RECAP: Beauty and the Beast – Episode 7 – Out of Control

Unhappy little boys with preposterous names and Dexter complexes are more dangerous than Terminator Beasts

Thanks for all the feedback after last’s week recap. Everyone seems to be in agreement to continue recapping the episodes in order and not following the “whatever-the-hell-they-were-thinking” CW programming. So, this week Episode 7 it is. Fortunately, all the episodes are easy to get online, so we can keep re-watching them as we like.

Previously on BATB: Evan has a thing for Cat, he kissed her and everyone seems to be over it, so I don’t know why it was relevant to the episode. What is relevant is that Vincent has been blacking out [while beasting out] and last time he woke up in the middle of the street with bloody hands.

This week, the writers really thought they were in a procedural CSI-type show and decided to open the episode with a CASE OF THE WEEK teaser. We are at a frat house and a couple of kids decide to take the party outside. In the middle of their drunken stupor they trip over a DEAD BODY. I feel like I've seen this (dead frat boy case) on SO many other shows before: Castle, Bones, Cold Case… I think they even did it on Smallville, didn't they? So, nothing particularly exciting about it. Although… I don’t think the leading man was a suspect in any of the other shows…

Cat is at her apartment packing for a camping trip [with Vincent] and she has a huge grin on her face. She is so happy, even her neighbor notices and asks her if she is going somewhere “fun and romantic”. Cat says she is hoping for it “the fun, not romantic”. Can’t it be both? It bothers me that they never went on that trip, instead Vincent decided to play house in the woods with Alex; but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. For now, Cat is so giddy not even a dead body can kill her good mood.

Anyway it is time for… the CASE OF THE WEEK. What started looking like an episode of Greek turns into something you've seen on EVERY crime show there is and later morphs into Dexter... Yeah, you’ll see.

Case of the week: Derek Moore, murdered fraternity guy. He was also a “pledge master”.
Suspects: Disgruntled pledges, frat brothers, Bradley Wilson (a fraternity dropout) and Vincent?!

Evan informs Cat that most of the evidence was washed away by the sprinklers.  Also washing away evidence is Vincent, who is taking a shower at the WAREHOUSE. And HEY this is a SERIOUS scene… FOCUS! Stop grinning! Seriously, stop pausing and rewinding! OK, OK, do all that, but then come back and let’s think about what’s going on. While Vincent is taking a shower, JT finds the bloody evidence of his “Beastie Walkabout”. Then finally, Vincent emerges from the shower and he looks… sad [you thought I was going to say something else didn’t you?]. But, no seriously, he looks like he is carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. The uncertainty of what happened probably killing him.  

Later JT runs some tests on Vincent to determine what is triggering his episodes. Vincent says he ruled out “low blood sugar”…and seriously, was that the only possible cause he came up with? Isn’t he a Doctor… well he is no Gregory House, that’s for sure. So the “trigger is unclear”, that will be important later. JT tells Vincent to cancel his plans with Catherine but to keep the truth about the blackouts from her. JT doesn’t trust Catherine but Vincent is all: “She’s not gonna turn us in because she totally wants me” OK, he doesn’t really say that… probably because he doesn’t actually believe that [he has confidence issues, remember?]; but that is really what is happening isn’t it? For whatever reason, Vincent trusts Catherine and he wants to tell her the truth (yey for him). But they have more pressing issues, like figuring out whose blood was on Vincent. All he remembers is that he was walking by the NORTHAM CAMPUS… you know, where Derek the DEAD FRAT BOY was found…At that point Vincent fugues out again and he ends up tossing JT across the room and throwing a chair at him. Bad Beast… and poor JT. Why do all Beasts feel like throwing him around? In the end, JT gets a hold of the tranq gun and manages to shoot Vincent in slo-mo, like he is on The Matrix.

Right after JT Matrix-tranqs Vincent, Catherine arrives at the WAREHOUSE. JT answers the door and he tries to explain Vincent’s absence in the most hilarious/less believable way possible. For Cat’s sake, I hope she didn’t really buy the “he is in a rooftop somewhere” excuse and she was just too busy to stay and argue. Cat asks JT to tell Vincent she has to postpone their trip because she has to go to the Firemen party with Tess. That’s a terrible reason to stand him up, by the way. After passing on the message Cat leaves but not before casually mentioning the MURDER she is investigating… of FRAT BOY DEREK who was found near NORTHAM CAMPUS... you know, where Vincent blacked out!

At the PRECINCT, Evan is updating Cat on the case and he has a new pet: a criminology grad student by the name of PETER HOLLINGSWORTH III. And yeah, I immediately thought he might be the killer, because he was pretty useless otherwise. Anyway, Evan shows Cat the body and the cause of death was “excessive bleeding from multiple lacerations”. Said “lacerations” looked an awful lot like claw marks. He also had a wound that looked like a “checkmark”. After talking to Evan, Cat and Tess go to the FRAT HOUSE to interrogate Derek’s brothers. What we learn is that: frat boys smoke a lot of pot, lawyers have yachts and Derek was a jerk that terrorized the pledges… So we learned nothing new.

Back at the WAREHOUSE, Vincent wakes up and JT updates him on his “terminator episode”. Vincent feels awful about tossing his best friend across the room and JT figured out that during his “terminator trance” the part of his brain which controls the “touchy-feely” stuff is repressed. Then, JT breaks the news that on top of not being the nicest friend, he might also be a murderer.

Meanwhile, Tess drags Cat to the FIREMEN PARTY. And you know what? Real firemen DON’T look like that. At least the 5 times there were fire-scares in my building and I had to run down 11 flights of stairs at 3 a.m. they DIDN’T look like that! If you happen to find a good-looking fireman, please let me now. Or else Chicago Fire is just a lie. What I took away from this scene is that firemen don’t mind being objectified and I really wish I could flirt as well as Tess. Cat is really cute as she approaches the firemen and tries to casually converse without flirting? At least I think that’s what she was doing. I guess when you are that pretty, it doesn’t matter if you suck at flirting because Fireman Mike, A.K.A. September, approaches her and gives her his number. He is actually kinda cute and seems nice, but who needs another guy with one beasting out at the moment and the other one about to get kidnapped and obsessed about chasing beasts?

At the PRECINCT Cat and Tess are questioning BRADLEY WILSON. A dropout from Derek’s fraternity. He seems like a really polite kid and even calls Cat “ma’am”. She informs him that we don’t like that until we are like 50. So right! A 15 year old called me “ma’am” last summer and I was even wearing a ponytail! The nerve…  So Bradley Wilson didn’t kill Derek, but Cat might kill him if he calls her ma’am again. Bradley’s alibi is basically that he is a nerd and was playing some online game. He also confirms that Derek was a complete sadist, so I guess we are not sad he is dead? You know… just in case Vincent killed him…

Derek left a threatening message on Bradley’s phone which directs Cat and Tess to the WALTON BELL TOWER, the place where sadist frat brothers go to die.  In other words, the actual CRIME SCENE. However, the crime scene looks staged with bizarre items like: 1950s shoes and a beach ball. While Tess conveniently disappears to call the precinct, Vincent shows up. He tells Cat he needs to cancel their plans for tonight. And I was totally ready to get annoyed. As I said before, it really bothers me when characters withhold information and then get into fights because they don’t know all the facts. But, before I could yell at my screen and blame JT, Vincent tells Cat: “The killer that you are after—he might be me”. Wow, OK, did not see that one coming. SO glad he told her! See… this show doesn't follow the annoying TV conventions of relationship dramas. Good for them, I can even look past the cliché case of the week, just because of this.  

JT, Cat and Vincent are now at the WAREHOUSE. JT is analyzing if the blood from the bell tower matches the blood from Vincent’s clothes. And you know? I actually thought Vincent killed the guy and Cat was going to cover it up. Apparently Cat has more faith in him than me. She tells him that “even when he is not himself he does the right thing” [like throwing JT against the wall?]. So she is convinced he didn't kill Derek and he didn't. The blood samples don’t match.

Down at the MORGUE, Evan is figuring out all sorts of stuff about the case. Sometimes I feel he is a better detective than Cat and Tess. In summary, he saw the “checkmark” before on a cadaver that was found in the middle of the university. He figures the cadaver was a test run for the actual murder. He also concludes that the killer had to be a student and heads out to request a student roster and check the CRIME SCENE. He tells all of this to his intern, Peter Hollingsworth III. When Evan is at the CRIME SCENE, he video conferences Cat and right in the middle of the conversation he gets hit on the head and abducted. Oh Evan…

Looks like an abduction is all they need to solve a case, because they figure everything out in 5 min or less. In case you weren't paying attention: “Psycho Peter the third” is the killer, he practiced on the cadaver, got an internship at the precinct so he could follow through and abducted Evan because he was getting too close. Great police work guys, you know… except for the fact that Evan is missing! Cat and Tess go to PSYCHO PETER’s dorm and find a series of famous murders’ newspaper clipping under his mattress. They have to figure out which crime scene he will try to recreate to murder Evan. Cat spots a clipping of the Muirfield agents “mauled” [by Vincent] at the subway tracks. She decides that’s the one. I bet there are a million NY murders that took place at obscure secluded locations, but Psycho Peter just happens to pick that one and Cat just happens to figure it out. I guess there’s still some mystical luck left over from last week’s episode.

At the WAREHOUSE, Vincent and JT are trying to discover whose blood was on Vincent and… did we ever find that out? I don’t think we do. Did I miss something? Whose blood was it? Anyway, at that point Catherine arrives and opens with the line “Vincent, I need you”… and no, not in that way. She wants him to track down Evan at the subway tunnels because she got her beasts mixed up and now she thinks he is Ron Perlman or something. JT buts in and CLARIFIES who Evan is:  “the guy from her birthday, the guy she kissed” and yes, he said “clarifying” which of course made me giggle. JT thinks it is a bad idea (because it is), but Vincent agrees to go with Catherine (because he is in love with her). JT wants to know why he is always outnumbered. I don’t know JT, might have to do with the fact that Vincent and Catherine totally want to sleep with each other… just a thought. JT realizes he won’t be able to stop them [because neither wants to sleep with him], so he just lets them go and gives them the Matrix-tranq gun as a precaution.

Down at the TUNNELS some police officers are tracking Evan with DOGS. Couldn’t they just let the dogs find Evan, aren’t these dogs supposed to be really good at tracking people? Did Cat really need a Beast on top of the dogs? Whatever… At some remote corner of the tunnels PSYCHO PETER THE THIRD has tied Evan to a post. It seems as good a time as any for sharing sob stories. In a nutshell, Psycho Peter is a killer because, when he was a little boy, he found his father murdered … See? He is basically Dexter Morgan… but I guess nobody taught him about Harry’s Code.  So, instead of killing criminals, he likes to re-create murders… Well, at least he has some sort of system [if not a code]. Shrewdly, Evan tries to convince Psycho Peter that he shouldn’t kill him because he would never be able to match the details of the original crime; him not being a Muirfield agent [yet] and not having a cross-species creature at hand to kill him and all…

Vincent and Catherine are walking down another part of the tunnels. They start remembering the last time they were there. Catherine states, once again, that he saved her life. He says that he would do it all over again, but also mentions that taking a life is never easy for him. Aw… you poor beast with a big heart. That’s when Vincent feels the blackout coming and he asks Catherine to tranq him. She refuses and I originally thought it was because she didn't want to shoot him or something, but later she explains it was because she wanted Vincent to help her track Evan… and yeah, that bothers me a little… he was JUST talking about not wanting to hurt people. Let’s just assume Catherine didn't really think this through. So, Vincent beasts out of control, finds Psycho Peter and totally “mauls” him. So, in a way, the subway murders were recreated after all… Evan hears the whole attack and man, he was scared. Understandable, but not his most manly moment I must say. After mauling Peter; Vincent slowly approaches Evan [perhaps to smack slash him square in the mouth for kissing Cat], but he is interrupted by Cat’s arrival. She shoots her gun a couple of times to snap Vincent out of it and it does the trick. He circles around her and runs away. I was very grateful that he didn't even try to hurt her… I wouldn't be able to get behind an abusive relationship, even if there was a good excuse such as “beast in a terminator blackout”.

After Vincent disappears into the tunnels, Cat unties Evan, goes back to her apartment and freaks out. She finally gets a call from JT, who informs her Vincent has returned and he is OK. She wants to see him, but JT simply tells her “it is not a good time”. Cat doesn’t push it, because visiting someone after a “kill and run” is probably not the best idea. By the way, Kristin Kreuk was really good in this episode. There were several scenes where she had to appear like she was suffering yet she couldn't show it and she was great at finding that balance.

The next day, Cat goes back to work and pays Evan a visit. He is back at work as well because he is British and “keeps it all inside”. That was a little stereotypical, is it even true? I am not British, I am part Italian and I usually keep it all inside… except when I am yelling it while furiously gesturing… OK, maybe I do fit the stereotype after all. Evan also had a psych eval which was a “charming little chat over tea”, yeah dude we get it… you are English. Evan is having a hard time after being face to face with a serial killer. He notes how he [psycho Peter] had “no remorse, no emotion”. Sad part is, Vincent has plenty of both. And speaking of Vincent, Evan is now convinced that he was saved by someone “not entirely human”. Cat dismisses the “beast” theory and Evan doesn’t press the subject, probably because he doesn’t want Cat to think he is crazy, but the idea has been planted in his brain.

Tess is still in a good mood and planning dates with firefighters, but she is the only one. Cat looks miserable and Joe is beginning to obsess about catching the “vigilante”… there goes that word again… as if they didn't say it enough on Arrow! So basically, Joe informs them the “vigilante” stepped way across the line [If you think you are upset now, Joe, just wait another 7 episodes] and is in the most wanted list now. 

Time for a BEAUTIFUL MUSICAL MONTAGE. Evan performs a search for cases involving the “vigilante”. So, in a way, Vincent has a stalker now. Cat goes to the double date with Tess and the firefighters. She looks miserable, she is there but she is completely absent. I really love that short scene. It is very simple and doesn’t have any dialogue but you get that Cat is unable to enjoy life anymore, not when she is worried sick about Vincent. She can’t take it any longer and finally goes to the WAREHOUSE. JT answers the door and gives Cat a piece of his mind. He is all “why didn’t you use the tranq gun I gave you. It shoots darts in slo-mo like you are in the Matrix and everything!?” Cat explains it was her only shot to save Evan and JT replies: “You may have saved Evan, but you didn’t think about the price Vincent would pay.”

After saying that, JT walks to a metal door and opens it to reveal a CAGE with Vincent inside. Cat sees him and breaks in a million pieces; it is such a poignant moment. JT tells her that “he put himself in there”. JT also informs her they figured out what was triggering the blackouts and Vincent finishes by telling Cat: “It’s you”. End of episode. Let’s all cry now.

I forgot how good this episode was! So emotional and there were so many memorable moments. As usual, I hope you enjoyed the recap and be sure to comment here and on twitter (@TVRepublik). Love reading feedback. Also, if you want to receive a DM alert when new recaps are posted let me know. 

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QUOTES

Tess: Try not to look giddy when approaching a murder scene.

Evan: Making out in the bushes just isn't what it used to be

Tess: Looks like the morgue found you.

Tess: Public disgrace and humiliation, joys of male bonding.

JT: Toss me across the room like a sack of flour once, shame on you…

Cat to Vincent: Even when you are not yourself, you do the right thing.

Evan: Happy little boys don’t conventionally dream of slicing up bodies

Tess: The best way to get over an “it doesn't matter guy” is to find a new one, preferably one that looks good bare-chested and in red suspenders.