(Image credit: mtv.com)
Can you believe we’re already halfway done with season 5B?! Sometimes I feel like I’m still waiting for it to start. To be fair, there have been a few filler-y episodes as Scott scrambled to reunite his pack, so this isn’t exactly surprising. “Amplification”, thankfully, was not one of those episodes. Jam-packed with action and with a tight narrative, it finally brought the show up to speed with the flash-forwards from early 5A and 5B: i.e. saving Lydia from Eichen House after she failed to escape on her own, with a little “help” from Theo’s pack. Read along this ‘Teen Wolf‘ recap to find out how, exactly, I succeed in linking Teen Wolf to both Harry Potter and The Sound of Music.
1. Stiles is now communicating via the Sheriff Department’s official channels, because of course.
2. Any plan involving body bags is sure to be foolproof, trust those kids, they’re experts (both in bodies and fools).
3. See what I mean?
4. Anyway, the pack decides to head back to Eichen because Lydia’s “dying banshee scream” might just kill everyone around her after Dr. Valack “enhanced her powers” by drilling a hole through her skull. Trepanation is the new shock treatment, haven’t you heard?
THIS SHOW, I SWEAR.
5. I’m getting a lot of Shutter Island vibes from this episode, maybe it’s time someone checked Beacon Hills isn’t just a giant hallucination one of these kids dreamed up to cope with whatever messed up reality they were living through. It would honestly be less surprising than 90% of what happens on Teen Wolf.
6. Me too, Leo. Me too. Have I mentioned that Leo and I were (however briefly) in the same space a few weeks ago for The Revenant Paris premiere? We were. He waved. I melted. It was AWESOME.
7. So the plan involves Kira short-circuiting Eichen House’s electrical system, allowing Stiles to retrieve Lydia thanks to a (surprise! Not stolen!) keycard. Nothing could go wrong.
8. Oh my sweet (curly-haired) summer child, how I miss you. I’m not sure how Isaac could have saved the day had he been there but I do know it would have involved scarves and heavy sarcasm and my eternal happiness.
9. Instead, we get some advice from a suddenly helpful Theo, and some good old sarcasm from Sassmaster Stiles Stilinski.
10. Remember this iconic scene!
11. Stiles threatening mythical creatures that could break him in half with a single, polished, claw is my favorite kind of Stiles.
12. (Who am I kidding, any Stiles is my favorite kind of Stiles but that one especially)
13. Malia wearing protective goggles to avoid getting impaled by exploding lightbulbs is another one of my favorite Teen Wolf things.
14. For those of you who were wondering: yes, I am considering a Teen Wolf themed remix of “My Favorite Things” from the Sound of Music.
“Werewolves on wolfsbane and bipedal lizards,
Powder blue Jeeps and weaponized baseball bats,
Virgin sacrifices reviving crazy old druids,
These are a few of my favorite things!”
*pirouettes off over the hills, shouting at the top of my lungs*
15. Incidentally, in their first scene in AGES, Stiles and Malia have more chemistry than he and Lydia have had in 5+ seasons, but hey, I’m not in charge of writing the episodes. (Sadly)
15. Of course, once in Eichen House, things don’t go as planned and Liam and Scott find themselves trying to bring down a seemingly innocuous metal door. Since the whole place is delicately powdered in mountain ash, they’re having some trouble and instead of pushing through, Alpha and Beta just look, well…painfully constipated.
16. Liam has also become something of a vigilante, apparently.
17. For someone who recently threatened to beat a psychopathic Chimera, Stiles is surprisingly not having it.
(Incidentally this is my new default reaction GIF for anything that annoys me, including whenever the Beacon Hills new generation happens to come on screen)
18. Dr. Valack has a lovely Dread Doctoresque helmet that he promptly fits on that disagreeable nurse who picks on Lydia anytime she can. I don’t know what’s going to happen to her but it doesn’t look good. Karma’s a bitch, hun!
19. Mama Martin is finally, maybe, coming to terms with the fact that “coincidences” don’t exactly cover everything that happens in Beacon Hills. A Muggle if I ever saw one!
“Bless them [Muggles], they’ll go to any lengths to ignore magic, even if it’s staring them in the face…”
20. Eichen House goes into lockdown mode with all our faves stuck inside it. Bottle episode, anyone?
Overall, a very enjoyable episode! I can’t wait to see where 5×16 goes with this, but at least we’ll finally be done with fashion-less Lydia, which is a blessing.
What did you guys think? Is Hayden going to follow through on Deucalion’s advice on how to kill Theo? Is Liam going to run into trouble in his desperation to prove his worth to Scott? Is Stiles going to finally snap and make good on his threats? So many questions, so few episodes left!
