Kiara Tewksbury

* Young
* Teen
* Animagus

**Lydia Martin** is a main character and the current female lead of *Teen Wolf*. She is the daughter of Natalie Martin and Mr. Martin, and the granddaughter of Lorraine Martin and her wife Maddy. She is also the best friend of Stiles Stilinski, Scott McCall and Malia Tate. When first introduced, Lydia could be as described as a shallow, vain, mean girl who played dumb to hide just how smart she truly was; however, after she became friends with Allison Argent, Scott McCall, and Stiles Stilinski, Lydia began to shed this persona and has since grown into a brave, compassionate person who genuinely enjoys helping others who are struggling, particularly those who have been traumatized by the supernatural like herself.

At the end of Season One, Lydia was attacked and bitten by then-Alpha Werewolf Peter Hale, but in a shocking turn of events, she neither died nor turned into a Werewolf herself, a feat that was virtually unheard of in the supernatural community. However, she began to hear voices, go into fugue states similar to sleepwalking, and have terrifying hallucinations about Peter, revealing that, unbeknownst to her at the time, Peter's attack had activated the latent Banshee abilities that she had inherited from her paternal grandmother.

It was eventually revealed that his attack against her also allowed his spirit to live on in her mind, affording him a connection with Lydia that he could use to manipulate her into resurrecting him with a special ritual on the Worm Moon. Even after he had vacated her consciousness, Lydia began to be drawn to dead bodies in Beacon Hills, particularly those whose deaths were related to the supernatural, and began unconsciously screaming, which steadily began to worry her. It was eventually revealed to her by Jennifer Blake that Lydia was, in fact, a Banshee, also known as the Wailing Woman, a harbinger of death who was drawn to the dead and the supernatural.

Since this revelation, Lydia has struggled to learn the full scope of her powers and how to use them, often lamenting the fact that her powers were passive, spontaneous, and largely out of her control, unlike the comparatively easier-to-use powers of shapeshifters such as her Werewolf and Werecoyote friends that could be used both actively and defensively. Despite her frustrations, Lydia's ability to sense imminent death has given the pack numerous advantages in battles, though very few people give her credit for just how powerful she is. When the Deadpool started in Beacon Hills in January 2012, Lydia was the second-highest valued target at $20 million, both as a result of her powerful ability to foretell death and the equally powerful and unique pack who was sure to fight to protect her.

Recently, due to injuries sustained when Theo Raeken entered her mind to sense her memories, Lydia became temporarily catatonic, causing her to be admitted into the supernatural ward of Eichen House. While there, Dr. Gabriel Valack performed trephination on her, which amplified her abilities to the point that she briefly possessed extrasensory perception. It was confirmed by Alan Deaton in *Amplification* that Lydia is an exceptionally powerful Banshee, even though Lydia still does not yet know the full extent of her powers, which is likely at least part of why Valack was so determined to use her to figure out the identity of the Beast of Gevaudan.

As of *Lie Ability*, Lydia was rescued from Eichen House and returned to her loved ones, with Alan Deaton using mistletoe paste to reverse the effects of Valack's trephination and causing her to lose her extrasensory perception. However, thanks to Meredith Walker, a fellow Banshee and a friend an ally of Lydia and the McCall Pack, Lydia has since learned how to use her voice as an offensive weapon, allowing her to channel the power of her voice through her hands to create concussive blasts that can forcefully throw a grown person backward away from her. This combined with her newly learned close-quarters combat skills, taught to her by Jordan Parrish, has given her the ability to better defend herself from threats even if the pack is not around to assist her.

In Season 6, Lydia's powers have continued to grow, which included Lydia experiencing an astral premonition of a past event in 1987 where she was able to physically interact with another Banshee, Lenore, and she demonstrated the ability to use her scream to kill a Ghost Rider and the phantom version of Claudia Stilinski that they conjured. As of the end of the first half of the final season, Lydia has graduated from Beacon Hills High School and has been accepted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she will be starting college as a junior.

Lydia is a member of the **Martin Family** and the **McCall Pack**.

## Contents

* 1Early life
* 2Throughout Teen Wolf
* 3Personality
* 4Physical Appearance
* 5Powers and Abilities
	+ 5.1Powers
	+ 5.2Abilities
* 6Weaknesses
* 7Etymology
* 8Trivia
* 9Relationships
* 10Gallery

## Early life

Lydia was born to Natalie Martin and Mr. Martin in mid-March 1994 and has attended school with Scott McCall and Stiles Stilinski for most of her life, judging by Stiles' comments that he has had a crush on her since the third grade *("Formality")*. At some point during her academic career, her IQ was tested, and she rated a genius-level score of 170. *("Unleashed")* When she was young, she was very close to her paternal grandmother Lorraine, with whom she read many books. Her favorite was *The Little Mermaid* by Hans Christian Andersen, which she loved so much that she insisted she be called Ariel for several months as a child, a trait Lorraine found adorable. *("Monstrous")*

When Lydia was in elementary school, her grandmother was sent to Eichen House; while Lydia's parents were sure that Lorraine was mentally ill, in reality, she was a Banshee experiencing premonitions of impending deaths. *("Time of Death")* One day, Lorraine performed trephination on herself while in the bathtub at Eichen House, which caused Natalie to be called to help deal with it. Though the young Lydia was told to stay in the car, she eventually got bored and followed her mother inside, where she found Lorraine surrounded by a pool of blood. Lorraine saw her in the doorway and stated, "They're coming, Lydia. They're coming for all of us," but for some yet-unexplained reason, Lydia repressed the memory until she read Gabriel Valack's novel *The Dread Doctors*, which was intended to trigger suppressed memories, specifically those that were suppressed by the Dread Doctors themselves. *("Required Reading")*

According to Lydia, her mother made her go to a hypnotist when she was ten years old to help her stop biting her fingernails. *("Memory Found")* It has also been implied that Natalie and Mr. Martin's marriage was not great when Lydia was growing up, and the constant fighting between Lydia's parents seemed to affect Lydia's behavior, likely contributing to the mean-girl persona she adopted until mid-way through high school. Natalie also once mentioned that, after their divorce, Mr. Martin gave Lydia the option to choose which parent she would live with, which appeared to have harmed Lydia's self-esteem; Lydia seemingly chose her mother, Natalie, and was shown living with her the entirety of the series. *("The Tell")* Despite this, Lydia excelled in school and demonstrated exceptional leadership qualities, something that surprised both of her parents during her sophomore year parent-teacher conference.

## Throughout *Teen Wolf*

In *Wolf Moon*, Lydia arrived at the school in the morning, and when Stiles Stilinski greeted her and complimented her on her appearance, Lydia either didn't hear him or purposely ignored him. In between classes, Lydia approached new student Allison Argent at her locker and complimented her on her jacket, declaring Allison to be her new best friend as a result of her fashion sense. She was then joined by her boyfriend Jackson Whittemore, who kissed her before they invited Allison to the party Lydia was throwing at her house after the lacrosse team's scrimmage on Friday. They discussed the fact that lacrosse was the sport of choice at Beacon Hills High School rather than football, and Lydia bragged that the team had won three state championships thanks to Jackson's leadership as team captain.

Lydia and Allison went to the lacrosse try-outs that afternoon to support Jackson. When Scott McCall, who had been bitten by an Alpha Werewolf the night before and who was unknowingly becoming once himself, demonstrated uncharacteristically amazing lacrosse skills due to his newly gained superhuman agility and reflexes, Allison asked Lydia if she knew who he was. Lydia, confused, stated that she didn't know him, which Scott overheard with his Werewolf hearing, but it became clear that she was impressed by his athletic prowess when she commented on how good he was.

At her party on Friday night, Lydia was seen in the backyard, where she was making out with Jackson against the house. However, when Jackson began kissing her neck, Lydia's eyes were fully on Scott as he danced with Allison nearby, indicating that she was beginning to develop feelings for him.

In *Second Chance at First Line*, Lydia and Scott were standing beside each other in math class while the two were completing math equations for their teacher. She used this proximity to confront Scott about why she had heard rumors that he wouldn't be playing in the upcoming lacrosse game despite recently making the first line. When Scott confirmed that the rumors were true, Lydia snidely informed him that he *would* be playing in the game since he had "brutally injured" her boyfriend Jackson by ramming into him at in practice that morning. Scott argued that Jackson "brutally injured" himself by ramming into him, causing Lydia to argue that while Jackson would indeed be playing in the upcoming game as well, he wouldn't be at "peak performance," which was her preference when it came to her boyfriends.

She went on to remind him that she was dating the captain of the winning lacrosse team and implied that Scott not playing in the opening game would hurt her reputation. When Scott anxiously retorted that potentially losing one game wouldn't kill anyone, Lydia threatened to introduce his crush Allison to the hottest members of the lacrosse team if he didn't play his part in the game. Later in the day, Lydia showed Scott that she was serious by introducing Allison to several of Jackson and Scott's lacrosse teammates in between classes, leading Scott to become torn as to whether he should chance Derek Hale's wrath by playing in the game as he wanted, which would also risk him accidentally losing control of his shift and inadvertently exposing himself and fellow Werewolf Derek Hale to the town.

After school, Lydia was sitting in the waiting room of Beacon Hills Memorial Hospital's clinic when she was approached by Stiles Stilinski, who was keeping watch while Scott sneaked into the morgue to get a scent on the dead body so he could confirm whether or not it was the same scent he caught at the Hale House earlier in the day. Stiles anxiously began talking to Lydia about how he believed the two of them had an unspoken connection, but when he began saying that he thought it would be cool to get to know each other better, Lydia revealed that she was talking to someone on her Bluetooth headset and asked them to hold on before informing Stiles that she hadn't heard anything he was saying. She further embarrassed Stiles by asking him if anything he was saying was worth repeating, leading the disappointed Stiles to give up and reply that it wasn't before sitting down elsewhere.

Just then, Jackson came out of the clinic and asked him if the doctor did the cortisone shot for his injured shoulder, and Jackson answered that he did, though he also said not to make it a habit. Lydia pressured him into getting one more right before the game, explaining that professional athletes did it all the time. When Jackson hesitated to agree to this plan, Lydia snidely asked him if he wanted to be an amateur or if he wanted to "go pro," leading Jackson to ultimately agree to get the second cortisone shot.

Lydia entered the field the night of the big game and approached Scott on the sidelines, reminding him that he needed to remember that no one likes a loser before sarcastically patting him on the shoulder. She then found Allison and her father Chris Argent in the stands and sat next to them during the game. When Chris asked which player was Scott, Lydia responded that he was #11, adding, "Otherwise known as the only one who hasn't caught a single ball this entire game," as Scott was desperately trying to avoid riling himself up and, as a result, shifting on the field. Lydia then asked Allison for her help in holding up a sign that cheered for Jackson. Despite her less-than-supportive comments, Lydia became more and more attracted to Scott as the game went on, and was clearly impressed by his athletic improvement once he finally got comfortable enough to play more actively.

In *Pack Mentality*, Lydia was at school, where she joined her boyfriend Jackson Whittemore, her new best friend Allison Argent, and Jackson's best friend Danny Mahealani at lunch. The four joined Scott McCall and Stiles Stilinski at their table, much to the latter two's surprise, and quickly began discussing the alleged animal attack in the school's bus bay the night before. When Danny and Jackson began debating over whether the animal was a mountain lion or a cougar, Lydia reflexively piped up that cougars *are* mountain lions; when the entire table looked at Lydia, confused by this seemingly uncharacteristic display of intelligence, Lydia backpedaled by asking, "Isn't it?"

Not wanting to draw attention to her high intelligence, Lydia then changed the topic of discussion to the double date she and Jackson would be going on with Scott and Allison, revealing that she had invited herself and Jackson along on their previously arranged date. The girls eventually decided on bowling, and when Jackson assumed that Scott was terrible at the sport, Scott lied and assured them he was great even though he had never excelled at it before, satisfying Lydia, who declared that they would go the following evening.

The next night, Lydia went to Allison's house so the two could get ready before their date. Lydia began combing through Allison's closet, clearly unimpressed by her collection and remarking that her high opinion of Allison's sense of style was slowly going out the window. However, she eventually found an outfit to her liking and handed it to Allison to put on. Just then, Chris Argent, Allison's father, strode into the room and immediately apologized for not knocking first. Lydia, clearly taken aback by Argent's handsome appearance, flopped onto Allison's bed and flirtatiously greeted him, though he did not notice this attraction. The girls were then disappointed when Argent reminded them that there was a town-wide curfew due to the murder of Garrison Myers at the high school and forbade Allison from going on their double date.

Unfortunately for Argent, Allison was feeling rebellious and insisted that she would be attending the date after all, with Lydia watching in alarm and awe as Allison sneaked out of her window and did a front flip off the roof, landing lightly on her feet and remarking that she was in gymnastics for eight years. When she asked if Lydia was coming, Lydia glibly retorted that she was going to take the stairs.

At the bowling alley, Lydia started the quad's game and immediately got a gutter ball, causing her to pout about the fact that she was apparently "terrible" at bowling. Jackson went next and got a strike right off the bat, allowing Lydia to brag that her boyfriend brought his A-game. She joined Jackson in laughing at Scott when he, too, got a gutter ball on the first try, but when Allison managed to restore Scott's confidence, his Werewolf agility and reflexes kicked in and caused him to get strike after strike, which immediately caught Lydia's attention, as he began performing even better than Jackson.

Lydia, now interested in Scott, flirtatiously asked him if he would help her with her shot, but when Scott, who only had eyes for Allison, assured her that she could do it, Lydia, annoyed, dropped her previous pretenses and bowled her next frame with perfect form, causing Allison to realize that Lydia was actually very talented but was simply pretending to be terrible to make Jackson less insecure. Allison pointed this out to Lydia and suggested that she stop sucking on purpose for Jackson's benefit, Lydia irritably retorted that she did plenty of "sucking" for his benefit, hinting at the sexual nature of their relationship.

After the date was over and the couples split up to return to their respective homes, Allison and Scott agreed that the double-date was a disaster and vowed not to allow Lydia and Jackson to tag along again, instead spending time together just the two of them.

In *Magic Bullet*, Lydia and Allison were walking together through the hallway of Beacon Hills High School, where Lydia was surprised to hear that Scott was coming to Allison's house to hang out that evening. When Allison defensively reiterated that they would *just* be studying, Lydia joked that "studying" was just like getting into a hot tub with someone, as sooner or later, someone would "cop a feel."

Allison anxiously asked Lydia what she was trying to say, not understanding the meaning of her instruction to "make sure he covered up," leading Lydia to exasperatedly call Allison "Snow White" (in reference to her innocent and naive demeanor, especially with regards to sex) and bluntly explained that she needed to make sure Scott wore a condom. Allison awkwardly argued that she wouldn't sleep with him on the first solo date, but was curious as to what Lydia's idea of "giving him a taste" would be like, so Lydia promised to tell her what to do. Unbeknownst to both of them, Derek Hale (who had been poisoned with wolfsbane by Kate Argent the previous evening) was eavesdropping on their conversation with his Werewolf hearing as he desperately looked for Scott for help.

In *The Tell*, Lydia witnessed the Alpha Werewolf burst through the window of the video store while she was waiting for Jackson to rent *The Notebook*. The next day, she stayed home from school due to stress and was shown to have been heavily medicated when Stiles came to visit her and find out what she knew about the attack. During parent-teacher conferences, her parents seem surprised when Ms. Ramsey informed them that Lydia was one of the most gifted students at Beacon Hills High School, and that not only did her AP classes and excellent grades push her above a 5.0 GPA but that she also demonstrated excellent leadership qualities, which made Ms. Ramsey want to have Lydia's IQ tested.

In *Heart Monitor*, Allison, who was starting to learn about her family's history, showed Lydia a picture of a La Bête du Gévaudan, which Lydia recognized as looking very similar to the creature she saw at the video store in the previous episode. However, when Allison questioned her further on it, she denied any interest in the topic and continued eating her lunch, despite very obviously being triggered due to its connection to her recent traumatic experience.

In *Night School*, Lydia went to the high school with Jackson and Allison after receiving a text message from "Scott" (who, in reality, had his phone stolen by the Alpha) that summoned them there. Once they found Scott and Stiles, they realized that they had been trapped inside the school; Scott and Stiles left out the part that it was an Alpha Werewolf and instead claimed that Derek Hale was a serial killer and had trapped them inside, as the two believed he had already been killed by the Alpha anyway and thus could not object to the lie needed to avoid exposing their friends to the supernatural world.

Lydia revealed her talent for science when she created self-igniting Molotov cocktails for Scott to use against the so-called serial killer, but the cocktails ended up not working because Jackson handed her the wrong ingredient. She, along with Allison, Stiles, and Jackson, were then locked into a room by Scott, who had been forced to transform due to the Alpha's power over him and was trying to prevent them from being harmed by him or the Alpha. Later that night, she was finally released from the school by the police after Alan Deaton managed to summon help.

In *Lunatic*, Lydia assured Allison that her decision to break up with Scott was the right thing to do after making a snarky comment about Allison's outfit. However, Lydia, who had become more and more attracted to Scott throughout the previous episodes, decided to make a play for Scott herself by luring him into Coach Finstock's office and assured him that she knew that he had locked them all into the room to protect them. She then showed her gratitude at his attempts to save her by making out with him, kisses that Scott returned in kind due to the impending full moon affecting his personality.

In *Co-Captain*, Jackson broke up with Lydia via text, and though Lydia tried to shrug it off as something that didn't bother her, it was clear that she was very hurt by Jackson's actions. After school, Allison and Lydia went out into the Beacon Hills Preserve with Allison's bow so she could see what the special arrowhead her aunt Kate left out for her did. Before Allison practiced her archery, she made a comment to Lydia that indicated that she knew that Lydia had made out with Scott the other day after she informed Lydia that she was going to the Winter Formal with Jackson, but just as friends.

Lydia then watched in shock as Allison attached the arrowhead to one of her arrows and shot it at a nearby tree, realizing upon its impact that it was a flash-bang arrowhead when it explodes in a small burst of fire and light. When Lydia asked her if she had any other lethal weapons she wanted to check out, Allison, who had heard something in the woods nearby, told her to stay where she was while she checked it out and told Lydia to use the bow and arrows if anyone attacked her. Allison ultimately ran into Scott, who had allegedly been following her to return her lost Argent pendent, but her reunion with Lydia afterward was not seen.

In *Formality*, as an apology for making out with Scott, Lydia took Allison shopping for a dress for the Winter Formal, though Allison did take advantage of Lydia's guilt by convincing her to ask Stiles to be her date to the dance. While they shopped, Lydia dumped an armful of dress choices into Stiles' arms, leaving him standing awkwardly while she continued to browse.

That night at the dance, Jackson was rude to Lydia upon their arrival, which clearly hurt Lydia's feelings, but after Stiles assured her that she looked beautiful, Lydia seemed to see Stiles for who he was for the first time and allowed Stiles to lead her inside. However, she spent most of the start of the dance sitting sullenly at a table while Stiles tried to convince her to dance with him.

After several rejections on Lydia's part, Stiles admitted to having had a crush on Lydia since he was in third grade before pointing out that he is probably the only person who knows just how smart Lydia is, and that she would probably one day win a Nobel Prize for a mathematical theorem she would eventually invent. Lydia, touched by the fact that Stiles seemed to see through her fake dumb-mean-girl façade, confidently retorted that since Nobel didn't have a prize for mathematics, she would be instead winning a Field's medal before finally agreeing to dance with him.

The two danced for several music numbers until Stiles realized that Lydia was worried about Jackson, who hadn't been seen for quite a while. Feeling somewhat guilty, Lydia left Stiles to look for Jackson, eventually wandering onto the lacrosse field, where she anxiously watched as the overhead lights snapped on one after another. Suddenly, Lydia heard Stiles screaming her name as he quickly ran after her, but before he could get to her, the Alpha (who by then had been revealed as Peter Hale, Derek Hale's previously comatose uncle who had killed Derek's sister Laura to become an Alpha) began to maul her by biting and scratching her body.

In *Code Breaker*, Stiles managed to convince Peter to stop attacking Lydia, though she had already been bitten several times by this point. However, Peter forced Stiles to leave Lydia behind so he could help him find Scott, who he needed to find Derek. Stiles then called Jackson, who rushed to find Lydia on the lacrosse field and frantically carried her back to the school to get her medical attention. Once taken to Beacon Hills Memorial Hospital, Lydia began to go into shock, and, according to Sheriff Stilinski, she began experiencing what almost appeared to be an anaphylactic reaction, as though she was allergic to the attack, though the doctors were eventually able to stabilize her condition. She remained unconscious through the various visits from Allison, Scott, and Stiles, the latter two of whom came to both make sure she was okay and to check her wounds. Since the Bite was known to either kill the human or turn them into a Werewolf, Scott and Stiles assumed that Lydia, who had managed to survive the ordeal, would result in the latter scenario; however, when Scott checked her wounds, he was shocked to find that they hadn't healed yet, indicating that she wasn't actually turning and making them concerned about what this could mean for her.

## Personality

At the beginning of the series, Lydia put on an act of being the vain, shallow, ditzy mean-girl despite having an IQ higher than anyone at her high school, and she and her then-boyfriend Jackson ruled as the most popular kids at school. However, upon meeting Allison and befriending Scott and Stiles, Lydia's fake persona began to fade away, revealing the true Lydia underneath—one who was kind, loyal, extremely intelligent (and unafraid to show it), and determined to help people however she can.

Her high-level intellect pushed Lydia to read in-depth and complicated textbooks and journals on a variety of academic subjects, and she is especially gifted in the sciences and languages. With regards to mathematics, she once declared that she would be winning a Field's Medal, and she has attempted to get extra credit from her math teacher, Ms. Fleming, by turning in equations based on her own theoretical findings. She has taught herself to speak both Classical and Archaic Latin, a skill that she used to translate the Argent Family Bestiary, and she has been shown to speak Spanish and French at conversational levels. Most recently, she has demonstrated a high level of intelligence in physics, which she applied to explain the supernatural aspects of the Ghost Riders of the Wild Hunt.

As someone who seems to be good at everything she tries, Lydia is also attracted to talented people, which was made evident at the very beginning of the series when Scott McCall caught her interest after his newly gained Werewolf powers made him a formidable lacrosse player; this pattern of romantic interest in talented people was further evidenced by her relationship with Jackson Whittemore, who was known for being an ambitious overachiever; Aiden Steiner, who was a powerful Alpha when they met who had the power to merge with his twin brother, Ethan; and Stiles Stilinski, who was not only very intelligent in his own right and an expert at making connections during investigations, but who also knew how smart Lydia was even before she was ready to let others see it and who admired her for it.

Being bitten and attacked by Peter Hale not only triggered her latent Banshee abilities, which likely would not have manifested until age eighteen otherwise, but also allowed him to possess her mind long enough to manipulate her into resurrecting him with a ritual involving the full moon. During this time, Lydia experienced fugue states, hallucinations, nightmares, and other terrifying symptoms that severely diminished her state of mind along with her social status at school. Even after Peter had left her consciousness, she has still regularly been traumatized by the deaths she would come to witness and the corpses to which she was drawn as a result of being a Harbinger of Death. Fortunately, the McCall Pack began to give her the support she desperately needed, and once she started to get a handle on her new life, Lydia made it her mission to do good whenever she can, particularly when it involves teenage girls like herself who are struggling just like she was, such as Tracy Stewart and Sydney.

Over time, however, the losses, injuries, and stress she has endured have matured her beyond her years and have made her begin to repress the pain and trauma, keeping it to herself rather than seeking support in dealing with the complicated emotions that resulted. When it was recently revealed that, should Beacon Hills become a "ghost town" following the attack of the Ghost Riders just like Canaan did, Lydia, as a Banshee, will be the one left behind, Lydia became incredibly distraught, though she said nothing about the horror she felt at the thought of this coming to pass until Malia, her best friend, questioned her about it.

In this way, she shares much in common with her best friend Scott McCall: both were attacked and bitten by Peter Hale, activating their supernatural identities; both were thrust into the supernatural world without consent, only to become important leaders in the supernatural community intent to save the lives of the innocents of Beacon Hills, and both choose to endure pain and even sacrifice their lives in exchange for the safety and happiness of their loved ones and fellow citizens.

## Physical Appearance

Lydia is a beautiful, thin, and petite woman with very pale skin, green eyes, and long strawberry-blonde hair. Her style leans toward the very feminine, and she is nearly always seen wearing dresses or pencil skirts with dressy blouses and high heels or booties. However, due to Lydia's developing fighting skills, she has recently started to wear shorts and jeans more often than dresses and skirts because they're more practical, given that she may need to fight at any moment; despite this fact, she still prefers to wear boots rather than sneakers. She typically wears her hair at least partially pulled away from her face and tends to braid it up in a milkmaid style. She likes to keep her eye makeup to a minimum in favor of wearing bold colored lipstick, and occasionally wears thin chain necklaces or simple rings to accessorize.

## Powers and Abilities

Powers* **Harbinger of Death Sense:** As a Banshee, Lydia can feel when someone has died and can predict when someone is close to death. This is usually accompanied by a trance-like state that draws her to those who are dead or near-death, though, with practice, she has gotten better at being aware of what she's doing when this happens. During her first-ever Banshee fugue state, she walked naked from the hospital to the Hale House ruins, where Peter had been killed and buried, and was in the woods wandering around for nearly two whole days. *("Omega")* In one of her most recent fugue states, Lydia was able to remain conscious enough that she could give Malia instructions on how to get to the body whose death she had just sensed. *("Dreamcatchers")*
* **Clairaudience** The ears of a Banshee are naturally tuned to levels of the universe that only they can hear. This gives them an ability to discern details of a person's death (or impending death) through the sounds they can perceive which no one else can. Lydia was able to hear flies warn her about the Nogitsune's presence in Beacon Hills and electricity to warn her about William Barrow's escape and intent to kidnap and kill Kira Yukimura *("Galvanize")*, as well as the near-fatal fight that would occur between Scott McCall and Liam Dunbar at the high school library. *("Status Asthmaticus")*
* **Premonitions**: As a Banshee and Harbinger of Death, Lydia has the power to experience premonitions that allow her to sense a person's death, which usually allows her to discern how a person dies, where they die, and/or what will cause the death in the first place. This power is most often used as an extension of her power of clairaudience, as the supernatural phenomena that she can sense with her enhanced hearing can take the form of auditory premonitions of a supernatural-related death; Lydia was able to foresee Scott McCall's impending death after she had an auditory premonition involving wolves growling and fighting each other and heard Scott telling Liam Dunbar that he couldn't let Liam kill him. *("Status Asthmaticus")* She has also received clues as to others who were in danger, such as when she heard crackling electricity all day before William Barrow captured Kira Yukimura and forced her to activate her Kitsune electrokinesis. *("Galvanize")* However, as Lydia's powers grow, her premonitions have evolved from being purely auditory to being visual as well, making it easier for her to interpret what her premonition is trying to tell her. Lydia's premonitions are not always literal and can often be up for interpretation, especially given the fact that the premonitions do not typically include every single detail of a person's death. For example, Lydia's premonition of the Desert Wolf killing Malia Tate showed Malia hiding in her former coyote den in the Beacon Hills Preserve as the Desert Wolf approached her, while in reality, the battle between the Malia and Corinne actually happened at Fort Jewett Army Base. *("The Sword and the Spirit")*
	+ **Astral Premonitions**: Lydia's power of premonitions has recently advanced so much that she was able to astral project herself into a premonition involving a fellow Banshee's memory by touching a mirror. This allowed her to walk within the memory as though she were actually there, seeing every detail and being able to pause and explore the areas she chose, as well as giving her the power to physically interact with the objects and people in the memory; this was evidenced by the fact that she was able to touch Lenore on the shoulder in her premonition and affected her with her Banshee wail. *("Ghosted")*
* **Divination:** As a Banshee, whose powers are often referred to as and/or compared to psychics, Lydia can use divination to gain information about the deaths her Banshee instincts are sensing. The various means of divination that Lydia has tried to seek out more information are sometimes used in conjunction with her other Banshee abilities.
	+ **Sound Divination**: Lydia, using her power of clairaudience, can divine for information by using sound vibrations to trigger her ability to perceive supernatural energies. She frequently uses this ability, such as when she plucked on strings to determine that Stiles was dreaming about Eichen House, *("Riddled")* when she dropped a handful of bullet casings onto a metal table to hear Derek Hale's screams to learn he was captured by the Calavera Family, *("The Dark Moon")* and when she used the blank record in the record player at the Martin Lake House's soundproof study to divine the first codeword to the Deadpool. *("The Benefactor")*
	+ **Psychometry**: Lydia can discern information about a person's death by making physical contact with an object belonging to the person in question. She attempted this for the first time by holding onto Alan Deaton's keys to the animal clinic in hopes of finding the location where Jennifer Blake was holding him hostage *("Currents")*, and has since used it to help determine who had captured Derek Hale by touching the Calavera Family's bullet casings *("The Dark Moon")*, trigger a premonition of Liam's future fight with Scott by touching a table in the library *("Status Asthmaticus")*, and experience an astral premonition of Lenore's memory of April 8, 1987 just by touching a mirror in the girl's locker room at school. *("Ghosted")* She was also able to determine that the Turners were not dead because she was unable to get a premonition from touching their car's steering wheel. *("Memory Lost")*
	+ **Automatic Writing**: Lydia can gain information by going into a trance-like state and writing or typing. She first used this power when she unconsciously drew the Nemeton while zoned out in class as a hint to her conscious self that the Darach's ritual involved the Nemeton's power. *("Unleashed")*, *("The Girl Who Knew Too Much")*, *("Alpha Pact")* She also used it to tell her conscious self that two of the three Philosopher sacrifices had been completed by drawing a five-fold knot in chalk on the blackboard and writing "2" inside one of the knots. *("The Girl Who Knew Too Much")* During the Deadpool, Lydia unconsciously wrote the Deadpool computer code in her math notes, which, when one of the cipher keys ("ALLISON") was learned by Lydia through Sound Divination, unlocked the first portion of the list *("The Benefactor")*; she would later use automatic writing to discover the third and final cipher key by going into a mild trance and typing "DEREK" into the password box. *("Orphaned")* She consciously used automatic writing to determine who was missing from her memories (as well as Scott McCall and Malia Tate's memories) when she wrote "STILES" in large letters, with each letter being made out of dozens of copies of the word "MISCHIEF" written in tiny writing. *("Superposition")*
* **Harbinger Connection:** As a Banshee, Lydia has a somewhat psychic connection to other Banshees, which she can use to telepathically communicate with them, even if they are miles away from her. However, this is an ability that must be consciously activated, and as a result, Lydia is still learning the full scope of how to use this power. She has been able to use this connection to communicate with fellow Banshee Meredith Walker, allowing her to pass messages along to her pack when Lydia was held captive by the Nogitsune *("Insatiable")*, and giving Meredith the opportunity to help Lydia learn to use her Banshee wail as a weapon while they were both catatonic. *("The Sword and the Spirit")* Additionally, she seems to have a similar connection with Hellhounds (specifically Jordan Parrish), since the Hellhound is also a harbinger of death; this allows her to warn Jordan when there are bodies for him to take to the Nemeton, though neither of them seems to be fully aware of this connection and how it works. *("Creatures of the Night")*, *("The Last Chimera")*
* **Banshee Scream:** As a Banshee, Lydia has a powerful voice that can be used to produce various effects based on what is needed at the time. This wail can be used consciously or unconsciously.
	+ **Death Announcement**: Lydia's wail is most often used as a warning of someone's impending death, or as a signal that someone has just died; it is most often used by Lydia after she has found a dead body while in a fugue state. This type of wail was used when she was unconsciously drawn to Derek's loft when it was believed that he was going to die. *("A Promise to the Dead")*
	+ **Premonition Enhancement**: Lydia's scream can also be used to clear ambient noises from her auditory channels so that she can focus her attention on the specific sounds that she needs to hear as part of an auditory premonition. For example, Lydia once used this power when she was unable to truly interpret the sound of electricity that she was picking up with her clairaudience power; after she screamed, she was able to clear out all of the other unnecessary sounds so that she could realize that it was actually electricity she was hearing and not buzzing flies. *("Galvanize")*
	+ **Concussive Force**: Lydia's wail can be used in an active or offensive manner as well; when a Banshee wail is given focus and direction, it can shatter bulletproof glass, overload electronics, burst eardrums, and create concussive blasts that can throw a full-grown man across a room. Lydia used this ability during her first attempt to break out of Eichen House, when she used her screams to augment her already-formidable close-quarters combat skills. She can also channel her scream through her hands, using them to guide the force of her voice toward her target, which gives her greater control over where the power is focused. While her abilities were amplified by trephination, Lydia's scream was powerful enough to shatter Gabriel Valack's skull and instantly kill him, though it is unknown if she retains her scream at this powerful of a level now that the effects of the trephination have been reversed. *("Amplification")*
* **Supernatural Immunity**: As a Banshee, Lydia is immune to the effects of many supernatural phenomena. A Bite from an Alpha Werewolf will neither kill her nor turn her, provided the wound isn't fatal, which was proven when Peter bit her in Season 1 and it did nothing but activate her latent Banshee abilities. Likewise, Kanima venom will not paralyze her or affect her whatsoever, as evidenced when she unknowingly ate a piece of rock candy covered in Jackson's venom and suffered no negative side effects *("Venomous")* ; this was proven a second time when Tracy Stewart cut Lydia with her venom-coated Kanima tail before Kira cut it off with her katana. *("Dreamcatchers")* Additionally, Lydia can wield rowan wood and mountain ash like any normal human and is unaffected by barriers made of it, a substance that would weaken and/or trap any other supernatural creature in its vicinity. Lydia also proved to be immune to the effects of Lenore's Banshee aura, which imbued the entire town with energy that caused horrific hallucinations in anyone who entered its borders.
* **Supernatural Sensitivity**: Lydia has been described as someone who can sense and seek out the supernatural by Marin Morrell, and has demonstrated a highly-enhanced intuition regarding the supernatural ever since her Banshee powers were activated in early 2011. Though she seems unable to identify any supernatural creature in her presence like her friend and fellow Banshee, Meredith Walker (whose power was so great that she was able to identify every supernatural creature in Beacon Hills and put them on the Deadpool hit-list), she is still very sensitive to supernatural energy, particularly in areas that have been powerfully affected by death; when at the Glen Capri Motel (where hundreds of people have committed suicide) and Camp Oak Creek (the site of the deadly riot caused by the Nogitsune that was stopped by Noshiko Yukimura and Satomi Ito in 1943), Lydia was overwhelmed by the voices of the dying screaming in her head as a result of the death that permeated the space. Likewise, when Lydia traveled to Canaan, she was able to sense that the town was imbued with a powerful and dangerous supernatural energy while remaining unaffected by it; the energy caused Malia Tate and Scott McCall to experience vivid, horrific hallucination while Lydia had no such reaction. *("Ghosted")*

Abilities* **Genius-Level Intelligence:** Lydia has an IQ of 170, which is well above genius level. Between how quickly she can learn new skills and her craving for knowledge, Lydia possesses a dearth of knowledge on a wide range of topics including mathematics, chemistry, physics, medicine, psychology, history, mythology, and foreign languages, which has helped the pack on numerous occasions. For this reason, she is often teamed up with Stiles to investigate various supernatural crimes, pairing her immense academic knowledge with Stiles' advanced understanding of law enforcement and detective work.
* **Multilingualism**: Lydia has shown she is fluent in Latin (both Archaic and Classical), Spanish, and French in at least a conversational capacity.
* **Expert Martial Artist:** Lydia was trained by Jordan Parrish, a former Army EOD technician, to fight in close-quarters combat, his movements are based on martial arts like Krav Maga, Karate, Jujutsu and kickboxing. and even Meredith insisted that Lydia learned much more than normal people would in much less time. In flash-forwards in Season 5, Lydia was shown using this ability to fight her way out of Eichen House, and would have succeeded had she not been overpowered by a half-dozen guards with cattle-prod tasers.
* **Skilled Artist**: Lydia is known for being very artistically talented, evidenced by her drawings of the Nemeton (which also utilized her automatic writing ability) and a detailed sketch of Aiden Steiner. It is also implied that Lydia did the drawings of the various supernatural creatures in the new hard-copy version of the Argent Family Bestiary.

## Weaknesses

* **Mortality:** Despite being a Banshee, Lydia is still technically human and has no supernatural healing ability; for that reason, she is vulnerable to any physical illness or injury as any other mundane person would be, including fatal ones.
* **Loud Noises:** As a Banshee with a very heightened sense of hearing, Lydia is vulnerable to very loud noises. For example, Meredith's banshee wail once caused Lydia to start bleeding from her ears because the pitch was literally ear-piercing to her.
* **Psychological Turmoil:** Being a Banshee is often a very traumatizing experience, as she is literally surrounded by death, whether it's because she's predicting it, witnessing it, or finding a body after they've been killed. This can have understandably negative effects on Lydia's psyche.
* **Effects of Trephination**: (formerly) According to Alan Deaton, when trephination is performed on Banshees, they are completely overwhelmed by the screams and sensations of every single person in the world who is currently dying. Their highly amplified powers will eventually become so difficult for the Banshee to control that they will foresee their own death before wailing loudly and dying. Because Lydia had a hole drilled in her head in this manner, she was affected by the same consequences, though this was eventually reversed by Deaton by plugging up the trephination hole with a paste made of mistletoe, a known curative herb in the Druid arts.

## Etymology

* **Lydia**: Lydia is a feminine-given name with origins in English, German, Finnish, Biblical Latin and Greek, and Old Slavic. In Greek, *Lydia* means "from Lydia" due to its status as a region on the west coast of Asia Minor (which is now modern-day Turkey). In the New Testament, Lydia was the name of a woman, Lydia of Thyatira, who was converted to Christianity by Saint Paul. In the modern era, the name has been in use since the Protestant Reformation, and it is a variant of the German, Dutch, and Scandinavian name *Adelheid*, from which the name Allison and its variants are also derived, making it an appropriate name choice for Lydia Martin, given the close sisterly bond between Lydia and Allison Argent.
	+ Variants of the name Lydia in other languages include Lidiya (Bulgarian, Russian); Lídia (Catalan, Hungarian, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish); Lidija (Croatian, Macedonian, Serbian, Slovene); Lýdie (Czech, French); Lilla (Hungarian); Lidka (Polish); Lidochka (Russian); Lýdia (Slovak).
* **Martin**: Martin is an English, French, German, and Czech surname derived from the Roman name *Martinus*, which was derived from *Martis*, the genitive case of *Mars*, the Roman god of war. It could also be a shortened form of the name St. Martin, the name of a once-great family in Lothian, Scotland. Variants of the name in other languages include: Martinus (Ancient Roman, Dutch); Mattin, Matxin (Basque); Martí (Catalan); Marten, Martijn, Tijn (Dutch); Máirtín (Irish); Martino, Tino (Italian); Martynes (Lithuanian); Marcin (Polish); Martim, Martinho (Portuguese); Martín (Spanish); Martyn (Ukrainian, Welsh).

## Trivia

* Lydia is the character with the second-most appearances in *Teen Wolf* after Scott McCall because Dylan O'Brien, Stiles Stilinski's actor, was absent for seven episodes in Season 6A.
	+ Lydia is also the only main female character to remain as such for the entirety of the series, and one of two characters to remain in the main cast for the entire series after Tyler Posey, who plays Scott McCall.
* Lydia was listed on the Deadpool hit-list for $20 million, making her the second-highest valued target on the list after Scott McCall, who was valued at $25 million.
* Lydia has a small chihuahua named Prada.
* Lydia is left-handed and has an IQ of 170.
* Lydia has technically kissed the most characters of any other character on the show: Jackson, Scott, Aiden, Stiles, and Jordan. However, she has only kissed Scott on one single occasion and has only kissed Jordan in hallucinations/visions.
* According to Jeff Davis in interviews, Lydia will be one of the most important players in Season 5, likely due to her amplified powers and her ability to foresee all of the impending deaths.
* Alan Deaton described Lydia as an "exceptionally powerful" Banshee in *Amplification*, suggesting that she may be the strongest of the three Banshees introduced in the series thus far.
* Due to being a Banshee, Lydia isn't a target of the Ghost Riders of the Wild Hunt. Why this is the case remains unknown, though Lydia has speculated that it could be due to the Wild Hunt's connection to the Morrígan, the Irish battle goddess who herself is associated with Banshees.
* Lydia is notable for frequently wearing floral-patterned dresses, shirts, and skirts.
* Lydia is portrayed as the most sexually active of the main cast, as implied and displayed throughout the series through her relationship with Jackson Whittemore and her encounters with Aiden. There was also an implication in *Tattoo* that she had been hooking up (and sleeping) with an unknown number of teenage boys during the summer break after her break-up with Jackson and seemed eager to have flings with some of the new freshmen until she met Aiden.

## Relationships

* Allison and Lydia (Best Friends, Sisterly Bond, Former Packmates)
* Scott and Lydia (Best Friends, Packmates)
* Aiden and Lydia (Ex-Fling, Friends, Allies)
* Jackson and Lydia (Exes, Good Friends)
* Lydia and Malia (Best Friends, Sisterly bond, Packmates)
* Kira and Lydia (Best Friends, Former Packmates)
* Jordan and Lydia (Close Friends, Supernaturally Connected)
* Liam and Lydia (Good Friends, Packmates)
* Lydia and Mason (Friends, Packmates)
* Lydia and Theo (Enemies)
* Derek and Lydia (Former Frenemies, Allies)
* Lydia and Tracy (Former Friends, Frenemies)
* Lydia and Natalie (Mother/Daughter)
* Deaton and Lydia (Allies, Packmates)
* Chris and Lydia (Allies)
* Lydia and Melissa (Allies)
* Lydia and Meredith (Fellow Banshee, Friends, Allies)
* Lydia and Sydney (Friends)
* Cora and Lydia (Allies, Friends)
* Danny and Lydia (Friends)
* Lydia and Peter (Former Enemies, Allies)
* Lydia, Scott and Stiles (Best Friends, Packmates)
* Kira, Malia and Lydia (Best Friends/Packmates, *"Kira - Ex-Packmate"*)
* Scott, Malia and Lydia (Best Friends, Packmates)