Beauty and the Beast - Heart of the Matter - Review

What an interesting and unique episode.  In some ways, I feel like this one epitomized some of the more awkward aspects of what Season 3 has presented so far, and yet there was enough endearing and romantic material to transcend that at many points.  There's no doubt that this is another fabulously delightful season of the show, though this was probably my least favorite episode in Season 3 so far.

Essentially, the show has become much more about Vincent and Cat trying to make their relationship work (despite complications both normal and extraordinary) than it is about the mythology of beasts and super-humans and the adventures that come with them.  Before, these aspects were interwoven, along with the friendship subplots and such, and now it seems that the emphasis on "which relationship paranoia has our two lovebirds in its grip this week" has overpowered almost any kind of exploration of the fantasy side of the show.  It's come to the point now where it's almost a daffy sitcom at times, with Catherine the hyper, panicky detective and Vincent the sensible, down-to-earth doctor - a far cry from where the characters began in Season 1.  On one hand, I like the thoughtfulness the writers put into explicating the minutiae of VinCat, but on the other, I think they've wandered away from the original purpose of the show to some extent.  The relatable nature of Cat and Vincent's problems is fun and engaging for the most part, but since it's blotted out so much of everything else, we still have zero clue who the big bads of the season are, and J.T. and Tess are starting to get shoved even further into the sidelines. 

That's putting aside the entire, separate issue of whether we actually like seeing Vincent and Cat struggle with these particular types of problems, or if we'd rather see the issues between them more directly spurred by the adventures they take on each week.  Frankly, I did like it better when they were saving each other from various scary, supernatural threats rather than bickering over date nights v.s. working cases and such.  However, I have every faith that the writers might turn it back around before this gets to be too much of a problem.  At least with 22 episodes, there was more time for the writers to get a sense of how viewers were reacting to the season's direction and reassess certain aspects as needed, whereas now we're pretty much stuck with whatever they decided to serve up for these 13 episodes.  Still, I am so happy the show is still on that none of this bothers me that much at all!  I'm still hugely enjoying these episodes despite the head-scratching qualities they sometimes feature.  The characters are too lovable for me to feel otherwise.

So without further ado, let's get into the more specific parts of this episode. I'm using some lyrics from Take That's song "Into the Wild" that capture the inevitable push and pull of Vincent and Cat's complicated relationship.

"Up tight, tied up again
Tied up again with my one and only friend
Your voice is all I can hear
All I can hear, it’s the music to my ears

Staying out of trouble staying in and out of touch
In and out of touch I can never get enough
Uptight, tied up again 
Some things will never change"*

Therapy time: When the episode began, I was glad to see yet another guest casting slam dunk with the always-great Saul Rubinek as Vincent and Cat's marriage counselor (or engagement counselor, really!).  The actor brought a sensitive and caring aspect to the counselor that was pleasant and heart-warming; plus, his confused reactions to the parts of VinCat's relationship they had to skip over to avoid divulging the truth about beasts and such was hilarious.  These scenes were, overall, a lot more fun than the case of the week segments, which we'll get to.  My only caveat here is to wonder if Vincent and Catherine are really codependent.  In fact, it seems like a lot of their issues come from desperately trying to hold onto aspects of their independence and resist fully acclimating to the relationship's increased closeness even as their hearts tug them ever nearer to one another (rather than losing their individual selves in their bond, which I don't think has happened at all)  Take, for example, Vincent's jitteriness at moving in with Catherine or her refusal to stop obsessing over cases.  The whole codependent diagnosis felt a little like a convenient aspect designed to put Cat onto the villain's motives regarding her husband.  Speaking of which...

This week's case: Even though every episode this season has resisted giving us concrete details about who is actually conducting these super-human experiments on "innocents" (a confusing term, since we know little about most recipients and whether they wanted the treatments.  Take Bob and Carol, for example, who seem pretty pleased using their powers for ill purposes), the first three could get away with that a lot easier because the pacing and action scenes were more satisfying.  Here, we had a lot of VinCat arguing and so little explanation of the unusual nature of the heart or what the wife of the recipient was up to that it was hard to actually follow the plot.  Some blanks really need to be filled in about this year's larger story arc, and hopefully soon.

Subplots: Tess' first week as captain had her predictably torn between helping Cat and maintaining her sense of authority and rule-following in her new role, all while stuck in a weird outfit that apparently came with the job.  I did enjoy the four-part conference call as poor J.T. tried to coordinate the arguing factions of the fab four to make progress on the case.  Sometimes, in trying to figure out where the storyline of this episode was going, I admittedly felt a little like J.T. in that scene!

This brings me to J.T.'s decidedly odd little plot in this episode, where he was again testing his powers, while bouncing some ideas of off an offscreen Heather.  I thought it was weird that the writers had him talking to Heather about his issues, as there's not a strongly developed friendship between these two, although I suppose she is the only one outside of his immediate circle who knows about what he's going through.  So I can accept that to some extent, but then having him explain everything to Heather over the phone while we couldn't even see her was off-putting.  Even him throwing himself down the stairs seemed like an overly extreme method of testing his healing powers, yet I can go along with it since he is a very neurotic and sometimes obsessive character.  

I loved the last scene between Tess and J.T. because it was genuinely sweet and adorable.

It's going to take some time.  Both Vincent and Catherine's viewpoints are completely understandable.  How can Cat be expected to ignore all the superhuman craziness going on around her?  Sure, she could dial down the franticness a notch, but I see where she's coming from.  She's hardwired herself to watch out for Vincent at every turn, and maybe she overreacts to every new lead fearing it will bring them to another threat against him.  Cat also does obviously have a natural enthusiasm for investigating these types of cases, a drive that she has every right to follow. 

"It’s almost like we go

Dance with desire, then we go playing with fire

Then we go into the wild again..."*

 All Vincent wants is for the super-human cases to go away so he can lead a normal life, but that's not especially realistic even if it is a goal he's earned in spades.  And he's right that Cat could take at least one night off from cases on a regular basis so they can have a romantic date night.  I'm glad that by the end of the episode, after the therapy session, they were able to meet in the middle.  I'm kind of hoping that's the end of the strong emphasis on these issues in the VinCat relationship, but I doubt it.  At any rate, there's no question that as always, Cat and Vincent are "better together"!

What did you think of this episode?  Share your thoughts in the comments!  And be sure to catch an all-new Beauty and the Beast, Thursday at 8/7c on the CW.

*lyrics taken from the song "Into the Wild" by Take That

About the Author - Virginia Mae Fontana

Virginia is happy to be reviewing The Vampire Diaries and Beauty and the Beast for Spoiler TV. She 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 @VMaeFontana

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