'Beauty and the Beast' Season 2 Retrospective Pt. 4: Miss Independent

Credit: The CW

And that's one of the thornier issues I had with Beauty and the Beast Season 2: Cat (Kristin Kreuk) doesn't seem capable of existing independently of her relationship with Vincent (Jay Ryan) or the other men in her life, whether Gabe (Sendhil Ramamurthy) or Reynolds (Ted Whittall). I know, I've long said that my love for this show took a while to grow, since I really didn't like the first 13 episodes of Season 1, back when it was a crime procedural with barely any serialization. But the one thing Beauty and the Beast did best back then was instill a sense of Girl Power through Cat and her partnership with Tess (Nina Lisandrello). Yes, there was still a romance with Vincent that was developing, but Cat still felt like her own independent character. She had her own issues to work through that had little or nothing to do with Vincent, whether it was a crime of the week, her tumultuous relationship with Heather (Nicole Gale Anderson), or her residual pathos over the death of her mother.

But as the show has continued, it seems Catherine has gotten away from the person she could be, and has instead fallen into a pattern of co-dependency. And that's...well, kind of a tragedy.

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MISS INDEPENDENT: HOW GABE NEARLY RUINED CAT

Now, don't get me wrong. I love that Cat is back together with Vincent, and loved how the season built back up to that inevitable point. But what irked me was in how Cat spent their time apart. Instead of having her exist as her own person, struggling to redefine herself in the wake of Vincent's absence, and dealing with the constant pull between her heart and what necessity requires, the narrative instead had her simply move on to defining herself through the lens of another man. As much as I've been a vocal Gabe supporter (as a character and potential good guy, not as a love interest), I never believed Cat's relationship with Gabe was necessary. Quite the opposite, in fact. And I say that as someone who didn't have that big of a problem with the Cat/Gabe pairing at the time (I couldn't help it, I love Kreuk and Ramamurthy individually).

Looking back to Season 1, Cat learns that her mother was involved in Muirfield experiments -- particularly, the ones that turned Gabe into a Beast. There was authentic tension in how Cat's memory of her mother clashed so dramatically with the reality of what she did while under the thumb of Muirfield. She wasn't a monster or anything, but there is an implied culpability there that makes Vanessa Chandler less than the beatific character she initially appeared to be. And that was an interesting conflict that, in turn, made her issues with Gabe far more interesting. We could understand why Gabe had a chip on his shoulder, but we could also see how he was wrong to take it out on Cat. Thus, it made sense for the conflict between them to escalate in the manner it did, and to, ultimately, end in the fashion it did in Season 1. Except, the issue didn't end there.

In perhaps the most improbable plot development we could possibly have imagined going into Season 2, Gabe survives getting mowed down by gunfire in the Season 1 finale. More perplexingly, Cat is the reason why, as she not only saves his life, but manages to cure him of his Beastliness in the process. Gabe sets out to make amends to Cat for his behavior in Season 1, and...she accepts him?! As a lover?!

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Now, I'm not saying she shouldn't have given him the chance to make things up to her, nor am I saying she should have judged him irredeemable and sent him on his way. But what I am saying is that to have Cat end up in a relationship with Gabe nearly did irreparable damage to the character. In Season 1, Cat was established as a detective with a keen eye for dishonesty among suspects, in addition to a pretty incisive talent for people skills, getting people to talk who might not otherwise have said a word. You'd think a character with this level of intellectual depth would have a hard time forgetting about all the terrible things Gabe did, whether he had justifications or not. Yet it's all swept aside for the sake of crafting a love triangle that, ultimately, didn't resonate as strongly as it would have had the hypotenuse in that triangle not been a guy who tried to kill both our protagonists less than a year earlier.

Again, I'm not saying Gabe shouldn't have had a chance to be forgiven, but in crafting a relationship between Gabe and Cat that went beyond a working partnership and into the realm of the physical, the writers did damage to the character by having her do something she would never have done mere months earlier. All of a sudden, her judgment skills are called into question, and for what? Just so she can be defined by a man again? I was disappointed when Vincent and Cat went their separate ways early in the season, but the silver lining here was in the notion that Cat would start having more independent storylines that allowed us to explore who she could be without Vincent (sort of like what J.T. got to do, as Austin Basis told me in our interview last week). Maybe that character would work, maybe it wouldn't, and maybe she'd find her way back to Vincent anyway, but at least she would have gone on a journey of self-discovery first. To be her own person for a while.

Credit: Ben Mark Holzberg/The CW

And it even seemed like the season was heading in that direction before Gabe. Cat was at odds with Vincent, and this resulted in her leading her own life: trying to get to the bottom of her connection with Reynolds, working on her friendship/partnership with Tess, and working cases that intersected with Vincent. In essence, it was Season 1 all over again, but with a more in-depth form of serialization. And I felt it worked, for the most part. It was interesting to see how Cat responded when her goals intersected with Vincent's, such as during the gem heist in "Ancestors", with Cat and Vincent both undercover, but on opposite sides. It was also fascinating to see how -- when put in the hot seat -- Cat put the letter of the law over her feelings for Vincent. Not because she didn't love him, or because she cared about justice more, but because she felt Vincent would have reached a moment of no return had he murdered Reynolds in cold blood.

So she shoots Vincent, not only to save Reynolds, but to save that man she loved as well, even if that man was nowhere in evidence in the actions he was perpetrating. That's a rich character, and her priorities illustrate that she can be conflicted and have romantic entanglements -- a war between the head and the heart -- without having all of her stories revolve around that romance. I was actually excited about where the character was headed, all the more so when we learned about Rebecca Reynolds, and were presented with the possibility that we'd get to learn more about Cat, where she came from, and who she could be as an individual. All of these different plot elements would have served to make her eventual reunion with Vincent far more rewarding, because it's Cat would be acknowledging that it's not so much fate or destiny that bring her and Vincent together, but the choices they've made. And because Cat is often shown to be a character that generally makes good decisions, we have no reason to question her when she chooses Vincent, because we know the logic of her heart is beyond reproach.

Credit: The CW

Well, except we don't. While we know Vincent is the one, the relationship with Gabe threatened to undo whatever faith viewers might have had in Cat's decision-making processes. It isn't that her relationship with Gabe somehow invalidates her choosing Vincent later. In fact, it's quite the opposite, as choosing Vincent invalidates her relationship with Gabe and restores her to the role of someone whose instincts we can trust. But, man, was it touch-and-go for a while there. Even while Gabe was subtly undermining Vincent with constant doubts, and trying infantilizing Cat by constantly referring to her as someone who needed protecting (as if he could actually be the one to protect her anyway), Cat never really picked up on it. Sure, she'd be annoyed that Gabe would insist on this whole "I'm just doing this to protect you" rationalization, but red flags never seemed to go off for her. In a lot of ways, pairing her with Gabe called the Cat we knew into question, as it just never seemed like anything our Cat would have done. Worse, the relationship took her from a point of independence right back to co-dependency, since it was apparently impossible for Cat to have any narrative divorced from her connection to a man.

Basically, nearly every Cat storyline failed the Bechdel Test: a gender bias test in fiction that measures how many scenes feature at least two women who talk to each other about something other than a man. Cat showed brief hints of promise towards the middle of the season, pre-Gabe. But once she got together with Gabe, it's as if she stopped being her own character. Of course, the one positive in the Gabe relationship sapping away her sense of agency was that she was able to reclaim it in the big climax of the season. It's not Vincent who kills Gabe, but Cat. Sure, maybe it was a bit of an accident, but in killing Gabe and removing him from the equation, once and for all, Cat reestablishes her strength as a female character. It's not the man who saves her, but she who saves herself. And that's the Cat I remember from early Season 1. The Cat who was occasionally saved by Vincent, but who didn't always need to be. And that's the Cat whom, I think, Vincent really loves -- the person who's a partner and not just a damsel-in-distress.

Credit: The CW

That's why I enjoy Vincent and Cat's relationship as much as I do, because it feels more like an organic partnership, and not a relationship of power imbalances. It's satisfying in a way the Cat/Gabe pairing never could be, and I'm glad it's something we came back around to, as Cat was able to reclaim the power she has over her own life. Kristin Kreuk is a wonderful actress capable of much more than what she was given. And I say that as someone who adores this show. Granted, adoring something doesn't mean you can't criticize it, so I hope this essay has been taken in the spirit in which it was intended. I absolutely love Beauty and the Beast, even when it doesn't always work to its full potential. That said, we now have a third season to look forward to, and a ton of interesting story possibilities. Next week will be my final essay for the season, as we explore what a possible third season will entail. I hope you'll join me for it. If you missed any of the previous essays, check out the links below. Until next week, thank you for reading, and let me know your thoughts in the comments!

Essay #1: Looking Back on Vincent's Amnesia Storyline
Essay #2: An Analysis of the Villains
Essay #3: The Importance of J.T. Forbes
Interview: Exclusive Chat With Austin Basis