With Vincent gone and her dad dead, Cat has put her life – and grieving – on hold. The Cat we reunited with in this episode of Beauty and the Beast isn’t the same one we parted with last May. She eats, drinks, and breathes the thought of finding Vincent.
One of the traits that made her character such a strong protagonist in the first season was her personal sense of strength – her mental and emotional toughness. Her skewed perception of life at the moment severely diminishes that. On the surface she may still be holding it together, but she is one minor emotional injury away from shattering into tiny, mentally-unstable pieces.
Cat has spent her entire summer searching for the man she loves. That’s something I can get behind. Except, that she side-stepped actual police work. She replaced sleep (and possibly food) with consecutive pots of coffee. And, she’s been avoiding her sister. Besides Heather being the only person that knows Cat’s not really their father’s daughter – a secret we’re already in on, but are still forced to wait patiently for the big reveal – she is also dealing with the loss of a parent. If any of this sounds a little familiar, it’s probably because Cat spent her summer pretty much exactly how Elena (Nina Dobrev) spent her summer before season 3 of The Vampire Diaries – ergo recycled storyline.
Besides the shocker of Gabe still being alive, and apparently beast free, is the mind-wiped Vincent that Cat, J.T. (Austin Basis), and Gabe finally track down. This episode of Beauty and the Beast should have been called “Who Are You?” instead of “Who Am I?” Vincent may not know much about his own life, but he at least has a vague idea. That’s more than he can say about the people he is supposed to love. Vincent’s animal instincts might be telling him that Cat is the real deal, but he has absolutely no memory of them.
Muirfield has been compromised and the government has finally created the super soldier they always wanted, and thus, the fictitious world of Beauty and the Beast has been turned upside down. Once again, if an elite special ops assassin seems familiar, you may have seen a couple episodes of Nikita before.
Vincent is a character that always struggled with the idea of right and wrong. He viewed himself as a criminal before Cat came around. Now, without the ability to censor his own actions, there’s no telling how far he will go. As much as Cat may still want to protect him from himself and everyone else, he’s not the same guy. A character that simply follows orders, has the potential to be really boring. Vincent has changed, and more than just his face and DNA. He has lost due north on his moral compass and is going to need some help finding it again.
The only obstacle? Vincent isn’t himself because he’s being controlled by someone else, and that someone else is Cat’s biological father. A man who also happens to be an FBI agent. As the season progresses, I’m sure we’ll be treated to a long, drawn out explanation for why it was safer for Cat to not know the truth, among other things. I could have lived without this paternal twist. Season 1 was dominated by her mother’s past, and now season 2 is on the road to being taken over by her father’s, enough of the family history already.
As if things weren’t complicated enough for this couple, Vincent doesn’t remember he’s even in a relationship. That could be problematic to say the least. It was one thing to watch him throw violent fits as part of the side effects of him being an experiment gone wrong, but to watch him do so with no regard for anything except following orders – how far will Cat go to protect a guy that she doesn’t really know anymore?
Do you think whatever they did to Vincent is reversible or are his memories lost for good? Will Tess come through in the clutch, or continue to distance herself? Is Gabe being sincere when he told Cat he wanted to earn her trust back? Let us know what you think of Beauty and the Beast 2.0 in the comment section below!