Ranking every season of Teen Wolf

From villains to romance, we analyze every season of the hit MTV show.

Although Teen Wolf's final season had its high points—mostly in the form of returning characters—it wasn't quite up to the caliber of its other years. Sure, we missed Stiles (Dylan O'Brien), but more than that, the story arc struggled to find the tension that typically holds together a Beacon Hills mystery. The result was an uncharacteristically slow pace for a show that spent most of its time in an all-out sprint.

This season gets points for somehow making it feel as though Allison (Crystal Reed) was once again part of the show by tying her ancestors to the Beast. But, putting that aside, the Beast was one of the show's least successful villains. And the twist of making Mason (Khylin Rhambo) the Beast felt a little like the show was trying to return to its "Void Stiles" days, but it just never quite got there.

Kate (Jill Wagner) is a werejaguar?! That's cool. Berserkers?! They're scary. The Benefactor?! That's... confusing. This season was a wild rollercoaster that never slowed down, and that's a good thing. There was a lot to love. But it also provided one of the show's hardest-to-follow story arcs that we still don't fully understand. (But at least Tyler Hoechlin's Derek turned into a wolf!)

There are varying opinions on the beginning of season 5, but we can say this for it: The Dread Doctors, though somewhat confusing, made for menacing foes, and the mystery played out well enough... in the beginning. Where this season struggled was bringing it all together and not making its heroes look dumb for falling for all of Theo's (Cody Christian) plans.

Somehow, the show managed to make a season without Stiles all about Stiles, and the result was a well-paced arc about just how much Stiles means to everyone in Beacon Hills. And those final moments, as everyone started to remember him, are some of the show's most emotional. (Bonus: This season will always be a favorite for #Stydia fans.)

Jackson (Colton Haynes) is a kanima. Derek is starting his own pack. Gerard (Michael Hogan) is, well, Gerard. Still in its early days, this season was able to introduce new twists to a supernatural world that we were already falling in love with.

Teen Wolf had a lot of fun with the story of "Scott's a werewolf, now what?" With Stiles by his side, Scott (Tyler Posey) navigated his newfound supernatural powers in a season that was the perfect balance of comedy and drama—with just enough mystery thrown in. Add in the blooming Scott-Allison love story, and we couldn't look away.

With Scott and his pack facing both Deucalion's (Gideon Emery) Alpha pack and the Darach, this season found a way to make even the biggest problems feel personal—culminating when the Darach kidnapped the parents of Scott, Stiles, and Allison. Combine that with Allison coming into her own as a fighter/Argent and Lydia (Holland Roden) getting closer to figuring out what she is, and this is top-notch Teen Wolf. (Do we even need to remind you about "Motel California"?)

When Teen Wolf was at its best, it was romantic, funny, scary, thrilling, heartbreaking, and shocking all at once. And the back half of season 3 is the best example of that. From the complex villain of the Nogitsune to the show's greatest twist—it's Stiles!—this season had it all, including the show's most shocking moment when Allison Argent failed to make it out alive. We'll never get over it emotionally, but man, was it good TV.