This week’s season 2 premiere of Beauty and the Beast, “Who Am I?” wastes no time welcoming viewers back into the emotional turmoil of Cat Chandler’s life. The episode opens on a shot of Cat asleep on a table littered with notices of a missing person — Vincent Keller — who was taken by Muirfield in the season 1 finale and has been missing ever since. “It’s been a long three months,” as she says later on.
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Vincent is Out There Somewhere
In a flashback, we are shown that Cat also saved Gabe’s life the night Vincent was taken, during the last season of Beauty and the Beast. She recalls saving him in a dream that she wakes from when an alarm on her phone goes off, and immediately after, she calls JT to ask him if he has any further leads on Vincent. She is obviously quite committed to finding him; it’s been nine hours since she last asked him for the same information, and he implies that maybe she needs to take a break.
Undeterred, she presses him for the info, but he has nothing for her. “I am not going to stop until I find him,” she vows. JT admits that he is not only worried for Vincent, but for Cat as well. He reveals that in addition to everything else going on in her life, Cat’s father died about a month before. She tells him to stop worrying about her and to keep looking for Vincent. She is a woman on a mission.
Being Blunt
Tess and Cat chat at the precinct, and Tess asks how long Cat is going to keep focusing on finding Vincent, and she says she will keep looking for as long as it takes. Tess suggests that maybe Cat can’t find him. As much as this is probably not something she wants to hear, I think it’s good that Cat has a friend who is willing to be that honest with her. But then I’ve always loved their friendship, and I’m excited to see more of it this season.
Tess relates Cat’s obsession with finding Vincent to Joe’s with finding his brother’s killer, and says that is what cost him his job and her their relationship. She continues by saying, “Just make sure you know what it’s costing you, Cat, okay? Make sure it’s worth it.”
But Cat, despite saying that she has her own doubts, has decided that she has to stay strong. Gabe shows up and asks to speak to her in private. He’s been put “in charge,” according to Cat, and he is obviously not her favorite person at the moment, as he had been unable to help her find Vincent when she hoped he would when she saved his life. However, he then tells her what she does need to hear: JT has found Vincent, and as proof for both her and the audience, he shows her a photo of Vincent that JT sent.
Is It a Match?
Cat and Gabe rush to JT’s, where he admits that a facial recognition program is still working on the image to be absolutely sure it is Vincent. The software doesn’t find that it’s a match, and JT and Gabe argue. JT is also clearly not a fan of Gabe’s, since his track record with Vincent in the past is not great and JT is an awesome, protective friend.
Cat, meanwhile, decides to go save Vincent, “or whoever that is,” and she rushes out. She speeds towards the Brooklyn Shipyard, and she tries to call Tess for back-up. She accidentally calls Heather, who says Cat is “impossible to get a hold of” since the funeral, and she is worried about her sister. She reminds Cat of the tribute for their father at his law firm that night, which Cat promised to attend. She reassures Heather that she will be there, and Heather says they really need to talk afterwards.
Who Are You?
A car with motorcycles on either side pulls into an area in the shipyard. A man gets out of the black vehicle and addresses another man sitting in a chair, who is revealed to be Vincent. Cat shows up and takes down the guards waiting outside, proving yet again that while her character may be one-half of a romance duo, that doesn’t mean she’s a damsel in distress.
Meanwhile, the man talks to Vincent while he is cuffed to the chair, and we learn he is from Muirfield. He also says that he knows exactly what Vincent is and what he’s capable of. “After all,” he says, “I made you.” Vincent breaks free of his bonds, attacks some of the surrounding men, then goes after the guy from Muirfield. It looks like he’s about to be taken down when Cat shows up and distracts Vincent, and he escapes.
Vincent then goes after Cat, and it appears that he is going to attack her next when JT and Gabe arrive and attempt to subdue him with tranquilizer darts. He eventually collapses, and Cat runs to him and holds him up, showing JT, Gabe and the viewers that Vincent’s facial scar is missing. She tells him that she never stopped looking for him, and he replies, “Who are you?” before passing out.
Do You Remember Me?
Vincent is coming to while Cat and Gabe argue in the next room. Gabe insists on sticking around until Vincent wakes up; it’s all part of his attempt to make amends. (Maybe that will be a theme for his character this season?) Cat insists that his help isn’t needed, and Gabe leaves. JT asks whether it was a good idea for him to leave, stating that Gabe’s “clearly different.” “He didn’t even recognize you, Cat,” he says.
Vincent fully wakes up, and Cat tries to reassure him that he is home and safe, but he is confused and does not recognize her or JT. She tries to keep questioning him, and he attempts to leave. JT shows him a photo from 11 years earlier to try to jog his memory, but Vincent is silent. Cat has to leave for the tribute, and JT encourages her to go and says that he won’t let Vincent leave.
Muirfield
Reynolds gets an angry phone call from the man who was interrogating Vincent, claiming he was ambushed. Reynolds says that maybe it’s time to shut Muirfield down, and the man — Zhao — is angered, stating he is Muirfield, and that “If I go down, you go down too.” He says the FBI came to him 15 years prior about the project, and he threatens to go to the press if Reynolds tries to shut him down. He wants Vincent back, and soon. In a conversation, Reynolds reveals that they were the ones to set Zhao up, and that they have to get Vincent to go after him again.
A Tribute to Cat’s Father
Cat hurries into the tribute for her father, where she is greeted by Heather. She asks her sister what she has been trying to tell her, but Heather can’t bring herself to tell Cat the truth about her parentage, as revealed in season 1. Cat is unfocused, and she goes out to the balcony, where Bob Reynolds introduces himself to her. They talk about their work, and Cat says that she’s been working on a missing persons case, which he says he believes to sometimes be the most heartbreaking; she can obviously relate.
He tells her his father was always worried about her, and she quips, “Fathers never think anybody’s good enough for their daughters,” which is interesting given who she is speaking with. She leaves, and Reynolds makes a phone call: he knows where to find Vincent.
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Does Vincent Remember?
Back with JT and Vincent, Vincent is asking him about their place, and he clearly doesn’t remember their life there together, which is so very unfortunate for their bromance! And it’s just that, he confirms to Vincent — nothing more — despite it only being the two of them living there. He then asks about Cat, and JT confirms that their relationship, on the other hand, is “borderline epic,” and that they are very close. JT is convinced Vincent must remember some things, but Vincent makes him stop asking questions.
And when he receives a mysterious phone call, Vincent says he has to go, but JT tries to stop him by threatening to shoot him again. Vincent assesses him and grins, but we are taken back to the tribute before we see what happens next.
Old vs. New
Back at the tribute, Cat receives a phone call in the middle of the ceremony, and it’s from JT. He was shot by a tranquilizer dart, and just as she tries to get further information out of him, he collapses.
Cat leaves the tribute as she’s about to make a speech and goes to him. She is shocked that Vincent would shoot JT, but he claims that while the old Vincent wouldn’t, that man is gone, and he doesn’t remember anything: about either of them, college, his childhood, any of it. But Cat isn’t willing to give up just yet, and she leaves to run surveillance.
Tess is Tired of It All
Gabe is trying to match up the surveillance photos of the man who escaped the shipyard when Tess comes into his office. He shows her a photo and says that the man doesn’t exist in any databases and is totally off the grid. She asks what he is doing, and when he says it’s a case Cat is working on regarding Vincent, she blows it off. He questions whether Tess even cares, and she says that she does about Cat but isn’t so sure about Vincent. She wishes she never knew about any of it, but he insists that she’s meant to help.
Just then, the computer finds a match for the man in the photo: Li Zhao, the geneticist Gabe tried to find when he first began looking for a cure. As it turns out, Vincent is going after the man who turned him into a beast.
The New Vincent
Speaking of Vincent, he converses over the phone with the guy who called back at his and JT’s place, a man named Condor. He reports that he let Zhao think that’d he’d caught him, but then he was distracted by Cat. He asks about her, and the man says that she isn’t important and to not lose focus over her. Condor is shown to be Agent Reynolds, and he gives Vincent orders to eliminate Zhao.
Vincent goes to track Zhao down, but Cat has done a little tracking of her own and follows him. She has no idea how he is tracking Zhao the way he is, but according to JT, it seems that while Vincent may have lost his memory, he gained some new abilities in exchange.
He eventually seems to notice that she is following him and he turns to look towards her just as she hides, so he continues his search for Zhao. I don’t know how he wouldn’t have noticed her following him all that time if he has such heightened senses now, but I’ll suspend my disbelief this time.
Meant to Be
Cat’s search takes her to a building where she finds a body in an elevator. In an instant, the scene changes to Zhao and Vincent, and Zhao is demanding to know who changed him as Vincent comes after him. Cat arrives, her gun drawn, and she and Zhao fight briefly before she knocks him down and goes looking for Vincent. Zhao finds a gas mask, as the air in the room is becoming dangerous to breathe, but when Vincent finds him, the gas being released is the least of his worries.
Cat calls for Vincent as Zhao is asking who sent him, and Vincent’s focus is split between the two. Just as the room starts to catch fire, he makes his choice: Cat, as always. He jumps out a window with her as the room explodes, and when they land, Cat smiles and tells him that they met when he saved her, that they are meant to be, whether he remembers that or not.
Falling in Love All Over Again
After a press conference about the explosion, Reynolds is informed that Zhao managed to escape again. With him alive, Muirfield is never totally destroyed. He has to hope that Vincent will “follow orders” and that that will take care of their Zhao problem. Vincent, meanwhile, is being tended to by Cat, who says it’s unfortunate that he can no longer heal himself. He apologizes for not remembering anything, but she truly believes that he will. And in the meantime, she says, “We get to fall in love with each other all over again.”
He believes her about their relationship, but he is hiding something, and when she asks him about it, he moves to leave. She begs him not to go, and to explain why whoever hurt him won’t just let him be. He claims that he doesn’t know and that he cannot tell her anything more. She settles for that and says that what’s important is that he’s back and Muirfield is gone, that they will go after Zhao, but not then. She again asks him to stay, and they share a kiss.
Just then, Heather texts Cat asking if she’s okay, which seems to be the breaking point for her. She starts crying, clinging to Vincent for comfort, and tells him, “I lost so much. I can’t lose you again too.”
The Murder of Zhao
Cat wakes up to a phone call: it’s Tess, asking where Vincent is. Cat looks over and he is not on the other side of the bed as expected, so she rushes to the crime scene Tess called from. The crime? Murder. The victim? Li Zhao, who was mauled to death.
Do you think Vincent murdered Zhao? Just how different is he after his mysterious three-month disappearance? Tune in to Beauty and the Beast Mondays at 9pm on The CW to find out!
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(Image courtesy of The CW)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
