Teen Wolf – Riders on the Storm

By starrymag | February 12, 2017

By: Kim Olson

 

 

The Teen Wolf mid-season finale, “Riders on the Storm,” picks right back up where “Memory Found” left off – the sound of Lydia (Holland Roden) remembering their first kiss breaks Stiles (Dylan O’Brien) from his trance! Looking at the arrival/departure board in the Ghost Riders’ train station, he hears her calling his name! He chases the sound to no avail, but instead finds his dad (Linden Ashby). He hugs him and tells him, “I can hear Lydia. I think I can get to her. I think she can get us out of here.” His dad tells him to get the hell out of there and not worry about him. They’ll find each other again. Stiles jumps on the train tracks and RUNS to Lydia! He pushes through the rift while Lydia’s voice, passionately chanting “when I kissed you,” encourages him from the other side! She reaches out for him, but the rift closes.

 

“Stiles?” she asks. There’s no one there. Lydia is heartbroken. She knows she saw him. She knows it was working. She knows he’s out there. She can feel it. She’s never wrong about these things. So where is he? He was there, wasn’t he? Making matters worse, her friends think she’s crazy. They didn’t see anyone. They gently back her up as if she’s in shock. Scott (Tyler Posey) leaves and tells her and Malia (Shelley Hennig) to stay there, just in case… Stiles shows up? But Malia isn’t listening. She encourages Lydia to go find Stiles.

 

Meanwhile, Stiles wakes up in his relic – his jeep, Roscoe! By Lydia remembering her love for him, he e He successfully broke free of the Ghost Riders’ grasp!

 

The first person Stiles looks for is Scott! He goes in Scott’s house and checks at the police station. Finally, he finds Scott in the hospital, fighting Mr. Douglas (Pete Ploszek). Stiles knocks Mr. Douglas out with a baseball bat! “Bad guy, right? I didn’t misread that?” he asks. He then runs to hug his best friend! “I’m gone a couple days, the whole place falls apart,” says Stiles. “No, you were gone for three months,” Scott informs him. Stiles doesn’t realize he’s been gone so long. “I was… what?” he asks. “Okay. If they don’t let me graduate, I swear to God,” says Stiles. Stiles thinks it can be an easy win for once, until Mr. Douglas wraps his whip around his wrist erasing him again. “Oh God… Or not,” says Stiles, falling to the ground. Bye Stiles! Bye Scott!

 

Nope. Not easy at all. After Mr. Douglas erases him, throwing him to the locker room in the high school, a Ghost Rider has a gun at Stiles’ head ready to shoot!  Stiles closes his eyes certain he’s going to die. Elsewhere in the school, Lydia’s banshee powers sense Stiles is about to die! Saving him, she runs in the locker room and SCREAMS! The force of her scream throws the Ghost Rider against the locker, killing him! Wasting no time, Lydia runs to Stiles and tells him, “I didn’t say it back.” Moving toward her, he says, “You don’t have to.” He already knows she loves him. Making all of Stiles’ wildest dreams come true, they smoosh their faces together passionately! She’s so happy kissing him. Her mouth is open so wide, smiling. She’s crying! They don’t waste a second. They’ve already wasted years, months. She caresses his face, from his eyes to his neck. He looks so little and young, but so happy. She looks at him like, “I’m kissing you, Stiles Stilinski. “They literally can’t get enough of kissing each other. This is all about Lydia and Stiles! They love each other and they’re kissing, actually kissing. Not a peck or to stop a panic attack, but because they love each other. Pulling back, they hold each other in their eyes and hands! Crying, he hugs her so tightly.

 

Stiles and Lydia run through the school holding hands! The Ghost Rider acting as Stiles’ mom, Claudia (Joey Honsa), finds them and calls out to him. Lydia explains to Stiles that’s not his mom. The Wild Hunt is tricking him and brought Claudia back when he was gone. Stiles is hurt. He knows who it is. He knows her voice. Lydia begs him to believe her, but he’s just confused. “What do you mean brought her back?” he asks. “That thing is conjured from your dad’s pain. If he remembers you, he can’t believe in her,” Lydia explains. Because momma means business, they table this discussion for later. “Claudia” says, “Stiles, I know what you’ve been through. I know how much you love your father, but I love him more…. That’s why you have to go.” Over Lydia’s dead body is ANOTHER Ghost Rider messing with the man she loves! She steps in front of Stiles to protect him and “Claudia” reaches for her throat. If anything happens to Lydia, Stiles would literally go out of his freaking mind so he rips “Claudia’s” hand off Lydia’s neck, switching Lydia out for himself. You shouldn’t treat your mother that way,” says “Claudia.” “You’re not my mother,” retorts Stiles. Choking Stiles out, “Claudia” says, “He believes in me. Dreams so hard to kill.” Papa Stilinksi appears saying, “But not impossible.” He then shoots “Claudia!” Like he promised, Noah Stilinski finds Stiles again, just in the nick of time! He swoops in and saves his son’s life! But his bullets can’t hurt her. “Fire again,” says Lydia, standing next to him. Lydia and Papa Stilinski team up – her screaming and him shooting – to save the boy they love! Now it works! Stilinski shoots and kills his “wife” to save his son! The Stilinski family and Lydia are alive and well! The whole school shakes, like there’s an earthquake. Lydia falls against Noah, holding on to him and he holds onto her.

 

The real world and the Ghost Riders’ world are collapsing in on each other. Douglas is merging the worlds so the Ghost Riders can cross over. Train tracks are showing up everywhere. The hospital is turning into a train station. There is even a train station in the middle of the high school library.

 

Because Corey (Michael Johnston) can exist in both worlds and take people with him, he’s the key to merging the two worlds. When Mason (Khylin Rhambo) finds him in the train station, tubes are pumping blue out of his body, killing him! Mason and Corey hold hands while Corey has to stay hooked up to the machines. Corey promises Mason it’s ok. He’ll heal. When it’s safe, they pull the valves out of him.

 

The worlds may be as one, physically, but an emotional barrier still needs to be broken to interact with loved ones in the station. Malia finds Peter (Ian Bohen) in the library and, to break through the hunt and wake him up, she has to connect with him emotionally. At first, she doesn’t want to say it, but after a little bit of coaxing she calls him “dad’ like she means it and begs him to wake up. Feeling a disturbance in the force, the Ghost Riders re-enter. Peter has no effect on them, at all. He might as well just be a distraction. The Ghost Riders kick his ass and lash Malia with their whip. But, like always, Peter saves Malia and yells at her to go! This time though, she turns around and saves him back!

 

Chris Argent (JR Bourne) would like to have a werewolf around right about now to rip a Ghost Rider off its hinges! In a classic shoot first stand-off, Chris fights a Ghost Rider and wins! “I gotta get me one of these,” says Chris referring to the Ghost Rider’s gun in his hand. Thinking “that was so hot” Melissa McCall (Melissa Ponzio) kisses him!

 

Even though Liam (Dylan Sprayberry) survived the Ghost Rider attack and they’re trying to get everyone out of the train station, he’s going to steal a Ghost Rider’s horse and ride it into the station. After Theo (Cody Christian) went through everything to keep Liam safe, he’s going in – by choice. But right before jumping on the back of a horse, a Ghost Rider chokes him out! Thankfully, Theo saves him…again! Theo snaps the Ghost Rider’s neck, allowing Liam to ride off!

 

The train taking everyone to the Wild Hunt, to turn into a Ghost Rider doomed to ride the storm forever, is finally arriving in minutes. The only way to save everyone now is to divert the train.

 

Scott follows the train tracks to the diverter and orders Douglas to step back. Douglas tells Scott, “That’s the German way of doing things. You would’ve made an excellent Nazi Youth.” Did Douglas just say Scott would make a good Nazi?! Scott and his pack (Theo, Malia and Peter) face off against Mr. Douglas and his army of Ghost Riders! Scott grabs Mr. Douglas’ whip, throws it around the diverter and pulls. This switches the tracks and diverts the train! Beacon Hills won’t be a Ghost Town anymore! Mr. Douglas misses his train and the storm passes. The Ghost Riders stop fighting for Douglas and leave. Mr. Douglas orders his army to come back and kill Scott and his pack, but they don’t obey. The Ghost Riders are NOT his army and he is not their leader. “Riders don’t bow. They have no leader,” says Peter. Instead, the Ghost Riders turn back around, circle Douglas and turn him into one of them! The look of horror and disgust on Scott’s face says it all. Douglas, the newest (Nazi) Rider, and the rest of the Ghost Riders ride away on the lightning from the storm. Poof! Everyone in the train station goes back where they belong and everything in Beacon Hills returns to normal.

 

Stiles is home and sad it’s already the last day of school, ever! He still isn’t ready for high school to be over. It just feels so anti-climactic to him with no “whole graduation thing” (on-screen). After the final class, he doesn’t want to leave. “No…. This can’t be it,” he says before grabbing his bag and walking out. “I can’t believe we’re not in high school anymore. Kind of feels like nothing’s really changed,” says Scott, emptying out his locker. In what could possibly be the last Stydia scene ever, Stiles looks at Lydia who is standing down the hallway at her locker pursing her lips and says, “Everything’s changed.” Stiles and Lydia are finishing high school as a couple. They’re endgame! The girl who used to ignore him now loves him and she finally has a boyfriend who, when she sees him standing down the hall, she can’t breathe until she’s with him. But still, not everything has changed. The way Lydia looks at Stiles, with pursed lips, has not changed. Stiles and Scott close their lockers and leave school for the very last time.

 

At Stiles’ jeep he hands his baseball bat down to Mason thinking he’s going to need it, even though neither of them play baseball. He tells Liam, “The most important thing you can remember is that Mason is always gonna be the one who’s there to save your ass all the time.” Scott remarks, “Well, not all the time.” Stiles adds, “Most of the time though.” Whatever Scott needs to tell himself, but his plan to save Stiles was for Stiles to come up with a plan. Stiles then gives Scott the copies of the keys he secretly made to everything in Beacon Hills – Scott’s house, Scott’s room, the school, animal clinic and Sherriff’s station. Stiles also wants Scott to have his jeep. “You know, hurt her and I’ll kill you,” he reminds him. Stiles won’t need his jeep where he’s going – George Washington University in Washington D.C. for the Pre-FBI program.

 

The remaining original pack members can and are moving out of Beacon Hills to be happy, loved and safe. They made it and they deserve it. Except, they’re all going separate ways for college and leaving each other. Stiles is going to Washington D.C. to be a Fed. Genius Lydia is starting MIT as a Junior. While Stiles and Lydia move east, Scott is staying in California to attend UC Davis. Between D.C., Massachusetts and California, they’ll be spread out across the country. It’s best for their futures, even if they’ll miss each other and still need each other. No, really, though. Stiles needs Scott to drive him because he lost his license in the hunt. Scott reminds Stiles his dad is the sheriff and he’s sure he’ll let it slide. “You drive,” he tells Stiles.

 

Scott and Stiles get in the jeep and hear over the police radio there’s a body in the woods. Never too old to be running around the woods looking for a dead body, Scott and Stiles drive off into the sunset chasing another mystery.

 

Best Lines:

• Stiles: “Nowhere in the manual does it say that werewolves can do that and Scott and I pretty much wrote the manual.”
• Scott: “Wanna split up?” Stiles: “Never again.”
• Stiles: “I finally saw the girls’ locker room. It’s not that different. It’s kind of disappointing.”
• Peter: “No one likes a Nazi.”
• Stiles: “Worming is one of my skills.”