Teen Wolf season 6, episode 8, “Blitzkrieg,” just finished airing, providing us with more than one major reveal.

This week’s episode of Teen Wolf kicked off back in Germany, 1943. We see Mr. Douglas in full Nazi regalia, speaking to the room at large about his plans to use the Wild Hunt to help them win the war. “The dead do not break,” he says, but the man at the head of the table laughs at Hauptmann’s idea of chasing down a fairytale. Wrong move. Douglas kills the man and we see that his eyes are already red, implying he’s had his power for some time already.

I don’t always remark on the cinematography of a scene, especially when it comes to television, but between the upwards shot through the glass with the swastika and the way the dead officer bled out across the world map, this episode already feels like a significant one.

This is compounded even more so when we see the sheriff confront the truth about Claudia. As he walks around Stiles’ empty room, a ball of red string and a case of thumbtacks appears, followed by the empty crime board. Every time the sheriff places a string, something new appears. The effects here are simple — sometimes an item appears off camera and sometimes it fades into view right before our eyes — but boy are they effective.

Noah (man does that still feel strange to say) brings Claudia into the room, but she sees none of what her husband sees. “There’s nothing here,” she says. “You’re here,” he replies. For a moment I was afraid this was it, this was the moment where the sheriff would choose his supposedly living wife over his missing son. But I should’ve known better because the sheriff instantly begins realizing he doesn’t remember anything about his wife from recent years.

He does remember her last good day, though, and pulls out the photo of Stiles with his mother in the hospital. Claudia begins to turn blurry — again, such a simple effect and yet so poignant — and as the sheriff remembers the moment his wife died, she disappears and a light from the corner of the room washes over Noah’s face.

We’re left wondering what this means while we check in on the others. Mason and Hayden found Corey’s cellphone, his relic, so they know he’s been taken. The trio have Theo locked up, but they find themselves in a conundrum. Mr. Douglas knows all about the Ghost Riders and Theo knows all about Mr. Douglas. The only way their frenemy will help them, though, is if they break the sword.

It’s a difficult decision, and I wonder if it’ll have repercussions later on considering Kira is the only one we’ve seen so far who can fix the sword, but Liam takes a risk and it does end up helping them. Theo tells them all about Mr. Douglas, a Nazi who was part of Heinrich Himmler’s division that attempted to use the occult to win the war. The handsome Beacon Hills teacher isn’t just a werewolf, as we all assumed, but rather a löwenmensch, a lion-man.

In another flashback, we see Mr. Douglas discover a rift and force one of his officers through it. Since the man was human, he burst into green flames and died. And that’s when the Ghost Riders appeared. Mr. Douglas gets hit by one of the ropes and run away. Looks like even part wolf, part lion supernatural creatures have something to fear from the Riders.

At this point, Douglas visits the Dread Doctors to help him find a way to defeat the Riders, but they lock him up in a tank instead. His wound from the whip infects the liquid in the tank, allowing him to absorb that power over 70 years. He’s an Alpha, a löwenmensch, and a Ghost Rider all rolled into one person. Worse yet, he’s looking to control the Ghost Riders for his own personal gain.

When Teen Wolf does a flashback episode, the past story usually takes center stage, but this week was a solid balance between the two. A lot was revealed about Mr. Douglas’ past, but a lot happened in the present, too. Unfortunately, that means a lot of people were taken either by Mr. Douglas’ hand or by the Ghost Riders themselves.

The first one taken was Mason, despite Hayden and Liam doing their best to save him. Then in a heartbreaking scene, Hayden is captured by two Ghost Riders, and both she and Liam must make a decision. She will be taken anyway, but Liam can either stay and continue to prolong the inevitable, or he can run and warn Scott about Mr. Douglas. Together, they choose the latter.

Chris and Melissa aren’t fairing too much better. They find the dead Ghost Rider, only to be captured by Mr. Douglas. Taking the Rider’s pineal gland allowed him to use the whip and control a Hellhound, which he needs help fighting. Chris and Melissa take Mr. Douglas to Parrish, who’s hiding in his tank, but when they try to fight back, the teacher uses the whip on both of them.

Scott’s plan this entire episode was to get to the rift, find a way through it, bite Stiles so he can return, and use his best friend to come up with a better plan. Peter obviously thinks it’s a suicide mission and elects to run instead, but the kids don’t care so much about self-preservation.

Once they track down the rift in a tunnel below the town, Mr. Douglas shows up and tells them that the Hellhound can open the rift and bring them all through it. Luckily, Liam arrives just in time to warn them against trusting the Nazi captain, but Douglas still manages to get through without the pack. And that’s when the Ghost Riders arrive.

Lydia and Liam run while Malia and Scott try to hold off the Riders, but their opponents aren’t looking to send them to the train station — they’re trying to kill them. Peter once again proves his merit by returning just in time to save everyone. I was so worried he would’ve been killed this time (has anyone ever been taken twice?), but he just erupts into green smoke like usual.

Lydia protects Liam from the Ghost Rider, who puts his gun down in reverence instead of fear, and they meet Scott and Malia back at the McCall house, where Melissa’s absence hangs heavy over everyone.

But Sheriff Stilinski returns with hope. “I have a son. His name is Mieczysław Stilinski, but we call him Stiles.” This is it, guys. We’ve finally learned Stiles’ first name. Even he couldn’t say it when he was younger, but the closest he could get was mischief, so his mother called him that instead.

That light in the room gave the sheriff a peek of his son, if only for a brief moment, which means the pack knows how they can open the rift again. If they can remember everything about Stiles, perhaps they’ll be able to bring him back.

Here’s to hoping next week is a series of Stiles flashbacks as the group remembers what he means to them.

What did you think of ‘Teen Wolf’ 6×08 ‘Blitzkrieg’?