This review contains spoilers.
1.10 Seeing Red
Beauty and the Beast returns where it left us last year, with Catherine dying in the wake of a car wreck with a gunshot to the chest. For once, Vincent can't help beyond ripping the door off a car and getting her out, so the hero of the cold open is Evan.
Evan pulls out some mad-hot surgical skills not previously witnessed and saves Catherine with an in-the-field procedure. The whole thing goes a long way to making Evan more likable, as it's clear that he has something of his own he's hiding or running from because he has surgical skills and he's cutting up corpses for the city. Medical examiners make way less money than a surgeon does (I didn't bother to google the difference but trust me, they do) so what's up Evan? Why do you do what you do instead of what you were clearly trained for? Catherine asks this question too, at least twice and Evan evades her both times. It has my attention. So good for you, show. I care about this guy again.
I don't even remember what the point was with the bad guy because the whole thing was so scattered and confusing. The only point of his story angle was to show us that oh, hey Vincent's got night vision now. That's cool. I like him getting more powers. I would have liked JD's theory about him changing sexes like a clownfish to have been correct because that would've been a lot more interesting, but at least we've got progress. Vincent's crazy body is also used this episode to bring Evan to JD because Evan knows something is up due with the Vincent DNA strands he found. Fate and an academic paper brought him to JD and the new first partnership I have been happy about all episode.
The accident, episode villain, and reminder of Muirfield also introduces us to Vincent's former fiancee. I say former because it's only an ex if you break up and being reported dead doesn't count as a break-up. Her name is Alex, she's a nurse, which is kind of an awful cliche, and I like her. She's friendly and seems smart enough to know when things are off kilter so I can see why Vincent would like her too. The actress who plays her and Jay Ryan have great chemistry together as well. My problem with this little development is that it's used as a blatant and obvious avoidance tactic to extend the will-they-won't-they element of Vincent and Catherine's romance.
Newsflash showrunners: that's your main plot. You sold your audience Vincent and Catherine. That's why we're here. You're not really fooling anyone with Evan's concern (while he's dating her sister by the way - lest anyone forget while we enjoy his new canniness) or the reappearance of Vincent's former love. At the moment it just feels like you're yanking us around after making us wait for over a month for resolution. The writing wasn't to a high enough standard for that to work here. Sorry. It just wasn't.
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