Beauty and the Beast - Recap: The Truth Will Set You Free

Like Roswell and Smallville before it, Beauty and the Beast is a show that finds real narrative strength in the necessary secrets the leads must keep from those they love most. Case in point, Heather Chandler (Nicole Gale Anderson) is back, and with her comes the resurfacing of sisterly resentment. Alright, maybe "resentment" isn't the right word, but Heather doesn't appreciate feeling as though Cat (Kristin Kreuk) is avoiding her, especially after everything they went through last season. You'd think, after all that's happened, Cat would feel more comfortable telling Heather the truth. But this proves not to be the case, as Cat is still too cautious to let Heather in; and even more troubling, due to the Vincent/Gabe situation, Cat is incapable of setting aside five minutes to just have a chat with Heather about all the changes she's experiencing in her life. Namely, that she's become engaged since moving to Miami. Of course, it isn't that Cat doesn't care about Heather, but rather that circumstances have muddied her life to such a degree that she's unable to really connect with the only family she has left. And that's kind of a tragedy. Sure, it becomes fairly clear where the episode is going once Heather is reintroduced, but that doesn't mean it isn't still a compelling direction for "Cold Case' to take. Thus, we wind up with an episode that finally lays everything out on the table, and gears us up for the final stretch towards the season finale.

Credit: The CW

As with last week, due to the constraints of my ongoing travel, I'll be hitting the highlights of the episode as opposed to doing a full recap. But odds are, if you're here, you likely saw the episode anyway! So let's get to discussing what worked about the hour, and where this all could be headed. Don't forget to sound off in the comments with your own theories. I may not be able to respond to everyone, but I can guarantee you I read every single comment. Let's get to it!

Credit: The CW

Law and Order

Gabe (Sendhil Ramamurthy) is continuing his vendetta against Vincent (Jay Ryan) by punishing Cat and anyone close to her. Thus, he and the police captain make the call to suspend Cat and Tess (Nina Lisandrello), pending an investigation into their involvement with Vincent. In one fell swoop, any resources to which Cat and Tess had access as NYPD detectives are now out of their hands, sending them right back to square one. In an attempt to finally put Gabe on the defensive for once, Cat looks into the unsolved murder of Ray Sheckman, one of the baddies from last season who abducted Heather, prompting Vincent to come to the rescue. The killing had been blamed on the vigilante, and while Vincent had been there on the night of the crime, he wasn't actually responsible for the murder. It had been Gabe, overcome by his beastliness, who strangled the gangster and left him for dead. So it's no surprise that Gabe used his power in the DA's office to make the investigation go away; but it is a bit of a surprise, and a lucky break for Vincent and Cat, that there was a witness to the killing.

Now, my long, storied fondness for Sendhil Ramamurthy as Gabe has put in a bit of a difficult position with this storyline. On the one hand, I want him to still be a good guy, to somehow see the error of his ways even though any possibility for reconciliation with Cat and crew is long gone. On the other hand, Gabe makes such a wonderfully slimy villain, and Ramamurthy plays that contrast so well. He believes he's doing the right thing, protecting Cat and meting out the justice he believes Vincent deserves. But, with each passing week, those motivations get muddier and muddier until, as we learned last week, his plan is less about protecting Cat than it is about seeing Vincent burn. And that's a rich characterization in itself, since it makes Gabe a knowing hypocrite: he was once a Beast himself, and so it's strangely prescient for him to claim that once a person is a beast, they're always a beast, since he's proving that to be precisely the case himself. Gabe might no longer be a Beast, but we're gradually learning that the Beast side wasn't what was making him such a lousy person. Some might argue, as I have, that circumstances have prompted Gabe to become twisted, to the point where he's every bit as bad as his former self. But these episodes have revealed the truth: Gabe didn't come back twisted. He just came back.

Case in point, when Vincent and Cat track down the witness who saw Gabe murder Ray Sheckman, they are able to compel him to identify Gabe in a lineup. Suddenly, Gabe is the one who is on the defensive, and while he gets picked up out of the lineup and comes under suspicion of murder, he's still set several contingencies in place against Vincent. Namely, he tracks down Sheckman's brother and pins Ray's murder on Vincent, citing Heather as a witness. Naturally, Heather gets abducted and used as bait to lure Vincent, and although Gabe made Sheckman's brother promise he wouldn't hurt Heather, we all know better -- even if Gabe doesn't. Ultimately, Gabe's gradual slip towards full villainy is completed when he tracks down the witness who identified him in the lineup, and proceeds to strangle the life out of him. In trying to wrestle free, the victim leaves scratches on Gabe's hand that recall his beastly origins...to the point that Gabe seems remorseful over what he's done, as if recognizing that he's made a terrible mistake. It's clear that Gabe just wanted to scare the guy, but his baser nature took over, and now he's a murderer. Again. Thus begins the downfall of Gabriel Lowan, it looks like.

Credit: Ben Mark Holzberg/The CW

Sister, Sister! Even Though I'm Glad To Be With Ya...

In a lot of ways, this episode is like season one in microcosm, with Cat and Tess as outsider, Vincent in hiding, and Heather continually in the dark, getting abducted in between fights with her sister. But then, it's well documented how much I enjoyed season one by the end, so I'm not exactly complaining about the thematic rehash. If anything, it comes across more like a mirror of various happenings in season one, but flipped to where the characters each reach a more mature understanding of their misunderstandings. Cat can appreciate why Heather is so frustrated with her, even if she can't tell the truth about why she's been so absent. Heather, meanwhile, is equally justified in being upset with Cat. Sure, she's swamped with issues of her own, but one would think Cat could set aside five minutes to just talk. Similarly, Vincent is no longer the vigilante who works alone. He's matured to the point where he not only can accept Cat's help, but openly welcome it.

This is helpful, since Vincent needs all the help he can get when Heather gets abducted. I mean, it's bad enough that Gabe sold Heather out to Sheckman's brother, but it's even worse that Cat and Heather parted on such awful terms, with Cat attempting to come clean about Vincent only for Heather not to believe her outrageous story about beasts and government conspiracies. And, really, who could blame Heather for not believing it? When Tess initially tells Heather about Cat's relationship with Vincent, Heather is ready to tear her sister apart for hiding her relationship with a fugitive. But it's an entirely different can of worms when Heather decides Cat is lying to her and treating her like a moron. It adds weight to Heather's peril as we head towards the climax, with Vincent returning to the catacombs where Tori died...and getting himself locked in the cell with Heather.

Enter Cat and Tess, who tear through Sheckman's men in a really cool action sequence. I know the show often portrays Cat and Tess as women who can take care of themselves, but it's always helpful to have that reiterated, especially in situations where Vincent is ultimately powerless to do anything to help them. For Vincent's part, he has no choice but to reveal himself as a Beast to Heather, who understandably flips out at seeing the transformation, in one of the episode's best sequences (the makeup and visual effects have come a long way). He is able to use his powers to bust the door open, against all odds to the contrary, and rescues Heather before the bomb set by Sheckman could explode. The ending to the episode is never really in doubt, although the narrative teases that this might be the end for Heather, since she doesn't seem to have much of a narrative function beyond getting kidnapped. Except...well, she kind of does have a function. As she and Cat resolve their differences, both sisters recognize the weight of secrets, and the occasional necessity of keeping them. As Cat told the witness to Ray Sheckman's murder by Gabe, "The way to set yourself free is to tell the truth." And it's the truth that reunites the sisters and makes their relationship whole again.

Credit: The CW

Where Do We Go From Here?

Ultimately, I loved "Cold Case" for giving a clear, purposeful mission for Cat and Vincent to pursue (one that was almost as good as last week's U.N. infiltration mission). These final episodes of the season are really finding strength through the increased focus on the chemistry between Kreuk and Ryan, who make Cat and Vincent among TV's most underrated power couples. From a narrative standpoint, it makes sense to base so much of the show on their relationship, since it's a nexus around which many of the issues revolve. But it wouldn't work nearly as well without the talents of its central leads. So I'm glad the show is writing to the strengths of its ensemble, and showing exactly what they're capable of. Hell, I was even stoked to have Anderson back, as I find Heather positively adorable, even in her occasionally annoying moments (it also helps that I continually finding myself stumped as to how Kreuk and Anderson aren't really sisters, since I would imagine you could fool a lot of non show-watchers into thinking they're related). In short, I'm fully confident in the direction these final episodes of Season 2 are taking.

As for final thoughts on that direction...

Credit: The CW

So Gabe may or may not be a Beast again, if the ending of the episode is to be believed. Unless the episode is merely suggesting that it wasn't the Beast qualities that made Gabe a bad person, but a deeper psychosis embedded within his personality. Maybe some people are just figurative beasts who can't really be changed. Either way, this seems to suggest a climactic final encounter as we headed into the final three episodes of the season. The question, however, is whether his final confrontation is with Vincent or Cat. Hell, I'm wondering if this will even be a "final" confrontation, as Gabe's arc could easily be stretched out into the third season, given what a tremendous villain he makes. The idea of Gabe as a villainous, shady, behind-the-curtains mastermind is something very enticing, from a narrative standpoint. A Gabe who embraces his evil side, and is out in the open, could make for a dangerous wild card on a show that has always made great use of such variables.

What do you think will happen as we head into the end of the season? I can't imagine Vincent and Cat will be separated again, although I wouldn't put anything off the table. The narrative of Beauty and the Beast is often about how they're so close, but always so far from achieving true happiness with one another. It wouldn't be surprising if that gratification were delayed once again, whether by Gabe, the NYPD, or by other external forces. Vincent is, after all, a fugitive. More than getting Gabe out of their hair once and for all, exonerating Vincent is a major hurdle as we reach the end of the season. I'm curious as to how they'll absolve Vincent while keeping his beastly secret intact. Then again, as this episode shows, some secrets just can't be kept. Maybe the story of this season has not been about how Cat and Vincent find their way back to each other again, but rather how those efforts will finally allow (or necessitate) Vincent finally coming out in the open as a Beast, without having to hide anymore. Either way, secrets can be every bit as havoc-inducing as the truth, even while both secrets and truth have their necessities.

Thanks for reading, and I'll see back here for next week's huge episode!