The Divine Move is the 24th and final episode of Teen Wolf Season 3.
The title references a move in the board game GO known as The Divine Move or 神の一手 囲碁.
The episode was viewed by 2.255 million people upon its initial airing on MTV.
Synopsis
One last stand is made by Scott, Derek and their allies in the Season 3 finale.
Full Recap
Chris Argent coaches Scott on what to say to the police about Allison’s death. They concoct a story in which two guys wearing masks tried to steal their car. He is to say he thinks one of them had a knife, something sharp and metallic. Overall, he is to just keep repeating “it all happened so fast.”
Scott wonders how Argent is able to focus and deal so calmly with his daughter’s death. Chris simply says “it’s what we do.”
As Deputy Parrish questions Lydia, Scott, and Isaac at the Sheriff station, they all stick to their story.
The Yukimuras have taken Stiles to their home where he is offered chamomile tea. Kira, her father and her mother discuss the fact that Allison managed to kill an Oni. None of them is sure how she did it or how it could be possible.
Noshiko explains that the Nogitsune made a powerful move when he split from Stiles’ body. Mr. Yukimura says at this point they need a divine move. One so inspired that it reverses the fate of the game and turns a losing position into a winning one.
They explain that the Nogitsune has had “Sente” or the upper hand throughout the game and Stiles needs to turn the game around.
Kira reminds her mother of the time she trapped it. They realize it was the power of the Nemeton that held the Nogitsune for so long and decide to ask Deaton if they can trap it again.
Isaac accompanies Chris Argent to his apartment. Chris says he doesn’t have to stay because he’ll be alright. Chris says he’s dealt with it before and he can compartmentalize his emotions. Isaac says that he cannot and he and Chris embrace.
At the Sheriff’s Station, Stilinski instructs Deputy Parrish to keep Allison’s death quiet to avoid the press hounding her friends. The Oni appear and immediately kill another deputy.
Derek uses a zippo lighter to cauterize Ethan’s wounds at the loft. He says they’ll be fine in a couple of hours unless whoever shot them manages to find them again.
Aiden is eager to find Lydia and leave Beacon Hills. Derek says she’ll never leave Scott. Aiden says they all need to run and hide. Ethan wants to take Danny too but Derek says he’ll never believe him. Plus, he says, Scott’s friends will never leave his side.
Derek explains that the twins don’t understand Scott. While they’ve been trying to be a part of his pack by fighting for him, Derek says they should have been fighting for Scott’s cause. Scott’s cause has always been to protect his friends. He will do anything and everything to save the people he cares about. “When there is no chance of winning, he keeps fighting. When all hope is lost, he finds another way. When he’s beaten down, he stands up again.” Derek says if the twins want a way to redemption they must find another way to stand and fight.
Deaton isn’t sure the Nogitsune can be caught the same way it was last time because, since the Nemeton was cut down, it doesn’t have the same power anymore. The wood from the tree, however, does still exist in the form of boxes and other containers designed to hold powerful objects. Lydia wonders aloud if the “powerful object” might be the claws of an Alpha werewolf. She’s thinking of the cylinder that contained Talia Hale’s claws. Turns out, Deaton made that box from the wood of the Nemeton and thinks it would work.
Nogitsune/Stiles arrives at Beacon Hills Hospital and asks a nurse to page Melissa McCall. Before the man can act, two Oni appear and one stabs him in the gut. Chaos reigns in the hospital corridors as the Oni slice through nurses, doctors, and orderlies.
The Oni at the Sheriff’s station is lying on its back. As Sheriff Stilinski and Deputy Parrish maneuver to get a look, it jumps back up and attacks. Parrish and the Sheriff fire repeatedly but the two demons manage to cut them both. Their wounds release a black smoke.
At the hospital, Agent McCall and Melissa are discussing Scott. He wants to run away again and wants Melissa to explain his exit and apologize for not saying goodbye. He then plans to send a follow up email. Melissa says “you’re an idiot!” She explains that if “Rafe” wants a relationship with Scott, he can’t just bail after one fight. Rafe believes Scott hates him but Melissa says he doesn’t. She says her son just wants his father to try harder.
The elevator lights flicker and the machine stutters to a stop. The doors open and two Oni are killing people in the hallway. They swing their swords at them and Rafe fires his weapon. He manages to get the doors closed but realizes that Melissa has a deep cut on the leg by one of the swords. The wound releases a thin black smoke.
Isaac sits on Allison’s bed holding one of her Chinese Ring Daggers. The same weapons Allison stabbed him with in Season 2. Chris urges him to be careful and says Allison had to bandage her fingers when she was learning to use them because she had worn them raw. She did not give up though.
Isaac tells Chris about Allison’s last words believing that she was saying “you have to tell my father that I love him.” Chris says that Allison made a point of saying it earlier on the night she died. He then begins to talk about their ritual of the silver bullet but Isaac is already aware of it. When he learns that Allison was making a silver arrowhead, he makes the leap that it was this that killed the Oni.
Derek calls Scott to say he has the “triskelion box” and will meet them at the school. Lydia is struck by a “rushing feeling” like they’re running out of time. Kira helps Stiles into the room and he too says he has that feeling too.
Allison actually made five silver arrowheads, but only one was ready by the time she had to leave to meet Scott. She had drawn on her father’s story of shattering the Oni mask (see Silverfinger) and figured out that his silver bullet and her silver arrow could take down the demons. While the bullet went straight through – the arrow stayed in the body and poisoned it.
Scott, Kira, Isaac and Lydia arrive at the school Stiles says they have to let him die if that’s the price of killing the Nogitsune but Scott says the plan is to save Stiles and he’s going with that plan.
They push through the doors of the school and find themselves in a snow-covered Japanese Garden.
Melissa is fading fast. She says Scott’s father has to try again. She says Scott doesn’t want an apology – he wants his father to “do better” and maybe “suffer a little.” She makes him promise that he will make it work with Scott. Rafe then helps her to her feet and they open the doors on a hallway filled with bloody bodies and the screams of the wounded.
Derek approaches the main stairs from out of the tunnel that leads to the athletic fields at the school. Nogitsune/Stiles is sitting on the stairs as two Oni stand higher up and to either side of him. Derek sits the “triskelion box” on the pavement and the twins join him, all are showing fangs and fur.
Nogitsune/Stiles taunts him saying that he’s heard of an “Alpha Pack” but not a pack of “former alphas.” Derek says he might not be an Alpha anymore but he can still fight like one. He and the twins roar, the Oni swing their swords and the fight begins.
The snowy garden seems real. The Nogitsune, bandaged and bomber jacketed, enters doing an odd little moonwalk. He repeats his threat from Riddled that “we’re going to kill all of them one by one.” Oni begin to appear until there are four surrounding Scott, Kira, Stiles and Lydia.
The Nogitsune tell them they are “between life and death” which Lydia defines as “Bardo” (see Anchors). The Nogitsune claims that Stiles is dying and everyone he cares about is dying too. He says he’s captured all the “territories on the board” and names the hospital, the Sheriff’s Station and the Animal Clinic.
Deaton is attacked by two Oni. He fights well but ends up getting sliced before they vanish.
The Nogitsune then explains Seppuku which is a suicide ritual in Japan. The creature explains how the samurai will stab himself in the stomach to disembowel but that it is the Samurai’s trusted friend or “kaishakunin” who would then finish him off by beheading (kaishaku). The Nogitsune has cast Scott as Stiles’ kaishakunin and says everyone will die unless Scott kills Stiles in this manner. Stiles asks him why and the creature says “to win the game.”
Melissa tells her ex not to leave Scott again. He says she told him to leave the first time but she clarifies that she “told a drunk to get out of the house. I didn’t tell his father to get out of his life.” Rafe says he came back to make it up to both of them.
The garden is alive with the sound of Kira’s katana and Scott’s growls as they battle the four Oni as the Nogtisune watches.
Outside at the school, Derek and the twins engage with two Oni as Nogitsune/Stiles watches. As Aiden moves to pick up the “triskelion box” two more Oni appear to block him to which he says “I hate ninjas.” Now the trio faces four Oni.
Inside the garden, the four Oni begin to get the upper hand against Kira and Scott. Kira loses her katana in the snow.
Rafe begins to panic, looking around the hospital corridor and calling for help after blood begins to seep from Melissa’s mouth.
Stiles manages to recover Kira’s sword and makes as if to stab himself. The Nogitsune taunts Scott to let his friend fall on his own sword and urges Stiles to “give up the game.” But, as Stiles stares into the reflective surfaces of the katana, he notices a “Business” textbook lying in the snow. He then catches sight of a snow-covered classroom desk in one corner of the garden. The Nogitsune says Stiles has no moves left but Stiles says he does. He tosses the sword back to Kira and says he has “a divine move.”
Ethan and Aiden continue to fight alongside Derek but they are losing ground. Ethan says Aiden should take the box to Scott while he and Derek hold off the demons. Chris Argent arrives and fires a silver arrowhead into one of the Oni – it explodes into black smoke.
Isaac backflips into the fray and Nogitsune/Stiles runs away.
Derek yells for Isaac to grab the “triskelion box” and get it to Scott.
Shaking with weakness, real Stiles tells Scott and Kira to stop fighting the Oni. He’s come to the conclusion that none of what they are experiencing is real. He says it feels real and will hurt but it’s all an illusion. The Oni line up and slash at all of them as they walk toward the door. Blood flows but all remain standing and push through to the Nogitsune. Scott pushes it back through the door and into the school hallway.
They are alone in the school. There’s no more snow, no more Oni and no more Nogitsune. Scott thinks they’ve won until Nogitsune/Stiles shoves him into a locker and knocks Kira down.
Derek and Chris make short work of another Oni but the third target manages to slice the arrow away with its sword. Chris yells for Aiden to grab the arrow and stab the Oni because it is “the last one.” Aiden succeeds but is run through by the demon’s sword in the process. His werewolf blue eyes flicker before the glow leaves them. Ethan calls out to his brother as Aiden pulls the sword from his stomach and collapses.
Nogitsune/Stiles is pissed. He rushes toward Stiles and Lydia rambling. “Divine move, divine move, you think you have any moves at all? You can kill the Oni but me? Me? I’m a thousand years old! You can’t kill me!”
Lydia responds that they can change him. Reminding him of the scroll they took from Silverfinger's silver finger (see Echo House). Nogitsune/Stiles remembers it says “change the host.” Stiles says “you can’t be a fox and a wolf” and Scott leaps up behind the Nogtisune and bites him on the arm. When he finally lets go, Kira stabs him through the heart with her katana.
Nogitsune/Stiles screams, the lights flicker and a fly comes buzzing out of his mouth and flies down the hall.
The “triskelion box” comes out of nowhere and Isaac, holding it, traps the evil fly inside.
The Nogitsune/Stiles body begins to twitch and jerk. Suddenly it stills and then begins to dry out and crack like clay, collapsing into a pile of dust on the floor which quickly dissipates to nothing.
Melissa McCall snaps awake. Her wound now seems shallow and superficial. Deaton is fine too. The Sheriff and Deputy Parrish stand.
Stiles collapses on the floor. He awakes a few minutes later and jokes about fainting. He then declares “we’re all alive” giving Scott pause because “all” isn’t accurate. He doesn’t say that though. He simply agrees that “we’re all okay.”
Lydia senses something is wrong and stands.
Outside, Ethan joins his brother who is cradled in Derek’s arms. Black goo is dripping from the wounded man’s mouth. The brothers are crying. Aiden wants to know if it hurts Ethan as much as it does him. Ethan says it does. He laments that Lydia was never going to believe that he was one of the good guys but Derek says she’ll believe him. Ethan places his forehead against his brothers and shushes him. Aiden dies and Ethan weeps.
Lydia runs out of the school and sees what’s happened. She turns back and is wrapped in Stiles arms.
Later, at the Yukimura’s home, Noshiko and her husband remove the stones from the GO board. Melissa comforts Scott.
Isaac leaves the Argent’s apartment with Chris. He has the “triskelion box” with him.
Kira speaks to Lydia in the hallway at school saying she doesn’t know how to comfort Scott and the other werewolves about their loss. She says she’s still just the new girl. At that moment, Coach Finstock is showing Malia Tate around the school. Lydia says Kira won’t be the new girl for long.
Coach is trying to get Malia to run track saying she has “excellent muscle definition.” Malia replies that she sometimes ran from cougars trying to eat her to which Coach says “got the same problem.”
Lydia catches Malia’s gaze and they smile at each other.
Later, in Scott’s room, Stiles watches as Scott tries to teach Malia to “flick her claws” she manages it on the second try and almost slices Stiles.
Ethan is breaking up with Danny saying he just can’t stay, but Danny surprises him by saying it’s okay. Ethan suddenly realizes that he is the one being broken up with and asks why. Danny says that, while Ethan is incredibly good looking and smart and sweet, he just can’t date a werewolf. Ethan is shocked but Danny explains with a “Dude, It’s Beacon Hills.” They kiss and Ethan leaves.
Stiles tears down the “evidence wall” in his room. His father asks what he’s doing and Stiles replies “clearing my head.”
Deaton checks in on Scott who is tidying up the Animal Clinic. He explains “Regression to the Mean” which he says suggests that things will stop being all bad or all good and revert to a more neutral place eventually. This seems to comfort Scott but he says he’s not sure it applies to a “town like this.”
Derek is with Stiles in the locker room at school recounting a “dream” he had or thinks he had.
In it, the Spanish speaking hunters had tracked him to his loft and were once again demanding information about “La loba” (see More Bad Than Good). Derek says he’ll never tell them where Cora has gone but they’re not talking about Cora. At that moment a smoke grenade flies in and the room fills with gas and the hunters begin firing wildly. They’re taken out one by one, the assailant hidden by the smoke. Until finally all the hunters are down and the shotgun toting assailant steps out of the smoke and fires into Derek’s gut.
Derek explains to Stiles that there are a lot of myths about ways to be turned into a werewolf. He mentions the bite and drinking rainwater from werewolf’s footprint.
We then see the flashback of Kate asking Chris about being turned by a scratch in Wolf's Bane, he says if the claws go deep enough. Then we see Peter Hale slash Kate’s throat in Code Breaker.
Derek says he’s not sure it’s a dream because he doesn’t remember waking up. This is why he’s come to Stiles to ask how he knows he’s awake. Stiles has him do the finger counting thing. Stiles has five fingers and one thumb on one hand which suggests Derek is still dreaming.
Derek is shot in the chest and drops to his knees on the floor of his loft. “It’s real,” he gasps. “You’re real.” Out of the smoke emerges Kate Argent. Her face goes all blue, her lips turn black, she grows fangs and her eyes take on a greenish hue.
Soundtrack
- Mourning Ritual ft. Peter Dreimanis - "Bad Moon Rising"
Scene: The Nogitsune and the Oni take over Beacon Hills
- Whitaker - "My Own"
Scene: All of the characters are shown as the episode ends.
Gallery
Video
Episodes List
← Season 2 Season 3 Season 4 → | |||
#01 Tattoo | #07 Currents | #13 Anchors | #19 Letharia Vulpina |
#02 Chaos Rising | #08 Visionary | #14 More Bad Than Good | #20 Echo House |
#03 Fireflies | #09 The Girl Who Knew Too Much | #15 Galvanize | #21 The Fox and the Wolf |
#04 Unleashed | #10 The Overlooked | #16 Illuminated | #22 De-Void |
#05 Frayed | #11 Alpha Pact | #17 Silverfinger | #23 Insatiable |
#06 Motel California | #12 Lunar Ellipse | #18 Riddled | #24 The Divine Move |