Beauty & the Beast 4x05 Recap: “It’s a Wonderful Beast” (Hallucinations) [Guest Poster: Bibi]

“It’s a Wonderful Beast”

Original Airdate: June 30, 2016

In this week’s episode, we begin with Vincent sleeping and in extreme pain after last week’s gunshot wound. He senses an intruder and he and Cat apprehend the assassin before they are harmed by him. After a brief interrogation in which Vincent learns the hitman knows nothing, he pours his heart out to Cat. He's not sure why she's with him and the guilt of constantly putting her in danger keeps eating away at him. He works himself up so much that his physical pain starts to get worse. Cat picks up her phone to call a doctor and realizes that she just received a group text from Vincent: a set-up. She races to the café to meet Tess and J.T. when shots are fired. Vincent falls off a building and when Cat finds him, she rushes him into the café with Tess and J.T. The four of them don't know who is after them and Vincent’s condition worsens and he starts to beast out unexpectedly.

When J.T. volunteers to go back to their apartment to get antibiotics out of Vincent’s medical bag, Vincent slips into a lucid state. In his state, he goes back to the Muirfield times. We see Vincent just coming down from beast form, scar and all, and J.T. rushing to take him to their former lair. Vincent — being out of his current sound mind and in the past — is trying to explain the future to J.T. and that they've already solved the Muirfield and beasting out issues.

When he can't get through to J.T., he looks for Cat. He tracks her and finds her but soon realizes that neither she nor Tess know who he is. He is stunned to find Evan alive and married to Cat. J.T. helps him out of an awkward situation and Vincent explains everything to J.T. In present day, Vincent is slipping more and more and the antibiotics J.T. administered aren't working.

Back in the past, Vincent tries to approach Cat once more to get her to believe that he is telling the truth. He reminds her of her past, but instead of believing him, she punches him. Not sure how well Vincent thought this would go being that he is a stranger and showed up on the terrace/roof of her apartment. Any normal person would've thought he was a stalker. So what does Vincent do when he can't get through to her? He tracks down her very-much-alive father, Agent Reynolds, and tries to convince him to help. Meanwhile, Cat is intrigued by what Vincent says and does a facial recognition search on him. Naturally, she never sees the results, but her husband does and contacts Muirfield directly.

By the time Agent Reynolds is partially on board with Vincent’s plan, Cat is kidnapped by Muirfield in an attempt to lure Vincent out. This is all Evan’s fault for alerting them to begin with, of course. So Vincent and Evan have a heart-to-heart about Cat, which is how we know this is definitely a dream sequence. I miss Evan from season one, but we all know that in every planet, and through alternate timelines, Vincent and Cat are destined and better together. (I mean, The Flash/#WestAllen feels, anyone?). Evan dies — again — and we don't even get to see Cat realize this. She, instead, finds Vincent and learns that he saved her the night her mom was killed and is immediately okay leaving with him. As they are fighting for their lives, Vincent realizes that everything he is experiencing is a dream and comes back to reality. Vincent, happy to be back, agrees to lay low and apologizes to Cat for the guilt trip. She, in turn, reminds him that they are a team and always will be.

Meanwhile, J.T. and Tess realize that the beast bounty hunter and the assassins after the four of them, are two separate threats. They need protection and Deputy Secretary Hill and DHS are really the only ones who can provide it.  I’ll be honest, this was my favorite episode of season four yet! It was nice to have a real threat clearly defined. Now, they're changing the game with two threats, but the intention behind isn't still yet clear (which makes me less involved than usual).

So what did you think of the episode? Anyone else know that a J.T. and Tess reunion is likely just around the corner with all the hints Vincent was dropping to past J.T.? Do you get the feeling that someone will die before the series finale?  Who could possibly want the entire crew killed?

Share your thoughts below!