Bitten - Grief - Review : "Balancing Family"

    Bitten episode 1.4, “Grief,” was written by Grant Rosenberg and directed by Paul Fox. Among Fox’s many credits are My Babysitter’s a Vampire, Lost Girl, Beauty and the Beast, The Listener, Rookie Blue, and Haven, so he’s no stranger to effects, action or the horror genre. Rosenberg has a similar pedigree that includes Poltergeist: The Legacy, The Outer Limits, Lost Girl, and like McGrath who wrote last week’s episode, Rosenberg also wrote for XIII: The Series.

    This episode picks up where the last left off, with Pete’s (Joel Keller) funeral, picking up on threads that have already been carefully sown. Pete’s death also acts as the one catalyst that ensures Elena (Laura Vanderoort) will work with the pack, even if only temporarily. The writing on the series continues to impress. We’ve already been introduced to Daniel Santos (Michael Luckett), Zachary Cain (Noah Danby), and Karl Marsten (Pascal Langdale). We get more of an explanation of pack versus mutt politics, and we see again how the hierarchy of the pack itself plays out.

    Elena struggles with keeping her two worlds separate. She goes to Logan (Michael Xavier) for help and is concerned about having to lie to Philip (Paul Greene) – the very thing his mother used last week to plant the seeds of doubt in his mind. Philip understands Elena’s invisible line and respects her privacy, but Diane (Natalie Brown) insists that lack of communication is the first step in disengagement and insists that he sit her down and talk to her. This may result in Elena realizing that she can’t continue the relationship rather than fixing anything, however. Jeremy (Greg Bryk) is surprised by her determination to get the mutt who killed Pete, commenting that it’s not like her to be consumed by bloodlust. We learn that this is her first adult experience with loss and that she lost her biological parents when she was five. Clearly, having fewer “outside” bonds must make it easier to be assimilated into the pack, especially given how clearly difficult it is to maintain those outside ties.

    Bryk is terrific as the alpha. He’s patient and understanding with Elena. We are clearly meant to see that Elena’s grief over Pete’s death blends into her grief over her parents death, but also her grief over the loss of her “normal” life. She is still in the stages of anger and denial. This is nicely paralleled by Elena telling Jeremy that she often imagined she’d just wake up and her parents would be back. But it is impossible to undo the past. Elena only sees violence and death with the pack – underscored by Pete’s death – but Jeremy insists that there is also love and family and she just needs to find her balance between the two extremes. Elena criticizes Jeremy for being complacent over Pete’s death, but it is clear that he is anything but, and Bryk does a wonderful job showing his quiet grief. That complacency is what allows the alpha to remain calm and effective in the face of the violence and bloodlust. When he tells Elena it’s normal to be angry, there’s a sense that he means it’s normal to be angry about the loss of a ‘normal’ life and the loss of a loved one. Even ‘normal’ people go through that stage and want vengeance for loved ones who are murdered.

    I continue to like Greyston Holt as Clay more each week. The scene in which he comes to Elena and invites her to run with him is terrific as he approaches her slowly, the way one would a distressed dog. There is a part of Elena that thrives from the very physicality of their nature as wolves, and he knows this when he invites her to run as the best way to work out their feelings of anger and frustration. It’s interesting that she tells him that they were never very good at talking – and Clay says he remembers them working out their problems by staying in bed all weekend. Yet, so far, she seems to have the same sort of relationship with Philip.

    The scene between them after the run is a great one. Elena wants to clarify that the run was fine but that was all it was. Clay clearly knows that her caressing him in her sleep wasn’t nothing and that he has a better sense of what she’s really feeling than she does herself. It’s important to keep in mind that when we first saw Clay, he was teaching an anthropology class about human nature at a university. He is perhaps as aware of human nature as Logan. He’s certainly not just stupid muscle. This makes sense as great fighters are also great strategists and know something of human nature to be able to defeat their opponents.

    This week sees Sheriff Morgan (Fiona Highet) become more curious about the Danvers. She visits the former Sheriff, Emerson (Richard Blackburn), who confirms that while there was never anything concrete to go on, he was always troubled by the family. He tells her to look into them but be careful. I suspect that this can’t end well for her. Biting her is likely not even an option given that Elena is the only woman to survive the change so far.

    Antonio (Paulino Nunes) and Jeremy are the strategists of the pack, and Antonio is his closest confidant. It’s only with Antonio that Jeremy can really express his frustration and anger. Their discussion of strategy reveals that there are other pack families. We also learn that Antonio’s father was alpha before Jeremy. Antonio also acts as the ‘fixer’ for the pack, tying up the loose ends created by Pete’s death by visiting Pete’s boss as an FBI agent and planting the seed that Pete is wanted by the law – paving the way for him to disappear plausibly.

    Jeremy assigns everyone their role, and is fine with Logan having to return to Toronto to honor a commitment in his human life. Once again, he pairs Clay and Elena. He isn’t oblivious to the pull Clay has on Elena. I loved the conversation they both overhear in the diner. The local girls completely get their relationship – Clay is wearing a wedding ring, Elena is not, and their body language shows they are on the outs. I also liked the fact that the one saying Clay is hot, clearly upsets Elena. The confrontation with the hunters was a nice demonstration that Elena does have Clay’s back. We also learn of a potential new problem as one of the hunters is missing.

    Clay and Elena working together to uncover the mutt’s hideout was great. We also find out that bodyspray is a newbie mistake – I adored that touch as I can’t stand the smell of it either! It was a nice twist for them to use the bodyspray to make their escape.

    We learn that the mutts are forming their own pack using psychotic murders under Marsten. Jeremy sees their pattern as creating new mutts, putting the spotlight on them, and then targeting them directly. He determines that it’s time to take the fight to them before the mutts reveal their secret and start a war with humans. It’s only the packs that are maintaining order.

    Logan is also visited by Daniel Santos. Daniel comes to Logan because he fears his reception at Stonehaven. He knows that the mutts have grown tired of the pack imposing rules. There is clearly some history between Logan and Daniel that resulted in Daniel being cut out of the pack. Clay killed Daniel’s brother, but Daniel is willing to put his past behind him and join forces.

    This episode sees Elena become more committed to finding Pete’s killers and protecting the pack. She’s also made a target herself as the mutt leaves a message directed at her on the wall of his hotel room. The episode also gave us more background to the larger world of the werewolves and some glimpses into the characters’ backstories. I like how they are slowly teasing these elements out while keeping the current action moving forward. I had one quibble over this episode. How exactly did the mutt get Pete’s jacket into the woods – he wasn’t carrying it when we saw him trotting through the woods and it would have been pretty difficult for a wolf to carry all the way from town where he left his clothes...

    What did you think of the episode? Do you think Elena will ultimately choose to stay solely with the pack or cut them out as soon as the hunt for Pete’s killers is over? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!