BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: Battling Boredom

[All photos by Michael Gibson/CW]

Episode 408: “Love is a Battlefield”

Talk about summer doldrums. As a Texan, born and raised, you’d think I’d be used to Texas summers by now. Alas, late July, all of August, and the first half of September are usually pretty miserable. Between the hours of 10 AM and 8 PM, there’s a whole lot of staying indoors. Oh sure, iced tea (and no, I don’t actually take mine sweetened…sacrilege!), swimming pools, and A/C help get us through. Even so, this time of year, most Texans are pretty crabby. So maybe my crabbiness helps account for my reaction to last week’s BATB, but full disclosure, I didn’t love it. AnnaLynn McCord was, in my humble opinion, the bright spot in an otherwise lackluster episode. Let’s break it on down for the B-boys and B-girls waiting to do their thing.

The Good

• Heather’s butterfly dress in the opening scene is a Southern girl’s dream dress. LOVE!
• The sheath dress that KK is wearing in the opening scene totally shows off her amazing arms and shoulders. She’s got some definition for being such a tiny slip of a thing. Jelly!
• Yay, kissing in this episode! I mean, like good kissing. Curl-your-toes, fluttery-tummy, reminds-you-you’re-a-woman kissing.
• Cat: “I am used to crazy, but this is bananas!” Ha, yep!
• When Vincent’s new mercenary team lead says, “Don’t you get glib with me…” I really do prefer my mercenaries to be logophiles, don’t you?
• I totally abhor violence against women, so why is it that I so love a cat, er, a Cat-fight? Watching Cat giving the what-for to Vincent’s “new wife” was pure inappropriate, adolescent good times.
• Heather waltzes into J.T.’s wearing overalls AND a sister’s headband…wait, what? How the heck did she make that work? I dunno, but I actually had a little bit of outfit envy. About overalls!!!
• Vincent to Cat: “I don’t do so well without you.” The feels, the feels, I tell you! Here’s the thing, men. We already know this about you. Why can’t you just give us the freaking credit we deserve already, and confess that you don’t do so well without us? It would save you, and us, so much heartbreak.
• AnnaLynn McCord as Dianne is probably one of the best guest actresses this show has had, and given that The CW recycles their good finds (she was on 90210, after all), we can and should expect to see her yet again. Not only does she have a killer bod, she can actually act. She has the whole Ice Queen thing down pat. Great casting choice, and let’s give her a meaty role in something new on the network.
• Remarks about “I can’t leave without my wife,” and “I’m going to go save my new boss from your new wife.” Not over-the-top hilarious, but good for a chuckle, for sure.
• I’ve waxed poetic in the past about KK’s great facial expressions, but it’s been a while since I’m seen one that made me stop and take pause. But when Vincent is making out with “new wife”, the look on Cat’s face was priceless. Classic Cat/KK.
• When Heather ratted out Tess and her supposed date to J.T., I was originally going to put that on the Bad/Ugly list. But J.T. calls her out for meddling, and I do so love seeing Heather get put back in her place. I mean, I like her, she’s got heart. But the girl really is too big for her own britches sometimes. Between that, and J.T. reminding Heather to stop interrupting, J.T. wins surrogate Dad award for the episode.
• Vincent pushes Cat into the swimming pool, and my reaction was literally a gasp followed by a gale of laughter. I can’t believe he did that! Cat handled it with aplomb, but still, too funny.
• Dianne’s comment: “[Vincent] kisses like a married man.” Darn skippy.
• At the end of the episode, when Vincent and Cat negotiate what their life will look like, Vincent playfully refuses Cat’s request for help with the remote. Given the A/V challenges I have in my own household, I could totally relate.
• Cat’s laughter in bed with Vincent at the end of the episode was the best. It sounded like real married couple laughter, and it was charming.

The Bad/Ugly

• Vincent keeps asking Graydal, “What do I have to do to show you can trust me?” I cannot express how completely stupid it is that he has the expectation that they would, and yet, just as stupidly, they eventually do trust Vincent. Does not compute.
• Dianne and Vincent go into their swanky party with the plan to switch out the security watches worn by a targeted billionaire couple. First of all, if you’re not a beast, how would you even do that? Second of all, they were so ugly, no billionaire couple would have been caught dead in them. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
• Vincent and Cat are both essentially undercover. Vincent is way off the grid. And yet, Vincent is counting on Cat to keep him safe? It doesn’t even make sense.
• Vincent and Cat pick the swanky party (where they’re both essentially undercover) as the venue for an argument. Also very dumb, given time constraints and exposure risk.
• ADA Ellis, drinks? Are we really sure this is a date? Let’s not jump to conclusions, J.T. and Heather. It never goes well.
• And, as already mentioned, this seemed like a totally fluffy, filler episode. Apparently, the writers don’t have quite enough content to get us to the end of the season. Hoping they have something better lined up for us in the coming weeks as the show comes to a close.

Catch you guys after episode 409, “The Getaway”! Until then, stay cool.

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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