This episode dealt with the fallout of Catherine and Vincent's ruined wedding from last week, and there were plenty of consequences to that catastrophe. Catherine was finally prepared to let someone else take on the burden of the superhuman cases, feeling it was no longer her and Vincent's fight. Of course, everyone else in the scooby gang immediately switched sides on the issue and urged Cat to accept her destiny. Meanwhile, for whatever mysterious and highly nefarious reasons, Liam continues to close in on the core characters.
Do we make our destiny or does it make us? This key question drove the action throughout the hour. Sure, maybe the writers repeated the concept a few times too many in the dialogue (as we've come to expect by now), but essentially I think the idea worked well in this episode. For one thing, Cat had a real point about letting go of the responsibility of concealing the superhuman crimes from the authorities. Intent on having a normal life again and wanting the same for her friends, Catherine acted accordingly, handing the Liam case off to Homeland Security and helping Tess keep her job in the process. Heather was all for Catherine's new approach to life, but Vincent, Tess, and J.T. were all bothered by it. The irony of this can be lost on no one, since Vincent and Tess, anyway, have been hassling Cat all season to stop being so fixated on solving the superhuman cases.
There's one aspect of this I find fascinating: it seems as if Cat's friends desperately needed her to be the one that fiercely believed it is their destiny to fight these battles, protecting others from beasts and superhumans. That is just one more burden Cat's been carrying for everyone else: believing so that they didn't have to. Without Catherine there to push them all into action against Liam, even Tess was crying foul at her best friend's new resolve. Vincent made his own plans, going after Liam and rather amusingly coming into conflict with Cat's own attempts to keep everything above board.
Liam's agenda: We still don't know what Liam wants, but he's after everyone who has ever had the serum injected in them, whether or not they are still effected by it. That means that those who have been cured of their superhuman abilities are threatened by Liam, including J.T. I loved the scene of Heather and J.T. fleeing into a safe room upon being shot at by Liam's assassins, followed by J.T.'s deadpan comment "now you know why I like scotch."
I like the developing friendship between J.T. and Heather, which is very down to earth and cute. It's also pretty intriguing that Liam is targeting those who aren't even active super humans anymore. Why does he want them dead? Is he covering up for something or was he planning to experiment on their corpses? What is his ultimate goal? We waited quite a while to get a big bad and now we're waiting longer to find out his motivations. My interest is most certainly piqued.
I wish the writers would explain more about why that is, and add more details about the connections between their fates and those of Rebecca and Alastair. Why did Rebecca's doomed love of Alastair fate Catherine and Vincent to succeed where they failed? What else does VinCat's destiny entail?
I also think we need to see more of Liam, what he himself is up to (not just his minions), and hear some actual dialogue from him. Villainous monologuing soon, please, writers! Inquiring Beastie minds need to know more about this new foe. There seems to be little doubt that Vincent will eventually take the dangerous serum that J.T. is trying to fix, so that Vincent can face off with Liam on more equal terms. The consequences of such a decision on Vincent's part may be heavy indeed.
Elsewhere in the episode...While still awkward, the relationship between Tess and J.T. is starting to improve again. It feels strange that they broke up for such a flimsy reason, but it was nice to see them able to confide in each other and show support for one another again.
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.
