BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: SF4M Returns to BATB

[All photos by Ben Mark Holzberg/CW]

Episode 407: “Point of No Return”
Written by Gillian Horvath
Directed by Jill Carter

We hope you’ll forgive the several-week absence from the Beauty and the Beast fandopolis. Real world interference, no point in boring you all with the details. With our return, I have a confession, and I hope you guys won’t kick me in the knees. Not only did I not particularly miss this little-show-that-could, I found myself resisting digging back into it. I think it boils down to two factors. One, I’m burnt out on the whole “somebody is after beasts” plot line; it’s old, can’t we find something else? Two, Vincent and Cat used to have some burning passion, and these days, they’re all about drive-by “I love you” and chaste, old-married-couple kisses. So I watched the latest episode, and thought, “Meh.” But today, I watched it again in preparation for my writeup, and I did find a handful of gold nuggets … along with handful of lumps of coal.

The Good

• Vincent murdered Secretary Hill in the previous episodes, and I have to give the writers props. That’s a pretty bold thing to do. Vincent has been a beasty goody-goody for a lot of episodes now, and having him so blatantly take someone out, even in self-defense, is a new twist.
• Agent Morgan asks the obvious question: “Why [would Secretary Hill] enlist an ex-solider?” In a show where characters don’t always do what’s obvious, I appreciated that he asked the question.
• JT asks Morgan: “Shouldn’t you be chasing down Al-Qaeda or something?” Yes, seriously! Okay, so they’re investigating the death of one of their own, but in this day of widespread terrorism, it certainly does seem like DHS could be doing something more productive with their time than getting up in NYPD and beast business.
• When JT walks into the waiting room at DHS and sees Heather: “Heather?” “JT?” And neither of them say anything else. These writers don’t often use silence effectively (or even dialogue, if truth be told), but the ensuing silence between the two of them spoke far more volumes about the weight of their situation than strained small talk would have.
• As Cat rattles off her plan to Tess and quips she’d be no worse off than now, Tess retorts: “Prison’s worse.” Yes, indeed. There is always that.
• Of all the women on the show, Heather’s the only woman who gets to let her fashion flag fly. Her black and white shirt with the tree graphic was on point. And her boots with the same outfit? A fall must-have.
• This week’s guest stars Tahmoh Penikett (Battlestar Galactica, Supernatural) and Marc Singer (V, Beastmaster, Arrow) made this genre chick totally happy. The CW does a great job of rewarding great guest appearances with roles on other shows, and it was nice to see these two guys again.
• After years of mistrust between Cat and Vincent, Cat trusted that Vincent would know what the real plan was when she suggested to Morgan that they attempt to bring Vincent in alive. I do like that these characters have evolved to have more faith in one another.
• Tess says to Cat: “Four years you’ve been doing this, you’re enabling him … it’s time to break the chain, because this sure as hell isn’t working.” I don’t necessarily agree with Tess that Cat is enabling Vincent; Cat is Vincent’s wife, she can’t just give up. But I completely agree that they need to take a step back and re-assess the situation. Four years of doing the exact same thing and expecting different results is insanity. Good for Tess.
• Vincent lures in the bounty hunter and injects him (hard, ouch!) with truth serum, and the ensuing confession was hilarious. It evoked my favorite scene from the Goonies where Chunk confesses his sins to the Fratellis. Total greatness, on both counts.
• Vincent’s initial effort to infiltrate Graydal is met with very reasonable resistance from Marc Singer’s character. I would have been irritated if Graydal welcomed Vincent in with open arms from the get-go.
• The setting of the attempted capture of Vincent took place at the at the bottom of a concrete bridge with woods and a large creek. It was a beautiful intersection between man and nature, and a healthy reminder to me that production crew for this show are unsung heroes, week after week.
• The writers effectively used foreshadowing when Vincent bellows during the capture attempt: “I don’t believe that you would do this to me, I don’t believe that you would do this to us!” Foreshadowing is a pretty advanced writing technique, so yay for the writing team that I normally bag on.

The Bad/Ugly

• Cat’s transfer from NYPD to DHS falls into deux ex machina territory. Could that even happen? Can you realistically force an NYPD detective to transfer over to DHS, not only without their consent, but without their knowledge? I’m skeptical. And yes, this happened several episodes ago, but it deserves some commentary! I’ve been away from the game!
• Oh dear <deity you pray to>, the chair scene(s). Specifically, where/when Vincent scoops up Cat and then JT from the chair in Cat’s DHS office, and rushes them beast-style outward. Maybe it was intended to be terribly funny. Instead, it was just terrible.
• When did Tess become so humorless? Was it when she became Captain? Do you guys remember when Detective Barbie was hilarious? I pine for the days of Tess’ one-liners. Same for JT. He’s also considerably less snarky. These plots are heavy, and they need comic one-liners to relieve the tension.
• When Tess says to JT: “Please tell me you’re not looking for Vincent.” You know what, Tess? <expletive> you. JT was friends with Vincent long, long before you and JT were ever a … whatever you guys are now. Vincent’s survival really depended on it. You’re just expecting him to blow that off? It’s an unfair expectation.
• Tess says, “Epic love must suck,”… right in front of JT. Ouch.
• Why is it so hard for Heather to say to busybody Kyle, “These secrets you’re asking about? They’re not mine to tell, and if you’re going to be with me, you’re going to have to deal.” Why do women give away their leverage so easily? Heather, at the risk of sounding crass, grow a pair.
• It’s obvious Mr. Kyle is up to something, but the question regarding where his loyalties are remain center camera. I’m a little tired of Heather getting jerked around, and am not looking forward to the fallout. When will Heather’s prince arrive? She deserves it.We’re both in on opposite sides of the law
• Well, Heather and Vincent are on opposite sides of the law … again. Didn’t they already do this, when Vincent was a brainless mercenary under the control of Cat’s dad? I mean, yes, Vincent’s in charge of his faculties, but this just seems like deja-vu all over again.

All in all, not the worst BATB episode I’ve ever seen, but certainly not the strongest by a long mile. At this point, I’m starting to mull over the all the loose threads and short time (a half-dozen episodes) we have left for this little series. It’s time to start reviewing all my episode recaps and saying, “Hey, whatever happened to ….” I have mixed feelings about watching this series wind down, but look forward to doing it with all of you, with whom I’ve been kanoodling since the beginning. See you guys next week!

Beauty and the Beast airs on the CW on Thursdays at 9/9 Central. For more information, visit the official site.

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