Beauty and the Beast (1987) S1 E17

## Plot

The episode starts with Vincent having a nightmare about a forest. The next morning, Catherine's day is off to a bad start. She tries to make herself toast, but ends up burning it, and based on her facial expression, her coffee isn't great either. Just as she's leaving her apartment, she falls when the heel of one of her shoes breaks off, even though she just bought them yesterday. You know a whole firm of corporate lawyers, sue 'em. Or just return them if you still have the receipt. I love the little growl that she does at the end of the scene. That's definitely me. It doesn't get any better at work, when Marcy O'Neill, a battered wife, refuses her and Joe's pleas to not pay her abusive husband's bail, so they can keep him locked up until a trial, and he can't hurt her. Like other abused women, she honestly believed him when he said he'd never do it again. She leaves, and Catherine has a call from a friend of hers named Jenny Aronson. The two haven't spoken in forever. Jenny is calling because a man named Steven Bass called her five minutes ago. He's in the city, and he's asking how to get in touch with Cathy. Jenny gave him her home number before realizing that she probably shouldn't have. Jenny tells Catherine that she doesn't have to call him back. She doesn't owe him anything. He's staying at the Huntington. That night, she goes through her messages and hears a long one from Steven. It turns out that they used to be engaged, but he was arguably emotionally abusive and manipulative towards her after awhile, so she broke it off and left, which explains why she cares so much about cases involving abused women, beyond having basic decency and empathy. That could've been her if she had stayed. The last step in an abusive relationship is killing the partner. Steven has to talk to her about something important. Vincent reads the poem Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coolridge to the children before they go to bed. One of the lines is where the title of this episode comes from. However, he gets a vision of the forest from his nightmare. Steven meets Catherine in her apartment. They haven't seen each other in five years. He asks if there's someone in her life and if she loves him, and she says she does. Steven blames himself for causing all the misery in his life, like her leaving him, and getting into a drunk driving accident that killed his parents and sent him to jail for six months. He's spent the last five years trying to get his life together. However, he's been diagnosed with a terminal degenerative brain tumor. He has six months to live, and Catherine is the closest thing he has to a friend. She's the most important person in his life. He appears to be rich, since he buys a $3,000 piece of jewelry like it's nothing. When he's mugged on the way back to his hotel, he asks to at least keep his ID, but the muggers yell at him. He begs them not to open his briefcase, and flies into a rage, knocking them both out, or maybe even killing them. The briefcase was full of photos of Catherine. That's creepy, but this never really comes up again. I think stories like this one, China Moon, and A Children's Story would benefit from at least a few extra scenes to tie up loose ends. Catherine tells Vincent about Steven. She still feels an obligation towards him, possibly because of his illness, or the intimacy they used to have. Vincent gets another vision and tells Catherine about it. She's never seen him look fearful before. She's not scared of Steven coming back into her life, just curious about the road not taken, and guilty, because she knows she hurt him. The last time she saw him was when they were arguing after she broke off the engagement. For some reason, he believed her that day. He buys a house in the country. Vincent tells Father about his vision. It's not quite like the empathtic bond that he and Catherine share, but it happens every time he thinks of her. A powerful image and a sense of foreboding. Basically, he can see into the future now, because prophetic powers, but I don't know if this ever happens again. He says it's not like when Catherine started falling in love with Elliot, but Father thinks that the source of the feelings is Vincent himself. Steven is someone that Catherine shared the dreams of a life together. A life that she and Vincent can never have. It doesn't explain the vision, but Father speculates that it's not a threat to Catherine herself, but that Vincent feels threatened by Steven, who may win her back. Speaking of which, they're reminiscing over their college days, and Catherine tells him that she's not bitter about their relationship. She's always thought of it as a very important part of her life. She did a lot of growing. He invites her out for the next night, and she accepts. Steven heads into an antiques store to pick up an order that he paid for in advance, but the man he talked to about his order is out sick. Another man leads him to an antique stove, but he gets angry when he sees that it's black and not red like he requested. He ominously says that everything depends on him getting a red stove by tomorrow. I'm surprised that the man he talked to didn't call the police due to how angry and insane he sounded, but I guess retail workers like myself deal with worse things everyday. He's like a 1980s male version of a Karen. Marcy O'Neill stabbed her husband. He's in critical condition. It's 50/50 whether he'll survive or not. He didn't even wait for the old bruises to go away. He just kept beating her for no reason. Marcy felt like she was drowning and couldn't breathe, and the knife was right there on the counter. Catherine talks to her. She doesn't know if she'll go to prison or not. She uses a payphone to call Steven, and he says he has to cancel their evening out tonight, since he's not feeling well. It's nothing serious, but Catherine decides to see him in his hotel room later anyways. Before she does though, she talks to Vincent about his vision again. She's frustrated at him because he can't tell her anything more, like why or from whom, but he doesn't know either. All he knows for sure is that she's in danger. He doesn't want her to see Steven, but she says that she's his friend, he's dying, and she owes him her trust at the very least. She's all he has. Why do the writers make characters act stupid for the sake of a plot that isn't even very good? Steven just forgot to take his medication. I was surprised that she doesn't question why he's bought a house when he's only expected to live for six more months. And then I watched the episode again, and it turns out that he told her that he's just thinking of buying a house, and invites her to see it with him. It's still weird though. It's never revealed if he lied about his condition in order to get close to her again. I'm willing to bet that he lied about not feeling well though, in order to get more time to get the antique stove. Speaking of which, when they were together, they talked about having a country house, with a red potbelly stove in the kitchen. When they see the house, Steven reveals that he already bought it as a surprise for her. Again, that is highly suspicious! He even says it's like there's no one else around for a hundred miles. She doesn't remember talking about any of this. It finally hits her that something is wrong when she sees that Steven bought her a closet full of clothes and he invites her to stay here with him. However, instead of immediately running like a bat out of hell, she just tells him that he's making her uncomfortable and she wants him to take her home. She'll be waiting in the car. When she tries to leave though, all the doors are locked. Before she can open a window and leave, Steven grabs her and knocks her out, and Vincent starts running there. At night several hours later, Steven has put Catherine in a dress and tied her to a chair in the dining room so they can eat dinner. In case you're even more clueless than her and haven't realized it by now, Steven is fucking insane. It turns out that Vincent's future vision was of him running through the woods towards the house. Well, that was appropriately underwhelming. Admittedly, seeing Catherine escape and jump through a glass window or doorway is pretty cool. Steven runs after her and catches up to her. Vincent saves her, but before he can kill Steven, Catherine tells him not to. It's over. He's put away somewhere. They won't let Catherine see him. She apologizes to Vincent for yelling at him when it turned out that he was right. She thought he was just feeling betrayed. She forgot how much he trusts her. She should've trusted him. He knew because somewhere deep down, she knew too. Okay, but that's not the cause of the vision, or at least the sole cause, since he had that nightmare before Catherine even knew that Steven was in town and trying to get in touch with her. And then the episode just… ends. Not even the score was good or memorable, except the classic love theme that briefly showed up at the end.