RECAP: Beauty and the Beast - Episode 14 – Tough Love

Guess who’s coming to dinner? My boyfriend the Beast and your soon to be dead boyfriend ...

Previously on BATB: A bunch of stuff happened, Tess wants a new partner and Heather made us all want to throw something at our TVs when she interrupted the much awaited KISS!

CUT TO: Cat and Vincent walking out on the rooftop. I wanted to see Heather’s immediate reaction after catching her sister [almost] making out with a guy, so I felt a little cheated that they didn’t show that! But whatever... So, Cat and Vincent are on the ROOFTOP OF IMPORTANT RELATIONSHIP MILESTONES. Cat is afraid that Heather will suffer the same fate as Alex and she is all “I wanted that bitch out of our lives, but I don’t want my sister to abandon her life and get on a bus to Des Moines/possibly murdered by undefined-job-description-Sorenson”. Vincent points out that Heather has no idea who he is, he could just be some random guy Cat picked up at a bar. I would pick up a “random guy” in the middle of a deserted street if he looked like that! Safety be damned! So I guess it was a reasonable lie... it also seemed like a PERFECTLY reasonable time and place to continue the KISS INTERRUPTED, don’t you think? After agreeing on their lie, Vincent jumps into the night… yeah literally, he jumps off the roof. Good thing that Heather wasn’t eavesdropping anymore, that would have been hard to explain…

After Vincent leaves, Cat goes back downstairs and tries to feed Heather the “random guy” lie and she sounds as convincing as me saying Jay Ryan is not good looking. Heather quickly figures out he must be Vincent Zalanski because she remembered him from his brief appearance at the wedding. I knew Vincent was way too hot to pass unnoticed at that wedding. Heather also figures out that Vincent Zalanski is the guy Cat has been agonizing over and they have been fondly referring to as “ass”. Heather gets her head set on meeting him and asks Cat to have him over for dinner. I was surprised that so many fans were so utterly annoyed by Heather in this episode. I obviously understand the “annoying” part [remember the kiss interrupted?], but I actually understood Heather’s motivations. I guess she went a little too far on more than one occasion and yes she was also annoying at times… but at least I got where she was coming from. In this scene, for instance, I understand her wanting to meet her sister’s boyfriend and to be involved in her life [although she is being a little pushy].

Catherine goes to the WAREHOUSE to invite her “mysterious ass” to her MEDDLING-SISTER AWKWARD DINNER PARTY. Cat’s reasoning is that coming to dinner will “normalize” Vincent and then Heather will stop asking questions, which actually sounds pretty logical. Vincent believes she should simply tell Heather that Vincent Zalanski is truly an ass who blew her off and disappeared “into the black whole of NYC”, which is also very logical and probably the best course of action. However, Cat doesn’t like the idea of lying to Heather, especially now that she is at odds with Tess. Cat’s idea is probably not the best idea, but I completely understand where she is coming from. She wants to be honest with her sister about Vincent and as a bonus, in the future; he could hang out at her apartment [not just the fire escape]. As Cat explains the benefits of having walls and doors, Vincent decides to demonstrate said benefits and leans in to kiss her… and yeah, it’s super hot again… But, of course, they are interrupted by JT . However, JT could care less about joining Heather in the kiss-interrupters-club because he is worried about his new boyfriend Evan not returning his calls, but Cat is all “I am sure Evan is not dead and I have more important things to take care of… like finally kissing Vincent!”

At the MORGUE Evan gets a visit from M-agent SORENSON who, on top of being Claire’s handler AND a low level hit-man, apparently is a DOCTOR! Damn, Muirfield sure has a hell of a cross-training program. So, “DOCTOR” SORENSON tries to convince Evan that they are not going to kill him; they are just offering a career advancement opportunity. Hey, you never know Evan, you may acquire some transferable skills… like how to manage conniving blondes and whack runaway redheads. Sorenson gives him the “let’s take down the dangerous Beast” speech and then gives him his BUSINESS CARD, of course. You aren't a real M-agent until you start giving out BUSINESS CARDS.

Back at Cat’s apartment, everything is almost set for the AWKWARD “MEET-THE-BEAST” DINNER PARTY. Cat notices that Heather is a little too dolled up for the occasion, but she says it is “Festive Casual”, is festive casual even a thing? [Apparently it is & it is defined as: semi-dressy fabrics, holiday colors and dressy accessories, which is exactly what Heather was wearing]. When Cat opens the door Vincent asks if he is underdressed but Cat tells him “He is perfect” [oh yes he is *sigh*]. Vincent gets in and Heather is all “Vincent, I’ve heard so much about you” [When exactly?] And he is all “I am an open book” [In what universe?] Then, for some stupid reason, Vincent tells Heather to just ask all her questions… while they are still standing in the middle of the hallway. Yeah, that wasn’t awkward at all… Unfortunately, Heather was not as distracted as I was by his voice and she bombards him with questions including: Why did you run out? Where did you guys meet? And why did you go back to your ex? He answers with a lie, a sort of truth [they did technically meet outside a bar] and a much awaited truth when he explains that he went back to Alex because he was an idiot afraid of the “intense feelings” he had for Cat, and for some reason he talks about himself in the third person, but it doesn’t matter… it was a nice moment. Heather seems satisfied with all his answers and just when everything seems to be going smoothly, the UNEXPECTED DOOMED GUEST [Darius] shows up.

Later at the AWKWARD DINNER OF FATAL CONSEQUENCES, Darius offers to get Vincent into the VIP area of the nightclub where he works. Vincent is all “I usually spend my nights hopping rooftops, saving innocents and unintentionally killing criminals, but I will give it some thought”. The night continues as Cat and Vincent try to keep their lies straight and not look too suspicious. They fail on both accounts. Also being suspicious is Darius. In the middle of dinner, he gets a threatening text [“Payment Overdue] and Vincent immediately picks up on his nervousness. Then Darius has to make things even worse by asking about his gigantic scar. Seriously, you don’t get a scar that big without some traumatic event. That was really not appropriate party talk! Vincent and Catherine simultaneously come up with different lies: He says “fight”, she says “accident” Potato, potatoe… Then Cat nervously knocks down her glass of wine which Vincent catches with his super-reflexes. And yeah, it was kind of impressive, but not the most suspicious thing they did all night, in my opinion. By the way, I don’t know who was being weirder at that point: Cat or Vincent… At least Vincent has the excuse of not having any human interaction for the past decade, poor Cat was just a ball of nerves. She should have stuck to drinking water and maybe a couple of tums.

But hold on! It can still get worse… believe it or not. Heather mentions there are PICTURES of Vincent and Cat at the wedding which is a major M-Alert! Vincent immediately decides to go get the pictures from Heather’s room. I understand the impulse, but wouldn’t it have been better to tell Cat to get them? Anyway, he gets caught by Heather who is apparently so tiny and light, Vincent never hears her coming [and don’t start telling there was “echo” in the apartment]. Even though, I believe Heather had some reason to be a little creeped-out, she totally overreacted. Nevertheless, if you think about it, she was actually not so far off. I guess she was somehow picking up on the fact that Vincent was hiding something. We know Vincent is actually “a good guy hiding things”, but Heather has no way of knowing that. I actually think Heather’s distrustful attitude towards Vincent makes more sense than Alex’s “unfounded unconditional trust”. Anyway, after his exchange with Heather, Vincent doesn’t even attempt to fabricate a lie and he just bolts. At least he remembers to use the front door this time and doesn’t jump out the window [it wouldn’t have surprised me]. Cat walks him out and he explains the situation. Cat tries to remain calm and look on the positive. Then Vincent tries to kiss her again, only to be interrupted by Heather…AGAIN [OK, that was annoying]. If your sister is out in the hallway with her boyfriend for a long time, I think it is pretty obvious what she is up to! Even if you “don’t trust him”, let her make out with the guy! It’s not like she is getting hitched out there!

The next day, at the PRECINCT, Tess approaches Cat for a chat. Cat gets all excited thinking they are about to fix their friendship/partnership over fancy coffee but sees she is mistaken when Tess leads her to the INTERROGATION ROOM, where Heather is waiting for a RELATIONSHIP DRAMA INTERVENTION. This is where I think Heather and Tess went too far. I understand their concerns but it’s not like Cat is a meth addict! Anyway, what happened is that Heather and Tess ran a background check on Vincent Zalanski and realized that he doesn’t exist… except he does! Cat clearly said she had a crush on a boy named Vincent Zalanski… so where is he now? Let’s assume poor real Vincent Zalanski died before he was 16 and never got a chance to get his driver’s license. It’s sort of sad… R.I.P. real Vincent Zalanski. Cat tries to explain, but she only makes Vincent sound more like a drug dealer/serial killer on the run. What I think should be obvious at this point is that whatever Vincent is hiding, Cat is in on it; so they should take that into account. If Cat is protecting Vincent, she must have a good reason to do so. Also Tess’s problems with Cat are completely unrelated [as far as she knows], but she is acting like she knows ALL about Vincent, whom she hasn’t even met! And, she isn’t really in a position to criticize inappropriate relationships, which Cat points out. Despite everything, they corner Cat and accuse her of “hyper-vigilance” [whatever that may be]. She keeps lying [badly] and it all culminates on Tess giving her an ultimatum [Them or Vincent]. Cat obviously refuses to choose, but if she had to I think she would have picked him, which I sort of like even though the whole thing is completely messed up. Not saying choosing your boyfriend over your family and friends is a good thing, but I love the fact that her faith in him is so strong, nothing makes her doubt it. Joe walks in the INTERROGATION room and interrupts the GIRL TALK FROM HELL. Cat gets a text from Vincent and leaves, so does Heather. Joe lingers long enough to make sure Tess hasn’t told Cat about their illicit romance and to tell her that Miranda is coming to his “Integrity Award” party. Talk about irony… Joe promises to end things with Miranda after the party… and I didn’t really believe him. As I said, I think Tess/Joe make a cute couple… but I really don’t like the situation.

Cat meets with Vincent in the ALLEY, and no, unfortunately it won’t be a sexy encounter. She tells him about the ultimatum and the background check; but he has even worse news. Heather posted their pictures online [Facebook can be the source of all evil]. JT already took the pics down, but MUIRFIELD TRACKS EVERYTHING, remember? So, they might be able to track down the pictures to Heather and… you know, kill her. CUT TO the IRONY INTEGRITY PARTY. Cat approaches Heather and asks for her flash drive so she can get rid of the pictures. She explains that Vincent can’t have his picture posted anywhere and then, once again, she proceeds to do a terrible job at not making him sound like a criminal. Here is an idea for a lie that perfectly fit the situation: Cat could have told Heather that Vincent was in Witness Protection. Explains why he was using a fake name, why he can’t have pictures posted online, why he is a little jumpy and with some creative thinking it could even explain the scar! Instead of my perfectly good lie, Cat goes with “he is dealing with certain things”. Heather proves that she is not was gullible as Alex, so she doesn’t accept the SHORTEST MOST INCOMPLETE EXPLANATION. Then she overreacts again and tells Cat that she is “ruining her life” and that “she doesn’t know how to be normal”. She also tells her she will move out, which is actually not such a bad idea… but Cat seems upset about that prospect.  

Meanwhile Joe is having a “proud older brother moment” which is sweet, but he is also having a “cheating husband moment” which is not so sweet. Shortly after, Heather tries to prove that she is indeed the responsible sister by getting drunk and leaving her job post to go on a joy ride with Darius. Cat realizes Heather is missing and instantly goes into panic mode thinking M got to her. She calls Vincent as she checks the security footage of the precinct. I liked the fact that even in the middle of her nervous crisis; Cat doesn’t blame Vincent for the situation. She actually blames herself [Vincent and Cat are so perfect for each other, they even have self-deprecation in common].Cat finally finds the footage of Heather leaving with Darius but she also notices a black SUV following them. It sure looked like Muirfield… except for the fact that they didn’t leave a business card behind. Vincent offers to track Heather’s phone [where is JT in all this?]; while they are still talking on the phone Evan approaches Cat to talk about the “creature”. Cat is all “sure, just let me tell him… err I mean it, that I will call him… I mean it back”.

Evan tells Cat about the Muirfield-career-development-program. Cat isn’t so thrilled at the prospect of Evan hunting her beast before she gets a chance to kiss him, so she tries to dissuade him. Evan keeps calling Vincent a “thing” and a “creature”, which bothers me, but I will give him a pass due to how good he makes everything sound with his English accent. Evan should be able to figure out that whatever “connection” the Beast has with Cat is a positive connection; he basically keeps saving her life [car crash, bike messenger, her mom’s murder]. However, Evan demands to know why Cat doesn't want to find the “creature”, knowing that “it” has killed several people [It may have to do with the fact that she is in love with him, but I am just guessing]. Cat is all “My Beast kills CRI-MI-NALS… so he is like Dexter, but better because he isn’t a psychopath OK?” In the middle of their argument, Cat gets a text from Vincent informing her of Heather’s  location, so she just leaves Evan with a lot of unanswered Beast-related questions.

Catherine rushes to a NIGHTCLUB where she finds Heather. She explains the guys in the SUV were Darius’s friends [looks like, at the very least, Darius was a liar]. Cat is still in a panic and Heather takes the opportunity to bring up the Vincent Zalanski subject yet again. She tells Cat that “she doesn’t feel safe around him”, [come on! He does not look like a threatening guy]. The irony being that Heather is actually not safe around Vincent [not because of him, but because of M]. Cat’s new strategy is to go back to lying to everyone so she promises Heather that she will break up with Vincent and burn his photo. Right on Cue Vincent arrives [and talk about standing up in a crowd…]. Cat gets on with her pretend break up… but you know Vincent has SERIOUS self-esteem issues, so he quickly turns the pretend break-up into a real one; which is funny because they haven’t even kissed! So he basically suggests breaking off their non-relationship. Fake non-relationship-break-ups are the WORST.

In the meantime, the “friends” in the SUV [who were actually loan sharks] grab Darius to remind him that “everything comes at a price”. Heather walks in on Darius taking a serious beating and instead of running away she decides to ask the thugs to leave Darius alone! Shockingly they don’t comply; instead they drag Heather and Darius to a dark alley where she starts yelling that “her sister is a cop”. That doesn’t seem like the right thing to do in this type of situation. Long story short, they knock out Heather and then ask Darius to off her. The reasoning being that they need Heather gone and they want Darius to be the one to kill her, for insurance [not a bad plan]. Darius was obviously scared and shaken, but I think he was totally going to pull the trigger. At that precise moment, Vincent [in Beast Mode] comes down and sends Darius flying against the dumpster. Then he kills a couple of the thugs, but fails to kill the third. After the mauling is over, he checks on Heather who was totally moving! I really thought she was eventually going to remember Vincent beasting out… maybe it could still happen. After verifying Heather is breathing, Vincent moves on to Darius who was not as lucky. After verifying the city has one less club promoter, Vincent flees the scene of his latest unintentional murder.

I was simultaneously pleased and rolling my eyes at the events of this last scene. On one hand, the idea that these criminals would come up on the spot with that convoluted plan instead of just shooting Heather didn't seem quite real to me. I guess it could happen, but I think quickly killing her and then getting rid of the body was a more likely scenario. On the other hand, I thought it was a brilliant idea from the story-telling point of view. Darius remained an [sorta] innocent victim, but he was also posing direct danger to Heather which justified Vincent killing him. End result, Vincent killed an innocent and it wasn't just because he “lost control”, he had a good reason, but the consequences were terrible nonetheless.

Later that night, Cat is back at her apartment looking at one of the pictures from the wedding [shouldn't she get rid of them already!? OK I would want to keep them too…] She finds Vincent sitting on her windowsill looking miserable. Without any pre-amble he tells her that he killed Darius. He briefly explains the situation and I loved the fact that there was nothing but love and concern in Catherine’s eyes. You can tell she doesn’t doubt for a second that he did “the right thing”. She doesn’t get to say anything though, because she gets a call from Heather, and I think we can give her a pass for interrupting this time. Interrupting murder confessions after you were almost murdered yourself: OK. Interrupting long-awaited kisses: NOT OK.

Time for a HEARTBREAKING MONTAGE. I absolutely love this scene and love the fact that they didn’t write any dialogue for it. We learn everything we need to know from the series of images. Cat comforts Heather, Evan and Tess arrive at the scene and discover the “claw” marks on Darius’s body, Joe breaks down and is comforted by Miranda as Tess watches, Cat cries not just for Heather but for herself and Vincent. Finally Cat stands in the middle of the alley, takes in the tragic scene in front of her and glances up knowing she will find a self-hating Vincent looking down. You can see all the emotions in her face, a mixture of pain, sorrow and fear [for Vincent]. It’s truly a beautiful sequence.

At the PRECINCT Cat goes a little coppy on Heather and tries to find out if she has some information that might exonerate Vincent. But Heather is just scared and broken. Cat doesn’t push it any further and just consoles her. Evan calls Cat for a chat about his favorite subject: “the cross-species creature”. He points out that the victim was NOT a criminal this time, but Cat is all “Are we sure he didn’t owe money to the loan sharks and he was about to kill my sister? Not that I have any inside information on the crime…” Evan is now convinced that the “creature” is connected to Cat and that it is circling her like a “predator to its prey”, more like “a really hot guy to his soon to be girlfriend”… but that’s just a matter of semantics. Also, Cat isn’t too keen on the idea that Evan is calling her “prey”, so she is all “if I hook up with any kind of beast, it is completely by choice, OK?”. She storms out and as soon as she leaves Evan speaks to himself proclaiming in an ominous tone: “If you are not gonna protect yourself, I will” And when someone makes that sort of statement it NEVER ends well… Oh Evan…

Meanwhile, Vincent is at the CEMETERY visiting his brothers’ graves. I noticed something about William’s headstone. He was married. So… can we assume his wife might be out there? Maybe Vincent has nieces or nephews? I wish they had shown the other brother’s grave too… Do we know his name? Anyway, JT is there [because he knows V that well and he is the best friend ever] with flowers and everything. Seeing the flowers, Vincent says “That’s how this whole thing started. I brought flowers to that dinner” What? What did the flowers have to do with anything? This whole thing started because you joined the military after your brothers died and they turned you into a super-soldier… not because you brought flowers! JT tries to make him feel better but Vincent has correctly concluded that he needs to add the NYPD to the list of “people after him” and he is not that into the idea of Catherine having to protect him.

Time for another HEARTBREAKING [SOON TO BE EPIC] MUSICAL MONTAGE. Joe says goodbye to his baby brother and I really felt bad for him [if we ignore the cheating, he is a good guy]. We also see Evan arriving at M’s HQ… How exactly? I don’t know… I thought that BUSINESS CARD only had a phone number. Shouldn’t they arrange a meeting with Evan at a neutral location until they can vet him or something? M seriously has to revise their operational manuals! After tucking Heather in, Cat gets a text from Vincent and goes up to meet him on the ROOFTOP OF IMPORTANT RELATIONSHIP MILESTONES. At this point in the episode, I was a nervous train wreck, trying to figure out if the kiss was going to happen or not. After the series of unfortunate events, I thought the writers may use 2 different excuses to justify postponing the kiss yet again. First I thought Catherine may be upset about the whole Darius thing and briefly consider staying away from Vincent. It would have annoyed the hell out of me, but I guess a murder may cause you to “not be in the mood”. Another possibility [and the most likely] was Vincent going into self-hatred overdrive and pushing her away for good. However, as the scene started I was once again reminded that this show defies TV molds and doesn’t follow storytelling clichés.

The possibility of Catherine being mad at Vincent was quickly dismissed as she starts the conversation by whole-heartedly thanking him for saving her sister. Then, very predictably, he tells her that he is going to walk away because he doesn’t want to be the reason she loses her sister. As suspected, he pushes her away, but they avoid falling into the “guy-pushes-girl-away-due-to-misguided-sense-of-duty” cliché because he tells her the truth behind his actions. In his words:  “You want normal, and I want for you to have what you want”. Complete that statement with the most pained look in his face! It is killing him [and he is not hiding it], but he is willing to walk away just because he wants to keep her safe. Of course Cat [who isn’t a cliché leading lady either] is not going down without a fight and she goes on to say the following very quotable lines [while giving him the MOST INTENSE LOOK EVER]:

“Crazy stuff happens. And all I want to do is share it with you, figure it out with you. My normal… is when I am with you. I love you. I don’t need walls or doors—“

She doesn’t get to finish her sentence because he FINALLY kisses her! He only stops long enough to tell her “I am so in love with you” and then they continue to make out with the night city skyline in the background and yeah, it was PERFECT! I am all for guys making the first move but, in this case, I liked that she declares her love for him first. It was necessary because I am sure, up until this moment; Vincent kept telling himself that he couldn’t be loved. It’s hard to believe that “the kiss” didn’t happen for 14 EPISODES! Oddly enough I never felt like the relationship wasn’t moving forward… but damn we were waiting for that kiss. With SO MUCH BUILD UP, I honestly was afraid that the kiss wasn’t going to live up to everyone’s expectations; but after seeing it, I thought it was absolute perfection! The music, the way they shot the scene, the setting and even the fact that it happened in the aftermath of a tragic event. It was fitting, intensified by the circumstances and yes… it was damn HOT.

Once again I was impressed by how this show doesn’t follow the same annoying relationship clichés of most TV dramas. Before BATB came along, I used to consider frustration [with TV couples] as part of the viewing experience.  So it is incredibly refreshing to see a relationship written in a non-frustrating way. Also, aren’t you pleased we are done with THE CASES OF THE WEEK? I am! Imagine if they had to fit a case in the middle of this episode… so many wonderful scenes would have been lost.

MORE RECAPS HERE

QUOTES

Vincent: Never seen me before -- / Cat: Never see you again / Vincent: Except you probably will… later

Catherine: It will normalize you

Cat [to Vincent]: You are hiding something and you are a good guy

Cat: It was a fight after a motorcycle accident

Tess: Clinton was one of my favorite presidents