In 1943 two soldiers are offloading the bodies of dead Americans into a field at night. Merrick is riddling Hayes.
"Whoa history lesson" Laura mumbled.
The riddles are:
Q. "What gets broken without being held?"
A. "A promise."
Q. "What has teeth but doesn't bite?"
A. "A comb."
Q. "What has a neck but no head?"
A. "A bottle."
Hayes is not amused. As they return to the truck to retrieve two gas cans, a bandaged figure stands up from the pile of bodies. Its mouth is a bloody gash with shiny silver teeth.
"So what? It's like the origin stories of the Nogitsune?" Isaac asked. "I guess" Stiles shrugged.
It begins advancing on them. Hayes fires a handgun into the creature several times but it never slows. Reaching the gun wielding man, the figure twists the weapon in his hand and fires several shots into the soldier's guts. It then rounds the truck to Merrick who is attempting to reach the safety of the cab. It grabs him by the ears and shouts "What has a neck but no head?" It then rips the soldier's head from his neck.
"He was...quite literal" Allison pulled a face.
On a Saturday afternoon, Mr. Yukimura is preparing his blackboard in the history classroom. He notices a fly buzzing around and, when it lands on his desk, he crushes it with a text book. Nogitsune/Stiles enters and comments on the teacher's dedication for working on the weekend. He is looking for Mrs. Yukimura's "tails" which are hidden inside a book in the classroom. The Nogitsune doesn't seem to understand how she was able to physically manifest her tails as daggers but he does know "the older the tail, the stronger the Oni" meaning the one she has left will summon the strongest of the demon warriors. Mr. Yukimura feigns ignorance but Stiles is confident that he will talk. He then lifts the textbook, the fly is alive and flies directly into Mr. Yukimura's mouth. He begins to cough and choke.
"Oh God I'm killing him!" Stiles gasps in horror. "That's not you. It's the nogitsune" Scott corrects him. Stiles nods a little but doesn't meet his eye.
In Kira's room, she and Scott examine a picture of a woman and man from 1943. The woman looks exactly like Kira and they speculate that it might be her grandmother. Scott relates how the picture came to him through Malia Tate. It was taken from the body in the wall in the basement of Eichen House along with a Katana and scabbard or Saya. Kira's phone buzzes with a text, it's her father. They rush to the school and find Kira's mom trying to comfort her husband who is still choking on the floor where Stiles left him. Kira has brought with her a small vial that her mother says contains "reishi" which Kira describes as "magic mushrooms." The fungus does the trick and within a couple of seconds Mr. Yukimura coughs up a black fluid and is fully recovered.
"Magic Mushroom" Derek snorted.
Mrs. Yukimura's first name is revealed for the first time as Noshiko. She says Stiles was after the last of her Kaiken or daggers but that she has kept the final one near her ever since Stiles first disappeared. Kira shows her the picture and asks if it is her grandmother. Noshiko admits that the picture is of her.
"THAT'S HER!?" Allison said in shock. "Damn need to ask her what she uses to stay so young" Lydia said to herself.
Back in 1943, Hayes, Merrick and Corporal Rhys are offloading supplies at Camp Oak Creek. They come up one crate of apples short and we see a young Noshiko Yukimura is deftly stealing the supplies from the truck unseen by the soldiers. Scott is confused. For Kira's mom to be in the photo in 1943, she would have to be "like 90 years old." Noshiko says her actual age is closer to 900 years old.
"900!? I knew kitsune's had long lives but that's just absurd" Talia mumbled.
Kira is shocked but rolling with it. She turns to her father and asks his age. He says 43, but adds that he's told he looks mid-30s.
"The whole Yukimura family is pure entertainment here" Peter laughed.
Kira hands off the katana to her mother. She opens the scabbard and the broken pieces of the sword fall out. She explains that the blade was shattered the last time it was used against a Nogitsune in 1943. Scott points out that history is repeating itself. Mr. Yukimura quotes Spanish philosopher George Santayana, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Kira wants to know where the dark spirit came from and Mrs. Yukimura says it started at a Japanese Internment Camp called Oak Creek not too far from Beacon Hills. Scott reminds Mr. Yukimura that he told Allison and Isaacthat there was no such place. He admits he lied saying he didn't know if he could trust Allison since the Argents have a reputation for violence.
"Rude" Allison huffed. "You have Gerard and Kate in your family. And let's not forget your mom" Derek added with a raised eyebrow. "You have a point" Allison said with a scowl.
Noshiko says the history of the camp was erased in a cover-up. Mr. Yukimura says he became obsessed with finding the truth of Oak Creek when he was in Grad School. It was his research that led him to meet his wife. Noshiko admits that ultimately the Nogitsune came from her.
"WHAT!?" almost the whole room shouted in unison.
Inside one of the barracks at Oak Creek, a woman is handing out the apples Noshiko stole from the truck earlier. She warns the other prisoners to keep their voices down because if the guards hear they'll get nothing. Noshiko give a baseball she stole from soldier Hayes to Michio, a young boy. The cautious woman chastises Noshiko for stealing the baseball, knowing it could cause trouble. Noshiko turns to an older woman named Satomi who is playing a board game called "Go" saying that she can "feel" her glaring.
"Is that Satomi!?" Laura's jaws dropped. "Who is Satomi?" Scott asked. "One of the oldest Alpha's alive. Now we know she was older than 900" Talia mumbled.
Satomi says Noshiko steals too often and too much and refuses to be swayed when offered a full bottle of aspirin, despite her "monthly migraines." There follows here some subtext with Satomi saying that Noshiko thinks her a fool and a coward for following the rules. Satomi says the young fox learns the rules so she can break them while the older, wiser animal learns the exceptions to the rules. At that moment Michio's ball goes flying through the window pane shattering the glass. Everyone panics and hides the stolen goods. Soldiers Hayes, Merrick and Corporal Rhys respond to the noise. Merrick says there were supplies stolen. He begins to touch one of the female prisoners, suggestively searching the pockets of her dress.
"Creep" Laura growled.
Hayes begins searching the bunks but Rhys stops them. He says the prisoners are to fix the window and delays the search for the stolen goods until the next day. Before he exits, Rhys returns the baseball to Michio. To Noshiko, Satomi says "jigoujitoku" which she translates as "you reap what you sow." The phrase usually has a negative connotation meaning you will receive the results of your past actions.
"Not foreshadowing at all" Stiles rolled his eyes.
In the present, Noshiko is trying to get her daughter to help her reassemble the katana. She says it has to be done in the daylight. Kira refuses until her mother tells them "everything." Mr. Yukimura urges his wife to tell them but she stubbornly brings up how wolves and foxes don't get along. Mr. Yukimura counters saying allies, however unlikely, should always be welcomed in times of war.
"Mr. Yukimura is wise" Talia smiled. "He is like one of those wise old Asian dude characters in a movie" Isaac joked.
Corporal Rhys and Noshiko meet in the motor pool at the camp. They are in love but Rhys warns her not to steal so much, "especially medical supplies." He then gives her chocolate and they kiss. Kira stops the narrative saying she doesn't want to hear her mom's "Casablanca story" anymore.
The teens all snorted but nodded, they themselves were not ever going to be interested in their parents love story if it was them.
Scott says she is stalling because once darkness falls the Oni will return to hunt Stiles. Scott isn't convinced that Stiles can't be saved despite both Yukimura's assurances that he is lost to them. Noshiko is helping Rhys learn French for his transfer to North Africa when they overhear Merrick and Hayes talking to the camp's doctor. Money changes hands but it's unclear why. Back in the present, Noshiko has clutched a piece of the broken sword so tightly that her hand begins to bleed. But when she opens her fist, her hand is healed. She says it's part of being a Kitsune and points out that Kira never gets sick. In 1943, this part of her makeup protects her when bacterial pneumonia sweeps through the Oak Creek camp. Rhys learns that the camp is all out of M&B Sulphapyridine which effectively treats the disease. Noshiko remembers seeing three boxes of the drug when she was stealing stuff but Rhys says the Doctor is claiming they only got one. They realize that the doctor, Merrick, and Hayes have been stealing the drugs and selling them on the black market.
"Those bastards" Melissa growled. She herself being a nurse took this certain offense to heart.
Michio, the boy from earlier, dies. His father is distraught. Upon learning what happened to the life-saving medicine the inhabitants of the camp riot. They surround the Doctor's car as he is trying to leave the camp. Satomi, as it turns out, is a werewolf and becomes so angry that she loses control and attacks the soldiers. Noshiko says bitten werewolves have a harder time maintaining control.
"I never thought I'd see Satomi-San as a beta" Talia mumbled.
Michio's father lights a Molotov cocktail, Satomi takes it from him and throws it. It strikes Rhys and he is burned alive. The other soldiers open fire killing dozens of people. Rhys is taken to Eichen House for treatment but dies. Noshiko is shot several times. While her healing ability is able to save her life, it takes time to rid her of the bullets and her vital signs drop so low everyone believes she is dead. Her body is taken with the others to be burned to cover up the evidence of corruption at the camp. As she is being transported atop the pile of other bodies, she calls out to the spirits of her ancestors. She wants a Nogitsune to inhabit her body so that she can seek vengeance for all the death at the camp. Instead the trickster spirit inhabits Rhys' dead body which is lying next to her in the back of the truck.
"So it was all revenge!?" Stiles asked incredulously. "To be fair, she did see all her people get murdered and lost her love" Scott mumbled and held Allison close. Stiles shrugged and looked back at the screen.
Just before Merrick and Hayes can destroy the evidence, the Nogitsune rises up and kills them, takes their truck and kills everyone at the camp and at Eichen House. Noshiko confronts the spirit and attempts to kill it with her katana but she is only able to get the upper hand with the help of werewolf Satomi who attacks it from behind.
"And she said Wolves and Fox's tend not to get along" Laura rolled her eyes.
They kill the Nogitsune's host, a fly comes out of his mouth and Noshiko catches it, puts it in a jar and buries it under the Nemeton, which was still a full tree in 1943. She says the dark spirit remained buried until Scott, Allison, and Stiles did the surrogate sacrifice to save their parents and recharged the Nemeton.
"So we set the thing free" Allison mumbled. Stile sighed and looked back down at his feet, in the end it was still his fault.
They piece together the katana and Noshiko says Kira can use her foxfire to make the sword whole again because she is a "Thunder Kitsune". Her mother gives it to her and says she must use it to get rid of the Nogtisune. Scott gets a text to meet the others at Derek's Loft. Deputy Parrish doesn't want to return Chris Argent's cattle prod stun weapon saying it's "a few watts" shy of a lightsaber. The sheriff says he'll handle the situation since murder charges have been dropped against Argent and Derek Hale.
"Even deputy pretty boy has seen Star Wars!" Stiles groaned at Scott.
Sheriff Stilinski says he's compared the brain scans of his wife and son and found them to be identical which is impossible. They all realize that the "trickster is still playing tricks" and that Stiles recent scans are fake. The Sheriff says the Nogitsune is trying to take away their hope. He realizes that they are not just fighting for Stiles' body but for his mind as well.
Noah gritted his teeth, his fists curling up in anger. Claudia wanted to calm his husband down, but she too was angry at that moment.
He needs the hunter and the werewolf to help him capture Stiles. At the Argent's apartment, Allison has gathered up all the "non-lethal" weapons she could find. Their original plan is to try to pick up Stiles scent at Eichen House and then track him. They realize that the Nogitsune is just trying to get them to repeat their actions from the last time he disappeared. He wants them running in circles until they walk into his trap. The Sheriff gives everyone the opportunity to back out. Derek says he won't be the first wolf to run from a fox. Argent points out that he has a "lightsaber."
"That's my brother!" Laura patted Derek on the back.
Allison sends Derek and her father to Eichen House while she and the Sheriff head to the hospital. They plan to all meet later at the school. Despite what he said to Stilinski about trying to "trap" Stiles, Argent takes two fully loaded semi-automatic pistols with him as well.
Noah turned an angry look towards Chris, but before he could say anything, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked to his side to see that it was Stiles and he was shaking his head. "Dad, it's for the best. I'm pretty sure you would need that if the fox had taken over fully" he said in a whisper. "No!" Noah protested, "There has to be some other way" he said. "It is the other way. If we can't save him" Chris explains. Noah nods and shrinks into himself while Claudia sobs. Stiles pulls both his parents into a hug, sitting in between them and tries to comfort them.
At the hospital with Stilinski, Allison breaks down. She questions everything saying she doesn't know if Isaac is dying. She also wonders if she made a mistake with Scott and she also doesn't know if she can trust Derek. The Sheriff hugs her and says she sounds like a cop. The Sheriff's phone buzzes. He's installed security cams and motion sensors to alert him to Stiles' sleepwalking. The image on the Sheriff's phone is of Stiles sitting on his bed at home. He waves at the camera. Argent, Derek, Allison and Stilinski meet in Stiles' room. Apparently, Stiles rearranged the chess board he had once used to explain the supernatural to his father. Originally it was - Derek (black knight), Scott (black pawn) and Peter (black knight). Chris Argent (white knight), Kate (white pawn) and Allison (white knight). Jackson (white rook or castle) and Deaton (black rook or castle). In the new configuration, Ethan, Aiden and Isaac (all black pawns) have been added while Derek is now the black king. Isaac's pawn is off the board. Derek wonders why his name is on the king. The piece is heavily guarded on the board with Ethan, Aiden and Peter in defensive positions. The sheriff points out that he is one move from being in "checkmate" but the only piece shown close enough to place Derek's king in jeopardy is Allison's white knight. Chris says it's not a message from Stiles, it's a threat from the Nogitsune. Allison realizes he's waiting for them at the loft. The Sheriff says the Nogitsune won't kill them. He believes the killing is just a byproduct of the creature's tricks. He says the Nogitsune wants irony and that they have to change the punch line. The Sheriff walks into Derek's loft alone. Stiles turns and says "hi dad."
"That is not me!" Stiles growled, knowing instantly that the nogitsune was about to do something.