Monstrous is the 10th episode of Teen Wolf Season 4.
The episode aired on a special night and time - Sunday at 7PM on MTV. The move placed the show in the lead up to the broadcast of the VMA arrivals and MTV Video Music Awards show.
According to the Nielsen Company, approximately 1.4 million people saw the episode upon it's initial airing on MTV.
The episode was repeated on Monday, August 25 in the show's regular 10PM time slot drawing an audience of approximately 1 million people. You cannot combine the two nights into a single rating due to overlap from viewers who watched both showings.
Synopsis
Scott and Kira protect the remnants of Satomi's pack while Malia and Stiles team up to uncover the origins of the Dead Pool.
Full Recap
- EDITOR’S NOTE: This episode picks up several hours after the end of Perishable on the same night.
Brett Talbot (Cody Saintgnue) and fellow werewolf Lori (Lily Bleu Andrew) are running through the rain at Beacon Hills High School pursued by assassins with crossbows. They run onto the lacrosse field and the banks of overhead lights begin to come on one by one. Several red laser sites find Brett and he tells Lori to get to close her eyes. Just as one of the arrows homes in on him, Kira’s sword flashes through and deflects it. She yells for them to run and covers their escape by deflecting arrow after arrow.
Scott grabs his motorcycle helmet and an extra one for Liam. He says Kira has found Brett and the others and they need to go. Liam hesitates. He explains that he’s not like Scott and he says he doesn’t mean strength or werewolf control. He wonders at the fact that Scott and his friends try to protect everyone. He asks, “how are you all still alive?” to which Scott says “not all of us are.” Scott offers to take Liam home.
Stiles is at the hospital with a concussion and Melissa McCall says she won’t let him leave without a CT scan. He points out that he still hasn’t paid for the last one (see Riddled). Melissa insists that his father has Meredith Walker at the station and that it will take some time to get her to talk and that there really isn’t anything Stiles needs to do but stay put. Stiles agrees but asks her to find him a cassette player. He has the tape Brunski made when he killed Lorraine Martin.
Sheriff Stilinski is getting nowhere questioning Meredith and tells Lydia he needs a psychologist or a medium. Lydia questions if Meredith is competent enough to be charged with something. The sheriff says if Meredith is The Benefactor “she was competent enough to trick Kate into opening the Hale Vault (see 117), competent enough to blackmail Brunski into helping her and competent enough to create a hitlist and payout money for its completion.” He says she’s practically a criminal master mind and he wants to find out how the payments from the Dead Pool work so he can stop it. Lydia agrees that they don’t just need to stop the Dead Pool, they need to stop the money.
Scott arrives at the Beacon Hills Animal Clinic and is reunited with Kira. They kiss and he asks about her mother’s injury (see Time of Death). Kira says Noshiko is healing and shows Scott the remaining members of Satomi’s pack that she has gathered at the clinic to hide. Satomi says she already knows Scott. Lori asks if they are safe at the Clinic. Scott looks around at Satomi and the seven members of her pack, all wounded, grouped in the exam room. He says they’re going to need a lot of help.
Chris Argent disables the guard at a warehouse and throws him through a door. Another guard comes up from behind and he takes him out with the butt of his automatic rifle. Inside he finds hydroponics equipment and a single stalk of flowering Yellow Wolfsbane.
Lydia is sleeping in the Sheriff’s Station while the psychologist is questioning Meredith. Once they’re done, the sheriff tells her he should have gone with the medium. Deputy Parrish reports that they’ve gone through Brunski’s office and found nothing. Both he and the Sheriff want Lydia to go home and get some rest considering what she’s been through over the past several hours (see Perishable). She insists on staying and insists on questioning Meredith herself reminding them that she’s gotten through to the other Banshee before.
Melissa knocks on Stiles hospital room door (Patient Room 115). She doesn’t have the cassette player but instead brought Malia to see him. Melissa leaves and closes the door. The exchange between Stiles and Malia is awkward. They share “I almost died” stories. Malia says she’s fine and, having seen that Stiles is okay too, says she should leave. The door is locked. They call for Melissa but she doesn’t come. Malia says she could break it but Stiles says no because he already owes the hospital a bunch of money. Malia says Melissa is stupid for locking the door by mistake.
Stiles turns the whole “didn’t mean to lock the door” thing into a metaphor for how he didn’t tell Malia that Peter Hale is her father. Malia admits that she doesn’t have much experience in things like forgiveness. She says that some things come easy but other things not so much. Stiles says “like math.” Malia admits she hates math and Stiles asks if she hates him. She admits she likes him a lot and they kiss. As they relax their embrace, the door opens on its own.
Chris Argent returns to Argent Arms International (see Orphaned) and places the yellow wolfsbane stalk inside a safe hidden in one of the walls. He sees muddy footprints and is immediately on his guard, weapon raised.
A shadowy figure appears behind one of the hanging pieces of plastic and Chris is ready to fire but one of Satomi’s metal spikes grazes his hand and embeds itself into the wall behind him. Brett is suddenly facing off with Chris, fangs bared. Chris has his pistol up and ready in a second but is stopped by a shout from Scott. Chris says in future if he plans to bring guests he could call.
Satomi says she and Chris have met before and despite Scott’s assurances, wonders if he is just like the other hunters who attacked Brett and Lori at the school. Chris says if they were killing for profit, they’re no longer Hunters. He expects they already know Satomi’s pack is there and are probably waiting for dark. Satomi says they’ve been trying to get out of the area for days and everywhere they turn there is someone new trying to kill them. Scott says Lydia needs more time to get answers from Meredith. Chris says they’ll get her the time she needs.
Stiles and Malia are back at his house listening to the tape Brunski made when he killed Lorraine. On it Lorraine says there is something she has to do. Brunski says they have to return her to Eichen House but Lorraine says she knows they’re not going back because she can hear the “recorder in your pocket.” She says he plans to record her death just as he did “the others.” Stiles realizes that her murder didn’t happen at Eichin House. They listen to the tape again to try to figure out where Lorraine died.
Lydia is questioning Meredith. She begins by laying out her theory of how it all happened, “You used Brunski right? You knew he’d killed people and that he would do it again. He used my grandmother’s code for the dead pool, he put it online. He took the money from the Hale Vault, then turned the bearer bonds into cash. He made the payments.” She questions if Brunski had Meredith fake her death because he got nervous when she helped them with one of the cipher keys. Meredith says she wants to help but first wants to talk to Peter Hale.
Malia hears a sound in the background of Brunski’s cassette. She says it’s the record player at the lake house. They suspect, a long time ago, Lorraine’s banshee abilities predicted a whole lot of people would die - the Dead Pool - and she knew there was something in the lake house that could stop it. Stiles and Malia decide to go there and check.
Chris Argent places motion sensors around the area inside the Argent Arms warehouse. Scott called in Derek to help. Derek says Satomi’s pack has “claws and fangs” but are not fighters. He then points out that he no longer has claws and fangs. Braeden says that’s why Derek called her. Kira says she hopes it’s all just a false alarm. That they could wait there all night and nothing would happen.
Scott says Lydia is still talking to Meredith while Stiles and Malia head to the lake house. He says they’re trying to stop it. Brett steps in and asks “what if there is no stopping it? What if it doesn’t end until we’re all dead?” Derek rallies the group with a speech about sending a message to all who would come against them. He says it doesn’t matter if they are trained assassins, hunters or just some amateur who picked up a gun. If the killers come after Scott and his friends, Derek says they'll get to be a name on “our dead pool.”
Peter Hale is incredulous that Meredith is the person who ripped him off and planned the killings but the Sheriff insists that he go into the interrogation room and find out what Meredith has to say. He asks her where to find what’s left of his money. The girl reaches up and touches his face and points out that all his burns are gone. Lydia realizes that they’ve met before.
Chris says he remembers Satomi but that she was not a Buddhist when they met before. She counters that he wasn’t protecting werewolves back then either. He questions her about the mantra her pack uses “Three things cannot be long hidden, the sun, the moon, and the truth.” Satomi says for her “the truth” is that werewolves are violent creatures who eventually won’t be able to control their violent impulses. The mantra helps subdue their nature. Chris points out that they are still violent creatures to which Satomi replies “aren’t we all.” The motion-sensor alarms begin going off around the warehouse.
Peter is yelling at Meredith. Pointing out that she put his nephew and his daughter on a death list and she needs to explain why. She says Peter said it had to be kept secret. He is incredulous pointing out that they have never met. She says he doesn’t remember. He says no, he doesn’t remember, but she might. He jumps up, knocks Parrish away, and grabs Meredith around the throat. He sinks his claws into the back of her neck (see Werewolf Abilities).
Gas grenades fly into the Argent Arms International warehouse. Braeden yells for everyone to get back before all hell breaks loose. Several helmeted and heavily armed gunman enter shooting and Chris Argent, Braeden and Derek return fire.
The Sheriff and Lydia rush into the interrogation room. Parrish has recovered himself and is now standing. Both he and the Sheriff have guns drawn. Lydia says not to touch Peter or Meredith because to break their mental connection could kill them both.
Inside Meredith’s memory we see her getting hurt at the lake house and her time in the hospital after. She remembers a Doctor describing her injuries. “Patient has been non-responsive for several weeks. No sign of physical trauma, no response to external stimuli, our feeling is that the damage is primarily psychological.”
Meredith begins mumbling, neither the Sheriff nor Deputy Parrish can understand her but Lydia says she’s getting it “perfectly.”
Meredith and Peter had been hospitalized side by side. Peter was in a coma after the fire that left him badly burned and killed most of the Hales. It seems Meredith could hear Peter’s thoughts while they were there for “weeks or months.”
- EDITOR’S NOTE: We have another timeline issue within this episode. Meredith’s medical chart shows an admission date of 10/12/09. It shows her age as 16 but her birthday as 11/23/98. This is impossible as anyone born in 1998 would have been 11 in 2009. Additionally, since the show is taking place in early 2012, this would place her hospitalization 2-3 years ago. However, Lydia says Meredith’s time in the hospital came “just after the fire” which took place some 7 years ago within the Teen Wolf universe. If the date is correct, they shared a hospital some 3-4 years after the fire.
While he was in his coma, Peter was ranting the whole time about how he warned his sister Talia that something like the fire was going to happen, that the Argents were going to strike at them, but she wouldn’t take him seriously. Peter said Talia made the family weak and the weakest in the herd get picked off by the predators. They used to be the Apex Predators until Talia turned them into sheep.
Peter vows to act as a “Vengeful god” and raze this Earth to the ground. He vows to take out all the supernaturals, Banshee, Wendigo and all the other weak shapeshifters in Beacon Hills and start over, with a stronger breed of supernaturals fathered by him.
He lays out his plan to hire people to do the killing, he mentions The Mute, The Chemist and The Desert Wolf specifically, using the family money in the Hale vault. He even says the list of targets will be known as The Dead Pool. He says anyone can become a killer for the right price because when it comes down to it, everyone can be corrupted by money.
In the interrogation room, Peter releases Meredith and falls back onto the floor. Parrish catches Meredith before she falls from her chair. The Sheriff points his gun at Peter and Lydia sums up the situation “it was your idea and you don’t even remember.”
Malia and Stiles are listening to the record player in the lake house but aren’t getting anything from the seemingly random clicks and pops. Stiles turns off the player and makes to leave but Malia stops him. She still hears the background noise from the cassette, the sound of something spinning.
Stiles checks the record player and the table it’s on and notices a coaxial cable extending out of the wall behind it. They move everything and Stiles starts ripping the cable up and out of the wall. The drywall splits as he pulls the cord toward the ceiling. They tear away the remaining board and find large, old fashioned, reel driven computer tape drives behind the wall. Stiles declares that they've found the Dead Pool.
- EDITOR'S NOTE: These are the same tape drives seen during Lydia's recounting of Maddy's death in Perishable. While Lorraine Martin worked at IBM, the machines shown bear little resemblance to any of that company's products. During the 1970s, IBM mainframes used the 2401 Series tape drives which were horizontally aligned.
The fight at Argent Arms International seems endless. A steady stream of identical attackers continues to come at Chris Argent and Satomi. No matter how many they shoot or skewer, more follow. Derek and Braeden fight back to back as well. Braeden says there are “too many.”
Sheriff Stilinski levels his service weapon at Peter’s head. He wants to arrest him. Peter defends himself saying he couldn’t possibly remember any of what took place while he was in the coma. Lydia again points out that Meredith got the whole plan from Peter. He says he was out of his mind, paralyzed but cognizant. He says Meredith was listening to the ranting and raving of a lunatic, “a former lunatic. I’m much healthier now.”
Lydia wants them to stop. She says this is what Meredith wants. She points out that three people in the room, herself, Parrish and Meredith, are on the Dead Pool and that’s what Meredith wants. She wants Peter to kill them all.
The Sheriff still has his gun pointed at Peter who says it better be a perfect shot because “I don’t go down easy.” The sheriff shifts his aim, placing the barrel directly against Peter’s forehead. He says “I’m willing to bet a bullet between the eyes doesn’t heal real fast, not even for your kind.”
Peter points out the absurdity of charging him with a crime asking how the sheriff plans to explain to a judge that a telepathic girl overheard the thoughts of a comatose werewolf and carried out his plans for retribution. Lydia says they have to let him go.
The Sheriff reluctantly allows him to leave but says “that’s twice Peter, there’s not going to be a third.” (The first time the Sheriff allowed Peter to walk away was in Episode 4 after Peter killed The Mute).
Meredith becomes agitated as Peter leaves yelling “no, it’s not finished!”
Stiles stops Malia from simply smashing the old computer equipment. She then realizes that there is a control on the face of the central unit that is accessed by a key.
Scott takes several bullets as he orders Brett to get the others to hide.
Via video call, Stiles shows Lydia the computers but she doesn’t know anything that might help. She asks if there is a monitor and Stiles says there’s nothing like that, showing her the room again. She realizes that the wine stain (see The Benefactor) is gone. She says the stain can’t be gone because she bribed Brunski with the $500 she was saving for the carpet cleaning. Knowing that red wine stains don’t just disappear, she realizes that the it might not have been wine she spilled.
Since the ashes in her grandmother’s urn were not ashes, the study isn’t a study and the record player isn’t a record player, she figures the wine might not have been wine and sends Stiles to find the bottle. It’s a 1982 Cotes du Rhone (this is the name of the region in France where the wine is produced and not the name of a specific winery.)
Stiles returns quickly with the bottle. It clinks when he shakes it but he doesn’t have a “wine opener.” Malia solves the problem throwing and breaking it. They find a key among the wet shards of glass. Stiles rushes to the bank of computers, inserts the key and turns it.
Lori has become separated from the rest of the pack. She is stumbling in the smoke and chaos of the warehouse. One of the assassins has her targeted but Scott rushes in and takes him down. He throws him up on a table and slams his head down hard. Scott then begins slashing at him mercilessly. As he does, Scott’s face ripples and begins to change taking on a more distinctly werewolf appearance with a more prominent brow, deeper set dark red eyes and larger, more pointed ears. He removes the man’s helmet and looking directly into his eyes begins to slash and growl.
He then removes the man’s balaclava, he can now see all of the man’s bloodied face but he continues slashing away at him. He only stops when the man places both hands up in a signal of surrender and Scott seems to regain some level of control. His face reverts to a more normal transformation.
Cell phones begin vibrating all over the warehouse. Scott removes the one from his victim’s pocket, looks at it and then shows it to him. It is a message from the Benefactor, “ALL CONTRACTS TERMINATED.” The assassins begin retreating from the warehouse.
At the lake house, the computer reels stop turning as the machinery whines to a halt. There appear to be several dead assassins in the warehouse as Scott, his face streaked with blood, rejoins the others. Kira asks if it’s over.
Lydia helps Meredith to a seat. Lydia wonders why Meredith would put her own name on the hit list. Meredith says she had to do it because she heard Lydia in the tunnels at Oak Creek. She heard Lydia scream when Allison died (see Insatiable). She says that’s how she knew it was the right time to institute the plan she picked up from Peter.
She said she knew it was time to start over. Lydia doesn’t understand why she would think starting over with Peter in charge would be a good idea. Meredith says it’s because “he’s the alpha. He’s always been the alpha. He’ll make it right.” She says it was never right with “us” because too many people died “because of us.” Meredith says they’re all monsters, even banshees, “even me.”
Lydia says she doesn’t believe that she says “not all monsters do monstrous things.” She gives Scott as an example. Meredith says “like you” and gently touches Lydia’s face.
Meredith seems to realize in that moment the extent of the act she’s committed. Her eyes go wide and she says “oh God, what have I done?”
In Kate’s stormwater drainage tunnel, Peter is pacing. Kate says he looks nervous but he says no he’s “rattled” and he doesn’t like it. She says it’s over since the dead pool is done. She says everything else is going exactly his way. He says not exactly but she points out that, while every piece in his game didn’t move just as predicted but they still moved “perfectly into place.”
Peter stops under one of the numerous water drips and begins catching it on his hand. He is silent for a moment and Kate asks if he wants to bail on the plan. He says no, “not when I'm this close to killing Scott McCall.”
Episodes List
← Season 3 Season 4 Season 5 → | |
#01 The Dark Moon | #07 Weaponized |
#02 117 | #08 Time of Death |
#03 Muted | #09 Perishable |
#04 The Benefactor (Teen Wolf Episode) | #10 Monstrous |
#05 I. E. D. | #11 A Promise to the Dead |
#06 Orphaned | #12 Smoke & Mirrors |
Soundtrack
This episode's soundtrack is mostly original score compositions by Teen Wolf composer Dino Meneghin.
- Eliza Hull – "Echoes"
- Scene: Stiles and Malia talk and kiss at the hospital.
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Preview
Recap