RECAP: Beauty and the Beast – Episode 17 – Partners in Crime

With friends like that who needs [alleged] serial killers … unless they have dashing good-looks and husky voices… Hey, the world is GRAY after all

  

The episode starts right where Insatiable left off: Tess shoots Vincent, he falls to the ground, Cat arrives and rushes to Vincent’s aid. Tess is completely mystified as she watches her “partner” [not in crime] run to the “creature’s” aid, instead of backing her up. Tess tells Cat that he was “about to attack her” [no he wasn't] and to “cuff him” [yeah, like that would hold him]. Meanwhile, Vincent de-Beastifies which freaks out Tess even more and she refuses to put her gun down. Vincent asks Cat to hand him his knife [to take out the bullet]; however it doesn't occur to Tess that the Beast is also a doctor and that he is merely going to do some impromptu battlefield-self-surgery, so she starts yelling something along the lines of “No sharp objects for half human Beasts!” In the middle of the madness, Cat makes the mistake of calling “Vincent” by his name and suddenly Tess realizes that Vincent Zalansky is not only a “mysterious ass/complicated man” he is also a “potential serial killer”/”supernatural vigilante”. Tess accuses Cat of acting as an “accessory”, tells her to step away and gets her radio to call for backup. At this point Vincent is removing the bullet while urging Cat to do what Tess is asking [he is so selfless], but Cat refuses to leave his side. Tess stands still, gun in one hand, radio in the other but before she can reach the dispatch Cat pleas one more time and then… all of the sudden Tess decides to bolt… except it is NOT ALL OF THE SUDDEN, because in the preview clip we saw that Cat finishes her plea by saying “I LOVE HIM” and the shock of that makes Tess run… Only THEY CUT THAT LINE! WHY oh WHY? I have no clue, I thought it was a really powerful moment and the catalyst for Tess running… and it was 2 seconds long! So… I like to pretend it actually happened.

Tess runs away and Vincent convinces Cat to follow her while he finishes his bullet-extraction. Now, about that… After Insatiable, I started thinking about V getting shot. He obviously couldn't go to the hospital and I thought it would be kind of hot if he stitched himself up. So, V tending to his own gunshot wound was a possibility in my mind; however I wasn't expecting him to take out the bullet, give himself stitches and catch Tess, all in less than 2 minutes! So, Vincent grabs Tess and tries to subdue her without hurting her with his super-strength and/or beasting out. Cat catches up with him and asks in awe [and sort of turned on] how he got there so fast. He replies: “I heal quickly, OK?” That was an understatement… I get the “healing quickly” part but did the ability to perform medical procedures in record time come with the Beast package as well? Anyway, Cat starts reciting the Cliffs Notes for “Vincent’s Beast Origin Story”, but Tess keeps fidgeting and trying to get away until she collapses. Vincent and Cat are baffled until they realize JT shot her with a tranq gun. Oh, JT-man-of-action… Beware of him when he is armed with a tranq gun [or a bat].

A while later, Vincent and Cat do their best to make unconscious Tess comfortable.  JT couldn’t care less about Tess and he believes they should just let her have a good “cop-nap” at the sewers and flee to Canada. Vincent doesn’t like the idea because he doesn’t want Catherine to abandon her entire life; plus he thinks they can convince Tess to join the Beast-team because she is Cat’s “partner” and “a partner is a partner”. Nevertheless JT lets them know that her unconscious partner is not their only issue because Cat’s other “BFF” has joined Muirfield’s career advancement scheme. JT goes into a full freak out and scolds Vincat like they are his naughty children, Cat looks terrified and worried about Tess and for some reason Vincent is the calmer one. He is also in charge of exposition in this scene so he lets us know that someone needs to go to Evan’s lab to switch the DNA samples so the cops believe the “vigilante” died in the warehouse fire. Cat doesn’t want to leave Tess, so JT reluctantly volunteers for the job.

At the PRECINCT Joe keeps asking about Tess and defending her from Garwell’s snarky remarks. It is almost like he wants everyone to figure out he is sleeping with her, but let’s move on… Gabe gives Joe grief for prematurely calling a press conference before the DNA results confirming the vigilante is dead came in [don’t worry Joe, JT is on his way with the fake samples]. Joe still seems convinced that the vigilante is dead but Gabe thinks it all seems “vague and convenient” and that he would have preferred to bring him in alive. I was glad that finally someone was questioning the whole “vigilante blows himself up” situation. However, Joe isn't too thrilled with what Gabe is implying and he tells him that as much as he would have liked to look at the vigilante’s [pretty scarred] face and ask him why he killed his brother, he doesn't get his personal feelings get in the way of his professional judgment. It was kind of cool to see Joe stand up to Gabe and give him a piece of his mind, but in the end Joe was wrong and Gabe was right.

Back at the TUNNELS OF BROKEN PARTNERSHIPS AND TRANQ GUN ATTACKS, Cat struggles to decide what she should tell Tess when she wakes up. At this point, she should have some sort of standard format for telling people about “The Beast and I” story. Vincent keeps saying Cat should appeal to Tess’s personal feelings for her. Catherine thinks that Tess could have forgiven the lying eventually, but that chasing and drugging her may have been a little too much [she does have a point]. Cat believes she should appeal to her feelings as a cop [rather than as a friend] and show her evidence that every time Vincent was involved in a murder it was to protect an innocent. So, Cat leaves Vincent, alone with unconscious Tess, and goes to the precinct to get the case files that prove he is less Dexter and more Oliver Queen [with more clothes, much to our demise].

JT arrives at the MORGUE for some DNA swapping action. He tells Evan news of the vigilante’s apprehension were all over social media. Evan looks confused but doesn't get to ask many questions because JT starts looming over his equipment. Turns out Evan is VERY protective of his centrifuge; so JT needs to distract him somehow. He suggests praying or betting [basically the same, right?] and rambles about “power to the scientists” or something. Fortunately, Cat arrives, because she certainly is a better distraction for Evan than JT. Cat and JT awkwardly [and very formally] introduce each other and JT lets Cat know he couldn't make the switch. Cat takes Evan away and JT finally swaps the samples. Cat also borrows the Beast-Files from Evan and she is on her way out of the precinct when she runs into Joe. He forcefully drags her into the PRESS ROOM to tell a bunch of reporters about how she lied to the police and led them to a soon-to-be-burned location and helped her boyfriend the vigilante fake his dead… you know: ENTERPRISE.

After sleeping off her Beast-size dose of tranquilizers, Tess finally wakes up. She moves against a wall in fear once she realizes she is alone with Vincent [not the normal female reaction to him]. He calmly explains that they just want to talk and won’t hurt her, but Tess acts like she is being held hostage by a drug cartel or something. If that were the case, Vincent would be the nicest kidnapper ever and if he ever kidnapped me… let’s just say “Stockholm Syndrome” wouldn’t even being to cover it! Tess makes some empty threats about backup coming which Vincent completely ignores [or they cut the dialogue] and he brings up the “how I became a beast” story again… and seriously, they NEED to come up with a structured way to tell this story! Maybe JT could make some power point slides or something. Besides what Cat already told Tess, Vincent adds the part about evil organization hunting him, they lie to protect people blah blah… I feel like we’ve heard this a million times, but this scene is actually cool because it has a lot of great lines and it is the first Tess/Vincent scene ever!

Vincent tries to clarify that he isn’t a “serial killer”, but Tess shuts him up with the following come back: “What? You are just a killer of a series of people?” [Point Tess]. CUE sad music, it is time for “Confessions of a Damaged Brooding Beast”. Vincent tells Tess about the hardships of letting everyone believe he is dead, which makes her realize that he was the dead vet from the case they investigated in The Pilot.  However, instead of focusing on the “poor soldier with no family who saves random strangers” part of the story, Tess chooses to focus on the fact that Cat has been lying to her for almost a year. Vincent realizes his Beast Presentation isn’t going so well [if only he had an outline and some visual aids] and suggests they should wait for Cat to return. Tess just gives him a “ya think?” look and the awkwardness continues. What I love about this scene is that, even though it is a very serious situation, it is actually quite funny; which is great because Vincent doesn’t get to be a “funny character” too often [he is too busy being hot].

At the PRESS CONFERENCE, Cat does her best to avoid giving any real answers while concealing the fact that she has a drugged and unconscious woman hiding somewhere, you know… like most politicians do on a regular basis. She may have dodged the reporters’ questions but she is not fooling Gabe, who is probably the master at being vague and having a hidden agenda, you know… like most lawyers are. Without ever losing his friendly attitude, Gabe calls Cat on her bluff and inquires about Tess’s whereabouts. Cat ends up falling into his trap and somehow agrees to go to Tess’s apartment with him. By the way, Sendhil Ramamurthy must be one of the few actors that can be simultaneously creepy and charming.

While Cat is being manipulated by Gabe, Tess and Vincent are still waiting for her at the tunnels.  Tess starts wondering what Cat gets out of her relationship with Vincent. Err... Tess… Are you looking at him? Are you LISTENING to his VOICE!? I don’t care how many people Tess thinks Vincent killed… it’s still pretty obvious he has a lot to…  hmm offer. Vincent explains that he tried to push Cat away blah blah Tess doesn’t get it and finally Vincent says “Maybe I’m not all that bad” [Do I even need to write what I am thinking? I don’t think so].Then Vincent attempts to bond with Tess by comparing her cop family with his firefighters family, but it quickly goes back to Beast sob story territory and he is all “I had two brothers, who DIED”. Tess asks if he is “playing the sympathy card” and Vincent is all “Man, I really don’t know how to make small talk… but no, I am just playing the cards I was dealt” [which is sadly true, poor Beast]. Every time Vincent gets like this I feel like jumping on the screen to hold him… and YES I am JUST talking about a hug for comfort [this time].

Vincent tells Tess they have something else in common: that they both care very deeply for Cat. Tess seems to be softening up… or maybe she is just hungry, which Vincent notices. While Vincent is grabbing a granola bar for Tess, she gets a hold of the tranq gun and shoots him [but misses] and takes off running. In about two seconds he catches her [where was this super-speed and knowledge of the tunnel’s layout when he was about to get SHOT, with REAL BULLETS?]. After Vincent intercepts her, Tess starts acting like a blonde girl at the beginning of a bad horror movie and says “I swear, you’re going to have to kill me before I let you keep me trapped down here any longer” Come on! I get being held at the sewers must be unpleasant, but he was talking about big brothers and offering granola bars… that’s hardly torture…Vincent  once again begs Tess to protect Catherine [even if she doesn't want to protect him]. Then…  he gives Tess her gun and LET’S HER GO! I swear, Vincent is too nice for his own good sometimes. I would have re-drugged Tess if I were him!

JT is still with Evan at the MORGUE babysitting the DNA results. Evan’s cell buzzes and JT asks if that was “M” with a hilarious hand gesture. I never got an answer for this, but I am dying to know if the “M hand gesture” was on the script or if Austin Basis came up with it [I am guessing the latter]. Update: Austin Basis solved this particular mystery tweeting the following: "It was in the script but I came 2 the director w/3 diff versions" Whatever the case, I love it! I still laugh every time. Anyway, it wasn’t M on the phone, it was Cat and Evan asks JT if he remembers the “woman” he “told him about”; as in “told about” during the scene that was cut from Insatiable. No we don’t remember BECAUSE IT WAS CUT! But apparently JT remembers the cut scene because he plays along and pretends to sort of remember “Katie… or Kat”.  JT suddenly realizes that Evan has a “thing” for Cat, well duh! He “is the guy who kissed her at her party” remember? You knew this already JT! Evan tries to deny it, but JT knows better and he is all “Oh dude, you should SO not go there. Your competition can rip you from limb to limb LITERALLY! You work together”. Evan remains in denial and asks JT why he is concerned about his love life, JT says he is concerned about “his life life” [and the fact that his dead, but not dead dead best friend might get jealous]. He is also worried about what Evan might do if she doesn’t “reciprocate”. Evan was probably about to say “I would go to the evil archers and tip them off about the location of her current boyfriend”, but he is interrupted by the DNA analyzer’s DING which finally “confirms” that the vigilante died at the warehouse.

In the meantime, Cat and Gabe are at TESS’S APARTMENT. Gabe believes that Cat is hiding something and the fact that she was holding Tess’s cell phone in her pocket doesn’t help. Cat tries to cover by turning the tables on him and asking why an ADA would be doing uniform cop jobs. Right after it is established that they are both “hiding something”, Cat gets a text from Evan informing her about the [fake] DNA results. Gabe isn’t   thrilled that he missed his chance for some face to face beast interaction, but nothing he can do about it. They finally decide to leave and Gabe tells Cat that he will call a car service… because, apparently, just like M, ADAs aren’t fond of carpooling. Does anybody care about the environment!?

Cat walks out of the apartment and spots Tess on the sidewalk. As soon as Cat walks up to her, Tess tells her how upset she is about the fact that lied to her, drugged her and held her hostage. Then in the span of two minutes she calls Vincent a “monster”, “sociopath” and an “executioner”… Suddenly “creature” doesn’t seem so bad. Cat shows Tess the Beast-files, she tells her about Evan and Darius and finally explains that her “monster boyfriend” is the “Beast” that saved her 10 years ago. That seems to surprise Tess, but it is not enough to convince her. Cat gives Tess a heartfelt apology for the drugging and holding hostage and begs her to believe that “the person she has fallen in love with isn’t a monster”. Tess fights away her tears and finally tells Cat that she will cover for her, but only if she turns Vincent in. Cat doesn’t even consider it for a second and with determination tells Tess the truth: “I can’t do that”. She apologizes one more time and leaves. Tess calls the precinct and asks for Joe, but only gets Garwell. She tells them that they “caught the wrong guy”. I thought this scene was so well acted by both women. It wasn’t over the top but you could see all the emotions (fear, remorse, doubt) playing on their faces. Nina Lisandrello was particularly awesome in this episode, especially in this scene and the opening sequence.

Cat drives back to the tunnels, but before she goes underground we get a wasted minute of looking at Cat’s KIA [that’s where the “I love him” line went] Oh… product placement… one of the consequences of vertical integration and DVRs. I wonder…  If all beasties promise to buy a KIA, do we get an early S3 pick up? Anyway, Cat storms in proclaiming they need to run because Tess is turning them in. Vincent is all “bu… did you talk to her and reminded her that you are FRIENDS AND PARTNERS?” and JT is all “This is all your fault and WHERE THE HELL DID YOU PACK MY TUMS!?” But no time to argue about whose fault it is [not JT’s] so Vincat leave through the tunnels and send JT to get the car.

Garwell Motto: Shoot 1st, ask questions later

At the same time Tess arrives at the tunnels with Garwell [they sure got there fast and they don’t even have a KIA!] Tess tells them to control their trigger happy fingers because Catherine may be down there so “don’t shoot anything that moves”. They respond to her request by shooting the first thing that moves, fortunately not Cat or a beast, just a rat, but still… Tess notices that they are carrying cattle prods and she is all “I know he is a half human beast, but how do YOU know… what are you hiding?” Apparently Garwell aren't so keen on small talk [or any kind of talk] either and they decide to shoot Tess making her fall into the water and giving her for dead. So, Tess is drowning, Garwell are hunting Vincent, and Vincat are having a meaningful conversation at the most inappropriate time as they usually do. Vincent figures out that Tess gave Cat an out in exchange of turning him in. It shouldn't be a shocker at this point that Vincent tells Cat to take the deal so she can have her “friendship and her career back”. This guy just won’t get that Cat wants to BE with him, so she spells it out for him and tells him that he is NOT leaving her because HE is her “partner” [in crime and in every other aspect]. No way of telling if he actually gets her point because all he says is “come on” and then they are interrupted by the arrival of Garwell.

Vincent beasts out on Garwell, but he wasn’t prepared for the cattle prod so Cat comes to his aid. It’s a very powerful scene and I thought it was interesting that they decided to score it with a ballad instead of a more upbeat song. Vincent and Catherine fight against Garwell; there’s beast smashing, throat grabbing a lot of cattle prod tasing. Half of Garwell dies by beast attack and the other is electrocuted by Cat [I cheered a little when she did it]. Vincent comes back to his human self and is it me? Or did he look drunk? [I guess he was going for a “recently electro-shocked” vibe]. Vincent wants to get out of there but Cat insists they find Tess first. He agrees and they split up to look for her. Vincent is the one who finds her and uses his beast strength to save her. Tess is all “How did you know…” and Vincent is all “It’s kind of what I do… save people, I just can’t help it” Well… not really. He actually says it was because of Cat. Right on cue Cat appears and embraces her friend. Tess completely breaks down and repeatedly apologizes to her. See… all they needed to convince Tess to protect Vincent was to put her in a life-threatening situation and have him save her… works every time [except with Evan].

Cat brings Tess back to her apartment and gives her some bourbon [unfortunately she doesn’t have a tetanus shot to go with it]. Tess comes to terms with living in a “world of gray” and acknowledges that she can hardly see the world as “Black & White” when she is sleeping with her married boss [true that]. Tess understands Cat lied to protect her, but now she has a lot of questions like: did Vincent ever hurt innocent people? [No], did he ever hurt Cat? [Absolutely not] but above all… the million dollar question Tess poses to Cat : “Do you kiss him when he is like that?” Cat very honestly replies: “Not when he is fully like that but somewhere in between” which makes Tess conclude that the world REALLY is gray. Yeah, nothing says “gray” like making out with cross-species creatures. Before Tess can ask more juicy questions, she receives a call from Joe. Tess covers for Cat and that’s how we know she has made her choice. Tess and Cat are friends and partners again! [the estrogen squad is back!]

Tess also tells Joe that Garwell never showed up. At the precinct, Joe goes ballistic on Gabe because Tess was put in danger. Maybe Joe should start carrying a sign that says “I am in love with Detective Vargas” because this goes far beyond “employer concern”. However, Gabe is too distracted to notice Joe’s inappropriate overreaction, because all he seems to hear is “Garwell”, “missing” and “sewers”. So Gabe goes down to the sewers in his 2000$ dollars suit [that’s real commitment to the cause] and quickly finds the place of the last beast attack [because NYC sewers aren’t big or intricate at all]. Gabe spots a wall scratched by Vincent’s claws and ominously concludes “It’s still alive” [it bothers me V is called an “it” especially coming from Gabe!]

JT goes back to the MORGUE to assess Evan’s state of mind, I presume, or maybe he was just feeling lonely because Vincent was with Cat… I don’t know. Anyway, JT is there to “congratulate” Evan; he has a six pack and everything. JT is tries to get the “You caught your vigilante and are done with the evil organization” party started, but Evan is clearly not in a celebratory mood. Problem is Evan would rather share drinks with petite detectives instead of snarky biochemists. As soon as Evan confesses that, JT gets an “Oh shit” expression. Evan admits it was never about DNA, it was about Cat. JT is all: “What the hell do I know? I am no love-guru… all I know about women I get from the internet! DO NOT embrace the cheese factor!” However, Evan is determined and he wants to confess his feelings to Cat because “life is short”. JT desperately looks for an argument against his plan, but all he comes up with is “life is not short, it’s VERY long” and then he tries to “condition” Evan by taking away his beer. But Evan still has “love confession” plans written all over his face. From this scene I also got the sense that Evan was genuinely starting to like JT as a friend [who wouldn't?] For all his girlfriends, we've never seen Evan with any male buddies. So, it is a little sad, since JT was just using him [due to noble motives, but still].

Meanwhile, Vincent and Cat are hanging out at her FIRE ESCAPE and any fire escape scene is immediately a favorite scene of mine. They are just so DARN ROMANTIC. Cat tells Vincent that Joe fired Garwell [how exactly do you fire dead men?], because Tess covered for her. In the most adorable way possible Vincent tells Cat “I told you so”. Cat agrees that he was RIGHT about Tess but she says he was WRONG when he offered to leave. She, ONCE AGAIN, tells him she is “in” and that next time they are in jeopardy [which is awfully often], running away from her ISN'T an option because “it’s not what partners do”. He seems to FINALLY get it [until next episode] and shows it by sweetly kissing her [still not getting old]. Vincent pulls away and says he needs to go check on his “other partner”, but he can’t resist leaning in for one last kiss. And I TOTALLY predicted Evan was going to see them, but I still gasped when it happened. The poor lad was walking down the street, all love struck, ready to confess his feelings to the woman he loves and he sees her kissing another [very handsome] man, that REALLY sucks! [Also wanted to note that it is the exact reverse situation of what happened on Saturn Returns (with higher stakes)]. I was hoping that Evan with a broken heart was going to be the end of it but no… it had to get worst! After finishing their make-out session, Vincent is too lazy to take the stairs so he just JUMPS, lands on a truck and does some sort of beastly flip before walking away. Show off. Of course Evan sees the whole thing realizes that 1) Cat is in love [or at least making-out] with the vigilante and 2) The vigilante is not the old school Ron-Perlman-type Beast he was expecting. END.OF.EPISODE.

And that is it for now; I will be a little MIA next week since I am finally crossing the ocean and moving to the land of afternoon tea, The Beatles and Downton Abbey. But don’t fret; I will soon be popping back up online. I will post the Heart of Darkness recap next Friday as usual [Provided that nothing goes terribly wrong with my new internet connection].

MORE RECAPS

QUOTES

Tess: Is that Vincent Zalansky that you've been dating? That’s the serial killer that we've been looking for?

JT: What? I didn’t kill her, it’s a tranq gun

JT: Word travels. You know, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

JT: Before you turn it on, I think we should pray or bet. More fun.

Vincent: I am not a serial killer/ Tess: What? You are just a killer of a series of people?

Tess[about Cat]: And with friends like that, who needs serial killers? Though, apparently, she likes to date them.

Tess: Your monster boyfriend told me you are going to explain everything away

Cat: The person that I have fallen in love with, he isn’t a monster. The world is a better, safer place with him in it.

JT [about Vincent]: He doesn’t know how to make small talk!

Garnett [or Newell who knows who is who]: Hope the rat doesn’t file a complaint

Tess: Do you kiss him when he is like that?/ Cat: Not when he is fully like that, but somewhere in between

JT: Life is not short, it’s very long