One of the deepest moments of the episode came when Vincent told Catherine it's understandable that she has a lot of anger (specifically seen this week towards Gabe) which she habitually represses. This is very true, and Cat does spend a great deal of time and energy soothing everyone else's frayed nerves while her own frustrations boil within. It was nice to have Vincent tell Cat that he was kind of glad to be able to clean up her mess for once. Even if that mess was Gabe's possibly dying, which wouldn't have been such a bad thing!
The Ehhh....
-The actual premise of the episode: the idea of Catherine going on a "romantic date" with Gabe after everything that has transpired was more than a little out there, and I think she might have been playing too easily into his manipulative schemes. There's using Gabe's obsession with Cat to the fab four's advantage, and then there's giving Gabe the opportunity to get even madder and crazier. Unfortunately, going out with Gabe succeeded much more in the latter way than in the former. Also, the whole "date" segment made my skin crawl, though at least that means the show succeeded in being frightening, which was probably a big part of the goal of the premise.
-Cake decorating? Limo? Really? Not to mention the ridiculousness of having Gabe come back after realizing that he has Catherine's cake instead of his own. I don't know, this part seemed a bit contrived and silly to me, though again I have to hand it to Sendhil Ramamurthy for carrying off every flourish of nuttiness the scripts give him with such enthusiasm. Gabe's sob story and explanation of his reasons for doing horrible things was pathetic, and his disappointment at realizing Cat's obvious true agenda was laughable.
-Mysterious FBI-looking dudes taking Vincent's blood and apparently exonerating him: This might click plotwise if we get some more explanation, but right now it's a little too murky and flimsily presented to seem plausible. Who are these men? What's their connection to Gabe, whom they are surveilling? Did they give Gabe Vincent's blood, since he injects something to make him a beast again at the end of the episode? I wonder if this has anything to do with Reynolds.
-Heather's procrastination on pressing charges against Gabe: I sympathize with the fact that she's been traumatized, but when Heather kept putting this off in favor of organizing her bachelorette party (for her upcoming, not-at-all-rushed wedding to the invisible fiancé), it was a little hard to take. Her bossiness and scolding of Tess was also fairly annoying, though I am trying to cut her slack since she was snatched and held in a dungeon last week. We'd all be a little out of sorts.
-VinCat procrastinating on taking Gabe out for good: I know Cat can't just kill someone in cold blood because that's just not who she is. I can even go along with her desperate attempts to save Gabe, since she's not a killer and couldn't deal with having accidentally taken someone's life. Alright, okay. But we don't have to be quite so relieved and happy about saving Gabe, who's an out of control and destructive murderer, one who will clearly keep killing since there's no way for him to ever get what he wants and that's what fuels his violence. Furthermore, I hardly think that giving Gabe a stern talking to and then un-handcuffing him and leaving him with only J.T. and Tess for protection while he wandered around free after acting like a maniac throughout the whole episode was a wise move. And J.T. and Tess wondering, "is he still in the bathroom?" Really? I wouldn't let that psycho out of my sight for a millisecond.
Even though "Operation Fake Date" had its questionable points, I still liked it for its stronger aspects. And I'm super-psyched for the season finale, which looks sure to be a major event, not least of all because the producers had every reason to fear it might be a series finale at the time of filming. That means, I hope, that we will get real closure (I think Gabe, at this point, has to die) and a happy ending for Vincent, Cat, J.T., and Tess - with Season 3's continuing adventures to look forward to as the best possible bonus. I wonder if there will even be a cliffhanger next week, and what it might entail.
What did you think of this episode? Share your thoughts in the comments!
About the Author - Virginia Mae Fontana
Virginia is happy to be reviewing The Vampire Diaries, Hart of Dixie, Nashville, Beauty and the Beast, Witches of East End, Covert Affairs, and Continuum for Spoiler TV. She is a college English instructor and enjoys obsessing over films and pop music - in addition to tv shows, of course! You can find her blog, SugarRushed, at http://virginiamaeblog.blogspot.com/ and her Twitter handle is @SugarRushedBlog