Battlefield

                                    

                                          
            
                          
Stiles is in the guidance counselor's office talking to Ms. Morell. He explains that when you drown you don't inhale until right before you black out because the instinct to keep the water out is so strong that you'll resist until it feels like your head's exploding. He ties his lacrosse stick as he talks to her to keep his hands occupied. "Then when you finally do let it in, that's when it stops hurting. It's not scary anymore. It's actually kind of peaceful." A flashback shows the police fishing Matt's body out of the river. Ms. Morell asks if Stiles hopes Matt found peace in his last moments. 
                          
She asks if he feels sympathy for the boy Matt was who drowned. Stiles replies that a bunch of dumbasses dragging him into a pool when he couldn't swim doesn't give him the right to go killing people. Also, they found out that Matt really was stalking Allison, photo-shopping himself into pictures he'd taken of her. Even if 9-year-old Matt hadn't been drowned, he was still on the crazy-train.
                          
Ms. Morell points out that the Sheriff getting his badge back is nice positive to have come out of the whole thing. Stiles agrees, but there's still a tension between him and his father when they talk. He feels a similar tension with Scott, even though they haven't talked much because he's been dealing with his own problems. Scott's mother isn't ready to talk to him about being a Werewolf yet. Scott also hasn't talked to Allison, but Stiles thinks that's probably Allison's choice more than Scott's. Scott leaves messages on her window asking her to meet, but she doesn't show.
                          
Stiles says that Allison's mom dying hit her pretty hard. He thinks it's brought her and Chris closer, though. We see Chris crossing off sections of a map of Beacon County. The one block they haven't crossed off in the main part of the city contains the rail depot, where Derek has his subway tunnel hideout. 
                          
He then says that Jackson hasn't really been himself lately. And of everyone Lydia seems the most normal. Ms. Morell asks Stiles about himself. She asks if he's feeling anxiety about the championship game tomorrow night. He stops with the strings of his lacrosse stick in his mouth and wonders aloud why she'd ask him that. He then explains that he never actually plays. "But hey, since one of my teammates is dead and another one's missing, who knows, right?" Isaac is apparently missing. Ms. Morell calls him one of the three runaways and asks Stiles if he's heard from any of them. 
                          
Rather than answer, Stiles asks her why she isn't taking any notes. She says she writes them after the session. She presses him about how he's feeling. "I'm fine. Yeah, aside from the not sleeping. The jumpiness. The constant, overwhelming, crushing fear that something terrible's about to happen." She tells him it's called hypervigilance. He says it's like having a panic attack, like he can't even breathe. She compares it to drowning and suggests that if you fight the reflex to take a breath, you give yourself more time to fight your way to the surface. "More time to be rescued." "More time to be in agonizing pain. Did you forget about the part where you feel like your head's exploding?" Ms. Morell suggests that if it's about survival, a little agony is worth it. Stiles asks what happens when it just gets worse. "What if it's agony now and it's just hell later on?" She quotes Winston Churchill at him. "If you're going through hell, keep going." 
                          
Scott steps out of his shower and wipes the fog from the mirror. He hears something behind him and turns to see the kanima up in the corner of his room holding his mother hostage. Gerard villains and says there's been some interesting developments lately and would like to talk.
                          
Scott takes out his claws, but Gerard just tells him to be realistic. Scott asks him to let Melissa go. Gerard says he can't but he might be able to let her live depending on what Scott does. Gerard tells him that he wants Derek and his pack. Scott replies that they're all in hiding, so Scott doesn't know where they are. Gerard thinks that with the proper motivation he can devise a plan, and luckily the kanima is pretty good at motivating people. He can control the kanima because he came to Beacon Hills to avenge Kate, not just bury her.