Beauty and the Beast – Monsieur Et Madame Bete

By: Stacy Miller

Beauty and the Beast returned for its final season with a premiere episode that touched on the question of whether Catherine and Vincent could have a normal life. In Paris, the new Dr. and Mrs. Vincent Keller spend their honeymoon in each other’s arms instead of touring the City of Love. “We really should see Paris,” Vincent (Jay Ryan) says to his wife, but Catherine (Kristin Kreuk) is just fine staying in their hotel room.

Meanwhile, Professor JT Forbes (Austin Basis) is giving a lecture when one of his students brings up the theory floating around about the existence of beasts due to blogger Peter Duncan’s posts. JT rushes to tell Tess (Nina Lisandrello) about this latest development. He is worried about Catherine and Vincent if Vincent is discovered as a beast. But Tess thinks that JT is worrying too much.

In Paris, Catherine and Vincent finally leave their hotel room and go for a romantic bicycle ride. Suddenly, Vincent accelerates which throws Catherine right off the bike. The reason for his haste was because Vincent noticed a car accident. He rushes to save the people inside, briefly revealing his beast nature. Catherine is concerned that the man Vincent rescued caught a glimpse of Vincent as a beast, especially when they are questioned by the French police. Luckily, everything appears to be okay.

After JT sees Peter’s blog, he enlists Heather’s (Nicole Gale Anderson) help since she has a background in PR and would best know how to handle a media situation. The two decide to go on a breaking and entering expedition to the blogger’s home. According to Heather, since people believe most of everything they read, if they can somehow make Peter look bad online, maybe people will discount his blogs. The pairing of JT and Heather as partners-in-crime is perfect as these two characters balance each other as much as any other pairing on the show, except there’s no romance between the them to interfere with the task at hand.

But apparently, JT and Heather aren’t the only ones breaking and entering. A killer (Peter Wingfield) is also in the apartment. He has murdered Peter and attacks JT and Heather. In the attack, Heather ends up getting hurt! Catherine receives a call from JT about Heather’s accident. “I guess the honeymoon’s over,” Vincent says. Fortunately, Heather is not badly injured and the paramedic who treated her, Kyle Johnson, (Michael Roark) seems to take a non-professional interest in her.

Tess arrives at the hospital and immediately lays into JT for endangering Heather with the breaking and entering scheme. She asks both JT and Heather whether they like the dangers involved with the whole beast stuff. They both deny it, but not convincingly. Later, JT meets Catherine and Vincent at the airport. Catherine is relieved when JT tells her that Heather is going to be okay and will be released from the hospital. Her worries about Vincent’s beast exposure kicks in again when JT fills them in on the blogger and how he was killed by the assassin who attacked Heather and him. Catherine realizes that they have to find this man and stop him.

Catherine and Vincent return back to her apartment. When they hear Heather’s screams coming from the bedroom, they burst through the door to find her in bed with Kyle! Totally embarrassing and awkward moment. Vincent knows Kyle from the hospital, but Catherine can’t believe that Heather jumped into bed with a guy she has only known for a day. But they have more pressing things to be concerned about other than Heather’s love life, namely the deadly killer on the loose.

So, Vincent and JT search for clues together while Catherine joins Tess on the unofficial investigation. They track the killer at Agent Russo’s, but before they can bring him in he escapes. Unfortunately, he now seems to be targeting Catherine. Later, Catherine and Vincent are outside searching for the killer when Vincent turns around and Catherine is gone!

Tess continues to question JT about why he is drawn to the beast danger instead of wanting a normal, quiet life. JT admits he wants to be a part of something bigger to make a difference. Vincent interrupts and tells them that he lost Catherine in the crowd. He laments that his skills are rusty because he hasn’t done this in a while. Vincent spots the knife that the killer used and gets a vision. “This guy’s not just a hitman, he’s a hunter,” he says. The man is also a poacher. Because of this, Vincent fears that Catherine will become the next trophy on the man’s wall! JT is able to use facial recognition software to help identify and locate the killer. Vincent is on his way to save his wife.

Meanwhile, Catherine is tied up and insists to the killer that she doesn’t know anything about beasts. But because Catherine is no shrinking violet, she manages to do an awesome Xena backflip over the beam she’s bound to and unties her hands. The killer shoots at her, but misses. They fight and he overpowers her. Suddenly, Vincent appears in full beast mode. The killer is shocked, gets impaled and dies.

At the precinct, Catherine gives Tess her official report, which of course, omits beast related details. But they did stop a poacher and his wildlife smuggling operation and Vincent’s secret is still safe…for now. Tess comes to see JT and accepts the fact that as long as Vincent could possibly be in danger there’s no way he will stop trying to help his friend.

Romantic that he is, Vincent has brought their honeymoon to the roof as he has recreated a Paris cafe. Catherine is still worried that Vincent will be exposed and wishes there was some way they could just live like a normal married couple. Vincent reminds that there will always be something to stop. But in the meantime, “For better or worse.”

Catherine and Vincent’s love will help them conquer any danger as the rollercoaster of beast intrigue continues this season.