Nothing good ever happens in the desert in the dark of night.
What They Say:
Codominance – Kira and her mother make a journey to help Kira deal with her dark side; Lydia is surprised at Eichen House.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Teen Wolf got things moving again the last episode but it wasn’t something that I was sold on in a big way. While I liked that it finally started repairing some of the bonds that exist between Stiles and Scott, it’s been played out in a bad way. Running subplot material with Hayden and Liam didn’t help as that’s just been weirdly convoluted and less and less interesting as it goes on, and throwing a dab of Parrish and his stuff into it just left too many things running. For a show that I was wholly invested in for the first two seasons, it’s fallen fairly hard for me even as I tried to give it a big chance in the first half of the fifth season. Especially since it didn’t manage the big bads in the Dread Doctors well – and they were barely in the previous episode.
As is par for the course, the first half of the episode largely works some setup and placement material. We’re tantalized with some decent things happening with Kira in regards to her learning to truly control her power but with a real risk associated with it. There’s some good action and choreography to it, but it mostly reminds that Kira has been a lost presence in the season. Similarly, we get Stiles and Scott getting ready to move on to their next course of action and Liam shows up to tell them about all he’s learned. Of course, Scott already knows all of it and it just kind of weakens what Liam is all about even more. Stiles actually calls Scott out on this a bit about his desire to get the band back together and that keeping Liam at a distance is like keeping the drummer away. Scott’s still reeling from what he saw of Liam when he was intense before, but even there Stiles puts him back in his place properly.
And let’s not forget the whole Malia, Braeden and Desert Wolf thing that’s brewing under the surface as well. It’s a worthy enough plot on its own but it’s being strung out, again reinforcing that the writers really aren’t able to handle these full season long arcs like this and really need to get away from it. A greater turn towards small arcs where things aren’t drawn out would really do a whole lot towards getting this series back on track in a more engaging way. Malia’s subplot even feels a lot like what we’re getting with Lydia in Eichen House again where things are moving in their own weird way, just at a slow place and not in all that engaging of a way.
As it moves into the second half, it does start to move some of this material forward. Kira’s having to face off against the Skinwalkers in order to learn to control the kitsune, but it’s a process that if she survives the opening stage could take months or years. While her mother tells her that it’s for the best, reminding her that kitsune live for centuries, to a teenager a few months is an eternity, especially away from those that you love. Seeing her facing what she has to at night in the desert works well from a visual standpoint and as it gets ready to cross into Scott and Stiles story, it has the right kind of progression about it. This storyline, on hold or off screen for much the first half of the season, really is the saving grace to this episode. When she fully embraces the kitsune side it’s a sight to behold, one that the show has teased with a few times.
In Summary:
As the various subplots drag on I find myself interested in them less and less. As much as I liked Hayden at first, her and Liam’s storyline is just a complete drag at this point and doing nothing for me. Similarly, Lydia’s storyline makes me want to just fast forward through it. I liked her character the best in the first couple of seasons but now dread when she’s on screen because her story is just such a mess. Even my adoration of all things Malia has suffered heavily this season as they don’t know what to do with her. The saving graces here is the time that we get with Scott and Stiles reconnecting, slowly but surely, and the solid time with Kira dealing with the Skinwalkers and all that goes on there. It’s properly spooky when it needs to be, well choreographed with the fight sequences, and Arden Cho largely sells it. She’d probably be better off spun off into her own series at this point to try and salvage something. The larger stories playing out in this season have their minor moments here and there, but it’s just not about them that much this time around. While I’m still going to finish out the season, Teen Wolf isn’t doing much to get me to come back for the next season so far.
Grade: B-
