Codominance is the 13th episode of Teen Wolf Season 5.
It aired on Tuesday January 19, 2016 at 9pm on MTV.
Co-dominance, in genetics, describes a condition where conflicting genes both show up in an individual's observable characteristics or traits. The classic example is the AB blood type. individuals with this blood type have both A and B proteins at the same time.
Synopsis
Noshiko Yukimura and her daughter travel to New Mexico and take extreme measures to help Kira deal with her dark side. Lydia is surprised at Eichen House.
Full Recap
In the New Mexico desert, (Location: Vasquez Rocks, California) Kira and Noshiko Yukimura face three Skinwalkers (Tiffany Phillips, Emily Alabi, Tonantzin Carmelo). Kira manages to hold them off for a bit with her sword. She is blinded by some dust and ends up pinned to the rocks with a spear through her shoulder.
The Skinwalkers say Kira is frightened of herself. They say they will try to help her. If they can’t, if Kira fails, she will be forced to stay with them and become a Skinwalker like them forever.
Stiles Stilinski is outside Scott McCall’s house working on his Jeep. Inside, Liam is waiting when Scott comes downstairs. Liam is eager to tell Scott about the resurrected chimera and Theo’s pack but Scott says he already knows. He is surprised and pleased to learn that Hayden is back from the dead. Scott is in a hurry to find Kira. He says he and Stiles are heading to Shiprock, New Mexico. Liam wants to help but Scott says no. He tells him not to do anything until he gets back.
Scott explains to Stiles that he will eventually allow Liam to help but after the way Liam came after him, the look in his eyes, he is hesitant. Stiles says if Scott wants to get the band back together “you don’t leave out the drummer.”
The Jeep is running again. Scott notices the back seat is loaded down with bottles of what appears to be anti-freeze. Stiles explains that there is a very minor leak. As they pull onto the road a steady stream of fluid pours out from beneath the Jeep.
Theo and Tracy Stewart pursue The Beast of Gevaudan to the high school Theo says they’re not trying to catch it. Inside, the message “Damnatio Memoriae” is scrawled across the lockers but can only be seen using Theo’s werewolf eyes. Theo says the messages are the means by which the Dread Doctors hope to get the beast to remember who it was.
Tracy points out that it’s just another chimera with a kid inside. Theo says the Dread Doctors don’t care. They just needed a body because they couldn’t resurrect the beast out of thin air. The teenager inside is just a side effect. Theo says the beast is probably unaware that it becomes human during the day.
Tracy explains that she read about the beast killing 113 people. Theo says it was closer to 500 according to the Dread Doctors. They hear the beast around the corner in the school hallway. Tracy flicks her claws and heads that way. She finds The Pathologist and attacks. She is knocked into a locker and is downed with little effort. The Surgeon shows up and tells Theo to leave, that he already has his pack. Theo complains that it wasn’t enough. Getting a pack didn’t make him an Alpha, that he’s not even a real werewolf.
The Beast comes around the far corner of the hallway. It is carrying a severed head in its hand. It growls so loudly that both Tracy and Theo must cover their ears, the lockers shake and the lights flicker. When they growling stops the beast and the doctors are gone.
In the desert, a Skinwalker (Tonantzin Carmelo) tends to Kira’s wounds. She explains that Kira was afraid to use the sword in their earlier confrontation. Noshiko enters and explains that the Skinwalkers will test Kira tonight and that it won’t be easy. She says fixing Kira could take months or years. Kira balks at this thinking of her friends and Scott. Noshiko explains that Kira is Kitsune and has centuries to live. She warns her daughter that if the fox spirit inside her becomes too powerful it will consume her to the point that she no longer exists.
Kira is angry. She doesn’t want to spend months or years learning from a couple of “crazy, half-naked women carrying spears and wearing animal pelts.” Noshiko points out that Kira carries a sword and wears a leather jacket meaning they are not so different from the Skinwalkers. Kira worries that if she doesn’t pass the test she will have to become a Skinwalker. Noshiko says it would keep her alive and might be the only thing that can save her.
Kira points out that all the myths about Skinwalkers say they are evil. Noshiko says the legends say the same thing about Kitsune.
Stiles’ Jeep is overheating again. Scott suggests they add more anti-freeze but Stiles says they can just turn on the heat to vent the engine.
Scott’s been reading about Damnatio Memoriae. It was a Roman practice the government decreed to destroy the images of the damned. This included removing their names from inscriptions and chiseled their faces off statues. Being forgotten was a punishment worse than death.
Scott says a court ordered Damnatio Memoriae against a particularly heinous serial killer of children known as The Demon Tailor. He lured children into his shop in Paris where he would kill them, boil them and eat them. The court ordered all the records destroyed and to this day no one knows his real name. Stiles concludes that the Dread Doctors have resurrected a killer so bad that he was literally erased from history. Scott points out that the killer became a werewolf. Which makes him a better killer.
- EDITOR'S NOTE: The Demon Tailor is mentioned in various sources as being a real case in Paris in 1598 but none of the sources can be considered 100% reliable. He is also referred to as the Werewolf of Châlons.
The PA at Beacon Hills High School announces that all of Mr. O'Quinn's classes have been cancelled and that the teacher is missing. Liam sees Hayden with Theo and bows up. Mason urges him not to do anything, to not get involved. Theo and Hayden walk away. Liam is seething.
Stiles says Malia isn’t speaking to him or anyone. Scott says, according to her scent (chemosignals), he thinks she’s planning to kill her mother (The Desert Wolf) and has the help of Braeden. Stiles’ Jeep runs out of gas.
Mrs. Finch is teaching about Codominance. She explains that it is “A relationship among alleles where both alleles contribute to the phenotype of the heterozygote.” She then tells the students in the first and third rows to turn around. The person directly behind them will be their lab partners. Liam turns and finds Hayden directly behind him. Corey turns to find a young woman but suddenly her chair slides out of frame and Mason slips into the spot.
In math class Mrs. Flemming (Rahnuma Panthaky) says it seems suspicious that Scott and Stiles are both sick on the same day. She also comments that Lydia Martin wasn’t in class either. Theo says she won’t be back for a while due to medical issues.
Theo spots Malia in the hallway. They stare at each other briefly before Malia continues on her way.
In Lydia’s dream she walks up to Valack’s old cell. Meredith Walker appears and explains how Valack used a recording of Lydia’s voice to crack the glass of his cell. She demonstrates and the cell shatters.
Mrs. Finch continues with the lesson explaining that, in codominance, neither allele is recessive and that both phenotypes are expressed. She asks for an example and Corey volunteers that people with AB blood types are an example of codominance.
Their lab assignment is to determine, using genetic information, if two babies were switched at the hospital. Hayden asks Liam if he plans to talk to her. He points out that she’s hanging out with a total psycho. He reminds her that Theo tried to get him to kill Scott and then did it himself. She points out that Theo brought her back to life.
Hayden says she doesn’t want to die again and Scott’s not up to the task. He doesn’t even know what’s coming but Theo does. Mrs. Finch interrupts their discussion.
In the locker room, Corey asks Mason out. Mason refuses pointing out all the weirdness. He says Corey is with the bad buys. Corey says there won’t be good guys or bad guys, only those who live and those who die. Corey persists. They end up kissing and Mason reconsiders the idea of the date.
Kira spear wound has healed. Noshiko says if the only way to save Kira’s life is to leave her with the Skinwalkers then she will do it. Kira worries she will fail the test. Noshiko grabs her sword and says “Don’t fail.” With a brief look back, Kira walks off into the desert to face the skinwalkers.
Stiles and Scott find a gas station. It’s closed but Scott breaks the chain on the gas pump and Stiles slips a 20-dollar bill through the doors to pay for what they take. As they fill up their gas can, Stiles explains how Donovan died.
- Stiles: There’s a pin. There’s one little metal pin attached to the scaffolding. He was trying to pull me down.
- Scott: He was trying to kill you.
- Stiles: Yeah, so then I pulled the pin and all these metal braces came down and one of them just went right through him.
- Scott: Why didn’t you think you could tell me?
- Stiles: It was just the way you were looking at me that night. You know, you were standing there with a wrench in your hand. You were looking at me like I just bashed you in the head with it. You know, like I’d broken your sacred rule and that’s it. There’s no going back.
- Scott: I know the difference.
- Stiles: What?
- Scott: I know what self-defense is.
They leave it there and start walking back to the Jeep.
Lydia is still dreaming. She’s now in the library at school and finds that all the senior signatures are now missing from the bookshelves. (See Creatures of the Night) Meredith shows up and says everyone’s name is gone. Lydia wonders how she can save them. Meredith tells her not to be afraid. Suddenly Meredith is on the floor down below and Theo is holding her down. He bends her neck back and slashes her throat as Lydia screams.
A light blows out in Lydia’s cell at Eichen House. Schrader (Clayton Fronning) and Nurse Cross (Mandy Levin) hear the sound and come running. They both report hearing an explosion and, before that, a scream.
Stiles wakes a sleeping Scott as they come within view of Shiprock. There is a massive storm brewing right over the mountain with lightening and roiling clouds. Stiles accelerated toward the mountain.
Kira finds herself in darkness. An Oni warrior coalesces out of the darkness and attacks.
Scott and Stiles are out of the Jeep and continue their conversation about Donovan’s death.
- Scott: I don’t know why I believed him. I don’t know why we didn’t just keep talking that night. Five more minutes and we would have figured out that there were two different stories. We would have filled in all the blanks. We should’ve just kept talking.
- Stiles: He knew we wouldn’t.
- Scott: I didn’t want it to happen like this.
- Stiles: Like what?
- Scott: I knew, sooner or later, one of us was going to get a little too much blood on our hands. I half thought it was gonna be Malia.
- Stiles: Well, she definitely seems like she’s working on it.
- Scott: I just always thought, if it were to happen, it should be me. I’m the one who’s constantly putting you guys in danger, risking your lives, for people you don’t even know. It should’ve been me.
Stiles touches his friends shoulder and says they only have a few hours to sunrise. They turn to go but notice the sound of swords clashing and a flash of light coming, periodically, from the base of the mountain and realize it is Kira.
Kira parries each attack but each time she cuts the Oni the wound appears on her body. Finally, her fox spirit appears as a flaming outline around her body. It rises up and consumes the Oni. It disappears in a flash of orange light. Noshiko gets out of her SUV and looks to the now-silent hills.
Malia is rummaging through the vet clinic records. Theo comes in and explains that she won’t find Dr. Deaton on her own. He says Deaton’s probably already dead and that Scott will realize that it’s Malia’s fault. Malia attacks him. She beats him pretty good, even breaking his arm but he keeps smiling. He says he let Stiles kick his ass too. He snaps his broken bone back in place and offers to help Malia find Deaton and the Desert Wolf by using the method the Dread Doctors use to find everyone.
Kira walks down the mountain to her mother with the now-empty mask of the Oni. She throws it to the ground and declares that she passed the test. The Skinwalkers appear and say she didn’t pass, her fox spirit did. They explain that she wields the sword but the spirit wields her. They say Kira has no control and no hope without them, so she will have to stay and become one of them.
Hayden approaches Liam at the library. She again tries to convince him that Scott can’t protect them the way Theo can. Hayden says her sister couldn’t handle it if she died and she can’t do it again because it would ruin her. Liam says it would ruin him too. They kiss.
Noshiko takes Kira’s sword and urges her daughter to get to the car. One of the Skinwalkers throws a spear and punctures the tire. Kira retrieves the spear and returns to her mother’s side. The Skinwalkers again says Kira must stay with us. Noshiko points out that she is “Kitsune of 900 years” and they will have to go through her to get Kira.
Stiles and Scott drive up. Scott rolls out of the still moving Jeep, comes up on his feet and growls at the Skinwalkers. Stiles urges everyone to get into the Jeep. A Skinwalker throws a spear at the vehicle but Noshiko, with Kira’s sword, spits the spear and it falls harmlessly to the ground. Noshiko gets to the Jeep and they drive away leaving the Skinwalkers watching their retreat.
Scott and Kira waste no time. They immediately begin kissing. When they come up for air, Kira declares her love for Scott.
Sometime later, Scott is asleep on the couch and Kira wakes him. Liam and Mason are there. They’ve learned from Corey that Theo is looking for a blind Alpha. Scott realizes he’s talking about Deucalion.
Soundtrack
- Ritual & Delilah - “Too Deep”
- Scene: Mason and Corey share a moment in the locker room.
- Adam Road - “If God Don’t Follow Me”
- Scene: The Skinwalkers tell Kira she failed her test.
- XPLOR - “Recover”
- Scene: Liam and Hayden share a moment in the library.
- Slo - “Shut Out of Paradise”
- Scene: Scott and Kira kiss after escaping the Skinwalkers.
Episodes List
| ← Season 5 Season 5 Season 6 → | |||
| #01 Creatures of the Night | #06 Required Reading | #11 The Last Chimera | #16 Lie Ability |
| #02 Parasomnia | #07 Strange Frequencies | #12 Damnatio Memoriae | #17 A Credible Threat |
| #03 Dreamcatchers | #08 Ouroboros | #13 Codominance | #18 Maid of Gevaudan |
| #04 Condition Terminal | #09 Lies of Omission | #14 The Sword and the Spirit | #19 The Beast of Beacon Hills |
| #05 A Novel Approach | #10 Status Asthmaticus | #15 Amplification | #20 Apotheosis |
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