Whenever there’s a full moon on any work of fiction about werewolves, we should expect fireworks.
Wolf Pack Season 1 Episode 2 was a marked improvement on Wolf Pack Season 1 Episode 1.
It’s difficult when you’re excited about a show, and it doesn’t live up to expectations, but the strength of “Two Bitten, Two Born” was in the way it zeroed in on the horror.
The premiere suffered because it couldn’t quite nail the tone, and if this second episode is the shape of things to come, then we might have a new horror-tinged teen drama worth watching.
The addition of Connor was interesting because witnessing everything that happened from his perspective, independent of the other characters, highlighted that these teenagers are going through it all.
Connor was initially concerned about Everett’s questions, but it all became apparent at the hospital when he realized that Everett was possibly the only person who could save him.
I can’t even begin to imagine what Connor was going through in those moments, and the phone call telling him to run didn’t help.
Connor: I’m supposed to get the cast off today, and I got to get a tetanus shot. Everett: What for?
Connor: I got bit by something on the highway during that whole stampede. Everett: You were bitten?
Connor: Mm-hmm.
Everett: By what?
Connor: Pretty sure it was a coyote.
Everett: Did you see it? Like, did you actually see a coyote bite you?
Connor: Yeah, kind of.
Everett: What do you mean, kind of? Did you see it or not?
Connor: There was a lot of smoke. I mean, I guess maybe it could have been something else, like a mountain lion. But I think it would look a lot worse.
Everett: Let me see it.
Connor: It’s on my back.
Everett: Well, take your shirt off.
Connor: Now?
Everett: Just take it off.
Connor: All right, shit. I was gonna wait for college to experiment a little, but let’s do this.
Everett: Just shut up and take the shirt off, please. Let me see the bite. (
Connor: How’s it look?
Everett: Kind of looks like a dog bite.
Connor: So kind of like a coyote?
Everett: Yeah, I guess. Hey, um, have you gotten any, like, phone calls lately? Anyone kind of strange talking to you on the phone?
Connor: Besides you?
Everett: No, seriously.
Connor: No. Dude, what’s going on?
Everett: Nothing. But can you do me a favor? When you go see your doctor later, just call me and tell me what he says.
Connor: About my leg?
Everett: No. No, about the bite. Just call me.
Connor: All right. I’ll call you.
Are we to assume that the big bad wolf we keep seeing is trying to lead the teenagers away from the adults to kill them?
It certainly seems that way, but it’s also possible these phone calls will be revealed to be more about their most deeply rooted thoughts.
It didn’t end so well for Connor, but it’s hard not to think about whether the teenagers are being driven by their fear and anxiety as opposed to some wolf in the woods telling them what to do.
If that is the case, props to the creatives for tackling such a storyline, but it was also a little bit too obvious for my liking.
I don’t think Connor is dead … yet. If the show wanted to kill him, there would have been blood and probably a more graphic scene showcasing what happened to him.
For now, he’s probably alive, but the cliffhanger was good. Many TV shows are avoiding cliffhangers these days, and Wolf Pack’s initial cliffhanger with its series premiere was a dud.
At the end of “Two Bitten, Two Born,” my jaw was firmly on the floor because how the hell will Everett be able to explain holding his best friend’s cast?
Kristin is tired of chasing these teen wolves, but she’s also not the most approachable person.
Her actions have given the teenagers reasons to doubt she wants to help them.
Her colleague, Jason, is also pretty terrible. Instead of making Everett think he was talking to the good guys, he gave Everett all he needed to know they couldn’t be trusted.
It’s hard to imagine what Kristin and Jason will have to say to Everett, Blake, Luna, and Harlan now that they’ve all been rounded up, but I have to imagine the parents, including Garrett, will be at the station before long to criticize their underhand tactics.
Then again, maybe Everett’s mother will allow the officers to do whatever they want to her son because she’s being written as a terrible mother.
Prisha: Hold on. I know these kids. What do you think you’re doing? You told me we’re going home. Who are these two? Are they friends of yours?
Luna: Yeah, uh, that’s Evan. Everett. Everett. He’s Everett. She’s… Blake. Everett and Blake. They… they go to school with us. They’re in our class.
Harlan: They’re in a grade below us.
Prisha: Guys, the truth, please.
Everett: We were just trying to find our way back. We all were.
Prisha: What about you? How come you’re not saying anything?
Blake: I’m not as good a liar as he is.
Prisha: Funny. I like you.
Everett returning home in the dead of night is a cause for concern, but slapping him came out of the left field and made her far more irrelevant in my book.
Her son is going through something terrible, and given his history, lifting her hands to smack him was not a decent way of getting him to open up to her.
If anything, it pushed him further into secrecy.
Blake’s newfound strength is intriguing, but you can see that her clearer skin has given her a confidence boost.
I liked her interactions with her father, Roberto, in this episode because we got the confirmation that he’d been struggling to make ends meet for a while.
He strikes me as the type of person who buries his head in the sand, and unfortunately, the lack of payments on the home insurance has screwed his family over.
He’s distracted, though, because he couldn’t even place what was different about his daughter, which could be a sign that he hasn’t been very involved in her life.
Yes, she stays with him, but they’re so far apart that it’s hard to tell whether they’ll be able to have any form of relationship when this is over.
The dynamic between Blake and Everett is also interesting. Often, teen dramas force characters together in ways that feel more to get fans talking, but here, they got closer naturally because they went through something terrible.
They’re both trying to come to terms with the changes in their lives after being bitten.
Luna and Harlan are becoming a bit like oil and water. They’re different from one another, and it seems like they rarely agree on anything.
Luna is warm and reaches out to her brother when she’s had a bad day, but Harlan dodges her calls and texts and does his own thing.
Granted, he did find himself going through something in the gym, but dodging his sister’s calls was also shown on Wolf Pack Season 1 Episode 1.
I’m interested in seeing what their home life is like with Garrett at home because we know Harlan resents the man who raised them because he keeps putting himself in danger.
Garrett hasn’t had much screen time, but he cares deeply for these two siblings. Thinking about how he first found them gave him the drive to fight for safety, after all.
That’s all I got, Wolf Pack fanatics!
Look out for a post-mortem interview with the cast tomorrow to break down some of the big twists and turns of the second episode.
What are your thoughts on the second episode?
Are you more invested now?
What’s your take on Kristin and her partner? Are they going out of their way to make themselves unapproachable?
Hit the comments.
Catch new episodes of Wolf Pack on Thursdays, exclusively on Paramount+.
Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.