Beauty and the Beast (1987) S1 E11

## Plot

At night, two cops walk out of a bar. One is very clearly drunk. He gets in his car, and the other cop shoots him three times, killing him. He chases after a girl who witnessed it, but she runs into a cop in uniform and gets away. She's a member of the World Below. Her name is Laura Williams, and she's deaf. She's very close with Vincent. Joe is getting ready for a press conference. They caught the man who killed Tony Perotta, the drunk cop. The killer's name is Curtis Jackson. Ballistics have confirmed that the handgun found in his car was the murder weapon. However, the man who killed the cop, Danny Yates, is still free, and is playing pool with two other cops at his house. Laine Keller, a cop who knew Tony for eight years, is pissed that Danny killed him, and the two almost get into a fight. The third man, Jack Davis, says Tony would've blown it for them. They framed Jackson for his murder. Laura tells Vincent that the police got the wrong man. Curtis Jackson is black, and she saw that the killer was a white man. Vincent tells Catherine about it. Laura came to them when she was very young. Her parents had abandoned her in the park because she was deaf, and a Helper brought her to them. She used to collect things like bells, alarm clocks, buzzers, etc. She would hold them up to her ears, trying to hear, but couldn't. She could feel the vibrations though. Vincent became her friend. Catherine asks if she can speak at all. Vincent says she speaks a beautiful language with her hands. He's fluent in American Sign Language. I wonder if his actor is too? They know what it might mean to have her come forward to tell everyone what she saw. She can't hear the tapping noises from the pipes that everyone uses to communicate, but she can feel the vibrations. Father doesn't want Laura to testify, saying that the mess isn't their's, and Laura belongs with them. Vincent says that someday, Laura will grow beyond them and want to venture out. Without her word, Catherine has no case, and an innocent man goes to prison, which should mean something to Father, given his past. Besides, the decision isn't up to them, it's up to Laura. Catherine interviews Curtis Jackson, and tells him in no uncertain terms that she thinks he's the scum of the earth, and if it were up to her, he'd be in prison for life, or even dead, for selling drugs to kids. He made some threats to Tony, but that was a long time ago, and he didn't mean it. He doesn't know how the murder weapon wound up in his car. Catherine talks to Laine, which Danny and Jack see. They learn that there's an eyewitness. Vincent and Father tell Laura that they all reach a time where they have to decide what their world means to them. They assure her that she's stronger than she thinks, and she can always return if she wants to. Vincent encourages her to learn, follow what her heart tells her is right, and go where she needs to go. Joe is pissed off at Cathy for questioning the case, and she tells him that there was a witness. He tells her to leave it alone, and she thinks he's worried about his career. In reality, it's personal for him, because his father was a cop. One day, two guys jumped him, took his watch and his gun, and slit his throat. They left him there to bleed to death… and they were only fourteen, the same age as Joe. There was no trial. No one was convicted. In her room, Laura tries to talk orally, but can't. Danny and Jack attack Catherine in her apartment. They know what they're doing though. It was dark, at night, and they wore gloves and disguises. Vincent arrives, and takes care of Catherine while she recovers. Aw, just like how their relationship first started! Sometime later, Laura leaves the World Below with Catherine. She says goodbye to Vincent. Aw! It's all just so sweet and beautiful and heartwarming! The one sign I knew for sure, with a hundred percent absolute certainty, is the one she made behind her back to Vincent: I love you. When I was little, my mom would sometimes make that gesture when she said I love you. Anyways, Vincent tells Laura that she should be proud of herself, and that sometimes, events beyond our control can show us what we've known all along. In the past year, he's felt a change in her, a need to see beyond the tunnels. They hug, and Vincent says he loves her too. Aw! I honestly cried when I first saw this. Laura stays with Catherine, who tells her that she's very brave for doing this. Catherine says she's not brave, and Laura asks why not. No one wants her on this case, but Laura says she does, tells her that she's beautiful, and teaches her how to say thank you in American Sign Language. Laura gives her statement to the police detective and Joe. Perotta being killed in his car isn't public knowledge yet, confirming that she's a legitimate witness. Afterwards, Catherine tells her that she did great, and tells her to wait in the police station while she takes a phone call. Danny approaches her, and she recognizes him. She only tries to run when he gets to her, but Jack grabs her. Catherine sees that she's gone, and doesn't see her anywhere outside the station. She tells Vincent what happened. She blames herself, but he says that the blame lies with the people who took Laura. He advises her to go to the police, but they don't know where to start looking. She could be anywhere. While walking Catherine back, Vincent hears a message from Pascal. Laura is being held in the basement of Danny's house. She's handcuffed to a pipe, and is banging on it in Morse code to tell someone below where she is. Danny wants to kill her and be done with it, but Laine doesn't want him to do it, since she's just a girl. She's only a few years older than their own kids. Pascal sent out an emergency all quiet signal so someone could hear Laura's message. She's in Brooklyn. Laine says if Danny kills Laura, it'll be on his hands, and tries to leave. Danny says he's not going anywhere, and Laine dares him to try and stop him. Danny raises the gun, but Jack tells him to forget it. Laine leaves, and the lights go out. Vincent presumably stabs and kills Danny with his claws, which causes him to shoot and presumably kill Jack. Joe apologizes to Catherine for the way he acted. She accepts the apology, and is glad that he told her about his father. Jackson is being released. Keller told them everything. He and the other guys were strapped for cash on a police officer's salary with all of their financial breadwinner responsibilities, so they were planning on selling meth that they took from drug busts that they did. Perotta got cold feet, so Yates killed him and framed Jackson. Joe asks Catherine where she found Laura, and she says she found her. Laura has decided to go above indefinitely, to find out who she is and what she wants. A Helper will take care of her until she's ready to live on her own. Vincent is a little worried about her, but Catherine thinks she'll be fine. Yeah, something tells me that's not gonna go so well. Still, happy ending for now.

## Review

I really liked this episode. The music in the series overall is really good, and I especially love Laura's theme. The actress that played her, Terrylene Sacchetti, really is deaf. I understood bits and pieces of what she was saying. I wonder if Ron Perlman actually learned ASL for this episode? I know the main theme was composed by Lee Holdridge, and I think the rest of the music was composed by Don Davis. Also, Renn Woods as Edie disappears after this episode, joining Isaac Stubbs. Despite this, she's still credited in the main cast, and will remain so for the entire first two seasons. She isn't even in this episode, the last one to air before 1988. It just really bugs me a lot that this show had so many recurring characters, but rarely ever *did* anything with them. At the very least, the supporting characters in the World Below are unique and interesting enough. And I would've loved it if the show could've found a way to raise the stakes and be dark *without* killing off a character for shock value. That's not just a season 3 complaint, it happens in the other seasons as well, just not as much. Sure, they usually only appear in one episode for the sole purpose of being killed, and tend to raise a few obvious death flags, but to be fair to the show, it was the 1980s. The *Gallagher Girls* series, which author Ally Carter started writing in 2006, raised the stakes and got progressively darker without killing so many people off, but there were some close calls. The first two books were romcoms and took place during sophomore year, the third and fourth were darker and introduced the overarching main plot of the rest of the book series, but still had plenty of levity, hijinks, and antics throughout junior year to balance it out. The fifth book is pretty much a psychological thriller with a bit of mystery sprinkled in, and the sixth is the intense, insane, and harrowing conclusion of the high school adventures of four girls and their allies just trying to survive the second semester of their senior year and graduate. Oh, and also save the world and stuff, cuz they're also spies. Did I forget to mention that? In case you're wondering, the fifth book is my favorite. It introduced me to the psychological thriller genre, and I've been in love with it ever since. I still remember how I felt when I first read it, and I think it was the only book in the series that I've finished in less than twenty four hours, and the only one that made me cry, at least until the final book came out. It definitely became more emotional to read after I graduated from high school. I'm basically a hybrid of Liz's brains, looks, and clumsiness with Cammie's plain Jane and blends into the crowd traits. Cammie is just so relatable, at least to me.