Teen Wolf showrunner calls series finale 'a classic episode' of the MTV series

It all ends tonight.

After six seasons of supernatural showdowns, Teen Wolf will air its 100th and final episode as Scott and his pack try to defeat Gerard one last time. But before it all ends, EW talked with showrunner Jeff Davis about the show’s entire run, and, of course, what to expect from the extended series ender.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: When did you know the show was going to work?
JEFF DAVIS: I first felt like we could have something special during the shooting of the second episode when Stiles and Scott go to the Hale house to dig up the supposed body. They were so good together, Tyler [Posey] and Dylan [O’Brien]. I knew if we could create some sort of magic in that friendship that we’d really have something. When they both go leaping out of the hole, it just felt really good. Another scene was when Stiles gets his dad drunk to get information out of him and we see how good Linden [Ashby] and Dylan are. That’s really the magic. You can write all the twists and turns you want but people come to TV for the characters, and when I saw the cast really clicking and becoming their roles, that’s when you knew. I still never thought it would go 100 episodes.

When was the show at its best?
I think the show’s at its best when we’ve struck a really great balance between the thriller-horror plot and character story — when Scott and Stiles are looking at each other wondering if they’re going to lose each other as Stiles is about to go into an MRI to see if he’s really sick or if he’s being possessed by a demon. The emotion rings true in that scene. Or a scene where Scott has lost Allison and she’s no longer with him and she’s been the anchor to which he’s controlled the beast within and Melissa tells him, “Be your own anchor.” It’s the mix of genre and character. It’s always got to be a good balance, and I’m really proud of those scenes that we’ve done like that where genre has allowed us to explore deep character moments.

How long have you known your ending?
There was a year or two ago where I had pitched it to the writing staff a couple different times. I had a feeling that I knew this last image or this last scene that would appear. I had thought originally that 520 was going to be the final episode and I mostly wrote it as a series finale knowing that there was the possibility that there might be 20 more episodes. But I’m glad it wasn’t because it gave us a chance to craft this ending, which feels really good. We’ll see what the audience thinks. It’s definitely not a cut-to-black like The Sopranos. We tried to craft an ending that feels right for the audience and for the characters.

It seems safe to assume we’re building to an epic final battle…
At its heart, the show is called Teen Wolf, so it’s definitely Scott’s story, and that was very important to bring it all back to Scott McCall. We had just done a season that was essentially all about Stiles even though Stiles wasn’t in a lot of it, and when we knew there were going to be 10 more episodes, we said, “Let’s tell a story about Scott McCall.” In our most literary sense, we talked about it being kind of like Prince Hal and Falstaff from Henry IV and what is Prince Hal when he loses Falstaff — Stiles as it were — so he becomes Henry V. If he has to become a king, he’s going to have to fight a war. And that’s how we came up with the idea that this is war. It was Scott being the leader of his troops and making sure everyone survives.

What do you say to fans as they sit down to watch this?
I would say hold on tight and get ready for a classic episode of Teen Wolf. It’s got all the characters back, all except for the ones who are unfortunately dead.