Superposition

Superposition is the second episode of Teen Wolf Season 6.

The title comes from the field of quantum physics where Superposition is illustrated by way of the "Schrödinger's cat" thought experiment. 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.

The concept opens the door to the many-worlds interpretation and alternate dimensions.

Synopsis

While Scott, Lydia, and Malia search for lost memories of a missing friend, Corey discovers a connection between his abilities and the Wild Hunt.

Full Recap

Dozens of Ghost Riders gallop across the lacrosse field at Beacon Hills High School as Scott and Liam practice. The boys don't see the riders but Scott senses something he can't quite place. He says Liam needs to work on his back shots because "they suck." Liam doesn't understand and proceeds to make several perfectly executed back shots into the goal. Scott says he must have been thinking of someone else.

The lights on the field begin to go out as Liam says someone other than him should be captain of the lacrosse team once Scott steps down. Scott says he's sure Liam will make it. With all the lights out, Liam believes they'll have to leave but Scott says they can continue. He flashes his alpha-red eyes while Liam's flash golden-yellow and they continue practicing.

Physics with Mason and Corey

Inside the physics classroom, Mason, Corey, and a few other students are working on an experiment for extra credit. They mix iron filings into a putty mixture to create a magnetic putty or slime. Mason admits that he doesn't need the extra credit because he has a 4.9 GPA. He says it is one of his favorite labs but it's clear he's there to help with Corey whose GPA is a 2.7. Mason points out that Corey works two jobs and that dying (see Lies of Omission) didn't help with his grade point average. Mason worries that Corey is mad because he's trying to help. Corey says he's furious and then kisses him.

With the putty done, Mason places a magnet nearby and it flies across the counter and into the gelatinous mass. Then other metal objects, much further away, begin to slide toward the putty suggesting the magnetic field is much stronger than intended.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is a real experiment that you can do at home. It's unclear what they are using for their putty base but you can find a similar experiment using glue and liquid starch by searching “Magnetic Slime.”

Coach Finstock bursts into the room and demands to know what the students are doing there at 9 o'clock at night. They try to explain about the extra credit but he ushers them out anyway saying they should be out meeting girls. They explain that they're gay and he says, "Even better! Go gays!" He then throws them out.

Mason forgot his phone in the classroom. He returns inside to get it. After a few moments, Corey follows. The doors at the end of the hall burst open and dry leaves blow across the floor. The clock in the hall ticks backward, then forward, then stops. Panicked, Corey goes invisible. When he's camouflaged, he sees the world in an altered spectrum and can see one of the Ghost Riders walking down the hall. It is quickly joined by another and they seem to sense someone is there but apparently don't see Corey.

Mason finds his phone and a text from Corey sent at 9:06 PM, "They're here. Don't move." Mason exits the main building into a blustery gale of dried leaves. He crosses the path over to the Library entrance. A boy is hanging, apparently in mid-air, above the floor. As Mason crosses under the hanging boy, Corey grabs him and camouflages him. They can now both see the riders as they pull the boy into the air by whips wrapped around his neck. The riders pull and pull until the boy disappears in a cloud of smoke. They jump down and exit the library as the two invisible boys watch.

On the lacrosse field, Liam suddenly senses Mason is in trouble. He and Scott race to the Library where Mason explains what happened. Liam is angry that Corey put Mason in danger but Mason says Corey was trying to protect him. The pair no longer remembers the boy the riders erased. Instead, they remember the Ghost Riders were there and then they jumped down and left.

Malia is the Big Spoon

Malia and Nathan (Ross Butler) are having sex. They settle in and try to get comfortable as Nathan attempts to spoon Malia. She's obviously uncomfortable until she flips over and makes him the little spoon in the arrangement. Nathan is very uncomfortable with the position. He's even more uncomfortable after he notices a gym bag with manacles and chains near Malia's bed. He asks about them but Malia shushes him and says, "It's nothing."

Lydia is at home in her room apparently asleep when she hears Stiles' voice, lights begin to flash and the sound of a speeding train rocks her out of bed. The effects last for several seconds. She's gasping as her mother opens the door and says she heard Lydia screaming. Lydia says she heard the sound of a train. Her mother says it wasn't a train and they haven't had an earthquake in a while. She believes it was a nightmare. Lydia says she wasn't asleep.

Scott steps on a tack in his room. He notices a picture is missing from his wall. He finds it on the floor. It's the image of him, Malia, and Lydia at school.

The next day at school, Lydia walks over to locker 1075 and waits.

Liam is late for lacrosse practice. The coach is looking for a new captain since Scott decided to focus on "his grades and graduation." Scott wants Liam to be captain but he appears to be the only one. As the players try out for captain, Liam gets flipped and flattened. Coach calls him "Dumbar" instead of Dunbar. Liam calls him on it and is assigned equipment duty.

Corey and Mason Investigate

Corey is drawn back to the library. Mason follows. Mason says he's read all about the Wild Hunt. He says they come in on the storm and take souls but he can't figure out why they would be in a high school. Mason points out that they only saw them due to Corey's power and it may be a special ability they don't know about. Corey feels like the Ghost Riders were holding something. Mason wonders if they were holding someone.

Liam brings the equipment into the locker room. Scott says he wasn't really trying to be captain. He points out that Devenford Prep started practice three weeks before Beacon Hills. Riverside High School started two weeks before. He says they're behind before they even start and the players BHHS has aren't that accomplished. Scott says with him graduating Liam should step up and lead. Liam says Coach doesn't want him. He doesn,t know if the team wants him. Scott says it's not up to them. It's up to Liam. He has to want it because they're going to keep coming after him and knocking him down. Scott says Liam has to get back up because leaders don't run.

Coach is listening and begins to applaud. He says McCall's intensity is exactly what the team needs. Coach then turns to Liam and says he will crush "that little adorable baby face."

Memories Intrude

Malia is highlighting her textbook. She comes to the word "style" and stops. She takes out a different colored highlighter (purple) and highlights the single word. She then continues to highlight the rest in yellow.

Lydia enters the class and sits. The desk next to hers is empty. She stares at it in confusion. Mrs. Flemming (Rahnuma Panthaky) hands back tests. Malia scored a D-. Malia gets angry and grips the top of her desk and her claws extend. Lydia notices and tries to distract the teacher. Flemming tells Lydia that she won't "give extra credit for alternate equations based on your own theoretical findings." As the teacher moves on, Lydia whispers, "Claws, Malia!" Calmer now, Malia's claws retract.

Scott walks the hall. He reaches the area of locker 1075 and stops. He's drawn to it and reaches out to touch the metal door.

In class, Lydia sees a dark-haired woman in a lab coat and stethoscope (Jennifer Say Gan) sitting in the previously empty desk. She questions what she's doing there. The doctor turns toward her and opens her mouth. The sound of a very loud train and flashing lights fill the room. Lydia covers her ears but the sound is soon gone. She's left gasping again. No one else in the room seems to notice anything unusual.

Mason and Corey visit the school office in an attempt to see if any students are missing. They're stopped by Natalie Martin. They explain that it's "werewolf stuff" but she says the school is a dedicated safe space. She says she had to convince 23 students that what they saw in the library last semester was a large bear and that Scott's fangs were the result of "Acute Teenage Hallucination Syndrome." (See Maid of Gevaudan)

Mason explains that they believe someone is missing and in danger. Mrs. Martin is unmoved but says no one has reported a student missing and all absentees are accounted for. She ushers them out of the office.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This scene and one following were shot at the real Palisades Charter High School and therefore the hallway floor and the door configuration is different than the BHHS set at Teen Wolf HQ. The names listed beside the door to the school office (Dr. Pamela Magee, Bradford Daley, Thomas Adjani, Kimberly Allen) are the real office staff and principal at the PCHS at the time of filming. It is unclear whether leaving these names in the shot was intentional or an oversight on the part of the production.

Lydia is in the hallway. She sees the doctor from before walking near the other end of the hall. She starts running and bursts through the doors. She is suddenly back on the night Stiles disappeared. She can't see him but hears his voice and seems to feel him. She is pulled forward just as Stiles did on that night. She sees the riders too and plays out their attempt to escape them again.

Lydia is about to step in front of a car but Malia pulls her back and asks what she was doing. "Trying to remember," she says.

Corey and Mason Investigate II

Corey and Mason follow Jordan Parrish through the Sheriff's Station. He's apparently told them repeatedly that there are no active missing person cases but still they persist. They then ask if his "Hellhound intuition" senses anything wrong in the supernatural world. He says he's a harbinger of death not of kidnapping and explains that he's working on a robbery/homicide case that doesn't seem to be connected to the supernatural. Mason questions the "straightforward" part of a man bludgeoned to death and stuffed in an air duct unit at the high school. Parrish says he already has Mason,s statement on finding the body and sends them away.

Scott investigates locker 1075, trying to see into the vents with his phone's flashlight. He's about to break the combination lock on the door when Garrett Douglas stops him. He questions Scott and tells him breaking into the locker is against the rules. Scott leaves to go to class.

In the locker room, Mason tells Liam his theory about the Ghost Riders hanging somebody in the library. He says Corey has a hunch. Liam scoffs and asks if that's "a chameleon thing." Mason says Corey just wants to help but Liam points out that Corey wasn't there when they were fighting The Beast. He also questions why the chimera was loyal to Theo for so long. Mason points out that they all trusted Theo at one point but Liam counters that he'll trust Corey when Corey does something trustworthy. He then reveals that he can hear Corey's heartbeat in the room.

Corey becomes visible next to the far wall. Corey brings up the fact that Liam forgave Hayden. Liam says that's because she almost died as she fought alongside them against the Beast while Corey only hid. Corey says he doesn't have claws and fangs and had no other choice. Mason agrees saying all Corey can do is disappear. This seems to sting and Mason regrets saying it. Liam says Corey should just disappear and leaves the two of them there.

Mason scolds Corey for hiding in the wall. Corey says he's not going to be friends with Mason's friends. This is apparently a conversation they've had before. Mason says it won't work. He needs Corey and the pack to be friends.

Phantom Limb

Dr. Deaton examines the piece of glass Stiles pulled from the wrecked car (see Memory Lost). Scott remembers taking it from the impound lot but he can't remember why he was there or why he took it. He says there are holes in his memory. Deaton says dreams and waking dreams can allow the subconscious to help people remember. Scott wonders aloud if it's all connected, the Ghost Riders, Wild Hunt, and the holes in his memory.

Deaton says the Wild Hunt is drawn to war and mayhem. He's never heard of it doing anything to anyone's memory. He then compares Scott's memory gaps to "phantom limb syndrome". He recounts how amputees sometimes will have pain or other sensation in a missing limb. He says the missing limb is so important that the brain acts as if it is still there. Scott concludes his subconscious is trying to tell him what's missing but he doesn't know how to figure out what it's saying. Deaton suggests he go to sleep.

Scott goes to bed at home but awakes in the Beacon Hills Preserve.

Malia wakes up on the floor in her room. She gets up and runs into the bag with the manacles and chains.

Lydia enters the basement at school and finds Malia partially chained to the wall. Malia explains that she has a problem: she's growling at people, clawing her desk, and turning the floor of her bedroom into a coyote den. She says she remembers coming down to the basement before when she used to lose control of her Werecoyote side. She notes that this was before they took her to Lydia's lake house. (see The Benefactor). Malia says she remembers being chained but that Scott and Lydia weren't there and she couldn't reach far enough to chain herself. They decide someone had to have been with her.

Scott calls Lydia and Malia to come out to the woods. He explains how he woke up near the spot where he was bitten and turned into a werewolf. (see Wolf Moon) Lydia says she didn't know Scott then and Malia points out that she was still stuck in coyote form at the time. Scott remembers looking for a body that night but certain facts, like how he heard about the body, how he got five miles from his house without a car, and why Sheriff Stilinski suspected he was out there, don't make sense. He concludes he wasn't out there alone.

Liam meets up with Corey outside the library. Corey says he was wrong. He thought the fact that they hated each other wouldn't matter but it does to Mason and Mason matters to them both. Corey suggests they work together so that Mason doesn't have to choose between them. They decide to team up to look for a trace of the Ghost Riders.

Scott figures out that he had a best friend who was out in the woods with him the night he was searching for the body. Malia says it doesn't sound crazy because she knows someone chained her up and helped her stay human. Lydia says she came to school expecting to meet someone but couldn't remember who. She says she was looking for that person all day, and whoever it is, she thinks she loved him. Scott figures they're all missing the same person. He retrieves the photo of the three of them and shows it to them. Lydia says the missing person was sitting right in the middle but there's no one in the picture now.

Claudia Stilinski: Back from the Dead

Parrish walks Sheriff Stilinski through the details of the Robbery/Murder investigation. The driver of the cube truck (see Memory Lost) was named Nick Mazara and has a record of petty theft and dealing drugs but nothing violent. He worked for a medical supply company and had access to hospital supplies like the stolen helium. Parrish explains that hospitals use helium for Heliox Therapy to help respiratory injuries caused by fires or explosions. He says someone's been raiding the supply of helium at Beacon Hills Hospital for months. The sheriff is impressed by Parrish's thoroughness.

Parrish says the Sheriff's wife is waiting for him in his office. Claudia Stilinski is there and she brought dinner for her husband. She sets out a quinoa and kale salad on the desk before him. He is not pleased. She explains that she wants to keep him healthy but she's only teasing. She has a bag of fast food burgers and fries for him. He asks her if she's happy. "Always," she replies. He pulls her into his lap and they kiss.

Liam and Corey Investigate

Liam takes Corey's hand and they go invisible.

They enter the library. Slotted in the railing above, Liam spots a card. Corey lets go of Liam and he can no longer see the card. Corey heads upstairs and retrieves it. Once he becomes visible again the card is visible too.

Later, Mason joins them and says the blank library key card is like Schrödinger's cat, it wasn't there until it was observed. He goes on about superposition and how looking at something changes it's very existence. Corey and Liam changed reality. Liam decides to try the card in the computer card reader. The screen shows student Jake Sullivan (Tanner Stine). Mason suddenly remembers he was in the lab with them last night doing the extra credit lab. Liam says they have Spanish together but he forgot about him too. The card now shows a full photo identification for sophomore Jake Sullivan. Mason realizes that the Ghost Rider erased Jake. Liam admits Corey's hunch was right.

Coach Finstock has two laptops open on his desk. It sounds like he's playing a martial arts video game. Liam enters and announces that he wants to sign up for team captain. Coach says it's too late and the end of the day was the deadline. Liam points out that he didn't say the end of the "school day" and snatches the signup sheet from him. Coach questions what changed his mind. Liam says he held a guy's hand. Finstock says, "I totally get it."

Lydia's Automatic Writing

Deaton hangs the shard of glass from the impound lot on a string in front of Lydia. He lights it from below. He says he hopes the darkness, silence, and focused light will allow Lydia to tap into whatever her subconscious has been trying to tell her. They plan to do this via automatic writing.

As Lydia begins, Deaton warns Scott and Malia that what they're saying suggests that the Wild Hunt doesn't just take people, they erase people from reality.

Lydia writes furiously. When they stop her, she's written the world "Mischief" over and over. Upon closer examination, they see the pattern of the words spell out S T I L E S. Lydia comes out of her trance and asks, "What the hell is a Stiles?"

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