Teen Wolf Season 3, Episode 16: "Illuminated" Recap/Review

Alright, alright, so I know that I've declared every episode of Teen Wolf of 3B so far to be the best episode of all time, but SERIOUSLY, YOU GUYS, "Illuminated" was the best episode of ALL TIME. It would earn the title solely for how visually stunning it was, but then when you include the music, the dearth of sexual tension, and the surprises, it was one of the most thrilling episodes yet. If you reviewed the text history between myself and my best soul-friend and fellow Teen Wolf superfan, Kathleen, it would mostly consist of squeeing over Scott/Kira and Allison/Isaac's romantic moments, freaking out over the oni, making fun of Agent Douchenozzle, and worrying our poor little heads off about Stiles and whatever the fuck is happening to him.

So, on that note, let's talk about what happened this week! Just a warning: there are a ton of gifs in this recap, so if your internet is kind of slow, it might slow it down more. Sorry in advance! Also, a lot of the gifs are from the rave, which have lots of neon/strobe light action going on. If you're epileptic/easily bothered or triggered by flashing lights, you might want to skip this! Just a heads up. Anyway, moving on!

Previously, on Teen Wolf: William Barrow, a serial killer charged with blowing up a school bus with a shrapnel bomb and killing a handful of teenagers, escaped from the hospital during surgery and ended up at the school. Stiles and Lydia discovered the chemistry classroom was unlocked and a code made up of atomic numbers that spelled out "KIRA" was scrawled on the chalkboard, which alerted the Scooby gang to the fact that Barrow was after the aforementioned new girl. So, Barrow showed up at Kira's house when Scott was just getting ready to leave, knocked Scott out, and took Kira to the electric substation where he used to work, and tied her up to one of the chain-link fences surrounding the generators. He then took her camera and took pictures of her with it before trying to electrocute her to death. Unfortunately for him, she magically sucked up all the electricity into her tiny body through her palms and shocked the shit out of him instead! And now Scott has no idea WTF Kira is. Oh, and she caused a city-wide blackout. Isaac was over at Allison's house, studying the Argent bestiary, when he got cornered by a bunch of dementors who locked Allison and Chris out while they beat him up. WHEW!


In this week's cold open, we see a bunch of little punks running around and stomping on people's jack-o-lanterns. Rude! We can tell by the "ch-ch-ch, ah-ah-ah" horror-movie music in the background that something scary is afoot. The kids stomp a couple more pumpkins before they're distracted by five shadowy figures marching in lock-step down the middle of the street. It's the dementors! They're all decked out in their scary Donnie Darko-style masks and leather dusters, and though the kids stupidly inch closer to them to see what they're doing, the dementors pay them no mind. CREEPY. What are those guys?

Over at the Argent Abode, Chris and Allison are finally able to get into Allison's bedroom, where they find Isaac laying on the floor, convulsing after his experience with the dementors. Allison immediately runs to his side and tries to comfort him, but she jerks her hand away once she makes contact with his face. "He's freezing, Dad! He's like ice!" Allison exclaims, so Chris takes Isaac face in his hands and forces him to make eye contact with him. He tells Isaac that he needs to shift to trigger his werewolf-y healing, but since Isaac is too out of it to comply, he decides punching him in the face until he snaps out of it is the best option. He hits him four or five times until finally, his golden wolf eyes come out, and his werewolfiness starts healing him from the dementor attack, which mostly involves being hyperthermic-levels of cold and practically catatonic until the victims are warmed up. Once Isaac is aware of his surroundings, he pushes Chris off of him and pulls himself up against Allison's bed while he tries to pull himself together.

"Did you see them?" he whispers, but Allison and Chris don't understand what he's talking about. "There were five of them," he stutters, as he blinks tears out of his eyes. "They-they wore black. I-I couldn't see-couldn't see their faces. They were-they were covered." Allison asks him if he means they were wearing masks, which Isaac confirms. He also informs them that he saw one of the dementor's eyes, and that they were greenish-yellow, like fireflies. Allison rubs his shoulder in comfort, and Chris reflexively stands up to check the security system, noting that it wasn't set off when whatever attacked Isaac showed up. Allison wonders how they could have gotten in, then, but Isaac tells them that they didn't get in-- they just sort of materialized out of the shadows. A flicker of recognition crosses Chris' face at this statement, which doesn't escape Allison's notice, so she asks him if he knows what that means.

Chris lies and says that he's not sure, though and joins them back on the floor. "Listen, the two of you... I need you to keep this quiet for a few hours." Isaac, confused, asks him if he means everyone, but Chris assures him that he only needs twenty-four hours to figure this thing out. Allison reminds her father that those dementors could have killed Isaac, but Chris is brainstorming, per usual. "But they didn't," Chris explains calmly. "And I think there was a reason why-- I think they might have been after me." UMMM, WHAT? WHAT KIND OF VAGUE EXPLANATION IS THAT?

Allison and Isaac look at him in alarm, but they don't get any answers, because Chris leaves the room and goes straight to his office. He turns on a lantern, because the power is still out in the whole town, and pulls out a wooden box from a cabinet behind his desk. When he opens it up, there is a mask exactly like the ones the dementors wear, which is broken into four pieces and laying on a piece of silk. WHERE DID HE GET THAT MASK? What is his connection to them? Stick around for the notes at the end, I have about a half dozen theories on Chris Argent alone, jfc. TITLE CARD! (PS, the title card had a special remix of The Bloody Beetroots' Alpha remix of the theme song to commemorate TBB being featured in the episode! I totally dig it, how about you guys?)

It's still the same night as the previous episode, and Scott, Stiles, Kira, and Lydia have been taken to the Sheriff's department, where they're being questioned by Agent Douchenozzle (with assistance from Sheriff Stilinski) on the events with Barrow that night. The following exchange is so hilarious my paltry attempts at paraphrasing won't do it justice, so here goes:

AGENT DOUCHENOZZLE: "So...when did you get there?"

STILES: "At the same time."

ADN: "At the same time as who?"

STILES: [points to Scott]

SCOTT: "The same time as me!"

ADN: "By coincidence?"

STILES: "What do you mean, coincidence?"

ADN: "That's what I'm asking you! The two of you arrived at the same time. Was that coincidence?"

SCOTT: "Are you asking me?"

STILES: "I think he's asking me."

LYDIA: "I think he's asking both of you."

The kids have really gotten this whole "confuse-and-disorient-the-cops" routine down pat, don't they? Blobfish is getting a little annoyed, and cuts them off by telling them to let him answer the questions. The gang and Sheriff just look at him blankly before he realizes what he said and corrects himself. "Let me ask the questions." Stiles just points at him and winks, because he's the most adorable little shit ever. "Just so I have this absolutely clear--" ADN begins, as he consults his notepad for the details he's received so far. "Barrow was hiding in the chemistry closet at the school. Someone left him a coded message on the blackboard, telling him to kill Kira. Then, Barrow took Kira to a power substation, and tied her up with the intent of electrocuting her, which blacked out the entire town." Each of the gang is just twiddling their thumbs, worrying at the fringe on the pillows, and generally only half-paying attention to what he's saying. It's magical, really. Stiles states that his summary sounds about right to him, so ADN asks him how they knew Barrow would take her to the power substation.

"Well, 'cause he was an electrical engineer, so where else would he take her? Heh." ADN gets a super fake smile on his face, and tells Stiles that was quite a good deduction, which is when Stiles gets AWESOME. "Well, what can I say? I take after my pops. He's in law enforcement," he quips, with yet another wink at his dad, who can barely stifle his laughter. When Blobfish shoots him the stink-eye, Sheriff coughs awkwardly and instructs Stiles to just answer his questions. Stiles sighs, and claims they just made a good guess. Shouldn't ADN be pointing out the fact that these kids seem pretty used to just dealing with all these situations by themselves, instead of involving the police like normal people? Or would that be basically admitting that these teenagers are way smarter and more capable than the actual adults who are supposed to be caring for them and the rest of the town?

(via lydiasgotstiles)
ADN decides to turn his line of questioning to his son and his new girlfriend Kira, and asks him what they were doing that night. Scott says "Eating pizza" at the same exact same time Kira says "Eating sushi," and when they realize that their answers aren't compatible, they pause, and then switch what they said. ADN can barely contain his eyeroll, since he's sure they're lying, so they both sigh and simultaneously state, "Eating sushi and pizza." ADN asks Sheriff if he's believing this obvious load of bullshit, but Sheriff just shrugs and claims he hasn't believed a word Stiles has spoken since he learned to talk, and Stiles just nods happily in response. LOVE IT. "But, I think these kids found themselves in the right place at the right time, and that girl sitting there is very lucky for it." SHERIFF IS THE BEST. ADN turns back to Kira and asks her if this is really what happened, so Stiles, Scott, and Lydia each lean forward and give Kira the universal stare for "SAY YES SAY YES SAY YES." Kira quickly tells Blobfish that it is, and then asks him if she can have her phone back. He informs her that they have to take it for evidence purposes, and then says that the deputies will take her home after she fills out some paperwork, which does not seem to please Kira one bit.

As the kids all leave to head home, ADN hands Kira's phone off to a deputy to be put in evidence lock up before he stops his son for some real talk. "Scott... I don't know why you guys are lying, or why Stilinski is content to listen to this crap, but try to remember something-- if half this story about Barrow is true, not only did someone help set him loose, but he's a pawn in their little game. A mass-murderer is bad enough. A mass-murderer being controlled by someone? Far worse." I've been swinging back and forth about whether or not I think he's in-the-know concerning the supernatural ever since his character was introduced, and this comment swung me back to thinking he probably does. I hate this guy, but I neeeed to know more about him, pronto! Scott just nods and assures him he gets it, because if anyone understands the dangers of this town, it's Scott McCall. Having done the literal bare minimum amount of parenting for the day, he sends Scott on his way home, since it's a school night.

Later, Kira has returned to her room at the Yukimura residence, where she is listening to Bonobo (ft Grey Reverend)'s "First Fires" (which has been on repeat on my iTunes ever since this episode aired, like the rest of the music in this episode) in her bedroom while she uses matches to light a bunch of candles in front of her vanity mirror, since her little electricity-vacuum stunt earlier still has the entire town in a blackout. She then picks up a digital camera and takes a deep breath before she holds it up and snaps a selfie. We can see the flash light up the mirror, but when she goes to look at the photo, you can see this amazing, fiery-looking aura that surrounds her. I think it looks gorgeous and awesome, but it really freaks Kira out. I NEED TO KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT KIRA YUKIMURA. And I want to know more about kitsunes in this universe, regardless of whether or not she is one, is just descended from them, both, or neither.

As usual, Beacon Hills High School is open for business, because why shut down for a city-wide blackout if they wouldn't even shut down when all of their teachers were getting murderized one by one last semester? Anyway, Coach so helpfully informs everyone of this fact by shouting into a megaphone, "Just because we've got no power, doesn't mean we don't got no school!" Thanks for that, Finstock. Stiles is digging around his locker when he accidentally knocks his keys onto the floor. When he picks them up, he notices an unfamiliar key on his key ring and is instantly puzzled by its existence. Before he can really think about it further, he sees Scott enter the school and waves at him before realizing that Scott isn't looking at him. He turns to follow his eye-line to where Kira is standing down the hall and realizes that Scott's still reeling over what happened in the previous episode. She sees Scott staring at her, turns away, and forces herself to continue onto her daily life without acknowledging his existence.

Scott immediately goes to follow her, but Stiles literally body-checks him to stop him before he can go any farther. Scott insists that he needs to talk to Kira about what happened, but Stiles is like, NOPE, NOT ON MY WATCH, PAL, even after Scott reminds him that Barrow tried to KILL her after someone else sent him a coded message to do it. "Scott? No way!" Stiles declares, already worried about the implications of what they saw with Kira at the electric substation. "Until we figure out if she's just another psychotic monster that's going to start murdering everybody, I vote against any and all interaction." Scott has suuuuuuuch a crush on her, as we all do, and is really curious about what she is. When he wonders aloud that maybe she's like him, Stiles tries to nix that train of thought before it begins. "That girl walked through 1.21 jiggawatts of electricity. She's not like you," Stiles says, clearly exhausted already by this newest mystery. LOL, nice Back to the Future reference, show! Scott just sighs and leaves for class, but Stiles hangs back and gives that mysterious key another puzzled look before following after him.

In the locker room, there are a bunch of boys in various stages of undress, per usual, including Ethan, who is currently eavesdropping on Danny while he talks to someone on the phone nearby. Our favorite dimpled prince is not a happy camper, because he was supposed to be throwing a Halloween party that night, but since the venue where he was holding it still doesn't have electricity yet, he's going to have to cancel. Ethan stops him on his way out into the hall and asks him about it, and after Danny breaks the bad news, Ethan offers to help him find a new place. Danny doesn't see the point, because no where else in town will have power either, but he still thanks Ethan for trying before sulking away.

Aiden, who is also shirtless, natch, catches up with his bro and gives him shit for pretending to be a high schooler, even though it was Aiden's dumb idea to come back to BHHS in the first place. "You're going to a Halloween party? What's next, you're gonna join the yearbook club?" Aiden sneers mockingly. Ethan points out that he just wanted to do something nice, but Aiden just scoffs and asks him who gives a fuck if he's nice or not. Ethan reminds him that Danny would probably give a fuck, and then drops the most excellent truth bomb on his twin to give him a reality check. "You don't get it, do you? Scott doesn't care about power, he cares about people. You wanna be a wolf in his pack? Try being a human, in high school."

TRUER WORDS HAVE NEVER BEEN SPOKEN. In fact, I think it could be said that the bulk of Scott's power comes from just how much he cares about people. He's a True Alpha because he's a genuinely good person who wants to help anyone in need, whether they want his help or not. He was bitten without his consent, but has still learned to use his supernatural gifts for the good of his friends, family, and town. He's used his natural talent as a leader to help inspire his loved ones and created an awesome pack before he was even an Alpha in the first place, and despite all the shitty things Ethan and Aiden have done, he's still giving them a chance, which I'm guessing few Alphas would even consider doing. Why aren't more people talking about how awesome Scott McCall is? Because seriously, he is the true angel of my heart and soul and deserves to have good things said about him all the damn time. Anyway, moving on from my Scott-stan tangent-- Aiden tries to smirk off Ethan's comment, but you can tell those words really hit home.

Which is why we follow him to biology, where he slides into his seat next to Lydia just as Lydia's mom, whose name may or may not be Natalie (according to Susan Walters, the actress who plays her/Carol Lockwood on TVD) passes out papers. Lady, GTFO of that school as fast as your legs can take you! Seriously! It would be less dangerous to swim with a large bleeding wound in a small tank full of hungry sharks than it is to teach at BHHS, at this point. Mrs. Martin stops next to Lydia and reminds her that she hasn't worked as a teacher in five years, so could Lydia do her a solid and not embarrass her on her first day? Lydia just side-eyes her before retorting, "You should have thought about that before wearing those shoes." Mrs. Martin looks down at her feet in horror, but Lydia just smiles and chirps, "Love you!" Bahahahahaha! More Martin family moments, pleeeease.

(via teenwolf)
Aiden asks Lydia why her mom is teaching biology, so Lydia just glares at him and expositions about how Mr. Harris got killed by Jennifer as part of a human sacrifice ritual, which is why they kinda need a new science teacher. So, what's the deal with Harris, anyway? Everyone keeps talking like he's still missing, but it doesn't seem like anyone has found his body yet, which is kind of worrisome-- in Teen Wolf, and most of the other supernatural-genre TV shows I watch, no one is truly dead until they find a body, and even then, there's still a chance that they can come back. See Hale, Peter for that one.

Also, I would be remiss if I didn't point out that Lydia is actually flipping through a physics textbook, not a biology one, and I could have sworn that they were actually taking physics this year, so I don't know if this is a continuity/prop error or a hint that something weird is afoot or what, so I figured I should take note just in case. (When I was in high school, we took earth science as freshman, biology as sophomores, chemistry as juniors, and then senior year you could either take astronomy [which I did, because my high school was one of the few with a planetarium!] or physics, so maybe that's why I'm confused.) Wow, and I digress yet again. Sorry, guys, my mind is all over the place today. Anyway, Aiden points out that it's not like he himself killed Harris, (although Deucalion/the Alpha Pack is why Jennifer became a Darach in the first place) but that's not really the point. She keeps giving him major stink-eye, so when he finally asks her what the fuck is up, she gets real with him.

"The other night, I helped save someone's life. That felt really good. And I look at you, and all I can think is that you helped kill Boyd." Aiden grimaces a little at the reminder and looks the tiniest bit guilty, so Lydia gives him the final blow before returning to her studies. "You're not just a bad boy, Aiden. You're a bad guy. And I don't want to be with the bad guys." YES! I am so glad that they are acknowledging the twins' role in Boyd's death (and let's be real, they had a hand in Erica's, too, even if Kali is the one who actually killed her), because that was such a major point of contention in the fandom after "Lunar Ellipse."

He considers her words for a moment before getting an idea, and he turns around to see Danny, who is sitting in the seat behind him, so he can inform him that he has a place where Danny could hold his party. We then cut to Derek at his loft, where he slips on his black leather jacket (YES! The return of the jacket!) before heading out the door. He stops and gives his apartment a parting glance before sliding the door closed behind him. He's also wearing a blue v-neck, and not for the first time this season. I can't do clothing/wardrobe meta like the geniuses over in the Teen Wolf Meta tag on Tumblr, but blue is a soothing color that indicates contentment and general happiness, something we haven't seen Derek feel in a long time. In the previous seasons, he usually wore black, gray, or other neutrals, so I think this is a big change for him that is indicative of a more improved state of mind in 3B. We saw a similar clothing transition with Isaac, who also dressed much the same way as Derek until he got closer to Scott and joined his pack. Now, he wears all kinds of blue shirts in various shades as well, and it makes me happy because I want all of them to be happy so badly it hurts.

We meet back up with Kira at school, who is sitting on the floor in the hallway and eating her lunch. While we're on the topic of clothing, I want her outfit so badly. Specifically, her leggings, but I'll take the entire outfit: dark blue henley under a small, fitted, denim vest, leggings that have the faces of various Marvel comic superheroes plastered all over them, and high-top sneakers. (Edited to add: Thanks to Kathleen's assistance, I found those Marvel leggings online and bought them and they are as amazing in real life as they are on television) SHE IS THE CUTEST. She nervously nibbles at her sandwich as Scott finds her and sits down next to her, leaning casually against the wall. She states outright that she doesn't want to talk about what happened the night before, and because Scott is an angel baby, he doesn't push it. "Okay. Wanna talk about the pre-calc test on Friday?" He holds up the math textbook before opening it. "The, uh, teacher takes all of the equations right out of the book..." Kira stares at her hands as she fidgets for a moment before taking the book from him and closing it. She then asks him if he has his phone, and when Scott nods, slightly confused at the random question, she asks him to take it out.

By the way, the song is "Into the Unknown" by Blackchords, and it is so nice and chill and perfect for the amazingness that is Scira. He nods, so she starts her confession. "I'm going to show you something no one else has ever seen. No one except for Barrow." She turns so she's facing him, and instructs him to take a picture of her with his phone, emphasizing that he should take it with the flash on. He's understandably baffled, but does as he's told, and quickly snaps a photo of her. When he checks to see how the photo turned out, he sees the same thing we saw earlier-- a fiery-looking aura that surrounds her entire head and body. Scott's eyes widen in surprise, and he asks her what he's looking at. "I don't know, it just started showing up a couple months ago," she confesses. "It only happens with the flash on, and I don't know how, but Barrow knew about it. He used my own phone to take pictures of me."

Scott realizes that this is why Kira was so adamant about getting her phone back when his dad was questioning them the previous night, which Kira confirms, grateful to see that he's not super weirded out by this situation. She admits that she's afraid of what would happen if someone saw those photos, but I don't really get the concern about it, to be honest. Wouldn't they just assume it was some weird Instagram filter, or some kind of overexposed flash, or something? I doubt the FBI's first instinct would be "Oh shit, she's clearly some kind of mysterious supernatural creature with a mysteriously fiery aura." But still, being a little freaked out about maybe being supernatural somehow and not knowing how you got that way is totally understandable, so Scott insists that he's going to help her get those photos off of her phone before anyone sees. Good thing his best friend is the Sheriff's son, and that the two of them have probably been breaking into the station since they could walk, huh?

Derek pulls his Toyota SUV (RIP Camaro) into the parking lot outside his apartment building after running whatever werewolf-y afternoon errands he was running. While he's shutting his door, he senses someone behind him, and quickly turns around to find three little kids in Halloween costumes, who shout, "TRICK OR TREAT!" in his face. He just stares at the kids, and his gruff demeanor quickly makes them all feel uneasy, like, "Uhhh, maybe we should have trick-or-treated in a different neighborhood." Fortunately for everyone, he surprises them by turning around and pulling a sack of candy out of his car and handing out a piece for each kid. He stares at the last one, who gulps nervously as he maintains eye contact, until Derek ends up whipping out his blue eyes and fangs so he can roar at them. Predictably, the kids run away screaming in terror, and Derek just smirks to himself as he puts the candy back in his car. He's so proud of scaring them! That is hilarious. Unfortunately for him, he hears that tell-tale rattling/chirping noise that the dementors make, and watches them materialize around him as he turns around to investigate. The one closest to him flashes his firefly-eyes at him, and presumably tackles him like they did Isaac the night before. YIKES! Who are they and what are they doing?!

(via teenwolf) 

Luckily, Derek is too preoccupied with ninja dementors to return to his home, because Danny, Aiden, and Ethan are currently setting up a portable generator and checking out the space. "35 [Radio Edit]" by the featured DJ of this episode, The Bloody Beetroots, plays as Danny sets an LED lantern on Derek's table and snoops through his books. After a moment, he asks Ethan where "the guy who lives here" is, if he's not currently here at his apartment, and Ethan looks super shifty as he vaguely mumbles, "He's... out of town." It ultimately doesn't matter, because Aiden gets the generator running and gestures to Ethan that they're ready to roll. Ethan strolls over to one of the columns of the loft and turns on a black light that someone installed. Danny's eyes and teeth glow as brightly as his dimpled smile as he takes in the party space. "Ohhh yeah," he exclaims excitedly. Man, Danny is the goddamn cutest.

Scott and Kira arrive in the parking lot of the Sheriff's Department and meet up with Stiles, who is waiting for them in his Jeep. Kira has her own matching helmet, which makes me SO happy. Perfect couple is perfect. They walk over to Stiles' open window, where he hands Scott three keycards; one for the perimeter doors, one for the evidence lock-up, and one for Sheriff's own office. Scott suddenly gets concerned that Stiles stole the cards, but don't worry guys, Stiles didn't! He just cloned them using an RFID emulator, you know, as one does. Scott's hilariously like, "Is that worse than stealing?" Yeah, probably. Stiles' response: "...It's smarter." That exchange kills me every time, and I've watched this episode way more times than is probably healthy.

(via teenwolf)
Kira looks pretty anxious, and asks Scott if she can talk to him privately. Stiles is pretty offended that they're just leaving him hanging when he's gone through all this trouble, but Scott obliges and walks a couple feet away so they can talk. She asks him if he told Stiles about her and her weird aura thing, but Scott promises he didn't. "Oh! Uh, no, I just said that, uh, you had some pictures of you on your phone that you didn't want anybody to see!" Naturally, she asks him what kind of pictures he said they were, so Scott has to awkwardly spill the beans that he told Stiles they were naked pictures. No worries, Kira just sighs in relief and grins at this news. "Oh, good idea!" SHE IS SO CUTE.

Scott's just like, 'kay, cool, and they return to Stiles' Jeep for further instructions. After a little snarkiness, Stiles tells him everything he knows of to help them get this done. "Okay! So, almost everybody is out dealing with the blackout, 'kay? But there's always somebody at the front desk. Dispatch, usually a night-shifter or two. You guys are gonna use the service-door entrance by the dumpster, alright? Nobody uses it." He gets serious for a moment before he continues. "Now, I'll text you if anybody comes out, but Scott, if you get caught, I can't help you. 'Kay? My dad's under investigation for impeachment because of your dad. So, if anything happens, I will run and leave you both for dead!" Kira looks slightly alarmed, but Scott totally gets it, and thanks him for his help. Stiles adds that he'd normally ask his dad for help, but his bestie completely understands that he can't get involved in anything that'll make things worse for him at work. On that note, Stiles tells them to go and hurry their asses up.

Scott and Kira get in the first door with no problems, and crouch down as they scamper into the main office. Scott sees the aforementioned night-shifter deputy, so they both hide behind a desk until the guy leaves. Wouldn't it have been easier if Scott just went in by himself to do this? I feel like multiple people just makes it more difficult to sneak around and hide and much more likely that they'll get caught. Whatever. Anyway, once the coast is clear, they make their way into the evidence storage room, and after checking to make sure it's empty, they split up and start looking for her phone. Scott eventually finds it and tosses it to her, but because nothing can ever go smoothly on this show, her phone's battery is dead. Kira tells him they'll have to take the phone and run, but Scott nixes the plan, because the police and FBI will obviously notice that it's missing. She doesn't know how else they'll be able to charge a phone when the whole city is blacked out, but Scott spots a MacBook on the desk and instructs her to help him look for a charger cable.

They rifle through the desk drawers until they magically and conveniently find one with a USB attachment that also conveniently matches Kira's product-placement Nokia Lumina phone, so Scott opens the laptop and plugs in the cord. He's shocked to find that the laptop is his dad's, and even more shocked by the fact that a heartbreakingly-adorable photo of Tyler Posey/Scott when he was just a baby is his laptop's wallpaper. Kira plugs in her phone and waits the painstakingly long amount of time that it takes for her phone to have enough juice to actually use.

Outside, Stiles is nervously flipping his keyring around his finger, until he notices the mysterious key from earlier once again. He stares at it for a long moment until he sees headlights in front of him and realizes that Agent Douchenozzle has arrived to cause all kinds of chaos. For whatever reason, ADN doesn't even notice the fact that Stiles is parked right opposite him. Stiles mutters, "Aw, hell," because the apple doesn't fall far from the Sheriff tree, and pulls out his phone to text a warning to Scott. Inside, Kira is still mumbling, "Come on, come on," to her phone in hopes that it'll charge faster. That isn't a very good advertisement for Nokia Luminas, is it? Bahaha. Unfortunately, Blobfish is moving too quickly, so Stiles sighs and groans, "Okay, I am SO going to regret this," before hopping out of his ride and chasing after ADN as he enters the office.

Scott and Kira are STILL waiting impatiently, but thankfully, Stiles is able to intercept Scott's dad before he can make it into the evidence room, which apparently is doubling as his office. "Hey, hey! Wow, thank GOD you are here," Stiles rambles, as he throws himself between ADN and the door. Scott can hear Stiles and his dad talking, and automatically curses his father for having the worst timing EVER. ADN asks Stiles what the fuck he wants, so Stiles continues to babble, as he is wont to do. "I was just thinking, on the case... I was thinking that my thinking, that I should clue you in on my thinking. Here's my thinking-- I was thinking this: that Barrow, right? Barrow received the information about who to kill at the school, right? You know that? So, I was thinking that maybe the person who GAVE him that information, check this out, might actually be someone at the school?" Blobfish just stares at him, and really, I'm pretty sure Stiles just convinced him that he's totally on drugs or something, because that was a DOOZY of a speech. "And that's, uh, my thinking," Stiles concludes lamely.

Surprisingly, ADN doesn't do anything crazy or impulsive, he just says "Hmm," as he thinks about it. Meanwhile, Kira's phone has FINALLY turned on after charging for long enough, and she instantly starts navigating toward her photos so she can start deleting them. Outside the evidence room, ADN admits that Stiles has a good point, and informs him that they started looking for links between Barrow and people at the school last night. Stiles is a little disappointed that someone already thought of that, until ADN adds that it was Sheriff Stilinski's idea, which makes Stiles a little happier. Blobfish is just about to swipe his card to get into the office, when Stiles' entire demeanor changes from flustered and panicky to cold and serious, and then shit gets SO REAL.

"Hey, you know this attitude that you have towards my dad? You can dress it up to all of the professional disapproval that you want, but I know the real reason you don't like him." ADN smirks patronizingly and is like, "Is that so? Enlighten me." And boy, does he. "Yeah, because he knows something that you don't want him to know. And guess what? I know it, too." OH SHIT! OH SHITTTTT. What is it? Did ADN cheat on Melissa with Claudia? Did Sheriff witness him supremely fuck up on the job or something? Does Scott have a mysterious half-sibling out there somewhere? I WANT TO KNOW EVERYTHING. ADN's face goes white, and he gulps a bit until he can regain his composure. He awkwardly instructs Stiles to go home, because there's a curfew or some shit again. He walks into the office, and eventually, Stiles walks away. Once ADN has watched him leave, he walks toward the evidence room to find that the door is standing ajar. COME ON, SCOTT. That's just a careless mistake. I'm sure that's totally not going to bite him in the ass later.

(via teenwolf)
Stiles is outside, leaning against his Jeep and dicking around on his phone when Scott and Kira run straight toward him. Apparently, Scott didn't overhear that last part of what Stiles said to his dad, or if he did, he doesn't mention it. Instead, he crows about the fact that they totally succeeded in deleting all of the pictures of Kira off of her phone. Kira is running on a huge adrenaline buzz. "Aw, that was awesome!" Stiles gives her a look, so she backpedals a little. "I mean, terrifying, completely terrifying? But kind of awesome." She tells them she's never done anything like that before, and asks if Scott and Stiles have. The boys just share a loaded look before Stiles is like, "Yeah, once or twice." More like once or twice a week, amirite? Still, Stiles looks like he likes Kira way more now that he sees that she has the potential to be just as much of a troublemaker as the two of them. LOVE IT. Scott awkwardly mentions that he should probably take Kira home, to which Kira can barely hide her disappointment. They all get ready to leave, when Scott realizes that he still wants to hang out, and asks Kira if she would like to go to a party with him instead. OH SHIT!

"Church of Noise" by The Bloody Beetroots ft. Dennis Lxyzen plays as Isaac wrenches open the loft door. Inside the apartment, hundreds of people are decked out in various styles of neon body paint and in various stages of undress as they dance and jump and drink awesome glowing drinks. Allison joins him as he stares at the raging party before stating, "Derek can never know about this." Yeah, like that's gonna happen! Allison's eyes grow wide as she takes in the scene. I really want to go to this party, to be honest. I'm a sucker for black lights and neon body paints.

Ethan is shirtless as he makes his way through the crowd with two drinks for himself and Danny. Ethan's chest and torso is painted with diagonal, dripping neon-red stripes that look like huuuge claw marks. He asks Danny if he's happy with how the party turned out as he hands him his drink, and Danny smiles and confirms that he loves it. "Good! Now, it's my time to be happy," Ethan exclaims, before shoving him toward a blonde girl in a neon green sports bra who is in charge of painting everyone. She asks Danny if he wants his face or body painted, and when Danny looks to Ethan for advice, Ethan just smirks and rips his tank top right off his back and tells her to paint his body. Awww YISS! Shirtless Danny is always a good thing. Someone calls out that they need more ice, but Ethan assures Danny that he's got it covered before taking off.

(via teenwolf)
As Danny is having this face and body painted with these awesome, ice-blue tribal-style designs, one of the shadowy dementors materializes right behind him. (The song is "Minerals" by Congorock & Nom de Strip, by the way!) The camera angle changes, and we see another one flicker into existence. They both stand behind him and stare at him, which he seems to sense, because he looks up and turns around. Unfortunately, they both go *POOF* before he can see them, but he's definitely unnerved. The girl tells him she's finished, and he smiles adorably as he compliments her on her art skills. When she leaves, his face goes back to looking confused, and he continues to look around. Eep, Danny, are you in tune with the supernatural, too? I NEED TO KNOW.

(via sansprisedetete)
Ethan walks into a storage room that they're using to hold the ice and other party supplies. He flips the switch to the light that hangs from the ceiling, but when he picks up two bags of ice in a cooler, the light goes out. He sighs in frustration and sets the ice down so he can twist the light bulb until it turns back on, but after a moment, it just goes out again. He's a werewolf, doesn't he have night vision? Shouldn't a little darkness be a non-issue for him? Apparently not, because he repeats this process three more times to try to turn the light back on. The last time, when he twists the light back on, he finds that he's surrounded by ninja dementors, who automatically slam the door closed and tackle him. YIKES! What the hell are these ninjas after?

My favorite song of this evening was "Chronicles of a Fallen Love" by The Bloody Beetroots ft. Greta Svabo Bech, which plays as Stiles, Scott and Kira enter the rave. Stiles is explaining his mystery key as they walk through the crowd. "It just showed up there on my key ring this morning. I asked my dad if he put it there, but he said he didn't know anything about it." Scott's not seeing the weirdness, because it's just a key, but Stiles reminds him that it's not his, and he didn't put it there, so he doesn't know who did or what it opens. Scott offers to leave with him and help him figure it out, but before Stiles can answer, a very familiar-looking girl in a bright pink wig with bright orange glowing lipstick kisses Stiles on the cheek, leaving a big lipstick smooch on his face. "Happy Halloween," she chirps, as she spins away into the crowd.

Scott and Kira smile at Stiles' good fortune, and can't help but laugh when Stiles watches the girl walk away and chases after her as he stammers, "It can wait! It can wait." LOL, oh Stiles! Never change. Kira is a shy girl, as we know, so she's getting pushed around a lot by the people in the crowd, so Scott reaches over and takes her hand to pull her closer to him. She shouts a "Thanks!" over the loud music and yelling, and Scott asks her why she's thanking him. "For everything!" she exclaims, and gives him the biggest, warmest smile ever, and Scott melts a little bit. He spots Allison standing over near the bar, waiting for a drink, and gets distracted by her presence. Kira can sense that there's some history there, and awkwardly pulls her hand away and lets herself get swept away in the crowd.

It takes Scott a minute to notice, because he and Allison are still staring at each other, but after a long moment, Allison just gives him this sweet smile that pretty much says, "I feel just as weirdly jealous and awkward as you do, but it's okay for both of us to move on." Scott smiles the same way back to her, so I think they have a mutual understanding about where there relationship stands. Maybe that's just the obsessive Allisaac shipper in me, though, because Scott being okay with Allison and Isaac being together is the next step to my dream ship, Scallisaac.







 


(via 1scmc-alphapack)
Scott finally realizes that Kira isn't standing with him any more, and after being overwhelmed by all the lights and glowing body paint, he turns on his wolf eyes and starts to scan the crowd. He finds her quickly, standing alone in the middle of the party, but he's completely shocked that his wolf vision allows him to see the aura around her, brought into relief from the flashing lights, just like in the picture. Instead of being a weird, fiery haze, though, it looks like her aura is in the shape of a fox. OH SHIT, SHE IS A KITSUNE AFTER ALL, YESSSSSSSSS.

(via cynicalwerebear)
Elsewhere in the party, Stiles catches up with the girl, who turns to him and slurs, "Hey, I kissed you!" Stiles is like, "Yup, you did," and asks her what her name is. Guess what? It's Caitlin, as in the girl from "Fireflies," whose girlfriend was one of the virgin sacrifices Jennifer used to take down the Alpha Pack. Stiles realizes this and is like, "HOLY SHIT, YOU'RE CAITLIN," and awkwardly brings up her girlfriend, so Caitlin just states that she died. Stiles asks her if she's okay, but she just chirps, "Yeah, I'm really drunk!" She asks him if he wants to dance, which stuns him, per usual, because Stiles has no idea how hot he is, but he shakes it off quickly and says he'd like to. She grabs his hand and leads him through the crowd, and he barely is able to keep from fist-pumping in glee. Oh, Stiles! Did you know the actress who plays Caitlin, Zelda Williams, is Robin Williams' daughter? I didn't until this episode. I like her!

Lydia is standing on the outskirts of the crowd, dressed fabulously as usual and looking like she has no desire to be there at the party whatsoever. Aiden pops out with a pair of glowing red fake fangs and roars at her, but she's not at all impressed, as you can guess. He pulls the fake fangs out of his mouth and jokes that they're not as good as the real ones, but Lydia retorts, "Or as lethal!" Aiden just pouts and reminds her that while he admits that he deserves pretty much all the bad things she has to say about him, he thinks he should get a little credit for helping to organize the party. Lydia is understandably like, "Yeah, we're like less than five feet away from where you helped kill Boyd, and besides, raves are tacky, just like you," before patting him patronizingly on the chest and going on her merry way. Aiden briefly loses control and wolfs out a bit as he roars in frustration.

Allison meets up with Isaac, who is also a little wallflowery tonight, as Above & Beyond's "A Thing Called Love" plays in the background. He asks her if she saw Scott, and she sounds just the slightest bit jealous when she tells him she did. I am a die-hard Allison stan, so it's probably not surprising when I say that I completely understand where she's coming from. I mean, she and Isaac have chemistry out the wazoo, and same for Scott and Kira, and it's obvious there are feelings there on both fronts, which is great! They are allowed to move on, and they should. But, at the same time, that doesn't mean that neither of them are allowed to feel jealous about that fact, you know? Jealousy isn't always a rational feeling, and we can't always control it. As long as we're not acting on it, it's whatever, in my opinion. Anyway, Isaac then asks if she told Scott what happened to Isaac the previous night, but she reminds him that they still have a couple more hours, per her dad's orders. Isaac points out that she's the one who promised to keep quiet, not him, and when Allison asks him if protecting her dad is such a bad thing, he replies, "I don't like keeping secrets from Scott." <3SCISAAC<3 Then, an awesome conversation happens.

ALLISON: "No, you don't. You just like to stand there awkwardly, waiting for someone to notice us... whatever we are. And then you like to make things... incredibly uncomfortable."

ISAAC: "And what's that supposed to mean?"

ALLISON: [smiles] "What do you think it means?"

ISAAC: "I think it means you're probably mad..."

ALLISON: [smiles wider] "I'm not mad!"

ISAAC: "No?"

ALLISON: "No!"

ISAAC: [skeptical] "Okay..."

ALLISON: [sighs] "I'm frustrated."

ISAAC: [beat] "Sexually?"

Allison genuinely laughs when Isaac says that, but he seems nervous, like he feels like he over-stepped a boundary or something. He laughs anxiously as Allison walks in front of him with an almost Kate-like smirk, and he sighs as he follows after her to the painting table, like, "Oh shit, what have I gotten myself into?" Allison unbuttons her flannel top to reveal a neon pink bralette underneath, and Isaac can do nothing but gape at her as she picks up a paintbrush from the table. "Do you want to talk about Scott, or do you wanna paint my body?" Allison asks with a smirk. Isaac: "I wanna paint your body." KEEP IT IN YOUR PANTS, LAHEY. Wait, actually, NO, DON'T. She smiles sweetly as she hands him the paintbrush, and it is the cutest thing ever. I LOVE THEM TOGETHER. I love how they're like twin flames, I love how their relationship involves a lot of teasing and little games, it makes it so much more mature and adult than Allison's relationship with Scott (which I also love-- as I've said about a bazillion times, my OTP of OT3s is Scott/Allison/Isaac in one lovely polyamorous lovefest, which is why I basically multiship any combination of the three)

(via argentsallson)
The music switches to "A Prayer" by The Bloody Beetroots ft. Penny Rimbaud as Lydia continues to watch the crowd. She mutters, "Ugh, finally!" when she sees a painted-up Allison and Isaac dancing together and holding hands on one side of the room, and "Awkwardly?" when she notices Stiles doing a frenetic version of "The Sprinkler" as he dances with Caitlin. When she turns behind her, she sees Aiden in a hot-girl-grinding sandwich, and groans, "Predictably." Then, much like Danny, she senses the ninja dementors materializing in various different locations in the crowd. She turns and spots one behind her, which immediately vanishes and then flickers back into existence across the room. Lydia starts to panic and calls out for Scott, but he's either not close by, or not paying attention.

She runs out on a balcony outside that huge wall of windows in Derek's loft that I didn't even know existed, and slams the door behind her as she tries to catch her breath. She leans against the railing for a moment, but then sees a shadowy figure in her periphery and turns her head to see one of the dementors pulling itself through the cement floor of the balcony. WHAT THE FUCK? I need to know the physics behind these things, because they are freaking me out.

When the dementor stands up on both feet, Lydia reflexively turns to run in the opposite direction, only to run right into another one who appeared behind her without her noticing. She opens her mouth to wail and alert the others, but the dementor closes his fist in front of her face and SUCKS THE SCREAM RIGHT OUT OF HER LUNGS. She looks extremely terrified as she stares in horror at him, and he places a hand on the side of her head and turns his firefly-eyes on her. She goes into a daze as she continues to stare at him as her face is bathed in yellow-green light. THIS IS NO GOOD AT ALL. WHY IS HE AFTER LYDIA? She's technically supernatural, but she isn't a werewolf, she was just bitten by one. WHAT IS THE PATTERN? Inside, the party is raging on, with no sign that anyone saw or heard what happened. YIKES.

(via seaquell)
"Out of Sight" by The Bloody Beetroots ft Paul McCartney plays as Danny spots one of the twins making his way through the party and calls out, "Ethan!" It's not Ethan, though, it's Aiden, who tells him as much. When Danny asks where Ethan went, Aiden, who is clearly annoyed and unnerved, admits that he's looking for him too. Danny informs him that he hasn't seen Ethan in over a half hour, which definitely concerns his twin. Aiden wordlessly runs off to find his brother, which causes a worried Danny to follow after him.

Meanwhile, Caitlin returns to the spiral staircase where Stiles is sitting, with two beers in her hands. She hands him one and asks him if he has a bottle opener, even though they look like they're twist-offs, but clearly they just needed an excuse for Stiles to pull his key ring out to use the bottle-opener attached to it. Caitlin is intrigued when she sees some glowing green fingerprints on the mysterious new key, and she exclaims that there are phosphors on it.

He clearly has no idea what she's talking about, but Caitlin just smiles and kisses the confusion right off his face. As usual, he's completely shocked by the fact that an actual real-life girl wants to kiss him, but he quickly gets into it. When she pulls away, he has bright orange lipstick all over his lips, and he awkwardly asks, "I thought you liked girls?" She informs him that she does, in fact, like girls, and asks him if HE likes girls. He's like, "Duh!" so she's all, "So, no problem, then?" He realizes that she also likes boys, so again, she's like, "Absolutely! Do you?" This gives Stiles pause, and the Bi!Stiles fans on Tumblr go absolutely INSANE.

(via teenwolf)
I've read a lot of discussion on Tumblr from people who saw Jeff Davis as changing Caitlin from being a lesbian to being bisexual, but there was never any specific confirmation that she was a lesbian, was there? I mean, believe it or not, bisexual girls actually do date girls a lot of the time-- despite all of the people who claim otherwise, bisexual people are genuinely attracted to people of both/all genders and aren't just doing it for attention, or pretending to be bi to help ease their loved ones into accepting the fact that they're actually gay. I don't know, as a bisexual girl myself, I would like a lot more queer representation on TV, whether gay or lesbian or bi, so I'm not really bothered either way. I just wish that they'd actually confirm whether or not Stiles is bi instead of just teasing and fanbaiting, because that isn't really helpful. ANYYYWAY, Caitlin starts making out with Stiles again, and he gets really into it until he remembers the mystery key, and awkwardly pulls away.

"I'm sorry...what are phosphors?" Caitlin isn't just pretty, she's also very smart, just like the other ladies of Teen Wolf, so she wastes no time explaining to him what she knows. "Uhh, they're any substance that luminesces? It's in your teeth, your fingernails, laundry detergent..." She runs a finger over his lips and adds that it's also in the lipstick that is currently all over his face, and explains that it glows because it reacts with UV. Stiles is all, "Very information, much intelligent, let's make out more plz," and starts kissing her again.

Unfortunately for him, he starts thinking about the key while they're kissing, AGAIN, and when she senses his hesitation, she pulls away. "How did I get phosphors on my key?" Stiles asks nervously. She suggests that it could be from handling chemicals, but he doesn't remember handling any. Then, he gets one of his lightning-strike epiphanies where his brain suddenly puts all of the pieces of a puzzle together, and he immediately hops to his feet as he gets ready to leave. "I'm sorry. Um, I'm really terribly sorry, but I just thought of something, and I have-have to go. Really, I don't want to, I wanna stay! I would just... stay ALL nigh-- I swear, but I really have to go, I don't want to offend you." Caitlin's just like, "Um, okay?" He apologizes again and runs off. After a minute, he runs back and hands her a bottle of water. "Here, drink that. Drink that whole thing! The whole thing, okay?" he stammers, before running off for good. Aw, Stiles is totally that friend who leaves you a bottle of Gatorade and some Advil on your nightstand after a long night of drinking so you can battle your hangover when you wake up. He's the best! Caitlin agrees, because she just shrugs and starts chugging the water as she watches him go.

"Damaged [Radio Edit]" by Adrian Lux plays as Scott and Kira make their way to the roof of Derek's apartment complex. Kira kindly points out that he somehow got paint on his face, and he tries to rub it off himself with no luck. Once they're seated, Kira decides to take matters into her own hands, and licks her thumb before using it to wipe the paint off Scott's cheek. He automatically starts giggling, and gently teases her about the fact that she "mom'd" him, and though she initially denies it, eventually she admits that she did, in fact, totally mom him. I love how endearing he finds it, because he was raised by the best mother EVER to respect his own mother as well as all women. This is one reason of 3,423,409,823,412,390,812 reasons why Scott McCall is the greatest angel of all time.

After their laughter dies down, Kira's demeanor becomes more serious. "How are you so okay with all this?" she asks him. "I just showed you a picture that would send anyone else running the other way." Instead of telling her that he has glowing eyes, fangs, and claws and is beholden to the moon, he just tells her that the picture didn't really look bad to him. Kira points out that she looked like a "demon from hell," but Scott didn't see it that way. When she asks him what he saw, he's completely straight with her. "It kind of looks like it's, uh, protecting you. Like armor. And it doesn't look like a demon to me." SCOTT MCCALL, HOW ARE YOU THIS SWEET. YOU KILL ME WITH YOUR KINDNESS. She asks him what it looked like, and he stares her right in the eyes as he states, "It looks like a fox." Cue confused face from both kiddos. God, how many more ways can I express how much I love Scott and Kira, separately and together? Because seriously, they're amazing and I adore them with my whole soul.

Speaking of couples I love so hard, let's check up on Allison and Isaac, yeah? They're still dancing together, faces close together as they slowly and gently intertwine their fingers. Allison is totally feeling up his pecs and biceps on the sly, and he stares at her like he can't look at anything else as she slowly puts her lips closer and closer to his. They're almost to the point of kissing when Allison frowns and stares at something on the side of Isaac's face. He pulls away slightly and asks her what's wrong, and she admits that there's something on the side of Isaac's head. He feels behind his ear, but he can't tell what it is, so she pulls him away to look for a mirror. Wow, that's totally a mood-killer, isn't it?

(via elijahshonor)
She finds a mirror over a sink in the storage room and pulls him toward it, and indicates to where the mark is. He folds his ear over and sees a black mark that looks like it's been tattooed right behind his ear. He asks her WTF is on his head, and she tells him it looks like the number five. Isaac freezes when he hears something behind him, and after informing Allison about it, they look behind some kegs and coolers of ice to find Ethan, shivering and in a daze, just like Isaac was when Allison and Chris found him the night before.

Likewise, Aiden and Danny have just found Lydia convulsing on the floor of the balcony. If there is anything redeemable about Aiden, it's the fact that he automatically puts his poutiness about Lydia's earlier comments aside and immediately runs over to her to make sure she's okay. He asks Danny what happened to her, but Danny has no idea, though he does point out that Lydia is so cold she feels like she's hypothermic. Aiden asks him to help him help her, and crouches down to scoop her up in his arms. Danny leads their way through the party by creating a path for them through all the writhing party-goers, eventually taking them to a heating vent near the side of the room. Aiden sets her down in front of the heater and wraps his body around her to speed up the heat transfer while Danny runs off to get some blankets to help bring her temperature up as well.

Inside the storage room, Isaac is examining Ethan by grabbing his face in his hands and trying to get him to focus. When slapping him in the face a couple times doesn't help snap him out of it, Isaac roughly grabs Ethan's right forearm and grips it tightly in both hands. Allison looks confused when she asks him what the hell he's doing, so Isaac admits that he has to trigger his werewolf healing to help him recover before violently snaps Ethan's arm. Dude, couldn't you just punch him in the face like Chris did to you? There's still probably part of Isaac that really wants to get back at Ethan and Aiden for what they did to Boyd, though, so that's probably why. Anyway, Ethan roars in pain, as you can probably imagine, but already looks way better than he did, so it seems to be working.

By the heating vent, Aiden is still sitting behind Lydia so they're front-to-back, and he's got his arms wrapped around her to try to warm her up. Lydia is still dazed and shivering to the point where her whole body is spasming as she whispers, "They came out of the dark." When Aiden cranes his neck so he can look Lydia in the eyes, he notices the "5" symbol behind her ear.

Back in the storage room, Allison is checking on Ethan and that Ethan has the exact same mark as Isaac as well. WHAT IS HAPPENING? WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

In the parking lot, Derek is finally healing from his own ninja dementor attack, and brushes his fingers across the backwards "5" mark that is tattooed behind his ear, too. Realizing this is probably a big deal, Derek pulls out his blue eyes and fangs and howls as loud as he can. His roar carries all the way up to the roof of his apartment building, where Scott immediately hears it and stands up to try to focus on the sound. "Derek?" Scott whispers incredulously, probably to the confusion of his lady companion. LOVE IT. I love the parallel to Season 2, when Allison's mom tried to kill Scott, and Scott howled for Derek's help so he could rescue him (though he accidentally bit Victoria Argent in the process) and brought him to Deaton to heal his wolfsbane poisoning. PACK LOVE.

.

(via hoechlder)
The party is still raging in Derek's loft, where Derek has finally arrived to find hundreds of drunk/rolling teenagers writhing around. He strolls over to where The Bloody Beetroots is playing his song, "The Source [Chaos & Confusion]" He's about to tell the DJ to STFU and GTFO, but TBB's bodyguard stops him, all, "Bro, sorry, but The Bloody Beetroots doesn't take requests." (The fact that his stage name is a plural name for a singular person has been making me CRAZY with the mixed up verb tenses, yikes! I just want to change it to "Bro, sorry, but The Bloody Beetroots don't take requests.") Derek just nods at him absently and goes to push past him, but the guy just pushes him back and repeats the fact that TBB doesn't take requests. Derek takes one look at the hand on his chest and immediately grabs the guy in a choke-hold, TVD-styles, and smugs, "He'll take mine!" before throwing the guy behind him. LOL! Sassy Derek is my fave.

(via teenwolf)
Derek isn't really up with the cool new music of the day, of course, so he doesn't understand EDM, either. So, when the song's all, "DROP THE BASS," Derek takes that as an invitation to walk up to The Bloody Beetroots and throw his turntable/laptop-table over onto the floor. Everyone stops dancing as the music cuts out and just stares at Derek, who is glaring at them. Finally, he shouts, "GET. OUTTTTTTTT," in his werewolfy-voice. They all stare at him for a moment before high-tailing it the hell out there. One guy even shouts in a very frat-boy-esque voice, "DAMN, DUDE!" That part really killed me for some reason. Derek gives one last glare to TBB, who joins the rest of the party-goers and runs for the hills.

(via teenwolf)
As everyone scatters, the five ninja-dementors are much more easily visible as they flicker around the room. Aiden, who is helping Danny hold up a very weak Lydia, orders his brother's crush to take Lydia and get her out of there. Before they go, Lydia instructs Aiden to find Scott. Aw, I love Lydia and her unwavering trust in Scott, it's the best. Please tell me she reads Danny into the program on the ride home? I think ninja-dementors are pretty hard to lie about, although it is Halloween, I guess. Isaac and Allison are supporting Ethan, who is just as weak as Lydia, as they re-enter the loft, and shortly afterward, Scott and Kira, who must have heard the commotion, join them. The dementors are still standing silently, waiting for everyone to leave. Once it's just the pack and the twins, the dementors do their weirdly synchronized lock-step and turn to face Aiden, who is understandably worried.

"Guys? They're all looking at me," Aiden stammers. They start walking toward him, which worries everyone, including Scott, who just stares in confusion. "Why are they looking at me? Guys?" Derek looks like he's about to move, but he looks over at Scott, who is bracing himself for an obligatory werewolf brawl, and waits for some kind of signal as to what he should do. Once Scott lunges for them, Derek follows the Alpha's lead and does the same, both of them flipping and twisting to block the dementors' shots, and slashing with all their might to try to weaken them. Derek, as usual, bless his heart, gets kicked in the back right away, but Scott, who is smaller and thus more agile than Derek, manages to avoid getting injured a little longer. Derek picks himself up and roars as he snaps the neck of one of the dementors, and looks for another one to go after. Unfortunately, though, the dementor's head just magically heals back into place, and the look on Derek's face is like, "OH SHIT, MISTAKES WERE MADE," right before he gets tossed across the room and into one of the columns holding up the roof.

Kira watches in amazement and shock as Scott continues to fight the dementors, flipping out of their reach and swiping at them like a pro, but he ultimately ends up getting karate chopped in the sternum and thrown into the wall. He and Derek are both on the floor, trying to muster up the strength and healing to get back up and keep fighting as they watch the dementors return to their previous target, Aiden. Isaac, who just last week was talking about how he wanted the twins to die, and who just unnecessarily broke one of their arms like, twenty minutes ago, immediately leaves Ethan with Allison and runs up to the nearest dementor, whipping his claws out as he goes in order to protect them. YAY ISAAC, GOOD BOY. The dementor turns around to face him as he pulls out a sword from INSIDE HIS CHEST. He swings the sword around like a goddamn samurai, which is more than enough reason for Isaac to back up all, "Yeah, just kidding, sorry." Apparently, this is exactly what the samurai dementor intended to happen, because he just turns right back to Aiden and joins the rest of his fellow samurais as they descend upon him.

"Somebody do something!" Allison cries out, but Scott and Derek are still out of commission and can only watch them in fear and guilt. Three of the dementors approach Aiden, two of whom grab each of his arms and clutch them tightly so he can't move, while the third takes Aiden's face in his hand and turns on his firefly eyes. Aiden's face goes slack as it, too, is bathed in the yellow-green light of their glowing eyes, and after a LONG moment, the dementor uses his finger to brand the backwards "5" behind his ear, while the other two let go of him, paying no attention to Aiden when he collapses onto the floor. Once they're done, they turn toward Kira and slowly approach her. Scott is TOTALLY not going to let them anywhere near her, though, and flips himself upright and starts growling ferociously as he lets his wolf out. He puts himself right between them and Kira, and looks back at her to make sure she's okay, which totally shocks her, as eyes are bright red and his fangs are totally out. Oops!

The dementors continue to slowly walk toward them, and Scott is totally ready to smack them down to protect his new lady, but once the sun comes up and shines through the window, the dementor closest to them starts to fade into black smoke. The gang stares at each other in confusion and shock, which is basically their default expression at this point, and watch in horror as the dementors literally turn into black fog that is blown away by the rays of sunlight. Ethan manages to gather the strength to run over and check on his brother, while Derek tries to walk off his injured leg to check on him as well. "What the hell were those things?" Scott asks, but no one seems to have a good answer. Isaac looks over at Allison, who is still pretty stunned about what just went down, especially since she didn't have any weapons on her to help out, and states. "Your dad's twenty-four hours are up." OH SHIT.

What's Chris been up to today/tonight, you ask? Well, I have NO idea, but it was pretty brutal, apparently, because he arrives to his apartment stumbling and bleeding. He braces himself against one wall, and then pushes himself to the other in an attempt to make it to his study. Unfortunately, he loses his balance and falls to the ground. His phone is in his outstretched hand, and we can see on the screen that Allison is calling him to debrief him on the events of the evening. I would be remiss if I didn't point out that the song that is playing over this scene, Snow Ghost's "The Hunted," has lyrics that were basically written for Chris Argent.

"You wandered through the willows in the forest you were found/Trying to hide your footprints in the ground/It's not so wise, if you try to run/It's not so wise, you know I've won/ you know I've won/And you'll smile, on your knees/The hunter becomes... the hunter becomes the hunted/The hunter becomes the hunted."

This could reference the Argent code and how it changed recently, and also, Peter also said "The hunted becomes the hunter" in "Fireflies," which probably is just a coincidence but I thought I'd bring it up anyway. Honestly, I'm pretty sure I'm just going to do a huge meta on Season 3's music, because it has been AMAZING. Also, just FYI, Snow Ghosts is also the band that did "And The World Was Gone," which played in "The Overlooked" when Scott and Stiles figured out that the guardian sacrifices were parents, and Scott joined up with Deucalion. They are amazing and if you're not listening to them, you should be.

The song continues as we meet back up with Stiles. The sun is fully up now, and Stiles is wearing the same clothes he's been wearing the entire episode as he walks in the school and heads straight for the chemistry lab. What has he been doing since he left the party? It was dark when he left Caitlin at the party, because the dementor things were still out and lurking around, so several hours must have passed at this point. ANYWAY, once inside, he takes out the mysterious key and approaches the chemistry lab's closet. He sticks the key in the lock and twists, which unlocks and opens the door to the closet. He gulps in horror as he flashes back to when he and the gang were being questioned by Agent Douchenozzle. "Barrow was hiding in the chemistry closet at the school. Someone left a coded message on the blackboard telling him to kill Kira." He slowly wanders over to the chalkboard and hesitantly picks up a piece of chalk. He quickly writes down the atomic numbers beside the ones already written on the chalkboard, and immediately panics internally when he realizes it's his handwriting that wrote the numbers. WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON WITH STILES?

 











(via teenwolf)
Next week: The dementors are still after someone, but who? Scott? Kira? Allison? Stiles? Also, Kira looks into what she is, and Stiles is most certainly NOT okay.

[screencaps via KissThemGoodbye]

Click HERE to move on to my recap of the next episode of Teen Wolf!

NOTES/SPECULATION:
-Alright, let's talk about Stiles first, yeah? I honestly have no idea what's going on with him, but if I had to guess, I would say he's probably being possessed by something. But what? We know that kitsunes are a thing this half-season, and though we're pretty sure Kira is one, that doesn't mean that Stiles couldn't be possessed by another one. It's also possible that he could be possessed by the Nemeton, or some spirit inside of it? I mean, he had a panic attack right before the surrogate-sacrifice ritual and was basically on the verge of a nervous breakdown the entire time, so he was definitely vulnerable during the ritual, and it's possible that something could have sneaked into his mind through the "ajar" door that was opened when he died. Especially since he got in that car wreck in the woods right after he came back to life and knocked himself unconscious for Gods know how long, which would be a pretty convenient way for whatever bad beastie to sneak into  his body. HOWEVER, I don't think he left the atomic numbers on the board as instructions for Barrow to kill Kira. Instead, I think he somehow subconsciously figured out that something was amiss, and he wrote the code as a warning to his conscious self or whichever of his friends/allies later investigated it.

-So Kira is most certainly a kitsune, though, right? I NEED TO KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT THOSE FOX SPIRITS.

-I love the Kira/Scott dynamic, love the Allison/Isaac dynamic, I basically talked about it to death already so I really don't have much else to say except that I love all the loving going on right now. If there had been some Stiles/Lydia, I think it might have just been perfect, but her interactions with Aiden definitely needed to happen.

-I also really love Derek's attitude now in 3B. I talked earlier about his wardrobe and how all the blue he's wearing indicates that he's in a much better state of mind than he was before he left. I don't know what he was doing before he and Peter got captured by those hunters, but whatever it was, it seems to have done him well, because he was cute and sassy and helpful this week!

-Now to the twins. I am still majorly angry at them for the Boyd thing, but I have to say that Ethan is definitely growing on me. He seems more remorseful of the two of them for what happened in the past, and the fact that he recognizes why Scott doesn't want them in the pack-- and the fact that they need to work to redeem themselves in their eyes for it-- is a really positive step for his character, I think. Aiden, on the other hand, still has a long way to go. I, like Lydia, was not impressed by the fact that he tried to use the fact that he helped save the party as a reason why she shouldn't hate his guts, especially since they basically broke into Derek's apartment to do it. Derek, who they both used to help kill his own beta, who they and the rest of the Alpha Pack terrorized by holding his (presumed dead) sister captive for months (along with two of his three betas), killed Erica, and threatened/injured basically everyone in his pack on multiple occasions, himself included. Hell, he almost DIED on two occasions: once when Kali stuck that pipe in his chest, and once when he and Ennis fell like 3 stories at that abandoned mall.

On the other hand, it's well known that they were abused before they were recruited into the Alpha Pack, and most of what they did, they did because they were forced to by Deucalion, but that doesn't change the fact that Boyd is dead, you know? Basically, TL;DR: I can tolerate Ethan, but they both, especially Aiden, have a lot of penance to do before they're redeemed in my eyes.

-What's Chris Argent's connection to the dementor thingies? Was he one of them? Or are they like the security system for the Nemeton? There's always been a lot of speculation regarding who cut down the tree to the Nemeton, and a lot of people always wondered if it was Gerard, since we saw the flashback in "Visionary," where Chris explained to Gerard that the tree was thought to represent the earth, and that harming it in any way would cause strife to the area. Is it possible that the Nemeton is striking back now that it's been recharged? I basically need like an entire encyclopedia dedicated to the mythology of the Nemeton, the known creatures in this universe, and detailed biographies of all the different characters in this show, plz & thx.