‘A picnic?’
OK, first of all, cheer up Beasties! I know last week’s ratings were a tad bit depressing to hear but, there’s always this week and twenty more after that. There are so many other factors nowadays besides ratings, especially when it comes to programming on The CW. We’re killing it on all the other fronts as well as having a very healthy international market for the show. Just keep live tweeting, checking in on Get Glue, watching the show on the CW site and/or CW app, purchase iTunes season passes and whenever season 2 is available for pre-order, order as many as you can. Also be sure to follow and interact with Beauty and the Beast on all available social media to show your love and support. OK, getting down from my soap box now.
I was super happy this week when I saw the words ‘written by’ were supervened by two very lovely names, Jennifer Levin and Sherri Cooper. While we are still in the memory wiped! Vincent storyline, there were some callbacks to season 1 as well as a more in character Tess that just lightened my heart. It was also nice to have Rick Bota back in the director’s chair. I just like nice familiar names, OK? I think consistency in the writers’ room as well as in the directing chair only helps a show, not hinder it.
This week’s episode didn’t have any time jump at all. It’s literally the next day and all hell is breaking loose from the Li Zhao mauling/murder. Luckily, Gabe is smooth operator who loves to put on a show for the cameras. Can you blame him? If I looked like that I’d definitely be a camera hog too! Cat and Tess watch the press conference on TV in a diner. Tess says tries to assure Cat it’s OK because only Gabe knows who they’re looking for. Cat counters with hope that maybe it wasn’t even Vincent who did it. Before the conversation can get to heated Captain Interruptus, I mean Gabe comes into the diner and tries his best to rally the gals into participating in his makeshift taskforce to watch the surveillance cameras around the city to find Vincent.
Cat doesn’t trust Gabe and is annoyed that it seems like Tess isn’t siding with her so she races over to JT’s place. JT tries to rejoice and celebrate about the fact that Muirfield is no more but Cat doesn’t care. She cuts him short and puts him to work looking for Vincent. Cat pitches her idea to JT on how to jog Vincent’s memory. JT gets a bit incredulous (as do I) when he thinks she wants to take him on a date. She says that’s not it. Then he makes the next logical leap that she wants to have sex him. But that’s not it (unhuh, sure Cat); she wants to throw a picnic on the rooftop. Turns out it was a pretty good idea and a nice bone (in theory) to throw the Beasties.
Cat rushes home to fix a picnic basket while recalling fond memories of the previous night’s events with Vincent. That is followed by even more flashback from the last episode of when she tracking Vincent while he was tracking Li Zhao. Meanwhile, we catch a glimpse of Agent Reynolds and his lackey worried discussing Vincent. He’s nowhere to be found. He’s not even with Cat. But Reynolds trusts Vincent’s programming since Li Zhao is dead. Vincent has yet another mysterious mission to complete at 2100 hours. If he doesn’t complete it they decide to worry about it then.
But that’s not necessary. Gabe has been watching the streets around Cat’s apartment (very smart move Gabe) and calls her with a heads up. She seems a little mad but Tess tells her that she left her a message explaining the situation. I decide Cat needs to throw away her phone since she ignores practically everyone who isn’t JT. Cat and JT can get walk talkies. Anyway, Gabe asks Cat if she can follow orders. Tess tells him to tread lightly on the subject. But Gabe had just reason to suspect as he quickly finds out when Cat forgets how to handle call waiting and says something meant for JT to Gabe and Tess.
Cat hurriedly gets off the phone with Gabe and Tess to pursue Vincent. Turns out, Vincent is heading to Riker’s Island prison. There we see Vincent prepping his sniper gun. Inside the prison we see a guy with a lot of pull “ordering” his dinner. But he will not get to eat that meal because Vincent shoots him with something that sends him into a mouth foaming convulsion. I think to myself, well at least he didn’t kill the guy. In a throwback to season 1 we get to Vincent back in a doctor’s white coat spewing all kinds of medical jargon. He’s posing as a Dr. Braunstein, the doctor on call for the prison. He gets all the staff to leave and interrogates the man named Carlos. He wants to know where Carlos’s asset is.
Cat manages to make it to Riker’s Island and gets a worried call from Tess. Tess manages to convince Cat to tell her where she is and that she’ll ditch Gabe and come be her backup. But it’s too late. Vincent has spotted Cat and doesn’t like the conversation he heard transpire between Cat and Tess. He comes up behind her in a blocking sequence that is very reminiscent of episode 1x02: Proceed With Caution. In a panic he knocks Cat out through the power of acupressure and shoves her into the passenger side of her own car.
Much to Cat’s disappointment, this doesn’t jog Vincent’s memory at all, though Vincent suggests maybe a second time might. But Vincent’s mysterious mission interrupts and like a switch Vincent’s personality turns on a dime. He tells Cat to get dressed.
Cat is in full panic mode because she doesn’t know what will bring her Vincent back to her if the sex didn’t ring any bells. To add insult to injury, Vincent ties Cat up before he saunters off for his mysterious mission. Just when you think he’s going to untie her, BOOM! More salt in the wound, he only comes turns around to close the lid to his laptop.
As a little break from the VinCat mess we get treated to Gabe, JT and Tess in the Riker’s Island parking lot examining Cat’s car. Tess is annoyed with JT because her password was ‘Nutty Professor’ one of their many new inside jokes that Cat and JT share. Also, JT has been eating fast food in the car with Cat while they were looking for Vincent. Tess is jealous and worried. Tess tries to pick a fight with JT but Gabe squashes it and decides they are both too close to the task at hand and he’s going to go alone to rescue Cat. But really he just wanted to score some brownie points.
Gabe comes to Cat’s rescue. An embarrassed Cat who is tied up and tipped over tries to keep Gabe from seeing the messy sheets on Vincent’s bed but to no avail. Gabe sees them but he does not make mention of it. Which I find very classy. Gabe unties Cat and the peruse Vincent’s laptop. Gabe wants to know if Vincent spilled any information all while kind of telling Cat that he told her so. They discover what Vincent is up to and head out to stop him.
Vincent looking dapper as ever finds and acquires his target. He even manages to get Gina alone. But of course Cat has interrupted once again. He goes to Cat and confronts her about her stalker behavior and makes clear that they are not boyfriend and girlfriend. While this is going on Gina has been approached by another guy. Gabe sees them together and alerts her to the threat to her safety. The guy offers to take Gina out of the club. Vincent comes back just in time to see the guy take off with Gina. Gabe tries to stop Vincent but gets flung like a rag doll. The guy that took Gina, turns out he was another beast. Vincent dispatches him and takes off with the guy’s body. Cat reveals to Gabe that there are more beasts out there.
Gabe calls JT who tells Tess that Cat is alright. Tess would prefer to hear that for herself from Cat. She also ribs JT about Cat. JT tells her he’s not trying to steal her best friend. He also tells her she’s lucky that Cat at least remembers her. Tess kind of empathizes with JT and the two share a very sweet moment over a beer.
Meanwhile, back at the precinct Gabe and Cat decompress about the night’s events. Gabe has found a money trail that leads back to Muirfield. Turns out they were selling the beasts to the highest bidders. The beast that Vincent killed was a hired gun for an elite level criminal.
Cat returns home after a long day to discover a note on her door that reads: Roof. She rushes up there to find Vincent. She wonders if Vincent remembered that he use to do that. He does not. Cat gets a little bummed out. Vincent came to return her phone as well as set up a time to actually have that picnic and hang out. Cat gets overzealous and pushes Vincent by asking him questions that he doesn’t or quite possibly literally cannot answer due to his programming. This ends in a heart breaking action. Vincent beasts out and pushes Cat down. A devastated Cat appears to have lost all hope and actually seems afraid of the new Vincent for the first time.
This provokes a strong reaction in Cat that leads to her barging into Gabe’s office and declaring that she has seen the light: Vincent is indeed dangerous and they need to capture him and assess him.
Grade: B+
Reason: The dialog was a bit bland and flat. Although, I will say every character got a good line and a moment to shine. There was very little action which is kind of unusual. With Nikita being its last season, I think they should ramp up action to feel the void and draw in some new viewers. I feel there was also too much reused footage from the previous episode where we could have an FBI scene or more VinCat or JT and Tess interactions. Cat is coming off as a bit too intense and at times a little bit irrational as well. Cat’s eyes even go all ‘crazy’ at more than one point in the episode. When she barges into Gabe’s office, the writers might as well have written the line, ‘If I can’t have him, no one will.’ Hopefully, next week, Cat can take it down a notch and we can get to the myth arc which hopefully will lead to Vincent getting his memories back and we have Team Beastie whole again and gang up on Cat’s biological father, Agent Reynolds.
Awards
Character of the Night
I went with Gabe. He’s really trying to earn everyone’s trust. Tess seemed more relaxed with him this time around. JT was willing to listen to him and even let him do the planning. Gabe made an excellent point about his role on the team, he’s the middle man, he not too detached but at the same time he’s not too emotionally invested. That lets him see all the options on the table and come to a reasonable compromise.
While he didn’t get any funny lines, he got the important ones. He was the one who smoothed things over at the press conference. He was the one that saved Cat. He was the one with connection to trendy underground club. He was the one who figured out the Muirfield money trail. Also, his gentlemanly discretion was duly noted when he didn’t mention the messy sheets on Vincent’s bed. And just for the record, I think Gabe is very cool. JT maybe the heart and Tess may be the muscle but clearly at this point Gabe is the brain of this operation. Fingers crossed that his intentions be good and true.
Favorite Moments
1. All the glimpses of Sally (Cat’s blue mustang). I really like that car.
2. The ‘rooftop’ note
3. Cat falling over trying to get to Vincent’s laptop.
4. Vincent in the white lab coat at Riker’s impersonating a doctor.
5. JT and his antacids.
Favorite Lines
1. Cat: What if I have to pee?
2. Gabe: Are you ladies coming into work today? Or...
3. JT: I’ll share my antacids.
4. Tess: What do you want to do to him?
5. Vincent: Did I not shower before?
Favorite Scenes
1. Cat blindfolded and tied up on Vincent’s houseboat.
2. Vincent showing up to see why Cat’s tracking him.
3. Vincent preparing a sandwich and asking about his first kiss and date with Cat
4. JT and Tess have a heart to heart over beer.
5. Vincent showing up on the rooftop to return Cat’s phone.
Best Character Interactions
JT and Tess (it’s about dang time!)
Burning Questions
1. When is Heather ever going to have that chat with Cat?
2. How many more beasts are out there?
3. Is it the entire FBI that’s in on the super soldier plot or just Reynolds and his team?
4. What the heck do they put in a ‘Nutty Professor’ milkshake?
Was it clever or I am giving too much credit?
A few of my friends who have never really watched Beauty and the Beast accuse of it being a tad bit shallow and fluffy. I beg to differ. When I started reviewing the show at the tail end of last season I saw quite a few clever nods. But you have to pay attention to detail.
On my third re-watch, the name Braunstein rang a bell. I’ll let you in on a little secret, I’m a total dork. I’m very much into games of strategy like chess, board games like Risk and table top role playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons. There’s a game entitled Braunstein that was created by David Wesely that is considered to be the ancestor to all modern day table top role playing games. I don’t think of Vincent as a super soldier. I think of him as an elite spy. Spies have to play many roles and go under the deepest of covers. Now it’s rather obscure but sometimes the best clues are. Or it could just mean brown stone which is what the surname Braunstein can be translated to in German. I like my first theory better.
Did any of you catch any references?
Polls
Last Week’s Results – VinCat it is with over 93% of the vote, sorry Catcenters.
This Week’s Poll - BatB Great Debate #2 – Who is your favorite main character?
Feel free to leave the reason why you love that character in comments section of the poll.
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