RECAP: Beauty and the Beast – Season 2 Episode 11– Held Hostage

Love means sometimes having to say you’re sorry

Turns out Ukrainians are REALLY GOOD at planning surprise heists. Which is unfortunate for nice guys with cakes. Cat works really hard to pretend she is over Vincent, only to remember why she fell in love with him in the first place. Meanwhile Tori is unconscious most of the episode, which absolutely rocks.

The episode starts with a Sex and the City type shot of Catherine enjoying [or pretending to enjoy] life on the big apple. She gets off a yellow cab carrying a cake box and walks by a newsstand. Her New York City dreams are interrupted by the prominent display of social pages. The newspapers are plagued by pictures of Tori and Vincent [no better headlines to put on display?]. So on top of being with a likely psycho, Vincent is becoming vain? Let’s hope not!

Since Cat has a funny way of “moving on” she picks up a copy of the newspaper and takes it to … Gabe?  Cat figures out that, since Tori is wearing the beaStone in every picture, Vincent is trying to lure out whoever is after the gem [so he is not being vain after all! He is a man on a mission. I can respect that]. Gabe wants to talk about Tess’s surprise birthday party instead of Vincent’s plans. Gabe has balloons, booze and even a banner! A BANNER [for some reason it seems to be a big deal]. Under normal circumstances, this would be the point where I would say “Aw” and conclude that Gabe is a really nice guy and that he deserves a chance [for the time being]. But we are NOT under normal circumstances! Gabe KIDNAPPED Cat and TERRORIZED her inside BEASTON –ABBEY! [after doing all sorts of psychopathic stuff for an entire season]. No matter how nice he is now or how many banners he buys… NOTHING will ever erase that! I just wish Cat shared my feelings! [and the writers! What was wrong with a new easily-disposable-non-beast-related love interest?] Maybe Vincent is not the only one who got amnesia after that night…

Cat is touched by the banner, so she tries to kiss Gabe but he pulls away… WTH? He tells Cat that she is still “unresolved” and he wants to wait. Since when does Gabe like to “wait” instead of just getting what he wants? MOST INCONSISTENT CHARACTER EVER. Cat starts one of those rants that just make me laugh because I don’t believe a word she says. Basically she “is not jealous” and she is “completely over Vincent” because he “chose a necklace over a human life” Mmm… WHEN? Whose life? He took the necklace… but he didn’t kill/failed to save anyone as far as I recall! Cat finishes her diatribe by saying she can’t believe she fell for someone “like Vincent” [I can TOTALLY believe it] and that she is just being possessive of the necklace, which is technically a “family relic” or something.

But enough about banners and unresolved anger. It’s time to go to the PRECINCT where Dana has been reading the social pages too. Dana wants Cat, Tess and Gabe to arrest Tori and she is confused by the lack of enthusiasm [It’s because no-one wants to be around Tori, Dana]. Gabe actually comes up with a better explanation, something about Tori being too high profile and that arresting her may be a bad idea [he is such a lawyer!] Dana finally settles for “questioning Tori”. *sighs* I wish she had decided to handle Tori like she handled MARA ANGEL …

"Hi, I am obviously going to die"

Tess, Gabe and Cat walk out of the precinct and run into the ultra-nice-almost-retired reception cop, FREDDY. The second I saw this nice man I KNEW he was going to die. He might as well have been wearing a red shirt! Freddy ruins Tess’s surprise party by accident when he mentions the “cake”. Cat immediately has a mini break down and gets all “Tess should be taking a shower and picking up a slutty dress, instead she is arresting ginger beasts! And it is all Vincent’s fault!” It’s actually Dana’s fault, but OK... Gabe asks Cat to chill but she just keeps ranting: “I am NOT UNRESOLVED, that’s why I keep talking about Vincent and how OVER him I am! If I keep saying it for the next 10 years, I may be able to convince myself, so cut me some slack!”

Now for a mini-tangent…  What the hell is Gabe doing? He IS NOT a cop. He is a lawyer, who, for some reason is in charge of a precinct. However, now he is doing leg work for the FBI? WHY would he do that? Suddenly, he is not even wearing a tie! Why didn’t they bring Dana in since the beginning? She could run the precinct… That would make much more sense!

Time to meet the NEW GEM STEALING GANG. Instead of Irish [or Italian or whatever Pete & Patrick were], we are going with Ukrainian this week. OK, based on the names, they could be anything from Russian to Italian and they don’t all have the same accent. So they could be the INTERNATIONAL GEM STEALING CREW. But for the purpose of simplicity [and because I am obsessed with Banshee] I am calling them all UKRAINIANS. And there are way too many to give clever nicknames to each. So I’ll just introduce the main players: We have DEAD IVAN [spoiler alert, he dies], VLAD [the guy who looks like a male shampoo commercial], NICO the cheesecake lover, MATTEO-the-dead-guard and PETRA [the girl].

Anyway, THE UKRAINIAN GEM STEALING CREW are at the docks gearing up to attack Vincent’s houseboat. Little do they know, two beasts are waiting for them inside. Vincent and Tori hear someone approaching. Vincent quickly recognizes Cat’s heartbeat and tries to stop Tori, but it is too late. Tori attacks “the intruder”, Cat pulls out her gun in self-defense. Tori looks apologetic when she realizes it is Cat … which made me [briefly VERY briefly] not hate her as much. Vincent immediately gets on Cat’s case and accuses her of being a “serial beast shooter”. Cat accuses him of obstruction of justice and the bickering goes on for a few minutes. Yes, they were fighting and saying mean things to each other; but… what I loved about this scene is that they were totally oblivious to the rest of the people in the room. If life has taught me anything is that you fight the hardest with the people you deeply care about, others are simply not worth the energy [so fighting is sometimes good].

Gabe tells everyone to calm down. I guess that’s Gabe’s role in this episode: tell everyone to CHILL and “resolve their issues” every five seconds. Could be worse…  He could be explaining how FLATLINING works. Tori is a little intimidated by all the cop talk so she removes the necklace and tries to give it to Cat, but Vincent stops her. So Cat decides to arrest Tori. Vincent claims it is “police brutality”. Cat threatens to arrest him too. Yes, I am still finding this whole thing kinda hot…

The whole cop/beast showdown puts a damper on the SOVIET GEM STEALING GANG’s plan. They decide to split up: some stay behind to attack the “war hero”, some follow Tori and the necklace. Gabe stays with Vincent and takes the opportunity to… bond? Mark his territory? Not sure what his plan was. Not like he could stop Vincent from leaving or doing whatever the hell he wants. Their awkward not-so-passive-aggressive conversation is cut short because DEAD IVAN and other UKRAINIAN arrive. Vincent grabs DEAD IVAN by the neck (but doesn’t kill him yet). He demands to know “who he works for”. Just then, the other thug comes through the door. Vincent drops DEAD IVAN and throws a knife at the other guy. Ivan reaches for his gun and Gabe kills him. Gabe is SO going to claim he “saved Vincent’s life” later. Vincent is not feeling precisely “grateful”, he is all: “You DON’T KILL mobsters before interrogating them!”

Cat and Tess bring Tori back to the precinct for an interrogation/three-way-cat-fight. Tori was unbearable in this scene! And not even because of what she was saying, but because HOW she was saying it. Nina and Kristin were literally killing the scene with their funny banter. Kristin looked determined, strong, yet a little hurt and jealous. Amber’s performance looked so one-dimensional and artificial in comparison.

Never felt such an urge to jump inside the screen and
personally kill a character

Anyhow… Tess and Cat are trying to coordinate a lie to explain Tori having the necklace. Instead of listening to them, Tori is all “You are just jealous of my ‘primal’ relationship and my very public dates”. In return, Tess says something like: “You are crazy and you will end up like E.T.” [It made more sense when she said it]. Finally Cat tells Tori she is not jealous because Vincent has been “trotting her around, using her as bait with no regards for her safety” which is SO TRUE. Seriously, how can Vincent even stand this woman!? She is a shallow rich girl with no redeeming qualities! Let’s just say he is confused and going along for the ride with someone he thinks can understand him; but he doesn’t even pay much attention to her because he is on a different mission. At that point, Dana walks in. Cat does her best to make the imminent cat fight look like a regular interrogation. Dana takes over and we all start praying for Tori not to kill her.

At the HOUSEBOAT, Gabe examines the bodies of the dead Ukrainians trying to be helpful. Vincent is all “dude we are NOT better together than we are apart”. Vincent explains that he doesn’t “trust any” of them. And you know what? IT WAS ABOUT TIME. Vincent has every reason to be the most distrustful person ever. The army turned him into a monster, Bob used him as a supernatural hit man and then his girlfriend shot him [albeit for good enough reasons, but still]. As I predicted, Gabe tries to play the “I just saved your life” card, but Vincent points out that it just cancels out the time he TRIED TO KILL HIM. Then Vincent recaps all the times he got shot. The funny thing is that the ONLY person who never shot Vincent is Gabe! Cat shot him, Tess shot him, even JT shot him [with a tranq gun]. Finally Vincent points out that on top of serving as target practice for all of them, they are working with Dana who is FBI (like Bob). He has some SOLID arguments there.

Now we need to stop and have a serious discussion about Vincent’s memories! I am sure you noticed that during the previous scene, Vincent remembered Tess shooting him and Gabe trying to kill him. Does that mean that he got ALL of his memories back? Are they coming one by one or did he have an “aha” moment that we NEVER got to see? Is that what happened after Cat shot him? I feel completely robbed that we didn’t get to see the “moment” Vincent regained his memories, or at least, a “moment” where he acknowledges he has!

BACK TO THE EPISODE. Gabe tells Vincent to just give Cat the beach house necklace and maybe she can FINALLY “move on”. Vincent knows what “moving on” means to Gabe and mocks him because he is waiting around for Cat. Gabe tells him that she is “waiting for him”. The realization hits Vincent hard; maybe Cat is ready to move on after all… I think he was still holding on to the idea that she was just talking a big game but wouldn’t actually go anywhere… Whatever the case, it’s clear he doesn’t like the idea of “Cabe” [you know a couple is doomed when you can’t possibly come up with a good couple name. It happened to “Toe” too…] That’s when Vincent notices DEAD IVAN got a text message. So he zips away to go look for the BEACH HOUSE [and possibly check on Cat’s actual “moving on” status].

AT THE PRECINCT, Cat agonizes over the prospect of Tori killing Dana and Tess starts a very intimate relationship with her tranq gun. JERRY THE RED SHIRT COP randomly walks in with an arrested drunk. In the middle of his arrest, he tells Tess that there is “cheesecake” in the fridge, which is supposed to convince Tess there is no surprise party… but who is thinking about that at this point! Dana comes out of the room and tells Cat Tori wouldn’t part with the necklace, so she sent a uni to recover it. Cat is all “You did WHAT?” which is followed by the “uni” been tossed through the window of the interrogation room. Don’t get between a girl-beast and her jewelry.

Everyone gathers around the knocked out uni AKA NICO THE CHEESECAKE LOVER UKRAINIAN. Vlad finds the BeaStone and takes it. Dana and Tess notice him and immediately realize something is off  [probably the accent tipped them off]. Tess tries to “call” for backup and… wait a minute… They are inside a PRECINCT…  Aren’t they literally surrounded by backup? Now that I think about it… It was remarkably easy for six Ukrainians to plan a surprise infiltration and take over a precinct in what? A couple of hours? But I am going to let it slide just because I LOVE HOSTAGE SITUATIONS! I loved the one on Alias [duh] and Crossing Lines and Burn Notice and I wanted The Nine to go on for more than a season and… I think I’ve made my point…   

Meanwhile, Cat is still inside the interrogation room with Tori. She starts to beast out so Cat shoots her with the tranq gun… Heh. Tori faints and for some reason I thought the way she fell was hilarious [which is much better than annoying I guess]. One of the Ukrainians drags Cat and unconscious Tori outside with the rest of the hostages. Freddy decides to play hero and defend Tess because it is her birthday… Aw… So they kill him… Ow… but seriously who didn’t see that coming?

Later, the hostage-takers discuss their exit plan and what to do with unconscious red heads. [BTW Unconscious Tori … WAY more compelling than usual]. Dana asks if they have any escape ideas. This is when having a boyfriend with a hero complex comes in handy. Unfortunately and ex with a forgotten hero-complex doesn’t work as well. But destiny has provided Cat with a backup beast. So she manages to get herself locked up with Tori inside a cell.

Outside, Gabe talks to the SWAT guy. I am positive he had a name, but can’t remember it, so I am just going to call him FLASHPOINT. Whatever his name, he shares some dubious hostage situation insight with Gabe. According to Flashpoint, the longer a hostage situation takes… the more likely it is to end well because hostage-takers start bonding… Is that like Stockholm syndrome in reverse? “Dog Day Afternoon Syndrome” or something? That doesn’t sound right… Anyway, Vincent takes the opportunity to have a “looky loo” at the blueprints of the building. Gabe notices and tells Vincent they should “work together”. Vincent is all: “My hero days are over. I am not freeing the hostages, just taking my gem and going” [love that he doesn’t even mention Tori]. Gabe informs him that Catherine is inside. Vincent leaves before Gabe gets to tell him that Tori is also in there. At least we have our priorities straight: CAT-Gem-everyone else …. And fine Tori [if time permits]. 

Inside the CELL OF FAILED FEMALE BONDING, Cat tells Tori her very simple plan: Beast out, kill a few Ukrainians, get necklace, free everyone, save the world, get world peace, etc etc. Cat tries to appeal to Tori’s human nature by honestly sharing her feelings. Since Tori has some serious psychopathic tendencies, Cat’s talk about feelings just pisses her off. Cat realizes Tori is close to beasting out, so she decides to speed up the process and tells her how she REALLY feels: “I hate you and you and Vincent don’t stand a chance” [Kristin couldn’t possibly be more adorable in this scene]. Tori beasts out, Cat asks her to break her handcuffs but the bitch-beast just leaves. At least she takes care of the guard on her way out. This scene made me think that Cat never felt directly threatened by Tori. She was more concerned about what the circumstances did to Vincent. I think, on an unconscious level, she was aware that the Vincent she knew could never fall in love with a person like Tori. So either he was truly lost, or he would eventually come back to his senses.

Cat gets out of the cell and takes MATTEO THE DEAD GUARD’S gun. Over at the hostage bullpen, Dana has nothing better to do than come up with conspiracy theories involving mighty redheads and stolen gems. Tess is suspiciously quiet about it so Dana concludes that she is hiding something. At the same time, Vincent works his way inside the building by crawling in the ducts. OK those must be some HUGE ducts… no way Vincent can fit inside a regular duct. Vincent calls VLAD from DEAD IVAN’S phone and lures him to the basement, which is apparently the place to be because Tori and Cat also headed there.

Cat calls Gabe and learns that Vincent is in the building looking for the necklace. Cat is a little offended that he is not there to save her. Guess that’s what happens when you shoot someone… they stop being your “guardian angel on call”, bummer... However Gabe is not so sure about that… He tells Cat Vincent was worried when he heard she was inside and that he may even be willing to help. And… after telling Cat that her ex is still into her, Gabe tells her that he wants to date her. Gabe’s “get the girl” strategy is very confusing… and shockingly it works in the end!

Vlad finally goes to the basement to rendez-vous with Dead Ivan Vincent, but runs into a different beast. Tori kills him and takes the necklace. Catherine walks in and tries to get Tori to cooperate. Tori is not in a cooperative mood so she just shoves Cat out of her way. Still in handcuffs, Cat starts defending herself and she KICKS TORI’S BEAST-ASS. How awesome was seeing that?! Vincent arrives and asks the obvious question “How did you knock-out a beast?” I know it should have been obvious at this point… but my first thought was “Is Cat a beast?” I thought she may have had some dormant beast DNA that was activated by the necklace…. That would actually make sense. * SPOILER ALERT.* If Cat is Rebecca’s direct descendant and we assume Rebecca procreated with Alistair… then Cat’s entire family would have some “beast” in them…. Hmmm something to think about… *End of Spoiler*

Cat tries to convince Vincent to go back to his hero ways while he retrieves the necklace and gathers evidence on the gem stealing crew [not particularly caring for his unconscious “girlfriend”]. Cat keeps pushing the “hero” subject until Vincent finally snaps and tells her exactly why he feels so betrayed: Not only she shot him, but it was her mother who corrupted his DNA, then his father used him as an assassin and finally he discovered her ancestor had a beast on a LITERAL leash… Well… when you put it like THAT… It finally hits Cat that there are a LOT of things preventing Vincent from going back to his old self. It’s not just about getting his memories back and going to a happier place. A lot has happened since then and Vincent suffered due to his selflessness and trusting the wrong people. I completely understand why he would build up a wall around him and vow to never be deceived again. Unfortunately, since Cat is in the middle of all the betrayal, his new strategy also involves pushing her away [or letting her go depending on how you see it]. 

Upstairs, Dana decides to use her hostage time wisely and profile Tess. She concludes that Tess loves her birthday too much; which is a sign that, in her day to day life, people don’t pay much attention to her. Probably because she is covering something up and that takes precedent over her needs. It is actually quite accurate…  If you think about it, Tess is almost as deep as Cat in the beast business, but she never got anything out of it [just jeopardizing her career and a lot of stress]. Sure, she is loyal to Cat, but that is hardly an ideal situation. You can tell she is fed up with it, so she pretty much admits it to Dana. The hostage-takers finally realize their men are dropping like flies and that the imprisoned girls are gone. So, they decide to start killing hostages. NICO THE CHEESECAKE LOVER HOSTAGE TAKER suggests starting with Tess because she is Cat’s partner. Now that is unfortunate… as if Tess wasn’t feeling like Cat causes her too much trouble already!

In the hallway, Cat starts a whispering plea knowing Vincent can hear her. I thought Kristin did an amazing job, it felt so sincere and emotional. In her overdue apology she acknowledges that she was blinded by anger and couldn’t see that he was just acting out due to all the betrayal and pain. She finishes by telling him that she still has faith in him and that she will protect him like she always did. I thought that scene was great because it encompassed all that Vincat are about. It was not just a romance; it was a relationship where Cat “believed” in Vincent’s inner goodness [despite the monster he was on the outside] and went to great lengths “to protect him” because she loved him.

Just when Nico is about to kill Tess, Vincent walks into the room. Suddenly all guns are pointed at the “war hero”. Meanwhile Cat desperately tries to turn the lights out so Vincent can discretely beast out and do his thing. As soon as Cat kills the lights Vincent beasts out and kills two of the Ukrainians. While the remaining thugs shoot at him, Vincent grabs the necklace and hides behind a desk unable to beast out … Pretty inconvenient given the circumstances. Cat comes back for Vincent and tries to go after one of the guys, but he overpowers and starts choking her. Even while air deprived, Cat is a smart cookie so she figures out the gem is beast-blocking Vincent. She tells him to get rid of it so he can save her… and he does [without hesitation]. Aw.

He kills one guy but leaves the last one alive for interrogation. Cat points her gun at the Ukrainian and asks: “who do you work for?” Just when the guy was going to spill the beans [or not, he was kinda reluctant] a sniper aims at Cat. Vincent lets go of the Ukrainian and launches himself towards Cat to prevent her from getting shot. Another great thing! Almost by instinct, Vincent lets go of his “mission” to save Cat. He ain’t choosing a necklace over a human life now, is he Cat? Unfortunately, this means the last of the Ukrainians gets shot before saying anything useful.

Vincent and Catherine remain lying on the floor for a few seconds too long. He acknowledges that she “turned off the lights”, almost surprised but touched that she kept her promise. She looks at him intensely and says “You didn’t leave”. Their moment is interrupted by the SWAT TEAM and Gabe… who is a LAWYER but now hangs out with the super-specialized cops? Yeah, I am sure he has the proper training.

Outside, Cat and Vincent talk to Flashpoint. Vincent is all “Eh… No big deal, I was in the neighborhood” and Cat is all “He is a hero, it’s kinda his thing”. Cat is obviously a little bit in awe of Vincent and Gabe doesn’t like it at all… Vincent goes back inside. Cat tells Gabe that Vincent didn’t do it because he is “unresolved”; she thinks he did it because he actually wanted to “save everyone”. I think she is right, however “wanting to save everyone” and “still being in love with Cat” are NOT mutually exclusive. And this is also what differentiates Vincent and Gabe. Vincent was never a hero with an agenda. He was a hero by accident. Every time he did something heroic it came from a genuine desire to save someone. He never wanted revenge, or fame or to impress anyone. Gabe’s motivations for being a “good guy” were never that genuine. He went from [fake] need for redemption to wanting to impress a woman. Not true hero behavior.  

Cat also figures out why she was feeling so angry. She was disappointed in herself because instead of being strong and independent, she got trapped in a destructive relationship. However; she was reminded of why she endured so much when she remembered that, once upon a time, who “Vincent was” “made everything worth it”. Now this motivation/realization makes total sense to me, unlike the MYSTERY FEELING of a couple of episodes ago. At least Gabe is not stupid, so he notices Cat is not ready to move on just yet. Cat says that a guy who gets a BANNER deserves an actual shot and not just being a rebound. Under normal circumstances I’d say Gabe is doing the noble thing and Cat is allowed to find herself and try to move on/explore her options after everything that happened. But these ARE NOT NORMAL CIRCUMSTANCES! Again! Gabe=psycho kidnapper Cat! No erasing that!

Inside Tess is all “I can totally toss a guy across the room… Tori ain’t all that… and Vincent… he has serial heroism issues…” A little upset, Dana asks if she is recanting her confession. Without flat out lying, Tess tells her she had an epiphany and realized she may have more friends than she realized and she owes them some loyalty. Dana is gracious enough to let it go, for now.

Cat comes inside and finds Vincent looking for the necklace which is nowhere to be found. Vincent is not as consumed by his need to find answers as he was before. I think he got a taste of his old selfless self and he liked it. Cat and Vincent mutually acknowledge their struggles and finally Vincent concludes that they need to “work together” [because they are better together than they are apart, remember?] He even throws in that this seems to be their “destiny” that they are “meant to be work together”. Cat tells Vincent she is sorry again even though “she apologized already”.  Vincent doesn’t know what she is talking about. Cat realizes he never heard her “prayer” because he was holding the gem. He decided by himself to be a hero; which I bet makes him 10 times hotter in Cat’s eyes.

At that point, Tess walks in and gives Vincent a giant bear hug. I think it is the polite thing to do when someone saves you from getting your brains blown up. Gabe comes in to collect the girls and Tess invites Vincent to the after-hostage-party, which I thought was nice. He declines. I think this is a good time to ask something I’ve been wondering the entire episode: WHERE THE HELL IS JT? Why is he not there? Imagine how fun he could have been; trying to pick up a gift for Tess and then becoming a hostage! Agr… missed opportunity! Cat sadly watches Vincent walk away as they leave to party with the rest of the hostages.

And on a LAST MINUTE TWIST… turns out the drunk guy who got arrested in the beginning of the episode is actually working for the MYSTERY GEM HUNTER and he has the necklace! OK, at least there was some pay-off for that.

I really like this episode! It might even be one of my favorites… It may be because I seriously love hostage situations; but also, as I was telling some people, this episode felt like the inflection point for me. The tone of it was akin to Season 1 but incorporating S2 storylines. The characters made sense. Vincent confronted his anger and betrayal yet he reconnected with his old self. And while I don’t agree with Cat’s decision to “care for Gabe” all of the sudden, I understood her emotional journey. All in all… they weren’t back in the happy place… but I could finally understand where they were going.

MORE RECAPS

QUOTES

Vincent [to Gabe]: Then maybe you should go get a drink there then

Gabe [about Vincat]: I feel like I am in the middle of a divorce

Cat [to Tess]: Then why are you clutching the tranq gun like it is your best friend.

Nico: I don’t know, the redhead said she was gonna get angry right before the…