Thursday, January 30, 2014

Beauty and the Beast, Season 2, Episode 11: Held Hostage



Cat grabs a newspaper that is further chronicling Vincent and Tori’s socialite partying – and apparently Tori has been wearing the necklace they stole, as Cat complains to Gabe. Gabe a) thinks Vincent may be trying to lure out the shadowy people who apparently know about prehistoric beasts with magical collars and b) is busy helping Cat prepare Tess’s surprise birthday party. He latter Cat finds cute and moves in for a kiss – and he completely dodges her

Gabe, you did not subject me to gods alone know how many episodes of your pining after Cat for you to get cold feet now.

Gabe is concerned about Cat’s obsession with Vincent – but she’s pissed about Vincent having the necklace. See, Vincent may be a beast and have been genetically altered and this necklace may be the only clue as to what he is, but Cat’s ancestor was investigating beast murders too! Clearly this means Cat is much more personally involved and she’s super pissed at Vincent getting in the way of her discovering who she is…

I’m not even going to point out the flaws here. But I will note that, yet again, Cat is absolutely astonished that Vincent would dare kill people (despite, y’know, a whole season+ of Vincent killing people with Cat’s approval).

Of course agent Dana has seen the same pics and wants to send Gabe, Cat and Tess over to talk to Tori and confiscate the necklace which they’re all very smug about. And Cat blows the surprise party (actually a policeman behind the desk does) which Cat also blames on Vincent because… because she’s Cat and needs to be eaten

Vincent and Tori are waiting in ambush for goons coming to get the necklace – so when Cat barges into their home Tori throws her down – and Cat pulls her gun. Of course she does. Because they won’t give the necklace (whose providence has been provided by photographs) Cat arrests Tori, revelling in lots of power abuse.

They leave Gabe behind with Vincent as the real goons move in: Gabe is shocked to realise yes they Are using the necklace as bait (well DUH? Why are you shocked by this?). The goons attack, Vincent grabs one and demands to know who he works for – then drops him and throws a knife at a second, killing him. Gabe shoots the guy gasping on the floor – Vincent isn’t thrilled.

He also doesn’t really trust Gabe (who tried to kill him), Cat (who shot him) or Tess (also shot him) nor how they’re all working with the FBI now. Gabe stresses that Cat’s ancestor’s involvement means she should have the necklace because it’s so important to her – Vincent counters with the whole collar, gem beast mystery being part of his very being. Gave also thinks Vincent should give Cat the necklace basically to help her move on – really?


At the police station, Cat and Tess try to think of a cover story for Tori having the necklace before they begin bickering about how Cat is totally not jealous, honest. Dana takes over the interview. Which goes well – and then she sends in someone to forcibly remove the necklace – which gets them throw through a window since he’s actually one of the goons looking for the necklace. But even that is lesser because a whole load more of the Russian-accented goons looking for the necklace have infiltrated the police station and now all draw guns. Cat responds to this by… tranqing Tori. Because she just can’t resist shooting beasts.

The nice affable cop who broke Tess’s surprise party gets shot trying to stop Tess being taken hostage on her birthday.

Isn’t it a good thing the necklace is in Cat’s safe hands and not still being held by Vincent?

We have a full police station siege with Gabe arriving outside (he’s still the interim head of the precinct, shouldn’t they be getting a cop to do that job by now?). Inside everyone’s cuffed, Tori is put in a cell and the bad guys plan to ask for a helicopter or they kill hostages (always the helicopter – I’m sure a helicopter is really really really easy to track). Cat arranges to be locked up with Tori because Tori hasn’t suffered enough yet.

Outside, Vincent arrives and Gabe is shocked that his and Cat’s plan to get the necklace into the hands of the goons doesn’t mean Vincent suddenly trusts them – nor does he feel obligated to clean up the mess they’ve made.

Cat plans to use Tori’s beast strength to free them and take down goons so now admits that, yeah, actually she was wrong. Tori breaks her cuffs, kills the guard and charges off – leaving Cat behind (I approve), while Vincent enters the vents. And Dana questions Tess about Tori’s super-strength. Vincent uses the phone he took from the goons who attacked him to try and lure the head kidnapper into the basement (he speaks in Russian-accented English to a man speaking Russian-accented English. Wouldn’t they… speak Russian?) In the basement he runs into beasty Tori – who kills him and recovers the necklace

Cat gets a call from Gabe warning her about Vincent going in and how she should convince him to help because he lubs her really. She rushes down to talk to Vincent and finds Tori, happily taking care of business and completely calm. She wants to leave, Cat wants to recruit her – Tori pushes past her and Cat kicks her and knocks her unconscious – which rather surprises Vincent when he drops down.

Is Cat a beast too now? Maybe it’ll shift her perceptions on what lives are worth saving.

Cat wants Vincent to play hero, finding beasts useful now – and it’s totally ok if he risks exposure now his name is out there because Cat will protect him (with super woo-woo powers apparently because how else she’s going to manage it I don’t know). Vincent questions the quality of protection from a woman who burst onto his boat and arrested Tori (and then tranqed her and knocked her out). He also lays the smacketh down: Cat’s precious place in this mystery? Her mother messed with his DNA, experimenting on people. Her father wiped his memory, killed beasts and turned him into a programmed hitman then tried to kill him. Her ancestor owned a necklace that fits into a beast-leash. And, really, he’d rather figure out what force is trying to collect the beast leash powers rather than help Cat be a hero. Again.

In the hostage room, Tess is upset to see the goons eat her birthday cake while Dana lampshades that most adults don’t love their birthdays unless they feel their lives are never about them before bringing up that Tess is covering up something. The goons realise several of their minions are missing and that Cat and Tori have escaped – so grab Tess, Cat’s partner, firing a gun at the ceiling to be dramatic

With Tess under threat, Vincent goes to the goons. He talks to them, offering the necklace while Cat goes searching for the circuit breaker. The lights go out and Vincent goes all beastie. He fights and the hostages escape – but then one goon takes him down in the dark. Cat realises (where she is being throttled by another goon) that the necklace weakens beasts – hence why she took down Tori when she was wearing it. Without the necklace Vincent can go full beasty. He threatens the remaining goon with death if they don’t tell him who he’s working for – but the goon says he’s already dead – they hear a helicopter and a laser sight appears on Cat. Vincent drops the goon to push her to safety and the goon is shot.

NOW the police barge in.

Everyone goes their separate ways and Cat explains her unresolved issues to Gabe – she wasn’t pining for Vincent she was angry at herself for falling for him – before she realised he has changed (uh, not so much). And, yes, she’s ready for a relationship with Gabe now.

And Tess goes in to cover – pointing out to Dana that she and Cat can both throw someone across a room and Vincent was a special forces soldier. And Vincent rescuing her has made her realise what she has and feel less bad about covering up

And the necklace has gone missing. Cat apologises for not realising how personal this was to Vincent… which is weak. Seriously how can she actually think “my ancestor owned the necklace, it’s ALL ABOUT ME!” when everything about the investigation has been about beasts? How self-absorbed does she have to be for this to be a belated revelation?! And they’re all going to work together. Yay. And Tess hugs him for saving her life (“you’re the reason I’m 30” is a pretty awesome line).

The necklace is in the hands of the goons – acquired by a mole they already had in place playing hostage.



With every passing episode, I hate Cat a little more. Her complete hypocrisy over Vincent’s violence is beyond ridiculous, her double standards are glaring and grossly ignored. And the whole idea that she is so incredibly involved with this investigation because a distant ancestor also investigated – while completely dismissing that this mystery directly impacts what Vincent and Tori actually are: especially when you consider that their genes have mutated in the past so it also reflects on what they may become.

But this is all about Cat’s identity because she wants to play Ancestry?

It’s mind boggling to assume that Vincent and Tori whose very lives rest on these answers, should step aside for the sake of Cat’s curiosity; to say nothing of Gabe’s assumption that Vincent should give up on it because it will placate Cat’s fee-fees?


And could they work together? How? Cat and Tess talk repeatedly about Cat leading a beast free life – when this whole investigation is all about beasts! She can’t even SAY THE WORD without venom!