"Teen Wolf" Recap/Review: “Echo House”

Alysha Boynton ’17 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer

Oh Teen Wolf, you were doing so well there for a while! What happened? This week’s installment, “Echo House,” was, at best, a filler episode and at worst, a disgraceful representation of the mental health care system. Stiles (Dylan O’Brien) checked into a mental hospital for 72 hours in an attempt to protect his friends and family from falling prey to the demon living inside of him. Executed differently, the episode could have been both compelling and scary, but what we ended up getting was a very triggering and offensive attempt at being American Horror Story: Asylum, which fell flat and left many fans absolutely outraged.
Within the first five minutes, a patient at the hospital literally hung himself right in front of Stiles, and he was then taken to his room and the “incident” was brushed off like nothing. The hospital was also home to a basement full of old drills and torture devices, a general air of creepiness, and abusive orderlies who took pleasure in cruelty towards their patients, Considering the young and impressionable audience this show reaches, one might think they’d consider the implications of portraying mental care facilities as horrifying and unsafe; mainly because people might end up being too afraid to check themselves into one if they actually needed help.

The plot was forgettable as well, centering on Stiles trying to get access to the basement to learn about why he was there in a previous dream/vision induced by the nogitsune. He teamed up briefly with his roommate Oliver and Derek’s-might-be-long-lost-cousin Malia (Shelley Hennig), who were both bright spots in the very, very dark episode. In the end, Oliver turned out to be under the nogitsune’s “sway,” which was predictable but still an interesting turn for the seemingly sweet and unassuming character.
Not to downplay the importance of literally every other thing that happened in the episode, but the scene where Malia and Stiles had a heated make out session in the basement was without a doubt the biggest takeaway from the episode. For one thing, it was the furthest the audience had ever seen Stiles get with anyone sexually, and it came as a bit of a shock, considering the circumstances. It was known that Stiles would kiss someone in the episode, but nobody could have predicted Stiles sort of almost losing his virginity in a dark, dirty basement while a monster tried to take over his mind and with a girl he just met. Just add it to the list of problematic things wrong with the episode (except there’s nothing problematic about seeing Dylan O’Brien kissing people, we can all agree on that.)’

The scenes that took place outside the mental hospital were considerably more enjoyable, featuring the adorable badass Kira (Arden Cho) showing off her sword wielding skills to Scott (Tyler Posey) as they tried to track down some potentially damning evidence with Lydia (Holland Roden) and Allison (Crystal Reed). The episode also contained an emotionally charged scene between reluctant allies Derek (Tyler Hoechlin) and Chris Argent (JR Bourne) about what they might have to do to stop Stiles from hurting people.
As much as it pains this reviewer to admit, Teen Wolf will always have its pitfalls and tendencies towards certain sloppy plot devices and offensive material, and this episode was the epitome of that. There was admirable acting and special effects, as per usual, but the subject matter was handled incredibly poorly and the plot dragged when it wasn’t busy being nonsensical.
Overall Episode Grade: C-