Beauty And Ms. Walker Both See Red

Episode 110: “Seeing Red”

THERE ARE SPOILERS AHEAD!

[Photos: Ben Mark Holzberg/The CW]

For you rabid Vincent fans, I warn you now; you may not love what I say in this recap. Vincent is generally letting me down, and I’m not happy. Stick with me, and I’ll explain along the way.

This episode begins with Cat’s car wreck and shooting. Vincent as Beast pulls Catherine out of the car and wanders about with her unconscious body. When Evan and Heather approach the scene, Vincent carefully places Cat on the road and runs off. Evan crouches down to examine Cat; he realizes she is bleeding profusely and has a collapsed lung. He performs an emergency procedure to restore her breathing ability, and Heather calls for a Medivac.

In her hospital room, Cat is woken by a nurse who waxes poetic about the field surgeon who saved Cat. Cat assumes Vincent is her roadside hero. When Vincent sneaks in to see her, he corrects the misunderstanding. He beats himself up for not being the doctor she needed. He mentions he made the conscious decision to leave her for Evan to handle; so wait, he’s capable of rational thought when he’s Beast? That has interesting implications. Anyway, Cat argues that Vincent pulled her out of the car, which Evan couldn’t have done. She also tells him that she left the wedding to tell him that she accepted him, mutating cells and all.

Evan’s on his way up, so Vincent dons a surgical mask and leaves. Ok, seriously, nobody in this post-9/11 world thinks it’s weird for a guy to wander the halls in a surgical mask? Whatever. Coming downstairs, he’s recognized by Cat’s nurse. She calls out his name; Vincent hides. After a little digging, the nurse discovers that Vincent had visited Cat. She asks Cat about it, but Cat feigns ignorance.

Cat texts Vincent, warning him not to return to the hospital. Vincent irritation item #1: does Vincent call her to ask what’s up? Text her back? No, he goes right to the hospital. In fairness, Cat has showed up to plenty of places plenty of times despite Vincent’s warnings. At any rate, Cat takes advantage of Vincent’s ding-dong move to ask him about her nurse, Alex Salter. Vincent lies, irritation item #2: he says they were friends growing up and later they were closer. Maybe it’s not a blatant lie, but it’s not the whole truth.

Irritation item #3: Vince awaits Alex in her car. He explains his faked death; she says she loved him, so they were more than friends. Irritation item #4: Vincent lies again, and says Cat is his “handler.”  While Vincent speaks with his ex, Cat digs for info. A search in the NYPD database reveals six police reports in the last three months that relate to Alex being stalked by an unknown man. Spooked, Cat calls J.T. to warn him that Muirfield may be involved.

Next, Cat engages in poor judgment of her own. After serious injuries and two major surgeries, she leaves the hospital to check on Alex. I’m confused about her motivation, but as it turns out, her decision pays off. Alex is attacked, and Cat saves the day.

Inside her apartment, Alex thanks Cat and says she knows that Cat is Vince’s handler. Cat pumps Alex for information regarding the stalking, and Alex mentions that her closet was rifled through. Cat opts to do the same thing, and finds a box of letters from Vincent. According to the letters, Alex and Vincent weren’t just close, they were planning to marry. Ouch.

Vincent arrives, and Cat asks, “Handler? Really?”  Good for her. Vincent has the decency to appear sheepish. Further details about Alex’s stalkee experiences are discussed, and Cat leaves to follow up on a hair found in Alex’s apartment.

Cat meets Evan in his lab, and wonders aloud why a doctor with such mad surgical skills is an M.E. Evan changes the subject quickly; what’s the back story there? Think it has to do with Muirfield? Back story aside, Evan shares the hair results with Cat.

Again at her apartment, Alex recognizes the picture of the hair owner as a man who several years ago, had repeatedly asked Alex to marry him. Realizing that a traditional investigation would turn up evidence of Vincent, the trio agrees to use Alex as bait. She emails a friend saying that she’s going away with Vincent. Given Connor’s past history of reading her emails, Connor should intervene.

Sure enough, at the hospital, Connor shows up (weird artificial blocking in this scene) and kidnaps Alex. Vincent beasts out and finds Connor, who shoots the lights out. Vincent’s latest mutation unveils itself in the first cool special effect I’ve seen on this show: night vision. Vincent now has the advantage, although why Vincent’s heavy breathing didn’t give away his position is a question. Vincent defeats Connor, then reverts back to normal. A relieved Vincent embraces Alex, and she lays one on him. He just sorta rolls with it. No protests, no nothing. That’s irritation #5, worsened by Cat walking in on their embrace.

Evan shows up at J.T.’s university office, asking about an article that J.T. had written on cross-species DNA. He’s on the verge of a scientific breakthrough, but needs a biochemist’s help. J.T. is torn. If J.T. joins forces with Evan, he may risk exposure. But he can also keep tabs on Evan’s progress, maybe even sabotage his efforts.

In the final scene, Vincent and Cat discuss the big elephant. Irritation #6: Vincent asks why they don’t move forward, essentially blaming Cat; she has a history of picking bad boys that she can hold at arm’s length. Hey, idiot, what about at the beginning of the episode where Cat said she accepted you, all of you? Is that arm’s length? Cat challenges him to consider his feelings for Alex. The guilty look on his face speaks volumes.

We are nearing the end of this season, with four episodes left. I’m personally ready to move past the “will they/won’t they” stage, and move into the “can they keep it together” stage. For that to happen, Vincent needs to wise up. But if he wasn’t invested enough to close the gap with Cat right after he thought he lost her, when will he be? How will he resolve the love triangle? Will the writers of the show kill off Alex? All important questions that will shape the rest of the season and possibly involve a cliffhanger at the end. Looking forward to sharing it with you guys!

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