Beauty and the Beast – 2.03 – Liar, Liar – Review: Secrets, Lies and Artwork

‘Secret, Lies and Artwork’

It looks like it is once again time to boost Beastie morale, unfortunately. But I do have some slightly good news. While our .3 in the demo remained the same, we did get a slight uptick in total viewership. Now is not the time to time waiver or get complacent, for instance, we didn’t trend #1 on Get Glue last week. It’s time to step our game up Beasties. Don’t get discouraged, instead roar even LOUDER.

There is so much more that we as fans can do to let The CW know that our show should get a third season. Word of mouth is, has and will always be the best form of marketing. With the advent of social media it makes all the more easier. If you would like to know how you can help Beauty and the Beast get a third season click here.

Now on to your regularly scheduled recap and review…

This week’s episode was entitled ‘Liar, Liar’. I must say it captured the theme of the episode quite well. This week we welcome another new writer John A. Norris into the Beastie family. Meanwhile, we had a familiar name to the Beastie family in the director’s chair, Bradley Walsh. His last contribution to the show was episode 1x14: Tough Love. But my preferred episode that really showcased his directorial eye was 1x04: Basic Instinct.

This week’s episode opens yet again directly following the events of the previous episode. It’s the following morning after the shove that shocked the Beasties around the world. Apparently that shove was a lot harder than any of us thought because that is one nasty bruise around Cat’s neck. While Cat is standing in the mirror and desperately trying cover up the bruise by applying concealer to the unsightly bruise, she gets a phone call from Gabe. She assures him that she has a plan and that they will discuss it later.

No sooner than she could rush Gabe off the phone does Heather come bounding in with coffee and news. Heather has been offered a job. The job is in Miami. Heather makes a date with Cat to hash out the pros and cons of taking the job. In the process notices Cat’s terrible job of concealing Vincent’s temper. She makes a few pathetic attempts at explaining what happened and Heather seems convinced or at the very least not too terribly worried. The exchange ends with Cat deciding to wear a scarf.

Next we were treated to a lovely moment of JT working out via jumping rope to an awful and out of place song which gets cut short by Vincent barraging into the lair. JT appears unsettled but happy to see Vincent back in the lair. But that all gets cut short when Vincent confesses to what he’s done. Since Cat did not tell him what happened, JT thinks that Vincent is talking about his memory loss and gives him a few VinCat relationship highlights. Frustrated and ashamed of himself, Vincent just blurts out that he physically hurt Cat and wants JT to tell Cat that he is sorry and that it will never happen again.

Vincent is barely away from the lair before he gets a call from Agent Tucker, his other handler. Just as Agent Tucker is giving Vincent the details about his latest mission a beast ambushed him from behind while Vincent is forced to listen. The new beast picks up Agent Tucker’s phone and taunts Vincent a little before hanging up. These events leave Vincent as stunned and confused as the rest of us Beasties.

Cut to a beautifully lit diner scene with Cat and Gabe. Cat and her scarf are there to convince Gabe to go along with yet another one of Cat’s ridiculous plans. Gabe ever the incredulous ally gets in some good digs at Cat before acquiescing to her whims. In the middle of the conversation, Tess calls Gabe and interrupts him for a change. There’s been another beast attack and of course she thinks Vincent is behind it. Cat and Gabe rush right over to analyze the crime scene. Guess who shows up? Yep, none other than Agent Reynolds who starts a pissing contest with Gabe over jurisdiction. But Cat comes to the rescue with her charm to smooth things over and assurances of keeping him in the loop.

JT calls Cat and scolds her about not telling him about what happened with Vincent. Cat seems surprised that Vincent confessed to him. The phone call proved to be serendipitous because it gave Vincent an alibi so he couldn’t possible have been the one to kill Agent Tucker and lets Tess and Gabe know that in a very no fuss no muss sort of way.

After learning of Cat’s plan and having Gabe agree with Cat, Tess gets coerced into helping Cat learn how to pass a polygraph test. First, much to Cat’s dismay, antiperspirant has to be applied to hear forehead. Sweat is the number indicator of lying. Then she is given a thumbtack to place in her shoe to elevate her blood pressure to fudge the baseline. Tess starts with the questions and a worried Gabe tries to distract Tess from the Vincent incident. But the ever suspicious Tess is curious to know what’s up with the scarf. Cat tells her that it’s a hickie. This annoys Tess almost as much as when the truth is revealed about what really happened to her neck. But Gabe cuts the practice short.

Agent Reynolds aka Condor calls Vincent and sends him to the crime scene to see what beast they’re up against. Vincent arrives to the scene of the crime and begins to use his beast senses. A beast with a flair for the dramatic (and magic apparently) interrupts him for a more face to face taunting. He informs Vincent of a list (of names of Muirfield created beast is what we’re left to assume) that has his name on it. All while subverting Vincent’s attempts to capture him.

Meanwhile, Cat is all wired up for her reconnaissance and/or rendezvous with Vincent on his houseboat. Gabe and Tess provide back up and listen in via the wire. Cat timidly enters the suspiciously unlocked houseboat. She calls out to Vincent but he isn’t home so she snoops through his laptop and discovers a juicy email just might provide some answers. She downloads it to a thumb drive and just in time as an angry Vincent is about to return. Vincent looks happy and sad that Cat is there. Cat tries to dance around the issue of what happened the night before to keep it from Tess. But Tess knows that it’s something more. Vincent asks for a second chance at a date and Cat says yes.

Cat hauls JT into the precinct so that he can decrypt the email where Gabe and Tess hover around uselessly. They bicker yet again about the virtues of Cat’s plan and Cat’s motives and what the real leads are and are not. Cat blows them off for a change and actually leaves to meet Heather. While they are doing that Agent Reynolds is calling Vincent, again. He has some intel on the mysterious new beast. As well as an update from the police. It seems as though the police have details that shouldn’t be possible. There seems to be a security breach somewhere. Vincent thinks it’s from his handler side but slowly begins to piece the puzzle together.

Heather and Cat actually do get a chance to get coffee and discuss her pros and cons list of her new job. They share a few sweet moments that get cut short way too fast. But Heather has something to get off of her chest. Heather is finally able to tell Cat that Papa Chandler wasn’t her biological dad. A stunned Cat lashes out and storms off. Cat arrives home to a waiting Vincent, who has a pretty bouquet and is eager to take her on date as well as get to the bottom of the security breach. Cat tries to throw Vincent off the deception scent but to no avail. Vincent can practically test the betrayal and half-heartedly seeks a rain check for their date. Just to be 100% sure of Cat’s betrayal, Vincent returns home and uses his beast senses to uncover Cat’s snooping.

In the interim, Cat gets a call from Tess. They talk about the FBI and whether or not they are in the loop about beasts. They decide no and that it was a sheer coincidence. Best theory: The FBI was tracking an art thief. Yeah, it’s starting to look like everyone at the 125th precinct should be turning in their badges because this is not ace detective work by any means. In a stunning turn of interrupting events, it’s Vincent who interrupts Tess with Cat this time. Vincent lies about regaining a memory about them going swimming in a hotel. He wants to meet her there to see if it will jog his memory but he wants to do it ASAP, which sets off suspicion alarms in Cat’s head. She agrees to it and immediately calls JT to see which highlights JT gave to Vincent. It’s just as she suspected and she kicks her research mode into high gear. She discovers the meaning of the email and rounds up Gabe and Tess to crash a fancy art exhibit.

Cat and her entourage make a stylish entrance and no time is wasted by Cat to confront Vincent about his faux memory. Sebastian watches from the shadows. Vincent is dragged onto the dance floor by Cat in a steamy and heated exchange of accusations and flared tempers. A slightly annoyed Tess and a seemingly longing Gabe look on at the two. Gabe gives Tess something to search for while he continues to stare at, I mean watch, Cat’s back.

Sebastian rears his meticulously coiffed head and begins his flair for the dramatics once more. Vincent tries to initiate a beast off with him but Sebastian slips Vincent’s grasp by knocking him out. Instead he heads for his father and incidentally, Cat who has managed to lure the man away for his own safety by claiming she destroyed a piece of artwork. Sebastian cuts the power to the elevator and tries to tear through the top like a sardine can but Cat uses a tranquilizer gun on him. It jams and he snatches her up. But she can defend herself when need be and holds her own. Her increased heart beat awakens a knocked out Vincent and he springs into action. Just in the nick of time too.

Cat managed to throw Sebastian off balance and toward the edge of the platform but he could have taken her with him. But not on Vincent’s watch. He grabs her arm and in that moment he gets a few flashes from a few of the times he has saved her. Sebastian falls to his death and Vincent carries his body off (which leaves me asking for yet another week, ‘Seriously, what the heck are they doing with the beast bodies?).

After another long, hard day at work, Cat yet again has another visitor. This time it’s Heather. The Chandler sisters have a heart to heart, hug and make up. It warms my heart to see Cat be close with someone again.

In the epilogue scene of the night, we spy Gabe and Tess back at the precinct basically telling us the viewers what happened after the elevator incident. Blah, blah, blah. I could care less. Cut to the good stuff and we see the polygraph machine on Tess’s desk. Gabe spots it as well. Tess tries to get Gabe to take a polygraph but he assures Tess that he has nothing to hide. Tess ponders if he has a crush on Cat (or perhaps unseen darker motives?) and Gabe wonders if Tess’s jealousy is rearing its ugly head again. It appears these two are at an impasse once again.

Finally, we’re back to Cat and she’s dressed for bed. But she can’t rest. She spies Vincent on the fire escape. She’s not amused and accuses him of pumping JT for the tid bit of sentimental information. Vincent tells her about the flashes he got in the elevator.

He’s starting to remember her. If he can remember her, he can trust her. But Cat is tired of all of the lies in her life. She points out that the relationship that he was remembering had no lies in it. This one does and she can’t bear that thought. She tells Vincent that she needs to time and space to sort things out and shuts the window and heads for bed.

Grade:A-

Reason: I liked this episode. It was another week of being a little light on the action and the having the myth arc plod along to a crawl. The lack of JT really didn’t help either. But what really made the episode for me was the Chandler family time as did Vincent and his memory flashes. At least there were some twists and turns and a blip on plot development radar (the list). Throw in the fact that Cat finally seems to be coming to her senses and realizing that she and Vincent need some space and my season 2 Wish List has finally begun being addressed. Hopefully, this means that she will start reconnecting with Tess, since Heather is officially out the picture now. I also hope she will start taking her work a little more seriously. It’s time for Cat to start putting her life back together. Also, I hope this will lead to her seeking out her birth father. Yes, that’s my favorite storyline this season. I just don’t want them wasting Ted Whittall, OK?


Awards

Character of the Night

My character of the episode is Heather Chandler. If you have to ask why, just re-watch the episode. Nicole Anderson killed it. The writers gave her awesome dialog. Not to mention some deep heartfelt moments with Kristin. I really think the writers gave the character of Heather a lovely send off. At the same time I hope we see her at least once more before the season comes to a close.

Favorite Moments

1. Tess getting a dig in at Cat about her constant lying about Vincent while teaching her to beat a
polygraph.
2. Tess asks about why Cat is wearing a scarf.
3. Cat kicking a little beast butt in the elevator shaft.
4. Vincent showing up on the fire escape.
5. Vincent having memory flashes while saving Cat in the elevator shaft.

Favorite Lines

1. Tess: I don’t know if I’m relieved or disturbed.
2. Cat: You think… You think I should wear a scarf?
Heather: Yeah…people are going to think you have an abusive boyfriend.
3. Gabe: Hi?! That’s you’re big idea?
4. Cat: Right now, I have a date with my sister and that’s real.
5. JT: Maybe he just wants to see you in a bathing suit.

Favorite Scenes

1. Vincent uses his beast senses and realizes Cat was snooping through laptop.
2. Vincent coming to confess to JT.
3. Cat and Vincent hash it out on the dance floor.
4. Cat luring Clifton into the elevator to protect him from Sebastian.
5. Cat closing the window on Vincent.

Best Character Interactions

My vote goes to Tess and Gabe. I know there are a lot more JTnT shippers out there but Varwen(?) is the secondary ship to beat in my opinion. I don’t think they are showing us all of these Tess and Gabe scenes for nothing. Week by week she is slowly warming up to Gabe. Gabe is also doing a bit of that 3rd grade playground flirting by antagonizing Tess every chance he gets. It’s fine if you don’t see/feel that palatable sexual tension yet. But mark my words, you will.

Runner Up – Cat and Agent Reynolds. Oh she is going to be so mad whenever she finds out. But I like that she tried to soften him and play nice with him. Charming Cat is my second favorite Cat. The first being kick butt Cat.

Polls

Last Week’s Results – Vincent won this one by a landslide, receiving 65% of the vote, even after he pushed Cat.
This Week’s Poll - BatB Great Debate #3 – Which actor would you most like to spend the day with?
Feel free to leave the reason why in comments section of the poll.

Friendly Reminder: Nicole Anderson’s new show, Ravenswood, premieres tomorrow night, October 22, 2013 right after the Pretty Little Liar’s annual Halloween special episode at 9 PM on ABC Family. Be sure to show it some love.

Shameless Self –Promotion

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