Teen Wolf 6×01 Review: Memory Lost

In this Teen Wolf season opener, “Memory Lost”, we get another group of villains–this time with a cosmic horror undertone. The episode also develops the relationships between Trio A (Scott, Lydia, Stiles) and Trio B (Liam, Hayden, Mason). And finally, it kindles a romance that has long been a significant, if uneven, part of the show.

Opening scene of “Memory Lost”: Hayden joins Team Black Leather Jacket as she and Liam reminisce about the highlights of their relationship. (Which, what? How many months have we skipped?) After they encounter a terrified kid named Alex, we switch to Scott and Stiles, who have become vigilantes. We find out that Scott went all red-eyed and wolf to stop a thief from getting away, proving just how monumentally right Derek was when he suggested that Scott was on a track to carelessly reveal the existence of werewolves to random civilians.

Side note, the opening credits now feature Linden Ashby (Sheriff Stilinski) and Melissa Ponzio (Nurse McCall). Congrats to them!

Following Scott’s example, Corey goes invisible right in front of a class full of fellow students to steal a compass. Meanwhile, Lydia has a vision: lightning striking her in the middle of a classroom. This might be a literal prognostication, considering how the show has treated her character since the end of season 1.

When Scott, Stiles, Liam, and Mason meet at Alex’s house, they find it empty. Here, the show uses some nice haunted house imagery. However, this is also the occasion for what seems like a bit of a script slip-up. While Stiles is alone upstairs, he encounters a creepy silhouette that shoots at him, then disappears. When the other three join him, he tells Scott, “He was here. He shot at me. It was one of the guys you saw in Alex’s memory.” 

The problem is, Scott only saw one guy in Alex’s memory, so there’s no way Stiles could know that the guy was part of a group. Perhaps he just noticed a pattern—between the Argents (seasons 1 and 2), the Alpha Pack (season 3A), the Oni (season 3B), the Bounty Hunters (season 4), and the Dread Doctors (season 5)—where villains tend to come at them in groups?

Lydia, in all her brilliance, channels her inner Jim Morrison to identify the villains as the Ghost Riders, creatures of the Wild Hunt.

And then they do a thing that I despise so thoroughly I can only seethe while I type it out exactly as it happens:

Stiles: Lydia, you’re so smart, I could kiss you right now.

Lydia: Do not kiss me.

Stiles: Not gonna. Not—

Stiles kisses her.

Stiles, as he runs away: Did it anyway!

Because that’s exactly what Teen Wolf needs right now—to turn Stiles back into The Xander Harris of Beacon Hills. Ugh.

To their credit, the scenes with the younger trio (Liam, Hayden, Mason) are definitely improving their dynamic, notably in the scene where they find a dead body on school grounds.

Our valiant leads fail to save Alex, and they scramble to figure out their next move as all traces of him disappear. In the very next scene, Stiles realizes the same thing is already happening to him. “Those who see the Wild Hunt beware, for you are already lost.” It’s a fun little conceit of cosmic horror, but it also feels a little like territory they’ve already treaded.

Now, I may have grown a bit callous toward the show over the course of the last few seasons, but let it not be said that I was unaffected by the Sheriff telling Stiles, “Why don’t you tell me your name?”

The Ghost Riders come for Stiles soon after, and the last thing he says to Lydia—the only one yet to forget him—is, “Remember I love you.” But, of course, she can’t.

…Which is fine by me, because I haven’t forgotten that the only “development” their relationship has received in over a season took place while Lydia was unconscious. And their “cutesy” (read: creepy) moment in this episode only highlights that.

Honestly, I liked what was happening with their relationship as friends. I liked that Stiles went from idealizing her and putting her on a pedestal to appreciating her for her whole self—her imperfections, the trajectory of her personality as she matures and comes into her own. And I especially liked that version of their relationship because this whole “Dogged Nice Guy who finally succeeds in Defrosting the Ice Queen and ‘earning’ her affections” thing? These are tropes that need to be, well, forgotten.

Author: Kate Colvin

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