A new Beauty and the Beast episode titled “Love Is A Battlefield” airs tonight on The CW! But first, Ian Gildersleeve looks back at last week’s show…
We’re past the “Point of No Return,” as last Thursday’s episode took us in a beastly blur across the half-way point in the final season of Beauty and the Beast. Vincent is on the run and Catherine and the others have to fend off Federal agents, while Vincent goes into darker territory in order to find who placed a bounty on his head.
Vincent has been through a long journey of trials and tribulations over the course of the series, overcoming many obstacles to achieve a (almost) normal life and an acceptance of himself. But the trials are far from over, as the past few episodes of this season have caused him to question that life as he is faced with guilt, betrayal, and in forced back underground into a life he thought he’d left behind.
Guilt
Vincent has had to deal with a lot of guilt in his life, mostly self-inflicted and undeserved. Guilt over the death of his brothers, guilt over the crimes and deaths his beast side has caused. But a recurring element throughout the show since the first season is the guilt Vincent feels for the pain and sacrifice his loved ones endure because they are in his life. During a fever induced dream in the fifth episode of this season, “It’s a Wonderful Beast”, Vincent is given the chance to see what his life, and the lives of Catherine and the others, would be like if he and Catherine had never become involved.
For Vincent himself, life was much the same as it had been when the show first started, living on the run from a still very much active and dangerous Muirfield. Although it looks as if things have gotten a bit worse, with he and J.T. living underground. No flat screen and beer full of fridge in subway tunnels! Yes, poor J.T. was still with Vincent. Of course he would be. No matter if Cat is in the picture or not, J.T. will always be with Vincent. However, Vincent may not have noticed that as his own life got better, so did J.T.’s. He made friends, got a nicer place, and most importantly found love with Tess. Sure, he may be a little lost in the real world and he and Tess are currently broken up, but it’s still better than living underground, paranoid of Muirfield, and forever blaming himself for what happened to Vincent. Hopefully J.T. is able to find his own path in the real world. With Vincent now living a (mostly) normal life, J.T.’s free to explore the many opportunities available to him. Whether that leads back to a relationship with Tess, only time will tell.
Speaking of Tess, a life without beasts isn’t all it’s apparently cracked up to be. She may think all the beast crap is holding her back, but in a lot of ways it actually pushed her forward. Within the dream world she was still with Joe, her married boss, still a detective, and still had straightened hair. It’s possible the last part hasn’t had a grand effect on her life, outside of her follicles. The fact that Joe is still around possibly means that his brother is still alive. If he isn’t, he at least wasn’t killed by Vincent. So Joe’s life is probably better. But when it comes to Tess, the presence of Joe means that she is living a life in a dead-end relationship with no career advancement. Vincent being with Catherine caused their two worlds and individual friendships to become intertwined. Tess and J.T. bonded over their common circumstance of being best friends with a Beauty and a Beast, respectively. They brought light into each other’s lives. They supported each other and pushed one another. Without J.T., Tess wouldn’t have gone for the position of Captain. As J.T. pointed out recently, Tess has had so much growth and advancement in her life over the past couple years, something that may not have happened without Vincent being in the picture.
For Catherine, she seemingly has the best life of them all. She’s a successful detective with a loving husband, who just happens to be our dearly departed Evan. It makes sense that those two would end up with one another. They had a lot of chemistry, Evan loved her, and everyone was pushing them to be together anyway. It’s understandable that with no Vincent Salanskys available, Cat would give in to the next best thing. Unfortunately, a life with Evan isn’t the fairytale she is destined for. Catherine is still searching for answers to her mother’s death and the mysterious beast that saved Catherine from the same fate. Without those answers, Catherine is restless and unhappy in life. Vincent saved her in more ways than one. By coming into her life, in a way he was able to give her peace of mind. Sure, with that came more questions and more danger, but Catherine wasn’t in the dark anymore. And with Vincent, Catherine has been able to bear all that has been thrown her way.
Perhaps now Vincent can have his own peace of mind with the knowledge that his friends’ lives and Catherine’s life is better with him in it, as his life is better with them in his.
Fear and Betrayal
Vincent has tried to leave a lot of his past behind him in an attempt to move forward with his life with Catherine. But in “Beast of Times, Worst of Times” he is forced to confront his old commanding officer, the man who was ordered to eradicate the failed super soldier experiments – including Vincent. Vincent had put his trust in this man and had been betrayed. His fear at facing that man is prevalent, as he voices to Catherine. His biggest fear is that he won’t be able to control his rage about the betrayal and the beast inside him will take over. Catherine tells him not to worry, that he won’t have to do it alone, she’ll be with him. Circumstances led to that not being the case, but Vincent was still able to control himself and even tried to save Colonel Fuller after an explosion. That’s because, as Fuller himself said, Vincent is a good man. He always has been. That goodness in him was evident from the start, even to Fuller, who actually let Vincent go back in Afghanistan. Vincent the Man is stronger than Vincent the Beast. That’s what has always set him apart from other beasts on the show, who have never been able to control their darkness. Vincent has and can continue to do so. There is hope for him to have a truly normal life.
That is, if he can survive the after effects of another betrayal; the one of Agent Hill. The scared and misguided DHS agent allowed his fear after the attack on his family to cause him to turn against Vincent and Catherine. It was he who hired the assassins to take Vincent out, trying to make it look as if whoever put out the bounty to capture Vincent had changed their mind. After several failed attempts, Hill took matters into his own hands and injected Vincent with adrenaline to bring out the beast and force Vincent to attack him, so that Hill could kill him in what would look like an act of self defense. Of course, he underestimated the power of the beast and Vincent ended up killing him in a surge of primal rage.
Now Vincent is on the run once again, this time from DHS. It seemed as though one more betrayal was upon him, as it looked like Catherine was going to turn Vincent in. Although it turned out to be a ruse, so that Catherine could gain the trust of DHS, part of me wishes it had been the real deal. Catherine, more than anything, wants to keep Vincent safe. Her fear of him being killed by DHS agents is paramount to paranoia, something I’ve felt she has dealt with in the past and have written about in previous reviews. It wouldn’t be far fetched to have her fear, linked with Tess pushing her to draw the line and believe in the justice of the law, push her to turn Vincent in in an effort to keep him safe, albeit in jail. It is also something that would feed some much needed tension into the VinCat relationship. Other than the threat of outside forces, the epic duo have had it a bit too easy as of late, their disagreements too passive aggressive and solved too quickly, seeming a bit unrealistic. However, such a betrayal might be a bit too much for them to recover from this late in the game and may have led some fans to not forgive her. That certainly wouldn’t lend itself to the happily ever after we are sure to be offered come series end.
The Season So Far…
With this being the final season, I personally believe that the writers have wasted too much time when it comes to moving the story forward. Several episodes could have been simply cut, easily moving any character or story progression into another episode. The fact that this could happen shows weakness in the writing this year, as neither the story nor our characters have had much development preceding episodes six and seven. Frankly, it feels as if the writers have simply been stalling for time.
But finally, that has come to an end, with “Point of No Return” sending our lead characters in different directions, with Catherine undercover at DHS and Vincent going undercover himself to find out once and for all who placed a bounty on his head. While J.T. and Tess are still going in circles concerning their development, the advancement of the story, and thereby upped quality of the season, have made up for that.
I’m finally excited about the show once again, something I have not been able to say for weeks now. I look forward to where this is heading. We only have six episodes left before happily ever after. What hell will our characters have to go through to get there?