Teen Wolf recap: Season 6, Episode 3

Well, I sincerely hope no one tried to eat dinner while watching tonight’s episode, because between the Nazi werewolf and Melissa sticking her finger into a dead guy’s brain, it was extremely disgusting. But more importantly, it was also extremely effective, at least when it came to the search to remember Stiles. (The only bad news is Stiles might not be the only one they have to remember after that party.) I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start at the beginning.

The hour kicks off with Mr. Douglas giving a lecture about power and the ability to control things. Only, once he creates a magnet, he starts experiencing a coughing fit, one that’s filled with flashbacks to his time in the Dread Doctors’ tube. In case that’s not clear enough: He’s the Nazi werewolf who escaped at the end of last season, and he’s also the one who’s been stealing helium because apparently, it helps with his cough? I’m a little unsure how that works.

But don’t worry, Argent is back in town and hot on Douglas’ trail! With a little help from Melissa — whose house he just broke into — he realizes the Nazi werewolf is biting into people’s skulls to steal the part of the brain said to house the soul. So he’s a Nazi who eats souls? Sure, let’s go with that.

But believe it or not, a soul-eating Nazi werewolf is not the biggest villain currently in Beacon Hills. Nope, that title belongs to the Ghost Riders, who are about to return for someone named Gwen. Basically, Hayden finds Gwen asking everyone about her sister, Phoebe, whom no one can remember. And when Gwen confesses to seeing the man who took Phoebe, Hayden quickly realizes Gwen will be the Ghost Riders’ next target.

So, while Scott takes Malia and Lydia to try to get some Stiles-related answers, Liam, Hayden, Cory, and Mason are given one task: Keep Gwen safe. In terms of how they’re going to do that, Mason has an idea: They hijack Nathan’s lacrosse party — and pay him a couple hundred dollars to calm him — and invite everyone to a party at Scott’s house, which they line with mountain ash. Only that doesn’t keep the Ghost Rider out.

So yeah, a Ghost Rider makes his way into Scott’s house, and in a moment of bravery/stupidity, Cory reaches out and touches him, which makes him visible to everyone at the party. DID YOU NOT HEAR THE PART ABOUT HOW EVERYONE WHO SEES A GHOST RIDER IS TAKEN?! Honestly, Cory, this is not your day.

Once the Ghost Rider is visible, Mason creates a barrier of mountain ash between the Rider and Gwen, but it’s clear the barrier isn’t going to last long against this guy. Ultimately, it’s Parrish’s arrival — as a human, not a hellhound — that gets the Ghost Rider to disappear. Why? No idea. But at least he’s gone…for now.

NEXT: Stilinski remembers something…

Elsewhere, Scott and Lydia spend the episode trying to figure out what a Stiles is. And no, it’s not an arrangement of steps that allows people but not animals to climb over a fence. It’s not until Malia goes full coyote during a make-up exam that they make any sort of progress. After Sheriff Stilinski arrives at the school to help with the Malia of it all, he reveals Stiles is a family nickname and though he never used it, his father did.

Back at Stilinski’s house, he and Claudia tell Scott and Lydia all about Elias Stilinski, his father, the Army engineer. But that little informational session is interrupted — at least for Lydia — when an old woman walks through claiming “the following stops have been canceled,” as if she’s on a train. Lydia doesn’t ever figure out who she is, but one thing’s for certain: Stilinski does not want them visiting his father at his nursing home.

But they do it anyway, because when have these kids ever listened to adults? After breaking into Goodwater Assisting Living, Malia knocks out a nurse so they can talk to Elias…who thinks Scott is his son and he’s currently living in 1976.

So, what do you do when your only clue has dementia? Well, you wait until the sun goes down and he starts to lose all his faculties — it’s called sundowning — and then you get him to focus on probability equations. Once that happens, he’s bound to snap back to his mentally aware self, right? Right!

Suddenly, Elias knows Scott as “that McCall kid” whose father loved the ladies, and he recognizes Lydia as Natalie Martin’s daughter. But before they can get much else out of him, Stilinski shows up and throws them all out. But it’s what Elias yells at Stilinski that’s important. “Act like I’m not even here,” Elias yells at his son before adding, “Go crawling back to your dead wife and your loser son!” Hey, somebody remembers Stiles!

With that, Scott heads home to tell Liam how horribly Liam messed up by letting half the school see the Ghost Riders before Stilinski drops by to talk to Scott. It seems Stilinski had a dream that felt so real, he thought it was a memory. He and Claudia were in college and they were talking about their future. Stilinski claimed if they ever had a son, he’d want to name him after Claudia’s father. Her response? It wouldn’t matter what they named him, because “he’ll just be called Stiles anyway.”

*Cue dramatic music.* It’s official: We’re getting closer and closer to everyone remembering Stiles, and so far, I’m enjoying the pace of this story line. It feels like we’re making progress, but clearly this isn’t something they can just figure out. I’m not sure how long my patience will last, but as far as this episode goes, it worked for me.

Episode grade: B+