Teen Wolf – Heartless

By: Kim Olson

Papa Stilinski (Linden Ashby) is TEARING down the wall covering the door to Stiles’ room! With the wall out of the way, he opens the door and steps into the, previously boarded-up, empty room. His wife, Claudia (Joey Honsa), catches him in Stiles’ room. She begs him to come out of there, but he refuses to leave. Instead, he raises questions for which she seems to always have answers. Noah Stilinski asks, “Did you know about this room? Why was it sealed off? What if this was his room? What if this means we had a son? This could be the proof we’re looking for.” Claudia tells him definitively, “There are so many simple explanations for why this is here. But we had a son we’ve forgotten is not one of them.” She urges him to leave it alone because he’s driving himself crazy, but he can’t. Unlike her, he’s curious and needs real answers. [off-screen] He invites Lydia Martin (Holland Roden) over and lets her into Stiles’ room, believing she already knew it existed. He tells her, “If you want to discuss the possibility that I had a son, I’m listening.”

Before Lydia headed over to the Stilinski’s, she and her mom (Susan Walters) laid on her bed staring up at the ceiling. They talked about Lydia’s trip to Canaan and Caleb, the dead boy she met in the previous episode. Lydia proposes Sheriff Stilinski is filling a void caused by Stiles’ absence with his dead wife, Claudia, much like Lenore did with her dead son, Caleb. She asks her mom, “What if Claudia being here is preventing him from remembering Stiles?” Once at the Stilinski household though, Lydia tables her discussion with her mom for later and focuses on the existence of Stiles’ room and making Papa Stilinski believe he has a son. Lydia enters Stiles’ room! In Stiles’ room, she sees the bed on which Stiles (Dylan O’Brien) comforted her in Season Three episode five. While she wrapped his red string around her fingers he told her, “You’ve been right every time something like this has happened…. So don’t start doubting yourself now…. You knew it. You felt it…. If you wanted to, I’d go back right now and search all night just to prove it.” Lydia sees Stiles’ shelves, mirror, desk and corkboard that they used to solve mysteries with the same red string. Lydia sees everything. She sees Stiles’ lacrosse helmet and jersey sitting on a chair in the corner of his room. She crosses the room, touches the jersey and actually picks it up – holding it in her hands. She smiles before lifting the jersey up to her nose breathing in the scent of Stiles!

Meanwhile, Papa Stilinski doesn’t see any of it. Lydia asks him, “You don’t see anything?” He tells her, “I see a deeply disturbed young woman.” Perhaps only Lydia can see and feel everything because she already believes in Stiles?! Lydia proposes, “You’re afraid to remember him.” He asks, “Why do you care so much if I remember him?” “Because you loved him,” she tells him, before tossing him Stiles’ jersey. Papa Stilinski catches it! There’s a part of him that believes in Stiles! Papa Stilinski is now on Lydia’s team! They can remember Stiles, which means they NEED to get him back! Lydia and Papa Stilinski are going to fight together for the boy they love more than life!

After escaping the Ghost Riders’ grasp through their portal two episodes ago, Peter (Ian Bohen) has third-degree burns over ninety percent of his body. To save and heal him, Melissa (Melissa Ponzio) injects Peter with the same nine herbs she used to save Argent’s life in the last episode. Writhing, Peter coughs up blue as his seared skin flakes off. He appears to be healing and dying at the same time! After Peter has healed, in exchange for Melissa saving his life, he has to take Malia (Shelley Hennig) back to where he came through so they can search for and, hopefully, find Stiles. “You can’t just poke around and expect to find a supernatural train station,” he tells her. Malia knows where Peter came in, in the middle of the woods, because she “marked the territory…. visually.” It might also help that the ground where Peter came in is as seared as his skin was! While walking, Peter asks Malia why getting Stiles back matters so much to her. She tells him that it is because Stiles is her anchor. She can’t be human without him. In not so many words, he tells her to be her own anchor. Even if she won’t admit it, Malia wants to believe the best in Peter. And Peter feels the same about Malia. Wherever they end up must be close to the where the Ghost Riders come through because sooner than later they hear them approaching. The Ghost Riders are coming! Peter yells at Malia to run while the Ghost Riders take him. Peter risks his life to save Malia! The Ghost Riders are after Peter, again. But, just as they’re about to nab him for a second time, they stop. They leave Peter alone and run away. Peter is relieved and baffled.

Now that Scott (Tyler Posey) remembers Stiles he can’t lose him. With no time for mistakes, the best idea he and his pack have right now is to catch a Ghost Rider. Proud of each other for the plan, Liam (Dylan Sprayberry) and Hayden (Victoria Moroles) kiss. In the words of Theo (Cody Christian), “You guys want me to leave you alone?” Scott and his pack trap a Ghost Rider in a lightning proof cage! To ensure the pissed off Ghost Rider doesn’t erase them, Scott steals its gun! They realize to get any information out of the Ghost Rider they need the Hellhound, Parrish (Ryan Kelley). The Ghost Rider will only talk to the Hellhound. Yes, apparently the Ghost Riders can and do talk! Parrish asks the Ghost Rider, “How do we get everyone back?” The Ghost Rider only says one word, “Hellhound.” What does that mean? Can the Hellhound rescue everyone because, since he’s already on fire, the portal won’t burn him on entry or exit? The Ghost Rider only says two other chants. “We are the Wild Hunt. We hunt forever. Those who hunt with us hunt forever,” and “There is only the Hunt. No one resists. No one escapes.” But Peter escaped, so that’s clearly a lie! Under some kind of supernatural mind control, Parrish is about to let the Ghost Rider out of its cage so Scott and Liam push Parrish outside. Whatever the relationship between the Hellhound and the Ghost Riders is, Scott and Liam really should not mess with the Hellhound!

While Scott and Liam are outside dealing with Parrish, Mr. Douglas (Pete Ploszek) breaks in. Giving the appearance he knows more than he’s letting on, Theo tells Mr. Douglas, “Maybe you should tell them who you really are, Hauptmann?” Mr. Douglas threatens Theo to grant him access to the Ghost Rider and Theo obliges. He breaks the barrier of mountain ash, letting Mr. Douglas into the cage. At first, Mr. Douglas and the Ghost Rider seem to be in a stand-off. Rightfully so, the Ghost Rider is scared of Mr. Douglas. He attacks the Ghost Rider, appearing to eat the Ghost Rider’s face off! Mr. Douglas leaves as quickly as he came in, framing Theo. When Scott and Liam come back in from dealing with Parrish outside, they find Theo sitting alone on the ground with blood on his face and the dead Ghost Rider across the room. Theo says, “It was Mr. Douglas. He ate his brain,” but no one believes him. Liam threatens to throw Theo back in the hole he literally crawled out of and Theo understands. It fits with the perfect day Theo has been having, which started off with Malia beating him to a pulp! While Malia tried to kill Theo he told her the same thing he tells his sister, whom he murdered, in his reoccurring nightmares that always end in her ripping out his intestines – killing him, “It’s ok. You don’t have to stop.” Theo knows he deserves punishment. But not today! Mason (Khylin Rhambo) tells them these murders have been going on for weeks, longer than Theo has been there, so it couldn’t have been Theo. Don’t you just love it when all the storylines converge?! Sure enough, Scott inspects the dead Ghost Rider and his pineal gland, a tiny part of the brain, is gone. Scott now knows Mr. Douglas is eating pineal glands!

Having stolen the Ghost Rider’s whip, Mr. Douglas finds Corey (Michael Johnston) and uses it to erase him! This is something Mr. Douglas has wanted to do for a very long time, apparently. Mason will find Corey though. He told him as much earlier, saying, “It’s my only power – finding you.”

Best Lines:

• Melissa: Peter is a ruthless con man who always has a devious plan to hurt everyone around him…
• Liam: Mr. Ghost Rider….Mr. Rider.
• Scott: Maybe he (Ghost Rider) can’t hear us? Liam: Maybe he speaks an ancient language? Theo: Maybe he only responds to pain? Liam: Or fear?
• Peter: You’re so very loyal Malia and that is an overrated quality.
• Peter (to Malia): You have no self-preservation instincts. How are you my daughter?