Parrish is asleep on his couch. He voices over that every night, he leaves and then comes home to burned clothes and blood. He’d think he was sleepwalking if he didn’t know about the supernatural. He knows he’s going out for a reason – he’s searching for something. He asks the person he’s talking to to follow him.
Chris watches over Parrish as he sleeps. Parrish voices over that he needs to know if he’s been hurting or killing people. If necessary, he wants someone to stop him. Parrish gets up in hellhound mode and Chris texts Scott that he’s leaving. Scott, Stiles, and Liam head to the school to intercept Parrish as Chris follows him. Liam hasn’t learned stealth yet, and he closes the door of the Stilesmobile a little too loudly. The teens meet up with Chris, who says he lost Parrish because he was moving too quickly. You had one job, Chris!
Liam spots a body, then another. There’s a bus full of corpses. One victim is still alive, and he begs for help. Parrish appears and says in a distorted voice that it’s a trap. Scott can’t help him. Indeed, no one can, because the Beast is about to literally tear him in half. “That’s big. No one said it was that big,” Stiles says of the Beast. “I did,” Liam protests. Now flaming, Parrish growls at the Beast and flicks out his claws. He runs toward the bus, then chases the Beast down the street. Chris says that the Beast is getting smarter.
Malia is hiding from the Desert Wolf at Maison McCall, with Braeden as her personal bodyguard. Malia doesn’t think hiding is necessary, since the Desert Wolf can’t get her power back until the next full moon. Braeden isn’t 100 percent convinced that’s true, so she won’t take any chances. Melissa agrees that you can never be too careful. She leaves a line of mountain ash behind in the doorway as she leaves for a shift.
Scott’s at Kira’s, making out with her half-naked. They discuss the fact that they have a lacrosse game the next day, something incredibly normal in their crazy lives. They haven’t practiced much, so she expects them to lose, but he says they won’t. In the morning, Kira wakes up first and does a few moves with a sword. Her eyes start glowing. Scott watches from the bed, not letting her know that he’s awake, too.
Corey has made what some might see as a cowardly decision, but one that I fully support: He’s leaving town. He’s covered in scars from being set on fire by Parrish, and he’d like to avoid another near-death experience. Mason notes that even though it’s taking him a long time to heal, he is making progress. Corey has super-powers, and people like Mason need people like him to save them.
Corey doesn’t think Mason needs anyone’s help. He’s smart, and smart people always survive. Mason asks Corey to survive with him. Scott will have a plan; the pack always does. Just recently, they brought Hayden to the locker room and used jammers to block the Doctors’ frequencies. A lightbulb goes off in Mason’s head. He realizes that the Beast always appears near transmission sources, like at the telecom site and Fort Jewett, which has big radar arrays. Maybe the Doctors are broadcasting something with a high frequency to lure it out.
The good news is that the guys have a guess as to where the Beast might make his next appearance. The bad news is that it’s the school, when local media outlets come to cover a charity lacrosse game. There will be a ton of people at the field for the Beast to pick off.
In the library, Liam shares Mason’s theory with Scott, Stiles, and Lydia. Lydia wonders if the Doctor’s high-frequency transmission is what makes the Beast shift. Scott thinks that, based on what Chris said about the Beast getting smarter, the Doctors are trying to make the Beast stronger by making him shift more. Lydia compares that to Peter. The more he shifted, the faster his burns healed. Scott and Liam realize that the Doctors want the Beast to become as strong and as fast as possible as quickly as possible.
Stiles produces a crime-scene photo of the shoe print left behind by the Beast’s human form. All they know is that it’s a size 10. Well, and it has Parrish’s blood on the sole. Or at least it did, because I would imagine that the wearer would notice blood on their shoes and clean it off. Anyway, Liam asks if they’re going to get the lacrosse game canceled. Stiles says they’ll play and “hope really hard that it doesn’t turn into a blood-soaked massacre.”
Liam notes that they’re missing out on the chance to catch the Beast. They know where and when it will appear. Scott says there will be too many people there to take the risk. Lydia adds that they don’t know for sure that the Beast will show up. She and Stiles try but fail to convince themselves that everything will go great and no one will be killed horribly. The four agree that they need to get the game canceled.
As they’re leaving the library, Lydia pauses as if she hears or senses something. She goes to the shelves and finds a book on the floor. It’s open to a page featuring a picture of a man holding a spear and fighting a big black dog. Parrish is nearby, covered in soot and claw marks.
Stiles asks Sheriff S. to cancel the game, but he can’t do that without convincing the school board that there’s a credible threat. “A giant werewolf might rampage across the field, killing people,” Stiles says. “That’s an incredible threat.” Sheriff S. says he’ll increase the amount of deputies at the game. Yeah, that’ll stop the Beast! He realizes that there’s another way to go about this: The coach can forfeit. Unfortunately, the team has been under the care of a new coach who’s very by-the-book. Coach has been in rehab for the past seven months. Sheriff S. suggests that Stiles go “check on his progress.”
Scott and Stiles go to the rehab facility and find Coach spaced out in a lounge. “Coach, you’re in rehab. You didn’t have a lobotomy,” Stiles says. He starts to reach for a checker on a nearby board, and Coach is suddenly no longer catatonic. He orders Stiles to keep his hands off the game, which he’s been playing with a nurse. Stiles tells him it’s time for him to check out. But Coach doesn’t want to go – his chances of being shot by an arrow are much lower here.
Scott tells him that they need him to coach the charity game. Coach refuses. Stiles asks how he’s conned the staff into letting him stay. Coach admits that he relapses every month, just when he’s about to be released (“I have phenomenal health insurance”). He has no interest in participating in the charity game or in ever coaching at Beacon Hills High again. The guys tell him that’s fine – they just need him to forfeit the game.
Lydia takes Parrish to Chris and Gerard, who see that he’s slowly healing. He doesn’t remember much of his fight with the Beast, but he does remember it going poorly for him. The Argents have some ideas for how to help him. They think that if he resolves his inner conflict – i.e., the fact that he has a hellhound inside him – he’ll do better in his external conflict with the Beast. They want to introduce him to the hellhound. And conveniently, they have a machine that will help them do that!
As local TV stations start setting up vans with transmitters at the lacrosse game (which is against Devenford Prep, because apparently they’re the only school Beacon Hills High plays anymore), Chris explains that the machine will lower Parrish’s body temperature to a level that would kill a normal person. This should allow him to access the supernatural part of his unconscious. Lydia notes that that’s dangerous, but Gerard thinks it would be more dangerous if Parrish were unable to evolve to take on the Beast.
Every night the so-far-unidentified teen housing the Beast transforms, the Beast starts to remember a little more about its original identity. Eventually, it’ll remember its human name. The man the Beast used to be wants to live, too. If they don’t stop the Beast, the man will become alive again. Lydia mentions what Valack said about the teen host being gone once the Beast remembers who it used to be. Parrish gets in the machine, which fills with cold fog. He puts his hand on the glass front, and when Lydia tries to move closer, Gerard holds her back.
The rest of the pack is in a classroom, going over their plan for the game. Mason and Corey will check Devenford’s bus to see if any of the players have bloody shoes. Malia will dismantle the transmitters. Then they just have to wait for Coach to forfeit. Malia asks what happens if they have to face the Beast. She knows they don’t stand a chance. Scott’s still healing from the injuries Theo gave him. Kira says he’s not, actually.
Scott confirms this. He healed the night they got Lydia out of Eichen House. He credits the reunion of the pack. Liam notes that the Beast doesn’t have a pack. Scott is confident that they’ll come out of this okay. “No one dies tonight,” he vows.
Hayden arrives for the game as the players get ready. Stiles tells Coach that it’s time to forfeit. But Coach has never forfeited and he never will. They’re playing. Uh…you guys have a plan B, right? Right?? No, not really. Malia is still in charge of taking out the transmitters, and Corey and Mason are still tasked with finding the bloody shoes. Scott tries to convince Liam (and himself) that pinpointing one person out of 400 isn’t unreasonable. Stiles suggests that they call in a bomb threat, but Sheriff S. tells him that if it goes the way a recent one did at an airport, they’ll just attract more media attention.
As Scott and Brett face off for the start of the game, Brett says that Lori is searching the bleachers for bloody shoes. Corey and Mason head to the bus and begin looking through the players’ bags. Malia pulls out transmitter wires as Kira knocks down a player to score a goal. Stiles comments to Scott that she’s playing pretty aggressively. A glimpse at the field shows that she actually knocked down multiple players. Her eyes glow as she passes the guys, and Scott says that they might have a problem.
Chris tells Lydia to talk to Parrish while he’s in the machine. She’ll be able to reach him. Instead, she reaches the hellhound, which speaks in the voice Parrish used when the guys found the bodies on the bus. Lydia asks what happened to Parrish. The hellhound replies that he died and doesn’t exist anymore.
Kira continues her aggressive game play. “That girl is damn serious about charity,” Coach comments. Scott suggests that she ease up. Kira says she just wants to win. He points out that she doesn’t even have the ball. In a distorted voice, she tells him to stay out of her way. Okay, it’s time to take her out of the game. Liam and Scott agree that they need to employ their backup plan. Scott clues Brett in, and he knocks Kira down. She responds by smacking him with her lacrosse stick. That gets her kicked out of the game. The guys are grateful for Brett’s help, but I think he would have preferred a less violent plan.
Kira heads off the field, muttering something in Japanese. Scott signals for Lori to follow her. Malia continues yanking wires, then gets interrupted by the last person she wanted to see right now, even less than the Beast. “B&^$%,” Malia spits out. “I prefer ‘Mom,'” the Desert Wolf replies.
Inside the school, Lori speaks to Kira in Japanese. Kira insults her accent, then hits her. The two fight, and Kira demonstrates that she’s not interested in Lori’s suggestion that they talk things out. Back outside, Malia tries to get rid of the Desert Wolf, who doesn’t care that the Beast could show up and murder a bunch of people. Malia threatens to kill her, and the Desert Wolf smirks that Malia is definitely her daughter.
Sheriff S. and Melissa talk chimeras over the phone. He knows that Valack told Lydia that there’s another who wasn’t on the list of possibilities. Corey and Mason haven’t had any luck on the bus, and they almost get busted by a Devenford player who comes to get something. Corey uses his powers of invisibility to make himself and Mason disappear before they’re spotted. They know they should get going, but why not wait a little while and make out first? Corey stops suddenly, though, clearly uneasy even though he says he’s okay.
The score is 5 to 1 with Devenford winning. Hayden eavesdrops from the stands as Liam expresses his disappointment that they’re not playing well. Scott says they’re just buying time for the others. As he promised earlier, no one’s getting hurt tonight. He hears Kira and Lori’s fight, which has moved to the locker room and become a duel with lacrosse sticks. Lori gets in a great hit across Kira’s face, but it just makes Kira madder.
The girls take the fight to a hallway, and Scott runs in to tell Kira to knock it off. She just tosses him to the floor. She approaches him, her eyes glowing, and he tries to break through to her, knowing she’s being controlled by her fox spirit. It starts flaming, but when Scott growls Kira’s name, he finally gets through to her. She asks what she did.
Liam tells Brett not to score so many goals so they can have more time. Brett’s like, “It’s your team’s fault for sucking so hard.” Hayden comes to Liam during a timeout and announces that she wants to join Scott’s pack. She wants to be with them – and with Liam. A kiss sends him back to the game with renewed optimism.
Stiles doesn’t think Malia’s been able to take out all the transmitters, so Liam says they’ll buy her more time by evening up the score. The Desert Wolf asks Malia who she’s trying to save. Random people? Her “little high school friends”? As Liam starts turning things around on the field, Stiles slips away to check people’s shoes in the stands. He’s not very subtle about it, and ends up getting kicked in the head by Sydney.
Lydia wants more details on Parrish’s supposed death. The hellhound explains that he’s just a body, “a means to an end.” The hellhound is “infinite” and beyond life and death. It has no use for Parrish. Lydia says they need him. The hellhound tells her that Parrish can’t kill the Beast. She replies that the hellhound can’t, either. She’s a harbinger of death like it is, and she knows people are going to die. If it doesn’t let Parrish in, he’ll die, too. The hellhound doesn’t reply, so Lydia says that it’ll die as well. It needs Parrish.
Chris and Gerard tell her to get the hellhound to remember the moment Parrish died. The hellhound says it was the moment it was born. Flashbacks show that at the same time Parrish tried to defuse a bomb but instead detonated it, the surrogates were doing their sacrifice. Inside the machine, Parrish starts roaring and shaking the equipment. He opens the door and falls out into Lydia’s arms. He tells her that he knows who he is and what he has to do – he has to leave.
Liam evens up the score just seconds before the clock runs out, putting the game into overtime. Malia resigns herself to a fight with the Desert Wolf, who spots Stiles and guesses that he’s the one she’s trying to protect. While Malia isn’t looking, the Desert Wolf leaves. Well, that’s one problem gone. Malia goes right back to pulling wires, but a cameraman has already fixed a transmitter she previously destroyed. His anchor is ready to go live.
Her microphone makes feedback blare out of all the speakers on the field. Coach wishes he’d stayed in rehab. Hayden senses that something bad is happening. Stiles and Liam hear growling, and Liam heads toward it. As he jumps up to attack, the Beast leaps over a school bus at him. A bunch of people run into the school to hide, alerting Scott, Kira, and Lori that something’s going on. They hide in a classroom as the Beast runs past. Scott opens the door and sees that it left claw marks in a wall.
Etc.: There’s a little hint to the Beast’s identity in this episode that I never caught before.
I would never be able to fall asleep with Chris sitting in the room, watching me. I’d expect to wake up tied to a chair.
Mason asking Corey to survive with him is a nice callback to when Corey asked Mason to stay alive with him.
I’d love to know where a high school teacher/coach got such “phenomenal insurance” that covers months of treatment in a private rehab center.
Coach isn’t in a charitable mood:
Coach: “I hate charity games. They’re meaningless.”
Stiles: “I don’t think the charities would agree.”
Coach: “What’s it for this year?”
Scott: “Cancer.”
Coach: “For or against?”
Stiles: “Against, Coach. Deeply against!”
Also, “for or against?” is funny but also makes me cringe because just a couple months before this episode aired, Tyler Posey’s (Scott) mother died of cancer.
The pack really should have brought Braeden to the lacrosse game. Why not have all hands on deck?
It’s not explained how Lori knows Japanese, but someone pointed out that Satomi was her alpha, so Lori probably learned it from her.
I’m sure they used stunt doubles for some of Kira and Lori’s fight, but Arden Cho and Lily Bleu Andrew do a good amount of it, and they both do an excellent job.
Forgive me for trying to find logic here but how did the surrogate ritual in Beacon Hills awaken/birth/whatever a hellhound in a person in Afghanistan?
An Eternity of Misery 