
Thanks to a jaunt up to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, we’re a little behind in our coverage of Teen Wolf. But never fear, we have a bumper edition for you, with both Weaponized and Time of Death furthering the Benefactor’s master plan. And one thing is apparent: despite the fact that the season is nearly over, it seems like only now there has been some actual development in the plot. How can the season be drawing to a close when it feels like it barely begun?

The problem with Weaponized is, for a seeming bottle episode, there’s so much going on, and a lot of it depends on coincidence. The antidote just so happens to be in the vault that Scott, Kira and Malia are locked in. The kids just so happen to be infected at the school, which stands atop the Hale vault. The antidote just so happens to be the same tea Satomi has been drinking for decades. It all seems a little too easy and takes away from any suspense or enjoyment one may have felt watching the episode. That said, there were highlights. Stiles facing down the Chemist, as he points a gun at his head, and being sprayed with blood as Agent McCall rescues him with his own bullet is a wonderfully tense and excellently acted scene. The revelation that Coach is a recovering alcoholic, without making a huge deal of it, adds some dimension to a mostly comic relief character. Mrs Martin being the only person not to get sick is a nice, subtle indication that Lydia may not be the only supernatural in her family. Speaking of Lydia, there’s very little for her to do here, except to discover that deceased banshee Meredith may have had a connection to her family. The sad thing about Lydia’s arc is how much of it she spends alone. It’s like a step back to season two, where she was kept in the dark about the supernatural and had no idea what was happening to her. It’s disappointing that after all this time, she still seems separate from the pack.

This A-plot is strong and exciting, with the episode playing in almost real-time as Scott’s countdown begins. The big gun of the whole story, however, is Melissa McCall. As Scott “dies”, she lets out the most incredible and devastating scream of grief, a pitch-perfect performance from Melissa Ponzio. Even more impressive, though, is her sudden switch to calm, as it transpires Melissa was in on the plan after all. The showdown between Kate and Chris Argent, in which Chris successfully convinces Kate to back off, is also a strong moment, but possibly undermined by the fact that Kate and Peter continue to work together.

All of these are quite good storylines, but there’s just too much. With only four episodes to go, it seems ridiculous that all of this will be resolved. If Derek and Kate’s story bleeds into season five, perhaps it will work, but at the minute, it seems like a hotch-potch of disparate story threads. With such a strong main storyline across season four, it is a disappointment that these secondary stories are so weakly handled.