Beauty and the Beast - Primal Fear - Review: The Game's Afoot

Hey there all you lovers of the The CW's Beauty and the Beast. Are you ready to discuss this week's episode? I know I sure am. There was a lot that I loved and a few things I wasn't so crazy about but overall there were more things to like than hate so it was definitely a solid line in the win column in my opinion. Wondering what I loved and what I loathed? Well, come on in and see for yourself.

If I had to sum up this episode succinctly, I guess I would break the episode down like this: Vincent moved in with Cat which forced them both to address the rapid changes in their relationship while they investigated a shocking new lead in their hunt to track down who is behind the super-human experiments. JT tried (and succeed) to impress Tess’ brothers and discovered that there may be some side effects to the medicine he received from Agent Thomas. Meanwhile, Heather returned to town with a surprise announcement.

This week's episode was written by Roger Grant. He was last seen writing solo in episode 2x04: Hot Head and was one half of the writing team that gave us season 2's finale, Déjà Vu. I like Roger Grant's work on Beauty and the Beast for the most part. I was totally shocked to learn that he wrote this episode.

I couldn't believe that he was the one responsible for the crappy dialog that was exchanged between JT and Vincent. Definitely the biggest lowlight of this episode, in my opinion. While I loved that were together, bonding, I hated what came out of their mouths, worse still that it mostly JT and trying to cloak it in science. Nope. I call shenanigans. It was a better way of going about it and this was clearly a first draft that no one bothered to revise.

Not to mention the quintessential stereotype of Tess' brothers. I mean, sure there's machismo and then there is the one dimensional meat head that looks and acts like a Jersey Shore caricature. I've waited a long time to get more information on Tess' family and was happy that we would be meeting some of them this season only to be severely disappointed with what showed up on my screen.

Sometimes I wonder if Brad Kern and company actually understand that the main demo of Beauty and the Beast are women between the ages of 28-55. My biggest concern last season was that girl power message of the first season slowly began to fizzle out and that BAMF Cat especially, started to make less and less appearances. For some reason it seems to me that under Kern's reigns Cat has become really whiny, needy and less in control of her life. It's almost like he doesn't get (or maybe he doesn't want to) that she's the main character. She should be likable, she should be relatable and she should someone you want as a viewer want to be like.

Other than the atrocious cave man dialog and Tess' meat head brothers, I thought the rest of the episode was pretty dang good. It was well plotted, had great pacing and we're finally getting back to the mystery and suspense of the first season. I mean this was our first cliffhanger in forever. I'm really itching for our show to turn into a spy thriller so we can VinCat going all Mr. and Mrs. Smith on the baddies and with every episode since Held Hostage (2x11) it's been seemingly slowly getting to that point.

I was a little shocked that the director of Coyote Ugly (one of my favorite guilty pleasure flicks of all time) was actually recruited to direct an episode of Beauty and the Beast. Strange but true. I thought McNally did a wonderful job of keeping with a bare bones and basic approach of directing that we had last week. I loved the use of light during the interior scenes, gave a pleasant aura to overall scenery. We also got a lot of day time scenes which I'm always a fan of, even when I clearly tell that they're in Toronto and not New York City. I liked how most of the scenes consisted of just two people interacting with no distractions. Made the episode feel very intimate.

Our Superhuman of the week was Alton Finn (Zach Appelman). I actually liked everything about this week's "case". Finn was a rising star in the tech world who got a brain tumor. The mysterious organization that is responsible for the superhuman experiments thought it'd be fun to see if they could exploit a dying man. Finn's tumor tenacle's began to make their way into uncharted areas of the brain in impossible ways, resulting in his ability which acts like an organic neural prosthetic for all intents and purposes. The character was interesting and the actor was fantastic. I hope we see him again, I have a feeling he might come in handy.

I have to say they really turned JTnT around this week. I really enjoyed their interactions the best. I'm all for JT becoming a superhuman because I know he can handle it and won't go evil. JT's heart is pure and true.

I was bummed about Heather's news. I guess we couldn't afford two weddings this season. I thought Nicole Anderson was as cute as a sad little button this week. I did think that she was under utilized and I'm now beginning to wonder what the point of making her a series regular was. I know we're only two episodes into the season, but I have no idea where her character is going now after this bombshell.

We had very little positive interaction with Cat and Tess, unfortunately. I thought we were going to get some good gal pal talk about "useless" men and what not, but it turned into Tess, actually passive-aggressively slamming Cat on their way to the offices of Homeland Security. But Cat being way too self-absorbed didn't even get offended.

I'm glad that they are trying to balance Vincent's time between his lady, his bro and his job. It makes Vincent feel more well-rounded and honestly, I enjoyed his interactions with Heather a lot more this week than the majority of the ones he had with Cat (well, except for the VinCat interaction/reconciliation at the end of the episode). I feel like it's only a matter of time before Vincent is forced to quit his job as a doctor. If that happens, he might become resentful of Cat. Vincent definitely needs an outlet for normalcy so I hope that's not taken away from him anytime soon unless that's what he wants.

I was bummed that Agent Thomas had to bite the dust because I thought it would get really interesting with the potential of him becoming a superhuman as well, it would have been poetic justice really. But I'm sure we'll have plenty of twists, turns and perhaps even some jaw dropping surprises this season at any rate.

In summation, I liked this episode, but I didn't LOVE this episode. I found it interesting and it really feels like we are building an excellent foundation for a new mythology (that just might have ties to the old mythology, which would provide an excellent bridge between the show's past and the show's present and future in a neat way). However, the fab four really feel off and I don't think we've actually had them all in a scene together yet. Hopefully, that will get rectified shortly. I want to see a cohesive Team Beastie (and maybe, just maybe, have VinCat and JTnT go on a double date).

Grade: B

Episode Awards

Aces for Acting
•Zach Appelman

Character of the Night
• JT

Best Character Interactions
• JT and Tess

Scene of the Night
• Tess being proud and supportive of JT as well as being reassuring.

Notable Quotable
• Cat: Or maybe you just saw your fiance and she happened to take your breath away.

Most Memorable Moment
•Vincent accidentally barging in on Heather in the shower.

That Awkward Moment
• That awkward moment when you try to surprise your girl but end up getting an eye full of her little sister instead.

Auf Wiedersehen
• Agent Thomas

Looking for Highlights & Lowlights? Click here.

Miscellaneous

Style Spotlight: Heather's style for the win, once again this week. Especially the outfit pictured below.

Burning Questions
• Did they retcon information about the serum in the previously on Beauty and the Beast introduction this week? I, for the life of me don't remember them saying any of that in the season 2 finale despite the MANY rewatches.

• Is Heather going to move into the houseboat? I mean no sense in letting a perfectly good set go to waste.

Crackpot (or Not) Theory of the Week
• Tess actually gets the promotion and becomes the captain of 125th precinct.

Surprise of the Night
• Agent Thomas dying.
• Heather's fiance calling off their engagement.

Side Note
• If you liked Zach Appelman in this episode then please be sure to check out Kill Your Darlings (2013).

Shameless Plugs & Self Promotion
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What did you think of this episode? What was your favorite scene? What was the most surprising thing about this episode to you?

As always, feel free to sound off in the comments below.

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About the Author - Lilith Hellfire

Lilith Hellfire is your every day run of the mill blogger, DJ, fangirl, podcaster, TV critic and YouTuber. She enjoys serialized dramas over procedurals. She also loves comic books, shoes and Tumblr. She writes about Beauty and the Beast and Reign for Spoiler TV. To check out all the other cool stuff she writes about be sure to check out her blog.

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