What They Say:
Monstrous – Scott and Kira must protect Satomi’s pack from assassins; Stiles and Malia learn the origins of the dead pool.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
As the season has progressed, we’ve gotten a pretty good run that has a main overall story that works while also providing for a villain of the week aspect, which is admittedly a nice change of pace overall from the mysteries that dominated previous seasons. While we’ve had that, we’ve had a lot of subplots running alongside it with the cast as there are certainly a lot of interactions that work. What’s been a bit disappointing is that we haven’t had much Scott and Kira time, especially compared to the really sweet material we had early on between him and Allison, moments that made me really like the series for its better portrayal of teenage relationships. Thankfully, some of that has been balanced out with Stiles and Malia’s relationship and the fun of that, thougrh they’ve hit their big bump in the road too.
The cold open for this works well as we see two teens named Brett and Lori on the run for a group that’s trying to kill them, which pretty much puts them in the dead pool as targets. There’s a fairly typical aspect to it with the slow motion shots, the rain and then the ramping up of tension, but it plays out well here to give us something that has a good pace and is fairly exciting as they get trapped. Having Kira show up at the key time to save the day, or at least delay things, gives her a good chance at stepping into the spotlight a bit to be useful without being tied to the others directly. She’s doing what she can to protect them, but she’s also waiting on Scott to arrive to help get them to safety. That’s Scott’s big thing of course, which we get playing out back at his house as Liam is trying to come to grips with the way that Scott has managed to do that for so many people so far and at great cost overall to him and his family.
Protecting what remains of Satomi’s pack is where things stand for him at the moment and Kira has managed to pull together several of them, which certainly is a good thing. Scott’s reputation is certainly out there at this point and with even Satomi aware of him, you have to wonder how that will factor into things. Amusingly, Scott opts to secure them in Argent’s safe place, though it’s only so safe. What complicates things a bit is that Satomi knows Argent and isn’t hugely trustful, but she’s trusting Scott and he trusts Argent, who has had quite the turnaround himself from the first season that’s been done gradually and well. Seeing him turn to defending those on the dead pool is a pretty solid thing and fits in well with his growth as a character since he’s become all about protecting these days. Overall, this segment adds some decent action to the episode and it does challenge Scott a bit with how far he’ll go, but it’s largely meant to add the action and propel other things forward.
Lydia’s time with the sheriff is interesting to watch as well, since she’s convinced that Meredith is the Benefactor and all evidence seems to be point that way. She’s crazy, but also a criminal mastermind if all of it is true, and that makes her very dangerous. They also have the bigger problem in that while they have her and she may be the Benefactor, it looks like the payments for the dead pool are out there and automatic, which means stopping her doesn’t stop the attacks. While Meredith isn’t talking to anyone, she will talk to Lydia as the two have quite the connection. But that’s only because she really wants to talk to Peter, and that alone is unnerving. Peter doesn’t exactly take her seriously, but she sees through him in a big way, going back to the past as she simply comments that all of his burns are gone. That’s an interesting part of his recent past and bringing that back to light is certainly amusing to see with the way Peter reacts to it.
Finding the real connection between Peter and Meredith is interesting since it takes us back several years when the two of them were in a hospital together, her for what she had gone through at the lake house while Peter was in recovery for his wounds from the burns that put him in a coma. Meredith could hear everything going on in Peter’s head though, which is a pretty intense place to be even at the best of times, and seeing the way its visualized is really nicely done as it shows the kind of twisting and fear that it puts into Meredith since Peter’s mindset is definitely violent and intense. His wild mental state basically instructs her in every single thing that needs doing in order to make the dead pool, right down to the vault and the money, and his spiraling is definitely fascinating to watch even in the brief time we get for it. There’s some really fun things that happens as we see the way events unfold and how Peter is controlling the situation in a way yet free from responsibility for it. With Meredith having put it all in motion even though he wanted it in his insane state, there’s a certain sense of not being quite sure who is truly responsible.
Stiles finds himself stuck in the hospital for a bit, which he doesn’t want to be since it adds to the bills, but he’s making good use of it by trying to look into the cassette tape that he has with Lorraine’s name on it. What helps ease his tension there is that Malia has come to see him after everything that happened with Brunski and there’s a kind of amusing banter between them as they catch up while still dealing with the tension between them. Seeing them find a way past it, at least for now, is really nicely done since it has Melissa orchestrating it. Mothers know best, after all. Stiles and Malia have a weird arc after that as they go to the lake house to try and figure things out and end up discovering a huge bank of 70’s computers behind a wall that was essentially running the dead pool in an automated way for Meredith to give her the cover she needed. This kind of goes in a weird way, and it does fit overall, but what we get out of everything at the end is that Meredith did all of this because Peter is the one who will put everything right.
In Summary:
Teen Wolf brings us to a lot of concluding pieces in a way here, but it shifts the story to make us realize that the real plan is now about to be revealed. The story involving the Benefactor has certainly been fun and I liked the mystery of it all and the actual reveal is a neat twist that I can’t say that I saw coming, from the people involved to the machinery used to get it all into motion. The characters in this episode work well across the board, especially as Lydia comes into her own all the more, and I really liked Stiles and Malia once more. But the cast as a whole really does pull it off and each of the interconnected stories really helps to make it pretty interesting to watch as each little tidbit adds to the whole. I suspect this is one of those episodes that when you watch the season in marathon form it’ll feel even bigger and more important while also setting up for the next few episodes to bring the season to an even bigger close.
Grade: B+
