Teen Wolf Season 5, Episode 5: "A Novel Approach" Recap/Review
[Ugh, late again, sorry guys! --Emily]
HOLY SHIT, YOU GUYS. This episode was seriously overwhelming in multiple ways, and the information learned from it has consequences that will definitely be affecting the entire supernatural population of Beacon Hills. For one, we now know that the book Malia found in Tracy's bedroom was not only planted there by the Dread Doctors themselves via Theo, but they did so specifically to lure the McCall Pack to Eichen House to talk to the book's author-- who is none other than Dr. Gabriel Valack himself!-- and To make matters even worse, it's not even a work of fiction-- it's meant to be used as a tool for those who have been messed with by the Doctors to help them remember doing so, because the Doctors' powers-- which mostly involve manipulating electromagnetic energy and frequencies-- are frequently used to make their test subjects forget that they had been experimented on in the first place.
This means that the theories that people like Tracy, Donovan, and Lucas had been experimented on for some time were spot on, but it also has much more sinister implications as well-- it was already suggested that Lydia had something done to her by the Dread Doctors while she was in surgery, but considering the fact that Scott, Stiles, Kira, Malia, and possibly Liam (who was regrettably absent from this episode, SADFACE) have been acting "a little off" lately, as Scott and Stiles put it, it is very likely that they, too, have been manipulated by the Doctors and simply have no memories of it. So yeah, that's absolutely terrifying, and I'm seriously worried about the pack. I have a sneaking suspicion that next episode-- which is titled "Required Reading"-- will involve each of the members of the pack reading the book in order to figure out whether or not the Dread Doctors have experimented on them without them knowing. It seems pretty likely that Lydia will be one of them, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if there were multiple members who were similarly effected.
It also seems likely that Valack was experimented on by the Doctors, given their reaction to him talking to Stiles and Lydia at Eichen House. In other news, it turns out the theory I briefly discussed on Tumblr here where I speculated that it was Scott, Allison and Stiles' surrogate sacrifice in "Alpha Pact," which reawakened the long-depowered Nemeton, is what brought the Dread Doctors back to Beacon Hills, so YES! Vindication! All this information just gives me further questions, though, as to what their deal is-- when was the last time the Dread Doctors were in town? Was Deaton in town then? If so, why didn't he recognize the Doctors' MO? Why are they insist on experimenting on teenagers? Does it go back to Stiles and Derek's theory that teenagers are more likely to survive being bitten and turned into a werewolf? Is Scott/the pack their endgame or just a means to an end? I feel like for every one answer we get to our questions, it just creates another dozen questions without answers.
Anyway, I'll stop summarizing and theorizing for now and instead get into the nitty-gritty details of what went down in this episode! So buckle in, babes, because this is going to be a long one.
Previously, on Teen Wolf: In AP Bio, Scott, Lydia, and Kira learned that in genetics, multiple species of DNA can be present in the same individual, leading Scott to realize that the man-made supernatural hybrids they've been running into, like Belasko and Tracy, are chimeras, or, as Scott described it, "creatures made of incongruous parts." And those two weren't the only ones-- there was another chimera, a teenage boy named Lucas who had been turned into a werewolf/scorpion hybrid that had lots of scorpion stingers with venom that caused a ton of agonizing pain to his little sort-of boyfriend, Corey, and landed him in the hospital. After Liam managed to knock Lucas out at the new LGBT club Sinema, Kira's inner kitsune flared up again and caused her to burst into foxfire and yell "I am the messenger of death!" in Japanese as she lunged at his unconscious body with her sword; had it not been for Scott's quick reflexes, she most certainly would have killed him. Ultimately, it didn't matter, though, because the Dread Doctors showed up and killed him themselves, proclaiming Lucas' condition to be terminal and informing the horrified Scott that Lucas was a "failure." Theo revealed himself (to the audience only) as working with the Dread Doctors, and didn't even really have to work that hard to convince the newly-chimera'd Donovan (who is part-wendigo and part something else) to go after Stiles in order to cause Sheriff devastating emotional pain, which is exactly what Donovan did-- when we left off last week, Donovan had just chomped down on Stiles' shoulder with his hand, which had just opened up to reveal a round mouth with wendigo-y teeth around the edges. Which is where we pick up today!
So, as I said in the previouslies, Donovan is just chomping away on Stiles' right shoulder with his hand-mouth as Stiles screams in agony and struggles to get out of his grip. Donovan grabs Stiles in a headlock from behind with his left arm while trying his best to eat Stiles' face with the mouth on the palm of his left hand, but we all know Stiles is the flailiest of people, so it's difficult for this wendigo-hybrid to get a good grip on him. Apparently, according to Cody Christian (who plays Theo) at San Diego Comic-Con, Donovan is part-wendigo and part-lamprey? And the lamprey mouths can apparently suck out your life-force or something, which is kind of weird, if I'm being honest-- I haven't heard of or read any myths involving supernatural lampreys, so it's possible that the Doctors are also making new werecreatures out of totally average animals? So strange! Anyway, so Stiles is trying his best to avoid getting eaten by those gross hand-mouths while desperately reaching for the wrench sitting on the hood of his Jeep, and just when it looks as though Stiles is about to be strangled to death, Stiles manages to do a backwards-headbutt right into Donovan's face, which makes a sickening cracking noise and causes Donovan to let go just long enough for Stiles to grab the wrench and backhand him across the face with it while he's already down. NICE FIGHT SKILLS, STILES! Way to channel the Nogitsune's ability to kick some damn ass! I seriously had flashbacks to Nogitsune!Stiles whooping Oliver upside the head with a drill pistol-whip-style at the end of "Echo House."
Applying pressure to his bitten shoulder with one hand, Stiles frantically runs toward the school, stopping only long enough to see how injured Donovan is before continuing inside. When he looks back, Donovan is just getting up onto his feet again and glaring at him with murder in his eyes, so Stiles is definitely on the clock, here and scampers away as quickly as possible. Once inside, Stiles starts to panic as he tries to figure out the best hiding place, and he manages to make it into a nearby hall to head toward the library before Donovan makes it through the entrance. He walks purposefully to a fork in the halls, and when he stops momentarily while he tries to figure out where Stiles would have gone, another round-mouth forms on his neck! UGH, I'M GOING TO PUKE. He chooses the right fork just as the camera cuts to Stiles, who has just made it to the front doors of the library, which, naturally, are locked. He tries his best to break through it, to no avail, and finally pulls out his library card and swipes it by the card reader to get inside. So, is this like an all-hours library inside the school? Why would they think that was a good idea? Why hasn't BHHS made it so that no one can be there after the school day is over, considering how many murders and other crimes have been committed there? And I thought the school system where I grew up in small-town Ohio was bad.
Once inside the library, Stiles desperately tries to catch his breath as he looks around the room for a good place to hide. He eventually climbs up the steps and hides at the end of a row of bookshelves, his wrench still clutched tightly in his hand. A moment later, Donovan finally makes it to the library, after having apparently found Stiles' library card when he dropped his phone and was able to open the doors, or maybe he has his own, I don't know-- is Donovan even a high school student? I figured he was older than the pack kids, but since Valack later says that the Dread Doctors only go after teenagers, he's probably a senior at the oldest. Anyway, he sees Stiles' wet footprints over the canvas tarp on the floor that the construction workers were using to renovate the library, and as he follows them, Stiles hears his phone buzz in Donovan's hands and immediately curses under his breath when he realizes that he lost it in the fight. "You dropped your phone," Donovan begins pleasantly, as he pulls the phone out of his pocket to look at it. "It's Malia-- should I text her back?" He silences the phone and pockets it again before deciding that it's time for him to pull a Theo and start villain-monologuing it up.
"You don't really know who I am, do you, Stiles?" he continues, as he looks around to try to figure out where Stiles is hiding. "Maybe you, uh, heard about my father?" Ohhhh, daddy issues. Who didn't see that coming? "Did your dad tell you about him? Did Sheriff Stilinski ever tell you about the time he was still Deputy, and his partner got caught in a shoot-out?" This seems to be news to Stiles, because he immediately narrows his eyes angrily as he tries to figure out where Donovan is going with this, but don't worry, Stiles-- he's going to make sure you know all the details. "Did he tell you a bullet shattered my dad's T9 vertebra? Went right through his spinal cord. You know what rthat means? It means everything below his waist is useless. And not just his legs." Ew, is he really talking about his dad's sex life right now, or is my mind just inappropriately going into the gutter again? Maybe we're just both creeps, then. "I bet he told you some of it," Donovan continues as he gets closer and closer to where Stiles is ducked behind a bookshelf on the second floor, his voice becoming louder and angrier the more he talks.
"But, I bet he probably left out the part where he was sitting in a car, calling for backup, while my dad was going in alone! Did he tell you that he was too scared? Too much of a frightened little bitch to go in after him? Or do scared little bitches not tell their little bitch sons about their failures?" Whoa, wait a minute-- is he actually mad that Sheriff had the sense to follow protocol and call for backup instead of running half-cocked into danger that they're not equipped to handle like his dad did? I mean, yeah, being paralyzed from a gunshot is seriously shitty, and I wouldn't wish that fate on anyone, but he had to have known something like that could happen, right? From what I understand about law enforcement, partners are supposed to look out for each other, and it probably would have behooved Donovan's dad to have stayed behind with Sheriff instead of running in alone. I feel like that sounds really victim-blamey, and I'm not intending it to sound that way at all, but police officers have protocols for a reason, and it's when they ignore those protocols that this kind of things happen.
Anyway, as you can probably guess, Stiles is getting that mutinous expression on his face that he gets when people are talking shit to or about his loved ones-- think the look on his face when Brunski was forcing Lydia to listen to the tape of her grandmother getting murdered in "Perishable"-- and it's taking everything in him to not just jump out of the corner and straight-up murder him with his wrench. "About how they put their partner in a wheelchair for the rest of their life?" Just then, Stiles looks up and sees Donovan walk up the staircase on the opposite side of the huge library onto what I guess is the third story, and is instantly lulled into a false sense of security by thinking that he has time to bolt before Donovan even knows he's gone. He slowly walks out of his hiding spot and looks up at the floor above him as he hears Donovan's footsteps overhead, stupidly turning his back to the bookshelf beside him.
So, naturally, when Stiles stops and realizes he no longer hears footsteps, it takes all of a second for Donovan to suddenly appear on the other side of the bookshelf, shove his hand-mouths through the shelf and latch onto his shoulders and neck again. HOW DID HE DO THAT? Do wendigo-lamprey chimeras have superspeed like the vampires in TVD? Did he jump down without Stiles noticing? Did he have a double to confuse Stiles into thinking he was upstairs? Am I even supposed to ask? Stiles once again starts writhing as he tries to avoid being chomped on by the hand-mouths and breaks out of Donovan's grip, but Donovan pulls him backward so hard that he's literally pulled through the shelf, which crumples into a pile of broken wood and books and knocks Stiles off his feet, causing him to drop his wrench on the ground. Donovan then grabs him by the shoulders and lifts him up so he can push him up against the nearby scaffolding in the middle of the room. Just when it looks like Donovan's gonna chomp down on him again, Stiles yelps in frustration as he elbows Donovan so hard that he's thrown off of him and onto the floor. Wow, that was a really fierce elbow, much more forceful than I would have expected from him. Is this just adrenaline-induced fighting prowess, another continuity error, or a clue of some kind that something weird is going on? Or have I just been reading too many "Stiles is something!" metas on Tumblr? Probably the last one, let's be real.
Anyway, Donovan roars at the top of his lungs in anger, baring his wendigo fangs, and since Stiles is at a loss for places to go to get away from him are limited, his panicked brain decides the best course of action is to climb up the scaffolding. Why? I have no idea, honestly, but he does it, though not quickly enough-- Donovan ends up recovering within moments and grabs onto Stiles' ankle as he climbs the metal railings. "Don't worry, Stiles!" Donovan says in a fake-nice voice. "I'm not going to kill you..." His voice takes on a deep, echo-y tone when he adds, "I'm just going to eat your legs!" and hisses at him as his eyes turn the glowing white of a wendigo. WHOA, THAT WAS NOT HOW HIS EYES LOOKED BEFORE. What happened to the silver eyes? Are we ever going to find out? I'm going to guess not, considering Donovan's fate. Despite his tight grip on Stiles' calf, Stiles manages to climb up a few more rungs, which is when he spots the metal pin holding the shelf on the top in place and gets a Stiles Plan (TM).
After what feels like an eternity of struggling while Donovan does his best to feed on Stiles' gastrocnemius muscle, Stiles finally manages to reach the loop at the end of the pin and pull it out of its slot, causing the shelf full of metal pipes and other support beams falls over his head and onto Donovan below him. Stiles, having braced himself against the scaffolding as the materials fell, pauses for a moment before realizing that no one is pulling on his leg anymore, so he looks down and finds to his horror that Donovan has been impaled through the chest with one of the long metal pipes! OH SHIT! A huge puddle of blood has already developed on the canvas drop sheet underneath him, and he coughs up even more onto his face and neck as his body stays upright only thanks to the pole impaling him.
Stiles is clearly distraught about this outcome, since he didn't exactly want to kill him, he just wanted to stop him long enough to save himself. Plus, this is the first time he's ever fatally wounded someone while in full control of his body and mind, as opposed to all the people who died at his hands while he was possessed by the Nogitsune, so it's kind of a big deal. He quickly climbs down the scaffolding and slowly makes his way to Donovan to take the pipe out of his chest, but when he grabs onto the pole, Donovan hisses in pain and anger as his eyes roll back into his head just before he dies, causing his body to go limp. YIKES YIKES YIKES. The camera pans to the end of the pipe that is propping up his body against the floor, which is surrounded by coffee-grounds-esque blood as the same silver goop Tracy was throwing up starts to ooze into the puddle as well. That stuff is seriously bad news! Stiles starts panting in fear and horror when he realizes the gravity of what he's just done, and is about thisclose to a panic attack as he tries to figure out how he's going to deal with this situation. Eeeeeeep! TITLE CARD!
When we return, we see one of those audio visualizers that bounce around in response to the sound of voices, in this case, the voice of the 911 dispatcher who answered the call Stiles placed from the library's phone, though he doesn't reply to anything she says. The dispatcher asks him twice to state his emergency, and when she doesn't get any response from him aside from heavy breathing, she reminds him that it's a line for emergencies only, and if he doesn't have an emergency, he should hang up. After another beat of silence, a deputy in the background asks her if she wants him to send a car out, so she informs him that the call originated from Beacon Hills High School, so the man agrees to check to see if there's anyone on patrol in the area before the dispatcher hangs up. Stiles, looking absolutely overwhelmed in every way, gently places the land-line phone onto its cradle with blood-soaked hands while I shout, "STILES, WIPE YOUR FUCKING FINGERPRINTS OFF OF EVERYTHING" to him in the background.
Unfortunately, like everyone else on the TV shows I watch, they don't listen to me, and Stiles instead just looks around frantically to figure out what he should do from here. He looks over at Donovan's body, still impaled on the metal bar that went right through his chest, and this weird and very familiar sound effect is played at the exact same time. It took me a moment to figure out from where I recognized it, but then it hit me-- it's the same noise that played when Jennifer healed Derek's wounds in "Motel California" after they had "Oh, you almost died and I sort of saved your life and I'm not afraid of you" sexytimes. Callbacks to previous seasons is pretty much the theme of Season 5 so far (bringing back kanimas from Season 2, wendigos from Season 4, a shot of the Beast of Gévaudan page of the bestiary, which was from Season 1, the Nemeton from Season 3A and 3B, etc), I don't know why I'm even surprised, but I'm hoping that this doesn't mean that Donovan isn't actually dead, because he's kind of a jerk.
Anyway, Stiles' next instinct is to just bolt, but when he's opens the doors to the main entrance a crack, he realizes that he doesn't want to be caught on camera (as though cameras in the school have actually been an issue for them afterSeason 2) and backs up so he can go out the side entrance. Before he leaves, though, his phone starts to buzz in Donovan's hoodie pocket, and Stiles realizes that he's going to have to go retrieve it, lest the cops find it on him and get suspicious. I still don't understand why he won't just tell his friends, but I'll get into that more in a little bit. So, he scampers back over to Donovan's body and quickly yanks it out, which shows just how much Stiles has been desensitized since Season 1-- Bb Stiles would have been way too squeamish to be rifling around in a dead person's pockets. When Stiles checks his phone, he sees that it's Malia calling him for at least the second time in the last hour or so and instantly hits "ignore," which was the wrong move, if you ask me. If anyone would understand what Stiles is going through right now, it's Malia, and she definitely wouldn't be judging him, even if he wasn't the most understanding person when the Tracy thing happened.
Upon seeing that Donovan's eyes are still cracked open and staring at him judgmentally, Stiles bolts for the side doors and makes his way to the parking lot across the street from the school, where he left his Jeep with the hood up. Stiles manages to get the battery working again pretty quickly and wastes no time jumping back into the vehicle so he can get the fuck out of there, but once he's inside and the car has successfully started up, he starts getting second thoughts about what he's doing and has a silent battle inside his head while he tries to determine what to do next. To be completely honest with you, the fandom's obsession with Dylan O'Brien at the expense of the other actors (*coughTylerPoseyCrystalReedShelleyHennigArdenChoDylanSprayberrycoughcough*) who also put out great work has kind of burned me out on him a little bit, but it's scenes like this that remind me that he really is a very talented actor-- he has little to no dialogue in the entire first ten minutes of this episode, but you can still easily read what Stiles is going through just by his anxious panting and facial expressions alone. So, good job yet again, Dylan! Sorry I'm a spiteful asshole who can get annoyed by people who over-hype things. I promise it isn't personal.
For the next minute or so, Stiles pretty much has a silent panic attack, runs his hands anxiously through his hair, worriedly drums his hands against the steering wheel, and processes a multitude of different reactions until he's stunned into immobility by the sound of approaching sirens as the policeman on patrol comes to check out the school. After another unbearably long couple of moments, he ultimately decides to back his car up into the shadows, duck down in his seat so the deputies can't see him from across the street and wait it out to see what they do when they find the body. The cop parks and departs from his vehicle, taking a quick look around outside before heading into the school to investigate. Waiting to figure out what's going on is literally unbearable for our Stiles, who has another silent mental breakdown in the car by beating his blood-soaked hands on the steering wheel until he sees the cop come back outside and immediately freaks out at the sight of him going back to radio something back to the station. Naturally, Stiles has a police radio in his Jeep, so he quickly turns it on to hear what they have to say. "I'm 10-97, and there's no one here," the officer tells the dispatcher. "It's a 653." For the audience's benefit, the dispatcher expositions that a 653 means a prank call before instructing the deputy to get back onto his patrol.
This is understandably confusing for Stiles, because I mean, we all saw the mess he left in there, between the blood and the knocked over construction materials and Donovan's body literally skewered on a piece of metal, so the fact that it managed to escape the deputy's notice is not a good thing. Against his better judgment, Stiles decides to go back into the school to see what happened as soon as the police officer has left. He flings open the doors to the library and is completely stunned to see that the body is gone, and everything has been neatly cleaned up-- the bloodied tarp has been removed, the pieces of metal and pipes have been stacked up against the scaffolding, and all in all, there is absolutely no sign that involuntary manslaughter has happened whatsoever. So, Stiles is super confused, and I honestly don't blame him, because there are about a million explanations for what happened, which Stiles will run down in a moment, including but not limited to: Stiles hallucinated the whole thing; the fight actually did happen, but Donovan didn't actually die; or Donovan did actually die, but someone took the body. He doesn't know that the pack got confirmation that the Dread Doctors Malia saw kill Tracy are actually real, but maybe he is still considering it as an option, I don't know.
This gives Stiles a problem, though, because he's choosing not to tell anyone what happened, and since the body is gone, that means at least one person knows that he's dead, so now Stiles has to worry about whether he's going crazy, if someone knows what he did, if Donovan is actually still alive and going to be coming after him even harder later, or a bunch of equally terrifying scenarios. Definitely a stressful situation, and it would probably be better if he just told someone what was going on, wouldn't you say? I mean, Scott holds supernaturals to a higher standard than humans, since they have powers they need to use responsibly, so I doubt he'd get mad about Stiles having to hurt someone in self-defense and accidentally kill him in the process. I mean, he saw the way Donovan was acting around Sheriff, heard the threats against his life, plus Donovan was turned into a wendigo who could have eaten Stiles alive! I know Scott is very intent on his no-kill policy, especially with regards to the chimeras, who he sees as being innocent in this, but I highly doubt Scott would be upset about this, when he knows that Donovan had a grudge against the Stilinskis and knows Donovan's death was only a result of Stiles trying to hurt him enough to give him time to run the fuck away. Of course, now the fact that Stiles didn't tell Scott and the others about it when it happened is definitely going to be an issue in the future, because eventually they're going to learn that Donovan's dead and have no idea how it happened, but that's a whole different story entirely.
And I digress yet again. Anyway, so Stiles frantically looks around the room for any evidence of his fight with Donovan, but all he can find is a lone drop of blood that is clinging to one of the metal bars propped up against the scaffolding; when he reaches out and touches it with his fingers, his eyes widen in horror, like, "OH SHIT, THAT ACTUALLY FUCKING HAPPENED."
It's now 5:30AM, and Scott and Kira are both entwined in Scott's bed at the McCall house after presumably having fallen asleep while cuddling on top of the covers. After a moment, Kira starts whispering, "Watashi wa shi no shishada. Watashi wa shi no shishada" in her sleep, which we know from last week's episode means "I am the messenger of death," and which wakes Scott up and visibly starts to worry him quite a bit, considering how weird she's been acting lately. He continues to watch her mumble restlessly for a moment until his phone starts beeping on the bedside table, forcing him to reach over Kira to grab it and waking Kira up in the process. Also, I feel compelled to point out that there is a deck of playing cards on the table next to his phone-- it's likely nothing, but given what was going on with Jordan and the cards in the last episode, I don't want to shrug it off in case it really does become important later.
Anyway, when Kira weakly asks him what's wrong, Scott's eyes widen in alarm as he skims through the alert pop up on the screen of his phone, which reads, "BEACON HILLS ANIMAL CLINIC: ALARM TRIPPED" and informs her that someone has broken into the animal clinic. YIKES! Looks like we've reached that part of the season where literally everything goes wrong at the exact same time and they're scrambling to figure out what to focus on first, which is going to be stressful for all of us. I was about to be like, "Why isn't Deaton the one getting these alerts?" but then I remembered that Deaton left to Gods know where to do whatever druid-y mojo necessary to figure out what the hell is going on. Hopefully he's back soon!
We then meet back up with Stiles, who has just returned home and is trying to puzzle out what the fuck just happened to him at the school. He grabs his oil pencil and writes "Donovan not dead. Walked out," onto his crime board before stopping and pacing around a little bit. After thinking for a moment, he adds, "Donovan dead" to the list and starts anxiously wiping his brow with a shaking hand. Finally, he writes, "Someone took the body" underneath it, and after looking at the board and processing all of this, he literally looks as though he's about to cry or jump out the window or something. It's seriously bad news, at any rate, and he definitely knows it, because he then grabs his dry eraser and scrubs the writing off the board before anyone can see it. Once it's gone, he becomes so overwhelmed that he once again angrily punches at the board and yelps loudly, which I think is the third time this season that he's become so frustrated/angry/scared/overwhelmed that he actually resorted to physical violence.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that Stiles' nerves are definitely fraying, here, guys, which would be worrisome on its own if everyone else in the pack weren't similarly close to their own breakdowns, which they're all keeping from each other and I don't know whyyyy. THE MCCALL PACK NEEDS TO REMEMBER FULL DISCLOSURE, BECAUSE KEEPING SECRETS HAS NEVER WORKED OUT WELL. Stiles even told Liam not three episodes ago, "It's always better when they know" when he was trying to convince him to tell Mason the truth about the supernatural, so the fact that literally everyone seems to have forgotten that this week is seriously frustrating. Also, where is Sheriff? Shouldn't he be wondering why his son is loudly yelling and punching things at 5:30AM? Just curious. Anyway, Stiles leans against the board and catches his breath for a moment before remember that whoops, he totally got bitten by a wendigo/lamprey chimera's hand-mouth on his shoulder, and he winces as he rubs his right shoulder blade and begins to worry about the implications of that little revelation. Pleeeease don't turn into a wendigo, Stiles! I might just die.
Stiles' freak-out is eventually interrupted by the sound of his phone ringing, which scares him so badly that he about jumps out of his skin before he digs into his pocket to retrieve it. When he sees that it's Scott, he ultimately answers it, though it's clear that his panic levels are at critical mass while he does so out of fear that Scott already knows the truth about what happened. "Stiles! Someone's taking the bodies!" Scott exclaims without greeting, and Stiles breathes a silent sigh of relief that he at least has that answer as he runs his hands anxiously through his hair, but when he doesn't respond right away, Scott gets concerned and asks him if he's still there, so Stiles puts on his best fake-fine voice and shakily tells him that he is before asking him what the hell he's talking about. "I'm at the animal clinic with Kira," Scott explains quickly. "Tracy's body is gone. The lock on the door was broken from the outside." We cut briefly to the animal clinic, where Scott and Kira are standing next to the front entrance, where the chain and padlock wrapped around the door's handles has been broken off. "And, my mom just told me Lucas' body went missing from the morgue. They've been searching the whole hospital for it. Someone's stealing the bodies," Scott continues urgently to a very stressed Stiles. YIKES!
And we all know who that thief is-- our very own Jordan Parrish, who is in his civvies (dark jeans, a tshirt, and a black leather jacket) and has just parked his SUV near the nature preserve and is walking around to the trunk, where Donovan's bloodied body has been stashed. Given the stiff way Jordan is walking, combined with the dead-eyed expression on his face, I maintain that Jordan has absolutely no idea what he's doing, and that this isn't a conscious action on his part, but I admit that I could just be in denial because I desperately do not want Jordan to be a bad guy. :( Just as Price Peterson, one of my favorite recappers, is intent to trust Theo because of his beauty, I am intent to trust Jordan because of his beauty and kindness.
Jordan reaches down to pick Donovan up and starts walking toward the Nemeton, and as he does so, his eyes glow their usual flame-colored hue, just so we haven't forgotten that he's some kind of supernatural. We don't actually see him burn the body, though, so Donovan could possibly still be alive, but it seems kind of doubtful, as pointed out to me by dearest Wendy, given what Stiles sees in Eichen House later. Also, on a random note, do you think Jordan inadvertently burns off his clothes every time he does this? Or does he strip first? If it's the former, that seems pretty wasteful, not to mention expensive. Does he have a closet full of black leather jackets like Damon Salvatore? Why isn't he wearing pajamas like normal people do at dawn?
As usual, I have WAY too many questions, but I also have four-ish theories as to what's going on with Jordan, ranging from what I believe is most likely scenario to the least likely:
Anyway, when we come back, it's the next day, and Malia and Lydia are walking into the school while "Thinkin' of U" by Summer Heart plays in the background. Malia has brought the book she found in Tracy's room with her and given it to Lydia, who reads the title aloud, frowning and stopping in her tracks when she sees the Doctors on the cover. Malia, ever the observant one, notices Lydia's uneasiness and asks her about it, but Lydia just replies, "I don't know. There's just something about it..." Um, maybe that you hallucinated them while you were being anesthetized for your surgery? Just a hunch. Lydia asks Malia if anyone has actually read the book yet, but apparently only Malia has. YES! And people say she isn't smart! I mean, the book doesn't look like it's that long, but she still read it in only a few hours, so color me impressed. Lydia suggests that they all read it, but as it turns out, Kira is already working on that. We cut briefly to the library, where Kira is making half a dozen copies of the book, presumably with an already-copied version, considering Lydia is holding the only print version of the book that allegedly exists. After the last page prints, Scott chirps, "Done?" and Kira confirms that they're finished. She then gives an awkward and apologetic smile to the librarian, who puts up an "OUT OF INK" sign on the copier. Oh, those kids! That librarian must be so confused as to why so many of these kids are interested in a sci-fi novel about creepy steampunk-costumed physicians.
Back in the hallway, Lydia is leaning against the wall of lockers and examining the book while Malia gathers up her books for class and explains that Stiles looked up the author's name and didn't find anything, so they're assuming it's a pen name. Lydia flips to the back cover and starts reading the plot synopsis aloud. "In a small New England town, teenagers are taken in the night and buried alive. Days later, they emerge transformed, wreaking havoc and spreading terror, commanded by an ancient order of parascientists known only as the Dread Doctors." Welp, that's interesting! And terrifying. So is all the chaos the Doctors are spreading by setting a bunch of man-made supernatural hybrids loose onto the town intentional, then? And did they terrorize a New England town, too, or did the author just change the minor details to better hide his own identity? I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS. Lydia points out that it sounds vaguely familiar and asks how the story ends, but Malia just shrugs and points out that it doesn't, since this book was the first volume of a series. "Oh, let me guess... there is no volume two?" Lydia asks sarcastically in response, but Malia figures they're living volume two as they speak, which is a seriously terrifying thought. Lydia considers this for a moment before asking what she believes is the real question-- "Is this a novel, or someone's prediction?" I'm gonna go with both on this one, which is also not comforting in the slightest.
Meanwhile, back in the library, Kira and Scott are getting ready to leave while Scott explains his current theory, which is that the Dread Doctors aren't the ones stealing the bodies. Kira adorably quips, "Are we really calling them that?" but Scott gets back to the point, which is that it doesn't make sense that they would kill someone, like Tracy or Lucas, and then walk away without doing or hurting anyone else, so why would they do that and then come back for the bodies later? They wouldn't, basically. Kira gets what Scott is putting down and agrees with him that someone else must be taking them, but reminds him that they bodies aren't just bodies, they're the Dread Doctors' failures-- so, if the scary chimeras they've met so far have all turned out to be failures, then what is a success going to look like? My guess is something like Theo, probably? But I'm no chimera expert, so don't quote me on that.
Scott is in total agreement that it's most likely something seriously bad and is about to head out the door when he suddenly catches a whiff of something and stops to process it. When Kira asks him what's wrong, Scott just frowns for a moment and narrows his eyes to try to locate the source of the smell before admitting he thought he smelled blood. He pauses for another beat, but when he can't pinpoint it, he shrugs it off and adds, "I don't know. Maybe not," though it's clear that he's still unnerved by it. Man, being a werewolf in high school would be so rough. Can you imagine all the gross stuff they must have to smell constantly? Blech! Also, this scene brought another hilarious topic of discussion to Tumblr, which is that werewolves and other creatures with heightened senses of smell can probably smell when girls are on their period, which is likely awkward as hell but also excellent opportunities to be a good boyfriend or girlfriend. And, as we all know, Scott McCall is literally the best boyfriend.
In an uncharacteristically unwise move, Scott has brought a copy of the Dread Doctors book to the locker room, where he's handed it over to Theo and asked him if he knows anything about it. "Sorry, but I'd never even heard of a kanima until a few days ago," Theo admits kindly, as though he has truly never heard about all of these creatures despite the fact that he's totally working for the Doctors. When he asks Scott if he wants him to read the book, Scott acknowledges that it'd be a good idea, but he's only one chapter into it himself so he can't tell him much about it yet. Noticing how determined Scott is, Theo correctly deduces that getting involved in supernatural messes is kind of something Scott and the pack do a lot, which gets nothing but a humble shrug and a "Yeah, I guess" out of our Scott. After flipping through the pages of the print-out, Theo gets the idea to talk to the author of the book, since it seems like he knows what he's talking about, but Scott informs him that they already tried it and got nowhere. That's when Theo sees an acknowledgement on the last page and gets an idea. "What about this guy?"
Cut to the math classroom, where Malia notices that Lydia (who is sitting right behind her) has just read something that has caused her heart to race anxiously. When she asks her what's up, Lydia flips the book around to her and tells her to read the "Acknowledgements" page, which Malia does aloud-- "For providing scientific perspective and invaluable insight..."
Back in the locker room, Scott's eyes widen in surprise as he finishes reading the acknowledgement aloud to Theo-- "...This book is dedicated to Dr. Gabriel Valack." When he recognizes the familiar name on the exact same page, he starts to get excited about finally finding a decent lead. Theo frowns in confusion and asks him if he knows the guy, so Scott exclaims that he does before admitting that he also knows where to find him. Oh, shit! Eichen House trip ahoy! That will surely not end in disaster of any kind.
Sure enough, the Dread Doctors are all hanging out in their secret creepy lab when a familiar male voice calls out, "The book worked" as he rushes down the stairs to join them. It's Theo, of course, with a smug-ass grin on his smug-ass face to keep reminding us all that he's totally evil. "And now they're going to see Valack," Theo adds, as the Genetist, who has a little flap on the back of its head that puffs in and out and probably has something to do with their breathing, perks up in interest. "They're going tonight," Theo adds in satsifaction. Whyyyyy must all the people with angel faces on this show become mega-villains? Jackson? Jennifer? Garrett? Now Theo too? The only notable exception is Scott/Tyler Posey, of course, who is a celestial being made of pure sunshine and rainbows and literally does not have a mean or evil bone in his body whatsoever. Anyway, the Dread Doctors look about as excited as they can get while wearing like five tons of clockwork on their person, and the Surgeon robotically grunts, "To Eichen!" before looking over at the tank, where some scary, scarred and bloated-looking creature of some kind is floating around in one of those tanks of yellow fluid with a scuba mask over their face. Yay, more nightmares! What the hell IS that thing? If they do that to any of the members of the pack, I will seriously riot.
Speaking of Eichen, the camera cuts over to Eichen House, where Valack, who seems to already be aware that he's about to have visitors, wraps his dirty gauze bandage around his head/third eye before turning around and smirking to himself as he waits for the kids to arrive. So, he's definitely got some kind of clairvoyant powers, yeah? He seems to have seen all kinds of events that have not actually happened yet, and it's weirding me out. More on that later.
I'm guessing it's after school now, because Lydia is now standing in Stiles' bedroom while he gets dressed and sasses her about how he's most definitely going with her, whether she likes it or not. (Also, Stiles has four framed pictures on the wall by his window, which look like x-rays or photo-negatives of someone making weird faces at the camera, and it's seriously freaking me out. Hopefully that doesn't have any special meaning, because YIKES!) Lydia points out that she was under the impression that he was sick, since he skipped school today, but Stiles claims he's just slightly under the weather. When Lydia reminds him that he doesn't have to come, since Malia's not going either, Stiles snits, "Malia's not going because she knows that place is a nightmare asylum of insanity and death, okay?" An accurate and succinct synopsis, Stiles! They should all be on edge with regards to going back to that place, because it is a terrifying hell-hole and nothing good ever happens there. Anyway, while Stiles talks, he finishes getting dressed by slipping on his hoodie, but, of course, his right shoulder is still hurt from being bitten, and he's unable to hold back a groan of pain as he gently slides his injured arm into his sleeve.
Lydia, ever the observant one, just like Malia, totally notices the pained expression on his face, and when Stiles insists that they need to get ready to go, Lydia instead stays put and points out that he winced before asking him what that's all about about. Rather than telling Lydia the truth, which would have been the smart course of action, he lies his ass off and claims he has a bad elbow. Lydia squints at him suspiciously and tells him that it was actually his shoulder, and Stiles, not in the mood for an interrogation, just yelps, "Pain radiates! It does that!" before heading for the door, only for Lydia to slide in front of him and block his path. He's pretty eager not to be forced to confess what happened to him in the last twenty-four hours, though, so he turns the topic of conversation back to Eichen House.
"You're not going without me," Stiles maintains, clearly frustrated. "You remember what happened to Deaton when he talked to Valack?" Lydia assures him that she'll be fine because Scott and Kira will be there, but Stiles will not be deterred, you guys! "Okay, I'm not letting you go to a place where one of the orderlies almost killed you!" Lydia, knowing Stiles is just grasping for straws here, reminds him that Brunski totally tried to kill him too, not to mention that he's very much dead thanks to Jordan's timely intervention, but Stiles doesn't give a fuck about that-- "And we're both still alive! See? Teamwork," he insists, which apparently wears Lydia down enough to begrudgingly stop arguing. Man, when Stiles is stressed, he channels all of that anxiety into paranoia and stubbornness, which is both entertaining for us and also incredibly worrisome for everyone.
Over at the McCall house, Scott and Kira have returned after school to collect their things before they leave for Eichen House with Stiles and Lydia. They are looking around the room for Kira's belt, which Scott can't find anywhere, and when Kira replies, "I left it here, I know I did. When we woke up, you said, 'Don't forget your belt.'" Scott frowns in confusion and asks if she's sure, because he doesn't remember saying that. YIKES. Okay, so is this just a simple way to segue into Kira's grumpiness about Scott's impromptu confession of love in the previous episode, or is this a hint that something shady is going on? Did Kira think Scott said it, but it was really her inner kitsune spirit. or some kind of Dread Doctor manipulation on her part, or is the fact that Scott can't remember due to him having been messed with by the Doctors? I am so worried for the pack members, you guys, because as of now, we have no idea how many of them have been compromised, or which ones, so I feel like I'm questioning every little example of weirdness in any of them as some hint that they're not totally themselves.
Regardless, this makes Kira a little crankier, and causes her to mutter a passive-aggressive "You don't remember saying a lot of things" under her breath, which just makes Scott chuckle nervously and ask his girlfriend what the hell that's supposed to mean. Kira totally loses her nerve, though, and instead just sits on the bed and claims that he should just forget about it. Scott gets that really concerned look on his face that he gets a lot these days and kneels so he can look at Kira face-to-face and ask her if she's doing okay. "Can you do me a favor?" Kira replies, not answering the question.
"Can you look at me with your eyes?" Scott, bless his beautiful heart, just smiles at her and kindly reminds her that he totally is, but Kira means his wolf eyes, and stands to her feet before she instructs him to just tell her what he sees. Scott sighs and stands back a few paces before flashing his red eyes at her, and you can tell that what he sees shocks him a bit before we even get to see it.
Sure enough, when we look at Kira through Scott's eyes, we see her aura is the same as we've seen in in "Dreamcatchers" and "Condition Terminal," which is much larger than it looked when we first saw it in "Illuminated" all those episodes ago-- back then, it just looked like a bipedal fox who was only slightly bigger and more muscular than she was, and it wasn't so much fiery as it was glowy. Now, it literally looks as though Kira has burst into flames and is at least a foot taller than she she is and twice as wide, with bulging muscles, and a face that looks more like a panther than a fox due to its larger and shorter snout. Also, not only do Kira's own eyes look like they're glowing orange-pink even despite the fact that she's not in kitsune-mode, but her aura's eyes are fully that color, with no discernible irises or pupils or anything. To make matters even weirder, Kira's own arms are just hanging limply by her sides, not moving at all, but the left arm of her fox aura raises itself of its own accord and points under Scott's bed, where Kira's katana-belt buckle is peeking out from underneath one of Scott's gym bags.
YIKES! It's clear that Kira and her kitsune spirit are operating mostly independently right now, with Kira being controlled by it in times of intense adrenaline rushes or general emotional upheaval, so the fact that it seems to even know things Kira doesn't, like the location of Kira's magic katana-belt, is definitely not a good sign. (On an only tangentially related note, I'm still so curious as to how Kira made her katana into a belt-- the katana blade now has small squares punched throughout the center so it looks like a chain when it's fully extended into a sword, but when it's just a belt, it looks like it's made out of solid, matte-silver chunks with no holes whatsoever. Is this kitsune magic at play that is glamouring the sword into a belt? Did Noshiko help her make it? Is she giving Kira kitsune lessons? If so, then where has she been while Kira has been muttering/shouting about being the messenger of death and almost killing man-made chimera teenagers?)
Kira sees the worried look on Scott's face and asks him if he saw something off, but Scott just blinks the crimson from his eyes and forces himself to smile at her before telling her that he found her belt as he kneels and picks it up for her. "Everything else is fine," Scott lies, because that's apparently the pack's theme of the week, as he watches her buckle her belt around her hips. I think Kira knows something is up, both with her and with Scott, but she just smiles weakly as Scott asks her if she's ready to go before they head out the door. OH MY GOD JUST CONFESS THE TRUTH ALREADY YOU GUYS, THIS IS A BAD IDEA ON SO MANY LEVELS. And just when we thought they had finally grasped the concept of full disclosure! Obviously, Scott is just trying to protect Kira and/or doesn't want to heap more stress on her when they already have a ton of shit on their plate as it is, which is totally understandable, but Kira just really needs to go to her mom and ask her what's up with her already.
I feel like since Kira has a human father and a (still unknown type of) kitsune mother-- who is not only ancient, but also was in a human form when she conceived Kira-- her life and abilities are going to be different from the usual kitsune, since from what we've learned in Season 3B, kitsunes can't take a human form until they're least a hundred years old, and Kira has clearly not been alive that long. She probably gets her human form early because of her human heritage through her father, so who knows what this means for her in terms of her powers? Besides never getting sick, Kira didn't have full access to her abilities until a year ago or so-- her aura didn't show up (or, at least, Kira didn't know about it) until a few months before she moved to Beacon Hills; her foxfire/lightning ability came out instinctively when she was about to be electrocuted in "Galvanize;" her heightened agility, speed, and innate skill at using weapons slowly began to manifest themselves after she learned what she really was (and maybe they were even enhanced by the Nemeton once she got to Beacon Hills? Who knows), and she had to learn how to consciously activate her regenerative healing ability in the heat of the moment after berserker!Scott stabbed her in "Smoke & Mirrors."
Basically, it seems like Kira is pretty unique as far as kitsune are concerned, and that could be why she seems to be locked in a battle between herself and her kitsune spirit, because gaining her first tail sparked the spirit within her, and the fact that she is a new spirit seems to have made them two separate entities instead of being one whole spirit. Much like Scott had to learn to come to terms with being a werewolf instead of a human who just happened to have abilities he could use to his advantage, I'm going to go ahead and guess that Kira's situation will require her to become one with her kitsune spirit instead of treating it as something different from herself. I love Kira so much, and I am so glad she is finally getting a major story line of her own!
Anyway, it's dark out now, and the four of them have just made it to Eichen House, where the girls are trying to get someone to let them in using the front buzzer, to no avail. Scott and Stiles have hung back and are leaning against the Jeep when Scott asks Stiles if he's going to be okay in there. Stiles immediately gets suspicious and assures him that he will before asking him why he asks, so Scott just shrugs and replies, "You seem a little off." Stiles, clearly sensing all the weirdness they're experiencing lately, just retorts, "I think we're all a little off," with which Scott totally agrees, especially when he looks over at Kira and adds, "Maybe some of us more than others." We all know by now that Stiles loves a good excuse to turn the subject away from himself when he's hiding something, so he asks Scott what happened, and we finally have a little honesty happening, even if it's only from Scott's end.
"When the other chimera, Lucas... When he came after us, I heard Kira say something in Japanese." Stiles frowns in confusion, but still states that a little Japanese speaking doesn't sound that bad, even after Scott points out that Kira doesn't actually know any Japanese. Stiles still doesn't think that can be considered terrible, considering all the other shit currently going on right now, so Scott gets to the most worrisome part, which is that he's pretty sure that he ended up stopping her from straight-up killing Lucas all together. Of course, this speaks to Stiles' current situation, since he did just kill Donovan for more or less the same reason, so he tries to test the waters a little bit to see if he can make his confession with the least amount of drama possible.
That said, I think Stiles, and occasionally some of the others, need to understand that killing should be a last resort and not a quick and easy fix. As I already discussed in "Dreamcatchers," if Stiles (and Derek, Isaac, and occasionally Malia) had had his(/their) way, Derek, Cora, Boyd, Lydia, Malia, and Liam would all be dead (or, in Boyd's case, dead much earlier than he was ultimately killed), and I'm pretty sure none of them would want that. Especially since the aforementioned occasional-murder-advocates know first-hand what it's like to be influenced by supernatural urges you don't have any control over, and should know that they're victims to something they don't understand. Besides, in this specific case that they're discussing, Lucas was already neutralized, because Liam had knocked him out-- he wasn't a danger to Scott, Kira, or anyone anymore, (and even if he was, Kira is a supernatural with great fighting skills and had the means to protect herself) so there was still an opportunity to save him.
Stiles' situation was much different, because 1) Donovan had a vendetta against Sheriff Stilinski that long preceded his transformation into a wendigo/lamprey hybrid, 2) Stiles is more or less human, so he doesn't have the enhanced abilities to defend himself without killing them like the werecreatures do, 3) Donovan was literally going to eat him, so he was in a life-or-death situation, and 4) Stiles wasn't intending to kill Donovan, he was just trying to buy himself some time to get away. If Stiles had been honest with Scott from the beginning, I have full confidence that he would have been okay with it, because it wasn't intentional and there was nothing else Stiles could have done, aside from becoming a meal to a hungry wendigo and ending up mauled at best and dead at worst. But now, between either/both of them being messed with by the Doctors, Theo's shadiness and manipulation, and Stiles having tried to hide Donovan's death from everyone, Scott is probably going to be a lot more hurt by it than he would have ordinarily been, especially since Scott is already insecure enough about his leadership abilities as it is. I am so dreading that fight, to be honest, but it's coming, and probably sooner than we think. :(
Anyway, someone inside eventually buzzes them in, and they walk up the front steps to go inside, stopping briefly and looking backward in fear when the gates slam shut behind them. Yup, that's no ominous at all. When they get inside, the creepy sadist man-nurse who was stabbing Lydia with needles in "Creatures of the Night" is at the front desk, and when he sees them, he pushes several plastic containers toward the kids and instructs them to empty their pockets into it. Scott tries to explain that they're there to see Valack, but the creepy nurse just cuts him off and repeats his earlier request, forcing the kids to do as they're told and put their phones, keys, and purses into the baskets.
The man notices Kira's belt and orders her to put it in as well, but since it is also secretly her main weapon, Kira just awkwardly replies, "I kind of need the belt. I mean, it's crucial to the outfit." BAHAHAHA. Kira, I love you so fucking much, oh my gods. The creeper nurse reminds Kira that if she wears it in there, a patient will probably steal it to strangle themselves or others, so Kira gulps nervously and reluctantly puts the belt in the containers as well. Just then, the guy notices Lydia's presence and starts to stare at her in the most skin-crawlingly creepy fashion, which is immediately noticed by Stiles and puts him into a mood while Lydia just stares at the floor and hopes the guy gets over himself quickly. Just as the guy is about to lock up their belongings until they return for them, Stiles glances over at the container and is horrified to see that mixed with the wallet and keys Stiles threw in there is the pin to the scaffolding that he used to drop all that metal on Donovan last night. SHIT SHIT SHIT. He starts to panic and looks around a bit to make sure no one is putting the pieces together (which is impossible, considering they have no idea that Donovan even attacked Stiles in the first place), while also processing the fact that nope, he didn't dream or hallucinate that encounter in the library-- it totally happened.
Fortunately for him, the rest of them don't even have time to notice the pin whatsoever, because Dr. Fenris (who you may recall is played by Tyler Posey's own father John Posey) comes in to lead them to the supernatural ward. As they walk through down the spiraling staircase behind the doctor, he insists that he's only allowing this meeting with Valack because he owes Deaton a favor, and that doing so is much against his better judgement. Stiles, intrigued by this statement, starts asking some good questions in preparation to enter the hall where all the supernaturals are kept-- namely, what is the etiquette when talking to Valack? Fenris gruffly replies that he wouldn't look at Valack's "other eye," before adding, "In fact, while you're down here, try not to make contact with anyone or anything." Yeah, I'm sure this is advice that they will all most certainly follow to the letter. That's totally how they work.
We cut back to the library at the high school, where Malia has her own photocopied version of the Dread Doctors book and is rereading it to try to understand it better. She's in the middle of highlighting a passage with her always-present highlighters when Theo swaggers over to her table and sits town as he asks her if the book she's reading is a page-turner. Fortunately, Malia is way too smart to be fooled by this guy's charms, especially after presumably hearing all of Stiles' theories about him, so she just gives him a blank look and replies, "Not exactly." Theo, not at all deterred by Malia's cold response to his presence, just holds up a pre-calculus book and states that his book isn't either before opening the textbook and beginning to read. Still unnerved, Malia just looks at him warily before returning to her research, though she totally notices Theo staring at her for a moment before he gets back to his homework. Yes, Malia, keep doing what you're doing, baby girl! Don't let his beautiful face trick you!
Back at Eichen House, they've made it just to the door to the supernatural ward when Stiles, Lydia and Fenris look back to find Scott and Kira stuck four or so feet away from them, unable to move any farther. "You didn't think you were all going, did you?" Fenris asks in annoyance, and Scott correctly realizes that they just ran into a mountain ash barrier, which Fenris confirms-- the whole building is actually made of it, but it is especially concentrated down there. Okay, several questions about this-- first of all, wouldn't the Nogitsune have become weakened by the presence of the mountain ash while Stiles was there? Obviously he was already weakened by the letharia vulpina solution Deaton injected him with, but you'd think the mountain ash all through the building would have made it more difficult from him to recover from that, yeah? Also, I'm wondering if the mountain ash in conjunction with the convergence of multiple telluric currents in the land the building was built on was what kept the oni from coming after Stiles while he was there? In "Echo House," Deaton told Allison, Chris and Scott that Eichen House had an interesting history, and that it wouldn't necessarily be safe for them there, so I'm thinking maybe that was what he was talking about? I am totally game for learning more about the telluric currents/ley lines and the Nemeton, to be honest! GIVE ME ALL THE INFORMATION.
Anyway, Fenris isn't even accompanying Stiles and Lydia to Valak's room-- instead, he just opens the door for him with his RFID keycard and instructs them to walk down to the last cell at the end of the hall, which is where they'll find him. The two kids look back at Scott and Kira nervously, clearly not liking the idea of going in without supernatural back-up, but Scott assures them that they'll be right there waiting for them. After a deep sigh, Stiles and Lydia walk through the door to the ward and head down the hall as they were told, stopping briefly once they're inside so they can muster up the nerve to continue. The whole hallway, like the rest of Eichen House, has a super-creepy vibe to it, so I don't blame them at all for getting the major wiggins just by being there.
Anyway, the first person they see through the windows in the cell doors is a relatively young woman wearing a straitjacket who rushes to the window, revealing that she has no mouth-- instead, there's just a smooth patch of skin where her lips would be. I'm going to take a wild guess and assume that whatever supernatural creature she is is the same as the Mute, though we never did learn what that was. I think the main guess was an astomi, which is a supernatural creature from Italian folklore who lived on scents. Anyway, Stiles and Lydia, both unnerved, continue walking down the hall, and right before they reach Valack's cell, Stiles makes the mistake of looking into the window of another across the hall and making eye contact with whatever is inside as he realizes with a start that he's staring at Donovan, who is looking back at him with dead eyes. Lydia seems to sense Stiles' panic, but doesn't say anything, and when Stiles looks in the other window, he sees that it's not Donovan at all, but instead a huge gray creature with pointed ears, a bald head, dull golden eyes, and a grotesquely scrunched up and slimey-looking face. YIKES!
Upon entering Valack's cell-- or at least the part where visitors can go-- they find him meditating on while seated cross-legged on the floor in front of his bed. He waits a moment before opening his eyes and looking at them, though he doesn't immediately stand to greet them. "Tell me what you just saw," he says curiously as he stares at Stiles with an amused smirk. When Stiles is like, "Uh, are you talking to me?", Valack wastes no time dropping some exposition on us. "The creature in the previous cell. The Sluagh? The myth is that they can take on the appearance of the lost souls that have become inextricably bound to it," he begins. Stiles' eyes widen in alarm as he no doubt recalls seeing Donovan, and even Lydia is looking at him like she's super confused about what Valack is referring to before Valack smirks at him again and adds, "Happen to have seen any lost souls, Mr. Stilinski?" YIKES! Welp, that kills my earlier theory that the Dread Doctors were imbuing their test subjects with a Sluagh in order to find the perfect vessel for it that I posted on Tunblr HERE. It also mostly kills my theory that Donovan may still be alive, as Wendy reminded me earlier that the Sluagh takes on the appearance of the lost souls of the dead, which wouldn't work if he were still alive somewhere. I have a feeling that Valack knows more about Stiles' involvement in Donovan's death, though, which goes back to my earlier observation that his third eye essentially makes him a clairvoyant.
Anyway, to answer Valack's question, Stiles says that he saw the lost souls of everyone down there, which amuses him enough to reply, "Don't give up on us yet. We're all works in progress." Uh, oh. We all know who is known for saying shit like that. Lydia's banshee-senses start tingling when she hears those familiar words and when she asks him where he heard that, Valack smugly replies, "Wise words from a former cellmate," as he stands to his feet and walks toward them. SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT. Where the hell is Peter Hale? Did he escape? Did Valack kill him? Did he get sent to another ward after being vision-quest-coma'd by Valack like Deaton did? I hope he's still alive, if only so Lydia can kill his ass with her new-found powers and fighting skills, because she's earned that honor after everything he's put her through. Valack turns the subject back to the task at hand and asks the kids if they brought the book, so Stiles pulls the Dread Doctors paperback out of his back pocket and holds it up so the man can see it, leading Valack to finally get to the good stuff.
Meanwhile, at the library,"Strange Entity" by Oscar and the Wolf is playing, and Malia has decided to give up on trying to understand the book, or at least has decided to her studies back to her house, or Stiles' house, or wherever she's staying these days. Wait a minute-- does the fact that Malia has read the book at least one time and doesn't seem to have triggered any memories of the Dread Doctors themselves mean she likely hasn't been experimented on by them yet? Or is the fact that she's been getting flashbacks to her past related to what the Dread Doctors are doing to her? I mean, they did go through the trouble of restraining her when they killed Tracy and informed her that her condition was terminal without otherwise harming her, which seems kind of suspicious, since we know they're not opposed to killing when it suits them.
Regardless of why it's happening, I'm honestly really worried about all of the flashbacks she's been having, especially since 1) they always happen when she's driving, which puts her and everyone around her in danger, and 2) she hasn't told anyone about them, so nobody knows how badly she's struggling with it. Except for Theo, anyway, but that's only because he was there when she was triggered into another flashback; otherwise, literally everyone would still be in the dark. So, are the flashbacks her brains way of showing her that she's healed enough from the trauma of the car accident to finally be able to see the true, unrepressed memories and fill in the blanks, or is it because something has been done to her-- either in the past to make her forget, like an Alpha mind-wipe or something, or in the present to make her remember, like the Doctors experimenting on her, or both? It's quite concerning, I guess is what I'm trying to say.
Anyway, once she's packed up and ready to leave, Theo asks her if she needs a ride, but Malia seems to be ready to get away from his punk ass, so she tells him she's fine taking the bus. When Theo informs her that the last bus left an hour ago, Malia insists that she can walk, so he decides to try a different tactic to get her to do what he wants-- essentially making fun of her. "Haven't I seen you coming out of driver's ed?" he asks cheerfully, but Malia just rolls her eyes and retorts that she hopes not. "I'm pretty sure I saw you destroy a couple traffic cones the other day... and nearly take out a sophomore," he continues with a laugh, but Malia just argues that the sophomore shouldn't have been standing in the way, which is so funny to me. Gods, Malia is seriously the best. Still chuckling, Theo pulls out the keys to his truck and holds them up before suggesting that it sounds like she could use a little more practice, and though Malia doesn't seem to be that into it, she easily catches his keys when he tosses them to her and reluctantly shrugs in agreement. Stay on your guard, girlfriend! Boys with angel faces in this town who aren't Scott McCall are bad news not to be trusted!
We then return to Eichen House's supernatural ward, where Stiles and Lydia are still interrogating Valack on the Dread Doctors book. Lydia doesn't understand why he would use a pseudonym for the book, but Valack reminds her that he did have a professional reputation at one point, and that he wasn't really keen on destroying it by writing such a ridiculous book under his own name. When Stiles asks him why he even wrote the book in the first place, if he was so embarrassed by the quality of it, Valack correctly deduces that he hasn't finished reading it yet. "I wrote it because nobody believed me," Valack confesses. "Because no one listened." Stiles and Lydia give each other a concerned look, which leads Valack to correctly assume that the Dread Doctors are in Beacon Hills. Lydia stares at him for a moment and bites her lip before asking him who they even are, confirming Valack's assumptions, and believe it or not, Valack is actually pretty helpful, though it's clear he's just giving them a taste to make them willing to trade for more information.
Anyway, Lydia's next question to Valack is "What do they want?", which he proclaims to be an excellent question, though he conveniently side-steps the question and avoids answering it entirely in favor of pointing out that everyone wants something and indicating that he's going to want something in return if they want more information. When Stiles rolls his eyes in annoyance and asks him what it is he wants, Valack slides one of those small audio recorders into the metal slot in the door meant for the staff to give him objects/food/etc without actually having to go near him and tells Lydia to hit the record button. Confused, Lydia asks him what he wants her to say, but Valack doesn't want her to talk-- he wants her to scream, because that's always what maybe-villains want from her.
Outside in the adjacent all, Scott and Kira are leaning against the far wall while Scott tries to eavesdrop on their conversation with no success. He then informs Kira that he can't hear anything and assumes that it's because of the huge amount of mountain ash surrounding them. Kira admits that she feels it too, and seems worried about the fact that she actually feels pretty weak, a sensation Scott also feels and describes as being like he's sedated as he slowly flexes his fingers to test his reflexes. When she wonders aloud if maybe this whole plan was a bad idea, Scott assures her that Stiles and Lydia will be okay without them, since they work well together. "No super-strength or samurai swords, but they stay alive," Scott adds, clearly impressed with their friends' survivor instincts.
In a weird and almost out-of-character transition in topic, Kira asks Scott if Stiles still has a crush on Lydia, and Scott admits that he thinks that he does, but it's different now that Stiles actually knows her, rather than obsessing over the girl he thought she was. What I don't understand is why they're talking about Stiles as though he doesn't totally have a girlfriend who is also a very, very close friend of theirs, but whatever. Kira seems surprised to hear Scott actually say that Stiles was obsessive-- though not always in a bad way-- but she's even more surprised to hear that there was once a time that Lydia pretended not to be smart, which is a testament to just how much Lydia has developed as a character since Season 1. Scott goes on to say that Stiles was the only one who knew how smart Lydia was because he paid attention to her and listened to what she has to say.
I mean, anyone who has read these Teen Wolf recaps from the beginning knows that I have always been a fan of Stiles and Lydia together, and I hardcore shipped them during Season 3A and much of 3B. The thing is, though, that I really, really love Malia, too, and I think Malia and Stiles have a great relationship going on. A year ago, I would have been thrilled to hear that Stiles still had a crush on Lydia, but now it just seems so unfair to Malia in so many ways to even consider the two of them starting a romantic relationship. Plus, this conversation was literally only about Stiles' feelings for Lydia, but at no point do either of them suggest that Lydia currently has romantic feelings for Stiles, nor has anyone, Lydia included, ever alluded to Lydia ever having feelings for him throughout the series. I'm not trying to say that they don't care about each other, because they are obviously best friends who would die for each other and who are always eager to help the other out when they need it and who genuinely enjoy the other's company.
But when we met Lydia, she was in a long-term relationship with Jackson, which continued on and off until Jackson left for London between Seasons 2 and 3. Then when 3A started, she insisted she didn't want a boyfriend, only a distraction, before starting a low-key friends-with-benefits type situation with Aiden, which also lasted on and off until Aiden died at the end of 3B. In Season 4, Stiles started a serious relationship with Malia, which Lydia supported, while she remained single and doing her own thing while developing a connection with Jordan, which seems to be growing even stronger now in Season 5A. So. if a romantic relationship between Stiles and Lydia actually started up now, it would literally be coming out of nowhere.*
*And I know a lot of the more devout Stydia shippers argue that Stiles and Malia came out of nowhere, too, but again, Stiles and Lydia hadn't even discussed being in a relationship with each other when Stiles met Malia, and romantic relationships don't always have to be slow-burn type deals where two people are close friends for a long time before they get together-- sometimes, instant connections do happen, and perfectly meaningful relationships can begin from there. I mean, Stiles and Malia officially met during a time that was very traumatic and stressful for both of them, and they gave each other the comfort and judgment-free support that they needed while bonding over the fact that they had both done things that they hated while they weren't in control of their bodies. Not to mention much of the start of their relationship developed during the time-jump between Seasons 3B and 4, so while it may feel like it just happened with no warning, that's just not how it really is in canon.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed whatsoever to Stiles and Lydia eventually getting together in the future-- teen dramas like this usually involve a lot of breaking up and dating other people and then breaking up again and rekindling old relationships, so I have no delusions that most relationships aren't the forever-type on these shows. I mean, look at Scott and Allison, whom everyone believed would be "endgame"-- Crystal Reed ended up leaving the show, and Allison got killed off, preventing them from ever getting back together like they planned. Real life things happen, and relationships change, and you never really know how things are going to work out.
But what I'm trying to say (and failing to say eloquently) is that where things are right now, where Stiles is in a nearly-year-long committed relationship with Malia, and Lydia is slowly getting involved with Parrish, it just wouldn't feel organic to the story or to the characters for Stiles and Lydia to just suddenly get together-- Lydia and Malia are close friends now, so why would Lydia immediately want to jump into a relationship with her good friend's ex? And why would Stiles want to hurt Malia, who he clearly cares for a lot, by immediately rebounding with her good friend? Like, that kind of situation would just do such a disservice to the characters, as well as the relationships that they have with each other. If Stiles and Lydia are going to happen, it should be in a way that is respectful to all three of them-- including and especially Malia-- as well as the story itself. This isn't a supernatural teen soap opera like The Vampire Diaries, this is basically a twenty-hour-long horror-dramedy, so love triangle drama has little place on Teen Wolf, if you ask me. (And you didn't, but whatever).
Anyway, to summarize, I am fairly confident that this conversation isn't some foreshadowing that Stiles is going to immediately dump Malia so he can quickly start dating Lydia, but the fandom seems to have let their ideas about what is to come run away with them, and its created a lot of drama that I just felt compelled to throw my two cents in there, whatever that is worth. (Honestly, the fact that these fights are giving me major flashbacks to previous fights started by Stiles/Derek shippers is kind of exhausting in an exasperated way. History repeats itself in the fandom just as it repeats itself in the show, I guess.) Honestly, in my opinion, an excellent compromise would be to have Stiles, Lydia, and Malia be in a polyamorous relationship, but that's pretty much always my reaction to ship wars ^_^. I'm still salty that Scott/Allison/Isaac never happened, because it would have been perfection.
So, now that I've just written a thousand words alone on the Stiles/Lydia/Malia fandom drama, let's get back to the story, 'kay? 'Kay. So, just when Scott and Kira are talking, the lights start to flicker around them in the hallways, and Scott looks around anxiously, since these electrical glitches seem to be happening way too often for comfort. His back is turned toward her when he asks her if she saw the power flickering, so when she weakly replies, "No, but I'm seeing this..." from behind him, he quickly spins around and gapes in shock as he stares at Kira's outstretched hand, which is surrounded by a glowing blue aura as sparks of electricity crackle up and down her arms. KIIIIIIIIRAAAAA NOOOOOOO! I totally talked about wanting to see more of Kira's powers in my pre-Season 5 speculation post, but I was hoping they would be in a badass capacity and not a "HELP KIRA IS DANGEROUS TO EVERYONE AND TO HERSELF" way. Be careful what you wish for!
Back in Valack's cell, Lydia has just retrieved the audio recorder from the slot, but Stiles instantly snatches it out of her hands before she can reply to Valack's proposal and immediately rejects it for her, all, "Nope! Not happening! Sorry!" Lydia sighs deeply and grabs him by the arm to lead him to the back of the room so they can speak privately about Stiles' overbearingly protective nature. She reminds him that he's literally the only person they know who seems to know something, and they kind of need answers before they start finding more chimeras digging themselves out of the ground, but Stiles just scoffs and replies, "The guy is a nutjob who drilled a hole into his head! He's probably lying his ass off." Man, I really want to know how Valack got his third eye! Did he voluntarily do it to himself? Did he volunteer for someone else to do it? Did the Doctors or someone else do it without his consent? GIVE ME MORE VALACK BACKSTORY PLEASE, JEFF. Naturally, Lydia and Stiles are hardly whispering, so Valack can totally hear everything they're saying and tries to use what he just heard to bait them back into cooperating with him.
"How many have died so far?" he interrupts loudly, causing Lydia and Stiles to look over at him with worried expressions. "All of them teenagers. Am I right?" The two kids just gulp nervously and stare at him in shock, which was obviously the reaction Valack was looking for, so he continues on in hopes of scaring them enough to convince them to do what he wants. "Want to know how many died the last time they came here? Wonder how many will die if they succeed?" SUCCEED TO DO WHAT? Why are the kids not picking up on these clues? They need to ask better questions. Lydia suddenly gasps in understanding and realizes aloud that all of this really has happened before, which Valack confirms before continuing with his very worrisome exposition. "And now they're back-- all because a few teenagers, who never even considered the consequences, decided to reignite a supernatural force they barely understand."
Hey now, dude, not only were they incredibly desperate back then, considering they were fighting a war on two fronts and had spent weeks watching helplessly as Jennifer sacrificed twelve innocent members of their community to get the power to wipe out Deucalion and the Alpha Pack before then watching as she kidnapped their fucking parents to use as the last sacrifice of Guardians, but they were also given the tools to do the surrogate sacrifice in their parents place by Deaton, so they're hardly the only people to blame here. It was just like the Season 2 finale, when Scott's loved ones were all threatened by Gerard (and, by extension Jackson the Kanima), Allison was literally seconds from getting her throat ripped out, and his only recourse to ensure everyone survived was to get Derek to bite Gerard to take him out. Was that a great solution? Not at all. Did Scott/the Golden Trio do things they wish they wouldn't have had to do? Of course-- if you recall, they still have the darkness around their hearts from dying and being resurrected, which, though it hasn't really affected them recently, is still an issue they'll have to deal with for the rest of their lives, not to mention they drew a shitload of dangerous creatures to their homes to do so. We do the things we need to do in the moment and hope they don't have lasting consequences in the future.
On a different note, I love the "history repeating" theme of this show-- from Scott's story mirroring Derek's with regards to sleeping with hunters, to the parallels between the first and second times the Nogitsune was active in Beacon Hills, to the repeat of the deadpool list, and now the return of the Dread Doctors to their town and possibly the return of the Nemeton to its full power. There are so many possibilities for this kind of thing, and it's the best. Anyway, Lydia correctly guesses that Valack is talking about the Nemeton, and when Stiles asks him how he even knows about that, since it's not exactly common knowledge that he, Scott, and Allison all decided to kill themselves to gain the information necessary to save their parents, Valack rips the dirty bandage off of his head to expose his third eye to them-- which is just as disgusting as it was the first two times we saw it-- and informs them that he saw it himself as Lydia gulps in horror at the sight of his trephination hole. Welp, that's not good-- guys like Valack who have knowledge about pretty much everything are ridiculously dangerous. Just look at Peter and everything he knew about the supernatural world! So the fact that it seems as though he can gain information that has happened from events where he wasn't even present as a result of his powers makes him a seriously dangerous potential villain. No bueno whatsoever.
In the hallway, Scott is starting to panic and instinctively backs away from the white-blue electricity crackling up and down Kira's body, which has begun causing all of the lighting in the building to go haywire. He gulps anxiously and pleads, "Kira, whatever you're doing, please stop," but Kira is even more scared than he is and insists that she's not doing anything on purpose-- whatever is happening to her is completely out of her control and is just happening on its own.
Valack notices the power flickering in and out from inside the cell and immediately demands to know who came with Lydia and Stiles today. Lydia vaguely replies that they came with their friends, but when Valack wants to know what kind of supernatural creatures those friends are, Stiles cuts her off and orders her not to answer him. It doesn't really matter, though, because Valack correctly guesses one of them is a kitsune, just as the light fixture behind Lydia and Stiles explodes in a shower of sparks, startling them so much that Stiles literally leaps into the air while Lydia yelps in fear. When she asks Valack what's going on, he drops some more info onto us.
"She's disrupting the building's defenses," he explains in annoyance. "It's not just the mountain ash that keeps this building secure, it's the electromagnetic energy. Eichen is built on the convergence of telluric currents. Ley lines. It's what allows it to keep certain supernatural creatures in... and certain others out." Okay, I really want to know more about this, though I'm going to take that as confirmation as to why the oni couldn't come into Eichen House. Lydia does that head-tilt thing that indicates she's trying to puzzle something out, but when they hear that tell-tale rattling noise that the Dread Doctors make, Valack's eyes widen in fear as he realizes that the Dread Doctors knew that they were coming, and that the kids "unlocked the door" for them because the Doctors knew Kira would disrupt the telluric currents enough to actually allow them to enter the place. Shit shit shit shit shit! How did they know that? Does that mean they experimented on her, or do they have psychic powers as well that allows them to know what the kids' supernatural identities are? I AM SO WORRIED FOR OUR BABIES, YOU GUYS.
Sure enough, the Dread Doctors open the front gates and march on up the front steps to Eichen House, flickering and glitching and rattling as they make their way up to the entrance to the building. Fortunately for our heroes, they move pretty slowly, especially since the Surgeon walks with a sword-cane, so they still have some time to figure things out. (Also, on the topic of the sword-cane-- we know that the DDs have much extended lifespans and are possibly ancient, but I'm wondering if that came at the cost of their health? If one of them relies on a cane (which is assuming that the cane actually serves a purpose other than being a weapon), and they all seem to use oygen masks of some kind, they probably don't have the same kind of healing that most werecreatures and kitsunes have, right? Just an observation)
Elsewhere, Malia and Theo are on the road, where Malia is driving Theo's truck while he rides shotgun as "Eyes Closed" by Hermitude plays. They're sitting in complete silence, aside from the music on the product-placement satellite radio, and after a moment, Theo just chuckles in amusement and points out that she can drive a little faster if she wants to do so. Malia frowns in confusion and points out that she's driving the speed limit, but Theo just giggles even more and retorts, "Nobody does the speed limit," which would explain those speeding tickets, I guess. "You also don't have to hold the wheel like that," Theo adds, when he sees she's white-knuckling the wheel at nine and three, just like Lydia taught her so she won't break her thumbs, which is seriously adorable to me for so many reasons. I love Lydia and Malia's relationship. And Malia and Kira's relationship. And Kira and Lydia's relationship. And the holy trinity of badass ladies that they make up. YAYYY LADIES SUPPORTING LADIES. Anyway, Theo reaches over and gently puts his right hand over hers, caressing it gently with his thumb before sliding it down so she's holding the wheel more at eight and five, and asks her if that feels better.
She seems surprised by the gesture, smiling weakly and nodding in agreement, which makes Theo grin one of those self-satisfied smirks of his. Just then, the act of moving her hands from the bottom half of the steering wheel to the top triggers something in Malia's memory and causes her to be transported once again into one of her car-accident-flashbacks. She gets a flash of her little sister (whose name we still don't know) holding up her baby doll into the air as her mother does the exact same movement with her hands against the steering wheel. The flashback causes her to unconsciously hit the gas pedal, and Theo watches as the speedometer jumps from 45 MPH to 70 pretty quickly. He laughs it off at first and points out that he said she could go a little faster, not "Mach 5," but when he sees that Malia seems to be in a daze and is gripping the steering wheel like her life depended on it, his expression becomes more concerned and asks her if she's okay. Malia starts getting flashes of her little sister holding up her baby doll in the backseat as Theo yelps at Malia to slow down, and when he reaches to take the wheel from her, Malia jerks it away, causing them to almost run off the road. Theo finally manages to get her to stop the car, and as soon as it stops moving, she throws herself out of the driver's seat and runs several yards away from the car. After a moment, she falls to her knees and falls forward so she's on all fours as Theo chases after her and anxiously calls out her name. THIS IS SO NOT GOOD, NONE OF THIS IS GOOD.
Back at Eichen House, Scott flings himself backwards and covers his face with his hands as a shower of sparks falls from the fluorescent lighting that Kira just exploded. However, once it passes, Scott opens his eyes and looks around to find that she passed out and is now collapsed onto the floor. As he rushes toward her to check on her, more electricity starts to crackle throughout her body with so much force that Scott is hit directly in the chest by a bolt of white-blue lightning and thrown backward all the way down the hall and into the locked door at the end. YIKES! That is so intense! It's also so weird and interesting that Kira's eyes and aura are this golden-orange-pink color, but her foxfire/lightning is ice-blue. GIVE ME ALL THE TEEN WOLF KITSUNE MYTHOLOGY, PLEASE AND THANK YOU. Scott hit the wall so hard that his vision blurs pretty badly as he tries to get his bearings, and the sound of the impact startles Dr. Fenris enough that he rushes over and enters the hallway to see what the hell is going on. When he asks Scott if he's okay, Scott mods in confirmation before frantically informing him that something is clearly happening, and he's afraid that Kira is causing it.
Upstairs, the creepy nurse is still at the front desk, scribbling on paper attached to a clipboard in the darkness caused by the power outage, when he suddenly hears someone approaching. When he looks up from whatever he's writing, he sees the three Dread Doctors in all their steampunk glory stomping toward him and instantly starts to panic as he stands to his feet and backs away from them as quickly as he can, ducking down behind the desk as though that could actually save him if they really wanted to hurt him. The doctors tilt their head curiously as they look at him while they pass the desk, but otherwise, they leave him alone, which is definitely unnerving. Still, there's way too much going on to worry about this much creepier version of Brunski, so let's forget about it for now.
Meanwhile, inside Valack's cell, the prisoner is getting very antsy at the thought that the Dread Doctors are coming, so he lunges for the glass barrier separating them and demands that Lydia use the audio recorder to make a copy of her scream for him, and when she hesitates, he frustratedly reminds her that it doesn't cost her anything to do it. "But it's worth something to you, so you're not getting it for free!" Stiles argues in response, before Lydia orders him to tell them what the book is meant to do. While they talk, the Dread Doctors make their way down the square-spiral staircase toward the supernatural ward, their clockwork gloves clanking against the railing as they grip it for balance. "I told you," Valack groans exasperatedly as we return to their conversation. "It opens your eyes. It triggers the memory centers of the brain, clearing the fog and bringing the images of the Dread Doctors into focus." Ooh, that actually reminds me a lot of how banshee screams are said to drown out all the ambient noise so the banshee in question can focus on the sounds they need to hear. Veryyyyy interesting.
"I wrote the book in an effort to find out if anyone else like me had ever seen them before," Valack continues urgently, and judging by the horrified, distant look on Lydia's face, just this conversation alone, in conjunction with seeing the cover of the book and having read a few parts, seems to be triggering her memories of the Dread Doctors exactly as he says. "I thought I could circulate it in an effort to trigger someone-- anyone-- else's memory." Stiles, sensing that the Doctors are getting ever closer to them, anxiously looks backward toward the other end of the hall while Lydia continues to process this new information. "They'd see the cover, a hint of memory..." The words trigger a flashback in Lydia's mind to when she was having surgery in "Condition Terminal," when suddenly Melissa and the other actual regular doctors morphed into the Dread Doctors while Lydia was counting down as the anesthetic took effect. HOLY SHIT-- could that entire scene have just been an illusion planted into Lydia's mind to make her forget that they'd done something to her? Did we see that and just assume she was having a weird drug-induced dream when in reality, they were actually there? THIS IS TOO BANANAS FOR WORDS.
"They pick up the book, read it, the suppressed memories surface, and they'd find their way to me to discover more. Just like you did." Uh oh, so it seems more than likely that Lydia has definitely been experimented on/otherwise manipulated by the Dread Doctors, y/y??? And maybe that's where her those new scream-enhanced concussive blast powers she demonstrated at the beginning of "Creatures of the Night" were actually caused by their experimentation rather than a development of her existing abilities caused by her turning eighteen like I previously theorized? THIS IS TOO MUCH TO HANDLE. Stiles asks if it worked with anyone else, but Valack points out that the single copy of the book made that pretty difficult, since it wasn't exactly a national best-seller. Lydia wants to make sure that all they have to do to remember if something happened to them is to read the book, and Valack reiterates that he's telling the truth-- "If you've seen them, if they've done something to you, then the book will help you remember." He then turns the subject back to his payment and insists that they give him what he wants, so Lydia takes the audio recorder back from Stiles and hits record before presumably screaming for him off-camera.
In the adjacent hallway, Kira is still unconscious on the cement floor outside the supernatural ward while Scott and Dr. Fenris try to figure out what to do. Fenris tells Scott they need to get her the fuck out of there right this second, but Scott doesn't know how the hell he's supposed to do that when he can't even touch her without getting electrocuted. Of course, that's when they both hear a thud behind them and spin around to see the Surgeon, with the Pathologist and the Geneticist behind him, stabbing a now-presumably-dead orderly of some kind (not the creepy one at the front desk) in the back of the neck with the blade of his sword cane, leaving a stunned speechless Scott and Fenris gaping at them in fear. The Surgeon then looks up and makes eye contact with them through his red goggles, the yellow monocle flipped up and away from his eyes. NOOOO! So, now we know the Doctors really do have no problem killing bystanders if it comes to it, rather than only killing their failures, which means that the fact that they haven't straight-out killed any of the members of the pack yet significant-- they sent Belasko after Scott, but yet they haven't killed him the last two times they've seen each other, which makes me think Scott is someone they need for some reason, or is already a test subject. Regardless, it's scary as fuck.
Back on the road, Malia is still kneeling on her hands and knees in the middle of the road while Theo stands quite a ways behind her near his truck, seemingly afraid to get too close to her after her reaction to him trying to take the wheel earlier. Suddenly, as Malia gasps for breath on the road, she's suddenly hit with the rest of the flashback that she's been getting piecemeal over the last few episodes. Her head starts to shake violently as she's sucked into the flashback-- her mother adjusts her hands on the steering wheel while they were driving on the full moon until suddenly, a woman who looks to have a short bob haircut appears in the middle of the road with a handgun gripped in each hand as she aims them both at the car. Who the fuck does she think she is, Chris fucking Argent?*
*SIDEBAR: Sigh, I miss our favorite blue-eyed, grief-bearded hunter extraordinaire so much, you guys. It feels so weird to not have any Argent presence at all so far this season. COME BACK FROM YOUR KATE HUNT, ARGENT. Alas, he's apparently just been cast on Arrow, which on one hand is great, because I totally watch Arrow-- and every other scripted CW show they crank out-- but on the other hand, it makes me concerned about whether we'll even be seeing him in 5A and 5B at all. DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD.
Mama Tate gasps in fear as the woman starts shooting at them, and Malia's sister, who was holding up her baby doll in the air, screams and hugs the doll to herself as the woman keeps shooting, and bullet casings shower over her boots. Mama Tate eventually jerks the steering wheel to the side, just like Malia just did moments ago, and drives right into the woods. We don't see the rest of the flashback, but I'm going to go ahead and predict that Malia shifted into full-coyote-mode for the first time out of stress and fear, and the woman followed them into the woods and proceeded to claw the shit out of the car and attack/kill Malia's adoptive mother and sister, because shocker-- the woman is Malia's biological mother!
In the present, Malia's face is illuminated by the headlights of a car headed straight for her, and Theo, who has been frantically shouting at her to get her attention this whole time and begging her to get up and go, eventually just tackles her out of the way just seconds before Malia could be turned into roadkill. I still don't trust Theo, but I do appreciate saving our favorite coyote's life, because I love her too much to watch her die. Theo and Malia both try to catch their breath, Theo out of relief that they're not dead, and Malia from the stress of the revelation she just had, and of course, since Theo's out to steal all of the girlfriends of the McCall Pack dudes, he continues to hold onto Malia despite the fact that the danger is now over. "It was her!" Malia whispers, clearly still in shock, and when Theo frowns and confusion and asks her what she's talking about, Malia turns her head so she's looking him in the eyes and replies, "It was her. She was there. The Desert Wolf." DRAAAMAAAA. More on this in a bit.
Back at Eichen, Fenris looks like he's about to pee his pants as he tells Scott that he better run, but Scott, of course, cannot and will not leave his best girl behind. Fenris isn't a supernatural, though, from what we can tell, so when he sees the Pathologist use its glowing-blue fingertips to crack open the door by frying the RFID lock, he has absolutely no problem whatsoever with leaving them BOTH behind and instantly flees through the nearby door without a second thought. LOL, FENRIS, you are such a coward, but I can hardly blame you, since the Dread Doctors are terrifying as fuck. Once the door is open, the Dread Doctors start to approach them, so Scott, at a loss for options, runs over to Kira and picks her up, hissing in pain as he's shocked with a dozen different volts of electricity, and kicks his way through the door where Fenris just escaped before the Doctors can get near them. SCOTT IS THE BIGGEST HERO EVER! Look at him! The skin on his face and arms is getting scorched from the shocks, and he knows that he's intentionally exposing himself to a werewolf's biggest weakness by saving his girlfriend, and yet he does it anyway!
I did happen to see a certain big-name-fan on Tumblr (who will remain nameless) who was saying that Scott was a bad friend because he had the nerve of not letting himself and Kira get killed by trying to go back for Stiles and Lydia? And I literally couldn't roll my eyes harder, because really? COME ON! There's no way that Scott could have broken through that much mountain ash and get into the ward that was made specifically to keep supernaturals from entering or leave-- in "Dreamcatchers," Scott explicitly said that breaking through the mountain ash circle in "Lunar Ellipse" almost killed him, and insinuated that it was the fact that he activated his True Alpha nature that allowed him to survive it, and that was just with the thinnest circle of mountain ash dust and only himself to worry about.
In this case, he was dealing with walls made of actual rowan wood and probably fortified mountain ash, plus he had an unconscious and electrified Kira in his arms, so what was he supposed to do, leave Kira behind? Risk both of them dying and endangering Stiles and Lydia in the process by leading the Doctors toward them, despite the fact that those two were already doing perfectly well hiding by themselves, and Scott and Kira were literally just talking about how those two manage to take care of each other and survive without having the supernatural gifts the werecreatures and kitsunes have? Plus, the Doctors clearly didn't have much interest in them, considering all it took was Stiles and Lydia to silently hide in a corner to avoid being caught because the Doctors' focus was mostly on Valack, so in the end, it all worked out the best that it could. I mean, in an ideal world, Scott would have been able to go back for Stiles and Lydia and lead all his friends to safety, but considering the building was literally engineered to bite him and Kira in the ass, the most he could do was ensure that he and Kira weren't captured or killed. So, it just seems like it's just more Scott hate for the sake of Scott hate. I hate that I'm even talking about it at all, but there is just so many people who constantly shit on Scott's character in the fandom and it makes me so angry. It's one thing to not like a character, but it's another to go out of your way to look for excuses to trash him, and that's the kind of thing we see way too often. So, sorry guys! I'll hop off my soapbox now.
The security alarms are going off loudly throughout the building, and Lydia, who apparently did scream off-screen, slams the audio recorder into the slot to give it back to Valack before demanding to know what it is the Doctors want, though Stiles cuts in and quite rightly tells her that they really need to get the fuck out of there. Lydia ignores him and asks Valack again what the Doctors are trying to do, but all he'll say is that they both need to read the book, along with anyone who could have possibly come into contact with them. "Lydia, we gotta go. NOW!" Stiles insists, so Lydia sighs and follows him out, only for Valack to shout out one last, "READ THE BOOK!" before they go.
Kira's foxfire is still going out of control in Scott's arms, and he continues to get zapped by stray bolts of lightning as he kicks open another door and makes his way toward the lobby. Did he seriously just run up, like, seven flights of stairs to get back up onto the main floor while being seriously electrocuted and carrying a teenage girl in his arms? That is seriously impressive. The lights overhead start to explode and shower sparks over them, causing Scott to run as fast as he possibly can to avoid him. GO SCOTTIE GO GO GO.
The Dread Doctors are making their way down the hallway to the supernatural ward, flickering so much it looks as though they sort-of teleported several feet in front of them, and I just really want to know what the full extent of their abilities are, damnit! Stiles and Lydia are hiding in one of the adjacent halls, or maybe one of the bathrooms or something-- Stiles has his back against the tiled wall with Lydia shoved up against him, his left arm holding her back so they're flat against the wall and out of sight. The Doctors either don't care enough to go after them or don't notice their presence at all, because they just pass by the door to the room where they're hiding and keep making their way down the hallway, much to Stiles and Lydia's relief.
Valack hears the rattling noise they make and looks up just in time to see them walking toward his cell. He reflexively backs up against the far wall, but even he knows it's a pointless endeavor, because the Doctors easily use their electromagnetic-y fingers to open the sliding door to his cell and swoop in. Valack has a bit of the Katerina Petrova in him, because he desperately tries to push past them and out the open door to his cell, but the Pathologist just grabs him by the face with his strong hand before he can even take two steps. "You don't have to do this," Valack murmurs in a pleading voice as they surround him; the Geneticist pushes Valack down on his knees and braces the back of his head while the Surgeon flicks his yellow monocle over his right eye and holds up some kind of terrifying clear vacuum-tube with three short wire ends that open and close.
Just as Valack is repeating, "You don't have to--", the Surgeon lunges toward him and SUCKS OUT HIS THIRD EYE INTO THE VACUUM TUBE! HOLY SHIT! THAT IS SO GROSS! After having gotten at least part of what they needed, the Doctors drop Valack unceremoniously onto the ground and turn to leave, using their powers to lock his cell door behind him on their way out and leaving him to bleed out from his forehead onto the floor. Oh my gods, this is so messed up! Do they need the eyeball to give someone else his clairvoyant powers? Did they take it from him so he couldn't use his powers to warn anyone about what he was doing? Do they think doing it will kill him? I'm guessing since we saw him in the "present-day" scenes in "Creatures of the Night" that he doesn't actually die from it, and the loss of the eye might even explain why he didn't have the hole in his forehead when he was questioning Lydia. Regardless, that's seriously intense and super gross. Blech!
Meanwhile, Scott has finally just made it to the front entrance as Ruelle's "Until We Go Down" starts to playing in the background. (You might remember Ruelle from the end of The Originals episode "Brotherhood of the Damned", when "Up In Flames" played as Marcel led the vampires back to Alrgiers-- it is the perfect band for dramatic, triumphant scenes, to be honest!) He gets struck by a particularly strong bolt of lightning and screams in pain as he rushes toward the front steps. When he finally makes it to the first landing, he literally looks like he wants to die from the pain of it, but even though he's in agony, he slowly bends over and ever-so-gently lays Kira onto the ground to ensure that she doesn't get hurt before he finally collapses himself next to her, the blacked and bloodied bits of skin on his face, chest, and arms still smoking and just generally looking ridiculously painful as they very slowly begin to heal.
Kira finally seems to be coming around now, and she starts to crawl toward Scott as she weakly murmurs, "At the club... at the club, you... you said..." Scott lifts up his head to look her in the eyes and replies, "I remember.'' as he gently brushes her hair off of her face with his burned hand. "And I meant it." YAYYYY! Finally feeling better about the state of their relationship and feeling better in general now that her body isn't freaking out with foxfire any more, she scoots over so she's curled up next to Scott and lays down. Scott, relieved to finally be able to rest and heal, lays backwards as his hand falls to the ground, still twitching after being electrocuted dozens of times in a row. However, when Kira reaches out her hand and squeezes Scott's, it finally stops twitching, and the two close their eyes and lay quietly while they recover. Ugh, these two, I just love them so damn much, they are so perfect to me.
Back inside, the lights seem to have returned to normal, and Lydia, realizing Stiles is still clutching onto her, whispers, "I think we're okay" as the two take deep breaths and try to calm down. Stiles' face tells you he is anything but fine right now, though, and he's practically shaking in fear as he begins to process the implications of everything they just learned from Valack. "No, it's not okay," Stiles mutters bitterly. "All of this? It's on us. Everything that's happened, everything that's going to happen? It's our fault." Lydia, who is starting to realize just how badly Stiles feels, and who is likely feeling guilty herself as a result of her own role in the sacrifice ritual, replies, "It's our responsibility." Man, that really has to be a tough revelation-- on the one hand, Deaton warned them this would happen, so you'd think that they would have been expecting something like this? But on the other, seeing is believing, and like I said earlier, you do what you need to do at the time and hope that the consequences won't be too severe, and that's exactly what they thought when they did the ritual. And between the badness they'd already dealt with between the Nogitsune, losing Allison, the deadpool, Peter and Kate's ridiculous ploy to kill Scott, plus the fact that they had gone six months without an issue, they probably got lulled into a false sense of security that maybe the worst had passed them, and now they're finally realizing that those shitty past events were just the beginning. :( My poor babies!
Finally, we return to Valack in his cell, whose forehead trephination hole is still bleeding profusely as he desperately crawls toward the glass partition. He has a paper cup gripped tightly in his left hand as he uses his right to pull the recorder Lydia used to record her scream out of his pocket. He musters up all the strength he has before hitting play, dropping the recorder in the cup, and then pressing the top of the cup against the glass as he waits expectantly. After a long moment, the recording of Lydia's scream finally plays, and it's so powerful even via an audio recording that it starts to crack the glass-- only a little at first, but it slowly pans out until the cracks cover the majority of the pane of glass to the point that he should easily be able to kick through it. OH SHIT, VALACK IS TOTALLY GOING TO BREAK OUT AND WREAK HAVOC, RIGHT? I'm guessing this means he's not technically supernatural if he can get through the mountain ash, though I'm not sure if that's because he's a Dread Doctor experiment or something else entirely. Also, how was the recorder able to break the glass when the original scream itself didn't? I am terrible at physics, so forgive me for my ignorance if it's because of something totally obvious that I'm missing. Finally, will whatever he does once he's out be worth the information they got from him? Only time will tell, I suppose!
Next week: As evidence by the title "Required Reading," the McCall Pack and its supernatural allies will likely be reading the Dread Doctors book so they can find out who among them have been manipulated by/experimented on by the Doctors themselves; Lydia gets self-defense lessons from Parrish and seeks out answers as to what the DDs did to her; and a new chimera is loosed onto the town and seems to attack the hospital.
NOTES/SPECULATION/QUESTIONS:
-Yet another episode full of fashion reruns! Lydia is wearing the same green and white floral dress that she wore in "A Promise To The Dead" when she showed up soaking wet at Derek's loft and banshee wailed in his face. Malia is wearing the same black, pink and white floral pants that she wore in "Muted." Stiles' faded red-and-blue hoodie was last seen in "Silverfinger," and though I swear I've seen Kira wear that gray, heart-patterned off-the-shoulder top before, I can't for the life of me remember when. Does anyone else recognize it, or am I mistaking it for something else?
-My meta/speculation post has grown so long that I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to break it up-- it kind of got seriously out of control, and I'm not sure how, so I apologize for the continued lateness! I promise the wait will be worth it.
-Wendy brought up in the last post that she wasn't sure whether or not it was okay to comment on things from the new episode that airs tonight on this post, and I'm going to go ahead and say that it is, since it's kind of my fault for not finishing them on time, haha. Unless any of you guys have objections to spoilers from the new episode, in which case you should definitely say so in the comments! Otherwise, though, go for it! I personally watch the episodes live and then rewatch for the recaps, so you won't be spoiling me, and I don't think enough people are involved in the commenting part of posts to care one way or another. Let me know what you guys feel about it!
HOLY SHIT, YOU GUYS. This episode was seriously overwhelming in multiple ways, and the information learned from it has consequences that will definitely be affecting the entire supernatural population of Beacon Hills. For one, we now know that the book Malia found in Tracy's bedroom was not only planted there by the Dread Doctors themselves via Theo, but they did so specifically to lure the McCall Pack to Eichen House to talk to the book's author-- who is none other than Dr. Gabriel Valack himself!-- and To make matters even worse, it's not even a work of fiction-- it's meant to be used as a tool for those who have been messed with by the Doctors to help them remember doing so, because the Doctors' powers-- which mostly involve manipulating electromagnetic energy and frequencies-- are frequently used to make their test subjects forget that they had been experimented on in the first place.
This means that the theories that people like Tracy, Donovan, and Lucas had been experimented on for some time were spot on, but it also has much more sinister implications as well-- it was already suggested that Lydia had something done to her by the Dread Doctors while she was in surgery, but considering the fact that Scott, Stiles, Kira, Malia, and possibly Liam (who was regrettably absent from this episode, SADFACE) have been acting "a little off" lately, as Scott and Stiles put it, it is very likely that they, too, have been manipulated by the Doctors and simply have no memories of it. So yeah, that's absolutely terrifying, and I'm seriously worried about the pack. I have a sneaking suspicion that next episode-- which is titled "Required Reading"-- will involve each of the members of the pack reading the book in order to figure out whether or not the Dread Doctors have experimented on them without them knowing. It seems pretty likely that Lydia will be one of them, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if there were multiple members who were similarly effected.
It also seems likely that Valack was experimented on by the Doctors, given their reaction to him talking to Stiles and Lydia at Eichen House. In other news, it turns out the theory I briefly discussed on Tumblr here where I speculated that it was Scott, Allison and Stiles' surrogate sacrifice in "Alpha Pact," which reawakened the long-depowered Nemeton, is what brought the Dread Doctors back to Beacon Hills, so YES! Vindication! All this information just gives me further questions, though, as to what their deal is-- when was the last time the Dread Doctors were in town? Was Deaton in town then? If so, why didn't he recognize the Doctors' MO? Why are they insist on experimenting on teenagers? Does it go back to Stiles and Derek's theory that teenagers are more likely to survive being bitten and turned into a werewolf? Is Scott/the pack their endgame or just a means to an end? I feel like for every one answer we get to our questions, it just creates another dozen questions without answers.
Anyway, I'll stop summarizing and theorizing for now and instead get into the nitty-gritty details of what went down in this episode! So buckle in, babes, because this is going to be a long one.
Previously, on Teen Wolf: In AP Bio, Scott, Lydia, and Kira learned that in genetics, multiple species of DNA can be present in the same individual, leading Scott to realize that the man-made supernatural hybrids they've been running into, like Belasko and Tracy, are chimeras, or, as Scott described it, "creatures made of incongruous parts." And those two weren't the only ones-- there was another chimera, a teenage boy named Lucas who had been turned into a werewolf/scorpion hybrid that had lots of scorpion stingers with venom that caused a ton of agonizing pain to his little sort-of boyfriend, Corey, and landed him in the hospital. After Liam managed to knock Lucas out at the new LGBT club Sinema, Kira's inner kitsune flared up again and caused her to burst into foxfire and yell "I am the messenger of death!" in Japanese as she lunged at his unconscious body with her sword; had it not been for Scott's quick reflexes, she most certainly would have killed him. Ultimately, it didn't matter, though, because the Dread Doctors showed up and killed him themselves, proclaiming Lucas' condition to be terminal and informing the horrified Scott that Lucas was a "failure." Theo revealed himself (to the audience only) as working with the Dread Doctors, and didn't even really have to work that hard to convince the newly-chimera'd Donovan (who is part-wendigo and part something else) to go after Stiles in order to cause Sheriff devastating emotional pain, which is exactly what Donovan did-- when we left off last week, Donovan had just chomped down on Stiles' shoulder with his hand, which had just opened up to reveal a round mouth with wendigo-y teeth around the edges. Which is where we pick up today!
So, as I said in the previouslies, Donovan is just chomping away on Stiles' right shoulder with his hand-mouth as Stiles screams in agony and struggles to get out of his grip. Donovan grabs Stiles in a headlock from behind with his left arm while trying his best to eat Stiles' face with the mouth on the palm of his left hand, but we all know Stiles is the flailiest of people, so it's difficult for this wendigo-hybrid to get a good grip on him. Apparently, according to Cody Christian (who plays Theo) at San Diego Comic-Con, Donovan is part-wendigo and part-lamprey? And the lamprey mouths can apparently suck out your life-force or something, which is kind of weird, if I'm being honest-- I haven't heard of or read any myths involving supernatural lampreys, so it's possible that the Doctors are also making new werecreatures out of totally average animals? So strange! Anyway, so Stiles is trying his best to avoid getting eaten by those gross hand-mouths while desperately reaching for the wrench sitting on the hood of his Jeep, and just when it looks as though Stiles is about to be strangled to death, Stiles manages to do a backwards-headbutt right into Donovan's face, which makes a sickening cracking noise and causes Donovan to let go just long enough for Stiles to grab the wrench and backhand him across the face with it while he's already down. NICE FIGHT SKILLS, STILES! Way to channel the Nogitsune's ability to kick some damn ass! I seriously had flashbacks to Nogitsune!Stiles whooping Oliver upside the head with a drill pistol-whip-style at the end of "Echo House."
Applying pressure to his bitten shoulder with one hand, Stiles frantically runs toward the school, stopping only long enough to see how injured Donovan is before continuing inside. When he looks back, Donovan is just getting up onto his feet again and glaring at him with murder in his eyes, so Stiles is definitely on the clock, here and scampers away as quickly as possible. Once inside, Stiles starts to panic as he tries to figure out the best hiding place, and he manages to make it into a nearby hall to head toward the library before Donovan makes it through the entrance. He walks purposefully to a fork in the halls, and when he stops momentarily while he tries to figure out where Stiles would have gone, another round-mouth forms on his neck! UGH, I'M GOING TO PUKE. He chooses the right fork just as the camera cuts to Stiles, who has just made it to the front doors of the library, which, naturally, are locked. He tries his best to break through it, to no avail, and finally pulls out his library card and swipes it by the card reader to get inside. So, is this like an all-hours library inside the school? Why would they think that was a good idea? Why hasn't BHHS made it so that no one can be there after the school day is over, considering how many murders and other crimes have been committed there? And I thought the school system where I grew up in small-town Ohio was bad.
Once inside the library, Stiles desperately tries to catch his breath as he looks around the room for a good place to hide. He eventually climbs up the steps and hides at the end of a row of bookshelves, his wrench still clutched tightly in his hand. A moment later, Donovan finally makes it to the library, after having apparently found Stiles' library card when he dropped his phone and was able to open the doors, or maybe he has his own, I don't know-- is Donovan even a high school student? I figured he was older than the pack kids, but since Valack later says that the Dread Doctors only go after teenagers, he's probably a senior at the oldest. Anyway, he sees Stiles' wet footprints over the canvas tarp on the floor that the construction workers were using to renovate the library, and as he follows them, Stiles hears his phone buzz in Donovan's hands and immediately curses under his breath when he realizes that he lost it in the fight. "You dropped your phone," Donovan begins pleasantly, as he pulls the phone out of his pocket to look at it. "It's Malia-- should I text her back?" He silences the phone and pockets it again before deciding that it's time for him to pull a Theo and start villain-monologuing it up.
"You don't really know who I am, do you, Stiles?" he continues, as he looks around to try to figure out where Stiles is hiding. "Maybe you, uh, heard about my father?" Ohhhh, daddy issues. Who didn't see that coming? "Did your dad tell you about him? Did Sheriff Stilinski ever tell you about the time he was still Deputy, and his partner got caught in a shoot-out?" This seems to be news to Stiles, because he immediately narrows his eyes angrily as he tries to figure out where Donovan is going with this, but don't worry, Stiles-- he's going to make sure you know all the details. "Did he tell you a bullet shattered my dad's T9 vertebra? Went right through his spinal cord. You know what rthat means? It means everything below his waist is useless. And not just his legs." Ew, is he really talking about his dad's sex life right now, or is my mind just inappropriately going into the gutter again? Maybe we're just both creeps, then. "I bet he told you some of it," Donovan continues as he gets closer and closer to where Stiles is ducked behind a bookshelf on the second floor, his voice becoming louder and angrier the more he talks.
"But, I bet he probably left out the part where he was sitting in a car, calling for backup, while my dad was going in alone! Did he tell you that he was too scared? Too much of a frightened little bitch to go in after him? Or do scared little bitches not tell their little bitch sons about their failures?" Whoa, wait a minute-- is he actually mad that Sheriff had the sense to follow protocol and call for backup instead of running half-cocked into danger that they're not equipped to handle like his dad did? I mean, yeah, being paralyzed from a gunshot is seriously shitty, and I wouldn't wish that fate on anyone, but he had to have known something like that could happen, right? From what I understand about law enforcement, partners are supposed to look out for each other, and it probably would have behooved Donovan's dad to have stayed behind with Sheriff instead of running in alone. I feel like that sounds really victim-blamey, and I'm not intending it to sound that way at all, but police officers have protocols for a reason, and it's when they ignore those protocols that this kind of things happen.
Anyway, as you can probably guess, Stiles is getting that mutinous expression on his face that he gets when people are talking shit to or about his loved ones-- think the look on his face when Brunski was forcing Lydia to listen to the tape of her grandmother getting murdered in "Perishable"-- and it's taking everything in him to not just jump out of the corner and straight-up murder him with his wrench. "About how they put their partner in a wheelchair for the rest of their life?" Just then, Stiles looks up and sees Donovan walk up the staircase on the opposite side of the huge library onto what I guess is the third story, and is instantly lulled into a false sense of security by thinking that he has time to bolt before Donovan even knows he's gone. He slowly walks out of his hiding spot and looks up at the floor above him as he hears Donovan's footsteps overhead, stupidly turning his back to the bookshelf beside him.
So, naturally, when Stiles stops and realizes he no longer hears footsteps, it takes all of a second for Donovan to suddenly appear on the other side of the bookshelf, shove his hand-mouths through the shelf and latch onto his shoulders and neck again. HOW DID HE DO THAT? Do wendigo-lamprey chimeras have superspeed like the vampires in TVD? Did he jump down without Stiles noticing? Did he have a double to confuse Stiles into thinking he was upstairs? Am I even supposed to ask? Stiles once again starts writhing as he tries to avoid being chomped on by the hand-mouths and breaks out of Donovan's grip, but Donovan pulls him backward so hard that he's literally pulled through the shelf, which crumples into a pile of broken wood and books and knocks Stiles off his feet, causing him to drop his wrench on the ground. Donovan then grabs him by the shoulders and lifts him up so he can push him up against the nearby scaffolding in the middle of the room. Just when it looks like Donovan's gonna chomp down on him again, Stiles yelps in frustration as he elbows Donovan so hard that he's thrown off of him and onto the floor. Wow, that was a really fierce elbow, much more forceful than I would have expected from him. Is this just adrenaline-induced fighting prowess, another continuity error, or a clue of some kind that something weird is going on? Or have I just been reading too many "Stiles is something!" metas on Tumblr? Probably the last one, let's be real.
Anyway, Donovan roars at the top of his lungs in anger, baring his wendigo fangs, and since Stiles is at a loss for places to go to get away from him are limited, his panicked brain decides the best course of action is to climb up the scaffolding. Why? I have no idea, honestly, but he does it, though not quickly enough-- Donovan ends up recovering within moments and grabs onto Stiles' ankle as he climbs the metal railings. "Don't worry, Stiles!" Donovan says in a fake-nice voice. "I'm not going to kill you..." His voice takes on a deep, echo-y tone when he adds, "I'm just going to eat your legs!" and hisses at him as his eyes turn the glowing white of a wendigo. WHOA, THAT WAS NOT HOW HIS EYES LOOKED BEFORE. What happened to the silver eyes? Are we ever going to find out? I'm going to guess not, considering Donovan's fate. Despite his tight grip on Stiles' calf, Stiles manages to climb up a few more rungs, which is when he spots the metal pin holding the shelf on the top in place and gets a Stiles Plan (TM).
After what feels like an eternity of struggling while Donovan does his best to feed on Stiles' gastrocnemius muscle, Stiles finally manages to reach the loop at the end of the pin and pull it out of its slot, causing the shelf full of metal pipes and other support beams falls over his head and onto Donovan below him. Stiles, having braced himself against the scaffolding as the materials fell, pauses for a moment before realizing that no one is pulling on his leg anymore, so he looks down and finds to his horror that Donovan has been impaled through the chest with one of the long metal pipes! OH SHIT! A huge puddle of blood has already developed on the canvas drop sheet underneath him, and he coughs up even more onto his face and neck as his body stays upright only thanks to the pole impaling him.
Stiles is clearly distraught about this outcome, since he didn't exactly want to kill him, he just wanted to stop him long enough to save himself. Plus, this is the first time he's ever fatally wounded someone while in full control of his body and mind, as opposed to all the people who died at his hands while he was possessed by the Nogitsune, so it's kind of a big deal. He quickly climbs down the scaffolding and slowly makes his way to Donovan to take the pipe out of his chest, but when he grabs onto the pole, Donovan hisses in pain and anger as his eyes roll back into his head just before he dies, causing his body to go limp. YIKES YIKES YIKES. The camera pans to the end of the pipe that is propping up his body against the floor, which is surrounded by coffee-grounds-esque blood as the same silver goop Tracy was throwing up starts to ooze into the puddle as well. That stuff is seriously bad news! Stiles starts panting in fear and horror when he realizes the gravity of what he's just done, and is about thisclose to a panic attack as he tries to figure out how he's going to deal with this situation. Eeeeeeep! TITLE CARD!
When we return, we see one of those audio visualizers that bounce around in response to the sound of voices, in this case, the voice of the 911 dispatcher who answered the call Stiles placed from the library's phone, though he doesn't reply to anything she says. The dispatcher asks him twice to state his emergency, and when she doesn't get any response from him aside from heavy breathing, she reminds him that it's a line for emergencies only, and if he doesn't have an emergency, he should hang up. After another beat of silence, a deputy in the background asks her if she wants him to send a car out, so she informs him that the call originated from Beacon Hills High School, so the man agrees to check to see if there's anyone on patrol in the area before the dispatcher hangs up. Stiles, looking absolutely overwhelmed in every way, gently places the land-line phone onto its cradle with blood-soaked hands while I shout, "STILES, WIPE YOUR FUCKING FINGERPRINTS OFF OF EVERYTHING" to him in the background.
Unfortunately, like everyone else on the TV shows I watch, they don't listen to me, and Stiles instead just looks around frantically to figure out what he should do from here. He looks over at Donovan's body, still impaled on the metal bar that went right through his chest, and this weird and very familiar sound effect is played at the exact same time. It took me a moment to figure out from where I recognized it, but then it hit me-- it's the same noise that played when Jennifer healed Derek's wounds in "Motel California" after they had "Oh, you almost died and I sort of saved your life and I'm not afraid of you" sexytimes. Callbacks to previous seasons is pretty much the theme of Season 5 so far (bringing back kanimas from Season 2, wendigos from Season 4, a shot of the Beast of Gévaudan page of the bestiary, which was from Season 1, the Nemeton from Season 3A and 3B, etc), I don't know why I'm even surprised, but I'm hoping that this doesn't mean that Donovan isn't actually dead, because he's kind of a jerk.
Anyway, Stiles' next instinct is to just bolt, but when he's opens the doors to the main entrance a crack, he realizes that he doesn't want to be caught on camera (as though cameras in the school have actually been an issue for them afterSeason 2) and backs up so he can go out the side entrance. Before he leaves, though, his phone starts to buzz in Donovan's hoodie pocket, and Stiles realizes that he's going to have to go retrieve it, lest the cops find it on him and get suspicious. I still don't understand why he won't just tell his friends, but I'll get into that more in a little bit. So, he scampers back over to Donovan's body and quickly yanks it out, which shows just how much Stiles has been desensitized since Season 1-- Bb Stiles would have been way too squeamish to be rifling around in a dead person's pockets. When Stiles checks his phone, he sees that it's Malia calling him for at least the second time in the last hour or so and instantly hits "ignore," which was the wrong move, if you ask me. If anyone would understand what Stiles is going through right now, it's Malia, and she definitely wouldn't be judging him, even if he wasn't the most understanding person when the Tracy thing happened.
Upon seeing that Donovan's eyes are still cracked open and staring at him judgmentally, Stiles bolts for the side doors and makes his way to the parking lot across the street from the school, where he left his Jeep with the hood up. Stiles manages to get the battery working again pretty quickly and wastes no time jumping back into the vehicle so he can get the fuck out of there, but once he's inside and the car has successfully started up, he starts getting second thoughts about what he's doing and has a silent battle inside his head while he tries to determine what to do next. To be completely honest with you, the fandom's obsession with Dylan O'Brien at the expense of the other actors (*coughTylerPoseyCrystalReedShelleyHennigArdenChoDylanSprayberrycoughcough*) who also put out great work has kind of burned me out on him a little bit, but it's scenes like this that remind me that he really is a very talented actor-- he has little to no dialogue in the entire first ten minutes of this episode, but you can still easily read what Stiles is going through just by his anxious panting and facial expressions alone. So, good job yet again, Dylan! Sorry I'm a spiteful asshole who can get annoyed by people who over-hype things. I promise it isn't personal.
For the next minute or so, Stiles pretty much has a silent panic attack, runs his hands anxiously through his hair, worriedly drums his hands against the steering wheel, and processes a multitude of different reactions until he's stunned into immobility by the sound of approaching sirens as the policeman on patrol comes to check out the school. After another unbearably long couple of moments, he ultimately decides to back his car up into the shadows, duck down in his seat so the deputies can't see him from across the street and wait it out to see what they do when they find the body. The cop parks and departs from his vehicle, taking a quick look around outside before heading into the school to investigate. Waiting to figure out what's going on is literally unbearable for our Stiles, who has another silent mental breakdown in the car by beating his blood-soaked hands on the steering wheel until he sees the cop come back outside and immediately freaks out at the sight of him going back to radio something back to the station. Naturally, Stiles has a police radio in his Jeep, so he quickly turns it on to hear what they have to say. "I'm 10-97, and there's no one here," the officer tells the dispatcher. "It's a 653." For the audience's benefit, the dispatcher expositions that a 653 means a prank call before instructing the deputy to get back onto his patrol.
This is understandably confusing for Stiles, because I mean, we all saw the mess he left in there, between the blood and the knocked over construction materials and Donovan's body literally skewered on a piece of metal, so the fact that it managed to escape the deputy's notice is not a good thing. Against his better judgment, Stiles decides to go back into the school to see what happened as soon as the police officer has left. He flings open the doors to the library and is completely stunned to see that the body is gone, and everything has been neatly cleaned up-- the bloodied tarp has been removed, the pieces of metal and pipes have been stacked up against the scaffolding, and all in all, there is absolutely no sign that involuntary manslaughter has happened whatsoever. So, Stiles is super confused, and I honestly don't blame him, because there are about a million explanations for what happened, which Stiles will run down in a moment, including but not limited to: Stiles hallucinated the whole thing; the fight actually did happen, but Donovan didn't actually die; or Donovan did actually die, but someone took the body. He doesn't know that the pack got confirmation that the Dread Doctors Malia saw kill Tracy are actually real, but maybe he is still considering it as an option, I don't know.
This gives Stiles a problem, though, because he's choosing not to tell anyone what happened, and since the body is gone, that means at least one person knows that he's dead, so now Stiles has to worry about whether he's going crazy, if someone knows what he did, if Donovan is actually still alive and going to be coming after him even harder later, or a bunch of equally terrifying scenarios. Definitely a stressful situation, and it would probably be better if he just told someone what was going on, wouldn't you say? I mean, Scott holds supernaturals to a higher standard than humans, since they have powers they need to use responsibly, so I doubt he'd get mad about Stiles having to hurt someone in self-defense and accidentally kill him in the process. I mean, he saw the way Donovan was acting around Sheriff, heard the threats against his life, plus Donovan was turned into a wendigo who could have eaten Stiles alive! I know Scott is very intent on his no-kill policy, especially with regards to the chimeras, who he sees as being innocent in this, but I highly doubt Scott would be upset about this, when he knows that Donovan had a grudge against the Stilinskis and knows Donovan's death was only a result of Stiles trying to hurt him enough to give him time to run the fuck away. Of course, now the fact that Stiles didn't tell Scott and the others about it when it happened is definitely going to be an issue in the future, because eventually they're going to learn that Donovan's dead and have no idea how it happened, but that's a whole different story entirely.
And I digress yet again. Anyway, so Stiles frantically looks around the room for any evidence of his fight with Donovan, but all he can find is a lone drop of blood that is clinging to one of the metal bars propped up against the scaffolding; when he reaches out and touches it with his fingers, his eyes widen in horror, like, "OH SHIT, THAT ACTUALLY FUCKING HAPPENED."
It's now 5:30AM, and Scott and Kira are both entwined in Scott's bed at the McCall house after presumably having fallen asleep while cuddling on top of the covers. After a moment, Kira starts whispering, "Watashi wa shi no shishada. Watashi wa shi no shishada" in her sleep, which we know from last week's episode means "I am the messenger of death," and which wakes Scott up and visibly starts to worry him quite a bit, considering how weird she's been acting lately. He continues to watch her mumble restlessly for a moment until his phone starts beeping on the bedside table, forcing him to reach over Kira to grab it and waking Kira up in the process. Also, I feel compelled to point out that there is a deck of playing cards on the table next to his phone-- it's likely nothing, but given what was going on with Jordan and the cards in the last episode, I don't want to shrug it off in case it really does become important later.
Anyway, when Kira weakly asks him what's wrong, Scott's eyes widen in alarm as he skims through the alert pop up on the screen of his phone, which reads, "BEACON HILLS ANIMAL CLINIC: ALARM TRIPPED" and informs her that someone has broken into the animal clinic. YIKES! Looks like we've reached that part of the season where literally everything goes wrong at the exact same time and they're scrambling to figure out what to focus on first, which is going to be stressful for all of us. I was about to be like, "Why isn't Deaton the one getting these alerts?" but then I remembered that Deaton left to Gods know where to do whatever druid-y mojo necessary to figure out what the hell is going on. Hopefully he's back soon!
We then meet back up with Stiles, who has just returned home and is trying to puzzle out what the fuck just happened to him at the school. He grabs his oil pencil and writes "Donovan not dead. Walked out," onto his crime board before stopping and pacing around a little bit. After thinking for a moment, he adds, "Donovan dead" to the list and starts anxiously wiping his brow with a shaking hand. Finally, he writes, "Someone took the body" underneath it, and after looking at the board and processing all of this, he literally looks as though he's about to cry or jump out the window or something. It's seriously bad news, at any rate, and he definitely knows it, because he then grabs his dry eraser and scrubs the writing off the board before anyone can see it. Once it's gone, he becomes so overwhelmed that he once again angrily punches at the board and yelps loudly, which I think is the third time this season that he's become so frustrated/angry/scared/overwhelmed that he actually resorted to physical violence.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that Stiles' nerves are definitely fraying, here, guys, which would be worrisome on its own if everyone else in the pack weren't similarly close to their own breakdowns, which they're all keeping from each other and I don't know whyyyy. THE MCCALL PACK NEEDS TO REMEMBER FULL DISCLOSURE, BECAUSE KEEPING SECRETS HAS NEVER WORKED OUT WELL. Stiles even told Liam not three episodes ago, "It's always better when they know" when he was trying to convince him to tell Mason the truth about the supernatural, so the fact that literally everyone seems to have forgotten that this week is seriously frustrating. Also, where is Sheriff? Shouldn't he be wondering why his son is loudly yelling and punching things at 5:30AM? Just curious. Anyway, Stiles leans against the board and catches his breath for a moment before remember that whoops, he totally got bitten by a wendigo/lamprey chimera's hand-mouth on his shoulder, and he winces as he rubs his right shoulder blade and begins to worry about the implications of that little revelation. Pleeeease don't turn into a wendigo, Stiles! I might just die.
Stiles' freak-out is eventually interrupted by the sound of his phone ringing, which scares him so badly that he about jumps out of his skin before he digs into his pocket to retrieve it. When he sees that it's Scott, he ultimately answers it, though it's clear that his panic levels are at critical mass while he does so out of fear that Scott already knows the truth about what happened. "Stiles! Someone's taking the bodies!" Scott exclaims without greeting, and Stiles breathes a silent sigh of relief that he at least has that answer as he runs his hands anxiously through his hair, but when he doesn't respond right away, Scott gets concerned and asks him if he's still there, so Stiles puts on his best fake-fine voice and shakily tells him that he is before asking him what the hell he's talking about. "I'm at the animal clinic with Kira," Scott explains quickly. "Tracy's body is gone. The lock on the door was broken from the outside." We cut briefly to the animal clinic, where Scott and Kira are standing next to the front entrance, where the chain and padlock wrapped around the door's handles has been broken off. "And, my mom just told me Lucas' body went missing from the morgue. They've been searching the whole hospital for it. Someone's stealing the bodies," Scott continues urgently to a very stressed Stiles. YIKES!
And we all know who that thief is-- our very own Jordan Parrish, who is in his civvies (dark jeans, a tshirt, and a black leather jacket) and has just parked his SUV near the nature preserve and is walking around to the trunk, where Donovan's bloodied body has been stashed. Given the stiff way Jordan is walking, combined with the dead-eyed expression on his face, I maintain that Jordan has absolutely no idea what he's doing, and that this isn't a conscious action on his part, but I admit that I could just be in denial because I desperately do not want Jordan to be a bad guy. :( Just as Price Peterson, one of my favorite recappers, is intent to trust Theo because of his beauty, I am intent to trust Jordan because of his beauty and kindness.
Jordan reaches down to pick Donovan up and starts walking toward the Nemeton, and as he does so, his eyes glow their usual flame-colored hue, just so we haven't forgotten that he's some kind of supernatural. We don't actually see him burn the body, though, so Donovan could possibly still be alive, but it seems kind of doubtful, as pointed out to me by dearest Wendy, given what Stiles sees in Eichen House later. Also, on a random note, do you think Jordan inadvertently burns off his clothes every time he does this? Or does he strip first? If it's the former, that seems pretty wasteful, not to mention expensive. Does he have a closet full of black leather jackets like Damon Salvatore? Why isn't he wearing pajamas like normal people do at dawn?
As usual, I have WAY too many questions, but I also have four-ish theories as to what's going on with Jordan, ranging from what I believe is most likely scenario to the least likely:
1) His supernatural identity has something to do with the dead and helping them pass on (I'm personally committed to the barghest/hellhound theory, but there are other guesses out there, like Jordan being a phoenix or a salamander that could be true instead), and it's the whatever-spirit inside of him-- like Kira's kitsune spirit that seems to be fighting for independence-- that is pushing him to act like a clean-up crew for supernatural murders. This would also explain his connection to Lydia, which has been said to be not just romantic, but also based in the supernatural. Imagine it-- Lydia is the harbinger of death, which could make Jordan like Charon from Greek mythology, who ferries the souls of the deceased to the Underworld/the Other Side/whatever the Teen Wolf equivalent is using the Nemeton as a portal.
2) He's been mentally compromised by the Dread Doctors (maybe because of the black goop on Belasko that got spattered into his face/mouth, or maybe he's already been experimented on and just doesn't know it) and they're using him to clean up their failed test subjects for them, OR;
3) Whatever he is has given him a connection to the Nemeton, who is using him to burn dead bodies on its stump to maybe give itself more power/return to its former full-tree glory.
4) It is actually a combination of 2 and 3-- Jordan has somehow been mentally compromised by the Dread Doctors, who seek to increase their own power with the Nemeton like Jennifer Blake did. But, in order to do that, they need to boost its power, and since the Nemeton gets its power from sacrifices, the Dread Doctors are hastily killing any of their chimeras that turn out to be failures so they can use them as sacrifices to repower the Nemeton, and they either use their mind manipulation powers on him to make him offer the bodies to the Nemeton as tributes, or it's whatever powers over the dead Jordan has that are pushing him to do this.Honestly, we still have so little solid information about the Dread Doctors and Jordan's powers in general that I'm not 100% sold on any of these theories, but this is the best I've got for now. The second one is especially iffy to me, since Jordan's been having dreams about the Nemeton and burning the bodies for the last six months, and I don't think that the Doctors were in town then, but you can't really rule anything out where this show is concerned. Maybe the Doctors have been lurking in the shadows ever since 3A or even beforehand? I've wondered if maybe they don't have some kind of precognitive powers as well, since they seem to know a lot about the McCall Pack, the Nemeton, Valack, and the other major events that occurred in Beacon Hills, so it doesn't seem too out of the realm of possibility. I don't know, what are you guys thinking? I can't remember the last time my theories were so fragmented and confusing, honestly, and it's making me a little crazy in a good way.
Anyway, when we come back, it's the next day, and Malia and Lydia are walking into the school while "Thinkin' of U" by Summer Heart plays in the background. Malia has brought the book she found in Tracy's room with her and given it to Lydia, who reads the title aloud, frowning and stopping in her tracks when she sees the Doctors on the cover. Malia, ever the observant one, notices Lydia's uneasiness and asks her about it, but Lydia just replies, "I don't know. There's just something about it..." Um, maybe that you hallucinated them while you were being anesthetized for your surgery? Just a hunch. Lydia asks Malia if anyone has actually read the book yet, but apparently only Malia has. YES! And people say she isn't smart! I mean, the book doesn't look like it's that long, but she still read it in only a few hours, so color me impressed. Lydia suggests that they all read it, but as it turns out, Kira is already working on that. We cut briefly to the library, where Kira is making half a dozen copies of the book, presumably with an already-copied version, considering Lydia is holding the only print version of the book that allegedly exists. After the last page prints, Scott chirps, "Done?" and Kira confirms that they're finished. She then gives an awkward and apologetic smile to the librarian, who puts up an "OUT OF INK" sign on the copier. Oh, those kids! That librarian must be so confused as to why so many of these kids are interested in a sci-fi novel about creepy steampunk-costumed physicians.
Back in the hallway, Lydia is leaning against the wall of lockers and examining the book while Malia gathers up her books for class and explains that Stiles looked up the author's name and didn't find anything, so they're assuming it's a pen name. Lydia flips to the back cover and starts reading the plot synopsis aloud. "In a small New England town, teenagers are taken in the night and buried alive. Days later, they emerge transformed, wreaking havoc and spreading terror, commanded by an ancient order of parascientists known only as the Dread Doctors." Welp, that's interesting! And terrifying. So is all the chaos the Doctors are spreading by setting a bunch of man-made supernatural hybrids loose onto the town intentional, then? And did they terrorize a New England town, too, or did the author just change the minor details to better hide his own identity? I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS. Lydia points out that it sounds vaguely familiar and asks how the story ends, but Malia just shrugs and points out that it doesn't, since this book was the first volume of a series. "Oh, let me guess... there is no volume two?" Lydia asks sarcastically in response, but Malia figures they're living volume two as they speak, which is a seriously terrifying thought. Lydia considers this for a moment before asking what she believes is the real question-- "Is this a novel, or someone's prediction?" I'm gonna go with both on this one, which is also not comforting in the slightest.
Meanwhile, back in the library, Kira and Scott are getting ready to leave while Scott explains his current theory, which is that the Dread Doctors aren't the ones stealing the bodies. Kira adorably quips, "Are we really calling them that?" but Scott gets back to the point, which is that it doesn't make sense that they would kill someone, like Tracy or Lucas, and then walk away without doing or hurting anyone else, so why would they do that and then come back for the bodies later? They wouldn't, basically. Kira gets what Scott is putting down and agrees with him that someone else must be taking them, but reminds him that they bodies aren't just bodies, they're the Dread Doctors' failures-- so, if the scary chimeras they've met so far have all turned out to be failures, then what is a success going to look like? My guess is something like Theo, probably? But I'm no chimera expert, so don't quote me on that.
Scott is in total agreement that it's most likely something seriously bad and is about to head out the door when he suddenly catches a whiff of something and stops to process it. When Kira asks him what's wrong, Scott just frowns for a moment and narrows his eyes to try to locate the source of the smell before admitting he thought he smelled blood. He pauses for another beat, but when he can't pinpoint it, he shrugs it off and adds, "I don't know. Maybe not," though it's clear that he's still unnerved by it. Man, being a werewolf in high school would be so rough. Can you imagine all the gross stuff they must have to smell constantly? Blech! Also, this scene brought another hilarious topic of discussion to Tumblr, which is that werewolves and other creatures with heightened senses of smell can probably smell when girls are on their period, which is likely awkward as hell but also excellent opportunities to be a good boyfriend or girlfriend. And, as we all know, Scott McCall is literally the best boyfriend.
In an uncharacteristically unwise move, Scott has brought a copy of the Dread Doctors book to the locker room, where he's handed it over to Theo and asked him if he knows anything about it. "Sorry, but I'd never even heard of a kanima until a few days ago," Theo admits kindly, as though he has truly never heard about all of these creatures despite the fact that he's totally working for the Doctors. When he asks Scott if he wants him to read the book, Scott acknowledges that it'd be a good idea, but he's only one chapter into it himself so he can't tell him much about it yet. Noticing how determined Scott is, Theo correctly deduces that getting involved in supernatural messes is kind of something Scott and the pack do a lot, which gets nothing but a humble shrug and a "Yeah, I guess" out of our Scott. After flipping through the pages of the print-out, Theo gets the idea to talk to the author of the book, since it seems like he knows what he's talking about, but Scott informs him that they already tried it and got nowhere. That's when Theo sees an acknowledgement on the last page and gets an idea. "What about this guy?"
Cut to the math classroom, where Malia notices that Lydia (who is sitting right behind her) has just read something that has caused her heart to race anxiously. When she asks her what's up, Lydia flips the book around to her and tells her to read the "Acknowledgements" page, which Malia does aloud-- "For providing scientific perspective and invaluable insight..."
Back in the locker room, Scott's eyes widen in surprise as he finishes reading the acknowledgement aloud to Theo-- "...This book is dedicated to Dr. Gabriel Valack." When he recognizes the familiar name on the exact same page, he starts to get excited about finally finding a decent lead. Theo frowns in confusion and asks him if he knows the guy, so Scott exclaims that he does before admitting that he also knows where to find him. Oh, shit! Eichen House trip ahoy! That will surely not end in disaster of any kind.
Sure enough, the Dread Doctors are all hanging out in their secret creepy lab when a familiar male voice calls out, "The book worked" as he rushes down the stairs to join them. It's Theo, of course, with a smug-ass grin on his smug-ass face to keep reminding us all that he's totally evil. "And now they're going to see Valack," Theo adds, as the Genetist, who has a little flap on the back of its head that puffs in and out and probably has something to do with their breathing, perks up in interest. "They're going tonight," Theo adds in satsifaction. Whyyyyy must all the people with angel faces on this show become mega-villains? Jackson? Jennifer? Garrett? Now Theo too? The only notable exception is Scott/Tyler Posey, of course, who is a celestial being made of pure sunshine and rainbows and literally does not have a mean or evil bone in his body whatsoever. Anyway, the Dread Doctors look about as excited as they can get while wearing like five tons of clockwork on their person, and the Surgeon robotically grunts, "To Eichen!" before looking over at the tank, where some scary, scarred and bloated-looking creature of some kind is floating around in one of those tanks of yellow fluid with a scuba mask over their face. Yay, more nightmares! What the hell IS that thing? If they do that to any of the members of the pack, I will seriously riot.
Speaking of Eichen, the camera cuts over to Eichen House, where Valack, who seems to already be aware that he's about to have visitors, wraps his dirty gauze bandage around his head/third eye before turning around and smirking to himself as he waits for the kids to arrive. So, he's definitely got some kind of clairvoyant powers, yeah? He seems to have seen all kinds of events that have not actually happened yet, and it's weirding me out. More on that later.
I'm guessing it's after school now, because Lydia is now standing in Stiles' bedroom while he gets dressed and sasses her about how he's most definitely going with her, whether she likes it or not. (Also, Stiles has four framed pictures on the wall by his window, which look like x-rays or photo-negatives of someone making weird faces at the camera, and it's seriously freaking me out. Hopefully that doesn't have any special meaning, because YIKES!) Lydia points out that she was under the impression that he was sick, since he skipped school today, but Stiles claims he's just slightly under the weather. When Lydia reminds him that he doesn't have to come, since Malia's not going either, Stiles snits, "Malia's not going because she knows that place is a nightmare asylum of insanity and death, okay?" An accurate and succinct synopsis, Stiles! They should all be on edge with regards to going back to that place, because it is a terrifying hell-hole and nothing good ever happens there. Anyway, while Stiles talks, he finishes getting dressed by slipping on his hoodie, but, of course, his right shoulder is still hurt from being bitten, and he's unable to hold back a groan of pain as he gently slides his injured arm into his sleeve.
Lydia, ever the observant one, just like Malia, totally notices the pained expression on his face, and when Stiles insists that they need to get ready to go, Lydia instead stays put and points out that he winced before asking him what that's all about about. Rather than telling Lydia the truth, which would have been the smart course of action, he lies his ass off and claims he has a bad elbow. Lydia squints at him suspiciously and tells him that it was actually his shoulder, and Stiles, not in the mood for an interrogation, just yelps, "Pain radiates! It does that!" before heading for the door, only for Lydia to slide in front of him and block his path. He's pretty eager not to be forced to confess what happened to him in the last twenty-four hours, though, so he turns the topic of conversation back to Eichen House.
"You're not going without me," Stiles maintains, clearly frustrated. "You remember what happened to Deaton when he talked to Valack?" Lydia assures him that she'll be fine because Scott and Kira will be there, but Stiles will not be deterred, you guys! "Okay, I'm not letting you go to a place where one of the orderlies almost killed you!" Lydia, knowing Stiles is just grasping for straws here, reminds him that Brunski totally tried to kill him too, not to mention that he's very much dead thanks to Jordan's timely intervention, but Stiles doesn't give a fuck about that-- "And we're both still alive! See? Teamwork," he insists, which apparently wears Lydia down enough to begrudgingly stop arguing. Man, when Stiles is stressed, he channels all of that anxiety into paranoia and stubbornness, which is both entertaining for us and also incredibly worrisome for everyone.
Over at the McCall house, Scott and Kira have returned after school to collect their things before they leave for Eichen House with Stiles and Lydia. They are looking around the room for Kira's belt, which Scott can't find anywhere, and when Kira replies, "I left it here, I know I did. When we woke up, you said, 'Don't forget your belt.'" Scott frowns in confusion and asks if she's sure, because he doesn't remember saying that. YIKES. Okay, so is this just a simple way to segue into Kira's grumpiness about Scott's impromptu confession of love in the previous episode, or is this a hint that something shady is going on? Did Kira think Scott said it, but it was really her inner kitsune spirit. or some kind of Dread Doctor manipulation on her part, or is the fact that Scott can't remember due to him having been messed with by the Doctors? I am so worried for the pack members, you guys, because as of now, we have no idea how many of them have been compromised, or which ones, so I feel like I'm questioning every little example of weirdness in any of them as some hint that they're not totally themselves.
Regardless, this makes Kira a little crankier, and causes her to mutter a passive-aggressive "You don't remember saying a lot of things" under her breath, which just makes Scott chuckle nervously and ask his girlfriend what the hell that's supposed to mean. Kira totally loses her nerve, though, and instead just sits on the bed and claims that he should just forget about it. Scott gets that really concerned look on his face that he gets a lot these days and kneels so he can look at Kira face-to-face and ask her if she's doing okay. "Can you do me a favor?" Kira replies, not answering the question.
"Can you look at me with your eyes?" Scott, bless his beautiful heart, just smiles at her and kindly reminds her that he totally is, but Kira means his wolf eyes, and stands to her feet before she instructs him to just tell her what he sees. Scott sighs and stands back a few paces before flashing his red eyes at her, and you can tell that what he sees shocks him a bit before we even get to see it.
Sure enough, when we look at Kira through Scott's eyes, we see her aura is the same as we've seen in in "Dreamcatchers" and "Condition Terminal," which is much larger than it looked when we first saw it in "Illuminated" all those episodes ago-- back then, it just looked like a bipedal fox who was only slightly bigger and more muscular than she was, and it wasn't so much fiery as it was glowy. Now, it literally looks as though Kira has burst into flames and is at least a foot taller than she she is and twice as wide, with bulging muscles, and a face that looks more like a panther than a fox due to its larger and shorter snout. Also, not only do Kira's own eyes look like they're glowing orange-pink even despite the fact that she's not in kitsune-mode, but her aura's eyes are fully that color, with no discernible irises or pupils or anything. To make matters even weirder, Kira's own arms are just hanging limply by her sides, not moving at all, but the left arm of her fox aura raises itself of its own accord and points under Scott's bed, where Kira's katana-belt buckle is peeking out from underneath one of Scott's gym bags.
YIKES! It's clear that Kira and her kitsune spirit are operating mostly independently right now, with Kira being controlled by it in times of intense adrenaline rushes or general emotional upheaval, so the fact that it seems to even know things Kira doesn't, like the location of Kira's magic katana-belt, is definitely not a good sign. (On an only tangentially related note, I'm still so curious as to how Kira made her katana into a belt-- the katana blade now has small squares punched throughout the center so it looks like a chain when it's fully extended into a sword, but when it's just a belt, it looks like it's made out of solid, matte-silver chunks with no holes whatsoever. Is this kitsune magic at play that is glamouring the sword into a belt? Did Noshiko help her make it? Is she giving Kira kitsune lessons? If so, then where has she been while Kira has been muttering/shouting about being the messenger of death and almost killing man-made chimera teenagers?)
Kira sees the worried look on Scott's face and asks him if he saw something off, but Scott just blinks the crimson from his eyes and forces himself to smile at her before telling her that he found her belt as he kneels and picks it up for her. "Everything else is fine," Scott lies, because that's apparently the pack's theme of the week, as he watches her buckle her belt around her hips. I think Kira knows something is up, both with her and with Scott, but she just smiles weakly as Scott asks her if she's ready to go before they head out the door. OH MY GOD JUST CONFESS THE TRUTH ALREADY YOU GUYS, THIS IS A BAD IDEA ON SO MANY LEVELS. And just when we thought they had finally grasped the concept of full disclosure! Obviously, Scott is just trying to protect Kira and/or doesn't want to heap more stress on her when they already have a ton of shit on their plate as it is, which is totally understandable, but Kira just really needs to go to her mom and ask her what's up with her already.
I feel like since Kira has a human father and a (still unknown type of) kitsune mother-- who is not only ancient, but also was in a human form when she conceived Kira-- her life and abilities are going to be different from the usual kitsune, since from what we've learned in Season 3B, kitsunes can't take a human form until they're least a hundred years old, and Kira has clearly not been alive that long. She probably gets her human form early because of her human heritage through her father, so who knows what this means for her in terms of her powers? Besides never getting sick, Kira didn't have full access to her abilities until a year ago or so-- her aura didn't show up (or, at least, Kira didn't know about it) until a few months before she moved to Beacon Hills; her foxfire/lightning ability came out instinctively when she was about to be electrocuted in "Galvanize;" her heightened agility, speed, and innate skill at using weapons slowly began to manifest themselves after she learned what she really was (and maybe they were even enhanced by the Nemeton once she got to Beacon Hills? Who knows), and she had to learn how to consciously activate her regenerative healing ability in the heat of the moment after berserker!Scott stabbed her in "Smoke & Mirrors."
Basically, it seems like Kira is pretty unique as far as kitsune are concerned, and that could be why she seems to be locked in a battle between herself and her kitsune spirit, because gaining her first tail sparked the spirit within her, and the fact that she is a new spirit seems to have made them two separate entities instead of being one whole spirit. Much like Scott had to learn to come to terms with being a werewolf instead of a human who just happened to have abilities he could use to his advantage, I'm going to go ahead and guess that Kira's situation will require her to become one with her kitsune spirit instead of treating it as something different from herself. I love Kira so much, and I am so glad she is finally getting a major story line of her own!
Anyway, it's dark out now, and the four of them have just made it to Eichen House, where the girls are trying to get someone to let them in using the front buzzer, to no avail. Scott and Stiles have hung back and are leaning against the Jeep when Scott asks Stiles if he's going to be okay in there. Stiles immediately gets suspicious and assures him that he will before asking him why he asks, so Scott just shrugs and replies, "You seem a little off." Stiles, clearly sensing all the weirdness they're experiencing lately, just retorts, "I think we're all a little off," with which Scott totally agrees, especially when he looks over at Kira and adds, "Maybe some of us more than others." We all know by now that Stiles loves a good excuse to turn the subject away from himself when he's hiding something, so he asks Scott what happened, and we finally have a little honesty happening, even if it's only from Scott's end.
"When the other chimera, Lucas... When he came after us, I heard Kira say something in Japanese." Stiles frowns in confusion, but still states that a little Japanese speaking doesn't sound that bad, even after Scott points out that Kira doesn't actually know any Japanese. Stiles still doesn't think that can be considered terrible, considering all the other shit currently going on right now, so Scott gets to the most worrisome part, which is that he's pretty sure that he ended up stopping her from straight-up killing Lucas all together. Of course, this speaks to Stiles' current situation, since he did just kill Donovan for more or less the same reason, so he tries to test the waters a little bit to see if he can make his confession with the least amount of drama possible.
STILES: [nervously rubs his injured shoulder] "Okay... Wasn't he trying to kill you, though? I mean, that just sounds like self-defense."
SCOTT: "It was more than that. I mean, she nearly took off his head."
STILES: [even more nervously] "Maybe she had no choice? There's gotta be a point where self-defense is justified. Tracy killed her own father, and Lucas would have killed you."
SCOTT: [shakes his head] "They're not the bad guys. They're the victims. We shouldn't be killing people we're trying to save."Once again, we've come to an impasse, because while both of them make excellent points, they're both right and wrong in different ways. I love Scott, and I fully support his no-murder policy-- he's totally right when he says that they shouldn't be killing people they're trying to save, and for the most part, these chimeras really are victims here, like Tracy and possibly Lucas. However, not all of them are being fully manipulated-- sure, Donovan has been tortured, and Theo definitely set the plan to go against Stiles in motion, but he barely needed any persuasion to do it, since he had already threatened to kill Sheriff on multiple occasions. So, Scott definitely needs to understand that at some point, killing in self-defense is justified, even if he himself doesn't want to do it-- his True Alpha powers are what give him the strength necessary to fight the evil attacking his town and to protect his loved ones from harm, and he's still not sure whether or not killing in self-defense will cause him to lose those powers, so again, I don't blame him for not wanting to kill people. But, his pack doesn't have those restrictions, and if it comes to either the person they're fighting dying, or someone in the pack, then he shouldn't be afraid to have someone take them out, whomever that might be.
That said, I think Stiles, and occasionally some of the others, need to understand that killing should be a last resort and not a quick and easy fix. As I already discussed in "Dreamcatchers," if Stiles (and Derek, Isaac, and occasionally Malia) had had his(/their) way, Derek, Cora, Boyd, Lydia, Malia, and Liam would all be dead (or, in Boyd's case, dead much earlier than he was ultimately killed), and I'm pretty sure none of them would want that. Especially since the aforementioned occasional-murder-advocates know first-hand what it's like to be influenced by supernatural urges you don't have any control over, and should know that they're victims to something they don't understand. Besides, in this specific case that they're discussing, Lucas was already neutralized, because Liam had knocked him out-- he wasn't a danger to Scott, Kira, or anyone anymore, (and even if he was, Kira is a supernatural with great fighting skills and had the means to protect herself) so there was still an opportunity to save him.
Stiles' situation was much different, because 1) Donovan had a vendetta against Sheriff Stilinski that long preceded his transformation into a wendigo/lamprey hybrid, 2) Stiles is more or less human, so he doesn't have the enhanced abilities to defend himself without killing them like the werecreatures do, 3) Donovan was literally going to eat him, so he was in a life-or-death situation, and 4) Stiles wasn't intending to kill Donovan, he was just trying to buy himself some time to get away. If Stiles had been honest with Scott from the beginning, I have full confidence that he would have been okay with it, because it wasn't intentional and there was nothing else Stiles could have done, aside from becoming a meal to a hungry wendigo and ending up mauled at best and dead at worst. But now, between either/both of them being messed with by the Doctors, Theo's shadiness and manipulation, and Stiles having tried to hide Donovan's death from everyone, Scott is probably going to be a lot more hurt by it than he would have ordinarily been, especially since Scott is already insecure enough about his leadership abilities as it is. I am so dreading that fight, to be honest, but it's coming, and probably sooner than we think. :(
Anyway, someone inside eventually buzzes them in, and they walk up the front steps to go inside, stopping briefly and looking backward in fear when the gates slam shut behind them. Yup, that's no ominous at all. When they get inside, the creepy sadist man-nurse who was stabbing Lydia with needles in "Creatures of the Night" is at the front desk, and when he sees them, he pushes several plastic containers toward the kids and instructs them to empty their pockets into it. Scott tries to explain that they're there to see Valack, but the creepy nurse just cuts him off and repeats his earlier request, forcing the kids to do as they're told and put their phones, keys, and purses into the baskets.
The man notices Kira's belt and orders her to put it in as well, but since it is also secretly her main weapon, Kira just awkwardly replies, "I kind of need the belt. I mean, it's crucial to the outfit." BAHAHAHA. Kira, I love you so fucking much, oh my gods. The creeper nurse reminds Kira that if she wears it in there, a patient will probably steal it to strangle themselves or others, so Kira gulps nervously and reluctantly puts the belt in the containers as well. Just then, the guy notices Lydia's presence and starts to stare at her in the most skin-crawlingly creepy fashion, which is immediately noticed by Stiles and puts him into a mood while Lydia just stares at the floor and hopes the guy gets over himself quickly. Just as the guy is about to lock up their belongings until they return for them, Stiles glances over at the container and is horrified to see that mixed with the wallet and keys Stiles threw in there is the pin to the scaffolding that he used to drop all that metal on Donovan last night. SHIT SHIT SHIT. He starts to panic and looks around a bit to make sure no one is putting the pieces together (which is impossible, considering they have no idea that Donovan even attacked Stiles in the first place), while also processing the fact that nope, he didn't dream or hallucinate that encounter in the library-- it totally happened.
Fortunately for him, the rest of them don't even have time to notice the pin whatsoever, because Dr. Fenris (who you may recall is played by Tyler Posey's own father John Posey) comes in to lead them to the supernatural ward. As they walk through down the spiraling staircase behind the doctor, he insists that he's only allowing this meeting with Valack because he owes Deaton a favor, and that doing so is much against his better judgement. Stiles, intrigued by this statement, starts asking some good questions in preparation to enter the hall where all the supernaturals are kept-- namely, what is the etiquette when talking to Valack? Fenris gruffly replies that he wouldn't look at Valack's "other eye," before adding, "In fact, while you're down here, try not to make contact with anyone or anything." Yeah, I'm sure this is advice that they will all most certainly follow to the letter. That's totally how they work.
We cut back to the library at the high school, where Malia has her own photocopied version of the Dread Doctors book and is rereading it to try to understand it better. She's in the middle of highlighting a passage with her always-present highlighters when Theo swaggers over to her table and sits town as he asks her if the book she's reading is a page-turner. Fortunately, Malia is way too smart to be fooled by this guy's charms, especially after presumably hearing all of Stiles' theories about him, so she just gives him a blank look and replies, "Not exactly." Theo, not at all deterred by Malia's cold response to his presence, just holds up a pre-calculus book and states that his book isn't either before opening the textbook and beginning to read. Still unnerved, Malia just looks at him warily before returning to her research, though she totally notices Theo staring at her for a moment before he gets back to his homework. Yes, Malia, keep doing what you're doing, baby girl! Don't let his beautiful face trick you!
Back at Eichen House, they've made it just to the door to the supernatural ward when Stiles, Lydia and Fenris look back to find Scott and Kira stuck four or so feet away from them, unable to move any farther. "You didn't think you were all going, did you?" Fenris asks in annoyance, and Scott correctly realizes that they just ran into a mountain ash barrier, which Fenris confirms-- the whole building is actually made of it, but it is especially concentrated down there. Okay, several questions about this-- first of all, wouldn't the Nogitsune have become weakened by the presence of the mountain ash while Stiles was there? Obviously he was already weakened by the letharia vulpina solution Deaton injected him with, but you'd think the mountain ash all through the building would have made it more difficult from him to recover from that, yeah? Also, I'm wondering if the mountain ash in conjunction with the convergence of multiple telluric currents in the land the building was built on was what kept the oni from coming after Stiles while he was there? In "Echo House," Deaton told Allison, Chris and Scott that Eichen House had an interesting history, and that it wouldn't necessarily be safe for them there, so I'm thinking maybe that was what he was talking about? I am totally game for learning more about the telluric currents/ley lines and the Nemeton, to be honest! GIVE ME ALL THE INFORMATION.
Anyway, Fenris isn't even accompanying Stiles and Lydia to Valak's room-- instead, he just opens the door for him with his RFID keycard and instructs them to walk down to the last cell at the end of the hall, which is where they'll find him. The two kids look back at Scott and Kira nervously, clearly not liking the idea of going in without supernatural back-up, but Scott assures them that they'll be right there waiting for them. After a deep sigh, Stiles and Lydia walk through the door to the ward and head down the hall as they were told, stopping briefly once they're inside so they can muster up the nerve to continue. The whole hallway, like the rest of Eichen House, has a super-creepy vibe to it, so I don't blame them at all for getting the major wiggins just by being there.
Anyway, the first person they see through the windows in the cell doors is a relatively young woman wearing a straitjacket who rushes to the window, revealing that she has no mouth-- instead, there's just a smooth patch of skin where her lips would be. I'm going to take a wild guess and assume that whatever supernatural creature she is is the same as the Mute, though we never did learn what that was. I think the main guess was an astomi, which is a supernatural creature from Italian folklore who lived on scents. Anyway, Stiles and Lydia, both unnerved, continue walking down the hall, and right before they reach Valack's cell, Stiles makes the mistake of looking into the window of another across the hall and making eye contact with whatever is inside as he realizes with a start that he's staring at Donovan, who is looking back at him with dead eyes. Lydia seems to sense Stiles' panic, but doesn't say anything, and when Stiles looks in the other window, he sees that it's not Donovan at all, but instead a huge gray creature with pointed ears, a bald head, dull golden eyes, and a grotesquely scrunched up and slimey-looking face. YIKES!
Upon entering Valack's cell-- or at least the part where visitors can go-- they find him meditating on while seated cross-legged on the floor in front of his bed. He waits a moment before opening his eyes and looking at them, though he doesn't immediately stand to greet them. "Tell me what you just saw," he says curiously as he stares at Stiles with an amused smirk. When Stiles is like, "Uh, are you talking to me?", Valack wastes no time dropping some exposition on us. "The creature in the previous cell. The Sluagh? The myth is that they can take on the appearance of the lost souls that have become inextricably bound to it," he begins. Stiles' eyes widen in alarm as he no doubt recalls seeing Donovan, and even Lydia is looking at him like she's super confused about what Valack is referring to before Valack smirks at him again and adds, "Happen to have seen any lost souls, Mr. Stilinski?" YIKES! Welp, that kills my earlier theory that the Dread Doctors were imbuing their test subjects with a Sluagh in order to find the perfect vessel for it that I posted on Tunblr HERE. It also mostly kills my theory that Donovan may still be alive, as Wendy reminded me earlier that the Sluagh takes on the appearance of the lost souls of the dead, which wouldn't work if he were still alive somewhere. I have a feeling that Valack knows more about Stiles' involvement in Donovan's death, though, which goes back to my earlier observation that his third eye essentially makes him a clairvoyant.
Anyway, to answer Valack's question, Stiles says that he saw the lost souls of everyone down there, which amuses him enough to reply, "Don't give up on us yet. We're all works in progress." Uh, oh. We all know who is known for saying shit like that. Lydia's banshee-senses start tingling when she hears those familiar words and when she asks him where he heard that, Valack smugly replies, "Wise words from a former cellmate," as he stands to his feet and walks toward them. SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT. Where the hell is Peter Hale? Did he escape? Did Valack kill him? Did he get sent to another ward after being vision-quest-coma'd by Valack like Deaton did? I hope he's still alive, if only so Lydia can kill his ass with her new-found powers and fighting skills, because she's earned that honor after everything he's put her through. Valack turns the subject back to the task at hand and asks the kids if they brought the book, so Stiles pulls the Dread Doctors paperback out of his back pocket and holds it up so the man can see it, leading Valack to finally get to the good stuff.
VALACK: "Very nice. First edition! Of course, there was only one printing..."
LYDIA: [sighs] "There is no T.R. McCammon, is there?"
VALACK: [smiles and shakes his head] "No."
LYDIA: "You wrote the book."
VALACK: [impressed] "That's right, Lydia. Maybe you've already guessed that it's not just a book?"
LYDIA: [confused] "What is it?"
VALACK: "A tool. Designed to open your eyes."
STILES: "To what?"
VALACK: "To them. The Dread Doctors."DUNDUNDUNNNN. I really want to know the extent of Valack's abilities, because even though the kids knew who Valack was, I'm pretty sure they've never met them before, yet he seems to know who they are. Though, admittedly, that could be because Dr. Fenris gave him their names before they came, but I prefer to think he already knows who all of them all from his visions. I mean, we know he saw that Kate was going to turn Scott into a berserker thanks to the vision-quest-coma he gave Deaton in "A Promise To The Dead," and as we'll see later, he claims to have seen the Golden Trio performing the surrogate sacrifice ritual that reawakened the Nemeton, among other things. I'm also convinced that he saw Stiles kill Donovan, and that plus the kids having the book led him to realize the Dread Doctors are back. This guy is way too cunning for his own good as it is, so adding clairvoyance and possibly other ESP-related powers, he definitely has the potential to be a pretty intense villain. Also, on a mostly unrelated note, how hilarious is it that he actually dedicated an acknowledgement to himself in the book that he actually wrote? I'm still laughing about it.
Meanwhile, at the library,"Strange Entity" by Oscar and the Wolf is playing, and Malia has decided to give up on trying to understand the book, or at least has decided to her studies back to her house, or Stiles' house, or wherever she's staying these days. Wait a minute-- does the fact that Malia has read the book at least one time and doesn't seem to have triggered any memories of the Dread Doctors themselves mean she likely hasn't been experimented on by them yet? Or is the fact that she's been getting flashbacks to her past related to what the Dread Doctors are doing to her? I mean, they did go through the trouble of restraining her when they killed Tracy and informed her that her condition was terminal without otherwise harming her, which seems kind of suspicious, since we know they're not opposed to killing when it suits them.
Regardless of why it's happening, I'm honestly really worried about all of the flashbacks she's been having, especially since 1) they always happen when she's driving, which puts her and everyone around her in danger, and 2) she hasn't told anyone about them, so nobody knows how badly she's struggling with it. Except for Theo, anyway, but that's only because he was there when she was triggered into another flashback; otherwise, literally everyone would still be in the dark. So, are the flashbacks her brains way of showing her that she's healed enough from the trauma of the car accident to finally be able to see the true, unrepressed memories and fill in the blanks, or is it because something has been done to her-- either in the past to make her forget, like an Alpha mind-wipe or something, or in the present to make her remember, like the Doctors experimenting on her, or both? It's quite concerning, I guess is what I'm trying to say.
Anyway, once she's packed up and ready to leave, Theo asks her if she needs a ride, but Malia seems to be ready to get away from his punk ass, so she tells him she's fine taking the bus. When Theo informs her that the last bus left an hour ago, Malia insists that she can walk, so he decides to try a different tactic to get her to do what he wants-- essentially making fun of her. "Haven't I seen you coming out of driver's ed?" he asks cheerfully, but Malia just rolls her eyes and retorts that she hopes not. "I'm pretty sure I saw you destroy a couple traffic cones the other day... and nearly take out a sophomore," he continues with a laugh, but Malia just argues that the sophomore shouldn't have been standing in the way, which is so funny to me. Gods, Malia is seriously the best. Still chuckling, Theo pulls out the keys to his truck and holds them up before suggesting that it sounds like she could use a little more practice, and though Malia doesn't seem to be that into it, she easily catches his keys when he tosses them to her and reluctantly shrugs in agreement. Stay on your guard, girlfriend! Boys with angel faces in this town who aren't Scott McCall are bad news not to be trusted!
We then return to Eichen House's supernatural ward, where Stiles and Lydia are still interrogating Valack on the Dread Doctors book. Lydia doesn't understand why he would use a pseudonym for the book, but Valack reminds her that he did have a professional reputation at one point, and that he wasn't really keen on destroying it by writing such a ridiculous book under his own name. When Stiles asks him why he even wrote the book in the first place, if he was so embarrassed by the quality of it, Valack correctly deduces that he hasn't finished reading it yet. "I wrote it because nobody believed me," Valack confesses. "Because no one listened." Stiles and Lydia give each other a concerned look, which leads Valack to correctly assume that the Dread Doctors are in Beacon Hills. Lydia stares at him for a moment and bites her lip before asking him who they even are, confirming Valack's assumptions, and believe it or not, Valack is actually pretty helpful, though it's clear he's just giving them a taste to make them willing to trade for more information.
VALACK: "Not entirely human-- at least, not anymore. They were scientists once. Scientists who worshiped the supernatural. Tesla said, 'If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency, and vibration.' They found their secrets in electromagnetic forces-- ways to prolong their lives, give them power, and, most importantly, making you forget you ever saw them."Yikes! That is both terrifying and also pretty enlightening. We've all been wondering what the extent of their powers are, and now we know that they're kind of like a mix of Magneto from X-Men (Marvel Comics) and Vibe from The Flash (DC Comics.) It explains why they seem to be so glitchy/twitchy, as though they're not fully corporeal-- they're probably able to become one with the electromagnetic field, allowing them to phase through things. (Though, I'm still quite partial to Wendy's theory that part of the reason they look so glitchy is because we're seeing them through the perspective of their victims, who have probably been dosed with hallucinogens to make them easier to control along with the silvery stuff that makes them chimeras.) Plus they seem to have the ability to mess around with electronics and with memories, which is why they've been able to shut cars off while they're in the middle of driving, knock out electricity, cause lightning strikes, interfere with clocks, lighting, and magnets, and probably even caused that minor earthquake at Scott's house in "Creatures of the Night," although I still have no idea what that was all about, since Belasko wasn't even there anymore, and we didn't see the Doctors anywhere near there in that episode-- they were only at their creepy dungeon lab.
Anyway, Lydia's next question to Valack is "What do they want?", which he proclaims to be an excellent question, though he conveniently side-steps the question and avoids answering it entirely in favor of pointing out that everyone wants something and indicating that he's going to want something in return if they want more information. When Stiles rolls his eyes in annoyance and asks him what it is he wants, Valack slides one of those small audio recorders into the metal slot in the door meant for the staff to give him objects/food/etc without actually having to go near him and tells Lydia to hit the record button. Confused, Lydia asks him what he wants her to say, but Valack doesn't want her to talk-- he wants her to scream, because that's always what maybe-villains want from her.
Outside in the adjacent all, Scott and Kira are leaning against the far wall while Scott tries to eavesdrop on their conversation with no success. He then informs Kira that he can't hear anything and assumes that it's because of the huge amount of mountain ash surrounding them. Kira admits that she feels it too, and seems worried about the fact that she actually feels pretty weak, a sensation Scott also feels and describes as being like he's sedated as he slowly flexes his fingers to test his reflexes. When she wonders aloud if maybe this whole plan was a bad idea, Scott assures her that Stiles and Lydia will be okay without them, since they work well together. "No super-strength or samurai swords, but they stay alive," Scott adds, clearly impressed with their friends' survivor instincts.
In a weird and almost out-of-character transition in topic, Kira asks Scott if Stiles still has a crush on Lydia, and Scott admits that he thinks that he does, but it's different now that Stiles actually knows her, rather than obsessing over the girl he thought she was. What I don't understand is why they're talking about Stiles as though he doesn't totally have a girlfriend who is also a very, very close friend of theirs, but whatever. Kira seems surprised to hear Scott actually say that Stiles was obsessive-- though not always in a bad way-- but she's even more surprised to hear that there was once a time that Lydia pretended not to be smart, which is a testament to just how much Lydia has developed as a character since Season 1. Scott goes on to say that Stiles was the only one who knew how smart Lydia was because he paid attention to her and listened to what she has to say.
I mean, anyone who has read these Teen Wolf recaps from the beginning knows that I have always been a fan of Stiles and Lydia together, and I hardcore shipped them during Season 3A and much of 3B. The thing is, though, that I really, really love Malia, too, and I think Malia and Stiles have a great relationship going on. A year ago, I would have been thrilled to hear that Stiles still had a crush on Lydia, but now it just seems so unfair to Malia in so many ways to even consider the two of them starting a romantic relationship. Plus, this conversation was literally only about Stiles' feelings for Lydia, but at no point do either of them suggest that Lydia currently has romantic feelings for Stiles, nor has anyone, Lydia included, ever alluded to Lydia ever having feelings for him throughout the series. I'm not trying to say that they don't care about each other, because they are obviously best friends who would die for each other and who are always eager to help the other out when they need it and who genuinely enjoy the other's company.
But when we met Lydia, she was in a long-term relationship with Jackson, which continued on and off until Jackson left for London between Seasons 2 and 3. Then when 3A started, she insisted she didn't want a boyfriend, only a distraction, before starting a low-key friends-with-benefits type situation with Aiden, which also lasted on and off until Aiden died at the end of 3B. In Season 4, Stiles started a serious relationship with Malia, which Lydia supported, while she remained single and doing her own thing while developing a connection with Jordan, which seems to be growing even stronger now in Season 5A. So. if a romantic relationship between Stiles and Lydia actually started up now, it would literally be coming out of nowhere.*
*And I know a lot of the more devout Stydia shippers argue that Stiles and Malia came out of nowhere, too, but again, Stiles and Lydia hadn't even discussed being in a relationship with each other when Stiles met Malia, and romantic relationships don't always have to be slow-burn type deals where two people are close friends for a long time before they get together-- sometimes, instant connections do happen, and perfectly meaningful relationships can begin from there. I mean, Stiles and Malia officially met during a time that was very traumatic and stressful for both of them, and they gave each other the comfort and judgment-free support that they needed while bonding over the fact that they had both done things that they hated while they weren't in control of their bodies. Not to mention much of the start of their relationship developed during the time-jump between Seasons 3B and 4, so while it may feel like it just happened with no warning, that's just not how it really is in canon.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed whatsoever to Stiles and Lydia eventually getting together in the future-- teen dramas like this usually involve a lot of breaking up and dating other people and then breaking up again and rekindling old relationships, so I have no delusions that most relationships aren't the forever-type on these shows. I mean, look at Scott and Allison, whom everyone believed would be "endgame"-- Crystal Reed ended up leaving the show, and Allison got killed off, preventing them from ever getting back together like they planned. Real life things happen, and relationships change, and you never really know how things are going to work out.
But what I'm trying to say (and failing to say eloquently) is that where things are right now, where Stiles is in a nearly-year-long committed relationship with Malia, and Lydia is slowly getting involved with Parrish, it just wouldn't feel organic to the story or to the characters for Stiles and Lydia to just suddenly get together-- Lydia and Malia are close friends now, so why would Lydia immediately want to jump into a relationship with her good friend's ex? And why would Stiles want to hurt Malia, who he clearly cares for a lot, by immediately rebounding with her good friend? Like, that kind of situation would just do such a disservice to the characters, as well as the relationships that they have with each other. If Stiles and Lydia are going to happen, it should be in a way that is respectful to all three of them-- including and especially Malia-- as well as the story itself. This isn't a supernatural teen soap opera like The Vampire Diaries, this is basically a twenty-hour-long horror-dramedy, so love triangle drama has little place on Teen Wolf, if you ask me. (And you didn't, but whatever).
Anyway, to summarize, I am fairly confident that this conversation isn't some foreshadowing that Stiles is going to immediately dump Malia so he can quickly start dating Lydia, but the fandom seems to have let their ideas about what is to come run away with them, and its created a lot of drama that I just felt compelled to throw my two cents in there, whatever that is worth. (Honestly, the fact that these fights are giving me major flashbacks to previous fights started by Stiles/Derek shippers is kind of exhausting in an exasperated way. History repeats itself in the fandom just as it repeats itself in the show, I guess.) Honestly, in my opinion, an excellent compromise would be to have Stiles, Lydia, and Malia be in a polyamorous relationship, but that's pretty much always my reaction to ship wars ^_^. I'm still salty that Scott/Allison/Isaac never happened, because it would have been perfection.
So, now that I've just written a thousand words alone on the Stiles/Lydia/Malia fandom drama, let's get back to the story, 'kay? 'Kay. So, just when Scott and Kira are talking, the lights start to flicker around them in the hallways, and Scott looks around anxiously, since these electrical glitches seem to be happening way too often for comfort. His back is turned toward her when he asks her if she saw the power flickering, so when she weakly replies, "No, but I'm seeing this..." from behind him, he quickly spins around and gapes in shock as he stares at Kira's outstretched hand, which is surrounded by a glowing blue aura as sparks of electricity crackle up and down her arms. KIIIIIIIIRAAAAA NOOOOOOO! I totally talked about wanting to see more of Kira's powers in my pre-Season 5 speculation post, but I was hoping they would be in a badass capacity and not a "HELP KIRA IS DANGEROUS TO EVERYONE AND TO HERSELF" way. Be careful what you wish for!
Back in Valack's cell, Lydia has just retrieved the audio recorder from the slot, but Stiles instantly snatches it out of her hands before she can reply to Valack's proposal and immediately rejects it for her, all, "Nope! Not happening! Sorry!" Lydia sighs deeply and grabs him by the arm to lead him to the back of the room so they can speak privately about Stiles' overbearingly protective nature. She reminds him that he's literally the only person they know who seems to know something, and they kind of need answers before they start finding more chimeras digging themselves out of the ground, but Stiles just scoffs and replies, "The guy is a nutjob who drilled a hole into his head! He's probably lying his ass off." Man, I really want to know how Valack got his third eye! Did he voluntarily do it to himself? Did he volunteer for someone else to do it? Did the Doctors or someone else do it without his consent? GIVE ME MORE VALACK BACKSTORY PLEASE, JEFF. Naturally, Lydia and Stiles are hardly whispering, so Valack can totally hear everything they're saying and tries to use what he just heard to bait them back into cooperating with him.
"How many have died so far?" he interrupts loudly, causing Lydia and Stiles to look over at him with worried expressions. "All of them teenagers. Am I right?" The two kids just gulp nervously and stare at him in shock, which was obviously the reaction Valack was looking for, so he continues on in hopes of scaring them enough to convince them to do what he wants. "Want to know how many died the last time they came here? Wonder how many will die if they succeed?" SUCCEED TO DO WHAT? Why are the kids not picking up on these clues? They need to ask better questions. Lydia suddenly gasps in understanding and realizes aloud that all of this really has happened before, which Valack confirms before continuing with his very worrisome exposition. "And now they're back-- all because a few teenagers, who never even considered the consequences, decided to reignite a supernatural force they barely understand."
Hey now, dude, not only were they incredibly desperate back then, considering they were fighting a war on two fronts and had spent weeks watching helplessly as Jennifer sacrificed twelve innocent members of their community to get the power to wipe out Deucalion and the Alpha Pack before then watching as she kidnapped their fucking parents to use as the last sacrifice of Guardians, but they were also given the tools to do the surrogate sacrifice in their parents place by Deaton, so they're hardly the only people to blame here. It was just like the Season 2 finale, when Scott's loved ones were all threatened by Gerard (and, by extension Jackson the Kanima), Allison was literally seconds from getting her throat ripped out, and his only recourse to ensure everyone survived was to get Derek to bite Gerard to take him out. Was that a great solution? Not at all. Did Scott/the Golden Trio do things they wish they wouldn't have had to do? Of course-- if you recall, they still have the darkness around their hearts from dying and being resurrected, which, though it hasn't really affected them recently, is still an issue they'll have to deal with for the rest of their lives, not to mention they drew a shitload of dangerous creatures to their homes to do so. We do the things we need to do in the moment and hope they don't have lasting consequences in the future.
On a different note, I love the "history repeating" theme of this show-- from Scott's story mirroring Derek's with regards to sleeping with hunters, to the parallels between the first and second times the Nogitsune was active in Beacon Hills, to the repeat of the deadpool list, and now the return of the Dread Doctors to their town and possibly the return of the Nemeton to its full power. There are so many possibilities for this kind of thing, and it's the best. Anyway, Lydia correctly guesses that Valack is talking about the Nemeton, and when Stiles asks him how he even knows about that, since it's not exactly common knowledge that he, Scott, and Allison all decided to kill themselves to gain the information necessary to save their parents, Valack rips the dirty bandage off of his head to expose his third eye to them-- which is just as disgusting as it was the first two times we saw it-- and informs them that he saw it himself as Lydia gulps in horror at the sight of his trephination hole. Welp, that's not good-- guys like Valack who have knowledge about pretty much everything are ridiculously dangerous. Just look at Peter and everything he knew about the supernatural world! So the fact that it seems as though he can gain information that has happened from events where he wasn't even present as a result of his powers makes him a seriously dangerous potential villain. No bueno whatsoever.
In the hallway, Scott is starting to panic and instinctively backs away from the white-blue electricity crackling up and down Kira's body, which has begun causing all of the lighting in the building to go haywire. He gulps anxiously and pleads, "Kira, whatever you're doing, please stop," but Kira is even more scared than he is and insists that she's not doing anything on purpose-- whatever is happening to her is completely out of her control and is just happening on its own.
Valack notices the power flickering in and out from inside the cell and immediately demands to know who came with Lydia and Stiles today. Lydia vaguely replies that they came with their friends, but when Valack wants to know what kind of supernatural creatures those friends are, Stiles cuts her off and orders her not to answer him. It doesn't really matter, though, because Valack correctly guesses one of them is a kitsune, just as the light fixture behind Lydia and Stiles explodes in a shower of sparks, startling them so much that Stiles literally leaps into the air while Lydia yelps in fear. When she asks Valack what's going on, he drops some more info onto us.
"She's disrupting the building's defenses," he explains in annoyance. "It's not just the mountain ash that keeps this building secure, it's the electromagnetic energy. Eichen is built on the convergence of telluric currents. Ley lines. It's what allows it to keep certain supernatural creatures in... and certain others out." Okay, I really want to know more about this, though I'm going to take that as confirmation as to why the oni couldn't come into Eichen House. Lydia does that head-tilt thing that indicates she's trying to puzzle something out, but when they hear that tell-tale rattling noise that the Dread Doctors make, Valack's eyes widen in fear as he realizes that the Dread Doctors knew that they were coming, and that the kids "unlocked the door" for them because the Doctors knew Kira would disrupt the telluric currents enough to actually allow them to enter the place. Shit shit shit shit shit! How did they know that? Does that mean they experimented on her, or do they have psychic powers as well that allows them to know what the kids' supernatural identities are? I AM SO WORRIED FOR OUR BABIES, YOU GUYS.
Sure enough, the Dread Doctors open the front gates and march on up the front steps to Eichen House, flickering and glitching and rattling as they make their way up to the entrance to the building. Fortunately for our heroes, they move pretty slowly, especially since the Surgeon walks with a sword-cane, so they still have some time to figure things out. (Also, on the topic of the sword-cane-- we know that the DDs have much extended lifespans and are possibly ancient, but I'm wondering if that came at the cost of their health? If one of them relies on a cane (which is assuming that the cane actually serves a purpose other than being a weapon), and they all seem to use oygen masks of some kind, they probably don't have the same kind of healing that most werecreatures and kitsunes have, right? Just an observation)
Elsewhere, Malia and Theo are on the road, where Malia is driving Theo's truck while he rides shotgun as "Eyes Closed" by Hermitude plays. They're sitting in complete silence, aside from the music on the product-placement satellite radio, and after a moment, Theo just chuckles in amusement and points out that she can drive a little faster if she wants to do so. Malia frowns in confusion and points out that she's driving the speed limit, but Theo just giggles even more and retorts, "Nobody does the speed limit," which would explain those speeding tickets, I guess. "You also don't have to hold the wheel like that," Theo adds, when he sees she's white-knuckling the wheel at nine and three, just like Lydia taught her so she won't break her thumbs, which is seriously adorable to me for so many reasons. I love Lydia and Malia's relationship. And Malia and Kira's relationship. And Kira and Lydia's relationship. And the holy trinity of badass ladies that they make up. YAYYY LADIES SUPPORTING LADIES. Anyway, Theo reaches over and gently puts his right hand over hers, caressing it gently with his thumb before sliding it down so she's holding the wheel more at eight and five, and asks her if that feels better.
She seems surprised by the gesture, smiling weakly and nodding in agreement, which makes Theo grin one of those self-satisfied smirks of his. Just then, the act of moving her hands from the bottom half of the steering wheel to the top triggers something in Malia's memory and causes her to be transported once again into one of her car-accident-flashbacks. She gets a flash of her little sister (whose name we still don't know) holding up her baby doll into the air as her mother does the exact same movement with her hands against the steering wheel. The flashback causes her to unconsciously hit the gas pedal, and Theo watches as the speedometer jumps from 45 MPH to 70 pretty quickly. He laughs it off at first and points out that he said she could go a little faster, not "Mach 5," but when he sees that Malia seems to be in a daze and is gripping the steering wheel like her life depended on it, his expression becomes more concerned and asks her if she's okay. Malia starts getting flashes of her little sister holding up her baby doll in the backseat as Theo yelps at Malia to slow down, and when he reaches to take the wheel from her, Malia jerks it away, causing them to almost run off the road. Theo finally manages to get her to stop the car, and as soon as it stops moving, she throws herself out of the driver's seat and runs several yards away from the car. After a moment, she falls to her knees and falls forward so she's on all fours as Theo chases after her and anxiously calls out her name. THIS IS SO NOT GOOD, NONE OF THIS IS GOOD.
Back at Eichen House, Scott flings himself backwards and covers his face with his hands as a shower of sparks falls from the fluorescent lighting that Kira just exploded. However, once it passes, Scott opens his eyes and looks around to find that she passed out and is now collapsed onto the floor. As he rushes toward her to check on her, more electricity starts to crackle throughout her body with so much force that Scott is hit directly in the chest by a bolt of white-blue lightning and thrown backward all the way down the hall and into the locked door at the end. YIKES! That is so intense! It's also so weird and interesting that Kira's eyes and aura are this golden-orange-pink color, but her foxfire/lightning is ice-blue. GIVE ME ALL THE TEEN WOLF KITSUNE MYTHOLOGY, PLEASE AND THANK YOU. Scott hit the wall so hard that his vision blurs pretty badly as he tries to get his bearings, and the sound of the impact startles Dr. Fenris enough that he rushes over and enters the hallway to see what the hell is going on. When he asks Scott if he's okay, Scott mods in confirmation before frantically informing him that something is clearly happening, and he's afraid that Kira is causing it.
Upstairs, the creepy nurse is still at the front desk, scribbling on paper attached to a clipboard in the darkness caused by the power outage, when he suddenly hears someone approaching. When he looks up from whatever he's writing, he sees the three Dread Doctors in all their steampunk glory stomping toward him and instantly starts to panic as he stands to his feet and backs away from them as quickly as he can, ducking down behind the desk as though that could actually save him if they really wanted to hurt him. The doctors tilt their head curiously as they look at him while they pass the desk, but otherwise, they leave him alone, which is definitely unnerving. Still, there's way too much going on to worry about this much creepier version of Brunski, so let's forget about it for now.
Meanwhile, inside Valack's cell, the prisoner is getting very antsy at the thought that the Dread Doctors are coming, so he lunges for the glass barrier separating them and demands that Lydia use the audio recorder to make a copy of her scream for him, and when she hesitates, he frustratedly reminds her that it doesn't cost her anything to do it. "But it's worth something to you, so you're not getting it for free!" Stiles argues in response, before Lydia orders him to tell them what the book is meant to do. While they talk, the Dread Doctors make their way down the square-spiral staircase toward the supernatural ward, their clockwork gloves clanking against the railing as they grip it for balance. "I told you," Valack groans exasperatedly as we return to their conversation. "It opens your eyes. It triggers the memory centers of the brain, clearing the fog and bringing the images of the Dread Doctors into focus." Ooh, that actually reminds me a lot of how banshee screams are said to drown out all the ambient noise so the banshee in question can focus on the sounds they need to hear. Veryyyyy interesting.
"I wrote the book in an effort to find out if anyone else like me had ever seen them before," Valack continues urgently, and judging by the horrified, distant look on Lydia's face, just this conversation alone, in conjunction with seeing the cover of the book and having read a few parts, seems to be triggering her memories of the Dread Doctors exactly as he says. "I thought I could circulate it in an effort to trigger someone-- anyone-- else's memory." Stiles, sensing that the Doctors are getting ever closer to them, anxiously looks backward toward the other end of the hall while Lydia continues to process this new information. "They'd see the cover, a hint of memory..." The words trigger a flashback in Lydia's mind to when she was having surgery in "Condition Terminal," when suddenly Melissa and the other actual regular doctors morphed into the Dread Doctors while Lydia was counting down as the anesthetic took effect. HOLY SHIT-- could that entire scene have just been an illusion planted into Lydia's mind to make her forget that they'd done something to her? Did we see that and just assume she was having a weird drug-induced dream when in reality, they were actually there? THIS IS TOO BANANAS FOR WORDS.
"They pick up the book, read it, the suppressed memories surface, and they'd find their way to me to discover more. Just like you did." Uh oh, so it seems more than likely that Lydia has definitely been experimented on/otherwise manipulated by the Dread Doctors, y/y??? And maybe that's where her those new scream-enhanced concussive blast powers she demonstrated at the beginning of "Creatures of the Night" were actually caused by their experimentation rather than a development of her existing abilities caused by her turning eighteen like I previously theorized? THIS IS TOO MUCH TO HANDLE. Stiles asks if it worked with anyone else, but Valack points out that the single copy of the book made that pretty difficult, since it wasn't exactly a national best-seller. Lydia wants to make sure that all they have to do to remember if something happened to them is to read the book, and Valack reiterates that he's telling the truth-- "If you've seen them, if they've done something to you, then the book will help you remember." He then turns the subject back to his payment and insists that they give him what he wants, so Lydia takes the audio recorder back from Stiles and hits record before presumably screaming for him off-camera.
In the adjacent hallway, Kira is still unconscious on the cement floor outside the supernatural ward while Scott and Dr. Fenris try to figure out what to do. Fenris tells Scott they need to get her the fuck out of there right this second, but Scott doesn't know how the hell he's supposed to do that when he can't even touch her without getting electrocuted. Of course, that's when they both hear a thud behind them and spin around to see the Surgeon, with the Pathologist and the Geneticist behind him, stabbing a now-presumably-dead orderly of some kind (not the creepy one at the front desk) in the back of the neck with the blade of his sword cane, leaving a stunned speechless Scott and Fenris gaping at them in fear. The Surgeon then looks up and makes eye contact with them through his red goggles, the yellow monocle flipped up and away from his eyes. NOOOO! So, now we know the Doctors really do have no problem killing bystanders if it comes to it, rather than only killing their failures, which means that the fact that they haven't straight-out killed any of the members of the pack yet significant-- they sent Belasko after Scott, but yet they haven't killed him the last two times they've seen each other, which makes me think Scott is someone they need for some reason, or is already a test subject. Regardless, it's scary as fuck.
Back on the road, Malia is still kneeling on her hands and knees in the middle of the road while Theo stands quite a ways behind her near his truck, seemingly afraid to get too close to her after her reaction to him trying to take the wheel earlier. Suddenly, as Malia gasps for breath on the road, she's suddenly hit with the rest of the flashback that she's been getting piecemeal over the last few episodes. Her head starts to shake violently as she's sucked into the flashback-- her mother adjusts her hands on the steering wheel while they were driving on the full moon until suddenly, a woman who looks to have a short bob haircut appears in the middle of the road with a handgun gripped in each hand as she aims them both at the car. Who the fuck does she think she is, Chris fucking Argent?*
*SIDEBAR: Sigh, I miss our favorite blue-eyed, grief-bearded hunter extraordinaire so much, you guys. It feels so weird to not have any Argent presence at all so far this season. COME BACK FROM YOUR KATE HUNT, ARGENT. Alas, he's apparently just been cast on Arrow, which on one hand is great, because I totally watch Arrow-- and every other scripted CW show they crank out-- but on the other hand, it makes me concerned about whether we'll even be seeing him in 5A and 5B at all. DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD.
Mama Tate gasps in fear as the woman starts shooting at them, and Malia's sister, who was holding up her baby doll in the air, screams and hugs the doll to herself as the woman keeps shooting, and bullet casings shower over her boots. Mama Tate eventually jerks the steering wheel to the side, just like Malia just did moments ago, and drives right into the woods. We don't see the rest of the flashback, but I'm going to go ahead and predict that Malia shifted into full-coyote-mode for the first time out of stress and fear, and the woman followed them into the woods and proceeded to claw the shit out of the car and attack/kill Malia's adoptive mother and sister, because shocker-- the woman is Malia's biological mother!
In the present, Malia's face is illuminated by the headlights of a car headed straight for her, and Theo, who has been frantically shouting at her to get her attention this whole time and begging her to get up and go, eventually just tackles her out of the way just seconds before Malia could be turned into roadkill. I still don't trust Theo, but I do appreciate saving our favorite coyote's life, because I love her too much to watch her die. Theo and Malia both try to catch their breath, Theo out of relief that they're not dead, and Malia from the stress of the revelation she just had, and of course, since Theo's out to steal all of the girlfriends of the McCall Pack dudes, he continues to hold onto Malia despite the fact that the danger is now over. "It was her!" Malia whispers, clearly still in shock, and when Theo frowns and confusion and asks her what she's talking about, Malia turns her head so she's looking him in the eyes and replies, "It was her. She was there. The Desert Wolf." DRAAAMAAAA. More on this in a bit.
Back at Eichen, Fenris looks like he's about to pee his pants as he tells Scott that he better run, but Scott, of course, cannot and will not leave his best girl behind. Fenris isn't a supernatural, though, from what we can tell, so when he sees the Pathologist use its glowing-blue fingertips to crack open the door by frying the RFID lock, he has absolutely no problem whatsoever with leaving them BOTH behind and instantly flees through the nearby door without a second thought. LOL, FENRIS, you are such a coward, but I can hardly blame you, since the Dread Doctors are terrifying as fuck. Once the door is open, the Dread Doctors start to approach them, so Scott, at a loss for options, runs over to Kira and picks her up, hissing in pain as he's shocked with a dozen different volts of electricity, and kicks his way through the door where Fenris just escaped before the Doctors can get near them. SCOTT IS THE BIGGEST HERO EVER! Look at him! The skin on his face and arms is getting scorched from the shocks, and he knows that he's intentionally exposing himself to a werewolf's biggest weakness by saving his girlfriend, and yet he does it anyway!
I did happen to see a certain big-name-fan on Tumblr (who will remain nameless) who was saying that Scott was a bad friend because he had the nerve of not letting himself and Kira get killed by trying to go back for Stiles and Lydia? And I literally couldn't roll my eyes harder, because really? COME ON! There's no way that Scott could have broken through that much mountain ash and get into the ward that was made specifically to keep supernaturals from entering or leave-- in "Dreamcatchers," Scott explicitly said that breaking through the mountain ash circle in "Lunar Ellipse" almost killed him, and insinuated that it was the fact that he activated his True Alpha nature that allowed him to survive it, and that was just with the thinnest circle of mountain ash dust and only himself to worry about.
In this case, he was dealing with walls made of actual rowan wood and probably fortified mountain ash, plus he had an unconscious and electrified Kira in his arms, so what was he supposed to do, leave Kira behind? Risk both of them dying and endangering Stiles and Lydia in the process by leading the Doctors toward them, despite the fact that those two were already doing perfectly well hiding by themselves, and Scott and Kira were literally just talking about how those two manage to take care of each other and survive without having the supernatural gifts the werecreatures and kitsunes have? Plus, the Doctors clearly didn't have much interest in them, considering all it took was Stiles and Lydia to silently hide in a corner to avoid being caught because the Doctors' focus was mostly on Valack, so in the end, it all worked out the best that it could. I mean, in an ideal world, Scott would have been able to go back for Stiles and Lydia and lead all his friends to safety, but considering the building was literally engineered to bite him and Kira in the ass, the most he could do was ensure that he and Kira weren't captured or killed. So, it just seems like it's just more Scott hate for the sake of Scott hate. I hate that I'm even talking about it at all, but there is just so many people who constantly shit on Scott's character in the fandom and it makes me so angry. It's one thing to not like a character, but it's another to go out of your way to look for excuses to trash him, and that's the kind of thing we see way too often. So, sorry guys! I'll hop off my soapbox now.
The security alarms are going off loudly throughout the building, and Lydia, who apparently did scream off-screen, slams the audio recorder into the slot to give it back to Valack before demanding to know what it is the Doctors want, though Stiles cuts in and quite rightly tells her that they really need to get the fuck out of there. Lydia ignores him and asks Valack again what the Doctors are trying to do, but all he'll say is that they both need to read the book, along with anyone who could have possibly come into contact with them. "Lydia, we gotta go. NOW!" Stiles insists, so Lydia sighs and follows him out, only for Valack to shout out one last, "READ THE BOOK!" before they go.
Kira's foxfire is still going out of control in Scott's arms, and he continues to get zapped by stray bolts of lightning as he kicks open another door and makes his way toward the lobby. Did he seriously just run up, like, seven flights of stairs to get back up onto the main floor while being seriously electrocuted and carrying a teenage girl in his arms? That is seriously impressive. The lights overhead start to explode and shower sparks over them, causing Scott to run as fast as he possibly can to avoid him. GO SCOTTIE GO GO GO.
The Dread Doctors are making their way down the hallway to the supernatural ward, flickering so much it looks as though they sort-of teleported several feet in front of them, and I just really want to know what the full extent of their abilities are, damnit! Stiles and Lydia are hiding in one of the adjacent halls, or maybe one of the bathrooms or something-- Stiles has his back against the tiled wall with Lydia shoved up against him, his left arm holding her back so they're flat against the wall and out of sight. The Doctors either don't care enough to go after them or don't notice their presence at all, because they just pass by the door to the room where they're hiding and keep making their way down the hallway, much to Stiles and Lydia's relief.
Valack hears the rattling noise they make and looks up just in time to see them walking toward his cell. He reflexively backs up against the far wall, but even he knows it's a pointless endeavor, because the Doctors easily use their electromagnetic-y fingers to open the sliding door to his cell and swoop in. Valack has a bit of the Katerina Petrova in him, because he desperately tries to push past them and out the open door to his cell, but the Pathologist just grabs him by the face with his strong hand before he can even take two steps. "You don't have to do this," Valack murmurs in a pleading voice as they surround him; the Geneticist pushes Valack down on his knees and braces the back of his head while the Surgeon flicks his yellow monocle over his right eye and holds up some kind of terrifying clear vacuum-tube with three short wire ends that open and close.
Just as Valack is repeating, "You don't have to--", the Surgeon lunges toward him and SUCKS OUT HIS THIRD EYE INTO THE VACUUM TUBE! HOLY SHIT! THAT IS SO GROSS! After having gotten at least part of what they needed, the Doctors drop Valack unceremoniously onto the ground and turn to leave, using their powers to lock his cell door behind him on their way out and leaving him to bleed out from his forehead onto the floor. Oh my gods, this is so messed up! Do they need the eyeball to give someone else his clairvoyant powers? Did they take it from him so he couldn't use his powers to warn anyone about what he was doing? Do they think doing it will kill him? I'm guessing since we saw him in the "present-day" scenes in "Creatures of the Night" that he doesn't actually die from it, and the loss of the eye might even explain why he didn't have the hole in his forehead when he was questioning Lydia. Regardless, that's seriously intense and super gross. Blech!
Meanwhile, Scott has finally just made it to the front entrance as Ruelle's "Until We Go Down" starts to playing in the background. (You might remember Ruelle from the end of The Originals episode "Brotherhood of the Damned", when "Up In Flames" played as Marcel led the vampires back to Alrgiers-- it is the perfect band for dramatic, triumphant scenes, to be honest!) He gets struck by a particularly strong bolt of lightning and screams in pain as he rushes toward the front steps. When he finally makes it to the first landing, he literally looks like he wants to die from the pain of it, but even though he's in agony, he slowly bends over and ever-so-gently lays Kira onto the ground to ensure that she doesn't get hurt before he finally collapses himself next to her, the blacked and bloodied bits of skin on his face, chest, and arms still smoking and just generally looking ridiculously painful as they very slowly begin to heal.
Kira finally seems to be coming around now, and she starts to crawl toward Scott as she weakly murmurs, "At the club... at the club, you... you said..." Scott lifts up his head to look her in the eyes and replies, "I remember.'' as he gently brushes her hair off of her face with his burned hand. "And I meant it." YAYYYY! Finally feeling better about the state of their relationship and feeling better in general now that her body isn't freaking out with foxfire any more, she scoots over so she's curled up next to Scott and lays down. Scott, relieved to finally be able to rest and heal, lays backwards as his hand falls to the ground, still twitching after being electrocuted dozens of times in a row. However, when Kira reaches out her hand and squeezes Scott's, it finally stops twitching, and the two close their eyes and lay quietly while they recover. Ugh, these two, I just love them so damn much, they are so perfect to me.
Back inside, the lights seem to have returned to normal, and Lydia, realizing Stiles is still clutching onto her, whispers, "I think we're okay" as the two take deep breaths and try to calm down. Stiles' face tells you he is anything but fine right now, though, and he's practically shaking in fear as he begins to process the implications of everything they just learned from Valack. "No, it's not okay," Stiles mutters bitterly. "All of this? It's on us. Everything that's happened, everything that's going to happen? It's our fault." Lydia, who is starting to realize just how badly Stiles feels, and who is likely feeling guilty herself as a result of her own role in the sacrifice ritual, replies, "It's our responsibility." Man, that really has to be a tough revelation-- on the one hand, Deaton warned them this would happen, so you'd think that they would have been expecting something like this? But on the other, seeing is believing, and like I said earlier, you do what you need to do at the time and hope that the consequences won't be too severe, and that's exactly what they thought when they did the ritual. And between the badness they'd already dealt with between the Nogitsune, losing Allison, the deadpool, Peter and Kate's ridiculous ploy to kill Scott, plus the fact that they had gone six months without an issue, they probably got lulled into a false sense of security that maybe the worst had passed them, and now they're finally realizing that those shitty past events were just the beginning. :( My poor babies!
Finally, we return to Valack in his cell, whose forehead trephination hole is still bleeding profusely as he desperately crawls toward the glass partition. He has a paper cup gripped tightly in his left hand as he uses his right to pull the recorder Lydia used to record her scream out of his pocket. He musters up all the strength he has before hitting play, dropping the recorder in the cup, and then pressing the top of the cup against the glass as he waits expectantly. After a long moment, the recording of Lydia's scream finally plays, and it's so powerful even via an audio recording that it starts to crack the glass-- only a little at first, but it slowly pans out until the cracks cover the majority of the pane of glass to the point that he should easily be able to kick through it. OH SHIT, VALACK IS TOTALLY GOING TO BREAK OUT AND WREAK HAVOC, RIGHT? I'm guessing this means he's not technically supernatural if he can get through the mountain ash, though I'm not sure if that's because he's a Dread Doctor experiment or something else entirely. Also, how was the recorder able to break the glass when the original scream itself didn't? I am terrible at physics, so forgive me for my ignorance if it's because of something totally obvious that I'm missing. Finally, will whatever he does once he's out be worth the information they got from him? Only time will tell, I suppose!
Next week: As evidence by the title "Required Reading," the McCall Pack and its supernatural allies will likely be reading the Dread Doctors book so they can find out who among them have been manipulated by/experimented on by the Doctors themselves; Lydia gets self-defense lessons from Parrish and seeks out answers as to what the DDs did to her; and a new chimera is loosed onto the town and seems to attack the hospital.
NOTES/SPECULATION/QUESTIONS:
-Yet another episode full of fashion reruns! Lydia is wearing the same green and white floral dress that she wore in "A Promise To The Dead" when she showed up soaking wet at Derek's loft and banshee wailed in his face. Malia is wearing the same black, pink and white floral pants that she wore in "Muted." Stiles' faded red-and-blue hoodie was last seen in "Silverfinger," and though I swear I've seen Kira wear that gray, heart-patterned off-the-shoulder top before, I can't for the life of me remember when. Does anyone else recognize it, or am I mistaking it for something else?
-My meta/speculation post has grown so long that I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to break it up-- it kind of got seriously out of control, and I'm not sure how, so I apologize for the continued lateness! I promise the wait will be worth it.
-Wendy brought up in the last post that she wasn't sure whether or not it was okay to comment on things from the new episode that airs tonight on this post, and I'm going to go ahead and say that it is, since it's kind of my fault for not finishing them on time, haha. Unless any of you guys have objections to spoilers from the new episode, in which case you should definitely say so in the comments! Otherwise, though, go for it! I personally watch the episodes live and then rewatch for the recaps, so you won't be spoiling me, and I don't think enough people are involved in the commenting part of posts to care one way or another. Let me know what you guys feel about it!
Kira's belt - I read that her Dad made that, apparently, same as her shuriken tail. If I find any official source, I'll link it.
ReplyDeleteDylan being favoured by fandom - I think that's annoying to pretty much anybody who likes the ensemble. I've been very impressed with Shelley Hennig this year - she's so very good, and so many people seem to overlook that for really petty reasons. And I briefly have to be offended on Ryan Kelley's behalf, because he's been really good, too, between playing essentially three separate versions of his character - normal, controlled, fiery - and developing a pretty complex relationship between Jordan and Lydia with Holland Roden, and all most people notice is that he's naked a lot. And really, I could talk about this for hours, for many characters and performers. I constantly have to remind myself that Dylan is a good actor, and that I actually like Stiles. Ugh. It's irritating.
Donovan and his Dad - I'm wondering if there's more to this, in a way. I mean, Donovan isn't rational, especially not at this point, so I don't expect him to be fair in his assessments, but the story he told sounded like something that he has heard again and again - I'm wondering if his Dad was rather frustrated, especially about certain bodyparts no longer working properly, and put the blame on (Future) Sheriff, instead of admitting that he was taking an unnecessary risk that got him put in a wheelchair. Maybe we'll hear more about this when they're trying to piece together why these kids were chosen.
Donovan in the library - I don't think he's still at highschool, at least not this one - people have speculated that he got Theo's card to get in, which seems possible. Stiles didn't throw his away, I'm sure.
Jordan and clothes - yeah, he gets undressed before burning the bodies. I'm not sure how "civilized" his creature part is, if at all, but I think the connection between "burn clothes, spend money we don't really have" he caught pretty quickly after the uniform thing.
Part I of II (I hope)
Part II of II
DeleteWhat Parrish does: I'll take No 1, and add the possibility of not the Doctors, but an unknown third party (or fourth, if Theo is counted as his own party) manipulating him to get power from the Nemeton. I don't think it's the Nemeton itself, partly because that seems way too benevolent - oh, a magical tree that regenerates itself with the help of a fiesty little death creature, to fight the evil, unnatural Dread Doctors - and partly because even I draw the line at sentient trees. The computer being part of the Benefactor was bad enough in that regard.
Secrets - I suspect there's just so much irritation and anxiety (and possible mind control!) going on at the moment, everyone is just keeping mum, because they fear people will react the worst. It's probably a deliberate choice, so the audience doesn't realize who is just keeping secrets and who is made to forget certain things, etc. Like, I'm still not convinced Scott didn't just lose the memory of seeing overly build foxy lady - even with the conversation he has with Theo in the next episode, he could simply be talking about her aura in the club, when she almost killed Lucas. But even if he saw the fox in the bedroom and remembers it - is it his own instincts that make him not tell her, or is there something that makes him overly suspicious and paranoid? (You know how much I love my hallucinogenic drugs idea!)
Valack - yeah, I'm not trusting the man as far as I can throw him, but I felt at least some of his info was useful. Not so sure how I feel about everyone reading the book, though. (After ep 5.06, it makes sense that Malia's flashback of Desert Wolf was triggered by the book, yes? Since her flashback mirrors those of the others in themes.)
By the way, I find it interesting that the Doctors didn't kill him, and it didn't make that much sense to me. I'm wondering if there's more to that.
Valack breaking the glass - in essence, it's because he put the recorder into the plastic mug and then played it, but don't ask me on the details, my school physics days are *loooong gone*. I'd say it's partly accustics, and partly TV physics/a wizard did it.
Malia's flashback - I'd add that she probably killed one or both of her mother/sister herself, even if Desert Wolf came after the car - otherwise she wouldn't have blue eyes.
(Writing more when I think of more!)
Some casting stuff I remember:
ReplyDeleteDoylist reason why Deaton is going on a trip this ep: Seth Gilliam was filming for The Walking Dead around that time, where he plays another recurring character. I think he'll be back in ep 8.
And this is a nice segue into JR Bourne being on Arrow: I wouldn't worry too much about that restricting his time on Teen Wolf. He's been doing parallel shows for several years now - I think he was on Sons of Anarchy among other things? - and while working around his schedule might take a bit of juggling, I'm sure Chris will definitely be back. He isn't the only one to do this, btw: Melissa Ponzio was on The Walking Dead like Seth Gilliam, and has a recurring role on some show about firefighters in Chicago, and Cody Christian is still doing PLL while also playing Theo.
Kitsune: Was the 100 years as a fox thing really mentioned on the show in 3b, or just in fandom? I'm asking because it's an actual part of folklore, and our viewers sometimes have a little trouble distinguishing what is true for the show and what is general info about the creature. From all that I know, TW's kitsune are more inspired by the "real life" version, much like wendigos, banshees or kanimas.
That's quite horizontal. Before you wipe-cleen our post, lemme tella youse (sorry, NYC accent) our story and you may decide on who you wanna follow...
ReplyDeleteWhy else does a moth fly from the night than to a bold, attractive candle Light? Don't let His extravagant brilliance be extinguished, girl. You're creative, yes? Then fly-away with U.S to the antidote. . .
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