Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Beauty and the Beast, Season 2, Episode 8: Man or Beast?



Recap until just before the bomb, Vincent walks in the room, he steps on the mat with its pressure plate, his super hearing failing to pick up the ominous beeping because… reasons. Knowing he can’t move, he needs Tori to tap into her own beast abilities –and their weird group beast connection. Looking into her eyes – golden beast eye to beast eye – he asks Tori to stop being scared and start getting angry. She growls, roars and snaps the chains binding her – as Vincent rushes to her from the mat. Then there’s an explosion.

Cat and Gabe race into town as fast as they can having rumbled Cat’s dad, Reynolds, as Vincent’s handler (there’s only one set of church bells in the whole state?) while Tess calls Cat about the explosion. They arrive at the scene and both Tess and Gabe think Vincent is dead – Reynolds would have designed the trap around Vincent’s abilities. Cat won’t accept it – and Gabe stops her running off by telling her they need to get Reynolds before he runs.

Reynolds’s explosive expert, disguised as a fireman, tells Reynolds that the job’s done – that the targets have been “vaporised.” Reynolds it’s sceptical but his bomber wants to be paid – or he’s going to wire Reynold’s home to blow next.

Cat returns to her flat – and finds Vincent inside. She runs to him tearfully and they confirm they both know Reynolds is his handler – but first they have Tori laid on the sofa, knocked out in the blast. And Vincent reveals that Tori is an amplifier for him – with her around he is stronger, faster; giving him the chance to escape the blast.

Of course this raises the whole kiss and the fight they had – Cat agrees there’s something to talk about but also puts the fight down to Reynolds’s manipulation as much as anything. First, Vincent wants to murder Reynolds – but Cat can’t allow that! It’s wrong! (Seriously, Cat? How many murders have you handwaved but now you find a conscience?) Vincent lists what he did – kidnapped Vincent, brainwashed him, removed his memories, turned him into a killer then tried to kill him. Yup, dead dead dead. But apparently killing him cold blood is terrible when the victim isn’t a beast and will result in Vincent losing his humanity and becoming a monster.

I’m sorry, killing beasts – the victims of unethical medical experiments – is more moral? And what about the head of Muirfield, Li Zhao? Does he not count?

Cat has (belatedly) remembered she’s a cop and she simply cannot be with Vincent if he’s going to commit cold blooded murder (or, rather “another” cold blooded murder) not as a cop or a person. Instead she’s going to use Gabe’s plan to send him to gaol. Cat leaves Vincent and Tori behind and goes to the police station with Tess (bringing her up to date and saying how much she hates what Tori does to Vincent – pushing him towards his beast). At the apartment Tori wakes up and doesn’t understand why Reynolds wants them all dead (the whole losing control and ripping things apart thing, y’know some people worry about that kind of thing) and has doubts about how hard Cat will pursue her own father.


Cat and Tess go to Gabe’s house away from his compromised computer – and Gabe has a plan. They’re going to pretend Vincent and Tori are dead and pretend to blackmail Reynolds with evidence of his involvement. Tess takes over – in all the cases where Vincent has killed a Beast, someone (Reynolds) has swooped in and had the body cremated without autopsy – if they have a body, and the crematorium has a huge backlog of unidentified bodies to burn. And the blackmailer? They can use the person Reynolds used to plant the bomb, the man who kidnapped Tori, because he will know enough.

But Reynolds has a flight booked for Geneva, so they don’t have long to work on this.

So it’s Tess and JT stealing a body, Vincent pouting because he doesn’t like the plan but trying to track Reynolds’s accomplice (and not kill him) and more poutiness because Vincent and Tori are going to spend more time together.

Vincent teaches Tori how to track, how to tap into her “inner beast senses”. By focusing on her senses and sense memory she brings up the scene of her kidnapping (beast senses = instant recall as well apparently –makes more sense than some of the things Vincent can do), including a small cut on her kidnapper’s neck.

Looking good – they track him down and after the obligatory “you should be dead!” moment, he picks up a bomb and threatens to kill them all. Tori breaks his neck. Oopsie, they needed him alive.

Tess and JT go to the crematorium to claim a body for research using JT’s credentials – this involves “browsing” and being very picky until they get to the right body and JT being very awkward. During which there’s also ructions and sideways sniping about how they haven’t spoken together after the kiss and how Tess seems to be avoiding him.

Gabe and Cat go to Cat’s dad, not to kick him in the face, but to sell the blackmail by claiming they had received an anonymous call from someone who knew about the Beast killings – with the added fear of one of the bodies going missing. Why this could be the handler’s accomplice planning to blackmail him! (Wow, seriously Gabe that was clumsy). Speaking of over-acting, Cat pulls a full tearful “oh daddy I need you” as well

Big meeting and lots of people give Tori grief for killing the man and she lashes back that it’s a silly plan and why are they going to this much effort to save Reynolds’s life (with added snark that he happens to be Cat’s father). Cat is appalled at the idea that they would even think of taking the law into their own hands! How could they! HOW VERY COULD THEY! Gabe is also appalled by this terribad lawlessness. Cat protests it’s the only that separates good from bad, us from beasts – and Tori seizes on “beasts” there.

Rather than this being a wonderful insight into Cat’s hypocrisy, instead it turns, later, into Tori’s grand speech to Vincent about the wonder that is being a beast and embracing one’s inner beastliness.

While Cat whines to Tess about how she just can’t change Vincent because he won’t change himself and join her on the path of only killing people when Cat approves of their death! That evil Tori is corrupting him! And JT and Gabe have a new plan – use the bomb-maker’s phone to convince Reynolds that the blackmail is still happening and have Gabe step in as the blackmailer – which Cat reluctantly agrees to.

Gabe sends his threats – and Reynolds calls Cat so they can meet. Everyone’s all paranoid, but Cat meets him in a coffee shop. He wants to say goodbye – because he’s leaving really damn quick, that night in fact. Damn.

But first he drives to meet with Gabe, Cat monitoring from a distance. Reynolds meets him with a drawn gun, but Gabe claims he still has the bomb maker, elsewhere, waiting for his half of the money. After a grim moment, Reynolds says he should never have taken Gabe off the list, he should have killed him too – and asks Gabe to take his car, the money’s inside (yeaaaah – no. Bad idea).

Reynolds’s drives off in Gabe’s car – with the body in the boot – and Gabe tells Cat that, no, he’s not getting in the likely-bombed car and to go arrest him. Which she does and then drives him in, him spluttering excuses the whole time, how he was trying to atone for his mistake of helping Muirfield. And then Vincent jumps on the boot, causing the car to crash. Cat is knocked unconscious and Vincent drags Reynolds out of the back window.

He smacks Reynolds around and then pins him against a wall – and Cat points a gun at him. She tearfully begs him not to kill Reynolds, to save himself and them as a couple (all previous murders duly ignored, again). Vincent seems to drop him – then lashes out – not killing Reynolds just grabbing him again – and Cat shoots him. Vincent zooms off.

At the police station, Reynolds promises to confess to everything to try and keep everything away from Cat and he just wanted her to be free from the whole thing – she’s not impressed, unsurprisingly.

Cat collapses in tears in Gabe’s arms

And at the boat, Vincent treats his through and through bullet wound – and he’s joined by Tori.



Am I the only one who finds Cat’s late showing conscience disturbing? She was fine with Vincent killing Muirfield goons. Happy to see him slaughter Beasts – beasts who were experimented on to turn them into beasts. She took the murder of Li Zhao in her stride because vengeance is all moral? And him playing the heavy handed vigilante also worked for her (sure, not all of those people had to die – but controlllll!). But Reynolds? NO! THAT WOULD BE MURDER!

And I can totally see Tori being pissed. Where was everyone whining about taking the law into their own hands when Vincent kidnapped her? When Cat forced her father to undergo a near suicidal procedure? When Vincent broke into her home and tried to kill her father?


And Gabe? Gabe, willing to kill Vincent for the cure, Gabe kidnapped Cat and put her in a cell? That Gabe? He’s also outraged at the lack of respect for the law? Seriously?