‘Teen Wolf’ season 5, episode 16 review: Was Lydia freed from Eichen House?

“Teen Wolf” has finally stopped messing with the timeline over the course of the past two weeks, and what that meant on Tuesday night’s new installment was that it gave us a chance to see all of the action unfold in real-time in the present.

Of course, that did also produce a certain measure of doubt as to whether or not Lydia was going to make it out of the episode alive. There was legitimately a moment within the final few episodes where we started to think that we were going to be writing a eulogy for Holland Roden’s character in this article. She had struggled to keep herself together in the midst of Valack’s “training,” and one scream near the end just about killed her and everyone close to her. Instead, she found her salvation in the arms of her friends, her mother (who is starting now to come around), and of course Stiles. If there was ever a win for Lydia / Stiles fans, this could be it.

If we were to think of this show in terms of stepping stones, then we’d say that the big one tonight was finally uniting the group and getting many of them on the same page again. It didn’t matter how it happened insofar as it did. Next, we’re going to need Lydia and Parrish to work together further in tracking down and identifying the Beast; the longer that they fail to do this, and the more dangerous our villain-of-the-season ultimately becomes. It’s something to keep in mind.

As a whole, the emotional final minutes of this episode made this story into something at least close to TV magic. It was the payoff of a lengthy journey, and while we wish it hadn’t been so confusing at times, we’ve finally got a glimmer of hope for the future. Grade: B+.

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