Teen Wolf Season 5, Episode 10: "Status Asthmaticus" Recap/Review
Hey, mis amigos favoritos! How are you doing? How was your spring and summer? You look great!
So, I've been gone a really, really, really long time, and honestly, I'm kind of embarrassed about it. I've always enjoyed this blog, because talking about television is literally my favorite thing to do in this entire shitty world, but I'm going to be honest here-- mental illness is kind of a pain in the ass. Chronic depression makes it difficult for me to do anything but the absolute bare minimum of what needs to be done, which is how my to-do list ended up getting too long, but when you combine this with my awesome OCD whose fun quirk is screaming "YOU CAN'T JUST LEAVE ALL OF THIS UNFINISHED OR SKIP AHEAD BECAUSE THEN YOU HAVE A HUGE CHUNK MISSING AND IT WILL BOTHER YOU FOREVER," it's enough to drive you a bit mad.
So, I was in a dilemma that kept me pretty much stuck-- my list of recaps to write was getting so long it was becoming unrealistic to expect to be able to finish them all on a quick timeline, but my stupid brain hates the idea of leaving things out, so I was just like, "Well, hey, let me take some time to think about what I'm going to do next!" So then, I started helping out at a new Teen Wolf wikia (if you're into that sort of thing, hit me up! I'm clarysfairchilds :)), and got caught up with school, and then I blinked and somehow eight months had passed and I was just like, "Oh, shit! Where did the time go?"
Flash-forward to today, where I got a very kind message from a mutual on Tumblr, friedwizardwhispers, sent me a message and was like, "So, do you have another blog called Emily Watches Too Much Television? Because you two seem to have similar tastes in underrated characters in fandom and I like it," and of course, nothing gets my sense of motivation singing like a good, old-fashioned compliment, so here I am, back in the saddle (hopefully?) and with some new ideas in mind that will hopefully be more realistic to the amount of mental health spoons with which I'm currently working.
OKAY. With that said, my new plan is this-- As much as I hate to do it, I am abandoning The Originals and The Vampire Diaries recaps indefinitely. These past seasons have made it a lot easier for me to give up writing about them, because between the loss of two of my favorite characters in TO and the general shittery that was the second half of TVD's seventh season, I can barely stand to watch it this past season, let alone talk about it. Besides, judging from the view counts, its the Teen Wolf recaps that people are most interested in when they come here, so I'm going to be focusing my attention on those, at least for now. The sixth and final season of TW is starting on November 15, which means I have just shy of two months to crank out the eleven recaps from last season that remain unwritten, which, while still being a long to-do list, it's much more manageable than what I was previously dealing with before dumping the dead weight.
If I can get those recaps done in a timely manner, I might consider coming back to The Originals, especially since the show got bumped to midseason and I have a bit more time to work with, but more likely than not, it's just going to end up with a brief season-long review post combined with a discussion about what Season 4 will bring. I'll probably still end up watching both shows, though, as much as I have insisted I'm quitting for months, so if you want to talk TVD-verse, hit me up on Tumblr at bisexual-rebekah!
Here's a brief warning though: the previous episode, this episode, "The Last Chimera," and "Damnatio Memoriae" are really, really hard for me to watch, so they're probably not going to be more reviews than recaps, just because I'm too busy trying to pick up the shattered pieces of my heart and put it back together than I am actually watching what is happening.
Alrighty then, since this is already, like, a decade too late, let's just hop right into it, yeah? Time to discuss Season 5's midseason finale "Status Asthmaticus!"
Previously, on Teen Wolf: Theo claimed that he would be looking out for Stiles, even if Stiles didn't trust him. Stiles accidentally killed Donovan in self-defense and has been hiding it from everyone, including Scott and his father, to the point that he threw away his incriminating library key-card (which he used to enter the library where he and Donovan ultimately dueled to the death), and the records of which were given to Sheriff Stilinski by Deputy Clarke) in the hospital garbage can. The pack figured out that Hayden Romero, with whom Liam has a burgeoning love interest, is a Chimera, and Liam forced Scott to promise that he would do everything he could to save her from the Dread Doctors. Speaking of the Dread Doctors, they cornered Liam and Hayden at Sinema, where they injected Hayden with an overdose of magic mercury that caused her eyes to turn totally silver for a brief moment, just like Donovan's. Theo and Liam brought Hayden to the animal clinic, where Liam begged Scott to give her the Bite, but Scott, already overwhelmed as it is from having just learned that Stiles had killed Donovan, sighed and said no. Which is exactly where we pick up today!
So, at the animal clinic, where we left off yesterday, Liam is predictably, like, "Uh, what do you mean, 'No?'", because he's so worried about Hayden's condition and overwhelmed by his feelings for her that his brain is just not processing this answer. However, Scott points out the fact that, in the immortal words of Peter Hale, she "doesn't look like she'd survive a slap to the face, let alone the bite of a werewolf", which is why he can't turn her-- she's way too weak, and they don't know anything about what the mercury is doing to her, let alone if it's actually real mercury to begin with, which means the Bite could just as easily kill her. Liam understandably hates this answer, but when Scott insists that this can't be their only option when it comes to saving Hayden's life, Liam argues that it saved his life, though Scott is quick to remind him that that was a totally a different situation, since Liam wasn't hurt or sick, he was just about to die from falling off of the edge of the hospital's roof and likely crushing every bone in his body.
"You promised!" Liam angrily retorts, as he brings up the vow Scott made in "Silverfinger." "You said you'd do everything you could!" Scott agrees, and says he meant what he said, which is why he's not willing to do something that will most likely kill her. Of course, the stress of this fight after what just happened with Stiles is just way too much for Scott to handle, and he starts wheezing as an asthma attack starts to affect him. Theo quickly pulls an inhaler out of his pocket and tosses it to Scott, and everyone is too worried about everything that is going on to wonder where Theo got that inhaler or question his motives for giving it to him. Scott takes a deep hit or two before firmly stating, "There's another way to save her." Unfortunately, Hayden's breathing is just as labored as Scott's, and it's clear she's getting worse by the minute. Theo grimly remarks that though they don't know the statistics for someone this sick surviving a werewolf bite, he's pretty sure that she won't be surviving this, either. Of course, Theo has a vested interest in what would happen to a Chimera if they were bitten by an Alpha werewolf for reasons that will become clear later on, so he insists that they need to do something to help her.
I know I went into this in the last recap, but I understand both Scott and Liam's perspectives on this, and while I get why Liam's upset, as usual, I'm on Team Scott with regards to giving Hayden the Bite-- at this point, we have no idea what this would do to her, and it could have horrible consequences if Scott had bitten her and inadvertently killed her. I'm personally not someone who believes that Scott taking a life will cause him to lose his True Alpha status, since occasionally, it is justified to take a life in defense of yourself or someone else, and even more, accidents do happen, especially with werewolves-- we see this with Liam coming up in this very episode. However, we still don't know that this is for certain, and what if Scott gave Hayden the Bite, which caused her to die, and then Scott lost his Alpha powers on top of that? That wouldn't bode well for any of them. So, yeah, I feel for Liam, but Scott isn't wrong on this, and besides, he's lost the love of his life before as well, so he wouldn't just let Hayden die if he thought there was any other way to save her.
Meanwhile, Stiles, still soaking wet from the blow-out argument he had with Scott in the rain just minutes ago, is anxiously driving the Jeep down the road as he processes what has just happened. He glances over at the passenger seat, where the still-bloody wrench Stiles took back from Scott is laying across it, and naturally, Roscoe chooses that moment to start smoking from her engine, forcing Stiles to pull over as he coughs painfully from inhaling the smoke. Stiles' nerves are fried, basically, and he's just not here for any of this whatsoever. As soon as he makes it to the side of the road, the Jeep's headlights flicker out as it dies completely. Still coughing and hacking, Stiles falls out of the passenger door and furiously slams it shut while he figures out what to do next. He then yanks out his wrench set from the trunk of his car and angrily tosses it onto the ground as he pops the hood.
However, when he sees the space in the tool box where the wrench he used as a weapon against Donovan is meant to be placed, he gets so overwhelmed that he tosses the whole box down the street, causing the wrenches to fall out and clang loudly as they hit the pavement. He rushes over to the passenger door and grabs the bloody wrench, about ready to throw it down the street along with them, but he stops when he notices just how bloody it is. Overcome with the guilt of killing Donovan, he turns around and throws the wrench toward the Jeep, which hits the windshield hard and causes it to crack right in the middle. Now exhausted, Stiles slides down the side door of the Jeep until he's sitting on the street with his back leaning against the tire. Ugh, EVERYTHING IS SO TERRIBLE RIGHT NOW. Also, Stiles' increasingly violent tendencies are seriously worrisome and the fact that the show isn't referencing it or showing consequences to it is kind of annoying.
Over at the Sheriff's station, one of the deputies is working at the dispatch desk when he suddenly gets a garbled message radioed in by one of his coworkers (who is only referred to as Unit 7) who is currently on patrol. When he asks the deputy to repeat his message, Unit 7 replies, "Dispatch, I'm southbound on Fryman following a suspicious individual loping in the middle of the road." The dispatcher is understandably confused and hilariously asks for clarification regarding what he means by "loping," so the guy is like, "Uhh... running on all fours? Suspect is possibly a large animal." BAHAHAHA. Gods, the Sheriff's deputies in this town are so naive, it's hilarious. Just then, Deputy Clarke, who is Unit 5, radios in and informs them that she's turning the corner on Lincoln and has spotted the suspect, who is now running on two legs and moving quickly.
When the dispatcher asks her how fast she's going, she replies that she's at about 45-50 mph and is thinking that the suspect is much too large to be human. Oh, Clarke, honey, you have no damn idea. The dispatcher tells her to back off and keep eyes on the suspect before alerting all patrolling deputies to be on the lookout for a "suspicious bipedal animal." Wait, were none of these guys around during the kanima!Jackson crisis? I guess all those deputies were probably all viciously slaughtered back then, yeah? Anyway, a third deputy known only as Unit 8 informs the dispatcher that they're coming up on Taft Street, where they have found the animal back on all fours. Just then, the deputy mutters, "Holy..." just before the loud sound of screeching tires echoes through the radio. Sheriff Stilinski, who was passing by just as the noise was heard, cuts in and asks for a report, so Unit 8 explains that the "suspect" just leaped over her car.
Just then, Clarke's voice is heard over the radio as she informs them that she has eyes on the suspect on the corner of Union, and that they're heading north toward the high school on all fours, because of course they are. That's pretty much every supernatural-esque creature's first stop when it comes to this town. Anyway, when Sheriff asks where it is, Clarke explains that she can see it in her rear-view mirror and coming right for her, but before she can say anything else, she screams, "Oh, my God!" and Sheriff immediately orders her to back off, but it's too late-- a loud crashing sound is heard in the background, as though she wrecked her cruiser trying to miss whatever creature she's following. The dispatcher wastes no time instructing all of the available deputies to head to the high school and proceed with caution. Sheriff instantly hops to his feet, grabs his jacket and his sidearm, and rushes to the school as well to see just what the fuck is happening.
Cut to the high school, where Sheriff is rushing frantically down the hallway and calling after Clarke. She eventually meets up with him, and though she's panting for breath, she's otherwise physically fine, aside from a bleeding wound near her hairline above her temple. However, she apologetically explains that she wrecked/probably totaled her car and had to run half a mile to get there, but Sheriff assures her that it'll be okay, since they have insurance for the cruiser. Clarke's not so optimistic about the school's insurance, though, and leads him over to the end of the adjacent hallway. To say that it was demolished would be the understatement of the century-- the Beacon Hills High School sign (which usually sits over the main entrance to the secret Hale vault on the street corner in front of the school) has been thrown through the ceiling of the entrance hall, causing the stone sign to crack in half right down the middle as it tore through all the venting tubes, plumbing pipes, and electrical wiring. One of the torn wires crackles with electricity, as does the hanging fluorescent light next to it, as Clarke and Sheriff gape at the wreckage in horror.
They then walk closer to the wreckage, where they look up through the new "skylight" that the school's sign has created and see the huge, 99% full supermoon overhead. Shit's about to get intense! And, to make matters worse, the Dread Doctors are standing behind Clarke and Sheriff (though neither of them notice-- whether that is because they're being especially unobservant or because the Doctors are doing some mind-whammying to hide their presence is anybody's guess) as they survey the chaos that their newest chimera has wrought for science. "Success?" the Pathologist asks, and the Surgeon garbles, "Imminent," in response, which does not bode well for Beacon Hills whatsoever. So, is this La Bête? Is it Noah, the spike-wristed Chimera we'll meet later? A year after this episode aired, and I still don't understand anything. TITLE CARD!
When we return, it's almost morning when we find Scott, Theo, Liam, and Hayden at the animal clinic, where Melissa has joined them with some medical supplies she smuggled out of the hospital. They gather around Hayden in the exam room, who is very peaked and sweaty as she lays on the exam table with a blanket covering her. When Liam sees Scott open an insulated lunch box and remove several IV bags full of clear fluid, he asks them what they've brought. "It's called chelation therapy," Melissa explains patiently. "It removes heavy metals to the blood. But, the problem is, is that it can injure the kidneys, and Hayden only has one to begin with, so..."
Okay, this kind of confused me, because Hayden said she had a kidney transplant, right? Because that's why she's on those expensive immuno-suppressants, and also why the Dread Doctors made her a Chimera, because it was the transplant that gave her genetic chimerism/two sets of DNA. I guess that's kind of my fault for assuming that she had one failed kidney that was then replaced, when in reality, it could have had double kidney failure and was only able to find one donor kidney to replace it. Either way, I'm very nervous for her, especially since, from what it seems, Hayden hasn't had access to her anti-rejection medication since "Strange Frequencies."
On a positive note, chelation therapy really is indicated for mercury poisoning, as well as other forms of toxic metal poisoning like iron (typically in patients with thalassemia, which is an inherited blood disorder that results in the body making abnormal forms of hemoglobin, which is basically what binds iron and oxygen in the blood so it can circulate through the body), arsenic, lead, uranium, and plutonium, so they got that right. The more you know! Of course, Hayden has been poisoned with magic mercury, so we already know the chances of this treatment actually working are slim to none. I really we got to learn more about how exactly the Chimeras are turned with the mercury and how they made it. I swear, there could be a spinoff just on the Dread Doctors' exploits alone (although we already need a Yukimura/Kitsune spinoff as well, so get in line, creepy steampunk bots!)
Anyway, so Melissa starts hooking up the IV bag (I'm guessing it's either dimercaprol, which is the most common chelating agent, or dimercapto-propane sulfonate, which is used for very severe arsenic and mercury poisoning), but when she sticks the IV needle into Hayden's hand, Liam instantly notices Hayden's grimace from the puncture and roughly grabs Melissa by the wrist before growling that she's hurting her. Of course, he's squeezing Melissa's arm so hard that she replies, "And you're hurting me," which embarrasses Liam enough that he blushes before letting go of her and quietly apologizing for being a little more than overwhelmed at the moment. Scott and Theo both look concerned by his behavior, and Theo reminds him that they're there to save Hayden's life, not kill each other. When Melissa becomes even more worried, Scott explains that it's a full moon, which werewolves can normally feel even during the day anyway, but since it's a supermoon, their full moon jitters are even more pronounced and hard to control. "What is that supposed to make you guys?" Melissa asks nervously. "Like, super strong? Super aggressive?" Scott sighs before replying, "Both," which only made me more anxious about what was to come when I first watched this episode.
Over at the Sheriff's station, Sheriff Stilinski is standing over his desk, where he's looking at a three-ring binder he's filled with all of the information regarding their newest supernatural problem in Beacon Hills. It's opened to a page labeled "KNOWN CHIMERAS," which includes photographs of Tracy, Donovan, Lucas, Josh, the redheaded lovechild of Freddy Krueger and Lady Deathstrike who was found dead in the McCalls' kitchen in "Ouroboros," Beth, Corey, and Hayden. After a moment of staring at it, he notices an envelope under the binder and pulls it out to find that it has "Stilinski" scrawled across the front. Inside is Stiles' library key card and a note that reads, "Maintenance found this in the hospital trash. -Melissa," which understandably confuses and concerns Sheriff. Also, I'm pretty sure I accidentally and mistakenly attributed this scene to the last episode's recap? Whoops. I wrote my notes for both episodes around the same time and I think a lot of the details just got blurred together. My bad!
Back at the animal clinic, Scott and Theo have made their way into the lobby to chill for a bit while Melissa continues to treat Hayden, and once they've each sprawled out in their own waiting-room seat, Theo grimly remarks that they're going to need help with Liam. Scott, who understandably looks bone-tired and mentally/psychologically exhausted, replies that he'll be okay, but Theo isn't convinced. "He's sixteen and in love," Theo argues. "First love. You remember what that's like?" This instantly triggers memories of Allison in Scott's mind, and looking more depressed than ever, Scott insists that yeah, he remembers, all right. Theo maintains that all of Liam's overwhelming emotions mixed with the effects of the supermoon is going to make the night a disaster, which we already know, considering it's the midseason finale and they are always literally bonkers.
"We need help," Theo continues. "And I don't mean restraints or chains. I mean Malia, Stiles, Lydia..." He sighs, and adds, "You need your pack, Scott." Oh, yes, I'm sure Theo's motives are totally pure, and his intent to bring the others into this have nothing to do whatsoever with Theo wanting to turn them against Scott so they'll join his pack instead. Nope! Scott quietly responds, "I'm not so sure I have one anymore," which literally shatters my heart into a bazillion itty bitty shards. I CANNOT LIVE IN A WORLD WHERE THE MCCALL PACK ISN'T A THING. JE REFUSE. So Theo, trying his best to keep up his innocent loyal friend cover for a little bit longer, tells Scott that he'll talk to them and see what he can do to help bring them back together. Scott, being the trusting, kind-hearted soul that he is, is touched by Theo's support and thanks him before Theo takes off to go find the others.
Meanwhile, back at the Sheriff's station, Lydia, who is still in her clothes from the previous day/episode, is sitting on the floor outside Jordan's holding cell, leaning her shoulder against the bars from the outside while Jordan leans his back against the bars on the inside. He tells her she should go home, since Sheriff is literally not sharing where the bodies of the most recently deceased Chimeras (Beth and Corey) are being stored with anyone, and he's pretty sure he's not able to psychically divine that information even in the event that he could figure a way out. Yeah, famous last words, dude. Lydia agrees with me and quietly replies, "But you're drawn to death... just like me."
Aw, Lydia! I'm glad she finally met someone who at least kind of understands the gravity of her supernatural identity, because it seriously must be such a drag to be a Banshee. Jordan asks her if that means he's kind of a Banshee, too, since she finds dead bodies and he finds dead Chimeras, and Lydia agrees that it does seem like they're both harbingers of death. Lydia and Jordan, Queen and King of the Dead! I like it a lot. Jordan jokes that he should put that detail on his resume, and Lydia cracks back that she totally put it in her college applications, which is kind of hilarious, if you ask me. I can just see it now. "Lydia Martin: 5.0 GPA, Scored V on every AP exam. Special skills: high proficiency in mathematics and physics, excellent leadership skills, rare ability to psionically locate the dead bodies of victims of the supernatural, and can also interpret sound frequencies at a level no living creature in the universe can hear." That's bound to get her an awesome scholarship, if you ask me. Anyway, it's obvious that the two of them are exhausted, because when Lydia reaches through the bars to hold his hand, she closes her eyes and rests her head against the bars. The contact seems to relax Jordan as well, because he ultimately does the same.
The sun has just started to rise as we cut over to the animal clinic, where Hayden is continuing to receive her chelation therapy as she rests on the exam table, though she's breathing fitfully and clearly hasn't shown any improvement. Melissa, who is standing at her bedside and affectionately rubbing her arm, does not look hopeful whatsoever, and it hurts my heart, even knowing what ends up happening at the end of the episode. Out in the lobby, Scott has dozed off in one of the chairs, and when Liam walks out to see him, he glares at him angrily as his eyes glow Beta-gold. Uh-oh. This is so not going to end well.
Across town, Malia has just brought Stiles back to where he broke down the previous night, just in time for them both to watch as Roscoe is towed away. She notices how sad Stiles looks to see his beloved Jeep get taken to Gods know where and asks him if they can fix it, but Stiles just shakes his head and retorts that there isn't enough duct tape in the world to fix it at this point. Of course, Malia brings up the fact that maybe he should try something other than duct tape, but it's apparently too late for that as well-- according to Stiles, it has a bad alternator and transmission, it needs all new belts, and the brake pads have worn down so much that they're essentially metal on metal. YIKES! Car repairs are such a racket, honestly. If the public transit in my dinky-ass town wasn't literally non-existent, I would probably not even bother having one.
Anyway, Malia gently asks him why he let "things" get so bad, which is a legitimate question that literally encompasses everything going wrong for Stiles at the moment, but Stiles, feeling guilty and ashamed by the events of the previous night, replies, "There's been a few distractions, if you haven't noticed." Of course, Malia is the most observant pack member of them all, let's be real here, so it's no surprise when her response is, "I notice. More than you think I do" in an effort to make Stiles comfortable enough that he can finally confess all the secrets he's been keeping. Stiles, a little embarrassed by this kind of attention, insists that he didn't mean it like that, but Malia didn't mean to start a debate, so she just cuts him off and asks if she's taking him back home. "No," Stiles replies with a sigh. "Sheriff's station. I gotta talk to my dad." I was about to be like, "YES, STILES, FINALLY TALK TO YOUR DAD LIKE YOU SHOULD HAVE FIVE EPISODES AGO!" But, predictably, this conversation won't happen today, because, like with any other finale, there is so much shit going bad at the same time in this episode that the timing just doesn't work out.
Back at the Sheriff's station, Lydia and Jordan are still tiredly talking to each other about their respective supernatural identities (or, in Jordan's case, the lack of a supernatural identity, since he hasn't yet learned what he is). He asks her if it helps her to know what she is now, and Lydia admits that the fact that she does know definitely doesn't scare her as much as it used to, though I'm willing to bet that she wouldn't mind knowing a bit more about her powers and responsibilities-- Jennifer Blake was pretty much like, "Hey, congrats, you're a Banshee!" and then left Lydia to figure out the rest herself. She then asks him if he scares her, and he confesses that she did once; namely, that one time he thought he was going to die after Belasko slashed his torso up with his talons in "Creatures of the Night." When she asks him why he thought he was going to die, he explains that he saw Banshee!Lydia that night, and that he first thought it meant he was a goner, but then realized she showed up to try to help him hold on long enough to be saved, which is what led him to believe that it was just a hallucination or a dream as a result of the severity of his injuries.
I still think there's something more about their connection, though. I mean, think about it-- both the Wild Hunt and Banshees are affiliated with Celtic mythology, Jordan and Lydia both have supernatural identities that involve the dead, and we've already seen Jordan get other visions of Lydia, such as the playing cards with the Queen of Diamonds that looks like her, and the Dread Doctor-induced hallucination during the failed attempt to catch one of them in "Strange Frequencies." Back when these episodes first aired, Wendy and I were kicking around the idea of Lydia being the Morrígan, a Celtic battle goddess, which is a theory I have adored forever, so I'm really hoping that this is where they're going with Lydia and Jordan's connection, since she shares some similarities with the being Jordan is supposed to be.
Regardless, I think since we know Lydia's inner Banshee has unconsciously used its powers before (sending messages/summons for help to Meredith in "Insatiable" and "IED," for example), it definitely seems possible that the Banshee is also maybe communicating with Jordan's spirit to tell him where to go and what to expect, and he just doesn't always remember it or understand what is happening. Given that we know a lot of supernatural creatures are spirit-based (like Kitsune, for example-- Kira's own inner Fox spirit has been working independently of Kira at times throughout the entire season, and since Banshees are known as fairy spirits in folklore, they seem to be in the same vein, and we'll see in Season 5B that the Hellhound and La Bête work in similar manners as well).
Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself again. So, Lydia brings up the fact that the Banshee was trying to stay out of the rain the night that he got attacked by Belasko, since that was the night of that huge storm that caused a lot of weird shit to happen-- the cell signal getting knocked out; the lightning strikes that came super close to hitting Scott, Liam, and Stiles; the fact that the Dread Doctors chose that night to overwhelm Kira's body with lightning for their own malevolent agenda; the minor earthquake at the McCalls' house that also stopped the analog clock in the kitchen and de-magnetized all of the magnets on the fridge, etc. When Jordan, not understanding where Lydia is going with this, looks at her in confusion, Lydia goes on to explain that Kira was telling her a story about the Wild Hunt, which includes a myth about Ghost Riders in the night sky on their horses with their black dogs at their sides.
The words "black dogs" seem to trigger something in Lydia's mind, and she immediately jumps to her feet to get ready to leave. When Jordan asks her what's up, she assures him that she just has to go check on something and insists that she'll be right back. Of course, when Lydia tells him not to go anywhere, he just gives her a look, like, "Um, really?", considering that he's locked in a holding cell at the Sheriff's station and all, but she knows that he knows what she meant. YESSS, DETECTIVE LYDIA. It's about damn time that someone in the McCall Pack finally figured out what myself and at least a half-dozen other Tumblr users have been arguing since Season 4. (Sorry, I know that's not-so-humble bragging, but I'm just really proud of myself for actually getting something right for once with regards to this show!)
Back at the animal clinic, a very worried Liam and Melissa are standing at Hayden's bedside as she continues to fitfully toss and turn, her skin becoming even clammier and weaker the more time that passes. "It's not working, is it?" Liam asks quietly, and Melissa grimly admits that she should be showing signs of improvement by now. Suddenly, Hayden gasps in pain, and when Melissa takes her hand and tries to get her attention, Hayden weakly replies, "Call Val... My sister... Valerie..." Scott, who overheard their conversation and has just walked into the exam room as he shrugs on his jacket, looks up at Liam, who reminds him that Valerie is a Sheriff's deputy.
Hayden's request is convenient timing, as it turns out, because Scott holds up his phone and explains that he thinks that Deputy Clarke is at the high school, because Theo texted him to tell him that there are cops everywhere and that there's possibly another chimera rampaging the town. "Um, my sister..." Hayden whispers softly, and it's obvious by the tone of her voice that she's terrified about her rapidly deteriorating condition. "I don't want to die without my sister." Scott gently promises her that he'll go find her and bring her back with him, but when he turns to leave, Liam stops him and asks him what he's planning on telling her to get her there. "If I have to, I'll tell her everything," Scott insists, before he takes off to get to the high school.
I know my list of reasons why I love Scott McCall is so long that it could probably reach the moon at this point, but this is one of the many things that make him such a great character-- he's always been the first person to volunteer to tell people the truth about the supernatural, whether it be Sheriff Stilinski, bb!Derek Hale (although he did kind of chicken out on that part), Kira, Liam, etc. These kids need to start being honest with each other and start communicating better, damnit! Also, I can't remember if I mentioned this already or not, but until this point, I thought Hayden's sister was named Clarke Romero, and now I'm wondering why they have different names (which seems to be common on this show, such as with Alan Deaton and Marin Morrell, Brett Talbot and Lorilee Rohr, etc)-- is/was Valerie married? Do Valerie and Hayden have different dads? I need to know this stuff!
Meanwhile, Malia has just arrived at the Sheriff's station to drop Stiles off, but when the uncharacteristically quiet Stiles reaches for the handle to open the door, Malia sighs and finally musters up the courage to speak up. "Are you going to tell him about Donovan?" Stiles looks shocked speechless by this question and sits back in the passenger seat before finally asking her if she knew this whole time. Malia, who looks slightly awkward but otherwise chill as fuck, just shrugs and admits that she guessed, because she saw the bite on his shoulder while he was sleeping. BAHAHA, I love how Malia has no issue when it comes to investigating things and being what my dear mother refers to as a "nibshit"-- it is one of Stiles' best qualities and I love that it's rubbed off on her.
Regardless, Malia insists that she didn't say anything about it because the fact that he killed Donovan doesn't actually matter to her, which is really not a surprising reaction considering what we have learned about Malia over the seasons. She and Stiles have a very similar moral code that most definitely allows for the right to kill someone in self-defense, or in defense of someone else, so the fact that Malia literally could not care less that Stiles was forced to kill Donovan after he tried to kill him is not at all shocking to me. If anything, it just goes to show that Stiles should have been honest with his loved ones from the start, because if they had heard the story straight from him as soon as it happened, they would have supported him. I still maintain that it was the lying that caused all these problems, and not the actually taking-life part. But, I've already talked this point to death in the previous recap, so moving on!
Despite Malia's undying loyalty and understanding, Stiles is still very much ashamed about what he did, because he's still replaying his argument with Scott in his head over and over while assuming that Scott knows the actual truth and actually meant what he said, rather than him basing his words on the total lie Theo gave him the previous day. Ugh, the fact that Theo manipulated them into this complete miscommunication still pisses me off so badly. I will never forgive him for that. So, yeah, Stiles quietly replies, "It matters to me" before he gets out of the car and leaves without another word. Ugh, between the sort-of Scott and Kira breakup, and the Scott and Stiles breakup, and now this Stiles/Malia breakup, my heart just cannot take any more angst.
Back in the holding cell, Jordan is laying flat on his back on the bench along the wall by the metal toilet, where he seems to be catching some zzz's while he still can. His eyes twitch as though he's in REM sleep just before we're transported into his unconscious mind to see what he's dreaming. Jordan is naked and walking through the woods, his body sweaty and covered in soot as he carries the body of a slender, wavy-haired brunette girl to the Nemeton. He lays her body on top of the stump next to the rest of the bodies, revealing that he's carrying Hayden to join the others as his arms and shoulders burst into flames. Like in the nightmare he told Lydia about in "Condition Terminal," the scene cuts to Jordan sitting cross-legged on the stump next to Hayden's body as his eyes start to glow reddish-orange. As the camera pans out, we can see that he's surrounded by the half-naked and burned bodies of dozens of failed Chimeras.
Okay, wait a second-- we've only seen Jordan take the bodies of Chimeras, right? And not any of their victims? If that's the case, then does that mean that the Dread Doctors planned to make a lot more of them? Because at last count, there have only been maybe a dozen Chimeras, give or take, if you don't count the very-much-alive Theo-- there's Belasko, Tracy, Donovan, Lucas, Josh, Hayden, the redheaded chimera Kira supposedly killed, Zach, Corey, and Beth, with Noah, the spike-wristed chimera Malia runs into later on in this episode, making the total eleven. Plus, Zach claimed that he saw three other Chimeras get killed while he was in the Doctors' captivity as well. But, in the last episode, Jordan said that there were hundreds of bodies on and around the Nemeton in his dreams, so is that just his brain exaggerating everything? Is his brain adding the victims even though we've never seen him physically pick them up? I AM SO CONFUSED.
In the station's bullpen, Stiles goes up to the front desk to speak to a new, blonde, vaguely Scandinavian-looking deputy who is apparently called Deputy Strauss, and who informs him that Sheriff left a half-hour ago and would be back soon. Stiles, looking nervous and put-out by this information, sighs and tells Strauss that he'll just wait in his office. I'm going to guess that since Sheriff never comes back, he's probably in the middle of getting attacked, given how Stiles finds him at the end of the episode? Anyway, once Stiles does that, Strauss sits back down at his desk and yanks at his collar uncomfortably; judging by how he's sweating, he seems to be feeling overheated, which probably isn't a good sign since there is a literal fire-hound sleeping away in their holding cell. Whoops!
We then cut to the high school's library, where Lydia has just found an old mythology book and has begun to quietly read the page aloud to herself for our benefit. "Woden's Hunt, also known as the Wild Ride or Wild Hunt... A myth of devilish riders in the sky accompanied by black dogs, spectral beasts whose eyes glowed with fire. A Bearer of Death and Guardian of the Supernatural, the black dog is also known by its more common name... The Hellhound." OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT! JORDAN IS A HELLHOUND, YOU GUYS! YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW HAPPY I AM TO BE MOSTLY RIGHT ABOUT THIS! #humblebragpartdeux. So, that's why his eyes glow like flames, and why he is immune to fire and has a fire-related healing ability, and why he's been supernaturally lured to the dead Chimeras-- as a guardian of the supernatural, he's in charge of keeping the secret of their existence safe, which means that he has to cover up the deaths so the police don't learn too much. I'm still not convinced that the Dread Doctors aren't using Jordan's powers and supernatural duty to further their own agenda, though-- in an earlier recap, I suggested that the dead Chimeras could possibly be sacrifices to the Nemeton of some kind, and even though it was never explicitly stated in 5B, it still could have happened.
Anyway, speaking of fire-colored eyes, the scene cuts briefly over to Jordan in the station's holding cell, where he has just opened his eyes to reveals irises that are flickering reddish-orange flames. Back at the high school's library, just as Lydia, having figured out what she came to learn, slams the book shut, she is suddenly struck by a banshee premonition. Her eyes drift as she focuses on the auditory parts of the premonition, which include the sound of fighting and several werewolves growling as a warning of what will be happening in that very room in just a few short hours. Naturally, Theo chooses that moment to appear behind her and remark that Lydia obviously just got a premonition about what is coming, and she gasps aloud and spins to face him when she hears his voice.
"You know what's coming... Don't you?" Theo asks her, and Lydia only looks more horrified than before when she admits that her Banshee senses are telling her someone is going to die there tonight. Of course, this doesn't surprise Theo whatsoever, since he's orchestrating this whole shitshow, so he just nods in agreement before informing her that he can't let her tell anyone what she just figured out. Lydia's understandably confused as to why he'd want to keep this quiet, but when she asks him about it, he just smirks at her. "Because I want you, Lydia. I want all of you." Yeah, clearly not that much, bonsidering he's going to leave her for dead later, but let's be real, here-- it's been pretty obvious to all villains since Season 3A that Lydia is ride-or-die for Scott. There's no way that anyone could turn her against him, not after all he's done to protect her, so if Theo can't get her on his side, then he pretty much has no choice but to take what little info he can get from her and then remove her from the equation entirely to get what he wants.
Anyway, as you can guess, Lydia is just mindblown by all of the shocks she's just experienced in a row, which causes her to demand to know what the fuck he's talking about. Unfortunately for Lydia and the rest of us, Theo is smart enough to know a losing battle when he sees it, so he just promises to give her some time to think about joining him before he fully backhands her across the face so hard he knocks her out and causes her to fall to the floor. OH NO YOU FUCKING DON'T. Gods, Theo is the wooooorst! Anyone who hurts Lydia (or anyone in the McCall Pack, for that matter) is immediately on my bad side, so after what he did to Scott and Stiles, this is pretty much strike three in my book.
The next couple scenes cut back and forth from the nature preserve, the animal clinic, the Sheriff's station, and the hospital, so hang on tight! First up, we have Malia, who is so overwhelmed with everything that she has come to her old coyote den in the nature preserve to clear her head. She crouches down in the corner and picks up her sister's doll from the car wreck, which she's apparently moved from the car wreck site since she returned to the human world. After a moment, Malia hears footsteps approaching, and she stands and assumes a defensive position as a familiar-looking black wolf trots on into the coyote den and stares at Malia curiously before shifting back into Theo's very naked human form. Okay, does the fact that Theo's eyes look almost white when he's in wolf form bother anyone else? Is it supposed to be a clue to his chimera identity, or is it just because of the light being reflected in them? It just looks creepy, especially since it's the same wolf that played Derek's full-wolf form and we're used to it having brown/blue eyes. Anyway, Malia is predictably stunned to see that Theo can full-shift and asks him how the fuck he just did that, which earns her a smug smirk.
We then cut over to the animal clinic, where Melissa has just noticed a bunch of small, blackish-blue spots have started to appear on Hayden's arms. When Liam notices her worried look, he tilts Hayden's head and informs her that the marks are appearing on her neck as well. Now, I think everyone first saw this scene and just assumed that they were bruises caused by the mercury poisoning or the chelation therapy or both, but when Kathleen and I were talking about it later, we realized that the marks actually looked very similar to the spot patterns on Kate's skin when she's in werejaguar form. Then, I thought back to the first and only time we've seen Hayden transformed before, at the beginning of "Strange Frequencies," and the style of her fangs looked just like Kate's as well. I mean, I know that the fang prosthetics are pretty much all based on what works for the specific actors, but it still led me to wonder if maybe Hayden was a werewolf/werejaguar Chimera and was just partially manifesting her jaguar skin in some half-hearted attempt to enhance her healing ability or something? (Edited to add: And, now that we've seen "The Last Chimera," it turns out that she is also part-werejaguar, so hell fucking yeah! Maybe I'm psychic after all. :P)
Okay, back to the scene. So Liam, noting the bruise-looking marks developing on Hayden's body, grimly figures that this means that Hayden is getting worse, and since Melissa is unable to honestly dispute that observation, she decides that they have no other choice but to take her to the hospital. As expected, Liam points out that, hellooo, Hayden's not exactly human anymore, so what the hell can anyone there do for her? Even still, Melissa reminds him that they're in a damn animal clinic, and she needs medical equipment designed for humans to help her before adding that while they are taking Hayden to the hospital, she didn't say anything about going in the front door. Melissa is so great, ugh! Unlike some parents we know (*coughSheriffStilinskicoughcoughcough*), she does whatever it takes to save her children and the townspeople at large from supernatural threats without a second thought, even if it means bending the rules or, occasionally, ignoring the rules completely. Those rules were made for human problems, not supernatural ones.
Over at the Sheriff's station, all of the deputies in the bullpen are sweating their asses off, as is Stiles, and after a moment, the smoke alarm goes off to indicate that there's a fire somewhere. While the deputies try to figure out what the hell that's coming from, Jordan is back in his holding cell, where he has awakened from his body-snatching dream state and walked over to the bars. His eyes are flickering reddish-gold flames as he grabs two side-by-side bars on the cell door and starts to pull them apart, using his fire powers to heat the metal up until it's about the consistency of rubber and can easily be bent enough to create an exit.
We cut back to the coyote den, where Theo, in all his naked glory, walks toward Malia, who is trying her best not to stare at his dick. He asks her if she wants to learn how to full-shift, and informs her that if so, he can show her how. "You're showing me plenty right now," Malia replies awkwardly, but Theo just shrugs and walks even closer to her before snarking, "I've got nothing to hide." Good gods, he really is arrogant as fuck, isn't he? He's giving me major Peter vibes right now and it's not a good look. Anyway, Malia is appalled by his insinuation that she does have something to hide, so Theo starts with the major revelations. "Did you tell Scott you're planning to kill your mother?" he asks innocently. I both love and hate how he's been picking up all these lies, hints, and clues to stuff that everyone has been unknowingly dropping and just files them away for a time to use them to his advantage. Reminds me of Valentine Morgenstern from The Shadowhunter Chronicles/The Mortal Instruments novel series.
When Malia narrows her eyes at him, he insists that not only is he not judging her, but he wants to help her. Of course he does! Because he knows Malia killing the Desert Wolf would just be another strike that could possibly turn her away from the McCall Pack and toward Theo, who literally thrives on getting people to letting their darker impulses take control. Malia is suspicious as hell of Theo and his motives, though, and asks him why, so Theo acts his little heart out. "Because I know Scott won't. I'm trying to help all of you. If Scott can't do it, then someone else needs to take the lead." Malia seems to be ever so slightly warming up to him, so Theo goes on to say that Melissa and Liam are moving Hayden to the hospital before adding that she's still a Chimera in dange, and there are also still two more very dangerous chimeras that the Dread Doctors haven't found yet, eithe. "They need help," Theo insists. "They need you." Okay, so how did Theo know about Hayden being moved? Did Melissa or Liam text him?
Over at the high school, Scott has just arrived in the entrance hall, where he finds the Beacon Hills sign still by the exit where someone/something threw it inside through the ceiling. He's understandably horrified, as you can probably guess. Just then, his phone buzzes, and when he takes it out to check it, he finds a text from Lydia which simply reads, "Library." Of course, we know this is actually just Theo trying to lure Scott to the library for his master plan, but since Scott doesn't know that yet, all we can do is watch idly by as Scott walks right into a trap.
Back at the Sheriff's station, the deputies in the bullpen are still trying to figure out what the hell is up with the fire alarms when Jordan, in another one of his Hellhound trances, starts walking toward the front doors in a daze. His fellow deputies take one look at his glazed-over eyes and his sooty face (though his clothes are still intact, so he can't have gotten too flamey yet) and are like, "Uh, what the fuck are you doing, Parrish?" but when they grab their guns and start to aim them at him, Stiles (who has a huge sweat ring down the front of his hoodie from where Jordan's heat-generation caused the temperature to spike) immediately rushes out of Sheriff's office and orders them to stand down. Strangely enough, the deputies actually listen to him, and they all lower their weapons and watch in confusion as Jordan walks on out of the station without a word or even an acknowledgement of their presence. I'm guessing this confirms Scott's theory that Jordan only gets violent if people get in his way, yeah? He's kind of like the Oni in that way, which is interesting, since they're another one of those spiritual supernatural creatures we were talking about earlier. Anyway, Stiles does nothing to explain himself to the deputies, he just rushes on out of the station as well and follows Jordan to see where he ends up going.
Theo has just gotten out of his truck somewhere near the woods, and it's starting to rain as he holds up a gold key and smirks for a moment before he tosses it into the grass and walks away. Meanwhile, over at the hospital, a loud growling/snarling noise is heard from inside a utility room that has been both deadbolted and padlocked from the outside to keep the werecoyote inside. Yup, Theo totally locked Malia into one of the utility rooms in the hospital, specifically a room in a wing in the hospital that is conveniently under construction, which means there are no nearby patients, nurses, doctors, or orderlies around to hear her and let her out.
Elsewhere in the hospital, Liam, Melissa, and Hayden (who is in a wheelchair with a blanket over her lap and her IV chelating agent hanging above her head) have just gotten into an elevator to head to the basement when Hayden starts groaning in pain. When Melissa and Liam look at her with concern, they both notice as a plume of what looks like black werewolf ink appears in the IV bag of clear fluid. He asks her what's happening, but Melissa has no idea-- all she knows is that it isn't good. Honestly, from what I know about IVs, that isn't actually supposed to happen, so I have no idea what it is about black blood that could cause it to move opposite of the flow of fluid and leak into the IV bag. I'm guessing its just supposed to be a really suspenseful and visually interesting way to tell us that Hayden's on borrowed time at the moment. Anyway, the appearance of werewolf ink only scares Hayden more, so she holds up her hand so Liam can squeeze it comfortingly as she asks him about her sister. Melissa, whose inner nurse knows that this is likely only going to end one way, does her best to smile as convincingly as she can as she kneels and assure her that Scott is looking for her as they speak and will be bringing her back as soon as possible.
Speaking of Scott, he has just walked into the empty library in the high school after being sidetracked by "Lydia," just as the text message he received instructed, but when he calls out for her, he doesn't get a response. He then pulls out his phone to call her, which is when he sees that he's been text-bombed a dozen times by Liam, who is demanding to know where he is and what he's doing. However, he briefly ignores these for a moment so he can try to call Lydia, in hopes that he can quickly find her and find out what she wants so he can go back to looking for Valerie like he's supposed to be now. I'm sure that the missed texts aren't helping the bad situation he's about to get into with Liam one bit. :(
Of course, as soon as he pushes "Call," he hears a buzzing sound nearby and follows it until he finds Lydia's cell phone sitting on one of the bookshelves. Very confused and concerned by this point, Scott looks around a bit more and is horrified to find a thick line of mountain ash around all but about a six-inch gap of the perimeter of the room. When he returns to the main area of the library, he comes upon Theo, who has just completed the circle with the last handful of mountain ash, very similar to how Marin Morrell did the same thing to Scott and Derek in all the way back in "Chaos Rising."
Stunned nearly to the point of speechlessness, Scott gapes in horror for a moment before finally muttering, "That's not possible," because as we know, this particular substance is used as protection against the supernatural.
Fuck that guy, ugh! He's the woooooorst. And really, the frequency jammers are just adding insult more than injury, because the number of people Scott could call for help would be minimal anyway. The chances of Stiles answering Scott's call is minimal, Lydia is in Theo's captivity, Deaton is in the Desert Wolf's captivity, Hayden is dying, Melissa is pretty much the only person keeping her alive, so she can't really leave her side yet, and everyone else in the pack can't touch mountain ash. So, that basically leaves Mason, who, as we'll see in a second, is helping Melissa since Theo, Scott, and Liam have all left, and he won't be able to get to the school to free Scott until it's almost too late anyway.
ANYWAY. Back at the hospital, Mason has just rushed into what looks like a morgue in the same wing that is currently under construction (and yet somehow neither he, nor Melissa, nor Hayden with the enhanced hearing heard Malia growling and trying to claw her way out of the room she's locked in in the same area? Whatever. Doesn't matter) with an armful of supplies that he apparently pilfered from one of the other wings. Melissa calls him over, and he brings her what she asked for, though he's immediately stunned by the sight of pale, sickly Hayden laying on the steel slab. Her eyes are closed, and she's either fallen asleep or she's passed out, but either way, it doesn't look good.
Mason is so horrified that he asks her if they should maybe be talking to a doctor, Melissa looks at him with an expression that says it's taking everything in her not to do so. "I've been wrestling with that for hours," she admits exhaustedly. "Do we bring them in and watch them treat her as a normal patient while we stand here knowing that's not going to work? Or do we keep trying everything medically possible to save her, while her body does things that shouldn't be medically possible?" Mason quietly asks Melissa if Hayden is dying, and after a moment, Melissa replies that the amount of mercury in her system is so high that it should have killed her right after it happened, so the fact that she's even still alive at the moment is breaking all the usual statistics. Ugh, fuck you Dread Doctors! I'm just so mad at the villains right now, to be honest, even though this totally happened months ago and I know that Hayden didn't actually stay dead long, but I'm getting ahead of myself again.
Night has fallen now, and Scott, still at the high school library, is trying to muster up all of the strength that he can get to break through the mountain ash barrier Theo set up, but between the fact that there is way more mountain ash now than there was when he overpowered Jennifer in "Lunar Ellipse" and the fact that his asthma and other soon-to-be-revealed factors are weakening him, he's having no luck whatsoever. He eventually stops, takes a hit of his inhaler, and tries to psych himself up to try round two. "Come on..." he mutters under his breath. "You've done this before. You can do it again." He returns to pushing against the barrier, but no matter how much he huffs, puffs, and groans, he still just gets thrown backward once again. Suddenly, he looks up to find that a door to a hidden hallway has been left open, and Scott instantly pulls himself to his feet to see if he can make his escape that way. In the hallway is a ladder to the roof, and Scott wastes no time climbing it so he can head up there and try to jump out of the trap.
Over at the hospital, Malia has managed to get out of the room she was locked in, and when she slowly makes her way into the hall, she's unnerved by the sight of a mostly-empty donor bone marrow bag on the floor, surrounded by smears of blood and the broken padlock from the door Malia was locked behind. Just as she approaches a large curtain of plastic sheeting hanging from the ceiling next to the construction equipment, she finds an ashen-looking teenage boy frantically sucking the bone marrow out of another bag behind it. Ummm, what? Spoiler alert, but as we'll learn in "The Last Chimera," this newest Chimera is named Noah Patrick, and according to Theo, he's part-Berserker, which is why he has the retractable bone claws coming from his wrists and hands. But why eat the bone marrow? Is he also like part-vampire or some other kind of sort-of cannibalistic creature? Something tells me we won't be finding out.
ANYWAY, Noah eventually notices Malia's presence and growls under his breath as he stands to his feet, revealing the bone claws sticking painfully out of his hands. His face is gray and ashen, with huge hollows around his eyes and protruding cheekbones that make him look like a skull, and once he's finished snacking on the bone marrow bag, he drops it onto the ground and starts to sprint toward her with a roar. Unfortunately for him, Malia is queen of the wild kingdom, so her eyes glow blue as she lets her fangs out and roars just as powerfully at him before she lunges toward him. Get him, girl!
Meanwhile, Scott has just made it to the roof of the high school to find that yet another thunderstorm is brewing overhead. Is the thunderstorm the Dread Doctors' doing? The Wild Hunt? Why does Beacon Hills get more rain than anywhere else in the country while the rest of California is literally like a year from running out of water? Oh, television. Anyway, unfortunately for Scott, Theo has also outlined the perimeter of the high school with mountain ash as well, so Scott can't even jump off the roof to safety. He lets his anger get the best of him as he futilely punches at the barrier, which only makes him return to the verge of another asthma attack.
Despite the fact that I once again shouted at the TV for him to stop using that damn inhaler, he doesn't listen to me, because TV characters never do. After falling to his knees and taking two hits of it, he realizes that he is not only trapped, but trapped for a reason that will probably result in a bunch of people getting hurt, so he yells at the top of his lungs as he furiously crushes his inhaler in his closed fist. Of course, that's when a purple mist comes out of the inhaler cartridge, and Scott realizes in horror that it has been laced with wolfsbane. He then flashes back to the previous episode, where Scott had an asthma attack while arguing with Liam about giving Hayden the bite, and Theo tossed him an inhaler to "help" him.
What I'm wondering is, how long has Theo been dosing Scott with wolfsbane? Scott's asthma started coming back in "Required Reading" when he triggered his repressed memory, and the only times we've seen him have asthma attacks since his transformation into a werewolf was 1) on his second full moon in Season 1's "Lunatic," when he had a panic attack that manifested as an asthma attack and that was treated by using his inhaler as a placebo, and 2) in Season 2's "Raving," when Victoria put a bunch of Nordic Blue Monkshood in a vaporizer and turned it on so she could kill Scott while making it look like he died of an asthma attack. So, you'd think that he's been inadvertently dosing him with wolfsbane this whole time, and since we never did learn where Liam found that inhaler during the first attack, it'd make sense that Theo's been doing it since before the last episode. What do you guys think? I'm also guessing he didn't notice the wolfsbane because the chemicals in the medication covered it up-- I'm not sure if any of you guys have used an inhaler before, but it tastes like battery acid, which I think would be enough to cover up the flavor of a toxic plant.
So, just then, a fully-wolfed out and quite frankly terrifying-looking Liam appears on the roof, and Scott is stunned when he turns to find him glaring at him. Has he always looked this scary? Why do I get the feeling that whatever the Dread Doctors injected him with is making him even more monstrous? I know I'm not the only one who saw the similarities between Liam's werewolf form and Deucalion's or Peter's, right? (Edited to add: Apparently the stuff the Dread Doctors gave Liam was a modified form of wolfsbane that doesn't have lingering side effects to wolfies, so who the fuck knows. Maybe it's the supermoon?) Anyway, Scott correctly guesses that Theo let him in, which we will eventually find out is the case in a few episodes.
Anyway, Liam starts circling around Scott like the ultimate predator and demands to know if Scott lied to him, but Scott promises that he has never done that. Liam reminds him that he won't save Hayden, but Scott argues that he can't save her, at least not with a bite, anyway. "If you'd just think about that for a second, Liam, you would know that I'm right," Scott continues gently, as though he's trying to calm down a spooked animal, but Liam angrily replies that he is thinking-- about alternatives to saving Hayden's life, naturally. "Liam, it's the supermoon," Scott responds nervously. "It's feeding your anger. It's making you more aggressive." Liam doesn't necessarily disagree with him, but just as a loud rumble of thunder is heard overhead, Liam shouts that it's making him stronger. He backs Scott up against the ledge of the high school's roof before shouting, "You're gonna keep your promise... even if it kills you!" and roaring as loud as he can in Scott's face. NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE. Stop the ride, I want to get off!!! Scott and Liam fighting like this is still too much for my poor little heart to take.
Over at the hospital, the EKG machine that Melissa hooked up to Hayden starts beeping even more rapidly than before, and Melissa squeezes Hayden's hand comfortingly even as she's muttering, "Oh, no, no, no, no..." under her breath. She then looks up at the horrified and worried Mason and informs him that he should probably go get Liam and bring him back. Mason, flustered and scared that he's about to lose his friend, points out that Scott isn't answering their calls (because he can't, both because his cell signal has been jammed by Theo and because he's too busy trying to keep his Beta from killing him even if the call could go through), but Melissa insists that if Liam wants to be with Hayden, he needs to get there as soon as possible, because she's dying and she doesn't know what else to do to save her. Ughhhhhh, why must everything go wrong at the same time in this damn show? For once, can't they just have one calamity at a time?
Anyway, Mason looks unsure, but Melissa orders him to go and find Liam, promising that she'll text him if anything changes, which is finally the kick in the butt Mason needs to run to find his friends. Am I the only one who thinks the fact that they exchanged numbers is super endearing? I just imagined Melissa insisting that every new McCall Pack member and ally give her all their phone numbers so she can get in touch with them in an emergency and so they can let her know if something bad happens to Scott or if her supernatural medical expertise is needed for someone. Man, I love Melissa Delgado McCall so damn much, my heart can't take it.
Back on the roof of the high school, Liam and Scott's battle has started in earnest, with Liam punching Scott in the face and kneeing him in the gut. Of course, just like during Liam's first full moon in "The Benefactor," Scott isn't so much fighting back as he is trying his best to defend himself against Liam's blows while only causing Liam the least amount of harm, because even when one of his friends has literally just told him that he plans to kill him, Scott still can't bring himself to hurt him unless absolutely necessary because he has a heart of gold. The world honestly does not deserve Scott McCall, let's be real here.
Scott finally manages to twist Liam's arm behind his back to give him enough time to remind him that killing him isn't going to keep Hayden from dying, but just then, the wind from the thunderstorm blows the clouds away, revealing the full, bright supermoon overhead that gives Liam the strength to roar and break free of Scott's grip. He headbutts Scott hard in the face and takes advantage of how disoriented he is to punch him in the face multiple times before kicking him in the chin. Scott falls backward against the skylight over the library, and Liam roars ferociously once again before flipping Scott on his back and straddling him to pin him down. Scott manages to flip them over so that Liam is now the one on his back, but Liam instantly hops to his feet and tackles Scott so hard that they both fall through the skylight and land on top of the tables in the library below. Yikes! I'm feeling hella sympathy pains right now.
Over at the hospital, Malia is still locked in battle with Noah the bone-marrow-eating Berserker-Chimera, and though Noah swipes at her with his bone claws like he's fucking Wolverine or something, Malia manages to jump out of their path and grabs him by the wrists to try to restrain him. She then gets him in a choke-hold and pins him against the wall, but Noah breaks free and throws her sideways, causing her to barrel-roll away from him until she's able to get back on her feet. They lunge for each other once again, but just as Noah's about to hit her, Malia dodges and instead sticks her arm out to the side so that she clotheslines him right in the neck with such force that Noah literally backflips before he lands in a heap on the floor. He starts crawling away from her, but Malia, who seems to be a little bit in the throes of the supermoon herself, grabs him by the back of the shirt and pulls him to his feet.
Unfortunately for her, this gives him the chance to draw first blood by scratching her across her right cheek with his claw, and Malia groans in pain as he throws her backward against the far wall. He scratches and punches her a couple more times before throwing her onto the floor, but just when it looks like things are pretty bad for Malia, an Angel of the Lord appears behind her and saves the day! And by "Angel of the Lord" I mean Queen Mercenary Braeden, who uses her modified military-grade stun gun to shock the hell out of Noah and keep him from killing Malia. Noah, having seemingly been shocked back into control over himself, pulls the taser bolt off of his chest and drops it on the ground before he scampers the fuck out of there. Malia, whose facial wounds are healing, looks back at Braeden, clearly stunned speechless by her appearance, but Braeden just gives her an exasperated look and groans, "What the hell was that?" Don't we all want to know! I AM SO HAPPY TO SEE BRAEDEN AND I HOPE SHE STAYS AROUND. But where is Derek? Is he still hunting the Desert Wolf without her? I NEED TO KNOW.
After the break, we meet back up at an impound lot, where Jordan, who is still in a daze, has just broken through the chain-link fence gate. In a hilarious turn of events, Jordan has apparently burned off all of his clothing with his powers except for his jeans, which are now torn-up cutoffs. So he's basically like the Hulk, if the Hulk was a Hellhound, yeah? I mean, both kind of have a supernatural form of multiple personality disorder, since both the Hulk and Jordan's inner Hellhound spirit like to take control and do things that Bruce Banner and Jordan aren't even aware of, so it makes sense. Man, there are so many Marvel references in this show, hot damn! Anyway, he's somehow divined the fact that Sheriff has hidden Corey and Beth's bodies in extra-large coolers in the back of an old van that has been impounded there at the lot. Naturally, Stiles has followed Jordan all the way there, and he watches him in horror from behind a car as Jordan manages to turn on the engine to the van and drive the hell out of there with the dead Chimeras in tow.
Back at the hospital, Braeden and Malia have made their way outside in the parking lot, where they keep a look out for anything strange while they talk about what the fuck just happened. "I don't know what's going on around here, but I'm guessing things are bad again?" Braeden begins, but, of course, all Malia really has to say is, "Very," because Beacon Hills' horrifying drama pretty much speaks for itself. Unfortunately for Malia, Braeden doesn't exactly have great news, either. "Then this is going to sound worse, because your plan..." Malia cuts her off and states the obvious, which is that "she" knows. "Yeah," Braeden confirms. "And she's coming. The Desert Wolf knows you're alive, and she's coming back to Beacon Hills." Well, shit. We all knew this would happen, but it's still terrible timing! My question is, how did TDW figure it out? Did she torture it out of Deaton, or did she just assume he was lying? Or, did she figure it out another way? I mean, "Malia Hale" was totally on the Deadpool list that she presumably got, since Peter said he would send it to her and Meredith followed his instructions to the letter, so I'm guessing it wouldn't be hard for her to get confirmation. Especially considering the supernatural world seems to be pretty damn gossipy, given everything that Belasko, the Dread Doctors, Theo, and Dr. Valack already knew about the pack before even being told anything that was going on.
We then return to the impound lot, where Theo has just arrived after having presumably gotten a text from Stiles about what he saw. Stiles doesn't even let him talk, he just orders Theo to get moving, because Parrish has the bodies and they have to find Scott and tell him what's up, but Theo, being the huge dick that he is, interrupts him and replies, "Stiles, I don't think Scott wants to talk to you right now." Um, fuck you, dude! If he doesn't die by the end of 5B (preferably at Stiles, Jordan, Lydia, or Malia's hands, since we know Scott would never do it) I am gonna be so mad. (Edited to add: Spoiler alert, but yeah, I'm still so damn mad). Anyway, this comment clearly hits Stiles where it hurts, but for once, he realizes that they have more important things going on right now and insists that their fight doesn't matter, because Scott needs to know what's happening. If only Stiles could remember in the next episode when he goes all lone-wolf on everyone instead of letting the people who love him help him out....
So, yeah, Theo once again cuts Stiles off and drops yet another bomb. "Stiles... Scott doesn't want to talk to you. But I think your dad does." He then pulls out Stiles' library keycard, which he could have only had if he went to the Sheriff's station and took it from Sheriff's desk. The sight of it stuns Stiles into speechlessness, and all he can do is glare at Theo in anger and confusion.
We then cut back over to the school library, where Scott and Liam are still battling it out, though Scott still hasn't wolfed-out fully yet to give him more strength, which is no bueno for him, especially given he's already at a disadvantage because of the wolfsbane poisoning and the fact that he has no interest in hurting Liam. They're currently behind the front desk, and Liam has just smashed Scott's head against the desktop. He then throws Scott against the wall and punches him so many times in the face that Scott is just way too disoriented to even try to defend himself. Liam finally stops long enough to throw Scott over the desk and onto the floor by the tables, and he jumps up onto the desktop as Scott does his best to crawl away from him. Unfortunately for him, he isn't fast enough, and Liam grabs a wooden chair and smashes it over his back so hard that it crumbles into pieces. I usually think the MTV-chosen hashtags are pretty dumb, but this scene was tagged #DadVsSon and it cracked me up. Still dumb, but at least a little funny.
After more of the same kind of fighting, Liam gets Scott in a headlock from behind, and Scott finally decides to fight back by elbowing him in the gut so he can break free, though it's clear by the grimace on his face that it pained him to do so. They start wrestling again, and Liam throws Scott across the tables again, but when he jumps up onto one of them to jump down onto him, Scott kicks him in the gut and causes him to topple backward onto the floor. Scott hops to his feet as fast as he can and starts backing toward that wall of windows before shouting, "Don't do this, Liam!" Unfortunately, Liam is still has werewolf roid-rage, so he just growls at Scott when he adds, "I can't let you kill me!", finally catching us up with the Banshee premonition that Lydia had earlier in the day.
He then turns and stands in front of the windows, so that the light of the supermoon is fully bathing him and giving him power as he shifts into wolf-mode. It's actually pretty majestic-- the same song that played when Scott went into full-wolf mode and kicked Peter's ass in "Smoke and Mirrors" starts to play, and only magnifies my love for him more, really. I always see people in the fandom wondering why Scott never uses his Alpha roar to make his own packmates do what he wants, like roaring at Liam to get him to stand down, but I think he really just doesn't want to be the kind of Alpha who wants to force his will on others. Peter forced him to turn when he didn't want to, and so did Deucalion, and he obviously doesn't want to be anything like them.
Meanwhile, back at that impound lot, Theo is pacing around and looking at the ID keycard of Stiles that he lifted from Sheriff's desk while Stiles just glares at him. "Your dad was looking for you, Stiles. He found me instead." As we know, Stiles doesn't fuck around where his dad is concerned, but when he asks where Sheriff is, Theo simply replies that he covered for him (and by "covered," he means, "I lied my ass off to him," natch) before getting into the fact that he had totally taken care of it, and Stiles just fucked up everything by leaving his ID in the hospital trash like a newb. "Guess even the son of a cop can make mistakes," Theo snits. This is the last straw for Stiles, whose inner rage is about to hit critical mass.
Meanwhile, the fight rages on in the library at the high school. I would talk about it more, but I'm not a great action recapper and it's still heartbreaking, so just imagine Liam being vicious and Scott trying his best to fend him off without hurting him too badly.
Back at the impound lot, Theo backs away from him and tells him that he'll be happy to tell him where his dad is, but only if he promises not to help Scott. He really did think of almost everything, didn't he? Purposely breaking up Scott and Stiles, convincing Liam to kill Scott to take his Alpha power under the guise of saving Hayden, making sure that Jordan was too busy Hellhound-ing it up and that Lydia and Malia were too busy trying to stay alive to interfere with Liam and Scott's fight, and finally, getting Sheriff injured because he knew that was the only person Stiles cares about more than Scott and that Stiles would choose to save him instead. Unfortunately for him, he only considered the supernatural (or, it Stiles' case, former supernatural) elements, and forgot just how much the humans-- Mason and Melissa, especially-- do to keep the pack safe.
Anyway, naturally, this threat against Sheriff pisses Stiles off so badly that he hauls off and punches him in the face so hard that he breaks his nose. It gives me flashbacks to Ethan and Aiden beating each other up in "Unleashed," because instead of being like, "Omg, you broke my nose!", he's, like, laughing gleefully as nose drips down his face like some sort of masochist. He crows that hooray, Void Stiles is back, which of course pisses Stiles off even more, because the last thing he wants after killing someone is to remember all of the chaos and death he caused when he was possessed. So, when Theo asked him if hitting him felt good, Stiles lunges at him again and tackles him to the ground, causing Theo to groan as his back hits the ground hard. "We won't tell Scott," Theo retorts smugly. "'Cause you can't lose your best friend, right? Even though we both know you never really needed him." UMM FUCK YOU VERY MUCH??? Scott and Stiles are a complimentary pair and they work best at a team. Both are ruled by their brains and their hearts, but Scott's heart is his shining feature, as is Stiles' brain, and they both need each other to balance the other out.
After a little bit more tussling, Theo finally stands to his feet and looks at Stiles, who is staring back at him in loathing, and claims that while Stiles might hate him now, he'll eventually get it, and that the hardest part is yet to come. Why is that, you ask? Because Theo engineered this entire thing so that both Scott and Sheriff are in danger at the exact same time, which means Stiles can only help one of them. And Stiles may love the shit out of Scott, even despite the fight they had, but Sheriff Stilinki is the only family he has left, and which means he's the only person he'd put above Scott, and Theo knows this as well as anyone. Stiles looks as though he's seriously considering adding another tally to his kill count, but in the end, he weighs the fact that Theo has supernatural powers and the fact that his dad is in trouble and immediately scampers off to save him, which is exactly what Theo wanted him to do.
Over at the school, Scott has managed to hop onto the top floor of the library to get away from Liam for a bit, and as Liam stalks up the stairs to come after him, Scott takes the time to remind him that Theo is using him. "He wants you to be the Alpha because he can't take the power from me," Scott explains almost pleadingly. "Only you can. But once he do, he'll take it from you. That's why he wants you to kill me." Of course, Liam is high on rage, first-love-grief, supermoon beams, and Theo manipulation, so he's managed to convince himself that he actually wants to kill Scott and begins to fight him once again.
Cut to the hospital, where Melissa is holding Hayden's hand as the EKG flatlines. Mama McCall looks devastated as the life leaves Hayden's body, and the young girl's head weakly falls back as a mercury tear rolls down her face.
Back at the library, Liam has gotten the upper-hand in his fight against Scott and has tackled him on the staircase, and Scott, who is too hurt and weak and this point, lays motionless as Liam mauls at him in a similar manner to how Cora and Boyd clawed the fuck out of Derek in "Fireflies." Suddenly, Mason rushes into the room and is absolutely horrified by what he sees when he yells at Liam, eventually snapping him out of his rage. When Liam turns to face him, looking as though he almost can't realize what he's just done, Mason asks him what the hell he thinks he's doing and tearfully informs him that he just heard from Melissa that Hayden has died. The fact that Liam missed being with his girlfriend when she died because he was trying to kill his Alpha and second-best friend completely devastates him, and once he's processed this information, he runs away to go find her, leaving Scott seriously injured in the middle of the library without another thought. I love the fact that Mason seems to have an anchoring effect on Liam, but man, this whole thing just hurts my heart so badly. :(
When we come back, Mason is in the middle of helping Scott to his feet and flings Scott's arm around his shoulders to support him while they walk. He's still stunned by what Liam did and asks Scott what the fuck happened, but Scott, bless his heart, isn't nearly as mad at his bb Beta as would be warranted, given the circumstances, and instead just says, "It was the supermoon." He was about to go on with "It's just..." when suddenly, a bitter and scowling Theo storms into the library and cuts him off. "--Bad timing." He looks at Mason with a betrayed expression, even though obviously Mason did nothing but be a good friend here, and sneers, "I mean, seriously-- you couldn't have waited five minutes?" Surprise, surprise! The main villain's evil plan ends up failing at the last minute due to underestimating the Scott McCall effect! Who could have predicted that? And naturally, Theo is like Peter in that in the face of defeat, he gets super impulsive and just fucks himself even worse, because he knows that killing Scott now isn't going to give him anything but enemies, but he can't see past his own anger and resentment to see it.
So, before Mason can really even react to his presence (since, as far as he knows at this point, Theo is a friend to the pack and not a threat) Theo replicates that vicious backhand he used to knock Lydia out earlier, which sends Mason flying to the floor before he grabs Scott by the front of the shirt and continues to snarl at him. I know I talked about this scene in the pre-(ish)-Season 5B discussion post, but since it's a heartbreaking scene and its been a while since we talked about it. I'm gonna recap it anyway. "I should've stayed," Theo snits, although he's mostly just talking to himself. "I should have made sure."
Scott manages to pull off a smug look as he stares Theo in the eyes, and I swear to all the Gods, you guys-- Scott legitimately wants Theo to kill him here, and that's why he finds it in him to be so brutally honest to Theo about how badly he screwed up in convincing Liam to kill him in hopes of becoming the Alpha and taking his pack without them giving him any resistance whatsoever. Normally, he wouldn't care to do this, because he'd be too busy trying to protect his loved ones from whatever the threat is to rub their fuck-ups in their face, but right now, he's all alone-- he's inadvertently driven Stiles away because of Theo's shitty manipulation, his Beta and left-hand-man literally just came thisclose to killing him at Theo's suggestion, Parrish is (as far as he knows) locked up, he has no idea where Kira or Deaton are, nor does he know where Malia and Lydia are, and the latter two have been avoiding him anyway, so aside from Mason, he's an Alpha with no pack at the moment.
So, he literally feels as though he's fucked up everything, and it's like "Motel California" all over again, only this time, in addition to feeling as though his death would make life better for everyone else, he's also just so. fucking. tired. of being constantly being beaten down like this that I genuinely believe he just wants it to be over as well. He's reached the pinnacle of Sam Winchester-level passive suicidal ideation, and it hurts my heart so much. So yeah, by this point in the conversation, the only comfort Scott is getting is that he's at least somewhat confident that, once Theo has killed him, the rest of the pack will figure out what Theo did and turn on him, since even if Scott thinks they hate him, they would never believe him worthy of being killed, and especially not by someone who fucked them over as much as Theo did. So that's where I think Scott's head is at when he starts talking to Theo.
SCOTT: [smirks] "Now you'll have to kill me yourself."
THEO: [bitterly] "They're still mine. Maybe not yet, but they'll come around."
SCOTT: "Not for you. They're not like you. They never will be."
THEO: [angrily] "Why? Because I'm a Chimera? Because I'm not a real werewolf?"
SCOTT: "Because you're barely even human."
Welp, there goes my heart again. BRB while I go put it back together.
...
Okay, I'm back. So, yeah, the fact that Scott has given up like this is heartbreaking enough, but it's the part where he doesn't even fight it as Theo flicks out his claws and buries his fingers in Scott's chest that makes my soul cry. SCOTT MCCALL IS NOT ALLOWED TO DIE YOU GUYS. In my mind, True Alphas are immortal and that power also extends to their packs which means they're going to be hot and alive and together FOREVER AND EVER AMEN AND NO ONE CAN TELL ME OTHERWISE.
Montage time! Theo walks out of the library, leaving Scott and the still-unconscious Mason on the floor as the life (and red Alpha glow) fades from Scott's eyes. Mason slowly recovers from his knock-out and crawls over to him.
Stiles rushes into the abandoned house where Parrish found Belasko in "Creatures of the Night" and where Theo rescued Liam and Hayden in "Ouroboros," where he finds a bloodied Sheriff Stilinski laying on the floor. He's barely conscious as Stiles kneels beside him and takes his bloody hand into his own, and only seems to be mildly aware that his son is even there.
At the hospital, Liam is sitting on the floor with Hayden's now-dead body laying across his lap, sobbing in grief that his girlfriend is dead. After a moment, he hears someone approaching and looks up to find Jordan, shirtless and covered with soot as his orangey-red eyes blaze like flames, indicating that he's in Hellhound-mode. The Hellhound seems to have some empathy, though, because he waits patiently while Liam, knowing what Jordan's about to do, presses a kiss to Hayden's forehead in a silent goodbye. Once he's done, Jordan/the Hellhound bends over to pick her up, arranging her carefully in his arms before he sets off for the Nemeton without another word.
Back at the high school, Melissa is running into the library in slow motion and immediately becomes horrified at the sight in front of her-- Scott laying motionlessly on the floor with his eyes closed among the smashed-up furniture from his battle with the supermoon-raged Liam. Even worse is Mason, who is kneeling next to Scott, staring numbly at his hands, which are covered in Scott's blood from his attempts to resuscitate him. Melissa wastes no time going into nurse-mode and starts doing chest compressions on Scott, and after a moment, the clearly-heartbroken Mason insists that there's no use, because Scott hasn't had a pulse in over fifteen minutes, and there's no way you can bring someone back from that.
In a very uncharacteristically harsh (but also understandable) response, Melissa tells Mason to shut up-- still doing chest compressions all the while, mind you-- before reminding him that Scott isn't "someone," he's her only son and an Alpha, and as we all know, he's much too strong to die like this. She starts doing compressions even harder, stopping only long enough to give him some rescue breaths before resuming them and begging him to roar to kickstart his healing. As the seconds pass, Mason is clearly conflicted-- half of him knows he should keep convincing Melissa that it's over, but the other half of him genuinely likes Scott and wants her efforts to be rewarded by bringing Scott back to life. Melissa, on the other hand, is becoming more and more frantic when her CPR does nothing. Finally, she starts screaming at Scott to roar as she pounds on his sternum with her closed fists, and only after she laces her fingers together, raises her clasped hands above her head, and slams them against his chest do Scott's Alpha-red eyes flick open as the supermoon power rushes through him. Gasping in shock, Melissa and Mason watch as Scott opens his mouth wide and roars at the top of his lungs. YESSSSSS SCOTTIE, THE TRUE ALPHA OF MY HEART, IS ALIIIIIIIIIIVE.
It's been a while since we've checked on Lydia, hasn't it? We cut over to the Dread Doctors' operating theater, where Lydia wakes up on the same filthy tiled floor on which we saw Tracy awaken in "Parasomnia." Her head is understandably achey due to Theo's backhanded slap, but it clears pretty quickly when she realizes where she is and how she got there. Theo stalks toward her in a menacing manner and immediately apologizes in advance for what he's about to do. "I've never done this before," he begins. "And I know how dangerous it is, but it's a risk we have to take."
Of course, we already know that this is bullshit and he's just pretending to act like the good guy here, because he'll later refer to Lydia as "collateral damage," which goes back to what we were talking about earlier with the fact that a person's value to Theo is only based on what they can offer him in terms of power, status, and influence, and the fact that since Lydia was never going to leave Scott and join him, he had to take what he needed from her and then eliminate her from the equation all together. Theo then flicks out his claws, causing Lydia to immediately realize he's about to dive into her mind and begin to beg him not to do it, since, unlike the rest of her pack, she doesn't have the power to heal quickly and since he's never done it before and has no one there to show him how to do it properly, the chances of her getting paralyzed, killed, or otherwise harmed is basically 100%.
Theo, naturally, doesn't listen to her and instead forcefully shoves his claws into the back of her neck, and after a moment, he asks Lydia, who is clearly weakening before our eyes, if he's doing it correctly. I don't think Lydia could have answered even if Theo actually cared to get one, but when he starts getting a flood of her memories in his mind, he confirms that he did-- or, at least, did it well enough, since Lydia is most certainly not walking away from this unscathed. Theo spends a few more moments scanning her memories until he finds what the information he wants-- the location of the Nemeton-- before he rips his claws out of her neck and lets her drop unceremoniously onto that gross-ass floor. Its obvious by the dead-eyed look on Lydia's face that she's been badly hurt by Theo's rough attempts to mess around in her head, but he's too distracted by the syringe gun that he's just picked up to care. He takes it over to that huge tank with the body floating in green fluid and uses a port on the front to draw up a large amount of the green serum into the syringe. THIS IS SO NOT GOOD. NOT GOOD AT ALL.
Over at the McCall House, Scott is laying on his bed, still covered in injuries that have barely begun to heal, looking absolutely wrecked as Melissa gingerly uses a wad of gauze to clean up the blood on his face. After a moment, Scott mutters in a low voice, "I lost, Mom." Melissa, who is once again torn between the mother who wants nothing more than for her son to be safe and happy and the ally who wants to encourage her young general to pull himself up and keep fighting, ends up choosing the latter side, much to the annoyance of many fans (more on that later). "Every leader suffers loss," Melissa begins quietly. "Sometimes more than you think is bearable." Scott isn't buying it and reminds her that this time, he's lost everyone-- in his mind, Stiles hates him for believing Theo's stupid story; Liam made it quite clear that he wanted him dead; Lydia and Malia were avoiding him long before all this happened; Kira left him, no matter how noble her intentions; Parrish can barely control the spirit that is inside of him; and Hayden (and the other Chimeras) died because he couldn't save her from the Dread Doctors.
Despite all this, however, Melissa is sure that Scott will get his pack back, because he has to. When Scott asks her why on earth they'd want to come back to him after everything that has happened, Melissa stares him deep in the eyes. "Because you're their leader. And even when a leader thinks they have nothing left to give, there's still one thing: hope. Give them hope." On the one hand, this makes me so sad, because this has been a theme throughout the series, from when Allison assured him that there was always hope in "Motel California," to when Chris reminded Stiles that he couldn't give up hope in "Lunar Ellipse," and even before Scott became the True Alpha, he was inspiring others to keep fighting and to not give up.
On the other hand, part of me wishes that Melissa-- who literally just resurrected her son who was killed not even an hour ago-- would at least give him some time before pushing him back into the saving-the-world game. I mean, obviously it wouldn't be much of an interesting TV show if the main character just up and quit and just stayed home, ate some home-cooked meals, watched some Netflix, and just took some time for himself to recover, but still, it would have been nice if Melissa would have chosen the motherly side instead of the side that motivates the military members to keep at the mission. Basically, I just want someone to give a shit about Scott's physical and emotional well-being, because it's clear that he doesn't and everyone else is too absorbed in their own shit to pay him any attention.
I mean, even in 5B, people only really care about Scott's death in terms of how it adversely affects them-- Stiles sees Scott's chest is bleeding and simply snits that Scott will heal because he's mad at him and overwhelmed by his father's injury, and when he accuses Theo of killing Scott, it's only with the intention of getting information from him; Liam is more consumed by the guilt of hurting Scott than the fact that he actually died; and Malia is only concerned about Scott's still-healing wounds out of fear that it could make him weak and interfere with their mission. Really, its only Braeden who seems to give a shit when she threatens to kill Theo for what he did to him. So, yeah, while I've given up on the section of the fandom that hates and demonizes Scott in every way possible and despises any time given to him that could otherwise be spent on Stiles or Lydia, I still can't help but wish that the show would actually care about their main character's well-being instead of making us read between the lines to get the gist of it.
But anyway, that's enough complaining from me! So, the scene cuts to the nature preserve, where Theo is leading Lydia through the woods toward the Nemeton with his syringe gun in his free hand. Since Theo's little mind-dig traumatized her to the point of catatonia, she's pretty much just functioning on auto-pilot, which has Theo constantly snapping at Lydia to keep up with him. When they finally get to the magical stump, Theo pushes her so hard she falls onto the ground, but she lands on her side so she can still see the Nemeton and the ten or so half-burnt bodies surrounding it. "Watch this, Lydia," Theo begins as he walks toward the stump with the syringe gun. "You think you lost your mind? Well, watch this!" Gods, he is just so bitter that he lost the chance to become an Alpha that he's trying for a consolation prize, and even though he knows its not nearly as good as the real thing, he's still trying to convince himself that it is, which means he has to also try to convince Lydia that it is. Which, of course, isn't going to work, because thanks to the number he did on her spinal cord, Lydia likely has no idea what the fuck is going on right now.
He takes the syringe gun and injects some of the green serum into Tracy Stewart's chest, and after a moment, she gasps herself awake and looks around in shock, making it obvious that she has no idea how she got there. Next up is Corey, whose shirt is still covered in the modified mercury/black blood combo he projectile vomited up just before he died, and who looks equally stunned to be alive. Theo then resurrects Josh Diaz (the electricity-eating Chimera that almost killed Stiles) and Hayden before he stands back and watches the revenant Chimeras stand to their feet and stare at him in confusion. Hayden, not knowing Theo's evil nature yet, asks him what is happening, and Tracy, of course, didn't have the pleasure of meeting Theo before she died, so she asks him who the fuck he is. Theo then gets a smug-ass smirk on his face as he replies, "I'm your Alpha. And all of you? All of you belong to me." He then turns and walks away without another word, and though his new Chimera minions are still confused, they end up following him out of the woods without question, leaving the barely-conscious Lydia behind on the forest floor. Rude as fuck!
Also, that green serum is awfully impressive, because not only was Hayden dead for a couple hours and Corey dead for a day, but Tracy has been dead for at least two weeks now (I think it's actually closer to three, but I've kind of lost track of the timeline at this point), and Josh has been dead for over a week. Had I not seen the rest of the season, I would have wondered why the Dread Doctors didn't just give all of the failure Chimeras the green serum to fix them, but now we know that 1) they were looking for a specific kind of Chimera to hold a specific spirit, so the others were basically worthless to them, and 2) that green serum was keeping them alive, so it makes sense that they wouldn't want to waste it on a bunch of teenagers who, as I just stated, have no value to them whatsoever.
Finally, we return to tunnels under the water treatment plant, in a somewhat cleaner room off of the operating theater, where the Dread Doctors are staring at a wall right by the metal staircase. After a moment, The Surgeon pulls out his sword-cane, whose handle has been forged to look like a hammer, and uses it to crack the tiled wall, crumbling the entirety of it until he reveals a fresco painting underneath. What is the painting, you ask? Well, it is two warring creatures, both of whom are terrifying-- one looks kind of like Peter when he was an Alpha, and the other looks like another canine creature who is burst into flames. Since the Dread Doctors then start to chant "La Bête. La Bête. La Bête," it becomes obvious that the painting is of the Beast of Gévaudan fighting the Hellhound. HOLY SHIT. Also, not to humble-brag or anything, but in "Condition Terminal," I pointed out that Stiles had been looking at the Bestiary on the Berserker and La Bête du Gévaudan pages and wondered aloud if they would end up being important, and it turned out that I was right! Glad to see my inane attention to detail comes in handy sometimes!
Okay, ya'll, now that I've got this done, we can move on to discussing the rest of 5B before the next (and final, WAHHHHH) season begins! Hope you enjoyed! If you have any remarks or observations about this episode that you'd like to share, or suggestions about what you'd like to see in the upcoming recaps, leave a comment below and let me know what you're thinking! <3
So, I've been gone a really, really, really long time, and honestly, I'm kind of embarrassed about it. I've always enjoyed this blog, because talking about television is literally my favorite thing to do in this entire shitty world, but I'm going to be honest here-- mental illness is kind of a pain in the ass. Chronic depression makes it difficult for me to do anything but the absolute bare minimum of what needs to be done, which is how my to-do list ended up getting too long, but when you combine this with my awesome OCD whose fun quirk is screaming "YOU CAN'T JUST LEAVE ALL OF THIS UNFINISHED OR SKIP AHEAD BECAUSE THEN YOU HAVE A HUGE CHUNK MISSING AND IT WILL BOTHER YOU FOREVER," it's enough to drive you a bit mad.
So, I was in a dilemma that kept me pretty much stuck-- my list of recaps to write was getting so long it was becoming unrealistic to expect to be able to finish them all on a quick timeline, but my stupid brain hates the idea of leaving things out, so I was just like, "Well, hey, let me take some time to think about what I'm going to do next!" So then, I started helping out at a new Teen Wolf wikia (if you're into that sort of thing, hit me up! I'm clarysfairchilds :)), and got caught up with school, and then I blinked and somehow eight months had passed and I was just like, "Oh, shit! Where did the time go?"
Flash-forward to today, where I got a very kind message from a mutual on Tumblr, friedwizardwhispers, sent me a message and was like, "So, do you have another blog called Emily Watches Too Much Television? Because you two seem to have similar tastes in underrated characters in fandom and I like it," and of course, nothing gets my sense of motivation singing like a good, old-fashioned compliment, so here I am, back in the saddle (hopefully?) and with some new ideas in mind that will hopefully be more realistic to the amount of mental health spoons with which I'm currently working.
OKAY. With that said, my new plan is this-- As much as I hate to do it, I am abandoning The Originals and The Vampire Diaries recaps indefinitely. These past seasons have made it a lot easier for me to give up writing about them, because between the loss of two of my favorite characters in TO and the general shittery that was the second half of TVD's seventh season, I can barely stand to watch it this past season, let alone talk about it. Besides, judging from the view counts, its the Teen Wolf recaps that people are most interested in when they come here, so I'm going to be focusing my attention on those, at least for now. The sixth and final season of TW is starting on November 15, which means I have just shy of two months to crank out the eleven recaps from last season that remain unwritten, which, while still being a long to-do list, it's much more manageable than what I was previously dealing with before dumping the dead weight.
If I can get those recaps done in a timely manner, I might consider coming back to The Originals, especially since the show got bumped to midseason and I have a bit more time to work with, but more likely than not, it's just going to end up with a brief season-long review post combined with a discussion about what Season 4 will bring. I'll probably still end up watching both shows, though, as much as I have insisted I'm quitting for months, so if you want to talk TVD-verse, hit me up on Tumblr at bisexual-rebekah!
Here's a brief warning though: the previous episode, this episode, "The Last Chimera," and "Damnatio Memoriae" are really, really hard for me to watch, so they're probably not going to be more reviews than recaps, just because I'm too busy trying to pick up the shattered pieces of my heart and put it back together than I am actually watching what is happening.
Alrighty then, since this is already, like, a decade too late, let's just hop right into it, yeah? Time to discuss Season 5's midseason finale "Status Asthmaticus!"
Previously, on Teen Wolf: Theo claimed that he would be looking out for Stiles, even if Stiles didn't trust him. Stiles accidentally killed Donovan in self-defense and has been hiding it from everyone, including Scott and his father, to the point that he threw away his incriminating library key-card (which he used to enter the library where he and Donovan ultimately dueled to the death), and the records of which were given to Sheriff Stilinski by Deputy Clarke) in the hospital garbage can. The pack figured out that Hayden Romero, with whom Liam has a burgeoning love interest, is a Chimera, and Liam forced Scott to promise that he would do everything he could to save her from the Dread Doctors. Speaking of the Dread Doctors, they cornered Liam and Hayden at Sinema, where they injected Hayden with an overdose of magic mercury that caused her eyes to turn totally silver for a brief moment, just like Donovan's. Theo and Liam brought Hayden to the animal clinic, where Liam begged Scott to give her the Bite, but Scott, already overwhelmed as it is from having just learned that Stiles had killed Donovan, sighed and said no. Which is exactly where we pick up today!
So, at the animal clinic, where we left off yesterday, Liam is predictably, like, "Uh, what do you mean, 'No?'", because he's so worried about Hayden's condition and overwhelmed by his feelings for her that his brain is just not processing this answer. However, Scott points out the fact that, in the immortal words of Peter Hale, she "doesn't look like she'd survive a slap to the face, let alone the bite of a werewolf", which is why he can't turn her-- she's way too weak, and they don't know anything about what the mercury is doing to her, let alone if it's actually real mercury to begin with, which means the Bite could just as easily kill her. Liam understandably hates this answer, but when Scott insists that this can't be their only option when it comes to saving Hayden's life, Liam argues that it saved his life, though Scott is quick to remind him that that was a totally a different situation, since Liam wasn't hurt or sick, he was just about to die from falling off of the edge of the hospital's roof and likely crushing every bone in his body.
"You promised!" Liam angrily retorts, as he brings up the vow Scott made in "Silverfinger." "You said you'd do everything you could!" Scott agrees, and says he meant what he said, which is why he's not willing to do something that will most likely kill her. Of course, the stress of this fight after what just happened with Stiles is just way too much for Scott to handle, and he starts wheezing as an asthma attack starts to affect him. Theo quickly pulls an inhaler out of his pocket and tosses it to Scott, and everyone is too worried about everything that is going on to wonder where Theo got that inhaler or question his motives for giving it to him. Scott takes a deep hit or two before firmly stating, "There's another way to save her." Unfortunately, Hayden's breathing is just as labored as Scott's, and it's clear she's getting worse by the minute. Theo grimly remarks that though they don't know the statistics for someone this sick surviving a werewolf bite, he's pretty sure that she won't be surviving this, either. Of course, Theo has a vested interest in what would happen to a Chimera if they were bitten by an Alpha werewolf for reasons that will become clear later on, so he insists that they need to do something to help her.
I know I went into this in the last recap, but I understand both Scott and Liam's perspectives on this, and while I get why Liam's upset, as usual, I'm on Team Scott with regards to giving Hayden the Bite-- at this point, we have no idea what this would do to her, and it could have horrible consequences if Scott had bitten her and inadvertently killed her. I'm personally not someone who believes that Scott taking a life will cause him to lose his True Alpha status, since occasionally, it is justified to take a life in defense of yourself or someone else, and even more, accidents do happen, especially with werewolves-- we see this with Liam coming up in this very episode. However, we still don't know that this is for certain, and what if Scott gave Hayden the Bite, which caused her to die, and then Scott lost his Alpha powers on top of that? That wouldn't bode well for any of them. So, yeah, I feel for Liam, but Scott isn't wrong on this, and besides, he's lost the love of his life before as well, so he wouldn't just let Hayden die if he thought there was any other way to save her.
Meanwhile, Stiles, still soaking wet from the blow-out argument he had with Scott in the rain just minutes ago, is anxiously driving the Jeep down the road as he processes what has just happened. He glances over at the passenger seat, where the still-bloody wrench Stiles took back from Scott is laying across it, and naturally, Roscoe chooses that moment to start smoking from her engine, forcing Stiles to pull over as he coughs painfully from inhaling the smoke. Stiles' nerves are fried, basically, and he's just not here for any of this whatsoever. As soon as he makes it to the side of the road, the Jeep's headlights flicker out as it dies completely. Still coughing and hacking, Stiles falls out of the passenger door and furiously slams it shut while he figures out what to do next. He then yanks out his wrench set from the trunk of his car and angrily tosses it onto the ground as he pops the hood.
However, when he sees the space in the tool box where the wrench he used as a weapon against Donovan is meant to be placed, he gets so overwhelmed that he tosses the whole box down the street, causing the wrenches to fall out and clang loudly as they hit the pavement. He rushes over to the passenger door and grabs the bloody wrench, about ready to throw it down the street along with them, but he stops when he notices just how bloody it is. Overcome with the guilt of killing Donovan, he turns around and throws the wrench toward the Jeep, which hits the windshield hard and causes it to crack right in the middle. Now exhausted, Stiles slides down the side door of the Jeep until he's sitting on the street with his back leaning against the tire. Ugh, EVERYTHING IS SO TERRIBLE RIGHT NOW. Also, Stiles' increasingly violent tendencies are seriously worrisome and the fact that the show isn't referencing it or showing consequences to it is kind of annoying.
Over at the Sheriff's station, one of the deputies is working at the dispatch desk when he suddenly gets a garbled message radioed in by one of his coworkers (who is only referred to as Unit 7) who is currently on patrol. When he asks the deputy to repeat his message, Unit 7 replies, "Dispatch, I'm southbound on Fryman following a suspicious individual loping in the middle of the road." The dispatcher is understandably confused and hilariously asks for clarification regarding what he means by "loping," so the guy is like, "Uhh... running on all fours? Suspect is possibly a large animal." BAHAHAHA. Gods, the Sheriff's deputies in this town are so naive, it's hilarious. Just then, Deputy Clarke, who is Unit 5, radios in and informs them that she's turning the corner on Lincoln and has spotted the suspect, who is now running on two legs and moving quickly.
When the dispatcher asks her how fast she's going, she replies that she's at about 45-50 mph and is thinking that the suspect is much too large to be human. Oh, Clarke, honey, you have no damn idea. The dispatcher tells her to back off and keep eyes on the suspect before alerting all patrolling deputies to be on the lookout for a "suspicious bipedal animal." Wait, were none of these guys around during the kanima!Jackson crisis? I guess all those deputies were probably all viciously slaughtered back then, yeah? Anyway, a third deputy known only as Unit 8 informs the dispatcher that they're coming up on Taft Street, where they have found the animal back on all fours. Just then, the deputy mutters, "Holy..." just before the loud sound of screeching tires echoes through the radio. Sheriff Stilinski, who was passing by just as the noise was heard, cuts in and asks for a report, so Unit 8 explains that the "suspect" just leaped over her car.
Just then, Clarke's voice is heard over the radio as she informs them that she has eyes on the suspect on the corner of Union, and that they're heading north toward the high school on all fours, because of course they are. That's pretty much every supernatural-esque creature's first stop when it comes to this town. Anyway, when Sheriff asks where it is, Clarke explains that she can see it in her rear-view mirror and coming right for her, but before she can say anything else, she screams, "Oh, my God!" and Sheriff immediately orders her to back off, but it's too late-- a loud crashing sound is heard in the background, as though she wrecked her cruiser trying to miss whatever creature she's following. The dispatcher wastes no time instructing all of the available deputies to head to the high school and proceed with caution. Sheriff instantly hops to his feet, grabs his jacket and his sidearm, and rushes to the school as well to see just what the fuck is happening.
Cut to the high school, where Sheriff is rushing frantically down the hallway and calling after Clarke. She eventually meets up with him, and though she's panting for breath, she's otherwise physically fine, aside from a bleeding wound near her hairline above her temple. However, she apologetically explains that she wrecked/probably totaled her car and had to run half a mile to get there, but Sheriff assures her that it'll be okay, since they have insurance for the cruiser. Clarke's not so optimistic about the school's insurance, though, and leads him over to the end of the adjacent hallway. To say that it was demolished would be the understatement of the century-- the Beacon Hills High School sign (which usually sits over the main entrance to the secret Hale vault on the street corner in front of the school) has been thrown through the ceiling of the entrance hall, causing the stone sign to crack in half right down the middle as it tore through all the venting tubes, plumbing pipes, and electrical wiring. One of the torn wires crackles with electricity, as does the hanging fluorescent light next to it, as Clarke and Sheriff gape at the wreckage in horror.
They then walk closer to the wreckage, where they look up through the new "skylight" that the school's sign has created and see the huge, 99% full supermoon overhead. Shit's about to get intense! And, to make matters worse, the Dread Doctors are standing behind Clarke and Sheriff (though neither of them notice-- whether that is because they're being especially unobservant or because the Doctors are doing some mind-whammying to hide their presence is anybody's guess) as they survey the chaos that their newest chimera has wrought for science. "Success?" the Pathologist asks, and the Surgeon garbles, "Imminent," in response, which does not bode well for Beacon Hills whatsoever. So, is this La Bête? Is it Noah, the spike-wristed Chimera we'll meet later? A year after this episode aired, and I still don't understand anything. TITLE CARD!
When we return, it's almost morning when we find Scott, Theo, Liam, and Hayden at the animal clinic, where Melissa has joined them with some medical supplies she smuggled out of the hospital. They gather around Hayden in the exam room, who is very peaked and sweaty as she lays on the exam table with a blanket covering her. When Liam sees Scott open an insulated lunch box and remove several IV bags full of clear fluid, he asks them what they've brought. "It's called chelation therapy," Melissa explains patiently. "It removes heavy metals to the blood. But, the problem is, is that it can injure the kidneys, and Hayden only has one to begin with, so..."
Okay, this kind of confused me, because Hayden said she had a kidney transplant, right? Because that's why she's on those expensive immuno-suppressants, and also why the Dread Doctors made her a Chimera, because it was the transplant that gave her genetic chimerism/two sets of DNA. I guess that's kind of my fault for assuming that she had one failed kidney that was then replaced, when in reality, it could have had double kidney failure and was only able to find one donor kidney to replace it. Either way, I'm very nervous for her, especially since, from what it seems, Hayden hasn't had access to her anti-rejection medication since "Strange Frequencies."
On a positive note, chelation therapy really is indicated for mercury poisoning, as well as other forms of toxic metal poisoning like iron (typically in patients with thalassemia, which is an inherited blood disorder that results in the body making abnormal forms of hemoglobin, which is basically what binds iron and oxygen in the blood so it can circulate through the body), arsenic, lead, uranium, and plutonium, so they got that right. The more you know! Of course, Hayden has been poisoned with magic mercury, so we already know the chances of this treatment actually working are slim to none. I really we got to learn more about how exactly the Chimeras are turned with the mercury and how they made it. I swear, there could be a spinoff just on the Dread Doctors' exploits alone (although we already need a Yukimura/Kitsune spinoff as well, so get in line, creepy steampunk bots!)
Anyway, so Melissa starts hooking up the IV bag (I'm guessing it's either dimercaprol, which is the most common chelating agent, or dimercapto-propane sulfonate, which is used for very severe arsenic and mercury poisoning), but when she sticks the IV needle into Hayden's hand, Liam instantly notices Hayden's grimace from the puncture and roughly grabs Melissa by the wrist before growling that she's hurting her. Of course, he's squeezing Melissa's arm so hard that she replies, "And you're hurting me," which embarrasses Liam enough that he blushes before letting go of her and quietly apologizing for being a little more than overwhelmed at the moment. Scott and Theo both look concerned by his behavior, and Theo reminds him that they're there to save Hayden's life, not kill each other. When Melissa becomes even more worried, Scott explains that it's a full moon, which werewolves can normally feel even during the day anyway, but since it's a supermoon, their full moon jitters are even more pronounced and hard to control. "What is that supposed to make you guys?" Melissa asks nervously. "Like, super strong? Super aggressive?" Scott sighs before replying, "Both," which only made me more anxious about what was to come when I first watched this episode.
Over at the Sheriff's station, Sheriff Stilinski is standing over his desk, where he's looking at a three-ring binder he's filled with all of the information regarding their newest supernatural problem in Beacon Hills. It's opened to a page labeled "KNOWN CHIMERAS," which includes photographs of Tracy, Donovan, Lucas, Josh, the redheaded lovechild of Freddy Krueger and Lady Deathstrike who was found dead in the McCalls' kitchen in "Ouroboros," Beth, Corey, and Hayden. After a moment of staring at it, he notices an envelope under the binder and pulls it out to find that it has "Stilinski" scrawled across the front. Inside is Stiles' library key card and a note that reads, "Maintenance found this in the hospital trash. -Melissa," which understandably confuses and concerns Sheriff. Also, I'm pretty sure I accidentally and mistakenly attributed this scene to the last episode's recap? Whoops. I wrote my notes for both episodes around the same time and I think a lot of the details just got blurred together. My bad!
Back at the animal clinic, Scott and Theo have made their way into the lobby to chill for a bit while Melissa continues to treat Hayden, and once they've each sprawled out in their own waiting-room seat, Theo grimly remarks that they're going to need help with Liam. Scott, who understandably looks bone-tired and mentally/psychologically exhausted, replies that he'll be okay, but Theo isn't convinced. "He's sixteen and in love," Theo argues. "First love. You remember what that's like?" This instantly triggers memories of Allison in Scott's mind, and looking more depressed than ever, Scott insists that yeah, he remembers, all right. Theo maintains that all of Liam's overwhelming emotions mixed with the effects of the supermoon is going to make the night a disaster, which we already know, considering it's the midseason finale and they are always literally bonkers.
"We need help," Theo continues. "And I don't mean restraints or chains. I mean Malia, Stiles, Lydia..." He sighs, and adds, "You need your pack, Scott." Oh, yes, I'm sure Theo's motives are totally pure, and his intent to bring the others into this have nothing to do whatsoever with Theo wanting to turn them against Scott so they'll join his pack instead. Nope! Scott quietly responds, "I'm not so sure I have one anymore," which literally shatters my heart into a bazillion itty bitty shards. I CANNOT LIVE IN A WORLD WHERE THE MCCALL PACK ISN'T A THING. JE REFUSE. So Theo, trying his best to keep up his innocent loyal friend cover for a little bit longer, tells Scott that he'll talk to them and see what he can do to help bring them back together. Scott, being the trusting, kind-hearted soul that he is, is touched by Theo's support and thanks him before Theo takes off to go find the others.
Meanwhile, back at the Sheriff's station, Lydia, who is still in her clothes from the previous day/episode, is sitting on the floor outside Jordan's holding cell, leaning her shoulder against the bars from the outside while Jordan leans his back against the bars on the inside. He tells her she should go home, since Sheriff is literally not sharing where the bodies of the most recently deceased Chimeras (Beth and Corey) are being stored with anyone, and he's pretty sure he's not able to psychically divine that information even in the event that he could figure a way out. Yeah, famous last words, dude. Lydia agrees with me and quietly replies, "But you're drawn to death... just like me."
Aw, Lydia! I'm glad she finally met someone who at least kind of understands the gravity of her supernatural identity, because it seriously must be such a drag to be a Banshee. Jordan asks her if that means he's kind of a Banshee, too, since she finds dead bodies and he finds dead Chimeras, and Lydia agrees that it does seem like they're both harbingers of death. Lydia and Jordan, Queen and King of the Dead! I like it a lot. Jordan jokes that he should put that detail on his resume, and Lydia cracks back that she totally put it in her college applications, which is kind of hilarious, if you ask me. I can just see it now. "Lydia Martin: 5.0 GPA, Scored V on every AP exam. Special skills: high proficiency in mathematics and physics, excellent leadership skills, rare ability to psionically locate the dead bodies of victims of the supernatural, and can also interpret sound frequencies at a level no living creature in the universe can hear." That's bound to get her an awesome scholarship, if you ask me. Anyway, it's obvious that the two of them are exhausted, because when Lydia reaches through the bars to hold his hand, she closes her eyes and rests her head against the bars. The contact seems to relax Jordan as well, because he ultimately does the same.
The sun has just started to rise as we cut over to the animal clinic, where Hayden is continuing to receive her chelation therapy as she rests on the exam table, though she's breathing fitfully and clearly hasn't shown any improvement. Melissa, who is standing at her bedside and affectionately rubbing her arm, does not look hopeful whatsoever, and it hurts my heart, even knowing what ends up happening at the end of the episode. Out in the lobby, Scott has dozed off in one of the chairs, and when Liam walks out to see him, he glares at him angrily as his eyes glow Beta-gold. Uh-oh. This is so not going to end well.
Across town, Malia has just brought Stiles back to where he broke down the previous night, just in time for them both to watch as Roscoe is towed away. She notices how sad Stiles looks to see his beloved Jeep get taken to Gods know where and asks him if they can fix it, but Stiles just shakes his head and retorts that there isn't enough duct tape in the world to fix it at this point. Of course, Malia brings up the fact that maybe he should try something other than duct tape, but it's apparently too late for that as well-- according to Stiles, it has a bad alternator and transmission, it needs all new belts, and the brake pads have worn down so much that they're essentially metal on metal. YIKES! Car repairs are such a racket, honestly. If the public transit in my dinky-ass town wasn't literally non-existent, I would probably not even bother having one.
Anyway, Malia gently asks him why he let "things" get so bad, which is a legitimate question that literally encompasses everything going wrong for Stiles at the moment, but Stiles, feeling guilty and ashamed by the events of the previous night, replies, "There's been a few distractions, if you haven't noticed." Of course, Malia is the most observant pack member of them all, let's be real here, so it's no surprise when her response is, "I notice. More than you think I do" in an effort to make Stiles comfortable enough that he can finally confess all the secrets he's been keeping. Stiles, a little embarrassed by this kind of attention, insists that he didn't mean it like that, but Malia didn't mean to start a debate, so she just cuts him off and asks if she's taking him back home. "No," Stiles replies with a sigh. "Sheriff's station. I gotta talk to my dad." I was about to be like, "YES, STILES, FINALLY TALK TO YOUR DAD LIKE YOU SHOULD HAVE FIVE EPISODES AGO!" But, predictably, this conversation won't happen today, because, like with any other finale, there is so much shit going bad at the same time in this episode that the timing just doesn't work out.
Back at the Sheriff's station, Lydia and Jordan are still tiredly talking to each other about their respective supernatural identities (or, in Jordan's case, the lack of a supernatural identity, since he hasn't yet learned what he is). He asks her if it helps her to know what she is now, and Lydia admits that the fact that she does know definitely doesn't scare her as much as it used to, though I'm willing to bet that she wouldn't mind knowing a bit more about her powers and responsibilities-- Jennifer Blake was pretty much like, "Hey, congrats, you're a Banshee!" and then left Lydia to figure out the rest herself. She then asks him if he scares her, and he confesses that she did once; namely, that one time he thought he was going to die after Belasko slashed his torso up with his talons in "Creatures of the Night." When she asks him why he thought he was going to die, he explains that he saw Banshee!Lydia that night, and that he first thought it meant he was a goner, but then realized she showed up to try to help him hold on long enough to be saved, which is what led him to believe that it was just a hallucination or a dream as a result of the severity of his injuries.
I still think there's something more about their connection, though. I mean, think about it-- both the Wild Hunt and Banshees are affiliated with Celtic mythology, Jordan and Lydia both have supernatural identities that involve the dead, and we've already seen Jordan get other visions of Lydia, such as the playing cards with the Queen of Diamonds that looks like her, and the Dread Doctor-induced hallucination during the failed attempt to catch one of them in "Strange Frequencies." Back when these episodes first aired, Wendy and I were kicking around the idea of Lydia being the Morrígan, a Celtic battle goddess, which is a theory I have adored forever, so I'm really hoping that this is where they're going with Lydia and Jordan's connection, since she shares some similarities with the being Jordan is supposed to be.
Regardless, I think since we know Lydia's inner Banshee has unconsciously used its powers before (sending messages/summons for help to Meredith in "Insatiable" and "IED," for example), it definitely seems possible that the Banshee is also maybe communicating with Jordan's spirit to tell him where to go and what to expect, and he just doesn't always remember it or understand what is happening. Given that we know a lot of supernatural creatures are spirit-based (like Kitsune, for example-- Kira's own inner Fox spirit has been working independently of Kira at times throughout the entire season, and since Banshees are known as fairy spirits in folklore, they seem to be in the same vein, and we'll see in Season 5B that the Hellhound and La Bête work in similar manners as well).
Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself again. So, Lydia brings up the fact that the Banshee was trying to stay out of the rain the night that he got attacked by Belasko, since that was the night of that huge storm that caused a lot of weird shit to happen-- the cell signal getting knocked out; the lightning strikes that came super close to hitting Scott, Liam, and Stiles; the fact that the Dread Doctors chose that night to overwhelm Kira's body with lightning for their own malevolent agenda; the minor earthquake at the McCalls' house that also stopped the analog clock in the kitchen and de-magnetized all of the magnets on the fridge, etc. When Jordan, not understanding where Lydia is going with this, looks at her in confusion, Lydia goes on to explain that Kira was telling her a story about the Wild Hunt, which includes a myth about Ghost Riders in the night sky on their horses with their black dogs at their sides.
The words "black dogs" seem to trigger something in Lydia's mind, and she immediately jumps to her feet to get ready to leave. When Jordan asks her what's up, she assures him that she just has to go check on something and insists that she'll be right back. Of course, when Lydia tells him not to go anywhere, he just gives her a look, like, "Um, really?", considering that he's locked in a holding cell at the Sheriff's station and all, but she knows that he knows what she meant. YESSS, DETECTIVE LYDIA. It's about damn time that someone in the McCall Pack finally figured out what myself and at least a half-dozen other Tumblr users have been arguing since Season 4. (Sorry, I know that's not-so-humble bragging, but I'm just really proud of myself for actually getting something right for once with regards to this show!)
Back at the animal clinic, a very worried Liam and Melissa are standing at Hayden's bedside as she continues to fitfully toss and turn, her skin becoming even clammier and weaker the more time that passes. "It's not working, is it?" Liam asks quietly, and Melissa grimly admits that she should be showing signs of improvement by now. Suddenly, Hayden gasps in pain, and when Melissa takes her hand and tries to get her attention, Hayden weakly replies, "Call Val... My sister... Valerie..." Scott, who overheard their conversation and has just walked into the exam room as he shrugs on his jacket, looks up at Liam, who reminds him that Valerie is a Sheriff's deputy.
Hayden's request is convenient timing, as it turns out, because Scott holds up his phone and explains that he thinks that Deputy Clarke is at the high school, because Theo texted him to tell him that there are cops everywhere and that there's possibly another chimera rampaging the town. "Um, my sister..." Hayden whispers softly, and it's obvious by the tone of her voice that she's terrified about her rapidly deteriorating condition. "I don't want to die without my sister." Scott gently promises her that he'll go find her and bring her back with him, but when he turns to leave, Liam stops him and asks him what he's planning on telling her to get her there. "If I have to, I'll tell her everything," Scott insists, before he takes off to get to the high school.
I know my list of reasons why I love Scott McCall is so long that it could probably reach the moon at this point, but this is one of the many things that make him such a great character-- he's always been the first person to volunteer to tell people the truth about the supernatural, whether it be Sheriff Stilinski, bb!Derek Hale (although he did kind of chicken out on that part), Kira, Liam, etc. These kids need to start being honest with each other and start communicating better, damnit! Also, I can't remember if I mentioned this already or not, but until this point, I thought Hayden's sister was named Clarke Romero, and now I'm wondering why they have different names (which seems to be common on this show, such as with Alan Deaton and Marin Morrell, Brett Talbot and Lorilee Rohr, etc)-- is/was Valerie married? Do Valerie and Hayden have different dads? I need to know this stuff!
Meanwhile, Malia has just arrived at the Sheriff's station to drop Stiles off, but when the uncharacteristically quiet Stiles reaches for the handle to open the door, Malia sighs and finally musters up the courage to speak up. "Are you going to tell him about Donovan?" Stiles looks shocked speechless by this question and sits back in the passenger seat before finally asking her if she knew this whole time. Malia, who looks slightly awkward but otherwise chill as fuck, just shrugs and admits that she guessed, because she saw the bite on his shoulder while he was sleeping. BAHAHA, I love how Malia has no issue when it comes to investigating things and being what my dear mother refers to as a "nibshit"-- it is one of Stiles' best qualities and I love that it's rubbed off on her.
Regardless, Malia insists that she didn't say anything about it because the fact that he killed Donovan doesn't actually matter to her, which is really not a surprising reaction considering what we have learned about Malia over the seasons. She and Stiles have a very similar moral code that most definitely allows for the right to kill someone in self-defense, or in defense of someone else, so the fact that Malia literally could not care less that Stiles was forced to kill Donovan after he tried to kill him is not at all shocking to me. If anything, it just goes to show that Stiles should have been honest with his loved ones from the start, because if they had heard the story straight from him as soon as it happened, they would have supported him. I still maintain that it was the lying that caused all these problems, and not the actually taking-life part. But, I've already talked this point to death in the previous recap, so moving on!
Despite Malia's undying loyalty and understanding, Stiles is still very much ashamed about what he did, because he's still replaying his argument with Scott in his head over and over while assuming that Scott knows the actual truth and actually meant what he said, rather than him basing his words on the total lie Theo gave him the previous day. Ugh, the fact that Theo manipulated them into this complete miscommunication still pisses me off so badly. I will never forgive him for that. So, yeah, Stiles quietly replies, "It matters to me" before he gets out of the car and leaves without another word. Ugh, between the sort-of Scott and Kira breakup, and the Scott and Stiles breakup, and now this Stiles/Malia breakup, my heart just cannot take any more angst.
Back in the holding cell, Jordan is laying flat on his back on the bench along the wall by the metal toilet, where he seems to be catching some zzz's while he still can. His eyes twitch as though he's in REM sleep just before we're transported into his unconscious mind to see what he's dreaming. Jordan is naked and walking through the woods, his body sweaty and covered in soot as he carries the body of a slender, wavy-haired brunette girl to the Nemeton. He lays her body on top of the stump next to the rest of the bodies, revealing that he's carrying Hayden to join the others as his arms and shoulders burst into flames. Like in the nightmare he told Lydia about in "Condition Terminal," the scene cuts to Jordan sitting cross-legged on the stump next to Hayden's body as his eyes start to glow reddish-orange. As the camera pans out, we can see that he's surrounded by the half-naked and burned bodies of dozens of failed Chimeras.
Okay, wait a second-- we've only seen Jordan take the bodies of Chimeras, right? And not any of their victims? If that's the case, then does that mean that the Dread Doctors planned to make a lot more of them? Because at last count, there have only been maybe a dozen Chimeras, give or take, if you don't count the very-much-alive Theo-- there's Belasko, Tracy, Donovan, Lucas, Josh, Hayden, the redheaded chimera Kira supposedly killed, Zach, Corey, and Beth, with Noah, the spike-wristed chimera Malia runs into later on in this episode, making the total eleven. Plus, Zach claimed that he saw three other Chimeras get killed while he was in the Doctors' captivity as well. But, in the last episode, Jordan said that there were hundreds of bodies on and around the Nemeton in his dreams, so is that just his brain exaggerating everything? Is his brain adding the victims even though we've never seen him physically pick them up? I AM SO CONFUSED.
In the station's bullpen, Stiles goes up to the front desk to speak to a new, blonde, vaguely Scandinavian-looking deputy who is apparently called Deputy Strauss, and who informs him that Sheriff left a half-hour ago and would be back soon. Stiles, looking nervous and put-out by this information, sighs and tells Strauss that he'll just wait in his office. I'm going to guess that since Sheriff never comes back, he's probably in the middle of getting attacked, given how Stiles finds him at the end of the episode? Anyway, once Stiles does that, Strauss sits back down at his desk and yanks at his collar uncomfortably; judging by how he's sweating, he seems to be feeling overheated, which probably isn't a good sign since there is a literal fire-hound sleeping away in their holding cell. Whoops!
We then cut to the high school's library, where Lydia has just found an old mythology book and has begun to quietly read the page aloud to herself for our benefit. "Woden's Hunt, also known as the Wild Ride or Wild Hunt... A myth of devilish riders in the sky accompanied by black dogs, spectral beasts whose eyes glowed with fire. A Bearer of Death and Guardian of the Supernatural, the black dog is also known by its more common name... The Hellhound." OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT! JORDAN IS A HELLHOUND, YOU GUYS! YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW HAPPY I AM TO BE MOSTLY RIGHT ABOUT THIS! #humblebragpartdeux. So, that's why his eyes glow like flames, and why he is immune to fire and has a fire-related healing ability, and why he's been supernaturally lured to the dead Chimeras-- as a guardian of the supernatural, he's in charge of keeping the secret of their existence safe, which means that he has to cover up the deaths so the police don't learn too much. I'm still not convinced that the Dread Doctors aren't using Jordan's powers and supernatural duty to further their own agenda, though-- in an earlier recap, I suggested that the dead Chimeras could possibly be sacrifices to the Nemeton of some kind, and even though it was never explicitly stated in 5B, it still could have happened.
Anyway, speaking of fire-colored eyes, the scene cuts briefly over to Jordan in the station's holding cell, where he has just opened his eyes to reveals irises that are flickering reddish-orange flames. Back at the high school's library, just as Lydia, having figured out what she came to learn, slams the book shut, she is suddenly struck by a banshee premonition. Her eyes drift as she focuses on the auditory parts of the premonition, which include the sound of fighting and several werewolves growling as a warning of what will be happening in that very room in just a few short hours. Naturally, Theo chooses that moment to appear behind her and remark that Lydia obviously just got a premonition about what is coming, and she gasps aloud and spins to face him when she hears his voice.
"You know what's coming... Don't you?" Theo asks her, and Lydia only looks more horrified than before when she admits that her Banshee senses are telling her someone is going to die there tonight. Of course, this doesn't surprise Theo whatsoever, since he's orchestrating this whole shitshow, so he just nods in agreement before informing her that he can't let her tell anyone what she just figured out. Lydia's understandably confused as to why he'd want to keep this quiet, but when she asks him about it, he just smirks at her. "Because I want you, Lydia. I want all of you." Yeah, clearly not that much, bonsidering he's going to leave her for dead later, but let's be real, here-- it's been pretty obvious to all villains since Season 3A that Lydia is ride-or-die for Scott. There's no way that anyone could turn her against him, not after all he's done to protect her, so if Theo can't get her on his side, then he pretty much has no choice but to take what little info he can get from her and then remove her from the equation entirely to get what he wants.
Anyway, as you can guess, Lydia is just mindblown by all of the shocks she's just experienced in a row, which causes her to demand to know what the fuck he's talking about. Unfortunately for Lydia and the rest of us, Theo is smart enough to know a losing battle when he sees it, so he just promises to give her some time to think about joining him before he fully backhands her across the face so hard he knocks her out and causes her to fall to the floor. OH NO YOU FUCKING DON'T. Gods, Theo is the wooooorst! Anyone who hurts Lydia (or anyone in the McCall Pack, for that matter) is immediately on my bad side, so after what he did to Scott and Stiles, this is pretty much strike three in my book.
The next couple scenes cut back and forth from the nature preserve, the animal clinic, the Sheriff's station, and the hospital, so hang on tight! First up, we have Malia, who is so overwhelmed with everything that she has come to her old coyote den in the nature preserve to clear her head. She crouches down in the corner and picks up her sister's doll from the car wreck, which she's apparently moved from the car wreck site since she returned to the human world. After a moment, Malia hears footsteps approaching, and she stands and assumes a defensive position as a familiar-looking black wolf trots on into the coyote den and stares at Malia curiously before shifting back into Theo's very naked human form. Okay, does the fact that Theo's eyes look almost white when he's in wolf form bother anyone else? Is it supposed to be a clue to his chimera identity, or is it just because of the light being reflected in them? It just looks creepy, especially since it's the same wolf that played Derek's full-wolf form and we're used to it having brown/blue eyes. Anyway, Malia is predictably stunned to see that Theo can full-shift and asks him how the fuck he just did that, which earns her a smug smirk.
We then cut over to the animal clinic, where Melissa has just noticed a bunch of small, blackish-blue spots have started to appear on Hayden's arms. When Liam notices her worried look, he tilts Hayden's head and informs her that the marks are appearing on her neck as well. Now, I think everyone first saw this scene and just assumed that they were bruises caused by the mercury poisoning or the chelation therapy or both, but when Kathleen and I were talking about it later, we realized that the marks actually looked very similar to the spot patterns on Kate's skin when she's in werejaguar form. Then, I thought back to the first and only time we've seen Hayden transformed before, at the beginning of "Strange Frequencies," and the style of her fangs looked just like Kate's as well. I mean, I know that the fang prosthetics are pretty much all based on what works for the specific actors, but it still led me to wonder if maybe Hayden was a werewolf/werejaguar Chimera and was just partially manifesting her jaguar skin in some half-hearted attempt to enhance her healing ability or something? (Edited to add: And, now that we've seen "The Last Chimera," it turns out that she is also part-werejaguar, so hell fucking yeah! Maybe I'm psychic after all. :P)
Okay, back to the scene. So Liam, noting the bruise-looking marks developing on Hayden's body, grimly figures that this means that Hayden is getting worse, and since Melissa is unable to honestly dispute that observation, she decides that they have no other choice but to take her to the hospital. As expected, Liam points out that, hellooo, Hayden's not exactly human anymore, so what the hell can anyone there do for her? Even still, Melissa reminds him that they're in a damn animal clinic, and she needs medical equipment designed for humans to help her before adding that while they are taking Hayden to the hospital, she didn't say anything about going in the front door. Melissa is so great, ugh! Unlike some parents we know (*coughSheriffStilinskicoughcoughcough*), she does whatever it takes to save her children and the townspeople at large from supernatural threats without a second thought, even if it means bending the rules or, occasionally, ignoring the rules completely. Those rules were made for human problems, not supernatural ones.
Over at the Sheriff's station, all of the deputies in the bullpen are sweating their asses off, as is Stiles, and after a moment, the smoke alarm goes off to indicate that there's a fire somewhere. While the deputies try to figure out what the hell that's coming from, Jordan is back in his holding cell, where he has awakened from his body-snatching dream state and walked over to the bars. His eyes are flickering reddish-gold flames as he grabs two side-by-side bars on the cell door and starts to pull them apart, using his fire powers to heat the metal up until it's about the consistency of rubber and can easily be bent enough to create an exit.
We cut back to the coyote den, where Theo, in all his naked glory, walks toward Malia, who is trying her best not to stare at his dick. He asks her if she wants to learn how to full-shift, and informs her that if so, he can show her how. "You're showing me plenty right now," Malia replies awkwardly, but Theo just shrugs and walks even closer to her before snarking, "I've got nothing to hide." Good gods, he really is arrogant as fuck, isn't he? He's giving me major Peter vibes right now and it's not a good look. Anyway, Malia is appalled by his insinuation that she does have something to hide, so Theo starts with the major revelations. "Did you tell Scott you're planning to kill your mother?" he asks innocently. I both love and hate how he's been picking up all these lies, hints, and clues to stuff that everyone has been unknowingly dropping and just files them away for a time to use them to his advantage. Reminds me of Valentine Morgenstern from The Shadowhunter Chronicles/The Mortal Instruments novel series.
When Malia narrows her eyes at him, he insists that not only is he not judging her, but he wants to help her. Of course he does! Because he knows Malia killing the Desert Wolf would just be another strike that could possibly turn her away from the McCall Pack and toward Theo, who literally thrives on getting people to letting their darker impulses take control. Malia is suspicious as hell of Theo and his motives, though, and asks him why, so Theo acts his little heart out. "Because I know Scott won't. I'm trying to help all of you. If Scott can't do it, then someone else needs to take the lead." Malia seems to be ever so slightly warming up to him, so Theo goes on to say that Melissa and Liam are moving Hayden to the hospital before adding that she's still a Chimera in dange, and there are also still two more very dangerous chimeras that the Dread Doctors haven't found yet, eithe. "They need help," Theo insists. "They need you." Okay, so how did Theo know about Hayden being moved? Did Melissa or Liam text him?
Over at the high school, Scott has just arrived in the entrance hall, where he finds the Beacon Hills sign still by the exit where someone/something threw it inside through the ceiling. He's understandably horrified, as you can probably guess. Just then, his phone buzzes, and when he takes it out to check it, he finds a text from Lydia which simply reads, "Library." Of course, we know this is actually just Theo trying to lure Scott to the library for his master plan, but since Scott doesn't know that yet, all we can do is watch idly by as Scott walks right into a trap.
Back at the Sheriff's station, the deputies in the bullpen are still trying to figure out what the hell is up with the fire alarms when Jordan, in another one of his Hellhound trances, starts walking toward the front doors in a daze. His fellow deputies take one look at his glazed-over eyes and his sooty face (though his clothes are still intact, so he can't have gotten too flamey yet) and are like, "Uh, what the fuck are you doing, Parrish?" but when they grab their guns and start to aim them at him, Stiles (who has a huge sweat ring down the front of his hoodie from where Jordan's heat-generation caused the temperature to spike) immediately rushes out of Sheriff's office and orders them to stand down. Strangely enough, the deputies actually listen to him, and they all lower their weapons and watch in confusion as Jordan walks on out of the station without a word or even an acknowledgement of their presence. I'm guessing this confirms Scott's theory that Jordan only gets violent if people get in his way, yeah? He's kind of like the Oni in that way, which is interesting, since they're another one of those spiritual supernatural creatures we were talking about earlier. Anyway, Stiles does nothing to explain himself to the deputies, he just rushes on out of the station as well and follows Jordan to see where he ends up going.
Theo has just gotten out of his truck somewhere near the woods, and it's starting to rain as he holds up a gold key and smirks for a moment before he tosses it into the grass and walks away. Meanwhile, over at the hospital, a loud growling/snarling noise is heard from inside a utility room that has been both deadbolted and padlocked from the outside to keep the werecoyote inside. Yup, Theo totally locked Malia into one of the utility rooms in the hospital, specifically a room in a wing in the hospital that is conveniently under construction, which means there are no nearby patients, nurses, doctors, or orderlies around to hear her and let her out.
Elsewhere in the hospital, Liam, Melissa, and Hayden (who is in a wheelchair with a blanket over her lap and her IV chelating agent hanging above her head) have just gotten into an elevator to head to the basement when Hayden starts groaning in pain. When Melissa and Liam look at her with concern, they both notice as a plume of what looks like black werewolf ink appears in the IV bag of clear fluid. He asks her what's happening, but Melissa has no idea-- all she knows is that it isn't good. Honestly, from what I know about IVs, that isn't actually supposed to happen, so I have no idea what it is about black blood that could cause it to move opposite of the flow of fluid and leak into the IV bag. I'm guessing its just supposed to be a really suspenseful and visually interesting way to tell us that Hayden's on borrowed time at the moment. Anyway, the appearance of werewolf ink only scares Hayden more, so she holds up her hand so Liam can squeeze it comfortingly as she asks him about her sister. Melissa, whose inner nurse knows that this is likely only going to end one way, does her best to smile as convincingly as she can as she kneels and assure her that Scott is looking for her as they speak and will be bringing her back as soon as possible.
Speaking of Scott, he has just walked into the empty library in the high school after being sidetracked by "Lydia," just as the text message he received instructed, but when he calls out for her, he doesn't get a response. He then pulls out his phone to call her, which is when he sees that he's been text-bombed a dozen times by Liam, who is demanding to know where he is and what he's doing. However, he briefly ignores these for a moment so he can try to call Lydia, in hopes that he can quickly find her and find out what she wants so he can go back to looking for Valerie like he's supposed to be now. I'm sure that the missed texts aren't helping the bad situation he's about to get into with Liam one bit. :(
Of course, as soon as he pushes "Call," he hears a buzzing sound nearby and follows it until he finds Lydia's cell phone sitting on one of the bookshelves. Very confused and concerned by this point, Scott looks around a bit more and is horrified to find a thick line of mountain ash around all but about a six-inch gap of the perimeter of the room. When he returns to the main area of the library, he comes upon Theo, who has just completed the circle with the last handful of mountain ash, very similar to how Marin Morrell did the same thing to Scott and Derek in all the way back in "Chaos Rising."
Stunned nearly to the point of speechlessness, Scott gapes in horror for a moment before finally muttering, "That's not possible," because as we know, this particular substance is used as protection against the supernatural.
THEO: "You're right. A werewolf shouldn't even be able to touch mountain ash."
SCOTT: [in dawning realization] "...You're a Chimera."
THEO: "I'm the first Chimera. It's the coyote part you didn't notice. It's why Malia trusted me first, even though she probably didn't know it. You found a perfect word though, Scott... Because a Chimera isn't just a monster with different parts-- it can also mean something impossible to achieve. An unrealizable dream."
SCOTT: [rolls his eyes] "And they realized you?"
THEO: "They came close with me. But, we can't all be perfect. We can't all be True Alphas."UGH, FUCK YOU THEO, I HATE YOU SO MUCH, EVEN NOW. Scott seems to be feeling the same way, because he instantly tenses up and growls as furiously lunges for Theo. Unfortunately for Scott, the mountain ash circle is complete, so all Theo has to do is step back outside of the line so that Scott hits the magical barrier, causing him to be bounced backward so hard he's flies over one of the tables and lands on the floor behind it. Theo can't help but laugh loudly at him before he remarks, "Damn! I felt that." To make matters worse, he walks toward the library doors, where he's somehow stolen one of the cell signal jammers that Jordan made for their plan to catch a Dread Doctor and turns it on so that Scott can't call anyone else to free him. "You're just going to have to wait alone for what happens next," Theo adds as he walks away, and when Scott asks him what he's talking about, Theo stops long enough to answer, "The supermoon" before he heads out the door.
Fuck that guy, ugh! He's the woooooorst. And really, the frequency jammers are just adding insult more than injury, because the number of people Scott could call for help would be minimal anyway. The chances of Stiles answering Scott's call is minimal, Lydia is in Theo's captivity, Deaton is in the Desert Wolf's captivity, Hayden is dying, Melissa is pretty much the only person keeping her alive, so she can't really leave her side yet, and everyone else in the pack can't touch mountain ash. So, that basically leaves Mason, who, as we'll see in a second, is helping Melissa since Theo, Scott, and Liam have all left, and he won't be able to get to the school to free Scott until it's almost too late anyway.
ANYWAY. Back at the hospital, Mason has just rushed into what looks like a morgue in the same wing that is currently under construction (and yet somehow neither he, nor Melissa, nor Hayden with the enhanced hearing heard Malia growling and trying to claw her way out of the room she's locked in in the same area? Whatever. Doesn't matter) with an armful of supplies that he apparently pilfered from one of the other wings. Melissa calls him over, and he brings her what she asked for, though he's immediately stunned by the sight of pale, sickly Hayden laying on the steel slab. Her eyes are closed, and she's either fallen asleep or she's passed out, but either way, it doesn't look good.
Mason is so horrified that he asks her if they should maybe be talking to a doctor, Melissa looks at him with an expression that says it's taking everything in her not to do so. "I've been wrestling with that for hours," she admits exhaustedly. "Do we bring them in and watch them treat her as a normal patient while we stand here knowing that's not going to work? Or do we keep trying everything medically possible to save her, while her body does things that shouldn't be medically possible?" Mason quietly asks Melissa if Hayden is dying, and after a moment, Melissa replies that the amount of mercury in her system is so high that it should have killed her right after it happened, so the fact that she's even still alive at the moment is breaking all the usual statistics. Ugh, fuck you Dread Doctors! I'm just so mad at the villains right now, to be honest, even though this totally happened months ago and I know that Hayden didn't actually stay dead long, but I'm getting ahead of myself again.
Night has fallen now, and Scott, still at the high school library, is trying to muster up all of the strength that he can get to break through the mountain ash barrier Theo set up, but between the fact that there is way more mountain ash now than there was when he overpowered Jennifer in "Lunar Ellipse" and the fact that his asthma and other soon-to-be-revealed factors are weakening him, he's having no luck whatsoever. He eventually stops, takes a hit of his inhaler, and tries to psych himself up to try round two. "Come on..." he mutters under his breath. "You've done this before. You can do it again." He returns to pushing against the barrier, but no matter how much he huffs, puffs, and groans, he still just gets thrown backward once again. Suddenly, he looks up to find that a door to a hidden hallway has been left open, and Scott instantly pulls himself to his feet to see if he can make his escape that way. In the hallway is a ladder to the roof, and Scott wastes no time climbing it so he can head up there and try to jump out of the trap.
Over at the hospital, Malia has managed to get out of the room she was locked in, and when she slowly makes her way into the hall, she's unnerved by the sight of a mostly-empty donor bone marrow bag on the floor, surrounded by smears of blood and the broken padlock from the door Malia was locked behind. Just as she approaches a large curtain of plastic sheeting hanging from the ceiling next to the construction equipment, she finds an ashen-looking teenage boy frantically sucking the bone marrow out of another bag behind it. Ummm, what? Spoiler alert, but as we'll learn in "The Last Chimera," this newest Chimera is named Noah Patrick, and according to Theo, he's part-Berserker, which is why he has the retractable bone claws coming from his wrists and hands. But why eat the bone marrow? Is he also like part-vampire or some other kind of sort-of cannibalistic creature? Something tells me we won't be finding out.
ANYWAY, Noah eventually notices Malia's presence and growls under his breath as he stands to his feet, revealing the bone claws sticking painfully out of his hands. His face is gray and ashen, with huge hollows around his eyes and protruding cheekbones that make him look like a skull, and once he's finished snacking on the bone marrow bag, he drops it onto the ground and starts to sprint toward her with a roar. Unfortunately for him, Malia is queen of the wild kingdom, so her eyes glow blue as she lets her fangs out and roars just as powerfully at him before she lunges toward him. Get him, girl!
Meanwhile, Scott has just made it to the roof of the high school to find that yet another thunderstorm is brewing overhead. Is the thunderstorm the Dread Doctors' doing? The Wild Hunt? Why does Beacon Hills get more rain than anywhere else in the country while the rest of California is literally like a year from running out of water? Oh, television. Anyway, unfortunately for Scott, Theo has also outlined the perimeter of the high school with mountain ash as well, so Scott can't even jump off the roof to safety. He lets his anger get the best of him as he futilely punches at the barrier, which only makes him return to the verge of another asthma attack.
Despite the fact that I once again shouted at the TV for him to stop using that damn inhaler, he doesn't listen to me, because TV characters never do. After falling to his knees and taking two hits of it, he realizes that he is not only trapped, but trapped for a reason that will probably result in a bunch of people getting hurt, so he yells at the top of his lungs as he furiously crushes his inhaler in his closed fist. Of course, that's when a purple mist comes out of the inhaler cartridge, and Scott realizes in horror that it has been laced with wolfsbane. He then flashes back to the previous episode, where Scott had an asthma attack while arguing with Liam about giving Hayden the bite, and Theo tossed him an inhaler to "help" him.
What I'm wondering is, how long has Theo been dosing Scott with wolfsbane? Scott's asthma started coming back in "Required Reading" when he triggered his repressed memory, and the only times we've seen him have asthma attacks since his transformation into a werewolf was 1) on his second full moon in Season 1's "Lunatic," when he had a panic attack that manifested as an asthma attack and that was treated by using his inhaler as a placebo, and 2) in Season 2's "Raving," when Victoria put a bunch of Nordic Blue Monkshood in a vaporizer and turned it on so she could kill Scott while making it look like he died of an asthma attack. So, you'd think that he's been inadvertently dosing him with wolfsbane this whole time, and since we never did learn where Liam found that inhaler during the first attack, it'd make sense that Theo's been doing it since before the last episode. What do you guys think? I'm also guessing he didn't notice the wolfsbane because the chemicals in the medication covered it up-- I'm not sure if any of you guys have used an inhaler before, but it tastes like battery acid, which I think would be enough to cover up the flavor of a toxic plant.
So, just then, a fully-wolfed out and quite frankly terrifying-looking Liam appears on the roof, and Scott is stunned when he turns to find him glaring at him. Has he always looked this scary? Why do I get the feeling that whatever the Dread Doctors injected him with is making him even more monstrous? I know I'm not the only one who saw the similarities between Liam's werewolf form and Deucalion's or Peter's, right? (Edited to add: Apparently the stuff the Dread Doctors gave Liam was a modified form of wolfsbane that doesn't have lingering side effects to wolfies, so who the fuck knows. Maybe it's the supermoon?) Anyway, Scott correctly guesses that Theo let him in, which we will eventually find out is the case in a few episodes.
Anyway, Liam starts circling around Scott like the ultimate predator and demands to know if Scott lied to him, but Scott promises that he has never done that. Liam reminds him that he won't save Hayden, but Scott argues that he can't save her, at least not with a bite, anyway. "If you'd just think about that for a second, Liam, you would know that I'm right," Scott continues gently, as though he's trying to calm down a spooked animal, but Liam angrily replies that he is thinking-- about alternatives to saving Hayden's life, naturally. "Liam, it's the supermoon," Scott responds nervously. "It's feeding your anger. It's making you more aggressive." Liam doesn't necessarily disagree with him, but just as a loud rumble of thunder is heard overhead, Liam shouts that it's making him stronger. He backs Scott up against the ledge of the high school's roof before shouting, "You're gonna keep your promise... even if it kills you!" and roaring as loud as he can in Scott's face. NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE. Stop the ride, I want to get off!!! Scott and Liam fighting like this is still too much for my poor little heart to take.
Over at the hospital, the EKG machine that Melissa hooked up to Hayden starts beeping even more rapidly than before, and Melissa squeezes Hayden's hand comfortingly even as she's muttering, "Oh, no, no, no, no..." under her breath. She then looks up at the horrified and worried Mason and informs him that he should probably go get Liam and bring him back. Mason, flustered and scared that he's about to lose his friend, points out that Scott isn't answering their calls (because he can't, both because his cell signal has been jammed by Theo and because he's too busy trying to keep his Beta from killing him even if the call could go through), but Melissa insists that if Liam wants to be with Hayden, he needs to get there as soon as possible, because she's dying and she doesn't know what else to do to save her. Ughhhhhh, why must everything go wrong at the same time in this damn show? For once, can't they just have one calamity at a time?
Anyway, Mason looks unsure, but Melissa orders him to go and find Liam, promising that she'll text him if anything changes, which is finally the kick in the butt Mason needs to run to find his friends. Am I the only one who thinks the fact that they exchanged numbers is super endearing? I just imagined Melissa insisting that every new McCall Pack member and ally give her all their phone numbers so she can get in touch with them in an emergency and so they can let her know if something bad happens to Scott or if her supernatural medical expertise is needed for someone. Man, I love Melissa Delgado McCall so damn much, my heart can't take it.
Back on the roof of the high school, Liam and Scott's battle has started in earnest, with Liam punching Scott in the face and kneeing him in the gut. Of course, just like during Liam's first full moon in "The Benefactor," Scott isn't so much fighting back as he is trying his best to defend himself against Liam's blows while only causing Liam the least amount of harm, because even when one of his friends has literally just told him that he plans to kill him, Scott still can't bring himself to hurt him unless absolutely necessary because he has a heart of gold. The world honestly does not deserve Scott McCall, let's be real here.
Scott finally manages to twist Liam's arm behind his back to give him enough time to remind him that killing him isn't going to keep Hayden from dying, but just then, the wind from the thunderstorm blows the clouds away, revealing the full, bright supermoon overhead that gives Liam the strength to roar and break free of Scott's grip. He headbutts Scott hard in the face and takes advantage of how disoriented he is to punch him in the face multiple times before kicking him in the chin. Scott falls backward against the skylight over the library, and Liam roars ferociously once again before flipping Scott on his back and straddling him to pin him down. Scott manages to flip them over so that Liam is now the one on his back, but Liam instantly hops to his feet and tackles Scott so hard that they both fall through the skylight and land on top of the tables in the library below. Yikes! I'm feeling hella sympathy pains right now.
Over at the hospital, Malia is still locked in battle with Noah the bone-marrow-eating Berserker-Chimera, and though Noah swipes at her with his bone claws like he's fucking Wolverine or something, Malia manages to jump out of their path and grabs him by the wrists to try to restrain him. She then gets him in a choke-hold and pins him against the wall, but Noah breaks free and throws her sideways, causing her to barrel-roll away from him until she's able to get back on her feet. They lunge for each other once again, but just as Noah's about to hit her, Malia dodges and instead sticks her arm out to the side so that she clotheslines him right in the neck with such force that Noah literally backflips before he lands in a heap on the floor. He starts crawling away from her, but Malia, who seems to be a little bit in the throes of the supermoon herself, grabs him by the back of the shirt and pulls him to his feet.
Unfortunately for her, this gives him the chance to draw first blood by scratching her across her right cheek with his claw, and Malia groans in pain as he throws her backward against the far wall. He scratches and punches her a couple more times before throwing her onto the floor, but just when it looks like things are pretty bad for Malia, an Angel of the Lord appears behind her and saves the day! And by "Angel of the Lord" I mean Queen Mercenary Braeden, who uses her modified military-grade stun gun to shock the hell out of Noah and keep him from killing Malia. Noah, having seemingly been shocked back into control over himself, pulls the taser bolt off of his chest and drops it on the ground before he scampers the fuck out of there. Malia, whose facial wounds are healing, looks back at Braeden, clearly stunned speechless by her appearance, but Braeden just gives her an exasperated look and groans, "What the hell was that?" Don't we all want to know! I AM SO HAPPY TO SEE BRAEDEN AND I HOPE SHE STAYS AROUND. But where is Derek? Is he still hunting the Desert Wolf without her? I NEED TO KNOW.
After the break, we meet back up at an impound lot, where Jordan, who is still in a daze, has just broken through the chain-link fence gate. In a hilarious turn of events, Jordan has apparently burned off all of his clothing with his powers except for his jeans, which are now torn-up cutoffs. So he's basically like the Hulk, if the Hulk was a Hellhound, yeah? I mean, both kind of have a supernatural form of multiple personality disorder, since both the Hulk and Jordan's inner Hellhound spirit like to take control and do things that Bruce Banner and Jordan aren't even aware of, so it makes sense. Man, there are so many Marvel references in this show, hot damn! Anyway, he's somehow divined the fact that Sheriff has hidden Corey and Beth's bodies in extra-large coolers in the back of an old van that has been impounded there at the lot. Naturally, Stiles has followed Jordan all the way there, and he watches him in horror from behind a car as Jordan manages to turn on the engine to the van and drive the hell out of there with the dead Chimeras in tow.
Back at the hospital, Braeden and Malia have made their way outside in the parking lot, where they keep a look out for anything strange while they talk about what the fuck just happened. "I don't know what's going on around here, but I'm guessing things are bad again?" Braeden begins, but, of course, all Malia really has to say is, "Very," because Beacon Hills' horrifying drama pretty much speaks for itself. Unfortunately for Malia, Braeden doesn't exactly have great news, either. "Then this is going to sound worse, because your plan..." Malia cuts her off and states the obvious, which is that "she" knows. "Yeah," Braeden confirms. "And she's coming. The Desert Wolf knows you're alive, and she's coming back to Beacon Hills." Well, shit. We all knew this would happen, but it's still terrible timing! My question is, how did TDW figure it out? Did she torture it out of Deaton, or did she just assume he was lying? Or, did she figure it out another way? I mean, "Malia Hale" was totally on the Deadpool list that she presumably got, since Peter said he would send it to her and Meredith followed his instructions to the letter, so I'm guessing it wouldn't be hard for her to get confirmation. Especially considering the supernatural world seems to be pretty damn gossipy, given everything that Belasko, the Dread Doctors, Theo, and Dr. Valack already knew about the pack before even being told anything that was going on.
We then return to the impound lot, where Theo has just arrived after having presumably gotten a text from Stiles about what he saw. Stiles doesn't even let him talk, he just orders Theo to get moving, because Parrish has the bodies and they have to find Scott and tell him what's up, but Theo, being the huge dick that he is, interrupts him and replies, "Stiles, I don't think Scott wants to talk to you right now." Um, fuck you, dude! If he doesn't die by the end of 5B (preferably at Stiles, Jordan, Lydia, or Malia's hands, since we know Scott would never do it) I am gonna be so mad. (Edited to add: Spoiler alert, but yeah, I'm still so damn mad). Anyway, this comment clearly hits Stiles where it hurts, but for once, he realizes that they have more important things going on right now and insists that their fight doesn't matter, because Scott needs to know what's happening. If only Stiles could remember in the next episode when he goes all lone-wolf on everyone instead of letting the people who love him help him out....
So, yeah, Theo once again cuts Stiles off and drops yet another bomb. "Stiles... Scott doesn't want to talk to you. But I think your dad does." He then pulls out Stiles' library keycard, which he could have only had if he went to the Sheriff's station and took it from Sheriff's desk. The sight of it stuns Stiles into speechlessness, and all he can do is glare at Theo in anger and confusion.
We then cut back over to the school library, where Scott and Liam are still battling it out, though Scott still hasn't wolfed-out fully yet to give him more strength, which is no bueno for him, especially given he's already at a disadvantage because of the wolfsbane poisoning and the fact that he has no interest in hurting Liam. They're currently behind the front desk, and Liam has just smashed Scott's head against the desktop. He then throws Scott against the wall and punches him so many times in the face that Scott is just way too disoriented to even try to defend himself. Liam finally stops long enough to throw Scott over the desk and onto the floor by the tables, and he jumps up onto the desktop as Scott does his best to crawl away from him. Unfortunately for him, he isn't fast enough, and Liam grabs a wooden chair and smashes it over his back so hard that it crumbles into pieces. I usually think the MTV-chosen hashtags are pretty dumb, but this scene was tagged #DadVsSon and it cracked me up. Still dumb, but at least a little funny.
After more of the same kind of fighting, Liam gets Scott in a headlock from behind, and Scott finally decides to fight back by elbowing him in the gut so he can break free, though it's clear by the grimace on his face that it pained him to do so. They start wrestling again, and Liam throws Scott across the tables again, but when he jumps up onto one of them to jump down onto him, Scott kicks him in the gut and causes him to topple backward onto the floor. Scott hops to his feet as fast as he can and starts backing toward that wall of windows before shouting, "Don't do this, Liam!" Unfortunately, Liam is still has werewolf roid-rage, so he just growls at Scott when he adds, "I can't let you kill me!", finally catching us up with the Banshee premonition that Lydia had earlier in the day.
He then turns and stands in front of the windows, so that the light of the supermoon is fully bathing him and giving him power as he shifts into wolf-mode. It's actually pretty majestic-- the same song that played when Scott went into full-wolf mode and kicked Peter's ass in "Smoke and Mirrors" starts to play, and only magnifies my love for him more, really. I always see people in the fandom wondering why Scott never uses his Alpha roar to make his own packmates do what he wants, like roaring at Liam to get him to stand down, but I think he really just doesn't want to be the kind of Alpha who wants to force his will on others. Peter forced him to turn when he didn't want to, and so did Deucalion, and he obviously doesn't want to be anything like them.
Meanwhile, back at that impound lot, Theo is pacing around and looking at the ID keycard of Stiles that he lifted from Sheriff's desk while Stiles just glares at him. "Your dad was looking for you, Stiles. He found me instead." As we know, Stiles doesn't fuck around where his dad is concerned, but when he asks where Sheriff is, Theo simply replies that he covered for him (and by "covered," he means, "I lied my ass off to him," natch) before getting into the fact that he had totally taken care of it, and Stiles just fucked up everything by leaving his ID in the hospital trash like a newb. "Guess even the son of a cop can make mistakes," Theo snits. This is the last straw for Stiles, whose inner rage is about to hit critical mass.
STILES: "Did you hurt him?"
THEO: [defensively] "I never lied about why I came to Beacon Hills. I'm here for a pack. I came for the Werecoyote-- the one whose first instinct is to kill. I came for the Banshee-- the girl surrounded by death. I came for the dark Kitsune, the Beta with anger issues. I came for Void-Stiles! That's the pack I want! Unfortunately, that doesn't include Scott."FUCK YOU, DUDE. As I said earlier, anyone who hurts the McCall Pack is on my shit-list forever, at that goes 100-fold when it comes to Scott, because I am ride-or-die for the True Alpha. So, Theo goes on to say that he can tell Stiles' heartbeat is rising, but it's not because he's afraid-- "The Nogitsune is gone, but you've still got more blood on your hands than any of us." DAMN! Harsh toke, bro. Also, how the fuck does he know all of this? Has he been watching them this whole time? Did he get the information from the Dread Doctors, or someone else? (I'm looking at you, Peter Hale-- *Larry Wilmore voice* I haven't fucking forgotten about you yet!) In a pretty badass moment, Stiles just sneers, "I'm about to get more!" and straight up lunges for him.
Meanwhile, the fight rages on in the library at the high school. I would talk about it more, but I'm not a great action recapper and it's still heartbreaking, so just imagine Liam being vicious and Scott trying his best to fend him off without hurting him too badly.
Back at the impound lot, Theo backs away from him and tells him that he'll be happy to tell him where his dad is, but only if he promises not to help Scott. He really did think of almost everything, didn't he? Purposely breaking up Scott and Stiles, convincing Liam to kill Scott to take his Alpha power under the guise of saving Hayden, making sure that Jordan was too busy Hellhound-ing it up and that Lydia and Malia were too busy trying to stay alive to interfere with Liam and Scott's fight, and finally, getting Sheriff injured because he knew that was the only person Stiles cares about more than Scott and that Stiles would choose to save him instead. Unfortunately for him, he only considered the supernatural (or, it Stiles' case, former supernatural) elements, and forgot just how much the humans-- Mason and Melissa, especially-- do to keep the pack safe.
Anyway, naturally, this threat against Sheriff pisses Stiles off so badly that he hauls off and punches him in the face so hard that he breaks his nose. It gives me flashbacks to Ethan and Aiden beating each other up in "Unleashed," because instead of being like, "Omg, you broke my nose!", he's, like, laughing gleefully as nose drips down his face like some sort of masochist. He crows that hooray, Void Stiles is back, which of course pisses Stiles off even more, because the last thing he wants after killing someone is to remember all of the chaos and death he caused when he was possessed. So, when Theo asked him if hitting him felt good, Stiles lunges at him again and tackles him to the ground, causing Theo to groan as his back hits the ground hard. "We won't tell Scott," Theo retorts smugly. "'Cause you can't lose your best friend, right? Even though we both know you never really needed him." UMM FUCK YOU VERY MUCH??? Scott and Stiles are a complimentary pair and they work best at a team. Both are ruled by their brains and their hearts, but Scott's heart is his shining feature, as is Stiles' brain, and they both need each other to balance the other out.
After a little bit more tussling, Theo finally stands to his feet and looks at Stiles, who is staring back at him in loathing, and claims that while Stiles might hate him now, he'll eventually get it, and that the hardest part is yet to come. Why is that, you ask? Because Theo engineered this entire thing so that both Scott and Sheriff are in danger at the exact same time, which means Stiles can only help one of them. And Stiles may love the shit out of Scott, even despite the fight they had, but Sheriff Stilinki is the only family he has left, and which means he's the only person he'd put above Scott, and Theo knows this as well as anyone. Stiles looks as though he's seriously considering adding another tally to his kill count, but in the end, he weighs the fact that Theo has supernatural powers and the fact that his dad is in trouble and immediately scampers off to save him, which is exactly what Theo wanted him to do.
Over at the school, Scott has managed to hop onto the top floor of the library to get away from Liam for a bit, and as Liam stalks up the stairs to come after him, Scott takes the time to remind him that Theo is using him. "He wants you to be the Alpha because he can't take the power from me," Scott explains almost pleadingly. "Only you can. But once he do, he'll take it from you. That's why he wants you to kill me." Of course, Liam is high on rage, first-love-grief, supermoon beams, and Theo manipulation, so he's managed to convince himself that he actually wants to kill Scott and begins to fight him once again.
Cut to the hospital, where Melissa is holding Hayden's hand as the EKG flatlines. Mama McCall looks devastated as the life leaves Hayden's body, and the young girl's head weakly falls back as a mercury tear rolls down her face.
Back at the library, Liam has gotten the upper-hand in his fight against Scott and has tackled him on the staircase, and Scott, who is too hurt and weak and this point, lays motionless as Liam mauls at him in a similar manner to how Cora and Boyd clawed the fuck out of Derek in "Fireflies." Suddenly, Mason rushes into the room and is absolutely horrified by what he sees when he yells at Liam, eventually snapping him out of his rage. When Liam turns to face him, looking as though he almost can't realize what he's just done, Mason asks him what the hell he thinks he's doing and tearfully informs him that he just heard from Melissa that Hayden has died. The fact that Liam missed being with his girlfriend when she died because he was trying to kill his Alpha and second-best friend completely devastates him, and once he's processed this information, he runs away to go find her, leaving Scott seriously injured in the middle of the library without another thought. I love the fact that Mason seems to have an anchoring effect on Liam, but man, this whole thing just hurts my heart so badly. :(
When we come back, Mason is in the middle of helping Scott to his feet and flings Scott's arm around his shoulders to support him while they walk. He's still stunned by what Liam did and asks Scott what the fuck happened, but Scott, bless his heart, isn't nearly as mad at his bb Beta as would be warranted, given the circumstances, and instead just says, "It was the supermoon." He was about to go on with "It's just..." when suddenly, a bitter and scowling Theo storms into the library and cuts him off. "--Bad timing." He looks at Mason with a betrayed expression, even though obviously Mason did nothing but be a good friend here, and sneers, "I mean, seriously-- you couldn't have waited five minutes?" Surprise, surprise! The main villain's evil plan ends up failing at the last minute due to underestimating the Scott McCall effect! Who could have predicted that? And naturally, Theo is like Peter in that in the face of defeat, he gets super impulsive and just fucks himself even worse, because he knows that killing Scott now isn't going to give him anything but enemies, but he can't see past his own anger and resentment to see it.
So, before Mason can really even react to his presence (since, as far as he knows at this point, Theo is a friend to the pack and not a threat) Theo replicates that vicious backhand he used to knock Lydia out earlier, which sends Mason flying to the floor before he grabs Scott by the front of the shirt and continues to snarl at him. I know I talked about this scene in the pre-(ish)-Season 5B discussion post, but since it's a heartbreaking scene and its been a while since we talked about it. I'm gonna recap it anyway. "I should've stayed," Theo snits, although he's mostly just talking to himself. "I should have made sure."
Scott manages to pull off a smug look as he stares Theo in the eyes, and I swear to all the Gods, you guys-- Scott legitimately wants Theo to kill him here, and that's why he finds it in him to be so brutally honest to Theo about how badly he screwed up in convincing Liam to kill him in hopes of becoming the Alpha and taking his pack without them giving him any resistance whatsoever. Normally, he wouldn't care to do this, because he'd be too busy trying to protect his loved ones from whatever the threat is to rub their fuck-ups in their face, but right now, he's all alone-- he's inadvertently driven Stiles away because of Theo's shitty manipulation, his Beta and left-hand-man literally just came thisclose to killing him at Theo's suggestion, Parrish is (as far as he knows) locked up, he has no idea where Kira or Deaton are, nor does he know where Malia and Lydia are, and the latter two have been avoiding him anyway, so aside from Mason, he's an Alpha with no pack at the moment.
So, he literally feels as though he's fucked up everything, and it's like "Motel California" all over again, only this time, in addition to feeling as though his death would make life better for everyone else, he's also just so. fucking. tired. of being constantly being beaten down like this that I genuinely believe he just wants it to be over as well. He's reached the pinnacle of Sam Winchester-level passive suicidal ideation, and it hurts my heart so much. So yeah, by this point in the conversation, the only comfort Scott is getting is that he's at least somewhat confident that, once Theo has killed him, the rest of the pack will figure out what Theo did and turn on him, since even if Scott thinks they hate him, they would never believe him worthy of being killed, and especially not by someone who fucked them over as much as Theo did. So that's where I think Scott's head is at when he starts talking to Theo.
SCOTT: [smirks] "Now you'll have to kill me yourself."
THEO: [bitterly] "They're still mine. Maybe not yet, but they'll come around."
SCOTT: "Not for you. They're not like you. They never will be."
THEO: [angrily] "Why? Because I'm a Chimera? Because I'm not a real werewolf?"
SCOTT: "Because you're barely even human."
Welp, there goes my heart again. BRB while I go put it back together.
...
Okay, I'm back. So, yeah, the fact that Scott has given up like this is heartbreaking enough, but it's the part where he doesn't even fight it as Theo flicks out his claws and buries his fingers in Scott's chest that makes my soul cry. SCOTT MCCALL IS NOT ALLOWED TO DIE YOU GUYS. In my mind, True Alphas are immortal and that power also extends to their packs which means they're going to be hot and alive and together FOREVER AND EVER AMEN AND NO ONE CAN TELL ME OTHERWISE.
Montage time! Theo walks out of the library, leaving Scott and the still-unconscious Mason on the floor as the life (and red Alpha glow) fades from Scott's eyes. Mason slowly recovers from his knock-out and crawls over to him.
Stiles rushes into the abandoned house where Parrish found Belasko in "Creatures of the Night" and where Theo rescued Liam and Hayden in "Ouroboros," where he finds a bloodied Sheriff Stilinski laying on the floor. He's barely conscious as Stiles kneels beside him and takes his bloody hand into his own, and only seems to be mildly aware that his son is even there.
At the hospital, Liam is sitting on the floor with Hayden's now-dead body laying across his lap, sobbing in grief that his girlfriend is dead. After a moment, he hears someone approaching and looks up to find Jordan, shirtless and covered with soot as his orangey-red eyes blaze like flames, indicating that he's in Hellhound-mode. The Hellhound seems to have some empathy, though, because he waits patiently while Liam, knowing what Jordan's about to do, presses a kiss to Hayden's forehead in a silent goodbye. Once he's done, Jordan/the Hellhound bends over to pick her up, arranging her carefully in his arms before he sets off for the Nemeton without another word.
Back at the high school, Melissa is running into the library in slow motion and immediately becomes horrified at the sight in front of her-- Scott laying motionlessly on the floor with his eyes closed among the smashed-up furniture from his battle with the supermoon-raged Liam. Even worse is Mason, who is kneeling next to Scott, staring numbly at his hands, which are covered in Scott's blood from his attempts to resuscitate him. Melissa wastes no time going into nurse-mode and starts doing chest compressions on Scott, and after a moment, the clearly-heartbroken Mason insists that there's no use, because Scott hasn't had a pulse in over fifteen minutes, and there's no way you can bring someone back from that.
In a very uncharacteristically harsh (but also understandable) response, Melissa tells Mason to shut up-- still doing chest compressions all the while, mind you-- before reminding him that Scott isn't "someone," he's her only son and an Alpha, and as we all know, he's much too strong to die like this. She starts doing compressions even harder, stopping only long enough to give him some rescue breaths before resuming them and begging him to roar to kickstart his healing. As the seconds pass, Mason is clearly conflicted-- half of him knows he should keep convincing Melissa that it's over, but the other half of him genuinely likes Scott and wants her efforts to be rewarded by bringing Scott back to life. Melissa, on the other hand, is becoming more and more frantic when her CPR does nothing. Finally, she starts screaming at Scott to roar as she pounds on his sternum with her closed fists, and only after she laces her fingers together, raises her clasped hands above her head, and slams them against his chest do Scott's Alpha-red eyes flick open as the supermoon power rushes through him. Gasping in shock, Melissa and Mason watch as Scott opens his mouth wide and roars at the top of his lungs. YESSSSSS SCOTTIE, THE TRUE ALPHA OF MY HEART, IS ALIIIIIIIIIIVE.
It's been a while since we've checked on Lydia, hasn't it? We cut over to the Dread Doctors' operating theater, where Lydia wakes up on the same filthy tiled floor on which we saw Tracy awaken in "Parasomnia." Her head is understandably achey due to Theo's backhanded slap, but it clears pretty quickly when she realizes where she is and how she got there. Theo stalks toward her in a menacing manner and immediately apologizes in advance for what he's about to do. "I've never done this before," he begins. "And I know how dangerous it is, but it's a risk we have to take."
Of course, we already know that this is bullshit and he's just pretending to act like the good guy here, because he'll later refer to Lydia as "collateral damage," which goes back to what we were talking about earlier with the fact that a person's value to Theo is only based on what they can offer him in terms of power, status, and influence, and the fact that since Lydia was never going to leave Scott and join him, he had to take what he needed from her and then eliminate her from the equation all together. Theo then flicks out his claws, causing Lydia to immediately realize he's about to dive into her mind and begin to beg him not to do it, since, unlike the rest of her pack, she doesn't have the power to heal quickly and since he's never done it before and has no one there to show him how to do it properly, the chances of her getting paralyzed, killed, or otherwise harmed is basically 100%.
Theo, naturally, doesn't listen to her and instead forcefully shoves his claws into the back of her neck, and after a moment, he asks Lydia, who is clearly weakening before our eyes, if he's doing it correctly. I don't think Lydia could have answered even if Theo actually cared to get one, but when he starts getting a flood of her memories in his mind, he confirms that he did-- or, at least, did it well enough, since Lydia is most certainly not walking away from this unscathed. Theo spends a few more moments scanning her memories until he finds what the information he wants-- the location of the Nemeton-- before he rips his claws out of her neck and lets her drop unceremoniously onto that gross-ass floor. Its obvious by the dead-eyed look on Lydia's face that she's been badly hurt by Theo's rough attempts to mess around in her head, but he's too distracted by the syringe gun that he's just picked up to care. He takes it over to that huge tank with the body floating in green fluid and uses a port on the front to draw up a large amount of the green serum into the syringe. THIS IS SO NOT GOOD. NOT GOOD AT ALL.
Over at the McCall House, Scott is laying on his bed, still covered in injuries that have barely begun to heal, looking absolutely wrecked as Melissa gingerly uses a wad of gauze to clean up the blood on his face. After a moment, Scott mutters in a low voice, "I lost, Mom." Melissa, who is once again torn between the mother who wants nothing more than for her son to be safe and happy and the ally who wants to encourage her young general to pull himself up and keep fighting, ends up choosing the latter side, much to the annoyance of many fans (more on that later). "Every leader suffers loss," Melissa begins quietly. "Sometimes more than you think is bearable." Scott isn't buying it and reminds her that this time, he's lost everyone-- in his mind, Stiles hates him for believing Theo's stupid story; Liam made it quite clear that he wanted him dead; Lydia and Malia were avoiding him long before all this happened; Kira left him, no matter how noble her intentions; Parrish can barely control the spirit that is inside of him; and Hayden (and the other Chimeras) died because he couldn't save her from the Dread Doctors.
Despite all this, however, Melissa is sure that Scott will get his pack back, because he has to. When Scott asks her why on earth they'd want to come back to him after everything that has happened, Melissa stares him deep in the eyes. "Because you're their leader. And even when a leader thinks they have nothing left to give, there's still one thing: hope. Give them hope." On the one hand, this makes me so sad, because this has been a theme throughout the series, from when Allison assured him that there was always hope in "Motel California," to when Chris reminded Stiles that he couldn't give up hope in "Lunar Ellipse," and even before Scott became the True Alpha, he was inspiring others to keep fighting and to not give up.
On the other hand, part of me wishes that Melissa-- who literally just resurrected her son who was killed not even an hour ago-- would at least give him some time before pushing him back into the saving-the-world game. I mean, obviously it wouldn't be much of an interesting TV show if the main character just up and quit and just stayed home, ate some home-cooked meals, watched some Netflix, and just took some time for himself to recover, but still, it would have been nice if Melissa would have chosen the motherly side instead of the side that motivates the military members to keep at the mission. Basically, I just want someone to give a shit about Scott's physical and emotional well-being, because it's clear that he doesn't and everyone else is too absorbed in their own shit to pay him any attention.
I mean, even in 5B, people only really care about Scott's death in terms of how it adversely affects them-- Stiles sees Scott's chest is bleeding and simply snits that Scott will heal because he's mad at him and overwhelmed by his father's injury, and when he accuses Theo of killing Scott, it's only with the intention of getting information from him; Liam is more consumed by the guilt of hurting Scott than the fact that he actually died; and Malia is only concerned about Scott's still-healing wounds out of fear that it could make him weak and interfere with their mission. Really, its only Braeden who seems to give a shit when she threatens to kill Theo for what he did to him. So, yeah, while I've given up on the section of the fandom that hates and demonizes Scott in every way possible and despises any time given to him that could otherwise be spent on Stiles or Lydia, I still can't help but wish that the show would actually care about their main character's well-being instead of making us read between the lines to get the gist of it.
But anyway, that's enough complaining from me! So, the scene cuts to the nature preserve, where Theo is leading Lydia through the woods toward the Nemeton with his syringe gun in his free hand. Since Theo's little mind-dig traumatized her to the point of catatonia, she's pretty much just functioning on auto-pilot, which has Theo constantly snapping at Lydia to keep up with him. When they finally get to the magical stump, Theo pushes her so hard she falls onto the ground, but she lands on her side so she can still see the Nemeton and the ten or so half-burnt bodies surrounding it. "Watch this, Lydia," Theo begins as he walks toward the stump with the syringe gun. "You think you lost your mind? Well, watch this!" Gods, he is just so bitter that he lost the chance to become an Alpha that he's trying for a consolation prize, and even though he knows its not nearly as good as the real thing, he's still trying to convince himself that it is, which means he has to also try to convince Lydia that it is. Which, of course, isn't going to work, because thanks to the number he did on her spinal cord, Lydia likely has no idea what the fuck is going on right now.
He takes the syringe gun and injects some of the green serum into Tracy Stewart's chest, and after a moment, she gasps herself awake and looks around in shock, making it obvious that she has no idea how she got there. Next up is Corey, whose shirt is still covered in the modified mercury/black blood combo he projectile vomited up just before he died, and who looks equally stunned to be alive. Theo then resurrects Josh Diaz (the electricity-eating Chimera that almost killed Stiles) and Hayden before he stands back and watches the revenant Chimeras stand to their feet and stare at him in confusion. Hayden, not knowing Theo's evil nature yet, asks him what is happening, and Tracy, of course, didn't have the pleasure of meeting Theo before she died, so she asks him who the fuck he is. Theo then gets a smug-ass smirk on his face as he replies, "I'm your Alpha. And all of you? All of you belong to me." He then turns and walks away without another word, and though his new Chimera minions are still confused, they end up following him out of the woods without question, leaving the barely-conscious Lydia behind on the forest floor. Rude as fuck!
Also, that green serum is awfully impressive, because not only was Hayden dead for a couple hours and Corey dead for a day, but Tracy has been dead for at least two weeks now (I think it's actually closer to three, but I've kind of lost track of the timeline at this point), and Josh has been dead for over a week. Had I not seen the rest of the season, I would have wondered why the Dread Doctors didn't just give all of the failure Chimeras the green serum to fix them, but now we know that 1) they were looking for a specific kind of Chimera to hold a specific spirit, so the others were basically worthless to them, and 2) that green serum was keeping them alive, so it makes sense that they wouldn't want to waste it on a bunch of teenagers who, as I just stated, have no value to them whatsoever.
Finally, we return to tunnels under the water treatment plant, in a somewhat cleaner room off of the operating theater, where the Dread Doctors are staring at a wall right by the metal staircase. After a moment, The Surgeon pulls out his sword-cane, whose handle has been forged to look like a hammer, and uses it to crack the tiled wall, crumbling the entirety of it until he reveals a fresco painting underneath. What is the painting, you ask? Well, it is two warring creatures, both of whom are terrifying-- one looks kind of like Peter when he was an Alpha, and the other looks like another canine creature who is burst into flames. Since the Dread Doctors then start to chant "La Bête. La Bête. La Bête," it becomes obvious that the painting is of the Beast of Gévaudan fighting the Hellhound. HOLY SHIT. Also, not to humble-brag or anything, but in "Condition Terminal," I pointed out that Stiles had been looking at the Bestiary on the Berserker and La Bête du Gévaudan pages and wondered aloud if they would end up being important, and it turned out that I was right! Glad to see my inane attention to detail comes in handy sometimes!
Okay, ya'll, now that I've got this done, we can move on to discussing the rest of 5B before the next (and final, WAHHHHH) season begins! Hope you enjoyed! If you have any remarks or observations about this episode that you'd like to share, or suggestions about what you'd like to see in the upcoming recaps, leave a comment below and let me know what you're thinking! <3
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