Nerdophiles Catch Up: Season 4 of Teen Wolf

It’s that time of year again! Stiles, Lydia, Kira, and Scott are back for the premiere of season 5 of Teen Wolf on MTV this Monday, June 29th.

Time to refresh on what happened last season:

The Kate/Peter Storyline

Season 4 saw the return of Kate Argent–Allison’s formerly-deceased-hunter-aunt newly turned were-cat. If reading that hyphenated description was as painful as writing it, you’ve experienced about 1/16th of the annoyance that this character brings me.

After her implausible return from the dead, Argent added a few pages to the growing supernatural bestiary with her legion of undead, Mexican (Aztec?) Berserkers. Kate kidnapped Kira in the episode leading up to the season finale, forcing Scott and the gang to track down Kate in her hideout.

Pure-hearted Scott gets transformed into a ruthless Berserker and is forced to attack his friends. Kira, in particular, is subject to yet another instance of unnecessary violence against a female character (sound familiar, GoT fans?) at the hands of her possessed boyfriend.

She finally escapes after being stabbed and learns through a vision that she can use her pain to trigger her kitsune healing powers, which is pretty messed up on multiple levels. She also gets her first kitsune tail, carved from the obsidian of the cave with which Kira cut herself to heal.

New werewolf Liam, who was turned early this season and quickly promoted to a series regular, ends up breaking Scott’s Berserker transformation. Chris Argent fights Kate before she scampers away to be a returning villain in another season.

Meanwhile, Derek Hale seemingly dies, only to come back to life as a full wolf. This is pretty much the only important thing Derek does all season besides sleep with bounty-hunter girl Braeden.

Scott and the gang learn that Peter was behind Kate’s attack, which culminates in a fight between Peter and Scott. Scott triggers his Alpha abilities and defeats Peter, sending him to Eichenhouse to be put into a coma by one of the patients who has a third eye in the middle of his forehead.

The Malia Storyline

Malia and Stiles are doing fairly well as a couple, especially given that Stydia is probably supposed to be endgame. However, Stiles messes everything up when he learns that Malia is a Hale (Peter’s daughter) and chooses to hide this from her.

Malia discovers her parentage and gets (understandably) angry with Stiles. She ends up talking to Peter, who vaguely alludes to her mother, the infamous Desert Wolf.

The Bountyhunter Storyline

This was the main storyline throughout the season. The crew were being systematically hunted by a series of bounty hunters. After discovering a deadpool unlocked by the names of deceased characters, the financially-strapped teenagers experience some #moralconflict as to whether or not they should join the hunters for some extra cash.

Later, they learn that the bounties have been supplied from the Hale treasury.

Lydia and Stiles do some investigating and learn that the Benefactor of the deadpool might be a banshee, because all the names which unlock the deadpool are deceased friends or to-be-deceased as if predicted by a banshee.

Lydia learns her grandmother was a banshee who performed experiments on Meredith (the mental patient from Eichenhouse) to discover more about her supernatural abilities. The experiments seem to have left Meredith with mental problems, a fact which becomes abundantly clear when Stiles and Lydia are held hostage in Eichenhouse by an orderly before he’s killed and Meredith is revealed to be the Benefactor orchestrating the deadpool.

What caused meek Meredith to plot against the crew? Well, all roads lead back to Peter.

After the Hale fire, Peter spent his time recovering in the bed next to Meredith’s. His unconscious plans of revenge were heard telepathically by a suggestible Meredith, who took it upon herself to execute Peter’s scheme.

And then Peter continues to pull the strings so that he can kill Scott and steal his Alpha powers, a la helping Kate build her Berserker army in the Kate/Peter storyline.

It’s a lot to take in for season 4 of Teen Wolf, and I’m sure season 5 will be just as jam packed. The new season premieres Monday, July 29th!