When MTV remade the 1980s movie, they took the idea of a high school werewolf and expanded it to include a host of other supernatural creatures, fascinating audiences with the mythology as much as the relationships. But even beloved shows can have missteps.
In the case of Teen Wolf, one of the biggest issues is the handling of continuity and in-universe rules. The writers frequently broke their own rules to suit stories, but fans still want answers as to how those rules could break. Likewise, plenty of early story moments in the series contradict plot points later. Those rules and contradictions make for some serious plot holes. We're here to go over some of the most glaring examples.
Kate And Derek’s Relationship
The series threw fans for a loop when it revealed Kate Argent once seduced a teenaged Derek Hale. Mostly, fans were thrown because the timeline didn’t add up.
In high school, Derek fell for Paige, intending to make her a werewolf as well. When her body rejected the bite, Derek ended her suffering. It couldn’t have been long after when broken-hearted Derek met Kate. How old was she? It’s not clear, since when she uses werejaguar magic to make de-age him, he still recognizes her.
Her relationship with Derek is also what gives Kate enough details to set fire to the Hale house. The fire, however, is mentioned as happening at different times throughout the series, never lining up with the timeline, and further confusing just when Derek was in high school and how old he was when he dated Kate.
Canaan’s Earlier Mention
In Season 6, Lydia visited a banshee in the ghost town of Canaan. While there, she learned that Canaan got its visit from the Ghost Riders in the '80s. It hadn’t appeared on any maps or had visitors since.
If that’s true, how did Eichen House orderly Brunski end up picked up by Canaan police officers a year before the events of Season 6? Deputy Parrish mentioned he knew the police drove Brunski home. Were those police officers phantoms of their imaginations?
The Mr. Harris Of It All
Season 3 revealed that a new teacher at Beacon Hills High used to be a druid emissary for a pack of werewolves. The power of the Nemeton allowed Julia to survive Alpha Kali's attack, and she became Jennifer. Mr. Harris, the one teacher who despised Stiles and made sure everyone knew it, somehow figured out Jennifer’s plan.
His connection to her story was never explained, though he figured out her plan and she lined him up as one of her sacrifices. No one ever figured out if the two had any history. He wasn’t even involved with the supernatural.
“Pain, Power, Life”
Deucalion once gave Theo a lesson in stealing power from his pack. According to him, the mantra was “pain, power, life.” In order to steal power, Theo had to follow three steps. He had to take the pain of his pack member away, siphon their power, and then kill them. There was one problem with that.
The series revealed that in order for a werewolf to take someone’s pain, they had to have a certain degree of empathy. Theo never demonstrated that. He faked it to get in Scott’s good graces, but we never saw him genuinely care about anyone other than himself. Theo expressed guilt over his sister’s death once he was being tortured for it, but empathy seemed out of his reach.
The Calaveras And The Hunt For The She-Wolf
Derek and Peter were temporarily sidelined after taking a trip to South America. They dropped Cora off with her new pack — and then ended up kidnapped by the Calaveras family. The Calaveras were a family of hunters like the Argents. What’s not clear, however, is just what the reasoning was for the kidnapping.
The Calaveras family tortured them for information about “La Loba.” The She-Wolf they were interested in wasn’t Cora, as Derek and Peter thought. It’s never made clear why the Calaveras family thought Derek and Peter would have information about Kate Argent, who wasn’t even technically a wolf. She was a werejaguar and Derek didn’t even know that; he thought she was dead at the time. It seemed like multiple characters (or writers) had their wires crossed.
Matt Controlling The Kanima
In Season 2, Jackson became a Kanima instead of a werewolf. Because the shapeshifter’s shape reflects the identity inside, Jackson’s confusion about who he really was created the Kanima, a creature controlled by someone else’s identity after bonding with them. A student with Jackson who had nearly drowned as a kid, Matt was the one controlling the Kanima for most of Season 2. Matt wanted revenge.
There was, however, a time when the Kanima was active and Jackson didn’t yet know Matt. Flashbacks to their meeting show the audience exactly when Matt and the Kanima teamed up. Before they ever did, the Kanima already killed Isaac Lahey’s father, one of the people who would have been on Matt’s list. The timeline of events makes the Kanima doing it for Matt impossible.
Danny’s Chemistry Paper
Telluric currents became a big deal for the show. One character thought they were important before anyone else. Danny wrote a paper about telluric currents that his teacher wanted him to abandon after the fact.
Now, it’s all well and good that Danny’s paper is used to drop hints for what’s coming. What doesn’t make sense is that Danny wrote the paper for a chemistry class. The plot hole here comes from Danny even choosing that as a chemistry subject at all. It would have made more sense if Danny was taking physics, or even, as a stretch, geography. There was never an explanation for why Danny pursued the subject, or why Mr. Harris initially let him before trying to cover up his association to Jennifer.
The 10-Year Nemeton Gap
Julia was the only “survivor” of Kali’s massacre, but she only survived because the power of the Nemeton gave her a certain amount of magic to heal and carry on. Julia became Jennifer 10 years before she started to take revenge. What exactly took her so long?
Did she spend those years following the Alpha Pack around? Did she go to university and get a teaching degree? Fans don’t know because the writers left a 10-year gap in her story with no explanation.
Erasing Stiles
The idea of the Wild Hunt being able to erase the existence of people they take in Season 6 is a complicated one, and it opens up some issues with the way the Ghost Riders work.
Erasing Stiles meant erasing all traces of him. His family and friends no longer remembered him, but his jeep emerged as a “relic” with which to jog memories. One relic getting missed by the Ghost Riders to serve as a plot device is fine, but his erasure caused other issues.
If the Ghost Riders could truly erase someone from existence, they shouldn’t pick and choose what they erase. The entire fabric of their reality should change. For example, Malia wouldn’t be human because it was Stiles who led the investigation to find her as a coyote. Likewise, Scott wouldn’t be a werewolf because it was Stiles who led him into the woods when he was bitten. The entire idea of Stiles being successfully erased doesn’t actually work if we’re supposed to believe that Lydia’s banshee abilities are the only connection left to him.
The Tragedies Of Motel California
In the Season 2 episode “Motel California,” fans were in for a wild ride. The lacrosse team (plus Lydia and Allison) stayed at a motel known for its climbing suicide rate. Lydia heard the echoes of deaths that happened there throughout the hour. Scott, Boyd, Ethan, and Isaac all tried to take their own lives in the episode.
The trouble is, the four teenagers in question were actually all werewolves hallucinating from wolfsbane. That couldn’t have been the case for everyone who took their own lives (or someone else’s) at the motel. The two points were separate plot pieces. What was actually affecting visitors?