At the end of the midseason break everything was terrible. Everyone was dying, sick, sulking or angry with everyone else. It was messy and nasty and generally awful and very very sad.
First and foremost among the sadness is Sherriff
Really-Needs-a-First-Name Stilinski dying because he’s been attacked by a
chimera and is all sick and awful. This is the saddest thing because Stiles is
in pain and, as we’ve seen before, that means acting that could rip the heart
out the tin man.
Scott was also injured when Liam tried to kill him last episode (because of various reasons but I’m going to go with “Liam is awful”) but he seems to be recovering from that (since he passed out I’m sure there’s some kind of nasty poison at work which will reveal its ugly head later). Faced with everyone either dying or hating everyone else he goes to Stiles to offer to help – relations aren’t exactly good between them (especially since Stiles responds by trying to attack Scott) but they need to find out whatever it was that attacked the sheriff so they can stop him dying, Stiles’s ultimate heart breaking priority
Seriously his “no just me” to the question of whether the
Sherriff has a next of kin? They should weaponise the heart-breakyness of that.
After a brief questioning of Theo (the uber bad guy who
says lots of cryptic ominous things about newly-revealed Hellhound Parrish) they
conclude a new Chimera has attacked the Sherriff and use both good
investigating and Malia (relations between Malia and Stiles are…. Strained and Malia
isn’t talking about her issues with her mother the Desert Wolf) to track down
the chimera Noah. Don’t bother learning his name, he’s another briefly
appearing POC on this show who will end up dead.
They find Noah, and we all pretend it makes sense that a
newly arrived Chris Argent (long
time no see!) is better at holding off the Dread Doctors (worst name EVER) than
werewolves and werecoyotes, but hey it brings the gang together. They do find
the cure which they pass in to Melissa (who is always awesome) who shares it with
Liam’s dad Dr. Geyer (who realises that Melissa knows stuff and this is likely
to become a Thing in later episodes). Sherriff Stilinski is saved!
Which is kind of the turning point of this episode and, I
think, the foreshadowing of things to come. I said at the end of the mid-season
finale that this is the pattern – everything is terribad awful and sad, the
heroes are beaten down. Then they stagger to their feet, pull it together and
unleash the awesome. This is clearly the first step – the Sherriff is saved and
Scott has, tenuously, begun to bring his pack back together.
Of course things are still pretty bleak. Liam is alive.
He’s desperate to find Hayden’s body which leads to an angsty treasure hunt
with Mason. The whole storyline can be summed up with:
Liam: I am a terrible monster who attacked Scott and
couldn’t save Hayden
Sparky: Yes, yes you are
Mason: No you’re not – because I exist only to support
and follow you like a very low maintenance pet.
They do, eventually, find the Nemetom – and 4 bodies.
Only 4 because several of the other Chimeras have been resurrected by forces
unknown to join Theo in his dastardly plan. Part one of which is to have the
newly resurrected Hayden lead the police to the conveniently-shrouded-then-not
Nemeton surrounded by bodies – and basically accuse Liam and Mason of murder
Oh the Manpain
we will have to endure for this. It’s also fragile – We’ve been forced to spend
as much time as we have with Liam because it’s HARD TO FIND THE NEMETOM. Except
when you have non-magical police? Also when, later, Parrish calls Deputy Clarke
she says they’re way too busy to deal with a missing Lydia and his randomness –
but they can follow Hayden into the woods?
Shenanigans!
Which brings us to Parrish who is having sex dreams of
him and Lydia in the shower. I both give a nod to how this sexy dream doesn’t
pander to the straight male gaze as is habitual on TV – but that’s always
something Teen Wolf has done: the men
on the show are generally sexualised more than the women. At the same time I
have to say again that I am not a fan of a policeman in his mid 20s getting it
on with a high school aged girl. Nope nope nope nope and even more nope
He wants to find Lydia which he does – thanks to
Hellhound powers. She’s insensate so he takes her to the hospital where
Natalie, Lydia’s mother, decides to blame her daughter’s condition on all things
supernatural – specifically Stiles. She decides the best way for her to deal
with this is to put Lydia in the most evil, spooky Asylum ever – Eichmen House.
Sadly, she’s not thinking very clearly.
This leads to our future scene with the evil doctor
torturing Lydia until she reveals everything through semi-catatonic flashbacks.
Theo and the Chimeras drop in, slaughtering guards, to get her – but they don’t
want her, they want Parrish the Hellhound
Which is when he arrives burning everything.
Can
Lydia be allowed to do one thing on this show that doesn’t involve being
terribly victimised? Can we have Natalie’s revelation of the supernatural lead to
something more than terribad awfulness? Can we have Kira back? Can we have
Hayden not become a villain? Can we have Melissa be awesome and have more than
2 minutes of screen time? Can we have Malia be a bit more involved? It’s
glaring Teen Wolf, it’s very glaring.
