RECAP: Beauty and the Beast – Episode 20 – Anniversary

The truth about stalking: Dreamy guys who follow you around for over a decade and watch you sleep OK. Guys who stalk dead women and vigilantes NOT SO OK

The episode starts with Catherine waking up in her bed. She opens her eyes and finds Vincent sitting on her windowsill. Apparently he was watching her sleep, yawn and wrinkle her nose. Let’s forget for a second what Vincent looks like. This is a guy who basically followed a woman around for 10 years [without her knowledge] and now he enjoys watching her sleep while having his morning coffee. With only that information “creepy stalker comes to mind” but… now let’s remember what Vincent looks [and sounds] like and yeah… I wish I could be stalked by him all day [and night…]

It is the “Anniversary” of Vanessa’s death and Vincent didn’t want Cat to wake up alone [aw…] She says this year is different. Pros: She knows she wasn’t responsible for her mom’s death and she has Vincent [big PRO] Cons: She is conflicted because she found out Mommy Chandler was a closeted Beast-making doctor. As a consequence, Cat is not feeling like celebrating her mom’s “Celestial Birthday” which is a silly [but sort of sweet] Chandler family tradition to celebrate the day Vanessa was “born to the stars”. How do you celebrate a “celestial birthday”? Well you lit candles while listening to corny 80s music and eating fruity pizza. Cat just wants to ditch the celestial bash and “celebrate” her “Anniversary” with Vincent… because you know… the day her mom died is also the day she met Vincent [or his Beast half at least] which sort of sucks… However, Vincent tells her, ditching his dad and sister will eventually make her feel guilty. She is not really listening because she just wants to make out with him [and who can blame her?] but he quickly jumps out of bed and offers to go to the cemetery with her.

At the PRECINCT Joe approaches Tess with the excuse of discussing the details of the detail [for the Mayor]. In reality, he wants to apologize for bailing on her after they were caught by another cop (Marelli) while getting coffee together… in the morning... near Tess’s apartment. Tess offers to make coffee herself next time, but Joe thinks they should go public. And… as everyone else I went “Did he divorce Miranda? When? How? Wh…” And the answer is Yes, he did. I learned this because Brian White tweeted me and EVERYBODY else who was complaining about Joe. But… it was NEVER stated on the show! So what? We have to rely on twitter for this type of details now? So… Joe got divorced while we weren’t looking and the only thing standing in the way of his relationship with Tess is appropriate professional behavior. Joe says Tess could transfer to another precinct. And the mere suggestion annoyed me. It would be OK if Tess decided to transfer, not OK for him to suggest SHE should go somewhere else to make things easier for them. Not OK, it goes against the rules of GIRL POWER! “No man shall tell you which precinct you can or cannot work for!” Tess doesn’t say anything, she just stares at Joe with a “It sucks to live in a men’s world” look.

Meanwhile, Vincent and Catherine arrive at the CEMETERY, because Cat can arrive to her office at whichever hour she pleases… and she’s not even sleeping with the boss! Tess is really not getting any perks out of her relationship. Anyway, Vincat quickly discover that Vanessa is a very popular dead woman that day. Gabe is already standing over her grave with a bouquet of calla lilies [her favorite flowers]. Vincent thinks he might be there because he has a thing for Cat, but she thinks looking over cross-species research on dead ME’s journals is hardly the setting to spark romantic feelings. Cat tells V to wait behind a tree like the good supposed-to-be-dead boyfriend he is. See, Cat totally knows how to tame her beast… now THAT is girl power. OK, just kidding, I actually felt bad for Vincent who is forced to hide while his girl interacts with the world [a handsome, devious man in this instance]. Gabe explains that Vanessa was his doctor while he was staying being held at M’S BOARDING SCHOOL FOR THE TISSUE DONOR ORPHAN CHILDREN. He also says Vanessa was the good kind of mad scientist, you know… She experimented on children and soldiers, but she was nice about it. Cat and Gabe start bonding over their memories of Vanessa and she invites him to the CELESTIAL BASH. He accepts and he also points out Vanessa’s headstone is cracked [which will be important later]. While all of this is going on, Vincent has an “episode”, which I totally understand… I would have beasted out too if someone was sweet talking my significant other while I stood behind a tree! But V’s reaction seemed to go beyond jealousy. After Gabe leaves, Cat tries to find Vincent, but all she finds is an empty tree with claw marks on it.

After misplacing [or scaring away] her Beast, Cat freaks out. She is still freaking out when she arrives to the PARK where she is supposed to remember she is still a cop. She tells Tess the abbreviated version of the story and then gets a call from Heather [she still exists!] Heather is depressed because it is “the day” and she doesn’t have a missing-beast boyfriend to keep her occupied. I thought that Heather wearing her mom’s scrubs was a nice [and very sad] touch; I love little details like that… Cat tells her sister about her unexpected guest to the CELESTIAL BASH and Heather is all “You moved on from Vincent Zalansky! Yes!” Cat explains [not very convincingly] that Gabe is a guy, but not a guy guy and then hangs up; as soon as she does Tess is all “You invited another guy to a family event your guy can’t go to and you are wondering why he is not talking to you?” which was DAMN obvious, but for some reason Cat didn’t seem to think about it that way… I really don’t think she had bad intentions, but it was a little unfair to Vincent [and unlike Joe, I don’t think he was trying to posses her like she was a precinct].

At the GENTLEMEN’s CLUB [which is what I will call JT and V’s place from now on], Vincent is working out using a very small bar and apparently embracing home-shopping exercise regimes. JT is all “go work things out with your girlfriend, you can’t hide behind a headstone forever” and Vincent is all “It was a TREE not a headstone and I am going to act like that is VERY important information” Vincent insists it is not jealousy and he knows Cat is not into Gabe [because… let’s face it, who would be into any other man when you can have HIM]. However, V believes Gabe is trying to “ensnare” Cat. Let’s all use “ensnare” in a sentence! It’s seriously my new favorite word. Can’t believe that word hasn’t become a bigger part of our “Beastie Vernacular”, we need to change that! Anyway, JT tries to talk Vincent out of his ADA conspiracy theory, but in case you haven’t noticed V is a little stubborn [he had to have some flaws], so he doesn’t listen to him and goes to see Cat to “warn” her about Gabe. Does anyone else feel that the world would be a better place if everybody listened to JT?

Later, Cat’s at the PARK pretending to do her job as a cop, but she is too distracted by her bad-girlfriend-guilt. Vincent arrives and overhears a conversation between Gabe and the Mayor’s aide. It’s not a very polite exchange and Gabe finally makes a [not so veiled] threat towards the Mayor “you don’t want to see what happens when I am angry”; and seriously, I didn’t make much of it... But V assumes that on top of being a professional ensnarer, Gabe is also conspiring to assassinate the Mayor. Tess spots Vincent and tells Cat about him. Cat does what any professional NYPD cop would do: she abandons her post (protecting the Mayor) to go have a talk with her boyfriend. Vincent cuts to the chase and says he doesn’t trust Gabe, Cat literally says “He’s not into me, he is into my mom” and that is the weirdest sentence ever. He tries to explain it is not about being a jealous boyfriend but it kind of comes out as: “I feel something and I think there something off with him, and he probably wants something for something and I don’t want you to be exposed to that something” or something. They can’t continue the conversation because THE MAYOR GETS SHOT. And… I don’t want to point fingers… but I know a cop WHO WASN’T AT HER POST at the time of the shooting. Cat runs to shield the Mayor’s daughter and Vincent spots a sniper on a nearby building. He quickly decides to act as the VIGILANTE he likes to pretend he isn’t and go after the sniper. He jumps on top of his car, smashes his window and grabs his phone; unfortunately he is unable to stop him. Hey, at least he grabbed his phone, that’s one step up from a Muirfield Agent! Vincent dials the last number on the sniper’s phone and discovers it belongs to ADA Gabriel Lowen [who conveniently identifies himself]. Vincent has another Beast episode and the poor sniper’s phone pays for it.

At the PRECINCT Joe gives his team some OBVIOUS FACTS, Tess replies with EVEN          MORE OBVIOUS FACTS and Marelli takes a break from suspecting Tess’s affair to suspect Cat’s affair. He asks about the guy she was talking to at the park, you know… when she was supposed to BE PROTECTING THE MAYOR! Cat says it was a “vagrant” and as someone pointed out, it could be payback from “handler”; also the latest in the string of names Cat has called V: “Beast”, “A Jon”, “Lug Nut”, “Rottweiler”, “Complicated Guy”, “Ass”. Marelli gives some grief to Cat and Tess because one was chatting up a [very handsome] “vagrant” for too long and the other was gossiping with her BFF. Marelli might be an ass… but he does have a point. Cat gets a text from Vincent to meet him at the MAKE-UP ROOF. When she gets up there, he tells her about the sniper’s phone. He tells her again that this is not about simple jealousy, that he is “having a reaction” and this time Cat believes him [the VERY sincere eyes didn’t hurt his case]. He apologizes for acting crazy, she apologizes for being insensitive and they call it even. Cat asks for the phone and Vincent presents her with the shredded pieces. He looks ashamed and she looks at him amused and understanding. I really liked the way she played it, like she couldn’t be mad at him any longer.

Cat goes back to the PRECINCT and she is all over Vincent’s theory about “Gabe-the-Mayor-Assassin”. Tess needs a minute to catch up. New working theories include Gabe wanting to off the Mayor to get her job or Gabe sleeping with her, which makes Cat start talking about the wonders of having a “closeted relationship”. Yeah, she is in la la land again, all it took was a rooftop apology and some cell phone pieces. Cat wants to check Gabe’s records but Tess points out they would never be able to get a warrant. What she doesn’t know is that they have JT [A.K.A geek squad] for that. Cat and Tess get Vincent and JT over the phone. After JT considers dating Gabe himself he starts reading Gabe’s financial statements. From the transaction history we learn that Gabe spends an outrageous amount on beauty products [I am hoping at least part of that is for Tyler], enjoys nice hotels, going to the ballet and has been to Darius’s club Dubstep [hmm]. They also find a 25,000 $ transfer to an unknown account. V can’t hide his “I told you so!” expression.

After learning this very incrimination information, Cat confronts Gabe at the PRECINCT [she seems to do that a lot]. Gabe explains that the 25,000 $ were to pay someone to investigate the crack on Vanessa’s grave which he noticed when he was there a few days before. At the very least Gabe is guilty of stalking a dead woman [and being a douchebag with a lot of hair products]. Gabe tells Cat the P.I. told him Vanessa was moved due to a gas leak, but he couldn’t find any records of it. Gabe implies Vanessa may have never been buried in the first place. Cat never identified the body and the funeral had a close casket so… it is possible that Vanessa faked her death, which wouldn’t have surprised me at all. As a matter of fact, I haven’t ruled out the possibility that Vanessa is alive. [Also, dead possible undead parent… William Vaughn, Irina Derevko come to mind, just saying…]

JT arrives to the GENTLEMEN’S CLUB with a “celestial candle” for V to give to Cat. He isn’t too excited because he thinks his meteorite-dust-covered candle [which is incredibly sweet] won’t look like much when Gabe could “wine and dine her like Donald Trump”. Seriously dude, you need to get a new mirror once and for all and take a good look at yourself! Your “wining and dining” limitations are more than compensated by your looks [and voice… and kind heart or whatever]. No woman in her right mind would prefer to go out with Donald Trump himself [unless she is REALLY into money]. Cat walks in and Vincent quickly notices her heart is racing. “Maybe she is excited to see you” JT offers. Isn’t V used to women’s racing hearts? Cat tells him about the new “Vanessa is alive” theory. Vincent says he is certain Vanessa died [he heard her heart stop and whatnot]. Cat says she wants to exhume the casket and Vincent finally confesses he knows Vanessa is not in the grave [because he can smell sense it]. He obviously developed X-ray vision along with the metal detecting and GPS tracking abilities, duh! Cat is very upset to learn her boyfriend knew about her mom’s missing corpse and didn’t say anything. On one hand I understand Cat being upset about it, on the other… I sort of get Vincent not telling her. Not the easiest thing to say and he probably thought she would be better off not knowing. They keep arguing and finally Vincent bursts out “I don’t want you seeing him [Gabe] anymore!” and if it was ANYBODY other than Vincent I would have been all: “Who the hell does this guy thinks he is?! How dare he tell his girlfriend who she can or cannot see! The nerve! Slap him and show him some girl power right now!” But of course since it IS Vincent, I confess… the first thing I thought was “Oooh, that was sort of hot” [girl power be damned… extreme hotness would do that to you]. In any case, one of the things I love most about Cat is that she is a very strong woman and takes crap from no-one. So I loved that she answers by saying: “You can’t forbid me to see anyone!” and then she leaves. Vincent smashes the stardust candle… RIP candle. Inanimate objects are not ending well in this episode!

Later at the CHANDLER CELESTIAL BASH, Mr. Chandler, Heather, Cat and Gabe eat pizza and talk about the dangers of lollipops. Wasn’t Cat supposed to disinvite Gabe? Gabe is actually acting very polite and not creepy at all. The same cannot be said about Cat. She goes all “Code Yellow” on her dad about the grave. Mr. Chandler informs her that Vanessa was moved temporarily and he signed a release form. Cat asks for the form to look at the “return address”, because evil organizations that secretly move cadavers always provide accurate information in the forms they fill out. So, Cat and Gabe go to the address that was listed on the form. I wonder what they were expecting to find… M’s HQ? Vanessa herself? A Beast Farm? What they find is a creepy warehouse; before going in, Cat checks her phone and discovers there is no reception [this will be important later… or NOT]. Meanwhile, Tess has been doing some ACTUAL POLICE WORK [glad at least ONE cop in NY is still working] and she was able to track the destroyed phone to a motel where she identified the sniper and discovered his target was not the Mayor, it was Gabe! Payback for a case he tried. So, once again, being a cop or a lawyer is more dangerous than being a genetically altered soldier. Tess calls Vincent [because she can’t reach Cat] to tell him the news. V gets an “I am so bummed he is not an assassin” look and his disappointment is so obvious Tess develops super-senses of her own.

Gabe and Cat are still at the I KNOW WHAT M DID LAST SUMMER WAREHOUSE and surprise! They start getting shot. Cat is all “Me cop, you lawyer, stay”. To quote Max from Dark Angel: “Girls kick ass, says so on the T-shirt” So Cat embraces her [tiny] girl-power and goes after the sniper alone. However, Vincent is there in less than a second because JT tracked her signal-less phone? He turned on his inner GPS-Beast abilities? Let’s just say he found her because he never stopped looking. Well, long story short, Vincent kills the sniper by lethal fall to the ground. Cat is not mad anymore, she thanks Vincent for saving her in the anniversary of… saving her. He says “Let’s not make it an annual thing”. They are so going to make it an annual thing. Before Vincent leaves [and what was Gabe doing for so long by the way?], he spots a headstone in the yard. It is Vanessa’s grave, at least her name is on it [ONLY her first name] and Cat seems to think the engraved calla lily is irrefutable proof that her mom is buried in there. OK, let’s go with that. Also, let’s speculate on what happened here... Who moved her? It had to be someone involved with M, but why? Also, why give her a new and improved grave? SPOILER ALERT I am assuming bio dad was the one who moved her and that he had real feelings for her. But I can’t figure out the “why”. Is there something important on Vanessa’s body? Or something important buried with her? END OF SPOILER Cat doesn’t seem too concerned with all these questions because she makes it clear to Gabe that she is ready to move on. I thought it was interesting how Cat’s need for answers [about Vanessa] has taken a back seat in favor of her new main motivation: Vincent [a big change from the Pilot]. Gabe sort of lets it go too [I guess a dead Beast-making doctor is not of much use to him anyhow] and is nice enough to tell Cat she meant the world to her mom. He actually gives Cat VERY specific details of things her mom said about her, which I thought was kind of creepy. Only V can pull off that kind of stalking!

Meanwhile at the PRECINCT Tess and Joe agree to keep their [not illicit anymore] relationship a secret [which is sort of hot]. Joe tells Tess that 1) he bought her a coffee maker and 2) Transferred Marelli out of his precinct. Transferring people for love + coffee makers… sounds pretty good to me. I am liking Joe in this episode. I also like that Tess stood her ground and made it clear to Joe that her career matters [attempted girl power]. But now on to the couple we care about the most. At the ROOFTOP OF SIGNIFICANT RELATIONSHIP MILESTONES Vincent tries to save their “anniversary” at the last minute. He did a pretty good job. He decorated the rooftop with starry lights, lit candles, brought wine and food. I wonder if JT looked it up online or if he came up with the idea on his own. Guys always say women are complicated, but pleasing girls is NOT that hard… You can easily do it by buying a celestial candle, and if you decide to break it in a beastly episode…  simply make a damn CELESTIAL SKY and “wine and dine” your girl under it! Not brain surgery… Vincent kisses Catherine, she says he is “the best boyfriend ever”, which is totally true, except for the fact that he has no job, lives in hiding and occasionally kills people… but those are minor details. He tells her that his instinct will always be to protect her, but that he understands she needs answers and won’t get in the way of that in the future. Vincent starts to talk about Gabe again, but Cat stops him by saying “OK, Shut up, just let me kiss you” [VERY good use of girl power]

But the episode isn’t over yet! There is still time for one more shocking revelation. Gabe goes back to the SLASHER WAREHOUSE and examines the damage. Clearly, tiny Catherine didn’t do it! No matter what the cops think, Gabe isn’t as gullible. He calls someone [I am assuming Cylon Tyler] and says “Bad news is, Vanessa is dead. Good news is, I found him” and then starts shaking and his eyes glow yellow. He is a beast! END OF EPISODE

OK, so at this point I already assumed Gabe was a Beast, so I wasn’t that shocked about it [but it was still a pretty neat cliffhanger]. I feel about this episode a little bit like I feel about Insatiable, beginning and end AWESOME, middle chunk eh… not  so crazy about. I have fewer issues with Anniversary than I did with Insatiable from a production point of view though. Also, the jealousy plot was a little more cliché than we usually see on BATB but unlike last week’s “relationship plot fiasco” I think they managed to keep the relationship drama true to the characters, it was something we hadn’t seen before and at least they made it more than simple jealousy and tied it up with the overarching story [Vincent was sensing Gabe was a Beast]. So, not my favorite Vincat story, but I didn’t completely hate it.

And this is the first of the 3 recaps I’ll be rushing to post this week! Will I be able to make it before S2 premieres on Monday? We’ll see… In the meantime, help me spread this around on Facebook, twitter, forums and whatnot, because I won’t be able to share it as much on account that I will be… well writing the next recap! Till very very soon!

MORE RECAPS

QUOTES:

Cat: Favorite pizza topping is so important

Tess: Right, there’s a lot of details about the detail

Tess: Guys are possessive. Joe is trying to posses the precinct

JT: No, P90X. I know she’s not into him

JT [about Gabe]: Wow, this guy is loaded, now I am jealous.

JT [about Gabe]: At least we know he is guilty of being a douchebag.

Tess [to Vincent over the phone]: I can smell your disappointment from here

Cat [to Vincent]: I never should have doubted you