by Dianna Berrian
If you were craving more shirtless screen time with Peter and Derek, Teen Wolf certainly delivered. Granted, it wasn’t a full episode, but beggars can’t be choosers, right?As the pair are enduring torture of the electric shock kind, we finally see their accented captors. What is it they’re trying to torture out of them, however? The location of la lupa – the she wolf. When they still refuse to answer, an older woman who we can attest to being the leader of whatever kind of group this is punishes Peter into answering by cutting off one of his clawed fingers, leaving him with a sassy suggestion:
“Think about it. I’m only going to ask you…nine more times.”
Scott is doing his Scott thing, running through the woods and almost smacks into Stiles. He takes him to Malia’s coyote den where her coat from the crash is so we definitely know it’s her. They go back to Sheriff Stilinksi to explain in a rather amusing exchange:
Scott: If it was a full moon, and she changed while mom was driving, anything could have happened.
Stiles: Horrible things could have happened. Ripping, shredding, tearing things.
Scott: Which is probably what caused the accident.
Stiles: Think about it. They’re driving. Malia starts to change. She goes out of control. The mom crashes and everybody dies –
Scott: Except Malia.
Stiles: She blames herself, right? Goes off running for the woods, and eventually becomes trapped inside the body of a coyote.
Sheriff Stilinski: That makes sense…IN A CHINESE FOLKTALE!
At school the next day, Scott is showing Allison the GPS image of where they found the den to which she offers a not-so-useful fun fact: coyotes tiptoe. Enter, Kira, mumbling nervously about having more information about the bardo but when she can’t find it in her backpack, father of the year Mr. Yukimura comes to her aid: “Kira. You forgot all that research you did for that boy you like.” Embarrassed to the max! Stiles is still suffering his inability to read and when he’s asked to read in front of the class, he goes into a full on panic attack. Scott volunteers to take him to the “nurse’s office” which is conveniently located in the bathroom. He has to talk Stiles down from thinking he’s dreaming and does so by counting fingers – something about having extra fingers in dreams – and when he realizes he has 10 fingers, he’s okay. After class, the school somehow gets really dark and coyote Malia finds her way in to go after Kira. Kira locks herself in the locker room but the coyote breaks through the glass and pads around the locker room, sniffing around. But not for Kira. It turns out, after Scott comes to her rescue and knocks the lockers down to shoo Malia away, that the coyote was only after the baby doll stuffed in Stiles’ gym locker. The same doll from the site of the car crash.
Back over in Haleville, Peter continues sassing his captor:
“I don’t want to make it sound like we don’t appreciate your hospitality, but do you think you could possibly put that on ice? Maybe something for something for my hand? Extra large bandaid? Perhaps an antibiotic? Ointment?”
Oh you! Suddenly a bout of machine guns go off overhead and dust falls from the ceiling. In walks a black beauty to save the day and she just so happens to be the same one who saved Isaac. She was hired to save him just like she was hired to save Derek too. By whom I wonder? But before they can leave, Derek refuses to leave without “it”. Huh?
Stiles consults with his dad again, letting him know that the coyote is indeed a girl, thanks to Scott’s wolf senses. Thus, we learn that Stiles had the doll from the car and that’s why the coyote was after him. Mr. Tate appears to rip the doll away from him, but as soon as Sheriff Stilinski sees he’s armed, he makes him leave. Dude, what’s your beef? Oh. Right. Your supposed dead daughter is a were-coyote…
Scott, Stiles and Isaac get tranquilizers to put into Allison’s gun from Deacon. Isaac begs the question on everyone’s mind: “How do we turn a coyote back into a girl when she hasn’t been a girl for 8 years?” Apparently, Scott can do it the same way Peter made him turn by howling at him. All he needs is a real alpha to teach him not to have performance issues. And while the twins aren’t alphas anymore, they can still teach him. Too bad nobody’s seen them for weeks. …Except Lydia.
They meet in abandoned warehouse and immediately start beating on Scott to try to force him into fighting back. “That’s how Ducaleon taught control.” The beat him senseless while taking turns telling him:
“You turn, and then you kick our asses. And then you roar. You don’t think you can let go of this? You think you’re gonna hurt us? Come on, McCall. Give it your all. We can always heal. You’re an alpha. You wanna roar like one, you gotta give in full throttle. You gotta be the monster. Become the beast, become everything you’re afraid of. That’s what gives you power, gives you strength. Giving into it doesn’t make you the bad guy so long as you can control it. Sometimes control is a little overrated.”
“What if I can’t control it? What if I can’t turn back?”
“Then it takes over. You become Malia. You get further and further away from being a human. You turn into an animal. Or worse, you turn into Peter.”
That gets him to start to fight back. A little.
Meanwhile, Isaac and Allison share a moment when she has strange hallucinations about her own autopsy and Kate. Isaac calls her name and she’s back in reality with her gun aimed at him. Oops! They get close and he holds her shaky hands, offering to help her. Aw, ain’t he just a doll? Ooh. Probably shouldn’t mention dolls.
Speaking of which, while the Sheriff is scolding Mr. Tate for his excessive usage of bear traps in the neighborhood, they notice the broken screen window and learn the coyote is near. Tate sees her outside, guarding the baby doll and aims his shotgun at her. Sheriff Stilinksi runs to stop him but when he reaches them the coyote, the doll and Mr. Tate are gone.
The group drives out, on a mission to turn coyote Malia back to human. Allison has her gun, Scott has his wolfy senses, Stiles has his brains, Lydia her good looks, and Isaac? Isaac has a scarf. They go their separate ways – Allison and Isaac, Stiles and Lydia, and Scott is the cheese that stands (or in this case runs) alone. The Sheriff calls to alert Stiles that the coyote took the doll again and that there are traps all over the woods, near the trail and near the car crash. He warns him to stay out of the woods but it’s a little late for that. That’s when Stiles has an epiphany – “It’s the doll. It’s the doll? Why would it go for the doll?” He shows Lydia a picture of the doll and realizes it’s not Malia’s doll, it’s her sister’s. “I know what she’s doing. I know where she’s going.” Well, what?!
Simultaneously as that’s going on, Isaac and Allison are running through the woods following the sound of the shots Mr. Tate is firing when Isaac gets caught in one of the traps. Allison can see Tate and Malia through the scope of her gone but she’s shaky with her aim. Isaac tells her to hit Tate with the tranq, and with a little chanting to calm herself, her aim steadies and she hits.
Stiles calls Scott’s to inform him that Malia’s just trying to bring the doll back to the car, like flowers to a grave. And as he’s telling Scott’s voicemail, Lydia steps on a trap. If she moves, it closes. She tells hi to look for the warning label to figure out how to disarm it, but, uh, Stiles is still a tad illiterate. Cue all the Stydia feels in the world in 3…2…
“You don’t need the instructions. When is the last time you have ever used instructions, am I right? You don’t need them because you are too smart to waste your time them, okay? You can figure it out. Stiles, you’re the one who always figures it out. So you can do it. Figure. It. Out.”
And when he does, she nearly jumps into his arms. All who ship Stiles and Lydia, share a moment of silence. Oh who are we kidding?!
Scott continues running after Malia as he transfigures into werewolf form. He has a face off with Malia and successfully roars her into submission and back into the girl she is. They bring her home to Mr. Tate and all is right in the world. Stiles can even read the “objects appear closer in mirror” message on the sideview of his dad’s car. Hooray!
But before I go, let’s go back to what it was that Derek and Peter weren’t leaving without. It’s a locked trunk that they can’t seem to touch, thanks to the wood from a rowan tree. So their nameless rescuer opens it for them. But alas, mountain ash fills it. Someone really doesn’t want them to have it, huh? She digs in and all we are shown is the end of cylinder shaped tube with the symbol of their pack on it. Curious.
Wait, there’s one thing more! On the surface of the Nemeton there was growing a small weed. Someone plucked it out and out flies a swarm of glowing insects that magically form shadowy silhouettes. Why is it this show always leaves you with more questions than answers?
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