Teen Wolf: Status Asthmaticus

“I wonder how much insurance this school has.”

Despite having to work with the wrong ingredients, ‘Status Asthmaticus’ ended up being a pretty entertaining, albeit slightly messy finale.

Teen Wolf: Lies of Omission

“I can’t deal with another body... another failure.”

As the penultimate episode of the summer half of Teen Wolf’s fifth season, ‘Lies of Omission’ is almost all setup for some supposedly exciting confrontations in next week’s finale. It played with some of the bigger themes of the season thus far, namely the in-fighting between Scott’s friends and allies, which makes sense considering it’s what has been fuelling the majority of the character arcs that we’ve seen for the past nine weeks. Next week should be when things get really interesting, but this episode just felt like one big tease.

Teen Wolf: Ouroboros

“Something’s changed.”

I feel like we’ve hit the point where the various plot threads introduced early in a standard season of Teen Wolf should start to come together. That hasn’t happened yet, but maybe there are a few reasons for that.

Teen Wolf: Strange Frequencies

“Don’t hurt her!”

Reliance on the weaker aspects of the show’s current dynamic is really throwing this season of Teen Wolf off its game. There’s so much potential, and certain parts of this season are very strong, but I still feel that I’m being forced into caring about characters that do nothing for me, or bring nothing new to the table.

Teen Wolf: Required Reading

“We never should have read that book!”

There were some really interesting ideas and plot devices at work this week, but ‘Required Reading’ had a hard time keeping everything straight.

Teen Wolf: A Novel Approach

“We shouldn’t be killing the people we’re trying to save.”

This was exactly the type of episode we needed at this point; one that finally gave us an idea of what we’re up against, while also raising the personal stakes.

Teen Wolf: Condition Terminal

“How scared should we be?”

Now that this season’s big bad, or what we assume to be this season’s big bad, have finally made themselves known, season five is starting to hit its stride.

Teen Wolf: Dreamcatchers

“Her condition is terminal.”

Even though ‘Dreamcatchers’ struggled on a few minor fronts, it was still the strongest episode of season five so far.

Teen Wolf: Parasomnia

“I’m starting to wonder if the rules to our supernatural world aren’t as rigid as I once thought.”

There appears to be an imbalance amongst the cast this season, but ‘Parasomnia’ improves over the scattered premiere in terms of focus and plot.

Teen Wolf: Creatures of the Night

"What happened to your friends?"

It was bookended by two exciting sequences, but ‘Creatures of the Night’ failed to kick start Teen Wolf’s fifth season in the way it should have.

Teen Wolf: Smoke and Mirrors

“You were always a monster.”

Part of me went away from this finale feeling disappointed; initially I thought that a lot of this season felt like it was of very little consequence in the end. After a bit of thought I’m a lot happier with it, and I can see that it definitely finished this season with a few changes.

Teen Wolf: A Promise to the Dead

“What the hell is so special about Scott McCall?”

Teen Wolf: Monstrous

“We’re the monsters.”

‘Monstrous’ started out as a standard end of season bridge episode, taking the story to where it needs to go next. Though it served that purpose, it did it by completely changing the story so far.

Teen Wolf: Perishable

“He wasn’t on my list.”

This was typical late-season, expositiony fun.

Teen Wolf: Time of Death

Melissa: “Why are we asking them to fight these kinds of fights?”
Noshiko: “Because otherwise we’d be asking them to run and hide.”

A good portion of ‘Time of Death’ is dedicated to how absolutely ridiculous this week’s plan is, almost as stupid as the impromptu trip to Mexico in the premiere. A lot of the series revolves around these kids making questionable choices and risky bets in situations that are, at best, a little out of the ordinary, and this episode dealt with the consequences and fallout from that extremely well.

Teen Wolf: Weaponized

“If I survive high school, I’d like to go to college.”

Teen Wolf is continuing to ground this season by keeping the normality of the packs’ teenage lives a constant recurrence. This week a nasty virus outbreak took place at the high school, the morning of the PSATs. It sounds silly at first, but it’s actually clever to keep those little things as regular as possible, less we forget they’re still only kids.

Teen Wolf: Orphaned

“Maybe we should all be running from Beacon Hills.”

One of the many parts of Teen Wolf that’s grown since it began is how well shot the series actually is. So many scenes showcase how atmospheric it can be, if given the right direction and photography. That’s one of the things that stood out a lot about ‘Orphaned.’

Teen Wolf: I.E.D.

“There has to be more.”

This season is really playing to Teen Wolf’s angsty strengths. Maybe it’s the injection of these new freshmen who are really pushing the teenage rebel bar, or the fact that the show seems really grounded by high school events, but I think it works incredibly well, especially since this is a show about kids being thrust into a crazy situation.

Teen Wolf: The Benefactor

“Control is overrated.”

Last week was all about introducing new characters and defining their roles in the show, ‘The Benefactor’ felt like it was trying to re-establish the role of existing characters, and where they stand in light of all the changes that have been happening in Beacon Hills.

Teen Wolf: Muted

“Maybe we should just let the adults handle it...”

There’s been a slight disconnect so far this season, and it had me worried for the past couple of weeks. For that reason ‘Muted’ is easily the strongest so far. It felt like the show was brought home after a long vacation, and everything is the same, except totally different.