Memory Lost

Memory Lost is the first episode of Teen Wolf Season 6.

Synopsis

With graduation approaching, a supernatural force rides into Beacon Hills and crosses paths with Scott McCall and his friends, while Liam discovers evidence of a new enemy in the high school.

Full Recap

A flat tire leaves Liam Dunbar and Hayden stranded on a lonely road. As the breeze rustles the trees and falling leaves sweep across the ground, Liam looks up as if he senses something but shakes it off. Hayden makes fun of his used SUV, but when he says they don’t have a jack to lift the vehicle to change the tire, she lifts it herself. Liam is also without a spare so they can’t fix the tire.

They laugh about how funny/bad their dating life is, briefly mentioning “the double date,” “New Year’s” “Christmas” with Liam’s parents, and “that time your sister almost …” Liam suggests getting stranded in the middle of nowhere could be their “best date yet.” They kiss. They notice Aurora Borealis fills the sky above them. A car is slowly driving toward them. Thinking the driver of the car might have a spare tire, the couple tries to flag them down. The car rolls slowly past them and comes to rest next to a fence.

They investigate and find the windshield reduced to a jagged hole. The passenger side door is missing. Inside they find a boy hiding in the backseat. He shouts, “Don’t let them take me. Don’t let them take me too.”

Scott and Stiles: Crimefighters

Sheriff Stilinski inspects claw marks in the hood of a delivery van. A paramedic straps a cast onto Stiles Stilinski’s arm. Stiles explains that he and Scott were trying to persuade the driver of the van to pull over. Scott attempted this by going full red-eyed Alpha Werewolf on the hood of the speeding vehicle. While they stopped the van, the driver got away. The boys thought the criminal mastermind stole something valuable, but the van carries only helium tanks.

As Scott drives Stiles’ Jeep later, he muses that not finding a huge criminal problem might be a good thing. He thinks it means Beacon Hills can get along without them which clears the way for them to move away to attend college. Stiles disagrees saying the town would burn to the ground without them. Scott repeats that the town doesn’t need them but at that moment Stiles’ phone rings. It’s his father, “They need us!” he shouts.

The Boy from the Car

Sheriff Stilinski has the boy from the car, Alex (Rio Mangini), in the office at the Sheriff’s Station. He explains that, while the boy can’t remember what happened to his parents, they have “an unusual method” that will hurt but might help him remember. Scott and Stiles arrive, and Scott plunges his claws into the back of Alex’s neck.

Scott sees Alex and his parents riding in their car. Alex’s mom (Jennifer Carta) is worried that the R-rated movie they just saw was too scary for her son. He says he wasn’t scared. Alex’s father (Mark Bloom) says he was terrified. Suddenly there’s a man on horseback blocking the road in front of them. He dismounts, pulls out his pistol and walks toward the vehicle. The rider pulls the trigger and a barely visible wave of energy shoots from the gun and blows out the windshield.

The rider jumps on the hood and pulls Alex’s father through the windshield. Suddenly the rider is standing next to the passenger side of the car, rips off the door and grabs Alex’s mother. She grabs the gear shift as she is ripped from the car, shifting the vehicle into gear before the rider pulls her away.

Scott breaks the connection. He explains what he saw, a man on a horse with a gun. The sheriff believes that it is a non-supernatural crime, but Scott says he got a feeling. Alex speaks up and says “They’re coming back. They’re coming for me.”

The Pack Investigates

Lydia Martin examines the broken windshield. Alex’s car is now in the Sheriff’s Station impound lot. She gingerly touches the glass then moves around and sits in the driver’s seat. She looks up toward the rearview mirror and sighs. Thinking she’s sensed something, Stiles eagerly jumps up in the backseat. Lydia examines herself for a second and says her eyeshadow is the perfect shade for her. Stiles asks her to stay on topic. She says she’s not sensing anything with her Banshee abilities.

A coyote leaps over a stack of tires and pads into the lot. It begins to transform, and soon a naked Malia Tate stands on the concrete. Her eyes glow blue. Lydia hands her some clothes saying she doesn’t believe Alex’s parents are dead. Malia disagrees and says they were likely torn apart. She doesn’t understand why the lack of blood. Lydia says Alex’s parents can’t be dead because she’d be able to sense if they were. As she gets dressed, Malia says, if they were alive, she would smell it. Scott agrees, there’s no lingering scent.

Scott says he doesn't know what happened. Stiles is surprised. He says he timed Scott; he was in Alex’s head for four minutes. Scott waves off the discrepancy saying Werewolf connections aren’t an exact science and that Alex is a kid and maybe was too freaked out to remember.

Malia doesn’t understand why they care. Stiles explains that if it’s just a robbery, Scott's Pack can’t help them and if it’s something supernatural, the Sheriff can’t help them. Lydia points out that Stiles seems to want it to be supernatural. Stiles says it’s been three months since anything supernatural has occurred in Beacon Hills. Lydia says despite the mundanity of their lives of late, Stiles still drags her out of bed once a week like “some sort of supernatural metal detector.” Stiles says it’s way more often than that. He believes recent events can’t possibly be a series of impossible coincidences. Lydia says it wouldn’t be so bad if it were a coincidence.

The women leave. Stiles returns to examining the car. He notices something odd about the way the windshield is broken but can’t figure out why it’s unusual. Scott doesn’t see it. He says it’s like all the other bullet-damaged windshields around the impound lot but, as they look at those other cars, they notice each has a spider web pattern of cracks around the impact point. Alex’s car does not. The windshield is a jagged, gaping hole.

Yearbook Photos

Sydney is trying to photograph Malia for the Beacon Hills High School yearbook, but Stiles keeps interrupting and ending up in the shot. A line of bored and disgruntled students is waiting for their turn. As Malia gives up she says Stiles ruined her photo. She says he’s not signed up for his turn in front of the camera. Stiles says he did, but as he takes the appointment sheet from his pocket, it’s blank. Stiles is confused by this. Scott suggests he’s “sublimating the stress of graduating by avoiding key milestones.” Lydia looks confused by this; Scott explains that he’s working on a paper for his phycology class.

Stiles explains that the deputy searched Alex’s car and found no slug and no exit hole meaning there was no bullet. He says the home address Alex gave the authorities is an abandoned house. Stiles wants to leave school immediately to investigate, but the others bow out. Malia wants to retake her photos. Lydia is just not interested, and Scott explains that he missed 38 classes last semester and would have been removed from school had it not been for the intervention of Natalie Martin. Scott offers to go after school, but Stiles says he’ll just take Liam. Looking around, he spots Liam and Hayden kissing on a nearby bench.

Sydney approaches and asks to take a candid shot of the group. Stiles protest but they pull him into the shot. He then pulls out a shard of glass from the car windshield and asks Scott to explain why it’s turned blue. As Scott turns the glass in his hand, it reflects blue in the sunlight.

Hot for Teacher

Physics Teacher Garrett Douglas explains the “Schrödinger's cat” thought experiment” by way of an illustration of a cat, elaborately drawn on the blackboard with colored chalk. The young women in the class (and Corey) pay rapt attention to the attractive teacher’s every move. He calls on Hayden to explain what the thought experiment cat teaches about physics. She explains that it illustrates the concept of quantum superposition. Light is both a particle and a wave until it is observed. Just as the cat is both alive and dead until someone opens the box. Douglas says the question for today’s lab is, does observing something changes its behavior or alter its outcome? The class breaks into groups of four.

Mason notices that his phone won’t geo-locate, meaning the compass isn’t pointing toward true north anymore. Mason says Mr. Douglas has a physical compass they could check. Corey goes invisible and steals the compass. It too is pointing away from true north. They decide to follow the compass to see where it leads.

Scott seeks out Advance Placement Biology Teacher, Mrs. Finch, to ask about the tinted windshield glass shard. She says the chemicals in a muzzle flash from a gun could include copper, barium, cesium, chemicals that can burn blue and green. She seems skeptical that a gun could have changed the shard. The conversation leads Scott to decide to cut class to investigate with Stiles.

Just as the boys exit the school, they’re caught and brought back by Mrs. Martin who berates Scott for trying to cut class again. She says she had to beg the superintendent to let him stay in school after his absences last semester. The boys plead with her, but she says they can protect Beacon Hills after 3:30 when school lets out.

Lydia Hears the Storm

Just before 3:00, Scott Styles and Lydia are watching a video on the Normandy landings in World History class. The video includes the sound of crashing waves but for Lydia the sound shifts subtly to that of a rain storm and a woman singing The Door’s song “Riders on the Storm.”

The Sheriff returns to his office to find Alex missing. He orders his deputies, including Deputy Clark to search the station for the boy. They find him in the holding cell. The boy begs them to lock him in. The sheriff agrees.

Back at school, the bell rings at 3:30 and Stiles and Scott bolt from their seats. The rest of the class empties but Lydia, still hearing something the others don’t, remains. She notices the classroom is emptying and rises to leave. As she passes the TV, which moments before was showing the Allied forces landing in France, it shows only static. She hears the song again, clearer now. Suddenly, a lightning bolt strikes her, and she is flung backward to the floor. She is immediately standing at her desk, unharmed but she can still hear the thunder.

The Haunted House

Stiles and Scott arrive at the address Alex gave for his home (Inglewood Oil Fields). The house is abandoned. Scott and Stiles check through several empty rooms before finding one closed door upstairs. Stiles opens it and finds Alex’s fully furnished bedroom. Unlike the rest of the house, it is clean and looks “normal.” Stiles says the police didn’t find the room because they didn’t have the warrant to come inside. Scott hears a noise downstairs and goes to investigate. Stiles notices that pictures of Alex seem to have people missing. The boy has his arm around the empty air in one image. Another is in a frame that says “#1 Dad” but only shows Alex and space beside him.

Stiles hears the wind and the sheets on the bed billow as if from a breeze.

Downstairs, Scott finds a dusty dining room table with two place settings. He looks away for a moment, and when he looks back, the place settings are gone.

Stiles looks under the bed. He sees hooves and hears a horse but, when he looks up, he’s in the room alone.

Scott runs into Liam and Mason. They explain the compass led them to the house. The compass needle spins wildly in Mason’s hand.

Stiles decides to flee the room upstairs. He slams the door shut and stands gasping in the hallway. The wind begins to push leaves and debris down the hall toward him. He looks up and sees a dark figure in a cowboy hat and long coat standing at the end of the hall. The rider takes aim and fires several times but misses Stiles. The burst of energy from the gun is more visible in the darkened hall and holes appear in the door behind him.

The compass shatters and Scott hears a noise from upstairs.

When Stiles looks up the rider and the holes in the doorway are gone. Scott rushes to his side. Stiles explains that a rider like Scott described from Alex’s memory attacked him. He figures out that Alex’s parents were “made to disappear” from the photos and other aspects of their lives. The boys open the door to Alex’s room and find it just as empty as the rest of the house.

Stiles and Lydia Investigate

Stiles is flipping through a book, Mass Disappearances: Unexplained Mysteries by A. L. Harvey. There are true accounts of the ghost ship Mary Celeste, missing planes in the Bermuda Triangle, and the Roanoke settlement. The urban myth about a missing Inuit village on Lake Anjikuni, and one story that appears to be wholly made up about several infants disappearing from a Chinese hospital.

Stiles feels an overwhelming sense of urgency and impending doom. Lydia says he doesn’t have to solve it right now. He says he must figure out what’s going on immediately for the sake of Alex. Lydia begins to hear The Doors song again. She repeats the lyric “Give this man a ride; sweet family will die. Killer on the road.” Stiles recognizes the song as “Riders on the Storm.” Lydia puts it all together. She realizes that the Ghost Riders are part of the Wild Hunt, “they come by storm, riding horses, and they take people.”

Stiles says Lydia is so smart he could kiss her. She says, “Do not kiss me.” He kisses her on the cheek. She seems confused but not displeased by his affection.

Liam’s Alpha Ambitions

Mason catches up to Hayden and Liam at school. He’s glued Mr. Garret’s broken compass back together and believes they can return it without the teacher realizing. Hayden is skeptical, but Liam says they’ll put it back and then go help Scott. Hayden says they could just let Scott handle it since he’s the Alpha. Liam says he won’t be for long. Hayden wonders who would take Scott's place, and it’s clear that Liam thinks he could. Hayden worries about what they’re going to do when Scott graduates because there will be no one there to figure things out. Again, Liam believes he could step up and do it but doesn’t seem convinced by his own words. Mason reinforces that Liam could be the Alpha. Hayden is also unconvinced.

The two werewolves smell blood. They begin searching the school for the source.

Memory Lost

Scott exits the Lacrosse field and runs into Stiles who fills him in on the Wild Hunt and the Ghost Riders. Stiles spots Mateo (Diego Tinoco) wearing his lacrosse jersey. The boy says the coach gave it to him during practice. Stiles was apparently unaware that he missed practice. Scott brings his friend back around to the topic of the Ghost Hunters. Stiles explains that they took Alex’s parents because that’s what they do. He says they “run around collecting souls and once they take you, you’re gone.” It’s not just you, they also take everything about you, the way they took Alex’s room. The boys figure out Alex is next.

Malia arrives at school and Lydia explains that something bad is about to happen.

Liam and Hayden can’t find the source of the blood smell because it’s coming from everywhere. Mason wonders if it’s coming through the ventilation system.

As Alex sits in the holding cell, leaves begin to blow across the floor.

Liam, Hayden, and Mason make their way into the Boiler Room. A shadowy figure watches them from the walkway above. Tucked inside an industrial air conditioning unit, they find a man’s body. His head is caved in. It is the driver from the helium truck Scott and Stiles stopped.

The wind in the holding cell is now a gale. The ceiling beings to crack and the bars shake. Suddenly the pieces of crumbling roof swirl upward and fly away.

Stiles and Scott arrive at the now empty and fully intact holding cell. Alex is not there, and Deputy Clark doesn’t remember him at all. She says no one was ever in lockup today. Stiles checks the logs; they’re blank. Scott supposes that the riders will come for everyone who was on the road the night Alex’s parents disappeared and race back to the school to find Liam and Hayden at the school.

Before they part, Stiles says he needs to tell Scott something but never finishes the thought. Scott says he can just tell him later. Stiles runs down the hallway and directly into Mrs. Martin. She doesn’t recognize him.

Stiles is Forgotten

Malia questions Lydia about when she first got her premonition. It was when she was with Stiles, and they figured out they were facing the Ghost Riders. Malia reads from an entry on the Wild Hunt, “Those who see the Wild Hunt beware, for you are already lost.”

Stiles finds Mason, Liam, and Hayden. They don’t recognize him. Stiles begins to flash on all the things that hinted at his disappearance, the blank yearbook picture form, and the kid wearing his lacrosse jersey. He spots his father and rushes to him. The Sheriff calls him “son” and Stiles believes this means he recognizes him. He does not. Stiles is a stranger to his own father.

Stiles calls Scott. His best friend doesn’t remember him either.

Lydia remembers that Stiles saw the riders and realizes that they’re coming for him. Malia doesn’t know who she’s talking about as she’s forgotten Stiles as well.

Stiles runs out of the school and into Lydia. She remembers him. The Ghost Riders arrive. Lydia cannot see them. As they run from the three men on horses, Stiles tells Lydia not to try to look at them or scream because they’ll take her too. The couple takes refuge in Stile’s jeep. Stiles thinks about driving away but decides against it. He says they’re going to take him anyway and begs Lydia to find some way to remember him. She says she will. Stiles reminds her how he had a crush on her all through high school and how she saved his life. She says he saved her life too. They hold hands. Stiles says he loves her and the Ghost Riders take him away.

The next day at school, Lydia looks confused. Malia and Scott sense something is wrong with her. Lydia says she feels like she was supposed to do something but can't remember what.

Episode List

← Season 5 Season 6
#01 Memory Lost	#06 Ghosted	#11 Said the Spider to the Fly	#16 Triggers
#02 Superposition	#07 Heartless	#12 Raw Talent	#17 Werewolves of London
#03 Sundowning	#08 Blitzkrieg	#13 After Images	#18 Genotype
#04 Relics	#09 Memory Found	#14 Face-to-Faceless	#19 Broken Glass
#05 Radio Silence	#10 Riders on the Storm	#15 Pressure Test	#20 The Wolves of War