'Bitten' -- SPN 8x04

Warning: Spoiler Alert

I will admit to getting kind of annoyed by the Cloverfield of the episode. There is really only so much shaky cam that I can handle before I want to tell people to knock it off, and start using a steady cam. Also, I wasn't overly thrilled by the fact that the boys weren't really in the episode all that much, but at the same time, it was also kind of interesting to see things from the other side (instead of only from the side of a couple of hunters). I think that this may have been the first time that the writers took one of the "monsters" and made them kind of human ... showing that they aren't all bad, and they don't necessarily ask for the things that have been done to them (that they are only the way that they are cuz it was forced on them, and to have hunters come in and kill them without considering the fact that they haven't hurt humans isn't really fair). I was glad that the boys decided to let homegirl live, even if it took her showing them all of that footage to prove that she didn't want what had happened to her, and that her life had become kind of tragic cuz of what had happened, and that she didn't want to hurt anyone. That isn't something that happens all that often. Maybe spending all of that time in Purgatory with a vampire helped Dean realize that not everything that isn't human is a monster that needs to be killed as soon as possible.

In a way, I feel bad for Brian ... even though I also don't feel bad for him. It can't be easy to be the BFF of someone who gets all of the attention, and who gets the girl that you (at least think that you) want. When all you really want is for someone to notice that you're really there, and to think that you are worthy of their time, it has to be hard when their eyes always glide over you to the person standing next to you ... someone who seems more than happy to take advantage of you ("Hey, you taped the class I just slept through, right?"). I have a feeling that if he could see that someone really saw him, that he wasn't as invisible as he thought that he was, things might have been a little bit different in the end. Michael still would have ended up a werewolf, but if Brian had really believed inside of himself that he was something special (that he was just as worthy of love as Michael, and that he could find someone who loved him for who he was, and really saw who he was) he wouldn't have forced the professor to turn him, and Kate would not have had the change forced upon her. As much as he may have been comfortable having Michael as his friend, and as much as he probably was grateful that someone like Michael would agree to be his bestie (even though he took advantage of, and hurt Brian in ways that a bestie wouldn't have), it probably would have been better for him to break up with Michael and try to find someone else to be his bestie ... at least until he was able to see (and believe) that he was worth being loved for who he was (and not what he thought that he should be). So, I felt bad for him for how lonely he seemed to be, even with people around him; but I don't feel bad for how things ended up with him ... not after what he did to Michael and Kate. If not for him, Michael would have lived (for at least a while longer), and Kate wouldn't have been turned (at least not right then; who knows if Michael would have turned her later on).

But you know what? I liked this episode way more than I liked "Heart". What happened to these three struck me as being a lot more tragic than the whole thing with Madison (tragic the way a real werewolf story is supposed to be) ... but then, I couldn't bring myself to really care about what happened to Madison, but I was able to feel bad for Michael, Brian, and Kate. It probably had something to do with the writing, and the fact that I don't care for Gamble's writing.