This week, leading into the season finale, Ian Gildersleeve is BACK with Beauty and the Beast recaps/reviews! Here’s his recap of the eighth episode of Season 3, titled “Shotgun Wedding.”
Wedding bells are ringing and Heather is screaming (into her phone) as Vincent and Catherine race to the altar before anything, including kisses and escaped convicts, can jinx their destined nuptial.
The Right Thing To Do
The prevalent theme and crux of the episode, what is “the right thing to do”? It’s a question that breeds uncertainty within our characters and circumstances lead to abrupt changes in opinion about the answer to that question.
For most of the episode, and most of the characters, the right thing to do was to get VinCat to the altar, no matter what. This necessitated our team keeping Catherine in the dark to the nefarious plots of Julianna and Liam, because if anyone was going to put a kibosh on the wedding to go fight the forces of evil it would be her. She confirms this when she does find out, saying it would be the right thing to do. Vincent, on the other hand, believes they have sacrificed enough and deserve to have their magical wedding.
But oh how the tables turn, when after Liam strikes Vincent is finally ready to put normalcy on hold until they can stop Liam, while Catherine is now of the mind “not our monkeys, not our circus.” While Vincent’s journey from the beginning of the season has been a natural build-up to his decision here to change his mind, I feel that Catherine’s path has been quite zig-zaggy. On the surface she has flip-flopped on the whole Destiny vs. Normalcy issue the entire season. I’ve been able to, through these character analyses, give explanation for her erratic behavior (mostly). By digging into her past and delving into her psyche, I’ve really come to understand Catherine Chandler and her actions. Not that I’m not thrown for a loop every time she has an abrupt change in attitude, which once again happened here. But, like before, I’ve stepped back and tried to examine the ever prominent question of “Why the hell did she do that?!”
In my review of “The Most Dangerous Beast” I spoke of my theory of Catherine’s paranoia, especially when it comes to losing Vincent. At the time it was related to the subject of Bob and Carol. They were a potent threat to not just Catherine, but Vincent as well. Their ability to focus so intently that they could not only anticipate their opponent’s actions, but put a bullet in their head from a mile away, was the type of threat they hadn’t come up against before. At the time, Catherine was very gung-ho about stopping them, personal lives be damned. But that was because they were already on Bob and Carol’s radar and just ignoring them was not possible. Here, with Liam, we have an even bigger threat. Not only does he assumedly have the same abilities as B&C, but he has all the abilities of the previous experiments as well. Again, this is assuming, but evidence suggests he has the speed of Tyler Zane, the strength of Julianna’s bodyguard, B&C’s keen sight and anticipation instincts, and J.T.’s healing factor. No word yet on if he has the electrifying powers of Alton Finn. But even so, Liam is a power-house of combined abilities and presents the biggest threat that our VinCat has ever seen.
So maybe this abrupt change in Cat’s attitude is based completely in fear. And while Vincent has been led to the conclusion that they can never have a normal life if they don’t stop Liam, and people like him that threaten the world, Cat has come to see that they will never have a normal life if they don’t stop trying to save the world. Her mom may have said those words, but I’m not sure it really rang true until her groom got thrown through a wall at their wedding. However, part of me hopes that her change of heart is of a different matter. After Vincent’s said journey through the wall, we didn’t see Liam leave and Catherine didn’t immediately appear at Vincent’s side. Then she just disappears to go have some time to herself while Vincent lies there bleeding? I want to believe that Liam said something to her and it’s possible she left with him. Maybe they had a talk where Liam told her that if they stay out of his way he’ll let them live. That would lend more credence to her sudden urge to “quit.” I doubt it, but the writing this season has been pretty top-notch, so I won’t put it past them to surprise me.
Two other characters immersed in the question of the right thing to do are J.T. and Tess. While the former has to make a choice of priorities in his life, the latter has to question if her friends and their happiness is more important than following the rules of her job. The previous episode, to me, forced the issue of this couple’s break-up. While there was certainly seeds planted of Tess feeling like her life and career were less important in the eyes of her friends and feeling like her position as Captain of the 125th was being used by them while putting that position of hers in constant jeopardy, I felt like the culmination of that felt forced. Again, not because there hadn’t been lead up, but because of the circumstances. When your best friend and her fiance are on the run from a super-powered psycho killer and your boyfriend is trying to save their lives, you don’t get to complain that he isn’t paying enough attention to you. You just don’t. And the fact that J.T. was the focus of her ire just doesn’t make sense. If she should be mad at anyone it should be Cat. J.T. has been nothing but supportive of Tess and her promotion. It’s like the two characters had their own flip-flop moment, when earlier in the season Tess was continuously supportive of J.T., but then got a job he told her to go for and then whined that his girlfriend wasn’t paying any attention to him when he was the one who wouldn’t answer her phone calls. It’s possible I’m still mad about that.
But forced or not, the break-up happened. So now J.T. has to figure out what the right thing to do by Tess is. Turns out the answer lies within a vase of gummy worms. But really, it just lies within being her friend. Recognizing that while there may be crazy people out there trying to kill them, she is constantly putting her future at risk. And it has never been more at risk than now, as our poor Tess was eviscerated by the Chief in front of her entire precinct. But J.T. is there for her, as he lets her know by words and by actions. There may just be hope for these two yet.
How It All Came Together
Showrunner Brad Kern headed up this episode that was co-written by Anthony Epling, another newbie to the writing team. As far as I can tell, this is Epling’s first television broadcast writing gig. He previously worked as a production assistant on the series “Justice”, which was created by the David McNally, director of this season’s earlier installment, “Primal Fear.” Perhaps there was a bit of making connections through Mr. McNally to get Epling the job. Whatever the case may be, he did fine work on this episode. After two episodes I didn’t particularly enjoy, this was a nice return to form. Excitement was on high, and danger prevalent, but the episode was filled to the brim with humorous moments. Although most credit most likely goes to Kern, the man who I feel has kept the show tight and kept its myriad tones all in balance. Credit must also go to the show’s lead director, Stuart Gillard, who also helmed this episode, whose installments are always fast paced and full of energy.
While I felt most of the previous episode was forced filler, it did come with the revelation that the person behind all the genetic experiments is doing so to defend themselves against someone even worse. That someone, it turns out, is Liam. This was a great twist. One thing I really enjoyed from the earlier seasons of “The Vampire Diaries” was no matter who the big bad was, there was someone worse that even they feared. So it was nice to see that here as well. Although, I don’t think we can trust everything Julianna said. For now, Liam and his true intentions are a mystery. But what is certain is how dangerous he is. Will Vincent have to inject himself with Julianna’s serum to stop Liam? As far as we know, Liam was normal before tricking Julianna into giving him the serum. What would it do to Vincent and the beast within?
To Sum Up
An exciting return to form in an episode that throws all of our characters’ lives into chaos and forces them to make tough decisions. The season’s true big bad makes a killer entrance, literally, and all without saying a word. I’m looking forward to see how they stop him, or if they even can.
Come back later this week for more BATB recaps, Beasties!