Stiles is in the counselor's office talking with Ms. Morrell.
"You know when you're drowning, you don't actually inhale until right before you black out. It's called voluntary apnea. It's like no matter how much you're freaking out, the instinct to not let any water in is so strong that you won't open your mouth until you feel like your head's exploding. But then when you finally do let it in, that's when it stops hurting. It's not scary anymore. It's - it's actually kind of peaceful."
"You seemed to research a lot of that." Laura noted, Stiles just nodded.
"Are you saying you hope Matt felt some peace in his last moments?"
"I don't feel sorry for him."
"Can you feel sorry for the nine - year - old Matt who drowned?"
"Just because a bunch of dumbasses dragged him into a pool when he couldn't swim doesn't really give him the right to go off killing them one by one. And by the way, my dad told me that they found a bunch of pictures of Allison on Matt's computer. And not just of her though. I mean, he photoshopped himself into these pictures. Stuff like them holding hands and kissing. You know, like he had built this whole fake relationship. So yeah, maybe drowning when he was nine years old was what sent him off the rails, but the dude was definitely riding the crazy train."
"I agree with Stiles." Liam said. Everyone nodded. Allison shivered as she remembered Matt's obsession with her.
"One positive thing came out of this, though. Right?" We start to see scenes of the people that Stiles is talking about.
Talking about his dad, "Yeah. Yeah, but I still feel like there's something wrong between us. I don't know. It's just like tension when we talk. Same thing with Scott."
"Have you talked to him since that night?"
"No, not really. I mean, he's got his own problems to deal with though."
Scott's mom runs to her room, "Mom. Mom, we're gonna have to talk about this eventually. Okay. I'm going. I love you."
"So, I had a little trouble in the beginning. That's normal when you just find out that your son is a supernatural creature. I get over it." She says to the people who were looking at her.
"I don't think he's talked to Allison either. But that might be more her choice, you know. Her mom dying hit her pretty hard. But I guess it brought her and her dad closer. Jackson? Jackson hasn't really been himself lately. Actually the funny thing is, as of right now, Lydia is the one who seems the most normal." It shows Allison and her father getting closer to where Derek is staying.
"And what about you, Stiles? Feeling some anxiety about that championship game tomorrow night?" Stiles is nervously messing with his lacrosse stick.
They all laugh at his reaction.
"Why would you ask me that? Ah. Uh, no. I - I never actually play. But hey, since one of my teammates is dead and another one's missing, who knows, right?"
"You mean, Isaac. One of the three runaways. You haven't heard from any of them, have you?"
"How come you're not taking any notes on this?"
"I do my notes after the session."
"Your memory's that good?"
"How about we get back to you? Stiles?"
"I'm fine. Yeah, aside from the not sleeping, the jumpiness, the constant, overwhelming, crushing fear that something terrible's about to happen."
"It's called hyper - vigilance, the persistent feeling of being under threat."
"But it's not just a feeling, though. It's - it's like it's a panic attack. You know, like I can't even breathe."
"Like you're drowning?"
"Yeah."
"So if you're drowning, and you're trying to keep your mouth closed until that very last moment, what if you choose to not open your mouth? To not let the water in?"
"You do anyway. It's a reflex." Stiles states.
"But if you hold off until that reflex kicks in, you have more time, right?"
"Not much time."
"But more time to fight your way to the surface?"
"I guess."
"More time to be rescued?"
"More time to be in agonizing pain. I mean, did you forget about the part where you feel like your head's exploding?"
"If it's about survival, isn't a little agony worth it?"
"But what if it just gets worse? What if it's agony now and then - and it's just hell later on?"
"Then think about something Winston Churchill once said - 'If you're going through hell, keep going.'"
"That is some good advice, I think." Scott said with some people in the group agreeing with him.
Scott gets out of the shower and hears a turns around and sees the kanima up in the corner of the room with his tail around Melissa. Gerard is there to show that he is now in control of the kanima. Scott takes out his claws. Scott asks him to let his mother go, Gerard says it depends on him. He tells Scott that he wants Derek and his pack. Scott says they are in hiding so he doesn't know where they are. Gerard says that with the proper motivation he can devise a plan and the kanima helps him with that. He can control the kanima because he came to Beacon Hills, not to just bury his daughter, but to avenge her.
Chris shakes his head at Gerard's idea of avenging Kate. He didn't even do anything to try to avenge her until he got what he wanted.
The kanima drops Melissa and they leave. Melissa begs Scott to do what Gerard wants. Scott explains that it isn't going to be that easy.
Erica and Boyd are waling through the woods. Erica tells him that Derek wants them back before sun up. Boyd stops her because he hears something. It turns out to sound like other wolves or werewolves.
Derek is in the Hale house, looking through some old books when Boyd and Erica show up and he sees that they have decided what they are going to do. He asks them when they are going to go. They decided during the game tonight. Erica says that since she just turned 16 she would like to get her driver's license and she can't do that if she is dead. Derek told them there would be a price to the bite, Boyd disagrees and tells him that they didn't know it would be this dangerous. Derek tells them that they need a pack to survive.
"They're just teenagers, it is a normal reaction." Talia said to everyone, but especially Derek who looked on in disbelief that his pack was leaving him.
Deaton and Scott are working with a dog when the door bell goes off and the dogs start going crazy. They look and see that it is Isaac. Seaton opens the gate for him to come in.
Boyd tells him about the howls that they heard. Derek tries to tell them that just two werewolves can make howls sound like there are twenty of them. Boyd and Erica are still going to go, Derek tells them that they are running and once they start they never stop. They leave. Derek is upset and turns around. He finds a broken shard of glass and throws it the next second. We see that Peter caught right on his throat, saying that he expected a warmer welcoming.
"Nice reflexes." Stiles said. Peter nodded to him.
Isaac is watching as Deaton treats a dog, he wonders about a small coming from the dog. Deaton and Scott smile at each other, before Deaton explains that he was able to smell which dogs were getting better and which were not. This dog was not getting better. Deaton asks Isaac to come closer asking if he has thought about what his abilities can do for others. He grabs Isaac's hand and places it on the dog, black veins crawl up his arm. He asks what that was and Scott tells him that he took the dogs pain. Isaac starts to cry and Scott tells him that he did the same thing the first time he took someone's pain.
The Hales laughed at that, Scott glared, "Oh, what are you saying? You didn't cry the first time you took some pain away from someone else?" That shut the Hales up rather quickly.
Peter walks around, "It's quite a situation you've got yourself in here, Derek. I mean, I'm out of commission for a few weeks and suddenly there's lizard people, geriatric psychopaths, and you're cooking up werewolves out of every self - esteem - deprived adolescent in town."
Some people chuckled at what Peter was summing up.
"What do you want?"
"Well, I want to help. You're my nephew. The only relative that I have left. You know, there's still a lot that I can teach you. Can we just talk?"
"Sure. Let's talk." They start to fight by Derek throwing him into the staircase.
"Harsh." Liam muttered.
"They're leaving tonight, during the game." Isaac tells Scott.
"So, why are you telling me?"
"I'm not telling you. I'm asking you. I'm asking for your advice."
"From me? Why?"
"Because I trust you."
"Why?"
"Because you always seem to want to do the right thing."
"I usually have no idea what I'm doing. Actually I always have no idea what I'm doing."
Stiles snorted while the others snickered at that.
"Hmm. Do you want to let me know what you're doing right now?"
"I'm not going anywhere if that's what you mean. I have too many people here who need me."
"Well, I guess that makes me lucky 'cause uh - 'cause I don't have anyone, so."
"Are you gonna go with them?"
"Yeah. Yeah, I think I will. Good luck with the game though."
"Well, thanks, but I'm not - I'm not going either. Can't even think about playing some meaningless game right now."
"You weren't at practice last week, were you?"
"No, I skipped it. Why?"
"Then you didn't hear?"
"Hear what?"
"Jackson was there."
"What do you mean "there"? Like, he was -"
"As if nothing had happened."
"Really? That means - the game tonight?"
"Yeah. He's playing."
"That's probably not a good thing." Sheriff mentioned.
Danny asks if Jackson is okay. Jackson replies that he is perfect, but he is asking about whether he is okay. Jackson's hasn't answered his texts all week. Jackson comes back to himself and tells Danny to stay in the goal tonight. He tells Danny that if he sees him coming to run the other way as fast as he can. Scott overhears this and is sure something is going to happen during the game.
"Well at least he is considerate of his best friend." Liam said. Jackson glared at him.
Melissa walks into the locker room, where Coach has a megaphone, "'Good morning. In less than an hour, aircraft from here will be joining others from around the world. And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind.'"
Melissa is confused, "What?"
"'Mankind - that word should have new meaning for all of us today.'"
"What the hell is he talking about?" Melissa asks Stiles.
"He does this every year."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah."
"'We are fighting for our right to live.'"
"Yeah!" from the whole room.
"Wait, is this?"
"Yeah, it's the speech from Independence Day."
"'But as the day the world declared in one voice - '"
"It's Coach's favorite movie."
"'We will not go quietly into the night!'"
"He doesn't know any sports speeches?"
"I don't think he cares."
"'Today we celebrate our Independence Day!'"
All the players, "Yeah!"
Everyone laughs at the Coach's speech.
Gerard comes in at the end of the speech and Melissa hides behind some players. Gerard lets the players know that Scott is benched. Gerard at the end says that he doesn't just want the team to beat the other, he wants them to murder the opposing team.
"That was a harsh message to give the team." Liam muttered.
Scott runs to the Coach and asks if he is benched. Coach tells him that he is failing three classes so he is benched.
Derek continues to beat up Peter, Peter tries to assure him that he doesn't want to be the alpha again. Derek continues to punch him when Peter tells him to keep doing it to beat out all the anger and self-loathing that comes from complete and utter failure. Peter tells Derek that he is already beaten, this causes Derek to stop hitting him and to just shove him away.
"That was mean Peter." Laura told him. Peter just shrugged.
Scott and Stiles are sitting on the bench, "Your dad coming?"
"Yeah, he's already here."
"You seen Allison?"
"No, you seen Lydia?"
"Not yet."
"You know what's going on?"
"Not yet."
"It's going to be bad, isn't it? I mean, like people screaming, running for their lives, blood, killing, maiming kind of bad?"
"Looks like it."
"Scott, the other night seeing my dad get hit over the head by Matt, you know, while I'm just lying there and I can't even move, it just - I want to help, you know, but I can't do the things that you can do. I can't -"
"It's okay."
"We're losing, dude."
The Coach comes up behind them, "The hell are you talking about? Game hasn't even started. Now put on your helmet and get out there. You're in for Greenberg."
"What? What happened to Greenberg?" Stiles asked staring out into the field.
"What happened to Greenberg? He sucks. You suck slightly less."
They laugh at the scales the coach does.
"I'm playing? On the field? With the team?"
"Yes, unless you'd rather play with yourself."
"I already did that today, twice."
"Gross!" The girls yelled at the same time, Stiles blushed.
"Get the hell out there!"
"Ah."
"Oh, no. Why is my son running out to the field?"
"Because he's on the team?" Melissa reminds him.
"He is."
"Mm - hmm."
"He's on the team. He's - he's on the field. My son is on the field!"
Everyone laughs at the sheriff's first reaction and they smile at his proclamation, happy for him.
"Oh, dear God."
"Scott, can you hear me? Ah, you can. Good. Then listen closely because the game is about to get interesting."
Chris and Allison are on some four wheelers riding through the woods. They stop to play a record of wolves howling. Boyd and Erica are hiding behind a tree realizing that they have been tricked.
Gerard is standing on the sidelines, "Let's put a real clock on this game, Scott. I'll give you until the last 30 seconds. When that scoreboard clock begins counting down from 30, if you haven't given me Derek, then Jackson is gonna kill someone. So tell me, Scott, who's gonna die tonight? Should it be your mother, who so bravely came out to support you? Or the sheriff, your best friend's father? Or how about the pretty little redhead who managed to survive the bite of an Alpha? Or maybe one of these innocent teenagers with their whole life ahead of them?"
"Oh, God." Stiles says.
"Or should I do everyone a favor and kill that ridiculous coach? It's up to you, Scott. But you are going to help me take Derek down. Because if you don't - I'll have Jackson rip someone's head off right in the middle of the field and drench everyone you love and care about in blood."
"Dude, Gerard is creepy and obviously a psychopath." Liam said to the room. Everyone else agreed with that assessment.
"See? Prime example right here. I'm not healing as fast. Coming back from the dead isn't easy, you know. I'm not as strong as I used to be. I need a pack. An Alpha like you. I need you as much as you need me." Peter complains as he examines his wounds.
"Why would I want help from a total psycho?"
"First of all, I'm not a total psycho. And by the way, you're the one that slashed my throat wide open. But we're all works in progress, right? So, we need each other. Sometimes when you need help, you turn to people you'd never expect."
Everyone chuckles at Peter's claim that he is not a total psycho.
They watch Stiles fail, "He's probably just warming up." Melissa reassures.
"Ooh, I got it, I got it, I got it. I got it, I got it."
Lydia, who is sitting next to them, says, "Oh, he's just a little nervous. Plenty of time to turn it around."
Stiles gets hit in the face, "Ow."
They all laugh at Stiles mishaps on the field.
Scott stands up to join the game, "Sit down, McCall." Coach says.
"But, coach, we're dying out there."
"Oh, I'm aware of that. Now sit."
Isaac sits down next to Scott, "You came to help."
"I came to win." Isaac said.
Erica and Boyd run from the Argents. They get to a clear when Allison shoots Erica in the leg. Boyd comes back to help her, but Erica tells him to run.
"You got a plan yet?" Isaac asks.
"No, right now it's pretty much just keep Jackson from killing anyone."
"Well, that might be easier if you're actually in the game. We have to make it so coach has no choice but to play you."
"How do we do that? He's got a bench full of guys he can use before he ever puts me on the field. Can you do it without putting anyone in the hospital?"
"I can try."
Isaac takes down his own team members, "Lahey!" Coach looks at his list, "Ramirez! You're in." Coach looks again, "Murphy. You're in." Coach is annoyed at Isaac, "Lahey! Seriously, what the hell is your problem?"
Everyone has snickered at Isaac's play and the Coach's reaction.
Allison is coming closer to Erica, she shoots to kill, but Boyd catches the arrow. Allison then aims at him and shoots him full of arrows while Erica screams and begs her to stop.
"It's not broken. But I can't move it. I think Jackson nicked me 'cause I can feel it spreading." Isaac tells Scott.
"You want to play chess, Scott? Then you better be willing to sacrifice your own pawns."
The EMT, "One, two, three."
"McCall. Either you're in or we forfeit."
Melissa runs up to Scott, "Hey, something's happening, isn't it? Something more than a lacrosse game?"
"You should go."
"Oh, I'm not going anywhere. And everything that I said before, forget it. All of it. Okay? If you can do something to help, then you do it. You have to."
"See, I changed my tune by the end." Melissa told them, Chris smiled at her.
"I will."
Erica is still begging Allison to stop. When she doesn't Chris has arrived and shot the bow out of her hands while Boyd collapses.
"Allison, you went total psycho in this scene." Cora told her. Allison smiled sheepishly as she knew how she behaved back then, it wasn't pretty.
At the game Scott and Stiles fall over as well.
Gerard tells Scott that the real prize is Allison. Gerard gets Derek and he will give Scott Allison.
Allison looks at the ruined bow and tells her dad that she owed her a new one. He looks concerned at her and says that she owes him an explanation. She doesn't think he did anything wrong. Chris tries to tell her that they catch, they don't kill and she came close to crossing the line. She doesn't seem to listen and calls Gerard calling him grandpa.
Isaac is crawling on the floor of the locker room, Gerard is following him with his broadsword. "It was a good effort, Isaac. It was. This would be so much more poetic if it were halftime." Isaac turns to look at him and starts to smile. Gerard turns to see what he is looking at and sees Scott standing there with his eyes glowing.
"The horrible kind of poetic." Talia mentions horrified at what almost happened.
"You tried to build your pack. You tried to prepare for the worst. You weren't ready. Because of it, Gerard is winning. He's taking his time. He's toying with Scott. He's going after your wolves, one by one. He's relishing in his victory."
"How about you tell me something I don't know?"
"Oh, I'm going to. And it's gonna prove why you should trust me. Why you need to trust me. Because I'm going to tell you how to stop Jackson."
"What do you mean? Know how to kill him?"
"Always trying to kill the enemy, you had that in common with Derek." Scott tells Malia. Derek looks over at Malia. She nodded her head, "I used to think that the bad guy or whoever was causing the problem should just be killed." She tells everyone. They look at her weirdly.
Peter smiles, "Actually, how to save him."
Coach looks around, "McCall! Where's McCall?"
Stiles sees the ball roll to his feet while the other players are looking for it. He picks it up and starts running. "Oh, oh, oh. Ah!"
"Oh, crap."
Stiles doesn't know what to do when he gets to the goal, "Stilinski! Shoot it. Shoot the ball! Shoot it, you idiot!" Coach yells at him.
Lydia screams, "Shoot it!"
Stiles shoots and scores, "I scored a goal? I scored a goal! I scored a goal!"
They all laugh at his excitement for scoring a goal.
Scott has beaten the hunters, but notices Gerard is missing, "Where is he?"
"Yeah!" Sheriff exclaims as Stiles scores and scores.
"There's a myth that you can cure a werewolf simply by calling out its Christian name." Peter tells Derek.
"It's just a myth."
"Sometimes myths and legends bear a hint of truth. Our name is a symbol of who we are. The kanima has no identity. That's why it doesn't seek a pack."
"It seeks a master."
"And who else grows up with no pack? No identity?"
"An orphan."
"Like Jackson. And right now, his identity is disappearing beneath a reptilian skin and you need to bring him back."
"How?"
"Through his heart. How else?"
"You know, in case you hadn't noticed, Jackson doesn't really have too much of a heart to begin with."
Jackson glared at Derek.
"Not true. He'd never admit it, but there is one person. One young lady with whom Jackson shared a real bond. One person who can reach him. Who can save him."
"Lydia."
"Your best ally has always been anger, Derek, but what you lack most is a heart. That's why you've always known that you need Scott more than anyone. And even somebody as burned and dead on the inside as me knows better than to underestimate the simple yet undeniable power of human love." We see Stiles looking at Lydia and her smiling at him.
"So, Lydia can save Jackson? How?" Cora asks.
Scott comes out with 30 seconds on the board, wondering what was going to happen. "We did it. We won!" Coach yells.
"Yes." Lydia screams as Stiles scores more points.
"Yeah!"
"Nothing happened. Nothing."
The lights go out and then screaming is heard. Scott hears his mother, "Scott! Scott, where are you? Scott!"
"Mom, mom, mom, mom. Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, I'm fine. But somebody is hurt. Somebody is down on the field."
Coach comes running, "Get out of the way. Move. Back off! Move."
"Jackson? What's happened to Jackson? Jackson! Jackson! Jackson, what's happening?" Lydia comes running up worried.
"Can we get a medic over here? We're gonna need a medic!" Melissa comes over.
"He's not breathing. No pulse."
"Nothing?"
"Nothing." Melissa confirms.
"Oh -"
"Oh, my God. There's blood. There's blood."
"Look." Scott nudges Isaac.
They see stab wounds in his stomach, "He did it to himself."
"Get down here. Get down here and hold his head. Tilt it up." Melissa orders Lydia.
Sheriff starts looking around, "Stiles. Where's Stiles? Where - where's my son? Where's Stiles? Where's Stiles? Where's Stiles? Where the hell is my son?"
Jackson seemed stunned that he would stab himself. The others looked surprised that Gerard's plan was to kidnap Stiles.