Teen Wolf winter finale recap: 'Riders on the Storm'

The time has finally come: Stiles is back!

We pick up right where last week left off last week, only this time, we're seeing it from Stiles' perspective. Just as he hears Lydia calling to him, his dad shows up at the supernatural train station, and after we get the father-son reunion we've been waiting for all year, Stilinski tells his son that he'll hold off the Riders while he gets the hell out of there.

Following Lydia's voice, Stiles starts to break through the rift, and then suddenly, he's not in the tunnel, and neither Scott nor Malia seems to have seen him. But Lydia swears he made it through, and — spoiler! — she's right, because he's back where he belongs: in the Jeep.

So while Stiles runs all around Beacon Hills trying to find, well, anyone, Liam takes Scott to the hospital to show him their latest dilemma. It seems multiple locations in town have turned into train stations, with tracks and everything. And when Douglas shows up, he seems rather pleased that his plan to merge worlds is working. Before he knows it, he's going to have the supernatural army of his dreams, featuring Scott, a banshee, a werecoyote, and… a Stiles? THAT'S RIGHT!

Stiles and his bat are officially back in action! After Stiles temporarily knocks out Douglas, he and Scott get their bromantic moment before Parrish ruins the mood. It seems this Hellhound is still under Douglas' control. But thankfully, Stiles is back, which means the brains of the operation has returned, and to prove it, he only stops worrying about whether the school will let him graduate long enough to find some liquid nitrogen to cool Parrish down.

Once he's feeling more like himself, Parrish explains about the merging of the worlds. Apparently, the train is heading straight for Beacon Hills. And although you can't stop the train, Parrish tells them that they can divert it.

Shockingly, it's Liam who's the first to have an idea of how to do that. Remembering how Corey could move between worlds, he decides that he is going to find his way into the hunt by stealing a Ghost Rider's horse and somehow getting to Corey. Long story short, it works! Mostly because Theo is somehow still alive and helps choke out a Ghost Rider while Liam gets away.

As for Scott and Stiles, they head into the school as a united front.

Scott: "Wanna split up?"

Stiles: "Never again."

Scott: "Thank god."

They're back! And they quickly find the fork in the train tracks, along with the lever that they can pull to divert the train. Only, it can't be that easy… right? Right. Just as Stiles thinks they've finally caught a break, Nazi werewolf shows up and uses his Ghost Rider whip to send them away. But they don't go far. Now that the worlds are merging, Scott and Stiles wake up at the school. As Stiles puts it, "Finally saw the girls locker room. It's not that different — kind of disappointing."

About 30 seconds later, they're separated again. Turns out, this whole worlds-collapsing-on-each-other thing makes sticking together a little complicated.

NEXT: The Stydia moment six years in the making

Meanwhile, in the library, Malia uses her emotional connection with Peter to snap him out of his trance. Together, they fight off a couple of Ghost Riders while Lydia gets away. But she doesn't get far before she hears Stiles in trouble. Back in the locker room, Stiles is about to accept his fate as a Ghost Rider puts a gun to his head when his banshee love comes to his rescue.

After Lydia kills the Rider, she looks at Stiles… and then THIS HAPPENS.

Lydia: "I didn't say it back."

Stiles: "You don't have to."

AND THEN THEY KISS.

We waited six seasons for this moment, and I for one am so, SO happy. Also, props to the song selection, as the lyrics to this moment are, "You were never gone." Because he was always in her heart, get it?!?!

Okay, moving on to the second hottest kiss of this finale: Argent and Melissa find themselves trapped in one of many supernatural train stations, but when Argent steals a Ghost Riders's gun and takes out not one, but two Ghost Riders, Melissa is so turned on that she grabs the man and plants one on him! And who can blame her?

Speaking of moms, Stiles' sucks. Sorry, let me explain: The creepy ghost thing that is Claudia shows up at the school and attacks her son, angry that his memory is the thing that "killed" her. But between Stilinski's gun — which he stole from a Ghost Rider — and Lydia's powers, they're able to get rid of her for good.

As for Scott, he's off to try to divert the train, which results in an epic battle between Douglas and his supernatural army of Ghost Riders and Scott and his non-pack, consisting of one actual pack member — Malia — and two non-members in Theo and Peter. But as Peter says, "No one likes a Nazi."

While Liam, Mason, and Hayden wait patiently to unplug Corey from the train station intercom system — it's hard to explain, but it looks very painful and it puts everyone at risk — it's Malia who steals a Ghost Rider's whip and throws it to Scott. He then uses that to reach the lever just in time to divert the train. With that, they start freeing Corey, and the Ghost Riders holster their weapons… but before they walk away, they have one loose end to deal with: Douglas.

Ever wonder how someone becomes a Ghost Rider? Well, it doesn't look pleasant. As they surround him, Douglas morphs into a Rider, Swastika patch and all. He then turns and leaves with the rest of the Hunt.

And once Melissa uses the nine herbs to heal Corey, all is right in Beacon Hills! Well, except for the fact that it's time for the last day of school and, therefore, time for graduation. In many ways, it feels like nothing's changed since the day Scott and Stiles first wandered into the woods to find a dead body, but as Stiles looks to Lydia, he decides, "Everything's changed."

In our final moments, Stiles gives his bat to Mason as he will fill the role of best friend to Liam, the alpha-in-training. As for Scott, he gets Stiles' duct tape and… Roscoe! Apparently, Lydia is off to MIT, where she'll start as a junior, and therefore, she's driving Stiles down to George Washington (Scott's dad made a call to get him into the pre-FBI program). As for Scott, he'll be attending UC Davis and driving Roscoe.

Realizing that Beacon Hills will always need them, Scott and Stiles have their final bro moment of the season:

Stiles: "I need you, you know that."

Scott: "I need you too."

Climbing into the Jeep one last time, the guys hear a call over the police scanner: There's a body in the woods. And off they go.

For me, this hour was a huge reminder of how important Stiles is to this show. I loved having Dylan O'Brien back, and quite frankly, I really think this could've worked as the series finale, particularly with the final image being Scott and Stiles heading off to find a body in the woods. I'm not really sure where the show goes from here, but I did talk to showrunner Jeff Davis about it, and you probably want to read what he had to say.

What did you think of the final hour? Hit the comments with your thoughts or find me on Twitter @samhighfill.