BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: Disaster Recovery

Episode 212: “Recipe for Disaster”

[photos: Ben Mark Holzberg/CW]

Last week’s episode of Beauty & The Beast was in interesting one, in that chess pieces have been strategically placed such that times will be a-changing. So let’s take a quick look.

Tess alerts Cat that Gabe is planning on leaving the precinct. From a “real life” perspective, this actually makes a lot of sense. His role was to step in and clean up Joe Bishop’s mess, and while Gabe didn’t actually close a whole lot of open beast cases (from what I could tell), it seemed that things had settled down and he needed to do a lot less investigating and a whole lot more prosecuting. From a romance perspective, Gabe’s move from the precinct: 1) presses the issue of the will they-won’t they between Cat and Gabe, and 2) makes it easier to move Gabe’s character aside when it’s time (‘cause we all know it’ll happen).

Vincent makes a late night call to Cat to find out what movement, if any, there’s been regarding Agent Landon and other aspects of the gem case. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, all that accomplishes is to further upset an already anxious and insecure Tori about her standing with Vincent. And while Vincent appears to feel bad about it, we certainly get the sense that he’s more concerned with dealing with the inconvenience of the emotional overhead than he is about Tori’s well-being; he eventually tells Tori they need some time apart. My first reaction: “Thank God! I’m not dating the girl, and I need some time away from that stage five clinger.”

JT starts out the episode well; he’s basking in the glow of good friends and fortune after learning that he’s won a prestigious research grant. That’s great, until the lab where he’s to do his work turns out to be a prison, and the research grant is just a ruse for this new enemy Tony Barnes to get access to JT’s research on beasts. Poor JT is locked up with another prisoner who never quite identifies himself, and JT is tasked with duplicating Muirfield beast serum.

Vincent gets home after his fight with Tori, only to discover that his hothead redhead has a trussed-up federal agent in his houseboat. Needless to say, Vincent questions the wisdom of this course of action, but his approach is probably more heated than required, and Tori beasts out in full view of Agent Landon. On the upside, it provides the segue needed to introduce the topic of beasts to Agent Landon. With Landon in on the secret, she’s an ally in their effort to find now kidnapped JT.

By cross-referencing the areas that Cat’s relative Rebecca had identified two hundred years earlier with the list of suspects that Agent Landon had accumulated over the last six years in her own investigation, the team eventually pinpoints JT’s general location. Tori, stewing over her struggles with Vincent, takes matters into her own hands and tracks JT down before Vincent manages it himself. Way to go, newbie! Oh, except she gets captured, and bad guy Barnes decides to avail himself of her beast blood. Like, most of it.

Just as JT completes the serum, Vincent shows up. Vincent busts him out of the chains that have hobbled him, gives him his phone, and tells him to go find Cat. Vincent locates a fading Tori, but she refuses a hospital, claiming it’s too late her for her. Barnes pounces and locks Vincent in the cell with Tori; just as he prepares to put a bullet in Vincent, Cat shows up and kills Barnes. And as it turns out, yep, it was too late for Tori.  As we say in Texas, don’t let the screen door bump you on the butt on the way out.

Vincent grumbles to Cat about how there will always be bad guys after him; he also grieves Tori’s loss, but in a “that shouldn’t have happened” way, rather than feeling a deep sense of personal loss. I can relate. She was a mostly nice girl, but I really think that if there are any more women to come in between Vincent and Catherine, they really need not to be redheads. After Vincent leaves, Cat tells Gabe that she’s ready to be with him. Wouldn’t it be interesting if the writers just let that be? Can you imagine if for the next three seasons, Cat and Gabe just had a happy, steady relationship? Yeah, right.

Let’s wrap up the last few details. Agent Landon discovers that JT’s no-name roommate in the prison was actually her husband Sam who’s been missing these last six years, and they discover that “Tony Barnes” actually was a con man, and not the real Tony Barnes. Vincent buries the gem in an undisclosed location. JT finally tells Vincent over scotch that JT volunteered Vincent for Muirfield. All said, Vincent took it pretty well.

Questions for next week: is this really the last we’re going to see of the gem? I’m worried it’s going to be like an item in a Stephen King novel, and will just mysteriously re-appear on someone’s doorstep. What of the creature skeleton; does that have any further pertinence? What about the bad guy; will the real Tony Barnes please stand up? Will we find out that Sam Landon has been complicit somehow in the beast experiments? And why is it that no one seems to recall that Vincent was essentially a hit man at the beginning of the season? JT reminded him of all the lives he saved, but no one’s talking about the guys he proactively took out. Yes, yes, they were bad guys, but still. And how will Vincent make us forget this time about all his jerk behavior, and win us and Catherine back to him? Sure looks like the writers are ready to take us back that direction. Are you guys ready?

See you guys soon!

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