Beauty and the Beast - Recap: What the World Calls A Romance

Credit: Sven Frenzel/The CW

The case this week centers on Sebastian, another "beast" who is currently out on the loose, killing off people whose names are on a hit list of sorts. Vincent is attempting to track the suave British man down, while Cat, Gabe (Sendhil Ramamurthy) and Tess (Nina Lisandrello) investigate the latest murder. However, in the midst of all this, we have Vincent dealing with his outburst last week in which he lost control and hurt Cat. Though Vincent is remorseful, and Cat seems relatively understanding of the situation, the storyline remains relatively dark in nature, as it portrays the slippery slope of a potentially-abusive relationship. Yet there's more to the story than just their relationship, as Cat recognizes she can use Vincent to gain more information about the beast that's on the loose. To this end, Gabe and Tess teach her how to successfully beat a polygraph test as a means of helping her circumvent Vincent's new lie-detector ability (since his heightened senses can detect when a person is lying simply from the rapidity of their heartbeat).

Vincent Credit: Sven Frenzel/The CW

It's an interesting story tactic to have both Vincent and Cat lying to one another for different reasons. Vincent doesn't want Cat involved in the mission he's carrying out, so he keeps her in the dark as much as possible. However, Cat deceives Vincent specifically to counteract his deception. In essence, the lies wouldn't be necessary if the parties involved simply decided not to lie -- but then, that would require cooperation, and Cat and Vincent clearly aren't there yet, as she's using him to gain access to his computer and any other intel he has available, while he's essentially leading her on by allowing her to believe that he remembers fragments of their past together. It's a compelling dynamic, and all the more engrossing for how Ryan and Kreuk portray the necessity of their respective deceptions. Cat is clearly uncomfortable about having to lie to Vincent, but as the episode goes on and Vincent's own deceptions come to light, we can see her begin to embrace a more hostile attitude towards her former beau. She's basically all out of forgiveness, having grown fed up with Vincent's half-hearted lies about wanting her back in his life, among other perceived insincerities. It's a great character arc for Kreuk, and she does a terrific job with it, as does Ryan, whose confused vulnerability about Cat makes Vincent much easier to sympathize with than he was last week, following his outburst. You get the sense that he feels genuine remorse about how things have to be between them, but in a situation such as this, neither party really has much of a choice. They can work together, but they can't really be together. Not at this point, anyway.

Credit: Sven Frenzel/The CW

Ultimately, the two join forces to bring down Sebastian at an art gallery auction being held by his father. As we learn, Sebastian and his father were very close, reveling in their mutual love of magic, until the father sent Sebastian off to the military. Sebastian was presumed dead shortly thereafter, and Vincent suspects that the man is here to kill his father, a situation that could get ugly if it occurs in this room full of innocent people. And so Tess and Gabe evacuate the party while Vincent attempts to track down Sebastian, and Cat ushers the man's father to safety. This all culminates in a pretty climactic action sequence in an elevator shaft, where Cat is forced to fight the killer in a fairly claustrophobic setting. And she nearly loses the fight, as Sebastian is all too willing to toss her down the elevator shaft. But Vincent arrives just in the nick of time, and in full-on "beast form," to boot. He knocks Sebastian down the elevator shaft and then grabs Cat's arm at the last minute, just before she would join Sebastian's corpse down below. And in that moment, Vincent really does see a flash, a brief series of images and memories from his life with Cat. It's the first momentous breakthrough of Vincent's recuperation. Are we going to have the old Vincent back soon? Probably not, but this is definitely a start, and you can see in Jay Ryan's performance that bits of the old Vincent are subtly coming through, just from inflection and his overall demeanor with Cat. It's a nuanced portrayal that makes Vincent's chemistry with Cat all the more complicated.

Credit: Sven Frenzel/The CW

As the episode comes to its conclusion, Vincent appears on the fire escape just outside Cat's apartment, and attempts to win her back by revealing that he truly does remember bits and pieces from their old life together. But Cat has already been burned by Vincent, as he pretended to remember their hotel swim from "Date Night" last season, based off of information he learned from JT (Austin Basis). Cat feels it might be too late for them, and while I'm inclined to suspect this isn't really the case for them, it feels like the right story choice to have Cat decide to take a break from viewing Vincent as her "boyfriend," since this new Vincent remains a far cry from the Vincent of old. Mostly, it's encouraging that it's Cat's choice, that she's exerting agency in her own life, as opposed to allowing outside forces to exert themselves on her. Cat is a fairly strong female protagonist, and having her be the one to make the big decisions in her life, irrespective of what her friends and colleagues might think, is what separates her from more weak-willed protagonists. Cat may not be flawless, but she's headstrong, which makes her compelling in her own right, independent of her association with Vincent. The show works because it could be about Vincent or Cat individually and still be an engaging series. The fact that it's about both helps the narrative considerably, as we continue to get a story that shows both sides of a complicated situation. In fact, it's a situation that only gets more complicated this week, on the Cat end of things...

CatCent 2 Credit: Sven Frenzel/The CW

Heather (Nicole Gale Anderson) finally reveals to Cat that her father isn't really her father. And, to make matters worse, Heather has announced she's gotten a job offer in Ravenswood...um, I mean, Miami! Yes, sunny Miami, where she'll be able to have an awesome job, yet minimal contact with the only family she has left in the world. She tells Cat she's considering not taking the job because she's afraid of losing her sister, and while Cat claims that would never happen, this is before she learns that Heather has been keeping the secret of her paternity for the past three months. Once again, deception (in this case unintentional) wreaks havoc on a relationship, as Cat flips out on Heather for keeping the secret, and tells her to just go to Miami and leave altogether. In the closing moments of the episode, Cat eventually apologizes for her behavior, having come to an understand of the occasional necessity of deception from her time with Vincent. She knows that Heather was put in a completely untenable position, and did what she thought was best. A lie of omission can be just as bad as an outright deception, but a lie couched in good intentions has the potential to be less damaging than full-on falsehood. The sisters make amends, and I continue to be floored by just how much Kristin Kreuk and Nicole Gale Anderson look like sisters. They have great sisterly chemistry to boot. I'll miss Anderson, but hopefully she'll still be able to pop in every now and then, even if Ravenswood is a hit. At least they didn't kill her off.

Credit: Sven Frenzel/The CW

"Liar, Liar" is an insightful episode about the nature and necessity of deception, and it makes for a strong hour of television that highlights the two leads more than the ensemble, although the outcome remains as effective.

Thanks for reading my recap and review of Beauty and the Beast - Season 2 Episode 3, "Liar, Liar"! What did you think of the episode? Sound off in the comments!