Teen Wolf Review: “Echo House” (Season 3, Episode 20)

Dr. Deaton (Seth Gilliam) may have been able to suppress the evil spirit, or Nogitsune, inside Stiles (Dylan O’Brien), but it was only long enough for a 72 hour psych evaluation. This set the stage to bring us back to the mental institute that was previewed on the last episode of Teen Wolf. There was something about this place that heightened Lydia’s (Holland Roden) banshee senses when it seemed like all of Beacon Hills was frantically searching for Stiles. And there’s still something mysterious about the facility. The only question is whether or not Stiles will find out what it is before he goes back to being a prisoner in his own body.

After his unexplained absence, most of which Stiles was locked inside his own mind for, he checks himself into what he describes as the “loony bin.” At first it seems like a random coincidence that Lydia was so intently attracted to this place as the site where Stiles had been during his disappearance, but nothing on Teen Wolf is ever random. It doesn’t take long before Stiles also realizes that this is where he spent at least part of that “lost” time. And that isn’t the only surprise he encounters.

It’s a small world, after all. In his first 24 hours, Stiles runs into not one, but two people that he was formerly acquainted with – Malia (Shelley Hennig), who we recently discovered is really Peter’s (Ian Bohen) daughter, and Ms. Morell (Bianca Lawson), the druid/school guidance counselor.

Finding Ms. Morell at the institute shouldn’t have been a huge leap for anyone’s imagination. Her overarching role as a druid means that she is planted in this setting to keep the balance. With all the recent events combatting her efforts, it’s almost more of a surprise that she hasn’t shown up in an earlier episode during the second half of this season of Teen Wolf than it is seeing her now.

Malia is a bit more of a curve ball. Her appearance is troubling for a couple of reasons. First, it means that we are now actively working toward the public revelation that Peter has a child – something that as I mentioned last week could be either disastrous, or a blessing in disguise. Second, she just hooked up with Stiles (ignoring the gross factor of it being on an old couch in the basement of the mental institute where who knows what has taken place).

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