Beauty and the Beast - Recap: And You Let Her Go
Credit: The CW
Recap and review of Beauty and the Beast - Season 2 Episode 7 - Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner:
If Beauty and the Beast is about any individual thing, it's about duality. It would be as easy to condemn Vincent (Jay Ryan) for his lack of control as it would be to make excuses for it, and vice-versa. But we know Vincent, even if this current iteration of Vincent is still a stranger to us. We know that he's a good guy at heart, but he's plagued by the same duality that afflicts even the best men. No person is a completely singular being. We're all made up of contradictions and contrasts that both define and defame us, that both limit us and allow us to flourish. And so it is with Vincent, who is gradually surrendering to his dual nature, just as Cat (Kristin Kreuk) fights harder than ever before to reconcile his internal division both to herself and to her new dad, Bob Reynolds (Ted Whittall). "Goes Who's Coming to Dinner?" is a fairly incisive exploration into the show's central theme of division and duality, as the question remains: can Vincent ever overcome his dual nature to find a singular state of being? Or will he always be condemned to being two halves instead of a whole?
The entire plot kicks off when Gabe's (Sendhil Ramamurthy) theory turns out to be right: Vincent is the last beast on his handler's list. While sending Vincent heads off to a warehouse in Troy, New York, to neutralize the final target on his list, he discovers a bomb in the building. Sensing a trap, he tosses a pipe through the window, which sets off an explosion that knocks him off his feet and alerts Reynolds that Vincent is not only alive, he knows he's now the hunted. So Vincent teams up with Cat, Gabe, Tess (Nina Lisandrello) and JT (Austin Basis -- don't ever disappear like that again!) to discover the identity of his handler so he can put an end to this indentured servitude. This involves getting the handler on the line long enough to get a voice sample, which JT could then run through software to try and find some identifiers as to the handler's identity. Cat decides to make a play on Reynolds to try and see if there's any way he could possibly help them. This involves going to Thanksgiving dinner at the Reynolds home in Montauk with Vincent, a situation that goes from awkward to explosive in zero seconds flat.
Credit: The CW
What's intriguing about this is how effectively Reynolds plays his role. He wants to be seen as a normal father figure by Cat, but Vincent's presence complicates that situation, forcing Reynolds to go all-in on his indignation about Vincent's presence. Yes, he's playing a role, but like all good villains, he actually believes that what he's doing is right. He's so certain in his outrage about Vincent, and his distrust of the man around his daughter, that I almost forgot he was actually Vincent's handler. Reynolds already knows everything Cat is telling him about beasts, but he plays his knowledge close to the vest, so that he seems to be as innocent as Cat wants to believe he is. It's a wonderfully complicated portrayal by Whittall that is matched by Ryan's mounting unease. Throughout the episode, Vincent is gradually succumbing to his baser nature, feeling his humanity and control slipping away for reasons he doesn't seem to entirely understand. The reason for this is because of the presence of Tori (Amber Skye Noyes), whom Gabe takes in after she "accidentally" crashes her car in a river. When Gabe comes up to Montauk to help Cat out, he brings Tori with him, and her proximity to Vincent causes complications. Her eyes briefly flash a beastly yellow, and Vincent becomes hot around the collar, struggling to maintain himself. But this is a hopeless effort for him, as he snaps and attacks Reynolds, whose theories about Vincent's inadequacy for Cat is all but confirmed. Although Cat is able to talk Vincent down from his rage, the damage is already done.
Credit: The CW
And this is where Reynolds's manipulation borders on artful, as he begins planting seeds of doubt in Vincent's head about whether he's actually what's best for Cat. Playing the concerned, doting father, Reynolds implies that the issues of his beastliness will never truly be resolved, and that Cat will always suffer as a result of the endless of that cycle. And so, with doubt sufficiently building in Vincent's mind, Reynolds offers an ultimatum: either leave Cat and never contact her again, or he'll turn in Cat to the authorities himself (all in the name of keeping her safe from Vincent). It's a cold compromise, but one of the good things about Ryan's portrayal of Vincent is in how we can intuit his thoughts from the look on his face, which is far more expressive than usual this week. It's clear that he recognizes and understands the truth in what Reynolds is saying about the inevitability that Cat will be hurt by his presence, and it's even clearer that he's pained by the actions he's considering taking. But we know his mind is all but made up, even before the disastrous Thanksgiving dinner in which Tori beasts out and flips over the dinner table, revealing herself to be the first female beast, and shocking everyone in the process. Gabe realizes that Tori's car accident was no accident at all. She was trying to kill the beast part of herself, having earlier asked Gabe if "flatlining" could truly remove the beastly side of oneself.
Credit: The CW
Credit: The CW
Credit: The CW
This is where the episode takes a fairly stunning turn, in more ways than one. Reynolds phones his bomb-making henchman to reveal that there are two beasts left now, a fact that could actually benefit them. He dispatches the henchman to find and kidnap Tori. Meanwhile, Cat goes off looking for Vincent, who is brooding alone in the woods. Tori confronts him and reveals that she desperately wants to be rid of this beast side of herself, but Vincent says he can't help her. However, Tori astutely notes that he's the only person she can talk to about this, as he's the only person who really understands what it's like to be a beast. She fears that no one will want her once they learn the truth about her, and it's a sentiment with which Vincent can identity. He embraces Tori when she starts to cry, and it's the first time they've touched -- since Tori's beast-side has manifested -- that hasn't caused a crazy reaction from either one.
Credit: The CW
Credit: The CW
Perhaps compelled by this realization, Tori leans in and goes for a kiss. Vincent protests, "I can't," but inevitably succumbs to...well, I don't know. Is it passion? Sympathy? Despair? It's hard to know, but Vincent kisses Tori all the same, and Cat witnesses the entire thing. It's a complete disaster for everyone involved, and Vincent doesn't really have a good explanation beyond "She kissed me." Cat makes a damn good point when she tells Vincent that everyone has been bending over backwards trying to make excuses for him, yet he still can't control himself. So Vincent, his mind made up, tells Cat she needs to let him go. He frames it as being for her own good, but Cat isn't willing to let him go just yet. But it's too late: Vincent tells her if she doesn't leave him, he's going to leave her. It's a sad, ignominious end to their relationship, and while I don't expect it to be permanent, it still plays out as a worst case scenario for their romance.
Credit: The CW
Okay, maybe not the worst case scenario, as there are far worse things that could happen, as we see in the episode's conclusion. Reynolds offers to keep Tori's secret safe, and even offers her a safe ride home from his private driver, whom we quickly see is Reynolds's bomb-making henchman. Not long after Tori departs, Reynolds confronts Vincent with information about his handler, saying he's located him in a building in town. In essence, he's sending an unknowing Vincent into a trap. When he arrives at the building, he finds Tori gagged and bound to a chair. She tries to warn him against getting closer, but Vincent steps into the room and trips the alarm on a bomb nearby. In a flash, the room explodes and goes up in flames, presumably killing the last two beasts on Reynolds's list, Vincent and Tori. I don't actually expect Vincent to be dead, or even all that hurt, but I'm not exactly sure how both Vincent and Tori could have made it out alive. And if Tori dies, that'd be a shame, since I feel there's a lot to explore between Vincent and Tori, not necessarily romantically but rather in a sort of mentor/progeny relationship, a la Bill and Jessica on True Blood. He could essentially show her the ropes on being a beast, and honestly, I'd find that far more compelling than if the show tried to present them as a couple, which just feels eight kinds of wrong at this stage. So honestly, while I have no interest in seeing Vincent and Tori hook up, I sincerely hope Tori isn't dead, as it would feel like a hugely missed opportunity.
Credit: The CW
Credit: The CW
Yet there are smaller opportunities this week that the show doesn't miss: namely, the kiss between Tess and JT, which just might be my favorite moment this season. If you had told me when this season started that JT and Tess were ever going to hug, much less makeout at his computer desk, I'd have taken you to the hospital to get your head examined. But that's exactly what happens here. While trying to decipher the masked audio of Vincent's handler, JT and Tess discover the sound of church bells in the background. They tell this to Gabe, and it ends up being one of the episode-ending teases, as Cat and Gabe hear church bells outside Reynolds's home, and share a knowing look with one another, as if finally realizing just who Vincent's handler really is. It's a great cliffhanger, but not nearly as great as what led to it, as JT and Tess eat pizza and drink beer and -- inevitably -- flirt. Tess mourns her single status, prompting JT to remark how he doesn't understand why she doesn't have a boyfriend, since she's gorgeous, smart, and "drinks pizza and beer". Tess surmises it's because she's intimidating, but JT swears that the reason he didn't talk to her when they first met wasn't because he was intimidated, but because he wanted to do this...
Credit: The CW
Tess is stunned by the kiss, but smiles and goes with it. It's an awesome surprise, and the two get really carried away with it before Gabe's phone call breaks it up. But they both share knowing smiles that show that Tess doesn't regret what happened. She even tells him later that they're cool, since he wouldn't have kissed her if she didn't want him to. So what's the shipping name for Tess and JT? JTess? TJT? Jess? Yeah, I got nothing. But please tell me this is a romance that's going to continue, because it's frigging adorable.
Credit: The CW
Upon further examination, "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" just might be my favorite episode of the season so far. It's not simply that there were a lot of cool moments -- both big and small -- but rather that those moments were couched in thematically satisfying character analysis. We all have two sides to our personalities, but the real task is in keeping both sides in check to form a cohesive whole. That's the only way Vincent will ever be one person, with full command over who he is, and control over his own life. Until then, he'll always be able to be manipulated by men like Reynolds, who seem to serve no other function than to keep Vincent from the thing he needs most in his life: the stability that Cat could contribute to his life.
Credit: The CW
So what did you think of the episode? Sound off in the comments! And thanks for reading, everyone!