We have a man, Nate Parker, being rather brutally
interrogated and tortured. He has very obvious injuries. He tries to tell his
questioner about Malcolm Danvers’ plot to try and take over the Pack last
season.
After thoroughly terrifying the man, they open the doors and he makes his way to the surface – and runs. He shifts into a wolf, runs (running past a little sign with a symbol on it which I take as significant) – and is shot.
To the Pack; Elena and Clay are interrogating Mutts to
find out where Malcolm is – and learn he’s setting up a meeting with other
Mutts to continues his campaign against the Pack. Meanwhile, Jeremy has a
meeting with the Alpha Council, apparently leaders of other Packs, who are not
impressed by the way Jeremy has been taking care of business and allowing a
rebellion on his turf. He’s been too weak so they’re giving him an ultimatum –
he finds Malcolm and kills him within a week to prove his pack’s strength; or
they find Malcolm and take over his pack at the same time. In the meantime one
of the Alphas, the Spanish Alpha Rodrigo, is going to hang around and be a nuisance
Rodrigo is at least sympathetic to Jeremy, unlike the Russian
Alpha, Roman, who dripped disrespect everywhere. Jeremy and his guest discuss
the possibility of Malcolm being aided by a foreign Alpha trying to take over
North America. He agrees to help Jeremy kill Roman is Roman is behind the plot.
Finding Malcolm seems to also involve Nick seducing a
woman and removing a badge she’s carrying for Joey to tamper with. Using the
camera on her badge and a fake FBI call, they use her to check Malcolm’s
financial records and find a possible base of operations.
And because this
is Bitten this is also our cue to zap
in on Elena and Clay having sex. Afterwards, Clay tries to confront Elena about
Phillip’s death which she’s really not dealing with, especially since his
family are trying to get in touch and she is being consumed by guilt weasels.
The guilt weasels also means she brutally kills their next potential source of information rather than getting all the possible info out of him, much to Clay’s disapproval. He tries to get her to leave the dirty work to him so she’s not haunted by it but she throws back that he doesn’t need to be haunted either.
They’re then ambushed by three people with hammers. One of
them asks them to deliver Malcolm, calling him the “one true cursed” and also
saying “for the undoing, the destroyer comes.” Well that makes no sense at all –
so we’ve got a new mystery to solve. They fight – and the leader keeps chanting
her lines even when stabbed in the stomach. Clay and Elena kill the four attackers.
They all have the same brand on their necks (the same sign we saw the opening
werewolf, Nate, run past) and Elena remarks on how they didn’t feel pain.
Logan questions one of the dead wolves’ fathers – but with
respect and compliments. He wants to find Malcolm – because she has Rachel, his
pregnant girlfriend.
Conference call with everyone but Logan to share
information. Including that Malcolm is being funded from Russia. Malcolm calls
Nick home. Nick fills Logan in first (who just happens to be drowning someone).
Logan is out of the loop with the rest of the Pack – because he ran out on them
(and his relationship with Rachel is technically against the rules) but Nick is
feeding him info.
Rachel is being held by Malcolm, who has noticed his
contacts going silent. They’re all prepared for a werewolf attack, when the
electricity starts to spark on and off and we hear ominous noises. Just to
complete the ominous omens, a crow flies into the house and into a wall. Dies.
Then gets up and flies out again. Ok that’s ominous omen x1000. Then everyone
gets nosebleeds. (Why are you still in the house!? I’d be in the next state by
now!) There’s then a blinding flash of light.
When Logan arrives, he finds the house in complete
disarray and splattered with blood. He finds several bodies – and the symbol
painted on one wall. He questions one dying man who just babbles and can’t tell
him where Rachel is. He’s joined by Clay and Elena. Elena found Malcolm’s faint
trail, so he escaped
He’s on the road, more than a little shaken, with all his
plans and dreams in ruins. Someone offers to give him a lift and as he leaves
we see a car covered in bees. Two women in a car discuss stopping them, but the
older says they’re too exposed, so they decide to follow. They use magic to
track them and Malcolm kills the nice man who gave him a lift and steals his
truck. Because he’s Malcolm
Back at Stonehaven, Jeremy introduces Nick – and his
evidence – to Rodrigo who is enthused that they have evidence against Roman.
But Jeremy isn’t so foolish – especially since Rodrigo has revealed knowledge
no-one should know; they confront him and the fear smell just confirms their
suspicions. They question him and he admits to financing Malcolm who is heading
for Baton Rouge and that he is heading to Bangkok. He knows nothing about Rachel.
Of course, if this gets out Rodrigo is dead – so they have some considerable
leverage over the Spanish Alpha.
Clay and Elena put 2 and 2 together and realise the
people who killed all of Malcolm’s Mutts were the same people who attacked them.
Everyone heads to Louisiana to find Malcolm.
They arrive outside Malcolm’s bolt hole and Jeremy and
Logan argue – Logan wants to leave with his son, Jeremy won’t let the boy, a
werewolf, be raised outside the pack and plans to raise the child himself
Malcolm and Jeremy fight though Malcolm takes the time to tell Elena that something is coming for them while Nick and Logan look for Rachel. Logan can hear her voice but can’t find her – while the witches look on from a distance. Jeremy is ready to finish Malcolm off when Logan runs back – Rachel isn’t there they need Malcolm to tell them where she is.
They take Malcolm captive but he’s worried and wants to
come with them quickly – he’s afraid of whatever’s hunting them. He also tells
Clay that they need him alive for what’s coming with the ominous symbol. Clay
believes his fear though Elena just wants Malcolm dead.
The witches decide to follow them back to Stonehaven.
They hold a ritual with the younger witch in a circle, her eyes glazed white,
communicating with another witch. She talks as Savannah, a woman imprisoned who
they need “the wolf” (Malcolm) to save. She also mentions someone called
Alistair who came back angry. She hears screams
And we move to a room where werewolves are being autopsied and Nate’s blood is being bottled in vials. Rachel is imprisoned in the room and a man stabs her stomach with a hypodermic needle.
It’s interesting that the opening is so brutal – but I
think that follows on a lot from the first season. The Pack was attacked. It
lost people they loved either killed or kidnapped. The Pack is now Done With
This. The claws are out and the Pack is taking no prisoners – of course,
underlying the Mutt’s initial concerns at the same time
The flip side is my same irritation with the first season
continues: Jeremy. In the books, the defining characteristic of Jeremy’s
leadership was that, while he was still dangerous and ruthless, he was
significantly more compassionate and reasonable than the Alphas who came before
and this show has done a really bad job of showing that
Ok, much as I rarely praise people running around
torturing and mangling people, I do like this harder Elena. Maybe she needs
reigning in with more thought as in the books, but equally I am glad to see she
is ruthless, capable and dangerous because in a lot of the first season I didn’t
see that. She seemed far too often to be a prize and a victim (and in the books
as well) with odd moments of lethal action that never went far enough to
counter that.
We’re getting more supernatural elements being
introduced. On the one hand, this has a good chance of diluting Elena’s story
but I always preferred the other supernatural beings in the Otherworld series so I’m a fan of this. There’s
a definite feel of Stolen about this
episode – which is why I’m trying to not mention spoilers or make
assumptions (like the witches’ names).
I’m also glad to see that, like the first season, the
nudity in Bitten is a lot more equal
than many shows.
