"Teen Wolf" Review: “Letharia Vulpina”

Alysha Boynton ‘17 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer

Monday night’s episode of Teen Wolf, “Letharia Vulpina,” mostly felt like a set-up for whatever’s about to happen in the next few weeks. Although it was a well-done and perfectly enjoyable hour of television, it didn’t measure up to the standard set by the past few episodes. Surprisingly, it did contain some of the best moments of the season and the first real scene for the dynamic new character, Deputy Parrish (Ryan Kelley).
The episode also saw the return of Dr. Deaton (Seth Gilliam), who appeared in the opening scene and managed to obtain some nogitsune poison. What followed was a mash-up of scenes involving Kira (Arden Cho) using her electricity harnessing powers, Isaac (Daniel Sharman) getting electrocuted and, for some reason, not using his werewolf powers to heal, and Mama Yukimura (Tamlyn Tomita) sacrificing some of her kitsune fox tails to create more Oni demons.
Stiles/The Nogitsune (Dylan O’Brien) is still missing during all of this commotion at the start of the episode, until the twins (Max Carver and Charlie Carver) and Scott (Tyler Posey) happen to find him hiding in the school basement. The demon wearing Stiles’ body puts on a good show, insisting that he’s really Stiles, and he thinks he did something bad when the demon was controlling him, but it’s relatively easy to spot the differences between our beloved Stiles and the trickster spirit. Unfortunately for everyone involved, Scott chooses to believe the lie, and it isn’t until after Coach Finstock (Orny Adams) has been shot in the stomach by a booby trap, the Sheriff’s station falls victim to a shrapnel bomb, and Stiles twists a katana sword in Scott’s gut that he realizes his mistake.

This scene was one of two that were highlights, not only of the episode, but also of the entire season. The look of betrayal and fear in Scott’s eyes as the nogitsune dug the sword in deeper was spine-chilling and heartbreaking, as that was the moment when Scott realized his friend might really be gone. When Deaton showed up out of nowhere quipping, “Not everyone,” stabbing Stiles with the nogitsune poison, it was, for lack of a better word, a “Hell yeah!” moment.
The other subplots of the episode were Derek (Tyler Hoechlin) and Chris Argent (JR Bourne) getting framed for Silverfinger’s murder and ending up in the Sheriff’s station (when the bomb went off), and Lydia (Holland Roden) and Allison (Crystal Reed) paying a visit to Peter (Ian Bohen) to ask him some questions about Banshees.
Although Lydia remained strangely not murderous towards Peter and much of the dialogue in the scene was utterly cringe-worthy, Allison completely rocked the scene, standing up to Peter and even tasing him at one point, making it the second fantastic scene of the episode. Lydia used her Banshee powers to learn that Peter has a child that he can’t remember because Talia Hale (Alicia Coppola) took his memories of it, but trying to get Teen Wolf fans to care about a Peter storyline is about as likely as Danny (Keahu Kahuanui) actually getting a storyline of his own, which is, unfortunately, very slim.

Although the season is still going strong, the amount of different plotlines that are simultaneously taking place, as well as the other plotlines from the beginning of the season which haven’t been mentioned in ages, are enough to make even the most casual fan a little nervous. If they can tie all these stories together in the next five episodes without leaving any gaping plot holes, it will truly be an impressive feat.
Overall Episode Grade: B-