Recap 'Teen Wolf' Before The Dread Doctors Return

Over the course of its four and a half seasons, MTV's wildly popular supernatural drama series Teen Wolf has taken a number of sharp twists and turns, introduced a dizzying number of cast members, killed off a good portion of them, and included a bestiary-worth of supernatural creatures. Seriously, remember Season 1 when it was just a teenaged werewolf, his high school friends, and a scary Alpha? Those were the good ol' days. Now, if you're having trouble remembering where we left Scott McCall and his friends at the end of the last run of episodes, I've got you covered with a Teen Wolf Season 5A recap.

If you'll remember as far back as Season 4, Teen Wolf set a kind of reset button following the deaths of Allison Argent, Boyd, Erica, and Aiden, as well as the off-screen departures of Ethan and Isaac. The season also introduced a new generation of teenaged werewolves with Liam, Scott's first Beta. Now that some of that back story is fresh in your mind, let's dive into the craziness that was Season 5A, including flash-forwards, villains straight out of a horror story, the reveal of Deputy Parrish's supernatural identity (finally!), and the setup of a major supernatural player's arrival. Seriously, it was a busy half-season.

Starting Senior Year

It seems like just yesterday that Scott, Stiles, and Lydia were wide-eyed sophomores with no knowledge of the supernatural goings on of Beacon Hills — actually it feels more like 10 years since then, considering the stress of this show will age you, but that's neither here nor there. At the start of Season 5A, Scott, Stiles, Lydia, Malia, and Kira get ready to start their senior year by participating in a school tradition of writing their initials on a shelf in the library. They take the time to include Allison's initials and remember their fallen friend while Stiles also expresses his fears of moving on after high school and losing contact with each other. This theme was carried on through the half-season and may continue into 5B.

Lydia In Eichen House

The Season 5 premiere of Teen Wolf featured a flash-forward sequence in which Lydia is an inmate at Eichen House. During this scene, she attempts to break out, but is subdued, and says all of her friends are going to die. Since we still haven't quite caught up to this scene in the present-day storyline of Teen Wolf, it's definitely worth remembering when Season 5B premieres.

The Dread Doctors' Chimeras

The big bads of Season 5A are, of course, The Dread Doctors and their supernatural experiments, which Scott's pack begins calling Chimeras since they're created by mixing multiple creatures together. Additionally, tied to the Dread Doctors is Theo, a werewolf/childhood classmate of Scott who returns to Beacon Hills under the pretense of joining Scott's pack. However, it was revealed in the midseason finale that Theo is one of the Doctors' experiments and he tries to fight and defeat Scott during the supermoon, though he isn't successful in killing the Alpha. Theo also revives many of the Chimeras thought to be dead — Tracy, Corey, Josh, and Hayden — and claims them as the betas in his new Chimera pack.

Parrish Is A Hellhound

The mystery of Parrish's supernatural identity began in Season 4 and Teen Wolf finally delved into it in Season 5A. Throughout the episodes, it was slowly revealed that Parrish was stealing the bodies of the dead Chimeras and bringing them to the Nemeton where he set them on fire — but he had no knowledge of doing it. In the midseason finale, it was revealed that Parrish is a hellhound, described as "A Bearer of Death and Guardian of the Supernatural." So now that we know what Parrish is, you can be sure we'll learn more about what that means in Season 5B.

Scott & Stiles' Falling Out

A constant in the world of Teen Wolf has always been Scott and Stiles' friendship, but that was tested in Season 5A when Stiles accidentally killed Donovan, one of the Chimeras, and hid it from his best friend. The secret causes a rift between the friends and Scott kicks Stiles out of his pack, leading Theo to try to recruit Stiles to his new Chimera pack. Although Stiles is still firmly on Scott's side, the two have yet to resolve their fight, which has to happen in Season 5B.

The Desert Wolf

Malia learned that her birth mother was the Desert Wolf in Season 4, but her search for the werewolf progressed throughout Season 5A — albeit very slowly. However, Malia does learn that the Desert Wolf caused the car crash that killed her adoptive family and in the midseason finale she's informed that her mother knows of her existence and is returning to Beacon Hills. Given what we know, Malia's ongoing search for the Desert Wolf will likely come to a head when the season continues.

So, now that Season 5A has been recapped, do you feel ready? Actually, let me put that another way since no Teen Wolf fan is ever emotionally ready for a new season: Are you informed enough for whatever new twists and turns this show has in store? I hope so!

Images: MTV; dylanobrien, barryalens, notanotherteenwolfpodcast, smoak-and-embers, stilesstilinskidaily, talvilupus/Tumblr