STILES. AT. THE FBI.
We repeat: STILES AT THE FBI!
Like many fans, we went into tonight's final season premiere of Teen Wolf not expecting much more than a glimpse from Scott McCall's best friend in the world, since Dylan O'Brien is now a very busy movie star. That's why the end of "Said the Spider to the Fly" delighted us so. Stiles has a whole storyline! It's a miracle...which we'll get to in a minute.
First, let's talk about the rest of the episode, which was much darker, much bloodier, and much less filled with spittakes.
The whole pack was making preparations for what was to come, with Scott working his last day as assistant lacrosse coach, Lydia preparing to leave for college, and Malia bemoaning her rerouted plane to Paris. Liam, meanwhile, was freaking out, both about Scott leaving and about his girlfriend leaving him to take care of her sister.
Everything was fine and not supernatural at all until an unknown wolf appeared on the lacrosse field, leading Scott and Liam into the woods. There, they found that the forest was filled with dead wolves, all crawling with bugs.
At the always reliably terrifying Eichen House, a guy had been stuck in hardened volcanic rock since at least 1912. Then, two guys bothered him, and he exploded out of the ash, revealing himself to be a hellhound. He wandered around, causing rats in classrooms and fights at the hospital, injuring Liam along the way (and proving himself no match against Mason's Stiles-esque bat). Then he ran into the new guidance counselor.
She had spent her day meeting with all the new seniors and seeming extremely interested in the lives of a few particular students and their extra-curricular activities. Later, she chased after the hellhound and managed to shoot him dead, somehow. She's clearly this season's Mysterious Teacher, but just how evil she is we have yet to see.
Meanwhile, Lydia can't walk into a room without finding herself in a horror movie, and through her visions she learned that when they saved Stiles at the end of 6A, they let something out that shouldn't have been let out, so she informed Scott and a devastated Malia that their post-high school plans would have to wait.
As the three of them listened to a sweet voicemail from Stiles urging Scott to keep his plans to get out of Beacon Hills, we cut to Stiles headed to one of his FBI classes, the annoyingly model student, only to then see Derek on a screen, apparently wanted for mass murder. Obviously, that scene was one of the first things we had to talk to creator Jeff Davis about when we hopped on the phone with him to talk a little bit about the premiere, but more about the season overall.
E! News: I was truly delighted by the scene with Stiles at the end of the premiere. I think a lot of people were worried he wouldn't be in too much of the season because he's so busy.
Davis: Yes he is. He's got mazes to run, he's got assassinations to do. So he's definitely busy.
So what can you tell me about getting him back? How much are we going to see of Stiles and Derek?
I can tell you that it wasn't intended for Stiles to actually be a part of these last 10 episodes, but I always had it in my heart that Dylan would come back for at least the series finale. I'm actually really happy that we were able to build a good bit of story in about Stiles, and get him in more than just the finale, so it's important to show where these characters are going. We have many many characters that are close to my heart on the show, but the show started with Stiles and Scott, and it's also great to be able to write for Stiles and Derek again, to see that pair back together. They're so funny together, those two characters. There was spark there that gave great comic relief to a show that got very dark.
In terms of all the people you did get to return, did you reach out to them, did they reach out to you? How did that work?
It was both. I had a list of people that I wanted to get back, and I said oh maybe one or two of them, and then everybody wanted to come back! There were people who wanted to come back that we couldn't get because of scheduling issues, like Meagan Tandy. I would have loved to have her in the last episode, but there was a point where she was only available for this day or that day, and then the script got too unwieldy to try to wrap up 20 different character stories, but I'd say hopefully we're successful at giving each character their moment. But I think it's a testament to the love of the show and the love of the cast, the love they have for each other and the crew, that everybody was so fond of the show that everybody wanted to come back. And nobody was doing it for the money. These weren't huge paydays. They were coming back for the love of it, which is great.
So what was your goal going into this final season?
We wanted to bring the focus back on Scott McCall, on our original teen wolf, and we thought we've gotta give Scott one last massive, huge battle to fight, and then we thought let's not just give him a battle—this is our series finale, let's have him fight a war, and that's what it turns out to be. A kind of war for Beacon Hills, a war that actually extends to the world itself. That's why we're able to bring Jackson back, we're able to bring Derek back, because it spreads all across the globe. So it's a war between supernaturals and humans.
What is Scott's final journey going to be like?
Well, they're all supposed to go their separate ways, and Scott finds himself sort of trapped once again by this place and these people that need him, and he wonders, can he ever leave? Will he ever be able to have his own life? And I think the answer comes pretty clearly in the final episode, but his journey is about facing this big battle again, facing his original enemy, people who want to hunt and kill werewolves, his kind.
I see Lydia's still living inside a horror movie. What can we expect to see from her in these last episodes?
I love Holland Roden so much. She gives her all. She has quite a few scary moments this season. She's got great heroic moments. Hers is sort of a journey of she wants to have Stiles back—like it's laid out in the first episode—but she also knows that they almost lost him, and she needs to protect him. One of my favorite scenes, actually, is when Lydia, Stiles, and Jackson all meet up with each other once again. It's kind of a fun awkward reunion for them, but we have fun with her character.
Stay tuned for more scoop from Davis and the Teen Wolf himself, Tyler Posey.
Teen Wolf airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on MTV.