Teen Wolf - Recap: Kira's Foxy Aura

Episode 16 of Season 3 of Teen Wolf, “Illuminated,” featured a fairly simple formula that found each of our Beacon Hills heroes facing off with this new looming threat. Something seems to be after Kira (Arden Cho), whom we also learned a bit more about this week. While Aiden (Max Carver) and Ethan (Charlie Carver) continued to work their way into Scott’s (Tyler Posey) pack, Lydia (Holland Roden) seemed to have finally written them off. Stiles (Dylan O’Brien) found a mysterious key attached to his ring that eventually proved to be shockingly more important than we’d originally been led to believe. While the new terrors of Beacon Hills took the full episode to leave their marks on a good chunk of the crew, it all started where last week left off. Did Allison (Crystal Reed) get to Isaac (Daniel Sharman) in time to save his life? Here is the Recap and Review of Season 3 Episode 16 of Teen Wolf, “Illuminated”!

MTV "Teen Wolf"

Episode 16 began with the aftermath of the attack on Isaac. When Allison and her father (JR Bourne) finally broke their way back into the bedroom, they found the young wolf flailing compulsively, frozen to the core. Realizing that a transformation would buck the hypothermia, Mr. Argent roughed Isaac up enough to snap him back to health. Isaac recalled the vague appearance of these masked shadow warriors, triggering a memory from Allison’s dad. It seems they might not have been after Isaac after all. Instead, these shadow ninjas with eyes like fireflies were most likely after Chris Argent. Privately, we witnessed Chris checking in on a shattered version of the mask adorned by these new enemies. Insisting that Allison and her "friend" give him one full day to do his own research, Chris didn’t appear again until the very close of Episode 16.

The first half of the hour mainly focused on the consequences of the sticky situation at the power plant. Halloween had come to Beacon Hills, yet Scott, Kira, Stiles, and Lydia were more so focused on throwing off Agent McCall (Matthew Del Negro), who could tell from the very start, due to their jumbled explanation as to how they ended up at the site that started a massive blackout, that they were flat out lying through their teeth.

MTV "Teen Wolf"

The next day, Scott pursued Kira in an effort to continue to make her feel safe and at home. Stiles, on the other hand, wasn’t chancing it with Kira. Some sort of electrical she-beast dropping in on their schooldays was all they needed amidst the night terrors and psychotic ghosts that had been plaguing them since their sacrifice. Kira, choosing to trust Scott with her own discovery, shared the truth about the funny effect that stamped each of her digital photos like a wacky Instagram filter. Remember, that twisted murderer from last week, Barrow, had snapped photos of Kira with her own phone, first revealing the strange light energy that seemed to shroud her like a force field. For several months, this bizarre and seemingly supernatural occurrence continued. Now, the police department was in possession of her cell phone and this potentially devastating evidence.

Mostly, this served as the perfect opportunity for Teen Wolf to continue to let the chemistry blossom between Scott and Kira. The two would have to sneak into the police department after hours if they wanted to erase the "nude" photos of Kira on her phone. With a little help from Stiles, who has a nifty talent for duplicating keycards and playing watchdog, Scott and Kira managed to tiptoe through the back door and into his father’s office. There, they used his dad’s laptop, complete with a desktop wallpaper featuring none other than baby Scott, to charge the dead cell via a totally handy spare cable in the man’s desk drawer. Now, had this been an iPhone, I would have bought it, but are we supposed to believe that Scott’s dad has that same wacky Nokia phone that Kira has been so heavily promoting? Perhaps more importantly than the fact that Scott and Kira nipped this predicament in the bud was that Stiles inevitably had to intervene in order to prevent Agent McCall from busting his son. Typical Stiles comical chatter eventually gave way to some truth surrounding the universal tension towards Scott’s father. Stiles’ dad knows something incriminating, and allegedly, so does Stiles.

MTV "Teen Wolf"

While things heated up between Scott and Kira and Stiles got a decent dig in on Scott’s dad, both Lydia and Danny (Keahu Kahuanui) did their best throughout their day to avoid the twins. While Danny hasn’t been too keen on rekindling things with Ethan following his mysterious bolting, Lydia has finally come to the conclusion that Aiden isn’t merely a bad boy. He’s a bad guy. Lydia, I’m a fan, but it took you this long to process that you watched him take part in murdering your buddy, Boyd? Looking to make things right with their respective love interests, the twins decided to use Derek’s (Tyler Hoechlin) vacant wolf den to house the Halloween rave to end all raves featuring none other than The Bloody Beetroots as entertainment! Yes, the rave was totally a blast to watch considering that the entire ordeal took place under black lights, but I think my favorite scene during Episode 16 had to be Derek handling three little trick-or-treaters with three fun-sized candy bars and one giant scary werewolf roar that sent them screaming. Unfortunately for Derek, the true trick might have been on him, as he became the next victim of mysterious cloaked soldiers.

MTV "Teen Wolf"

Stiles kicked things off at the rave with a random luminescent kiss on the cheek from Caitlin, a familiar face that took me a moment to place. We last saw Caitlin when her girlfriend was taken in one of the Darach’s ritual sacrifices. Luckily for Stiles, she’s bisexual! Stiles isn’t, though, unless you count his special crush on Danny. While Caitlin’s kisses were certainly welcomed by a ready, willing, and able Stiles, she actually proved to be way more useful than we’d originally anticipated her to be. Noticing the strange traces of phosphorous on the mysterious key previously mentioned, Caitlin pointed out that Stiles most likely had been unknowingly tampering with some strange chemicals, a revelation that then immediately sent Stilinski’s stomach into freefall and drove him from the party in a rush. When did Stiles mess with chemicals, and where did this mysterious key come from?

MTV "Teen Wolf"

In the meantime, both Ethan and Lydia faced the wrath of the shadow ninjas from within the party. Ethan, who merely stepped out of the party for a moment to gather some more ice, was attacked and left shuddering in a back storage closet. Lydia, meanwhile, has that special banshee sense about her that tipped her off to begin with. Meandering her way from the crowd and out to Derek’s balcony to breathe, Lydia experienced a solo attack that actually took place in front of a giant window into the party. It seemed nobody noticed as Lydia’s scream was muted, and she too collapsed into a frozen spasms.

MTV "Teen Wolf"

Scott and Kira were initially having an awesome night following their successful adventure at the police station; however, once the potential new couple caught Allison gawking from a distance, the mood was completely shattered. Kira darted into the crowd and away from the awkwardness, though I don’t think Allison actually meant anything by her stares. In fact, it only really served as a final push to knock her towards Isaac. I liked how Teen Wolf decided to mark Allison’s final bit of liberation from Scott by having her take her top off and rock nothing but a neon bra in the middle of this rave. Good for you, Argent! Too bad your romantic moment with Lahey was capped off by the discovery of the number five etched into the skin behind his ear. A parting gift from the opening attack, it seemed, and after discovering the convulsing Ethan suffering through the same symptoms, it was clear that they’d all been sucked into some sadistic pattern. Luckily for Lydia, Danny and Aiden managed to play her rescuers, thrusting her in front of a nearby heater to thaw in the nick of time.

MTV "Teen Wolf"

My second favorite moment this week had to be the next Derek scene. Derek, awaking from the sneak attack, made his way back to his wolf warehouse to find a freakin’ rave full of strangers. It didn’t take long for the former alpha to destroy The Bloody Beetroots’ table of equipment before scaring the entire crowd into scattering out like roaches. Derek’s presence and the end of the party also marked the final attempt of the shadow warriors to mark one of Scott’s friends. Aiden, realizing that he was being targeting in plain sight, called for help, yet Scott and his pack’s attempts to fight the enemies seemed like a total waste of energy. How can one fight shadows, especially shadows with swords! In the end, there was nothing anybody could do. Aiden was marked like the other, and Kira was exposed to everything, including Scott’s status as the Teen Wolf. Luckily, before they could wrap their claws around Kira, the sun rose and the shadows turned into nothingness.

MTV "Teen Wolf"

To close the recap of Episode 16, it’s important to note that Scott can see the mysterious light shrouding Kira with his wolf vision. Upon closer inspection, it seems it actually takes the form of a fox. Just food for thought; foxes are popular figures in Japanese folklore, oftentimes possessing powers of electricity, shape-shifting, and the ability to create illusions/ warp reality. If you want to read more, check this out. As this all went down, Chris Argent just barely made his way back to his home before collapsing from some unknown brawl. Stiles, meanwhile, quietly found himself back in the chemistry lab where he and Lydia had discovered Barrow’s plan to murder Kira. The key fit the lock, and upon closer inspection, Stiles made a horrifying discovery… The handwriting that had pointed Barrow to Kira was his own.

What did you think of Teen Wolf Season 3 Episode 16, “Illuminated”? What is the significance of the five-like symbol left on the victims of the new threat? Is this a case of five victims for five shadow warriors? Who is controlling Stiles? What is the meaning behind Kira’s foxy aura? How is Allison’s father involved?

Thanks for reading my Recap and Review of Teen Wolf Season 3 Episode 16, “Illuminated”!