EPI-LOG ARTICLE on Beauty
and the Beast
review by Nina Johnson. Click
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Episode 34 (Season 2, Episode 12)
Orphans
Orphans (airdate: March 6, 1989). Catherine walks down the hospital corridor to the main nurses station. She asks the nurse how her father is and is told that he is in intensive care. He has had a stroke. She goes to the family room to wait for news and falls asleep there waiting. Finally the doctor comes and tells her that the stroke has left her father blind and in a coma. He tells her that her father may be able to hear and understand her and she may go to see him. He is hooked to many machines and Catherine sits beside his bed and holds his hand. Vincent meets Catherine on her balcony that night. She tells Vincent how her father would cheer her up when she was little. He would come to her room with a huge clown nose on and tell her "Don't laugh!" She feels guilty that he has not been as much in her life as he should have. She wishes she had told him so many things. Vincent tells her that there is still time. Catherine goes back to ICU and sits beside her father's bed. She tells him all about ho Vincent saved her and the love they have shared. She wants her father to meet Vincent and he comes out of the shadows. Vincent explains how Catherine has grown in the last years and promises to protect and lover her to his dying breath.
At the church, Catherine gives a eulogy for her father. She reads a passage from The Velveteen Rabbit which her father had loved so much. Catherine talks the next day to her father's law partner, Jay, and his son, Mark. They talk about a settlement on her father's part of the business. Catherine is deeply hurt when Mark tells her that her father's work slacked off when she left. Catherine goes to her father's desk to pick up his things. Marilyn comes in to see how Catherine is doing. Catherine asks Marilyn if her father had really slowed down, and she replies that Catherine was his world. Catherine breaks down in tears. Joe comes by to see about her. She tells him that she is going to work the next day even though he knows how much pain she has yet to deal with. She goes to work the following day but at the office door she stops and turns away. She wanders the streets of the city hoping for some reason to keep going. That night she goes to Vincent and asks him to let her stay below. Vincent knows that what she is looking for is not to be found in the tunnels but inside her and tells her as much. Catherine's pleading finally gets him to let her stay the night. He leaves her in his bed so she can get some sleep eve though the look upon her face tells him that she would like for him to stay with her. When Catherine wakes up in the morning, Geoffrey comes in to pour her some hot water. She asks him where Vincent is and he tells her that he is working on an excavation project. Geoffrey expresses his sorrow about her father and that he has no parents. She tells him that her mother died when she was little and he comments "I guess we're both orphans."
Vincent talks with Catherine later on at the mirror pool. She explains to Vincent why she doesn't want to live above anymore and wants to stay below. Vincent says she must make her own decisions. Joe, who is worried because Catherine hasn't been seen or heard from in several days, is at her apartment with two police officers and the building superintendent. They search the apartment for her. But everything seems okay. Catherine is sleeping peacefully when she jerks awake. She sees her father on a stool, wearing the clown nose. He has come to her in this vision to tell her that he heard and understood everything she said in hospital. He is glad she has found someone and that it is time for him to leaver her. He tells her that when she was little he was always afraid that when they were in the park she would have an accident. The whole time he watched her climb trees he worried but knew that she had to discover the world for herself. He couldn't protect her all the time. He tells her it is time for him to leave and walks out. In the morning, Catherine goes to the drainage tunnel to look at the world. At the mirror pool, she tells Vincent about her vision. She explains that it was more than just a vision, but a feeling that her father was really with her. Vincent tells her he was giving her his blessing to continue with life. Catherine tells him that she is going back above but she doesn't want to hurt him. Vincent understands that it is not time for them to be together yet, she still has a lot to accomplish. She asks whether they will ever be able to be together and he says "Only when we understand how great the sacrifice – how large the fears – and are able to move through them." He escorts her to her building's tunnel. She tells him she is a little scared of going back. She hugs him and leaves to climb the stairs. He watches her leave but then she comes back to him and quickly kisses him, telling him "Thank you Vincent". On a beautiful sunny day, Catherine walks in Central Park. She goes to a tall tree and looks at it. She then climbs it higher and higher until she stops on a large branch and sits down to look over the city that is hers once again. She says "Don't worry, Daddy, I won't fall, I won't fall."
Guest cast: Frederick Arnold as Jay Coolidge, Douglas Robert as Mark Coolidge, Kate Williamson as Marilyn Campbell, Abraham Alvarez as Dr. Cherian, Carolyn Finney as Rita, John McMartin as Charles Chandler, Heathee James and Rosie Lee Hooks as nurses, Philip Warlen as Geoffrey, Caorlyn Finey as Rita.
Writers: Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon
Director: Victor Lobl