual door. After checking to make sure Lydia is okay (which, of course she is, this isn't even the weirdest or grossest thing she's encountered yet), the two head into the room, where he flips a light switch to finally get an idea of what they're dealing with, here.
Needless to say, they are completely shocked at what they find: row after row of plastic bags wrapped around hangers that are suspended from the ceiling. It seriously looks like a morgue's cold storage, or the walk-in freezer of a butcher's shop. When Deputy Parrish realizes that there is no onealive in the room to threaten them, he puts his side arm away and takes a look around. "I think it's a game locker. Like, venison? Hunting is legal in some parts of the state," Parrish guesses for Lydia's benefit. Lydia just looks at him, all, "Oh, honey. Oh, bless your naive heart, you sweet summer child," because once Parrish gets close to one of the bags, he realizes that this is way more sinister than hunters storing venison and other game in a hidden freezer. Lydia can sense his anxiety, and when she asks him what's up, he just silently unzips one of the bags to reveal that it's totally not venison at all, but instead the body of a cloudy-eyed woman who has been dead for god knows how long. Poor Parrish looks like he's going to vomit, and while Lydia may be a human Geiger-counter for death, I don't think she'll even fully get used to seeing dead bodies on the regular, because she's looking a little green as well.
This was the point that I was sure that the Walcotts were wendigos-- I wonder how they got away with it for so long? Did one of them have a convenient career as a coroner or something, or were they killing people? Stealing bodies from caskets? Maybe they just ate all of the unfortunately souls who died in the various supernatural attacks in the town? Who really knows? The fact that this family of cannibals was just living quietly in this supernatural-being-infested town, just eating dead humans on the sly and not arousing anyone's suspicions is kind of hilarious to me, to be honest. I mean, they had a fucking pet cat! And it seems like Sean was just an average high school student who just so happened to subsist on human flesh.
Speaking of the Walcotts, our lone survivor, Sean, has been all bandaged up by Mama McCall, who has also brought him a plate full of carrots, peas, and mashed potatoes, with jello for dessert. She takes his vitals and asks him if he's sure that he's not in the mood to eat anything, but he insist that he's not hungry before he rolls over in bed. Melissa assumes that he's just overwhelmed by grief and doesn't push it; she just reminds him that there's a Sheriff's deputy outside the door to make sure he's safe and leaves him alone with his thoughts. Once she's gone, we get a look at his face as he tightly grips onto his pillow, and he looks like he's in pain and/or on the verge of crying/screaming. Regardless, he looks like he's having a hell of a time, that's for sure. Melissa returns to the lobby, only to find her guilty-looking son with Stiles, who is helping him hold up the injured Liam. "Uhhhh, hey, Mom!" Scott begins awkwardly, in greeting.
Liam looks like he's about to cry himself while Melissa gets him situated into a wheelchair so she can take him back to his room. Since she's Melissa the super-compassionate nurse, she assures him that they're all going take good care of him. Scott still looks like he feels terrible, and Stiles seems to be sensing Scott's anxiety, because you can tell he's not thrilled with the idea of leaving him. He admits to Scott that he has plans to help Malia study, and, of course, Scott's totally cool with it, and assures him he'll be fine-- he just wants to stay and find out how badly Liam is injured before he goes home. Stiles is about to head for the door before he hesitates and turns back to check on his brother. "Hey, I don't need to say this wasn't your fault, do I?" Stiles asks with concern. Scott says he doesn't know, which pushes Stiles into the most perfect best-friend mode there is. "Scott, if you had used any wolf-power, that kid wouldn't be limping, he'd be crawling... back to the other half of his body!" Scott reminds him that had he not gotten over his head with jealousy, he wouldn't be hurt at all, so that doesn't really do much to make him feel better about what happened.
(via rodens-holland)
"It's okay to want something for yourself once and awhile," Stiles insists. "Team captain, alpha werewolf... you're still only human." He claps Scott comfortingly on the shoulder before he takes off. YES, STILES, YES! I swear Scott needs to be reminded about this for literally everything, because ever since he was turned into a werewolf and assumed responsibility for every single person involved in the supernatural world, he so often forgets about himself, and that he deserves to be happy just as much as anyone else. (And also, that he's no good for helping anyone else out if he's not taking card of himself as well.) And honestly, Stiles is the best person to tell him this, because if he's going to believe anyone, it will be his bestest buddy. That's what they do-- Scott supports Stiles, and Stiles supports Scott, because they're brothers, and they love each other. That's not to say that EVERYONE in Pack McCall needs this lesson once and a while, because they totally do, but I think Scott probably needs it most of all due to his inability to not take on everyone's problems on his shoulders. So, I'm glad he finally got this pep talk, for once.
Over at the Yukimura residence, Noshiko has set out fliers on a table for the sale of their house (for the curious-- the house is at 17106 Sate Boulevard, Beacon Hills, CA 95921, and is going for $659,00, which is a pretty decent chunk of change, even for upstate California), along with plates full of fruit and veggies to snack on. As it turns out, Papa Yukimura's name is Ken, which we learn when Noshiko calls out for him to ask him why no one has shown up for their open house. "I think I know why," Ken replies, as he holds up the 'For Sale' sign, which appears to have been chopped into pieces by Kira's magical katana. YESSS! Get it, girl! Kira is in her bedroom, where she's spinning her lacrosse stick like she's swordfighting. She hears her mom yell, "KIRA!" and she stops, just long enough to smirk, before she gets back to practicing. God, she's gonna be such a badass lacrosse player! I AM SO EXCITE.
Meanwhile, over at the Stilinskis' house, Malia and Stiles are sprawled out on his bed, both of them pretty absorbed in their studies, while "I Could Love You More" by the Miracals plays in the background. Malia gets bored of math pretty quickly and instead decides to hop on Stiles so she can straddle and kiss him. Stiles is totally into it, natch, because he's a horny teenage boy, but the part of him that really cares about Malia's wellbeing kicks in and stops her, because he thinks they should actually try to study a little bit before they get back to the macking. Malia isn't thrilled to be cock-blocked like this, but she reluctantly returns to her work after a moment. They are seriously so cute together, and have such amazing chemistry, that it actually hurts my heart a little bit to watch, tbh. It's probably because my boyfriend is all the way across the world on deployment for the nearish future and I am a Jealous Jenny when it comes to any couple getting to be cute with each other in the same location. Just as Malia is flipping back to the page she was working on in her book, Stiles sees all her highlighters and asks her what they're all about.
"Green is forsolved the things I understand," she begins. "Yellow is for in progress 'I'm working on it.'" She flips through her worksheets, revealing pages full of red highlighter, just as she adds, "And...red means unsolved 'I have no clue.'" She looks bashfully down at her homework and confesses that she's mostly been using red. Stiles can't help but smile at the similarities between them, especially when he looks over at his crime board and sees all the various colored strings marking the various points in his investigation. He leans over and kisses her again, but just as he's getting into it, she pulls away from him and jokes that they have to study first, which makes them both giggle. "So, what's the secret? Why is math impossible for me, and easy for you guys?" Don't feel bad, Malia, I still have yet to even take pre-calculus, mostly just because nurses really don't need to know math outside of calculating dosages and whatnot.
Stiles claims they're only good at math because they all use genius!Lydia's notes, so Malia jokes that someone is going to have to take notes on Lydia's notes, because she's just not getting it. Stiles frowns in confusion and starts flipping through Lydia's notebook, when he notices a bunch of gobbledegoop written over like, two or three whole pages, front and back. He asks her if these are the notes Lydia wrote for her, which Malia confirms. GEEZ! No wonder Malia wasn't getting it, LOL. Stiles points out that that is most certainly not math, though he doesn't know that this looks almost exactly like the computer code we just saw on the Mute's laptop earlier. Luckily, Stiles is smart enough to know that when Lydia mindlessly writes something down, it's usually important, so I'm hoping he'll be able to bring this to the pack's attention sooner rather than later.
Over at the hospital, Dr. Connor Jordan is gently examining Liam's super-swollen and bruised ankle while Liam pouts and tries not to cry. He assumes that it's broken, but Connor isn't sure, and says that they need an x-ray to figure it out. "It's broken and it's my fault," Liam mutters as he continues to sulk, so Connor asks him what happened. Liam gets into his story while Scott paces around and pretends like he's not eavesdropping outside of their room. "I went up against two juniors," Liam begins. "One of them was captain of the team." Scott begins to feel even MORE guilty, because clearly Liam got just as carried away as he did with showing off, and Connor reveals that he is Liam's STEP-DAD (the one who taught him lacrosse) while he reminds Liam that they always talked about it's best to play smarter, not harder. Liam's sure that Connor is now mad at him, but Connor promises he isn't--he's more afraid that Liam's mom is going to be mad at HIM for getting Liam into lacrosse in the first place. Even still, Connor assures him that they need to get the x-ray and see what's up before they panic about it, which seems to make Liam feel a little better.
"It's not over yet," Connor promises, before he takes off. Scott hilariously turns around and does a terrible job of pretending to not be lurking, but Connor doesn't seem to notice. His guilt trip is cut off by the sound of his phone buzzing, and Scott checks it to see that it's Lydia. When he answers it, he can tell off the bat that something is wrong. "Where are you?" Lydia demands. "I couldn't call, I couldn't get away from the deputy." Scott immediately tries to calm her down, but she gets straight to the point-- Scott needs to get to the hospital ASAP, because that's where the last surviving member of the murdered family is. Scott informs her that he's already there, so Lydia orders him to go find Sean Walcott, though she doesn't explain to him WHY.
And, of course, Melissa has just peeked her head into Sean's room to ask him if he's awake, because Sheriff Stilinski is on his way to finally question him on what happened. She turns the light on and is startled to find that his bed is completely empty. When she fully enters the room to investigate, she finds the Sheriff's deputy who was stationed right outside his room lying dead on the floor in a smeared puddle of his own blood, as Sean crouches over him, furiously feeding on his intestines. ICK! NAST! I AM GAGGING. Melissa is horrified, naturally, but it's too late-- Sean has already seen her. "I couldn't help it," Sean explains anxiously through a mouthful of blood and guts. "I'm so hungry." He lifts his head to look at her, revealing glowing white eyes and row after row of jagged teeth, like a shark. "I'm JUST SO HUNGRY," he bellows. RUN MAMA MCCALL RUNNNN.
Scott is frantically looking for Sean on the second floor, and quickly rushes toward the elevator to try to catch it in time, but despite his desperate shouts, the elevator closes and leaves without him. He bolts for the stairs, just as Sean stands up to his feet and starts salivating at the sight of yet another human body on which to snack. "I think I'm ready to talk now," Sean states in a monotone voice, and though Melissa leaps for the door, he's still too fast for her. He lunges toward her and tackles her onto the floor, where she desperately tries to crawl into the hallway. Melissa is screaming bloody murder, like anyone in her position would, which is just what Scott needs to finally track Sean down.
Scott is already fully wolfed-out when he arrives and roars loudly at the starving wendigo, and though Sean kind of hisses back, Scott ultimately gets the desired response-- Sean decides that werewolf meat would be much tastier and drops Melissa in favor of wrestling with Scott. Scott has the upper-hand at first, but all it takes is Sean shoving his foot against Scott's abdomen to give him the leverage he needs to kick Scott across the hall. Damn, he is STRONG! I'm guessing feeding on fresh human probably helped him a bit in the strength department, yeah? Scott is stunned enough that it gives Sean the opportunity to run away, but before Scott goes after him, he stops to check on his mama. Melissa assures him that she's okay (the blood all over her is the deputy's, not her own), though she's clearly horrified, and she orders her son to "go get that son-of-a bitch!" Scott clenches his teeth and growls angrily before he runs to try to save the day.
(via teenwolf)
Just like every other time that a supernatural battle is happening, the hospital halls are completely abandoned (aside for that one scene in "The Divine Move" when the nogitsune brought the oni there to slaughter everybody; that was the one occasion where the hospital was FULL of people.) Liam limps his way into the hallway to see what all the commotion is about, and calls out, "Hey! Anyone hear that?" After he looks around, he nervously mutters that he thought he heard someone, just before he turns to find Sean standing right next to him, his face and white tshirt covered in blood. Liam gasps in horror as Sean growls menacingly at him, flashing his numerous sharp, pointy, blood-stained teeth. YIKES!
Meanwhile, Scott, still completely wolfed-out (luckily/conveniently for him, no one else seems to be around to see his exposed wolf face), rushes into the stairwell, where he finds a huge smear of blood on the wall. He suddenly hears shouting above him, so he hurdles the railing and takes the steps two or three at a time in effort to get there before someone gets killed. By the time he makes it to the roof, he finds Sean standing above him on a higher level, with his arm gripping Liam in a tight headlock. Scott growls at him, but when Sean just yells at him to stay back, Scott decides to shift to a kinder tactic. "You don't need to do this," Scott pleads. "Whatever it is, whatever you are-- we can help you!" Sean swears that he can't, but Scott once again begs him to let him help. "Wendigos don't need help!" Sean yells in response. "We need FOOD!" He lets go of Liam so he can spin him around, and is about to bite into him when Scott jumps alllll the way onto the next level of the roof, while Liam tries with all his might to get out of Sean's grip.
When Sean sees Scott approaching, he shoves Liam in the opposite direction, and Liam is unable to prevent himself from flying over the edge of the roof. He luckily manages to keep from falling completely by gripping onto the edge of the roof with his fingers, and when Scott sees him hanging precariously over the edge, he pushes Sean away so he can go help Liam before he falls. As soon as Scott grabs Liam's wrists so he can pull them up, Sean comes up behind him and starts pulling on Scott's arms, probably hoping that if Liam falls to his death, he'll be able to eat him. Or maybe it's just because he knows he can't win two-on-one. Scott tries desperately to keep hold of Liam's arms AND simultaneously keep Sean from hurting either of them, but the more the two struggle, the more Scott's grip loosens.
Sean eventually grabs both of Scott's arms free and pins them behind his back, forcing Liam to go back to holding onto the edges of the roof, his fingers already getting weak. Liam tells Scott that he can't hold on much longer in a desperate plea for a last minute save, but Scott's hands are quite literally tied, and he can't get them free from Sean's grip to help him. Finally, just as Liam's hand is about to slip off the edge of the roof, Scott leans forward and grabs Liam's wrist with his teeth before he can fall, biting as hard as he can to ensure that Liam won't slip free, probably hoping that worst case scenario, the bite will keep him from dying in the event that Liam ended up falling four stories.
Suddenly, there's the sound of something metallic being thrown in the air, followed by a THUNK, and Sean starts sputtering blood before he falls dead to the ground. Scott takes advantage of being freed by grabbing Liam's arms and quickly pulling him back onto the roof. When they turn around, they see the Mute, who had walked over to Sean's now-dead body to pull his military tomahawk out of Sean's back before he left. Scott, with Liam's blood still coating his lips, just gapes in shock as he catches sight of the Mute before he leaves. His dark eyes are still red-rimmed, and he brings his leather-gloved index finger to where his lips would be, if he had any, in the universal gesture that says "Shut up and don't say anything." While Scott stares, that weird buzzing/metal-clanging white-noise sound that always accompanies the Mute becomes almost deafeningly loud until the axe murderer finally disappears.
Once he's gone, the only sounds left to hear are Liam's cries of pain as he gingerly clutches his now-injured wrist to his chest. The reality of what Scott just did hits him all at once, and you can see by the pain in his eyes as he stares at Liam that his guilt complex has now hit nuclear levels. I mean, this is Scott McCall, who was bitten without his consent, who struggled with maintaining control and keeping his new condition from his mother, his classmates, and his girlfriend, who just so happened to come from a family of supernatural creature hunters. Scott McCall, who originally called the bite a curse, and who desperately sought a cure. Who has watched numerous friends die because of the supernatural. For a time, he thought the bite would ruin his life for good, and even now that he's accepted it and embraced his powers for the good things he can do with them (taking others' pain, protecting his mother and loved ones, etc), he still couldn't even bring himself to bite Stiles while he was possessed, out of fear that 1) Stiles didn't want it, and wasn't in the state of mind where he COULD consent to it, and 2) that he wouldn't live through it if he did.
So, now that he's finally bitten someone else-- which he never expected himself to do, especially not without their consent-- he's definitely going to be beating himself up about it, no matter how noble his intentions were at the time. I genuinely believe that Scott did what he did because he was sure that it was the only way to keep him from falling and dying. It was such a split second decision that he acted pretty much on pure instinct and was most definitely not considering the consequences-- all he wanted to do was make sure that Liam didn't fall to his death. And honestly, I'm pretty confident that Liam will end up loving being supernatural, regardless of whatever creature he ends up becoming, so in the end, it's all's well that ends well, but that definitely doesn't mean Scott won't feel guilty about it. This is definitely a game-changer, either way.
Next week, according to the promo: It's the first real (non-flashback) full moon since season 3A! Stiles helps keep Malia locked up for the night while Scott and the rest of the pack go to Lydia's lake house to help Liam with his first transformation, though whether he'll be a werewolf or something weirder remains to be seen! Also, Derek and the Mute do stuff.
[screencaps via Screencapped]
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NOTES/SPECULATION/QUESTIONS/CONCERNS (POTENTIAL SPOILERS ABOUNDS):
-So, is the Mute the Benefactor? Or is he working for the Benefactor? If that's the case, that would suggest that the computer code he was looking at could be a program or a website or something that has the deadpool list in it, somehow. My question is, if supposedly all of our heroes are on it, why wouldn't the Mute kill Scott while he had the chance? Could he have not known that it was Scott? Or maybe the kids aren't on the list yet? I'm just very confused by his motives, and also his abilities. I'm hoping we get a better idea about it in the next couple of episodes.
-While we're at it, why were the Walcotts targeted? I mean, they're wendigos and if they're not actively killing their meals (and I'm sure all of them have probably accidentally killed someone out of hunger at least once), then how did whoever made the list figure out their supernatural status? Kathleen is wondering if the Benefactor isn't on some kind of revenge/grudge killing spree, which would suggest that someone in the Walcott family did something to piss the Benefactor off, so if that's the case, what did they do? WE NEED MORE PLOT POINTS TO MAKE A PATTERN.
-It seems like money is continuing to be a theme throughout this season, and we just got more evidence of it this episode-- Stiles brought up his dauntingly expensive medical bills from last season, Scott mentioned that he didn't have enough money to pay for long-distance phone calls to France, Malia bet money at practice, which Coach totally took, and Noshiko pulled at least a half-dozen of what looked like silver bars out of a crate, which seemed pretty nuts to me, especially considering how expensive their house is and the fact that Noshiko and Ken wanted to sell it. It's definitely adding to the intrigue, and it's also making me feel super nervous/paranoid that some of our more financially-strapped characters are going to find out about the deadpool hit list and try to off someone on the list for some quick cash. On a somewhat-related tangent-- why doesn't Stiles use some of the stolen $150,000 dollars of Yakuza money to help with his bills? Or is that money earmarked for supernatural emergencies only?
-I am excited to see how Liam deals with being a werewolf/supernatural creature, and how Scott and the rest of the pack get along with him since he's officially tied to the McCall Pack now. But, I'm SUPER curious as to how he's going to keep it from his step-dad, since they seem pretty close, not to mention all of the non-pack kids at school. It's hard enough for the rest of them to keep their identities under wraps, so I'm guessing a newbie is probably not going to help matters at all. I'm hoping he ends up a regular werewolf, though, because we already have wayyyyy too many other supernatural creatures introduced at the moment who we still don't really understand yet, abilities-wise, so throwing in yet another obscure creature would just be weird. Plus, as it stands, there are only two werewolves in the pack, including Scott, so they could really use another beta. I want to believe that Malia (who is probably the closest thing to a werewolf we've seen, creature-wise) and Kira, as the supernatural animals, add to his power in the same way a beta does, but I'm not sure that it's true. Ditto for Stiles and Lydia-- I know Lydia is supernatural, but she isn't a shape-shifter, nor does she really have enhanced reflexes/strength/healing/etc, so for all intents and purposes she's still pretty much a human. I think that Stiles, Lydia and Allison all played a very huge role in Scott keeping connected to his humanity and being able to rise as a True Alpha, but I don't know if that actually translates to power in the same way a beta would, either.
-Can the pack bring Danny in on figuring out what the Mute's computer code is about? Because I think that would be a perfect way to utilize his character. Like, the pack still probably doesn't know that he knows what's up, so their made-up excuses to explain how they got the code and what it means would probably be pretty hilarious for all involved parties. Basically, MORE DANNY. The fact that we have had two school-heavy episodes, one of which was extremely lacrosse-heavy, and saw NO DANNY is seriously criminal. Are you seriously telling me that Danny wouldn't be at lacrosse try-outs? Sigh.
-WHY DO THE CALAVERAS WANT KATE SO BAD. I seriously want to know. Like, they're not sending Braedon to kill her, they're sending Braedon to capture her and bring her back to them. So, either they just really want to kill her themselves (which is possible, I guess, just to make sure she won't come back magically healed again, like the last time she "died"), or they need something from her, like information, or help, or something. So, if it's the latter, what could they possibly want? Would that tie into why the Calaveras had Talia's nails? Could my dreams of Kate being Malia's mother be true? I AM SO CURIOUS.
-Speaking of the Calaveras, do you think we should be expecting Araya to come hunt Scott's ass down, now that he's bitten his first werewolf? Because the more I think about it, the more confused I get. Back in "The Dark Moon," Araya informed Scott that his "next step" lies when he "takes the bite of an innocent" and makes himself a beta, and should that happen, she will come up from Mexico and march on over to his house, which does not seem to bode well. BUT, why wouldn't she want Scott to bite anyone? The Code doesn't seem to have any rules about alphas biting and turning people, because if they did, Peter and Derek would both be dead; Peter bit Scott, and without his consent at that, and Derek bit FIVE PEOPLE, one of whom was a hunter who killed herself, and another of whom became a kanima who murdered dozens of people under the control of two separate sociopaths. If neither of those warranted being shot with wolfsbane bullets and cut in half, then why would Scott be in trouble? Does Araya know that Scott is a true alpha? Could there be some kind of problem with whoever he ends up biting? Or maybe is she referring to if they died from rejecting the bite? I honestly have no idea, it's confusing me a tonnnn.
-I'm kind of getting a little worried about Lydia, you guys-- she seems to be getting even more banshee fugue states than she normally does, and aside from hanging out with Kira that one time, she doesn't seem to be spending a lot of her time with the pack, either. I just really worry that once again, everyone is going to get absorbed with their own lives that they don't notice that Lydia's being overwhelmed by these powers and abilities that she has no idea how to control or use. I seriously hope somebody, like Derek, or Braedon, or ANYONE, really, can point her in the right direction with regards to the full extent of her abilities. I think if they became something she could use voluntarily whenever she needs it would help her confidence a TON-- right now, she can't depend on being able to use her powers in a pinch when it counts, but she also can't guarantee that she won't end up in the wrong place at the wrong time when it comes to her banshee fugue states, either. I just want her to be able to feel confident that she's a useful member of the pack who is able to help whenever drama strikes.
...Ahem. I guess I should probably just start from the beginning, yeah? Let's talk about "Muted!"
Previously, on Teen Wolf: Scott got bitten by and turned into a werewolf, after which Stiles forbade him from using his wolf-abilities in lacrosse, because 1) that's how people, including hunters, figure out you're a werewolf, and 2) because it's totally cheating. Then, Scott started practicing hard and made captain of the lacrosse team. Stiles and Malia made out in the basement of Eichen House, which was Malia's first kiss, since she had spent the previous eight-ish years as a wild coyote. Lydia reminded Kira that she's a badass, katana-wielding kitsune who has Scott totally smitten, so much so that he kissed her the night she stayed over at his house when they were trying to catch Nogitstiles. Kate magically de-aged Derek to when he was a teenager, more specifically, to the place in his memories after he met her, but before she betrayed him by killing his entire family in the Hale fire. He managed to finally turn back to adult!Derek somehow, but part of him changed in the process-- his wolf eyes became gold, instead of their former blue. Kate convinced teenage!Derek to get into the Hale family vault for the triskelion coin, which she mistakenly believed would help her finally gain control over her werejaguar transformations, but someone took advantage of the open vault door and stole all of the inheritance money left for Derek, Peter (and Cora?), an astounding $117 million dollars in bearer bonds. Peter then realized that the robbery was actually a heist, something that someone had been planning for quite a while, which is (sort of) where we pick up today!
This week's scary cold open begins with a large, gorgeous house, presumably somewhere in Beacon Hills. It's pretty late at night, and a young, blonde teenage boy walks out onto the porch and down the front steps, looking a little tense, as he calls out for "Willow," who, we'll learn in a moment, is his pet cat. The boy (whose name is Sean Walcott) looks around his neighborhood for a moment, not seeing any sign of her, so after calling out for her one more time, he decides to head back inside his house. He walks into the foyer and locks the door while he yells upstairs, "Mom! I can't find her!" The house is silent while he wanders around the downstairs, turning off various lights, before he finally heads toward the steps. It isn't until he shouts upstairs a second time and gets no response again that he visibly becomes concerned about his alarmingly quiet house.
Sean eventually heads for the stairs, when he freezes at the bottom step, his finger hovering over the light switch on the wall, as though he senses something bad is afoot. He takes one last look around the room, listening for any sound that could indicate trouble, before finally calling out to his parents, wherever they might be, that he's going to bed. Sean still gets no response, but he flips off the light and slowly makes his way upstairs anyway, apparently assuming his parents have already gone to sleep. As he walks down the hall, there's this weird white noise in the background, kind of like the general buzzing of electricity, wind, nature sounds, and the noises old houses make as they settle, but louder, as if someone had turned up the volume. Sean still hasn't shaken off the feeling that something is up, but he can't find any evidence to the contrary, so he finally just sighs and enters his room, slamming the door shut behind him. He immediately strips off his shirt, throws it on the floor in typical teenager fashion, and flings himself upon his bed, ready to settle in for the night.
He's just about turn his bedside lamp off when he notices several dark reddish-brown stains on his light carpet, and instantly gets freaked out. Sucking in a breath, he leans over the edge of the bed and slowly peers underneath, clearly scared about what he's going to find. Fortunately for him, it's just Willow the cat! Sean breathes a sigh of relief and whispers a hello to his kitty, and asks her what she's doing under his bed. He grabs the lamp to hold it near the floor so he can get a better look at her, and is completely startled when he realizes that she is COVERED IN BLOOD. And, judging by her calm, almost aloof demeanor, it's clearly not her own blood, so where did it come from? Sean is so freaked out that he literally falls out of bed, and before he can even get onto his feet, he hears horrified, agonized screams coming from elsewhere in the house. It mainly sounds like a woman's voice, along with smashing glass and a bunch of loud thunks.
Sean is understandably terrified, but when he starts to hear more crashing and the shouts of several males who are quite obviously in pain, he steels himself and bursts out of his room and into the hallway. However, the second he opens his bedroom door, the noises stop instantly, and the house returns to the eerie silence from before. The hall is empty, which confuses Sean, until a large, bulky, visibly-strong man, wearing head-to-toe black combat gear, steps into Sean's line of sight from the room across the hall, with what looks like an axe in his right hand. Sean notices the blood soaking the blade of the axe and dripping onto the floor and wisely retreats back into his room. No sooner has he locked the door behind him that the axe the man was holding is thrown into the wood, the blade only just missing Sean's head by inches. From there, Sean rushes into his bathroom and locks that door behind him as well, only stopping to frantically rifle through the various drawers and cabinets for something he can use as a weapon.
Suddenly, Sean hears a slamming noise that sounds like a door being splintered into firewood by an axe, and becomes so overwhelmed by fear and anger that he practically starts hyperventilating. He keeps his attention on the door in front of him while he listens to the loud footsteps making their way toward the bathroom door. Our axe-murderer gently twists the doorknob before realizing that it's locked. The man (whose name isn't mentioned in the episode, but who is apparently known as "the Mute") uses a gloved hand to type on a keyboard strapped to his arm. Readers who are also in the TW Tumblr fandom-- were any of you involved in the "Who is the Benefactor?" game before the trailer was released? Because this keyboard was part of one of the clues, which leads me to believe that the Mute is likely working for the elusive Benefactor. I'll get into more of this later. ANYWAY, the keyboard seems to be linked to an electronic voice program, and the monotone voice speaks to Sean through the door.
"Hello, Sean," he begins, as Sean clenches his hands into fists inside the bathroom. "I just killed your family. Do you want to die like them? Begging for your life? Or, do you want to fight?" Sean is becoming more and more furious, as you can imagine, and it's obvious that he's torn between beating the fuck out of this guy and getting the hell out of dodge. "I'll give you some help," the Mute's lifeless electronic voice continues. "Wrap a towel around your fist. Smash the mirror. Use one of the shards to defend yourself. Go ahead. I'm waiting." Sean considers his options for a moment as he stares at himself in the mirror, and ultimately decides to grab a towel and wrap it around his fist, just like the Mute said.
Outside the bathroom, the Mute types, "Are you ready, Sean? Because here I come." He waits until he hears smashing glass inside the bathroom before he kicks the door down, ready to fight. However, he's about to be super disappointed, because once he gets into the room, it's completely empty. Instead of smashing the mirror, like he was instructed, he smashed the bathroom window and hopped out of it; the Mute just stood in front of the window and watched as Sean sprinted down the street, barefoot, shirtless, and covered in blood. Then, we finally get to see our axe murderer-- he is completely bald, with no hair, eyebrows, or eyelashes, and he has NO MOUTH-- just a smooth patch of skin where his mouth and oropharynx should be. Guess we know why he's called the Mute now, eh? TITLE CARD.
When we come back, we're at the loft, where Braedon sits down in a chair across from where Derek and Peter are sitting on a couch, and sets her feet on the coffee table. "That table's Italian," Peter snits, but Braedon just quips, "So are these boots!" as she gestures to her feet. They really are fabulous boots, too. As for the table, knowing Derek, it's probably IKEA, so I don't really know what Peter's talking about. (No offense to IKEA--I love IKEA furniture. I'm just saying antique Italian furniture that table is not.) Derek just laughs, because nobody likes Peter or cares about what he has to say. Braedon asks them if they want to continue to talk about fashion, or if they're actually going to talk about money, which is why she came here today. Peter sighs and looks over at Derek for back-up, but he's too busy staring at his reflection in a pair of aviator sunglasses (which, as much as I hate to say it, look suspiciously similar to the sunglasses Deucalion always wore when he was still blind.)
(via teen-wolf)
Peter scribbles down a number on a piece of paper and slides it over to her, but as soon as she sees it, she just side-eyes him, scratches out his number, and scribbles her own onto it before sliding it back. "We're hiring you to find Kate, not assassinate the President," Peter states after he reads her price, but Braedon makes an excellent point-- "I was hired by the Calaveras to find Kate. You're hiring me to find her first. Going AGAINST the Calaveras is what's gonna cost you." Considering the psychological and physical torture Araya and Severo put Derek, Peter, Scott, Lydia and Kira through solely in their effort to HELP them by pushing them to realize that Kate was alive, I can completely understand why Braedon would be insisting on a huge financial incentive to go against them. Though, on the other hand, it kind of worries me, because if she could be convinced to go against the Calaveras for the right price, then that means that someone who is willing to pay her more money than Derek and Peter could get her to go against THEM.
We all know that Peter is not exactly one for compromise, since he's more of a "give me what I want or I'll rip your throat out with my claws," kind of guy, but he's a little desperate, so he writes another number on the sheet of paper and shoves it to her again. Braedon doesn't even bother looking at it before she pushes it back, knowing that there's no way he wrote down a number close to what she's asking, which pushes Peter to the end of his patience. He immediately stands up and starts pacing, just as his equally impatient nephew tears the sheet of paper in half and assures her that they'll pay her whatever-- all they want is to find Kate. You can tell right away that this response does not please Peter, but Braedon seems satisfied, at least enough to leave and get started on her new job. Once she's bounced the premises, Peter slams the sliding loft door angrily and wastes no time making his feelings well know. "ARE YOU INSANE?" Peter demands exasperatedly. Derek replies somberly that they didn't have a choice, because they both spent the last week between this episode and "117" searching for Kate and came up with nada.
However, Peter is more concerned with who Kate told about the vault, because he's pretty sure THEY'RE the ones who actually robbed them, and he reminds Derek that if they can't figure that out, they're not gonna get a dime of that money back. "What do you think I'm gonna do then, huh?" Peter asks, getting more and more hysterical by the moment. "Get a job? My resume is SLIGHTLY out of date!" Actually, I'm pretty sure that the fact that he's likely legally dead is more of a problem than the fact that he's likely never worked a day in his life, but who knows, maybe that's what he's talking about. Anyway, he reiterates that they've been ROBBED, and grabs Derek roughly by the shoulder to turn him around to face him. Unfortunately, Derek's a little on edge since his return to the land of adulthood, and angrily grips Peter's wrist while roars in his face, sharp fangs and golden eyes and all. This is such an uncharacteristic demonstration of impulsiveness that it actually strikes fear in Peter's eyes. "Oh, that's a new look for you," Peter whispers anxiously. He asks Derek what the FUCK happened to his eyes, which I'm pretty sure we all want to know at this point, but Derek predictably has no idea. What he DOES know is that he's willing to pay money to find Kate and figure it out. Ohhhh, geez, this is SO not gonna end well. I don't know if Derek's golden eyes have anything to do with this brief loss of control over his temper, but either way, it's making me REALLY nervous, eeeep!
The next morning, Scott and Stiles are in work out gear and walking to the lacrosse field, where Stiles is assuring Scott that his team captain status is likely secured, since he got his grades up just like Coach asked him to alllll the way back in season 2 (which really was only like, 4-5 months ago, in Teen Wolf time.) Scott points out that Coach never exactly told him he was back on the team, though; he just invited Scott to practice this morning before the team has try-outs later. Stiles just kind of shrugs, because he figures they have more than enough problems right now, without having to worry over meaningless human teenager shit like lacrosse practice. He turns the topic to Chris, and asks Scott if he called him to fill him in on what's they've learned in the last week or so, but Scott admits that while he did text him to give him the particulars, Chris never got back to him.
Stiles makes this, like, record-screech move, and incredulously replies, "You told him his sister Kate came back from the dead over a TEXT?" Scott looks pretty sheepish, and confesses he doesn't have the funds to collect call Chris all the way in France, a sentiment with which Stiles can empathize, because he noticed that more bills for his MRI and his stint at Eichen House have been delivered in the last week, each of which were stamped "Final Notice." Stiles is so overwhelmed with the heap of shit they have to figure out, per usual, that he understandably asks Scott why the fuck they're even there, since their spots on first line/as team captain are not actually real problems for them right now. Oh, poor Stiles, shit is so about to get even worse. Scott gets distracted by something happening behind Stiles, and after a moment, Scott retorts that lacrosse is a real problem now.
When Stiles turns around, he sees various lacrosse players lobbing balls toward the goal, which is being guarded by this, like, lacrosse prodigy who doesn't miss a single shot, even despite the heavy volume being thrown his way. DJ Fresh vs Jay Fay (ft. Ms Dynamite)'s "Dibby Dibby Sound" plays as we watch new-boy Liam showing off with his super skills. Scott and Stiles are in awe, which, for Stiles, quickly turns into exasperated jealousy. "Who the HELL is that?" he demands loudly. Liam whips his helmet off in slow-mo and smirks a very Jackson Whittemore-like smirk. The other new lacrosse hunk, Garrett, is equally stunned by Liam's skills and goes as far as to say that he might become their first freshman captain. This hits Scott like a punch in the gut, and you can tell Stiles is feeling pretty jealous and territorial, too, because he suggests to Scott that they get out there and practice. Yeahhhhh, probably a good idea.
We cut over to the hospital, where Melissa is talking to a new doctor/administrator, who is none other than Connor Jordan, the super intense Brotherhood of the Five vampire-hunter from The Vampire Diaries who BEHEADED hybrids, jacked their werewolf venom, and ripped their earrings out with his teeth. This casting is kind of hilarious to me, to be honest, I love supernatural/fantasy drama revolving doors when it comes to actors. Plus, it's just hilarious that a guy who played a supernatural hunter just showed up to Beacon Hills, especially if he ends up being suspicious. Anyway, Melissa seems to be the nursing coordinator as well as the only nurse in the entire hospital, because she argues that the nursing staff is already spread too thin as it is. The new doctor (whose name I cannot find online for the life of me, so he's gonna be Connor Jordan until we figure it out) assures Melissa that he hates making cuts anywhere, but since they their hospital has been the site of multiple horrors as a result of their town having a Hellmouth, insurance isn't exactly thrilled about having to cover it. SO, they gotta cut back so they can cover the rest of the repairs.
She starts brainstorming aloud, and concedes that it's possible she could cut money from pediatrics, but Connor just tells her to go home and sleep, because her shift is over and her aura of exhaustion is becoming contagious. She argues that she needs to grab dinner first before she heads home, but Connor reminds her that it's actually 7am. LOL, oh Melissa. At first, I wondered why she would want to get food before she went home, rather than after, but maybe since Agent Douchenozzle seems to be sleeping on their couch these days, maybe she's just trying to avoid him? I would probably do the same. Just as Melissa is about to leave for the morning, the two are caught off guard by Sean, who has just rushed through the glass doors into the ER, leaving a big, bloody hand print behind. (Wait, what has he been doing all this time? Did it seriously take him 7-8 hours to run to the hospital from his house?) Sean barely makes it two steps into the ER lobby before he collapses on the ground, reaching toward Mama McCall and Connor with his blood-soaked hands. Welp, guess Melissa's night shift just turned into a double, eh?
Later, Melissa meets up with Sheriff in the morgue, where he has brought her to help him with his case. She slowly opens up a body bag so they can both see what's inside-- the bloody, hacked-up body of Sean's mother. Both Melissa and Sheriff look bone-tired, though not at all unaffected by the sight of yet another brutally murdered citizen of Beacon Hills. Melissa takes a deep breath and guesses that this is why Sean has been refusing to talk to the hospital staff psychologist. Sheriff agrees with that hypothesis, and adds that Sean is clearly going to be in shock for quite a while. Mama McCall asks if the three bodies on the autopsy tables were Sean's entire family, which Sheriff confirms; Sean was the youngest of two children, and his mother, father, and brother were all slaughtered, leaving Sean as the only family member who was able to get away.
"The question is," Sheriff admits with a sigh, "from what?" Melissa corrects him ("from WHO?"), because these people were not killed by claws and teeth-- their bodies are all covered in both deep cuts and blunt force trauma. Sheriff concedes that the medical examiner told him they were killed with an axe of some kind, but he wanted Melissa's take on it anyway, just to make sure they didn't have to involve their children. "If this is every day homicide, instead of the supernatural kind, then maybe we can give them the day off from the world of murder and massacres," Sheriff confesses sadly. Oh Sheriff, there is no ordinary murder in this town, you know this! "When do we get a day off?" Melissa asks, though there was a tiny, kind smile behind it to show him that she's not mad at him, just tired of being constantly exposed to gruesome death and violence. Poor Mama McCall and Papa Stilinski! It must be rough to have to stand back and let your young children protect you/the town instead of the other way around.
Over at the Yukimura household, Noshiko is pulling what looks like silver bars (???) out of a wooden box on an end table, as she calls out to Kira to get moving for school, since Papa Yukimura is waiting for her outside in the car. Kira rushes through the downstairs, flings her bag over her shoulder, and flounces out of their house (whose aesthetics I ADORE, I want to live there so badly) with hardly even a glance at her mother before she goes. Noshiko continues pulling out the silver bars, or whatever they are from the crate, which makes me both super suspicious and confused. Unfortunately, before I can think about it more, Kira suddenly stomps back into the house to voice her own concerns regarding a realtor's sign that had been put in their yard, while her dad follows closely behind her. "What is this?" Kira demands impatiently, as Noshiko plasters a fake smile on her face. "A 'For Sale' sign! It lets people know your house is for sale!" Kira frustratedly turns to look at her father, but gets no back-up-- he merely shrugs and insists that Noshiko was the one who said she would tell her. With the same fake smile, Noshiko reminds her daughter that they always said that the move to Beacon Hills was temporary-- she doesn't outright say that their entire purpose for coming was to slay the nogitsune, but it's definitely implied.
"That was AFTER you told me I was a kitsune and was going to have to destroy a dark spirit by stabbing and killing one of the few friends I've made in this town!" Kira argues, quite rightly, in my opinion, though Noshiko's response still cracks me up: "And you didn't have to! I call that a win!" I don't know--I mean, I'm clearly biased, because Kira is my thunder princess and I love the shit out of her and don't want her going anywhere, but SERIOUSLY! With her dad encouraging her to make more friends last season, followed by the bombshell about how Noshiko was actually almost a millenia old and had lied about her own and Kira's abilities for Kira's entire life, how can she expect Kira to want to leave now? She's just finally made friends who are supernatural like she is, and who are helping her come to terms with it, and even more, she's put down roots! It's kind of unfair to pull her out and take her back across the country now, when she's just finally gotten settled into her new life.
(via makos-lightningrod)
Kira insists that they are NOT moving back to New York, but Noshiko is like, "Why on earth would we stay in this infernal town? Your father is just lucky he hasn't been killed from all the time he spends in that school!" Kira hilariously suggests that Papa Yukimura's teaching skills are unparalleled and that Beacon Hills High School couldn't function without him, but he just as hilariously retorts, "In New York, I was a professor at Columbia." DAMN! Kira rolls her eyes and pouts, and reminds her mother of all the friends she would be losing by leaving; Lydia, Stiles, Malia... Noshiko fills in the blanks and brings up Scott, which doesn't really improve Kira's mood. Noshiko gently assures Kira that Scott isn't her first boyfriend, and he won't be hear last, either, but Kira just sighs and slumps her shoulders before muttering, "He's not my boyfriend."
Over in the locker room, Liam is getting changed after the team's pre-school lacrosse practice, where he's cornered by Stiles and Scott, the former of whom stares him down and sasses him, all, "Hey, bro. Where do you get your juice?" Naturally, Liam is like, "Pardon me?", so Stiles starts pointing out how he just mysteriously managed to be amazing at lacrosse and was showing off by catching every shot. His rambly, insecurity-fueled interrogation is even more enhanced by the amazing Judge Judy-style music in the background, it is HILARIOUS. Liam is still confused, because the whole point of a goalie is to not miss the shot, so he's not really sure why that's supposed to be suspicious, but Stiles will not be convinced that there isn't something weird about this kid. Scott takes a gentler approach, and asks if it's true that he's a freshman. Liam confirms it, but when Stiles points out that he wasn't here last semester, he admits that he transferred this semester from Devonford Prep.
Scott's not a newb when it comes to questioning people, though, and can tell by Liam's jumping heart rate that he's lying. "You transferred? [...] No, you got kicked out, didn't you?" Scott responds. Liam is both anxious from the intense interrogation and shocked that Scott called him out on his lie, but eventually confesses that yeah, he did get kicked out, but what does it matter to them either way? He swears that all he wants to do is to play on the team, and he figures that they need some new players after all the people they've lost, though Stiles vehemently denies it. Scott, unable to be mean about it, concedes that yeah, they do actually need some more good players, which earns him the stink-eye from Stiles for not backing him up.
Stiles sighs and changes tactics. "Alright, how did you get this good? Have you ALWAYS been this good? Or did it suddenly happen just once overnight?" he demands, ignoring the look Scott gives him at his aggressive technique. "Have you ever been out in the middle of the woods during the night of a full moon--" Stiles begins, before getting cut off by Scott, but before either of them can say anything else, Liam assures them that he was taught how to play lacrosse from his step-father, who made team captain when he was a sophomore, just like Scott, a compliment which makes Scott smile. "And yeah," Liam adds, as he picks up his bag and leans arrogantly toward Stiles, "I guess I'm just that good." Scott seems pretty endeared by his spunk, and cutely informs Stiles that he wasn't lying that time, but Stiles clearly still isn't a fan. To be honest, I'm not really either. He reminds me too much of Jackson, who was the only good/neutral character in the history of Teen Wolf who I haven't really liked in some way.
Malia is walking down the hall to class, looking pretty cheerful until she gets to the threshold of her classroom and sees a bunch of algebra problems written on the chalkboards. She's about to turn heel and run far for it, but Stiles ultimately appears right behind her and grabs her by the shoulders so he can shove her into the classroom with him. "I hate math!" Malia whisper-yells at him on their way to their seats. "It's pointless!" Stiles swears that school is very important, math included, because math teaches you how to calculate the tip at restaurants. Lydia, our resident mathematician, hears this slander of her best subject, and reminds her friends that it's also pretty essential for medicine, engineering, economics, but Stiles maintains that tipping is what counts, and gives her a wink. Lydia is NOT impressed, and just rolls her eyes.
The new math teacher, who is VERY pretty, and apparently called Mrs. Flemming, asks for volunteers to go up to the board and answer their homework questions, just before she totally disregards her own statement by choosing three students who hadn't even put up their hands: Lydia, Malia, and a kid named Diego. Malia eyes widen in fear as she mentions to the teacher that she didn't volunteer, but Mrs. Flemming seems to also be of the tough-love/no-sympathy for the fact that she hasn't been to school in eight years teaching method, and insists that she go up to the board to answer her question. Stiles, seated behind her, tries to be supportive by giving her a thumbs up to pep her up, but when she angrily growls at him for forcing her to come to class in the first place, he immediately backs off, because she's TOUGH and could claw him to shreds if she wanted. Up at the board, Malia gets as far as "x =..." before sighing and staring at the problem, as if she's willing her brain to tell her the correct answer. Lydia can sense her alarm, and asks her if she went over the notes Lydia gave her to help her study, but Malia replies that she didn't understand them either.
Lydia is surprisingly sympathetic, so after checking to make sure their teacher is properly occupied, she mutters, "X equals 25." Malia sighs in relief from Lydia's aid and gives her an appreciative look in response, but unfortunately for her, Lydia's not quite done yet. "And sweetheart? Put away the claws!" Malia looks down at the hand that is gripping the chalk, only to find that her blackened claws are out, and she quickly drops the chalk and shoves her hands in her pockets. Poor Malia! It seems like school is really causing her a lot of stress, although I'm thrilled that she's getting so much help from her new friends. Also, Lydia and Malia's outfits are really cute-- Lydia is wearing a lavender blouse with tiny white polka dots and a high-waisted navy blue floral skirt with heels, and her hair is full and curly. Malia is wearing a dusty pink/orange cardigan with a black cami and these fabulous black pants with flowers all over them and boots, with her long hair in a messy braid down her back. I seriously need all of the girls' wardrobes, which honestly, shouldn't be difficult since I'm pretty sure they get everything from Forever XXI, H&M and Macy's like real teenagers do. ANYWAY, Stiles' phone starts to buzz suddenly in his pocket, and he quickly pulls it out to find that he has received an alert for a breaking news bulletin for Beacon Hills, regarding the earlier triple-homicide of Sean Walcott's family.
After class, Stiles has met up with Kira and Scott, and is informing them about the "family-murdering axe-murderer" he learned about from his dad. Scott sheepishly admits that he already knows, because his mom called him after she saw the bodies in the morgue. Stiles proclaims this to be more than enough reason to ditch school to start investigating, but Scott interrupts him to remind him that they have to go to Econ. in five minutes. "Right. Did you forget the part about the family-murdering axe murderer?" Stiles asks incredulously, but Scott retorts that STILES seems to have forgotten that his own dad is the Sheriff, and he would want them all to stay out of it. Clearly, Scott is kind of dreading jumping back into yet another series of murderers that could end in one of them seriously injured or dead, AGAIN, and I can hardly say I blame him, tbh. If Allison wasn't safe, it must feel like none of them are.
Stiles can't believe that Scott doesn't want to do anything to figure out why an axe murderer brutally killed almost an entire family, but Kira is on Team Scott, and suggests that perhaps they let the grown-ups handle it this time. Scott gives him a guilty look of apology, but Stiles is just so stupified by their reactions. "So, the two of you, you just want stay here, school, go to class?" Scott gives him a weak look that screams, "Uh, DUH," to which Stiles just frustratedly replies, "I've never heard anything so irresponsible in my life!" before he flounces away. Scott calls out a reminder for him not to forget about try-outs after school, but Stiles only waves a hand in the air in acknowledgment.
(via teenwolf)
Somewhere relatively nearby, the Mute sits in a darkened room, wearing only his combat pants and a black tank top. He sits at a desk in front of a laptop, where he's clicking through pictures. He stops to pull a small metal plug out of his neck, which he sets on the table, and replaces with a tube that twists and locks into place. He then flips on a machine which sits next to his laptop, and which begins to to whir as it slowly pushes a thick liquid into his throat through his neck. The liquid looks really dark, which some people speculated was blood, but I'm thinking that this is actually Ensure or a similar food-replacement supplement, because he seems to be swallowing it. It doesn't look like any kind of feeding tube with which I've ever had experience, but this is Teen Wolf, so medical accuracy kind of goes out the window in favor of being cool/creepy-looking. It might also be like, jelly/jam, or some kind of sugar-water, as I've heard speculation that that sugar is what this guy needs to survive. Hopefully, we'll learn more details soon!
Anyway, as he presumably feeds on whatever is in the tube, the white laptop screen fills itself with a complicated code, without him even typing anything, and a loud, rattling noise increases in volume in the background. Is he some kind of psychic who also has magical abilities to manipulate technology with his mind? And is he the one who is making that weird rattling noise? At first, I thought he was called the Mute because he doesn't have a mouth, but maybe he also has the power to make you hear things, or to make you hear nothing buy silence? Either way, it is super interesting. I've also seen speculation that he's an astomi, who are apparently psychic beings who live on scents. I am intrigued, basically, and I hope we learn more about this guy's powers and motivations. I have some theories about his involvement with the elusive Benefactor, but I'll get into that more later.
At the Sheriff's Department, Sheriff Stilinski walks out of his office with Deputy Parrish, who he instructs to go keep an eye on the Walcott's house, by himself, and review the crime scene photos. "Don't blame me for the nightmares," Sheriff adds grimly. Parrish is worried that they're missing something, but Sheriff is worried about it, too, so Agent Douchenozzle has decided to help them out by providing an expert from Quantico who apparently specializes in axe murderers. Parrish assumes he means the US Marshal, but Sheriff Stilinski has absolutely no idea what or who he's talking about. They turn and look out in the bullpen, where Braedon is dressed in a business suit, holding up a fake US Marshal badge. "I called about the case file?" Braedon chirps to a nearby deputy. LOL. Oh Braedon, I love you so much.
Their bro time is cut off by the shrill sound of Coach's whistle as he summons all the kids to gather round before they head out to the field. "As a reminder," Coach Finstock shouts in his usual obnoxious fashion. "It's an open try-out today, all positions available. This is a rebuilding season, people! Jackson's gone, Lahey's gone. Greenberg--the only guy I actually WANTED gone-- was held back. Again." Wait, is this the first acknowledgment that Isaac left? Ouch. :( Coach waits a beat before screaming, "GET YOUR ASSES ON THE FIELD!" Scott is clearly fretting about the whole "all positions open" thing, especially after seeing what Liam can do this morning, and rushes over to Coach to ask him if he's still on the team this year. When Coach is like, "Duh, McCall," Scott asks if he's still in the same position as last year, but Coach just repeats "All positions open" again before heading toward the field. Of course, Liam overheard this entire conversation, and smirks when he realizes that this is his chance to beat Scott to make captain as a freshman.
Deniz Koyu's "Ruby [Original Mix]" plays as lacrosse practice begins, and the prospective team members are broken into groups to do various warm-up exercises that I can't identify because I live in Central Ohio, where there are rarely ever lacrosse teams in high school, and especially not in the winter/spring season. Malia and Kira settle in on the stands to watch their respective boys practice; Kira's holding Scott's spare lacrosse stick, while Malia is clutching her precalculus book, notes, and highlighters so she can continue to study. Coach blows his whistle and starts to time one group while they do laps around the field, and he drops progressively worse insults the slower the students are going. After Coach calls out, "Is that everyone?" in a bored voice, Stiles FINALLY makes it to the end of the lap, panting like crazy before ultimately collapsing onto the grass. Scott eventually makes his way over and helps him stand up while he catches his breath, which gives them both the opportunity to watch Liam, who is doing one-legged push-ups while everyone else sits around and takes a breather before they get back into practice. "He's inhuman! What is he, a werecheetah? Does that even exist? Is that a thing?" Scott suggests that maybe he really IS just that good, but Stiles is skeptical.
(via makos-lightningrod)
Kira has been sadly gazing at Scott while he practices, oblivious to her feelings for him, when Malia finally takes a deep breath and asks what's wrong with her. Kira nervously tries to feign normalcy, but Malia's like, "You reek of anxiety, and it's distracting." Kira continues to clutch onto Scott's lacrosse stick while she babbles the whole thing with Scott earlier, and how that something might have happened, but now she's worried that it's actually nothing, and you can tell Malia is just like, "What the fuck are you on about?" She eventually asks Kira what she wants with Scott, which makes her sigh deeply. "More," she admits, before frowning and drooping her shoulders as she props her chin on the top of the lacrosse stick. Aw, Kira! Scott's just a little clueless sometimes, when he allows himself to be, for a change.
Stiles is attempting to scoop up a lacrosse ball with his stick, but he just keeps fumbling, ultimately grabbing the ball in his hand and dropping it into the net himself as the rest of the team sniggers behind him. He steps up to the line so he can practice his shots, and DAMN, Dylan O'Brien is way more buff than he's given credit for, because you can see all his muscles when he throws the ball toward the net. Unfortunately, the ball just goes straight into the goalie's net without him even trying to catch it, and the rest of the team laughs at him again. Damn, I forgot how mean jocks can be. High school blows. Liam gives him this look, like, "Way to go, sucka!" which earns him a glare in response. "No Defense Remix" by Noone plays, just as Stiles joins Scott at the back of the line and hopefully suggests that perhaps Liam is only good as goalie, but when Liam makes his first shot and easily makes it into the goal, Scott and Stiles quickly realize that no, he's just preternaturally good at lacrosse. Coach is so thrilled to have a Jackson-level lacrosse star again that he literally jumps in the air and yells in delight.
"I hate this kid!" Stiles snits, as he continues to glare at Liam, but Scott, ever the peacekeeper, maintains that they don't have to hate him, since the team does need new players. "What about team captain?" Stiles retorts, and it must have the desired effect from Stiles, because Scott, clearly not fond of that possibility, rushes up so he can ditch someone in line to make his own shot. There's also this one player standing near Scott with a long ponytail and a goatee who looks about as old as Derek is, and I'm not for one second buying he actually of high school age. Scott scoops up a ball in his net and spins his stick in his hand a couple times before he gets a running start and shoots confidently. Both Stiles and Kira are obviously sure that his shot is going to be perfect, but in actuality, it hits the side of the goal and bounces away. OUCH. Garrett, the other new face, jokes about Scott's whiff, but Stiles naturally defends his honor and yells at him to shut up. Savant's "Stargate" plays as we get a montage of the main boys playing. Liam makes every shot that he attempts, of course, while Scott's performance worsens with every move, which does nothing but make him more frustrated and embarrassed. Kira, disheartened, asks Malia, "Isn't the captain supposed to be one of the best players on the team?" She pauses, before adding, "Or good?" DAMN! Poor Scott is getting it from all sides today. I honestly don't blame him at all for being so terrible at lacrosse right now, though-- it's been almost a year since the last time he played, and he's obviously had way more important things to do than practice his shots, you know?
Stiles catches up with Scott, who is beyond frustrated at this point, and asks him what the fuck his deal is today. Scott claims it's an off-day, but Stiles insists that he's actually dying out there, adding, "I feel actual physical pain watching you!" This does nothing to lift Scott's spirits, so he points out that Stiles isn't exactly making a ton of shots, but Stiles argues that he's always been a shitty lacrosse player, so it's expected of him, but not of Scott-the-Alpha-and-Captain. Scott reminds him that on the field, he's a human, so as to not attract the wrong kind of attention, but Stiles thinks he needs to tap into an itty-bitty amount of wolf power to make Human Scott not suck so bad. Scott isn't keen on the idea, because he thinks of it as cheating, which Stiles totally knows, but he thinks Scott should make an exception this time. "It's just, I hate seeing this little freshman come in and steal all your glory after you worked your tushie off. I hate it!" LOLOL FOREVER. God, I love Stiles so much. Scott insists that Liam isn't stealing all the glory, just as Liam makes yet ANOTHER shot and Coach and the rest of the team all whoop in awe as he makes his way to the end of the line. Stiles gives Scott a loaded look, and Scott's jealousy gets the better of him as he glares at the kid, his red alpha eyes sparkling.
After the break, Coach screeches his whistle again and assigns Stiles and Scott to grab goalie sticks and cover the goal for two-on-ones. While they're taking their places and getting their helmets, Stiles suggests that since they don't know Liam isn't a werewolf (or similarly-boosted werecreature), so if Scott used his own powers, he would only be cheating the cheaters, which seems justified. Scott's skeptical, though, because he figures he would have sensed his werewolfiness by now if he was one. Stiles suggests that Scott needs to get closer, but he figures he'll be getting his chance soon enough when he sees Liam glaring at him from across the field. Coach blows the whistle, and Garrett runs toward them to make a shot, but Stiles and Scott actually work really well together, and easily block him. "That's my boys!" Coach crows, as Kira fist-pumps in excitement in the stands. Stiles and Scott are shocked that they actually did it for once, and high five, while Garrett sulks. "Those two are like sons to me!" Coach brags to the other younger players around him. LOLOL. Oh, Coach.
Stiles gives Scott a little wink, and the two quickly and easily manage to take down every guy who comes their way, and during one of their celebratory chest-bumps, Stiles takes it too hard and ends up flying backwards in one of the most comical moments of the episode. Dylan O'Brien must seriously constantly be bruised, because he is SO. FLAILY. It's finally Liam's turn, and he must have Stiles' number, because he starts waving his stick back and forth through the grass to distract him before he rushes toward the goal. Despite Scott's heightened senses, Liam is still able to dodge both of them and make the shot, which is enough to get Malia's attention. "That was luck!" Malia screams angrily from the stands. "Do-over!" Stiles gets so embarrassed, which is adorable, but Coach is just, like, "Ha, that's cute, but there are no do-overs in practice." Malia insists she's willing to put $10 down on Scott and Stiles to block him a second time, which is a bet Coach happily takes. Maybe he's still trying to save up money to deal with his medical bills from getting shot in the gut in Nogitstiles' trap? Who knows. She smiles, satisfied, as Coach yells at Liam to get back in and try it again, which visibly alarms both Scott and Stiles.
(via stiles-stlinski)
The boys each return to their positions, all of whom are very tense. Liam in particular looks especially pissed, and for a second I actually thought he might be a supernatural creature who managed to hide it from them who was quickly having difficulty keeping a lid on his temper. But nope, he's just insecure, much like Jackson. Scott's own insecurity gets the better of him again, and he growls a bit under his breath as the whistle blows, indicating that it's time for Liam to run. Stiles jumps into the air to block Liam, and though Liam was just barely able to dodge him, it gave him no time to dodge Scott's own tackle. When Liam makes impact with Scott, he flies over Scott's shoulders and lands flat on his back with his limbs splayed at weird angles. I was sure it was going to be his shoulder, just like with Jackson in the first season, but instead it was his ankle. Coach yells at everyone that no one should touch or move him, but Liam insists that he's fine and pushes himself to his feet. Unfortunately, he spoke a little too soon, because once he stands up, he crumbles and is only saved from falling by Scott's quick reflexes. It's obvious just by looking at Scott's face that he feels SO, SO, SO GUILTY. Just wait, lobito, you're going to feel SO MUCH GUILTIER here in a couple hours. Stiles runs around and puts Liam's other arm around his shoulder to help support him, while Scott volunteers the two of them to take Liam to the nurse's office to have her check him out.
Coach is PISSSSSSED that they already injured their sure-to-be star player before try-outs were even over, so pissed that as he watches the boys hobble away, he grabs a lacrosse ball off the ground and lobs it away in anger. He wasn't exactly aiming in any particular direction, and the ball ends up flying toward for Malia's forehead as she obliviously stresses over her math homework. Just before the ball makes contact with Malia's skull, Kira demonstrates her lightning-fast (pun intended) kitsune reflexes by using Scott's spare lacrosse stick to catch it, sparing poor Malia an unnecessary concussion. Woooo, Kira! Coach had gasped in horror when he realized it was going to hit Malia, so when it doesn't, he's super impressed by Kira's skills. He orders her to throw it back to see how she does, and while the shot is excellent and forceful, her aim could use some work, because she accidentally throws it so hard that he hits Coach square in the stomach and knocks the wind out of him. He's still majorly impressed though, and manages to gasp, "Someone ask her if she's ever played lacrosse!" to one of the nearby players.
(via teenwolf)
YASSSS KIRA! KIRA YUKIMURA FOR TEAM CAPTAIN! (✿◠‿◠) KIRA YUKIMURA FOR PRESIDENT OF THE WORLD! (｡♥‿♥｡) KIRA YUKIMURA! (~￣▽￣)~
Meanwhile, Deputy Parrish is chilling outside the Walcott's home in his Sheriff's deputy cruiser for security purposes, and examines the crime scene photos while he tries to figure out any reason why someone would want that family dead. He sighs and gives himself a break from the gruesome murder photos by taking a look around the neighborhood. He notices a shadowy figure pass in front of the glass door inside, and immediately reaches for his sidearm and rushes into the house to investigate who the mysterious intruder may be. "Beacon County Sheriff's Department," Parrish shouts, after he walks in through the front door. "This is a crime scene! Show yourself!" Parrish jerks when he sees someone approaching and reflexively aims his gun at them until he realizes who it is-- our banshee queen Lydia Martin, who, naturally, was drawn to the house in one of her usual fugue states-- and breaths a sigh of relief when he realizes that she's not a threat. Then, it hits him that, hello, she's totally not supposed to be here, and he just stares at her. She stares at him right back, wide-eyed in shock and fear and also a little bit of guilt, like, "Yeah, this is somehow both not what it looks like and exactly what it looks like, all at the same time."
Back at the loft, Derek is looking through the files of the Walcott murders that Braedon has helpfully provided for him via her US Marshall cover. She's changing out of her fancy suit and back into her black leather pants and tank top, while Derek, ever the gentleman, has politely turned his back to her so as to not watch. "There's nothing in here about Kate," Derek points out as he skims the report. All he's getting from the report is that the killer used an axe, but Braedon corrects him. "Actually, he used a military tomahawk." Derek complains about that detail not being in the report, and correctly guesses that she knows something she's not telling him, though she insists that she doesn't know much about what's going on yet. "The problem is, the people I need to talk to right now, don't talk to people like you," she informs him, as she leans toward him across Derek's table. Derek, surprisingly, flirts as good as he gets, and asks if he's just supposed to wait for her, though she replies that she needs him to trust her.
As we all well know, Derek trusting women has never worked out in his favor, so he's not exactly inclined to trust this girl, especially since it's sort of hard to trust someone who's loyalty can be bought. They each lean in closer, and Braedon admits that she knows Derek, and knows what he really wants. He's speechless, and just looks her in the eyes with a serious face, before she starts to slink toward him on the other side of the table. "You want what Kate stole from you," Braedon purrs. "Briseann an dúchas trà shúile an chait. It means, 'the true nature of someone is reflected in their eyes.' In your case, the color of your eyes." Actually, it's an Gaelic saying that literally translates into, "Heredity breaks out in the eyes of a cat," but I get where she's going with this.
(via teenwolf)
Derek continues to be speechless, which is pretty typical for Derek, and he thinks hard for a moment while Braedon walks across the loft to pick up her jacket. He sees her shotgun laying on the table and tosses it toward her with his concession-- he's allowing her a week to get the information she needs, if she wants her money. Braedon just gives him a look before throwing her jacket over her shoulder and strutting out of the apartment. Damn, that was hot! I know that one of the season trailers had a short clip of what looked like the two of them making out, so I'm seriously hoping that it was, and they end up hooking up, at least once. On the other hand, I'm a little concerned that Braedon could be bought by someone richer (say, the person who stole the Hale inheritance) to take out our heroes.
Outside the locker room, Kira is sitting on the steps waiting for Scott, with what I'm hoping is her very own lacrosse helmet, smiling. Scott runs out a moment later and apologizes for making her wait so long, and admits that he and Stiles are going to have to take Liam to the ER, because they don't know if he broke or just sprained his ankle. Kira kindly assures him that she gets it and suggests that they can talk later. Scott isn't quite sure what to say, and the awkwardness between the two after what happened earlier is palpable while Scott tries to search for some words. "And, I'm sorry about before. Before-before, when I did that thing in the hallway." Kira winces awkwardly before shaking her head and passively insisting that all is 100% fine, though Scott insists that he had no intention of making things awkward and/or weird. He apologizes once more, and when Kira just smiles and nods in response, he loses his nerve and turns to leave, because when it comes to girls he really is kind of dumb sometimes.
She sadly watches him walk back into the locker room, and sighs inwardly as she laments not having the nerve to be honest with him. "Stakes" by Vancouver Sleep Clinic (which seems to be a band that the music director seems to love playing during Scott/Kira scenes) plays as Kira sits her helmet on the step and considers what to do next. Before she has time to make a decision, Scott rushes back out of the locker room, quipping, "You know what? I'm not sorry!" before sprinting toward her and kissing her, Disney-Prince-style. It's seriously the cutest thing, and you can tell Kira is just SO HAPPY because she can't help but smile while she's kissing him. When they pull away, Kira is beaming, and she chirps, "Text me later?" She's basically perfect for him, tbh.
(via teenwolf)
At the Walcott's house, Lydia leads Parrish into the other room to have what is probably the cutest and flirtatious conversation ever. Seriously, what is with everyone having dynamite chemistry this week? It's actually insane.
LYDIA: "I would try to explain it, but I've never gotten a satisfactory explanation myself."
PARRISH: "Just an unusual habit of showing up in places where people have been brutally murdered?"
LYDIA: [spins around quickly and stares] "Are you saying I have a reputation?"
PARRISH: "An unusual one! [beat] Maybe you're psychic?"
LYDIA: [sarcastic] "Now, don't tell me you believe all that."
PARRISH: "I'd like to say I don't believe in anything. But, I keep an open mind."
(via teenwolf)
I do think that everyone who has suggested that Lydia is psychic is onto something, because I think that actually does play into her powers, aside from the banshee wail, the extra-heightened hearing when it comes to vibrations, and the banshee fugue states that lead her to dead bodies. It's why she drew the Nemeton, and why the math notes she wrote out for Malia ended up not being math notes at all. Also, I'm pretty sure Parrish's "open mind" and reasoning for saying that he doesn't want to believe in anything comes from all of the bizarre supernatural shit he's witnessed since he came to town: an evil fox who looked like his boss' son that ran around town blowing things up; a triple-massacre at the Sheriff's Department, the animal clinic, and the hospital, where he himself was wounded with an oni's blade that ended up magically healing hours later, etc. There's no way he's not suspicious about what's going on in this town. One part of me thinks that he's just a regular human who is eventually going to figure it out, but otherwise has no connection to it; another part of me worries that he's a hunter who is just pretending to be clueless; and yet another part of me wonders if he's not some kind of supernatural being who otherwise has no connection to the drama and is trying to figure who he is and how his powers work. All of them seem like likely enough theories, considering the little we know about him. Either way, something is going on with that boy!
"But, if you're looking for dead bodies, I think you're a little late," Parrish adds, which makes me kind of nervous, since that's a pretty specific thing to ask, isn't it? I kind of scoffed at the theory that Parrish was a banshee at first, too, but now that I think about it more, could there be a chance those people are onto something? I really want more Meredith, though, if we're bringing in more banshees, so I don't want Parrish to be a banshee at her expense. :/ BUT I'M TORN BECAUSE I REALLY LIKE PARRISH AND WANT TO SEE MORE OF HIM. ANYWAY, Lydia's distracted by the wooden wall in front of her, the wood grain of which looks like screaming faces, just like in "Motel California;" as she stares at them, you can hear what sounds like the faces screaming loudly in the distance. OH SHIT. So are the faces really there? Or is it a neurological thing, like a hallucination related to her banshee powers that is alerting her to the presence of death? Or, what if it's the other banshees trying to communicate with her??? Are we ever going to get answers to these questions? God, I hope so.
Lydia lays a shaky hand on the wood panel and presses hard, which causes the panel to pop open like a door, releasing foggy cold air that definitely unnerves Deputy Parrish. Lydia anxiously pulls the heavy door open for Parrish, who has his sidearm up and ready, along with a flashlight. He then heads through the door to lead Lydia, a teenager who isn't anything like a fellow police officer (well, actually she's way more qualified than Parrish is, but he doesn't know that yet, as far as we know), into a hidden hallway. The hall is dark, scary, and freezing, judging by the way Lydia is rubbing her arms. They eventually approach a doorway, which covered in long strips of plastic in place of an actual door. After checking to make sure Lydia is okay (which, of course she is, this isn't even the weirdest or grossest thing she's encountered yet), the two head into the room, where he flips a light switch to finally get an idea of what they're dealing with, here.
Needless to say, they are completely shocked at what they find: row after row of plastic bags wrapped around hangers that are suspended from the ceiling. It seriously looks like a morgue's cold storage, or the walk-in freezer of a butcher's shop. When Deputy Parrish realizes that there is no one
This was the point that I was sure that the Walcotts were wendigos-- I wonder how they got away with it for so long? Did one of them have a convenient career as a coroner or something, or were they killing people? Stealing bodies from caskets? Maybe they just ate all of the unfortunately souls who died in the various supernatural attacks in the town? Who really knows? The fact that this family of cannibals was just living quietly in this supernatural-being-infested town, just eating dead humans on the sly and not arousing anyone's suspicions is kind of hilarious to me, to be honest. I mean, they had a fucking pet cat! And it seems like Sean was just an average high school student who just so happened to subsist on human flesh.
Speaking of the Walcotts, our lone survivor, Sean, has been all bandaged up by Mama McCall, who has also brought him a plate full of carrots, peas, and mashed potatoes, with jello for dessert. She takes his vitals and asks him if he's sure that he's not in the mood to eat anything, but he insist that he's not hungry before he rolls over in bed. Melissa assumes that he's just overwhelmed by grief and doesn't push it; she just reminds him that there's a Sheriff's deputy outside the door to make sure he's safe and leaves him alone with his thoughts. Once she's gone, we get a look at his face as he tightly grips onto his pillow, and he looks like he's in pain and/or on the verge of crying/screaming. Regardless, he looks like he's having a hell of a time, that's for sure. Melissa returns to the lobby, only to find her guilty-looking son with Stiles, who is helping him hold up the injured Liam. "Uhhhh, hey, Mom!" Scott begins awkwardly, in greeting.
Liam looks like he's about to cry himself while Melissa gets him situated into a wheelchair so she can take him back to his room. Since she's Melissa the super-compassionate nurse, she assures him that they're all going take good care of him. Scott still looks like he feels terrible, and Stiles seems to be sensing Scott's anxiety, because you can tell he's not thrilled with the idea of leaving him. He admits to Scott that he has plans to help Malia study, and, of course, Scott's totally cool with it, and assures him he'll be fine-- he just wants to stay and find out how badly Liam is injured before he goes home. Stiles is about to head for the door before he hesitates and turns back to check on his brother. "Hey, I don't need to say this wasn't your fault, do I?" Stiles asks with concern. Scott says he doesn't know, which pushes Stiles into the most perfect best-friend mode there is. "Scott, if you had used any wolf-power, that kid wouldn't be limping, he'd be crawling... back to the other half of his body!" Scott reminds him that had he not gotten over his head with jealousy, he wouldn't be hurt at all, so that doesn't really do much to make him feel better about what happened.
(via rodens-holland)
"It's okay to want something for yourself once and awhile," Stiles insists. "Team captain, alpha werewolf... you're still only human." He claps Scott comfortingly on the shoulder before he takes off. YES, STILES, YES! I swear Scott needs to be reminded about this for literally everything, because ever since he was turned into a werewolf and assumed responsibility for every single person involved in the supernatural world, he so often forgets about himself, and that he deserves to be happy just as much as anyone else. (And also, that he's no good for helping anyone else out if he's not taking card of himself as well.) And honestly, Stiles is the best person to tell him this, because if he's going to believe anyone, it will be his bestest buddy. That's what they do-- Scott supports Stiles, and Stiles supports Scott, because they're brothers, and they love each other. That's not to say that EVERYONE in Pack McCall needs this lesson once and a while, because they totally do, but I think Scott probably needs it most of all due to his inability to not take on everyone's problems on his shoulders. So, I'm glad he finally got this pep talk, for once.
Over at the Yukimura residence, Noshiko has set out fliers on a table for the sale of their house (for the curious-- the house is at 17106 Sate Boulevard, Beacon Hills, CA 95921, and is going for $659,00, which is a pretty decent chunk of change, even for upstate California), along with plates full of fruit and veggies to snack on. As it turns out, Papa Yukimura's name is Ken, which we learn when Noshiko calls out for him to ask him why no one has shown up for their open house. "I think I know why," Ken replies, as he holds up the 'For Sale' sign, which appears to have been chopped into pieces by Kira's magical katana. YESSS! Get it, girl! Kira is in her bedroom, where she's spinning her lacrosse stick like she's swordfighting. She hears her mom yell, "KIRA!" and she stops, just long enough to smirk, before she gets back to practicing. God, she's gonna be such a badass lacrosse player! I AM SO EXCITE.
Meanwhile, over at the Stilinskis' house, Malia and Stiles are sprawled out on his bed, both of them pretty absorbed in their studies, while "I Could Love You More" by the Miracals plays in the background. Malia gets bored of math pretty quickly and instead decides to hop on Stiles so she can straddle and kiss him. Stiles is totally into it, natch, because he's a horny teenage boy, but the part of him that really cares about Malia's wellbeing kicks in and stops her, because he thinks they should actually try to study a little bit before they get back to the macking. Malia isn't thrilled to be cock-blocked like this, but she reluctantly returns to her work after a moment. They are seriously so cute together, and have such amazing chemistry, that it actually hurts my heart a little bit to watch, tbh. It's probably because my boyfriend is all the way across the world on deployment for the nearish future and I am a Jealous Jenny when it comes to any couple getting to be cute with each other in the same location. Just as Malia is flipping back to the page she was working on in her book, Stiles sees all her highlighters and asks her what they're all about.
"Green is for
Stiles claims they're only good at math because they all use genius!Lydia's notes, so Malia jokes that someone is going to have to take notes on Lydia's notes, because she's just not getting it. Stiles frowns in confusion and starts flipping through Lydia's notebook, when he notices a bunch of gobbledegoop written over like, two or three whole pages, front and back. He asks her if these are the notes Lydia wrote for her, which Malia confirms. GEEZ! No wonder Malia wasn't getting it, LOL. Stiles points out that that is most certainly not math, though he doesn't know that this looks almost exactly like the computer code we just saw on the Mute's laptop earlier. Luckily, Stiles is smart enough to know that when Lydia mindlessly writes something down, it's usually important, so I'm hoping he'll be able to bring this to the pack's attention sooner rather than later.
Over at the hospital, Dr. Connor Jordan is gently examining Liam's super-swollen and bruised ankle while Liam pouts and tries not to cry. He assumes that it's broken, but Connor isn't sure, and says that they need an x-ray to figure it out. "It's broken and it's my fault," Liam mutters as he continues to sulk, so Connor asks him what happened. Liam gets into his story while Scott paces around and pretends like he's not eavesdropping outside of their room. "I went up against two juniors," Liam begins. "One of them was captain of the team." Scott begins to feel even MORE guilty, because clearly Liam got just as carried away as he did with showing off, and Connor reveals that he is Liam's STEP-DAD (the one who taught him lacrosse) while he reminds Liam that they always talked about it's best to play smarter, not harder. Liam's sure that Connor is now mad at him, but Connor promises he isn't--he's more afraid that Liam's mom is going to be mad at HIM for getting Liam into lacrosse in the first place. Even still, Connor assures him that they need to get the x-ray and see what's up before they panic about it, which seems to make Liam feel a little better.
"It's not over yet," Connor promises, before he takes off. Scott hilariously turns around and does a terrible job of pretending to not be lurking, but Connor doesn't seem to notice. His guilt trip is cut off by the sound of his phone buzzing, and Scott checks it to see that it's Lydia. When he answers it, he can tell off the bat that something is wrong. "Where are you?" Lydia demands. "I couldn't call, I couldn't get away from the deputy." Scott immediately tries to calm her down, but she gets straight to the point-- Scott needs to get to the hospital ASAP, because that's where the last surviving member of the murdered family is. Scott informs her that he's already there, so Lydia orders him to go find Sean Walcott, though she doesn't explain to him WHY.
And, of course, Melissa has just peeked her head into Sean's room to ask him if he's awake, because Sheriff Stilinski is on his way to finally question him on what happened. She turns the light on and is startled to find that his bed is completely empty. When she fully enters the room to investigate, she finds the Sheriff's deputy who was stationed right outside his room lying dead on the floor in a smeared puddle of his own blood, as Sean crouches over him, furiously feeding on his intestines. ICK! NAST! I AM GAGGING. Melissa is horrified, naturally, but it's too late-- Sean has already seen her. "I couldn't help it," Sean explains anxiously through a mouthful of blood and guts. "I'm so hungry." He lifts his head to look at her, revealing glowing white eyes and row after row of jagged teeth, like a shark. "I'm JUST SO HUNGRY," he bellows. RUN MAMA MCCALL RUNNNN.
Scott is frantically looking for Sean on the second floor, and quickly rushes toward the elevator to try to catch it in time, but despite his desperate shouts, the elevator closes and leaves without him. He bolts for the stairs, just as Sean stands up to his feet and starts salivating at the sight of yet another human body on which to snack. "I think I'm ready to talk now," Sean states in a monotone voice, and though Melissa leaps for the door, he's still too fast for her. He lunges toward her and tackles her onto the floor, where she desperately tries to crawl into the hallway. Melissa is screaming bloody murder, like anyone in her position would, which is just what Scott needs to finally track Sean down.
Scott is already fully wolfed-out when he arrives and roars loudly at the starving wendigo, and though Sean kind of hisses back, Scott ultimately gets the desired response-- Sean decides that werewolf meat would be much tastier and drops Melissa in favor of wrestling with Scott. Scott has the upper-hand at first, but all it takes is Sean shoving his foot against Scott's abdomen to give him the leverage he needs to kick Scott across the hall. Damn, he is STRONG! I'm guessing feeding on fresh human probably helped him a bit in the strength department, yeah? Scott is stunned enough that it gives Sean the opportunity to run away, but before Scott goes after him, he stops to check on his mama. Melissa assures him that she's okay (the blood all over her is the deputy's, not her own), though she's clearly horrified, and she orders her son to "go get that son-of-a bitch!" Scott clenches his teeth and growls angrily before he runs to try to save the day.
(via teenwolf)
Just like every other time that a supernatural battle is happening, the hospital halls are completely abandoned (aside for that one scene in "The Divine Move" when the nogitsune brought the oni there to slaughter everybody; that was the one occasion where the hospital was FULL of people.) Liam limps his way into the hallway to see what all the commotion is about, and calls out, "Hey! Anyone hear that?" After he looks around, he nervously mutters that he thought he heard someone, just before he turns to find Sean standing right next to him, his face and white tshirt covered in blood. Liam gasps in horror as Sean growls menacingly at him, flashing his numerous sharp, pointy, blood-stained teeth. YIKES!
Meanwhile, Scott, still completely wolfed-out (luckily/conveniently for him, no one else seems to be around to see his exposed wolf face), rushes into the stairwell, where he finds a huge smear of blood on the wall. He suddenly hears shouting above him, so he hurdles the railing and takes the steps two or three at a time in effort to get there before someone gets killed. By the time he makes it to the roof, he finds Sean standing above him on a higher level, with his arm gripping Liam in a tight headlock. Scott growls at him, but when Sean just yells at him to stay back, Scott decides to shift to a kinder tactic. "You don't need to do this," Scott pleads. "Whatever it is, whatever you are-- we can help you!" Sean swears that he can't, but Scott once again begs him to let him help. "Wendigos don't need help!" Sean yells in response. "We need FOOD!" He lets go of Liam so he can spin him around, and is about to bite into him when Scott jumps alllll the way onto the next level of the roof, while Liam tries with all his might to get out of Sean's grip.
When Sean sees Scott approaching, he shoves Liam in the opposite direction, and Liam is unable to prevent himself from flying over the edge of the roof. He luckily manages to keep from falling completely by gripping onto the edge of the roof with his fingers, and when Scott sees him hanging precariously over the edge, he pushes Sean away so he can go help Liam before he falls. As soon as Scott grabs Liam's wrists so he can pull them up, Sean comes up behind him and starts pulling on Scott's arms, probably hoping that if Liam falls to his death, he'll be able to eat him. Or maybe it's just because he knows he can't win two-on-one. Scott tries desperately to keep hold of Liam's arms AND simultaneously keep Sean from hurting either of them, but the more the two struggle, the more Scott's grip loosens.
Sean eventually grabs both of Scott's arms free and pins them behind his back, forcing Liam to go back to holding onto the edges of the roof, his fingers already getting weak. Liam tells Scott that he can't hold on much longer in a desperate plea for a last minute save, but Scott's hands are quite literally tied, and he can't get them free from Sean's grip to help him. Finally, just as Liam's hand is about to slip off the edge of the roof, Scott leans forward and grabs Liam's wrist with his teeth before he can fall, biting as hard as he can to ensure that Liam won't slip free, probably hoping that worst case scenario, the bite will keep him from dying in the event that Liam ended up falling four stories.
Suddenly, there's the sound of something metallic being thrown in the air, followed by a THUNK, and Sean starts sputtering blood before he falls dead to the ground. Scott takes advantage of being freed by grabbing Liam's arms and quickly pulling him back onto the roof. When they turn around, they see the Mute, who had walked over to Sean's now-dead body to pull his military tomahawk out of Sean's back before he left. Scott, with Liam's blood still coating his lips, just gapes in shock as he catches sight of the Mute before he leaves. His dark eyes are still red-rimmed, and he brings his leather-gloved index finger to where his lips would be, if he had any, in the universal gesture that says "Shut up and don't say anything." While Scott stares, that weird buzzing/metal-clanging white-noise sound that always accompanies the Mute becomes almost deafeningly loud until the axe murderer finally disappears.
Once he's gone, the only sounds left to hear are Liam's cries of pain as he gingerly clutches his now-injured wrist to his chest. The reality of what Scott just did hits him all at once, and you can see by the pain in his eyes as he stares at Liam that his guilt complex has now hit nuclear levels. I mean, this is Scott McCall, who was bitten without his consent, who struggled with maintaining control and keeping his new condition from his mother, his classmates, and his girlfriend, who just so happened to come from a family of supernatural creature hunters. Scott McCall, who originally called the bite a curse, and who desperately sought a cure. Who has watched numerous friends die because of the supernatural. For a time, he thought the bite would ruin his life for good, and even now that he's accepted it and embraced his powers for the good things he can do with them (taking others' pain, protecting his mother and loved ones, etc), he still couldn't even bring himself to bite Stiles while he was possessed, out of fear that 1) Stiles didn't want it, and wasn't in the state of mind where he COULD consent to it, and 2) that he wouldn't live through it if he did.
So, now that he's finally bitten someone else-- which he never expected himself to do, especially not without their consent-- he's definitely going to be beating himself up about it, no matter how noble his intentions were at the time. I genuinely believe that Scott did what he did because he was sure that it was the only way to keep him from falling and dying. It was such a split second decision that he acted pretty much on pure instinct and was most definitely not considering the consequences-- all he wanted to do was make sure that Liam didn't fall to his death. And honestly, I'm pretty confident that Liam will end up loving being supernatural, regardless of whatever creature he ends up becoming, so in the end, it's all's well that ends well, but that definitely doesn't mean Scott won't feel guilty about it. This is definitely a game-changer, either way.
Next week, according to the promo: It's the first real (non-flashback) full moon since season 3A! Stiles helps keep Malia locked up for the night while Scott and the rest of the pack go to Lydia's lake house to help Liam with his first transformation, though whether he'll be a werewolf or something weirder remains to be seen! Also, Derek and the Mute do stuff.
[screencaps via Screencapped]
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NOTES/SPECULATION/QUESTIONS/CONCERNS (POTENTIAL SPOILERS ABOUNDS):
-So, is the Mute the Benefactor? Or is he working for the Benefactor? If that's the case, that would suggest that the computer code he was looking at could be a program or a website or something that has the deadpool list in it, somehow. My question is, if supposedly all of our heroes are on it, why wouldn't the Mute kill Scott while he had the chance? Could he have not known that it was Scott? Or maybe the kids aren't on the list yet? I'm just very confused by his motives, and also his abilities. I'm hoping we get a better idea about it in the next couple of episodes.
-While we're at it, why were the Walcotts targeted? I mean, they're wendigos and if they're not actively killing their meals (and I'm sure all of them have probably accidentally killed someone out of hunger at least once), then how did whoever made the list figure out their supernatural status? Kathleen is wondering if the Benefactor isn't on some kind of revenge/grudge killing spree, which would suggest that someone in the Walcott family did something to piss the Benefactor off, so if that's the case, what did they do? WE NEED MORE PLOT POINTS TO MAKE A PATTERN.
-It seems like money is continuing to be a theme throughout this season, and we just got more evidence of it this episode-- Stiles brought up his dauntingly expensive medical bills from last season, Scott mentioned that he didn't have enough money to pay for long-distance phone calls to France, Malia bet money at practice, which Coach totally took, and Noshiko pulled at least a half-dozen of what looked like silver bars out of a crate, which seemed pretty nuts to me, especially considering how expensive their house is and the fact that Noshiko and Ken wanted to sell it. It's definitely adding to the intrigue, and it's also making me feel super nervous/paranoid that some of our more financially-strapped characters are going to find out about the deadpool hit list and try to off someone on the list for some quick cash. On a somewhat-related tangent-- why doesn't Stiles use some of the stolen $150,000 dollars of Yakuza money to help with his bills? Or is that money earmarked for supernatural emergencies only?
-I am excited to see how Liam deals with being a werewolf/supernatural creature, and how Scott and the rest of the pack get along with him since he's officially tied to the McCall Pack now. But, I'm SUPER curious as to how he's going to keep it from his step-dad, since they seem pretty close, not to mention all of the non-pack kids at school. It's hard enough for the rest of them to keep their identities under wraps, so I'm guessing a newbie is probably not going to help matters at all. I'm hoping he ends up a regular werewolf, though, because we already have wayyyyy too many other supernatural creatures introduced at the moment who we still don't really understand yet, abilities-wise, so throwing in yet another obscure creature would just be weird. Plus, as it stands, there are only two werewolves in the pack, including Scott, so they could really use another beta. I want to believe that Malia (who is probably the closest thing to a werewolf we've seen, creature-wise) and Kira, as the supernatural animals, add to his power in the same way a beta does, but I'm not sure that it's true. Ditto for Stiles and Lydia-- I know Lydia is supernatural, but she isn't a shape-shifter, nor does she really have enhanced reflexes/strength/healing/etc, so for all intents and purposes she's still pretty much a human. I think that Stiles, Lydia and Allison all played a very huge role in Scott keeping connected to his humanity and being able to rise as a True Alpha, but I don't know if that actually translates to power in the same way a beta would, either.
-Can the pack bring Danny in on figuring out what the Mute's computer code is about? Because I think that would be a perfect way to utilize his character. Like, the pack still probably doesn't know that he knows what's up, so their made-up excuses to explain how they got the code and what it means would probably be pretty hilarious for all involved parties. Basically, MORE DANNY. The fact that we have had two school-heavy episodes, one of which was extremely lacrosse-heavy, and saw NO DANNY is seriously criminal. Are you seriously telling me that Danny wouldn't be at lacrosse try-outs? Sigh.
-WHY DO THE CALAVERAS WANT KATE SO BAD. I seriously want to know. Like, they're not sending Braedon to kill her, they're sending Braedon to capture her and bring her back to them. So, either they just really want to kill her themselves (which is possible, I guess, just to make sure she won't come back magically healed again, like the last time she "died"), or they need something from her, like information, or help, or something. So, if it's the latter, what could they possibly want? Would that tie into why the Calaveras had Talia's nails? Could my dreams of Kate being Malia's mother be true? I AM SO CURIOUS.
-Speaking of the Calaveras, do you think we should be expecting Araya to come hunt Scott's ass down, now that he's bitten his first werewolf? Because the more I think about it, the more confused I get. Back in "The Dark Moon," Araya informed Scott that his "next step" lies when he "takes the bite of an innocent" and makes himself a beta, and should that happen, she will come up from Mexico and march on over to his house, which does not seem to bode well. BUT, why wouldn't she want Scott to bite anyone? The Code doesn't seem to have any rules about alphas biting and turning people, because if they did, Peter and Derek would both be dead; Peter bit Scott, and without his consent at that, and Derek bit FIVE PEOPLE, one of whom was a hunter who killed herself, and another of whom became a kanima who murdered dozens of people under the control of two separate sociopaths. If neither of those warranted being shot with wolfsbane bullets and cut in half, then why would Scott be in trouble? Does Araya know that Scott is a true alpha? Could there be some kind of problem with whoever he ends up biting? Or maybe is she referring to if they died from rejecting the bite? I honestly have no idea, it's confusing me a tonnnn.
-I'm kind of getting a little worried about Lydia, you guys-- she seems to be getting even more banshee fugue states than she normally does, and aside from hanging out with Kira that one time, she doesn't seem to be spending a lot of her time with the pack, either. I just really worry that once again, everyone is going to get absorbed with their own lives that they don't notice that Lydia's being overwhelmed by these powers and abilities that she has no idea how to control or use. I seriously hope somebody, like Derek, or Braedon, or ANYONE, really, can point her in the right direction with regards to the full extent of her abilities. I think if they became something she could use voluntarily whenever she needs it would help her confidence a TON-- right now, she can't depend on being able to use her powers in a pinch when it counts, but she also can't guarantee that she won't end up in the wrong place at the wrong time when it comes to her banshee fugue states, either. I just want her to be able to feel confident that she's a useful member of the pack who is able to help whenever drama strikes.
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