The duo spilt up and Gerald runs into the Dread Doctors and evades them just as quickly as he encountered them whereas Papa Argent finds 23 bodies piled up with massive amounts of bugs crawling on top of and through the bodies – this leads to Parish worrying that his dreams are indeed coming true and the Sheriff attempts to reassure Parish (quite unsuccessfully I might add).
Stiles, Scott and Kira share what they know with the Sheriff as he informs them about the bodies Argent discovered. Over at Eichen House, Lydia’s training with Meredith continues to drag on as Meredith tries to motivate Lydia who remains stubborn as usual, stating she’s unable to shatter bullet proof glass. Meanwhile Malia begrudgingly trusts Theo in an attempt to learn more about her mother and Deaton’s location. The tension between the two, both romantic and sexual, was blatantly obvious and it’s clear the two will end up together – even if it is for a short amount of time.
After Theo injects her in the neck, Malia wakes up strapped down as Theo places a bizarre contraption over her eyes; it helps her locate her mother and Deaton, who are now in Beacon Hills. Malia pays Liam a visit and tells him to tell Scott he was right about their being an operating system/room beneath the tunnels. Malia then meets up with Braeden and Theo; Braeden is packing some serious firearm and has some words of warning. The Desert Wolf has been rumored to have lost her powers and to compensate, she’s more than proficient with firearms; Braeden calls her a perfect shot.
Liam goes to the tunnels instead of informing Scott and attempts to find the operating room. It turns out Scott had been following Liam the entire time, which is quite creepy if you think about it. The two team up and Scott leads Liam to the operating room. Braden remains cautious when it comes to storming into The Desert Wolf’s hideout while Malia recklessly trudges onwards, which leads to Lydia having a premonition: Malia will die.
Stiles pays Lydia a visit and the scene is bound to make Stydia fans ecstatic; Stiles begs Lydia to wake up and the emotional moment is interrupted by Lydia’s highly unintelligent mother. Stiles is promptly asked to leave the minute he questions what’s being done to Lydia.
Liam and Scott share an emotional moment as Liam expresses his desire to do more than just say sorry to Scott – he wants a chance to save his life. Soon after, Scott and Liam encounter Papa Argent and Scott discovers Gerald has been cured and is less than pleased with Gerald being on board; it’s implied the hellhound and The Beast will face off – Scott informs the Argents The Beast is trying to remember their true identity. Papa Argent sees this as the perfect opportunity to prevent what’s to come; the deaths of everyone.
Theo predictably double crosses Malia and Braden – it turns out he was working with The Desert Wolf. Theo knocks Braeden out and shoots Malia in the stomach and leaves her with her mother. This may be an unpopular opinion, but I seriously love Theo’s character. His duplicitous ways make me laugh and I can’t help but hope he sticks around.
The Argents test Parish and discover he’s the hellhound. Meanwhile, Malia remains helpless against her mother’s attacks and it becomes clear Malia lacks the physical strength to take down her mom- Deaton stops The Desert Wolf from killing Malia, informing her she can only get her powers back if she kills Malia during a full moon.
Lydia is able to awaken her powers in order to try and save Malia which leads us to the scene that kicked off season 5A; Lydia fighting the guards of Eichen House and then promptly being subdued. Before Malia can be beaten by her mother, The Beast arrives and Malia is able to escape with Deaton. The Beast doesn’t pursue the two which makes me wonder it isn’t as bad as we think it is.
Meanwhile, Theo continues to venture down treachery road as he not only finds Deucalion, a very pissed off Deucalion, but also promises Scott’s eyes to the blind alpha. Theo’s motivates remain as murky as ever and you, as a viewer, have no idea who Theo will align himself with in the end.
The episode ends with the core group getting back together and Scott declaring it’s time to go get Lydia. Overall, “The Sword and the Spirit” had a fair amount of powerful scenes with the moment between Scott and Liam receiving additional kudos. Scott, Stiles and Theo, as characters, continue to remain the strong suits of the show and although the episode was far from my favorite and held an equal amount of cons as it did pros, it was an engaging enough episode that moved the plot just a tad bit closer to the end of season 5b.