Teen Wolf “Genotype” Review

This week we got hit with another double-header of Teen Wolf, folks! Both of which were jam-packed with new information. Unfortunately, that also means there’s still so much to be resolved before the show comes to a close next week! Last week we saw Scott gathering his own army to defeat Gerard’s, and that had me thinking positive about the show wrapping everything up nicely within the last three episodes. Weirdly enough, though, this week’s first episode, “Genotype”, doesn’t really have much to do with that. Instead, it pertains more to learning about the anuk-ite – including who the other half is. Once the pack realizes the anuk-ite is more dangerous than any of them thought, it’s clear the hunters aren’t necessarily their biggest threat… or are they?

Let’s break down what we learned about the anuk-ite!

“Genotypes” kicks off in the animal clinic with Scott, Liam, Theo and Mason listening to a voicemail on an old flip phone. Malia took the phone off one of the Primal pack bodies they found in last week’s episode. The message is from a concerned woman wanting to know that whomever she called is okay… because it’s her pack too. They realize that she could be the other half of the anuk-ite, which is only half of their problem. Aaron has been MIA. Theo thinks since they’re supposed to prevent both halves from merging, then they should just go after one – Aaron. Good idea, right? Mason reluctantly thinks so too since it’d be easier to track Aaron than the voice behind the message. Theo: “Is everyone completely shocked that I might be right?” Liam: “No, we just don’t like it.” Poor Theo can’t seem to gain the trust that he desperately wants. Unsurprisingly, Scott agrees with all of them. He suggests they find Aaron and the woman on the phone. Since they agree with each other, he pairs Mason and Theo to find Aaron while he and Liam try to figure out who left the voicemail. Liam: “Maybe if we find the other half, we don’t have to fight at all. Stop the anuk-ite…” Scott: “Stop the war.”

While the boys are teaming up, Lydia and Malia have teamed up to try to figure out how dead Halwyn the hellhound led Lydia to another dead body. Only problem is he’s still dead. Of course, that doesn’t stop these two from sneaking into the morgue. Lydia believes he’s not completely dead. She’s going to have to ask him how he led her to a dead body. Can I just say that I am so here for Lydia taking such initiative to get crap done this season? You go girl!

Mason, with Stiles’ trusty bat in tow, and Theo jump down into the tunnels in search of Aaron, and they’re already bickering. Theo believes he could have just come alone, but Mason says he isn’t smart enough to find Aaron. Theo: “So if you found him, what were you gonna do? Beat him up with your AP Calculus book?” Mason holds up the bat: “I can be resourceful.” Theo swiftly knocks the bat out of his hands. He questions why they’re in the tunnels and not somewhere like the school with better lighting (sorry, Theo, Beacon Hills hasn’t had good lighting since 3b). Mason tells him that Aaron hasn’t been to school in days, and the last time anyone saw “the faceless” was in the tunnels when Parrish burned the body. However, no one has been back to check if it’s still there because they’re all too afraid.

It’s then that they start to feel the fear – like it doesn’t want them there. Walking a little further, they come to a fork in the path where one way is lit and the other is dark. Mason starts to go down the lighted path, but Theo stops him saying they need to “follow our fear.”

Back at the animal clinic, Liam starts to call the number that left the voicemail, but Scott stops him. He’s worried about it being their only shot and Liam not saying the right thing. As they’re discussing it, the phone rings. Scott tells Liam to answer it since he’s the one who wanted to make the call. Liam calls the number back… it’s someone from the high school. Liam listens to the voicemail again, and recognizes whose voice it is – one of his teachers.

Lydia lies flat on a table opposite Halwyn, tying to connect with him, but it’s not working. Malia suggests touching him, and even forces Lydia too, but she still gets nothing. Malia turns Halwyn’s head to possibly dig her claws into his memories, but Lydia says it could damage his brain. When Malia asks how it worked last time, Lydia says she was unconscious. So, Malia spots a few tools that could knock Lydia unconscious again.

Scott and Liam arrive at the school at the same time Ms. Finch. Liam is positive that it was her voice on the phone. They need to get closer and try to get her to expose her supernatural side. Scott passes the task to Liam, who is worried about the hunters and the “Nazi student brigade.” Scott assures Liam that he’ll be close behind, but Liam is still reluctant since he hates biology. He goes to class nonetheless, though, and Gabe sits right beside him – welcoming him back to school. – Apparently, he hasn’t been back since getting the crap beat out of him.

Ms. Finch is surprised to see Liam back in class, and he informs her he can’t let his GPA go down just because he got beat up. Gabe starts texting someone that Liam is at the school, but Ms. Finch takes his phone. As She’s teaching, Liam puts in ear plugs and sounds a sonic emitter. A student runs out, but it doesn’t seem to effect Ms. Finch. She calls for three volunteers to the board, and Gabe goes, followed by Liam, who shoves Gabe when he gets to the board. Scott tells Liam to hurry because they’re running out of chances. While at the board, Liam puts wolfsbane on an eraser just as she tells him to sit back down because his answer isn’t even close. – side note: how did the wolfsbane not effect Liam? – Ms. Finch uses the eraser to clear his answers, and the wolfsbane starts to affect her, but she brushes it off with a sneeze. However, she then sees the purple dust on her fingers and dismisses class early, but tells Liam to stay.

Back at the hospital, Malia hits a hammer tool against a metal table, and tells Lydia that it will be quick. But Lydia doesn’t want to be knocked out that way. She’d rather pain not be involved. She then thinks of the idea for Malia to press hard on her chest so that it constricts the blood flow and oxygen to her brain, dropping her blood pressure and rendering her unconscious. Malia: “That sounds totally unsafe.” Lydia: “Oh, extremely.” Lydia isn’t sure about the idea, but does it anyway, and it works! We see her in the closed unit of Eichen and there’s a cell that’s on fire. I swear, Lydia is out her to save her friends, whether it risks her own life or not. Get you a friend like Lydia Martin.

Ms. Finch believes Liam wants to get back at her for not protecting him from Gabe and Nolan. Liam assures her that’s not why he’s there, but rather because he knows about her pack. She plays dumb as if she has no idea what a werewolf even is. She thinks he’s on drugs as he keeps pressing the topic. Liam: “You can’t hide what you are.” He confesses to hearing her on the phone. She insists that he leaves, her anger seemingly triggered when he doesn’t budge. Scott comes in playing the voicemail. She walks over to him and takes the phone, asking him where he found it.

Lydia’s premonition has her walking through the closed unit of Eichen to Halwyn’s cell. He breaks free from his stone encasing. The door opens, and he falls into her, sending them both falling through a fake floor. Lydia comes too back in the hospital, “he’s not dead. Halwyn’s not dead. And I know how to save him.” Yesss, girl! She knows how to save everyone!

Ms. Finch is still trying to argue she has no idea what they’re talking about. She was just trying to call her daughter. When Liam calls her out on saying in the voicemail that she was in a pack, she says her personal life is none of their business. Scott asks her if she got in contact with any of her pack before they died, but this causes her to cry as she didn’t know they were dead. Scott informs her they were attacked. It’s then she finally confesses by saying they can’t be dead… they were just hiding out in fear. Scott tells her they found the phone on a body and there were three men and two boys. She asks about her daughter, and Scott sadly informs her that there was another body, but they couldn’t identify it. The skin was stripped down to the muscle with no DNA, but the pack tattoo was still there. Ms. Finch doesn’t believe it because “this isn’t how biology works.” Liam: “That’s what the anuk-ite does. It takes the whole identity of that person.” She cries as she says, “not my daughter.” Liam informs her there’s a way to find out.

Malia and Lydia pose as doctors to get Halwyn’s body into the MRI room, and read the manual to figure out how to work it. They see in the imagery that the bullet is steel and will react in the MRI by pulling the bullet out when they increase the magnet’s power. As Lydia is about to press the button, though, she notices that the bullet isn’t just steel… it’s coated in silver. This means it won’t react to the MRI. If they pull the bullet out, Halwyn will start to heal. That would normally be a good thing, but since he’s a hellhound, he’ll heat up and the silver will melt into his brain – killing him again.

Ms. Finch refuses to call her daughter. Scott tells her that if her daughter shows up, then at least she’ll know what happened to her family. Since she still doesn’t want to, Liam volunteers to do it for her, and she hands him the phone. When he sees her daughter’s name in the phone, though, he recognizes it. It’s Quinn, the girl who was shot in the head by a deputy a couple episodes back.

Lydia and Malia try to think of another way to revive Halwyn, but they’re running out of time as someone could bust them any minute. Malia thinks they should do it. Malia: “If it were Parrish, he’d want us to do it. He’d sacrifice himself for everyone in Beacon Hills.” Lydia: “But Parrish would be able to make the decision himself. We don’t know what Halwyn would do.” Malia: “We kind of do. He built Eichen. He froze himself for a hundred years so that he could be ready to fight the anuk-ite. The first thing he does when he’s unfrozen is start hunting the thing. If that’s the only thing he’s ever cared about, then he’d want us to do this.” Lydia turns up the machine, going through with the plan.

Back with Theo and Mason, Theo wants to give up in the tunnels since they’ve been down there for hours and haven’t found Aaron. Mason tells him that no one is forcing him to stay. Theo: “Yeah, and leave you and our army in charge of my survival? Don’t think so.” Mason: “Whatever it takes to save your own ass, no one else’s.” Theo: “Look, I’m here, aren’t I? Maybe I want to be in the pack.” Mason gets angry, “Yeah right. You expect me to believe that? A pack is about trust. The first thing you try to do is kill all of us. And it doesn’t matter who forgets, I won’t.” He goes on to say how he saw what him kill Scott and what it did to Melissa, then finishes by saying he’s more terrified to turn his back on Theo than of those tunnels. They start to feel the fear even more. Theo’s eyes glow yellow and snarls his teeth before pushing himself and Mason out of the way as Aaron tries to hit them with a pole.

Scott, Liam and Ms. Finch are still in the classroom when they hear Quinn enter the school. Scott and Liam stand by the door and prepare to fight as Ms. Finch asks them what they plan on doing. She doesn’t want them to hurt her, but they’re going to do what they have to. Scott tells her to stay back, but as they’re waiting, Ms. Finch comes up behind them and hits them both with the wolfsbane covered chalk eraser. She runs out the door as they fall to the floor.

As Malia and Lydia watch Halwyn in the machine, Malia realizes his heartbeat is too erratic. Halwyn’s body starts shaking and the machine starts beeping. They rush to turn it off as everything starts to go haywire. Halwyn’s body continue’s shaking as if it’s going into shock. He roars and the bullet flies out of his head and sticks to the machine. The power goes out, and Halwyn gets up. He asks where it is, and starts to go toward Malia and Lydia, but he falls to the floor. As Malia and Lydia sit on the floor with him, he asks what’s happening. Malia tells him that the anuk-ite is destroying their city and they need to know how to kill it. As she’s asking him questions, Lydia tries to get her attention. They notice the silver oozing from his nose and the hole in his forehead. Halwyn: “What did you do to me?”

Ms. Finch runs down the hall and sees Quinn, but when she starts to go toward her, she’s knocked to her knees with fear. Quinn walks up to her and with a voice that isn’t hers, says she’s looking for someone. Her eyes glow purple as she says, “Someone like me.” Ms. Finch: “You’re not my daughter.” The anuk-ite attacks her.

Ms. Finch crawls on the floor bleeding. “You killed her. You killed my daughter. You killed all of them.” Anuk-ite: “Tell me who it is.”

Mason is hurt on the ground, but says he’s fine when Theo asks. He asks where Aaron is, and just as Theo says he doesn’t know, Aaron comes up behind him and tries to whack them again.

Quinn lifts her mom’s body up and prepares to claw her throat out.

Theo comes up behind Aaron and claws the back of his neck.

Quinn feels that pain, which allows for her mom to escape.

Aaron hears Quinn’s roar, and knocks Theo to the ground to go find her. Mason: “What was that?” Theo: “I don’t know, but we’ve gotta find him. Get up, I can’t leave you.” He tries to help Mason up, but Mason stops him. “Something’s happening. We’ve gotta figure it out.” Theo: “So figure it out.” Mason is in a lot of pain. Theo tries to take it from him, but nothing happens. Mason: “You can’t take pain if you don’t care.”

Quinn is hurt and bleeding, but she goes back into the school. Scott and Liam find Ms. Finch bleeding against the lockers. Scott tells Liam to go find Quinn because he can’t leave Ms. Finch, but Liam is worried about having to fight Aaron and Quinn. Scott: “Look, man. It’s okay to be afraid. Just don’t let it stop you. You’ve got this. Go.” Liam leaves.

Aaron searches the tunnels for Quinn. He checks his wound, then turns around. Theo and Mason hear him coming back. Theo stands, preparing to fight him even though Mason urges him not to saying that is what Aaron wants. Theo ignores him, and roars as Aaron comes at him. Aaron pushes Theo into the opposite wall, and then forces Theo’s claws into his abdomen.

Quinn feels his pain and screams out as she falls to her knees and bleeds.

Aaron kicks Theo to the floor and then follows Quinn’s screams again.

Mason and Theo sit on the floor of the tunnels in pain.

Scott tells Ms. Finch to hold on a little bit longer, then he sees her pack tattoo. He tells her she needs to trigger her healing by shifting.

Malia and Lydia sit with Halwyn on the floor, apologizing, but saying it was the only way to revive him. Halwyin: “Revive me so I can die.” He says they can’t stop or kill the anuk-ite. Lydia: “but you did.” Halwyin: “I trapped it.” Malia asks how to do that. He tells them not to let it find its other half. When Lydia asks how they know it already hasn’t, he says they wouldn’t be alive to tell him. He urges them to keep the two halves apart because it’s still weak. Lydia informs him that one of them isn’t weak because it’s a werewolf. Halwyn: “You can’t let the two halves merge. If you do, you won’t be able to catch it.” He’s really struggling now as he continues to bleed silver. Lydia says they shouldn’t have done this and keeps apologizing as they hold his hands. Halwyn: “Okay, listen to me. If it finds its other half, if the two become one, do not look. You can’t look at it. It will kill you with a look.” He dies as they hold his hands.

Liam enters the library and sees Quinn standing at the other end. She turns and sees him. He can feel the fear. Liam: “Stay afraid. Stay afraid,” he mumbles. Aaron comes in on the same side as Quinn and walks to her. They turn to face Liam and he wolfs out as he roars.

An armed Gabe barges into the school with two more armed men. They pass Ms. Finch’s blood.

Scott is sitting with Ms. Finch behind some desks in a classroom. She’s mumbling about it being her fault. Scott urges her to trigger the healing process by shifting, otherwise she’ll die. She seems to be losing consciousness as he continues to tell her to shift. Scott: “She’s gone. Your daughter’s gone. She’s dead.” Ms. Finch growls before her eyes glow red. She’s an alpha!

Liam runs over the tables in the library to Aaron and Quinn. As he’s about to tackle them, Quinn sends him flying back against a table and into the floor. Aaron and Quinn turn to each other, and then start making out. We see black spots going from Quinn’s face to Aaron’s as spiders cross into each other’s mouths. – YUCK! When they part, they clasp arms and grin at one another. But then Quinn headbutts Aaron. They fight for a minute and start choking each other. Quinn almost has him, but then he snaps her neck and wins. He kneels beside her, places his hand on her head, and absorbs the anuk-ite’s power out of her. His eyes glow purple and spiders run up his arm and into his mouth. – again, YUCK!

He stands and shifts fully into the anuk-ite as Liam sees. It looks like nothing but muscle tissue and purple glowing eyes. It starts to come toward Liam, and Liam glows his eyes, prepared to fight. But Lydia grabs him by the shoulders and pulls him out of the library through the doors. The anuk-ite sees. Lydia tells Liam they have to run.

They run through the school as Liam asks what she’s doing, they need to stop the anuk-ite. Gabe can hear their conversation since he’s in the hallway not far from them. Lydia: “We can’t. You can’t look at it. If you do, it’ll kill you.” Gabe runs and hides between lockers as the other two armed men stand with their guns up as the anuk-ite roars. They shake as the anuk-ite appears in front of them. The anuk-ite turns them both to stone and doesn’t see Gabe as he keeps walking.

Lydia and Liam check out the stoned bodies. Liam: “How do we fight someone we can’t look at?” Lydia: “I have no idea.” Scott and Malia walk up. Scott: “We have to learn to fight without our eyes.” Malia: “Fight without seeing, that means…” Lydia: “Deucalion.”

Malia is in Scott’s room, examining the bullet that came from Halwyn’s head when she hears the water turn on in his bathroom. She sits the bullet down as she meets him in there. He’s cleaning the blood off his hands, and she starts to help him. Scott: “Thank you. I’m kind of a mess.” Malia: “There’s too much blood. You should just get in the shower.” They look at each other for a second, Scott expecting her to leave before he gets in. Malia: “You’ve seen me naked.” She turns on the shower. He takes off his shirt, and then she takes off hers. Cut to them in the shower together making out. Don’t get me wrong, I’m digging Scott and Malia, but this scene just seemed really out of place to me.

At the hospital, the anuk-ite walks through and doctors and nurses turn to stone as they see it. It walks into the morgue and sees Halwyn back in his cabinet. Gerard: “Not what you were hoping to find?” The anuk-ite looks at him, but Gerard has his back turned. Gerard: “You’ll forgive me for not looking you in the eye while talking. I’ve heard the stories of how lethal it can be. I know what you want. You want your freedom. That means getting rid of people like Scott McCall.” Anuk-ite: “The alpha.” Gerard: “That’s right. We both know you can’t match him in a physical fight. You might be able to kill him with a look, but you’d be surprised at how resourceful he can be.” Anuk-ite: “Your offer?” Gerard: “I will weaken him for you with the proper poison. Then you kill him and his friends, and that will give you all the fear you need to never be caught again.” The anuk-ite comes up behind him, “and you?” Gerard: “I’ll drive every last one of their kind from Beacon Hills. You see this? A silver bullet. Every legend has a little truth to it. Isn’t that right? The legend is that you need silver to kill a werewolf. The truth? You need an argent.” He sits the bullet on the table.

Whoa, whoa, whoa! This anuk-ite thing is pretty terrifying! And why am I not surprised Gerard made a deal with it? Throwback to the kanima, anyone? I wonder if Deucalion will be able to teach the pack to fight blindly. Also, RIP to Halwyn the hellhound, he seemed like a decent dude that the pack would have greatly benefitted from.

Anyways, stay tuned for our recap/review of the second episode of the night, “Broken Glass”!

Teen Wolf’s SERIES FINALE airs September 24^th at 8/7c!