RECAP: Beauty and the Beast – Episode 22 – Never Turn Back

Nothing says “I love you” like stabbing your boyfriend with a syringe full of tetanus

As we say around twitter “Beastie Fall is coming”! Season 2 is about to start and I only have one S1 episode left to recap. I’ve been posting recaps like there is no tomorrow this week, but let’s be honest… no such thing as too much BATB until the premiere, RIGHT?  So let’s not waste time!

Welcome to Milltown, New York. Population 4,900? Land of rosy-cheek-little-cowboys, bake sales and potentially lethal cotton candy. The perfect destination for cross-species men to take their girlfriends. At Milltown, Vincent and Catherine have a much more normal date than the one they had on Date Night, only downside is that they (read he) are wearing much more clothes. They laugh, they kiss, they overdoes on sugar. It is ridiculously sweet… until it gets a little sad as Vincent apologizes for the fact that their happiness can’t last longer. LATER, Vincent returns to the GENTLEMEN’S CLUB and JT waits for him with news that would impress dark Czech authors. Is Vincent turning into a giant insect? No, quite the opposite, actually. His animal side is still being suppressed by the pill he took. If the de-beastification process continues for a couple more days, Vincent could be cured! Which seemed very exciting at the time, but it won’t be so exciting in a moment.

While Vincent may or may not be turning back to human, Tyler and Gabe pretend to be decent “human beings” who struggle with the moral implications of harvesting someone’s lymphatic system. Then Tyler turns into the EXPOSITION FAIRY and starts throwing around all sort of KNOWN FACTS about DNA, smartphones, beast killing plans, etc. Then they make out for a while and this couple had zero chemistry; which I thought was odd… because she is really pretty and Sendhil is very handsome, but their scenes weren’t sexy at all! Confirming that there is no formula for on screen chemistry… [more on that later]. Tyler and Gabe leave the apartment and JT is lurking behind a newspaper waiting to break in. Oh! It’s the return of JT-INTERNATIONAL-MAN-OF-MYSTERY AND JT-MAN-OF-ACTION.

As soon as she gets the news, Cat goes over to Vincent’s place to give him a “You are becoming a normal guy” present: Two fake IDs to start a new life in a little town outside Denver. Vincent is all “But what about JT and Tess… I won’t ask about Heather, because she’s been so absent lately I forgot she existed” and Cat is all “JT has Sara… I guess, because she’s never around and she will probably disappear by Season 2, and Tess has Joe and I guess I have forgotten about Heather too… they tell me she moved to some place called Ravenswood or something…” Cat also tells him that she never wanted to settle down until she met him.; and I thought that was the most romantic thing! I love living in the city and I have NEVER considered moving to a small town in the middle of nowhere. If I ever decided to do that for a guy, it would mean that I love him beyond reason. Whenever female characters do that sort of thing on TV or movies, I always think they are making a mistake and that I wouldn’t do it! However, I totally understand where Cat was coming from and for the first time ever I thought “I would have done the same” which is a really big deal for me! So yeah… it was wildly romantic. In response, Vincent gives her a look that says:  “I am going to be the happiest man in the world with you by my side”, he pulls her closer and kisses her with joy. But it’s them, so of course their moment wasn’t going to last! They are interrupted by Cat’s phone. It’s Daddy Chandler and he asks for an urgent meeting.

For some reason, Cat and her dad decided to meet in the middle of the street. What’s wrong with a nice restaurant? So, Cat sees her dad on the other side of the road, and for a moment I was half expecting him to go:  “My name is Roan and I am an assassin for a company named Division” but… I guess we’ll never know because as he was crossing the street to meet Cat someone pushes him in front of a car! Cat rushes to his aid, but all she is able to do is wait by his side as someone calls an ambulance. At the HOSPITAL, Cat is donating blood when Heather arrives [she’s alive! And living in NY!]. Heather tells Cat she talked to DR. BELL about their dad’s status. And YES I am going to go there! Dr. [William] Bell? I already said Vanessa had a Walter Bishop complex [experimenting on children and whatnot] and now there is a DR. BELL lurking around? That’s it… M stands for Massive Dynamics [or Manticore… or both]. In any case, Heather just wants some comfort from her big sis, but Cat is unable to give it to her and decides to investigate the “accident” instead.

Vincent waits for Catherine outside of the hospital because he is trying to be a good supposed to be dead boyfriend. However, Cat is not so happy to see him because her new theory is that M is behind her dad’s accident. Vincent offers to go to the scene, but Cat reminds him that he is just a regular dude with no super-senses now. And this was the scene where I first realized I didn’t want Vincent to stop being a Beast. If you take his Beast side away, you are left with an unemployed vet who has a death certificate and that’s really not the ideal boyfriend, now is it? He is still a kind, smart man with incredible voice and dashing good looks [not that I care about that sort of stuff], but he does lose a little bit of his… appeal. Well, at least in my opinion… [Not saying I wouldn’t take human Vincent in a heartbeat if given the chance]. Frustrated by the fact that he is unable to help his girl, Vincent squeezes her hand and promises to lay low before leaving.  Once outside the car, he gets a call from JT to let him know that Tyler and Gabe are planning a “dissection party” and Vincent is the main course. After warning Vincent, JT grabs his bat and vandalizes the hell out of Gabe’s place.

"Agh, my centrifuge!"

Cat goes to THE PRECINCT and tries to find some nerd to look over her dad’s phone and iPad. She tells Tess about her M-is-after-my-dad theory, but Tess notices there is something deeper going on. In a very emotional scene Catherine breaks down and tells Tess that seeing her dad in the hospital brought back memories from her mom [and it really sucks that she can’t even have her Beast by her side].  Tess gives Cat some very compelling arguments and convinces Cat that the best thing for her is to be with her family right now. She offers to take over the “investigation” and sends Cat on her way back to the hospital. Meanwhile, Gabe gets a call from Tyler and she is all “I can’t throw a dissection party without a variable centrifuge! JT Forbes totally ruined our plans!” but Gabe is all “Don’t fret, dear, you get the dissection party ready and I will make sure to bring the guest of honor”. Gabe is very confident on his ability to get Vincent because “every man has a weakness” and it goes without saying, that Vincent’s weakness is “Catherine”. So, long story short Gabe kidnaps Cat.

Keeping her promise, Tess tracks down a techno geek to help her turn Mr. Chandler’s iPad ON. This is a completely unnecessary scene, but it was so well written/acted… I am glad they didn’t cut it. In summary, the geek uses his advanced knowledge of technology and bangs the iPad against the table to turn it on. I wonder how many times stuff like this happens and then they charge you 200$ for the “repair”. Anyway, the iPad is on and there is an e-mail with a picture of AGENT REYNOLDS and the subject line “Arrived back in the country yesterday” The e-mail is FROM the US Department of Homeland Security. I really don’t know what to make out of this information. Did Mr. Chandler have any ties with the government? What is the relationship between M and the FBI? Why did Mr. Chandler get that e-mail? How much did he know? It’s all a mystery at this point.

ROOKIE-M

Speaking of Reynolds, he is at Gabe’s apartment along with his… M-assistant? Whatever his job description is, he is played by PETER MOONEY FROM ROOKIE BLUE! Which was very exciting! And since Rookie Blue shoots in Toronto, it wouldn’t be so out of the question to hope for other “rookies” to guest star on BATB, would it? If that’s the case can I put in a request for GREGORY SMITH? That would only… I don’t know, kill me of happiness. How about you? Would you like any Rookie Blue actors on BATB? I am going to go ahead and imagine M’s HQ is full of them… just waiting to get on screen. Anyway, we find out that REYNOLDS and ROOKIE-M are after Gabe and they are planning to catch him… and figure out who tossed his place in the process.

BEAST-ON ABBEY

Gabe takes Cat to his huge mansion? Beast Castle? Country Estate? I am going to call it BEAST-ON ABBEY. Cat vaguely remembers being there before, when she was a child. By all means Vanessa! Bring your small daughter to play with the kid that turns into an uncontrollable little Beast [I know that’s genetic discrimination on my part, but safety first, right?] Gabe and Cat have a philosophical discussion about what it means to be human and what it means to be a Beast. Power vs. simple human happiness. This episode made me think that the Beast had become such an integral part of Vincent; he may no longer be prepared to be human… On an unrelated note I kept getting the sense that Gabe would have preferred to find a way to “upgrade” that didn’t involve Beastiecide. Finally, Gabe puts his plan in motion by calling Vincent from Cat’s phone and giving him directions for their Beast Showdown. While they wait for Vincent, Gabe locks Cat up in his dungeon/childhood bedroom.

Meanwhile, Tyler gets herself a new CENTRIFUGE [at a 24/7 centrifuge store?], so I guess all those hair products’ charges on Gabe’s credit cards were for him after all. His girl seems more interested in lab equipment than hair products. A Beast obsessed with Beauty products… there is irony somewhere in there. Anyway, when Tyler is about to get in her car she is kidnapped [very awkwardly] by JT-whizkid-Forbes and Vincent. Instead of… I don’t know … screaming for help, Tyler decides to ask JT about his “brilliant” idea to destroy the centrifuge. He replies by saying: “Imagine that, Beautiful mysterious woman, deadly politician Beast-man, call it a wild hunch”. The boys inform Tyler that they are planning to use her as a bargaining chip; which is actually a pretty clever plan except for the fact that EVERYONE knew Vincent was never going to kill [or even hurt] Tyler. On the other hand, Gabe might have killed Cat… but if he killed her, Vincent wouldn’t help him so… I don’t know maybe everyone should have sat still and start some sort of Beastly-Cold-War or something …

Gabe refuses to trade the girls and tells Vincent he can go ahead and kill Tyler. I couldn’t tell if he was bluffing or if he was really willing to let Tyler die! I think a little bit of both. Tyler tries to hide it, but she is shocked when Gabe refuses to save her. As JT points out “Betrayal is a Bitch”. Vincent decides to go on a suicide mission and rescue Cat relying solely on his military training and the tools he can fit in his backpack. Was Vincent even in combat at some point? I mean normal human combat… I don’t think so! So … thinking of himself as GI Joe all of the sudden is probably not the best idea. Before Vincent leaves Tyler asks Vincent to spare Gabe’s life… and then she tells him how to stop his transformation and turn into a Beast: by taking any vaccine and boosting his immune system. So, in other words: “Please don’t kill my boyfriend, but here is how you would do it… “? JT tries to convince Vincent to “Beast-back” and reminds him of his acceptance journey into beast-hood. But Vincent says he would give anything up to have a peaceful, normal life with Catherine. Kinda hard to have a life with someone if that person DIES! I guess we know where Vincent stands on the Beast vs. Human debate.

At BEAST-ON ABBEY, Gabe gets ready to play Dungeons and Beasts and/or share the story of his life:

“Once upon a time, there was an orphan boy named Gabe. He was rescued from an evil beast-making organization by a charitable Doctor. He was adopted by two very rich parents who lived in a castle. Unfortunately little Gabe had a curse casted upon him and he turned into a Beast. One dark night, the Young Beast forgot his magic pills and killed his mother by accident. Soon after his father died as well and he was left alone in the world and went to Law School”

Yes…  it was VERY sad, and I did feel bad for Gabe… but he was PLANNING TO KILL VINCENT! So it was a little hard to feel sorry for him at the moment… Before he can move on to the Adult-Beast portion of his story, he starts to change [ahead of schedule] so he leaves the room.

Time for the CHEMISTRY UNEXPECTED SCENE. JT babysits Tyler, while she is handcuffed to the radiator. No reason you can’t have a scientific chat with your Cylon prisoner, so JT starts talking about eukaryotic cell structures and some other stuff I have no clue about. What is incredible [and completely unexpected] about this scene is the amazing chemistry between the biochemists! I know she was flirting with him as a way to distract him long enough to escape … but there was some serious chemistry going around and you can’t fake that! I don’t know if it was intentional, or if Austin Basis just happens to have awesome chemistry with anyone, but it was a really great scene and I even liked Tyler on it! Part of the reason I am so shocked about this is that she had zero chemistry with Gabe on most of her scenes and they were meant to be “sexy” scenes! Yet this one had more sparks than the boudoir-Gabe scenes!  However, right when I was starting to like Tyler, she breaks free and knocks out JT. She leaves with the parting words: “Sorry, survival of the fittest. You understand.” Then Tyler drives… somewhere [to get another centrifuge?], she gets out of her car and AGENT REYNOLDS is waiting for her. Tyler seems genuinely terrified to see him and before she can say anything other than “You…” he shoots her dead. I guess she wasn’t the fittest after all… So Tyler dies without us ever finding out the story behind her GIANT SCAR or her M-connection.

Back at the GENTLEMEN’S CLUB, Tess finds JT chained to the radiator. He explains that the “vengeful siren of deceit” did it and then explains the current situation of who was kidnapped by whom, who is a Beast, who is not a Beast and whatnot. Tess goes on to ask: “Girl Friday got the jump on you? She spoke geek and lured you onto the rocks with her polysyllabic phrases?” Well… yeah, pretty much. But JT isn’t amused, he tells her: “You are funnier when I am not dehydrated and annoyed at your gender”  Tess, the badass chick that she is, frees JT by shooting at his handcuffs; then she announces that they “may have another problem” And that is the last time we will see Tess and JT this season [aw]. This scene was one of the funniest scenes, as most JT/Tess scenes are. Since we are almost on S2, I was wondering about your take on JT/Tess as a couple. I, for one, do not like the idea… but I know a lot of people do [including Nina, apparently]. My reasoning is that they are so funny because they are snarky and almost mean to each other; all that would be lost if they became a couple… so I hope they don’t go down that road. But what do you guys think?

At the HOSPITAL, Heather is about to get a secret of her own. The nurse informs her that Mr. Chandler needs surgery and he needs blood from a family member. Cat donated blood, but it didn’t contain any “common identifiers” with her dad’s, therefore, she isn’t his biological father… dun dun dun. Who’s your daddy, Cat? While all of this is going on, Vincent finally arrives to BEAST-ON ABBEY [did he walk there?]. He manages to take out a guard [maybe he was a cage fighter…] and then climbs up the TOWER with A LOT of difficulty. This doesn’t speak too well of the US Army training… Anyway, Vincent finds Cat just when Gabe was about to burst into the room. He manages to humanly remove a bar and luckily Cat isn’t a fat chick, because otherwise they would have been in trouble.

Cat and Vincent climb down the tower, hide behind a pillar and do what Vincat do best. They have a MEANINGFUL CONVERSATION AT THE MOST INAPPROPRIATE TIME. Vincent wishes he had his strength back and Cat asks if he took the pills for him or for her. He says he wanted to give her the “normal” future she wanted, and she says she can now SEE a future, Beast or no Beast. Once again he is shocked by the revelation that she accepts all of who he is. SHE LOVES YOU JUST THE WAY YOU ARE DUDE! GET IT ALREADY! SHE LOVES YOU, WE LOVE YOU, EVERYONE LOVES YOU! Vincent is all “damn, if I knew you were gonna like me no matter what I would have taken a vaccine and went back to being a Beast… oh well, too late” At that point Gabe comes out of the house and throws a car at Vincent and Catherine [that was a little too much, there was no reason to destroy a perfectly good car].

While Vincent gets tossed around by Gabe, Catherine manages to sneak into the house, kick some ass and grab a vaccine. She goes back to Vincent and stabs him with the vaccine proclaiming “I can’t let you die for me” Aw… nothing says I love you like stabbing your boyfriend with a syringe full of tetanus… So… just like the late Siren of Deceit told them, the vaccine re-beastifies Vincent and he is able to fight Gabe… sort off… Gabe still manages to knock him down and is about to impale him when AGENT REYNOLDS and ROOKIE-M appear in a helicopter and shoot Gabe a million times on the chest. Then they throw a net and capture Vincent! Cat wakes up just in time to see Vincent in the middle of being air-lifted to God knows where. She runs towards him and she is able to grab his hand, but there is nothing she can do to stop them from taking him. They hold their hands until they are separated and she watches, powerless, as they take the love of her like away from her. It’s an absolutely beautiful scene! [and I am obsessed with the shot of Cat exhaling into the light] A lot of people complained about the fact that Cat didn’t scream and cry like a mad woman, but I liked the way they did it. Cat is a strong woman and there was something very powerful in the silent intensity of the scene. I personally thought it was perfect. Anyway, as the helicopter flies away; Rookie-M gets ready to shoot Catherine, but Agent Reynolds stops him and says: “Don’t shoot. She is my daughter” And Yes I sort of saw that one coming, but I still felt it was shocking given the circumstances. END OF SEASON

And that’s it! I managed to recap all 22 episodes over one summer! Go me! Now I can move on and do something with my life other than writing BATB recaps… until next week. The premiere RECAP will be posted sometime next week… I am guessing Wednesday or Friday. Once I commit to a day of the week I promise to keep it.

MORE RECAPS

QUOTES

Vincent: I hate to break it to you but I am over 21, I don’t need fake IDs

Cat: I’ve been thinking about a lot of things I didn’t before I met you

JT: I suggest you RSVP as a regret to their little dissection party

Gabe: He loves you, he would give up his life to save you.

Gabe: It’s not easy loving someone like me.