Noel enters the episode with Scott and Stiles, making a joke after Stiles says "Really? I have. Usually ends a little differently." He gives his friend a look and says "Stiles, you give a whole new meaning to the words 'only in your dreams'." He and Scott share a laugh while Stiles rolls his eyes. Noel is a bystander to Scott and Stiles' conversation from that point until...
"It's not like there's a lycanthropy for beginners class you can take," Stiles says and Noel interjects by saying "Derek could probably teach you a thing or two about being a werewolf before he rips your face off and devours it." He is the only one that finds this joke funny. After a second of silence, Scott pipes up "Actually, that may not be such a bad idea." Stiles then smacks Scott on the back of his head and their canon conversation resumes.
As the three of them discover the bus in it's current state, Noel says "Maybe Derek is your best option at this point.." He follows Stiles and Scott back inside and tries to help Stiles convince Scott that Allison is alright by making up a story about her whereabouts.
Scott of course doesn't believe him, which only makes the werewolf more confused and afraid for his girlfriend's safety. He watches in stunned silence as Scott punches the locker, his eyes conveying deep raw fear. He breaks off from the group and tries in vain to fix the locker Scott destroyed, knowing that it's actually Jackson's. When Scott comes back and sees Jackson looking at his locker in shock, the jock grabs Noel by the collar of his shirt, pins him up against the broken locker roughly, and asks his cousin a question (we can't hear what it is, only see Jackson's mouth moving and Noel shrinking back as far as he can). Jackson turns and makes eye contact with Scott, then Noel does the same with a pleading expression on his face, and Jackson asks "What are you looking at, asswipe?" which makes Scott retreat in the other direction, leaving Noel behind.
—
In the next scene, Noel can be seen with a black eye. No one brings any attention to it. He sits behind Stiles, and laughs along with the class when Scott and Stiles get separated. He rushes to the window with everyone else, but immediately backs away when Jackson looks at him.
—
During the next scene at lunchtime, Noel is sitting by himself at a table. Stiles and Scott sit with him, and Noel does little to acknowledge them outside of taking another bite of his food and looking annoyed.
"What makes you so sure that Derek even has all the answers?" Stiles asks, to which Noel interjects "What makes you so sure that I'm okay with you two sitting at this table with me?" This gets no response and Stiles and Scott continue their conversation.
When Lydia joins them at their table, Noel gives Scott and Stiles a look, which Stiles returns and says "You sure you want us to sit somewhere else, Noel?"
Lydia rests her chin in her hand and says "Yeah, Noah. Are you sure you want them to sit somewhere else?"
Noel shakes his head and flashes an awkward smile at Lydia, unfazed by her mispronunciation of his name. Everyone joins them at the table, though the boy in canon who sits at the head of the table is replaced by Noel, who was sitting there before everyone else arrived. Jackson makes the same command to have the boy move so he can sit at the head of the table, to which Noel says "But I was here first," Jackson raises a clenched fist in the air as if he's about to hit Noel, which makes the boy flinch away and gets up. Allison offers a soft "You can come sit by me, Noel." He smiles gratefully at her and sits beside her, listening to the rest of the group's conversation but not contributing.
—
He doesn't walk with Scott and Stiles in the next scene, but on Stiles' iconic "Am I not attractive to gay guys?" line, Noel walks past him from behind and says a casual "Nope." Stiles watches him with his mouth agape in shock as Noel continues walking, acting like nothing had just happened.
—
After the scene with Scott and Derek but before the scene with Stiles and Scott at the school, we get our second look into Noel's pre-supernatural side. The boy is seen sitting on the couch at his home, casually doing his homework. We can hear Jackson in the other room talking with his parents, which seems to bug Noel slightly. He looks up at the wall where a photo hangs, a snapshot from a Whittemore family reunion years ago. Noel and Jackson were about seven and eight respectively, the closest of the cousins in age and standing with their arms wrapped around each other in a tight playful hug. Noel smiles a bit at the memory, but his smile fades when he looks at the two sets of proud parents standing behind them, Jackson's mom and dad beside Noel's.
The camera lingers on the two behind Noel, and then specifically the hand his father has on his son's shoulder. Noel touches that same shoulder and sighs dreamily before returning to his homework, when an echoey female voice suddenly says "Find me."
Noel jumps and looks around, everything looking normal as we hear his heart beating in the background. He sits there for a second in shock before his heart rate returns to normal. He continues to do his work, pretending nothing happened. A few seconds later, the same voice says "Noel.. Find me.."
Noel's skin crawls and he begins to hyperventilate, looking around desperately for a source of the voice once again. When he finds nothing, he lets out a noise of frustration and sets down his homework. He curls his knees up to his chest, tangling his hands in his hair like he had done at Laura's grave in 1x02. After a few beats of silence, Laura Hale flashes on screen after a quick flicker of the lights. Noel snaps his head up to meet her gaze, and he finds himself nose to nose with her naked mud-soaked body.
"Find me and tell me," she begs, which causes Noel to scream and rush back to get away from her. Seconds later the Whittemore family runs in, Mrs. Whittemore rushing to his side and saying "Noel? What's wrong? What happened?"
The boy is shaking visibly, staring straight at where Laura had been seconds before. The camera drifts up to a shot of Jackson dressed to go out for the night, looking both slightly concerned and amused at his cousin's pain. We get one more shot of Noel looking terrified before the scene ends, cutting to Stiles and Scott at the school.
—
Before the first bowling scene, Noel is standing back in Hale territory, and has just been dropped off by the Hale house by Jackson.
"Remind me why I'm leaving you stranded in the middle of the preserve at eight o'clock on a school night?" Jackson asks from where he leans against his open window, Lydia fixing her makeup in the passenger's seat. Noel gives both Lydia and Jackson a stressed look, saying quickly "I'm meeting up with some friends, we're gonna play... Paintball."
Jackson is not convinced. "It's pitch black out here, dumbass. You wouldn't even be able to see each other. Get in the car, I'm taking you back home before you shoot some nerd's eye out and my parents have to pay for it."
Noel is about to protest when Lydia says "Leave him alone Jackson, we have better things to do tonight. Noah's fine, aren't you, Noah?"
Noel nods slowly, Jackson saying amusedly "It's Noel." Noel glares at Jackson and says "She can call me Noah if she wants to." Lydia smiles and goes back to applying her mascara. Jackson grits his teeth and hisses out "If you die out here, my parents are going to kill me. So you better call me when whatever you and your stupid little friends are doing is over. Understand?"
Noel nods and takes a few steps back, Jackson revving his engine and speeding back the way he came.
Noel watches him for a second, and when he's sure he's alone, he starts walking toward the grave at the side of the Hale house. He kneels down beside the now empty grave, saying "I don't know what you want from me, but please tell me so I can get out of here before your brother grinds my bones to make his bread."
"I'm a werewolf, not a fairytale giant," Derek says from behind Noel, causing the boy to jump up and back away from Derek straight into Laura's grave. He looks up at Derek and breathes a bit heavily out of fear, saying "I'm here for a good reason, I can explain, just please don't eat me. I'm all skin and bones, I barely weigh 130 pounds, I swear I'll probably taste like stale crackers and middle schooler body spray."
"Shut up and tell me why you're here," Derek says, reaching into the grave and pulling Noel up by the collar of his shirt. Noel flinches hard and closes his eyes tight, refusing to look at Derek. A shock of pain passes over him as he shuts his black eye, and he hisses a bit before gently touching it and applying soft pressure. The werewolf holding him scrunches his eyebrows together, asking "What happened to your eye?"
"It's nothing," Noel retorts, yelping when Derek tightens his grip on his shirt and pins him to the side of the Hale house. He gets back on task, growling out "What are you doing here?" while flashing his blue eyes at Noel.
"Your sister wants me to help her!" Noel says back and turns his face away from Derek's gaze. Derek looks shocked, saying "What are you talking about? My sister's dead!"
"I can't explain it, but I can't stop feeling this weird connection to this place, ever since that first day when I came and laid down on her grave. Please let me talk, let me explain myself, just please don't kill me!"
Derek pauses for a second before letting Noel go, shoving his hands in the pockets of his jacket before saying "Guess you better start talking, then. Get in the car."
Noel is shown panting in fear on camera before he looks at Derek's camaro. The shot cuts out and the bowling scene takes over.
—
After the first part of the bowling scene, Derek and Noel are driving in Derek's car and Noel is mid-explanation of what had happened to him earlier at his house and a few days before at the grave when Laura was still in it.
"I looked up when the lights flickered, and all of a sudden she was standing there, right in front of me. She told me I had to find her and tell her, whatever that means," he says as Derek pulls into the gas station. Derek sees who's in the driver's seat of the red car across from them and says "Go inside and get me a soda."
Noel narrows his eyes and says "You want me to do what?"
"Did I stutter?" Derek asks and looks over at him, flashing his blue eyes in hopes to scare the boy, saying more forcefully "Go inside and get me a soda."
Noel doesn't need to be told again, getting out of the car and going into the mini-mart. He almost runs into Chris on the way in, saying "'Scuse me, sir." Chris nods in acknowledgment before walking to Derek and sharing their canon scene.
When Argent says "I'm very protective of the things I love," Noel comes out of the gas station with two cups of fountain soda in his hands. He stands at the front of the store and watches the scene happening before him silently. When Argent says "You don't have much of that these days", the line just after that is changed from "Do you?" to "Or do you?" and he glances over at Noel. The teen bites his bottom lip and tightens his grip on the styrofoam cups, trying to make sense of what was happening and how he was involved.
When Argent's colleague busts Derek's window, Noel drops one of the sodas in shock and takes a step back away from the situation. When the hunters leave, Noel hurries over to Derek and says "What the hell was that about?"
Derek watches as the cars drive away, not looking at Noel as he says "Shut up and get in." He opens his door and sweeps the glass out of his own seat, Noel watching and wincing as he sits down and gets a single piece of glass in his thigh. He takes it out gingerly before he holds the soda in his hand out to Derek, asking "Do you like Sprite?" Derek looks at the cup and takes it passive aggressively, taking a drink and pulling out of the gas station as we return once again to the bowling alley.
—
He is not seen or mentioned again in the episode. It is assumed that Derek took him home before going to the hospital later in the episode.