Another week means another Moonday, and this week’s Teen Wolf was actually not half bad. Weird dreams, Shakespearean-inspired plots, and lots of relationship drama abound below the cut (along with spoilers, obviously).
This week Scott and his pack have decided it’s time to try to draw the Benefactor out. To do this, they go full supernatural Romeo and Juliet, using an old kitsune trick that makes Scott dead to both the eye and to medical technology for a short period of time. They tell the Benefactor that they can’t give him visual proof of Scott’s death and that he needs to come to the hospital to verify for himself, and then settle in to wait.
Scott spends this interval in a deep trance having a looping dream in which the dead mouthless assassin repeatedly kills Liam, while encouraging Scott to assist him. Scott is deeply concerned over the course of this episode that his werewolf features are becoming more pronounced, and clearly fears that he is becoming more animalistic and violent, and so continues to reject the assassin’s urgings. Right before he wakes from the dream, however, Scott gives in and takes the tomahawk, brutally tearing into dream-Liam with it.
Meanwhile, Malia, who’s still off on her own after running away from Stiles last ep, breaks back into the Hale vault and discovers her adoption records in the safe. Peter shows up, and they have what counts for a heart-to-heart when one of the people conversing is a nasty heartless bastard. Apparently Peter has been looking into Malia’s past, and it appears her real mother was a werecoyote too, although Peter hasn’t been able to find her yet.
As the clock ticks down to the time they’ll have to wake Scott up again, the hospital, non-shockingly, comes under attack. Except it isn’t the Benefactor charging in; it’s Kate. She and her Berserkers tear through several people, critically injuring Kira’s mom in the process, and she storms into the morgue. However, Chris somehow manages to convince her that they’re in the middle of something and that everyone will be better off if she skedaddles.
By the time Scott wakes up, the Benefactor hasn’t shown, and the hospital is once again a shambles. Mrs. Yukimura is airlifted to a trauma center, and the rest of the gang regroup. Undeterred by the Benefactor’s no-show, Scott points out that that, in and of itself, is a clue to their existence: if they didn’t show, it means that they can verify if someone’s dead without needing a visual, and that they’re probably some sort of banshee-esque creature themselves. Cut to Lydia, who’s still sitting alone in her family’s lakehouse. Her mom shows up and they talk about Lydia’s grandma, who apparently died in Eichen House after Lydia’s father committed her for hearing voices. I say apparently because when Lydia opens the urn that’s supposed to be filled with Grandma Martin’s ashes, it only contains mountain ash. Could Lydia’s never-before-mentioned, probably-a-banshee grandmother be the mysterious Benefactor? Signs point to maybe.
So the episode started out with Scott’s father reporting the circumstances under which he killed the proctor-cum-assassin from last episode, and how it was necessary for him to use deadly force. Throughout the rest of the episode we are confronted with Scott trying to understand this idea. When is it necessary to kill someone? Is there a situation where killing someone is the right thing to do? This is further complicated by his fear of becoming a monster inside and of losing control to the wolf, and his genuine belief that everyone has redeeming qualities and can be saved. I hope that Scott’s character arc the rest of this season doesn’t involve him becoming a murderer. It’s so easy to kill people; it’s the heroes who want to save people who are more interesting. (At the same time, though, it is way past time for Peter Hale to die, so if Scott has to kill someone, I know who I’d pick.)
Lydia was barely in this episode, which was a damn shame, but what small part she had was jam-packed with plot reveals, all revolving around the previously unknown banshee heritage of the Martin family. Not only was her grandmother’s cremation urn filled with mountain ash, which I can only guess she left for Lydia as a way to protect herself, but it turns out the whole cabin is built from mountain ash. On one hand, this suggests that Grandma Martin was well aware of the fact that she was a supernatural being and not suffering from a mental illness, since she knew about the protective properties of the ash. Yay for more cool potentially-not-dead supernatural old ladies! On the other hand, I’m so incredibly confused about the mountain ash. If the whole lakehouse is built out of mountain ash, how have any of the werewolves been able to even go in it, let alone use it as their full moon base camp? That doesn’t make any sense at all.
Derek spent the whole episode cooped up in his apartment, where Braeden tended his wounds, taught his ever-weakening, dewolf-ifying ass to use a gun, and was generally affectionate and flirty. Obviously, this leads to a hookup, and, while we do try not to push ships too hard in these reviews, I have to say I’m excited for Derek. Braeden is kind but badass and I think she’ll be a good influence on a guy who, it’s possible, has never had a romantic relationship that didn’t end in pain, betrayal, and/or death.
There were a few plot points that got thrown by the wayside this episode, namely the mystery of Parrish’s identity, and the dire financial straits that all the Pack parents seem to be in these days. While I understand them omitting the former for the purposes of having a focused plot, I feel sort of like the latter has been forgotten. I really wish that Scott would get over his stolen money guilt and give the several hundred thousand dollars under his bed to his struggling mother.
All in all this was a pretty decent episode. The plot moved along nicely, barring a few holes, and there wasn’t anything that really struck me as super problematic—even the kitsune powers Kira used this week weren’t based in some weird and obvious magical Asian trope. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next week—see you all then!
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Hmm…I agree. This week’s episode was a bit better. I like that Scott is battling the “monster” part of himself and contemplating such questions as when/is it right to take another’s life. I think as an alpha he will be placed in such a situation soon. I prefer that as a moral conundrum for him rather that wondering about what to do about the money, whether to give it to his mom or not….I’d prefer if they had hinted at these financial woes in an earlier season instead of introducing it when Scott finds a bag of money. And I do wish they were more consistent. The holes in the plot makes me so confused.