Teen Wolf ‘Currents’ recap: The Butterfly Effective Kidnappings

On this installment of Teen Wolf, everything just gets crazier and crazier. I’d like to continue to remind everyone that, at this point, we’re only four episodes away from the midseason finale — and “Currents” felt like a finale-worthy cliffhanger in and of itself. But I’d also like to continue reminding people that we’ve yet to allowed a moment for a breath. As I’ve said, I admire Teen Wolf gusto for accelerating forward, but every now and then I’d like to know where the characters stand, and where they’re at emotionally.

But that doesn’t seem to be the case just yet. Or any time soon, actually. Even in this episode, the writers decided to skip past Scott finding out that Derek was actually alive. Sure, Aiden had told him that he was pretty sure Derek wasn’t dead, but that doesn’t mean anything. And Scott had just spend two episodes blaming himself for the entire thing and almost, you know, lit himself on fire for it.

So while it’s an incredibly thrilling ride to watch Teen Wolf these days, the trade-off is not having any emotional beats to carry the story. What do you guys think?

Let’s begin with the (almost) end, shall we? Boyd is dead. In last week’s recap, I mentioned that Boyd was the most expendable. Wasting time on whether Isaac or Scott (or even Aiden, who is important for this season’s arc … whatever that is) would off themselves was ultimately useless. They didn’t even have Isaac properly threaten his life. He was just hiding under a bed.

But Boyd decided to drown himself; he had the most almost-death of the previous episode, in my opinion … if that makes any sense.

Unfortunately, I just think that the Teen Wolf guys never knew what to do with Boyd. He began as a person not many people in school were aware of. He wasn’t even given a first name. But turning into a wolf gave him some sort of purpose, for a person wandering around aimlessly.

I guess that’s why he tells Derek it’s “OK” when Boyd’s thrown atop his sharp wolf nails. But it’s not, Boyd. It’s not.

Also, how sharp were those nails? They were like an inch maybe. Is this really the most plausible way to die? Am I brining up plausibility as a factor in a show about teenage shape-shifters? Oh, OK.

In my opinion, Erica was the character with much more development and presence. Her off-screen death was kind of a disservice to her in a way. And if the roles had been reversed, then I think the audience reaction would have been much more grand. But couple Boyd’s man-of-little-words demeanor and a season that is going 80 miles per hour, and you’ve got a death we were kind of expecting and one we’re probably not going to grieve properly.

The true beginning of this episode is in the hospital. Several people, suffering injuries from a pileup, are without care because the doctor that’s supposed to be in is suspiciously missing. More so, the on-call doctor gets kidnapped by a bunch of butterflies. It’s strange, but this is Beacon Hills, so you roll with it.

Danny comes in with Aiden and throws up mistletoe … which, what? Either they wait for a third doctor (who would probably suffer a butterfly kidnapping too) or Ms. McCall can be all badass and save his life. They option for plan B.

The bad thing is that puts her into the “healers” category, which is apparently the label of people being sacrificed. I must have missed something because I’m pretty sure it was military. I guess the Druids moved on and decided to waste the town’s low supply of M.D.s.

But with Mama McCall not the next butterfly victim is none other than Dr. Deaton.

Dr. Deaton, ever the pithy sage, calls Scott and tells him, “I’m going to be taken.” It’s like a Taken reversal where Liam Neeson’s daughter saves him.

So Stiles calls his dad to investigate further, but the poor guys has no idea what is going on. Once again, it’s that fine line that supernatural teens ride where they either have to keep their parents in the dark or finally ‘fess up and tell them what’s going on.

For Beacon Hills, this sheriff is just outmatched. I’m going to side with Scott on this one and say that he deserves to know.

Since no one knows where they took Dr. Deaton, everyone turns to Lydia who they think is psychic. Lydia is totally not into it because Cora just basically threatened her about dating one of the wolf twins. But more so, she’s not psychic as she says a million times. In a failed montage that included a ouija board, car keys and automatic writing, Stile and Co. come up short.

But it’s Allison who has all the answers. Well, she’s got the answers but not the questions. It’s like a really literal episode of Jeopardy! Her father has been marking on a map all the locations people have been kidnapped and where they’ve ended up afterwards. Also, she shows Scott this map with a blacklight, which confuses me on many levels. The Argents are like espionage vigilantes to each other. If you have to hide something from your daughter in blacklight, there’s a problem. She shows Scott he map, but not before the most hilarious recap-worthy moment ever.

Allison’s dad prematurely returns to the apartment, so she and Scott have to hide in a closet where Scott almost prematurely — you know what? I’m not going there. But this has got to be the most hilarious and uncomfortable and hilariously uncomfortable scene ever.

Scott’s, uh, how should we say this? His junk gets a bit excited from being pressed up against Allison. She replies with the goofiest giggles and all, “Scott stahp! Now lemme kiss you.” It was odd and yet perfect at the same time.

Anyway, Allison’s not the only one who’s got it figured out. Mama McCall has been studying the dead bodies and notices that they must have been hanged by their wrists, having to pull themselves up for a breath. Once they can’t any longer, they’d die “in minutes.” I’m like Scott’s mom and Stiles’ dad teaming up on this one, especially because usually teen shows like to make parents dimwits, but these two are beyond brilliant and cunning. Awesome crime-solving duo!

The teens, however, are smarting up too. It turns out that someone put a hit on Danny because he was doing a paper on magnetic fields (if I heard correctly). I’m never doing homework again. Ugh, being smart is so deadly in this town. They also realize that Deaton must be held at … THE BANK!? Oh, goodness! This godforsaken place!

Over at Derek’s, Boyd’s plan to basically electrocute them like a poor man’s Carrie scene, turns out to be a dud. That lady who is really mean comes in and shuts the power, twins in tow. And guess what? She also brought Derek’s new friend Teacher along for the fight.

It’s one-on-one, but no matter how the physical battle was going, Derek still lost. With a surge of electricity once the power is turned back on, Isaac saves Teacher while Derek, Boyd and the rest get electrocuted. The twins raise Derek’s hands and lower Boyd on top of them.

“Best be on our team next full moon, biznatch,” Mean Lady says. Boyd dies. Stiles and Lydia show up with Cora, who is beyond devastated.

Meanwhile, Scott is trying to save Deaton’s life, but he’s been surrounded by a circle. As he tries to break through the field, Scott’s alpha red eyes are finally shown to a third party in a credible moment. Though he can’t break through, Stiles’ dad shows up and shoots Deaton down. Breath.

Deaton later tells Scott that he’s a “True Alpha,” an alpha made from good character — not just killing someone in a higher position — and Deucalion is after him.

We end the episode as we did last week, only this time it’s Allison who is also visiting Grandpa Argent (who is still coughing up black). Someone draw a mustache on that guy pronto so he can twirl it as he laughs manaically.