"Beast of Times, Worst of Times"
This was an amazing, action-packed episode with plenty of real surprises in it! The Fab Five were all living together in solidarity after last week's events made it clear that whoever is after Vincent will not stop until he and all of his associates have been taken down. But wait a minute, isn't there one party trying to kill the gang, and especially Vincent, and another who just want to capture Vincent for purposes unknown?
The question takes on greater significance perhaps given the shocking reveal of who was actually trying to kill Vincent in this particular episode, which came near the end of the hour. There are so many different people gunning for poor Vincent in Season 4!
Party of five, and a blast from the past. First, Vincent, Catherine, J.T., Tess, and Heather had to deal with cohabiting in a ridiculous situation where they were all bumping into each other and squabbling while making so many hilarious comments, especially digs at J.T., that this was also one of the funniest episodes ever, which is really saying something. Even when the plotting was weak, which is certainly not the case in Season 4, BatB always made the most of the adorably quirky factor among their ensemble cast. Vincent and Cat did manage to squeeze in a sweet shower scene that was interrupted but revealed their still unflappable romantic feelings and sizzling chemistry.
Hill called Vincent and Catherine in to tell them that his boss at DHS is none too thrilled with his association with their case, putting a lot of pressure on him to explain exactly what was going on. He thought he had a lead on who had shot at Vincent and his friends in the coffee shop last week: Vincent's old army S.O., Fuller. The mere mention of this man's name caused Vincent great anxiety, since Fuller had gunned down Vincent's whole unit after the super soldier experiment imploded and needed to be covered up. Fuller had tried to kill Vincent too, which traumatized our hero, understandably.
Hill sent Vincent into Fuller's current camp, undercover, to install a device on the army supercomputer and get some answers. Even though Vincent was terrified to reencounter his former commander, Catherine was able to coax him into it by reminding him that she would be in constant communication to guide and support him. How frustrating, then, that just as Vincent got into the camp, Cat got hauled off by sketchy DHS agents who wanted answers about Vincent. She couldn't get back in touch with her hubbie, who quickly panicked at her absence. But something far more treacherous and underhanded was in play.
Hill, you are such a...As it turned out, Hill had plotted against Vincent and sent him into the military camp with a bomb, all the while lying to the DHS and painting Vincent as a mentally shaky potential threat. Catherine began to piece the truth together, and meanwhile Vincent finally got the truth about the past from Fuller. The commanding officer had tried to save Vincent, since he could tell that despite the beast serum, Vincent had retained his true self. Just as the glimmer of redemption began to shine through for Fuller, boom. The bomb went off but Vincent survived -- only to be captured by the duplicitous Hill, who by this time had me quite irritated! I mean, what did Hill have to gain from this? Even if Hill wanted to get rid of Vincent to protect his own family after they were threatened by the would-be kidnappers of our beastly hero, there is still no excuse for the downright evil lengths he went to. How many people was Hill willing to sacrifice in this sudden burst of crazy?
Speaking of crazy, Hill tried to expose Vincent by injecting him with something to make him beast out. As anyone might have predicted, this didn't turn out well for Hill. Triggered into a savage beastly episode by Hill's liberal dosage, Vincent immediately turned on his captor and killed him before Catherine could stop him.
Now the authorities, especially DHS, are searching for Vincent, now a killer on top of the false allegations Hill had made about him. While the situation was grim, the episode ended with Vincent, hiding out underground in a Season 1 type of way, assuring Cat that no matter what, they will find a way out of this perilous situation.
"Point of No Return"
This was another great episode that was impressive in the intricacy of its plotting. I didn't like it quite as much as "Beast of Times, Worst of Times," if only because the former just had more romance, humor, thrills, and suspense. "Point of No Return" was all about how Vincent and Catherine would proceed now that the DHS were hot on his trail in a nearly inescapable manner. Once they figured out a temporary fix for this, they could go about continuing to investigate who was hunting Vincent and work on clearing his name. Hence, there was a lot of work to get from plot point "a" to "b" and so on, but despite the "in between"-ness of the episode, there was plenty to enjoy as well.
Damage control. DHS was doggedly pursuing Vincent and putting a lot of pressure on Catherine to bring her husband in. Meanwhile, Tess kept trying to remind Catherine of how long she has been covering for Vincent and bending the law to her will for the greater good. While an unfortunate relapse into typical Tess whining such as we have heard welcomingly less of this season, it did serve to nicely compliment Cat's attempt to convince DHS that she had indeed decided to work with them and help them to arrest Vincent.
Speaking of Vincent, life underground and separated from Catherine has made him increasingly impatient and proactive, or hey, maybe he's just incredibly annoyed at this point since literally no one will leave him alone and let him live his life -- a combination of it all, to be sure. He quickly tracked down the latest bounty hunter (I can't believe Tahmoh Penikett found a show he hasn't guest starred in yet!) and held him hostage to get some answers, finally learning that a seriously shady organization is responsible for the bounty. Giving approximately zero you-know-whats about the consequences at this point, Vincent made a beeline for said extremely shady organization and confronted them. Of course, they offered no answers, but Vincent was able to convince them that they could use his services...while he works to learn more about them and whoever was using them to enact the bounty.
Elsewhere in the episode, Heather talked to Kyle about what is going on with Vincent, since the fact that something crazy is going on is just getting too clear to hide. So she made up a sort of half-truth that Vincent is working for DHS on a top secret mission that no one can know about.
I am sure I'm far from the only one who noticed how suspicious Kyle is starting to act. For some reason (probably because we know almost nothing about him), I've always suspected that Kyle is the villain of Season 4, and got close to Heather for nefarious purposes of really wanting to get closer to Vincent. Why? He already works at the hospital, so what's the advantage? I don't know, and I could be wrong, but something about Kyle certainly seems "off" to me. Maybe he's not the baddie, but I think he's hiding something!
What did you think of these episodes? Share your thoughts in the comments, and be sure to catch an all-new Beauty and the Beast, Thursday at 9/8c on the CW!
