Beauty and the Beast - Recap: Memory Games

Credit: Sven Frenzel/The CW

Cat is attempting to find Vincent in order to protect him. She has no delusions about his responsibility for the death of the Muirfield head from last week, but she's convinced he had a good reason for doing what he did, rationalizing that it was simple, clear-cut revenge. Granted, this doesn't exactly make Vincent an innocent man, but at the very least, it means he's unlikely to kill again, since he no longer has a reason to. At least, that's what Cat assumes, unaware that Vincent has more or less been brainwashed by his handlers in the government, which include Cat's biological father, FBI Agent Bob Reynolds (Ted Whittall). Cat has been trying to reach out to the piece of Vincent she believes is still there, the version of the man she fell in love with, failing to recognize that the version of Vincent she's trying to reach has been buried underneath a seemingly insurmountable pile of bitterness and purpose.

There are brief flashes of the Vincent of old but he's mostly just gone, as we learn from Vincent himself his recollections of Cat aren't the only things that have been scrubbed from his memory: all personal memories have been obliterated. In essence, the FBI doesn't want Vincent to feel, because it makes him a less effective soldier. This means he remembers the broad strokes of his life but not the particulars (and on that note, if we learn that he no longer remembers the brother he lost in the World Trade Center on 9/11, that would be particularly devastating from a dramatic standpoint, as it would be pretty tragic for Vincent to lose the memory of the one person whose death compelled him to begin the journey that brought him to this point in the first place. And say what you will about how cheap it is to use 9/11 as a backstory for a character, but it never really felt in poor taste with Vincent, as it was never really about 9/11 itself, but more about what would compel a man to completely change the trajectory of his entire life). And so the story of the episode has Cat tracking Vincent to figure out what, exactly, he's been tasked with doing. As it turns out, Vincent has paid a visit to Riker's Island, where he used a sniper rifle to shoot an inmate with a seizure-inducing tranquilizer dart. The purpose? To then disguise himself as a doctor and gain access to the patient, all for the purposes of questioning him about the whereabouts of a mysterious third party. It's an awfully circuitous plan, but it works almost despite itself, as no one questions the presence of this new doctor no one has ever seen before. It'd be silly if the episode didn't keep the pace moving at such a fast clip (one of the best choices of the episode, as this is a story that thrives on immediacy).

Credit: Sven Frenzel/The CW

Tired of being tracked by Cat, Vincent essentially kidnaps her to keep her quiet, and this ends up presenting a strange inversion of Cat's intentions at the beginning of the episode. She wanted to find Vincent so they could go on one of their rooftop picnic dates, hoping that the act will stir his memory. Vincent rejects her outright, yet they end up having the picnic anyway once Vincent takes her hostage, as he makes her something to eat even while he has her tied to a chair in a boat docked in a nearby pier. And it's here where we get some of the better moments of the episode, as Cat tries to reach into Vincent's memory and inspire him to remember her. She talks about the things he used to like, and talks about the way he used to be, adding that she trusts Vincent implicitly because she knows he'd never hurt her. Vincent, however, is still having trouble completely trusting Cat, even though he can't deny his attraction to her (their kissing scene is a nicely understated bit of exposition, wordlessly illustrating Vincent's internal conflict, as he has no idea who this woman is, but finds he can't bring himself to stop kissing her, as if compelled to do so by some deep-seated memory).

Yet things spiral a bit out of control, as Gabe (Sendhil Ramamurthy), JT (Austin Basis) and Tess (Nina Lisandrello) are hot on Cat's trail, and their journey is one of redemption: JT feels he's failed his best friend by allowing him to be turned into an emotionless killing machine, while Tess is hoping to make up for the emotional distance between herself and Cat by protecting her from Vincent. Meanwhile, Gabe wants to prove to Cat that he's trustworthy, and that means helping find Vincent in order to help him. So basically, everyone has a stake in this. But it's Gabe who ends up infiltrating the boat, as he orders Tess and JT to stand down, since she'll be "trigger happy" and he'll be "trigger shy." Gabe is able to save Cat and get her off the boat, but not before discovering that Vincent is planning to meet a woman at a nearby club for unknown reasons. Cat fears Vincent has chosen his next victim, and so the group rushes to the club to stop him. But as we learn, Vincent isn't intending to kill the girl, he's planning to protect her.

Credit: Sven Frenzel/The CW

It turns out he's using the girl as bait to lure out a mysterious man whom, as we discover once he beasts out, is just like Vincent. It's one of the more startling turns of the episode, and I thought it was well-handled, even if I think we've seen enough shaky-cam fights for one lifetime. Vincent is ultimately able to subdue the attacker by impaling him on a pipe, in gruesome fashion; and Cat is there to witness the entire thing. However, she's still not afraid of Vincent. In fact, she seems more worried for him than anything else, as she tells Gabe, as if mortified to be saying it aloud, that there are "more of them" out there. Muirfield has been weaponizing human beings for far longer than it appeared, and Vincent was apparently only the tip of the iceberg. And so it seems that he has been settling up accounts, and this leaves Cat to try and figure out who has been ordering Vincent to do this.

Credit: Sven Frenzel/The CW

When Cat and Vincent meet atop the roof at the end of the episode in order for Vincent to return her phone, she tries to deduce the identity of the person for whom Vincent has been working. But although Vincent initially seemed warm to the idea of speaking with Cat, he immediately shuts down once she starts questioning who his handlers are, and it's a situation that gets pretty ugly by the end of it. Sick of being interrogated, Vincent tries to leave, only for Cat to grab him by the arm to plead with him one more time. At this point, Vincent beasts out on her, roaring that he doesn't even know her, and sending her flying back against the rooftop railing. Even though Vincent persists in claiming he has no memory of Cat, he seems to instinctively recognize that he's made a terrible mistake in lashing out at her like this. He flees, as if ashamed. But that isn't enough for Cat to want to give him another chance, and the show doesn't pretend she's wrong for feeling that way (and rightfully so. Accident or not, the show would be treading very thin ice if it came across as excusing abuse. Sure, this may not be the Vincent we've known, but it's still not exactly an excuse. Although I will say Jay Ryan does a terrific job of portraying the internal conflict without the use of a whole lot of dialogue. I'm not entirely sure they even needed to use the prosthetics, makeup and effects when he lashed out at Cat, as I think there was enough weight to his portrayal to make the moment mean more without it).

Cat goes to Gabe's office and says that they need to do something about Vincent, agreeing with Gabe's earlier assessment that he's just too dangerous. Kreuk plays the scene as if she's devastated to have to be saying this, and it's one of the more honest character beats of the episode. There was something genuinely striking in how Cat looked equal parts terrified and disappointed in Vincent after he shoved her on the roof, and it's a characterization that carries over into this scene, as Cat sadly comes to the realization that Vincent may well be irretrievably lost to her. This may not be the direction fans might want the story to go but it makes the most sense, as we needed a change in the Cat/Vincent dynamic beyond Cat simply trying to get him to remember her. Pitting her against Vincent is a bold but logical choice, since rehabilitating him is only possible if they bring him down first.

"Kidnapped" is a pretty great follow-up to last week's breathless season premiere. The season is young, but Beauty and the Beast has already shown marked improvement in its pacing, illustrating just how exciting it can be when the narrative is focused with clear-cut goals and characters with clearly-defined motivations. The character moments were strong here, as well. In particular, there's a terrific scene towards the end of the episode in which JT and Tess talk about their complicated relationships with Vincent and Cat, and it showed just what an asset Nina Lisandrello and Austin Basis can be to the show if used at a larger capacity. All in all, this was some damn solid Beauty and the Beast.

Thanks for reading my recap and review of Beauty and the Beast - Season 2 Episode 2, "Kidnapped"!