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

Episode 5 (Season 1, Episode 5)

Masques

Masques  (airdate: Oct. 30, 1987).  It is Halloween night and Catherine is getting ready to go to a party.  She answers the knock on her door and finds three children trick-or-treating.  She gives them their candy, then spots her father coming from the elevator.  Catherine tells him she will hurry up so that they can leave for the party.  Below ground, Father is telling the children ghost stories.  He finishes and even though they beg for more, he shoos them away so that they and Mary can carve Jack O'Lanterns.  By themselves, Father and Vincent talk about Vincent's plans to go above.  Vincent is confident that this will be one night that he can walk around the city without anyone being frightened by his lion-like appearance.  He wants to talk with author Brigit O'Donnell who is the guest of honor at a party that night.  His desire is to thank her for her words "Sometimes we must leave our safe places and walk empty-handed among our enemies", have a special meaning in his life.  He even uses the line on Father to convince him that he will be safe.  Catherine finishes dressing as a princess and she and her father leave for the party, a party for Brigit O'Donnell.  A costume store is preparing to close when a man with a gun forces himself inside to obtain a costume.  The owner finally decides to let the man wear a clown costume and he enters a dressing room to try it on.  While the man is making sure the costume fits, the owner reads the newspaper in which is an article about Brigit O'Donnell and all the death threats she has received because she is an Irish peace activist.  At the party, Catherine and her father mingle, then Vincent arrives by way of the balcony.  Catherine is able to speak with Brigit and as they talk, Catherine sees a hooded figure arrive, whom she believes is Vincent.  Before Catherine can find him, he becomes undetectable from the crowd.  Outside on the balcony, she calls his name but he cannot hear her.  Brigit is dancing as she feels Vincent's concentrated stare on her.  She decides to speak with the hooded figure and they go to the balcony.  Once there, Vincent gets the chance to tell her what her words mean to him and she tells him of how her love was killed by a car bomb.  She also relates that her father disowned her when she married a man that was on the other side of the political faction her father had been fighting.  While they are outside talking, the clown-man arrives but has no invitation.  While the butler has his head turned, he sneaks in and begins to hunt Brigit.  Catherine dances with a pirate all the while wondering about Vincent and  Brigit tells Vincent that she is unable to visit the city because of the threats but if he would lend her his cloak, she could go about with him unnoticed.  She uses the line that he used on Father and they set off from the party.  Unbeknownst to them though, the clown has followed.  Catherine sees them exit and decides to follow.  Then the pirate decides to see where Catherine has gone and follows her too.  Brigit and Vincent enter a park and as they talk, the clown nears.  Vincent senses the danger and overcomes the man.  Vincent flees for the safety of the darkness as Catherine and the pirate approach.

    Brigit begins to give explanations and the pirate then explains that he is an agent of Interpol hired to protect her.  They put the clown in the pirate's car to take him to police headquarters.  The pirate takes the clown's gun from him, just in case.  When the clown awakens in the car, it seems the tables have been turned.  The clown was hired by Brigit's father to protect her and that the pirate is an Orangeman terrorist.  Catherine and Brigit plead with him, but he kills the clown.  Searching through the clown's belongings, he finds a hotel key that he thinks will lead to Brigit's dying father.  Using the gun, he forces the two women to accompany him to the hotel.  By this time, Vincent has sensed that Catherine is in danger and begins to hunt her.  In the hotel room, the man and the women find Brigit's father and he is threatened.  The gunman will kill him to avenge his friends' death.  But first he will kill Brigit in front of her father.  Catherine manages to throw a drink in the gunman's face and Brigit's father gets the gun.  Now with the gun, he threatens to kill the gunman, but Brigit insists that there has been too much death.  Brigit's father threatens to kill her too.  But realizing his folly, he backs down.  The gunman grabs a sword and places  it against Brigit's throat.  Vincent arrives suddenly to disarm the man, then leaves just as quickly as he came before anyone sees him.  The police take custody of Brigit's father because of outstanding warrants while the ambulance takes the terrorist. Brigit and her father have reconciled.  Catherine spots Vincent on the roof, then when she turns he is gone.  She starts to leave when she sees Vincent and tells him about Brigit and her father.  Vincent starts to leave, but Catherine says that this is one night that they can be together.  The two of them walk hand in hand seeing all the sights of New York.  They finally end the night at Battery Park watching the sun rise.  A jogger runs by and tells Vincent that Halloween was yesterday, thus ending their special night of freedom.

Guest Cast: Caitlin O'Heaney [Tales of the Gold Monkey] as Brigit O'Donnell, Eric Pierpoint as Donald/Jamie, Aubrey Morris as Sean O'Reilly, Gerry Gibson as Michael McFay, Johm David Conts as the doorman, David Dario as the jogger, Gregory Cooke as the waiter, John McMartin as Charles Chandler, Ernie Lively as Cavanaugh, Martin Gardner as Moe, Kimberley McCullough as Abbey, Alex Powers as Brennan, Harry Moses as Jeff, Michael T. Larde as the butler, Lindsay Parker as the little girl, Michael Bacall, Frank Patton, Roger Scott, Kate Stern,

Writer: George R. R. Martin

Director: Alan Cooke