Bitten Recap 'Of Sonders Weight'

Image from Bitten, streamed via Netflix

Season 3 Episode 5

The rules of secrecy that govern Bitten are absolute, and they are at the heart of why Elena was turned into a werewolf. When Clay brought her to Stonehaven to introduce her to Jeremy, an Alpha who was also a father to Clay, Elena turned for a second before entering the mansion. Just because there was a chance that Elena caught a glimpse of Jeremy as he was changing from wolf to human form, Jeremy planned to kill the love of Clay's life. Clay was so in love with Elena that he turned into a wolf and bit her. Clay could not have known that Elena was going to survive the bite; at that time, no woman has ever survived a werewolf bite. But Elena was dead either way, and Clay's faith was rewarded, to a certain extent. Elena survived. Elena was never comfortable with life inside the Pack, but she lived, long enough to reunite with Clay, long enough to meet her birth father and half siblings. Elena lived, and an emotional Jeremy, angry and heartbroken after killing Morgan out of Alpha duty, left Elena in charge at Stonehaven whilst he went after Roman.

The lengths werewolves went to to protect their secret was a recurrent theme throughout this episode. Though Clay guilted Alexei by playing the last message left by the girlfriend of the activist he accidentally killed whilst in wolf form, not one of the wolves in this tale asked one simple question --- Why were their lives more important than others? Whilst Alexei and Clay walked through the woods trying to find the man Alexei may have bitten, it was made clear the man was dead even if the bite did not kill him (it did). Clay was not for bringing a stranger into the Pack. Clay was also concerned about the bitten making it to a hospital and transforming there, thereby showing to the world a secret werewolves have killed to keep for generations. Why was the secret of the wolves more important than the life of a man trying to keep deer away from the woods before hunting season began, because he lost his little brother from a hunter's bullet? 

Why was the werewolf secret more important than the life of Morgan, who was killed by Jeremy when she realised the dream she thought she had about seeing a boy turn into a wolf was real? Morgan was a good person. As though to twist the knife further, Bitten gave us long scenes of Jeremy and Morgan talking life. Jeremy tried hard to keep Morgan alive. He was going to let her walk away. When he realised that Morgan knew the werewolf secret, however, the code was too strong. He embraced her and killed her.

Image from Bitten, streamed via Netflix

Elena's birth mother Natalya lost her life because she found out about werewolves. Natalya was the daughter of Roman. Roman sent Sasha to check in on her. Sasha fell in love with the beautiful Natalya, and when Natalya was pregnant, Sasha decided to tell her the truth. Roman killed Natalya, and waited to kill Sasha, too. Sasha left baby Elena at the hospital, and went into hiding. It was there again, that absolute compulsion to kill a human who knew their secret, even Roman's own daughter. Werewolf secret over human life, again and again and again.

I realise I am viewing a supernatural show from human eyes, but it is helpful because Elena is doing the same, and Elena is now in charge of the Stonehaven Pack. The secret doesn't protect us, Elena declared, it kills us. During her emotional phone call with Jeremy, Elena finally forgave her Alpha, because he tried to kill her, because she became a werewolf because of him. Jeremy followed the code when he killed Morgan, but it broke him, and Elena's forgiveness was a spectre of light on the darkness he carried through this episode.

Bitten has a tendency to over-explain when it could be more effective by chasing a cinematic scene, and Of Sonders Weight suffers from this same writing weakness. It remains, however, a show I return to, especially when life things are not that great. So, it can't be that bad, could it?

Strays

■ Elena called Anson to help in treating Sasha's infected wound.

■ Nick was with Katia, and was on his way to see Rachel.

■ When he returned to Stonehaven with Alexei, Clay found a video of Marsden being tortured.