‘Teen Wolf’ Premiere Recap: Lydia’s Memories Reveal Senior Year Tragedy

Senior year has arrived for our Beacon Hills kids, but their final year in high school isn’t going to be all fun and games. The June 29 season premiere introduced a strange new character and flashbacks revealed shocking things to come.

Season five of Teen Wolf is finally here, and it’s crazier than anyone ever expected. On the June 29 season premiere, Liam (Dylan Sprayberry) struggled to control himself, a hot new character made his entrance into Beacon Hills, the new villains made their presence known and Lydia’s (Holland Roden) shocking memories showed a fan favorite’s life in grave danger.

As we all know, this season is kicking things off at Eichen House. This should be fun. A very naked Lydia showered all by her lonesome — um, is this even allowed on MTV? She managed to nab a nasty scar on her stomach. Poor Lydia. Then a nurse showed up demanding she hurry it up. She didn’t buy the “catatonic” act. Lydia’s never been one to stay quiet, so you know something’s up.

When the nurse grabbed her, Lydia looked lifeless. Out of it. Dead. She shuffled back to her room. The lady nurse had a serious dislike for our red-haired queen. The male nurse, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. But he turned out to be creepy AF. When he went for Lydia’s jugular, she finally woke the heck up. She bolted out of there like a flash of lightning and turned on her badass switch. Like, she had some incredible ninja moves. Plus, some type of supernatural force I don’t believe we’ve seen before helped her out. As she made her way out of Eichen House, she got a serious blast from her past — AIDEN. He wasn’t there to save her, though. “Sorry, Lydia, but your treatment’s not done. Not yet,” he said. 

That’s when Lydia got tased by officers. She still managed to get one more word in: “Please, I have to tell them. They’re going to die. My friends, they’re all going to die.” WHAT.

‘Teen Wolf’ Premiere: Senior Year

As EP Jeff Davis told HollywoodLife.com EXCLUSIVELY, all of season 5A is a flashback. So it’s time to travel back in time. Stiles was adorably trying to figure out everyone’s plans after high school. Yes, even the Jeep would be tagging along. Scott didn’t seem to be so intrigued with Stiles’ plan. With the constant mayhem that constantly surrounded Beacon Hills, the future always seemed so far away. 

Senior year was just about to begin — is anyone else tearing up? — and Scott was worried. He remembered something that Deaton told him once: Life can’t ever be all bad or all good. Eventually, things have to come back to the middle. Things had been pretty good for everyone over the past six months. Their lives had been resting in the middle, and Scott had a feeling that scale was about to tip in a good or bad direction. 

Scott and Stiles weren’t alone on their bromantic trip out. Liam was chained up to a tree. He pleaded with the boys to let him ago. Apparently, on the last full moon, he scared the bejeezus out of Beacon Hills residents by running around the town in wolf form naked. He promised Scott that that kind of slip-up wouldn’t happen again. But Little Liam told a big fat lie. After he was unchained, we got a glimpse of his bloodied hands. 

Parrish was still around, and he definitely bulked up over the past six months. (Me likey.)

However, he hadn’t been able to showcase his guns because he’d been stuck behind a desk. He confronted Sheriff Stilinski about why he’d lost his trust. Stilinski didn’t really give him a straight answer, but he made up for it by giving Parrish some real work. Parrish checked up on the noise complaint and came upon an empty house. It didn’t long until some wolf blasted through the basement wall covered in black goo. He picked up Parrish by the throat, and that’s when Parrish’s eyes lit up like fire. “You’re not a werewolf, but you’re something,” the guy said. So was this guy. His claws glowed blue. He was going to allow Parrish to live if he answered one simple question: Where was Scott McCall? Parrish declined, and the scary dude slammed his claws across the screen. This can’t be the end of Parrish, right?!

‘Teen Wolf’ Premiere: Hello, New Boy

Kira was on her way back from New York when she first spotted the other new guy. The hot new guy. Pretty Little Liars fans know him as Mike Montgomery and/or Cody Christian. Boy, is he cute or what?

When it looked like Kira wouldn’t make Senior Scribe, Scott went after her himself. Before he left, Scott gave Liam his best pep talk about staying strong. He told Liam to take pride in the fact that he was one of the strongest young wolves out there, so even if he was having control issues, it was going to be worth it in the end. Liam is the cutest little puppy. I love him. (See below.)

Parrish was alive, but he was badly hurt. There was literally steam coming from his chest, and not in a good way. He saw a vision of Lydia in his delirium, and they nearly kissed (!!!!!!!!!). Sheriff Stilinski brought him to Mama McCall, but it didn’t take long for Parrish to lunge right back up fully healed. He wanted to warn Scott. He was worried the guy who’d attacked him could possibly steal a true alpha’s power.

‘Teen Wolf’ Premiere: WHAT. JUST. HAPPENED.

While Stiles waited for everyone to show up, he let Malia in on what was causing him so much anxiety. He was starting to really worry about if they would all be friends after high school. “What if Scott’s my best friend now, but he’s not my best friend for life?” Stiles asked. (BRB, sobbing.) Suddenly, Liam came up to them with some bad news after eavesdropping on Parrish.

Scott managed to find Kira in the middle of all that traffic. They shared the cutest kiss in the rain. They continued their makeout session at the high school but that mystery guy interrupted everything. They fought him off, but he was very, very powerful. Cody Christian tried to come to the rescue, but it didn’t work. When it looked like the mystery wolf would get the one-up on Scott, our alpha came roaring back. Take that, sucka. Oh, and we learned Cody’s character’s name is Theo, and he wanted to join Scott’s pack. Yes, you may, Theo.

Despite her struggles, Malia was officially a senior! The gang all headed to Senior Scribe to write their initials in the library. Stiles was up first, and there was a Sterek moment that was incredible. He saw DH’s initials. I can’t.

If you weren’t already crying, this should do the trick. Scott wrote his initials and hesitated for a moment. He went back to the shelf and wrote Alison’s initials. “She would have been with us,” Stiles said. “She still is,” Lydia said. Cue the Alison-is-coming-back theories in the midst of all the Teen Wolf fan tears. (Here’s what Jeff Davis said about that!)

The mystery guy who’d attacked Scott stumbled into this truly horrifying place. Like a place straight out of your nightmares. The Dread Doctors made their first appearance, and, boy, do they mean business. They said there were no second chances. They killed the mystery guy, which prompted crows to fly out of his chest.

Flashback to the present: Lydia was still in Eichen House. The doctor said “everything” started to happen at the beginning of senior year. Lydia said she couldn’t remember what happened to her friends. Maybe it’s because she didn’t want to remember.

From the brief glimpses, this is what we saw: Liam and Scott going at it; Mama McCall slapping the Sheriff; Kira leaving Scott behind; Parrish’s eyes glowing again; Malia getting attacked by the Desert Wolf; Stiles lying lifeless after a serious car accident.

WTF. I need answers now. Mostly about Stiles because everyone knows how I feel about Stiles. He’s my favorite. My twin soul. Could Stiles die in season 5? As in dead? No way, right? I don’t want to think about it. However, he’s only human. Lydia’s omen from the beginning of the episode just got so much more real.

HollywoodLifers, what did you think of the Teen Wolf premiere? What in the heck happened to everyone? Is Stiles OK? Sound off on your theories below!

— Avery Thompson
Follow @avery__thompson