The episode opens on Brett and a pack mate being chased by hunters and getting cornered on the lacrosse field. Ultimately, they're saved by Kira, and the intro plays.
—
A good portion of the episode goes by without any mentions or sightings of Noel, so enjoy a brief summary of those events.
Scott and Liam have a heart to heart where Scott confides in him that they've lost pack members, and we flash to the hospital where Melissa forces Stiles to stay and get a CT scan to assess his concussion. The sheriff and Lydia discuss Meredith's status as the benefactor at the station and Kira reveals to Scott that she found Satomi's whole pack. Scott notes that they're going to need help, as we see Argent approaching an unnamed plant in an intricate greenhouse.
—
We cut to the loft, where Noel is resting his cheek in his hand as he does homework at the table. He seems to be struggling, chewing the tip of his pencil and sighing as footsteps approach.
Derek steps into frame and presses a kiss to the side of Noel's head, laying a plate of snacks down in front of him. He looks down at what he's working on, pointing at the paper and commenting "You swapped the variable a couple steps ago by mistake."
Looking back in his work and realizing Derek is right, Noel growls and sweeps all his textbooks and papers off the table in a flash of yellow eyes and fangs. He breathes hard as he stares down at the now empty table (save for the plate of food), spacing out as he pants.
Derek watches him and waits patiently for his breathing to even out a bit, placing a hand on his shoulder as he asks "Do you want me to help, or do you want some space?"
"I want everything to stop," Noel says and puts his hand over Derek's, gripping onto it tightly as he winces at his temper overtaking him.
Taking a seat next to him, Derek moves his hand from Noel's shoulder to his thigh, watching him closely as Noel's fangs and eyes recede. He leans over and rests the side of his head against Derek's chest, and we hear Derek's heartbeat as his hand comes up to cradle Noel's head to his chest.
"It didn't used to be hard," he begins, "keeping my grades up. But now with my value going up and you losing your powers and adapting to a new pack, I just... I can't focus on anything, my head's just a mess of thoughts and nothing is coherent enough to matter."
Derek listens, all while cradling Noel to his chest and looking off into the distance. Noel presses in closer and we hear Derek's heartbeat again, as Noel says sorrowfully "And... she used to help me. With this stuff."
"Who?" Derek asks, pulling Noel carefully into a position where they could make eye contact. Noel is smiling, as he answers "Laura."
Shock takes over Derek's expression, and he says gently "We've never really talked about her, have we?"
Noel shakes his head as he sits up straighter and pulls the food closer to himself. He starts to eat and looks at Derek, asking "Think it's time for a Q & A?"
We cut to break on a shot of Derek's expression, stuck somewhere between pain and curiosity.
—
After a break, the sheriff and Lydia talk again with Parrish and find practically nothing while begging Lydia to head home. Melissa brings Malia in to see Stiles and the two reconcile their relationship after being locked in the room together.
Argent finds Satomi's pack in his building and warns Scott that they're running out of time and that he's still on top of the deadpool. Stiles and Malia listen to Lorraine Martin's cassette he found, and resolve to having to look for her.
Lydia interrogates Meredith, which ends in Meredith saying she'll only help them if she can talk to Peter Hale. Malia makes a breakthrough that Lorraine predicted the existence of the deadpool, and Stiles grabs his keys so he can take them both to the lake house.
—
"Run it by me again," Derek requests, as Noel bites into a baby carrot. He swallows and sighs, launching into an explanation.
"So, do you remember what Miss Blake said, about alphas sometimes forming a tether to a member of their pack when they die?"
Derek nods at the question, as Noel continues "Well, Deaton's got two theories. The first is that when Laura died, since you were in New York and Cora was in South America, the tether had to attach to someone in closer proximity. The night she died, I was walking along the road by the preserve, and I guess I was the nearest non-Peter human being. So she attached herself to me."
"Why were you walking alone at night out in the preserve?" Derek asks, Noel giving him a look. Derek sighs at the look, asking sadly "Jackson?"
After confirming with a raise of eyebrows, Noel continues. "His other theory is that there's something that already had me tethered to your family, and that Laura's death just solidified a bond we didn't know about that was already there."
"What kind of tether?" Derek asks, picking up a carrot of his own. Noel shrugs, bumping his knees casually against Derek's as they sit facing one another in dining chairs. Derek chews his carrot and looks down at the plate, saying "Maybe it...? No."
"Don't do that, tell me what you're thinking," Noel insists, putting a hand on Derek's knee. Derek puts his own over Noel's, sliding his thumb underneath as Noel grips onto it. He looks down at their joined hands, frowning as he explains.
"My mother used to tell me that sometimes, humans are pack before they even know that werewolves exist. My grandmother saw a human baby at the grocery store once and felt a strong connection to it, and 24 years later that baby married my aunt Helena and became part of the pack. It's a step above destiny, like... Like you're fated to be part of something like this."
Noel considers the explanation, pointing out "What if that's why I felt so drawn to the pack house even before I was bitten?"
"Or why you can open the vault," Derek suggests, and Noel adds to continue the realizations "Or why Isaac, Boyd, and Erica always saw me as a second alpha. They could sense that I was a Hale long before they were, even if I was the last one to be bitten."
Derek stares at Noel before leaning closer, saying almost teasingly "Or why you were so obsessed with me from the day we met."
"I was not obsessed," Noel argues, but Derek retaliates "Really? That wasn't the scent of desire pouring off you in waves the day we met while you were looking for Scott's inhaler?"
"Oh shut up," Noel says and hits Derek's chest, looking away as his phone pings just as Derek leans in for a kiss. He ends up kissing Noel's jaw, closing his eyes and repeatedly kissing the spot as Noel reads a text and says "Hey... Scott found something out, we gotta go."
"Of course he did," Derek sighs, kissing a few more times at Noel's jaw as Noel picks up the last carrot and puts it in Derek's mouth. Derek laughs as he bites down, standing up as Noel does and following him out of frame.
—
Argent rigs up the building for protection and Braeden loads bullets into a gun next to Noel, as Scott approaches Derek. Derek looks skeptically at Satomi's pack, Scott assuring "They'll be okay."
"They've got claws and fangs, but they're not fighters," Derek notes, Scott explaining "That's why I called you."
"Well, try to remember I don't have claws and fangs anymore either," Derek says as he moves over to Noel and Braeden, as she jokes "That's why he called me."
Noel laughs and knocks shoulders with Braeden as Derek rolls his eyes and Kira asks if she's the only one who thinks they may be going through a false alarm. Scott doesn't seem convinced, as Noel changes the topic and asks "Have Stiles or Lydia found anything out yet?"
"Lydia's still talking to Meredith, and Stiles and Malia are headed to the lake house. They're trying to stop it," Scott assures, Brett asking from behind Scott "What if there is no stopping it? What if it doesn't end until we're all dead?"
Everyone pauses to think, until Derek suggests "Then let's send a message. Let's make tonight perfectly clear to anyone with a copy of that list: It doesn't matter if they're professional assassins, hunters, or an amateur who just picked up a gun. Anyone who thinks they can hunt and kill us for money is gonna be put on another list. Our list. They get to be a name on our deadpool."
Braeden cocks her gun for emphasis, and we jump to Meredith, Peter, and Lydia. After a tense conversation, we're back with the pack.
Argent and Satomi talk about her pack's mantra, Argent announces that the hunters are coming, and Peter digs his claws into Meredith's neck to access her memories as the fight begins at the Argent building.
—
Men storm into the building and wildly open fire, Derek firing a few bullets of his own as we see Peter and Meredith connected at the station. In her memories, we see that the two shared a room at the hospital after the fire and Meredith was able to hear all of Peter's vengeful thoughts. One of those thoughts was a list of every kind of supernatural in Beacon Hills, how he'd hire hitmen to kill them, and how he would pay the assassins using the money from the vault.
Peter releases Meredith from his claws, and after a few seconds, the two calm down and the sheriff aims his gun at Peter.
—
Stiles and Malia uncover the computers powering the deadpool, and after a break, the fight at the building continues. Kira uses her sword, Scott and Noel fight with claws and strength, Satomi has blades, and Braeden and Derek are in perfect sync with their guns.
—
The sheriff keeps his gun aimed at Peter, as Peter explains that while he was conscious during his coma, he can't remember it and he isn't responsible for the deadpool or any of the associated deaths. He and the sheriff have a bit of a standoff, Lydia begging them to stop as she begins to become disoriented. She gets the sheriff to stop, and Peter leaves as Meredith yells after him that it's "not done, not finished."
—
Malia and Stiles see that the deadpool computer has a keyhole on it, as the pack continues to fight. Scott gets shot as he runs to tell Brett to get his pack and hide, yelling for Kira and Noel. Lydia tries to help Malia and Stiles figure out the computers over the phone, finding the key in the wine bottle that spilled the night of the party. Stiles turns the key in the hole, and the computers shut off as we cut to black.
—
When we return, the girl from the beginning of the episode is cornered, but at the last second, Noel attacks the hunter trying to kill her and apprehends him. He gets shot in the process, but it's just a graze on his abdomen that seems not to affect him much after his initial cry of pain.
Scott sees this happen, yelling "Noel!" and rushing in. Before Noel can insist that he's fine, Scott is on top of the hunter, slashing at him ferociously and growling throughout.
Noel watches in shock and backs away, situating himself between Brett's pack member and Scott, unsure what to do as Scott shows no mercy on the man. The whites of his eyes appear black, as gunfire ceases and cell phones begin to vibrate throughout the building.
Scott stops to take out the man's phone, seeing a notification that states "The Benefactor: All Contracts Terminated."
He turns the phone to show the man, Noel closing his eyes and letting out a sigh of relief.
The computers whir to a stop and the pack comes together, all human again but bloodied (especially Scott). He stands with Kira as Noel steps next to Derek, all looking around for any lingering danger.
"Is it over? Really over?" Kira asks, followed by a silent look from Scott as Lydia and Meredith share a touching scene where Lydia states the now iconic line "Not all monsters do monstrous things."
—
Peter and Kate have a talk, as Kate accuses him of wanting to bail on their plan. Peter denies the accusation, ending with the stinger "Not when I'm this close to killing Scott McCall."
End of episode.