Tonight is a welcome return, in many ways.  Scott’s pack has been fractured nearly destroyed by Theo deceptions and manipulations, but this week was the first glimmer of hope, a resurgence of the pack we love working together in the midst of their inner turmoil, and the return of an old friend.

**** Spoilers Below****

 Sheriff Stilinski is fighting for his life and Lydia is still comatose from Theo’s brutal attack on her.  Scott is still healing after being beaten physically, mentally, and emotionally.  His wounds, they weren’t healing like should be maybe showing his powers being connected to his pack or at this point, lack of pack.  This winter premiere mirrored the first episode of this season with multiple stories intersecting within different timelines.  We see that it is Dr. Valack who augments Lydia’s powers, again as we saw in “Creatures of the Night” while she is housed in Eichen House.  It is from this timeline that the main story this season is being told.

It was sad to see Stiles and Scott both alone at the beginning of the episode.  Stiles is waiting at the hospital while his dad is in surgery, while Scott passes out alone at his house.  It was a distinct reminder that the pack has been fragmented.  It was difficult to watch Scott’s pack be disassembled during the first half of the season, and while friendships and relationships are far from mended, it was good to see that they could work together for the common goal of saving Stile’s Dad.

Lydia and Parrish continued to connect on multiple levels throughout this episode.  Lydia reached out to him in his dreams to help her, as well as Sheriff Stilinski.  As much as I hate to admit it, they do grow on a person as a couple. At the same time it was weird watching Parrish try to ‘out adult’ Natalie Martin on what to do with Lydia.  Again, it’s a TV show, but was he really trying to tell the mother how to care for her daughter, then he basically said he was going to kidnap her from Eichon House. Not the smartest play, deputy.

During the first season, Theo played the whole pack, so it was weird watching Stiles try to get information from him, even if it was to help his Dad.  Even stranger that Theo didn’t want Stilinski to die.  Could this be a weakness they can use against Theo in the future? Only time will tell.  One thing for sure, Theo still believes Scott is dead, which may be good for Scott since he wasn’t able to access most of his powers.  Did anyone else notice he used Malia for all of his heavy lifting tonight?  It was so important that Scott and Stiles started to make steps in the right direction in mending their bromance, their solidarity is going to put this pack back together again, hopefully even stronger.

Someone they will need to bring back into their ranks is Scott’s beta.  Liam and Mason spent most of the episode together, either grieving over Hayden’s death or talking about how bad Liam felt for battling Scott or finally trying to be productive to find the Nemeton.  As much as Mason is trying to downplay what went down in the last episode, Liam knows he was out of control and, in some ways, still is.  He is going to spend the rest of this season gaining control over what he is, and hopefully regaining Scott’s trust and friendship.

There were two scenes that completely stood out in “The Last Chimera.”  The first being that Scott started acting like Scott again, he is strongest when his inner circle is filled with people.  When he tells Malia that she wasn’t the only person he called, and Chris Argent comes in with his gun, I almost did a happy dance.  FINALLY Scott called in some backup.  It was so good to see Argent, knowing that he will be more than just a gun wielding hunter, he can provide wisdom and help mentor Scott until Deaton comes back. This pack has been in such need of some sort of supernatural guidance. 

The next scene was the ending when Theo and his chimera pack break into Eichon to kidnap Lydia to use her as bate for a hell hound, and Parrish melting down the bars, seeing such rage on his face.  This should lead into one hell of a fight at the beginning of the next episode.

This was an exceptional way to begin the second part of season five.  Starting at nearly ground zero, it will be entertaining to watch Scott reunify his pack, a vow he made at the end of this episode.  Scott’s pack against Theo’s pack with Liam, Hayden and Mason caught in the middle.  All of this and we have yet to see the Dread Doctor’s creation, as of yet, but we know it is coming.

Tune in every Tuesday night on MTV for new episodes of Teen Wolf.