We’re moving full steam ahead with the Benefactor’s roll call, and thankfully we knocked a couple of assassins off the list but more have come in their stead.
Let’s catch you up.
First up, in “Orphaned,” it’s a flashback as we find out that Kate was looped on The Benefactor by a good old-fashioned mix tape, as were the Orphans. So we have yet to learn how the Assassins list and the Benefactor list is gauged.
Liam gets himself kidnapped by Garrett and dropped in a well, but there’s no helpful Lassie. He’s also a ticking clock of wolfsbane so it’s super important that he be found in a timely manner.
Violet gets herself picked up at the school and then picked off by Kate during a police escort despite Garrett enlisting Scott to free her, in exchange for Liam’s location. One of the Berserkers kills Garrett at the scene and then they make off with Violet, who’s tortured and killed.
We learn Parrish is on the Benefactor’s list but we don’t know why, and he doesn’t either (or so he says).
Lydia and Stiles go see Meredith and she shuts them down because of the Benefactor, and then snaps and kills herself, which rattles the hell out of Lydia.
Down in the well, Liam remembers to roar and Scott finds him.
Kate confronts he brother and her heart grows a couple of sizes when she doesn’t let the Berserkers kill him, and he doesn’t kill her. Then Peter comes calling on her to broker a partnership.
Derek borrows Malia when he can’t track anymore and out on the bluff they find Satomi’s pack dead and Braeden barely alive. Scott also finds the cash Garrett stashed and has an existential crisis about it while Mama McCall pleads with the power company to turn their house back on.
In “Weaponized,” the gang is at the school taking PSATs (I thought they were juniors?). Then they start dropping like flies due to some sort of virus with a rash that sets off mega alarm belle in Lydia’s mom, who has the school quarantined.
It seems to impact the supernatural students moreso than others so Stiles takes Malia, Kira and Scott down to the vault.
When Stiles goes back upstairs, he leaves Malia his jacket, essentially telling her not to die. It’s very sweet until she later finds the list in his pocket and there’s her last name–Hale. Stiles also nearly gets shot as the assassin du jour wants the location where Scott & co. are hiding but Scott’s dad shows up and kills him.
He passes along to Stiles the news from Satomi–who showed up at the clinic–that Reishi tea (which she used to bring to Mama Hale and is now conveniently down in the vault) is the cure for this seemingly weaponized version of canine distemper.
Stiles gets the word to them and saves the day–screaming to Scott through the vault door to find the jar of Reishi and then just collapsing, exhausted. I love that they had a moment when the doors opened, Scott fell out, and they were all OK. I’ve said for years that they’re the love story. I’m still going with that.
Before Stiles and Scott separate, they play a game of how bad is it financially, and when Lydia gets to the school her mom jokes about picking up overtime, so it seems like the recession is finally in Beacon Hills. That feels late in coming, but OK. if it turns out the Benefactor list is some weird diatribe on the economy, that will be disappointing.
Satomi loses one of hers at the hospital; and then fights off another assassin who’s coming for her, but she prevails.
So the list goes on, everybody lives to tell the tale, and the assassins keep coming. I’m kind of digging all the adults getting to step up. We had Argent and Scott agreeing to disagree to get to Kate and the Orphans, and then we had Lydia’s mom jumping into action when the kids got sick, Kira’s dad helping Scott, the Sheriff trying to navigate law enforcement and, the “other,” and both Mama and Papa McCall being all badass.
I hope something breaks the right way for Lydia soon. She took Meredith’s death to heart and apologized to her in spirit as she left a tantalizing clue that she’d been in the white room at grandma’s.
Only five episodes left this summer (I know!).
Here’s a sneak peek for tonight:
Photo courtesy of MTV.