If you tuned in tonight expecting the usual Beauty and the Beast melodrama, you might have been in for a surprise. “Operation Fake Date” threw the predictability off the balcony and left viewers with a generous amount of pondering to do before the season finale.
Let’s start with the most confounding part of the episode – the end. Just when you may have been scratching your head wondering why Cat (Kristin Kreuk) killing Gabe (Sendhil Ramamurthy) was an unsatisfying end to his character arc, you were rewarded with her tenacity for doing the right thing. Cat could have been free from his incessant interference and disregard for her personal feelings (along with his generally psychotic behavior), but instead only moments after accidentally ending his life, strictly though means of self-defense, she attempted to save him. And with the help of Vincent (Jay Ryan), she does.
This was problematic for a lot of reasons, but mainly because it didn’t seem like a fitting end for Gabe. For over half the season, I was ready to say goodbye to him – even before he became completely unhinged – but there was something unsettling about the way he almost went out. His obsession with protecting Cat becoming his undoing makes perfect sense, but making Cat a murderer in the process seems like an unflattering solution to an already complicated problem.
Cat is overwhelmingly a moral character, evident by her immediate intent to resuscitate him despite the obvious benefits of not doing so. Even though she has given up on Gabe entirely at this point, she still wasn’t prepared to let him die. Although, she may find herself regretting that choice sooner rather than later.