Just got Paramount Plus, saw the movie, and it sucked so much. So this is my response to fixing some issues I had with it, might one day write up an actual fix it to the movie.
Beacon Hills Hospital
Night
As he stared down at the tiny cot that held his son, barely a few hours old, Scott McCall felt a sense of contentment wash over him, a sense of peace he had never known before.
Was this how Derek had felt the first time he'd held Eli? Scott tried to picture his old friend in this scenario but it was so blurry, he'd spent so much time away from Beacon Hills it was hard for him to picture Derek as a father, to his shame.
"Hey," Scott nearly jumped as his mom put a hand on his shoulder. "Sorry. Are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah we're fine, we're all fine," Scott said, glancing from his son to his sleeping wife. "It's just…a lot."
"I know. You have all these months to prepare, you think you're ready, but once that baby is here, you realize how unprepared you are," Melissa said with a light laugh. "I remember your dad handing you to me. Being a nurse, I thought I was prepared, but I was so wrong."
"I think I turned out okay," Scott said with a smile and she laughed.
"You did, but it was touch and go there for a while, especially once your dad left. But you have a support system I never had," Melissa told him and Scott nodded.
"My friends. My Pack," Scott said fondly. "I know. They'd all cut off their own arms if they thought it would help me."
"And none of them will hesitate to help your son or any other children you might have," Melissa assured him.
"Just so you know, I'm not pushing out another one."
At the sound of Malia's voice, mother and son looked over as she woke up, her eyes focusing on them.
"Hey, how are you feeling?" Scott asked as he reached over, taking her hand, which thankfully didn't start siphoning any pain from her.
Holding her hand during labor had not been a pleasant experience.
"Sore, tired, wondering how I let you talk me into this," Malia listed before her eyes focused on the cot near the bed. "Is he okay?"
"He's fine. Deaton and I both checked him over, he's perfectly healthy," Melissa quickly assured her daughter-in-law.
"Strong like his mom," Scott said with a smile. "Do you wanna hold him?"
Malia stared at their son for a moment before giving a slight, almost uncertain nod. Melissa gently took her grandson out of the cot and carefully handed him to Malia, instructing her on how to hold him. Once Malia had their son in her arms, she stared down at him in a bit of wonder as he opened his eyes.
He had Malia's eyes, Scott noted.
When he came back to Beacon Hills six months after Derek's death, Scott had never thought he'd have this. He just knew he needed to come back home, that it was time to stop running from his past.
In hindsight, he'd been running for years. After everything that happened with Monroe, the war, all the people who'd died, the people he couldn't save, ending with Derek being the one to kill Monroe, he hadn't been in a good place. He knew he was drowning and needed to get away. He'd cut himself off from a lot of people, Stiles, Lydia, Derek, but ending things with Malia the way he had was not one of his best moments.
When he came back, he wasn't expecting to pick up where they had left off, especially since Lydia had told him she was seeing Parrish (which admittedly took him of guard). But when he came back, restarted Deaton's Animal Clinic, he knew he couldn't avoid Malia. So he met up with her at her house and they hashed out a lot of issues. It involved a lot of talking, some crying(him), yelling (her) and throwing things (also her), but they came to an understanding and decided to try to be friends again.
Falling back in love with her had never been part of the equation, it had happened slowly over many months, mostly without Scott even realizing it. After the initial awkwardness of them trying to build their friendship back up had passed, it was almost like they were back in high school. Malia would join him and Eli for dinner a few times a week, was with him at every one of Eli's lacrosse games, he was the first person she told about her breakup with Parrish (if you could even call what they had been doing a relationship). A year after he and Eli had come back, Scott realized he was in love with her all over again.
It wasn't like he'd been celibate since his breakup with Allison (they tried, but he wasn't the teenager who thought she'd hung the moon anymore, it was never going to work between them), but none of his dates every made it to a second one. Yet in all that, Malia was the constant.
Surprisingly, it was Parrish of all people who told him to go for it with Malia.
"Everyone can see how you two look at each other except you two. She hasn't stopped thinking about you. You know what she's thinking without her having to say a word. You laugh at the same jokes, and Malia doesn't joke. When you're hurting, her heart breaks for you. She's never really let you go Scott. You have a second chance with her; don't waste it out of fear or whatever bullshit you're using to talk yourself out of taking that leap with Malia. She deserves better, and so do you."
And half a year later, here they were, married and with a son. Scott had no regrets on taking that leap.
"So, there are some people out there who are worried about mom and baby," Melissa said, breaking Scott out of his memories. "Malia, feel like any visitors?"
"Do I have to?" Malia asked with her usual bluntness as she looked up at Melissa.
"You don't, but I have a feeling that a certain FBI Detective will force his way in eventually," Melissa said amused and Scott snorted.
"That sounds like Stiles," Scott said amused.
"Fine. Stiles can come in. And Lydia. And Eli I guess. But everyone else can wait until tomorrow," Malia said begrudgingly.
"I'll go break the news," Melissa said before heading out.
"None of them are allowed to touch the baby," Malia told Scott, who smiled.
"I'll let them know," Scott promised before kissing her lightly. "I love you."
"I know," Malia said and he noticed her face and voice had softened considerably.
In the waiting room, Stiles, Lydia, Eli, Noah, Argent, Liam and Mason all waited for someone to come out and tell them how things were going in there. Deaton had told them that the baby was healthy before he left but neither Scott nor Melissa had come out since then.
"You think I can use my authority as an FBI agent to get some Intel?" Stiles whispered to Lydia, but not quietly enough.
"Stiles, they'll be fine. Relax," Noah told his son in exasperation.
"Do I have to tie you up?" Lydia asked in a matching tone.
"I wouldn't stop you," Stiles joked and Lydia almost laughed.
Three years ago, Lydia never thought it would be like this with him again. When she'd left, she'd convinced herself it was the end for them, that he could never know why and that she'd never be able to have him, to be with him again. Then, Jackson of all people had gone to see Stiles and told him why Lydia had left him.
Within days, Stiles had come to see her and told her in no uncertain terms she wasn't going to throw them away over something that might not even happen.
"If I die, I die. I don't care so much about how I die as much as I do how I live. As long as I get to spend the rest of my life, no matter how short or long that is, with you, I'll die a happy man. The only truth I know in this insane world with werewolves, Kitsune and all this other supernatural shit…is that I love you more than I love my own life."
And it wasn't always easy, Lydia still feared one day, there would be that car crash and she'd crawl over to see Stiles dead. But, no matter what Stiles said, she was a selfish person. She'd given him up once; she wasn't strong enough to do so again.
Lydia was broken out of her thoughts when Melissa walked into the waiting room. They all got to their feet, waiting for her to speak.
"It's a boy," Melissa said with a beaming smile. "Malia's fine, although she's pretty tired."
"That's great Melissa. Congratulations," Noah said happily as the new grandmother smiled.
"Malia's tired, but she's feeling up for a few visitors. Stiles, Lydia, Eli, feel like coming back?" Melissa offered.
"Let me guess, she knows Stiles is gonna force his way in and this is a compromise?" Liam joked and Stiles looked insulted.
"Pretty much," Mellissa said with a slight smile. "Room 211."
Looking a little embarrassed, Stiles quickly followed the amused Lydia and the snickering Eli as they walked down the hall. As everyone else sat down, Argent walked over to Melissa.
"How does it feel to be a grandmother?" Argent asked.
"Good. Maybe one day, you'll get to know how it feels," Melissa said and Argent laughed.
"Maybe. Allison's more focused on living the life she missed out on right now. But hopefully in the future," Argent said with a smile.
Melissa merely smiled and, out of the view of everyone else, they held hands for a brief moment.
As the door opened, Scott and Malia looked up and Stiles, Lydia and Eli stepped into the room.
"Hey. How's everyone doing?" Lydia asked quietly as she walked over to her friend, who gave her a tired, deadpanned look.
"Labor sucks," Malia said bluntly and Lydia couldn't help but laugh.
"I know, I remember thinking the same thing when I had Claudia, and I don't have supernatural healing. But isn't it worth it in the end?" Lydia asked as she glanced down at the bundle in Malia's arms.
As Malia looked back down at her son, who stared up at Lydia curiously, Malia silently had to agree with her friend. The Desert Wolf had called her a parasite for taking part of her power. But as she stared down at her son, Malia couldn't understand how anyone could hate their own child.
"Hey kid," Stiles as he walked over, smiling down at the baby. "I'm your Uncle Stiles. Stick with me and I'll show you how to have fun. God knows your dad won't."
"Hopefully not too much fun," Scott deadpanned, remembering all the trouble he and Stiles had gotten into as kids.
"Aunt Lydia will make sure of that," Lydia said with a pointed look at Stiles, who merely smiled.
"Wouldn't have it any other way," Stiles said happily as Eli joined them, looking down at the baby.
"He's so small and wrinkly," Eli mentioned and four of eyes of eyes looked at him like he'd said something stupid.
"You were like that once too," Scott said with a smile and Eli shrugged.
"Maybe. So what'd you name him?" Eli asked curiously and Scott smiled sadly.
"I think you're gonna like it," Scott promised.
"Derek. We chose Derek," Malia said and the room was silent for a moment.
"You okay with that Eli?" Scott asked his ward, who was staring down at Derek, who was looking at him with curious eyes.
"Yeah…yeah. I think my dad would have liked that," Eli said in a choked voice as he smiled slightly with shining eyes.
"It's like he's always with us," Lydia said softly, a smile crossing her face.
"He is," Stiles said with certainly. "Whenever I think about doing something stupid, it's like there's this Derek Hale sounding voice in the back of my head, telling me how stupid I'm being."
"I know what you mean. I hear him too, all the time," Scott said with a wistful look.
It was why he had eventually broken things off with Allison and come back to Beacon Hills. A voice in his head that had sounded just like Derek had told him it was right thing to do, that Beacon Hills and his pack needed him.
Derek had spent most of his life protecting this town; he even gave his life for it. It's why Scott had felt he could leave it behind. But now, all Scott could do was live up to Derek's example.
'You and me Scott, we're brothers now.'
Remembering those words and looking around the room at his pack, his family, Scott silently thanked Derek for giving him this second chance. And he wouldn't waste it.
So, yeah, the movie sucked, plain and simple.
The Scott we see in this movie bears little resemblance to the Scott we saw at the end of Teen Wolf, he's far closer to the Scott we knew at the beginning of the show. Scott was basically just an Allison simp (again far closer to the Scott we knew from the first couple seasons) who has apparently never let go of Allison, which does Scott so dirty.
Scott wasn't just pinning over Allison all those years, he had relationships with both Kira and Malia, both of whom were far better for him (Scott and Allison's relationship is heavily romanticized and honestly quite toxic when you examine it). So for the writers to claim that Scott was pinning for Allison all these years is insulting on several levels.
Moving on, the movie was basically an entire season shoved into a two hour movie and it's very noticeable. Everything is so rushed that the pack barely interacts with each other; I'm not even sure why Jackson showed up. We get no real answers about what they've been doing all these years or why they've spent so long apart. Heck, half the pack is basically just props for Scott and Allison. The only one who gets a decent storyline is Derek and they killed him. Don't even get me started on Malia and Parrish.
But the biggest sin is Stiles. There were quite a few ways Stiles's absence could have been explained believably. He could have been unreachable because he was on a case for the FBI, he and Lydia could have kids and someone needed to stay with them. But instead, they gave a half assed explanation that betrays not just Stiles's relationship with Lydia, but his entire character. Ignoring for a moment my love of Stydia, Stiles would not just stand by and let Lydia leave him. He would go after her, demand an explanation until she gave him one. For Stiles and Lydia's relationship to end the way it was presented is not only a disappointment, it doesn't make sense.
This movie was made with the goal of pleasing one group of fans: the Scott/Allison fangirls who could never let go of Allison or her relationship with Scott. If you didn't fall into that category, this movie felt like a giant middle finger. As it did to me.