Teen Wolf season 5 episode 16 review: Lie Ability

This review contains spoilers.

5.16 Lie Ability

Teen Wolf has delivered hands-down its best episode of season 5B, brimming with well-paced action and emotional pay-off. All the characters were united with the same motivating goal: save Lydia.

According to the internet, apparently only one thing happened during this episode, and that is the revival of the Stydia ship, which has been sitting on the bottom of the ocean floor for the past season or so. It seems best to address this first, before talking about everything else that occurred.

Showrunner Jeff Davis was recently quoted saying “this episode starts two characters down a path that’s been building for years.” The slow evolution of Stiles and Lydia’s relationship has been a constant strength of the show, growing from infatuation and apathy, to a deep emotional bond that is only rivalled by that between Scott and Stiles. With such a solid foundation, it seems only natural for Stiles and Lydia to progress to a romantic relationship. When exactly will that happen? Who knows, but hopefully soon, because fans have been waiting five seasons for this moment.

In other couple of updates, Hayden and Liam not only shared some deep looks, but they totally did it, and in a very steamy scene too. The whole ‘teen’ aspect of Teen Wolf has been lacking recently, what with the dread doctors and chimeras, so it was good to see them focus back on that for a bit. Yet, if you were slightly confused as to how this was happening, given that Liam was right in the middle of a fight, don’t worry, it happened in a flashback. Again. I thought we were done with jumping around in time, but apparently not. This was my only issue in an otherwise highly enjoyable episode. I wasn’t a fan of the flashbacks used earlier in the season, but at least they were there to create mystery and tension. However, this time it felt like the show had filmed this scene and then realised they didn’t have anywhere for it to go, so they shoehorned it into this episode. I understand that they’re trying to set up Hayden’s conflict, but it could have been handled better.

Valack could also have handled Lydia better, as he unfortunately gets half his brain blown off. I honestly wasn’t expecting that. It was a gory, but rather satisfying end to the monster that was Valack. At least before he was killed by a girl’s scream, he dropped some useful information about the Beast. The Dread Doctors are trying to get it to remember the man it originally was back in the 1700s, so that it will no longer need the teen as a host and can realise its full potential. Once that happens, it’s all over. Who is this teen? Lydia’s baffled, and so am I. Is it someone we’ve already seen in the show, or somebody completely new?

Lie Ability ends with Theo in possession of one of the Dread Doctor’s masks; it seems we won’t have to wait too long to know who is the Beast.

Ron Hogan is away. Read Alyce’s review of the previous episode, Amplification, here.