Beauty and the Beast 3.10 – Patient X

by Mieke Trudeau

“Wait, wait, you can’t do this on your own. We have to trust each other now”

Trust was a major theme in this tenth installment of Beauty and the Beast’s third season; the lack of it, the importance of it and how complicated it can make things. Closely related to trust is responsibility and all of our heroes are feeling plenty of that. Cat is still feeling the guilt for the choices she’s made regarding the hunt for Liam and Vincent feels it’s his beastly duty to take that burden off his fiancée’s shoulders. As he explains to Cat, it’s his turn to step up and he urges her to trust his beasty instincts on this one. Vincent feels a strange connection to Liam and he is convinced he will be able to track him, especially now that they know the super human is after both Alton (Zach Appelman) and JT.

Speaking of which, both former super humans are under heavy-duty police protection, much to JT’s dismay. He is still worried about any lingering effects of the serum plus the ever-present bodyguards make it hard for him to patch things up with Tess. Alton is less worried, besides suffering some nosebleeds he is happy to be alive and he feels safe in the hospital surrounded by heavily armed cops. Little does he know that Liam is in the very next room, preparing to blow up some poor unsuspecting patient in order to destroy one more remnant of Julianna’s super human experiments.

With the threat level amped up significantly, Tess rushes into action and whisks JT away. She feels responsible for his safety and it also becomes more and more clear that she still loves him. Their bickering is the best thing ever and it’s always great to see Nina Lisandrello pour so much badassery into Tess week after week. Austin Basis manages once again to give us both humor and pathos as we see germ phobic JT deal with a seedy motel room but also stand up to Liam to protect his girl.

After the hospital bombing Vincent finally has to admit that there has to be something to Cat’s theory that there is a common thread connecting all of Liam’s acts of terror. It seems as if he is chasing after a very specific super human that they have so far overlooked and when Cat once again checks Julianna’s files she finds mention of a Patient X. After some sleuthing, Cat finds a newly registered patient at a local hospice who checked in with symptoms of nosebleeds and headaches, consistent with someone suffering the ill effects of the unchecked super human serum. Patient X turns out to be Julianna’s brother Russell (Kyle Harris) who had unsuccessfully injected himself with the super serum, in an attempt to help his sister fight Liam. In the end their story is a familiar one; Julianna and her brother are innocent bystanders pulled into a supernatural world who ended up taking desperate measures to protect the world and save their loved ones.

Since there is no more serum and no cure, Russell is dying and he wants to go down taking Liam with him. He gets away from Cat and uses himself as bait to lure both Vincent and Liam to the place where JT and Tess are holed up, in the hopes that Vincent can fulfill his boast that he can defeat Liam. Vincent is curiously more and more aggressive and antsy throughout the episode. He snaps at Cat and wants to go it alone. He asks Cat to trust him repeatedly but pushes her away when she reaches out to reel him in or to tell him about her misgivings. In turn Liam seems to be on Vincent’s scent as well and when the two finally meet, it becomes clear why; Liam is a beast. It is quite the reveal and it explains a lot; Carol and Bob’s eagerness to bring Vincent to their boss, Julianna’s insistence that Vincent was the only hope against Liam, and Vincent’s increasingly strange behavior. It also changes everything and even Liam senses that. He flees after declaring his intention to destroy every last trace of the super human serum experiments and an ominous warning that he has “bigger fish to fry”.

This leaves us with a happily reunited Tess and JT, but a new burden on our police captain and a very worried JT who has suddenly developed nosebleeds of his own. As for Vincent; Cat still firmly believes that he is nothing like Liam, but he is not so certain. Having another beast close by, after thinking that there were none left, has awakened something in Vincent; he once again feels like a predator, the beast he was before he met the beauty who saved him.

This was another great episode chock full of character and plot development. I am really enjoying all the action and I have not been disappointed in my high expectations for Jason Gedrick’s Liam; he is terrifying and feels like a real threat. I am curious what these “bigger fish to fry” will turn out to be and I am looking forward to Jay Ryan once again showing some of the darker sides of Vincent. This whole season it seems to have gotten easier for Vincent to kill and now that his beast nature has been awakened further, I am anxious to see where this will lead. What are your thoughts about these developments, Beasties? As always, we would love to hear your thoughts.