Teen Wolf recap – Season 3, Episode 11: Alpha Pact (2024)

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Derek is exactly where we left him last episode: unconscious in a hospital elevator. Stiles hits him in the face repeatedly. Derek finally wakes and Stiles quickly fills him in: Ms Blake/the Darach is gone and she took Mama McCall to be one of her human sacrifices. And if that’s not enough of a kick to the balls, Scott’s joined up with Deucalion to try and save his mum and Stiles’s dad from being killed. No word on Cora’s condition. Last time we saw her, she was unconscious and dying. The police are on their way and Derek has to get the hell out of the hospital.

Derek meets up with Isaac, Cora, and the Argents. Peter wasn’t keen on hanging out with the Argents since he murdered a lot of people in season 1, including Chris’s sister/Allison’s aunt. He runs off into the night to avoid the awkwardness. Derek transfers Cora out of Chris’s car and into his own as he tells them that Mama McCall was taken and, more reluctantly, where Scott is.

Stiles waits at the hospital to hold off the cops. It’s not his dad’s deputies that show up, though. This is the FBI (it’s about time you guys started paying attention to the high ratio of serial killers in this town). Stiles does not look at all happy when he sees one abnormally tall dude walking towards him.

TALL FBI GUY: A Stilinski at the centre of this whole mess. What a shocker. Think you can answer some questions without the usual level of sarcasm?

STILES: If you can ask the questions without the usual level of stupid.

Tall FBI Guy wants to know where Sheriff Stilinski is, why no one’s been able to contact him, and if Sheriff is drinking like he used to. Stiles bristles at the question and promises to give his dad a field sobriety test next time he sees him. They’ll do the alphabet, starting with F and ending with U.

Stiles says he has no idea what happened at the hospital because he was stuck in the elevators the whole time. Tall FBI Guy wants to know if Stiles is the one that put the name on the elevator doors.

Down the hall, elevator doors slide closed, slowly revealing one name: ARGENT.

TITLE SEQUENCE

Derek takes Cora back to the loft. She’s coughing weakly and there’s black blood on her lips. Derek has no idea what to do. Isaac gives Derek a lecture about how Scott and Stiles were out trying to stop people from being killed and Derek was busy having sexy times with the villain. (Which technically, I guess, would stop Ms Blake from killing people … you know, for a little while.) Erica and Boyd are both dead and Cora’s dying. Isaac’s the only Beta left and he’s losing it.

ISAAC: Why did you do this to us, Derek? Was it all about the power? Were you bored? Were you lonely?

DEREK: Maybe.

Derek is making good on his promise not to leave Cora. He’ll help the others when he can figure out how to save his sister. There’s no time. The full moon’s coming and Sheriff and Mama McCall are going to be killed. Isaac’s going to try and help them. Derek can sit in his loft and perfect the art of doing nothing.

Peter, who’s been sitting on the loft stairs this whole time and listening quietly, tells Derek not to take it personally. Isaac is just using his anger as a tool to excuse shifting allegiance from one Alpha to another—from Derek to Scott. Scott may not be an Alpha yet but he’s well on his way.

Stiles joins the Argents at their apartment. Allison is worried her father is the next guardian on the Darach’s list, since he’s the only parent or guardian left in the main cast. Plus there’s the fact that someone spray-painted their surname on the elevator doors in large block letters. Allison thinks it might have been a warning from Ms Morrell.

The lunar eclipse is only two nights away. In case you’ve forgotten, that’s when Ms Blake/the Darach is planning to finish up her evil plan. The werewolves will be powerless during the eclipse, which means Ms Blake will be free to take out the Alpha pack responsible for nearly killing her.

Chris doesn’t think Mama McCall and Sheriff will have been killed yet and urges Stiles not to give up hope. If Chris is going to be taken, he won’t go easy. He has a big gun (not a euphemism) and while Ms Blake has proved her ability to heal in the past, he doesn’t think she’d be able to heal well if half her skull were blown off. That’s enough to pull Stiles out of his funk.

Stiles, Allison, and Chris use the telluric current map to figure out where sacrifices might take place. Since Ms Blake didn’t succeed in sacrificing Deaton, it’s possible she’ll try to use the Beacon Hills First National Bank vault again.

Allison suggests asking Lydia for help. Stiles mentions her uncanny ability to find dead bodies without actually looking for them.

CHRIS: What, is she psychic?

STILES: She’s something.

Obviously Lydia didn’t fill everyone in on the surprise banshee news after her near-death experience.

The next morning, Chris and Allison start pulling out their many, many weapons. They’re retired but not defenceless. Chris tells Stiles to keep his phone on; in the unlikely event that he hears from Scott, Chris wants to know immediately. He reminds Allison and Stiles that Scott is only doing what he thinks is right.

Isaac rocks up to the party 15 minutes late with Starbucks. He can’t use a gun or shoot a crossbow but he has a werewolf manicure that could probably kill someone.

Cora is struggling to breathe. Derek takes her arm and draws out some of her pain but Peter warns him to be careful. He’s heard that by somehow drawing on that Alpha ‘spark’, Alphas can sometimes save pack members. But it could just as easily kill Derek. Of course, Derek wants to know how it’s done.

We’ve recently been reminded that Peter is a dirty liar and I feel like this is all part of some evil scheme. Peter’s sly look seems to back up this theory. He tells Derek that he needs to take Cora’s pain … and then some. There’s a cost to this process.

Lydia gets ready for school. I’m not sure what spin she put on the ‘I was nearly strangled by my English teacher’ story but Mama Martin pulls out makeup to help cover the bruising left by Ms Blake’s garrotte. Lydia stops her.

LYDIA: Someone tried to strangle me and I survived. I don’t need to hide that.

Mama Martin agrees and they smile at each other in the mirror. There’s something about Lydia’s smile here that seems different—more genuine than her usual smiles, like she’s truly happy right now.

Chris, Allison, and Isaac check out the bank vault. It’s empty. Chris pulls out his Taser/lightsaber thing.

ISAAC: I thought you only used those on werewolves.

CHRIS: I do.

He turns plunges the Taser into Isaac’s stomach. Isaac falls to the ground, twitching from the electricity. Chris pulls out handcuffs and secures Allison to the vault bars, telling Allison to trust him.

CHRIS: I knew for a long time she didn’t just operate on the currents. She was in sync with them.

Chris drops his gun to the ground and Ms Blake steps into the bank vault. Chris stands there, defenceless and waiting to be taken as a sacrifice.

Stiles fills Lydia in on the recent events. Lydia wants to help but doesn’t know how to use her abilities as a human Geiger counter for death. Ms Blake was surprised to find out that Lydia was a banshee. What if her banshee abilities wasn’t the real reason for wanting Lydia dead?

In the bank vault, Isaac has recovered enough to help break the links on Allison’s handcuffs. Chris is gone. Allison doesn’t understand why her dad sacrificed himself and she’s suddenly certain that the guardians will be killed. Isaac pulls her into a hug as Allison tries not to cry.

Now that Derek is ready to put his life on the line to save Cora, Peter plays devil’s advocate to make sure that his plan isn’t too obvious. Derek doesn’t care about losing his power anymore but he’d also be losing the ability to fight back when Kali comes calling to fulfil her ultimatum on tomorrow night’s full moon. If Derek couldn’t beat Kali as an Alpha, how will he fare as a Beta?

PETER: What if this was exactly what Jennifer was hoping for? She would know the only way for you to save Cora would be giving up your power. Maybe that’s what she was going to have you do at the hospital.

DEREK: Why?

PETER: 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. She needs you on her side.

Are we still talking about Ms Blake, though, Peter? Because your face before pretty much told me this was all part of your plan. Are you going to try and steal Derek’s Alpha power so that the tables turn and he needs your protection?

At school, Aiden isn’t texting Lydia back. Stiles gets a text from Isaac about Ms Blake taking Chris. She’s got all three guardians now. Lydia tries to tell Stiles that they still have time but Stiles can barely hear her. His vision is blurry and he’s having trouble breathing. He’s having a panic attack.

Chris wakes up in the root cellar. Despite willingly going with Ms Blake, he still has a head wound because Ms Blake can’t play nice. Sheriff Stilinski and Mama McCall are still in the cellar, and still alive. Chris looks around and laughs weakly, recognising where they’re being kept. He wiggles around in his ropes and Sheriff tells him that Ms Blake took Chris’s ankle knife, and the knife that’s in his sleeve, and the switchblade in his other sleeve.

Ms Blake opens the hatch to the root cellar, letting sunlight in. She tells Chris that she confiscated the Taser in his jacket pocket as well. Chris stops struggling as Ms Blake comes down the stairs and moves to wipe the blood from his face as if she’s not responsible for it.

Ms Blake comments on the Argent WEREWOLF HUNTER code: We hunt those who hunt us. She’d like to borrow it for a while since she’s been hunted herself. Chris isn’t keen on being lumped in with her; he doesn’t kill innocent people.

MS BLAKE: That’s why they call it a sacrifice. And I wish it worked another way but think about what you’re doing. You are making this town—even this world—safer for your children. Well, most of them.

She turns to look at Mama McCall. No werewolves allowed in the safety club.

Lydia helps Stiles into the empty locker room. He’s hyperventilating and Lydia’s efforts to get him thinking about other things aren’t helping.

LYDIA: Happy things. Good things. Friends, family—I mean, not family. Oh, God. Okay. Just try and slow your breathing.

Stiles can’t slow his breathing. Lydia puts her hands on Stiles’s face, forcing him to look at her. His breathing is still ragged and on impulse Lydia leans in and kisses him. When she pulls away, Stiles’s breathing has calmed. It takes a moment for Lydia to open her eyes again.

STILES: How’d you do that?

LYDIA: I—I read once that holding your breath can stop a panic attack so when I kissed you … you held your breath.

STILES: I did?

LYDIA: Yeah. You did.

STILES: Thanks. That was really smart.

Lydia lets out a quiet, awkward laugh.

Let me level with you: I’m not sure that logic works. I have read things and I don’t think that just holding your breath will stop a panic attack. I think Lydia was trying to take Stiles’s mind off the current situation and kissing him was the only thing she could think of. And I think, judging by her face when she pulled away, she wasn’t expecting to feel something—even a tiny something—when she kissed Stiles. I also think that Stiles, who is another really smart person, might realise the faulty logic as well and maybe he just doesn’t want to call her on it. Don’t talk to me. My OTP just kissed for the first time.

Lydia says that if she were really smart, she’d tell Stiles to sign up for a few sessions with the guidance counsellor. Which would probably be handy anyway, since Ms Morrell knows things because she’s a cryptic emissary.

Stiles and Lydia race into the guidance office and find SASSY NATIONAL TREASURE GIRL waiting for Ms Morrell. (Based on episode 2, I’m pretty sure Sassy National Treasure Girl goes to a different school but, since I love her, I’m going to carry on ignoring that.)

Stiles recognises Sassy National Treasure Girl as Danielle, Heather’s best friend (she has a name!).

DANIELLE: I was Heather’s best friend. We’ve been working on that issue three times a week.

Ms Morrell is 20 minutes late to Danielle’s session, which is highly unusual. She was never late for Lydia’s guidance sessions either. That means she’s not late: she’s missing.

Wanting to know what Ms Morrell knows, Stiles starts rooting through her desk drawers. Danielle yells at him, saying that those files are private. Stiles pulls out Lydia’s file and Danielle forgets all about the privacy thing so she can lean in and see it.

While Lydia’s leafing through the file, one of her drawings falls out. Stiles recognises it.

STILES: It’s the same one I always see you drawing in class.

LYDIA: It’s a tree. I like drawing trees.

STILES: No, but it’s the exact same one. Don’t you see?

Stiles pulls Lydia’s notebook out of her bag. The drawings match up almost perfectly. Page after page in Lydia’s note book is filled with drawings of the same tree.

DANIELLE: Okay, you can have my session. You have bigger issues.

She leaves. Stiles keeps flicking through the notebook, coming up with all trees and no class notes. On a hunch, he turns the drawing upside down. It’s not a tree but a root system.

They leave the guidance office. Stiles thinks the guardians have to be being held at the Nemeton. Before they can get far, Tall FBI Guy calls out to Stiles from down the hall. Stiles tells Lydia to go Derek ask about the location of the root cellar.

Lydia leaves and Tall FBI Guy strolls up to talk more about Sheriff Stilinski. Sheriff’s car is in the school parking lot and has been since last night. That means he’s officially missing. Tall FBI Guy asks Stiles more questions in an empty classroom and Stiles does his best to confuse Tall FBI Guy with nonsense sentences. Since his dad is missing and none of his friends showed up to school, Tall FBI Guy doesn’t want Stiles going home alone. He asks if Stiles has anyone to stay with tonight.

Deaton shows up in the doorway ominously and tells Tall FBI Guy that Stiles is with him.

The door of Derek’s loft opens and Lydia finds herself face-to-face with Peter for the first time since his resurrection. Lydia is not impressed and Peter looks a little bashful at his past actions.

Ms Morrell runs through the woods. In the distance, wolves howl. The twins are chasing her, parkouring through the woods and tracking her by scent. Deucalion and Scott are hanging out together, presumably waiting for Ms Morrell to be caught.

Deucalion uses his heat vision to fixate on a bright light. Scott tells him it’s a firefly. It’s unusual for this region but Scott thinks it’s because of Ms Blake. Just before all this Darach business started, animals were acting weird (deer crashing into Lydia’s car, suicidal birds, cats at the animal clinic going crazy). Deucalion wonders if animals can sense supernatural disasters like they do natural disasters.

Deucalion isn’t scared of Ms Blake but he’s concerned that she’s willing to kill so many innocent people for her cause.

SCOTT: Are you willing to kill innocent people?

DEUCALION: I’ll kill any living thing that gets in my way.

Derek isn’t dead from trying to heal his sister yet but he and Peter are useless. Talia Hale took the memory of the root cellar’s location from them ‘after a few memorable experiences’ (which I assume means ‘accidentally getting Derek’s teenage girlfriend killed by a werewolf bite’). It seems it was done in much the same way Peter accessed some of Isaac’s memories earlier in the season (claws to the back of the neck). (Also, Talia Hale is Peter’s older sister, not his sister-in-law. No idea what Derek’s dad was called or who he was. Not that it matters.)

Ms Morrell comes to a clearing in the woods and throws up mountain ash. It drops into a ring around her, protecting her from the werewolves. Ethan and Aiden are thrown off the force field. Kali jumps through the trees to join them. Deucalion and Scott arrive in the clearing.

Ms Morrell knew that the werewolves would come after her: Deucalion has always been suspicious of the emissaries and what they can do. Kali points out they have reason to be suspicious: Ms Morrell was the one who sent Saviour Girl to help Isaac. Ms Morrell says that the girl’s name was Braeden and she sent her to do what Ms Morrell has always done: maintain balance.

Ms Morrell knows nothing more about Ms Blake than the Alphas do. She tells Scott that he can’t decide who to hang out with if he doesn’t have all the information. Ms Morrell tells the group that Ennis was alive when Deucalion went to see him; this is all part of Deucalion’s plan to send Kali after Derek and force his decision. If Derek joins the pack, it paves the way for Scott.

DEUCALION: The lies people will tell when they’re begging for their life.

MS MORRELL: Ask him.

No one has a chance to ask Deucalion anything. He throws his white cane into Ms Morrell’s chest like a spear, impaling her. She stumbles backwards, out of the safety of the mountain ash ring.

The Alphas move in but Scott places himself protectively over Ms Morrell and tells them to back off. He pulls the cane out of her chest. He won’t let the Alphas kill her. Ms Morrell tells him to find the Nemeton. Find that, and he’ll find Ms Blake.

The root cellar looks like it’s in the middle of nowhere. Also, the hatch is pretty easy to see. I don’t know why the WEREWOLF HUNTERS never checked down there when they were looking for Derek and Peter back in the day.

Chris is still trying to struggle out of his bindings. Sheriff asks if being tied up a lot comes with the WEREWOLF HUNTER territory. Mama McCall gives Chris a cheeky grin; she’s filled Sheriff in on as much as she can while they’ve been trapped in the root cellar.

SHERIFF: I was starting to feel a bit left out.

CHRIS: 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.

SHERIFF: You’re right. There was a night eight years ago—the night my wife died. I was at the end of a shift and a call came in. There’d been a pileup and a young woman—she was a teenager, actually. She was trapped under an overturned car. We had to wait for the paramedics. We were never getting her out. But I was able to hold her hand.

She knew she was going to die. I just kept telling her, ‘No, no. Listen, the paramedics are on their way.’ And I remember her hand suddenly gripped mine so tightly that I—I literally thought she was going to break the bones. And she looked me in the eye and she said, ‘If you want to be with her, go now.’ And I knew she was talking about my wife.

But then that other part of my brain—the part that looks for clues, for fingerprints, for logical connections—that part told me that there is no way that that girl could possibly know about Claudia and so I stayed. I stayed until the paramedics pulled her out. Until her heart stopped beating and they declared her dead.

When I finally got to the hospital, I saw Stiles sitting in the waiting room with his head in his hands. He was with Claudia when she died but I wasn’t. I wasn’t with her because I didn’t believe. I just did not believe.

Stiles, Lydia, Allison, Isaac, and Deaton are all gathered at the animal clinic. They’re trying to work out the location of the Nemeton. It has to be on a telluric current but they don’t know where. Allison’s psycho grandfather, Gerard, went there once but it was years ago and he can’t remember where it is. Deaton might have a way to find the Nemeton but it’s dangerous. And they’re going to need Scott.

Scott meets up with Deaton and Stiles in the woods. None of the other Alphas know where the Nemeton is but if Deaton’s plan works then Scott will have to tell them; he can’t stop Ms Blake without the Alphas.

Deaton’s plan involves Scott, Stiles, and Allison acting as surrogate sacrifices for their parents. They die but Deaton can bring them back (probably).

If it goes right, the three of them will be dead for a few seconds but there’s something else they need to think about: their sacrifice will be giving power back to the Nemeton, which hasn’t had power for a long time. The Nemeton’s power is like a beacon and it will attract the supernatural—the kind of things that a family like the Argents can fill the pages of a bestiary with. (Basically, Beacon Hills will be a Hellmouth.)

But wait! There’s more! It will also have an effect on Scott, Stiles, and Allison. They won’t see it but they’ll feel it. Every day for the rest of their lives, there’ll be a kind of permanent darkness around their hearts like a scar.

SCOTT: Like a tattoo.

No, Scott. Like a gross, ugly scar full of darkness caused by the supernatural. Stop finding justification for your damn tattoo.

In all his twisting, Chris manages to grab an ultrasonic emitter out of … somewhere. Who knows where he had that thing hiding? It’s a smaller version of the ultrasonic emitters we’ve seen in the past. Only werewolves will be able to hear it. Chris presses down on the button, hoping the sound will attract the werewolves.

In the loft, Cora is looking crappy and Derek is ready to try and heal her. Peter reminds him that there’s always a choice. This is about whether he can live with the consequences like facing Kali as a Beta. Derek reminds Peter that it’s not just a full moon coming; this is a lunar eclipse and they’ll all be powerless.

Deaton’s plan involves ice baths laced with mistletoe berries. Scott, Stiles, and Allison each have a meaningful token belonging to their parents.

Stiles has his father’s badge, which he tried to hammer out after Ms Blake crushed it. It’s still a bit worse for wear.

Allison has an actual silver bullet of her father’s. For the Argents, it’s a ceremonial thing. When one of them finishes learning all the skills to be a WEREWOLF HUNTER, they forge a silver bullet as a testament to the code.

Scott has his mother’s watch. It was a present from Scott’s dad when Mama McCall first started working at the hospital. Mama McCall jokes that it’s the only thing in her marriage that ever worked.

It’s time for the ice baths. Deaton, Isaac, and Lydia will hold the others down until they’re, well, dead.

DEATON: But it’s not just someone to hold you under. It needs to be someone who can pull you back—someone that has a strong connection to you. A kind of emotional tether.

Lydia automatically walks toward Allison. Deaton tells Lydia to go with Stiles. That’s right, guys. Even Deaton has you as his OTP.

Allison reminds Deaton that she and Scott both have to go under. Allison looks at Isaac and then at Scott. Scott, a little choked up, gives Allison and Isaac’s budding chemistry his approval. That leaves Scott with Deaton.

Allison, Stiles, and Scott strip out of most of their layers. Scott and Stiles just get in wearing their shirts and jeans. Allison is wearing a slip thing. They step into their individual tubs. Stiles looks over at Scott.

STILES: By the way, if I don’t make it back and you do, you should probably know something. Your dad’s in town.

Excuse you. Does that mean Tall FBI Guy is Scott’s dad? Well, the scene of Tall FBI Guy sitting in Scott’s room and looking teary-eyed seems like a pretty strong indicator of fatherhood or stalker tendencies.

In the loft, Derek takes one of Cora’s hands in both of his own and starts drawing out her pain. The pain travels up his arms in black veins and Cora’s eyes open. Derek’s eyes glow red and then, as he throws his head back in a silent scream, his eyes fade to blue. Peter watches from the background.

Deaton, Lydia, and Isaac seize Scott, Stiles, and Allison by the shoulders and push them under the water. Scott’s eyes burst open, glowing gold.

END OF EPISODE