Where Beast Is a Turkey And Beauty Is (Justly) Cold

Episode 112: “Cold Turkey”

THERE ARE SPOILERS AHEAD!

[Photos: Ben Mark Holzberg/The CW]

First things first: my apologies for last week’s post wherein I indicated that Episode 112 would air on February 14th. Let’s call it a valuable lesson learned regarding the utilization of more than one source of air dates. Now, let’s move on to things more interesting than mea culpas…

Where does a girl go to sign up for a friend like Tess? Sweet, funny, loyal, vulnerable Tess…oh, how I wish you were one of my crew. This week’s episode begins with Heather and Tess out at a karaoke bar, ostensibly comforting Cat because Vincent chose Alex. Cat splits hairs a bit: “He didn’t choose her, he chose the things that went along with her.” Tell yourself whatever you need to sleep at night, Cat. Tess good-naturedly challenges Cat to let the other girl deal with Vincent’s issues. Would that she could actually quit Vincent cold turkey.

Back at her luscious apartment, Cat watches police procedurals on TV and stuffs her face with ice cream, when along comes Alex. Not only is it creepy that Alex has pulled Cat’s address from hospital records, it’s waaaay awkward that Alex has stopped by to ask Cat, as Vincent’s handler, if it’s ok to take Vincent away for the weekend to her family’s upstate cabin. Seriously, what is the right answer here? Long-suffering Cat takes the high road, and gives Alex her blessing in word if not in spirit.

What do you do if you’re a 90-lb. woman with anger issues who’s just gorged on ice cream? You hang on desperately to that 90-lb. frame, and run your butt off. Which is exactly where Vincent finds Cat so he can apologize to her. This would be really great, except Vincent really isn’t there to apologize; he actually wants her to be okay and smile about him ditching her for Alex. Cat holds out (good girl), and tells him that she is going cold turkey, and Vincent pouts because Cat isn’t happy for him.

At work, Cat discovers that Narcotics plans to raid Alex’s apartment because of the hospital thefts. Cat quickly tries to call Vincent, but he’s already left for the cabin. Cat and her overdeveloped responsibility make a quick trip to Alex’s apartment to clean up any potential fingerprints, photos, letters, etc., that may possibly alert the police to Vincent’s presence. To add insult to injury, Cat finds an empty lingerie store bag on Alex’s bed. Fortunately, the excursion leads to something fruitful, other than a little salt in the wound. Cat discovers a high-tech bug, and realizes that Muirfield now knows that Alex and Vincent are heading upstate where they’ll be sitting ducks.

Alex and Vincent obviously have a bit of alone time together this episode, and Vincent attempts to tell Alex about the experiments and its implications. Alex is a nice girl, but a terrible listener. She interrupts, avoids obvious follow-up questions, and essentially hears what she wants to hear…that Vincent has PTSD? She focuses on her end goal, instead of taking Vincent’s hesitant and halting attempts to confess seriously. All in all, very frustrating.

J.T. and Cat plan their next moves. Evan’s presenting his evidence on Vincent’s DNA to obtain grant money for further study, so J.T. has to stop him. J.T. makes a trip to see Evan and insists that he desist because of the secret organization that is hunting “the creature.” Evan scoffs, and assumes that J.T. is merely a frustrated adversary, so J.T. pulls out the big guns. He threatens to tell Evan’s co-workers Evan’s dirty little secret: a young woman died on Evan’s operating table back in the UK. Evan was cleared of wrongdoing but still harbors guilt, as evidenced by his specialty change and his departure from the UK. Evan’s blackmail bluff backfires when Evan declares their scientific partnership over. They patch things up later after Evan finds a bug in the morgue, and J.T. graciously agrees that the dead patient issue can be put to rest, so to speak.

Cat, meanwhile, reluctantly makes her way to the cabin to alert Vincent and Alex to the Muirfield danger. She arrives after Vincent has left to help a stranded motorist, and she immediately recognizes it as a trap. She leaves Alex with a gun, orders her to stay at the cabin, and sneaks her way out into the woods. After tromping around for a bit, Vincent (having ditched the bogus stranded motorist) finds her, and they take time to bicker about Alex’s safety, how Cat supposedly views Vincent more as an animal than a man, and how Alex still doesn’t know Vincen’ts full story. I have enough bickering in my own life, I don’t particularly want to see these two going at it.

Fortunately, Muirfield shows up in time to save us from the tiresome back and forth, and Vincent lets loose. Suffice it to say, bad guys are taken out with expediency, but not without collateral damage. Alex for some stupid reason decided, despite Cat’s warnings, to come outside and join the fun; this would make more sense if she had any fighting skills whatsoever. Instead, she just sees Vincent in all his beastly glory, freaks out, and bing bang boom, she decides she can’t handle her man after all. My eleven year old daughter summed it up pretty well, “Well, saw that coming from a mile away.” Yep.

All roads lead to home, they say. Cat returns home to find out from Heather that Tess is bummed about a broken “date” with married Joe, their commanding officer. Vincent chats with J.T. to find out that Cat wiped down Alex’s apartment to protect him, so a visit to Cat is in order.

Vincent thanks Cat and tells her that he knows he can’t be with someone who doesn’t accept him. God bless her heart, Cat stands her ground and declares that she can’t be Vincent’s second choice. Vincent denies it’s like that, but she points out that had Alex accepted Vincent after the big Muirfield brawl, he’d be with her. Vincent protests that his choice hadn’t been so much about Alex but about a better future where he could practice medicine. It rings hollow, so Cat decides to protect herself and be there for Tess, which results in some gratifyingly terrible karaoke ‘twixt Cat, Tess and Heather…all beautiful, talented, sweet women who can’t sing to save their lives. It humanizes them a little more, and makes the anticipation of the inevitable reconciliation (preceded by the requisite groveling) all the sweeter. See you guys next week (yes, next week!) for the next episode!

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