Supernatural Review: “Bitten” (Season 8, Episode 4)

One night, Michael wakes up and tapes himself as he looks in the mirror. His eyes suddenly turn wolf-like while his teeth and nails grow to become fangs and claws. In a desperate denial of his transformation, Michael runs out of the house, but stumbles upon a fellow student who chases after him. Michael then kills the student and returns home to a horrified Brian and Kate. The trio argue over what happened after going to the crime scene where the student who Michael killed is said to have had his heart eaten out. In a move to get answers, they spy on Dean and Sam and overhear them speaking of werewolves, immediately knowing what Michael had become.

Again, though it was nothing new, this transformation was believable more than anything else. We saw Michael’s pain, his regret, and his sorrow on discovering the monster he had become. This wasn’t a typical kill-the-unknown-monster episode because we saw the humanity of it all. We knew what Dean and Sam would eventually encounter and somehow, we were cheering – at least I was – for something to be done to save these innocent students who were merely in the wrong place at the wrong time. The best thing about these scenes was the control Michael had of his curse. Though he did end up killing his fellow student, it didn’t turn him into a rabid monster bent on tearing people apart. He was still whole, giving us hope that things would end for the better.

Brian realizes the werewolf who bit Michael was in fact one of their professors who had left his pin on the forest floor. Brian confronts the professor and forces him to turn Brian into a werewolf himself. Brian returns to Michael and Kate telling them of his decision and the two are horrified, especially Michael who tells Brian that staying in control would be almost impossible for him. Brian shows them a video of Sam and Dean killing the professor – who thanks them – and realize they would be next. In a chaotic moment, Brian kills Michael and turns Kate so he could have her all to himself. A grieving Kate kills Brian, and decides to edit together all the footage in the hopes of telling Dean and Sam that she is innocent and will promise never to hurt a human being. After watching the video, the Winchesters decide not to pursue Kate who is seen fleeing into the unknown.

This was when things got bad. Brian’s insistence on him being turned was not only annoying, but stupid. You’re telling me that after seeing his best friend kill another human being, he still wanted to become an uncontrollable monster? I’m sure Michael’s control of the situation urged Brian along, but still, it was pure idiotic. Moreover, Brian’s sudden change in the tone of his voice and his mannerisms were awkward and cringe-worthy, but also a testament to not give power to those who can’t control it. The slaughter that happened was unfortunate, but other than Michael’s death, I couldn’t care less about the fates of the other two. It was, however, nice to know Kate was let go, but I felt like I needed more closure. Perhaps Kate will return in the future?

I was initially worried because of last week’s lackluster episode, but this episode did the monster of the week format a favor by bringing a fresh approach to the same old formula – yes I do realize this isn’t the first time Supernatural has done this. The indie film tone worked extremely well, bringing Supernatural even further away from the flair it had in previous seasons. With the next episode being Benny-centric, I have a strange feeling everything that happened to these poor kids was a foreshadowing of what happened in Purgatory. Till next week.