Teen Wolf 1-12: “Code Breaker”

Season finale time!  Lots of action! Lots of bloodshed! Lots of people getting slammed against walls! Let’s do this.

So Scott just inadvertently revealed his werewolf identity to Allison. As Allison looks after him in shock and horror, Scott runs away from the school and flees into the woods, sobbing hysterically. While for the most part the Sturm und Drang of the Scott-Allison relationship makes me roll my eyes in exasperation, the moment nicely captures Scott’s utter heartbreak. Hard not to feel bad for the poor kid.

On the lacrosse field, Peter orders Stiles to come with him. Stiles refuses to leave Lydia bleeding to death on the grass, so Peter lets him call Jackson to tell him where to find her. Peter advises him not to waste time worrying about Lydia: Either she’ll turn into a werewolf or she’ll die, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it now.


Back at the Argent house, Chris Argent hurls things around and pitches a full-scale hissyfit, furious with Kate for spilling the beans to Allison about the existence of werewolves. Hate to break this to you, Chris, but even if Kate had kept her mouth shut, Allison would’ve worked it out on her own around the time her boyfriend transformed into a werewolf in front of her. Of all the reasons to be vexed with Kate, this is pretty low on the list. Chris orders Kate to take Allison out of town until their problems with the Alpha are resolved.

Jackson carries Lydia, bloody and unconscious, off the lacrosse field and brings her to the hospital. Sheriff Stilinski slams Jackson against the wall and demands to know why he didn’t do a better job of looking after his date. He’s furious, until Jackson points out that Lydia’s date for the formal was actually… Stiles. You know, I like Sheriff Stilinski (and Linden Ashby is great in the role), but I often have grave misgivings about his competence.


Peter takes Stiles to a parking garage, whips out a laptop, manhandles him a bit, and forces him to locate Scott’s phone, which is currently in Derek’s possession. To do this, Stiles logs into Scott’s account (Peter: “His user name is ‘Allison’? His password is also ‘Allison’?” Stiles: “Still want him in your pack?”). Using the GPS on Scott’s phone, Stiles and Peter discover that Kate’s secret lair, where she’s holding Derek captive, is located underneath the burned ruins of the Hale house.

Miserable and desperate, Scott howls at the moon. Derek (still shirtless, still in chains, still looking like he wandered off the cover of an especially tawdry romance novel) howls right back at him, thus alerting Scott to his location.

Now that Stiles has helped him pinpoint Derek’s location, Peter releases him. First, though, he magnanimously offers to turn him into a werewolf as a reward for his assistance. Stiles insists he’s not even the slightest bit interested. Nope, not one whit. Peter, with his super-enhanced werewolf senses, knows he’s lying, but lets the matter drop anyway.


Stiles races to the hospital to check on Lydia. In addition to losing a lot of blood, she’s having a bad allergic reaction to something. Sheriff Stilinski bawls him out and grills him, unsuccessfully, about Lydia’s attacker. In a particularly clunky segue, Stilinski mentions how, thanks to the tip he received from Mr. Harris a few episodes back, he now believes Kate Argent was responsible for the fire that killed Derek’s family.

Scott tracks down Derek via his howl and frees him from his chains, then asks for his help in stopping Peter from slaughtering all the Argents, Allison included, to get revenge on Kate. Derek initially refuses, until Scott convinces him that Peter deliberately lured Laura Hale to Beacon Hills and murdered her to become the Alpha.


Back at the hospital, Jackson offers to drive Stiles to the Hale house to find Scott. Stiles is too traumatized by recent events to marvel at the heretofore unseen sight of Jackson actually being sort of helpful and considerate. Before they can take off, the boys are apprehended by Chris Argent and his lackeys, who are hell-bent on finding Scott. Chris drags Jackson and Stiles into an empty room to interrogate and manhandle them (in a delightful motif, Jackson and Stiles get manhandled by pretty much everyone in this episode). Stiles tells him Kate murdered the Hale family, thus violating the nigh-sacrosanct werewolf hunter code, which clearly states that no innocents may be harmed in the course of their duties. Chris mulls this over and decides that, yes, this does sound like something Kate would do.


Scott and Derek make it out of the underground lair and scurry through the woods. They’re ambushed by an arrow-shooting Allison, of all the damn people, who joins her crazy aunt for a rousing spot of werewolf-hunting. While Allison is more than happy to riddle Derek and Scott with arrows, she’s horrified to learn that Kate actually wants to kill them. Kate whips out a gun and prepares to shoot Scott. Before she can pull the trigger, Chris Argent pops up and orders his sister to knock it off with all this murdering crap.


And because things weren’t quite chaotic enough, Peter bursts onto the scene and knocks out Chris, then grabs Kate by the neck and drags her into the ruins of the Hale house, with Allison following. Peter tells Kate that if she apologizes for murdering his family, he’ll let Allison live. Kate stammers out an apology, and Peter rips her throat open.


Farewell, Kate. You were crazy and sadistic and icky and sort of awesome.

After dropping Kate’s lifeless body to the floor, Peter turns to Allison: “I don’t know about you, Allison, but that apology didn’t sound very sincere.” He advances on her.

Derek and Scott launch a joint attack! A big, messy fight ensues! We get lots of fancy werewolf effects, some more convincing than others! Peter transforms into the Alpha and starts to clobber both Derek and Scott at once. Things look grim, until new fun couple Stiles and Jackson zip up in the Porsche and hurl self-igniting Molotov cocktails—Lydia’s special recipe, presumably—at the Alpha and char it to a crisp.

As Peter lies dying, Allison tenderly kisses Scott, who is still in werewolf mode. Chris Argent scowls ominously, but makes no move to stop his daughter. Derek approaches a still-moving Peter and, above Scott’s protests—after all, Scott needs the Alpha alive if he’s ever going to be cured—slashes his throat. Upon Peter’s death, Derek’s eyes glow red. He triumphantly announces that he’s now an Alpha. Nobody else looks especially thrilled about this, except maybe Jackson, who is clearly getting some Very Bad Ideas.

Stiles and Scott sneak into the hospital to check on Lydia. She’s still unconscious. Her vital signs are good, but her wound hasn’t healed itself. So she’s not dying, but she’s also not a werewolf. “Then what the hell is she?” Stiles asks.

And then Jackson, who has a confoundingly slow learning curve, returns to the Hale house to plead with Derek yet again to turn him into a werewolf. Because that worked out so well for him last time. This time around, Derek is only too happy to give him the bite.

Finally, on the roof of the Argent home, Scott and Allison snuggle together blissfully and kiss beneath the moon.


A strong end to a swell first season. Season Two recaps will commence immediately.

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