Phantoms, also known as Phantom Projections and Spirits, are a supernatural species that were introduced during Season 6 of MTV's Teen Wolf. The only known Phantoms are Claudia Stilinski, who was projected into reality by Ghost Riders, and Caleb, who was projected into reality by his mother's grief.
After Stiles Stilinski was captured, taken to the Phantom Train Station, and erased from reality by the Ghost Riders of the Wild Hunt, a projection of Stiles' deceased mother and Noah Stilinski's deceased wife, Claudia Stilinski, was projected into reality to ensure that Noah would be too distracted by love to realize that his son was gone. Claudia's presence in Noah's life rewrote his memories of his adult life; instead of the two marrying, having Stiles, and then going through the trauma of having Claudia develop and eventually die from frontotemporal dementia, Noah and Claudia instead chose not to have children, and, while Claudia did develop FTD, she eventually beat it. The Ghost Riders' projection power was so strong that it even hid Stiles' bedroom behind drywall and wallpaper so that there would be nothing to remind Noah of his son. Claudia's projection vanished after Noah found relics of Stiles' existence and remembered their lives together before, during, and after Claudia's illness and subsequent death, which also caused a rift to open in Stiles' bedroom. The projection of a phantomesque Claudia was briefly brought back in a last-ditch effort on the part of the Ghost Riders to retake their town, but Lydia Martin's Banshee scream combined with Noah's gun ultimately banished her for good.("Superposition"), ("Sundowning"), ("Relics"), ("Radio Silence"), ("Ghosted"), ("Heartless"), ("Blitzkrieg"), ("Riders on the Storm")
Powers and Abilities[]
- Shapeshifting: Phantoms possess the power to alter their appearance to reveal their true face. They can take on a human appearance at will. When a Phantom's true face is revealed, the sclera and iris turn fully black, their hair turns black with a straw-like texture, their skin turns pale-white with heavy lines, and their lips turn black with black wrinkles appearing around it. Specifically, they can shift their eye color, which is naturally fully black, as well as their hair color, which is also black and straw-like. Their natural skin, which is a pale-white with heavy lines and wrinkles, similar to that of a Ghost Rider, can also shift to match their given disguise.
- Super Strength: Phantoms possess superhuman strength that is equal to or greater than that of an Alpha Werewolf. Claudia's strength was so powerful that she was able to stop Lydia's scream just by grabbing her throat.
- Superhuman Durability: Phantoms possess superhuman durability that appears to be greater than that of an Alpha Werewolf. They are almost completely immune to all forms of physical damage and harm regardless of its type or level of power, as evidenced when Noah Stilinski's bullet went straight through Claudia Stilinski; however, mixing the power of a Banshee Scream and a bullet has been shown to kill their kind.
- Superhuman Regeneration: Phantoms possess superhuman regeneration that is greater than that of an Alpha Werewolf.
Weaknesses[]
- Banshee Scream: Whilst Phantoms can stop a Banshee's scream by gripping their hand around her throat, they are also susceptible to them. This was evidenced when Lydia screamed whilst Noah shot a bullet, which caused Claudia's death.
- Conjuring: Phantoms seemingly cannot exist without a Banshee, Skinwalker, or Ghost Rider conjuring them, and they are seemingly fully-controlled by the person who conjured them.
- Mountain Ash: Phantoms, like the majority of supernatural species in the show, most likely cannot cross barriers made of mountain ash or rowan wood, nor could they touch or manipulate the wood or its ash in a non-barrier form. This would make them vulnerable to being trapped within a ring of mountain ash, or being prevented from entering an area that has been warded with it.
Known Phantoms[]
Conjured by the Skinwalkers[]
Tara Raeken; Deceased[]
Tara Raeken was a minor character who played a role in the plot of Season 5 and Season 6 of Teen Wolf. She was the human sister of Theo Raeken, who died prior to the start of the series but who still played a significant role in the later seasons through flashbacks.
She died in 2003 or 2004 from hypothermia after she either accidentally fell or was intentionally pushed over the edge of the bridge in the Beacon Hills Preserve and landed in the cold creek, breaking her leg and preventing her from getting out of the water. It has yet to be confirmed if Theo played an active or passive role in Tara's death (i.e. whether he truly pushed her off the bridge, or if he simply refused to give her aid after she fell on her own), but it is regardlessly referred to as Theo's first kill. She was first seen in flashbacks to the accident that caused her death in Season 5's Strange Frequencies.
Tara ultimately lived on in Theo, as her death allowed the Dread Doctors to use her heart in the heart transplant surgery they performed in order to make him a genetic chimera, paving the way so that he could ultimately be transformed into their first pseudo-supernatural Chimera, specifically a Werewolf/Werecoyote hybrid.
Upon Theo's return to Beacon Hills in autumn of 2012, he was immediately seen paying tribute to Tara on the bridge by dropping lilies into the water in her memory; however, it is unknown if Theo truly felt guilt regarding her death and his role in it, or if it was part of the role Theo was playing (that of a sad, newly turned Omega Werewolf mourning his dead sister and trying to find a place where he belonged) in order to win over the members of the McCall Pack, especially Stiles Stilinski and Liam Dunbar, whom he knew were suspicious of him.
Tara was seen again in an astral retrocognitive premonition experienced by the Banshee Lydia Martin after undergoing trephination by Gabriel Valack, which is what revealed that Tara's heart was transplanted into Theo to make him a Chimera. She wasn't seen again until Season 5's Apotheosis, when her spirit was conjured by the Skinwalkers and Kira Yukimura as a Phantom in order to drag Theo into an underground prison.
During Theo's three months trapped in this prison, he was tortured by a single repeating vision of Tara chasing him through the Beacon Hills Memorial Hospital and ripping out the heart she believed he stole from her. Even after Theo was released from this prison, he continued to be haunted by memories of this torture, which seemed to play a large role in his redemption upon his return to the real world.
Conjured by Lenore[]
Caleb; Alive[]
On April 8, 1987, Canaan was subjected to the arrival of the Ghost Riders of the Wild Hunt, who went on to capture and erase all of the town's citizens from reality. The only exception was Lenore, a Banshee who was spared by the Ghost Riders, possibly out of reverence for Banshees due to their connection to the Irish battle goddess the Morrígan. The force of Lenore's grieving scream unlocked her full power over the entire town, causing her to have an inordinate amount of control over everything within its borders; she could induce hallucinations on anyone who entered, and could telekinetically move anything in her house. The force of this power even allowed her to project a phantom version of her son, Caleb, who had died several years earlier by drowning.
In Ghosted, Scott, Lydia and Malia went to Canaan after receiving a radio call from Stiles in the Phantom Train Station urging them to go there. Upon their arrival, they found that Canaan was a ghost town that hadn't changed since the Ghost Riders captured everyone in the 1980s. Lenore's control over the town caused both Scott and Malia to hallucinate the deaths of their family members, though Lydia, as a fellow Banshee, was immune from the power.
They then came upon Lenore's home, where Lenore became very upset when they urged her to give them information on the Ghost Riders. She used her powers to incapacitate Scott and Malia and tried to use her scream against Lydia, only for Lydia's scream to overpower hers. Lenore then allowed Scott, Malia and Lydia to leave, but not before warning Lydia that she would be spared by the Ghost Riders, too. When the trio urged Lenore to leave Canaan, but Lenore declined their offer, stating that she could not leave the phantom version of her son, Caleb.
Conjured by the Ghost Riders[]
Claudia Stilinski; Deceased[]
In Season 6, Claudia mysteriously returned shortly after her son Stiles was erased from existence by the Ghost Riders of the Wild Hunt. Though her presence seemed unusual to the members of the McCall Pack and their allies, they did not know the fate of the original Claudia due to their altered memories. It wasn't until after Scott McCall, Malia Tate, and Lydia Martin visited the ghost town of Canaan that Lydia realized that Noah Stilinski had been so affected by the void caused by the loss of Stiles to the Ghost Riders that he actually conjured a version of Claudia to replace him with, along with help from the Hunt, who sought to recruit the entirety of Beacon Hills into their ranks and who wanted to prevent Stilinski and the pack from interfering in their plans.
As a result of this, Claudia was resistant to any efforts to remember Stiles by her husband or the pack, as she knew that if they did so, her conjured self would vanish. Despite her efforts to prevent this by reminding Stilinski of false memories of their life together, he ultimately chose to remember the son who was still alive at the cost of the wife who had been dead for almost ten years, causing Claudia to seemingly vanish. Claudia returned when the dimensions were in the process of merging and tried to kill Stiles, seeing him as the only barrier in her ultimate goal to live happily ever after with Noah as they had been for months. Despite her attempts to maintain their fraudulent life, Noah took advantage of Lydia Martin's Banshee scream to weaken Claudia enough so that he could shoot her with his sidearm.
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