Beauty and the Beast - Recap: Beauty and the Assistant District Attorney

Recap and review of Beauty and the Beast - Season 1 Episode 19 - Playing With Fire:

Beauty and the Beast has spread nearly all its cards out on the table, and it's to the show's credit that this hasn't dulled any of its tension or interest. "Playing With Fire" pulls back the curtain on the show's most mysterious character, Assistant District Attorney Gabe Lowan (Sendhil Ramamurthy), exposing his past in an episode that isn't really about him, so much as it's about the dual concepts of secrecy and trust. Both Cat (Kristin Kreuk) and Vincent (Jay Ryan) are hiding things from one another. On Cat's end, she worries Vincent will be angry with her if she continues her investigation into the death of a man named Paul Davis, a protege of her mother's. However, she also wants to protect Vincent, and feels that getting to the bottom of the Muirfield problem is the best way to do it. Vincent is also keeping Cat in the dark on his activities out of the desire to keep her safe, even briefly considering cutting off contact when JT (Austin Basis) argues that she's in greater danger than any of them even realize. These parallel stories work because they fit into one another organically. Vincent is investigating Gabe while Cat is actively working with Gabe to bring down Muirfield once and for all. Both parties have their secrets, their missions, and disappointments.

Credit: Ben Mark Holzberg/The CW

The episode kicks off when the aforementioned Paul Davis collapses in the police department calling for "Detective Chandler." He dies in short order, having been shot by an unknown assailant, leaving Cat with the mystery of why someone she's never met knows her name. Vincent embarks on an investigation that leads to the discovery of the victim's cell phone, which shows that he'd been recording a video message for Cat, explaining that she must go to "The Orchard." And soon, since Muirfield will only be vulnerable for a very short period of time.

Of course, she can't really make any headway without an inside man. Enter Gabe, who explains his backstory as an orphan from Calcutta who was taken in by Muirfield as a guinea pig for a deranged experiment of some sort. His ambition since then has been to enact revenge on Muirfield, just like Cat, as he says. But Cat doesn't exactly trust him 100%, even if she does believe his story. However, her need for information overrules her distrust, so she eventually agrees to work with him, particularly since he has access to Evan's journals, and is the only person capable of granting her access to them. Inside one of the documents, Cat finds the directions for "Orchard Industries," and sets out with Tess (Nina Lisandrello) to infiltrate the building. The resulting stakeout and break-in makes for some pretty amusing TV, especially on the Tess side of things, as she pretends to be a complete ditz on her way to a party in order to distract the guard to the building. The guard then talks her ear off about his cage fighting career, saying he was forced into retirement because he was so dangerous in the octagon that he almost killed a guy. Yet, when he receives the report that there's an intruder in the building and tries to leave, Tess chokes him out and promptly dismisses him with a "Pfft, cage fighter." Awesome. "Deadpan, Not Havin' It" Tess needs to be a weekly thing.

Credit: Ben Mark Holzberg/The CW

Inside the building, Cat discovers row upon row of computer servers: she's discovered the "brain" of Muirfield. Cat breaks through the security protocols thanks to Gabe, who is assisting her over the phone. He gives her the password "Chimaera," allowing her to access all of Muirfield's files, including the ones on Vincent. While she remotely uploads the files to Gabe's computer, she's surrounded by a Muirfield strike team. Luckily, Vincent arrives just in the nick of time, having been spying on Gabe and his partner, a woman named Tyler (Shantel Yvonne VanSanten), who also has it out for Muirfield (though that isn't really as strange as the existence of a woman named Tyler). Vincent overhears that Gabe is on the phone with Cat, and has JT trace Cat's phone to ascertain her location. He arrives, hulks out, and the fight is on. The show hasn't really done a "music video" style fight in a while, and when they did them in the past, I found them insurmountably corny, yet this one is actually pretty damn fun. It's kind of a thrill to see Vincent and Cat kicking ass side-by-side, even if the rock song they play is an earache waiting to happen. In the ensuing carnage, a fire breaks out and the files are destroyed, and I'm left wondering what it is about the makeup on Vincent's "beast" face that seems off this week. It just looked really leathery and full of weird bulges that I don't remember being there. Regardless, I enjoyed this entire sequence, since this was one of the rare action sequences on this show that didn't feel over-choreographed. It just felt visceral and exciting -- and following what happened to Evan last week, I'm not sure it would have surprised me to see either Vincent or Cat take a bullet, and that added sense of danger upped the stakes tenfold.

Credit: Ben Mark Holzberg/TheCW

When Cat meets with Gabe the next day, he states that because the upload was interrupted, the files were corrupted and none are usable. As he stews in his disappointment, Cat asks him how he knew the password to the server, and Gabe explains that Chimaera (the name of a creature from Greek mythology comprised of the parts of a goat, a lion, and a serpent) was the name of Muirfield's initial program, the experiment with which he was associated. Cat relates a story to Gabe about how her mother, a scientist, had always worn a Chimaera pendant around her neck, explaining that she always wanted Cat to respect the power of nature. This revelation triggers a memory in Gabe, as he comes to realize that the scientist who smuggled him out of Muirfield as a child was actually Cat's mother. It's not long after he comes to this realization that Tyler arrives to show the damage from the assault on Muirfield the night before, as one of the server cabinets, which was bolted to the ground, was found dented and thrust against the wall. Cat's reasons for targeting Muirfield, in Gabe's eyes, is deeper than she ever let on. This fosters the aura of distrust between them, and should make for some interesting tension in the weeks to come, as there's no guaranteeing that this tenuous partnership won't lead to disastrous ramifications. But for now, it's all hands on deck, as Cat and Vincent agree to start working together, as opposed to against one another. It's not enough to just try to protect each other. They need to have enough trust to depend on one another outside the bedroom. It's a development a long time in coming, and I'll be glad if we can finally get them working as more of a team, without the complications of each party needing to justify all of their actions as being in the interest of keeping the other person safe. Their story, and their characters, have developed beyond that narrative necessity, I feel.

Credit: Ben Mark Holzberg/The CW

There were other developments, including the introduction of a handsome new Medical Examiner to replace Evan, as well as Vincent getting a spacious new place to live. We also saw Tess confronting Joe (Brian J. White) about his inability to let go of his desire for vengeance in Darius' murder, and it's a probably Nina Lisandrello's best dramatic scene in the series so far. Just some really understated work from her, even though the relationship at the center of the scene has never been as interesting as you'd think it would be, given the scandalous nature of the affair. But I suppose that's just as much a screentime problem, as they haven't really developed the relationship beyond "Hey, Tess has a life outside of Cat, you know." Hopefully, it's a story that's actually going somewhere.

Ultimately, "Playing With Fire" is a strong episode for how it plays on the nature of trust and loyalty between Cat and Vincent, two people who should be past that hurdle, in many respects. It also reflects how tentatively Gabe is being brought into the fold, as we still don't know all of his backstory. What was the Chimaera project? What's the deal with his hand tremors? And what's Tyler's motivation for going after Muirfield? She has a wicked scar down her spine which had me thinking she, too, was a victim of Muirfield's experiments, but you can never really be sure. Hell, I figured Evan would have survived last week. Normally, it's easier to tell where a story is going when we're this close to the season finale, yet the narrative only gets more complicated and dense. And honestly, I don't think that's a bad thing.

Catch you next week!