BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: PILOT {SERIES PREMIERE} {2012 VERSION} (TV)
Summary
The pilot of this 2012 remake of the 1987 television series of the same name, about the love affair between an NYPD detective and a genetically altered beast-man living in secret in New York City.
In the fall of 2003, a college student named Catherine Chandler tries to drive home from her job tending bar, but her car won't start. She calls her mother Vanessa out to help jump-start her car, but two unknown men pull up and fatally shoot Vanessa. Catherine tries to flee but trips and suffers a minor concussion. Just as the two men are about to kill Catherine, a bestial man emerges from nowhere and savagely attacks them, killing them and saving Catherine. The man runs off before Catherine can get a good look at him. Catherine comes to believe that she was saved by an animal and that her concussion caused her to believe it had humanoid features.
In 2012, Catherine works as a detective for the New York Police Department. Her boyfriend Zeke breaks up with her, feeling that her job makes a relationship between the two of them too difficult. Along with her friend Tess Vargas, a fellow detective, Catherine investigates a crime scene containing a deceased woman in the bathroom of a five-star hotel. She is identified as Ashley Webster, the executive editor of a prominent fashion magazine. Fingerprints on the body match that of a man named Vincent Keller, a doctor who joined the military and was recorded as being killed by enemy fire in Afghanistan in 2002. To unravel this mystery, Catherine and Tess ask around at the hospital where Vincent served his residency. His brothers were killed in the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001, which Catherine believes is the reason he enlisted. He has no living family members, but they do manage to get the address of his former roommate, a medical researcher and professor named J. T. Forbes.
Catherine and Tess track down J. T.'s address: a seemingly abandoned chemical plant with a habitable loft within. They speak with him about Ashley's murder and he confirms that Vincent is dead. However, Vincent, very much alive, watches Catherine from the shadows, and in private reveals to J. T. that he did not murder Ashley and that he was the one who saved Catherine nearly a decade ago; he has been keeping tabs on her ever since their encounter. He lives in self-imposed isolation within the loft, but is beginning to feel as though his home is a "prison." Back at the NYPD headquarters, the coroner, Evan, determines Ashley's head trauma was not sufficient enough to cause death, and there is evidence that someone attempted to perform CPR on her. Catherine asks him to analyze the DNA of a strand of hair found on the body. Evan also takes the opportunity to ask Catherine out on a date.
Next, Catherine and Tess interrogate Alex Webster, Ashley's husband. He reveals that Ashley had recently been promoted, and Catherine believes there may have been someone at the magazine jealous of her new position. They then speak to Emily, Ashley's personal assistant, who claims that the magazine's beauty editor, Chloe London, may have been responsible for her death. Evan brings Catherine his report on the DNA sample, which he believes is corrupted. However, Catherine notices that the sample apparently contains signs of cross-species DNA; she believes there could be a connection between this sample and the incident with her mother's death in 2003. While reviewing security footage from the hotel where Ashley's body was found, Catherine notices a car parked outside the hotel which she and Tess also saw parked outside of J. T.'s home.
Catherine returns to J. T.'s home by herself, although Tess calls to tell her that J. T.'s students have provided her with an alibi as to his whereabouts at the time of the murder. Nevertheless, Catherine enters and searches the place. She finds Vincent hiding upstairs and recognizes him from his file photographs, puzzled as to how he could still be alive. She suspects him of being responsible for Ashley's death but he professes his innocence, claiming that he saw her collapse and tried to save her; he believes Ashley was poisoned. At that moment, Evan calls Catherine to tell her that his own findings support the poisoning hypothesis, explaining that he found lethal amounts of nicotine in her body. Catherine is confused as to how Vincent could have known about the poisoning and is further agitated when she finds a newspaper clipping of an article on the murder of her mother. She wants answers from Vincent, but Tess arrives and Catherine leaves with her, concealing Vincent's existence from her for the time being.
She contacts the FBI to provide her with details about her mother's case. Next, she and Tess interrogate London, who makes no secret of her dislike for Ashley but insists she didn't kill her. However, Catherine and Tess are still suspicious, especially since London was promoted to executive editor in the wake of Ashley's death. London shows them the cosmetics sample closet and Catherine swipes a sheet detailing everyone who signed out materials from there on the day of Ashley's murder. They search through Ashley's old office and find a pregnancy test kit which has already been used. They speculate that Ashley was in an early state of pregnancy at the time of her death, and that she possibly was bearing a child as a result of an extramarital affair.
Catherine meets with an agent from the FBI in a subway station, showing him the sample of hair containing the cross-species DNA sample. The agent and two passing hobos attack her with knives. She attempts to fend them off but is overpowered and tossed onto the subway rails. Before they can finish her off, the same bestial man from nine years ago appears and kills her attackers. He runs off into the subway tunnel and Catherine pursues, unaware that she has accidentally left her cell phone behind. The man saves Catherine from being run over by a subway car, and she finally realizes that the man is Vincent.
He takes her back to his loft, where he tends to her wounds. He explains his origin to her: after his brothers perished in the World Trade Center, Vincent enlisted in the military and was unwittingly used as a test subject in a project to create superhuman soldiers with heightened physical abilities and senses. However, it was soon discovered that adrenaline flow would cause the affected soldiers to assume monstrous forms. The military ordered that the project to be discontinued and the test subjects be killed; Vincent believes he survived only by sheer luck. He took refuge with J. T., who worked with him to try to create an antidote to his condition, although he admits they have had only limited success. Although he has spent most of his time in hiding, he occasionally emerges and tries to help people however he can. Upon hearing his story, Catherine no longer believes that Vincent is responsible for Ashley's death.
She spends the night with Vincent. In the morning he awakens her suddenly and says that she must leave and never return. Catherine still wants answers about her mother's death, but Vincent only tells her that the men who killed her were a part of the operation which altered his DNA, and that the matter is too dangerous for her to pursue any further. Catherine returns to work and tells Tess that she has determined the method by which Ashley was murdered: on the day of her death she checked out four products from the cosmetics closet but the detectives found only three on her person. Catherine deduces that the fourth, a sample of hair dye, was laced with the poison, thus killing Ashley several hours after she applied it. She apologizes to Evan for standing him up and realizes that she left her phone in the subway. Evan reveals that Ashley was not pregnant at the time of her death, and that her bed at home is infested with bedbugs; he reasons that with blood samples taken from the bedbugs the police can determine if anyone other than Ashley or Alex slept in that bed.
It turns out that Alex had been carrying on an affair with several women without Ashley's knowledge. One of the women Alex was seeing remarks that Alex claimed he had a prenuptial agreement with Ashley which would cause him to lose everything if he was caught cheating on her. Catherine begins to suspect that Alex was responsible for Ashley's death, although her chief points out it would have been easier for him to file for divorce instead. An agent of the FBI visits with the chief over the incident in the subway, and Catherine notices the remains being moved into FBI custody. She visits Vincent to warn him, worried that if the FBI or military got a hold of her phone they could use it to track down Vincent. He asks her to cease all contact with him to protect both of them. When she refuses to leave at first Vincent assumes a more monstrous appearance and intimidates her into leaving.
The next day, Catherine confronts Alex with her accusations about his infidelity, revealing her knowledge that his prenuptial agreement is a fabrication and asking for his cooperation in finding his mistresses. One of them turns out to be Emily; Catherine and Tess confront her and confirm their suspicions: it was Emily's handwriting which checked out the hair dye used to poison Ashley, and she was the one using the pregnancy tests. She had hoped to eliminate Ashley and have Alex to herself. She confesses her crimes, adding that she lost the baby. Emily is arrested by Catherine. At the station, Tess talks to Catherine about her recent string of secretive behavior. She gives Catherine back her phone which was found in the subway and decides not to ask any questions about it. Evan reveals that he has discovered six more cases with "corrupted" DNA matching Vincent's, and Catherine realizes that Vincent has been more active in helping others than he let on. She visits Vincent despite his orders not to, and reveals that she always felt responsible for her mother's death, and that Vincent's efforts to help others proves that he isn't a monster. Vincent reveals that the men who killed Vanessa were actively searching for her, and thus Catherine isn't to blame. The episode ends as Catherine attends her father's engagement party and Vincent watches her from afar. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: CW
- DATE: October 11, 2012 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:42:54
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 108186
- GENRE: Drama, fantasy/science fiction; Drama, police/private detective
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, fantasy/science fiction; Drama, police/private detective
- SERIES RUN: CW - TV series, 2012-2016
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Bill Haber … Executive Producer
- Paul Junger Witt … Executive Producer
- C. Anthony Thomas … Executive Producer
- Gary Fleder … Executive Producer, Director
- Ron Koslow … Executive Producer, Created by
- Sherri Cooper … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
- Jennifer Levin … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
- Michael Maschio … Producer
- Larry Goldstein … Associate Producer
- Sean Sforza … Associate Producer
- Kristin Kreuk … Cast, Catherine Chandler
- Jay Ryan … Cast, Vincent Keller
- Max Brown … Cast, Evan Marks
- Nina Lisandrello … Cast, Tess Vargas
- Austin Basis … Cast, J. T. Forbes
- Brian J. White … Cast, Joe Bishop
- Daniel DiTomasso … Cast, Zeke
- Michael Reventar … Cast, Julio
- Alex Paxton-Beesley … Cast, Chloe London
- Yannick Bisson … Cast, Alex Webster
- Khaira Ledeyo … Cast, Vanessa Chandler
- Peter Apostolopoulos … Cast, Snarky Security Guard
- Nick Stojanovic … Cast, Brian
- Michael Brown … Cast, Attending Doctor
- Chris Anton … Cast, Army Guy #1