Memory Found

Memory Found is the ninth episode of Teen Wolf Season 6.

The title is a callback to the first episode of this season, Memory Lost, in which Stiles Stilinski was captured by the Ghost Riders and erased from memory.

The character's disappearance was integrated into the plot to allow actor Dylan O'Brien to miss filming during most of the episodes in this season in order to complete work on other projects. An injury on the set of Maze Runner: The Death Cure delayed completion of this episode and Riders on the Storm from August till December 2016.

Synopsis

Liam and Theo act as decoys; Scott, Lydia, and Malia enact a plan to try and remember Stiles.

Full Recap

Scott, Malia and Lydia seal up all the entrances into the Argent bunker. They still believe the Ghost Riders can get in and it will be up to the Sheriff and Liam to distract the riders long enough for them to remember Stiles and open a portal to the riders’ limbo.

Lydia explains that the cold sarcophagus in the bunker will lower Scott’s body temperature and his heart rate placing him in a hypnotic state for memory regression similar to the ice bath they gave Isaac to help him recover his memories of the Alpha Pack in the Season 3 episode Chaos Rising. If they can figure out how to work it, the device just might help Scott better remember Stiles.

Freeing Theo

Liam is trying to convince the Sheriff to let Theo help them distract the Ghost Riders. The Sheriff says he has a “station full of armed deputies” to help but he doesn’t. The station is empty. Noah calls on the radio in hopes of finding any of his men and women who might be left, but there is no answer. The sheriff is incredulous that the riders could have taken everyone. Everyone, that is, except Theo.

Theo tries to talk the Sheriff into letting him out. The Sheriff says if Theo makes a wrong move he’ll fill his head full of bullets. The sheriff retrieves the key card but hesitates. Theo becomes more and more desperate, making a grab for the card.

Noah asks Theo to tell him one thing about Stiles before he’ll let him out. Theo doesn’t at first, he just grabs the bars. The sheriff turns to go, but Theo calls after him. He says Stiles was smart, smart enough not to trust Theo. The sheriff opens the cell.

They hear the Ghost Riders. Theo and Liam estimate there are two horses, five riders. With three on five, they think their odds are pretty good. They open the door and more than a dozen riders are waiting. They open fire and take out the sheriff in a puff of green smoke. Liam and Theo make a run for it.

The make it out to the parking lot and jump into a patrol car. Liam has a box full of keys but they don’t know which one is the right one. The riders are closing in and after trying several wrong key, Liam finds the right one. The car cranks and they run over a Ghost Rider.

Scott in the Box

They lock a shirtless Scott into the cold sarcophagus and turn it on. Lydia explains that they need to guide Scott and keep him focused. She says he should think about Stiles, what he looks like, things he said. Malia wants to get him out, fearing something is wrong, but Lydia stops her. Scott’s eyes go red. In his mind he is climbing the stairs at his house.

In the real world, he begins to lose consciousness. Lydia fears if he does, they’ll lose him. Malia yells at him. In his mind, Scott is back in his house. It’s the full moon during Lunatic. Stiles has handcuffed Scott to the radiator in his room to keep him from hurting anyone. Stiles yells at Scott for kissing Lyida. Scott, in the past, tries to talk Stiles into letting him go.

Suddenly flashes of memory pour into Scott’s head. There’s a snatch of dialogue from Pack Mentality when, while they were breaking into the school, Stiles complained about being Robin to Scott’s Batman. Other bits of conversations and flashes of images of Stiles bombard Scott. Lydia’s voice tells him to try to find Stiles in his memories whether they be good or bad.

Scott remembers the confrontation with Stiles at the Animal Clinic in Lies of Omission and when he went into the ice bath for the sacrifice in Alpha Pact.

Lydia and Malia realize Scott is lost amongst his memories, being buried under them. In his mind, Scott continues to flash through his life with Stiles, including the MRI scene from Riddled

Liam and Theo’s Hospital Hideout

Liam decides to make for the hospital since he knows the layout of the building so well. He reiterates that they have to keep the Ghost Riders busy long enough for Scott and the others to remember-up a portal to Stiles.

Once they arrive, Liam turns on the siren inside a parked ambulance. He’s hoping the noise will bring all the Ghost Riders after them. Liam says they’re going to get to all of them eventually unless Scott is successful. Theo says he’s only with Liam as long as it helps him. He plans to run while the riders take Liam.

The hospital is deserted. Theo flashes back to his sister ripping out his heart (See Heartless). Theo snaps out of it and claims to be fine. He says he was in a bad dream. They take off to hide from the approaching Ghost Riders.

Liam thinks the morgue is the right place to go. Because the riders go after the living, they should hide with the dead. Theo refuses to get into the cadaver cooler with a corpse. Liam agrees. Theo says they should have just left him in his cell. Liam says they should have left him in the ground. Theo wonders what Liam thinks he was doing down there, “just hanging out with my dead sister, having a good time catching up on childhood memories?” Liam says he thinks Theo was rotting down there. Theo says he’s right and Liam says whatever happened to him, he deserved it. Liam declares he plans to use Theo for bait to save himself from the riders. The ambulance siren stops.

Seven Ghost Riders enter the hospital through the emergency entrance.

Lockers Full of Memories

Malia and Lydia are worried that if the cold doesn’t kill Scott, the memories he’s experiencing will. Lydia says it’s her first time trying to open a rift in space/time so she is kind of fumbling in the dark. This idea of fumbling in the dark gives her an idea. She attempts to guide Scott’s memories into an easier to understand form like regular hypnosis.

She tells him to imagine the school hallway with lockers. Each locker holds a memory of Stiles. Scott successfully gets the image in his mind. He opens a locker and remembers the night Stiles disappeared but somehow managed to call him (See Riddled) on his cell.

Scott calls out for Lydia saying he can’t figure out what he’s supposed to do. Lydia says he should just find another memory. Frost begins to creep up the window on the sarcophagus. Lydia says Scott is getting too cold. Malia has a thought, what if it’s not just the memory but an emotional connection created from a memory that opened the portal for Stilinski? Lydia points out that Stilinski was remembering his son and the emotional attachment would be intense.

Malia reminds Scott that he and Stiles were more than just friends. She talks about Stiles plan to get an apartment with Scott after graduation (See Creatures of the Night). She apparently told Stiles that moving in with your best friend is a bad idea but Stiles told her that he and Scott were like brothers.

Scott opens a locker and removes a lit road flare. He remembers when the Darach was messing with everyone’s mind in Motel California and Scott used a similar flare and a can of gasoline in a suicide attempt. Stiles talked him down, grabbed the flare himself and stepped into the spreading pool of gasoline saying he needed Scott and if he was going, Stiles would go with him.

Scott’s heart rate drops and fearing he might die, Lydia and Malia pull him from the cold sarcophagus. Scott is distressed because it didn’t work, they failed to open a portal.

Malia in the Box

Scott wants to go back into the cold but both Malia and Lydia refuse to let him. Malia says she’ll go and strips off her shirt. Scott says she’ll probably handle the cold better than him. Once inside, Lydia has her imagine the library. Each of the books represents her memories and she’s looking for the section of memories about Stiles. She picks up a book called “An Exposition Workshop” and opens it. She remembers seeing Stiles inside Eichen House and then punching him hard in the episode Echo House. She drops the book.

Another book releases the memory of Stiles trying to talk her down during a full moon. The images from The Benefactor cuts to the shower scene from Echo House. She pulls more books and random bits of dialogue come to her. She opens another and remembers when she lay dying in Weaponized and Stiles explained that he had to leave for a little while. She made him promise that he would come back. He says he’d never leave her behind.

Scott and Lydia’s voices intrude on the memory. They call out to her to open her eyes. Malia drops the book. Suddenly, ice is forming on her arm. It creeps up toward her chest. Her eyes flash blue. In the real world, Scott and Lydia see a subtle change in light but then alarms start sounding on the sarcophagus and they rush to free Malia.

Lydia shuts down the ice box and says they can’t save anyone by freezing them to death. Malia protests that it was working but Lydia says they only saw a light and heard a strange noise. Scott and Malia say they remember Stiles better now and he’s more real now than he’s ever been. Scott repeats that if they can bring Stiles back, they can bring everyone back. Lydia points out that there’s a huge difference in being a vivid memory and an “actual corporeal human being.” Scott says he believes Lydia is the key. He says when he was remembering Stiles, he was also remembering Lydia with Stiles. He says no one had a connection like they did. Malia agrees and says Lydia has to try. Since she wouldn’t survive the sarcophagus they have to think of something else to help her remember. She settles on actual hypnosis.

Confronting the Ghost Riders

Ghost Riders know how to use elevators. They exit the car on the floor where Liam and Theo are hiding.

As one of them passes the morgue, Liam and Theo rush out pushing the autopsy table in front of them. They pin the rider against the door on the other side of the hall. They seem pleased with themselves until they realize there are half a dozen more riders coming down the hall toward them. The riders open fire and the boys flee.

Later, as Liam wrestles with a rider, Theo rushes in and pushes the cowboy into a closet. They jam a crutch under the door knob in an attempt to seal him inside. They’re again, momentarily, pleased with themselves until they hear more Ghost Riders coming. Theo says they’re everywhere and Liam thinks this is good. Theo reminds him that getting captured won’t help save his friends. Liam says they’re both going to get caught anyway. Theo can do it while he’s running away if he wants, Liam chooses to go down fighting.

The Ghost Riders line up at the end of the hallway. Liam growls, flashing eyes and fangs, and rushes toward them. Theo hesitates but quickly follows suit.

Later, Theo is whipped by a rider. It knocks him down but he is otherwise unharmed. He grabs a bone saw from a pile of instruments on the floor. He drives it into the rider’s throat. It falls and bleeds out on the floor. Another rider appears and begins to choke him. He can see Liam wrestling with another rider in the morgue. The rider drives Theo to his knees. Liam grabs at the other rider’s gun and it goes off, shooting the rider attacking Theo and knocking him off. Liam then turns the gun back on his rider and fires. They’re about to fist bump their triumph but notice more riders coming down the hall.

Theo quickly shoves Liam into the elevator. He says he’s going to be the bait and turns to face the riders alone as the doors close with Liam inside.

Lydia’s Hypnosis

Lydia explains that her mother used a hypnotist to quit smoking and had Lydia go to him when she was 10 to stop biting her nails. Scott finds a candle and Malia lights it with a blow torch. Lydia has prepared an “induction script” and at first asks Malia to read it. She says she should keep her voice soft and slow, but not monotone. Malia does a terrible job so Lydia snatches the page and hands it to Scott. He reads, “Take a deep breath and look at the candle. Feel the muscles in your body begin to relax. Your hands relaxing. Your eyelids relaxing. As you relax, imagine you’re sitting in front of a TV. When you turn the TV on, it’s going to play memories from your life. The remote gives you total control. You can play any memory you like. All you have to do is hit the button.”

Lydia is in a classroom. There is a TV on a cart at the front of the class. She has a remote and pushes the button. On the screen, Stiles visits Lydia during The Tell. She is high on drugs after seeing The Alpha Werewolf the night before outside the video store. Stiles comes to check on her and she asks “What the hell is a Stiles?”

She clicks the remote and remembers the Winter Formal in Formality. She went as Stiles’s date after Jackson dumped her. Stiles asks her to dance and she says no. He gets more forceful, which she appreciates, but still, she refuses.

Scott continues reading, “Try to find a memory of Stiles. A memory where you felt a connection with him.”

She remembers more from the night of the formal, Stiles saying he’s the only one who knows how smart she really is and how she corrected him when he said she’d win the Nobel Prize. Nobel doesn’t have a mathematics prize, it’s the Field’s Medal.

Scott tells her to find another memory, to keep looking for Stiles. Lydia continues pressing the remote and flipping through her memories. She stops and puts down the remote. She can still hear her memories. She rises from the desk and out into the hall. She hears the discussion that she and Stiles had during the search for the parents after they’d been taken by the Darach. Lydia tries to assure Stiles that there is still time to find his father and the others but Stiles is overwrought. He suffers a panic attack and Lydia kisses him to get him to hold his breath and calm the panic. (Alpha Pact)

In the here and now, Lydia says, “That’s when it happened.” Scott and Malia question what she meant by this but she remains lost in the memory.

She sees Stiles wrapping red yarn around her finger in Galvanize. She sees herself with Stiles hiding from the Dread Doctors at Eichen House in A Novel Approach. Then she relives Stiles saving her from Eichen in Lie Ability.

Finally, she says, “When I kissed him, that’s when it all changed.”

She remembers being in the Jeep with Stiles just before the riders took him in Memory Lost. She seems crushed. She breaks down in tears as she remembers Stiles said, “I love you.” She says, “I never said it back.” The light in the room changes. Everything begins to shake. Lydia is drawn to the door, throws back the bolts and opens it. There is a bright white light in the tunnel. Wind rustles down the corridor and a shadow, the outline of a man, appears in the light.

Lydia whispers, “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