Teen Wolf – Radio Silence

By: Kim Olson

“Radio Silence” starts off with Stiles (Dylan O’Brien) waking up in the train station where the Ghost Riders took him. He’s holding onto his car keys, the last thing he had in his hand when the Ghost Riders grabbed him. As soon as he gains consciousness, in an unknown place, he immediately starts investigating. Stiles is still himself – a detective in training. Stiles asks everyone around him, including the female doctor Lydia saw in class in the second episode and the old woman Lydia saw in Stiles’ house in the third episode, “Where are we? …Do you know what train this is? Anyone know where this train is going?” But everyone is less than helpful. Every person in this train station is either comatose or catatonic. They all believe this is their reality. They all believe they’re really at a train station waiting on a train to who knows where.

When oh so brave Stiles stands up to the Ghost Riders, an (un)friendly familiar face saves his life – Peter Hale (Ian Bohen)! The Ghost Riders took Peter to the train station immediately after he escaped from Eichen House, three months ago. “I got out of one prison just to get into another one,” Peter says disappointed. Initially, Peter (like everyone else) believes this reality in the train station is real. “Peter, what are you doing here? How are you here?” Stiles asks him. His response is, “What do you mean how am I here? I’m here. You’re here. We are all here.” Stiles is the only one thinking clearly. Unlike everyone else, Stiles can’t be fooled or made to forget.

Stiles and Peter realize the Ghost Riders put them in the train station to ride the storm for all eternity. They try to devise a plan to get out though because as Stiles points out, “We’re not in the storm. We’re in a train station. We can get out of a train station.” There is a door in the train station, but it doesn’t go anywhere. The one door just leads to another door in the train station. Stiles just walks right out through them as if on a never ending loop, in a revolving door. “No no no, keep going,” Peter tells him. While trying to escape, a guy in the train station is watching them. It’s Trent! Trent (Ryan Malgarini) is the guy who talked to Lydia in Stiles’ house in the previous episode! (Wait. If all these people can see and talk to Lydia, does that mean Stiles can see and talk to her too?!) Just as Stiles and Peter recently realized, Trent knows this is a false reality yet he has a plan to get out. “We jump on the back of the riders as they go through,” he tells Stiles and Peter. But Peter isn’t feeling this plan. “I think you’re confusing your pronouns. We aren’t going to do anything. But you should absolutely give that a shot,” he tells Trent. Of course, Peter wants to get out of the train station, but he wants to get out alive. Trent still follows through with his plan though. Stiles and Peter watch as Trent jumps on the back of a Ghost Rider’s horse, hits the portal, falls to the ground, disintegrates and dies! Ok. So, they need to find another way out.

Peter believes he can make it through the portal by holding onto the back of a Ghost Rider, unlike Trent, because he is a werewolf. Once he makes it through to the other side he can just heal himself. So, he does just that. He piggybacks onto a Ghost Rider and holds on for dear life as Stiles watches from a hiding spot. In all the commotion, a Ghost Rider throws a rope around Stiles’ neck and almost chokes him out! Lying on the train tracks, trying to regain his breath, Stiles watches as Peter makes it out of the train station through the portal! That’s great and wonderful and all for Peter who is a werewolf, but how will Stiles make it through? Stiles is a human. How will Stiles make it back if when he touches the portal he’ll disintegrate and die? However it is, he is now alone to figure it out. But Stiles refuses to give up. He’s confident his friends will remember him and find him. As he told Peter, “Somebody’s gonna remember me. Either Lydia or Scott…. They’re gonna find me…. They’ll come for me.” Stiles believes Lydia (Holland Roden) is going to be the first to remember him and he isn’t wrong. Lydia specifically is fighting tooth and nail to save him!

Back in the real world, Stiles’ jeep has been in the school parking lot for far too long. During class, Lydia watches through the window as Stiles’ jeep is about to be towed away. She rushes out to stop one more piece of him from being taken from her. She haggles with the tow truck driver (Kevin Will) to let her keep the jeep, but because it’s on the tow truck driver’s hook she is now “on the hook.” She has to pay to get the jeep back. For a hundred and fifty dollars, more than the car is worth according to Scott, she is now technically two-thirds the owner of Stiles’ jeep! The other third belongs to Scott (Tyler Posey), who helped her out by giving her all he had – fifty dollars. “All I have is $50 and when I say all I mean all,” he tells her. Next problem: She doesn’t have the keys. With Scott’s help, she breaks into the jeep. She figures “the jeep didn’t just drive itself here” so she searches for and finds the deed, which links the jeep back to the Stilinski family’s address. Having been already crying, judging by the smudged makeup under her eyes, she goes over to the Stilinski household to ask them what they know about the jeep. They tell her it was stolen almost eighteen years ago so they have no way of knowing who is the current owner.

Lydia is exhausted! She excuses herself from the Stilinski living room and goes and collapses, crying, against the wall where Stiles’ bedroom used to be. She just can’t hold it in anymore. She feels crazy and doesn’t know what to do. She can’t figure out how to get Stiles back. No one believes in Stiles anymore, except for her. Even Malia (Shelley Hennig) has just gone right ahead and given up on Stiles having ever been real. To make matters worse, Lydia has no way of proving Stiles existed. She knows Stiles is real, she just needs help to prove it. Little does she know, Stiles is sitting on the other side of that wall at that same moment feeling crazy for believing “someone’s gonna remember me.” He now thinks his friends aren’t going to remember him at all.

Later that night, Lydia goes back to the jeep – the only piece of Stiles she has left. While she is there she, Scott and Malia hear a roar from the woods. Scott and Malia run off to find the source of the pained cry. At first, thanks to the Ghost Riders erasing him, they don’t know who they find burned up and screaming in pain. But after they look him in the eyes, through a series of flashbacks, they remember who he is – Peter Hale! It is Malia’s biological father and Scott’s alpha who bit him, thus turning him into a werewolf. Scott and Malia try to heal Peter to take away his pain. When they touch his hands they find him holding keys. He has the keys to Stiles’ jeep!

Scott rushes back to Lydia and gives her the keys so they can turn the car on. Voilà, it works! Lydia has Stiles’ jeep up and running! Through the radio they hear a voice coming in. As soon as Lydia hears Stiles’ voice, she remembers him! Lydia asks, “Stiles? Is this you? Is this actually you?” and he replies, “Yah, it’s me.” Stiles just wants to know she knows he loves her. That’s what he wants to get to first. That’s what matters most to him – her knowing. He asks, “Do you remember the last thing I said to you?” For a moment she seems to think, “Should I say this in front of Scott?” But then she tells him, “You said…’Remember, I love you.’” Stiles breathes a sigh of relief and smiles. Lydia knows he loves her and, dare he say, he thinks she loves him too. Maybe not literally, but figuratively Stiles is in a good place. Their connection is lost almost as instantly as they got it, but they were able to communicate with each other even for a moment! Scott and Lydia, and only Scott and Lydia, talked to Stiles – fitting as they’re the original three and Malia doesn’t even believe in Stiles anymore. Bonus: Since Scott was with Lydia when she talked to Stiles, she won’t come off as crazy! Stiles and his friends can now communicate between worlds! Stiles is no longer alone! He’s now the voice inside Roscoe, à la Knight Rider!

Best Lines:

• Peter: This looks like the underground lair of a depressed bureaucrat.
• Peter (to Stiles): We really should kill him (Trent).
• Teacher (to class, after Lydia and Scott leave): You guys know that classes aren’t optional, right?
• Tow Truck Drive: This is your vehicle? Lydia: Does it matter? Tow Truck Driver: Sounds like a no.
• Scott: You know I don’t actually have the keys to this thing, right? Lydia: But now we have a jeep.
• Peter: Congratulations, you found another part of the phantom train station.
• Peter: What is it with you teenagers? You think that you’re so special. You think the rules don’t apply to you.
• Peter: You give me a call when your high school sweethearts conjure up a plan to get out of here.
• Peter: Take your time. Don’t rush. Only thing at stake is any evidence of our existence. Soon to be lost. Forever.
• Peter (to Stiles): In case you’re keeping count, that’s twice I’ve saved your life today.
• Stiles (to Peter): You’re doing this for her (Malia). You’re risking being incinerated for her.
• Malia: Did you hear that (roar)? Lydia: I think all of Beacon Hills heard that.