OK, so last week’s Teen Wolf was a gut punch as MTV made good on its promises that SOMEONE WILL DIE. It just wasn’t anybody I even remotely had on a short list.
So we pick up with Lydia and NotStiles in the catacombs around the camp as he taunts her about feeding on her fears and questioning whether her friends are in fact coming. Back home, Stiles is wracked with guilt over all he’s wrought and Scott swears up and down they’re going to fix it, even though Stiles is getting weaker by the minute. We do at least get a very sweet, heartfelt reunion between him and his dad.
In the “not heartfelt” category, we have a discussion with Scott and his dad, where he confesses that an accident with Scott triggered his sobriety and is why he left, and Scott shuts him down that essentially walking away was a punk move because every room in the house is marked with some sort of injury, and Scott’s been just fine without him, thank you.
Over at the Argents, Papa Argent and Allison work on her arrow problem, and she makes peace with her dad, telling him everything she needs him to know — that she loves him that she’s proud of him, and proud of them. He reassures her that he will be fine. She says she needs to say it anyway.
She also has a cute scene with Isaac when they find Lydia’s car and she clears the air that it was 100% him in her bed the night he came home. He assures her that it was most certainly him. Sadly, there’s no time for making out as Allison finds the first of repeated admonitions from Lydia that they do not look for her.
Stiles pieces together that the girl he overheard talking into a dead pay phone at Eichen House is another Banshee, and she soon breaks herself out before Sheriff Stilinksi can speak to her. She shows up at the school, where coach intervenes with a reminder of his no bullies policy as he tasers an orderly (and former classmate) who’s come to fetch her.
Once Stiles and Isaac get her alone, she reiterates that Lydia doesn’t want to be found but then she repeats the “coup de foudre” phrase from “The Fox and the Wolf,” which Scott hears, and he tells them he knows where Lydia is.
Now, why NOBODY took Lydia at her word and left her alone is beyond me, but the net net is that EVERYBODY — Kira, Allison Isaac, Scott, and Stiles come to the site. Scott warms them they don’t have to be there and Allison says she’s there for her best friend; Isaac jokes he didn’t feel like doing his homework. Then Noshiko shows up with her Oni.
Earlier in the episode, the Scavos get shot up outside the school with shotgun shells dosed with wolfsbane and something about the shell markings is a warning for Papa Argent. When Allison calls to tell him where she’s going, he begs her not to.
Once everybody’s at the site, we shift back to the bowels of the building, where NotStiles and Lydia are holed up and when the Oni descend, Lydia realizes the whole thing has been a ruse, and her admonition is made real as NotStiles snaps Noshiko’s last tail and claims control of the Oni. Lydia finds herself alone as Scott and Stiles reach her and she screams at him that they weren’t supposed to come.
She begs him to tell her who came with him and she sends him back outside, where the Oni have appeared in the courtyard to strike against the pack. Noshiko pulls Kira to safety, and Isaac is in a precarious spot when Allison starts talking shots with her arrows. The first couple don’t hit their mark but the last one does.
She doesn’t have time to celebrate because as she turns, she’s driven through by an Oni sword. Scott makes it to the surface in time to see her fall and he rushes to her and falls to his knees, holding her. She starts to fade, and he tries to take her pain, and she calmly tells him there isn’t any. Then she tells him it’s OK, it’s perfect, because she’s in the arms of her first love, who she will always love. Then she repeats I love you over and over until her breathing stops.
An injured Isaac can only watch in tears, and Chris runs up as she dies. Inside the tunnel, Lydia and a faltering Stiles have been racing along until Stiles drops and Lydia screams Allison’s name when she realizes what’s happened outside.
Then the Oni and NotStiles disappear.
It was super hard to watch because you knew something was coming, but Allison was really the last one I expected to go. I figured Papa Argent was marked as soon as he and Allison had their scene together. But we learned after the episode aired that Crystal Reed asked to be released to pursue other opportunities, and I’m completely OK with that and wish her well. I loved her as Aliison, and people would have been on their frigging ears if the role had been recast.
Now we’ll have in Scott a warrior with a massive loss that rivals Derek’s loss of his first love. And we’re in for a super sea of awkward with Isaac and Kira.
Tomorrow the season finale airs at 10 pm E/9 C, and MTV in the US kicks off with a day-long marathon of season 3.5 starting at 10:30 am ET.
Here’s a sneak peek of the final episode of season three, “The Divine Move.”