Vincent and Catherine have broken up last episode!
Place your bets now on how quickly they get back
together! I am betting on no more than 3 episodes!
For now Cat is relationship free – which means she and
Tess are going out for the night and Cat is determined that she is now “over
it.” Tess tots up the lying amnesiac boyfriend who is killing people, the dead
father who isn’t really her father and the sister who is moving away and
expresses doubt that Cat is, indeed, “over it.”
Meanwhile Vincent is impatient. On the phone to his boss,
Reynolds (who is still disguising his voice) he wants to know the full list of
Beasts he has to kill (is there any questioning whether any of these Beasts
deserve to die or not? Or who is controlling them – since Vincent is no better
off himself) so he can get through them as soon as possible. Reynolds suspects
Cat is the reason why Vincent is suddenly gung ho and Vincent tells him about
his suddenly returning memories. Reynolds tells him to avoid her, she’s a
distraction from his mission and Vincent wants his mission done since it’s a
distraction from Cat.
Elsewhere, a building is burning in a raging inferno –
and a man is just walking through the flames. The news reports that this is
just one of several arson attacks that burn incredibly hot and are set by hand –
but miraculously the arsonist escapes each time. Gabe, watching the news,
mutters that the arsonist isn’t human. And that he isn’t wearing a special
fire-proof suit – he is a special fireproof suit. With this revelation (I’m
going with revelation even though I’m more inclined to label it a strange, solo
game of madlibs) he wants to speak to Cat
Cat is aggressively playing pool with Tess and pretending
absolutely nothing’s wrong which is not convincing anyone. A guy starts hitting
on her – and won’t take no for an answer; he tries to hug her and she pushes
him back – other people object to the disruption and she takes out a few more
people on general principles. Including a judge.
When she and Tess arrive at the police station, Gabe is not happy with them and after ranting takes Cat aside to discuss the Arson Beast – why exclude Tess from this? Anyway, Gabe has a theory that Muirfield created specially tailored fire-resistant Beasts to shut down oil rig fires, possibly part funded by Big Oil. He wants Cat to get Vincent involved. Cat is suspicious – Gabe wanting to send Vincent on missions doesn’t seem very good to her; but Gabe claims he wants to capture the Arson Beast and cure him just like Gabe was – despite it being a rather extreme and difficult process. Cat thinks she has far too much going on in her life to think about rescuing other people: and this is the Arson department’s case not hers. She walks out.
So Gabe decides to go to Vincent’s boat to see him on his own; Vincent doesn’t exactly roll out the welcome mat. He doesn’t remember Gave which could have been a good thing but Gabe is honest from the start and introduces himself as the man who tried to kill Vincent. He tells Vincent about being a Beast and losing control before Catherine found a way to save him – all said with Vincent’s hand wrapped round his throat. Gabe tells Vincent he wants to capture a Beast to test his cure – so Vince needs to capture one and refrain from the killing. Vincent tries briefly for a “kill beast? Me? Why I never would!” but Gabe isn’t such a fool. He also sweetens the ide with the fact that if Vince weren’t a Beast he and Cat could totally be playing happy families now.
Last I check, Vince being beasty wasn’t the thing keeping
Cat and Vince apart.
Vincent is happy to take the news that the arsonist is a
Beast – and sets off to kill it. He’s not interested in a cure. He sets out and
uses his super senses until he smells fire
He arrives in a burning building, calmly ignoring all the
flames (hey great tactics – let’s confront the fireproof creature in the middle
of an inferno), to find ArsonBeast happily planting his devices . he attacks
ArsonBeast and knocks him down. Arsonbeast notes that Vincent is faster and
stronger – but Vincent can’t run leaving a trail of fire behind him which he
then launches at Vincent…
…Really? Really really? Pray tell what member of the
animal kingdom Murifield mixed DNA with to produce a Beast that THROWS FIRE?
With Vincent rolling desperately to put out the flames, Arsonbeast follows up by kicking Vincent repeatedly until he stops moving then leaves him as the smoke billows around him.
Tess and Cat go to a spa for some more of that “me time”
but Cat can not only not drop the issue but keeps talking about Vincent, Beasts
and flatlining Beaty cures in front of the masseuses. This is why Cat doesn’t
do undercover guys. And Gabe keeps calling while Tess tells her to ignore his calls
(ok Gabe is annoying beast obsessed person but he is also your boss and, last I
checked, you were still both cops? Right? Right they are still cops?) Gave
responds by calling Cat again and Tess and the owner of the spa (which is
creepy in the extreme).
The news is that Vincent is in hospital since the powers
that be found him before he was crispy crittered. Cat is amazed that Vince is
that reckless – which means she must have had a memory lapse as well –seriously
Cat? Since when has Vince NOT been reckless? This is the man who jumped off
tall buildings because he couldn’t be arsed with the stairs! She’s not amused
with Gabe for getting Vince involved and not amused with Vince for fighting the
fireproof beast in a towering inferno. Vince pouts about Gabe giving up his
secret mission – I’m sorry, was his mission to kill Beasts supposed to NOT be
common knowledge? Really? I know Cat isn’t exactly the brightest spark, but she
is a detective. I’m sure, given enough times, you repeatedly hunting and
killing Beasts MAY have given her a clue.
More moping bonding between them with Cat saying her life
is too messy for the messy Vincent and Vince saying he wants to kill all his
victim quickly (to the police detective. Can we double check she’s still a
cop?) so he doesn’t have to lie to Cat about his murders any more and they can
play happy blood-stained-families. Yay!
Some fire investigators want to talk to Vince about being
the guy on the fire scene and Gabe provides a cover story that “Victor” is
working under cover for the DA’s office. On the fires. Without involving the
Arson squad. Oookay. Gabe falls back on the amnesia excuse. And the very
excitable arson investigator is Aaron Keller – the son of Vincent’s brother who
died in 9/11. Vincent has a full blown panic attack and flashbacks to being a
firefighter. Gabe clears out the investigators and Vincent beasts-out and jumps
out the window.
Reynolds calls Vincent about what happened and he tells
him he had a complete memory overload; but Reynolds just urges him to get it back
together, focusing on killing off the last of the list and then he can return
to his normal life (hah, right). Speaking off – the Arsonist is Eddie Long,
created when Muirfield decided to experiment on a convicted arsonist and pyromaniac
because… Reasons. He wants Vincent to stay away from anything memory triggering
Which means Cat being at his home waiting for him
(Vincent, lock your doors!) is probably not good. Cat asks about his flashback
and she’s as confused as I am – since when is Vincent a fireman? She assumes he
was but just didn’t tell her before.
At the police station Tess smacks down Gabe when he
orders her around (“I’m not your secretary, I tolerate you.”) Gabe wants to be
ready to test his flatline/cure idea and Tess pokes him that if the cure does
work he’s just going to make it easier for Cat and Vincent to be together which
makes Gabe and Catherine being together all the less likely.
Cat and Vincent go to see the arson investigators because
there’s lots of angst fodder there. Pooling knowledge, they learn that Eddie
apparently has a grudge against a certain company and narrow down the buildings
he’s likely to hit while Aaron leaps around like an over-eager puppy. Which means
when the big alarms go off, Aaron has already run off on his own because he’s
clever like that
They arrive at the burning building and, of course,
Vincent has to go in alone to help save his silly silly nephew – he kisses Cat
before he goes. Gabe joins Cat with his full resurrection Beaticure kit
Aaron enters the building and is promptly knocked
unconscious. Vincent confronts Eddie and Eddie is doing this because he blames
the people who funded Muirfield’s research. Battle ensues and Vincent manages to counter Eddie’s fire
with a burst water pipe. They split up and Vincent has some flashbacks to when
he rescued his brother from a fire, risking his own life – and his brother then
insisted he return to medical school and become a doctor. He then hallucinates
his brother in the present before finding Aaron. He carries him outside,
rescuing him.
In the building Eddie climbs some stairs, not looking so
good – and Catherine (inside the burning building?) is there waiting – she shoots
him. Twice. Gabe hurries over and they try the resurrection beasticure. It doesn’t
work, the man is well and truly dead.
At the police station Gabe again repeats his plan to save
Vincent (has anyone asked Vincent if he wants to be saved?) Aaron drops in to
thank Cat for all she did and to wish he got to pull the trigger – which she
refutes, it’s not his job and not a happy fun thing anyway.
Cat and Vincent walk down the street discussing his
memory coming back and how Catherine’s whole “I need space” thing didn’t last
very long. The go to the 9/11 memorial and Vincent wonders about stopping being
a firefighter and how he could, possibly, have saved his brothers and she
reminds him that he could just as easily be dead. They end hugging
And I think my “3 episodes” was kind of ridiculous – 1, 1
episode apart. And not even that
So, Beasts are immune to fire now? We’re going with
specialist Beasts with special powers? Oh gods are we heading towards Beast of
the week? This feels like Dark Angel
Season 2
And, really Gabe comes up with this theory? Why is “Muirfield
made super special fire proof beasts” more plausible than “man in fire proof
suit”? Have we seen ANY indication that Beasts are tailor made towards special
situations?
And if he’s fire proof, how come the Arson Beast’s clothes survived the fire? Does he go to the Human Torch’s tailor?
Are we going to get an explanation of these Beasts? Where
did they all come from? Who is controlling them? Is anyone controlling them? Why
are they all dangerously unstable murderers? I mean, Vincent when out of
control, was bestial and angry – same with Gabe. They were never calculatingly
sadistic, murderous or cunningly malicious. They were animalistic.
And why is Vincent doing this? Seriously, he’s killing
any and ALL beasts. Not just ones on the list. He heard the arsonist is a beast
so sets out to kill him. Does he even know if his bosses want him to? And if it’s
safe for him to assume his bosses want all Beasts dead, why doesn’t he twig
that that may make them very unhealthy people to work for?
Vincent was a firefighter alongside his brother? Wait,
what? Vincent was a doctor who joined the army after 9/11 and his brother’s
death, have they just retconned his character? Just thrown in this whole new
backstory for some extra angst?
There’s a lot of dubiousness creeping in – and
Beauty and the Beast has a history of really sloppy writing which leaves me
wary.
Is it common for District Attorneys to take over the
running of police departments in the US? And if so, doesn’t that end up with a
whole load of police who could have been promoted into the role giving the “civilian”
8 kinds of shit over it?
I actually support Cat realising she needs to focus on
herself and get her highly messed up life together rather than getting ensnared
with Vincent and Beast issues again – especially based on Gabe’s incredibly dubious
plan based on a huge assumption that they’re dealing with a beast. Self-care is
not selfish – and I like that message sine so much fiction in general, let
alone the genre, promotes a level of selflessness that is impossible to
achieve. I just wish it had been maintained and she’d continued telling Gabe “totally
not my problem, sell your half-assed logical leaps to someone who cares,” and
Vincent that she is actually really truly over him
