The episode opens with Noel kneeling above Derek, shaking him and begging him to wake up. Derek is still unconscious, as he was in the last episode, and Stiles looks on with concern where he kneels beside them as Noel tries to get Derek to wake up.
"Come on, Derek, Derek, wake up!" Noel yells, Stiles saying "Hit him, when he was dying of wolfsbane poisoning, I punched him and he woke up, remember?"
Noel tries it once, slapping Derek across the face to no avail. He grunts in frustration and tries it again with a closed fist, and when that does nothing, he takes a few shaking, angry breaths before his eyes burst open, his fangs elongate, and he lets out a howl of desperation.
One might expect his eyes to be red, channeling Laura's influence over Derek, but instead they blaze beta gold. Noel is crying out as a beta to his alpha, and after just a few beats of his howling, Derek wakes up with his eyes blazing bright red. He howls in response, and the two briefly roar together as Stiles watches in awe.
It's over as soon as it's begun, both of them cutting off their howls to catch their breath. Derek looks around the elevator questioningly, fangs still out as he asks "Where is she?"
"Jennifer? Gone, with Scott's mom," Stiles says, relieved that Derek is awake and quickly getting back his adrenaline.
"She took her?" Derek asks, Stiles continuing to fill Derek in with "Yeah, and if that's not enough of a kick to the balls, Scott left with Deucalion."
"So we need to get you out of here, the police are coming, we have to go," Noel stresses as he pulls Derek up by the forearm.
Derek sits up and asks about Cora, and we get the answer that she's safe in the next scene, as Isaac pulls in and sees Allison and Chris.
—
Derek and Noel pull up in Derek's car to where the Argents and Isaac are waiting, Allison asking them where Scott and Stiles are. Derek tells her that Stiles is at the hospital holding the cops off, and that they need to leave as soon as possible as Noel helps him get Cora out of the car. Chris asks about Scott and Melissa, and Noel says solemnly that Jennifer took Melissa as he opens the door of Derek's car for him to lay Cora down.
Allison asks him again where Scott is, but Derek ignores her and tells Noel to get in the car. Noel goes without a word, Allison asking once more. Derek looks at her, but the camera cuts before he can answer her that Scott is with Deucalion.
—
In the loft after the credits, Cora is breathing heavily with black blood covering her lips. Isaac walks up to where Derek and Noel are sitting beside her, asking them "She's dying, isn't she?"
"I don't know," Derek admits, as Cora coughs. Noel tries to give her a drink of water, but as soon as the water goes into her mouth she splutters and spits it out.
"So what are you gonna do?" Isaac asks, showing no emotion, and Derek repeats that he doesn't know. This answer doesn't satisfy Isaac, as he bursts out with "You wanna figure something out? Because while Scott, Stiles, and Noel were out there trying to help people from being killed, you were in here rolling around in the sheets with the actual killer. Now Noel's here, with you, instead of out there with them, because you're too selfish to let him go and help them."
"I'm here by choice," Noel corrects Isaac, who rounds on him and asks "Would you be if he hadn't put it in your head that you need to keep Cora alive? Would you be here if Scott or Stiles had asked you to go with them?"
Noel doesn't have an answer to that, but Derek doesn't appear angry as Isaac goes back to berating him. "Do you get how many people [Jennifer]'s killed? Erica and Boyd are dead, Cora is dying, and you are doing nothing!"
Derek doesn't respond, and Isaac asks "Why'd you do this to us, Derek? Is it all about the power? Were you bored? ...Were you lonely?"
Isaac takes a few steps closer when he says the last one as Noel watches nervously, and Derek indulges him with a quiet "Maybe."
Isaac is almost surprised by the response, glancing sideways at Noel and saying "You didn't have to be."
He then stands and walks away, Derek telling Isaac that he promised Cora he wouldn't leave. He says he'll go and help the others when he figures out how to help Cora, but Isaac yells at him that there's no time as he leaves.
As a parting, he spits out "The full moon is coming. The sheriff and Melissa are gonna be dead, so I'm gonna try and help them. You can sit here and perfect the art of doing nothing."
With that he's gone, slamming the sliding door to the loft as he goes. Derek and Noel (and Peter, where he sits on the stairs) stay silent for a moment, before Peter tells Derek that he wouldn't take it personally, because anger is just a tool that Isaac is using to excuse his shift in allegiance from Derek to Scott.
Derek says that Scott isn't an alpha ("Not yet" Peter corrects him) before he mumbles to Noel "Go with him. You can help find Melissa and Stilinski."
Noel sits perfectly still and says "I promised her that I wouldn't leave. So I won't."
He and Derek make eye contact and the scene cuts out to the Argents' apartment.
—
After we see Allison, Chris, and Stiles teaming up to get Jennifer and making plans to bring Lydia along, we see Cora struggling to breathe. Derek takes hold of her arm and takes her pain, as Noel paces slowly in the background. Derek saps enough pain to even out Cora's breathing, Peter warning him to be careful. Derek pulls his arm away from Cora, Noel walking over and saying "If she can't breathe again, I'll take it."
"I can't ask you to do that," Derek denies, but Noel says adamantly "I can't ask you to keep doing it. I'll be fine, I promise."
"You don't know what happens if you take too much," Derek says back sternly, Noel's eyebrows threading together. Derek elaborates, informing him "Taking too much can kill you. Easily. And you don't know how much too much is, so let me handle it. Please."
Noel seems surprised by Derek's pleading, but he isn't convinced, taking hold of Cora's hand to show that he's ready and willing to take away her pain should the need arise, despite the consequences.
"I didn't exactly mean that taking too much would kill him," Peter tells them, and the scene cuts out on a shot of Derek's look of confusion at what Peter had been trying to say.
—
"I've heard it's only something an alpha can do," Peter says after the scene where Isaac teams up with the Argents and Stiles. "And with good reason."
"Which is?" Derek asks, as he and Noel stand and listen to Peter's explanation.
"You know normal wolves never abandon an injured member of the pack. They care for it, bring it food from a kill and regurgitate it into the mouth of the injured wolf. They even give it physical and emotional comfort by intensely grooming it. In a way, they can do more than just ease pain. They can be instrumental in healing their own."
"If you're trying to tell me I can save her, just tell me," Derek says almost angrily, Peter continuing "I'm telling you. I've heard it's possible-"
Noel interjects to ask how, Peter explaining "It's that spark of power that makes you an alpha, Derek. When you take her pain, she draws on the power that provides you with those special gifts. The power that heightens your senses, your strength, the power that transforms your body. As an alpha, you have that bit of extra. That spark. It intensifies the color of your eyes from a bright yellow into a seering red."
"If I can save her-" Derek begins, but Peter cuts him off by repeating the word "if." He explains that he didn't say it works every time, and that it could just as easily kill Derek. Derek looks slightly conflicted, until Noel starts to speak.
"What if I-" he tries to say, Derek immediately cutting him off and asking Peter "How do I do it? By taking her pain?"
"And then some. Because there's a cost," Peter says.
—
After Chris willingly sacrifices himself to the Darach, Lydia and Stiles team up, and Allison and Isaac go together to get back the parents, we go back to the loft.
Derek looks ready to step toward Cora and perform whatever ritual could potentially kill him, but Peter stops him with a hand on his chest.
"I can understand not seeing a downside to this as you haven't exactly been alpha of the year, but think about what else you'll be losing."
Derek looks down at Cora, telling Peter that he doesn't care about power anymore.
"What about the power to fight back?" Peter asks, and asks Derek why he thinks he'll be able to take down Kali when he's a beta again. Derek looks at Peter to say something, and Noel supplies "Because he won't be alone."
The two Hales turn to look at him, Noel standing there with his arms crossed. He looks only at Derek, and after a second, he says "You don't have to do this-"
"What other choice do I have?" Derek asks, and Noel says firmly "You didn't let me finish." Derek freezes where he stands, and Noel repeats "You don't have to do this by yourself."
Derek and Peter both move to speak, but Noel says "I'm not gonna be sacrificing myself. It'll have nothing to do with me."
"How would it have nothing to do with you? You're not an alpha, nothing would happen anyway," Peter says, but Noel just shakes his head.
"I'm not an alpha," he agrees, and his eyes blaze to alpha red as he corrects "Laura is."
The two Hales look at each other as the scene changes to Lydia and Stiles at the school.
—
After Stiles figures out the parents are at the nemeton/root cellar, he sends Lydia to go tell Peter and Derek because they know where it is. She goes, having a comedic reunion with Peter, as Peter calls back into the loft "Derek, Noel, we have a visitor."
—
After Deucalion tells Scott he's willing to kill anyone or anything that gets in his way, Lydia is repeating in disbelief that Peter doesn't know where the nemeton is. Peter relents that he and Derek had been there in the past, but Talia forbade them from going back after Paige's death and took away their memories of the location to ensure they wouldn't go behind her back.
Lydia asks how they're supposed to find it then, Peter shrugging at the question as Noel sighs and leans back with a mutter of "Great."
—
Scott saves Morrell from the alphas and she tells him to find the nemeton, and we get a scene of the parents where the sheriff reveals that he's had suspicions of there being a supernatural population in Beacon Hills for eight years. Isaac, Lydia, Stiles, Allison, and Deaton try to find a way to figure out where the nemeton is, and they meet up with Scott in the woods to tell him about how he, Stiles, and Allison need to be surrogate sacrifices and temporarily die to protect their parents.
—
At the loft, Cora is convulsing slightly with her pain and struggle, and Derek says that it has to be now. He says that he doesn't have a choice, but Peter argues that he always has a choice. Derek shakes his head and says "I don't. But you do."
The 'you' he's speaking to is Noel, who says "It doesn't matter. I need to let Laura go. Helping her keep you safe didn't get her out, stopping Jackson didn't get her out, beating the pull of the Glen Capri didn't get her out, this is the only way I can think of that will let her go for good... Or at least let her soul go somewhere it's welcomed."
As he says that final sentence, he runs a hand over Cora's hair, and says "Besides. With the total lunar eclipse coming... All of us will be powerless, right?"
—
After the main three step into the ice water that will begin the ritual, we go to Noel and the Hales, as they perform their own ritual set to music and with no other audio. The whole scene is in slow motion as Noel and Derek each take one of Cora's hands, but when Noel's veins start to turn black as he begins, Derek puts a hand over his wrist and Noel looks up at him questioningly.
Before Noel can blink, all in slow motion, Derek leans in and crashes their lips together with his eyes closed gently. Noel's eyes widen slightly as he's kissed, but he doesn't fight it in the slightest, returning the kiss and letting his eyes close as well. They kiss for a few slowed down seconds, and when they pull away, Derek gazes at him with his eyes soft and apologetic.
Noel gives him a soft smile, also looking apologetic, and they once again take Cora's hands.
Both their eyes begin to glow deep red as they start to take her pain, Cora looking to them both when her eyes open before her head rolls back. Peter looks on as Derek and Noel roar out in pain, and before long, both their heads are thrown back as Derek's eyes turn bright blue and Noel's almost flicker from red to their human green.
Even as Derek continues to roar, Noel's eyes roll back in his head and he collapses backward, Peter rushing forward to him as we change the scene to the main three finally being pushed below the water.
We get a "To Be Continued" card before the episode ends.