Beauty and the Beast - Recap: Man On The Run

But this kind of freedom is virtually impossible when you have someone you love beyond all rationale, to the exclusion of your own well-being. Beauty and the Beast has always fought with this conflict, with Vincent (Jay Ryan) wanting to protect Cat (Kristin Kreuk) and vice-versa, getting themselves into and out of all sorts of messes. "Beast Is The New Black" is the apex of this issue between the two, as there really is no happy medium in any of the choices available to the lovebirds. Vincent can fall on his sword and admit to Curt Windsor's murder to protect Cat from implicating herself in the cover-up, but even if he does this and gets a lighter sentence in the bargain, he'll still be facing 20-25 years in prison. Conversely, Cat could serve up testimony that alleging Vincent acted in self-defense, but we all know good and well that Vincent will break the law a thousand times over to stop her from throwing her life away on his account. It's a peculiar relationship, in a lot of ways, in that both want to be the protector, which results in neither getting that opportunity. It makes for some solid drama, particularly since so much of it often reads as a comment on gender roles: it may be out of chivalrous love, but there has to be a certain element of pride in Vincent refusing to allow Cat to save him, as though fueled by the belief that, as the woman in the relationship, she shouldn't have to face these sorts of hardships on his account. It's a nice notion, but it robs Cat of agency. Then again, so does the ending. In short, there's no "right" option here, although there appear to be a whole lot of wrong ones on the table. But those wrong choices are fueled by a couple's desperation to not have their second life ripped away. And that makes for a pretty powerful episode. All told, "Beast Is The New Black" is a fittingly compelling return for Beauty and the Beast.

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So one of the unpopular opinions I have (well, at least I think it's unpopular) is that I find myself hoping that Gabe (Sendhil Ramamurthy) doesn't go back to being an antagonist. Sure, Gabe has enough motivation to be a bad guy, but his growth throughout the series has been as remarkable as Vincent's and Cat's, and arguably as dramatic. It makes sense to have him questioning how far he wants to go in trying to win back Cat, but I feel there's more power in having him resist the temptation to do bad things. Granted, the episode ultimately brings us back around to the question of Gabe's trustworthiness, but I admit I let out a sigh of relief to find that he actually wasn't the one behind Vincent's arrest. The regular ensemble is fairly thin as it is, and I think there's more value in having Gabe on the team, forming a ragtag Scooby Gang of sorts to solve crimes each week. Of course, I've gone on extensively about how talented I think this ensemble is, so that's part of why I want them to all stick to the same side. But now I'm rambling, and this is an episode that requires a bit more attention...

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Vincent is arrested in a continuation from the midseason cliffhanger, getting hauled in for processing in what becomes a nightmare pretty much from the start: he's verbally abused and cavity-searched by a wiseass guard, threatened by his fellow prisoners, and generally treated as if he's already guilty. Of course, the genius part of the story is that...well, he is guilty. He killed Curt Windsor, ripped out his beating heart, and then ditched the body. Yes, he's being set up by someone who had Curt Windsor's heart stuffed in his freezer on the boathouse (along with photos of Vincent ditching the body, although how those photos were obtained is never explained), but even with that evidence being planted, it doesn't change Vincent's guilt. He did this, and Vincent recognizes his own guilt. This is one of the driving forces behind his refusal to allow Cat to come to his defense. In fact, Vincent goes as far as to say he'd be willing to confess and take a lighter sentence if it means keeping Cat out of harm's way. Yet Cat is absolutely right to argue the hypocrisy of Vincent getting to protect her without her getting the chance to do the same for him. She's also right in pointing out that men trying to "protect" her is the reason he's here in the first place: turns out it wasn't Gabe that ratted out Vincent, but Reynolds (Ted Whittall). And he did it to keep her away from Vincent, whom he feels is nothing but trouble.

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In a sense, one could read Cat's desperation to save Vincent as atonement, of sorts, since Reynolds's desire to keep her safe is what got Vincent arrested in the first place. Hell, even without this context, Cat isn't exactly wrong to try and do what she can to save Vincent, getting Gabe to reach out to contacts in the D.A.'s office, and getting J.T. (Austin Basis) to comb security footage and the like; she even has a pretty good plan in arguing self-defense, and using character testimony to illustrate what a good person Vincent is; but telling Vincent her plans to confess to her involvement in the cover-up is possibly the biggest mistake Cat makes in this episode. Really, she should know Vincent well enough by now to know that he's not going to let her incriminate herself on his behalf. Before long, Vincent springs himself from prison by getting into a prison brawl and beasting out while in the ambulance en route to the hospital. And suddenly, we have a whole new problem on our hands: not only is Vincent on the run, but the wiseass guard from earlier, who'd been riding along in the ambulance, saw the "beast". And he's talking to the news cameras. Well, at least until he turns up dead later on, along with the henchman Reynolds paid off to frame Vincent. As Reynolds explains, there must be someone out there hunting Vincent, perhaps one of the foreign Muirfield-type organizations bent on tracking down beasts and other oddities like Vincent. Reynolds puts it to Cat in plain terms: Vincent will always have someone after him, and she will never be safe as long as she's with him.

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Hearing it from her father is bad enough, but it's even worse when Vincent agrees, saying he plans on going on the run to take himself out of the equation altogether. But Cat is savvy enough to talk him into giving her one more night. This leads to one of the sweetest little moments in the entire run of the season, as Vincent and Cat hang out in her bathroom because it's the only room in the apartment without windows, meaning it's the only room they'll actually have any privacy from police choppers and other looky-loos. It's there that Vincent gets the quirky idea to have them slow dance in the bath tub with all their clothes on, something that really shouldn't be anywhere near as romantic as it ends up being, given how ridiculous it sounds. But it's exactly the kind of moment that sets the show's romantic elements apart from other shows of its ilk: there's a self-awareness here about certain romance tropes, the notion that these two people will be ripped apart and have to battle through all the cliches of romantic hardship (the separation, loneliness, desperation, and anger). Yet the show finds moments of levity to make that relationship feel that much more grounded in reality, even despite the increasingly outlandish circumstances surrounding their relationship.

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Seriously, it was great hearing Charlene Soraia's cover of "Wherever You Will Go" by The Calling again, and it was beautiful to see how Vincent and Cat's connection has grown to the point that revisiting old callbacks to their past (the song, the slow dance, another sojourn to the rooftop, etc.) doesn't feel stale or overwrought. Cat even considers running off with Vincent, arguing that maybe "looking forward" means being with Vincent, no matter where he goes. In a lot of ways, this is a decision that the season has been building towards, with Cat recognizing that she's been fighting her emotions for so long that she stands to lose out on the realest thing she's got in her life. And it's a recognition mirrored in Vincent's admission that while he feels he must flee, that doesn't mean he doesn't need Cat in his life ("You are my gem. I want to take you every where with me," says Vincent, in an incredibly cheesy line that Jay Ryan somehow sells with genuine conviction). They're finally on the same page, which is why what comes next is so devastating: the cops track Vincent to Cat's house, necessitating that Vincent leave Cat behind.

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Vincent flees and Cat is left behind again to pick up the pieces, mourning Vincent's departure alongside JT, who admits he's prepared for this moment for over a decade, but still isn't entirely ready for it. It's a powerful way to close out the episode, except that we still have a few more kickers left: for one, Vincent getting ratted out was Gabe's doing this time. While watching the news report on the manhunt for "war hero turned murderer" Vincent Keller, Gabe downs a fifth of scotch and adopts a smug, self-satisfied grin. And...well, that kind of disappoints me. I mean, this doesn't negate the complexity of Gabe's character; if anything, it has the potential to deepen it by illustrating that Gabe has become as similarly fueled by desperation as Cat and Vincent. Except this is desperation of a different kind. His is one of jealousy, yes, but it's a jealousy birthed from a feeling of exclusion. He doesn't really feel as though he belongs anywhere else but with Cat, so these actions will naturally make a certain kind of sense to Gabe, especially if he thinks he's keeping her safe. But then that begs the question of whether Gabe has anything to do with the twist that closes the episode, as Cat is abducted from her own bedroom by two masked thugs, one of whom she bites (I imagine this bite will give away the kidnapper's identity later). If I had to guess, I'd say Cat was being taken by the shadowy contingent that's after Vincent, the same group that killed off Reynolds's associate and the wiseass guard. But this is all baseless speculation. All I know for sure is that we're likely in for more necks getting broken and hearts being ripped out of chests once Vincent returns.

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Of course, "Beast Is The New Black" wasn't just one huge moment after another. The episode was packed with some genuinely terrific little moments. For example, JT and Tess (Nina Lisandrello) are revealed to have been hooking up, sleeping together at least twice before anyone finds out about it. But when the relationship is discovered, by JT angrily accusing Tess of being embarrassed of him in front of everyone, problems arise. It's a surprisingly realistic take on relationships, since the issue, while exacerbated by JT's distracted concerns for Vincent, don't actually arise from it. Instead, the nature of their issue revolves around very realistic concerns, such as the misunderstanding of what the other person meant when explaining the relationship to others. JT misinterprets Tess telling him that she didn't want Cat to know as meaning that she didn't want ANYBODY to know about them, which implied a certain shame about JT. Tess, meanwhile, misreads JT calling their hookup a "one-time thing," as he was mostly doing it to save face, and in no way meant for their connection to end. This culminates in a terrific scene at the end of the episode, as JT goes to Tess for comfort, and the two talk about their misunderstandings as adults, and come to the decision to pursue a relationship together. Basis and Lisandrello achieve a more down-to-Earth version of what Ryan and Kreuk have accomplished with their onscreen pairing. Vincent and Cat provide the sweeping grandeur of an epic romance, and play that connection with the passion and ferocity it deserves; but JT and Tess are a lower-key relationship, and that requires a certain subtlety that both actors deliver exceedingly well.

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Given the seven-day wait til the next episode, I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to make it to midseason in 2015, but really, I'm just happy Beauty and the Beast was renewed for season three in the first place. "Beast Is The New Black" is a wonderful return to form for the show, and I'm excited to see what the rest of this season holds.