RECAP: Beauty and the Beast – Episode 5 – Saturn Returns

Tequila, photo booths and the return of the Beast…er... I mean Saturn. Plus the death of a bunch of relationship drama cliches

I've been explaining on PREVIOUS RECAPS how I wasn't so convinced about the show at first, but then started warming up to it. This episode might have been the inflection point for me. I was increasingly liking the show, but this episode made me realize I may actually love it. It truly got my attention, and not just because of the AWESOME OPENING SEQUENCE [OK, maybe partially because of the opening sequence]. But seriously, in this episode the writers broke TV molds and went against conventions in the most refreshing way. In other words, this episode set the show apart and in doing so I realized it was honest and especial. I will explain exactly what I mean as I continue this recap. So let’s get down to business!

Maybe I should just skip the opening sequence… As if! Man, that was one good opening sequence…scratch that… that was the BEST OPENING SEQUENCE in TV history! Anyway… let’s see if I can stick to describing the facts without wandering. So, Vincent is lying on his bed. He can’t sleep and you can tell he is deep in thought about something. Oh, and he is shirtless… not that it matters… I mean, I barely even noticed. He keeps rolling around his bed for a while and then decides to get up and do some complicated clap push-ups… oh and by the way, he is still shirtless… but who cares about that, right? It’s all about his inner struggle with… whatever… where was I? Sorry, I got distracted rewinding and re-watching… you know, so I could REALLY understand Vincent’s “state of mind”. [On a related note, I am sure most of you have seen this, but Austin Basis actually parodied this scene on one of the ‘set tour’ videos]

As Vincent is getting dressed, JT comes up annoyed because he woke him up. JT figures Vincent is so “amped up” because he went to see Catherine. Vincent tells JT she makes him feel “like he has a life again” but JT quickly reminds him he is supposed to be dead [just dead, not dead dead]. Vincent is heading out for “a walk” [I guess that’s what they are calling it these days], but JT interrupts his “walking” plans and forcefully tags along. As they walk, they discuss JT’s love life for a change. He likes another professor, Sara, but he isn’t sure if he should ask her out. At that point Vincent hears a robbery in progress and of course he has to swoop in, stop the robbery and save the store-owner’s life… because he is NOT a vigilante, remember?

So it is time for Cat’s “waking up sequence” and… I liked Vincent’s better… what? I am girl. So Cat wakes up, gets dressed, gets into the shower, makes coffee, etc. As cliché as these types of montages are in movies and TV, I have to say I actually like them. Also, Kristin Kreuk is so pretty. When she finishes her morning routine, Heather is just waking up because she was busy last night playing “Ex-Porn Star Karaoke”, which apparently is not as fun as it sounds. Heather wants to know what [or who] her sister was doing last night. “Working on a case” she replies, so I guess that’s what they are calling it these days as well. We also find out it is Cat’s birthday. Heather basically wants to throw a keger but Cat doesn't want to do anything “this year”. Heather can’t figure out what is different “this year” and we all know what it is… and NO Heather it has nothing to do with Saturn’s return. Of course that doesn't stop Heather from completely ignoring her big sis and planning a surprise b-day party for her. And yes, I actually googled the damn astrology explanation for the whole Saturn thing and looks like it’s an actual thing. It takes Saturn about 29.5 years to return so I guess it fits. Well done research team? [It’s a lot of B.S. but quite hilarious, you may want to read it].

At the PRECINCT Tess is having a slow day because criminals are having staff meetings or something, so she is just working on the “secret boyfriend” theory. At that point the CASE OF THE WEEK walks through the door. His name is Michael Walters and he is there to report that his girlfriend Amy went missing after he proposed. I’ll just cut to the chase and say that Amy was actually in WITSEC and ran away because she was afraid of endangering her boyfriend. So, what procedural show can I compare this to? That seems fairly easy… it’s In Plain Sight but not just because of the WITSEC story line but because of all the ON THE NOSE LIFE LESSONS Cat will learn from the case. Tess and Cat obviously believe the girlfriend is not missing just left the poor chap, but since Cat is in the midst of some ‘love haze’ herself she feels sorry for Michael and agrees to check out his apartment. That’s when Cat notices there is a story in the paper about Vincent’s “non-vigilante” activities with the head-line “Vigilante saves the day” complete with a picture and everything.

Cat goes to see Vincent and freak out about the picture. Of course no-one freaks out more than JT and he makes sure to tell Cat Vincent is not being careful because since he met her he feels “alive”. The expression on Vincent’s face is priceless; he is so self-conscious and embarrassed. Thing #1 I truly liked about this show. It was never a secret they had a thing for each other, it was made clear by JT, Cat, Vincent and pretty much everybody else. When they go with the “will they -won’t they” dynamic the characters are usually in denial, but they didn’t do it here. Back to the pressing matter, Cat offers to get rid of the security tape while JT goes to steal some stuff to implement “Phase B” which apparently is some sort jamming system for the warehouse.

JT leaves and Vincent goes right back into flirting mode and wishes Cat Happy Birthday. He also explains he knows it is her birthday because he used to check in on her every year on this date. And if we are being perfectly honest, if he were a skinny weird looking dude we would think the whole “checking in on you” situation was the creepiest thing. But instead we think “Aw…” You really can get away with pretty much anything when you are that hot. So Vincent asks Catherine if she is having a party this year. She says she doesn’t want to, because as she gets older she realizes she knows nothing about life and that she spends her days lying to her friends or something, but what she really means to say is: “I don’t want a party because I want to spend my birthday with you”. And you can tell she truly wants that.

Vincent doesn’t get the hint yet so Cat leaves. Then Cat and Tess go to MICHAEL WALTERS’S APARTMENT to investigate the missing girlfriend. There is no trace of a woman living there which totally gives us the impression that the boyfriend is a) a psycho who made up a girlfriend or b) a psycho who killed the girlfriend a while ago. They keep looking and literally find nothing with Amy’s name on it, but they find blood traces, hair and bleach. Seriously all that was missing was acid to imply someone got rid of the body a la Breaking Bad. Cat brings the evidence to Evan and what’s important about this scene is that we find out he is online dating! [Seriously, why?]His potential date is “Claire Sinclair” if the name didn't sound fake, her list of accomplishments sure did: PhD in economics, climbed Mount Everest… come on. My immediate thought was “too good to be true”.

Later in the PRECINCT Cat gets the security tape with Vincent on it and after watching it we are all pleased to discover you can never see his face, so he is free to continue his life as a non-vigilante. But seriously, what was the point of this C story? I guess it was just to give an excuse for Cat to keep showing up at the warehouse which she does just so she can let Vincent know he has nothing to worry about. As she does that, she helps herself to a beer and if that wasn't enough to establish that she is getting too comfortable in there she actually says it: “Your isolated prison is starting to feel like my escape these days”. Vincent seizes the opportunity and casually tells her she shouldn't spend her birthday alone and asks her to come by for a pizza and a movie. Cat does her best [and fails] to mask her excitement. So it is a date, but not a “date date”. This show is giving an entire new meaning to saying the same word twice.  After gladly accepting V’s invitation, she criticizes them for their lack of decoration skills. But Vincent points out they don’t have personal items in case they have to run. And just like that the light-bulb in Cat’s head goes off and she basically solves her case. She goes back to the PRECINCT and as expected they figure out Amy is in fact Lily Carter and she was in witness protection.

And it is time for “JT-international-man-of-mystery” to make his first appearance. He is at the COLLEGE CAMPUS stealing some supplies so they can build their analog electronic jamming thingie. He is caught by no other than Sara! And as soon as I saw her I thought she was absolutely perfect for JT: pretty, smart and funny. Too bad we don’t get to see her many more times. Anyway, JT is all nervous because he is stealing supplies AND because he has a [major] crush on Sara. However, Sara seems to be a ballsy chick and she got tired of waiting around for JT to ask her out so she asks him out for coffee to which JT replies: “I gotta go” Smooth. By the way Austin Basis is particularly great in that scene, loved the combination of nerves, fear and excitement.

 JT goes back to the WAREHOUSE where Vincent is trying to wrap Cat’s gift. What is it about guys and wrapping presents? I had some guy-friends in college who actually had a video of them trying to wrap gifts for their girlfriends and it was something like “Three men against the chocolate box”. It seriously took them like half an hour to wrap a square [not even the round kind] chocolate box. Vincent is not doing much better. As he finishes tying the bow, JT explains the true reason he doesn't want to get involved with Sara is because of their complicated situation. He either has to lie to her or, if he ever told her the truth, force her to lie to other people. JT concludes it’s better to stay away from the people they care about. Of course this makes Vincent think of Catherine. And JT has a point I guess, but I think Sara and Catherine are in completely different situations. This is a classic plot device in relationship dramas where a friend says something to the guy and then the guy frustratingly pushes the girl away for “her own good” however, that is NOT how it is going to happen.

At the PRECINCT Tess, Joe and Cat are talking to Amy/Lily (Amily?)’s handler: Marshal Gibson [not Givens, I double-checked]. He is explaining Amily witnessed her parents’ murder and testified, that’s why she was put in WITSEC. After talking to the Marshal, Tess lets it slip that Heather is planning a surprise party which puts a damper on Catherine’s more intimate plans. So she goes to the WAREHOUSE to tell Vincent she is going to be late for their date-non-date-date. After the conversation with JT I was fully prepared for Vincent to be an uncommunicative jerk and push Cat away for no apparent reason. But he didn't do it like that. He did blow her off, but he did it in a very sweet and selfless way. I actually ended up feeling bad for him rather than Cat. He basically tells her that he is the reason she has to lie to everyone she cares about and that he didn't save her life to force her to hide in a warehouse. Cat makes it very clear that she WANTS to be with him. He encourages her to go enjoy her party and be grateful she gets to have one. She then flat out tells him “I just wish you could be there” and I was surprised that she actually said it. He finishes the conversation reminding her that she has a life and she should go live it. So, what basically happened is that they told each other the TRUTH, meaning the real reasons he was pushing her away and the actual feelings she was experiencing. How great was that? You really don’t see that often on TV. This was my second indication that I really liked where this was going. It was still frustrating because neither of them was happy, but they weren't having a big fight about unnecessarily hidden feelings.

Cat leaves disappointed and goes to her party. You can FEEL and see her lack of excitement as she arrives and pretends to be surprised. Evan is there with his new girlfriend Claire Sinclair and I just figured this out last Sunday: Claire is played by Kelly Overton who was on True Blood where she played a werewolf [Alcide sort of pack-girlfriend]. Anyway, it took me a while to realize that, so I am just happy I did. Again, she is obviously too good to be true and everyone hates her. Not important for now. Cat decides to get drunk which is exactly what I would have done if it was my birthday and I was just blown off by the guy I am totally into… As a matter of fact, I might have done that a couple of times. Don’t remember smooching a hot Brit later though… but we are getting ahead of ourselves. Cat is obviously not too thrilled at first with all the party activities, but it’s nothing a lot of tequila and a photo booth can’t fix. Side note: Tess/Joe photo booth scene was very hot.

There’s more drinking, pictures and cake. They tell Catherine to make a wish and I am gonna go ahead and assume she wished Vincent could be there which brings us to “be careful what you wish for” territory. CUT TO the end of the party, most people are leaving including Evan but Cat insists they take a picture first. So they go to the photo booth and in all fairness I think Cat’s request to take a pic was totally innocent, but Evan decides to take advantage of the opportunity and kiss her. She kisses him back, but I kind of get it… she was obviously drunk and vulnerable since Vincent just blew her off. On the other hand Evan wasn’t as drunk and he was on a date! Not cool dude. I guess he really is a player. Anyway, at the exact moment they kiss, to no-one’s surprise, Vincent arrives through the fire escape to leave Cat her present and he sees the whole thing. Aw… And that’s yet another classic situation of relationship dramas, totally expected but once again it WILL NOT end like you might think. A broken-hearted Vincent goes back to the WAREHOUSE where JT is watching a hockey game. He initially gives Vincent grief over going to see Catherine but as soon as he tells him about the kiss JT gets into complete best friend mode; it is very sweet. Vincent is also very sweet as he concludes he cannot blame Cat because he was the one who told her to go live her life. And then as Vincent gets up he gets some sort of beastie-migraine or something… that will be important later.

Back to the case of the week, turns out Marshal Gibson is no Marshal Givens. He is actually the guy Amily testified against and he is tracking her down to kill her. Cat, Tess and Joe figure out Michael has been kidnapped by the faux-Marshal and, using all her secret relationships expertise, Cat finds Amily who was hiding in a motel. It is time for some ON THE NOSE life lessons learned from cases. Amily says she fell in love with Michael but had to leave him because she was afraid to put his life in danger and she didn’t want to force him to live with the burden of her secret. Sounds familiar? Anyway, faux-Marshal Gibson arrives to the motel with kidnapped Michael in the trunk of his car. When the Marshal gets into the room Amily is gone and Cat is waiting for him. They fight it out and Cat defeats him with her petite-Asian-girl-super-ninja-skills. I sometimes wonder if Mommy Chandler didn't put some cross-species cocktail in Cat’s DNA or at least programmed her to be a super-cop when she was a kid, like spy-daddy did with Sydney on Alias [I seriously need to write that BATB vs. Alias article already]. The faux-Marshal is arrested and Amily is re-united with Michael. Cat spies as they have an ON THE NOSE conversation. Amily tells Michael she was trying to protect her and he replies that was HIS choice to make. What could this possibly relate to? I have no idea… I say with sarcasm.

Cat goes back to the WAREHOUSE to make use of the ON THE NOSE life lessons she just learned. Cat thanks Vincent for the gift. He asks her how the party was and much to his surprise she replies it was “horrible”. She goes on to explain she spent her birthday with people that no longer know her. She tells him, yes she ACTUALLY tells him, what she wanted to do for her birthday was to be with him. He starts to protest and says he can’t ask her to live in hiding, but she cuts him off and tells him that is HER decision to make. I wonder where she got that epiphany from… Then she invites him to her house for dinner. And that was the resolution to the “push her away for her own good”/ “walked into her at the precise moment she kissed someone she didn't have real feelings for” conflict. Yes the setup may have been cliché, but the resolution was anything but. They didn't make a big deal out of the kiss with Evan, Catherine made it very clear that she wanted to be with Vincent and he actually believed her.

And this pretty much summarizes why I starting loving this show so much. I watch an insane amount of television and I am used to seeing situations where they throw obstacles in the characters’ way when they are on the verge of moving forward. Because of that conflict the characters are pulled apart and, even though we know they are acting out of love, they are unable to reconcile because they don’t share their true motives. This season alone, conflicts like these happened on Grey’s Anatomy, Nashville, Scandal and Hart of Dixie just to name a few. Not to say those shows are bad or not enjoyable, but those types of situations are frustrating for me because I don’t understand why they wouldn't just TALK to each other. I understand the reason for doing it that way; they create conflict and move the plot forward, but on occasion it feels a little artificial… “Conflict for the sake of conflict” and not staying true to the characters. Saturn Returns finally established that that was NOT going to be the dynamic on Beauty and the Beast at ALL. And I fell in love with this refreshing idea. The characters are not hiding their feelings or their motives… they are navigating their relationship taking into account all the facts. It is SO liberating, honest and NOT frustrating at all!

Back to the episode. Cat goes back to her apartment gets all dolled up and cooks a romantic dinner for her and Vincent. She even puts candles on the table and everything. And you know candles at a dinner table just mean someone is going to be stood up… it’s just a rule. At the WAREHOUSE Vincent stares at his reflection on a shattered mirror; that is a quiet way of showing us just how much self-loathing he has, which is so sad. He finally decides to take the leap; he grabs his jacket and heads out. In the middle of the musical montage to the tune of “Best part of me” (St. Leonards) we also see JT nervously sitting on top of his car [magically it is day-time all of the sudden]. He is waiting for Sara, and say what you might JT, but I think part of you was just looking for excuses to avoid asking her out. Vincent is walking to Cat’s and he decides to stop by a flower stand. That’s when another beastie-migraine hits him and… that’s the last we see of him. Back at Cat’s apartment, the candles are half consumed; she is sitting alone and has started drinking the wine. MATCH CUT TO the candles completely consumed, see I told you candles were a bad omen... And as Cat ends her night feeling miserable, we catch back with Vincent who is quietly sleeping? On top of the Brooklyn bridge! What!? OK that was a good cliffhanger. It was a great episode, one of my favorites and it is especial because it may me realize this may actually become one of my favorite shows. Who knew? I certainly didn't.

Next on Beauty and the Beast there is more romance that breaks TV molds, awesome cliffhangers, expanding mythology, a discussion about art that melts my stone heart and I get turned into a Beastie without warning.

If you missed any of the previous recaps you can find them all HERE 

QUOTES

Vincent about Catherine: She makes me feel like I have a life again/ JT: Awfully dangerous for a guy who is supposed to be dead

JT: Stick to rooftops where it’s safe.

Heather: Ex-porn star karaoke sounds way more entertaining than it actually is.

Heather: Who doesn't want cake and jello-shots and eligible bachelors passing out in their bathtub?

Tess: It’s the 3^rd Thursday of the month, that’s when criminals have their staff meetings

Evan to Cat: I didn't know you thought my accent was sexy

Cat to Vincent: I realized that what I wanted for my birthday was to sit across from someone that I don’t have to pretend with. That’s you.