Teen Wolf Season 5, Episode 2: "Parasomnia" Recap/Review
Welp, it's official, everyone-- Liam Dunbar is too precious for this world. Seriously, to think that when he first showed up in Season 4's "Muted," I was like, "Ugh, this punk-ass Jackson wannabe." BUT HE'S NOT A JACKSON WANNABE. He's funnier, more compassionate, and more endearing than Jackson ever was, in my humble opinion. He's really more like Isaac, but with Stiles' penchant for hilarious faces and comedic timing. I am literally enjoying every single moment he's on screen, especially when it's with Mason, because the two of them together are just too adorable for words. I'm not exactly sure what I was expecting when Mason would eventually be read into the supernatural world, but I was still not at all surprised when he reacted with unbridled enthusiasm that his best friend is a lycanthrope. Mason is such a perfect prince. I admit, I wasn't thrilled when I learned he would be on the show either, because it seemed like the showrunners were trying to use him to replace our sweet dimpled prince Danny, but he's really nothing like him, either, aside from being one of the few out gay men in this world. I'd still love to see Danny, but Mason is in a class of his own.
Speaking of new people I like, I really, really hope that Tracy sticks around, because she's really pretty and cute and has a lot of potential, but I get the impression she's not going to last very long, especially if she ends up failing the Dread Doctors like her sludgewolf predecessor. But, I'm getting ahead of myself! "Parasomnia" was yet another scary, funny, heartwarming and heartbreaking episode in what is becoming a theme of this season, and if it continues as it is, I have no doubt that this will end up becoming my favorite season. (Which I know doesn't mean much, since every since has been my favorite season since Season 2, but still! It's really, really good, you guys.) So, let's talk about this newest episode of Teen Wolf, shall we?
Previously, on Teen Wolf: Scott and Stiles hung out at Look-Out Point and discussed all of their plans for the pack to stay together after graduation when they're all heading off to college. They did some senior year activities, like Senior Scribe, during which Scott honored Allison's memory by writing her initials on the shelf along with the rest of theirs (STILL SOBBING, BY THE WAY), but Scott is worried that since things have been good-but-not-amazing for the last six months, the law of "regression to the mean" means that things will either be really good or really bad soon enough. And, we've all seen enough of this show to know that it's likely going to be the latter. During a throwdown with this weirdly scientifically and supernaturally-enhanced sludgewolf with glowing talons for claws, a mysterious werewolf by the name of Theo showed up to help, and revealed that he is an old friend of Scott and Stiles' from fourth grade, before he apparently moved away. The aforementioned sludgewolf tried to power-suck Scott and Parrish, but he failed in both tasks, and Scott ended up breaking his arm beyond the normal werewolf healing, forcing him to run back to the Dread Doctors, for whom he apparently works and has possibly/likely been experimented on by them. The Dread Doctors, displeased by the fact that he failed to "remove the obstacles," whatever that means, informed him that they don't give second chances before they killed him dead by stabbing him in the chest with a sword cane. To make matters even weirder, a huge murder of crows/ravens/whatever black birds they are flew out of his chest cavity scattered. (I still don't understand that part.) Which is more-or-less where we pick up today!
We begin in the guidance office of the high school, with our new-to-us girl Tracy Stewart, a fellow senior along with Scott, Stiles, Lydia, Malia, and Kira. She's played by the lovely Kelsey Chow, who you might recognize from Hayley Kiyoko (Megan King from The Vampire Diaries!)'s "Girls Like Girls" music video that was just released recently. Anyway, she's breathing heavily, like she's on the verge of a panic attack, and starts getting flashbacks to the night before, when Beacon Hills' now-constant thunder and rainstorms poured against the skylight in her bedroom. We cut back to Tracy's terrified face once again before flashing back briefly to a flock of birds beating their wings against each other and then returning to the guidance office, where new guidance counselor Natalie Martin (wearing a very flattering pair of glasses) is discussing the fact that she'll need some good letters of recommendation to make up for her grades on her college applications. Ugh, all of this college talk is giving me hives-- going through it once was bad enough, Teen Wolf. After a moment, Natalie finally realizes that Tracy is mid-freak-out and calls out her name in concern to snap her out of it. "Feeling a little overwhelmed?" Natalie asks, which gets her a weak smile in response as Tracy assures her that she's okay.
Natalie then asks her if she's been getting enough sleep, which of course she hasn't, so Natalie then goes on that spiel about how teenagers need good sleep because their still-sort-of-childlike bodies have different circadian rhythms and are still producing melatonin when they get up to go to school, blah blah blah. Unfortunately, this isn't just a case of teenage insomnia, or Tracy not getting enough sleep because she's too busy scrolling around on Tumblr all night like some of us-- she's actually been having night terrors, which surprises Natalie a LOT. "Actual night terrors?" she asks skeptically. "Parasomnia?" For the record, "parasomnia" does not actually mean simply night terrors-- it is actually a class of sleep disorders split into two categories, REM parasomnias and non-REM parasomnias. For the former, it includes REM sleep behavior disorder, recurrent isolated sleep paralysis (sound familiar?) and catathrenia, which involves the sleeper unintentionally holding their breath and then slowly letting it out with a groaning or squeaking noise, which can awaken the sleeper and their sleep partners. Then, the latter category includes confusional arousals, sleepwalking (also familiar), sleep terrors/night terrors, teeth grinding, restless leg syndrome and periodic limb movements, sleep sex, and sleep-related eating disorders. It's actually pretty interesting stuff, but I felt compelled to inform you all as a medical professional that Jeff Davis is once again oversimplifying things.
Anyway, so Tracy nods her head and explains that she usually doesn't remember them, which tells Natalie that there is at least one night that she does remember, which of course was last night. We flash back again to the previous night, where Tracy appears to be sleeping soundly in her bed. Next to her on the bedside table is a really cute jewelry stand that is shaped like a tree, which has a necklace with a silver leaf pendant hanging from it. It sounds like I'm being overly detailed, but I promise it'll come into play later. So, she's suddenly awakened by a particularly loud rumble of thunder and the sound of wings flapping, and when she looks up at the skylight, she sees a crow standing on top of it, despite the fact that it's pouring down rain. It starts tapping on the skylight with its beak, but Tracy just sighs in relief that it's nothing major and lays back down in her bed. She closes her eyes again, but when thunder rumbles as second time, she opens them quickly and looks up to find that the crow has disappeared in the split-second she wasn't watching it.
When she settles back down under her comforter, she glances over at the window to her right, but when she sees what looks like one of the Dread Doctors' masks outside her room, she yelps in fear and sits back up again. This is like my literal nightmare scenario, to be honest-- I have a huge tendency to partially wake up in the middle of the night, thinking that there is someone in my room, and one time I even sleepwalked over to the bedroom door, opened it to encourage whatever was in my room to leave, and then lit some sage incense in hope that it would somehow protect me from them? Yup. I sleep-witchcraft. It's kind of ridiculous. Anyway, so Tracy frantically turns on the light on her bedside table, but when she turns back to the window to look closer, the Dread Doctor is gone. However, the window is cracked open, for whatever reason, so she slowly wanders over and shuts it to ease her own mind. Once again, she crawls back into bed, and reluctantly leans over to turn off the light, though you can tell by her anxious panting that she's still absolutely terrified by whatever is going on.
She turns so she's facing away from the window and the skylight, and her breathing starts to slow, as though she's juuuuust about to get back to sleep, which is naturally when she begins feeling a cool breeze on her face that blows her hair around. She jerks awake and looks up to the ceiling to find that the skylight has been opened in the time that she was back in bed. WHAT THE FUCK. She desperately tries to turn on her light, but it won't turn on no matter how much she twists the switch, as though the electricity has been knocked out or something. So, she whimpers in fear, jumps up, grabs her desk chair, and quickly climbs onto it so she can shut the skylight in hopes of gaining some peace of mind. Unfortunately, even standing on a chair, she's not tall enough to easily reach the latch, and as she strains and reaches as far as she can, the chair tilts so that she's only standing on two of the legs, and she almost loses her balance completely. She tries it one more time and finally gets it closed, and breathes a sigh of relief once she can lock it up. Of course, that's when the Dread Doctor's weird steampunk-armored hand reaches over and grabs the chair leg, yanking it from under Tracy's legs so she falls. When she sees the Doctor, she screams in terror and falls to the floor.
In the present, Tracy explains that her father found her this morning laying on the floor next to the chair, which leads Natalie to ask her about the skylight. As it turns out, the skylight doesn't actually open, because her family had it sealed shut to weatherproof it, which is probably smart, considering how much rain Beacon Hills seems to be getting lately. "Then some of it was definitely a dream," Natalie concludes, but Tracy insists that part of it wasn't. "Honey, I'm going to propose that most of it was," Natalie says in a slightly patronizing voice. "You know, there's a theory that one of the biological functions of dreaming is to simulate threatening events. It's a way for our brain to rehearse for them. I think that you are dealing with normal anxiety, Tracy-- the kind very common to seniors." You can tell Tracy still isn't convinced, but she just smiles weakly again and states that she should probably get to class.
However, when she stands to her feet, she starts to look a little woozy as she starts clearing her throat, which eventually turns to a full-blown coughing fit. Natalie looks alarmed and asks her if she's okay, but when she gets to her feet to help her, Tracy becomes so overwhelmed by what is happening that she quickly swipes everything off of Natalie's desk before THROWING UP A GALLON OF BLACK SLUDGE. Natalie is understandably horrified, and mutters, "Oh, honey," as she holds back Tracy's hair. Tracy falls to her knees in front of the desk, black goo running down her chin, and looks even more freaked out when she finds a black bird feather in her black vomit. "Is this common?" Tracy asks weakly, while Natalie looks as though she's about to blorf as well. What the fuck is going on with this poor girl? I still do not understand. TITLE CARD!
After the break, we pick back up at Deaton's office, where the good doctor is instructing Scott on how to give intramuscular injections to puppies, specifically the fuzzy black and white pup (I can't tell what breed, probably some kind of terrier?) that is currently on the examination table. Scott wins me over for the bazillionth time with his knowledge of the fact that the key to giving injections in the ventrogluteal site is taking care to avoid the sciatic nerve and making sure to aspirate the plunger to make sure that you didn't accidentally hit a blood vessel. A man after my own heart! Once Scott pulls the needle out, the dog yelps and nips Scott's arm before baring his fangs at Scott, who just smiles sheepishly and rubs him behind the ears before replying, "Sorry, buddy!"
He then picks the dog up and walks over to the doorway, where a girl named Stephanie, who can't be more than six or seven years old, is waiting for her puppy. When he hands the dog to her, she chirps, "Thank you, Dr. McCall!", which makes Scott smile one of those full-face smiles of his that literally makes my heart melt into a puddle of good before reminding her that he isn't a doctor yet. YET. Of all the fanfic tropes to come true in the show, I am most happy that they're going with the "Scott wants to be a veterinarian" one, because it just fits him so well! He would seriously make the best vet, and he'll have so much hands-on training under his belt before he even starts college (in conjunction with his supernatural abilities and experiences) that he'll be all set.
(via teenwolf)
Once the little girl leaves, hopefully with her parents (Where are they, anyway? No child should be left unsupervised in this infernal town. Scratch that, literally NO ONE, child or adult, should be unsupervised or alone in this town, because there are just way too many murderous things that go bump in the night for any of them to be very safe), Scott returns to the exam room, where Deaton is examining the talon-claws that Scott ripped off of old Sludgewolf in the previous episode with a magnifying glass. When he asks his boss if he's found anything yet, Deaton admits that he might, and asks Scott if he's sure that the guy who attacked him was a werewolf. "As far as I can tell, these claws are actually talons," Deaton continues. "In fact, they're the talons of a harpy eagle, one of the largest known birds of prey." YIKES! That is alarming, since it indicates that the Dread Doctors are splicing werewolf with parts of other animals. Then, there are also the Harpies from Greek and Roman mythology, whose name means "snatchers." In the earliest lore, they were wind spirits who took the form of large birds with human faces, and they would carry those who committed evil to the Erinyes, along with stealing their victims' food while they were eating.
So, Scott asks Deaton who a werewolf would get talons, which is an excellent question, in my opinion. However, Deaton seems to be less concerned by this part of the story, and more concerned by the fact that these talons were able to absorb his power-- apparently, the only werewolves who should be able to do this to a True Alpha are Betas created by the aforementioned Alpha's bite. Whoa, whoa, whoa, this is an information overload. Is this confirmation that the werewolf did manage to successfully steal some of Scott's power? Did he leave with some, or did Scott just suck it back? Or is it more of like a copy of it, like how Peter Petrelli from Heroes could duplicate the powers of others using his empathy ability? I AM SO CONFUSED.
Secondly, the fact that, by this revelation that a True Alpha's true Beta could take his power from him seriously worries me, because how long will it take for the Dread Doctors or other bad guys to figure that out and try to manipulate Liam into taking it? And, if Liam could somehow take it from Scott, whether willingly or by manipulation/coercion, could another werewolf then kill Liam to take the Alpha power? I was under the impression that True Alphas are rare because they essentially make themselves into Alphas with their indomitable will and virtue. I'm not saying that Liam isn't great, because he totally is, but the fact that True Alphas are so rare seems to suggest that their power can't be taken in a way that would make the receiver a True Alpha without possessing those qualities, yeah? So, would Liam just be a regular Alpha if he somehow ended up in possession of Scott's True Alpha spark? YIKES YIKES YIKES.
And it gets worse, because Scott asks Deaton what would happen if he let another Beta, one that he didn't bite/turn himself, into his pack-- would they be able to take his power? Deaton's reply-- "I would normally say no... But, I'm starting to wonder if the rules to our supernatural world aren't as rigid as I once thought. Or maybe someone's trying to change those rules." THIS IS SO NOT GOOD, UGH. Despite that initially feeling I get, this scene is especially important to the episode, given what happens later with Stiles and his paranoia about Theo. Although Stiles is right in that Scott always tries to find the good in people, that doesn't mean that Scott trusts everyone at all times-- he's not opposed to letting people help the pack out and prove their loyalty to earn his trust, like he did with Derek and Isaac in Season 2, the twins in 3B, and even Peter, to an extent, from Seasons 2-4. So, clearly, he hasn't made any decisions about Theo joining the pack yet, but he is seeking out information about how that would work if he did, and what he would be risking by doing so. And, from what Deaton is saying, Theo shouldn't be able to take Scott's powers, but considering what the sludgewolf did to him, he's now not so sure that he can say definitively what will happen one way or another. This is already so nervewracking! Especially since we soon learn that something is definitely up with Theo, but we don't know enough about what's going on with him to be able to say what his motives are.
Speaking about learning about Theo, we do get some hints as to his history in this next scene at the Sheriff's station, where Stiles is trying to get Sheriff to help him learn as much about Theo and his family as possible. "I know his family left town around the time Theo was nine or ten-- his older sister died in an accident when he was eight," Stiles explains, which seems kind of significant to me. So, we know that Stiles' mother died when he was eight in 2004, which is also when that car accident that killed the banshee who told Sheriff that Claudia was dying happened. In addition, we know that Malia's surprise werecoyote transformation on a full moon before she caused the car accident that killed her adoptive mother and sister happened in the same year. While the timeline for this show is kind of sketchy, it's assumed that the Hale fire happened around this time as well (we learned it was six years ago in January 2011, which suggests that it went down in early 2005) and now. we're told that Theo lost his sister in a accident as well? They didn't specify if it was a car accident or what, but it happened on a bridge, for what it's worth. (Edited to add: I completely forgot that later in the episode, they talk about how she apparently got lost in the woods and died of exposure. Whoops! I need to pay closer attention.) Does Beacon Hills just have a lot of freak accidents, or was there some kind of super powerful mojo going on that was causing it to happen? It just seems like either something significant happened in this time period for it to keep coming up, or it's just super lazy writing. Time will tell, I guess?
So yeah, Sheriff just starts begging Stiles to go to school, which is pretty much his go-to response when Stiles is being obsessive about something that seems insignificant. "Dad, this kid's a werewolf!" Stiles argues, but Sheriff just rolls his eyes ridiculously hard and replies, "Your best friend is a werewolf! You are dating a werecoyote! I still don't know what Kira's supposed to be. When the flying monkeys come soaring through this station, you will have my undivided attention. Until then, just go to school." Oh gods, I really hope that flying monkeys comment isn't some kind of bananas foreshadowing. All of a sudden, Stiles gets this really weird look on his face, and he hilariously rushes over to his dad until they're basically nose-to-noise so he can start sniffing. "What did you do?" Stiles demands aggressively.
When a flabbergasted Sheriff is like, "Uh, what? What do you mean, what did I do?", Stiles insists that there's something different about him and once again orders him to spill the beans. Sheriff just shakes his head and sends Stiles off to school, but Stiles tries to make a deal with him by assuring him he'll go to school if Sheriff promises to do a full background check on the Raekens. "No!" Sheriff replies exasperatedly. "You know what? Just because I'm the only law enforcement officer who knows anything about this does not make it my responsibility to do something every time you have a minor suspicion!" This totally ends up giving Stiles an idea, though, and so he turns backward to glance at Jordan, who is at his desk in the bullpen and doing some work, before reminding Sheriff that he's no longer the only one who knows about the supernatural. Sheriff is just totally tired of Stiles' shit by now, so he sighs deeply before yelling for Parrish to get in there. HAHAHAHA, Stiles is such a hard bargainer, I love it.
Cut to the school, where Stiles and Malia have just walked to the front steps from the parking lot. They stop in front of the school so they can catch each other up on what's been going on since they last saw each other. Malia exposits for our benefit that Stiles ran a background check on the Raekens and only found a single speeding ticket, but Stiles insists that it was a speeding ticket that was signed by Theo's dad eight years ago. She just stares at him blankly and asks him what his point is, so Stiles scoffs and replies, "Who speeds? People trying to get away from something!" Malia is no dummy, though, and asks him how many speeding tickets Stiles has gotten since getting his license, but Stiles hilariously just tries to claim that he's never gotten one. "How many would you have if your dad didn't get you out of them?" Malia asks with a side-eye, forcing Stiles to admit he'd have seventeen. BAHAHAHA. Stiles is killing me in this episode, in more than one way. Also, TELL HIM, MALIA!
"I don't know, Stiles," Malia replies skeptically. "I mean, I see why you're worried-- he's really hot! He's got like great hair, perfect body... You should definitely feel threatened." Oh Malia girl, I think you've just spoken for the entirety of the Teen Wolf fandom, because that boy is cute! Although way too pretty and young for me to be truly attracted to him, but objectively speaking, he's super hot. Stiles, who has been pulling faces at her through this whole statement, just sarcastically thanks her for the self-esteem killing and pouts that he is definitely feeling more threatened than ever right about now. Such jealousy! Much passive-aggression. (Wait, are doge jokes uncool now? Because I still adore them, to be honest. #sorrynotsorry.)
In another super endearing reaction from Malia, she asks him if he wants her to torture him, because the two of them are seriously meant for each other, but despite Malia's insistence that she could take him, Stiles has no interest in having her torture him, at least not now. "I have a plan, alright?" Stiles retorts in frustration. "There are steps to doing this right. We get the story, verify the facts, you find the piece that doesn't fit, and... catch him in the act. That's how you do it." Just then, Theo is dropped off in the parking lot by what looks like his mother, and when he gets out of the car and sees Stiles and Malia staring at him, he waves at them, though neither of them wave back. Rude! And also not at all inconspicuous. You could at least pretend to like him while you're figuring out whether he's a medium/big bad or not. Anyway, when Malia asks him why he's so suspicious of him, Stiles sighs before replying, "Because I remember Theo from fourth grade, okay? That's not Theo."
YIKES! I wonder if he's talking about personality, or about looks, or both? Neither? Like, what is it about him that is making Stiles so suspicious of him? The current theories seem to be that Theo is some kind of clone or impostor of some kind, which seems to be supported by what happens at the end of the episode. Still, what his motives are and who he's working for, if this is the truth, is still kind of unclear as of yet. Even before the season started, there were many who were sure he was working for the Dread Doctors in some capacity, so it could very well be that either he's one of their experiments who has been sent to infiltrate Scott's pack, or maybe he really is Theo's body, but he's been resurrected or something and so the part that makes him really Theo is gone, or maybe he's even mind-controlled. I don't know, but I wish I did!
Hell, it could even be that while he is a shady person with some kind of fucked up background, he might not actually have any ill will toward Scott or the pack at all, though I feel like that isn't as likely as Theo being a bad guy is, but I'm not an expert in these things. We definitely need more information, that's for sure. (And, let's be real here-- I'd be lying if I didn't say that at least a significant part of why Stiles is so balls-to-the-wall about figuring out what Theo is up to is just him channeling his graduation anxiety and his fear that something bad is about to go down again that was reawakened when Scott brought up regression to the mean in the last episode into something somewhat productive. And if it wasn't Theo, but some other new person, I get the feeling he would still be suspicious, because Stiles is always suspicious of the new people.)
Meanwhile, "Last Days Of Dancing" by Maja Francis plays in the background while Scott walks through the front doors of the school and into the main hallway, stopping just inside the door to take in all of the students standing around and catching up after their summer off doing gods know what. After a moment, he smiles at the sight of it, just as his best girl sidles up to him with a smile. "First day of senior year!" Kira chirps happily, as they put their arms around each other. "Last first day ever," Scott replies, before kissing her good morning. GODS, I LOVE THEM SO MUCH. Also, Kira's outfit is super cute, and as usual, I want it-- a hot-pink tank top underneath a gauzy gray off-the-shoulder top, and what looks like either gray jeans or shorts or a skirt. Gray + a bold color is pretty much my fashion go-to because it's super easy and works for pretty much any occasion, save for maybe a funeral.
The bell rings, and Kira and Scott head off to their first class. Meanwhile, heading down the adjacent hall is Liam, who is also walking to his first class while Mason, who is holding a large open book in his hands, starts chattering non-stop. "This is the one I was telling you about," Mason explains as he holds up the book for emphasis. "I got it from a rare book dealer in Germany. Cost me two hundred bucks, but it was totally worth it." Liam is understandably confused and a little nervous about the fact that Mason is still researching into the supernatural, which totally makes him the Stiles to Liam's Scott, but Mason just stops walking and deadpans, "I was attacked by an armor-plated giant wearing a bear skull! It left an impression." I actually assumed that Mason would have been told what was up as soon as the kids got back from Mexico, and the fact that they didn't makes me super curious as to how Liam explained his long absence, what happened with the berserkers, and why Lydia straight-up said that someone was trying to kill Scott right in front of him.
(via dallisons)
He holds up the book, which seems to be some kind of bestiary, because it has a perfect sketch of a berserker in it, and asks Liam if he's ever seen something like this. Of course, we all know they've haunted Liam's nightmares quite a bit, but he just makes the funniest face and insists he hasn't as they head toward their Papa Yukimura's classroom. "And then there's this whole section about the nagual," Mason continues on, as he reads from the page. "Have you ever heard of the name Tez.. Tezcat..." Liam looks at the page, pronounces the name Tezcatlipoca perfectly, and then, after seeing the amazed look on his best friend's face, adds, "No. No, never heard of it." Whoops!
Once in the class, "Take It To Reality" by Alison Wonderland (ft. SAFIA) plays as the two split up to find their seats, and when Liam goes to sit down near the front row, he sees the girl sitting in the desk next to the one he was going to take, whose name is Hayden Romero (played by Victoria Moroles). He and Mason both gape in shock when they realize who she is, and she dramatically flips her hair over her shoulder and blows a big bubble with her gum, which she snaps loudly. Clearly there's some history there, but we're not about to get into it now. "Oh... great," Liam groans in a perfect Isaac Lahey (:( I miss Isaac so damn much, ugh. :() impression, but when he sees that there are no other empty seats except for the one next to him, so he starts to look around desperately, leading him to become the subject of Ken Yukimura's embarrassing act.
Yet again, there is one scene that just seems so outrageous and mean that I just really got yanked out of the story. In the last episode, it was when Stiles was suggesting to Scott that his easy-going reaction to Kira's summer plans in New York meant he basically gave her permission to sleep with other people, and in this one, it's everyone getting on Scott's grill and insinuating that he's not smart enough to be in the class when we know from watching the series that 1) Scott has always been a good student, as confirmed by his teachers after he was first bitten, who commented on his bad grades by pointing out that it was unusual for him, and 2) he has literally spent the last 2.5 seasons working his ass off trying to catch up. I mean, I'd like to see anyone be turned into a wolf-boy/girl with intense animal instincts who is constantly being attacked by murderers and assassins and try not to get some bad grades in school.
So, to keep this part brief, Scott walks into AP Biology and sits down next to Kira, who has a silent conversation with Lydia using only facial expressions before having the audacity to actually ask Scott if he is in the right class and if he even knows what AP stands for. Like, I expect this shit from Lydia, because despite how much I love her, she is no stranger to flaunting her intellect and patronizing others who aren't on her level. But Kira? I expected much better from Kira, so it's really disappointing to see this. Also, if you remember Sydney, the first girl who got infected with the modified canine distemper in "Weaponized" who was really afraid that she wouldn't get a good enough PSAT score to get a free ride to college, is also sitting there next to Lydia, and she raises her very distinctive eyebrow at Scott's presence as well. WHAT THE HELL, GUYS? Scott handles this smack-talk as graciously as he usually does, which is very, and opens his book to reveal he's already started highlighting and writing notes in his book. Yeah, Scott! Get that head start!
Anyway, so the school apparently found a new biology teacher in Mrs. Finch, who is a tough, no-nonsense kind of teacher, sort of like that one professor in Buffy the Vampire Slayer who was also the leader of The Initiative who was seriously intense about her students and their work. OH SHIT, I hope this doesn't mean that Mrs. Finch is one of the Dread Doctors, because that'd be seriously crazy, especially considering that Kathleen and I referenced that Buffy parallel in the pre-Season 5 speculation post. So yeah, she starts getting right into it and asks who knows what plasmids are, which of course Lydia does, but when she asks which vitamin is absorbed by the parietal cells in the stomach, she's got no answer, which is strange, because it's not a particularly difficult question (It's vitamin B-12, which is a vitamin that people with Celiac disease and gastric band/bypass surgery are often deficient because of the fact that their stomachs aren't able to absorb as much. The more you know!)
Then Mrs. Finch starts in on the shit-on-Scott parade and asks him if he knew the answer, which he didn't, and reminds him that it's a common test question before demanding to know what his first-choice college is. After getting on his case about um-ing too much, Scott finally admits that he's looking into UC-Davis, which actually seems to impress her. "Good choice," she replies. "It's the best school on the West Coast for biological and physical sciences. You're in the right class if that's what you're hoping for." She then asks the class if the rest of them think they should be there, and the first person to raise his hand is Theo, who is sitting way in the back. At the sight of him raising his hand everyone else follows his lead, which satisfies Mrs. Finch before she drops the bomb that she's giving them a test the next day to determine whether or not they actually have what it takes to be in AP Bio. She then specifically shoots a look at Scott when she adds that they have two weeks to drop the class, and that the test the next day will weed out the people who shouldn't be there. And people wonder what high school kids are depressed as hell anymore! Being a senior is stressful enough without teachers making you feel like an idiot who will never amount to anything. STOP PICKING ON SCOTT MCCALL, SHOW.
Anyway, so Scott is nervous as fuck about everything, and it's only the first day, so he's sitting out on the front steps of the school with a huge stack of books when Stiles rushes over and orders him to come with him back inside. Scott protests that he's got a free period, but Stiles insists that not only does he have one, too, but so does Theo, which means it's time for another one of Stiles' little interrogations, much like the one for Liam in last season's "Muted." So, Scott sighs and gets to his feet, clutching his stack of books while he follows after his super-paranoid brother in arms.
Meanwhile, Liam and Mason are on their way to their lockers after Mason accompanied Liam to the gym locker room so he could change his bubble-gummy jeans. Guess who's still on his supernatural roll? Yup-- It's Mason. "Look, I'm not saying I believe all of it a hundred percent," Mason begins. "But people around us seem to know things. Like Lydia? She knows things." HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. That is so hilarious and true. Then, Liam shows that he's also got a little Stiles to him as well, because he starts using Mason's weaknesses against him to get him to drop the search for the creatures that he got attacked by in last season's finale. He brings up the fact that it's their first day of school, and that he should probably be thinking about other things. He looks around, sees a bunch of sports kids walking past them in fluorescent green jerseys, and adds, "Like the soccer team?"
Mason is appalled by the insinuation, of course, but that doesn't stop him from leering at them while he talks to Liam. "What do you think I'm going to do?" Mason asks. "Follow them out to the field and watch them practice while I pretend to study?" Liam hilariously replies, "It's warm out. They're probably gonna be shirtless." OH MY GODS, I AM DEAD. Liam, you lil shit! Liam and Mason are literally stealing the show this season, it's so amazing. So, naturally, Mason takes a moment to consider the shirtless soccer players, especially the one who smiled at him on his way to the field, and quickly pats Liam on the back before telling him he'll see him in physics. Wait, what sophomores are taking physics? That was a senior-level course when I was in high school. Beacon Hills High School is so damn weird.
Once Mason's gone, Liam goes to get into his locker, only to find that Hayden has the locker right next to him. She slams her locker door shut and glances at Liam, smirking when she notices that he had to change into mismatched gym shorts since his jeans were covered in her bubble gum. She compliments him on his outfit, to which Liam passive-aggressively replies, "Yeah, thanks. You know, I was wondering if you were still pissed off about the sixth grade, but I guess you cleared that up." Now I'm super curious to find out what exactly happened in the sixth grade. Hopefully it's not something totally stupid like Agent Douchenozzle's confession in "Insatiable," which was super disappointing, considering we all thought Stiles was like, ADN's secret son or something really outrageous. (Which reminds me-- where the hell is that blobfish anyway? Wasn't he supposed to be read into the program after he got back from San Francisco? Has he just been there for like six months for no reason? Did he get scared and pull the deadbeat dad act again? The answer is probably that Matthew del Negro is too busy being on Madam Secretary, but still! You can't just start a story line like that and then drop it. :[)
(via moan-s)
ANYWAY, Hayden just fake-smiles at him and replies, "I'm not pissed off, Liam." Her smile drops, and she gives him a cold look before adding, "I'm vengeful." I love her so much already, oh my gods. She reminds me of an extra-angry Allison, and since Liam is very much an extra-angry Scott, it's honestly perfect. History is always repeating in Teen Wolf, and it's my favorite thing. Once Hayden's gone, Liam like, pushes his head against his locker door like he wants the floor to swallow him up, and it's honestly hilarious. Check it!
While Liam is busy hating his existence, Tracy is quietly and glumly making her way through the hall to her own locker, where she seems to be having night terrors even while awake, which is very much alarming. She's in the middle of putting in her locker combination when she starts hearing this static noise near her. Tracy once again starts panting anxiously as she tries her best to ignore it and keep twisting the dial on her lock, but she hears that weird sound effect that has been in all the promos and trailers and immediately starts to panic as a shadow looms near her. Just looking at the shadow as it approaches her, it looks like a combination of a berserker and an oni, which is scary as fuck, to be honest, especially since it seems that the hallway has become mysteriously darkened and empty in the moments since she got there. Finally, she manages to get her lock unlocked, and frantically opens the locker, only for everything to return to how it was-- the hall is lit with fluorescent light, students are chattering loudly around them as they slam their lockers closed, etc, allowing Tracy to finally relax.
...Or not. Just as she's breathed a sigh of relief, the electricity seems to shut off, plunging the hallway into darkness and causing all of the noise to be completely dampened. She jumps in fright and looks around to find that she's completely alone in the school. Then, maybe a yard or two down the hall, thick black goo starts pouring out the vents of one of the lockers and forms a puddle of it on the floor below. The locker, which doesn't have a lock on it, seems to open from the inside, and Tracy gasps in fear as the door opens and one of the Dread Doctors crawls out. This one has what looks like an old-fashioned gas mask over its mouth and red monocles over its eyes, but to make it even more creepy, it completely defies gravity by crawling along the lockers rather than walking across the floor like a normal person. As it crawls toward her, Tracy, who is whimpering in terror at this point, squeezes her eyes shut and whispers, "There's nothing there. There's nothing there. There's nothing there."
The Dread Doctor flickers in and out as it approaches her, but after a moment, it flickers out completely and is replaced by a very, very concerned Lydia. "Tracy? Are you alright?" Tracy is still panicked, but seems to be relaxing a little bit now that the vision is over, so she nods weakly at her before Lydia suggests that they go outside together. This moment almost totally redeems Lydia for her mean comments to Scott earlier, because I love the idea of Lydia seeing a girl overwhelmed by auditory and visual hallucinations like she had in Season 2 and wanting to help her out so she doesn't feel alone like she did. However, when they walk away, Tracy slams her locker shut, revealing that it has deep claw marks across it, but Lydia is too busy comforting her to notice. WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON? I DON'T UNDERSTAND.
Over in the locker room, "War of Hearts" by Ruelle plays as Scott and Stiles listen to Theo describe how he became a werewolf while we see it for ourselves in flashbacks. "I was skating in a neighbor's empty pool, trying to do a handplant," he begins, as we cut to said pool, where Theo is treating the pool like his own private half-pipe. He skates back and forth along the length of it, but once he reaches the top and tries to spin, he loses his balance and slides down to the bottom. "Nobody was home. I'm not that good of a skateboarder, but I guess I was feeling pretty determined, because I completely lost track of time," he continues, as cut to a flashback of him picking up his fallen skateboard at the bottom, only to look up and find that it's dark outside. "I didn't even realize that it was night until the yard lights came on. Like I said, I wasn't very good. On my last try, I went down hard." In flashback, Theo does just that, and groans when his back hits the ground. "Really hard. I was sitting there at the bottom of the pool, and I realized something. I never heard the board come back down."
In the present, Stiles and Scott realize what happened next as Theo continues to explain himself. In flashback, he looks up to find a shadowy person clutching his skateboard, though you can tell by the claws, glowing red eyes, and growling noises that it's an Alpha werewolf. Its claws are seriously long, too! Like, the lengths of Scott's when he briefly shifted into the wolfiest form he's ever been in during the fight in "Monstrous." "It came at me fast," Theo explains in the present. "I barely had a chance to turn around before it bit me, right here." He points to a spot on his side/hip, which is conveniently right where Scott was bitten as well. Scott, knowing this situation well, having experienced it himself, points out that the Alpha didn't bite him on accident-- he wanted to turn him. This, naturally, pings Stiles' hinkiness-radar, so he asks why Theo isn't a member of his pack and why the Alpha didn't come back for him after it became clear that the bite didn't kill him. "Because by the time of my first full moon, he was dead," Theo replies somberly. Stiles isn't buying it, but when he asks Theo how he even knows that, he replies, "I met another one of his pack a couple weeks later. He told me the Alpha that bit me was killed by two of his own Betas. They were twins."
Okay, wait a minute-- first of all, Ethan said in "The Girl Who Knew Too Much" that he and Aiden killed everyone in their pack, including their emissary, right? So how could there have been a packmate who survived to tell the tale? Secondly, Ethan may have left town, but they probably still have a way to contact him, right? Wouldn't it be pretty easy to call him and verify this information instead of Stiles running around talking about signature forgeries and whatever? This is just so confusing and weird and shady as hell. So, Scott and Stiles look at each other, since they totally recognize the Ethan and Aiden part of the story, and Theo, sensing that they're wary to believe his story, insists that he listen to his pulse to confirm that he's telling the truth. "Right," Stiles retorts. "Or you just know how to steady your heart rate while you're lying your ass off." In response, Scott gives Stiles the most hilarious, "Honey, no," face, and it seriously cracked me up so damn much. Theo exasperatedly asks why he'd think he was lying, but Stiles is still on his "Theo isn't who he says he is" kick, and says as much to him, leading Theo to make yet another plea to Scott's compassionate nature.
Over in the guidance office, Lydia has stopped by to see her mother and talk to her about Tracy, who unbeknownst to them is standing outside the door and eavesdropping on them. Wait, is Natalie a full-time guidance counselor now? Does that mean Marin Morrell isn't working there anymore? Also, does that mean Natalie isn't substitute teaching anymore either? These are probably questions I should have asked at the beginning, to be honest. Still, I guess Beacon Hills filled in all their vacant teaching positions over the summer. Anyway, Lydia insists that she knows what parasomnia is, but she still thinks the fact that Tracy threw up feathers means something, though Natalie insists that people with night terrors have done much weirder things than eating their pillows. Um, but what about the black puke? Natalie is so willfully ignorant of the supernatural, it is both maddening and hilarious.
Mama Martin then goes on to say that she already told her to take the day off, but she refused because it's the first day and she didn't want to start off the year behind. Lydia, much like how she responded to similar issues with Meredith in "Orphaned," and "Monstrous," argues that she should let her try, and reminds her that she's done with her classes for the day anyway, so she can take her home and talk to her about what's going on. "Lydia, she's been having trouble sleeping," Natalie insists. "If she needs help beyond that, we'll find her professional help. Got it?" Since Lydia can't tell her mother that she's better than professional help when it comes to supernatural stuff, just smiles a big fake smile and replies, "I couldn't agree more!" Oh Lydia, I love you so much.
As it turns out, Lydia's idea of professional help is having Jordan come over to Tracy's house to check out her room and the skylight to help ease Tracy's mind. ALL THIS JORDAN/LYDIA INTERACTION IS MAKING MY HEART EXPLODE. Also, now that it's daylight and we can actually see the room, it has a lot of interesting things in it. First of all, her walls are covered in what looks like her own pencil sketches, and on the wall by the door, there is a painting of a HUGE BLACK BIRD WING stenciled across it. I'm going to go on a limb and say that isn't a coincidence. So, Jordan looks at the window and informs them that he doesn't see any signs of someone trying to force their way inside before adding, "You said something about birds, Tracy?" She quietly explains that there was a bird at the skylight who woke her up, and when he asks if she minds if he takes a look, she nods nervously. He examines the skylight for a moment before confirming with Tracy that she said it was sealed for weather proofing, but when she replies, "Yeah, why?", he grabs the latch and opens it, revealing that if it was sealed, it certainly isn't now.
Tracy looks exhausted and horrified as she watches Jordan grab her chair and peek out the skylight to investigate the roof, only for him to find, much to his alarm, that it is covered with dozens of dead crows. However, when Lydia asks him if he sees anything, he gulps nervously before lying that he didn't find anything and giving her a significant look. When he shuts the skylight again, we can see that the wood around the window has been clawed to hell and back and has smears of blood all over it. YIKES YIKES YIKES! The fandom is already suggesting that Parrish is shady because he lied about the birds, but I refuse to believe that he is a bad guy until we have hardcore proof because I love him too damn much, plus he's done nothing but help our faves out in the past and there's nothing else to suggest that he has malicious intentions thus far. So, I'm just going to go on ahead and assume that the look he gave Lydia means that that he didn't want to say anything in front of Tracy about it until he talked to Lydia privately, and that he then gave her the deets off-screen, which is why they decided that he would watch the house that night to make sure nothing supernatural was afoot.
Back at school, Malia is having driving lessons with Ken Yukimura in the parking lot, which is hilarious to me in so many ways. Like, I feel like the teachers at this school are all jacks-of-all-trades, you know? Jennifer Blake the English teacher subbing for a missing/dead physics teacher, Marin Morrell the French teacher also being a guidance counselor, and same with Natalie being a substitute science teacher slash guidance counselor. Now we have Ken being the resident history teacher AND driving school instructor. Anyway, as you can probably guess, Malia isn't the best at driving yet, and she keeps hitting the brakes too hard, which makes the car stop jerkily and makes Ken's back continually slam into his seat. He urges her to ease into it, but she accidentally hits the gas a little too hard and starts to drive toward the bus. She's really into it at first, and seems to be enjoying herself until she gets thrown into flashbacks to the car accident where her adoptive mother and sister died.
The flashes of memory are so brief its hard to put together a good picture of what happened, but she definitely ran quickly into the woods in coyote form as soon as she could. Ken knows Malia's history, right? Maybe he should have expected this sort of reaction from someone who was so distraught by the accident she accidentally caused that killed her family that she shifted into coyote form and lived in the woods by herself for eight years? Just a thought. So, Malia gets so caught up in this flashback that she almost drives them straight into a school bus, and Malia just barely hits the brakes in time to prevent yet another wreck. Ken is like, "YUP, I'M DONE WITH THIS SHIT" and tells her that they're all good for today in the nicest tone that he can muster. As they get out of the car, Malia asks him how she did, and he hesitates for a moment before stating that there's room for improvement. They both look behind them to find that Malia has hit all of the obstacles that were set up to guide them-- traffic cones, stop signs, mannequins meant to look like construction workers, sawhorses, you name it. And, of course, the entire class is outside and are chuckling at the sight of Malia's driving ability. Aw, girl! Don't sweat it! I didn't get my license until I was nineteen for this very reason.
When we catch back up with her, she's sitting in the library with Scott and Kira, where they're all studying together. After a moment, Stiles rushes in, high on one of his theories, and smacks two pieces of paper onto the table. Scott asks him if he found something, and Stiles explains that he found another signature before laying the two papers side-by-side. "This is Theo's dad's signature on a speeding ticket from eight years ago. And this is his dad's signature on a transfer form to Beacon Hills High School from just a few days ago." Scott and Kira are more concerned about how Stiles actually came into possession of this transfer form, so Scott asks him if he actually broke into the administration office to get it. "No, I did not break into the administration office!" Stiles insists, but when Scott, Malia, and Kira all side-eye him, Stiles breaks down and adds, "Okay, I might have broken into the administration office! Can we just focus on the signatures, please? They're different!"
Malia thinks they're only sort of different, but Stiles is insistent that he's onto something, and starts rambling in his very-Stiles way. "They're completely different!" he yelps exasperatedly. "Come on, look! The garlands don't match, the undulations of the sinuous stroke are totally off, and look! Look at this! Perfect example of the criminal tremor." Oh, Stiles, if you don't go into law enforcement when you graduate, it will be such a damn waste. This kid was meant to be a detective. Kira is like, "So now Theo is Theo, but his parents aren't his parents?", which is a good point, Kira, my girl! Stiles maintains that someone in that family isn't someone, though, and makes it clear that when he finds out what's going on, that someone is going to be in a world of trouble.
Scott, channeling Steve Rogers, reminds Stiles that no one has done anything wrong yet, and you can't exactly punish someone before they commit a crime, but Stiles brings up the fact that if Theo's parents are both psychotic killers, then they shouldn't trust him. Of course, there's a flaw in this logic that Malia immediately brings to his attention-- "My parents are Peter and the Desert Wolf," she deadpans, which causes all of them to look at Stiles, all, "Touché," frustrating Stiles enough that he just sighs in exasperation and starts picking up his papers. Obviously, he's mad because no one is taking his suspicions seriously, so he petulantly insists that he's going to figure it out on himself, and that he doesn't need Scott, Kira, Malia, or anyone to help him. Oh, Stiles, come on! Don't play like that.
He then gets into his car, since apparently school is over now, and when he starts the engine, a familiar voice calls out, "What's a criminal tremor?" When the camera pans over, we can see that Liam is in the front seat examining Stiles' evidence of Theo's dad's mismatched signatures (his dad's name is Jonathan Raeken, just for the record), having been recruited by Stiles to help him out. It's probably smart, really, because Liam adores Scott and is probably the person most likely to think Theo is shady because he won't want to have to compete for Scott's attention in the pack, either. So, Stiles, frustrated as hell, snatches the papers out of Liam's hands and claims it doesn't matter before they leave to do some investigating. Oh, this is so not going to end well.
(via dailytwolf)
Back at Tracy's, Lydia and Jordan are standing outside his car, where he's explaining that while he can't really do much from an official police officer perspective at the moment, he can come back after his shift tonight and watch the house for a couple hours to make sure nothing seriously major is going on. Lydia, who is totally crushing, offers to stay with him and keep him company, but Jordan, despite totally returning said crush, claims that he'll be fine by himself, even when she reminds him that it's the least she can do if he's using his own time to keep an eye on Tracy at her request. He insists that he wouldn't be doing it if he didn't also think there was something strange going on (which seems to give credence to my own stubborn insistence that he filled Lydia in on what he found on the roof) and brings up the fact that he owes her. For what, you and Lydia ask? "Three weeks of digging through every piece of old literature and mythology, trying to figure out the something-strange going on with me," Jordan replies with a smile. I am seriously curious about what is going on with him, but I'm also hoping that Lydia also read up on the banshee lore while she was at it, because I am dying to know what the range of her powers are as well!
Lydia just smiles slyly at him and argues that they never did figure it out before she tells him she'll bring him coffee, but for some reason Parrish is playing hard to get, so he just laughs and reminds her that she has school the next day. Apparently, Lydia technically had enough credits to graduate last year, which of course she did, but she decided to stick around so she could be with the pack 'til they graduate. No wonder she was off her game in Bio earlier-- if I were her, I'd be cruising this year, since her whole one class probably doesn't require a ton of her focus, especially since she said in "Muted" that she had a 4.0 in AP Bio anyway. "And, I will bring you coffee at midnight if I want to," Lydia says cutely with a smug smile, and finally, Jordan caves and tells her he'll take a medium Americano, black. That is such a fucking soldier coffee, oh my gods. I'm getting flashbacks to my most recent ex just thinking about it.
(via grantsgustins)
Meanwhile, night has fallen, and Liam and Stiles are in the middle of sneaking around the woods on foot, where they've tracked Theo. Theo has parked his SUV in a clearly, and he pulls out a long package wrapped loosely in brown paper. Stiles whispers to Liam that he knew he was up to something, to which Liam replies, "We just spent three hours watching this dude play video games in his bedroom. He better be high or covering up a mass murder!" OMG LIAM PLS STOP BEING SO PRECIOUS.(except don't do it) Once Theo starts heading deeper in the woods, Stiles tells Liam that they need to find out and leads them in the direction Theo has left. They follow his footprints in the mud for a short while until Liam suddenly remembers that he had plans to work out with Mason in the school gym to work out and stops what he's doing. Then this cute interaction happens:
Anyway, he's about to continue his what-ifs when suddenly, the ground gives away under him, and he ends up falling straight into a hole in the ground that is about eight feet deep and three or four feet wide. I know that means absolutely nothing to you non-American readers, so lets just say that it's much deeper than Liam is tall. "What the hell are you doing?" Stiles demands impatiently, and Liam just makes this gesture at him like, "Hello? Do you really think I did this on purpose?" Regardless, Stiles tells him to stop screwing around and goes to keep following Theo, leaving Liam to get out by himself. When he fell in the hole, he accidentally dropped his phone in the mud, but don't worry-- the same magic that protected Scott's phone in "Anchors" also did the same for Liam. When he wipes the mud off of the screen, he finds that he has at least seven messages from Mason, asking him if he forgot about him, which makes Liam sigh sadly, feeling guilty about the fact that he keeps standing his BFF up. On the ground next to him is a very-familiar-looking necklace with a silver leaf pendant, which makes me wonder if our girl Tracy has been spending any time sleepwalking into the woods. YIKES.
Finally, Liam manages to catch back up with Stiles, who is hiding behind a tree and watching as Theo stands that bridge over the stream where Allison and Scott hung out alllllll the way in Season 1's "The Tell." When Stiles asks him if he gets a scent, Liam sniffs for a moment and replies, "Soap. It's nice, it smells good." Again, not funny on paper, but the delivery is seriously hilarious. HE IS SO ADORABLE. Stiles just rolls his eyes and reminds him about chemosignals, so after a moment of analyzing, Liam declares Theo to be sad. Stiles seems surprised, but Liam considers it a bit more before clarifying that it's actually more like grief. Man, Scott's werewolf-tutoring seems to be doing well, because it even took him a long time to learn that. Liam has gotten much better at being a werewolf over the last six months, and it shows!
Stiles does not like the sound of that, and when he looks over and sees Theo dropping a white lily into the water under the bridge, Stiles realizes exactly what Theo is doing there and anxiously orders Liam to follow him, because they need to get the fuck out of there now. "That's the bridge where they found his sister," Stiles explains way too loudly. When Liam is confused by this statement, Stiles states that it was his sister who got lost and died of exposure before Theo and his family moved away, and that clearly, Theo was leaving flowers for her. "That doesn't sound evil," Liam replies, which Stiles totally knows, of course, and is quite embarrassed of at the moment, but unfortunately for Stiles, his hopes that he could get out of the woods without Theo figuring out what they were doing are seriously dashed when Theo appears right in front of them and asks them what they're doing.
Despite my earlier beliefs that Liam wasn't that fond of Stiles, considering how mean he was to him when they first met, Liam instantly starts growling and stands protectively between Theo and Stiles. Theo puts his hands up in a non-threatening manner and smiles before quipping, "Why do I get the feeling this kid's tougher than he looks?" We all know how much Liam loves to be patronized, so he continues to glare at him like a puppy with his hackles up as Stiles holds him back with one hand and replies, "Only when we let him off his leash." Theo exasperatedly reminds Stiles that they were on the same Little League team (which LOL, the thought of Stiles playing baseball is hilarious to me, given how flaily he is) before asking him why he's so suspicious of him, so Stiles stupidly brings up the damn signatures on the speeding ticket and the transfer form before pulling them out of his pocket and showing him that they're different. Theo admits that they do look a little different, but Stiles maintains that they're written by two different people, which naturally makes him sound ridiculous and paranoid.
(via theoraekens)
Over at the Stewart household, Tracy's dad has just finished hammering a ton of two-by-fours over the skylight to ensure that it's secure to try to help his daughter's peace of mind regarding her night terrors. She's already in her pajamas and ready for bed when he sits down next to her in his suit and tie and explains that while he has to go meet a client at the courthouse, he'll be back soon. That seems kind of shady, to be honest, since it's clearly late at night now, and courthouses usually close by 4:30-5PM. Tracy smiles weakly at her dad as he gets up to leave, but before he walks out the door, he turns back and assures her that he won't let anything happen to her. Famous last words, dude. Once he's gone, Tracy turns off her lights and settles into bed, and the camera pans ominously to her jewelry stand just beside her bed, on which her silver leaf necklace is conspicuously absent. UH OH. I still can't tell if we're supposed to think she's been howling at the moon in the woods recently, or if the Dread Doctors somehow stole it and then dropped it in the woods for some reason? I don't know. Either way, it does not seem to be a good thing.
Back at the preserve, Stiles and Liam have just returned to Stiles' Jeep, where they find Scott waiting for them next to his parked bike, since he knew Stiles wasn't going to let this go and decided to follow him in the same way that Stiles and Liam followed Theo. He asks them if they found anything, and Stiles, who, to his credit, is super embarrassed by his behavior, just says "Nope!" before heading straight for the Jeep, and Liam, bless his heart, tries to lighten the mood by blurting out, "I fell in a hole!" PRECIOUS CINNAMON ROLL, TOO GOOD FOR THIS WORLD, TOO PURE. Unfortunately, it fails to decrease the tension between his two teen dads. Scott asks if he found Theo at the bridge where his sister died, and Stiles just gets into the car and curtly replies, "Yes, it was. Very embarrassing. So, we're gonna go now." Of course, the Jeep chooses that moment to break down again, which seems to have led the fandom to think that since Stiles' Jeep has only been really breaking lately in times of intense stress for Stiles, that maybe it's connected to the fact that Stiles could be *something*, but I'm still not sure how I feel about that.
Stiles does his best to try to ignore Scott's perfectly calm line of questioning in favor of instructing Liam to get in the Jeep and turn the ignition when he tells him too before popping the hood and once again looking around to try to fix whatever is wrong this time. Finally, though, Scott gets his attention, and Stiles pretty much blows up. "Yes, okay, we followed him out here! What do you want me to say? That I'm a stalker? Huh? That I'm crazy? Totally paranoid? None of this is new information!" Oh, Stiles, you seriously need to work on some actual healthy coping mechanisms or something, because this much stress and anxiety is not good for a person. Actually, that goes for Scott, too-- they're both worrisome as hell. Scott asks his bro if this means he's going to give Theo the benefit of the doubt now, but Stiles reminds him that he's actually given a lot of benefit to many people, though Scott points out tha that's not exactly true-- Stiles thought Derek was a bad guy, or at least not a good guy, up until, like, Season 3B, and he was suspicious of Kira and Liam as well, two people who have done nothing but good things for him and the pack in general.
Stiles, not liking his mistakes to be put on display, argues that he was right about Peter before telling Liam to try the engine again, and when it doesn't work, he gets so frustrated by everything that he tells Scott, "You know, I bet you still think that there's something about him that can be saved." Scott admits that yeah, maybe he does-- and even I think that is a little naive, but whatever-- but Stiles is so over this conversation that he just focuses back on trying to get his car to work again, with only bad results. "Why can't you trust anyone?" Scott asks him quietly, and without a shred of accusing tone in his voice, but Stiles just loses his temper once again and yells, "Because you trust everyone!" before punching the engine of the Jeep and hurting his hand so badly that it literally takes his breath away. "Wild Ones" by Bahari starts to play, and Scott immediately forgets about their argument in favor of asking him if he's okay, but Stiles is even more embarrassed now than he was before, and insists that he's fine, even though his injured hand is shaking as he tries to shake it out.
(via lydiaspeters)
"Wake up to the sun / burning while we're young / set fire to our lungs / 'til what's left is none."
Regardless of his protests, Scott insists that he could have broken it before ordering Stiles to let him see his hand, and he takes it so gently into his own that I seriously about cried. When his hand and forearm veins start to turn black, it becomes clear that Scott is taking his pain, and when he's done, Stiles flexes his hand and seems amazed both at the fact that his hand appears to be pain-free, and the fact that even though Stiles just pretty much told Scott that he thinks his trusting nature will get them in trouble, Wait a minute, did Scott just heal him? I was under the impression that the pain-sucking thing only took the edge off of pain, but Stiles looks as though his hand doesn't hurt at all anymore. Is it because it's a mild injury? Or can True Alphas heal people from smaller injuries? I'd love it if it was the latter, to be honest, but my Scott-fangirlness is no secret. Regardless, it doesn't matter how badly Stiles lashes out-- Scott still only cares about Stiles and how he he's feeling, and making sure that he was okay, even often at the expense of his own pain and suffering. (Remember how in "Letharia Vulpina," Nogitsune!Stiles tortured Scott with the oni ninjado he was stabbed with, but then when Deaton injected him with the wolf lichen and knocked him out, and even though Scott was still impaled with the sword, he was still only concerned with whether or not Stiles was okay?) That is true friendship, right there.
(via lydiaspeters)
" We're the wild ones / curious fools / trapped in flume / We're the wild ones / raised by wolves / we howl to the moon"
I have so many mixed feelings about this scene though. Like, it's great in that they're both so worried about what's going on right now that they're pretty much accusing the other of loving them too much, but I have to admit that I'm not fond of the implication that Scott is too trusting, because he really isn't. It took him two and a half seasons for him to fully start trusting Derek, half a season to start trusting Isaac, and he has never trusted Peter, contrary to popular belief-- he just didn't turn away his help when he was in a bind. Everyone else either had literally no evidence to back up Stiles' suspicion that they were evil (see: Matt Daehler), or ended up earning their trust by supporting the pack (see: Ethan and Aiden), so while I completely understand why Stiles is wary of those he doesn't know, and I can empathize with all of the reasons why he'd be eager to make sure that nothing bad happens to their pack again, the tone of the comment just kind of slightly rubbed me the wrong way, since it makes it seem like Stiles doesn't trust Scott's instincts, when they very rarely steer them wrong. It was still great, though, and I love how unconditionally Scott loves Stiles-- literally none of Stiles' neuroses could make Scott not be his friend anymore.
Back at the Stewart house, Parrish has finished his shift and is watching the house through binoculars, not knowing that Tracy is watching him from behind his SUV with a very kanima-esque blank-eyed stare. After a moment, she turns around and slowly starts walking in the opposite direction of the car. Yikes! Guys, why is she so banshee-ish if she's a werewolf? What we see later is definitely werewolf-like, but the night terrors, the hallucinations during the day, the fugue-state walkabouts? That is pretty much Lydia Martin circa Season 2 territory, here. I AM SO CONFUSED.
Anyway, when we return from the break, we catch up with Liam, who has just finally made it to the high school, where Mason meets him outside. Liam immediately apologizes for being late, but Mason, clearly frustrated and more than a little annoyed, points out that Liam isn't actually late-- he just worked out for two hours while waiting for him, so now the work-out part of their hang-out is over. Liam just looks so guilty and sighs before replying, "Yeah, I know. I forgot. And, I'm gonna tell you why." He pauses for a moment, and when Mason looks equal part concerned and relieved to finally learn the truth, Liam continues. "Actually, I'm gonna tell you a lot of things. A lot of hard-to-believe things. really hard-to-believe." When Liam finally has the nerve to look Mason full in the face, he sees that it's actually very alarmed now as he looks beyond where Liam is standing. "There's a wolf," Mason says with a gasp. "Yeah, I'm getting to that," Liam replies nervously, but Mason clarifies that there is actually a legit wolf behind him. Liam hilariously turns backward and sees that yup, there is a dark brown/black wolf standing behind him. "That's a wolf!" Liam adorably says in response, before the wolf starts growling at them and begins chasing them into the school. HOLY SHIT! Also, that is totally the same wolf that they use for fullwolf!Derek, you can tell by the way it bares its teeth when it growls.
Inside, Liam is running as fast as he can down the hall, with Mason following shortly behind him , but when Mason turns to run up the stairs, Liam realizes that the easiest way to deal with this situation would be to growl at it loud enough to scare it away. So, Liam spins and flicks his golden eyes, claws, and fangs out before roaring so loud that you just know that Scott is smiling proudly somewhere. The sound of the roar scares Mason so much that he stops in his tracks and slowly turns around, just in time to see the wolfish features fade from Liam's face. Liam looks so anxious and worried when he makes eye contact with his best friend and quietly says, "There's something I gotta tell you." Fortunately for him, his concern is unnecessary, because a huge smile breaks out across Mason's face as he gapes at Liam in shock. "You're a werewolf!" Mason blurts out in amazement, and it is literally the reaction-to-lycanthropy that everyone has always dreamed of. Seriously, Mason is the perfect fanboy and I adore him so much. THIS IS THE BEST.
(via dylanoblrien)
The wolf has scampered back into the woods after Liam did the wolf equivalent of telling him to get the fuck out, and he doesn't stop until he gets back to that bridge where Stiles and Liam found Theo earlier. OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT. Then, as he passes a tree, he transforms until he has returned to his usual blonde-twink body. Oh yeah, IT'S FUCKING THEO! THEO CAN SHIFT INTO FULL-WOLF FORM. Now, how can he do this as an omega, when we've been lead to believe only Alphas, werecoyotes, and a few Betas werewolves who are extra in touch with their werewolf side, like Derek, can achieve this form? Especially as a Beta who was bitten and hasn't been a werewolf for that long either? There are quite a few options, I'm guessing, but the ones I can think of off the top of my head are 1) he's lying about who he is and/or how he was turned, 2) he's lying about who he is and is actually a born wolf, 3) he's a secret Hale and inherited their ability to full shift like Talia, Laura and Derek, or 4) he's been experimented on by the Dread Doctors and now can full-shift because of the enhancements he got from them. Does anyone else have any theories?
Across town, Scott and Kira are hooking up in Scott's's bed at the McCalls's house to the sounds of "Hold Me Down" by Masonair. After a moment, Kira asks Scott why he never told her why he wanted to go to UC-Davis, so Scott points out that it's a really good school, plus it's in the Bay Area, which means he'd still be close to home and all the rest of the pack, assuming they're willing to stay in northern California. "It also has the best program for biological and physical sciences," Kira chirps in a perfect imitation of Mrs. Finch before adding that it's a perfect school for someone who wants to become a veterinarian like Scott. He just smiles at her warmly in silence for a moment until Kira can't help but ask him why he wouldn't tell her-- was he worried about what she would think? As it turns out, it wasn't that at all-- Scott's afraid that he's not smart enough to get in, which he totally is, but I don't blame him for being insecure about it after everyone was a huge dick to him about it earlier.
Kira just smiles and crawls onto his lap, straddling his hips and leaning over him so that the ends of her hair are brushing against his face before assuring him that he'll make it. She then takes off her top, revealing a really cute gray and white lace bra that I'm totally coveting, so that she and her boyfriend can go back to smoochie-ville, which makes me happy, because everyone complained that Scott and Kira didn't have any sexual chemistry because they were all just chaste kisses and whatever. They might not be all-consuming love like Scott and Allison, but they are good for each other, and exactly what the other needs right now. Anyway, before they get into it, Kira leans over to shut off the lamp next to her bed, but once her hand gets near it, her thunder powers overload the light bulb to the point that it explodes into a shower of tiny shards of glass. It alarms me a ton, given what we've heard all about Kira's kitsune spirit getting stronger this season, but Kira just giggles sheepishly before Scott sits up so they can continue their mack-fest. I AM NOT READY FOR SCIRA/KIRA DRAMA WHATSOEVER TO BE HONEST. Not even a little!
Lydia has just made good on her promise of bringing coffee to Jordan, and they stand outside his SUV and continue watching the house while he updates her on what's going on. As far as he can tell, no one has been in or out of the house since he got there, which means both Papa Stewart and Tracy must have snuck out before he got there. Either that, or he's just really bad at his job, and I don't really want to think that yet. Lydia apologizes for wasting his time, but he just takes a sip of his coffee before smiling and assuring her that it wasn't a total waste. God, could these guys be cuter? It's making my heart do weird things. Stop with the cute smiles, you too! (Actually, please don't stop). "I'm just glad Tracy's okay," he adds, which is hilarious, because as it turns out...
...Tracy has just awoken from her somnambulism on the floor of the creepy basement lab of the Dread Doctors, and is most certainly not okay. She's surrounded by those tubes with bodies attached to scuba masks submerged in weird yellow fluids, and next to her is a metal exam table that looks straight out of the HYDRA experimentation rooms in Captain America: The First Avenger. Just as she's starting to take in her surroundings and understandably freak the fuck out, all three of the Dread Doctors come out of the shadows with their weird, jerky movements and approach her. "There's nothing there," Tracy mutters anxiously under her breath as she starts to hyperventilate. "There's nothing..." The Doctor with the red monocles who is standing in front of her holds up a terrifyingly humongous syringe with a equally terrifyingly huge needle, which does nothing to make her less frightened. "It's not real. I'm sleeping. I'm just sleeping..." she continues to mutter as she starts to cry horrified tears, but unfortunately for her, this is very, very real, and the Doctor with the syringe tells her as much.
"No, Tracy," it states in its robotic Bane voice. "You're awakening." The two Doctors behind her grab her wrists with their metal-clawed hands to knock her face-first onto the floor. Wait, they have an exam table! If they're going to do non-consensual medical experiments, the least they can do is not do the injections on that gross floor. Once she's down, the Doctor with the syringe jabs it in the side of her neck, which makes me choke just thinking about it, and injects a substance that kind of looks like mercury into it. Tracy gasps as the medication takes effect and she slowly relaxes as she's hit with brief flashbacks of earlier in the day. First to last night, when she was on the roof, clawing at the skylight to her room. The second at school when she was panicking, right before Lydia came to comfort her-- she has werewolf fangs, and she was so anxious that she clawed deep gashes into her locker. WAIT! So, did Lydia actually notice this or not? I DON'T UNDERSTAND. When we return to the present, Tracy is on her knees, almost like she's in child's pose, as she slowly sits up, her claws and fangs out. Once she's upright, she throws her head backward as she roars at the ceiling, her eyes the golden-yellow of a beta werewolf. HOLY SHIT.
Meanwhile, at the Stilinski house, Stiles is in his bedroom, where he's working on his crime board and adding Theo Raeken's name to the evidence. After a moment, Sheriff appears in the doorway in his civvies and looks at him for a moment before calling out, "Usually, we wait until they do something wrong before we declare them guilty." Stiles, despite everything he saw and heard today, is insistent that Theo is guilty of SOMETHING, but Sheriff reminds him that legally speaking, these kind of allegations require proof of wrongdoing, and that proof always trumps instincts. Deep down, Stiles knows that, and admits that to his dad, but when his dad tells him to let it go for the evening and get some sleep, Stiles stops him before he can do the same.
"Hey Dad?" Stiles asks, as Sheriff turns around to see what he has to say. "I got it. There's something different. I know what it is." Sheriff is like, "Uh, what?", so Stiles drops the bomb that he noticed he's no longer wearing his wedding ring. SOBBING FOREVER. The fact that he and Chris continued wearing their wedding rings after their wives' passing has always made me super sad, but the fact that Sheriff isn't wearing his anymore actually makes me sad too? UGH YOU CHARACTERS STOP PLAYING GAMES WITH MY HEART. Unless this means Sheriff and Melissa are secretly dating, in which case carry on with the playing games. Sheriff looks really sad and kind of guilty about this revelation, but he doesn't exactly know what to say, although this act of perceptiveness does make him wonder if maybe Stiles does know something about Theo that they don't.
Speaking of Theo, he's at his family homestead, where the people who appear to be his mother and father are sitting anxiously at the table while Theo is showing them the evidence Stiles handed him earlier. Way to show your hand early, dude! I love you, Stiles-y poo, but you need to learn the act of subtlety. "You were told to practice." Theo begins gruffly. "It was supposed to be indistinguishable from the original. It was supposed to be perfect." "Jonathan," if that's his real name, insists that he practiced hundreds and hundreds of time, but the person who seems to pretending to be his wife wastes no time outing him. "I wouldn't say hundreds," she snits.
Theo pulls out a hammer and holds it up before pointing out that there is one way a mismatched set of signatures could be explained-- if their dominant hand is in a cast. The man claiming to be Theo's father looks terrified, but weirdly enough, he holds out his right hand without complaint or question, and the camera cuts away just as we hear the sound of crunching bones and pained screams. OH MY GODS THAT IS SO BANANAS I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO SAY. I've been thinking about this episode for a week and I still have absolutely no idea what the deal is with these guys, and I mean it in a good way-- I have seen so many TV shows and movies that it's hard to surprise me anymore, so this is an excellent storyline that is keeping me nervous thanks to the fact that I have literally no clue where it's going.
Next episode: Tracy is still apparently in the middle of a night terror, only now she's graduated to maiming/killing people with her (possibly new-found?) powers, so the McCall Pack, with help from new groupie Mason, are on the case.
NOTES/SPECULATION/QUESTIONS:
- In keeping with my tradition of picking out reworn outfits from the characters, I think I've found some duplicates in this episode. Stiles seems to be wearing the same blue pullover hoodie that he wore in "The Benefactor," and I think Scott might be wearing the same aqua denim button-up he wore in that same episode, as well. It also looks like Liam is wearing the same maroon zip-up hoodie that he wore in "Smoke & Mirrors," Lydia's wearing the same floral shirt she was wearing in "Weaponized," and Malia's got the same cute navy blue knee socks she was wearing in "Weaponized" and "Smoke & Mirrors."
-My meta post regarding what we've learned in the last two episodes is almost done, but I'm probably going to add whatever we learn from tonight's "Dreamcatchers" to it and post it after the episode's recap. Cool? Cool.
Speaking of new people I like, I really, really hope that Tracy sticks around, because she's really pretty and cute and has a lot of potential, but I get the impression she's not going to last very long, especially if she ends up failing the Dread Doctors like her sludgewolf predecessor. But, I'm getting ahead of myself! "Parasomnia" was yet another scary, funny, heartwarming and heartbreaking episode in what is becoming a theme of this season, and if it continues as it is, I have no doubt that this will end up becoming my favorite season. (Which I know doesn't mean much, since every since has been my favorite season since Season 2, but still! It's really, really good, you guys.) So, let's talk about this newest episode of Teen Wolf, shall we?
Previously, on Teen Wolf: Scott and Stiles hung out at Look-Out Point and discussed all of their plans for the pack to stay together after graduation when they're all heading off to college. They did some senior year activities, like Senior Scribe, during which Scott honored Allison's memory by writing her initials on the shelf along with the rest of theirs (STILL SOBBING, BY THE WAY), but Scott is worried that since things have been good-but-not-amazing for the last six months, the law of "regression to the mean" means that things will either be really good or really bad soon enough. And, we've all seen enough of this show to know that it's likely going to be the latter. During a throwdown with this weirdly scientifically and supernaturally-enhanced sludgewolf with glowing talons for claws, a mysterious werewolf by the name of Theo showed up to help, and revealed that he is an old friend of Scott and Stiles' from fourth grade, before he apparently moved away. The aforementioned sludgewolf tried to power-suck Scott and Parrish, but he failed in both tasks, and Scott ended up breaking his arm beyond the normal werewolf healing, forcing him to run back to the Dread Doctors, for whom he apparently works and has possibly/likely been experimented on by them. The Dread Doctors, displeased by the fact that he failed to "remove the obstacles," whatever that means, informed him that they don't give second chances before they killed him dead by stabbing him in the chest with a sword cane. To make matters even weirder, a huge murder of crows/ravens/whatever black birds they are flew out of his chest cavity scattered. (I still don't understand that part.) Which is more-or-less where we pick up today!
We begin in the guidance office of the high school, with our new-to-us girl Tracy Stewart, a fellow senior along with Scott, Stiles, Lydia, Malia, and Kira. She's played by the lovely Kelsey Chow, who you might recognize from Hayley Kiyoko (Megan King from The Vampire Diaries!)'s "Girls Like Girls" music video that was just released recently. Anyway, she's breathing heavily, like she's on the verge of a panic attack, and starts getting flashbacks to the night before, when Beacon Hills' now-constant thunder and rainstorms poured against the skylight in her bedroom. We cut back to Tracy's terrified face once again before flashing back briefly to a flock of birds beating their wings against each other and then returning to the guidance office, where new guidance counselor Natalie Martin (wearing a very flattering pair of glasses) is discussing the fact that she'll need some good letters of recommendation to make up for her grades on her college applications. Ugh, all of this college talk is giving me hives-- going through it once was bad enough, Teen Wolf. After a moment, Natalie finally realizes that Tracy is mid-freak-out and calls out her name in concern to snap her out of it. "Feeling a little overwhelmed?" Natalie asks, which gets her a weak smile in response as Tracy assures her that she's okay.
Natalie then asks her if she's been getting enough sleep, which of course she hasn't, so Natalie then goes on that spiel about how teenagers need good sleep because their still-sort-of-childlike bodies have different circadian rhythms and are still producing melatonin when they get up to go to school, blah blah blah. Unfortunately, this isn't just a case of teenage insomnia, or Tracy not getting enough sleep because she's too busy scrolling around on Tumblr all night like some of us-- she's actually been having night terrors, which surprises Natalie a LOT. "Actual night terrors?" she asks skeptically. "Parasomnia?" For the record, "parasomnia" does not actually mean simply night terrors-- it is actually a class of sleep disorders split into two categories, REM parasomnias and non-REM parasomnias. For the former, it includes REM sleep behavior disorder, recurrent isolated sleep paralysis (sound familiar?) and catathrenia, which involves the sleeper unintentionally holding their breath and then slowly letting it out with a groaning or squeaking noise, which can awaken the sleeper and their sleep partners. Then, the latter category includes confusional arousals, sleepwalking (also familiar), sleep terrors/night terrors, teeth grinding, restless leg syndrome and periodic limb movements, sleep sex, and sleep-related eating disorders. It's actually pretty interesting stuff, but I felt compelled to inform you all as a medical professional that Jeff Davis is once again oversimplifying things.
Anyway, so Tracy nods her head and explains that she usually doesn't remember them, which tells Natalie that there is at least one night that she does remember, which of course was last night. We flash back again to the previous night, where Tracy appears to be sleeping soundly in her bed. Next to her on the bedside table is a really cute jewelry stand that is shaped like a tree, which has a necklace with a silver leaf pendant hanging from it. It sounds like I'm being overly detailed, but I promise it'll come into play later. So, she's suddenly awakened by a particularly loud rumble of thunder and the sound of wings flapping, and when she looks up at the skylight, she sees a crow standing on top of it, despite the fact that it's pouring down rain. It starts tapping on the skylight with its beak, but Tracy just sighs in relief that it's nothing major and lays back down in her bed. She closes her eyes again, but when thunder rumbles as second time, she opens them quickly and looks up to find that the crow has disappeared in the split-second she wasn't watching it.
When she settles back down under her comforter, she glances over at the window to her right, but when she sees what looks like one of the Dread Doctors' masks outside her room, she yelps in fear and sits back up again. This is like my literal nightmare scenario, to be honest-- I have a huge tendency to partially wake up in the middle of the night, thinking that there is someone in my room, and one time I even sleepwalked over to the bedroom door, opened it to encourage whatever was in my room to leave, and then lit some sage incense in hope that it would somehow protect me from them? Yup. I sleep-witchcraft. It's kind of ridiculous. Anyway, so Tracy frantically turns on the light on her bedside table, but when she turns back to the window to look closer, the Dread Doctor is gone. However, the window is cracked open, for whatever reason, so she slowly wanders over and shuts it to ease her own mind. Once again, she crawls back into bed, and reluctantly leans over to turn off the light, though you can tell by her anxious panting that she's still absolutely terrified by whatever is going on.
She turns so she's facing away from the window and the skylight, and her breathing starts to slow, as though she's juuuuust about to get back to sleep, which is naturally when she begins feeling a cool breeze on her face that blows her hair around. She jerks awake and looks up to the ceiling to find that the skylight has been opened in the time that she was back in bed. WHAT THE FUCK. She desperately tries to turn on her light, but it won't turn on no matter how much she twists the switch, as though the electricity has been knocked out or something. So, she whimpers in fear, jumps up, grabs her desk chair, and quickly climbs onto it so she can shut the skylight in hopes of gaining some peace of mind. Unfortunately, even standing on a chair, she's not tall enough to easily reach the latch, and as she strains and reaches as far as she can, the chair tilts so that she's only standing on two of the legs, and she almost loses her balance completely. She tries it one more time and finally gets it closed, and breathes a sigh of relief once she can lock it up. Of course, that's when the Dread Doctor's weird steampunk-armored hand reaches over and grabs the chair leg, yanking it from under Tracy's legs so she falls. When she sees the Doctor, she screams in terror and falls to the floor.
In the present, Tracy explains that her father found her this morning laying on the floor next to the chair, which leads Natalie to ask her about the skylight. As it turns out, the skylight doesn't actually open, because her family had it sealed shut to weatherproof it, which is probably smart, considering how much rain Beacon Hills seems to be getting lately. "Then some of it was definitely a dream," Natalie concludes, but Tracy insists that part of it wasn't. "Honey, I'm going to propose that most of it was," Natalie says in a slightly patronizing voice. "You know, there's a theory that one of the biological functions of dreaming is to simulate threatening events. It's a way for our brain to rehearse for them. I think that you are dealing with normal anxiety, Tracy-- the kind very common to seniors." You can tell Tracy still isn't convinced, but she just smiles weakly again and states that she should probably get to class.
However, when she stands to her feet, she starts to look a little woozy as she starts clearing her throat, which eventually turns to a full-blown coughing fit. Natalie looks alarmed and asks her if she's okay, but when she gets to her feet to help her, Tracy becomes so overwhelmed by what is happening that she quickly swipes everything off of Natalie's desk before THROWING UP A GALLON OF BLACK SLUDGE. Natalie is understandably horrified, and mutters, "Oh, honey," as she holds back Tracy's hair. Tracy falls to her knees in front of the desk, black goo running down her chin, and looks even more freaked out when she finds a black bird feather in her black vomit. "Is this common?" Tracy asks weakly, while Natalie looks as though she's about to blorf as well. What the fuck is going on with this poor girl? I still do not understand. TITLE CARD!
After the break, we pick back up at Deaton's office, where the good doctor is instructing Scott on how to give intramuscular injections to puppies, specifically the fuzzy black and white pup (I can't tell what breed, probably some kind of terrier?) that is currently on the examination table. Scott wins me over for the bazillionth time with his knowledge of the fact that the key to giving injections in the ventrogluteal site is taking care to avoid the sciatic nerve and making sure to aspirate the plunger to make sure that you didn't accidentally hit a blood vessel. A man after my own heart! Once Scott pulls the needle out, the dog yelps and nips Scott's arm before baring his fangs at Scott, who just smiles sheepishly and rubs him behind the ears before replying, "Sorry, buddy!"
He then picks the dog up and walks over to the doorway, where a girl named Stephanie, who can't be more than six or seven years old, is waiting for her puppy. When he hands the dog to her, she chirps, "Thank you, Dr. McCall!", which makes Scott smile one of those full-face smiles of his that literally makes my heart melt into a puddle of good before reminding her that he isn't a doctor yet. YET. Of all the fanfic tropes to come true in the show, I am most happy that they're going with the "Scott wants to be a veterinarian" one, because it just fits him so well! He would seriously make the best vet, and he'll have so much hands-on training under his belt before he even starts college (in conjunction with his supernatural abilities and experiences) that he'll be all set.
(via teenwolf)
Once the little girl leaves, hopefully with her parents (Where are they, anyway? No child should be left unsupervised in this infernal town. Scratch that, literally NO ONE, child or adult, should be unsupervised or alone in this town, because there are just way too many murderous things that go bump in the night for any of them to be very safe), Scott returns to the exam room, where Deaton is examining the talon-claws that Scott ripped off of old Sludgewolf in the previous episode with a magnifying glass. When he asks his boss if he's found anything yet, Deaton admits that he might, and asks Scott if he's sure that the guy who attacked him was a werewolf. "As far as I can tell, these claws are actually talons," Deaton continues. "In fact, they're the talons of a harpy eagle, one of the largest known birds of prey." YIKES! That is alarming, since it indicates that the Dread Doctors are splicing werewolf with parts of other animals. Then, there are also the Harpies from Greek and Roman mythology, whose name means "snatchers." In the earliest lore, they were wind spirits who took the form of large birds with human faces, and they would carry those who committed evil to the Erinyes, along with stealing their victims' food while they were eating.
So, Scott asks Deaton who a werewolf would get talons, which is an excellent question, in my opinion. However, Deaton seems to be less concerned by this part of the story, and more concerned by the fact that these talons were able to absorb his power-- apparently, the only werewolves who should be able to do this to a True Alpha are Betas created by the aforementioned Alpha's bite. Whoa, whoa, whoa, this is an information overload. Is this confirmation that the werewolf did manage to successfully steal some of Scott's power? Did he leave with some, or did Scott just suck it back? Or is it more of like a copy of it, like how Peter Petrelli from Heroes could duplicate the powers of others using his empathy ability? I AM SO CONFUSED.
Secondly, the fact that, by this revelation that a True Alpha's true Beta could take his power from him seriously worries me, because how long will it take for the Dread Doctors or other bad guys to figure that out and try to manipulate Liam into taking it? And, if Liam could somehow take it from Scott, whether willingly or by manipulation/coercion, could another werewolf then kill Liam to take the Alpha power? I was under the impression that True Alphas are rare because they essentially make themselves into Alphas with their indomitable will and virtue. I'm not saying that Liam isn't great, because he totally is, but the fact that True Alphas are so rare seems to suggest that their power can't be taken in a way that would make the receiver a True Alpha without possessing those qualities, yeah? So, would Liam just be a regular Alpha if he somehow ended up in possession of Scott's True Alpha spark? YIKES YIKES YIKES.
And it gets worse, because Scott asks Deaton what would happen if he let another Beta, one that he didn't bite/turn himself, into his pack-- would they be able to take his power? Deaton's reply-- "I would normally say no... But, I'm starting to wonder if the rules to our supernatural world aren't as rigid as I once thought. Or maybe someone's trying to change those rules." THIS IS SO NOT GOOD, UGH. Despite that initially feeling I get, this scene is especially important to the episode, given what happens later with Stiles and his paranoia about Theo. Although Stiles is right in that Scott always tries to find the good in people, that doesn't mean that Scott trusts everyone at all times-- he's not opposed to letting people help the pack out and prove their loyalty to earn his trust, like he did with Derek and Isaac in Season 2, the twins in 3B, and even Peter, to an extent, from Seasons 2-4. So, clearly, he hasn't made any decisions about Theo joining the pack yet, but he is seeking out information about how that would work if he did, and what he would be risking by doing so. And, from what Deaton is saying, Theo shouldn't be able to take Scott's powers, but considering what the sludgewolf did to him, he's now not so sure that he can say definitively what will happen one way or another. This is already so nervewracking! Especially since we soon learn that something is definitely up with Theo, but we don't know enough about what's going on with him to be able to say what his motives are.
Speaking about learning about Theo, we do get some hints as to his history in this next scene at the Sheriff's station, where Stiles is trying to get Sheriff to help him learn as much about Theo and his family as possible. "I know his family left town around the time Theo was nine or ten-- his older sister died in an accident when he was eight," Stiles explains, which seems kind of significant to me. So, we know that Stiles' mother died when he was eight in 2004, which is also when that car accident that killed the banshee who told Sheriff that Claudia was dying happened. In addition, we know that Malia's surprise werecoyote transformation on a full moon before she caused the car accident that killed her adoptive mother and sister happened in the same year. While the timeline for this show is kind of sketchy, it's assumed that the Hale fire happened around this time as well (we learned it was six years ago in January 2011, which suggests that it went down in early 2005) and now. we're told that Theo lost his sister in a accident as well? They didn't specify if it was a car accident or what, but it happened on a bridge, for what it's worth. (Edited to add: I completely forgot that later in the episode, they talk about how she apparently got lost in the woods and died of exposure. Whoops! I need to pay closer attention.) Does Beacon Hills just have a lot of freak accidents, or was there some kind of super powerful mojo going on that was causing it to happen? It just seems like either something significant happened in this time period for it to keep coming up, or it's just super lazy writing. Time will tell, I guess?
So yeah, Sheriff just starts begging Stiles to go to school, which is pretty much his go-to response when Stiles is being obsessive about something that seems insignificant. "Dad, this kid's a werewolf!" Stiles argues, but Sheriff just rolls his eyes ridiculously hard and replies, "Your best friend is a werewolf! You are dating a werecoyote! I still don't know what Kira's supposed to be. When the flying monkeys come soaring through this station, you will have my undivided attention. Until then, just go to school." Oh gods, I really hope that flying monkeys comment isn't some kind of bananas foreshadowing. All of a sudden, Stiles gets this really weird look on his face, and he hilariously rushes over to his dad until they're basically nose-to-noise so he can start sniffing. "What did you do?" Stiles demands aggressively.
When a flabbergasted Sheriff is like, "Uh, what? What do you mean, what did I do?", Stiles insists that there's something different about him and once again orders him to spill the beans. Sheriff just shakes his head and sends Stiles off to school, but Stiles tries to make a deal with him by assuring him he'll go to school if Sheriff promises to do a full background check on the Raekens. "No!" Sheriff replies exasperatedly. "You know what? Just because I'm the only law enforcement officer who knows anything about this does not make it my responsibility to do something every time you have a minor suspicion!" This totally ends up giving Stiles an idea, though, and so he turns backward to glance at Jordan, who is at his desk in the bullpen and doing some work, before reminding Sheriff that he's no longer the only one who knows about the supernatural. Sheriff is just totally tired of Stiles' shit by now, so he sighs deeply before yelling for Parrish to get in there. HAHAHAHA, Stiles is such a hard bargainer, I love it.
Cut to the school, where Stiles and Malia have just walked to the front steps from the parking lot. They stop in front of the school so they can catch each other up on what's been going on since they last saw each other. Malia exposits for our benefit that Stiles ran a background check on the Raekens and only found a single speeding ticket, but Stiles insists that it was a speeding ticket that was signed by Theo's dad eight years ago. She just stares at him blankly and asks him what his point is, so Stiles scoffs and replies, "Who speeds? People trying to get away from something!" Malia is no dummy, though, and asks him how many speeding tickets Stiles has gotten since getting his license, but Stiles hilariously just tries to claim that he's never gotten one. "How many would you have if your dad didn't get you out of them?" Malia asks with a side-eye, forcing Stiles to admit he'd have seventeen. BAHAHAHA. Stiles is killing me in this episode, in more than one way. Also, TELL HIM, MALIA!
"I don't know, Stiles," Malia replies skeptically. "I mean, I see why you're worried-- he's really hot! He's got like great hair, perfect body... You should definitely feel threatened." Oh Malia girl, I think you've just spoken for the entirety of the Teen Wolf fandom, because that boy is cute! Although way too pretty and young for me to be truly attracted to him, but objectively speaking, he's super hot. Stiles, who has been pulling faces at her through this whole statement, just sarcastically thanks her for the self-esteem killing and pouts that he is definitely feeling more threatened than ever right about now. Such jealousy! Much passive-aggression. (Wait, are doge jokes uncool now? Because I still adore them, to be honest. #sorrynotsorry.)
In another super endearing reaction from Malia, she asks him if he wants her to torture him, because the two of them are seriously meant for each other, but despite Malia's insistence that she could take him, Stiles has no interest in having her torture him, at least not now. "I have a plan, alright?" Stiles retorts in frustration. "There are steps to doing this right. We get the story, verify the facts, you find the piece that doesn't fit, and... catch him in the act. That's how you do it." Just then, Theo is dropped off in the parking lot by what looks like his mother, and when he gets out of the car and sees Stiles and Malia staring at him, he waves at them, though neither of them wave back. Rude! And also not at all inconspicuous. You could at least pretend to like him while you're figuring out whether he's a medium/big bad or not. Anyway, when Malia asks him why he's so suspicious of him, Stiles sighs before replying, "Because I remember Theo from fourth grade, okay? That's not Theo."
YIKES! I wonder if he's talking about personality, or about looks, or both? Neither? Like, what is it about him that is making Stiles so suspicious of him? The current theories seem to be that Theo is some kind of clone or impostor of some kind, which seems to be supported by what happens at the end of the episode. Still, what his motives are and who he's working for, if this is the truth, is still kind of unclear as of yet. Even before the season started, there were many who were sure he was working for the Dread Doctors in some capacity, so it could very well be that either he's one of their experiments who has been sent to infiltrate Scott's pack, or maybe he really is Theo's body, but he's been resurrected or something and so the part that makes him really Theo is gone, or maybe he's even mind-controlled. I don't know, but I wish I did!
Hell, it could even be that while he is a shady person with some kind of fucked up background, he might not actually have any ill will toward Scott or the pack at all, though I feel like that isn't as likely as Theo being a bad guy is, but I'm not an expert in these things. We definitely need more information, that's for sure. (And, let's be real here-- I'd be lying if I didn't say that at least a significant part of why Stiles is so balls-to-the-wall about figuring out what Theo is up to is just him channeling his graduation anxiety and his fear that something bad is about to go down again that was reawakened when Scott brought up regression to the mean in the last episode into something somewhat productive. And if it wasn't Theo, but some other new person, I get the feeling he would still be suspicious, because Stiles is always suspicious of the new people.)
Meanwhile, "Last Days Of Dancing" by Maja Francis plays in the background while Scott walks through the front doors of the school and into the main hallway, stopping just inside the door to take in all of the students standing around and catching up after their summer off doing gods know what. After a moment, he smiles at the sight of it, just as his best girl sidles up to him with a smile. "First day of senior year!" Kira chirps happily, as they put their arms around each other. "Last first day ever," Scott replies, before kissing her good morning. GODS, I LOVE THEM SO MUCH. Also, Kira's outfit is super cute, and as usual, I want it-- a hot-pink tank top underneath a gauzy gray off-the-shoulder top, and what looks like either gray jeans or shorts or a skirt. Gray + a bold color is pretty much my fashion go-to because it's super easy and works for pretty much any occasion, save for maybe a funeral.
The bell rings, and Kira and Scott head off to their first class. Meanwhile, heading down the adjacent hall is Liam, who is also walking to his first class while Mason, who is holding a large open book in his hands, starts chattering non-stop. "This is the one I was telling you about," Mason explains as he holds up the book for emphasis. "I got it from a rare book dealer in Germany. Cost me two hundred bucks, but it was totally worth it." Liam is understandably confused and a little nervous about the fact that Mason is still researching into the supernatural, which totally makes him the Stiles to Liam's Scott, but Mason just stops walking and deadpans, "I was attacked by an armor-plated giant wearing a bear skull! It left an impression." I actually assumed that Mason would have been told what was up as soon as the kids got back from Mexico, and the fact that they didn't makes me super curious as to how Liam explained his long absence, what happened with the berserkers, and why Lydia straight-up said that someone was trying to kill Scott right in front of him.
(via dallisons)
He holds up the book, which seems to be some kind of bestiary, because it has a perfect sketch of a berserker in it, and asks Liam if he's ever seen something like this. Of course, we all know they've haunted Liam's nightmares quite a bit, but he just makes the funniest face and insists he hasn't as they head toward their Papa Yukimura's classroom. "And then there's this whole section about the nagual," Mason continues on, as he reads from the page. "Have you ever heard of the name Tez.. Tezcat..." Liam looks at the page, pronounces the name Tezcatlipoca perfectly, and then, after seeing the amazed look on his best friend's face, adds, "No. No, never heard of it." Whoops!
Once in the class, "Take It To Reality" by Alison Wonderland (ft. SAFIA) plays as the two split up to find their seats, and when Liam goes to sit down near the front row, he sees the girl sitting in the desk next to the one he was going to take, whose name is Hayden Romero (played by Victoria Moroles). He and Mason both gape in shock when they realize who she is, and she dramatically flips her hair over her shoulder and blows a big bubble with her gum, which she snaps loudly. Clearly there's some history there, but we're not about to get into it now. "Oh... great," Liam groans in a perfect Isaac Lahey (:( I miss Isaac so damn much, ugh. :() impression, but when he sees that there are no other empty seats except for the one next to him, so he starts to look around desperately, leading him to become the subject of Ken Yukimura's embarrassing act.
KEN: "Liam...? You're not gonna just stand there, are you?"
LIAM: [sighs and nods] "...Maybe."
KEN: [amused] "The whole semester?"
LIAM: [nods harder] "...Maybe!"
KEN: [sighs] "Liam, have a seat."Liam reluctantly does as he's told and settles into his desk, aggressively trying to ignore Hayden next to him, but after a moment, he catches a whiff of gum and looks down to find that she had stuck her chewed-up gum on his seat when he wasn't looking, and it's now all over his pants. "All right, welcome to History 103," Papa Y begins, as Liam pouts in embarrassment in his desk. I cannot get over how funny Liam is this season! He's literally got a Dylan O'Brien-level of facial expressions going on, and I seriously adore every second of it.
Yet again, there is one scene that just seems so outrageous and mean that I just really got yanked out of the story. In the last episode, it was when Stiles was suggesting to Scott that his easy-going reaction to Kira's summer plans in New York meant he basically gave her permission to sleep with other people, and in this one, it's everyone getting on Scott's grill and insinuating that he's not smart enough to be in the class when we know from watching the series that 1) Scott has always been a good student, as confirmed by his teachers after he was first bitten, who commented on his bad grades by pointing out that it was unusual for him, and 2) he has literally spent the last 2.5 seasons working his ass off trying to catch up. I mean, I'd like to see anyone be turned into a wolf-boy/girl with intense animal instincts who is constantly being attacked by murderers and assassins and try not to get some bad grades in school.
So, to keep this part brief, Scott walks into AP Biology and sits down next to Kira, who has a silent conversation with Lydia using only facial expressions before having the audacity to actually ask Scott if he is in the right class and if he even knows what AP stands for. Like, I expect this shit from Lydia, because despite how much I love her, she is no stranger to flaunting her intellect and patronizing others who aren't on her level. But Kira? I expected much better from Kira, so it's really disappointing to see this. Also, if you remember Sydney, the first girl who got infected with the modified canine distemper in "Weaponized" who was really afraid that she wouldn't get a good enough PSAT score to get a free ride to college, is also sitting there next to Lydia, and she raises her very distinctive eyebrow at Scott's presence as well. WHAT THE HELL, GUYS? Scott handles this smack-talk as graciously as he usually does, which is very, and opens his book to reveal he's already started highlighting and writing notes in his book. Yeah, Scott! Get that head start!
Anyway, so the school apparently found a new biology teacher in Mrs. Finch, who is a tough, no-nonsense kind of teacher, sort of like that one professor in Buffy the Vampire Slayer who was also the leader of The Initiative who was seriously intense about her students and their work. OH SHIT, I hope this doesn't mean that Mrs. Finch is one of the Dread Doctors, because that'd be seriously crazy, especially considering that Kathleen and I referenced that Buffy parallel in the pre-Season 5 speculation post. So yeah, she starts getting right into it and asks who knows what plasmids are, which of course Lydia does, but when she asks which vitamin is absorbed by the parietal cells in the stomach, she's got no answer, which is strange, because it's not a particularly difficult question (It's vitamin B-12, which is a vitamin that people with Celiac disease and gastric band/bypass surgery are often deficient because of the fact that their stomachs aren't able to absorb as much. The more you know!)
Then Mrs. Finch starts in on the shit-on-Scott parade and asks him if he knew the answer, which he didn't, and reminds him that it's a common test question before demanding to know what his first-choice college is. After getting on his case about um-ing too much, Scott finally admits that he's looking into UC-Davis, which actually seems to impress her. "Good choice," she replies. "It's the best school on the West Coast for biological and physical sciences. You're in the right class if that's what you're hoping for." She then asks the class if the rest of them think they should be there, and the first person to raise his hand is Theo, who is sitting way in the back. At the sight of him raising his hand everyone else follows his lead, which satisfies Mrs. Finch before she drops the bomb that she's giving them a test the next day to determine whether or not they actually have what it takes to be in AP Bio. She then specifically shoots a look at Scott when she adds that they have two weeks to drop the class, and that the test the next day will weed out the people who shouldn't be there. And people wonder what high school kids are depressed as hell anymore! Being a senior is stressful enough without teachers making you feel like an idiot who will never amount to anything. STOP PICKING ON SCOTT MCCALL, SHOW.
Anyway, so Scott is nervous as fuck about everything, and it's only the first day, so he's sitting out on the front steps of the school with a huge stack of books when Stiles rushes over and orders him to come with him back inside. Scott protests that he's got a free period, but Stiles insists that not only does he have one, too, but so does Theo, which means it's time for another one of Stiles' little interrogations, much like the one for Liam in last season's "Muted." So, Scott sighs and gets to his feet, clutching his stack of books while he follows after his super-paranoid brother in arms.
Meanwhile, Liam and Mason are on their way to their lockers after Mason accompanied Liam to the gym locker room so he could change his bubble-gummy jeans. Guess who's still on his supernatural roll? Yup-- It's Mason. "Look, I'm not saying I believe all of it a hundred percent," Mason begins. "But people around us seem to know things. Like Lydia? She knows things." HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. That is so hilarious and true. Then, Liam shows that he's also got a little Stiles to him as well, because he starts using Mason's weaknesses against him to get him to drop the search for the creatures that he got attacked by in last season's finale. He brings up the fact that it's their first day of school, and that he should probably be thinking about other things. He looks around, sees a bunch of sports kids walking past them in fluorescent green jerseys, and adds, "Like the soccer team?"
Mason is appalled by the insinuation, of course, but that doesn't stop him from leering at them while he talks to Liam. "What do you think I'm going to do?" Mason asks. "Follow them out to the field and watch them practice while I pretend to study?" Liam hilariously replies, "It's warm out. They're probably gonna be shirtless." OH MY GODS, I AM DEAD. Liam, you lil shit! Liam and Mason are literally stealing the show this season, it's so amazing. So, naturally, Mason takes a moment to consider the shirtless soccer players, especially the one who smiled at him on his way to the field, and quickly pats Liam on the back before telling him he'll see him in physics. Wait, what sophomores are taking physics? That was a senior-level course when I was in high school. Beacon Hills High School is so damn weird.
Once Mason's gone, Liam goes to get into his locker, only to find that Hayden has the locker right next to him. She slams her locker door shut and glances at Liam, smirking when she notices that he had to change into mismatched gym shorts since his jeans were covered in her bubble gum. She compliments him on his outfit, to which Liam passive-aggressively replies, "Yeah, thanks. You know, I was wondering if you were still pissed off about the sixth grade, but I guess you cleared that up." Now I'm super curious to find out what exactly happened in the sixth grade. Hopefully it's not something totally stupid like Agent Douchenozzle's confession in "Insatiable," which was super disappointing, considering we all thought Stiles was like, ADN's secret son or something really outrageous. (Which reminds me-- where the hell is that blobfish anyway? Wasn't he supposed to be read into the program after he got back from San Francisco? Has he just been there for like six months for no reason? Did he get scared and pull the deadbeat dad act again? The answer is probably that Matthew del Negro is too busy being on Madam Secretary, but still! You can't just start a story line like that and then drop it. :[)
(via moan-s)
ANYWAY, Hayden just fake-smiles at him and replies, "I'm not pissed off, Liam." Her smile drops, and she gives him a cold look before adding, "I'm vengeful." I love her so much already, oh my gods. She reminds me of an extra-angry Allison, and since Liam is very much an extra-angry Scott, it's honestly perfect. History is always repeating in Teen Wolf, and it's my favorite thing. Once Hayden's gone, Liam like, pushes his head against his locker door like he wants the floor to swallow him up, and it's honestly hilarious. Check it!
While Liam is busy hating his existence, Tracy is quietly and glumly making her way through the hall to her own locker, where she seems to be having night terrors even while awake, which is very much alarming. She's in the middle of putting in her locker combination when she starts hearing this static noise near her. Tracy once again starts panting anxiously as she tries her best to ignore it and keep twisting the dial on her lock, but she hears that weird sound effect that has been in all the promos and trailers and immediately starts to panic as a shadow looms near her. Just looking at the shadow as it approaches her, it looks like a combination of a berserker and an oni, which is scary as fuck, to be honest, especially since it seems that the hallway has become mysteriously darkened and empty in the moments since she got there. Finally, she manages to get her lock unlocked, and frantically opens the locker, only for everything to return to how it was-- the hall is lit with fluorescent light, students are chattering loudly around them as they slam their lockers closed, etc, allowing Tracy to finally relax.
...Or not. Just as she's breathed a sigh of relief, the electricity seems to shut off, plunging the hallway into darkness and causing all of the noise to be completely dampened. She jumps in fright and looks around to find that she's completely alone in the school. Then, maybe a yard or two down the hall, thick black goo starts pouring out the vents of one of the lockers and forms a puddle of it on the floor below. The locker, which doesn't have a lock on it, seems to open from the inside, and Tracy gasps in fear as the door opens and one of the Dread Doctors crawls out. This one has what looks like an old-fashioned gas mask over its mouth and red monocles over its eyes, but to make it even more creepy, it completely defies gravity by crawling along the lockers rather than walking across the floor like a normal person. As it crawls toward her, Tracy, who is whimpering in terror at this point, squeezes her eyes shut and whispers, "There's nothing there. There's nothing there. There's nothing there."
The Dread Doctor flickers in and out as it approaches her, but after a moment, it flickers out completely and is replaced by a very, very concerned Lydia. "Tracy? Are you alright?" Tracy is still panicked, but seems to be relaxing a little bit now that the vision is over, so she nods weakly at her before Lydia suggests that they go outside together. This moment almost totally redeems Lydia for her mean comments to Scott earlier, because I love the idea of Lydia seeing a girl overwhelmed by auditory and visual hallucinations like she had in Season 2 and wanting to help her out so she doesn't feel alone like she did. However, when they walk away, Tracy slams her locker shut, revealing that it has deep claw marks across it, but Lydia is too busy comforting her to notice. WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON? I DON'T UNDERSTAND.
Over in the locker room, "War of Hearts" by Ruelle plays as Scott and Stiles listen to Theo describe how he became a werewolf while we see it for ourselves in flashbacks. "I was skating in a neighbor's empty pool, trying to do a handplant," he begins, as we cut to said pool, where Theo is treating the pool like his own private half-pipe. He skates back and forth along the length of it, but once he reaches the top and tries to spin, he loses his balance and slides down to the bottom. "Nobody was home. I'm not that good of a skateboarder, but I guess I was feeling pretty determined, because I completely lost track of time," he continues, as cut to a flashback of him picking up his fallen skateboard at the bottom, only to look up and find that it's dark outside. "I didn't even realize that it was night until the yard lights came on. Like I said, I wasn't very good. On my last try, I went down hard." In flashback, Theo does just that, and groans when his back hits the ground. "Really hard. I was sitting there at the bottom of the pool, and I realized something. I never heard the board come back down."
In the present, Stiles and Scott realize what happened next as Theo continues to explain himself. In flashback, he looks up to find a shadowy person clutching his skateboard, though you can tell by the claws, glowing red eyes, and growling noises that it's an Alpha werewolf. Its claws are seriously long, too! Like, the lengths of Scott's when he briefly shifted into the wolfiest form he's ever been in during the fight in "Monstrous." "It came at me fast," Theo explains in the present. "I barely had a chance to turn around before it bit me, right here." He points to a spot on his side/hip, which is conveniently right where Scott was bitten as well. Scott, knowing this situation well, having experienced it himself, points out that the Alpha didn't bite him on accident-- he wanted to turn him. This, naturally, pings Stiles' hinkiness-radar, so he asks why Theo isn't a member of his pack and why the Alpha didn't come back for him after it became clear that the bite didn't kill him. "Because by the time of my first full moon, he was dead," Theo replies somberly. Stiles isn't buying it, but when he asks Theo how he even knows that, he replies, "I met another one of his pack a couple weeks later. He told me the Alpha that bit me was killed by two of his own Betas. They were twins."
Okay, wait a minute-- first of all, Ethan said in "The Girl Who Knew Too Much" that he and Aiden killed everyone in their pack, including their emissary, right? So how could there have been a packmate who survived to tell the tale? Secondly, Ethan may have left town, but they probably still have a way to contact him, right? Wouldn't it be pretty easy to call him and verify this information instead of Stiles running around talking about signature forgeries and whatever? This is just so confusing and weird and shady as hell. So, Scott and Stiles look at each other, since they totally recognize the Ethan and Aiden part of the story, and Theo, sensing that they're wary to believe his story, insists that he listen to his pulse to confirm that he's telling the truth. "Right," Stiles retorts. "Or you just know how to steady your heart rate while you're lying your ass off." In response, Scott gives Stiles the most hilarious, "Honey, no," face, and it seriously cracked me up so damn much. Theo exasperatedly asks why he'd think he was lying, but Stiles is still on his "Theo isn't who he says he is" kick, and says as much to him, leading Theo to make yet another plea to Scott's compassionate nature.
THEO: "Okay. In the fourth grade, you had an inhaler. I had one, too. I remember this day where I ended up in the nurse's office with an asthma attack. A bad one. I was waiting to be taken to the ER, you were waiting for the principal. You told me what would happen when you go to the ER for asthma-- how they give you oxygen, an IV of prednisone. You made it sound easy, like everything would be okay. I've been by myself this whole time. Everybody knows hat lone wolves, they don't make it on their own. I swear, I'm that same kid from fourth grade. I was hoping you are, too."YIKES! I still don't trust this guy much yet (like Stiles, I am pretty wary of any newcomer until they prove themselves), but he's definitely smart to pull this kind of story, because it's basically engineered to hit Scott right in the feels and make him want to help him out. That doesn't mean Scott trusts him, obviously, but he's likely a little less concerned than he was before. Just then, the bell rings, and Theo adds, "I better not be late to class-- you're not the only ones I need to make a good impression on" with a big smile before he takes off. Once he's gone, Scott gives Stiles one of his classic eyebrow-raised looks, and Stiles instantly tells him to cut that shit out. "We have to give people the benefit of the doubt sometimes," Scott maintains, but Stiles isn't having it. "Not this time, alright? I'm right. There's something off about him, I can feel it." Scott just chuckles and reminds him that Lydia is the psychic around these parts, not him, as he walks out of the locker room and toward his next class, but Stiles stays behind, shouting, "She's not psychic! She's a banshee, okay? There's a difference." Oh, Stiles. What are we gonna do with you?
Over in the guidance office, Lydia has stopped by to see her mother and talk to her about Tracy, who unbeknownst to them is standing outside the door and eavesdropping on them. Wait, is Natalie a full-time guidance counselor now? Does that mean Marin Morrell isn't working there anymore? Also, does that mean Natalie isn't substitute teaching anymore either? These are probably questions I should have asked at the beginning, to be honest. Still, I guess Beacon Hills filled in all their vacant teaching positions over the summer. Anyway, Lydia insists that she knows what parasomnia is, but she still thinks the fact that Tracy threw up feathers means something, though Natalie insists that people with night terrors have done much weirder things than eating their pillows. Um, but what about the black puke? Natalie is so willfully ignorant of the supernatural, it is both maddening and hilarious.
Mama Martin then goes on to say that she already told her to take the day off, but she refused because it's the first day and she didn't want to start off the year behind. Lydia, much like how she responded to similar issues with Meredith in "Orphaned," and "Monstrous," argues that she should let her try, and reminds her that she's done with her classes for the day anyway, so she can take her home and talk to her about what's going on. "Lydia, she's been having trouble sleeping," Natalie insists. "If she needs help beyond that, we'll find her professional help. Got it?" Since Lydia can't tell her mother that she's better than professional help when it comes to supernatural stuff, just smiles a big fake smile and replies, "I couldn't agree more!" Oh Lydia, I love you so much.
As it turns out, Lydia's idea of professional help is having Jordan come over to Tracy's house to check out her room and the skylight to help ease Tracy's mind. ALL THIS JORDAN/LYDIA INTERACTION IS MAKING MY HEART EXPLODE. Also, now that it's daylight and we can actually see the room, it has a lot of interesting things in it. First of all, her walls are covered in what looks like her own pencil sketches, and on the wall by the door, there is a painting of a HUGE BLACK BIRD WING stenciled across it. I'm going to go on a limb and say that isn't a coincidence. So, Jordan looks at the window and informs them that he doesn't see any signs of someone trying to force their way inside before adding, "You said something about birds, Tracy?" She quietly explains that there was a bird at the skylight who woke her up, and when he asks if she minds if he takes a look, she nods nervously. He examines the skylight for a moment before confirming with Tracy that she said it was sealed for weather proofing, but when she replies, "Yeah, why?", he grabs the latch and opens it, revealing that if it was sealed, it certainly isn't now.
Tracy looks exhausted and horrified as she watches Jordan grab her chair and peek out the skylight to investigate the roof, only for him to find, much to his alarm, that it is covered with dozens of dead crows. However, when Lydia asks him if he sees anything, he gulps nervously before lying that he didn't find anything and giving her a significant look. When he shuts the skylight again, we can see that the wood around the window has been clawed to hell and back and has smears of blood all over it. YIKES YIKES YIKES! The fandom is already suggesting that Parrish is shady because he lied about the birds, but I refuse to believe that he is a bad guy until we have hardcore proof because I love him too damn much, plus he's done nothing but help our faves out in the past and there's nothing else to suggest that he has malicious intentions thus far. So, I'm just going to go on ahead and assume that the look he gave Lydia means that that he didn't want to say anything in front of Tracy about it until he talked to Lydia privately, and that he then gave her the deets off-screen, which is why they decided that he would watch the house that night to make sure nothing supernatural was afoot.
Back at school, Malia is having driving lessons with Ken Yukimura in the parking lot, which is hilarious to me in so many ways. Like, I feel like the teachers at this school are all jacks-of-all-trades, you know? Jennifer Blake the English teacher subbing for a missing/dead physics teacher, Marin Morrell the French teacher also being a guidance counselor, and same with Natalie being a substitute science teacher slash guidance counselor. Now we have Ken being the resident history teacher AND driving school instructor. Anyway, as you can probably guess, Malia isn't the best at driving yet, and she keeps hitting the brakes too hard, which makes the car stop jerkily and makes Ken's back continually slam into his seat. He urges her to ease into it, but she accidentally hits the gas a little too hard and starts to drive toward the bus. She's really into it at first, and seems to be enjoying herself until she gets thrown into flashbacks to the car accident where her adoptive mother and sister died.
The flashes of memory are so brief its hard to put together a good picture of what happened, but she definitely ran quickly into the woods in coyote form as soon as she could. Ken knows Malia's history, right? Maybe he should have expected this sort of reaction from someone who was so distraught by the accident she accidentally caused that killed her family that she shifted into coyote form and lived in the woods by herself for eight years? Just a thought. So, Malia gets so caught up in this flashback that she almost drives them straight into a school bus, and Malia just barely hits the brakes in time to prevent yet another wreck. Ken is like, "YUP, I'M DONE WITH THIS SHIT" and tells her that they're all good for today in the nicest tone that he can muster. As they get out of the car, Malia asks him how she did, and he hesitates for a moment before stating that there's room for improvement. They both look behind them to find that Malia has hit all of the obstacles that were set up to guide them-- traffic cones, stop signs, mannequins meant to look like construction workers, sawhorses, you name it. And, of course, the entire class is outside and are chuckling at the sight of Malia's driving ability. Aw, girl! Don't sweat it! I didn't get my license until I was nineteen for this very reason.
When we catch back up with her, she's sitting in the library with Scott and Kira, where they're all studying together. After a moment, Stiles rushes in, high on one of his theories, and smacks two pieces of paper onto the table. Scott asks him if he found something, and Stiles explains that he found another signature before laying the two papers side-by-side. "This is Theo's dad's signature on a speeding ticket from eight years ago. And this is his dad's signature on a transfer form to Beacon Hills High School from just a few days ago." Scott and Kira are more concerned about how Stiles actually came into possession of this transfer form, so Scott asks him if he actually broke into the administration office to get it. "No, I did not break into the administration office!" Stiles insists, but when Scott, Malia, and Kira all side-eye him, Stiles breaks down and adds, "Okay, I might have broken into the administration office! Can we just focus on the signatures, please? They're different!"
Malia thinks they're only sort of different, but Stiles is insistent that he's onto something, and starts rambling in his very-Stiles way. "They're completely different!" he yelps exasperatedly. "Come on, look! The garlands don't match, the undulations of the sinuous stroke are totally off, and look! Look at this! Perfect example of the criminal tremor." Oh, Stiles, if you don't go into law enforcement when you graduate, it will be such a damn waste. This kid was meant to be a detective. Kira is like, "So now Theo is Theo, but his parents aren't his parents?", which is a good point, Kira, my girl! Stiles maintains that someone in that family isn't someone, though, and makes it clear that when he finds out what's going on, that someone is going to be in a world of trouble.
Scott, channeling Steve Rogers, reminds Stiles that no one has done anything wrong yet, and you can't exactly punish someone before they commit a crime, but Stiles brings up the fact that if Theo's parents are both psychotic killers, then they shouldn't trust him. Of course, there's a flaw in this logic that Malia immediately brings to his attention-- "My parents are Peter and the Desert Wolf," she deadpans, which causes all of them to look at Stiles, all, "Touché," frustrating Stiles enough that he just sighs in exasperation and starts picking up his papers. Obviously, he's mad because no one is taking his suspicions seriously, so he petulantly insists that he's going to figure it out on himself, and that he doesn't need Scott, Kira, Malia, or anyone to help him. Oh, Stiles, come on! Don't play like that.
He then gets into his car, since apparently school is over now, and when he starts the engine, a familiar voice calls out, "What's a criminal tremor?" When the camera pans over, we can see that Liam is in the front seat examining Stiles' evidence of Theo's dad's mismatched signatures (his dad's name is Jonathan Raeken, just for the record), having been recruited by Stiles to help him out. It's probably smart, really, because Liam adores Scott and is probably the person most likely to think Theo is shady because he won't want to have to compete for Scott's attention in the pack, either. So, Stiles, frustrated as hell, snatches the papers out of Liam's hands and claims it doesn't matter before they leave to do some investigating. Oh, this is so not going to end well.
(via dailytwolf)
Back at Tracy's, Lydia and Jordan are standing outside his car, where he's explaining that while he can't really do much from an official police officer perspective at the moment, he can come back after his shift tonight and watch the house for a couple hours to make sure nothing seriously major is going on. Lydia, who is totally crushing, offers to stay with him and keep him company, but Jordan, despite totally returning said crush, claims that he'll be fine by himself, even when she reminds him that it's the least she can do if he's using his own time to keep an eye on Tracy at her request. He insists that he wouldn't be doing it if he didn't also think there was something strange going on (which seems to give credence to my own stubborn insistence that he filled Lydia in on what he found on the roof) and brings up the fact that he owes her. For what, you and Lydia ask? "Three weeks of digging through every piece of old literature and mythology, trying to figure out the something-strange going on with me," Jordan replies with a smile. I am seriously curious about what is going on with him, but I'm also hoping that Lydia also read up on the banshee lore while she was at it, because I am dying to know what the range of her powers are as well!
Lydia just smiles slyly at him and argues that they never did figure it out before she tells him she'll bring him coffee, but for some reason Parrish is playing hard to get, so he just laughs and reminds her that she has school the next day. Apparently, Lydia technically had enough credits to graduate last year, which of course she did, but she decided to stick around so she could be with the pack 'til they graduate. No wonder she was off her game in Bio earlier-- if I were her, I'd be cruising this year, since her whole one class probably doesn't require a ton of her focus, especially since she said in "Muted" that she had a 4.0 in AP Bio anyway. "And, I will bring you coffee at midnight if I want to," Lydia says cutely with a smug smile, and finally, Jordan caves and tells her he'll take a medium Americano, black. That is such a fucking soldier coffee, oh my gods. I'm getting flashbacks to my most recent ex just thinking about it.
(via grantsgustins)
Meanwhile, night has fallen, and Liam and Stiles are in the middle of sneaking around the woods on foot, where they've tracked Theo. Theo has parked his SUV in a clearly, and he pulls out a long package wrapped loosely in brown paper. Stiles whispers to Liam that he knew he was up to something, to which Liam replies, "We just spent three hours watching this dude play video games in his bedroom. He better be high or covering up a mass murder!" OMG LIAM PLS STOP BEING SO PRECIOUS.
STILES: [confused] "Okay, why didn't you just tell him?"
LIAM: "Tell him what?"
STILES: "Anything!"
LIAM: "I can't just tell him anything."
STILES: "Why not?"
LIAM: [embarrassed] "Because I haven't... I haven't told him everything."
STILES: [surprised] "Still? We said it was okay."
LIAM: "Yeah, I know, but it's not that easy! It's a lot to accept."
STILES: "He watched my dad blow up a berserker with a land mine. I think the groundwork's been pretty thoroughly laid for acceptance."Liam still isn't sure about it, and Stiles can tell, so though he's clearly eager to catch Theo in the act of doing something evil, he sighs and gives Liam a little pep talk. "Scott and I have been through this, okay? More than once. It's always better when they know." Stiles turns and starts walking along Theo's tracks again, and Liam rushes to catch up to him while he continues outlining his concerns. "But what if he freaks out?" Liam asks anxiously. "What if he doesn't want to talk to me? What if he tries to stab me with something silver?" HAHAHAHA, oh Liam, I think you have very little to worry about there, and in the unlikely scenario that you do, you'd heal pretty quickly from a stabbing. Although, to be fair, Liam doesn't seem to have sustained and healed from anything worse than a broken arm at this point, so maybe he's just not looking forward to it.
Anyway, he's about to continue his what-ifs when suddenly, the ground gives away under him, and he ends up falling straight into a hole in the ground that is about eight feet deep and three or four feet wide. I know that means absolutely nothing to you non-American readers, so lets just say that it's much deeper than Liam is tall. "What the hell are you doing?" Stiles demands impatiently, and Liam just makes this gesture at him like, "Hello? Do you really think I did this on purpose?" Regardless, Stiles tells him to stop screwing around and goes to keep following Theo, leaving Liam to get out by himself. When he fell in the hole, he accidentally dropped his phone in the mud, but don't worry-- the same magic that protected Scott's phone in "Anchors" also did the same for Liam. When he wipes the mud off of the screen, he finds that he has at least seven messages from Mason, asking him if he forgot about him, which makes Liam sigh sadly, feeling guilty about the fact that he keeps standing his BFF up. On the ground next to him is a very-familiar-looking necklace with a silver leaf pendant, which makes me wonder if our girl Tracy has been spending any time sleepwalking into the woods. YIKES.
Finally, Liam manages to catch back up with Stiles, who is hiding behind a tree and watching as Theo stands that bridge over the stream where Allison and Scott hung out alllllll the way in Season 1's "The Tell." When Stiles asks him if he gets a scent, Liam sniffs for a moment and replies, "Soap. It's nice, it smells good." Again, not funny on paper, but the delivery is seriously hilarious. HE IS SO ADORABLE. Stiles just rolls his eyes and reminds him about chemosignals, so after a moment of analyzing, Liam declares Theo to be sad. Stiles seems surprised, but Liam considers it a bit more before clarifying that it's actually more like grief. Man, Scott's werewolf-tutoring seems to be doing well, because it even took him a long time to learn that. Liam has gotten much better at being a werewolf over the last six months, and it shows!
Stiles does not like the sound of that, and when he looks over and sees Theo dropping a white lily into the water under the bridge, Stiles realizes exactly what Theo is doing there and anxiously orders Liam to follow him, because they need to get the fuck out of there now. "That's the bridge where they found his sister," Stiles explains way too loudly. When Liam is confused by this statement, Stiles states that it was his sister who got lost and died of exposure before Theo and his family moved away, and that clearly, Theo was leaving flowers for her. "That doesn't sound evil," Liam replies, which Stiles totally knows, of course, and is quite embarrassed of at the moment, but unfortunately for Stiles, his hopes that he could get out of the woods without Theo figuring out what they were doing are seriously dashed when Theo appears right in front of them and asks them what they're doing.
Despite my earlier beliefs that Liam wasn't that fond of Stiles, considering how mean he was to him when they first met, Liam instantly starts growling and stands protectively between Theo and Stiles. Theo puts his hands up in a non-threatening manner and smiles before quipping, "Why do I get the feeling this kid's tougher than he looks?" We all know how much Liam loves to be patronized, so he continues to glare at him like a puppy with his hackles up as Stiles holds him back with one hand and replies, "Only when we let him off his leash." Theo exasperatedly reminds Stiles that they were on the same Little League team (which LOL, the thought of Stiles playing baseball is hilarious to me, given how flaily he is) before asking him why he's so suspicious of him, so Stiles stupidly brings up the damn signatures on the speeding ticket and the transfer form before pulling them out of his pocket and showing him that they're different. Theo admits that they do look a little different, but Stiles maintains that they're written by two different people, which naturally makes him sound ridiculous and paranoid.
(via theoraekens)
THEO: "So, my dad's not my dad? Like, he's an imposter?"
STILES: "...Yeah, something like that."
THEO: [confused] "Who do you think I am?"
STILES: [embarrassed] "We don't know yet."
THEO: [laughs nervously] "Want me to give you a DNA sample or something?"
STILES: "No. I don't have anything from the fourth grade to match it to."YIKES, Stiles, I am seriously embarrassed for you. It reminds me of Klaus Mikaelson's ridiculous paranoia that Freya was some kind of spy for Dahlia in The Originals. Though, in this case, since Theo is clearly hiding something, it's more like Season 5 of Charmed when Paige was 100% sure that Cole was evil, but had no proof, even though he was totally evil and lying about it, so no one believed her and kept getting mad about how distrustful she was of him. So, Theo decides he's going to have to win Stiles over the old-fashioned way and starts talking about how awesome he is. I'm not sure Stiles actually buys it, but it does make him feel mega-guilty about the stunt he just pulled. "You know, Stiles, I came back here for Scott... But, I also came back for you. Someone like you. Someone who's willing to walk in the woods in the middle of the night to protect his friends. I don't have anyone like that, but Scott does. You all do." Even Liam is starting to get that squirmy guiltiness thing going, and Theo goes completely over-the-top to close his argument. "I know I'm in the right place. I'm meant to be here. I'm meant to be part of this pack." DAMN, Theo truly has no chill whatsoever.
Over at the Stewart household, Tracy's dad has just finished hammering a ton of two-by-fours over the skylight to ensure that it's secure to try to help his daughter's peace of mind regarding her night terrors. She's already in her pajamas and ready for bed when he sits down next to her in his suit and tie and explains that while he has to go meet a client at the courthouse, he'll be back soon. That seems kind of shady, to be honest, since it's clearly late at night now, and courthouses usually close by 4:30-5PM. Tracy smiles weakly at her dad as he gets up to leave, but before he walks out the door, he turns back and assures her that he won't let anything happen to her. Famous last words, dude. Once he's gone, Tracy turns off her lights and settles into bed, and the camera pans ominously to her jewelry stand just beside her bed, on which her silver leaf necklace is conspicuously absent. UH OH. I still can't tell if we're supposed to think she's been howling at the moon in the woods recently, or if the Dread Doctors somehow stole it and then dropped it in the woods for some reason? I don't know. Either way, it does not seem to be a good thing.
Back at the preserve, Stiles and Liam have just returned to Stiles' Jeep, where they find Scott waiting for them next to his parked bike, since he knew Stiles wasn't going to let this go and decided to follow him in the same way that Stiles and Liam followed Theo. He asks them if they found anything, and Stiles, who, to his credit, is super embarrassed by his behavior, just says "Nope!" before heading straight for the Jeep, and Liam, bless his heart, tries to lighten the mood by blurting out, "I fell in a hole!" PRECIOUS CINNAMON ROLL, TOO GOOD FOR THIS WORLD, TOO PURE. Unfortunately, it fails to decrease the tension between his two teen dads. Scott asks if he found Theo at the bridge where his sister died, and Stiles just gets into the car and curtly replies, "Yes, it was. Very embarrassing. So, we're gonna go now." Of course, the Jeep chooses that moment to break down again, which seems to have led the fandom to think that since Stiles' Jeep has only been really breaking lately in times of intense stress for Stiles, that maybe it's connected to the fact that Stiles could be *something*, but I'm still not sure how I feel about that.
Stiles does his best to try to ignore Scott's perfectly calm line of questioning in favor of instructing Liam to get in the Jeep and turn the ignition when he tells him too before popping the hood and once again looking around to try to fix whatever is wrong this time. Finally, though, Scott gets his attention, and Stiles pretty much blows up. "Yes, okay, we followed him out here! What do you want me to say? That I'm a stalker? Huh? That I'm crazy? Totally paranoid? None of this is new information!" Oh, Stiles, you seriously need to work on some actual healthy coping mechanisms or something, because this much stress and anxiety is not good for a person. Actually, that goes for Scott, too-- they're both worrisome as hell. Scott asks his bro if this means he's going to give Theo the benefit of the doubt now, but Stiles reminds him that he's actually given a lot of benefit to many people, though Scott points out tha that's not exactly true-- Stiles thought Derek was a bad guy, or at least not a good guy, up until, like, Season 3B, and he was suspicious of Kira and Liam as well, two people who have done nothing but good things for him and the pack in general.
Stiles, not liking his mistakes to be put on display, argues that he was right about Peter before telling Liam to try the engine again, and when it doesn't work, he gets so frustrated by everything that he tells Scott, "You know, I bet you still think that there's something about him that can be saved." Scott admits that yeah, maybe he does-- and even I think that is a little naive, but whatever-- but Stiles is so over this conversation that he just focuses back on trying to get his car to work again, with only bad results. "Why can't you trust anyone?" Scott asks him quietly, and without a shred of accusing tone in his voice, but Stiles just loses his temper once again and yells, "Because you trust everyone!" before punching the engine of the Jeep and hurting his hand so badly that it literally takes his breath away. "Wild Ones" by Bahari starts to play, and Scott immediately forgets about their argument in favor of asking him if he's okay, but Stiles is even more embarrassed now than he was before, and insists that he's fine, even though his injured hand is shaking as he tries to shake it out.
(via lydiaspeters)
"Wake up to the sun / burning while we're young / set fire to our lungs / 'til what's left is none."
Regardless of his protests, Scott insists that he could have broken it before ordering Stiles to let him see his hand, and he takes it so gently into his own that I seriously about cried. When his hand and forearm veins start to turn black, it becomes clear that Scott is taking his pain, and when he's done, Stiles flexes his hand and seems amazed both at the fact that his hand appears to be pain-free, and the fact that even though Stiles just pretty much told Scott that he thinks his trusting nature will get them in trouble, Wait a minute, did Scott just heal him? I was under the impression that the pain-sucking thing only took the edge off of pain, but Stiles looks as though his hand doesn't hurt at all anymore. Is it because it's a mild injury? Or can True Alphas heal people from smaller injuries? I'd love it if it was the latter, to be honest, but my Scott-fangirlness is no secret. Regardless, it doesn't matter how badly Stiles lashes out-- Scott still only cares about Stiles and how he he's feeling, and making sure that he was okay, even often at the expense of his own pain and suffering. (Remember how in "Letharia Vulpina," Nogitsune!Stiles tortured Scott with the oni ninjado he was stabbed with, but then when Deaton injected him with the wolf lichen and knocked him out, and even though Scott was still impaled with the sword, he was still only concerned with whether or not Stiles was okay?) That is true friendship, right there.
(via lydiaspeters)
" We're the wild ones / curious fools / trapped in flume / We're the wild ones / raised by wolves / we howl to the moon"
I have so many mixed feelings about this scene though. Like, it's great in that they're both so worried about what's going on right now that they're pretty much accusing the other of loving them too much, but I have to admit that I'm not fond of the implication that Scott is too trusting, because he really isn't. It took him two and a half seasons for him to fully start trusting Derek, half a season to start trusting Isaac, and he has never trusted Peter, contrary to popular belief-- he just didn't turn away his help when he was in a bind. Everyone else either had literally no evidence to back up Stiles' suspicion that they were evil (see: Matt Daehler), or ended up earning their trust by supporting the pack (see: Ethan and Aiden), so while I completely understand why Stiles is wary of those he doesn't know, and I can empathize with all of the reasons why he'd be eager to make sure that nothing bad happens to their pack again, the tone of the comment just kind of slightly rubbed me the wrong way, since it makes it seem like Stiles doesn't trust Scott's instincts, when they very rarely steer them wrong. It was still great, though, and I love how unconditionally Scott loves Stiles-- literally none of Stiles' neuroses could make Scott not be his friend anymore.
Back at the Stewart house, Parrish has finished his shift and is watching the house through binoculars, not knowing that Tracy is watching him from behind his SUV with a very kanima-esque blank-eyed stare. After a moment, she turns around and slowly starts walking in the opposite direction of the car. Yikes! Guys, why is she so banshee-ish if she's a werewolf? What we see later is definitely werewolf-like, but the night terrors, the hallucinations during the day, the fugue-state walkabouts? That is pretty much Lydia Martin circa Season 2 territory, here. I AM SO CONFUSED.
Anyway, when we return from the break, we catch up with Liam, who has just finally made it to the high school, where Mason meets him outside. Liam immediately apologizes for being late, but Mason, clearly frustrated and more than a little annoyed, points out that Liam isn't actually late-- he just worked out for two hours while waiting for him, so now the work-out part of their hang-out is over. Liam just looks so guilty and sighs before replying, "Yeah, I know. I forgot. And, I'm gonna tell you why." He pauses for a moment, and when Mason looks equal part concerned and relieved to finally learn the truth, Liam continues. "Actually, I'm gonna tell you a lot of things. A lot of hard-to-believe things. really hard-to-believe." When Liam finally has the nerve to look Mason full in the face, he sees that it's actually very alarmed now as he looks beyond where Liam is standing. "There's a wolf," Mason says with a gasp. "Yeah, I'm getting to that," Liam replies nervously, but Mason clarifies that there is actually a legit wolf behind him. Liam hilariously turns backward and sees that yup, there is a dark brown/black wolf standing behind him. "That's a wolf!" Liam adorably says in response, before the wolf starts growling at them and begins chasing them into the school. HOLY SHIT! Also, that is totally the same wolf that they use for fullwolf!Derek, you can tell by the way it bares its teeth when it growls.
Inside, Liam is running as fast as he can down the hall, with Mason following shortly behind him , but when Mason turns to run up the stairs, Liam realizes that the easiest way to deal with this situation would be to growl at it loud enough to scare it away. So, Liam spins and flicks his golden eyes, claws, and fangs out before roaring so loud that you just know that Scott is smiling proudly somewhere. The sound of the roar scares Mason so much that he stops in his tracks and slowly turns around, just in time to see the wolfish features fade from Liam's face. Liam looks so anxious and worried when he makes eye contact with his best friend and quietly says, "There's something I gotta tell you." Fortunately for him, his concern is unnecessary, because a huge smile breaks out across Mason's face as he gapes at Liam in shock. "You're a werewolf!" Mason blurts out in amazement, and it is literally the reaction-to-lycanthropy that everyone has always dreamed of. Seriously, Mason is the perfect fanboy and I adore him so much. THIS IS THE BEST.
(via dylanoblrien)
The wolf has scampered back into the woods after Liam did the wolf equivalent of telling him to get the fuck out, and he doesn't stop until he gets back to that bridge where Stiles and Liam found Theo earlier. OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT. Then, as he passes a tree, he transforms until he has returned to his usual blonde-twink body. Oh yeah, IT'S FUCKING THEO! THEO CAN SHIFT INTO FULL-WOLF FORM. Now, how can he do this as an omega, when we've been lead to believe only Alphas, werecoyotes, and a few Betas werewolves who are extra in touch with their werewolf side, like Derek, can achieve this form? Especially as a Beta who was bitten and hasn't been a werewolf for that long either? There are quite a few options, I'm guessing, but the ones I can think of off the top of my head are 1) he's lying about who he is and/or how he was turned, 2) he's lying about who he is and is actually a born wolf, 3) he's a secret Hale and inherited their ability to full shift like Talia, Laura and Derek, or 4) he's been experimented on by the Dread Doctors and now can full-shift because of the enhancements he got from them. Does anyone else have any theories?
Across town, Scott and Kira are hooking up in Scott's's bed at the McCalls's house to the sounds of "Hold Me Down" by Masonair. After a moment, Kira asks Scott why he never told her why he wanted to go to UC-Davis, so Scott points out that it's a really good school, plus it's in the Bay Area, which means he'd still be close to home and all the rest of the pack, assuming they're willing to stay in northern California. "It also has the best program for biological and physical sciences," Kira chirps in a perfect imitation of Mrs. Finch before adding that it's a perfect school for someone who wants to become a veterinarian like Scott. He just smiles at her warmly in silence for a moment until Kira can't help but ask him why he wouldn't tell her-- was he worried about what she would think? As it turns out, it wasn't that at all-- Scott's afraid that he's not smart enough to get in, which he totally is, but I don't blame him for being insecure about it after everyone was a huge dick to him about it earlier.
Kira just smiles and crawls onto his lap, straddling his hips and leaning over him so that the ends of her hair are brushing against his face before assuring him that he'll make it. She then takes off her top, revealing a really cute gray and white lace bra that I'm totally coveting, so that she and her boyfriend can go back to smoochie-ville, which makes me happy, because everyone complained that Scott and Kira didn't have any sexual chemistry because they were all just chaste kisses and whatever. They might not be all-consuming love like Scott and Allison, but they are good for each other, and exactly what the other needs right now. Anyway, before they get into it, Kira leans over to shut off the lamp next to her bed, but once her hand gets near it, her thunder powers overload the light bulb to the point that it explodes into a shower of tiny shards of glass. It alarms me a ton, given what we've heard all about Kira's kitsune spirit getting stronger this season, but Kira just giggles sheepishly before Scott sits up so they can continue their mack-fest. I AM NOT READY FOR SCIRA/KIRA DRAMA WHATSOEVER TO BE HONEST. Not even a little!
Lydia has just made good on her promise of bringing coffee to Jordan, and they stand outside his SUV and continue watching the house while he updates her on what's going on. As far as he can tell, no one has been in or out of the house since he got there, which means both Papa Stewart and Tracy must have snuck out before he got there. Either that, or he's just really bad at his job, and I don't really want to think that yet. Lydia apologizes for wasting his time, but he just takes a sip of his coffee before smiling and assuring her that it wasn't a total waste. God, could these guys be cuter? It's making my heart do weird things. Stop with the cute smiles, you too! (
...Tracy has just awoken from her somnambulism on the floor of the creepy basement lab of the Dread Doctors, and is most certainly not okay. She's surrounded by those tubes with bodies attached to scuba masks submerged in weird yellow fluids, and next to her is a metal exam table that looks straight out of the HYDRA experimentation rooms in Captain America: The First Avenger. Just as she's starting to take in her surroundings and understandably freak the fuck out, all three of the Dread Doctors come out of the shadows with their weird, jerky movements and approach her. "There's nothing there," Tracy mutters anxiously under her breath as she starts to hyperventilate. "There's nothing..." The Doctor with the red monocles who is standing in front of her holds up a terrifyingly humongous syringe with a equally terrifyingly huge needle, which does nothing to make her less frightened. "It's not real. I'm sleeping. I'm just sleeping..." she continues to mutter as she starts to cry horrified tears, but unfortunately for her, this is very, very real, and the Doctor with the syringe tells her as much.
"No, Tracy," it states in its robotic Bane voice. "You're awakening." The two Doctors behind her grab her wrists with their metal-clawed hands to knock her face-first onto the floor. Wait, they have an exam table! If they're going to do non-consensual medical experiments, the least they can do is not do the injections on that gross floor. Once she's down, the Doctor with the syringe jabs it in the side of her neck, which makes me choke just thinking about it, and injects a substance that kind of looks like mercury into it. Tracy gasps as the medication takes effect and she slowly relaxes as she's hit with brief flashbacks of earlier in the day. First to last night, when she was on the roof, clawing at the skylight to her room. The second at school when she was panicking, right before Lydia came to comfort her-- she has werewolf fangs, and she was so anxious that she clawed deep gashes into her locker. WAIT! So, did Lydia actually notice this or not? I DON'T UNDERSTAND. When we return to the present, Tracy is on her knees, almost like she's in child's pose, as she slowly sits up, her claws and fangs out. Once she's upright, she throws her head backward as she roars at the ceiling, her eyes the golden-yellow of a beta werewolf. HOLY SHIT.
Meanwhile, at the Stilinski house, Stiles is in his bedroom, where he's working on his crime board and adding Theo Raeken's name to the evidence. After a moment, Sheriff appears in the doorway in his civvies and looks at him for a moment before calling out, "Usually, we wait until they do something wrong before we declare them guilty." Stiles, despite everything he saw and heard today, is insistent that Theo is guilty of SOMETHING, but Sheriff reminds him that legally speaking, these kind of allegations require proof of wrongdoing, and that proof always trumps instincts. Deep down, Stiles knows that, and admits that to his dad, but when his dad tells him to let it go for the evening and get some sleep, Stiles stops him before he can do the same.
"Hey Dad?" Stiles asks, as Sheriff turns around to see what he has to say. "I got it. There's something different. I know what it is." Sheriff is like, "Uh, what?", so Stiles drops the bomb that he noticed he's no longer wearing his wedding ring. SOBBING FOREVER. The fact that he and Chris continued wearing their wedding rings after their wives' passing has always made me super sad, but the fact that Sheriff isn't wearing his anymore actually makes me sad too? UGH YOU CHARACTERS STOP PLAYING GAMES WITH MY HEART. Unless this means Sheriff and Melissa are secretly dating, in which case carry on with the playing games. Sheriff looks really sad and kind of guilty about this revelation, but he doesn't exactly know what to say, although this act of perceptiveness does make him wonder if maybe Stiles does know something about Theo that they don't.
SHERIFF: [sighs] "You're sure this kid's guilty?"
STILES: "Absolutely."
SHERIFF: "Then all you gotta do is wait. If they're really guilty? Eventually, they make a mistake They always make a mistake."And now we know that whatever that mistake is, Stiles is probably going to catch it, because this is just the encouragement he was seeking to keep pulling this thread and find out what turns up.
Speaking of Theo, he's at his family homestead, where the people who appear to be his mother and father are sitting anxiously at the table while Theo is showing them the evidence Stiles handed him earlier. Way to show your hand early, dude! I love you, Stiles-y poo, but you need to learn the act of subtlety. "You were told to practice." Theo begins gruffly. "It was supposed to be indistinguishable from the original. It was supposed to be perfect." "Jonathan," if that's his real name, insists that he practiced hundreds and hundreds of time, but the person who seems to pretending to be his wife wastes no time outing him. "I wouldn't say hundreds," she snits.
Theo pulls out a hammer and holds it up before pointing out that there is one way a mismatched set of signatures could be explained-- if their dominant hand is in a cast. The man claiming to be Theo's father looks terrified, but weirdly enough, he holds out his right hand without complaint or question, and the camera cuts away just as we hear the sound of crunching bones and pained screams. OH MY GODS THAT IS SO BANANAS I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO SAY. I've been thinking about this episode for a week and I still have absolutely no idea what the deal is with these guys, and I mean it in a good way-- I have seen so many TV shows and movies that it's hard to surprise me anymore, so this is an excellent storyline that is keeping me nervous thanks to the fact that I have literally no clue where it's going.
Next episode: Tracy is still apparently in the middle of a night terror, only now she's graduated to maiming/killing people with her (possibly new-found?) powers, so the McCall Pack, with help from new groupie Mason, are on the case.
NOTES/SPECULATION/QUESTIONS:
- In keeping with my tradition of picking out reworn outfits from the characters, I think I've found some duplicates in this episode. Stiles seems to be wearing the same blue pullover hoodie that he wore in "The Benefactor," and I think Scott might be wearing the same aqua denim button-up he wore in that same episode, as well. It also looks like Liam is wearing the same maroon zip-up hoodie that he wore in "Smoke & Mirrors," Lydia's wearing the same floral shirt she was wearing in "Weaponized," and Malia's got the same cute navy blue knee socks she was wearing in "Weaponized" and "Smoke & Mirrors."
-My meta post regarding what we've learned in the last two episodes is almost done, but I'm probably going to add whatever we learn from tonight's "Dreamcatchers" to it and post it after the episode's recap. Cool? Cool.
I have many, many jumbled thoughts on this episode, especially Theo, and everything, but I first have to collect them! So for now, I'll only talk about the business with Parrish and the birds: I agree with you that the whole exchange of looks between him and Lydia, and then looking over to Tracy, who seemed heartbrokenly worried, basically meant that he lied to spare Tracy the gory details and filled in Lydia as soon as they were outside.
ReplyDeleteThere is however another thing that makes me pensive: (and if anyone else is reading, this is where it gets spoilery for ep 3, Dreamcatchers, which is of course the one after this one): we've now had three people spattered with blood from the Doctors' "enhanced" creatures: Deaton and Scott, who each got their face covered in Tracy's blood, and Parrish, who caught some from Glow Wolf, and I'm wondering if this is somehow important - not so much in terms of whether it changes them, but in terms of what they see, because it seems to me, that all the people experimented on hallucinated a bunch, and probably were drugged by the Doctors, to render them even more helpless.
So, what I'm wondering about is simply: were those birds really there? We know the scratches likely existed, because we saw Sleepwalking!Tracy trying to scratch her way back in through the closed skylight in the flashbacks to what she was actually doing, but we never saw her kill the birds... I mean, I have no idea why Parrish would hallucinate decaying birds that were torn to pieces, but he got hit by Glow Wolf's blood, and Glow Wolf was apparently a whole flock of birds (which tore out of his body, more or less). So... this probably doesn't mean anything, but maybe it's worth keeping an eye on those people who got in contact with the black blood.
I actually had a same thought about the "enhanced" creatures' body fluids, that I was planning on discussing in the write-up that I've been working on for like two weeks now, hahaha. You're absolutely right that it's strange, especially since they've made it a point of showing the characters getting hit by it. Deaton and Scott were hit with a LOT of it too, which makes me really, really worried about what this could mean, and, like you, my thoughts are all jumbled and I don't really have a clear theory as to what effects, if any, they'll have. The idea that Parrish hallucinated the birds was definitely interesting, though.
ReplyDeleteI've also seen theories where the Doctors have been taking advantage of people who either have sleep issues or mental health issues (Tracy had night terrors, obviously, and Donovan has a huge case of the angries, plus Belasko didn't seem like a totally healthy individual himself) and the hallucinogen theory fits in well with that-- they could be dosing them with drugs that could make them even more distraught and easily manipulated, since they have a harder time discerning reality from hallucination/dream/etc.
Definitely something to think about! Excellent observations, as usual. :)
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