‘Teen Wolf’ Recap: We Found Stiles in a Hopeless Place

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

We are rarely lucky enough to choose the method of our own deaths, but I am on record as wanting to be Final Destination’d at a Michaels. However, if I had to have a second choice, I think I would like to ride a horse into a portal only to be rejected at the last minute and turned into a pile of flaming green bones. To me that sounds just plain elegant, and I also think it would look great on social media. Just please don’t choose an unflattering filter or put, like, animated dog ears on my flaming, screaming green skull. Please don’t take away my dignity like that.

“Radio Silence” was the best. First of all, Stiles is back! But in setting nearly half the episode in a nether-realm, the entire episode took on a Bergman-esque, sophisticated nightmare vibe almost never seen on a teen serial. Not to mention the fact that it culminated in one of the most emotional moments in Teen Wolf history, this episode was a major winner in a season that can’t stop topping itself. Let’s talk about it!

We began in a very gray, very boring place.

Stiles! Stiles was back! But he was surrounded by a bunch of frowning normies just sitting on benches in a desolate train station. Where was he? Was this limbo? Was this purgatory? Was this the Ghost Riders’ version of a nightclub? And who was that handsome uncle sitting off to the side?

Peter Hale! Peter Hale had been snatch’d up by Ghost Riders also! I guess this explained why nobody, not even his bio-daughter Malia, had made reference to him in what felt like YEARS. He’d been erased!

Apparently after Peter Hale busted out of Eichen House, a couple of Ghost Riders shot him in the b*tt with a green bullet and now he was spending all his time in their Train Station of the Damned. His life had not been going great, in other words. But now, unlike the other poor souls in this godforsaken waiting area, he and Stiles remembered each other! And they knew they needed to escape. But how? (I’ll tell you in a sec.)

Hey remember when I joked last week that Stiles’ Jeep should have racked up thousands of dollars in parking tickets by now? Well, first of all, I called the damn thing Scout instead of Roscoe (I knew it was a celebrity baby name of some kind) so it’s fine if you don’t think I know anything. But I DID know that you can’t just park a Jeep at a high school for, like, weeks, and the school apparently agreed and began attempting to tow Roscoe off the lot. Fortunately Lydia and Scott scraped together all their monies and paid the tow truck guy off. But why had they done this? What was the significance of this Jeep? And what was its name? Its name was Roscoe, duh, surprised you didn’t remember that.

Anyway, back in graytown, Stiles and Peter Hale befriended that one wild-eyed ghost dude who had yelled at Lydia last week. He had also gotten stuck here and reeeally wanted to leave. His idea? To simply jump on the back of a Ghost Riders’ horsey just before he or she rode through a lightning portal. Seemed simple enough.

But then he broke his face and ass on the portal!

He also burnt up into a green skeleton, which, trust me, is not the best way to go. So in other words, their new friend DIED a brutal death while still in purgatory. Way to go, guy. Major purgatory rookie move.

Fortunately Stiles was not done brainstorming. He and Peter Hale were able to find an old intercom system in the train station, which allowed them to kinda-sorta make some noise on the ham radio in Stiles’ Jeep. The local were-teens immediately heard these noises! Scott and Malia still weren’t sure what they were looking for or what was going on exactly, but they knew they were one step closer to making contact finally.

I loved when all three of them broke into the Jeep, and Scott detected a very distinctive scent inside… HIS OWN. Just imagine all the times he’d ridden in this thing after lacrap practice. This was the surest sign yet that he once had a best friend: Whoever the missing person was, he was clearly very accepting of Scott’s hygiene.

Because the Jeep’s registration indicated it was owned by the Stilinskis, Lydia paid them a visit, and once again “Claudia Stilinski” was a trifling hater who loved to lie. Lydia was once again led to believe that she had imagined this “Stiles” character (even though last week Sheriff Stilinski himself had begun to suspect that Stiles existed) and she had no choice but to return to where she’d tried to rip the wallpaper off and burst into tears. But what she DIDN’T know was that Stiles was pretty close by.

Awwwww. Look at that split screen! Was the gray limbo train station actually on the other side of that wall, or was this just a sort of visual metaphor? Look, I’m not Kubrick, OK. I can’t answer all the cinema questions. But I will tell you with certainty that Holland Roden was incredible in this episode, and that’s the truth.

Remember that female lacrap player from last week who got shot in the neck with a green bullet? Well, one of the Ghost Riders dumped her in the train station beside Stiles. Made sense! She seemed happy to see her sister, and between you and me she did not look disappointed to be no longer on a wet lacrosse field losing hard. Welcome, girl!

I loved this quick flashback to the time Peter Hale escaped Eichen House, and it was revealed to be because the teens (including Malia and a rare flashback appearance from Kira, who apparently was NOT erased from our collective memories by Ghost Riders) had broken Lydia out and it allowed him to escape as well. And even though we hadn’t seen a ton of Peter Hale’s relationship with Malia unfold, we were meant to believe he was sorta bonded with her and wanted to reach out to her somehow.

And now, even though Malia technically didn’t remember Peter Hale ever existing, she could definitely sense him somehow. Or maybe she was just staring into the middle distance with her hair blowing dramatically and she was thinking of the David Blaine special or something. Either way, she was having a moment.

It was now Peter Hale’s turn to try to valiantly escape from limbo! He decided to copy the other guy’s plan — jump onto a Ghost Rider’s horse before he or she rode into a portal — but he had the added benefit of being a supernatural creature who would probably not melt into a pile of green bones this time. Fingers crossed!

And sure enough, Peter Hale suddenly flew out of a glowing green B-hole and rolled across the forest floor! He looked pretty burnt up, and his yowls of pain immediately attracted some local were-teens.

Upon seeing him, Malia immediately realized who he was!

Peter Hale could barely speak, and indeed looked like he was about to die ASAP, but Scott immediately began to recall all his run-ins with Peter Hale in the past, including the time Peter Hale bit Scott in the pilot thus turning him into a TEEN WOLF. I also enjoyed getting to revisit Peter Hale’s old CGI look:

Aw, look at that cutie.

At this point both Scott and Malia sucked away Peter Hale’s pain and then took the car keys he’d been clutching in his burnt paw. (It wasn’t clear if Peter Hale fully died or not, but considering he was once resurrected from perma-death using moon voodoo, let’s not count him out just yet.) The keys were Stiles’s!

Back at the station, Stiles noticed that the Arrivals/Departures board included a city called Boneville. One ticket to Boneville, everybody! Let’s all go to Boneville! Also there was a city called Canaan, which Stiles found slightly more interesting. So he hopped back on the intercom and talked to his friends FINALLY.

Immediately upon hearing his voice, Scott and Lydia burst into tears. They remembered him! (I honestly started crying here and that’s not a lie.) Lydia even remembered his final statement to her… “Remember that I love you.” Oh boy. Gotta go. Too fragile for this right now!

OK, but yeah, Stiles instructed them to go to Canaan. Why? Because reasons! They needed to rescue him somehow, and that town seemed to be the key. Then maybe they could all go to Boneville, who knows.

Man, “Radio Silence” was RULLGOOD. Just so good. Noticeably well directed, imaginative, and in the end, incredibly emotional, this is some of the best Teen Wolf in a while. This show has always been weird, wonderful, and audacious, but this season has been laser-focused on teasing out these kids’ feelings for each other, and that has made everything feel tense and grounded in a way Teen Wolf sometimes forgets to be. We’re only halfway through (the first half) of this season, but I’m already dreading its end. What kind of terrible, gray, limbo world will this be without new episodes of Teen Wolf forever? Man, count me out.

What did YOU think of “Radio Silence”?

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