BEAUTY & THE BEAST: Out of the Frying Pan

Episode 119: “Playing With Fire”

THERE ARE SPOILERS AHEAD!

[Photos: Ben Mark Holzberg/The CW]

My write-up title for last week’s episode of Beauty and the Beast was “A Dark Man Waits with a Dark Purpose.” Perhaps Gabe isn’t as shady as I thought; that is, if I’m to believe what we’re being told now. I wonder how many times the enigmatic Mr. Lowan will flip-flop on us, and keep us off kilter. Good character development here.

Our swarthy anti-hero wakes to nightmares, then a bloody nose. Nope, he’s not well at all. Bishop pops in for a cup of coffee. Not really; he wants to redirect the task force to look for Evan. But here, ADA Lowan has his first really intelligent criminal justice thought: if they go after Evan, at least in a public capacity, every piece of evidence ever supported by the medical examiner will be questioned, cases re-examined, criminals back out on the street, dogs and cats living together, etc. For the moment, they agree to pursue (poor dead) Evan off the record. After Bishop leaves, Lowan re-familiarizes himself with a lovely blond woman who apparently hates Muirfield, based on her words and the nasty scar down her spine.

Detective Chandler goes to Evan’s apartment for his journals, but they’re missing. Video footage from the antique store across the street reveals the thief to be none other than the mysterious ADA. Cat confronts Gabe, he confesses to the theft, and finally reveals his big secret. Muirfield had trafficked little orphaned Gabriel from Calcutta to America, and experimented on him. Given the name of the experiment, Chimera, the viewer is left to wonder: is Gabe an earlier form of Vincent?

That agent at the front desk of the Muirfield agency last week?  This week, he shows up shot to hell at the precinct, asking for Detective Chandler. Cat has no idea who he is, and all he manages before his death is that she doesn’t have much time. Don’t you hate warnings with no suggestions for resolution? Vincent follows the agent’s blood trail back to an alley, where he and J.T. find a damaged cell phone that had been used to record video. J.T., jack of all trades that he is, pulls the video off the phone.

In the video, Agent Davis reveals that Cat’s mother was his mentor; that he always had suspicions about Dr. Chandler’s death; that Muirfield is vulnerable because they’re moving locations; and that Cat needs to go to the Orchard…whatever that is. Cat wonders whether Gabe knows anything about the Orchard, but Vincent asks her to hold off on reaching out to him until he has a chance to look at Gabe more closely. Seems reasonable, but Cat’s not convinced.

As Cat leafs through Evan’s journals in Gabe’s company, she happens across a sticky note with an address for Orchard Industries. Cat, the woman of a thousand faces, does a poor job of masking her surprise, and Gabe latches on. Cat explains to Gabe that they wouldn’t be able to explain his presence if he goes and they get caught, but really she doesn’t want to risk exposing info about Vincent to Gabe. Tess tags along instead.

Tess distracts a guy entering the building, to hilarious effect, and Cat sneaks into the building. Using a swipe key lifted from Agent Davis, Cat enters a massive server farm. She finds the main terminal, and as it turns out, Gabe’s phone support proves useful; he suggests the password “chimera”. Sorry, but I cry foul. I know it wouldn’t serve the story for Cat and Vincent to consistently encounter Ocean 11 levels of security, but as a member of corporate America, I’m not allowed to have passwords that are that easy to guess. There is no way a top secret organization operating outside the bounds of law and good taste would leave themselves so open to breach.

Nonetheless, Cat is in, and Gabe’s sidekick transfers data using the remote connection Cat established. As the data streams over, Cat realizes that a folder with all of Vincent’s data will also be transferred. As desperation to break the connection sets in, Cat gets more bad news from Tess: a strike team is on the way. Vincent has been eavesdropping on Gabe and knows that Cat has been a baaaad girl, and he shows up at Orchard Industries just in time.

Vincent shoves a data tower across the room, the strike team shows up, a fight ensues, Cat and Vincent win, and a fire breaks out. I’m not a pyro expert or anything, but it sure seems like everything went up in flames a lot faster than one would expect. Cat and Vincent escape, and yet again, I am struck by how much I really, truly hate the makeup used when Vincent is Beast. My fingers are crossed that these guys can hire a good effects team now that the show’s been renewed.

Gabe and Cat touch base after the Orchard is incinerated. All the data transferred to Gabe was corrupted as a result of the interrupted transfer. Cat asks about Gabe’s guess at the password.  The Chimera experiments, of which he was a part, was the genesis of Muirfield. Cat muses that her mother wore a chimera necklace; so did our friendly neighborhood detective realize that her mother was the scientist who experimented on Gabe? Gabe sure connects the dots, while his blond honey points out that the bolts that held the data tower in place inside the Orchard were sheared off, not caused by fire.  Does Gabe realize that Vincent did this?  Wouldn’t be surprised; he’s smart and suspicious.

Much of this episode was devoted to the nature of secrecy and trust, and while I think it’s a worthwhile topic of discussion and exploration, haven’t we already been here and done this? Cat has repeatedly requested full transparency from Vincent, and she has struggled all season long with misleading her friends and family. It strikes me as strongly out of character for her to go behind Vincent’s back; she’s just not one for duplicity. I appreciate what the writers are trying to do, I just wish they’d found another means to do it. In any case, Vincent and Cat make up, and he shows her his new place. Again, how do these characters with mid-level incomes find such incredible places in NYC? So jealous.

Questions for the week: Where is Heather? There’s no chance that nosy busy-body would be so checked out of Cat’s life. Did Cat finally succumb to sisterly annoyance and hide Heather’s body in a ditch somewhere? We haven’t heard much lately about Vincent’s continued mutation…did it stop at night vision? The Muirfield agent who followed Alex; we assumed that he simply followed Alex; last week, Agent Kyle mentioned he’s been taken out, which implies the older agent has been incommunicado. So what happened to him and to Alex? We still don’t know what the deal is with Cat’s parents, and now we have to wonder what kind of crazy mutation Gabe and his blond cutie are hiding. All very interesting…

So with the news that B&TB has been renewed, are you guys out of your minds pleased with yourselves? You should be. This show lives because of its devoted fan base, and the fan base is as amazing as it is because of the interaction between the fans and key players on the show. It’s an amazing testament to the power of the people and to social media. So, see you guys next episode, as well as next season!

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