As I had said in my Advance Preview, tis the season for some really strange blood tie reveals. First, we had the Sasha (John Ralston) and Elena (Laura Vandervoort) father/daughter bombshell in the premiere episode. And, then, last week we learn that Constantine is a little more than Roman’s (Daniel Kash) 2nd-in-command and is actually his son. Whew! Well, the plot thickens this week with even more surprising blood relationships, and so, hold onto the rails, folks, because it’s a hell of a bumpy ride.

TIES THAT BIND AND TIES THAT BREAK

The one big question that has been hanging over us since the beginning of the season is what possibly could be so big, so terrible that Roman would hold a vendetta against Sasha and his family for over 30 years. Well, we finally get the answer this week, and it’s a humdinger. And, it goes back to those weird blood ties, and so much so, that if you think about it, you’ll give yourself a migraine.

It starts with Constantine who has been chained up by Jeremy (Greg Bryk) at a nearby warehouse. Elena is there, and he chats her up by saying that he has never met Sasha but has only heard bad things about him from his father. The talk then turns to Elena, and he questions why she is the only female werewolf. Why her? What’s so special about her? His theory is it’s in her genes — that is, one or both of her parents were werewolves. Of course, Elena denies it, saying both of her parents were doctors. Eventually it is revealed that Elena’s mother was Roman’s daughter, which completely appalls Elena. The thought that she could be related to Roman just sickens her. This results in a huge fight between the two, with Constantine trying to kill Elena since she is Sasha’s daughter. Fortunately, Elena is able to escape Constantine’s clutch, but in the struggle, he is able to break free from his shackles and escape.

In the meantime, Jeremy assigns himself as a mediator and decides to try and help resolve the decades-long conflict between Sasha and Roman. In the process, we learn from Sasha that the origin of the blood feud is Roman’s daughter, Natalia. Roman had left Natalia in Sasha’s care because he felt like he couldn’t fulfill those duties himself. However, Sasha fell in love with her, and together, they had a daughter — Elena. The problem is Natalia now knew of the werewolves’ existence, and so, because of that, Roman was forced to kill his own daughter. But, because Sasha is the one that caused it all, Roman blames him for his daughter’s death. In Roman’s eyes, both Sasha and his entire family must now die in retribution.

After hearing all of this, Jeremy says he will help Sasha end this feud with Roman but only if he disappears and leaves Elena alone afterwards. Sasha doesn’t like it all and says it will break Elena’s heart but reluctantly agrees anyways. It’s the only way he can save the rest of his family.

WEREWOLF NEGOTIATIONS GONE TERRIBLY WRONG

The mediation begins the next morning at a warehouse owned by Nick’s (Steve Lund) family. Roman arrives, and Jeremy says that the nature of the negotiations will be under his terms and takes him to the warehouse boardroom while they wait for Sasha. Meanwhile, Jeremy gets Roman’s bodyguards to leave while Clay (Greyston Holt) stands guard.

While the meeting starts out somewhat promising, it quickly begins to go downhill. Given that this is likely the show’s final season, it appears that the writers have decided to bring back some friendly faces as a final good-bye before the series’ end. It began with Joey Stillwell (Elias Toufexis) in the season premiere, but unfortunately his stay is cut short after being quickly killed by Eduardo’s crew. It continues this week with a character that we haven’t seen since season 1, Sheriff Karen Morgan (guest star Fiona Highet). However, we quickly learn that she’s no longer Sheriff by her own choice after she runs into Jeremy in town while he’s gathering supplies to make more bodies disappear at Stonehaven. She’s friendly, of course (and, it’s also obvious that there’s still a strong romantic interest between the two), but she can’t shake why Jeremy may have bags of cement, a shovel, an ax and gloves in the back of his car. So, unable to put the Sheriff in her at rest, she decides to investigate.

Karen is also immediately suspicious of all the Russians in town and gets a former colleague to run the plates. She learns that one of the rental cars is in the name of a Russian named Victor Laranov who has a pretty long rap sheet in Russia that includes several attempted murder charges all of which were dropped. Karen ultimately follows Victor and ends up at the same warehouse where the negotiations are taking place. At this point, you just know this isn’t going to end well.

As the negotiations get underway, Jeremy has a proposal to end the blood feud — he offers Roman Bucky’s counterfeiting equipment so he can make his own money in order to strengthen his rule over his pack. Roman thinks about it, but there is still plenty of animosity. Roman can’t get past the fact that his daughter would still be alive if it weren’t for Sasha, but Jeremy fires back and says that was 30 years ago and to be blunt, he should get over it. Roman seemingly agrees and is ready to accept the terms of the negotiation so long as Jeremy no longer helps Sasha. Of course, Jeremy concurs. Did that seem a bit too easy to you? Yep, me too. Well, as it turns out, it’s all a ruse as Roman takes out the knife in his belt and stabs Sasha in the chest.

Things are bad now — really bad — but they are about to get worse. About this time, Alexei begins his first change at the exact moment that Karen shows up at the warehouse. You can imagine the horror on her face as she witnesses the entire thing happen right before her eyes. Backing up the stairs and away from Alexei, she manages to make her way into the boardroom where the negotiations are taking place.

Little did she know that she just walked into a bloodbath. Roman immediately stabs her in the thigh, grabs the counterfeiting equipment and escapes just as Elena arrives. Jeremy tasks Clay to go find Alexei and haves Elena get the medical kit in the car. Once he gets her bandaged up, he says that he has to find out what she saw, and we know the answer to that.  As if this isn’t bad enough, Clay finally locates Alexei back in human form who details the excitement of his first change and hunt. However, after smelling the blood on Alexei’s body, Clay quickly realizes that it’s human. That is, Alexei didn’t kill just an animal but someone in Bear Valley. Uh, oh.

Then, to top off what had already been a really bad day, when Sasha sees blood on Elena’s face back at Stonehaven, this brings back the premonition from the premiere of a blood-drenched Elena in a burning Stonehaven.

Wow, what a hell of an hour of television! So much was covered and so many questions answered, but at the same time, the ground was laid for some seriously bad things to happen come next week. Where did Roman run off to, and will he return to Stonehaven to finish off Sasha? Who did Alexei kill, and how much attention will it throw on Stonehaven? And, most importantly, what will Jeremy do about Karen? In the negotiations between Roman and Sasha, he clearly sided with Roman and said it was imperative for the preservation of their kind that any human who learns of them be killed. Will he honor his word, or will he make an exception just like he did with Rachel? Next week can’t get here soon enough.

Bitten  airs on Mondays at 11/10c on Syfy.

Critic Grade — A

s are closed.