This week on Teen Wolf season 5, episode 9, “Lies of Omission,” we got our first look at what could possibly be underneath the Dread Doctors’ masks.
And it was pretty gross.
(Speaking of which, if you have issues with body horror, please skip this article and go look up pictures of puppies and kittens and rainbows. We have GIFs and closeups of the scene in question, and we’re not joking when we say it’s disgusting.)
Near the beginning of the episode, Theo confronts the Dread Doctors about his role in their diabolical plans, saying he needs Hayden alive and he needs a pack. The Doctors say they haven’t promised him anything, and rattle off the fancy technical name for the supermoon (perigee syzygy), indicating this will be the culmination of all their experimentation.
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But while all of this was happening, we got our very first glimpse at what the Doctors look like underneath their steampunk attire. As one Doctor pulls a green liquid from one of the tanks into a syringe, another rolls up his sleeve to reveal an arm that looks like it could belong to Frankenstein’s Monster.
The arm is covered in scars and seems deflated until the other Doctor injects him with the liquid. The veins turn black, bringing the arm back to life as it expands and looks somewhat normal again.
We did mention it was pretty gross, right? Good. Just checking.
So, is this any indication of what could be underneath those masks? And if so, what does it all mean?
First, let’s remember who exactly the Dread Doctors are. They were scientists who worshiped the supernatural. While they were once human, they’re not quite human anymore. Experimenting with electromagnetic forces allowed them to learn the secrets of prolonging their lives. It also granted them some pretty interesting powers, which includes the ability to make people forget about them as soon as they look away (much like the Silence on Doctor Who).
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It’s probably fair to assume that what lurks underneath a sleeve also lurks underneath the rest of the Doctors’ clothing. A body covered in scars indicates the Doctors may have been doing surgery on themselves (or each other) or have used the parts of other creatures to add to their own bodies.
What’s particularly interesting is that those scars appear to be fresh. They’re still red, a little raw, and almost gooey looking. Are these recent additions to their bodies, or do they not have the ability to heal like Scott and his friends can?
Is this why they need the chimeras? Many (maybe even all?) of the chimeras we’ve seen so far have had miraculous healing abilities. Hayden certainly did, as well as Corey, who even looked the phenomenon up in a book. Perhaps this is the Dread Doctors’ ultimate end goal.
In an interview conducted earlier this year, Director Russell Mulcahy said the Dread Doctors will be evolving between season 5A and 5B. What this evolution entails, we have no idea, but could this mean the Doctors’ experiment, culminating on the night of the supermoon, will be successful? If so, what does that mean for Scott’s pack, and even Theo’s fate? (Not that we really care about Theo, let’s be real.)
In that same interview, Mulcahy unfortunately stated that what’s behind the masks won’t be revealed until season 5B, so we’ll just have to keep guessing until then.