Cat starts her day concealing the bruise on her neck from Vincent’s little freak out last week – and gets a visit from Heather who is clearly still torn about how to tell Cat that her dad isn’t her biological father. Made harder by Cat praising how much Heather is doing in the wake of their dad’s death – and how she’s the better daughter. Heather has another issue to juggle – she has a new job offer, in Miami and really wants to talk to Cat about it; they agree to meet later. And she does notice the bruise on Cat’s neck and notes she has to cover it – or people will think she has an abusive boyfriend.
Vincent drops in on a nervous and babbly JT to ask if Cat’s ok and to apologise through JT to her. JT completely doesn’t understand, has no idea that Vincent hurt her and tries to drive Vincent down memory lane again with lots of nervous babble. Vincent finally blurts the truth to JT’s shock; he makes some excuses and adds he’ll stay away though JT points out Cat may not want that. He leaves, asking JT to check on Cat.
Vincent takes a call while he leaves – Agent Tucker, Agent Reynold’s sidekick warning Vincent he has a new lead but he’s not safe – right as another Beast catches him and rips out his heart after demanding to know how Tucker found him.
Cat goes to see Gabe, who lampshades her victim blaming and making excuses for Vincent rather well – but she’s more worried about the other Beasts out there, other victims they don’t know about. Showing the same level of decision making as last episode, she decides to find out who is pulling Vincent’s strings she will sneak onto his boat, pretending to be there for him but secretly to check his computer. Yes, even though Vincent has super lie-detector powers. She does accept, or seem to accept she can’t be with him though…
…and Tess calls with another Beast victim; Agent Tucker. They arrive on scene and Tess tells them the car is registered to the FBI. Gabe thinks of the best way to cover any CCTV and Cat hurriedly denies any possibility of it being Vincent because he “only kills bad guys.” Really Cat? Tess is no more impressed by Cat’s boat spying plan either – and then Agent Reynolds shows up (Cat’s biological father) and begins jurisdictional tussling with Gabe. While Gabe sees him off, Cat gets a call from JT who wants to talk to her about Vincent hurting her – but she focuses on Vincent being with JT while Agent Tucker was being killed; he has an alibi.
They are going ahead with the silly boat plan – which means training Cat to pass a polygraph and keep her heart rate, sweat etc calm (wait, didn’t Vincent just look into her eyes and see the truth within last time? Hence the need for him to take off her blind fold? And yes, I kind of hate myself for typing that sentence.) Tess has a bag of tricks to help and after discussing hickeys and crushing poor Gabe’s comfort zones, he declares her passed.
Reynolds sends Vincent to investigate the crime scene – and the other Beast is there waiting for him (and he has a sinister British accent – I know it’s kind of necessary to have a sinister British accent to be a Proper Bad Guy but weren’t the Beasts American soldiers? Or, in Gabe’s case, kidnapped as a small child and brought to the facility – though he then escaped. Where does one pick up a Received Pronunciation Accent in all that?) He calls Vincent on the phone and plays cat and mouse through the car park with him, taunting his super hearing and mentioning “the list” whatever that is.
Cat goes to Vincent’s boat and steals one of his files – just in time for a pissed off Vincent to arrive. Vincent is super nervous and apologetic what with him throwing Cat across a rooftop last week. Tess has to keep quiet over the radio link because Vincent can hear her – and since she’s there, ostensibly, to talk about their relationship, Cat and Vincent do talk about what happened. Vincent wants to start over with Cat –but with no questions “don’t ask, don’t tell” (yes he uses that phrase and yes, this show hasn’t had a single GBLT character but we’re going to throw in some appropriation anyway). Cat agrees to meet with him that night (she’s also supposed to meet Heather)
At the police station, Gabe and Cat call in JT to examine the file while Tess confirms the CCTV saw nothing. JT pulls up 3 names: Larchman, Gaudet and Thorncliff and a time – Friday at 5:00. Cat recognises the names as art galleries and believes Vincent is tracking the Beast who killed Tucker.
Vincent gets a call from Reynolds who confirms the killer is someone called Sebastian based on the flimsy information Vincent has. He’s also worried about the NYPD investigating the scene and art galleries owned by Nigel Clifton. Sebastian was Clifton’s son – and a Muirfield project who escaped when Muirfield was destroyed (aha, so this is where the RP accent came from). But Vincent also raises his trust issues with Reynolds – the list of people Tucker identifies and Vincent kills, Sebastian has lead him to think he may be on the list as well. Reynolds urges Vincent to trust him and then realises that the only way the NYPD could have that list of art galleries is if there was a security breach.
Cat and Heather meet in the coffee shop and Cat encourages Heather to go to Miami since she clearly wants to. But Heather has the blood test on her mind and finally brings it up with Cat – her blood doesn’t match their father’s. Cat is shocked and angry that Heather waited so long to tell her. Cat storms off, angrily and tells Heather to go to Miami.
Harsh, very harsh. This season’s Cat isn’t a very endearing person. Admittedly the not having the sense bequeathed upon cabbage annoys me more than the harshness though.
Cat goes home angry and is late for her date with Vincent – and he starts questioning her about the case she’s working on. She becomes evasive and all the signs of lying spring out to his senses; Cat says if he’s sensing anything it’s the big revelation Heather just dropped on her. Vincent leaves and returns to his boat and uses his beasti-senses to confirm that Cat used his computer.
Cat gets a call from Tess who wants her to go back undercover with Vincent – because Tucker visited every one of those art galleries. Cat thinks she’s been rumbled – but gets a call from Vincent on the other line: he’s trying to make up with her and claims he had a memory flash back – of them both at a swimming pool. Of course that was something JT mentioned when he was babbling earlier. He wants to go back to that hotel pool to see if it triggers more memories.
Cat finds some of her common sense – oh common sense, how I missed you –and is suspicious. She calls JT to see exactly what he told Vincent and confirms that, yes, Vincent got that from JT and he’s trying to send her on a wild goose chase. Which means something must be happening he wants to push her away from. Some googling searching later and she learns that Nigel Clifton is auctioning off a painting called “Friday at Five”
She, Tess and Gabe head to the auction and Cat fills in all the info she has – that Clifton’s son, Sebastian, was British armed forces and listed as Killed in Action in Afghanistan – just like Vincent. The minute they arrive at the apartment auction, Vincent hears her oh-so-special heart beat (Cat you have a heart murmur or something, you might want to get that checked out).
Cat drags Vincent onto the dance floor for some waltz interrogation – with the added reassurance of friends with tranqs ready to drop Vincent and blame it on too much booze. Vincent accuses her of lying for her case and for revenge against him and she shuts him down – she lied because someone has wiped Vincent’s memory and is apparently controlling him and she’s trying to help; Vincent was the one who lied and faked a memory in order to help his case.
Sebastian begins taunting Vincent while Tess speaks to his father and learns that the painting’s title referred to regular family outings to a magic shop (he was into magic as a child) he and Sebastian had. Clifton feels guilty for sending Sebastian into the army where he was “killed” and Sebastian may be after revenge. Tess also caught Vincent’s revenge line and wants Cat to spill – revenge for what?
Vincent tries to evacuate Clifton on the pretence that there’s a threat on his life – it doesn’t work (“deal with it – I hire you people to keep the riff-raff out”), Cat and Tess are much better at convincing him to leave – and the party guests as well.
In the deserted – and with the power cut – dark apartment, Sebastian knocks Vincent out. He goes to the lift where Cat is trapped with his father – and Cat tranqs Clifton, knocking him out (I really doubt there are formulations that are that safe – especially if you’re going to calibrate them for Beasts like Vincent and Sebastian – and then shoot them at old men). Cat manages to his Sebastian with a tranq dart, but only has one shot and it doesn’t drop him.
She loses the gun when she’s pulled through the ceiling of the lift. She tries to fight Sebastian which doesn’t go well – but Vincent wakes up and joins the party, distracting Sebastian long enough for Cat to punch him – and Vincent to push him down the lift shaft. Cat nearly falls – but Vincent grabs her hand. As he does, he has a flash of a series of memories of them together. With Cat safe, Vincent goes to claim Sebastian’s body.
Heather meets Cat at her flat and apologises to Cat – and Cat apologises to her and confirms her hypocrisy given her own lies. They make up and confirm they are sisters and Heather talks about how horrendously hard it was to be constantly lying to Cat and how hard it was. Cat encourages her to take the job in Miami.
Gabe and Tess meet at work to confirm that every loose end has been tucked away, Tucker is listed as Sebastian’s victim who, in turn, is listed as a dangerous, off the grid war veteran and it’s all being kept hush hush – helped by Agent Reynolds. And Tess thinks Gabe has a crush on Cat.
We close with a Vincent and Cat moment – with Vincent telling her of all the things he suddenly remembered. But Cat, borrowing that common sense back, doesn’t consider it a magical cure – even aside from the lie, the mere fact that Vincent has this whole hidden life with hidden bosses who wiped his memory and are now using him to kill other Beasts is too great a secret to keep; Cat herself is driven to lie to try and protect him.
I had hoped Tucker would become a regular character – especially with Jo gone, but it was not to be. The show does have a lot more POC main cast members than most, but it would have been nice.
I don’t really have much else to add – things are slowly coming together, we’re getting some revelations and the bad guys may not be the bad guys after all. I continue to be intrigued but wary
