Teen Wolf Season 4, Episode 9: "Perishable" Recap/Review
So, I have to give credit where credit is due to the writers, because I was literally just saying last week that I have read so much meta/speculation/theories about who the Benefactor is that I wouldn't be surprised by the reveal, because I had read compelling arguments that pointed to anyone from Danny to Mr. Harris to one of the Argents to Liam's stepdad and Agent Douchenozzle and everyone in between. But even despite the fact that Scott guessed that the Benefactor was likely a banshee because they knew when someone was or wasn't dead whether they had proof or not, everyone figured that it had to be Lydia's grandmother, Lorraine, since they found out she wrote the code, and NO one (or no one I know of, at least) even considered the fact that the Benefactor was Meredith. I know that personally, I saw her name on the deadpool and figured that fact meant she couldn't be the Benefactor, in the same way that I was desperately hoping that Jordan's presence on the list meant that he was a good guy, too, (and thankfully, it looks like we can all breathe a sigh of relief now!)
And you know, a lot of people have said that it's like the Teen Wolf writers KNEW someone in the fandom would figure it out, so they pulled a character out of their asses that they knew we would never guess, but I don't know-- the more I've been thinking about what we know about Meredith, and what we've seen her do, the more it actually makes sense. I'll be getting into this more at length later on, obviously, but all in all I'm pretty stoked about this reveal (although I did feel the requisite "MEREDITH! I WAS ROOTING FOR YOU! WE WERE ALL ROOTING FOR YOU!" betrayal at the time, but honestly, even if she's trying to kill my faves in horrifying ways, I still can't help but be impressed by her hustle, because this had to have taken some serious planning and a very good working knowledge of everyone involved.) Basically, DAMN, girl.
But there was other amazing, frightening, mind-blowing, and heart-shattering moments that didn't involve Meredith, such as Brunski's cruel torture of Lydia using a tape of her grandmother's murder, Derek's complete "Dalai-freaking-Yoda"-attitude about his impending death (to borrow some words from Dean Winchester), Liam's acute-traumatic-stress-style flashbacks of the already numerous battles he's had to fight since being turned, Scott once again desperately trying to protect EVERYONE, and Derek and Braeden being pack dad and mom to their precious werebabies. Not to mention JORDAN FUCKING PARRISH, who was one of the main heroes of the night (in addition to the aforementioned heroics by Derek and Braeden, and Mason, who is the coolest, nicest, most loyal and understanding friend EVER and who I really hope we see more of in the future). We still don't know what exactly Parrish is, and I'm not sure we'll find out in the next three episodes, but whatever he is managed to protect him from being burned alive, so HALLELUJAH. I'm cool with having to wait a little while to figure it out, but if we have to wait another three seasons like we did with Lydia, I s2g...
Anyway, enough of the summarizing, let's dig into this amazing episode, shall we?
Previously on Teen Wolf: Lydia went to her grandmother's banshee room to try to see if Meredith's spirit could help her figure out what was going on, but all she got out of it was finding a picture of Meredith in the room from who knows how long ago. The pack found a hit list of supernatural creatures encrypted in a code Lydia accidentally transcribed in the midst of a banshee fugue state, and every supernatural in the pack is on it, as well as a bunch of other familiar names. Also included on the list is Jordan Parrish, our favorite green-eyed, happy-go-lucky deputy, whose bounty just so happens to be five million dollars. Shitloads of professional assassins have descended upon Beacon Hills, including the baby assassins known as the Orphans, the mouthless, tomahawk-throwing Mute, the Chemist, who tried to kill everyone with a genetically altered canine distemper, and a lady assassin who was swiftly killed by badass queen Satomi before she could do any serious harm. Peter and Malia were revealed to be father and daughter, though the gang was too worried about Malia's state of mind to inform her of this fact, and she ultimately ended up finding out on her own when she saw her name listed as "Malia Hale" on the third deadpool. The pack faked Scott's death in an attempt to draw out the Benefactor, but even though they never showed, Scott realized that their elusive Benefactor ended up revealing a possible identifying characteristic by doing so-- how could the Benefactor possibly know someone died without having to see the body afterward? If the Benny is a banshee, duh! Conveniently, Lydia, our resident banshee's grandmother, wrote what Lydia's mother believed to be gibberish right before she died, but what actually turned out to be another Vishniac cipher!
[Sidebar: I'm not sure on the timeline between this week's episode and next, but I'm thinking that "Perishable" begins the night after Scott faked his death/Lydia and her mother went through Lorraine's things in the boat house, and judging by the costume changes, the episode takes place somewhere between 24-36 hours, beginning when Haige attempted to murder Parrish and ending the next day when Braeden and Derek saved Scott, Liam and Malia at the bonfire and Parrish saved Stiles and Lydia at Eichen House. More on this timeline later!] ANYWAY, our cold open is absolutely horrifying this week, because we begin in the evening at some empty parking lot, where someone is laying slumped over inside their rain-soaked car. Wait, scratch that-- the car isn't soaked in RAIN, as you would ordinarily assume, it's actually GASOLINE being poured onto the outside of the car by a mysterious killer.
As if that weren't bad enough, the person INSIDE the car is actually Jordan Parrish, who has clearly been knocked out, judging by the bloody wound on his head, and whose wrists have been tightly zip-tied to his steering wheel. After a moment, he finally regains consciousness, only to become extremely confused and scared when he realizes that he's in some deep fucking shit at the moment. Once he figures out that he's currently in the process of being murdered, he starts shouting in hopes he can work his awesome mediation skills in his favor. "Hey! HEY! What are you doing?" He waits a beat before continuing to shout out the open windows. "Listen! Listen to me! I'm a deputy with the Beacon Hills Sheriff's Department--" Oh, honey, I'm pretty sure they already know that, considering you're wearing a BHSD uniform and are driving a BHSD cruiser and all. Suddenly, we see who today's assassin truly is-- Deputy Haige, known around these parts as Deputy Dickweed (and quite rightly, I might add), who just mutters, "Damn! I was hoping you'd be out longer." Jordan might still be scared shitless, but his confusion quickly turns to betrayal and rage, and he yells, "What the hell? What are you doing?"
Deputy Dickweed continues to douse Jordan's police cruiser with a huge jug of gasoline while he explains that yeah, Jordan's a good guy, but since the list says he's worth five million dollars, being a good guy isn't enough to keep him alive, apparently. Jordan wisely plays dumb and claims he has no idea what DD is talking about, and reminds him that he barely makes $40k a year as he desperately tries to break free from his zip ties. He needs one of those rings that has a secret zip tie cutter/lock pick hidden inside. Actually, everyone needs one of those rings. Deputy Dickweed is like, "Well, I only make $36k, so obviously that justifies killing you," because he is a dickweed, and makes matters even worse by dumping the rest of the gasoline over Jordan's head, completely soaking his hair, skin, and uniform in fuel while Jordan screams in protest. "Haige, please, just stop!" Jordan shrieks in desperation, but Haige is proving himself to be quite a heartless motherfucker, and just sets the gasoline can down on the ground while he prepares to light Jordan on fire.
"Look, you don't have to do this! If you're having money problems--" Parrish pleads, but Haige doesn't give a fuck, obviously, and reiterates that since Jordan is the one who is worth five million dollars dead, HE'S actually the one with problems at the moment. UGH, HATE THIS GUY. Jordan can't believe that he's just willing to stand there and listen to one of his coworkers being burned alive, but Deputy Dickweed just silently thumbs his earbuds into his ears and cranks up his music before digging around in his pocket for his Zippo. Jordan frantically fights against his restraints, but it's futile-- DD throws his lighter right at Jordan, which lands right on his shirt and immediately sets him ablaze. While he's screaming bloody murder as the flames consume him, DD just watches silently and emotionlessly from outside the car. Okay, so how did DD think he was just going to get away with that? Like, they would know SOMEONE did it, and even though fire does get rid of evidence, it also CREATES evidence, so I'm not sure he'd be able to cover all his tracks. Plus, eventually the pack would figure it out because they always do, especially now that Lydia and Stiles have grown quite attached to the guy since he started helping Sheriff Stilinski with the supernatural stuff.
Meanwhile, at the Sheriff's Department, Stiles (wearing a super cute mustard and cream-colored baseball shirt and his usual tight khakis) and Lydia (looking similarly hot a floral blouse and high-waisted denim skirt) have arrived to inform Sheriff about what Lydia has learned about her family, specifically her paternal grandmother. "It's not just that she could still be alive," Stiles explains, allowing Lydia to pick up where he left off. "It's that she would have had to fake her death." Naturally, Sheriff is feeling his usual mixture of intense confusion, exasperation, and stress regarding the idea that Lorraine Martin could have faked her own suicide, but Stiles is sure that it's a solid theory, though Lydia is not so sure. Sheriff assumes that they've already got a story to explain it, so Lydia admits, "...She might be helping the Benefactor--" "--or IS the Benefactor," Stiles adds. Sheriff proclaims this to be a story that is worth hearing, and immediately shuts his office door so that they can talk privately.
Out in the bullpen, Deputy Dickweed is on his Macbook, acting as if he didn't just set his partner on fire just an hour or so ago, and is using the same program that Chris and the Mute used to communicate with the Benefactor so he can send a message: "Inquiring about wire transfer." I wonder how much money Teen Wolf gets from Apple for all this product placement? Because seriously, EVERYONE uses a Macbook on this show. Also, his messages have the handle "G/:" too, just like Chris', so I guess it's just a general thing rather than a hint of some kind. I'm kind of stupid when it comes to computers, so if anyone knows why this is the way it is, I am all ears! Anyway, after a moment, the kids tell Sheriff something that must be important, because he pops his head out of the office door and loudly asks if anyone there has seen Parrish, because he needs him on this. He eventually eyeballs Deputy Dickweed, since they're partners and everything, but DD just lies that he hasn't seen him, and Sheriff doesn't question it, he just returns to his children. PS, did you know that DD is played by Lou Ferrigno Jr, also known as the son of Lou Ferrigno Sr, who was the original Incredible Hulk? The more you know! Jr's super cute, but his character sucks ass, tbh. He lost my favor the second he was such an asshole to bb Derek, let's be real.
Just then, a blackened, barefoot, naked pair of legs stride purposely into the Sheriff's Department through the glass double doors, and the camera pans up to reveal that IT'S TOTALLY JORDAN, YOU GUYS. HALLELUJAH, HE'S STILL ALIVE. Jordan's insanely lean and hot body is artfully smeared with soot/ashes (god bless the make-up artist who got THAT job), and burned, blackened patches of skin are peeling off in various places. His gaze is understandably murderous as he makes his way into the bullpen, totally naked, and glares at DD once he makes it through the doorway. "Holy shi--" DD swears under his breath as he reaches for his side-arm, but Jordan is currently fueled by nothing but nuclear-level fury as he lunges for him. Jordan shoves him against the wall and focuses all his strength on trying to grab the gun from him, which leads DD to unwisely shoot two shots at the wall, which just happens to be shared with SHERIFF'S OFFICE, YOU UNCULTURED SWINE. WATCH WHERE YOU'RE AIMING THAT THING. Jordan's eyes have nothing but rage in them as he straight-up GROWLS at Deputy Dickweed, but all DD can say for himself is, "You're dead!" All this does is pissed Jordan off more, so he groans loudly in anger and frustration before he throws DD down onto the ground and climbs on top of him so he can kick DD's ass.
Hearing the commotion, Sheriff pops out of his office with his own gun drawn to find out what the fuck is happening in his office NOW, but his eyes widen in alarm when he sees Jordan's burnt-up body wrestling the gun out of DD's hands. Again, DD stupidly fires his weapon, which hits Sheriff right in the shoulder (NOOOO!), causing Stiles and Lydia to immediately rush to his side as he crumples to the floor. "But, you're dead!" Deputy Dickweed protests in disbelief once again, like an idiot, because HELLO, clearly Jordan isn't dead, and now he's PISSED. So, Jordan decides to prove just how alive he is by violently punching the shit out of DD's face while Sheriff, Stiles, and Lydia watch in horror. Once Parrish feels DD's been satisfyingly beat up (for now, anyway), he straightens up and tries to catch his breath.
Behind him, Deputy Dickweed's computer beeps to alert him to the fact that he's received a response from the Benefactor-- "Kill not confirmed." Yeah, I'd say so! GOOD LORD. I do not blame Jordan at ALL for being pissed at DD, because being burned alive must have seriously been EXCRUCIATING, even if he did survive it and heal from it. Still, I never would have expected to see rage like that coming from him, and it was both super hot and super terrifying. Way to go, Ryan Kelley! You are amazing. Anyway, the Stilinski/Martin team are clearly confused and horrified by what just happened, and of course, Sheriff's been shot in the scuffle and is groaning in pain while Stiles applies pressure to his wounds. NOOO! Didn't we learn from the Darach incident? No one shoots Sheriff! He and Stiles seriously need to wear a vest 100% of the time. TITLE CARD!
When we return from the break, we're at the loft, where Lydia, Scott, and Jordan have come to see Derek in hopes that he can figure out what the fuck Jordan is. Derek has taken Jordan's hands in his own and is examining his palms and forearms as he flips them over. Jordan looks pretty shell-shocked, and understandably so, while Lydia and Scott are just watching in simultaneous sympathy and curiosity. "He covered you in gasoline?" Derek asks, though he already knows the answer, and Jordan nods nervously in confirmation. Lydia brings up Jordan's hair and nails, both of which are the parts of the body that are essentially dead, and both of which regenerated perfectly. Derek, instantly knowing where Lydia is going with this, agrees that Jordan's hair and nails should both be totally gone-- even if he healed from the burns, it should all be gone until they eventually grow back. Jordan, nearly hysterical at this point, reminds them that all of his body should be gone, because DUH, he was soaked in gasoline and burned alive, but Scott gently informs him that if he's like them, then it makes sense that he's actually alive instead of being charcoal right now.
Parrish is understandably lost, and simply asks, "...like you?" but Derek ignores him and argues that he doesn't think Jordan is "like them," ie: not a werewolf. Which makes sense, really, because even a werewolf couldn't heal burns that severe THAT quickly, you know? Lydia asks what the fuck he is, then, if he's not a werecreature of some kind, but Derek is just like, "Hell if I know, dudes. This is sort of out of my wheelhouse, tbh." Really, though? Like Scott said, Derek knew what Jackson was AND what Kira was, and its been stated many times in canon that he's a very smart and well-read guy, who knows a lot about a broad range of subjects from religion to history to folklore and mythology, so I don't understand how he couldn't know what sort of supernatural creature Parrish is. I'm still in the Phoenix!Parrish camp, though I would also be happy with Raven!Parrish, too, or Salamander!Parrish.
Anyway, Derek suggests to Scott that perhaps they should get in touch with Chris, since the Argent bestiary could have some ideas, but Scott has no idea where Chris is, which is worrisome, imo. This is the only mention Chris gets in this episode, too-- I'm hoping this doesn't have anything to do with the Calaveras, because the last thing these kids need is hunter problems on top of assassin problems! Also, doesn't Peter have a bestiary, too? I mean, he's clearly shady and I wouldn't exactly want to tell him what's going on with Jordan, because who knows what he'd try to do? If he wants to be alpha again, he could definitely want Jordan in his pack once that happens. But still, maybe they could innocently ask him if they could look through it without letting him know why? I JUST WANT TO KNOW ALREADY IT'S BEEN EIGHTY FOUR YEARS.
ANYWAY, Jordan is getting annoyed that they're talking in riddles as though he's not even standing right in front of them, and eventually snaps, "Hold on, what's a bestiary? Actually, that's not even my first question! Just... just tell me one thing-- are all of you like Lydia?" Lydia just raises her eyebrow in curious confusion, so Jordan amends his question. "Are you all psychic?" Scott and Derek just about burst out laughing, because that is seriously adorable and hilarious, but after a moment of the two giving each other loaded looks, Scott replies, "...Not exactly." Of course, Jordan wants to know what he is, then, so Scott looks to Derek for his input, and when Derek silently tilts his head to the side as if to say, "Well, he's supernatural, too, so we might as well download him on the deets. It might make our lives easier, at this point." Scott just sighs and turns toward Jordan before he closes his eyes. When he opens them, his eyes are bright red. He should have just shifted, tbh! Although I'm sure Parrish will see straight-up transformed werewolves soon enough, now-- we're long overdue for a legit, full-pack brawl. Also, Scott and Derek's relationship, especially these last two seasons and even more especially this episode, gives me SO MUCH LIFE. Just look at these two losers! They don't even need words to communicate anymore! <3Scott<3Derek<3
(via teenwolf)
Across town, Sheriff has just been admitted to Beacon Memorial, and is currently set up in his bed in a hospital gown, filling out paperwork. Stiles stands dutifully at his bedside while Dr. Gardner (who you may remember as Stiles' doctor when he had his MRI, and the one Barrow stabbed when he was getting surgery) walks Sheriff through how they're going to treat his injury. He makes the mistake of referring to Sheriff as "Mr. Stilinski" (because apparently, we can't know any of the Stilinski men's real first names) until Stiles corrects him by interjecting, "Sheriff Stilinski," which I thought was a great touch, tbh. He's so proud of his dad! "I've got you scheduled for surgery first thing in the morning," Dr. Gardner continues, after amending his mistake. "Unfortunately, it's gonna take a little digging to get that slug out of your shoulder." Aw, Sheriff! :( Sheriff's just like, "Fine, whatever," until he stumbles upon a part of the paperwork that is titled "Patient Responsibility," AKA the parts of the procedures that insurance doesn't cover. Sheriff glances over at Stiles before asking if those parts are going to be very expensive, but the doctor claims that fight is between Sheriff and his insurance. He informs Sheriff that the morphine he put in his IV should be kicking in soon before he he scampers. Excellent bedside manner, dude. Wait, Sheriff was shot in the line of duty, so shouldn't his work insurance be paying for all of this? Or are they trying to minimize Parrish's involvement in the shooting by making it seem like this was just a civilian mishap? IDGI.
Once he's gone, Stiles returns to his dad's bedside, but you can tell he's not only feeling super guilty/worried about his dad getting shot, but also because of how much these bills are going to crush them even worse than they're already crushed at the moment. He starts anxiously gnawing on his nails until Sheriff finally tells him to cut it out, and insists that he was just making sure he understood properly, not suggesting that they're in dire straights. That's when Stiles drops some bombs on him. "I know about the bills, Dad. I know about the collectors calling about Eichen House, I know about the advance from the department, about the credit cards..." Sheriff's face falls as Stiles speaks, and he finally asks if Stiles has been going through his stuff. Stiles doesn't even try to deny it, because he's seriously freaking out about how much stress his dad is under. "Yeah! I go through ALL your stuff, especially when you keep stuff from me!" Oh, how the turn tables, am I right? Cut it out, Stilinskis! I'm too vulnerable for your family's emotional assaults right now.
Sheriff is angry (well, mostly I think he's kind of embarrassed in that whole "I'm a man and need to provide for my family," kind of way, but also because he's trying to protect Stiles for once and Stiles won't let him) and reminds him that if he didn't tell him, it's because he didn't need to know, so Stiles pulls out the heavy-duty artillery. "Yes, I do! I have to! How the hell else am I supposed to take care of you?" There's that thing again, where Sheriff is frustrated because he's the dad and he believes HE should be taking care of Stiles, and not vice versa, and he can't even do THAT because Stiles is constantly in danger by virtue of being friends with supernaturals. So, Sheriff outlines how he thinks things are supposed to work, which is that Sheriff is the dad and Stiles is the son, so he makes the rules and Stiles follows them, blah blah blah.
Stiles just sighs, rolls his eyes, and settles into a chair beside Sheriff's bed before replying that they're SUPPOSED to take care of each other, which is correct imo. Justin Nozuka's "Iulius" starts to play as Sheriff, who clearly feels bad for taking his frustration out on Stiles, insists that they're going to be okay, but Stiles isn't convinced, and asks him how he knows that for sure. Sheriff just sighs and admits with slurring words that he doesn't, but the morphine just started kicking in, so he's not worried at all about anything right now. It takes him barely any more time before he passes out, leaving Stiles to sit alone and become even more overwhelmed by everything that is going on, which is pretty par for the course at this point. "I am," Stiles mutters quietly. NOOOO STILINSKIS.
(via teen-wolf)
Back at the loft, we return to Supernatural Creatures 101 in media res, just as Jordan asks, "What's a kanima?" It's always the kanima that confuses people, bahahahaha. Scott just smiles sheepishly and decides they'll go back to it, before he sits down next to him on the couch and reminds him of the take-away lesson here-- "Just know that everyone like us, everyone with some kind of supernatural ability is on the deadpool." Jordan is still ridiculously confused, as anyone would be, and points out that he doesn't even know what he is, but Derek is pretty sure that the assassins don't really care about that part-- all they care about is the huge amounts of cash they win if they kill him. Then, the gang gets into more talk about what they're up against.
Back on the topic of Jordan, I know that being told all of this stuff is real is probably ridiculously overwhelming and confusing, but at the same time, do you think he's secretly kind of relieved? I mean, he's witnessed a SHITLOAD of supernatural drama and the deaths that resulted from it, so learning all of this stuff must at least make him feel a little bit better, knowing the truth? And honestly, at this point, finding out that magical creatures are real probably makes more sense than the theories he was making up on his on about demonic ninjas and mouthless assassins, you know? Plus, he said himself he felt drawn to Beacon Hills, so at least now he knows that there was a reason behind it? I have a lot more to say about this later.
For the first time ever, we get to see Liam's bedroom, which is actually kind of messy actually. It makes me super happy, because at least one of these kids has to be a slob, you know? Scott, Stiles and Lydia all have nearly immaculate rooms and Derek's loft is super bare as well. It just makes me like Liam even more. Anyway, he's laying flat on his back in bed, seemingly unable to sleep, and tosses and turns several times before he's caught off-guard by the sound of his printer suddenly turning on of its own accord. It begins printing off page after page of print-outs, and after a moment, Liam sits up in bed to find that there are so many pages that have been printed that they're spilling off of his desk and onto the floor. When the printer shows no signs of stopping, he finally hops out of bed to investigate. He nervously crouches down to pick up one of the pages, and is horrified when he skims it and realizes that it's an updated version of the first deadpool lists. Here's the part I could catch:
SEAN WALCOTT 250
DAVID WALCOTT 250
MICHAEL WALCOTT 250
CHRISTINA WALCOTT 250
LYDIA MARTIN 20
SCOTT MCCALL 25
[conspicuously blank space]
DEMARCO MONTANA 250
CARRIE HUDSON 500
[...]
With Liam's uneasiness now full-blown panic, he pulls up another page with more of the same:
KATE ARGENT 12
NOSHIKO YUKIMURA 5
JOANNE MCLAUGHLIN 1
STEVE GRACE 1
TOM HILL 1
BRETT TALBOT 1
REED SCHULL 250
RICHARD BENEFIELD 250
[...]
I have been waiting what feels like eighty-four years for them to tell us everyone who has died already, so even just seeing part of the lists with various names crossed off is super helpful for meta purposes. Also, there is a pretty significant change on the first list that is pretty glaringly obvious, but we're gonna wait a bit before we talk about it, 'kay? 'Kay. Terrified, Liam frantically looks around his room to make sure that this isn't some kind of a trap/assassination attempt, and ultimately starts to push the cancel button on the printer to stop it. Of course, since this is basically a horror movie, doing that does absolutely nothing to stop the flow of deadpool printouts falling onto the floor, so lacking other options, Liam rushes around the side of his desk so he can pull the plug. The printer finally stops printing, but it still managed to print out several dozen pages in the time that it was running, which are now littering his bedroom floor. THIS IS TERRIFYING TBH. One of my irrational nightmare scenarios is technology going haywire like that tbh, I don't know why, but it's just really creepy. My question is, are all the printouts this week because of an especially skilled hacker who is just trying to scare the people on the list and/or alert people to the hit list and the money you could get if you killed the targets? Or is it a supernatural with some kind of technokinesis who can make computers/printers/whatever do whatever they want? I'm guessing probably the former, although the latter would be very cool, I haven't seen an ability like that on TV since Heroes, tbh.
After the break, we return to the loft, where Lydia is giving a beautifully-directed and edited explanation of her grandmother's connection to everything, including flashbacks other really cool special effects, while Scott, Derek, and Jordan periodically chime in with questions or comments. Forgive me for all of the dialogue I'm about to straight-up transcribe, because as usual, we're in the final four episodes, all of which usually are chock full of important information, and who knows what's going to be important later? ANYWAY, we begin with a flashback to Meredith's first visit to the lake house. Lydia's voiceover explains, "Meredith was only at my grandmother's lake house once. But, I think once was enough." Meredith is clearly freaked out as she stands outside the banshee room, and she almost leaves, but at the last minute, but Lorraine just smiles and encourages her to come in, and eventually, she does.
In the present day, Derek curiously asks her how her grandmother knew Meredith, but apparently, she didn't. "She found her," Lydia admits quietly, as she sits on the end of Derek's bed. "Because of another woman named Maddy, the woman she loved." Lydia pulls out a photo for a very confused Scott, which is of a young, red-haired Lorraine (who looks SO similar to Lydia it's scary, kudos once again to the casting people!) with a dark haired young woman, both of whom are smiling and look really happy. HOW COOL IS IT THAT LYDIA'S GRANDMA WAS A QUEER COMPUTER PROGRAMMER IN THE 60's-70's? I LOVE THIS SO MUCH. Also, I would be REMISS if I didn't mention the fact that Maddy bears a startling resemblance to a one Allison Argent, don't you think? History really does repeat itself, especially in Beacon Hills.
"I never met her," Lydia continues. "I saw her name everywhere. She was from Harvard, yacht racing team. There were plaques and trophies in the boat house from all the regattas she'd won." Jordan asks her how she died, but Lydia replies that how she died isn't as important is what happened BEFORE, although I'd say this ends up being totally false, because her death is actually pretty damn significant. But, I'm getting ahead of myself. "My grandmother, Lorraine, used to work in San Francisco for IBM," Lydia says with a smile. She definitely got her smarts from Lorraine, yeah? Lydia turns and walks toward the wall of windows in the loft, and it's almost like she's walking through a flashback of her grandmother's, because suddenly, the loft is full of sunlight and huge-ass, 70s-era computers as Lydia paces around. "She was there on a weekend, catching up on work. She started hearing this sound, like rain. But when she looked out the window, all she saw was blue sky."
Scott immediately gets a bad feeling, because this sounds awfully familiar, don't you think? So, he assumes that Lorraine kept hearing the rain anyway, and Lydia confirms that the sounds just kept getting louder and louder as Jordan and Derek watch her in shock. "Rain, thunder, cracking, like gunshots in her head. So loud, she finally just screamed." Derek immediately gets where she's going with this, and adds, "Like a banshee." GOD THIS IS TOO MUCH. This could be a textbook description of what was happening to Lydia, right? Voices, inexplicable noises, screaming bloody murder out of nowhere, overwhelming feelings of dread, occasional hallucinations and/or fugue states in which she does things she can't even realize she's doing?
"She called Maddy, who was planning on taking one of the boats out on the lake. But, Maddy said the sun was shining there, too, so Lorraine didn't say anything." Jordan correctly guesses that there was an accident, just as we flash back to the lake, where Maddy's body is laying face down in the water as it rains and thunders overhead. "It took them four days to find Maddy's body," Lydia reveals sadly, as we get a shot of Lorraine in a 70's-style maxi-dress, staring mournfully into the storm from the boat house. "And then it took DECADES to figure out how Lorraine knew."
We cut to the lake house, where men and women in immaculate white lab coats are setting up the banshee room. "She started with parapsychologists... the Ph.D in their name made it more scientific. They built the study in the lake house according to every pseudoscientific they could find." In flashback, we see Lorraine strolling through the study, jotting down notes on a clipboard. In the present day, Lydia admits that none of it worked, so she looked for answers elsewhere. "Then she started getting into more extreme occult, things like mediums and psychics, all of them were failures." We can see Lorraine using tarot cards, drawing a triquetra (which is SUPER interesting, see the notes for more) on the wall in graphite, using what looks like Eastern mahjong-style stones, all to no avail.
Until Meredith, that is-- we return to the flashback of Meredith bashfully entering the banshee room, as Lydia's voiceover explains. "They found her at Eichen House. This fragile girl who didn't understand the things she heard." In flashback, Lorraine welcomes Meredith into the room, where she and the lab-coated parapsychologists sit her down in front of the record player and give her a set of headphones to wear. "They brought her to the study, and they almost killed her." Suddenly, Meredith's body starts seizing, and blood runs from her ears down her neck. Okay, WHAT THE FUCK WAS SHE LISTENING TO? A banshee wail? Was it a volume thing (since banshees have sensitive ears/hearing) or was it what she was actually hearing that was the problem? It's also interesting, considering how Meredith's scream made LYDIA'S ears bleed in "Orphaned" when Parrish, Lydia, and Stiles went to Eichen House to try to get the third cipher key.
According to Lydia, Meredith was hospitalized for over a year because of the injuries she sustained at the lake house, and was never quite the same after that. "My grandmother drove her insane," Lydia states, guilt written all over her face. "And I drove her to suicide." We flashback to what we saw at the end of "Orphaned," where Brunski found Meredith's body in her room, and gently removed the braided sheet from around her neck. "And all she ever wanted to do was help." All three of the boys look like they're SO SAD for Lydia, because damn, that is a terrible story, not to mention all the implications for her own possible future-- being driven mad by all the voices/noises, being locked up in Eichen House by her family because they think she's mentally ill rather than blessed and cursed with supernatural abilities.
In the present day, Lydia pulls out the sheet of paper her mother gave her the previous night, and sets it on the table, around which she and the boys are all now gathered. "My grandmother created the code for the deadpool," Lydia confesses. "I think she's the banshee who put the names on it in the first place." So, Lorraine figured out the names on her own and wrote the list in a code as a warning to Lydia/the supernaturals? But the original list was already made by the Benefactor? She slides the paper across the table to Scott, who frowns in confusion before he examines it. Lydia adds that Lorraine left her a message in the same code, but Scott correctly assumes that she didn't leave her a cipher key, which means they have to figure it out on their own if they want to read the message. Wonderful!
It's late, now, and the gang seems to have called it a night, because Parrish is getting into a deputy cruiser (not his usual one, since it doesn't have his healing ability, hahaha, but an SUV cruiser like the one Sheriff drives) outside of Derek's apartment complex to head home. Once he gets into his car and shuts the door, he stops for a moment to once again look at his hands and arms, which are completely clear and free of burns or any sign whatsoever that he was literally burned alive only hours prior. Daaaamn, Jordan, what the fuck are you? He seems just as confused and alarmed as he was before, probably even more now that he knows what really goes on in the world. At the same time, I'm sure he's probably pretty thankful that he IS whatever he is, because being alive and healed > being dead for SURE.
Meanwhile, Lydia has gone over to Stiles' house, naturally, so the two of them can brainstorm and process the new information they've just learned. Lydia watches as Stiles tapes the sheet with Lorraine's coded message and the picture of her and Maddy to the crime board, which is slowly getting way too full for all the photos and documents they've amassed this season. The two stand side-by-side while they stare at the board and desperately try to make some connection they haven't figured out up to this point.
Back at the loft, Scott is still hanging out, and slowly wanders around the room until he makes it over to Derek's bed, where he finds Derek's super handsome jacket (dark gray wool with black elbow patches) with Braeden's Sig Sauer P88 laying on top. Frowning, Scott picks up the gun and turns it over in his hands until Derek comes up behind him and says, "Careful with that." He's not at all offended that Scott is snooping a little, though, he just seems amused, albeit in a very stressed, exhausted way. Scott glances down at the gun in his hand for a moment before Derek holds out his hand to take it, and points out that he was under the impression that Derek didn't like guns. Derek just shrugs and sets the gun down, and Scott, clearly getting worried about his werewolf bro, asks him if this new change has something to do with his eyes changing. "My eyes...my strength, the healing... all of it. Whatever Kate did to me, it's still happening," Derek admits slowly, not meeting Scott's eyes. Scott's worry has hit critical mass, so he figures he might as well make his own confession now. "If the deadpool really was made by a banshee, then there's something else that you should know about... your name broke the third list. It was a cipher key."
Derek seems stunned by the reality of this information, though he doesn't look SURPRISED, if that makes sense. "And the other two keys were Allison and Aiden," Derek points out, with the most heartbreaking, self-deprecating smile. I'm guessing that Derek has already considered this possibility, and his zen-ness/detached sense of humor regarding this whole situation is seriously breaking my heart into itty bitty pieces. Scott insists that he doesn't want to freak Derek out or anything, but considering everything they're dealing with at the moment, this kind of feels like a warning of some kind, since they were all names listed by a banshee. Scott adds that this could mean that Derek could be in danger, but Derek just takes a deep breath and drops some seriously depressing facts on his bb werewolf brother. "Scott, Banshees don't predict danger. They predict death." NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE. Derek is a guy who (usually) has a lot of abilities on account of being a werewolf, but he also has one other unique ability, which is the fact that he NEVER EVER EVER EVER DIES. Ever. Not when he was shot with a rare wolfsbane-filled bullet, not when Alpha Monster!Peter clawed out his lungs and left him for dead outside the school, not when he was paralyzed by the kanima and thrown into a swimming pool with only Stiles' scrawny ass to keep him from drowning, not when Kali impaled him through the chest with a pipe, not when he fell three stories onto an escalator. Not even when he gave up his alpha abilities to save his sister! So he is not dying now. I refuse to believe it.
It's the next morning, now, and Scott is about to head out the door so he can go to school, when he notices that the corner of Garrett's duffel bag is peeking out from under his bed, with the zipper open like four inches. He is immediately terrified that someone somehow got into it and stole the money inside, so he quickly shuts his door before he takes the bag and dumps its contents onto his bed to count it. I spent this entire scene terrified that someone was going to come in and catch him, so for those of you who haven't actually seen this episode yet, I will tell you upfront that no one is going to catch him! He frantically arranges all of the stacks of $100 bills and counts through them to make sure that the entire half-million dollars is all there.
Honestly, I have no idea whether or not all the money is there; I tried to count it all up for myself, but since it's really hard to count how many total stacks there are (they don't all fit in the frame) and how many wads of bills are in each stack, it's really anyone's guess what happened at this point. I read a meta that thought that there was only $400,000 of the original $500,000, but when I originally watched the episode, I interpreted Scott's facial expression to be mixed relief (that all the money was there) and guilt (because he still has all this money that could help solve his problems/Stiles' problems, but it belongs to Derek, and he still hasn't told HIM about it yet, either.) Others have thought that his face was more guilty/scared because money was missing, but it's not like he could say anything, because no one (except Stiles) is supposed to know he has it in the first place. So, yeah, maybe it's all there, maybe it isn't. I really can't tell, and there are good arguments to be made for both possibilities. Regardless, I really do think the guilt from carrying this secret is seriously wearing on Scott a LOT, though. Stiles, too, since his dad just got hurt and everything, and he knows that he and Scott have a bunch of money that could easily fix everything. YIKES. Anyway, Scott looks totally guilty as he puts all of the cash back into the bag and returns it to its spot under his bed.
Liam has arrived at school, and looks about as paranoid and strung out as he did the day after he got bitten, tbh. As he walks into the school and down the hallway, he's overwhelmed by all of the people and noises around him, and assumes that everyone who passes him is secretly whispering or giggling about him behind his back. He's broken out of his bout of hypervigilance by wonderful Mason, who approaches him and asks him if he's going to the bonfire that evening. Liam, who is still a little twitchy, mumbles some vague reasoning for wanting to bail on it, but Mason reminds him that he's actually REQUIRED to go, as a member of the lacrosse team. Liam shrugs it off, but is momentarily distracted when he hallucinates that a berserker is standing down the hall. He then flashes back to his fight against the berserker on the roof of the hospital with Kira the other night, but is just as quickly brought back to the present.
(via thosedamnwerewolves)
"I don't think I can make it," Liam manages to reply, but Mason's not having it. "You're coming! And we're going to find you a nice girl that you can embarrass yourself in front of, and find ME a lacrosse player. Because statistically speaking, SOMEONE on your team has got to be on my team, right?" Liam once again gets pulled out of their conversation when he hallucinates that the berserker is stomping toward him down the hall, and then once again flashes back to when the berserker got him in a choke-hold at the hospital. When Liam pulls himself out of it, he concedes that he'll go, just to satisfy Mason enough that he can end the conversation and flounce to class. Liam, bb. :( This acute traumatic stress is so not good. All these kids should probably be seeing Ms. Morrell, or some kind of supernatural psychiatrist, let's be real-- most regular people would have broken down forever ago, and the only reason why none of them really have yet is because they don't have TIME to break down, since every day is a fight to survive, now that they've become a hot commodity in the paid-killer circles.
Meanwhile, Stiles and Lydia have decided to skip school so they can continue to try to break the code Lorraine left for Lydia. Behind them, Stiles' printer beeps at them, because it's apparently out of paper. Stiles is squinting in concentration as he tries to think about potential cipher keys, and demands that Lydia try "Maddy." Naturally, Lydia assumes this is way too obvious to be a real cipher key, but Stiles claims he GUARANTEES it's Maddy, so Lydia gives it a try. And, of course, it doesn't work, just like Lydia predicted. Stiles makes an adorably pouty face before making his next suggestion, which is that it's Lydia's name, because Lorraine left the code FOR Lydia. But, when she tries it, it doesn't work, either. They even try Lydia's mother's name, Natalie, even though it makes no sense, because Lorraine is Pap Martin's mother, not Mama Martin's. At a loss for other options, Stiles quips, "Do you have any beloved family pets?" which impresses Lydia not a bit as she pinches the bridge of her nose in frustration. Whatever happened to Prada?
Magic Man's "Paris" begins to play as we cut over to the school's locker room, where the lacrosse team has all gathered for a pep talk about the night's bonfire from Coach Finstock himself. Scott is standing near the front, not looking very enthusiastic for obvious reasons, while Liam is seated on a bench near the back, looking as though he would rather be literally ANYWHERE else. "Alright!" Coach shouts, to get the boys' attention. "I know the start-of-the-season bonfire, it's, uh, it's a big deal for you guys! I ALSO know it gets out of hand sometimes! The alumni show up, there's other teams, and alcohol. LOTS and LOTS of alcohol!" The team cheers, drums on their lockers, and fist pumps to that statement, which really only proves Coach's point.
While Coach works to get the kids to calm down, Scott glances over at Liam and realizes the poor boy is about thisclose to a panic attack. "SHUT UP!" Coach yells, breaking Scott out of his reverie. "Now, what I don't understand is why anybody would want to get stumbling-down-drunk in front of a massive open fire!" claims Bobby Finstock, the recovering alcoholic, though he adds that he has basically given up the delusion that he can stop any of them from being drunken idiots, which earns him another round of applause from the team. Scott continues to stare worriedly at Liam until Coach smacks him on the back proudly and states, "I'll also remind you that your team captain, McCall, will be there! And I can count on him to narc on any and every one of these little bastards!" Scott just groans internally and watches as Liam anxiously gets up and rushes out of the locker room.
Back at the Stilinski residence, Stiles has his head buried in his arms on the desk while he anxiously taps his fingers on the desktop, and he eventually reminds Lydia that since the code (and the mountain ash) was left TO her FROM her grandmother, this is something Lydia is supposed to be able to figure out. Lydia argues in her defense that no one else is supposed to figure it out, either, which is why she made it difficult in the first place. Stiles' printer continues to beep incessantly about its lack of paper, and he eventually gets so aggravated that he rushes over and stuffs a stack of printer paper into the tray, just to make it stop. The printer immediately starts printing pages off as soon as it gets the paper it needs, but Stiles is too preoccupied with the newest code to even notice. Stiles is just about to recap what they know when he gets his weekly burst of convenient inspiration-- they've spent all this time thinking of words that refer to Lorraine, when they should be trying to find words that refer to LYDIA.
Lydia's like, "What about me?" so Stiles asks her what she used to do with her grandmother when she was alive. "You know, what was your guys' special thing? Like, did you guys go to the beach? Did you get ice cream?" After thinking about it a moment, Lydia remembers that they used to read together, which results in one of the most adorably comedic scenes in the entire episode:
I know on paper it doesn't sound funny, but it was all in Dylan and Holland's delivery, which was perfection. Stiles insists that she type in "LittleMermaid," which doesn't work, not even when Lydia follows it up with just "Mermaid." Lydia pauses to consider this for a moment, and recalls that it was an obsession of hers when she was little, so much that they read it every day for months, and Lydia insisted that everyone call her Ariel, which annoyed her parents to death. Naturally, Lorraine thought it was adorable, because it is, so Lydia types in "Ariel" as the keyword, which immediately decodes the message:
TAMRA JOHANSEN
ALICE DUFFY
PAULA BRASCH
TRAY LOCKHART
JOSH MORRIS
ELSA CHIN
PETER MCELROY
TAYLOR FREEMAN
TERRANCE SHUMAN
LORRAINE MARTIN
Outside on the staircase, Scott finds Liam seated on the bottom step, anxiously worrying at the strings on his lacrosse stick. Scott's footsteps scare Liam so much that he visibly twitches, so Scott instantly sits down behind him and gently squeezes his shoulder before asking, "Hey. You okay?" The way that he taps his fingers on Liam's shoulder while he asks it is basically the cutest thing in the world. If you have Scott McCall as an alpha or a friend, you are seriously the luckiest motherfucker alive, let me tell you what. Anyway, Liam's clearly still half on the verge of a panic attack, between the berserker hallucinations and the deadpool printer override the previous evening, and remains quiet until Scott once again says, "Hey," and looks at him with so much concern that Liam can't help but spill his guts about what happened. "Last night, my printer went off by itself," Liam admits, while he twirls the lacrosse stick that Derek broke in half in his hands. "I couldn't turn it off! I hit the cancel button, and it just kept printing." Scott's concern turns to worry at the sound of this, because CREEPY, and when Scott asks what was printing, Liam sighs and pulls a folded-up stack of papers out of his back pocket to hand it to him.
Scott opens the list, but before he gets a chance to read it, Coach's voice shouts, "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?" from inside his office. Scott and Liam instinctively abandon their conversation in favor of investigating, and when they get to the office, they find Coach desperately trying to turn off his printer, which has covered his office floor in deadpool print-outs as well. OH SHIT! See what I mean about the financial problems thing? Didn't Coach say that he had medical bills from being shot with that arrow? If they make Coach a possible assassin, I might just die. We pretty much can't trust anyone who isn't already vouched for at this point.
Stiles and Lydia are staring in horror at the list they just decrypted, which has no numbers to indicate the value of these targets. Stiles asks her if she recognizes any of the names, but she only recognizes her grandmother's. Suddenly, Stiles realizes that his printer has been printing ever since he refilled the paper tray, and rushes over to find that he, too, has received the newly-updated deadpool lists as well. Stiles takes one look at the list and immediately insists that they need to call Scott, PRONTO.
Back at the school, Scott picks one of the sheets up off of the floor and starts to read it, so Liam grabs his alpha by the arm and pulls him down the hall so they can talk privately. Scott holds two of the lists in his hands, comparing them, as Liam asks him if he notices the difference. Scott initially notes Derek's name has been completely removed from the list, but Liam points out that that's not all of it. "And I'm not worth three million," Liam confesses, as he points at his name on the list. "It's eighteen now. Eighteen million dollars." HOLY SHIT. Okay, so Derek was worth fifteen million, which means that all of that cash has now been added to Liam's bounty. But why just Liam? The Benefactor could have increased Malia, Kira and Liam's values by five, or could have increased a group of them for a million, or split the money in a bazillion other ways among the two to three dozen people still on the list. Why would they just tack it all onto Liam's value? Is it because of his close relationship with Scott/being Scott's actual bitten beta? Is it because Liam has proven that he's actually a pretty strong and capable werewolf during his fight with the berserkers? I'm sorry for all the questions, guys, but I'm confused! I'm really hoping there's a specific reason that Liam was suddenly bumped up to third most valuable, after Scott and Lydia.
Lydia and Stiles wisely took the newest list over to Jordan to look into, just as he looked into the other lists (although, if I remember correctly, Sheriff had Jordan look up all the names and he claimed he couldn't find any of them in the system.) "Well, it's not another deadpool," Jordan admits, as he types on his Macbook. "...More like an already-dead-pool." LOL! So clever, Parrish. Lydia is shocked that all of them are dead, but Parrish informs them that all of them died within the last ten years, and all of them died by committing suicide at Eichen House. OH SHIT.
It's night time, now, and the lacrosse team's bonfire has just begun, and it is seriously unlike any bonfire I have ever attended, tbh. I figured it would just that-- a bonfire, maybe with a couple kegs hidden nearby, and a bunch of people standing around in groups talking. I wasn't expecting a like, dance floor and a DJ and a shitload of dubstep. It IS Teen Wolf, though, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. How else could they have dubstep brawls if there was no DJ? Anyway, the bonfire is in the shape of a tornado for the Beacon Hills Cyclones, and some guy lights it with a huge torch while everyone there dances and conspicuously drinks booze from soda bottles. Deorro's hilariously titled "Bootie In Your Face" plays as we get a good look at the party, which also includes a very shady shot of a shady security guard having a shady whispered conversation with the DJ. Yup, not suspicious at all. Also, he bears a resemblance to Samuel Campbell from Supernatural in some angles and I seriously thought it was him for like, half the episode. Whoops!
ANYWAY, Scott walks into the crowd just as the security guard is making his rounds, and after Scott people-watches for a little bit, he notices a group of lacrosse players chugging beer in their lacrosse jerseys, reminding Scott (who looks very handsome in a black button-up) that he totally forgot to wear his uniform. Whoops, way to go, team captain! You can tell just how little Scott cares about lacrosse this season, and understandably so-- if my friends and fellow monsters were getting slaughtered wholesale, I would be pretty preoccupied with that, too. Looking bored and not at all thrilled to be there, Scott looks around for someone he recognizes, and finally finds Malia dancing all by her lonesome, taking deep swigs from a flask. He walks over to join her and asks her what she's doing there, and she just smirks, "Getting drunk!" as she holds up her booze to drive the point home. When she asks HIM what HE'S doing, Scott just smiles awkwardly and replies, "Trying to make sure no one gets hurt." "That sounds fun, too!" Malia says, barely paying attention as she continues to dance and drink and not give a fuck. Yeahhhh, methinks Malia is still a little pissed at him for lying to her, and I don't blame her, either.
"I don't wanna ruin your night, or anything," Scott continues earnestly with a smile. "But we kind of... can't get drunk." Malia does NOT like what he's saying, obviously, so he goes on to explain that he's tried it himself many times, but he figures that werecreatures can't get their buzz on because drunkenness comes from the fact that alcohol is basically poisoning the liver, and they heal too quickly to feel any of the effects. Although, that's not EXACTLY true-- Scott totally got drunk that one time Lydia roofied everyone with wolfsbane at her birthday party when Peter was controlling her! It just didn't last long because he only drank a glass of it, and I'm not sure how wolfies could take in large amounts of wolfsbane-tainted booze without any negative consequences. ANYWAY, Malia isn't pleased to hear this news, and decides to deflect the attention from herself by stepping aside and snitting that Scott should fill Liam in on that little detail. Behind her, Liam is pouring vodka from a paper-bag-covered bottle into a bottle of off-brand soda, while Mason watches on. Scott just sighs deeply, like, "Am I seriously going to have to be babysitting a bunch of angsty werecanines all night? No wonder Derek was so fucking miserable when he was alpha." As if in answer, Malia takes another swig from her flask and dances like she just don't care. Which she doesn't. Meanwhile, Liam chugs down his half-bottle of vodka & soda while Mason watches, both impressed and a little unnerved.
At the Sheriff's Department, Stiles and Lydia are sitting in the lobby, trying to decide how to best go about getting more information about the people on the already-dead-pool. The problem-- Eichen House, being a medical facility, means that there's all that HIPPA stuff to worry about, and they can't access those records without a warrant. Isn't the deadpool/list of already dead people reason enough to get a court order? Or are the cops still pretending they don't know anything about it? I guess that would make sense, because if the SD was investigating it, wouldn't Agent Douchenozzle immediately get himself involved in it? Especially considering his son is on the list for an exorbitant amount of money? NEVER MIND. Lydia argues that her mother left her a list of ten suicides, including her own, which means its something they need to look into, especially if it's related to the deadpool. "Is there anyone there who's willing to help us?" Lydia asks desperately. Stiles considers this for a moment, and sighs when he realizes their only option. "No... but there might be someone willing to take a bribe," Stiles replies resignedly.
The bonfire is still raging on as "The Buzz" by New World Sound & Timmy Trumpet plays. Liam fills his soda bottle up with more booze and just as quickly chugs it down in one. Mason, who has been watching him binge drink since they got there, just rolls his eyes, so Liam asks him if he's going to warn him to slow down. However, Mason was thinking just the opposite. "Actually, I was going to tell you to keep drinking! I think you should get drunk. And I mean stumbling-down, fall-on-your-ass, pass-out, face-in-the-toilet drunk." Liam can't help but giggle at that, and asks him why he'd wish that fate on his BFF. "Maybe then, when I ask what's going on, you'll be too drunk to lie!" Mason chirps in response, and Liam's face immediately goes stone cold.
(via teenwolf)
It must be really hard to keep this shit from everyone, you know? I know we've been through this already with Scott not being able to tell Allison, or Lydia, or Jackson, or his mother, but this seems both better and worse than Scott had it. I mean, I know Liam has the pack, but he doesn't have anyone who ISN'T in these life-or-death scenarios to talk to about what he's going through. Mason's his long-time best friend, from what it sounds like, the way Stiles is for Scott, and he can't even be honest with him about what's happening to him, because 1) too many people know already, and he can't risk any more finding out, especially with the deadpool, and 2) he loves Mason and he doesn't want him in the cross-fire, especially considering the fact that anyone connected to the pack always end up getting hurt. Mason looks at Liam for some kind of rebuttal, but he remains silent, so Mason pleads his case. "I'm not asking because I want to know," Mason insists with concern. "You know? I'm asking because I want to help!"
GOD, what a good friend! You can't buy that kind of loyalty, you know? Mason is the best. Liam, who is aggressively trying to find anything to look at EXCEPT Mason, lest he look into his soul through his eyes and realize everything Liam has been lying about, sees Malia dancing in circles while Scott tries to keep talking to her a couple yards away and decides to use it as an out for this conversation. He feigns drunkenness and drops his soda bottle onto the ground before admitting that he's going to get another drink. NO LITTERING, LIAM. Even if you're pretending to be a dick! Even still, Mason is worried about whatever Liam has going on right now, and just frowns as he watches Liam run over to his friends.
Matt Andersen's "I Work Hard For The Luxury" plays on an old cassette player in what looks like some kind of nurse's station in Eichen House, where we meet up with Stiles and Lydia in the midst of an argument with that horrible Brunski. "A THOUSAND dollars?" Stiles screeches incredulously, while Lydia just gives him some serious stink-eye. "To use one little key to open up one little file room? Are you out of your mind?" I'm gonna go with "yes" to answer that last question, Stiles. Brunski points out that when you have something someone else wants, you get to make the price. Stiles is like, "Touché," but does point out he couldn't possibly think they have that kind of money, which Brunski uses as an opportunity to be more of a dick to Stiles. "I KNOW you don't. If you did, Daddy Sheriff would have paid the bill!" Stiles looks like he's about thisclose to going off on him, nogitsune-style, but Brunski adds that he's looking at Lydia, because she's the cute, popular rich girl, obviously.
Lydia rolls her eyes and reluctantly opens her very cute billfold and pulls out a handful of $100 bills. "I have $500," she admits with annoyance, but that seems to be more than fine with Brunski, because he takes it, no questions asked. Wait, aren't the Martins supposed to be broke, too? Where did she get that cash? Did she assume he was going to ask for a lot of money? What happened to all of that Yakuza cash that they partially used to bribe the Calaveras? That might come in handy in the near future. ANYWAY, the tape in Brunski's tape player ends, so he stops what he's doing so he can take the tape out and replace it with a new one, which just so happens to be the exact same brand as the one Kate found in her car's tape deck, and the one Scott and Stiles found in Garrett's bag. Once his new mix is playing (beginning with Damon's "Don't You Feel Me") Brunski picks up the cash and dramatically sniffs it to weird the kids out, while Stiles and Lydia look at each other, eyes wide in alarm and suspicion. Finally, Brunski grabs his keys and instructs the Stilinski Martin Detective Agency down to the file room.
"Starlight" by Kenshin is being played by the DJ at the bonfire while Scott pleads with a still-dancing Malia to just talk to him, but she's not interested in talking. Scott insists that he and Stiles had their reasons for not telling Malia about Peter, but she cuts him right off. "To protect me," Malia states, as she rolls her eyes. "That's what Peter said you would say! And guess what he said next? That you were right!" Scott's face turns from worry to shock and confusion at this revelation, which Malia totally notices. "Does that surprise you?" Scott hesitantly replies that it makes him wonder what Peter wants, and tries to remind her about the power of unity. "Malia, we NEED to stay together. You and me, Stiles--" Malia once again interrupts him to make it clear that she doesn't want to talk about Stiles, but she realizes her rudeness and stops herself and sighs. "I just want to dance," she confesses exhaustedly. "And get drunk!" She lifts up her flask in a mock "Cheers!" gesture and turns to leave, but loses her balance, and would have totally fallen to the ground if not for Scott's speedy reflexes.
Scott is even MORE worried now, but Malia just laughs in that obnoxious way that drunk girls do when they don't want to be bossed around. "You ARE drunk," Scott murmurs in confusion, to which Malia just hilariously bleets, "Yup!" Scott insists that she can't be drunk, because they can't get drunk, when he looks over and sees Liam stumbling drunkenly next to Mason at a picnic table. Oh noooooo! At first I thought it was wolfsbane in the booze. And then I thought it was wolfsbane in the fire, but nope! Which is probably a good thing, because they'd totally notice that. "Is this what drunk feels like?" Malia pouts, as she groans a little, clearly getting woozy. "It doesn't feel as good as I hoped!" Scott, realizing something is definitely amiss, retorts that he doesn't think it's supposed to feel good. Aw, Scott! Aw, Malia!
Back at Eichen House, Brunski is leading Stiles and Lydia into the file room. He asks them if they're good, so Stiles confirms that they can help themselves to what they need. Brunski leaves to go keep watch in the doorway while Stiles instructs Lydia to get the list out of her bag. She hands it to him and pulls him aside so that they can talk more privately. And, of course, because no plan of theirs EVER goes perfectly, while they're not paying attention, Brunski smiles a creepy smile and closes and locks the door to the office. NOOO. Stiles has unfolded the list, and is completely thrown by what he reads. "Lydia, why did you write another name on here?" Stiles asks worriedly. Lydia swears she didn't, but Stiles can identify it as her handwriting. She asks him why she would write another name, but it's not just ANY name she wrote on the list, it's STILES, right at the bottom of the page, which he reveals to her when he shoves the list in her hands. "Why would you write MINE?" Before they can even begin to brainstorm, Brunski comes creeping out of the woodwork, and hisses, "It was the tapes, wasn't it?" Naturally, he's got his taser in hand, and doesn't waste a second before jabbing Stiles in the back with it, causing him to crumple onto the floor and pass out. Lydia glares at him in shock and fear as he slowly walks toward her. "Your turn, sweetheart," he adds smugly, before getting her with the taser, too. FUCK THIS GUY. I already hated him, because he has absolutely no business in being in health care, and ESPECIALLY not mental health care, but this is like, irredeemable character territory.
If you were wondering what happened to Deputy Dickweed after Parrish beat the shit out of him, we get to find out! As it turns out, he's been sitting in interrogation for god knows how long, with each of his wrists handcuffed to the arms of the chair in which he's sitting. For the pounding he got from Jordan earlier, he honestly doesn't look that bad-- he really only has a split lip and a laceration over his left eyebrow that has been taped up. He's just about to doze off in his seat when the door opens, and a very well-dressed Braeden swaggers right in, with her US Marshall badge around her neck. Girl looks SO GOOD in business wear-- she's wearing tight black dress pants and a dressy purple tank top under a black jacket. Also, she looks amazing with her hair up like that. ANYWAY, while I was too busy drooling over Brae the Bae, Deputy Dickweed just sneered and asked her who the fuck she is. "Hello, deputy. I'm a US Marshall working in conjunction with this office." Upon hearing that, DD just rolls his eyes, and makes the fatal error of not taking her seriously when she informs him that she has some questions. "Yeah? Well, I've got a question-- how'd you get those scars?" Braeden just shrugs and walks closer to him while she retorts, "A werewolf. How'd you break your nose?" DD frowns, and is like, "What's THAT supposed to mean?" just as Braeden hauls off and slugs him right in the face. AW YISS, GIRL. If I wasn't already in love with you, that would have definitely sealed it for me. BRAEDEN GETS SHIT DONE, Y'ALL.
The bonfire's rave is still going on in full force, and the DJ plays Hyper's "Controllin' Me" as the crowd of high schoolers writhe on the dance floor. Malia can barely keep herself on her feet, and her vision blurs severely as she tries to focus on Scott. He grabs her by the elbows to try to hold her up, and eventually notices the flask in her hand, which he takes so he can smell it. He asks her what's in it, but she swears she was only drinking vodka. Scott sees a surly-looking security guard behind her who seems to have his eye on them, and starts to panic, so he firmly grips her shoulders and says, "Stay on your feet, and keep moving," before wrapping one of her arms around his shoulders and helping her walk away from their prying eyes. Yeah, that's probably not the most inconspicuous way to get her there, but A+ for effort.
Jordan is still at work, though he looks like he's about to head home for the night. She shuts his laptop and gets ready to take off, but gets distracted by the stack of printed-out copies of reports for the deaths of everyone on the list Lydia just decoded. As he skims through page after page, he finds a pattern that he never noticed before. He finally just lays the stack down on the desk so he can spread them apart and see all of them at once, which is when we see what he's discovered-- every single person's body was found and delivered to the morgue by L. Brunski. Between that fact and the fact that all of the deaths were suicides, Parrish has plenty of reason to believe that Brunski is shady as hell. Also, HOORAY JORDAN FOR FINDING THE PATTERN SO YOU CAN SAVE THE DAY. Can he be pack already? (Also also, what do you think Brunski's first name is? Larry? Lyle? Leon?)
"HELP US! HELP US! SOMEBODY HELP!" Lydia screeches, as we cut to the file room at Eichen House, where Brunski has used the restraints they use on the patients to tie Lydia and Stiles' wrists to a support beam in the middle of the room. Their ankles are bound as well, and no matter how hard they try, they can't break free. Stiles, remembering his time here at Eichen House, defeatedly reminds Lydia that there are plenty of people screaming for help in this place, so their pleas are likely being ignored. Lydia's open for other ideas, considering that all those people on the list, who they thought committed suicide, were actually MURDERED, and Lorraine left the message for Lydia after she predicted her own death. That's when Brunski strolls in, having overheard their conversation, and admits that Lorraine knew Lydia would figure it out, once she was able to predict HER death. Stiles continues to fight against his restraints, while Lydia just curls herself into as small of a ball as she can in fear of what Brunski's thinking about doing.
"But, they weren't murders," Brunski continues, as he slowly walks toward Lydia, his boombox and tape in hand. "I'm not some serial killer, like Ted Bundy going around killing college girls." Stiles, unable to keep silent while Brunski is being the worst EVER, replies, "Nah, you're just an Angel of Death." Brunski is super offended, of course, and crawls over to Stiles so he can sneer right in his face that Stiles doesn't understand just how committed he is to his work at Eichen House. "There are people here who don't simply need treatment, they need RELEASE. I HELPED them! I HELPED Lorraine!" UGH UGH UGH I HATE HIM SO MUCH. I basically spent all the rest of the scenes with these three wishing that Lydia would banshee scream so loud that she killed him, tbh, but I'm not sure if she could work that without hurting Stiles, too. Lydia looks absolutely wrecked, though, as you can imagine, because she's getting way more details about what Brunski did to her grandmother than she ever wanted to know. And, unfortunately, it's only going to get worse. Lydia whispers, "You killed her," and if looks could kill, Brunski would have died about a bazillion times. Brunski insists that he did, in fact, help her, and informs her that now, she will be helping HIM figure something out that has bothered him ever since Lorraine died. He holds up the cassette tape he brought with him, which has "LORRAINE MARTIN" written on the label. OH MY GOD, HE AUDIO-TAPED HIS MURDERS? WHAT THE FUCK KIND OF MASS MURDERING SERIAL KILLER IS THIS GUY. Not like Ted Bundy, my ass.
"Twerk" by Heroes X Villains plays while Scott tries to take care of Malia by urging her to drink some water. Liam seems just as drunk and out of it as she is, and can barely keep his eyes open so Scott exasperatedly asks Mason how much he had to drink, though Mason insists that it wasn't enough to get him this wasted. Scott, confused as hell about how this could possibly be happening, looks between his two packmates to compare their symptoms and try to figure out what the fuck is happening to them. "Something's happening, we need to get them out of here," Scott says to Mason, before he gets hit with a wave of dizzy, out-of-it sensation that causes his words to start to slur. "I think we're gonna have to...ummm..." Scott stumbles mid-sentence, and holds his hand up in front of his face, which is when he notices that his vision is blurring, too, like he's tripping on acid and everything is morphing. (NOT that I have first-hand experience with that kind of thing ;)) Mason gets concerned and asks Scott how much HE drank, but Scott frowns in confusion before insisting that he hasn't touched a drop.
Scott leans against the picnic table where Liam and Malia are sitting, and squeezes his eyes shut. The music, which has been getting louder and louder, pounds in his ears, which is what gives him the dawning revelation that it's not actually the booze that made Maliam turn into drunken fools, but the MUSIC. It sounds like it's something similar to Chris' ultrasonic emitters, except instead of causing them pain, it makes them so intoxicated they can barely function or use their powers. It sounds lower-pitched, too. To make matters worse, since the dubstep is so loud and obnoxious, no one even noticed, and the only reason why Scott finally did was because the DJ cranked up the volume so it would hit them harder. PS, that DJ is both super cute and super evil looking, and is clearly working some assassin-mojo with the security guards.
Back at Eichen House, Brunski presses play on the Lorraine murder tape, much to both Stiles and Lydia's dismay, and it's not long before Lorraine's voice is heard.
(via makos-lightningrod)
At the bonfire, the infrasonic-infused music ("Rave Life" by Savant) is still going strong while Scott tries his best to pull himself together. His words slur a little bit at first, but he focuses his concentration on talking to Mason, and comes off so serious that Mason can't help but listen to him. "I have to... I have to turn off the music. Don't let them out of your sight!" Mason is confused, definitely, but does what he's told. Scott slowly makes his way toward the dance floor and pushes his way through the crowd toward the DJ for what feels like an eternity. His vision blurs more and more the closer he gets, and when the DJ sees him, he smirks a creepy, "I'm totally gonna help kill you"-smirk as he turns up the infrasonic noise even louder, which brings Scott to his knees onto the ground. He tries desperately to get back onto his feet, but before he can, two of the dirty security guards grab him by the arms so they can drag him away. You can tell that sound is fucking him up, because he can barely see, and his arms and legs are weakened to the point where he can barely struggle against their hold.
More security guards show up to grab Malia and Liam, which immediately sets off Mason's hinkiness-radar. "Hey! What are you doing? These are my friends!" Mason protests, but the Samuel Campbell-looking rent-a-cop claims that his friends are overly intoxicated and are being kicked out of the party. Remembering Scott's order, Mason offers to go with them to keep an eye on them, but the guy promises that's not necessary, since they're planning on killing them and everything. Mason's getting more suspicious the more they talk, and reminds him that he said they're his friends, so the security guard SHOVES MASON SO HARD THAT HE FALLS FLAT ON HIS BACK. Because that's totally something legit security guards do. (Well, actually, considering the way that most police officers and security guards have been known to treat young black men, I guess I really shouldn't be surprised, tbh.) Mason must be as well-liked as Danny, because a bunch of lacrosse players immediately rush over to help Mason up to his feet while the security guards scamper with Malia and Liam.
They bring the kids into the school and throw them on the floor in a pile next to a row of lockers. Malia and Liam are so weak that they're practically passed out, but Scott is still conscious enough to know that something very bad is about to happen. "What is that?" Scott asks, when he notices a red jug in the head security guard's hand, but we all know he knows what it is, because it wasn't that long ago that Scott used a jug just like that to douse himself in gasoline so he could kill himself by setting himself on fire. GOD THIS PART KILLS ME. "What are you doing?" The security guard shakes the jug in front of his face menacingly before informing him that it IS gasoline, and that Deputy Dickweed instructed them to burn the kids for the deadpool money. Wait, after that worked SO WELL the first time with Jordan? Is he stupid? There are way easier ways to kill a werewolf besides setting them on fire, and burning down the high school just to kill a bunch of teenagers seems like a really inefficient way to go about an assassination, especially considering the fact that it's TOTALLY going to look like a murder instead of an accident or whatever. THESE ASSASSINS ARE TERRIBLE, BASICALLY. Scott starts to panic and looks over at his packmates, who are still barely aware of what's happening, and they're unable to move before the guy starts dumping fuel on them.
Lydia is still glaring at Brunski with her tear-stained face, but he's a heartless motherfucker who has an overly-inflated sense of superiority, so when she turns her face away from him, he just cracks his neck before he gets up to his feet. He slowly walks over to a nearby shelf, where he grabs a small first aid kit, and makes his way back to where he's tied up Stiles and Lydia. "We get a lot of teenagers trying to break into our drug cabinets," he sneers, while Stiles shoots him yet another deadly glare. "Most of the time, they don't succeed. But, you two look pretty clever to me." SHIT! Stiles and Lydia watch as he pulls two syringes out of the first aid kid and uncaps one so he can draw up a large amount of medication from a vial, and quickly realize that he fully intends to kill them by giving them a drug overdose and staging it to look like they were a couple drug addict teenagers who took too much. ALL ABOARD THE NOPE TRAIN TO FUCKTHATVILLE.
As Stiles and Lydia frantically fight against their restraints in the file room at Eichen House, the party continues to rage on at the high school to the sounds of DallasK & Henry Fong's "Blackmail." More security guards are roaming the crowds, including one that bears a striking resemblance to Bash from Reign, and DJ Assassin is still blaring his infrasonic remixes toward the throngs of dancing teenagers. Mason makes his way through the crowd while he brainstorms about what he's going to do. He eventually notices DJ Assassin spinning (or whatever modern-day DJs who basically play on their laptops do) nearby, and stares at him, remembering what Scott said about having to turn off the music because something bad was happening. This gives Mason a Stiles'-like dawning revelation, and heads toward the DJ stand.
Inside the school, Scott is desperately spitting gasoline out of his mouth as Deputy Dickweed's rent-a-cop goons douse him, Liam, and Malia, and though his instincts are telling him to fight, the music from outside is still affecting them all so badly that they can barely move. Scott tries to at least sit up from his current position, which is leaning weakly against the lockers, but the head goon just kicks Scott in the chest, slamming him roughly against the wall. Head Goon whips out a Zippo and lights it with a maniacal smile on his face, but thankfully for us, he waits a very dramatically long amount of time before dropping it in the puddle of gasoline that surrounds them while Scott gasps for breath and shoots daggers at him with his eyes.
Mason has rushed to the front of the dance floor, and quickly identifies where the cord to the DJ's power source is located. He instantly grabs the right power cord and pulls on it with all of his strength until it finally comes out, completely silencing the music. YAS MASON YAS! Way to be this week's great unsung hero! The crowd boos at this interruption of their party, but inside, Scott's eyes flash crimson now that he's finally able to access his superpowers. Head goon is too distracted by the fact that he heard the music go off to notice right away, but when he does, his eyes immediately widen in alarm, all, "I'VE MADE A TERRIBLE MISTAKE." Before he can flee, Scott growls under his breath and wastes no time grabbing his hand and slamming his lighter shut to ensure that he won't accidentally set them on fire. Then, he gets the same face he got when he caught Violet trying to behead him, and twists Head Goon's arm, breaking at least a couple bones in his wrist. YAS SCOTT YAS.
(via teenwolf)
Before Scott can muster the strength to get himself off the floor to fight the rest of the goons, head goon is knocked off his knees by Braeden, who slams the butt of her rifle into his temple. Scott stares at her in awe before noticing that Derek is behind her. Three of the other security guards rush toward him, but even without the majority of his powers, Derek can still take them easily. Braeden must have given him some fighting tips, too, because he's not fighting werewolf-style, but combat-style, all kicks and punches and blocking with his forearms. He throws one of the guys into the lockers, headbutts another, and eventually kicks the third onto the floor. GET IT DEREK! I am so fucking attracted to him and Braeden right now. Derek tries to catch his breath while he rides the adrenaline rush of expertly handling those guards, but Braeden isn't done yet.
(via teenwolf)
She sees Head Goon reaching for his lighter, but she struts over to him, and hits her thigh against his head so hard that it snaps his neck and kills him. HOLY SHIT! Scott flinches when he hears his bones crack, but all in all, he doesn't seem too upset to see him dead, tbh. Behind him, Liam and Malia are panting as they all breathe sighs of relief that once again, they managed to be saved from certain death at the very last minute. Derek walks over to Scott with this look on his face, like, "How do you keep getting yourself nearly killed like this? That's my job!" Scott has never looked so happy to see Derek, and smiles while he asks, "Where's your gun?" "You're covered in gasoline!" Derek retorts in amusement, to which Scott's just like, "Oh, right." Derek holds a hand out to help his best little wolf bro to his feet, and once Scott is up, Derek claps him on the shoulder affectionately, which makes Scott smile even bigger. SCEREK FOREVER. Tbh, I would really like more Derek/Liam scenes, though. And Malia/Liam scenes. Basically, MORE LIAM.
Back at Eichen House, Brunski is taking way too much pleasure in drawing up more medicine while he watches Stiles and Lydia squirm in fear for their lives. "I'll admit, Stiles, I don't have any unusual talents, like Lydia," he explains quietly, while he taps the air bubbles out of the syringe. "But somehow, I just knew we were gonna get a chance to do this again." I didn't really understand this line-- does Brunski just get off on dosing people, like all those times he Haldol'd up Stiles, Oliver, Malia, and the other patients? Or is this supposed to be some hint that he had more to do with the nogitsune thing than we thought? Am I reading too much into this? ANYWAY, Stiles just glares at Brunski in rage, and it looks like he's going to try to kill Stiles, but at the last second he goes for Lydia instead, knowing that Stiles would rather die than watch Lydia die in front of him. "NO!" Stiles screams as he fights against his restraints, just as he sticks the needle in Lydia's neck. Because everyone knows when teenagers overdose on prescription painkillers or benzodiazepines, it's because they shoot up in their neck.
Thankfully, Jordan arrives just in the nick of time to aim his gun at Brunski and yell, "DROP IT!" He walks until he's just a foot away from Brunski's head, and demands that he remove his thumb from the syringe and withdraw the needle from Lydia's neck, post-haste. "Young deputy," Brunski sneers with a smug smile. "You're just a kid, I bet you've never even fired a--" He doesn't even get a chance to finish, because Jordan shoots him just as he's about to slam down the plunger on the syringe. DAMN RIGHT! Dude, Parrish was in the Army and did at least one tour in Afghanistan, I'm pretty sure he's probably shot a dude before. Also, PARRISH JUST SHOT SOMEONE TO PROTECT LYDIA, KILL ME NOW. Jordan rushes to release Lydia from her restraints while Lydia and Stiles, who are still shell-shocked from having seen yet another person die right in front of them (and the second person in a week Stiles has seen be shot in front of his face), explain what they've learned this evening. "He killed my grandmother," Lydia whispers. "He was controlling Meredith!" Once Lydia's free, Parrish keeps his gun trained at Brunksi while Lydia frees Stiles, who adds, "And he used her to create the deadpool!" Lydia crawls so she can shoot one last stink-eye to Brunski as she sneers, "And he killed her when she tried to help us."
(via teenwolf)
Jordan is horrified by this revelation, as we all would be, but before they can discuss it further, Brunski coughs up a huge puddle of blood and starts to laugh hysterically at the incorrect assumptions they've made. "You think it was me?" Brunski gasps weakly. "You think I was controlling her?" He laughs even harder, with the limited amount of oxygen still in his lungs, as one single tear falls down his cheek and into his ear. "She was controlling me," he finishes quietly, before he finally dies and goes still. Lydia and Stiles are both in shock, and Jordan looks like he doesn't know what to believe. "Oh god," Lydia murmurs, as she realizes what this mean. "It's not him. He's not the Benefactor." "No," a small, meek voice calls out from behind them, in between a row of shelves. Meredith FUCKING Walker slowly walks out into the open, dressed in a fabulous gray leather jacket that I am straight-up COVETING and looking damn good for someone who supposedly committed suicide three-ish days ago. "And, he wasn't on my list," she continues, as all three of them just stare at her in shock. "But, he was a bad person."
(via ldyiamartin)
WHAT. THE. FUCK. IS. THAT.
Next week, according to the promo: Derek decides that anyone who tries to come after the supernaturals of Beacon Hills gets to become a name on their very own deadpool of killers; more and more assassins come out of the woodwork, targeting anyone who still has a price on their heads; Meredith gets taken into the station, and presumably tells us more about what the fuck her motives are.
[screencaps via Screencapped]
NOTES/SPECULATION/QUESTIONS:
-FIRST, LET'S TALK MORE ABOUT PARRISH, YOU GUYS. We know he has ridiculously accelerated healing-- for reference, Peter, who had similar burns over his entire body, took six years to fully heal from them, and even then, he still had to kill his own niece for her alpha powers to finish healing all the way. So, the fact that Jordan healed from full body burns in just hours is remarkable. My question is, is it just fire-related injury that he heals from, or is it general healing? Can he heal from non-fatal wounds that don't involve fire? The fact that he doesn't seem to have any memory of doing anything remarkable or supernatural prior to now seems to suggest he doesn't have enhanced strength or senses or anything, otherwise he would have at least had some inkling that something was off about him. Then again, Kira has apparently ALWAYS had healing powers, even if the aura/enhanced agility and reflexes/foxfire didn't manifest until recently, so maybe he has the same thing and just figured he was especially healthy? Also, I wonder if we'll learn anything about his family? Is this something he was born with, or obtained somehow? I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS and we probably won't get answers until forever from now.
-We got a little bit of an update on the deadpool, though we still don't know everyone who has died on the list so far. The names we did see scratched off (Steve Grace, Reed Schull, and Richard Benefield) I'm assuming were killed by the virus that kill the majority of Satomi's pack? Otherwise we would have seen or heard about it. Either way, I really hope we get to see a full list soon to keep up with who has been killed and how much money of the $117 million stolen from the Hale vault has been paid out so far. ALSO, it looked like Brett is still alive, judging by the promo, and he looks like he's with a young girl, possibly another packmate? So, at least Satomi still has a couple betas left, although it's definitely possible their days are numbered. :/
-Alright, back to Lorraine and her relationship with Meredith. What was on the recording that nearly killed Meredith? A banshee scream? Something else? Was this whole deadpool/already-dead-pool all out of anger toward Lorraine for inadvertently hurting her? Did Lorraine ever find out what she truly was and learn how to control her powers? It seems like it. I also think it's very interesting that one of the things she tried involved the triquetra, a symbol that is often used to refer to the triple goddess. The term "triple goddess" can often refer to the symbolic Maiden (represents enchantment, inception, expansion, birth, and youth, and is represented by the waxing moon), Mother (represents ripeness, fertility, sexuality, fulfillment, and stability, and is represented by the full moon), and Crone (represents wisdom, repose, death, and endings, represented by the waning moon). More specifically, it is often used to describe the Greek moon goddesses, Artemis (the virgin goddess of the hunt), Selene (the mother of Endymion's children), and Hecate (associated with the underworld and thought to be the Queen of Witches.)
However, another trio that it can refer to are the Celtic goddesses Badb, Macha, and Nemain, who together make the Morrigan, known as the goddess of battle, strife and sovereignty. It's seems appropriate, especially considering 1) the name Martin is of Celtic origin, 2) banshees are from Celtic folklore, and 3) banshees are strongly related to the Morrigan. Even more conveniently, the Morrigan is known to take the form of an eel, a cow, a WOLF, or a CROW/RAVEN, especially when she flies above the warriors in battle. It's also been said that soldiers prayed to her for her blessing so they would win their battle, and often would predict the outcome of battles. Sound like anyone we know? (Derek: "How do you know I'm going to lose?" Peter: "I don't, but I bet Lydia does." Derek: "What do you feel?" Lydia: "I feel like I'm standing in a graveyard.") I personally have always wanted Lydia to be the Morrigan, and actually wondered if she was before we learned she was a banshee, so seeing the triquetra this week just stirred up my Morrigan!Lydia feelings.
-Now, onto Meredith specifically-- first, do you guys really think Meredith is the Benefactor? I'm still on the fence about it. I'm 100% sure she's involved, she even said herself that the deadpool lists were written by her, so at the very least she's helping out. I'm just not sure if she has the resources to do EVERYTHING that the Benefactor has been known to do, like setting up the program to communicate, creating darknet portals to untraceable bank accounts, creating the heist to get into the Hale vault to steal the cash. It just feels like she's just another tool being used by someone else, though I freely admit that I may just be underestimating her. Which brings me to my next question-- do we really think that she's a banshee? Or is she something else? She's demonstrated powers that are similar to Lydia's, such as hearing voices, and she seemed to be able to communicate with Lydia when the nogitsune had her. But, she also seems to have the ability to know the supernatural identity of every magical monster and creature in Beacon Hills, which doesn't seem to be something Lydia can do, at least not yet. I guess I'm having trouble deciding if Meredith is just a banshee who knows how to actually utilize her powers at will and understands the expanse of her abilities, or if she's something completely different. I read an excellent theory about Meredith being the raven that I kind of agree with. Basically, I just need to get some answers ASAP.
-I'm super worried about Liam's state of mind, to be honest. Actually, I'm worried about all of them, but especially Liam, because he is the youngest and the newest to all this stuff and hasn't learned how to compartmentalize this stuff. How many people have these kids seen murdered in front of them? How many of their FRIENDS have they seen die? How many dead bodies have they stumbled upon? How many times has someone tried to kill one of them, or a group of them? How many times have they been tortured, or threatened to be tortured? How many times have they been in brutal fights where they're getting severely injured (even if it is temporary for most of them) and then had to immediately go do some mundane human thing right afterward like nothing happened? All the while hiding all of it (or, in the cases of Scott, Stiles, Allison, and Kira, just the REALLY scary stuff) from their parents? I guess what I'm trying to say is just ONE of those things would be enough to fuck a person up for a long while, and each of them have had 25x that much trauma, so a breakdown seems to be imminent for at least ONE of them, don't you think? I'm leaning toward Liam or Lydia, tbh. Possibly Scott, although I think he thinks he can't break down because he's the alpha, the leader who is the glue that holds everyone else together. If he breaks, everyone does, and he can't let that happen, which means he's just putting MORE stress on himself that is going to result in him cracking under the pressure. :/
-Okay, so they need to find the Chemist's house/apartment/whatever and see if they can't get back the cash he got for killing most of Satomi's pack with that virus. Her pack had easily a dozen people, who ranged in price for anywhere between $250,000 and $1,000,000. I don't care if it's ~blood money~ or whatever, Derek (and the pack) deserve that money way more than these awful assassins do. Also, I'm hoping that Lydia got her $500 back from Brunski's body, too, because that would be a huge waste.
-As for the list that Lorraine left, I'm kind of confused. So, we know that all the people on it were people who were murdered by Brunski (on Meredith's orders?) and staged to look like suicides. But were they all supernatural? I read one theory where they were, and one where the list was all banshees, so I'm still confused as to how this works. If they were werewolves or something, it would take more than just a drug overdose to kill them, wouldn't it? I AM SO CONFUSED. It does seem to lend credence to the theory that this is not the first time that a hit list of supernatural creatures has surfaced.
And you know, a lot of people have said that it's like the Teen Wolf writers KNEW someone in the fandom would figure it out, so they pulled a character out of their asses that they knew we would never guess, but I don't know-- the more I've been thinking about what we know about Meredith, and what we've seen her do, the more it actually makes sense. I'll be getting into this more at length later on, obviously, but all in all I'm pretty stoked about this reveal (although I did feel the requisite "MEREDITH! I WAS ROOTING FOR YOU! WE WERE ALL ROOTING FOR YOU!" betrayal at the time, but honestly, even if she's trying to kill my faves in horrifying ways, I still can't help but be impressed by her hustle, because this had to have taken some serious planning and a very good working knowledge of everyone involved.) Basically, DAMN, girl.
But there was other amazing, frightening, mind-blowing, and heart-shattering moments that didn't involve Meredith, such as Brunski's cruel torture of Lydia using a tape of her grandmother's murder, Derek's complete "Dalai-freaking-Yoda"-attitude about his impending death (to borrow some words from Dean Winchester), Liam's acute-traumatic-stress-style flashbacks of the already numerous battles he's had to fight since being turned, Scott once again desperately trying to protect EVERYONE, and Derek and Braeden being pack dad and mom to their precious werebabies. Not to mention JORDAN FUCKING PARRISH, who was one of the main heroes of the night (in addition to the aforementioned heroics by Derek and Braeden, and Mason, who is the coolest, nicest, most loyal and understanding friend EVER and who I really hope we see more of in the future). We still don't know what exactly Parrish is, and I'm not sure we'll find out in the next three episodes, but whatever he is managed to protect him from being burned alive, so HALLELUJAH. I'm cool with having to wait a little while to figure it out, but if we have to wait another three seasons like we did with Lydia, I s2g...
Anyway, enough of the summarizing, let's dig into this amazing episode, shall we?
Previously on Teen Wolf: Lydia went to her grandmother's banshee room to try to see if Meredith's spirit could help her figure out what was going on, but all she got out of it was finding a picture of Meredith in the room from who knows how long ago. The pack found a hit list of supernatural creatures encrypted in a code Lydia accidentally transcribed in the midst of a banshee fugue state, and every supernatural in the pack is on it, as well as a bunch of other familiar names. Also included on the list is Jordan Parrish, our favorite green-eyed, happy-go-lucky deputy, whose bounty just so happens to be five million dollars. Shitloads of professional assassins have descended upon Beacon Hills, including the baby assassins known as the Orphans, the mouthless, tomahawk-throwing Mute, the Chemist, who tried to kill everyone with a genetically altered canine distemper, and a lady assassin who was swiftly killed by badass queen Satomi before she could do any serious harm. Peter and Malia were revealed to be father and daughter, though the gang was too worried about Malia's state of mind to inform her of this fact, and she ultimately ended up finding out on her own when she saw her name listed as "Malia Hale" on the third deadpool. The pack faked Scott's death in an attempt to draw out the Benefactor, but even though they never showed, Scott realized that their elusive Benefactor ended up revealing a possible identifying characteristic by doing so-- how could the Benefactor possibly know someone died without having to see the body afterward? If the Benny is a banshee, duh! Conveniently, Lydia, our resident banshee's grandmother, wrote what Lydia's mother believed to be gibberish right before she died, but what actually turned out to be another Vishniac cipher!
[Sidebar: I'm not sure on the timeline between this week's episode and next, but I'm thinking that "Perishable" begins the night after Scott faked his death/Lydia and her mother went through Lorraine's things in the boat house, and judging by the costume changes, the episode takes place somewhere between 24-36 hours, beginning when Haige attempted to murder Parrish and ending the next day when Braeden and Derek saved Scott, Liam and Malia at the bonfire and Parrish saved Stiles and Lydia at Eichen House. More on this timeline later!] ANYWAY, our cold open is absolutely horrifying this week, because we begin in the evening at some empty parking lot, where someone is laying slumped over inside their rain-soaked car. Wait, scratch that-- the car isn't soaked in RAIN, as you would ordinarily assume, it's actually GASOLINE being poured onto the outside of the car by a mysterious killer.
As if that weren't bad enough, the person INSIDE the car is actually Jordan Parrish, who has clearly been knocked out, judging by the bloody wound on his head, and whose wrists have been tightly zip-tied to his steering wheel. After a moment, he finally regains consciousness, only to become extremely confused and scared when he realizes that he's in some deep fucking shit at the moment. Once he figures out that he's currently in the process of being murdered, he starts shouting in hopes he can work his awesome mediation skills in his favor. "Hey! HEY! What are you doing?" He waits a beat before continuing to shout out the open windows. "Listen! Listen to me! I'm a deputy with the Beacon Hills Sheriff's Department--" Oh, honey, I'm pretty sure they already know that, considering you're wearing a BHSD uniform and are driving a BHSD cruiser and all. Suddenly, we see who today's assassin truly is-- Deputy Haige, known around these parts as Deputy Dickweed (and quite rightly, I might add), who just mutters, "Damn! I was hoping you'd be out longer." Jordan might still be scared shitless, but his confusion quickly turns to betrayal and rage, and he yells, "What the hell? What are you doing?"
Deputy Dickweed continues to douse Jordan's police cruiser with a huge jug of gasoline while he explains that yeah, Jordan's a good guy, but since the list says he's worth five million dollars, being a good guy isn't enough to keep him alive, apparently. Jordan wisely plays dumb and claims he has no idea what DD is talking about, and reminds him that he barely makes $40k a year as he desperately tries to break free from his zip ties. He needs one of those rings that has a secret zip tie cutter/lock pick hidden inside. Actually, everyone needs one of those rings. Deputy Dickweed is like, "Well, I only make $36k, so obviously that justifies killing you," because he is a dickweed, and makes matters even worse by dumping the rest of the gasoline over Jordan's head, completely soaking his hair, skin, and uniform in fuel while Jordan screams in protest. "Haige, please, just stop!" Jordan shrieks in desperation, but Haige is proving himself to be quite a heartless motherfucker, and just sets the gasoline can down on the ground while he prepares to light Jordan on fire.
"Look, you don't have to do this! If you're having money problems--" Parrish pleads, but Haige doesn't give a fuck, obviously, and reiterates that since Jordan is the one who is worth five million dollars dead, HE'S actually the one with problems at the moment. UGH, HATE THIS GUY. Jordan can't believe that he's just willing to stand there and listen to one of his coworkers being burned alive, but Deputy Dickweed just silently thumbs his earbuds into his ears and cranks up his music before digging around in his pocket for his Zippo. Jordan frantically fights against his restraints, but it's futile-- DD throws his lighter right at Jordan, which lands right on his shirt and immediately sets him ablaze. While he's screaming bloody murder as the flames consume him, DD just watches silently and emotionlessly from outside the car. Okay, so how did DD think he was just going to get away with that? Like, they would know SOMEONE did it, and even though fire does get rid of evidence, it also CREATES evidence, so I'm not sure he'd be able to cover all his tracks. Plus, eventually the pack would figure it out because they always do, especially now that Lydia and Stiles have grown quite attached to the guy since he started helping Sheriff Stilinski with the supernatural stuff.
Meanwhile, at the Sheriff's Department, Stiles (wearing a super cute mustard and cream-colored baseball shirt and his usual tight khakis) and Lydia (looking similarly hot a floral blouse and high-waisted denim skirt) have arrived to inform Sheriff about what Lydia has learned about her family, specifically her paternal grandmother. "It's not just that she could still be alive," Stiles explains, allowing Lydia to pick up where he left off. "It's that she would have had to fake her death." Naturally, Sheriff is feeling his usual mixture of intense confusion, exasperation, and stress regarding the idea that Lorraine Martin could have faked her own suicide, but Stiles is sure that it's a solid theory, though Lydia is not so sure. Sheriff assumes that they've already got a story to explain it, so Lydia admits, "...She might be helping the Benefactor--" "--or IS the Benefactor," Stiles adds. Sheriff proclaims this to be a story that is worth hearing, and immediately shuts his office door so that they can talk privately.
Out in the bullpen, Deputy Dickweed is on his Macbook, acting as if he didn't just set his partner on fire just an hour or so ago, and is using the same program that Chris and the Mute used to communicate with the Benefactor so he can send a message: "Inquiring about wire transfer." I wonder how much money Teen Wolf gets from Apple for all this product placement? Because seriously, EVERYONE uses a Macbook on this show. Also, his messages have the handle "G/:" too, just like Chris', so I guess it's just a general thing rather than a hint of some kind. I'm kind of stupid when it comes to computers, so if anyone knows why this is the way it is, I am all ears! Anyway, after a moment, the kids tell Sheriff something that must be important, because he pops his head out of the office door and loudly asks if anyone there has seen Parrish, because he needs him on this. He eventually eyeballs Deputy Dickweed, since they're partners and everything, but DD just lies that he hasn't seen him, and Sheriff doesn't question it, he just returns to his children. PS, did you know that DD is played by Lou Ferrigno Jr, also known as the son of Lou Ferrigno Sr, who was the original Incredible Hulk? The more you know! Jr's super cute, but his character sucks ass, tbh. He lost my favor the second he was such an asshole to bb Derek, let's be real.
Just then, a blackened, barefoot, naked pair of legs stride purposely into the Sheriff's Department through the glass double doors, and the camera pans up to reveal that IT'S TOTALLY JORDAN, YOU GUYS. HALLELUJAH, HE'S STILL ALIVE. Jordan's insanely lean and hot body is artfully smeared with soot/ashes (god bless the make-up artist who got THAT job), and burned, blackened patches of skin are peeling off in various places. His gaze is understandably murderous as he makes his way into the bullpen, totally naked, and glares at DD once he makes it through the doorway. "Holy shi--" DD swears under his breath as he reaches for his side-arm, but Jordan is currently fueled by nothing but nuclear-level fury as he lunges for him. Jordan shoves him against the wall and focuses all his strength on trying to grab the gun from him, which leads DD to unwisely shoot two shots at the wall, which just happens to be shared with SHERIFF'S OFFICE, YOU UNCULTURED SWINE. WATCH WHERE YOU'RE AIMING THAT THING. Jordan's eyes have nothing but rage in them as he straight-up GROWLS at Deputy Dickweed, but all DD can say for himself is, "You're dead!" All this does is pissed Jordan off more, so he groans loudly in anger and frustration before he throws DD down onto the ground and climbs on top of him so he can kick DD's ass.
Hearing the commotion, Sheriff pops out of his office with his own gun drawn to find out what the fuck is happening in his office NOW, but his eyes widen in alarm when he sees Jordan's burnt-up body wrestling the gun out of DD's hands. Again, DD stupidly fires his weapon, which hits Sheriff right in the shoulder (NOOOO!), causing Stiles and Lydia to immediately rush to his side as he crumples to the floor. "But, you're dead!" Deputy Dickweed protests in disbelief once again, like an idiot, because HELLO, clearly Jordan isn't dead, and now he's PISSED. So, Jordan decides to prove just how alive he is by violently punching the shit out of DD's face while Sheriff, Stiles, and Lydia watch in horror. Once Parrish feels DD's been satisfyingly beat up (for now, anyway), he straightens up and tries to catch his breath.
Behind him, Deputy Dickweed's computer beeps to alert him to the fact that he's received a response from the Benefactor-- "Kill not confirmed." Yeah, I'd say so! GOOD LORD. I do not blame Jordan at ALL for being pissed at DD, because being burned alive must have seriously been EXCRUCIATING, even if he did survive it and heal from it. Still, I never would have expected to see rage like that coming from him, and it was both super hot and super terrifying. Way to go, Ryan Kelley! You are amazing. Anyway, the Stilinski/Martin team are clearly confused and horrified by what just happened, and of course, Sheriff's been shot in the scuffle and is groaning in pain while Stiles applies pressure to his wounds. NOOO! Didn't we learn from the Darach incident? No one shoots Sheriff! He and Stiles seriously need to wear a vest 100% of the time. TITLE CARD!
When we return from the break, we're at the loft, where Lydia, Scott, and Jordan have come to see Derek in hopes that he can figure out what the fuck Jordan is. Derek has taken Jordan's hands in his own and is examining his palms and forearms as he flips them over. Jordan looks pretty shell-shocked, and understandably so, while Lydia and Scott are just watching in simultaneous sympathy and curiosity. "He covered you in gasoline?" Derek asks, though he already knows the answer, and Jordan nods nervously in confirmation. Lydia brings up Jordan's hair and nails, both of which are the parts of the body that are essentially dead, and both of which regenerated perfectly. Derek, instantly knowing where Lydia is going with this, agrees that Jordan's hair and nails should both be totally gone-- even if he healed from the burns, it should all be gone until they eventually grow back. Jordan, nearly hysterical at this point, reminds them that all of his body should be gone, because DUH, he was soaked in gasoline and burned alive, but Scott gently informs him that if he's like them, then it makes sense that he's actually alive instead of being charcoal right now.
Parrish is understandably lost, and simply asks, "...like you?" but Derek ignores him and argues that he doesn't think Jordan is "like them," ie: not a werewolf. Which makes sense, really, because even a werewolf couldn't heal burns that severe THAT quickly, you know? Lydia asks what the fuck he is, then, if he's not a werecreature of some kind, but Derek is just like, "Hell if I know, dudes. This is sort of out of my wheelhouse, tbh." Really, though? Like Scott said, Derek knew what Jackson was AND what Kira was, and its been stated many times in canon that he's a very smart and well-read guy, who knows a lot about a broad range of subjects from religion to history to folklore and mythology, so I don't understand how he couldn't know what sort of supernatural creature Parrish is. I'm still in the Phoenix!Parrish camp, though I would also be happy with Raven!Parrish, too, or Salamander!Parrish.
Anyway, Derek suggests to Scott that perhaps they should get in touch with Chris, since the Argent bestiary could have some ideas, but Scott has no idea where Chris is, which is worrisome, imo. This is the only mention Chris gets in this episode, too-- I'm hoping this doesn't have anything to do with the Calaveras, because the last thing these kids need is hunter problems on top of assassin problems! Also, doesn't Peter have a bestiary, too? I mean, he's clearly shady and I wouldn't exactly want to tell him what's going on with Jordan, because who knows what he'd try to do? If he wants to be alpha again, he could definitely want Jordan in his pack once that happens. But still, maybe they could innocently ask him if they could look through it without letting him know why? I JUST WANT TO KNOW ALREADY IT'S BEEN EIGHTY FOUR YEARS.
ANYWAY, Jordan is getting annoyed that they're talking in riddles as though he's not even standing right in front of them, and eventually snaps, "Hold on, what's a bestiary? Actually, that's not even my first question! Just... just tell me one thing-- are all of you like Lydia?" Lydia just raises her eyebrow in curious confusion, so Jordan amends his question. "Are you all psychic?" Scott and Derek just about burst out laughing, because that is seriously adorable and hilarious, but after a moment of the two giving each other loaded looks, Scott replies, "...Not exactly." Of course, Jordan wants to know what he is, then, so Scott looks to Derek for his input, and when Derek silently tilts his head to the side as if to say, "Well, he's supernatural, too, so we might as well download him on the deets. It might make our lives easier, at this point." Scott just sighs and turns toward Jordan before he closes his eyes. When he opens them, his eyes are bright red. He should have just shifted, tbh! Although I'm sure Parrish will see straight-up transformed werewolves soon enough, now-- we're long overdue for a legit, full-pack brawl. Also, Scott and Derek's relationship, especially these last two seasons and even more especially this episode, gives me SO MUCH LIFE. Just look at these two losers! They don't even need words to communicate anymore! <3Scott<3Derek<3
(via teenwolf)
Across town, Sheriff has just been admitted to Beacon Memorial, and is currently set up in his bed in a hospital gown, filling out paperwork. Stiles stands dutifully at his bedside while Dr. Gardner (who you may remember as Stiles' doctor when he had his MRI, and the one Barrow stabbed when he was getting surgery) walks Sheriff through how they're going to treat his injury. He makes the mistake of referring to Sheriff as "Mr. Stilinski" (because apparently, we can't know any of the Stilinski men's real first names) until Stiles corrects him by interjecting, "Sheriff Stilinski," which I thought was a great touch, tbh. He's so proud of his dad! "I've got you scheduled for surgery first thing in the morning," Dr. Gardner continues, after amending his mistake. "Unfortunately, it's gonna take a little digging to get that slug out of your shoulder." Aw, Sheriff! :( Sheriff's just like, "Fine, whatever," until he stumbles upon a part of the paperwork that is titled "Patient Responsibility," AKA the parts of the procedures that insurance doesn't cover. Sheriff glances over at Stiles before asking if those parts are going to be very expensive, but the doctor claims that fight is between Sheriff and his insurance. He informs Sheriff that the morphine he put in his IV should be kicking in soon before he he scampers. Excellent bedside manner, dude. Wait, Sheriff was shot in the line of duty, so shouldn't his work insurance be paying for all of this? Or are they trying to minimize Parrish's involvement in the shooting by making it seem like this was just a civilian mishap? IDGI.
Once he's gone, Stiles returns to his dad's bedside, but you can tell he's not only feeling super guilty/worried about his dad getting shot, but also because of how much these bills are going to crush them even worse than they're already crushed at the moment. He starts anxiously gnawing on his nails until Sheriff finally tells him to cut it out, and insists that he was just making sure he understood properly, not suggesting that they're in dire straights. That's when Stiles drops some bombs on him. "I know about the bills, Dad. I know about the collectors calling about Eichen House, I know about the advance from the department, about the credit cards..." Sheriff's face falls as Stiles speaks, and he finally asks if Stiles has been going through his stuff. Stiles doesn't even try to deny it, because he's seriously freaking out about how much stress his dad is under. "Yeah! I go through ALL your stuff, especially when you keep stuff from me!" Oh, how the turn tables, am I right? Cut it out, Stilinskis! I'm too vulnerable for your family's emotional assaults right now.
Sheriff is angry (well, mostly I think he's kind of embarrassed in that whole "I'm a man and need to provide for my family," kind of way, but also because he's trying to protect Stiles for once and Stiles won't let him) and reminds him that if he didn't tell him, it's because he didn't need to know, so Stiles pulls out the heavy-duty artillery. "Yes, I do! I have to! How the hell else am I supposed to take care of you?" There's that thing again, where Sheriff is frustrated because he's the dad and he believes HE should be taking care of Stiles, and not vice versa, and he can't even do THAT because Stiles is constantly in danger by virtue of being friends with supernaturals. So, Sheriff outlines how he thinks things are supposed to work, which is that Sheriff is the dad and Stiles is the son, so he makes the rules and Stiles follows them, blah blah blah.
Stiles just sighs, rolls his eyes, and settles into a chair beside Sheriff's bed before replying that they're SUPPOSED to take care of each other, which is correct imo. Justin Nozuka's "Iulius" starts to play as Sheriff, who clearly feels bad for taking his frustration out on Stiles, insists that they're going to be okay, but Stiles isn't convinced, and asks him how he knows that for sure. Sheriff just sighs and admits with slurring words that he doesn't, but the morphine just started kicking in, so he's not worried at all about anything right now. It takes him barely any more time before he passes out, leaving Stiles to sit alone and become even more overwhelmed by everything that is going on, which is pretty par for the course at this point. "I am," Stiles mutters quietly. NOOOO STILINSKIS.
(via teen-wolf)
Back at the loft, we return to Supernatural Creatures 101 in media res, just as Jordan asks, "What's a kanima?" It's always the kanima that confuses people, bahahahaha. Scott just smiles sheepishly and decides they'll go back to it, before he sits down next to him on the couch and reminds him of the take-away lesson here-- "Just know that everyone like us, everyone with some kind of supernatural ability is on the deadpool." Jordan is still ridiculously confused, as anyone would be, and points out that he doesn't even know what he is, but Derek is pretty sure that the assassins don't really care about that part-- all they care about is the huge amounts of cash they win if they kill him. Then, the gang gets into more talk about what they're up against.
JORDAN: "How many professional assassins are we talking about?"
LYDIA: [pacing] "We're starting to lose count."
SCOTT: [frowns] "But, is it still just professionals?"
JORDAN: [thinks for a moment] "I don't think Haige's ever tried anything like this. I think he was taking a chance."
DEREK: [sighs] "That means anyone with the deadpool can take a chance."
JORDAN: "But, if Haige had it, who else does? How easy is it to get this thing, now?"THIS IS SUPER INTERESTING TO ME, especially given what happens after this conversation. The first assassins we were introduced to were serious professionals, like the Mute, or the Orphans, who were well-known for killing even before they started going after deadpool targets. The Chemist may not have been a professional killer per say, but he was a scientist who had been doing extensive experimentation on werewolves, so he'd probably be sought out by the Benefactor because he's already demonstrated that he's cool with killing supernaturals. But if Haige got the list, that means the Benefactor REALLY wants these people dead, and is now sending the list to ANYONE. I'm wondering if maybe the Benefactor isn't trying to send the deadpool out to humans who are in poor financial situations? I'll touch on this more in a bit when we get more examples.
Back on the topic of Jordan, I know that being told all of this stuff is real is probably ridiculously overwhelming and confusing, but at the same time, do you think he's secretly kind of relieved? I mean, he's witnessed a SHITLOAD of supernatural drama and the deaths that resulted from it, so learning all of this stuff must at least make him feel a little bit better, knowing the truth? And honestly, at this point, finding out that magical creatures are real probably makes more sense than the theories he was making up on his on about demonic ninjas and mouthless assassins, you know? Plus, he said himself he felt drawn to Beacon Hills, so at least now he knows that there was a reason behind it? I have a lot more to say about this later.
For the first time ever, we get to see Liam's bedroom, which is actually kind of messy actually. It makes me super happy, because at least one of these kids has to be a slob, you know? Scott, Stiles and Lydia all have nearly immaculate rooms and Derek's loft is super bare as well. It just makes me like Liam even more. Anyway, he's laying flat on his back in bed, seemingly unable to sleep, and tosses and turns several times before he's caught off-guard by the sound of his printer suddenly turning on of its own accord. It begins printing off page after page of print-outs, and after a moment, Liam sits up in bed to find that there are so many pages that have been printed that they're spilling off of his desk and onto the floor. When the printer shows no signs of stopping, he finally hops out of bed to investigate. He nervously crouches down to pick up one of the pages, and is horrified when he skims it and realizes that it's an updated version of the first deadpool lists. Here's the part I could catch:
LYDIA MARTIN 20
SCOTT MCCALL 25
[conspicuously blank space]
[...]
With Liam's uneasiness now full-blown panic, he pulls up another page with more of the same:
KATE ARGENT 12
NOSHIKO YUKIMURA 5
JOANNE MCLAUGHLIN 1
TOM HILL 1
BRETT TALBOT 1
[...]
I have been waiting what feels like eighty-four years for them to tell us everyone who has died already, so even just seeing part of the lists with various names crossed off is super helpful for meta purposes. Also, there is a pretty significant change on the first list that is pretty glaringly obvious, but we're gonna wait a bit before we talk about it, 'kay? 'Kay. Terrified, Liam frantically looks around his room to make sure that this isn't some kind of a trap/assassination attempt, and ultimately starts to push the cancel button on the printer to stop it. Of course, since this is basically a horror movie, doing that does absolutely nothing to stop the flow of deadpool printouts falling onto the floor, so lacking other options, Liam rushes around the side of his desk so he can pull the plug. The printer finally stops printing, but it still managed to print out several dozen pages in the time that it was running, which are now littering his bedroom floor. THIS IS TERRIFYING TBH. One of my irrational nightmare scenarios is technology going haywire like that tbh, I don't know why, but it's just really creepy. My question is, are all the printouts this week because of an especially skilled hacker who is just trying to scare the people on the list and/or alert people to the hit list and the money you could get if you killed the targets? Or is it a supernatural with some kind of technokinesis who can make computers/printers/whatever do whatever they want? I'm guessing probably the former, although the latter would be very cool, I haven't seen an ability like that on TV since Heroes, tbh.
After the break, we return to the loft, where Lydia is giving a beautifully-directed and edited explanation of her grandmother's connection to everything, including flashbacks other really cool special effects, while Scott, Derek, and Jordan periodically chime in with questions or comments. Forgive me for all of the dialogue I'm about to straight-up transcribe, because as usual, we're in the final four episodes, all of which usually are chock full of important information, and who knows what's going to be important later? ANYWAY, we begin with a flashback to Meredith's first visit to the lake house. Lydia's voiceover explains, "Meredith was only at my grandmother's lake house once. But, I think once was enough." Meredith is clearly freaked out as she stands outside the banshee room, and she almost leaves, but at the last minute, but Lorraine just smiles and encourages her to come in, and eventually, she does.
In the present day, Derek curiously asks her how her grandmother knew Meredith, but apparently, she didn't. "She found her," Lydia admits quietly, as she sits on the end of Derek's bed. "Because of another woman named Maddy, the woman she loved." Lydia pulls out a photo for a very confused Scott, which is of a young, red-haired Lorraine (who looks SO similar to Lydia it's scary, kudos once again to the casting people!) with a dark haired young woman, both of whom are smiling and look really happy. HOW COOL IS IT THAT LYDIA'S GRANDMA WAS A QUEER COMPUTER PROGRAMMER IN THE 60's-70's? I LOVE THIS SO MUCH. Also, I would be REMISS if I didn't mention the fact that Maddy bears a startling resemblance to a one Allison Argent, don't you think? History really does repeat itself, especially in Beacon Hills.
"I never met her," Lydia continues. "I saw her name everywhere. She was from Harvard, yacht racing team. There were plaques and trophies in the boat house from all the regattas she'd won." Jordan asks her how she died, but Lydia replies that how she died isn't as important is what happened BEFORE, although I'd say this ends up being totally false, because her death is actually pretty damn significant. But, I'm getting ahead of myself. "My grandmother, Lorraine, used to work in San Francisco for IBM," Lydia says with a smile. She definitely got her smarts from Lorraine, yeah? Lydia turns and walks toward the wall of windows in the loft, and it's almost like she's walking through a flashback of her grandmother's, because suddenly, the loft is full of sunlight and huge-ass, 70s-era computers as Lydia paces around. "She was there on a weekend, catching up on work. She started hearing this sound, like rain. But when she looked out the window, all she saw was blue sky."
Scott immediately gets a bad feeling, because this sounds awfully familiar, don't you think? So, he assumes that Lorraine kept hearing the rain anyway, and Lydia confirms that the sounds just kept getting louder and louder as Jordan and Derek watch her in shock. "Rain, thunder, cracking, like gunshots in her head. So loud, she finally just screamed." Derek immediately gets where she's going with this, and adds, "Like a banshee." GOD THIS IS TOO MUCH. This could be a textbook description of what was happening to Lydia, right? Voices, inexplicable noises, screaming bloody murder out of nowhere, overwhelming feelings of dread, occasional hallucinations and/or fugue states in which she does things she can't even realize she's doing?
"She called Maddy, who was planning on taking one of the boats out on the lake. But, Maddy said the sun was shining there, too, so Lorraine didn't say anything." Jordan correctly guesses that there was an accident, just as we flash back to the lake, where Maddy's body is laying face down in the water as it rains and thunders overhead. "It took them four days to find Maddy's body," Lydia reveals sadly, as we get a shot of Lorraine in a 70's-style maxi-dress, staring mournfully into the storm from the boat house. "And then it took DECADES to figure out how Lorraine knew."
We cut to the lake house, where men and women in immaculate white lab coats are setting up the banshee room. "She started with parapsychologists... the Ph.D in their name made it more scientific. They built the study in the lake house according to every pseudoscientific they could find." In flashback, we see Lorraine strolling through the study, jotting down notes on a clipboard. In the present day, Lydia admits that none of it worked, so she looked for answers elsewhere. "Then she started getting into more extreme occult, things like mediums and psychics, all of them were failures." We can see Lorraine using tarot cards, drawing a triquetra (which is SUPER interesting, see the notes for more) on the wall in graphite, using what looks like Eastern mahjong-style stones, all to no avail.
Until Meredith, that is-- we return to the flashback of Meredith bashfully entering the banshee room, as Lydia's voiceover explains. "They found her at Eichen House. This fragile girl who didn't understand the things she heard." In flashback, Lorraine welcomes Meredith into the room, where she and the lab-coated parapsychologists sit her down in front of the record player and give her a set of headphones to wear. "They brought her to the study, and they almost killed her." Suddenly, Meredith's body starts seizing, and blood runs from her ears down her neck. Okay, WHAT THE FUCK WAS SHE LISTENING TO? A banshee wail? Was it a volume thing (since banshees have sensitive ears/hearing) or was it what she was actually hearing that was the problem? It's also interesting, considering how Meredith's scream made LYDIA'S ears bleed in "Orphaned" when Parrish, Lydia, and Stiles went to Eichen House to try to get the third cipher key.
According to Lydia, Meredith was hospitalized for over a year because of the injuries she sustained at the lake house, and was never quite the same after that. "My grandmother drove her insane," Lydia states, guilt written all over her face. "And I drove her to suicide." We flashback to what we saw at the end of "Orphaned," where Brunski found Meredith's body in her room, and gently removed the braided sheet from around her neck. "And all she ever wanted to do was help." All three of the boys look like they're SO SAD for Lydia, because damn, that is a terrible story, not to mention all the implications for her own possible future-- being driven mad by all the voices/noises, being locked up in Eichen House by her family because they think she's mentally ill rather than blessed and cursed with supernatural abilities.
In the present day, Lydia pulls out the sheet of paper her mother gave her the previous night, and sets it on the table, around which she and the boys are all now gathered. "My grandmother created the code for the deadpool," Lydia confesses. "I think she's the banshee who put the names on it in the first place." So, Lorraine figured out the names on her own and wrote the list in a code as a warning to Lydia/the supernaturals? But the original list was already made by the Benefactor? She slides the paper across the table to Scott, who frowns in confusion before he examines it. Lydia adds that Lorraine left her a message in the same code, but Scott correctly assumes that she didn't leave her a cipher key, which means they have to figure it out on their own if they want to read the message. Wonderful!
It's late, now, and the gang seems to have called it a night, because Parrish is getting into a deputy cruiser (not his usual one, since it doesn't have his healing ability, hahaha, but an SUV cruiser like the one Sheriff drives) outside of Derek's apartment complex to head home. Once he gets into his car and shuts the door, he stops for a moment to once again look at his hands and arms, which are completely clear and free of burns or any sign whatsoever that he was literally burned alive only hours prior. Daaaamn, Jordan, what the fuck are you? He seems just as confused and alarmed as he was before, probably even more now that he knows what really goes on in the world. At the same time, I'm sure he's probably pretty thankful that he IS whatever he is, because being alive and healed > being dead for SURE.
Meanwhile, Lydia has gone over to Stiles' house, naturally, so the two of them can brainstorm and process the new information they've just learned. Lydia watches as Stiles tapes the sheet with Lorraine's coded message and the picture of her and Maddy to the crime board, which is slowly getting way too full for all the photos and documents they've amassed this season. The two stand side-by-side while they stare at the board and desperately try to make some connection they haven't figured out up to this point.
Back at the loft, Scott is still hanging out, and slowly wanders around the room until he makes it over to Derek's bed, where he finds Derek's super handsome jacket (dark gray wool with black elbow patches) with Braeden's Sig Sauer P88 laying on top. Frowning, Scott picks up the gun and turns it over in his hands until Derek comes up behind him and says, "Careful with that." He's not at all offended that Scott is snooping a little, though, he just seems amused, albeit in a very stressed, exhausted way. Scott glances down at the gun in his hand for a moment before Derek holds out his hand to take it, and points out that he was under the impression that Derek didn't like guns. Derek just shrugs and sets the gun down, and Scott, clearly getting worried about his werewolf bro, asks him if this new change has something to do with his eyes changing. "My eyes...my strength, the healing... all of it. Whatever Kate did to me, it's still happening," Derek admits slowly, not meeting Scott's eyes. Scott's worry has hit critical mass, so he figures he might as well make his own confession now. "If the deadpool really was made by a banshee, then there's something else that you should know about... your name broke the third list. It was a cipher key."
Derek seems stunned by the reality of this information, though he doesn't look SURPRISED, if that makes sense. "And the other two keys were Allison and Aiden," Derek points out, with the most heartbreaking, self-deprecating smile. I'm guessing that Derek has already considered this possibility, and his zen-ness/detached sense of humor regarding this whole situation is seriously breaking my heart into itty bitty pieces. Scott insists that he doesn't want to freak Derek out or anything, but considering everything they're dealing with at the moment, this kind of feels like a warning of some kind, since they were all names listed by a banshee. Scott adds that this could mean that Derek could be in danger, but Derek just takes a deep breath and drops some seriously depressing facts on his bb werewolf brother. "Scott, Banshees don't predict danger. They predict death." NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE. Derek is a guy who (usually) has a lot of abilities on account of being a werewolf, but he also has one other unique ability, which is the fact that he NEVER EVER EVER EVER DIES. Ever. Not when he was shot with a rare wolfsbane-filled bullet, not when Alpha Monster!Peter clawed out his lungs and left him for dead outside the school, not when he was paralyzed by the kanima and thrown into a swimming pool with only Stiles' scrawny ass to keep him from drowning, not when Kali impaled him through the chest with a pipe, not when he fell three stories onto an escalator. Not even when he gave up his alpha abilities to save his sister! So he is not dying now. I refuse to believe it.
It's the next morning, now, and Scott is about to head out the door so he can go to school, when he notices that the corner of Garrett's duffel bag is peeking out from under his bed, with the zipper open like four inches. He is immediately terrified that someone somehow got into it and stole the money inside, so he quickly shuts his door before he takes the bag and dumps its contents onto his bed to count it. I spent this entire scene terrified that someone was going to come in and catch him, so for those of you who haven't actually seen this episode yet, I will tell you upfront that no one is going to catch him! He frantically arranges all of the stacks of $100 bills and counts through them to make sure that the entire half-million dollars is all there.
Liam has arrived at school, and looks about as paranoid and strung out as he did the day after he got bitten, tbh. As he walks into the school and down the hallway, he's overwhelmed by all of the people and noises around him, and assumes that everyone who passes him is secretly whispering or giggling about him behind his back. He's broken out of his bout of hypervigilance by wonderful Mason, who approaches him and asks him if he's going to the bonfire that evening. Liam, who is still a little twitchy, mumbles some vague reasoning for wanting to bail on it, but Mason reminds him that he's actually REQUIRED to go, as a member of the lacrosse team. Liam shrugs it off, but is momentarily distracted when he hallucinates that a berserker is standing down the hall. He then flashes back to his fight against the berserker on the roof of the hospital with Kira the other night, but is just as quickly brought back to the present.
(via thosedamnwerewolves)
"I don't think I can make it," Liam manages to reply, but Mason's not having it. "You're coming! And we're going to find you a nice girl that you can embarrass yourself in front of, and find ME a lacrosse player. Because statistically speaking, SOMEONE on your team has got to be on my team, right?" Liam once again gets pulled out of their conversation when he hallucinates that the berserker is stomping toward him down the hall, and then once again flashes back to when the berserker got him in a choke-hold at the hospital. When Liam pulls himself out of it, he concedes that he'll go, just to satisfy Mason enough that he can end the conversation and flounce to class. Liam, bb. :( This acute traumatic stress is so not good. All these kids should probably be seeing Ms. Morrell, or some kind of supernatural psychiatrist, let's be real-- most regular people would have broken down forever ago, and the only reason why none of them really have yet is because they don't have TIME to break down, since every day is a fight to survive, now that they've become a hot commodity in the paid-killer circles.
Meanwhile, Stiles and Lydia have decided to skip school so they can continue to try to break the code Lorraine left for Lydia. Behind them, Stiles' printer beeps at them, because it's apparently out of paper. Stiles is squinting in concentration as he tries to think about potential cipher keys, and demands that Lydia try "Maddy." Naturally, Lydia assumes this is way too obvious to be a real cipher key, but Stiles claims he GUARANTEES it's Maddy, so Lydia gives it a try. And, of course, it doesn't work, just like Lydia predicted. Stiles makes an adorably pouty face before making his next suggestion, which is that it's Lydia's name, because Lorraine left the code FOR Lydia. But, when she tries it, it doesn't work, either. They even try Lydia's mother's name, Natalie, even though it makes no sense, because Lorraine is Pap Martin's mother, not Mama Martin's. At a loss for other options, Stiles quips, "Do you have any beloved family pets?" which impresses Lydia not a bit as she pinches the bridge of her nose in frustration. Whatever happened to Prada?
Magic Man's "Paris" begins to play as we cut over to the school's locker room, where the lacrosse team has all gathered for a pep talk about the night's bonfire from Coach Finstock himself. Scott is standing near the front, not looking very enthusiastic for obvious reasons, while Liam is seated on a bench near the back, looking as though he would rather be literally ANYWHERE else. "Alright!" Coach shouts, to get the boys' attention. "I know the start-of-the-season bonfire, it's, uh, it's a big deal for you guys! I ALSO know it gets out of hand sometimes! The alumni show up, there's other teams, and alcohol. LOTS and LOTS of alcohol!" The team cheers, drums on their lockers, and fist pumps to that statement, which really only proves Coach's point.
While Coach works to get the kids to calm down, Scott glances over at Liam and realizes the poor boy is about thisclose to a panic attack. "SHUT UP!" Coach yells, breaking Scott out of his reverie. "Now, what I don't understand is why anybody would want to get stumbling-down-drunk in front of a massive open fire!" claims Bobby Finstock, the recovering alcoholic, though he adds that he has basically given up the delusion that he can stop any of them from being drunken idiots, which earns him another round of applause from the team. Scott continues to stare worriedly at Liam until Coach smacks him on the back proudly and states, "I'll also remind you that your team captain, McCall, will be there! And I can count on him to narc on any and every one of these little bastards!" Scott just groans internally and watches as Liam anxiously gets up and rushes out of the locker room.
Back at the Stilinski residence, Stiles has his head buried in his arms on the desk while he anxiously taps his fingers on the desktop, and he eventually reminds Lydia that since the code (and the mountain ash) was left TO her FROM her grandmother, this is something Lydia is supposed to be able to figure out. Lydia argues in her defense that no one else is supposed to figure it out, either, which is why she made it difficult in the first place. Stiles' printer continues to beep incessantly about its lack of paper, and he eventually gets so aggravated that he rushes over and stuffs a stack of printer paper into the tray, just to make it stop. The printer immediately starts printing pages off as soon as it gets the paper it needs, but Stiles is too preoccupied with the newest code to even notice. Stiles is just about to recap what they know when he gets his weekly burst of convenient inspiration-- they've spent all this time thinking of words that refer to Lorraine, when they should be trying to find words that refer to LYDIA.
Lydia's like, "What about me?" so Stiles asks her what she used to do with her grandmother when she was alive. "You know, what was your guys' special thing? Like, did you guys go to the beach? Did you get ice cream?" After thinking about it a moment, Lydia remembers that they used to read together, which results in one of the most adorably comedic scenes in the entire episode:
STILES: [excited] "Okay! What did you read?"
LYDIA: [thinks for a moment] "...The Little Mermaid?"
STILES: [confused] "You read that movie?"
LYDIA: [indignant] "It was a book first! Hans Christian Anderson?"
I know on paper it doesn't sound funny, but it was all in Dylan and Holland's delivery, which was perfection. Stiles insists that she type in "LittleMermaid," which doesn't work, not even when Lydia follows it up with just "Mermaid." Lydia pauses to consider this for a moment, and recalls that it was an obsession of hers when she was little, so much that they read it every day for months, and Lydia insisted that everyone call her Ariel, which annoyed her parents to death. Naturally, Lorraine thought it was adorable, because it is, so Lydia types in "Ariel" as the keyword, which immediately decodes the message:
TAMRA JOHANSEN
ALICE DUFFY
PAULA BRASCH
TRAY LOCKHART
JOSH MORRIS
ELSA CHIN
PETER MCELROY
TAYLOR FREEMAN
TERRANCE SHUMAN
LORRAINE MARTIN
Outside on the staircase, Scott finds Liam seated on the bottom step, anxiously worrying at the strings on his lacrosse stick. Scott's footsteps scare Liam so much that he visibly twitches, so Scott instantly sits down behind him and gently squeezes his shoulder before asking, "Hey. You okay?" The way that he taps his fingers on Liam's shoulder while he asks it is basically the cutest thing in the world. If you have Scott McCall as an alpha or a friend, you are seriously the luckiest motherfucker alive, let me tell you what. Anyway, Liam's clearly still half on the verge of a panic attack, between the berserker hallucinations and the deadpool printer override the previous evening, and remains quiet until Scott once again says, "Hey," and looks at him with so much concern that Liam can't help but spill his guts about what happened. "Last night, my printer went off by itself," Liam admits, while he twirls the lacrosse stick that Derek broke in half in his hands. "I couldn't turn it off! I hit the cancel button, and it just kept printing." Scott's concern turns to worry at the sound of this, because CREEPY, and when Scott asks what was printing, Liam sighs and pulls a folded-up stack of papers out of his back pocket to hand it to him.
Scott opens the list, but before he gets a chance to read it, Coach's voice shouts, "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?" from inside his office. Scott and Liam instinctively abandon their conversation in favor of investigating, and when they get to the office, they find Coach desperately trying to turn off his printer, which has covered his office floor in deadpool print-outs as well. OH SHIT! See what I mean about the financial problems thing? Didn't Coach say that he had medical bills from being shot with that arrow? If they make Coach a possible assassin, I might just die. We pretty much can't trust anyone who isn't already vouched for at this point.
Stiles and Lydia are staring in horror at the list they just decrypted, which has no numbers to indicate the value of these targets. Stiles asks her if she recognizes any of the names, but she only recognizes her grandmother's. Suddenly, Stiles realizes that his printer has been printing ever since he refilled the paper tray, and rushes over to find that he, too, has received the newly-updated deadpool lists as well. Stiles takes one look at the list and immediately insists that they need to call Scott, PRONTO.
Back at the school, Scott picks one of the sheets up off of the floor and starts to read it, so Liam grabs his alpha by the arm and pulls him down the hall so they can talk privately. Scott holds two of the lists in his hands, comparing them, as Liam asks him if he notices the difference. Scott initially notes Derek's name has been completely removed from the list, but Liam points out that that's not all of it. "And I'm not worth three million," Liam confesses, as he points at his name on the list. "It's eighteen now. Eighteen million dollars." HOLY SHIT. Okay, so Derek was worth fifteen million, which means that all of that cash has now been added to Liam's bounty. But why just Liam? The Benefactor could have increased Malia, Kira and Liam's values by five, or could have increased a group of them for a million, or split the money in a bazillion other ways among the two to three dozen people still on the list. Why would they just tack it all onto Liam's value? Is it because of his close relationship with Scott/being Scott's actual bitten beta? Is it because Liam has proven that he's actually a pretty strong and capable werewolf during his fight with the berserkers? I'm sorry for all the questions, guys, but I'm confused! I'm really hoping there's a specific reason that Liam was suddenly bumped up to third most valuable, after Scott and Lydia.
Lydia and Stiles wisely took the newest list over to Jordan to look into, just as he looked into the other lists (although, if I remember correctly, Sheriff had Jordan look up all the names and he claimed he couldn't find any of them in the system.) "Well, it's not another deadpool," Jordan admits, as he types on his Macbook. "...More like an already-dead-pool." LOL! So clever, Parrish. Lydia is shocked that all of them are dead, but Parrish informs them that all of them died within the last ten years, and all of them died by committing suicide at Eichen House. OH SHIT.
It's night time, now, and the lacrosse team's bonfire has just begun, and it is seriously unlike any bonfire I have ever attended, tbh. I figured it would just that-- a bonfire, maybe with a couple kegs hidden nearby, and a bunch of people standing around in groups talking. I wasn't expecting a like, dance floor and a DJ and a shitload of dubstep. It IS Teen Wolf, though, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. How else could they have dubstep brawls if there was no DJ? Anyway, the bonfire is in the shape of a tornado for the Beacon Hills Cyclones, and some guy lights it with a huge torch while everyone there dances and conspicuously drinks booze from soda bottles. Deorro's hilariously titled "Bootie In Your Face" plays as we get a good look at the party, which also includes a very shady shot of a shady security guard having a shady whispered conversation with the DJ. Yup, not suspicious at all. Also, he bears a resemblance to Samuel Campbell from Supernatural in some angles and I seriously thought it was him for like, half the episode. Whoops!
ANYWAY, Scott walks into the crowd just as the security guard is making his rounds, and after Scott people-watches for a little bit, he notices a group of lacrosse players chugging beer in their lacrosse jerseys, reminding Scott (who looks very handsome in a black button-up) that he totally forgot to wear his uniform. Whoops, way to go, team captain! You can tell just how little Scott cares about lacrosse this season, and understandably so-- if my friends and fellow monsters were getting slaughtered wholesale, I would be pretty preoccupied with that, too. Looking bored and not at all thrilled to be there, Scott looks around for someone he recognizes, and finally finds Malia dancing all by her lonesome, taking deep swigs from a flask. He walks over to join her and asks her what she's doing there, and she just smirks, "Getting drunk!" as she holds up her booze to drive the point home. When she asks HIM what HE'S doing, Scott just smiles awkwardly and replies, "Trying to make sure no one gets hurt." "That sounds fun, too!" Malia says, barely paying attention as she continues to dance and drink and not give a fuck. Yeahhhh, methinks Malia is still a little pissed at him for lying to her, and I don't blame her, either.
"I don't wanna ruin your night, or anything," Scott continues earnestly with a smile. "But we kind of... can't get drunk." Malia does NOT like what he's saying, obviously, so he goes on to explain that he's tried it himself many times, but he figures that werecreatures can't get their buzz on because drunkenness comes from the fact that alcohol is basically poisoning the liver, and they heal too quickly to feel any of the effects. Although, that's not EXACTLY true-- Scott totally got drunk that one time Lydia roofied everyone with wolfsbane at her birthday party when Peter was controlling her! It just didn't last long because he only drank a glass of it, and I'm not sure how wolfies could take in large amounts of wolfsbane-tainted booze without any negative consequences. ANYWAY, Malia isn't pleased to hear this news, and decides to deflect the attention from herself by stepping aside and snitting that Scott should fill Liam in on that little detail. Behind her, Liam is pouring vodka from a paper-bag-covered bottle into a bottle of off-brand soda, while Mason watches on. Scott just sighs deeply, like, "Am I seriously going to have to be babysitting a bunch of angsty werecanines all night? No wonder Derek was so fucking miserable when he was alpha." As if in answer, Malia takes another swig from her flask and dances like she just don't care. Which she doesn't. Meanwhile, Liam chugs down his half-bottle of vodka & soda while Mason watches, both impressed and a little unnerved.
At the Sheriff's Department, Stiles and Lydia are sitting in the lobby, trying to decide how to best go about getting more information about the people on the already-dead-pool. The problem-- Eichen House, being a medical facility, means that there's all that HIPPA stuff to worry about, and they can't access those records without a warrant. Isn't the deadpool/list of already dead people reason enough to get a court order? Or are the cops still pretending they don't know anything about it? I guess that would make sense, because if the SD was investigating it, wouldn't Agent Douchenozzle immediately get himself involved in it? Especially considering his son is on the list for an exorbitant amount of money? NEVER MIND. Lydia argues that her mother left her a list of ten suicides, including her own, which means its something they need to look into, especially if it's related to the deadpool. "Is there anyone there who's willing to help us?" Lydia asks desperately. Stiles considers this for a moment, and sighs when he realizes their only option. "No... but there might be someone willing to take a bribe," Stiles replies resignedly.
The bonfire is still raging on as "The Buzz" by New World Sound & Timmy Trumpet plays. Liam fills his soda bottle up with more booze and just as quickly chugs it down in one. Mason, who has been watching him binge drink since they got there, just rolls his eyes, so Liam asks him if he's going to warn him to slow down. However, Mason was thinking just the opposite. "Actually, I was going to tell you to keep drinking! I think you should get drunk. And I mean stumbling-down, fall-on-your-ass, pass-out, face-in-the-toilet drunk." Liam can't help but giggle at that, and asks him why he'd wish that fate on his BFF. "Maybe then, when I ask what's going on, you'll be too drunk to lie!" Mason chirps in response, and Liam's face immediately goes stone cold.
(via teenwolf)
It must be really hard to keep this shit from everyone, you know? I know we've been through this already with Scott not being able to tell Allison, or Lydia, or Jackson, or his mother, but this seems both better and worse than Scott had it. I mean, I know Liam has the pack, but he doesn't have anyone who ISN'T in these life-or-death scenarios to talk to about what he's going through. Mason's his long-time best friend, from what it sounds like, the way Stiles is for Scott, and he can't even be honest with him about what's happening to him, because 1) too many people know already, and he can't risk any more finding out, especially with the deadpool, and 2) he loves Mason and he doesn't want him in the cross-fire, especially considering the fact that anyone connected to the pack always end up getting hurt. Mason looks at Liam for some kind of rebuttal, but he remains silent, so Mason pleads his case. "I'm not asking because I want to know," Mason insists with concern. "You know? I'm asking because I want to help!"
GOD, what a good friend! You can't buy that kind of loyalty, you know? Mason is the best. Liam, who is aggressively trying to find anything to look at EXCEPT Mason, lest he look into his soul through his eyes and realize everything Liam has been lying about, sees Malia dancing in circles while Scott tries to keep talking to her a couple yards away and decides to use it as an out for this conversation. He feigns drunkenness and drops his soda bottle onto the ground before admitting that he's going to get another drink. NO LITTERING, LIAM. Even if you're pretending to be a dick! Even still, Mason is worried about whatever Liam has going on right now, and just frowns as he watches Liam run over to his friends.
Matt Andersen's "I Work Hard For The Luxury" plays on an old cassette player in what looks like some kind of nurse's station in Eichen House, where we meet up with Stiles and Lydia in the midst of an argument with that horrible Brunski. "A THOUSAND dollars?" Stiles screeches incredulously, while Lydia just gives him some serious stink-eye. "To use one little key to open up one little file room? Are you out of your mind?" I'm gonna go with "yes" to answer that last question, Stiles. Brunski points out that when you have something someone else wants, you get to make the price. Stiles is like, "Touché," but does point out he couldn't possibly think they have that kind of money, which Brunski uses as an opportunity to be more of a dick to Stiles. "I KNOW you don't. If you did, Daddy Sheriff would have paid the bill!" Stiles looks like he's about thisclose to going off on him, nogitsune-style, but Brunski adds that he's looking at Lydia, because she's the cute, popular rich girl, obviously.
Lydia rolls her eyes and reluctantly opens her very cute billfold and pulls out a handful of $100 bills. "I have $500," she admits with annoyance, but that seems to be more than fine with Brunski, because he takes it, no questions asked. Wait, aren't the Martins supposed to be broke, too? Where did she get that cash? Did she assume he was going to ask for a lot of money? What happened to all of that Yakuza cash that they partially used to bribe the Calaveras? That might come in handy in the near future. ANYWAY, the tape in Brunski's tape player ends, so he stops what he's doing so he can take the tape out and replace it with a new one, which just so happens to be the exact same brand as the one Kate found in her car's tape deck, and the one Scott and Stiles found in Garrett's bag. Once his new mix is playing (beginning with Damon's "Don't You Feel Me") Brunski picks up the cash and dramatically sniffs it to weird the kids out, while Stiles and Lydia look at each other, eyes wide in alarm and suspicion. Finally, Brunski grabs his keys and instructs the Stilinski Martin Detective Agency down to the file room.
"Starlight" by Kenshin is being played by the DJ at the bonfire while Scott pleads with a still-dancing Malia to just talk to him, but she's not interested in talking. Scott insists that he and Stiles had their reasons for not telling Malia about Peter, but she cuts him right off. "To protect me," Malia states, as she rolls her eyes. "That's what Peter said you would say! And guess what he said next? That you were right!" Scott's face turns from worry to shock and confusion at this revelation, which Malia totally notices. "Does that surprise you?" Scott hesitantly replies that it makes him wonder what Peter wants, and tries to remind her about the power of unity. "Malia, we NEED to stay together. You and me, Stiles--" Malia once again interrupts him to make it clear that she doesn't want to talk about Stiles, but she realizes her rudeness and stops herself and sighs. "I just want to dance," she confesses exhaustedly. "And get drunk!" She lifts up her flask in a mock "Cheers!" gesture and turns to leave, but loses her balance, and would have totally fallen to the ground if not for Scott's speedy reflexes.
Scott is even MORE worried now, but Malia just laughs in that obnoxious way that drunk girls do when they don't want to be bossed around. "You ARE drunk," Scott murmurs in confusion, to which Malia just hilariously bleets, "Yup!" Scott insists that she can't be drunk, because they can't get drunk, when he looks over and sees Liam stumbling drunkenly next to Mason at a picnic table. Oh noooooo! At first I thought it was wolfsbane in the booze. And then I thought it was wolfsbane in the fire, but nope! Which is probably a good thing, because they'd totally notice that. "Is this what drunk feels like?" Malia pouts, as she groans a little, clearly getting woozy. "It doesn't feel as good as I hoped!" Scott, realizing something is definitely amiss, retorts that he doesn't think it's supposed to feel good. Aw, Scott! Aw, Malia!
Back at Eichen House, Brunski is leading Stiles and Lydia into the file room. He asks them if they're good, so Stiles confirms that they can help themselves to what they need. Brunski leaves to go keep watch in the doorway while Stiles instructs Lydia to get the list out of her bag. She hands it to him and pulls him aside so that they can talk more privately. And, of course, because no plan of theirs EVER goes perfectly, while they're not paying attention, Brunski smiles a creepy smile and closes and locks the door to the office. NOOO. Stiles has unfolded the list, and is completely thrown by what he reads. "Lydia, why did you write another name on here?" Stiles asks worriedly. Lydia swears she didn't, but Stiles can identify it as her handwriting. She asks him why she would write another name, but it's not just ANY name she wrote on the list, it's STILES, right at the bottom of the page, which he reveals to her when he shoves the list in her hands. "Why would you write MINE?" Before they can even begin to brainstorm, Brunski comes creeping out of the woodwork, and hisses, "It was the tapes, wasn't it?" Naturally, he's got his taser in hand, and doesn't waste a second before jabbing Stiles in the back with it, causing him to crumple onto the floor and pass out. Lydia glares at him in shock and fear as he slowly walks toward her. "Your turn, sweetheart," he adds smugly, before getting her with the taser, too. FUCK THIS GUY. I already hated him, because he has absolutely no business in being in health care, and ESPECIALLY not mental health care, but this is like, irredeemable character territory.
If you were wondering what happened to Deputy Dickweed after Parrish beat the shit out of him, we get to find out! As it turns out, he's been sitting in interrogation for god knows how long, with each of his wrists handcuffed to the arms of the chair in which he's sitting. For the pounding he got from Jordan earlier, he honestly doesn't look that bad-- he really only has a split lip and a laceration over his left eyebrow that has been taped up. He's just about to doze off in his seat when the door opens, and a very well-dressed Braeden swaggers right in, with her US Marshall badge around her neck. Girl looks SO GOOD in business wear-- she's wearing tight black dress pants and a dressy purple tank top under a black jacket. Also, she looks amazing with her hair up like that. ANYWAY, while I was too busy drooling over Brae the Bae, Deputy Dickweed just sneered and asked her who the fuck she is. "Hello, deputy. I'm a US Marshall working in conjunction with this office." Upon hearing that, DD just rolls his eyes, and makes the fatal error of not taking her seriously when she informs him that she has some questions. "Yeah? Well, I've got a question-- how'd you get those scars?" Braeden just shrugs and walks closer to him while she retorts, "A werewolf. How'd you break your nose?" DD frowns, and is like, "What's THAT supposed to mean?" just as Braeden hauls off and slugs him right in the face. AW YISS, GIRL. If I wasn't already in love with you, that would have definitely sealed it for me. BRAEDEN GETS SHIT DONE, Y'ALL.
The bonfire's rave is still going on in full force, and the DJ plays Hyper's "Controllin' Me" as the crowd of high schoolers writhe on the dance floor. Malia can barely keep herself on her feet, and her vision blurs severely as she tries to focus on Scott. He grabs her by the elbows to try to hold her up, and eventually notices the flask in her hand, which he takes so he can smell it. He asks her what's in it, but she swears she was only drinking vodka. Scott sees a surly-looking security guard behind her who seems to have his eye on them, and starts to panic, so he firmly grips her shoulders and says, "Stay on your feet, and keep moving," before wrapping one of her arms around his shoulders and helping her walk away from their prying eyes. Yeah, that's probably not the most inconspicuous way to get her there, but A+ for effort.
Jordan is still at work, though he looks like he's about to head home for the night. She shuts his laptop and gets ready to take off, but gets distracted by the stack of printed-out copies of reports for the deaths of everyone on the list Lydia just decoded. As he skims through page after page, he finds a pattern that he never noticed before. He finally just lays the stack down on the desk so he can spread them apart and see all of them at once, which is when we see what he's discovered-- every single person's body was found and delivered to the morgue by L. Brunski. Between that fact and the fact that all of the deaths were suicides, Parrish has plenty of reason to believe that Brunski is shady as hell. Also, HOORAY JORDAN FOR FINDING THE PATTERN SO YOU CAN SAVE THE DAY. Can he be pack already? (Also also, what do you think Brunski's first name is? Larry? Lyle? Leon?)
"HELP US! HELP US! SOMEBODY HELP!" Lydia screeches, as we cut to the file room at Eichen House, where Brunski has used the restraints they use on the patients to tie Lydia and Stiles' wrists to a support beam in the middle of the room. Their ankles are bound as well, and no matter how hard they try, they can't break free. Stiles, remembering his time here at Eichen House, defeatedly reminds Lydia that there are plenty of people screaming for help in this place, so their pleas are likely being ignored. Lydia's open for other ideas, considering that all those people on the list, who they thought committed suicide, were actually MURDERED, and Lorraine left the message for Lydia after she predicted her own death. That's when Brunski strolls in, having overheard their conversation, and admits that Lorraine knew Lydia would figure it out, once she was able to predict HER death. Stiles continues to fight against his restraints, while Lydia just curls herself into as small of a ball as she can in fear of what Brunski's thinking about doing.
"But, they weren't murders," Brunski continues, as he slowly walks toward Lydia, his boombox and tape in hand. "I'm not some serial killer, like Ted Bundy going around killing college girls." Stiles, unable to keep silent while Brunski is being the worst EVER, replies, "Nah, you're just an Angel of Death." Brunski is super offended, of course, and crawls over to Stiles so he can sneer right in his face that Stiles doesn't understand just how committed he is to his work at Eichen House. "There are people here who don't simply need treatment, they need RELEASE. I HELPED them! I HELPED Lorraine!" UGH UGH UGH I HATE HIM SO MUCH. I basically spent all the rest of the scenes with these three wishing that Lydia would banshee scream so loud that she killed him, tbh, but I'm not sure if she could work that without hurting Stiles, too. Lydia looks absolutely wrecked, though, as you can imagine, because she's getting way more details about what Brunski did to her grandmother than she ever wanted to know. And, unfortunately, it's only going to get worse. Lydia whispers, "You killed her," and if looks could kill, Brunski would have died about a bazillion times. Brunski insists that he did, in fact, help her, and informs her that now, she will be helping HIM figure something out that has bothered him ever since Lorraine died. He holds up the cassette tape he brought with him, which has "LORRAINE MARTIN" written on the label. OH MY GOD, HE AUDIO-TAPED HIS MURDERS? WHAT THE FUCK KIND OF MASS MURDERING SERIAL KILLER IS THIS GUY. Not like Ted Bundy, my ass.
"Twerk" by Heroes X Villains plays while Scott tries to take care of Malia by urging her to drink some water. Liam seems just as drunk and out of it as she is, and can barely keep his eyes open so Scott exasperatedly asks Mason how much he had to drink, though Mason insists that it wasn't enough to get him this wasted. Scott, confused as hell about how this could possibly be happening, looks between his two packmates to compare their symptoms and try to figure out what the fuck is happening to them. "Something's happening, we need to get them out of here," Scott says to Mason, before he gets hit with a wave of dizzy, out-of-it sensation that causes his words to start to slur. "I think we're gonna have to...ummm..." Scott stumbles mid-sentence, and holds his hand up in front of his face, which is when he notices that his vision is blurring, too, like he's tripping on acid and everything is morphing. (NOT that I have first-hand experience with that kind of thing ;)) Mason gets concerned and asks Scott how much HE drank, but Scott frowns in confusion before insisting that he hasn't touched a drop.
Scott leans against the picnic table where Liam and Malia are sitting, and squeezes his eyes shut. The music, which has been getting louder and louder, pounds in his ears, which is what gives him the dawning revelation that it's not actually the booze that made Maliam turn into drunken fools, but the MUSIC. It sounds like it's something similar to Chris' ultrasonic emitters, except instead of causing them pain, it makes them so intoxicated they can barely function or use their powers. It sounds lower-pitched, too. To make matters worse, since the dubstep is so loud and obnoxious, no one even noticed, and the only reason why Scott finally did was because the DJ cranked up the volume so it would hit them harder. PS, that DJ is both super cute and super evil looking, and is clearly working some assassin-mojo with the security guards.
Back at Eichen House, Brunski presses play on the Lorraine murder tape, much to both Stiles and Lydia's dismay, and it's not long before Lorraine's voice is heard.
LORRAINE: "What're you...Brunski, what are you doing?"
BRUNSKI: "Don't worry, Lorraine, it's going to be alright. You're just going to have a little trouble breathing..."Stiles face goes from horror to sheer rage at the sound of Brunski's voice, but he immediately pushes it down so he can turn around and comfort Lydia in any way that he can. "Lydia, look at me," Stiles states in a shaky voice. "Don't listen, okay? Don't listen to it. Just focus on my voice, alright? You don't listen to it, block it out! Okay?" Lydia tries her best to listen to Stiles, but you can't just block that kind of thing out, no matter how hard you try, and she looks like she's about to crumble. Stiles looks and feels so helpless that he just shoots Brunski the most murderous glare and screams, "Hey! TURN IT OFF!" at the top of his lungs. Brunski's not one for being told what to do, though, and straight-up punches Stiles in the face so hard that he falls onto his side and slides as far as his restraints will allow him. Lydia shrieks Stiles' name, but Brunski hasn't done enough to traumatize Lydia, I guess, because he grabs her face in his hands and hisses in her ear that THIS is the part of the tape that never made sense to him, forcing Lydia to listen to her grandmother's last slow, wheezing breaths. "LISTEN, Lydia. Just listen. I need your help," he says, while tears fall down Lydia's cheeks and soak his fingertips.
(via makos-lightningrod)
LORRAINE: "Please... don't hurt her."
BRUNSKI: [sneers] "Don't hurt WHO?"
LORRAINE: "Ariel..."You can hear Lorraine's last shallow, shaky breaths before the tape goes completely silent. Brunski finally lets go of Lydia's face, and she can't help but sob silently at just how fucking horrifying this day has been. Behind her, Stiles is scowling, with the most terrifyingly murderous expression on his face. Like, seriously, it scares me to death, because I have no doubt that if Stiles had his way, he would be violently pounding the shit out of Brunski until he died a painful death. Stiles is one of those people who really doesn't give a fuck about anyone except for a handful or two chosen individuals, and once someone makes it into that exclusive group, he loves them so fully and intensely that he would literally do ANYTHING to ensure they don't get hurt, and Lydia, no matter what their relationship may be, and no matter who either of them may be dating, is totally one of those people. After a moment, Lydia gives Brunski a similarly murderous glare, which has absolutely no effect on him, aside from annoyance, because he is literally disgusting.
At the bonfire, the infrasonic-infused music ("Rave Life" by Savant) is still going strong while Scott tries his best to pull himself together. His words slur a little bit at first, but he focuses his concentration on talking to Mason, and comes off so serious that Mason can't help but listen to him. "I have to... I have to turn off the music. Don't let them out of your sight!" Mason is confused, definitely, but does what he's told. Scott slowly makes his way toward the dance floor and pushes his way through the crowd toward the DJ for what feels like an eternity. His vision blurs more and more the closer he gets, and when the DJ sees him, he smirks a creepy, "I'm totally gonna help kill you"-smirk as he turns up the infrasonic noise even louder, which brings Scott to his knees onto the ground. He tries desperately to get back onto his feet, but before he can, two of the dirty security guards grab him by the arms so they can drag him away. You can tell that sound is fucking him up, because he can barely see, and his arms and legs are weakened to the point where he can barely struggle against their hold.
More security guards show up to grab Malia and Liam, which immediately sets off Mason's hinkiness-radar. "Hey! What are you doing? These are my friends!" Mason protests, but the Samuel Campbell-looking rent-a-cop claims that his friends are overly intoxicated and are being kicked out of the party. Remembering Scott's order, Mason offers to go with them to keep an eye on them, but the guy promises that's not necessary, since they're planning on killing them and everything. Mason's getting more suspicious the more they talk, and reminds him that he said they're his friends, so the security guard SHOVES MASON SO HARD THAT HE FALLS FLAT ON HIS BACK. Because that's totally something legit security guards do. (Well, actually, considering the way that most police officers and security guards have been known to treat young black men, I guess I really shouldn't be surprised, tbh.) Mason must be as well-liked as Danny, because a bunch of lacrosse players immediately rush over to help Mason up to his feet while the security guards scamper with Malia and Liam.
They bring the kids into the school and throw them on the floor in a pile next to a row of lockers. Malia and Liam are so weak that they're practically passed out, but Scott is still conscious enough to know that something very bad is about to happen. "What is that?" Scott asks, when he notices a red jug in the head security guard's hand, but we all know he knows what it is, because it wasn't that long ago that Scott used a jug just like that to douse himself in gasoline so he could kill himself by setting himself on fire. GOD THIS PART KILLS ME. "What are you doing?" The security guard shakes the jug in front of his face menacingly before informing him that it IS gasoline, and that Deputy Dickweed instructed them to burn the kids for the deadpool money. Wait, after that worked SO WELL the first time with Jordan? Is he stupid? There are way easier ways to kill a werewolf besides setting them on fire, and burning down the high school just to kill a bunch of teenagers seems like a really inefficient way to go about an assassination, especially considering the fact that it's TOTALLY going to look like a murder instead of an accident or whatever. THESE ASSASSINS ARE TERRIBLE, BASICALLY. Scott starts to panic and looks over at his packmates, who are still barely aware of what's happening, and they're unable to move before the guy starts dumping fuel on them.
Lydia is still glaring at Brunski with her tear-stained face, but he's a heartless motherfucker who has an overly-inflated sense of superiority, so when she turns her face away from him, he just cracks his neck before he gets up to his feet. He slowly walks over to a nearby shelf, where he grabs a small first aid kit, and makes his way back to where he's tied up Stiles and Lydia. "We get a lot of teenagers trying to break into our drug cabinets," he sneers, while Stiles shoots him yet another deadly glare. "Most of the time, they don't succeed. But, you two look pretty clever to me." SHIT! Stiles and Lydia watch as he pulls two syringes out of the first aid kid and uncaps one so he can draw up a large amount of medication from a vial, and quickly realize that he fully intends to kill them by giving them a drug overdose and staging it to look like they were a couple drug addict teenagers who took too much. ALL ABOARD THE NOPE TRAIN TO FUCKTHATVILLE.
As Stiles and Lydia frantically fight against their restraints in the file room at Eichen House, the party continues to rage on at the high school to the sounds of DallasK & Henry Fong's "Blackmail." More security guards are roaming the crowds, including one that bears a striking resemblance to Bash from Reign, and DJ Assassin is still blaring his infrasonic remixes toward the throngs of dancing teenagers. Mason makes his way through the crowd while he brainstorms about what he's going to do. He eventually notices DJ Assassin spinning (or whatever modern-day DJs who basically play on their laptops do) nearby, and stares at him, remembering what Scott said about having to turn off the music because something bad was happening. This gives Mason a Stiles'-like dawning revelation, and heads toward the DJ stand.
Inside the school, Scott is desperately spitting gasoline out of his mouth as Deputy Dickweed's rent-a-cop goons douse him, Liam, and Malia, and though his instincts are telling him to fight, the music from outside is still affecting them all so badly that they can barely move. Scott tries to at least sit up from his current position, which is leaning weakly against the lockers, but the head goon just kicks Scott in the chest, slamming him roughly against the wall. Head Goon whips out a Zippo and lights it with a maniacal smile on his face, but thankfully for us, he waits a very dramatically long amount of time before dropping it in the puddle of gasoline that surrounds them while Scott gasps for breath and shoots daggers at him with his eyes.
Mason has rushed to the front of the dance floor, and quickly identifies where the cord to the DJ's power source is located. He instantly grabs the right power cord and pulls on it with all of his strength until it finally comes out, completely silencing the music. YAS MASON YAS! Way to be this week's great unsung hero! The crowd boos at this interruption of their party, but inside, Scott's eyes flash crimson now that he's finally able to access his superpowers. Head goon is too distracted by the fact that he heard the music go off to notice right away, but when he does, his eyes immediately widen in alarm, all, "I'VE MADE A TERRIBLE MISTAKE." Before he can flee, Scott growls under his breath and wastes no time grabbing his hand and slamming his lighter shut to ensure that he won't accidentally set them on fire. Then, he gets the same face he got when he caught Violet trying to behead him, and twists Head Goon's arm, breaking at least a couple bones in his wrist. YAS SCOTT YAS.
(via teenwolf)
Before Scott can muster the strength to get himself off the floor to fight the rest of the goons, head goon is knocked off his knees by Braeden, who slams the butt of her rifle into his temple. Scott stares at her in awe before noticing that Derek is behind her. Three of the other security guards rush toward him, but even without the majority of his powers, Derek can still take them easily. Braeden must have given him some fighting tips, too, because he's not fighting werewolf-style, but combat-style, all kicks and punches and blocking with his forearms. He throws one of the guys into the lockers, headbutts another, and eventually kicks the third onto the floor. GET IT DEREK! I am so fucking attracted to him and Braeden right now. Derek tries to catch his breath while he rides the adrenaline rush of expertly handling those guards, but Braeden isn't done yet.
(via teenwolf)
She sees Head Goon reaching for his lighter, but she struts over to him, and hits her thigh against his head so hard that it snaps his neck and kills him. HOLY SHIT! Scott flinches when he hears his bones crack, but all in all, he doesn't seem too upset to see him dead, tbh. Behind him, Liam and Malia are panting as they all breathe sighs of relief that once again, they managed to be saved from certain death at the very last minute. Derek walks over to Scott with this look on his face, like, "How do you keep getting yourself nearly killed like this? That's my job!" Scott has never looked so happy to see Derek, and smiles while he asks, "Where's your gun?" "You're covered in gasoline!" Derek retorts in amusement, to which Scott's just like, "Oh, right." Derek holds a hand out to help his best little wolf bro to his feet, and once Scott is up, Derek claps him on the shoulder affectionately, which makes Scott smile even bigger. SCEREK FOREVER. Tbh, I would really like more Derek/Liam scenes, though. And Malia/Liam scenes. Basically, MORE LIAM.
Back at Eichen House, Brunski is taking way too much pleasure in drawing up more medicine while he watches Stiles and Lydia squirm in fear for their lives. "I'll admit, Stiles, I don't have any unusual talents, like Lydia," he explains quietly, while he taps the air bubbles out of the syringe. "But somehow, I just knew we were gonna get a chance to do this again." I didn't really understand this line-- does Brunski just get off on dosing people, like all those times he Haldol'd up Stiles, Oliver, Malia, and the other patients? Or is this supposed to be some hint that he had more to do with the nogitsune thing than we thought? Am I reading too much into this? ANYWAY, Stiles just glares at Brunski in rage, and it looks like he's going to try to kill Stiles, but at the last second he goes for Lydia instead, knowing that Stiles would rather die than watch Lydia die in front of him. "NO!" Stiles screams as he fights against his restraints, just as he sticks the needle in Lydia's neck. Because everyone knows when teenagers overdose on prescription painkillers or benzodiazepines, it's because they shoot up in their neck.
Thankfully, Jordan arrives just in the nick of time to aim his gun at Brunski and yell, "DROP IT!" He walks until he's just a foot away from Brunski's head, and demands that he remove his thumb from the syringe and withdraw the needle from Lydia's neck, post-haste. "Young deputy," Brunski sneers with a smug smile. "You're just a kid, I bet you've never even fired a--" He doesn't even get a chance to finish, because Jordan shoots him just as he's about to slam down the plunger on the syringe. DAMN RIGHT! Dude, Parrish was in the Army and did at least one tour in Afghanistan, I'm pretty sure he's probably shot a dude before. Also, PARRISH JUST SHOT SOMEONE TO PROTECT LYDIA, KILL ME NOW. Jordan rushes to release Lydia from her restraints while Lydia and Stiles, who are still shell-shocked from having seen yet another person die right in front of them (and the second person in a week Stiles has seen be shot in front of his face), explain what they've learned this evening. "He killed my grandmother," Lydia whispers. "He was controlling Meredith!" Once Lydia's free, Parrish keeps his gun trained at Brunksi while Lydia frees Stiles, who adds, "And he used her to create the deadpool!" Lydia crawls so she can shoot one last stink-eye to Brunski as she sneers, "And he killed her when she tried to help us."
(via teenwolf)
Jordan is horrified by this revelation, as we all would be, but before they can discuss it further, Brunski coughs up a huge puddle of blood and starts to laugh hysterically at the incorrect assumptions they've made. "You think it was me?" Brunski gasps weakly. "You think I was controlling her?" He laughs even harder, with the limited amount of oxygen still in his lungs, as one single tear falls down his cheek and into his ear. "She was controlling me," he finishes quietly, before he finally dies and goes still. Lydia and Stiles are both in shock, and Jordan looks like he doesn't know what to believe. "Oh god," Lydia murmurs, as she realizes what this mean. "It's not him. He's not the Benefactor." "No," a small, meek voice calls out from behind them, in between a row of shelves. Meredith FUCKING Walker slowly walks out into the open, dressed in a fabulous gray leather jacket that I am straight-up COVETING and looking damn good for someone who supposedly committed suicide three-ish days ago. "And, he wasn't on my list," she continues, as all three of them just stare at her in shock. "But, he was a bad person."
(via ldyiamartin)
WHAT. THE. FUCK. IS. THAT.
Next week, according to the promo: Derek decides that anyone who tries to come after the supernaturals of Beacon Hills gets to become a name on their very own deadpool of killers; more and more assassins come out of the woodwork, targeting anyone who still has a price on their heads; Meredith gets taken into the station, and presumably tells us more about what the fuck her motives are.
[screencaps via Screencapped]
NOTES/SPECULATION/QUESTIONS:
-FIRST, LET'S TALK MORE ABOUT PARRISH, YOU GUYS. We know he has ridiculously accelerated healing-- for reference, Peter, who had similar burns over his entire body, took six years to fully heal from them, and even then, he still had to kill his own niece for her alpha powers to finish healing all the way. So, the fact that Jordan healed from full body burns in just hours is remarkable. My question is, is it just fire-related injury that he heals from, or is it general healing? Can he heal from non-fatal wounds that don't involve fire? The fact that he doesn't seem to have any memory of doing anything remarkable or supernatural prior to now seems to suggest he doesn't have enhanced strength or senses or anything, otherwise he would have at least had some inkling that something was off about him. Then again, Kira has apparently ALWAYS had healing powers, even if the aura/enhanced agility and reflexes/foxfire didn't manifest until recently, so maybe he has the same thing and just figured he was especially healthy? Also, I wonder if we'll learn anything about his family? Is this something he was born with, or obtained somehow? I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS and we probably won't get answers until forever from now.
-We got a little bit of an update on the deadpool, though we still don't know everyone who has died on the list so far. The names we did see scratched off (Steve Grace, Reed Schull, and Richard Benefield) I'm assuming were killed by the virus that kill the majority of Satomi's pack? Otherwise we would have seen or heard about it. Either way, I really hope we get to see a full list soon to keep up with who has been killed and how much money of the $117 million stolen from the Hale vault has been paid out so far. ALSO, it looked like Brett is still alive, judging by the promo, and he looks like he's with a young girl, possibly another packmate? So, at least Satomi still has a couple betas left, although it's definitely possible their days are numbered. :/
-Alright, back to Lorraine and her relationship with Meredith. What was on the recording that nearly killed Meredith? A banshee scream? Something else? Was this whole deadpool/already-dead-pool all out of anger toward Lorraine for inadvertently hurting her? Did Lorraine ever find out what she truly was and learn how to control her powers? It seems like it. I also think it's very interesting that one of the things she tried involved the triquetra, a symbol that is often used to refer to the triple goddess. The term "triple goddess" can often refer to the symbolic Maiden (represents enchantment, inception, expansion, birth, and youth, and is represented by the waxing moon), Mother (represents ripeness, fertility, sexuality, fulfillment, and stability, and is represented by the full moon), and Crone (represents wisdom, repose, death, and endings, represented by the waning moon). More specifically, it is often used to describe the Greek moon goddesses, Artemis (the virgin goddess of the hunt), Selene (the mother of Endymion's children), and Hecate (associated with the underworld and thought to be the Queen of Witches.)
However, another trio that it can refer to are the Celtic goddesses Badb, Macha, and Nemain, who together make the Morrigan, known as the goddess of battle, strife and sovereignty. It's seems appropriate, especially considering 1) the name Martin is of Celtic origin, 2) banshees are from Celtic folklore, and 3) banshees are strongly related to the Morrigan. Even more conveniently, the Morrigan is known to take the form of an eel, a cow, a WOLF, or a CROW/RAVEN, especially when she flies above the warriors in battle. It's also been said that soldiers prayed to her for her blessing so they would win their battle, and often would predict the outcome of battles. Sound like anyone we know? (Derek: "How do you know I'm going to lose?" Peter: "I don't, but I bet Lydia does." Derek: "What do you feel?" Lydia: "I feel like I'm standing in a graveyard.") I personally have always wanted Lydia to be the Morrigan, and actually wondered if she was before we learned she was a banshee, so seeing the triquetra this week just stirred up my Morrigan!Lydia feelings.
-Now, onto Meredith specifically-- first, do you guys really think Meredith is the Benefactor? I'm still on the fence about it. I'm 100% sure she's involved, she even said herself that the deadpool lists were written by her, so at the very least she's helping out. I'm just not sure if she has the resources to do EVERYTHING that the Benefactor has been known to do, like setting up the program to communicate, creating darknet portals to untraceable bank accounts, creating the heist to get into the Hale vault to steal the cash. It just feels like she's just another tool being used by someone else, though I freely admit that I may just be underestimating her. Which brings me to my next question-- do we really think that she's a banshee? Or is she something else? She's demonstrated powers that are similar to Lydia's, such as hearing voices, and she seemed to be able to communicate with Lydia when the nogitsune had her. But, she also seems to have the ability to know the supernatural identity of every magical monster and creature in Beacon Hills, which doesn't seem to be something Lydia can do, at least not yet. I guess I'm having trouble deciding if Meredith is just a banshee who knows how to actually utilize her powers at will and understands the expanse of her abilities, or if she's something completely different. I read an excellent theory about Meredith being the raven that I kind of agree with. Basically, I just need to get some answers ASAP.
-I'm super worried about Liam's state of mind, to be honest. Actually, I'm worried about all of them, but especially Liam, because he is the youngest and the newest to all this stuff and hasn't learned how to compartmentalize this stuff. How many people have these kids seen murdered in front of them? How many of their FRIENDS have they seen die? How many dead bodies have they stumbled upon? How many times has someone tried to kill one of them, or a group of them? How many times have they been tortured, or threatened to be tortured? How many times have they been in brutal fights where they're getting severely injured (even if it is temporary for most of them) and then had to immediately go do some mundane human thing right afterward like nothing happened? All the while hiding all of it (or, in the cases of Scott, Stiles, Allison, and Kira, just the REALLY scary stuff) from their parents? I guess what I'm trying to say is just ONE of those things would be enough to fuck a person up for a long while, and each of them have had 25x that much trauma, so a breakdown seems to be imminent for at least ONE of them, don't you think? I'm leaning toward Liam or Lydia, tbh. Possibly Scott, although I think he thinks he can't break down because he's the alpha, the leader who is the glue that holds everyone else together. If he breaks, everyone does, and he can't let that happen, which means he's just putting MORE stress on himself that is going to result in him cracking under the pressure. :/
-Okay, so they need to find the Chemist's house/apartment/whatever and see if they can't get back the cash he got for killing most of Satomi's pack with that virus. Her pack had easily a dozen people, who ranged in price for anywhere between $250,000 and $1,000,000. I don't care if it's ~blood money~ or whatever, Derek (and the pack) deserve that money way more than these awful assassins do. Also, I'm hoping that Lydia got her $500 back from Brunski's body, too, because that would be a huge waste.
-As for the list that Lorraine left, I'm kind of confused. So, we know that all the people on it were people who were murdered by Brunski (on Meredith's orders?) and staged to look like suicides. But were they all supernatural? I read one theory where they were, and one where the list was all banshees, so I'm still confused as to how this works. If they were werewolves or something, it would take more than just a drug overdose to kill them, wouldn't it? I AM SO CONFUSED. It does seem to lend credence to the theory that this is not the first time that a hit list of supernatural creatures has surfaced.
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