Teen Wolf Recap: “Unleashed”

by Kevin Ranson:

Teen Wolf Recap: “Unleashed”
Original Air Date (MTV): Monday June 24, 2013
Season 3 Episode 4

She’s got it bad, got it bad, got it bad! Teacher’s hot for Derek…! Did anyone not see that coming?

This week’s first victim – we’ll call him “Kyle” – thinks he was just taking his dog to the vet, but it the dog got the better end of this checkup. Turns out the dog digested a clue: mistletoe. Check your D&D manuals, folks; I think someone just rolled up a new villain, but are they working with the Alpha Pack? Fresh off her first rescue at the end of our last episode, Jennifer the English teacher is checked up on by Derek; mandatory sexual tension ensues.

Scott tells Stiles about the missing dog owner, so Stiles tells Scott he’s still a virgin; the conversation is a bit weighted. Scott and Stiles suit up with Isaac for a little cross-country run but run afoul of the Doublemint twins; they don’t get too far into their growling contest before the missing dog owner is found dead – someone killed Kyle! The twins don’t seem to have a clue about it, but Isaac is still convinced they need killing.

Back at the Derek lair – interrupting a he-did, she-did argument with Cora – Deucalion makes a grand entrance behind his pack dogs Ennis (hot dude) and Kali (hot babe). While Kali keeps Derek impaled with a pipe, the alpha leader explains his plan to have Derek kill one of his pack – and that doing so will make him want to kill all of them to absorb their power. Yeah, alphas do that. To emphasize the point, Deucalion enjoys a villainous monologue and a thunder-enhanced alpha-wolf power-up before leaving Derek and Cora to think things over. Too bad about Duke’s sunglasses; those looked expensive.

Alison is caught catching a few winks by Ms. Morrell in her French class; the quickly coded conversation ends with Alison getting detention but no answers about her teacher being at the bank. Meanwhile, the twins set up Isaac for his own detention by staging a fight – point: Doublemint twins! Stiles shadows his dad and finds out that Kyle the dog owner wasn’t a virgin – and that the FBI are in town to investigate the “serial killings.”

At lunchtime detention, Mr. Harris pairs Alison and Isaac to restock the janitor’s closet; Alison asks Isaac not to tell anyone he saw her at the school herding Boyd and Cora. When someone shuts and blocks the closet door – two guesses who – Isaac comes very close to rearranging Alison before Scott gets them out and commands Isaac to calm down. Stiles runs into Boyd at school; he says he was in Jr. ROTC with Kyle; seems kind of important!

Alison, Scott, and Isaac pool resources to tick of the Doublemint twins – point! Scott pack! – although it probably wasn’t the best idea to mess with their bikes. Stiles pops in on the the good Dr. Deaton, the guy who always seems to know what’s going on. Back in school, Lydia can’t figure out how she wandered into the band room, but the tardy band teacher managed to leave a musical clue behind on his board-issue product-placement smart phone – convenient!

And the answer is: druids! Dr. Deaton has a confessional moment with Stiles and learns that “druid” is Gaelic for “wise oak.” While Lydia teaches viewers how to upload mp3s to Dropbox, she also remembers that Mr. Harris went to military school. Not a moment too soon, the teacher in question hears the creepy evil druid music in his empty classroom. The disappeared Harris leaves a clue behind on his papers: “Darach,” the Gaelic word for “dark oak.” That’s gotta be a 12 hit-die monster at least, right?

The twins show off their combo party trick to Scott and Isaac, but Deucalion arrives to discipline his boys before leading them away. After school, Derek throws Isaac out of the lair – cue the thunderstorm – sending Isaac crawling to Scott for someplace to crash. Helplessly lashed to a tree elsewhere in the storm, Mr. Harris pleads for his life; he knew who it was all along, but it doesn’t save him.

Who is Darach? My money is on Ms. Morrell; could that be why she’s hanging out with the likes Deucalion?

Are you watching? Have a theory? Just love or hate something? Leave a comment!

Kevin A. Ranson is the author of The Spooky Chronicles and the upcoming vampire thriller The Matriarch. He also the creator/critic for MovieCrypt.com and the “ghost writer” for its horror host Grim D. Reaper (often seen skulking around horror conventions). Find him on Facebook, on Twitter @KevinARanson, and his author blog at ThinkingSkull.com.