Recap: BATB S4E6

Beast of Times, Worst of Times

Mass media joins the war against beasts, but luckily Heather has a banana and knows how to use it. Vincent and Catherine follow a logical lead with a very illogical plan, Deputy Hill has an identity crisis with fatal consequences and The Guild turns into a fairy tale location... I think, it's a little unclear.

You know an episode has promise when the first scene is a shot of Vincent in the shower, with Cat joining him briefly after. Because, you know, I’m all about promoting good hygiene and water conservation. I care about the environment.

Anywho, we find out that everyone has been living at the Gentlemen’s Guild to protect themselves from all the beast related threats. What I don’t get is why everyone is acting like the Guild is a bunker or is under some protection spell like the ones they use on OUAT. I mean… they have been attacked there quite a few times. You know you are in trouble when a show about fairy tales has more logic.

But let’s suspend disbelief and roll with it. Cat and Vincent meet with Hill at an empty parking lot [that never ends well]. Hill has a new lead; he believes that the man behind the Beast Hits is a guy called FULLER, V’s former C.O. from his days in Afghanistan. It makes perfect sense that Fuller would be trying to kill V since he already committed beast mass murder back in the day. What doesn’t make sense is for V to go undercover to a military base in order to confront Fuller himself and get proof of his Beast Hunt. But that’s exactly what V decides to do.

In the meantime, the blogosphere, the twitterverse and now mass media are still going after the ‘beast’ story and they are getting awfully close to the truth. For this reason, Tess is suspicious when JT gets an out of the blue job offer. However, the [cute] representative that interviews JT didn’t look like a criminal mastermind. I really hope she isn’t, JT has been duped enough times. It would be more interesting for him to get an actual job/purpose this time, and make Tess jealous in the process. The beast secret also begins to affect Heather’s relationship with Kyle. Similarly to JT’s situation, I am really hoping Kyle doesn’t turn out to be working for the big bad [although that’s the most likely scenario].

BACK TO VINCAT’S UNNECESSARY UNDERCOVER OP, Vincent gets a fake ID, “Captain Chandler”, and infiltrates the military base, with Cat on comms as back up. Unfortunately, Cat gets an untimely visit from two DHS Internal affairs agents and is forced to go radio silence, leaving V to fend for himself. The suits start asking Cat a lot of questions about Vincent, finally revealing that Hill painted the picture of a disturbed vet with PTSD and terrorism tendencies. Cat realizes that sending V after Fuller was a set up.

At the BASE OF BASTARD BEAST EXECUTIONER REUNIONS, Vincent confronts and attacks Fuller. For a while, it looks like Vincent is going to kill him, but Fuller appeals to his good nature. He tells him that back in Afghanistan, he hesitated to kill him because he was different. He still had good in him and that’s why he spared him. And… I actually believed him. 1) I think it was true, V was such a good man, it transcended to his beast state. Many have commented on that. 2) He always said it was “luck” that he escaped the Beast massacre. So Fuller hesitating to pull the trigger giving V a few seconds to escape makes sense. Vincent believes him as well and is able to rein in the beast by himself, without Cat’s help this time. He “saves himself”, you might say.

Unfortunately, Fuller had nothing to do with the latest beast hits. It was all part of Hill’s set up. Including the flashdrive he gave Vincent, which turns out to be a bomb. After the bomb unexpectedly detonates, V stays to help Fuller, instead of running away. You know… because he is a good man. However, his goodness is what gets him caught by the DHS and handed over to Hill.

At this point, I thought that maybe Hill wasn’t trying to set V up. My working theory was that DHS found out about Vincent and Hill made up the whole PTSD thing as a way to cover up the more dangerous truth, that V is a beast. Of course, that theory was quickly debunked when Hill took V to a deserted warehouse and pumped him up with enough adrenaline to make an elephant dance or something like that. As it turns out, Hill caved under the pressure of the supernatural cover-up and decided to put an end to it all. The first part of his plan was to make V look like a domestic terrorist - a bomb would do that. The second was to make V beast out so he could shoot him in “self-defense”.

Poor V tries to warn him, begs him to leave before it is too late but Hill doesn’t listen. After the adrenaline kicks in, V transforms and breaks his chains. Hill quickly discovers that a gun is not enough to stop a beast… Unless you are a hit man accountant, then a gun is all you need. It depends on what week you catch the beast. This was not a good week for Hill. V gains the upper hand and grabs Hill by the neck. Cat arrives at this very moment, ready to give Vincent a SANCTIMONIOUS SPEECH, which, for once, was justified. But it is too little, too late, and V breaks Hill’s neck. So long SUIT OF THE WEEK, you actually lasted for around 3 weeks… so you should be proud of yourself.

And here is where I decided that whoever wrote this ep, really got what the show is about. Vincent escapes the scene of the crime and Cat goes home, but what comes next is not even a question for her. She will find Vincent and run away with him. She doesn’t judge him, she doesn’t condemn him and not for one second she considers leaving him. That’s who they are now and that’s exactly the way it should be. Vincent is far from being the perfect man, he has inevitable darkness in him, but he is not a monster, not in Cat’s eyes. He is just the man she loves. A part of her.

On the very last scene, Cat reunites with Vincent and not much is said. It’s almost a silent understanding, she accepts all of him and they will do what it takes to survive. Together.

This was by far my favorite episode of the season. There were so many plotholes, but I don’t care because they got the Vincent/Catherine journey right. Something they haven’t done in a long long time. So I am willing to believe that bananas are weapons and the guild has an invisibility spell.

Random thoughts

• I could go along with the Hill twist… but it kind of came out of nowhere. He needed a catalyst, something that tipped him over the edge. Something that endangered his family or at least his ego or something. Something was missing.
• Since when is V The Flash? That whole sequence where he zipped out of the car and back wasn’t very beast-like.
• If they were going to use a fake ID to infiltrate the base, Cat could have been the one to go undercover as “Captain Chandler”. Same result, less beasting.
• I love the fact that the plaid shirt JT wears all the time is actually Vincent’s.
• What was the point of getting Cat a new office again? She is not going to use it anymore!
• Vincent should definitely lose his job now.

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TVEmpress

The TV Empress is a Media Management graduate, screenwriter in the making (and financial engineer in the meantime). She has serious plans to take over global television. You can follow the TVEmpress on twitter @TVRepublik