A True Moon

A True Moon is the second episode of the first season of A Strange Place.

It was written by B.D. Hoffman and later directed by "Titan". It premiered alongside the Pilot episode on August 5th, 2018.

Synopsis
Melanie and Noah further investigate the tragic murder of Coach Desjardins and more of Melanie's powers are unearthed as her sixteenth birthday party is to commence... on the full moon.

Ava races around the clock to figure out what truly is going on and what she saw the night of Coach Desjardins' murder.

Recap
Melanie says farewell to Jane on her birthday as she heads to school, having finally turned sixteen Melanie looks forward to sitting her driver's test. Melanie stops by at the Deja Brew to pick up her cheque for the week as well as a coffee, only to bump into Connor.

Connor and Melanie share an awkward exchange and before they can depart ways, Melanie accepts Connor's offer to have lunch together; but as friends and friends only. She even invites him to her birthday party.

Melanie walks to school and meets up with Corina, Melanie lets her in on the Connor scandal, much to Corina's disdain. When Melanie departed for Economics and Corina for History, Melanie, fortunately, ends up in a class with Noah, but also unfortunately with Connor. Melanie sits between Connor and Noah, Connor making seductive passes at her, which Noah oppresses.

At one point Connor is called to the front of the class to answer an equation, Melanie instantly turns to Noah and appeals to him to join her investigation. Eventually, he gave in and agreed just as Connor began to retreat back to his desk, giving Melanie a look.

When Connor confronted Melanie about her budding friendship with Noah, Melanie simply stated that her father knew him when he was a kid, which was a lie. Connor believed this and left her alone and asked if they could go for the lunch now. Melanie agreed, getting a distasteful glare from Corina in the distance.

Ava pilfers the library for any answers on what she saw last night, she's very out of place in the library, wearing extravagant, lavish clothing with popping colors where everyone else was more morose and grainy. After being told off several times for being too loud, Ava secluded herself to a corner where she read something on European folklore.

Melanie and Connor relish on their times together and at the end of their lunch when Connor goes in for a kiss, Melanie flinches and pulls back. Melanie quickly flees only to be rescued by Corina as she drives her the rest of the way to her apartment.

Melanie and Corina set up for Melanie's birthday party with all the essentials, during the awkward silence Melanie finally breaks the ice and talks to her about her being a witch. Corina laughs again, exuding intolerance for nonsense such as the supernatural.

Melanie, being persistent like her mother, continues to push the truth down Corina's throat, who continues to rebuttle her nonsense with insults, growing increasingly irritated. When Alexandra storms in, the arguing ceases and the girl continues to set up for the party.

Noah has an unexpected visitor at his door while looking at his phone with a countdown to the full moon, he looks up to see Ava at the foot of his door. Ava shoves his daily newspaper into his chest and helps herself inside, confused, Noah asks what she's up to and Ava simply responds with another question, asking about what he knows the night she was attacked.

Noah and Ava's exchange continues to get violent, as Ava proceeds to get more hysterical about the attack, getting frustrated with her fruitless searches and endless dead-ends. Noah tries to calm Ava down to no avail, as Ava grows more hysterical and angsty, a radio crackles on and alerts Noah of a new body found. Ava questions why Noah has a radio tuned to the police frequency. Noah doesn't answer her and bolts out of the door, Ava in hot pursuit.

The party is off without a hitch, it's in full swing and Melanie already finds herself resorting to drinking heavily. Especially when Connor shows up. Corina tries to get Melanie to party and interact with guests, Melanie reacts nastily which upsets Corina who stalks away icily.

Noah and Ava arrive at the crime scene and are instantly turned away, Ava steps in and uses her family name which allows them to pass. Noah and Ava briefly look over the scene, the same puncture wounds in the victim's neck and drained of blood, Ava recognizes him as Alec Jacobs, radio presenter for the local radio.

Eventually, the Sheriff turns Noah and Ava away, someone Ava cannot use her name to persuade him to let them stay. Noah quickly departs from the scene before Ava can ask any follow-up questions. The full moon begins to descend and Noah can already feel the effects of it, having forgotten and been distracted by Ava, he wasn't able to go to his hideout. He seeks out Melanie's help at her party.

Everyone looks at Noah concerned as he sweats profusely, jerks often, and walks rigidly towards Melanie who pulls him aside, Connor spectates the exchange between the two. Noah expresses concern and asks for Melanie's help to get him a safe distance from others, he breaks into a howl, startling the others at the party, too drunk and disoriented to discover the source of the noise.

Melanie leaves the party earlier, feeling her witch abilities beginning to go out of control with her alcohol consumption. Melanie drives Noah out of town only to have a burst of telekinesis, her at fault, tossing the car off the road and into an irrigation ditch.

Corina and Connor enter into a heated argument over Melanie and her sudden departure from the party, the former party blaming the latter for her hasty leave. When Connor mentioned her leaving with Noah, this left Corina bemused as she never thought that Melanie and Noah had any connection whatsoever, especially considering the rumors about him she had heard since beginning at Riverbank High.

Melanie wakes up to see Noah beginning to shift, groaning in pain, Melanie haphazardly clambering out of the windshield and onto the forest floor. Hearing a growl, Melanie whipped around to see Noah, in wolf form, sneaking after her, ready to take a giant bite out of her. When Noah leaped at her to attack, she held up her hands defensively which threw him back into a tree, which wounded and disoriented him for a minute, giving an opportunity for Melanie to make a run for it. Which she did.

Melanie runs through the woods, Noah hot on her tail, wanting to hunt her down and kill her. Seeing a cabin in the distance, Melanie races into it, upon entering and locking it, she was safe. Noah could not get in; somehow. Investigating the cabin, Melanie noticed a shrine for a girl called Anne.

Ava crashes Melanie's party and storms into Corina's apartment, in search of Noah. However, Corina has informed her that Noah has fled with Melanie and that they were about to go look for them. Before they could, police stormed the apartment to shut down the party, keeping everyone sequestered in the apartment in the questioning of Melanie's location. A call came in that Melanie's car had crashed and that she was probably subjected to a form of foul play.

Clawing at the ground, Noah was managing to burrow into the cabin where Melanie resided at that very moment. Freaked, Melanie searched the cabin for a weapon, finding a vial of a purple powder marked with a strange symbol. Just based off of intuition, Melanie sprayed the powdery substance just as Noah crawled out from his burrow and he flinched and leaped out of the burrow and away from Melanie and the cabin, the substance weakening him.

Melanie bolted for the road, Noah still recovering from Melanie's fatal attack. Escaping Noah finally, Melanie makes it out onto the road, her wrecked car, however, is not in sight. She manages to flag down a straying range rover. When Melanie gets in, she feels a sort of familiarity about him, but just can't quite place it. He helps drive her into town.

When Melanie is dropped off at Corina's, everyone is relieved to see her alive, the police decide to bring her in for questioning and have a nurse assess her injuries. After she's released from the nurse, Melanie is about to be questioned before her mother, Jane, barges in reading their rights and getting Melanie out of there quickly. When asking why she did that, Jane confesses to knowing what happened with Noah.

The next morning, Melanie and Corina are escorted to school by officers per the Sheriff's request and once dropped off they are met face-to-face with Noah. Melanie separates from Corina to talk with Noah privately and as he continues to apologize, Melanie dismisses them and says its no worries. Noah then talks about what he and Ava discovered, a new victim. Prompting for Melanie and Noah to plan a secret exit out of school without her bodyguards knowing.

Connor notices Melanie and Noah exiting separately from the girls' bathroom, which sparks suspicion and jealousy within him. When Melanie is a fair distance away, Connor decides to confront Noah, asking numerous questions pertaining to his and Melanie's relationship. Noah tries to ignore Connor, but he keeps persisting, eventually growing irritated, Connor clocks Noah in the side of the head. Melanie witnesses this altercation and quickly tries to intervene, but Noah has tackled Connor and the two have engaged in a brutal fight which everyone witnesses. It's soon parted by a few school teachers and Connor is carted away to the nurse's office. Noah leaves the fight unscathed, which Ava takes note of.

During this mess, Noah and Melanie manage to flee school without the bodyguards' knowledge and drive off to the library. Reading up on some books on mythology, the wounds and cause of death on both victims correlate to one species; a vampire. Noah confesses to never believing in vampires because he's never met one, as he's only met werewolves and witches.

Melanie and Noah begin to leave only for the lights in the library to flicker, soon its descends into complete darkness. Melanie tries to fumble around for a lightswitch, noticing that the fusebox must've been cut or something. Noah uses his heightened senses and alerts Melanie of smelling blood. Noah navigates the dark with Melanie tailing behind and just before they stumble upon the body, the light flickers back on and there a dead young boy is before them.

Melanie tells Noah she knows him, his name was Kyle and he used to attend Riverbank High when she was a Freshman.

Starring

 * Elizabeth Lail as Melanie Lucas (2/12)
 * Cameron Moulene as Connor Manning (2/12)
 * Janel Parrish as Corina Vanderwaal (2/12)
 * Penn Badgley as Noah Murphy (2/12)
 * Nicola Peltz as Ava Thomas (2/12)

Guest Starring

 * Elizabeth Mitchell as Jane Lucas (2/12)