EPI-LOG ARTICLE on Beauty and the Beast
review by Nina Johnson. Click here for contents.

Episode 17 (Season 1, Episode 17)

Down to a Sunless Sea

Down To A Sunless Sea  (airdate: Feb. 19, 1988).  Vincent is unable to sleep very well.  He is having nightmares.  He dreams that he is running through a fog-shrouded wood.  He is unable to see what he is running from or to.  He jerks awake, terrified.  Catherine too is having a bad day.  The toast is burnt, the coffee tastes like mud and she breaks a heel on her way out.  But these things will seem minor to what happens when she gets to the office.  She and Joe are trying to convince a woman named Marcy to press charges against her husband.  Marcy tells them that he husband won't ever beat her again and leaves.  Then Catherine gets a call from her friend Jenny Aronson.  Jenny gave Catherine's home phone number to a man named Steven Bass.  Jenny apologizes but he was so insistent that she gave it to him.  Catherine tells her she forgives her.  That night Catherine gets the messages from her answering machine.  One of them is from Steven Bass, who asks Catherine to call him because he has something important to tell her.  Catherine has a flashback to her and Steven arguing in the kitchen.  She tells him she is sick of arguing and wants to end things.  He tells her that she shouldn't have fallen in love with his strength then hold his possessiveness against him.  Back in the present, Catherine thinks about whether or not she will call him back.  Vincent is reading Kubla Kahn to the children when he had his nightmare vision again.  Only this time he is not dreaming.  When the vision is over, he is frightened.  Steven comes to Catherine's apartment that night.  When they have a drink, he asks her if there is anyone special in her life.  She answers yes and tells Steven that she loves him and he makes her happy.   Steven next tells Catherine that he was in jail for a while because he was convicted of DUI and was involved in an accident.  The accident killed the passengers, his parents.  Now he has found out that he has inoperable brain cancer.  He only has six months to live and wants to see Catherine, as a friend, while he has time.  Catherine has a flashback of him and her in the park on a sunny day when she had commented that they had so much to look forward to.  Catherine looks at the present Steven.  She will see him while he has time.  Steven leaves, then later goes to a gift shop.  He buys a gold picture frame and starts to leave for his hotel.  On his way there, two thugs come out and attach him.  He gives them him money and his watch, but when they try to get his briefcase, he overcomes them.  Several items fall out of his briefcase during the struggle and he picks them up.  They are photos of Catherine from when they were together.  Catherine and Vincent are talking in her apartment building's tunnel.  She is telling Vincent about Steven and how she feels obligated to him.  Vincent has the vision again which startles Catherine who has never seen Vincent afraid.  Vincent asks Catherine if she is afraid of Steven but she replies no, she is just curious and feeling a little guilty over breaking off their relationship.

At a beautiful mansion, a real estate agent is describing the property to Steven.  The agent tells him that the nearest neighbours are over half a mile away.  He tells the agent to make an offer.  Vincent and Father are discussing his vision and his concern for Catherine.  Father thinks that Vincent's jealousy could be the cause for the visions.  Father explains that Catherine and Steven shared something that she and Vincent could never have.  Vincent still feels that the vision is from somewhere else, but he is still no sure.  Father then asks whether Vincent feels the vision is a threat to Catherine or to himself, which Vincent has no answer to.  Catherine and Steven are talking over the days of law school that evening in her apartment.  Steven touches Catherine's scar and asks her where it came from.  She fends off the questions stating it is a long boring story.  Steven tells her that he is attracted to scars and that he has some himself, internal ones that she has left him with.  He apologizes for bringing up painful memories.  She has a flashback to a fight where she ends their relationship.  In the present, Steven is still dwelling on his pain nearly five years after their breakup.  Steven takes his leave and tells Catherine that he has tickets to a favourite performance of Catherines, Tosca.  She accepts his invitation for the next evening's performance.  Before he returns to his hotel, he stops off at an antique store where he is to pick up his order.  He was supposed to get a red potbellied stove, but they have a blue one for him.  He demands his red one and the clerk agrees to exchange it.  But he leaves an unsettling feeling with his hair-trigger anger.  When Catherine arrives at work the next day, Joe tells her that Marcy is in the woman's lock-up at Riker's Island.  Her husband beat hear again and she stabbed him in the chest.  Catherine goes to see Marcy and she tells Catherine that he couldn't even wait for the bruises to heal.  Catherine feels for Marcy, but she can't help her if she won't help herself.  Catherine starts back home, but stops to call Steven.  He tells her that he has to cancel their evening's date and she agrees to see him at his hotel.   On her way, Vincent stops her.  He warns her that she is in danger but she accuses Vincent of being uncaring and not understanding her position.  She leaves Vincent to go to see Steven.  In Steven's room, he tells her that he has bought a house in the country.  He wants to come with him to see it and she reluctantly agrees to go with him on Saturday.  At the mansion, Steven shows off the house and grounds.  Inside the kitchen is a red potbellied stove just like the one she had described to him years ago.  He says the biggest surprise is upstairs.  It is a huge bedroom with roses covering everything.  On the vanity is a photo of her and in the closet are clothes all for her.  He wants her to live with him but she tells him that she will be waiting in the car.  When she goes to the front door it is locked.  She insists for him to let her out and that he is scaring her.  Vincent, who is walking in the tunnels, suddenly stops.  Catherine tries the back door only to find it locked too.  She tries to get out through a window, but Steven grabs her and knocks her on the floor where they wrestle.  She forces him away, then he grabs a vase and knocks her in the head.  Meanwhile, Vincent is racing down the tunnels.  When Catherine regains consciousness, she is tied to a chair in the dining room.  Steven has placed dinner on the table for her and he pretends as if everything is okay.  She tries to convince him to let her go, then he tries to force himself on her.  She breaks out of the bonds, knocks him over and runs through the French doors into the woods.  Steven gets up and grabs a flashlight to chase her down and bring her back.  Catherine has run quite a ways before Steven catches her and knocks her to the ground.  Steven and she struggle and he puts his hands around her throat trying to choke her.  He doesn't realize that he is killing her in the process.  Then Vincent is running with the same nightmare vision.  Only this time he knows where he is going, to save Catherine.  He comes out of the trees and attacks Steven.  He cuts Steven's chest as Catherine begins pleading with him.  Vincent finally stops his attack and Catherine gathers him up in her arms.  Vincent then carries Steven back to the house.  Back at Catherine's apartment, Catherine is remorseful.  She apologizes to Vincent for being so angry when he tried to warn her.  She also expresses her amazement that he could still sense her so far from the city.  She asks him how he knew.  His reply is that he knew somehow, because somewhere deep within her, she knew.  Catherine nods silently in agreement with Vincent as they look out over the city.

Guest Cast: Jim Metzler as Steven Bass, Marla Adams as Helen Tompson, Robert Cornthwaite as Morrison, Christine Jansen as Marcy O'Neil, Terri Hanauer as Jenny Aronson, Raymond Garcia as Hal, Roger Nolan As the concierge, Eric Poppick as Mercer, Thomas Trujillo as Tony.

Writers: Don Balluck

Director: Christopher Leitch.