i liked it

I think they had someone else portraying stiles at the end of the ep..i don't think it was him OR it wasn't stiles at all..maybe a ghost rider..i just remember in next week's preview stiles hits the bad guy with a bat lol and they all looked surprised to see him..so Maybe that's when he makes his first appearance back. And who they thought was stiles (at the end of the previous ep) was really a GR or the Nazi werewolf or something..i uno just my thought.

I didn't have a problem with the episode and how it went down either. Clearly Stiles was important to them all in different ways, and I don't care about what order they went in.

I do agree that it felt like filler though, especially due to the fact it's the episode right before the finale. They're notorious for doing this though, especially when they do those episodes set in the past like an episode or two before the finale.

Regarding Theo, there are several elements that come into play.
He told his sister Tara that she doesn't have to stop punishing him. He realised that he's guilty and he cried tears of desperation. He has seen how hateful everyone was towards him. He defended himself with sassiness but he had enough time sitting in the jail to reflect. Liam told him he deserved it and all Theo was replying was "It's alright" - nothing more, that's quite astonishing for someone like Theo. Liam asks him what's up when Theo suddenly stopped in the hospital, remembering his torture in hell. It is the first time ANYONE of Scott's packed asks how he feels. And during the fight they were saving each other's lives multiple times. I think when he has seen Liam fighting, he somehow got encouraged by him and when he said this "Being the bait", his shell got a crack. It was a spontaneous decision, not reflected, out of a sudden feeling of bravery, like drunk, maybe drunk from adrenaline, the awkward situation, mixed with the "we're fighting together". It was a silly, crazy decision, a culmination of all the things that happened before. If you catch Theo cold and reflective, he wouldn't have done it. But out of this situation, it was spontaneous and unreflective. But I think it was the turning point for him. I just hope he stays an *beep* though :) Not an *beep* that stabs everyone in the back. But with evil jokes, sassy comments and not being nice to everyone.

Oh and besides Theo, I didn't like the episode very much. They snipped a lot of old episodes together, mixed it with pseudo-symbolic stuff, played down the Stiles-Scott relationship and it had a lot of Lydia crying and talking STILES STILES STILES the whole time. For me, it's the weakest, annoying Lydia since Season 1. All this remembering stuff was a bit like Teen Wolf "boiling in his own juice" as we say in German, introducing nothing new but the same stuff over and over again. I was bored (Scott, Malia) and annoyed (Lydia). But just my personal opinion :)