Lunar Ellipse

**Lunar Ellipse** is the twelfth episode and midseason finale of Season 3, and the thirty-sixth episode of *Teen Wolf*.

## Synopsis

With Deaton's help and advice, Scott and his friends use an ancient and extremely dangerous ritual to help them both save the lives of the people they love and stop Jennifer from achieving her sinister goal.\*

(\*Note: No official synopsis was released by MTV, so the aforementioned synopsis is from IMDB)

## Plot

Scott, Allison, and Stiles awaken and discover where the Nemeton is located. Jennifer kills Kali and badly wounds the twins. Allison, Isaac, and—after suffering a head injury in a car accident—Stiles locate the Nemeton and rescue the three parents. The lunar eclipse begins, and all the Werewolves become powerless. Jennifer gives Deucalion his sight back so he can see her true form and then tries to kill him, but is stopped by Derek. Jennifer attacks Derek, but the eclipse ends and the Werewolves' power returns. Scott defeats Jennifer and becomes a True Alpha. Deucalion slashes Jennifer's throat, apparently killing her. However, shortly afterward, Jennifer is revealed to be barely alive, having survived Deucalion's attack, but is confronted by Peter when she attempts to use the power of the Nemeton to heal herself. Jennifer realizes that he plans to take Scott's power so that he can be the Alpha again, and Peter becomes so offended that he retorts that he's always been the Alpha before he claws out her throat, killing her for good.

## Cast

### Main Cast

* Tyler Posey as Scott McCall
* Crystal Reed as Allison Argent
* Dylan O'Brien as Stiles Stilinski
* Tyler Hoechlin as Derek Hale
* Holland Roden as Lydia Martin

### Supporting Cast

* JR Bourne as Chris Argent
* Melissa Ponzio as Melissa McCall
* Linden Ashby as Sheriff Stilinski
* Daniel Sharman as Isaac Lahey
* Seth Gilliam as Dr. Alan Deaton
* Gideon Emery as Deucalion
* Felisha Terrell as Kali
* Charlie Carver as Ethan
* Max Carver as Aiden
* Adelaide Kane as Cora Hale
* Haley Webb as Jennifer Blake
* Eaddy Mays as Victoria Argent
* Matthew Del Negro as Rafael McCall
* Keahu Kahuanui as Danny Mahealani

### Guest Cast

* Haley Roe Murphy as Laura Hale (uncredited)
* Sinqua Walls as Vernon Boyd (uncredited)

## Continuity

* The first lunar eclipse occurs in the series in this episode, temporarily stripping all the Werewolves of their power for around fifteen minutes. This effect of lunar eclipses on Werewolves was first revealed in *The Overlooked*.
* Scott ascends to the rank of True Alpha in this episode. His ascension to Alpha status was first hinted in *Tattoo*, and Deaton confirmed that Scott had the potential to become a True Alpha in *Currents*.
* This episode marks the first time a supernatural creature has broken through a mountain ash barrier when Scott breaks Jennifer's mountain ash ring while ascending to True Alpha status through sheer force of will.
* Allison makes the decision to change the Argent Code from "Nous chassons ceux qui nous chassent" ("We hunt those who hunt us") to "Nous protégeons ceux qui ne peuvent pas se protéger eux-mêmes," or "We protect those who cannot protect themselves." The original Argent Code was first mentioned in Season 1's *Code Breaker*.
	+ Allison and Chris Argent also make the decision to officially rejoin the Hunter lifestyle, only this time, they will be working with the McCall Pack instead of against the Beacon Hills Werewolves.
* Scott references feeling the darkness around his heart that Alan Deaton warned him, Stiles, and Allison would feel after being resurrected in the surrogate sacrifice ritual. This ritual took place in *Alpha Pact*, and they were resurrected after sixteen hours of being dead in this episode.
	+ Additionally, Scott references Jennifer's quote from *Heart of Darkness* that she sent them in a text on two occasions. She quoted the book in *Tattoo*.
* Derek references his mother Talia's personal Werewolf philosophy, "We're predators, but we don't have to be killers" in this episode. This philosophy was first learned heard in *The Tell*.
* Scott references Gerard Argent's comment, "Deucalion might not have eyes, but he's not always blind," from *Visionary* when he uses Chris Argent's flash-bang arrowheads to temporarily blind him.
* Victoria Argent appeared in this episode in Allison's Nemeton-induced memory. She was last seen in a hallucination in *Frayed* and in person in *Party Guessed*.
* Vernon Boyd appeared in archive footage from *Fireflies* when a flashback to when Boyd and Cora were clawing Derek apart after being starved of the full moon for three months in the hecatolite-lined bank vault. Boyd was last seen in *Currents*.
* The Alpha Pack is disbanded in this episode after Kali is killed, and Ethan and Aiden lose their Alpha powers, leaving Deucalion as the only Alpha remaining by the end of the battle. The Alpha Pack was first introduced in *Master Plan*.
* Though they do not know it at the time, the surrogate sacrifice ritual (which started in the previous episode and was completed in this episode) performed by Scott, Allison, and Stiles causes two major supernatural events that will have serious consequences in the future:
	+ The first is that it releases the Nogitsune, who was imprisoned within the Nemeton by Noshiko Yukimura in 1943. It presumably possessed Stiles Stilinski at some point in this episode as well.
	+ The second is that it caused the rebirth of Cerberus, a Hellhound, who then possessed the body of Jordan Parrish, a United States Army EOD technician deployed in Afghanistan who was blown up by an exploding bomb at the exact moment that Scott, Allison and Stiles died. Since a Hellhound is a guardian of the supernatural and supernatural places, it is presumably connected to the Nemeton as well.
	+ It has also been suggested that it was the reawakening of the Nemeton that drew the Dread Doctors and the Ghost Riders of the Wild Hunt to Beacon Hills as well.

## Trivia

* The title is a play on words in reference to the lunar eclipse that occurred in this episode, combined with the word "ellipse," a reference to the fact that this episode is the midseason finale of Season 3.
* Though the episode aired on MTV on Monday, August 19, 2012, the episode was accidentally leaked to season-pass subscribers on iTunes on August 16, and despite the fact that the episode was taken down within a few hours, it was still up long enough to make it on many illegal file sharing websites. Fortunately, this did little to negatively affect the ratings, as it received 2.081 million viewers when it aired as scheduled.

## Body Count

* Kali - fatally stabbed through brain with glass; killed by Jennifer Blake
* Jennifer Blake - throat clawed open; killed by Peter Hale

## Locations

* "The White Room"
* Beacon Hills Preserve
	+ Look-Out Point
	+ Nemeton
		- Root Cellar
* Beacon Hills Animal Clinic
	+ Exam Room
	+ Reception Area
* Derek's Loft
* Argent Apartment
	+ Chris' Office
* Abandoned Distillery
* McCall House
	+ Scott's Bedroom

## Soundtrack

* "Burn the Obedient" by Korn ft. Noisia
	+ Jennifer viciously fights Kali in Derek's loft
* "Kids" by Mikky Ekko
	+ Closing montage: Scott talks to Deaton about his new "heart of darkness" while the McCall Pack is seen at school together; Derek and Cora leave Beacon Hills; Rafael knocks on Scott's bedroom door and gets it slammed in his face for his troubles; Peter claws out Jennifer's throat.

## Gallery

*Teen Wolf Wiki* has 56 images related to ***Lunar Ellipse***.