Recap: BATB S4E7

Point of No Return

Vincent completely ignores my Denver suggestion and decides to prove his innocence by apprehending a Battlestar Galactica pilot. Meanwhile, Cat manages to keep her job at the DHS even if she is married to a “terrorist”. We also learn who is behind the beast bounties… or maybe not. The big bad could still be Kyle… or zombie Evan. We really know nothing.

Remember how last week’s episode had such a promising opening scene? This episode started with Cat and Vincent explaining the entire plot in a scene that turns out to be a dream. So, basically, two things I hate: characters recapping and dream fake-outs! [Why writers, why? At least they didn’t throw in an unnecessary voiceover in there].

And speaking of last week, if I recall correctly the episode ended with Vincent and Catherine TOGETHER vowing to never leave each others’ side? Guess that didn’t stick either because on this episode V is sleeping in a park and Cat doesn’t know where he is!

Anyway, here is the State of Beast Affairs:

V is on the limb and Cat doesn’t know where he is 99% of the time. They just have occasional rendez-vous [at the same spot by a the river] where they exchange quick tender kisses and then run without discussing their plans. Also, Cat is still working for the DHS [instead of being arrested for aiding and abetting a “terrorist”]. The depiction of the DHS on this show is almost insulting to the American government [Maybe they are trying to make a political statement? Probably not].

Speaking of the DHS, there is a new SUIT OF THE WEEK. I feel like I’ve seen this actor play several iterations of the “bureaucratic jerk” on TV, but last I remember seeing him was on the short-lived Forever. [So I am going to call him AGENT FOREVER, because all suits of the week are equally nameless and unimportant to me].

Small parenthesis, I really need to get this rant out of my system. Vincent and Catherine need to accept their reality! Yes they “deserve better” and yes, Vincent is innocent[ish], but the world doesn’t care! He is never going to stop being a beast and hunted for it, so they REALLY need to start considering the Denver plan. You can’t always have everything you want guys!

But fictional characters tend to not listen to me when I yell at the screen, so Vincent’s comes up with a plan to PROVE HIS INNOCENCE. So while Cat pretends to cooperate with Agent Forever, Vincent hunts his bounty hunter. The whole innocence quest kinda tips V over to the dark side; and I am not talking about his Beast side. I am talking about Vincent getting a little obsessive in a “the end justifies the means” scary way.

The ILL-CONCEIVED BEAST PLAN goes something like this: V lures the bounty hunter by pretending to have information about the beast. The bounty hunter shows up and Vincent captures him. But what’s important here is that the bounty hunter is freaking TAHMOH PENIKETT! Vincent chains Tahmoh, injects him with something and demands to know who he is working for. Tahmoh is all “I fought the cylons and I liberated Eliza Dushku from a dollhouse so f**k off. Now let’s take off our shirts and go outside to fight like men!”

Oh wait… that only happened in my head. I mean... I was already picturing something like this [well a much fairer version of it, since V would be on the other side of the ring]:

Tahmoh actually tells a funny anecdote, gets beat up by V some more and finally gives him the information he needs. The company behind the Beast bounties is GRAYDALE SECURITIES, a firm that specializes in taking down dictators or something [they also seem to be behind the beast hits, according to Tess]. Armed with this knowledge Vincent walks through the front door of Graydale with an unconscious Tahmoh and offers to take over the beast job because he took down their best man… or something like that… Like, seriously, I don’t understand V’s plan. He wants to pretend to hunt the beast because if he is hunting himself then no-one is actually hunting him? Is that it? Just get out of there man…

It looks like Cat doesn’t completely understand Vincent either and starts getting paranoid about him getting caught. Meanwhile, Tess has been pitching the idea of just turning him in because an incarcerated beast is better than a dead beast. Problem is, Tess’s plan is just as ill-conceived as Vincent’s. If they catch Vincent they would eventually figure out what he is and then dissect him or kill him. He has cross-species DNA! Has everyone forgotten about that detail?

In any case, Cat calls Heather and Tess to her apartment and tells them she is ready to turn V in because she is afraid of what might happen to him. She tells the same to Agent Forever and they set up a “trap” for V. He escapes on account of him being a beast but seems hurt that Cat would betray him like that. Or did she? She did not… Did anyone actually believe she would? I didn’t. And neither did Vincent. His shock was also an act. Cat didn’t have time to explain her plan to him, but he was able to “read her heart” [Aw, that was cute].

In less important matters, Kyle pressures Heather to tell her the truth. She tells her a version of it [also known as a lie] and they hug. And he may have had a sinister look on his face. Or maybe not...

This episode was SO convoluted, but if you think about it not much happened in terms of plot. In the end, V is still a hunted man, Cat is still working for the DHS, Kyle is still most likely evil [but we don’t really know] and we are still not sure who is after Vincent [I’m assuming the Graydale folks are just the middleman].

Random Thoughts

• There was a LOT of talking [the exposition fairy was having a field day!] The only action of the episode was that ridiculously spinning chair.
• Vincent said “we deserve better” almost as much as Gabe said “flatlining”
• No-one knows how V held on to his hospital job for so long, but now I am wondering how Cat still has a job! And technically, V hasn’t been fired yet…
• Not sure where Graydale falls in the evil corp spectrum. For now I’m assuming somewhere in between Massive Dynamics and Division.
• Finally, let’s talk about Tahmoh [I love saying his name BTW “Taaaahmo”] Anyhow, this is a guy who played the male lead on a Joss Whedon show and was on one of the biggest sci-fi cult hits of the decade. He basically did nothing on this episode. This made me think that maybe… just maybe this could be spoiler casting. Tahmoh is actually someone that would excite me as V’s antagonist [almost as good as my top choice Mark Pellegrino].That or Tahmoh’s career is seriously on the fritz, which is not out of the question considering I last saw him as a guest on Star-crossed. But even then… he had a few action scenes, and was a more important character than “nameless bounty hunter who doesn’t even throw a punch”. And if this was really it for Tahmoh on the show… What the hell people, someone give the man a job!