‘Teen Wolf’ Recap: In Loving Memory
Warning: This recap of the “Memory Found” episode of Teen Wolf contains spoilers.
Of all the things that make our lives worse, memory is the most consistent and relentless monster. Like with many people, my addled brain only tends to remember bad things, and the rare good memory only ever pops up to remind me that that good thing is now over. Very cool of you, brain. That being said, memory does offer education, insight, and even solace. Is a loved one now missing from this plane? Just close your eyes and feel that they aren’t. Memories can rescue you from darkness sometimes, and in the case of Teen Wolf, they can rescue your friends from darkness. Literally.
“Memory Found” was what we in the recapping business call the “penultimate” episode, and in keeping with tradition, important things happened in it. The main thing was, our heroes figured out how to rescue a lost friend by simply loving and remembering him, which was SO Teen Wolf. In a series that has always embraced dream logic over boring logic, of course it opts for straight-up emotionalism over complicated schemes. And man, was this an emotional episode. Let’s talk about it!
We began in that weird, underground, yellowish sewer bunker that Mr. Argent stores his guns and cryo-chambers in!
Last week Scott, Malia, and Lydia realized that the only way to rescue Stiles was to REMEMBER him. But rather than sit quietly and sip tea and reminisce, they decided to use experimental, high-powered machines to nearly kill themselves!
It was a good plan, because 1) there was a precedent for this sort of thing in past seasons, like that ice bath incident, and also 2) it would probably involve shirtlessness. This plan was as good as any!
Meanwhile Sheriff Stilinski and Liam were hanging out at the station wondering where all the damn deputies went. They were gone! And in their place was nothing but tons of dead leaves. That is how you know the Ghost Riders are truly dastardly… Not only do they whisk away entire towns one person at a time, they do not rake after themselves. Couldn’t at least one Ghost Rider hang back with a leaf blower and tidy up a bit? Honestly rude.
But guess whom the Ghost Riders did not take? Theo (I trust him)! The question was, would Sheriff Stilinski trust Theo enough to let him out of his jail cell? If we’re being honest, Theo did not exactly warm the sheriff’s heart with all that snark and enough atheism to make the baby Jesus cry. But he DID win the sheriff over with a small, honest memory of Stiles: Stiles had been real smart! Bing bing, correct answer. Theo was now free.
Within seconds, one thousand Ghost Riders arrived and turned “Noah” into a cloud of green smoke! Run away, boys!!
Back in the poor-man’s-Flatliners HQ, Malia and Lydia placed Scott inside Parrish’s cryo-chamber and turned the frost to TURBO. The idea was the cold would nearly kill him and then place him in a trance-like state where he could better remember his bestie.
And guess what? It worked! Kinda. He started getting flashes from all the past seasons of Teen Wolf, including the one when Stiles had a buzz cut.
Aw, I miss that buzz cut! Also, we were treated to this moment from one of Teen Wolf‘s very best episodes, 3A’s “Hotel California.”
It was here that we truly saw that these boys were basically brothers, and if ANYONE could get a hallucinating-on-druid-drugs Scott to not commit suicide by gasoline, it was Stiles. Awwww these guys.
Unfortunately there were only so many things Scott could remember (probably due to all the lacrosse balls he’d been hit in the head with over the years), so Scott nearly died before he could properly reopen the rift. Within seconds Malia was stripping her shirt off and tagging in. Let’s do this!
She too began to remember Stiles, though her memories were more about how he’d helped her transition into being a human being, and less about how they were boyfriend and girlfriend for a while. And like Scott, Malia’s memories were mixed with TONS of nightmares, serving as a reminder of just how terrible these teens’ lives have been since we first met them. Just a nonstop cavalcade of bad times. Speaking of which!
Liam and Theo fled to the hospital to hide, probably because that was the only other preexisting set we hadn’t seen in this episode yet. But the Ghost Riders followed them there!
Though Theo made a big deal about how he was only there to save himself and didn’t give a HOOT (pardon my French) about anybody else, he eventually joined in and did his part to help save them from the invading cowboy ghosts.
His most heroic moment came when he forced Liam into an elevator for his protection while staying behind to personally hold off the Ghost Riders.
Obviously this was a very no-duh situation as Theo is the most trustworthy person on the show, but it was also downright heroic. He is clearly on some kind of path to redemption and it’s nice to see. There was something even heartbreaking about Liam listening through the elevator doors as Theo appeared to be overcome by his adversaries and probably turned into green smoke, but then again since we didn’t actually see that happen, maybe he brutally murdered all of them? He’d already basically decapitated one with a surgical saw, so you never know what Theo’s capable of. Except trustworthiness!
It was now Lydia’s turn to walk down Stiles Memory Lane. But banshees aren’t as good at freezing themselves nearly to death, so she decided to just stare at a candle while her friends read aloud guided meditations in soothing tones.
I bet Malia and Scott were both kicking themselves for not trying this first, but whatever. Lydia immediately harkened back to Season 1 when her love for Stiles was but a mere twinkle in her overly medicated eye.
We got to relive their early, awkward moments together, and it all culminated in this sweet moment in the boys locker room:
And THIS was the memory that unlocked the rift! Lydia calming Stiles during a panic attack by pressing her lips to his. Upon waking from her trance, Lydia recalled she’d never said “I love you” back to him before he’d disappeared and the look on her face said it all: She was sorry. She regretted it, and I think we can agree she intends to return the favor ASAP. And that’s when the rift opened.
The trio ran to gaze upon a literal light at the end of the tunnel, and a very familiar silhouette appeared.
And that’s where the episode cut off! Just after shoveling a metric ton of emotions our way, it saved the real reunion for next week. Brutal! But on the other hand, well-earned. Stiles had been saved using only the characters’ love for him, which is one of the simplest and most poignant rescues in TV history. Leave it to Teen Wolf to literalize a metaphor.
“Memory Found” was a straightforward episode that cut between a rescue mission and an escape thriller, but ended with two satisfying conclusions: Stiles was back, and Theo was heroic. Next week’s episode should hopefully provide more closure on these threads, but this week was nothing less than a celebration of Stiles, and Teen Wolf itself. What a long, nightmarish, love-fueled journey these kids have been on. One can only hope it ends as well as they deserve.
What did YOU think of “Memory Found”?
Teen Wolf airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on MTV.
