And the suspense just keeps on building!
Once again Teen Wolf blows our socks off with a great episode and an even greater cliffhanger.
Read on for our recap of “The Fox and the Wolf”.
The episode starts off with a flashback to 1943 where two soldiers are getting ready to burn a pile of dead bodies in the middle of a field at nighttime. One soldier is trying to make conversation, asking the other riddles, but the other soldier doesn’t want to be bothered. When the Nogitsune shows up unexpectedly, it doesn’t matter anymore. He kills them both.
Kira’s father, Mr. Yukimura is alone in his classroom. When he kills a fly, Stiles suddenly walks in, (he’s still the Nogitsune, remember?) and wants to know where Mrs. Yukimura is keeping her last fox tail, which is in the form of a sword. Her last tail is her most powerful. Mr. Yukimura refuses to give away any of his wife’s secrets, and angry, Nogitsune Stiles brings the dead fly back to life, and sends it down Mr. Yukimura’s throat, eerily and confidently saying, “They always talk.”
Sick from the fly, Nogitsune Stiles made him swallow, Mr. Yukimura needs help. Kira and Scott are looking at photo from 1943 of who Kira believes to be her grandmother, and is the spitting image of Kira, when they go to help Mr. Yukimura by bringing a special mushroom. Scott and Kira are more than happy to help. Not just because it’s Kira’s father, but also because they need to corner Mrs. Yukimura and make sure she’s told all she knows about what’s happening to Stiles. She drops two major bombshells. The first is that the woman in the picture from 1943 is not Kira’s grandmother, but rather Kira’s mother herself. Mrs. Yukimura is 900 years old. The second, is that she is responsible for the Nogitsune.
Mrs. Yukimura pulls out the pieces of a broken sword saying that the blade had been shattered the last time it was used. And the lat time it was used, was on the Nogitsune.
Back in 1943,Noshiko, (Kira’s mom) was living in an internment camp with some fellow Japanese. She would often steal small conveniences and things from right under the soldier’s noses and bring it back to her friends and family. It was risky, and often she would take things that were particularly noticeable, such as aspirin. Still though, even though she was warned to be more careful, she never apologized for her actions, believing that she was taking care of her own. One of the soldiers, a kind medic, helped steer the soldiers away from inspecting the place, and even let a little boy keep a baseball.
Back in the present time, Derek and Mr. Argent are finally free men again, as all charges have been dropped against them, and Sheriff Stilinsky calls them into his office to speak privately. He shows them the scans of his wife’s brain when she was sick, and Stiles scans. They are completely identical. Which is impossible. The Nogitsune has been having fun at the expense of everyone, because as it turns out, this means Stiles isn’t sick at all. Sheriff Stilinsky asks Derek and Mr. Argent for help saving his son. Mr. Argent make sure to use the word ‘trap’ but there is still a clear sign that he isn’t sure that they won’t have to kill Stiles. Regardless, both Derek and Mr. Argent agree to try and help Mr. Stilinsky, try and save his son.
Back in 1943, it is revealed that Noshiko is in a relationship with the kind medic, and his name is Rhys. There are several stolen moments between the two of them where kisses are shared and they laugh, while she teaches him how to speak French. But while they are hiding in one of the garages they see the doctor up to what looks like suspicious activity.
The residents of the interment camp are becoming sick with pneumonia. It is later revealed that the doctor has been selling the medicine on the black market and there is no longer any medicine to heal the patients. When a little boy finally dies from the sickness, Kira tells them what she knows about what the doctor has done with the medicine. This incites anger in everyone and the Japanese gather outside to storm the doctor’s car, determined to make him pay. Unfortunately, one of the Japanese is a werewolf and when she loses her temper and throws a liquor bottle on fire, it lands on Rhys, Noshiko’s love and he suffers terrible, terrible burns. The rest of the soldiers shoot down and kill the Japanese. Noshiko has been shot many times, and although she appears dead because her heart has slowed, she is not because her kitsune powers are keeping her alive.
Back in the present, Scott and Kira are listening intently to this story, hoping that Mrs. Yukimura will tell them something that will help Stiles. Meanwhile, Derek and Mr. Argent have split from Allison and Sheriff Stilinsky, While Allison and Stiles’ father are in the elevator together, they share a significant moment. Mr. Slilinsky says that he wishes he was more like the others, fearless and unafraid. At this, Allison breaks down a bit, becoming transparent and reveals how truly afraid she is. Mr, Stilinsky stops the elevator and hugs her for a moment, something they both needed, before assuring her that everything would be okay. When his phone begins to ring, he realizes it’s his new security system at his home. When he pulls up the camera, he sees Stiles sitting in his room, looking up and waving.
In 1943, Rhys’ screams of pain can be heard throughout the entire Eichen House, and he dies in aginy, as the doctor has also sold the morphine. When Noshiko wakes up, she’s in a moving truck full of bodies, and sadly next to her is the bandaged body of Rhys. She begins to panic. She is not yet healed enough to get up and get away, or to defend herself even if she could. She is going to die. And she wants revenge on the soldiers who killed her friends, and the doctor who wouldn’t help them to make a profit off the drugs. In desperation, she calls out for the dangerous Nogitsune spirit to take over her body and help her exact her revenge, But, as Mrs. Yukimura explains, Nogitsune are trickster spirits, and rather than taking over her body, it took over Rhys. The opening scene now makes sense as we realize why those soldiers were out there with the dead bodies.
Noshiko rushes back to the Eichen House, but it’s too late. The Nogitsune has already killed everyone. She grabs her blade, and set off to kill it. In the end, with help from the werewolf she is able to kill it, and that is how the sword is shattered.
In the present, Mrs. Yukimura tells Kira that she is a thunder kitsune. She helps Kira use her power to repair the shattered sword, and then offers her he blade saying to belongs to her now, and that the only way to save Stiles is to kill him. And when the sun goes down, the Oni that Mrs. Yukimura summoned, will go after Stiles again. Scott is insistent that there must be another way, and although Kira accepts the sword, she seems completely uneasy about killing Stiles. She and Scott take off to Derek’s loft after Scott gets a text saying that’s where to meet.
At Stiles’ house, Allison, Derek, Mr. Argent, and Mr. Stilinsky are studying a chess board that Nogitsune Stiles left behind. Each character is tagged to a piece, and Mr. Stilinsky reveals that Derek, the king, is one move away from checkmate. The Sheriff seems to pick up on the Nogitsune’s game. He says the Nogitsune is not a killer, that death is just a by product of his sick and twisted game. He says that the Nogitusne is just up to a new trick, trying to tell his sick joke. And that they have to play along. They just have to change the punchline.
After Scott and Kira leave, Mrs. Yukimura pulls out another small, dark blade, her last tail. As she talks to her husband it is revealed that she buried the last living part of the Nogitsune under the druid tree, and that because of Allison, Stiles, and Scott’s sacrifice it had been set free.
The episode ends with the Sheriff entering Derek’s loft to see Stiles.
Hi, Dad.
WHOA. A lot was happening here. There was a ton of emotion. We finally reveal the birth of the Nogitsune. Noshiko called for him out of desperation and anger, and of course her desire to survive. Scott and Kira’s relationship continues to grow stronger, and he continues to stand by her despite her mother’s disapproval because he is a wolf. Of course, the tender moment between Allison and the Sheriff was deep. And finally the sadness Mrs. Yukimura feels for what she has brought about. There wasn’t a ton of action, but the episode was so jammed packed with drama, romance, heartbreak, and sadness, that it was hardly missed. A great episode to kick off the final three episodes of this season, and I have a feeling the crazy stuff’s just getting started.
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