Title Chaos Rising

What Happened? Derek, Isaac, Scott, Stiles, and Peter try to figure out where Boyd and Erica are being kept and how to save them, while Allison researches the symbol that is formed by the bruises on her and Lydia’s arms. Their efforts lead them all to a closed down bank in Beacon Hills, where a showdown occurs that will change things for everyone.

Favorite Quotes
“What do you think you’re gonna do, Derek, you gonna punch through the wall?”
“Yes, Stiles, I’m gonna punch through the wall.”
“Okay, big guy, let’s see it, let’s see that fist. Big old fist. Make it, come on. Get it out there, don’t be scared. Big bad wolf, yeah, look at that.” (Stiles and Derek)

“Do I have to remind you what we’re up against here? A pack of alphas, all of them killers. And if that’s not enough to scare your testicles back into your stomach, try to remember that two of them combine bodies to form one giant alpha.”
“Can someone kill him again please?” (Peter and Stiles)

“I can’t take waiting around like this, you know, it’s nerve-wracking. My nerves are wracked, they’re severely wracked. Wracked.”
“I could beat you unconscious and wake you when it’s over?” (Stiles and Peter)

“Why did they wait for the full moon, huh? Why not just kill them whenever they want to.”
“Maybe they think it’s poetic.”
“They already had three full moons to be poetic.”
“And here you’ve only had one full hour to be so annoying…” (Stiles and Peter)

“They’re the lions. They’re the starved lions and you and Derek just stepped into the colosseum.” (Peter to Scott re: Boyd and Cora)

My Thoughts Wow, was this an intense episode! I really, really enjoyed it. It brought not only the intensity and tension that Teen Wolf is so good at, but it also brought the sass and the funny moments as well as some big twists.

The first main plotline was that of Derek, Scott, Stiles, Peter, and Deaton trying to help Isaac access the memories hidden from him by his encounter with the Alpha Pack, and then all of them (except Deaton and Isaac, who is probably recovering) coming up with a plan to get Erica and Boyd back.

The planning for the rescue of Erica and Boyd was really interesting to me, because I think it shows off just how the dynamic between Scott and Derek has shifted a bit. They’re still the same people in many ways, Derek wanting to jump first and ask questions later (especially when it relates to the safety of his pack), and Scott wanting to think about what they’re heading into, though he will back Derek up if he needs it. But this time, their interactions are much less antagonistic – Derek doesn’t yell at Scott about moving too slowly or wanting to think it through, and Scott doesn’t yell at Derek about his choices being horrible ones or about Derek not trusting him. They are, in fact, working as a team, and it is so nice to see after two seasons of being at odds with each other.

Possibly my favorite thing about all this planning was that it put Derek, Stiles, and Peter together in the same room, and the amount of sass going on in that room was delightful. So much sarcasm and banter, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Another plotline this episode was about Stiles’s friend Heather being kidnapped from her own house. This scene has me wondering – is this not the work of the Alpha Pack, but a second “baddie” for this season? In Season 2 they had two bad guys to deal with, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Jeff has two (or three) in line for this season as well. My guess would be that this is something else altogether that we haven’t gotten many clues to yet. The scene of Heather’s actual kidnapping shows bottles breaking with no apparent cause, and then Heather being pulled out of the room through the window by some force that is unseen to the audience or invisible. This is quite strange, as when Stiles gets back to the wine cellar, there is no evidence of broken bottles, and everything seems just as he left it except for one of Heather’s shoes on the floor. Could she have been hallucinating somehow? She obviously was actually kidnapped (or killed, etc.) by something, but perhaps this new second supernatural big bad has the ability to cause people to see things that aren’t actually happening. Ghosts? Some other mythological creature? Who knows, only time will tell.

Allison’s story arc this episode was focused on her research of the symbol the bruises on her and Lydia’s arm formed. I liked seeing that Allison was curious here and wanted to know more, and that she was smart enough to figure it all out on her own, didn’t need any help from anyone else, and wasn’t afraid of going off to investigate on her own (though I do wish she had thought about bringing at least one person for backup when heading into the bank vault, where literally anything could have been awaiting her).

The whole sequence of events that created the big showdown at the bank was the intense ending to this episode, and wow did it deliver a few shockers.

First off, we saw Allison discovering Erica’s dead body, which I think will haunt her (and us) for a long time. I personally am wondering how Erica died when she does not appear to be cut in half or severely harmed, other than her pale white skin and general sense of her body rotting. Starvation? Wolfsbane poisoning? Something else? Hopefully we’ll find out soon.

The next twist we saw was the discovery that the girl with Boyd was Cora Hale, Derek’s little sister, who he had believed was dead until now. This obviously had a huge emotional impact on Derek (and, to be honest, on me!), and will likely continue to do so, since now he will not only have his Betas to look after, but his little sister as well. He finally has a family member (who did not betray him; Peter doesn’t count here) alive, someone he can care about and who (I assume and hope) cares about him. While I hope that having his sister around will be good for Derek, I can only imagine that the Teen Wolf crew has more pain in store for him in the future, likely involving his baby sister, and I will likely cry rivers of tears.

The other big twist was Morrell’s involvement in the events at the bank. While her involvement in the supernatural in general is not a surprise, since we saw near the end of last season in cryptic conversations with Deaton about events to come, seeing her actively working with Deucalion against Derek is very interesting. However, Morrell did tell Allison to come out of the closet only when she heard the fighting start – possibly purposely leaving Allison there to break the mountain ash barrier she created, and to help out Scott and Derek while still maintaining her own standing with Deucalion. For now I’m personally going to classify Morrell as a Severus Snape (from Harry Potter) type character – someone who is, generally, on no one’s side but their own, and will be loyal to whichever side benefits them the most at the time. She’ll be a character to watch for in the coming episodes, and I am very curious about her backstory now!

The episode left us on two major cliffhangers. The first, in which Derek tells Scott to tell Allison the truth about her mother and Allison, looking shocked, asks Scott to explain. The second is where we see a brief clip of Lydia, seemingly haven fallen asleep upright, beginning to scream and writhe about in her bed. While undoubtedly Lydia’s screaming has something to do with her immunity and the continuing question of what, exactly, she is, it is unlikely to be resolved right away. The confrontation over Allison’s mother, however, should be shown to us in 3.03, and will likely be hard to hear for poor Allison, who was just beginning to start to recover somewhat from the events of the past year. I can only hope she rebounds from receiving this information quickly.

Other Notable Things
• School Shenanigans: Scott noticed the Alpha twins at school, though he seemed to not be able to quite pinpoint what was happening exactly – he just knew that something was off. I’m guessing he’s going to figure that out sooner rather than later, which should create some interesting school scenes.
• Danny: Danny’s back! We got a few scenes with Danny tonight and he was his usual delightful self. Can’t wait to see more of him in the episodes to come.
• Risk and Reward: Speaking of returning characters, we finally got a glimpse of Coach Finstock tonight, and he was as hilarious as usual. The inclusion of a Greenberg reference along with Coach’s other jokes made me quite happy.
• Deaton: Once again, Deaton knows quite a bit about how to do things that Derek and Peter have no clue about. Every time we see Deaton I get more and more curious about his backstory, and hopefully we’ll learn more this season.
• Scott’s Question: I feel like Scott’s question about the Alpha Pack – Why have the Alpha Pack been waiting until now to make their move, when they’ve been in town for the past 4 months? – is a really good one, and one that we haven’t answered yet. We don’t truly know the pack’s motives for being in town other than apparently wanting to get rid of Scott, and hopefully we’ll discover some more of their reasons for being in town in the next couple episodes.

Episode Title Speculation: 3.03 Fireflies
Fireflies | A soft-bodied beetle related to the glowworm, the winged male and flightless female of which both have luminescent organs. The light is chiefly produced as a signal between the sexes, esp. in flashes.

If we’re thinking about this episode in terms of the animal of a firefly, fireflies are most well known for the light on their tails. If we take into account that the light is a signal, then perhaps this episode could be dealing with communication between all of the players in this struggle.

Fireflies are also bright, luminescent insects, and we all know something else in our show’s world that is also bright and in the sky: the moon. We know the full moon was extremely relevant to the plot of this week’s episode; maybe it will be next week as well, when Boyd and Cora have been set free to rampage the town under the moon’s influence.

And, of course, we could simply have a scene in which one (or several) of the characters has a romantic night out wherein fireflies will be a part of the ambiance.

That’s it for this recap! Let me know what you all thought about this episode! What were your favorite scenes, and were you shocked by any of the twists this episode revealed? Tell me your thoughts in the comments below!