RECAP: Beauty and the Beast – Season 2 Episode 6 – Father Knows Best

Morally ambiguous fathers are the best TV-dads

Vincent succumbs to his beast nature and looks like he has been watching way too many episodes of The Vampire Diaries. FLATLINING is re-introduced and we discover I have some serious issues with morally ambiguous TV daddies. We also learn Amber Skye Noyes has incriminating photos of the casting director. 

The episode starts with Vincent lying in bed… shirtless and the only reason I am bringing this up is because it reminded me of the BEST OPENING SEQUENCE EVER… yeah, that is the ONLY reason I am noticing the wardrobe choices [I am serious writer people!]

Anyway, to make the scene even better, Vincent is having a series of flashbacks that could be titled “Vincat’s ‘Aw’ moments montage”. Their anniversary, car rescue, train scene, etc. He wakes up exhilarated by the new memories.

A very happy Vincent goes to see Cat, who clearly didn’t have a peaceful/flashback-loaded night of sleep [just ask her punching bag]. For a change, Cat doesn’t have Beast issues. It’s just a case of good ole daddy issues. Cat is not coping well with the realization that Agent Bob is her bio dad. Vincent lets Cat unload all her frustrations [and kick him in the face]. I thought he was being terribly sweet. Just what everyone needs when facing a problem; someone to hear you rant [and/or let you hit him]. Vincent couldn’t care less about his tiny girlfriend’s accidental physical abuse; he is too excited to share his new memories with her. Cat is thrilled to hear he is getting bits and pieces of their shared past, they kiss, the audience goes collectively “AW”. My cynical mind goes “this is SO the calm before the storm”.

Vincent reminds Cat that there are only “two more beasts” on the blacklist and then he “is out”. He even has a celebration planned. It’s all super sweet except for the fact that he is starting to sound like Walter White => “$300,000 for my cancer treatment and I am out”… and we all know how that turned out [he NEVER got out]. Cat is also worried about the moral implications of beast killing [even though she had NO ISSUES shooting Pyro Beast to perform experimental resurrection techniques which didn’t even work!] But whatever… Vincent has two beasts to kill, Cat has one bio-dad to confront.

It’s time to visit the PRECINCT where Gabe has redecorated Joe’s office with a VERY public BEAST OBSESSION BOARD. There… in the middle of his office… for the ENTIRE PRECINCT TO SEE. Doesn’t he know that obsession boards belong in creepy basements? Tess enters the office and the conversation goes something like this blah blah Muirfield blah blah beasts WAIT! JT is NOT on this episode? WHY?! I think JT is an essential character [not to mention extremely popular]. I can’t understand why he is the only main character who wasn’t in all the eps!

Gabe has concluded that Vincent’s demise might inevitably come after he whacks the last two beasts. Gabe is still invested in “saving Vincent” [“for Cat”]. I am still not sure if Gabe’s [brief] “beast saviour” complex was ever explained. My initial guess was that Gabe had an interest in preserving at least one beast for his evil future plans. After watching the entire season, I am not sure Gabe’s actions made sense [at least not all of the time]. I might need to come back to this after rewatching the rest of the eps more carefully. Another thing I never got… Why was Tess suddenly TEAM GABE? If she wanted a better boyfriend for Cat, she could have picked an eligible bachelor that never kidnapped her!  Just saying…

At the boathouse, Vincent answers the phone by saying “Condor”. I know, it’s not particularly relevant… but that code name annoys me! Like a good Southamerican person I inevitably think of this MUSICAL PIECE every time someone says “condor” and then I can’t get the damn thing out of my head!!! You can see how that is annoying. I doubt anyone besides me has that issue but, seriously…. do they even have condors outside Los Andes? How does the FBI pick code-names for beast hunters? Do they just pick random exotic animals? What would they call other beast hunters? Dingo? Platypus?

Never Mind. Daddy Bob gives “condor” his new beast-hit mission and I am ACTUALLY excited for this Beast-of-the-week! Mainly because I have a nickname I’ve been dying to use:

ONE TREE BEAST: Curt Windsor.

Mission: Don’t allow his daughter, Tori, to go out into the world [so he is a humanitarian] and to be an honest/old-school market maker [instead of bond frauds and Ponzi schemes he just kills his opponents].

Basically Curt Windsor is your average Trump-like multimillionaire; except, instead of reality shows and real estate, he invests in beast making evil organizations [maybe he had plans for “The Beast Apprentice” at some point in the future, we’ll never know]. In lieu of getting his dividends in cash [yes, I am still assuming M was publicly traded]; he decided to profit from Muirfield’s research and become an “enhanced” human himself. How stupid is that? Who volunteers to be a guinea pig? That is greed to the extreme! In addition, it looks like it was a long term investment since his beast DNA was dormant until 3 years ago. That’s when Wall Street power players started dropping dead [I am sure there are easier ways to play the stock market].

One Tree Beast is also a widower and has an overprotected daughter/prisoner, Tori, whom you can start hating in a couple of minutes. Tori totally embraces her “princess in a tower” status and only goes out to the balcony while her dad is sleeping. Now… that is lame. If you are going to be rebellious and sneak out at least date a bad boy and go to a freaking Rave!

After giving all this One Tree Beast information to Vincent, Daddy Bob has to hang up because his bio daughter is in his office. Catherine, ever so diplomatic, opts for a very subtle approach and tells Bob she wants to meet for coffee and chat about the weather and stuff… or in Cat’s words “about why you’ve been hiding the truth from me… DAD”. Yeah, Cat doesn’t really do subtle …

And it’s time to meet… Tori Windsor… *sighs*. I need to make some disclaimers first. As a sane person, I understand there is a difference between a character and the actor who portrays it. The reason I am saying this is to establish that I don’t actually KNOW Amber Skye Noyes. She could be the loveliest girl for all I know. She REALLY doesn’t come out that way on interviews and social media but… I am still willing to give her the benefit of the doubt and assume she could be a lovely girl who doesn’t handle media well. In summary, I don’t know her and can’t really know what she is like. Having said that… this is a review and commenting on “acting ability” is fair game. I doubt Amber would ever read this, so I won’t worry too much about saying not so nice things about her in the future [and believe me I am not going to be nice].

Second disclaimer: I wasn’t among the fans that immediately freaked out after Tori’s character was announced. I thought it would be IMPOSSIBLE for the writers to make such an “obvious repeat” of their “poorly handled” redhead plot in S1 [yes, those are direct auto-quotes]. The way I saw it, Tori wasn’t going to be a love interest for Vincent AT ALL or she would be, but only to give Vincent the opportunity to [clearly] choose Cat. I was unfortunately wrong about my assessment. As I mentioned, I have SERIOUS issues with the actress, but I also have a lot of issues with the character. I’ll discuss these issues in detail as the recaps continue.  

But for now, BACK TO THE EPISODE. Tori goes out on the balcony for her 1 AM rebellious “adventure”. She does some daring stuff like… you know… breathing fresh air. Believe it or not, she manages to even breathe wrong. She should look vulnerable and eager to experience life or something…  but she just  looks blank. Even the way she was walking annoyed me. The whole thing felt so unnatural [and this was before I officially started hating her]. 

While Tori is outside dealing with her “Rapunzel complex”, Vincent sneaks in to take care of Windsor. However old Curt still has his beast moves. Vincent is taken off guard by his strength. They beast fight and freak the hell out of Tori. Curt grabs Tori by the neck and demands to know if she let the other beast in. See? Even Daddy Windsor thinks his daughter has a more interesting life… Anyway, Vincent grabs Tori gets out of the apartment. One Tree Beast howls for the entire Upper East Side to hear. 

As all of this unfolds, Cat is at the COFFEE SHOP OF BEAST CONFESSIONS AND “HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER” TALKS [I thought pubs were better for those…] Daddy Bob tells Cat he met Vanessa when they were very young and they “fell madly in love”. They found out she was pregnant after they broke up. By then Vanessa was already engaged to Thomas who offered to raise the child as his own [Mommy Chandler sure moved on quickly!] The whole thing seems fishy…. I actually believe Bob was in love with Vanessa, I would love to find out exactly what happened. My theory is that Bob did something tremendously evil and Vanessa broke up with him. Not entirely sure how Thomas fits in this hypothetical scenario...

I have to confess, I like Bob… I actually really really like him. But I seem to have a thing for morally ambiguous TV dads who do stuff like programming their children to become spies or stealing their children’s doppelgangers from parallel universes.

After Bob is done reminiscing Cat asks him about M and he plays dumb in a completely convincing manner. At that moment the news of Tori’s kidnapping break. Cat leaves and Bob gets a call from Vincent. He scolds him for kidnapping Tori; but Vincent rationalizes it as “saving her” from Windsor’s “control” [we’ll be hearing A LOT about this]. OK, I get it… Windsor was a strict father [and a murderous greedy beast]. I still don’t think he would have killed Tori for seeing him as a beast. Also, I don’t think Daddy Bob has the moral high-ground to make comments about “controlling” people! He IS a beast puppet master! One Tree Beast is just a paranoid dad!

Cat goes to the boathouse to talk to Vincent but all she finds is Tori’s slut earring. Just then Windsor arrives with his white-collar-posse. They even do the whole Reservoir Dogs walk and everything! OK, so as a general rule I hate Beasts of the Week, right? But I gotta say, I LOVED ONE TREE BEAST. It was a combination of casting the right actor and giving the character an actual storyline! I became invested in Curt in one episode in a way I didn’t with Tori [in EIGHT EPISODES]. But then again… me + morally ambiguous daddies… I may have issues.

Windsor and his beast-entourage enter the boat but Cat is nowhere to be found. She jumped and is hiding in the water. After [not so thoroughly] searching the place, the Wall Street gang take some of V’s belongings and get ready to leave. But before that, One Tree Beast is not going to break the tradition of Beasts-of-the-week making bombastic speeches. So he proclaims he will find Vincent and rip him to shreds. I buy his motivations, so I’ll endure the speech this time.

Cat goes back to the PRECINCT where they argue about Vincent’s motives for kidnapping Tori. Tess believes he just took the daughter to use her as leverage [that would actually make sense]. Cat thinks he took Tori to “protect her” [which DOES NOT make sense IMO]. Gabe has the brilliant idea of convincing Windsor to be a guinea pig for … you guessed it FLATLINING! Take a look at my hothead recap in case you forgot how FLATLINING works. I don’t know what pisses me off more this season. The endless explanations about tracking or flatlining! Tess points out how STUPID Gabe’s plan is. THANK YOU Tess. Cat is willing to try. Come on! When in doubt… DON’T FLATLINE!

Meanwhile, Tori is tied to a tree. Vincent explains that he is actually “saving” her from her father. Tori is all “OK, you are super-hot so I believe you”. OK, she needs some more convincing than that, but she eventually gets there. Tori breaks down after the traumatic events of the last few hours. This could have been a very powerful scene, but the acting was TERRIBLE. Amber could have chosen to play this in so many different ways: scared, scared with a strong façade, conniving, bratty… but it was … nothing, no layers whatsoever. It just annoys me… and I don’t even blame Amber. I blame the CASTING DIRECTOR! I am SURE there are thousands of young actresses [that can actually act] who fit Tori’s profile. It baffles me because everyone is SO well-cast on this show… it makes me think there had to be an ulterior motive to cast this girl.

Anyhow… Vincent finally convinces Tori that he is “freeing” her from her father’s evil claws by taking out a tracking device inside her wrist. Mmm… I still don’t think that proves Daddy Windsor is evil. Don’t a lot of politicians and power players do that to their children in case they get kidnapped? How is this so terrible? Curt is a multimillionaire with a lot of enemies and a dangerous past. I don’t even think this qualifies as “overprotecting”! I think Tori just realized Vincent is totally dreamy and decided to go with his plan. Even Vincent’s confession that he is luring Curt so he can kill him doesn’t seem to make Tori hate him. I mean, seriously? A “you bastard, let me go!” reaction was certainly appropriate at that point! If BatB has taught me anything is that it is ALL RIGHT for women to date/fall in love with men who kidnap them.    

Cat goes to WINDSOR’S TOWER and runs into Daddy Bob in the lobby. He gives him an incredible “I am just an honest lawman trying to catch a bad guy” routine. It’s awesome because there is SO MUCH going on. He is lying and pretending to be all innocent, he knows Cat is lying and he is using it, he actually wants Windsor dead but he is probably scared of him because he knows who he is and he is probably also trying to look good in his daughter’s eyes. And that… my friends, is having LAYERS in your acting!

Bob proposes a variation of good cop/bad cop => “Father cop/daughter cop”. It’s sort of cute. While they wait for Curt, Daddy Bob enquires about Cat’s boyfriends. And seriously, I don’t want to discuss my love life with my dad and I was raised by him! I’d say that’s not a conversation you want to have with your absent bio-dad on the day you are starting to “reconnect”. Again, I couldn’t tell if Bob was warning Cat, threatening her, foreshadowing or actually being sincere. Way to go Ted, you can actually make your character interesting.

When they finally get to see Windsor, it is obvious Bob is taking on the role of bad cop. Cat is being more of an “observant cop”. She notices the things they took from Vincent’s apartment and concludes he is in Cedar Woods. So… Vincent decided to take his kidnap victim to the place where he was planning to celebrate the end of his criminal life with his girlfriend? WTH?

Meanwhile in the FOREST OF TERRIBLE DAUGHTERS & BAD ACTING, Vincent is setting an intruders’ trap as he has an emotional charged conversation with Tori. Well… Vincent is having an emotional conversation. Tori is basically reciting lines. We learn a few useful[ish] things: Tori’s mom knew about Curt’s beastliness and she tried to warn Tori. I am still not sure why Tori decided her dad is the enemy all of the sudden… All I am saying is that I wouldn’t jump ship and collude with my kidnapper the second I discovered my dad was a failed science experiment! 

Vincent talks about his own difficulties dealing with his double life [awesome guy by day/beast hunter by night]. He says it is do-able when you have someone special in your life. Tori asks if he [Vincent] has someone special. At that point I yell “Yeah, he is taken, bitch” at my screen [sorry, it just came out]. V just answers “yeah” and then Tori starts crying because she feels alone and scared. And I could totally understand that; even feel for her… except it was the first official time I actually hated this woman! That was the worst crying scene ever! Instead of the touching scene this could have been, I just had a *roll eyes* “Oh please” moment.

Anyway, the beast-hug is interrupted [thank God because it was making me uncomfortable] by someone approaching the campsite. It’s Cat. She trips over Vincent’s trap and is almost staked to death! What kind of trap was that? Was Vincent expecting a vampire? Finally, Vincat and the third redhead wheel leave the woods. One Tree Beast arrives to the Campsite with his Beast Crime Scene Investigation unit. He correctly concludes Vincent was trying to lure him there.

Cat, Vincent and Tori arrive at the GENTLEMEN CLUB. Vincent is upset because Cat got in the way of his beast killing and Tori is, for reasons I do not understand, APOLOGIZING to her kidnappers! She feels bad for not outing her dad as a beast sooner... she didn’t do it, because he bought her pretty clothes or something like that. Cat is very sweet and understanding with her. Again, Amber conveys zero emotion…

Now I am going to go off on a TORI TANGENT. This is not relevant to the recap of the episode, just some general thoughts on what I thought the character should have been. You may skip it if you want and continue reading the recap. But here it goes:

After this episode aired, I wasn’t particularly worried or annoyed by Tori as a character [yet]. The acting was definitely AWFUL, but I still though the character had some potential. This feeling lasted for about a week. I deeply dislike this character and not just because of Amber and not just because she came between Vincat. I feel the writers envisioned the character in a way and then backed out due to fan outrage [or maybe due to Amber’s limitations]. We’ll never know. What’s clear is that each writer was on a different page. Tori’s role in the narrative kept changing every week; from innocent poor rich girl, to beast lifestyle cheerleader to vengeful temptress. The only constant in the character was how much it annoyed me.

Initially, I thought a “she-beast” could bring something to the table. The way I see it, Tori could have fulfilled three different storytelling roles. Each role would call for a different type of actress [none of which was Amber]:

The temptress. The devil in V’s shoulder. I remember the casting call, and this is how the character was originally conceived. Based on the initial storylines involving Tori; I can see this was the idea. I am not crazy about it. Introducing a “femme fatale” to come between the main couple is a cliché tactic that usually just pisses everyone off and makes all the characters look bad. However, if they were going to go there; at least they could have done it right! Starting with casting an actress that could actually pull it off. Someone who was overtly sexy and could play a bitch retaining some amount of “coolness” [Someone like Eliza Dushku or Phoebe Tomkin. Or someone who can go really dark and scary like Ruth Wilson from Luther]. Moreover, if Tori was going to be the defender of “beastliness” it doesn’t make sense that she was a “new beast”. She could have been someone who was born like that and learned to embrace it her entire life. Think about Damon [and later Klaus] trying to make Stefan live the vampire life on TVD. Finally, it had to be ABOUT that. About understanding what it means to be different and having a connection with Vincent as a result. I could see that’s where the writers were going but this theme was never explored to my satisfaction. And that was partially [but not entirely] due to Amber’s inability to convey ANYTHING.

The Equal. Introducing a new female to the mix [even if she is to be involved with the leading man] doesn’t necessarily mean we have to hate her or that she has to be a one-note devious vixen. She could actually be a complex character, capable of creating empathy. They’ve done it before. Kim Raver’s character on Grey’s Anatomy (Teddy) was originally introduced as someone who would come between Owen and Christina. However, she eventually got storylines of her own, including a new love interest. This is actually the type of she beast I would have preferred. But Tori didn’t fit this mold. This hypothetical character needed a good backstory [not being a trust fund baby]. It also needed a good mature actress that could hold her own against Jay and Kristen. I don’t have a dream casting idea that completely satisfies me, but I was thinking along the lines of Jordana Spiro and Rachelle Lefevre (thanks @pennpal02 for that one).

The Protégé: The last avenue I can envision for Tori. This is what I originally thought the character was going to be. I thought Tori was going to be a young innocent victim turned into a beast. In this scenario, Tori would be scared, insecure and trying to “find herself” as a person while coping with the “monster” she had just become. This could have tied so well with Vincent’s issues of identity. In mentoring Tori, he could have discovered things about himself and his moral code. I don’t envision this Tori being romantically involved with Vincent. It would have been more of an older brother/little sister relationship. Then, her character could have chosen either the dark side and succumb to her beast impulses or be “saved” by her new mentor. Either way, I would have liked it. This is exactly the type of character Jessica was on True Blood and it was executed to perfection. Back in S1 True Blood  had “epic couple” that everyone loved; the leading man, vampire Bill, is forced to turn a young girl. I thought she was going to come between the couple and I was annoyed. But it NEVER happened. Instead, the newly introduced character, Jessica, became one of my favourite characters. Tori could have been this character. I could have loved this Tori [but not with Amber playing her].

In summary, Tori could have been a lot of things, but she was none. She could have also been played by many other actresses. If they insisted on redheads, I have a few suggestions: Deborah Ann Woll [my personal fave], Rose Leslie, Amanda Righetti, Sarah Rafferty, I could even take Joanna Garcia, that girl who plays Castle’s daughter, hell! The girl who plays “Wendy” on the Wendy commercials! In synthesis, anyone would have been better.

END OF TORI TANGENT

BACK TO THE EPISODE. Tori asks Cat if she is worried Vincent will “change” and become a “bad beast” like her father. Cat says she worries about it all the time. This is clearly the theme they tried to explore this season: Is Vincent a man or a beast? Can he fight his animal instincts? I like the idea… however, I think they had issues with the execution. I was happy with Vincent’s season-long arc; but felt like they deviated from the path a couple of times. Having said that, I greatly appreciate that they didn’t introduce some lame device like the “humanity switch” (TVD) and that Vincent actually had a journey of self-discovery. I just wish they hadn’t had that radical “set-back” between episodes 7-12. He was getting better until 6 and then fell again… A slow progression may have been better. I think I would have been less upset about Tori, if Vincent was still in amnesiac-supersoldier-mode by the time she was introduced [and then go back to Cat for the first time as Tori faded into oblivion].

Anyway, Cat notices that Vincent is not acting like himself. Or his new self… or his new new self? Yeah, it gets confusing. In other words, Cat believes they should be focusing on SAVING Tori’s father, not killing him… and HELLO TORI? You should agree with her instead of being a beast push-over! Tori seems to be suffering from a serious case of Stockholm syndrome… or maybe she is just dumb. Cat mentions the possibility of “flatlining” Curt. Vincent and I roll our eyes. In the end, they decide flatlining Curt is the only option… Mmm what about NOT killing him? They could gather evidence of his beast killings, threaten to expose him, send him to prison, etc etc. Flatlining IS NOT the only option… EVER.

So, Cat goes to see Curt and offers to kill him so they MAY bring him back as a human in exchange for his daughter. I think Windsor should have called Cat’s bluff. She was obviously not going to kill Tori [and even if she did, the world would be a better place without her]. But… Windsor actually agrees to Cat’s RIDICULOUS proposition. He is either the BEST DAD EVER or he is a beast with an evil plan. Whatever the case, I really think he loved his daughter. Not saying he was a good person in general… but I don’t think he wanted to see his daughter suffer. Some may disagree.

Basically, One Tree Beast goes to the GENTLEMEN’S CLUB to get strapped to a metal table and let an Indian dude kill him. JT should NEVER leave town. This is seriously a lose/lose situation for Curt. Flatlining doesn’t work, he dies LOSE. Flatlining works, he goes to prison where Tori can visit LOSE. All he asks is to see his daughter one last time. Tori approaches him and Curt is all “Honey, I know you are a horrible actress… and I should know what horrible acting looks like. I was on One Tree Hill! But regardless… I still love you”. OK, OK he actually says something like “You don’t know how much I love you, how much I need you” The first part of that statement made me say: “Aw, see? Best dad ever” but the second part made me think Curt knew Tori activated and maybe “amplified” him. So… My question is… was Curt actually the BEST DAD EVER willing to give it all up for his daughter? or… he was there because he wanted to come in contact with Tori so he would “supercharge” and kill everyone? I am pretty sure it was the latter because believing in flatlining is just stupid. I am running out of ways to say this: You shall not have faith in FLATLINING!!!

So, Tori touches her dad and he instantly becomes a beast on steroids. He breaks free and starts attacking everyone. Vincent beasts out too, they fight and finally Vincent RIPS HIS HEART OUT. Literally. I was put off by this scene the first time I saw it. However, now that I am rewatching it; it was pretty clear that Curt was going to kill everyone [and according to my hypothesis that was his plan all along]. So… I think Vincent’s murder was justified, at least to some extent. However, I am still not happy with the way he killed him. Some old fashion neck breaking would have worked just fine. Now… I have no problems with heart ripping. I’ve watched it endlessly on The Vampire Diaries, I’ve watched the Disney glowy version on Once Upon a Time and I’ve seen way more violent stuff on other shows (Banshee, Hannibal, Game of Thrones). I can take violence, that was not my issue. I just thought the heart ripping didn’t fit with the [aesthetic] style and tone of the show. I understand they were going for the “shock” factor [and wanted to establish Vincent had lost himself]… I am just not sure it was necessary.

Later at the BOATHOUSE, Vincent is doing pull ups… which TOTALLY makes up for the fact that he just ripped someone’s heart out. One Tree Beast who? Cat arrives and this is my favourite scene of the episode. Cat asks Vincent what happened and he honestly replies he doesn’t know. He says Windsor’s super-beast strength took him by surprise and then he went into terminator mode himself. Vincent is worried because he just took one HUGE step back towards beast-hood. Cat is very understanding, which I loved. She acknowledges they don’t understand everything that is going on with him and that they just have to keep moving forward. Vincent says he just wishes he knew “what triggered it” Hint: it has red hair and zero emotions. Speaking of Tori, she goes back to her penthouse where she notices her eyes are glowing and gives us an incredibly fake gasp. END OF EPISODE.

I think I’ve exhausted everything I could say about Tori. She is a big issue for me in the next few episodes. I was so ticked off by Tori that I couldn’t enjoy the other aspects of the episodes. Even this one, it had a lot of good stuff… but my annoyance was clouding everything. Still… now that I am rewatching with a clear head, I am trying to be fair and pick up on the good, not just the bad stuff. Overall… I think this episode had potential and it had an interesting idea behind it. However the execution wasn’t quite there. I feel I could go on discussing this forever, so I’ll just stop now! [But will continue in the comments section].

QUOTES

Tess: Hey Curt, would you mind beasting-out so we can KILL you

MORE RECAPS HERE