BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: None But Ourselves Can Free Our Minds

Episode 214: “Redemption”

[photos: Ben Mark Holzberg/CW]

Episode 214 of Beauty & The Beast starts out with many beasties likely thinking they’re getting their desires played out, when Cat visits Vincent at his houseboat and they almost kiss. Alas, it’s just a dream, but it lets us have a little peek at what’s going on in that attractive cranium of his.

At their local coffee shop, Cat confesses that while she and Gabe were on their getaway to Cancun, she accidentally (after too many margaritas) called Gabe “Vincent.” Gabe handled it well at the time, but Cat realized she probably needs to spend more time away from Vincent to really give Gabe a chance.

Because Gabe’s playing dead to give Sam the confidence to go about his ne’er-do-well business as usual, Cat and Tess attend Lowan’s funeral. Sam, as predicted turns up, and Vincent and JT show up late, due to Vincent’s poor sleep from the night before. JT, sporting a goofy grin, makes a point of sitting next to Tess to great comedic effect.

Afterwards, Cat and Tess talk to Sam, and they all share fake support to one another over their fake losses. Most important, though, is that they reiterate all wide-eyed innocence that they have no leads at all on the wiley Barnes bad guy. While Tess and Cat chat with Sam, JT and Vincent leave the funeral and discuss Vincent’s need to prove to Cat the he won’t ever choose the beast over Cat again. JT jokingly agrees that Vincent go beast cold turkey; Vincent enthusiastically agrees.

Tess follows Sam after the funeral, and sees him checking on a patient in quarantine. Cat decides to visit the hospital, too, but Gabe insists that she take Vincent with her for protection. Cat’s a bit surprised, but Gabe further explains that he trusts her until she says there’s nothing to worry about.

At the hospital, Vincent helps save a patient, and Cat enjoys her glimpse of the old Vincent. While she’s not able to get into quarantine, Cat got the name of the patient and his symptoms from the nurse. The connection with Sam isn’t immediately apparent, but the fact that a second guy with same name and similar symptoms died at a different hospital provides an extra clue. Gabe lets our dynamic duo know that there was a Jacob Sutter from Gabe’s orphanage; apparently, Sam is injecting every JS with JT’s serum until he finds the right Jacob Sutter. But why is it that the serum turns the orphanage kids into beasts, and everyone else seems to die?

Cat visits her father in jail for more information. After they argue a bit about how beasts are bad, blah, blah, blah, dear ol’ dad makes himself useful for a change. He shares that there is a gene that a small percentage of the population has that predisposes them to becoming beasts, and that beast serum would overwhelm the nervous system of anyone else.

Tess continues to traipse after Sam, and finds him enter a construction site to talk to a bearded man. Tess doesn’t see them leave, so Cat joins here there. They take the stairs to an upper level, where Sam lurks undetected. The bearded man, i.e., the real Jacob Sutter, attacks Cat in Tess in full-on beast mode, and knocks Cat down before jumping out a window. Sam tranqs his new pet and makes his escape.

Gabe tenderly doctors Cat’s injured arm from the Jacob push; she’s irritated that she didn’t shoot Jacob; Gabe is irritated that he can’t do more. Cat plans to have Vincent track the new beast back to Barnes, and firmly dissuades Gabe from getting more involved, given that he has the beast predisposition and could be turned again if Sam were to catch him.

Vincent asks JT to make an antidote to the serum. Cat arrives, and informs them that Sam found his Jacob. When she asks Vincent to track the new beast, JT protests with a great line: “It’s hard to be Dr. Jekyll when everyone wants Mr. Hyde.” Vincent finds the new beast all right, but tries to talk to him. Unfortunately, this newer, more peaceful version of Vincent isn’t positively reinforced for his efforts.

Vincent manages his way back to JT’s, where the antidote is ready to go. Vincent sneaks into the hospital, and prepares to inject the serum. Just then, his former mentor Dr. Marcus, bursts in and threatens to call security. They sort it out, the patient receives his antidote and lives, warm fuzzies abound.

A worried Cat looks for Vincent at JT’s while Vincent plays doctor. JT lets on that Vincent is trying to go beast-straight for Cat, to prove to her that he’s more man that beast so that he can get Cat back. Cat protests that she’s with Gabe now. Good for her for trying to do the right thing. Gabe interrupts Cat’s and JT’s heart-to-heart with a phone call. Gabe’s figured out that Barnes and Sam are actually the same person, and if they no longer need to let Sam run around doing bad things to lead them back to Barnes, they can stop him now. With Cat not knowing where Vincent is, Gabe plans a from-the-same-orphanage outreach. Right, good luck with that.

Cat calls Sam on Dana’s phone, and Sam’s remarkably chatty. Cat shares that Dana is really alive, Sam shares that all his misdeeds are designed to get revenge for his son. Who knows where this mutual pouring out of the hearts would have gone, if only Sam hadn’t stumbled on to Gabe chaining up Jacob. Oops, a quick tranq to the chest, and Gabe takes a nap.

Cat goes to the hospital to get Vincent’s help saving Gabe. On his side, Gabe begs Sam for his life and humanity. Of course, before he can inject the serum, Vincent and Cat show up. There’s some beast fighting, but Cat shoots Jacob when he goes after Gabe with the serum. Sam gets away, but we next see him tracking down a young man named Xavier Wright. Guess this bad guy will be around a while still, which is good; we still need some answers about the collar and leash.

Gabe finally puts his foot down about Vincent’s presence in Cat’s life, and you know, I have to agree with him a little. He deserves a fair shot. Cat appears to be worried that this will break Vincent. That night, she visits the houseboat, and tells him they have to stop seeing each other. Vincent tries to pull her into his arms, but she pushes him away; he falls and cracks his head open on the kitchen countertop, and blood pools underneath him quickly. Cat wakes suddenly, with Gabe next to her. Oh, I see. Yet another one of those pesky dreams. Doesn’t it seem a little of a cheat when writers resort to that?

Stomach virus has prevented me from thinking very deep thoughts about this episode, so what about you guys? What big question marks do you have this time around? Leave a comment; I’m eager to hear what you guys have to say. And word to the wise: make sure you’re using lots of hand sanitizer. ‘Til next week, fellow beasties!

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