Stiles is in the elevator with Derek, smacking his face to try to wake him up. "Derek? Derek, come on!" Stiles cries, sounding panicked. He hits him a few more times with an open palm and then raises his hand and makes a fist. Derek wakes up and grabs Stiles's wrist before the punch can connect.

 

Derek asks where Jennifer is, and Stiles tells him that she's gone and took Scott's mom. "Yeah, and if that's not enough of a kick to the balls, Scott left with Deucalion, so we gotta get you out of here. The police are coming right now, we gotta get you the hell out of here." Stiles starts to pull Derek to his feet, but Derek stops him to ask about Cora.

 

Isaac stops the car near the ambulance, presumably at a rally point, and asks Peter, in the back seat with Cora, if he sees the twins. "No, but I see the Argents," Peter grumbles. Isaac asks Peter if the last time he saw the Argents was when he killed Kate and then got burned alive. When he turns around, Peter is gone.

 

Allison asks Isaac where the others are. He tells them that Scott and Stiles went back for Derek and Jennifer, but he had to get Cora out. Derek pulls up in his truck. Allison asks again about Scott and Stiles. Stiles is still at the hospital and will hold off the cops. Derek gets Cora from the back of Chris Argent's car.

 

Chris asks about Scott and Melissa. Derek reveals that Jennifer took Melissa, but he doesn't say anything about Scott. Allison asks again, and Derek doesn't answer her. "Derek, where's Scott?" He stops and turns to answer her, although the scene cuts away before he says anything.

 

In the hospital, Stiles looks up to see FBI agents and Rafael McCall. He is clearly not pleased. "A Stilinski at the center of this whole mess. What a shocker," Agent McCall says. He asks Stiles if he can answer some questions without the usual level of sarcasm. "If you can ask the questions without the usual level of stupid."

 

Agent McCall asks Stiles where his dad is and why no one has been able to contact him. Stiles replies that he doesn't know and hasn't seen him in hours: both true. McCall then asks if the Sheriff is drinking again. "What do you mean again, he never had to stop." "But he did have to slow down. Is he drinking like he used to?" Stiles gets offended on his father's behalf and offers that next time he sees him he'll give him a field sobriety test. "We'll do the alphabet, start with 'F' end with 'U'."

 

McCall asks Stiles what happened, and Stiles claims to have been stuck in the elevators the whole time. He then asks if Stiles put the name on the doors. Stiles has no idea what he's talking about. In the empty hallway, the elevator doors close, revealing Argent in red spray paint.

 

Cora gasps for breath and coughs, as Derek looks on, worried. Isaac asks if she's dying. "I don't know." Isaac asks him what he's going to do, but he doesn't know that either. Isaac asks if he wants to figure it out, "Because while Scott and Stiles were out there trying to help people from being killed, you were in here, rolling around the sheets with the actual killer." He asks if Derek gets how many people are dead now. Erica and Boyd are dead and Cora is dying, "and you are doing nothing!"

 

Tearfully, Isaac asks him why he made them Werewolf. "Was it all about the power? Were you bored? Were you lonely?" Derek glances at him. "Maybe." Derek explains that he told Cora he wouldn't leave her, so he'll help the others when he figures out how to help her. Isaac turns, nearly at the exit. "There's no time!" The full moon is coming, which is when the last sacrifices are going to be made, so Isaac is going to try to help them. "You can sit here and perfect the art of doing nothing."

 

Peter is on the staircase. "I wouldn't take it personally." He explains that Isaac is using it to excuse shifting allegiance from Derek to Scott. Derek points out that Scott isn't an alpha yet. "But he's on his way, isn't he?" Peter says. 

 

At the Argents' apartment, Chris argues that he hasn't exactly lived up to the word Guardian lately. Allison argues that Jennifer took Scott's mother and Stiles's father, so logically he's next. "Yeah, I'd also consider the fact that someone put your name up in large block letters on the elevator doors. That kind of felt like a warning to me," Stiles adds. Allison thinks Ms. Morrell might have left the message because she seems to be trying to help them.

 

The lunar eclipse is two nights away. Chris tells Stiles not to give up hope because he thinks Jennifer is still moving pieces into place, which means the other Guardians might not be dead. Chris pulls out a telluric current map because everything Jennifer has done has been on one of those currents. It stands to reason that the Sheriff and Melissa are being held on one of the currents as well.  

 

Stiles isn't paying attention. He can't believe that Chris wants to go after Jennifer given that he's the next target. "No offense, but what's the difference between you and them?" Chris loads a clip into his gun. "I'm carrying a .45." She might be able to heal from a shot to the leg or a slash to the face, but he'd like to see her handle half her skull blown off. 

 

Chris rallies Stiles, telling him that they have the map and all the clues they need, the only thing they don't have is time, which is why he needs Stiles to get his head in the game. Chris points out on the map that the place where the sacrifices have been made are usually different from where the bodies have been found. He thinks the placement has to do with the strength of the current. He points out the school, the Animal Clinic, and the bank. 

 

Stiles asks if she'd use the same place twice. "Only if she didn't succeed the first time." They realize that Deaton was Jennifer's only failure, which could be important. Stiles points out that that's just one location and they're going to need a lot more help. Allison suggests Lydia. "Lydia. What can she do?" Chris asks. "She somehow ended up finding a couple of the bodies, um, without actually looking for them," Stiles says. 

 

Chris asks if she psychic. Stiles looks at him. "She's something."

 

The next morning, Derek sits on the bed next to Cora and siphons some more of her pain. Peter watches closely and warns Derek to be careful. Derek lets her arm go and shudders in pain. Derek tells him that he knows that going too far could kill him. "That's not exactly what I meant," Peter says. 

 

The Argents get out their weaponry, laying out pistols, crossbows, assault rifles, and ring daggers. Stiles looks on, vaguely intimidated. "I thought you guys were retired." "Retired, yes. Defenseless, no." Chris tells Stiles to let them know if he hears from Scott. Stiles finds that unlikely, and Chris reminds both him and Allison that Scott is trying to do what he thinks is right. 

 

Isaac shows up at the office and says that while he can't shoot or use a crossbow, he isn't getting pretty good with his claws.

 

Back at the loft, Peter tells Derek about a rumor he heard that alphas can heal by giving up the spark that makes them an alpha. "When you take her pain, she draws on the power that provides you with those special gifts." As an alpha, Derek has an extra dose of the power that normal werewolves don't have. "If I can save her--" Derek says, and Peter stops him. "If. I didn't say it works every time. It could just as easily kill you." Peter turns away and looks out the window, knowing that he's convinced Derek to do it. Derek takes a moment to consider and then asks how it's done. Peter smirks. 

 

Lydia is at home with her mother, looking at herself in the mirror. She touches the bruise on her throat as her mom assures her that it's not a problem because she's developed some patented cover-up methods. Lydia stops her mother. Her mom tells her that she doesn't have to go to school, but that's not what Lydia's thinking. "Someone tried to strangle me, and I survived. I don't need to hide that." 

 

She looks proudly in the mirror, and her mother agrees that she doesn't have to hide it. She asks if they're still doing her hair, and Lydia enthusiastically agrees.

 

Chris, Allison, and Isaac go to the Beacon Hills First National bank vault. They go into the vault, but it's empty. Chris has an electrified baton. Isaac sees it and says that he thought he only used those on Werewolf. "I do," Chris replies, then turns around and stuns Isaac. He then quickly handcuffs Allison to bars inside the vault before she can react.

 

Chris says that he's known for a long time that Jennifer was in sync with the currents. He drops his gun, and Jennifer steps into the room. "Now this is a sacrifice." Chris lets himself be taken.

 

Stiles goes to Lydia's house and tells her about Scott. She doesn't believe it. "You didn't see the look on his face, though," Stiles says. Lydia asks what she can do since she doesn't know how to turn on or off the power that she has. "All I know is that she tried to kill me because of--" "Because of what?" Lydia realizes that Jennifer was surprised when she called her a banshee, which means that she wasn't trying to kill her because of it. She had another reason, which they need to find out.

 

Isaac recovers from being stunned and pulls the handcuffs on Allison free. Allison wants to know why her father would give himself up like that. Isaac urges her to leave, but she's too upset to listen and grips his hand. "They're all gonna die. Aren't they?" He doesn't know what to say, so he pulls her into a hug.

 

In Derek's loft, Derek is about to try the healing. Peter stops him and asks him to consider what else he'll be losing. "I don't care about power. Not anymore." Peter argues that Kali's ultimatum still stands. The full moon is tomorrow night. If he couldn't beat her as an alpha, he sure won't as a beta. "I don't care," Derek tells him. Peter thinks this is exactly what Jennifer was hoping for--that Derek would give up his power to save Cora. "Why?" "So that you wouldn't be able to face the alphas without her. She wants you to come to her. It's all part of her little seduction, and she is still seducing you." 

 

At the school, Lydia complains to Stiles that Aiden isn't texting her back. Stiles's phone buzzes, and he reads a text message. It's from Isaac telling them that Jennifer has Chris. Stiles's hand shakes as he puts his phone back in his pocket, and he starts having a panic attack. 

 

Chris wakes up in the root cellar tied to a post. The Sheriff asks him if he's okay, and Melissa calls him by his first name--presumably the first time they've been on a first name basis. Chris looks around and chuckles to himself. "Is it just me, or has somebody been here before?" the Sheriff asks. "Years ago," Chris answers. He moves around trying to reach for his ankle, and the Sheriff tells him that Jennifer took it. And the knife in his sleeve and the switchblade in his other sleeve. He continues to struggle as Jennifer opens the cellar door. "And the taser in your jacket pocket," she says.

 

Jennifer comes toward him and goes to touch his face with a cloth. He turns away, but she makes him turn back and starts talking about how truth becomes altered by legend as she wipes away a little blood. "When it's not actually the metal silver that kills Werewolf but the family." She quotes the Argent Code to him. Chris tells her that they aren't the same because he doesn't kill innocent people.

 

Jennifer again insists that this is a sacrifice, but he should be proud because they're making the town safer for their children. Chris looks at Melissa, and Jennifer corrects herself. "Well, most of them." 

 

Lydia leads Stiles into the locker room, and he stumbles and falls to the floor trying to catch his breath. She tells him to think of other things, friends, family. Stiles gives her a look, and Lydia tries to think of something. He can't slow his breathing, so she takes his face in her hands, caresses him a little, and then kisses him. 

 

Stiles stares at her as his breathing evens out. "How'd you do that?" "I read once that holding your breath could stop a panic attack. So when I kissed you, you held your breath." He's stunned, but he thanks her and tells her she's really smart. They both settle down, and Lydia tells him that if she was really smart, she'd tell him to sign up for some sessions with the guidance counselor.

 

Stiles realizes that Morrell could help them. They burst into the guidance counselors office and ask Danielle if she's there to see Ms. Morrell. "No, I thought this was gym glass," Danielle says. Lydia tells her they're not in the mood for funny. Danielle tells them to get lost and wait their turn. Lydia says they're not there for a session. "Well I am, and I got some serious issues to work on." Stiles remembers Danielle as Heather's best friend. Danielle says that she was and they've been working on that issue three times a week.

 

Lydia agrees with Danielle that Ms. Morrell is never late, which means she's not late but missing. Stiles starts going through Ms. Morrell's desk. Danielle yells at them because the files are private. Lydia agrees until Stiles hands her her own file. She opens her file, which contains one of her drawings. Danielle compliments her on the tree. Stiles points out that it's the same one. "The same one I always see you drawing in class." "It's a tree. I like drawing trees." "No, but it's the exact same one." 

 

Stiles gets Lydia's notebook out of her bag and opens it, setting it next to the drawing in her file. It's the same. He flips the pages, and it's the same image but different sizes on every page. Danielle stares down at the pictures. "Okay, you can have my session. You got bigger issues." Lydia gets scared of what it might mean. Stiles stops flipping pages and turns one of them upside down. 

 

He realizes where they are. As they leave the office, Stiles tells Lydia that they're at the nemeton. Agent McCall is in the hallway and calls for Stiles. Stiles tells Lydia to go to Derek because he and Peter have been there before. Stiles remembers it from the story of when Derek killed Paige. "Tell them it's the root cellar, all right? They'll know." 

 

Agent McCall asks Stiles if he knew that his father's car has been at the school since last night and that he's now officially missing. He takes Stiles into an empty classroom and accuses him of keeping back information that could help find the Sheriff. "So you're asking me to tell you what I wouldn't not tell you?" McCall asks him to just help. "Well, I don't know how to help you help me tell you something that would help you if I don't know it." McCall knows that Stiles is being purposefully confusing, but Stiles just asks if he can leave. 

 

McCall asks Stiles where Scott is. And Isaac Lahey and Allison Argent and Ethan and Aiden. None of them showed up for school. There has been a lot of violence and several murders tied to the school. McCall says he doesn't know what's going on, but it's obviously serious. To drive home how serious, McCall points out again that the Sheriff is missing.

 

Stiles still won't talk. Agent McCall doesn't want Stiles going home alone and asks if he has anyone he can go home with. "He's with me," someone says from the doorway. It's Dr. Deaton.

 

Lydia shows up at the loft, and Peter answers the door. They stare at one another. He looks more terrified than she does and acts contrite as he lets her inside. "Derek, we have a visitor!"

 

Ms. Morrell is running through the dark woods with the twins on her tail. 

 

Deucalion and Scott are in the woods also. With his alpha vision, Deucalion sees a bright light glow and then die. Scott tells him it was a firefly. "Unusual for this region," Deucalion says. It's the second time someone has pointed out how odd the fireflies are. Scott asks him if it's because of Jennifer. The animals started acting weird just before she started killing people. Duke suggests that maybe animals can sense supernatural disasters as well as natural ones. 

 

Scott asks Duke if Jennifer scares him. He replies that she concerns him because she's willing to kill so many innocent people. "Are you willing to kill innocent people?" Scott asks. "I'll kill any living thing that gets in my way," Duke replies. 

 

Lydia is incredulous that Peter doesn't know where the nemeton is. Peter admits that they have been there, "but after a few memorable experiences there, Talia--Derek's mother and my older sister--decided that she didn't ever want us going back." Talia took the memory of the location of the nemeton from them. 

 

Ms. Morrell is still trying to get away from the twins. She runs into a clearing and then throws up a mountain ash circle around herself. The twins throw themselves against it and bounce off. Kali joins the fight. 

 

Deucalion walks into the clearing and wants to know how Ms. Morrell knew they'd come for her. She says that she and Jennifer are the same and that she knew Deucalion had always been suspicious of emissaries. Kali adds that it's with good reason, because she sent Braeden to get Isaac. Ms. Morrell maintains that she did that to maintain balance. She then turns to Scott and tells him that this isn't him. 

 

Ms. Morrell tells Scott to go back to his friends. Duke replies that Scott can make decisions for himself. She asks Duke if he's told Scott everything he's done. "How you've piled up bodies in a narcissistically psychotic effort to form your perfect pack? Bodies that include Ennis, by the way." Morrell looks at the pack as she says this and explains that Ennis was alive when Deucalion went in to see him. 

 

Duke brushes off her speech as lies told to try to save her life. Morrell challenges the other wolves to ask Duke if she's telling the truth. Duke takes his cane and throws the blade into Ms. Morrell's chest.

 

As she falls, she breaks the mountain ash circle. Scott rushes to her side. The rest of the wolves move to attack, but Scott tells them to back off. He pulls the cane out and tosses it aside, assuring Morrell that he's not going to let the pack kill her. He asks her if she knows something that could help, and she tells him to find the nemeton.

 

In the root cellar, Chris continues to struggle against his bonds. The Sheriff tells him that while he doesn't want to kill his optimism, they've already been trying that for hours. He asks Chris if he's ever been tied up before. "Many times." "What, is that, uh, part of being a Werewolf hunter?" Chris realizes that the Sheriff knows about the supernatural and Melissa smiles at him, admitting that she tried to fill him in on as much as she could. 

 

The Sheriff says that he was starting to feel left out.

 

"You knew. I remember meeting you once, before you were Sheriff. You questioned me about a body. You knew something was up. You just weren't ready to believe it," Chris says. The Sheriff admits that he's right. There was a night 8 years ago, in 2003, the night his wife died. (NOTE: Her medical file says she died in 2004, not 2003.) He was at the end of a shift when a call came in. There had been a pile-up and a young woman--a teenager--was trapped in an overturned car. He knew they were never going to be able to get her out in time, but he was able to hold her hand. She knew she was going to die, but he kept telling her to hold on for the paramedics. Then suddenly she gripped his hand so tightly he thought she was going to break the bones and looked him in the eye and said, "If you wanna be with her, go, now."

 

Chris and Melissa listen quietly. He looks at Melissa as he says that he knew the girl was talking about his wife. But the logical part of his brain told him that that wasn't possible, so he stayed, until they pulled her out and she died. 

 

When he finally got to the hospital, he saw Stiles sitting in the waiting room with his head in his hands. Stiles was with Claudia when she died, but the Sheriff wasn't. "I wasn't with her because I didn't believe," he says. 

 

Everyone is gathered in the Animal Clinic. They figure the nemeton has to be on a telluric current, or maybe even at the point where two cross. Stiles explains that he only knows that it's where Derek took Paige to die. Allison adds that her father and Gerard were there once, but it was years ago and Gerard couldn't remember where it was. 

 

Deaton tells them that there might be a way to find it, but it's dangerous and they're going to need Scott.

 

Scott agrees to meet them in the woods. He asks how they found out about the nemeton. "Lydia," Stiles says. Scott says that none of the other alphas know where the nemeton is either. Stiles asks whether he'll tell them if their plan works. "I can't stop Jennifer without them," Scott replies. 

 

Deaton suggests that they focus on one thing at a time. The plan is that Scott, Stiles, and Allison will be surrogate sacrifices for their parents. "We die for them?" Scott asks. "But he can bring us back," Stiles adds, and then looks at Deaton to make sure. "You can bring us back, right?" Deaton reminds him that he said this was going to be dangerous. If everything goes right, they'll be dead for a few seconds. "You'll be giving power back to the nemeton, a place that hasn't had power for a long time. This kind of power is like a magnet. It attracts the supernatural, the kind of things that a family like the Argents can fill the pages of a bestiary with." 

 

Stiles thinks that that doesn't sound any worse than what they've already seen. "You'd be surprised at what you have yet to see," Deaton says. 

 

Deaton also explains that they will feel effects themselves. "It'll be a kind of a darkness around your heart, and permanent, like a scar." 

 

In the root cellar, Chris manages to get a sonic emitter out of his pocket. Only Werewolf can hear it. Usually they use it to push Werewolf away, but Chris is hoping that if the wolves can hear it it will attract them. He hits the button, and they all start looking around, hopeful.

 

Derek sits at Cora's beside, looking worried. She coughs. Derek tells Peter that he's got to do it now. "I don't have a choice." "You always have a choice. It's whether or not you can live with the consequences--facing Kali as a beta." Derek points out that it's not just a full moon coming, it's a lunar eclipse. All the werewolves will be powerless.

 

At the clinic, Deaton prepares three ice baths. There are herbs in the baths as well. Deaton asks them all what they brought. Stiles holds up his father's badge. Jennifer crushed it, but he hammered it out a bit. He apologizes for it not looking too great. "It doesn't need to look good if it has meaning," Deaton tells him. 

 

Allison has one of her dad's silver bullets. "My dad made it. It's kind of a ceremonial thing. When one of us finishes learning all the kills to be a hunter, we forge a silver bullet as a testament to the Code." 

 

Scott has his mother's watch. His dad got it for his mom when she first got hired at the hospital. "She used to say it was the only thing in her marriage that ever worked." 

 

Deaton explains that they will each get in a tub and be held down until they're dead. But the person holding them under needs to be a tether who can pull them back, someone with a strong connection to them. Lydia looks at Allison and takes a step toward her, but Deaton tells her to go with Stiles instead. 

 

Allison and Scott look at one another, and Allison asks how they can both go under. She's trying to hide having a connection to Isaac, but Scott tells them both that it's okay. 

 

Allison steps in first and huffs at the cold. Stiles climbs in next, then Scott. Stiles looks at Scott. "By the way, if I don't make it back and you do, you should probably know something. You dad's in town." Scott doesn't say anything.

 

Agent McCall is in Scott's room. He picks up A Tale of Two Cities and tears up as he looks around his son's room.

 

Derek brushes Cora's hair from her face. He takes her hand in his and draws out her pain with both hands. His eyes flash red, and he cries out in pain. As he roars, his eyes go from red to blue. 

 

Scott, Stiles, and Allison all look at one another. Scott nods, and they all go under. Scott's eyes open and flash yellow.