TEEN WOLF Recap: Friendship is Magic!! And Also Useful! as well as science. (and sometimes magic)

Episode 513 “Codominance”

As I look out my window on the snowy street I can’t help but wonder about life and about how each and every one of us needs someone else or multiple someones to make our lives worth living. Barbra Streisand was right when she said people need people and people who need people are the luckiest people of all.

Or something like that. I’ve always been more of the Bette Midler fan.

This week on Teen Wolf, it was all about the people we need in our lives, and what we do to protect them or to keep them or just to maintain those relationships.

Let’s start with the main story of the week: Kira and the Destiny’s Child style girl group called The Skinwalkers. Kira’s mom (who is also a kitsune) took her out to the desert so she could learn what she needs to learn to control her fox spirit from the skinwalkers, a group of scantily clad women who got makeup tips from Johnny Depp during the course of his acting on The Lone Ranger.

After the initial tussle, where all three skinwalkers attacked Kira and she tried to fight them off with her sword belt (which is a thing) they discovered she was holding back not because she’s afraid of the skinwalkers, but because she’s of something else. Could it be the giant glowing fox spirit inside of her? The one of the Dread Doctors harvested/empowered/stuck a weird syringe in her eye and jiggled it around to create? Maybe so…

Anyway, the skinwalkers decide to take Kira on as an apprentice. Her mom says either she will spend the next months/years/decades learning to control her kitsune powers from the skinwalkers or she will become one herself!

And Kira was all like: “Wait, I have an algebra test next week I can’t miss that so that I can go on a vision quest for 50 years! Also I have a beautiful hairless werewolf boyfriend I want to keep in touch with!!”

And Kira’s mom is all like: “Kitsunes are basically immortal! We live for one thousand years and then become gods! So you’re a little high school trivialities can wait until you can master your own damn powers.”

Personally, I feel like Kira’s mom should have started her training a little bit earlier. You don’t wait until your daughter is 16 years old to tell her she’s an immortal fox spirit. You tell her that when she’s like, seven, and Jedi her until she’s a Master at, like, twelve.

But I digress. Her mom is all with the plan of either Kira spending decades learning to master her powers or becoming a weird makeup crusted dust-covered lady in the leather bikini out in the desert. So Kira kind of shrugged it off and decided she might as well give it a go.

Ultimately, Kira has to battle Greg the bunny from Donnie Darko out in the desert wastes and she ends up using the kitsune spirit to defeat him, but not in the way that the skinwalkers like, so they decide they’re going to keep her and make her one of them, at which point Kira’s mom is all like: “Wait. I never get to see my daughter again? I am NOT happy with this plan!” And decides to kick a little skinwalker ass herself.

Luckily Scotty and Stiles show up just at the right moment for Scotty to use his alpha-hairless-werewolf powers and roar the skinwalkers into submission. Everyone gets back into Stiles’ Jeep — which somehow survived being rolled, set on fire, and exploded at the beginning of season 5 — and drive back to Beacon Hills together. At which time, Kira’s mom realizes that Kira’s love for Scotty might just be what saves her from her evil kitsune side after all.

And what about Scotty and Stiles? Well, they are still on the road to healing for their breakup earlier this season. Stiles tells Scotty the whole story about how he maybe-sort-of-accidentally-on-purpose-self-defense-murdered that one guy who was a chimera but also a psychopath and also going to killed his dad.

And Scotty is all like: Yeah I understand what self-defense is. I wish you would have told me that before!
And Stiles is all like: Yes but Theo was manipulating the whole situation and for some reason we trusted him more than each other!
And Scotty was like: I wish we could have solved this with a five minute conversation 10 episodes ago!
And Stiles is all like: Me too! But the writers wouldn’t let us!
And Scotty is all like: I know, right?!
And then they both looked into the camera and right into my soul and we all three laughed and laughed and laughed…

Here is a thing I love that Teen Wolf is doing this season: A cubic ton of chimeras were made by the Dread Doctors in 5A and every single one of them died, almost all of them by the hands of the Dread Doctors, with the exception of the Psychopath that wanted to kill Stiles then Sheriff Stilinski which in turn, Stiles accidentally-on-purpose-but-mostly-in-self-defense murdered.

Of all the chimeras Theo could have resuscitated, he expressly did not bring this one back. Theo (and the writers) chose to leave Stiles a murderer. Sure, reviving the Psychopath chimera wouldn’t have made Stiles any less guilty of accidentally-on-purpose-but-mostly-in-self-defense murdering him, but the fact that he had been revived would have in some ways alleviated the guilt Stiles felt (“Sure, I killed him but he got better”). By leaving the Psychopath dead, Stiles keeps that blemish on his heart. And he has to deal with it. And so does Scotty. It was driving them apart, but now it gets to bind them together.

Another thing I love: There is a scene in this episode where the extremely strict and overbearing biology teacher which was a sub-plot last season (Scotty wants to be a veterinarian someday, and so he decided to take Advanced Placement Biology, even though… book smarts… are… not his thing. The Biology teacher was really hard on him for the entire 12 episodes, but when he finally decided to drop her class and go back to Earth Sciences or whatever, she talked him out of it. It was a really sweet moment showing she wasn’t trying to break him, she was trying to challenge him to be better), where she is explaining co-dominance to the class that Scotty, Stiles and Lydia are all supposed to be in (the only character who is actually there is Theo, who is the WORST).

This scene is obviously giving the audience a clue to how the pack will ultimately defeat the CGI Beastie and possibly the Dread Doctors, and hopefully Theo, but in the explaining the concept of co-dominance, the biology teacher is also laying out why Scotty and Stiles work so well together. They are both dominant traits, Scotty is the heart and Stiles is the head. In any other situation, Scotty or Stiles would be the leaders of their own group, and there is a good chance that they would be strong and capable leaders apart from one another, but they are bound together, and in in partnership they have created a new thing. Something stronger than either of them could have created on their own.

It’s a great analogy for the entire concept of this show.

In other news! Liam decides he wants to get back in good with Scotty so he does a little research and goes and tell Scotty all the things he already knew: Theo is evil, but also sexier than necessary. He resurrected a bunch of chimeras. The Dread Doctors are weird. There’s a big CGI Beastie. Then Scotty basically tells him please go sit in the corner until he’s ready to discuss this at a later date.

So Mason decides to use his manly charms to do a little bit more research! He goes to the cute little gay chimera Trevor or Blaine or whatever his name is and they make out in the Beacon Hills locker room, which if you have never seen the show before used to be almost a character. Every other scene used to take place in the locker room while the characters were either shirtless or pantsless. But now it shows up less and less frequently. Sometimes just long enough for you to see one of the actors has a really good body and therefore will be important. This time, it’s so little gay chimera Trevor or Blaine or whatever can take off his shirt and show that he has a cute little body (and is therefore important) but so he can also explain why he has aligned himself with Theo. According to Blaine or Trevor or whatever, he is loyal because Theo revived him, and he wants to stay alive. He doesn’t care whether or not Theo is a bad guy or a Bad Guy as long as he can help him survive whatever is coming next. Trevor of Blaine or whatever also says he wants Mason to survive too.

Then they make out a bit.

What else happened? Oh, right, Lydia is still on her vision quest! With Meredith leading her around different places in Beacon Hills in spirit form and telling her the entire teenage population of the city (and maybe the adults, but what do they matter, am I right, tweens?) will I die if she doesn’t get her act together, and also her voice could be used as a weapon/to break glass/to do all sorts of other cool Banshee stuff she just learned! Then spirit Theo shows up and guts spirit Meredith but it all doesn’t really happen because they’re all in spirit form? And is Theo even really there? It’s a little confusing.

In the end, the orderlies of Elchin House hear her scream, and when they go to check on her she’s still lying there in a catatonic state. Or is she? Because her eyes are moving in a different way than they were before.

Not addressed this episode: Malia and her desire to murder the Desert Wolf. Malia spends a little time doing some research on trying to find Deaton the Druid Vet but instead of finding anything useful, just ends up beating the ever loving crap out of Theo which I love to see, because as I have stated before, Theo is the worst and I hate him, but also he makes me have confusing tingly feelings. I wish she had finished the job!

Also not addressed: Sheriff Stilinski and Momma McCall. I assume since Stiles felt okay to go on a road trip that Sheriff Stilinski has recovered enough to leave the hospital. But I can’t be certain. What up, Sheriff? Did you go on another date with Mary Lockwood/Lydia’s mom/who became a substitute teacher and suddenly the guidance counselor at Beacon Hills High? Or are you just bumming around you house in the bathrobe wondering where you son is?

And where is my Momma McCall? I miss her beautiful face and wonderful curly hair and steely resolve and steadfast support of her son and every other supernatural creature she claps eyes on! Also Melissa Ponzio is just amazing and needs to be everywhere at all times! I’m sure the production was just giving her some time to work on Chicago Fire where she… plays someone’s wife? I miss her when she’s gone.

So gang, that’s it for this week, join me next week when OOOOHHH!! I forgot! Liam discovered the chimeras are going to go after another alpha wolf target! A BLIND ALPHA!! Exclamation points!! Which can only be Deucalion who led the pack of alphas about two seasons ago. So we get to see him again. I don’t know if I’m excited or not because I think he ended his season as a good guy but he may just be pretending. You never know with this show.

Anyway, join me next week when Scotty, Styles and Liam go to a barn dance and Lydia flies in spirit form to Cabo San Lucas to have sangria with Derek! Also Mason and Trevor or Blaine or whatever make out in the back of a car while Theo looks on disapprovingly from the front seat… or is it disapprovingly? Is Trevor or Blaine or whatever a Theo plant? I JUST THOUGHT OF THAT THEORY RIGHT NOW!!