Bitten Season 2 Premiere Review

Aannnnd, we’re back! A lot has changed with this new season of Bitten, as compared to the first season. The cinematic style, story focus and character profiles have shifted significantly. Just when you thought you were getting to know the ropes, they go and change it! But that’s what makes a show fun, in my opinion: Always keep the viewers on their feet!

At the end of last season, a pregnant Rachel [Genelle Williams] was abducted by cronies that brought her to Malcolm Danvers [James McGowan]. We heard about him all through the first season, but this was the first time we actually got a glimpse of him. Don’t worry though, you’ll see him quite early on in this, the second season. In fact, the first episode focuses on the pack and their search for Malcolm. The international council of alphas make a visit to Stonehaven with thinly veiled threats of taking the pack and the associated territory away from Jeremy if he doesn’t find and destroy Malcolm, who just so happens to be his father (iin case you don’t remember that particular tidbit from the first season). Meanwhile, Nick, Elena and Clay are doing what they seem to do best (besides fighting, I guess): they’re getting it on. No, not all together. Nick is using his powers of seduction to help in the information gathering while Elena and Clay are….. well….. Elena and Clay….

After their romp in the sheets, the toothsome twosome stake out a “meet up” for new prospective add-ons to Malcolm’s uprising. They find the guy who is supposed to gather the people, but no one else is showing up. We get to see just how ruthless Elena has become since Phillip [Paul Greene] was killed. Remember how she was haunted by the guy she had to kill long ago? Yeah…. that’s gone, and meet up man went down in flames. All seems to be working in their favor right? Wrong. There’s a bit of a problem, involving some martial arts trained zombies (of the non-rotting kind) with matching brand tattoos on their necks. That sounds like the worst kind of club ever, count me out! Our ever intrepid heroes kick butt and attempt to take names, but it’s hard to get zombies to talk.

So instead, they stuck with the kicking of butt. Meanwhile back at Stonehaven, Jeremy is still dealing with the other alphas. Nick managed to get some information about Malcolm and his monetary dealings that seems to point towards the Russian alpha as a possible financial backer, and passes this bit of information on to Jeremy. That Russian alpha is a really pompous jerk and easy to hate.

About halfway through the first episode of this season, we finally get to hear something about Rachel and her whereabouts. When looking into the accounts under Malcolm’s fake name (James William), Nick found that there was a payment sent to Rochester Power. With this information, the pack deduce that Malcolm may be holding Rachel in Rochester, and so Clay and Elena head that way. Trying to be a good pack member, Nick calls Logan to keep him up to date on things. In the middle of drowning information out of a Mutt, Logan (hilariously) caries on his conversation with Nick while the Mutt struggles under his hand, as if it’s no big deal. Problem with this is that Logan is a little unstable right now (what with his pregnant girlfriend being taken by violent men and all) and as soon as he hears “Rochester,” off he rushes. I don’t want to go into too much detail about what they find in Rochester, but there are a few important points: That symbol that was burned into the karate zombies’ necks shows up again. What in the world is that symbol?! Something about infinity…. and a pitch fork? That can’t be right. But anyways, by the time Clay, Elena and Logan all get to the house in Rochester, Rachel is gone, yet again.

I want to skip forward a bit, though. There’s a lot going on in this episode, and in reality, this season we get a double episode premiere! That’s a lot of information to process. The Pack catches up with Malcolm on his way out of town, but not until after he’s killed an old man and stolen his truck. Good guy Malcolm, right? The Pack has their confrontation with Malcolm, though it’s mostly Jeremy doing the fighting. Working on his daddy issues by beating daddy senseless. I’ll never look at a screwdriver the same way. To be fair, he waited a long time for this meeting, and the screwdriver had it coming, if you ask me. While their fighting, Logan is desperately looking for Rachel at the farm they found Malcolm at. To make it worse, Logan hears Rachel yelling for him, but can’t seem to find her. After running into a field and still not finding her, Nick finally gets him to turn around and go back to the farm. As the camera pans, we see two women standing at the edge of the field at the tree line. Uh oh.

As we begin the second episode of this premiere, we start with a bit of back story on Clay. Until now, we really haven’t gotten to learn much about him. How did he become a werewolf? How did Jeremy come about him? Thankfully, we learn the answers to these questions and more. As a whole, this episode helped me connect with the character of Clay a bit more. The information given to us in this “flashback” type scene really adds a dimension to our hunky half-human, that wasn’t there before. Prior to this, he was just the eye candy of the bunch, in my opinion. Good on you, writers, for giving Clay some more depth! And yeah, screw you, Malcolm!

Speaking of old, gray and homicidal, Malcolm is now residing in the cage at Stonehaven, while Elena seethes and wants nothing more than to kill him then and there. Problem being, as far as they know, Malcolm is the only one that can tell them where Rachel is. It seems like it wouldn’t be quite as hard for Elena if it weren’t for the fact that Malcolm keeps baiting her. As it is, she’s kind of at her wit’s end with the whole Phillip thing. Did I mention that his sister won’t stop calling her? Well, I mean, I’d probably keep calling my recently dead brother’s fiance if they didn’t pick up the phone as well. But the calls do seem to just add to the stress. At one point, instead of killing Malcolm, Elena practices her fine butcher skills on what appears to be some uncured pork belly. Way to be well rounded, my friend!

Outside of Stonehaven, Clay hits up a professor of, what I’m guessing is religions, at Tulane Univeristy to see if he can get some information on the infinite pitch fork. Almost immediately, the guy seems to begin quaking in his boots. He wants nothing to do with any of it and tries to send Clay away. After some coaxing, Clay is able to get a name from the professor. Not necessarily someone who knows who scrawled the symbol all over, but perhaps someone who could shed some light on it’s meaning. Too bad Malcolm got there first. Again I say, screw you, Malcolm! Keep that particular scene (the one where Clay finds the woman he’s looking for), as there is a small detail that will be explained later on in the episode.

Also in the outside world, Elena finally relents and meets up with Diane [Natalie Brown] and tries to explain her involvement with Phillips death. Unfortunately, since she can’t really come right out and tell Diane what she is, her explanation leaves Diane with the idea that Elena and her family either are the mafia, or have some involvement with the mafia. Well, I guess that in reality, it’s not that far off. The meeting of the alphas sure did seem like a bunch of mafiosos. All that was missing was a gaudy Italian restaurant, after hours. Diane’s reaction is unfortunate for Elena since this means that not only has she lost Phillip, but now she’s lost her best friend as well.

Remember those two women in the tree line at the end of the first episode? Well, they’re back, only this time they show up at Stonehaven and they aren’t hiding. We find out that these women, Ruth and Paige Winterbourne [Tammy Isbell and Tommie-Amber Pirie, respectively] are in fact, witches, and are ALSO after Malcolm. Geez, Malcolm! How many people have you messed with?! Anyways, these witches provide the Pack with some information regarding the symbol that seems to keep showing up. It’s not them that did it, as you might think. Instead, they too are being hunted by the person responsible for scrawling the symbol on walls, people, etc. This person ALSO wants Malcolm, and has taken the witches’ witchling (if you will), whom they wish to try to trade Malcolm for. Obviously, the Pack doesn’t want to let them take our creepy little caged friend, because he still hasn’t given up the whereabouts of Rachel. It seems like this may be the beginning of a not so happy alliance between the witches and the wolves.

Other than some tete-a-tete with Malcolm, and a father/underling chat between Jeremy and Logan, we have reached the end of the premiere episodes of Bitten, season two! I know there’s a lot to take in, but be prepared because there’s even more coming! After a long wait for this season, I think all Bitten fans will be grateful for something to really sink their teeth into. Heh… get it?… Teeth…. werewolves….? Oh never mind. Until next week, my fellow fans!