Recap of Supernatural
Season 8, Episode 4
Bitten
"Awesome." —Dean
"In a World… where nothing is as it seems, one brave, shockingly-handsome, virile young man, and his faithful, learning-disabled, robotic manservant must battle through waves of cybernetic asshats in order to sexually liberate the women of..."
—Michael Wheeler
Written by Robbie Thompson.
Directed by Thomas J. Wright.
Air Date: October 24, 2012.
Dean and Sam find two dead bodies and a laptop computer with film footage that not only tells the story behind the dead bodies but also gives them a new perspective about themselves and the monsters they hunt.
Body Count:
For this episode = 2 humans and 3 werewolves.
For the series so far = At least 825 humans (of which 6 were witches), 106 demons, 58 angels, 47 ghosts, 36 Jefferson Starships, 28 vampires, 19 zombies, 19 gods, 9 hellhounds, 7 skinwalkers, 6 changelings, 5 shapeshifters, 5 werewolves, 4 ghouls, 4 Leviathan, 3 djinn, 3 dogs, 2 Amazons, 2 arachnes, 2 kitsunes, 2 rugarus, 2 vetalas, 1 crocotta, 1 dragon, 1 fairy, 1 Khan worm, 1 lamia, the Mother of All, 1 okami, 1 phoenix, 1 Purgatory creature, 1 rakshasa, 1 rawhead, 1 reaper, 1 shojo, 1 shtriga, 1 siren, 1 wendigo, 1 whore of Babylon, and 1 wraith.
Tropes:
- Always Second Best: Brian, who feels inferior to Michael. Especially when it comes to Kate.
- Amnesiac Dissonance: Michael initially does not recall what he did during his transformation, but must deal with the consequences as he starts to remember what happened.
- Asleep in Class: Michael. Which gets him turned into a werewolf.
-
Beam Me Up, Scotty!: Michael says, "I wish I could quit you". Jake Gyllenhaal's line from Brokeback Mountain is actually "I wish I knew how to quit you". - This Bear Was FramedOfficer: This kid was shredded by an animal.
- Catchphrase: Dean's use of "awesome" gets lampshaded:Kate: I'm pretty sure that FBI agents don't say "awesome" that much.
- Berserk Button: Michael whenever Katie is threatened.
- Chekhov's Gun: The zoom on Professor Ludensky's lapel pin.
- Cock Fight: Brian and Michael when they both transform.
- College Is "High School, Part 2"
- Lord of the Flies is a typical assignment in middle or high school.
- Despite having very different stated career goals, the three main characters are in the same English or Literature class and seem to have similar schedules.
- They could be underclassmen. Typically, the first year or two of undergrad are dedicated to completing general university requirements that everybody has to take regardless of major.
- Commonality Connection: Kate's dreams of being a green lawyer recall Sam's own ambitions.
- Continuity Nod:
- Dean seems almost as disgusted by the iPod in the opening scene as he was by the iPod in the Impala in "Lazarus Rising" (S04, E01). He comes around near the end of the episode, after seeing the video.
- Sam mentions they may be dealing with another Mayan god.
- A poster for Coven can be seen in Brian and Michael's living room. The same poster was seen in "Ghostfacers" (S03, E13) and "The Girl With The Dungeons And Dragons Tattoo" (S07, E20).
- Contrived Coincidence: It was pretty lucky Scott also was carrying a video camera and it captured him running after Michael, his fear when he heard the growls, and then his horrific threats against Kate.
Then Michael took the incriminating video home and gave it to Brian so it could be included in the movie. - Declaration of Protection: Defied Trope.Brian: You need someone who can protect you.Kate: I can protect myself.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: Complete with Dying Declaration of Love.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: When the professor is discussing being a werewolf and controlling one's urges, it sounds like he's talking about being a closet homosexual.
- Enemy Within:Michael: I'm a werewolf. A werewolf.
- Evil Tastes Good: The taste for hearts.
- Fangs Are Evil
- Faux Documentary: Brian is documenting the everyday activities of him, his roommate, and his roommate's girlfriend. Once Michael is bitten, Brian begins to document his transformation as well as the Winchesters' investigation. The footage includes shaky cam, narrators, interviews with each of the trio, as well as hidden camera footage of arguments in which the participants either were unaware of or forgot the presence of the cameras.
- Found Footage Episode
- Flash Step: Brian does this when attacking Kate, doing an Offscreen Teleportation while on-screen.
- "Friends" Rent Control: That's quite a nice house for two college guys.
- Hilarious in Hindsight/I Resemble That Remark!: When Brian mocks some of the girls at the coffee shop, he comments that one of them is "in love with their roommate", only to himself later become infatuated with Kate.
- Hollywood Hacking:Kate: What else can you hack into, Brian?Brian: Anything.
- How We Got Here: Opens with the dead bodies and then tells their story.
- I Just Want to Be Special: Brian, who goes so far as to ask to be bitten. This is in contrast to Michael, who views his transformation as more Cursed with Awesome.
- I'm a Humanitarian: Who finds hearts delicious.
- I Made Copies: Brian is Genre Savvy enough to have a second hidden camera and a live feed to his laptop when confronting the professor.
- In-Universe Camera: Complete with Jitter Cam.
- Innocent Bystander Series: Or, at least, they start out innocent. By the end, we see this is really a Villain Episode.
- I Surrender, Suckers: Once she knows she's fully transformed, Katie convinces Brian she's had a Face–Heel Turn, then kills him while his guard is down.
- Jerk Jock: Played straight with the frat brats, but deconstructed with Michael. He's the tall, handsome, not so bright guy who sleeps through class and gets the girl without even trying, stealing her from the cute, dorky nerd. But when they find out they're in a horror movie instead of a superhero movie, Michael's the one who hates what's happened to him and hates that he's killed someone, while Brian embraces it and Jumps Off The Slippery Slope before he even gets the chance to get turned.
- Karmic Death: Scott the Jerk Jock implies he will rape Kate before Michael kills him.
- Left the Background Music On: "What's the matter? What's the matter with you baby?" Milo Greene's "What's the Matter?"
plays during the opening scene until Dean yanks the iPod out of the speaker. - Love Makes You Crazy:
- Brian, who asks to be turned into a werewolf partly because he's in love with Kate.
- Initially Brian wants to call the police, but Kate wants to cover things up because she's in love with Brian.
- Meta Fiction: Brian's movie comments on the dialogue and actions of Sam and Dean in a different way from the Refugee from TV Land approach of "The French Mistake" (S06, E15), the Faux Documentary "Ghostfacers" (S03, E13), the Recursive Canon of "The Monster At The End Of This Book" (S04, E18), or the Fandom Nods of "The Real Ghostbusters" (S05, E09).
- Mistaken for Gay: The Winchesters are thought to be a couple again when they are overheard talking about being apart for a year.
- Monogender Monsters: Averted when Kate becomes a Cute Monster Girl.
- Night-Vision Goggles
- No Ontological Inertia: Averted, as Michael remains a werewolf even after the werewolf who bit him is killed.
- Also a Continuity Nod waaay back to "Heart" (S02, E17), where Sam and Dean unsuccessfully try to cure a new werewolf by killing the one who turned her.
- Oblivious to Love: Kate appears to either be unaware of or simply choosing to ignore the fact that Brian is clearly infatuated with her.
- One-Steve Limit: Another Kate.
- Origin Story: Invoked Trope, as Brian says he wants to film Michael's origin story.
- Paint the Town Red: Blood covers everything in the opening scene.
- Popcultural Osmosis Failure: When Brian says he doesn't want to be Piggy, Michael tells him he is not a pig.
- Justified as Michael was earlier shown sleeping through the lecture on Lord of the Flies, having Brian tape it for him.
- Product Placement:
- The iPod.
- The Macbook Air.
- Punched Across the Room: Michael does this to Brian at one point.
- Rousseau Was Right
- Shout-Out:
- Michael calls Brian "Christopher Nolan" when he leaves the lens cap on the camera.
- When Michael suggests Brian talk to a group of girls in the coffee house, Brian says "#Fails".
- Kate likes Last Year at Marienbad.
- Brian wants to work for HBO or Michael Moore.
- Brian compares the Winchester brothers to Starsky & Hutch and then Michael compares them to Rizzoli & Isles.
- Michael Wheeler says the footage of Scott and the girl will look great on YouTube.
- Kate accuses Brian and Michael of shooting cut scenes for Jackass.
- Michael compares Brian's filming attempt to Dumb and Dumber, Part 3.
- Dean suggests putting out an APB on "Rocky the Raccoon".
- Brian asks if Michael is an X-File when he thinks the FBI is investigating.
- Michael yells "I AM A GOLDEN GOD!", which references the scene in Almost Famous as well as Robert Plant and Dennis Reynolds.
- Brian says he wants to be Ralph and not Piggy. Justified since Lord of the Flies is their current class material.
- Dean calls Brian "our friendly neighborhood cameraman".
- Bitten is the name of a novel by Kelley Armstrong about being a female werewolf.
- Sickeningly Sweethearts: Michael and Kate, who are tooth-rotting-ly in love.
- Silver Has Mystic Powers: Silver bullets knives are this week's Weaksauce Weakness.
- Snuff Film: The trio of friends inadvertently make one. One friend, an aspiring filmmaker, is simply filming his day to day life and ends up recording five different murders including his own.
- Special Edition Title: The Title Card was shown after the opening sequence, but the opening credits were not played until the end. On the original broadcast there were nearly 20 minutes before the first commercial break. A similar departure from the normal formula was used in "Ghostfacers" (S03, E13).
- Superpowered Evil Side: We get to see this side of all three of the college students.
- Super-Strength: At first, Michael Does Not Know His Own Strength and rips the door off its hinges.
- Sympathy for the Devil: Dean's willingness to let Kate go highlights how his alliance with Benny has changed him, especially compared to last season.
- Themed Aliases: Agents Hudson and Rose, as in Axl Rose (born William Bruce Rose, Jr.; raised as William Bruce Bailey) and Saul Hudson (better known as Slash) of Guns N' Roses.
- Third Wheel: Brian.
- Played for drama and thoroughly deconstructed. Brian comes off as a slightly creepy Stalker with a Crush. His third wheel situation leads him to ask to be bitten with horrific results.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Dean and his hamburgers.Sam: Dude, two burgers?
Dean: Hey, I didn't eat at Big P's for at least a year, okay? Clear eyes and clogged arteries; can't lose. - Two Guys and a Girl
- "Uh-Oh" Eyes: Michael's first sign of transformation is when he realises his pupils have changed.
- Unusual Euphemism: Kate accuses Michael of foaming the runway and then leaving.
- Vigilante Man: A gang of Jerk Jocks decide to go patrolling for the killer. Bad idea.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting
- Walking the Earth: Kate at the end.
- We Need a Distraction: Professor Ludensky turned Mike because he knew there would be a Hunter on his trail, so offered him as an alternate suspect for the killings.
- What Have I Become?
- Wrong Genre Savvy:
- On discovering his Super-Strength, Michael assumes he's become a superhero.
- As usual Sam and Dean are assumed to be the real life version of The X-Files, until they're overheard talking about killing the werewolf.
