Starting with a trigger warning for mature scenes and
suicide… this is going to be a rough one.
Stiles and the sheriff drive in very very moody silence,
to a building surrounded by large gates and faces – the emotion, without a
single word, is palpable. Scott arrives hurriedly on his bike trying to find
out why they didn’t tell him. Stiles is going into the mental institution for
72 hours while the sheriff goes to LA to see a specialist about Stiles brain
condition. Staying in the institution – the same place
Burrows was imprisoned – is Stiles’s idea. He’s afraid he’ll hurt Scott and
the others and he asks Scott to make sure, if they can’t find a way to fix him,
that he never gets out.
The place is very grim, very dark and very ominous
(really not very conductive to mental health – personally I’ve found such
institutions to be more bright, white, light and eyeball searingly sterile or
trying waaaaay too hard to be cutsey with a terrifying amount of chintz and
pastels. Grim and dark may be an improvement). As Stiles checks in, the Sheriff
is more and more panicky and clings to any reason to try and stop him – but Stiles
settles him down and they hug in a cloud of powerful emotion.
As Stiles climbs the stairs to his room, a man above them ties a sheet knotted into a noose around a bannister, chanting as he does (“I can swim in the ocean yet still remain dry”). Stiles sees him and runs to try stop him but he’s too late – the man jumps and kills himself. Stiles see the nogitsune in a group of fellow patients.
Time for a meeting – Deaton, Chris (in prison by phone),
Allison, Scott: confirming that the lichen is only temporary (and that Chris
helped Deaton get it); for a shujinda scroll, an ancient scroll from Japan with
knowledge of how to exorcise a nogitsune. They don’t have one but they do know
who last bought it: Kincaid, Katashi
Silverfinger’s assistant (that
would be the silverfinger who is dead and who Chris and Derek were framed for
murdering). Allison has an idea where it may be
But first we check back in on Stiles who is already
trying to break the no phone calls rule and protesting her referring to the
suicide as an “accident.” She threatens him with restraints (which his room
mate, Oliver doesn’t recommend) if he doesn’t go to bed and to sleep. Uh-huh, so
we’ll put this place down as an unethical hell-hole and have done with it. Oliver
is quite casual about the new suicide and talks about them being more common on
a Monday – yet more reasons to leave this place. For additional creepiness, the
place is known as “echo house” because the acoustics mean absolutely everything
echoes
Which is totally an awesome design feature in a mental institution, uh-huh. A restless night follows after which Oliver gives Stiles a tour of the place introducing several fellow patients and their com; apparently the place turns off the phones for 24 hours after a suicide – why to help cover it up? Which is when he runs into Malia – who is apparently a fellow patient. How promptly punches him, this seems to be a habit of hers. He’s pinned by some orderlies who rush in – over a window into the basement which he remembers from when he went wandering (and where the kanji self symbol is still present). This distraction is noticed by Ms. Morrell (Deaton’s sister, fellow druid, school guidance councillor etc etc) , who apparently works there – and apparently isn’t dead.
She’s also leading the group session, now with a less
violent Malia – and Stiles keeps seeing the nogitsune which makes it really
hard to focus on Ms. Morrell. As he rubs his neck in ever growing stress,
markings appear – and Ms. Morrell calls a break. Alone with Stiles she calls
the marks Lichtenburg figures apparently from the poison (though it’s unusual)
and when they disappear the nogitsune will be back in charge. Sleeping will
also accelerate the process so noooo sleep; have some wakey wakey pills. And if
Stiles’s friends don’t find a way to cure him, she will kill him; this is Ms.
Morrell after all, she exists to maintain the balance (though she has very odd
ideas about what that means – stopping nogitsune good for balance! Helping
Deucalion, also good for balance. For some reason.).
Derek and Chris are in prison and Derek uses his
super-hearing to discover all the evidence is being moved from the police
station since it was just bombed. And they discuss the biggy – how responsible
is Stiles for the deaths and what should they do about it, referring back to
Jackson as Kanima, being used to kill people and Nordic berserkers possessed by
bears (including a teenager who got his hands on a bear possession cloak and
Chris had to kill him). Ultimately it comes down to “should we kill Stiles for
the greater good?” It all depends on how much of Stiles is left and how much is
the nogitsune.
Anyway, the evidence being moved means that the evidence
can be stolen and a) do some damage to the case against them name and b) find
the scroll hidden in Katashi’s lock up.
These means Lydia planning to hit the armoured car full
of evidence. Honestly, if I learned Lydia were plotting against me I’d just
hand over whatever they wanted and give up. Especially since she’s backed by
Allison, Scott and the Twins. Kira drops in on Scott and also wants to join in –
because her magic powers come with magical katana skills, apparently.
All of that lovely planning fails, alas, because Kincaid
has already hit the armoured van using a much less elegant but effective plan –
knock the guards unconscious. They hold him at bow point, they want the
silverfinger (where the scroll is hidden). So does he – it’s worth $3,000,000
apparently. Kira leaps on his back and he doesn’t even flinch – mental note,
petite women jumping on top of huge men is not an effective combat strategy.
Kincaid goes wolfy – another blue eyed beta.
Kincaid’s side apparently beats Scott being an Alpha;
even Kincaid is surprised at what a weak Alpha he is (what happened to the Alpha
roar, Scott?). The Twins enter the fray though and they’re bigger and much much
better at fighting together (points to the choreographer for this scene)
Scott refuses to let the twins kill him though and claims
the scroll. He tells them “we’re here to save a life, not end one” while
Kincaid looks up almost in awe
Back in the mental instution, and death threats aside,
Stiles decides to go exploring and the helpful Oliver tells him that to get
into the basement he needs a key from Brunski the head orderly. But that would
mean tricking him.
Not a problem for the fox man. But going into the bathroom
to take his pills throws him when he finds Malia naked and showering (lots of
Stiles nervous babble) – she’s quite unconcerned and is using the men’s
bathroom because she thinks the water is hotter in there (since she’s spent the
last few years as a coyote, nudity doesn’t bother her – but lack of fur and
being cold does). Also the reason why she’s not Stiles’s biggest fan? She was
quite happy as a coyote and her new reality of having to tell her dad how she
killed her sister and mother by almost trying to eat them on a full moon is
just not very much fun. She wants to change back – and Stiles decides this is
an excellent time to recruit her to find the keys (hey he knows some
werewolves, maybe they can help her shift again)
Plan is implemented, using Malia and Oliver as a
distraction Stiles gets the keys. Alas the plot fails because no-one has the
key to that room, as Brunski explains when he catches Stiles. Which ends up
with Stiles being locked in a private room – and his wakey wakey pulls taken
before he is sedated. Which is not a good thing. Stiles, you had ONE JOB, now
you’ll have pissed off Ms. Morrell.
He has a dream of being stuck in a lawyer begging to be
let out while the nogitsune hammers to be let in – until Malia wakes him up
(she has lock breaking super strength) she has a plan B – they can get to the
basement through the closed units where the “psychos” are kept.
This is a bad plan. A very bad plan. You don’t want to get in the basement that much.
Still they get through without problem and arrive at the “self”
kanji. They find a lot of paperwork back to when the hospital was even worse
than it is now, this leads to hand holding for the super cold Malia and then
kissing and then making out; then she says she wants to try something else and
takes off her shirt; at which point we have a fade to black (or cut from the
making out to another scene)
Before returning to grinning, spooning and inspiration! The wall is hollow behind the kanji. Stiles bashes it open and behind which is a body – the nogitsune, complete with bandages. Malie pulls a paper (photo?) out of his pocket we don’t see and Stiles insists they have to get it to Scott – right when Oliver arrives and tases them both, sedates Malia and restrains them. He also has power tools and wants to play with them to let the “evil spirits out”.
He also coughs up insects and blood which is all kinds of nasty; the nogitsune appearing to tell them he’s adopted Oliver as a “Renfield”. The nogitsune makes a deal – let him in and Malia will be allowed to live; as Oliver is ready to drill into her skull, Stiles agrees…
EVIL STILES IS BACK! And capable of ripping restraints
apparently. He knocks Oliver out (or maybe more?) and gets to look evil at the
cameras for a bit.
At the prison Chris meets his lawyer – it’s the Hunter
woman who was having fun torturing Peter and Derek; I wondered what happened
to her. Also apparently Chris is short for Christophe. Back off from the
extraneous storyline, Teen Wolf. She’s
here to talk about the code which Chris is no longer a big fan of.
And the gang get the scroll to Deaton who finds himself
right at home because the scroll is CRYPTIC and in a language he isn’t fluent
in – he gets that to expel the nogitsune they need to “change the body of the
host”. How do you do that? Scott goes
with “werewolf bite.”
At the mental hospital Malia is released to go looking
for Scott – and Ms. Morrell tells her exactly where to look and she heads out –
showing blue beta-eyes as she does.
This is my standard weekly awe over the quality of the
acting in Teen Wolf. It actually
makes me wonder about some of the other shows I don’t rate so highly, if they
had a cast (and it is a cast – because while there are individuals who are truely
awesome, there’s no-one on this cast who isn’t excellent) could they elevate
their shows as much as this? I think there’s only one show with better acting I’ve
watched and that doesn’t count
because it’s Orphan Black and Tatiana
Maslany has some terrifying acting mutant super power.
The mental hospital… is awful. It’s a throwback to the
50s with no procedures and... yeah just awful. The setting, the creepiness, the
ridiculous echo, the darkness of it all, the complete lack of anything
resembling ethics, sedating people against their will who aren’t even agitated (which
makes no sense, even if the orderly is a sadist it’s not very sadistic of him) –
I want some explanation as to why this place is so damn bad.
Also why do shows that take place in mental hospitals
only ever use the actual mentally ill as background wallpaper for the sane-but-wrongfully-restrained
hero maybe with the odd violent insane person to act as a minor villain?
Personally, I also think it’s a bad idea in terms of keeping Stiles away from hurting people (some chains and a 24/7 werewolf guard would be a better option than a building full of vulnerable adults) so at least part of his motive must have been investigation.
I am bemused at Morell being there but hey, she’s alive
so I’m going to give it all a pass. Also that actress is sacrificing virgins or
something because she NEVER AGES! Never mind Urban Fantasy, I think Bianca
Lawson may actually be a vampire.
Kira Kira Kira… part of this show and Kira is very good,
she’s a great character, there’s a real attempt to make the Japanese mythology
have depth and for Kira and her family to be full characters that works really
well. Then there’s yakuza and Kira randomly knowing martial arts – seriously,
magical katana skills. It does a good job and then goes too far, pulling in all
kinds of stereotypes that add nothing especially when they’ve already got a
solid base.
Peter may be Malia’s father, we have this other pack of
Hunters running round, Malia has her own issues… careful Teen Wolf too many storylines spoil the show. That being said, I want
to see more development of Malia to see how much she has grown as a coyote…
especially if she and Stiles are pursuing any kind of relationship.
As for the main plot – all my theories are shattered I’m just watching each week waiting for what comes next
