Hey all, sorry for the delay in getting these reviews completed, but there is certainly plenty to discuss with these two latest episodes! But there is certainly plenty to discuss with these two latest episodes! Heh heh, that's a little BatB humor for you, as "Love is a Battlefield" and "The Getaway" fell right back into the show's old Season 3 habit of being very repetitious and circuitous. It's a good thing that first of all, Season 4 has hence far contained some of the show's best episodes to date ("Something's Gotta Give" and "It's a Wonderful Beast" definitely come to mind), and a great thing that this cast of characters is so ineffably adorable. This builds up a lot of goodwill when the writers turn on their heels and lapse back into lines like this, ad infinitum:
*"Our lives will never be the same"
*"I can't do this anymore"
*"We will never get our normal back"
*"I'm putting my ass on the line here" and "it keeps coming back to bite me in the ass"
*"Will we ever get our happily ever after?"
.....and all of the many variations of the above lines and themes. Added to the dialogue and thematic sameness is the tendency of the last couple of episodes to end with the characters almost exactly back where they started. No big bad reveal, no success in VinCat's crusade to clear Vincent's name while preserving their chance to resume wedded bliss and have their careers intact. That said, with the developments that finally came at the end of "The Getaway," I'm hopeful that the answers and plot progress are coming very soon!
Let's discuss the episodes together by going over some of the important themes canvassed in them:
Going undercover, in whatever context, is a tricky business. Cat never even wanted to be a DHS agent, but she had the grace to just go with it in a fraught situation where Vincent's life seemed to hang in the balance of anything she could do to help him. Now here she is, disconnected from her productive camaraderie with Tess and the job of being a cop that she loved, stuck in a career where everyone suspects her of wrongdoing. Her new boss, Agent Dylan, was suspicious of Cat's motives, yet willing to warily trust her out of newfound respect for Cat's steely nature and impeccable instincts. Plus, it helped that Cat saved Dylan when the latter dove into the crosshairs of Vincent and Greydal, and the wicked organization's latest target.
But Cat's foothold in DHS is slippery at best, and she knows she'll lose it if they find out the entirety of Vincent's story and her own involvement in it. Meanwhile, Greydal never trusted Vincent, no matter how hard he tried to integrate himself falsely among the group of merciless assassins. He worked so hard to prove himself a valuable asset, only to get sent on a thankless mission with a slinky partner, Diane (AnnaLynne McCord, who deserves better than this somewhat cardboard material) who, by the end of the episode was so sure he was a traitor or fake that she was ready to take him out. Of course, Cat was there to save her hubby, which is why we love her. For all of these adventures and progress almost made, Vincent and Catherine still had no real understanding of who their true enemy is or how to vindicate our favorite beast. This is frustrating whether you're a viewer or a character on the show, so I have to give the writers credit for being, probably unintentionally, very meta!
*there were some nice romantic scenes in "Love is a Battlefield!"
And whatever you do, don't seek outside help. Poor Grace Rose was a reporter, seemingly with quite a bit of guts and personal integrity, who was determined to figure out what kinds of cover-ups Hill had been guilty of at DHS, and the truth behind Vincent's story. Cleverly piecing the narrative together much more effectively than most outside characters, Grace confronted Catherine with the evidence and begged to be let in on the truth, claiming she could help VinCat in the process of exposing DHS' corruption. Fed up with the constant disruption of their lives and their inability to solve the conundrum for themselves, Catherine felt the best idea was simply to trust Grace and tell her all about their history and current problems. But Greydal, hot on Vincent's trail as ironically the very team he was part of was sent to get Vincent himself..., cruelly opened fire on the cabin where Vincent, Catherine, and Grace were talking. Finally, Vincent and Cat had found a potential ally, only for her to end up tragically killed for daring to get involved in their perilous situation.
Vincent was captured by the Greydal agent played by Tahmoh Penikett, who brought a satisfying smug, confident edge to this should-have-been throwaway character that made his subsequent confrontation with Catherine fascinating and intense. As a matter of fact, due to the heart-pounding scenes of the later parts of the episode, "The Getaway" was a big improvement on "Love is a Battlefield."
The Greydal Agent was gloating over darting Vincent and putting him in a net like an animal, while the incapacitated Vincent tried to warn Cat away. She had a gun on the Agent, but he started talking her out of firing, since it would just continue the inevitable cycle of Vincent and Catherine being on the run that has made their lives miserable all season. Although his monologuing hit some of Cat's paranoias right on the head, the Agent was wrong to think she'd go down without a fight, as he quickly learned when she opened up a can of classic Cat badassness and took him down.
Vincent, however, just couldn't take one more day of this ordeal wherein no solution seemed possible. Especially after Grace's sacrifice, and with Catherine's sadness at their predicament growing deeper by the day, he felt the need to make a desperate move to get answers. This led him to walk straight back into Greydal's facility and let them take him to whoever put out the bounty. I wasn't a huge fan of this plan because it puts Vincent in such obvious danger, but I can sympathize with him wanting to make a bold move, since all the more intricate strategizing he's been up to with Catherine and J.T. has led nowhere. The episode ended with him being conked out by the smirking Greydal baddies -- meh!
But really, it's Tess we should feel sorry for! Just kidding! Oh, Tessy. She spent so much time complaining about how her life keeps getting interrupted by beast stuff, to the point where I'm basically right there with J.T. saying, okay, let's just keep you out of the loop. If Tess' dates with that cute but clearly judgmental D.A. are so much more important than saving VinCat, then I think it's come to that. Luckily, despite her everlasting whining and blaming all of her own past decisions to bend the law on VinCat and J.T., Tess finally seemed to wake up a little and see things as they really are.
I actually sort of liked the scene where Tess was about to hand in her badge and J.T. stopped her. He told her with all blunt common sense that she's saved many lives by helping Catherine and Vincent, but if she's done with all that, then they will leave her out of their ongoing plans. This seems to have resolved her panic for the time being.
What did you think of these two episodes? Who in the world put that bounty out on Vincent (and will we ever find out, haha!)? Share your thoughts in the comments, and be sure to catch an all-new Beauty and the Beast, Thursday, August 11 at 9/8c on the CW!
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
