Stiles has disappeared for all of the feels – but you can’t
just erase someone without leaving ripples
And this episode has a whole lot of excellent moments with the characters realising someone is missing
With Lydia this comes in the form of a whole lot of
excellent woo-woo as her banshee powers continue to try and remember Stiles.
She has lots of visions (including the weird image of a doctor in class so who
even knows what that’s about) and memories and not-dreams since she keeps
having them while she’s awake.
Malia is missing her boyfriend (and this is going to be
just a bit shaky with Stiles and Lydia declaring their love for each other). The
relationships – or sex life – she’s having is not nearly as satisfying for her
and disturbs her sex partner with chains she has lying around. She’s also having
real problem trying to control her werecoyote-ness (which, again, is going to
be shaky with Stiles and Lydia love affair. Is Malia’s self control shaky
because she has lost memory of all the moment with Stiles where she learned control
– or is it based on their relationship?)
She also sees holes in her history. She remembers being
chained up on the full moon – which she still does – but she knows Lydia didn’t
do it. She knows Scott didn’t do it. So… who did it? She knows someone did.
Which brings us to Scott who has vast vast vast holes in
his memory. From training with Liam to finding pictures with big holes in them.
Culminating in him remembering the defining moment of the series – the night he
was bitten. The night he and Stiles went amateur investigating in the woods.
Except without Stiles, why would Scott be there- with no
interest in crime and no inside knowledge about them? And how would he get
there? He doesn’t drive, he doesn’t have a car? There’s a great big hole in
their lives
Between the three of them they realise someone is missing
and turn to Deacon as the wonderful Mystical Black Oracle he is there with some
woo-woo to tap into Lydia’s powers to have her write the name Stiles (by
writing a collage of “mischief”).
Of course, Stiles isn’t actually a name so everyone is
still confused as to what that actually means.
Meanwhile in an astonishing twist for Teen Wolf Corey and Mason are actually involved
and still a good couple. There’s a bit of a flaw because Liam decides to hate
Corey for not fighting on the front line last season (because we’re going to
throw this hate on him after the homophobic story decisions to make him so weak
and useless and cowardly – way to get the full mileage out of that homophobic
nonsense) which requires Corey to try and patch things up
But that patching up isn’t that hard. And Mason and Corey
are pretty much involved in this story the entire time – not sidelined, not
disappearing… And Corey’s invisibility power? Allows him to see the Wild Hunt
and show it to other people including the bits that people who have been
disappeared have left behind. Yes, his power which was used to make him little
more than an extra last season is now going to be an integral major part of
this season!
Hey it only took them six seasons (the last season) but
maybe Teen
Wolf has finally decided to live up to its
endlessly hollow press. Ok we got one borderline dubious gay
joke – but these two episodes point to Teen
Wolf finally actually achieving what it has been endlessly and undeservedly
praised for.
Corey’s so going to die by the end of this season isn’t
he?
Mason, Corey and Liam find another vanished student and
track down the hole in their memories to find this out, using Corey’s power and
bothering Victoria (who thinks this school is a safe space now – hah!) and
Parrish (who is investigating the actual murder from last week which also
involves helium theft but it’s not going to be relevant for at least another
few episodes).
More boringly, Scott is trying to encourage Liam to
become the next Alpha by means of sports metaphors. I would have thought this
would be the lead up to Scott/Stiles/Lydia disappearing and the series
rebooting/spin-offing (which was a theory for a while) but this is he last season
and I don’t think anyone cares about Liam/Hayden/Mason to anything close to
that degree. At least we get to see the coach who I do kind of love despite
myself.
And out of the weird – Claudia Stilinski, Sheriff Stilinski’s
dead wife and Stiles’s dead mother is now… alive. And cooking with kale (so
clearly evil).
Ok… what?
Ok let’s examine this. Obviously the most tragic
explanation is that the erasure of Stiles has saved his mother – i.e. his
mother died because Stiles existed… Yes embrace that angst
But wait – his existence hasn’t been erased. Just memory
of him. Look at how Scott remembered something is missing: because his experiences
don’t make sense without Stiles being there. If Stiles was actually erased,
Scott wouldn’t have a hole in his memory, Scott wouldn’t have been there that
night, Scott wouldn’t have been bitten… and the last 5 seasons wouldn’t have
happened.
So Stile’s memory is what killed Claudia – like if
Claudia didn’t know she had a son she wouldn’t have died?
Or something more’s going on and she’s a secret alien
thingy or something
