RECAP: Beauty and the Beast – Season 2 Episode 14– Redemption

The Strange case of Dr. Keller and Mr. Hyde

We have a meant-to-be-psycho that isn’t a psycho. Two psychos that are the same psycho, a beast, a man, dream sequences and a LOT of exposition. We also get some lessons on fake-funeral-etiquette and learn that hospitals are a VERY dangerous place and that row machines were created by God.

The episode starts with something that should happen EVERY WEEK: Vincent working out… using a rowing machine… I mean… what can I say about THAT? …………………………………… Anyway! Cat enters the houseboat and tells Vincent she is there to talk about their relationship [while fighting the urge to touch him, I presume]. They go into the usual “is there still an ‘us’” debate and without much           preamble Vincent approaches Cat and leans down to kiss her. There was something definitely “off” about that scene… because it was a dream! Ug [DISCLAIMER… I kinda hate dream fake-outs].

At the COFFEE SHOP OF GIRL TALK AND BEAST CONFESSIONS, Cat confesses she got her beasts mixed up and called Gabe “Vincent” [luckily not during sex]. Talk about subconscious desires! At least they established Cat slept with Gabe without making a big deal about it [and w/o using bathrobes]. In any case, Cat has come to the conclusion that she needs to “stay away” from Vincent in order to move on. I think that when you are REALLY over someone, you aren’t that desperate to “stay away”. You just don’t care… especially if you are happy in your new relationship. But if you are calling the name of your ex, it’s probably safe to conclude you ARE NOT over him [no matter how hard you try to pretend you are].

Later, Cat and Tess sit at Gabe’s pitifully empty fake funeral. Maybe Gabe tried the “friendship” thing when he was very young, but he probably didn’t have much of a social life in the period that came after killing his parents and before trying to kill Vincent. Guess he had Cylon-Tyler… but she is dead. And not fake dead, like dead dead. But we conveniently forgot about that [suddenly I wish Tyler was alive, just to make Gabe unavailable!] But whatever…  Vincent and JT arrive at the church and awkwardly sit next to Cat and Tess.  Cat does her best to remember she is supposed to fake mourn and not focus on Vincent’s proximity [and his raspy raspy voice]. Finally, a fake funeral wouldn’t be complete without the failed killer offering his fake-condolences. So Sam talks to Cat and uses the opportunity to find out what she knows about Tony Barnes [which isn’t much]. Sam leaves and Tess follows him.

JT thinks V is an idiot for giving up on Cat, even if professing eternal love at a funeral is kind of tacky. But it is more than that. Vincent is smart enough to realize Cat won’t come back running at the snap of a finger. He needs to atone for his beastly sins. I respect Vincent’s reasoning since crossing over to the beast-dark side was why they broke up in the first place. Plus, I think there is something noble about trying to become the best man he can be for the woman he loves. Basically, Vincent decides to go “beast cold turkey” in an effort to prove he can be a good human.

Cat goes to Gabe’s apartment and tries to find a nice way to tell him no-one cared enough to show up at his funeral. She says something like “flowers are just like people”, but turns out Gabe sent himself the flowers. Now, that’s just sad… In my previous recaps, I’ve ranted endlessly about why Gabe/Cat should have never happened [you know I am NOT a fan]. However, the couple bothered me intellectually but it didn’t viscerally disgust me as much as Tori/Vincent. That is JUST due to the fact that I like Sendhil and I think he is a good actor… But the whole concept of “Cabe” didn’t make ANY sense [probably even less than T/V].

Gabe has a lot of free time, since he is pretending to be dead and all that, so he has been investigating Tony Barnes. He discovered Tony disappeared around the time Sam was abducted and has been the invisible millionaire ever since. Tess also finds some new information about the case. She followed Sam to ST. BENJAMIN’S HOSPITAL where he visited a mystery patient. Cat wants to go to the hospital to investigate. Gabe convinces Cat to take Vincent with her for her safety. What could possibly happen at a hospital full of people? Sam wasn’t even going to be there! Why was no-one worried about Tess? SHE was the one following the psycho alone! Basically, Gabe just managed to convince his girlfriend to spend time with her ex for no good reason. Gabe is SO confusing.

"I could DIE in here [according to Gabe]"

So Catherine brings Vincent to the UNSAFEST PLACE ON EARTH [according to Gabe] A.K.A. The hospital where he was a resident. As they walk in, they encounter some negligent paramedics who abandon a critical patient. Vincent gets all “concerned doctor” and sends the kid to the OR. Cat smiles and tells Vincent it is good to see the “old him”, which is probably just code for  “seeing you in sexy doctor mode” because Cat never really saw Vincent as a “doctor” before so…

Then, Vincent waits in the lobby while Cat investigates [why did he NEED to come with her again?]. After a while Cat returns and it is EXPOSITION TIME! Sam was at the hospital to see a patient, JACOB SUTTER, who is dying from a mysterious disease. She also found out that ANOTHER Jacob Sutter died at another hospital earlier that week. Vincent concludes Sam and/or Tony are injecting the Jacobs with JT’s serum [and using the 80s-Terminator-phonebook-method to find them? Eh… we have computers now… I am sure Sam could have found the right Jacob with all the resources he seems to have! But whatever…]

"Hey guys! Look, someone finally gave me a part
where I am NOT a psycho! I know... I am shocked too"

At that point Vincent finally runs into someone he knows: his former mentor DR MARKUS, played by Christopher Heyerdahl A.K.A the guy who plays a psycho on Hell on Wheels, played a psycho on Caprica, a psycho vampire on Twilight, another psycho vampire on True Blood and many more psychos. Mild Spoiler alert So… I was 100% expecting him to turn out to be a psycho beast hunter but he WAS NOT! I was so disappointed. Why cast an actor like Christopher Heyerdahl and NOT make him evil?! It is like casting Alan Dale as a good dad! End of spoiler Vincent introduces Cat to Dr. Markus and he immediately assumes she is his girlfriend [because it is obvious to everybody except for Dana]. Non-evil-Markus also mentions V was a great doctor [aw]. He excuses himself to go see his patients and Vincent has an emotional moment remembering what his life was like when patients were all that mattered. Cat’s all “yeah, whatever, so how does this help us solve the case?” [which was a tinsy bit insensitive… but I guess she is blinded by “moving on” madness and “If I am around you any longer, I will end up jumping you” fear].

In case you haven’t put this together yet, it’s time for the EXPOSITION FAIRY [more like the exposition monster] to make another appearance in the form of a phone call from Gabe. Jacob Sutter was the name of one of his fellow orphans. Sam is trying to find THAT Jacob Sutter by a very rudimentary process of elimination. Apparently, Sam couldn’t be bothered to run a background check on the Jacobs before trying to beastify them. “Jacob Sutter” isn’t even that common of a name! [They should have made him Kurt!] While they talk for WAY too long about the implications of Former-M orphans being “beast-inclined”, Sam finds a new Jacob Sutter at a construction site.

Spoiler alert, he is the right Jacob Sutter, which makes him… the BEAST OF THE WEEK! -->; JACOB THE BUILDER BEAST

This woman here depicted will possess unseen marks [?]

Cat goes to see Daddy-Bob who is rotting away in the PRISON OF CRIMINALLY UNDERUSED CHARACTERS. Cat asks about the Beast selection process and Bob is all “It had something to do DNA and stuff”. He clearly wasn’t very familiar with the science side of M. He doesn’t know the details, but he knows some people are genetically predisposed to become beasts. The ones that aren’t could die when injected with the serum. Then Bob totally loses his cool [Jack Bristow & his band of morally ambiguous TV dads would be so disappointed in him]. He goes into a desperate rant about Cat needing to deliver the world from beasts before they destroy her… meaning: she must kill Vincent. He almost makes it sound like he is reciting a prophecy and that it is Cat’s “destiny” to “render the greatest beast-power into utter desolation” or something. This shakes Cat.

Cat meets with Tess and they go looking for Sam inside an abandoned building. According to this episode’s logic: Going to a public hospital = too dangerous, MUST bring beast-back up But… Following a psycho to an isolated location = Perfectly safe for Cat and Tess alone… except it WASN’T. They learn the hard way that tracking down beast-making-psychos without back up is a bad idea. While Cat and Gabe were having endless phone call conversations, Sam used his time productively and turned Jacob-the-builder into a beast. As soon as Cat and Tess enter the building, Jacob attacks them. Then he jumps out of the window and tries to run away, but Sam is waiting for him with a tranq gun. I felt strangely bad for Jacob the builder beast at that point. That’s not a good way to have a beast awakening…

BACK AT THE GUILD, Vincent urges JT to find an antidote for dying-Jacob. JT thinks it might be possible because he never turned into a beast [at least they ‘tried’ to make it logical]. Cat walks in and repeats everything we already knew about genes, beast-predisposition, Jacob-beast, etc etc. Vincent explains that he is busy trying to save dying-Jacob, so he can’t go track beast-Jacob. Cat points out that Dying-Jacob has people taking care of him; however, Beast-Jacob is out in the world and Vincent is the only one who can stop him. Vincent can’t say no to Cat [and her logic], so he breaks his beast-cold-turkey vow and goes after Jacob the builder beast [a little déjà vu of the time V had to rescue Evan]. Cat stays behind and JT gives her a piece of his mind in the form of one of the best lines ever: “It’s hard to be Dr. Jekyll when everyone keeps wanting Mr. Hyde”. That line was genius; it encompasses everything that has been going on lately. It also snaps Cat out of her tunnel vision and allows her to finally take into account all the implications of asking Vincent to “be a beast”.

Sam locks Beast-Jacob inside BEAGONSTON’S magical cell. Poor Jacob can’t remember what happened during his beast-episode because Sam customized the new serum to come with “fugue-states-incorporated”. Don’t know why Sam bothered if he was going to TELL Jacob what happened anyway... In a nutshell, Sam informs Jacob that he attacked a woman [Cat] whose “boyfriend” [Vincent] will come after him for revenge [it really IS obvious to everyone but Dana… she really wasn’t a good profiler, was she? Being married to a psycho without knowing it kinda discredits you anyway…]

And just like Sam predicted, Vincent arrives at BEAGONSTON. He finds Jacob sitting in a corner in all his plaid-beastliness. Since Vincent is all about beast-atonement now… he decides to “reason” with Jacob. Clearly not the way to go... Jacob attacks Vincent and he is forced to transform. They fight while Sam watches the showdown with his best psycho look [heh, I love TES]. I respect Vincent’s desire to appeal to Jacob’s human nature, but he should know better than anyone that choosing “man” over “beast” takes time. I guess what I am saying is: Tranq first, reason later!

After failing at his beast damage control duty, Vincent goes back to the GUILD. JT tries to convince him that he may have lost the fight but he can still win the battle or something like that. He uses a Rocky analogy [which is much more fitting than a Brangelina/Les Mis analogy]; however, Vincent doesn’t want to kill Jacob. His days of eliminating beasts without question are over. I think he is desperately trying to be human in hopes of getting Cat back, but he also wants to be a version of himself that he actually likes. That is the difference between V’s honest desire to redeem himself and Gabe’s self-serving “atonement” façade [or whatever that was… it was never clear].

"It's hard not being evil... I am not sure of what to do...
[or where to stand]"

In the middle of all the beast madness and exposition overload, JT somehow managed to concoct an antidote for non-beast-dying-Jacob [JT works really well under pressure]. So Vincent goes to the hospital, steals some scrubs and sneaks into Jacob’s room, but he is caught by DR. SURPRISINGLY-NOT-EVIL-MARKUS. Vincent manages to convince the good doctor to allow him to inject his patient with the unidentified milky substance. Kind of reckless… but Jacob was clearly dying so… why not?

BACK AT THE GUILD JT tells Cat that Vincent chose to save dying-Jacob over killing Beast-Jacob. Cat is confused by Vincent’s decision so JT breaks the bro-code [GASP!] and explains that he is trying to walk away from beast-hood in an effort to win her back. Cat gives him a very unconvincing “but I am with Gabe now” reply [but doesn’t deny the possibility of getting back with Vincent later]. Whatever the case, I think in that moment Cat was more concerned about her dad’s “prophecy” than Vincent’s redemption motivations.

"I spend my days reading files in my fancy apartment, having
sudden revelations & then talking about them for hours"

And time for Gabe to have another revelation and talk about it for way too long. In summary TONY BARNES = SAM LANDON. Sam probably killed the real Tony Barnes and took his identity and… I will spare you the rest of the details because everything is pretty obvious at this point and I don’t love exposition as much as Gabe [or the writer of this ep]. Gabe reaches the conclusion that Beast-Jacob must be stopped… [Eh… weren’t they already trying to do that for the last 20 minutes?] Unfortunately, Vincent is occupied playing doctor. So Gabe volunteers to go reason with Jacob. So Cat decides to call Sam and tell him Dana is alive [Why? I have NO idea. Stall him? He can walk and talk you know…] Their plan was just layers and layers of non-sense. It was like an onion of bad plans. Anyway… During his conversation with Cat, Sam is kind enough to jump on the EXPOSITION WAGON and tells her that he is on a mission to beastify the world because he wants “revenge” from the people who hurt his son… How exactly? So NOT clear at that point. What is perfectly clear is that Gabe’s idea to go “save Jacob Beast” was stupid. Sam finds him and tranqs him [while still on the phone with Cat].

Meanwhile At the HOSPITAL, Vincent has saved the world, Dying-Jacob is dying no more and Dr. Markus is still NOT evil [much to my dismay]. He is even nice enough to pretend Jacob’s recovery was a “medical miracle” and tells Vincent he can consider himself “on the road to redemption” for whatever it is he is trying to atone. After DR.STILL-NOT-EVIL-MARKUS leaves, Cat arrives and asks Vincent to save Gabe and get more redemption or something along those lines.

BACK AT THE EMPTY LOFT OF BEAST AWAKENINGS Sam tries to re-beastify Gabe but is interrupted by the arrival of Vincat. The beasts fight while Cat goes after Sam. Unfortunately, turns out Jacob the Builder is a pretty bad-ass new beast and wins the fight. Gabe calls for Cat. She comes back and shoots Jacob dead [She really is becoming a serial-beast-shooter. Who has killed more beasts at this point? Vincent or Cat?]. Later she tells Vincent she feels conflicted about how easy it was for her to kill Jacob. She only thought of him as a beast, not a person. On the other hand, Vincent tells her he was unable to beast-attack Jacob because he couldn’t stop seeing “Jacob the person”. And so the lines between man and beast blur even further, which would have been a neat episode theme, but the characters were too busy EXPLAINING each step of their plans over and over again.

Cat also shares her conflicted emotions with Gabe. She tells him she feels bad for killing Jacob but also for getting in the way of Vincent’s redemption [especially because she knows he is doing it for her]. Gabe’s all “beasts will be beasts and one less beast won’t kill us”. It really annoys me that Gabe is so “beast judgy” considering he was a [bad] beast not so long ago. Essentially, Gabe is tired of Vincent being so present in their lives and he literally tells Catherine that he “has to go”. OK… first of all, it was Gabe himself who insisted on Cat using Vincent as protection when Cat and Vincent were trying to keep their distance. Second… Gabe and Cat started dating like … yesterday? It is way too soon for him to be making “demands” and giving her “ultimatums”! Also, I can’t believe Cat just stood there. Back in season 1, Vincent was suspicious of Gabe and he told Cat he didn’t want her to see him anymore. What did she answer? “You can’t forbid me to see anyone”. And I loved that about her.

So yes… I was a little disappointed in Cat, but I am not going to hate her for it either. Experiencing traumatic life events can alter your personality. I think, in a way, Cat has been spiraling ever since Vincent disappeared. She probably doesn’t even notice, but she hasn’t recovered and now she is [misguidedly] trying too hard to live a life that she thinks is the “right life”. But she is actually losing herself in the process… [even after she spent like 5 episodes FINDING HERSELF!]

And then there is a series of shots of Cat driving that look like they were taken right out of a Charmed episode. They even have a retro tune [yes, I hated the editing of that sequence… it felt so abrupt]. Cat goes to see Vincent and tells him they need to stop seeing each other. Vincent is all “na-ah I am not taking that, screw Gabe, we are destined, I love you” and then tries to kiss her but Cat pushes him away. He falls down, hits his head and DIES. But he is not dead dead, just dream dead. Cat screams like she is a cartoon character and wakes up… in Gabe’s bed [sidenote: Gabe's room reminded me of the Twin Peaks red room for some reason].

I know most people really liked this ending but I actually hated it… OK hate is too strong of a word… but I strongly disliked it. I did warn you: I don’t like dream fake-outs. I can’t even think of an example of one I liked. I don’t mind obvious dream sequences with symbolism [like they do on Hannibal] but the fake-outs always annoy me. It’s just a matter of personal taste and the fact that, along with voice over narration, it is one of the things they keep telling you NOT to do when writing.

In any case, I did like what it represented: Cat is conflicted about her feelings for Vincent and she is scared that she will end up hurting him. The issue is no longer whether or not he is a man or a beast. She knows he is trying to make amends and be more human. Now she is worried about hurting Vincent, whether it is physically or emotionally. It’s not about V returning to who he was; it’s about her figuring out what she wants and being scared of what she is capable of. At the end of the day, she still loves Vincent and doesn’t want him to be harmed. At least that’s what I got from the dream.

There were a few scenes [and lines of dialogue] I liked in this episode… but there were also big chunks that were really boring. It was SO exposition heavy! We barely SAW anything. While recapping I realized most scenes consisted of people telling each other stuff. And then there were scenes I just skipped in the recap because they had zero new information. I didn’t think it was completely awful and it had some good bits [especially that Jekyll/Hyde line], but I am not crazy about it [mostly because I can’t wrap my head around the Gabe/Cat relationship].

MORE RECAPS

QUOTES

JT: It’s hard to be Dr. Jekyll when everyone keeps wanting Mr. Hyde

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