Greg Bryk and Steve Lund Talk Bitten’s Season 2 Finale [Exclusive] 

[Warning: Spoilers for the season two finale.]

Now that we’ve closed the door on a mind-bender second season of Bitten, we can roll out the last of our interviews with the cast. When we chatted with Greg Bryk and Steve Lund, we’d been fortunate enough to see the whole season, so we could ask them about the finale. Here’s what they had to say.

The final episode of the season was intensely physical as everybody descended into the catacombs to battle Aleister. There’s a massive scene of Nick fighting two groups of foes across a bank of escalators and Lund shared that most of that was actually him.

“If you really pay attention, there aren’t a lot of cuts in that scene. We rehearsed the crap out of it,” he recalls. “I was waking up in the night air fighting. It took a good couple of hours, probably four hours [to actually shoot it]. I will have you know I’m pretty sure it’s about 90% me. I was adamant I was going to learn it so they didn’t have to use my stunt double.”

“I was very happy they gave me they chance to do it. They had to cut out another sequence at the bottom of the stairs [that] didn’t make sense in the edit, so they wanted to leave it open-ended. On the day, we had a definite end to the fight scene. You can imagine how tired I was. I thought I was going to pass out. There’s a moment where I’m panting and I think the condensation from my breath hit the camera.”

As the season wraps, Paige tells Nick they don’t have a future because she’s now the new head of the Coven, but Lund hopes there’s some wiggle room on that. “I think they could be a pretty lethal combo. I’m pretty on board with that idea,” he says. “If they can find [a place with] space for Nick to do his changes and another room for her potions and spells, [they’re set].”

One of the tests in front of the Pack as the finale unfolds is that they have to choose to be human or wolf before sunrise because if their plan fails, that’s the form they’ll retain forever. Bryk says that Jeremy would have chosen human, but at a great cost. “[He would have] such a great sense of loss, because there is something deeply problematic about the werewolf side but also something special and unsocialized and unfettered [about being able to act on your impulses],” he explains. “In such a cold, connected society [that’s] not really connected, to have the ability to tear open someone’s shirt and bite their neck for good or bad, the immediacy of that [would be lost].  I think they would all choose that form, but they would be losing something so special.”

After Ruth dies, Jeremy tells Paige and Savannah that they’re part of his family, and that evolution of Pack inclusiveness shows how far Jeremy came this season. “It’s interesting, because throughout the season, there was a great deal of mistrust because the witches were a problem for the Pack. They destabilized us and drew us into a conflict,” he reflects. “[Jeremy] didn’t trust them and had to navigate those waters.”

“I think Jeremy as a leader [is] very traditionally masculine, but there’s a great sense of collaboration about him and he’s managed to transcend some of the uglier stereotypes of that. He’s ben able to let someone else take the lead. [By the end of the season], we become a Pack by the terms we choose to define. There’s a new, stronger power emerging that incorporates the masculine and the feminine.”

Looking ahead, Bryk doesn’t know how closely the show will hew to the books, but if they do, he knows where he wants Jeremy to fit into that equation. “I think there are elements of Jeremy’s past that are not reconciled. I think it will be an interesting dynamic when Elena becomes the Alpha…eventually to have Jeremy guide and mentor her for the good of the werewolves and the Pack,” he says.

With Logan’s death and Rachel left alone to bear their child, Bryk’s immediate goal for Jeremy is pretty clear. “For right now, I want the baby. When [Jeremy] raised Clay, [he] was younger. A younger father is different from an older, more mature father,” he says. “I like the idea of imparting wisdom to someone new. To start again in a way, and end the destructive cycle of what the Pack law has been and the hope of someone new.”

Bitten has been renewed for a third season in Canada. At press time, Syfy had not yet confirmed they are taking it, but I think it’s safe to assume they will, with new episodes returning in 2016. For now, you can catch up online at syfy.com.