Teen Wolf “Face-to-Faceless” Review

This week we got a double-dosage of Teen Wolf (“Pressure Test” review coming soon), and thankfully, I found them more enjoyable than last week’s “After Images.” The ball is rolling in Beacon Hills as Scott and his pack realize that they’re about to go to war with Gerard and these amateur hunters that he’s training. Liam also has to face the consequences of shifting in front of people after Brett and Lori’s death. We’re about halfway through the season – cue me getting emotional over not being ready for it to end – and things are really heating up!

Here’s what went down in “Face-to-Faceless”:

The episode kicks off with Aaron casually entering the morgue and opening the drawer where the faceless pulpy body resides. He pulls out the body and pulls down the sheet before placing his hands around its neck and hovering his face right above the body’s “face.” If you think this couldn’t get any weirder, you’re wrong. He opens his mouth and all those spiders he got a attacked with come spewing out all over the body. Aaron collapses to the ground (eyes open) and the pulpy body sits up. Lovely. Just lovely I tell ya.

Next up, we have a newbie chick – her name is Quinn – who has to pull over because she got a flat tire. When she gets out of her car, she is suddenly surrounded by a bunch of creepers who try to intimidate her. One of the guys pulls an arrow out of her tire and asks if she had ever seen anything like it. She confesses that she has, and they move in for the attack, but Quinn is a tough cookie. Why? Because she’s a werewolf that’s why! She snarls with her fangs and her beta eyes and takes out every single one of them. You go, girl! Things seem to look up for her as a deputy pulls up and she’s obviously relieved. Unfortunately, the officer pulls out her gun and shoots Quinn right in the head! Clearly we have some more amateur hunters on our hands now.

The next morning, Liam hides under his covers as Scott tries to get him out of bed to get to school. Even though he’s a terrible liar, he claims that he’s “deathly sick” with the flu or pneumonia, but Scott is having none of it. Werewolves can’t get sick, but he can get in trouble if he doesn’t get to school. Scott yanks the covers down and Liam explains that he doesn’t think he should be going anywhere ever again after exposing his werewolf side to half the town basically. Scott said it doesn’t matter, he needs to pretend that nothing happened. He advises his beta to think of it like Clark Kent as Superman when he gets caught with his glasses off and how he doesn’t give up, he just says he’s still Clark Kent. When Liam doesn’t fully get the reference, Scott drags him out of bed and tells him he wants him to be Liam Dunbar and go to school.  He uses other references like Captain America, but Liam soon argues that reference because everyone already loves Captain America, unlike them. “They hate us for trying to save their lives.” “You’re right. We are trying to save lives, which is why you’re going to get up and go to school and pretend like nothing happened because if you don’t, more people could die.” It’s then that Liam gets a little vulnerable and we can see that he feels guilty for Brett and Lori’s death. Scott tries to comfort him by saying that he knows Liam, and if he’s afraid to see any more of his friends die, then he’ll go to school.Scott’s little pep talk must have worked because Liam then walks through the doors of the school, but it’s obvious he’s still a bit worried. At first, everything is fine. Even Mason thinks everything will be fine, but as they turn the corner, the stares and the whispers begin, and they are both very aware of it. Mason tells him to just block it out. Liam believes that everyone knows. Mason tells him that it’s just rumors, but then Corey with his perfect timing walks up and states that everyone knows because two lacrosse players were there when Liam wolfed out. Mason tries to deflect it, but Corey is like nope. Liam wants to leave, but Mason tells him he can’t because the rumors will never stop. He has to convince them that he’s a regular kid. Liam argues that he’s not a regular kid. “Remember what Scott said, be Clark Kent.” “Clark Kent turns into a guy with a red and blue outfit with a cape. I turn into a monster with claws and fangs.” Corey advises him to just get through the school day without shifting in front of everyone.In the Argent bunker, Scott, Malia and Lydia have met up with Argent to explain to him that Brett and Lori were murdered. They tell him that whoever the new hunter is, he *cough* she *cough* has a teacher. Argent’s first guess (I’m assuming) is Gerard and blames himself since he’s the one that let him go. Lydia tries to comfort him by saying he couldn’t have done anything, to which Malia bluntly states that he could have killed Gerard. Lydia: “We’re not executioners.” Malia: “You are when it comes to war.” Scott: “That’s why we’re going to make peace.” They all know that a war is coming, but Scott and Argent suggest a peace summit before it’s too late. Lydia reminds them of Gerard’s last peace summit with Deucalion in which he killed his own men and blinded Deucalion.  Argent steps up to the plate to talk to Gerard first since he – kind of – doesn’t think his own father would kill him. He says Gerard’s terms will probably be difficult to meet, but Scott understands that it’s a negotiation in which he’ll have to give something up. Argent tells him to figure out how far he’s willing to go to stop a war.

Back at the school, Liam enters the locker room to see all of his teammates gathered around. They tell him that it’s a team meeting about how they “don’t want someone like him” as their captain anymore and that they’re voting him out. Liam starts to get angry, “What if I’m not ready to go?” Nolan grows a pair and bows up to Liam. Liam: “You think you can take me? Hmm?” He glows his yellow eyes at him and Coach walks in just as Nolan seemed ready to do something. He questions who called the meeting without him. Liam takes one for the team and says that he did. He lies and says that his grades are struggling so he wants to step down as captain and that they just voted Nolan to be the captain. Coach says that Nolan is a great player and leader, but doesn’t know which one he is, of course. Oh, how I love Coach, even more so later in the episode.

Argent meets up with Gerard in a warehouse full of weaponry. Gerard: “I take it you’re not here to rejoin the fight.” Argent: “I’m here to stop it.” He then goes on to propose a meeting to negotiate a peaceful solution before everything goes too far. Gerard says it’s funny that Argent thought he was the better choice to come since he was the last one who shot Gerard. “If you still believe in the code, you’ll meet with him.” A few armored men appear, and Gerard sends Argent off with the message of telling Scott to run. You need to chill, old man. Go somewhere and do old man things instead of hunting teenagers.

Liam may have slicked his way out of the locker room debacle, but he isn’t getting out unscathed. As he’s walking down the hall with Corey and Mason, Corey confesses that he’s been spying on Nolan ever since he stabbed him, and he heard him talking to Gabe about how they’re going to try to get him to shift so everyone can see the proof. Liam hears Nolan (and Gabe) coming and ducks into the guidance counselor office, leaving Mason and Corey to stand there awkwardly.

I guess Liam didn’t actually expect sketchy guidance counselor to be in her office at the time because when she says his name, he’s surprised, but tries to play it cool by saying he thought they had an appointment – or rather he wanted to make an appointment… now. He tosses his bag down and sits in the chair and says he’s having a lot of big issues. Tamora confesses that she’s heard the rumor going around that some kids are giving him a hard time. She wants to help, but Liam has to be honest and tell her who’s harassing him. As she’s going on about how she doesn’t condone bullying and that he doesn’t have to think of it as turning them in, he spots two books about the supernatural on a shelf by her desk. He eyes her suspiciously and then sees the scratches on her neck. When he asks what happened, she says she got them from a branch in the woods. She tries to change the subject, but he pushes the topic, eventually asking who she was running from. Of course, she turns it around into a grammar lesson, but Liam is still suspicious and asks her again. She asks again for the names of those who were harassing him, and when he doesn’t say anything, she says that she can’t help him then. Lady, don’t play stupid. We know what you’re up to. Trying to recruit students into your crazy hunting business. SMH.

Argent shows up at the McCall house telling Melissa that Scott (and the rest of the pack) need to leave as soon as possible. He tells her that Gerard isn’t interested in negotiating, from what he can tell, Gerard wants genocide – because OF COURSE HE DOES! Ugh. He says that in Gerard’s eyes, Scott got half of his family killed. Melissa: “So, I’m just supposed to tell him to give up?” Argent: “I’m not asking him to give up. I just want him to survive.” “I have never told Scott to run and hide, and I’m not going to start now.” Argent tries to convince her, reminding her of the last time Scott was dead in her arms and she had to bring him back to life. Scott comes in and says there doesn’t have to be a fight since they now know that Tamora is the new hunter. Finally!

At the police station, Parrish is examining photos from Halwyn the hellhound’s murder scene and gets increasingly freaked out – sweating, panting, the works. Maybe he’s freaking out because he’s worrying that he’s next since he didn’t think hellhounds could be killed before? Anyway, his fear only increases when he sees the pulpy, faceless body inside the station one minute and then it’s gone the next, but then it pops up in a different place after he opens a door. He points his gun at it, but Stilinski is quick to push it down and ask him just what the hell he’s doing. Parrish tries to get out what was there, but can’t seem to catch his breath. Stilinski asks him what he saw, but I guess Parrish couldn’t think of what to call that nasty terrifying thing.

Back at the school, Tamora walks into the principal’s office for a meeting with “Miss. Martin” however, she’s met with a different one than she was expecting – Lydia. She was waiting on Tamora because she wanted to talk about coexistence between the supernaturals and humans. Tamora says, “that’s a bit of a challenge considering people like you aren’t quite the same as people like me.” Lydia: “that’s usually where coexistence breaks down, when we highlight our differences.” Lydia tells her that they went to Gerard to ask for a peace summit, but he refused, so she’s asking her to convince him. Tamora insinuates that she doesn’t want to stop the war that is coming. “You didn’t become a guidance counselor to hunt people. You’re supposed to help them.” Tamora tries to leave, but Lydia stops her and Tamora starts questioning about how Lydia knows who is going to die next. Lydia begs her to meet with Gerard.

Tamora must have agreed after that because next thing we see is Malia following Scott telling him that meeting her alone in the tunnels is a trap. Malia is worried about his safety, that he’s going to get himself killed. Scott starts to say something about how he wouldn’t be going if he didn’t think his pack could survive without him, but Malia tells him that’s not what she meant. Then they both get confused. Malia clearly has a lot of confusing feelings for Scott that she isn’t sure what to do with yet. Scott insists that he has to go… alone. He walks away and Malia puts her head in her hands, but when Scott turns around she puts on a fake smile and waves him off. Oh, these two. I’m really digging their dynamic!

Meanwhile, Mason is flabbergasted that their guidance counselor is the hunter trying to kill his friends and states that he’s never asking for guidance again – Stiles throwback anyone?? He and Liam take their seats in class, but when Liam grabs an empty seat, the girl next to him gets up and moves to another. The teacher asks if there was a problem, and he says not with him. The teacher then tries to get any of the students, besides Mason and Corey, to be his lab partner, but no one budges – even when she threatens to fail everyone. Corey then informs Liam that the entire lacrosse team is looking for him and blocking the exits. They want to try to make Liam shift in front of everyone. Ugh! Why can’t these newbies just mind their own business like Danny did?? Y’all remember Danny? Danny was chill.

Melissa brings Stilinski and Parrish into the morgue, I’m guessing Parrish told Stilinski what he saw and relayed it to Melissa? She tells them that some pretty strange things have been happening (that’s nothing new in Beacon Hills, Melissa), but she insists the body couldn’t have moved because “it’s locked in a drawer, has no skin or DNA, and no face.” Stilinski reconfirms that this thing terrified her and Argent, and she says that it did it without moving an inch. The officers put their hands on their guns as she opens the drawer, but to their dismay, the body is indeed gone.

Scott meets Tamora in the tunnels and sees that they are both surrounded by armed hunters. Scott: “I thought we were here to talk peace?” Tamora: “I agreed to come. I never agreed on peace.” SHADY! Guidance counselor is SHADY!

Back in the halls after class, Corey was right about the team having all the exits blocked. Mason, Liam and Corey came up with a plan, though. Mason leads an invisible Corey and Liam through the halls, trying to be as subtle as possible, but they keep getting blocked by the team. Nolan and Gabe finally get in front of and behind Mason. Nolan then pulls some magic dust out of his pocket and makes Liam and Corey reappear. Where does a newbie get that kind of stuff anyway?? Like did he somehow find the time to get the lowdown from Gerard?? I need these answers. Anyway, Gabe doesn’t waste any time shoving Liam to the ground. And so Liam’s day at school gets worse.

Gerard shows up in the tunnels, and Scott warns Tamora that there’s another side of the story and that Gerard isn’t the type of person she wants to follow, “he’s going to lead you off a cliff.” Gerard insists that he’s “merely an advisor” not a leader. Tamora states that he’s negotiating with her, not Gerard, so he asks her what he wants. “I want to see a werewolf beg for peace.” “Okay. Fine, I’ll beg. I’ll do whatever you want. Just tell me that we don’t have to kill each other. That we can find a way to make peace.” Tamora believes that Scott only cares now because, his people are dying. He offers for all of them to leave, but she says they’ll just follow and hunt them down until they’re all gone. He tells her that some of them have actually been protecting her (humans), and that she shouldn’t be afraid of them. “We protect people. People like you.” She tells him that he doesn’t know anything about people like her, and he asks her what happened to her.

Tamora recalls a faculty meeting running late one night. As her and the other teachers were leaving, they heard the beast. She was one of the people in the bus when Scott first saw the beast (in season 5b). She couldn’t believe she was still alive. She hid under a body until the beast disappeared, and then waited for someone to find her. She tells Scott that he was there with Parrish. “Did you even think to check if anyone was still alive?” “I didn’t know.” “You didn’t care. How many had to die so you could keep your secret? So you and your friends could carry on as if nothing ever happened?” We see Stilinski finally come to her aide at the bus. She tells Scott that he shouldn’t have come alone, then we hear Malia say that he didn’t as she tosses one of the hunters into the wall of the tunnel and Lydia comes out with her.

Back at the station, Parrish tells Stilinski that no one has seen anything. Stilinski hopes that he didn’t put an APB out on a faceless body. He then asks what this faceless corpse is going to do exactly. He questions if it’s what came out of The Wild Hunt. Parrish says maybe, but maybe it’s just another thing that causes fear like the rats and the wolves. “Maybe that’s how we’re supposed to end up, like rats so terrified they tangle themselves up and eat each other.” “Or wolves that tear each other apart.”

Liam is getting his butt royally kicked in the school. He gets tossed into a classroom as his peers laugh. His beta eyes and fangs show for a second before Nolan yells at him to get up, only for Gabe to kick him back down. Gabe then slams Liam against the chalkboard and tells him to open his eyes. Liam does and they’re normal. Nolan then pushes Gabe out of the way and punches Liam square in the nose.

Tamora cocks her gun, and Scott tells her that they didn’t come to fight. Gerard: “Well then you came here to die.” Malia growls and snarls her teeth at him, “we’re trying to protect you.” Gerard tells Scott to “control his beta” because she could get them all killed. Lydia pipes in and says they aren’t the enemy, there’s a bigger problem going on. Tamora: “Something worse than supernatural cannibals?” She then goes on to say how she knows everything now. Scott says they tried to stop all of those, but she asks him how many lost their lives while he was trying. When he says “too many” she corrects him by saying twelve. Lights start to flicker and the faceless, pulpy body comes in and out of focus. Tamora points to the hunters behind her and how their family were some of the people killed by the “animal attack.”

Lights are still flickering and Lydia says it’s amplifying everyone’s fear. Scott understands that they want to get revenge, but tells them how something escaped the Wild Hunt. Lydia tells him that it’s with them right now. We see a glimpse of the body in the dark and one of the hunters starts shooting aimlessly. Scott, Lydia and Malia duck.

Mason tries to run into the classroom telling them to let Liam go, but the other players hold him back. Nolan asks Liam if he’s just going to let them continue beating him. Gabe punches him again. Nolan grabs him by the head, “You know you can take us. All you have to do is change.” Liam starts saying his mantra, “the sun. the moon the truth.” Nolan is confused, but Gabe punches him again anyway.

The hunters are still shooting even though Tamora tells them to stop. Scott believes the body is making them panic. Malia sees the body and goes after it, only to lash at something that disappears.

Liam is still getting his butt kicked. They knock him to the floor again. His eyes glow yellow and he starts groan, fighting the shift – and Nolan knows it. Their teacher from earlier comes in and sees what’s going on. Mason tells her to do something, but she says that it’s best to let them work things out on their own and walks out. Gabe grabs Liam by the hair and knees him in the face.

Malia, Scott and Lydia are hiding from the hunters still shooting. Malia wonders what they’re supposed to do now just as the gate above them opens up. Scott asks what it is, and Lydia says backup. A fire flare drops into the tunnels and Parrish drops in and gets in hellhound mode.

Gabe and Nolan refuse to let up on Liam until he shifts, his face is a bloody mess, and they just keep going at him like the punks they are. Just as Gabe is about to give him another blow to the face, Coach comes in yelling wondering what the hell is going on. He pulls Nolan and Gabe off, yelling at them to get to the principal’s office. He looks around at the crowd of students that had formed, “what the hell is this?” He yells at all of them to get out and that he can’t stand to look at them. He kneels down to Liam who is still in pain on the floor and gives him a concerned look, but let’s Mason and Corey pick him up and get him out of there. Mason: “I can’t believe you did that.” Liam: “Clark Kent, right?” “Yeah, Clark Kent.”

Side note: Coach KNOWS, y’all. I bet he’s known about the supernatural all this time. Just like Danny did, but he’s just minded his own business and continues to do so. Coach is chill like Danny. Why can’t these newbies be chill and mind their own business?

Parrish isn’t in full hellhound mode, but he pushes through the hunters shots like he doesn’t have a care in the world. He grabs the faceless pulpy body by the neck and then jams the flair stick into his chest as he yells out and sets them both on fire into an explosive type deal. When the fire is gone, Parrish is back to normal (minus a deputy uniform) and the faceless, pulpy body is now burnt to a crisp. Malia looks to Scott: “They didn’t come here to negotiate. You did everything you could.” Scott: “No, not everything. Not yet.”

Mason helps Liam out to his car in the parking lot of the school. “I know what you were doing.” “Trying not to shift.” “No, you took that beating because you think you deserve it because of what happened to Brett and Lori.” “Maybe I do.” “You took a beating, but you didn’t deserve that.” “I know I didn’t kill them. A hunter did, and she has a name.” “Yeah, and she’s also got new recruits too. Nolan’s not the only one you gotta worry about now.” “Like Gabe?” “No, I mean like everyone. Nolan didn’t just want you to shift in front of everyone to show them that you’re a werewolf, he wanted to show everyone that you’re the enemy.” “That we should be hunted.”

Back in Gerard’s warehouse with the hunters and Tamora, she wonders what the hell that faceless, pulpy body thing was – aren’t we all??? Gerard: “That’s what happens when a town is overrun with supernaturals.” Tamora doesn’t know why Gerard chose her because she failed and Scott got away. He assures her that she didn’t fail. She gave the town of Beacon Hills a voice. He tells her that she makes the perfect messenger since she’s a victim herself. She asks him what her message is. Gerard: “That this world belongs to us.”

Scott, Malia and Lydia walk into the McCall house and turn the kitchen light on only to find none other than Quinn (the werewolf girl from the beginning of the episode that got shot in the head)! She knows who he is, but she can barely stand. He knows that she’s a werewolf. Malia asks Quinn who did this to her, and Quinn says a deputy. Lydia: “They’ve got a deputy?”  Scott: “They’ve got everyone.”

So, will Gerard and his army get their revenge or will the McCall pack fight and win the war? OR will something much scarier force the enemies to coexist and fight together? Stay tuned to find out!

Teen Wolf returns to MTV September 3 at 8/7c!

GIF credit: shelleyhenign, dianasprxnce, maliagifs, artoftransformations