Teen Wolf season 5, episode 16, “Lie Ability,” brought us some of the greatest moments between Stiles and Lydia, and we’re here to look back on how far they’ve come.
Teen Wolf season 1 feels like it aired ages ago now, especially when you consider how much our favorite characters have grown. Lydia, in particular, has blossomed over the course of five seasons, and her arc is one of my favorite aspects of the show. When we first met her, she was the queen bee, the most popular girl in school who would only date the captain of the lacrosse team and didn’t even know Stiles Stilinski existed.
On the other hand, Stiles was a horribly awkward teenager who had been crushing on Lydia since the third grade. He tried his hardest to get her to notice him, and yet she never did. That is, until she and Jackson broke up and Allison convinced her to go to the dance with Stiles instead. While there, Stiles tells Lydia he knows who she really was. Despite all the masks she wore to keep people from realizing her genius, Stiles noticed her in a way that Jackson never had.
When Peter bit Lydia at the end of season 1, it set her up for big changes in season 2. Being at odds with Jackson taught her to stand on her own, but her love for him never went away. Given her strange behavior, Derek was convinced she was the kanima, and Stiles did everything he could to protect her.
It didn’t exactly make them besties, but Lydia certainly couldn’t help but notice him now. Her best friend was dating his best friend, and that sort of thing led to them getting to know each other. Even though she was more willing to show off her smarts in school, she was still hanging onto her old life and Stiles was still hanging onto that childhood crush.
That changed when Jackson left town and Lydia became aware of the supernatural. Her life changed in incredible ways, but she managed to handle it with grace. She was now less focused on putting down those around her in order to build herself up and more focused on helping her friends through difficult times. Stiles also threw himself further into his role as the researcher, helping Scott navigate adolescence as a werewolf. It quickly became clear both were starting to find their roles in what would eventually become Scott’s pack.
Season 3 brought us the biggest change of all. Though it did not happen simultaneously, Lydia found out she was a banshee and Stiles became possessed with the nogitsune. Gone were the days of Lydia worrying about what others thought of her, and gone were the days of Stiles obsessing over his crush. They truly knew each other now — their darkest secrets, their deepest fears — and that connects you to someone in ways that can’t be forged without heartbreaking experiences.
Despite their differences, they became friends. Good friends. Great friends, even. Their relationship was honest and genuine and complete. Three seasons ago, neither one of them would’ve believed it was possible, but now they realized how much they had in common, how good and strong they were together, and what they could do for and with Scott’s pack.
It’s such a terrible feeling to know this came as a result of all the adversaries they had to face. I’m sure they wished they had never known such loss, but despite that pain, they grew as people and as friends. Though we never want to see our favorite characters go through situations like those Lydia and Stiles have experienced, I can’t help but love them even more for surviving each and every one of those battles.
But, as with life, things change. By this point in time, Allison had died and Stiles and Lydia had grown even closer. They were the best of friends, and the juvenile feelings they’d had for each other in the past were long gone. Lydia was no longer on a pedestal and Stiles was no longer someone unworthy of her time. They had both matured individually, in their own separate and unique ways, and this had made their friendship feel absolutely natural and organic.
Stiles never stopped caring for Lydia, but he certainly respected her boundaries and the relationship they had cultivated over the last four seasons. Still, Malia was now part of the equation, and the pair was good for each other in a lot of ways. Stiles became more confident, and Malia learned to navigate life’s various obstacles with his help. Lydia mourned the loss of Allison and Aiden and dealt with the fact that her banshee powers were becoming more powerful than ever.
Teen Wolf season 5 has brought us some of the best moments between Stiles and Lydia so far in the series, even if they were hard fought. The first half of the season saw Stiles distancing himself from many of his friends, Lydia included. Lydia was also focused on learning to fight and figuring out what kind of supernatural creature Deputy Parrish was. Plus, after the first half of season 5, Lydia was placed into Eichen House, where she has spent much of her time. It hasn’t been all rest and relaxation, however, as Meredith was teaching her how to use her banshee powers. None of this allowed for Stiles and Lydia to have many deep interactions.
That all changed in episodes 15 and 16, however, when Stiles concocted an elaborate plan to break her out of Eichen and bring her home. With Lydia struggling to contain her banshee powers after Valack drilled a hole in her head, it seemed likely that someone was going to get seriously injured as a result of the doctor’s experimentation. Lydia knew this, and when Stiles came to unstrap her from the chair, she warned him away. And when a banshee tells you that you might die if you stick around, most people tend to listen. Not Stiles. He didn’t care about the repercussions; he just knew he had to save his friend.
After they arrived at Deaton’s, Lydia screamed and passed out from the force of it. Fortunately, despite that agonizingly long pause before she opened her eyes, Lydia looked at Stiles, and said he was the one to save her.
It’s so easy to brush off the importance of this moment. Of course Stiles would save Lydia, and of course Lydia would be grateful. But it was in that moment where we saw the queen bee and the awkward teenager look at each other with such love in their eyes that we also saw them realize how far they would be willing to go for each other, despite the circumstances, despite the consequences.
Call it what you will, either a romantic love or a deeply understanding friendship, but for me it hardly matters. They both put it all out there in that moment, and though they did not verbalize it, the care they have for one another goes beyond just simply being a part of the same pack.
Moving forward, I can only hope Teen Wolf continues to naturally develop their relationship. Despite loving Stiles and Malia together, and despite thinking Lydia and Parrish have incredible chemistry, I also have to root for Stiles and Lydia to explore whatever it is they’re feeling for each other right now. It has grown beyond a simple childhood crush and into something so genuine that it makes me more excited than ever to see what happens next.
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