Beauty and the Beast heads to suburbia in”Ever After,” but unfortunately, it’s not the fairy tale ending that Cat (Kristin Kreuk) and Vincent (Jay Ryan) expect. Although happily ever after looks good on the couple, hiding out doesn’t really do either of their personalities justice. Fortunately, they find out very quickly that the suburbs may have more in common with their preferred city lifestyle than they were expecting – and not in a good way.
Any hope that Gabe (Sendhil Ramamurthy) would be easily discredited and slink back into the oblivion he came from has vanished. Sorry, fans! Instead of letting being exposed as a potential murderer be a hindrance, Gabe is using it to his full advantage. He has decided to play the victim card. And now that the only witness tying him to the crime has vanished, at Gabe’s own hands, there’s nothing but circumstantial evidence standing between him and glistening freedom.
While Cat and Vincent are off in suburbia, solving a completely unattached murder and enjoying the temporary perks of new identities courtesy of witness protection, their friends are tasked with searching for clues linking Gabe to the disappearance of the key witness. Obviously, the thing that is most frustrating about the predicament that Tess (Nina Lisandrello) and JT (Austin Basis) find themselves in after locating the remains (er, what’s left of them) of the witness, is Gabe’s delusional belief that exposing beasts is worth it if it means protecting Cat.
What’s really problematic about the current predicament is Gabe’s unfaltering intent to protect Cat. Under different circumstances, his knight in shining armor (to the extreme) routine might be considered charming. However, these aren’t those circumstances and what he’s doing is anything but. In a misplaced attempt to repent for his poor life choices, Gabe has latched onto Cat as the gateway to his salvation – and it is just as demented as it sounds.
Instead of accepting that Cat is an intelligent woman, capable of making her own decisions, Gabe has decided through some form of hard to follow logic that he should be allowed veto power when it comes to the men in her life. If you ask me, it’s really just a sad excuse for some payback after Vincent “stole” his girlfriend.
Beauty and the Beast continues to raise the stakes not only with Gabe’s latest proclamation promising to tell-all, but by establishing a romantic connection between Tess and JT, in addition to Cat and Vincent. Before this point, there was a different sense of commitment all around. Tess was involved solely to protect her best friend, and the same for JT. As the story continued to evolve, and Cat and Vincent became more intertwined, it has become harder to make that distinction. However, now the writers have thrown in this curve ball that mucks things up even further.
Although I’m happy to see Tess and JT finally have something besides the beast drama to hold onto, it’ll be interesting to see as we approach the climax of this season whether or not this latest coupling has an adverse effect on everyone’s safety. On one hand, this additional entanglement makes the characters that much more invested. But, on the other hand, relationships are hard work. We’ve seen the toll it has taken on our central characters, and would be unfortunate for everyone if this new relationship become a distraction when obviously there are other more pressing matters at the moment.
Overall, this episode of Beauty and the Beast was very much on the tame side compared to what we’ve seen lately. There was a lot of damage control taking place, but nothing that really got anyone too much closer to the finish line. Here’s hoping that next week picks things up a bit.
Published: Jun 24, 2014 01:50 pm