Teen Wolf Recap: 'Sundowning'

The dread doctors are back – kind of.

Remember that moment in Apotheosis (Teen Wolf 5 x 20) when we noticed that the glass tube which held something (or someone) in the Dread Doctors liar was empty. Showrunner Jeff Davis told us outright in an interview with TV Line that whatever was inside is a “Nazi {alpha} werewolf”. Well that werewolf is Physics teacher Mr. Douglas and he’s a real piece of work.

I’m getting ahead of myself, let’s back up a little.

Possibly dangerous Physics teacher

Mason and co. are in the Physics lab and Mr. Douglas is giving them a lecture on taking something not-so-powerful and making it powerful by adding electricity. He conducts an experiment for the benefit of the class but the experiment seems to be affecting him as he starts to cough and is having powerful memories of being stuck in a glass tube. But rather than call it a day, Mr. Douglas keeps cranking up the electricity and having more powerful memories of punching the jar to break out – in real life, he’s punching the table.

When his coughs get a little too serious to handle and he can’t breathe, he goes to the storage unit and puts on a helium mask. So Mr. Douglas has been the one stealing all of Beacon Hills’ helium. Stiles and Scott were right, that theft was important. But that’s not the only thing hunky Physics teacher is stealing – more on that later. What was the point of that lecture though? Was he deliberately trying to draw attention to himself? Team Scott isn’t exactly dumb.

“What the hell is a Stiles”?

Lydia and Scott are trying to figure out who this Stiles of a person or thing is so they go to the place where every teen goes when they have questions – the internet. Only, they don’t find anything useful. Until Sheriff Stilinski walks in and says that Stiles is an old family nickname. He takes them to his home and shows a picture of his father Elias Stilinski who went by “Stiles” while he was in the army.

Scott wants to talk to Elias but Sheriff says he’s in a nursing home “three towns over” and explicitly asks Scott not to go there.

While this conversation is underway, Lydia sees an old lady in the Sitlinski living room and the old lady says “the following stops have been cancelled”. Excuse me old lady, but this isn’t a bus station. But being a banshee and all, Lydia follows this woman and before she can get a word or two from her, Late Mrs. Stilinski calls out to her and the woman disappears.

We’re losing Malia

Malia is taking a makeup test with Mrs. Martin and she’s not doing so great despite Mrs. Martin’s advice to “think positive thoughts” and take “deep breaths”. She’s breaking pencils, growling at the papers and eventually shifts into a coyote and runs out of the class. Scott, Lydia, Mrs. Martin and Sheriff Stilinski trace her to her den and she eventually turns back to human form. She, Lydia and Scott decide to go see Elias anyway.

Someone else has been erased

Meanwhile, there’s a girl (Gwen) in the girls locker room and she’s looking for her sister Phoebe – who no one remembers and there aren’t records of her anywhere. Hayden talks to her and in a bid to provide comfort to the girl who thinks she’s going crazy, tells her that the Ghost Riders took her sister. But Gwen doesn’t believe in ghosts and she thinks Hayden is making fun of her and storms off to ask other students about her missing sister.

The little pickle here is, Gwen also saw the Ghost Riders which means she’s going to be taken too. Liam relays that message to Scott and Scott thinks his protégé Liam should handle it while he goes to crack the Stiles pickle with Lydia and Malia. Malia advises Liam to kidnap Gwen to keep her safe but Scott said he should do “whatever it takes” but not kidnap her. Kinda contradicting yourself here Scott.

A visit to the nursing home.

To get into the nursing home, Malia knocks out the attendant at the reception and just waltzes in. Their plan with Elias doesn’t go as smooth as their entry. Elias has dementia and he thinks Scott is his son. For some reason, Scott expected him to recognize them even though they’ve never met. He gets worse when the sun goes down and starts screaming for them to get out – “sundowning” Lydia called it. But they cant leave, they haven’t gotten what they came for.

So Lydia teaches him Math to calm him down and he’s oddly good at it. After some time, he’s his usual self and recognizes Lydia and Scott. He hints that Scott’s father was a scoundrel who couldn’t hold his liquor and slept with anything that moved. He also implied that Lydia and her mum always considered themselves the smartest in the room. Malia looks ready to beat the old man up until the Sheriff shows up. He asks them to leave and his father says to him “go crawling back to your dead wife and your loser son”. When the Sheriff tries to get to the bottom of that, Elias’ dementia comes back.

One would think that statement would be enough to shake the Sheriff. Instead, he asks his dead wife if she regrets them not having kids and later tells Scott about his recurring dream (and possible memory). In the dream, he and his wife are discussing child names and the show reminds us of the fact that we don’t know Stiles’ real name.

Alpha Liam to the rescue.

Per Mason’s advice, Liam chooses to hijack the lacrosse party that was supposed to be hosted by the team captain and hosts it at Scott’s place instead. Why? Because Gwen is going to be at the party asking about Phoebe and they can use mountain ash at the McCall’s. One of the Ghost Riders show up and scares Phoebe out of her mind but the thing is, they can’t help her because they can’t see the Ghost Rider. Corey goes into chameleon mode and tries to direct Liam as to the whereabouts of the Rider. When that proves futile, he touches the Rider thereby making him visible to all at the party. Goodbye BHH students! We won’t forget you.

Liam and Corey get into a fight with the Rider but they are no match. Mason uses mountain ash to protect he, Gwen and Hayden and the Rider can’t touch them. The Rider looks like he’s thinking “what manner of sorcery is this”. He quickly gets over himself and starts to whip the barrier like a real life Indiana Jones. The barrier breaks under his whip and he starts to drag Gwen off. Then comes the moment that left my jaw open.

The incredibly ridiculous moment

Apparently one – or all of the students who ran off after the Ghost Rider sighting had called the cops. Deputy Sheriff Parrish shows up and yells “freeze” at the Rider. Of course the Rider pays him no mind and continues tugging at Gwen. Liam yells at the deputy to shoot and he does that only the bullets don’t penetrate. Duh. Now this moment should have been enough to drill into Parrish’s skull that he was dealing with a supernatural but no. He finally has the Rider’s attention and is pointing the gun at his forehead saying “on your knees”. Seriously? The Rider chooses to fade away with leaves instead.

Papa Scott is disappointed

When Scott shows up, he’s disappointed about one or two things – that they threw a party at his house for one or that they even threw a party at all. Apparently these kids have money to throw around. How much did Mason pay the team captain anyway? Scott becomes even more disappointed when he finds out the entire party also saw the Ghost Rider. Liam is more focused on the positive – they saved Gwen. That was the goal right? Scott says “I should have been there”. Your plans don’t exactly go great either Scott.

Someone is stealing pineal glands – whatever that is.

Earlier, Chris Argent paid a visit to Melissa McCall. He says he would like her help with getting to the bottom of a dead body situation. This show seems to forget that Melissa is just a nurse. Apparently, the body Mason found in the school with its brain crushed is not the only one. Mr Argent had been finding bodies like that around and the pineal glands were missing. Melissa opens the head of the body she has and also finds the pineal gland to be missing. Chris calls the pineal gland the “seat of the soul” but can’t explain who is stealing it and why.

We know the “who” of that mystery. It’s Mr. Douglas.

Overall, the show is doing surprisingly well without Stiles (Dylan O’ Brien)