Beauty and the Beast - 2.11 - Held Hostage - Review: Life is a grindstone

'Life is a grindstone. But whether it grinds us down or polishes us up depends on us.’
In case you missed it, we had another successful trend last week. But we fell of the Get Glue chart and didn’t make it onto Trendrr’s Top 10 list. I want to encourage all of you to post at least once daily on the official Beauty and the Beast page from here on out as well. The activity is now being officially monitored.

I love that we Beasties are mobilizing, learning how to supercharge our presence in social media, winning polls and roaring loud for a season 3. Keep up the great work!

I have a pretty cool idea to gets a sponsor and it can be found here! I hope to see a lot of familiar screen names participating in that project.

Friendly Reminders

Don’t forget to live tweet with the show (@cwbatb) every Monday night at 9 PM EST/8PM Central on The CW.
Trend events begin at 6 PM EST and end around 1 AM EST.
The official hashtag according to Nielsen and Trendrr is STILL #BATB.
Also remember to only use two hashtags in your tweets, otherwise it is filtered out as spam.


Now on to your regularly scheduled recap and review…

Synopsis: CAT, TORI AND TESS ARE TAKEN HOSTAGE — A group of criminals looking to steal a rare necklace in Tori’s (guest star Amber Skye Noyes) possession takes Cat (Kristin Kreuk), Tori and Tess (Nina Lisandrello) hostage at the precinct, leaving Vincent (Jay Ryan) as their only hope for help. Vincent is forced to make a decision since helping could reveal his true identity to the entire force.

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This week’s episode was written by Pamela Sue Anton. What a great first outing, you go Pammy Sue. In the director’s chair was Sudz Sutherland. Sudz is a newcomer and fit right in. If I hadn’t looked I would have thought one of regulars was directing. Sudz fits right in, welcome to the Fanmily!

Agent Landon - Agent Landon trying to profile Tess in an extreme situation such as the one they were in came across as highly callous. Makes me think she knew she was getting out alive. There is something fishy going on and all outsiders are highly questionable at this point.

Cat – The writers finally get it. Cat doesn’t need to be jumping from man to man. She needs to get back in touch with herself. She needs time and space to figure things out. It has finally been verbalized on the show and I am so thankful. I know it won’t stick but I’m just going to bask in the glow until they burst my bubble.

Gabe – I’ve seen a theory floating around that Gabe is really not that into Cat. I chalked it up to everyone loathing the pairing that is Gatherine/Gat. Not to mention that I just never feel any sexual chemistry between the two ever, personally. But I’m starting to come around to believe that Gabe is seducing Cat for nefarious purposes. All of his actions in this episode are highly questionable.

Tess – As much as Nina killed it in this episode, the character of Tess was out of character. I just can’t see Tess confessing like that. Tess had a pretty sucky birthday, I guess we can’t all have it like Cat in episode 1x05: Saturn Returns, which is a shame because this season could use a whole lot more fun.

Tori – Oh boy, did the claws come out! I’m not a fan of Bratty!Tori. I just wish they could have given us a competent and in control she-beast. Tori is the worst beast ever. I could forgive her is she was younger but supposedly she is around Cat’s age, so no pass for her. She’s so obsessed with Vincent that all her critical thinking skills go right out the window. I predict that will be her downfall.

Vincent – There’s the hero that I missed so dearly. I really like that Vincent decided to save those people on his own. Although, I’m pretty sure Cat’s first pep talk was still lingering in his ear. This episode is very interesting because we got to see Vincent interact with everyone, an event that rarely occurs. I liked seeing him put Cat and Gabe in their places and calling them out. I like that Tess got to share a tender moment with Vincent for a change.

VinCat – Don’t hate me shippers. Y’all know I love me some VinCat but I did feel they got together way too soon in season 1. They only that excited about VinCat being separated this season was them being able to fall in love all over again and at a slower pace. Now we even have the potential bonus of Cat and Vincent actually being able to go out on REAL dates; although, the rooftop is fine by me. I loved their interactions in the episode because it was one that came without fear of someone’s feelings being hurt or someone getting upset and walking away. They could just talk and truly express what was going on, respectively.

Grade: B+

Awards

Character of the Night

Vincent is my character of the night. This script really let Jay Ryan convey Vincent’s frame of mind; something that has not been externalized fully this whole entire season. I’m still miffed at his callous actions but I can actually see the road to redemption now. Thank goodness.


Best Character Interactions

Cat and Tori – I wish they didn’t have to be enemies and Tori could have served as a kid sister because whenever these two are together, I can help but laugh (not sure if that’s what the writers were going for). The contentious relationship was a highlight of the episode for me.

Cat and Vincent - I’m sorry but every single time they’re on screen together, the body language speaks louder than actual words coming out of their mouths. Cat got to say her piece and Vincent finally got to say what we’ve all been thinking. It still doesn’t make all his bad decisions OK but at least he was allowed to voice his side of the narrative.

Favorite Moments

1. Tori goes all ‘Little Miss Glowy Eyes’ on Cat
2. Tori tosses the guard out of the interrogation room’s window.
3. Tess hugs Vincent.
4. Gabe doesn’t let Cat kiss him.
5. Vincent casually checking out the blueprints.
6. Tess trying to explain away the crazy and impossible situation that just occurred to Agent Landon.

Favorite Lines

1. Gabe: Cat, THE GUN?
2. Vincent: Or what? You'll shoot her as well?
3. Cat (to Tori): I hate and you and Vincent don't stand a chance.

Favorite Scenes

1. Cat apologizing to Vincent and saying SHE will protect him.
2. Vincent finally saying how Cat’s whole family has wronged him.
3. Vincent explaining to Gabe why he doesn’t trust any of them.
4. Cat kicking Tori’s butt.
5. Vincent kicking the bad guys’ butts.
6. Cat realizing that Vincent didn’t hear her and decided to save everyone on his own accord.

Burning Questions

1. How the hell does the gem work?
2. What the hell was JT doing while all of this was going on?
3. Does JT even work at that college anymore?

Theory
• Agent Dana Landon is not who or what we think she is. Something is highly suspicious about the character. I hope I’m wrong, I love Elisabeth Rohm.
• Gabe is still the villain, he’s the one behind all of this.

Repeated Elements
• Being all in.
• Things being unresolved.

Theme
• Old habits die hard.

Grievances List
• Tess confesses to Agent Landon, she’s a cop who is constant danger, didn’t ring true for me.
• Another bad guy who is a million steps ahead of Team Beastie, that will probably be revealed at the end of the season on another cliffhanger. [Insert eye roll here.]
• Cat, Gabe and Tess are awful liars.
• Turns out Vincent isn’t the brightest bulb in the box, he plan for the necklace was stupid and reckless.
• Heather hasn’t called Cat out on her Vincent Zalanski story. I’m going to need that phone call before the season is over.
• Tori’s naïveté borderlines on sheer stupidity.
• Gabe’s thirsty behind not going in for the kiss. Uh-huh, like that is believable.
• No, JT, again, they didn’t even mention inviting him to Tess’s birthday party. Really?

WTF Moments
• Did they really have to kill old man Freddy?
• Another set of bumbling low level bad guys. Bad Bio Dad, you are sorely missed.
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Polls
Last Poll Results - BatB Great Debate #10 – Do you think the character of Vincent is still worth rooting for? 65% of you say yes!

This Week’s Poll – BATB Great Debate #11 – Do think Agent Landon will turn out to be evil?

Make sure you vote and comment on this week’s Best Scene Poll as well.

Ongoing Beastie Challenge – Keep BATB in the top 10 favorite shows at all times here on Spoiler TV. All you have to do is like, tweet, and Google +1 any and all BATB related posts as well as commenting and up voting each other’s comments. This is a really huge site that gets a lot of traffic and one of the best places to recruit new beasties. If we are constantly putting our show in the spotlight, some are bound to tune in to see what the fuss is all about.

#Save BATB – National Exposure – Talk Show Appearances
I have a Beastie fandom challenge coming up. One by one will get the cast of BATB on at least 5 different talk shows before the show returns in May to get the word out. First up, the Wendy Williams show. The show airs in over 50 countries, she loves to root for an underdog and the demographics of her show fit ours to a T. The campaign info will be posted tomorrow (01/29/2014), so don’t forget to check out my blog, first thing in the morning.

Shameless Self–Promotion
The DVMPE’s Beauty and the Beast Podcast
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