Bitten S1 Ep 3: Trespass

While Bitten sometimes treads close to vapid soapiness, it has, in its first three episodes, managed to build a pretty decent werewolf story. Bodies — mostly the victims of the “mutt” introduced as the antagonist in Episode 1 — are starting to pile up, and it’s now clear that it isn’t as simple as one bad apple spoiling the batch.

In “trespass,” Elena, who had once seemed so in control of her condition, starts to show her true weaknesses. She is still moral, at least as far as following the pack’s rules, but her guilt over killing a human (justifiably, according to the pack) is eating away at her even as she becomes more dangerous to the people and wolves around her.

Tension is higher than ever at Stonehaven after the discovery of the body of a child killed by the mutt on their property. The Sheriff makes no bones about it — illegal or not, she will look the other way on wolf hunting, preferring a “slap on the wrist” from the Wildlife Department to more fatal wolf attacks. The pack acts super cagey around the police, which is kind of understandable, since it seems like they’re being framed for the killings. But the police have no idea the residents of Stonehaven are werewolves, and they actually didn’t commit the crimes, making me wonder why they weren’t cooperating more with the investigation to find the real killer. They’re not suspects because they were clearly animal attacks, but their near-uncooperativeness makes them look kind of guilty. I guess, even with a common goal, humans and werewolves are not allies.

Things pick up as Elena and Clayton are sent to track the mutt in town, were the pack’s caginess has the townsfolk looking at them with suspicion. A flyer for a rave catches Elena’s eye, and lo and behold, the killer mutt is there, hungrily eying the crowd. It doesn’t take long for Elena to pick up his scent and confront him. He has no shame over his killings, and when he grabs Elena, who he knows is a wolf, and attempts to assault her sexually, things go very badly. Elena’s claws come out over his heart, and she comes close to ripping it out, agitating him to the point where he starts to turn. She manages to lock him in a storage room (remember, any human who sees a wolf turn has to be killed according to the rules, and there are a lot of people there), but he escapes through the ceiling, and mauls two ravers before running outside. Amid the panic, the Sheriff shows up and tries to take it down by shooting it. Just when it looks like the mutt is going to get away, it’s run over by an SUV, leaving mutt body parts all over the parking lot.

Meanwhile, Logan, Pete and Nick meet up with a “free agent” werewolf (not part of a pack, but not a rouge mutt, either) named Karl in an abandoned club they want to open for some reason. Karl agrees to help the pack find the mutt, in exchange for territory. Though Karl is fairly interesting, the main purpose of this scene for now is that it that it put Logan, Pete and Nick at the empty club at the time the mutt was killed, which will be important later.

Elena and Clayton look for the victims of the attack at the rave — one has died, but the other is only bit, and will start turning into a werewolf. Clayton noticed track marks on his arms, and, against Elena’s protests, calmly smothers the guy to death. It’s an act of mercy, he says. A drug addict is too weak to handle the change, and he’s spared him the agony.  Really, for a group that abhors killing, they have a lot of reasons to justifiably kill.

With the mutt dead, Elena decides her work is done and it’s time to leave, but not before confessing to Clayton that she feels responsible for the deaths at the rave because she lost control. “I’m the dangerous one,” she says, but Clayton, who feels no remorse for ultimately killing the junkie, assures her she’s not.

Back home in Toronto, Elena enjoys a sexy reunion with Philip, who’s just landed an Estonian vodka company as a client (I don’t know, it seems like it will be relevant at some point). Philip’s invited Logan and his girlfriend Rachel to dinner, leading to some awkwardness as Elena and Logan keep the lie going about being cousins who had been called to see another cousin who’d been in an accident.

The Toronto scenes are a nice break from Stonehaven, especially Elena and Rachel’s scenes. It’s just nice to see another woman interacting with Elena. The show can definitely use more Rachel, and more Diane (who we haven’t seen since Episode 1). In any event, Logan gets a call from Clayton while he’s hanging with Philip after dinner. Visibly alarmed, he tells Elena they have to go back. Now.

What they find back at Stonehaven is somewhat expected. Another body has been left on the property. But this time, it’s one of their own, and he couldn’t have been killed by mutt they tracked down. Predictably, Elena won’t be having a marginally “normal” life anytime soon.