10 Details in Teen Wolf That Don’t Make Sense

MTV’s Teen Wolf was an action-packed series that blended genres to create a compelling supernatural story fraught with tension. Teen Wolf stars Tyler Posey as Scott McCall, an average teenager who becomes a werewolf, getting thrust into a dangerous supernatural world. Scott rises to the challenge, and he and his pack protect Beacon Hills against mythological creatures. They do this all while trying to survive high school, first loves and passing classes. While the series is loosely based on the 1985 film, Teen Wolf, starring Michael J. Fox, the similarities are few. The show is darker and leans more into the thriller and horror genres, as opposed to the film, which is a lighthearted supernatural comedy.

The show tackled numerous mythologies and never ceased to surprise fans with its dynamic storytelling and gripping action. However, as fun as Teen Wolf is, there were times when things just didn’t line up story-wise, whether its rituals that came out of nowhere, never to be explained, or simple solutions that the beloved characters inexplicably missed.

10 Scott and Sheriff Stilinski Work Harder, Not Smarter

Scott Tries to Save Deaton From the Darach

In season three, episode seven, titled “Currents,” Scott tries to save Deaton from becoming the next victim of the Darach—a dark druid performing ritual sacrifices to gain power. The episode of Teen Wolf is a pivotal moment for Scott as he finds Deaton, near death, hanging inside the old Beacon Hills First National Bank vault in a circle of mountain ash. As a werewolf, Scott cannot cross a mountain ash boundary, but he attempts to do it anyway, determined to save his mentor. During the scene, Scott’s golden eyes flicker red, indicating he is becoming a true alpha. Sheriff Stilinksi shows up just in time to save Deaton, shooting the rope by which Deaton hangs.

Related

10 Of The Best Flawed Characters In Drama Shows

TV dramas have many great characters, like Criminal Minds’ David Rossi and The Umbrella Academy’s Allison Hargreeves, but they’re not perfect.

“Currents” is a great episode of Teen Wolf, and the scene in the vault is an intense and exciting moment of the episode, but there are a couple of things that don’t quite add up. First, when Scott finds Deaton weak and near death, he doesn’t have much time to save him. Teen Wolf fans couldn’t help but wonder if breaking the barrier that way was the most effective way to save Deaton. Scott cannot disrupt the barrier, but it is established early on that regular objects can enter it. Sheriff Stilinksi shoots the rope down, proving a bullet can pass through the magical boundary—which begs the question: Why didn’t Scott use the table in the corner to give Deaton’s legs some support until he figured out what to do? Another curiosity is Stilinksi’s reaction. Why is shooting the rope his first instinct? Generally, people’s first instinct is to support the legs of the person hanging and take the weight off the rope.

9 Noshiko’s Timeline Doesn’t Add Up

Noshiko Is Kira’s 900-Year-Old Mother

In the latter half of season three of Teen Wolf, the show introduced a new love interest for Scott. Kira, who turns out to be a kitsune, joins Scott’s pack. Her mother, Noshiko Yakimura, is also a kitsune, and together, they play vital roles in the fight against the Nogitsune. When Noshiko reveals her intimate connection with the Nogitsune possessing Stiles in the Teen Wolf episode “The Fox and The Wolf,” she details her time in a Japanese internment camp during WWII. Throughout the episode, there are flashbacks at the camp, with a young Nishiko played by Arden Cho.

Noshiko’s story is moving and tragic; Arden Cho delivers a beautiful performance in the Teen Wolf episode, “The Fox and The Wolf,” but certain aspects of the story were a bit too implausible. As wonderful as it was to see Arden Cho playing a young Noshiko, it means Noshiko visually didn’t age for over 800 years, then aged 25 years in a fraction of the time. Later, She reflects on the anger she saw in those interned with her as their loved ones began to die, saying, “I’d never seen anger like that. It was a living, breathing thing.” Being 900 years old, she would’ve witnessed countless wars and injustices, many of which were extremely brutal. Another thing that doesn’t track is young Noshiko’s mindset and naivety in the episode. Her maturity and wisdom should’ve been more like that of Satomi, but Noshiko behaved impulsively and rashly, like a teenager.

8 They Dismissed Stiles’s Absence Too Easily

The McCall Pack Knew They Had Lost Memories

Season six of Teen Wolf introduced a formidable new threat with the Ghost Riders. They were some of the scarier antagonists of the series because most people couldn’t even see them—and if they could, it was already too late to stop them. When they take someone, they also erase everyone’s memories of that person. At the end of the exciting Teen Wolf episode, “Memory Lost,” the Ghost Riders take Stiles. Before he was gone, Scott, Sheriff Stilinksi, Liam, and almost everyone else had already forgotten him. Lydia remembers him until the final moments when he is yanked from her arms.

In the emotionally charged season six opener, the fan-favorite character, Stiles—played by Dylan O’Brien—is abducted by the Ghost Riders. The only one who consistently feels his absence is Lydia. She doesn’t remember who is gone, only that she loved him. In the second episode, the McCall pack learns about the Ghost Riders taking people and slowly realizes that many of their memories don’t make sense without Stiles. Malia could no longer maintain control, since Stiles was her anchor; she also didn’t know how she used to chain herself up without help, but to her recollection, no one else was with her. Scott reflects on the night he was bitten and can’t figure out why he was in the woods, how he got there, or how the Sheriff knew he was there. After a brief investigation, Lydia recalls the name “Stiles.” They hear a story from Sheriff Stilinksi about how he always thought if he had a son, he would go by that nickname before Scott and company inexplicably drop the whole thing and decide they aren’t missing anyone.

7 “Motel California” Is Beautiful, but Illogical

There Are Many Things That Don’t Add Up

“Motel California” is episode six of Teen Wolf‘s third season. The cross country team, plus Lydia and Allison, are stuck staying the night at an eerie motel when their meet is postponed. The motel holds the records for most suicides and leaves news clippings about the suicides in their respective rooms. Lydia’s powers as a banshee are on high alert as she senses death in every room. The werewolves begin to have painful hallucinations, leading them to try to take their own lives. After Stiles, Lydia, and Allison save everyone by burning the wolves to trigger their healing response, it’s revealed the unseen killer behind the attack was the dark druid attempting to sacrifice three werewolves.

Related

15 Best Romantic Relationships In Teen Shows

Popular teen series like Pretty Little Liars, Heartstopper, and Teen Wolf boast some compelling fan-favorite couples.

This powerful episode of Teen Wolf is incredibly moving and features a beautiful moment between Scott and Stiles, but most of the plot doesn’t make sense. For example, they discover Boyd has drowned himself in the bathtub with an unmovable safe on top of him. Stiles and Lydia don’t know how to burn him while he’s immersed underwater. They scrambled to find a submergible fire source, but it wasn’t actually necessary as his bare feet were hanging out of the tub. One of the indicators that the darach may be behind the werewolves’ strange behavior was the suicide counter at the motel going up by three. While this is the kind of thing Lydia would see as a banshee, it was Allison who noticed this detail, meaning the counter really had gone up. But who did it? The darach wasn’t physically there to sacrifice them. The sacrifice itself is odd as well. Werewolves didn’t represent any of the abilities the darach needed, nor is there any explanation about the motel meeting the requirements of the carefully chosen location for the other victims. The werewolves may have been targeted because of the threat they posed her, but then why wouldn’t the suicide counter go up by four to represent all wolves present?

6 It’s Unclear How Jackson Transformed From a Kanima to a Werewolf

Peter and Derek Kill Jackson

Teen Wolf’s second season was a thrilling journey deeper into the supernatural underworld as they explored new mythologies, introducing new and terrifying creatures. Season two opens after Jackson gets the bite from Derek. Sometimes, the shape someone takes reflects the person they are. Jackson’s shape was that of a kanima—a reptilian creature with paralytic venom whose purpose is vengeance. In the final episode, Lydia reaches Jackson emotionally, and then Derek and Peter kill him. Jackson then rises as a wolf.

The conundrum of whether to kill Jackson was hotly debated throughout the second season of Teen Wolf. After Peter’s resurrection, he seems to have some vague, unspoken idea of how it might be possible. He and Derek don’t explain the plan or how it works. Stiles hits Jackson with his car. Then Lydia presents him with a symbol of their emotional bond. While transfixed by the key, Peter and Derek run up from either side of Jackson and impale him with their claws. It’s unclear if there ever was a plan or if Derek and Peter intended to kill Jackson—not save him—in the exciting Teen Wolf finale.

5 Peter’s Resurrection Is Confusing

There Are a Lot of Unanswered Questions

In season two of Teen Wolf, Lydia’s storyline revolves around resurrecting Peter, who died in the first season. A young Peter appears to Lydia as a hallucination, charming her to gain her trust at first. Before her birthday, he reveals himself to her. Peter then instructs her to throw herself a birthday party, dosing attendees with wolfsbane. Then she kidnaps Derek, attaches him to Peter, and bleeds him in the light of the worm moon.

Nothing about the ritual to bring Peter back to life makes sense. There is no explanation or context for how his biting Lydia allowed him to appear to her or how that psychic connection ended when he was alive. Viewers were also left wondering what the relationship between drugging everyone with wolfsbane had to do with it. Was it just a distraction or part of the ritual itself? Peter talks a lot about the worm moon, or the first full moon in March when the worms start to come out of the ground, but it’s not clear if that was relevant to his resurrection. Finally, Teen Wolf viewers wondered why a ceremony like this one was never used again.

4 Valack’s Abilities Are Never Explained

He Has a Third Eye and Can Shapeshift Into Other People

Dr. Gabriel Valack and his third eye are first introduced in season four of Teen Wolf as a patient in the supernatural ward of Eichan House. In season five, he serves as a source of information on the Dread Doctors. By mid-season, he is no longer a patient but masquerading as one of the doctors to interrogate and experiment on Lydia.

Related

10 Best Supernatural Love Triangles Of All Time

Paranormal romances like The Vampire Diaries and True Blood thrill audiences to no end, mainly because of sizzling love triangles.

There is a lot about Valack that remains unanswered in Teen Wolf. His third eye gave people psychic visions if they looked into it. It’s unclear if this means Valack was a psychic. At first, he didn’t appear to have any abilities beyond it. Partway through the Dread Doctors’ arc, they steal his third eye. The next time we see him, the hole in his head is seemingly healed, and he can disguise himself as other people, completely transforming into them. There is never any explanation of his abilities or what the Dread Doctors did with his third eye.

3 Tezcatlipoca’s Lore Is Muddled

Kate Returns as a Werejaguar in Season Four

Through Teen Wolf‘s fourth season, Derek goes through a transformation. The season opens with the McCall pack looking for Derek, who was kidnapped by Kate Argent—a werejaguar. They find him entombed with wolfsbane in the buried city of Tezcatlipoca. He has also regressed back into a teenager. While Derek does return to his current age by the end of the episode, he begins to lose his powers, starting with the color of his eyes. By the end of the season, he appears to be mortal; he is then fatally stabbed by Kate’s berserkers and dies. Moments later, he arises as a fully evolved wolf.

The magic surrounding Tezcatlipoca is unexplained and confusing. Derek’s evolution in season four of Teen Wolf begins with Kate entombing him, but it’s unclear if that caused the evolution or if Derek would have evolved on his own. The show has depicted werewolves that can transform fully into a wolf: Derek’s mother, Talia, his sister, Laura, and Malia. It’s a rare skill among their kind, but it’s unclear why Derek completely regressed before he gained that skill or if his transformation is different from the others.

2 The Last Half of Season Six Was a Mess

The Anuk-ite Was Pointless and Unnecessary

The final ten episodes of Teen Wolf see the McCall pack fighting a different kind of evil—one who doesn’t need claws or fangs and can destroy a whole town: fear. The Anuk-ite is a shapeshifter that feeds on fear. It turns the town of Beacon Hills against all supernatural creatures. Gerard returns to weaponize the town’s fear and turn the people into hunters. They indiscriminately kill werewolves, hellhounds, and anything else they find, turning Beacon Hills into a war zone.

There was a lot about the latter half of the final season of Teen Wolf that strained credulity or didn’t serve the story very well. Namely, the effect the Anuk-ite had turned Beacon Hills into a bloodbath. There were numerous murderers of children, an FBI agent got shot, and a Sheriff’s station went rogue. It’s hard to believe that no outside law enforcement would intervene. Beacon Hills did not exist in a vacuum, and previous seasons of Teen Wolf did not ignore this. Many fans also feel the Anuk-ite itself was pointless since most people don’t need a supernatural creature to make them scared of werewolves and other monsters. Making the Anuk-ite responsible also lets the people who took to murdering children off the hook too easily for their crimes. This hits especially hard with the violence that takes place at High School. The teachers and staff were supposed to protect the students of Beacon High, but they stood by as they were beaten and stabbed on the school grounds.

1 Beacon Hills High School Needs to Run Background Checks

BHHS Has Several Murderers on Staff

Beacon Hills High School had a habit of hiring murderers. Over the six seasons of Teen Wolf, there were multiple teachers and guidance counselors that definitely didn’t have their students’ best interests in mind. From the verbally abusive to downright murderous, the BHHS staff does not have a good track record. Viewers can’t help but wonder if they ever run background checks or verify the identities of the people who work there.

Teen Wolf has many villains that appear out of nowhere or behind fake identities. It happens so often that it becomes implausible that all of these people would be able to create or acquire proper documentation or pass background checks. To work at a public school, you must submit to a background check and get fingerprinted. So who is hiring these people? Even after hiring murderer after murderer, Beacon Hills High School never seems to learn its lesson.

An average high school student and his best friend get caught up in some trouble causing him to receive a werewolf bite. As a result they find themselves in the middle of all sorts of dramas in Beacon Hills.

Release Date

June 5, 2011

Cast

Tyler Posey , Holland Roden , Dylan O’Brien , Linden Ashby , JR Bourne , Melissa Ponzio , Tyler Hoechlin , Shelley Hennig , Dylan Sprayberry , Crystal Reed , Ryan Kelley , Arden Cho , Seth Gilliam , Ian Bohen , Khylin Rhambo , Orny Adams , Daniel Sharman , Cody Christian , Michael Johnston , Keahu Kahuanui , Colton Haynes , Marti Matulis , Michael Hogan , Victoria Moroles , susan walters , Charlie Carver , Jill Wagner , Max Carver , Tom Choi , Matthew Del Negro , Gideon Emery , Meagan Tandy , Eaddy Mays , Tamlyn Tomita , Sinqua Walls , Claire Andrew

Seasons

6

Creator

Story By

Jeff Davis

Writers

Jeff Davis

Streaming Service(s)

Hulu

Directors

Jeff Davis

Showrunner

Jeff Davis

Character(s)

Scott McCall , Lydia Martin , Stiles Stilinski , Sheriff Noah Stilinski , Chris Argent , Melissa McCall , Derek Hale , Malia Tate , Liam Dunbar , Allison Argent , Deputy Jordan Parrish , Kira Yukimura , Dr. Alan Deaton , Peter Hale , Mason Hewitt , Coach Bobby Finstock , Isaac Lahey , Theo Raeken , Corey , Danny Mahealani , Jackson Whittemore , The Surgeon , Gerard Argent , Hayden Romero , Natalie Martin , Ethan Steiner , Kate Argent , Aiden , Ken Yukimura , Rafael McCall , Deucalion , Braeden , Victoria Argent , Noshiko Yukimura , Vernon Boyd , Sydney

Expand