RECAP: Beauty and the Beast – Episode 10 – Seeing Red

What to do [and not to do] when your supposed-to-be-dead-fiancé shows up?

The first of the three “unfortunate Alex episodes”. A necessary arc… A very unwelcome character and a lot of “lost in the editing room” scenes. Doesn’t matter if you were on Cat’s side, V’s side or Alex’s side of the equation; I may have pinpointed the one scene that gives meaning to everything to come.  I’ll try to cover all angles and come to terms with the story-line… while having a lot of fun at the expense of the characters. So, let’s get started.

The episode opens exactly where we were left off: Cat had a car crash and got shot; Vincent had to beast out to save her. Evan and Heather pulled over. Kayla LaGrange plays in the background.

Evan gets out of his car and yells “NYPD” [Stop or I will throw an autopsy report at you?]. Vincent flees the scene and Evan sees him, but there are more pressing matters than chasing beasts… like Cat dying in the middle of the road, for instance. Evan runs towards Cat and Heather finally gets out of the car. She immediately proceeds to have a drunk-nervous-breakdown [Paramedic = not a career choice for her]. Evan doesn’t waste time and performs an impromptu emergency surgery that involves a knife, a glove and a rubber band [who keeps rubber bands in their car?]. I really wanted Vincent to be the one to save Cat, but I have to admit Evan was pretty badass and I actually love this scene. Also, is Max Brown particularly handsome and sexy in this episode? Or is it just me? I guess it’s the “amazing roadside save” aftermath or something. 

JUMP CUT TO: Cat being rushed into a hospital and then waking up in a room with her nurse, dun dun dun ALEX. First impression: She has awesome hair. Second impression: Man, she is chatty and… a little annoying. Also, why did they have to name her Alex? That’s my name! I told myself that I shouldn't hate the character from the get-go. Strangely, I could never get into Legend of the Seeker [weird because I usually love that type of geeky stuff], so I wasn't a Bridget Regan fan, but I wanted to have an open mind. Unfortunately; I think from now on, I will feel about Bridget Regan the way I feel about Melissa George and Sarah Lancaster (Alias & Everwood). They are actresses I like very much, but every time I see them on screen I can’t help to hate them a little. Anyway, since Alex apparently LOVES to talk, she tells Catherine all about her accident and about the “do-gooder” doctor who performed the “amazing roadside save”. Catherine immediately assumes Vincent is the one, because an E.R. DOCTOR WITH MILITARY TRAINING is much more likely to do something like that than a MEDICAL EXAMINER! Alex notices, by Cat’s huge grin, that she knows who this doctor is. “He must be special” Alex says “And then some” Catherine replies, which makes Alex remember that “she had someone like that once”. Little did they know they were speaking of THE SAME PERSON!

As soon as Alex leaves, a cagey doctor walks into the room, it’s Vincent! Catherine starts talking about the “amazing roadside save” all full of gratitude and awe; before she can continue Vincent stops her and, much to his demise, admits it was Evan not him. Then Cat is all “Oh, Evan did it? So he performed emergency surgery with a rubber band and a glove but can he rip out the door of a car? I don’t think so…” Vincent blames himself for not being able to transform back to human and be there for Cat. She does her best to reassure him and tells him “You still saved my life”. He holds her hand and says he was afraid to lose her and she tells him “You didn’t lose me. I am still here. And…  I accept all of what you are”. Enjoy this very romantic “aw” moment, because it will be the last for a while. Basically Cat tells him they will deal with the mutations as they come. Vincent jokes that she should wait until he gets “whiskers and a tail” which makes me think of the original Ron Perlman beast, which makes me think of Sons of Anarchy [awesome show], which makes me think of Charlie Hunnam, which reminds me that I may want to check out Pacific Rim. But I am rambling. As I am thinking of old school beasts, biker gangs and blockbuster movies; Vincent gets all blurry eye… But it quickly passes. Cat gets a text message from Evan telling her that he is on his way up so Vincent has to leave.

And I LOVE love love the following scene. It’s not even a minute long but it is one of my favorite scenes ever. I am speaking of the scene where Evan and Vincent walk across each other in the hospital’s hallway. It’s so simple, but it speaks mountains about everything that is going on. The two men in Cat’s life. The past, the present and the future. The lies and the truth. Epic love versus emerging love. It is so poignant. As Vincent is walking out, he takes out his mask and absently walks down the stairs. Suddenly he is jolted back to reality by Alex’s voice who is screaming his name in the middle of the crowded hospital… Because that’s what you do when you see your supposed-to- be-dead-fiancé. Vincent runs and hides. He is shaken, Alex is shaken, we are shaken! Alex looked so broken and confused. I actually felt a little sorry for her during this scene… yeah, it won’t last…

Back at Cat’s HOSPITAL ROOM, Evan arrives with a bouquet of flowers all cocky and pleased with himself, but also genuinely concern. Immediately, Cat tries to figure out if Evan saw Vincent after the accident. Evan plays dumb, probably because he doesn't want to cause Cat any stress… and what was he supposed to say anyway? “I didn't pull you out, some manimal in a tux did”? Cat also plays dumb and says she must be a “breathing living miracle” Evan says she is a miracle to him. Evan may have been a player, but I always believed he loved her; misguidedly perhaps… but I think he truly did. Oh Evan… Evan leaves because Alex is there to have an inappropriate over-sharing session with her patient… Because that’s what you do when you see your supposed-to-be-dead-fiancé. She asks Catherine about the “doctor” (Vincent) who saw her. Alex describes him and includes the “scar” in her description, which really annoys me! Vincent didn’t have the scar when Alex knew him and she just saw him for what… 2 seconds... from far away… not even his scar is THAT big. Catherine pretends to know nothing and then Alex tells her ALL about Vincent. Seriously, doesn’t she have any nurse friends for this? But no… why do that when you can go talk about your supposed-to-be-dead fiancé with a random recovering patient who you met 5 minutes ago.

At the WAREHOUSE, JT is hypothesizing about Vincent’s mutations; but Vincent doesn’t care if he is turning into a female clown fish because he is too worried about his run-in with Alex. JT doesn’t freak out nearly as much as he used to freak out when Catherine first entered the picture. Perhaps he is too distracted by his new girlfriend, or perhaps he doesn’t believe Vincent could be THAT stupid… oh but he can. We learn that Vincent has been carrying out the guilt of basically abandoning Alex 10 years ago and letting her believe he was dead. Vincent is obviously going to beat himself up about this for a while because that’s just the way he is. JT reminds Vincent of all the reasons he had to do it: M, danger blah blah blah. Once he is convinced Vincent has “returned to reason”, JT leaves for campus to “hit Sarah up with some veiled mutation questions”; am I the only one who thought that sounded mildly dirty? As soon as JT leaves, Vincent gets a text from Catherine saying “DON’T COME BACK TO HOSPITAL, NOT SAFE” So of course he goes back to the hospital. There goes his return to reason.

At the HOSPITAL, Heather is trying to take Cat for a walk down the hallway while making TV show references [not enough of those on BATB]. However, Heather is still pretty hangover so she runs to the pharmacy, leaving her poor post-surgery sister leaning on a wall. That’s when Vincent appears; he walks purposefully towards Cat and drags her into a room. And for some reason I thought it was kind of sexy, but the next scene won’t be. Cat tells her about Alex and asks who she is to him. Vincent gives her a veiled explanation about how they were friends since they were kids and then they became something else. Catherine is obviously hurt and she stupidly replies by telling Vincent how shaken Alex was after seeing him. Maybe if she had omitted that last statement the whole thing would have died here! But no… Cat had to tell that to Beastie Do-right. So of course we already know that Vincent is going to try to make things “right” with Alex.

Vincent waits for Alex inside her car [creepy much?]. Alex cries and tries to recover from the shock. Vincent gives her the SHORTEST, MOST INCOMPLETE EXPLANATION about what happened to him. Basically, the only thing he told her is that he was in special ops and that he has enemies… and she doesn’t even ask follow up questions! [Journalist = not a career choice for her]. He also tells her that Catherine is his “handler” and no, this time around I am not going to compare Beauty and the Beast to Alias, because on Alias the Handler/Asset thing was HOT. Here it is just ANNOYING…oh, and also a LIE! And, why the hell would they assign an NYPD detective to an ex-special forces soldier? And if she is just his handler why did he go to the hospital and dressed as a doctor to see her?  It doesn’t make ANY sense. But Alex doesn’t seem to ask herself any of these questions. In her defense, Vincent is probably the closest you can come to a “perfect man”, so he must be pretty hard to forget [but 10 years without moving on seems a bit extreme!]. Regardless of what a good boyfriend he was, shouldn’t she be a little pissed and/or suspicious about him? If my supposed-to-be-dead-fiancé showed up,  I wouldn’t necessarily come up with the “Oh, they probably conducted experiments on him and turned him into a beast” explanation, but I would consider the possibility that he got involved in something criminal or illegal… especially if he is giving me the crappiest explanation ever! But instead, Alex goes from “I can’t do this” to “Oh OK, cool then, let’s go back to being in love” in 5 seconds and then she cups Vincent’s face and I yell “that’s Catherine’s thing, you bitch” at the screen… yeah… me trying to like her didn’t last long, sorry.

Tess visits Cat at the HOSPITAL bringing balloons, a teddy bear and John Hughes movies but no red vines… the nerve. Tess is all wound up because things got “weird” with Joe the night before. I am a little confused about the timeline of the Tess/Joe thing. Tess is speaking like it is the first time something actually happened, but we know that she had previously gone to a wedding with him and, there was some serious heat in the photo booth at Cat’s party. So… are we assuming they were inappropriately flirting with each other, but nothing actually happened? Anyway, Tess notices Cat is Facebook-stalking Alex, but she points out that NYPD-database-stalking is much better. That’s how they discover that Alex filed 6 police reports saying she was being watched and that someone broke into her apartment. Cat immediately freaks out and fake yawns so Tess would leave. Tess isn’t as obtuse as Alex, so she gets the hint and leaves. Cat calls JT [was that Sarah in the background?] in a panic trying to reach Vincent, only to discover he might be with Alex. Cat is so badass and selfless that she simply rips off her lines and gets ready to save the day one painful post surgery step at the time. I love that she is not permanently the damsel in distress, a lot of the times Cat is actually the hero of the show.

When Alex is about to enter her apartment she is grabbed by some thug who is obviously not a Muirfield agent: Tattoos and a pocket knife instead of dark suits and high tech weapons. His amateurish assault is interrupted by Cat who fires two shots in the air. The not-from-M thug runs away and Cat collapses against the wall. Alex brings Cat up to her apartment so she can patch her up. Almost immediately she starts over-sharing… again. I am surprised Alex didn’t buy Cat’s excuse that she was “just stopping by to say thanks for the great healthcare”. Of course Alex thinks she is in the know because “Vince told her everything”. If everything means NOTHING, I guess she is correct. Alex tells Catherine about the break-in. She says they didn’t take anything but they shuffled her closet. Catherine checks Alex’s closet while she makes coffee. Cat drinks her coffee black, I bet Alex takes her with whipped cream and 5 spoons of sugar.

Now, before we continue play Underwater by Metric (Acoustic) on your computer so you can get properly depressed throughout the rest of the episode. Here is a SOUNDCLOUD LINK and a YOUTUBE VIDEO  

Still in ALEX’S ROOM, Cat finds a box of Vincent’s mementos and once again, this dialogue-less scene is one of my favorites.  She starts taking out letters and pictures of Vincent. He looks remarkably happy and relaxed in all the pictures. This dawns on Cat. Despite the less than ideal situation she can’t help but smile when she sees a picture of him standing on a beach and smiling broadly. This was a different man than the one she got to meet. It’s a mixture of emotions, she can’t help to feel some joy at glancing into his happier days, yet she is saddened upon realizing the depth of his relationship with Alex (she finds out, they were supposed to get married). It is a beautiful scene; this episode [and the show in general] is full of these perfectly written scenes. If this show was in a different network people would take it more seriously… it bothers me, but that’s just the stigma critics have for CW shows. Sad but true.

While Cat is making a huge effort not to break, Vincent knocks on Alex’s door. Alex starts acting like her prom date just arrived and cheerfully opens the door and hugs him. Then she tells him how amazing his “handler” is. I know there are plenty of reasons to be annoyed by Alex: She is coming in between our two leads, she will throw herself at Vincent and her loyalties are a little iffy but… what really annoys me about her is that she is SO DUMB! and gullible. As I said, in my book, Vincent is as close to perfect as you can get [at least up until this point and before he had some questionable behavior in the next few eps] and it annoys the hell out of me that a good-looking, smart, caring man was about to marry such a dumb girl! She seems nice and caring, I’ll give her that… but she is not a strong, impressive, intelligent woman like Catherine. Now… that could have been the intended effect of the character all along. The message being that sometimes we outgrow our childhood relationships. I am not talking about just lovers, but also friends. We’ve all had childhood friends with whom we were inseparable when it was all fun and games, but then we discover we have nothing in common as adults. These friends will forever hold a place in our hearts, but having the same close relationship is no longer possible. I personally believe that was the case with Vincent and Alex. They grew up together and they became a couple when they were teenagers, at an age where closeness can develop into something else. However, I believe Vincent outgrew her in a way, she was the nice perfect girl-next-door but maybe lacked in depth and complexity. But of course, he is exactly the kind of guy that would talk himself into remaining loyal forever even though he probably knew deep down that she wasn’t the right woman for him. Alex, on the other hand, was probably in love with him for obvious reasons and who can blame her, right? So I guess I will cut her some slack.

OK, back to the episode. Alex is all “I am so happy to see you again! Do you want me to get a priest so we can go back to getting married?” and Vincent is all “uhmm… so where is Catherine?” Finally, Vincent comes up to Cat and he looks like a kid who just broke his mom’s vase and is about to get scolded [and he totally deserves it]; but Catherine can’t really yell at him there, so she just quietly says: “Handler, really?” And they have totally ruined the handler thing for me! Damn, Sydney and Vaughn used to be so hot! The tension between Catherine and Vincent is SO apparent, I really don’t know if Alex is just dumb or if it is a “nice girl” act.

Cat goes to the MORGUE to figure out who attacked Alex. Evan fixes Cat’s dressing which is completely ruined; I guess Alex didn’t do the best job with that dressing. Damn, she is not even a good nurse! The whole thing is actually a little sexy until Cat ruins it by asking Evan about his sudden knowledge of ER medicine. He is not sharing, not yet. And this is starting to become the PLOT WITH A LOT OF BUILD UP AND NOT ENOUGH PAYOFF [at least it will have some sort of payoff].

We find out that Alex’s attacker was CONNOR SORVINO. Alex’s former patient, who is sort of obsessed with her… why? It beats me… perhaps he really likes redheads. Last week we learned that psycho matchmakers aremore dangerous than M, this week we learn that psycho stalkers are also more dangerous than M. Not everyone has stalkers as nice as V, Cat is one lucky gal. Alex explains PSYCHO CONNOR was in love with her, but she told him “she was already in love” [with her dead boyfriend?] and “that her heart belonged to someone else” [as in someone who is DEAD?]. After hearing her slightly obsessive/unrealistic love confession Vincent says “Uh, okay” [he literally says that] and then asks Cat to put a call out on the guy. It’s like your epic romance never ended, Alex! I say with a LOT of sarcasm. Cat points out that she can’t call it in because the police would sweep her place and could find Vincent’s DNA. Alex then volunteers to be used as bait … Because THAT’s what you do when your supposed-to-be-dead-fiancé shows up and your stalker tries to kill you out of jealousy.

So I guess this is SORT OF THE CASE OF THE WEEK. Alex writes a fake e-mail to draw psycho Connor out and it works… of course. What I really don’t get is why psycho Connor goes through all the trouble of setting off a bomb in the middle of the E.R. to create a diversion and snatch Alex. Wouldn’t it have been so much easier to grab her in the parking lot or something? Sometimes psycho stalkers aren’t so clever. Vincent and Catherine go down to the basement to look for Alex. They split up and Catherine finds them first. Before she gets a chance to stop them it is time for some ON THE NOSE DIALOGUE. Psycho Connor tells Alex he should have known “no-one can take the place of your first love”. Let’s analyze that for a second. It is probably true, no-one can replace your “first love”, but your ‘first love’ doesn’t have to [and most likely won’t] be the “love of your life”.

Cat tries to shoot Connor but misses and then she flies to the floor trying to avoid getting shot herself. When she is down, a full beasted Vincent kicks her gun towards her and I really hated him at that moment. This is actually the second time he did that. First time was on the pilot, but it was more of a “here is your gun, now get out of here and forget you ever saw me” sort of thing; while this was more “get your gun, protect yourself, and now I am off to go save my ex-girlfriend”. Vincent goes after Connor who has locked Alex behind a metallic door. Connor goes into another round of OBVIOUS DIALOGUE and yells that Alex “is obviously still in love with Vincent” gee… you are so insightful psycho Connor. “Looks like you are still in love with her” Now wait a minute… what the hell do you know about love psycho Connor? You can’t even properly stalk a woman! Then Connor shoots the generator or something and the entire room goes black. But that’s not an issue for our favorite beast because turns out all his blurry vision was a sign of his new ability: night vision! So, Vincent tosses Connor across the room turns back to human and then, for once, he remembers his military training does some sort of roll-over/gun-grab thing and shoots Connor. Then he gets Alex out and she hugs him and kisses him… the nerve. He doesn’t fully kiss her but he doesn’t push her away either and I was willing to cut them some slack because of the recent traumatic event; but when Catherine walked into the room and was completely devastated by what she saw I really wanted to slap Alex and Vincent around.

At the WAREHOUSE, JT is a little too excited about the night vision development. Vincent is more preoccupied with his love life, so he isn’t as thrilled. They joke around and conclude this “mutating DNA” may not be so bad after all. JUMP CUT TO [seriously, it was a very jumpy cut]: JT’S OFFICE. Evan is there because he read a paper JT published [on cross-species DNA] and wants to combine resources. This bothers me for two reasons 1) it’s so unlike paranoid JT to PUBLISH a paper that could connect him to Vincent. Let’s assume he was young and stupid or something. Also 2) we are back to the PLOT WITH NO PAYOFF; meaning Evan’s lab break in. It bothers me that Evan never identified JT as the “infiltrator” even though he looks just like the sketch. Anyway, Evan explains he is researching “the cross-species creature” in order to protect “someone he cares about” (Cat) and JT is all “you think he is a threat to her? No dude, you got it all wrong. He just has the hots for her… or him.. err what was the question?” Evan formally extends the invitation to become research partners and JT gets an almost “dark” and devious look on his face [didn’t think Austin had it in him]. Looks like we have uncovered another facet of JT’s personality: “Darkly-devious-JT”.

Back at her apartment, Cat is looking at Vincent’s picture, which she accidentally stole from Alex. He catches her and he better not be mad because he has done more stalkerish stuff in the past. She tells Vincent she wishes she could have known the guy in the picture and says that he gets to be that guy again when he is with Alex, but not with her. Their relationship was born out of darkness. He tells her although “dark”, it doesn’t mean their relationship isn’t real; to which Catherine replies “It doesn’t mean that it is good”. Understandably, Vincent gets a little upset and points out that she has a pattern of getting involved with bad boys and avoid commitment. Now he wonders if he isn’t more than “the ultimate bad boy” for her. She acknowledges his point, but also says it isn’t about her. It is about him and Alex and the fact that he can’t deny he still has feelings for her.

After analyzing these episodes I’ve come to the conclusion that pretty much EVERYTHING [especially the bad stuff] that will happen in the next couple of episodes can be traced back to THIS MOMENT. So, I will deconstruct the scene. There is no way of knowing this, but I am going to assume Vincent went to Catherine first instead of Alex; so his priority was to sort things out with her. Vincent is pushing really hard to define what they have now, because yes… he has been presented with another option and this may be a little selfish but also understandable. Catherine is not ready to admit the depth of her feelings for him and takes herself out of the equation. I believe she did this for two reasons: First her own pride and self preservation instinct. And second, a selfless desire to allow Vincent to choose freely. However, all Vincent sees is a woman looking for an out [hey, guys aren’t very perceptive]. Catherine probably had reservations and commitment issues, but I truly believed her biggest motivation was to release him from whatever sense of obligation he had towards her. She doesn’t exactly make that clear though, saying their relationship “is not necessarily good” and then prompting him to figure out if he still loves Alex. Alex was a huge part of his life and he will probably always love her but that doesn’t mean he has to be “in love with her”. Of course, sorting through all those feelings while standing on Cat’s balcony is a little too much to ask for. She is vulnerable and shielding herself while he is confused and has deeply rooted insecurities. Nevertheless, Vincent being there at that moment was his way of saying that she [Cat] is his present and THAT was her opening, that was the moment when she could have admitted to loving him and he wouldn’t have gone away…. However, instead of doing that, Catherine plants doubt in his head about her feelings and about the plausibility of anything actually happening between them. For someone as insecure as Vincent this probably had twice the normal impact on his psyche. And I truly believe THIS is the scene that informs everything that will come next.

This episode was painful to watch but I actually thought it was very strong. I enjoyed it [while suffering]. It had some great, memorable scenes, it was very emotional, well written, well structured [although a little jumpy at times] and other than Alex’s exaggerated naïveté I have no complaints. I know a LOT of people were completely turned off by Alex’s appearance. I even read about a couple of viewers who didn’t come back to the show or never got around to loving it again. I suffered through this arc, but didn’t really change my feelings towards the show. I firmly believe Alex was necessary for the show in the sense that Vincent needed to be presented with a choice and pick Catherine regardless of that… which is exactly what they didn’t do! At least not clearly. In summary I believe the Alex arc was necessary, but they didn’t handle it properly… I also believe part of it can be attributed to ‘over-cut’ scenes and some other editing floor casualties. Yes, the character was annoying and Vincent’s reaction to her was less than perfect but I have made my peace with the storyline and it is GREATLY because of the last scene of this episode.

So that’s it for now, I will continue to tie everything down and hopefully figure out the writers’ intentions [regarding Alex] in the next few recaps. I know some fans took Cat’s side while others defended Vincent and pretty much everyone hated Alex. For the record, I never took one side or the other; I understood and was frustrated with everyone at some point or another. But, hey, let’s get the friendly debate going. I would love to read about your own views, so be sure to comment and tweet. @TVRepublik

MORE RECAPS

QUOTES

Alex [about Heather]: A small version of you, teetering around on heels, reeking of vodka?

Cat: I accept all of what you are

Evan: Pull you out? No I just bravely slammed on the brakes so I didn’t flatten you…

Vincent: Remember to make sure I am not turning into a female clownfish

Heather: You should have seen Evan, he was all ripping his clothes off and I was all Meredith Grey

Tess:  Your nurse[Alex] sounds a little 5150

JT: Night vision? That is so cool! Way better than a sex change. You’d be an ugly chick.

Vincent: Sending you out to buy bras would’ve been awkward.

JT: The whole Dolly the sheep went down, I was trying to ride that wave

Cat: You really want me to believe that your ex showing up doesn’t change everything? / Vincent: It doesn’t change US