‘Teen Wolf’ Recap: Memories of Mischief

Warning: This recap of the “Blitzkrieg” episode of Teen Wolf contains spoilers.

Mieczyslaw. At first glance you’re like, “Who spilled the Scrabble tiles? Pick them up before the cat eats them.” But that is no random assortment of letters — it is a word! The most important word, at least when it comes to Teen Wolf. Because Mieczyslaw is the answer to the question Teen Wolf‘s been teasing as a running joke since it began. Mieczyslaw is Stiles’s first name!

Yep, just casually at the end of the eighth episode of Season 6, Teen Wolf finally spilled the consonants. “Blitzkrieg” was already a fantastic episode full of stakes-raising action and heartache, but it was when Stiles’s dad finally remembered not only his son’s existence but his son’s name that it took on a huge importance to the series in general. And can we get Linden Ashby an Emmy nomination already? Because, man. Let’s talk about this episode.

We began, as happens to be the case a lot lately, with Nazis.

We were in a strategy meeting among a bunch of Nazi brass, and wouldn’t you know it: Mr. Douglas had a bold plan to create supersoldiers out of supernatural creatures. When a rival jeered the idea, Mr. Douglas got his feelings hurt, so he bit the man’s throat out. But this was Nazi Germany, so it wasn’t like Mr. Douglas was going to get fired for this or anything. WWII was a very strange time.

We were then treated to an extremely lovely and moving scene that was completely free of dialogue. Sheriff Stilinski began rediscovering Stiles’s bedroom one artifact at a time, courtesy of the red string and pushpins Stiles uses to create his monster vision boards. As Sheriff Stilinski connected everything with yarn, the fuller picture that was his son started coming into focus in a really satisfying way. But this was just the beginning of Linden Ashby doing some startlingly moving work in this episode. Like, really, without even saying a word, he took us on a JOURNEY. So good.

Mrs. McCall and Argent wasted no time in finding the body of that dead Ghost Rider and fingering the hell out of its brain hole. That’s when they were interrupted by Mr. Douglas and his brand-new Ghost Rider whip. He needed them to bring him to Deputy Parrish (who doesn’t?), and Melissa only agreed in order to save Argent’s life. But how much did you love their defensive cuddling in the face of danger? They’re definitely falling in love, right? Anyway, back to my main point: Mr. Douglas is a jerk.

Poor Mason. He’d just discovered that his cute boyfriend, Corey, had been kidnapped by the Ghost Riders, and the fact that Corey’s recovered phone contained only pictures of the two of them was almost too much to bear. But isn’t that how love is sometimes? Just when you think you’ve found your person, they get whisked away to a parallel purgatory dimension by ghouls in chaps. I hate to say it, Mason, but get used to it.

The gang threw Theo in a jail cell (there are no more Sheriff’s deputies to object to this misuse of their facilities), and he brought up a valid point: They should trust him.

But for real though, Theo DID know a lot about Mr. Douglas’s backstory, so if they wanted to get any good flashbacks out of it, he needed a favor: They had to break Kira’s sword-belt so as to assure him they won’t send him back to h*ck. Fair trade, right? I trust him.

These three, meanwhile, where on the hunt for the rift portal that could allow them to reenter the Ghost Rider’s train station dimension or whatever. But the thing was impenetrable (poor Malia even face-planted into it by accident), and they were going to need to put on their thinking caps for this one! For example, crossing the threshold tends to incinerate things, so that’s a problem. See, even the Nazis had to deal with it:

As Mr. Douglas and his occult-enthusiast comrades discovered, crossing the rift made people burst into green flames!

And to add insult to injury, that’s immediately followed by Ghost Riders trotting out of the rift and shooting and whipping everybody. It’s a real recipe for disaster, in other words! Didn’t seem worth it to me, but Mr. Douglas was all about it. Apparently he wanted somehow to harness the power of the Ghost Riders to create a supernatural army to do his bidding. I guess? Oh, and I forgot to mention this tidbit: He’s a WERE-LION. Well, part wolf, part lion, but still. Perfect.

Speaking of perfect, Mr. Douglas needed a few upgrades, so back in WWII he had tracked down the Dread Doctors for a consultation, and they recommended that he be tortured, bound, and placed in a glass tube full of goo for several decades. And while he obviously began to look disgusting and bloated, it actually had the effect of making him SUPER powerful and imbued with the power of the Ghost Riders, whose whip had left him wounded. In other words, Mr. Douglas gained ALL the supernatural powers from this experience, and now in modern times he was making tons of trouble for everybody. It was a good thing he was so cute, amIright, ladies and fellas? Am I? (Am I?)

One thing I had forgotten was that Parrish sleeps in a fireproof chamber UPRIGHT. I mean, I think part of me knew that, but it was still so funny to see. But what was not funny to see was when both Mrs. McCall and Argent were POOFED into green smoke by Mr. Douglas! He just whipped them into oblivion, and it was genuinely shocking! But the shocks would keep coming as a succession of beloved characters all began getting whipped into nonexistence one by one.

First Mason…

Then Hayden! But to her credit, she did it to allow Liam to escape, and it was both romantic and heartbreaking. And, yeah, I know that these characters aren’t actually dead and that they’ll all be reunited on the other side and that eventually they’ll all be rescued. But, man. It still felt surprisingly shocking to see them get captured like this. This episode was not messing around.

Back underground, the gang did their best to try and penetrate the rift, but sometimes when you need someone to enter a hole, you get someone with experience.

THAT’s why Mr. Douglas wanted Parrish… As a Hell Hound he could open the rift without being incinerated. That was just good thinking on Mr. Douglas’s part. Unfortunately only he and Parrish were able to enter the rift, leaving the rest of the gang to tussle with intruding Ghost Riders!

Scott and Malia did their best to avoid getting whipped into green smoke, but at the last minute somebody ran in and helped them out.

Peter Hale! Peter Hale was not about to let these jerks hassle his daughter or his son, so he sacrificed himself to protect them. Then he too was rendered into a green cloud. (If we’re being honest, the purgatory party was starting to have a pretty fun guest list!)

I also loved this creepy moment when one of the Ghost Riders refused to attack Lydia, on account of being afraid of her. I’m not sure why anyone would be afraid of a banshee, except people who are predisposed to tinnitus, but whatever. Lydia and Liam were able to skate by this time, so that was a relief.

We then FINALLY dealt with the whole Claudia situation, and it was not easy. After Sheriff Stilinski re-conjured Stiles’s room, he brought her in to admire his handiwork. But she was kind of a hater about it, and this caused the room to disappear again! But then in another truly tear-inducing scene, Stiles’s dad monologued about how he suddenly remembered Claudia’s “last good day” before she’d succumbed to dementia and the effect her death had had on him and his son. The disturbing part was she kept interjecting and disagreeing and insisting that she had actually gotten better because “the medicine worked.” But he knew it wasn’t true, and the scene took on this sophisticated idea of how we bargain with ourselves when it comes to death. He WANTED to believe her, but he knew he couldn’t. So where maybe we had thought Claudia was a supernatural menace and we were waiting for her scheme to be revealed, the truth was much sadder. She was simply something Sheriff Stilinski had conjured to deal with the loss of Stiles, and she meant no harm. And then, suddenly, she was gone. He’d been forced to talk himself out of spending more time with the love of his life.

And the scene was capped off with a sort of Field of Dreams moment when an unseen portal shone light on Stiles’s dad’s face. But what did he seeeeeee? I’ll tell you what he saw: Mieczyslaw “Mischief” Stilinski!

As Mr. Stilinski informed the gang, just fully remembering his son opened an alternative rift that allowed him to temporarily glimpse his son. So if they truly wanted to get into this purgatory dimension, they would need to fully (and as a group) remember Stiles detail by detail. Awwww.

“Blitzkrieg” was a perfect encapsulation of what makes this show special. It was truly insane (um, there’s a Nazi were-lion running around whipping people) while also giving your heart a gentle pummeling. Again, can’t say it enough, this was Linden Ashby’s finest hour, and the concept of basing this season around a missing character continues to pay huge dividends. But the fact that this episode also went and finally revealed Stiles’s name also provided the poignant reminder that Teen Wolf is almost over, which is almost too terrible a thought to bear. I would rather be placed in a glass vat of goo or maybe even sleep upright in a fire chamber than deal with this truth. But sometimes the pain of accepting the truth is the best option. Begone, false hopes! Anyway, I really liked this episode.

What did YOU think of “Blitzkrieg”?

Teen Wolf airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on MTV.