'Teen Wolf' recap: Nobody can hear you scream
Spoiler alert! The following contains spoilers for Monday night's episode of Teen Wolf.
This season feels a lot like Teen Wolf decided to go with possibly the most high-concept premise they've ever had, only to consistently fail to pull it off. They succeed at building tension and invoking an old-school horror atmosphere (almost verging on slasher at some points this season), but have no idea what to do with the villains, or even some of their main characters. The latest episode, "Strange Frequencies," was the most indicative of the problem Teen Wolf has had this season -- building up a whole lot of suspense towards nothing. Every episode acts almost as its own mini-movie, with the group fighting to some climactic fight scene, only for it to be dissolved immediately, with maybe one new twist thrown in. It's frustrating, and to be honest, a little boring.
It's a lot like the ghostly visions we see this episode -- the show makes us anxious and upset about Scott, Lydia or Malia being fatally hurt, only for it to be all a dream. And don't even talk to me about how they're obviously desperately trying to find something for Kira to do. I'd like for once for this show not to hit a big reset button whenever something dire happens.
Kill or be killed
We pick up with Theo's big reveal to Stiles that he knows about Donovan -- not really lending to Stiles deep mistrust of the hot new guy. But Theo spends a lot of the episode buttering up Stiles with hokey stories about his dead sister and calm assurances that Stiles did nothing wrong. While Stiles struggles with his existential guilt (they really need to give Dylan O'Brien more to do than internally angst since he's really the best actor the show has left) Theo convinces Stiles to help him take the body back to the animal clinic so they could find out who's stealing the bodies of the Chimera.
Theo stays to guard the body while Scott and Stiles go to see Hayden, the new chimera, after probably the only scene in this show in which I liked Liam -- in an attempt to convince Hayden that she's in danger, he wolfs out in front of her and she freaks out and punches him in the face. It's moments like these where I see the tiny glimpses of Teen Wolf's old potential: when they balance that bit of wry, silly humor with supernatural teenage angst (I may have also gotten a little pleasure from seeing Liam punched in the face). Teen Wolf too often takes itself too seriously, and now with Stiles sidelined from being comic relief, they really do need to give us some humor every now and then. Like the creator of that show I wax on about all the time says, "Make it dark, make it tough, but then, for the love of God, tell a joke."
Back to the dark and grim -- Theo keeps watch over the body at the animal clinic while Scott and Stiles run off to Hayden. The Dread Doctors show up, allowing Theo to try Hannibal Lectering it up (he doesn't do it very well. Sorry Theo, at least you're pretty) and yell at the Doctors for not keeping him in the loop. As rebellion against the Doctors, Theo stakes out the body with Stiles to find out the identity of the body stealer. Theo talks about his sister (PSYCH HE KILLED HER), and Stiles angsts, but then Stiles' Jeep gets attacked by Parrish, flipping them over and leaving them to burn while he retrieves the body. Stiles is in danger again (cue concerned whimpering), but nothing happens of course, and Theo and Stiles are no more knowledgeable about the identity of the body stealer.
Quality mother-daughter bonding
I've had my issues with Kira before, but it was nice to see the writers somewhat try to flesh her out beyond Awkward Action Girl Who Dresses Like an Asian Schoolgirl (seriously, she owns an inordinate amount of thigh-highs). Her storyline reeks of just giving her more powers to add confict to her and Scott's relationship -- despite never mentioning these powers beforehand. It's sloppy writing and Arden Cho (bless her soul) is not so great an actress that she can pull off such a convoluted storyline.
Kira gets some quality "mother-daughter bonding time" with her sword-wielding mom and almost kills her when the kitsune inside her goes on a death spiral. Kira gets to show some more emotion beyond doe-eyed surprise, but her story is still the weakest part of this episode. I'm still not sure how Kira's story -- which is very grounded in mythology and magic -- is connected to the sci-fi story of the Dread Doctors. I'm curious as to how the show will entwine these two, but for now, they seem very clunkily connected. When Scott and Stiles make a plan to hide Hayden at the school through some sort of electromagnetic shield, Kira opts out until she finds out what's going on with her. And we get another boring montage as Scott and Kira obligingly make out.
Despite her parents' attempts to control the raging kitsune inside her, she disappears, with the acupuncture needles they used on her embedded in the headboard, cryptically spelling out 115.
It's a trap!
Meanwhile at the school, Scott, Malia, Lydia, Parrish and Liam set up their electromagnetic alchemy circle to protect Hayden. While they lie in wait for the Dread Doctors to show up, Teen Wolf: The Next Gen (aka Liam and Hayden) have a cute moment in the bathroom, which is somehow more boring than Scott and Kira's makeout session.
But all those good feelings are quickly killed when Liam realizes that Scott and Lydia meant to set up the school as a trap for the Dread Doctors, with Hayden as bait. After some yelling, Liam is surprisingly OK with this trap, and just makes Scott promise to not let them hurt Hayden -- causing Scott to struggle even more over his hero complex.
A vision of death
http://teenwolf.tumblr.com/post/125810433146/why
Despite their immaculate trap (not really), things start going to hell. Parrish, Malia and Lydia start seeing ghostly apparitions which end with all of them brutally injured (that tongue ripping was so gross, I still have nightmares). Parrish's vision causes him to drive off to get the body at the animal clinic, while the other supernatural teens are all incapacitated by their violent visions.
Scott is the last to get his vision -- following a leash that turns out to be a possessed Kira who impales him and strangles him. This is another frustrating bait and switch that Teen Wolf has pulled off this season: what we were convinced was Kira (she did go missing earlier) was actually just an illusion, and the plot is barely moved forward yet again.
After Scott gets jolted out of his vision of Kira strangling him by Liam's friend, he runs to the locker room to find Malia and Lydia also out of their visions and Hayden and Liam gone. Hayden is captured by the Dread Doctors, about to undergo some awful experiment, while Liam lies helplessly on the floor beside her. The episode ends with Melissa McCall getting home to find a girl dead on her kitchen table with Kira's sword stuck through her stomach.
Despite this big kidnapping and the revelation of the dead, impaled girl at the end, nothing really happened in this episode -- even Sheriff Stilinski and Melissa McCall's cute medical investigation didn't really amount to much. This season, while miles ahead of last season, is still relying way too much on cliffhangers and gross body horror, and it's starting to get old. Do something, Teen Wolf. Make me believe it was the right choice to pick you up again.
Missed last week's recap of Teen Wolf? Read it here.