This is for
weasley-detectives, who asked for my thoughts on the ringer shirt we see various characters wear in season 3.
The first time we see the ringer shirt is in 309 - The Girl Who Knew Too Much. Specifically, in the scene in which Jennifer really notices Lydia, who is drawing the nemeton, and Stiles, who tells her his dad plays chess (ie. sees the whole board).
A major plot point of this episode is that Lydia, and Stiles’ father (not just as the Sheriff in his own right, but as Stiles’ father) both become the Darach’s targets, and this is the moment it happens. Lydia is the girl who knows too much, and the Sheriff is a Guardian of Beacon Hills, but also Stiles’ father. And Stiles? Is the person whose bank of earned trust enabled Jennifer to seduce Derek.
Lydia and Stiles have her attention, and she means them both harm.
The shirt has a kind of rainbow pattern on it. Later on, colourful stripes like this signal Stiles’ partial possession, first by the nemeton and later by Nogi.
He’s wearing it for the whole episode. Above is when Cora fights the twins and gets injured and he takes her home (like a good emissary). That’s when he explains the supernatural chess board to his dad.
Here it is, clearly framed as he’s looking through the door as Jennifer kidnaps his father.
We get to see the Darach’s glowing white eyes of power in this scene too, as she seduces the Sheriff and then abducts him while he’s under her spell.
Jennifer has just made an enemy.
In 310 - The Overlooked, he’s wearing it while they confront Jennifer in Derek’s loft.
Derek takes Stiles’ side, which pisses Jennifer off. She drops the facade of innocence and starts blackmailing them all.
Stiles is wearing it throughout his time at the hospital in both The Overlooked as they are running from the alpha pack and trying to save Cora, and at the start of 311 - Alpha Pact.
This includes all the ambulance and elevator scenes (the
anchor scenes) with Derek, and the interrogation scene with Agent McCall.
Later, when he’s back at school with Lydia having his panic attack, he’s in a dark grey t-shirt. He doesn’t have any other scenes with Jennifer, and we don’t see the ringer shirt again until 3B.
To recap, the main themes which could be connected to the shirt are:
- supernatural chess and seeing the whole board
- becoming the target of the villain, specifically ones with white eyes
- being an emissary
- links to the nemeton
- guardians
- Sterek
That’s it for 3A. In 3B, three different people wear a ringer shirt. The first is Stiles again.
In 313 - Anchors, he’s wearing it the morning after the nighmare sequence which opens the season; he also has on a stripey hoody. He wears the shirt for about half of the episode, and then he switches the ringer shirt out for two others with slogans on, which I’ll talk about in a moment, and then is back in the ringer shirt in 314 - More Bad Than Good. In effect, the two shirts with slogans on are sandwiched by the ringer shirt. As this is during the sequence when Stiles can’t read, I think these other two shirts with writing on are connected thematically to the ringer shirt scenes on either side.
In the first part of the sandwich, he’s wearing the ringer shirt from when he wakes up in Anchors for real, and words are jumbling for him, up until he’s at the station with his dad and talking about how the flowers he bought for his mom were stolen last year. This is also when it’s revealed the Sheriff might lose his job and no longer be a guardian of Beacon Hills.
There’s a transition from this scene to one in class. He’s suddenly wearing a yellow shirt which says, “Cougar’s Den Lounge” in big letters, and then smaller, “With cougars on the prowl all you need is a tomcat” (or possibly that final word is “towel” but that doesn’t make much sense).
This is revealed to be part of a dream, in which Coach, and then the whole class, signs “When is a door not a door?” according to Deaton.
Stiles jerks awake, wearing the same Cougar’s Den shirt, and finds he’s written this:
It’s strongly implied this is another warning from the nemeton, just like the nightmares were. But what is it warning him about? On first and second viewing, I assumed the Nogitsune. But is it just that, or is there something else?
This is not the first time cougars have been mentioned in the text. If you remember, “mountain lions” or cougars were blamed for Peter’s attacks in season 1, and we also saw a real mountain lion which attacked the Sheriff at the school. At the end of 3B, Coach and Malia make a joke which plays on the two meanings of “cougar”: a sexually predatory older woman, and a mountain lion.
Coach: You ever run track? I mean you have excellent muscle definition.
Malia: I sometimes run from cougars trying to eat me.
Coach: I’ve got the same problem.
Hahaha, it’s a bad-taste joke, right? At least, we assume Malia means mountain lions were chasing her when she was living as a coyote in the woods, but maybe she was being chased by a sexually predatory older woman instead (eg. Jennifer Blake or Kate Argent). Maybe Coach meant actual mountain lions chase him, or werewolves (this is Beacon Hills after all).
Returning to 313, Stiles is still wearing this Cougar’s Den shirt during the Bardo conversation with Kira, and later on after visiting Deaton to get the sign language translated. He’s wearing it when the Sheriff finds him and Scott.
The Sheriff is there for what turns out to be the first mention of Malia’s case.
Stiles: Dad, what are you doing here?
Sheriff: I’m here because I need some help. Actually, your help. [Points to Scott.]
Scott: Why me?
Sheriff: Because 8 years ago, almost an entire family died in a car accident. One of the bodies, a young girl named Malia, was never found. There’s enough evidence to have me thinking that a werewolf could have caused the accident and dragged her body away. If you can somehow get a lock on her scent, if you could somehow help me find her body, it might provide the missing clue.
Stiles: What if it was a werewolf?
Sheriff: Well, there’s somebody out there who murdered an entire family. Someone who still needs to be caught.
The case picks up the next day, when they visit Tate’s house to do some snooping, and now Stiles is wearing this red shirt:
It reads: “Let’s settle this like adults,” and the images are a fist, an open palm and a drink. [ETA:
mynuetvery kindly pointed out it’s actually rock, paper, scissors. That makes so much more sense.] Wouldn’t it be nice if the villains in Teen Wolf settled their fist fights by going and having a drink [ETA: Or playing a game] with their victims instead?
Scott and Stiles go out into the woods that night, looking for the wreckage of the Tate car.
Stiles: You know, if my Dad’s right, there’s another werewolf in town we haven’t met yet.
Scott: I know.
Stiles: If it turns out its something like triplets, that forms into like a three-headed hound of hell, I’m seriously not up for that.
Scott: Yeah, me either.
~
Stiles: I hate coyotes so much. They always sound like they’re mauling some tiny, helpless little animal.
Yes, Stiles, and that tiny, helpless little animal is going to be you next season. Surprise!
Also, given Stiles propensity for joking and then his jokes turning out to be true, I think it’s interesting he talks about a three-headed hound of hell, because it makes me wonder exactly how many cougars, coyotes, werewolves, werejaguars, and/or beserkers are lurking in the woods, other than Malia.
Anyway, they find the wreck and Stiles pulls a doll from the wreckage, getting his scent all over it and unintentionally desecrating Malia’s sister’s grave. Uh-oh. I hope Malia doesn’t hold grudges for that kind of thing.
Scott sees movement and chases a coyote who has glowing blue eyes. They assume it’s Malia.
In 314 - More Bad Than Good is a veeeery interesting title for the episode which introduces Malia (or so we are told) as a human for the first time. Stiles and Scott find Malia’s cave and get their scent all over Malia’s stuff. They discuss Derek, and Stiles rubs his mouth.
The next time we see the coyote we presume is Malia, she has white eyes and looks pissed off and ready to go hunting:
I wonder who her target might be? A tiny, helpless little animal perhaps? Someone who desecrated her sister’s grave, maybe?
The next day, back at school, Stiles is in the ringer shirt again, closing the sandwich made up of the two coloured shirts. He’s talking to Scott and Allison about how to find Malia.
Allison tells them coyotes are really smart and can tiptoe if they don’t want to be heard.
Later, Stiles is still having trouble reading, and has a panic attack when Mr Yukimura asks him to read for the class.
Scott gets him out of there and calms him down with the finger-counting trick which Derek is going to use in his waking-dream at the end of the season.
Meanwhile, the coyote with white eyes is in the school and attacking Kira, who has the doll.
Her eyes might have been white from the reflected moon last time, but not this time, so it must have some other meaning.
After Scott saves Kira, and they realise Malia was after the doll, Stiles, Scott and Isaac go to see Deaton. We find out Stiles considers Derek a real alpha, and he does this:
The next day, Stiles is once again in a ringer shirt, this time a grey one from Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
They search the wood for Malia. Stiles and Lydia work together and figure out why the doll is important. Stiles still can’t read, but saves Lydia from a trap. Lydia pep talks him, and anyone lurking in he woods and listening in would hear her saying he’s really smart: “Stiles, you’re always the one who figures it out.” He succeeds in getting her out safely and they hug. Someone smart, like a tiptoeing, eavesdropping coyote, could figure out a lot about Stiles from that interaction.
Scott then chases down the coyote and roars her into submission. The coyote transforms into human form, and everyone assumes its Malia.
Once Malia is returned to the Tate house, Stiles can read again without words jumbling, so it seems the effects from his warning dreams in 313 - Anchors have finally passed off.
Alternatively, he’s already firmly in the trap they were warning of, so there’s no point in continuing the warning.
The main themes which could be connected to the shirt this time are:
- becoming the target of the villain, specifically ones with white eyes
- being an emissary
- links to the nemeton
- guardians
- Sterek
part 2