Teen Wolf season 5 has revealed even more about Lydia Martin’s Banshee powers, and we can’t help but ask what she will be able to do once she masters them.
A Banshee’s powers are some of the most mysterious abilities on Teen Wolf. When we first realized Lydia was a Banshee, we were only aware of her ability to scream and discover dead bodies. Over the last couple of seasons, however, we’ve learned that they’re much more than that.
A Banshee screams to drown out all other sounds around her in order to focus on the voices in her head. Those voices are usually of other Banshees telling her where to find dead bodies, but Lydia has also heard the voices of the deceased in their last moments of life, such as the kids in “Motel California.”
Other sounds can also trigger a Banshee’s abilities, like when we saw Lydia pluck the strings in Stiles’ bedroom after he goes missing.
Teen Wolf season 5 has shown us a more proactive side to Lydia’s powers. Dr. Valack has certainly made it clear that if Lydia knew how to properly use her voice, she’d be quite the formidable enemy. We’ve already seen her use it to throw people across the room, and Meredith was teaching Lydia to use her hands to direct her power as well.
Another interesting development was the fact that Lydia could leave her body behind and talk to Meredith. It’s unclear if this is astral projecting or if this is all happening in Lydia’s mind. However, Meredith throws Lydia against the wall to prove to her that it’s still quite real. Lydia has shown herself to Parrish on several occasions, though it quickly became apparent that Lydia never intended that to happen and, in fact, didn’t even know it was happening.
But the newest development is perhaps the most useful to the entire team. Lydia has consistently been finding dead bodies thanks to her gift, but it’s hard to save someone if they’ve already been killed. In episode 14, “The Sword and the Spirit,” Lydia actually saw Malia in mortal peril as it was happening, which forced her to focus and channel her voice in order to distract the Desert Wolf long enough for Malia to get back on her feet.
Lydia’s powers have been rapidly developing over season 5, which means she might be finding herself in the center of the action more often. If she can fight in hand-to-hand combat, use her voice to battle her enemies, foresee the deaths of her friends, astral project in order to help them, and even talk to other banshees or those who have died in order to learn more information about her enemies, there’s hardly a limit on what Lydia can do. Valack was right in singing her praises.
Moving forward, it’s difficult to predict what these developments could mean for Lydia. Lydia could be the key to defeating The Beast, especially after learning a woman with a simple spear defeated it last time and Meredith has been training Lydia to make her voice into a bullet.
And we can’t help but wonder what the chances are that Lydia may be able to speak to a deceased Argent, whether that’s Marie-Jeanne Valet or Allison? Hey, we’re just trying to keep our options open!