Formality

Formality is the eleventh episode of Teen Wolf. It aired August 8,2011.

Synopsis
A winter formal is held at the school; Scott struggles to protect both his friends and enemies while also keeping his secret safe from Allison.

Full Recap
The episode opens with some back and forth flashes. In one scene Allison is in her car getting pulled over for speeding. When Stiles’ father comes to talk to her about the 75 she was doing in a 25 mph area she begins crying and mumbling to herself. This understandably freaks out Stiles’ dad, as she chants “This is not me” and has a miniature mental breakdown in front of him. She finally pulls herself together after forcefully requesting a ticket but her breakdown is understandable as in the other scene she’s watching her beloved Aunt Kate’s endearing murderous side. Aunt Kate electrifies Derek and then displays out his pointy teeth. Allison wanted to feel strong? Well Aunt Kate wants to take Allison on a beta hunt to find the last werewolf.

Scott is recovering from his wounds in the vet’s office. Peter Hale comes to pick up Scott but the vet isn’t having it. He tries to cross the desk but pulls his hand back. “Mountain ash, that’s an old one,”. He throws a chair at the vet’s head but the vet just sort of shrugs and tells him to come back at regular hours.

Scott searches desperately for his phone. Stiles thinks Scott should let Derek go but Scott is determined to save him. Outside, he hears his mom leave a cute but mostly pathetic voicemail for Peter before breaking down into tears. Stiles says Scott can’t save everyone and Scott looks concerned.

Allison is tossing and turning in bed. Scott is protecting her from the roof. He’s fighting off his exhaustion but finally his eyes close and he falls off the roof.

In the locker room, Coach Flinstock is telling Scott that he can’t go to the dance because he’s failing. Coach is keeping him on the team because he’d rather lose his other testicle than his best player, but the dance is a non-starter. Scott then tries to convince Jackson to take Allison to the dance by stressing how much danger she’ll be in without someone looking out for her. Jackson tells Scott and Stiles to screw each other and huffs away. Of course moments after Scott uses his teen wolf powers of persuasion Jackson is nervously confirming his date with Allison.

In the Macy’s, Lydia and Allison are shopping. Despite the fact that Lydia has bought Allison a dress as an “I’m sorry I made out with your boyfriend when he wasn’t really your boyfriend” present, Allison is still pissed. So Lydia’s punishment is to attend the dance with Stiles, who is at that moment sampling the fine selection of perfumes at a Macy’s counter and sneezing. “Don’t frown Lydia, someone could be falling in love with your smile,” Allison echoes back her advice from moments before as Lydia’s pink shiny lip gloss looks suicidal.

Elsewhere, in the dank dungeon Kate wonders if Derek told his sister about what really happened with the fire. Kate and Derek have more of a history than trying to kill each other—at one point they were lovers. “You got tricked by a pretty face. Handsome young werewolf mistakenly falls in love with a super-hot girl who comes from a family that kills werewolves,” Kate explains helpfully. She says that he’ll have to help her to track down his pack again. It’ll be history repeating itself—which is the phrase that gets stuck in her head. It takes her a second to realize that Jackson isn’t the other beta, because it’s Scott that’s in love with Allison.

At Scott’s house, his mom is mending his pants and telling him to be truthful with Allison. In this she means tell Allison how he really feels about her. “Women like words,” she advises. At the dance, things are going awkwardly. Jackson is pre-gaming even before they walk in the doors and Lydia is trying not to get down over Jackson’s treatment. In the dance, Scott skulks around when he notices both Peter and Coach.

Stiles forcefully asks Lydia to dance and then tells her he’s been in love with her since the 3rdgrade. He knows that even though she made out with Scott for some weird power-trip reason behind her cold exterior there’s a soul. He also points out that he’s the only one who knows how really smart she is. He tells her one day she’ll move on and get a Nobel Prize for some mathematical theorem to which she corrects that it’ll be a Fields medal. “The Nobel isn’t for mathematics. The Fields medal is the one I’ll be winning,” she says as they go dance.

At the dance, Scott is finally busted when Coach catches him and chases him through the dance. Bumping into Danny, Scott pulls him into a dance just as Coach finally catches up to him. “What the hell are you doing?” he asks in shock. But now everyone is looking at him and to not appear homophobic he backpedals and let’s Scott stay at the dance. As Scott scurries away Danny’s date comes up to him with drinks and looks confused.

Scott bumps into Allison and soon they’re slow dancing. Allison tries to back away from telling Scott more about her family and Scott tells her he loves her. Outside, Jackson is wandering around the woods, following glowing red eyes and complaining about how he wants to be a werewolf. Instead, he bumps into Allison’s father who finally gets the identity of the other beta out of him. Back at the dance, Lydia pulls away from Stiles and leaves him to go look for Jackson, but the two pass as Jackson heads back into the dance. Stiles immediately finds Jackson and knows that something terrible has happened.

Out on the dark lacrosse field, Lydia is calling for Jackson. Soon the lights are flashing on the alpha is chomping down on Lydia. Stiles manages to save her by cluing in Peter that Derek is the one that most likely took Scott’s phone for its GPS feature.

Outside again, Scott and Allison are tumbling out of the dance and towards the school buses. This looks just like the scene that occurred in Scott’s dream in the third episode, when the bus driver got killed. While Scott realizes that history could be about to repeat itself this déjà vu is clearly no match for his hormones. Allison runs into the bus and kisses the window Just at that moment Allison’s father pulls up, shining his headlights at Scott. On the other side of Scott is another car and they both drive towards him at the same time. Allison screams in the bus and then gasps, because Scott has jumped between the two cars. But more importantly, he’s in full out werewolf mode exposeing himself to Allison.

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