Review: Teen Wolf 3.16 - ”Illuminated”

The town-wide power outage plus enforced curfew throw a wrench in Danny’s plans for a black light Halloween party. Ethan and Aiden come up with a solution – but Derek is not going to like it. Meanwhile, the shadow warriors are confronting the members of the pack one by one, leaving trauma in their wake.

**********CAUTION********** SPOILERS DEAD AHEAD **********CAUTION**********

What do you do when there is a power outage over your whole town and an enforced curfew? Throw a party!

Kira and the Blackout

Kira is safe and Barrow is gone and Agent McCall is trying to get to the bottom of things, but his questioning of Kira, Scott, Lydia and Stiles just has him going in circles (chasing his tail, so to speak). The big mystery, though, is how did Kira survive? The answer may lay in the aura that seems to surround her that is visible in photos, but not visible to the naked eye – or rather the naked human eye. Kira has been aware of the strange light and shadow visage, but how did Barrow know?

Her indoctrination into the pack continues as she and Scott go on their first mission – break into the police station and erase the photos of Kira and her aura from her cell phone locked up in evidence. Kira loves the thrill of it all and the whole night brings her closer than ever to Scott. They even end up on another pseudo date, as Scott takes her to the Halloween party at Derek’s loft (but without Derek – that can’t end well…). After using his wolf vision to find Kira in the party, Scott is able to see the image surrounding her. It is Scott that gives valuable insight into her outer shell. He sees the aura as protection – her armor – and it looks like a fox to him and not demonic at all. Kira is able to see herself through Scott’s eyes and they take another step closer in their relationship.

Shadow Warriors

When we last saw the mysterious shadow warriors, they were circling Isaac, while Allison and her father desperately tried to reach him beyond the locked bedroom door. When they finally get to him, Isaac is practically catatonic and his body temperature has plummeted. Forcing him to change into his wolf, they are able to revive him and his memory of his encounter with the 5 warriors is chilling. It is not clear what they want, but they seemed to look into him with blazing eyes like fireflies. His description of them sparks something in Mr. Argent and he later retrieves a box with a dark item in it – a broken facemask just like the masks of the shadow warriors. He fears they are after him.

The shadow warriors are definitely searching for something and their next target is Derek. But, it is not clear if they have found what they are looking for until they show up at the black light party and confront Ethan, alone in the pantry. Still searching, they pursue Lydia next, and this is the most frightening confrontation of them all, as they hunt her down at the party and finally corner her on a terrace, as they rise up from the under the floor. When they stifle her Banshee scream with a single hand movement, her look is terrifying.

Allison and Isaac discover a strange marking behind his ear – something from the warriors. It looks to be the number 5, which also happens to be the number of warriors. What does the mark mean? Perhaps Mr. Argent can shed some light on that. As Allison and Isaac try to get a better look at the mark, they discover a catatonic Ethan in the pantry. As the same time, Danny and Aiden find a shivering Lydia out on the terrace. Both, Lydia and Ethan bear the same mark as Isaac, the number 5. Coming to in the parking lot, Derek also discovers that he too carries the same mark behind his ear.

When Derek shows up at the loft and angrily clears the party, the pack realizes the shadow warriors are still there. They are stalking their next target, Aiden. Derek and Scott spring into action and fight the warriors, but to no avail. The moment when one of the warriors pulls a sword out of his own chest and brandishes it (with much flourish) at Isaac is – in a word – awesome. They surround Aiden and as two hold him, a third warrior looks into Aiden with piercing glowing yellow eyes and with a flick of a finger behind his ear, marks Aiden with the number 5. The warriors turn to Scott and Kira and start to approach, but before they reach their next victim, the morning sunlight breaks through the window and dissipates them into ashy, black smoke. Were they after Scott or Kira next? It’s not clear. But, one thing is for sure – Kira has seen that Scott is not your average guy. Will she be able to accept his supernatural side the way he accepted hers?

Two By Two

This episode features lots of changing pairs. Scott is growing closer to Kira, while Allison’s flirtation with Isaac is moving to the next level (as Lydia says, “Finally!”). There is one bittersweet moment at the party when Scott and Allison lock eyes across the crowded room — each of them with their new romantic possibilities, Kira and Isaac. There is a moment of uncertainty and sadness, but they smile at each other and nod, an unspoken acknowledgement that they still care about each other, but are ready to move on.

The twins continue on their road to redemption, although Aiden seems to not be as focused as Ethan. Ethan points out to him that Scott cares more about people than power and if they want to be in his pack, Aiden should take that into consideration. But, it isn’t until Aiden is forced to look at himself through Lydia’s eyes (Lydia: “I look at you, and all I can think is that you helped kill Boyd. You’re not just a bad boy, Aiden. You’re a bad guy. And I don’t want to be with the bad guys.”) that he begins to try to take a more human approach to building relationships.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde aka Funny Stiles and Scary Stiles

While Scott and Allison have returned back to normal after the aftershocks from their encounter with the Nemeton, Stiles is starting to show that maybe he hasn’t completely rid himself of what was ailing him. On the surface he is still the same old Stiles. He misleads Agent McCall in his questioning about Kira and Barrow. At school, he advises Scott (in his oh-so-Stiles way) to put some distance between him and Kira until they figure out if she is “just another psychotic monster that’s going to start murdering everybody.” And his conversation with Caitlin as they are making out at the rave – Caitlin asking him if he likes boys, too – is priceless. Can’t wait to hear the answer to that one!

But, there are moments when a darker side of Stiles comes through. First, with Agent McCall when Stiles is trying to stall him and keep him from discovering Kira and Scott in the evidence room, the encounter starts off light and funny, but it takes a scary turn at the end. When Stiles says to McCall in a low threatening whisper that he knows a secret about him, there is a look on Stiles’ face that is deadly. Did happy-go-lucky Stiles just threaten Agent McCall?!

Stiles begins to realize that there is something strange going on with him as he starts to unravel the mystery of who pointed Barrow toward Kira. The clues lead him to the startling discovery that he, in fact, is the culprit. He wrote the code on the board that spelled out Kira’s name! But how can that be? How is he doing these things without being aware of his actions? What other things has he done without knowing and who will it affect? And, finally, how can he stop it?

Teen Wolf airs on MTV on Mondays at 10/9c. Full episodes are also available at the MTV Teen Wolf website and On Demand (check your cable listings) as well as on iTunes, Amazon, Hulu and Google Play.

Wolf Wisdom

I always like to include some of my favorite quotes and exchanges from the episode. If you have some quotes or moments you liked, please share in the comments section.

Isaac: “Did you see them?”

Allison: “Who?”

Isaac: “They were five of them. They wore black. I couldn’t ss – I couldn’t see their faces. They were… they were covered.”

Allison: “What do you mean – like masks?”

Isaac: “No. One of them… I could see his eyes. They were greenish-yellow. Like a… like a firefly.”

Argent: “Security system wasn’t triggered.”

Allison: “How did they get in?”

Isaac: “They didn’t. It was like they came out of the shadows.”

Agent McCall to Sheriff Stilinski, regarding Stiles, Scott and Kira’s story: “Do you believe this?”

Sheriff: “ To be honest, I haven’t believed a word Stiles has said since he learned how to speak.”

Stiles to Scott, regarding Kira: “Until we figure out if she’s just another psychotic monster that’s going to start murdering everybody, I vote against any and all interaction.”

Scott: “What if she’s like me?”

Stiles: “That girl walked through 1.21 jigawatts of electricity. She’s not like you.”

Max to Aiden: “You don’t get it, do you? Scott doesn’t care about power. He cares about people. You want to be a wolf in his pack? Try being a human in high school.”

Lydia’s mom, Mrs. Martin to Lydia: “Sweetheart, since this is my first class and I haven’t taught in five years, I just want to remind you of one thing: try not to embarrass me.”

Lydia: “You should’ve thought about that before wearing those shoes.”

Aiden: “Why is your mom teaching biology?”

Lydia: “Because Mr. Harris used to teach biology… until his new occupation [beat] Human sacrifice.”

Stiles giving Scott key cards: “Okay, this one will get you into all of the perimeter doors, this one into the evidence room, and this one’s for my father’s office.”

Scott: “You didn’t steal these, did you?”

Stiles: “No. I cloned them using a, uh, RFID emulator.”

Scott: “Is that worse than stealing?”

Stiles: [beat, blank look] “It’s smarter.”

Stiles to Scott and Kira: “I’ll text you if anyone comes out. But, Scott, if you get caught, I can’t help you. My dad’s under investigation for impeachment because of your dad, so, if anything happens… I will run and leave you both for dead.”

Scary Stiles to Agent McCall: “Hey, you know, this attitude that you have toward my dad? You can dress it up to all the professional disapproval that you want. But I know the real reason why you don’t like him.”

Agent McCall: [chuckles softly] “Is that so?”

Scary Stiles: “Yeah. Because he knows something that you don’t want him to know. [McCall tries to brush it off] And guess what? [Stiles lowers his voice to a whisper] I know it, too.”

Agent McCall: [uncomfortable] Go home, Stiles. There’s a… there’s a curfew.”

#10

Lydia to Aiden: “If I wanted to go to a rave, I’d get into a time machine and go back to the ‘90s.”

#11 (Lydia assesses the party pairings)

Lydia spies Allison and Isaac dancing closely and flirting: “Ah, finally!”

Lydia sees Stiles wildly dancing with Caitlin on the dance floor: “Awkwardly.”

Lydia turns to see Aiden off to the side in a dance sandwich with two sexy, painted girls: “Predictably.”

#12

Stiles to Caitlin after she kisses him: “Oh! Uh, I thought you liked girls.”

Caitlin: “I do like girls. Do you?”

Stiles: “Absolutely.”

Caitlin: “Great.”