Second Chance at First Line

**Second Chance at First Line** is the second episode of Season 1 and the *Teen Wolf* series.

## Synopsis

Scott tries to adjust to his Werewolf powers and contemplates whether to play in the big lacrosse game coming up.

## Plot

The episode picks up shortly after where *Wolf Moon* left off. Scott is panicking in the boys locker room when Stiles finds him and asks him if he apologized to Allison. Scott admits that she gave him a second chance before he frantically explains that Allison's father is the lead werewolf hunter who shot him with an arrow on the full moon. Stiles tries to calm Scott down by pointing out that Argent probably didn't recognize him and suggests he just focus on lacrosse practice for now.
The two go out to practice with the team, but Scott is so distracted that he plays very badly. Between the stress of this new hunter threat combined with rude comments from both Jackson and Coach Finstock, Scott becomes so overwhelmed with anger that he rages out and tackles Jackson hard before he starts to transform on the field, not noticing that Derek is lurking in the shadows where the woods meet the lacrosse field and watching him.
Stiles realizes that Scott is transforming and rushes over to him, and once Scott groans that he can't control it, he manages to corral Scott back into the boy's locker room, where he becomes so overwhelmed by his shift into werewolf form that the wolf inside him takes over and attacks Stiles. At a loss for options, Stiles grabs the nearby fire extinguisher and blows it in Scott's face, disorienting him enough that he shifts back to his human form. The realization of what he almost did to Stiles horrifies Scott, and Stiles reminds him that anger and anything else that causes an increased pulse risks him losing control, which means he needs to sit out of the upcoming game on Saturday, even after Scott argues that he just made first line.
That night, Melissa stops into Scott's bedroom before she leaves for a night shift at the hospital and informs him that she took Saturday off to attend his lacrosse game. Scott, knowing he has to sit out but can't explain why, tries to convince her not to, but she thinks he's worried about the money and insists that missing one shift won't break them. She then notices how tired he looks and asks him if he's okay, but he simply says that it's stress.
Stiles video-calls Scott on the computer and informs Scott that Jackson has a separated shoulder and won't be able to play on Saturday, which means that everyone is now depending on Scott to win the game. Scott's computer starts to glitch and freezes up, but Stiles is eventually able to send him a text message that says "It looks like - someone's behind you." Scott turns around and realizes that Derek is once again lurking in the shadows in the corner, and he pins Scott to the wall in annoyance as he growls that he saw Scott transform on the field. Scott tries to lie about it, but Derek insists that if he doesn't sit out of the game, he'll kill him himself, because if the town's citizens find out what Scott is, they'll also find out about him, and it won't just be the hunters after them-- it will be all of them.
The next day, Scott goes to talk to Coach to tell him he can't play in the game on Saturday on Derek's orders, but when Coach demands an explanation, Scott claims he's having "personal issues," which Coach takes to mean that he either has girl problems, boy problems, or a drug problem. Scott insists that neither of those are the case and that he's just dealing with an aggression problem, but Coach continues to refuse to take no for an answer, and states that if Scott can't handle the responsibility of playing first line, then he's going to put him back on the bench.
In the hallway when Scott is on his way to class, he runs into Allison, who also tells him that she's planning to attend his lacrosse game as well. She tells him that he should come with her, Jackson, and Lydia afterwards, and that he should invite Stiles as well. She leaves, and Scott goes to math class, where he and Lydia are assigned to solving math problems on the chalkboard. Lydia confronts him about the rumor that he's not playing in the game on Saturday, and when Scott admits that he isn't, she sternly replies that he is, especially since he hurt her boyfriend. She goes on to say that if Scott and Jackson don't play, then the lacrosse team would lose, and she doesn't date losers. When Scott insists that his not playing would be saving lives, Lydia threatens to take Allison out and introduce her to all of the lacrosse players on the other team if he doesn't play.
Stiles calls Scott over and has him use his werewolf hearing to eavesdrop on a conversation between Sheriff Stilinski and the Principal, where Sheriff states that he's instituting a curfew as a result of the body found in the woods, effective immediately, which requires everyone under the age of eighteen to be home by 9:30PM. When Stiles hears about this, he scoffs at the fact that his dad is looking for a rabid animal while Derek, who they still believe is both the werewolf who bit Scott and killed the girl, can just live his life without consequences. Scott reminds him that they can't tell Sheriff the truth about Derek, but Stiles argues that what they can do is find the other half of the body.
Down the hall, Lydia is introducing Allison to other lacrosse players and shooting Scott significant looks before Scott approaches Allison to talk to her. Scott notices that she's wearing the jacket that Derek stole the previous episode to lure Scott into the woods on the full moon and asked her where she got it, so she replies that she found it in her locker, and assumes that Lydia, who knows her combination, grabbed it from the party and put it back. Scott, worried about what's going on with her, starts aggressively asking Allison about Derek and what they talked about when he took her home the other night, and though she says they didn't say much, she starts to get weirded out about his behavior and leaves to go to class.
After school, Scott tracks Derek down at the Hale House and yells at him to stay away from Allison because she doesn't know anything. Derek argues back, "Yeah? What if she does? You think your little buddy Stiles can just Google "werewolves" and now you got all the answers? Is that it?" Derek continues on to say that though Scott doesn't get it yet, he's trying to look out for him, and insists that if the aggression takes over while Scott is on the field and causes him to shift in front of everyone, including his mother and his friends, the rest of his life will fall apart.
Later, Stiles arrives at Scott's house after Scott called him over and excitedly asks him what he found and how he found it, so Scott confesses that he smelled blood when he was at Derek's, and though he doesn't know whose it was, he thinks they can find out and use it find evidence to get Derek arrested for the murder. He then says that Stiles then needs to help him learn how to play lacrosse without transforming, because he can't miss the game with everyone depending on him.
The scene cuts to the morgue at Beacon Memorial Hospital, where Scott is getting the scent of the half of the woman's body that was found in the woods. Meanwhile, Stiles is keeping watch outside and finds Lydia waiting for Jackson in the lobby while he has his shoulder injury treated. Stiles takes the opportunity to try to talk to her and admits that he always felt like they had a connection and that it might be nice to get to know each other better, but though he thinks Lydia is smiling and nodding because of what he said, in reality, she's talking on the phone using a Bluetooth headset. She hangs up her call and tells him she didn't hear anything that he just said before asking if it's worth repeating, and Stiles, embarrassed, says no and retreats.
Jackson comes out and informs Lydia that the doctor gave him a cortisone shot, but told him not to make a habit of it. Lydia insists that he get another right before the game so he can play and reminds him that all of the pros do it. Once they leave, Scott returns and tells Stiles that the scent of the body was the same one he smelled at the Hale House, leading Stiles to wonder aloud of Derek buried the other half of the body on his property. He wants to find proof of this and use it against Derek, but asks Scott if his motivation is to stop Derek from hurting more people, or if he's just mad that Derek told him not to play lacrosse. It's clear that Scott is feeling a mixture of both, but when Scott informs him that the body's legs had bite marks, Stiles says they need to find a shovel.
The two hide in the edge of the woods and wait until Derek leaves before they find a recently dug up patch in the yard and start digging. Scott remarks that something feels different, but decides to continue on anyway and get it over with. They finally find something large buried in the ground that is wrapped and tied in burlap, but when Stiles finally unknots the ties, they find that it's actually the front half of a dark brown wolf in the grave. Worried that Derek will be back any moment, Scott suggests they get out of there, but Stiles notices a purple flower nearby and identifies it as wolfsbane. He scoffs at Scott when he has no idea what this is, but is distracted by the realization that the wolfsbane plant is attacked to a spiral of rope around the body, which, once Stiles unwinds it, causes the wolf body to transform into the top half of the murdered woman from the woods, horrifying both boys.
The next morning, Stiles and Scott watch as Sheriff Stilinski and his deputies arrest Derek and put him in the backseat of their cruiser. Derek glares at the boys as he's loaded into the car, and once the deputies leave to check out the crime scene, Stiles sneaks into the passenger seat of the cruiser to talk to Derek. He claims he's not afraid of him (which he later takes back) before pointing out that the girl he supposedly killed was a werewolf, but different because she could turn into a real wolf, unlike Scott. Derek, instead of answering his questions, insists that he should be worrying about Scott instead, because if he shifts on the lacrosse field, then it's going to be bad for him. He goes on to say that Scott won't listen to him, but he will listen to Stiles, and that he should want to stop him.
Just then, Sheriff pulls Stiles out of the car and scolds him for talking to Derek before questioning him on how he found the body in the first place. Stiles lies that they were looking for Scott's inhaler, which only exposes his lie in the previous episode that Scott wasn't out in the woods with him. Sheriff then tells Stiles to leave, so he and Scott drive back home in the Jeep. Scott goes through Stiles' books on werewolves and tells Stiles he can't find anything about wolfsbane for rituals, but Scott starts to get woozy and sick and loses his temper when Stiles becomes too excited about werewolves in general. He then begins to gasp for breath and begs Stiles to pull over, which is when he realizes that Stiles put the wolfsbane flowers in his book bag, which was making Scott sick. Scott throws Stiles' backpack out of the window as Stiles pulls over, but when Stiles turns back to him to make sure he's okay, he finds that Scott has vanished.
Stiles frantically calls the emergency dispatch in fear that Scott lost control and was running around, but the dispatcher just hangs up on him. Meanwhile, Scott has run to the Argent House, where he climbs up their roof while fully-wolfed out. However, when he jumps down, he's suddenly hit by Argent as he pulls into the driveway, and the pain causes him to shift back to human. Argent gasps in shock as Allison runs outside and yells at her dad for trying to kill Scott, and Scott nervously admits that it was his fault and claims he was just wanting to say hi. He then informs them that he has to go get ready for the lacrosse game, and Allison and Argent both assure him that they'll be attending.
At the game that night, Scott and Stiles are heading to the field, and Stiles tells him he hopes that he knows what he's doing. Scott argues that he just wants a semi-normal life where he can be on the team and go out with Allison, so Stiles sighs and insists that he do his best not to worry too much while he's out on the field, which does little to ease Scott's nerves.
During the game, Jackson orders the rest of the players to only throw the ball to him, not Scott, but when Danny points out that they shouldn't haze Scott and risk losing the game, Jackson insists that he's the captain and Danny reluctantly agrees. In the stands, Lydia, Allison, and Argent are sitting together, where Lydia makes a snarky comment that Scott is #11 and hasn't caught a single throw the entire game. The anger at Jackson's behavior causes Scott to start to get angry, and when Coach yells at the players to throw the ball to Scott with no response, Scott growls at the opposing team member who has the ball, which scares him enough to pass Scott the ball. One of the opponents asks Jackson what Scott's on, but Jackson insists that he doesn't know... *yet*.
Scott starts to lose control, and Stiles begins to panic from the bench while everyone in the stands starts to cheer for him to make the goal. After a moment of being totally overwhelmed, Scott's enhanced hearing picks up Allison's voice in the stands saying, "You can do it, Scott. You can do it, Scott," which allows him to regain control enough to make the game-winning goal. However, Scott becomes so overwhelmed afterward that he rushes off the field and into the locker room, while Stiles is approached by his dad with bad news.
Allison, worried about Scott's sudden disappearance, hesitantly walks into the boy's locker room, where she eventually finds him standing under the hot water in the shower, still in his uniform shorts. Allison asks him if he's okay, and he claims that he just got lightheaded and needed a moment to allow it to pass. Allison points out that he's probably got an adrenaline rush from how amazing he played out there. Scott smiles and apologizes for "acting really weird" that day and confesses that she makes him nervous because he wants to make sure he gets his second chance. Allison promises that he has it, and that he just needs to take it, which leads Scott to kiss her. They make out for a long moment before Allison pulls away.
She smiles and says she needs to get back to her dad as Stiles approaches them, and when she leaves, Scott giddily informs Stiles that he kissed Allison, and she kissed him back. He also seems comforted by the fact that he managed to control his inner werewolf and starts to believe that maybe he can handle his new life. However, when Stiles frowns, Scott realizes that he knows something and asks him what is going on, forcing Stiles to admit that the medical examiner did the autopsy on the body once they found the other half. The ME found that the killer of the mysterious girl was an animal, not a human, and since Derek, for all the police know, is human and not an animal, they determined he wasn't the killer and had to release him from jail. To make matters worse, Stiles informs him that the Sheriff's department identified the body as Laura Hale, Derek's older sister.

## 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
* Colton Haynes as Jackson Whittemore

### Supporting Cast

* Orny Adams as Coach Bobby Finstock
* Linden Ashby as Sheriff Stilinski
* JR Bourne as Chris Argent
* Keahu Kahuanui as Danny Mahealani

### Guest Cast

* John Atwood as Math Teacher
* Cassie Smith as Student
* Nolan Godfrey as Lacrosse Player
* Chris Thomas Hayes as Opposing Lacrosse Player
* Haley Roe Murphy as Laura Hale

## Continuity

* This episode marks the first appearance of wolfsbane and its negative effect on Werewolves. This substance will be very important to the Werewolf mythology throughout the rest of the series.
* It is finally revealed that the body of the girl who was cut in half in the woods is Laura Hale, Derek Hale's older sister.
	+ The autopsy also revealed that Laura was killed by an animal, despite being cut in half, which is a Hunter method of killing Werewolves to ensure that they don't survive their injuries.
* This is the first episode to confirm that some Werewolves can transform fully into wolves, unlike most Werewolves, who only have a partially-lupine transformation, or the Alpha, who takes on a monstrous Beast-like Alpha form.
* This episode marks the official start to Jackson's investigation into what has caused Scott's recent transformation from unpopular loser to extraordinarily talented lacrosse player.
* Melissa McCall becomes suspicious about Scott's recent strange behavior in this episode, a problem that will continue throughout Season 1 and Season 2.

## Trivia

* The title refers to Scott's status on the "first line," or starting line-up, on the lacrosse team, and the fact that whether or not he can control his Werewolf powers will determine whether he gets a second chance to play or not.
* Derek Hale references the 1980s movie *Teen Wolf*, from which this television series was derived, in this episode when he makes a snarky comment about how the Beacon Hills citizens wouldn't just start cheering if Scott McCall exposed himself as a Werewolf.

## Locations

* Beacon Hills High School
	+ Lacrosse Field
* McCall House
	+ Scott's Bedroom
* Hale House
* Beacon Hills Memorial Hospital
	+ Emergency Room Lobby
	+ Walk-in Clinic

## Soundtrack

* "Annie You Save Me" by Graffiti6
	+ Scott is in the boy's locker room and is panicking after learning that Argent is a Werewolf Hunter
* "Chicken Soup for the F\*\*k You" by Shout Out Out Out
	+ Jackson knocks down Scott at lacrosse practice
* "Sleep 2 Dream" by LexiconDon
	+ Melissa questions Scott about why he looks tired and asks him if he's on drugs
* "Honeymade" by john gold
	+ Stiles and Scott talk via webcam in their respective bedrooms
* "Disco Angel" by Man is Doomed
	+ Melissa texts Scott to confirm she got the night off to go to the lacrosse game, and Allison approaches him to tell him she is going as well
* "Apache" by The Ruse
	+ Scott rides his bike to the Hale House and yells for Derek to come out.
* "You Rascal You" by Hanni El Khatib
	+ Stiles rushes into Scott's bedroom so he can hear what Scott found at the Hale House
* "Best Supporting Actor" by One for the Team
	+ Scott and Stiles drive home after they watch Derek get arrested
* "Little Birds" by We Are Wolves
	+ Stiles calls dispatch to see if they've seen a wolfed-out man running around town
* "Wildfires" by Ohbijou
	+ Allison is in her bedroom while Scott watches from the roof
* "Familiar Ground" by The Cinematic Orchestra
	+ Allison checks on Scott after he's hit by Argent*s car in her driveway*
* "Horndog" by Overseer
	+ Lydia talks to Scott before the game while Coach talks to Jackson
* "Right This Second" by Deadmau5
	+ Jackson knocks down Scott at the lacrosse game while Lydia and Allison hold up a sign for him
* "Tongue Tied (Bonus Track)" by The Antlers
	+ Lydia, Allison, and Argent talk about Scott in the stands during the game
* "Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na) by My Chemical Romance
	+ Scott uses his powers to scare his opponent into giving him the ball *(In Canadian version, the song is "421 (Everybody Loves You) by The Wildbirds)*
* "Take On The World" by Wavves
	+ The crowd cheers after Scott makes the game-winning goal
* "Calm the Storm" by Graffiti6
	+ Scott and Allison talk and make out in the locker room

## Gallery

*Teen Wolf Wiki* has 23 images related to ***Second Chance at First Line***.