Teen Wolf “Riders of the Storm” Review

You know, I understand that all shows must come to an end at some point, but sometimes I just wish my favorite shows could live on forever. Sure, some episodes are a bit lackluster, but then there are episodes that just blow your mind and remind you of why you love the show so much. “Riders of the Storm” did just that. It may have been a mid-season finale, but it had serious series finale vibes, but at the same time had so much greatness that it left me heartbroken that there’s only ten episodes left EVER. Ugh! I’m not ready for it to be over. 🙁

Anyways, A LOT went down so let’s get right to it.

The episode starts back in the hospital with Liam. He’s broken out of the elevator only to be met with a completely deserted hospital. If you remember, Theo saved Liam and threw himself in the line of the Ghost Riders, showing us that he’s changed since his stay underground. Anyways, Liam wonders around the empty hospital and comes across something really strange even for Beacon Hills. The hospital is turning into the train station from the Ghost Rider realm! And when I say that, I mean, yes, train tracks are literally in the hospital. So Liam rushes to find Scott and show him.

The last episode ended with Lydia, Scott, and Malia possibly seeing Stiles emerging from the rift. We pick up in the train station realm and Stiles starts to hear Lydia calling for him just as another stop is called over the intercom. Stiles pushes through the crowd, trying to get through so he could get to Lydia. He gets a little help from his dad as he fires his gun in the air and yells for everyone to let him through. Stiles reunites with his father in a hug that warms your heart to the core as the Sheriff can’t believe that he finally found his son.

Stiles continues to hear Lydia call for him and his dad tells him to go. I love that he knows how much Lydia and Stiles mean to each other and supports it enough to tell him to go even though they just reunited. Stiles runs to the rift and pushes his way through as he hears Lydia saying “when I kissed you.” He doesn’t come out on the other side of the rift in the tunnel though, leaving Lydia confused because she swore she saw him, but Malia and Scott didn’t see anyone. Instead, the scene cuts to the Stiles’ Jeep in the school parking lot, and he pops up in the driver seat! Ugh! This made me so happy and relieved! While I would have loved to see everyone reunited so soon, I loved that the rift sent Stiles back to his relic, his precious Jeep, Roscoe. 🙂

Malia believes Lydia when she says she knows Stiles got out so they head out to go look for him. When they arrive at the school, they see that his Jeep is gone and also that there are now train tracks all around the school as well.

At the hospital, Liam is showing Scott the tracks when Mr. Douglas and Hellhound Parrish show up ( eyeroll ) and start making threats. Douglas starts talking about Scott’s pack and how they’ll make great Riders or something. He’s rambling on when Stiles pops out of a room wielding his trusty bat and knocks Douglas upside the head. He says something totally Stiles-like and then he and Scott reunite in a glorious BFF hug (not a bro-hug, a real hug) with relief written on both of their faces. Liam interrupts them and Stiles immediately goes to him and starts hugging him too, but Liam informs him that Hellhound Parrish is behind them about to attack.

Stiles walks in and out of rooms, mumbling about how the town went crap in the few days that he was gone. Scott informs him that he was actually gone for three months, Stiles in disbelief mumbles about how they better let him graduate as he grabs a fire extinguisher from another room. Oh how I missed him! He extinguishes Parrish, putting him back to human, and Liam freaks out over getting the extinguishing foam on him. Parrish then gives them the scoop on what Douglas is up to – merging realms so that the Wild Hunt can be reality. Parrish says they can’t stop the train, but they can change the tracks.

So, Scott, Stiles, and Liam head to the school to try to figure out how to divert the train tracks. Liam realizes that Corey may just be their answer to everything because he can exist in both realms. So, he runs off in search of a horse so he can ride it into the Ghost Rider realm. Seems like a smart and totally logical plan. When he finds one, he’s about to take it, but gets attacked by a Rider. Thankfully, Theo shows up out of nowhere and saves Liam once again. Liam tells Theo his plan to ride the horse through the rift, Theo gets sassy, Liam jumps off the landing and gets on the horse that he has no idea how to ride and rides off. And I wonder how this kid survives sometimes.

Meanwhile, Mason and Hayden are also looking for Corey in the Ghost Rider train station. When Mason hears the announcer over the intercom, he realizes that it’s Corey. As they’re about to head off to try to find him, Liam rides up on a Ghost Rider horse that he just learned how to ride. Him and Hayden share a sweet reunion, and they go looking for Corey.

Literally all of BH is turning into the Ghost Rider realm! Even the school library now holds the zombie-like people that were/are stuck in the Ghost Rider world. Malia and Lydia are still searching for Stiles, but instead they find Peter who is stuck in a trance like everyone else. Lydia tells Malia that she’s going to have to connect with him emotionally in order to pull him out of the trance. Malia’s reluctant at first, but she keeps calling him dad, and on the second or third try, we get an emotional request of Malia saying that she needed her dad and Peter snaps out of it.

They’re about to all continue the search for Stiles when a Rider shows up. Peter is quick to protect his daughter and Malia is quick to push Lydia out of the way to protect her. She gets hit with the Ghost Rider whip in the process, though. When Peter sees that, it encourages to fight harder and stronger. Malia and Lydia are about to leave, but Malia sees that Peter needs help so she stays. I love the family feels on this show. 🙂

As Stiles and Scott are looking for a way to divert the train in the woods, Douglas shows up again and ruins everything by whipping them both away. They both end up in the school though and find their way back to each other. Stiles confesses he wound up in the girls’ locker room and is pretty disappointed disappointed by it. This reunion doesn’t last long though as they try to walk through another door but disappear once again to different places. Scott comes face to face with a couple of Riders and is forced to open a can of Alpha butt-kicking on them. Sweet moves, Scott!

Mason, Liam and Hayden follow cords to find where Corey is hooked up to all kinds of wires, seemingly barely hanging on with exhaustion written all over his face. Mason starts trying to unhook all the wires from him, but Liam stops him saying that they need to wait on Scott to divert the train. Mason is reluctant, but Corey tells him it’s okay and they hold hands. These two have seriously grown on me.

Stiles got zapped back to the school. He’s in the locker room now, but when he tries to leave, a Ghost Rider gets in his way. Ugh. I hate these things. They tussle a bit, but Stiles eventually gives up and lets the Rider point the gun directly at his head (seriously so tired of this happening to him). Just as the Rider is about to pull the trigger, Lydia shows up uses her killer Banshee scream to literally toss the Ghost Rider to the side. Don’t mess with her man! She runs in and they look at each other, relieve written on their faces. Lydia: “I didn’t say it back.” Stiles: “You don’t have to.” They rush toward each other and they have the most romantic kiss EVER and embrace in a beautiful hug because they LOVE EACH OTHER! Stydia fans rejoice because this ship is finally sailing!

In other relationship news, Melissa and Argent are trying to escape the Ghost Rider realm, but get blocked by a Ghost Rider. Being the brave hunter that he is, Argent prepares to take on the Rider and they face-off like they’re in the Wild, Wild West. They both stare each other down and grab for their guns, but then the Rider just comes straight at him and starts strangling him. No fear, though! Argent manages to get the Ghost Rider’s gun and shoots him and says that he has to get one of those guns! Melissa then comes up behind him, turns him around and plants a big smooch on him because what he did was insanely hot! Get it, Mama McCall! As much as I ship Melissa and Stilinski, I can’t help but be curious about what the future holds for these two. 😉

Scott’s made his way back to the woods, but Douglas just keeps getting in the way. Now, he has a couple dozen Ghost Riders to back him while Scott is all alone. Douglas starts running his mouth again and Theo shows up with some sass and then Malia and Peter come in behind him with even more sass for Douglas. They’re ready to fight and boy, do they. It was pretty epic to see these four come together to take on Douglas and all those Riders considering Theo and Peter are like the black sheep of the group. But they battle it out and Malia manages to get one of the whips and tosses it to Scott. He whips it around and diverts the train just as it’s coming for them! He howls that awesome Alpha howl to signal to Liam that he got it done so they can unhook Corey. Way to go team!

Just when we thought we’d gotten rid of Stiles’ fake, shady mom, she shows up at the school looking like a straight up zombie as Lydia and Stiles are trying to leave – holding hands, might I add ;). She lures Stiles in and she starts messing with Lydia, but Stiles ends that real quick and she turns on him. As shady, zombie Claudia is choking Stiles, his dad comes in and shoots at her. it doesn’t work, but Lydia gets by his side and tells him to shoot it again. This time, he shoots and Lydia uses her banshee scream, and they manage to zap shady Claudia away. Now that’s what I call family team work!

We may have thought Scott, Malia, Theo and Peter were in the clear, but not so fast. The Riders surround them all for a minute, but then they holster their guns and start to leave. Douglas tries to order the Riders to kill them, but it doesn’t work out in his favor. I guess they don’t like being told what to do as they surround Douglas and turn him into a Ghost Rider! It was super creepy, let me tell ya’.

So, all is right in Beacon Hills. Well, Corey’s in the hospital, but it’s all good because Melissa knows all about the 9 herbs, and so does Mason! He’s such a smart cookie, and I’m glad Liam has him as a best friend like Scott had Stiles. Hint: I’m foreshadowing here a bit.

Now that everything is back to normal, the pack is back at school and it’s the last day of senior year! Ugh! This is a twist I didn’t see coming this early. Stiles is totally bummed about it, and quite frankly, so am I because there’s still 10 more episodes coming! Anyways, as Stiles is unloading his locker, Scott makes the comment that nothing has changed, but then Stiles looks down the hall to Lydia at her locker. They smile sweetly at each other and Stiles says that everything has changed. Yes! Because his 10-year plan to get Lydia to fall in love with him worked, he and Stiles are a far cry from the two sophomores struggling to be popular while simultaneously learning about this new supernatural world, and Lydia no longer hides her intelligence with snobbiness. They’ve all had beautiful character growth and I love the so much. – cue me getting super emotional about fictional characters. –

Scott and Stiles meet up with Mason and Liam behind the Jeep and we get hit hard with the reality that the show that we love so much is coming to an end soon. Stiles gives Scott the Jeep and all of his keys (to the McCall house, Scott’s room, the school, the station, etc)! He passes his trusty baseball bat down to Mason because he’s going to be Liam’s sidekick and will undoubtedly save his ass a few times. I love it because Mason is to Liam as Stiles is to Scott, and Stiles knows that. In other news, Scott got in to UC Davis – he’s going to be the best veterinarian! Lydia’s heading to MIT as JUNIOR! What?? And she’s driving Stiles over to Washington because he got into a Pre-FBI program thanks to Scott’s dad! Ugh! I’m so proud of these guys! They’ve all grown so much! 🙂

Scott and Stiles share a sweet moment where they realize that they aren’t the same kids who went looking for a dead body in the woods, and confess that they need each other and that they’ll miss each other. UGH! I can’t handle these two being separated while at college. They hop in the Jeep and immediately hear a police call about a body in the woods, share a look, and take off towards the scene. Man, these two have come full circle and it hits me hard!

What’d I tell y’all?? Total series finale vibes and I can’t handle it! What did y’all think?

Stay tuned for Teen Wolf to return this summer with the FINAL ten episodes on MTV!

Featured Image: Teen Wolf HQ

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