Teen Wolf season 5, episode 17, “A Credible Threat,” just finished airing, and a charity lacrosse game brought The Beast closer than ever.
Parrish knows he goes out each night and returns with burnt and bloody clothes. He wants the team to follow him, and Chris, Scott, Stiles, and Liam are up for the task. They end up at the school, where the Beast has laid a trap for them. The Hellhound warns them of the trap and then chases after a retreating Beast. This is interesting for two reasons — The Beast is getting smarter, and the Hellhound has spoken for the first time.
Malia and Braeden are lying low in case the Desert Wolf decides to jump the gun and kill Malia before the full moon. Melissa’s not taking any chances, and she lines the doorway with mountain ash. But someone they may be taking a chance on is Kira, who wakes up suddenly and starts swinging around her katana, eyes flashing gold. It’s obvious she’s still struggling with the kitsune inside her.
Mama McCall is not the only one who knows what goes bump in the night. Corey is ready to skip town because life in Beacon Hills is anything but easy. He’s healing, but it’s slow, and he doesn’t want to risk it anymore. (Shoutout to the special effects makeup department for another great prosthetic. I wanted to reach out like Mason and touch it, too.)
Mason is in the middle of convincing Corey to stay and help save the other schlubs like him when he has an epiphany. The Dread Doctors are using a frequency to trigger The Beast into changing, which accelerates its growth. The charity lacrosse game will have coverage from multiple stations, so there’s a strong chance all those frequencies could draw it in and be cause for a lot of destruction. They have to get it canceled.
This marks the return of Orny Adams as Coach Bobby Finstock, and man am I happy to see him. He’s just as ridiculous as ever, feigning the continuation of his drinking problem so he doesn’t have to worry about getting another arrow to the stomach. Scott and Stiles manage to convince him to leave Stepping Stones just long enough to forfeit.
At the same time, Lydia finds an injured Deputy Parrish in the library, where she also spots what looks like the maid of Gévaudan in a book illustration (I guarantee this will be important next week). She takes him to Chris and Gerard, who stick him in what looks remarkably like the machine Erskine used to transform Captain America into a super solider. Except this machine doesn’t do that.
Instead, it drops Parrish’s temperature to a point where Parrish can access the part of his brain that houses the supernatural. We get a flashback of the original trio, Scott, Stiles, and Allison, doing just this in season 3 when they needed to find a way to rejuvenate the Nemeton. It’s paramount they find a way to get both halves of Parrish to cooperate because he needs to stop The Beast before it gets strong enough that the teenager is gone and the original French serial killer is all that’s left. In case you haven’t been paying attention, that would be bad.
Prior to the lacrosse game, the group gets together to go over their plan. Scott, fully healed now that his pack is whole again, looks so proud as everyone steps up to the plate. It’s a good thing they have a backup plan this time, though, because everything is about to go horribly wrong.
But let’s pause here and take a moment to discuss how incredibly similar Hayden looked like season 1 Allison in this scene. The jean jacket, the long brown hair, the intent interest in the lacrosse game. Even her friend by her side was reminiscent of Lydia sitting next to Allison way back when. Maybe it was done on purpose and maybe I’m just crazy, but my heart skipped a strange beat for just a moment there.
The first part — the most crucial part — of the plan goes wrong first. Coach won’t forfeit the game. Brett from the opposing team has his sister looking at all the sneakers of the people in the stands, trying to find one with Parrish’s blood on it. Mason and Corey are on the bus checking the opposing team’s sneakers, and Malia is taking out the power from the news vans.
Then the next part of the plan goes wrong. The kitsune begins to take over Kira, and she’s knocking down guys left and right, regardless of whether she has the ball or not. And is it just me, or is her kitsune spirit a bit pretentious? She battles with Brett’s sister, after insulting her terrible Japanese accent, but it’s only when Scott shows up that he’s able to snap her out of it. Close one.
The problems don’t stop there! The Desert Wolf blocks Malia to the last news van. She’s curious as to why Malia cares so much, and seems to zero in on Stiles. It seems strange that the Desert Wolf would want to chat up her daughter when killing her right here and now wouldn’t transfer her any powers. That is, until you realize she’s trying to find leverage. When the full moon rises, I bet she’ll be coming for Stiles in order to get Malia to trade her powers for his life.
Back in the Death Machine, Parrish is actually dead. Or at least that’s what the Hellhound says. He explains that at the moment Parrish died, the Hellhound was born, and this is juxtaposed with the trio going under the ice. Is it possible they’re connected to the Hellhound because they’re the ones that created him? Either way, Lydia convinces the Hellhound he has to let Parrish in to beat the Beast, but when that happens, Parrish wakes up and says he must leave, right away
Maybe Parrish is planning on leading The Beast away from Beacon Hills, but I have a feeling it’s not going to be as easy as it sounds. Besides, aren’t they still trying to find a way to stop The Beast and save the kid inside? If Parrish and The Beast go toe to toe at full strength on both sides, I don’t think that’s going to be possible.
Hayden agrees to be a part of Scott’s team, the Desert Wolf vanishes before doing anything terrible (that’s not ominous at all), and one news van gets its satellite working again, which releases a terrible noise that instantly attracts The Beast.
It seems obvious — almost too obvious — that The Beast is Mason. It came from the buses, after all, and when Corey kissed him just moments earlier, something clearly felt off to him. Maybe Corey was having second thoughts concerning staying in Beacon Hills and he was trying to shake them off, but the moment seemed a little too mysterious for something as simple as that.
Next week’s episode not only brings Crystal Reed back as an Argent ancestor, but we also see The Beast attacking Scott and pulling him through a door. Just another day in Beacon Hills.