As Teen Wolf continues to wind down its third season, the narrative has slowed quite a bit. The second half of this season pulled focus away from Deucalion (Gideon Emery) and his Alpha pack, and landed on Stiles (Dylan O’Brien) – an unfortunate side effect of the sacrifice he made to save his father from Ms. Blake (Haley Webb) and her revenge plot. Stiles has been a central character in the story all along, but has suddenly found himself the center of attention, and in the worst possible way. The Nogitsune that has possessed him has taken over his life, and things are about to get even weirder.
Stiles has always been a physically weak character. The infusion of the Nogitsune has not only altered him mentally, but it’s added an element that we’ve never seen before. His capacity for solving problems has always been his greatest attribute in the shadow of all his friends turning out to be (turning into) supernatural beings. Now, the Nogitsune has managed to capitalize on Stiles’ natural talent, and is able to back it up with an unprecedented amount of brute strength.
This episode of Teen Wolf was appropriately titled De-Void as Stiles has been devoid of a lot of things lately, namely his sense of self. In between bouts of reality, the Nogitsune has used Stiles as a catalyst to further his plot to create chaos. It started when Kira’s (Arden Cho) mom summoned the evil spirit out of vengeance for her fallen love. She intended to become its host but the trickster fox played a cruel joke on her. Although she defeated it decades before Stiles was even born, the essence of the spirit was released when the Nemeton was disturbed. The Nogitsune hasn’t wasted any time picking up where it left off and is choosing his host for this round strategically.
Stiles is a character that knows how to get around. He’s the son of the town sheriff and has access to restricted areas, or at least an easier time navigating them. In addition to that, he’s a local boy – he knows that ins and outs of the area. It took people long enough to realize anything was even amiss in the first place, and that’s something the Nogitsune can credit to the way people look at Stiles – he’s void of suspicion. When things go wrong people don’t tend to point their fingers at him. He’s also integrated into the other character’s lives in a very personal way and personal attachment makes it difficult to make rational decisions. We saw it first hand in the opening sequence when Sheriff Stilinski (Linden Ashby) prevented Argent (JR Bourne) from shooting Stiles and ending his affliction.
The Nogitsune could have just as easily selected a host outside of the inner circle, someone who the major players wouldn’t have conflicted feelings about killing in the interest of saving so many others. But what would have been the fun in that?
Continue reading on the next page…
