What They Say:
Weaponized – The school is overtaken by a mysterious outbreak.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The show has managed to grow things well enough in this season that it’s taking on a much bigger view of the world and that helps to really make the show even more engaging. It has the potential to break itself by doing too much and expanding too big, but it’s done it in a decent enough way over the previous three seasons that it’s had a rather good natural growth rather than something overly forced. While it’s expanded everything, it’s also kept things pretty personal as the focus on the dead pool helps to make it very much with the people involved we know a lot about. And the dead pool has started asking more of the supporting cast in that they may be a lot more than we thought. That keeps us on our toes in a pretty good way since it adds a good bit of uncertainty.
The list also gives the supporting cast a chance to be ready for anything, and we get a good tease of that at the start as Deaton gets attacked and once again shows that there’s more to him than meets the eye. That it’s Satomi that attacks him – or rather tests him – is a nice little twist that adds more to his mysterious past with those that he’s been involved with. Satomi’s arrival has her bringing one of her pack with her to Deaton to try and figure out what’s going on, explaining a bit of what happened and the symptoms. That has Deaton realizing that the clinic isn’t going to cut it and they need to get the guy to the hospital where Melissa could be of help.
Interestingly, the show wants to play to a bigger story this time that consumes a good chunk of the episode. While the main cast, minus Lydia, is at school for a lengthy and important test that will take a few hours, it’s not something that’s going to go well. The guy administering it is involved in the dead pool and he’s up to something here it seems. It’s not clear at first, though you can tell things are off because Coach is passed out at his desk in a way that makes him look drunk, which is why the other teacher just sighs and leaves him there for the duration. But as everyone gets involved in the test – and we see the strain with our main cast of players – it also becomes apparent that there’s more going on here as a viral outbreak has made its way into the group. The teacher, Mrs. Martin, realizes it all pretty quickly which is nice in that she puts it together and that leads to some actual action taking place on her part to secure the school in case it is truly viral.
At least the CDC is something new for the series.
With the situation getting tense for people in a lot of ways, things start getting piece together in that what happened with Satomi’s pack is happening here as well. A virus designed to infect and kill werewolves. With a few side effects for others as well of course. The cast dynamic for this makes for some decent scenes, especially as we see Scott falling to it, but having Kira’s father involved even a little helps to draw him into events a bit. Testing of the students is a standard procedure, but it takes an interesting twist along the way when they go to get a blood sample from Kira and get shocked by her as the Kitsune is keeping her safe. But they’re all being affected in the end, as we see the core group coping with the effects of the virus. Stiles is infected and feeling ill, Scott and Malia are facing the fact that they’re slowly losing control of themselves and Kira’s body is completely off balance.
What they do opt to do makes a lot of sense since they can become pretty dangerous. Knowing that the Hale Vault is nearby with what they’ve learned before, they figure out how to access it from within the school so they can seal themselves off from the school and keep everyone safe. It’ll be hard to explain, but that’s easier that potentially going wild and killing lots of students and teachers. The time in the vault has its interesting moments, especially as the guys talk about their parents money problems, but we also get some time with Scott and Stiles talking about Peter and the issues involving him, which can cause Stiles to lose Malia since once she knows the truth about her and he gets in her head, it’s going to be all over. And after he’s gone so long without anyone, the idea of losing her is pretty hard for him to even contemplate. But he also has to really convince Scott that Peter isn’t one of the good guys, even though he’s played around the edges in some interesting ways since coming back, and that Scott really has to adjust his view of him in this regard.
Not surprisingly, the problems in the school with the virus are figured out through what Deaton and Melissa figure out with one of Satomi’s pack and that makes it clear just how bad everything is if they don’t get an antidote to them. As Deaton learns, the virus is basically something that was weaponized to take down werewolves hard while having a secondary effect on others. There is a sort of amusing tie-in to things that comes about when it comes to the antidote, and while it may make you roll your eyes a bit because you can see how it will unfold, you have to just enjoy it since it is just kind of fun. The episode does play out predictably in a way, since we knew who the villain was from the start and we get him making his move in the final act to get his visual confirmation of his kills so he can collect his payment from the Benefactor. But it has a kind of smoothness and ease that is part and parcel of how the show works.
In Summary:
With more and more assassins operating out of Beacon Hills these days, it’s an even more dangerous than usual place to live for the main cast here. This episode is largely single story focused with the viral outbreak in the school as the kids take the PSAT, but it touches upon other story elements in a good way that helps to fill in a few more of the blanks. Bringing Satomi into the mix for the moment is helpful since that adds a bit more knowledge and history to things and it has a really nice moment for Derek that again humanizes him. A lot of what we get is at the school overall and that does work well, especially with the core group being a bit more honest in some ways while still playing their cards close to their chest in others. What this season continues to do though is make me really like Kira and particularly Malia as they interact with everyone. There’s a lot of potential with each of them and they’re adding some welcome subplots that will toe into more things as it goes on.
Grade:
