This episode suffers greatly by sticking Garth into a situation that is inherently serious. I do not mean him becoming a werewolf. That's fine and depending on how it is written it could have been a standard goofy Garth episode. Instead, the werewolf church and the sectarian violence that forms the main drama of the episode is not comedic. Add in the intense family dynamics at play and it is a serious (enough) episode. The werewolf church ties in thematically pretty clearly with the Angel war and it feels correct to explore a concept like the wolf church this season. But Garth does not belong here.
The Garth-abet with a little bit of melodrama-is written exactly the same goofball he always is. That stuff is within the normal range of amusing but in the end it stands outs as off in this episode. Qualls does a lot to smooth over the tonal conflict-I don't have a problem with Garth being apologetic for being missing, Kevin-but the character is *comedic.* Perhaps if Garth was in the show more (he's in all of 6 episodes, ~10 more if you count off handed references) they could have wrote other more serious episodes involving him but this is the only one that is remotely serious in the overall tone.
The Garth-abet with a little bit of melodrama-is written exactly the same goofball he always is. That stuff is within the normal range of amusing but in the end it stands outs as off in this episode. Qualls does a lot to smooth over the tonal conflict-I don't have a problem with Garth being apologetic for being missing, Kevin-but the character is *comedic.* Perhaps if Garth was in the show more (he's in all of 6 episodes, ~10 more if you count off handed references) they could have wrote other more serious episodes involving him but this is the only one that is remotely serious in the overall tone.