Beauty and the Beast 2.16 – About Last Night

by Mieke Trudeau

Lately I have been starting my BatB reviews with a quote that sums up the episode pretty nicely. However, this week, the show was so chock full of great ones, that I had a hard time choosing:

Cat: “I can’t go backwards.”

Gabe, to Vincent: “What can you do that I can’t do?”

Vincent, to Cat: “We are better together than we are apart, and you know it.”

Cat: “I’m not a damsel in distress, I don’t need a knight in shining armor.”

Vincent: “Obviously, I don’t make decisions for Catherine.”

Vincent, to Sam: ”You are trying to hurt them, but you are hurting yourself.”

All these are equally important to sum up About Last Night, the early Spring-finale episode after which we will have to endure a long hiatus before Beauty and the Beast returns.

We pick up right where we left off the week before and the episode starts beautifully, with a loving montage of romantic Vincat highlights, set to the melancholy tones of Vapor by Vancouver Sleep Clinic. Unfortunately Catherine wakes up with cold feet and sneaks out on a sleeping Vincent. She is worried that she is going backwards and insists to Tess that all they had was “break-up sex”. She continues to tell Gabe that she is ready to move on with him, but no one, including Gabe, is buying it. He is getting increasingly insistent that Vincent is bad for Cat, she just doesn’t realize it yet.

I believe that the key to Catherine’s reluctance to commit to either Gabe or Vincent is the fact that she has not felt in control of her life for quite a while now. After her father’s behind-the-scenes extreme machinations, all under the guise of “protecting his daughter”, I can really understand why she practically bristles when Gabe suggests that he knows better who and what is good for her, or even when Vincent swoops in to “save the day”. I don’t blame her for telling them both to stop it. She is indeed, no damsel in distress. Gabe is smothering Cat more and more, and even though Vincent is making huge strides, Cat is worried that it won’t last, that they will fall into old patterns.

It doesn’t help that, just as our team thinks they are done with Sam, he breaks out of prison. It turns out that Sam was not after the data on the supercomputer he blew up, but rather, he knew that the security breach would trigger an emergency meeting of a secret cabal of powerbrokers, the nefarious group behind Muirfield and all other beast related experiments. Sam’s ultimate plan of revenge is to eliminate this group he holds responsible for the deadly experiments carried out on his young son – and who could blame him. In an interesting turn, Gabe seems to empathize with Sam; he thinks that perhaps they should let him take out the bastards. It is Vincent who suggests that they should do the right thing, and not play judge, jury, and executioner by taking the law into their own hands. Perhaps things are not quite as black and white as Gabe suggests; lines are starting to blur and shades of grey are emerging.

Complicating matters is the fact that the secret evil meeting is being held at an annual masquerade charity ball very familiar to Beauty and the Beast fans. Gabe and Cat are supposed to be there undercover, but since too many people immediately recognize our favorite ADA, Vincent has to step in and take his place. Sam slips past our heroes and sets his plan in motion. He injects the top evil one-percenter with his potent beast serum and orders him to kill everyone at the meeting. This is the man directly responsible for the monstrous experiments performed on his little boy and he will be the tool of Sam’s revenge. Over Gabe’s objections, Cat joins Vincent head first into the gruesome scene. As Vincent dispatches the fresh, new, murderous beast, Cat follows a despondent Sam to the rooftop. His plans foiled, he sees no other way out than to jump. Vincent manages to save Sam, not just by grabbing his wrist before he plunges off the roof, but by telling him that he understands how the urge to exact revenge can eat away at a you, change you and make you forget that when you try to get justice by hurting someone, you only end up hurting yourself. This is the moment when it clicks back into place for Catherine. You can see it all over her face. Not only did Vincent not try to stop her from making choices, he showed her that he is willing to take responsibility for his own. No wonder that she tells Gabe it is over between them. She is ready to move on, forward, with Vincent. Gabe aggressively tells her she will regret her choice and ominously says that he will not let Vincent hurt her.

Cat finds Vincent on the roof, their roof. It is a glorious scene. Vincent gives Cat a rose he just happens to have in his coat and as Guiding Light by Foy Vance plays and the snow falls on the skyline of New York City, Vincent and Cat declare their love. Oh Beasties, how long have we waited for this moment. Lets bask in its glory a little longer, because of course it doesn’t last. The next morning their bliss is interrupted by some unwelcome visitors: cops with an arrest warrant in hand for Vincent. He is being charged with the murder of none other than Curt Windsor, Tori’s father. The screen fades to black on Cat’s shocked face. We don’t know for certain yet, but it sure seems that ADA Lowan is following up on his threat to make sure that Vincent cannot hurt Catherine again.

This was one fire-cracker of an episode. I loved the parallels in JT and Tess’ story this week. Tess trying to stay rational and insisting their relationship is all kinds of wrong, and JT nicely standing up for himself and demanding some respect.  Their bickering is great fun and full of stubborn chemistry. I actually applauded when Tess jumped JT. I am really enjoying seeing more of Tess as a character and JT? Well, he’s JT – what’s not to love. I have to admit, I ship this ship.

I also really enjoyed how this felt like an episode of old. Sprinkled with romance, JT and Vincent broments, humor and great performances by all. Vincent eating his make-shift granola bar cereal with a tiny measuring spoon was hilarious. Jay Ryan has such good comic timing and it’s wonderful when he gets to show it off.

It will be a long wait to see what happens next and I would love to hear what your hiatus plans are, Beasties! Are you planning a re-watch? Are you speculating about what may come next for our heroes? I, for one, sure hope that I will be able to write another season’s worth of reviews for Beauty and the Beast. If fandom enthusiasm and effort were the deciding factor alone, this show would be on the air for at least ten more years. Well done, Beasties.