This week on Teen Wolf, new romances bloom, smokey and the firefly monster give everyone ugly tattoos and Stiles is probably moonlighting as a serial killer. Also, Derek’s apartment gets trashed again, because of course it does, because such is the life of Derek Hale.
During the lead-up to this winter season, one of the things creator Jeff Davis seemed most excited about was getting to air Halloween episodes. Obviously, Halloween is very much in the wheelhouse of a show about teenage werewolves and sexy lizard creatures. Teen Wolf and Halloween are as meant to be as Scott and Kira. They’re just two good things that go good together.
So I was going into this episode with high expectations. First of all, it was going to be an episode where Danny had more than one eye blink of screentime. But the idea of getting our characters together to have some fun between all the life-or-death stuff was much needed.
One of the big problems with the first half of season 3 was that the endless momentum stopped the show from allowing the characters to have any fun. This season, the creative team has wisely course-corrected, and so we get an entire episode of sexy shirtless people in glow paint dancing to electronic music. Thanks for listening, Teen Wolf!
But there are also plenty of quiet moments given time to breath in between all the horror and action. Derek Hale never looks happier than after he scares the bejesus out of some children. Scott stops for a second to take in the fact that his father uses his baby picture as a desktop background. Lydia realizes she wants to be fighting the good fight with her powers, not sitting on the sidelines. And Allison and Isaac continue their endless game of sexual chicken to see who flinches first. All of these are great and often quiet, character-building moments.
Taking time out to let those moments breath doesn’t slow down the momentum of a genuinely enjoyable and creepy episode, either. These black mask-wearing creatures are maybe the scariest monsters the show has introduced yet. We don’t know what they want or why they’re branding the gang, but it’s safe to say they’re probably trouble.
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Scott and Kira Grow Closer
Scott and Kira are being grilled by Agent McCall, who is trying to make sense of anything that happened in the last episode. “So you say you followed a Breaking Bad-ish clue on a blackboard to a power plant where the killer just happened to conveniently electrocute himself? Scott, are you sure you’re not dating one of the X-Men? Because that would actually make more sense.”
The police keep Kira’s phone, which is a major problem because Kira has been taking some really strange selfies. These pictures show Kira engulfed in light, and Kira seems to think the police will assume she’s a monster if they see the picture.
Why wouldn’t the police just assume she was using some kind of weird app to make her pictures look more artistic? Her “terrifying” pictures looked like something a hipster would post on Instagram.
Kira and Scott break into the police office, charge her phone and delete the pictures. I think Kira is officially in the gang now, since breaking and entering is pretty much a right of passage with these kids.
While Kira’s phone takes forever to charge (this is a horrible product placement for AT&T!), Stiles has to distract Agent McCall. He says that Barrow was probably getting his orders to target Kira from inside the school, then he gets real salty with Scott’s dad. It feels like there might be more between the McCalls and the Stilinskis than what we already know.
Later, Scott takes Kira along to the blacklight party at Derek’s loft, like the horrible friend he is to Derek. Uncool, bro. Do you know how long it’s going to take Derek to clean this up? Thank god he doesn’t actually have any furniture or this could have been a real nightmare.
At the party, Kira thanks Scott for everything and holds his hand. Unforunately, this is the exact moment that Scott and Allison have a loaded stare full of longing and angst and ultimately acceptance. So long is this stare that Kira lets go of Scott’s hand and then dies of old age.
Using his alpha vision, Scott sees the lights surrounding Kira, which he later likens to a fox. Kira wonders why he doesn’t seem freaked out by her weirdness, but by the end of the episode she figures out it’s because he has a whole lot of weirdness himself.
Happy Rave-o-Ween!
Danny, my precious snowflake, my autumn flower, has decided to throw an awesome blacklight Halloween party. This is presenting a problem, however, because the power is out all over town. Why is the power being out a deterrent to a party that occurs in the dark? This is not really explained, but the twins decide to come to the rescue by once more co-opting Derek’s loft.
There’s this whole sequence that is amazing, where Aiden mentions that he might know a place to have the party. Right at that moment, Derek is leaving his loft with the most peaceful and zen expression on his face.
“Everything in my life is horrible and I just spent time chatting with my dead mother in wolf form, but at least I have this really nice apartment that is not at all covered in day-glow paint. At least I’ll always have that,” he says, and whistles as he closes his door. Oh sweet, naive Derek.
What’s also great about this subplot is the twins think they can make up for aiding in the murder of an actual human being by throwing a party. Nice try, abs. Try again.
At the party, everyone is shirtless and drunk and hooking up and everything is wonderful. Lydia is the only one unimpressed, as she tells Aiden raves are so ’90s and therefore the opposite of fetch. Being in high school in the year 2014, it makes perfect sense that ’90s raves are a cultural reference Lydia would know.
In another corner, Allison and Isaac continue their game of sexual chicken, this time with the help of paint. At this point, Allison has popped her shirt off nearly as many times as the twins. If you say anything challenging to Allison, she will pop off her shirt and then shoot you in the face with an arrow. I love her so much.
After being attacked by the masks, Derek wakes up and senses a disturbance in the force. Scott picks up his growl, discovering that Derek is both back in town and not too happy to play host to a rave. He throws everyone out of his apartment, quietly mourning the lovely place it used to be without blackened windows and paint everywhere. “I just went shopping at Pottery Barn, you animals!”
Fireflies Attack!
Meanwhile, Lydia is chased outside by the creepy black mask creatures and marked with their symbol. Lydia’s powers are really starting to come into their own and become actually useful, which is a welcome relief. Lydia’s ability to sense the supernatural might be one of the most helpful powers on this show.
The black masks seem to be tagging all of the regulars with some kind of symbol behind their ears. And not just the werewolves, since they also left their mark on Lydia. Currently, Derek, Aiden, Ethan, Isaac and Lydia have the mark. They’re incredibly hard to kill and seem to be made out of smoke, fireflies and my nightmares.
As seen in the beginning of the episode, Argent clearly knows something about them. He even has a shattered black mask in a box. The amazing amount of weird and satanic artifacts in the Argent household really boggles the mind.
But we might never find out exactly what Argent knows, since he staggers into the apartment bloodied and then falls to the floor. I refuse to believe Argent will die, since no one else on the show can wear a deep v-neck like he can.
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Stiles is the Key
Stiles spends most of the episode completely fixated on a key on his keyring. It’s not one of his keys and he can’t for the life of him figure out how it got there. Scott is like, “Whatever, dude, I have a pretty lady in Marvel leggings who is a walking selfie filter. I’ve got bigger things cooking.”
At the party, Stiles hooks up with Caitlyn. In case you don’t remember, Caitlyn popped up last season with her girlfriend when the fireflies were first introduced. Her girlfriend is dead, but apparently liquor and really cute wigs are helping her cope. She tells Stiles she’s bisexual, and before he can answer about his own orientation, he figures out why the mystery key is covered in phosphorous.
He uses it to open up the chemistry lab and quickly realizes that he was the one who wrote the periodic code sending Barrow after Kira. Wait, why didn’t he realize this in the last episode when he was literally solving his own code? He couldn’t recognize his handwriting?
Considering Stiles’ deteriorating mental state this season, it doesn’t seem like a good sign that he’s possibly a murderous mastermind in his free time. This Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde twist portends bad things ahead for our favorite sassy sidekick.
The Shirtlessness Count
Pretty much everyone is shirtless this week. It’s like a very special all-shirtless episode!
The Count: The twins in the locker room, Danny in the locker room, the twins at the blacklight party, Danny at the blacklight party and Allison at the blacklight party.
Best Pecks of the Episode: I have to give this one to Danny, my shining star, since it’s his idea which leads to all this glorious shirtlessness in the first place. Danny gives us so much to be grateful for.
What did you think of the episode? Did it live up to the Halloween hype? Just what is Kira? What’s happening to Stiles? Sound off in the comments!
Teen Wolf airs Mondays at 10pm on MTV.
(Image courtesy of MTV)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
