Beauty and the Beast (1987) S1 E15

## Plot

The episode presumably starts a little while before April 12th, 1987. It's been one year since the first half of the pilot episode. So, the second half of the pilot and these next fourteen episodes all took place within four months? Except that's not possible because of the placement of the Halloween episode, but whatever. The surgeon that operated on Catherine, Dr. Sanderle, is examining her face. It's healed very well, with no loss of feeling or lingering pain anywhere. She still has a scar by her left ear, which gave the medical team a lot of trouble. They can remove it now, but Catherine doesn't want to. She explains that she's gotten used to it, and this past year has been the most wonderful year of her life. She and Joe report to the other Deputy District Attorney, Harold Levinson, but he doesn't want to go forward with the money laundering mob case unless they have more evidence that decisively tips the scales in their favor. Catherine is working on one last possibility, but Joe is frustrated and says you can follow the trail. Philip Taylor is being represented by Evan Brannigan, played by Milo O'Shea. Harold wants the case to be airtight before they present it, because going up against Brannigan will be war. As they leave, he tells them that Moreno is expecting them both at the mayor's reception that night. Joe asks Catherine if she has a date for it, and she asks him the same thing, but neither answers. They really thought they had this case wrapped up. Meanwhile, Father shows Vincent Mouse's diagrams for his latest project: A ventilation system for the deepest chambers. It's a brilliant concept, but impossible to execute. Still, even da Vinci had his off days. Father notes that Vincent seems ready for a journey. Narcissa has told him of a wondrous place called the Crystal Cavern. He doesn't expect to return until tomorrow afternoon. He's looking for a gift for Catherine. It's been a year since they first met. Father used to rue the day the two of them met. He never dreamed that he'd look upon Catherine with the fondness he does now. Vincent says it's been the most miraculous year of his life. They share something that touches the best in everyone. Father thinks that the Crystal Cavern is just a tall tale, but he gives Vincent a book as he leaves and wishes him a safe journey. Catherine is dressed up for the mayor's reception, and is holding a white rose in her apartment. She and Joe couldn't get dates. Joe hates parties like this. He feels like a head waiter in a tux. Everyone is dressed up to impress strangers that they don't know, and don't want to know. Catherine heads over to Moreno and the mayor, but before she does, Joe tells her that she looks gorgeous. He immediately falls head over heels in love with a woman in a red dress named Erica Salven. She's an attorney as well. Catherine sees them slow dancing. Another thing I love about Vincent and Catherine's romance compared to literally all other couples in the history of fiction, and possibly even the real world, except maybe Goliath and Elisa Maza from *Gargoyles*? Vincent never saw Catherine until after she was attacked, and he didn't know what she originally looked like until he saw her again eight months later. He fell in love with her anyways. Seriously, why can't men like him be real? And if they are, could one of them please cross paths with me? In case you haven't noticed it already, I have a type. Joe cracks jokes a lot, and says that no one pays him enough to be serious. Erica assumes that Catherine is his date, and says she's very beautiful. She asks him if dancing with her is going to make Cathy jealous. Joe clarifies that they just work together. He considers her one of their top investigators. Erica claims that her date is very rich, and very boring. He probably doesn't even know she's gone. Catherine talks to a lawyer named Ted, who has dark hair and glasses, and congratulates him on getting a conviction. She agrees to dance with him. He knows who Erica Salven is, and says that Joe is fraternizing with the enemy. She works for Proctor and Brannigan. As Vincent starts a fire for the night, we see previous scenes of him and Catherine as he narrates and reads the book Father gave to him. It's a quote by Bohemian-Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke, from the book *Letters to a Young Poet*, which is a collection of ten letters from him to Franz Xaver Kappus, a 19 year old officer cadet at the Theresian Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt in northeast Austria. Yeah, I may love that this show doesn't talk down to its audience, but what it really means for me is that I usually have to use IMDb, Wikipedia, or poet.org to find additional information, like the name of the other Deputy D.A, since, while I got the first two letters of his first name off the door to his office when Joe closed it in the beginning of the episode, it was written backwards, and it was hard to make out, because this was long before HD cameras. Also, there aren't any subtitles, and it can be hard to hear what someone says or what they mean by it sometimes. It definitely feels like this show was built for fans of older, classical literature and poetry, which isn't the kind of thing I typically read unless it's for a school assignment. The next day, Catherine talks to Joe, who shaves the second he comes in. He stayed up all night, and didn't even change clothes. He left the party with Erica, and they walked all the way from the hotel to Battery Park. They talked about everything until the sun came up. Cathy tells him that Erica is with Proctor and Brannigan, also known as the people who represent Philip Taylor, the guy they're trying to build a case against so they can put him away. Joe points out that there are over a hundred attorneys at that office. She's probably never even heard of Taylor, but Catherine thinks he should at least ask. He could be looking at a conflict of interest, but he brushes it off. While having dinner with Erica, she says that she's heard of Philip Taylor, since he's one of their firm's major clients, but she's never dealt with him. She's in the corporate division. While she's at work, she gets flowers from Joe, and Mr. Brannigan enters her office. She tells him about Joe. He grew up in Brooklyn. His family was poor. He graduated from Westfield Law School. He's smart, committed, and aggressive. He's pursuing the Taylor investigation like a personal crusade. Erica doesn't think he can be bought off. Brannigan wants her to slow him down. There's a lot riding on this. The trick to landing a game fish is setting the hook. They could make him a job offer. He visits Erica in her office. There's a rather sudden cut to them in a lavish hotel room, or it could be her swanky apartment, presumably after having some morning or afternoon love time, if you know what I mean. 1. Use protection/contraceptives. 2. You literally just met! I know one night stands are a thing, but still! Joe says he never wants to leave, so Erica tries to get him to take the rest of the day off, but he says he has to go back. She tells him that the recruiters at her firm have been looking at him. He says they shouldn't be talking about this, and she claims that she just wanted to let him know that he has other options. She's sure they're not the only firm interested in him. At work, Catherine tries to talk to him about a deposition that could be the metaphorical nail in Taylor's coffin, but he hasn't gotten to it yet. He apologizes and says he has a lot on his mind. She reminds him that this has been top priority for months, and asks him what else has been going on. He promises to read the deposition that night, but she wants him to read it right away. He agrees, but he has a lot of personal stuff to think about. She's happy for him. It's great to be in love, but he can't just drop everything else. He's lost his edge ever since he started seeing Erica. He thinks she's accusing him of backing off the Taylor case. She tells him that she's accusing him of acting like a love struck teenager and leaves his office in a huff. Vincent finds the Crystal Cavern, which lives up to its name, and then some. Cathy finds Joe playing ball with a janitor named Franklin, who decides to get back to work and leaves. She apologizes to Joe for what she said earlier. It was out of line, but he says she was right, and tells her that it looks like Proctor and Brannigan is going to offer him a job. He's been working at the D.A's Office for five years, waiting for a chance like this. Erica told him it was happening. Catherine asks him if this is really what he wants. He busted his butt to put himself through Westfield, but the big firms don't recruit from there, so he came to the D.A's to make a name for himself. Now he has, and someone is interested. Catherine says she's happy for him, and asks how this affects the Taylor investigation. He has to pull out, or there would be a conflict of interest. Cathy tells him that he's worked too hard, and if he pulls out, they'll lose all their momentum. If Proctor and Brannigan is really interested in him, then they'll wait until after the case is resolved. That could take months, or longer, and he's not sure he wants to wait. This gives Brannigan everything he wants: More time, and a neutralized opponent. Catherine asks him if it's about the money, and he says he doesn't want to be working in a small office in a busy, loud place and drinking bad coffee out of Styrofoam cups when he's 50. She hopes he knows that she cares about him, and only wants what's best for him, but this just doesn't feel like him. He's worth more than this. At another dinner with Erica, she asks him if he wants to go with her to the ballet tomorrow night. He doesn't think they should see each other while the Taylor case is pending. He took a hard look at it, and there are things about it that just don't feel right to him. She says his integrity is part of what makes him so attractive, but he's overreacting. She doesn't work in the same division, and he hasn't officially been offered a job, but if he even thinks they're going to, there's a conflict. She accuses him of using this as an excuse for something else, like his fear of being involved with her. After he drops her off at her hotel or apartment, a police car pulls out of an alley and follows him. They pull him over and act aggressively towards him. They apologize when they confirm his identity, claiming that his car matches a suspect's. However, they then "find" narcotics hidden under the floorboard, and place him under arrest. Either those fucking pigs planted it themselves, or Erica did. Catherine learns about it the next day when she sees it in the paper. She tells Harold that it's a set-up, which he knows, but Joe has to stay on the sidelines until they can clear it up… which is why Moreno is putting her on it. She talks to Joe at his apartment. Everything about the arrest was bogus, and the charges will be dropped by the end of the day, but he tells her that the damage has been done. The headline will be all that people remember. He'll just be another rat who beat the system on a technicality. He's too valuable for Moreno to abandon him, but he'll be shuffling papers instead of trying cases. Lawyers with scandals don't fare too well with juries. He knows that Erica played him. He thanks Catherine, but tells her to drop it. She tells him to trust her on this one. She visits Erica in her office, but it obviously doesn't go well. Vincent visits Mouse and gives him one of the crystals from the cavern. He agrees to help make a necklace for Catherine. He asks Vincent what it's like to have a love. People have been searching for the words for centuries. He thinks that it must be something very different for each person. For him, it was the beginning of a new life, and the end of his aloneness. Meanwhile, Cathy seems to be sewing a bag. Brannigan visits Erica after learning that Catherine saw her, and tells her to hang tough. She doesn't think there was any need to plant drugs in Joe's car. Brannigan tells her that it could be dangerous if she confused her loyalties. There's no room for weakness. She calls Catherine and agrees to talk to her. However, she's worried that someone is waiting for her, and is too scared to leave her office. She doesn't think it would be a good idea to call the police, at least not until she's talked to Cathy first, who tells her to lock her door. A guard tells her that the building is closed, but he lets her head up when he confirms that she's with the D.A.'s office, and that she's meeting with Salven. Erica lets her into her office. She thought someone was following her when she tried to leave. She honestly didn't know anything about the drugs. She never thought it would go this far. Brannigan was afraid that Philip Taylor would be indicted. He wanted information on Joe and the case, so he asked for her help. He has an investigator that handles all of his confidential matters. His name is Cassut. He might have planted the drugs. When she confronted Brannigan about it, he made some veiled threats towards her. As they wait for the elevator, Catherine sees a shadow on a wall. When they leave, Cassut appears, and uses a walkie-talkie to tell the guard which car they're in. Said security guard has *a gun*. I am not okay with this. The car is empty. They got off on another floor and are running down the stairs, but the door is locked. They hear Cassut coming and take off their heels to be quiet. Unfortunately, Erica trips and hurts herself. They run into the guard, who tries to shoot them, but Catherine kicks him, which throws off his aim, and then she hits him. He falls down in between the space for the stairs, meaning he's definitely dead. Cassut catches up to them, but before he can shoot them, Vincent arrives and kills him. Erica didn't see him because she was too scared to look. Now the papers are reporting that Brannigan has been arrested. Joe comes back to work, and tells Catherine that they have a date with the grand jury in two weeks. When they take Taylor to trial, he'll carry the ball. He talks to Erica. After all this is behind them, they might take another shot at it. They do not. This was an… interesting episode. It was still very much the formulaic "case of the week", like most police procedurals and law shows, which is par for the course for CBS, but Vincent barely appeared in this episode, and it focused more on Joe than Catherine, especially for the first 2/3rds of it. I don't mind learning more about and focusing on other members of the cast besides the main duo, but it just doesn't make sense to me unless they do something interesting or character-driven with it. Catherine wears a dress and lights candles on her balcony, and Vincent appears. They first met a year ago tonight. Vincent tells her that she's remarkable for remembering such a dark time with light. It's a time for celebration. She found hope again that night. She found him. He gives her the crystal necklace. She gives him the bag she was sewing. Inside is the white rose she was holding early on in the episode. When she was little, she was terrified of the dark, and had a hard time falling asleep. Her mother gave her the rose, and told her to hold it and think of her whenever she was frightened, and know that wherever her mother was, she was thinking of her. Until Vincent came into her life, she forgot what it was like to know that there is someone thinking of her. Someone who knows who she is. Someone that she's connected to. The bag has a string attached to it, so it also works like a necklace. Every moment since that night, Vincent is reminded of what a gift life is. The episode ends as they hug each other.