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Michelle's thoughts on Beauty and the Beast – Basic Instinct:
Another great episode! They've fully recovered from episode 2. There's a lot to look forward to with the series becoming less procedural and more story focused. The growth of Cat and Vincent is getting really interesting as they help each other to heal. Muirfield continues to heat up and there is still lots of story to tell there. Anyone scared away by episode 2 is really missing out.
This episode Tess is getting really suspicious about how Cat is getting her mysterious leads. At first she thinks it must be Evan and Cat in a secret relationship but by the end of the episode she realizes that's not it. Tess will have to find out more soon or later and it will be interesting to see how that plays out.
At least she'll react a lot better than JT has so far. JT is like the ultimate jealous wife. After living with someone for so long it's normal to become close and JT has the added influence of being Vincent's protector. We've seen his constant efforts to keep Cat away and blame her for anything going wrong. This episode they finally have to work together to rescue Vincent. The development of this relationship should prove to be really interesting too. I do think I'm right about Evan not being used as the third point of the love triangle, that spot is taken by JT.
This episode was a home run and sets the stage nicely for a lot of great character development. I can't wait for Cat's Dad to appear and find out how he is involved with her Mom and Muirfield. Also finding out how Silver Fox survived and see him get more involved with Cat and Vincent. This season is turning out really solid.
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John's thoughts on Beauty and the Beast – Basic Instinct:
Beauty and the Beast episode 4 Basic Instinct asks Cat "How brave is your love?" She flinches and then doles out two to Muirfield for making her flinch. Well it's more like four, four dead agents. Go team Beauty, Beast and the Geek!
This episode had it all. It had great parallelism between the case of the week and the developing relationships between characters (we talk about this alot in the podcast). Fantastic fight scenes: where Cat kicks some serious ass and dishes out one hell of a throat punch, JT kills a dude witha bat and helps the Vin Man dispose of the bodies and Vincent in full on Beast mode causing explosions and choking out some fool! You've heard the expression "Give them enough rope to hang themselves." Well Vincent's motto is, "Give me enough chain and I'll choke you to death with it." They also tease us with a photo of Cat's mom at the Muirfield headquarters! What? So it is true she was working for Muirfield! Now I want to meet Cat's Father even more and find out what he knows.
Take away all that awesomeness and Basic Instinct was simply about going with your gut and having faith in good people. Early on in the episode Tess tells Cat she's "over thinking it" when it comes to playing baseball, but it was also good advice for what would come.
Muirfield drops some sobering facts about Vincent on Cat; he allegedly killed 500 people in an unsanctioned strike on an Afghan village. Though she's quick to counter with the old argument of you made him do that. It is still a massive body count to think of, even IF he was with 10-20 other Beasties, that's 25 to 50 civilians brutally killed by each Beast. Then she is shown the ONE American dude Vincent killed and she loses all faith and trust in Vincent. (I take this as commentary on America's apathetic attitude toward civilian casualties of the War in Afghanistan. I give the writers two thumbs up and congratulate them on taking Beauty and the Beast deeper than I expected.)
Back to talking about faith, because that's what this episode is about. Vincent's faith in Cat bringing him back to humanity. Cat's faith in Vincent bringing closure to her moms murder and allowing her to finally rest and live like a regular human being. When they have their faith tested it makes Cat question what she knows about Vincent versus how she feels about him. She's forced to reconcile those feelings against the new evidence and it rattles her, justifiably so.
Cat says she is "used to the world being black and white", her obsessively driven savior complex does see the world in black and white, or rather guilty and innocent. We've seen this in previous episodes when she tries to deal with Muirfield as if it's a typical case. Now her world is being flipped and she can't be on the wrong side, it was that side that killed her mother, and stole her life, that's where the fear and over thinking hits her the hardest. That's why she's so shaken when Vincent shows up at her apartment, she must be imagining all the people (Afghanis), or person (US dude), that was left devastated from his crime(s).
This causes a chain reaction and the next time she's with Vincent he notices something's up. She tries to push him away, a little role reversal, and Vincent realizes she is scared of him not Muirfield. It's a painful moment for Vincent and he decides that he can no longer risk hurting the people he cares about and will turn himself in. Which is interesting cause he could have run on his own. By turning himself in he's admitting that those around him are "collateral damage" and that he has reached a place in regaining his humanity that he doesn't want to go back to being alone. It would be better to be locked in a cage than on the run alone.
JT's faith in... well JT's faith is complicated. He trusts Vincent in an unconditional; some might say suicidal, way. But being on the lam with the Vin man for the last less than a decade the two have become close, best friends to start and now even closer, it's one hell of a bromance. That's probably why JT flips out on Cat so much like a jealous girlfriend bro. But that's just how much he has committed to his friendship with Vincent, hence when he learns Vincent has chosen to give up/end the relationship JT flips out, because he still has faith, and mounts up with Cat to go get their man back. Again the episode brings the win as we get more awesome scenes of JT "the Bat Man" Forbes! If they make a JT action figure, he better come with a baseball bat, and a "No Cats" sign.
Luckily Beauty, Beast and the Geek learn a lesson about having faith and trusting their gut the team reconciles in time to win the big game against Muirfield. YEAH! We're number one, we're number one... on Muirfield's most wanted list. Oh, I don't know if we should cheer about that.
This episode also expanded the character of Joe Bishop. Mister Moody turned that frown upside down and became a ball busting Baseball coach that helped lead the NYPD team to victory over the NY Fire Dept. "NYPD putting out fires." Best Joe Bishop line ever, someone needs to make a Joe bishop soundboard.
He had some great insight that reflected what we talk about in the podcast about what the baseball game symbolizes for Cat, "This game is about the whole precinct, about pride. It's about you too Chandler." It's interesting that he says it's about the WHOLE precinct and then specifically says it's about Cat too. Joe recognizes Cat is an outsider. She buries herself so deep in her work she never comes up to meet with her fellow workers, outside of the ones she must talk to on a regular basis. It builds on to Cat's character as a loner obsessed with her job, and nothing else. It also adds some much-needed dimension to Joe Bishop. This was the first time I actually thought Joe cared for his people and saw them as more than a daily irritation he had to manage. I'm rooting for more Joe, as a halfrican-American I enjoy seeing my fellow brothers and sisters on TV.
Hopefully you caught this excellent episode, Basic Instinct, if not go watch it now-now at the official CW Beauty and the Beast website. Remember to trust your gut, and your gut says tune in every Thursday night at 9pm. Then check out our podcast and weekly review for a Beauty and the Beast doubleheader. Ending baseball puns, I'm out.