Beauty and the Beast - Season 1 Episode 13 - Recap and Review - Trust No One
Recap and review of Beauty and the Beast - Season 1 Episode 13 - Trust No One:
Beauty and the Beast eases up on the procedural element that has held the show back, in many respects, instead opting to pursue the serialized aspects of its story. This results in an episode that is as focused as it is busy. "Trust No One" is all right there in the title, yet the episode doesn't suffer for being straightforward about the story it wants to tell. Of course, it's also a Valentine's Day episode, so much of the hour is spent forcing the characters to confront what, exactly, their heart really wants. Granted, this likely would have been part of the plot whether it was Valentine's Day or not. And, amusingly, it leads to a couple of sequences that I actually found myself enjoying, mostly surrounding Vincent's (Jay Ryan) increasingly desperate attempts to win Cat's (Kristin Kreuk) heart, from sending her a dozen roses at work to arranging a flash mob that dances to "Locked Out of Heaven". If the show did this all the time, it would get irritating really fast, but there's something charming about the show loosening up enough to have a bunch of strangers ambush Cat with Bruno Mars. It's also pretty clever, in the sense that all these different ploys for attention don't involve Vincent actually leaving his loft, to which he's been confined, under penalty of a harsh scolding from Cat. However, these more lighthearted elements are window-dressing for a story that puts Vincent in greater peril than he's been in at any point in the series, while also utilizing its ensemble better than it has at any point since the midseason finale.
Credit: The CW
Cat has been trying to help Alex (Bridget Regan) to get the hell out of town before Muirfield comes after her, but attempts to get her safely away don't go exactly as planned. Alex goes directly to a journalist, to whom she tells Vincent's entire story, including Muirfield's insidious experiments. No sooner does she do this, however, than the journalist turns up dead in his bathtub of an apparent suicide. But Cat knows better, particularly when she notices Alex's name in his phone's voicemail queue. Alex finds out about the journalist's death in the newspaper, but she doesn't get very much time to process what's happened before she's approached by Claire (Kelly Overton), the Muirfield agent that Evan (Max Brown) has been unknowingly dating. Claire lays it all on the table, presenting herself as a representative of the people responsible for the experiments on Vincent. She plays upon Alex's desperation to have the old Vincent back, telling her that they can cure him, but they need her help. Alex lures Vincent to her place and injects him with a tranquilizer, but Cat quickly makes it to the scene thanks to a heads-up from JT (Austin Basis). Cat and Vincent are able to convince Alex that Claire is only interested in delivering Vincent to Muirfield so that they can cut him open and study him, not cure him. Alex, for her part, doesn't understand how Cat can accept Vincent in the state for who he is now, and if Alex wasn't unlikable before, she certainly plays the villain this week. That said, she's not an entirely knowing villain, she's more hurt and confused, allowing her actions to be guided by misinformation and her own desperate yearnings. Claire turns her gun on Alex once she recognizes that she's allowed Vincent to escape, but Vincent comes to the rescue, showing that while he might be a beast, he still has his protective instincts. She comes to accept that Vincent may never change, but she comes to a bittersweet parting with him, before making amends with Cat, who puts her on a bus out of town. Unfortunately for Alex, we see a Muirfield agent in the seat behind her.
Credit: The CW
It's a tightly-focused arc that moves along at a pretty fast clip, and it contributes the development of Evan's research plot, as he discovers Claire snooping around his lab and disarms her before she can attack. Claire gives up her cover and makes a proposal to Evan that he join Muirfield's efforts. It isn't really much of a choice for Evan, as the alternative is to become just another loose end for Muirfield to close. It'll be interesting to see how JT figures into these developments, as his status as Evan's former research partner puts him directly in harm's way. And finding JT will lead them right to Vincent.
Credit: Sven Frenzel/The CW
Tess (Nina Lisandrello) also gets an arc of her own this episode. She gradually becomes disenchanted with all of the key figures in her life. Her affair with Joe (Brian J. White) is interrupted by news that his wife will be flying back home for Valentine's Day. Joe seems earnest and forthright in his desire to be with her, but he reiterates that it's just not possible for him right now. (It never is for a married man.) Meanwhile, things aren't all happy and cheerful between Tess and Cat, as Tess discovers Cat destroying evidence from the journalist's "suicide" that mentions Alex and Vincent by name. Tess demands an explanation, but Cat can't come clean. She insists that it's for Tess' protection, but Tess doesn't want to hear it. "They said two girls couldn't be a team. I guess we'll prove'em right." And like that, there goes the partnership.
Credit: Sven Frenzel/The CW
We also get development on the romantic front, as Cat is still sore at Vincent for how he dropped her the minute Alex came back into his life. Vincent is adamant that it was never about Alex, it was simply about his attempts at finding some semblance of a normal life. He insists that his feelings for Cat never once went away, and he sets about trying to prove that by bombarding her with romantic gestures. Yet it's his forthright desire to always do the right thing that ultimately wins Cat back, as she realizes that she can always depend on Vincent to do what's right, even if she can't always depend on him to be there for her. I suppose the logistical gymnastics involved for Cat to make her romance with Vincent work are getting more perplexing as the weeks go by, but it's not really something that hinders the episode, particularly when it becomes apparent that the two are finally going to seal their union with a kiss. Except not, because Heather (Nicole Anderson) had to interrupt after standing in the hallway watching their entire conversation, and waiting only until they were about to kiss to shout "OH MY GOD!" like a moron. I really wish they'd have found a less obnoxious way to draw out the kiss, but frankly, I'm just happy we got an episode as cohesive as this one.
"Trust No One" is as fine an episode as this show has ever produced, and I wouldn't mind if the show concentrated more on the serialized arcs than they do on solving mysteries each week. But that's something I've parroted half a hundred times in these reviews, so I doubt it's anything anyone needs to hear at this point. But it bears repeating, because the show was really on fire this week, by the standards of the series.
