Supernatural 8.4 Recap & Review: Bitten

Supernatural goes Paranormal for the Blair Wolf Project

Brian, Michael and Katie are college students documenting their lives (and whatever fun they can steal from others) on digital media.  “Bitten” is shown from the perspective of these amateur documentarians.

The story commences with clips of Sam and Dean from a camcorder through the bushes, ‘suited up’ for an FBI gig with the local constabulary.  It’s another animal attack, and the victim’s heart is missing. The FBI suits don’t fool our college stalkers, though.

According to Kate, “I’m pretty sure FBI agents don’t say Awesome that much”.

From here, we are thrown into the night bushes, where the camera crew is chased through the woods by an angry, jolted would-be lover straight into a growling beast who attacks, but doesn’t kill, Michael.

Fans are treated to the story from the victim’s point of view using the harsh jolting reality of home video, smattered with clips of Sam and Dean investigating the case.  Michael turns werewolf, Brian is jealous, Katie is worried and the three eventually all go native.

What did we learn from ‘Bitten’?  We finally figured out why some werewolves turn outside of the moon cycle.  If they’re less than 4 generations from an alpha, they’re not as feral and can turn before, during and after the lunar cycle.   We watched from a camera hidden in the bookshelf as Sam and Dean extinguished the first werewolf in this chain, a college professor who fed off animal hearts for years before he slipped and had to turn Michael to cover his tracks.

We also learned that Brian is in love with Katie, who is Michael’s girlfriend.  In the end, the boys fight and Michael loses.  To realize his dream of living eternity with Kate, Brian bites her.  Brian apparently didn’t understand the fury of a woman scorned.  Kate is the only one left at the end of the episode.  She compiles her video story and sends it to the Winchesters, pleading with them to let her go.  She didn’t choose this.  She’s never hurt anyone….human.

Their year apart seems to have changed the perspective of the brothers.  Sam and Dean are on the same page on this one, and decide to let her go.  Kate walks into the sunset on a set of rural train tracks and the brothers go on their way.

“Do I really say Awesome a lot?” queries Dean.

“No, not at all,” Sam lies.

Bitten: Point of View

Our beloved staff has treated us to a different perspective in Season 8 Episode 4: Bitten.

Bitten, a story about a group of college students gone wolf, is shown from the point of view of home video.  So we take a trip down the Blair Witch Paranormal Avenue and take a look at the story as it unfolds for three college roommates.

At the end we find out the entire thing is compiled by Kate, the middle of our coed love triangle.  Kate, Brian and Michael are terrible cinematographers, but apparently Kate is just awesome at editing.  Just a shout out to those who treat us to the ‘Awesome’ cinematography in Supernatural – we love your work. We tune in every week to be treated to it, even when you switch it up and go game show or sitcom on us.

Eric Kripke – you may have noticed that we also love our heroes.  Fans are screaming about this episode, losing the faith and giving up on the whole season.  This is Sam and Dean withdrawal.  Oh, and let’s not forget the Impala.  We didn’t get to ride in it once.  We should start a trivia contest to see if anyone remembers which scene the Impala was actually in.

People are so caught up in not seeing the show through our heroes eyes that the true art in this episode is missed: Perspective.

This episode spirals in on itself in so many ways that it’s difficult to jump into the subject.  Sam and Dean are hunted by students, who are hunted by an alpha, who is hunted by Dean and Sam.

We’re watching from the point of view of Brian, which is compiled by Kate, and eventually we learn that we’re watching through the eyes of Sam and Dean.  All this pales in comparison with the significance of the different perspective of the story line, the viewer, and most subtly, the boys themselves.

Were we going through so much Dean and Sam withdrawal that we failed to notice that they agreed to let her go without an argument? Where was Dean’s purgatory blood-lust?   Where was Sam’s need to tie up loose ends?  Each of them have, at different times in our view of their lives, shown mercy for their prey.  The lines between prey and victim are getting blurrier and blurrier, and now a unilateral conclusion that sometimes you let bygones be bygones.  We’re evolving past daddy John now. Breaking the Campbell cycle.  Changing perspective.

Artful episode, that.

But truly, we needed a little more Sam and Dean, and a little more Impala.

Review by: Supernatural Series Reporter SuzAnna

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