'Teen Wolf' Review/Recap: "Sundowning"
Sabrina Petrafesa ‘18 / Emertainment Monthly Executive Publisher
A lot happens in this episode of Teen Wolf. First, Beacon Hills High School’s newest teacher is revealed to be some serial killer werewolf (which is why Chris Argent and Melissa McCall held a second autopsy on a body in the morgue), second, Lydia, Malia, and Scott are still trying to find out who Stiles is, and third, the newbies of the pack are fighting off a Ghost Rider by bringing him into existence at a party.
Melissa McCall’s (Melissa Ponzio) appearance in this episode was exciting, she’s always been one of the best characters on the show. Melissa and Chris Argent (JR Bourne) come together to confirm was Chris already knows about the serial killer werewolf who he’s been hunting. This was just the first of many irrelevant things to happen in this episode. Of course, the exact thing Chris is hunting just so happens to be the new cool teacher at Beacon Hills High.
Although, who knows if he really is a werewolf? The weird flashbacks he had at the beginning of the episode seemed reminiscent to the Dred Doctors from last season, so he may have been experimented on and is a science born supernatural. This whole plotline just seems excessive, though. If the writers don’t bring it back to the main arc of the season and show us it’s all connected in some way, then it truly is a waste of screen time.
It’s evident that this season is going to be frustrating. Between AP student Scott McCall (Tyler Posey) and actual genius Lydia Martin (Holland Roden), how could they not figure out that Stiles is the Sheriff’s son with the clues being: 1. This person was definitely all of our friends, possibly Scott’s best friend. 2. Stiles is a family name. 3. That family is the Sheriff’s who is the right age to be a parent.
Scott has been trying to teach Liam how to be a leader. Liam (Dylan Sprayberry) tries to save Gwen from the Ghost Riders and, although he succeeds, he possibly got himself and a whole house full of partying kids into trouble by forcing the Ghost Rider after Gwen into existence. The fault is technically a combination of Mason (Khylin Rhambo), for suggesting to throw the party at Scott’s house in the first place, and Corey (Michael Johnston), for making the Ghost Rider visible with his chameleon powers. Now that pretty much everyone has seen them, they might all be taken out of reality. Clearly, Liam is supposed to be Scott and Mason is Stiles. Thankfully, this is the last season and this isn’t an attempt to establish a brand new cast as the old one leaves.
The episode felt too busy with a lot of half steps forward in the plot. Hopefully, the plot will speed up soon because in three episodes it seems like a whole lot of nothing happened.