Teen Wolf 3.20: Echo House

‘Echo House’ was less propulsive than the last few weeks, but still retained the intelligent writing and creative strength that we’ve all become accustomed to since the winter premiere.

Removing ourselves from the insanity of ‘Letharia Vulpira’ and sending us into the dark and terrifying setting of Eichen House gave the series not only the chance to breath, but also to show how strong it’s really gotten over the past 7 episodes.

An asylum that is the epitome of creepiness is the perfect opportunity for us to see just how far the series can push the teen horror. With wacky residents, shocking suicides and a few disturbing visions, ‘Echo House’ was pretty much the creepiest episodes of the series so far.

There were a couple of familiar faces thrown in, too, to keep the show’s major plots moving forward. Most importantly, Malia, who is suffering since being made human again by Stiles and his merry band of wolves. It’s odd, and kind of brilliant, that she seems them as the bad guys. Being a wolf has kept her from feeling a tremendous amount of guilt over killing her parents. And she’s also freezing her ass off ever since she had to ditch the fur coat.

The other familiar face was Ms Morrell who helped Stiles to hold on in the face of losing himself to the Nogitsune. Her presence in the asylum made less sense than Malia’s, but I enjoy Bianca Lawson’s appearances too much to complain about that.

Outside the asylum’s gates, Scott, Allison, Lydia and Kira attempted to save Stiles. This part of the episode was a nice distraction from the heaviness of Stiles’ side inside the institution. Scott is proving more and more why he deserves to be a leader above every other Alpha we’ve seen. He isn’t a mindless monster like Ennis, or a manipulative psycho like Deaucalion. He’s a leader, and it show’s in everything he does, and the people who are falling in line behind him out of respect.

There’s a lot of fuel left to burn through before this season closes out, story wise. Now I’m less concerned about how the show is going to sustain the excitement, and more worried about how it’s going to fit everything in on time. There are worse things, I guess.

8/10

Plus

Stiles needs his pillow to sleep wherever he goes. How adorable was his dad about it?!

Stiles and Malia definitely win the “Most Inappropriately Timed Sex Ever” award.

The wolf hunter from ‘More Bad Than Good’ finally came back. Will she be sticking around?

Dylan O’Brien continues to slay.

It’s starting to look more and more likely Stiles will be made a wolf. I’m not sure how I feel about that, yet.

He Said, She Said

Sherriff Stilinski: “I saw an MRI that looked exactly like my wife’s, and it terrifies me.”

Also posted at Doux Reviews.