Teen Wolf Review: "Silverfinger"

Alysha Boynton ‘17 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer
This week, Teen Wolf fans were given the gift of an episode that may have finally delivered some long awaited answers. Don’t worry though; it still raised plenty of new questions, namely “WHAT IS GOING ON WITH STILES? IS HE EVIL NOW?” The episode, titled “Silverfinger,” was definitely more on the slow side than usual, but it made up for it with an ending scene that was akin to an emotional punch in the face.

Suspicions were finally confirmed that Stiles (Dylan O’Brien) is, in fact, being possessed by some sort of dark spirit or demon, and that’s why he’s been losing time. Even though it had already been hinted at, seeing O’Brien show off his amazing acting chops and tear the heart out of a shadowy ninja monster with his bare hands while his expression showed nothing but terrifying indifference was really something.
It was a fairly Stiles-centric episode, which nobody is complaining about. Another highlight was the truly heart-wrenching moment between Stiles and Melissa McCall (Melissa Ponzio) where he, in a drug-induced stupor, called her “mom,” and everyone watching simultaneously burst into tears. Viewers also learned that Stiles’ real mother, the late Claudia Stilinski, was suffering from the exact same symptoms as Stiles, including insomnia and the inability to distinguish between dreams and reality.

The plotline for which the episode was named was not exactly titillating, but it provided a lot of much needed answers about the mysterious ninjas, now known to be called “Oni” (Japanese for “demon,” not the most creative name ever). Viewers saw a flashback of young Chris Argent (Max Lloyd-Jones) conducting a gun deal, which involved the man called Silverfinger. Also present in the flashback were a few of the Oni, explained why Chris had one of their broken masks in his possession.
When Chris Argent (JR Bourne), his daughter, Allison (Crystal Reed), and Isaac (Daniel Sharman) orchestrate a plan to get past Silverfinger’s guards and interrogate him about the Oni, he explains that they were searching for a dark kitsune spirit, which would have possessed someone. He reveals that the marks they left behind the ears of the supernatural characters in the last episode, “Illuminated,” are not the number “5”, but actually “S”, for “Self,” because they are not possessed.

It was refreshing to actually get something spelled out clearly for once, except it got a little confusing when viewers learned that Kira (Arden Cho) is also a kitsune, just not an evil one. Are two kitsunes just a coincidence, or is Stiles maybe something else altogether? On a related note, another great moment in the episode came when Scott (Tyler Posey), Kira, Ethan (Charlie Carver), Aiden (Max Carver), and Derek (Tyler Hoechlin) were all gathered in the McCall house, and Derek got to do what he does best, which is snark at people and show off his superior intellect (one of the twins asked Kira what she was, and Derek replied for her with, “She’s a kitsune, idiot,” going on to elaborate that he can see people’s auras, which is pretty damn cool).

Related: Teen Wolf Review: “Illuminated”

In the end, though, it’s difficult to focus on anything that happened in the episode besides the big reveal with Stiles, and the promo for next week’s episode, “Riddled,” looks as if they’re going to be diving right in and exploring this new and totally terrifying development.
Overall Episode Grade: B+
Best Quote of the Night: Derek, showing just how deep his loyalty to Scott lies, when he posed this question to the twins: “I’m sure you’d kill for him, but are you willing to die for him?”