Bitten Recap 'Committed'

Image from Bitten, streamed via Netflix

Season 1 Episode 6

The previous strikes against Jeremy’s pack were just probes. Now, there was a sense that war was coming to Stonehaven. Finally, the pack already knew who the true enemy was. It was not just Zachary Cain or Karl Marsten, or their army of mutts. It was Daniel Santos. 

Word was out that the pack was weak. Its authority was being challenged, and not just by that idiot Samuel Boggs who thought it was a good idea to fight Jeremy for alpha status. An ally of the pack, Dennis Stillwell, was brutally murdered by Zachary Cain and his serial killer mutt. Dennis’s eyes were removed. There was no word on the whereabouts of Dennis’s son Joey.

It was Nick who had to clean up the mess at the Stillwells and bury Dennis. When Nick came home, Antonio was waiting for him. Antonio knew dealing with that kind of violence, especially directed at someone Nick knew well and liked, was not easy for the young werewolf whose life had previously been all about sh gging and making ill advised investments. Antonio waited for his son so he could comfort him. It was an entirely different dynamic to the one Jeremy and Clay had.

Clay was Jeremy’s enforcer. Clay was a hothead to Jeremy’s calm calculation. I have lost count of the number of times Jeremy would tell Clay he wanted this and that werewolf alive, as though anticipating that Clay would find it difficult to restrain himself enough to allow an enemy of the family to go on living. In Committed, however, we saw a Clay who was struggling. Yes, he still did not mind violence in the service of his alpha, but there was a limit to him, a limit that Jeremy did not recognise or coldly did not care to see. When Samuel Boggs challenged for alpha, Clay broke his nose, then sent him on his way. Samuel came back and insisted on fighting Jeremy, who did not even wrinkle his vest during the decidedly one sided fight. Jeremy tasked Clay to find out who sent Samuel; it meant torture, though the word was not uttered. Clay got the information Jeremy wanted --- Samuel was sent by Karl Marsten --- and was going to let Samuel go when Jeremy told him he wanted to send a message. Jeremy had Clay remove all of Samuel’s teeth. Samuel began to transform during the procedure so Clay gave him morphine to force him back into human form.

It was too dark even for Clay. His hands bloodied, he called Elena and asked her to come home. Whether Elena would have returned to Stonehaven solely because Clay asked her to, we would not know. Daniel Santos left a present on Elena’s coat pocket, the eyes of Dennis Stillwell. Daniel Santos tried very hard to recruit Elena to his side by badmouthing Clay. It did not work. Elena returned to her pack.

In the last five episodes, Jeremy was the benevolent leader, the reasonable alpha who always thought three steps ahead to protect his pack. Here we saw a violent, angry Jeremy, still outwardly calm but who would not think twice about inflicting horrendous pain on his enemies. Clay was Jeremy’s son, and Jeremy used him to deliver a message to his enemies. Jeremy may not have put the storm of darkness inside Clay, but he certainly has chosen not to do anything to free his son from its grip.

Strays

■ Jeremy was either the most powerful alpha in North America, or the only alpha in North America. Other families were aligned with him.

■ Jeremy was the only one amongst the North American families being challenged by mutts.

■ If Elena became a mutt, she would not be allowed to remain in one place. That meant that she would not have her happily ever after with Philip.

■ Jeremy and Antonio brought up the possible relaxing of rules for mutts as part of a truce.

■ Clay wanted to reinstate the mutt hunts.

■ All the other families were Sorrentinos.

■ There was a thawing of relations between Philip’s mother and Elena at Becky’s wedding. Just when Philip thought Elena had opened up to her (when she saw Daniel Santos, she lied to Philip and said she thought she saw Victor Campos, who was a neighbour of one of her foster homes), Elena just suddenly left. It was right after Elena saw Daniel Santos’s gift.

■ Elena moved in with Philip.

■ Logan and his girlfriend Rachel were pregnant.