TV Review: Teen Wolf (5×13) “Codominance”

Welcome back to my weekly review and recap of Teen Wolf. Catch up on previous coverage here.

I feel like I spend a lot of time during these episodes asking who? Which I suppose is better than asking why.

I totally still ask why.

Let’s get down to it.

Kira’s entire storyline this week is the show demonstrating my least favorite part of the what this show has become. It’s mythology obsessed and with the inclusion now of characters called the ‘skin walkers’ the writing once again veers dramatically into self-serious mode. It adds to the already convoluted book of villains the show has going at a given time and it drags and the worst part is that we spend so much time with her this week. Kira started out as an interesting character who at the very least had a charming and innocent chemistry with Tyler Posey’s Scott but the show has mistaken character growth for personality swaps. They needed Kira to be a human weapon with his kitsune powers taking over and now that’s all she is.

All of this at the very least is better than the storyline Liam is saddled with which isn’t an actual storyline and more an echo of what we’ve already learned. Through Hayden and Cody both Liam and Mason learn about the Beast, a creature who team Theo believes will force his pack and Scott’s to team up in order to defeat. I’m annoyed by this entire notion because I don’t like the idea of Scott and co. forgiving Theo’s crimes all for the sake of a greater evil. I also can’t stand Theo’s consistently smug face and would rather just see Scott’s pack face down the big baddie of the season.

The biggest shocker of Liam’s storyline this week was when the show remembered he was a teenager and showed him in class for once, even if I did have to suspend my disbelief even for that because I’ve never seen so much writing on a chalk board in any classroom.

All of this is better than Lydia who has been reduced to wandering throughout her mind anxiously as she witnesses more and more signs that the future for her and her friends and loved ones is going to be a rocky one. If Meredith’s inclusion means that Lydia FINALLY is allowed to learn how to use her banshee powers then fine, I can forgive that, but barely.

None of this is better than the storyline that unquestionably should have taken up most of the running time but also was the strongest of all the threads. You want to know what I would have enjoyed-and I’m sure this will come as no surprise-but if the show can dedicate an entire episode in season three to a flashback of Kira’s mom it could have spent an hour with Scott and Stiles driving to rescue Kira. Their road trip moments brought the right amount of humor and reminded us that they’re really not always that competent. More importantly it airs out all of the baggage that they’ve been carrying between them ever since Stiles lied about Donovan. Stiles first telling Scott the truth about that night with Scott replying that he would have been able to know the difference between murder and self-defense and then Scott picking up the conversation thread later in the episode apologizing about the bloodshed he’s inadvertently and directly caused is the only way and the right way the storyline could have ended. Stiles silently listens as his closest friend in the world regretfully talks about how they should have just communicated more, talked more that night outside of the animal clinic and how he even feels responsible for Stiles’s actions. It’s a strong moment for Posey and Stiles grabbing his shoulder and reminding him of their task as they watch what looks like an oncoming storm is all the confirmation we need that these two have mended their wounds and are finally on the right track again.

As Stiles said in the start of the episode, it’s time to get the band back together.

There are smaller, looser narrative subplots in the hour with my favorite being Malia beating up Theo to get the whereabouts of her mother and Deaton, but ideally, the episode would have stayed in Stiles’s resurrected jeep and ended on the admittedly fun final battle between Kira and the skin walkers.

6/10