'Teen Wolf' Episode Recap 2.11: 'Battlefield'

The penultimate episode to this season—titled “Battlefield,” but might as well have been called “Mood Whiplash.”

It begins with an absolutely brilliant monologue from Stiles, reflecting on the season’s events, especially the last episode’s and the interim between then and now. It reveals that the Sherriff got his badge back, Scott’s mother is still not talking to him about the “werewolf” deal, Allison is refusing to talk to Scott, and Jackson is predictably still having trouble with the fact he’s killing people. There’s also a dropped hint that the school counselor might not be exactly as she seems.

And then there’s Stiles, who has apparently been suffering the constant feeling of having a panic attack ever since these events started. He is, understandably, having trouble dealing with everything.

A bit of a slow (though amazing, don’t get me wrong) introduction quickly starts gaining momentum when we cut to Scott’s house, where Gerard is holding his mother captive with his newly acquired Kanima. He’s using her as bait to get Scott to draw out Derek’s pack, who have all gone into hiding.

Speaking of Derek’s pack, they’re walking through the forest and hear more wolves in the forest. A lot of them. And, as has been constantly pointed out, there aren’t any wolves in California. They decide it’s another werewolf pack, and go tell Derek that they’re joining it, since Derek’s is being hunted by the Argents.

Back at the vet’s office with Scott and Dr. Deaton, Isaac shows up, and he gets a nice lesson in werewolfism. Apparently, werewolves can take amounts of pain away from others, though it can’t heal them completely.

 

Peter shows up to finally talk to Derek, who immediately tries to kill him. Again.

Isaac also asks Scott for advice, wondering whether or not he should go and join the other pack in town. He decides, ‘yes’. He is. And also informs Scott of the fact that Jackson is going to be playing at the Lacrosse game—which means something is going to go down.

Meanwhile, at the Lacrosse game, something is going down. Sort of. Jackson is obviously in his familiar Kania-induced stupor, and warns Danny not to come near him during the game, no matter what.

A short break into light-heartedness has the coach giving the Independence Day speak to his team for some reason, and we’re back to the plot when Gerard steals the scene, revealing that Scott won’t be allowed to play and not even being subtle about the fact that he’s planning on killing someone, because he’s creepy as hell.

Back to Peter and Derek, the former of which is giving a little speech to his nephew. Peter isn’t as strong as he was before he, well, died, and wants to join Derek’s pack.

Stiles, in breaking one of the three rules for his character, actually gets to play Lacrosse. Holy crap! Then Gerard uses Scott’s werewolf powers to his advantage by talking to him from across the bleachers. Apparently if the game gets to 30 seconds left and Scott still hasn’t given Gerard Derek and his pack, then he’s going to use Jackson to kill someone. A variable someone who is close to Scott.

Erica and Boyd quickly find out that the werewolf pack was not indeed a werewolf pack, and they were being lured out by the Argents. Allison manages to shoot Erica in the leg, and gets Boyd when he’s trying to save her. And she shoots. And shoots. Despite the fact that neither Erica nor Boyd had ever killed anyone, so she’s violating the Argent’s code. Thankfully, papa Argent stops her before she can do fatal damage, and they just capture the pair.

Back on the field, Stiles is majorly sucking at Lacrosse, and Scott is trying to get into the game. Thankfully, Isaac shows up, apparently not leaving to go join the other ‘pack’ like he’d said, and has a plan for getting Scott in the game. Which is to injure a bunch of other players so the coach has no other choice. The plan works like a charm, except that the last player that gets sent out is Isaac, because Jackson gets him with some Kanima venom—and he gets taken to the locker room, where Gerard pulls out his sword…when Scott shows up!

But with Scott gone, who’s playing Lacrosse? Well, Stiles of course, who manages to score a goal. Scott saves Isaac, and Stiles suddenly realizes that he’s actually awesome at Lacrosse, and ends up winning the game for them.

Peter is still giving Derek a talk, and says that he knows how to save Jackson. Get Lydia, the only person Jackson has ever connected to, to ‘reach’ him, and save his ‘identity’ from disappearing under the Kanima. With the power of love!

But, while all this is going on, the clock ticks down to 30 seconds, and ticks, and ticks, Jackson stalking around the team…but the clock reaches zero, and nothing happens. Until the lights go out in the darkness, and everyone starts screaming and panicking. When the lights come back on, Jackson is lying on the ground, claws bloody and holes in his stomach.

He’d killed himself.

And, suddenly, Sherriff Stilinski realizes that Stiles is gone.

With that cliffhanger of an ending, the episode cuts out, leaving everyone desperate for a conclusion.

And I have no doubt the finale will be everything we want it to be.

Catch the season finale of Teen Wolf on MTV at 10/9c on Monday, August 13th!