There’s going to be a lot of opinions flying around about this week’s very different episode of Supernatural. Some fans will have hated it because of the shaky camera or the lack of Sam and Dean. Others may have enjoyed it as a mash-up of many “found footage” movies you see these days. Personally, I enjoyed it as a stand-alone episode of the show. I noted on Twitter earlier that “Bitten” didn’t necessarily feel like an episode of Supernatural, but that’s because it’s characters like Sam, Dean, Bobby or others that make Supernatural what it is and give us familiarity. So while “Bitten” featured the Winchesters in only a few scenes, I enjoyed it as a completely independent hour like no other that this show has ever done. There’s no harm in stepping outside the box every once in a while and this is something Supernatural generally does very well.
Monster Movie
Like the season 5 episode “99 Problems”, this week’s episode opened with action, and not at the beginning of the story. Sam and Dean bust into a blood-splattered apartment (that was a spectacular amount of blood, wasn’t it?) to find a dead body on the floor. The boys noticed a laptop with the words “Play Me” on it and sat down to watch the video.
Then we were transported back to see three college students who happened to the focus of “Bitten”. Friends Mike and Brian were working on a movie project for school and eventually came across fellow student Kate, who also happened to enjoy making films. As the kids documented their lives, we were quickly thrust into a crime scene. The trio stumbled upon Sam and Dean riding into town as FBI agents to investigate a recent suspicious death. Later, Mike and Brian got separated one night only for Mike to be dragged away and bitten by an animal.
But his bite soon disappeared, leaving the trio confused. He didn’t really realize what was happening, but his friend and girlfriend (Kate) were surprised to discover his enhanced strength. Soon after, the fun turned to shock when Mike found himself “changing” in front of a mirror. In a cool special effects bit, his teeth elongated and claws sprung from his fingernails.
That’s when things got weird. Brian found himself jealous of Mike’s newfound powers, even if it came with a desire to rip people to shreds. So the trio listened in on a conversation between the Winchesters and realized Mike was a werewolf (one that was turned by a pureblood werewolf who could better control the change).
As Mike and Kate searched for a way to deal with Mike’s new lot in life, Brian realized he knew who was behind the killings: his college professor. So he headed to his office to confront the professor, who seemed sorry for slipping up and eating a human heart instead of his usual diet of animal hearts. But in order to escape suspicion, he turned Mike so that he could take the fall. Brian wasn’t interested in punishing the professor, however, he just wanted to become a werewolf like Mike.
The Winchesters soon caught up with the professor and killed him, but Mike went home to see his friends, happy to share the news that he was now like Mike. Unfortunately, Mike and Kate weren’t pleased that Brian had willingly chosen this path and a fight between the two boys ended in Mike’s death. Moments after, Brian bit Kate, proclaiming that he loved her. In retaliation, she slaughtered him, finished the movie and took off.
Which takes us back to the first scene with Sam and Dean, who have spent the last few hours watching this footage. And watching Kate beg them to let her go since she has promised never to kill a human. Years ago, they wouldn’t have listened to Kate’s pleas, choosing to go after her while worried that she may not be able to control herself. But this time they chose to let her leave.
Parallels and Shades of Grey
It’s sometimes difficult to connect with guest stars on Supernatural because, typically, when we deal with cases-of-the-week the guest stars don’t often make a huge impression. Sure, some of them have been memorable and went on to become recurring characters (like Lisa and Ben or the Trickster), but it’s rare that we get an in-depth look at them during their initial episode. I feel like we got a good enough look at Mike, Brian and Kate to get to know these characters, even if we only spent 42 minutes with them. Did I understand everything about their characters? No. But the reactions by both Brian and Mike when they became werewolves seemed in line with what we saw about their personalities throughout the episode. It was a welcome change to see the other side of the case for once – the side that shows the fallout from the creatures that seem to ravage the world that Sam and Dean live in. And, of course, it’s always fun to get an outside perspective on the Winchesters themselves (which, of course, always seems to include the obligatory gay couple joke).
What’s interesting is that you can take “Bitten” as an entirely separate story that happened to take place in the Supernatural world, or you can take it as an episode that drew parallels between the guest stars and the main characters. In some respects, Mike was a good parallel for Dean, who may feel like he has this “monster” inside of him since he’s returned from Purgatory. While Mike – like Dean – could get forceful and dangerous (which we’ve seen since his return), his violence is often a controlled violence. Mike didn’t really embrace his monster, but he seemed resigned to learn to live with it.
Brian, on the other hand, was a bit more like Sam back in season 4 – trying to make himself stronger at the expense of doing terrible things to his body. Don’t get up in arms, Sam fans, I don’t think Sam is the crazy person that Brian turned out to be, but there can be some parallels there. Brian also reminded me a bit of Lucifer (another Sam parallel) who was desperate to get out of someone else’s shadow and make a name for himself.
And then, of course, there’s the issue of the grey area. This has come up in Supernatural time and again. Dean was really forced to confront his own ideas of black and white when the brothers first met Gordon and the vampire Lenore all the way back in season 2. That’s when Dean had to wonder if killing something just because it was a monster was the right thing to do. Later, the writers put Dean in a similar position when he killed Sam’s friend Amy. We won’t get into the debate of whether that was right or wrong, but there’s a clear difference here between Amy and Kate. Whether Amy was technically a good person or not, she did kill people in order to survive. At this point, Kate hasn’t done that. The brothers were prepared to let her go and live her life until they were forced to deal with her.
Dean’s easy acceptance of letting Kate get away speaks volumes about where he’s at right now. After all, he’s currently friends with a vampire (Benny). Benny has, presumably, killed humans before (no matter how much he may claim to be a good guy, he still seems shifty to me and we don’t know what he was like pre-Purgatory). It would be rather hypocritical then to hunt down Kate if she wasn’t a danger to humans. Sam – generally the more practical of the two in matters such as these – seemed a bit surprised at Dean’s decision regarding Kate, but he recovered quickly. Does he think his brother’s decision was out of the ordinary? Not necessarily. But he may not have believed that Dean would accept Kate’s plea without a bit of a fight.
Like I said before, I enjoyed this week’s episode as an individual exercise. Would I want to see and episode format like this again and again? Not necessarily. Would I be more willing to see an episode like “Weekend at Bobby’s” or “The Man Who Would be King” that relegated the Winchesters to second string at the expense of secondary characters that we know well? Yes, because that would be a different story that fits more in line with the show that we’re used to. But I appreciate the fact that Supernatural continues to push the envelope and try new things. Was this a filler episode (ie. one-off and not related to the overall story)? Sure. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t interesting and enjoyable.
Next week, however, we get back into the Purgatory groove. Dean heads off to help Benny and we’ll finally see Dean’s brother and Dean’s new vampire BFF meet. Watch a preview.
I did not enjoy it. I was bored. Bored in a way that I have never been when watching SPN. I would perk up whenever Sam and Dean appeared, but eh. Overall, I was not entertained.
SPN works because of Sam and Dean. Sam and Dean are what makes SPN special. SPN isn’t special because it is a show about monsters. I am all for SPN trying new and different things (a la “The French Mistake”) but this episode just felt like a waste.
I feel like SPN has a lot to tell this season. With Dean’s Purgatory and Benny friendship, Sam’s Amelia, Kevin + Mrs. Tran and the word of God, Crowley and closing the door to Hell, Cas’ fate. I just feel like we lost the any momentum we had this season with those story lines.
If the writers insisted on this episode, I think it would have worked better later in the season…not as the 4th episode. I’m interested to see SPN’s ratings tomorrow. I am expecting a dip…especially in the half hour.
Here we go again. I like debates in Supernatural feedback sites, but anyone who finds this episode “boring” or complains because there was not enough Sam and Dean does not know good television. This was a flawlessly executed hour of television. Bravo to Supernatural for giving us a very unique hour of Supernatural. If fans cannot appreciate an “out of the box” episode where the powers that be try something different and shake things up….well those fans are the ones that complain about everything. Bravo as well to the supporting cast. Carissa–calling this a “filler” episode, and saying you don’t want to watch this again, shame on you. You are really off base on this review.
Sorry Clarissa! I forgot the “l” in your name in my above comment.
I appreciate the name correction, but did you read the review from beginning to end? I spent the whole recap talking about why I liked “Bitten” and found the concept interesting and well-executed. The last portion of the first paragraph talks about the fact that I liked it even if it was different.
Just because an episode is “filler” doesn’t mean it’s bad. Filler can be considered a totally one-off episode. There are a lot of filler episodes of Supernatural that are very good and I said I enjoyed this one as well. I actually liked the story here about the werewolves more than I liked last week’s story about the Mayan athelete. I just said I wouldn’t necessarily want to see episodes that ONLY focused on one-off characters all the time.
Clarissa,
The “here we go again” was meant for the comments already being posted about how this was the end of Supernatural because poor Sam and Dean we not the main feature of this episode. I have to understand some people watch the show only for Jared and Jensen, and not the story (regardless if the story is mythology or MOTW). That is good news for the CW, who can use old episodes of Josh and Drake in Season 10, and many fans will be none the wiser.
Of course I read your review start to finish, and I know you liked it overall. I agree with most of what you wrote. But I still don’t understand how you and others here state having a “out of the box” episode is such a horrible thing (most of the readers–not so much you). You did say you don’t want to “ONLY” see these one-off episodes. No one does, and rarely in a Season do we get more than one or two. I would think true fans of the show would cheer and embrace these unique Supernatural episodes, especially when they are done so well as “Bitten” was. Wake up readers, Supernatural is Jared and Jensen yes, but don’t take for granted the fantastic writers, directors, editors, the genius Serge Ladouceur(who is a character of the show himself),and guest actors who helped bring this episode to life.
I thought your comment about not liking it was more directed towards me, so I appreciate the clarification. I don’t think I’d like to see this kind of episode all the time, if only because it does tend to take us out of the SPN universe as a whole, but I found the exercise and execution very, very interesting and enjoyed it overall.
This may have been a ‘flawlessly executed hour of TV’. I’m sure there are episodes of Greys’ Anatomy or NCIS you could say the same about. But I don’t watch those shows. I watch SPN because I am invested in Sam and Dean’s story. This was not an episode of SPN. It was boring. It was also IMO a huge mistake in terms of placement in the season. We have completely lost the momentum of the first 2 eps in terms of the overall story arc. At least last weeks attempted to focus on the (complete lack of IMO) relationship between Dean and Sam. It failed miserably on that for me because the characterisations are all over the map this season, but at least it tried. This week was a complete waste of time.
I’m dreading the drop off in ratings in the 2nd half hour. It is such a shame that we are wasting the huge opportunity to win new regular fans that the success of Arrow has given us. Not sure how many newbies who saw this would come back next week.
I have to agree with geordiegirl. I was so happy to see the ratings start creeping back up after the first two episodes and competing with the presidential debate. But then this? If we had any fairweather fans, they’re gone now. The sad thing is that next week’s episode looks like it could be awesome, but after last night’s episode, I’m afraid many won’t return to see Benny again. I know filler episodes are needed from time to time, but unlike Ghostfacers, this episode did not make me crack a smile once. Which for SPN is rare.
I was surprised how unaffected I was by the shaky camera. I know a lot of people felt dizzy because of it, which is a shame.
I also enjoyed the episode and felt it was good story telling. It was well written and as is usually the case with the show, it was well cast. The guest characters were interesting and I agree that we got a good feel for them in a short time. Did I wish there was more Sam & dean? Absolutely. That is what brings me back to the show week after week. This is not an episode that I would watch over and over but I will have a second run-through for sure as I always find tidbits I’ve missed first go around. And in the end, we got a glimpse of the brothers reactions to what had played out in the video. Seeing them even just in a few scenes from the other characters povs was a good addition to the story.
I feel sick and dizzy. I think I’m not alone in this.
And… boring!
Regarding the parallels between the three college kids and the brothers, I tried to find them. I absolutely would buy the Sam-Brian connection….if it were 4 years ago. I would also have seen Sam-Michael, but again…4 years ago. We know who Sam was then, what about who he is today? Maybe a case could be made for Sam-Kate in that she was changed by the events in the episode, but her plan was to make the best of it and just try to live her life. I just don’t know.
Nice review, Clarissa!
Well, I liked the episode, too. A lot more than I expected, actually. To be honest, I’ve always been interested in the monsters’ of the week backgrounds (the Dracula shapeshifter or Lenore, for example), and watching an episode from their POV was… refreshing. I can’t really see the parallels between them and the brothers, though -ok, maybe some tiny similarities- but I felt proud at the boys’ approach at the end :) Look how far they’ve come!
Oh, and is it me or have some viewers grown really tired of the show? No offense, but if you don’t like something, you can stop watching it instead of being negative all the time. Be positive, people, it’s better for your health!
Brian is IMHO the equivalent of a murderer/rapist. Forcing himself on Kate while she pleaded to be left alone is as close to a rape metaphor as it comes. Stating that Brian represents Sam can not mean anything other than you view Sam as evil and really, you can’t walk it back by saying “Sam is the same as the murderer/rapist, but don’t be angry at me, because even though I mean it, I really didn’t” You said it and you meant that Sam is evil. Own your words.
Percy, take your own advice. Comparing Brian to a rapist is dangerous and irresponsible, and flat out incorrect. I suggest you look up the defination of rape and rapist (I can’t believe this is being discussed here).
My own words were that Sam and Brian were only alike in “trying to make himself stronger at the expense of doing terrible things to his body”. And then I went on to say that I did NOT think Sam was as crazy as Brian so obviously was.
Please don’t put words in my mouth to make a point. You took this discussion in an entirely different tangent than what I said. I didn’t suggest Sam was evil or a rapist AT ALL and, frankly, I’m offended that you would insist that I did.
Hi Clarissa. Great review. You make some interesting points that I hadn’t initially considered, but after a re-watch I’ve decided this episode just wasn’t my cup of tea. It wasn’t the worst ep(Bugs still holds that distinction), but it won’t be on my favorites list. There was no development on the season long mytharc or on the Boys’ relationship, but I’m ok with that for now. If we were 12 or 13 episodes into the season and did an episode like this, I would be pretty pissed. But this episode came early enough that it’s alright that it didn’t deal with major story arcs and didn’t feature a whole lot of the Winchesters.
This is not the first time that Supernatural has played with the form of the show. One thing I’ve always appreciated about Supernatural is their willingness to experiment with storytelling. It keeps things interesting and it allows for some artistic freedom. In the interest of full disclosure, I must say that I have never liked films shot on handheld cams or that “found footage” crap. I hated The Blair Witch Project and I actively avoided Chronicle and all of those Paranormal Activity movies. That being said, “Ghostfacers” from season 3 was shot almost exactly like this episode, but I actually enjoyed “Ghostfacers” much more than “Bitten.” After thinking about it for a little bit, I’ve concluded that I liked “Ghostfacers” better because I enjoyed those characters much more. They were interesting and at times downright funny. I was much more engaged in that story and more invested in those character outcomes. I cannot say the same for “Bitten.” It wasn’t the acting. The actors did just fine. It was how shallow, boring, and generic the characters were. I didn’t care about Michael and Kate’s lovefest. I didn’t care that Brian was jealous. I just didn’t care about them at all. And if I’m going to watch an episode in which the Winchesters are almost totally absent, I want the characters to be much more interesting than these kids were.
Supernatural has never been a show to shy away from the grey areas, and there was a pretty big one here. On the one hand, Kate is a monster. She’s a werewolf. And if history has taught us anything on Supernatural, she’s going to kill someone, or maybe even a bunch of someones, before a hunter stops her. On the other hand, one of the lessons from “Bloodlust” in S2 was that just because something isn’t human doesn’t necessarily mean that its evil. At the end of that episode, Dean began to question whether he’d been killing things that didn’t deserve killing simply because they weren’t human. He ponders that here too. Dean is a guy that, historically, doesn’t deal in shades of grey and he also adheres to a very strict code. Dean’s code says that as long as you aren’t killing humans, you’re not evil and he’s gonna let you be. That’s the conclusion he reached here. Technically, Kate is a monster and somewhere down the road, she may kill someone. But right here, right now she hadn’t killed anyone. So they let her go. I think there are valid arguments both for going after her to kill her now and for letting her go and try to control the beast within. But in this instance, I think the Boys made the right call.
Like I said before, this episode won’t top my list of must-rewatch. But I appreciate Supernatural’s willingness to experiment with form and push the envelope. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. This time it just didn’t work for me. I’m REALLY looking forward to getting back into some Purgatory stuff next week though, and I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen when Sam meets Benny.
Okay… Im sick of hearing such negative reviews from idiotic tunnel visioned fans who are obviously one dimensional and lack taste. Now Im in no mood to leave paragraphs to counter your comment, but I will shortly state that this episode changed Sam and Dean alot more then you and many others think…
Obviously if you had any perceptive skills at hand you would have spotted them.
Again not in the mood to explain and since a great reviewer had expressed all that I had in mind, I decided to quote a piece of his review; maybe knock some sense into some of you.
” It told a fantastic story that was layered with tragedy and, in the end, hopeful. Not just for Kate, but for Sam and Dean, because an episode that wasn’t about them was a perfect chance to get a nuanced take on their relationship. I think Dean, upon seeing the before and after, was a bit shaken and for once felt a lot of empathy for those sucked into the monster world; and Sam is, I believe, letting his guard down about hunting in general. He went from “Let’s kill her now and get this job done so I can leave and go back to whatever cheesy happiness I think I felt” to “Maybe Dean is right” and perhaps he thought about Madison (from “Heart”). I think this was a good experience for them both: for Dean to evolve beyond his “kill-or-be-killed”, nearly soulless state inherited from Purgatory, and for Sam to find reasons to hunt and, by extension, be Dean’s little brother again. Looking at things from that perspective makes me think that this episode served more purposes than we think. The second time I saw it, that’s what I had believed to be the case. It brought a tragic humanism to the monster world; bridging the gap, and I think the brothers needed a reminder and to see that so they, themselves, can bridge a gap instead of digging it deeper.”
-Bilal
Bil, you are entitled your opinion and I am entitled to mine. Simply because I did not like this episode does not mean that I am “idiotic,” “tunnel visioned” or “lacking taste.” It simply means that I have a different take on this episode than you. I arrived at my opinion after careful, objective review of the episode. Furthermore, I laid out in my initial comment how I arrived at my conclusion. You, however, have failed to provide any real, substantial argument for your position. You have simply resorted to juvenile behavior towards someone who doesn’t agree with you. I am more than happy to reconsider my positions when confronted with a logical argument. You have not provided that. As such, I am finished with this conversation.
This episode was great, I really enjoyed it!
“Im sick of hearing such negative reviews from idiotic tunnel visioned fans” Yup!
I wonder if they treat their family and friends the same way – always moaning, complaining, demanding – because it has definitely more to do with their character than the show. If they say that they are fans, it really means more “fanatic” than that they love the show or the boys. Love is defined in a different way.
I did watch the whole episode through and it really was not one of my favorites. I can commend the writers for going outside of the box but for me personally it just doesn’t work. Im kind of over the whole found footage thing anyway and I think it would have come off better if they did have Sam and Dean in it more from an outsiders perspective like they did so very successfully with the Ghostfacers. Because it is always a refreshing take to see an outside source looking at them as they are experienced getting questioned etc which did cause a couple chuckles but nothing overly memorable.