The Undoing has begun, which means Bitten should be picking up steam. So why do the characters spend so much time in a basement?
Let’s bitch it out…
First off: a quick apology for the lack of review last week. Who knew that SPACE figured the Easter weekend was a good time to release a new episode? As it stands, StonehavenGroupie is unavailable to join me, so you’re back to full-on snark and she’ll be back to keep me in line tomorrow for our season finale review.
Now, onto the penultimate episode of S2…
Things get off to a randy start as Aleister (Sean Rogerson) escorts some poor Canadian extra into his “play room” (ladies, that’s code for murder dungeon). He ties her up, turns on the video camera and then invites Clara (Debra McCabe) onto the bed in what is eventually revealed to be a body swapping menage a trois from hell. It’s a nifty opening sequence that on the surface appears to suggest we’re in for some good stuff. Alas, so much of the good is offset by completely crap pacing and bland narrative developments.
It’s immediately clear that the Undoing has begun and all of the witches are feeling the effects. Ruth (Tammy Isbell) gives us the skinny: they’ve got until dawn and then everyone except Aleister and Savannah (Kiara Glasco) dies. Excellent! Everyone loves a good deadline! Jeremy (Greg Bryk), ever pragmatic, encourages Ruth to be more proactive and counter with her own long-distance attack. This reintroduces the concept of dangerous “black magic” that Ruth warned Paige (Tommie-Amber Pirie) about earlier in the season, though the implications and effects are never really addressed. Ruth essentially just casts a really grotty spell involving an egg that hatches blood and a ball of flesh/hair/brain matters. Most importantly it gives Aleister a black mole of death. Scary stuff!
Everyone else ditches to go search Clara’s house for clues. It’s here that we disappointingly spend the majority of the episode in what turns out to be the dreaded return of Bitten‘s worst problem: truly shitty pacing. The group discovers the videotape, Paige deduces that Clara will possess Savannah’s body once the Undoing is complete (Rhode Scholar that one) and then Nick (Steve Lund) and Paige get locked in the basement for the duration of the episode. Yeah…that happens. I mean, the idea of a Witches Door is kinda interesting, but not when we’re supposed to be ramping up to a big showdown. The delay completely derails the sense of momentum that should be building and while it affords a few moments of character developments, I could have done without Nick getting sappy about loving Paige (I like how she just protests his proclamation – gosh these two are exasperating).
Clay (Greyston Holt) and Elena (Laura Vandervoort) don’t fair much better. Trapped upstairs, they basically have nothing to do but look at each other and take turns hitting the door. There’s a brief pause when a possessed cop shows up to provide the episode’s obligatory action sequence. I get that these human agents are superpowered when Aleister takes them over, but morally I still find it objectionable that Clay snaps the poor guy’s neck like a chicken. That is still a human being, Clay!
What else happens? Oh right. Unexpectedly Logan (Michael Xavier) shows up again. He apparently spent the time looking for Rachel (Genelle Williams) – wasn’t she just hanging around at home, coming up with a really unconvincing lie that she aborted their child (also: did anyone actually fall for that?). The “loss” of his son sends him on a Wolverine-in-X2-path (alas minus the awesome cage fight) where he reconnects with Zachary Cain (Noah Danby). We haven’t seen Cain since Jeremy supposedly dealt with him back in 1×08 ‘Prisoner.’ Gosh, I wonder if he’s been brought back so that he can be killed off in the finale? (Prove me wrong, Bitten!)
It’s because of Cain that we discover that the wolves are also being affected by the Undoing. I’ll admit that I dozed off missed the exact explanation why this is happening: is Jeremy’s astral connection when he and Ruth speak with Aleister and Clara to blame or is it just a double-whammy, two-for-the-price-of-one kinda spell? Either way the werewolf curse will also end at dawn, stranding the Pack in whichever form they’re at at the time. It’s a promising development that portends some interesting choices, though the logistics are a bit hazy (some seem able to control their impulse to change; others not so much).
The big news for this penultimate episode is a not-so-surprising death: Logan. Turns out Rachel is a big, stupid liar and she didn’t abort the baby (shocker!). When the baby is affected by the Undoing, the pair run to Jeremy for help. There Logan tussles with Aleister (he’s there looking for Ruth to stop the spread of his killer mole). Logan should have the upper hand since he attacks Aleister in wolf form, but somehow Aleister stabs him with a pair of antlers. It’s a truly hilarious and unfortunate death that highlights how poorly Bitten has handled Logan’s entire storyline. Perhaps he should have just died back in S1 like he does in the book. At least there he died with a bit more dignity…
Other Observations:
- The episode ends on less of a cliffhanger than an obvious development. Aleister – who somehow escapes Stonehaven – meets up with Clara and Savannah in Boston to go after Ruth in the catacombs of the witch stronghold. If the purpose of this episode is to spell-out the final details of the Undoing and move the players into position for the finale, then mission accomplished. If it was intended to build enthusiasm for the final showdown, then it’s definitely more of a mixed bag.
- Cain has kept his lady love on a ventilator this whole time (I suppose in the internal world of the show it’s only been a few weeks?). Going back through my review of ‘Prisoner’, I was surprised to learn that back then Amber was played by Eve Harlow, most recently seen on The CW’s The 100. Clearly she was unavailable to fill this cameo because that’s not her!
- My notes as Paige gets weaker: “Die, bitch, die!”
Best Lines:
- Jeremy (as Ruth unveils the contents of the egg): “There is no getting use to this.” You said it, Jeremy!
Your turn: what did you think of the penultimate episode? Are you glad to finally know all of the details of the Undoing? Were you grossed out by Ruth’s spell? Hoping that Paige would die? Wondering why Logan bothered to come back just to die? Wondering why Cain was reintroduced? Bored by all of the stuff at Clara’s house? Sound off below.
Bitten has finished airing its second season. Our review of the finale will be up tomorrow night.